"What are we even doing here?" Ferno complained to Fishlegs, who was too busy scratching the Terrible Terror's chin.

"Waiting for the others." Fishlegs said.

"Urgh!"

"You know you could have went with Hiccup and Astrid if you didn't want to go with the Twins." Fishlegs reasoned.

"Na-ah, I'd rather not be the third wheel while they flirt." Ferno groaned imagining the last time he was alone with them. Batting eyes, red cheeks and flirtatious teasing, and those were from just Hiccup's side of the flirting, Astrid was a whole different story. Yeah, that's not something you want to be caught in the middle of.

The snore of Snotlout was something that would awake people on another island. Unfortunately for Fishlegs and Ferno, they were only a few meters away from him.

"I feel sorry for whoever ends up being his spouse." Fishlegs said, when the Terrible Terror he was holding, jumped in fright from the snores.

"That's if there is anyone desperate enough to be his spouse." Ferno corrected him. Another snore. A boot thrown at his face. An angry Jorgenson.

"Why would you do that?! I was in the middle of my beauty rest! Having sweet dreams until someone throws a boot at me?!"

"Can I have my boot back now?" Ferno said, sounding bored.

"Oh look, here they are." Fishlegs pointed to the approaching riders.

"Well… look who it is? Fishlegs, Ferno and Snotlout. All here on Dragon Island." Hiccup said, then turned to Snotlout more in particular. "Astrid was just talking about you."

Snotlout sniggered, fantasizing about dreams that would never in a billion years come true. "Of course she was."

Ferno noticed the teasing Hiccup was doing, puckering his lips and wriggling his eyebrows.

"Uh, did I miss something?" Ferno asked the bookworm.

"I'm… just as lost as you." Fishlegs shook his head. "I got your message Hiccup. So, what's the emergency?"

Hiccup walked up to a boulder and put his metal leg on it. "We've seen dragons painted green on Crescent Island."

"That's your emergency? I was in the middle of something very important."

"You were sound asleep."

"Beauty rest! Do you think this," he gestured to his face, "just happens?"

"Uh, we assumed you were born ugly." Ferno chose that comment of the million that flew into his head. "So we thought: just happened." The others sniggered.

"Fishlegs does it make sense to you that those dragons would be there?" Hiccup asked again.

"No, they shouldn't be. Crescent Island is clearly marked as purple." Fishlegs observed from a map.

"That's what I thought." Hiccup added.

"So what were the green dragon doing there?" Astrid asked.

"First of all, it's not green, it's pistachio. They belong on tall tree island." He pointed out.

"Yeah, well your 'pistachio' dragons aren't where they're supposed to be." She moved his hand to the island where they were.

"Huh? That's weird."

"Well you guys, wanted to find out about dragon migration and we did. Can we go home now?" Ferno slumped his shoulders.

"No. We are going to find out why those dragon migrated so fast. I mean, we marked them this morning! Let's head to Tall Tree Island." Hiccup showed his leadership skills of ordering everyone around him.

"Sounds awesome. I was wondering what I was going to do with the rest of my day." Snotlout said, only now turning into the conversation. Surely, he quickly abandoned them, once they were airborn.

-000-

"I don't understand. We should be there by now." Hiccup spoke for all, after 2 hours of endless flying.

"Maybe we're off course." Astrid suggested.

"Fishlegs!" Ferno glared at the book worm. "My butt has been killing me for the past 2 hours. If you say that you got out map wrong then you will end up without hair, limbs, clothes, head, body, and ghost1."

"I don't do off course." Fishlegs pulled out the map. "According to my map, it should be right – uh…"

"You were saying?" Astrid yelled.

Ferno already prepared his knuckles for the difficult task ahead of him. Ripping a chubby book worm to shreds or less.

"Even if we were off course, we'd still be able to see it from here." Hiccup pointed out.

"Unless we're really of course, Fishlegs." Ferno darkened his glare.

"An island can't just disappear, can it?" Astrid said.

"Earthquake, maybe?"

"Volcano?"

"Wrath of Thor? Wrath of Odin?" Everyone looked at Fishlegs, the same way they always do when he opens his mouth out of cowardice. "What? Just throwing out possible explanations."

"Possible? Don't you know anything about laws of science and logic?" Ferno thought aloud.

"None of that explains this." Hiccup pointed to two dragons flying at them, and the riders having just enough time to duck them, except Shriek who was an intimidatingly large size and had a intimidatingly loud roar to make the measly small dragon fly around him, not into him.

"Orange?" Astrid asked, looking at the colour splattered on the dragon's back.

"Burnt apricot, actually."

"Oh, you should be an artist Fishlegs. Why did you go into dragon training?"

"What island are they from?" Astrid asked.

"According to this, they're from Sunstone Island." Hiccup said, pulling out the map.

"Ah, Sunstone island. Pristine beaches. A veritable smorgasbord of mineral deposits for Meatlug." Fishlegs started daydreaming.

"Sunstone Island it is." Hiccup decided.

-000-

"Huh. I thought it was bigger." Fishlegs said. Meatlug was the only dragon small enough to sit on the island. Literally. There was literally no more space. Toothless and Stormfly had to made do with clutching to the side of the small wall of the island, while Shriek swam in the sea with his rider sitting on his back, avoiding to get wet.

"You think?" Astrid asked, sarcastically.

"I have to say the beaches are a disappointment." Hiccup added.

"Remind me to never go to Fishlegs for holiday advice. You've disappointed me, Fishlegs." Ferno mock pouted.

"One island is missing, and one island's been sunk." Fishlegs analysed.

"I guess a whole island can disappear." Hiccup said.

"Uh, guys? Isn't this the part where we get worried? I mean, we all live on an island." Ferno supplemented.

"If the islands are gone, where do the dragons go?" Fishlegs asked in his signature worried voice.

"Good question." Hiccup proved his nerdy side. "Dragons live in specific places for specific reasons."

"The food they eat, where they nest." Fishlegs rambled on.

"If they lose their homes, it could endanger their whole species." Astrid added, with realisation.

Ferno laughed. "All we needed to end a 300 year war was to get rid of a few islands." He sniggered at his private joke.

"We need to figure out what's going on, now." Hiccup stressed out. "Let's head back to Dragon Island."

Astrid allowed a small laugh. "If it's still there."

-000-

"Look at them." Ferno said, when they landed on the rather air polluted Dragon Island.

"Check their colours." Astrid said.

"I-I see pistachio, b-burnt apricot." Fishlegs had to analyse everything.

"Look, a new colour. Red." Astrid pointed to a dragon flying around, splattered red by one of their paintballs.

"Technically that's vermillion." Fishlegs corrected. She just gave him a look. "What? It is."

"You know, normal people just say 'red' 'orange' or 'green'." Ferno said.

"Dragons from three different islands suddenly all here." Hiccup took out a map and crossed out three of the islands. "Look, this forms a line, which means there are more islands in danger." Hiccup punctured the map with his pen. "Boar head island. Thor rock island… Toothless we're goin' back out."

"I'm going with you. This could be dangerous."

"What makes you think that?"

"Oh, I don't know. Islands disappearing mysteriously, dragons fleeing in terror. Call it a hunch."

"Fine."

Ferno groaned and slumped his shoulders. "I know I'll get sick going with them, but I won't sleep at night, without knowing they aren't burnt alive… Hold up guys." He jogged up to the overgrown puppy with bone armour.

"Ok. Fishlegs, you stay here in case any more dragons show up." Hiccup instructed the book worm with a useless task because they all had a feeling that he'd only be more hassle than help, with his lion's heart.

"Got it. New dragons. Meatlug and I are on the case."

"What is this? The military? Aye aye, captain." Ferno sarcastically commented.

-000-

The next two islands were… let's just say in ruins. Boar Head vanished into thin air, and Thor Rock turned into Thor Pebble.

"You know, maybe Fishlegs' 'wrath of gods' theory isn't so crazy." Astrid suggested after being the remains of Thor Rock.

"Fishlegs and the words that come out of his mouth? Not crazy? How does that even make sense?" Ferno asked.

"Let's get a closer look, bud." Hiccup beckoned his Night Fury lower, towards Thor Rock at one of the holes. "These markings look familiar but different somehow."

"Familiar and different? Nope those go together like Fishlegs and not-crazy." Ferno joked.

"For once, can you actually be mature about something. Islands are disappearing. Focus for about a day, then you can go back to your fantasy world." Astrid scolded him, then turned to the other brother. "Different how?"

"Different bigger." Hiccup realised, and as soon as he did, The Screaming Death smashed the surface and released its ear-shattering signature scream. "The Screaming Death!" Another scream. "Someone's been eating their vegetables." Hiccup said, noting it's massively increased size from their last encounter.

"And everything else on sight!" Astrid yelled to be heard.

"I thought we got rid of that thing!" Ferno yelled, trying to get his dragon under control because the tune that that Screaming Death was whistling was not pleasant… least of all to the dragons.

"Its screams disorients the dragons!" Hiccup shouted, seeing the Boneknapper, Nadder and Night Fury panicking in the air.

"No kidding!" Astrid screamed back at him.

The Screaming Death plunged back into the earth. Why, they didn't know.

"The Screaming Death has been destroying all the islands. It must be tunnelling underneath and causing them to collapse in on themselves." Hiccup analysed. Great, he was becoming more like Fishlegs every day he spent more time with him.

"Well, that explains the missing islands." Ferno, momentarily, decided to heed to Astrid's advice, just for this once.

"But why would it do that?" Astrid asked.

"I don't know. Let's get a closer." Hiccup insisted. Both Ferno and Astrid just gave him a look. "You wanted dangerous."

"Actually, she wanted dangerous, I wanted a nice warm bed with a glass of nice warm yak milk and cookie." Ferno snapped, but the Dragon Conqueror already dove for one of the holes. The Fire-bearer sighed. "Why does he always do this?"

"I'm curious myself." Astrid said in a deadpan, looking down into the hole.

-000-

One minute wasn't over, when the Night Fury shot back out of the earth with the Screaming Death on its tail.

"I have an idea." Astrid said, tossing some paintballs to the Outcast Heir. She flew off ad started to splatter the paintballs on the Screaming Death's eyes, shortly followed by Ferno, who did the same thing. "Hope you like pistachio!"

"I know I don't!" Ferno added, shooting the last paintball.

It didn't have eyes, but it still had it's perfectly in tuned voice. And with it, fuzzed the brains of the dragons.

"Whoa! Steady, Stormfly. Just hang in there."

"Take it easy, Shriek."

Not seeing anything, didn't do much good, so the Screaming Death retreated.

"How's that for accuracy?" Astrid asked.

"Yay, we saved your boyfriend again, what a relief." Ferno said, in mock excitement.

-000-

"Periwinkle blue!" Fishlegs screamed running at them, when they landed. "There are now periwinkle blue marked dragons here."

"Where do you come up with these names?" Ferno asked quizzically.

"I know." Hiccup said, sliding off his saddle. "Boar head island."

"And-and look! There's eggshell white!—"

"From Thor Rock Island." Astrid nodded as the three approached Fishlegs and the map.

"What happened to them?" Fishlegs questioned frantically.

"The same thing that happened to all the other islands:" Hiccup crossed out an island on the map, "Screaming Death."

Fishlegs let out an overdramatic gasp. "The Screaming Death is back?"

"He had a theory that it never left." Ferno pointed to his older brother.

"Yeah." Hiccup nodded, giving Astrid a victorious look.

She rolled her eyes at him and turned back to Fishlegs. "It just got bigger and nastier."

"Uh, how much bigger?" Fishlegs trembled in fear.

"Oh, it's going to be fun seeing the look on his face." Ferno mumbled to Hiccup.

Astrid took some earth, and made sure it crumpled in her hand. "Chom-chomp-there-goes-your-island big."

Ferno sniggered at the fright of his friend's face.

"Ah, it's just as I thought." Hiccup said, observing the map. "The Screaming Death is following an imaginary line, destroying anything in its path." Hiccup drew the line of the destroyed islands and judging them, drew a predicted line.

"It's coming right at us." Fishlegs noted, when Hiccup's pen landed on Dragon Island.

"Take a closer look, you short-sighted geek." Ferno crossed his arms.

Hiccup scowled at his brother's remark. Since when did he do bullying? He had always stood up for him, but now he was the initiator of the bullying. Did he defend Hiccup just because he was his brother? If so, Hiccup's perspective of Ferno the Fire-barer is not as grand as he once thought it was.

But they had other things to worry about now.

Hiccup finished drawing the line.

"It's headed straight to Berk." Fishlegs realised. "We have to get back to Berk and-and-and warn Stoic."

"No." Hiccup protested. "We head it off. We make our stand here." He stood up on a rock and looked off into the distance where the Screaming Death was probably going to come out from. "There's no other land between here and Berk."

"Yeah, if we worry Stoic, the whole village will explode in panic." Ferno reasoned.

"Look, I'm all about danger. But did you two see the size of that thing?" Astrid said, a hint of fear in her voice.

"It's not going to be just us." Hiccup jumped off the rock, and scribbled a note. "We're sending for reinforcements." He attached the note to a Terrible Terror.

"Snotlout and the Twins? Ah, I feel so much better." Astrid rolled her eyes.

"Hey, we're gonna need all the help you we can get."

"Exactly, so why are we sending for Snotlout and the Twins?" Ferno turned on his brother, so rolling his eyes, sighed.

-000-

"Hiccup! The yellow-marked dragons from Sorrow Island just started showing up." Fishlegs ran up to the Dragon Trainer.

"Which means that the Screaming Death is only one island away." Hiccup concluded. "Looks like help's not coming."

"'Duh! I think I'm too important to go help my friends get rid of a gigantic island eating dragon that's gonna eat my island if I don't get there on time. So I'm just going to have my beauty sleep while everyone around me drowns, even though my face will never even resemble a fragment of handsomeness.'" Ferno imitated Snotlout. The others gave him a look. "What? If I'm gonna die today, might as well die laughing."

The others sighed shaking their heads.

"Alright, we'll have to set up a defence here on Dragon Island with what we have." Hiccup said, after the.

"Maybe we should fall back and head for home." Fishlegs suggested.

"Come on, Fish. Where's your bravery?" Ferno sniggered.

"I just think that the four of us engaging an island-eating dragon is very irrational." Fishlegs said, not getting the sarcasm.

"Fishlegs, if the Screaming Death destroys Dragon Island, all these dragons will overwhelm Berk."

"And the Screaming Death, won't be far behind." Astrid added.

"Exactly." Hiccup agreed.

"How soon till it get here?" Asked Astrid, though her question was quickly answered by the distant screams of the Whispering Death.

"Does that answer your question?" Ferno crooked an eyebrow.

-000-

"Toothless and I will try and buy us some time." Hiccup jumped onto his Night Fury. "You guys join me up there when Snotlout and the Twins get here."

"Yeah, that'll happen." Ferno commented.

"I'm going with you." Astrid already had her axe in hand, ready for battle, like she always was.

"Yeah, same here." Ferno stepped up, beside Astrid.

"No, I need you two as a safety net, in case it gets past me." Hiccup stopped them.

"So you're leaving us here, by ourselves?" Astrid asked appalled at the idea.

"Two of Berk's finest warriors as safety nets? Are you out of your mind?" Ferno twisted his finger on his temple.

"Uh, hello? Man on a dragon here." Fishleg's voice called from behind them, already on top of Meatlug. "Right behind you."

"You know what we meant Fishlegs." Astrid slumped her shoulders.

"I do, and I'd like to go on a record as saying we don't appreciate it. Do we girl?" Fishlegs patted the Gronkle, who plain out belched and looked at him, like a dog at a master.

"Just go." Astrid said, with a resigned shrug.

-000-

Astrid gave an irritated strangled sound in her throat.

"Astrid, patience is a virtue." Ferno said, calmly from his dragon's neck. Sliding a stone on his sword's blade, just to watch the spark.

"Look who's talking."

"Lucky me, I'm not a virtuous person, so I don't have to worry about patience." Ferno smirked.

She turned to Fishlegs. "I knew we couldn't rely on that Terrible Terror air mail." She mumbled.

"Actually we can. Like all dragons, Terrible Terrors are—"

"Territorial, I know." She finished for him, scowling.

"Wait. That's it. Astrid you're a genius." He gripped her shoulder spiked shoulder, for some reason, and shook them. "I-I could kiss you on the lips right now."

"Whoa, make sure her boyfriend doesn't find out."

She shoved him off, so hard he landed on his back, on the floor. "No one is kissing me on the lips! Ever!"

"Aw, Astrid. I seem to remember a certain person doing just that." Ferno turned around, wrapped his arms around himself and made a provocative wiggle of his body, making it look like her was kissing someone. "Remind you of anyone? Namely a boy who's name begins with H, has one leg and rides a Night Fury."

"Real mature, Ferno!" Astrid glared at him.

Fishlegs, now recovered, stood up. "Why don't you go cover Hiccup's back? I-I've got an idea. But I'll need some time."

"Wait, where are you going?" Astrid called out.

"Just trust me."

"I don't trust you, but I just want to get out of a 50 meter radius from Astrid, because I feel like she's gonna kill me." Ferno swiftly nudged his dragon's side and took off to the direction of the Screaming Death.

-000-

The Dragon Conqueror, Fire-bearer and Shield-maiden laid siege to the Screaming Death.

"We're barely making a dent in that thing!" Astrid exclaimed.

"Correction: we're not even making a dent in that thing." Ferno commented.

"Fishlegs! What are you doing?" Hiccup said, noticing that the book nerd had mounted his dragon and joined them. "We need backup!"

"Oh, I've got backup."

Suddenly, a cloud of Gronkles lifted into the air and started to help with the siege laying.

"Hey, it's like Gronkle fest down here." Astrid yelled. "How'd he do that?"

"Gronkles are territorial too. They will defend their home at any cost. Great idea, Fishlegs!"

"I know, right? Who's the safety net now?" Fishlegs put on a smug look on his face.

The Screaming Death had enough of being blasted, and dug into the earth.

"You see that? It ran away." Fishlegs said.

"Hey! Quit acting smug!" Ferno pointed at him with a warning glare.

"He's right. It's not quite run away." Hiccup said, looking into the hole.

The earth began to shake. Not a good thing when there's an enormous Screaming Death digging its way through it. Actually, when one think about it, it's not a good sign whenever the ground shakes, Screaming Death or not.

"Guys, get as many wild dragons together as you can. I'll try to force it back to the surface." He dove into the hole.

"Urgh, great. Here Zipplebacks! Here Zipplebacks! Zippies! Backies!" Ferno tried to find the only dragon that was left out of the selection. Maybe thinking like the Twins, oh god that's a frightening thought, would find him that dragon.

-000-

"Hey, we got your message!" Tuffnut yelled out to the battling teens, as he, his sister and Snotlout approached them.

"Well, as least one of us did." Snotlout rolled his eyes.

"Really? You?" Ferno could not believe his ears.

The Screaming Death sprung out of the earth, screaming, roaring, growling you name it.

"Whoa, did that thing get bigger?" Snotlout asked.

"Yeah and awesome-er." Tuffnut yelled, punching the air with his hands, along with his twin.

All and any dragons that Astrid, Fishlegs and Ferno had managed to gather all dived in for a final attack and basically… in a nutshell, it was chaos. But chaos seemed to be working, because the Screaming Death began to retreat.

"It's working! All the wild dragons are defending their home!" Fishlegs exclaimed, seeing the results of his idea.

"I don't think the Screaming Death is gonna mess with Dragon Island anymore." Hiccup commented.

But the earth was still rumbling and water geezers sprung out of the earth, showing that the island was still sinking.

"Aw man, but it is still sinking." Hiccup groaned.

It seemed today was Fishleg's lucky day, because ideas came in and out of his mind. He ordered the Gronkles to start blasting the holes. The genius part was that lava, was molten earth, and with the sea cooling, it solidified, basically stopping the island from sinking.

"The lava is stabilising the island." Hiccup realised, seeing what was happening. "Fishlegs, Meatlug, you two are the heroes today."

"Oh come on. You're making us blush." Fishlegs showed.

"Modesty is the sin of pride, Fishlegs." Ferno smirked.

"What is it with you and proverbs today?" Astrid punched the Fire-bearer's shoulder.

-000-

"Everyone saw how that Screaming Death turned tail and ran as soon as Hookfang and I showed up." Snotlout pushed past Hiccup and gloated for something that wasn't his glory. Typical Snotlout.

"Uh-huh, and all those wild dragons had nothing to do with it." Astrid crossed her arms.

"Correct." Snotlout smiled stupidly.

"As long as we never have to see the Screaming Death again." Fishlegs laughed with relief. "It's giving Meatlug gas. And I don't have to tell you what that's like."

"We'll take your word for it." Ferno said.

Astrid walked up to Hiccup. "Hey, did you find anything about the Screaming Death?"

"The good news is they only hatch one every hundred years or so." Hiccup announced.

"That's the good news?"

"Honesty, bro. You're depressing." Ferno said.

"What's the bad news?" Snotlout asked, pushing past Fishlegs and Ferno.

"Let me guess." Tuffnut interrupted the Dragon Trainer. "The end of the world?" He laughed, but was, sadly, the only one. Not even Ferno found it funny.

"Close." Hiccup dropped the bomb.

"Uh, I was kidding." Tuffnut admitted.

"The bad news is it's still out there. And someday, it'll come back to Berk."

Tense silence.

"Uh-oh so we are going to have to experience Meatlug's gas." Ferno remarked.

-000-

1My friend used this to threaten me after I teased them, and I just had to use it. XD!

Please comment on your favourite joke or funny extract or anything you found funny.