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

Where do you begin trying to explain to your long lost mother? On top of that, explaining how you changed from a dragon and appeared right in front of your long lost mother? I doubted even Odin would know the answer and he's got the excuses for it!

Mother… looked quite alot like I did, confirming that I did take more after her than I did from my Dad. That might have been part of the reason I was able to… figure out her idenity, but maybe some part of me from way back when might have known on some level, even when I lost everything else. Mother obviously never knew I was in front of her and for the most part is probably still trying to convince herself I was here.

The woman before me lifted both of her worn hands over my cheeks, as if trying to squeeze the fat right from out of them. Her eyes were wide, her lips quavering to utter a statement other than my own name. "... It's… you, but how… why?"

I cringed, not really sure how to carry on. I have no idea if this was normal behavior for my parent; after all, all I really known about her were the various things Dad told me and well, he gets kind of overly dramatic when he brings those up. And again, it's not like there's a god of "Introducing yourself to long lost mothers"!

Mother lifted her hand and then pointed at the direction I came in from. "And then that Night Fury went off and… you were that Night Fury?" she babbled, eyes blinking as if she realized how crazy sounded.

I think I felt my cheeks warm. "Uh… yeah…" I nodded. "I know it's crazy and all but..."

Mother's jawed slightly slack, as if I might have… broken her.

I felt like rolling my eyes. Good job Hiccup, meet your long lost mother and then you drive her so bonkers that she looks like your hit her on the head. It hasn't even been ten minutes yet!

Noticing that his rider was clearly in distress, the Stormcutter placed a wing over her, causing her to snap out of it. "Uh, Cloudjumper," she said to the larger dragon. She shook her head. "Thanks… I needed that."

The dragon responded with a pleased sounding cry, his voice no longer anything resembling language to me.

"So that's his name," I muttered. Dragons, didn't seem to have a concept for names at all, I noticed. They just refered to everyone else with just statements on their type for some odd reason. Toothless took this lapse in the tension to come to my side, licking my hand to grab my attention. "Toothless!" I yelped. "You know how sticky your saliva is!" I replied.

The Night Fury didn't seem to care and then moved his tongue over to more of my body, covering my tunic.

"I guess it's just a replacement after all…" I said.

Mother turned, back to me, her gaze no longer looking as disturbed. "So, he's...yours then?" her tone a little wary, as if the implicit meaning behind the word held a bitter taste in her mouth. She clearly didn't like anyone who rode or kept a dragon that wasn't herself… probably because the only other people who did that aside from her were associated with Drago Bludvist.

I nodded, and then added. "Toothless is my best friend, aren't bud?"

The dragon looked at me tilting his head as if trying to piece together my statement. He then, either getting it or just giving up, decided his barrage of licks.

"Ew!" I thrown a glob stuck on my hands to ground. "Toothless!"

Mother and Stormcutter observed me, almost seeming to be a mile away despite being right in front of me, their expression stone like before softening. "He certainly seems friendly…" she bent down and examined the dragon's tail, noticing the mechanical device I put on it.. "How'd he end up with a missing tailfin? And what's that contraption?"

I broke into a half nervous laugh. If Mom didn't like she was hearing, well, who knew what happened. "Just something I was being foolish about, ain't that right boy?"

The Night Fury's body twisted and moved, going towards my back and leaping towards my other side.

I bent down and touched my prosthetic. "Besides, we're kinda even now, aren't we? Although, I think we both know who has the better replacements!" I reached over and grabbed my dragon's tail and flexed the individual metal spines.

Toothless let out a little chortle and then wagged his fancy metallic tailfin replacement as if it was something to be proud of.

Mother did a little grimace, but her expression softened again when she muttered something under her breath. Hopefully, that's just her rationalizing that though I was the one that wounded the Night Fury, I meant well… "And… you became a dragon, that was you, right? I mean, I'm not crazy, right?"

I shown my teeth in a nervous grin. We just went through this already. Maybe I did break my own Mom. "Yeah, it was me. And, no, I'm pretty sure being crazy is part of my job."

Mother let out a sigh and nearly tripped over herself. Cloudjumper, the Stormcutter, kept her from falling. "You… really did do that?"

I nodded again, nervous. I honestly didn't feel quite proud about it, as handy as a power it could be. I mean, this was a whole new level of strange for me, and I've always been the odd duckling back home. "It's… something new I picked up."

Mom frowned. Of course, she probably was wondering about it, wondering if it was safe. She glanced over to Eret, who mostly kept quiet during all of this. "You never told me about this," she said to the other boy.

Eret gave a slightly panicked look, raising both hands and shaking them. "No, no, I couldn't. Sides', would you honestly believed me?"

"He has a point," I added. "I hardly believe it myself!"

Mom sighed. "I don't like the fact you're here," she said to the boy, yet put aside her club. "You and your employer are bad news. But with my son vouching for you, I've got more important matters first!" She stepped forward and spread both arms over my body, wrapping me in a tight grip that could have rivaled my father's.

"Wagh!" I yelped, finding my feet dangling up in the air, my head braced above my mother's shoulders. So strangling the living daylights out of me was what passed for an important matter for my long lost mother. Good to know.

Eret gave a nervous chuckle.

"Very funny!" I snorted in his direction.

A moment later, mother let go and dusted off some dirt that clung to my tunic, bubbles of laughter escaping from behind me. "You know, I was always thinking that if we ever met again, it'd be me doing the rememberin'. A mother never forgets you know…"

"Except when you attacked me," I reminded. "You were kind of responsible for attacking me.

"Because I thought you were associates of his," mother pointed to Eret.

Eret waved a hand, grinning nervously. Yeah, she clearly had issues with Drago.

"I sort of am," I replied. "Sort of. And well, I didn't remember at all; being a dragon, kind of requires throwing away… everything. But when I finally got a grip and remembered you, well, I came back..."

She let out a brief giggle. "So that's why you never told me until now."

Toothless, apparently feeling left out, approached us, letting out a whimper. Mother and I bent down and both showered the large dragon with some well deserved affection.

"Buddy here helped me out." I patted the Night Fury's forehead. "He's been my best friend no matter what form I showed up in. And he reminded me what I was forgetting…"

Toothless gave out a gentle purr.

Mother stroked the back of his neck. "And what fine friends you both were; you two did go well together, you know…"

I smiled. So far, everything was working out well. Mom accepted me, my dragon, and the freakish powers I now had. That was the first major good news I had all week, maybe a sign that things were certainly going to improve.

I turned a glance over to the massive dragon watching over us. The Bewilderbeast stared down on us like he was a mountain wondering if now would be a good time for a well place avalance or whether or not spending the next three hundred years as an unmoving mass would be more exciting. I wonder what he thought of all of us, us little creatures before him. Nothing he did betrayed anything resembling an emotion, not anger, not curiosity; all I could see was that he was watching.

Experience taught me that the Bewilderbeast was definitely a much nicer dragon than the Red Death. He certainly didn't seem angry that I or my friend, mere humans were trespassing in his domain. Maybe diplomacy was an option… yet I somehow knew that it wasn't him I needed to convince.

I turned back to my mother, who was busy playing a little game with Toothless, pinching at his nose and daring him to keep a bead onto her fingers.

I knew that what I was about to ask was going to make or break everything. "Mom. Would you… want to come home with me?"

Mother frozen for a split second, her body going rigid as if the words were a blizzard. She slowly turned her head towards me, dropping everything. Cloudjumper and Toothless both turned, as knowing something important was about to go down. "Whaat?" she said meekly.

I sighed. Saying it once wasn't easy, saying it twice was probably going to break me. "I want you to come home, with me and my friends." I was told she was waiting for something by the dragons; I don't know if it's true or not. But maybe she was just waiting for Dad to come rescue her.

Mother gave me a nervous look, processing my plea.

I clenched my fists tight, trying to hold onto my hopes. In some small part of me that was five years old, I honestly wondered what it was like to have a mom. Father never remarried, distraught for so long, so I never even knew what it was like to have an adoptive mother. But now, I might have been able to get my actual parent to come home, come back and… fix our family.

Mother raised her head, letting out a sigh. She stood and planted both feet on the ground, knowing her next words would hold a great amount of power behind them.

I stepped forward and held my back straight. I had to be ready to accept, welcome her, let her know how much I was happy to hav-

"No," she spoke.

The words hit something inside of me, as though it were a brick striking glass. Something in me just broke. "N-no?" I rasped, struggling for words. "But, but why?"

She shook her head. "I'd love to go, but I can't."

"And why can't you?" I felt some of my dizzy confusion shift over into outrage. I came all this way to greet her and then take her home with me, bring her back to father. And she rejected me.

"Because I have things I need to do!" she snapped, pointing a finger at Eret once again.

I grimaced. Oh, great. This was certainly a problem. I knew where this was going.

"I know that this runt's boss is holding a very important egg and I'd rather not have them have their way with the little tyke!" mother snapped, her tone definitely angry. "Soon, I'll have another attack ready to liberate it!"

I felt like pulling my hair out. Was she really just saying what I think she was saying. "So you're going to just… attack the village again, burn down homes and lives?" I shouted.

"So long as they hold the egg, yes," she then pulled out her club and gave it a good test shake.

Toothless and Cloudjumper both looked at us, and step towards their respective partner's sides, realizing that the conversation was shifting into something rather tense. Eret hid behind the nearest rock, his expression making him regret coming along.

I patted Toothless on the head, hoping maybe if the conversation turned into a brawl, my partner would have my back. Mother did much the same for Cloudjumper. "But what about the Skullrock Tribe? Each attack has probably killed hundreds of Vikings!"

"And they've probably killed thousands just by holding onto that egg!" snapped my mother.

I felt like I was replaying a conversation I had with Astrid, only the sides and reasons were different. "There's got to be a better way than this, mother. Have you tried talking to them? Maybe brokering a deal?"

"Dragons don't speak to Vikings!" she replied. "That's not how things work!"

"And which of us has actually been a dragon?"

Mother grunted something indescribable before tapping Cloudjumper on the shoulder. The larger dragon bent down and allowed my mother to mount herself on top of him. "You don't understand; this needs to happen!" she then patted the Stormcutter again and the dragon took flight.

I shielded my eyes, blocking dirt and foliage that nearly flew into my eyes. I wanted to yell for her to comeback, but before I could speak, she and the dragon were already gone.

"That can't be good…" uttered Eret.

"Understatement of the year." I think all I might have just done was urge mother to launch an attack sooner rather than later. She clearly loathed the idea of making peace with Drago or the Tribe. I don't know what happened; maybe all this time away from Vikings might have really driven her off the deep end! Or maybe I just wasn't convincing enough… or maybe I wasn't Dad.

Toothless swiped his tongue at my hips, as if aware that I needed his support at this trying time. I rubbed his head again, letting him know I appreciated it.

I looked up at the Bewilderbeast, his gaze still mountain frozen, as if nothing at all interesting happened in front of him. I wondered if he had any control over the attacks; he was the biggest, strongest dragon here. Dragons respected power. Then again, maybe it was some sort of indirect rule, like how a King controlled a Duke who controlled a Chief. "I don't suppose you can stop them, can you?" I shook my head. "Oh, right, you don't understand me at all."

The great dragon let out a tired yawn.