(COMPLETED) Once their time in the Great Beyond had come to an end, the riders returned to Berk for good. But thier search for new islands and dragons was far from over. Everything changed when they discover a colonie of people living with a new spe...
Once he was free of the ropes, Hiccup jogged over to Tuff and Iris. "Where did you go?" He asked him.
"Uh, you were being boring, so I went exploring--hey, that rhymes!" Tuff explained in excitement.
Hiccup rolled his eyes and turned his attention to Iris, "thank you."
"No need for thanks," Iris responded with a curt smile, "besides, it was your friend who proved to me that you're peaceful."
"Really?" Hiccup asked in uncomfortable disbelief, "Tuffnut convinced you, that he's peaceful?"
Iris nodded, "precisely. Hiccup, right? I'm told you're the leader if this group."
"Uh, yeah, that's me," Hiccup responded awkwardly. He then remembered what he needed to ask. Glancing at the dragon positioned beside Iris, he questioned, "what kind of dragons are these?"
"They're sand wraiths," Iris answered with a grin.
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⇧ Sand wraith ⇧
"They only live on this island, as far as we know," Iris explained, "they're extremely territorial, which is why no other species lives here."
"Well, accept for you," Tuffnut pointed out.
Iris smiled and explained further, "it's said that our tribe's ancestors crashed their boat here in a storm. With no way to leave, there was only one way to live, and that was to bow down to the sand wraiths and pray the dragons would have mercy."
Hiccup looked around the village in awe, "it looks like they did a little more than just have mercy."
"Over time, the wraiths accepted us as their own," Iris confirmed, looked proudly at the dragon beside her.
"You mean, they aren't trained?" Hiccup questioned.
"If anything, they've trained us," Iris told him.
Tuff gasped in amazement, "that's so cool, I wish Barf and Belch could train me."
Hiccup gave the twin a look of surprise and disbelief, "Tuff, were you just, paying attention?"
Before Tuffnut could answer, Iris frowned a bit, "the bonds you vikings share with your dragons is much different from what we have with the wraiths. Yet, it seems quite strong."
"Yeah, well," Tuff began, "I think our dragons would be a little too weirded out if we tried to wear their shed skin."
"This is our only option for clothing," Iris explained, "when a baby is conceived here, a wraith will lay an egg. When it hatches, and the human child is born, they are raised together as siblings. As they grow, the dragon sheds it's skin, and the child gets a new suit."
"This is incredible," Hiccup exclaimed. He looked to Snotlout, Astrid, and Tuffnut, who were all being sniffed and judged by a group of sand wraiths. "The sand wraiths, they just look so much lik--"
"Like your night fury?" Iris finished for him, "they are very close cousins."
"Toothless has cousins?" Tuff repeated, "we should probably tell him."
But when Hiccup spotted the nightfury, he was happy to see him hopping around joyously with a group of younger wraiths. Hiccup smiled, "I think he already knows."
***
The sun was setting, and the sand people were busy preparing dinner. Tuffnut and Ruffnut watched with squinted eyes for a while. Finally, as the darkness began to set in, Ruff leaned over and whispered, "do you think they know how to make fire?"
"It's hard to say," Tuff responded.
Suddenly, out of nowhere was a blast of fire, and a large pile of branches was lit. But to the twins' confusion, there was no wraith where the fire had come from, but a person. "Uh.." Ruff began, "did he just..?"
Again, a fire blazed through the air. This time, the night illuminated by the first fire, Tuffnut saw the flames come out of the man's mouth, "oh my Thor!" He fell backwards off the log he sat on.
"Enjoying the show?" Iris's voice sounded from beside them.
Tuff looked up, the shock still written all over his face. Iris held out a hand and helped him to his feet; he was surprised by her strength. He watched her look around for a moment as if to make sure no one was around. Then she muttered quietly, "come with me."
The twins exchanged an excited look, then raced away with Iris. They only stopped when they were out of the sight of the village. Iris jumped and reached up, grabbing a bright red fruit from a tree. It was half the size of her palm and oval shaped.
"Fire fruit," Iris told them with a crooked grin. She then took a bite out of the fruit and swallowed it. After taking in a slow, deep breath, she blew fire out of her mouth.
"Woah!" Ruffnut exclaimed, "let me try!" She grabbed a fruit, too, and took a bite.
"Just don't start a forest fire," Iris warned. Within seconds, Ruff was breathing fire.
"Tuff, you gotta try this, it doesn't even burn," Ruff urged.
"Where's the fun in that?" Tuff questioned, but still, he tried a fruit for himself.
After about ten minutes of playing around with the fire, it stopped working. "Something inside the skin of the fruit has a reaction when combined with air," Iris explained with a prideful grin.
"Who cares how it works," Ruff belittled, "it makes you breath fire! Look out, Snotlout, here I come!" She then ran off back the the village.
