Aurora's ear flaps perked up at the mention of being able to find her family. She could! She could find her clan again. Maybe even her parents. That thought made her even more excited, making more licking noises. She wasn't too worried about leaving. She could always come back to Berk. She would come back. She knew she would. These two were her friends. Maybe even more than tat in her opinion with Toothless, though if it ha been just a couple of months ago she would have burned someone to a crisp for saying such a thing. The two had gotten close the past couple of months, even if sometimes they shared disagreements or taunted each other. It was honestly the way Furys and Arcus dragons worked.

She purred when Toothless came up and rubbed her side before huffing in annoyance when he smacked her with his tail. Then she was purring once again as Hiccup touched the place between her eyes and gave a dragon laugh as Toothless knocked him to the side, clicking in encouragement to her. She clicked back and looking over at Hiccup once more, she pounced on him and began licking his face happily back she pounced on Toothless as well, rubbing her head against his before she blew a puff of smoke in his face and bounded off a few steps, dashing into the sky happily, glad to finally e free to head home, though reminding herself that she would see Hiccup and Toothless again. She promised herself she would.

...

It was a long flight to head back to her home lands, especially since she was going off of instinct and not memory, and what she found saddened her greatly. There were no Arcus dragons to be seen anywhere. But she did find in a cave dragon bones. She flew about wildly, roaring and calling out desperately in hopes of finding someone. She was greeted with nothing but silence. Her Clan had been the last of the Arcus dragons and if she was the last in her Clan, then that meant she was also the last of her kind which was indeed a very lonely feeling. Whining, she laid there, for a long while before she finally decided she couldn't stay here. If her Clan was gone, then this was no longer her home. But then, what was her home? Her thoughts immediately turned to Berk and she lifted herself up, giving a few hopeful clicks before she took off, heading in that direction.

But she never got there. She was attacked and brought down in a very violent and terrible Viking village. She didn't know what they planned to do with her but she knew it couldn't be good. They kept her chained and locked up, well fed and such so she kept her full strength and that worried her more. What were they using her for that would require her to be at full strength. But soon she would know. It was only a month after being kept there that they brought her out in chains, leading her deep into the woods, and for a moment, she had hoped they were letting her go. But they weren't.

They chained her to a tree and left her there. Not even an hour later she heard a loud horn blow and many shouts, some pained and some victorious. As tie went on, every time she heard those shouts they were closer and closer, and somehow she knew they were going to hunt her down and kill her. The shouts were still a a little ways away when she say one of the humans from that evil village step out. She was smaller, obviously more weak, and in a while this girl reminded her of Hiccup. The blonde's eyes widened when she saw that she had found the dragon and quickly pulled out a handmade bow and arrows, fashioned last minute at the looks of it, and pointed it at her.

The girl seemed determined at first, speaking to herself quietly, "I did it. This is it. I can finally prove them wrong. I can finally sow them I'm just as good as they are.....I can.....I..." Her suddenly determined eyes softened and she shook er head, lowering the bow and arrow, "I can't." Putting the bow back into its quiver and put her bow on her back as she approached the dragoness carefully, "You were forced into this too. Just like me. They think they can control who ever they want just because they're strong and have weapons." Whens he stepped a little closer, Aurora growled, but then watched as the girl raised her hands.

"I promise, as much as it may have seemed like it before, I won't attack you. I want to try and get those chains off." And for a moment, the girl thought Aurora wasn't going to let her, and might even attack her, but the dragoness merely approached and sniffed at her warily. Apparently the dragoness thought her too small to be a threat because she actually sat down and allowed the girl to get closer.

The human girl looked at the locks and unsheathed a rather skinny dagger, which made Aurora panic, trying to fly like a bird in a cage, the chains keeping her form getting high than a few feet and she tried to get away at first but the girl grabbed the chains, trying to hold her in place, "No! Stop! I'm gong to use it to pick the locks! I'm not here to hurt you!" After a moment, she managed to calm her down, petting her muzzle, "See? Now, sit still, okay?" She pet her a little more in a soothing way before kneeling down and going to work on the locks. Slowly but surely, one fell away after another and when she got to the last lock and smiled as it came undone and the dragoness was free. Aurora gave a happy roar and shot up into the air, only to stop, her own rainbow eyes widening as she at a group of five teen standing behind the weaker human girl, having crept up soundlessly behind her, one having a knife raised and ready to kill, the girl completely unaware as she watched the dragoness.

Giving a angry roar, Aurora dived down and knocked the human with the knife to the side and the huan girl turned in suprise, drawing her skinny dagger once more to face the group of Viking teens with the dragoness.

"You let the dragon go!"

"Now we'll all be banished!"

"No! Its still here isn't it?! Lets kill it!" Then the humans jumped at the two and after a short amount of fighting, when it seemed like they wouldn't win, the human girl yelled out for the dragoness to just run. That if they couldn't win, then at least Aurora could escape.

Aurora paused for a moment and then, in a sudden moment pounced, throwing the human girl onto her back, flying into the air. The human gave a cry of surprise and clung to the dragon as they went higher and higher at an amazing speed, and away from the Viking teens. W hen she was finally calm enough to realize she was safe, the Viking girl smiled a she looked around, "This is amazing!" Aurora gave a happy sound in agreement as the two left that evil village for what they hopped to be the last time.

---

Aurora and Castiel had been together since that day. The two just wandered about, exploring new lands. Castiel did sketches of every dragon breed they found and that she remembered from past sightings. There were plenty of them. But, one she hadn't found was a fury. She had at first thought Aurora was some kind of Fury. But, it was int he second week of being with the dragon that the 'surprise' came and Aurora, finally fed up with being called a Fury, transformed in her human form and told her what she really was. That had almost made poor Castiel faint, but she didn't and was very much surprised her dragon friend could actually transform into a human. So, her dragon was not called a Fury but a Arcus. And apparently Arcus dragons were the oldest and as rare as Furys. Purebred dragons. And Aurora believed she was the last of her kind, and probably indeed was. Castiel sure hadn't seen one before, or even heard of one for that matter.

For the most part, Aurora stayed in dragon for unless she had something she really wanted to say and couldn't gt it across in dragon form. It was a year into their journeys together that they found a beautiful nest, filled with so many wonderful dragons. It was in a cove with large cliff walls surrounding to keep any unwanted non flying visitors out. Catiel had been enjoying herself, playing with the friendly dragons, until the queen of the nest showed herself and she didn't seem happy at all to have a human in her nest.

She attacked Castiel, but Aurora wasn't having that. The queen swiped at Castiel, knocking her to the ground, but before she could kill her, her dragon jumped in front of her, growling, her mouth glowing a plasma mixed between purple and white and shot it at the queen. It only took a few more hits before the queen backed off and then flew away. Castiel rushed her friend and hugged the dragon in relief, "You did it Aurora! That was seriously a close one. I thought I was dragon food!" She smiled and rubbed her head against the dragon's, "I can always count on you." The dragoness purred and rubbed her head against her human before looking to see all the dragons bowing, causing Castiel to look on in confusion, "Whats going on...why....oh......OH!" She blinked in surprise and realization, looking at Aurora even more excitedly, "You beat the queen! So....so that makes you the queen now!" Aurora huffed that her human hadn't realized that before and nodded.

Smiling, Castiel pet her dragon, "Then, I guess we're staying. Well, this is the best place we've found so far. I like it. I think it will make a great home." Right now, a home sounded very good to both of them.

~Two Years Later~

Castiel sighed as she looked up in the tree, "Get own here you big baby!"

Aurora looked down at her human and grumbled in a way of mocking her, obviously annoyed.

Crossing her arms, the human looked up at her dragon, "Are we really doing this again? Alright, I'm sorry there was an eel in your fish! I didn't even know it was there!" She got a blast of plasma shot next to her feet, yet the girl didn't even flinch. She was used to Aurora's little mood swings. This always happened close to 'that' season. It was only a couple of months away, and for the past two year Aurora was always so frustrated. She would fly off when the other dragon's did, in search of another Arcus dragon, yet would find none and come back both angry and sad all in one. It always made Castiel sad too. She hated to see her friend so upset. Running a hand through her hair, she sighed again, "Okay, tell you what, how about I'll go catch you some ore fish and we can go flying, deal?"

The dragoness considered this and then nodded before hopping down and landing next to her human. The two made their way through the large wooded area on their island, to where a small lake was and Castiel pulled out a fair sized net hidden away in a small hole before throwing it into the water, letting it sit for a few moments before he tugged and began pulling it onto the shore and into a basket she had woven herself. This time she searched through the fish and pulled out one or two eels before handing the basket over to her dragon She watched her eat and when she was half way done, suddenly froze, lifting her head her ears twitching, a growl escaping her. Castiel grew worried and in an instant had her bow but, an arrow pulled back on it, looking around, "What is it Aurora? What's wrong?"

Aurora heard the sound of flapping wings and the shifting of a rider. The dragon trappers were nothing new to she or Castiel. They had ran into them a few months ago on a flying trip away from the nest. But she would have never thought they would find their nest. She growled more, crouching down and looking in the direction the sounds were coming from and when the dragon and its rider emerged, she didn't even look to see who it was before she pounced the rider first, read to kill. Only she stopped right before the plasma left her mouth, her rainbow eyes blinking in surprise before she gave a happy cry, liking the human she knew as Hiccup on the face a few times before she moved to the dragon and pounced, headbutting him playfully and stomping her feet with happy clicks and purrs.

The sudden change in her dragons mood toward these intruders completely confused her rider and slowly Castiel lowered her bow and arrow, "Wait....Aurora? You know them?"

Her dragon looked back at her rider and gave more happy sounds as she bounced over to her, sitting beside her and looking at her two friends proudly, as if showing off her new rider. Well, not new since they had been a team for a little over two years, but new to them anyway.

Having to rebuild was nothing new to Berk, though for several years now most of the destruction had been a result of mere mishaps rather than attacks upon their village because for a time there was peace. Hiccup had believed he could keep it too, without violence but there was people in this world that couldn’t be reasoned with… that killed without reason. That pushed a war onto their shores and nearly wiped out all that they accomplished.

In the end they were the victors though and being the stubborn headstrong Vikings they all were they pushed on. Rebuilding and in the wake of Stoic’s death celebrating their new chief. Hiccup found that he still wasn’t really certain of how to act in this position- Put your own first -was the advice his father left him. So he tried to hear everyone out. One at a time. Day after day.

At least he wasn’t alone. All this time it had only been his father but now his mom was back- alive and well, with many of the same views he had. She assured him when he was uncertain and encouraged him with stories of a younger Stoic who ultimately hadn’t always been one hundred percent on what to do. It was strange to hear but he believed her. She had knew his father better than anyone- her husband… to just get him back only to lose him again, he could see them dancing in that cave with warmth between them. How long ago had it been now?

Things had begun to slow down after a couple days which he was thankful for, often enough he went with Toothless on late night flights since it was the only time he could break away without a thousand questions being shot his way. He was tired. Not to mention… sleep addled mind or not he was pretty sure he’d been seeing less of Astrid who he would have made time for. She had been so excited for him. With offers of flying Toothless in his stead and he had thought she would help him with this. Last he’d seen her though she’d been showing Erik around. He was new so he was glad someone was welcoming the outsider but he was missing her company now. Actually the few times he’d seen them hadn’t they’d seemed… close? He shook his head. Astrid had been with him since that ordeal with the queen so he shouldn’t have any doubts.

“Hiccup, you look worn. Perhaps a good long flight would do you well.” A gentle hand on his shoulder and he startled from his thoughts with a wane smile. “I will watch things here while you are gone.”

He groaned and rubbed his fingers through his hair, exasperated “The stables still need to repaired and food harvested for the long winter.”

She smiled at him, pitying. “The villagers have been doing this for centuries, they can go without your direction for awhile. I assure you.” She nudged him up onto his feet. “Go on Hiccup. I hear talk of an unexplored island to the east.” She encouraged. “who knows what you might find there.”

Hiccup had thought about it. He’s mapped much of the surrounding land but the sea was vast and maybe just a little more to the south… “Okay. Because you’re so insistent.” He gathered up his things and less than an hour later he was taking off from the village. Feeling alive again as the sky greeted them- vast and blue.

Their flight spiraled and dipped and eventually leveled out as land appeared in the distance- though the parting clouds. They descended and began to fly over. Dragons were expected but the one they soon spotted was not. Was the chances of a dragon of a similar body shape as Toothless that was RAINBOW in color? “Get lower Toothless.” Hiccup shifted, leaning and squinting as they descended and then-

He was thrown to the ground jarred by the impact and the pressure. While he would like to say otherwise this was a familiar situation. “Wait- Aurora-” He thrust his hand towards her, pleading she’d stop and shoved his helmet back from his face. “It‘s me!” He saw he expression change and felt relief at both being remembered and not killed. “Hiccup.“ He added just before a long tongue slurped across his face.

“Agh!“ He got this enough from Toothless and shoved at her but then she stopped and he sat up, hair sticking up awkwardly with the sticky salvia. He watched her pounce at the night fury who previously rose his hackles when she ‘attacked’ him but now… getting over his shock rolled over, bouncing before regaining his composure and holding his head high but by now Aurora had already retreated.

Hiccup swiped the slop from his face and stood to his feet. Noticing the dragoness was not alone and was instead ’introducing’ a new face to them. He smiled and offered a hand before pausing to wipe it clean of dragon spit. “Right, sorry about that.” He extended it once more. “I’m Hiccup.”

Toothless clicked impatiently.

“And this is my nightfury, Toothless.” He included with a nod of his head before smiling more broadly. “And your Aurora’s friend?”

Aurora rubbed her head against Castiel before nudging the girl forward as if telling her to introduce herself. Castiel herself was kind of wary of doing so. She didn't exactly have the best memories of other humans and so her trust of them wasn't too great either. Yet, if her dragon knew these two and trusted them enough to greet them so warmly she did suppose it was safe...She watched as the other rider stood to his feet, wiping the dragon slobber off of his face before holding out a hand for her to shake. Castiel looked at the hand and with a small smile watched as he took it back wiping it off on his pants, "Dragon spit doesn't wash out your know." Though she figured he already knew that. Standing p straight and putting her bow back on her back she spoke, "My name's Castiel. I'm Aurora's friend and rider."

The dragoness gave her rider a lick on the face as well, "Ugh, Aurora!" Going over to the lake, she washed her face off before drying it wit her shirt and standing up straight again, and turned back to the them, a curious look on her face as she stepped closer to the Night Fury, "Toothless? He seems to have all his teeth to me." She commented and held her hand out for the dragon to sniff and whens he saw it was safe, put a gentle hand on his snout, "I've never seen a Night Fury before. He's amazing. And he looks so much like Aurora. But.... I thought they were all extinct."

She stopped petting him as Aurora approached and playfully blew a puff of smoke in the dragon's face, giving off a dragoness laugh, to which Castiel grinned, looking over at Hiccup, "Seems Aurora and your dragon are....close?"

She was different than the Vikings in his village- slighter. He’d seen more of the people of these lands but to survive many were hunters and in extent fighters. They were tough in appearance, hard and worn but there was something delicate about her. Something that kept his eyes upon were even as she retreated to the lack to wash. When she turned around to return he found he was still stupidly holding his hand out and so lowered it. Now he was curious how Toothless would take to her. A cautious stiff and then a snort of satisfaction before he allowed her fingers to graze along his scales. Hiccup smiled idly. Those weren’t the hands of a fighter. “Oh no” The comment broke his study of this girl “but Toothless might be the last of his kind. We’re yet to find another one like him.” Brought him back to countless searches- fruitless. Toothless never seemed too distraught about it maybe because of Aurora, though she had been gone for so long.

Toothless returned the affections by lowering his head pushing into her until he had her up on her hind legs and then grinning gummily he spread his wings and shoved her onto her back, pawing playfully at her face. “Uh…” Hiccup chuckled at their antics. “Yep.” He declared surely after a moment. “They got pretty close in the time she stayed in my village despite the fact that they really hadn’t gotten along at first.”

Castiel was glad to find that the dragon hadn't tried to bite her hand off(as some had indeed tried before) and let her hands run over the scales before Aurora went to play with Toothless, grumbling in complaints as she was knocked on her back and pawed at, though didn't seem too much distressed about the situation and pawed back at him, at the same time swiping at him with her long tail, playful growls coming fro her as she bit down on his ear flap and tugged. When she released his ear gave more happy clicking sounds and rolled over so she was up, and stopped, examining his back to find the spines sticking up from his back. She sniffed them, knowing he hadn't had them before, and yelped in surprise when they clapped together, making even her laugh at her own silliness after words. She headbutted his chest lightly, as she had when they first met and stomped her front paws on the ground.

"I'm surprised. Aurora doesn't really get along with the other dragons here. I mean, she's their queen here in the nest, but I've never seen her like this." Crossing her arms, she smiled, "Well, if they didn't get a long before, you can't tell it now. Its so nice to see her this happy." She nodded to herself and continued to watch the two, "They must have really missed each other."

Hiccup knew how proud Toothless was of the spikes on his back and wasn’t at all surprised when he showed off by clapping them together, gaffing at Aurora’s surprise. He spread his wings as Aurora shoved him and bared his teeth in good natured fun. “Yeah.” Hiccup wanted to ask Aurora if she found her family but didn‘t want to ruin this reunion “she’d been gone for awhile.” He added before picking up his helmet and dusting it off. It seemed like this should have been once of the first islands he discovered but how could he have missed their friend living so close? He wanted to check his map but didn’t want to spread it out with two playful dragons bouncing around and risk it getting ruined.

“Do you live here then, on this island?” He became more curious at the prospect because he just heard a mention of Aurora being queen of these dragons. From his understanding that meant she sort of claimed this as her lands- her home. But there was this human her. Her rider. He wondered how they met. “Anyone else? I mean… other than the dragons?” He wondered if there was more. Even more than just his mother and this girl. Other dragon riders. Other people that could understand.

Castiel looked back at Hiccup and slowly nodded her head looking back to the two dragons, "I do. It kind of happened unintentionally actually. Aurora ad I were riding though. I have no idea where Aurora had been taking us before, but we had decided to stop here for a rest. Only, the old queen hadn't seemed to happy about a human in her nest. She attacked me, but Aurora stepped in and scared her off. So, since Aurora couldn't leave now that she was queen, I kind of decided to stay here with her. This is home to us." She said softly and moved to sit down on the edge of the lake, dipping her feet into the water and making small ripples in its surface as she moved one of her feet in slow circles, hesitating before speaking, "No....no its just me.....jut me and the dragons."

She didn't like to think about that though. It was hard, being away from your own kind. But the dragons here also her friends as well, so if she didn't think about humans too much she didn't really get sad about the loneliness. "But, thats okay. I have all of these wonderful dragons with me. They're like family to me I would't give the up for the word. Especially Aurora." She looked over and giggled softly to see Aurora headbutt Toothless one or two more times before rubbing her head against his, purring, "She's such a big softly."

There was a note of sadness to that- for most of his life Hiccup had been outcasted by the other vikings, treated as though he wasn't one of them. Maybe in ways he still wasn't but even so they had changed and he was their chief. He knew what it was like to be different. To be alone. So long had he tried to change that and then he shot down Toothless... Dragons always seemed more in sync with him, they understood and he the same. He knew what this girl meant when she said she had all them with sincerity but Aurora most of all. "Toothless too, nothing but a big pussy cat." Hiccup took out his notebook now, opening up to begin spreading pages of the map. Noting there location before taking out his charcoal stick and shaving it to a point with a few quick flicks of his knife. "Let's see..." He hummed thoughtfully "do you have a name for it?"

(short one before I go to work. I have another long shift.)

Castiel watched Aurora and Toothless for a moment before she looked over at Hiccup and saw him getting something out. She watched with curiosity as he pulled out what looked like a small sheet of paper, but then unfolding it she saw that it turned out to be a huge map of the surrounding areas. Smiling she knelt beside him and tilted her head as she looked it over, "You mapped all of this? You must have been working for a long time to have all of this done."

She looked up at him and thought a moment, shrugging, "I never really thought to name it. Aurora and I just always referred to it as 'the nest'. I guess it's up for naming if you have a good name for it." She said and reached over, hesitating, "May I?" When handed the pencil she began to draw on that section the paper that was supposed to be where the nest was, marking out every detail. She had been in this place for two years and knew everything about the area they were in. After all, it was her home now. She glanced up at him from the side as she drew and smiled softly, "If you want to know about the dragons who live here in the nest," She began, and reached into one of her pockets on her side and pulled out a book she had put together herself and tossed it over to him, "I've been working on that. I still have a few more dragons to finish up on, but its at least something."

“Unfortunately ‘the nest’ is already taken by this rock over.” Hiccup explained with a gesture of the charcoal stick. The island had long since been abandoned by most of the dragons after the death of the queen and was hardly a nest at all BUT the people of Berk had been calling it that for so long now that they couldn’t change it without confusion.

With curiosity worth exploring he allowed Castiel make the alterations to the map. “Not bad, it looks like you’ve really spent a lot of time here.” He said noting the detail as she finished only to have a book flung his way, falling open in front of him. Immediately his interest was peaked- “You drew all these yourself?” He questioned as he turned through the pages, not looking up as he instead examined the illustrations. Many of these dragons he’d seen firsthand before. So he knew how much time must have went into each line. “You really have an eye for detail.”

"Then I suppose a new name for this place is in order, huh?" She said with a small laughed as she finished up drawing the details on the map and nodded to herself, setting the charcoal down before she sat back a little, "Two years." When she realized that probably didn't make sense on its on, she continued "That's the time I've spent here with Aurora. A little over two years actually. We've explored so much of these lands. There are some really beautiful places on this island and plenty of unexplored and mysterious ones as well." Standing up now, she looked over at her dragon who was busy pawing at Toothless lazily now as she layed on the ground, "It's been quite an adventure I can say that. And its one I wouldn't give up for anything. It's just such a free feeling compared to life before I met her."

She sat down again, this time on a rock, and looked over at him, "You know what that's like, don't you? I mean I can't imagine my life now without being on the back of a dragon and seeing things that no one has probably seen before. Its a whole different and new world when your a dragon rider." She paused and looked up to see him still looking at her illustrations. It made her smile, "Really? You think so?" She rubbed her arm, feeling suddenly embarrassed, "I never thought they were any good The people from my village used to rip up my drawings if they found them. But, then again, they didn't like me too much in the fist pace anyway, do it could have just been to spit me more than them hating my drawings." Brushing her hair back from her face, she shrugged, "Not many vikings are fond people like me. You know, the wimps who probably can't eve pick up a sword? Much less use one." She gave a shy grin, "Though, I am pretty good at the bow and arrow! It took me a while to get the hang of it, but at least its helpful in catching food."

She decided to be quiet for now before she made herself look any more like a fool than she already had and hesitated before speaking again, "So...um....you're dragon's tail.....from the looks of it, you control it from your foot rest on the saddle? Was that different to learn? I mean th mchanics of it had to b pretty hard to figure out, especially with the Fury's flight pattern?"

Hiccup had been ridiculed for his inventions along with a general lack of upper body strength (which had been a big thing a couple years back) and perhaps had he not been the chief’s son he would have been treated in a similar fashion as she. It was her words about this that finally drew his gaze from the illustrations and he furrowed his brows in concern. He would like to say something about it but saw her willingness to discard the old hurt and cover it up with new accomplishments. Rather then toy with tensions he began folding up the map. Pretended to be completely occupied with this task because he couldn’t sum up conversation knowing how she had been treated and that by the sounds of it, it had never really changed in her village.

He almost didn’t realize she had said something after the span of silence. “It was the design that was difficult.” He replied without thought. “I had to figure out a way to rig it up so the fin could tilt, fold and spread as needed. It was a bit of trail in air. We spent more time falling from the sky than soaring in it.” He looked up thoughtfully, eyes shifting towards his dragon “but then one day it just clicked and it was no longer an effort to try and remember which position… suddenly we were just… flying.” He smiled fondly at the thought before an edge of annoyance and humor took over. “And then Toothless went and roasted my eyebrows off. Isn’t that right you useless reptile?”

Toothless just offered up an unconcerned snort, sprawled out comfortably in the grass.

Castiel giggled softly at the jab Hiccup made toward his dragon and the completely unconcerned look on the dragon's face. These two really were close and in a way it reminded her of Aurora and herself. They had a similar relationship of teasing and picking on one another. It was just part of the dragon and rider bonding. She leaned back slightly where she sat and looked at Aurora once more, "I never really had much trouble with Aurora I don't think. Well, I take that back. At first I did. My first thought was to try and get a saddle on her. To help me stay on her back. I spent a few weeks just gathering materials and trying to make one. But she was completely resistant of it. It wasn't until one or two ore attempts that I bean to see it wasn't just her being stubborn. She's scared of saddles."

She sighed, and shook her head, "It wasn't until later that she told me," She paused to look over at Aurora, as if silently asking if these two knew about her human side ad the dragoness just gave a sight nod before finally laying in the grass herself, resting her chin on her paws, worn out form the two dragons' playing. Castiel continued, "That she told me of her time with those harmful vikings. The vikings that took her as a hatchling and forced her to fight for them? She said because of that she would never wear a saddle or a muzzle ever again. So I have to ride without a saddle. I've grown pretty used to it though and it helps that I have good balance. That is, I'm okay as long as Aurora isn't throwing me into the ocean for a laugh." She said with a look to her own dragon who acted innocently, though they both knew she had thrown Castiel into oceans, lakes, mud and a few other things for a good laugh before.

Looking up, Castiel noticed the skies beginning to turn pink, signalling it was close to night time and frowned slightly. It's getting dark. If we don't get out from the open we might run into back to the center of the nest soon some of the dragons might start to worry." She stood and brushed herself off Aurora standing up and shaking the grass and dirt off of her scales before Castiel looked at the two, Um....if you don't want to travel home in the dark you could stay here for the night." She said the last pat kind of quickly and shyly, "If you want that is. Its completely up to you."

It was no secret to Hiccup that it went deeper than pride for Aurora- she feared restraints, seeing her in the condition she had been in when they first met, he had understood completely. There was no words necessary for that.

His gaze lifted towards the sky and he grew wary of the hour but there was nothing for it now. While he was accustomed to flying in the dark with Toothless many long nights were catching up with him. It was a long flight back and… well it’d been awhile since they’d last seen Aurora. Toothless would probably want to catch up a little more before they returned. The village would be fine a little longer.

He rose to his feet. “We’ll stay.” He directed the next bit towards Toothless to see if he would disagree. “We can leave in the morning.” But the night fury simply stretched cat like and stalked to his feet, walking over to Hiccup before opening his mouth wide with a yawn.

Aurora was more than happy when Hiccup agreed to stay the night, leaving the dragoness jumping happily about before practically tackling Hiccup over again, licking his face a few times before going over to do the same to Castiel, actually knocking her over, "Aurora! Haha! Cut it out you big lumux!" It took a moment of pushing but she finally got the dragoness to stop licking her and sat up wiping her face off giving a laugh, "I guess she's excited to spend ore time with her friend." Walking over she gracefully mounted the dragoness and looked over at the two males, "The center is just a short flight. I promise it won't take too long." Giving Aurora a at on the side she spoke, "Okay girl, let's get going."

With that Aurora sped off at amazing speed, Castiel leaning forward to get better grip and to help with resistance. Soon they were landing by an even larger lake than they had been near before, in the middle of the nest and she hopped down, looking back at the two, "This is it. We usually stay in this cave right here. Its....well....its not exactly much, but its home." Se said with a shrug and smiled at Aurora as they walked in. In the middle of the room was a fire pit and grabbing some wood from the corner she tossed some in and Aurora shot a plasma blast at it lighting it as Castiel sat down. The dragoness curled herself around her rider, to which Castiel smiled up at her before looking at Hiccup and Toothless, "There's plenty of fish in the lake if you want to catch some. I even have a net if that helps. Aurora and I just ate before you two showed up so we're not really too hungry."

She yawned slightly and leaned back against her dragon more, "I think I might head to seep now. Its been quite the day." And with that the girl cured up against her dragon, Aurora using her wing like a blanket of the girl as the human drifted off and sighed, resting her head on her tail, watching her two friends curiously, wondering what they had been donig all this time.

Wings spread and they lifted into the air, flying along side a dragon that was nearly the inverted opposite of a nightfury. Hiccup knew what she was but still marveled at the similarities between them- the more he thought about it the more he found himself wondering if genetics were really a problem here. Somewhere down the line they had been the same. That was his understanding, that their ancestors had the same scales. He knew they would never probably find another nightfury but this was a close second, wasn’t it? He was knew Toothless could be happy with this. Now that they were older… maybe it would make a difference. Maybe Toothless wouldn’t be the only dragon left behind during ’nesting season’ this time.

Hiccup surveyed the surroundings, catching sight of several dragons as they passed over. “Almost feels there should be a bewilder beast within that lake.” As soon as he caught sight of the water he was reminded of the lands in which he was reunited with his mother. Then they touched down in reality- he slung himself off Toothless’ back and looked around as they walked in, mindlessly rubbing his fingers at the nightfury’s scales. There wasn’t much to compliment them upon with a setup so simple but it must have just meant that they didn’t spend a lot of time in the cave. There was actually nothing wrong with that with a whole island of dragons to explore.

Toothless slunk down, sinking to the floor before he had even stopped walking and Hiccup was left scratching empty air as his fingers slipped off. He looked over at the dragon who hadn’t really acknowledged the mention of fish beyond putting his head down. “Tired bud?” Hiccup eased back against Toothless’ side, stretching his legs out and resting his head into him. He saw that the girl had already seemingly dozed off. “Been a long couple weeks with everything… a break well deserved.” Toothless rumbled in response but mostly wanted him to be quiet so he could sleep. Hiccup did settle, abandoning speech for sleep.

The next day Castiel was up bright and early with Aurora. The two always got up early to go for a fly and make sure everything was okay before getting some breakfast. So, she let the two males sleep and when she came back to the cave just a couple of hours away the two were preparing to leave. She supposed they had to get home soon, but Castiel did admit it made her somewhat sad. It was nice to have some human company for once. And Aurora was so fond of the Night Fury. She was more fond of him than she had seen with any other dragons on the island. Aurora ears flattened against her head as she walked over to Hiccup and rubbed her head against him before licking his face a few times before she walked over to Toothless and rubbed her head under his purring slightly.

Aurora said goodbye to Toothless, Castiel walked over to Hiccup and set a tied up basket in front of him, "I kind of figured you two were leaving soon. So I caught both of you some fish for your trip home. Who knows, maybe we'll see each other again soon." She gave him a small smile and looked over as Aurora licked the side of Toothless's face before coming over to her. She petted the dragoness's head, "And maybe when we do meet again there might be some new little dragons running around." She joked slightly and gave a small laugh as she brushed her long hair from her face and held out her and for him to shake, "It was nice meeting you Hiccup."

With that, she watched as the two of them left and frowned slightly, looking at her saddened dragoness before giving her a hug around the neck, "Don't worry girl. You'll see him again. I'm sure of it." She said and hopped onto her dragoness's back, "Come on. Let's go do some rounds and see what we can find." With that they flew off.

....

Two months had passed since Castiel had met Hiccup and Toothless, and a month had passed since all the dragons had left for nesting season. Normally when Aurora left for that season she was back within a few days, before any of the others, likely because she couldn't find any other dragon. But this time was different. This time Aurora stayed away, and that gave her hope. Maybe she had found Toothless or another dragon to mate with. The thought of having more Arcus and Fury dragons made Castiel excited. But, when the other dragons returned with their babies and her own dragon hadn't returned yet she grew worried. Normally dragons returned within a week or two. She searched and searched and waited and waited, but her dragon had yet to come back. Finally after a month had past she decided she had to do something to try and find her.

But she had no idea where the nesting grounds even were. But, maybe there was someone who did. Hiccup came to mind. If his dragon was gone as well then she was fairly sure the two dragons were together. But it as only a matter of trying to find him. If she remembered correctly, he was from Berk. Now she just had to find it. She found one of the Deadly Nadders, a male so that she knew he wouldn't be watching over any baby dragons, and packed up, flying off, "Alright Spike, lets find this village."

They searched for a long time and a whole week of searching passed before Castiel saw anything that looked promising. Below was a small village and to her surprise she could see dragons below flying about, "Alright Spike, take us down gently. We don't want to startle any--SPIKE!" She yelled in surprise and held onto the dragon tightly as he dived down at full speed, coming about a foot above the ground before swooping back up, "Slow down!" But he didn't. He kept going and continued to do the same a few times before he finally landed and she stumbled off of his back, "Next time I'm taking a Gronkle. At least they listen to orders." She mumbled, getting a good hit on the head by its tail(with the spikes pulled in) and she rubbed the back of her head, glaring at the cranky dragon before she turned to see the vikings from the village all either looking at her strangely or with suspicious gazes.

Giving an awkward laugh she rubbed the back of her neck, "Hehe....um.....I wouldn't happen to be in Berk, would I?"

It was quiet for a moment before one of the adults in the village, with a prosthetic hand and leg spoke, "You are lass. What business do you have here?"

Giving a sigh of relief that she had finally found her destination, she stepped up slowly and spoke, "I'm looking for a man named Hiccup. I met him a few weeks ago. I have some questions for him. Its about my dragon. I'm worried about her and would really appreciate just a few minutes with him." She said politely as she stood there and the man considered it before shrugging "Guess it couldn't hurt. Come on." Gobber lead her through the village and the whole time Castiel was nervous and all together anxious. She hadn't been around other humans like this in a long time and it scared her. She was taking a big risk in her eyes by doing this, but she had to find her friend. She had to make sure she was okay.

She was lead in the great hall, which for now was empty aside from a lone man she easily recognized, sitting in the corner and reading some sort of book. Gobber left, closing the door behind him and Castiel slowly and quietly approached Hiccup, biting her lip, unsure what to say at first. Finally she spoke, her voice unsure, "H-Hiccup?" When he looked up she jumped slightly, obviously very nervous about being in this village, though she supposed it was a little better now that she was away from all those people, "I came here to ask something? Aurora hasn't come back and it's worrying me. Ha Toothless come back? Do you know where they nest at? I-I just really want to make sure she's okay...." She said quietly, trailing off and keeping herself from asking anything else for now so that he could answer the questions she had already asked.

Hiccup was always busy these days and it was hard to find the time to even worry. Yeah, Toothless was yet to come back but he didn’t know if this was to be expected of his kind- there was no other dragons like him (though Aurora was similar), maybe it was just taking him awhile to find a suitable mate? There was a number of possibilities that could be holding him up and even though the other dragons had all returned Hiccup was patient. He kept himself busy, very busy. There was plenty of things he didn’t want to focus on right now.

He found himself in the deserted great hall- once more altering the pages of their trusty dragon book and wondering if it would be easier to just replace it. So much of the information was incorrect. Earlier that day he had been taking tally of the new hatchlings in their village and knew some things had to change but… He idled on the page about the nightfury. It was all his doing. He knew Toothless would come back. He just… wondered why he hadn’t yet.

That was when he heard his name and looked up to find he was no longer alone in here, struck dumb by the unexpected visitor but once she began to talk it became clear. “Toothless isn’t back yet.” He closed the book to offer his full attention. “I figured he was just taking his time setting the mood but I am a little bit worried…” He admitted “it’s not like him to stay away for so long.” Or at all- he was use to having the dragon around at all times.

He got to his feet, scooting around the bench seat. “You want to go check on them? I don’t know if he goes to the same nest as the others…” Still he headed for the vast doors and stepped out into the sunlight. Most dragons would come up to him- especially in the absence of Toothless so getting one for the journey was a task made easy. He climbed onboard and encouraged the girl to do the same “come on, before anyone ask where I’m going…” He added under his breath before taking off.

When he said Toothless had yet to com back from nesting season as well, it somehow gave Castiel a small amount of hope. So, maybe the two dragons were together and something bad hadn't happened? She sure hoped so. It made her feel better though that Hiccup was willing to help her find them to check on them. Making sure her dragon was okay would definitely calm her nerves. She watched out of the great hall with hi and was surprised at how a multitude of dragons approached him so quickly. t made her smile and she pet one of the nearby dragons before she looked up to see him mount one of the dragons. She nodded at what he said and easily climbed onto the dragon, holding onto him as the dragon took off.

It wasn't too long of a ride. Maybe an hour. But finally the beautiful island came into sight and she looked in surprise, "This is where dragons nest? No wonder they want to get to this lace so badly. Its so beautiful." They landed on the narrow sands and she looked around. It was easy to see where dragons had previously nested, but right now there were no signs of life right now. She frowned a she noticed that. She pair of them walked around the island for a a long while, Castiel even calling the two dragons, but no responses, which saddened her, "They're not here...Aurora always comes when I call, or at least lets me know where she's at..." At the agreement the two dragons weren't there, the two mounted the dragon once more when suddenly an idea popped into her head, "Wait! I thin I know where they are! Maybe they're at her home lands! Aurora took me there once. It's got to be worth a shot, right?

It was another few hours of riding on the dragons back, the dragon going full seed as Castiel gave it directions until finally a beautiful area with green fields, a crystal clear lake with a spring dribbling from it to form a creek and beside the lake was numerous mountains, ranging from small to gigantic. The land was pretty clear aside fro those features and very few trees. Smiling brightly, Castiel pointed, "There. That's her home hands." She patted the side of the dragon they were riding on and spoke gently to it, "Can you take us down there please?" The dragon landed on command and Castiel hopped off, "Let's get looking."

It was another long while of searching and after a while Castiel was starting to loose hope of finding her friend until she came to a mouth of a cave and heard something oddly familiar. There was a growl echoing in the caves as she stepped forward and slowly peeked in, only to be tackled by a large white dragon, "Aurora! Aurora stop!" The dragoness, in hearing her rider's voice, obeyed and greeted the girl happily by licking her face, "Its good to see you too girl!" Sitting up she saw Toothless slink out form the shadows of the cave and smiled softly, "And you too Toothless." She gave the male a pat on the side before She followed Aurora into the cave.

Looking about she frowned, not seeing what she was looking for, "No eggs?" She questioned and was about to look at the dragoness again when heard a small clicking sound. Turning to the back of the cave, where some small rocks were, she stepped forward and smiled brightly at what she saw. A small, rather frightened looking baby dragon peaked his head out, looking at her with big green eyes. It was only when he slowly came out that Castiel could see that while he was black, the undersides of his wings were rainbow and he had very few small specs of different colors on his scales that were barely noticable, "Look Hiccup." She said, smiling back at hi before she slowly moved forward and reached out her hand and when the baby approached she scooped hi up, "Hehe, he's so cute." Aurora approached and purred as she rubbed her head against her baby before she moved back to Toothless and did the same to him, staying close to her mate as another clicked sound came from the back of the cave, though no baby dragon came out.

Curious, Castiel set the baby male dragon down next to his parents before she moved to the back of the cave and smile at what she saw. One more little dragon was still hiding looking up at her with bright rainbow eyes. Smiling, she bent down and held her hand out to the baby, "Awww, its okay little one. I'm not going to hurt you." it took a little longer to coax the hatchling over to her and when she picked it up, she could see this one was a female and was solid grey with eyes like her mother's. She walked over to Hiccup and stood next o him holding the tiny dragon, allowing him a better look at the little grey dragon, "Two new dragons. They're so adorable. And a completely new breed. A mix of Fury and Arcus dragons. We have so much to learn from them."

She smiled and looked at him, "Its good to know that Toothless and Aurora won't be alone anymore."

The nesting grounds were so void of life that Hiccup almost didn't recognize them the moment they flew over. He kept his hand upon the side of their temporary mount as Castiel continued forward, calling her dragon's name. He didn't think the two dragons were here though- after the hatchlings were born in years before the dragons would set out with them- returning home. He only wondered why they hadn't come to Berk or Aurora's island. Castiel had a suggestion though and he was willing to give it a shot. It was a long journey and Hiccup had left the dragon drinking from one of the lakes as he pressed forward with Castiel, moving deeper inland. Most of the caves proved to be deserted but as they approached the last one in their search there was a low rumbling from within and then a flash of what. He had quite been on pace with the girl but stopped entirely at that point, evaluating the situation and finding there was no reason for concern. They had found who they were looking for.

He leaned to the side and stepped around to get a better look into the cave. That was when Toothless slunk out. Once they were all reunited they continued inside and were greeted by a surprise. The baby's were different... a new species of dragon? Or perhaps subspecies. It was hard to ponder that when faced with big green eyes and adorable gummy mouths.He could only look at the dragon he was being shown, unable to think of a response or any words at all. With people always saying Toothless was the last nightfury... he never thought he'd get to be a part of something like this. Watching Toothless nuzzle the hatchling and thinking how the dragon was a father now.

He swallowed hard on that thought. "Toothless... they're..." Hiccup started with a small waver and the nightfury sprung up with a rumbling gurgle of excitement, twisting around and bounding to the rocks. He perched upon a large one and looked back at Hiccup was an impatient click. "Alright." After a moment Hiccup complied, plodding over and peering over at the last of the baby dragons. A hind like fresh white snow with a shimmer of color beneath the wings and along the tail. He crouched down and watched as the hatchling tumbled, obviously contented with this activity until it noticed Hiccup and it sat up with a small huff before lowering on its haunches and padding its paws against the ground.

Toothless barked at the tiny male but that didn't stop the baby from charging head long into his knee. Hiccup laughed as it fell over itself and immeditately rubbed the base of his thumb at its skull. "A couple days old and already trying to show off." The hatchling seemed to like his touch since it closed its eyes and leaned into it.