Author's Note: Hello everyone and welcome to "Boutade!" Boutade means "a sudden outburst or outbreak." From that definition, you can probably already guess what this story is about.

I know that whole "Berk gets infected by a mysterious disease and the Dragon Riders have to find a cure" storyline has been done before, but I wanted to give it a shot and put my own twist on it. =) Also, I increased my word count/chapter length to 1,500-2,000 or more words. So my chapters are nice and lengthy! WOO!

On that note, I hope you enjoy chapter one of "Boutade!" =D


Chapter One: The First Fifteen

The Isle of Berk was a place where trouble was bound to find you. One minute life just couldn't get any better and then things get ultimately worse. Whether it be attacks from other viking tribes or dangerous dragons threatening the village, Berk was definitely a place where peace and quiet just didn't last for very long.

Hiccup and the other Dragon Riders returned to Berk from the Edge after winning the battle against the Dragon Hunters. Things have been calm and everyone was safe. Hiccup found it very surprising when he woke up one morning itching for adventure. The young viking considered it almost odd that nothing crazy had happened on Berk yet. Life just seemed perfectly normal and Hiccup found that very, very anomalous.

Toothless bounded up to him and licked his Rider all over. Hiccup groaned as he pushed the Night Fury's head away, flicking off dragon saliva after he managed to do so.

"Toothless you know that doesn't wash out!" Hiccup chastised him, albeit lightly. Toothless gurgled with laughter and Hiccup rolled his eyes, a smile crawling onto his face.

Hiccup strapped on his prosthetic and opened his window and looked outside. The sun was shining, Terrible Terrors were singing on the roof and all seemed right with the world. Hiccup breathed in the cool air and patted Toothless' head as he made his way downstairs to make breakfast. Now that Hiccup was almost twenty, he thought that making breakfast for both him and his father was the mature thing to do. But Hiccup knew that wasn't true. He was still a little worried about his father after his recovery. The thought of him almost dying made Hiccup shiver. He didn't want to lose his father. He was the only family he had left.

Hiccup gave Toothless his basket of fish and while the night Fury ate, Hiccup made breakfast for himself and his father. He pulled out two wooden bowls from the cupboard and began to make two simple servings of porridge. It wasn't long until Stoick came from his room.

"Hello, Hiccup," said Stoick cheerfully. "You're up early!"

"I am?" asked Hiccup. He hadn't realized that the sun was only halfway up in the sky. He shrugged. "I guess I am."

Toothless crooned and nudged Hiccup's leg. His eyes were dilated and he looked up at Hiccup with a begging expression. Hiccup pushed him away playfully.

"No, Toothless, you're not getting anymore fish, bud," he said. Toothless wined pathetically and huffed. Hiccup and Stoick laughed.

"It's a good thing you're not feeding him extra fish," said Stoick. "He's already overgrown enough!"

Toothless was offended. He swiped his tail at Stoick and curled up in the corner of the room.

"Aw...Toothless. Are you in a mood first thing in the morning?" Hiccup asked teasingly. Toothless mocked him by mouthing his words and flopped back down in a pout. Hiccup laughed.

"Will a flight make you feel better?" Hiccup asked the Night Fury. Toothless immediately perked up.

"We'll go once I'm done with breakfast, Bud," said Hiccup. Toothless' ears flattened against his head impatiently, but he sat down and waited as Hiccup dished himself and his father.

"Any plans for today?" asked Stoick. It had been two weeks since the Riders had returned from the Edge. Hiccup and his friends were catching up with things on Berk and Hiccup had been working in the forge whenever he could and worked on Dragonfly. Now that he thought about his friends, it had been awhile since they had hung out together. Sure, they encountered each other and talked for a bit, but they hadn't had a Dragon Race or any misadventures since they had returned from Dragon's Edge.

"No, not really," said Hiccup as he stirred his porridge. "I might finish Dragonfly today. Maybe I'll ask Astrid if she wants to go on a flight with me. We could probably have a race with the others."

Hiccup and Astrid had been seeing each other as frequently as they could, but not as frequent as they liked. Hiccup made sure to spend time with her as much as possible while simultaneously avoiding his father's talks about him becoming chief when he turned twenty. He hadn't told Astrid or any of his friends yet and wasn't planning to anytime soon.

"That sounds good," Stock said. He and Hiccup placed their bowls on the counter and walked outside. Hiccup mounted Toothless and waved to his father as he went off to do his chief duties. Hiccup and Toothless took to the sky and did six laps around Berk and landed in front of Astrid's house. He knocked on her door and she opened it.

"Hey, Hiccup!" she greeted him cheerfully. "I was just about to come to your house and ask if you wanted to do something with me and the others. It's been forever!"

"I actually came here to ask you the same thing," said Hiccup.

Astrid smiled. "Come on, let's go. I told them to meet up at the Academy."

Hiccup and Astrid mounted their dragons and flew to the Dragon Training Academy. Sure enough, the other Riders were inside talking with each other. Hiccup and Astrid landed and walked inside.

"Hey, Hiccup!" the others greeted.

Hiccup smiled. "Hey, guys. Wow, it's been awhile."

"Yeah," said Fishlegs. "Seems like forever since we were on the Edge finding new dragons and fighting the Dragon Hunters."

"I'm really going to miss that place," said Tuffnut. "There was so much excitement over there, but here, it's just so boring"

"Booooring…" Ruffnut added.

"I know, it's so weird," said Astrid. "There's always something happening here. It's just been so quiet since we defeated the Dragon Hunters."

"I guess we all got used to imminent death and drama," said Snotlout.

"We're vikings," said Hiccup. "It's an occupational hazard!"

The Riders laughed lightly.

"This is gonna sound weird, but I actually miss all that stuff," said Astrid. "Finding new dragons, saving the day...I just miss adventure."

"It won't be long until it finds us again," Hiccup said. "It's always around the corner, no matter how hard you try to stay away from it."

"But it really feels like this is the end…" Fishlegs said sadly.

"Then we're just going to have to make the most of our no longer adventure-filled lives," Hiccup said enthusiastically. "How about a race? To Dragon Island and back?"

The Dragon Riders looked at each other and smiled. They all hopped on their dragons and quickly took the skies. Hiccup and Toothless were in the lead with Astrid trailing not too far behind. Hiccup did a lap around Dragon Island and sped back toward Berk when Astrid suddenly took the lead!

"Hey! Are you feeding Stormfly chicken?" yelled Hiccup over the rushing winds.

"No!" said Astrid as she tossed Stormfly another leg. Hiccup shook his head and smiled.

"Cheater!" Ruffnut and Tuffnut shouted.

"Hey! I'm supposed to be the cheater!" shouted Snotlout.

"Come on, Bud. Let's show 'em what you got!" Hiccup yelled. Toothless roared as Hiccup clicked the tail prosthetic and wooshed with celerity passed Astrid. Astrid fed Stormfly another leg of chicken and sped after him, the other Riders in tow. Hiccup took bliss in the wind that ruffled his hair and whistled past him. Hiccup and Toothless sped toward the cove and dived in and landed on the ground.

"Woo-hoo!" Hiccup cheered. "I win!"

"No, I win!" cried Astrid. She hopped off of Stormfly quickly. "You didn't touch the ground!"

The other Riders landed and quickly mounted off their dragons. Ruffnut landed on the ground taking second place, Tuffnut landed on the ground taking third place, Fishlegs took fourth, and Snotlout took fifth.

"Aw man," said Hiccup. He slid off of Toothless' back.

"It's okay, Hiccup," said Tuffnut. "There's a first time for everything."

The Dragon Riders made their way back towards Berk, amiably chatting about things that happened in the past few days, things they missed about Dragon's Edge, and funny moments from their past adventures. Hiccup was happy to be with his friends again, even though there wasn't any adventure.

The Riders entered the plaza and found that people were whispering to each other worriedly. Hiccup saw Stoick talking with Gobber, worry was written all over their faces.

"Uh...what happened while we were gone?" asked Hiccup.

Stoick turned to Hiccup. "Seven villagers were admitted to Gothi's about an hour ago with a serious illness."

"It isn't the Scourge of Odin, is it?" asked Astrid.

"It isn't the Scourge, lass," said Gobber. "Gothi examined the patients thoroughly and…"

"And what?" the Riders asked in unison.

"She's never seen anything like it," Gobber finished.

"So Gothi doesn't know what this illness is, and you're worried about that?" said Snotlout. "It probably isn't contagious!" He froze. "Is it?"

Stoick and Gobber's faces grew solemn.

"What did Gothi say? How contagious is it, Dad?" asked Hiccup tentatively.

"Very, very, contagious," Stoick replied gravely.

"So we have a disease that Gothi has never seen before rampaging through Berk and it's very contagious and may possibly not have a cure?!" creid Fishlegs in a rush. "What do we do?!"

"We stay as hygienic as possible," said Astrid. "Hopefully not so many people will get sick at once—"

"Stoick!" a viking ran up to the chief out of breath. "Eight more vikings have been diagnosed with the illness. Gothi's gathering as many healers as possible and is quarantining the patients in the Great Hall."

Fifteen Berkians were infected with a mysterious illness and were being quarantined in the Great Hall. Gothi didn't know of a cure and villagers were getting infected by the hour. Hiccup drew in a sharp breath.

This...this is not the adventure I was hoping for, thought Hiccup. In fact...this is worse.