Welcome to my very first collaboration story ever! I and Absi B will take turns posting chapters, to which you can identify from the start of every chapter. The artwork is by Absi B, and I have my eternal thanks for her for finally letting me use (someone's) original artwork for my story.

Enjoy! This is LesserWraith's chapter.

Toothless is the best friend I've ever had.

He's been with me through the days dark and light, sad and happy, boring and fun.

I've never really admitted it, but I'd do anything to just make sure he's happy in life.

He's made mine one of the best, after all.

So you might be a little surprised that he's not by my side now. Well, I did say days. I didn't mean minutes. If he was next to me all the time, including when I was doing my more personal things… that would be awkward. You can get close, but you can never get too close, no? Otherwise, you'd just push each other away with all that awkwardness.

Needless to say, he's making our bond stronger by leaving me alone for a while.

He's out in the forest, doing this that dragons would normally do when they're curious of something: explore. He told me that he'd bring me something back, but hey, I'm not counting on much. Last time he went into the place to explore like this, I got a rock.

So I'm just standing here, by back to a log in the dense forestation, where my two feet cannot betray me, drawing a picture of you-know-who.

I've drawn so many pictures of Toothless before. Back in the days when we weren't friends yet, I examined him from a distance as he lived in the cove and tried to find a way out. It was one of my first pictures that motivated me to change the missing tailfin on both Toothless and the picture. After that, I studied his flying positions and how he ran, jumped, and slept. I'm not sure if Toothless even knows that I sketch him when he's eating.

I'm kinda crazy about that dragon. It's not often that you find a friendship stronger than love, even though you're only friends. I doubt that Astrid would care for me half of what Toothless does. She obviously likes to hurt me too, which is something Toothless has never done (on purpose).

I finish a sketch of him in the air, breathing fire into the air, and quickly turn the page. It's kind of cool that I know Toothless so well that I can draw him from memory, but I still like the real deal better. The real guy purrs and snorts and warbles when he's stationary, and likes to look up to the sky a lot. The real guy runs around me and chases his tail just for the fun of it.

I begin drawing a picture of Toothless on the ground, his paws scratching at the dirt, digging for something below. To people, it would just look like any ordinary patch of land, but to dragons, there's usually something below the ordinary. And, more than often, there is.

I listen to the birds as they sing their songs from above. What are they trying to say, really? Their melodic chirps and happy caws could be killing insults for all we know. Toothless likes to point out that they're just trying to communicate to each other, but what are they saying?

I wonder if birds have the same opinions and our nonsense talking as well.

Toothless is a creature full of inner flame. His conscience can make the impossible possible. However, it can only be triggered by a very emotional event that sets off his flames. After our first test flight, his inner flame granted him the ability to speak to me from his mind. A day after Toothless saw the new prosthetic, the result of the fight with the Red Death, he tore off the prosthetic and healed my leg. He fainted after that from the excessive use of inner flame, but he said that it was 'worth it'.

What he never decided to heal, though, was his tailfin. Every time I asked why, he'd say the same thing. He would rather be on the ground with me than in the sky alone. I told him, of course, that he could still be by my side with a healed tailfin anyway, but he shook his head and said that he 'liked the way I controlled a part of him whenever we flew.' I rolled my eyes after that, but his point remained the same. He wasn't getting healing himself anytime soon.

After a few finishing touches, I turn to the last page of the notebook. I have about five filled notebooks now, and this will go to its collection once it's done.

An ending picture has the most powerful impact on people, especially when there are no words to accompany it.

So I begin to draw again.

Toothless is flying in the air with me in this picture. His eyes are slit in determination, his wings outstretched as we shoot through rings upon rings of rocks that pose no challenge to us at all. My head is held low to protect myself from the wind that comes with the supersonic speed that Toothless creates with his powerful wings, white lines forming at the edge of his wings as he slowly and slowly accelerates into the speeds uncharted for.

He's the fastest dragon on Berk.

He's the best dragon in the world.

Has anyone ever thought how far we've come? Just a few months ago, we were mortal enemies, sworn on killing and taking revenging on the other, and with the strangest and strongest events ever, we went from archenemies to friend to best friend to super best friend.

Hey, not even Stormfly and Astrid are this close. Will they ever be?

The birds fall silent for a second. It's like they're sending out some kind of warning.

"What-" I begin, but I never finish the sentence, for a ripping screech fills my ears the second I open my mouth.

A ripping screech that sounds horribly familiar. A dragon's screech. Of pain.

"Toothless!" I yell, taking off towards the source of the noise.

I run through the trees as fast as I can, trying to ignore the increasing pain coming from my heart. I always feel as hurt as he is, and possibly more. My mind is focused to only one thing, and that's Toothless's scream.

What happened?

Is he hurt? Is he in trouble?

I'll never forgive myself if that happens. He's… no way.

I spot Toothless in a clearing not far away, his body slumped on the ground, motionless.

"Toothless!" I yell, running towards him He doesn't answer.

"Oh, Toothless… no..." I say, inspecting his wounds and touching his snout to know that I'm here.

His leg bleeding badly with red, warm blood, one of his wings ripped in a horribly misshapen way, his prosthetic lying a few meters away from him, utterly destroyed and useless. I can tell, by the way he's slumped like that, that there's a huge wound in his belly as well.

"Toothless!" I say, looking around for something to stop his bleedings. Apart from my clothes, there's nothing else that looks like it'll be able to hold those cuts together.

Hiccup? Toothless asks, opening one of his eyes weakly. He lets out another painful scream as the blood continues to flow out of him from several locations.

"Toothless! Stay with me!" I say, looking at him with affixed determination. "What the hell happened here?!"

Toothless looks at me sadly. I was digging and I accidentally set off a trap that was buried underneath. I'm sorry, Hiccup.

My eyes widen in shock. I'm already taking off my shirt and wiping the blood from his leg. It soaks up in no time, and seeps right through the fibre as if it was air. This is not going to hold.

Stop it. I know when I'm a goner, Hiccup. I can't even move my tail anymore.

"No!" I say, casting my shirt aside and pressing my boots against his wound. It's no use. He's losing too much blood, and too fast. If he's lucky, he'll get at least another ten minutes before he gets no more.

Hiccup, go. I don't want you to see me die.

"NO!" I yell, turning my head frantically in search of anything that will soothe his pain. "You're not going to die! You're not going to leave me alone!"

Another scream from him as his wing's wounds open up, blood coating his entire wing in seconds.

I'm sorry I can't be there for you. I swore to protect you all your life, and… I'm sorry.

"You. Are. Not. DYING!" I scream right back, grabbing a huge leaf and madly trying to scrape the blood away. The more I do, though, the more floods right out. I rub my head in frustration and anger.

Hiccup, he says. I only have enough internal flame for one more wish. I want you to use it wisely. It will probably destroy any memory that I have left of you, but I'm going to die anyway. Best that you get it.

"NO!"

His eyelids begin to fade. He's close.

No.

No.

No.

Toothless is NOT going to die!

A vivid idea pops into my mind at the last second, my mind racing to find reason, but there is none in the mixture of confusion and fear that consumes my mind, forcing me to do one final thing that I'll never, ever, forget.

"Toothless. I've got my wish," I say quickly. With extreme pain, he manages to smile.

What.. is it? he says quietly. His voice is fading already, but he manages to open his mouth and let a blue fire hover out, his dying wish and final memory of me now in front of me.

I look at it, and speak to it as softly as I would with Toothless.

"I want you to live."

Both of Toothless's eyes open wide at these words, the flame beginning to engulf his body with this 'final' wish of his.

He will be healed, but he will not know me.

No! he yells angrily. The fire continues to spread. I can't live not knowing you anymore!

"You're going to lose all memory of me, anyway," I say grimly. "What's the point?"

He roars as the flame takes more than half of his body over, the miracles to happen as soon as the fire covers all of him.

I'll become a rogue dragon again! he yells, the flame taking more and more of his body. I might even kill you on sight!

"I know, Toothless," I say, tears beginning to fall from my eyes. "That's why you're not going to see me around anymore."

But- but- his voice is close to cracking.

The flames are nearly done completing their job.

"You'll be free again, Toothless. You'll get to live in the sky, eat as much fish as you want, have fun with new dragons and maybe even find a mate," I say, forcing myself to stay together. "You're going to live your life to the fullest."

I- he says, speechless.

"This is my wish, Toothless. With or without me, you will live."

Hiccup- he begins. I touch his snout once, and he falls silent, his eyes mixed between gratitude and anger. The flames finally take over him, forcing his eyes to close and forget me forever.

I face the best friend in the world one last time.

"I'll miss you, Toothless," I whisper.

I turn around and run as fast as I can, not wanting to be seen when the new Toothless opens his eyes to the world.

To the world without me.

T

Toothless's wounds heal incredibly fast under this Night Fury coma. The blood from his wings disappear and are replaced with new, strong scales. His leg's skin is patched up quickly as the new scales form from the scales nearby, climbing up steadily and filling up the once gaping hole that once was overflowing with blood. The tailfin that was once lost from my shooting slowly regrows, new muscles working their up into the air where the tailfin should be, to where the tailfin should be. When the flames die down, he looks like a true Night Fury.

He looks just like Toothless.

And I hope that he will find me again someday, for no other dragon will ever be as great of a friend as him.

Ever.

L/N: The next chapter will belong to Absi B! I feel so happy being able to collaborate and all.