The team zoomed through the skies heading for the hill ahead so that they would get a slight advantage in this battle. Just as they neared the hill, a flurry of fireballs were rained down on them.
"Look out guys!!" Vyra yelled as she pulled Strombreaker up.
"Woah!!" Forde exclaimed as he moved Spikethorn to the side.
"I don't know what this is but it's clearly on some type of dragon steroids" Sten commented.
"I'm beginning to doubt that this thing is a Sand Wraith to begin with or a regular one at most" Thyra added.
"New plan guys, we can't head to the hill straight ahead so we have to go around it" Vyra said.
"So what do we do?" Thyra asked.
"Let's look for a new angle" Forde said.
"Let's fan out and look for new routes" Vyra said.
"But that's too dangerous. This thing will kill us if we split up" Sten said concerned about their safety.
"Okay, let's go in twos. Sten, Thyra, you guys head left. Forde and I will head right" Vyra said.
The team split up with each looking for a new way to get up the hill. They circled round the hill and started heading straight at it deeming that they were in the clear and were well hidden under the tree line.
"I don't think that thing is after us anymore" Thyra said.
"Yes, we've finally gotten that terrible creature of our backs" Sten agreed but their joy was short lived.
From their right, four fireballs were hurled at them hitting the dragons with pinpoint precision as the dragons crashed to the ground after being hit in the head and in the side. The dragons and their riders laid on the ground looking for where their attacker came from.
"When I get my hands on that dragon. He'll pay for what he did to Eruptor" Sten said angrily holding the head of his downed dragon.
Rampage grunted and huffed and tried to get back to his feet.
"Easy boy, don't force it now" Thyra said holding her dragon's nasal horn.
"I hope the others aren't in the same situation as us" Sten said.
Vyra and Forde flew through a rocky trail that led right up to the hill. It's sides were covered with rock faces with some even sticking out. Strombreaker grunted uneasily feeling that the dragon from earlier was on to them.
"Easy girl" Vyra assured her by rubbing her back. "We're almost there"
Forde swung his head from side to side on the lookout for the dragon that was hunting them.
"Still no sign of the dragon yet" Forde reported.
"Keep your eye's peeled, it could be anywhere" Vyra responded and indeed she was right.
A blast flew in from the side hitting a couple of rocks that flew down on the two riders. Strombreaker gave a worried roar seeing their situation.
"Stormbreaker!" Vyra yelled.
The Stormcutter wore a serious look on her face as she flew into the rockslide performing intricate twists and turns as she avoided being hit by the rocks. She banked from side to side aggressively, she blasted a big boulder to bits and spun through debris to protect her rider then she ascended above a piece and then descended in a spin. She then caught her self and flew smoothly out of the rockslide much to Vyra's delight.
"Good girl!" Vyra praised as she scratched her back. Her dragon purred in delight as she vibrated her frills.
Forde also made it out of rockslide in one piece thanks to Spikethorn's agility and precise maneuvers.
"That was close" he said.
"That thing would be back for us" Vyra said with her worries answered a bit too soon.
Spikethorn was blasted on the back causing her to lose balance and throw Forde off.
"Forde!" Vyra yelled seeing her comrade plummeting to the ground as she pulled back on Stormbreaker causing her to grunt at such and urgent move.
Before anything could be done, Stormbreaker was hit from the front by the dragon causing Vyra to dismount from her dragon as she called to it.
"Stormbreaker!" she cried but her dragon was hit to hard for her to do anything.
Out of the ashes, a savior arose as Sandstorm and Rune came swooping down and catching the two with Forde being held in the dragon's paws and Vyra being held up by Rune.
"Rune?" Vyra said surprised.
"The one and only" Rune said with a smile.
She punched him in the chest. "Where in Loki's maze have you been?" she said with an angry tone.
"Just exploring then I heard explosions and figured that you guys were in trouble" he answered as they flew down to the downed dragons.
Sandstorm dropped Forde and made a sharp turn just as he was about to land and faced the two. Rune and Vyra quickly dismounted as they heard the beating wings of their hunter approaching. They were all prepared to take on the attacker but never expected what they saw.
On top of a rock, a Sand Wraith landed but he was by no means like the other Wraiths.
"Could that be...."
"...a Titan wing" Forde finished Rune's sentence.
The Sand Wraith stood on top of the rock and roared thunderously as he announced his arrival to them. He was bigger, longer and bulkier than Sandstorm for sure, he had spikes on his shoulders, and the others were significantly longer than before. His teeth protruded down from his top jaw. He had bigger wings and tail fins as well as narrower eyes for a much more intimidating look. He had more spikes on the lower part of his jaw as well.
The dragon snarled and hissed at them, jumping from the rock to the ground in one attempt and approached ready to strike. Stormbreaker and Spikethorn quickly got to their feet and rallied behind their riders to protect them from the Titan's rampage. The Titan growled loudly at them as it looked ready to pounce at anyone of them as the tension heightened.
"Anyone got any bright ideas?" Rune asked nervously not liking how things were going.
The Sandstorm jumped out in front of the Titan and gave a howl stopping the titan in its tracks which was surprising. He then grunted and huffed and pointed to the humans with his head, the titan looked at them curiously and snorted.
"What do you think they're talking about?" Forde asked.
"Not a clue" Rune answered.
Then Sandstorm looked back at his rider telling him all was okay.
"I don't think the titan is going to hunt us anymore" Rune said raising eyebrows from his mates.
He took a leap of faith and walked forward towards the titan.
"Rune! Are you mad?!!" Vyra whispered aggressively.
"You weren't going to harm us" he said calmly as he approached the dragon who growled lightly.
"You were just doing your job weren't you" he continued getting closer as the dragon's growl got louder stopping Rune in his tracks.
"I guess that's far enough huh"
Sandstorm then looked back at the dragon and then the two began to rub heads together and that showed that the two shared some type of bond. Sandstorm then returned to Rune and looked a bit excited.
"So you guys are like what, brothers?"
Sandstorm shoke his head from side to side telling him no.
"Brother and sister?"
No again.
"Mother and son? Uncle and Nephew? Cousins?"
No, no and no.
"Father and son?" that was Rune's last guess.
Sandstorm nodded yes.
"What the heck?!" Forde said surprised.
"No way" Vyra added.
"No wonder you were able to stop him" Rune reasoned. "Your father must be really really old then"
Sandstorm nodded his head sticking out his tongue and hopped around Rune as he nudged him closer with a head push from behind. Rune stood nervously in front of the titan holding his breath not knowing what to expect. The titan walked closer to him then sat up on his hunches and brought his head for a closer at him. Rune closed his eyes in fright and then felt the titan breathing down on him then slowly felt his head pull away as the dragon walked away.
"Guess that means he likes you" Vyra said nudging him from behind.
"Oh now you come to my side. I thought you were all 'Rune, are you mad?!!'" he mocked her with a high pitched squirmy impersonation.
"First of I don't sound like that" Vyra defended herself.
"You kind of do" Forde chipped in.
"I don't, does my voice ever go that high?"
Before anything else could be mounted on the case, Sandstorm's father roared loudly grabbing their attention before he took to the sky.
"That's one hell of a dragon" Forde remarked.
"Yeah" Vyra agreed.
"And I can't wait to tell Hiccup and the others about it, but first, we need to get the others" Rune said.
"So we came across this island southwest of Crescent Island and it's home to a huge number of Sand Wraiths. Its a combination of three islands joined together by a huge mountain in the middle with vast coastlines spanning all over the islands and best of all their guarded by a Titan Sand Wraith" Rune narrated to Hiccup in the gang as they had assembled in the stables going about their tasks but still listening to his tale.
"A titan?" Hiccup said surprised by their finding.
"Yes a titan" Forde answered.
"What was he like, how big was he, did you manage to get a close look?" Fishlegs said bombarding them with questions.
"Sure we did, the thing nearly killed us. Its as if it was on some sort of dragon steroids because I've never seen any Sand Wraith behave like that" Sten said remembering how he and Thyra got shot down.
"In what way?" Valka asked eager to learn as much as she could.
"Well first of all that thing was by far faster than any of us out there" Thyra stated.
"And definitely had a higher shot limit than your average Sand Wraith" Vyra added.
"This is so fascinating, I can't wait to design the card" Fishlegs said with excitement.
"It sounds like something that would give a child nightmares" Tuffnut commented.
"And best of all, he's Sandstorm's father" Rune said adding to their amazement.
"I did not see that coming" Snotlout said.
"Wait what?" Hiccup said blasted into confusion.
"Yes, that was the only way we were able to stop him from killing us all" Rune added.
"Does that mean Sandstorm could have some type of special ranking among dragons or some special genome in his blood?" Fishlegs said as he began to examine Sandstorm much to his annoyance.
"I don't think so Fishlegs. All we know is that the titan wing stage can only be achieved by a really old dragon so I don't think it connotes anything like that" Hiccup said before they jumped into a trend of fanatical theories.
"But never the less, good find you guys. I will be sure to add it to the map" Hiccup said.