Chapter 5

Wind rushed beneath Hiccup, and he screamed for help as he fell from the sky.

This was it. This was when Hiccup would die. No, he wouldn't die in some heroic way like being killed in battle, he would die by falling off of a dragon whose life he had just saved. And Hiccup had wings for Thor's sake, how could he die from falling?

Wait.

Hiccup had wings.

Panic clouding his thoughts, Hiccup did his best to bring the image of himself standing confidently with wings on his back. At first, all he saw was the scrawny little thing he was, but then he looked to the clear blue sky he was falling from, and imagined how it would feel to soar through it, to smell the warm scent of the sun, hear the whistling of wind, and taste the cold clouds. The image in his mind changed, and bright blue light invaded his vision.

Hiccup felt the strange familiarity of extra muscles on his back, and instead of falling, he was soaring. Wind was rushing underneath his wings and tail, a feeling so powerful that he wanted to bathe in it forever. Hiccup looked up to see Toothless happily soaring through the clouds above him, and became determined to fly up and meet him.

By some instinct, Hiccup's wings flapped automatically, his tail steadying his ascent. A laugh bubbled up in his throat as he looked and smelled and felt the whole new world around him, the sun beaming on his scales, the wind rushing past him, the sweet cold smell of the sky. It was a feeling Hiccup never imagined he would ever feel in his life. It was freedom.

"Hey," Hiccup yelled out to Toothless, unable to stay mad at the dragon, "you left me behind."

"What?" Toothless exclaimed, suddenly stopping his flight and whirling his head back to look at his tail, which he hadn't realized no longer carried Hiccup. "Oh. Sorry." Toothless smiled at Hiccup sheepishly, "Well at least you managed to change your form in time. I didn't actually know if you'd be able to fly right away."

Hiccup frowned, "Why wouldn't I be able to fly right away?"

"Well, it takes hatchlings several full moons to get in the air, so I thought it would take that long for you to learn too," Toothless explained.

"Oh," Hiccup said, surprised, "I'm not usually very good at doing things first try."

"Well, it seems like you're good at flying," Toothless chirped. "You're even flying in place! Most hatchlings aren't able to do that until their first winter."

Hiccup blinked, looking down at himself, not realizing until then that he and Toothless had been talking without flying in any direction, "Yeah, I guess since I'm fifteen it comes naturally."

"Must be," Toothless agreed.

"So, how's your tail working for you?"

Toothless's eyes lit up like a thousand stars, "It's like my fin never left!" Toothless yelled in delight, doing barrel rolls around Hiccup, "I will never be able to repay you for this."

"You don't have to." Hiccup smiled sadly, "I was the one who took your flight in the first place, I had to give it back."

"But you didn't have to," Toothless insisted. "That's why I owe you my life. You could have killed me when you found me in the forest. You could have just left me alone in that cove. You could have just taken advantage of my flightlessness and brought your village to kill me. But instead, you gave me my flight back, and now I can fly through the Great Sky again like all Moon Sweepers were born to do." Toothless's eyes shined, "You even gave me a birth name, something I have never been able to have. It may not be the best birth name, but it's better than anything anyone else has ever given me."

Hiccup smiled at the dragon, still not believing that the Night Fury owed him anything, "I don't think I would have been able to leave you flightless even if I tried."

"And thank the Moon Goddess for that," Toothless said, smiling a large gummy smile. "Now, enough talking, brother. Let's fly!"

Toothless took off towards the almost fully risen sun, but Hiccup stared after him, barely comprehending what Toothless had called him. Toothless had called Hiccup "brother".

Hiccup laughed a joyous laugh, and then chased after Toothless, feeling accepted and free for the first time in his life.

* * *

"Today is about teamwork," Gobber announced as billowing green gas blew out of one of the dragon cages. "Now, a wet dragon head can't light its fire. The Hideous Zippleback is extra tricky. One head breathes gas, the other head lights it. Your job is to know which is which."

Hiccup had been in a good mood when he had gotten back to the village, as he was still relishing in the euphoria that was flying. But as he stood back to back with Fishlegs in the gas filled arena, both of them holding buckets of water, his mood dimmed immensely.

"Razor-sharp serrated teeth that inject venom for pre-digestion," Fishlegs muttered to himself. "Prefers ambush attack, crushing its victims,-"

"Will you please stop that?!" Hiccup whisper-yelled at the nervous teen, incredibly on edge about facing another dragon after sort of becoming one himself. Hiccup even thought that he had heard Toothless say that he could transform into a full Night Fury at some point, but Hiccup didn't feel like going down that rabbit hole quite yet.

Hiccup could hear and smell the dragon moving around, concealed by the gas, but couldn't pinpoint its direct location. And he could also hear Tuffnut and Snotlout having an embarrassing and painful encounter with Ruffnut and Astrid.

As the green smoke had started to dissipate, Hiccup saw Ruffnut and Astrid quickly move to the side as Tuffnut ran out of the gas that was still there, presumably away from the dragon.

"Oh, I'm hurt! I am very much hurt!" Tuffnut yelled as he ran, and Hiccup rolled his eyes as he passed by.

"Chances of survival are dwindling into single digits now," Fishlegs whispered nervously, hugging his bucket to his body.

A Zippleback head suddenly started crawling out of the fog towards Fishlegs. 

"Hello,"  the Zippleback whispered to Fishlegs, and the cowardly Viking-who obviously couldn't understand the dragon-yelped, scrambling backwards, and stumbled to splash the head with water. The water found its mark, but the head was revealed to be the wrong head when it blasted Fishlegs with green gas.

"You dare pour water on me?!"  The Zippleback cried.

"Fishlegs!" Gobber screamed, making Fishlegs screech and run away from the dragon as fast as he could.

The fog covering the arena was almost gone, and Hiccup turned to find the other Zippleback head sparking bolts of electricity in his mouth at Hiccup menacingly.

"Pour water on my head, I dare you,"  the sparking Zippleback head hissed.

"Now, Hiccup!" Gobber exclaimed, and Hiccup half heartedly threw his water at the spark spewing head.

"Oh, come on," Hiccup whined when his water splashed right down on the ground, half because it made him look weak, but also because that meant he needed to enact the plan he had devised that morning.

The dragon growled at him, lurching forward and flaring its wings, "I smell Dragonborn," one of the heads snarled, "are you a good Dragonborn, or a bad Dragonborn?"

"Hiccup!" Gobber exclaimed behind Hiccup, but Hiccup had already started to see through his plan.

"Back, back, back!" Hiccup exclaimed, holding open his vest slightly, letting the horrid scent waft through the air.

"Eel!"  both heads hissed.

"Now, don't you make me tell you again! Yes, that's right. Back into your cage," Hiccup grabbed the foul creature from under his vest, throwing the eel into the cage with the Zippleback in it, "Now think about what you've done." Hiccup slammed the door shut, grimacing when he thought about the poor dragon trapped in there with its worst fear.

Hiccup himself had barely been able to hold the darn creature, but he had been able to tolerate its presence, likely because the first time he had encountered it he had not realized what was going to happen. But Hiccup assumed that if he was in his hybrid form, he would never be able to go near the wretched thing.

Grimacing, Hiccup did his best to wipe the eel smell off of his hands, turning away from the cage door. Everyone was staring at him in shock, and Fishlegs even dropped his bucket.

"Okay, so are we done?" Hiccup asked nervously, "'Cause I've got some things I need to, uh, yep, see you tomorrow," Hiccup awkwardly waved to the group, running out of the arena as quickly as possible.

* * *

Hiccup practically ran all the way to the cove, and let his wings out about half way to the cove. He knew it was risky to be in his half dragon form without being miles deep into the forest, but it just felt so strange and wrong to keep his wings away, like an itch on his back he couldn't scratch.

As Hiccup neared the cove, he started to flap his wings as he ran, wobbling slightly as he took off into the air.

"Hey," Hiccup said in dragonese as he soared into the cove.

"I see you're enjoying your wings," Toothless said, laughing.

"Don't you know it," Hiccup laughed along with Toothless, landing next to the Night Fury where he had been sunbathing on a rock. "So, are we going to go flying again?"

Toothless smirked, "Actually, I was thinking that we could try finding what else you can do with that special Dragonborn magic of yours."

"Oh, that reminds me," Hiccup said, "did you happen to say that I would be able to transform into a full Night Fury at some point?"

Toothless looked at Hiccup blankly before he realized what he was saying, "Oh, you mean turn fully into a Moon Sweeper?"

"So that's what you call Night Furies," Hiccup exclaimed, "I couldn't remember what you had called them."

"Oh, well, we're called Moon Sweepers," Toothless said, "and I think I remember that the legends say that Dragonborn have the power to shift from human to half dragon to full dragon, but I wouldn't know how to even begin teaching you how to do that."

Hiccup pondered for a moment, "I don't know if I'm ready to turn into a full dragon quite yet. I want to get used to my half dragon form first before I try that, considering that I still know next to nothing about dragon culture and customs."

"I suppose that's true." Toothless tilted his head to the side in thought, "Then I suppose I'll have to teach you."

"Great idea," Hiccup agreed. "Though I don't suppose you could teach me in the sky, could you?"

"Who am I to deprive you of the Great Sky?" Toothless smiled at him playfully before stretching and launching into the sky.

Hiccup laughed, getting a running start to fly after him. The two soared above the clouds, Tooothless dipping and twisting through the clouds cold mist.

"You know, I always thought clouds would feel different," Hiccup observed, brushing his hand against a cloud. "But they feel less like a soft pillow and more like really wet fog."

"I never actually thought about that," Toothless said, twirling through a cloud. "How some creatures will spend their entire lives looking up at the sky, but never feel the amazingness that is flying through it."

"I definitely never thought I would," Hiccup agreed, but when he thought about it, there had always been some subconscious longing in him every time he looked to the clouds.

"So," Hiccup began, "what will you teach me first, oh great Night Fury?"

"Moon Sweeper," Toothless corrected, gliding next to Hiccup. "Though, I will admit, Night Fury is a badass name."

Hiccup laughed, "True."

Toothless's eyes brightened, "Hey, that's a good thing to teach you first. The correct names of all of the dragon species."

"Sure," Hiccup said. "Where should we start?"

"Well, of course we're Moon Sweepers, one of the three different Sweeper species-"

"There are other types of Night Furies?" Hiccup exclaimed.

"It's Moon Sweeper," Toothless stressed. "And yes, there are. The Sky Sweepers, like you and I, are technically all the same species. But, like all dragon species, Sky Sweepers have albino counterparts. I believe our kind started out as just Moon Sweepers, but when the first albino Moon Sweeper was born, the albino population of Moon Sweepers started to rise. While most albino dragons face challenges from having all white scales, the albino Moon Sweepers fit right into our species, being able to blend into the clouds much like we Moon Sweepers blend into the night sky. We call these albino Moon Sweepers Sun Sweepers. Since Sun Sweepers are technically the same species as Moon Sweepers, but are called a different name, all of us as a whole are called Sky Sweepers.

"But of course there is a subspecies of Sky Sweepers, called Sea Sweepers. Sea Sweepers look a lot like us, but have shorter legs, smaller wings, longer tails and ears, gills, and come in a range of blue and green. Sea Sweepers are born to the Great Sea, just as Moon Sweepers are born to the Moon Goddess, and Sun Sweepers are born to the Sun God." Toothless looked ahead sadly, "I've never actually met another Sky Sweeper or Sea Sweeper, everything I've told you is just stories I've been told by other dragons. I think one of the dragons said that all of the other Sky Sweepers and Sea Sweepers traveled somewhere south to get to warmer places. Our species can survive okay in the cold, but we are better suited for warmer climates."

"I guess that makes sense, since I've never fared well during the winter," Hiccup said.

"Sure," Toothless said, a far away look in his eyes.

"So, what are other dragon species?" Hiccup asked, breaking the silence.

"Oh, yes." Toothless snapped back to reality, and squinted his eyes in thought, "Let's see, do you know the pretty dragons with really hot fire and venomous spikes?"

"Yeah, we call them Deadly Nadders," Hiccup responded.

"Well, that's a strange name," Toothless observed. "We call them Sear Spines."

"Sear Spines? That's a stranger name than the Deadly Nadder," Hiccup said, laughing.

"Well, they have spines, and their fire is searing hot," Toothless said defensively.

"I guess that makes sense."

"It does. Now, you know those dragons that spew lava and eat rocks?"

"Oh, Gronckles."

Toothless tilted his head at Hiccup.

"Gronckles are what we call them," Hiccup explained.

"Why are all your dragon names weird?" Toothless asked.

Hiccup shrugged, "Vikings in general are strange creatures."

Toothless laughed, "That's true, and we call Gronckles Lava Grubbers."

"Okay, your names are weirder," Hiccup proclaimed, laughing hard as he and Toothless soared through the clouds.

This continued for a while, and Hiccup learned lots of dragon names, such as that Zipplebacks were called Vapor Sparks, Monstrous Nightmares were called Blaze Builders, and Terrible Terrors were called Singeing Singers.

"Why do all Viking dragon names have some word for frightening?" Toothless asked, "There's "Deadly" Nadder, "Monstrous" Nightmare, and Terrible "Terror"."

"I don't know Toothless, I really don't know," Hiccup laughed, glancing over to the sun, "Looks like the sun's going down. I better get back soon."

"But why do you have to go? What do you have to do in your Viking village?" Toothless whined, and Hiccup stilled. 

"Well, um," Hiccup said, taking a deep breath, "because I have to go to my dragon training classes."

Toothless looked at Hiccup confusedly, "What do you mean "dragon training"?"

Hiccup shut his eyes tight, bracing for Toothless's reaction, "It's a class where all of the young Vikings are taught to fight dragons."

The air was silent for a moment, until Toothless spoke, "Oh, okay."

"What?" Hiccup said surprisedly, "That's it? No asking why I have to do that? No yelling at me for hurting dragons?"

"Well, are you hurting dragons?" Toothless asked pointedly.

"Well, no, but how would you know that?"

"Because you don't smell of dragon blood," Toothless replied. "And I know why you have to take dragon training, Hiccup, it's common sense. You Vikings have to learn to defend your islands from raids one way or another."

"Oh," Hiccup said dumbly, "Okay, then. I can probably stay for a little longer, though."

Toothless perked up, "Sounds good." 

They started to veer back to the cove when Toothless's eyes suddenly brightened, looking at something on the ground.

"Is that Bliss Grass?!" Toothless exclaimed, diving down towards the ground before Hiccup could ask what the heck Bliss Grass was.

Hiccup had never dived before, but he decided it couldn't be too hard, and he started pumping his wings up like he saw Toothless do before pinning them to his body. It felt incredibly natural, just as every other aspect of flying had been. He slowed his dive as he neared the ground, gliding onto the grass softly, and laughed at what he saw.

"Toothless, what are you doing?" Hiccup asked, laughing at the large black dragon rolling around in the grass.

"Hiccup, this is amazing," Toothless replied, his voice filled with bliss. "I haven't smelled Bliss Grass in so long."

Hiccup laughed at the Moon Sweeper's antics, but plucked a couple strands of the strange grass out of the ground, bringing it to his nose. The smell that entered his nostrils was intoxicating, making him feel as though he was bathing in rainbows and dancing in sunshine.

"What is this?" Hiccup asked in wonderment, following Toothless's example and diving into the grass.

"Bliss Grass," Toothless supplied, "it's the dragon equivalent of that stinky smelling drink that makes humans stumble around and talk weird."

Hiccup barely comprehended the words, and decided to just enjoy the Bliss Grass instead of trying to figure out how Toothless knew about alcohol.

It wasn't until the sun had set that Hiccup and Toothless had come to, and they flew back to the cove with the smell still stinging their noses.

* * *

The next day in dragon training, Hiccup used the Bliss Grass to swiftly and unpainfnully take down the Gronckle they were facing, causing several villagers come to the arena to see the runt of the village who never did anything right do something right.

As Hiccup walked along the bridge to leave the arena, all of the teens crowded around him, apparently loving him now that he actually did something useful.

"I've never seen a Gronckle do that," Snotlout exclaimed.

"Oh, I left my axe back in the ring," Hiccup said, moving away from the teens. "You guys go on ahead. I'll catch up with you."

Hiccup ran back to the arena, even though his axe had been destroyed two classes ago.

* * *

"So, dragon mating season is in the winter," Toothless explained, biting at a couple of his dry scales, "Mated dragons or dragons looking for mates move to a special Mating island for the season. Those who already have Mates usually lay their eggs within the first moon cycle of winter, teach their hatchlings how to fly well enough to get back to the nest, and then fly them home in the spring. Dragons who go the the island looking for Mates and find their Mate there do not usually have eggs that season, as there is simply no time to lay them and teach them how to fly back to the nest on their own." 

"Hatchlings usually learn to fly within the first moon cycle after hatching, right?" Hiccup asked.

"Yeah,"

"Then why do you have to stay on the island for the first two moon cycles of their hatchlings lives?" Hiccup asked, determined to learn everything about dragon culture.

"Because a hatchling who has only lived for one moon cycle can not fly for very long, or very well."  Toothless explained.

"What exactly are the phases of dragon lives?" Hiccup asked, "I don't think the Book of Dragons mentioned much about dragon life cycles."

"Well, first you're an egg." Toothless was still nipping at his scales, seemingly starting to get frustrated "Then you're a Hatchling, which is from your hatching day until your seventh moon cycle. Next you're a Growling, where you start to grow and develop the power your birth God has given you. The Growling phase is from your eighth moon cycle to your seventh Winter. After that you're a Youngling, which is basically an almost adult dragon, except that their power isn't quite as powerful as they will be when they're an adult, and you're not as big. You're a Youngling from your eighth Winter to your fourteenth Winter. When you're fifteen Winters old, you're considered an adult dragon and are eligible to Mate, but most dragons don't Mate until a while after that."

"What about when you get older?"  Hiccup asked, "I think the book mentioned something about titan wings-"

"Ugh!" Toothless roared in annoyance, "There's this one itchy scale underneath my chin that I can't get!"

Hiccup laughed at his friend, "Why don't I get it for you?"

Toothless looked at Hiccup, surprised, "Dragons don't help groom each other unless they're Mated or close family."

Hiccup blinked, "Oh, I was just offering. If you're not comfortable, then-"

"Of course not,"  Toothless interjected. "You restored my flight. You're the only other dragon of my kind I have ever met. There is no one else in this world I wouldn't hesitate to call my brother more than you."

Touched by his statement, Hiccup smiled at his fellow Moon Sweeper, "Me too."

Hiccup reached over to scratch at the spot Toothless was trying to get at, and Toothless purred as he scratched along his scales. Then Hiccup scratched a specific spot underneath Toothless's chin, and the dragon fell down to the ground, a purring mess.

"Uhh, what'd I do?"  Hiccup asked, staring at Toothless strangely.

"You got the good spot,"  Toothless responded with a dreamy voice.

Hiccup stared down at his hands, smiling as he thought about how many possible ways there were to take down a full grown dragon without causing it any pain.