Chapter 6: Questions

The past few seconds had been a blur to Hiccup. He remembered falling, Astrid's scream following him down, a shrill, Night Fury-esque shriek coming from his own wings as he nosedived toward the sea, feeling the wind whistling around him, and pulling up from the water with feet to spare. As he climbed higher and still higher into the air, a sense of pure exhilaration swept through him. He could feel that his new muscles knew what to do, he could feel that they were strong, and after trying to control those powerful limbs in the first dive, discovered that Toothless had given him some good advice. His body knew what to do, as though it really were some hidden instincts guiding him, and all he had to do was use them, and move. And Thor, could he move! Hiccup swooped high above Astrid's head roaring his delight.

Which was dampened as Astrid scolded him. "Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, don't you ever scare me like that again!" she shouted at him. Only somewhat chastised, Hiccup turned back, and flew along Toothless, giving Astrid an apologetic look.

"I know," he sighed, looking up contritely at her. She relented slightly.

"Don't give me that look. It's okay. Just…" she trailed off. Hiccup purred questioningly up at her. She smiled.

"It's okay, Hiccup."

The three continued for a while, slowing down and giving the rest of the Gang a chance to catch up. The remaining four Riders were either conversing among themselves in whispers (albeit human-sized ones; Hiccup could pick up almost all of their words and was not for the first time in his life eavesdropping), or gazing curiously at Hiccup. As for the dragons, all of them had different reactions. Meatlug, like her rider, was curious, although not to the extent of Fishlegs' insatiable curiosity, and with much more outward shyness than the large Viking. Hookfang had been every bit as startled as Snotlout when he woke and saw, not the crippled pair, rider and dragon, but two Night Furies. Having asked Toothless to explain, and getting no more than a "It is Hiccup", with no other clarification, the hot-tempered Monstrous Nightmare wanted an explanation, and he flew forward up to Hiccup, intending to get one. Barf and Belch, the ever-curious Zippleback, was half-convinced that it was an elaborate prank, and half-convinced that it really was Hiccup. And since dragons have little to no sense of privacy, and since every one of them wanted explanations, they all started slowly edging closer and closer to Hiccup, in order to get some answers.

The first time Hiccup noticed this, it was Meatlug, creeping up on his left. She smiled gently, showing her large, boulder-crunching fangs.

Hiccup crooned "Hello!" to her, a little cautious himself. He had no intention to scare her either, and she seemed quite skittish around him.

"Hi," she warbled back, more enthusiastically than he would have guessed.

"What's up?" he asked with a dragon-y grin.

"Are you really Hiccup, the one-legged Two-legged Toothless is always taking care of?"

Somewhat startled by her (surprisingly accurate) description of his human form, Hiccup replied, "Yes, I'm Hiccup."

No sooner had the words left his mouth than he heard squawks and roars of surprise from Barf and Belch and Hookfang behind him. Hookfang then spoke up.

"No joke?" he asked in an incredulous tone. "It's really you, the skinny, one-legged Two-legged that my Rider is always bullying and teasing?"

"Yes, that's me," Hiccup answered with some surprise. "Although he hasn't really bullied me for quite some time."

Then Barf and Belch had their turn.

"How is it–" Barf started.

"That you are now–" Belch continued.

"A Night-flyer?"Barf added.

"And why?" Belch finished.

"First off," Hiccup started, in answer to their conjoined questions, "I'm assuming 'Night-flyer' is your term for Toothless and I?" He got several nods from the dragons who were now flying level with him. "We call them Night Furies, and among Vikings, they're known as the 'unholy offspring of lightning and death itself'. They were the most feared dragon during raids." This received varied responses. Hookfang snorted in derision at what he perceived as a slight against his species. The highly egotistical Nightmare considered his breed to be far more powerful than Toothless'. Meatlug seemed fascinated.

"It does make sense, I suppose," she commented in her gruff, feminine way, "that you Two-leggers would have different names than us Winged-ones. What do you call my species? We are called Boulder-blasters."

Hiccup looked thoughtful, and answered her with a small snort of humour at the realisation that some of their names for the dragons were downright ridiculous. "For some absurd reason we call you guys Gronkles."

Meatlug grunted in a way that showed her surprise, but startled Fishlegs. "That is an odd name."

By this point, all of the Dragon Riders (Astrid excluded) were staring curiously at each of their dragons, wondering what they were talking about with Hiccup; themselves? Their riders? Secrets that they had shared? Hiccup started to get a feeling that they were being watched as they talked, and glanced around for the source, then realised that it was just the other Riders. But as soon as Hiccup looked at them, Fishlegs looked hurriedly away, pretending that he wasn't looking; Snotlout glared at him; and Ruffnut and Tuffnut (unknowingly) interrupted Hiccup's attempt to answer Barf and Belch's previous questions by asking Hiccup some of their own.

"Hiccup, my superbly scaly friend, what has happened to you?" Tuffnut's voice was harsh on Hiccup's new ears; he had never paid much attention to the sound of the others' voices before, but now they seemed different. It was like a colour palette; if Astrid's voice was a sharp bright blue, with dashes of red and green, Tuffnut's was a range of harsh browns with speckles of white. Then Ruffnut added her voice to the mix.

"Care to explain, Hiccup?" The girl twin's voice was not nearly as grating as Tuff's, but was unpleasant in a different way; the colours that might be used to describe it would be anywhere from puke (ironic considering the name of her Zippleback head) to mauve.

Hiccup cast a pleading look at Astrid, telling her plainly through his look that he couldn't answer any questions while he was transformed.

Astrid sighed and rolled her eyes. "Really you two. Can't you tell he can't answer you like this?"

As always, the twins had an answer for everything. "Alright," Tuffnut replied without missing a beat, "then we'll just ask him 'yes' or 'no' answers to find out everything we want to know. You start, sis."

Hiccup was surprised by this sudden stroke of ingenuity from the twins, but didn't have much time to think about it before the twins and Fishlegs started bombarding him with questions.

Tuffnut: "Is it true that sneezing turns you into a dragon? Do you like being a dragon? Is it fast? Can I be a dragon?"

Hiccup nodded yes, yes, yes, and no to Tuffnut, then turned to Belch. "How do you keep up with his relentless talk?"

"Oh, we–" Belch started.

"Manage." Barf finished.

"And will you–" added Belch.

"Answer our question–" Barf continued.

"From earlier?" Belch ended with a squawk.

"Yes," Hiccup began, "I don't know–" But before he could get anywhere or the twins could butt in again, Fishlegs released his barrage of questions and babble that had been pent up from earlier.

"Hiccup, is that you? Cause I just woke up and there were two Night Furies, and Astrid told me it was you, but she didn't say how. Will you tell us how?"

Hiccup responded with a grunt to Fishlegs, nodding, then warbling a "Yes, I will," nodding again, giving a response to each of the boy's queries in turn. When Hiccup responded to him, Fishlegs geeked out completely, obsessing over the fact that Hiccup was now a dragon, and interrogating him about everything about his new form. Most of the questions Fishlegs shot at him Hiccup could only shake his head in answer to; they either weren't 'yes'-or-'no' answers, or he just didn't know.

After a while of this back-and-forth, Hiccup, being tired of not being able to fully answer all of his questions, grunted and warbled, and through a look at Astrid, tried to get across his meaning.

"Guys," Astrid cut in over their constant talking; for by now even Snotlout had overcome most of his wariness and had urged Hookfang to fly level with Hiccup (which he need not have done; Hookfang was both already interested and nearly level with him anyways.) and added in some of his own inquiries and boasts.

"Guys!" She had to raise her voice in order to get their attention. "Guys, let's leave the questions until later. Most of this stuff Hiccup can't even give you an answer for until we land and he…turns back."

"Thanks," Hiccup warbled gratefully up at her.

"Don't worry about it," Astrid replied. "But that's twice you owe me now."

"Twice?" he crooned questioningly.

"Yes, twice," Astrid reiterated. "The first time was with your dad at Gothi's place, helping you transform back, remember?"

"Yeah, I guess so," he warbled.

Then, sensing his slight discomfort at being hemmed in (although by now he was more relaxed, getting ready to answer the other dragons' questions), Astrid asked him if he'd want to go flying ahead and talk, away from the others.

"Sure," he warbled at her, then turned to Toothless. "Do you want to fly ahead of the others a bit?"

Toothless gave him a mischievous grin. "Race you!"

And they were off, the two Night Furies racing ahead of the rest of the Dragon Riders.