Chapter 8: The Nightshade Clan
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I woke up in a dark room. Something warm was wrapped around me. It was Toothless; his wings were firmly wrapped around my body, and he held me tight in his arms.
"W-where are we?," I asked groggily.
"I don't know," Toothless whispered back. "But I know we're nowhere near the island we were on a few hours ago, and I haven't seen Stormfly, Hiccup, or Astrid. I hope Astrid's okay; she was unconscious when the fight started, and I don't know if Hiccup was able to protect her or not."
Toothless let me go, and we stood up. That's when we saw it. Hundreds of sets of eyes, glowing in the darkness, staring us down. Then, numerous glowing purple markings and one blue one that looked like a star moved toward us. Toothless put a wing over my trembling body, and I instantly calmed down.
"Who are you?," Toothless called out to the designs. As the light increased, we could see that it was a Night Fury, probably no older than me and Toothless. She was jet-black with electric blue eyes and markings that all had something to do with Norse animals. For example, a marking on her left ear looked like a Raincutter, and one on her side looked like a sheep.
"I am Asla," the Night Fury said. "Queen of the Nightshade clan, shapeshifter and reader of minds." Toothless immediately dropped down and bowed, and I followed suit. "And you would be?," Asla said once we stood back up.
"I'm Toothless, Alpha of all Berkian Dragons and those within three miles of Berk," Toothless said.
Before I could introduce myself, a tender, yet masculine voice echoed through the cave.
"Not all dragons within three miles of Berk," it said. A dark blue Night Fury with green markings in the shapes of flames and Norse writing appeared next to Asla. "I am Thrae," the dragon said. His neon green eyes appeared to glow as he spoke. "King of the Nightshade clan, and universal speaker, capable of all languages, human, animal, and dragon alike. And, you don't rule EVERY dragon within three miles of your island, Toothless, for we live under it in a series of caverns, and we have our own society."
Toothless gasped. "You mean-" Thrae nodded.
"And," Asla said. "You're wondering how we could go unnoticed and who we are and what we do and if we're all Night Furies and how exactly you got here. Let me answer the last one for you. We had an ex-Singeclaw posted on that island to check for tremors, since another island off to the east had been sunken a month before. She saw that a fight had broken out up on the cliff, and that's when the tremors started. The entire cliff collapsed, and you two were the first to fall. Then the Nadder and the two Vikings, and eventually the Singeclaw pack. Our scout could only pull you two out, and it was fairly easy since Toothless had you wrapped up in his wings. The others she couldn't find, and she carried both of you here. This is a refuge for all dragons, not just Night Furies. We heal the wounded, cure the sick, and provide shelter for the homeless."
"Wait," Toothless said. "You know about Nighthaven's sinking? Do you have any Night Furies here around our age, a family of them maybe?" Asla nodded.
"Askr!," she called. A large forest green Timberjack crawled out from a crack in the ceiling and landed, balancing on his tail for his arms and legs were his wings. "Take these two to the infirmary." Askr nodded and slithered in front of me and Toothless. We headed down a dark corridor, where Askr stopped at the end.
"I cannot go in," he said. His voice was quiet and shy, and he sounded as if he was very sensitive. "For I am far too large. But you two can go in. Just watch out for Kohora, Queen Asla's mother. She's the nurse, blind, and slightly senile. She can also predict the future, and she's insane. Don't bump into her." Toothless and I nodded, then headed into the cavern.
"Why do you wanna find more Night Furies in here?," I asked. Toothless sighed.
"My family lived on Nighthaven," he said. "I wanna make sure they're all okay. I haven't seen them for four years."
I looked at the ground as we walked through. I knew what it was like to not have any family, and I didn't want Toothless to have to go through that.
We walked for a while, and finally stumbled upon the back cave. Toothless looked around, and there was silence.
"TOOTHLESS!!!"
A flurry of black crashed into Toothless and wrapped her wings around him.
"Starrypaw?," Toothless said.
"It's Starrynight now," the young dragoness said gleefully. She seemed none the worse for wear, having just been in the sinking of an island. She looked almost exactly like her brother, only with sapphire eyes and little white stars all over her body. Then another creature barreled into Toothless, this time gold.
"Diamondpaw?," Toothless said, hugging the gold dragon. "How are you?"
"Actually, it's Diamondspirit now," Toothless's brother said. Toothless turned to me.
"This is Starrynight and Diamondspirit, my younger brother and sister," he said. "I was the oldest of six dragonets, hatched an hour before them." Then he looked at Diamondspirit and cocked his head. "Where are the others, how are they, and how are you?"
Diamondspirit sighed. "Starrynight's fine, Ashenpeace has a broken leg and Dizzy has a concussion, making her even more crazy than she already is. They couldn't think of a two-word name for her, so they just did Dizzy. Also, Moonbeam has a broken tail and lost an eye in the incident and Pitchtooth, who was Pitchpaw when you met her, has a bad gash on her arm. Me, well, let's just say I won't be able to fly anymore."
"What?!," Toothless exclaimed. "Okay, yes, I wanna be a role model for my younger brother, but that doesn't mean you have to be flightless like me!" Diamondspirit just looked at the ground and extended his right wing. Instead of gold like the rest of his body, it was pink and shriveled, and there was no more membrane on it. It looked like a deformed arm that got broken five million times and got burned even more. Toothless didn't say anything.
"When Nighthaven collapsed," Diamondspirit said. "There was lava in its center. My wing got trapped under a rock, which pushed it into the lava. Featherwar freed me, but..............."
Toothless's eyes started to water. "No..."
Diamondspirit looked up at his older brother with teary eyes. "Mom and dad, and Featherwar, didn't make it," he said shakily. "They gave their lives for us. Featherwar was our bigwings for twenty years, Toothless. She protected us, as any older sister would. Mom and dad did, too. They will always be remembered." Toothless broke down and cried, and I cried with him. I wrapped my wings around him and we sat there, sobbing. Starrynight and Diamondspirit joined us.
All of a sudden, we could feel three beings next to us. I looked up, and Thrae, Asla, and an older dragoness who I assumed was Kohora were standing above us. Thrae looked as if he was about to cry as well, and I knew then that he was a kind-hearted soul who was a lot like Toothless.
"I know how you feel," he said. "My parents were killed ten years ago in a misunderstanding with Kohora's family, and the scars run too deep." Thrae opened his left wing, and it bent in the wrong place. About halfway between the shoulder and the elbow it angled sharply, and a large pink scar cut jaggedly across the bend. A gaping hole was ripped into the membrane. "Now I have a constant reminder of my past," Thrae said sullenly. Asla smiled sympathetically. Then she jumped as if remembering something important.
"Oh!," she said, looking at me. "You didn't get to introduce yourself."
I stood up and sniffled, wiping my eyes. "I'm Paintsplash." Asla started, and Kohora gasped. "What?," I said, confused. Asla grabbed my shoulders.
"Cousin! You've come home!," she said.
"Excuse me," I said. "I have no idea who any of you are, especially you, Asla." Kohora suddenly looked downcast, and her blood red, blind eyes dulled. Her red cloud markings seemed to get agitated and swirl against her gray scales.
"You don't remember, do you?," she said. Her voice sounded almost exactly like Valka's, shaky and slightly raspy.
"Uhh, no," I said. "Of course I don't, I'm really a human who got struck by lightning, turned into a dragon, and transported back in time to here."
Kohora jumped. "You really don't remember, if you are under the impression that you're really human!"
"What?"
Kohora closed her unseeing eyes and drew in a deep breath. "Many years ago, when you were but a toddler," she started.
"You were four, like me," Asla cut in.
"ASLA!!," Kohora snapped. "I'm trying to tell this story! Prophecies, soothsaying, and storytelling are what I do, shapeshifting and mind-reading is what you do. Anyway, you had been orphaned at birth. Your father died in a battle just after your mother started carrying eggs, and your mother died while giving birth, too weak to keep going. There were only three eggs, and the other two were duds. You were the only remaining bloodline of dragons who had the incredible talent for art. As your mother's older sister, I'd do anything for her. So, I adopted you, and you and Asla became like sisters. Yes, we did name you Paintsplash, because that's what the Artwings named their children, artistic names like that."
So, that's why that name came to mind when Toothless asked.....
"You and Asla got along very well," Kohora continued. "One day, while playing, it began to rain. We called Asla in, and she came in, for she hated the rain. But, as a four year old, you never listened, and you loved the rain."-No wonder I like wandering aimlessly in thunderstorms.- "You stayed and splashed happily in the mud, no matter how many times we called you in. Then, a lightning bolt struck you through the head, and you disappeared, just like that. We couldn't find you anywhere. But, now I figure you must've been zapped to the future world as a human embryo and into the womb of an expecting mother."
I almost fainted, because this was too much to take in. I had been a dragon all along? So, when I thought I was living in a time I was supposed to, I really wasn't? I had been a step closer to my home by seeing "How To Train Your Dragon", based off true events yet the makers didn't know it, with a mother that wasn't even supposed to be mine?
"My mom," I said after a while. "Or, my human mom, said that I had a twin who died at birth. Maybe...maybe because I got teleported into mom, I had complicated the life of my unknown sister."
Kohora nodded. "Maybe so, niece. Well, during your absence, I never forgave myself for losing you, and raised Asla with my mate Namar. He got killed in a battle with my son-in-law's allies, those treacherous Vikings! Seriously, Asla, why couldn't you marry that dragon, who was like Skari?! He was a good match for you!"
"Mother!," Asla exclaimed indignantly. She wrapped her wing around Thrae.
Kohora ignored her and went on. "Anyway, in that battle," she said, spitting out "that battle" as if they were disgusting. "The Vikings had a Changewing pack hostage that they forced to attack us. One of those acid-spitting beasts got its acid in my eyes, and blinded me permanently. But, you didn't need to know that. We're just glad you're back."
Asla hugged me, and Toothless smiled down at me.
So, I'm really a dragon, I thought. Now, it's okay for me to be liking Toothless, and I can be a dragon and draw at the same time, 'cause it's in my blood. I. AM. A. DRAGON.
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