Chapter 9: Dream Chats

Hey Peoples! Spring is here! And so am I... At least until my shows start, then I'll be a tad sidetracked and delayed. There might be a bit of a lull this chapter if I'm honest, but I'll try to make up for it next chapter.

Disclaimer: I DO NOT own Balto or How to Train your Dragon. They both belong to their respective owners and this is just for fun, NOT for profit.

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(Hiccup POV)

I was welcomed to the familiar space of deep blue swirls and my unlikely partner in these series of strange events. Just like before, his eyes seemed to pop compared to the rest of him. However unlike before, I was able see to his entire body. I wonder if the same went with me? Before I could say anything, the toothless wolf knelt on one leg and shouted, "Itzocoatl" (*1).

"What the hell?"

"Itzocoatl" he shouted again.

A little lost, I just followed his lead by kneeling and shouted, "Itzocoatl".

"You humans really have hopeless. Do I need to spell it out for you?"

"Apparently you do."

He groaned before answering. "This is a traditional greeting used to show mutual respect and trust. We're both supposed to kneel on one knee while looking at each other and proclaiming each other names. However, since this is our time doing this, we're supposed to say our own names."

"Oookay."

I readjusted myself to kneel on one leg and planted my fist on the ground, before shouting my name. "Hiccup... Better?"

"Better, but Hiccup. Really? You couldn't have been named something else?"

"Like your one to talk. Itzocoatl? Not exactly the most positive name." I said doing jazz hands it emphasize.

"Well it was the only other thing I was ever called by other than Night Fury." He briefly looked away.

"Then, why don't you go by that?"

"Why don't you go by Human?" He jabbed back

"Point taken. Then, why don't you just change it?"

"I tried, but it never caught on back home."

"Well, you're no longer there. What's stopping you from changing your name?"

"I... uh... huh. Nothing I guess, but I have no one to call me anything with me being stuck in that hole of a cave."

"Wait, your stuck? I just thought that you just slept there or something."

"No, I'm stuck." He turned to show his behind. "In case you haven't notice, your rope webs ripped off my tail and twisted off the toes of my left foot."

While I did notice his lack of a tail, I had a clearer view and saw that he at least had a stub. The foot was something I surprisingly never saw before. The skin around the bottom of his left hind-leg was a bit swollen, to the point that it almost looked like a fur-less regular wolf paw. Both wounds looked mostly healed, aside from the puckered pink flesh wasn't covered by a thick scab.

"Maybe I can fix that."

"Unless you can grow me a tail and a few toes, I don't see how you can fix this." His words laced with sarcasm. I wonder if that's his natural demeanor or am I rubbing off on him?

"You'll be surprised."

"Alright, but if you're coming here, can you bring something to eat? The lake has a descent supply of fish but its been getting low." I looked closer to the saw he looked a little thinner than other wolves.

"Sure... um...Itzacoatle?"

"It's Itzocoatl. Like It's-zoo-coat-ill."

"Yeah, can I just call you something else?"

"What?"

"I can understand my 'ancestral old tongue', but I can only pronounce a few of them correctly. And I wouldn't think that you would like being called 'Obsidian Snake'."

"I suppose, it would be nice to be called something else."

"How about Obsidian?"

"I like it, but it's too close to my previous name."

"How about Shadow?"

"Still a little close?"

"Blackly? Ash? Coal?" I listed names, hoping at least one of them would hit home.

"Childish. And I'm not combustible in any way and would prefer that you don't refer to me as such."

"How about the opposite of what your old name was. Something less aggressive, like Toothless."

"Really?" He said this a raised brow.

"Why not? It's the least threatening thing that I could think of. Plus, you have retractable teeth, so it's still something related to you. And you got to remember that it's just you and me after all."

"I guess, we can use that, at least for now."

We lulled in our conversations for a few minutes before I started to wonder something. "So, do I wake up from this or is there some sort of chant so that we could leave this place?"

"I'm still not entirely sure." Toothless said as he looked around curiously. "My only guess of how we both come to the same place is because of whatever bond the spirits placed on us. I sometimes wind up here when I sleep. But I'm usually by myself and simply leave by waking up."

"Same for me. So if we can leave the same way that we came, then we have to find a way to break eye contact."

"But... we're unconscious."

"Thank you, Captain Obvious. I mean breaking eye contact while we're here. Let try looking at each other and turning away at the same time."

We both looked into each others eyes. "On the count of three. One. Two. Three." We both turned away, but nothing happened.

"Oh well, I guess we're stuck here until morning. Want to play Howl or Anatix OX (*2)."

"Don't give up just yet. How about we close our eyes at the same time instead." We stood in front of each other again. "On three. One. Two. Three."

Smokey swirls of blue that was around us started to leak and fill into my sight even with my eyes still closed. When the blue faded to black, I opened my eyes and saw that I was back in the Cavern again. I looked around and saw Toothless lying in front me. "See, that wasn't so bad."

Toothless huffed and motioned toward the vent hole at the top of the cave. It was sunset, I got to go. I started to climb out before turning back to Toothless. "I'll be back with some fish tomorrow." He nodded before I scurried up the hole and back into the forest.

I made my way back into town and went through alleys to avoid people questioning were I've been. I just had to duck out of one the alleyways, sprint down the street, and then I would have been in the clear. I made it to alley near my street and tried to speed walk as best I could to my house when I heard...

"Agitaadaan!"

Any other time, I would have loved to hear her say that name, but now was not the time. And I was so close too. I turned around to see Astrid jogging to catch up to where I was.

"Where have you been?"

"I... uh... have been in the forge, of course."

"That's strange. I pasted by there a while ago and the fire was put out."

"I was in the back. You know me, working on my next invention. Gadget. Gizmo." I internally cringed at my rambling.

"Right. Well, Gobber wanted us all to have dinner on the Watch Tower tonight. I just wanted to let you know since you were gone when he announced it."

"Oh, okay." I said trying to speed this along slowly inching toward my door.

"Also, after the mess that was made during the last exercise, Gobber said that we have tomorrow off. I was wondering if we could hang out or something. It's been forever since you helped me train the pups."

"If I recall, its because I made a whole litter confuse the Stay command with the Defensive Attack command."

"You had bite marks for weeks." She giggled at the memory.

"As fun as that possible reenactment may be, Gobber wants me in the forge tomorrow." I partially lied through my teeth. "Plus, I think I hit a breakthrough with one of my inventions and I might be in the forge until night."

"oh, well we can at least walk to Watch Tower together, since it's going to start in a little bit. Plus, you can tell me about this invention."

"Sure... my invention... and all the juicy details... I can break it down." Really? Break it down? Is there any end to my level of cringe?

Astrid, being a true Agitaadaan, didn't bat an eye as we started walking to the Watch Tower. Sometimes I wonder why she still associate herself with me.

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(*1) Itzocoatl = Native American of "obsidian snake". Toothless' previous name from when he was in the Queen's nest. He'll probably only me addressed to this when he's first introduced to someone and on paper. I also considered using terms like:

Aagal = miss, Agalux = tooth, &/or Agalus = teeth.

So that Toothless translates more closely in Atkan Aleut as "Agalux Aagal". But it didn't feel right and "obsidian snake" was too perfect to pass up.

(*2) anatix = property mark and OX because that was the symbols in the game. I'm trying to say Tic Tac Toe, but I couldn't find a translation for it and I didn't think that they would call the game that. So I tried to translate it the best that I could.

Other translations used:

- Agitaadaan = friend

That's it for now. Thanks for all those that reviewed, every little bit helps. If you're new to the story, please let me know what you think with a review. Constructive criticism is accepted, but no flames please. And don't be too shy to check out some of my other stories.