A/n: A mix of requests from TNT and trystrike - the main idea and a smaller detail, respectively. I hope I got the personality right for Jack the Sneaky, but at least I gave it my best shot. And it was actually really fun to write - much more so than I expected, anyway.
For reference, it's set just after the T-Rex chapter.

Hiccup was starting to see the possible upsides of the whole 'deafness' thing. The twins had been talking to him nonstop for the last ten minutes, and, though he could actually understand what they were saying entirely, the twins believed that he still couldn't hear.

It was amusing, to say the least. So far they'd managed to reveal quite a number of secrets about themselves, and a number about Snotlout - it was surprising just how much they actually knew about Snotlout, really.

"Ooh! Tell him about the time Snotlout tried to sell Hookfang after he did the opposite of what he asked for an entire week!"

"Yeah, that's great! He'll never even hear it!"

Yes, having people believe that you can't hear was brilliant.

Truthfully, he'd had his hearing back for the past day; it had come back completely just a few hours after he originally woke up. He'd actually told the twins this on several occasions - it wasn't his fault that they lacked the brain cells to retain and process the information.

"Hiccup!"

"Heh, silly Astrid," Tuffnut laughed as Hiccup turned to the source of the shout. "He can't hear you!" He turned to Hiccup then, waving a hand in his face. "Your girlfriend wants you." he said slowly.

Hiccup smiled. Well, at least they're looking out for me...

"What is it, Astrid?" he asked, approaching her and slightly glad that he was out of the twins' earshot; he could keep the charade up for longer now - not that the twins would realise even if they could hear him.

"There's someone at the shore." she explained. "Washed up just now, keeps babbling stuff..."

"From another tribe?" he guessed, noticing Astrid's reluctance to speak of him. The last thing he needed was a repeat of the Heather incident, but at least he wouldn't make the mistake of putting his trust in a stranger rather than Astrid this time.

"Not quite... he's just a bit... weird."

Weird, as it turned out, was an understatement. Dressed from head to toe in the thick, scaly skin of what Hiccup assumed - but desperately hoped he was wrong - was a dragon, the newcomer was brandishing a bone - from the leg, if Hiccup had to guess - as a club, and sporting a skull as a helmet.

"Who are you?" Hiccup asked, slightly awkwardly. The stranger turned to stare at him, wide eyes piercing through him - as if the mad glint in them wasn't enough. The man turned to regard the rest of the group surrounding him, and Hiccup wasn't sure whether the fact that his expression appeared to be a permanent one was a comfort of not. Deciding to take it as a positive sign, Hiccup soldiered on with a reiteration: "Your name?"

"Jack!" the man - Jack, if his random shout could be assumed as a name - snapped to the air. "Jack the Sneaky!"

"I... see..." Hiccup said slowly, not sure how to respond. "Any reason why your boat landed on Berk, or..."

"I'm hungry." Jack offered by way of explanation.

"Oh. Okay." Well, at least he's being honest... "You can come to the hall then; we'll get you something to eat there."

"This is great!" Jack complimented, devouring yet another chicken leg. "What is it?"

"A... uh... a chicken leg." For all the strange people he had to deal with on a daily basis, Hiccup found himself unable to remain calm when dealing with them far too often. He made a mental note to do something about that later - how to deal with you weirdo, sounded about right... - "Um, Jack?"

"Yeah?" he looked up from his chicken leg, apparently not seeing anything odd about the situation.

"What's with the..." Hiccup gestured towards Jack's attire, for lack of a better explanation.

"The skin and bones?" Jack asked, grinning. "They're not from these, don't worry." he gestured to Toothless, who growled at him.

('Easy bud.' Hiccup warned.)

"They're from dinosaurs."

"Dinosaurs?" Hiccup repeated. Jack must've mistaken his interest for confusion, because he launched into a detailed explanation of them.

"Yeah. Massive things. Look a bit like your dragons, actually. Can't spit fire, though, and can't fly or anything. A bit disappointing, really; these guys look much more interesting!"

"I know what they are," Hiccup revealed, "I've seen one. Or, more to the point, heard one. But where were you, to find so many of them?"

"An island." Jack supplied helpfully. "No idea where. Was absolutely full of 'em though."

"Well, maybe you could help us!"

"Help? You got dinosaurs here?"

While it was a bit off-putting to see him start to get excited at the prospect of seeing a dinosaur, Hiccup was grateful that he wasn't refusing the request. Berk's dinosaur problems may have been avoided for a while - Astrid had driven it off with the help of some thunderdrums (apparently it wasn't too glad to meet something louder than it) - but it was really only a matter of time until a more permanent solution would become necessary - after all, it couldn't leave the island by the air or the water, so it was definitely still on Berk.

"One, yes." Hiccup confirmed. "Pretty big, very loud."

"Did it have tiny arms and a massive head?"

Hiccup thought back. Honestly, he'd been thinking things more along the lines of oh gods why is it so loud how could hearing hurt so much than ah look, it has abnormally proportioned features. Fascinating. "Maybe," he shrugged, "I didn't get that good a look. Maybe Astrid knows."

"Maybe Astrid knows what?"

Speak of the devil, and she shall appear. "Hey Astrid! We were discussing the dinosaur we found. Did it have small arms, a big head?"

"Yeah." Astrid replied after a moment's thought. She continued, head tilted slightly: "Why do you need to know?"

"It's a T-Rex, then!" Jack said triumphantly. His grin did nothing to help Hiccup's outlook on the situation.

"Great." he said dully. "So, is there any significance to that?"

"Well, it means that it's the type to eat people," Of course, Jack would be excited at the thought, "but not much else."

"Lovely."

"What do we do to get rid of it?" Astrid asked, lightly elbowing Hiccup to stop his sarcasm.

At that question, Jack grinned. "Leave it to me."

"Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"Relax! It'll be fine!"

In Hiccup's defence, there hadn't been much evidence that the plan was going to work. Jack's muttered "probably" only heightened that.

It didn't help that the new plan was to tempt the dinosaur with some strange meat Jack had grabbed from the remains of his boat. After hearing that dinosaurs were much less intelligent than any dragon, and decidedly less trainable, such inhibitions were only natural.

"Okay... so what should I do?" Hiccup asked. He'd been told that he needed to be there - not that he'd be letting Jack out of his sight any time soon - but never given any reason why.

"Stand there and watch my brilliance!" Jack grinned.

Hiccup rolled his eyes, but didn't argue further. "Fine. Just get on with it."

Jack nodded, his grin widening even further. "Here, Rexy!" he yelled, cupping his hands over his mouth. It was met with an equally loud roar.

"Let's go!" he shouted to Hiccup, charging forwards with his bone-club outstretched.

Hiccup was quite glad, now, that his instructions had been to stay back and watch. Not that he would've been able to do anything anyway; he had been told to leave Toothless behind - the night fury was no more pleased than he was at the idea - so he felt quite defenceless.

The T-Rex - it really did have small arms, Hiccup noticed - was towering in front of them, roaring in response to every one of Jack's shouted insults. So far, neither had tried anything.

Jack took the initiative, rushing in to thwack the dinosaur's leg with the bone. For all his bravado, he seemed quite useless; the hit did nothing but enrage it further.

"Is that your plan?" Hiccup asked, backing away a bit and hoping that his 'safe distance' really was safe.

"Yeah! You bet you're scared! Weak as a stegosaurus, you are!"

"Grooar!"

Ah. He wasn't actually listening.

Jack pulled out the strange meat then, waving it as high as possible - around the height of the T-Rex's ankles. It has an instantaneous effect; the dinosaur stopped immediately, bent down as far is it could with its ridiculous proportions, and sniffed it. The roar that came out next was slightly less sure of itself.

"Ha ha!" Jack shouted triumphantly, bouncing around and waving the flesh like a madman. "Knew you were scared! Yes, I vanquished this beast - just as I will vanquish you!"

"That's great and all," Hiccup muttered, fully expecting to be ignored again, "but couldn't you just get rid of it now?"

"What would the fun be in that?" Jack pouted. Of course, he hears me now. "Okay, okay, bossy-pants. I'm getting rid of him."

And then, Jack rushed up to the dinosaur, scrambling up its back to land on the creature's head. He tugged on its jaw, leading it away and over to the edge of the island.

Hiccup watched in slack-jawed amazement as both Jack and dinosaur stepped into the ocean.

"Bye!" the man yelled, waving wildly to Hiccup as he disappeared into the ocean.

"What... but... what?"