I don't own How To Train Your Dragon, I'm just a fan :)

Hand on my Heart

Chapter 5

"What do you need, Hiccup?" Camicazi asked.

"Well... I want to be a Viking." He replied hesitantly and she laughed and shook her head.

"Hiccup! You are a Viking!" She replied.

"No, I can barely even lift a fighting hammer let alone wield one. I need to learn how to fight and I need to train. You might be a head shorter than me but you're strong and you're an incredible fighter. I need you to teach me that. Please! Please teach me that!" He pleaded with her and she smiled lightly at him.

"It would be my honour, Hiccup." She winked. "But! Before you get to excited... I will push you. I will push you hard. I train every day, twice a day for hours. You'll need to train with me while practising by yourself. For the first few weeks, you'll feel dead. You'll wish you were dead. But if this is really what you want... then I'll make it my personal mission to make you the fastest, strongest, cleverest and deadliest Viking you could be. You'll never be as good as I am..." She laughed light heartedly. "But that's not your fault. You are a boy after all."

"Thanks, Cami." He patted her arm affectionately. He had always loved Cami... since he was an infant. Not in the same way as he loved Astrid though. Cami was like the close little sister he never got to have.

"You can stay here till my mother gets back then you are going to take me to find myself a dragon. We'll go on an adventure like we did when we were younger." She smiled at him.

"What about Toothless?" He asked.

"Well, I'm going to call a meeting and tell them that you and him are here and that you are both staying with me. Will he behave himself?" She asked coyly.

"Of course. Although, knowing you, you'll no doubt get him in trouble somehow." He shook his head chuckling.

"Trouble is the best part of life. There's only so much longer I have to get into trouble!" She reminded him.

"Somehow I think you'll still be stealing people's underwear when you're an elder." He poked her arm.

"Is your dad still mad about that?" She asked raising an eyebrow.

"I think he was angrier that you took down our flag and hoisted his underwear up instead." The two of them burst into hysterical laughter at the memory. Hiccup had always admired Camicazi's spirit. His father asked him once if he would think about maybe marrying her in the future and the thought had given him cold sweats. He loved her as a friend but he didn't think he had the nerves to be married to someone like Cami.

"See this is why we should have an adventure while I train you. It'll be no fun just to sit on this island all day long when we could be out exploring the world and maybe stealing some Roman's underwear." She smirked and he laughed.

"Alright, you twisted my arm. It sounds fun. I know I'm going to regret this!"

"No you won't." She shook her head for emphasis but her mischievous look gave her away.

"So what should I do about Toothless? He's just sitting in the woods waiting for me."

"Can I meet him first?" She asked.

"Yeah, let's go to the back door. It's dark enough that he can just run right in without anyone else seeing him."

"Yay!" She clapped her hands excitedly.

"One thing, Cami... You're going to have to disarm. He will get the wrong idea if you are covered in weapons." Hiccup warned her.

"Hiccup, I know he's your dragon and everything... But he's still a Night Fury! He could kill me in two seconds flat if I'm not armed."

"But he won't. Dragon's don't attack without provocation. I swear to you. You can stand behind me if you don't believe me." He said to her.

"You've never had any problem with him?" She asked.

"Not really. Astrid tried to attack him the first time she saw him and that made him mad and he taught her a lesson. Let's please not have a repeat. Just be nice to him and he'll love you." Hiccup explained.

"Fine." She huffed. "But if he kills me, YOU are going to have to explain it to Bertha." Cami pointed at him as she said it and he gulped. Camicazi's mother scared Hiccup a little bit. She was just so loud!

"I swear nothing will happen." Hiccup said.

"How come you can be armed?" She asked pointing to his dagger.

"Because he knows I would never hurt him." Hiccup said to her. "Are you scared or something?" He laughed and she looked positively affronted.

"Are you kidding?" She shrieked.

"Just get rid of the weapons!" He yelled back at her.

"Fine! Jeez, someone's gotten bossy." She mumbled as she began to disarm, tossing her armour and weapons on to the couch. "Let's go." They both walked to her back door and Hiccup opened it. He peered outside to see if anyone was around. When he was sure there was no one there he called for him.

"Toothless?" He called into the trees and in seconds he was flattened on the ground by a huge Night Fury. He laughed as Toothless licked his face and nuzzled his neck. Camicazi still stood in the door way to the house watching wide eyed. "Ok, ok! Get off!" Hiccup pushed the dragon from him and hoisted himself up. "Now, Toothless. This is my friend Camicazi, but I call her Cami. She's really nice and you're going to love her, right?" Hiccup said sweetly. Toothless peered at the girl before him, scoping her out then saw Hiccup smiling at her. He had been so sure that the Astrid one was his mate... Oh well, humans are strange, he thought. He turned back to Camicazi and smiled his toothless smile at her and her features softened and she smiled back.

"Wow! He's... beautiful." She gasped. "You both better get in here before someone sees." She said after staring at him for another minute. Hiccup led the way and Toothless followed cautiously behind.

"Come on, Toothless." Hiccup said exasperated. "She has no interest in hurting you. We are both welcome here." Hiccup patted his head and Toothless crooned in acceptance. He sped up and when he was fully in the door, Hiccup closed them behind them. Toothless started sniffing about the house until he came across the weapons on the couch and quickly looked up at Hiccup and narrowed his eyes, questioning them. Hiccup went over and sat next to the weapons. "Toothless, you know that Vikings carry a lot of weapons. Cami took hers off so she could meet you. Be nice, ok?" Hiccup said sternly. Camicazi still stood on the other side of the room. Toothless eyed her suspiciously but eventually sat down. "I'll move these." He told them both then lifted up the knives and swords and put them on the other side of the room. When he had deposited them he went back to Cami and grabbed her hand, dragging her to the couch. He pushed her until she was seated then he took a seat in front of Toothless. "Can she say hello?" He asked his dragon friend. Toothless nodded back to him and she smiled in awe. They seemed to actually be having a full conversation, they were that close and knew each other that well. Hiccup grabbed her hand and put it in front of Toothless, the way it had been when he first touched the dragon, giving him the decision to touch her.

"Hiccup?" She asked quietly in question.

"It's how he decides if he trusts you." Hiccup explained then let go of her hand so he was alone, holding out her hand in front of the Night Fury's nose. Toothless looked at Hiccup then moved his nose into her palm.

"Wow!" She exclaimed softly then stroked his nose lightly. "You are just incredible, Toothless. It's nice to meet you." She smiled and he crooned back.

"He thinks it's nice to meet you too." Hiccup told her and she watched as Toothless nodded to her.

"Do you understand everything I say?" She asked the dragon as she removed her hand. He nodded to her and let out an annoyed sigh. "What does that mean?" She asked Hiccup and Hiccup just laughed.

"That's Toothless for 'Obviously'." Hiccup scratched the dragon's neck in his favourite place.

"This is incredible." She smiled at Hiccup. "I always knew you were destined for greatness."

"You were the only one." Hiccup laughed.

The two old friends caught up on what had been going on with their lives since the last time they saw each other. Camicazi asked loads of questions about Toothless and also wanted to know how Hiccup befriended him because nobody but Hiccup knew the whole story. Hiccup told her everything in detail and a couple of hours later Cami was all over Toothless, scratching his belly and hugging him, he was in cuddle heaven. Cami and Toothless were fast friends and Hiccup was overjoyed. He knew coming to see her would work. He could have done this before the fight with the Red Death and she would have understood then too. Before it got too late, Cami took off to tell the village a condensed version of the story and tell them that Hiccup and Toothless would be staying in her house until Bertha reappeared.

Hiccup and Toothless decided to stay behind so as not to shock the village. The last thing anyone needed was another altercation. A short while later, Camicazi reappeared with a couple of the villagers that were either brave enough to meet the legendary Night Fury or too curious not to see him. Toothless sat behind Hiccup as he told them about his friend. They ooh'd and ah'd until Hiccup told them he was tired and wanted to go to sleep since his leg was giving him hell. Luckily, one of the villagers that came with Camicazi was the village blacksmith and he offered Hiccup the forge and his help with a new foot. The blacksmith had experience with that area of work since he had lost a foot and several others had too. Hiccup happily accepted and started thinking of ideas to make it easier for him to walk, run, jump, fight etc. And he went to bed happy. He'd been worried that he'd made the wrong choice by leaving Astrid, but things were definitely looking up. Maybe this would work after all.

Almost two years in the future:

Astrid stared at the dragon in the sky. She was sure it was Toothless but she couldn't see the red tail fin. She supposed that in two years he could have had a different one made. Then she noticed the ship. The dragon was circling it and the ship was waving not only the Hooligan's flag but the Bogburglers... That was strange.

"There's another dragon!" Gobber shouted. She saw the other dragon ride alongside Toothless.

"What's going on?" Stoick boomed.

"There's a ship carrying our flag with a Night Fury as an out rider." Gobber explained.

"Is it Hiccup?" Stoick asked his friend.

"Can you see that far away?" Gobber asked him deadpan.

"No." The chief looked confused.

"Then how am I supposed to?" Gobber yelled back.

"Alright, alright. No need to shout. Let's go down and greet them." Stoick said. Astrid froze. What if it really was Hiccup? What if he'd come home to her just as she promised? What if their happily ever after was about to start? Then she had a thought that made the blood in her veins turn to ice.

What if it's not Hiccup?