Hello everyone!
New story! Yay!
So I might be crazy to try and do two stories at the same time, but… wait. Yeah I'm crazy. XD
Okay, so this takes place after Dawn of the Dragon Racers (you know, where there in the older version) but before Race to the Edge. Now I haven't seen any of the Riders of Berk episodes so if I get some of the stuff wrong about the Outcasts, that's why. And I apologize in advance for anything I get wrong.
Let me know what you think of this. Trust me, it'll get WAY better. :D
SPOILERS: There's going to be a sword fight! :D
Okay, enjoy.
The clouds parted in curly smoke like turrets as a black dragon sped by, nothing but a black blur. The boy on his back leaned forward, his auburn hair blowing in the wind. The two flew higher towards the sky, then stopped, letting themselves fall towards the ocean below, the dragon tucking its wings against it body as it plummeted.
"WOOOOHOOOOO!" Hiccup shouted as the ocean came closer, and closer. They dove from the clouds, and Hiccup quickly pushed the pedal with his prosthetic leg, Toothless's tailfin and wings unfolded, and the two barely missed a good dunking as they glided above the water.
"Good job, bud!" Hiccup praised as he rubbed Toothless's head. "You're getting pretty good at that."
Toothless cooed happily and shook his head with a toothy grin on his face. Morning flights were his favorite times of the day. It was the time of day where he and Hiccup just goofed off, doing daring stunts.
Hiccup was all business now, as he pulled out the map he'd been working on for the last few months. He smoothed the parchment over Toothless's head, tracing his finger over it, searching for where they were.
Hiccup tapped his finger on the spot, and leaned back thoughtfully. He glanced around him, wondering where she could be.
He didn't have to wonder for very long. Suddenly a blue Deadly Nadder appeared behind him, a girl with a blond braid on its back.
"Morning, Milady. Was beginning to wonder if you'd show up." Hiccup greeted, turning around so he could see her. She smiled and waved him off.
"Come on you think I'd miss Island hunting? Besides these morning flights get me away from Snotlout and the twins. I pity Fishlegs for having to put up with them."
Hiccup laughed and began to fold up his map, placing it back into Toothless's saddlebags. "So you're saying you'd rather spend the day with me rather than with Snotlout?"
"Hmm, guess I am." Astrid said thoughtfully, smiling teasingly. Then she flew up beside Toothless, so Hiccup didn't have to turn around to look at her. "Where are we going today?"
"I thought we'd go to the little island north of Berk-"
"Um, Hiccup." Astrid started, "I was wondering if we could go to that little island between Outcast Island and Berk. We landed there that one time to camp for the night, but didn't really explore it. Could we?"
Hiccup felt uneasy. "I don't know, Astrid…"
"Please? I've been curious about that island for a long time now." Astrid pleaded. "It's a good sized island too, Hiccup. Who knows what we'd find there."
"We could also find some of Dagur's outcasts…"
"Yeah, but without Dagur they're useless! Harmless. Please, Hiccup?" Astrid urged.
Hiccup sighed, "Okay. But I have a bad feeling about this…"
Astrid laughed, "We'll be fine! Don't worry about it."
Hiccup watched her glide in the direction Outcast island. He sighed uneasily, and directed Toothless to follow them. He really didn't feel good about this…
…
The island came into view not long after. Hiccup remained silent for most the trip, while Astrid chatted easily about Stormfly's recent catastrophe of getting her spiked tail stuck a tree. Hiccup still felt uneasy as the flew over the island, looking for a good place to land.
"How about there?" Astrid said, pointing to a fairly clear area, where only small shrubs resided.
"Okay that looks good." Hiccup directed Toothless to land, and waited for Stormfly to follow suit before climbing off his dragon.
He looked around cautiously, searching for any signs of danger. When he found none, he turned to Astrid, where she stood with her hand on her hip, her axe in her hand. She smirked, "What did I say? We're perfectly fine."
"All the same." Hiccup said making sure his shield was securely strapped to his back, and double checking for his dagger. "It never hurts to be prepared." He then headed for the trees, Astrid and the dragons following close behind.
A sound came from one of the bushes. Hiccup whirled around, Toothless doing the same, growling at the shrub. "What is it, bud?" he whispered to Toothless, who just growled in response. Toothless's head swiveled behind him as another bush rustled. Hiccup stared at it intently, and noticed something odd about the tree beside the bush.
The tree was moving. Well, just the one part of the tree was moving slightly. Hiccup recognized what it was, and turned to Astrid.
"Changewing." he said quietly. Astrid huffed.
"Great." Was all she said as she pulled out her axe. Stormfly readied, unsheathing her spikes in her tail. Toothless moved closer to Hiccup, wrapping his tail protectively around his rider.
Another rustle came from behind them, and Toothless growled again. Hiccup gave a quiet moan, "And I think there's more than one."
A hiss came from surprisingly close to Hiccup. Toothless lunged, biting onto something that couldn't be seen. The Changewing howled and came into view, shedding its camouflage so that it could be seen clearly. It wasn't too big, but about the size of Toothless, and it was a flame red color, with an orange tint to the ends of its scales.
"Toothless!" Hiccup shouted and Toothless released his hold on the Changewings shoulder. The Changewing howled in pain and scurried away, then leapt into the air and flew off.
"One down, how many left to go?" Astrid said as she spun in a circle looking for the next dragon. A hiss came from a tree and she saw the flickering image of a red Changewing as it moved.
"Aha!" Astrid said, "Stormfly, spine shot!" Stormfly cawed and flicked her tail, spraying four spikes in the direction of the Changewing. The Changewing camouflaged again, and totally disappeared from their sight.
Toothless roared, and began plasma blasting all around them, non stop aiming at nothing but the ground in a means of frightening off the Changewings. The trees rustled and a roar was heard a Changewing uncamouflaged, licking its wounded tail where Toothless had hit him. The dragon hissed at them, then took off, flying after his friend.
Hiccup stepped out from his dragon's protective tail wrap. "Okay, Toothless, I think you scared them off." He patted his dragon's head. "Good job, bud." The dragon growled at the trees, as though to say, "back of dragons. My human. You don't stand a chance against me." Then the dragon stopped growling and leaned back, turning to Hiccup with a gummy grin.
Astrid stepped up beside Hiccup, "Well we know Changewings live here." She said with a half smile.
"Yep. But, no harm done." Hiccup said rubbing Toothless's head. "Keep going?" he asked.
"Of course!" Astrid followed Hiccup into the trees again, this time keeping an open eye out for Changewings.
The island had dense woods, but then it would suddenly come into a small clearing, with dense woods all around it. It was strange landscape, that there were sudden bare spots and then dense woods right beside each other. The day was sunny and warm, the air humid. They'd probably be due for a rainstorm later.
Astrid followed behind Hiccup and Toothless, Stormfly following her. They were quiet, focusing on making their way through the trees without tripping. They saw nothing else that even suggested that Dragons lived there. But honestly, it made sense. They weren't too far away from Outcast island, and the Outcasts had hunted the dragons a lot in the past years. They had probably already scoured this island for dragons.
Hiccup suddenly stopped, and Astrid was bumped out of her thoughts as she hit Toothless.
"Oops, sorry Toothless." Astrid apologized, walking over to Hiccup who was bending over looking at the ground intently. "What is it?"
He held up a dull brown slightly bump scale, "Gronkle scale." He answered. Astrid bent down to also look intently at the ground.
She pointed to all the deep footprints made by a Gronkle dragon, "Looks like there was a scuffly of some sorts." She said, then she noticed Hiccup was no longer looking paying attention to what she was pointing to.
He then pointed to another footprint, which Toothless was sniffing intently. "Astrid take a look at this." She did, and didn't like what she saw. It was the footprint from a boot. Toothless pulled his nose away from the ground and growled at the print.
"Uh," Astrid stood up, not sure what to think of that. Toothless backed away from the footprint, still growling.
"Toothless? What's wrong?" Hiccup asked his distressed dragon. Then a whizzing sound came through the air, and Toothless howled in anger and pain. Another whish and Stormfly cawed in pain as she collapsed to the ground, a feathered arrow in her side.
"TOOTHLESS!" Hiccup shouted rushing over to his dragon. Astrid ran to Stormfly, trying to sooth the struggling Nadder.
Then a voice said through the trees.
"Well, what do we have here?"