Hiccup

I wasn't sure where to take Zuko. I considered giving him the village tour, but there really wasn't much to see; it was mostly just houses, small businesses like bakeries, and Gobber's smithy. He didn't seem like a guy who would be interested in blacksmithing, so I decided to take him to meet my friends.

Astrid, Snotlout, Fishlegs, Ruffnut, and Tuffnut all happened to be in the arena with their dragons. Zuko looked them over quietly with his sharp golden eyes. The Viking teens were a bit less discreet in their observations.

"Is that the new guy? Astrid told us about you," Fishlegs told Zuko.

"What's up with his clothes?" Snotlout wondered, smirking.

"What's up with his face?" Ruffnut said pointedly, gesturing to Zuko's scar. "What kind of dragon did that?"

He was trying to hide it, but I could tell Zuko was feeling uncomfortable. "Guys, this is Zuko." I decided not to mention his status; doing so would just mean more explaining than I already needed to do.

I quickly summarized the morning's events for them, ending with the fact that I had to stay with Zuko at all times.

After that, I made the rest of the introductions. "This is Astrid, Fishlegs, Snotlout, Tuffnut, and Ruffnut."

"Pleased to meet you." Zuko did a weird little hand sign and bowed. I was pretty sure he did it to hide his laughter, since he hadn't done it upon meeting me or my dad.

The Fire Lord was looking at each of the teens' reptilian companions. "So...these are all...dragons?"

"Of course they are," Snotlout said. "Why? What else would they be?"

"That's what I said," I informed him.

"Nothing," Zuko replied, "just that, well, dragons are quite...different where I come from."

"Really?" Fishlegs said enthusiastically. "What kinds are there? How are they different? What are they like? Do you train them? How—?"

"Fishlegs, let him answer the questions!" laughed Astrid. "Because I'm curious too, but if you keep asking him more, you'll forget to ask the first ones again."

"Okay," Fishlegs relented.

"Well, there's only one kind of dragon, so we just call them, well, dragons," Zuko said, seeming very much like he was trying to make this as simple as possible. "There used to be lots and lots of them, but they were...they're very rare now. As far as I know, there's only two left alive. They're very powerful and wise, and their names are Ran and Shaw. When you meet them, they judge you, and if they think you're worthy, they teach you. They're the masters of fireb—" Zuko suddenly froze. "Of fire," he finished uncomfortably.

Suspicious, I thought to myself. Astrid looked confused, and I knew she knew something was up.

Fishlegs was too fascinated to care. "Woah! They teach you about fire? Like, what about it? The different kinds? Because, like, Meatlug here—" he patted his Gronckle— "shoots normal fire, but Night Furies shoot plasma which explodes, and Hideous Zipplebacks are really cool; one of the heads—"

Tuffnut shoved him. Fishlegs grinned sheepishly. "Sorry."

Zuko looked bewildered.

None of us tried to get him out of answering Fishlegs's barrage of questions. There was a beat of silence, and everyone's expression was different. Snotlout: bored. Astrid: suspicious. Fishlegs: curious. The twins: slightly hostile. And Zuko seemed to be making a decision.

"I think it would be better if I showed you. Stand back."

We obliged, watching the foreigner in silence. He did the hand signal-bow again, closing his eyes and opening them again when he was finished.

Zuko stepped forward, opening a fist and stretching his hand forward like he was signaling someone to stop.

It must have been my heart he'd been signaling, for it skipped a beat as a tongue of orange flames materialized from Zuko's palm and streamed into the wall of the arena.

I was pretty sure I had figured out why he was called the Fire Lord.

Zuko

The looks on Hiccup and his friends' faces had a wide range of emotions, but none of them were friendly.

Astrid looked stunned. The one with all the questions looked terrified, like he might faint. The black-haired one was full-on hostile, and the twin brother and sister looked dubious, like they very much thought it was a hoax.

Hiccup was harder to read. He kind of seemed like a mixture of every emotion I could think of that would fit this situation.

I had no idea how they would respond, but I felt like I did the right thing by showing them my firebending. They'd learn sooner or later, so it was better to let them know that I wasn't going to keep secrets from them. I doubted it would make much of a difference, though; it would make them trust him less rather than more to find out that he had the powers of their pets, at least until the shock wore off.

Hiccup was the first to speak. "How did dragons teach you that?" He spoke so normally you'd have thought I had just showed them a new fencing move.

I answered Hiccup. "Well, they didn't exactly. They gave firebending to humans a long time ago, and it's passed down through genetics. They just helped me really understand what fire is really about."

"Blowing stuff up, obviously," Snotlout said confidently. His dragon lit its whole body on fire to prove the point.

"Firebending." Hiccup tried out the word. I nodded.

"Yeah."

"What do we tell your dad?" Astrid asked her boyfriend.

Hiccup didn't answer right away; his brow was furrowed and he looked thoughtful.

"We have to tell him something," Tuffnut pointed out. "Something this earth-shattering should probably be known about by the chief."

I felt stupid. Sure, the teenagers of this village might not do anything to him, but I had a feeling Stoick would not be so sympathetic.

I felt a nudge on my leg and looked down to see Hiccup's black dragon next to me. It looked curious, even intrigued, a level of intelligence I hadn't expected. I lit a small dancing flame in my cupped hand and let the dragon examine it. Fishlegs flinched.

The dragon blinked at the fire, and then at me. Catching my eye, it produced its own sustained fire in its mouth. I saw a flash of bluish-purple that immediately morphed into orange as the dragon kept its flame going, and I did the same.

Before I knew it, the rest of the teens' dragons were crowding around me as well. Snotlout's ignited its entire body again. Astrid's spiny blue dragon puffed up its tail spikes and scorched the ground with a small blast. Fishlegs's heavyset brown dragon mimicked Hiccup's, and the twins' two-headed dragon approached me last. One of the heads emitted a strange green gas around me. Hiccup made an alarmed noise, but before he could do anything, the other head lit a spark. A brief moment of pain hit my face and I froze.

An Agni Kai. My father. My scar.

It only lasted a millisecond, and I bent the rest of the fire away from me, frustrated with myself but pretending like nothing had happened.

"Unbelievable," Hiccup murmured. "They think you're one of them."

"He did learn from dragons," Astrid noted.

The dragons extinguished their flames at the sound of the teens' voices. Hiccup's dragon nudged his owner playfully, and Hiccup smiled at him before addressing me again.

"Zuko, this is Toothless, Stormfly, Hookfang, Meatlug, and Barf and Belch."

More strange names, I thought to myself, but somehow in a more affectionate way this time than confused.

"You're a natural with them," remarked Fishlegs, sounding slightly less mortified.

"You know, as long as you don't set anything on fire," Hiccup pointed out with a sideways glance at me, "there's no reason why Dad has to know anything more…"

For the first time since arriving on Berk, I couldn't help but smile.

"And what's more, there's nothing Dad said you couldn't do, and that includes riding dragons…"

The smile became a grin.

"Zuko, how would you like to learn how to train a dragon?"