Standing in place of where Toothless was now stood a man. He had brown hair, brown eyes, and normal pale skin. His clothing consisted of a white V-neck undershirt, a brown vest, and brown trousers. He also wore a brown poncho over all of that as he looked over himself and looked at his own hands.

"Toothless?" Hiccup asked in shock.

The figure looked towards Hiccup, seemingly hearing his name being called. "What?" He then looked at the two and noticed the look of shock. "What are you two looking at?"

That's when he jumped in shock and turned behind him, seemingly to find where that voice came from.

"Who said that?" He asked, spinning around.

In the process, he managed to notice a bucket of water with his reflection. Gasping in shock, he raised his hand to his face to get a look at it.

"It can't be!" Toothless cried in shock as he saw the two hands. "My body! My body!"

"Okay, okay, Toothless." Hiccup tried to calm his friend down as Toothless just had a panic attack. "Calm down!"

"What happened to me?" Toothless asked no idea what to make of his human form.

"You touched the Dragon Gem," Raya said in shock as she picked up the piece, hiding it from Boun. "You must've absorbed some of its magic."

"Is this a permanent thing, or can I turn back? Because -" Toothless was asking when he suddenly morphed back into his dragon form.

Sadly, Hiccup was standing too close to him and ended up getting shoved and smacked into the side of the ship. "Gah!"

"Oh, look at that," Raya commented, looking at Toothless back in his dragon form before running to the side, looking for Sisu.

Hiccup groaned as he got back up and walked over to Toothless. "Bud, we need to blend in for now. And from what Raya's told me, this place isn't exactly what you call friendly to dragons."

Toothless gave him a look saying 'really?' Considering everywhere they've gone, nobody's been friendly to dragons.

"Yeah, yeah." Hiccup rolled his eyes, even without talking he could understand Toothless. "But I mean until we get your tail fixed, we're defenseless against their forces. You saw Krogan is still here, and he'll do anything to hunt you down."

Toothless saw the good points Hiccup made, as usual.

"Until we can fix your tail and get out of here, you need to blend in," Hiccup asked of his friend.

Toothless sighed and closed his eyes, knowing Hiccup had a point. He usually did. Morphing back into his new human form and opening his eyes.

"Fine, you win." Toothless groaned in annoyance. "But only until we fix my tail."

"Of course. Then we fly and get Krogan to leave them alone." Hiccup said as he looked at Raya and Sisu as she came out of the river.

Just suddenly, Boun came back and pushed some chairs underneath them. He then brought over four bowls and placed them in front of the four of them. Before they could even breathe, he was already back with a bowl of something.

"Okay, who's hungry?" Boun asked them as he poured them a bowl each.

"Oh, I am," Sisu said as Boun poured some seasoning into the bowl.

"Two house specials. How spicy would you like it?" Boun asked as he held out a small bottle of spice. "Hot?" Then he took out a slightly bigger bottle. "Hotter?" Then he raised a bigger pot of spice. "Or Boun-goes-the-dynamite?"

"Bring on the heat!" Sisu proclaimed as she reached for the bowl.

But Raya stopped her and pulled the bowl over to her. "No, no."

"What are you doing?" Hiccup asked as he and Toothless watched her inspect the bowl.

"We don't know him. It could be poison." Raya whispered to them, eyeing Boun as he made his way across the boat.

"Why would he poison us?" Sisu asked her.

"Yeah, why would I poison you?" Boun asked, not following it himself.

"First, to get my jade purse." Raya listed off to all of them. "Second, to steal my sword. And third, I don't know, to steal my Tuk Tuk."

Tuk Tuk heard that and immediately stopped eating.

"All good points," Boun admitted and was right back to cooking. "But if this is poison..." he then took a sip of what he was cooking. "You're gonna die happy."

"Yeah, thanks, but we got our own eats," Raya said as she took some of her jerky out and tried to take a bite off of it.

Toothless just shrugged it off and took a sip for himself. "You know, he's right."

Hiccup shrugged and decided to take a slurp himself. "Hmm. The best thing that I've eaten in years." Then he started to feel hot under the collar. "Whoo. It's...oh, it's hot!"

Raya had to hold back a chuckle as she watched Hiccup start to try and cool down. Sisu and Toothless watched and just laughed as he started to franticly try and cool down.

"Boun! Captain Boun! We need water on deck!" Hiccup called out as he tried to cool himself down. Toothless then burst out laughing as Hiccup franticly looked around for water. "Oh, Thor, how do you people eat this stuff?!"

A few moments ago, Namaari and her men looked out at the boat as it disappears down the river. She became increasingly curious about this boy that was with Raya and his reptile friend. But then she remembered that this man ahead of them knew his name. Hiccup Haddock.

"Princess Namaari, if they're after gem pieces, their next stop would be Talon." One of her guard men tells her.

"We're not following them to Talon," Namaari tells them and eyed Krogan. "We're going back to Fang. I need to speak with Chief Virana." Then she looked over to Krogan. "But I want some answers about the strange visitor."

Krogan then turned to see that he was being stared down and wondered something. "Who are you?"

"I am Princess Namaari of Fang." Namaari said as she approached the man, dismounting the cat. "Who are you?"

"Krogan, leader of the Dragon Flyers," Krogan informed the Princess, getting a look of amazement from her. "And I am hunting for that boy who was with that girl."

"What do you know about him?" Namaari asks him.

"Everything," Krogan informed her. "He has become a pain in my side over the course of five years, tearing down my business of..." Then he decided to play it safe for now, seeing all the (what he thought were) statues of dragons, he feels they're more open to dragons than the Archipelago. "Dragon rescuing. He is a criminal who has escaped our grasp for years."

Namaari listened to this and looked over to Krogan's Singetail and saw something was going on that she didn't know. There was some sort of a third party in the world of Kumandra and needed to figure out what was going on. "You are coming with me."

Krogan then saw he might make an ally in the kingdom of this new world and was someone who could help him find and locate Hiccup. "Of course. Lead the way."

Hiccup sighed as he was laying on the back of the boat, looking down at the water as the setting sun reflected golden light. Toothless was currently trying to rest in his human form, which was difficult as he's never done it before. He's used to scorching the ground with his breath before resting. With the human form, however, it became difficult to rest. But he eventually settled down and rested for the first time since he crashed.

Raya looked over to Hiccup and still felt...off about him. He didn't talk much about himself, so it was hard for Raya to trust him completely. She knew he wasn't going to be any trouble, as he helped her escape Namaari and that new guy. Speaking of which, something she needed to talk to him about.

"Why are you looking at him like that?" Sisu asked her, causing Raya to jump in shock.

"Whoa!" Raya called as she didn't even see Sisu approach her. "Don't sneak up on me!"

"Sorry. Didn't mean to." Sisu apologized. "But you seemed to be eyeing your friend a lot."

"He's not my friend." Raya quickly shot down that notion. "We just met the other day. And something is definitely wrong with him."

"Well, he did say he hasn't been around people for a few years," Sisu remembered his comment back at the Tail cavern.

Raya remembered his similar comments and sighed. "It's hard to trust someone who isn't willing to trust you."

"Trust goes both ways, Raya," Sisu informed her as she walked off. "He can't trust you if you don't decide to trust him."

Raya heard what she was trying to say and saw some points in that statement. She did kind of keep Hiccup in arms-length this whole time she's met him. Maybe she should try and fix that.

Hiccup was looking down as Raya walked over and took a seat next to him. "You okay?"

"I just can't believe that he followed me." Hiccup sighed as he looked over to Toothless.

"Who is he?" Raya asks. "You never really explained that."

"Yeah, I guess I didn't." Hiccup only now realizes he glossed over him. "His name is Krogan. He's the leader of the Dragon Hunters. They entrap innocent dragons and them to their boss."

"Who?" Raya got curious.

"I don't know. A while back, I took down Viggo and Ryker Grimborn thinking that they were the leaders." Hiccup tells her, thinking back to the brothers. "Me and Toothless damaged their business, thinking that they would eventually lead us to their leader. But all we did was get Krogan and his Dragon Riders after us."

"And he's been chasing you for how long?" Raya wonders.

"Four years?" Hiccup thought back. "It's been a long time. It took only a year to take down the Grimborn brothers, but he knows how to ride dragons, so it made him harder to take down."

"So, you've been running for five years?" Raya clarified with him, finding even more similarities between them.

"I can't stay anywhere because then I put Toothless in danger." Hiccup said as he looked over at his sleeping friend. "If I stay anywhere, they will either kill or capture Toothless. I can't let that happen."

"No wonder you were so shocked to hear how we react to dragons," Raya commented, understanding how he was seeing their world. "But what about before the Dragon Hunters?"

"What?" Hiccup asked, not following.

"Where did you come from?" Raya was curious to know.

Hiccup then looked up to the stars as the sun finally sets. "Somewhere I wish to never return to."

Raya then decided to leave it at that as they both walked over to take a seat away from the edges. They didn't want to worry about falling off and ending up on dry land.

As they started to see the area around them get darker, they started to hear the Druun screeching around them. Toothless then woke up when he heard the noise they were hearing. Across the shore, the Druun were starting to become more active and easier to notice all around them.

Raya sharpened her sword, watching the mindless plague with great dejection.

Tuk Tuk beside her warbled in fear.

"I know, buddy," Raya cupped his cheek and scratched it to calm him down.

"You know, during the day, you can almost forget they're here," Boun said as he was rowing the boat. "But at night…this is why I never leave the boat."

"Smart kid." Toothless complimented him. He then moved closer to Hiccup, wanting to keep him safe if needed. "What are Druun, anyways?"

"A plague," Sisu stated sadly as she sat by the edge of the boat. "Born from human discord. They've always been here. Waiting for a moment of weakness to attack. They're like the opposite of dragons. Instead of bringing water and life to the world, they're like a relentless fire that consumes everything in its wake until there's nothing left except ash and stone.

Boun sighed as he became sad. "They took my family."

"Mine, too." Sisu proclaimed.

"Sorry to hear that," Toothless said as he walked over to sit next to her. "I never really got to know my family. I've been on my own since I was young."

Sisu picked up some flowers from a plate and lets them fall into the river. Boun went over to her and copied the action, followed by Raya mimicking it. Toothless and Hiccup didn't understand completely what he was doing but saw there were a few guesses.

"This something that you do here to honor people you've lost?" Hiccup asks, trying to not sound insulting.

"Yeah," Raya confirmed.

"Where I'm from, it's by using burning ships and a funeral." Hiccup informed them how it works for his people.

"What about your family?" Boun asks Hiccup.

Hiccup became saddened by the reminder of his family. "I lost my mother when I was little."

"Sorry to hear that," Raya said as she approached him again. "I lost my mother, too."

"What about your father?" Sisu asks, noticing an angry look from Toothless at the reminder.

"Some things are better left unsaid, Sisu." Hiccup sighed, not wanting to talk about it.

Raya saw that he didn't want to talk about it and decided to leave it alone for now. As they talked, they noticed they were coming closer to their next destination. Talon. An entire city was placed on water.

"So... where are you guys going after Talon?" Boun asks them all. "I might be heading there, too. I mean, for a fee of course."

Raya rolled her eyes with a smile. "Of course."