Just a few quick clarifications:

Regarding HTTYD 2: I currently intend to bring in some elements of that movie, but they might not be the same as they were shown in the movie. In a similar vein, I haven't seen Riders of Berk, so there may be some differences between what was established in that series and what is shown here.

Hiccup's Age: Colbalt Sunfire pointed out to me that when I said baby Night Fury, a lot of people assumed that meant freshly hatched. That was an oversight on my part; in my mind, any Night Fury that wasn't completely independent from its parents was a baby. So, while Hiccup is still significantly younger than Toothless, he's not so young that he can't eat solid food or anything. I would put him at around three years old.

People have also raised concerns over the discrepancy between Valka's line in HTTYD 2 (the one that placed Hiccup and Toothless at around the same age), and the fact that Hiccup turned into such a young dragon. So, in order to bring this fic in line with HTTYD 2, let's just go with that the reason Hiccup deaged has nothing to do with their respective ages, and has everything to do with magic. So, in short: a witch did it! :D

Chapter 3

"So?"

"So."

Astrid and Dad were sitting at the table, appearing like they were staring at each other, but really they were looking into space. I was sitting on the tabletop between them, trying to figure out how to keep my wings closed. I hadn't had any trouble with them before, but that's because I hadn't really noticed them. Now, they seemed to flop down every time I relaxed. And I wasn't even going to get started on the awkward protrusion that was my new tail.

The table bumped. Toothless was down below, gnawing on one of the legs. Neither Astrid nor Dad seemed coherent enough to stop him.

"And the witch just died?"

"Yep," Astrid said. "Didn't leave behind a spellbook or anything."

"Oh." Dad shifted. He looked like he wanted to poke me. "Well, that's unfortunate."

"Yep."

The table bumped again, more violently. Skullcrusher had just decided to join Toothless. Unlike Toothless, he didn't really fit, and the table ended up bobbing up and down as it teetered on his back.

"Out from there." With his foot, Stoick shooed both Toothless and Skullcrusher away. "So, any suggestions on how to deal with this?"

"Not one," Astrid said. "Hiccup might have one, though."

They looked at me hopefully. I shook my head.

"Darn." Stoick drummed his fingers against the table. "I'll speak to Gothi. Maybe she'll know."

"Hopefully."

As the front door shut, signalling Dad's departure, Astrid sighed. "Guess we're postponing that picnic."

I waddled up to her, doing my best to shrug.

She giggled. "That's cute."

I scowled. I sat down and turned my head away from her, letting her know exactly how I felt –

My wings flopped open.

She giggled again.

I always hear people telling others to use their eyes more, or their ears more, or whatever assorted body part they wanted to talk about. What I don't hear is people saying to use your nose more, which is a real shame, because boy, we missed so much. Yesterday, I had been a little too wrapped up in events to notice, or maybe my brain was too busy adjusting to register the smells, but now? Wow.

I woke up to the smell of dew and sheepskin. The sheepskin was normal – what else would we make our blankets out of? Dew was an unusual scent. See, in geographic terms, Berk sits right on the Belt of No Summer, so I usually only ever saw dew as frozen beads of water. The wooden walls, damp but sturdy, carried a taste of mulch to it. Or maybe that was coming from outside; I had left my window open. Taking another breath, I could detect some of the wildflowers that grew outside my window, and with them, a cool edge of frost.

I yawned. I had no arms to stretch, but my wings filled in for them. They fell to my sides afterwards, like a loose piece of parchment. My bed sure was cozy today.

I hopped to the edge of the bed, and peered over. Odd. Where was Toothless?

Someone breathed behind me.

"Toothless! You know you're not allowed on the bed."

Toothless yawned. His teeth popped out of their sockets. He smacked his lips, and then warbled a good morning.

"Off, Toothless!" I planted my two front paws on Toothless and pushed. He stared at me curiously.

I backed off. Lowered my head and charged. Hah! Take that! Now he was moving . . .

But not from me. Toothless had rolled over to his side, but in a flash, he had hooked his paw under me and pulled me against his chest. He rolled onto his back with a very confused me sitting on top of him.

"Uh . . ."

He swatted me. Both of his paws were up, like raised fists in a fighting stance.

"Uh, no. Not happening, bud." I pounced on one leg, wrapping my own around it, and shoved it down with my chin. Toothless's leg bent under the force.

More force then? You got it! I drew myself up high, and slammed down.

But despite my earlier success, this time I merely slid off the leg and landed face-first on his chest. A strong scent of salt water and smoke greeted me.

"You smell," I told him. When he smiled in answer, a wave of fishy air slapped me in the face. I wasn't as revolted as I would usually be.

There was something else. Something sharp and biting. Metallic. I traced that down to the prosthetic. I really, really should have felt bad about that, but a little part of me was proud that I had made an impact on Toothless's personal scent. I looked for further traces of me, and observed that there was a musky undertone to his scent, and that he smelled . . . cold. It was hard to describe, but it had that same make-your-nose-hairs-stiffen effect that a gust of wind did. I couldn't find anything else that resembled me, but I also wasn't in the habit of sniffing myself, so I had no idea what to look for.

What did I smell like? Suddenly, no other question had been so interesting. I turned, trying to press my nose against my shoulder, but couldn't quite reach –

But that's what tails were for. I eyed the loose limb hungrily. It was so long, there was no way I couldn't reach it.

However, there was the unfortunate fact that my tail, well, was permanently stuck to my body. When I swung around to catch it, it swung out of my way. I shook myself. I glanced over at Toothless, who seemed putout that I wasn't wrestling with him anymore.

"Just wait a second," I said to him. I crouched, bracing myself for the hunt. "Aha!"

I charged. My tail slipped out of the way at the last second, and I couldn't stop myself . . .

"Ahh!"

It was a long fall from the bed to the floor. I had enough time for my life to flash before my eyes. It was pretty boring. Unless running away and being shout at by angry people, and failing, exploding inventions were your thing. And even if they weren't, it was only boring up until the part where I met Toothless. Then, everything was great.

As I hung there, pondering, it became apparent that the floor hadn't gotten any closer for a few seconds. I looked up.

I sighed in relief. I might have failed at catching my tail, but someone else hadn't.

"Hiccup?"

I looked at the doorway. Huh. I must have looked funny: dangling over my floor, held up only by the tip of my tail.

"Alright, Toothless, I think you can put him down," Dad said.

Toothless did so. As in he let go and let me drop. I glared at the other Viking. Thanks, Dad. At least you had the courtesy to wince.

"You okay, Hiccup?"

I was going to say yes, but Dad walked forward at the same moment a breeze came through the open window and whoa, he reeked! Toothless's scent had been musky, but Dad's was really musky. I could smell the sheepskin he had slept with too, and a wonderful cologne of manly sweat and dirt-caked grime. At the same time, his smell was relaxing. There must have been something in it that signified family.

"Hiccup?" He waved his hand in front of my eyes. I wondered what would happen if I snapped at it, but instead, I lifted my paw and pushed his away, giving him what I imagined to be a suave and indifferent stare.

Hey, I wonder what Astrid smelled like?

"Nice talk and all, Dad, but I got things to smell!" I bounded past him and out of the house, pausing only to take a deep breath of some meat boiling over the fire. Still needed to grab breakfast at some point.

Berk was different from this angle. Houses rose like mountains. The sun behind them made giant shadows that hid their lower halves. The stone steps that ran down from my house to the village square were the same height as me, so I ended up walking down the grassy slope beside it. When I did get on stone again, my claws made little clicking sounds.

I breathed deeply. By far, the strongest smell in Berk was that of fish. No surprise there; we have a few all-you-can-eat buffets set up for the dragons. The other smells? Most I didn't recognize; others were ones that I had smelt when I was human, but much stronger.

It was then that I realized I had walked into the middle of Berk. And everyone was staring.

Well, here goes nothing.

People stared. I had already known that news of my transformation had spread like wildfire. No thanks to the twins, I bet. Odin knew that the best way to spread information around was to tell it to them in confidence. The dragons, on the other hand, didn't pay me much attention. Until I got close enough to smell. Then they all perked up, nostrils flared as they tasted the familiar scent that was not supposed to belong to a dragon.

Great, they were getting closer.

"Hi." I said.

I was now surrounded by dragons. Little Terrors, about my size, clung to the necks and bodies of the others. Thunderdrums and Gronckles formed a circle that kept me from fleeing; a Nightmare had managed to force its way through. The long necks of Zipplebacks rose over top of them. An unintentional growl left my throat. I was a person who enjoyed my personal space very much, thanks. Only Toothless and Astrid were allowed to invade it whenever they wanted. The dragons' scents were all intertwined, but I found that if I focused, I could isolate's one dragon's scent from the rest, the way you could choose to listen to one conversation while others were going on around you.

A hard snout dug into my flank. I whirled around, snapping at the dragon to tell him to quit it. Then the Nightmare poked me. I went up on my back legs trying to swat his claw. When my front fell back down, it was to land on the snout of a Gronckle, who shook himself to dislodge me. Before I could recover and stand up again, a Terror leapt on me.

"Come on, get off!" I complained as the Terror crawled all over me.

All my voice did was lure in another five of them.

My head hit the ground. Great.

My wings flopped open.

Then, the dragons stilled. They were all looking toward the Great Hall, even the Terrors on top of me.

A dragon yowled.

In a burst of barks and whines, the dragons exploded into the sky. Through the cloud of wings, I caught glimpse of a black creature bounding toward me. Not just any creature – a certain Night Fury. Toothless skidded to a stop beside me, snapping at and chasing off the last Terror, and then bumped me with his head.

I patted him as best as I could. "Thank you."

"It is him," I heard someone exclaim.

Yep. Showtime. I extended my wings. Attempted to. Didn't quite work the first time. I got them halfway out before I had to close them and then try again.

"There we go." I balanced as best as I could on my back legs. "Yes, everyone it's true: I'm a Night Fury. Don't really know how, don't really know when I'll turn back, so everyone's just going to have to deal with it. Uh, haven't been able to talk to dragons so far, so don't ask about that. I would also prefer if you didn't tease Astrid about her boyfriend being a dragon. Remember, I'm the chief's son, so you don't want to get on my bad side. Any questions?"

Everyone just stared at me.

"Whoa, there!" Toothless had just come up behind me, and had nearly lifted me with his snout. "Careful, I'm still not used to this whole dragon-thing."

He got me off the ground, then. I curled up on top of his head, right between his ears. His scales were warm from the sun. Perfect.

"Oi! So this is where our dragon-boy has gotten off to."

"Hey, Gobber." The tip of my tail flicked as I said that. I swear I didn't tell it to do that.

"Well, this is a bit of a doozy, ain't it?" Gobber walked up to me and crouched so that we were eye-level. He carried a very strong stench that I bet matched the forge – as in molten metal and burning wood. I had to remind myself not to be grossed out because I probably smelt the same a good three days out of every week.

Gobber lifted my chin with his hook. Then tried to pry my mouth open, although I fought him on that. He did take the time to pluck at my tail, though.

"Are we absolutely sure this is Hiccup," Gobber asked, "and not just some poor, baby Night Fury?"

I lifted my paw and pointed at myself. A very Viking-ish and not dragon-ish move.

"Well, alrighty then."

A melodic voice floated into the midst of our one-sided conversation. "Believe me, I wish it wasn't true."

"Astrid!" I would have leapt to my feet, but Toothless was faster. His head whipped around fast, and I had to keep lying there in order to stay on. See, Toothless loved Astrid. In his eyes – and in my Dad's - she was as good as family.

He ran over to her with me bobbing precariously on his head, claws trying to find a hold. My whole body vibrated as Toothless hummed, responding to Astrid's scratching.

"Don't you look beautiful, today," I said to her. Her hair was radiant in the sunlight, and it was also making her eyes sparkle. She smelled nice too; there was none of that musk that followed Toothless, Dad and Gobber around. Plus, her voice . . . as a human I had never been able to hear all the little inflections and layers that made it. By the time I would be able to speak again, I would have a whole new set of compliments to dazzle her with.

Was this strange? Mulling over all the flattery that I, a dragon, could give her? As I said, I was a dragon, now. But mentally, I was definitely human, and the human side of me most definitely still considered Astrid my girlfriend.

"How are you feeling?" she asked me.

I nodded. "Good, good."

I heard and smelt them before I saw the other teens, and quickly scanned through each of their scents for future reference. It was then I finally noticed the pattern: the musk seemed to be following the males around. Guess that was how dragons determined gender.

"Aw, there's my little killer!"

Ruffnut descended. I backed away and some sharp noise – a squawk, I think – exploded from my chest. I had no idea what it was, or why I had done that, but Toothless suddenly snapped to attention. In one smooth move, he tipped his head so that I slid off, snatched me up in a wing, and deposited me between his front paws. He hunched over at the shoulders, wings curling forward and leaving only a small gap in front of me. I heard Ruffnut shuffle closer; Toothless shied away from the sound, teeth bared.

I looked up. "Toothless, what was that?"

Toothless ignored me. He glared at something, maybe Ruffnut.

Interesting.

I tried to make the sound again, but it didn't come out as loud or sharp as it did before. It caught Toothless's attention though. He cocked his head and made what I called his dok dok dok sound. Kind of like the sound you hear when you repeatedly hit a hollow tube of wood.

So I squawked again. Toothless cocked his head to the other side. I squawked, drawing him in closer.

By the fourth squawk, he was rubbing his cheek against my back and purring. A warm tongue dragged itself across my neck.

Whispers. When I looked up, Astrid stepped back from Ruffnut. She rolled her eyes, but there was a bright smile on her face.

"Fine," Astrid said. "I'll admit it: that was adorable."

I smiled in her direction. It was okay if Astrid said that.

Hey, hold on a second. Had I just talked to Toothless? Okay, 'talked', since I had absolutely no idea what I had said, if anything. But his reaction to my squawking hadn't been like the befuddled reactions of the dragons yesterday.

Holy crap.

I could speak to dragons.

. . . kind of.

Review Responses

a random person: No, he doesn't. And that's why we love him!

Snowflake: Well, it could have been worse. It could have been Snotlout-in-dragon-form instead ;)

Jazz: That's because I don't know what day it is :) It'll probably be Thursday-ish.

As of now, no. Against the Grain is not happening. I didn't like the way that story turned out, so I'm canceling it.

dragon lifespan: Yay! A debate! I would say it all depends on what you define as a long lifespan. From what I've gathered, Vikings had a relatively short lifespan, so you could argue that even 200 years is still a much longer lifespan than your average Viking. Personally, I would cap it at 500 years, and then only for certain breeds. A few thousand years is definitely way too long due to the overpopulation issue you brought up.

That said, I would argue that the 10:1 death ratio from HTTYD also doesn't mean much, as it implies that dragons are only killed by Vikings, it's applicable only to the dragons that were attacking Berk, and it was said in the heat of the moment where I doubt that either Stoick and Hiccup were bringing up actual statistics instead of exaggerating to try to make a point. Also, Nile Crocodiles are estimated to live between 70-100 years, and they lay about 50 eggs per year, so I don't think the 6 hatchings/year is that significant (in my head, crocodiles are definitely a relative of dragons :D)... No idea if that last thing added to the debate at all, but I thought it was a fun fact. But ANYWAYS, I'd be happy to keep talking to you about this. I love discussing dragon headcanon :)

Funny you would bring up Eragon, because I think that's an even worse offender than this fandom with the long-lifespan thing. I mean in Eragon there were (back in the heyday?) mountain-sized dragons flying around that lived for thousands of years ... how did they not drive everything to extinction? Like, what did they eat? XD

anonymouse: Let's just say everyone is adorable!