The dance of the moon and stars (M/c x snotlout)

Midnight wings unfurling

A/N: (I'm so sorry for the cliff hanger!!! Just finished this chapter <3)

I stand up suddenly, before I can fall asleep. Hookfang jolts awake and glares at me. He shuffles into more of an upright lying position, swinging around his tail to tuck it in close.

"I'm leaving." I turn to my dragon and meet his reptilian eyes. Slits like hers... Her. I push the thoughts away with a clenched jaw. He makes a noise in response.

I walk forward carefully to check out his arrow wound. He raises his head up higher, watching me check out his neck. The gash is gnarly, even though half is covered up by a smear of herbs. His underbelly that was usually sandy gray was currently a dull grayish brown in the lighting. Nearer to the wound it was a darker brown, a color my brain recognized as red. The scales peeled up around the wound, dislodged from their orderly positions. But it looked better, be it through a trick of the light, or the herbs and rest.

I swallow. "I'll go alone." I look back at the woods, now lit darkly by the moon. They looked so ominous without daylight. A growl in protest. "I need to find her. I can't wait for the others." A shuffle, I twisted around to look at them, someone had turned over in their sleep. I turned back to my dragon. Then trying to find out a plan, I looked at the other dragons.

Toothless. I saw the black mass of dragon sleeping next to the scrawny Viking we call our leader. He is, though I'd never admit it. I need a dragon to ride off this island. Instead of finding and training a wild one, what if I took Toothles- r.. What did Astra refer to him as? Nex? Nix? Nic? Maybe it was a T.. Tik- no. I think it was Nix. This was not the time.

I shook my head, as if to clear the thoughts. Nix cares about his sister, so I think he'll be on board. Hookfang will be ok by morning, so hiccup will have a dragon. He won't mind. Best to ask for forgiveness not permission.

My dad would never say that.

He would want me to be the leader, take initiative and leadership and do whatever I- no.. he wanted. But I'm not good at leading, man I don't do things well even half the time. Is this a bad idea? No, I need to save her. A picture- her eyes, shining and lavender. Man her eyes are perfect. I wish my eyes looked that beautiful.

Hookfang nudged me. With a low questioning grumble. "Oh." I said aloud- not meaning to. I hadn't realized I had spaced.

"Toothless will be with me." I promise.

He looks at me questioningly but lays down his head and closes his eyes.

I walk towards Toothless- Nix? Whatever his name is. And I am suddenly reminded that 5 years ago everyone thought the night fury was a bloodthirsty monster. "lighting and death itself" they said, "hide and pray" they said.

I touched Nix's tail, he jolted up and looked at me. I just stood there for a second, not sure how to respond.

"Toothless." I said because I wasn't sure if I got his name right. "Let's go save your sister." I choked over the last word, my voice fading. He squinted at me, a mix between a happy and amused smile spreading over his reptian face. He walked towards me, lying Hiccup carefully down with his wing.

"I don't really have a plan." I admitted to him. He did what I believed was shrugging his shoulders. I walked onto his left and swung my leg over his back. Settling into the uncomfortable saddle; fitted for Hiccup's scrawny ass.

"Snotlout." Astrid. I regarded her with a single thought. I turned to look over my shoulder. She stood looking at us.

"You can't just leave."

"I can." My fingers quivered. "Watch me." I turned away from her. My eyes becoming glassy. Toothless spread out his wings. He wanted to save her.

"Toothless!" Astrid growled. He paused in his unfurling of those black wings, a void either side of me. He turned his head to look at her, but I refused, staring straight ahead at the black curling waves on the ocean.

Astrid grabbed my shoulder- how had she gotten there? Her fingers dug into my skin, and she turned me towards her in one jerking movement. She stopped, watching my tear streaked face quietly. She let go, her hand dropping to her side. I ran my arm along my face, smearing a streak of wet with a sniff.

Sadness bubbled into anger. Like a pot boiling over. I was embarrassed and upset and Angry. My face grew red and hot. She would just leave someone behind like that?! Would she leave me too? Even though we've known each other for years? She wouldn't leave Hiccup.

"What happened to never leaving anyone behind!? What happened to that speech, Astrid?!" I yelled. Not thinking. Thinking was out the window. "You promised her!" I screamed.

"I promised nothing!" Astrid snapped back. I stopped and stared at her. Toothless stepped away, me almost falling off in the process.

Hiccups hand on her shoulder now. The Twins asking what was happening, Fishlegs staring at me. The same Fishlegs I kissed. Did he care that I cared about her so much? Did I care about her more than all the others? Who would I choose if I had to? My friends or Astra? I swallowed.

Hiccup's voice was tired, muffled.

"The dragons need to recover and we need to regroup and think of a plan." Hiccup said slowly. Calmly- How could he be so calm? My face felt stiff, that kind of stiff that you only felt after your tears dried. Salt. It made me feel like they could all see I had been crying. That my nose was running. No. Only Astrid saw me crying. She was the only one to see me with my wall down. That must have been the first time any of them had seen me crying.

Well other than that time Hiccup fucking punched me in the face. Like what the fucking hell dude?

I slid off Toothless. Hiccup laid his hands on my shoulders. "You need rest." He bent his knees slightly to look me in the eye. It was humiliating. What would happen if I punched him in the face? ... No! Wait- what had he just said? I looked him in the eye. His mossy green eyes.

"No." I tore away from him and stomped over to Hookfang. Who had woken up in all the comotion. Hiccup turned to Toothless. It was just a word, one word. But it was also a promise. A promise to not rest. A promise I did not keep.

I slumped back against Hookfang. His scales always gave off an eerie warmth that none of the other dragons did. Cold blooded creatures, with icy cold scales. No heat to tell you if they were alive or dead. Not helpful when encountering one sleeping. Not that you'd want to touch a possibly dead, possibly not, dragon you randomly find in a cave, but still.

Hiccup sighed.

"Nyx we can't leave yet. I'm sorry. I know she's your sister and you love her a lot, even if she doesn't know it." A grumble. He said something to him in dragonese. Did he understand it? 

Everyone went back to where they were sleeping, muttering and settling down. They eventually went quiet. I was lulled to sleep my Hookfangs warmth, my eyes heavy. Lids dropping shut, That was until Hiccup spoke.

"Was I too hard on him?" Hiccup whispered to Toothless once he thought I was asleep. "I understand why he- you want to go find her. But it's just too risky. I hope he doesn't hate me. I wish I could run away too." He laughed dryly. A long pause. "You can become human." A shorter pause this time, but still one that seemed to stretch and fade into the darkness around us.

"Are you going to tell them all my secrets? The ones I've told you over the years?" I heard him shuffle with the leather cuffs on his arms. Everything seemed to stand still. Hiccup has secrets? I strained my ears, my face still relaxed. A warble from 'Nyx' was that what he had said earlier? It seemed so fuzzy now.

"Thank you." He muttered. And that was it, Silence fell over the camp. Eventually I too drifted to sleep.