At first, the only thing Hiccup could remember was fire.

That's not to say it hurt, really, it was just really warm. Though he supposed it wasn't the 'stay in bed because the outside world is far to cold to enter right now' warm, it was more of the 'oh god why am I so uncomfortable, it's not that hot out' warm.

Then, slowly, he became aware of what happened. He recalled meeting Toothless, and the inevitable friendship that quickly came after; the cheating and lying during training sessions, and the reveal of his true intentions; and then finally, the battle against the Red Death.

Opening one eye, afraid of what he would see once he fully returned to reality, he was completely surprised to see he was at home.

That was, of course, when his inconsiderate dragon decided to give him a heart attack and jumped down next to his bed.

"Toothless? Oh gods, you're in my house? Does my dad know you're here?" Trying to avoid a panic attack, Hiccup closed his eyes, placing his head in his hands.

"Of course he knows, do you really think I'm that stupid?"

The Viking looked at his best friend patronizingly, "Well, now that you mention it, you were the one wh-"

Hiccup froze mid sentence. He couldn't have heard that right. Surely he was going insane, all the signs were there. Right, that had to be it. After all, who else would decide to become friends with the enemy, fight off a giant dragon almost completely alone, with only another dragon's help, and then wake up with the ability to understand aforementioned dragon. Only someone that's got something eating at their brain, that's who.

"I've gone insane, haven't I Toothless. No don't answer that, I already know I am, there is no way you can convince me."

"What are you talking about? You seem completely fine to me." Toothless, now more concerned for his friend, inched forward, sniffing him out as though trying to find out if he really was insane from smell alone."

"Gah! No, stop doing that!"

"Doing what?"

"Talking!"

"...Why?"

"Because dragons shouldn't be able to speak! I shouldn't be able to understand you!"

The black beast looked curiously at the upset boy, "Why are you making such a big deal out of this now? You've always been able to understand me. Haven't you?" He nudged the small boy with his nose, then climbed onto the small bed, curling his body as much as he could around the boy.

Hiccup calmed down, though he was still hyperventilating slightly. After a moment, he spoke, "No, this is the first time I've ever been able to understand you. Though, now that I think about it, it was abnormally easy to guess what you were thinking. Maybe I could understand you."

"If you couldn't, you must be a fantastic guesser. I certainly never thought you were unable to understand what I was saying," Toothless shrugged off the topic, suddenly remembering why his human was currently in bed in the middle of the afternoon, "Oh, by the way, are you feeling alright?"

"Yes, why?"

"Just making sure. That was an awful fall. Straight down at least a thousand meters, and right into a huge ball of fire. You know they almost tried to cut off your leg? I stopped them, healed it with my sotned," the Night Fury proudly stated.

"Sotned? What's that?" Hiccup questioned.

"Oh right, I forgot. You humans don't have sotned. It's basically another type of breath we have. Like, obviously, all dragons have fire breath, but then there's the secondary breath, or sotned. For example, some dragons have acid or water. Those are the most common types of sotned. Night Furies have healing breath. We can cure basically anything, as long as it isn't too far gone."

Hiccup looked away and thought for a moment. Something didn't add up. Finally, he glanced back up at his first friend and asked, "Wait, so if you can heal anything, why can't you just, you know, fix your tail?"

Obviously, Toothless saw this coming, for he was already shaking his head despondently. "I already said, I can heal anything, but only as long as it isn't too far gone. By the time you had released me, it had already completely fallen off." Both slumped, crestfallen.

This new information took a minute to sink in. Well that was certainly going into the dragon book. Hiccup nodded distractedly, questions burning in his mind. Unfortunately, just as he was about to start firing them at the dragon, his father burst through the door.

"Toothless, I know you want him to wake up as much as the rest of us but could you stop laying on top of h-" As Stoick's eyes met those of his son, he cut off in shock.

For a long while, the three just stared at one another. Finally, Hiccup broke the silence, " How'd you know his name was Toothless? I never told you."

Shaken out of his surprise, Stoick replied, "Astrid told me. Strange name though, looks like he's got plenty of them to me."

"They're retractable. Second time I saw him, I noticed the lack of them, and it sort of… stuck," Hiccup trailed off uncertainly.

Now they settled into another bout of silence, this one much more awkward than the last, though also much more relieved. The chief shifted uncomfortably on his feet until he sighed and said, "I'm glad you're alright, son."

Hiccup smiled widely. "Thanks Dad."

#*#*#

Later that week, after finally being allowed out of his house, Hiccup and Toothless escaped to do some night flying.

After being locked in a confined space for so long, the two both breathed a sigh of relief when they took off, feeling the freedom of the wind and the palpable companionship with each other. They spent nearly an hour doing complicated tricks, some of them things neither had ever attempted before tonight. It felt completely natural to do those unfamiliar stunts. Once the bout of creativity and energy had run its course, they glided comfortably through the air until they found the cliff they always visited after flying.

This was a great spot, in Hiccup's opinion, as they could watch the waves of the sea slowly roll along, and could see the sunset perfectly. Tonight, they could also see the full moon and millions of bright stars lighting the night sky. Hiccups lied back onto Toothless after he had settled behind him. The dragon shifted after a moment to curl his body more fully around the small form.

Both looked to the horizon, finding the moon in perfect position for them to gaze at without having to strain their necks.

"Hello Hiccup, Toothless"

Eyes widening, they scrambled to their feet. Now Hiccup knew he was insane. There was no way the moon just spoke to him. He didn't know how he knew it was the moon that spoke to him, he just did. Of course, that made the human even more sure of his unstable mentality. After another couple of minutes, the moon began to speak.

It was another three hours before the two stunned companions made their way back to the village.

Inside the only home he had ever known, Hiccup came to a sudden realization.

"We can't stay here, bud."

#*#*#

Approximately thirteen centuries into the future, in the year 2013, to be more precise, a boy and his dragon took off to find another place to inhabit. They had been doing this for longer than anyone cared to remember.

They had traveled the world a million times over by now, though that didn't stop them from continuing to explore. Now, they were going back to the place both still called home: Berk.

After all this time, they knew there was no longer anyone living there. They made it their unofficial home after the last of the Vikings had left around twelve centuries ago. When they got tired of this modern world, it was nice to return to the quiet island.

Hiccup and Toothless, as an unspoken rule, came back as often as possible so that they could be reminded of why they couldn't talk to anyone else, not even the other like them. Of course, there was another reason, but that's a story for later.

They had met all of them, of course: North, Tooth, Sandy, the Groundhog, the Leprechaun, even Nessie. It had been a bit of a shock when he met Cupid, who was not actually a baby in diapers, but a middle-aged woman. Unfortunately, as ordered by Manny, Hiccup had to disguise them both. Most of the time, to anyone looking at them, they saw a small child of seven and his enormous black dog. Hiccup liked this ability of his the least, as it was what kept the two separated from the rest of the world.

He could remember the second time Manny had talked to them, about a decade after leaving Berk. He remembered being angry that Manny would not tell him why they were never allowed to be seen by the others. Nevertheless, they complied.

Thankfully, Manny allowed them to be seen by the humans whenever they wanted. This was great in a lot of the countries around the world, as they were able to make a difference. Due to their ability to be seen as anything, they had created a different persona for each culture they encountered. They had yet to make one for some of the more stubborn cultures, like the ones including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, as no matter what they became, they were seen as the embodiment of evil.

Toothless' favorite to visit were some of the obscure African cultures, as they could come as themselves. The people often spoiled the dragon there, so Hiccup made a point to visit one of them at least twice a year, usually more often, as he too liked not to have to hide.

They had been alone for so long, they often forgot that there would come a time when Manny would tell them to reveal themselves.

Landing on their cliff, Hiccup set up camp while Toothless gathered and lit a large stack of wood.

"It's your turn to catch dinner," Hiccup shouted over his shoulder, finishing up his work.

"It's always my turn. You suck at hunting." Toothless stated sarcastically.

"I know that. It's my turn when we need to buy something, and it's your turn when we need to hunt. Would you rather switch jobs? I attempt to catch a bunny while you try to figure out how money works in each country?"

"Absolutely no," and with that, the huge lizard trotted off to find some fish. Both boy and dragon agreed that they still ate best here, as the fish was best here. They were glad no one was crazy enough to come here any more. They always got the best of the best.

Hiccup rolled out his mat and settled down on it to wait for his best friend by the fire. Lazily, he gazed up at the stars and turned his head to look at Manny. Then, for the first time in 1283 years, Manny spoke to him.

"It's time"

#*#*#

At the same time, in Burgess Pennsylvania, Jack Frost was incredibly bored.

This was not acceptable, because he was the god of fun! He wasn't ever supposed to be bored! But there he was, sitting on the Bennett's fence, waiting for Jamie and his friends to come back home from school. This was the first time since his Guardian initiation that he would be seeing them. He knew they still believed though, as he had made his own personal globe that showed who believed in him, specifically.

When he had first made it, he was surprised to find that more people believed in him than he initially thought. Currently, he had about 7,253 people that believed in him. Not that he was keeping track.

"JACK!"

The spirit of winter was startled so much that he fell off the fence and into a huge snow pile. Not for the first time, he was glad he didn't get cold.

"Hello to you too, Jamie," Jack muttered, shaking off the excess snow. Then he grinned at the small boy before rushing at him and throwing the laughing kid over his shoulder, "Nice to see you, kid. Miss me?"

"Of course! We should go get everyone so we can play!" Jamie excitedly bounced after being set down, before yelling "Come on!" and pulling a chuckling Jack down the street.

Finally, some excitement! Jack had been craving this since winter had ended last. As it was mid-November, he deemed it acceptable to end fall a bit prematurely, at least for Burgess.

Jack swung his first believer onto his shoulders, carrying him to the first house on the way: the twins' house.

After gathering the rest of the kids, the group played until they were called in for dinner.

Since it had been months since he was allowed to see the children, Jack had made sure to plan literally everything they could possibly do. He recalled the activities in his mind before acting on them, making sure he hadn't missed any.

First up was, of course, the snowman building contest. It was the least energy draining, so it had to go first, before all of the exhausting things he had planned for later.

Immediately after that, the Winter Spirit quickly formed an intricate sledding course, in honor of his first game with the kids.

With whatever limited time he had left before the children were called in, Jack finished off his play date with a huge snowball war. As he didn't want them just to have a free-for-all, fun as those may be, they first split into three teams and built their forts.

Having the embodiment of fun and winter on a team was decided to be completely unfair, so Cupcake elected Jack as ammo supplier. This didn't deter him from having his own fun. The spirit had a blast creating different types of snowballs. He made regular packed balls, fluffy ones that exploded into fluff when it hit something, icy ones that did major damage to the carefully sculpted forts but became softer when thrown at any people, and large wet ones that soaked through clothes.

Needless to say, Jack was incredibly disappointed when they had to go in.

A little while later, he decided that it was so much fun playing with them, he would have to make it a snow day tomorrow. He knew just how to do it.

Jack was about to set to work on his plan when he saw the signal.

Sighing when he sighted the northern lights, he realized he couldn't go through with his idea. As the lights moved faster, becoming brighter, he knew he wouldn't even have time to say goodbye.

Jack jumped into the air, beginning the short journey to North's place. At least it couldn't possibly be as bad as last time.

#*#*#

Reaching the North Pole, Jack glided into the main building and landed in front of North.

"First one here?" Jack inquired.

"Yes. Were you trying to break all time record?"

"Maybe," Jack smirked and sat down on top of his staff.

"How many children do you have now?" North asked.

"7,253 as of this afternoon. It's going up daily," Jack said proudly.

"Good for you, Jack! Now you have one hundredth of my score!" North said encouragingly.

Jacks smile dropped a bit, realizing just how far he had to go. He shook it off though, when he remembered that they had all started off with less than him in the beginning.

Bunnymund was the next to arrive, followed by Tooth. When Sandy arrived half an hour later, gesturing something about having to set up dreams for the next wave of people to go to sleep, they all turned to North expectantly, who was grinning at them, oblivious to their growing impatience.

Finally, Bunny broke the silence and said, "Well? Why'd you call us?"

"Oh! Right!" North seemingly recalling why they were gathered. "Manny has made announcement! We will have a new Guardian."

This announcement was met with stunned faces. "Another one?" Tooth asked, "Has he chosen yet?"

North shook his head, "No, he waited for us to all see."

They all stood there in silence as they waited for something to happen. When nothing did, Bunny broke the quiet by saying, "Are you sure that's what he said? I mean, it's a tad early for a new guardian already. It hasn't even been a year."

Feeling offended for some reason, though he couldn't tell you why, Jack mumbled something along the lines of, "Well at least I won't be the new guy anymore."

Tooth, who seemed to not have heard him, nodded in agreement to what Bunny was getting at. "I think Bunny's right, North. Are you absolutely sure? It's definitely way too soon."

Pouting slightly, North stepped over to pull a lever that opened the skylight, allowing the moon's rays to enter.

"See for yourselves."

He gestured to the ground where the crystal was beginning to emerge.

"Why are we getting another one so soon? Isn't five enough?" Bunnymund questioned. He certainly had a point. Though if Pitch was coming back, they would certainly need all the help they could get. Last time was awful enough.

The moonlight intensified until a large image began to form above the crystal. As it sharpened, they saw it wasn't just one figure, but two. When no one spoke, Jack couldn't hold in his curiosity any longer. He cleared his throat.

"Who is that?"