Toothless had convinced me to take a break from writing out invitations. "Come on, Paint," he'd said. "You can take a little break from drawing to go on a walk with me, can't you? Besides, I have a surprise for you..."

I wanted to ask what the surprise was, but I ignored the feeling and gave in, following Toothless out of the cave.

He'd pretty much gained control of his solo flying, opening his dorsal spines and making tight turns to cut me off and bug me. We landed in a small deciduous forest outside of Berk and meandered through it, the autumn leaves falling atop my head. We walked for a while, and came to a clearing. Toothless sat down and took a deep breath in, closing his eyes and savoring the crisp air. I did the same. Together we sat in blissful silence.

Then Toothless reached around and pulled out a beautiful necklace. It wasn't glamorous; just a simple circle of soft, brown suede that wrapped around a gleaming green, blue, and purple river rock and came back again four times, making it look like the necklace had four strands of leather instead of one. But I loved it. Toothless walked around to my front and held the necklace in his paws. They were shaking slightly, and Toothless's cheeks were a light pink. "Paintsplash," he said shakily, "I know we haven't been together very long, but you know the depth of my feelings for you. You've helped me through my guilt of killing Stoick, you've encouraged me through tough times, you have never doubted me. You love me for me, and you've never judged me falsely. You've supported me, stood up for me, and told me when I was wrong."

I put my paws over my mouth, tears welling up in my eyes. "Toothless," I whispered, "are you...?"

He took a deep breath and continued. "You've brought new meaning for living each day, and, even though Hiccup has been my best friend and will always be, you're much more than any best friend to me. I wake up each morning just to see you, Paint. Your smile brings light, and without it, I'm miserable. Listen, I wanna spend the rest of my life with you, Paintsplash." I began to nod, slowly at first, but faster and more eager as Toothless continued. "Will...will you marry me?"

"Yes," I said, sobbing joyfully. "Yes, yesyesyesYES!" I flung myself at him and wrapped my wings around him, crying happily into his chest. He laughed and hugged me. He slipped the necklace over my head, and then tilted my chin up, smiling affectionately into my eyes.

"I love you, Paintsplash."

"I love you, too." I looked down at the necklace.. "So...this is like a wedding ring, only for dragons?"

Toothless gave me an unsure grin. "Umm," he said, "I don't know what a wedding ring is, but, I'd assume so, yes."

"Oh. Then where's yours? Your necklace, I mean."

"Eh, I'll get it when we get married." He grinned at me. I smiled back. I was finally even with Summer.

----

We'd been strolling along for an hour, and suddenly a big ball of blue crashed through the trees and landed in front of us. For a moment, I thought the sky was falling. Then I realized it was a dragon. Ah, a dragoness, to be exact. She was ocean blue with lighter turquoise spots that glowed and flashed as she cursed. She had gills running down the length of her thick neck, and webbed claws. Her tail was thick and muscular. A scar was faint on her left wing, and a hole was ripped through it; the hole was scarred, though, so it must've been an old wound. As she shook herself out, muttering curses in a foriegn variation of dragonspeak, I realized she looked almost exactly like a Night Fury...except, she had no spines, anatomical changes suited for aquatic life, and tailfins that were round, like a whale's fluke. Two more fins ran alon either side of her tail, stopping just before the primary fins.

The dragon shook her head and sat up. Her bright, glowing blue eyes locked with Toothless's. "Orca?" he whispered in awe.

"Toothless?" the dragoness replied in terrestrial dragonspeak, her eyes wide. Then she ran up and hugged Toothless, who blushed awkwardly.

I felt jealousy rising up inside me, and the look I gave Toothless must have been harsher than I anticipated, for he mouthed: It's not what you think, Paint. Toothless pulled out of the hug and smiled nervously at Orca. "How'd you end up here?" he queried. Orca shrugged.

"Ah, you know...just the occasional...difficulties with my wing...." She looked at me. "Who's this?" she asked cheerfully.

"I'm Paintsplash," I answered a little too quickly. Toothless glanced at me. "I'm his fiance."

"Oh, wonderful!" Orca smiled at me, and I realized it was sincere. "Glad old Toothy here got himself a girlfriend, and a future mate, no less! How long have you been engaged?"

Toothless laughed. "Like...an hour.....?" Orca laughed as well. I looked at Toothless.

"You guys old friends or something?" I asked. Toothless nodded.

"Yeah. About...I don't know, five, almost six years ago. She showed up here one day--"

"I'd been hit by lightning in a storm," Orca put in. She extended her wing. "The lightning put a hole through my wing, and then I crashed into a tree, breaking that same wing. I kinda got hung up in the tree that night. Woke up clinging to a tree branch."

Toothless nodded. "Yup," he confirmed. "Me and Stormfly found her, and startled her on accident...she fell out of the tree. Anyway, I'm not going to go into detail. Basically, Orca was here for about four months, and then she left after we captured some rogue dragonets--one of whom stole one of Ugg's black socks. Ugg wanted it back desperately (you know how crazy he is), so Hiccup sent Orca on an expedition to find it after the dragonets escaped. One of them turned out to be Orca's sister, Wave."

"Yeah," Orca said excitedly. "Oh my gods, Toothless! You have no idea the crazy adventures I've been on! Wave and I, and those other four dragonets, oh my, it was AMAZING! Granted, we sorta...got in a bit of trouble, but those guys are awesome! They're like family to me now. There's Wave, Ocean (she scares me...she spits lightning, and you know how I am with lightning), Algae--he's so smart, constantly spouting off facts...he's like Fishlegs--, Reed, the one who took Ugg's sock and named it Bob, and then there's Coral. She's obsessed with color." Orca made a gesture similar to jazz-hands, feigning an enthusiastic expression. Toothless laughed.

"Orca hates lightning, Paintsplash...even though she can use it to her aid." He looked at her. "See, first she gets hit by lightning and crashes into a tree. Then Hiccup nearly got killed by a Skrill--"

"NO MORE!" This time, Orca seemed thoroughly disturbed. She obviously didn't like to remember the incident.

I smiled at Orca. "Well, if you need any consoling about things you don't like to remember, tell me. I'd be happy to help."