I kept a close eye on the two Nadders in front of me, and when the second one landed, I pelted the bags of paint at them. The yellow stain appeared on their necks, tagging them.
"Okay! These Nadders get tagged yellow!" I called up to Reign as she and Shriek hovered. "That's how we know they belong on Sorrow Island."
"Like this?" She pelted two bags of yellow paint at Nadders that were flying away, somehow hitting them perfectly. One managed to get away from her, and she flew to chase after it, nailing that one, and then another off on the horizon. "Feel free to join in anytime," she teased, looking back at me. She tried to hit another Nadder, but it moved out of the way, and the bag of paint fell into the sea.
"Okay." Reign flinched as the two of us shot over her head and pursued the missed Nadder, weaving back and forth between the sea stacks. Toothless and I managed to get in front of the wild dragon, and when it noticed us and tried to turn around, I pressed the trigger on my shield to bring out the slingshot and fired the bag of paint at it, coloring its chest bright yellow.
"All right, I have to admit: that shield is pretty cool." I held it up, then looked at her for a second, confused. Didn't she use this thing to save her life one time? With Dagur?
"Why, thank you. I quite like it, too." I ran my fingers along the rim. "Okay, I'm gonna go check on the twins. They're supposed to be marking the Crescent Island dragons."
"I'm sure that's going really well," I heard her deadpan as I flew toward the neighboring island. Reign probably had a point, but I could still hope maybe they'd gotten at least a little bit of work done. As we got closer to the island, I followed the sound of shouting, and I emerged from the other side of the rocks to see the twins pelting bags of paint at each other. One would've hit my face if I hadn't ducked out of the way in time.
"Guys! You're supposed to be tagging the dragons, not each other!"
"You know, if you think it through, Hiccup, this is pretty much your fault," Tuff accused.
"How do you figure that?" I crossed my arms against my chest.
"Uh, hello? You armed us with paint. Where'd you think that was gonna go?" Ruff turned to her twin. "And we're the stupid ones..."
"How many of these do we have to do, anyway?"
"As many as we can. The more dragons we tag on each island, the better we can keep track of where they belong, and where they may migrate to."
"Wow, that was..." Ruff glanced down at the bag of paint. "Uh..." She seemed at a loss for words.
"Fascinating?" I offered.
"What's the opposite of fascinating?"
"Hiccup!" I looked up to see Reign and Shriek landing. Azure scampered back and forth on her shoulders, as though thrown into a frenzy. Ever since she'd gotten that Terrible Terror, he refused to leave her side, and acted as a warning system for her. Of course, sometimes he warned against me, which didn't help. "Isn't it supposed to be one dragon color per island?"
"Yeah. Why?" She pointed to a group of Gronkles eating some boulders.
"I see two colors down there." Sure enough, one Gronkle was marked purple, while the other had a green spot. "Have we been using the wrong one?"
"I don't think so."
"Don't look at us. If we had green paint, you know where it would be."
"Well, I better ask Fishlegs. This was his idea."
"You're gonna fly all the way back to Berk?" I smirked at her before pulling out a piece of paper and some charcoal from my satchel.
"Nope. I don't have to." I quickly scribbled down a letter asking him and Snotlout to meet us on Dragon Island.
"What's he talking about?"
"He must have some of that magic paper we've been looking for."
"He always get the good stuff."
"It's not magic paper," I laughed. "Fishlegs and I have been working on something new." I rolled up the parchment and tied it onto the leg of Sharpshot. "We call it Air Mail."
"Stupid name," Tuff cackled.
"Right."
"Do you really think that Terrible Terror is gonna fly straight to Berk?"
"Yup, and right to the Academy. Terrors are especially territorial, so, it's a natural instinct for them to return to their home from wherever they're released." Sharpshot left my arm, taking the time to snap at Ruff and Tuff before heading to Berk.
"Well, that explains why Azure snaps whenever someone gets close..." Reign trailed off, seeming to be distracted before snapping her focus back to the situation. "And how will we know if he made it?"
"When Fishlegs and Snotlout meet us at Dragon Island." I got back up onto Toothless and looked up at her. She rolled her eyes and scoffed.
"If that happens, I'll kiss Snotlout on the lips." I raised an eyebrow and smirked, trying to hold back my laughter.
"I mean, I'd rather you not, but if you're so confident in your opinion..."
"Sorry, that's just the first thing I thought of." She shook her head. "I-" She looked around at all the faces below her, and suddenly turned bright red. "Yep- okay- yes -never mind," she stuttered awkwardly before patting Shriek and taking off.
"What was that about?" Tuffnut asked, looking from his sister to me.
"Not really sure..." I tried my best to forget what just happened as Toothless and I took off after her. She refused to make eye contact on our flight to Dragon Island, and despite my best attempts to make conversation, she would just stutter and just give a simple answer before focusing on the horizon.
Snotlout, Fishlegs, and Sharpshot were waiting for us when we landed on Dragon Island. I moved my gaze up to Reign, and her eyes went wide as she looked over the two of them, before glancing down at me.
"Well, look who it is. Fishlegs and Snotlout. Both right here on Dragon Island. Reign was just talking about you." I smirked up at her and puckered my lips, but my pride quickly faded as I watched her face turned red again, and refused to look me in the eye as we got off our dragons.
"Say it, and those will be the last words you ever speak." She crossed her arms, and suddenly, I felt more worried than anything else.
"Hey, are you-"
"Hiccup, I got your message," Fishlegs interjected before I could finish my question. "I knew Air Mail would work! So, uh, what's the emergency?"
"We're seeing dragons painted green on Crescent Island."
"That's your emergency?" Snotlout spat. "I was in the middle of something very important."
"You were sound asleep."
"Beauty rest. You think this just happens?" We all just stared at Snotlout, blinking as he waited expectantly for an answer.
"Fishlegs, does it make any sense to you that those dragons would be there?" I asked, trying my best to draw attentions away from Snotlout.
"No... they shouldn't be." He wandered over to a flat rock, where he'd laid out the color coded map he and I had made. "Crescent Island is clearly marked as purple."
"That's what I thought."
"So, what were the green dragons doing there."
"First of all, it's not green, it's pistachio." Reign rolled her eyes and set a hand on her hip. "They belong on Tall Tree Island. That's where I tagged them."
"Yeah. Well, your pistachio dragons aren't where they're supposed to be." She moved Fishlegs' hand from the drawing of Tall Tree Island onto the one of Crescent Island.
"Huh. That's weird."
"We need to figure this out. Let's check out Tall Tree Island."
"Sounds awesome. I was wondering what I was gonna do with the rest of my day."
Everyone stared at Snotlout in disbelief as he climbed up onto Hookfang. I didn't actually buy that he was excited to go, and I'm sure the other two by me didn't either, but the fact that he was actually going through with it was pretty impressive.
And then, as soon as we got in the air, Snotlout turned Hookfang right around and screamed, "see you back on Berk, suckas!"
"Yeah, that's about right," Reign muttered, shaking her head before reaching up to pet her Terrible Terror. The look on her face kept nagging at me, pushing me to want to ask if she was all right, but I knew this wasn't the time. Besides, based on how my previous attempts went, she probably wouldn't say anything. I knew when she was ready to talk, she'd say something.
We flew around for a while, looking down over the water in an attempt to find Tall Tree Island. We circled over the point it was supposed to be a few times, but for inexplicable reasons, it had just disappeared, like it had never been there in the first place.
"I don't understand. We should be there right now."
"Maybe we're off course," Reign suggested.
"I don't do off course, Reign." Fishlegs leered at her, almost as though insulted she'd even think that. "According to my map, it should be right..." He looked down again, still not seeing an island.
"You were saying?"
"Even if we were off course, we'd still be able to see it from here."
"Well, an island can't just disappear."
"Earthquake, maybe?"
"Volcano?"
"Wrath of Thor? Wrath of Odin?" Both of us glared at Fishlegs, unamused. "What? Just throwing out possible explanations."
"None of that explains this." She pointed forward just as a trio of Monstrous Nightmares came flying in our direction. I covered my eyes and ducked just as two of them weaved between Toothless and I. They appeared to be in distress, like they were running from something. "Orange?"
"Burnt apricot, actually." Reign looked as though she were going to kill Fishlegs.
"What island are they from?" I pulled out the list of colors and islands, and scanned it until I found the listing for 'burnt apricot'.
"According to this, they're from Sunstone Island."
"Ah, Sunstone Island. Pristine beaches, a veritable smorgasbord of mineral deposits for Meatlug."
The fact that the Monstrous Nightmares had been fleeing concerned me. If Tall Tree Island just disappeared into thin air, that could've happened to Sunstone Island. Or, something could have invaded and chased them all off the island.
"Sunstone Island it is."
We headed off in the direction of Sunstone Island, scanning the water to make sure it was actually there. For a long time, we didn't see the island, and I started to worry islands were somehow vanishing of the face of the Earth.
"Hey, Hiccup, isn't that it?"
Reign pointed to a tall rock off in the distance with a single tree sticking up off the top. It was too small to be the island, but... it was in the right place. I squinted at it, then motioned for everyone to follow. We all tried to land on the tiny spot of land, but only Fishlegs and Meatlug fit. Reign and I were forced to dangle off the edge as Shriek and Toothless desperately clung on.
"Huh. I thought it was bigger," Fishlegs stated, looking down at us.
"Ya think?" Toothless managed to pull himself up a little higher, but we still wouldn't be able to fit.
"I-I have to say, the beaches are a bit of a disappointment."
"One island is missing, and one island's been sunk..."
"I guess an entire island can disappear." Reign's gaze fell, almost as though she were losing hope about the situation.
"Well, if-if the islands are gone, then where do the dragons go?"
"Good question. Dragons live in specific places for specific reasons."
"The food they eat, where they nest..."
"If they lose their homes, it could endanger their whole species."
"We have to figure out what's going on now. Let's head back to Dragon Island."
"If it's still there," Reign scoffed.
As we got closer to Dragon Island, we saw an alarming amount of dragons, each with different colored tags, hovering in the air. They looked lost, scared, like they didn't know where else to go. They moved in circles, occasionally bumping into each other, then just brushing it off. We all landed and just stared for a moment, watching them all as they remained in a state of organized chaos.
"Look at them all..." I marveled as I stared up at the different dragons.
"Check their colors." Fishlegs glanced down at the map before scanning the dragons.
"Uh... I see pistachio, burnt apricot..." Reign glanced at a dragon, then as soon as she looked away, snapped her gaze back and pointed.
"Look! A new color: red."
"Technically, that's vermilion." Reign whipped around and glared at Fishlegs, clenching one of her hands into a fist as though she were ready to punch him. "What? It is!" I spread the map out a little more to get a better look at it.
"Dragons from three different islands, suddenly all here." I pulled a stick of charcoal from the pocket in my vest, then carefully drew a line connecting the islands to point out the pattern. "Look, this forms a line, which means there are other islands in danger- Boar Head Island, Thor Rock Island." I stared down at the map again. There had to be a reason these islands were starting to disappear, and I had to find it fast. Otherwise, the dragons might not have homes anymore. "Toothless, we're going back out there."
"I'm coming with you." Reign raced over to Shriek and hopped on at the same time. "This could get dangerous."
"What makes you think that?"
"Oh, I don't know-- islands disappearing mysteriously, dragons fleeing in terror. Call it a hunch." I sighed., defeated. There wasn't going to be any changing her mind.
"Fine. Fishlegs, you stay here in case any more dragons show up."
"Got it, new dragons. Meatlug and I are on the case."
With that, we took off. Almost immediately, Reign went silent again and began tending to Azure. He scampered back and forth, occasionally chittering at some point on the horizon. I knew I shouldn't ask, she wouldn't say anything until she was ready, but I couldn't help myself from worrying.
"Hey, uh, Reign-"
"I'm sorry," she suddenly blurted out. My expression shifted, confused.
"Wha-what?" She sighed and brought her eyes to meet mine.
"I'm sorry I said the thing about Snotlout. I know we were just messing around, but I feel bad about it. You and I are... well, what we are, and I feel bad that I even joked about it." I relaxed slightly. That was it?
"Reign, I knew you were joking." I thought back on what I'd said when that happened. "And I know what I said probably came off as me thinking you were being serious, but I swear I didn't think that." Despite Azure's screeching, I steered Toothless closer and took her hand, squeezing it to try and reassure her. "I'm sorry if I upset you." She shrugged, and I watched a smile grow on her face.
"It's fine. I guess I was just worrying a little too much." I shook my head.
"It's perfectly understandable. I mean, I worry about you all the time, and I-" Her eyes darted in front of her several times, before squinting at the horizon.
"Hiccup." I followed her gaze to the empty sea, and after pulling the map back out, I realized another island had vanished.
"Boar Head should be down there. It's gone, too."
"So now what?" We had to head to the next island and make sure it was still there. The two of us dove closer to the water, and she followed Toothless and I to Thor Rock Island. What was normally a pretty noticeable land mass had somehow turned into a few rock formations sticking out for the water. And, of course, no dragons in sight. "Whoa. Look at what's left of Thor Rock. You know, maybe Fishlegs' 'wrath of gods' theory isn't so crazy."
"Let's get a closer look, bud."
We came close to one of the larger rock formations and hovered to get a better look at the ground. There were a bunch of large holes drilled into it, ones that I thought maybe we'd seen before.
"These markings look familiar, but... different, somehow."
"Different how?"
"Different..." What was the right word? "Bigger."
Suddenly, the spikes of rocks in front of us started to crumble away as the water began to tremble. From below, there was a roar, one that almost sounded as though it were a scream...
"That sounds like-"
A large, worm-like dragon made of snow white scales shot up from underneath us, thrashing its tail back and forth. I barely caught a glimpse of blood red eyes before the figure covered in spikes hovered before us.
"The Screaming Death!" The full form of its body emerged from underground, and I couldn't help but notice how much bigger it had gotten. "Uh... someone's been eating their vegetables."
"And everything else in sight!" It noticed the two of us and let out that scream, causing the dragons to thrash back and forth, attempting to get their bearings.
"Its scream disorients the dragons."
"No kidding!" It screamed again before diving back under the rock layer, causing the ground to rattle again. As more rocks fell away, it dawned on me what happened to all those vanishing islands
"The Screaming Death has been destroying all the islands! It must be tunneling underneath and causing them to collapse in on themselves."
"Why would it do that?"
"I don't know. Let's get a closer look." She narrowed her eyes at me. "You wanted dangerous."
"This is not what I meant!" she called after me as I flew closer to where the large dragon had dug into. I could see her out of the corner of my eye as we came up over a rock formation, and for a second, I thought we'd lost it. That was, until it burst through the rock we'd just flown over. "Hiccup!" I quickly turned Toothless around and allowed us to hover as it got closer.
"Easy, bud. Maybe it wants to be friends." It narrowed its gaze as we stared each other down. "Or maybe not."
It fired at Toothless and I as we turned around and moved behind a sea stack, which the Screaming Death immediately crashed through with no regard. I steered Toothless to climb for the clouds, but the dragon managed to catch up. I let out a little exclamation of fear, then dove back down again, weaving through sea stacks while the Screaming Death destroyed them. It suddenly let out a roar, and I turned to see that Reign and Shriek had caught up, and the former was now chucking green bags of paint straight into the Screaming Death's eyes.
"Hope you like pistachio!" The Screaming Death listed its head back at forth, then let out the dragon disorienting scream, causing their steady hover to falter. "Whoa! Steady, Shriek. Just hang in there." She looked over at me. "Cover your ears." The two of us slammed our hands over our ears as Shriek let out a sonic boom, causing the Screaming Death to fall back before turning around and taking off. "How's that for accuracy?"
I smirked at her, but I couldn't keep my mind off the Screaming Death. It had already driven so many dragons away from their homes, and if we didn't do something, every single island in the archipelago might be destroyed, and then where would the dragons go.
"We have to head back to Dragon Island, Reign. We need to tell Fishlegs what we saw, and figure out how to stop the Screaming Death."
She nodded and flew beside Toothless and I as we made our way back to what now seemed to serve as our base. There were more dragons flying in a frantic circle around the island, all sorts of different colors. Fishlegs' face was overwhelmed with panic as he watched them.
"Periwinkle blue! There are now periwinkle blue marked dragons here!"
"I know." Reign and I slid off our dragons. "Boar Head Island."
"And-and look! There's eggshell white."
"From Thor Rock Island."
"What happened to them?" I removed the color coded map from the pocket in my vest and spread it out on the flat rock.
"The same thing that happened to all the other islands." I started to cross off the ones that were missing. "The Screaming Death." Fishlegs gasped.
"The Screaming Death is back?"
"I don't think it ever really left," I admitted.
"Yeah. It just got bigger... and nastier."
"Uh... how much bigger?" Reign picked up some pieces of a crumbled rock and filtered them through her fingertips.
"'Chomp, chomp, there goes your island' big." Fishlegs shuddered, and I turned my attention back to the map, circling certain islands that had been impacted, starting to spot the pattern.
"It's just as I thought. The Screaming Death is following an imaginary line, destroying anything in its path."
"It's coming right at us."
"That's not even the worst part." I continued to draw the line all the way to a large, familiar island.
"It's headed straight to Berk..."
"We have to get back to Berk and-and warn Stoick." I stood up straight and headed toward a large set of rocks that overlooked the sea, right in the direction the Screaming Death would be coming.
"No. We headed off. We make our stand here. There's no other land between here and Berk."
"Look, I'm all about danger, but... did you see the size of that thing?" Azure scampered up and down Reign's arms before nuzzling into her face, trying to comfort her.
"It's not going to be just us. We're sending for reinforcements." I pulled out another blank parchment and began to write down an urgent message to Astrid, Snotlout and the twins.
"Look, I completely and totally trust Astrid, but Snotlout and the twins? I feel so much better." I called for Sharpshot and wrapped the message around his leg.
"Hey. We're gonna need all the help we can get." I sent my Terrible Terror off toward Berk, watching as he took off. Reign shook her head and turned around, pretending to tend to Shriek. I pulled my spyglass from the pouch on Toothless' saddle and watched the horizon, hoping the Screaming Death wouldn't suddenly come barreling over it.
"Hiccup! The yellow marked dragons from Sorrow Island just started showing up," Fishlegs informed me.
"Which means the Screaming Death is only one island away."
"Looks like help's not coming," I sighed, trying to keep my voice calm. "All right. We'll have to set up a defense here on Dragon Island with what we have."
"Maybe we should fall back and head for home," Reign suggested, worry etched all over her face.
"We can't! If the Screaming Death destroys Dragon Island, all these dragons will overwhelm Berk."
"And... the Screaming Death won't be far behind."
"Exactly."
"How soon 'till it gets here?" A powerful roar came down from the sky. "Never mind."
I turned on my heel and raced for my shield before making my way over to Toothless.
"Toothless and I will try to buy us some time. You guys join me when Astrid, Snotlout, and the twins arrive." Reign pulled her sword from her sheath.
"I'm going with you." I hopped up onto Toothless and got ready to take off.
"No. I need you as I safety net in case it gets past me."
"So you're leaving me by myself?"
"Uh, hello?" Fishlegs and Meatlug trotted over. "Man on a dragon here, right behind you." Reign scoffed.
"You know what I meant, Fishlegs."
"I do, and I'd like to go on record as saying we don't appreciate it, do we, girl?" Meatlug growled. Reign kept her determined stance for a moment, but when she realized there wasn't any changing my mind, her posture dropped.
"Ugh. Just go."
Toothless and I took off in the direction the roar had come from, trying to catch the Screaming Death before it got to the next island. If we could keep it from destroying that one, it'd be better, but the most important thing was making sure it never reached Dragon Island. Luckily, Toothless and I managed to catch up with it just before it ran through the next island. Toothless fired a plasma blast to stop it in its tracks, and it looked at us angrily before roaring.
"Well, we clearly got its attention, bud. Now, let's play a little follow the leader, and see if it goes for the shiny shield trick again."
Toothless turned completely around, and I put my shield out in front of me so it would catch the light, then shone it straight into his eyes. It squinted for a second, then began to fire at us, shooting multiple blasts in an attempt to strike us down. It started crashing through sea stacks again as Toothless and I wove around them. It chased us away from the island, seeming to completely forget about sinking another home.
"Huh. That was easy." The next roar sounded much further away, and when I turned back around, I saw the Screaming Death heading right back to the island we'd just left. "Guess I spoke too soon." We caught up with the large dragon again, and I pushed my shield closer to its face. Maybe it just hadn't noticed the first time... "Come on, you love shiny things." It sped up to lose us. "At least, you used to."
As it passed us, its tail slammed down against the shield, sending Toothless and I tumbling toward the sea. I managed to get a hold on him right before we went under, and we tried to play catch up.
"Okay, so it's getting bigger and smarter. Not the greatest combination. Come on, bud!" We got as close to the Screaming Death as possible, and Toothless fired multiple plasma blasts, trying desperately to get it off course. "We're barely making a dent in that thing." It turned and began to chase us. It screamed, slightly disorienting Toothless, and started to get close enough to kill us. I frantically looked around, trying to find a way to save us both, when I heard a loud roar, followed by the pained whimper of the Screaming Death. Toothless managed to get a hold of himself, and I turned around to see Reign facing off with the deadly dragon.
"Turn around, you overgrown earthworm!" she teased, flying away to get it to chase her. It tried to hit her with its large fireballs, but Shriek was too fast, and the two of them managed to avoid being hit. Fishlegs suddenly zoomed past my head, and I rolled my eyes. I'd told them to stay and defend Dragon Island, and something told me they'd left before anyone could show up to defend the land they'd left.
"Fishlegs! What are you doing? You need backup!"
"Oh, I've got back up!" A large group of Gronkles, all with different tags, came up to support Fishlegs and Meatlug. "Meatlug, spew!" They started a chain reaction, causing all the Gronkles to fire at the Screaming Death. It reeled back and thrashed its head, as though it didn't know how to respond to the sudden onslaught of attacks, and began to flee when two more Gronkles chased it right toward the larger group.
"Man, it's like Gronkle Fest out here," Reign joked, hovering near me. Azure scampered to the shoulder closer to me and narrowed his gaze, causing Reign to laugh. "Okay, boy, that's enough." She picked him up and moved him back over. She looked back over at Fishlegs and his armada. "How do you do that?"
"Gronkles are territorial, too," I shouted to her. "They will defend their home at any cost. Great idea, Fishlegs!"
"I know, right! Who's the safety net now?"
"Are you kidding me?" I muttered. Reign smirked at me, shrugging her shoulders in a sort of way that showed she was mocking me. Meanwhile, the Screaming Death fled the attacks from the Gronkles and buried itself into the ground.
Even though it gave us momentary relief, the island would collapse if we let it keep digging. It would be a pain, but we needed to flush the Screaming Death out.
"You see that? It ran away." The ground began to tremble again, and cracks started to form on the surface.
"Uh, not quite... Reign, Fishlegs, get as many wild dragons together as you can. I'll try to force it back to the surface."
Toothless and I dove into the hole the Screaming Death had made. I could just barely catch a glimpse of its red and white figure before it disappeared completely into its own network of tunnels. The bubbling sound of water rising suddenly got close, and when Toothless and I emerged into what appeared to be an underground cave, I watched as rocks began to fall.
"It's trying to sink the island from within..."
A close roar caused my heart to jump, and as I snapped my head up, the Screaming Death began to fire.
"Toothless! Look out!"
Toothless dove and turned to fly out of here just as the Screaming Death came charging right at us. Its fire chased us as we zoomed back out the tunnels, nearly catching up. From it, the large dragon poked its head through and repeatedly screamed, clearly trying to get Toothless and I to fall right into its mouth. We suddenly stopped short as we came upon a pile of rocks that had fallen and blocked an exit, then Toothless roared with his head pointing up and began to fly in that direction. Sure enough, there was another tunnel, and as the Screaming Death rammed its head against that same pile, we shot out of the underground.
"Hey!"
I turned around and saw Astrid, Snotlout, Ruff, and Tuff flying in my direction, which wasn't good. Not only were they here, when they should have gone to Dragon Island, but they'd showed up very late.
"We got your message," Tuff said as he and Ruff passed me.
"Well, one of us did," Snotlout shot back. The Screaming Death emerged from its tunnels again.
"Whoa!" Astrid leaned her head back, watching as the dragon tried to pull its entire body out from the darkness. "Did that thing get bigger?"
"Yeah!" Of course Tuff was excited about this... "And awesomer." They began to fire at the dragon in an attempt to distract it, while Toothless and I scanned the island, hoping to find some sort of way to keep it from going under.
"All right, dragons. Let's get territorial!"
I looked up to see Reign coming toward us with easily seven or eight Thunderdrums trailing us. She looked down at me and winked, then focused her gaze back on the Screaming Death.
"Everyone, cover your ears! Now!" We all did as told, keeping our eyes on her as she did the same. "Shriek, sonic boom!" A sound louder than the Screaming Death could ever hope to make pierced the spaces between our fingers that left our ears exposed as the group of Thunderdrums roared, shocking the Screaming Death and injuring it at the same time.
"Meatlug, dive!" All of the Gronkles dove closer to the Screaming Death, striking it as they came down before quickly turning to get out of its reach. From the distance, they fired at it, as did the rest of the Dragon Riders.
"It's working! All the wild dragons are defending their homes!" After withstanding a few more blasts, the Screaming Death roared one last time, then turned and flew away, far from the direction of Berk.
"I don't think the Screaming Death is gonna mess with Dragon Island anymore."
The ground beneath us suddenly began to tremble, and I watched as rock formation shrunk down into the water.
"Oh, man. But it is still sinking!" The holes the Screaming Death made began to spew water as the levels rose.
"Lava blast!"
Meatlug and the other Gronkles sputtered their way down near the surface of the island and began filling the holes with lava, which immediately hardened and stopped the flow of water. The land settled again, but finally stopped sinking.
"The lava is stabilizing the island!" I smiled over at the Gronkle and her rider. "Fishlegs, Meatlug, you two were the heroes today."
"Oh, come on, you're making us blush."
With our business concluded, everyone headed back to Berk. Our dragons were finally able to rest in the Academy. While the others waited for a bit and then took their companions home, I scanned through the Book of Dragons and borrowed Bork's papers from Fishlegs, trying to find anything I could about the Screaming Death. Eventually, everyone made their way back toward me, and as the sky started to turn a slight purplish-pink, we all began to head home. I removed the list of dragon colors from my vest pocket and scanned it, sighing. Sure, we'd dealt with the Screaming Death for now, but...
"Everybody saw how that Screaming Death turned tail and ran as soon as Hookfang and I showed up, right?"
"Uh-huh. And all those wild dragons had nothing to do with it," Reign deadpanned.
"Correct."
"As long as we never have to see the Screaming Death again. It's giving Meatlug gas. And I don't have to tell you what that's like."
"Hey." I jumped, not realizing how close Reign had suddenly gotten to me. "Did you find anything else about the Screaming Death?"
"The good news is they only hatch one every hundred years or so."
"That's the good news?"
"What's the bad news?" Snotlout asked, pushing Fishlegs out of the way for some reason.
"Let me guess!" Tuffnut interjected. "What's it gonna be? The end of the world?" His tone was mocking, but unfortunately, he wasn't that far off.
"Close." His expression changed to a more serious one.
"Uh, I was kidding."
"The bad news is it's still out there, and someday, it'll come back to Berk."