Chapter 3.

"Normal" = normal tongue/speech "Underlined" = Dragonese

"Astrid?" Hiccup was too stunned to say anything else. But to her ears, his voice was as indistinguishable as the other dragons's.

"Hiccup? Is that you?" Hiccup could only nod, as dumbfounded as her at his new situation. Still wary, Astrid extended her hand in the gesture Hiccup had always used to train new dragons, and which had been unofficially dubbed "the hand thing". With a small snort, Hiccup shoved his snout into her hand.

"Whoa, okay. How did this happen?" Hiccup shrugged and snorted again. "Right, of course you don't know, and of course you can't talk to me." Opening his eyes wide and dropping his jaw in a sudden realisation, Hiccup turned and hurriedly sought out a patch of dirt.

"Hiccup? Hiccup, what is it?!" Slightly alarmed, Astrid strode after him, entirely forgetting the other Night Fury. Toothless, for his part, was shocked; having stood to the side since Astrid had arrived, he now dazedly followed the former Viking and Astrid.

Hiccup, on the other hand, could have smacked his own forehead; provided his arms could still reach. The moment Astrid had said "Right", and "of course you can't talk to me", he connected the invisible dots. He could talk to her. He could write. He could scratch runes in the dirt to communicate with Astrid.

Coming to a clear patch of dirt, Hiccup stopped and wrote on the ground, in big, clear runes,

ASTRID.

"You're a genius, you know that?" Astrid commented semi-sarcastically.

GENIUS REPTILE, he replied.

"Yeah, that's…something." She paused, and glanced behind him. "How's Toothless?"

Hiccup's eyes grew wide, and he turned slowly to stare at Toothless. "Oh, gods. Toothless, are you okay? I'm so sorry, bud, I never even thought about what this would mean, I just…I don't know whatto do."

A new voice spoke up, with sharply accented consonants; it was Toothless himself, expressing his opinion. "Hiccup. More times than I can care to count we have overcome near-impossible trials together. This is just another. We'll get through this together. As always." Toothless ended his monologue by purring and nuzzling Hiccup's head.

"I don't know where I'd be without you, bud."

"Lost."

Astrid cut them off. "If the two of you remember, I still can't understand a single word either of you has said. Hiccup, we have to figure out how to get the two of you back to…Berk. Hiccup, what are we going to tell everyone? What are you going to do?"

Astrid's realization brought Hiccup out of his conversation. Giving Toothless a thankful smile, Hiccup returned to the patch of dirt he had written in earlier. Astrid followed, eager to discover his plan.

I DON'T KNOW. I ALSO DON'T KNOW

HOW MY DAD,CHIEF OF BERK, IS

GOING TO REACT.

"Oh Thor, you're right. I don't see what else we can do other than wait for Fishlegs to return. Maybe he can think of something."

Hiccup snorted and crooned worriedly.

WHAT IF WE NEVER – Astrid cut him off.

"Hiccup, stop. We will work through this together, just like we always have." As she audibly comforted him, Astrid stroked Hiccup, scratching his ears and rubbing his nose in the way Toothless always liked.

"You don't mind, Hiccup? If I…" Shaking his head, Hiccup settled down on the ground, Toothless following suit a moment later. This prompted Astrid to sit down, still scratching Hiccup's ears as she outlined a plan forward, and talked out loud, both to calm Hiccup and herself.

"We'll figure this out, Hiccup. Fishlegs is such a complete dragon nerd that he's surely got something we can try…"

As she continued to speak, Hiccup's own mind wandered. What would they do? Astrid could ride Toothless back to Berk, but Hiccup couldn't fly on his own. And his father… Stoick had only fully accepted Toothless after he had saved Hiccup after the fight with the Red Death. How would he accept the fact that his son is now one of the "beasts"? The "unholy offspring of lightning and death itself", no less.

A good piece of irony I am now, huh, Loki? As Hiccup tried to calm himself, he found Astrid's touch became more and more soothing; and with her gentle hand rubbing his hard scales, he started to doze… until Astrid unconsciously tickled his nose with her hand. Hiccup's ears shot straight up and he wiggled his snout, trying to delay what he could feel to be inevitable. Toothless stared curiously as Astrid finally took notice.

"Hiccup?" She asked warily, unsure about what he was doing. "Hiccup? Are you alright?"

As with the preceding sneeze, this one was quick, but the effect upon Hiccup was the undoing of the first. Gone were the scales, wings, and tail. Returned were the metal prosthetic, skinny frame, and auburn hair. His position was identical to how he had been as a dragon; on his stomach with his paws (now hands) in front of him. Speechless, Hiccup bounded up, staring in shock first at himself and then at Toothless and Astrid. Pulling herself up, Astrid smiled at Hiccup and remarked jokingly, "And you didn't even get a chance to try to fly."

"Yeah, well," Hiccup replied. "The others are never going to believe us.

"Speak of the devils," Toothless started, but before he could finish, Astrid unknowingly cut him off and said the exact same thing.

"Speak of the devils, here they come now. Hiccup, what's the matter? Are you sure you're okay?" For Hiccup, having heard and understood both blonde and beast, was holding his sides from laughing, Toothless chuckling along with him.

After he had sufficiently recovered, Hiccup explained the cause of his hilarity to Astrid, who found this new development surprising but also (uncharacteristically for her) worrying.

"What if there are other side-effects, Hiccup?"

He replied readily. "Then we'll figure it out together. Just like always. Now come on. Let's go home." Taking Astrid by the hand, Hiccup started walking back to where Stormfly had been left, had settled, and was watching them.

"You have a strange two-legged companion, Toothless," Stormfly remarked to Toothless. "Do you think my two-legger ever turns into a winged-one?"

Grinning, Hiccup turned to Astrid and gave a translation. "Stormfly wants to know if you ever turn into a dragon."

Smiling right back, Astrid retorted, "The twins are so going to take advantage of this. Just imagine; once they find out, their new Loki trick will be to make you transform."

Grimacing, Hiccup jumped on Toothless, calling over his shoulder, "Oh Thor, you're right. Race you!"

"Come on, Stormfly! You never refuse a challenge!" With these words, Astrid ran to her dragon and mounted hurriedly, urging her into the air after the swift Night Fury.

… … …

The two parties met in mid-air, each Viking's face showing one or more different emotions. Fishlegs looked fed up and almost angry, a rare thing for the normally placid teen. Snotlout's face was a mix of confusion and triumph, semi-confidant he had been correct in his earlier argument with the twins. The twins were each a combination of annoyance and admiration; annoyance because they had thought, from Astrid's urgency, that something was actually the matter, and admiration because they now thought that they were being Loki'd, and thought it a good one. As for Hiccup and Astrid, they had been discussing, on the way up, what to say, and their conversation was abruptly cut off as the two groups joined each other.

"See, I told you, Fishface," Snotlout was yelling, "the twins are just yanking our chains. Again!"

"And as we've told you before, my fine friend," Tuffnut put in, "physical chains would be a whole lot more fun to yank than metaphorical ones."

"Agreed, Brother Nut," Ruffnut concurred.

"Some things never change," Barf remarked.

"Especially those two," agreed Belch.

Hiccup was about to reply to the two of them, but thought better of it and opted for the role of peacemaker instead.

"Guys, guys! It's okay. I did pass out, but I'm fine now. It's nothing serious." I hope.

Fishlegs piped up. "Hiccup, if you…passed out, you should still see Gothi."

"That's a good idea, Fishlegs." Astrid took hold of the conversation. "Hiccup and I will fly to Gothi's hut right now while the rest of you will go give a report to Stoick of your recon and send the next patrol team out. Alright, move. Let's go."

As they flew off, Hiccup asked Toothless, "Why do the others listen to Astrid way more than they listen to me?

"She is more confident. Everyone respects a confident leader."

"I'm confident," he turned to Astrid. "Right, Astrid?"

"As confident as a skinny, one-legged Viking can be," Astrid muttered with a grin, loud enough for only Stormfly to hear.

"What was that?" asked Hiccup. Stormfly squawked, but only Hiccup heard her meaning. "Astrid!" he complained, with a mock-chiding tone.

"Stormfly!" Astrid mock-reprimanded her dragon, then urged her to go faster. "Race you to Gothi's, Dragon Boy!"

"I will give you a comeback," Hiccup called after her belatedly, "as soon as I think of one!"