I Hear Him Scream, Ch7 Part 2

Previously...

I looked over at Astrid—and jumped when I saw that she was staring right back at me, ignoring the fight with only a trace of surprise on her face. She wore a heavy frown on her face, uncertain, and she seemed like she was at a loss with what to do with the bickering teenagers. Whether it was because she didn’t know who she was siding with or she just didn’t want to get involved, I didn’t know. Either way, I knew that I was completely unnerved by it and really wished that the Astrid from earlier was here instead of this one. She’d suddenly changed after I’d written in the ground—and for the worse. It was…unsettling. And the worst part was that I’m pretty sure I know why: she’d asked me if I was under a spell. She thought I was being controlled, and when she realized I wasn’t and still had managed to befriend Toothless…

I became the enemy.

“Yeah? Well, that doesn’t matter, because I’m right!” Snotlout shouted, dragging my attention back into the fight. “Hiccup chose to do all of this, so he’s a traitor and deserves to die! Even Astrid agrees with me!”

“No, she doesn’t!” Fishlegs exclaimed, shaking his head wildly and grimacing as he forced himself to stand up.

“Yes, she does!” Snotlout managed to get out before Fishlegs had even finished his sentence.

"Hey!” Astrid turned on him. “Don’t say I did something I didn’t!”

And thus, a round of “No! Yes! No! Yes!”’s started, with everyone shouting accusations and defenses that did nothing but spin the argument in and endless circle. Snotlout, like all Vikings, wouldn’t back down, and arrogantly argued against each and every single one of others. There was a trace of panic in his voice. It didn’t take long for their delightful conversation to reach a point where everyone was shouting at a deafening volume. I was suddenly grateful for the distance Toothless had pushed between us and the gang; if I’d been at my previous position, I would have had the same sound-induced malfunction as before.

I shook my head, growing aggravated with all of the fights. I was so done with them! If I had known that so many arguments would come up with this confrontation, I would have just hidden! I’d never expected any of them to be this affected. “Guys, come on!” I tried, but was completely ignored. To my disdain, the teenagers—now completely at war with each other, shouting sentences that could barely be heard over the next—became even louder. “Guys! Seriously, this is so pointless, it’s not even funny! I mean, it kinda was at the beginning, but now it’s just---ugh! Guys!”

Toothless snorted besides me. “You need to learn to assert your dominance,” he seriously told me, “if you ever want them to listen to you and actually believe you. You’re acting like a subordinate underling, which makes your word worth nothing. Underlings get eaten in the real world. Watch.”

I’d barely been able to think the words “oh, no”. In a flash, the Night Fury had jumped a full body-length forward, crouched to the Vikings’ eye-level, and screeched louder than anything else I’d ever heard before, “QUIET!” A flock of birds sprang to life overhead and an owl gave out a low call in the resounding silence

In an instant, the teenagers had teamed up together, all weapons were pointed at Toothless, and I was rushing to stand between him and everyone else, wings and tail flailing to keep me from falling over. I gasped and finally straightened out so that each wing was half-stretched and facing each opposing group, acting as an effective barrier. There were several tense moments in which I thought the teens—or, at least, Snotlout—would attack, which would cause Toothless to go after them as well.

The stillness of the cove was constricting.

I waited a couple more seconds and plopped down into a sitting position with a sigh. Slowly, the others lowered their weapons and Toothless shifted behind me into a hopefully less-aggressive position.

I couldn’t help but stare at Astrid, taking note of the distrust in her eyes. A quick scan over the rest of the group showed that all of them, except Fishlegs, did not look like they were exactly happy with me. For a moment, I truly hated Snotlout; he’d managed to make almost an entire group of people think of me as an opponent despite pissing them off. Now I would be lucky to convince them to not tell the village about mine and Toothless’ hiding spot

This isn’t going nearly as well as I wanted it to, I moaned to myself. What should I do? I don’t want them to get even angrier at me!

“Well, are you going to do anything?” Toothless impatiently asked from behind. I felt him push me in the small of my back. “I’m pretty sure staring at them isn’t going to help.”

I would have been annoyed if Toothless didn’t sound, for some reason…worried? A swift glance over my shoulder showed nothing out of the ordinary. But, to my immense relief, the dragon had somehow gotten the message through all the arguing and screaming and was giving the group of teenagers a significantly less hostile look.

I nodded at him and twisted my neck around to look back at everyone else. Doing my best to ignore the repulsion-filled gaze Snotlout was giving me and the slowly-diminishing trust in the others’ eyes as they began to really think about their little debate, I bent down and began to scratch terribly-written runes into the earth again. I heard the shuffling of feet and saw five pairs of boots walk into my peripheral vision, quickly followed by shadows as all of them leaned over and tried to read my message before I’d actually finished it. (Have I mentioned that, along with being hard-headed and stubborn, Vikings are impatient? Of course, I don’t count, but I was never really one of them in the first place…)

After at least a minute of me trying my best to write decipherable words with my clumsy ‘natural pencil’, I finally finished the sentences that would—hopefully—clear things up.

Astrid was kind enough to read them aloud for Toothless’, Ruffnut, and Tuffnut’s sake (even though the latter two could read but avoided it like the devil): “Please, don’t fight…If you don’t attack him, then he won’t attack you…I admit that it was wrong of me to steal, but the only other option was to starve since the Night Fury can’t fly and I can. There is no controlling going on here.”

She hadn’t even taken in another breath before her head whipped up and she pointed her axe at me, demanding, “Even so, why would you bring the food back to him?” Toothless snarled behind me, causing me to jump, but Astrid didn’t move an inch. At my hesitation, she pressed, “Well? It makes no sense that you, the victim, would pass up the chance to kill off the thing that did this to you! And without any effort!”

Toothless suddenly became very quiet.

I felt my lips press together in a grim line. I could see her point…but how could I explain how Toothless wasn’t what she thought he was when she was thinking in that mindset? It would make me look like a traitor, which I wasn’t. But I wasn’t going to lie and say I was doing it to trick him. But I couldn’t say that it was because we were friends…couldn’t I? Surely they’d attack—or, at least, Snotlout would. And then it would go downhill, and Toothless and I would be dead within days.

Ugh, this is all such a big mess! I bent over again, barely having come to a decision, and wiped out my previous sentences with my paw. I hesitated for a moment, and then began writing:

I couldn’t leave him to die. Fishlegs is right about us speaking; we managed to come to a truce. He would teach me to fly and wouldn’t attack anyone else, and in return, I would bring back food. He’s mad because you attacked me. You aren’t in danger.

I smiled in approval at this. I wasn’t lying and I wasn’t making it sound like I’d up and abandoned them all. Plus, it let them know that I could convince Toothless to not attack anyone—even though they’d seen me do it before but could have just blown it off as me being overprotective—and that he was not just a mindless killing machine. On top of all of that, it eased them into the ‘he’s an actual person’ concept instead of flat-out telling them.

To tell the truth, though…the main reason I was so satisfied with those sentences was because I was dying to tell them the truth. I was sick of the tricks, mind games, and distrust. I just wanted a peaceful understanding. Too hard to ask? Maybe. But at least I have some hope.

Fishlegs beamed at my confirmation about dragon communication, jabbering about it until Tuffnut stared him down and he quieted. Astrid blinked and jerked her head back, angrily (angry?) flicking a strand of hair out of her eyes. I felt most of the hope I had dissipate.

“Why not? That wasn’t nearly a proper answer!” My cousin nearly shouted. “What, so that monster teaches you how to fly so it can use you for food, and you decide that you want to let it live? Have you forgotten what it’s done to you? Or your tribe? Or your father? How do you think it affects my family? Our fathers are brothers, you know!” He pointed an accusing finger at me. I was so shocked that I didn’t even notice that it was inches from my face, and that Toothless was letting out the most terrible noise I’d ever heard. “Admit it! You’ve only thought about yourself and that dragon! That means you’re no longer one of us!”

I slowly shook my head, jaw hitting the dirt. Snotlout responded with a glare that would send the gods running. And, now that I really looked, I could see that the resentment towards me was only the surface of what he was feeling; it was suddenly obvious that Snotlout had taken a much more direct hit from this entire thing than anyone else here besides me. While Spitelout, my uncle and his father, had been about as close to me as my Dad and I, I could still see that he had cared for me. He’d be upset about it, too…and, maybe, Snotlout had been as well. When we were little kids, we had actually been good friends before it became apparent that I was a failure as a Viking.

He’s right, I weakly admitted to myself. I didn’t even bother to worry about how they’re coping after my first day, I only focused on myself…but…Dad banished me… I squeezed my eyes shut and gritted my teeth, lowering my head in shame. …but Dad isn’t the entire village…what else was I supposed to do, though? Starve? Let Toothless starve? The thought sent shudders down my spine. If I didn’t regret one thing, it was befriending Toothless. He was so much more than we’d realized. If only they would try to understand—!

Said dragon poked me in the shoulder with his nose. “Are you going to let him talk to you like that?” The dragon’s voice quivered with barely-constricted fury. “Nobody has the right to do that. Except me.” When I still didn’t respond, he snarled, “I swear to the Dragoness of the Moon—!”

With the mentioning of the dragon goddess of death, I finally snapped back to reality. “No!” I turned my heard sharply towards his but didn’t bother to raise it. Toothless held his ground besides me, uncaring of the angry Vikings only about a meter away from him and myself. His face was set with determination; determination to protect me. I stared at him for a couple seconds, transfixed…and accidentally broke a link I hadn’t even known had formed. For a second, it was like Toothless and I were the only ones in the cove, and all emotions—hate, fear, desperation, nervousness—were drifting through the air like the wind.

It was disorientating, to say the least.

“Are you going to answer him?” Astrid suddenly demanded, her voice as sharp as a sword.

I jumped and raised my head, taking notice of how Toothless did the same. Lamely glancing between Astrid and Snotlout, I couldn’t tell what was worse: the fact that Snotlout positively hated me right now, or that Astrid was quickly reverting back to the previous way she treated me—not willing to go near me if she was on fire and I was the only person holding a bucket of water. My ears pricked when I heard Fishlegs, Ruffnut, and Tuffnut go into their own conversation; something about me, presumably, since they were shooting discreet glances at the four of us doing all of the talking and apparently coming to a universal decision to stay out of it and watch. I’d have rolled my eyes at how smug Tuffnut looked at not having to do any work if the situation had been less serious.

I looked back at Snotlout and winced. His face remained smug and arrogant and cruel. The way he was standing, with his arms crossed, sword casually resting in the nook of his elbow, and feet squared, looked odd. He was treating me exactly how any other Viking would treat a traitor, but it almost seemed like a front. I swallowed heavily, blinking rapidly. Gods, I felt so guilty…

I centered myself to fully face my cousin for the first time to fully address him. He realized this and his position faltered slightly, along with the grip on his sword tightening to a noticeable extent. My breath caught in my throat and it took a moment for me to remind myself that he was standing in a non-threatening position on purpose. No sane person would casually hold a sword like that, in a position where a swift movement from them would cause self-harm, without reason. It was very possible that this was Snotlout’s subtle chance for me. Maybe the only window of opportunity I would have. And if I blew it…

…well, let’s not think of that, okay?

I took a deep breath, trying in vain to loosen the tightened muscles of my body that already knew what I was going to do, and making sure I had recollected my nerves.

I closed my eyes and leaned right into Snotlout, pressing my forehead against his neck and chest. My wings were drooped and tail fallen to the ground, ears nearly pressed against my head and curving inwards a little. There was a unanimous gasp of shock (and horror, in Toothless’ case).

“I’m sorry,” I murmured.

Snotlout dropped his sword and it tilted over his elbow and to the earth, where it clattered to the dirt by my handwriting with a sharp clang! On instinct, his hands flew up to my cheekbones, forcing my back to arch and make me cringe away. I slowly opened my eyes, getting a pleasant view of Snotlout’s dirt-and unidentified-substance-stained shirt. My body screamed at me to flee, but I didn’t dare move.

Snotlout carefully pushed my head up to his eye level, making my entire body rattle when his fingers flexed and strayed too close to my neck for comfort. By some sort of miracle, I managed to hold still and gaze calmly into Snotlout’s cerulean eyes, easily noticing the downwards angles of his eyebrows and the way he bit his lower lip.

I felt like time had stopped. Nobody moved. It seemed like the gods themselves had stopped the wind to watch. The wildlife around us, having been its regular volume the entire time the others were here, suddenly grew very quiet and still. The lake grew silent and the clouds overhead slowed down to a subtle crawl.

My cousin lowered his eyes, his hands limp against my cheekbones. Staring at the ground, he let his arms fall to his side and backed away. Then he turned around…and began to walk…

“Snotlout?” I trailed off and took a sharp intake of air when he started to sprint away. Despair filled my core, and I shrieked, “Snotlout!”

Astrid and the others all began to shout out to him as well. The burly teenager stopped abruptly, palms clenching and unclenching and body shaking. I cried out to him again, desperate now, heart sinking to my stomach. With his back still turned to us, Snotlout shook his head fiercely and brought his hands up to rub it. It was almost as if he’d been struck.

Slowly, he continued to walk away, only stopping when he reached the crack in the cove where the group had entered. There, he sat down, still not facing us, and held his head by his ears and hunched over his knees.

My mouth hung open limply. I took a deep breath to steady myself, entire body shaking. What did I do wrong? I desperately tried to think of what was going through his mind to do that…but couldn’t. In truth, I really didn’t know Snotlout well at all.

I lowered my head and hunched over in defeat, rubbing my eyes. Great. Just great, I thought bitterly. Not only does my only cousin hate me for reasons I barely know, but now there’s nothing holding him back from telling the village about Toothless and myself. We’re dead. Ugh, the gods must despise me. What did I do wrong? I asked myself once again. I drew a complete blank.

I’m not sure how much time passed. One minute I was in a state of mental numbness that I couldn’t fight off, and the next…

“Ignore him, Hiccup,” Fishlegs huffed, stepping forward with new confidence. “He just doesn’t know how to take it all in.” I raised my head and gazed at him warily, unable to relax even when he gave me a tentative smile. Too many things were rushing through my head all at once, and I couldn’t keep track of them all. I just wanted to go off somewhere nice and quiet to think.

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I agree with him,” Toothless spoke up for the first time in quite awhile. I gave him a shocked look, which he sniffed at and smirked. “What? I am a sensible dragon. Unlike him,” he nodded at Snotlout, “I can accept situations when I realize the reasons behind them.” He paused, and added much more quietly, “I…don’t quite understand why you’re as attached to him as the female, but I am sorry.” With that, he gave me what was supposed to be an encouraging head-butt, but felt like an…actual head-butt. I flinched and gave him a mocking glare, unintentionally taking the bait.

“Thanks, that felt really nice,” I told him in monotone. Toothless just gave me a toothy grin with a knowing look in his eyes that I couldn’t place.

“And he’s a douche bag,” Ruffnut added when nobody else spoke up, unable to take the tension any longer and obviously still upset over his earlier treatment of Fishlegs. I cracked a small grin, a real one only forming when the other three—even Astrid—made noises of exasperated agreement. Toothless snorted and mumbled to himself something about renaming Snotlout that, which in turn caused me to laugh.

I didn’t feel better at all, but at least I knew I had some support. If I didn’t, then they would’ve followed Snotlout. I glanced over at him to see that he was in the exact same position as before. Maybe…Fishlegs is right. Maybe he just needs some time to process it all? I thought with fake hope. A voice in the back of my mind helpfully informed me that Snotlout, being the biggest grudge-holder in the world, would probably never get over this. I chose to ignore it.

Astrid stepped closer to me than ever before, only about a yard away from me. My neck hurt looking down at her. “Anyways…we’ll just get on with this without him. Hiccup,” she scowled at Toothless for a second and then returned her sharp blue eyes back on me, “you said you ‘couldn’t leave him to die’. What exactly made you make up your mind like that?” She brushed a stray piece of hair out of her forehead and looked at me with such scrutiny that I had to avoid eye contact.

I briefly glanced over at Toothless, who currently had resumed his defensive crouch in preparation for some awful circumstance that only he could come up with. He wasn’t reacting otherwise.

“Hurry up!” Tuffnut impatiently commanded. “We don’t have all day, you know.” His casual smile suddenly fell and he looked over his shoulder in uncertainty, staring at Snotlout for a long second.

I did as I was told, scratching nearly incomprehensible runes in the earth faster than ever, feeling like I was about to lose another person who still had some faith in me. I paused halfway into the message, debating with myself. If I told them that I’d befriended Toothless…surely they would abandon me and tell the villagers about he cove. With a shake of my head, I continued to write in the same careful way I’d always been, skirting around the truth by a hair. It didn’t help that my entire body was still shaking.

Fishlegs leaned around Astrid, refusing to leave his position between the twins and Toothless. “’Like I said we made a truce, he spared me and I spared him, and he doesn’t act anything like you’d think he would. Please, I beg you and I know it’s hard but I need you all to trust me.” He read it so fast, I wouldn’t have known a single word he said had I not been reading along with him. The obese Viking looked up at me with wide eyes, but said nothing.

“So you…befriended it?” Astrid placed her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes at me. “What about that makes you think we should trust you?” Ruffnut nodded in agreement, followed by Tuffnut. Fishlegs was the only one who seemed to have some faith in me. I didn’t know exactly why he was so kind—probably in favor of a close friendship we used to have, still somehow wanting to connect to me but unable to if he wanted to be ‘popular’—but I was thankful to the gods that he was here. If not…then this meeting would end up disastrously.

I focused on the ground, once again forced to write out a vague—yet truthful—statement. If I even dared use the word ‘friend’ and ‘Night Fury’ in the same sentence, it would be all over. The little shard of trust Astrid had in me would be shattered, and she’d join Snotlout. It wouldn’t take long for the others to cave and follow her lead. Even Fishlegs, bless his attempts to be understanding, would choose them over me—the supposed ‘traitor’. Or, maybe I really was…

The thoughts were violently pushed aside. I couldn’t doubt myself. And they absolutely could not know about my relationship with Toothless other than our truce. It would be the death of us. And I would not allow that!

I’d just finished writing my sentence when a sudden thought seemed to come to the lovely blonde. She ignored my message, which was really just a repetition of all of my other ‘we made a truce’ statements, and began to speak.

“Oh, and there’s something that has been bothering me. I don’t usually pay attention to dragons’ antics, Hiccup, but I know that you’ve acted more like one and less like a human several times in the past. What’s keeping you from being one of them?” Astrid’s brilliant blue eyes didn’t have a trace of sympathy in them. Toothless’ growling faded, a sole breeze blew, and the others stopped in their little conversations with each other. Far back, still near the cove’s entrance, Snotlout turned slightly and looked over his shoulder.

Toothless groaned. “Ugh, this again. Good going, female,” he hissed at Astrid.

I stared, speechless, not even registering what Toothless had just said. Of course I knew I’d been acting dragon-like…but to have it pointed out to me and accused by someone who’d seen me for a grand total of about three hours in this body…it was a slap to the face. Reality’s nice way of telling me to pay attention and stop using sarcasm and bad jokes as a shield for once. And I didn’t like it.

I’d been avoiding the unfortunate fact for as long as I could, even when it had been brought up earlier today. I’d pushed it off, telling myself I’d think about it later; and it was coming back to bite me. I didn’t know how to respond. Once again, I suddenly found myself in doubt of my already-fragile humanity. Most important of all: I had no idea if I was losing myself. Once Toothless had come along, and he’d taught me to fly, and he’d told me about his religion and stories of the ancient past in the drowsy minutes before we’d fallen asleep, my resolve to be ‘human’ had started to…waver. And he’d become an unintentional influence on me.

A realization struck me hard: Toothless had known. He’d dropped hints to me and I’d ignored them. My thoughts began to become scattered and frantic.

How exactly did I feel about this? Why, for the second time today, could I not answer that important question?

Was I turning into a dragon? My heart sank when I couldn’t bring myself to say “No” right away. I was changing at an immense speed and didn’t know how to react to it. I couldn’t just turn around and return to normal, though; the deed was done, and the window was closed.

And I wasn’t quite sure if it upset me more that I hadn’t seen this question coming, though now it was obvious I should have, or the fact that I wasn’t feeling too remorseful about it when I began to really think about it. Especially when compared to my reaction to being changed on that terrible first day.

I lowered my eyes from Astrid’s, unable to take the calculating spark in them any more. I had no answer. Everything I could think of had an easy defense. My humanity? Well, where did that go when I attacked Snotlout in mindless terror and fed the ‘enemy’? My knowledge of my human past? I was banished, so what significance would that hold other than fuel for more anger and hurt, speeding up the ‘process’? How could I possibly convince someone like Astrid when I’d stolen right in front of her with no reason other than to help myself and the enemy?

“Stay back!”

I pulled myself to attention, raising my head and twisting to face Toothless as quickly as I could. He was baring his teeth and snarling at something, one paw raised in a ready-to-swipe position and wings extended. Confusion and fear hit me hard, and my mind immediately rushed to one outcome: someone is attacking us.

But when I turned around towards the teenagers, backing up slightly, they were all in the same positions as before. Except for Fishlegs.

I could only stare in stunned silence as he meaningfully walked right up to me, determination stronger in his body language than I’d seen in my entire life, even when we used to be best friends. He curved his body to face the others and gave them a meaningful, pointed look. “Enough. This misunderstanding gone on far too long.”

I’d barely had time to process what he was trying to do when his hand appeared far too close for comfort, right in the middle of my vision. I hesitated, pulling my head back a few inches and glancing up at Fishlegs. He gave me a small smile...one that made me want to trust him.

And one second later, he placed his hand right on my muzzle. The exact spot that instincts I didn’t know I had told me I could snap his hand off in milliseconds.

As with Snotlout, my entire body tensed and my back arched upon human contact. My ears and side-frills pressed against my head, my eyes widened, and I shifted my feet so that I could jump away if I needed. Toothless screeched in outrage besides me, pawing at the dirt and glowering at Fishlegs with such intensity that, for a second, I half-expected him to burst into flames.

The second the shock of the action wore off, Toothless seemed to decide that that was where he crossed the line; he jumped forward, knocked Fishlegs’ hand off of my snout with a paw, and proceeded to grab me by my scruff and drag me away. I gave out a wordless cry of resistance, struggling to be set free and utterly humiliated by how my body went limp from instinct. In the background, I could hear Ruffnut and Tuffnut laughing and making ‘jealous dragon’ jokes, something about Fishlegs being the third wheel in a seriously-screwed-up fantasy world.

“Thaf ‘s it!” The dragon growled through his muffled mouthful of…me. Sigh. “Why wouf ‘ou lef ‘em ‘oo that?!”

I broke free of Toothless’ hold and rounded on him. “Stop it!” I yelled, tail whipping and crouching low. The dragon gave me a deadpan, irritated look; one that I would always see on Gobber when I asked him a rhetorical question that he didn’t get or just said something stupid. With this, my face burned even more with embarrassment and anger. Fishlegs was trying to prove something, and now Toothless had gone and ruined it with his overprotectiveness—!

“See?! This proves my point!”

—or not.

Both of us halted our slightly-prepared speeches and gave a very proud-looking Fishlegs identically confused looks. He had his bulky arms crossed, hazel eyes twinkling, and a grin threatening to tear his face in half. The twins still looked amused at their jokes, but I could see that Astrid was wholly trying to comprehend what had happened. And even from my distance away from him, I noticed that Snotlout was still half-turned towards us, looking as confused and wary as Astrid.

Fishlegs turned to me and waved towards him, a gesture to walk over. I paused, giving Toothless a look that I hoped said ‘don’t screw this up’. He just snorted and jerked his head to the side disdainfully.

I did as I was told, the Night Fury reluctantly following behind, and obediently stood besides Fishlegs. Oh please let him convince them, oh please gods I need a break, oh please let this work.

“What do you mean?” Astrid asked cautiously, shifting to put all of her weight on one leg. I relaxed at the non-threatening posture, and, for once, Toothless didn’t decide to hiss at her.

Fishlegs waved at me and Toothless. “Didn’t you see the huge differences in their reactions? That Night Fury,” he pointed at Toothless, making the dragon perk up and wrinkle his face, “nearly attacked me just for touching Hiccup—not it. It was aggressive, and protective, and, like, plus five defensiveness. But Hiccup,” he turned to me and grinned, pointing an open palm at me like I was a showcasing, “not only let me touch the most dangerous spot on his body, his mouth—oh, by dangerous, I mean he could have easily burned or bitten my hand off before I could have reacted, since Night Furies must have plus fifteen speed and—nevermind. Anyways, he let me keep it there, and even though he was scared, he didn’t move until the Night Fury moved me for him.”

“And?” Ruffnut asked dryly with a flat face.

“That means?” Tuffnut continued in the same tone with a slightly raised eyebrow.

Fishlegs slumped a little at their lack of understanding. I, on the other hand, was cheering on the inside. It took all I had to not butt him in the back, for fear of knocking him over and ruining his ‘Hiccup’s not a dragon’ argument.

“Well,” he tapped his fingers together a couple times and regathered his courage. “It means that Hiccup is still Hiccup. He can write, understand us, and let us touch him without freaking out or attacking us. And he apologized to Snotlout. That’s unheard of with dragons; my book says they just fight to the death when they don’t agree. A normal dragon that could somehow understand what was going on would have killed Snotlout, since he was the enemy. That’s why I’ve been defending him!” Fishlegs turned to me, beaming, and continued, “You shouldn’t have stolen because it doesn’t take much to realize that we’d come back, but,” he returned to addressing the others, “it’s understandable, and it still means that he is human.”

Tuffnut looked over his shoulder again for a split second. “Well, not all the way. You said earlier that his, uh, actions in the shed was what a dragon would have done. What changed your mind?” He gave a coy smirk at Fishlegs, as if daring him to respond.

Fishlegs’ argument was swift and certain; he’d known this question would come up, and had prepared an answer. “Yes, Hiccup has acted like a dragon in the past, but what can you expect? He is in dragon form. But his human traits outweigh his draconic, and I know he’s truly sorry about the entire storage shed incident, as I’ve already mentioned how he let himself be vulnerable in front of Snotlout. This also means that I know, without a doubt,” he raised his voice loudly at this, turning to face Snotlout, who had his arm crossed and was scowling at us, “that Hiccup is not a traitor! We’ve all done something wrong in our lives. If you told me you’ve never stolen anything, then you’d be lying, too. Especially about a certain something yesterday.” He added when Tuffnut opened his mouth with an aggravated expression.

The male twin’s mouth clicked shut, and his female counterpart burst out laughing.

“Busted!” She chuckled, punching him lightly in the chest. Tuffnut rubbed the spot dramatically and scowled.

“Don’t tell me you stole another model catapult. You don’t even know how to use or make one!” Astrid pinched the bridge of her nose in exasperation and shook her head.

“That’s not true, I do! And they’ll come in handy someday! Just wait and see!” Tuffnut whole-heartedly defended himself, face red and eyebrows twitching. “…and now, I didn’t steal one,” he added on in embarrassment. This caused the others to laugh at him.

Using this tiny exchange to my advantage, I began to scratch a sentence in the dirt. A surge of excitement shot through my body as I did; Fishlegs’ argument had been clear and truthful. He’d managed to say his opinion in such a way that even I found myself wanting to agree with him. And from the hesitation in Astrid, Ruffnut, and Tuffnut’s expressions, I could see that another window had been opened while one had been shut.

The thing I was most excited about, though, was that Fishlegs had managed to inadvertently give me some answers to questions that I had been slaving over. I couldn’t help it; when he put so much trust in the reasons behind my behaviors, I began to feel the same way.

He’s right. I’m not a traitor. I’m not. People make mistakes. That’s what I did. I…made a mistake…yes, I made a mistake.

Toothless leaned down next to me while I was writing, making it very clear that he didn’t feel the same way as I did. “Please tell me you’re telling them to leave,” he whispered.

“No, I’m not,” I quietly told him as I finished my message. “I’m making sure they don’t come back with the intent to kill. You have to at least not hiss at them all the time or they’re not going to believe me and we’ll both be doomed.”

Toothless’ harsh look softened. He frowned deeply at the writing, longing flashing in his eyes. “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”

“Yes,” I said with resolve. “I just needed to show them I’m still me and I can be trusted, and, thank the gods, Fishlegs did that for me. We’re done with the hard part.”

Toothless sighed. “If you say so,” he mumbled, pulling back. “I just wish…” He shook his head. “Never mind.”

I smiled at him after I’d straightened my own posture. “We’re going to be fine.”

Toothless blinked at me several times, surprise easily readable on his face. He hesitantly returned the grin and turned his gaze to the teenagers, lime green eyes resting on Fishlegs. He stared at the one Viking who’d put faith in me for a long time, and then looked over at me again. “I’m glad he made you feel better. He…he seemed to help you.”

He’d said it so softly, I’d barely heard him. But, by some miracle, I had. I grinned at Toothless, the first one I’d done since the teenagers got here. “Thanks.”

“Hey! Hiccup wrote something else!” Ruffnut suddenly exclaimed, pointing at the ground and completely ruining the moment. She abandoned her brother and scrambled over with Fishlegs and Astrid. Unfortunately, she didn’t seem very well-adjusted to walking on her own, and tripped over her feet, falling right onto…Toothless, who’d also stepped forward to get closer to me.

The dragon recoiled like she was a demon, hissing loudly. Ruffnut stumbled back into Tuffnut’s arms, who quickly pulled her away, and Astrid and I got ready to stop a possible attack. Toothless looked like he was actually going to for a second, death radiating off of him through his body language—and then he stopped, jolting in place. He gave me a sidelong glance and sighed, backing up and sourly licking the areas that Ruffnut’s hands and body had stumbled upon, sending her an evil look the entire time.

I couldn’t help but grin when I faced Astrid, Fishlegs, and the twins again. They were all crowded around the message that would—hopefully—convince them that all was well right now.

“’It is true that I have changed, but I am still me. I’m not going to turn into a traitor, I swear to the gods. I just need your trust and mercy right now. I’ll do anything.’” Astrid mumbled. She blinked and looked up at me, her mouth a straight line, and brushed that one stray strand of hair that always fell in front of her face behind her ear.

Fishlegs smiled again, probably the happiest out of all of us. Ruffnut looked more relieved than anything, and Tuffnut had a mischevious grin across his face.

“Anything?” The male twin drawled, rubbing his hands together. “You could help me catch babes! Oh, and helping me become the ultimate warrior wouldn’t hurt.”

“Ultimate warrior my ass,” Ruffnut rolled her eyes and smirked. “You got tackled by a Terrible Terror today. And it won.” She cackled.

“No I didn’t! I just let it, so, uh, you wouldn’t feel bad about being hurt and sitting out!”

“I’m pretty sure you didn’t.”

“Well, I’m pretty sure I did!”

“Right. Well, I’m pretty sure that you—“

Astrid grabbed the horn on Tuffnut’s head and yanked it back, effectively cutting off their argument. He promptly fell to the ground, yelling about how hurt he was, and she grabbed onto Ruffnut before she could fall. The two stared at each other for a second—Astrid pleading, and Ruffnut angry—until the latter finally relaxed and gave the former a calm smile and leaned fully on her.

“How graceful,” Toothless commented darkly. I glanced over my shoulder just in time to see him give Astrid a surprisingly feral smile that could almost pass for something humanlike.

“Oh, shut up, kitten,” Astrid commanded wryly, much to mine and Ruffnut’s amusement. Fishlegs, on the other hand, cracked a wary grin and moved to stand in front of the two girls. Not exactly an overreaction, considering Toothless had taken several steps forward and snarled as loudly as he could, adding a strange hissing noise in to make it sound generally frightening.

“Speaking of which,” Astrid straightened and suddenly became serious. “Even if we can trust you for now, what about Mr. Cranky over there? Even if Snotlout’s right about you controlling him or something, he’s still a threat.”

I shook my head, even though I couldn’t keep the relief out of my face and body posture. Astrid had said “even if we can trust you”. That meant that she’d finally accepted the situation!

Feeling much less stressed and more thankful than anything, I crouched down and began to write: ‘I never controlled him in the first place. He’s willingly holding himself back now, and knows the consequences of attacking.’

Fishlegs gave me a startled look. “He knows the situation? Like the possible outcomes?” At my nod, the nerdy Viking’s jaw dropped, flabbergasted. “Wow! That’s, like…I’m speechless, that’s, like, amazingly intelligent! I don’t even know how to put a number on that! I just thought he knew the general idea, but not specifics!”

Ruffnut and Tuffnut seemed to accept this, but still, Astrid looked doubtful.

“I don’t know…” she trailed off, turned her head to look at Snotlout. I tensed when she took a step back. When she took another, I let out a loud chirp and shook my head, bending down and scribbling as fast as I could in the dirt. I refused to let another person walk away.

Fishlegs read it once and then repeated it very loudly, most likely so that my cousin would hear. “’Please, I made a mistake. We were hungry and he couldn’t get anything, and I didn’t even know how to hunt in my human body. It was the only way and I swear to the gods that it won’t happen again.’”

Far back, Snotlout stood up, holding his hands behind his neck and pacing back and forth. I tried to catch his eye, but he refused to look at any of us—even Astrid. He looked terribly upset. An immense wave of sadness rushed through me at his distress, followed by an unmistakable feeling that it was all my fault.

You could almost see Astrid’s resolve wavering. I gazed at her pleadingly, trying my best to get across how sorry I was.

“I believe him,” Fishlegs confidently announced. He looked me in the eye and held out a hand to me. “You swear?”

I fixed my eyes on his and nodded, sitting down and bringing my paw up to rest in his hand. I could just barely make my claws and underdeveloped ‘thumb’ wrap around Fishlegs’ wrist and lower arm. We both ‘shook hands’, with him doing all the work and me doing my level best to not accidentally claw and/or bruise him. His skin felt so fragile…

“I believe him, too,” Tuffnut piped up, quickly followed by Ruffnut saying the same thing. The male twin held out his own hand to me. I blinked in surprise at his immediate willingness to touch me. Hesitating slightly, I held up my own arm and clutched his the same way as I’d done to Fishlegs, constantly reminding myself to not even flex my claws in fear of hurting him. Instead of shaking my hand like I’d expected, though, he slid his hand from my grasp and fisted it. Then the twin gently punched me where my ‘knuckles’ would be, just above my claws. I felt my ears stand straight up. A fist bump? That was unexpected. Nobody had done that to me in years, not since Fishlegs had ‘switched sides’, so to speak. It felt very encouraging, and I couldn’t stop a goofy grin from spreading across my face.

I chuckled, giving Toothless a sidelong glance to see how he was reacting to all of this touching. His eyebrows were higher than I though biologically possible, utter disbelief written all across his face. When the dragon realized that I’d started watching him, he purposefully jerked his head to the side, towards Snotlout. I got the message loud and clear, through language and our strange bond: They’ve agreed to trust us. Now make them leave.

I nodded at him hesitantly. There was still one more thing that I needed to do, and then this would be perfect. We’d somehow managed to fix everything!

Astrid was still where she’d been standing, watching me warily. I slowly walked over to her, pausing when I passed the other three and got within range of the axe that she’d never released. With a deep breath, I continued until I was right in front of her. I stared down at her and cautiously raised my paw, having the heel of it facing towards the ground.

The Viking shifted her weight. After a few seconds, she let out a sigh and grabbed my paw, strongly shaking it once and letting it go. “Fine, Hiccup Haddock, I’m going to trust you. For now.”

Her face suddenly became aggressive and she’d pushed her axe up and into my neck in one swift, fluid movement before I could even smile. Astrid leaned in close, ignoring Toothless’ cries, and continued in a low voice, “But if you even think of betraying us…if I have any reason to doubt who you side with or if we really are safe…” She narrowed those brilliant ice-blue eyes at me. I could see my own reflected in them, pupils mere slits in fear. “It won’t be your father who deals the final blow, but me.”

Astrid released me and backed up, allowing me room to gasp for air. I nodded rapidly at her. “A-a-alright, I get the message! No problem! Heh,” I laughed shakily, backing up from her. Toothless ran to my side and stood below and in front of me, crouching, tail whipping back and forth.

Ignoring the furious Night Fury, Astrid glanced up at the sky. “It’s almost sundown. We need to leave, or we’ll be late and Gobber will punish at us,” she announced. I felt my ears perk; dragon training? They started it this early?

I couldn’t help but watch Snotlout while the other three all scrambled, each convinced that they were going to be late. He was still standing, arms locked behind his neck and watching us with an unreadable expression. Fear sprang up on me; what was he going to do? Would he betray us? Was all of that hard work for nothing?

Fishlegs caught my gaze and correctly interpreted my thoughts. “Don’t worry, we’ll talk to him.” He smiled at me, which I hesitantly returned. “As long as you keep your end of the deal, nothing bad will happen.”

I nodded at him and he turned to leave, following Astrid and the twins.

Toothless and I stayed rooted to the spot, each of us not quite believing that this conversation had gone so well. There had been so many possible outcomes to this—and, by some stoke of luck, the gods had decided to give us a break. Thank Odin.

One by one, each of the teenagers clambered up an array of boulders and slipped through the tiny crack in the cove. Astrid was the last, helping Tuffnut and Fishlegs get Ruffnut through. As she began to leave, she stopped and pulled herself back out.

“Hey, Hiccup!” She waved at me to get my attention, though she didn’t need to. “We’ll be back.”

I nodded, hoping that I hadn’t forgotten something. I went over every little detail in a second. But it didn’t ease my worry, especially since I really wanted to seal the deal. I watched the blonde teenager, automatically looking at her—her…single-edged axe? I thought it was double-edged.

“Wait!” I cried, leaping to my feet, an idea lighting up in my mind. Astrid hesitated, confusion flitting across her face. I wasted no time, running over to her and skidding to a stop at a comfortable distance, pointing at the ground several times with my paw in a ‘stay here’ gesture. She frowned, but stayed put.

I spun on my heel, opened my wings, and flew out of the cove. Toothless let out a banshee cry, demanding to know what in the world I was doing, but I was too busy to answer. I spun in a tight circle, glancing at each tree lining the cliffs of our home, searching for the specific one…there!

A couple flaps of my wings and I landed right next to the desired tree—the one that still had Astrid’s axe in it.

I gently grabbed it with half-sheathed teeth, pulling it out with ease that my human body could have never accomplished. Then I returned back to where Astrid was standing, preferring to glide this time, and half-stepped onto the stone.

Astrid’s shock was almost comical. Her mouth dropped open, gaping at the weapon she’d probably thought she’d never see again. “I…” Astrid took it from my hands, examining it from top to bottom with an eagle’s eye. She looked up at me and mumbled, “Thank you. It was my mother’s…”

“Hiccup, quit delaying us!” Tuffnut’s voice carried into the cove. “We’re gonna be late and I so don’t want to deal with Gobber being angry!”

Both Astrid and I ignored the impatient teen. I beamed at her. Still frowning, Astrid stared at me. She gave me an appreciative look—or tried to—and nodded once. Then she turned and climbed her way out of the cove. As she did, I left my own spot and trotted over to Toothless, feeling very jovial about the situation in general.

And then there were two.

Toothless and I were silent, each of us listening to the sound of the retreating posse that we’d somehow aligned with. When I could no longer hear their soft footfalls, I hunched over, feeling as if the weight of the world had been lifted off of my shoulders. Toothless sat down besides me, and, on a random impulse, I crouched on my hind legs and rubbed my face against his.

“Huh?” He looked at me in confusion. “What was that for?”

I grinned and let my rump hit the ground hard, tail raised in the air and swishing. “For not eating them.”

Toothless laughed, but it sounded forced. I gave him a questioning look.

He got right to the point. “Two things. What was that thing with the axe?” He narrowed his eyes at me, and scolded in an exasperated tone, “You shouldn’t give your enemies their weapons back, Hiccup.”

I smiled. “I know, but…that just showed her that I trusted her enough to give her back the axe she’s had for years. And it also let her know that I would fulfill my part of the deal. It’s…kind of like the Seal of Trust.”

Toothless’ eyes widened and understanding swept across his features. “Oh,” he said blandly. “Is it customary for humans to give things to each other to do that?”

I shrugged. “Well, not really, but I wouldn’t say it was rare. And what was that other thing you wanted to talk about?”

“Well…it’s…” He sighed and shook his head. “We can talk about it tomorrow. But there is one thing I want to speak to you about.” He shifted to face me.

“What?” I asked warily, hoping that it wasn’t anything bad.

Toothless snorted at my concern. “Relax. I’ve just decided that you need to learn how to properly shoot fire.”

I sat up straighter, smiling. “What? You told me you didn’t want me blowing up the entire cove.” I laughed, assuming he was joking. It quickly died down when he pinned me with a serious look.

“Your method of firing is reckless; so, yes, at first I was wary of it, since I knew it would catch the entire place on fire. But now that these…circumstances have come up, I don’t want to risk us getting caught by a hoard of demons and you having no idea how to defend yourself.”

“But I know how to shoot fire,” I told him. “Put gas in your mouth, light it with that…thing in the back of your throat, and let it out of your mouth. That’s it…right?”

Toothless laughed. “It’s called an igniter, and of course not! The amount of gas and the shape of your mouth will be all the difference between a concentrated, smooth blast or an explosive, wide blast, or something in between. You have no method, so yours is the latter, which is never a good thing. It means the power is dispersed, but when you have it concentrated, it becomes much more effective.” He gazed at me expectantly and I nodded, though I didn’t quite understand.

The Night Fury abruptly stood up and began walking away. “Okay, so the first thing you need to know about shooting is the shape of your mouth, which can either be wide open or closed shut except for one point, which is always in the very front. I’m sure you can figure out how to—“

I leaped to my feet. “Wait!” I interrupted him. When he turned to look at me, I gasped, “Are you saying you want me to practice now?” I couldn’t help but feel very unwilling towards this. We’d just finished the most stressful, the most emotionally and physically draining conversation I’ve been through in my entire life, and what did Toothless want to do? Blow things up! Yay!                                                                                               

The dragon grinned with half-lidded eyes. “Aw, is little Hiccup tired? Does he want to go sleep all day?” He teased, somehow managing to slur all of his words together and still sound completely serious at the same time.

“Yes, he does!” I complained, lying down. Toothless trotted over with the same look in his face as when he’d forced me to eat that disgusting fish, and I tensed. Digging my claws into the ground and pressing myself against the dirt, I yelled, “I’m not going to shoot fire around! The Vikings would see the smoke! You just told me how, so I don’t need to practice, anyways!” I added.

I was rewarded with Toothless grabbing my scruff and yanking me to my feet. I yelped and took a few clumsy steps away from him, shaking my head to try and get rid of the weird feeling I always got whenever the annoying dragon did that.

“Of course you need to practice!” Toothless scoffed. “Now get over here and show me how you’ll position your mouth. I still don’t want you setting this entire place on fire.”

I stood very still, tail flicking once or twice and side-frills extended from my head.

Then I bolted!

My shorter legs didn’t do me much good with the speed; Toothless caught up to me in less than a minute, thoroughly annoyed with how I was ‘acting like a hatchling’. I couldn’t stop laughing, dodging back and forth and zig-zagging to successfully escape the Night Fury’s ‘intense wrath’. I just stuck my tongue out at him when he said this and called him stuck-up.

To my shock, though, I began to hear Toothless laughing behind me. To make sure I wasn’t imagining things, I made the mistake of glancing over my shoulder, unknowingly slowing down. This gave my friend all the extra distance he needed and he jumped me, bit my ear and tugged it, and then sprang away from me. I was still on the ground by the time he’d managed to make it halfway across the cove, shouting ridiculous insults at me and calling me a slowpoke.

“Challenge accepted!” I cried, leaping to my feet and taking to the skies.

“Cheater!” Toothless screeched, making a break for the destroyed wall of the cove for a hiding spot. My only response was to laugh.