Hiccu- no, Hikroh, he had to get used to being called that, sat at his desk mulling over an old tailfin schematic. Nearby, Toothless watching him from his rock with lidded eyes, head resting against the slab. Well, he was trying to focus on the design but his mind kept wandering to all the events that had been happening in the last few days.

To say moving into the fire nation was a bit a transition would be the understatement of the century. Not only had he switched between three radically different lifestyles in a mere few months, there were so many seemingly mundane and insignificant skills he was completely clueless about. One absolutely essential thing was reading. Thankfully, his uncle was more than willing to give him some tutoring in between bouts of discussing engineering.

He had finally been able to get a good look at those metal ships. They were even more massive up close, way larger than any Viking ship which looked like dinghies in comparison. Though that feeling of awe at everything around him was starting to become normal, he didn't know if he would ever truly be able to get used to the extravagance of the fire nation. But even the extravagance of the fire nation at large paled in comparison to his new 'home' life. He'd heard that his family was noble, but he didn't realize what that truly meant when he first arrived. His household had servants, and not just one or two, but an entire staff of them! They ranged from housekeepers to chefs and they even lived in their own back wing of the house. The house itself was huge, with multiple floors and more space than ten huts from Berk put together. It really put into perspective how far he had traveled. The lifestyle out here was almost unrecognizable to Berk. And to top it all off, there was plenty of roof space to lounge on with Toothless.

The food had some familiar elements. Seafood was big in both places, but in the Fire Nation everything had so many more spices, and mutton was generally replaced with poultry as the main non-aquatic meat. There was also rice. A lot of rice. But the difference in cuisine made sense considering the incredible variety of animals on this continent. The archipelago's wildlife was mostly limited to sheep, boar, birds, and of course, dragons. But here, the variety was vast, from turtle ducks to tigerdillos, most of which simply didn't exist in the archipelago. Because of this massive amount of biodiversity, people didn't seem to mind Toothless, especially after he flashed them his puppy dog eyes. But how much of that acceptance came from his family's status he didn't quite know.

Then there was the fact that firebending was so common. He went from not knowing if anyone else in the world could do it to seeing children playing in the street by shooting fireballs at each other. Not everyone was a bender, but it was still a common sight and the whole culture appeared to be built around it. From Agni Kai's when settling disputes, to the mere fact that most high military officials and the royal family were benders, it was clear that bending was an element in every facet of life. Even his family had a line of benders, his grandfather, the uncle he had yet to meet, and his mother apparently.

He winced at the thought. That hurt. Not that his family had other benders, the fact that he seemed to have so much in common with his family was great. But it hurt he would never meet his mother. He had a family here, a great one, he had an uncle he had a lot in common with, his grandparents were wonderful people, and he would most likely be able to meet his other uncle after his campaign.

It was a big change from living on the meridian of misery. There were things he missed, but his grandparents were amazingly accommodating people, as they were just happy to have found him after all that time. His bedroom, a converted guest bedroom, was fitted with a desk and small workshop area and rock large enough for Toothless to use as a bed. That desk, and the wall space directly adjacent to it was quickly filled with various notes, pictures, and designs for future creations, many of which were inspired by the advanced technology of the fire nation.

A knock on his door jolted him out of his thoughts. At his quick 'come in', his uncle Saiken entered the room, joining him at the desk and immediately noticed the design. "Hikroh, what are you working on there?"

It was still odd for Hiccup to hear people actually interested in his creations, but it was a nice novelty. "Oh, it's Toothless' prosthetic tail fin. I'm trying to improve the design of it."

Saiken grabbed the paper from the desk and examined the design, he couldn't read the norse runes but the mechanical schematics were clean and transcended the language barrier. "What exactly is wrong with it?"

Taking back the blueprint he let out a sigh, "Well, nothing in particular, but I was on a pretty tight schedule when making the original, so it's probably not the best it can be. Oh, do you know of any fireproof fabrics?"

Resting a hand on his chin Saiken considered for a moment, "There are materials, but they're probably either too heavy or inflexible for the tail. Why do you need that?"

"The tail is made of leather, it works well enough but the problem is it doesn't react well with fire ," Hiccup explained, "it deforms and shrivels up, and you know, dragon, firebending, being hundreds of feet in the air, flammable material, they don't mix."

Saiken laughed, "yes, that does make sense," and then he thought for a second in silence before responding, "I would assume dragonhide is fireproof, but you probably don't have any of that."

"No, I obviously don't…" Hiccup trailed off, "but Toothless sheds! His scales are fireproof and protect his skin, I could use them somehow. The only problem is flexibility…"

His musings were picked up by Saiken, "Not if you could dissolve the scales or crush them up and use them in a paste and apply it that way." And with that, the experimental side of both men lit up as they tried to figure out a way to do just that to some of the shed scales.

Many failed attempts, bad ideas, and ruined bowls later, they finally cracked the code. All it took was the right helping of heat applied to a mixture of crushed scales and night fury saliva to create a black paste that could protect.

The two engineers looked on with pride at their work as both Hiccup's fire blasts and Toothless's plasma failed to burn, melt, or deform the leather.

In the coming days they also tried to design an automatic tailfin for Toothless. But those designs were always found burned with Toothless sleeping on the ashes and the only prototype they ever got together quickly became a chew toy for Toothless before he dragged out his saddle and tailfin, demanding a flight with Hiccup. Needless to say, they weren't so oblivious as to not get the hint.

A few days later, he had another encounter with Azula.

He didn't really know what to think of the girl. She had shot lightning at him and possibly had been trying to kill him the first time they met. But a first meeting like that was nothing truly strange to Hiccup: Toothless, the nightmare, the skrill, and a few other dragons all either tried to or almost killed him the first time they met. He gave them all a pass on that, and Toothless gave him that same courtesy, so he figured he would apply the same logic to Azula. After that initial misunderstanding, she had done nothing but help him and Toothless. She had let them go free and helped find his family. So when she showed up at his door, it was a surprise to be sure, but overall a pleasant one.

"Hello, Hikroh." She stood at the door, poised as ever.

"Uh, hey, Azula, how, uh, what are you doing here?" At no point more than now had he hated his nervous habit of stuttering and his awkward tendency to not know what to do with his hands.

"You said that you were never formally trained in fire bending, but you showed skill back in the cave," she stated matter of factly, "so come with me, I want to assess that." He had no idea what that meant, but he followed her anyway.

Toothless didn't know what to make of this human. She too, like Hiccup and many others here, had an inner fire, but hers was different than most. Her flame was stronger, similar to Hiccup himself, and burned hotter, plus she could produce lightning. That was almost unheard of amongst dragons, while some could produce electricity only the skrill could harness true lightning, but not produce it without a storm. She was undoubtedly dangerous, and she carried herself like a hunter, but at the same time, he couldn't smell any ill intent on her. He couldn't really smell any strong emotion on her for that matter. She was an enigma, but his Hiccup seemed to like her well enough, so he presumed her safe.

Azula was the first to break the silence while they traveled. "So, how exactly did you get a dragon to be your mount?"

While the question wasn't unexpected, the sheer casualness in her tone surprised him, but answered regardless. "Well, he's my best friend, and he lets me ride with him because of that."

Her eyes narrowed, "But that tailfin, I see the prosthetic, why is that?"

"He was… shot down, wounded. And I fixed his tailfin with that." His eyes shifted as his head fell, and Toothless gave him a gentle nudge and croon.

"So, you shot him down and felt guilty about it?" Hikroh's head shot up and whipped to Azula.

"How did you-?"

"Well, it was obvious," Azula explained, "you shot him down, wounded him, fixed his tail so that he could fly but only with you and he fears losing that too much to disobey you." Honestly, the explanation was obvious to her.

"WHAT! NO! It's nothing like that. Yes, I did shoot him down, but it was war. When I found him, I freed him," Hikroh went on, "and when I saw he couldn't fly, I built him this tail to help him fly. I've offered him an automatic tailfin to let him fly alone, but he destroyed every prototype and design that me or my uncle ever made." Hikroh let out a sigh before continuing somewhat softer, "If I had killed him I could have had everything I ever wanted, but because I didn't, I got everything I never could have dreamed of. I have a best friend, a home, a family. He's the best thing that's ever happened to me." Toothless jumped up and licked his face, Hikroh held back a laugh, "I guess it's the same for you too, bub?"

Azula looked at the duo and rolled her eyes. He was either delusional or just plain ignorant. If that dragon didn't fear him, he'd be dead, abandoned the moment he lost his utility. It was a rather simple concept, everyone knew what dragons were like.

She led Hikroh to the palace courtyard. If he was going to be useful in the future, she needed to know his limitations and strengths. He had his dragon and he was at least seemingly competent at combative firebending, but that was all she knew for certain.

"So, what are we doing here?" Hikroh from the other end of the courtyard, staring in awe at the palace in front of him.

"Well, we need to assess you somehow, so how about a little duel?" she said nonchalantly.

Hikroh stopped and looked at her for a second with a blank stare, before a look of mild panic came onto his face. "Wait, do you mean an Agni Kai? Aren't those pretty serious?"

She rolled her eyes, a gesture she noticed she was doing a lot in this boy's presence, "No, not an Agni Kai, just a regular sparring match. You seemed like a competent opponent back in the cave, so why don't we see what you can do? Why don't you make the first move."

Hikroh didn't really seem to know what to think of this request, but he prepared himself nonetheless. There had been plenty of times he had needed to fight on his journey, but never against another bender.

Sharp gold eyes watched his every move. It was obvious that he was skilled to a degree, but by how much was still up for question.

He balanced lightly on his toes, ready to jump at a hair trigger, and arms up, both ready to strike and guard at the same moment. And with lightning speed, he threw out his arm and a white hot jet of fire, easily sidestepped by Azula as she shot her own blue fireball back at him. More volleys were thrown as Azula sent a wave of fire at Hikroh with a chop.

His eyes widened at the blue arc, dropping and landing on one hand before swinging his legs back up with a fiery heel. Blue and orange flames clashed as the waves met, Hikroh continued to pivot on his hand, swinging his legs in circular kicks throwing out more fire with increasing ferocity. Sweeping legs and clawing hands creating an inferno around him. An inferno that was easily countered by Azula, and with two fingers swung down a wrath of fire, breaking his wall of flame and knocking Hikroh to the ground

"Well, that was certainly fun," she said as Hikroh got up and brushed himself off. Azula had learned what she needed, for now. He seemed to have multiple different distinct styles he switched between, ranging from quick and precise to a feral fury. It was not a firebending style taught anywhere in the fire nation. Instead it was a form of antiquity, developed similarly to how the fire nation's ancestors must have learned. Primitive, but powerful. "You're obviously not used to fighting against other benders, though we can fix that. See you here in a few days, and I can help you with some training." If he was going to be useful in the future, he would need to be able to fight other benders, so some training was a must.

Hikroh looked at her a bit flustered for a moment before speaking, "Ah, sure. I'll see you in a couple of days then!" Before he mounted up with Toothless and took off.

I'm BACK! Sorry it has been 3 months. Life happened. And I know this chapter may feel a bit underwhelming considering the wait. That's one of the reasons it's taken so long to get this out. There were other reasons this took so long too, but I won't get into them. Again, an apology. Chapters hopefully should get back to a more normal schedule (or at the very least, not three months).

Once again, thanks to Octobot for betaing!