A/N: Had this idea randomly one day while watching my snake. Thanks to midnight-girl32 for the reminder! Hope you all like it!

Oddities

"Toothless!"

Hiccup searched high and low for his best friend. The black dragon had gone missing two days ago without so much as a warning to his rider. The boy at first thought that this was completely normal and didn't worry too much. The next day, however, he began to panic. What could have possibly happened to the dragon?

Night fell quickly and Hiccup decided to call it a night. Sitting at his usual place in the Great Hall, he stared glumly at his chicken. He had no appetite. He barely noticed as someone sat beside him.

"Hiccup?"

He turned to see the blonde girl beside him. Concern glinted in her blue eyes as she placed a hand on his shoulder. He sighed and looked back at his chicken. "I've looked everywhere, Astrid..."

She offered a small smile. "Well look at it this way: he's definitely still on the island. It's not like he can fly away, right?"

Hiccup groaned and let his forehead meet the table. "Thanks for reminding me."

Astrid huffed and crossed her arms. "What? It's true! And besides, he'd never leave you."

"Then where is he?" he asked irritably. "What if he's hurt, or scared -"

"Hiccup, he's a Night Fury; I highly doubt he's hurt or scared," she stated, cutting him off.

"Fine then! If he's not hurt or scared and he can't fly away then where the hell is he?" Hiccup snapped, whipping his head around to face the blonde. Upon seeing the astonished look on his friend's face, his own features softened as guilt washed over him. "I'm sorry, Astrid, I'm just so worried about him..." He looked away once more.

"That's understandable," she said, leaning against him. "We'll find him yet, just you watch."

He nodded. "Yeah... yeah, that sounds good..."

The next morning, there was still no sign of the missing dragon. Hiccup slowly grew more discouraged as the day wore on, wandering listlessly around Berk. He let his feet take him where they may; he was too lost in thought to focus on anything else. People gave him piteous glances, and offered small smiles of encouragement. He kept going, his feet leading him through the forest and down a path he'd walked a hundred times before and finally coming out at their grotto.

It was horribly empty, devoid of life as the birds that previously had all left in preparation for winter. Quietly, he sat down on a rock, not wanting to go any further.

"Well this was stupid..." he muttered to himself, the words familiar.

A rustle to his left caught his attention, causing him to startle and almost fall off his rock.

"H-hello?"

A familiar whine met his ears and his heart almost stopped.

"Toothless?!"

Nothing. Sliding off the rock, Hiccup headed towards the source of the noise. Stepping through bushes and nearly tripping over a log, he slowly made his way towards the noise. In the bushes lay a large dark heap.

"Toothless!" Hiccup ran towards the dragon who looked up slowly, large beryl eyes lighting up as the sight of him. Getting up slowly, the dragon moved towards his rider. The boy, so happy he could have cried ran to Toothless, wrapping his arms around the scaly neck of his best friend.

He instantly noticed something was amiss. Running his hands over the scales, he frowned. "You're so... smooth, buddy. What have you been doing...?"

Looking around, he noticed something not far off. It was whiteish in colour and rough in texture. Leaning down, he took some of the papery substance between his thumb and forefinger. It crackled and crunched. He wracked his brain to try and figure out where he'd seen something like this before...

It hit him suddenly, and he drew in a sharp breath. There was no way he was right. Dragons didn't shed. Not like this, anyways. Frowning, he turned to his dragon. "For real?" he asked with an incredulous look.

The dragon gave a non-committal murmur. Maybe.

Hiccup shook his head. "This is kind of messed up, but at least I know what you've been doing these past three days..." He picked up a part of the skin, which lay in various pieces across the forest floor, and tucked it in his vest.

This was definitely a new entry for the manual...

A/N: Not as good as I thought it would be. I did some research, and found out that reptiles, in this case lizards, DO in fact shed their skins! Ahah! I knew about snakes, but not lizards. And I call myself a reptile buff. *shame* So this isn't as far-fetched as I previously thought! Anyways, review! And give me prompts! Or I'll... sic my buffalo on you.

~MissHanyou