Discovery and Complications
Fishlegs had spent the rest of the morning pouring through all of the research material that he had, hoping to find an answer. Astrid and the twins helped as best they could, while Hiccup watched over Snotlout. So far, the only things they found on the Buffalord were pretty general, not very much to go on. They stopped working when they heard footsteps and saw Hiccup walking into the clubhouse.
"How is he?" Astrid asked, referring to Snotlout.
"Resting," said Hiccup, as he walked over to the table, "What've you found?"
"We couldn't find anything in the Book of Dragons or Bork's Papers," Astrid sadly admitted.
"And I spent the last few hours combing through my Dragon Eye research," said Fishlegs, "During my research, I found some old notes. I didn't think much of them at first, but..."
Fishlegs ended his sentence by handing Hiccup a piece of paper with the notes on it. Hiccup took the paper and his eyes widened in surprise at what he found.
"The Buffalord!" Hiccup said, and then he signed and added, "But nothing on it's location. There's really not much about it here at all."
"It's big, has ram-like horns, and lives on plains. That's something," said Fishlegs, earning him annoyed looks from both Hiccup and Astrid, "I'll keep looking."
While Fishlegs started sifting through the papers, the twins found some drawings on the table; they were mostly just squiggly lines and dots.
"What's this stuff?" Tuffnut asked.
"That's nothing. Just some Dragon Eye tracings," said Fishlegs, "No useful information, just archaic dots and slashes."
As Fishlegs explained, however, the twins appeared to see something in the markings. Hiccup took notice of this and asked, "What? You guys see something?"
"Yeah," said Tuffnut, "These make a map."
"Duh!" said Ruffnut, "How do you guys not see that?"
Hiccup, Astrid, and Fishlegs looked confused at what the twins said. And then the twins started putting the tracings together and shifted them around as Tuffnut explained what each image actually was.
"See, those squiggles are water, that big nose is an island, those lines are sea stacks," Tuffnut explained as he moved the tracings into alignment to create a shape with the images, "And right here would be..."
"The Buffalord!" Hiccup finished, recognizing the image of the creature as the general description of said dragon.
"Okay, how did you guys do that?" Astrid asked.
"We're experts at interpretating abstract images," said Ruffnut, "Watch this."
Ruffnut held up a piece of paper with a straight line on it and Tuffnut answered, "A boat." Next she held up a picture of three straight lines and Tuffnut said, "A pineapple." She held up a picture of an oval and Tuffnut said, "Mom."
Astrid and Fishlegs looked confused, but Hiccup was more focused on the image the twins made. It seemed as though he realized something.
"Actually, this looks familiar," said Hiccup.
Hiccup took out a map of their island and others nearby. He placed the tracings on the map and moved them to one that was not that far away from them and shifted them around until they formed the same shape as the island that he found on the map. Everyone smiled at what their leader had found.
"We found it, Hiccup!" Fishlegs cheered, "We found it!"
Hiccup slammed his hand on the map and said, "We a location. Now let's hope to Odin they still exist."
The riders wasted no time in gathering previsions and taking off on their dragons to the island where they might find a Buffalord dragon. Hiccup stopped only to tell Hookfang to look after Snotlout while they were gone.
The riders flew together until they finally found the island from the map. It was a small island with lots of grassy plains; perfect environment for the Buffalord dragon.
"There it is!" Astrid shouted to the others, "It looks just like the one on the map! If there are any Buffalord, that's where they'll be!"
The riders landed on the island their dragons and surveyed the area. Hiccup then turned to speak to the others.
"Now, these dragons were supposedly hunted to extinction," Hiccup explained, "So, if there are any left, they will have developed a weariness towards humans."
"Which means we need to move quickly," Astrid agreed.
"And remember, we have less than two moons to find this dragon and bring the cure back to the Edge," said Hiccup.
"So, let's spread out and search the island," said Astrid, "Signal if any of you find anything."
With that, the dragon riders took off to search for any trace of the dragon that could save their friends' life. They flew in separate directions hoping to cover more ground. They flew around the island for the rest of the day with no luck. Some were starting to wonder if they would ever find a Buffalord.
As Hiccup and Toothless flew solo, they were both starting to get tired; Toothless even let out a yawn, which Hiccup noticed.
"I know, Bud. I'm tired too. But we have to keep looking," said Hiccup, feeling guilty for pushing his dragon. He then spotted a stream below and said, "Tell you what, we'll land here and get some water."
Toothless eargerly obeyed and flew down to the stream below. After landing, Hiccup dismounted Toothless and allowed him to get a drink of water while he himself filled his canteen. Hiccup drank his water from the canteen until he noticed Toothless started sniffing the air. Without warning, Toothless went bounding across the stream, like he was tracking something on the other side.
"Toothless?" Hiccup asked as he followed his dragon, "What is it, Bud?"
Hiccup followed Toothless across the stream until he found a huge pile of dragon poop. However, it was unlike anything he had ever seen before. The poop was green with what appeared to be vegetation sticking out of parts of it. He had no clue what this could be, so he had Toothless fire a plasma blast into the air to signal the others. After that was done, all he had to do was wait for them to arrive. As he waited, Hiccup started to become more and more worried for Snotlout; they may have had a lot of disagreements, but Snotlout was still his friend and his cousin. It was dark by the time the other dragon riders arrived at the spot where Hiccup and Toothless were waiting.
"We saw Toothless' signal in the air," said Astrid as she dismounted Stormfly, "What did you find?"
"You guys have to take a look at this," said Hiccup. He then led his friends to the dragon poop that he found.
"Whoa!" Tuffnut said, "That is one huge pile of poop!"
"What made that?" Ruffnut asked.
"I'm guessing a pretty big dragon," said Astrid.
Fishlegs examined the poop closely and noted, "Large size, unusual coloration."
Fishlegs grabbed a piece and smelled it, "Vegetarian diet. Not the remainants of any dragon I'm familiar with. And I know my dragon droppings."
"Could be the Buffalord," said Astrid, "That would explain why it lives on the plains. How many dragons could there be that eat plants?"
"Exactly," said Fishlegs. He then held the poop out to Hiccup and Astrid, who recoiled in disgust, and continued, "And look, it's still fresh. Last couple of hours. This dragon is still somewhere on this island."
"Fishlegs, would you get that out of our faces?" Astrid asked.
"I don't know what you're complaining about, A," said Tuffnut, "It has a very distinctive bouquet. Sort of herbal. It's quite nice."
Tuffnut then grabbed a piece of poop and started sniffing it. Astrid instantly covered her mouth and said, "I think I just threw up in my mouth." She looked back at Fishlegs and saw him sniffing the poop again. She recovered her and said, "There I go again."
Hiccup cleared his throat, getting his friends' attention, and said, "Well, if the dragon is still here, then I might know how to find it." Hiccup walked over to Toothless and grabbed his satchel. "This is new dragon tracking equipment," he explained, "Now, it hasn't been field tested yet, but it's worth a shot."
Hiccup then reached inside the satchel and tossed a strange looking substance on the ground. The substance glowed in the dark and revealed a set of dragon footprints. Fishlegs immediately recognized the substance that Hiccup used.
"Flightmare algae. Of course!" Fishlegs announced.
"Now, hopefully a dragon this large doesn't move too fast," said Hiccup.
Hiccup led the way and sprinkled more algae on the ground, revealing more footprints. The team followed Hiccup further and further, finding more footprints along the way. They stopped when Hiccup sprinkled algae and nothing appeared.
"What happened to the tracks?" Astrid asked.
"It must've taken flight here," said Hiccup, "Good thing the algae wasn't my only piece of equipment."
Hiccup reached back into his satchel and pulled out a strange looking spyglass. It has a handle and the only lens was the large one.
"It's like a spyglass," said Fishlegs.
"But for looking at stuff up close," said Hiccup, "I've been calling it a magnifying glass."
Hiccup crouched down to the ground and started using his magnifying glass to look for any kind of evidence that a Buffalord had been by. It only took a few seconds for him to find something.
"This way," Hiccup said, pointing up ahead.
"Are you sure?" Astrid asked.
"Yeah, I'm sure," said Hiccup. To prove his point, he held up what he found and said, "Dragon scale."
Hiccup continued to lead the team up a hill until they reached the top. Unfortunately, the sun was just starting to rise as they made their way up, so they had to shield their eyes once they made it to the top.
"I don't see anything," said Astrid.
"Does this mean we came all this way for nothing?" Ruffnut asked in disbelief.
Hiccup knew that there had to be something there, so he put on his spectacles and looked. Sure enough, he found something. It was a large creature with horns and wings.
"We didn't come here for nothing," said Hiccup. He handed the spectacles over to Astrid and said, "Take a look."
Astrid took the spectacles and looked up ahead. She did not expect to see anything, but then her eyes widened in surprise at what she saw.
"Hiccup, is that what I think it is?" Astrid asked.
"Yes," said Hiccup, smiling, "A Buffalord."
"Really? Alive?!" Tuffnut asked, and then tried to look ahead to see it. Unfortunately, he forgot about the sun, "Ow! My eyes!"
The others simply ignored Tuffnut and went down the hill slope. As they got closer, the team was able to get a better look at the dragon. had golden brown scales and that it's head was similar to a tortoise's, with ram-like horns growing on the sides of it's head, and a single horn growing atop the skull. It had very large wings, and four small legs that are positioned close to the middle of its body. It's body was quite bloated it had to be at least thirty feet long from head to tail. The dragon was currently feeding on grass and not paying attention to the riders.
Figuring that this was as good a time as any, Hiccup told his friends, "You guys distract the Buffalord while I get it's saliva."
"No way, Hiccup," said Astrid, "I'm not letting you do that alone. We don't know anything about this dragon. For all we know, it could be aggressive. I've got your back."
Seeing no point in arguing with Astrid, Hiccup sighed and said, "Alright, but everyone else, keep it's attention off of us."
"Okay," said Fishlegs, "Be careful, you two."
"We will," said Hiccup, and then he turned to Astrid and said, "C'mon. We have to hurry. We don't have much time."
Astrid nodded and followed Hiccup as he snuck up behind the Buffalord quietly. Fishlegs and the twins moved in front of the dragon to distract it as instructed. The Buffalord appeared to be more interested in grazing than anything else. It did look at Fishlegs and the twins once, but it was more curious about what they were doing there than angry about them being there. Of course, Fishlegs and the twins misinterpreted it's expression entirely and ran away screaming. Astrid and Hiccup saw that and groaned in annoyance. However, time was a factor, so Hiccup just approached the Buffalord with a cup while Astrid kept an eye on the dragon just in case it tried to attack Hiccup.
"Okay, easy," Hiccup whispered as he brought the cup closer to the dragons' mouth to catch some of it's drool. He waited eagerly for the drool to fall into the cup. Finally, a small amount of drool fell from the dragons' mouth into the cup. "Yes!"
"We got it!" Astrid called as she and Hiccup ran back to the others. The others cheered as Hiccup ran to Toothless.
"That was easy," said Fishlegs, smiling.
"Now let's get back to the Edge and..." Hiccup said as he mounted Toothless. However, once he looked inside the cup and was shocked by what he found, "What the...? It dried up!"
Fishlegs sighed and said, "Great. Now what do we do?"
"We rope him and take him back to Dragons Edge," said Hiccup, "It shouldn't be too hard, right?"
On Hiccup's instructions, the other dragon riders called their dragons. The dragons instantly arrived and the riders grabbed some ropes and tied them around the Buffalord. The dragon, surprisingly, was unaffected by the fact that humans were trying it up. Something that Fishlegs was quick to take note of.
"It's remarkably docile for a dragon this size," Fishlegs noted, "Almost Yak-like."
"That's good for us," said Astrid, "That makes our job easier."
"Aww," said Ruffnut, "He's kind of cute."
As Hiccup was pulling the rope towards Toothless, Tuffnut walked up to him and said, "Hey, Hiccup, can we keep him? I promise I'll walk him and feed him and stuff. We already know his poop doesn't smell. And he doesn't even act like it. Unlike Ruffnut, who acts like her poop doesn't smell."
"We need to get him back to Snotlout," Hiccup firmly reminded the male twin.
After much effort, Hiccup finally managed to tie the rope to Toothless' tail. He then mounted his dragon and told the others to follow him. Everyone ordered their dragons to take flight, which they did. At first the Buffalord did not move from the spot where it was grazing. And then, after some tugging and a little encouragement from Hiccup, the dragon flapped it's wings and started flying and followed the others. The dragon riders cheered and then started flying away to bring the Buffalord back to Dragons Edge. It seemed like all they had to do was guide the dragon to the Edge and everything would be fine. Unfortunately, for the dragon riders, things are not always that easy.
Once they were a couple of yards away from the island, the Buffalord realized it was being taken away from there and started expanding. It also sprouted spikes from it's body and prepared to attack. Astrid saw this and was quick to inform Hiccup and the others.
"Guys!" Astrid called, "Something's wrong!"
Before anyone could react, the dragon grew so big that it broke the ropes that held it. Once it was free, the dragon started breathing fire everywhere and then turned around to fly back to the island.
"No!" Hiccup shouted, "Stay with it! We have to get it back to the Edge!"
The riders tried to stop it from going back, only to end up getting attacked. Fishlegs and the twins almost got impaled by the spikes it shot from it's body, while Astrid and Hiccup nearly got burned by it's fire. With the riders out of the way, the Buffalord landed on the ground, calmed down, returned to regular size, and then went back to grazing. The riders stared at the dragon with wide eyes.
"What just happened?" Astrid asked.
"The Buffalord appears to be fine so long as he's on his island," Fishlegs guessed.
"Perfect," said Ruffnut, sarcasm in her voice, "We can't bring back the spit and we can't bring back the dragon."
"So what do we do?" Tuffnut asked.
Hiccup started thinking about their next move. They had to get the cure for Snotlout, but they were running out of time and options. If they try to bring back just the saliva in a cup, it would dry up before they get back to the Edge. If they tried to bring the dragon, it would get riled up and attack them to return to the island. They had to cure Snotlout, but they needed the dragon to do that. And that was when he realized what they had to do.
"If we can't bring the Buffalord to Snotlout, then we'll have to bring Snotlout to the Buffalord," said Hiccup.
Astrid nodded in understanding and said, "I'm on it. Let's go, Stormfly."
"No," said Hiccup, "Toothless is the fastest dragon. I'll go get Snotlout."
"Okay," said Astrid, "But be careful. We can't afford to have you both infected."
"I'll be fine," said Hiccup, and then he looked at Toothless and said, "Let's go, bud."
With that, Toothless took off and flew back in the direction they came, back to Dragons Edge; hopefully they were not too late to save their fellow rider.