"Madness is something rare in individuals - but in groups, parties, peoples, ages, it is the rule." – Friedrich Nietzsche – Beyond Good and Evil

Persona Non Grata

Astrid sat on a rock in the forest with her hands on her cheeks, completely alone with only her thoughts for company.

She used to train in these woods. Many afternoons were spent on complex patterns of manipulating an axe in her hands, stretching to improve flexibility, and, of course, hurling axes.

She could even distinctly recall hopping onto this very rock to try to see a cheeky, suspicious-looking, and thoroughly vexing boy run off into the woods for no good reason with an odd bundle in his arms.

And now what was she supposed to make of the situation?

Hiccup was not dead after all. He had been re-born, re-hatched, as a Night Fury. She had no idea how such a thing was even possible.

There was no reason to suspect that it was not him or that he could not remember everything. The part about him being able to talk to Toothless, she wasn't sure what to make of it. It had to be true based on how intently and purposefully Hiccup and Toothless had been yapping at each other.

Dragons could talk. That made them intelligent. That made them people in a way.

What did that make Stormfly to her? Was Stormfly the same as Hiccup or Toothless?

She had been very fond of her dragon for almost a year now. She had trained the dragon to do tasks, such as how to fly with her, how to help catch fish, and how to fetch things like sticks for fun. Stormfly had never seemed to try to talk to her. On the other hand though, Stormfly was a very fast learner and seemed to pick up some things intuitively in the way a simple beast should not be able.

Worse than all this though was the realization that everything she had trained for in the past, killing dragons, might not have been simply killing beasts. Did they have families that had been torn apart? There was no way for her to know. Her memories of how excited she used to get at the idea of beheading a dragon, carving out its heart, or winning dragon training made her feel disgusted with herself.

I can't change the past... but I can change the future.

One thing that she definitely had to do was to talk further with Hiccup sometime when his father was not around. There was certainly a lot that he could share with her. It was likely going to be awkward to do so though. After all, they had definitely liked each other before the terrible accident happened. Where did that leave them now? Was there any possibility of him becoming human again?

Is that even possible?

Eventually having decided that she had thought enough about such matters for the moment, she began to walk back to the village.

The first person she saw was the one person whose appearance always soured even the most cheerful day. No one really knew what his proper name was but at some point the name that he responded to had started being used, likely in reference to either his clothing or his farm produce, and he had bizarrely accepted it.

Mildew.

That old, decrepit, and filthy excuse for a man. He was truly ugly, what hair he had remaining was always oily and unwashed, he was pencil thin and completely lacking muscle even to the point of needed a cane to walk with, and had a personality that made Outcasts seem positively charming by comparison. She had heard of him telling stories in the Hall about all the dragons that he had ravaged in his youth and also him giving graphic descriptions of his conquering many women. In fact, it was so extreme that even hardened Nord warriors tended to shy away from his company and his boasting after he had a few drinks in him.

The one thing that he was good at was that he knew how to speak well. He could twist the meaning of words and make weaker arguments appear stronger than they actually were. He knew how to play on fears and convince the people of things that they would never think naturally. They would be listening to him speaking and then find themselves nodding in agreement and feeling privileged that he shared his knowledge with them before anyone else. The content of his speeches tended to be lost in a mental haze.

And he hated dragons on principle.

His being in the village could not be a good thing, especially when he had a small crowd as he did now, and she resolved to walk past him without acknowledging his presence unless necessary.

"There she is. The clever girl who thinks that the beasts are just misunderstood!"

Gods! He saw me…

"What do you want?" she groaned.

"You watch your tone around your elders! No respect from these free-thinking youth these days. Should have used the whip a bit more I say. Anyway, you know what I want."

"Not going to happen! The dragons are not bad, and they are here to stay."

"Not bad you say? How many of our homes have been burned down since they moved in? How many dead have we sent to Valhalla over the years?"

She shook her head; this had been said in many variations before.

"That is the past. If you would just look around, you could see that we are better off with them than against them. What about for them? What must it have been like for them to see their kin get killed either by us or by the Monster?"

He made a lewd gesture in her direction, which she ignored.

"They are just dumb beasts that know nothing but hunger and hate! Right men?"

His gathering mumbled in agreement.

"These ones we suffer to have in the village, they only pretend to be nice to us since we can give them food. All it would take is one bad day of fishing and then we would find ourselves getting eaten instead!"

She was really starting to lose her patience with him.

"You know nothing of what they are really like! How could you when you hide yourself away in your rotting hut with no company but a sheep?"

"I've been keeping myself free of their allure. I'm the one who thinks clearly. I tell you all, they are devils and probably have magic too!"

Magic…

For a moment, she lost her voice because of her surprise and could not help but wonder. Had magic been involved in what happened to Hiccup? She had asked herself whether the gods might have been involved, but Gothi's display months ago had kept haunting her since it made her question what one could actually know of the gods.

"Mildew, you are hopeless. I'm done with you."

She turned her back on him.

"Yes, be insolent to your superiors. I tell you, dragons will be gone from Berk, one way or another!"

She ran to leave him behind. His slippery voice thankfully fell away behind her, and she approached her home. Of course, Stormfly had found her way home and was keeping lookout from the rooftop. The Nadder raised her head and chittered happily at her approach before jumping down and gliding to her.

She slowly raised a hand and scratched under Stormfly's chin.

"Hi girl, how are you?"

Chirp.

"I wish I knew what you were saying girl. I hope you think I am good to you."

Stormfly squawked and retook her place on top of the house.

Vídarr was washing dishes when Astrid walked inside. She turned to greet her daughter.

"Astrid, where have you been today?"

"Fending off Mildew, that old sack of dragon dung. No, I take it back, the dung is still useful for the farm."

"Don't worry too much about him dear. No one listens to him."

The fact that he had had a small gathering nodding in agreement spoke otherwise though.

"There is something else, my dear. Something your father and I have been meaning to talk to you about for a while now."

She sat down at the table to listen to whatever it was that her mother wanted to say.

"You have been doing a very good job as the leader of the Academy. We are both very proud of you."

She smiled at her mother's praise.

"You are as old as I was when I got married, and we were wondering when would be good for you to be married."

She froze and again found that she couldn't speak.

"Of course, we don't have any arrangements yet, but we have a few ideas for who would be good matches."

"Mom, I really don't think I'm ready for that."

"No one really is, my dear. I barely even knew your father before we wed. Plus, we've never been able to have any other children so it is up to you."

Her, have children? Sit inside, unable to act valorously? Not be able to teach, train, or fly because she had to attend to a crying baby? It was unthinkable!

"We have been thinking about talking to Mr. Jorgenson…"

Astrid stopped listening after she heard the name of Snotlout's father brought up. She knew what her mother was going to suggest, and it was completely horrifying.

Be married to Snotlout? True, he had seemed to become more responsible since Dragon Island, but she could still remember him doing so, him staring at her chest, and his making crude jokes. His attitude was still a bit brash and arrogant since he had taken on more responsibility, not nearly as bad as it had once been but still definitely a part of his personality.

And she was in no way attracted to him in the slightest.

"Mom, no! Not him. Definitely not him."

Her mother was quite surprised by her opposition to the idea.

"Why not?"

"I don't like him, he is arrogant, he is not…"

Hiccup…

"He is part of the line to be Chief now. And," her mother gathered her close in a conspiratorial whisper, "the men think that they rule, but the real power behind the Chief is whoever he is married to. That could be you."

Astrid sighed.

"Mom, I don't want to get married to anyone now. I just want to lead the Academy. I can do good there and show people how to live with dragons. I couldn't do that if I were married."

"Well, it is not something that you can put off forever."

"I know. And I will let you know if I find someone I want."

"Is there really no one on the island who catches your eye, my dear?"

Well, this is complicated…

She took her mother's hands in her own.

"When I find him, I will let you know."

"Ok, dear daughter."

With that, Vidarr went back to the dishes, and Astrid left the house to go back to the Academy and seek some solace from everything.

"What a day..."

The Great Hall was ablaze with activity later that afternoon.

The roof was on fire.

Astrid quickly organized the riders who were available and handed out buckets with instructions to fill them in the ocean and combat the fire.

In some ways, it was eerily similar to the raids of the past. People were running around, screaming, and yelling at nearby dragons. Try as she might, she could not help but conclude that one of the dragons must have done it even if it was, as was likely, accidental.

However, it was not the first time that something like this had happened.

"Ruff, Tuff don't just stand there!" she screamed from Stormfly's back as she passed the idle twins.

"Do we have to? It looks totally awesome!" Tuff lamented, unable to tear his eyes from the flames.

"I guess we probably should…" Ruff sadly admitted.

It was a rather simple affair to combat the blaze since it was confined to one side of the roof. All the flames were extinguished in minutes. Afterwards, she stood with the other riders, most of whom were soaked and smelled heavily of ash, and congratulated them on their fast response time.

Mildew approached them along with his small band.

"Well, what happened here? Congratulating each other on how destructive your beasts are? How they are going to burn us out of hearth and home!"

A murmur of agreement went around the assembly.

"It was probably an accident, Mildew. And you saw how they were helping us put out the fire!"

"What in Thor's name is going on?" Stoick roared as he stomped into the square. She noticed that he had a recently-opened scroll in hand.

"Just explaining to little Astrid here that we cannot have dragons burning down our village!" he said while pointing with a shriveled hand at the Hall.

Stoick turned to her.

"Astrid, what happened here?"

"I don't know sir, we just saw the roof of the Hall on fire and we got buckets as fast as we could to put it out."

"So a dragon did do this?"

"Well, probably, sir."

He nodded, obviously deep in thought.

"Was anyone hurt?"

"No, no one was hurt."

"Good, everything is well here then."

Mildew was quite incensed at hearing this and flailed his crutch around wildly.

"How do you mean that? The dragons are going to burn down our village!"

"I'm sure it was an accident, Mildew."

"Accident or not, it still happened. We are so… lucky that no one got hurt. This time. If she cannot keep them in line…"

There was a disheartening amount of cheering and nods of agreement.

"It isn't my job to 'keep them in line!' I show you all how to treat them right so that stuff like this doesn't happen!" she shouted.

"And how is that working for you, little girl?"

"Because you all won't listen to me!"

"Ok, ok everyone. We can talk about this later in the Hall," Stoick interjected into the heated argument.

"Assuming that there is still a Hall," Mildew mumbled.

The crowd, Mildew included, dispersed at the Chief's command. He glared in Mildew's direction and then followed them into the Hall.

Astrid waited a moment before following her Chief into the Hall where dinner was being prepared. She saw Stoick holding his head in his hands and cautiously sat down at his table.

"Chief, why is he so bitter?"

He paused a moment before answering her.

"He used to be a good soldier, a great dragon killer. His whole life was about training and fighting for glory. He liked the recognition and attention that it got him. Then he got shamed in battle by a dragon and hurt so that he couldn't fight anymore. He lost all his strength and speed. The only thing that he seemed interested in after that was being a nuisance since he still got attention that way. It is also why he boasts so much about his… exploits, both real and imagined."

"He really doesn't care about the village then."

"No, he does not and has not for a long time. Only his own bloated importance matters to him."

He sighed deeply.

"I don't know what to do."

"About what sir?"

"The dragons, Astrid. You have done a good job with some things, but they are still getting into more trouble. The Hall today, they always spook the livestock, the wild ones scare people who don't want to be near them, and the storehouses have been broken into many times. I don't want to banish them because things are much better now, but many other people don't understand that."

"What do you want me to do?"

"I don't know Astrid, I don't know."

He didn't say anything for a while longer. There was something else on his mind. Something that he really did not like, especially considering the recent problems, but had no real choice in the matter.

"Astrid, I am leaving for a few weeks. A trading vessel came with a message for me. I've been summoned to a council of Chiefs. I'm not sure what it is about, but I have my suspicions. You will have to take care of things with the dragons as well as you can while I am gone. I'd also like you to… take care of my dragons since they are so small. They shouldn't be much of a bother. Just make sure they have food… and take them to the outhouse, I have them trained you see."

If she was supposed to find these instructions bizarre, she did her best to hide it. Because she of course understood what was really going on here.

Perfect, I'll have a chance to talk to Hiccup.

"Yes sir, I will. When are you leaving?"

"In the morning. You can go ahead and leave the Hall, unless you want to stay here while I put up with Mildew's usual ranting."

She nodded thankfully and departed before Mildew and company could gather around.

"Hiccup!"

He lifted his head from the bed and looked over at his father who had just walked into the room.

Wait? Does he actually want to talk to me? Amazing…

His father towered over him and looked down. Hiccup felt quite like shrinking and hiding under the covers.

"Hiccup, I have to leave Berk for a while."

His eyes went wide and he cocked his head to the side to show his surprise.

"I'll be gone a few weeks. I have to go to a meeting of Chiefs. I had to ask Astrid to watch after you and Toothless."

He pointed a finger at Hiccup.

"Remember what I said! Don't let her know what happened to you!"

Hiccup nodded once before closing his eyes and sadly laying back down on the bed. His dad did not actually want to talk after all. As usual.

Stoick saw his son-turned-baby-dragon lay his head back down on the bed. Hiccup looked very pitiable and sad. For a moment, he wanted to just turn and leave the house, having said everything he needed to say.

But…

Hiccup did not expect his father to do anything other than leave the room. His dad never showed affection to anyone.

Which is why he went stiff with surprise when he felt his father's palm on his tiny head. His dad was sitting down on the bed, right next to him.

He could not remember the last time his dad had done something like this for him.

The next thing he knew, he had crawled over to his father and laid his head and his front paws on his father's lap. For a few moments, he was able to forget about how strange his life had become. He forgot about the wings sprouting from his back and the snake-like tail behind him. He forgot that his hands were more truly paws and did not have the same type of fingers as they used to. Or that he could only communicate through writing on the ground or on paper.

"Oh son, don't worry. I haven't given up on you."

Dad, it's not that…

Then his dad began patting his head very gently. More softly than he would have thought possible for a man of his size.

"You know… no one really thought that you would survive after you were born. You were very sick and small."

Humph.

"Yes, you were born early. Even your mother was afraid that you would not make it. But… I knew you would make it. Somehow, I know that you will make it out of this. We'll set you right again."

A moment passed in silence.

"I promise."

Hiccup nodded softly. He then stepped back and pointed at his belly with a paw.

"Ok, that's a problem I can do something about."

Stoick left the room for the kitchen, and Hiccup purred softly to himself. It was not exactly the deep father-son interaction that Hiccup hoped to enjoy, but it was a start.

Perhaps half the tribe turned out to see their Chief off on his journey to the gathering. He made a public display of handing off his dragons to Astrid before stepping on the ship. That made an impression on the rest of the members of the tribe who did not already know about the existence of the two little Furies.

That the tiny dragons were Night Furies was alternatively either disturbing or fascinating. Everyone could clearly remember the terrifying shriek from high above and the blinding flash of purple light that always followed. Many of them had dreamed of being the one to down the terror of the night and hang its head up on their wall. Mildew and his gathering were especially incensed at this, in their mind, travesty against the memory of many fallen comrades.

The other riders and those who were kind to dragons were amazed that Stoick had somehow managed to find two baby Night Furies and couldn't help but keep gawking at them. Fishlegs especially made a fool of himself while begging Astrid for a chance to hold one of the two little ones.

The sails unfurled on Stoick's ship and caught the wind to carry the vessel to the southeast. It would be a few days of sailing and then a mess of politics for another couple days before sailing back home. He faced the shore, his gaze never leaving the two dragons standing next to Astrid. From this distance, he could not tell which one was his son. His people were cheering and calling out for his safe return. Then Hiccup subtly raised a paw and waved once, the gesture completely lost in the commotion.

Stoick quickly brushed a tear from his cheeks before anyone could see. He returned to captaining the boat and bellowing orders to keep the deckhands in line. The shoreline of Berk gradually fell away behind him until there was nothing but a sliver of land. Then that was gone too.

"Ok, now can I hold them?" Fishlegs begged.

"Sorry Fishlegs, Chief's orders."

He sighed before taking out his notebook and beginning to draw their falcon-like appearance as best as he could.

"What are their names?" Gustav piped up.

"Well, the Chief wanted to honor Hiccup, so he named this one," she glanced to her right, "Hiccup and the other one after Hiccup's dragon, Toothless."

"Oh look! Hiccup looks so cuddly!" Ruffnut sighed.

"Never thought I'd hear that one," Tuffnut whispered to Fishlegs.

Hiccup couldn't help but chuckle a bit in return. He immediately regretted his decision as he saw Ruffnut's hands reaching out for him. He shied away from her with a whimper.

"Ruff, they are my responsibility!"

Yes! Astrid to the rescue!

"Oh, are they now?" she heard a much-despised voice from nearby and turned to face the speaker.

"Just leave us alone."

He pointed his free hand directly at her.

"Oh, I will. You better be careful though with those beasts."

He leaned in closer to her and whispered.

"It would be… a shame if something were to happen to them while you are responsible for them."

Something about the way Mildew was glaring told Hiccup exactly what the man was thinking.

Toothless bared his teeth and growled at the two-leg. He did not need much experience with two-legs know that this one had very bad intentions. The sight of a hatchling growling must not have been very impressive because Mildew didn't even blink an eye at him.

Astrid raised a hand to scratch Toothless's neck and calm him, but he shook her hand away and kept glaring at Mildew.

She turned away from Mildew, ignoring his protests at her insolence, and walked across town to her house, leaving behind the other riders, where her dragon was waiting for her return. Stormfly perked up at seeing her approach, but quickly froze seeing the little dragons following her around. The Nadder leaned forward, eyes narrowed, to sniff at them.

"Stormfly, be nice to them."

Stormfly, nice name.

"Hi storm-flier" Hiccup said.

She chirped happily and gurgled at him. But he could not make out any clear words.

"Toothless, storm-flier kin-spike-tail talk?"

"Not words that I hear. Maybe other words."

So Stormfly might have words that they could not hear or understand. Or maybe she couldn't talk.

It makes sense that not all dragons would talk the same way.

"Hiccup, do you think we should fly?" Astrid suddenly asked.

Fly? Them? Now?

"Toothless, we fly on storm-flier with Astrid?"

Toothless blinked in surprise. Him fly on another kin? It was not right. He was a Night Fury, as the two-legs called his kind of kin! He shouldn't need help with flying, except for what Hiccup had done for him of course.

Though, his own sire and dam used to take their hatchlings into the sky to help them learn how to fly. He certainly did not need help with that, it was only a matter of time before his wings were strong enough for him to fly. He would also be able to teach Hiccup how to fly.

He did miss flying. After all, he had not flown at all in seasons. But not being able to fly on his own and Hiccup clearly not knowing what to do made it far more dangerous. What if one of them fell off?

"Much danger."

Hiccup looked up at Astrid and shook his head. It did sound a bit too dangerous. But another idea came to mind. There was a perfect place to go to avoid prying eyes. He spied a patch of bare ground.

Walk to cove

She nodded, knowing exactly where he wanted them to go, and wiped out the words from the dirt.

The walk was thankfully quiet and uneventful. She made sure to check behind them to make sure that they were not being followed.

"Hiccup, where are we going?" Toothless asked.

Hiccup thought for a moment.

"Place I bring you fish."

Toothless picked up the pace after hearing that and recognizing the place.

It was still very difficult for Astrid to reconcile the knowledge that the young dragon walking next to her was actually the great Night Fury that Hiccup had befriended and flown upon. But, Hiccup said he was, and, based on the sounds she had heard them making at each other, she was sure that they could indeed talk to each other.

And then there was Hiccup himself. What was she going to ask him? What was he going to tell her? How much stranger was the world than she had thought?

They finally arrived at the entrance to the cove. Hiccup bounded forward into the narrow entrance, followed closely by Toothless.

Hiccup chuckled at seeing that the shield that he had clumsily gotten stuck in the entrance was still there over a year later.

Their cove was as glorious as ever. The lake was clear and deep, the rocks were shiny or covered in mosses and lichen, most of the valley was green with the radiance of spring, and it showed no signs of being occupied or frequented.

Toothless began humming in happiness at being back in this much-liked place. He dashed off to a very familiar pile of rocks on which he had once stalked toward a very strange and daring two-leg. Hiccup and Astrid walked toward the lake, toward the bare batch of dirt and then sat down.

She turned to Hiccup and wondered.

Where do I start this?

"What happened to you?"

Hiccup extended one small claw over the dirt and began to write.

We ripped the monster's wings so it fell

But we hit its tail and I got a spike in my chest

Then I was trapped in a dark place

Then I got out and found out about… all this

He finished with a vague gesture toward himself with a front paw.

"And you have no idea how this happened? I mean, people don't just turn into dragons. Does Toothless know how?"

I asked him but he didn't say

"He didn't say? Strange. Uhm... you can talk to Toothless, can you talk to other dragons."

Toothless says most don't talk

"Oh, what about Stormfly?"

He gave a quick shake of his head.

"No, ok. Different question then, what are those like? Your wings I mean?"

He gave them an experimental flap.

Strange, almost like a hand

Don't ask about the tail

That is stranger

He sighed and lay down on the ground. It was very peaceful in the cove. The birds were chirping, and the sun was high in the sky. The warmth seeping into his scales made him very sleepy.

Tell me about the village

About what has happened

"Well, almost everyone lived. You know that we have dragons in the village now. I named mine Stormfly. Fishlegs named the Gronkle Meatlug after it carried back a deer from the forest. The twins named the Zippleback heads Barf and Belch, go figure on that one. Snotlout named the Nightmare Hookedfang. Oh, you will like this one... Gustav found a small Nightmare and named it Flame. They are good friends. There are a few others who are friendly to dragons, but most of the tribe still don't really trust dragons. They still give them the fish that they are supposed to, but they are not really different. They tolerate the dragons as long as things are peaceful."

She paused a moment before considering what else to say.

"I have been leading the Berk training Academy. We try to show people how to treat their dragons and other dragons well. It has helped to keep the peace, but it is very tiring and frustrating because of people like Mildew."

He nodded in agreement. He had not known much about the man before the Dragon Island incident, but the way Mildew had reacted to seeing him and Toothless was quite frightening. Especially since he himself was so small and defenseless against an adult.

Would he try to hurt me and Toothless?

"With your father here, no he would not. But now, he just might."

Ok, point taken. Stay away from Mildew.

"Hiccup…"

He looked up and over to where Toothless was perched on a rock, his wings held slightly outstretched at his sides and his eyes narrowed as he glared in Hiccup's direction.

Then Toothless relaxed and hopped down from the rock while chuckling heartily. Toothless clearly remembered the last time that he had been perched on that rock.

Hiccup rolled his eyes.

"You silly Toothless."

"Silly? This silly?"

Toothless roared and charged. Hiccup got to his feet and tucked his wings safely away.

"No!"

Toothless blinked and pulled up in surprise.

"Hiccup, why you not want play?"

"I want talk with Astrid."

Toothless's ears drooped slightly, and he turned away to continue exploring the cove alone.

"Hiccup, what was that about?" Astrid asked.

He wanted to play

"Ah, I see."

There was another, very important question on her mind.

"What are you going to do? Is there any way that you can be… changed back?"

That certainly got Hiccup glum in a hurry.

Dad says he will find a way

I hope so

I don't know how though

She certainly had no idea as well. There were a few stories of people who had been changed into dragons because of their own wickedness or as a punishment of some kind. That certainly did not seem like the proper explanation for Hiccup's situation. Plus, no one really thought those stories were true. It was more likely they were instead just warnings against bad behavior.

Hiccup shook his writing paw and relaxed on the ground. Astrid noticed.

It must hurt him to write so much.

"Take a break from writing, Hiccup. I'm going to… explore the cove and think."

He nodded in agreement.

Toothless huffed in frustration.

It just wasn't the same this way. Having the Astrid with them completely ruined the setting. Not that he did not think she was a good two-leg. She was. She had stood up for them and tried to protect Hiccup in the two-legs' death trap-valley. But Hiccup was giving her all his time now.

It would be understandable if this was part of two-leg mating-ceremonies. But that could not be the case here.

There was nothing fun to do in the valley without Hiccup to play with. This was their valley. The place where they came to know each other completely away from any other two-legs and kin. Or at least it should be their valley.

He kicked at a small stick in boredom, and an idea came to mind. Hiccup liked making strange shapes on the ground, and the shapes were a way of talking to two-legs. He should try to make the shapes too!

He grasped the stick roughly the same way that he remembered seeing Hiccup do it and began carving a picture in the dirt. A picture of himself and Hiccup.

Wings, tails, arms, legs, heads, this is hard. How does he do it?

He finally finished minutes later and looked at his creation.

"Hiccup, look at this."

Hiccup lazily walked over to him.

"What?"

Toothless held up his stick in a paw and looked down.

Hiccup looked at the dirt and saw a mess of lines and curls. It was barely recognizable as being anything. Perhaps, being very generous, he could see a head and wings in the drawing.

"Good, Toothless, what is it?"

Toothless blinked in surprise and hurt that Hiccup did not recognize the picture.

"I made us in the dirt."

"It… good."

Toothless bristled in response. He could hear the pause in Hiccup's response, which showed that he was either confused or not impressed. He angrily brushed away the picture before stalking off, ignoring Hiccup's calling out after him.

He walked over to the pond and took a long drink. There was a fish under the surface just a couple body-lengths away. He really wanted to leap at it and catch it since a raw and wriggling fish was much more satisfying than one that was dead.

But it was only slightly smaller than he was. He had no chance of catching it.

Just you stay there fish. I will be back next season-cycle...

He settled for snoozing there at the bank of the lake to pass his frustration.

When he woke up, it was nearly midday. Hiccup and Astrid were still lounging on the dirt, Hiccup slowly writing to her about who knows what.

It was such a waste that they were spending their time here, just sitting on the ground when it was so glorious. The sun was bright on his back and the treetops outside of their valley were softly waving in the wind. He stretched his wings out as far as he could, letting the warm sun soak into his scales. And he realized what he should be doing.

He began running over to the tallest rocks near the pond. It would be the perfect place for what he was going to do since the pond would make failure less painful. He scrambled up on top of the rock and stood on the edge.

Strange how new this seems.

He spread his wings and fins and gave them a practice flap.

I am going to do this.

He jumped and flapped eagerly. For a moment, he could feel that pressure against his wings which held him in the air. But his wings were either not quite as strong as he thought they would be or he was just out of practice and he lost the necessary angle moments into the flight.

He fell with a shriek into the water.

Hiccup swung around and looked toward the pond in alarm. He saw the ripples spreading outward from the pond and no Toothless.

"Toothless!"

He got up and ran to the water, fearing for Toothless's life. Did Toothless know how to swim? What if there was some other creature in the lake?

He pulled up at the edge of the water just in time to see Toothless break the surface and swim snake-like to the shore. Now that he was sure that Toothless was not in danger, he wondered what had happened.

"Toothless, why you in water?"

Toothless climbed out and shook himself off, sending water droplets everywhere.

"Trying to fly. Hiccup, let me show you how to fly!"

Me? Fly?

"No. Not fly."

Toothless froze in confusion. Hiccup did not want to fly? It made no sense, all sky-kin want to fly.

"Why not fly?"

"Because… not fly."

Hiccup stammered and then turned away and walked back over to Astrid. He actually wasn't sure why he was so opposed to the idea. It just didn't seem right for him.

"Hiccup, what are you two saying," Astrid asked.

He wants to show me how to fly

She could easily hear the unwritten but.

"Do you want to?"

He paused for quite a while before answering.

I don't want to be a dragon forever

So that was what was really bothering him. It made a lot of sense too. Hiccup thought that accepting the need to learn how to fly somehow meant accepting that he was stuck like this.

"Of course not, but you are for now. Learning how to fly might help if you ever need to get away from Mildew, you know."

True, that would help a lot.

So you think I should learn?

"I think it would be a good idea."

He sighed audibly.

Ok, I will learn

I am hungry

He added the last bit sheepishly.

"Oh, well, how about we head back into town and get some food for you."

He nodded eagerly and began walking alongside Astrid toward the entrance to the cove. He had to jog to keep up with her since it took several of his steps to match each of hers. Astrid kept talking about various goings-on in the village such as the state of the twins destructiveness and Fishlegs' progress toward making a new Book of Dragons. He was more than happy to listen to her voice and the news she had to share.

They both completely forgot that they left Toothless behind.

Toothless had been sulking on his own and wondering what was the matter with Hiccup. He hadn't seemed so discouraged or been so frustrating before Astrid started talking to him. He almost wished that he knew two-leg language so that he could understand what Astrid had been saying to him.

Then he realized that he was alone. Both Astrid and Hiccup were missing.

They must have gone back to the home cave without him. Sadly, he got to his feet and began walking toward the entrance of the cove. He knew the way back of course, but it still hurt a bit that they had left without telling him.

He walked out of the valley and turned toward the two-leg nest. It was a bit strange to remember that the last time he had left the valley he had been running as fast as he could in the same direction to save Hiccup. He couldn't remember if it had been because he had heard Hiccup's distress or if he had some inside-feeling of danger.

How different things were now.

Glumly, he continued on though the bushes and between the trees until he heard voices just up ahead. And one of them sounded like the bad two-leg.

He slowly crept closer, being careful to not make a sound. His size certainly allowed him to go unnoticed as long as he was careful.

There were several two-leg males gathered together and making loud noises at each other. Most disturbing was how the old, bad one was brooding over the gathering like an Alpha. He would interrupt the discussion every so often and the others would go silent to listen to him.

I really wish I knew what they were saying.

After a few more moments of listening and watching the creatures wave their arms around, he decided he had seen enough and slowly backed away from his hiding place under the bushes. He was so distracted by trying to understand what had been going on that he stepped on a branch which snapped loudly.

Even though two-legs seemed to have terrible hearing, he still ran as fast as he could, only arriving back on the edge of the nest when he was very out of breath. He was on his way to Hiccup's cave when a familiar, plump two-leg male caught sight of him and ran up to him. The smell of kin-rock-belly following the boy reassured him that this male was kin-friendly.

It was twisting how different two-legs react to kin. The adults seemed anxious around him, but the younger ones like this one seemed to like him. But it should be the reverse, the young should feel more afraid since they cannot defend themselves as easily as an adult.

Even though this one was being friendly, he did not especially want to play. He just wanted to get back to the cave-den.

The two-leg mumbled something very softly and then reached out with its paws and scooped him up as he weakly protested. It was rather humiliating that he was reduced to this. It seemed so recent that he had been able to soar the skies and had caused two-leg warriors to cower in fear at the mere sight of his shadow.

But the petting was nice, though not nearly as satisfying as Hiccup's had been. Further, he was big enough that it was not easy for the two-leg to carry him.

Knock. Knock.

Astrid started in surprise and quickly gathered the papers that Hiccup had been writing on before hiding them under a cloth. Hiccup also hopped down from the table and did his best to look absolutely innocent. Astrid then got up from the table and took a breath before opening the door.

Thankfully, it was only Fishlegs. Well, not exactly only Fishlegs. He also had a young Night Fury in his arms.

"Fishlegs, where did you find Toothless?"

"Oh, I found him on the edge of the village. I know you must have been wondering where he was."

She almost blushed, realizing that they must have forgotten him back in the cove.

"So I thought I should bring him to you since the Chief wants you to look after them. Plus, they are very cuddly," he finished while stroking Toothless's back.

"Thanks Fish."

She took Toothless from Fishlegs and set the Fury on the ground, where he ran directly over to Hiccup.

"Hiccup, you left me."

Hiccup knew it too. He had completely forgotten about Toothless in his eagerness to finally talk to Astrid and learn everything about what had been happening in the village.

"I…"

.

"I sorry. I not forget again. I was much happy to talk with Astrid."

Toothless still felt a bit sullen that Hiccup had so easily forgotten him, but he had already apologized. He still wanted to punish Hiccup in some way, so as he walked past Hiccup he flicked his tail directly into Hiccup's face.

Fishlegs followed this interaction in confusion. It almost seemed to him like the hatchlings were talking to each other. Then the one that he brought, Toothless it seemed, slapped the other in the face with its tail while seeming to laugh.

"What?" he wondered out loud at the bizarre interaction.

"They are something else, aren't they Astrid?" he added.

"They are very special. How is the book coming?"

She was eager to get his mind on something else since he was one of the sharper and more inquisitive of the youths. They sat down at the table, and Astrid handed him a mug of amber drink.

"Well, it is slow going but I'm making progress. So far, I have written the chapters for Gronkles, Zipplebacks, Nadders, and Nightmares. It makes sense because those are the ones we have, the big four so to say. I have the original back in my room, and I copied everything that is worth keeping. It hasn't been easy keeping this a secret since people have asked where the original is."

He paused with a frown and several swigs before continuing.

"What do you think about Mildew? I mean… he hasn't done anything yet, but he might now that the Chief has left."

"I've wondered about that myself. One of us should probably keep an eye on him. Perhaps you might suggest that the twins do it. It sounds like something they might enjoy."

"Hmn, that is a good idea. I'll tell them. Thanks Astrid."

He got ready to leave and couldn't help but smirk slightly at what had just recently happened to him. He knew very distinctly the next set of pictures that he was going to be able to add to the new Book of Dragons. And it was the chapter that until recently had always been completely blank.

Astrid gave a soft grin as well at seeing Fishlegs's gaze follow Hiccup and Toothless. She did her best to hide her own confusion. How easy it must be to think that they were a pair of cute and friendly little dragon hatchlings. But she knew better.