(A/N: So, after some personal debate with myself, I decided that this chapter will be the episode "Appetite for Destruction". Not one of my personal favorites, but I'm still excited for it. The Screaming Death is definitely in my top ten favorite dragons, so I'm eager to write about it.
There will be some development with Helene and Ripwave in this, but again I wouldn't expect too, too much, but it will happen, so don't worry. I'm looking forward to it and I'm hoping everyone else is, too.)
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It was quite an interesting day for the Dragon Riders; why? They were sent out to different locations to throw paint on the dragons of nearby islands. And why were they doing that? In order to document the various species of these islands.
What they were doing was actually documenting the behaviors, hunting habits, flight range, diets, and nesting of the dragons. The only way to keep track of them was to tag them with different colors and color-coding the islands they were from.
The color Helene was given was orange, or "burnt apricot" as Fishlegs called it. This color was for the dragons of Sunstone Island, which primarily consisted of Monstrous Nightmares. They were often a bit difficult to handle, but she and Ripwave could handle it.
They saw Monstrous Nightmares as soon as they set foot on the island and she immediately got to work on tagging them. She threw one of the paint-filled sacks she was given, but missed her target.
She sighed in frustration, "Damn."
Ripwave nudged her with her snout and gestured at the saddle on her back. The saddle was finished just the week prior and the inside of it was filled with dry cotton, which was a good insulator for electricity.
She hummed, "That's not a bad idea."
She mounted her dragon and they flew up, just high enough for her to be able to tag these dragons without them seeing her. She threw down another sack and this time hit the dragon she failed to tag earlier.
"Nice," she grinned, Ripwave warbled in agreement. "Let's get this done."
For the next hour, they flew around the entire island, tagging every dragon she saw. Most of the wild dragons were easily marked because they were either distracted or asleep. It was no wonder Snotlout chose a Monstrous Nightmare to be his dragon, they had a lot more in common than she first thought.
A few of them gave them a good run, as if they knew that they were going to be tagged so that they could be tracked. Fortunately, Ripwave was always in the mood for a race and they were easily able to catch up to them and mark them.
She threw another sack at a Monstrous Nightmare, who screeched and ran into the trees afterward. "I think that's the last of them. What do you say we go check up on the others? Crescent Island isn't too far away from here."
They took to the air and flew towards Crescent Island. If Helene's memory was right, Ruffnut and Tuffnut were sent there to tag the dragons. She could only imagine the twins covered in paint instead of the dragons.
As they neared Crescent Island, she saw Stormfly and Toothless as they descended to the island with their riders. She figured that Hiccup and Astrid were finished with the Sorrow Island dragons and decided to check up on the twins, which was what she was planning on.
'Great minds must think alike,' she mused. She then told her dragon, "Take us down."
She growled in response and began to descend in the same area Hiccup and Astrid descended. They landed on the island, close to where the twins, Astrid, and Hiccup were, close enough that all she had to do was wave.
"Hey, guys," she smiled at them. She got off Ripwave and walked towards them.
"Hey, Hele, finished with the dragons on Sunstone Island?" Astrid asked.
She nodded, "Yep, I tagged all the dragons I could find." She eyed the purple paint on the twins' faces and joked, "Looks like you guys got a little carried away again."
"Uh, yeah, it was, uh," Tuffnut pointed at Ruffnut, "her fault."
"Hey, you started it," she punched his shoulder. "This paint war wasn't my idea."
"Why are we doing this again?" he asked Hiccup.
"We're tagging these dragons in order to keep track of where they belong and where they may migrate to," he explained.
"Wow, that was… uh…" she trailed off, stumped over.
"Fascinating?" he finished.
"What's the opposite of fascinating?" Tuffnut asked.
Astrid shook her head, but then noticed that there was something strange about the dragons on this island, "Hiccup, isn't it supposed to be one dragon color per island?"
"Yeah, why?" he questioned.
"I see two colors down there," she pointed at two Gronckles, one of which had green paint instead of purple. "Have we been using the wrong one?"
"I don't think so," he responded.
"Don't look at us, if we had green paint, you know where it would be," Tuffnut crossed his arms.
"Well, I better ask Fishlegs, this was his idea," he uttered.
"You're going to fly all the way back to Berk?" Astrid asked in somewhat of a questionable and doubtful manner.
"No, I don't have to," he answered, going through his bag.
"What's he talking about?" Ruffnut asked her twin.
"He must have some of that magic paper we've been looking for," he surmised.
"He always gets the good stuff," she grumbled.
"It's not magic paper. Fishlegs and I have been working on something new." He took out his Terrible Terror, Sharpshot, from his bag, "We call it," he attached a note to his leg, "Air Mail."
"Stupid name," Tuffnut commented.
"Right?" Ruffnut remarked.
Hiccup held out his arm for his little dragon and Sharpshot took off from there. They watched as he flew off to Berk to deliver the message.
"Do you really think that Terrible Terror is gonna fly all the way back to Berk?" Astrid questioned.
"Yep, and right to the Academy. Terrors are especially territorial, so it's a natural instinct to return where they were released," he explained.
"And how will we know if he made it?" Helene asked. She didn't doubt what he was saying, but it was healthy to remain curious and a little sceptical.
"When Fishlegs and Snotlout meet us at Dragon Island," he answered, mounting Toothless.
Astrid scoffed and climbed onto Stormfly, "If that happens, I'll kiss Snotlout on the lips."
Helene got onto Ripwave, thinking, 'Be careful what you wish for, Astrid.'
Hiccup, Astrid, and Helene made their way to Dragon Island while the twins went back to Berk, most likely to continue their 'paint war'. Upon arriving, they saw Fishlegs with Sharpshot perched on his arm and Snotlout fast asleep.
"Well, look who it is, Fishlegs… and Snotlout! Both right here on Dragon Island!" Hiccup raised his voice in Astrid's direction. "Astrid was just talking about you."
"Of course she was," he remarked after he woke up.
Hiccup looked up at Astrid and jokingly made kisses and kissing noises. Helene covered her mouth and laughed to herself.
'Astrid should learn not to gamble like that,' she thought.
They got down from their dragons and Astrid sneered at Hiccup, "Say it and those will be the last words you ever speak."
"Hiccup, I got your message, I knew Air Mail would work. So, uh, what's the emergency?" Fishlegs asked.
"We've been seeing dragons painted green on Crescent Island," Hiccup informed him.
"That's your emergency?" Snotlout retorted. "I was in the middle of something very important."
"You were sound asleep," Fishlegs pointed out.
"Beauty rest. Do you think this," he pointed at his face, "just happens?"
"Fishlegs, does it make any sense to you that those dragons would be there?" Hiccup questioned.
"No, they shouldn't be," he responded, taking out a map with the color-coded islands. "Crescent Island is clearly marked as purple."
"That's what I thought," he stated.
"So, what would the green dragons be doing there?" Helene inquired.
"First of all, it's not green, it's pistachio. They belong on Tall Tree Island, that's where I tagged them," he circled his finger around the island marked green.
"Yeah, well, your "pistachio" dragons aren't where they're supposed to be," Astrid dragged his hand to the purple-marked island.
"Huh, that's weird," he uttered.
"We need to figure this out. Let's check out Tall Tree Island," Hiccup told them.
"Sounds awesome, I was wondering what I was going to do with the rest of my day," Snotlout remarked sarcastically.
All five of them mounted their dragons and took to the air, headed in the direction of Tall Tree Island. However, it wouldn't be the five of them for very long.
"See you back at Berk, suckers!" Snotlout laughed as he and Hookfang turned around and flew back in the direction of Berk.
Helene rolled her eyes and muttered, more to herself than to her dragon, "I swear." She agreed with her with a growl.
It wasn't long before they realized they should be over Tall Tree Island, but couldn't see it. That didn't make any sense at all, they had been there multiple times in the past, they knew exactly where it was, but it wasn't there.
Hiccup vocalized this discrepancy, "I don't understand, we should be there by now."
"Maybe we're off course," Astrid guessed.
"I don't do "off course", Astrid." Fishlegs took out his map, "According to my map, it should be…" He looked around for the island, but couldn't see it anywhere.
"You were saying?" she deadpanned.
"Even if we were off course we'd still be able to see it from here," Hiccup pointed out.
"Well, an island can't just disappear, can it?" Helene inquired.
"Earthquake maybe?" Fishlegs estimated.
"Volcano?" Hiccup hypothesized.
"Wrath of Thor? Wrath of Odin?" Fishlegs put forward. The three of them looked at him doubtfully. "What? Just throwing out possible explanations!"
"None of that explains this!" Astrid pointed ahead of them.
Coming their way were a few Monstrous Nightmares, all of which appeared to be in a panic. They had to lower their bodies to their dragons as they flew directly over them.
Astrid caught a glimpse of the colors tagged on their bodies, "Orange?"
"Burnt apricot, actually," Fishlegs corrected.
"Those are the dragons I tagged on Sunstone Island," Helene announced.
Fishlegs smiled, "Ah, Sunstone Island, pristine beaches, a veritable smorgasbord of fine mineral deposits for Meatlug."
"Sunstone Island it is," Hiccup declared.
They made it to Sunstone Island, but there was a major problem with it, it was hardly an island at all, more a rock than anything else. It was only large enough for Fishlegs and Meatlug to stand on, Toothless and Stormfly were barely hanging onto what was left of it, Helene and Ripwave just stayed in the air.
"Huh, I thought it was bigger," Fishlegs casually mentioned.
"You think?" Astrid retorted.
Hiccup and Toothless nearly slipped off, "I- I have to say the beaches were a bit of a disappointment."
Helene was the only one who was not as calm as they were, "What the hell happened?! I was just here less than an hour ago!"
"One island is missing and one island has been sunk," Fishlegs assessed the situation.
"I guess an entire island can disappear," Astrid remarked.
Fishlegs then realized something, "Well, if- if the islands are gone, where do the dragons go?"
"Good question," Hiccup responded. "Dragons live in specific places for specific reasons."
"The food they eat, where they nest," he listed.
"If they lose their homes, it could endanger their entire species," Helene stated.
"We have to figure out what's going on, now," Hiccup declared. "Let's go back to Dragon Island."
Astrid scoffed slightly, "If it's still there."
They made it back to Dragon Island and they discovered where the dragons went after their islands disappeared. The dragons had come here, to Dragon Island.
Hiccup gaped at all the dragons, "Look at them all."
"Check their colors," Astrid told Fishlegs.
He pointed up at the different colors he saw, "I- I see pistachio, burnt apricot…"
"Look! A new color, red," Helene pointed it out.
"Technically that's vermillion," Fishlegs corrected her. Astrid gave him an irritated look. "What? It is!"
"Dragons from three different islands somehow here." Hiccup took out the map and drew a line from each of the missing islands, "Look, this forms a line, which means more islands in danger, Boarhead Island, Thor Rock Island," he tapped on the said islands. He looked at his dragon, "Toothless, we're going back out."
"I'm going with you," Astrid stated. "This could get dangerous."
"What makes you think that?" he asked playfully.
"Oh, I don't know, islands disappearing, dragons fleeing in terror. Call it a hunch," she replied, almost as playful as him.
"Fine. Fishlegs, you and Helene stay here in case more dragons show up," he told them.
"Got it!" he gave him a thumbs up. "New dragons. We're on the case."
"Go, guys, we can handle it," Helene affirmed.
They got onto their respective dragons and left, flying towards Boarhead Island. Leaving the two of them to keep an eye on Dragon Island for more of the tagged dragons to show up.
"Fishlegs, what do you think is going on here?" she asked him.
"Not sure," he responded with a slight shrug.
"What in the world could possibly be causing all of these dragons to lose their homes?" she asked again, slightly rhetorical.
"I don't know, but it would have to be something either the size of an island or capable of sinking the islands from within," he determined.
"What could do that?" she inquired.
No new dragons showed up, so they were just waiting around for Hiccup and Astrid to return. Although, just because no new dragons were coming didn't mean they didn't have to worry about anything, such as the wild dragons and whatever was going on with the disappearing islands. Meatlug started to become jittery, so Fishlegs had to calm her down, stating that she could get gassy if he didn't.
Helene grew bored with all of the waiting for Hiccup and Astrid and sat in the sand of the beach and drew in it with a stick with Ripwave by her side, protecting her from the wild dragons. If it weren't for the wild dragons everywhere and Meatlug with her nervousness, she could actually call it a little peaceful, as unbelievable as it may seem.
Then, she looked up from what she was doing and saw something different about the colors of the tagged dragons. Dragons with blue paint began to appear above in the air and down on the ground.
"Fishlegs!" she called out to him.
"What is it, Helene?" he asked.
She pointed at the blue-marked dragons, "Look! Blue-marked dragons just started to arrive."
"It's actually periwinkle, but that's not important right now." He then gasped in realization, "Oh, no! That means Boarhead Island is gone! What'll happen next?!"
She stood up and grabbed his shoulders, "Fishlegs, calm down! These dragons are safe while they're here and that's all that matters, but we also need to find out what's causing them to flee."
He took a couple of deep breaths, "You're right, you're right."
Astrid and Hiccup then returned to the island just moments later. They dismounted their dragons and came up to them.
"Periwinkle blue! There are now periwinkle blue dragons here!" Fishlegs frantically informed them.
"I know, Boarhead Island," he responded.
He then sees a new color just as the marked dragons arrived, "And- and look! There's eggshell white!"
"Thor Rock Island," Astrid stated.
"What happened to them?!" he practically shrieked.
Hiccup took out his map again and laid it out on a rock, taking out a charcoal stick as well. "The same thing that happened to all the other islands. The Screaming Death," he crossed out Boarhead Island and Thor Rock Island.
Helene gasped, "The Screaming Death-"
"Is back?" Fishlegs finished, nervous sweat beginning to secrete.
"I don't think it ever really left," Hiccup replied.
"Yeah, it just got bigger and nastier," Astrid added.
"Uh… how much bigger?" he nervously inquired.
"Chomp, chomp, there goes your island big," she crumbled some dirt and pebbles in her hand. He gulped and whimpered.
Hiccup analyzed the map and the destroyed islands, "It's just as I thought. The Screaming Death is following an imaginary line, destroying anything in its path."
Helene gasped, "It's coming right at us."
Ripwave could hear the fear in her rider's voice and came up to her, nudging her arm with her snout. Dragons with a connection to their riders, whether it's a strong or a weak one, can sense when there's something wrong with them, and she could tell there was some kind of history with this dragon that scared her and the other riders. She looked at her dragons and placed her hand on the side of her neck.
"That's not even the worst part." Hiccup drew a line from Dragon Island... to Berk.
"It's headed straight to Berk," Astrid gaped.
"We have to get back to Berk an- and warn Stoick!" Fishlegs avered frantically.
"No," Hiccup declared, surprising them all, "we head it off, we make our stand here. There's no other land between here and Berk."
"Look, I'm all about danger, but did you see the size of that thing?" Astrid's eyes were slightly wide.
"It's not going to be just us, we're sending for reinforcements," he replied, taking out a piece of paper and writing out a message.
"Snotlout and the twins? Oh, I feel so much better," she uttered sarcastically. Helene scoffed and rolled her eyes.
"Hey, we're gonna need all the help we can get." He attached the note to Sharpshot and released him to fly towards Berk.
They waited for the other riders to show up to help them out with the situation, but they didn't. The Screaming Death was coming, it would be there soon, they didn't have the time to wait for them.
"Hiccup!" Fishlegs called out to him as he and Astrid walked up to him and Helene. "The yellow-marked dragons from Sorrow Island just started showing up."
"Which means the Screaming Death is only one island away," Astrid pointed at the map.
"Looks like help's not coming. Alright, we'll have to set up a defense here, on Dragon Island with what we have," he declared.
"Maybe we should fall back and head for home," Astrid suggested.
"We can't, if the Screaming Death destroys Dragon Island, all these dragons will overwhelm Berk," he contended.
"And the Screaming Death won't be far behind," Helene added.
"Exactly," he replied.
"How soon till it gets here?" Astrid questioned.
As if on cue, they heard a loud roar in the distance, the ominous roar of the approaching Screaming Death. If the gods were watching, they needed them to protect them from this monstrous dragon.
Hiccup ran to get his Gronckle Iron shield and mounted Toothless, "Toothless and I will try to buy some time, you guys join me when Snotlout and the twins get here."
"I'm going with you," Astrid came up to him.
"No, I need you as a safety net in case it gets past me," he responded.
"So, you're leaving me here by myself?" she gaped at him.
"Uh, hello? Dragon Riders with dragons over here?" Fishlegs called out to her.
"You know what I meant," she replied.
He crossed his arms, "I do, and I'd like to go on the record that we don't appreciate it, do we, Meatlug? Helene?" Helene was leaning against Ripwave and simply shrugged.
She sighed, "Just go."
And with that they were gone, flying off to fight off the Screaming Death. Leaving the three of them to defend the island and wait for the others to arrive on the scene.
Astrid used her spyglass to look out for Snotlout and the twins, but she didn't see them. She groaned, "Ugh! I knew we couldn't rely on that Terrible Terror."
"Actually we can," Fishlegs began, "like all dragons, Terrible Terrors are-"
She cut him off, "Territorial, I know."
Then, something formed in his head, "Wait, that's it!" He grabbed her by the shoulders, "Astrid, you're a genius, I could kiss you on the lips right now!"
She pushed him away, "No one is kissing me! Ever!"
'Never say that, Astrid,' Helene thought.
"Why don't you cover Hiccup's back," he and Meatlug began to take to the air. "I've got an idea, but I'll need some time."
"Wait! Where are you doing?" Astrid questioned.
"Just trust me," he told her as he and Meatlug flew away.
She turned to Helene, "You heard him. Let's go."
They immediately mounted their dragons and flew up to help Hiccup. It wasn't long before they saw him and Toothless fighting off the Screaming Death.
'Astrid and Helene weren't kidding, this dragon is ginormous,' Helene thought.
Stormfly shot her flames at the Screaming Death to draw its attention away from Hiccup. Helene had Ripwave use her electricity to shock it, but it just shrugged it off.
"Take that, you overgrown earthworm!" Astrid shouted.
Despite their attacks, it didn't appear to be interesting in fighting them. It was only interested in Hiccup and Toothless, it only had a grudge against them.
"Dammit, turn around!" Helene yelled, which was rather unexpected from her.
Fishlegs and Meatlug then flew past them, ready to join the battle against the Screaming Death. And following them were the Gronckles from the various islands it destroyed.
"Fishlegs, what are you doing?!" Hiccup shrieked. "You need backup!"
"Oh, I've got backup," he responded seriously. "Meatlug, spew!"
Meatlug began to fire her lava blasts at the colossal albino dragon. The other Gronckles followed suit and fired their lava blasts at it as well, bombarding it with their combined firepower.
"Man, it's like Gronckle fest out here," Astrid remarked.
"How did he do it?" Helene asked Hiccup.
"Gronckles are territorial too, they will defend their homes at any cost," he answered. "Great idea, Fishlegs!"
"I know, right? Who's the safety net, now?" he gibed.
The Screaming Death roared as it tried to defend itself against all of the Gronckles. It then flew downward, burrowing into the ground of the island.
"You see that?" Fishlegs sounded slightly smug. "It ran away!"
"Uh, not quite," Hiccup responded nervously.
The entire island began to rumble, as if a gigantic earthquake was shaking it. The earthquake was so powerful that they could feel it even while in the air.
"You guys get as many wild dragons together as you can," he ordered. "I'll try to force it back to the surface."
With that, he and Toothless flew down and into the hole the Screaming Death left behind. Hopefully, they would be able to draw it out and they would all be able to chase it away.
"Let's go," Astrid addressed Fishlegs and Helene.
They split up to gather together the wild dragons from the destroyed islands. Fishlegs gathered more Gronckles, Astrid gathered together some Deadly Nadders, and Helene had to gather together as many Monstrous Nightmares and Hideous Zipplebacks as she could.
While she didn't have as much experience with them as Deadly Nadders, Smothering Smokebreaths or Toothless, she did know one thing, all dragons were curious. She had Ripwave hold in her electricity, causing her entire body to spark, and catching the attention of the Nightmares and Zipplebacks.
She led them to the Screaming Death, after it had erected out of the ground, and they instantly recognized the large dragon as the one who destroyed their homes. They, along with the Gronckles and Deadly Nadders, fired at the Screaming Death with everything they had in their arsenal.
"It's working! All the wild dragons are defending their homes!" Hiccup grinned.
It tried to fight them off with its fireballs and spines, but they continued to shoot at it, not holding back. Eventually, it got tired of trying to fight them off and started to fly away, but not before a Deadly Nadder fired at it one last time.
"I don't think the Screaming Death is gonna mess with Dragon Island anymore," Astrid remarked with a smile.
Then, the island started shaking again, the land was even beginning to crumble. Even while long gone, the Screaming Death was still able to cause cataclysmic damage.
"But that doesn't stop it from sinking," Hiccup attested.
What do they do now? They were caught in impossible situations before, but never anything such as this!
Then, an idea formed in Fishlegs' mind, "Lava blast!"
Meatlug started to spew her lava into the Screaming Death's hole. The other Gronckles did as she did and started to spew their lava into the hole as well, filling it. The lava soon cooled down, stabilizing the sinking island, and thus stopping it from being destroyed.
"The lava's stabilizing the island! Fishlegs, Meatlug, you two are the heroes today," Hiccup praised.
"Oh, come on, you're making us blush." He hugged Meatlug and she licked him.
The seven of them were leaving the Academy after assessing what occurred that day. They talked about Airmail, tagging the dragons, and, of course, the Screaming Death.
"Everyone saw how the Screaming Death turned tail as soon as Hookfang and I showed up, right?" Snotlout bragged, walking backwards.
"Uh-huh, and all those wild dragons had nothing to do with it," Astrid retorted sarcastically with her arms crossed.
"Cor-rect!" he replied.
"As long as we never have to see the Screaming Death again. It's giving Meatlug gas, and I don't have to tell you what that's like," Fishlegs told them.
"Hey, did you find anything new about the Screaming Death?" Helene asked.
"Well, the good news is they only hatch one every hundred years or so," he answered.
"That's the good news?" Astrid rhetorically questioned.
"What's the bad news?" Snotlout asked.
"Oh, let me guess. What's it gonna be? The end of the world?" Tuffnut guessed flippantly.
"Close," he uttered.
"Uh, I was kidding," he replied.
"The bad news is, it's still out there and some day it will return to Berk," he proclaimed ominously.
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(A/N: So? How was the new chapter? I'll admit, it's not exactly my best, but in my defense I did have a lot of stomach problems while writing this. Oh, man, I felt really sick.
I decided to give a new ability to the Shockjaw and, of course, Helene uses it to get the wild dragons to follow her. I got the inspiration for that from the Skrill and the Seashocker, which is another Tidal Class dragon that utilizes electricity.
I've been thinking about writing the episode "The Eel Effect" in the next chapter, although I'm not too sure yet. The next chapter might take a little while longer because I'm finally going back to in-person learning for school. I'm excited for it and I just wanted to make sure you guys knew.)