I Am Dragonblood: Alpha and Chief {Book Two} (HTTYD Fanfic)

Chapter Four - Sanctuary

Hiccup glided alongside his Fury friend, in hybrid form, and stared out at the endless sunlit cloud sky. Thoughts whirled in his mind, unintelligible, loud, jabbering for his attention. He screamed in frustration, punching the yielding air with his small fists, dropping a couple of feet below the Fury. 
    'Hiccup?' Toothless asked tentatively. 
    'Don't worry, bud.' He sighed. 'Everything's going to be ok. I hope.'
    'I wouldn't be so sure,' the dragon growled. 'Get on, now.'
    Hiccup glided up and landed lightly on Toothless's back, getting rid of the wings as he put the tail back to manual. The clouds to their right parted like water and an armour clad person rose, apparently flying through thin air. They moved the  staff they were holding slightly and disappeared back down into the clouds, the tiny drops of liquid closing over as if nothing had happened. 
    'Oh-kayyy, no sudden moves.'
    A second passed. Then another. Then a dragon, huge and imposing, flew up from the cloudcover, trailing wisps of white from its four mighty wings. It cocked its head to one side, its owllike face curious. On its back, standing steadily, was the masked, armoured figure. They watched each other, the cloud rising up around them like it was trying to cocoon them in its whiteness. The dragon turned and powered away, the figure turning to watch them. 
     Wingflaps sounded behind them and Hiccup half turned to see a dragon, a Snafflefang maybe, bearing down on them. It snatched him from Toothless and flew after the retreating four winged dragon, the Stormcutter. 
    'Toothless!!' Hiccup bellowed. He saw his friend fall through the cloud and smash through ice below, the dark water dragging him down as he clawed at the broken ice. 'You left my dragon back there! He can't fly on his own! He'll drown!' He yelled to the Stormcutter Rider and the dragon holding him. 
    The masked figure didn't look back, didn't even seem to have heard. The only reaction was a tightened grip from the Snafflefang. 
    Down below, Toothless scrambled at the frozen surface, trying to pull himself out of the chilling liquid, but he only succeeded in braking the ice further. A Seashocker wing brushed over him gently, a trio of the dragons taking him away, leaving only a hole in the ice and Hiccup's helmet bobbing on the surface. 

***

A flock of dragons surrounded him as they neared something that looked like the ice spikes that destroyed the Hunters fort, only it was much, much bigger. Swiftly he was carried through a tunnel and dumped on the rock floor, a circle of dragons staring curiously at him. He lit Inferno, his sword, and they watched the fire in awe, never having seen a human wield fire before. He drew a circle of Zippleback gas in the air around him, looking for the masked rider. He didnt see them and he ignited the gas, Shifting to his hybrid form as the flames surrounded him. He extended a hand to a nearby Snafflefang, saying hello in Dragontongue as he did so. 
    The masked rider emerged from the shadows and Hiccup quickly retracted his wings. 'Who are you?' He asked cautiously. 'The Dragon Thief? Drago Bludvist? Do you even understand what I'm saying?'
    The mysterious personage banged their staff on the ground, something on the end of it rattling. A dragon flew over with a sopping wet Toothless in its claws and placed him gently beside Hiccup, before flying away again. 
    'Toothless!' He rushed over and hugged his friend, who a gave him a slobbery lick. 'Im glad to see you too, bud. You really had me worried there.'
    There was a rattle of the staff and one by one the dragons lit their fire, casting flickering light over the scene. The strange person dropped shield and staff and approached Toothless, doing something to put him to sleep, running their hand along his scales as they came towards Hiccup. He backed up to a rock, turning his head away as they went to touch him. The hand paused and muffled inside the mask he thought he heard his name. The masked rider took of their helmet, revealing themselves to be a middle-aged woman with dull, reddish hair and bright green eyes. 'Could it be?' She said, her voice soft. 'After all these years? How is this possible?'
    'Err,' Hiccup said, utterly confused. 'Should I... Should I know you?'
    'No,' she looked sad. 'But a mother never forgets.'
    Hiccup gasped. His mother?! She was here? Alive? He mentally slapped himself. Yes she's alive and here, she's right in front of you! He made to speak, but she shushed him. Her face lit up and she beckoned to him. 'Come...'

***

'Hold on! Wait a minute!'
    'This way,' Valka said, vanishing around a corner. 
    'Come back here!'
    'Come,' she used her staff to deftly skip over a slanting rock formation. 
    'You can't just say something like that and run off!' Hiccup tried and failed to get over the slanting rock. Toothless helped by pushing him over and he landed in a heap on the other side. 'Your my mother?!' He scramble up and hurried after her. 'I mean, do you grasp how insane that sounds?!'
    'Come,' she called in answer. 'Quickly!'
    'I have questions!' He called back in the vain hope that she'd stop. 'Where have you been all this time? What've you been doing?! They said you were dead! Everyone thinks you were eaten by...' He went through the exit of the tunnel he'd been led through and stopped in amazement. '...dragons.'
    Dragons of all kinds flew in a spiral above him. Among them he could identify Zipplebacks, Nadders, Hobblegrunts, Moldruffles, Raincutters, Gronckles, Nightmares, Scuttleclaws and many, many more. He jumped when he spotted Valka's Stormcutter hanging from the cave ceiling like a giant bat, with Valka watching him from its wings. 
    'This is where you've been for twenty years?'
    She nodded. 
    'You've been rescuing them.' 
    She nodded again, smiling. 
    'Unbelievable.'
    'You're not upset?' She asked him as she slid down the Stormcutters wing. 
    'What? No.' Then he amended. 'I don't know. It's not every day that you find out your mother is some kind of crazy dragon lady.'
    'At least I'm not boring, right?'
    'I suppose there is that... One... Specific... Thing...' Hiccup said, distracted by a dragon nuzzling him. 
    'Do you like it?'
    Hiccup, unsure if she meant the dragon or the whole place, opted for: 'I have no words.'
    Toothless growled at a dragon that got to close, wary of these friendly beasts. 
    Valka looked at her son, eyes bright. 'Can I...?' He gestured for her to go ahead. 'He's beautiful! Incredible! And he might very well be the last of his kind. And look!' She said, counting the small nubs around the Fury's jaw. 'He's your age! No wonder you get along so well. And retractable teeth!' She exclaimed when Toothless smiled. 'How did you manage to—'
    'I found him in the woods,' Hiccup said sheepishly. 'He was shot down and wounded.'
    Valka stood up and moved to the nearby dragons, suddenly serious. 'This Snafflefang lost his leg to one of Drago's iron traps. This Raincutter had her wing sliced by razor netting. And poof Gruff was blinded by a tree snare, then left alone to die alone and scared. And what of this?' She examined Toothless's fake tail fin. 'Did Drago and his trappers do this, too?'
    'Heh, well, crazy thing is... I'm the one who shot him down.'
    Valka raised her eyebrows in disbelief. 
    'It's ok though, he got me back. Right bud? You couldn't save all of me, could you? You just had to make it even. So... Peg-leg!' He laughed as Toothless scooped him up onto his back, and he gave the dragon a scratch on his jaw. 
    Valka gave Toothless a scratch too. 'What did your father think of your Night Fury friend?'
    'He didn't take it all that well. But then... He changed,' Hiccup slid down from Toothless's back. And I changed, he thought. 'They all did. Pretty soon everyone back home had dragons of their own.'
    'If only it were possible,' she said with a chuckle. 
    'No, really, I—'
    'Believe me, I tried as well. But people are not capable of change, Hiccup. Some of us... Were just born different.' She led him to the edge of the rocky platform they were on, speaking of the time she's spent here as they walked. Toothless and the Stormcutter, Cloudjumper, followed behind. When they reached the edge Hiccip looked down and saw a great white beast lying peacefully in a pool of clear water, easily as big as the Red Death, with tusks like thousand year old tree trunks and eyes of icy blue.
    'The great Bewilderbeast!' Valka announced. 'The Alpha species. One of very few that still exist. Every nest has its Queen but this is the King of all dragons.' She bowed low, as did other dragons around the perimeter of the Alpha's pool. 'With his icy breath, this graceful giant built our nest. A safe haven for dragons everywhere.'
    'That's the ice spitter? He's responsible for all that destruction?'
    'He protects us. We all live under his care, and his command. All but the babies, who listen to no one,' she laughed as some baby Scuttleclaws landed on the King, waking him up. He blew them away and turned to Hiccup and Valka, standing at the same height as them so his eyes were level with theirs. He puffed snow at Hiccup, frosting his brown hair into white spikes. 
    'He likes you.'
    'Wow,' he gazed at the Bewilderbeast as he turned and stepped into the huge pool of water, his white bulk disappearing below the surface. 
    'You must be hungry,' Valka said, striding lithely into the tunnel. 
    'Er, yeah, I could eat,' Hiccup said, following her.
    'Good. It's feeding time.'
    Toothless's ears shot straight up.

1657 words.
Ehhh, could be better.

≈Flitt