A/N: No major excitment in this chapter, but who's ready to see dragon-boy introduce himself?
Response to Random Fan: XD It's fun (for us) while it lasts! Maybe. But it works. Bye!
"Get off of me, you giant scaly lump!"
Toothless rumbled as he unfurled his wings, releasing the furious Astrid. She clambered out of his forepaws that he'd wrapped around her to protect her from the ground, and stared up at the sky. She threw her hands up in frustration, and Toothless was very glad that she didn't have her axe to throw at something.
"We have to go after them," Astrid said, retrieving her axe and turning to Toothless.
Toothless shook his head and raised his tail, earning another groan from Astrid. He grumbled and lowered his tail, wanting to chase after his Rider as much as she did. But in tussling with Stormfly, his tailfin had been bent out of shape.
Astrid climbed into the saddle and tried to work the tailfin, but the bent metal wouldn't fold right. Hiccup could have managed, but Toothless didn't want Astrid to try. He turned in the direction of the Edge and bounded off for help.
"What that?" Hiccup asked Stormfly, gaze trained behind him.
"Human," Stormfly explained. "That Astrid."
"Danger creature named?" Hiccup asked, incredulous.
Stormfly churred, but wouldn't tell Hiccup what was funny. Hiccup looked ahead. Stormfly had flown them safely from their attackers, and was approaching a large wall of stone. As Stormfly flew over the wall, Hiccup spotted a flock of Spike-Flingers below.
"Stormfly!" Hiccup squealed, pointing with a paw. "Flock!"
"Mean flock," Stormfly said, turning away.
"No! No!" Hiccup pounded a paw on Stormfly's back. "Hiccup flock!"
Something told Hiccup that he needed to go to the Spike-Flingers. He was sure that it was his missing flock!
Stormfly churred again, then wheeled to land on the side of the rock wall near the trees. Two female Spike-Flingers, one green-and-red and other dark red in color, growled a warning.
"Our territory," said the green-and-red female.
Hiccup chirped a greeting and peered over Stormfly's head. Immediately, the females' tail spikes flared.
"Human!" roared the dark red female.
Human?! Hiccup spun around, flaring his wings best he could and baring his teeth. But he didn't see or smell the creature from before. He looked back at the females in confusion, who were eyeing him.
"No human," Hiccup told them.
"Hiccup dragon," Stormfly said.
Hiccup kicked Stormfly with a hind paw. "They know."
The green-and-red female cocked her head. "Hiccup human."
Hiccup's head reared back at the accusation. He scrambled off Stormfly's back and stood in a Spike-Flinger's pose of aggression: hindpaws spread wide, back arched, wings flared, and chin tucked in while he growled. He couldn't flare his tail spikes, though, so he made up for it in an extra-loud snarl.
The females -Stormfly included- exchanged looks. The two strange Spike-Flingers gave amused churrs.
Stormfly bobbed her head. "Stormfly."
The strangers repeated the greeting. The green-and-red Spike-Flinger was Swiftwing and the other was Nightrise.
Swiftwing and Nightrise flew up and called for Stormfly and Hiccup to follow. Hiccup eagerly climbed onto Stormfly's back for the short flight. The group flew over the wall to the nests, causing the other Spike-Flingers to growl defensively.
"Calm," called down Nightrise. "Raggedwing hatchling returned!"
"See? Hiccup flock," Hiccup told Stormfly smugly.
"Hiccup know flock?" Stormfly asked.
Hiccup beamed as Stormfly landed. The other Spike-Flingers watched. Most were just curious, though a couple watched Hiccup aggressively.
An older Spike-Flinger male shambled through the flock, stopping in front of Stormfly. His green scales were chipped and faded with age and his wings were ragged, but he moved with the energy of a hatchling.
"Hatchling," the old male said happily. "Raggedwing hatchling return!"
Hiccup beamed at the old male. He couldn't remember Raggedwing, but he was still happy to see him.
"Strongwing comes," Swiftwing called, stepping back.
A large Spike-Flinger with brilliantly colored scales walked forward. From his size and the way the other dragons bowed, he must have been the leader of the group. Hiccup bowed his head respectfully.
Strongwing studied Hiccup on Stormfly's back. "Name?"
Hiccup tilted his head slightly. "Hiccup."
"Stormfly," Stormfly supplied, lowering her head further.
"Hiccup not Spike-Flinger," Strongwing said.
Hiccup looked at himself, though he'd already determined that. He couldn't come up with the type of dragon his was, just that he was one.
"Hiccup hatchling," Raggedwing said, claiming Hiccup as his.
Strongwing snorted and sat back. "Prove worth."
Prove himself? How?
Hiccup cocked his head, considering. His first thought was to show off his talent at flight, but that hadn't gone so well when he tried the first time. Fighting? No, the smallest hatchling was his size, and Hiccup lacked proper talons and fangs anyway. Maybe he could do something special…
Hiccup looked around for an idea, then his eyes landed on a stray stick from one of the nests. He chirped happily, then leaped from Stormfly's back. His paws skidded out from under him upon landing, earning dismissive snorts from the surrounding Spike-Flingers that he ignored.
Hiccup bounded to the stick. He reached out with a paw, then paused. What was he doing? Instead, he ducked his head and picked up the stick in his mouth. He turned to make sure Strongwing was still watching, then went to work.
It took longer than Hiccup thought and he had splinters in his tongue, but he was happy with the result of his drawing when he spit the stick out. He turned to face Strongwing, who was watching from the opposite end of the drawing.
Strongwing watched Hiccup for a minute, then rose. He stepped closer, right onto one of the drawing's lines.
Without thinking, Hiccup growled. Strongwing snarled back. Remembering who it was, Hiccup fell quiet and shrunk back.
Strongwing was silent for a minute, then began to churr.
"Funny hatchling," Strongwing said.
Hiccup perked up. "Hiccup stay?"
Strongwing huffed and turned away. "Yes."
Stormfly chirped happily. Hiccup glanced at her, briefly mad that she hadn't had to prove herself, but was too happy to be allowed to stay.
The other Spike-Flingers immediately accepted their leader's decision. They crowded around the new flock members, giving names and asking questions that mostly revolved around Hiccup.
"Wind-Rider," Stormfly supplied when Hiccup couldn't figure out what type of dragon he was.
Hiccup cooed his thanks to Stormfly, who only churred at her secret joke. Hiccup shook his head at her and pushed her muzzle.
Once the introductions were done, Strongwing roared.
"Hunt!"
The flock roared, Hiccup doing his best to join in. Then, the flock took off from the roost one-by-one. Hiccup and some of the younger hatchlings climbed onto the backs of older dragons for the flight.
Astrid was tense with anger by the time Toothless arrived at Hiccup's hut. She swung silently out of the saddle. Toothless gave a soft roar and caught the attention of Fishlegs, who was searching on the second level.
"Astrid, Toothless!" Fishlegs called. "I take it you didn't find Hiccup?"
"Oh, we found Hiccup alright," Astrid all but growled. She stomped over to the wall and jerked down a spare prosthetic tailfin.
Fishlegs froze, then tentatively asked, "What happened?"
"I'll tell you what happened!" Astrid burst out. She started replacing the busted tailfin in harsh, jerky movements. "Hiccup's lost his mind! He wouldn't say a word, at least not in Norse! He growled and roared, and walked on all fours. He was acting like a dragon!"
"I...I guess that isn't so impossible to believe," Fishlegs said. "He did hit his head. Anything can happen. Why didn't you bring him back?"
Astrid snorted. "Because he has Stormfly on his side!"
"Ohhh." Fishlegs hummed. "Well, we do know that our dragons -mainly Hookfang- will ignore their Riders when it comes to other dragons. And if Hiccup acted like a dragon, Stormfly's giving him dragon and Rider loyalty. He did free her back on Berk, remember?"
"I know that!" Astrid yelled, throwing her hands up. "But now she's refusing to let us bring Hiccup anywhere that he doesn't want to go!"
"You found Hiccup?" came Tuffnut's voice.
Astrid turned to see the twins walk into the den. Barf poked his head in, but quickly retreated.
"It's a long story," Astrid responded through gritted teeth.
"If Hiccup is acting like a wild dragon, why not treat him like a wild dragon?" Fishlegs said, walking down to the ground level.
"Wait, wait, this is too good to be true." Wearing a huge grin, Snotlout entered the hut. "Dragon boy thinks he's a dragon. Oh, boy, I can't wait to see this."
"If you saw him now, he'd rip your face off," Astrid said drily.
That made Snotlout pause. Astrid turned her back to him.
"If we can get Hiccup here, can you fix him?" Astrid asked.
"I'm not sure," Fishlegs said uncomfortably. "All I've ever read about strange behavior after a head injury indicates that it will go away on its own."
"And if it doesn't?"
"Then we'd… have to take him to Gothi. She might know how to fix him." Fishlegs shrugged. "But if we brought him back to someplace familiar, it should jog his memories. All we have to do is get him away from Stormfly."
"What? Does Stormfly think Hiccup is a dragon, too?" Ruffnut snickered.
"Basically," Fishlegs said.
The twins stopped laughing and looked at each other. After a moment, Tuffnut spoke up.
"What exactly has happened to Hiccup since we last saw him?"
"Nothing, besides the way he acts," Fishlegs said.
"We might not have to separate Hiccup and Stormfly," Astrid said thoughtfully.
"Didn't you just say-"
"Stormfly only acted aggressively when Hiccup did. If we can keep Hiccup calm enough, Stormfly should be fine. She has to know that we're helping Hiccup. She nearly brought Hiccup back to the Clubhouse, but Hiccup saw Toothless sneaking up on them and freaked out."
"Why did Hiccup freak out when he saw Toothless?" Fishlegs asked, changing the topic. "They're best friends!"
"Hiccup doesn't remember that he's human, you really expect him to remember Toothless is his friend when a human is with him?" Ruffnut said.
Toothless gave an annoyed grumbled, but Astrid had to admit that Ruffnut had a point. If Hiccup was so far gone to think that he was a dragon, his forgetting Toothless was the least of their problems. Especially when Tuffnut made another point.
"You don't think he'd try to fly, do you?"
Astrid was about to snap that that was ridiculous, then paused. "Oh, Thor. That's it, we need to find Hiccup first, then we'll decide what to do about him."
"So, Hiccup won't recognize us, will probably fight us, and Stormfly is protecting him like she thinks he's her baby," Snotlout summed up.
"Pretty much," Astrid said, mounting Toothless. "Now, come on. Let's find Hiccup before anything worse happens to him."
A/N: We all know something crazy is going to follow. New character joining this insanity in the next chapter!