[Please read the very end of the chapter for notes and art by Moonie]
{check in the comments for the art on WebNovel, sadly you won't be able to see it on ffn}
Episode 1
That decision had major consequences
"Speech"
'Thoughts'
——————————————
(?)
On an island uninhabited by humans, dragons roamed the landscape. Some hunting wild boars who were stupid enough to stroll into their nests and eat their eggs, others hovering above lakes in the hopes of catching their next meal.
At the entrance of a cave that had a wall covered with tally marks, a boar had just wandered inside before suddenly being violently knocked back by a dark purple shot of plasma, leaving it on the ground with a cavity in its side, giving one final breath before it died. Smoke poured out from a very large, female Night Fury's mouth as she growled with irritation. "Fucking boars." She voiced out hatefully, her yellow stripes briefly darkening to orange in response to her anger before returning to normal.
She fidgeted with the two dragon eye lenses in her claws before clutching them in her right paw, then pushed herself to stand, glancing at the lenses for a moment before suddenly throwing them into her mouth and swallowing them. 'They should be fine.' She noted with a hint of concern for her stomach, as she just threw caution out the metaphorical window. Exiting her den, the titanic, grey-scaled Night Fury moved at a casual pace toward her training grounds; a clearing that was scattered with large boulders. She passed by the dens and temporary resting spots of a few dragons she was familiar with, mainly through fights she herself had instigated.
A pair of yellow eyes stared at her as he passed, before a male Deadly Nadder—mainly composed of a mixture of green and yellow scales—walked out from behind the brush to greet her. "Hey, Ashtail, how's it going?" The Nadder waved a wing, something that Ashtail had taught him—along with a few other things about humans—after they'd first met and fought. "Yo." Ashtail waved back. "I'm doing good so far, killed a boar back at my den. How're you, Chestnut?" Ashtail chuffed with a smirk on her lips.
Chestnut sighed with exasperation. "That's not my name." He said with annoyance as Ashtail glanced at him, her violet tinged gaze exposing her amusement as she met his gaze. "And Leaftail is better?" Chestnut shook his head, walking around a tree. "No. But Chestnut doesn't feel right either." Ashtail hummed thoughtfully, before a mischievous smirk crossed her face. "Could call you Decaf." She said with stifled laughter—the name was a nod to a skit she'd seen in her past human life—with Chestnut immediately frowning and rolling his eyes in response.
"Isn't that one of those things humans drink?" He queried, earning a series of snickers from the female Titanwing Night Fury. "Yeah." Ashtail replied with her answer, her snickers calming down a few moments after. "But in all seriousness, what do you think of Chester?" The Deadly Nadder took a few moments to ponder the suggested name, before nodding in agreement a while later. "Yeah. I like it, it's one of those human names, yes?" Chester nodded, acknowledging the new name before he asked his own question.
Ashtail nodded affirmatively as they approached the clearing that she claimed as her training grounds. "Yep." She briefly glanced around the clearing as they reached the center; a large patch of burnt grass, before she turned to the Nadder. "So, I'm assuming since you walked all the way here with me, that you wanted to spar with each other?" Ashtail voiced his assumption, her yellow markings brightening slightly to match his excited tone. Unfortunately for the oversized Night Fury, Chester had shaken his head in denial. "No, sorry." He refused, though he'd very much like to spar with Ashtail, with said dragon's wings drooping slightly in dissatisfaction. "As much as I'd like to, it's close to mating season, and I have to stay in top shape to have a chance of winning over a female...."
"Ah, what did you...?" Chester pondered for but a single moment. "...Deadly Nadder I think you call my species." Ashtail gave him a thumbs up to signify that he was correct, before smiling cheekily. "So you wanna get them bitches." She quickly frowned at her own words as Chester tilted his head in confusion. "Ehh, don't worry about what I just said, it sounded a lot better in my head. Maybe I should've worded it a little differently?"
The Deadly Nadder shrugged his shoulders—which included his wings—watching as the Titanwing Night Fury lifted up a boulder larger than herself. Ashtail had rested the boulder on her chest, using her tail to balance herself as she leaned back before she raised the boulder up and down repeatedly, changing her position between standing as she was now, and laying on her back multiple times throughout the next hour. During the beginning of this hour, Chester had decided to sit down on one of the few remaining patches of grass, switching between observing Ashtail, and the multitude of Deadly Nadders—both male and female—flying over the island after a long migration.
Though Chester knew it wasn't over yet, as this island was just a resting spot, and therefore allowing more male and female Nadders to join the flock.
Once Ashtail was done with her boulder push-ups, she dropped it to the ground before moving to an even larger boulder, standing up on her hind legs before slowly pushing it uphill, reaching the top of the hill before carefully shifting her weight and position until she was standing on her front legs, and holding the boulder's weight with her hind legs, then slowly moving back down hill. She had repeated this for another hour before stopping, moving towards a set of smaller boulders she used as targets, though that wasn't what she was about to use them for today, as her dorsal spines glowed a ferocious purple, lightning crackling along her back before spreading to the rest of her body.
And after a full minute of gathering her stored lightning, Ashtail began to focus that energy into her plasma chamber, mixing the lightning into her plasma, shaping it just as she would a plasma blast, only the front of the solidified plasma oval was more dense and there was no solidification at its end, which would allow her to pour more energy into the what would hopefully exit her maw as a beam.
A few moments later, Ashtail released her hold on her plasma beam, firing it at the boulder directly in front of her, only for the beam to sputter, the sides of the beam cracking to reveal white-blue energy. These cracks soon allowed small amounts lightning within the beam to escape, striking the ground and burning the grass to cinders before suddenly dissipating, leaving Ashtail to cough up smoke and soot right before Chester had rushed toward her, smashing his tail on a specific spot on Ashtail's back to assist him with coughing up the ball of soot that got stuck in the back of his throat.
"You alright?" The Deadly Nadder asked, worried for his friend's health with the many amounts of times this exact thing happened. Ashtail nodded. "Yeah, [inhales] I'm good." She sighed disappointedly. "I'm gonna take a break." She stated with an obvious amount of dissatisfaction in her tone, walking towards the rocky cliff, laying down on her side to watch the waves crash against the sea-stacks, a view she actually enjoyed a lot.
With a sigh escaping his maw, Chester glanced up at the sky when a shadow passed overhead, he spotted a particularly beautiful blue and yellow female Nadder among a small group of females, his gaze filled with wondrous attraction. If Ashtail were to see this specific female Deadly Nadder, she would quickly recognize her to be Stormfly, but she would also be confused. Why was she here? Where was Astrid and the other dragon riders? But those questions hadn't bothered Chester, they never even crossed his mind, how could they? Those questions were only something that would cross Ashtail's mind, but in Chester's, all he could think about was how beautiful that Nadder was, his gaze following her as she flew towards the more rocky landscape of the island. He stood up, wings splaying out in preparation for flight, before he glanced back at his enormous Night Fury companion. "Uhh, Cinder." Chester called out to get her attention, to which said dragon turned her head to face him. "Yeah?" Ashtail called back, brow raising when she noticed that the Nadder was prepared for flight.
"I'm gonna meet up with the other Spike-tails a little earlier this year." Chester stated, though Ashtail could hear the excitement in his tone, as well as see the glimmer of infatuation in his eyes, and that's not mentioning what she could smell when the wind blew in his direction. "One of the females passing by caught your attention?" Ashtail replied with a knowing smile, it soon became a smirk when she saw a light tinge of red on the Nadder's cheeks. "I gotta go now, see you later, bye!" Chester immediately flew off after rapidly saying his farewells, rushing to meet up with the flock filled with a multitude of different species of dragons earlier than he usually would due to his newly acquired interest in a specific female Deadly Nadder. Ashtail let out a series of chuckles that eventually became a soft sigh of boredom. She stayed in her spot for another half hour, watching as the afternoon sunlight reflected off the waves below, before finally getting up to continue her training a few minutes later.
(Scene break)
It was now the late afternoon of a new day, Chester—along with the large flock of dragons—had left for a rocky island near this one in the morning, with Ashtail having seen him off just before his departure, though she still hadn't noticed the familiar blue and yellow female Deadly Nadder.
As of now, the Titanwing Night Fury was sitting by the same cliff edge as yesterday, fiddling with the two saliva-covered lenses, carefully wiping away the viscous coating with her claws to keep the small artifacts as pristine as possible. A requirement of her autistic mind needing the things she collected to be as clean as possible. Yeah, she was autistic, so what?
Just as she was about to get up to start her training for the day, only to stop in her tracks when she spotted a ship of some kind on the horizon. 'What the fuck? What is a ship doing here?' Ashtail mused questioningly, eyes narrowing as she saw a symbol on the ship's sail that was foreign, yet familiar to her. Eyes widening as even more ships came into view, she immediately stood up, throwing the dragon eye lenses back into her mouth—swallowing them—before flying over to one of the sea-stacks that was closest to group of what she assumed were Dragon Hunter ships, her eyes widening in horrified disbelief at what she saw, or more accurately, who she saw.
Hiccup Haddock the fucking Third, wearing a cloak made from a Night Fury's—Toothless'— skin, reinforced by with pieces of its skeleton. How could she tell the cloak was made of such a... material? Well mostly because Toothless' skull on the mast like a fucking trophy, and the fact that almost no other dragons had such black scales.
Ashtail had also spotted Astrid walking towards Hiccup, she would say that her appearance reminded mostly the same if not for the female Viking having the tail spines of a Deadly Nadder sown to her skirt, and she'd just noticed the spine attached to the pommel of her axe as well. Ashtail then glanced over to observe another ship, spotting Fishlegs—who still looked as nervous as ever, which was surprising with the current situation—wearing armor made from a Gronckle's skin, or at least made to mimic its appearance ...hopefully, as Meatlug was such a sweetheart.
Then there was Snotlout—who was surprisingly on the same boat as the Ingerman—who had a cape similar to Stoick's, only shorter to fit his size. And she assumed it was made from a Monstrous Nightmare. 'This is so fucking bad.' She thought worriedly. 'Did they still find the Dragon Eye?' Ashtail then turned her attention back towards the ship Hiccup was on, coincidentally just as he pulled out the Dragon Eye from his cloak. "Speak of the devil and you shall receive." The Night Fury muttered under her breath, taking a brief pause to ponder. "I probably shouldn't use too many human sayings anymore, but dragons have so little compared to humans." She snorted. "Like seriously? Calling the sun the golden egg in the sky and the moon the white egg of the dark? Come on."
Ashtail's mood immediately became somber once she processed her realization. "I'm most likely the last Night Fury now." She began, her violet eyes narrowing in thought. "But I can't be certain, as this is clearly an alternate reality where Hiccup decides to kill Toothless instead of freeing him." She proceeded to sheath and unsheath her teeth, rubbing her tongue against them to remind herself just how sharp they were—not that she needed reminding when she kept them unsheathed almost 24/7–even when they were mainly for crushing her food.
"This means there's a decent probability of other Night Fury's being alive and kicking." She hummed. "More to think about later. But now, I should make my leave and warn Chester to not return to this island." Ashtail began to back up off the sea-stack, allowing herself to slide down and fall towards the sea before twisting herself upright, her body being encased with lightning as she flapped her wings hard, launching into the clouds with a small thunderclap. Ashtail's ability to use her lightning to increase his speed was not too dissimilar from the Skrill, though it didn't allow her to ride the lightning so much as it was just pulling her along with it in the direction she aimed towards.
(POV change; "Dragon Riders"?)
"Hmm?" Hiccup turned away from his conversation with Astrid at the loud sound of thunder, pocketing the Dragon Eye before pulling out a spyglass and looking through it just in time to see the residual lightning as it disappeared. "What is it?" Astrid asked, having just missed it. "It sounded like thunder, but there's no storms for miles." Hiccup glanced over his shoulder, briefly gazing into her eyes before looking away. "There aren't. But...." He paused for a moment to ponder. "I think it may have been a Skrill, fascinating really, I've seen one in the flesh once." He said. "Before it escaped from Dagur's grasp." Hiccup put his spyglass away, turning around. "We should capture it." Astrid glanced at him strangely. "Why?" He glanced at her. "So we can study it, there's not much about it in the book of dragons." He answered. "Then, after Fishlegs is done with whatever he needs to do, we kill it."
Astrid nodded, turning to the Viking who was steering the ship, raising her hand to single him to head to shore—or at least as close as possible—so they could begin searching the island, the other ships following suit soon after.
(Scene break)
The day had been going great for Chester so far, he had been able to find the beautiful female Nadder that had garnered his interest not too long after they landed at this rocky island—a condition that was near perfect for most dragons to lay their eggs. He had been lucky enough to be the first dragon to encounter her, not only that, he was also able to woo her with his mating dance—something he'd practiced profusely—he was also more than capable driving away the other male Deadly Nadders—something he should really thank Ashtail for later—which also served to prove his strength to Galeclaw, securing his position as her mate. "So, your name was Leaftail, but your friend—who you claim to be a Dark Chaser—renamed you, Chester?" Galeclaw queried, though it was mainly to confirm she had heard him correctly.
Chester nodded. "Yeah, the name just didn't feel like it fit me. And he really is a Dark Chaser." Galeclaw stared at him with a blank expression, before shrugging her wings. "That's not the strangest thing I've heard." She said with a soft smile, nuzzling her mate's cheeks against her own. Not long later, Chester perked up at a sudden whistling sound heading toward them, just barely noticing the large, yellow-striped black blur that sped overhead, before it did a U-turn back toward them at a slower speed.
"Whoo!" Ashtail exclaimed, landing on a rock formation that hung over the two dragons—it gained light cracks due to her weight—something that had garnered the attention of the other nearby dragons, including those who recognized her personally from Dragons Edge or recognized her for her species alone. "Overshot that by a bit." She said mostly to herself so she could put her mind off of the situation for a moment, shaking her head as she looked down at Chester and his mate.
She waved at them with a smile on her face, as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened on Dragons Edge. "Yo." She greeted, with Chester waving a wing in response, slightly surprised to see her here. 'Maybe she's....' His eyes widened ever so slightly. "Are you finally trying to attract a mate?" He asked, a cheeky smile on his lips that matched his slight teasing tone. "Nope." Ashtail immediately denied with a deadpan expression, jumping down in front of the Deadly Nadder, briefly glancing at Galeclaw with a confused familiarity before turning back to Chester who had already tilted his head. "Then why did you come here?" The male Nadder queried. "Because I'm kinda doubtful that you came just to chat, especially since I'm now noticing how tense you are."
"Yeah," Ashtail began, her smile flattening. "I just didn't want to worry you too much." She glanced around the general vicinity, noticing how some of the still single male dragons stared at her with curious infatuation. "Can you do me a favor and please don't go back to the island?" Chester tilted his head in confusion, if anyone else he knew had asked him this, he would have felt a little hurt and offended, but he knew that Ashtail wasn't that kind of dragon. "Why? Is there some kind of danger?" He asked.
Ashtail nodded after she turned to look at him. "You could say that." She said vaguely, not wanting to give her best friend a reason to worry. "Just... don't go back there, okay." She pleaded, turning around to walk away, only stopping to glance back at Chester with a knowing violet gaze. Chester huffed displeasingly. "Alright. I won't go back, I promise." He promised with some reluctance. "But only because you're being serious about it." Galeclaw tilted her head, quite curious at their relationship.
"It's because I care about you." Ashtail admitted. "Which isn't I can say for... well for anyone really." She sighed, somewhat disappointed at her inability to make friends, well, besides Chester obviously. Making friends is hard, for her at least, and her enormous size doesn't help much, it actually scares some of the smaller dragons away. Taking a breath, Ashtail then continued to walk away, heading towards a clearer space to take flight without any issues.
She passed by the many different species of dragons on her way to her destination—a clearing that she'd spotted as she passed over this island—with a few male dragons trying to get his attention, mainly consisting of a Deadly Nadder, a Monstrous Nightmare, and even a Skrill that had white scales covering the entirety of his left wing and leg, with a Skrill's usual dark purple scales covering the rest of his body. He also had emerald green eyes and a white stripe that was similar to a hybrid dinosaur from a movie she's watched before, yet she also noticed how it also resembled a lightning bolt. 'Strange, but he actually looks pretty cool.' Ashtail mused, before she finally decided to forcefully push everyone away with her wings.
Finally having the space, Ashtail immediately launched into the air, heading back towards Dragons Edge, using her lightning to gain a brief speed boost. The sound barrier was broken multiple times.
(Scene break)
Once the the Berkian Dragon Hunters were close enough to the island, they got on smaller boats to get to shore, a cliff side beach that would be very recognizable to Ashtail had she been there. Hitting the sand. Both Hiccup and Astrid were the first to hit the shore, immediately getting off their boat, the light sound of the sand compacting under their boots as they walked towards the cliff. "Over there." Astrid said as she pointed toward a steep slope that went up the cliff.
Hiccup hummed, pondering for but a moment. "You think it's stable enough to climb?" He asked, glancing back toward his crew as Snotlout and Fishlegs walked toward him and Astrid, with the twins tripping over each other when they stepped onto the sand. "Oof." Tuffnut grunted, standing up just before his sister head butted him, knocking him back onto the wet sand. "Watch where you're going, idiot!" Ruffnut kicked his helmet off, knocking off one of the poorly attached Zippleback horns.
Tuffnut stood up once more, lips curling down into a frown at the state of his helmet. "My helmet." He moved to grab the helmet, placing it on his head. "Look what you did." He lightly glared at his sibling. "Now how am I supposed to look as threatening to my enemies?" He asked rhetorically, about to continue only to be shut down by a glare from Hiccup. "Focus, you two." Hiccup ordered.
However, just as he was about to say more, a whistling sound was suddenly heard from the sky, a sound that was extremely familiar to the Berkian Dragon Hunters.
"Night Fury!"
"Get down!"
A large plasma blast dropped from the sky at high speeds as a large, grey blur sped by a moment after, the bolt of plasma tearing through the hull of the main water vessel; Hiccup ship, causing it to sink into the ocean.
(Scene change)
Her chest rumbling in response to her stifled laughter, Ashtail shifted her wings just enough to allow herself to be caught by the wind, slowing herself down before she twisted and turned, entering a dive-bomb to sink a second ship. "Abandon ship!" Vikings quickly rushed to get off the boat, whether it be jumping into the smaller boats or diving into the water. Those unfortunate few to have not been fast enough to escape were killed, or badly injured if they were lucky.
Ashtail landed behind what would've been the Dragon Riders had the events of this world gone the same as her memories, violet eyes narrowing into slits as they turned to face her from watching two of their ships sink. "Oh, Thor." Fishlegs whimpered nervously, the only one of the 7 Vikings to voice their shock at the female Night Fury's massive size.
"Uhh, Hiccup." Tuffnut began, his disbelieving gaze aimed toward the Titanwing dragon. "I am not the only one seeing a very large Night Fury in front of us?" He asked, to which Hiccup shook his head, slowly pulling his sword out from under his cloak, earning a loud snarl from Ashtail. "No, Tuffnut, you are not." The heir of the throne of Berk replied.
Ashtail wordlessly growled—not that they would understand her—the dark violet light of her plasma filled her maw, a clear sign that she was ready for a fight. The near silent whistle of an arrow sounded out, hitting Ashtail in her left shoulder. It was sudden, leaving her no time to react and unfortunately causing her to lose hold of her plasma, which had dissolved into smoke leaving her coughing.
Taking advantage of the situation, Hiccup struck first with his sword, the blade cutting into the Night Fury's chest, leaving a long cut that drew blood. Ashtail hissed at the pain, taking a swipe at him with her claws that knocked the sword out of his grasp, before attempting to take a bite out of his arm only for him to dodge by rolling backwards. Hiccup briefly turned to the others. "Astrid, gather any able Vikings who can shoot a bow." Astrid nodded, immediately turning to do as he said. Ashtail could have shot her down here and now, faster than any of them could react... but she hesitated, her right pupil widening into a circular shape as her left thinned into a line. 'Why won't I kill them?! It'd be so god damned easy!'
'Because I'm not sure if their personalities are different, or if they're the same people who just made different decisions.' Ashtail's ear nubs twitched right before she ducked her head down to dodge an arrow that whizzed over her head, nearly hitting Ruffnut. "Hey! Watch it!" Ashtail ignored her cries to block a volley of arrows with her left wing, using the other to knock Ruffnut away, who had rushed at her with a spear whilst her brother came at her with a mace. Ashtail tripped him with her tail, careful as to not truly harm him... no matter how much a certain part of her wants to.
Plasma flowed into her maw, the sextet of humans tensing as they got ready to dodge should she aim towards them, something that was for nought as Ashtail's ear nubs began twitching before she swiftly turned toward the hidden archers and shot at them, setting the area ablaze. Her right eye slitted thin when Snotlout nearly cut the eye out with his axe when she had turned to face them. She'd dodged the surprise attack with ease, and of course, she hadn't let Snotlout get off so easily as she instinctively took a swipe of her claws at his face, definitely having sliced one of his eyes open.
Ashtail roared in his face, emitting waves of echolocating plasma that served to make his ears bleed at the high pitch and forcing the others to cover their ears lest they share the same fate. Both pupils widened into ovals as she calmed slightly, seeing as they were temporarily incapacitated, Ashtail took the opportunity to take out any remaining archers. Regaining his bearings, Hiccup took notice of the Night Fury attacking his men, and quickly grabbed the bow and arrow off of Ruffnut's back, pulling and releasing the string in quick succession.
Ashtail let out a loud roar of pain as the arrow lodged itself into her thigh, she had been fighting Astrid by this point, so when the Viking had taken a swing at her with her axe, Ashtail had instinctively bitten down on Astrid's right hand and forearm, forcing her to drop her weapon in favor of screaming in excruciating pain as the Night Fury's teeth crushed her bones and tore through her flesh.
Her screams only encouraged Ashtail to bite down harder, completely rendering Astrid's hand useless. 'Kill her!" Ashtail mentally ordered herself as her pupils slitted into thin lines, plasma flowing into her throat before suddenly dissipating when Ashtail threw Astrid towards her fellow Vikings, pupils returning to normal. 'No.' The Night Fury decided, reigning in her draconic side. 'Not yet, not now.' She mentally growled. 'They probably didn't get the chance to truly change their ways, this version of Haddock probably felt more pressured than the original for him to do what he did.' She mused, trying to somewhat justify their actions yet no longer acknowledging Hiccup's first name.
'Haddock' rushed to get Astrid away from the dragon, dragging her back toward the others with one hand whilst pointing a small crossbow aimed towards Ashtail in the other. This earned a furious growl from the Night Fury, lightning beginning to violently crackle around her body. Seeing the weapon reminded her of one Grimmel the Grizzly, it frankly pissed her the fuck off seeing Haddock use a crossbow like the esteemed "Night Fury Killer". She huffed with disgust. 'To think....' Ashtail's musings suddenly froze in their tracks, a glimmer realization in her violet eyes. 'Is that why he killed Toothless? Because this time Hiccup—and therefore, Berk—heard some sort of news about Grimmel killing a Night Fury, giving Haddock the confidence to kill Toothless, instead of being too nervous about killing his first dragon and releasing Toothless.' She theorized.
'Or perhaps, Stoick simply believed his son when he mentioned shooting down a Night Fury.' She slammed a paw against the ground in frustration. "Ugh!" Unfortunately, this action had instigated Haddock to pull the trigger, fortunately for Ashtail, she immediately noticed his action before the arrow and immediately sent out a powerful pulse of lightning that turned everything around her to ash, leaving only a smoldering hot—and slightly melted—metal arrow tip.
The remaining Dragon Hunters stared at the Monstrously sized Night Fury in horror at her display, the fodder—as Ashtail was beginning to call the unnamed Hunters—sprinting towards the only ship left standing as the "Dragon Riders" remained in complete shock. Ashtail snarled—snapping a few of them out of their shock—before letting a loud, fearsome roar that was only enhanced by the lightning that surrounded her body.
To Haddock and his friends, her roar felt like it made the earth shake—metaphorically of course—he handed Astrid over to Fishlegs, who easily lifted her over his shoulder before slowly heading towards the ship. Haddock briefly glanced back at Snotlout, Tuffnut and Ruffnut. "Follow Fishlegs' lead, and head towards the ship slowly." He said, mentally pleading that they'd listen and not do anything stupid or insane. He looked up into the dragon's violet eyes, its size alone was monstrous, but the biggest dragon he's ever seen. He had to kill this dra-beast, no matter how long it took. 'I have to kill it... just like the last one.' Haddock mentally persuaded himself, only to freeze his pace when the Night Fury's growling increased.
Ashtail warily stepped closer to Haddock, firing two plasma blasts in quick succession at Snotlout and the Twins, forcing them to be separated from their leader. Haddock wasn't fast enough to get away before Ashtail roughly pushed him off his feet, pinning him to the ground before using her free paw to search his person for the Dragon Eye. She ripped the artifact from his grasp as he feebly attempted to take it back, tightening her grip on the Dragon Eye before finally taking to the sky in a random direction—north—so that she wouldn't lead the hunters to the hatchery if they followed her.
(End)
(Scrapped fight scene cause why not)
jumping back before rapidly turning her body 360 degrees for a powerful tail whip that Hiccup was unable to dodge in time, shattering his lower left leg. "Agh!" She didn't bother to pay much attention to Astrid, allowing her to check on her leader whilst the Night Fury pulled the arrow out before quickly using her wings to deflect some more.
She shot a plasma bolt at the hunters with the bows and arrows, uncaring whether she killed them or not as she was far too busy punching—yes, punching—the Thorston twins in their face when they had recklessly charged at her with a mace and spear respectively. Ashtail glared at the two remaining "Dragon Riders", scaring Fishlegs shitless as he backed away with a whimper. Snotlout, however, snorted at the big boned Viking's fearfulness. "You're such a wimp, Fish-face." He insulted, not even noticing that Ashtail had stood on her hind legs, lightning crackling around her body as her maw glowed a bright blue, yet did not make the sound that would come from the normal plasma blast. No, this sound was too high a pitch for humans to hear. "Watch how it's—."
"Snotlout, look out!" Fishlegs was too slow to notice and warn just fellow Viking about the very clear danger before Ashtail a plasma beam directly into Snotlout's face as he turned to face her. A thump sounded out—along with Fishlegs' screams—as Snotlout fell dead to the floor, his head... well that will be left to your imagination. Ashtail grunted lightly when she felt someone jump onto her back, a idiotic decision by Tuffnut, as the Night Fury simply let herself fall backwards, crushing him under her weight.
Quickly getting up, she grabbed the Viking by his head, thin slits watching as he squirmed in her tightening grip. Ashtail snarled a hiss. "Stop squirming." She clenched her paw, sharp claws slicing into Tuffnut's fragile human skin before snapping his neck, releasing her hold to allow the corpse to drop to the ground.
Ashtail shook her head, her pupils widening back into ovals as she stared down at what she'd just done. She killed humans, not just any humans, two humans who were supposed to be defenders of dragon kind. Yet... they weren't, they came here to hunt dragons, not save and protect them from hunters, they were not Dragon Riders.
"Argh!"
[HISS!]
Ashtail's pupils became to slits as Astrid attacked her whilst she was distracted, her axe cutting into the side of her neck, but luckily not deep enough to cause any fatal damage for the Night Fury. Ashtail grabbed Astrid's arm, snapping it in the opposite direction before throwing her into Fishlegs who had only recently come over his fear to save what remained of his friends.
Breathing heavily, Ashtail was finally able to properly take everything in, but only her right pupil widened to an oval whilst the other remained a thin slit. She exhaled, not of exhaustion, but of the fact that her previous view on this world was broken. Eyeing Fishlegs, who was tending to Astrid's arm, not taking his eyes off the dragon, Ashtail moved toward "Hiccup", who had just recently regained consciousness. "Uh, what—oof!" A paw pinned him to the ground.
Ashtail stared down at him, gazing directly into his eyes as conflicting thoughts clashed within her mind.
'I shouldn't kill him.' Her right pupil widened slightly into a more circular shape.
'But I already killed two, what's one more? Or the rest?' Her left pupil thinned further into a line. 'I was right to begin with.'
'But so was I.' Her human self mused to her draconic self. 'But things are clearly different, this world is different, his choice was different.' Ashtail glanced at Hiccup's broken leg, before her gaze shifted towards his arm. 'Then I suppose a compromise is in order, hmm?' Her draconic self hummed knowingly. Ashtail audibly chuckled as both her pupils evened out into oval slits when she felt Hiccup grab her arm with his right hand in a feeble attempt to lift it off him.
"Yes, a compromise indeed." Ashtail said her conclusion aloud—her internal conflict ceasing as though it never happened—lifting her arm off Hiccup only to snatch it in her paw a moment after, using his own arm to lift him up to her head. She growled, clenching her fist, smiling sickly at the sound cracking bones before letting him stand on his own feet, ignoring his screams. Faster than Hiccup could react, Ashtail snapped her jaws on his forearm, her teeth crunching bone as she yanked his arm to her right, charging her plasma as she ripped it off to cauterize the wound.
A mercy she did not have to grant, yet she had.
She spat the severed arm out of her mouth with disgust, not just at the thought of she tasted human flesh and blood, but also at the fact that it tasted horrendously horrible. She paused for a moment. '...Those two words probably meant the same thing.' She briefly deadpanned, before looking down at Haddock with a sneer, before glancing at her surroundings. Ashtail felt strangely pleased with herself, though she supposed that would happen when both her... personas had merged into one.
Just as she was about to launch into the air, uncaring that she was stepping on Haddock's left leg, her eyes suddenly gleamed with the realization that she almost forgot about the Dragon Eye, which was currently in the possession of the Viking under her paw. It hadn't taken her long to rummage through his cloak to find what she was looking for,
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{Notes}
Well, it's finally finished. This took so much longer than it should have, but I've been dealing with life, like finding out one of my medications may be negatively affecting my eyes, writes block, one of the causes of it being me overthinking and worrying about a bunch of stuff that's happening which partially involves my money, and how I will make my own.
I'm just going to try and apply what my dad told me when we were talking about what I would do to make money (I am being vague about what it is because it's private) and that is to not worry too much about it and to not over think it (or to try not to at least)
What's crazy is I had a whole thing thought out explaining this in greater detail and I just forgot it. I'm honestly starting to think I knocked something loose in my head with how terrible my memory is.
[credits]
Anyway sorry it took so long, but if you see any mistakes please let me know, I had rewritten the beginning to fit in Ashtail, who was originally Cinderwing (and is just a female version of him) if you took notice of a specific Skrill that was mentioned, that was Sol (genderbent Lua) these two spawned in the very same scene where Sol appears, where I was originally going to have an inverted color palette version of Lua, and whilst I don't remember off the top of my head, I told Moonie/Starfall about it (I think she read over it) and then I think she sprung the idea to draw them, and I then I thought; fuck it, I'll just rewrite what I currently had written to fit in Ashtail.
I do feel like she does fit in better than Cinder did.
Oh, and if you're wondering why I put [credits] above, it's because I most likely wouldn't have ever written this fic if Moonie hadn't encouraged me to do so (definitely not with a hammer) that and she essentially gave me a good chunk of the basis for this chapter. (Like above 40%) not to mention that there's still one more thing she suggested (at this moment) that will be added in future chapters.
So, yeah, thank you very much MoonRUSh_ StarfallRUSh_ For your help
Here's art all made by Moonie
Because why not, dare I say why not.
If you haven't read her httyd fic the white Skrill Lua, and the blue one at the bottom is Sol. [comment section, it'll take me a while]