Disclaimer: Dream Works and Cressida Cowell own the How to Train Your Dragon franchise.

Wanted to get this out yesterday, but well, this was a hard chapter to write. You'll see why when you read Hiccup's thought process.

Either way, I think I did well given with what I wanted to do.

Also, I've got some new artwork for a thumbnail, courtesy of CAN.

I should know what they say, but I don't. The two human males, both elder and younger spoke to each other, using cries that were both familiar and alien to me.

I remember using those very sounds, not too long ago, why don't I know them. I openned my mouth and made a noise. They should have understood, right? But they didn't seem to respond at me with looks other than confusion.

The younger male simply had that strange look on his face where he shows me his teeth. I remember it meant… amusement, enjoyment.

He put another fish in my mouth and I realized that maybe figuring out how to call to them could wait for a little while longer. I was hungry and I was safe… so long as the elder male wished I was. I swallowed the fish whole, wondering why I never did that more often. It was so easy to slurp it down my gullet.

The elder stood a few feet away from the younger, eying me in a way that made me shiver. The Night Fury behind his face scared me. I knew he was stronger in every way and with that strength came the right for him to do with me as he pleased. So far, he let the younger tend to me in peace. I approved of that.

The younger backed away from after a call from the elder. Both spoke amongst themselves, calling to each other in that mysterious noise. It didn't sound like a dragon's call, not like proper, understandable noise should, yet I knew they must have had some meaning I could have understood.

I was supposed to understand, supposed to know, yet I wasn't. I… chose not to be like them, didn't I?

I coughed out a fish head, my stomach feeling queasy. Everything was so… wrong.

I knew that not too long ago, I was like them. Human, a male, but with different fur. I was smaller than the younger male, but now I am not. I remember things from then, my life as one of them; I had a thing I used to beat other things to make them into other things, a father who was always so much bigger than me, and even a potential mate in the future. But everything didn't feel like they belonged to me; like I was looking at a stranger. My father should be a Night Fury like me, but he wasn't. My potential mate wasn't a Night Fury, either. And that tool I used, it had a name. I should know it, but I shouldn't.

My head was dizzy, the ground shaking beneath me. It was so hard to think about it, but I couldn't stop. I was a dragon, I shouldn't be having human worries, human ideas.

Sudden pain hit my foreleg and I jolted out my odd thinking.

The elder male, the one who was really a Night Fury, approached me, holding a long thing in his hands. It looked like a fine, but was made of blackened hide from cattle. He barked out something I didn't understand and raised his new weapon with the intent to lash me.

I jumped backwards and away before it could strike me. "Stop! Mercy!" I called out, but he didn't listen.

He levied his weapon again and this time I found my rear just up against my container's walls. I was struck this time and I felt an awful pain shoot up my left leg.

The elder kept shouting something that familiar, yet alien noise, repeating it over and over again as he approached. I had my body low to the ground and my tail between my legs, all the better to weather his beating; I surrendered, my body made that clear. I whimpered and cried as the elder human wounded me again, expecting something again. I just wanted him to stop, but I knew I was too weak to stand against him.

I don't know how many lashes he gave me with his weapon, but the elder male eventually put it away when he saw there were no results. I have no idea what he was expecting from me, but I was thankful he stopped.

I whimpered and licked at his feet, thankful for his mercy.

The man lifted his foot away and turned my head up. He knelt down and… did something with his hands. For some reason he had one of his fingers directed at himself and repeated that same call again.

I looked at him, confused, my ears drooping in perplexion. I remember that… gesture meant something, like body language I had forgotten. What did it mean again?

The elder slapped me in the face, getting me to focus on him. He repeated his call, directing his fingers to his chest. Did he… want me to observe him?

I looked at his chest, wondering what was so important. He those strange sheephides that all humans dawned, but that was… normal for them, right? It seems so strange to think I used to dawn them on, too. Why did I worry so much about not being without one?

The elder slapped my face again, letting me choke out a low whimper. No, that wasn't what he wanted. He pointed to himself again and raised my eyes until they met his. I whimpered thinking about the dragon behind those eyes, the stronger and more powerful elder that was behind that face. Still, the intention clearer this time. He wanted me to focus on him, not on what was on him. He made that noise again.

This time, I listened to the sound. "Dray-go…" The calls of humans seem so low in pitch, maybe even too soft compared to dragon's calls, but at least I was able to understand him. "Dray-go…" he repeated, still directing his fingers at himself.

The sound was so hard for me to grasp, much like how anyone could hear a bird's songs or a wolf's house, but not truly understand them. I knew that sound stood for something about the elder male, that much I could feel. I used to know this stuff, why couldn't I know it even now?

And then I got it. Or I think I did. I looked at the elder in the eyes, just in time for him to repeat himself again. "Dray-go…" he said.

I didn't have fingers like humans did, nor could I try repeating the sound back to them, but I tried my best. I raised a paw up and tapped the elder male on the chest. "Dray-go" stood for himself. Whenever he repeated it, I tapped him on the chest, making it known that I knew he was referring to himself.

By the third time I did that, his grin was almost wide enough to bite off my head. "Dray-go" shouted at the younger and before I knew it I found there was a fish put right into my mouth.

I immediately swallowed it whole, knowing it was my reward for solving that difficult puzzle.

The younger male approached me next, saying a different sound and pointing at himself. "Er-et" was the call.

I wagged my tail in anticipation, eager to solve it for the younger was both my friend and someone I knew would be eager to please. I knew the elder was "Dra-go", so that meant "Er-ette" stood for the younger one. I tapped him on the shoulder, eagerly awaiting his answer.

The younger grinned at me and patted me on the head, scratching me behind the ear. My tail thumped on the floor, proud of my achievements. "Er-ette" gave me another fish, one that I chose not to swallow all of. I bit off the tail and swallowed it, leaving behind on the the head. I then dropped the rest onto the floor and nudged it over to the younger male. A long time ago, I remember my best friend did this to me once. Before, I thought it was an odd, yet strangely disgusting act that I only did out of respect. Really, there wasn't much meaning behind it, Er-ette should have have some too since he was so nice.

Dray-go did not like this and kicked away the raw fish before the younger male could grab it. He stared up at me and turned his index finger toward my chest this time. "Hick-up," he stated flatly.

I blinked, understanding what he was trying to imply, but not. I now understood that "Er-ette" referred to the younger and "Dray-go" meant the older, but applying "Hick-up" to myself seemed a little odd… The sound was meaningless to my ears, yet it strangely brought up uncomfortable feelings that made me feel like I was the smallest hatchling of my brood. Again, like human cries in general, it was so alien, yet so familiar, only this time an order of magnitude more so.

"Hick-up," the younger male stated.

I nodded my head.

The others shook their's as well. They both understood what I meant.

Er-ette put another fish into my mouth.

I was about to swallow it again, but before I could, the fish was gone.

The elder male a grabbed hold of my prize by the tail and dangled it before me. "No!" he shouted.

If it had been anyone other than him, I would have tried to fight for the fish. But I knew better than that. The furious eyes of the human male were only a fraction of the anger and rage of the other Night Fury's. I did not dare to challenge him. I went down onto my stomach and whimpered in defeat.

Dray-go snorted and then tossed me the fish onto the ground. I looked at him one moment, trying to puzzle out his reasoning. Instead, the elder male just walked away from me, not even bothering or troubling to explain himself.

Strangely, that told me what I needed to know. This was another lesson I needed to learn, that everything I had been given up until now, including safety and food, were all because he chose to let me have them. I was reliant on his mercy and whims and thus, I needed to obey his commands. The only reason he took the fish away only to give it back were to remind me I was his.

I… didn't eat the fish off the ground, my appetite taken away.

One of the walls to my prison then opened as my master approached it and did something to the wall. Er-ette and Dray-go both stepped outside and turned to me.

With a wave of their hands, a strange gesture that I didn't understand. It took me a minute to realize they were beckoning me over.

I got up and uneasily walked over to them. Using my legs felt so strange, since my fourth was a stump from knee downward. I think it was burned away, but that should have been impossible; I was a dragon after all. Everything was so confusing anyways.

I hobbled over to the other two, out of the small prison that held me.

Without the roof over my head, I could clearly see the afternoon sun gazing down over me. I thought for a moment of maybe taking off and seeing to greet it. Then I turned to the elder male, to Dray-go, and I knew that wouldn't be allowed.

I bowed my head over to his feet and whimpered, waiting for his order.

I saw the elder grin at me in satisfaction and knelt down over to me. I felt him place his hand over my head just around the same time the younger placed a large sheep's hide… thing over me.

Eerie pain that felt like I was being squashed like… butter washed over me. It felt so strange knowing that, even though I really shouldn't worry about it. Concepts that I had forgotten mere moments before suddenly materialized in my mind. Language, words, everything that I knew about being human returned to me, just in time to fill in the gaps left my by sudden departure from being a dragon.

The blanket of wool that moments ago was a bit smaller than my wings now positively engulfed me enough that I had to spend a good second or two to drag it off of my face.

When I did so, I found myself looking face to face with Drago Bludvist, his face contorted into an amused smile. "Congratulations, runts, you're trained!" he laughed.

I groaned, not feeling up to argue from my position down at his feet. I couldn't get up without a missing leg, nor did I feel like it. Unlike last time, I actually remember in full detail what had transpired when I was a dragon and I can't really say I enjoyed my second outing. It was really hard to describe suddenly forgetting and remembering things, but all I knew was that it made my head feel woozy. My stomach felt just as bad, for completely different reasons. I can't believe I ate that much raw fish! I felt like I was about to throw up at any moment.

Drago still laughed wholeheartedly. He patted me on the back, as if I had done something worth mentioning. "Don't worry, runt, we won't have to do stuff like that to you again unless you get out of line."

"Right…" I gagged. "Was all of that really necessary?"

Drago laughed. "Of course it is. I told you, dragons, espeically Night, are vain, pridefully and independant. If I didn't lay any ground rules, the first thing you'd have done at the first opportunity would have been to fly off somewhere! Now that you know I'm in charge, you won't stray too far."

I frowned. Yeah, I can see how that can be a problem. As a dragon, there was no telling where I would go if I didn't have things keeping me anchored to the island. I could easily go home, I could easily go to the edge of the world at the same time. On the other hand, flying off somewhere still seemed so appealing. The idea of Drago "setting ground rules" for me as a dragon was not exactly a pleasant thought.

I might have been human again, but looking at Drago now made me feel a little less secure than I did an hour ago. The irony of just having went through "dragon training" was not lost on me. Drago's methods might not have exactly been the same as any of the ones I used on Toothless, but I am still guilty of making him act in manners according to my own preferences. I made him reliant on me and Toothless became mine.

I shook my head. No, if I wanted to apologize to him, I first needed to find him. And my other friends for that matter.

Eret tapped me on the shoulder, reminding me he was still there. "Well, now that that lesson's taken care of, we can get you back in your duds."

"Oh, I don't know, I think I like being on the ground." I shook my head, now wasn't the time for jokes. "Drago, can you turn me back into a dragon?"

The two other Vikings gave me confused looks, obviously surprised.

Eret spoke up first, since Drago was too busy laughing to himself like I made a real funny joke. "Man, Hiccup, you're either crazy or…"

"Oh, I'm definitely crazy!" I quipped. "Maybe a little mad on the side, but I'm very crazy."

Drago smirked to himself. "That you are. Never have I met another so… willing to go change his form soon. Why're you so eager, runt?"

"I think I need to spend a little time by myself; see the island a little from a dragon's eyes…" And to find my friends. I don't think I told anyone else too much about them, but just in case, I was going to keep quiet about that part of my goals until I was sure it was safe for them. Still, I had no idea what their condition was; everyone was lost in that attack.

Drago grunted something. He probably didn't believe me; I wouldn't put it past him. "Well, I guess so long as you know who's in charge, it's a safe bet to let you… wander a little."

Eret nodded. "Yeah. I don't think he'll set fire to anyone's house or maim the elderly.

"Oh, don't worry, I don't need to be a dragon to do those things!"

Drago knelt down and placed his hand on me again. "Right, just remember to be back before dark, we need to speak with the Chief about his… reasons."

I nodded. "I intend to." So long as I can remember that. Being a dragon did… odd things to my memory, so I don't know about if I'd remember the exact time or reason.

Approving, Drago then said the the words to change me. "Night Fury, Change."

Before I was overwhelmed by pain as my body changed shape and my mind was twisted and bent to fit the mold of a dragon, I wondered for a moment, how was I going to act in front of my friends? When I had turned just now, I remembered the… relationships I had with Drago and Eret. I had an idea of how to act around them.

But with my friends, well, I've known them for longer and my relationship with either of them wasn't exactly something so easy to define. Even more importantly, how was I going to act around their dragons?

Then, briefly, I wondered why I bothered thinking such things in the first place. It was unimportant, not when the thought of meeting them all again made my tail sway in the air.

Who would have known trying to describe a human turned dragon's thought processeses would be so convoluted. Hiccup knows, yet doesn't know. Doesn't know, yet knows. It's probably a key factor to why so many of Drago's men dislike being dragons; it's got to be so unnerving to listen to Norse and not really know the langauge despite being native speakers.