A lot of people have asked if Hiccup is now able to speak dragon. The answer is potentially. Hiccup now has the capacity to understand and communicate with them, but only once he's learned the "language". The reason that's in quotes is because some of dragon speech is non-verbal, so he has to figure all of that out too.

Chapter 2

"This is terrible. Terrible! I'm a dragon. A dragon! Not even a big one. I'm a hatchling. Dad's going to kill me for this. No, he's going to completely freak out, and then he'll kill me!"

I moaned. I meant to grab my head, but I had forgotten I now needed four legs to stand. So I just face-planted into the ground.

I rolled over. "Help me."

The other teens stared.

Ruffnut burst out, "He's adorable!"

What? I got back to my feet, but wasn't fast enough to avoid Ruffnut.

"Look at him!" She gushed. One hand was splayed across my stomach, holding me to her chest. The other was poking me in the cheek with each word she spoke. "Aren't you a cute, bloodthirsty, little Night Fury?"

Astrid scowled. "Ruff . . ."

She laughed. "Relax, Astrid. I'm not hitting on your boyfriend. You have to admit he's cute."

She pinched my cheek and tugged. I tried to shove her away, but that just made her go, "Aww!"

"Give him to me!" Astrid, my saviour, snatched me away. She held me under the armpits, holding me out as far from her as she could. "Guys, what are we going to do about this?"

Silence.

Toothless whined. He bounded up to where Astrid was holding me and sat patiently.

I squirmed. Astrid got the point and set me down where Toothless, in his haste, rammed me hard with his snout and flipped me over. He sniffed, maybe to double-check that it was really me, and then dragged me toward him by the tail. He laid down, one leg on either side of me.

"You're enjoying this, aren't you?" I said to him.

He nuzzled me. Then he licked my face.

"We need to get back to Berk," Astrid declared.

"Yes, I agree!" I said.

"What about the witch?" Snotlout asked.

"See if she has any books on her," I told him. "It could give us a clue how to reverse this."

"Check if she has anything on her," Astrid said. "We might be able to figure out how to cure him."

"Okay, what about Toothless?" Ruffnut asked. "Doesn't he need Hiccup to fly?"

"Astrid can take him," I said. "I showed her how to fly Toothless."

"I'll take him," Astrid said. "Hiccup taught me the basics of how to work the tailfin, just in case . . . well, in case something like this happened."

"Uh, I just said that," I told her. She ignored me, as did everyone else. "Why are you repeating everything I say?"

I had tried to approach her, but one of my too-many legs tripped me up. I laid there, staring at what I realized were not fingers anymore, but toes.

I was struck by a thought: could the other Vikings still understand me?

"Astrid? Hey, Astrid! Can you hear me?"

She didn't respond.

"Oh, no . . ."

Things had just gone from bad to worse.

I screamed up at Toothless. "Toothless, blink twice if you understand me."

He stared at me.

He licked my face.

Forget worse. We were doomed.

I had honestly thought that turning into a dragon would have engraved the secret knowledge of dragon speech into my brain. Apparently not, though, as none of them were responding to my flurry of barks and howls, and I couldn't understand their noises either. I could see them concentrating, trying to figure out what I was saying, but nothing so far. Somehow, becoming the same species just made me even more alien to them.

I was nestled in Astrid's lap, the tip of my tail resting against Toothless's saddle. So far, she had gotten Toothless safely into the air with little trouble. No, the trouble had been getting on Toothless in the first place. Every time Astrid had tried to climb on with me onto the saddle, Toothless had moved away and turned so that he could stare at me. While everyone was caught in various degrees of shock, he seemed utterly delighted by my affliction.

"Astrid, you okay?" Fishlegs called out from somewhere behind us.

"Fine!" she shouted back. "Don't worry about me, I can handle this . . ."

I heard the gears click.

We fell out of the sky, leaving an echoing trail of screams.

"Sorry!" Astrid clung tight to Toothless as he climbed back up. "My foot slipped."

I buried my head in my arms.

Apart from the occasional cooing from Ruffnut, it was pretty quiet flying back. Normally, the journey back home would be filled with enthusiastic retellings of our latest battle, illustrated by the elaborate arm movements and flailing of one Snotlout Jorgenson. Not this time. I think the thought of how Dad was going to react had damped the mood a little.

Astrid landed farther from Berk than she usually would, giving herself time to slip off Toothless before anyone noticed. She held me close to her, doing her best to hide me from any prying eyes and ran for my house.

"Stoick! Are you here? It's me, Astrid!" She knocked on the door violently. I feared it would crack. Behind us, Toothless barked.

The door swung open.

"Astrid!"

I knew dragons had sharp hearing, but I hadn't expected it to be like this. Dad's voice boomed through my skull, as if seeking to crush it, and I curled into a ball of agony.

"I see you all are back. How's my favourite daughter-in-law?" Her grip around me tightened as Dad wrapped her in a brief hug, and then a tremor went through us both as he slapped her on the back. "I see Toothless is here, too. Where's Hiccup gone off to?"

"Well, you see . . ."

"Taking care of business, isn't he?" Dad laughed. "That's my boy! Always working. Has he shown you what he's got down at the forge? You see, he's been playing around with some metal crafting . . ."

My heart stopped. He wouldn't.

" . . . and you remember that little figurine you were admiring when the traders came by?"

He WOULD. I wanted to cry. He was ruining the surprise!

My pained groan attracted Dad's attention. For the first time, he spied the tiny bundle – aka. Me – in Astrid's arms.

"Astrid," he whispered, "is that . . .?"

I felt her wince. "Stoick, I am so sorry . . ."

"Shh . . ." He held a hand up, silencing her. "I don't believe it. Hiccup finally found another one."

"It's not what you think . . ."

"Why, hello there, little guy!" Dad grabbed one of my hands – paws, whatever – and shook it up and down. "Nice to meet you. You can just call me Uncle Stoick."

"He's not a dragon," Astrid cut in. "I mean he is, but he's not –"

"Oh, a girl, then? Sorry, my mistake." Against Astrid's protest, he took me from her. The sun was hot on my back as he held me up in front of his face. "Don't you worry, sweetheart. We're going to take good care of you."

He leaned in, and rubbed his nose against mine. If I could still blush, I would have. Not for myself, but for him. Dad was going to be so embarrassed.

"Stoick . . ."

"Where did he find her?" Dad asked. By this point, Toothless was jumping around on his hind legs trying to reach me. Dad obediently lowered his arms so that Toothless could sniff. "Did the parents come, too?"

"Hiccup didn't find him," Astrid said.

"Oh? Did she find him, then?" He smiled at me, and stroked my head. I counted down the seconds until the explosion. Three. Two. One . . .

"Stoick, that is Hiccup."

Dad's hand froze mid-stroke. He slowly turned me to look him in the eye.

I raised a paw in greeting, and smiled.

Review Response:

Jazz: Once a week sounds good, so I'll go with that for now. If I finish the story early, I'll bump it up to twice a week again.

Nameless: Thank you!

a random person: Great ideas, however, I think I already know how Hiccup will be turning back. Thanks for the suggestions, though!

Guest: Are you going to be mad if I say yes? I'm sorry if you don't like it, but the current plot I have in mind for this fic makes it essential that Hiccup is a baby and not just a small Night Fury. Sorry?

Aguest: He's like Toothless, but with 10x the adorableness!

Snowflake: I'm going with the fandom idea that dragons have much longer lifespans. Hence, why Hiccup translates into such a young dragon