This collection has been updated pretty much never, since I've been focusing my writing energies on the ROTG crossovers. But recently inspiration came out of nowhere and it struck me hard, like lightning. Or death.

4. Similar But Different

Something is wrong with our flying. I don't know what it is, but I'm working on it. Hiccup doesn't know it yet, but he notices, too.

"Sorry about that, bud," he says after we kind of wobble after coming out of a spiral. I tilt awkwardly to the side before leveling out again.

Normally, Hiccup is very, very good at flying. I am more than a little proud of him, especially when I remember how bad he was at the beginning. In those days, the only reason I put up with his "flying" was because bruises or no, he was the only way I could get back in the sky.

Now Hiccup doesn't make stupid mistakes like he used to. After he got his metal leg, he made some medium-idiotic ones, but that watchtower was about to collapse anyway. Besides, I think Hiccup was secretly happy for the chance to build the new wind-turning-mill to replace it. These days, if Hiccup messes up with my Hiccup-fin, he does it in a small enough way that I can compensate with my good fin to pull us out of it.

Lately, though, that hasn't been working. Hiccup has to push the Hiccup-fin harder and harder, until I can hear the metal clicking with every maneuver.

"We never had a problem with that spin before," he says, and I can hear the frown in his voice. "I though it was just my fault at first, but something's up with your tail, bud. I'd better check the rig when we get home."

Tricks are fun, but just gliding is nice, too. We take it slow and easy on the way home, riding smooth on the wind.

Hiccup's tail-plan papers are in his forge workshop. He fetches them and then we go home, where he spreads them out all over the floor. He takes off the rig and my Hiccup-fin and lays them on top of the papers.

"I don't get it," he says. "Everything's the same as before."

I'm up in the wood beams above him, looking down on his head. This way, I can see over his shoulder without accidentally moving his papers or the fiddly bits of leather and metal. He has taken my Hiccup-fin apart and it's lying in pieces all over the place. The same pieces are also in the papers, captured in flat black charcoal lines.

I study them along with Hiccup, and after a while I think I can understand how the Hiccup-fin works. All those different parts, working together to do what I used to do without thinking. Hiccup makes it look very complicated. Then again, I never would have figured out how to make a new tail for myself, or even making one in the first place. I also never would have thought of asking a Viking for help, because they would have tried to kill me.

But Hiccup did did all of those things, even though I came this close to killing him. (To be fair, he tried to kill me, too. Twice.) Because that's what Hiccup does: new things. He is the smartest Viking on the island. Astrid is smart, too, but she's different. She is Viking-smart. Hiccup is making-things-smart, and in my opinion that is the most useful kind.

Even though we won't be flying, I wake him up anyway. "Really, Toothless?" he grumbles. "I thought that maybe, just maybe, I would get to sleep in today."

We would be flying if you didn't have to fix the fin, I say.

"No use putting it off, I guess," he says. "We're not going anywhere until I fix your tail." He starts on his getting-up routine, which consists of:

1. Putting on his metal leg.

2. Putting on his vest.

I go down to the village and get a few fish for myself. When I come back, he has his own breakfast ready and is looking at the papers again.

"Morning, son," says Stoick-the-Chief as he thumps down the stairs. He nods at me. "Dragon," he says.

Some Vikings are still afraid of me, especially not-Berk ones. Stoick-the-Chief isn't afraid of anything (except maybe Hiccup's stupidity), but I make him nervous. This is as it should be, since I am a ferocious dragon who can blow up whole ships in one go. Stoick-the-Chief knows this, but then he sees Hiccup goofing off with me, and Hiccup's not getting his head blown off, so then Stoick-the-Chief isn't sure what he should think. Then some not-Berk Vikings try to attack us, and so I blow their ships up, and that makes him doubly not sure.

Hiccup, for his part, isn't scared of me at all. Hiccup just sees his goofy best friend who likes to chase shiny lights. This doesn't bother me, because I know that if I have to, I can be a truly fearsome beast who won't hesitate to blow someone up. Even if Hiccup forgets this, I can remember.

"You're back early, son," says Stoick-the-Chief, dipping into his own bowl of breakfast.

"No, we didn't go this morning," says Hiccup, not looking up from his papers. "I've got to make a few adjustments to Toothless's tail."

They finish eating. Stoick-the-Chief goes off chiefing, and Hiccup and I head down to the forge. On the way, we run into the matching 'Nuts.

"Hey, could you guys tell Astrid not to wait up for me?" he says. "I've got to do some work in the forge."

"Sure, whatever," says Tuffnut. The 'Nuts have got a look to their faces that means, Sure, they'll tell Astrid something like his message. This could turn out to be interesting later.

I don't have to wait that long. Astrid catches up to us before we get to the forge.

"Hiccup!" she says. "You're not really that scared, are you?"

"Oh, hi, Astrid," he says. "No, of course I'm not scared, it's just been acting up, and I thought I'd give it a check up, and you're looking at me like you have no idea what I'm talking about so I'm going to stop talking. What did the twins tell you?"

"Apparently you're so scared that I'm going to beat you that you invented some lame excuse about having to work in the forge."

Hiccup says, "No. I. Didn't. Toothless's tail has been weird lately, so I'm going to try and find out what the heck is the problem is and, hopefully, fix it. Also, you know that there is no way that you are faster than us."

Astrid pretends that she doesn't believe it and keeps teasing him. I can tell Hiccup doesn't mind; he acts annoyed, but he's happy that Astrid's there. Besides, we know that we've won the last five races against.

We're at the forge. Hiccup starts to say good-bye, good luck, don't let Snotlout win, but before he can, Astrid says, "Are you okay?"

Hiccup is confused. "Who, me? I'm fine."

"You're limping," she says.

"No, I'm not," he says.

"Walk over there, like you just were," she says, pointing. Hiccup doesn't move for a second. Astrid says, "Do it!" and gives him a shove to make him go.

He looks over his shoulder and says, "If this is some kind of metal leg joke, I'm really not getting it, so you can tell Snotlout and the twins to come out now."

Astrid says, "You're definitely limping." I take a good look; he is walking kind of unevenly, with one side sticking out more. How did I not notice before?

She's right, I say.

"Oh no, not you, too," says Hiccup. "Fine, okay, I'm limping, now just let me get some work done so we can race. Ol' metal leg is still faster than you can ever dream of being."

Astrid has won, so she goes away. Hiccup turns around and sees Gobber, who has been watching with interest. "Nothing wrong with a healthy lurch," Gobber says, thunking his own wooden peg. "Well, maybe not in this case ... "

"Aw, come on," says Hiccup. "Even Toothless is ganging up on me!"

Gobber gives him a strange look. I know that look, it's the one that means, You are a seriously confused Viking who thinks he's a dragon.

Astrid gave him that look not so long ago, after Hiccup told her something I said.

"You mean you can understand him?" she asked.

Hiccup shrugged. "Sure. Can't you?"

Astrid gave him that look, the one I was just talking about.

"Don't pretend Stormfly doesn't talk to you, too," Hiccup said. "Like, I don't know, 'That was a delicous piece of raw chicken, Astrid!' or 'Wow, I look gorgeous today!'"

I snorted when he said that because that's it. That's Stormfly in an eggshell.

"Okay, maybe she does," Astrid relented. "But 'Don't wear your helmet because it will fall off during the loop-de-loops and I'm not getting it back this time, I already owe that Thunderdrum a favor'?! There is no way you could have gotten that!"

"He made a reasonable point," said Hiccup. "Toothless, you tell her."

Astrid looked at me. I looked at her. I waited. She leaned in closer.

I said, as loud and clear as I could, Hiccup is much more intelligent than you.

Her eyes went wide. She made a movement like she wanted to punch me, but didn't, which showed at least a little intelligence on her part. She punched Hiccup instead.

"Ow!" he said, but he was grinning. "See? You got that."

"Did you - did he - " Astrid spluttered. "Did you see the look he just gave me?"

"He didn't mean it," said Hiccup.

I did too mean it, I said, but Astrid didn't notice. Hiccup did, though, and he elbowed me in the side. I laughed at him then, because Hiccup is so small that it felt like being poked with a twig.

But maybe he isn't as small as he used to be.

Gobber looks him up and down with expert eyes. "Get in here," he says.

Despite Hiccup's protests he makes him sit on the big table with his good foot and his metal one hanging off the side. "Uh huh, uh huh," says Gobber.

"What?" says Hiccup. "Everything's good as new."

"That," Gobber says slowly, "might not be a good thing." He pulls out a stepstool for Hiccup to rest his feet on. "Just as I thought," he says. "Most Vikings have to wait until they're already great strapping warriors to lose their first limb, but you got lucky. Look at that."

I look.

Hiccup's good foot is resting on the stool. His metal leg stops about an inch above that.

"I never thought I'd see that day," says Gobber, "but you're growing, lad."

Hiccup is incredulous. He swings his legs up and stretches them out in front of him. Sure enough, the metal one is shorter. Not by a lot, but it's clear that it ends sooner than his good leg does.

"Looks like it's time for a few tweaks," Gobber says. "Or should I leave that to you?"

"Nah, I've got some ideas already." Hiccup has the making-things gleam in his eyes. We're going to be swapping out night flying for forgework. "What if I did this ... Or made a rotating cuff ... or maybe retractable ... " He grabs a pice of paper and scribbles down a few things. Then he pushes the paper to one side. "Aaagh. Later, later. What I was really going to do before Astrid pounced on me was find out what's wrong with Toothless's taiaaaaaaand I'm an idiot."

He smacks his head with his hand. "Why didn't I think of this, bud? Because I'm an idiot. That's why."

At this point, Gobber wisely decides to leave us alone.

"Lemme see your tail, bud," he says. He unfurls the Hiccup-fin and flips it over, so it's lying on top of my good one. They're lined up edge-to-edge, except they're not - the edge of my good fin sticks out all the way around. "Dangit, how did I not notice?"

I didn't notice, either, I say, intrigued.

"Guess I'm not the only one who's growing," he says. "It's time for someone to get a new rig."

I'm excited; I've never caught myself growing before. "Pretty cool, right?" says Hiccup. He pauses for a moment. "I can't believe I've never asked you this, Toothless, but how old are you?"

I stop trying to see myself and focus on him. How do you mean, I say.

"In dragon years, I mean," he adds.

I still have a long way to fly, I say.

"What about in Viking years?"

This one requires some thought. I take into account how old Hiccup says he is, and the fact that he's relatively youngish. In Viking years, I say at last, I am an old Viking.

"Oh," he says, surprised and a little sad. "Come to think of it, Berk already had a Night Fury legend when my dad was a kid, and that entry in the Book of Dragons looks pretty old. I wonder if that was you all along?"

I don't say anything, because I honestly don't know. Before Hiccup, I didn't pay much attention to individual Vikings. They were just the little hairy shouting things that ran around on the ground and occasionally threw an axe at the sheep-stealers. One of the could have been Stoick-the-Chief. I don't know.

Hiccup sees that I don't have an answer for him. He's still curious, but instead of presing further he gets back to frowning over how to make a new Hiccup-fin for me and a new metal leg for himself.

I watch him. I have a lot of extra energy to burn, since we didn't go flying this morning. Probably later I'll romp around Berk a little, and when the rest of our friends come back I'll go and find out who won the race. It'll be Stormfly, I bet. She'll want to brag about her victory, and I'll goof around with her. By that time Hiccup should be coming back to himself, and he'll look up and wonder where I've gone, so I'll come back to see what work he's gotten done.

But right now, I hold still and watch him draw up his plans like spiders spin webs. Not for the first time, I wonder what it's like inside Hiccup's head. It must be very crowded, with dragons and Vikings and mechanisms and me all vying for his attention.

"How's this?" he says, holding up a piece of paper.

As long as it works, I say. He grins and goes back to scribbling furiously. A little bit later, "Whaddaya think? Looks good, right?"

This goes on for a while. I'm not actually helping him; if he didn't have me, he's probably just mutter to himself. Occasionally he holds up something that's really insane, like dragon wings that he can strap to his arms, and I tell him, Absolutely not. He just smiles and tucks it away for later. I know that he's going to build them anyway, and show up expecting me to let him jump off cliffsides.

But no matter how ridiculous his creations are, they are something new, something that we can share just between the two of us. And although Hiccup doesn't always listen when I talk, he always understands what I'm trying to say.

One of the decisions Dean DuBlois and Michael Saunders made when they took on HTTYD was that there would be no magic. Consequently, it always bugs me a little to read fanfics with magic and telepathy and whatnot.

Not that it can't be done - To Soar Into The Sunset (by Fjord Mustang) is one of the best reads out there, and it features a mental link between Hiccup and Toothless. But in terms of movie canon, I think that Toothless is just a very expressive dragon, and Hiccup is a dragon-body-language-readin' genius.

So their dialogue is kind of ambiguous. They're definitely on the same wavelength, but there's a bit of mismatch, where Hiccup could just be talking to himself.

(Added: For the record, I've read the Cressida Cowell books. They're great in their own way, but also very, very different in tone and style from the movie. The HTTYD directors made a conscious decision to make a naturalistic movie, rather than a fantasy, so I respect their decision immensely. After all, HTTYD as we know it wouldn't exist otherwise.)