Shadow Jumper
Title: Shadow Jumper
Rating: T
Fandom: How to Train Your Dragon
Summary: The Dragon Riders finds an injured dragon with abilities never before seen. With the help of the Dragon Riders, the dragon intends to rescue his herd from a guild of dragon hunters.
Chapter 1: Discovery
"Remember guys, keep your guard up," Hiccup warned as the dragons landed in the clearing. "We don't know what dragon we're up against,"
"Then how are we supposed to know if we found it?" Ruffnut asked.
"Yeah, what are we even looking for anyway?" Tuffnut asked.
"We're looking for an aggressive dragon that has been spotted around here," Hiccup explained. "It has dark scales, horns, three claws per foot, and spikes along its back,"
"Which is the generic description of nearly all the dragons," Astrid pointed out.
"Well that's the only traits people could take note of before running away," Hiccup shrugged. "It's been attacking anyone that it sees but thankfully hasn't seriously injured anyone. Let's spread out and if anyone finds it, do not draw its attention. Wait for backup,"
"Pfft, unlike you weaklings Hookfang and I can defeat it ourselves," Snotlout bragged.
"We're not here to defeat it," Hiccup reminded. "We're here to find out why it's aggressive,"
XXX
The area that they had to cover was large. The land had an expansive forest and a large mountain. The dragon could be hiding anywhere. Night was approaching fast and they had still not seen any signs of the aggressive dragon. The Dragon Riders rendezvoused back at the clearing and starting a fire.
"There were no claw marks, droppings, or even footprints of any dragons," Fishlegs reported. "Besides our own, I don't think there are any other dragons here,"
"Do you think it already left?" Astrid asked Hiccup.
"That's strange," Hiccup noted. "Even if it already left, there should be other dragons around here. So why is it empty?"
A low growl erupted from the shadows around the campsite. The group became alert, humans with their weapons drawn and dragons with their fangs bared. A dark blur sped past the campfire, blowing it out like a candle. "Hookfang," Hiccup addressed.
The Monstrous Nightmare lit himself on fire, illuminating the area. His flames allowed the group to catch a glimpse of the dragon they were up against. It had the physique similar to that of a Night Fury's with the upper scales a jet black and the underbelly and front of its neck a dark blue shade. It had a pair of horns, a single row of back spikes, and a pair of large wings. The horns, spikes, tail fin, and underside of the wings were all the same dark blue. Its eyes glowed a dark crimson.
"Easy there," Hiccup slowly began to walk towards it.
The dragon let out another growl. "Leave!" The voice was deep, identifying the reptile as a male.
The Dragon Riders were stunned for a moment. It was Snotlout who broke the silence. "That dragon can talk!?"
"Can you understand me?" Hiccup asked the dragon.
"Leave!" The dragon repeated. This time it opened its mouth and started to charge an attack.
Seeing that his friend was in danger, Toothless fired a plasma blast. The dragon roared in pain and angrily turned to Toothless. "Out of my way Night Fury!" To the humans, it sounded like dragon noises.
"We won't let you hurt them!" Toothless refused.
"All humans are evil!" The dragon shouted. "If they don't leave, I'll kill them!"
"You'll have to get through us first," Stormfly and the others stood by Toothless' side.
Hiccup flicked out his sword and ignited it. He started to wave the flaming sword in front of the dragon's eyes in an attempt to mesmerize him. The dragon's eyes followed the blade. "It's okay," Hiccup said softly. He reached a hand out towards the dragon's face. "It's okay," The dragon lunged forward to bite the human's hand but Hiccup managed to pull his hand away in time. "Woah! Toothless don't!"
Toothless stopped charging his plasma blast and made a cry of protest. "He just tried to bite your hand off!"
"If he wanted to hurt us, he'd have already done so," Hiccup told them.
"Leave!" The dragon repeated once more, speaking Norse.
"You can understand me, right?" Hiccup questioned but received no response. "We're not going to hurt you,"
"Lies! You humans speak only lies!" The dragon turned around and jumped into the shadows, disappearing into the darkness.
"Well, that went well," Tuffnut commented.
"He seemed more scared than aggressive," Fishlegs noted. "His scales were covered in scars too and there were chains around his front legs,"
"Fishlegs, do you know what kind of dragon he is?" Astrid asked.
"He's not in any of the recorded dragon species," Fishlegs shifted through his dragon cards.
Hiccup inspected the direction where the dragon had run off to. "He left no tracks, like he jumped into the shadow,"
"So he's a Shadow Jumper!" Ruffnut dubbed. "A dragon that can talk to humans and travel through shadows!"
"How is it possible that the Shadow Jumper can speak Norse?" Astrid inquired. "None of our dragons can,"
"Didn't smell like a normal dragon," Barf added.
"Smelled like both human and dragon," Belch agreed.
"We need to find the Shadow Jumper and figure out why he's acting this way," Hiccup told them. "Get some rest but stay alert. We don't know if the Shadow Jumper will show up again tonight,"
This is my first time writing a How to Train Your Dragon fanfiction so I may not be getting the characters personalities a hundred percent correct. I only watched all three movies and the first season of the animated series.
This takes place after the first movie but a bit before the second movie.