The morning was clear and calm. A light breeze played through the tops of the evergreen trees and birds chittered at each other over the sound of waves crashing against the rocky shore nearby. Other small creatures scurried to and fro, nibbling at the late summer vegetation. This forested island was a safe haven for many of the animals. The only large predators that hunted there rarely stayed long before flying off for easier hunting grounds. Had any humans lived on the island, they would have noted the sound of the native creatures becoming eerily still. They would have wondered at the sudden chill in the air, the tense energy that seemed to flood the area; their eyes drawn upward as the very sky itself seemed to rip open and spit out a dark blur that screamed and roared toward the earth.

A monstrous sound erupted, obliterating the last remnants of peace as the shape crashed into the ground, uprooting a line of trees that had withstood centuries of storms, leaving a deep trench in its wake. Eventually, the laws of physics dragged its progression to a halt. The deafening silence that followed was as sudden as the cacophony that had come before. Gradually, the wildlife resumed its own commotion, though far more cautiously than it had started that morning. Above the island, the tear in the sky slowly sealed itself shut and winked out of existence as though it had never been there at all.

In the trench, several minutes passed before a second, much smaller shape detached, falling away from the first with a yelp and a pained grunt. Thin legs and arms uncurled from the young, female form. Slowly she sat up from her new location on the forest floor. Her hand raised to her aching head as she glared at her surroundings through violet eyes. She took in the shady woodland and the sunlight streaming through the line torn through the canopy. She breathed in the scent of clean air perfumed with damp earth, pine needles, and the salty tang of sea water. Wherever she was, it was clearly far from her landlocked home. With that realization, her eyes shot open and she scrambled to her feet.

"Danny!" the girl, Sam Manson, cried. She hastily brushed her jet-black hair out of her eyes to get a better look around. A rumbling noise behind her made her jump and spin to see what had caused it. The shape she had fallen off of just moments before shifted and turned. Sam's heart beat wildly with fear as she watched dark scales glitter and twist. Her feet shuffled backward as instinct begged her to flee, but a twisted fascination captivated her, enticing her to stay. Her slow retreat was suddenly halted as she stumbled over a fallen branch with a strangled shriek.

The sudden sound had caught the attention of the massive shape. It moved swiftly…if only to find itself flailing in a tangle of black limbs and wings before stumbling back into the trench it from which it had nearly emerged. It let out its own strange yip in alarm. This was not the reaction Sam had expected. She had expected a monstrous beast to spring out, spewing fire and overflowing with rage. She sat there in the dirt for a second, stunned. Slowly, she climbed to her feet once again and absently brushed the dust off her dark plaid skirt and black tank top as she stared at the massive creature.

The beast was growling, but it seemed to be a more frustrated sound than an angry one. Now that she could see it a little better, she noticed that, although huge, the creature wasn't quite as gigantic as she had first thought or expected. It was, however, a dragon. Two leathery wings hung at odd angles, as though the dragon wasn't fully aware of them. Black scales covered the majority of its body speckled with bits of white near the spine and along the underbelly. She watched as the reptile shook its large, spade-shaped head perched atop its long, muscular neck. Slowly, the dragon turned its short muzzle and large blue eyes toward her.

The dragon's wing-like ears perked up and it squawked before shutting its mouth rapidly. Its scaly face contorted into a look of concern and confusion. When its mouth opened again and released a small roar, the expression changed to one of fear. As Sam looked on, realization began to dawn. Her eyes widened.

"Danny…?" she asked breathlessly. The dragon tried to vocalize a response, but it just came out as another roar. In frustration, it nodded instead.

Understanding washed over Sam's face. This dragon was indeed her friend Danny. The girl looked to his neck and she scrambled forward to the dragon, searching him over.

"Danny, where's the amulet?" Sam shoved anxiously at his wing, trying to look at his limbs to see if the amulet had somehow ended up in an unexpected location. The dragon, Danny, blinked at her and began to reach toward himself with one overly-large front paw. The wing Sam had pushed at flexed involuntarily and bumped into her. Danny cringed and froze as he watched the girl fight to keep on her feet. His scaly brow then knit together in concentration as he resumed the motion, being careful to only move the one limb.

Sam watched as the dragon's claws sank intangibly into his own chest as though trying to find something. Her eyes widened in shock as she realized what this meant.

"You hid it inside yourself?!" she cried in disbelief, "of all the bone-headed…! Danny, why would you try something like that? You don't even know what it could do to you!" She kicked at his ribs to drive home the point, but he didn't seem to even notice. He had frozen again and looked at his chest, his claws still deeply imbedded. His features twisted into fear as his unseeable searching resumed far more frantically than it had begun. Only another second passed before Danny withdrew his claws and looked at Sam with terror in his eyes.

A jumble of yips and whimpers fell from the dragon's mouth in an attempt to express his panic. His now freed claw gestured wildly with his wordless noises. His attempts at communication soon died down into labored breathing and his eyes seemed to glaze over.

The girl rushed forward again and put her hands on his shoulder.

"Calm down, Danny," she said with a tone she hoped was soothing, "breathe. You're going to hyperventilate. We'll figure out how to get it out of you, and then we'll go home." Sam rubbed his shoulder firmly, not even certain if he could feel the gesture through his scales.

The dragon took a deep breath, trying to get air into his lungs and slow his rapid pulse. Sam was right. He closed his eyes in focus as his chest expanded and contracted. With another deep breath, he carefully lowered himself back to the ground, laying his head on the overturned soil. They would figure this out. They had to.

Miles away, high in the sky, a mismatched troupe of dragons with near equally mismatched riders flew through the air. In the lead was a velvety black dragon with stocky limbs and wings that seemed to dwarf its own body. Its short, thick neck led to a flat head with a short, rounded snout and intelligent, forward-facing green eyes. Short, stubby ridges trailed along the spine of its elongated body all the way to the end of the long, sturdy tail. A red, prosthetic fin flicked open at the tip of the tail, mirroring the actions of the natural fin that splayed out on the other side. It was a beast built for speed and stealth.

A young man was perched on a saddle atop the dragon, situated just in front of its wings. He was no longer a child, but not yet an adult. His tall, lanky form leaned forward to reduce the drag of the wind which pulled at his shaggy auburn hair. His green eyes scanned the horizon ahead for potential threats or previously overlooked land. This was not their first time in the area, but there was always the likelihood that the group might have missed something.

"Hiccup," called a feminine voice from somewhere behind him. "I think I saw something!" The young man on the black dragon looked over his left shoulder to the young woman seated on another dragon. Her pale, blonde braid whipped out behind her wiry frame. Her serious blue eyes looked out over the ocean toward where she pointed to her left.

The dragon she rode was almost bird-like in its shape with only two legs and its wings. Her saddle sat back behind its turquoise wings, safe from the peril of the numerous horns that crowned the back of the creature's large, round head. Yellow eyes pointed outward behind a snout that was almost like a beak which was topped with a large horn that swept back. The beast's spike-covered tail swung stiffly to correct its balance. The dragon's rider automatically shifted her own weight to maintain her position on the saddle.

The leader of the group, Hiccup, motioned for the rest to slow down as he looked where the other dragon rider was pointing.

"You mean by Forsaken Island?" he asked, his tenor voice ringing out as he squinted at the small bit of land in the distance, "are you sure, Astrid?" They had landed there before and found it lacking in signs of dragon or human life. The young woman nodded in confirmation.

"Pretty sure," she replied, turning her eyes to Hiccup. "I think we should check it out, just to be on the safe side."

The young man contemplated the situation a moment and looked back at the rest of the group. A detour would delay their day's exploration. However, they hadn't been very far in this direction and might not find anything. Hiccup frowned in thought. If they continued onward, they would be able to get further. But then…if Astrid was right…

"Well," he drawled out as he solidified his decision, "it might be worth it to take a look." With that, his dragon's tail flicked out behind them, steering them toward the island with the rest of the troupe following close behind.

Author's note:

Thanks for reading the first chapter! I won't be doing many AN's because I'm a bum like that. Personally, I like to dive right into a story when I'm reading, so if I do need to leave a note, it will always be at the end of the chapter. Enjoy!