Disclaimer: I, unfortunately, do not own How To Train Your Dragon, and I never will. :(

"Human speech"

"Dragon speech"

Thoughts

Chapter 6 - Flying

"Get on that rock." Toothless instructed. He gestured with his tail to a rock near the edge of the cove. Astrid, Stoick, and their dragons had moved into the air so that Hiccup didn't accidentally crash into them. They circled above, watching the two Night Furies.

Hiccup jumped onto the rock Toothless pointed to. "What now?" He was eager and excited, and could barely stay still.

"You're going to learn to glide first. So spread your wings out and angle your tail into a v shape." Toothless explained, demonstrating with his appendages. Hiccup copied him perfectly. "Now jump."

Hiccup jumped from the rock and started to glide. Then he wobbled, and he started to fall. Hiccup crashed into the pond in the middle of the cove. He splashed to the surface and swam to the shore. "Bleh." He spat out some water from his mouth. He hopped back on the rock and jumped off again. He glided a bit farther, and then fell into the water. He swam to the shore and tried again. This process repeated several times until Hiccup slumped on the ground. "Toothless, I feel like this should be easy for me. I fly with you all the time. But I can't seem to glide at all."

"You'll get it eventually. Just keep trying. That's how you learn. What would help is if you kept your wings still. If you bank or turn, gliding becomes much harder." Toothless crooned.

"Okay…" Hiccup replied as he got up onto the rock again. He got into the correct position and leaped into the air. This time, he didn't wobble and managed to glide across the pond and land on the other side. "Yes! I did it!" Turning on Toothless, he asked, "What next?"

"Next you practice gliding until you can glide across the cove 5 times in a row." To Toothless's surprise, Hiccup accomplished that immediately, not even messing up once. His jaw fell open. "I have never seen anybody who could learn to glide so fast. Ever."

"Not even you?" Hiccup asked.

"No, not even-Hey! I will have you know I was still the fastest to learn to fly when I learned!" Toothless claimed, trying to keep his image of being the best.

"Sure. What next?" Asked and eager Hiccup. Toothless eyed Hiccup, and to his surprise, he saw something that gave him an idea.

"Now you learn to flap. Get back on the rock and glide, but this time, while you're gliding, flap downwards." With these vague instructions placed, Hiccup jumped onto the rock for the umpteenth time and jumped off. He flapped and rose higher into the air, but now he was going to crash into the rock wall of the cove. His eyes widened. To his surprise, something in his chest twanged, and on instinct, he flapped thrice more, gaining more height but not out of the cove yet and still on his collision course. He turned like he'd been doing it all his life and flapped again and again, rising higher into the air. Hiccup spiraled out of the cove and leveled off, gliding over the forest.

Toothless took off and caught up to Hiccup. "Good job! I'm surprised that it worked so well."

"You mean you knew that I would've crashed? How nice of you. And so why did you set me on a collision course for the very hard rock wall?" Hiccup asked, annoyed.

"Well, I saw in you a very rare sight for a human. As you know, Night Furies have many abilities. One of those abilities is to see the soul of another. What I saw in you was a soul that was kind, smart, and stubborn, which is to be expected. What surprised me was that you had the soul of a Night Fury." Toothless explained.

"So what does that mean?" Hiccup asked.

"It means that you have the instincts of a Night Fury, and that means that deep down inside you, you are a Night Fury. But you were born in a human body. I think your powers allowed your soul to show its form on the outside as well as the inside." Toothless said.

"Hey! Hiccup! What are you talking about? Some of us can't talk to dragons." Astrid called as she and Stoick flew over to the gliding Night Furies.

"It's nothing." Hiccup called back. He didn't want to worry them about Toothless purposely almost crashing him into the wall. As they flew past the forest's edge, they swooped down. They landed gently in front of Stoick's house.

"I'll go let the other Riders that we found you." Astrid said and took off again on Stormfly.

She flew down into the village, and even though Hiccup couldn't see her, he knew she had arrived at Snotlout's house because he heard the loud complaint from Snotlout of, "So why did you have to get me up so early, Fishface?" Hiccup chuckled. Even when he disappeared, Snotlout still complained. No surprise there.

A loud growl cut through the peaceful morning. "Hey Dad, do you have anything to eat?" Hiccup asked as his stomach rumbled again.

"Yeah. But, son? What would you eat?" Stoick asked.

"Fish. Duh. And also, all Night Furies can eat raw fish, and it tastes like the best thing in the world! You absolutely have to try it. Or else." Toothless threatened. "And get me some." He added as an afterthought.

"Toothless seems pretty adamant about raw fish for both of us. How about we try that, and if it tastes horrible," Toothless started to protest, but Hiccup continued over him, "I'll eat something else."

"Are you sure?" Stoick asked, reluctant to actually give his son raw fish.

"Positive." Hiccup replied. Stoick turned around and went into the house with the dragons waiting outside. When he came back out, he was carrying two baskets of fish under his arms. He dumped one basket in front of Hiccup and the other in front of Toothless. Stoick turned around and went back inside. He came out with one more basket of fish and dumped it in front of Skullcrusher, who eagerly chomped the fish. He wasn't faster than Toothless though, as the Night Fury had practically inhaled his share of the fish. Soon, Hiccup's pile was the only one left, and he hesitantly picked up a fish in his jaws and tossed it up, catching it and tilting his head back. He swallowed. He licked his lips and attacked the pile of fish. His pile disappeared as fast as Toothless's had.

"Do you have any more?" Hiccup asked, licking his lips. Stoick looked stunned but went back inside for more. He gave another basket of fish to Hiccup and tossed a few fish to Toothless and Skullcrusher to keep them satisfied.

"Son, we need to talk about your, ah, condition. Inside." Stoick's voice was taut. He walked inside his house, leaving no room for discussion. Hiccup followed, and Toothless came with him. Stoick sat down heavily and Toothless and Hiccup laid down in front of him, Hiccup watching Stoick and Toothless looking like he was ready for a nap.

"I need to know what happened out there. With the Changewing, and Odin, and when you disappeared." Stoick stated. "I need more detail other than 'something white' and what you call seidr."

Hiccup opened his mouth to speak, but instead of sound coming out, a small clump of white mist rolled out of his mouth. It moved slowly towards Stoick, who got up in panic.

"Dad, stop. It won't hurt you. I don't know what it is, but I know it won't hurt." Hiccup said. Stoick hesitantly sat back down and let the mist approach, trusting his son. The strange mist reached Stoick's feet and started to move up his body. When it reached his head, it sunk into his eyes and Stoick gasped as different scenes flashed before his eyes. Finally, the images ended and Stoick looked at Hiccup.

"What was that?" Stoick asked. "I saw Toothless nearly getting killed, and Odin, and I felt what you were feeling and saw it from your eyes and-"

Hiccup cut Stoick off, "Dad. Calm down. You need to stop and take a deep breath."

Stoick looked at him like he was crazy. "How can you take this so calmly? This is just… I don't have words to describe it." He took a shaky breath. "The world has been upended on my head, but I just can't see how you're just so calm about this whole thing."

"This just feels… right to me. Like this was supposed to happen all along. To me, now that I know that this isn't some weird prank by the twins, or something else, this is natural. I'm calm because I don't feel like there is anything to worry about." Hiccup explained.

"I get that, but then every time I look at you, your form reminds that nothing will ever be the same again because you can do so much more than you used to be able to, and I just can't wrap my brain around that. With time, I'll probably get used to it, but…" Stoick trailed off.

Hiccup looked down. "Would you be more comfortable if I was human?" he asked softly.

"Yes… but you don't have to do that for me. Stay in whatever form is more comfortable for you."

"Neither one is more comfortable than the other, Dad." Hiccup closed his eyes and concentrated. He reached inside himself with his mind and called up his seidr. It filled him, leaving him slightly tingly, and he concentrated on his human form. Hiccup felt his body changing, his arms and legs getting longer and his scales receding. He opened his eyes and sat up, then promptly fell over onto his back due to extra weight there. He sat back up and managed a sitting position. "Why did I…" Hiccup's sentence never got finished as he looked behind him and saw a pair of Night Fury wings and a tail behind him. He closed his eyes and willed them to go away through his seidr, letting the tingly feeling flow through his body again. When he opened his eyes, they were still there.

"I don't think they're going away." Toothless commented. "Your soul has finally come out in a physical form, and I don't think it wants to be hidden anymore."

"So I'm stuck like this?" Hiccup asked.

"Probably. You might be able to do something later, but I don't think that they're going away right now." Toothless answered.

"Can you tell me what you're saying?" Stoick asked.

"We were talking about-" Hiccup got cut off by Gobber, who had just burst into the house.

"Chief! An' Hiccup. We have a situation outside, down in the square. It's crazy! The whole village is askin' questions! It's-" Gobber cried.

"What's happening?" Hiccup interrupted.

"Spitelout told all the villagers that ya were a dragon and that ya were cursed from the gods." Gobber stated. "Why aren't ya a full dragon? I thought ya would be like that for more than a day."

"I felt like it. Now, I am going to tell the village the truth. Dad, are you coming?" Hiccup walked past Gobber and towards the door. Stoick stood up and wordlessly followed his son to the door with Gobber right behind him. Hiccup opened the door and walked outside with the two Vikings following him. They were greeted with the sight of a small crowd of Vikings yelling questions about Hiccup's condition down below them.