(A/N: I'm sure some of you might be wondering what episode I'm writing for this chapter. Well… I'm not doing an episode parallel for this new chapter (*dodges a bullet*).

Let me explain. For those of you who are familiar with the game "School of Dragons", then you know that they have an Event in October and November, the Dreadfall Event. I play the game all the time and I'm playing during this year's Dreadfall, so I decided to incorporate that into this story.

Now, I personally don't consider the game to be canon (or the new series coming out soon) (*dodges another bullet*) but I do enjoy playing the Events and since it's Halloween, why not? I don't know if this has ever been done and I don't care, I just know that it's what I'm doing. I just want everyone to enjoy reading this special chapter!)

X-o-X~Y-I-Y~X-o-X

On an island in the north was a dragon base known as Dragon's Edge. It was hardly the crack of dawn, the sun had barely begun to rise, the dragons were still asleep as well as the people.

Inside of the highest hut was Ladok, in his bed, very much asleep. Dragon's Edge was rather cold to him, he wrapped himself in many furs to keep himself from freezing.

Although he had lived with his brother and new friends for over a month now, he still had a subconscious yearning to be with his mother. He missed her dearly, not a day went by that he didn't think about her and if she was alright.

Whether he knew it or not, it often bled into his dreams, especially the most vivid ones. The dreams often played more like memories in his sleep... because they were.

"Mommy," a child's high-pitched voice spoke.

A brown-haired woman looked away from the food she was preparing to look down at the innocent face of her son. He was holding the antler of either a deer or an elk in his blunt-clawed hand.

"What's this?" he asked, holding it up.

She reached down to pick him up in her arms and took it from him, "This is called an antler. It comes from animals like deer and elk."

Valka knew how much her young son enjoyed learning, as evidenced by how his eyes glazed over when she explained the antler to him. It was healthy to be curious, and he was definitely a very curious child.

She set him down in a chair at the table and returned to stirring food in a bowl. She put the bowl aside and began to cut up fresh fruits, berries to be exact.

"Do you want strawberries or raspberries?" she asked her young child.

"Uh, raspberries," he answered.

She put the raspberries, which she had cut into halves in order to make it easier for him, into the bowl and stirred them in. The bowl was filled with his favorite breakfast, oats.

She set the bowl in front of him with a spoon, "Here you go. Eat up."

He ate his breakfast while she prepared her own. She didn't typically eat a breakfast as hearty as he liked to, but she always ate enough to sustain herself through the day.

She made herself a toasted slice of bread with egg and cabbage and sat in the chair next to him. He was already almost finished with his oats and raspberries. She smiled at the ravenous appetite he had for his small body.

She took a bite out of her breakfast and, after swallowing, asked him, "Do you know what today is?"

He shook his head, "No. What, Mommy?"

"Do you remember what I told you about the Flightmare?" she asked again.

"That's the…" he trailed off for a couple of moments as he tried to recall what she had told him, "...glowing blue dragon... right?"

She nodded with a smile, "That's right, good job." He beamed at her excitedly. "And the Flightmare will be coming today."

He almost fell out of his chair with excitement as tugged his legs under him so he could sit on his knees, "Really?!"

She smiled and laughed softly as his enthusiasm, her little one was always so excitable. "It'll be here tonight."

What was morning quickly turned into night, the Flightmare would be passing by soon. Valka was excited by the prospect of being able to observe the dragon, very little was known about this species due to its hostile and aggressive nature.

The only one even more thrilled than she was, was her son, who was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. She let him stay awake long past his bedtime because she knew that he wouldn't be able to sleep without seeing the glowing dragon. She made sure he took longer naps throughout the day, so that he didn't fall asleep before the Flightmare arrived. She knew how devastated he would be if he missed it.

She knew that the Flightmare wouldn't be inside of the mountain-sized sanctuary, as there was no reason for it to be. With its aggressiveness, she understood how important it was to be stealthy, to observe it from somewhere far enough that it would not perceive them as a threat.

She knew what type of precautions would most likely have to be taken in order to be able to view the Flightmare unscathed, but that was the least of her concerns. They lived very far north, it was very cold, and while she wasn't worried about herself or her dragon, Cloudjumper, she was worried about her son.

He was very young and his body was like a lizard's, he was at a higher risk of hypothermia than she was. Her body heat would be able to keep him slightly warm, but not enough for a long enough period of time to keep him alive. She figured they would likely be out there for hours, she needed to help him stay warm until they could return to the warmth inside of the sanctuary.

The warmest natural material was wool, which she did not have much of. Cotton was also very useful for warmth and lightweight for his small body, she had cotton plants but not many and it was very time consuming work.

The best option was fur from the arctic fox, a common northern animal, a material she happened to have an abundance of. It would not be enough to keep him warm, however, but she was aware of a material that was a brilliant insulator, silk. It was very thin, lightweight, and soft, he would be able to carry it without it being uncomfortable for him.

She spent much of her day making an enclosed cloak for him with a hood to keep his head warm. Whenever he was awake from his naps, she would have Cloudjumper look after him. While she trusted the dragons of the sanctuary, Cloudjumper was the only one who knew how to take care of him.

When it was time to leave, she dressed Ladok in the cloak she made for him and dressed in her own warm clothing. Once they were dressed, she picked up her son and climbed onto Cloudjumper. With one arm securing her son in place and the other hand holding onto her dragon, they were flying out of the sanctuary.

Ladok had never been outside of the sanctuary before, but he had heard stories about it. He had his imagination to fill in some of the gaps, as any child did, and he was eager to finally see what it looked like.

They were flying upwards through a slightly narrow tunnel, he watched as the grey stone turned into turquoise ice. A faint light from the mouth of the tunnel slightly illuminated the cylindrical walls. They were not even out of the ice shard mountain yet and he was already having trouble containing his excitement.

When they finally flew out of the tunnel, he was not disappointed by what he saw. Above was a clear night sky with a full moon and millions of bright stars, but that wasn't all, there were also bright waves of green that danced on the dark canvas like flames. Below was a dark ocean with segments of ice sheets floating on the water, with the moonlight and bright green lights reflecting beautifully off them.

"Mommy, why is the sky green?" he asked, pointing up at it. "Is it on fire?"

She could have laughed at the questions, but he was only a child with a big curiosity. "No, it's not on fire, they might look like flames, but those green lights are actually an aurora. Back on Berk, the villagers called it Aurvandil's Fire, named after the first man to witness the Flightmare."

"The dragon makes it happen?" he asked again.

"I don't think so," she answered. "I think it's something natural, something the world itself can do on its own."

He smiled brightly with amazement, "Wow!" She returned his smile with her own.

As they flew through the air in search of the glowing dragon, Valka could feel a chill through her clothing, she had to ask her son if he was alright, "Are you cold?"

It was not until after she asked that question that he realized that he was not cold. He had no idea what she used for the clothes she made for him, but they were certainly very warm.

He looked up at his mother to answer her, "No, Mommy, I'm not cold. Are you?"

She gave him a small, soft smile and held him close to give him a hug. She loved how compassionate he was and she was proud of that. To her, it meant she was raising him correctly, she briefly mused that Hiccup would have been if she had never been taken away.

That fateful day still gave her bad memories, but she would never change it if given a choice. And although Ladok had no memories of his own of what happened when they were taken from Berk and their family, she felt that he would never change anything either.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Ladok crying out to get her attention, "Mommy! Mommy! Look! Lookie! Lookie!"

She rubbed his shoulders to soothe him, "What is it, sweetheart?"

"The ice is glowing," he told her as he held onto her arm.

She looked down at the ice and saw a labyrinth of glowing rivers. As breathtaking as the sight was, it was small in comparison to what she saw when her eyes travelled up a nearby glacier. Flowing down the colossal ice was a waterfall, a glowing waterfall that seemed to cause the entire glacier itself to illuminate.

As much as she wanted to stay and look at it for hours, she knew exactly what was causing that water to glow. And she knew that it meant the Flightmare was near.

She gazed down at the glowing labyrinth, looking to see if the Flightmare was there, but could not see it. With its glowing body and the illuminated water, it could easily camouflage itself, even so it should have been able to stand out against the flat ice.

'Where is it?' she mentally questioned.

When she was unable to find it on the ice below, she looked up at the glacier again and this time saw something that she had not seen previously. A light the same color as the water beamed from the top of the waterfall.

She knew what it had to be, but they had to get a better look to be certain. If it was what she thought it was, it could be extremely dangerous, they would have to be cautious to be able to view it.

She held onto Ladok tighter and tapped on her dragon, "Take us higher, Cloudjumper."

Cloudjumper let out a quiet warble in response and craned his snout upwards as he took them higher. He took them as high as he safely could without harming either of them before he stopped and began to slowly glide.

Now that they were at a higher altitude, Valka could look down at the glacier to see if she was right about what she assumed about the light. When she did, she discovered that she was indeed correct, consuming from the glowing river as it flowed down to the waterfall and the labyrinth below was the Flightmare.

Valka had briefly seen this type of dragon before, but the fear brought to the entire island of Berk by its presence had always prevented her from seeing it. Now, although she was high above it, she could finally see it.

The stories, myths, and briefest of glimpses she caught of it did not give it justice. This dragon was beautiful, and not because of its glow, but the ghostlike appearance it had with the flowing appendages on its wings and along its back.

Ladok had only seen one type of glowing dragon in his young life, the Fireworm dragon. That species glowed yellow and it was very hot to the touch, but this one was blue and he doubted that it was warm to touch in the slightest; it was more than likely to be very cold. He suddenly found himself wishing he could touch it for himself.

Ladok was roused from his dream by a sudden knocking at his door. He groaned as he pulled himself out of bed to open the door to see who it was.

He was surprised to see Helene standing in front of him. He would have thought it was more than likely to be Hiccup, not her. He was wearing a white tunic that exposed his bare, scaly chest, he reached for the open collar to cover himself. He had no idea why he did so, or why he felt so embarrassed about it, she had seen him without a shirt on, they all had.

He placed his hand on the inside of his door as he awkwardly greeted her, "Uh, hi. Good morning."

She smiled, "Hi, and it's closer to the afternoon than morning by now."

He thought he felt his cheeks and snout flush, "Oh. Oh, is it really?"

She was still smiling, "Yes, but that's not why I came up here. We're going back to Berk later today."

"Oh, that's nice. When are we leaving?" he asked.

"Probably in an hour or so," she answered. "Hiccup wants us to get there before dark."

"Why? Is something happening?" he asked her again.

"Yep, there's going to be a dinner tonight at the Great Hall," she responded. "Every year, Berk has a feast to celebrate that the Flightmare won't be arriving since it only comes once every ten years."

"I know," he replied, "and that's cool, it sounds like fun."

"Are you sure you want to go?" she questioned with clear concern. "The whole town will be there. Hiccup won't force us to go if you don't want to."

He appreciated how his brother remembered that he was not particularly fond of too many people, but he didn't want that to prevent any of them from having a good time at Berk. The village may not be as large as a thousand Vikings, but that did very little to calm his nerves.

Before he could fully think about it, he gave her a response, "No, no, it's fine, I'll be fine. We- we can go."

"Alright then, I'll go tell Hiccup," she replied.

She left and as soon as she was out of sight, he shut his door and pressed his back against it. He slid down the length of the door until he was sitting on the floor. His heartbeat was racing, beating faster than the speed of a Speed Stinger, he covered his face with his hands.

He lowered his hands and leaned his head back against the door, "What the hell did I just do?"

It was sunset by the time they arrived on Berk, landing in front of the steps that led to the Great Hall. Upon setting foot on the ground, Ladok couldn't help but to notice the decorations - candles that led up the stairs to the Great Hall were lit, lanterns were strung up on lines above the ground, and the livestock were all painted in an oddly skeletal pattern.

The arrival of the Flightmare caused dread to fall upon the villagers, but in between the ten years it did not arrive on the island, it's a celebration. He thought that was strange, when he saw the Flightmare when he was little he felt like celebrating, not during those years he never saw it.

As they went up the steps and got closer and closer to the Great Hall, he saw something on the colossal doors that made him become as frozen as a statue. Draped over the hard, thick wood was a tapestry of the Flightmare, the cloth was red, like blood. This tapestry wasn't to honor the Flightmare, it was to hope it never returned.

It wasn't until they almost reached the top step that Hiccup realized that Ladok wasn't with them. He turned around and saw that he was walking down the steps, not up.

He raced down to catch up to him and stopped him by grabbing onto his shoulder, "Hey! Where are you going?"

He turned around to face him, he looked very distraught, "I can't do it, Hiccup! I can't go in there!"

"Why?" he asked. "Why can't-"

He interrupted him, shouting, "Don't you get it?! I was practically raised by dragons! I've seen the Flightmare before in all its glory. I can't go inside with that thing on the door and expect to come out with a good conscience!"

Hiccup felt somewhere in between confusion and sympathy, he had also seen the Flightmare before and remembered how aggressive it was, but the way Ladok was telling it made him believe it did not behave in such a way towards him. He wanted to know what kind of upbringing he had, but it was impossible to turn back time and trade places with him.

"Hey, are you guys coming?" Astrid asked as she came down the steps with Helene.

Hiccup turned his head to look back at them, "Uh, yeah, we'll be up there in a bit. We're going for a walk."

"Alright, we'll see you in there," Helene replied.

The two girls left to go back up the steps, leaving the brothers. Hiccup wasn't sure why he decided to blurt out that they would be going on a walk together when had not even discussed it, but what was done was done.

"Are we really going on a walk?" Ladok asked.

"Yes," Hiccup answered, putting a hand on his shoulder again and leading him to continue down the steps, "I think it'll do you some good."

Ladok expected their walk to only be around the village, but instead Hiccup took them to the forest. He never had the chance to explore Berk's forests in the only two other times he had been to the island.

He saw mostly very common dragons - Deadly Nadders, Monstrous Nightmares, Gronckles, Hideous Zipplebacks, and Terrible Terrors - yet he thought he caught a glimpse of a slightly rarer dragon, the Whispering Death, although had only seen the tail and could not be certain. He decided not to tell Hiccup about it due to his distaste for the species.

"So..." Hiccup began slowly, "...I've been thinking about what you said earlier-"

"I was overreacting," he interjected quickly.

"No, no, no, you weren't," he shook his head with a smile. "I don't think you were overreacting, believe me." He smiled when he said that. "We've been at peace with the dragons here on Berk for over four years now and I can see how the image you saw might anger and disgust you."

He looked down at the ground and nodded silently, thinking, 'I suppose that's one way of putting it.'

Hiccup wrapped his arm around his shoulders, "Hey, chin up. Try not to be so depressed about it. Don't dwell on it, is what I'm trying to tell you."

Anger suddenly filled him as he removed his arm from him, "'Don't dwell on it'?! Hiccup, how the hell would you feel if it was an image of a decapitated Night Fury?"

He then looked at the ground himself and nodded his head repeatedly as he raised it to meet his eyes, "I get it, I understand you. I understand how you feel because I would feel the same way if I saw that. But if you want to be upset with someone, it's not me you should be yelling at."

Both sides wanted to say more, but they never did. A sudden loud cry rang out and interrupted what was happening between them. The sound was strange, it sounded like a combination of a roar and a shrill screech.

It sounded like it was most likely a dragon and they began to walk towards it to investigate. The odd noise could have come from a new species of dragon, or one that was already known and documented, that was why it had to be investigated further.

Hiccup stopped in his tracks when he suddenly stepped in something. He looked at the ground and was shocked by what he was looking at.

He wiped off a little of the substance from his boot and played with it in his fingers. As he did, Ladok gasped when he saw a familiar glow, "Glowing algae."

"Yeah, it is," Hiccup replied. "What's this doing here? The Flightmare isn't supposed to be here for another seven years."

The thought of the Flightmare arriving so early was honestly very terrifying, especially with its paralyzing mist and the fact that they were on their own. The other riders and their dragons, including Toothless, were back at the Great Hall.

"Maybe we should go back and get the others," Hiccup suggested.

"No," Ladok responded, "let's keep going."

It was his turn to become upset with him, "What?! Are you crazy?"

"Probably," he casually replied.

Ladok began to continue walking and - against his better judgement - Hiccup followed him. He was praying to every god he could think of that they would get out of the forest alive.

After walking for some time, they saw the algae's familiar glow. It was brighter this time because they had found the source of it, the river.

Suddenly, they heard the same sound from before and watched as a glowing dragon landed not too far from where they were. To their surprise, it wasn't the Flightmare, this dragon was about the same size as a Flightmare, but its body was oddly more like that of a Speed Stinger. A glowing Speed Stinger with the wings of a Flightmare.

"What is that?" Hiccup whispered.

"I," Ladok was about to give him an answer, but whatever he was going to say died in his throat, "I don't know."

They watched as the unusual dragon began to consume the glowing algae from the river. Then, it craned its neck and started to sniff the air, as though it smelled something, or someone.

Nervousness began to grow in Hiccup, he grabbed onto Ladok's arm and tried to pull on him, "Come on, let's go! Let's go before it knows we're here."

"Wait a second," he pulled his arm away and pointed at the dragon, "look."

He calmed himself for the moment to watch as the dragon used its talons to dig in the dirt and eat snails and other insects. It then used its muscular legs to take long strides along the river to look for more insects in other areas.

"Huh. This dragon seems to act like both a Flightmare and a Speed Stinger," Hiccup observed.

"Even down to the diet," Ladok noted.

"Yeah." A new thought formed in Hiccup's mind about this dragon. "Maybe-" he began before he stopped himself. "No, no. That's too out there."

"What is?" his brother asked.

"Well," he paused for a few moments, "I was thinking that maybe this dragon could be a hybrid. A hybrid between a Flightmare and a Speed Stinger."

He thought about that for several moments, considering the possibility, before he gave him a response, "You know, I think you're right, Hiccup. It's the only thing that makes sense, that has to be it."

"You know what this means, don't you?" he questioned playfully. "We've just discovered a whole new species of dragon! Us! Together!"

The realization of that fell onto Ladok like a rock slide, "You're right. We did! We discovered this dragon together, as brothers!"

"Great! Now, what should we call it?" he eagerly asked him.

Ladok went quiet as he thought about it, he wanted it to be something logical, but not entirely self-explanatory like other dragon species. "How about we call it… the Dreadstrider?"

"The Dreadstrider?" his older brother repeated. "Why that name?" It wasn't that he thought it was a terrible name, he only wanted to know why he came up with it.

"Well, when the Flightmare appears, everyone gets this feeling of fear and dread because they know what it can do to them. Speed Stingers are flightless dragons, but they use their legs to travel," he explained.

"And taking large steps, or strides, when they walk," Hiccup smiled with the realization.

He smiled back at him, "Exactly!"

They watched the newly named Dreadstrider for a little while longer as it ate from the river and forged for more food in the ground. It was certainly a privilege to witness a dragon in its natural state, without running away from it in terror. The irony about it all was that they never would have if they had the dragons or the other riders with them.

Hiccup looked up at the sky, the moon and stars were in full view against the darkness. "Hey, let's head back. It's getting late and I wanna be able to get some that feast at the Great Hall before it's all gone."

He gave him a small smile and nodded, "Alright, let's go."

As they began to walk back to the village, Hiccup wrapped his arm around Ladok's shoulders again, and he didn't object to it. Both had a feeling that this was going to be a day they never forget, not for a very long time.

The Dreadstrider heard the rustling in the bushes and grass as they left, but made no attempt to pursue them, they were no threat to it or its food. Instead, it took one last gulp of the algae before it raised its wings to fly away, up into the night sky with a glowing trail behind it as it soared elsewhere.

X-o-X~Y-I-Y~X-o-X

(A/N: Happy Halloween, everybody! (I bet you weren't expecting this!) I hope everyone enjoyed reading this special. I've never done anything like this, so I hope it came out good.

I'll be getting back to the episodes in the next chapter, just so you know. I am still thinking about what episode it should be though, but I'll figure it out very soon.

Again, Happy Halloween, I hope everyone has a great holiday. Stay safe and be sure to have a lot of fun on this wonderful day.)