A New World, Complicated

Chapter 33: Free Scauldy (Reign)

        "Woo-hoo!"

The twins ducked under the arc of a sea stack, upsetting a group of sleeping Terrible Terrors, while the rest of us stuck to our path. Usually, we could let their optimistic demeanor go, but Hiccup wasn't messing around today.

"Guys, can you please put a lid on it?" he shouted down to them. "Looking for the Screaming Death, low profile. Remember the meeting?"

"Yeah. But we had our own meeting." Unable to keep his attention on one thing for too long, Tuff darted his eyes down to a large group of sea stacks. "Ooh! Dangerous, pointy rocks."

"How did we get stuck with these two?" I asked, pulling up next to Hiccup.

"Well, it was them or Snotlout," he answered with a shrug.

"Hmm... point taken. At least we have Fishlegs." I turned back to the boy on his Gronkle and waved with a smile. "If you'd left me with Snotlout, I would've killed you."

"Even if Astrid was with you?" I laughed bitterly.

"Especially if Astrid were with me. The two would just be fighting the whole time driving me out of my mind."

"Well, their bickering is on a different path right now." I sighed happily and smiled at him

"And I thank you for that." I steered Shriek a little closer to the pair as we approached a rocky island. Its familiarity wasn't exactly a comfort, given the dragons that inhabited it.

"Oh, great," Fishlegs deadpanned. "Changewing Island."

"Okay, guys, quick refresher. Island full of ill-tempered, highly territorial, and virtually invisible dragons." I noticed Toothless' nose begin to twitch as his eyes narrowed. He sensed something, but what? Were the Changewings already headed our way?

"So we should buzz 'em!" Tuff shouted.

"Really rile 'em up!"

"I'm pretty sure Hiccup was thinking more along the lines of keeping our distance." I shot the two of them a look.

"I like the sound of that," Fishlegs laughed. Toothless stopped sniffed and let out a distressed roar. "That I don't like the sound of." I glanced at Hiccup, worried.

"Me neither. But still need to check it out." He and Toothless dove, leaving the rest of us to reluctantly follow.

"What happened to the 'keep our distance' policy?"

We flew far enough over the island to see over the cover of trees, finding a large, green dragon rearing its head and thrashing back and forth as it roared. I jumped at the sight, not expecting to see that sort of dragon on land.

"Whoa, that's a Scauldron."

"What's it doing on land?"

"Catching some rays?"

"Taking some alone time?" I rolled my eyes at the twins' inability to take this situation seriously. Despite how deadly the Scauldron could be, if it was in danger, we needed to help it.

"Lucky dragon..."

"Or maybe it's waiting for unsuspecting dragon riders to get too close, so it can blast them with its scalding hot water." Fishlegs began to panic, as usual. "Oh, just lovely."

The Scauldron roared again, and when I glanced down at it this time, I noticed something pinning its right wing onto the sand. It was trying to get away, but whatever was keeping it down was too heavy.