The Missing Pieces to a Night Fury's Heart

Chapter 12

"Bud, wake up!" The alarmed voice of his rider roused him from a particularly interesting dream. As he started ebbing away from unconsciousness and becoming more aware of his surroundings he could not recall what it had been about; but of course, it did not matter.

Now alert at the tone of his rider's voice, the Night Fury sprang to his paws, looking around wildly for an intruder.

"Toothless.. Quiet!"

Hiccup gingerly pushed his hand upon the Alpha's snout. Immediately he becalmed seeing that his rider no longer contained as much tension as he had had when he had awoken him. Then again, Toothless was still curious what gave him the air of dismay. And seeing that he also wore his rider's suit it must mean that something was up.

His human friend regarded him slowly before sighing. "Our red paint is missing."

Red paint?

Ah! It suddenly struck him. All riders attending had to paint their dragons with their own color and markings. Surely they were in procession of some. After all, he had glimpsed a few bottles yesterday...

Hiccup strode to the window, pushing back the curtains. Surprisingly enough, the only light to penetrate the transparent glass was that of the moon's glow. It wasn't even morning yet!

He blinked a few times to try and chase away his blurry sight. Now that he had gotten in the habit of arousing in the morning, he had lost some of his nocturnal nature. Shrugging off his drowsiness, he trotted over to his rider's side.

"I'm sorry to wake you up so early," he muttered, rubbing him affectionately around the ear. "But we have to get some, else we'd either be late or unable to play in the races.."

The Night Fury nodded, though pondered why his human companion couldn't just ask another villager for a supply of the scarlet liquid. He stiffened, thinking back to the blood soaked cavern. A shudder followed as he stared up toward the moon as it made its way steadily down toward the horizon.

As if reading his mind Hiccup stated, "Nobody in the village has the ingredients or an actual stock... Our color is real special." His rider's smile faded and his expression once more became serious. "But that is if you would like to go."

Toothless emitted a faint croon, his optics dilating at his question.

Hiccup patted him on the head a last time before indicating toward the door.

With averse steps, Toothless crept after Hiccup as the human made his way toward the door. He tried in vain to remain quiet, though his heavy, exhausted strides occasionally made him fall upon something squeaky and a harsh grating noise would explode from under-paw.

His rider, on the other paw, wasn't doing a great job either seeing that he was still human. And humans tended to give away their location multiple times for their clumsy footfalls. Hoping not to create another false movement-whereupon he was certain it would awaken Valka-he determined his actions acutely. A low grumble of annoyance started in his throat as his rider progressed at his ineptness. Then again, he did have a prosthetic leg.

Finally they departed from the house, Toothless finally pulling up beside his rider.

The dragon followed after him as they made their way to the human's working area. Once inside, he snatched up a piece of paper.

Clenching a long stick of charcoal, he began to underline the extraordinary scribbles humans made. He felt his head cock in perplexity as he watched his human continue to highlight the words.

"We need red clover," he stated, looking up suddenly the scrutiny of his gaze fading into the darkness. "Berk ti.. a bucket of some reeds and... a desert rose."