I feel like grade-A piece of sithspawn for taking two weeks to update. My excuse is really crummy too. Basically the joys of womanhood decided to kick in and I had no desire to do much more than curl up in my bed and read Rise of the Guardians fanfiction or silently cry over Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s season 3 ending on Netflix. (LINCOLN NOOOOOOOOOO! TTmTT)

Anyway.

I invested all my free time on my better days into working on this chapter. Forgive me if I made a few mistakes because I was not 100%. Nevertheless I did spell check and edit the living daylights out of this, and my brain is telling me that it's pretty good the way it is so it should be fine.

Okay so quick replies before we start:

Thearizona: Hey thank you for reviewing. I would have replied to you sooner but you brought up a good issue that I thought I should clarify for the rest of my audience. So to answer your comment, Hiccup isn't so much as against the transformation as he is still unsure of whether this really is Toothless and maybe even a little in denial. Unfortunately he is suffering from a shitty case of second guessing himself. Like, he know's it's Toothless but there's that annoying trail of logic that's still in denial. You know what I mean? It's that annoying voice in his head that's still asking, "Ok I know you're sure it's him, but are you sure you're sure about this? Like, really really sure?" that second guessing voice is pretty much causing him to be hyper aware of every little sudden move Toothless makes because like I said, he's still trying to come to terms with the fact that this dragon really is Toothless. This happens to me all the time with various things in daily life (trust me, it sucks), but he can't help it, really.

Thank you for bringing that up with me though. I'll admit, I was pretty darn embarrassed at first when I realized how terribly I explained his behavior to my audience (in fact I still cringe and blush every time I think about it haha!), but I'm truly grateful that you helped me realize that. I'll try to fix that up later.

Yeah going from sensitive nerves to drugged-by-the-dentist numb probably sucks. I mean, think about it. Dragon scales are thick and fireproof, and I've always believed that they have no nerves. If they did any loss of scales would hurt big time; they're essentially like a million finger nails covering your entire body. Nope. No ability to feel much can come out of that.

Yeah when I said second encounter, I did mean second for us to witness. Hee hee hee I had fun with this one. :D

Mcarno: As usual, merci mon ami. I agree; in my opinion compared to most people his age who I know, he really is taking this pretty okay. I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Read & Relax!

Hiccup

I woke up before the sunrise when a noise sliced through my dreamless state, and I could vaguely remember dozing off next to Toothless last night. When I'd opened my eyes to see a starry sky, I dimly wondered where I was and whether someone—probably the Thorston twins—had slipped something strong in my drink last night because this was not my bedroom. Then I remembered everything that had happened. My brother got turned into a dragon. How could I have forgotten that? The rumbling noise went off again. I shifted and pulled the extended wing out of my way to look over at Toothless.

I almost had to do a double take when I saw him. Yep. He was a dragon. …Yep… You can probably tell that I was still getting used to seeing him like…that. To be honest though, this wasn't something that I wanted to get used to seeing.

No, I decided that there was no way I was ever going to get used to this.

I studied his sleek, black form until I trailed up to his face. His eyes were large but still their usual frost stroked green. Surprisingly they were slitted thin like a wild dragon's eyes. I suddenly realized that the noises were coming from him. Was he…growling?

"Toothless?" I asked. He pulled his eyes away from the distance and snapped his attention over to me. "What's going on?" He jerked his head towards the rocky cliff that I had tried to scale yesterday.

My eyes widened when I caught sight of a familiar form perched up on the ledge overlooking the cove. The Stormcutter. It was watching us intently, and even from here, I could see it's eyes roving over us. Toothless growled again.

Was that an impulsive or a conscious act?

When the Stormcutter jumped down to the bottom of the cove, I found myself being pushed back, and I yelped indignantly. Without apologizing, Toothless stood between me and the Stormcutter, lowly growling. By now I was certain that he was acting instinctively. When the Stormcutter got too close, Toothless let out a warning roar. The sound was chilling, knowing that it was coming from my brother. It was feral like the sounds of dragons' roars I've so often heard during raids. Much to my surprise the Stormcutter actually stopped because of the sound and the larger dragon cocked its head.

Well…that was odd.

When Toothless didn't do anything more the Stormcutter tried again to creep closer. Again Toothless growled warningly, and the Stormcutter stopped in reply. The clouds hadn't completely dispersed from after the rain had stopped, but the sky was clear enough to allow moonlight to shine down on the cove. I watched the Stormcutter's movements, until I trailed up to its eyes.

I was expecting them to be wild and slitted like other dragons I'd seen in the past; I had seen it act predatorily before. I knew that Gobber would say that it should be going for the kill already, but that's not what it was doing at all. It's eyes weren't thin but instead dilated in a harmless manner. I would almost say that it seemed curious.

I didn't realize I was moving until Toothless grabbed me by the back of my shirt. With his teeth.

"Hey!"

Toothless growled as he tried to pull me back. Indignant, I jerked myself out of his grip and lost my balance. I fell on my back, but I wasn't being man-handled so I couldn't bring myself to complain. The Stormcutter's shadow could be seen from my peripheral vision, reminding me that the dragon wasn't too far from me. I immediately scrambled back to my feet and looked at the dragon—the real one, I mean. Then I glanced back at Toothless who was less than pleased with me. I rested a hand on his forehead and lightly pushed him back.

"Hang on a moment," I whispered. His responding growl may have sounded angry to anyone else, but I knew that he was truly worried. His large dragonified eyes betrayed him all too easily. I took in a deep breath and placed on a mask of confidence. "Trust me."

If he could have read my mind, Toothless wouldn't have liked what I had in mind and would have protested. Dragon or not, he would have found some way to drag me away by the collar before I did anything stupid. However thanks to his lack of mind reading skills, he only nodded, trusting me to be careful. Too bad he forgot that my middle name isn't Careful—not that he needed to remember that little fact at the moment.

Slowly I stepped away from the safety of Toothless's side, and with nerve-wracking trepidation, I approached the Stormcutter. It watched me with curiosity but didn't do anything hostile. That encouraged me to keep going.

"Hi," I said awkwardly. "Remember me? The kid that shot you down and should be dead by now?"

The Stormcutter blinked. His head bobbed so subtly, I almost didn't catch it. Was that a nod!? I wanted to see if Toothless had caught that too, but I didn't dare make any sudden moves.

Finally, I found myself standing close enough to the dragon to have touched it if I wanted to. It cocked its head curiously before creeping forward—probably to smell me or something, I thought. Then suddenly, it seemed to have caught sight of something it didn't like and backed away from me with a growl. It was not done in a threatening way, but it was clearly a warning. I looked down at myself before I pulled out my dagger, eliciting another growl from the Stormcutter. From behind me, I could hear Toothless growl back, but I didn't bother telling him to cut it out. I looked from the dagger to the dragon. Ever so slowly, I moved the dagger away from myself and dropped it. Just to be clear with the Stormcutter, I scooted towards the relinquished weapon until I could kick the dagger into the nearby pond. It fell in with a wet plop.

By the time I looked up from the rippling water, I found myself face to face with the dragon again. This time, I was less hesitant to reach out. It seemed a little weary of my very human hands touching it, but that was probably because it better associated human hands with violence than with peace.

When I saw the mistrust in its eyes, I lowered my own eyes, hoping against all hope that it wouldn't bite my hand off while I wasn't looking. However I instinctively knew that I had to let it know that I was putting my trust in it, and this was the best way I could think of. (Don't ask me how I knew, please. I still don't know even now.)

I was actually a little surprised when I felt its reptilian hide pressed against my fingers. Its scales were similar to Toothless's with each scale having a distinct ripple under my fingers, but they also possessed glossy sort of texture to them. The strange but exciting sensation blew me away. I released a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding.

When I glanced back at Toothless, he looked like the most shocked reptile in all of Midgard. It was actually pretty funny. Then the Stormcutter ambled past me and tried to approach Toothless. He immediately barked at the bigger dragon, probably commanding it to stay back. I hurried over over to Toothless and tried to calm him.

"Hey, hey," I murmured to my brother. "It's alright. Let him come."

Toothless looked at me with an expression that screamed, Are you crazy!?

Frankly, I probably am; I came to terms with that a long time ago. Then again…I don't really know what came over me. The Stormcutter, with its massive size and our nightmarish history, left me unnerved at best. But then, I could also remember what happened in the forest with the bola. There was something about it that was different. It didn't behave they way dragons are supposed to; they way I'd been taught they should behave. It should have killed me back there, but it didn't. I was able to touch it without getting my hand bitten off. What's more, it was intelligent. I could see it in its eyes and in the way it behaved. And in this moment, it was using its intelligence to approach us peacefully.

Did I have any idea why? Pshhhhhhhh— No. But it wasn't attacking; I knew that much. It could have if it wanted to, but it was choosing not to attack us. I had to trust that it wasn't going to hurt us as long as we didn't hurt it first.

With my resolve firmly in place, I told Toothless, "Just trust me here."

To placate my brother, who was clearly on edge, I stepped a ways behind him. Now I was far from the Stormcutter but close enough to Toothless just to be safe. The Stormcutter seemed to understand what I was doing, and it waited patiently until I was safely away from it before approaching Toothless. I watched as the Stormcutter got right into Toothless's personal space and sniffed him curiously. Toothless tried to back away, unwilling to be investigated by the creature, but I quickly pushed at him. I wasn't strong enough strength to actually stop him, but I was able to get the message across.

Don't. Move.

Whatever the Stormcutter had been scenting for had apparently been found because it suddenly began to purr. The sound was surprising and foreign. I'd never imagined a dragon being able to purr before. It was oddly fitting though. While the Stormcutter seemed very pleased with himself, Toothless couldn't have been farther from happy. He swiped at the dragon, but the Stormcutter barely retreated a step before he was right back.

Relieved to see that my gamble paid off—somewhat—I sighed and looked up at the dreary sky. "It's probably gonna rain again," I muttered to myself. I glanced up at our current surroundings and looked over to the large, and rather friendly-behaving, dragon as an idea formed. "Hey, dragon?" I said. "Could you…could you help us out?" It blinked and cocked its head at me curiously.

Toothless

I. Was not. Happy. Hiccup was notorious for the crazy ideas that'd possess him, but this had to be the stupid move to end all stupid moves. His newfound tolerance towards the Stormcutter was not something I shared. His idea was not helping improve my opinion at all. Forget the fact that it hadn't done anything threatening to us; its help in getting me out of that cove was not appreciated by me!

Ultimately I was very vocal about my displeasure. I could practically feel Hiccup rolling his eyes. "You know, you only have to blame yourself," he said dryly. "You could have said no."

Gods I wanted to hit him. Unfortunately, from his place on my back, doing so was physically impossible. Sigh.

It took some convincing and a promise from Hiccup that he'd stay close to me—which wound up being on my back—before I accepted the Stormcutter's help. Since I was a much smaller size than the Stormcutter, it had at first tried to carry me out, but there was no way I was letting it do that. Somehow Hiccup had managed to convince it to help by pushing me over the ledge. After a few powerful lunges along with some haphazard wing beats, I was over and out of the cove.

Once Hiccup gracelessly slid off my back, he awkwardly went over to pat the Stormcutter's snout. "Thanks," he said. The Stormcutter bobbed its head. Then Hiccup turned to me with hands on his hips. "Now we just have to find a place to hide you."

I did not like that idea at all, and I made sure he knew it.

He rolled his eyes at my glare. "C'mon, it won't be that bad."

"I don't like to hide," I grumbled.

"I can't understand you, bud."

"Good, you lunatic fishbone."

"What's"—he cupped his hands over his mouth—"Brrrrrhhggggg rwooooo rahhh AHHH (click) supposed to mean?"

Oh now he was just being insulting. I slammed my head in his gut, throwing him off balance. He fell back into the wet ground, while I stalked off.

"Idiot," I grumbled.

"Raaahhhck." This time, I glared at him while he failed to suppress an amused grin. I didn't even bother to reign in my growl, but Hiccup merely held his hands up in uncaring surrender.* I didn't know which was worse—his initial unease or this. Now he was being too calm about this.

The Stormcutter chuffed, effectively getting our attention. It jerked its head in the "follow me" motion before walking deeper into the forest. Hiccup and I traded a look before Hiccup decided to move first. I watched him follow the dragon for a moment before growling to myself.

His ability to trust that quickly is going to get him killed one of these days.

I had no choice but to follow him.

A second wave of rain began to trickle down as we trekked through the forest with the Stormcutter in the lead. Hiccup backtracked until he'd caught up with me so he could duck under my wing in order to stave off the rain. As annoyed as I was with him, I didn't shrug him off. The mud-plagued hike didn't take too long, and the Stormcutter finally stopped next to a cave. The mouth was low, and narrow, and it was smack dab under the ledge of a drop off hill. Hiccup didn't bother to wait before making his way inside.

"Oh gez, this is bigger than it looks!"

Curious, I followed Hiccup inside to find that despite the size of the mouth, the cave was indeed pretty spacious—enough so that I could probably turn my entire body around without hitting Hiccup with my extra appendages. Compared to the rest of the forest, the inside of the cave was much drier, and I noticed that while Hiccup and I could easily fit through, the Stormcutter was too big.

Pretty damn convenient place, huh?

"I think this might work for a hiding place," Hiccup muttered, more to himself than to me. I huffed at the idea. Unless it was for strategically combatant purposes, I didn't like to hide. It was degrading otherwise. He seemed to sense my irritation immediately, because he sympathetically patted me where my shoulder would have been if I'd still been human.

"Hey." I glanced at him while he put on a reassuring smile. "We'll figure something out." Glancing over to the mouth of the cave, he and I could see the Stormcutter peeking in on us. Upon realizing that we noticed it, it went back to acting as a sort of sentry outside the cave. I'll admit that it's apparently intelligent behavior was pretty funny to see. It was also a little unnerving though, so I didn't let myself entertain any positive feelings for long.

"Besides," Hiccup added. "I think that Stormcutter here will be helping us too."

"What makes you say that?"

As though he understood, he shrugged in reply. "Just a gut feeling."

Without another word, he sat back and made himself comfortable on the dirt caked ground. As he focused his eyes on the lightning show the rain was giving us, I mulled over what just went down a few hours ago. Good gods that had happened so fast. How did I go from suffering from a flu this morning to changing into a dragon and witnessing Hiccup form a…a truce with the dragon that plagued his and my childhood? He could be crazy, but he was never this bad. Either the stress of my condition finally made him loose it, or he honestly thought he could trust this dragon. As I let myself lie down and rest my eyes, I wondered which situation I preferred: a crazy Hiccup or a naïve Hiccup.

*I don't know about you guys, but I got a big kick out of writing this little exchange. It tickled my soul.

Some might say that I was too quick about making this...connection (?) between Hiccup, Toothless, and our favorite Stormcutter happen. I say I've been building up to this in the past few chapters so I think it's entirely appropriate. #mystorymyrules

#RogueOnecomingup #fangirling #Jointherebellion

—Tenchiko