Hello Fanfictioneers! It is I, Stripesicles222, back with another story!
This story will be updated every Wednesday...if I remember. If I do 'forget' to update on a Wednesday, feel free to yell at me, just please use appropriate language to do so. If there is one thing I can't stand, it is bad language.

Okay. I'll stop rambling now. With out further ado...
One more ado: I DO NOT OWN HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON!

Thanks. Enjoy!

The Quest to Save a Nadder

By: Stripesicles222

Chapter 1: Departure

The village was quiet as a lone Viking left his house. It was the early hours of the morning, and Hiccup was moving as quietly as his metal leg deemed possible. His father, the chief of Berk, was always busy, and therefore needed his sleep. Besides, Stoick was always grumpy when woken up in the middle of the night anyway. Hiccup cringed as his prosthetic squeaked. He silently cursed himself for not greasing the springs. It had been several months since the battle with the Red Death, but Hiccup still wasn't completely used to the fake leg, no matter what he and Gobber did to try to improve it.

Once out the door, Hiccup ran to the academy with his night fury following closely. He needed to check on the other dragons.

During training that day, he had noticed that they had been acting strange; Hookfang hadn't tossed Snotlout once, Barf and Belch hadn't gotten involved in the twins' antics, and Meatlug…well Meatlug was always drowsy. Even Toothless wasn't quite his energetic self. Hiccup was the only one who had noticed these oddities forming in the dragons' behavior, but he thought they were just worn out. But that evening, Astrid had come to the chief's house with worries about Stormfly.

"She's not quite herself", the young Shield-maiden had said. "I'm worried for her."

Hiccup had promised he would check on all the dragons that night, after Stoic had gone to bed.

When he reached the Academy, Hiccup let the dragons out of their cages and into the arena. One by one he checked on the dragons, looking thoroughly for anything out of the ordinary. Hookfang, Barf, Belch, and Meatlug seemed to be okay, so Hiccup began to feel relieved. Maybe the dragons had just been overworked and exhausted. His hopes were dashed though, as he checked on Stormfly.

As he approached the Nadder, he was surprised to see her shy away from him. Stormfly had always trusted him almost as much as she did Astrid. There must have been something seriously wrong with her if she wouldn't let him anywhere near her.

Hiccup decided he would check the Book of Dragons with Fishlegs in the morning and see if there was anything on personality disorders. In the meantime, he led the dragons back into their cages for the night, and headed home before Stoick woke up.

"Hey Fishlegs. Can see the Book of Dragons for a minute please?" Hiccup had gone to the Ingerman house as soon as the sun had risen.

"Sure Hiccup. May I ask why?" His stout friend asked as he handed over the Book.

"I checked on the dragons last night. Stormfly is still acting strange. She appears to be in perfect health, but she won't let me anywhere near her and seems nervous," Hiccup explained. "I promised Astrid I would find out what was wrong and try to fix it."

He flipped through the pages for anything that may give him a clue as to Stormfly's condition. Several minutes into his search, he stopped and pointed at a page, his eyes grew wide as he read.

"Bork wrote here about an encounter he had with dragons suffering from these same symptoms. He writes that he came across a group of dragons who all acted exhausted. As he observed them from a distance, over time most of the dragon breeds improved with rest… but the Nadders…"

Fishlegs was almost too scared to ask. "What about the Nadders?"

"Some of the Nadders…died," Hiccup replied sorrowfully.

"Oh no! This is bad! This is very… Wait, you said some of the Nadders, what happened to the rest?

"Bork writes that some of the Nadders ate a very odd combination of three even odder substances. Most of these Nadders managed to pull through, the rest died within four days of showing symptoms."

"Stormfly first showed her symptoms yesterday."

"This means we have three days to find the cure…if we're lucky." Hiccup sighed. "Who knows how long the illness has been festering unnoticed."

"So, what are the three…ingredients, Hiccup?"

"The blossoms of the Bell Flowered Dragonwood tree, sandstone made brittle by changewing acid, and wide-leafed sea grass from the harbor." Hiccup read.

"The last Dragonwood tree on Berk was burned down during the dragon wars, and since the wars ended, there hasn't been a single changewing here," Fishlegs pointed out.

"True. And the wide leafed sea grass is a problem too," Hiccup added. "My dad says it used to tie up the keels and rudders of our long ships. It was totally cleared away about seventy years ago while great-grandfather was chief."

"So, what do we do Hiccup?"

Hiccup thought for a moment. Where else could they find those ingredients? He remembered seeing them somewhere on their adventures, but where?

Hiccup handed the book back to Fishlegs as he hopped into Toothless' saddle. "Gather the Riders," He instructed. Have them meet at the academy in 20 minutes. I'm going to the forge to check my maps. We have a Nadder to save!"

Fishlegs watched the Night Fury fly away. He had hoped to spend the day updating the Boulder class pages of the Book of Dragons. Oh well. He would just have to do that later.

"Come on Meatlug...Let's go find the others."

When everyone reached the Academy, Hiccup began explaining the situation.

"As you all know, the dragons were acting strange yesterday. Last night I checked on them again, and most of the dragons were back to their usual selves."

"So why have you brought us all here?" Snotlout wasn't too happy about being dragged out of bed, especially if it was just to hear his scrawny cousin say everything was perfectly fine.

"Yeah!" Tuffnut interjected. "I was about to torture Ruffnut again when Fish-face over here woke her up by throwing rocks at the window!"

"It was the only way I could get your attention," Fishlegs defended himself.

"Whatever." Turning to Ruffnut he added, "I'll get you tonight." Ruff of course, replied with a hard punch to her brother's gut. Much to Hiccup's dismay, the twins rolled around the arena, punching, kicking, and just inflicting as much pain on the other as possible. He would never understand how the twins found this entertaining.

"Hey guys? Guys?" As much as Hiccup and Astrid could try, they just could not get everyone's attention.

"Toothless, Plasma Blast!"

The night Fury obediently shot a bolt of blue plasma at the ground near the fighting teens. For a few seconds all was quiet.

"Thanks bud." Hiccup rewarded his dragon with a scratch under the chin. Turning to his fellow riders, Hiccup continued his explanation:

"As I was saying before I was interrupted, Most of the dragons have returned to their usual selves, that is, all the dragons except Stormfly."

"What's wrong with Stormfly?" Snotlout asked as he sauntered towards her cage. "She seems fine to me. Look at her! She's just sitting there. What's wrong with that?"

"Just because you don't see anything wrong with her doesn't mean she is okay." Astrid had had more than enough of Snotlout's insensibility. "Stormfly's usually at the front of the cage to greet me in the morning. Now she's cowering in the back. She's not eating, she's nervous, she's…"

Astrid's voice trailed off as she watched her reptilian friend on the other side of the bars.

"Hey, it will be okay." Hiccup placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. Turning to the rest of the group, he told them of what he had discovered in the Book of Dragons.

"Fishlegs and I did some research this morning. It appears the Stormfly has come down with something Fishlegs named Nadder Lethargy Syndrome. Although any dragon can catch it, it can be fatal only to Nadders, and we don't have much time to gather the ingredients for the cure. That is where you guys come in. We need to split up and find all three parts within the next 36 hours. Ruff, Tuff! You two go to Scauldron Cove. There you should find an abundance of wide-leafed seagrass…make it fresh. Don't bring back the wilted stuff from the beach."

"We're on it Hiccup." The twins leapt on to their dragon.

Hiccup sighed as he watched them fly off, fighting all the way. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to send them off without someone to watch over them, but he didn't really have a choice.

"Snotlout, you and Fishlegs go to Camouflage Island and retrieve the acid affected sandstone. Be careful. That area is swarming with changewings."

"Puh-lease. I'm Snotlout! I'm not afraid of changewings; wild or not!"

"Well, I am." Fishlegs was shaking just thinking about the camouflaging dragons. "Why don't we just take Hiccup's advice and be careful."

"Whatever. Let's just get this over with."

Hiccup watched the other riders fly away. He knew that if they weren't killed by wild dragons, they would probably kill each other. He wished he could have gone with them to keep an eye on them, but he knew that wasn't an option.

"Toothless and I will go get the flowers from the Dragonwood tree," He informed Astrid.

"What about me?" Astrid asked indignantly. She would not be left out. "Stormfly is my dragon…I want to help."

Hiccup looked at the desperation in Astrid's downcast eyes. He had never seen her looking so hopeless and upset.

"Someone needs to stay with Stormfly. I'm sorry Astrid, but you need to stay here."

"But—"

"Please Astrid; Stormfly needs you now more than ever."

Astrid sighed in defeat.

"Okay, but this isn't over, Hiccup."

Hiccup took one last look at his distraught friend as he climbed on Toothless' saddle. "We'll back as quick as possible."

Astrid watched him fly away. She felt useless down here, but she knew Hiccup was right, as usual. Stormfly needed her. Astrid decided she would do everything possible to make her dragon comfortable until the others returned. She would get revenge on Hiccup later.

And there's the first chapter. Hope you all enjoyed. Please leave your comments and concerns.

A shout out to my FF editor, MartytheMartian.

See you next week. Well, not really. I won't see you, but... Oh you get it.

So long!