A/N: I PROMISE IT PICKS UP AFTER THIS! REVIEWS NEEDED! Also, I bring back 3 of my favorite characters! Yay!
Dead by Dawn
Chapter 7
Snakebane and Flameheart
Hiccup and Camicazi walked outside to see a... strange sight. Toothless was sprawled out on his back and squirming around like a dog with an itch. Stormfly was standing over him, fully awake, watching.
"Uh... What's going on out here?" asked Hiccup cautiously.
Toothless, still lying on his back, bent his head at an awkward angle to see Hiccup. "I hiccuped again."
"Is that fire still going? I thought it would have been suffocated by now," said Stormfly.
Toothless was still for a minute before getting up, revealing a large dark spot in the grass. He smiled sheepishly.
"I wonder why I-" Toothless stopped short before flipping over onto his back and launching another small fireball into the sky. "-keep hiccuping..."
The fireball exploded above them in a bright blue flash of light. Hiccup stifled a small laugh, muttering something about "distress flares."
"Don't worry Toothless," said Stormfly. "Every dragon gets the hiccup on one of their birthdays. You'll know they're over when you hiccup and a big fireball comes out. They stop after the big one."
"Well, that's reassuring," said Toothless as he got up again. Hiccup left Camicazi's side and began walking towards Toothless. However, he was suddenly tackled and knocked to the ground.
"Hiccup!" shouted Toothless.
Hiccup looked up at his attacker. Looking down at him was a large purple dragon with ice-blue eyes. At first, Hiccup didn't realize who it was because it was silhouetted by the sun, but he immediately knew when it spoke.
"SNAKEBAIT!" shouted the dragon.
The Monstrous Nightmare above Hiccup was suddenly tackled by two dragons, one emerald green and one light blue, at the same time, knocking it off of Hiccup.
Hiccup sat up and looked at the three dragons, rolling in the grass playing. Luna was the first to remove herself from the playful scuffle. She happily bounded over to Hiccup.
"You okay? Nothing broken?" Luna asked as she and Toothless helped Hiccup stand.
Hiccup took a deep breath to make sure no ribs had been busted, rolled his shoulders, swung his arms, and shifted his weight (all 50 pounds) around to check for damaged limbs. All checked out okay. But there was that small area just below his ribcage that was still a little sore, but that was probably just from falling.
"Nope. I'm still intact," said Hiccup with a smile.
"Good. I just hope those two idiots-" she looked over her shoulder to the other two dragons playing, "-don't hurt themselves."
It had been a little longer than 2 months since Hiccup had last seen Luna (she had had a day off, so she came to visit), and it had been about 5 months since he had seen the Monstrous Nightmare or the Drifter Dragon, who the Monstrous Nightmare still called Drift. Camicazi's friend Sig had adopted Drift, and she probably renamed him.
Hiccup looked over at the wrestling dragons. Even though Drift was about as small as Toothless, he had managed to pin the Nightmare on it's back. With that, Drift jumped over the Nightmare and ran over to where Hiccup, Toothless, Camicazi, and Luna were standing.
"H...h...hey H...Hiccup," panted Drift. The young Drifter Dragon was wearing his saddle. It was the type of saddle that Healers generally use: longer than average, with pockets and extra clips to hold medical stuff. There were straps inside that could be pulled out so that the saddle could be used as a saddle stretcher. Drift wore it like a trophy.
"So," said Hiccup, "what's the new name?"
"Flameheart!" he said proudly. He sat up even straighter, his emerald green scales gleaming in the intense sunlight. The last time Hiccup had seen him was last winter, and he had been undomesticated. Now, after Sig had gotten her hands on Flameheart, the first thing she had probably done was give him a bath.
"But I still call him Drift," said Luna, a strange look on her face. Now that Hiccup thought about it, Luna was making the same puppy eyes at Flameheart as Toothless had been making at Stormfly (but she was way less obvious about it). Flameheart was occasionally glancing at Luna and smiling. Hiccup thought he saw his emerald scales darken some from a blush.
Suddenly, the purple Nightmare popped up out of nowhere behind Flameheart, shaking dirt off of his scales. He was still unseen by Flameheart, so he took the opportunity to get revenge.
The Nightmare jumped Flameheart from behind, pinning him face down in the dirt.
"Payback!" screeched the Nightmare. He paused to look at Hiccup. "Hi Snakebait. Sorry for jumpin' ya'." With that, he turned back to Flameheart, who was squirming uncomfortably under the Nightmare's paws.
"Ohhh, this will be sweet," said the Nightmare. "I know your weakness Drift. I know that you're ticklish!" Flameheart got a bit pale. With that, the Nightmare stuck out it's tongue and prepared to make Flameheart laugh hard enough to wet himself.
"WAIT!" said Hiccup. The Nightmare paused, his forked tongue hanging out of his mouth, just over the back of Flameheart's horns.
"What's that?" asked Hiccup, pointing to a mark on the Nightmare's back. Looking closer, Hiccup saw that the mark was kinda in the shape of a... "Is that a saddle mark?"
The Nightmare was frozen.
"You found yourself a human, didn't you?" said Hiccup. He hadn't believed the wild and free, fun-loving, building-burning Monstrous Nightmare was actually telling the truth when he said he would find a human.
Luna smiled, and Flameheart attempted to smile from under the Nightmare's claws.
"So what's the new name?" asked Camicazi, who had been using her new necklace to follow the conversation.
At this point, Flameheart flipped over and the Nightmare tumbled off. Then both Flameheart and Luna shouted: "SNAKEBANE!"
"Snakebane?" asked Hiccup, thinking about how ironic that name was. "Who's your human?"
"You might not know him," said Snakebane. "His name's Colin. He works down at the docks with his dad. Apparently, he and his dad have a winter house up right next door to that old abandoned shack that I burnt last winter."
"It's about time he got a human," said Luna. "He finally got a bath!"
"Not willingly," said Snakebane. "There were hundreds of Vorpents surrounding me! They backed me into a corner! And those little dragons may be small, but you know how poisonous they are, right?"
"Yes," deadpanned Hiccup.
"So there I was, trapped in a corner and surrounded by Venomous Vorpents! The only way to escape was to go through the window! So I lunged out, but I fell right into the sea! And when I came out, there stood my human, with a scrubber in his hand! And that is how I took my first bath!" Snakebane bowed and waited for an applause.
"He's lying," said Luna. "Colin and his father tried to give Bane a bath, but he jumped out the window and ran off the 2-foot cliff into the harbor. Colin did follow him with a scrubber. That's how he took his real first bath."
"Yeah, but I thought I saw something yellow," muttered the Nightmare.
After everyone finished laughing, Toothless opened his mouth and was about to say something- probably the story on how Hiccup had to pretend to drown in order to get Toothless into the bath- but at that moment, he hiccuped one last time and a fireball, larger than the others, his the ground right in the middle of the circle that they were standing in.
All the other dragons yelped and reared back. Hiccup and Camicazi actually fell back. This time, Hiccup made sure not to fall on his bad hand. Toothless jumped on the blaze again and stomped it out.
"SORRY!"
"Well," said Hiccup, "at least we know that's over..."
A/N: I just love those dragons! Remember: Moonshade Dragons, Drifter Dragons, Shadow Dragons, Dagger Claws, Black-Backed Shredders, Vine Dragons, and the upcoming Seashade Dragons are all MINE! Thanks to Annabeth The Unicorn for suggesting the name Colin. You know the drill: R&R and nobody gets hurt!
