A/N:
I'm trying out slapping my A/N at the start of a chapter instead of the end as usual. Lemme know if you think this is a bad idea.

My inexpressibly heartfelt thanks to you for reading, double that if you take a moment to share your thoughts in a review or PM. And thank you Deadly-Bagel for being my beta buddy.

Wodenfang, yep, one of those kinda stories. Well, we're at least somewhere in that ballpark. I haven't yet seen a story with this sorta twist.

Dragonrider's Fury, I find it very heartening that you're intrigued as well as confused. Yep, Hiccup totally thinks he's a dragon and hopefully you'll see why in a moment.

Deadly-Bagel, umm, thanks for your comment. That is all. (-:


Revealed

Astrid walked to her home, the chief's house, with her little bundle of joy tucked into her arms, flanked by Valka. It was one of those few Summer days when the sun shone brightly through a blue sky and it was almost so warm one might call it "not cold." After a large portion of a meaty stew that was thoughtfully brought over from the Great Hall and a night of sleeping in Gothi's hut, Astrid was glad to have been given the boot to go back home.

Something was amiss, though, that much was certain, and it all centered around a certain husband and his Night Fury. It was an itch that Astrid was impatient to scratch because everyone knew something that she didn't, and they would clam up and insist she hear it straight from Hiccup. "Or the dragon," Tofa had thrown in with a devious smirk and a failed attempt to suppress a giggle.

Valka strode in front of Astrid to open the door for her, but she paused at the unexpected voice of Tuffnut from inside.

"Good! See, Mr. T? Words are necessary. Trust me, if I could get away with never talking, I'd be all over it. Now watch this. Mr. Night Fury, stick your butt in the air. Ha! Shake it like you just don't care! Now, ummmm, chase your tail like a dog." A series of loud crashes could be heard. "Ohh, good thing that ax didn't fall on your tail. Or face. But do you see, T? Alright, now… dance with me." Thumping on wood could be heard. "Yes, dance! Oh, isn't it so wonderful, Hiccup? Muahahahahahaaa, it's glorious!"

With a look that clearly said, "There is nothing good that can come from this," Valka slowly opened the door, and Astrid's jaw dropped – but not her child, thankfully – at the sight before her. The Night Fury was strutting around on his hind legs, forelegs crooked to the side like chicken wings, actual wings loosely flopping around and slapping against walls and chairs. His tail dragged around limply behind him with his tailfins flopping listlessly, and his head was thrown back to chortle loudly at his own antics. Tuffnut had joined in a similar fashion, clucking like a chicken and shouting his approval.

"Don't see that every day," Valka dryly commented.

Everything instantly ground to a halt. Hiccup, Toothless, and Tuffnut all looked over at the newcomers and went stiff. Frozen mid-step, the dragon keeled over, thrashed to avoid falling, stumbled on his wing, and toppled over, taking Tuffnut down with a loud "BAW-GAWK!" They both instantly tried to spring back upright and failed miserably at it.

"How about we don't mash the squishy human to a pulp, please," Tuffnut wheezed. The dragon flopped to his side and Tuffnut picked himself up. "Thanks. Your claws and my spleen make for an unpleasant match if you ask me."

"What are you doing here, Tuffnut?" Astrid asked. She wasn't upset, but it was a bit jarring. Where there was a Thorston, there was trouble. "And why were you… dancing… with Toothless?" She looked at Toothless. "And I've never known you to be that silly. Or clumsy."

Tuffnut suddenly looked uncharacteristically uncomfortable and pensive as he carefully sidled along the wall. "Oh, how late the hour is. I really need to go, uhh, polish my mace…" He shimmied his lanky body through the small gap between Astrid and the door, then bolted out.

"Well, if that wasn't weird…" Astrid drawled out.

Valka watched him go, then gave her head a little shake and rushed forward to hug Hiccup. "Congratulations, son! A healthy baby boy! A dragon rider, a chief, a husband, and now a father! I'm so proud of you!"

Hiccup froze in her embrace and his dragon stared longingly with a quiet whine. Astrid decided to just shrug it off as them being weird. Still. She handed the infant to Hiccup. "Here, hold him."

The man just stood there, jaw hanging. Astrid figured he might freeze up like this since it was something that didn't involve his dragon, so she tugged and shoved his arms into the proper position.

"Don't forget to support the head," she said encouragingly. "The neck is quite weak and soft this young."

Hiccup's only response was to stand there, rigid and white, saying, "Urrrrrr..."

He was stiff as a mast, but he'd need to get used to holding his son. Astrid left him there to pick up the ax and spears that were knocked down from their mountings. "And Toothless," she said sternly, turning to the dragon with the ax held out in mock-threat, "you know I don't like you rampaging around inside. If you're feeling restless, go run around outside and tear up a tree. Chase Tuffnut and give him an invigorating mauling."

The dragon groaned. Hiccup's eyes rapidly flicked between their child and the dragon.

"Something's wrong," Valka mumbled, staring studiously into Hiccup's eyes.

"Of course," Astrid casually said, unconcerned. She looked up at the mountings for the ax, high on the wall, and then at a stool by the dragon's tail. "Hey, Toothless, wanna shove that stool over here?" A moment of blank staring passed before Astrid sighed and walked to get it herself. She flicked her head to Valka and said, "My devious husband, his Night Fury, and a Thorston were conspiring. You sound surprised that something's wrong. Could there be a greater recipe for disaster?"

"No, not that," Valka said slowly, deep in thought.

Out of the corner of her eye, Astrid saw Valka step over and place a hand on the dragon's snout. She was a so-called "dragon whisperer", and such a term was in no way a simple euphemism. It was the natural consequence of having spent so many years removed from human contact, with only dragons to talk to. Dragons communicated, she had learned, not with any sort of vocal language but by projecting their raw thoughts through the air. As such, the only way to hear them was to condition her mind to quiet her thoughts enough so that she could hear the things the mind would naturally ignore.

It was first explained to Astrid as something analogous to a hunter's trance, something with which she was quite familiar. Every scratch on a rock, the way the wind whistled through the branches, every tree scrape and irregularity on the forest floor, most of these little details would normally go unnoticed. However, no library full of books could hold the entirety of all the information she would garner on a hunt. A tree scrape, and then another, a male elk moving East from a lake after a drink. A pair of hoofprints in the soil, something spooked him recently and he dug in deep to flee. A disturbance in the leaves over here, droppings underneath, cold but odorous and still wet with few bugs, a recent deposit. Farther along, the ferns matted down, he slept there only hours ago.

As with the forest, so with the mind. Astrid knew that Valka was receiving a whole torrent of impressions from the dragon – sight, sound, touch, taste, anything between the ears. In an instant, a dragon could convey more details than one could write on a basket full of parchment filled with tiny runes. In fact, the dragons on Berk had to learn to slow down when "speaking" to a dragon whisperer or the human's mind would feel like Tuffnut's spleen under Toothless' paws a moment ago.

"Odin's blind eye," Valka whispered, "it's really you? But… yes, I see, but…"

Astrid flicked a glance to see that nothing was amiss and then stepped down to look at her handiwork with a frown. The handle of the ax she returned to its resting place was crooked. This would not be tolerated!

"Astrid, there's something…" Valka lost her tongue and resorted to lunging forward to wrap her arms around the Night Fury's neck. "You poor thing," she murmured.

"Gimme a sec," Astrid said as she jumped back up on the stool to inspect the mountings. The peg supporting the handle by the ax head was loose. No wonder things looked crooked! Over time, it might work itself out with every slam of the door and the ax could fall and lop off someone's head. Even worse, it could harm her child!

"Astrid," Valka said more insistently, taking a step back from the dragon, "this is important."

Astrid whacked the peg with the palm of her hand, but she could tell it still wasn't seated properly. "Yeah, well so is this," she said idly. "A stitch in time saves nine. Or a life, in this case." She lifted the ax off the wall and used the flat of the head as an improvised hammer, then grunted in satisfaction at a job well done as she set the ax in its place again.

She looked down at Hiccup, still standing in the same spot, still rigid and pale. As Astrid hopped to the floor, she decided to help loosen him up. "What do you think of our little guy?" she asked, heartily slapping him on the back.

"GAH!"

Hiccup threw his hands up in panic. The hands that had been holding their child. Before Astrid could find her footing to react, Valka lunged to grab the child and ended up slamming Hiccup into the wall in her haste.

As everyone caught their breath, Astrid felt angry at Hiccup at first, but she realized in the clarity of retrospect that it was her own fault. She knew that Hiccup was out of his element, handling their child for the first time, and having been through gods-know-what before with whatever had delayed him on his way home. Besides, Hiccup was always known to be very clumsy, though that had diminished a lot since the dragon war ended.

Astrid sighed. "My fault, Babe." She pecked a kiss on his lips, then put an arm around Valka's shoulder. "Thanks," she whispered.

She put a hand on the child to transfer him over to her arms, but Valka withdrew with a sullen look. "I think I should hold onto him for a little longer, dear."

Astrid needed something more, some sort of contact with the child she almost lost, so she insistently stroked his head. However, she had to admit that she was feeling a bit off-kilter and her knees felt a little weak.

"Fine," she said forlornly. "I think I need a rest anyway." Jumping up and down like that the morning after giving birth wasn't smart.

Valka looked into Astrid's eyes in a way that drew the breath from her lungs. "No, not that, Astrid. Hiccup… Toothless… they're… It sounds so silly to put into words."

Something was wrong. Something was really, really wrong. Worry creasing her brow, Astrid wrapped her arms around Hiccup's shoulders and brushed her nose against his neck. He was clearly shaken from something big, and Astrid felt a little guilty about having dismissed him so flippantly. Usually, he took it in stride, but now that she looked closer, she could see the panic in his eyes.

"What's up, Hiccup?" she asked.

Hiccup stood rigid. In a shaky voice, he said, "I Toothless."

"I am Toothless," Valka said as if patiently correcting a pupil.

Astrid stood upright and stared at him. Her sympathy was starting to wane as she grew suspicious that some sort of prank was afoot.

Hiccup looked over at his dragon. "He Firefly." That was the dragon's name for his rider, his light in the dark and source of joy.

"He is Firefly," Valka corrected again. "And you should call him Hiccup around most people. Not everyone is used to the names you dragons use for us."

Astrid rolled her eyes and punched Hiccup in the shoulder, then bent down to pick up the spears that were formerly crossed on the wall by the table. He was just jerking her leg after all, the little stinker.

"Now's really a bad time for games," Astrid wearily said over her shoulder. "And why are you encouraging him, Valka? C'mon."

Valka slowly shook her head, gesturing at Astrid, then to Toothless with an open palm.

Astrid knew what that meant. She too was a dragon whisperer, and while dragons could communicate from at least a stone's throw away, a human required physical contact to hear the projected thoughts. Valka clearly wanted her to hear what Toothless had to share.

Learning to hear dragons was the hardest thing Astrid had ever done in her entire life. Even before Hiccup found Valka, back before all the drama with Drago and his Bewilderbeast, Hiccup - also known as "the dragon hugger" - had learned to hear dragons and leaned on Astrid to apply herself to do likewise. She finally caved but quickly discovered it was an uphill struggle. She could handle all sorts of training, be it running, sparring, ax throwing, hauling logs, anything, but all that meditating, every single morning spent focusing on breath and nothingness for months on end, was the most grueling task she had ever endured. Even in the throes of childbirth, she knew that the pain, though intense, would end, but the meditating and nonstop calmness and focusing on nothingness had no light at the end of the tunnel, no promise of any payoff.

It was pure agony.

Of course, the bookish Fishlegs absolutely loved it.

However, she had eventually prevailed over the enemy that was nothingness and developed in her ability to hear Stormfly at first, then other dragons too. She hoped that Toothless could quickly explain the joke being played on her. He was always the killjoy of any prank when she pressured him into revealing whatever plot was afoot.

Astrid puffed out a sigh and held up her hand. "Alright, show me what you got."

Through the contact of her hand on the Night Fury's snout, she was connected to the dragon in a way that few had ever experienced. She saw herself, through Hiccup's eyes, as he mounted up on his dragon. Well, she saw, yes, but she also heard her own voice bidding him a safe flight, the wind whistling off the cliffs, and the waves crashing below. She smelled the salty air and the faint hint of yeast from her mother's bakery nearby. She felt the warmth of her hand in Hiccup's before he donned his mittens, cinched up his riding gear, and clipped himself to his dragon. In a single instant, Astrid partook of everything that defined Hiccup at that moment in time. For all intents and purposes, she was Hiccup as much as Hiccup was Hiccup.

It was strange to receive Hiccup's memory from his dragon, but not unprecedented. Dragons had flawless memories, and with how freely they could communicate with each other – or a dragon whisperer like Hiccup – it wasn't uncommon for a dragon to have someone else's memories rolling around in their noggins. When called out on how they could so seamlessly meld their own impressions of an event along with another's as a single cohesive stream, they would blink in surprise that such a thing was even noteworthy, exuding the same confusion as one who was asked, "Why can't I see things with my eyes closed?"

Astrid had no time to dwell on that as that moment had passed and another arrived. She experienced Hiccup brace for his dragon to take off, and they shot up and sped over the sea. In an instant, the morning passed, the dragon gracefully skipping over so many details, but she still garnered the thrill of flight and the satisfaction with each aerial stunt performed along the way. They landed on Meathead island, spoke to the chief and some of the villagers, some of whom also rode dragons, and some of them were also dragon whispers – a brilliant ploy that Hiccup had started in years past to force them to respect dragons as people instead of dumb animals.

The so-called "haunted" cave was quickly found. If there was any living creature in there, Toothless would have detected them from outside, but there was nothing within. Hardly an insect or rodent could be found as they explored the natural tunnels, torch in hand. There was nothing unusual about it at all until they stumbled across an interesting cavern that was dimly lit by light bleeding in through some sort of clear blue stone in the ceiling.

A bright ray of sunlight shone on what was definitely a manmade pedestal, the top of which looked like two stone hands stretching up from the pillar to cradle a fist-sized gemstone. The most interesting feature of the chamber was the walls, though. They were unnaturally smooth and flat, and when Hiccup held the torch up, he could see shapes of all sorts completely covering all surfaces. Drawings and runes from uncountable languages stretched out, some scratched into the stone, others drawn in ink, charcoal, or blood.

Hiccup took a moment to look away from the runes to see his dragon nosing the gemstone. "Hey, look at that, Bud," he said as he went over to investigate, then grinned mischievously. "I always thought dragons were more interested in gold, but this stone certainly is shiny."

The dragon took a deep sniff, pressing his nose against it, and Hiccup had to admit that it did look very mesmerizing with the way it caught the light. Actually, on closer inspection, it radiated with a soft glow that pulsated in a manner his eyes couldn't quite come to terms with. Even the pedestal was fascinating for how finely polished it was. Those stone hands, though hard as rock, were smoother than his own.

Drawn to the gemstone like a moth to a flame, Hiccup reached to pick it up to inspect it, and the instant he touched it, there was a blinding flash of light and both rider and dragon stumbled to the ground.

When they tried to stand up again, they couldn't. The one with two legs was used to having four, the one with four legs didn't know what to do with his wings and tail. There was no perception of change, no pain or sensation of any sort, but somehow, the mind of Hiccup, his soul, was in the dragon's body, and Toothless' soul was in the human's body.

Astrid stumbled back in shock, breaking the contact. There was hardly any perceptible passage of time in all that. She was still inhaling from her gasp at the initial surprise at having received Hiccup's memory from his dragon.

This was a joke. It had to be! There was no other explanation. Sure, Gothi had all but said that there was something Midgard-shattering that involved Hiccup and Toothless, and Tofa, being the most capable dragon whisperer, was just dying to tell Astrid some big secret. It may explain why Hiccup and Toothless were delayed so long in returning home, and why her goofy husband stumbled so much and would pick himself back up by first lifting his butt in the air, and why the normally graceful dragon was suddenly so clumsy, and so many other things, but… but…

She took a step back, slowly shaking her head. This was not happening. This could not be happening! Souls switching bodies? Impossible! Laughable! It was a prank and nothing more, an elaborate prank. It had to be!

The young man took a step forward, but his eyes were full of haughty longsuffering that carried a subtle sort of regal dignity. He looked down at her even though he didn't stand above her, and everything about his expression and his stance voiced his frustration with the situation and that Astrid was so slow to accept what was before her eyes. He said, "Zealot…"

It was her so-called "dragon name". Apparently, Toothless had named her Zealot when she discovered him in the cove, tried to kill him, tried to warn the village about Hiccup's betrayal, was snatched up and flown to the nest, and then suddenly became their dedicated ally in dealing with the dragon war. Toothless had initially despised her for her rough treatment with Hiccup, but he quickly learned to respect her as one who would fight without reservation for what was right.

The dragon took a step forward, head lowered, and crooned consolingly. The look in his eyes, so gentle and humble, did not seem to fit the so-called "offspring of lightning and death". With his teeth retracted into their gums, he forced his lips into a smile that clearly did not come from actual joy. He looked both hopeful and guilty.

It was just like the cove, when Astrid first discovered Toothless, except they swapped expressions, with Hiccup's culpability on the dragon's face, and Toothless' pride on the rider's.

All Astrid could do was slowly shake her head in disbelief. "I… I don't… but…"

Standing here in their presence was an itch she could not tolerate. She had run from Hiccup and Toothless in the cove, and now…

"Oh, Astrid," Valka consoled. She took a step and made to embrace Astrid, but Astrid shied away, grabbed her ax from the table, and ran to unlatch the door.

She could feel her pulse hammering in her temples. This was too much to simply accept. Her blood boiled with the desire to wring someone's neck or chop through it, maybe both. As she wrenched the door open, her eyes instantly shot to the child squirming in Valka's embrace. The two mothers shared a look, one that conveyed sympathy, understanding, and a solemn promise to take care of the child until Astrid returned. There was no question that Valka would protect him with her life.

"Where are you going, dear?" Valka called after her.

Astrid blinked into the morning light. "Somewhere. Nowhere. I don't know."

She started sprinting full-tilt and never looked back.