A/N:
I couldn't resist the temptation to add a 4th wall breaking in this chapter. I'll give you a single word as a clue: prepositions. Thank you Deadly-Bagel for being my beta buddy.
7sky - sorry I forgot to acknowledge you for commenting in the last chapter. Thanks for dropping a line, and if you liked the "LET ME HUG YOUR LEG!" bit, I think you'll enjoy some scenes in the next few chapters.
Dragonrider's Fury, I know exactly what you mean. Toothless with fangs and fire is fun, but Toothless with a devious imagination and snark can be… eventful. I was just asking my beta if he felt conflicted about how he's enjoying Toothless' antics as he does "boring human stuff", but he rebutted with my own words about how Toothless and Hiccup are a single unit in their eyes so there's no net change here. Touché.
Stand-In
The leaves had grown and fallen from the trees six times – or it had been six years, as the land-striders would say – since Toothless met Firefly and started living among his kind. In those years, he had come to learn a lot about these creatures. While there were many similarities, such as pride and stubbornness beyond any reasonable constraint for most individuals, there were many differences too, such as how they looked at one another.
Firefly was named by Toothless, not for his appearance but because of the spark of encouragement he would bring to the darkest situation. Zealot had a fiery temperament, but she was always ready to fight for what she believed was right. Cougar was named such by his dragon, Hookfang, because he was arrogant and boastful, though he would usually whine and mewl rather than roar. Butterfly was not physically frail, but she would taunt others in the most light and delicate way that would only make her more endearing, and any dragon would consider it a good omen for her to perch on them. Benevolent had a kind and gentle nature, and all he ever wanted to do was read old books, meditate on a grassy hill, and lend a helping hand.
Land-striders, on the other wing – hand, whatever – looked on the outward appearance. Hiccup was born early and small. Astrid's name indicated her strength and beauty. Snotlout was obnoxious and aggressive; good on the land-striders for picking a meaningful name, but if he was named before he could even walk, did they predict the future or did they make him fit his name? Tofa was named for the peace of Thor, who was one of those invisible higher powers Land-striders would call out to whenever they stubbed a toe. Fishlegs… well, he wasn't a fish, and fish didn't have legs…
Land-striders could be very silly creatures.
Toothless was counting on this tendency for land-striders to look on the outward appearance as he walked up to one who had a bucket on his head, named Bucket, and stared at him. The look in Bucket's eyes suggested that he wasn't entirely "there", so Toothless continued to stare. By the time Bucket started to fidget, Toothless knew he had his attention.
"I go Great Hall," Toothless said. "Please follow."
With that, he turned and moved on to the next land-strider, smiling at himself for having used his new word, "please". It was even more effective than baring his teeth back when he was a dragon. It was like saying, "Obey or I'll rip out your throat," but it made them like him instead of fear him.
Firefly pressed his snout into Toothless' hand. {What are you doing? We're supposed to go alone.}
The dragon-turned-human shrugged. "They want. They enemy. What enemy want not good, yes? They not even say 'please'."
{They're not your enemy. We're all in this together.}
Toothless snorted at that. "They doubt that you you, and me me. They challenge you alpha. Can have enemy from within flock. Be always wary. Enemy want alone, give not alone."
Firefly grumbled at that but continued to walk by his side, which he was doing with much more fluidity. The entire day had been spent learning how to walk and talk so they could move about more gracefully and interact with others less awkwardly. Toothless was especially fascinated by his newfound ability to throw things. Astrid had introduced him to the art of throwing sharp little fangs – knives – into a tree. It was the best thing ever no matter how many times he cut his thin, scaleless flesh!
"Hiccup's right," Astrid said to Toothless. Her child was cradled in a clever thing that the land-striders called a sling, granting her a free hand to rest on Firefly's head so that she could hear him. "We all respect the council for a good reason. If they want to keep this under wraps, why should we go against that without at least discussing it with them first."
"I no like they," Toothless said. "They no… rrrr… trust. They command but no understand."
Astrid said, "You can't seriously suggest that we should go against our elders and chosen leaders?"
Toothless extended an arm over the dragon's snout and held out a hand, a gesture he had recently learned to introduce himself to others. "Hi. I Toothless. I kill demonic queen and bad great sea dragon."
Astrid's response was to give a sideways stare at Toothless' cheeky grin. "So, you're just going along with this, Hiccup?"
They both shrugged.
{I think it is the sort of thing I would do if I was myself. Then again, I don't know what I would do because that would require the sort of imagination I currently lack. By the way, did you know that your scent changes when you're upset?}
Astrid huffed at that last bit.
"Firefly dragon," Toothless said slowly, thoughtfully, as his dragon helped him organize the words to help express himself. "Dragons think better than land-striders, but not imagine. I land-strider, I imagine. I not think as good… as clearly as dragon. I see what is not, shot in dark as you land-striders say, but almost all my shots are in dark." He looked at Astrid over the scaly head. "Nothing has changed."
"How can you say that when everything's changed?" Astrid hissed.
Toothless patted his dragon's head – a funny thought he imagined he would never tire of chuckling at – and said, "Stormfly and Astrid are two. Hookfang and Snotlout are two. Meatlug and Fishlegs are two. Dragon and rider separate. Can have one without other. Firefly and Toothless are one, not two. We both broken, inside and out, but good as one. Was one. Still one. Same one."
He knew that his Firefly was an entirely different land-strider when he had some black-scaled muscle at his disposal. With his dragon, there were so many things he could do that he couldn't otherwise, so many fights to prevent or end in his peaceful Firefly way. Also, Toothless certainly knew what he was like before he met Firefly. There was a reason that whenever he was forcefully separated from his rider everyone around him saw only the embodiment of fury.
Astrid huffed at his statement. "It's not the same. I want to hold my husband's hand, but I can't. When I want to hug and kiss him when we've a moment to ourselves…" She drifted off, gritting her teeth.
Toothless held out his arms. "You can hug kiss me if make you feel better."
Astrid twitched her right arm and Toothless jumped back with a yelp. When he dared to walk by Firefly and rest a hand on his neck again, he could feel the reassurances the land-strider-turned-dragon was pouring out for his mate. {My love for you and our child is no less than if I was in my own body. We will find a way to make things right again. We always have, and we always will.}
Astrid sighed.
Firefly gave a very toothy smirk. {And if anybody gives you any trouble, I'll bite them.}
She couldn't hold back a smile at that. "Thanks, Babe." She cleared her throat and said, "I still don't like going against the council's wishes, but I'll…" she huffed. "I'll allow it. I guess the take-home here is that nothing has been lost between you two?"
{We are entirely convinced that no aspect of myself or Toothless has been lost, only moved. However, Toothless is now in a better position to plan and make decisions, but we still think and decide and act together, same as always, at least when it comes to my duties as chief.}
Toothless approached another group of land-striders. "I go Great Hall. Please follow."
Instead of falling in behind, one of them just frowned at him. "If there's an announcement for us all, why not just sound the horn?" He then blinked as he realized something. "Wait a moment, you're… Toothless… right?"
Toothless' face lit up. "Ah, horn! Yes, forget horn. Haha! I forget! Never as dragon. Yes, you blow horn. Call all to Great Hall. All follow."
The land-strider moved off towards the large, iron, dragon-shaped horn that wrapped around a stone pedestal. However, after a few paces, he slowed and turned around to say, "Wait a moment. I ain't takin' no orders from a dragon."
Toothless gave him a flat stare. "Do I look like a dragon?"
The land-strider scratched his head and squinted. "Uhhh… No… Ummm…" he squirmed under the unflinching gaze. "Sorry, chief…?" He turned and started jogging for the horn, actively avoiding any eye contact with the source of his confusion.
{Toothless, was that really necessary?}
Toothless completely lost his composure and collapsed into Firefly's neck, laughing and gasping for air. "What's so funny?" Astrid asked when he finally caught his breath.
"I imagine!" Toothless said excitedly. "I say what not so. I… I… deceive! Dragons not imagine. Dragons not lie. Not able." He started rolling around on the ground in another fit of laughter.
Astrid picked him up, set him on his feet, and gave a rough shove forward. "Alright, enough of that. Let's just go before you cause more trouble. I'm of the same mind to keep everyone in the loop, but don't push your luck, Mister."
Toothless walked onward, still giggling spasmodically. Astrid glared at him and his mouth pulled itself into a wide grin, "I be good."
Her glaring intensified.
"I try be good."
They approached the steps to the Great Hall and Astrid's face fell as she stared up them. Normally, she was the exemplar of endurance, but her condition left her otherwise. Riding a Night Fury who was not yet entirely comfortable in his body while cradling a child in her arms wouldn't be a safe option on the stone steps as one stumble could be catastrophic.
Just then, Stormfly sprinted in, ground to a halt, nuzzled her rider, and lowered her belly to the ground with a supportive wing held out.
"Thanks, girl." Astrid cooed at her dragon as she slid onto her back, then raised an eyebrow at Firefly. "And I bet I owe you thanks too for calling her over in that silent telepathic way."
She then looked around and noticed that every other dragon on the island was joining the crowd following them. "Why are they…" she started to ask.
Her eyes landed on Toothless. "This is your doing."
It was not a question.
Toothless gave an innocent smile and patted his dragon's snout. "Firefly helped."
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The darkness assaulted Toothless' little eyes as he stepped through the massive doors into the Great Hall. Well, it wasn't dark, but his eyes were lethargic to adapt.
He walked towards the back where the land-strider betas – councilors – were already sitting in muted conversation. Though he had already interacted with them several times, Astrid named them off: Gothi, Gobber, Spitelout, Phlegma, Ack, and Hoark. Almost immediately, he forgot a few of their names.
As his eyes adjusted and he drew nearer, he could see their expressions fall in varying degrees of annoyance and dismay at the sight of hundreds of land-striders and dragons following him in. Raven – or Gothi as the Land-striders called her – simply rolled her eyes.
"Ya s'posed to come alone," Gobber said in annoyance as he eyed the entire village filing in.
Astrid nudged Toothless to a chair, which would have been his first time sitting on such a thing as a land-strider, but he defiantly stood and turned to the crowd behind him. "You hear that? They no want you know…" he paused. "No… know… no… know…" he looked at his Firefly. "Is that right?"
{Words can be strange, but you spoke correctly for the most part. Sometimes, different words can sound the same but mean very different things.}
Toothless snorted. "If words use sound, then why make different words sound same? Silly!" He huffed and turned back to the council. "Well, send them off." The looks he received in return were satisfactorily annoyed.
"Is it true?" someone from the crowd behind him asked. Another shouted out, "Yeah, has our chief really turned into a dragon?"
"That's why we called you here," said Hailstorm – or "Spitelout" as Astrid whispered into his ear. "We want to know what exactly happened." He gave an accusing glare. "We were planning to inform everyone in an orderly manner once we have a solid grasp of the situation, but I suppose the fish will have to catch themselves, our homes will have to repair themselves, and the fields will have to plow themselves, thanks to you."
Toothless smiled innocently back at him.
"Let's just start with this," said the female who wasn't Gothi, "Gobber told us what he's learned, but as silly and strange as this situation feels, I'd ask you to tell us yourself. Are you really Toothless, the Night Fury?"
Toothless thought about that for a moment and said, "Yes no." At a raised eyebrow, he clarified, "I am Toothless, yes. I am not dragon. Was dragon. Now land-strider. No like. Well, that not fair. You land-striders squishy, but throwing things fun. And rope fun. Tie Firefly when sleep. No tell him. Hrrr, need learn how tie rope." He then realized his error and turned to see an unamused look on his dragon's face.
"Ain't right hearing a dragon speak like that," someone muttered behind him.
"Ya mean in that pinched-nose nasally voice, or with words in general?"
"Yes."
Firefly growled softly at that and Toothless chortled.
The female beta – counselor – then turned to Firefly. "And you're really Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, somehow in your dragon's body?"
Firefly burbled in a laughably terrible attempt to imitate land-strider speech. {Why is she asking me when she's not a dragon whisperer?}
"Firefly says yes," Toothless offered. "And he Firefly, not Hiccup. No like silly name."
"Says the dragon whose name is a comical misnomer," said a land-strider with a gravelly voice who was digging a finger into his ear – or "Ack" as Astrid whispered to him.
Toothless crossed his arms and said, "I like. It works. Besides, you land-striders call demonic queen Red Death. Nothing red about her!"
"The little nubs on its side were red…" Gobber said defensively. "And its fire!"
{Well, technically, the fire was more blue and orange and yellow. If I was awake at the time to correct them, I would have at least suggested we name it Green Death for the color of its scales instead.}
"Let's stick to business," Spitelout said impatiently. "It seems we're all agreed that Hiccup's soul has somehow been moved over to his dragon's body, and his dragon's soul has been moved to Hiccup's body." He scratched his chin in thought. "Hmm, not sure dragons have a soul in the first place. Never heard of dragons drinking mead in Valhalla."
Toothless growled at that, though it sent him into a fit of coughing. "Valka say Firefly have soul of dragon. If soul of dragon, then dragon have soul." He then blinked. "What is soul?"
Firefly groaned. Astrid whispered, "Later. They accept that you're Toothless and he is Hiccup. We're all on the same page."
"Ah, page, that thing Firefly draw on?" Toothless asked. "I want learn draw. Look fun."
"Back on topic," Spitlout ground out, "is the matter of Hiccup as our chief. Now that he's a dragon, well…" At the miffed faces on both dragon and rider, he held up placating hands and said, "Our goal tonight is to better understand the situation by hearing the details straight from the horse's mouth. Or the dragon's mouth, I suppose…"
"Which none o' us can hear," Gobber tossed in. "Except Gothi, but she's mute, and there's no way my shin can stand up ta her reprimands whenever I make a little mistake in interpreting her chicken scratch." Gothi shook her staff threateningly and Gobber flinched.
"We discussed this already," Astrid said, looking up from the child in her arms. "Toothless can hear Hiccup, but we anticipated that you'd rather hear from someone you can more readily identify with, so I can be his voice. After all, aside from being a dragon whisperer, I'm also his wife and have a certain degree of authority to represent him."
"Well, about that whole wife thing…" Spitelout started to say, but he drifted off when Astrid stood up, lifted her ax from its belt loop with her free hand, and dropped it to clatter on the large table in front of Spitelout.
Toothless chuffed, at least to the limited degree he could as a land-strider. He wholeheartedly approved her response as he would have been kneading his claws through the offender's guts were he still a dragon. Whenever one dragon contested another's mate, the result was invariably a dead or fleeing dragon. Astrid was the most dragon-like of all the land-striders, and even in her weakened state, even though Toothless knew so little about land-strider gestures, he could tell that she had basically threatened Spitelout's life.
One other thing he approved of, though it caught him by surprise, was the sound of claws gouging the table. He looked over to see his Firefly crouched over the ax, body tense, growling warningly. Firefly then realized what he was doing and leaned back as if afraid of his own reaction to this challenge over his mate.
"Think long and hard about how you want to finish that sentence," Astrid ground out in a voice that was quiet and dripping with danger.
Spitelout was on his feet, eyes flicking between Firefly and the ax, fingers wrapped around the handle of his sword, but it was still sheathed. "All I'm saying is that–" Gothi cut him off by tapping his shoulder with her staff. Gesturing to the child Astrid carried, he said, "And then there's the matter of heirdom–"
WHACK!
Gothi's staff cut him off quite a bit more forcefully this time.
Gobber roughly shoved his bulk in front of Spitelout and gave a bored look at Firefly. "Down, boy," he said. Firefly backed up off the table. "Nobody ain't makin' no claims right now, and nobody's issuin' any challenges. We're here ta learn what we can. Let's focus on that. Fer starters, I gotta know, I've seen Toothless clean himself by licking himself, ya know, all over. Have ya done that yet, Hiccup? What's it like?"
"Gobber!" Astrid scolded, but try as she might, she couldn't entirely hide her smile. What Toothless suspected to be a purpose-driven attempt to break the tension worked and the entire atmosphere relaxed. Gobber's dragon named him Sunset for a reason.
"Can ya blame me fer bein' curious?" Gobber asked with a shrug. "If I was that flexible–"
Gothi shook her staff threateningly again and Gobber sat down with a meek, "Shutting up."
Before anyone could resume arguing, Astrid spoke over the chuckles. "I'll tell you what Hiccup showed me, and I'll be his voice for any questions you have."
Toothless listened as she spoke in detail about the cave and the stone that caused this change, lost in thought about the particularities of land-strider speech. He was trying to feel out the words between the words that described the words she was using to describe a thought. He then reaffirmed his stance about how silly land-strider speech was. The only thing even more silly than speaking to communicate, in his eyes, was writing, and he knew that some land-striders spent inordinate amounts of time writing entire sagas in detail. He concluded that such people must have something massively wrong with their brains.
Finally, Astrid finished telling the whole story, which was a long ordeal. Often, the councilors had interrupted to ask for further details on this or that, and Astrid would instantly receive a response from her mate to tell them.
If everyone was a dragon who could simply hear the projected thoughts, this would have been done and over with literally in the blink of an eye. Every little detail about every little moment would have been laid out in full, and nobody would have to ask what was the color of the shiny stone or how much writing was on the walls or what it felt like to be a dragon. Firefly had already explained to the dragons what it was like to be a land-strider, and once he realized that he didn't have to force himself to slow down, he amazed himself with how thoroughly and how quickly his thoughts flowed.
"So…" Gobber drawled out, talking to Firefly, "you was yerself until ya touched this gemstone, and then yer soul moved t'yer dragon's body. We've already established that touchin' it again had no effect. Whatever power it held, well, I guess that bucket's been emptied. Hmmm…" He scratched his chin in thought with his one good hand. "I'd like to take a look at this stone. Ya brought it back with ya, right?"
Firefly shrugged his wings and all eyes turned to Toothless. "I not bring stone. Was busy learning how to walk and pee. Not good to try do both at same time. How you land-striders survive, I not know." He looked at Firefly. "Why no you think to bring stone?"
{I'm a dragon.}
"Oh, yes." He was discovering a talent for this forgetting business.
Ack stirred his large frame and mused, "So there is some hope that this problem can be rectified, but for now, we still need to figure out how to manage the tribe. A strong people need strong leadership, even in times of turmoil. Especially in times of turmoil. We can get this gemstone and see if we can somehow refill the bucket, so to speak, and if we run into a dead end, we'll cross that bridge when we get there. For now, one of us can act as the chief's temporary stand-in. Not me, of course, I'm up to my ears with work at the docks."
Spitelout nodded in agreement. "Aye, a short-term solution could work for the short term, but sharp minds plan ahead." When nobody said anything, he said, "I know what you're thinking, and no, this is not some sly attempt to slip my son into chiefdom. I know where he belongs and it's not spending all day managing food stores and settling arguments about who's at fault for a broken fence and hoofprints in a garden. All I'm saying is that we cannot have a dragon as our chief."
"Why not?" Toothless demanded. "Firefly and I always together. Never apart. Always think together. Talk together on all things." Well, technically it wasn't talking… "Nothing has changed."
"Everything has changed!" Spitelout shouted.
Toothless leaned against the table and made a show of casually inspecting his claws – fingernails, whatever – and said, "Firefly did alpha things with me. Firefly still do alpha things with me."
"But it's different in so many ways!"
Toothless rolled his eyes. "Such as…?"
Spitelout sputtered and finally said, "He's a dragon!"
Silence fell over everyone. The air felt charged.
Toothless stood upright and barked a name with sound and mind, "Kingstail!"
Spitelout's Nadder jumped up, disrupted no less than a hundred land-striders as he glided over, and thumped down in front of Toothless, head briefly tilted up to expose his neck in a gesture of respect to his alpha.
"You hear what rider say?" Toothless asked the dragon. "He think dragons beneath land-striders. We change our thinking to see land-striders as equals, but he not do same. He think Firefly not alpha because he dragon now. What you think of that?"
The Nadder tilted his head as he regarded his rider. Toothless knew that Nadders were very haughty, and the only way a land-strider could befriend them was to feed their vanity. Battle drew Kingstail and Spitelout together, but once he developed the drive to maintain such a friendship, he turned into an entirely new land-strider with how he treated the dragons. Still, he had his rough spots and Kingstail had ways of coercing his rider to change his thinking,
"Don't listen to him," Spitelout pleaded with his dragon. "It's not like that. I was only–"
That was as far as he got before the dragon spun around, hopped and flew over the crowd, and ran out the open doors.
"Kingstail!" Spitelout called after him. "Kingstail, stop acting silly, ya sparky lizard!"
He shoved his way through the crowd to chase after his dragon, and Toothless smiled at the sight. Yet another training session had begun. He turned around to see the unimpressed and annoyed councilors.
"So that's how it's gonna be?" Gobber asked. "Bow down ta the will of the great Toothless or ya tell our dragons to vamoose?"
Toothless shrugged. "No, but I not like him. Kingstail not go far. Only train rider to show respect."
Firefly groaned at that and grabbed his rider with toothless gums to drag him to sit in a chair. {This is not the way to do things and you know it. You're thinking about you and me only, but they are thinking about everyone here.}
Toothless rolled his eyes at that. Firefly being Firefly again. "That why they wrong and I right!"
"Hiccup says he will not stand in the way of your decision," Astrid said to the council. "With how little we all know of what caused this change or how to reverse it, the temporary fix Ack suggested sounds prudent for the moment."
"Somehow, I doubt Hiccup said all of that," Gobber said, then laughed at the shocked look from Astrid. "Lass, I been workin' with the lad long before ya stopped ignorin' him." She opened her mouth to retort but no words came out, causing Gobber to chuckle even louder. "But I do agree with ya. The chief can select anyon' from the council ta act as his stand-in fer a while. Stoick's had ta do that every time Hiccup goes off an' almost gets himself killed.
"In other words, about twice a month," Ack groused
Phelgma asked, "But if we're not all agreed that Hiccup is still our chief, should he pick which of us will act as his stand-in?"
Gobber waved it off. "It takes a unanimous vote ta uproot the chief, and ya ain't got mine, not while there's still any hope o' changin' him back, at least. Besides, any of us can fill the role; that's why we're on the council."
He turned to Firefly. "So, Hiccup, who d'ya want to be yer stand-in? Ye'd wanna pick someone ya didn't particularly like as it's no fun at all, someone with spare time ta listen to the bellyachin' of everyone with a grudge, someone who isn't already drownin' in work. Maybe someone who just dotes over herbs and oils all day long and is old and wise–" WHACK! "Ow! Or maybe ya could pick someone who can afford ta take a break from fellin' trees and haulin' lumber…" he faded under Phelgma's fierce glare.
Hiccup nudged Gobber's shoulder. Gobber sighed.
"So yer pickin the one who has ta also watch over the most clumsy apprentice I've ever had in me blacksmith?"
Fishlegs shouted from the crowd, "You said I was the second most clumsy apprentice you've ever had." His eyes widened and he covered his mouth. "I probably shouldn't have said that out loud."
Several land-stiders chuckled at that and Firefly growled softly.
"I'll get ya fer this, ya cheeky bugger," Gobber groused. Speaking louder, he said, "A'ight, y'all can sharpen yer own hoes an' axes an' pull Fishy's smithin' pliers outta the forge."
"It could have happened to anybody!" Fishlegs said.
Ignoring him, Gobber continued, "Gothi, Phlegma, make yer vote on my actin' as," he sighed in defeat, "the chief's stand-in."
Both of them nodded enthusiastically.
"Fine. Ya owe me fer this, Hiccup. Yer gonna go get that gemstone tomorrow, right?"
Firefly nodded.
"Good. And dun' ferget ta copy whatever's written on the walls." He stared at Firefly and realized the dragon couldn't draw. "I'm sure Fishlegs would love ta join ya. He'd probably have a field day with that." He quietly added, "That way, he can't ruin ma favorite hammer… again."
"Ohhhh, this'll be so exciting!" Fishlegs squealed. "Meatlug, remind me to pack extra parchment and pencils. Oh, and charcoal sticks!"
"Yeah, yeah, and all that," Gobber said impatiently as he stood up. "Meeting's over, clear out! I smell a bowl of lamb stew with my name on it and I can't be held responsible for anyone who gets in the way."
"Gobber, Gobber, a moment of your time please?" A villager asked. "My fence is broken down again and there are some very suspicious hoofprints in my–" the rest was lost when a meaty hand was slapped over his face.
"I just wanna eat in peace," Gobber groaned.
Toothless huffed as he watched everyone disperse. "Well, that was quick and painless. We really accomplished a lot here. Much talking do much good. I am so happy we go here. Land-striders accomplish so much in so small time!"
"Oh gods, he's learning sarcasm," Astrid whined. She glared at Hiccup. "He's picking it up from you!"
