How To Train Your Dragon: Dragon Masters

Chapter 18 - Dragon Scales

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Hiccup's POV:
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"What the..." I walked outside where I see Toothless hanging from a tree branch with a bunch of black scales underneath him on the floor. He came down and smiled at me. "Oh it's dragon shedding day."

Once a year the dragons shed their scales. So all over the town there is a mountain full of different scales. I picked up one of Toothless's as I do every year to inspect it. I took it inside and placed it on the table. Toothless has the blackest scales I have ever seen for a dragon. They don't shimmer in the sunlight or reflect any light at all they are so dark. I rubbed his nose as he sat next to me. He was now just a smooth black lizard that looked slippery like a bar of soap. He will have his scales back by the morning.

With every dragon on Berk now leaving scales everywhere, we need to got rid of them. I walk out the door to head to Astrid's house to get Stormfly. Nadders have fire that is hotter than the sun they say. So when Stormfly shoots fire at the scales they disintegrate leaving nothing. As I leave my house though my jaw drops the the ground.

There in front of me I see Cloudjumper rapped in his wings on the floor. The giant animal was still as an egg not moving a single mussel. I don't remember him doing this last year. I went to run over to him to make sure the poor thing was still alive. But mum quickly stopped me before I could touch him.

"Don't!" She said quickly pulling me and Toothless away from him.

"What?" Is he ok?" I asked her.

"Oh, he's fine."

"He doesn't look fine to me." I said examining him.

"He is don't worry. Every ten years a storm cutter doesn't just shed his scales. He literally sheds his entire skin." She told me.

"What! Is that normal."

"Yes. Just leave him there for the day and he will be fine by the morning. But just make sure you don't touch him it's important so his new skin can dry." She said warning me.

"Wait he has already shedding his skin?" I asked in surprise.

"Yes."

"Then where is his old skin?" I said looking around for it.

"He blew it up." She responded.

"What?!"

"Yeah, they need to get rid of it somehow, don't they?" She said asking me the obvious question.

"I guess so."

"Oh my, look at the village. You can barely see the floor it's covered in scales. Could you round up the nadders please."

"Yeah, I'm just heading to get Stormfly now." I said walking into the town. I walk across the stone road where I meet with another black scale just there by itself. "How many places did you leave your scales bud?"

"Grrrrgrrrraaawww." He responded sniffing the black scale. I just threw the scale behind me knowing a Nadder will blow it up later. We head over to Astrid's and knock on the door. There I see Astrid with Stormfly behind her already saddled up.

"Ready to blow up Berk?" She said.

"No need to go to nuts on the destruction." I answered.

"Haha come on." She hopped on Stormfly and flew above the village as I followed her.

"Toothless." I gestured for him to call all the nadders.

"Grrrawwwww." He yelled and all the nadders on Berk flew into the air infront of us. "Grrrrgrrrawgrrr" he growled and all the nadders dived shooting the scales disintegrating each one.

"Woooohooo!" Astrid yelled as Stormfly dived to the ground flying between houses and under bridges. I know this is one of her favourite days of the year because she loves Stormfly flying all over the village with no control from Astrid. I followed after her when I found the black scale in one of my saddle bags.

"What? Toothless why are you keeping this we have one of these on the table at home?" I said throwing the scale behind me. Toothless then roared and dove after it. "Ahhhh! Toothless what are you doing?!" I yelled as he caught the black scale in his mouth just before we hit the floor. "What is it with you and that scale?" I said as we landed near a feeding station.

"Grrrrrrrr!" He growled at me.

"Fine we can keep this one but I still don't understand why?"

"Grrrrr!" He just growled at me again. I held the black scale in my hand. It was clearly Toothless's it was identical to the rest of his scales.