Lua was accompanying Toothless and Hiccup, and Thornado and Stoick (with Gobber along) as they searched the sea for Trader Johann.
Stoick had placed an order with Johann, but the merchant was taking much longer than usual to return, which made Stoick worried that something might have happened.
"Was it fun staying with Snotlout yesterday?" Lua asked Toothless.
"Uh... It wasn't as bad as it sounds," Toothless snorted.
The day before, Toothless, Hiccup, and Snotlout had ended up on Outcast Island because of Snotlout's arrogance and stubbornness—only Hookfang had returned to Berk, leaving everyone worried and searching for the three of them.
And it seemed that the time on Outcast Island had brought Hiccup and Snotlout closer together, since the two were getting along surprisingly well.
Lua hadn't been flying with them the day before; she decided to stay in Berk and helped Thornado and Stoick with a few things. In return for the help, Thornado helped her improve her agility, as well as sharing some stories about Skrills he had seen in the past.
He also mentioned the possibility of creating a shock pulse that could have driven those Berserkers away from her, but Lua has no idea how to perform that ability, and Thornado couldn't help her any further—after all, he is a sound dragon, not a thunder one.
Unfortunately, Johann was nowhere to be seen, and they had to return. Stoick remained completely silent the entire way back to Berk, looking very thoughtful, which made Hiccup extremely curious about what his father wanted so badly with Johann—Stoick did not tell Hiccup what he wanted from Johann.
o0o0o
"Ah, Lua," Hiccup looked at her, still without a saddle. "I ended up forgetting to make your new saddle. As soon as we find Trader Johan, I'll make you a new one."
"It better be, I feel kind of weird without my saddle... which, by the way, is still on Dragon Island," Lua snorted.
Hiccup placed a bag on Toothless's saddle, putting some fish inside. Toothless picked up Hiccup's water canteen and handed it to him, but before the trio could leave, Astrid appeared, questioning what Hiccup was doing.
"Back from where?" Astrid asked as she climbed down from Stormfly.
"Uh... from a quick little spin around the island! Nothing big," Hiccup tried to play it off.
"A quick spin, huh? With enough food to feed Snotlout's whole family?" Astrid raised an eyebrow.
"Did I hear my name?!" Snotlout arrived as well, with Hookfang.
Lua moved closer to the other dragons.
"Stormfly!" Lua smiled at her.
"Hello, Lua. Where are you three planning to go?" Stormfly asked, tilting her head.
"We're going after Trader Johan. He has something Hiccup's father really wants," Lua said.
"And you're not even inviting us?" Hookfang stepped closer to them. "And where exactly are you going again?"
"Taking a long trip across the endless ocean looking for Trader Johan," Lua said, looking at him.
"You know, this Deadly Nadder here should go too," Hookfang said, looking at Stormfly. "She's got the nose of a dog, it'll be useful."
"Hookfang! Don't compare my sense of smell to those flea-ridden things!" Stormfly growled, offended.
"Well, there you go—one more thing you two have in common," Hookfang snorted smoke from his nostrils.
Stormfly growled at him and Hookfang returned it, but before they could start a fight, Lua stepped between them and stopped them.
"That's enough, you two! You sound like two freshly hatched hatchlings!" Lua growled low.
The Monstrous Nightmare and the Deadly Nadder turned their faces away. Lua could only sigh at the sight—sometimes, it was very difficult to make two species that were natural rivals always get along. Of course, they wouldn't start fighting the moment they saw each other, but they would definitely provoke one another until a fight broke out.
Toothless approached while the Vikings talked about the trip. Hookfang noticed that Snotlout was eating a juicy salmon and immediately stole it from its owner, swallowing the whole fish.
Snotlout glared at Hookfang, who ended up regurgitating part of the fish (more bone than meat), but Snotlout ate it anyway, to the disgust of Astrid, Hiccup, and Lua.
"Ugh," Lua shuddered at the sight. (Wait... I've eaten a fish like that once... Besides, I'm a dragon! But it's kind of gross.)
"When are we leaving?" Astrid asked.
"I need to go alone. If everyone goes, my dad is going to get suspicious," Hiccup said.
"Go alone? Without us? Hahahaha! Like you could handle things on your own without our help!" Snotlout started choking on the fish head. "Help here!"
Astrid punched him in the stomach, making him spit out the fish head.
"Oh no," Hiccup shook his head. "Fine! Fine, fine, okay! You can come, but that's it! Don't tell anyone else. Respect that! I'm serious."
o0o0o
And in the end, all the other dragon riders came along too, much to Hiccup's dismay.
"Hi, Hiccup! Snotlout said there'd be salmon and I love salmon!" Tuffnut said.
"I'm pretty sure I told you not to tell anyone else!" Hiccup snapped at Snotlout.
"Yeah! But I didn't feel like listening to you!" Snotlout said, almost mocking Hiccup.
"And there they go again," Lua sighed while flying alongside Toothless.
"It could've been a journey with just the three of us," Toothless grumbled.
"Just the three of you, huh? Or did you mean just you two?" Stormfly teased.
Toothless growled at her and Stormfly pretended not to notice. While flying over the sea, the group ended up finding Trader Johan shipwrecked on a piece of wood, unconscious from exhaustion, hunger, and thirst.
Toothless dove down and picked Johan up.
Everyone headed to a large rock in the middle of the sea, which would serve well as a temporary stop.
o0o0o
Johann woke up, looking a little better.
"The fog... the fog," was all Johann kept saying from the moment he woke up.
"Johann, where's your ship?" Hiccup asked, worried about his condition.
"I don't know," Johann looked away. "All I know is that I was sailing on calm seas, with the wind at my back, and suddenly! My ship was swallowed up and I became shark bait!"
Hiccup looked at Astrid, confused and at a loss.
"I don't understand," Hiccup said as he offered Johann a fish.
"But I do! I was three days late and wanted to make up for lost time, and I sailed too close..." Johann swallowed hard.
"Too close to what?" Fishlegs trembled as he asked.
"Too close to the Breakneck Bog..." Johann said fearfully.
"Breakneck Bog?/Breakneck Bog?" the Vikings and dragons said at the same time, surprised—except for Lua, who already knew what it was, but was pretending.
"Few ships pass through those waters, and all the ones that did... never returned!" Fishlegs said nervously.
"My grandfather told me they're pirates!" Astrid said.
"That's ridiculous! Everyone knows it's haunted by the Fog Monster!" Snotlout said.
"Fog Monster?" Fishlegs shrank back as he said it.
The twins started messing with Fishlegs when they saw he was scared, saying macabre things about what the Fog Monster could do, and Johann ended up agreeing with them, just as frightened as Fishlegs.
"...And then... it s-surrounded me!"
"I told you so! Fog Monster! Pirates? Hahaha, your grandpa is an idiot, you know that?" Snotlout mocked, laughing.
"Fog Monster?" Lua tilted her head, pretending to think.
"Do you know something, Lua?" Toothless asked.
"Maybe... I remember there was a dragon that could spit smoke and create fog," Lua said, trying to give the dragons a hint. (If I can keep them on alert, it'll be easier later.)
The dragons nodded at the information and started discussing among themselves, while their riders talked to Johann about what kind of dragon it could be. None of them seemed to know, since they had all practically grown up in the Red Death's nest, knowing only the more common species that lived in her territory.
At a certain point, the dragons turned their attention back to their riders.
"Snotlout, you and the twins take him back to Berk," Hiccup ordered, to Snotlout's great displeasure.
"Huh?! Back to Berk?! With this clown?!" Snotlout pointed at Johann. "And these clowns?!" He pointed at the twins. "Why not send him with Lua?! She doesn't have a rider!"
"And no saddle either—Johann could end up slipping and falling," Hiccup then pointed at Johann. "Look at him, we don't have a choice. And if anything happens, you'll be glad to have them by your side."
Tuffnut laughed, already thinking about what he could do to make Snotlout's life miserable on the way back to Berk.
"Quick question—what about the rest of us?" Fishlegs raised his hand, shrinking back.
"We're going to Breakneck Bog!" Hiccup replied, to Fishlegs's complete despair.
o0o0o
Hiccup, Toothless, and Lua led the group toward Breakneck Bog.
"What if I give you something from my mom? Or I can give you my mom!" Fishlegs was trying everything to make Hiccup change his mind.
"What kind of Viking offers up his own mother?!" Lua raised an eyebrow, indignant. "If my mother were still here, I would never—" Lua slowly grew quieter with each word she said.
"Lua?" Toothless looked at her, worried.
Toothless didn't say anything, but he looked at her too.
"It's nothing..." Lua said, looking down.
o0o0o
The group finally reached the island where Breakneck Bog was located.
"I don't get it. We flew all around the island and didn't find a single ship!" Hiccup looked around.
"Yeah, not even shipwreck remains!" Astrid agreed.
"You know who would take ships? The Fog Monster!" Fishlegs said.
Suddenly, they heard a whisper—or a low roar. The three dragons answered with roars of their own and went on alert, tense.
"Now I remember... They're Smothering Smokebreath!" Lua used the sound of their roar as her cue to speak.
"Smothering... Smokebreath?" Stormfly, Toothless, and Meatlug asked, looking at her.
"Yes! The roar is identical! They're small dragons that release smoke, and their fire is hot air! They can weld metals... I... I've encountered some in the past," Lua continued the lie.
The riders guided the dragons toward the source of the sound.
"And is there any way to fight them?" Toothless asked, looking at Lua.
"Hmm... They move in packs and are very agile, and they're small! Oh, and they love metal! A lot," Lua tried to think of something else to say about them, but couldn't remember anything more.
They reached Johann's ship, which was literally wedged into a large tree. The Vikings went up on their own, since the ship wouldn't withstand much more weight.
The dragons stayed on watch down below, all ready to rush to the Vikings' rescue if necessary.
Lua lifted her head when she heard something in the nearby woods. Fearless, she moved closer and sniffed the air—smoke. Unmistakable.
Lua growled, already imagining that where there was smoke, there were Smothering Smokebreaths. She went into the brush, ignoring Toothless, Stormfly, and Batatão calling out to her.
"Come out now! I know you're here," Lua ran deeper into the undergrowth.
The bog was silent—no sound, no scent—but Lua didn't lower her guard.
Suddenly, something small struck Lua in the back, making her groan in pain. Lua dodged the next projectile that was thrown at her.
She turned and looked around, spotting trails of smoke—it was the Smothering Smokebreaths attacking her.
"Go away, Skrill!" a shrill voice said.
Lua growled and dodged a Smothering Smokebreath that lunged at her, then another, and another.
"Fine! Now you're going to meet thunder!" Lua opened her mouth and fired a lightning bolt into a cloud of smoke that passed by her.
She missed.
The Smothering Smokebreaths continued attacking and growling at her; it seemed these dragons had a deep hatred for Skrills.
Lua finally managed to land a tail strike on one of them, sending it crashing into a tree. Seeing their injured sibling, the Smothering Smokebreaths grabbed him and began fleeing as fast as they could.
Lua spread her wings and took off after them. After all, they were the ones who lured her in and attacked her suddenly—Lua wasn't going to let that slide. Something inside her screamed for revenge.
All the dragon riders were gathered together—Snotlout and the twins had abandoned Johann on some rock and returned to take part in the mission—and they were trying to find Lua and the Fog Monster, whichever came first.
Suddenly, a thick cloud of smoke rushed quickly beneath them, leaving the riders stunned. What left them even more stunned—and startled some of them—was when Lua streaked past at high speed; they almost saw nothing but a purple-and-white blur.
Lua ignored any attempts by the Vikings or the dragons to find her; she only roared at the Smothering Smokebreaths.
o0o0o
The riders reached a clearing in front of a mountain. Lua was down on the ground, surrounded by the mysterious fog.
"Lua!" Hiccup called out, worried.
Toothless growled when he saw Lua was surrounded.
Lua tried to electrify some of the Smothering Smokebreaths, but the shots always missed because of the smoke.
"What are the dragons doing?!" Snotlout was surprised when Hookfang took control of the situation.
Hiccup watched as all the dragons began beating their wings harder, creating gusts strong enough to blow the smoke away.
"They're dispersing the smoke!" Hiccup said.
Lua looked over her shoulder and saw the other dragons doing the same, so she copied them, creating powerful winds by beating her wings.
Soon, all the smoke was gone, and they could see the large swarm of small Smothering Smokebreaths.
"They're dragons!" Hiccup said, surprised.
"Yeah! And they're angry!" Snotlout swallowed hard.
"What are those things?" Ruffnut asked, staring at them.
"They're like smoky pirate dragons, just without the eyepatch," Tuffnut replied.
"Smothering Smokebreath dragons," Fishlegs murmured, and everyone stared at him. "What?"
"You knew about these things?!" Snotlout pointed at the dragons.
"Well, I read about them, but I didn't think they were real!" Fishlegs defended himself.
"So you preferred the Fog Monster instead of telling us about them?" Astrid said, raising an eyebrow.
"Guys! Can we talk about that later? Is there anything else the book says?" Hiccup said, then looked at Lua. "Lua! Come here!"
Lua looked at Hiccup and then at the Smothering Smokebreaths. She growled at them before joining the others in the air.
"They hide within a shroud of smoke, they're very territorial, and uhh... I forgot the other thing," Fishlegs said.
The Smothering Smokebreaths roared in warning before charging to attack them. Lua growled and lunged, trying to bite one, but it slipped away.
The Smothering Smokebreaths focused their attacks on her more than on the others.
"Add to the dragon book that Smothering Smokebreaths and Skrills don't get along! Toothless, plasma blast!" Hiccup ordered.
Toothless fired a plasma blast to force the Smothering Smokebreaths to pull back and move away from Lua.
The riders had to make a strategic retreat for the moment, since they wouldn't be able to handle the Smothering Smokebreaths that way. Hookfang spat a stream of fire to serve as a distraction, and they were able to escape.
Unfortunately, the Smothering Smokebreaths were responsible for stealing the chest Hiccup had come for, so they came up with a plan to get the chest back from them.
Lua went to distract the Smothering Smokebreaths along with Snotlout, since he had a gold necklace and it seemed to attract their attention a lot. Lua went along to support Snotlout, and since the Smothering Smokebreaths apparently didn't like Skrills, that would keep them distracted for much longer.
But the distraction didn't work for very long, since they were more focused on grabbing the necklace and returning to their nest.
At a certain point, the Smothering Smokebreaths managed to grab Snotlout and carry him off to the nest, while some of the Smothering Smokebreaths blocked Lua's path to him.
"You won't get anywhere near our nest, Skrill!" said a Smothering Smokebreath.
"You won't steal our metal!" another added.
Fortunately, it didn't take long for Hiccup to come out of there with Toothless, Snotlout, and the chest, but the Smothering Smokebreaths kept chasing them because of the metal they were carrying.
"Give them all the metal you've got!" Hiccup ordered.
So the riders began throwing away many of the weapons they were carrying, and little by little the Smothering Smokebreaths grabbed the weapons and returned to their nest—but one of them stubbornly kept trying to grab Hiccup's prosthetic leg.
Lua saw that and moved closer, growling, and—
She bit it—bit the Smothering Smokebreath's tail and bit down hard. Lua snapped her head and flung the Smothering Smokebreath away, then released it. She licked her teeth, feeling a dragon's blood for the first time. It wasn't an unpleasant taste, but it wasn't pleasant either.
"Thank you, Lua," Hiccup said gratefully, without even noticing the small bit of blood between her teeth.
Lua just snorted in response.
o0o0o
Back in Berk, the twins and Snotlout faced consequences for having abandoned Johann on a rock in the middle of the sea, but to Johann's small relief, his merchant ship was successfully recovered—it just needed repairs.
That night, at Stoick and Hiccup's house, Lua and Toothless watched impatiently while the two Vikings stalled before opening the box they had risked so much to retrieve.
And it hadn't been for nothing—inside the box was an old, dirty dragon plush, one that Hiccup's mother had made.
Lua growled softly and looked away from the scene.
"Are you okay, Lua? You've been getting so distant whenever they talk about mothers," Toothless tilted his head.
"It's just that..." Lua took a deep breath, her eyes reflecting sadness. "I... I lost my mom."
Toothless's eyes widened at that.
"I saw her... I saw when she died... and I couldn't do anything to stop it," Lua growled quietly, holding back tears. "She... she died in the sea, and I remember it like it was yesterday... We were having fun near the ocean... me, my mom, and my dad... and then something happened, something I can't explain what it was... but my mother fell into the sea and sh—" Lua couldn't go on.
Toothless nudged her gently with his head.
"Don't say anything else," he murmured, purring softly to calm her. "You don't have to tell me, and you don't have to force yourself to remember. I'm here for you, and Hiccup is too. We're here now."
(He must think it was dragon hunters... but the truth is... my family and I were on a cruise that went wrong and started sinking...) Lua simply accepted Toothless's comfort.
Hiccup noticed the behavior of the two dragons, especially Lua, who looked visibly shaken.
"Lua? What's wrong, girl?" Hiccup came closer, petting her. "Did what happened earlier with the Smothering Smokebreaths upset you, girl? It's okay, Lua. We're here." Hiccup tried to comfort her.
Lua tried to force a smile, but it was hard with a dragon's features. Still, she felt better than before. At least now, she knew she wasn't—and had never been—alone in this world.
o0o0o
The following week...
The next morning, Lua chose to be alone for a while, flying around the island of Berk and enjoying the wind against her scales.
Even though that confession had been a week ago, Lua chose to keep her distance in the following days to think and reflect on her life up to this point.
She had never stopped to think about her father since the day she arrived in this world. What would her father be doing? Did he miss her?
Maybe... her father had finally become happy without her.
"No! I can't think that way!" Lua shook her head to rid herself of those thoughts. "He loves me! He loved me..."
Lua took a deep breath and looked out toward the horizon, seeing nothing but the sea as far as her eyes could reach.
"I wonder... does this Skrill body I have have a past? I only possess it, as far as I know... Did it have a... soul? A consciousness before?" She grew thoughtful. "I've never had any memories of this body—and does it have any? Now that I stop to think about it, I have no idea how I ended up here..."
Lua only descended again when night had already fallen. She landed in the forest to rest before heading to Hiccup's house.
"It's pretty quiet here," she smiled, enjoying the silence.
But suddenly, a scream cut through the night. Lua immediately flew toward the source of the scream—it was a human scream, a Viking's.
When she got closer, she saw a young Viking with blond hair, wearing a Viking helmet and holding something shiny in his hands. He looked terrified, glancing around frantically.
Lua raised an eyebrow at that and approached carefully. She sniffed the air and caught a very faint scent, but saw nothing. She moved closer to the boy and growled low.
"AHH!" he let out a scream, but when he realized it was Lua, he calmed down. "Aren't you one of Hiccup's dragons?"
Suddenly, a red dragon appeared behind him. Lua's eyes narrowed into slits and she roared, leaping over the boy, who screamed again.
The Changewing dodged and camouflaged itself once more.
"Show yourself!" Lua roared, lifting her wings, trying to look bigger.
"I don't want a fight! I just want the egg that was stolen from my mother!" the Changewing said, still invisible.
"An egg?" Lua thought for a moment. "If you give me a minute, I can get the egg back for you! Where is it?"
"With that Viking! He's one of the egg thieves!" shouted the Changewing as it became visible again.
Lua stared at the Changewing and then at the blond boy. She then took a closer look at what he was carrying: it looked like a stone that shimmered in many colors, but in truth it was a dragon egg—one of the most precious things to a dragon or a dragon pack.
The boy took a step back, frightened when the Changewing appeared. The Changewing growled at him.
Lua snorted and moved closer to the Viking.
"W-What's g-going on?" the Viking looked at the two dragons in confusion.
Lua gently touched the egg with her snout so the Viking would look at it. Behind her, the Changewing grew more agitated, thinking the egg might be eaten by the Skrill.
"My lucky stone?" the Viking raised an eyebrow.
Lua moved behind him and began pushing him toward the Changewing.
"No! That's where the danger is!" the Viking started trembling in fear.
Lua pushed him until he was face to face with the Changewing.
The Changewing snorted smoke from its nostrils as it stared into his eyes, and even though he was afraid, the boy stared back.
He didn't see anger or aggression in the dragon's eyes, but fear—fear of something. The boy looked down at the lucky stone, remembering how Lua had gently nudged it.
"Y-You want this?" the boy asked, holding the stone out.
The Changewing calmed down, relaxing when it saw the egg was unharmed. It looked at the boy one last time before grabbing the egg as fast as it could and flying away.
"That was it...?" the boy finally managed to breathe again, not even realizing he had been holding his breath. "So what was that stone, anyway?"
Lua growled softly and saw that the boy would be safe, so she immediately spread her wings and flew back toward the village.
"Hey! Wait!" the boy tried to call after her, but was ignored. "...You could've at least given me a ride, you know?" He sighed and started walking back to the village.
o0o0o
Lua landed near Toothless and Hiccup.
"What happened? Why was there one Changewing in Berk?" Lua asked.
"One? More like several! Snotlout stole Changewing eggs, and some of the pack came to get the eggs back," Toothless explained, staring at Snotlout.
"Oh... yeah, that sounds like him," Lua rolled her eyes.
The village was a bit damaged, but the Vikings quickly rebuilt it the next day.
While walking toward the arena with Toothless and Hiccup, she witnessed that same boy from before scolding a younger child.
"Gustav! Never let yourself be sold again! Have you lost your mind? And on top of that... was Mom crazy too?!" the boy put his hands on his hips.
"Sorry, Cobalto," Gustav looked down.
(So his name is Cobalt... Wait, that was Gustav?)
Bonus:
Berk's forest seemed different at night.
Cobalt walked among the trees with a small bag slung over his shoulder, muttering under his breath as he pushed damp branches out of his way.
"Medicinal herbs... right in the middle of the night," Cobalt grumbled, kicking a stone. "As if what I went through the other night wasn't scary enough."
Even while complaining, he hadn't disobeyed. He never disobeyed his mother (even if he questioned her decisions—she wasn't a bad mother).
Cobalt knelt beside a fallen log, recognizing the broad, serrated leaves his mother had described and asked for. He carefully reached out, plucked a few, and placed them into the bag he carried.
That was when the air suddenly seemed to change.
A chill ran up Cobalt's spine. He slowly straightened, his fingers tightening around the bag. Something moved among the trees—almost imperceptible, as if it were nothing more than the wind stirring the leaves.
He swallowed hard.
"It's nothing..." Cobalt whispered to himself.
Suddenly, something red began to reveal itself—the Changewing, the same one from before, had returned and seemed to be searching for something again, but it was certainly not one of the stolen eggs.
Cobalto stood completely still, his heart pounding. Fortunately, the dragon showed no signs of aggression like before. It seemed curious and approached cautiously.
Cobalt took a deep breath, trying to calm himself enough to stop trembling like a leaf as the dragon drew closer.
It was so near that Cobalt could feel the heat coming from the Changewing's breath—and possibly from its acid as well.
Slowly, almost instinctively, Cobalt extended his hand toward the Changewing. The dragon responded with a growl, and a bit of acid dripped from its mouth. Cobalt pulled his hand back, then—gathering courage he didn't even know he had—closed his eyes and held his hand out again...
Waiting to feel what would happen...
Whether his arm would be torn off, or melted by acid...
Or maybe...