Marked - An Eret [Son of Eret] Love Story (HTTYD)

8. Titan Island

"Wonderful," Eret said to himself sarcastically. But he immediately came to regret it when the titan nightmare looked up at him abruptly. It hissed and lunged. Eret's only option was to jump and hope the dragon didn't come after him, so he did. Holding back his screams, he plummeted through the trees, sticks and twigs whipping him mercilessly. Finally, he landed hard on a strong tree branch.

To his relief, the dragon hadn't followed, and Eret knew why. The titan wings on this island had a bigger problem right now. As quickly as he could, Eret climbed down the tree the rest if the way. Brushing the leaves from his clothes, he began to search for the one titan wing he'd come for.

After not too long of a search, Eret found himself falling to the ground; he'd tripped over a tree root. Rolling onto his back, he sat up just in time to see the tree root move. Eret froze. What he thought was a tree root was the massive tail of titan wing deadly nadder. It was staring at him with menacing eyes from where it laid, hidden half-way in a dark cave.

Eret slowly stood, and the dragon growled lowly. "It's alright," Eret assured the dragon. He dropped both of his knives on the ground and held an arm out to the dragon's snout. "It's alright, I'm not one of them," Eret assured him, "..Midnight."

At the mention of his name, the nadder stopped growling and cocked it's head. Eret grinned, slowly inching forward, speaking carefully, "that's right; I'm a friend of Aria's." Finally, the dragon closed his eyes and let Eret touch him.

With a sigh of relief, Eret examined Midnight. He didn't seem to be hurt, but hiding. "What do you say we get off this island?" Eret asked.

But Midnight only groaned, laying his head down on the ground. When he did this, Eret noticed a bare spot on his left shoulder where scales were missing. It was healed now, but Eret could tell that this titan wing was shredder by another dragon. Midnight wasn't hiding from the trappers, he was hiding from the other titan wings.

With a sigh, Eret began to talk again, "don't you want to see Aria?" The dragon gave him a look of sorrow, "she misses you, so much."

Midnight groaned again, looking up at the sky. "Aria doesn't even fly anymore," Eret tried to convince the dragon, "she needs you."

At this, Midnight finally stood, squawking loudly. "There we go," Eret laughed. Midnight spread his wings all the way, earning and expression of awe from Eret, "now that's a titan wing!"

The deadly nadder lower his head and allowed Eret to climb on, then they took off together. "How about we take out those trappers?" Eret suggested with a mischievous grin.

With a squawk of approval, Midnight dove down to the ships and began to fire. Eret was surprised by the amount of power he could feel in the dragon's body. But soon, the trappers began to fire back. First, they tried their luck with nets, but Midnight just burned through them. Then came the arrows. Eret was afraid they wouldn't make it, when suddenly four other titan wings came out of nowhere, including the nightmare and thunderdrum that he'd seen before.

Thankfully, the dragons focused all of their power on the trappers. In fact, Midnight seemed to be leading them in the battle after a while. Finally, all of the ships were sunk, but trappers still remained on the ground. Arrows continued to fly.

Pain surged through Eret as he felt one puncture the right of his back. Then another came, hitting inches above the other. He lost his grip on Midnight and began to fall once again. This time, Skullcrusher came out of nowhere and he landed right in the saddle. "Good..boy.." Eret breathed, "let's get out of here."

Skullcrusher roared and began to fly off, Midnight following all the way. The other Titan wings could take care if the remaining trappers.

Eret reach back over his shoulder, wincing in pain as he touched one of the arrows, "well..that's not good." But he forced himself to stay upright; he needed to get Midnight back to Aria.

• • •

"Have you ever been this far out before?" Aria asked her brother as they flew on Toothless together.

"Not even when we were at Dragon's Edge," Hiccup responded a bit nervously. He then called over to Snotlout, "you're sure Hookfang still has Skullcrusher's scent?"

"For the fourth time, Hiccup, yes," Snotlout yelled back. Suddenly, Hookfang stopped and began to fly straight downward. "Ah!" Snotlout yelled.

Aria looked down and saw them flying for a small island below. It had a forest, a beach, and what looked to be a semi-active volcano in the center. Then, her eyes landed on a mound in the sand."Skullcrusher?!"

As soon as Toothless landed, Aria hopped off of the night fury and met the dragon in distress. From what she could see, he was fine, except for his stomping around. "What is it, boy?" Aria asked nervously, "where's Eret?"

Skullcrusher immediately scooped Aria onto his back and raced into the forest, leaving the others behind. And when he stopped, Aria was faced with a scene that made her heart almost stop.