Disclaimer: The following is a fan based story. I do not own How To Train Your Dragon all rights belong to DreamWorks Animation and Cressida Cowell. Please support the official release.

Chapter 7: Anxiety

It was early morning when Hiccup awoke once again. Toothless was curled up a few feet away, snoring contentedly. Stretching his jaw wide, he let out a long yawn.

Slowly he stretched out his limbs and moved them experimentally. He knew he wasn't dreaming but it still felt strange to think he was a dragon now. Staring down at his claws he flexed them, admiring their sharp points and white translucent sheen. His scales glistened slightly in the dim light cast by the still glowing embers in the hearth.

Sliding his tongue over teeth, he tried retracting the sharp white bones into his pinkish gums, just as he'd seen Toothless do many time before. It took a minute and some real concentration, but with success it brought forth the single strangest sensation he'd ever felt, aside from morphing into a dragon. He felt his jaw tingle with heat as the bones retracted into their fleshy homes, which split wide to accommodate large fangs and molars. After every tooth had sunken beneath the soft flesh of his gums, Hiccup ran his, now forked, tongue over the empty spaces left by his fangs. Then, removing his tongue, he quickly unsheathed them once again.

Then he turned his attention to his tail and wings. Moving them was stranger than moving his teeth. Humans don't have tails so his brain was having trouble with the new section of road map it had to play around with. His tail was heavy, likely meant to provide him with balance, and at first proved troublesome to lift more than a few feet off the ground. He began flexing his tail fins, watching as the leathery curtain of flesh folded and unfolded as he opened and closed them.

His wings were larger than he thought, and when he unfurled them they rose up to meet the ceiling of the cabin. This nearly knocked over a few trinkets hanging from several beams, and caused Hiccup to hastily fold the large appendages tight against his back. Okay, so maybe opening them up in the house hadn't been the smartest thing, but then again he'd never had wings before so he allowed himself some slack as he glanced over to make sure he hadn't waken Toothless with his antics.

As if for the first time remembering his surrounding, Hiccup glanced around the room with anxiety. Why had Stoick let two dragons, especially a pair of Nightfuries, into his own home? None of it made any sense. Not for the first time in the past few hours, he had a nagging feeling that he was missing something. After all when he'd asked toothless about it the dragon had seemed unconcerned with the issue.

Had he forgotten something important? If he had then what was it? Suddenly he recalled the conversation from the night before. When toothless had asked him about the final battle between him and the Red Death, he had seemed uneasy. Especially when he'd told the older Nightfury that his memory was still foggy where that area was concerned.

Could it have something to do with the battle? He thought critically to himself. But what part of the battle, just what was he missing? He didn't have long to ponder over this line of thinking when he heard something begin to steer behind a door, which he now vividly remembered belonged to his father.

Panic suddenly began to take root as his heart started hammering in his chest, and his legs suddenly itched with the erg to run. No not yet, not now when he was so uncertain of himself, he wasn't ready to face him. He didn't have the strength to withstand yet another disappointed look from his father.

Without stopping to think he felt his legs begin to rise. Soon he was moving, with more stealth than he thought capable at his speed, toward the front door. Pulling the door open with his mouth he launch himself out into the chilling morning air with such speed that he cleared the distance from the cabin to the forest in seconds. Not stopping to look back, he felt his legs pump vigorously beneath him as they carried him further into the trees.

He couldn't bring himself to stop or slow down, even though the lack of dragon traps around told him he'd run far past the village boarders. He just kept going, veering around tress and crashing his way through the underbrush.

By the time he finally ran out of breath, which wasn't long considering he was still recovering, he found himself in an eerily familiar place.

Looking down into the small cove, he watched as the, now rising, sun glistened on the ponds surface, throwing rays of color over the rock walls that surround it.

Hiccup, deciding that this was the perfect hiding spot while he gathered his thoughts, began to make his way down into his new sanctuary. Almost instinctually he started for the small hallway like entrance he used in his human form. However when he attempted to squeeze into the, now small, opening, his wide shoulders prevented him from make any progress. Deciding to give up on using his usual entrance, he tried to think of another way of getting into the cove.

It didn't take long for him to realize that his only option was to use his wings, his wings that he only started using this morning. This could get ugly. Gently opening his wings, he stretched them out and gave them an experimental flap. Instantly his feet rose off the ground about two feet, before settling back on the rocky surface.

Butterflies filled his empty stomach and made his limbs twitch in anxiety, but he also felt such elation that when he flapped his great wings again, he did so with nervous excitement. Rising off the ground, he struggled to keep himself balanced in the air as he pushed forward toward the edge of the cliff leading into the cove.

Feeling his wings peddle through the air he moved, with some level of confidence, off and over the cliff edge. Then he felt his wings seize up as he looked down at the distance between himself and the ground. It was one thing to see it from his saddle on Tootless' back, but it was another thing entirely to be the one flying above it personally. Suddenly he began to drop in altitude as his wings ceased beating, and within moments he crashed into the cold surface of the pond below him.

Stoick rose early that morning. His back felt sore and his head was pounding with the beginnings of a migraine. He'd spent most of the night brooding at his desk and sharpening his axe, which was like a strange kind of therapy for him. However he'd fallen asleep at some point, and so when he woke up that morning it was bent over at his desk in his chair.

Rubbing his temple with one hand he rose slowly out of his chair. His back protested the movement but he ignored the small pain as he stretched his back out, trying to loosen the tight muscles. He place his hands on either side of his back and leaned back into a slight arch. He felt the muscles tighten and pull but he kept at it. After a few short minutes he straightened himself up and was relieved to find that the pain had lessened some.

Finally he adjusted his clothes and chainmail from their slightly skewed state, and latched his now sharpened axe back into its holster.

When Stoick finally exited his room he was greeted with the site of a long black tail sliding out off the front door. It moved so fast that Stoick was sure he would have missed it if it weren't for the cold wind brought in by the open door. Thinking it was Toothless, probably going to the dock to get some fish, didn't think anything of it, which was until he spotted said dragon snoring loudly near the hearth.

Panic shot through him as he raced across the room the wake the sleeping creature. At the rate Hiccup had been moving, he could be a good mile or two away before he even opened the door to go after him. When Stoick shook the dragon's shoulder roughly Toothless instantly shot up, ready and alert. The dragon swung his head around to regard the chief with a look of annoyance at being rudely woken, but stopped when he caught the panicked expression on the humans face. Then the chief uttered two words that turn his blood to ice.

"HICCUP'S GONE!"

A/N: Alright I apologies for the lateness of this chapter, I'm currently working on a fairly elaborate costume for Fanime and it's been absorbing alot of my time. This one is a bit shorter then my usual updates but I'll probably be updating again tomorrow so no worries. I had fun writing for Hiccup in this chapter, I can't wait to play around with his awkwardness a bit more. And as for Stoick, well you'll see soon enough. As always you comments and advise are much appreciated. I always read through my reviews, unfortunately I didn't get around to responding to any last time but hopefully I can this time :P As always I hope you enjoy and until next chapter bye bye

-tsuchihana