Arrow Lake Fight the break of dawn

It sensed, more than saw or heard, movement and paused, cringing expectantly. When no blows rained down upon its head, it slowly arched its neck to look upward, lemon-lime eyes rolling slightly with fear. The hulking she-wolf stood right above it, then moved to sniff at Toothless's body. A great quiver stole over its small form and it remained very still in the hope that it would remain uninjured just as long as it stayed still.

Every time the female's nose came close to it, Toothless flinched as if pinched, and at times felt so overwhelmed that it let its head sink to the ground in utter defeat. When the she-wolf eventually stepped aside, it felt a sliver of hope and nearly bolted. However, she remained close, standing just a foot away, so Toothless knew it would never make it. It had no choice but to lie there and wait for whatever was to come.

To make matters worse, the sun had risen during the course of this unwilling confrontation. Toothless hated being out in the light, where it would be exposed. During the day, it could be spotted and overtaken much more easily. Although it no longer recollected specific events from its previous life—such as instances where members of its "family" often used Toothless like a plaything, torturing and otherwise abusing it—it nevertheless still harbored deeply-seated instinctual fears, the roots of which lay in those unseemly days of yore.

The fact that it had already been overcome didn't prevent it from fearing the dawn. Still prostrate, Toothless tried to curl into a ball, its eyes squeezing tightly shut as it let out a long, low, plaintive mewl of anguish.