The Midnight Flower

Chapter 6 - Midnight

After flying for a couple of hours, I have reached my limit.

I feel my body sliding and try to strengthen my grip, but I'm just so tired. 

However, just as I'm about to give up, I feel Toothless flying downwards.

Brushing away the hair dripping water into my eyes, I squint and watch as he starts circling the island below and then stops, hovering over a clearing.

I close my eyes and relax my rigid body. But suddenly my body lifts upwards and I instinctively pull myself closer until I feel the touch of his scales.

We are falling.

My brain works fast despite the shock and, just before being slammed into the ground, I let go and with my last bit of power, push off, making me roll to the side.

The wet grass is soft and long, but even though I don't get any new injuries, it worsens my already existing one.

"Ugh.."

I groan in pain and lie there panting, then turn my head to the side.

Toothless is lying motionless on the ground a bit away.

Taking a deep breath, I hold my shoulder and slowly sit up before crawling over to his side.

I carefully reach out a hand and as I touch him, he weakly lifts his head to look back at me.

The rain has recently lessened and even though it's dark, the clouds are now letting through a bit of moonlight.

His eyes are normal.

"Toothless.."

Seeing me, he lowly growls a response and then whimpers as he lies back down, his eyes staring straight forward.

I follow them and observe our surroundings.

The clearing we landed in is small and tightly surrounded by deciduous forest. In front of us is a mountain wall and streaming down it, water drips into the small lake below.

I scan the trees, the grass, the water surface, even the mountain wall that doesn't seem to have an ounce of green on it.

There are no flowers, no flowers anywhere.

"Oh, bud..."

Leaning forward, I lay my arms around him and press my forehead against his warm scales. I listen to the light pitter-patter as the rain hits his body and close my eyes as his breathing gets weaker and weaker.

Then, when it's almost nonexistent, I get up and move forward a bit.

Blinking my eyes, trying to clear my sight, I let the tears roll freely down my cheeks as I lay my hand on his head.

"Toothless..."

His eyelids flutter and after a while he slowly opens his eyes.

We look at each other.

As I meet his penetrative green eyes, my tears start to fall at a faster pace.

"Bud, I, that day, you saved me. You saved us all. Without you, we would still be at war with dragons, killing them, and I, I don't even want to think about what I would have become..."

Sniffing, I pause and take a deep breath before continuing.

"Bud, you, without you, there is no me..."

Toothless growls and tries to lift his head but he only manages a couple of centimeters before collapsing to the ground again.

Seeing it I move closer until my legs are touching his cheek and he leans his head against me.

I bend my body and watch as he slowly closes his eyes.

However, he stops halfway and his pupils suddenly move to the side.

Following his eyes, I look up.

In the moonlit part of the water's edge, flowers standing firmly on the ground raise their heads out of the water. As they face moonlight, the glowing yellow-green bud bloom like a star in the night.

I stare at it, half thinking I'm hallucinating, Then scurry up and run up to one of them. My hand shakes as I carefully break off the glowing flower and bring it back to Toothless.

"Here, please eat! You found it bud, you really found it."

When I come back, he has already closed his eyes but as I bring the Midnight Flower to his mouth, he opens it and then slowly chews the flower when I place it inside.

Waiting for it to take effect, I anxiously stare at him.

But nothing happens.

Maybe it needs time.

Maybe it's slow working.

I clench my fists, crushing the grass in my grip.

Maybe it simply is too late...

Ever since all this began, I have always been scared.

Scared that this would happen.

I have constantly been on edge and we worked non-stop when we set off for the lens, only getting a couple of hours of sleep before being awakened and needing to fight the Snow Wraiths. We then spent the rest of the night flying back and I kept myself busy the whole day. I didn't sleep, I didn't eat, and then I was tossed around in a storm, exhausting all my strength just to get through and now he's...

My body, nor my mind, can hold on.

I collapse onto the grass.

Everything turns black.

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