Author's Note: Hey, hey, everyone! I'm back with another story! I thought it would be absolutely hilarious if the Riders' personalities got swapped, and thus, this story was born! =D I hope you enjoy this first chapter!
One: Something Strange
When Hiccup woke up one morning, he felt...off.
It was a subtle feeling. He didn't realize it immediately until he sat up. The sun was shining through his window, and Hiccup could see small dust particles floating in the air where the light shone. He looked over to Toothless, who was already yawning and stretching. The Night Fury then stood up and looked to Hiccup, ready to start the day.
Hiccup strapped on his prosthetic and slid out of bed, and part of him felt surprised. It took Hiccup some time to fully wake up, and Toothless would sometimes have to get him out of bed by either licking him or pushing him off the edge. Hiccup didn't like it when Toothless did that, but it managed to get the job done. In only a couple of minutes, Hiccup would grab his fur vest and hop onto Toothless' back for their daily morning flight.
Toothless even seemed bewildered. Hiccup never got out of bed right away, but the Night Fury decided to let it slide. He guessed that his methods of making Hiccup get out of bed had worked. Toothless watched as Hiccup walked toward him and smiled.
"Ready to start the day, Bud?" asked Hiccup. Toothless crooned and ducked his head so Hiccup could climb on. Hiccup slid his prosthetic into place and patted Toothless' head. The dragon then took off into the air, making sure to throw in various different types of aerial tricks to make Hiccup scream and shout with glee.
But something felt slightly different as Hiccup and Toothless flew around Berk. Hiccup was late at switching the tailfin position at certain times, and Toothless often had to rely on his wings to steer instead of his tail. Toothless found this rather confusing. Hiccup had created the tailfin and he knew how to use it. He never missed changing its position and Toothless almost felt like he had never lost his tail in the first place when Hiccup was flying him. Hiccup awkwardly changed the tailfin position once again and steered the two of them toward the Dragon Training Academy to wait for the others.
It wasn't long until Snotlout came flying in. He was holding four books—four!—and stacked on top of them were piles and piles of dragon info sheets, maps, charts, and even more things that Snotlout would never be caught dead with.
"Hey, Snotlout," said Hiccup. "What's with all the books and papers?"
"I just discovered that a Timberjack's use their wings to create tents for themselves for protection and heat conservation!" replied Snotlout in an excited manner. "Their wings also can absorb sap, which is why their wings are often so sticky!" Snotlout laughed as he placed the Book of Dragons on the table. "I can't believe I didn't read this book before! It's soooo good!"
Hiccup, Toothless, and Hookfang stared at the Jorgeson in discombobulation. Snotlout read the Book of Dragons? And he was excited over two new dragon facts? Hiccup shook his head. His cousin was probably still half-asleep.
The twins were next to arrive. But something was wrong with them too. Hiccup realized that the twins were riding on the wrong heads. Barf and Belch landed and the twins hopped off as if everything was completely normal.
"Ruff, Tuff, you two do realize that you were just riding the wrong head, righ?" asked Hiccup.
"What do you mean?" asked Tuffnut. "I always ride Barf."
"And I always ride Belch," said Ruffnut. "I wouldn't be caught riding Barf any day."
"He's too good for you," Tuffnut said with a smirk as he petted Belch. The Zippleback head had a look of bemusement on his face as Tuffnut stroked him.
"Okay...weird…" said Hiccup. The twins never rode on the wrong head unless by accident or if they had to. And each head was strongly loyal to his rider. Hiccup knew how much Ruffnut preferred Belch and how much Tuffnut preferred Barf, so it was rather strange to see them suddenly devoted to the opposite head.
Fishlegs suddenly barreled in. Meatlug skidded to a stop and Fishlegs jumped off of her. "Hey, guys."
At least Fishlegs seemed normal. Hiccup smiled. "Hey, Fishlegs. How are—"
"Is that the Book of Dragons?" asked Fishlegs with disgust. "Why read when you can just go out and find the stuff that the book tells you about?"
Snotlout scoffed and hugged the book to his chest. "Knowledge is important, Fishlegs. Without it, we'd all be dead."
"Whatever you say, Snotface," said Fishlegs. Snotlout gasped, offended.
"Whoa, whoa, Fishlegs," said Hiccup. "You've never insulted anyone before! And you love the Book of Dragons! You're the bookkeeper, remember?"
Fishlegs laughed. "The bookkeeper? I'm not going to be the one with the nerd job." Fishlegs turned to Snotlout. "You're the bookkeeper now. I'm going to be the awesome one."
"That isn't a job," said Hiccup.
"It is now," said Fishlegs.
Snotlout didn't seem upset at all by the sudden job change. In fact, he was ecstatic. "Oh my Thor, the bookkeeper of the Book of Dragons? Me? This is such an honor!"
"What's an honor is the fact that Snotlout is actually excited about being the bookkeeper of a book he doesn't even like," said Ruffnut.
"What do you mean? I love the Book of Dragons! I read it all last night and I couldn't believe how many dragon facts there are!" Snotlout said.
Hiccup was about to comment when a familiar Nadder squawk caught his attention. Astrid landed in front of the academy and patted Stormfly's head, thanking her silently. The Hofferson then walked in and said, "Top of the morning, class!"
Hiccup blinked. Then he blinked again. Something was definitely off. "Hey, Astrid!"
Astrid smiled at Hiccup. "Hey! Sorry I'm late. I slept in. Stormfly had to get me out of bed."
But Astrid was never late to come to the Dragon Training Academy. She always came right after Hiccup did. Hiccup's brow furrowed. What was going on?
"Okay gang, I spent the time that I took coming here to create a new training exercise," said Astrid.
"Ugh, another training exercise?" complained Fishlegs. "We do those, like, everyday!"
"They're important, Fishlegs," said Astrid. "We need to learn how to work with each other and with our dragons in order to defend Berk from Alvin and the Outcasts."
"Hey, Astrid. I just discovered this new dragon fact in the Book of Dragons that I thought you'd find cool," said Snotlout as he opened the Book of Dragons
Astrid looked over his shoulder. "Really? What is it?"
Hiccup watched as Snotlout and Astrid started to chat about different dragon related things and Fishlegs was trying to convince Ruffnut and Tuffnut that being awesome was indeed a job. Something felt terribly off about the entire morning, and Hiccup knew that the answer was right in front of his nose.
"Okay, back to the exercise!" Astrid said. She turned to Hiccup. "Would you like to start it off, Hiccup?"
"Sure," said Hiccup casually. "What am I supposed to do?"
"We'll start off simple first," Astrid said. She pointed to a tower of targeted barrels. "Fly in a circle around the Academy and then shoot those barrels."
Hiccup nodded and mounted Toothless. The Haddock and Night Fury flew around the Academy once and Hiccup told Toothless to fire. Toothless complied and shot tree plasma blasts, two of them making their mark while one missed.
"Ha! Hiccup missed!" Fishlegs teased.
Hiccup—having dealt with bullying a lot—usually let mean comments slide, but for some reason, he felt angered at Fishlegs' comment. The Haddock leapt off of Toothless, grabbed an axe and pointed it toward Fishlegs. "And you think you can do better?"
"I don't think, I know," replied Fishlegs with a smug smirk. Hiccup growled and let out a battle cry, raising the axe above head, but Astrid grabbed his wrist before he brought the axe down.
"Whoa, calm down, Hiccup!" said Astrid. "I've never seen you like this before."
"Yeah, you're acting like Astrid did when Snotlout insulted her cooking," said Tuffnut with a snicker. "She nearly decapitated him."
Hiccup blew his bangs out of his eyes and huffed. But then he froze. Acting like Astrid? He suddenly had a brief memory of him and the Riders climbing a mountain in the middle of a blizzard, the shrieking sound of a dragon call, and then...nothing. Hiccup gasped.
"Oh Thor, this cannot be happening," Hiccup exclaimed as he pieced everything together. The Dragon Riders stared at him, confused.
"What do you mean, Hiccup?" asked Astrid. "It's okay. You can try the exercise again—"
"That's not what I meant, Astrid," said Hiccup. The young viking dropped the axe and ran his hands through his hair. "Don't you guys remember what happened yesterday?"
"Yesterday?" repeated Fishlegs. "What happened yesterday?"
"The flight we took to that weird mountain to look for strange activity," said Hiccup. "We went up there, and then there was this weird siren-like dragon call, and then everything went dark!"
"I think Hiccup's gone a little crazy," said Tuffnut.
Astrid placed a hand on Hiccup's shoulder. "Hiccup, I'm pretty sure we'd remember going up a mountain and hearing about a new species of dragon. Besides, dragons are our friends. They wouldn't attack us unless we did something to…" Astrid suddenly trailed off and her blue eyes widened. "Oh, Thor."
"What?" asked Snotlout. "What happened?"
Astrid shook her head. "Something's wrong. With all of us."
Fishlegs crossed his arms. "You mean all of you, right? There's nothing wrong with me, I'm perfect."
"But that's something Snotlout would say," said Astrid.
"Exactly!" cried Hiccup. "I knew we should've gone so far…"
"What are you guys getting at?" asked Ruffnut. "Can you just spill it out already?"
Hiccup picked up the axe that he had dropped onto the ground and stared at his reflection. He looked exactly the same. Auburn hair, freckles, and green eyes. But on the inside. Something had changed. Something important. A part of him had been taken away and replaced.
"Guys…" said Hiccup slowly. "I think our personalities got swapped."
…
Hiccup walked into the Great Hall's library and ran his fingers over the many spines of books that lined the shelves, but he was looking for one in particular. The Haddock walked through the many aisles and the Dragon Riders followed him, questions being thrown at him like darts.
"What do you mean our personalities got swapped?" asked Snotlout. "I feel perfectly normal!"
"Yeah, but you're not," said Hiccup. He paused to skim through another bookshelf. When he found nothing, he continued on.
"I remember everything now," said Astrid. "Stoick told us to go and check out this mountain because other vikings were reporting strange things that happened there. We went to the mountain and hiked our way up because the winds were too strong to fly in, then we got lost in the blizzard. And then there was this weird dragon call and everything went black!"
"But that doesn't answer how our personalities changed," said Fishlegs.
"I'm betting that dragon had something to do with it," said Hiccup as he flipped through another book. Hiccup sighed and placed it back on the shelf. The Dragon Riders followed him as he made his way deeper and deeper into the library. Hiccup eventually came across the book he was looking for, pulled it off the shelf, and began to flip through the pages.
"So if our personalities switched, who has mine?" asked Tuffnut.
"Ruffnut," said Astrid. "And Snotlout has Fishlegs', Fishlegs has Snotlout's, I have Hiccup's, and Hiccup has...mine."
"Wow, so Hiccup is the one with the anger issues now?" teased Fishlegs. Hiccup's head snapped in his direction.
"I don't have anger issues," Hiccup said tartly.
"I think he means I don't have anger issues," said Astrid. "Even though I have all of Hiccup's traits, I'm still offended by that, Fishlegs."
"I can't believe I got my personality swapped with Fishlegs," said Snotlout. 'I suddenly want to read every book I can see…"
"And I have my brother's personality?" said Ruffnut in disgust. "I hate this."
"I can't believe I got my dumb sister's persona," Tuffnut huffed. Ruffnut turned his head in her brother's direction.
"Who are you calling dumb?" asked Ruffnut.
Hiccup suddenly placed the book on a table and pointed to a rather mythical looking dragon. The sketch was basic, but the Riders were still able to make out two large wings, eyes as yellow as the sun, and the most colorful scales they had ever seen.
"How in the name of Thor did we miss that in a blizzard?" asked Snotlout with surprise.
"We were distracted," said Hiccup. "Although, it is kind of embarrassing now that we know what it looks like we didn't notice it."
Astrid peered over his shoulder. "Oh my Thor, that's a rare dragon. It's called the Skipta."
"A Skiptawh what?" Tuffnut said in bemusement.
"A Skipta," said Astrid. "It's Icelandic for 'swap.' I guess this dragon has some kind of swapping ability."
"And it probably only uses it when it feels threatened," remarked Snotlout. "A lot of dragons react in that manner. Hey, did you know that Screaming Deaths can—"
"Let's focus on this dragon for now," said Astrid. She turned to Hiccup. "I suggest that we head back to the mountain and look for this dragon." The Hofferson turned to Snotlout. "Bring the book."
Snotlout nodded and picked up the book from the table and followed Fishlegs, Ruffnut, and Tuffnut out. Astrid and Hiccup walked side by side.
"This is so weird," said Astrid. "I mean, I sound like me, I look like me, but I don't act like me."
"I know," said Hiccup. "I feel like throwing some axes at trees just for the thrill of it."
Astrid blinked. "And I feel like drawing."
Hiccup and Astrid looked at each other. This was going to take some getting used to. The two joined the others outside and mounted their dragons, taking to the air where the sun was already hanging in the sky. Luckily, Hiccup still knew how to get to the island that his father had told him and the Riders to examine, so getting there didn't take very long.
Hiccup and the Riders landed and began to follow the same trail that they had gone up. There was no raging blizzard this time, thankfully, and it was a lot easier to navigate up the somewhat steep slope. Hiccup and the Riders stopped, standing in the middle of a white landscape on the mountain, and looked around.
"This is where we were when the dragon 'attacked'" said Hiccup.
"I don't see anything," remarked Astrid. "It's probably gone."
"The book says here that Skipta's like cold habitats," said Snotlout. "So, it couldn't have gone very far."
"Okay, gang, split up," said Astrid. "We're bound to find something if we look hard enough."
And so the Raiders went their separate ways. Toothless sniffed at the snowy ground while Hiccup looked around the area. There were no dragon prints, not dragon scales, and there wasn't even a sound of a dragon nearby. The only things that filled the ambience were the sounds of the wind and the crunching of his and the other Riders' boots.
"Well, this sucks," said Astrid once all of them met up again. "There isn't anything here!"
"Oh yes there is!" shouted Tuffnut. He and Ruffnut came running up to the small group. The male Thorston was holding something in his hand. It was shiny and had two large things protruding out of it.
"You found a viking helmet," said Fishlegs in a deadpan tone. "Uh, if you haven't noticed, four of us are wearing them already!"
"Yeah, it's a viking helmet. A cool one too. But that isn't what we're referring to," said Ruffnut. She pointed to the center and the other Riders got a closer look.
There, in the very center of the helmet, was the crest of none other than the Outcasts.
Author's Note: Outcasts...I wonder what they're up to...
Until the next chapter!
-BeyondTheMoon1203