Chapter 3 - Encounters
Hiccup tumbled through the air towards the ground. He turned around and grabbed at Toothless. He missed and tried again, but it was too late. They crashed into the ground and rolled in different directions, Hiccup towards the back of his house and Toothless towards the woods. Toothless tucked himself into a ball and hoped Hiccup would be okay. Hiccup, acting on instinct, curled up in a ball and covered himself with his wings and tail. He smashed into the house and bounced off. When he rolled to a stop, he unfurled his wings. Surprisingly, he felt fine.
Toothless had rolled to a stop and started bounding over to Hiccup. In his way were the Riders, who had landed, so he said, "Get out of the way! I need to see Hiccup!" The dragons moved out of the way and he ran over to Hiccup. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?" He said anxiously.
"I'm fine, Toothless." Hiccup replied, but then was surrounded by dragon faces.
"You can understand us?" questioned Stormfly.
"You can talk to us in our language?" asked Meatlug.
"Can he fly?" said Hookfang.
"What pranks-" asked Barf.
"Could he pull?" said Belch.
"Yes, I can understand you, I can talk to dragons, I don't know if can fly or not, I haven't tried to yet, and I'm not pulling any pranks. Now please wait with the questions until later. I'm a bit stressed out." Hiccup replied quickly. "I'm fine!" He told the Riders. All the noise attracted the villagers, and they came running or flying around to the other side of the house. They quickly surrounded the Riders, in the air and on the ground. Hiccup's eyes went to slits, but Toothless padded over and jerked him out of his feeling of being cornered by licking him.
"Eew! Toothless! That's disgusting!" He yelped.
"Hiccup? Is that you?" Gobber pushed through the crowd.
"Yes…" He said reluctantly. "But everybody, please don't jump to conclusions." He spread his wings and everyone stared at them with shocked faces.
"Why does he have wings?" One whispered.
"Is it a curse?" Another asked.
"Hiccup, how didja get those wings?" Gobber asked, confused.
"I don't know. But at least it isn't worse. But I can't fly on Toothless right now because my wings mess up Toothless's flight." Hiccup glanced sadly at Toothless.
"We're all still getting used to it." Astrid said in defense of Hiccup. "But I'm sure it isn't a curse, and we'll tell you more later. Right now, Hiccup needs some privacy to get used to this new change, so please clear off and give us some space!" She yelled the last bit, letting some of her emotion bleed into her annoucement.
"Thanks, Astrid." Hiccup said quietly. Then his ears pricked up and he spun around. "Dad?" What are you doing?" He asked as Stoic walked out the back door and strode over to them.
"I heard yelling. Is everyone okay?" Stoic noticed the villagers leaving and called, "Gobber, wait a moment." Gobber walked over to the group. "So what happened?" Stoic asked.
"Hiccup fell off Toothless because his wings messed up the flight." Astrid replied. Seeing the alarmed look on Stoic's face, she added, "They're both fine. They didn't get very high up, so they didn't fall that far." Stoic visibly relaxed at this comment. Astrid continued, "The villagers heard the noise and came over, so Hiccup had to explain some… things."
"Can anyone explain to me what in the world is going on? 'Cause Hiccup has wings, and a tail, and some strange ears, and I want to know why." Gobber stated.
"We don't know why I have wings. I went underwater, freed the Submaripper, came back up, and then I was just in a lot of pain. I fell asleep and woke up here." Hiccup said.
"I also shot a plasma blast to get you out of your… thing. I don't know if that did anything, but I thought you should know." Toothless said, feeling guilty.
"So you shot a plasma blast at the thing I was in to get me out, potentially killing me in the process?" Hiccup asked.
"How else were you going to get out?" Toothless asked. Hiccup paused and thought about it.
"Good point. But next time, please only do that as a last resort." Hiccup replied. Gobber watched this conversation with amazement.
"Do you know what they're sayin'?" Gobber quietly asked Stoic.
"What? Did you say something, Gobber?" Stoic asked.
"I said, do you-" Gobber started to ask.
"We were talking about the plasma blast Toothless shot." Hiccup replied.
"How didja hear me, Hiccup? Stoic was standin' right next ta me, and he didn't hear me at all." Gobber queried.
"Maybe because I have different ears and they hear better? Can we please go inside now so that it isn't so bright out?" Hiccup started to walk into his house, his tail swaying.
"It's bright? But how is it bright when it's a cloudy day and there isn't a patch of blue sky as far as the eye can see?" Stoic asked, walking with his son.
"I don't know. I probably have different eyes, too, so everything is brighter and more rich in color." Stoic nodded along at what Hiccup said and fell silent. They trooped back into the house and the Riders and Gobber followed.
"Bud, I think I can make an automatic tail fin for you, so you can fly without me." Hiccup said.
"But I don't want to fly without you. You know that. Why would you make something like that?" Toothless asked.
"So you can teach me to fly." Hiccup replied.
"Oh. Then hurry up and make me a tail fin!" Toothless said.
"Okay, okay! Calm down!" Hiccup said. He noticed everybody's blank looks as he started to go upstairs. "I'm going to make Toothless an automatic tail fin so he can fly by himself since he can't fly with me anymore." He said sadly.
"Don't you want to figure out what you can do first?" Fishlegs asked.
"No. I want to get Toothless flying first before I try anything else." Hiccup said. He walked into his room and closed the door. "Toothless, I wish they would just stop treating me like that. Like I'm a completely new person."
"The time will come when they realise that you're the same. Now can you hurry up with that tail? Please?" Toothless asked.