"Wait dad!"

The black dragon paused, the gas in his throat vanished, and glanced back at the source. Toothless looked too. It was Sea-breeze, who was the source of the call.

"Honey, you know the rules," He said softly to her, then whipped his gaze back to stare at Toothless. "We don't tolerate intruders."

"Dad, dad, please," Sea-breeze pleaded.

"Stay out of this, Sea-breeze," The large nightfury said more firmly. He dug his talons harder against his scales as Toothless tried to squirm away.

"Dad-"

"Sea-breeze stay out of this!" He roared at her and Sea-breeze recoiled. In that moment, the larger dragon had loosened his grip on Toothless, allowing him to throw the big dragon off of him. The dragon snarled and opened his mouth and gas formed in his throat. Toothless froze in fear. The dragon pulled his head up blast but there was flash of black that jumped in front of Toothless. It was Sea-breeze. "Dad, no!"

Toothless slowly peered over Sea-breeze's wing to look at the enemy dragon, who, apparently was Sea-breeze's dad, had a shocked look on his face. "Sea-breeze get out of the way," He hissed at her, lunging to the left side of Sea-breeze so he could get to Toothless. But Sea-breeze spread her left wing, blocking his path. "I won't let you hurt him," she bared her teeth at him.

A flash of anger sparked in the dragon's green eyes. "ENOUGH! Sea-breeze, stand down! Now," He snarled out the last word slowly.

"No, dad!" Sea-breeze cried out. "He's not an intruder! I brought him here!"

The nightfury straightened up and took a step back, shocked and flabbergasted. "What? Sea-breeze why?" The dragon inquired.

Sea-breeze sighed and folded her wings once again. "While on patrol, I found him flying around. So I brought him back, thinking he could help us," Sea-breeze explained, her ear panels down and she didn't look at her dad. "I'm sorry."

Toothless lowered his head sheepishly. "I should go," He started to edge away, But was stopped by the large dragon's wing.

"No," was all the dragon said and Toothless stayed where he was. The dragon studied him closely. "You are Toothless, correct?"

Toothless nodded slowly, a little stunned that he had known his name.

The dragon continued. "I am Shadow-Strike, and this my tribe," pauses and glances around before adding, "Well, what's left of my tribe."

Shadow-strike nods to the other dragon that had come with him. "That is Night-Screech."

The dragon studied Toothless for a sec, then gives him a small nod. Toothless regarded Night-screech closely. He appeared to have something in his mouth but Toothless couldn't tell what it was exactly. But he couldn't linger on the thought for long because Shadow-strike continued talking. "I see you are wondering why you are here. If my daughter," Nodded to Sea-breeze. "Hadn't already told you, one of our own, Winter is his name, is lost. And since we aren't to familiar with these lands, we need a guide, like you."

"I would love help... but there is something really important I must find..." Toothless trailed off, feeling very awkward.

Shadow-strike smiled warmly and folded both his wings."Well, I think may have something you are interested in. Night-screech?" Shadow glanced at the dragon who had come back with Shadow-strike. Night-screech stepped forward and dropped whatever he had in his mouth. It only took a second for Toothless to recognize what exactly the item was. And when he did, it made him gasp.

It was Hiccup's viking helmet!

"Where did you find it?" Toothless gaped.

Night-screech paused for a few moments before he cleared his throat and replied, "Me and my father, Shadow-strike were on patrol when we saw you and your human flying together in the dragon migration. When I saw that the thing your human had been wearing get knocked off by a dragon's wing, I dove down into the ocean to recover it but by the time I grabbed it and flew back up, everyone besides Shadow-strike was gone. So we came back here to the cave.

"When we came back, we briefly explained what had happened while we were on patrol, and then Sea-breeze went out hunting. Soon after, Me and Shadow-strike left again on another search party. And then here we are," Night-screech finished, and took a few deep breaths.

Shadow-strike frowned at Toothless, "Sorry for attacking you, I thought you were someone else and I have
become very protective of my clan, on account of all that we-"nodded to the other dragons in the cave.
"-have been through these past few years."

Toothless nodded. "I understand. I would have done the same to protect Hiccup."

"Hiccup? Is that your human?" Sage-fruit asked, her eyes sparkling in interest.

Toothless nodded. "Yes. He made this so I can fly solo," Toothless lifted his tail so they could see the prosthetic tailfin. The tailfin was folded, since he wasn't flying.

"What does it do?How does it work?" Dusk-fall wondered.

"Look," Toothless answered and slowly opened his right tailfin, the left tailfin opening in unison. He opened and closed it few more times, and Leaping-fish jumped in alarm while Dusk-fall's eyes widened.

"That is so cool!" Sage-fruit said with awe.

"I wonder how it was made," Dusk-fall marveled.

Toothless shrugged. "I don't know. Before this, I would be able to fly by Hiccup open the tailfin by using cords that attached to pedals So that when he moved his feet a certain way, the tailfin would open," Toothless explained and lowered his tail.

Leaping-fish walked over to Toothless's tail and examined his tailfins. She gently pulled his right tailfin open with her claws and watched as the prosthetic tailfin opened as well. She ran one claw along the gold bar that was clamped on Toothless's tailfin. "It's this."

Toothless twisted his head around to look at Leaping-fish. "What do you mean 'it's this'? And what are you doing with my tailfins?"

"This long stick thingy. When it's pulled open, the pros-whatsit opens. Since the bar is attached to your other tailfin, they will both open at the same time. I think," Leaping-fish replied, smiling.

Dusk-fall tipped his head, clearly confused. "What?"

"You're going to want disguise the gold parts," Night-screech pointed out. "The gold portion sticks out like a white night terror."

Toothless was about to ask what a Night terror was but then Sage-fruit spoke up. "I have some blackberries back with my herbs. I could try and mix a dye to blend it with your scales."

Toothless dipped his head. "Thank you."

Shadow-strike shuffled his wings and placed a paw on Hiccup's helmet. "Ok. now that we are formally acquainted, let us get down to business, shall we?"

Toothless tilted his head. "Exactly what type of business."

"Negotiation," Shadow-strike replies and holds up the helmet. "You help us, and we give you the helmet and you're free to go."

"You mean I can't just leave now?"

"You can, but you won't get the helmet."

Toothless didn't even hesitate. "I'll do it."

Sea-breeze raise a scaly brow. "Are you sur-"

Shadow-strike puts the helmet down and clasped his front claws together. "Splendid!"

Toothless looked over to Shadow-strike. "So what am I doing?"

Shadow-strike sighed. "Our youngest, Winter, has gone missing. We were just passing through when a snowstorm hit a few days ago. So we took refuge in this cave. We all went to sleep to wait out the storm. But when we woke up, Winter was gone. And have been desperately looking for him but we still can't find him."

"So that's where you come in," Night-screech picked up. "Since you have lived around here for quite a little bit, You're going to help us."

"Since you the terrain so well," Sage-fruit added.

Toothless nodded. "Well, why don't we start by going to where you guys previously looked and we can go from there."

"Good idea," Shadow-strike said, and turned to Sage-fruit. "Take Toothless and fix up his tail mechanism."