(A/N) Fun fact: In the development of this story, it was originally going to be a Big Four story starring Rapunzel, Jack, Hiccup, and Elsa. But then after some further thinking on how to tackle the story, it was turned into a Big Six story. So the biggest question was: who was going to be the new members? I went through a dozen characters: Moana, Merida, Astrid, etc.
But then after deciding Anna would take the fifth slot, I decided to go for someone a little different for the team. That being Raya, as she was a better version of Merida (Don't attack me, it's just a personal opinion), and she has actual training to help fight against enemies. And then I saw that Sisu could also be helpful to the story and decided she would be the final member of the team.
MORTAL18 - After the events of Raya, and there will be some spoilers to that story.
The next morning, the team made their way towards the edge of the land and looked out to the never ending sea.
"So, where exactly is Kumandra?" Anna asked Hiccup who was strapping their supplies onto Toothless' saddle.
"An island not known to many, but we should be able to make it there by mid-day." Hiccup promised as he got up and looked out in the distance. "But our mode of transport needs to be improved. Toothless isn't going to carry us all."
"So what's your plan?" Jack asked as he just wandered on the water, freezing it as his feet touched it.
"Elsa, you can make anything out of snow and ice, right?" Hiccup asked the Ice Queen.
"Yes, depending on what it is." Elsa confirmed.
"How about a boat for the three of you?" Hiccup asked as Elsa seemed to understand what he was asking for.
"Give me a minute." Elsa asked and marched forward towards the water and stomped on the ground, causing ice to slide off of her and off into the water.
Once there, the ice began to solidify and grow bigger, creating a small ship that could fit the three of them aboard.
"Great. Jack, you go ahead of them, freezing the water for easy transport, Elsa will keep the boat on track from behind, Anna will travel on board, and I'll take Rapunzel on Toothless, so her hair doesn't get tangled up on something or attract something in the ocean." Hiccup tells them the plan.
"Wait, really?" Rapunzel asked in excitement.
"Yeah, come on. We better get going." Hiccup tells her and climbs on Toothless for her to join him.
Back in the Southern Isles, Hans was scooping up the horse's den as a punishment for trying to kill the Queen and the sister of Arendelle. Hans sighed in annoyance as he's been at this for weeks and sees this isn't going to be ending any very time soon.
"Well, this is quite the strange occurrence." He heard Gothel as he turned to face her.
"Who are you?" Hans asked her.
"Someone offering you a chance to get out of here." Gothel tells Hans as if that explains everything.
"What? Hans questioned.
Gothel groaned and saw that she got stuck with one of the idiots. "Just come with me."
"How do you plan on escaping?" Hans asked her.
Gothel smiled at him as darkness surrounded them and they vanished from the prison, and nobody seems to have even noticed.
Back with the others, Rapunzel lets out a cheer as she and Hiccup were flying just above the sea level alongside the boat that held Anna and Elsa with Jack leading them across the ocean.
"This is so fu-u-u-u-u-n-n-n-n!" Rapunzel cheered happily as she leaned back and felt the wind on her face as they flew as fast as they could.
"I think she's enjoying herself." Jack informed Hiccup who agreed with him.
"Hey, guys, if you find a place to stop, I could really use a break." Anna asked of them while she was holding onto the side of the boat, feeling a bit sick.
Hiccup could see they've been flying for some time, and they deserve a break when he suddenly spotted some land up ahead but stopped when he saw smoke coming from it. "Hey, you guys see that?"
Jack and Anna looked ahead as Elsa stopped shooting ice and walked to the front of the boat and saw it. "Oh no..."
"Should we check it out?" Rapunzel asked, not knowing what to do.
Hiccup agreed with her, and they decided to change directions really fast.
"Am I the only one with a bad feeling in their stomach?" Jack asked, as this is a new feeling in his stomach.
No one replied as they kept going and what they saw, Elsa couldn't help but gasp at the sight that laid before her, around her, and behind her as well.
The vegetation was gone, leaving the land black and crisp and burnt. It might never be habitable for people or animals ever again.
They didn't have the slightest idea what could've done this. The air smelled stale and thick, almost like charcoal and a fireplace. The smoke still hung in the air, making it hard to breathe.
They came to a small hill on the dark terrain, and once they flew over it, and they found themselves gasping all over again.
There was a large, white, and blue hunk of ice, and even that was an estimate. Jagged pieces were strewn out of it like a lion's mane, some of them short and some of them long. Solid white with some hints of blue everywhere. It looked so sturdy that Hiccup was certain even Toothless would have a hard time blasting it down.
"This is..." Rapunzel tried to find the words to describe but had nothing.
"Whoa," Hiccup breathed from beside her.
The dragon came to a screeching halt in mid-air, roaring and growling at the structure of ice that laid before them. It was such a contrast to the black, ruined forest they had just passed.
"What could have done this?" Elsa asked.
Hiccup then spotted something and thinks that there might be people someone actually still here. Not wanting to put Rapunzel in danger, he flew over the boat and dropped her off.
"Jack, stick with me." Hiccup asked of Jack who agreed and flew off with him while Elsa guided the boat back to shore.
The guys circled the spikes of ice, glancing nervously around it. Hiccup couldn't help but notice pieces of splintered wood caught in the midst of the ice...almost as if the ice had sliced straight through the wood. There was a ship of two, completely wrecked by five spines of ice that shot straight through them.
"Even I can't do something like this." Jack muttered to himself.
"Me neither." Elsa agreed.
With damage like this, they would have been surprised if they actually did find any survivors. If this was an attack, no one would have been able to survive it.
Hiccup heard Toothless growl, and when they looked at what he was looking at, they saw a large footprint in the ground. It was big enough to be able to fit five, maybe even six Monstrous Nightmares, or even three Typhoomerang's.
"All right, easy, bud." Hiccup tells Toothless.
Jack then looked and saw survivors. "Hiccup!"
Hiccup looked to where Jack was looking and saw people with crossbows.
Just as they did so, a collective shout of "fire"! cut through the air, followed by a random bola shooting straight in their direction.
"Toothless, watch out!" Hiccup cried as he tried to dodge them, and was able to dodge the first one, but missed the other ones behind them which flew straight through Jack and tangled up with Toothless.
"Hiccup!" Jack cried as he dived down and quickly grabbed him from the rope as Toothless hits the ground and began to start fighting back against the people who shot him down.
Men jumped out from nowhere and began tying her. They were trying to take Toothless, and for what reason, they didn't know, but they was going to make sure they didn't get what they wanted as they swooped downwards while the girls made their way over the rubble to join them.
"Stop!" Hiccup cried as Jack then follows and hit the ground, just as Elsa created a bridge of ice for them to slide down towards the boys and raised their weapons of a frying pan, and hands. Men approached them, and Hiccup drew his Inferno sword, swishing it back and forth threateningly.
The men who had once been charging at them stopped, staring at Inferno's fire-lit blade in awe. Anna then grabbed a small, sword-length wooden plank off the ground and held it warningly.
One of the men, one who was approaching Toothless gasped in astonishment on what they caught. "Soil my britches," he said, rising to his full height, stepping on a rock. "That is a Night Fury!" the man gasped as he nudged one of his companions. "I thought that they were all gone for good. Looks like our luck's had a turn for the better, lads! Don't think Drago has one of those in his dragon army."
"Dragon army?" Jack asked them in confusion as to what he's saying.
Hiccup looked at Jack, and then looked back at the men. "Look, we don't want any trouble."
The man laughed. "Ha! You should've thought of that before you stole all of our dragons and blasted our fort to bits!" He gestured wildly to the ice spikes around them and the splintered wood.
"Yeah, look at it!" Another one of them men agreed.
"What are you talking about?" Rapunzel questioned in clear disbelief.
Hiccup stepped forward, no idea what these people are talking about anymore. "You think we did this?"
The man laughed again, sarcastically obvious. "Ha, dragon trapping is hard enough work as it is, without do-gooder Dragon Riders sneaking in to rescue them!"
"What do-gooder-" Hiccup began, but then, his voice cut off abruptly and his angry look turned to one of shock. "Wait, there are other Dragon Riders?" he asked as he retracted Inferno's blade, probably in hopes that by looking less menacing, these trappers would tell him what he wanted to know. He's been out here for years, and he's come up against other Dragon Hunters before, but this is the first he's ever heard of other Dragon Riders.
"You mean other than your thieving friend from last night?" He jabbed his finger at Hiccup. "You tell me. You may have an ice spitting dragon on your side, but we still have a quota to fill. How do you suppose we explain all this mess to Drago Bludvist?"
That name caused the five of them to look very confused as to who the heck that even is.
"Drago who-what-fist?" Jack asked the man. "Can they even see me?"
"What? Yes! Why wouldn't I see you?" He asked, shocking the team.
"Does anything you say make sense?" Hiccup asked the man while waving his hands around.
The trapper opened his mouth, but another one spoke up. "He's expecting a new shipment of dragons for his army by tomorrow," the low-voiced, short trapper spoke as the man who was talking first gestured that was what he was gonna say.
Another taller one stepped up. "And Drago don't take well to excuses." His voice sounded thick and clogged, almost as though he were congested.
The head trapper pulled down his sleeve, exposing a large, red scar on his shoulder and upper left chest. "This is what he gave me the last time I showed up empty handed." He pulled his sleeve back over his scar. "He promised to be far less understanding in the future."
"Look, we don't know anything about a dragon thief, or...an ice spitting dragon…" Hiccup tells the trapper as he saw the man suddenly nod...was it a signal? "Or your lunatic boss and his dragon army, okay? Just give us back our dragon, and we'll go, strange, hostile person whom we've never met."
"Oh, where are my manners?" The trapper shook his head. "I'm Eret." He bowed, but they could all easily see him hiding something behind his back. "Son of Eret." He then swung his arm, and his sword was drawn in his hand. "Finest dragon trapper alive! After all...it's not just anyone who can capture a Night Fury."
Toothless roared as he ripped of a few bonds.
"That's Toothless. He says we're going. Now!" Hiccup demanded.
"Hah! They all say that." Eret stated with a smug smile. "Rush 'em, lads!"
Trappers attacked from all directions, and Jack fired a blast of ice from his staff which hit a large icicle, and it fell in front of most of the trappers.
Hiccup pulled inferno out again and raced to his dragon while the others were keeping the hunters busy. Anna swing her wood, causing it to break on impact, but knocking them unconscious, nevertheless.
Rapunzel then swung her frying pan around whilst Elsa just froze the ground they were standing on so the hunters couldn't attack.
Hiccup worked quickly to get Toothless free and they started to make their leave. "Come on, guys!" He then ran by and picked up Anna on the way whilst Jack grabbed Rapunzel.
Elsa just used her magic to blast herself into the air and was caught by Toothless as they flew away, but they heard Eret cry out from the ground as he tried to stand on the ice.
"You will never hold onto that dragon!" Eret shouted from the ice below them. "You hear me?! Drago is coming for them all!"
Hiccup froze for a second and turned to face Eret one last time and wonders who this Drago Bludvist is. Quickly turning around, they flew off and left the hunters behind, but they all knew that this Drago is probably gonna be a problem for them later.
Hans looks around at the army of men and dragons that are captured and was actually impressed. There were dozens of dragons in cages or chained up, and a few covered in dark dust, giving off a dark feeling to them.
"I gotta say...I didn't expect this." Hans confesses as he turned to the round table with the other criminals he's working with. "The biggest and baddest enemies of others decided to bring me into their little club."
"Why do we need this boy?" Drago asked Pitch.
"Because...he possesses something that none of us do. He is unrecognizable to the mass world." Pitch answered as he slithered around them. "He is only known to some lands, and those are places that are less important to the plan."
"So what do you need me to do?" Hans asked Pitch.
"I want you to go to a land called...Kumandra." Pitch answered as he began to lean on the table as he stood across from Hans.
"And what exactly is it that I'm getting out of all of this?" Hans was curious to know. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm happy to be out of the prison, but I'm looking for something a little...bigger."
"You want to rule." Gothel could easily tell.
"I mean, it's the price for my services." Hans answered.
"Then you shall be able to rule whatever land you wish." Pitch offered to him. "Once I'm finally free, and in my true form, I will be able to conquer this world and we shall divide this world equally. You can rule it however you wish."
"Hm...I like the sound of that." Hans said with a grin on his face. "What exactly will I be doing?"
"Stealing something that will rise my army..." Pitch answered to him. "I need their Dragon Gem."
"What exactly is this dragon gem?" Hans asked, getting interested.
"A powerful artifact the people of Heart protect. And don't worry. You're going to have some help."
"Who?" Gothel asked.
As if on cue, they heard someone come strolling and see a slim figure coming in. He was a tall, slender, middle-aged man with receding gray hair, pale skin, light blue eyes, and a sharp chin. He wears leather armor, brown pants, grayish-brown boots, and a hooded jacket.
"Hello, my friends." The man greeted the others as his two Deathgrippers marched aside him. "How go your plans on conquering the world?"
"Grimmel." Pitch said happily. "I see you got my message."
"A year later, and no further along with your dragon army, I see." Grimmel commented as he looked to Drago.
"It's all because of that good for nothing dragon rider." Drago stated. "Her and her alpha is continuing to steal my dragons."
"Hm. That does sound like a nuisance." Grimmel understood what they were saying but began to walk out. "But I'm in the business of killing dragons, not retrieving them."
"That's not why we called you for." Pitch said as he appeared ahead of Grimmel, not even causing him to flinch. "It's about the other dragon rider. And his Night Fury."
Grimmel then finally looked shocked and surprised by that statement. "Impossible."
"It seems that one of them slipped through your fingers." Pitch stated. "We want you to help us to capture their Night Fury. Do we have a deal?"
Back with the others, Hiccup was able to fit Anna, Rapunzel, and Elsa on the back of Toothless, but it was doing a toll on Toothless as it was too much weight for him. The only thing it was really hurting was his speed, meaning it was gonna be a longer time to get to Kumandra.
"You guys think that this Drago guy has something to do with Pitch?" Rapunzel asked them, no idea what to say after everything that happened. "I mean, Pitch did kidnap dragons."
"It's possible. It could explain how he was able to see Jack." Hiccup tells her.
"Yeah, I was wondering about that." Jack agreed. "I guess if he works for Pitch, it makes sense he can see people like us if he believes."
"It's one thought. But we won't know anything until we reach Kumandra." Hiccup tells her.
"So, who exactly is it we're going to go see?" Anna finally asked.
Hiccup sighed and knew it was time they got the story. "When I was searching for somewhere to stay after I left Berk, I came across some land that actually was shaped like a dragon if you looked from the sky. It's geography is diverse into five regions. It's mostly made up of an immense tropical jungle, the northern part are made up of abnormal mountainous and snowy area full of snow-covered forests, and the eastern part consists of a huge desert where most of the rivers and rivers disappear. It is characterized by its valleys full of rock arches and dead vegetation, having some towns on the banks of rivers. Fang, Spine, Talon, Tail, and where we're heading to, Heart."
"Who do you know there?" Elsa was curious to know.
"Her name's Raya. The Chief's daughter. And...she has a talking dragon." Hiccup confessed, shocking the team.
"Wait, sorry, her dragon talks?" Elsa asked.
Jack looked suspicious as he moved closer towards Toothless with a look on his face. "Do you talk?"
Toothless rolled his eyes and spun his head to smack Jack with his ear, causing him to leave the dragon alone and rubbed his cheek as the others laughed.
"I'll take that as a no. How much further?" Jack asked in annoyance.
Hiccup laughed and petted Toothless on the head as they looked and saw that they were approaching an island in the distance.
"Depends how fast you can fly." Hiccup said as they saw they were finally approaching Kumandra.
"is that a challenge, Dragon Boy?" Jack asked him with a grin.
"Let's see who's faster. The imaginary friend or a dragon." Hiccup dared him. "Might wanna hold on back there."
The girls all saw this was going to go bad and grabbed onto everything they could as Toothless flew as fast as he could to get these people off of his back.