How To Hide Your Spirit

It was hard to look at the newly dubbed Toothless in the face. First and foremost, I was unsure of how to announce my presence, while also showing I understood him 100%. Second of all… his tailfin was covering his face, I couldn't look at him even if I wanted to. I leaned forward to tap the fin; it wasn't a great idea, but it was how most people communicated, right?

It was when Toothless lifted up his tail fin in a flash and the only thing that I could register in my head was "nope" did I realize I wasn't dealing with people. I was dealing with dragons. Quickly, I got up as if I was going to do that all along and hurried away. I heard a gaff from behind me and realized that it had probably looked rather comical. I sighed and sat down.

What to do, what to do… I couldn't exactly just tap on his shoulder and say "hey! I'm like your enemies, I change form! But don't worry; I change into a dragon so all is fine."

I was sure that would go over well.

I sat down on a rock and thought. Gobber would joke at how it was a dangerous thing for me to do. The best part of it was - was that he never pointed out how painfully true it was. Every Time I sat down to think, I was about a new invention that usually got something else destroyed. My most recent one was before my Transformation, a week before to be exact. It was a catapult. All I had to do was release the lever and a bola would come out. I tried it once on a Nightmare, but missed and hit some other dragon I couldn't see. If I hadn't been so preoccupied by running from a dragon wanting to kill me, I would have gone to see what it was. All I knew was that it landed off of Raven's…

Point.

It landed off of Raven's Point. I looked at the dragon presumably sleeping behind me. Had I really shot a Night Fury? It was insane! I couldn't have hit a Night Fury, let alone on accident. But the proof matched up. A Night Fury, tangled in a bola, off of Raven's Point. Well, if this dragon even remotely saw who had done it, I'd say this had gotten at least 50% harder. What being, dragon or not, would trust the person in charge of their captivity for nearly a month? It was a wonder he wasn't dead.

… unless it wasn't a person. I could bet that, if there was anything that could convince a dragon to trust one, one should be the same species. Wow, that sounded strange, but I had a point? I looked behind me once again. Well, if I wanted Toothless (I was pretty sure this dragon was going to be pretty peeved with my name for him) to trust me as me, I would be a pretty bad idea to approach in Spirit form and then change into a human. That would give off a feeling of betrayal, not to mention some emotional scarring.

Well then, what else could I do?

My mind flashed back to when I was in Half form. Instead of looking repulsed, scared, or even offended, he was just curious. There wasn't any judgment per se. Maybe some "what in the name of Hel is that?" (if dragons believed in Norse mythology), but nothing prejudice. If I could just spark that curiosity, it could quench mine too.

Well, I did always want to learn to fly.

Toothless was now awake, and trying to catch some fish in the pond. Well, here went nothing.

I cleared my throat.

"Hi, I'm Hiccup."

Toothless turned to look at me and gave me a look that clearly stated "that's nice" and went back to his fishing. Well, not only had he given up on talking to me (not that he realized he was doing that in the first place), he didn't care. There wasn't exactly much I could do about it, unless I wanted to provoke him and become his next meal (I definitely couldn't shift fast enough, I never even practiced!). But maybe…

Maybe it was time for him to have an opinion on his name.

"Uh, Toothless!" I called. No reply.

Right. It sounded more like a proclamation about myself than labeling the dragon. Which, I=guess, to a certain extent, was true, but I wasn't going to go there.

"The black dragon fishing; Toothless!" I called again.

That caught his attention. He turned around and snarled at me.

"My name is not Toothless!" he growled.

"Well, what is it then?" I shot back.

The blanched look on Toothless's face made me cringe. Right… well, that kind of obliterated my original plan. Gobber always told me my sarcasm would get me into trouble. Then I'd say "because yours hasn't" and he would say "my point exactly".

Man, never took Gobber for a fortuneteller.

"You can understand me?" Toothless tried.

"Y-yes?" I replied, making it sound more like a question, "I was… I was the one who had the ears." I made motions with my fingers on my head that made it look more like I was trying to imitate Loki's horns and not what my Half form ears looked like.

Toothless sat down and looked at me for a moment.

"You're one of those special Two-Leggers, aren't you?" he asked.

I nodded carefully. I didn't want to lie, but it was also a hard thing to admit. At least, in front of a dragon.

"What do you change into?" he asked again, wanting more answers than I'd even expected. Not that I really expected anything. Hm, I should think out these plans more thoroughly.

"I'm pretty sure that's obvious," I gave. It hadn't occurred to me, but, never had I ever said aloud that I was a dragon.

Toothless snorted.

"I'd say so. But what family?"

I shot him a confused look, which, in turn, made him irritated.

Toothless snapped, "Well, your kind doesn't call the dark skins a different 'species' than the light skins, so why should we?"

I shifted. He did have a point.

"Well, uh, your kind." I said to fulfill the question that was least likely to get me into trouble.

Of course, that was a matter of opinion, as Toothless proved.

"You really can't say you're a dragon, can you? You have to go and talk as if it's an embarrassment."

I looked away, feeling something deep in my stomach. I couldn't say 'because it was' unless I wanted a dragon duel, in which I would lose. Because I loose everything. Toothless walked away, but that didn't mean I was going to. I sat down on a rock and began drawing random patterns with a stick. I wasn't sure when I realized I was drawing a dragon, bit happened time round when Toothless decided he was curious. I knew I was there to eventually talk with Toothless, but I wasn't really comfortable with him watching me draw . I never really did, if I was honest with myself. Ever wanted to do something, but didn't know how to do so? It was like right now. I wanted to talk to Toothless (about what I was still unsure about), but I was frozen in my fear. Toothless didn't know this, but he was the first dragon, scratch that, first being to know what I was. If you didn't count the gods, but they hated me with fervor, so they were exempt.

Although, Toothless wasn't exactly fine and dandy with me either.

Still, he watched me as I sketched the dragon. It looked like Toothless, I wasn't even going to say that it looked like me; I was done thinking that. I looked like a dragon, a Night Fury and that was that. My head would hurt if I pondered on it more.

Toothless hymned and left me once it was clear what I was drawing.

Well, there went my chances. Not that it looked like I was going grasp the chance. I sighed and continued adding details to the drawing. From behind me, I heard a snap and froze. It sounded like a tree. Now, I knew dragons were dangerous, but clubbing me with a tree… that would be an unusual way to die. Toothless approached, dragging in his mouth a thin tree trunk. But instead of raising it and bonking me in the head, he began dragging it in the ground. Toothless dragged in senseless patterns around the rock and me. Once he was done, I realized what had happened.

He had drawn something.

Granted, it wasn't exactly anything recognizable, but he drew. I was 100% positive that most dragons couldn't even define the word. I tried to walk over to the outside of the drawing; maybe I could see if it really was something. I stepped down, causing Toothless to growl.

"Don't."

Well, his idea was pretty clear. I withdrew my leg.

"Why?" I asked, a smiling creeping onto my face.

"Just don't."

I bit my lip to keep from laughing. I stepping on the line again caused the same reaction as before.

"Well, I need to get out of this sometime." I replied.

"Then step over it," Toothless said, not going into specifics.

I pretended not to understand, "Why?"

"Don't."

"You've said that," I said matter of factly, "Are you sure you don't want me to ruinyour masterpiece?"

"Don't."

"Whatever you want, Toothless."

I shook my head and stepped over it, even if Toothless wasn't going to admit to wanting to keep his masterpiece preserved. It felt a bit like dancing; not that I knew exactly what that felt like. Around and around I went, careful to avoid any stray lines. I was edging towards the end. I looked back at what I had crossed, when I felt warm air blow across my back. I froze. I turned around to face Toothless, unable to do much else.

He didn't say anything, and I got that most dragons didn't talk as often as Grump did. I turned away and slowly stretched my arm out, breathing in and out deep breaths. I refused to stretch my arm out all the way, but it didn't matter; Toothless stretched his nose (muzzle? No, Hiccup! Moment) to meet my hand. I let out an exceptionally large breath. This meant, for whatever reason I really wanted to know what was up with this dragon, I could ask. This meant, somewhere in my mind, everything would be OK.

I looked over at Toothless. He looked at me, retracted his nose (muz- ah!) from my hand, and shook his head.

"My name is not Toothless."

With that, he dashed off to do whatever he needed to do before he figured out he was a dragon.

Well, 'okay' in a sense.


A/N: I'm actually quite sad, I wanted this to be longer. But didn't want over-kill, so I kept it how it was. *sigh* Oh well. So… guess what?

100 REVEIWS! THAT'S WHAT!

100 reviews, 133 favs, and 205 follows.

OMG! That was chapter 7. That over 12 reviews a chapter (sorry, not using calculator right now).

Thank you so much!

Alright, onto other matters now.

IMPORTANT: For the cover picture, silverwolvesarecool, I would be thrilled if you could do it and I could use it for my cover. Of course, with your permission. (I put this in the A/N rather than a PM for clarification purposes. I'll PM you if you'd like other information and/ or want to give me other information.)

STORY NOTES: err, sorry about Toothless. He's a bit… out of character. In my defense… uh… Toothless doesn't really talk in the movie? Heh, heh, yah… Anyways, I'd like to say that in later chapters Hiccup will Transform more. I swear. Just not until he and Toothless are more acquainted.

Also, Hiccup is super oblivious to the reason why Toothless can't fly, and I'm sorry about that, but a) Toothless (well, the Toothless I'm writing) doesn't seem like the type to point out handicaps and b) I kind of want to use the scene with Gobber and the gang (or, as I [or Hiccup] so eloquently say it, "the others who hate Hiccup") to my advantage for some shifting exposition, while not using it as overkill during the arena.

ONE MORE THING: I am a total fan of Hiccstrid (actually a conversion from Mericup). So, therefore, this will have Hiccstrid. This actually kinda sorta seems like Toothcup, with the tension and the actual fact that Toothless is a dragon, so I'm trying to clarify.

~ Sam