Chapter 7

Toothless bounded circles around Hiccup, happier than Hiccup had ever seen him, "It worked! It actually worked!" Toothless exclaimed, "I'm not alone anymore!" Toothless stopped in front of Hiccup, playfully bumping his head against his.

Hiccup beamed at Toothless, "And you'll never be alone again."

"Come on!" Toothless exclaimed, "Let's go flying!"

Toothless launched into the sky, his body shaking with excitement. Hiccup took a step forward, preparing to follow after his friend, but ended up stepping forward with just his back legs and face planting on the ground.

"Owww," Hiccup groaned, and Toothless laughed from where he was above Hiccup.

"Okay, maybe we should get you used to your new form, first," Toothless laughed.

"Yeah, great idea, Toothless," Hiccup muttered, making note to consciously get up onto all four of his legs.

Toothless landed on the ground next to Hiccup, "Let's start with walking."

Hiccup walked after Toothless as they loped along the bank of the lake, tripping over his new legs more than once. After a couple of laps around the moonlit lake, Hiccup was starting to get it. Moving in his dragon form didn't feel nearly as intuitive as his half dragon form did, but he did catch on to the movements quicker than he had expected.

"Hey, what are those?" Toothless asked, looking down at Hiccup's forepaws.

Hiccup glanced down at his legs, tripping over his feet lightly, and cringed at what he saw, 

"Those are burn scars," Hiccup said. "I got them when I was younger and new to working in the forge, thanks to Gobber's brilliant teaching style."

"Oh," Toothless said, looking at Hiccup's scars in puzzlement, "I don't think I've ever met a dragon with burn scars. Dragon scales are fireproof, so it would take literally melting our scales for us to get scars."

"I guess my scars just transferred over to his form. At least my clothes didn't change with me, that would be bad," Hiccup replied.

"That makes sense," Toothless said. "Now let's try running."

Toothless sped up to a trot, and Hiccup tried his best to follow after, tripping over his paws at first before getting the feel of it. Over the next hour or so, Hiccup got accustomed to his new form, learning how to sprint, crouch, claw, and even climb.

"I never considered climbing useful before," Toothless said, glancing down at his prosthetic, "but now I see how important it can be."

Hiccup tried to refrain from wincing at his words, and decided to change the topic, "Hey, could you teach me how to shoot those plasma blasts you do?"

Toothless perked up, "Of course! We have to figure out what gifts the Moon Goddess has given you. But first, we need to get you into the sky."

For a couple of minutes, Toothless demonstrated the different techniques for take off, such as the running lift off, the jumping lift off, and the straight up lift off. Hiccup had most trouble with the straight up lift off, because as the name suggests, it consisted of launching his entire body straight up into the sky. But the other ones he mastered fairly quickly, already having used them in his half dragon form.

"Well, I think you're ready," Toothless announced. "Now, let's soar through the stars like we were born to do."

Toothless performed a flawless jumping lift off, and Hiccup soared after him using the same but slightly wobblier technique. Hiccup let out a roar of joy as he and Toothless gained altitude, getting lost in the feeling.

Being in a half dragon form definitely felt more natural to Hiccup, but flying was so much more amazing as a dragon. He was able to replicate Toothless's fancy moves with ease and grace, laughing with Toothless as they twirled around each other.

"You were definitely born for the sky, Hiccup," Toothless proclaimed, doing a barrel roll as he and Hiccup soared through the starry night.

"If you only say one thing correct in your entire life, that would be it," Hiccup agreed, weaving under Toothless and shooting higher into the sky.

There was nothing that could beat the feeling of the sky, Hiccup decided right then and there, as the wind whistled beneath his wings. He slowed down his ascent, letting his wings go limp and his body start falling through the sky.

As the overwhelming feeling of weightlessness overcame Hiccup, a sure, definite thought became in his mind. This was who he was meant to be: a powerful Moon Sweeper that sailed through the sky, caring nothing about the troubles of the creatures that walked on the Grassy Earth beneath him, and only of the clouds and moon and stars.

Hiccup snapped open his wings, rising back up to glide next to Toothless, "Nothing will ever beat this."

"That, brother, I will always agree with," Toothless said.

The two Moon Sweepers ceased their fancy tricks, a silent agreement passing between them to soar through the sky as long as they could. Hiccup relished in the feeling of the wind making his ears billow in the wind, the sound blocking out the sounds of the humans sleeping on the island below him.

Hiccup and Toothless soundlessly glided over the island Hiccup had always called home, with the fires inside the mouths of statues and the safety of homes basking the village in light. The image was beautiful. The perfect representation of humanity, full of intelligent buildings and inventions no other creature could even begin to fathom the idea of. And yet, Hiccup wanted no part of it.

A dragon did not belong among humans, that much Hiccup knew to be true. The only acceptance Hiccup had ever gotten was from Gobber, the only man who had ever even remotely believed in him. Gobber had taught Hiccup the ways of iron and fire, given him something that made him useful, and yet the rest of the village had given him no recognition for it. Instead, all they saw was a useless, troublesome little toothpick that was the disgraced son of one of the mightiest warriors the village had ever seen.

Vikings had never accepted nor acknowledged Hiccup in any light, but the dragon gliding next to him had treated him better than all of the humans on Berk combined. Toothless had accepted Hiccup even when he had taken his livelihood and his reason to live, and had given Hiccup his own. 

Toothless had described to Hiccup a world full of wonder and magic that was hidden outside of the walls of his village, but had also mentioned the flaws and suffering that being a dragon could bring. But Hiccup was willing to take that risk. He was done pretending to be something he would never be.

"Toothless," Hiccup announced. "The moment I am done with dragon training, you and I are busting those poor dragons out of those cages and flying as far away from this island as we can."

Toothless looked at Hiccup with what could only be described as pure joy in his eyes, "Hiccup, I have been waiting for you to tell me that since the moment I gave you your wings."

Hiccup smiled, "Good, because I am done being an outcast. I want you to show me everything there is to show about dragon life. I don't want to live like the way that I have ever again."

"Neither do I," Toothless agreed, "Now let me show you how to be a Moon Sweeper."

In a flash of wings and scales, Toothless bolted past Hiccup, faster than Hiccup had ever see the other Moon Sweeper go.

Hiccup narrowed his eyes, accepting the silent challenge. Purely following the instincts that had been rooted in his body since the moment he gained his magic, Hiccup gave his wings a powerful flap, opening his tail fins and secondary tail fins as wide as they would go, speeding after Toothless.

Flattening his ears to his head, Hiccup soared through the air faster than he ever had before, taking advantage of the wind currents and gliding with them, making him fly even faster. Soon enough, Hiccup had caught up to Toothless, and they both fell into a steep dive until they were weaving through sea stacks, Hiccup dancing through the sky just as easily as Toothless was.

Once the two were out of the maze of sea stacks, Toothless shot upward, making Hiccup flick his tail down and following after as fast as he could. The two ascended faster and faster, and Toothless didn't stop until they were well above the clouds.

"You said earlier that you wanted to learn how to shoot plasma?" Toothless asked, hovering in the sky. Hiccup nodded, hovering in a slightly less practiced manner, "Good. Now, shooting fire is different for every dragon species. Some spew lava, some shoot streams of fire, and some don't even shoot fire at all, but us Moon Sweepers shoot short, powerful blasts that can make an entire sea stack crumble to the ground. To do this, you need to feel for an ashy flavor in the back of your throat, and focus and letting that ashy taste grow. Once you are satisfied with the amount of gas in your throat, you need to trigger the igniting muscle at the very back of your throat, and breathe out the plasma as fast as you can, got it?"

Hiccup looked at Toothless uneasily, "I don't know how I feel about this."

"Well, you were the one who came up with the idea," Toothless said, "and it should be fairly easy. Hatchlings often shoot fire on complete accident, it's instinctual." Hiccup was still looking at Toothless, unconvinced, so the other dragon sighed, "It'll be fine, Hiccup. I brought you up here so we can shoot using a dive bomb. Dive bombs are one Moon Sweeper's main defense mechanisms, so this should be the easiest way for you to learn. All you have to do is go into a dive, tilt your wings in a certain way so that you are shooting down faster than any other dragon safely can, and shoot at one of the sea stacks."

"You know, I don't think that sounds as simple as you think it does."

"That's too bad, because we're doing it now." 

Toothless flapped his wings, lifting himself up a bit before shooting down into the steepest dive Hiccup had ever seen him perform.

Hiccup groaned, but followed his brother's movements, diving down after him. A whistling sound started to play from below Toothless's wings, and Hiccup did his best to make his body be as vertical as Toothless's was, and angled his wings to copy the other dragon's.

Eventually, something in his mind locked into place. Then Hiccup was shooting down through the sky in a way that felt so powerful, he was afraid he would never feel it again. Before long, another whistling sound filled the air, this one coming from below his own wings. The vibration of the sound crawled through his body, and an all too familiar thrill filled him.

But this time the Night Fury whistle was his own, and it wasn't the calling card of the mysterious Night Fury, but the telling feature of his own species. This thrill was made by him, and instead of just a shock rocketing through his body, an amazing feeling came along with it. It was as though he was experiencing true feeling for the first time, like performing a defense mechanism that Moon Sweepers used regularly was something Hiccup had gone his whole life without, and he was finally ready to use it.

Hiccup heard as gas started to build up in the back of Toothless's throat, and Hiccup felt for the muscles behind his teeth, immediately tasting the ash Toothless had described. The taste spread throughout Hiccup's throat as the two dragons shot down towards the sea stacks, and when he was almost about to crash into the sea stack, Hiccup ignited the gas in his throat, shooting it smack dab in the middle of the sea stack, his shot colliding with Toothless's.

Hiccup followed Toothless as they shot over the wreckage of the crumbling sea stack, roaring out in happiness and amazement.

"I did it!" Hiccup exclaimed, "I actually did it!"

"I told you you could do it!" Toothless laughed, spinning over Hiccup in excitement.

The two of them soared through the sky for the rest of the night, dancing through the sky and stars for hours, Hiccup learning especially hard tricks using his plasma blasts, until the moon was almost below the horizon.

"Toothless, what will happen when the sun rises?" Hiccup asked wearily,"Will the Moon Goddess shift me back into a human?"

"I don't think so," Toothless said, "But we might want to land, just to be safe." 

"Okay," Hiccup agreed, and started to lead them back towards the cove.

By the time they landed, the Moon Goddess was saying her last goodbye to the sky for the day, and Hiccup braced himself in case he shifted. Hiccup would be incredibly bummed if he wasn't able to shift into a dragon whenever he liked, but he decided that if he got to fly through the Great Sky like that for even just one night a month, then he would be happy. 

As the moon disappeared from sight, something changed in Hiccup. It was as though a magic curtain that he hadn't even noticed was lifted off of him, and he had full control of his form again.

"You didn't shift," Toothless observed happily. 

"I didn't," Hiccup agreed, "but something definitely changed." 

"What?" Toothless asked confusedly.

Instead of answering, Hiccup closed his eyes, focusing on his half dragon form. The familiar blue light crowded his vision, and then his body started to warp and change back into the familiar body he was used to. 

"I can shift into my half dragon form," Hiccup said, "I don't think I was able to do that while the moon was up." 

Toothless looked at him with confusion, "How do you know that?"

"I don't know, but it was like a hand that had been holding my form in place had been lifted when the moon set," Hiccup responded.

"What's a hand?"

Hiccup blinked at Toothless, who blinked right back at him.

"You know, a hand," Hiccup said, holding up his right hand and pointing to it with his left.

"You mean a paw?" Toothless asked.

"No, hands have fingers and no claws, but paws have no fingers and claws."

"No, that's definitely a paw. Your human paws are just weird."

"Humans have hands, not paws."

"Whatever," Toothless said annoyedly,"can you change back into your dragon form still?" 

Hiccup nodded, pushing the strange conversation out of his head and focusing on his dragon form. Again, the blue light surrounded him, and then he was back on all fours and covered in black scales. 

Toothless nodded at Hiccup approvingly, "It's a good thing you can change back and forth, but I'm assuming you need to head off to dragon training now?"

"No, actually," Hiccup said cheerfully. "There's no class today, and Gobber said that I can take the day off from the forge." 

Toothless's eyes lit up, "Yay! That means I can show you how to hunt and fight as a dragon!" 

"Oh, um," Hiccup considered the idea, "I guess that's alright. I suppose I'll have to learn how to sooner or later." 

"Good, and remind me, what's the forge again?"

"It's the place where we make weapons and stuff out of metal," Hiccup responded, remembering the last time he had explained the forge to Toothless. It had taken hours for the other dragon to fathom the idea.

"Right, right," Toothless said. "I still don't understand how you can make sharp objects out of hunks of shiny rock." 

"I suppose it's strange in concept," Hiccup agreed.

"Now come on, let's go fishing." Toothless took off into the sky, Hiccup following close behind.

Toothless led them to the ocean on the side opposite of the island to the Viking's usual fishing docks. 

"So," Toothless began, "the main diet of Moon Sweepers and most other dragons is fish. Though, we will settle for any piece of meat if we're feeling desperate enough. To catch fish, we soar through the Great Sky just below the clouds, searching for fish in the Great Waters. When we see one, we dive through down and catch the fish in our mouth or paws. Got it?"

"How am I supposed to see fish below the water?" Hiccup asked.

Toothless gave Hiccup a confused look, "Why wouldn't you be able to see fish underwater?" 

"Because-" Hiccup looked down at the ocean below, and his eyes widened in surprise.

Hiccup had no idea how he hadn't noticed it the night before, but the Great Waters below looked completely clear.

"When did the ocean get so clear?" Hiccup asked incredulously.

"The Great Sea has always been clear," Toothless responded confusedly.

Hiccup was incredibly confused, so in midair, he shifted back into his half dragon form, wobbling slightly from the change.

"The sea isn't clear now," Hiccup said staring intently at the water, "I must not be able to see through the water unless I'm in my dragon form." He shifted back into his dragon form, and sure enough, he could see through the water again. 

"Why?" Toothless asked. 

"Maybe because I can't hunt in my half dragon form?" Hiccup responded.

"That makes sense," Toothless said. "Now come on, I'm starving."  

Toothless and Hiccup slowly circled through the sky, their eyes locked on the Great Waters below. 

"Toothless," Hiccup called, his eyes caught on something in the water, "I see a school of fish." 

"Where?" Toothless asked, flying over next to Hiccup.

"There." Hiccup kept his eyes locked on the fish, and Toothless soon spotted them as well.

"Good job, we need to dive when they are closest to the surface of the water, so when I tell you, dive. If we dive at different times, one of us might get fish and the other might not." 

Hiccup nodded in agreement, and the two started to circle above the fish. The fish slowly made their way closer the the island, rising closer to the surface of the water. Hiccup could tell that they needed to strike soon, so he kept his ears up and alert for Toothless's signal.

"Three, two, one," Toothless counted down, "dive!"

They dove down in perfect unison, their whistles filling the air. Once again, instinct overtook Hiccup, and before he knew it, both he and Toothless were carrying a couple large fish in their mouths and claws. Piling their caught fish into a pile on the ocean bank, the two took turns guarding their haul while the other caught more fish.

Once they were satisfied with the amount of fish they had caught, Hiccup divided the fish evenly into two piles, and the two of them plopped down on the ground, their own personal feasts lying out before them.

Hiccup immediately dove into his food, purring in contentment, "I have never eaten anything in my life as good as fish." 

"You hadn't had fish before I met you?" Toothless asked surprisedly, a fish tail hanging out of his mouth.

"No, I did, but it didn't taste nearly as good as it does now," Hiccup replied with his mouth stuffed with fish.

Hiccup and Toothless's ears lifted suddenly at the sound of tiny flapping wings and high pitch voices wafting through the air, and they turned to see a group of several little colorful Terrible Terrors flying towards them. 

"Hey, do you guys have fish?" a purple one asked.

"They do have fish!" another exclaimed.

"Can we have some, please?" a red one asked as a yellow one stole a fish that had tumbled out of Toothless's pile.

"No! They're our fish!" Toothless growled, "Go find your own fish!"

Hiccup knew Toothless could be protective of his food, but he thought Toothless could be a little more nice about it.

"Not even one?" one of them asked.

Toothless was about to respond, but then one of the fish in his pile moved, and he watched as a green Terrible Terror crawled out of the pile, dragging a fish with it. Fast as lightning, Toothless snatched the fish back from the Terror, swallowing it in one bite and laughing mockingly at the tiny dragon.

"Oh, you want to go, Moon Sweeper?" the Terrible Terror growled, pawing at the ground and rearing his head up to strike. 

Unimpressed, Toothless  a small shot of plasma into the Terror's throat, and the tiny dragon fell to the ground, smoke rising from its scales. 

"Toothless!" Hiccup reprimanded his brother as the small dragon wobbled to its feet, walking around confusedly. 

"What? The Singeing Singer took my fish! And he started the fight!" Toothless exclaimed, and Hiccup filed the draconic name for Terrible Terror's in his brain, having forgotten it when Toothless first taught it to Hiccup.

Hiccup sighed, not liking how Toothless hurt the small dragons just for asking for food.

"Here you go." Hiccup said, and tossed the smoking dragon a small fish.  

The Singeing Singer blinked at Hiccup, before he devoured the fish whole.

"Thank you, kind Moon Sweeper," the small dragon said, bowing his head slightly in respect. "If we ever cross paths again, I will remember your act of kindness."  The Singeing Singer called to the rest of his group, and they all took off towards the sky.

"Toothless, you can't hurt another dragon for wanting food," Hiccup said to Toothless once the tiny dragons were out of sight. 

"You're right, I can't," Toothless agreed, "but they stole from me. If one dragon steals from another, the victim has full right to reprimand the thief in any way they see fit." 

Hiccup still didn't like it. There had been to many times that others had hurt him just because of the way he acted and talked.

"Is that dragon law?" Hiccup asked. 

"There isn't a definitive dragon law, but there are rules that almost all dragons follow, and the ones who don't follow them are usually dragons filled with evil magic," Toothless said. "But basically, the rules are: one, you have to respect the word of the Alpha or Leader of your nest or Flight. Two, respect anything related to Mating bonds, this includes Mated names, Mating dances, and just Mating in general. Three, if another dragon wrongs you in any way, you have full right to punish them in a way that you see fit unless your Alpha has made a rule that says otherwise." 

"Okay," Hiccup said, still uncomfortable."But did you really have to hurt him? He just wanted food." 

"I didn't hurt him," Toothless said annoyedly, "I merely lit up his insides a little bit. Dragons are fireproof only where they have their scales, but our insides are still used to a little bit of our fire burning us every now and then. It would have taken a lot more fire for me to kill the Singeing Singer, and I doubt that my blast did any more than daze him a little." 

Hiccup frowned. He hadn't realized that they could die if enough fire was lit inside of them. That made him a little uneasy about his own firepower, and whether or not he could accidentally kill himself if he shot wrong. 

"I'm sorry if that upset you, Hiccup," Toothless said gently after a moment of tense silence, "but it's just the way I've always lived, and how almost all other dragons live. I know it sounds harsh, but I suggest that you get used to those rules, and adapt to them." 

Toothless was looking at Hiccup pleadingly, and Hiccup realized that Toothless might be worried that he wouldn't want to come live as a dragon anymore. 

"Okay, Toothless, I'll try," Hiccup said, and turned back to his fish. 

The two ate in silence for a while, then an alarming thought crossed his mind, "Hey, Toothless," he said, "is it really important that dragon's are fire proof?"

"Well, yeah," Toothless responded confusedly. "If you haven't guessed already, we tend to encounter a lot of fire in our everyday lives." 

"So does that mean that your prosthetic being flammable could be dangerous?" 

Toothless blinked, as though the thought hadn't crossed his mind, "I suppose so, yeah it could."

"Okay, then I need to fix that," Hiccup declared.

"How are you going to do that? Do you have some kind of material that can make my tail fire proof?" 

"No, but scales are what make us fireproof, right?" 

"Yes,"

"Then why can't I make some kind of fire proof paint out of your scales?" Hiccup's mind was already moving, strategizing the best way to make sure his brother would stay safe, "You'd need to start collecting your scales, but it shouldn't be too hard. Especially if we can find some sort of liquid that never comes off to make to paint with, so that it lasts longer, like umm,"  Hiccup trailed off, looking around, as if to find the perfect substance he was looking for right next to him. 

Then, a memory popped in his head, of when Toothless had dumped his half eaten fish in his lap the night Toothless given him his wings. After that night, he hadn't been able to get the fish stain out of his pants. Hiccup had assumed that the stain had come from the fish, but he had gotten fish stains before, and they had always washed out, so what if the stain was actually Toothless's saliva?

"Toothless, I want to see something," Hiccup said, shifting back into his half dragon form. He then confidently held out his shirt sleeve to Toothless, "Spit on my arm."

"What?" Toothless asked incredulously, "Why would you want me to do that?"

"Just do it," Hiccup said, and Toothless looked at Hiccup weirdly, before dumping a giant amount of spit on Hiccup.

"Ewwwww," Hiccup exclaimed,"I said to spit on me! Not dump a whole ocean of saliva on me!" 

"Well, you're the one who told me to do it!" 

"Spit does not mean practically throw up all of the liquids in your system!" 

"Dragons have a lot of spit! Especially Moon Sweepers, our spit has healing properties, so we need a lot of it in case we get hurt!"

"Really?" Hiccup asked, suddenly interested, "I didn't know that." 

"Oh," Toothless said, "I didn't tell you that?"

"No."

"Oh." 

The two looked at each other for a moment, and then Hiccup shifted back into his dragon form and scarfed down the rest of his fish. 

* * * 

As night fell, a small green dragon flew above a village of humans, careful not to be spotted. He weaved in and out of the clouds before he spotted his destination, a small hut lying on the edge of a cliff. The small creature dove down and through the open window of the hut, and called out to his Naervan, a short old woman far older than anyone else in the village.

"My dear Naervan," the small dragon said, "I took my Flight to see the Dragonborn like you asked." 

"And?" the old woman asked in Dragonese, her voice hoarse from disuse.

"He has gained his dragon form, but has not yet learned the ways of our kind."

"Give him time," the old woman said, her eyes glowing red for barely a second. "One day, he will be the one to unite man and dragon once more."