Chapter 26

"Dinnertime!"

I had eaten not very long ago, and yet, when I heard that one word, my ears immediately perked up and saliva pooled in my mouth. Guess I was a bit more dragon than I thought. The dragon lady rattled her staff, and tapped a dozing Snotlout on the head. Moaning, he rubbed his eyes and stared at her.

"I'm not hungry," he complained.

"Oh, you don't want to miss this." Chuckling, she took a step back, ending up right in front of Cloudjumper when he touched down. She didn't even turn to look at the dragon. All she needed to do was reach up, and the claw-point of Cloudjumper's wing fit itself into her hand. He lifted her up, and onto his back.

"Here!" She waved, whistled sharply, and a Nadder landed before us, and lowered herself to the ground. "She'll carry you. "

Even though I knew Snotlout had experience riding Stormfly, he didn't seem very comfortable with the Nadder. He looked at me uncertainly. He didn't seem to really want to talk to me, which was fine with me because I didn't exactly want to talk to him either.

"Are you coming?" he asked.

Not with him. I took off and circled them both, barking at them to hurry up.

"When did you learn to do that?"

I ignored him.

The stranger said, "Let's go!"

Night Furies were fast, but I was young. So, I don't know if I honestly caught up with them, or if Cloudjumper and the Nadder had slowed down for me. We joined a crowded mass of dragons streaking for the exits. If I hadn't figured out flying earlier, there was no way I would have been able to navigate this. Even still, I found my eyes drifting close from time to time, just so I could regain that intimacy with the air. There were so many dragons, so many flashes of colors, and scales passing in front of my nose, that navigating by sight alone was difficult. So, I let my eyes close, and saw instead the trails others left, and the rise and falls of the air currents.

My eyes were still closed when we left the crystal fortress, and I only knew we were outside by the feel of the sun on my back. Well, that and the smell. The air was much fresher outside, where it wasn't crammed with the scents of a thousand dragons. I opened my eyes, finding it easier to fly now that the space had increased and the dragons had spread out.

I dropped down to fly between the dragon lady and Snotlout. The latter clung to his dragon, head against the neck, and his hair fluttering behind him. On the other hand, the dragon lady was crouched on Cloudjumper, not even needing her hands to hang on.

"Where are we going?" Snotlout asked.

"You'll see."

The dragons stopped in what appeared to be the middle of the ocean, and started circling. We joined them, although I had no reason why . . .

What was that?

A huge, underwater shadow moved towards us. I thought it was a whale, or maybe a couple of them, until the first of his majesty's spines broke through the surface. An involuntarily shiver went down my spine. Was this a hunt, led by the mighty king himself?

"Here we go!" the stranger said.

The king's silhouette stopped below us. I watched him, and waited. Waited . . .

With a mighty splash, the king's head appeared. A massive spout of water flew upwards, and with it, dozens of small, silver gleams shot towards us –

Fish! I knew that smell anywhere.

And it became a nuthouse as dragons swooped and dove everywhere, snapping up airborne fish in their hungry jaws. The dragon lady laughed, and held her hands out carelessly until a fish dropped into it. Snotlout's Nadder ignored his command and began to catch fish of her own. Even I got one. I couldn't help it – it had flown right at me.

"See," the dragon lady said, "Hiccup likes fresh fish."

"He's not going to eat it," Snotlout said.

He was right, of course. Instead, I glided towards him, and let go of it in such a way that momentum carried it straight into Snotlout's face.

He peeled it off himself with a scowl. "Hilarious."

"He is a very unique dragon," the dragon lady said. "I've never met any like him before."

"He's special, alright," Snotlout grumbled. He stiffened when I hissed at him.

She asked, "Is that why he's named after your cousin?"

"I guess."

The dragon lady seated herself on Cloudjumper's back, but kept fidgeting like she was sitting on an ant nest. "How is he? Does he look like Stoick?"

"Not really," Snotlout said.

"Oh. Well, he was a small baby."

"You knew Hiccup?" we both said at the same time, although only one of us could be understood.

". . .I saw him when I visited Berk and tried to talk them out of killing dragons. He was only a baby."

With an small, kind of inappropriate bark of laughter, Snotlout said, "That would have been a bad time. That was around the time Stoick's wife was killed by dragons."

She took a long time to answer. "I suppose it is."

Snotlout heard the pause, too. It seemed to stir his curiosity. With his eyes fixed on the dragon lady's face, he asked, "Where did you come from? Is there a whole village of dragon riders?"

"No, I am the only . . . we are the only."

"Other than the rest of Berk," Snotlout pointed out. "You should check it out. They'd love to meet another dragon rider."

"No!" She said that too quickly. "I'm not welcome there anymore."

"Things have changed," Snotlout said. "Even if Stoick still doesn't like you, Hiccup could probably talk him into it."

"It's best if I stay away."

An unseen weight settled over us. The feeding frenzy continued around us, but most of the energy seemed to have been lost, like we were only dreaming. Cloudjumper returned to the Nest first, and Snotlout's Nadder fed longer before following.

I left between those times. It's not like I was hungry, and I didn't really want to be left with Snotlout. The dragon lady seemed happy to see me when I approached. Well, happy-ish. Smelt fine, but her smile was brittle and felt like it would shatter if I poked her too hard.

"Hiccup . . . Hiccup. . ." She worked my name over, practically massaging it with her tongue.

"Wonderful name, I know."

She ignored me. "You'd think after twenty years would have wiped his face from my mind, but it feels like it was just yesterday."

I froze. My skin crawled.

"You have his eyes." Her cupped hand traced the curve of my cheek, moving from that to the underside of my chin. "They're different colors, but they have that same little spark. I suppose that's why you're named after him. That or your personality . . . but I wouldn't know that."

As the melancholy took her over, I wriggled away from her hand. This was weird. Weird to the point of being frightening. Who was this woman, what was her history with Berk, and why was I factoring in so much? Was it because I was the Chief's son - she'd obviously tried to discuss dragons with a pre-Toothless Dad, so maybe she was hoping to have better luck when his heir came of age? These were all questions that begged to be answered, but there was no way for me to ask her without blowing my cover. But there was someone I could ask.

It seemed like a lifetime later, but the king finally emerged. He must have entered through some underwater tunnel. He exhaled a cloud of hot air and seawater, which rose and condensed on the ice ceiling. I waited until he dragged himself back to his personal lake, and then landed on a rock before him.

I bowed. Your majesty.

He looked at me with one eye open. Hiccup.

I suddenly felt very, very awkward. Like I had been rummaging through someone's room, only to realize that they were there with me. Sorry to bother you . . . I just wanted to ask a few questions , if you don't mind.

His eye closed. Speak.

The . . . uh . . . the human, how did she find you?

I knew Cloudjumper was back with the stranger, but an image of him, faint and translucent, flashed in front of me. He brought her, the king said. He sensed a kinship with her, and brought her here.

And that's it?

The king shifted, so that his chin rested on his front paws. If she had desired to return, I would have seen it done, but she wished to stay.

But where did she come from?

Faraway. From a human settlement. The rest I believe she wishes to be kept private.

I cringed like a dragon facing its yelling owner. Sorry, I was just curious.

Curiosity is a minor crime, but tread carefully. I doubt she realizes you understand as much as you do.

Understood. For all that the king laid in his lake, he seemed to know everything that was going on.

. . . I was proven wrong not a few seconds later when he asked, How do you communicate with Snotlout?

We grew up together, I said dismissively. So he generally has an idea of what I want. If not, there's only so many ways you can interpret a growl, and when it's really complicated, I can always write to him.

Write? The question was pushed forward carefully, like a hand being offered to a skittish dog.

Yes, writing . . .wait, you can't read? Genuinely stunned, I asked, How do you and the human communicate?

I have learned much of her speech over the years. Her desires and wants are straight-forward and simple; understanding them is not difficult. That which I cannot divine or my senses fail to detect is told to me by the others.

But you don't have any way to directly communicate with her.

No, I do not. She is quite able to express herself to me through speech, but I cannot return the favour.

She might not be able to write anyways . . .

Show me.

I blinked. Uh, sure. I can do that.

I heard amusement in his tone. You need not demonstrate. You can send me words; send me an image.

The first piece of literature that came to mind was, of course, the Dragon Manual. I sent him a quick page of that, which may or may not have been about the species of yours truly.

She can write, the king said. She used to make similar symbols in the early days of her arrival.

I have time, I said. I could always show you how to write with your claw.

His head tilted slightly to one side, almost like Toothless when he was curious. He lifted one foreleg and . . . oh. Maybe this wasn't going to work . . . No, it wasn't. The king, he didn't exactly have toes. Well, he did, but they were all webbed together like the ones on a seal's flippers. The claws themselves seemed frail. I know, crazy – especially since each one was bigger than me. But proportion-wise, they seemed smaller than mine. Even if they weren't, he wasn't going to be able to separate one claw from the rest and use it to write.

"This isn't going to work," I mumbled.

He must have read my body language, because he lowered his paw again with a deep sigh. The king clearly thought this was a lost cause, but he had never dealt with a determined Viking before. And now that I actually had a dragon who wanted to learn (Because Toothless had been more interested in chasing my hand) . . .

I flashed back, and had an idea.

Are there any large, shipwrecked boats around?

There is, the king said, although he obviously didn't know why I was asking. Translucent images, like the one I saw of Cloudjumper earlier, lit up our surroundings as the king passed on the knowledge of how to get there.

I'll be back! I told the king. I took off, and zipped around the area until I found a group of suitably large dragons.

I squawked at them, drawing their interest. I didn't know how to tell them to follow me, so I looped around instead, hoping curiosity would be enough. I don't think it was, but the dragons suddenly perked up and glanced in the direction of the king. I'm betting he told them to follow me.

I led my merry group out into the wilderness. Even though I knew from the king's visions that it was close, I didn't think it was as close as it was. The ship was in a field of icebergs; not only that, but the ship had been partially encased in ice. The entire back half was frozen solid, leaving the front half sticking out like a thorn.

"Here we are." I landed on the deck with the others. "Okay, what I need now is to cut down that mast."

I illustrated this by clawing and gnawing at the mast's base. It took them awhile, but eventually a couple of them started scratching at the mast. Then one Boulder class dragon had the bright idea to ram it, and things went a lot quicker.

"Timber!"

The severed mast toppled backwards, slamming into the iceberg and creating a small shower of ice flakes.

"And now to take this back."

My entourage hurried the mast back to the nest, attracting a lot of stares. They dropped the mast in the water before the king, bowed, and then went their separate ways.

The king stared at it. Hiccup?

You can use that instead of your claws, I said – projected – in a rush. You can hold it in your mouth and write with that, as long as you don't break it. It worked for Toothless, so it should work for you. We're going to need a big space though.

He picked up the mast in his teeth. It looked like a toothpick. Hopefully, it wouldn't snap on the first try.

I fluttered upward, scanning the area until I found area that might be big enough for an impromptu writing lesson. I signalled to the king, then stood back as he made his way over.

The more I watched him move, the more sense it made that he was an aquatic dragon, and the more sense it made that he spent most of his time stationary in his lake. As I've mentioned several times, the king was very, very big. But that also meant he was very, very heavy, and it must have taken an incredible amount of energy to move all that weight on land. He walked with slow, laborious steps. When he raised himself to see our canvas properly, he climbed up the cliff with his front paws, unable to simply rear up on his hind legs.

I've never taught anybody to write or read before, but here goes nothing.

It wasn't long before we encountered the first problem. I was showing the king how certain symbols related to certain sounds, and had drawn some runes in the dirt when he told me, I cannot see. It is too small.

I can draw it bigger, I said, wondering just how big was big enough.

That is unnecessary, he said. With your permission, I can see it through your eyes.

. . . okay.

I didn't know what to expect. When it happened though, all I felt was a pressure in my mind, like there was something trying to push its way out of my skull. I still had full control and it didn't feel all that unnatural. In a way, it was soothing.

I don't know if I was a great teacher, if the king was just that intelligent, or our connected minds somehow allowed him to inherit knowledge from me, but he picked up reading at a godly pace. There was definitely no human, alive or dead, that could match him. Writing was harder. Don't blame him; experience had taught me that carving out letters with a stick in your mouth was painstakingly slow at best, and infuriating at worst. Doubly so when you were so big any sudden movement could snap it.

The strange activity had quickly attracted an audience. Numerous dragons popped by, curious to see what had captured their king's attention. Most of them watched for a bit and then left. A few didn't leave. These, I noticed, were mostly the elderly dragons.

It was inevitable that the rotating crowd of dragons and his majesty's performance lured the one couple I was hoping would not take notice, the one couple that I really, really should have thought about before embarking on this whole endeavour. Cloudjumper landed to the side of our canvas, strutting forward as his rider slipped off to stand on her own feet.

"What's going on here?" she asked. She stared at the mast being held by his majesty, and then at the furrows in the ground, not yet piecing together what those lines had created.

My heart dropped into my stomach. That's it. We were busted. There was no way -

The king picked up his paw, dug his claws in and erased his writing with a swipe. The stranger stopped mid-step. For a long second, her eyes were locked on a spot where a furrow had been. She slowly looked up at the king, and in that hesitation, I could hear her thoughts clearly: Why are you keeping this from me? What did I do wrong?

The king blew a halo of snow at her, as a placating gesture. But his eyes were focused on me. You fear her discovering what you are capable of. You fear her discovering who you really are.

I . . .

I know you are not dragon.

My blood turned to ice. Before I could say anything, the king backed away, and settled on all fours. As he turned away to dive into the water, he said, Come outside. It is time you told me the truth.

Review Responses:

Guest (#2): I'm not sure what you're asking for here. I understand that you would like to see a case where Hiccup turns back and one where he doesn't, but I'm afraid this story can only end with one or the other.

MM: Oh the irony in your first review! I definitely agree with you though. Snotlout isn't a monster. He has major self-deprecation and self-esteem issues, however.

Snowflake: Thank you!

Guest (#1): Thank you! I suppose it was hard for the filmmakers to develop a character who they killed off, what, ten minutes after he was introduced? X)

a random person: I think it is safe to say that Hiccup is the weirdest dragon Valka has ever met.

Noctus Fury: And now I know!

I know that it would be more interesting to actually show what happened, but this is a first-person Hiccup POV, and to suddenly jump POVS like that would completely break the rules of the story. I liken it to the DA's situation in the last book of Harry Potter. Sure it would have been great to read about the DA's resistance against Snape, probably more so then Harry and co's Epic Camping Trip, but it would have broken all of Rowling narrative conventions. Plus, I like Hiccup's head, and am not too keen to start delving into the narrative of the other Vikings.

Perhaps they'll claim that Hiccup had ventured on an epic camping trip of his own ;)