Dragon's Curse

By: Aubrie1234

"Toothless! TOOTHLESS!"

"Hiccup, quiet down! We don't want to attract any other dragons!"

"How else are we supposed to find Toothless? Without the equipment and me, he can't fly. Besides, he has his own enemies, if that Whispering Death was anything to go by." Stormfly rolled her eyes as the two continued to argue. That morning, when Hiccup had awoken, Toothless had been found missing, with his equipment laying in the spot where he slept. As it was almost never taken off and he couldn't have taken it off himself without damaging it, Hiccup was immediately worried and called for a search of Dragon's Edge. So far, there had been no sign of the Night Fury.

She landed with a sigh as the arguing got louder and more animated. They liked each other, she and Toothless knew, but sometimes, they could never get along. When it had gone on long enough, she whacked them with her head spikes, hoping to snap them out of it.

"Ow!"

"Stormfly!" The dragon snorted and began to carefully walk through the woods, sniffing a few things along the way. She was hoping she might pick up Toothless' scent, if he had gone this way. Besides, searching from the ground was sometimes better than the air, as you could catch stuff on the ground that you normally couldn't see from above.

"Anyway," Hiccup rubbed his sore arm as Astrid rubbed her side, "anything yet?"

If I knew, I would tell you. Oh wait, you can't understand me. Stormfly thought, but leaned her head forward so she wouldn't hit them again when she shook it.

"As Snotlout would say, this is stupid." Astrid sighed, "Honestly, I don't think it is myself and I know what you're going through, but this is getting tedious. Remember when Heather had stolen Stormfly?"

"Yeah, I know. It's just...everything seemed strange. How could Toothless just lose his equipment like that? I didn't take it off last night, either, I'm sure."

"But if he had been stolen, wouldn't we have heard the struggling? And it also takes a while for Dragon Nip to take affect, and even then, it would affect all the dragons." They continued to theorize as Stormfly walked. However, she suddenly stopped as she picked up a scent from the ground. It was sort-of like Toothless' scent, except different with a hint of blood mixed in. She turned her head so she could see what made the scent. A patch of dried blood was on the group, and there was a path of tiny puddles that led away from it, in two directions.

He got hurt, walked for a time, stopped here to rest, then continued on. she surmised, then made a small caw sound to get her riders' attention.

"What is it, Stormfly?" Astrid asked, "Find something?" Stormfly gestured to the blood trail.

"You don't think-!" Hiccup cut himself off.

"No way." Astrid shook her head, "Follow the trail!" Her dragon nodded and did just that. After several minutes of walking, they came across a small cave, but there were dragons in front of it. It looked like they were trying to get into the cave, which looked to be small enough for only Terrible Terrors and other small dragons to enter. A Monstrous Nightmare tried to stick its head in, but immediately pulled back with a howl, shaking its head. There were fresh claw marks on its snout. There was definitely something in the cave they were trying to get at, probably what made the blood trail.

"Toothless couldn't fit in something so small, not with his wings." Hiccup muttered quietly, so the dragons wouldn't hear him.

"Well, something's in there that's got the dragons interested, and Stormfly wouldn't follow the trail with no reason. Besides, we have to check everything, because anything could leave a clue to our missing dragon." Astrid reasoned.

"Point taken. How are we going to do this?"

Scare them off, what else? Stormfly thought, raising her tail and letting her spikes fan out.

"Stormfly, wait-!" It was to late, though, because the dragon whipped around to fire her spikes. They didn't hit any of the other dragons, but they definitely scared them away. Once the last of the dragons were gone, the humans climbed off and slowly walked to the cave entrance. It was just large enough for a human to enter, so maybe someone had gotten stranded on the island, was hurt by the dragons, and hid here.

"Um, hello?" Hiccup called into the cave hesitantly. There was some shuffling in the cave, but nothing came out, indicating it might be a dragon, "Hey, it's okay. We're here to help you, not hurt you."

"He's right." Astrid said, "None of those dragons from before are here to hurt you." Slowly, a pair of eyes came into view. They sort of looked like Toothless' pale green ones, but the pupil was round instead of square. When it saw them, there was a sigh of relief, then it revealed itself. It was a boy, looking to only be a little older than they were. He wore black leather and furs with no armor, with a bloodied hand holding his side, where it was soaked in blood. He had a kind, mischievous face and bright eyes that spoke of childish tendencies, but also great understanding and wisdom. The strangest thing about him was his hair; it was black as smoke and had two bands in it that held up two straight tufts of the black hair. They reminded the humans of Toothless' ears.

"Terence." he grunted, struggling to stand, where they helped him up, "I got injured during a nasty fall, and those dragons have been hounding me ever since."

"Here, let us take you to our home." Astrid offered, "We can patch you up there. By the way, I'm Astrid, this is Hiccup, and the Nadder is Stormfly." He looked to the only dragon, who was giving him a curious stare.

"Don't worry, she won't hurt you unless you do something bad or Astrid wants her to." Hiccup explained, "How did you get here, anyway?" Terence shrugged.

"I don't know. I don't really remember anything except my name and what happened last night." They glanced at each other as they helped Terence onto Stormfly's back. It was going to be a tight fit, as she almost didn't have enough room.

"Did you happen to see a Night Fury last night?" Hiccup asked. Terence shook his head.

"Too busy fleeing for my life."

"Well, you see, we're friends with dragons." Astrid explained, "I have Stormfly, our friends have other dragons, and Hiccup has a Night Fury named Toothless, who can't fly. He disappeared sometime last night, we think, and haven't been able to find him." Terence nodded.

"I see."

"And also, you sort of look like a Night Fury." The older boy smiled.

"I know. I like to picture myself as one sometimes, because I love them so much." Stormfly flapped her wings, struggling to fly with the extra weight, but managing.

"You do?" Astrid, along with Hiccup, was surprised.

"Yeah, I've been interested in them for a long time."

"Why?" Terence shrugged, wincing when it bothered the wound in his side, which was still covered by his hand.

"I guess I thought they're misunderstood." he said, "They look and act like giant cats with wings, and it looks cute."

"You've seen one?!"

"Sort of. When I was little, I managed to watch one for a while but then had to leave before someone tried to find me." All too soon, they arrived at the Edge, the only ones there. Finally, Terence uncovered his wound, wincing again. Astrid shook her head when she saw it.

"How did you get such a wound and survive if this was bleeding the whole time?" It was a deep gash and looked really bad.

"Well, I remember I was on a cliff above a forest, looking out over it, trying to get my bearing, when suddenly, the ground gives away. I found myself tumbling through the brush until, finally, something stuck in my side and made this gash, also stopping me."

"First, let's clean it up and stop the bleeding. Hiccup?"

"Already on it." he handed her the cloth he had just wet, where she began to clean the wound as gently as she could. As this was happening, Stormfly had walked out, watching as the other members of Dragon's Edge landed.

"Hey, Storm." Meatlug said as the humans left, quickly discovering Terence, "Find anything?"

"Yeah, another human. He's injured, but he looks and smells like Toothless!"

"Really?" Barf asked.

"You're kidding!" Belch gasped.

"Do you think this could be a case of Sasfrok's Curse?" Hookfang asked.

"Possibly. I haven't had the chance to ask him in private."

"I wonder what happened that forced him to become human." Meatlug mused.

"You know, it's both good and bad that our partners can't understand us." Barf began.

"We can keep secrets, which is good, but we can't tell them that the new human is our dragon buddy!" Belch continued.

"Hopefully, they either figure it out themselves, find out accidentally, or he tells them." Hookfang sighed, "I don't want to go dealing with a suspicious Snotlout."

"Don't we all." Stormfly agreed, "Don't we all."

Yeah, I bet you know what's going on. This is also similar to my The Adventures of Ashachu story. If you can't tell, I'm not good at the secret identity thing, it sounds like Superman's. Anyway, read and & review! This is my first pure HTTYD story, set after the second movie and (sort-of) during the Netflix series, Race to the Edge. Basically, after the whole fiasco in the 2nd movie, the group goes to Dragon's Edge to explore again, like the series dictates (except the series is set before the movie). You get it now? And again, R & R!