A/N: I know it's been a few days since I posted, but as Frank Sinatra says—that's life! :))

Disclaimer: ಥ_ಥ

HICCUP'S POV

The journey to Amity Island—its name due to the unspoken rule of peace that all visitors agreed to upon arrival—seemed shorter than I expected it to be. It was only midday by the time the large land mass came into sight. The reality of the situation hit me hard, and I held onto the saddle with a vice grip. We were high in the sky, too far up for anyone to see us, but I could still make out the shapes of dozens of ships below. That meant a lot of humans. This was a terrible idea.

I glanced at my mom, but her face was lit up with excitement as she looked down at the island. She didn't understand. She lived with humans most of her life. They didn't seem so scary to her. I, on the other hand, was used to being around dragons. Dragons were safe, predictable. Humans...not so much. This was a terrible idea!

*I won't go down there unless you tell me to, Hiccup.* Toothless murmured comfortingly. I leaned down to hug him. He purred heavily, and the vibrations of it calmed me slightly.

*I have to face my fears...not run from them.* I replied softly, trying to convince myself more than him.

*I just wish I could be there to face them with you.* He muttered. I was trying not to think too much about that part. Toothless had been by my side since I could remember. I didn't know how to...live...without him there. Not just as my protector, but also as my friend. His presence had always been a guarantee. I suppose this would be a test for both of us. If we couldn't function separately, then how could we accomplish anything together?

"Hiccup, you ready?" My mom called over to me.

I nodded shakily. "Y-Yeah. Let's go," I answered a bit too quickly. She eyed me speculatively for a moment, then waved for me to follow her. Cloudjumper fell into a dive, and Toothless followed directly behind him. We dropped out of the sky a good distance from the island, as fast as possible to avoid anyone seeing us, then zipped over the ocean towards land. We approached from the uninhabited side, landing in the forest. I let out a relieved breath at reaching our destination unnoticed as Toothless came to a slow halt in the cover of the trees.

Toothless stood still for a few seconds, his ears up and alert as he listened for the sound of any humans. My mom and I were both silent as we waited for the go ahead. When his tense posture relaxed, ours did, too. I climbed out of the saddle, but stayed next to him, afraid to let go. My mom slid down Cloud's wing, slinging her satchel over her shoulder. She walked over to me and placed a light hand against my cheek.

"You are ready for this, Hiccup," she said reassuringly. "The dragons have to stay here, so say goodbye for now," she instructed gently, taking away her hand and stepping back towards Cloud.

It felt like my heart was going to pound right out of my chest as I turned to face Toothless. Leaving him behind felt wrong. He crooned sadly, nuzzling against my stomach. I ran a hand over his head, working on controlling my breathing. *I won't be gone long.* I promised. *Will you be okay?* I wondered, lifting his head to look in his eyes.

*I'm a Night-wing. Of course I'll be okay.* He replied confidently. *The humans will have no clue I'm here. I'm just a shadow.* He claimed.

I laughed at his smug expression. *Right. I shouldn't have bothered asking.* I snorted in amusement, already feeling better. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw my mom press her forehead to Cloudjumper's in farewell, then she reluctantly pulled away and shuffled my direction. Cloud watched her go with sorrowful eyes. I lunged towards Toothless, wrapping my arms around him in a final hug. *Don't die while I'm gone.* I ordered.

*Same goes for you, little human.* He responded quietly.

I let go of him and turned around before I could change my mind, marching over to my mom. She put a hand on my shoulder and guided me forward deeper into the forest, sending Toothless a brief smile as we left. Neither of us spoke for a while. We simply focused on making our way inland. I felt cold, empty, and utterly alone, but I locked those feelings away. This was a mission—a weird mission, but still. I needed to stay on task.

My mom finally spoke once we were well out of sight and ear-shot of the dragons. "We need to go over a couple things, Hiccup," she informed me.

My eyebrows furrowed and I glanced over at her. "What things?"

She adjusted her satchel slightly. "Well, for one, you need to walk on two feet at all times," she advised. I couldn't help the small laugh from escaping, and I shook my head, looking ahead of us. All I could see was an endless amount of trees. "And second, you need to remember that other humans can't hear if you use thought-speak," she added.

"So basically, be less dragon?" I giggled. She told me that I was different than most kids, but I didn't think about it much. She and I had differing opinions of what was normal.

"Pretty much," she admitted, holding back a smile.

"I can do that," I shrugged. In all honesty, I wasn't sure how I would act when we got there. This was all so unfamiliar. But I didn't want her worrying.

I lost track of how long we were walking, but eventually I heard...something. I paused, trying to identify the strange noise. My mom noticed my confused expression and nudged me forward with a laugh.

"That's just music, Hiccup," she told me. "Pretty, isn't it?"

I continued walking, much more wary knowing we were close. I had to admit that the music was oddly pleasing to listen to, though. It reminded me of when my mom would hum subconsciously when she was making clothes or something of the like, except this was much louder.

When we got close enough, I could hear many different voices, as well as see big tents set up all over the place. We were nearing the end of the forest. I gulped, my hand moving down to rest on the handle of my dagger, which was secured against my hip. There was a mixture of shouting and laughing and singing. To my surprise, no one sounded angry. I thought humans were always angry...

"Come on, Hiccup," my mom encouraged with a small smile, walking backwards towards the tree line while gesturing for me to follow. I bit my lip, glancing over my shoulder in the direction we'd come from. I wanted more than anything to run back to Toothless. But I also trusted my mother, so I took a steadying breath, turned to face her, and strode forwards.

We made our way out of the forest and between two tents, and were immediately met with a bustling crowd. Humans...everywhere! I clung to my mom, taking in my surroundings with wide eyes. She kept still, allowing me to process. There were men and women and...kids! My jaw dropped in shock at seeing humans that were my size or even smaller. My gaze followed a small group of them that rushed by, screaming happily and lightly shoving each other. A man passed directly in front of us, carrying a tiny human on his shoulders. I tilted my head at the odd sight. Across the clearing, there was a big platform with a few people on it, holding what I think were instruments. That's where the loud music was coming from, and the woman in front was singing. A few humans were gathered in front of the platform to listen, some even dancing. The tents were full of different items—food, clothing, art...all sorts of things. My mom had told me about markets and how if she gives them furs, they give her something else in return. This must be the same thing.

Everyone around me seemed so...docile. None of the men were trying to kill the kids. In fact, they appeared to enjoy their presence. There were smiles, pats on the back, hugs, handshakes—no violence of any kind.

I slowly let go of my mom, briefly checking behind me to make sure I wasn't being snuck up on. My body stayed tense, but I didn't feel actively threatened. When I looked to the right, I couldn't hold in my gasp as I saw a creature I'd only seen in my books, and I tapped my mom's arm excitedly.

"Look! It's a horse!" I exclaimed. Some of the humans who were walking nearby glanced at me in confusion, and I immediately ducked behind my mom again.

She chuckled and shifted to the side so she could see me. "Yeah, those are pretty common, buddy," she said, and I hesitantly stepped away from her again after I was sure the humans had stopped looking at me. "Let's look around," she suggested, heading into the crowd. I scrambled after her, gripping my dagger tightly. There were so many faces, so many voices, and some had strange accents that made it hard to understand them.

My gaze caught on another animal I'd read about—a dog. It was tied to a small tree, watching every human that passed with bright eyes and a wagging tail. It was scraggly and gray, and its tongue lolled out to the side as it panted. I grinned, shuffling over carefully and holding out my hand for it to sniff. My mom stood by a few feet away, every now and then greeting the strangers that spoke to her. I knelt down, and the dog shoved its nose under my hand so I would pet it. It kind of reminded me of Toothless, except I could tell that this dog didn't share my dragon's intelligence. Its eyes held joy, but they were blank of any thoughts.

"I think he likes you," a delicate voice said suddenly, making me flinch and crawl backwards a couple inches. The dog followed my movement, whining for attention. I looked up to where a woman was standing with her hands on her hips, smiling down at me. Her face contained a few wrinkles, and her hair was beginning to turn gray at the roots. Her expression was welcoming.

"His name is Loki. He's always getting himself into trouble. Hence the reason he's tied to that tree," she continued. I looked warily between the rope, the dog, and the woman.

"You should let him go free," I argued, hiding slightly behind her dog in case she lashed out. To my surprise, she merely laughed and nodded.

"I tried that once. He came running back a day later," she revealed. That didn't make any sense to me. Loki had the chance to get away from humans yet he chose to return to them? Maybe dogs are dumber than I thought. "Is this your first time at the Amity Island Festival?" She asked conversationally. I narrowed my eyes, standing to my feet and backing up a few steps. Loki was at the end of his tether, so he wasn't able to follow in an attempt to receive more pets.

My mom's voice cut in as I continued to stare distrustfully at the woman in front of me. "Yes, it is his first time. Sorry, he's a bit shy," she said in an overly friendly tone, placing her hands on my shoulders and squeezing almost imperceptibly. I relaxed my tense stance, recognizing her gesture as a signal to calm down.

*Why does she want to know if this is my first time here?* I wondered suspiciously.

My mom ignored me, putting on a polite smile. "It was lovely to meet you, but there's still a lot to see, so..."

The woman waved her off with a light laugh. "Of course. You two have fun. Check out the tent with the fresh bread—it's delicious," she suggested with a wink. My mom nodded, then quickly guided me back into the crowd.

Once we'd created some distance, she leaned closer to my ear. "No one here wants to hurt you, Hiccup," she whispered. "People are just naturally curious." So what, I was supposed to answer any questions they asked? That hardly seemed a good strategy. "How about we get some food? That was a long flight."

We walked past about a dozen different tents. I was only glancing briefly at the food choices—many of which I didn't even recognize. Most of my attention was on the humans. They were interesting to watch. A pair of boys that seemed to be around my age were throwing a round object made of leather back and forth, and somehow found that activity to be very enjoyable; a man and woman were sitting on a bench with a new-hatchling—no, a baby—bouncing up and down on the woman's lap, big smiles etched onto all three faces; two men at a tent across the pathway were arguing over the price of a shiny sword—though it wasn't a level of hostility that put me on edge, just a mild quarrel; a woman was painting on a large...canvas...yes, canvas—it was a near-perfect depiction of the person sitting directly across from her; a little girl began to sob dramatically after dropping her food on the ground, and her mother picked her up and rubbed her back in an attempt to soothe her.

Were all humans so effortlessly fascinating? My life in the nest was simple, comforting, familiar. I would never want to live anywhere else. It was home; the dragons were my family. But in this moment, I found myself wishing I could see more. It was easy to forget that there was an entire world out there. What was I missing? Danger, certainly—that was a very prominent aspect of the outside world. But perhaps I was missing something else...adventure, wonder, the thrill of the unknown.

Then I remembered Toothless, and I remembered the reason my mom ever left civilization in the first place. Humans may be able to live peaceably among each other, but I could never live with them. Not while they hunted my family. Adventure, thrill...they came at too high a price.

My mom tugged on my elbow, capturing my attention. I looked over at her, noticing we were in yet another tent. It smelled amazing in here, and I held back a growl of hunger. Don't act like a dragon, I reminded myself. Repressing those instincts that I was not born with but learned over time was an irritating requirement of being here. They were as much a part of me as breathing.

"Do you want to try some chicken? It's really good," my mom promised. The man—who was apparently the cook seeing as he was the only other person in this tent—held out a piece of meat. I sniffed again, realizing that's why it smelled so good in here. So good, in fact, that I didn't hesitate to approach the man in order to snatch the food from his grasp. Naturally, I backed away as soon as I had it, just in case he intended to steal it back. With an encouraging nod from my mom, I took a small bite.

Wow! My eyes widened, and I devoured the meat down to the bone as quickly as possible. The taste was unbelievable, and I was sure that I could never go back to the meals I had at home after this. I've seen chickens in my books—I would've never guessed their meat was so flavorful. Why can't we have chickens on our island? I wondered desperately.

"I take that to mean you approve," my mom chuckled. She handed me another meat-filled bone, then another. After those three, my stomach was starting to protest, so I reluctantly declined a fourth. We would come back to this tent later, though.

After paying the man (my mom had brought plenty of coins she'd acquired from the Northern Markets), we headed out to explore more of the festival. I noticed a very large crowd gathered ahead, every human's gaze trained forward. It took a bit of maneuvering, but we found a good vantage point along the edges. There was another platform, except this one had a painted backdrop, and the humans standing upon it were wearing unusual clothes—or, at least, it wasn't the type of clothing everyone else was wearing. They took turns speaking, their voices loud and pronounced.

"It's a play—not one I've seen before," my mom murmured quietly, so as to not disturb nearby viewers. Ah, this made sense, then—the theatricality of it all. My mom moved a few feet forwards and squeezed through a couple humans, trying to get a better angle. I suppose she found this interesting. I remained in place, unwilling to get in such close quarters with the humans.

Everyone's attention was completely focused on the play, and my mind swam with possibilities. I looked at the man in front of me, wondering how he could allow himself to be so unaware. I may be more relaxed now than I was when we first arrived, but I'd never let my guard down. Humans couldn't be trusted. I could easily snatch the coin pouch off his waistband, and he would have no clue.

"Hey, kid, this is my turf," a high-pitched voice hissed quietly in my ear. I flinched away, barely containing a gasp of surprise. When I spun around, there was a girl—small in stature, wild blonde hair, and a sword on her hip that appeared to be almost as big as she was—standing there with crossed arms and a scowl. I was so focused on the man that she'd somehow managed to sneak up on me. If I wasn't so freaked out, I would've been embarrassed.

"W-What?" I stammered, making sure to keep my voice low. "W-Who are you?" I demanded.

She sneered. "The name's Camicazi, and like I said—this is my turf."