Dragons: Firestorm

Prologue

A hot wind blew in, carrying a large pack of creatures with it. They were all either fiery red, blazing orange, or cinder black. Tearing through the sky, they scanned the forest below with flaming eyes. When the ground looked satisfying, they landed with paws of ember, scorching the earth below their claws. The leader, a large, regal creature with a black hide and orangish-red flames licking up his sides, grinned evilly and sniffed the air. The smell of dying vegetation was his perfume, and he loved it. He took a step forward and flicked his saber-like claws out of his fingers, the edges as sharp as a sickle. The others extended their built-in switchblades and stood behind their alpha. The alpha spread his flaming wings and took off into the sky, searching for a base to plot his plunder.

Ch. 1

Hiccup lay on the roof, panting. It was summer again, and the giant waterspout that had destroyed the village was almost forgotten. Now the weather was extremely hot, and, even for the summer you and I might have, it was very unusual.

So, Hiccup was laying on the roof with his tongue hanging out, trying to cool off. It wasn't working, and the only breeze was a hot, dry one.

At least it wasn't humid.

Toothless was on his back in the grass, moaning about how hot it was. "Hiccup, it's too hot, I wanna go jump in the ocean, why is it so hot?......"

Of course, Hiccup couldn't understand the dragon, but he could guess what he was saying. "Toothless, shut up," he panted. "I don't care about your complaints right now, 'cause I feel the same."

Toothless looked up at Hiccup. "But I have BLACK scales! You know what sun does to dark colors! I'm probably more miserable than you right now!" Hiccup sighed and rolled up his sleeves, wiping his forehead. Ever since this crazy summer had started, he hadn't been wearing his armbands or shoulder pads or riding vest. It was too hot for that, so he was wearing his tunic instead.

All the Vikings were wearing less this summer, and it wasn't a pretty sight for most of them. Most of them looked like sweaty gorillas and smelled like a wet dog. The teens had discarded their furs, and the twins had gotten rid of their boots, going around barefoot instead. Astrid had removed her fur hood and shoulder pads, Snotlout wasn't wearing his vest, Fishlegs was reduced to a thin tunic made of fabric instead of fur, Tuffnut had taken off his armbands, vest and boots, and Ruffnut had done the same. Hiccup had his sleeves rolled up most of the time, but usually kept the one boot on. The prosthetic got real hot real fast, and it sometimes burned his leg, but he didn't really care at this point.

Hiccup glanced up at the sky. It was only morning, and it already felt like an inferno.

"Son!," Stoick called tiredly from inside the house. "Come...get some...breakfast...." Hiccup groaned and sat up, sliding into his room. He plodded down the steps and grabbed a bowl of cold porridge off the table, spooning it into his mouth tiredly. Stoick sat with a rapidly melting ice block to his forehead, muttering obscene comments about this weather. Hiccup gave a small, muffled laugh at his father's opinions. He finished his breakfast and headed outside again, hoping to find a nice shade tree. He found one on a little grassy knoll that was some way behind his house. He laid down under it, and Toothless plopped down next to him, purring contentedly. Hiccup had almost fallen asleep under the tree when something bounced off his head. He opened his eyes, and saw Astrid standing there with a grin on her face and an apple in her hand. Hiccup looked beside him, and another apple lay in the grass.

He grinned and Astrid pointed at the apple. "Eat it," she said. "I bet it tastes better than that goop your dad feeds you every morning. That's why I dropped it on your head." Hiccup picked up the apple and twisted the stem off before taking a bite out of it. Astrid sat down next to him, munching on her apple. Toothless nudged Hiccup, giving him a sweet look. Hiccup rolled his eyes and let Toothless take a small bite out of the apple.

Astrid sighed. "Gods, it's hot," she said. "This summer sure is a weird one."

Hiccup nodded. "Yeah," he said. "I wonder what's causing it?" Astrid shrugged and took another bite out of her apple. Sharpshot crawled up next to Toothless and tried to curl up in the Night Fury's wings, but Toothless hissed at the Terrible Terror and shook him off. Hiccup laughed. "Toothless," he said. "Leave Sharpshot alone." Astrid smirked and whistled for Stormfly. The blue dragon landed and curled up next to her mistress.

"I figure that, since you have both your dragons here, I should get to have mine...right?" Hiccup grinned and shrugged. "Sure, why not?," he said. Astrid smiled and rubbed Stormfly's head. The two and their dragons sat there for a few hours.

Then, a horn sounded in the square.

"Everyone who wishes to participate in a village dragon race, please come to the square at once!"

Astrid grinned at Hiccup and the two took off down the hill, their dragons following. When they got to the square, the rest of the riders were already there, and Gobber had a selection of paint buckets set out. A few other villagers had gathered as well. Gobber lugged the buckets closer to the riders and handed each a paintbrush. "Okay!," he bellowed. "You know how this works, but I'll recap anyway. Each of you paint your own design on your dragon with whatever color you want, but it has to be the same every time you race so we know who is who, for you newcomers!"

Hiccup grabbed the red paint and started applying the designs to Toothless. A red "v" down the forehead, red, jagged stripes around the arms and on the wings, red stripes around the tail, and the right tailfin red as well. Then Hiccup dipped two of his fingers into the paint and put two red stripes underneath each of his eyes.

Astrid's designs were a little more intricate. Her colors were blue and orange, and she put swirls around Stormfly's eyes. A blue and orange flame on each wing, alternating stripes on the legs and tail, and Stormfly was ready to go. Then, since Astrid couldn't really do it herself, she had Hiccup paint detailed swirls and stripes on her face to complete the look. Snotlout had simple alternating red and yellow stripes on both his cheeks and his dragon. Ruffnut had blue and yellow stripes on her face and on Barf. Tuffnut had blue and yellow on Belch, but a black and yellow skull design on his face. Fishlegs had a large orange and green circle on his face, and numerous similar designs on Meatlug.

Then, each racer lined up at the start. "Remember," Gobber yelled. "Whoever gets the most sheep and crosses the finish first wins! Black sheep is ten points!" Hiccup hopped on Toothless and smirked as he flipped around the prosthetic to the riding attachment. Astrid grinned at him and tensed up as Gobber raised the flag. The crowd held their breath.

Then, as if in slow motion, the flag went down, and the racers took off.

Toothless sped through the course, quickly pulling ahead of the others. He and Stormfly were neck and neck, flying at roughly the same pace. Astrid smirked and produced a piece of chicken from the saddle bag, tossing it to Stormfly. The chicken boosted Stormfly, and she raced ahead of Toothless.

"Hey!," Hiccup shouted. "Cheater!" Astrid ignored him and grabbed a sheep, tossing it into her net as she crossed the line. Hiccup rolled his eyes and grabbed another sheep, tossing it into his net. This lasted for about ten minutes, and then came the last lap. The black sheep was launched into the air, and Hiccup sped Toothless up. Astrid was flying toward the sheep at high speed, but no dragon can top the Night Fury. Toothless whipped past Stormfly and caught the sheep, dropping it into Hiccup's basket as he crossed the finish.

"Hiccup takes the game!," Stoick bellowed. "Again....." Hiccup landed next to Astrid, who punched him in the shoulder.

"Good game," she said. "Although you really shouldn't be allowed to participate. You have the ultimate dragon, one who's top speed is 200 miles an hour." Hiccup grinned.

"I wasn't even trying."

Ch. 2

The day started out normal, with another dragon race to wake everyone up.

Hiccup was flying through the last lap when he saw smoke. A huge forest fire blazed in the center of the forest, and it was spreading rapidly.

"FIRE!!," Hiccup yelled, haulting abruptly. He pointed to the forest, and everyone stopped what they were doing. Stoick whistled for Skullcrusher, and Hiccup and Astrid took off toward the flames. Toothless landed and Hiccup ran up to investigate the cause, Astrid joining him. Stoick arrived with a large group of Vikings with water barrels. They put out the fire quickly, and Hiccup and Astrid could figure out what started the fire without getting burned.

Hiccup looked at the ground. It was charred, but it had a yellowish tinge to it that indicated something unnatural.

Hiccup pinched some of the ash in his fingers and let it blow away in the wind. "This looks like some sort of dragon did this," he muttered to himself. "But what kind? Why would a dragon burn something just to destroy it, to destroy their own habitat, even? Maybe they were rogue and didn't care......but still, this isn't right."

Astrid rubbed her fingers through the ash. She looked up at Hiccup, and her eyes were wide with terror. "What dragon could've done this?," she said. "The fire was so close; we're probably being stalked, and slowly burned out, they probably wanna eat eat us.....or wipe us out and leave, either way, we're in trouble."

Hiccup looked back at Astrid. She was hoping for a counterclaim, but what she said could not be denied. Hiccup looked at the ground and sighed. Astrid closed her mouth and tried not to shake.

Hiccup stood up. "Well, let's just walk the dragons out; they look pretty tired-" Toothless flopped down onto the ground, panting. "-and we'll figure this out along the way. Dad, Gobber, wanna come with us?" Stoick and Gobber joined the two teens as they walked along, heading up to a small hill. Hiccup and Astrid talked about the fire and what might've started it, and the two old warriors placed bets for dragon races.

"Ha! Hiccup always wins! If Astrid wins this time, I'll be surprised!," Stoick said.

Gobber waved Stoick's comment off with his good hand. "PFFT! Astrid'll win, and I bet you--"

Just then, a ring of fire went up around the four and ignited the trees above them, making escape impossible.

Hiccup hopped off Toothless. "Get off your dragons!," he ordered. "Let them do what they want! Either they'll escape, or they'll protect us! Either way, just do it!" The others dismounted, and Grump and Skullcrusher left the scene immediately (dragons are fireproof, so they simply flew out).

Gobber sighed. "I knew Grump never liked me."

Stoick glared at where Skullcrusher left. "Why, that selfish little....."

Stormfly and Toothless stuck around, however, and kept growling at the flames. Hiccup put a hand on Toothless's head.

"What is it, bud?," he said nervously. Astrid pressed up close to Hiccup and looked at the fire with wide eyes.

"Hiccup," she whispered. "There's something IN the fire...." Hiccup looked close, and, sure enough, dark shapes were lurking in the flames. Hiccup instinctively whipped out his right arm and pushed Astrid backwards, shielding her from whatever was in the fire. He drew his firesword from the holster on his leg and pushed the button. The rods shot out of the handle and set alight instantly. All of a sudden, a white hot blur sped out of the flames and a loud slicing sound resinated through the fire. Hiccup looked up, and a flaming tree was about ready to topple over. He jumped out of the way, pulling Astrid with him. Stoick, Gobber, Stormfly, and Toothless didn't move in time, and the group was seperated by a huge wall of flame going straight through the center of the circle. Toothless yelped for Hiccup and whinnied, pacing back and forth on the other side. Stormfly screeched and wanted to fly through, but now the flames were too hot, even for a fireproof dragon. Astrid grabbed Hiccup's arm and huddled next to him as he waved his firesword, hoping to ward off whatever creatures were hunting them. He shuddered as the sound of claws scraping and clicking against rock mingled with the sound of crackling fire. Something hissed, and it was a hoarse, raspy, liquidy hiss that rattled Hiccup's chest. A snarl sliced through the flames, and it sounded like stones tumbling over one another. Hiccup grabbed the handle of his sword with both hands and bit his lip, whipping around at any sudden noises or movements.

They've cut us off, he thought. Hunting like wolves, seperating the weak from the rest..... Then, one of them emerged from the flames. Its head was long and pointed, making it resemble a snake. The rest of the creature showed itself, and it wasn't pretty. He was a dragon, but his front end was solid muscle and the rest of him looked emaciated. His ribs, spine, and hips jutted out from his sides, and his wings were literally flaming. He had an underbite, and its jaw looked as if it had been broken at one point, for it bent over to one side. The dragon had blazing red eyes and a red crest of what looked like feathers on his forehead. He was jet black, with red and orange flames licking up his underside. He took a step forward, and he was obviously the leader. The rest emerged from the flames, waving their flame-tipped tails menacingly. Hiccup brandished his firesword as Astrid backed up. The lead dragon gave a low rumble that sounded as if he was laughing and shook his head, an evil grin on his face. He held up his paw, and, one by one, a huge, sharp claw shot out from the scaly stubs. Then each claw set to flame, and Hiccup had been matched.

They have fireswords too, Hiccup thought. My one against their fifty. Each dragon had ten fire-claws, and it looked like there was five dragons altogether. Hiccup gulped and tensed up, and he could feel the paint on his cheeks melting. He edged backwards as the dragons advanced, then glanced at Astrid. She was crying fearfully, and the paint was running off her cheeks along with the tears. Hiccup looked back at the dragons. The leader smirked and tossed his head to the others, signaling for them to fall back. Hiccup gripped his sword, his hands sweaty and shaking. The leader held up his paw and extended one of his fingers, brandishing it like a sword.

He was challenging Hiccup to a duel....

Hiccup accepted and the two fought, boy against dragon, their flaming swords clashing. Hiccup feinted and parried each of the dragon's thrusts, throwing in a few of his own. Finally, the dragon flicked Hiccup's sword out of his hand and it fell on the dry, hot grass, setting it on fire instantly. Then, the dragon knocked him back and pinned him down with his hind foot. Astrid screamed and ran toward Hiccup, but the dragon whacked her back and signaled for one of his pack members to hold her down. Then he brought back his right hand and shot out the claws, hissing as he did so. Hiccup wriggled desperately under the dragon's hold, but his foot was too strong. The dragon's claws flamed and were about to strike down on Hiccup when Toothless showed up. He lunged at the dragon on top of Hiccup and wrestled him to the ground, grabbing him by the neck. He roared in the dragon's face and he screeched back, but flew off with his pack. Hiccup grabbed his sword and helped Astrid up, running to Toothless. The dragon had no saddle or fin on.

"Toothless!," Hiccup said. "What happened to the saddle?" Toothless looked through the wall of flame, and Hiccup understood. Stoick had removed the mechanism to prevent it from burning when Toothless jumped through the flames. Hiccup scratched his head. "How do we get out?" It was then they realized the danger they were in. The fire was closing in, making the ring smaller, and there was no way to fly out now. Astrid pressed up close to Hiccup and trembled, and he put an arm around her. Toothless wrapped his wings around the two to at least keep them from getting burned. The three sat there for what seemed like forever. Then, Hiccup heard shouting, and he looked up wearily from Astrid. He could see shapes coming toward them, pointing and yelling.

"There they are! Get some water on that fire and help them out!" Toothless unwrapped his wings more, and someone helped Hiccup up. Who it was, he didnt know; he was too delirious to really focus on anything. The rescuer put an arm around Hiccup's shoulder, and he did the same, the Viking helping him out of the fire. The cool grass outside shocked Hiccup, and, after that inferno, the heat of outside felt cold, and he shivered. Stoick sat down next to his son as the boy coughed. Hiccup looked up at his father, covered in soot and flecks of ash in his fiery red beard.

"Where's Astrid and Toothless?," Hiccup coughed, starting to worry.

Stoick smiled. "They're fine, son," he said, gesturing to where the fire was. Gobber was helping Astrid out of the ring of carbon, and Toothless padded alongside. Then Stoick gasped. "What happened to your face?! You've got two huge gashes on either side, and they're bleeding horribly!"

Hiccup laughed. "Dad," he said. "That's just the racing paint." Stoick heaved a sigh of relief as Gobber helped Astrid sit down next to Hiccup. She leaned against him tiredly.

"Hiccup," she whispered. "What were those things? The dragons that attacked us? I don't think they're in the Book of Dragons."

Hiccup sighed. "No," he said bluntly. "They weren't. They're a new, rogue species most likely. But they'll be in the book, and I'll make sure of it." Astrid looked up at Hiccup.

"What're you gonna call them?," she asked, wiping soot off Hiccup's cheek.  Hiccup stared at the charred destruction in front of him.

"Singeclaws," he said. "And the leader, I know just what to nickname him." Astrid glanced at Hiccup questioningly.

"Phoenix."

Ch. 3

Fireheart snuck into the Singeclaw camp, looking around wearily. Once he knew the coast was clear, he crawled into the fallen log that he had made his home.

Fireheart was a low-ranking dragon who usually obeyed orders. However, he had gone out hunting without Phoenix's permission, and decided to eat the catch himself. Fireheart rarely got any food, and when he did, he ate as much as Phoenix would let him. So, a midnight hunting trip was something Fireheart needed desperately.

Now, as Fireheart settled down, he hoped that no one had seen him. Usually, if you hunted by yourself, you had to give two-thirds of the catch to Phoenix. The Singeclaws ate well, but all had hereditary conditions in which they were skinny, bony, and always hungry, and to ensure that the pack did well, Phoenix had to have a bit more than his fare share of all prey caught. If you didn't share, that was no childish matter. Phoenix would personally kill you if you didn't provide him with some of your food. So, Fireheart was a little guilty, and a lot scared. As he drifted off, he dreamt of his family who had all died of starvation about a month before, and he missed them horribly. His dragonets, his mate, everyone he loved, were gone, and it was all Phoenix's fault. Fireheart fell into a feverish sleep, full of guilt and anger and fear.

Fireheart was ripped out of his log and thrown to the ground. He looked up, and there was Phoenix, who didn't look too pleased. "Cinderpaw told me she saw you hunting last night, and that you ate your prey ALL BY YOURSELF," he hissed. By this time, the rest of the pack had gathered to watch what happened. "Is that true?!," Phoenix continued. Fireheart stood up and looked the alpha in the eye.

"Yes," he snarled. "You hardly ever feed me. You always take the food for yourself. My family died because of your greed, Phoenix. I had to hunt, or else I'd have starved." Phoenix hissed and pounced on Fireheart, pinning him to the ground with his right paw.

"I don't care about your existance, Fireheart," he whispered menacingly. "If you died, I wouldn't have noticed."

"You should," Fireheart growled, wriggling under Phoenix.

"No," Phoenix grinned. "And I won't now, either." Phoenix's claws shot out of his fingers, and that was the end of it.

Fireheart's heart was no longer flaming, beating with hatred; it was still and run through with five holes.

Fireheart was dead.

Phoenix took his paw off Fireheart's body and nodded to Cinderpaw.

"Take this.....THING, away, please." Cinderpaw grabbed the body and flew off with it. Phoenix licked the blood off his claws and grinned evilly. He ran his tongue around the rim of his mouth in satisfaction. "One less mouth to feed," he said. "I'm done here."

                                                                           *

Hiccup was in the Great Hall, Astrid on his right and Fishlegs on his left.

"Are you sure that's what they look like?," Fishlegs said, skeptical as to Hiccup and Astrid's experience. "Because, something like that doesn't seem humanly possible..."

"SHUT UP, FISHLEGS!," Astrid shouted, tears starting to well up in her eyes. "When you've nearly been killed by a giant black dragon whose claws are like switchblades and can light on fire, you know what you're talking about!"

"Calm down, Astrid," Hiccup said grimly. "I know what you feel, but don't lash out about it. Yes, Fishlegs, that's what they look like, and they do exist. The alpha had me pinned and nearly had his claws going through my heart, okay? I think I know what I'm talking about." Hiccup sketched the Singeclaw into a blank page in the Stoker Class section of the Book of Dragons. It was incredibly realistic, not only because Hiccup was an excelent artist, but because the Singeclaw had been only three feet away from him. He jotted down all the observations he made during his brief encounter around the dragon.

"Sharp, switchblade-like claws that can light on fire, colors black, orange or red, live in packs, hunt like wolves, cutting off prey with fire. Medium sized at 20 to 25 feet long, weigh in somewhere around half a ton, extremely muscular front end, strong slight-built hind legs, very skinny/emaciated on hind end, tail tips that are on fire. Wings are very aerodynamic, with only one spoke and shaped like a sea bird's wing, constantly flaming, may be closely related to the Monstrous Nightmare. Virtually untrainable; rouge, violent dragons who love death and destruction, and will kill you without batting an eye."

Fishlegs read the description. "Wow. And you got all that from fifteen minutes in a ring of fire." Astrid gestured for Hiccup to give her the pencil.

"I wanna add something," she said. Hiccup gave her the pencil, and Astrid started drawing. Hiccup had never seen her draw before in the whole time he had known her, and the picture was astoundingly detailed. It was the silhouette of a Singeclaw stalking through the fire.

"I didn't know you could draw," Hiccup said as Astrid finished the sketch.

Astrid grinned. "Well," she said. "Now you know." Then she drew a line from the picture and added a caption. "Scales extremely fireproof; can withstand fire five times hotter than the normal limit."

Hiccup smirked as Astrid handed him the pencil. "And, you know this because......"

"Well, you could feel how hot that fire was," Astrid pointed out. "And Toothless got some pretty bad burns coming through that fire. Night Fury scales are supposed to be the most fireproof of dragon scales, and Toothless got burned. If his scales burned through, that's five times what he can withstand. You did that test, remember?"

Hiccup did remember. Toothless didn't like it one bit. Hiccup had pulled out one of his scales and heated it to five times the normal limit, and the scale melted.

"So," Astrid continued. "If Toothless got burned but the Singeclaws didn't, that means their scales are five times stronger. Simple logic; I assumed you'd have figured that out, Hiccup. You're not the only smart one on Berk." Hiccup laughed and closed the Book of Dragons. He set the book on a shelf and the three walked out of the Great Hall.

"I wanna go back to the scene of the fire and check it out," Hiccup said. "Astrid? Fishlegs? Wanna come along? If you come, Astrid, are you okay with me riding on Stormfly with you? Toothless hurts too much right now to do anything, so..."

"Sure," Astrid shrugged.

Fishlegs nodded. "Let me go get Meatlug," he said. "She'll want to see this stuff."

Ten minutes later, Hiccup, Astrid, Fishlegs, and the two dragons were standing at the edge of a ring of charcoal. Hiccup knelt down and ran his fingers through the dust, thinking. Fishlegs examined the scorch marks on the now-dead trees. Astrid walked to the middle of the ring and looked around. Something on the outside of the ring, about ten feet from the ring, caught her eye.

"Hiccup," she said, turning her head to him but keeping her eyes on the outside. "You might wanna take a look at this...." Hiccup joined her and Astrid pointed at the outside. "Those don't look like Singeclaw tracks," Astrid said. Hiccup walked to the strange markings and examined them. The tracks were huge, and they belonged to something bipedal. There were drag marks in the dirt where wings might've have been touching the ground. Hiccup sat back on his heels--or, his heel and the metal foot.

"Those are DEFINITEY not Singeclaw tracks," he said, starting to worry.

"Well," Astrid asked nervously. "Do you know what they are?"

"It's a Typhoomerang," Hiccup whispered. He remembered what they could do, and what would happen if you made them mad. The last time that happened was two years ago, but the threat was always there. "Fishlegs," Hiccup called. "Do you think you can tell how old this one is? Maybe its size, too?"

Fishlegs looked at the tracks. "This is not good," he said after a few moments. "This one is full grown and huge, probably sixty feet long and weighing in at, oh, I'd say nine tons. That's eighteen thousand pounds!"

"Wingspan?," Hiccup said nervously.

"Proportionately," Fishlegs said. "Probably around a hundred feet. That's not gonna be good if it gets mad; that fire-vortex will be two times the size of the village!" Hiccup looked back at Astrid. She looked ill wth fear, and she had gone almost completely white.

"Great," she said shakily. "Now we have to worry about a giant tornado of fire and savage killers who have flaming swords for claws. Perfect, this just made my day." She started wringing her hands nervously. Hiccup stood up and put a hand on her shoulder.

"It's gonna be okay, Astrid," he said in his I'm-trying-to-stay-calm-but-I-really-want-to-run-around-in-circles-screaming voice. "I don't think the Typhoomerang poses much of a threat, and those Singeclaws probably won't come back after meeting Toothless."

"Probably," Astrid said, looking up into Hiccup's eyes (by this time, Hiccup had passed Astrid in height by a few inches). "That means there's a chance they'll come back. I feel so much better."

Fishlegs smirked at Hiccup. "Nice job," he mouthed. Hiccup tried to say something, but couldn't come up with anything good, and gave up pathectically. Astrid folded her arms and sniffed, not meeting Hiccup's eyes.

"You know what?," Hiccup said after a few moments. "Why don't we just go home and worry about this tomorrow? We all need to rest, and I've had enough of this." He helped Astrid onto Stormfly and then hopped on himself, and the teens flew home. Hiccup said goodnight to Astrid and walked up the steps to his house.

Heading up to his room, he glanced at the wall. Lining it were pictures of his predecessors, the many great men who were chiefs with their sons, who were next in line for chiefdom. The very last picture was of Hiccup and Stoick, painted when Hiccup was fifteen. It not only showed who Hiccup really was (unlike Hamish II, who was exactly like Hiccup in build, but was painted as a buff, ideal Viking), but it reminded Hiccup that, within three years or so, he'd become chief. He had always worried about this, the day he'd have to give up his childhood freedom and play for the sake of the tribe. Hiccup was a hard worker, but he wasn't ready for this, and he was afraid he'd never be. What he really wanted to do was fly on Toothless all day every day, pushing the limits of his imagination and exploring new lands with his trusty dragon by his side. Which reminded him....

Hiccup got up to his room and checked on Toothless. The Night Fury was sleeping soundly, and had numerous bandages wrapped around him where his scales had burned through to the skin. Hiccup smiled and rubbed Toothless's head, and he woke up. He licked Hiccup, then reached around to lick at one of his bandages to heal the burn (Night Fury saliva has incredible healing properties, and also serves as glue due to its adhesiveness). Toothless then yawned and fell asleep again. Hiccup grinned tiredly and crawled into bed. He couldn't sleep, though. His mind was on those new dragons. The image of the leader, with his twisted jaw and wickedly sharp claws kept popping into Hiccup's brain. When he did fall asleep, he was quickly awoken by a nightmare, one that had huge black dragons with flaming switchblades for claws. Hiccup looked out the skylight. It was still only twilight and the sun hadn't gone down all the way yet, but it felt like he had been in bed forever. Hiccup sighed and jumped into the skylight before crawling onto the roof. He sat underneath the sky, yellow-green where the sun was, fading into green, which cascaded into a beautiful pale turquoise before shimmering into a grayish-bluish-purple backdrop studded with stars. Hiccup liked how much it cooled off during the night. He sat there for a while, watching the sun drop below the horizon and letting the breeze gently ruffle his medium-length auburn hair. He drew in a deep breath through his nose, and noticed a hint of smoke in the medley of summer scents. That  smoke wasn't a woodsy smell, it was a smell as virtually undescribable as dragon smoke can get. Hiccup felt his stomach turning.

Something was coming....

Ch. 4

The Typhoomerang landed with a thud in the Singeclaw camp. Her huge wings created giant gusts of wind that sent a few trees flying. She looked around as she stomped through the camp.

She was a magnificent, beautiful creature, with blood red at her tail and fading into a light yellow farther up her body. Her head, though grey like all Typhoomerangs, had subtle dark swirls around it that made it look as if smoke was winding its way across her scales. The underside of her wings had stunning flame designs that looked almost like they were moving, they were so realistic. Her head was beautifully defined, a slender form that was perfectly proportioned. Her eyes were centered just right and were a shocking ice blue that contrasted deeply the fiery colors of her body.

As the Typhoomerang walked through the camp, she yawned. It was a little early, and she wasn't the morning type. She came to a large, fallen tree and lowered her head. "You called for me, Phoenix?," she said. Phoenix stuck his head out.

"Ah, there you are, you beautiful creature," Phoenix crooned, crawling out of the log, his flaming wings charring the edge. "Have you scouted out the area where we shall sieze plunder, Emberscale?" Emberscale nodded.

"Yes, Phoenix. It is very suitable for you to hunt; a small village with, oh, I'd say a hundred residents. You'll have a feast," she said.

"And," Phoenix said. "You get your fare share, of course."

Emberscale smiled. "That's very tempting," she grinned. "But I don't need the food. I prefer eels. Human flesh just doesn't taste the same, and it makes me sick."

"I see," Phoenix said, nodding. "Well, then, what do you want in return, if anything?" Emberscale thought for a minute.

"Nothing, really," she shrugged. Phoenix grinned.

"Well, be on your way, then. I'll call for you again when I need you. Remember, when we take the village, I want you to help, okay?" Emberscale nodded and, with a single wingbeat, took off into the early morning sky.

                                                                                   *

Hiccup was in the smithy. He couldn't sleep last night, and had been in the shop since evening. He was working on a few more inventions, both for recreation and defense. His armbands would have built-in notebooks, and he had gotten those done last night. Hiccup was also adding a chest-plate sort of garment that had a strap across the front from the left shoulder and a flap where he could store another notebook. He was making an extra layer that would be made of dragon skin and his one boot would be leather, with little loops where he could store the Zippleback gas. The one thing Hiccup was really proud of, though, was his new helmet. He saved the other one just as an heirloom, not something for actual use since it was the last piece of his mother's past that he had. The new helmet would completely cover his face, and it had three rows of metal spines on it that looked like a dragon's dorsal scales (they're called scales because they're just normal scales that stick up out of the dragon's back, head or tail). Hiccup loved the new helmet, and it would serve him well.

The weather was getting hotter and drier, and it was not fun. The rest of the teens, including Hiccup and Astrid, had gone barefoot, and everyone was starting to tan.

Hiccup was beginning to question why Stoick was still wearing his furs, but decided that it was better he leave them on.

For Hiccup and everyone else.

Toothless's burns were healing quickly thanks to his amazing spit, but the dragon was still uncomfortable, especially that he had to be in that stuffy room. The sun beat down relentlessly on the tiny Isle of Berk as if it had lost its way and thought it was in Africa. The once-green grass was starting to turn yellow and brown, and it wasn't very fun to walk on. The trees were starting to twist and shrivel; the apple trees hardly bore any fruit, and the apples that Astrid usually picked herself and brought to Hiccup were small and sour. Berk wasn't used to this kind of weather. In Africa, the trees would be growing just fine, but here they were dying, for they weren't adapted for this. And it wasn't just the sun that was killing them. More and more sections of forest and meadow were being burned off by something. Hiccup had a hunch that it was the Singeclaws, but wasn't entirely sure. When he found a certain burnt tree, though, he started to worry.

It was the tree that he and Astrid had sat under about a week before. Now, you'd think this wouldn't pose much of a problem. But, Berk had grassy knolls all throughout the village, and this certain knoll was in the middle of it. If the tree on the knoll was now a blackened, twisted lump of carbon, that was something to worry about. A fire at this time of year, in this crazy weather, with rogue dragons around and the fire in the middle of a village that is composed entirely of wood...not exactly the best combination.

Now Hiccup stood in front of the tree, his eyes wide with horror. Astrid joined him, and as soon as she saw the tree she started to panic.

"What're we gonna do? What could've done this? Was it the Singeclaws? Or the Typhoomerang? Or both? What if, what if--" Hiccup put his hands on Astrid's shoulders and looked into her eyes.

"Calm. Down," he said. "Stop firing off all these random questions and breathe..." Astrid drew in a deep breath through her nose and nodded. "Okay," Hiccup said. "Now we can figure this out without losing our minds--"

Just then, Fishlegs ran by, screaming like a little girl. Hiccup smacked his hand to his face. "Aaaaaaaaand, I spoke too soon..."

"HiccupHiccupHiccup--," Fishlegs yipped.

"Shut up and calm down!," Hiccup snapped. "Wuddayawant?!!"

"That tree got burned!," Fishlegs panted, pointing to the tree Hiccup and Astrid were standing in front of.

"Yeah, we noticed," Astrid said, suddenly calm and assertive.

"And it's in the middle of the village!," Fishlegs continued.

"Oh, really?," Hiccup smirked, rolling his eyes. "Yeah, we already know that, Captain Obvious."

"But," Fishlegs rambled on. "That means that a dragon came in and burned it while we weren't looking and that it could come in and kill us all at any moment!"

Astrid, who had somehow gotten a hold of herself and returned to her normal, no-nonsense, violent self, sighed in annoyance. "Shut up, genius," she snapped. "I think the whole village is aware of that."

Fishlegs blinked. "How come you guys aren't freaking out?"

"We're not going to yet," Hiccup shrugged.

"Well, you should," Fishlegs said. "Right now, 'cause there is a giant wall of fire with dragons inside headed straight for us!" Hiccup started, then whipped around and ran to his house. He vaulted onto the roof and stood on top to look over the village walls. Fishlegs was right; flames a hundred feet high were advancing steadily, the wind blowing them further. Inside, if you looked close, were hundreds of dragon silhouettes, clawing their way through the flames. Hiccup jumped into his room and grabbed his firesword and helmet. Toothless, who was mostly healed, joined Hiccup as he ran out of the house. By this time, the entire village was in a panic. Hiccup ran to the tree. Astrid was standing there, petrified. Hiccup shook her.

"Get Stormfly!" Astrid nodded numbly and ran off to grab her dragon. Hiccup pulled the visor of his helmet over his face and braced himself, extending the sword.

Then the fire wall broke through to the village.

Ch. 5

"Okay, bud! We're gonna fight fire with fire!"

Toothless nodded and growled, his hackles rising. The first dragon to attack was a fiery red beast with bright yellow eyes. It launched itself at Hiccup, who slid under it and landed on his feet and right hand on the other side. The Singeclaw whipped around and roared at Hiccup before rushing him again. Hiccup smirked behind his helmet and held the point of his sword forward. The dragon, whose mouth was still open, didn't notice the sword, and got a flaming rod jammed down its throat. The fire gases inside the dragon seeped upward, and then came in contact with the fire. Hiccup pulled his sword back and shielded himself as the Singeclaw exploded. Hiccup harked this all back to when Toothless blew a little bit of fire into a Terrible Terror that was about to flame up. Hiccup used this to defeat the Red Death and numerous other dragon enemies, for the fire gases explode inside the dragon when fire comes in contact with it.

Hiccup stood back up and barely dodged a charging Singeclaw by bending over backwards. The Singeclaw's tail barely brushed Hiccup's chest, but it was enough to give him a pretty serious burn. He yelped but ignored the pain and faced the Singeclaw as the sulfurous smell of burning skin started to emanate from Hiccup's chest. Hiccup clenched his teeth and extended his sword towards the snarling dragon in front of him. The Singeclaw smirked and stalked around Hiccup, flaring its flaming wings evilly. Then, it leaped forward and nearly decapitated Hiccup with its claws. Hiccup had a small sword duel with the dragon before doing to it what he had done to the last one. He stood back and looked at the dragon' body, panting heavily.

Meanwhile, Astrid was back-to-back with Stormfly, her axe in her hands. The blade was already wet and glistening red, and Stormfly's teeth were bloodstained. More Singeclaws were stalking around them, snarling and growling. Astrid rubbed her hands on her skirt and gripped the handle of her axe, blood running down the shaft and onto her hands. One of the Singeclaws nodded to the ones around her and stepped forward, her claws clicking menacingly on the stone road. She was a cruel, yet attractive, beast, with highlights of scarlet and beady black and gray eyes and cinder gray scales.

Astrid tensed, and could feel Stormfly doing the same. Astrid looked at her hands; they were shaking and sweaty, but had a firm grip on the handle. She looked back up at the Singeclaws, eyeing them fearfully. Then the lead Singeclaw jumped forward and pinned Astrid down, barking for the others to distract Stormfly. Astrid braced herself with her axe, holding the Singeclaw back with the shaft of the weapon. The Singeclaw snapped at her, but couldn't lock her jaws on Astrid's arms. Instead, the dragon extended her claws and pushed against the axe in much the same way as Astrid. In the process, the dragon grabbed Astrid's hands, burning them horribly. Astrid screamed and let go of the axe, pushing on it with her feet instead.

Stormfly was having problems of her own. She had killed a few Singeclaws, but more kept coming. She snapped at one, clawed at another, and flung a spike straight through another's heart, but it was no use. Just then, Toothless appeared out of nowhere and shot a plasma blast at the Singeclaws. He attacked one of them and stunned three others with his tail all at the same time. The survivors retreated, looking over their shoulders at the Night Fury wearily.

The hunting party's leader was still trying to get to Astrid. She snapped at the teen and lashed her flaming tail evilly. Astrid winced as her burned hands scrapped against the sharp rock, making them bleed. Then Toothless launched himself at the Singeclaw and threw her to the ground. Hiccup wasn't far behind. He rushed up to Astrd and helped her up. Toothless roared at the Singeclaw, and she flew off wearily. Then he joined Hiccup, Astrid and Stormfly. Hiccup was staring at Astrid's hands, which were making his turn red with her blood (he was holding them as he had helped Astrid up, and was now staring at them in horror).

"What happened?!," Hiccup demanded fearfully.

"The dragon burned my hands," Astrid said shakily. "And then they got cut up on the ground." Hiccup ripped a strip of fabric from each of his sleeves and wrapped them around Astrid's hands.

"This should do for now," he said hurriedly. "Grab your axe and let's go!" Hiccup sheathed his sword and grabbed one of Astrid's hands gently, pulling her along as he ran down the hill, their two dragons in tow. Then Hiccup stopped. The pack of dragons was in the center of the village, and the alpha was roaring at the top of his lungs in satisfaction.

"This village shall be MINE!!! We will feast like kings tonight, my people!!!"

Hiccup set his jaw and made Astrid sit down. "Stay here!," he ordered.

"No!," Astrid said, grabbing her axe. "I'm coming with you!"

"No," Hiccup replied firmly. "You're staying here!" With that, Hiccup flipped the visor of his helmet over his face and took off down the hill, his firesword brandished. Toothless followed.

Phoenix whipped around when one of his dragons shouted. "Ah, it's these two peasants whom I was trying to eat last week," he hissed. "That black dragon is pretty tough for his size...." Then Phoenix smirked and threw his head back, howling like a dying wolf.

Hiccup was almost to the pack when a huge gust of wind knocked him over. A giant wall of fire blocked him from getting to the Singeclaws. Uh oh, Hiccup thought. He jumped up to get to Astrid, but then something huge flew overhead and created an enormous wall of fire between Hiccup and Astrid. Hiccup skidded to a stop and looked at the fire in despair. He could see dark shapes moving through the fire towards Astrid, and there was nothing he could do to stop them.

Ch. 6

Emberscale flew over the village, scanning the destruction. When Phoenix howled, that was her signal to come in and wreak havoc. Something inside Emberscale, though, made her hesitate before creating that wall of fire. As she looked down on it, she could see a dragon and a human pacing back and forth in front of it. Then the human sank to his knees and threw his helmet on the ground, sheathing his firesword. The dragon sat next to the human and nudged him sympathetically. Emberscale felt slightly sorry for the human, but then she saw the other side of the fire wall.

A young girl and her dragon were standing in front of the opposing side. With her sharp eyes, Emberscale could see that the girl had tears streaming down her scraped cheeks, the tears mixing with the blood and leaving red streaks on the skin. The girl also had a bloodstained axe in her bandaged hands, and, with mounting sadness, Emberscale knew that the axe would be futile against the Singeclaws. There were shapes of the dragons stalking the girl in the flames, and the girl dropped her axe and sank to her knees, giving up any chance of survival and letting herself die. The Singeclaws closed in, and Emberscale couldn't watch this any longer. She dove downward and landed behind the girl and the dragon. The girl screamed...

Astrid grabbed her axe again as the giant dragoness landed.

So this is the dragon we tracked along the hill, she thought hysterically. Astrid knew the axe wouldn't do her much good against this beast, but still she gripped it as it gave her a sense of power, or, more common, comfort when Hiccup wasn't there. The Typhoomerang lowered her head and walked forward almost cautiously, then made a sort of growling noise in her throat. Astrid looked around, confused. After a moment, a large Singeclaw that Astrid recognized, not only as the alpha, but the dragon who nearly ran Hiccup through like a flaming shishkabob, stepped out of the flames and sauntered right up to the Typhoomerang. The two dragons appeared to be having some sort of conversation, and the Singeclaw started to get pretty mad.

"EMBERSCALE!!! HOW DARE YOU TURN ON ME AT A TIME LIKE THIS?!!!" Emberscale simply blew a huge ring of smoke in Phoenix's face.

"I'm sorry," she hissed. "But I cannot just stand by and let innocent humans get viciously killed by my own kind. I want this to change, and I'm going to start the transformation."

"How?!," Phoenix demanded.

"By protecting this village from YOU," Emberscale snarled. "And all the others out there. You're not eating anyone here if I can help it, you flaming slug." Phoenix flinched, and his followers gasped. No one ever talked down to Phoenix, Son of Infernoclaw the Incinerator VII and High Ruler of the Flamesabers (this is what they referred to themselves as). After a few silent, tense moments, Phoenix blinked and took in a deep breath to remain calm, obviously disgruntled by the insult. He held his head high and kept his chin up, puffing out his chest.

"I shall take offense to that," he said quietly. "But in the calmest way possible as to not lose my temper, and I will do what I must to feed my pack, even if that means killing you, Emberscale." Emberscale brought her head back up to its height thirty-five feet off the ground and set her jaw angrily.

Astrid was watching with a confused, yet terrified, expression. The Typhoomerang raised her wings, and sparks started flying from the base of her neck, signaling the start of a fire vortex attack. Astrid cowered next to Stormfly, who spread her wings over the girl. Then the Typhoomerang took a deep breath...

                                                                          *

Hiccup's head flung up as the earsplitting, bloodcurdling, hair-raising battle scream of a dragon pierced through the air. It was echoed by the howls and battle screeches of what sounded like a pack of zombie wolves a thousand strong.

"ASTRID!!!," he shouted. Pacing wildly in front of the impentratable flames, running his hands through his hair in desperation, Hiccup tried to think of a plan. Nothing came to mind, and he could only watch as more flames shot upward on the other side of the fire wall. The roars and screeches of dragons sliced through the hot dry air, the inferno roared, and everything else seemed quiet. It was as if the fire and the dragons were the only noises, and that the rest of the world was holding its breath. Hiccup's green eyes blazed, and so did the fire, uncaring of his worries. He didn't know what was happening on the other side of the wall, but it didn't sound good.

----

Emberscale had already decimated two-thirds of the pack's remains. She was steadily killing off the rest. Astrid and Stormfly were watching with horror at the bloody destruction in front of them. The Typhoomerang fighting the Singeclaws had started another fire, so Astrid and Stormfly were stuck even further, for the flames were way too hot and curved over at the top, preventing escape.

Emberscale had about five dragons left now, including Phoenix. While Emberscale was preoccupied with four of them, Phoenix had his eye on Astrid and Stormfly. He barked at one of the dragons fighting Emberscale (the other three were all very strong warriors, and were starting to weaken the Typhoomerang slightly), and that dragon joined him. Phoenix ordered her to distract Stormfly, and he stalked through the flames toward Astrid, wanting to kill her himself. He didn't want any food now; all he wanted was the satisfacion of human blood on his flaming claws. He nodded to the other dragon, and she leaped out of the fire and attacked Stormfly, but purposely avoided killing her.

"STORMFLY!!!," Astrid shouted. She was about to run and help the dragon, but, before she knew what hit her, Phoenix was on top of her. His right paw was on her arm, and he dug his flaming claws into it.....

----

Hiccup went white when he heard it. Astrid's scream of pain. It was the most gut-wrenching, painful thing he had ever heard, and he knew it was bad. He looked at Toothless, who nodded determinedly. Each knew what the other was thinking, and they knew what they had to do. Toothless wrapped his wings around Hiccup and ran through the fire, ignoring the burns that were opening up again. When they got to the other side, Hiccup landed at a run, his firesword drawn. He vaulted onto Phoenix's back, rolling him off Astrid. Astrid rolled over onto her side, crying uncontrollably and squeezing her arm so hard her knuckles turned white. The ground was slowly starting to turn red, along with Astrid's hand and arm.

Meanwhile, Hiccup was struggling with Phoenix. He had the dragon on his back on the ground, snapping at him while swordfighting with him at the same time. Hiccup fought better than he ever had before, slashing and parrying desperately. Phoenix had cut him and burned him several times already, but Hiccup ignored the pain and fought as if his life depended on it. It actually kind of did, but the life that really needed to stay living was Astrid's. Hiccup had glanced back at her in between thrusts, and on the ground around her was a pool of blood that was growing slowly. She was awake, but in serious danger. So, Hiccup needed to rid this place of Phoenix. Really, it was also for the village's good, but Hiccup's goal at the moment was confined to vengeance.

Hiccup was fighting Phoenix when the dragon decided now would be a good time for a blast of fire. Hiccup saw an opportunity, and took it. He jammed his firesword down Phoenix's throat, and there the flames met with the gas. Phoenix panicked and threw Hiccup off him, but it was already too late. Hiccup grabbed his firesword and shielded himself. Phoenix howled one last time, and then exploded. Emberscale jumped, and the other Singeclaws flew off, terrified, never to be seen again. Now for the more important priorities. Hiccup ran over to Astrid, who had tears streaming down her ash-stained cheeks. Hiccup looked her up and down, and gasped at her red hand. Lifting it off her arm, he turned white. There were four, two-inch deep puncture wounds in her arm that had the yellowish-white of a blistering third-degree burn around the rim of each gash and down into the holes as well. The wounds were bleeding horribly. Hiccup ripped a strip of fabric from his sleeve and wrapped it tightly around Astrid's arm just below the wound as a tourniquet. Then he sat her up and checked for any more injuries.

"Do you think you'll be able to walk?," he asked. Astrid stood up weakly, her legs shaking. Hiccup supported her, and they walked toward Stormfly.

"But, Hiccup," Astrid said shakily. "We can't fly out with those flames." Hiccup looked up at the fire in despair.

Emberscale watched with a crushed expression. These two were completely innocent, and both were now injured badly, especially the girl. They had no way of escape without hurting themselves even more, and if no one did anything, they'd all die here. Emberscale decided that good was the only way to go, and walked towards the seventeen-year-olds.

Hiccup looked up. He and Astrid had just collapsed to the ground, Hiccup's arm around Astrid as they knew they'd just die here, with no one to help them. So, when the Typhoomerang approached them with a devastated expression, Hiccup knew something was about to happen. Astrid looked up from sobbing on Hiccup's shoulder. The Typhoomerang moaned sadly in her throat. Hiccup's eyes lightened slightly, and widened a hair. The Typhoomerang looked at him with pity, and almost a pleading expression. Hiccup understood. Gingerly helping Astrid up, the two limped to the Typhoomerang. Hiccup helped Astrid onto the dragon's back, and he crawled up after her. Toothless and Stormfly joined them.  The Typhoomerang got to her feet and, with a single wingbeat, cleared the area of fire. The ground was now a black wasteland of carbon, but somehow most of the buildings survived. Emberscale flew to the heart of the village where Hiccup directed her. When she landed, the entire village was waiting with concerned expressions. Hiccup and Astrid slid off the dragon's back, and collapsed to the ground weakly.

"Son!," Stoick said, running to them. Hiccup looked up at his father exhaustedly and weakly. Astrid's parents joined them.

"Astrid!!!," Astrid's mother yelped once she caught sight of her daughter. Astrid blinked and looked at her parents dizzily.

"Mom?," she whispered shakily. "Dad?" Astrid's mother scooped her up in her arms.

"Look what those horrible creatures did to my baby!," she sobbed, staring at Astrid's gashes.

Stoick kneeled down in front of his delirious son. "What happened?!," he demanded. "What did you let those things do to you?" Hiccup looked down at himself and realized how bad of shape he was in. Once Stoick pointed it out, Hiccup started to hurt. Not only did he have that burn across his chest, but now there was a giant gash going right over the top of it. He had a scrape on his right cheek, his arms were ripped up, and his hands were blistered and bloodstained. He also had countless burns all over his body in random places.

"What about Astrid?," Hiccup asked dizzily. Things were starting to swirl and wiggle and not make any sense. The last thing he heard before he passed out was from his father.

"You saved her, Hiccup. That's all you need to know."

Ch. 7

Hiccup sat on the edge of his bed, stiff and sore. He had a bandage wrapped around his middle and more on his hands. Toothless licked Hiccup's hands, and Hiccup could feel the warm, healing saliva seeping through the bandage and into the wounds. Hiccup rubbed Toothless's head absentmindedly. He kept thinking about what his father had said. What if it wasn't true? What if Astrid's condition was too bad? What if Hiccup couldn't do anything to help her this time? What if.......? Hiccup sighed. Why did he always look at the negatives in life? He found it very hard to find anything good about the situations he was in. It was probably because, for his first fourteen years of life, he was teased, mocked for how weak he was, his father always wanted him to be a different Viking than who he really was. This made it so Hiccup, who always had the negative things about him pointed out, never looked for anything positive. Hiccup looked at the ground and closed his eyes, trying to dig out the good things about this completely horrible experience. What he found shocked him, like the grass had after Gobber pulled him out of the fire a week ago.

The good that came out of the Singeclaw attack was that it made Hiccup stronger, mentally and physically. He also learned; he learned about a new dragon species, but also how to ignore pain and push through something. This applied to words as well. Hiccup realized, though, that he was also growing up, maturing faster than he wanted to. He sighed. Life went by so fast, and it was so fragile, so easy to destroy. You could be having the best time of your life, and then disappear, just like that. This brought his thoughts back to Astrid. Hiccup looked back up at Toothless and rubbed the dragon's head. He didn't need to speak for Toothless to know what he was saying. Toothless closed his eyes and laid his head on Hiccup's thighs.

"I don't know how she'll end up," Toothless said, though Hiccup couldn't understand him. "But I'm sure she'll be fine. I just wish my saliva would work on her like it does with any other injury, but it doesn't." It was true; Gobber had tried Toothless's spit, but the cuts didn't show any sign of healing, so Gobber had to resort to heavy medication, riddles told by the mute soothsayer Gothi, and numerous prayers to Odin.

Hiccup looked out the window, wishing he could just crawl out and sit on the roof. But, due to his injuries, that was currently impossible. Hiccup sighed shakily and leaned back slowly, as not to hurt himself. Putting his hands behind his head, he stared out at the sky. The stars ignored him, despondent and uncaring of his troubles. Hiccup glared at them.

Fine, Thor, he thought. Send something down to hurt me further, just to show you're thinking of me and Astrid at all. Nothing screeched down and mutilated him, indicating that Hiccup and Astrid were currently invisible to Thor and that he didn't really care right now. Hiccup bit his lip and rolled to his side, wincing as his burn scraped against the bandage. Finally he drifted off, his sleep dreamless and blank.

                                                                                *

Astrid stared at the ceiling, thinking. Her arm hurt, but, for some reason, it felt better the more she thought. Any thoughts would ease the pain, but specific ones would make it feel immensely better. Such as Stormfly; thoughts of Stormfly made her arm feel better. But, if she thought of Hiccup, and what he did two days ago, made it seem as though nothing had happened to her arm.

Now, as Astrid thought of Hiccup, she itched to peel off the bandage and see if her thoughts were actually healing it. Astrid bit her lip; should she? A tentative yes came to mind. She was about to reach over and take it off when her mother came in the room.

"How's your arm, Astrid?," she said, sitting on the edge of the bed. Astrid shrugged, and her mother made no response, showing that this was a normal answer for Astrid when things like this happened. "Gobber said to change the bandage," Astrid's mother said. "So I'm going to, whether you like it or not." Astrid was fine with this, for the first time ever. All she wanted was to see if her thoughts aided in the healing process. Once the bandage was removed, Astrid looked at her arm. The gashes were smaller, and the burns were less severe. Astrid's mother put a clean bandage on, and Astrid suddenly wondered if it was just the medication that was healing it. She hoped not; it was cool to think that, the more you thought of your boyfriend, the more your arm healed, but that probably wasn't the case, come to think of it. Astrid sighed as her mother left the room. Would her arm ever be the same? Would there be a scar? Astrid really, truly hoped that it wouldn't leave a lasting scar.

Ch. 8

Hiccup smiled at the once-burned knoll with the apple tree. Moss and ferns were growing there now, covering the charred ground and cloaking the twisted black tree. Grass had regained its life there, and an apple sapling was sprouting in the ashes of the original one. Hiccup took in a deep breath through the nose; fall was in the air, and for the first time since the Singeclaw attack, it didn't hurt to breathe. Hiccup had washed and mended his tunic, but he didn't plan on keeping it for much longer. His new outfit was almost finished, and he wanted to get it done before the nippy fall air came.

Hiccup walked over to another apple tree that had survived the flames. He sat under it and leaned against the trunk, closing his eyes and enjoying the now-pleasant morning air. He had almost drifted off when the familiar feeling of an apple bouncing off his head woke him up. He looked above him, and, for the first time in a month, he was looking at Astrid. She was perched in the branches of the tree, a flirtatious grin on her face.

"Want another one?"

Hiccup laughed. "Mm," he shrugged. "Maybe." Astrid giggled and crawled down to the ground. She was wearing her shoulder pads. "Why are you wearing those?," Hiccup asked. "It's still too hot for those." Astrid glanced at the ground sheepishly.

"I know," she mumbled. "I just....didn't know what you would think of this........" She lifted up the left pad to reveal four scars where Phoenix's claws had gone into her arm. Hiccup smiled at her affectionately.

"You know I don't care if you have those or not," he said. "I love you all the same."

Astrid turned red and smiled at the ground. "I know..." Hiccup took off Astrid's left shoulder pad, and she yelped and grabbed at it while Hiccup held it higher than she could reach, being three inches taller than her now. "Give it back, Hiccup!," Astrid laughed.

"No," Hiccup grinned. "You don't need it right now. You don't have to hide that scar. Look at me; it's impossible for me to hide this, and I'm not ashamed of it, either." He pointed to his foot, and Astrid rolled her eyes.

"Whatever," she said. "Now gimme it back!"

"I'm serious, Astrid," Hiccup said. "You look good without them on." Astrid sighed and took off the other pad.

"Fine..." Hiccup grinned and moved the shoulder pads out of reach.

Astrid cocked her head suddenly. "Okay, I know this is weird, but this one part of your hair is bugging me really, really bad," she said, pointing to one clump of hair that was longer than the rest.

Hiccup laughed. "Oh, yeah? What're you gonna do about it?" Astrid smirked, and, before Hiccup could stop her, she was braiding it to make it shorter and not in the way. Her fingers moved quickly, and within five seconds, the braid was fully formed. Astrid pulled out a small strip of leather and wrapped it around the braid to hold it in place.

"There. Much better."

Hiccup reached back and felt it. "What did you just do?," he asked, puzzled.

"I braided it," Astrid shrugged. "'Cause it was bugging me." Hiccup laughed. Then Astrid stood up. "I'm bored," she said. "Wanna meander aimlessly through the village like old women?" Hiccup laughed again, standing up as well.

"Sure, why not?"

The two just wandered, purposely scaring the chickens out of Bucket and Mulch's chicken coop, tipping yaks, and painting on Gobber's face while he was sleeping. Toothless and Stormfly joined the antics.

Then, while Hiccup and Astrid were just standing, facing each other and talking about random stuff, Toothless had a brilliant idea. He gestured Stormfly over and whispered the plan in her ear. Stormfly grinned slyly and nodded. Toothless snuck up behind Hiccup while Stormfly tiptoed behind Astrid. Then, when Toothless nodded, they each shoved their heads into Hiccup and Astrid's backs, pushing them towards each other. Toothless looked up, and grinned. It worked. Astrid and Hiccup had their arms wrapped around each other, and were kissing passionately. Toothless ran off, giggling uncontrollably. Stormfly did the same. The two dragons chased each other for about an hour.

Finally, while the sun set behind them, Hiccup, Astrid, Toothless, and Stormfly fell asleep underneath the apple tree, each with an exhausted smile on their faces. Hiccup was the last one to drift off; he just grinned tiredly at Astrid, who had already fallen asleep and was facing Hiccup. Their noses were touching, and Hiccup didn't want this to go away. So, very gently as not to wake Astrid, Hiccup reached over and put an arm around her before he too fell asleep.

Did you like it? This is the last in the "Dragons" series. It was my favorite, and, I enjoyed writing it. Also, for those of you who have read the HTTYD books, I based the Singeclaws off of the Exterminator Dragons in book five, but instead of huge two-hearted black beasts, these were smaller, much more clever dragons with flaming claws and a thirst for blood and a demonic soul. Can you guess who the gray dragoness is that attacked Astrid and distracted Stormfly? I'll see what your answers are in the comments. Those who have read my "Dragon Paint" series might know.....