I won't normally update this often. Probably.

"Human speech."

"Dragon speech."

To reduce confusion, Hiccup can speak both now.

Chapter 2 - The Truth

Hiccup sat up, and the others stared in shock. He just noticed shirt tatters sliding off of him. He seemed to have something heavy on his back, but he ignored that.

"Can anybody explain to me why my shirt has been shredded?" He asked. After a long pause, he said, "Astrid? Dad? Fishlegs? Anybody?"

"Erm… look behind you." Astrid whispered really quietly. Nobody heard her other than Hiccup and Toothless, and Hiccup didn't notice she spoke softly. He turned around, and yelped.

"It could be worse, right?" Hiccup joked, breaking some of the intense tension in the room. "I could be dead." He grew serious, "But really, what happened? The last thing I remember is my back exploding in pain. So why do I have wings?"

"I don't know, Hiccup. Maybe it was destined by the gods, or some dragon power, but we can figure out why later. Right now, let's focus on how extensive the damage is." Stoic replied.

Toothless stepped forward. To the others, he made a low sound. To Hiccup and the dragons, he said, "Are you really okay? You have the wings, ears, and a tail of a Night Fury, but are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Hiccup replied in the same tongue. "Everything is brighter to me. Do I have different eyes too?" He saw the others look at him strangely. "What? Talking isn't strange. One of you asked a question; I answered. Why are you looking at me like that?"

"It's just that, um, we didn't ask a question. Only Toothless did anything. All he did was make a noise, and then you started making the same noises dragons make back to him." Astrid said, shocked.

Toothless put his front paws on the bed. "Can you really understand me?" He asked, excited about the possibility.

"Ye-yeah. I guess I can. So since I know you can understand me, can you get your paws off of the blanket so I can get up?" Hiccup asked wryly. Toothless gave Hiccup a gummy grin and got off the bed. Hiccup stood up, after checking to make sure his pants were intact (they were). He had the wings and tail of a Night Fury, and the ears. His eyes were dragon-ish and he had scales clustered around the base of the wings and tail. He coiled his tail around his legs anxiously as he waited for someone else to react.

"Son, I…" Stoic broke off, deciding to just step forward and hug Hiccup, grateful that Hiccup is alive. Hiccup was surprised and then just decided to hug back, his wings unfurling and hugging his father as well. His wings were huge, about as big as Toothless's and his tail was the same size as well. His tail grabbed Astrid and tugged her in, protesting. She hugged Hiccup back, and Hiccup purred. Stoic and Astrid exchanged looks, and Hiccup kept purring.

Fishlegs heard a purr from the hug pile and jumped up and down. "Be right back!" He said over his shoulder as he ran down the stairs.

"Look at Fishface, get excited over the littlest things. He needs to learn to get used to change, like me." Snotlout boasted.

"Yeah, like you aren't surprised." Astrid shot back in defense of her friend.

"I'm not surprised!" Tuffnut said.

"Yes, you are!" Ruffut retaliated.

"Am not!"

"Are to!"

"Am not!"

"Are to!" They started to tussle on the ground.

"Stop it, you two." said Stoic, breaking out of the hug. "I would like to have my house intact."

"Hiccup, could you let me go?" Astrid asked, blushing. Hiccup's tail was still holding Astrid around the waist, and he hurridly let go of her, his face turning red. Hiccup was saved from more embarassment by Fishlegs, who burst back into his room with a bunch of cards, asking unintellegeable questions.

"Slow down, Fishlegs." Hiccup said. His stomach rumbled. "Just wait a moment, Fishlegs. I'm sure you can ask questions later. But now, can we please eat? I'm hungry."

"Come on, son." Stoic said jovially. "Let's get you some food. There's some downstairs we can eat." Toothless got really excited at this statement and dashed to the door. He looked back, and with his tongue out, said, "Come on, come on! I'm hungry too!"

"Oh, yeah? I bet I'm hungrier than you are, bud!" Hiccup laughed. He sped to the door and ran down the stairs, much faster than he normally could. He didn't notice how fast he was going, but everyone else did. Fishlegs wrote it down on one of his cards, which already had some writing on it. They followed the two downstairs, to see Toothless at his fish barrel gulping down fish. Hiccup was laughing, and scratching Toothless behind the ears. He glanced over at the barrel, and then looked away, as if he was embarassed.

Astrid saw this and walked over to Hiccup. "Do you want to try a little bit of it, just to see if actually tastes good?" He hesitated, then nodded. He grabbed a fish from Toothless's barrel. Toothless looked up, curious. Hiccup took a small bite, and his eyes closed in pleasure. He swallowed it whole, and Astrid watched as he opened his eyes and delightedly took another bite, and this one was larger. He ate the whole fish like that, biting and swallowing.

"Are you okay?" Astrid asked. "You just ate a whole fish raw."

"I'm fine." Hiccup said, getting a little tired of the redundant question. "That tasted great! Toothless, I understand your enthusiasm for fish now."

"Finally." Toothless purred. He regurgitated half of a fish he had just eaten. "Between dragons, eating each other's fish is a sign of friendship. Now that you can understand me, I can make you eat that fish." He nodded to the regurgitated fish. "It actually does taste good, I promise you."

"Okay…" Hiccup said. He picked up the fish and tentatively took a bite. He swallowed and said, "That does taste great. Even better than the regular fish." He took another bite and finished the fish half while Astrid watched in shock.

"Hiccup, would you mind telling me why you just ate a regurgitated fish from Toothless?!" Astrid voice rose to a shriek that Stoic heard.

"You WHAT?" Stoic yelled.

"I, um, ate one of Toothless's regurgitated fish. But, before you freak out-" Hiccup said.

"WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?" Stoic yelled.

"I was trying to explain that, Dad." Hiccup muttered. Louder, he said, "Toothless said eating each other's fish is a sign of friendship, and in my defense, we are best friends. So I had to eat the fish. And honestly, it tasted really good."

"Why do you think it tastes good? Have your taste buds changed?" Fishlegs interrupted.

"Fishlegs, I thought I said questions later." Hiccup sighed. "I'll tell you later." His stomach felt full. "Dad, don't make any food for me. I'm good for now."

"What did you eat? You haven't eaten anything yet, other than the regurgitated fish." Stoic asked.

"I did eat. I ate a fish. I'm going to go fly with Toothless now." Hiccup announced. He walked out of house and Toothless followed, bouncing. He opened the door, and stopped. There was a crowd of villagers outside his door. He ducked back inside. "Come on, bud. Let's go out the back way."

"Where are you going?" Snotlout asked as Hiccup passed him.

"Outside. I don't want to explain things to the villagers yet; they're outside in the front, so I'm going out the back way." Snotlout shut up.

"Do you want us to come with you?" Astrid asked.

"Sure." Hiccup replied. He got outside, and thankfully no villagers could see him there. The others got their dragons and flew into the air. Hiccup mounted Toothless, saying, "Let's go, bud." They jumped into the air, and Hiccup's wings caught the air 20 feet up. He felt his bottom leave Toothless and his prosthetic left the pedal for the tail fin. "Woah!" He yelped as the ground came closer… and closer…