"Annnd, gently guide her down, that's it!" Hiccup calls on from his perch in a tree.
Astrid had gotten up at dawn as usual and went into Hiccup's house. She'd found Stormfly in the main area, and had gone to check with Hiccup if she could take her out for a flight.
But instead of finding Hiccup in his bed, she'd found a mass of black scales; and Hiccup lying, still fully clothed on the floor beside his own bed.
Almost feeling bad, she had woken him up and convinced him into waking and giving her a few simple flight lessons. And now, after only half an hour, was mastering the turning, and the basics of directional control.
"Wow Astrid, you are magnificent", Hiccup says laughing as he lands on the ground right beside the tree, just having climbed out.
But almost as soon as the words leave his mouth, he's clamped his hands over his face and blushing.
Astrid looks over at him from the middle of the almost clearing, as if to check she heard it right. He looks away, saying,
"Umm, Just so you know, I was umm, thinking of telling my dad soon that I'm.." He gestured in a flourishing way at himself, "Well, me", he chuckles nervously.
Still comprehending what he just said, Astrid jumps off of Stormfly's back, landing gracefully on the ground. She watches his still blushing face with a slight smile for a moment, before crossing her arms and questioning, "Why decide to tell it now?"
Hiccup, oblivious to the dual meaning of her words, replies "Well, I'm back now, and after a year of being gone, uhg. My emotions are all over the place you know? Just feel like confessing is the right thing to do", his blush diffusing as he thinks he's managed to move the conversation on without her noticing what he said.
But little does he know Astrid not only definitely noticed the first slip up, but also saw the truth behind his words in a way he didn't intend.
She walks past him, clapping him on the shoulder once as she passes, grinning to herself with a "Good luck with that".
"Woaaahhhhhhh", an awed voice emanates from a bush on the opposite side of the clearing. Hiccup pulls himself closer behind the tree to hide himself.
"Shhh, shut up you yak-brained fool! You'll get us caught!" Hisses a voice slightly over.
"If anyone's getting caught, it's not gonna be me" says another bush.
"Quiet down all of you! Or we'll all be caught!" Starts another voice from behind a tree, "Uhhhh, guys..." it then says. A wide, chubby face rounds the side of where the last voice came from, "I think they know we're here".
"That's impossible Fishlegs!" Snotlout stands up from the third bush to face the tree, "We were being so stealthy, they couldn't have possibly noticed us!"
"Yeah!" Ruffnut joins in, standing up from the first bush, also looking defiantly at Fishlegs.
"Exactlyyyy- Oh" Tuff also stands up, but facing the clearing. "Yeah, hate to agree with Fishy over there but he's right, we've been spotted".
Astrid laughs at the antics of their fellow teens while Hiccup looks around for his helmet.
Spying it slightly to the side, he pulls a length of cord with a small weight on the end from a bit of his flying gear, and lassoed his helmet on the third try. Quickly pulling it on, he stayed still behind the tree, listening to the conversation behind him.
"We all saw you *riding* that Nadder!" Ruff exclaims jealously.
"And someone in the tree you were talking to" Tuff adds. "Why do people who want to keep things private have to be so quiet about it? It makes eavesdropping sooooo much more difficult", he complains.
"Yeah, who were you talking to!" Snotlout pipes up.
Hiccup, in Dragon Master persona, had snuck from behind the tree, behind the group of teens, and then crawled between the preoccupied Vikings.
"Me." he says stepping up from his bush he'd hidden in from in the middle of the group.
"Aaahhhhhh", Snotlout jumps as he emerges from right behind him.
"Oh yeahhhh, that does make sense. Who else could have taught her to fly that Nadder." Tuff realises.
"Ooh ooh, hi Dragon Master", Fishlegs runs over, tripping over himself in excitement.
"Hello?" Hiccup returns pretending to not know Fishlegs' name.
"Ingerman, Fishlegs Ingerman. It's great to meet you sir", he babbles.
Hiccup laughs. He is now a few inches taller than the rotund boy who used to be just taller than him. He makes his voice slightly deeper while in his mask and it's slightly muffled when he talks either quietly or normally.
"Nice to meet you, Fishlegs. Most people have tried to kill me upon meeting me so it's nice to have a change", he chuckles and Astrid looks around slightly sheepishly.
"Well sir", Fishy starts, "I have read the book of dragons, like 5 times, and was wondering if you have any extra knowledge you could tell me so I could add in."
"Of course", Hiccup agrees, and they walk slowly off together, Hiccup pulling out a scrap of paper and a charcoal pencil from some pockets and the two exchanging notes.
"Wonder what she did when them two were off alone together to get her own dragon" Ruffnut comments snarkily to Tuffnut and Snotlout, receiving a quick slap round the back of the head from Tuff.
Astrid glares at her, "What are you suggesting Ruffnut?"
"Oh, Astrid's still here? Damn it." Ruff mutters, "Why don't you follow your new boyfriend over there 'Strid, and mind your own business!" She yells.
"Wow sis", Tuff gasps, "Are you... Jealous? Oh my god! RUFF'S JEALOUS EVERYB-" he starts declaring before his angry sister clamps her hand over his mouth and tackles him to the floor.
After the brief scuffle that ensues, Tuff pries her hand off his mouth and declares "I yield! I yield! Je cède!", until she frees him.
He stands up and dusts himself off, "So where were we?" He asks.
"Wondering why *She* (he points at Astrid) got a dragon and none of *Us* didn't" Snot says.
"Because I can handle having and riding a dragon", Astrid says, crossing her arms.
"I could!" Shouts Snot.
"No you couldn't Snotlout", Astrid says condescendingly, "Snot would get burnt, the twins would blow themselves up..."
"She has a point" Tuff adds,
"... and Fishlegs would well, be all Fishlegs about it".
"Yeah, yeah, fine" Snot huffs.
"I wonder if Hiccup was still here, if he'd get a dragon" Ruff ponders out loud.
The whole group present goes quiet for a moment, all thinking about Hiccup.
"Nah, he'd be too weak to ride a dragon" Tuff interjects into the silence, "Like look at the Dragon Master, strong, manly; No, Godly! He tamed the wild beasts that plagued us for so long, and not just any dragon, but a *Night Fury*! He is our saviour!"
"Ummmm, I think Ruff may not be the only one with a crush on Mr Dragon Man over there" Snot announces, pointing his thumb over his shoulder behind him.
"How dare youuuu!" Tuff charges after a rapidly retreating Snotlout.
Astrid chuckles, walking over to where she last saw Hiccup and Fishlegs.
But they'd vanished.
She left the clearing after the two, heading the direction they were going last.
She hears a muffled shriek over from behind a pile of boulders and creeps round behind them to have a look.
She sees Hiccup with his helmet off, facing down an angry Gronckle, Fishlegs behind him, covering his mouth in shock. Hiccup sets down his helmet beside him allowing the dragon to see his eyes, calmly reaching out towards the angry Gronckle.
He turns his head back over his shoulder, "Fishlegs, walk, backwards, slowly, Now" a brief pause after each word.
Stunned, Fishlegs just silently steps back a few paces, retreating to behind the same boulder as Astrid was watching from.
"What's he doing?" Fishlegs hisses to Astrid, "He's gonna get himself killed!"
Hiccup is left in the middle of the space between the cluster of rocks, facing the Gronckle. After making sure Fishlegs was out of the way, Hiccup looks the vexed dragon in the eyes - and allowing it to see how he intended it no harm, gently reaches out till his hand is almost touching the dragon's snout, and gently steps backwards, the ground crunching slightly.
After a few paces, the Gronckle had calmed down, and was perfectly happy. Letting Hiccup touch its snout and scratch under it's chin.
Fishlegs steps out from their hiding place, agasp. "How, how? What? HICCUP?" he asked all in a rush.
"Shhh", Hiccup says chuckling, "Don't want you to tell the whole of Berk with your yelling do we".
"Bu-But.." Fishlegs stutters, "Ok, first things first, how did you know that would work Drag-, I- I mean Hic-, I mean Dragon Master?"
"Easy question first", he laughs, "Well, we were walking on Gronckle egg shells, so it seemed logical this mama Gronckle just wanted us away from her nest".
"Ok ok, second question. Umm, what do I call you?"
Hiccup laughs again, "If it's just us around, Hiccup, but if not, for the moment keep with Dragon Master. I'm uhhh," he scratches at the back of his head nervously, "working up to telling my dad."
"Third question" Fishlegs announces again after a moment, "But this one's for you Astrid, How in the name of Thor are you not freaking out? Hiccup's alive!"
"Oh I already knew" she smugly smiles before flashing a intimidating glare at Hiccup to make sure he doesn't mention her fainting.
But unfortunately for him, he doesn't see, so begins to relate what happened, "Yeah, Toothless blew a whole in the side of my house and-" but he's abruptly cut off by Astrid elbowing his chest, winding him. But Fishlegs doesn't notice, and is too busy laughing.
"'Toothless?' Your *Night Fury* is called 'Toothless'?" You named the unholy offspring of lightning and death itself, 'Toothless'? Why's it called that?"
"Wait a minute, I'll show you" Hiccup says before running over to his helmet, affixing it to his head and running back towards where he left his dragon.
Now with Hiccup gone, Astrid and Fishlegs were left with the Gronckle, happily lying on the floor. Fishlegs slowly steps towards it and strokes it gently similar to how he'd just seen Hiccup do. Astrid just sat and watched Fishlegs totally mesmerised by the dragon, rubbing over it's snout and along it's bumpy back to it's tail. She could hear him quietly murmuring to himself the dragons statistics, roughly measuring it as well.
"Well", Astrid says, jumping down from her perch on a boulder, "It it a boy or a girl?"
"Uhmmm, a female I think", Fishlegs says.
"Looks to be on the larger size like most females of the species".
"Or it's a boy, just like you", Astrid says, Fishlegs missing her jest on his own size says, "I don't know, it did seem to be territorial over its nest.."
'Boys are so oblivious', she internally sighs.
Running back over with toothless hot on his tail, is Hiccup; then the black, scaly beast belly-flopping onto him.
"Let me up bu-ud!" He wheezes.
With a humorous chortle, Toothless lets him get up, opening his mouth slightly for Hiccup's oncoming demonstration.
After brushing himself off quickly, Hiccup urges a rather petrified Fishlegs a few steps closer to the dragon, leaving Astrid to pet the Gronckle.
He open's Toothless' jaws wider, revealing his mouth completely devoid of any teeth.
"Where did all his teeth go?" Fishlegs gasps, before the mischievous dragon unretracts his teeth and jerks his head forward slightly, sending the poor Viking stumbling backwards over himself in fright, much to Hiccup and Astrid's amusement.
"Ha ha, not very funny", Fishlegs says, regaining his balance and returning to the lying Gronckle.
"Well, what're you going to name her then?" Hiccup asks, leaning up against a nearby tree with Toothless at his side, gazing intently at the dozing Gronckle.
"I'm gonna call her..." he thinks for a moment before rubbing his face on her warm scaly chest, "Meatlug".
"Meatlug?" Hiccup laughs, "And you laughed at 'Toothless'", he starts laughing even harder.
Even Astrid starts chuckling, Hiccup's laughter being rather infectious.
After a few minutes and Hiccup calmed down, he sighs wearily, stating "So now we have a Gronckle as well as a Nadder to be looking after. Oh Thor" he says as realisation hits, "I hope Stormfly hasn't killed one of the others while we've been gone" he laughs nervously.
Checking his helmet once more, he heads back to the clearing.