REVIEWS:

tOSdude: Just keep reading!

EnderReaper12: You have no idea how much I smiled reading and rereading your review. Great choice of words.

Guest: I'll assume you're the same person who reviewed twice in the past week (Once on ch6 and once on ch12). Yep, the events between scenes in the movie are getting more and more important.

Stardust333: Shh! You'll spoil the sequel!

Vognar-The Legendkeep: Yeah, this scene is pretty hard to write if the author doesn't have an explanation for why Hiccup can suddenly fly other than 'instinct'.

Silverleone: "I have brought down this mighty beast!" Pretty much gives the game away, if we assume Toothless understands humans—which I do.

silverlightdragon1: Do cliffhangers really count if the person dangling from the edge can fly?

Shaonics6: Yep, you called it.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah: Or, as my father would say; the thick plottens. Apologies if I got the number of a's wrong. I think it's 29, but I may be wrong. I love your way of describing what I'm doing. It makes me think of a candy necklace, for some reason.

Hear me roar

"Blegh!" I sputtered and coughed, only half aware of my surroundings. There was slime on my face, thick sticky slime that I'd felt before. "Toothless!" I scolded, desperately wiping the slobber out of my mouth and nose. I couldn't see much through the blurry stickiness in my eyes, but it was darker than when we'd been flying. "You know that doesn't wash out!"

I grabbed the edge of my tunic and pulled it up to my face, towelling most of the saliva off. Toothless was curled around me, his tail across my lap and his side supporting my back, driving away the oncoming chill of night. The sky was bright yellow, fluffy sheep clouds running away from a Monstrous Nightmare sun, and I pushed myself upright.

"Uh…" I didn't know what to say. He ducked his head under my arm timidly, unusually submissive. His green eyes were large and scared—not scared, contrite—and I petted his ears automatically.

"Did that—Was that real? Or am I just going crazy?" I laughed nervously.

He nodded almost imperceptibly, and I took a deep breath. "Okay. Can we—can we talk again?"

Instead of shoving into me, an impossibly thin snake brushed against my core, just enough for me to understand him.

'Are you okay?' It was so strange, the words ringing in my ears and his emotions dancing across our link.

"Y—yeah, I'm fine."

I stood up carefully. I wanted to be able to see him for this. "Wh—what was that?"

'My Flame.'

I could easily sense the capitalisation. It was a fitting name for a ball of fire, but I'd expected something a bit more dramatic.

'You have one too.'

"Yeah." I remembered the clear fire in my chest. "I know."

'Why didn't you tell me?' Hurt coloured his voice and my cheeks flamed—no pun intended.

"Sorry." I hunched my shoulders, trying to take deep breaths. Maybe I wasn't ready to stand up yet. "I didn't think it was important."

'Not important?!' He took a step forward and bumped my stomach. 'This is the most important thing you'll ever have!'

I sat down shakily, one hand reaching out to stroke his face. "It—it is?"

He lay down next to me, and I gratefully leaned against his side. My legs didn't feel like they would support me for the next few minutes.

'I can't believe you didn't tell me.' His voice was still hurt, and my heart clenched.

"I didn't even know you could talk until half an hour ago! I didn't think having a weird thing in my chest was need-to-know information."

'Have you ever used it before?'

"A few times."

'On me?'

I nodded. "When we first touched, when I let you eat too fast, and when we crashed in the field of dragon nip, I think."

'And?' He was probing.

I frowned, puzzled. "What do you mean?"

'Flames have three layers,' he elaborated, eyes not meeting mine. 'Physical feelings, emotions, and thoughts. I'm normally pretty good at noticing when someone's Flame is touching mine...'

Oh. "Only physical sensations," I hurried to reassure him. "Maybe a few weak emotions… I honestly don't remember."

He sighed, obviously relieved, and I stubbornly buried my curiosity. He was my friend. Maybe my only friend, but he was his own person too. It wasn't like I'd spill my entire life story if I was in his place. There were things I was ashamed of or didn't like to think about, things I wouldn't share with anyone if I could help it.

'What can you do with it?'

"Uh—nothing?"

'You can't even block?' he asked worriedly. 'Hiccup, that's incredibly dangerous! You have to be able to defend yourself.'

I groaned, sick of people trying to hurt me. "Can't you do that?"

'I won't always be here.'

"What are you saying?" It ended with a small croak, my throat squeezing.

'I'm saying you'd be far better off learning to defend yourself. You're really strong, even if you're running on instinct. With a little training, you could easily take on any dragon, maybe even—' he cut himself off hurriedly, ears flicking nervously. It was almost like he'd expected to have been stopped before now.

I waited, and when it became obvious he wasn't going to say any more, I scooted closer and settled between his front paws, under his chin. The very thought of what he'd implied— "Could you teach me?"

'I—I suppose,' he said, surprised. 'You'd trust me with this? This is your very core—your soul—and it controls the rest of you. For all you know, I might make you kill yourself, or—'

I struggled to ignore what he'd said and forced a laugh, the thought of him betraying me utterly ridiculous. The fact that he was protesting only made it funnier. "Toothless, what are these?"

'My claws.'

I picked up one of his paws and gently pressed one of his sharp claws against my stomach. He stiffened, fear running through his Flame. I moved it to my chest, then my throat. The small point tickled slightly, but I held still. A false movement from either of us could cut my throat open, and we knew it. I held his paw for a moment longer, then released him.

'You idiot!' he cried, hurriedly curling his paw to hide his claws. 'I could have killed you!'

I reached up and petted his neck until he calmed down. "But you didn't."

'Alright, I get the point. You don't have to scare me like that!' he protested.

I raised my eyebrows. "Welcome to my world?"

'Stupid fur-stealer,' he muttered under his breath.

"Fur-stealer?"

'You're a fur-stealer. Your parents were fur-stealers, and you live in a fur-stealer village.'

"Oh, human."

'Human doesn't mean anything. Fur-stealer is better.'

"But that makes it sound like we go around stealing fur!"

'You do.'

I stared at him. "What?"

'That covering thing you wore over your chest when we first met, was it your fur? Did you grow it?'

"Uh, no…"

'So you stole it from something, probably a bear.'

I'd never looked at it like that before. "I—Dad—that isn't stealing! Dad brought down the bear with his own hands. He won it fair and square!"

'I don't think the bear saw it like that,' he said smugly, and I swatted his nose. 'Hey!'

"So, lesson number one," I prompted.

'You're impossible,' he grumbled.

"Yeah, that's what most people think," I joked.

He knocked me over playfully. 'You can't shield your Flame, not really. You'll get used to touching Flames with other dragons eventually, and you can always shove them out if it gets too uncomfortable, but that's about it.'

"How do I do that?" I asked, nervous.

'First, you need to find your Flame. It should be a warm ball somewhere in your body, most likely your chest.'

I closed my eyes and visualised my transparent Flame, trying to locate it. I took a mental evaluation of my entire body, starting with my arms and legs, then moving from my head downwards.

"I can't find it."

'You need to ignore everything else, block it out.' He retreated from my Flame, and I thought I felt a flicker of unnatural warmth, deep behind my ribcage for a moment. It was gone within seconds, and I cursed. The sand underneath me, the small waves rippling on the beach, the small wind and the bright sunlight were all too distracting.

"Ugh!" I threw back my head in disgust at my inability to do something so simple. "There's too much other stuff!"

He crooned encouragingly at me, and my gaze fell on his wings.

"Could you roll onto your back?"

He tilted his head questioningly.

"I want to try something."

I moved out of the way while he repositioned himself on his back, wings spread out and filling most of our small beach. He crooned inquisitively at me, and I pulled my boots off before crawling across his wing to get to him. Carefully, my ears pricked for any grumbling, I curled up on his soft underside. Surprised but willing, he carefully furled his wings around us and blocked everything out. I closed my eyes and relaxed into his soft underside.

I felt safe and protected behind his wings, something I'd rarely felt. It had always been me and only me, learning to be completely independent in my village without leaving myself vulnerable to the villagers. Here, I could finally relax completely. I didn't have to look over my shoulder for my cousin or desperately search for the route that would let me avoid the most people. I didn't have to worry about my future, because there wasn't any future here. It was just me and Toothless, here and now.

Unnatural warmth bloomed in my chest as I matched my breathing to his, rising and falling gently on his velvety skin. I could have stayed there forever.

"Got it," I whispered, unwilling to break the spell. "Now what?"

His Flame lightly touched my body and I felt it as a different kind of warmth, flowing through my skin and into my chest. When it brushed against my Flame, I winced. All my feelings were on display, and I could feel him reading them, evaluating and judging them—if not consciously.

"W—well?" I stammered nervously.

'Think of your Flame as a ball of fire. The things precious to you are buried on the inside—your thoughts and feelings—but physical sensations are more on the surface. Try to feel it, if you can.'

I focused on the warmth in my chest, concentrating until I thought my brain would explode. Gradually, the Flame grew details, and I could feel the individual tongues of fire playing around my ribs. I faded into the Flame until each flicker felt like one of my arms; every movement part of the dance of who I was. My body softly gasped in amazement, and I was aware of both my Flame and body for a moment.

I was completely free.

Toothless' approval disrupted the dance, and I wondered how on Midgard I was going to stop him from invading my soul like that. I needed to shove him out again. I tried to move a tendril of Flame, but nothing happened. I frowned in confusion. When I tried again, I could still feel the dance, my Flame moving, but I couldn't make it do what I wanted. Annoyance started to take over

'Don't force it,' he advised. 'Work with it. What does your Flame want?'

It wanted to dance, I could tell that much. What did it want beneath that? Come on, this was supposed to be easy! What did my Flame want? What did I want? To be admired and praised? To be loved?

'You're a self-centred little fur-stealer, aren't you?' I could practically feel the smugness oozing off his words and aimed a half hearted slap at his shoulder. He was finding this entire situation way too funny.

"Shut up, I'm trying to concentrate."

'Just saying.'

It reminded me of Gobber's little jabs, always said with a smile that took the sting of betrayal away. The forge, with Gobber, was probably the place I felt most at home… My Flame leapt with the realisation, and I brought my hands up to my chest, trying to hold it in place.

"Thor, that's unsettling."

Wait a minute—if my Flame was made from thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations, wouldn't they affect it?

'You're getting somewhere,' he said cryptically, and I groaned.

"Why is this so dang hard!" My Flame flared suddenly, coaxed into movement by my momentary flash of anger. "Whoa!"

Calm poured into me from somewhere, soothing the anger away, and I whipped my head around to stare at Toothless. "Stop messing with my Flame!"

'You can't do anything if you let your feelings rule you.'

"How do I stop that?!"

'Calm down, to start with.'

I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, imagining I was blowing my frustration away. My Flame instantly calmed down, the movement slowing, and I stared at him in amazement.

"That worked!"

'Yes, it did. Try to push me out.'

"What do I need to feel or think to shield myself?" I was pretty sure I was asking the right questions now.

'You need to focus on your distrust, the instinctive unease that comes with my Flame touching yours, and let it protect you.'

"But I do trust you."

'Not completely, not subconsciously. That's a good thing. Never trust someone completely, because they'll always let you down. Especially—'

I didn't think I'd caught the last part correctly. "What?"

He jumped guiltily. 'Never mind.'

It felt weird, but I focused on the deeply unsettling feeling of Toothless peering into the depths of my soul. I could trust some people to some extent, but completely? That was a death sentence in a village where it was every person for themselves. With a gasp, I managed to push him out of my thoughts, at least a little. I was too scared of hurting him again to do more than that.

"It worked!"

'I know that,' he muttered. 'But can you maintain it?'

That wasn't something I could improve overnight, so I dropped it for the moment. "What's next?"

'Whoa, wait a moment,' he said, amused. 'Reaching out to others and recognising when a Flame is touching yours is the next most important thing, but everything to do with Flames needs a lot of practice. It could take years, and it's already sunset.'

"What?" I jerked back out of my Flame. Within moments, the details faded away and I couldn't feel the dance anymore. He brushed his Flame against mine and I winced, trying to shove him out again. It partially worked, but the moment I stopped concentrating he crept back in again. I guess I'll just have to put up with it for a while.

'It's sunset,' he repeated and unfurled his wings. I carefully rolled off him and landed on the sand as he stood up and folded his wings. Sure enough, the sun was starting to settle on the horizon and the sky was a gorgeous orange.

I turned to him. "What do you want to do now?"

He fidgeted a little, then seemed to come to a decision. 'I'm hungry… You kept me alive, and I'm grateful, but—'

"—it wasn't enough. Sorry." I cringed.

'You couldn't be expected to feed a Night Fury on your own, you're only a fur-stealer.'

I rolled my eyes, but turned my attention to the problem. "You want to go fishing, right? Do you need help?"

He spread his wings and gestured to his back. 'Get on.'

I mounted him, then paused. Before, I'd reached out with my Flame instinctively and learnt how to fly. Now, I'd lost it again, and could barely feel it as a faint warmth in my chest. How was I supposed to know how to manipulate the tailfin?

'Our Flames just have to be in contact,' he said. 'I can initiate it too.'

"Okay."

He spread his wings, and our Flames brushed a little deeper, just enough for me to feel the flow of air and adjust the tail fin. General emotions crossed the gap, but not specific thoughts or feelings. It was like he was a big fluffy coat again, so thick that I couldn't feel details, and I was relieved to feel him keeping his distance from my thoughts. Of course, he could take my mind whenever he wanted, but I felt safer knowing that it was possible to communicate without exposing my soul. I closed my eyes and eased into the contact. I vaguely felt our wings move, ready to leap into the air. My palms were sweaty with nerves, but the moment we reached the air, my foot clicked into place and our flight became smooth and seamless.

'Yeah!' he roared, pushing himself high into the sky. I grabbed the saddle tightly, squeezing with all my strength because I had to do something to release my feelings.

Toothless spun in a vertical loop, blood rushing to my head, and I arched my back and screamed in delight to the sky, squeezing so tightly my fingernails left indentations in the leather. THIS. IS. AWESOME.

We eased into a hover, and I frowned. "Are your wings okay?"

'A little sore,' he admitted. 'The emergency stop didn't do them any favours.'

"We'll be quick, then. What are you going to do?"

He grumbled a little, reluctant to leave the sky, but gave in. 'A steep firing dive, one shot into the ocean, then a very low glide over the sea to collect the fish.'

I repeated the sequence to myself, trying to remember it. "Ready."

We plunged downwards steeply, aiming straight for the glimmering water. This time, I felt nothing but exhilaration. Some sort of spray rose up from behind our tongue, and we crafted it into the perfect shape so that it would produce the right kind of explosion at the right time. Toothless' Flame gave a little hiccupy jerk and heat flooded our mouth. The whole process fascinated me. One enormous exhale and the ball of purple plasma became visible in front of us, plunging straight into the sea. It exploded, and fish floated to the surface, either stunned or dead. My foot clicked, his tail fin moved, and we expertly glided across the surface. The whole thing had only taken about five, maybe ten seconds.

'Hold these,' he told me, then dipped his front paws into the water and sent several fish a good twenty feet up into the air. Intent passed between us, and I only just had time to adjust the tail fin before we did a vertical loop and flew back in the opposite direction. The fish from earlier splatted against my chest and legs, at least half of them falling back into the water, but quite a few landed between my arms as I held onto Toothless. I hastily slammed my arms down to create a barrier between them and the edge of the saddle, and leaned forward to hold them in place with my chest. Thor, this is awkward. It was a good thing my foot almost moved unconsciously, because half the time I didn't know what he was going to do before he did it.

My cheeks hurt from smiling when we finished fishing, even if my back and arms were starting to cramp. Flying was just as exciting close to the sea as up in the air, maybe more so, and I was disappointed when Toothless headed back to the beach, the ache in his wings more pronounced. It felt something like when Dad had tried to teach me how to use an axe that was far too heavy for me. I'd done my best trying to please him, but after two hours of lugging it around and trying to swing it, my arms trembled and ached no matter what I did with them. Dad had brushed it off with a 'no pain no gain' look, and Gobber was the one who'd shown me how to rub and squeeze the muscles to ease the pain, carefully applying pressure to get rid of the painful knots.

Flinging his wings back, he landed on the beach and folded them with a wince.

"Are you okay?" I asked, struggling to keep my balance while dismounting without dropping any fish. The fish suddenly slithered out of my grasp, and I gave up.

'I'm fine, just a little sore,' he insisted, but I wasn't convinced.

"Here are the fish."

'Thank you.'

He settled down onto the sand, and I sat down next to him. A moment later, I got up and picked up a few chunks of driftwood and arranged them in a neat pyramid. I bent down and chose a long straight stick, then speared a fish on it.

"Uh, could you—"

He fired a controlled blast into the pyramid, and it leapt into flames. I held out the fish to cook and blinked a few times, both to stay awake, and to get rid of the ashy residue on my eyelids.

Wow. Just wow. Dragons—at least Toothless—could talk. With nothing to do except sit and think, it really started to dawn on me. We—the Vikings—were slaughtering intelligent creatures, and no one ever protested.

Hacking sounds reached my ears and I inwardly winced. Sure enough, when I looked over, half a slimy fish was sliding down his tongue. It was the head this time, and I cringed at the thought of taking a bite of that one.

"Uh, no thanks. I'm good."

'Suit yourself.' He shook his head. 'Oh come on,' he hissed, 'can't you Terrors leave me alone?'

I looked up nervously at the four small creatures coming towards us. One on one, Terrible Terrors weren't that bad, but when they were together in a group they could strip the flesh from a yak in under half an hour.

Toothless growled, showing his teeth, and hugged the fish closer. Well, it was nice to know what his priorities were.

'You're not my hatchling and Terrors aren't dangerous.'

"Wha—? I didn't say anything!"

'But you thought it.' He snapped at a small red Terror that came a little too close to his fish, and the green one snatched the fish head he'd regurgitated for me. 'You little—'

Still a little miffed by his invasion of my mind, I rested my hand on his shoulder. "Easy, bud. They can have it."

He grumbled, but let the small dragon take the fish. It sat in front of its prize, looking pleased, and an orange Terror tried to steal it from under its nose. A hiss, a squeal, and a jet of flame surprisingly big for such a small dragon, and the orange Terror scampered away, not seriously hurt except for its pride.

Toothless rolled his eyes. 'Stupid dragons.'

"What are they saying?"

'Nothing intelligent,' he huffed. 'Here.'

He slid slightly deeper into my Flame and something opened up. I swallowed a squeamish squeal and forced myself to relax.

'My fish! Mine!' The voice was different to Toothless', high pitched and squeaky instead of deep and smooth. I smiled, charmed by the little dragons.

'What in the four elements—!' Toothless gasped, bewildered. I looked back and my eyes almost fell out of my head when I saw a fish standing upright and escaping from him. A small dragon tail emerged from the pile of fish, quickly followed by the rest of the green Terror, and I swallowed a chuckle.

'Give that back!' Toothless reached out and grabbed the fish's head.

'No! Mine!' the Terror replied, and amusement flickered in Toothless' Flame.

'Watch this.' He tugged, gently at first but gradually adding strength. The Terror held on tightly, until finally the fish snapped in two unequal pieces. Toothless smugly swallowed the body, and the Terror spat out the tail angrily.

'That was mine!' it screamed angrily.

'And now it's mine.' Toothless replied smugly, his eyes glinting with mischief.

Pawing the ground to show off how sharp its claws were, the Terror took a deep breath, ready to fire at us. Totally unimpressed, Toothless shot a controlled purple flame into its mouth. The Terror's stomach ballooned like a pig's bladder, deflated like it had been punctured, then it fell to the ground and started to stagger away dizzily.

I lightly swatted Toothless' shoulder. "That was mean."

'But funny,' he shot back. 'It'll be fine by tomorrow.'

"Not so fireproof on the inside, are you?" I picked up a fish from the edge of his pile and tossed it to the Terror. "There you go."

It squeaked happily and picked the fish up, tossing its head back to swallow it whole. How on Midgard did a Terror manage to eat a fish almost as big as it was?

'Ooh, a nice fur-stealer!' it hummed happily, and the last bit of fish disappeared. Carefully keeping me between it and Toothless, it curled up next to me. 'Can we have it? Please?'

'My fur-stealer,' Toothless growled, trying to dislodge the Terror with his tail. It dug its small claws into my leg and I stifled a yelp.

'Pleeeaaassee? I promise I'll take good care of it, Prince.'

I raised an eyebrow at Toothless.

"Prince?"

'Prince of the Skies.'

"Well that clears everything up," I snarked.

He chuffed in amusement, and warmth that had nothing to do with my Flame sparked in my chest.

'Prince of the Skies, The Dratted Black One, Night Fury, Toothless—which I'm not—are all names.'

A thought struck me. "Do you want me to call you Prince?"

His eyes widened and his wings dropped. 'No, I like Toothless.'

We waited in silence for a moment. The Terrors shook themselves and started to get ready to fly away, but the one leaning against me didn't budge.

'Come on, Lazy!' the blue Terror called.

'One more moment with my nice fur-stealer,' my Terror called back, settling down as though about to go to sleep.

I smiled and rubbed its head. "Everything we know about you guys is wrong…"

'Mmmm…' it hummed, pressing itself into my hand.

Toothless nudged me, so I stretched my other hand round and started scratching him as well.

'Mmmm…' he purred, leaning into it. I smiled, but it fell slightly when I remembered what anyone else would think if they saw me like this. They'd come in and attack both dragons in a misguided attempt to 'rescue' me, maybe even kill one of them… I shivered.

'We're going now!' the blue Terror called.

'Fine!' my Terror grumbled, but stood up and stretched. 'I'll come back later,' it added.

Toothless pretended to shudder. 'Please don't.'

All four Terrors flew away, and left us alone again. Toothless turned his full attention to his fish and I leant back against his side. He flinched a little.

"Are you alright?"

'I'm fine.' I didn't believe him. It must have transmitted through my Flame, because he sighed in exasperation and stood up, unfolding his wings. He stretched them carefully, testing their movement. I watched as he moved through several positions, transitioning faster and more confidently as time went on. 'See? Perfectly fine.'

He yelped suddenly, instinctively pulling them back towards his body.

I felt muted pain in my own shoulder blades before he pulled his Flame away to spare me.

"Yeah, you're hurt."

'Maybe a little,' he admitted reluctantly.

"Let me help," I muttered and walked over to him. "Can you pull my Flame closer, please? I need to feel what I'm doing."

His Flame dragged mine closer and my teeth pinched my lower lip as I tried not to cry out, rolling my shoulders to ease the discomfort. It was worst by his shoulders, where his wings had borne the brunt of stopping us from crashing into the forest, and I hissed with him as my hand touched his left shoulder, making the pain flare up.

Yep, just like the axe incident. Remembering Gobber's advice, I gently started rubbing the strained muscle with long, firm strokes. The ache started to slowly fade, and we both gasped in relief. Toothless gaped at me, craning his neck to look at my hands as if they were glowing. He couldn't quite turn around far enough, and took a few steps round in a circle. I pursued the retreating shoulders and he only spun more, his head chasing his body but never quite catching up enough to see me working.

"Hold still," I chuckled, moving from the top of his wing towards the base. He pretended to grumble, but stopped trying to watch me work.

"This doesn't help it heal," I warned him, just like Gobber had warned me. "You'll still have to rest and let them heal completely before using them strenuously."

'I don't care,' he warbled, far happier now. 'Thank you.'

"You're welcome."

Guess I can't put it off any longer.

Sorry for posting late, life happened, blah blah blah. I was away with no internet for Thursday, Friday, and most of Saturday. Church had a youth event on Sunday and we waited an hour and a half to play one round of bowling, so I was late home and out of energy. Today will have to do.

~JustAnotherRandomPoster

Update 5/29:

Chapter 14 will be posted a week late, as I have acquired a beta and need to sort some things out. I have rewritten this chapter slightly and edited it, so it might be worth reading it again if you only saw the first draft.

~JustAnotherRandomPoster