Hiccup was leafing through the Book of Dragons. The rustle of pages was the only sound in the Great Hall, apart from Fishlegs' constant fidgeting in his attempts to stay quiet. He finally gasped. Hiccup hadn't realized he was holding his breath. "Hiccup, I can't take it anymore," Fishlegs finally blurted out. "I want to go open about this. Will you please just hurry up? We haven't found out a lot of information on this new dragon and there's nothing you can do about that. Red Ghosts are like, well, ghosts. We only found them by chance."
Hiccup sighed. Maybe if he ignored him, Fishlegs would stay quiet. Hiccup frowned at Fishlegs, and went back to the Book. "Hiccuuuuuuuup..." Fishlegs moaned. Hiccup sighed again, and looked at him. "What? What is it, what do you want?" he asked.
"Hiccup, I can't stand not being able to tell everyone about what we've found, and it's driving me insane." Fishlegs said. "So can we please just get this over with as soon as possible?" he added. Hiccup stared at him, wondering how someone so intelligent could be so forgetful. This guy remembered every single fact about dragons there was to know, but he couldn't remember what he ate for breakfast an hour ago. "Fishlegs, I've told you, I want to give a Red Ghost to Astrid as gift to her." Hiccup told him. "If you could please be quiet, the whole village would not wake up and come to see what we're doing."
"Well, why me? Why didn't you get Snotlout or the twins, or even your mother to help? Why, out of all the people on this island, did you choose me?" Fishlegs ranted. Hiccup hurriedly shushed him. "Well, you know my mom isn't very good at hiding things, and she would probably act suspiciously around Astrid, and Snotlout and the twins are just, Snotlout and the twins." Fishlegs pondered for a bit. That was true. Valka was a dragon expert, but not so much at lying or at least covering something up. and then there was the three troublemakers. Hiccup had hit the nail right on the head with that one. Telling them to keep a secret would be like telling them to make it breaking news in all the nine realms.
All in all, he was probably the best choice that Hiccup had. "Okay Hiccup, you're right. Come on, let's go to Phantom Island. We can visit Soul. He could help us with our research, and we could train him along the way," Fishlegs beamed. Hiccup smiled and went out to Toothless, closely followed by Fishlegs, who was now telling Meatlug to "Get up, girl." Hiccup got on the still sleepy Toothless, and they flew off to Phantom Island, the uncharted island that was home to Red Ghosts.
=0=
Upon landing on the rocky beach, they were almost immediately greeted by a friendly roar. An enormous, majestic red dragon, with gargantuan wings and spikes and horns that could easily gut anything, crashed through the trees and fell at their feet, panting. Soul got up, and licked Toothless and Meatlug. Then those empty eyes, glowing red and devoid of pupils, settled on Hiccup and Fishlegs. It's horned, pointed snout nosed the two of them gently, until they patted him and rubbed their hands along the length of his horn. He jumped around happily, not unlike an excited dog, then shot a single celebratory ball of fire into the sky.
Red flames and streamers of fire erupted from Soul's mouth and in that moment, he looked extremely terrifying. The power and heat that radiated from him hinted at his true nature as the alpha and leader of the Red Ghosts, a great and powerful position that even the Alpha of all dragons acknowledged. Toothless gave out a faint growl from within the deep recesses of his throat, and his mouth, his nostrils, and the ridges on his spine and between his eyes momentarily glowed blue. Soul extinguished the fire in his mouth, and gave another roar of welcome, a gigantic thing in and of itself, multilayered sound that would have killed you with fright if you didn't know what made it.
"Hey, whaddya say we train a bit, huh?" Hiccup said when that terrifying sound had stopped. "We can practice the old tricks and I'll teach you new ones," he said cheerfully. "Well, Soul? How about it?"
Soul happily licked him and Fishlegs.
"I'll take that as a 'yes'," Hiccup grinned. He walked towards the side of the island that they used for training. Soul happily bounded along behind him, every once in a while crashing into or jumping on Meatlug or Toothless due to his recklessness. Hiccup climbed over a few boulders and jumped into the clearing, or Soul's training ground, and gasped at what he saw.
On the beach lay a dead Bewilderbeast. Blood flowed from the fresh wounds in its head, body, tail, and stomach. It looked like it had been killed viciously by another dragon, more powerful than it. But what was more powerful than a Bewilderbeast, that could have done this? The wounds were too large to be from claws. Fishlegs clambered up the boulders, slipped and fell down behind him. He got up. "Hiccup? What's wrong..." he trailed off, now seeing the dead Bewilderbeast. Hiccup's heart and mind raced. The holes in its body were too large for a harpoon, so what could have done this? Certainly not another Bewilderbeast. He had spotted this one, ashen white with gray spikes on the back of its neck and spine. It had been the only one in the vicinity. The only other one he knew the location of was a smaller one that lived quite far away from Phantom Island. Its tusks had been underdeveloped, little more than extended, thin stubs. It could never have done this. But then what could have?