Hiccup and the others have finally found an island to call their own; Dragon's Edge. However, Night Terrors aren't the only dragons indigenous to this land. A gentle song rings through the air every night, belonging to an unknown species. And when T...
"A...giant, green butterfly.." Hiccup concluded in disbelief. He came to his feet and took a better look at it. "Is that..a dragon?"
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The creature was, in fact, a forest shade of green with large purple and blue, leathery, butterfly-like wings sprouting from it's back. It's body looked to be about a foot long, with a skinny tail almost twice that length. It clung to Tuffnut with it's two front arms, the short talons digging into each of his shoulders. This didn't seem to bother him, though, as he wore it like a backpack on his front; he stood proudly with hands on his hips as he triumphed, "told you so."
Fishlegs watched the long, thin tail curl gently around one of Tuff's legs. "Well, she seems to really like you," he inquired as the dragon let out an affectionate gurgling noise.
Ruff took a few steps closer to her brother, eager to meet the new dragon. "She's so pretty," she observed with a smile.
Hearing the approaching girl, the dragon turned her head around completely, allowing everyone to see her face. It sniffed Ruffnut carefully before looking at the rest of the group.
"She's magnificent," Fishlegs remarked, reaching a hand out to touch the dragon, "her wings might look like butterfly wings, but they're definately skin and scale. And look at these colors!"
Noticing the compliment, the dragon gurgled again and released Tuffnut to climb onto Fishlegs's shoulders. "Oh no, no no no," he panicked, bracing for the pain of her claws in his skin. But to his surprise, no pain came. He relaxed ans gasped, "incredible; these talons aren't sharp at all."
"Fishlegs, have you ever heard of a dragon like this before?" Hiccup asked curiously.
Fishlegs laughed as the dragon rubbed her head against his. "No, I haven't," he replied, "Tuffnut, I think you discovered a new species."
"Oo! Yes! That means I get to name it!" The twin shouted, punching the air enthusiastically, "let's call it, the nutterfly! Get it? Because nut? It's in my name? Nutterfly!"
Hiccup cringed slightly but couldn't hold back his laugh as the dragon hopped joyously onto Snotlout, knocking him off his feet yet again.
"Awe, she even likes you," Fishlegs remarked in amusement.
"I don't care, get it off me!" Snotlout yelled as the 'nutterfly' sniffed his face before giving his left cheek a big lick. "Eww, dragon spit."
"That means she approves of your existence, she bestowed it to me upon our first meeting, it's a high honor," Tuff told him dramatically, as if he knew everything about this dragon already. He then turned to Hiccup and pleaded, "can we keep her?"
Fishlegs also stepped in to add, "we could learn more about it, like where it came from and if there are more."
Being quite curious about the new species as well, Hiccup agreed with a smile, "alright. Normally I would suggest to keep her locked down until she trusts us, but..it doesn't look like she's going anywhere."
Everyone looked to where the nutterfly was now, clinging to Snotlout's right arm and shoulder. The young viking did not look happy about it. Hiccup grinned.
• • •
The day had passed quickly while everyone worked hard on their fortress. Everyone but Fishlegs, who was charged with keeping an eye on the new dragon for the day. Everyone else was eager to finish their work early to see how things were going.
Finally, the sun touched the horizon, and everyone was done for the day.
"Where's my small winged friend?" Tuffnut called as he entered the newly built club house. At his call, Chicken came waddling over and clucked. "Not you, Chicken," Tuff clarified, and the chicken waddled away, still clucking cluelessly.
Fishlegs walked over to meet the others, but the dragon was nowhere in sight. "Uh, Fishlegs?" Hiccup began nervously, "where's the nutterfly?"
With an annoyed sigh, he turned around. On his back, the dragon hung by it's talons. The Viking turned back around and huffed, "this dragon will not get off of me. And I think it's making Meatlug jealous; she keeps bringing me fish as if to try and win me back."
Snotlout laughed loudly, "hah! Not so fun anymore, is it." But at the sound of his voice, the dragon immediately released Fishlegs and attacked Snotlout. "Ugh, not again," he managed to say just before being knocked to the ground.
"Did you find out anything about her?" Astrid questioned, ignoring Snotlout's troubles. She and Hiccup followed Fishlegs to his notes, leaving the twins to laugh as Snotlout tried to remove the dragon from his face.
"A lot. Wing span of two feet, three feet from nose to tail, her tail taking up over half of that length, and this," Fishlegs responded, handing a paper to Hiccup, "but I didn't notice until I wrote it all down."
Hiccup read the notes carfully, his eyebrows scrunched. "..This dragon has absolutely no way to defend itself," he observed.
Fishlegs nodded and added, "most dragons have spikes, a heavy tail, fire, even acid...this one doesn't even have sharp talons."
The three looked over to the dragon who was now being craddled by Ruffnut as it played with her hair. They watched it lick her chin up to her cheek. "That dragon didn't even think twice about coming into our camp," Astrid said suspiciously, "like she knew we wouldn't hurt her."
"Uh, guys? I don't think that's why," Fishlegs spoke nervously, "after looking at her scales and teeth..this is a baby."
"Oh, great, and that means that somewhere, there's an angry mother," Hiccup remarked as they met back with the rest of the group. "We have a problem."
• • •
Everyone sat around their campfire that night. "So you're telling me, that my dragon is going to get us killed?" Tuffnut asked as he pet the small dragon in his lap.
"If it's mother is out there, then yes," Hiccup confirmed, "besides, you already have a dragon." But when he looked to where Barf and Belch should've been, there was nothing but empty ground.
However, before anything else could be said, fish began to rain down on the twins. "What the--Barf? Belch?" Hiccup stuttered.
"Yeah, we taught them that," Tuff boasted as a fish hit his helmet.
"No we didn't," Ruffnut argued.
Her brother thought for a moment before confirming, "oh, right, no we didn't."
The nutterfly, however, got up immediately and began devouring the fish. "Wait a minute, Fishlegs," Hiccup called in realization, "I don't think Meatlug was jealous, I think she was bringing the fish to the baby."
"Ah, it all makes sense now! Dragons have a natural instinct to take care of baby dragons who..." Fishlegs began excitedly, but his smile quickly faded, "who don't have a family."
