AN: Thanks for all the reviews! More than I ever hoped to get. Regarding the boy/girl transformation decision, the overwhelming opinion was for Hiccup to remain male. Sorry for all those who wanted a fem!Hiccup story, but you got outvoted. Aegis Dragon: dont worry, there will be a female in this story but not until later. I'm still working out how far in though, so be patient please!

Gobber is going to have the first half of this chapter, so my apologies if he comes out a bit too OOC.

For those who do not understand how my mind works:

"Human talking"

'Human thinking'

"Dragon talking"

'Dragon thinking'

Disclaimer: I spend my nights plotting how to conquer the world. I will start with HTTYD.

Everyone stared in horror at the thing that now occupied the space Hiccup had been. All of the remainder of the village had seen at least part of the gruesome transformation from my annoying but helpful apprentice to slightly bigger scary creature. No-one could escape the fact that there was now some sort of dragon lying in the village. It looked painful, too. At least that's what I got looking at his eyes.

Wait, he tried to tell me something! What was it? 'Meat Fuzzy? Night Foggy? No Furry? Night Fury? Wait, Night Fury?!' Looking over the draconic body, none of it was familiar, there was nothing in it in the book of dragons. I should know, I train the new recruits how to fight dragons. The only blank entry in the book of dragons is the Night Fury, because no-one has seen it and survived.

Black scales, perfect for camouflaging itself in the night skies. Huge wingspan for its body size and streamlined body, will be able to fly really fast, probably how it makes that screeching noise when it attacks. Four sets of tail fins, extremely manoeuvrable in the air. No wonder nobody ever saw it.

"Night Fury" I whispered in awe. Apparently I didn't whisper quietly enough, as the name quickly spread through the crowd.

Without warning, the Night Fury shifted, bringing my thoughts closer to the moment. Even if it was Hiccup before… this…happened, would it still be Hiccup now? Or would a dragon be inhabiting this body as well. Or what if it is the dragon pretending to be Hiccup, or Hiccup pretending to be a dragon? Oh, my head hurts now. Too much thinking. I need a drink. I need to change my undies.

First things first though, now is not the time to take unnecessary chances. "Pin it down! Someone get the dragon wagon from the arena! Now!" Everyone jumped to action at my bellowing, rushing off to the arena or grabbing hold of a limb and pressing it to the ground. I made sure to grab the head, making sure that he couldn't open his mouth but not being overly rough (just in case it is still the Hiccup I always loved to tease).

A few minutes later, the dragon wagon arrived. In reality, it was little more than a wooden cart with wheels and chains, designed to move an unconscious dragon to the arena quickly and safely. When it arrived we got the dragon on it and strapped it down quickly, fortunately still unconscious. Putting a muzzle on the Night Fury, we began the journey back to the dragon arena.

We left the dragon tied down in the wagon in the middle of the arena, and the few experienced dragon slayers that had remained on the island formed a ring around it. We made sure that everyone else had left in case there was a fight.

Everyone except Gothi, that is. Seriously, she can sneak around when she wants to. I don't think anyone noticed her until she was standing by the dragon's face, prying an eye open.

"Gothi! What are you doing?"

She turned around and drew a few squiggles on the ground, which I translated roughly as 'look into his eyes'. As Gothi is the elder of the village, it is always a good idea to do as she asks, no matter how strange it seems. Kneeling down by his head, I kept my axe-hand ready, and reached my hand out.

Then his eyes snapped open.

Well. That was a weird dream. I dreamt that Bucket woke me up, dad left to find the dragons nest and I turned into a Night Fury. How strange. My dreams are getting weirder and weirder. Oh well, time to see what horrors lie in wait for me today.

ACK! GOBBER'S FACE! Definitely a nightmare now. My head recoiled back only to be abruptly stopped by something around my neck. Wincing slightly, I tried to stand up to find out that the rest of my body was tied down firmly. There's even chains around my scaly wrists. Wait, scales? Black scales? Oh no. That wasn't a dream, it definitely happened.

Without warning, what happened before I blacked out came back to me, and my head shot up again to meet Gobber's eyes. Only this time instead of Gobber standing there Gothi was looking down on me. Or rather, up at me as I'm still taller that her. She's giving me a really creepy look, like she can see through you and into your memories, and tell you how your going to die or something like that.

Its slightly hypnotising staring into her eyes, it's more than a little hard to look away when she is giving you The Look. That is, until she bashed you with her stick. Let me tell you, she has a mean right hook with that thing.

"Ow!" If I could I would have rubbed the spot she had brutally attacked with her stick, but, you know, still tied down. It's a minor inconvenience, sort of. Instead I settled for shooting her a hurt look, and pouted slightly. Yes, I know. Its not a very macho viking thing, but I have been through a lot recently, so I thought it was worth trying. I don't know if it'll work as someone has muzzled me. How rude.

It seemed to have worked, as she smiled at me before turning away to face Gobber, turning her back completely to me. Now, I might not know how to fight like a viking but I do know that she is showing me her trust. Or she's trusting the chains to keep me in place. Damn my overworking brain! Now I'm going in circles. I noticed that she was writing something on the ground, but only Gobber could successfully translate what she writes. Most of the time.

"Remember, Trolls eat socks. So that's what happens to my left socks! But what does that have to do with him?" He gestured with his axe to me. Gothi bonked Gobber with a grumble, causing me to snigger quietly, before writing on the ground again.

"Oh. Remember, trust is earned. But what does that have to do with him again?" From the looks of things Gothi was glaring at him. Not many can withstand that look, and Gobber isn't one of them. I'm glad its not being directed at me for once.

Gobber peered over Gothi's head at me, clearly trying to think, and just as clearly failing. "We have to earn trust?" Gothi nodded and gestured for him to continue. "We have to earn each others trust?" Gesturing between me and him. Gothi nodded again and gave Gobber a small clap, to which he looked immensely proud.

"But how do you know that is still Hiccup? It could be another dragon waiting for us to let our guards down before attacking us." He questioned. I heard other vikings murmuring their assent with what Gobber mentioned. To be honest, I'm not surprised he brought that up. Its not like this has happened before, and the viking way is 'kill on sight'. That's a worrying thought.

"Gobber, I'm still me, I…" The muzzle made it too painful to continue, but I knew that even if I could say something else it wouldn't matter. Everything I had tried to say came out as some sort of growl. There's no chance of Gobber understanding that. What about runes? If I could draw a few runes, maybe he could… damn, I can hold anything to write with now, can I? Stupid hand-paw-things.

Frustrated, I got a little restless, and started shifting around within my restraints. Probably not the best of ideas as I saw a couple of the vikings around me hold their weapons a bit tighter, some of them moving into combat stances. At the sight of all those weapons I felt claws extend, and felt them leave small marks on the wood of the platform I was on.

Wait! Claws + wood = Gobber! Not something that would usually make sense, but now it does! I can use these claws to draw out the runes that spells Gobber's name, genius! Focusing on my right hand, er… paw, I tried to use a single claw to draw out the simple runes. It is a bit harder than I expected, as I have to keep the entire paw tilted at an awkward angle, which is difficult to maintain when you've been chained down.

Successfully writing 'Gobber' in the wood, I looked down at the marks proudly. I have to admit, it is quite good considering the circumstances. I was so thrilled of my achievement that I didn't realise that I had started purring. Looking back to Gobber, I could see from the blank expression that he has no idea what had happened.

Growing impatient, I deliberately tapped my handiwork twice, making sure to be obvious about it.

I saw him look down at my paw, then the runes I had drawn, then at me, then at the runes again. I started to wonder if he would ever get the message. Then his face lit up

"Gobber!" he shouted.

I heard another viking chuckle and say "He's already here, you know"

"No, no. He wrote my name!" A few other vikings looked surprised as they saw this as well.

The tapping of wood against stone brought everyone's attention back to Gothi, who was standing by her squiggles and tapping the ground by them, looking directly at Gobber again.

Gobber started rubbing his chin in the way that he always did when he was thinking hard about a problem. "Hmm, trust is earned, eh?" He began inspecting his axe blade, which caused my stomach to churn in worry. He couldn't be thinking of… could he? "He's probably still a dragon, you know. You can't trust a dragon."

Lifting the axe high, I got a good look at it. It was still razor sharp, which I expected as I had sharpened it only two days ago, glimmering as the sunlight reflected off it. So this is it, then. Killed by a weapon I made. That sucks. Staring at it in horror, I couldn't even struggle against my bonds.

I could only watch as he swung the axe down at me.

AN: Again, apologies if I didn't do Gobber very well, and for his random mood swings. Review please!