Deep in the woods on the island of Uzuri, one worried sick Night Fury looks for his rider. Meanwhile, slightly deeper in the woods, but not too far off, someone stumbles onto something odd waiting just outside their door.
"BERYL!" In the door way of a small hut stood a girl around the age of sixteen. Her short, wavy, red hair dropped just below the jaw, which at the moment, hung in disbelief. The expression her mouth created as it hung open, corresponded perfectly with her wide blue eyes. The look upon her face was that of shock. The object of her shock: a small, lanky, Terrible Terror, sitting on top of one unconscious Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III. "B-Beryl! I send you fishing and you come home with…with a…Beryl, that's not a fish! It's not even close!"
The small teal and green dragon sat scratching behind it ears, as if it had no clue what was being said to it. Truth be told, it probably wasn't listening. This was Beryl, a very "special" dragon with a mind all its own, and a curious streak that got it into more trouble than you would care to know about. Looking up at the girl it gave a few chirpy roars and tilted its head as if to ponder something.
("Again with the blank stares.") The girls name was Frankie, and besides looking terribly confused, she also appeared to have just woken up. The clothes she wore were baggy on her thin body, and looked as if they had been slept in…a lot. "Alyssa!"
"What?" A few crashes were heard, and appearing in the door next to Frankie stood yet another girl around the age of sixteen. "…"It was silent as she gave a look of 'what the…' to Beryl. "Frances…uh…who is that?" This girl's name was Alyssa. She had black hair a bit longer than that of Frankie, and constantly wore it in a loose pony-tail. However, Unlike Frankie, Alyssa wore a long, short sleeved, solid gray shirt with grown pants, and dear-skin boots. "Frances! What in the world has your dragon done this time?"
A few muffled groans escaped Hiccups lungs as he attempted to rejoin the world of the living. "Toothless…bud, what happened?" Opening his eyes, he looked around as the world began to take its appropriate form before him. "Toothless?" Instead of being greeted by the Night Fury he was accustomed to, Hiccup came face to face with Beryl. "Uh…you aren't the dragon I was hoping to see."
Appearing to be displeased by Hiccup's words, a scowl crossed Beryl's face. Planting both feet on the ground, the small dragon bobbed its body up and down as if to challenge him.
"Oh, C'mon." Hiccup rolled out of the way to avoid being fried by the little Terrors flames. "Um…" Catching a glimpse of the two girls watching him from the door way, he tiled his head. Not only was he alive, no longer in the water, and being attacked by a Terrible Terror. There were…people watching him, with the same confused expression he wore. "H-hi?"
Shaking his head Hiccup realized something. "U-uh…which way is the ocean?" Attempting to get to his feet, his heart felt torn. Where was Toothless, and was he still alive? "Toothless! Bud, where are you?" He had been ripped away from his companion after the fall, and hadn't seen his before passing out under the water. Had he drowned?
His cries were soon answered by a distant overjoyed roar, which in turn, immediately quelled the fear of loss he had been stricken with moments before. "Bud! Get your tail over here!"
Bothe Alyssa and Frankie exchanged glances as something could be heard running through the dense wall of trees. When the Night Fury appeared, Frankie ran for cover as Alyssa walked forward absolutely in love with what she saw.
Toothless gave a look of pure elation as he ran up and lightly knocked Hiccup back to the ground. Checking to be sure nothing had happened to his rider, Toothless prodded Hiccups sides, legs, and arms as if he were an overgrown parent. Finding nothing wrong he gave a deep croon of relief, before licking Hiccups face.
"I was worried about you for a second there too bud." Laughing a bit, Hiccup hadn't noticed Alyssa's approach.
"That…is by far the most awesome things I've ever seen." Alyssa stepped forward only to be stopped half way.
Seeing a stranger so close to his rider after he had gone through such an ordeal, wasn't going over too well with Toothless. Taking on a defensive position, he crouched down over the place where Hiccup lay sprawled out on the ground, baring his teeth at Alyssa as she approached.
"Hey, it' ok. I'm not gunna hurt him." Extending both hands with palms flat, Alyssa continued to approach.
"Down Toothless, she's not gunna hurt us." Slipping out from underneath Toothless, Hiccup stood up and examined him. "Bud, you're pretty scratched up." Looking over and seeing the girl still attempting to approach the two of them, Hiccup reached over, grabbed her hand, and pulled her over. "He's not gunna hurt you now, I told him you were ok." Returning to his examination, he noticed a few cuts in the seat of the leather saddle, and jutting out of one such cut there appeared to be a rock of some kind. Upon further examination, he found the rock to be a bit of Shark Coal.
The gods had been on their side after all. Had he not been knocked free of the saddle, he would have taken a deadly beating among the rocks, and had the saddle not been present, Toothless would have been thrashed as well. "Thank you oh great Oden."
It had been a full three minutes, and Alyssa still had yet to move a muscle. Both hands stood placed on Toothless's snout, causing him to look a bit cross-eyed. "N-Night Fury…I'm…I'm touching a Night Fury." A childish grin crossed her face as she continued to watch the dragon under her hands. What she had yet to realize was that standing in awe was one thing…and sending a dragon into a cross-eyed stumble was another.
"Oh! I'm sorry!" Pulling her hands back toward her slowly, Alyssa was able to correct his posture by fixing his eye position. "I completely didn't notice the cross-eyededness. Wait um…that's not even a word." It was easier for her to just quit while she was ahead, so she put her hands back behind her back. "So…what cha doin?"
"Um…I'm on a small errand to find someone living on this island." Hiccup adjusted the straps on Toothless, before starting to tie the leather connectors on his own harness together. ("I have to fix them…again.")
"What's the errand? It's kind of a small island, so there aren't many people around. Maybe I'll know the person you're looking for." There was another brief pause before a few large crashes came from the house. "What are you doing in there Fran?"
"I'm looking for my- Beryl! Put that down right now!" Running from the house through a side door, Frankie was in hot pursuit of her small dragon companion, who seemed to be carrying a small vial of water in its mouth.
Unfortunately for Beryl, it wasn't water at all.
"Beryl!" She now had him cornered between a tree and a few boulders. "Beryl, now just drop it…lightly." Her fear for the small dragons life was a valid one, for contained in the vile protruding from its mouth was a lethal venom.
Not wanting to further displease his companion, Beryl placed the vile on the ground before spreading his wings. Doing so proved to be a useless action, seeing as no matter how hard he flapped, his body never left the ground.
From behind both Toothless and Hiccup couldn't help but chuckle. "Can't he fl-" In the next instant Hiccup was on the ground being bitten and scratched by the small Terror. "H-hey!"
Seeing such an action being taken against his rider, Toothless bared his teeth again. Getting down as if he were about to go for the kill, the slits of his eyes took on their familiar cat like form in anger.
"No, Beryl! Stop that now!" Feeling as if she were talking to herself, Frankie dove in as Toothless pounced. Grabbing Beryl around the neck, she pulled him away just seconds before Toothless made contact. "Oh…ouch." Holding her scrawny companion snugly in her arms, she looked down and watched as Hiccup held his stomach.
"B-bud…" The words sounder as if they carried more air with them than sound as he spoke. "N-nev….don't…bud, I think I'll get it next time o-ok?" Rolling over, he groaned in pain from having the wind pressed out of him.
Tilting his head, Toothless gave a low croon in apology, as well as a caring nudge to help comfort his rider after landing on him as he did. He usually tried very hard to be as gentle a possible with his flimsy human counterpart, and was very sore at Beryl for causing the trouble to begin with.
"It's ok bud, I know you didn't mean it." Having gained his second wind Hiccup once again stood. "So why doesn't he fly?"
"He does so fly!" The relieved expression on Frankie's face turned to a scowl as she spoke. "He can fly, and I'll prove it!" Lifting the Terror into the air, Frankie bent her arms back.
"Fran! Not again!" Alyssa pointed to the woods, but couldn't act fast enough. She knew what was going to happen from the moment the scowl appeared on Frankie's face. "Remember last-"
Perhaps some would consider Frankie to be a bit, scrawny, or light…but she had more throwing power that a slingshot. With one swift, fluid toss, Frankie had sent Beryl flying through the air at top speed. "He's gong it!"
("She sounds so sure, and yet…") Following the movement of the small dragon through the air, Hiccup flinched as it made contact with a tree. "Oh, the gods..." If he thought he had been in pain, then he didn't want to even imagine the pain now inflicted on Beryl.
"-Time." With her hand still extended in the air, Alyssa's index finger curled under before she retracted her arm. "And you do it again…anyway."
Dropping his wings and looking on in total amazement, Toothless fell to the ground on his back and laughed in deep broken roars. It was a sight to behold as his mouth flew open with his tongue dangling out on one side. For a dragon this was as close to hysterical laughter as it got.
Hanging her head low, Frankie sighed. "He'll do it someday." Walking over to Beryl, she picked him up by the tail and placed him on her shoulder. "Beryl, you didn't even try that time, why do you always have to be so lazy, especially when you're so…" The sound of her voice faded away as she walked back into the house.
Alyssa sighed. "I wonder if she'll ever learn from her mistakes at all." Shaking her head she turned back to look at Hiccup, who was now tending to the once hysterical dragon now lying in the dirt. "So, who is it you're looking for?"
Unsure what had just occurred, Hiccup looked back with a questioning face. "Uh…no, it's ok. You probably don't know her."
"Her? I know every girl on the island." A light scowl crossed her face. "Did I mention I hate living here?"She hated life on the small uneventful island more than anything. "I mean this island is crawling with girls!"
"Ok, ok, I'm looking for a woman named Madam Kroll." Hiccup helped Toothless back to his teeth and dusted off the saddle. "She's a healer that came to my village to help a long time ago. I need her healing experience to help a friend."
Another long pause ensued, followed by the sound of Alyssa turning to walk away. "You're about eleven years too late."
Seeing that he had done something to upset her, Hiccup glanced over at Toothless before clearing his throat. "H-hey, what's wrong? What do you mean I'm too late?"
"Go home. The woman you're looking for died eleven years ago." Reaching for the handle she turned to face them. "Just go home."
"I can't go home without someone to help." Walking up behind her Hiccup looked serious.
"My mother died helping people. I don't care much for helping 'people'." Opening the door, Alyssa walked inside. "So just. Go. HOME!" The door slammed shut.