I almost drowned once before. This feeling was far too familiar.

Light had long since disappeared if it was there in the first place; wherever I was I couldn't untangle my wings, tail, or paws.

There was a certain wrongness about the entire place, a fake-water stuck between my scales, yet I could breathe without the slightest problem.

Toothless.

I heard the name; it meant nothing but a vague mix of feelings. Anger, despair, hope, and most of all fear.

A Tiny-human who made me in the dirt, who I let touch me, the one who let me feel the Dragoness of the Sky again.

The few memory fragments tore away the walls around my awareness; everything returned to me. The last few sun-cycles with the human, the season-cycles a slave to the Queen, and my blue-scales-flight under the protection of the drove.

The Fall and the sea-stacks. The water and the pain.

I felt the phantom pain of my crash all over again and realized almost belatedly that I was dead. Did I make it past the Hatchlings? If I had I would see my drove again, my sire and dam and pride-mates, all except…

What happened to humans when they died? Upon reflection, it wouldn't surprise me if they became eels, little parasites most were. I wouldn't let my tiny-human become one though, I'll bring him to the stars with me.

I tried to move against my unseeable bonds, but they held. My weakened limbs protested; I relented as grating pain assaulted me.

Breathe

I did so and my mind quieted for a moment; I opened my eyes again (only darkness greeted me) and a sudden fear assaulted me. The reality of my situation sunk in, there was nothing to see, nothing to hear, nothing to smell, nothing to feel but my body as I floated in the abyss.

What if there was something in here with me? If I reached out and touched what was not supposed to be there.

Thump…Thump…Thump…Thump.. Thump..

If I could hear my heartbeat, I was still alive. If it didn't stop, nothing could go wrong.

What would happen if I died when already dead?

Thump. Thump. Thump.

I won't die again!

I curled tighter into myself and pushed against my chains. A crack echoed in my cell. Noise filtered through, it sounded muffled and far away, and smells too were far too vague to be anything but slightly recognizable.

My senses I had always relied on remained defied; someone could still be here.

Thump! Thump!

Release me!

I pushed against the walls of my prison of darkness. The cage felt me slipping, the fake-water that covered my scales turned scalding, I had to get away! It was the work of the thing in here!

I stretched my limbs and pushed!

The world erupted in light. Sounds split my ears. Pain coursed through my throat and into my limbs (instinctively, I gaged and retched but nothing came out). A thousand smells arrived in a moment.

I fought back the sudden wanting to sleep and stood up.

I was alive.

It took me a moment to gather my bearings; I was on a beach, the sun was setting, and I had not eaten (my stomach growled, demanding tribute). I was surrounded by these smooth black scales, there was also another dragon beside me, but it could wait until I figured out my problems.

I was outside my cove; did I fall into the dark prison on the beach? I couldn't have left the cove without my tiny-human, so where was he?

The fake-water turned out to be much like slobber and clung to me uncomfortably, I'll clean it when I find a cave. Before all that I'd do best to find something to satiate my body in the woods, I turned towards them and searched the warm air – lynxes were nearby, they would do for tonight.

I leapt towards the forest and… fell?

I hit the ground in a jumble of wings and tail, while I wasn't injured physically my pride certainly was. Upon examination, my legs and paws were blueish and distinctly small.

What in the name of the Dragoness of the Skies was going on? Why were my legs suddenly small and why was I on this beach of all things? What was with those black, strangely smooth shells – ah… An egg.

Everything made terrible sense. I was small and blue (the distinct colors of a youth), and there were the remains of an egg that bore a striking resemblance to my scales. There was no escaping it:

I was a hatchling on an unknown island. Dragon of the Seas, I couldn't fly or even hunt without assistance. It would take sun-cycles to be able to change islands and a dozen moon-cycles to reach my Blue-Scales.

There could be humans on this island!

A certain memory surfaced from my blue-scales years; as the eldest, my sire took me away from the cave, onto the hot rocks at the top of our island just under the Dragoness of the Skies. He bid me to sit while doing the same (Sire never cared for pretense but Dam always taught that our elders should sit first).

"Do you know what the Sun and Moon are?" He had said.

I titled my head, "Of course," how could anyone not know this? "They are the magic of the Dragon of the Seas and Dragoness of the Skies, locked away forever."

"Yes, your dam already told you that, but what is their purpose?" Upon my non-response, he continued, "They are the sources of our magic. We fly close to them, and they fill our souls with it. That is why humans cannot use magic: they have not received the gift of flight."

My sire turned his head away from me and towards the mid-afternoon sun, "Magic is our source, we live through it. I wish you may never have to turn to it, but your magic will make you stronger at your weakest or renew your wings in the harshest storms. In my blue-scales-flights, the elders would talk of stories from lands far away of dragons so powerful that they could use their magic to avoid death."

He got to his paws and returned his attention to me, I'm still proud to say I met it unflinchingly. "Remember that the magic you have is not yours. It belongs to the sun and moon, and they give it freely but if you are not there to receive it, you will lose it. Never allow yourself to be grounded, you will lose your magic and with it, yourself."

Afterward, Sire would take me under the sun and moon to relish in the sun and moon. I did have my doubts about what he said but, in the sun-cycles since my grounding, I've already forgotten the warmth that spreads through your wings under the sources of magic.

My sire's (bless his passing and his soul beyond the Hatchlings) words would explain it. Of course, if any dragon would have been able to use magic only spoken of in whispers or dismissed out of paw – it would be me.

I had managed the impossible feat!

The only question that lingered was that of my tiny-human, I had fallen to his charm despite myself. I've thought about it and concluded that under that less-than-tough human exterior was a dragon's soul (maybe the Hatchlings threw back his soul wrong?)

The dragon lying in the sand a little away from me (which I had somewhat forgotten) gave this despaired growl. That egotistical little thing, could it not see I had bigger problems than whatever it was going through? I had to find out what happened to my human!

I rounded on it (being careful not to fall over again), but instead of shouting at it as I intended, my words got caught in my throat and then fell away. It was another of my kin. That was impossible, our islands had been invaded by two-legs and evil dragons, and I barely escaped with my life. There were no more.

I smelt the air around it, a male. He didn't seem to have noticed me which was strange as my kin were never taken unaware. It was half a dozen (of my new and shorter) wing lengths away, I approached him cautiously, very aware of the sound my footsteps made.

He was a hatchling like me (my body at least) but so much smaller; his shoulders would never support flight to the next island for much longer than usual, his ribs stuck out of his stomach and his legs were far too thin for fighting, his wings were shorter and frail as if they were made of human fake-fur and his head could fit in my jaw.

He was trembling from tail to wingtip, his eyes squeezed shut and he kept mumbling words incoherent even to my ears. What was a 'dad' or a 'gods' anyway?

I decided to take a more emotional and cautious approach instead of hitting him over the head and demanding he get a hold of himself as that just might make things worse. I approached him until our noses were a hair's breadth away and a temporary bond sparked to life; something felt so familiar about it, but I couldn't place it – only six others that kind with me, and they were all in the skies.

I sent all the positive feelings my dam would send me whenever we failed to kill our hunt or when we failed to fly. Reassurance. Joy. Weightlessness. Freedom of the skies.

Forest green eyes, the exact mirror of mine, snapped open and my heart stopped. My tiny-human looked back at me.

It took me a while to notice bleeding lacerations along his head over his eye running to his snout, blood still trickled around his eye orbits and down to his mouth. Who did this?

"Tiny-human?" It occurred to me as I tried to speak to him that he may not understand me but talking seemed to break his trance as awareness returned to his eyes.

"What…" He looked me up and down, fear sparked behind his eyes and lay heavy in the air, it took me a moment to realize he needed a gesture of trust or something to recognize me.

I glanced around us and noticed a pile of discarded sticks left over from a human bonfire. I bounded over to it, grabbed one in my jaw, and started to replicate the drawing from the cove.

A line there, a swirl here, and a dot at the bottom.

I waited for his reaction with bated breath. He moved awkwardly like a blind bird but his eyes and the change in the air told me everything I needed to know. "Toothless?"

Tooth…less. What did that mean? Probably a strange human convention.

"Tiny-human!" I was elated. Despite my vulnerability and the possibility of having Vikings on this very island, I was with my human who made me touch the wings of the Dragoness of the Skies again (despite having been the one to take it away).

When I met his eyes, I felt our bond spark to life, the same one I had felt when we were plunging towards the rocks hours ago. I felt his emotions through it: relief, anxiety, and happiness. He felt mine: pride and joy.

He did look surprised and somewhat offended (oh no, did I make a mistake of human rituals?) "Tiny-human? That's what you called me?" Oh, I did nothing wrong then.

"What? That is exactly what you are, how else do you think I carried you?"

"Unbelievable! My name is Hiccup!"

"Hiccup…" I repeated it twice, feeling how the world felt over my tongue. It was strange (I had never used most of the sounds in it), it was like talking to a lesser dragon who only understood half of what you said (what a headache!). "What a strange name, what does it mean?"

"Uh, well… it's this thing we – humans that is, do when we laugh too much… Oh, never mind! it's supposed to scare off trolls!"

A name to scare away trolls, humans are so strange; did they think names could scare something so stupid?

"Oh, I'm sure they're terrified – be careful it's Hiccup!" I grinned at him so widely that I wasn't surprised when he jumped at me. His coordination was still off so he fell onto me instead of tackling me.

I pushed down my hard-honed instincts which urged me to kick him off my exposed belly. Hiccup didn't attack me but just lay on me with his legs and tail tangling up with mine (something I hadn't experienced since my pride-mates).

"Do you even know what Toothless means?" He had this goofy smile, and I felt my fear rise back up (wasn't Toothless just what humans called my kin?) "It means that you have no teeth."

What?

He. Did. Not.

This time fun was over, I grabbed him (admittedly without teeth) at the nape and pulled him into a roll which ended with me on top while he just shrieked in surprise (I made sure to not put my weight on him, he was so thin that I might have crushed him). I slid out my teeth and showed them off, "I am not no-teeth!"

"I don't know, how could your name be wrong?"

"Change it!"

"No." He had this massive grin again. I saw lightly bleeding lines along his forehead and my anxiety returned, thankfully when I licked away the blood my slobber still worked, closing the wound despite my hatchling form. "Toothless… what are you doing?"

"Who did this to you?" I'll kill them for this, no one touches Hiccup and gets away with it. I licked the dried blood around his eyes, but he turned his head away from me, "Hiccup?"

"Please, just get off me Toothless." His joy had left him and the air around us, I was tempted to send more positive emotions through our bond, but I didn't. Careful of his fragile limbs, I got off Hiccup and watched him struggle to get back on his legs. "I don't want to talk about it. Just, Toothless please respect that."

I could smell his despair and sadness in the air, food would make him happy again. We were still unfortunately too weak and unstable to hunt real game so fish would have to suffice.

"I'm hungry, come on. I'll teach you to hunt fish." Hiccup didn't move, "what's wrong?" Hiccup looked at me, our eyes met, and I felt the true extent of his emotions. Our bond sparked to life fully: I felt his despair and hopelessness, his distress and anguish.

"I can't do this," he shook his head, "it's wrong – I'm human. This must be a dream. Toothless, tell me I'm human!"

I was lost for words. Hiccup was given the gift of flight and magic, and he was… unhappy?

"Why are you sad? My magic saved us, and you were given the gift of wings!"

Hiccup froze, his wings and tail drooped, and he just looked at me. I had never felt so terrible.

"You did this?"

"I – Hiccup, just understand. I didn't choose how or when my magic worked, I just wanted us to survive, and we lived."

"This isn't living! I've lost everything, friends, my dad, my home! We're on Berk, just how long do you think it'll take before someone finds us?"

"I will protect us! No human can defeat us!" Yet I did have my doubts, trapped in the cove, I had Hiccup to protect me and make me touch the sky and feed me. Here we were just grounded hatchlings.

"We've killed thousands of them! You can't kill an entire village! We should have just died in the stacks!"

I'm not proud of what I did next, but, in my defense, such terrible remarks could not go unpunished, I pounced onto Hiccup and pinned him on his side, and I snarled at him.

"Never. Say. That. again." I saw the fear in his eyes, and it reminded me of when I first saw him. Our bond surged to life, and I felt his fear and depression, he felt my anger at him but also my relief for him. "You were saved by the grace of the Dragon of the Seas and saying that will have you grounded in the next life."

I got off him a second time in minutes and I felt guilty as our bond closed without his bad feelings abating. Hiccup got to his paws; I didn't count the moments that passed in silence until he turned to me again.

"It's not me... Please, just please turn me back – I can't live this this."

I'd never heard of someone rejecting the gift of wings, why? Why would he want to stay a human?

"I… I do not know how to. It is – was, the impossible magic."

"So, you can do nothing?" Hiccup slumped and let his wings and tail flop into the sand in what was a very uncomfortable position.

The air reminded me of the nest: fear, and submission mixed with adoration and blood. I made my decision then, I would not fail Hiccup like the others.

"Hiccup," he didn't even react, I had to nudge his snout before he so much as opened his eyes again, "I don't know how, but I will try. The elders in the nest talk of the magic to change humans, if we can give you the gift of wings, we can take it – I will try. I will do it for you."

The air gained this scent I can only describe as victorious and hopeful as I helped Hiccup to his paws again. His stomach growled, his face flushed blue in embarrassment and I huffed (although it sounded much more like laughter). Was he embarrassed because he was hungry?

What a strange concept, a dragon should only be embarrassed if they lost a fight to another (or even worse a human) and if they become grounded (yes, I've got firstpaw experience with that).

"Come on, I'm hungry too and you might disappear if you don't eat. We're hunting fish." I turned and started to guide Hiccup towards an outcropping cut halfway between the sea and land.

"Uh… Toothless?" I turned to find Hiccup with his wings expanded and his tail trailing on the ground, "what do I do with these?"

Of course, he wouldn't know what to do with his limbs, he wasn't a dragon from birth. It was a question if he even had the same instincts I did. I'll ask him later. I crossed back the distance between us and guided him through the process, using my wings as an example to follow and giving him pointers.

"Just do as I do it. No, just down a little – yes that's right. Now just raise your tail – it should feel natural just above the ground." Hiccup followed my instructions perfectly and his limbs rested correctly against him. "Come on! I'll show you fish-hunting!"

I bounded over to the rocks, then to the highest point, and waited for Hiccup to join me. He found it much harder to move his limbs together (I'm sure it's just a question of adapting), but he managed to climb to me after a little stumbling.

"Alright, fish are easy game because they can't fight back so it's all about speed. Follow the fish silently and when it gets close, catch it." Hiccup nodded his understanding, "easy enough." He followed me down to a lower shelf of the outcropping which was closer to the water, it was relatively flat, and I could see the fish swimming near the edge.

I gave Hiccup a little space and the area where the most prey was, he could get the easier game. I wanted a challenge.

Five trout were swimming near the surface, I approached slowly and silently, arching my back and keeping my stomach close to the rock. At the last moment, I pounced and stuck my head in the water; I caught three of the five (honestly, I would have gotten all of them in my old body).

I licked my lips and eyed another one a wingspan away which hadn't noticed the disappearance of its kin, I spared a glance at Hiccup and saw him with a paw in the water pulling a fish? It was even getting away!

In a bounce, I was next to him and grabbed the fish with my jaw (with my teeth retracted so Hiccup could keep his prize and his paw). I dropped the thing on the rocks which started to flap around but I ignored it.

"What are you doing? Your paws are for walking and hunting land-prey, not fish!" It struck me as I said this that I hadn't told Hiccup how to fish and he was just doing it as humans did. "Use your teeth next time."

"Oh…" Hiccup looked so dejected, and my heart twisted. "Anyway, that one will do. I'm not that hungry. How do we cook it?"

"Cook it? What does cook mean?"

"Well, it's when you put food over a fire to make it edible or taste different."

"You mean that terrible thing humans do to meat! It removes all the taste!"

"It does not. Anyway, how would you know, have you ever tried it?"

It turns out that I have tried it, my pride-mates and I thought it would be fun to go hunting when our sire and dam were meeting with the other elders about the humans coming closer to our lands. The four of us went out and we found a herd of deer-prey (of course, as the superior species we beat it). I was dared to eat it as humans do, and naturally, I accepted.

I burned my share (I had the liver, the best part obviously) and ate it. Subsequently, my pride-mates saw me regorge my entire meal which I had destroyed over a bet. And after all that and despite the fact I didn't eat any, my sire's ire was on me as the eldest when we were found misbehaving (again).

"Yes, I have, and it was horrid. Anyway, my body is not old enough to make fire yet you don't have a choice."

"Sure, it was probably fine. I know picky you are. I saw you with the eel."

"Don't say that! They are the most disgusting, foul thing in the world!"

"Yep, you guys sure do hate them. I won a dragon training session just because of one, I threw it in the cage with the Zippleback."

"What? You locked a dragon in with an eel?"

"You're so dramatic, it was dead."

"I hope you're happy because so is the dragon by now. You said it's a Zippelback, what's that?"

"It's Zippleback. The one with two heads with gas and sparks."

"Oh, they are so annoying! The heads keep finishing each other's sentences, they probably deserved it."

My perfectly reasonable assessment of the two-heads was humorous to Hiccup, so I growled at him. I was however momentarily distracted by a fish swimming too close to me and pounced on it; it was a nice fat trout that fell down my throat, my stomach now satiated, I turned back to Hiccup and his ejected (but very much dead and quickly drying) fish.

"Have you eaten anything?" Hiccup did, at least, look guilty, I rolled my eyes and forced the food out of my stomach, he had now two fish.

Hiccup made a face, "I'm not eating that again."

"You don't have much choice, you are going to eat both and quickly. The sun is setting, I'm tired and when I'm tired, I'm much less agreeable.

Hiccup glowered at me, I just smiled but he did end up eating the fish (while muttering something distinctly like 'bastard'), although his deficient human sense of taste had changed with his body because he didn't complain about the food.

"I'll have you know my sire and dam mated for life, so I cannot be a bastard." In a cruel trick of the Dragoness of the skies, I got hit by a human-turned-dragon on his first sun-cycle despite my attempt to avoid it (but I didn't turn blue in embarrassment).

In seven bounds (four more than I would have needed in my old body) I was back on the beach. I took a moment to smell the air; it was dry and warm: there would be no rain tonight.

We could stay on the beach, but my scales would be cold and uncomfortable with the winds, and after such a day I dare say we deserved a nice rest.

Opposite us, on the other side of the beach was a sand cave at the foot of a cliff which marked the sudden end to the forest; a few trees, bushes, and wines balanced precariously over the edge. The cave would work to stop the wind and hide us from humans overnight.

"What are you looking at?" Hiccup brushed up against me and our bond sparked up for a moment. He followed my gaze and noticed the cave, "oh. That's where we're sleeping, I guess."

"Yes, you tire me too much." I avoided the wing strike this time. Hiccup, the little blighter took the opportunity to replicate my bounds (certainly not as gracefully) and started to run toward the cave.

"Race you!"

Oh. No, he did not. I absolutely refuse to lose a race to a day-old hatchling. In three bounds I was running and at his tail, I could hear his quick, tiring breaths, and it took a moment to realize part of those were mine (this body was so weak).

The cave entrance was surrounded by slight dunes. Hiccup tried to zigzag between them, but I pushed myself to climb one, took advantage of the high ground, jumped off, and glided to the entrance. I wasn't about to lose to Hiccup yet.

I roared out my victory and Hiccup pouted muttering something about how unfair it was.

Upon entering the cave, I realized just how cold the ground was, it would just have to do until I could find a better place for us to sleep or until my fire came in a few sun-cycles. It was better than outside though, and we would be safe from the wind and have a somewhat warm bed.

To the right of the entrance was a smooth rock which I claimed as my bed the moment I climbed on top. It was cold, so I wrapped my tail around and was about to cover myself with my wings when I saw Hiccup looking around the cave somewhat cluelessly.

Had I not learned anything? He's like a blind hatchling.

"Hiccup. Just come here."

He jumped over immediately into my open wing and snuggled against me. He was small and could easily fit under my wing, his body heat did, however, make this cold suddenly better. The years under the Queen had made me forget how it was to sleep with someone next to me.

Hiccup reminded me of my pride-mates.

"Toothless?"

"Hum…?"

"I'm sorry."

"Oh Hiccup, you have nothing to apologize for."

"Yes, I do. If I had made a better flight system and not relied on that stupid position idea, we would have survived. You would not be like this again and have to deal with me."

What did humans do to their own? I pulled Hiccup tighter to my side. "You did nothing wrong Hiccup. Nothing. You returned me to the skies, there's no greater gift."

Hiccup didn't reply and we stayed there in silence, I listened to his breathing balance into a steady rhythm. My ears twitched at every sound and my emotions sparked at every smell.

Every so often I opened my eyes to see the last rays of the sun disappear, the moon rise slowly, and the eyes of my kin fleck the sky.

A note on chronology.
I slightly tweaked the time of the return of Stoick's expedition to happen a few days later while a few key events happened. His return will happen in chapter 5.

On dragon morphology.
Hiccup and Toothless are newly born dragon hatchlings, if you want a scale, imagine them being approximately the same size as the babies in the second movie (although as noted in the chapter Hiccup is smaller).
Like a lot of reptiles (and animals in general), they will grow fast in their first year before slowing down in their adolescence.

Dragon lexicon.
I'll be adding a lexicon with dragon vocabulary after every Toothless POV chapter to make it easier to check these invented words and concepts.
Kin - Species of dragons
Drove - Flock
Pride-Mate(s) - Immediate family members
Nest-Mate(s) - Members of a nest
Sire - Father
Dam - Mother
Sun-Cycle(s) - Day
Moon-Cycle(s) - Month
Season-Cycle(s) - Year
Blue-Scales-Flights - Night Fury Adolescence.

On magic.

I have put magic in this story but I will not be using it as a deus ex-machina, magic effectively just serves as a way for Hiccup and Toothless to bond and sense each other's emotions.