Chapter 6

A Dragon Returns?

"I'm gonna make sure you regret that decision everyday for the rest of your life while you have to eat your meals through a straw!"

The man who shot Toothless didn't even have time to process the implications of that statement before a flaming fist struck his face, he was sent spiraling through the forest. Just before he met the ground Hiccup was there and landed a blazing kick to his torso which sent him back the way he'd come. He landed back in the clearing and once more Hiccup was upon him instantly, he was lifted off the ground with one hand while the other moved at unimaginable speeds to land several punches on him.

His coworkers were in a state of complete shock, but they recognized that he was in real danger from this enraged teen, and Night Fury spirit or no they had to help him. The first one that made it went to strike the boys back, but his foot never landed as Hiccup moved so quickly it appeared he vanished, leaving an afterimage which the man kick went through. He never saw the open palm coming for behind until it hit the side of his face and he was careening into a tree near the other teens, all still frozen in place, whether in awe or fear one could not tell. The other three men attacked as one with the first sending a DSE blast, the second a stream of fire, and the third a lead the charge with a DSE powered punch. Hiccup evaded the punch, delivering one of his own to the man ribs, knocked the DSE blast away with a backhand, using his own energy to shove the second man away, and fired another plasma blast into the fire stream where it exploded and dissipated the flames before jumping through the results smoke to land a punch to the man's gut.

Astrid watched in terrified fascination as Hiccup, the boy who would prefer to talk out almost any issue rather than resort to a fist fight completely demolished five men in the span of seconds. He was fueled by the anger of Toothless being shot; she couldn't even bring herself to look at the body if she wanted too, he wasn't some wild animal, and he was a friend to both herself and Hiccup and didn't deserve to be shot like that by some petty old man. While Hiccup thrashed the animal control employees she eyed the one who caused his turmoil and brought showed them all why the Night Fury was rumored to be known as the unholy offspring of lightening and death itself, Hiccup moved at speeds that only lightening could match and the look in his eyes said that his enemies would meet their end. As Hiccup reengaged the man with the Thunderpede spirit, she become enamored with the way he fought with blazing fisting and pivoted on his metal foot with a grace he hadn't displayed since his spirit ignited that day in front of Dagur. She was so caught up in watching him fight she didn't notice the man that was responsible for all this had managed to get up until he had a handover her mouth and her arms pinned behind her back.

Hiccup caught the Thunderpede user's arm and locked it in place by bending him arm so his elbow caught it. He then turned and threw the man over his shoulder, the man hit particularly think tree and slumped to the ground unconscious. Hiccup turned to look to see who was still standing; everything was tinted midnight blue as his spirit never stopped burning, his grief and rage a seemingly unending supply of fuel. Snotlout and the twins stood where they had been when Toothless was shot, Fishlegs was hiding behind a tree at the edge of the clearing, and four of the six men were down and out from his ministrations over the last two minutes, the one Toothless had pinned ran off as soon as he was free from the cat. That only left Astrid and the one who shot his best friend: the man named Gary. Hiccup scanned again and spotted them both near where Toothless lay, Astrid had her arms behind her back and his hand over her mouth, the coward was using her as a human shield!

"The job's done kid!" Gary shouted, Hiccup's fist tightened and burned with the desire to fry him. "Just let me and my compatriots go and we won't push any charges, I give you my word." Hiccup smirked and took a step forward, allowing his foot to catch fire and burn his shoe print into the ground. It had the desired effect as Gary stumbled backwards, towards Toothless, Hiccup would fulfill that promise of making him eat through a straw for the remainder of his days.

Gary looked over his shoulder and saw that the beast was laying on the ground behind him, the kids residual DSE still burning slightly around it's body. He wasn't a stupid man, this kid had no intention of stopping, damn teenage hormones. Then a thought struck him, these kids were still young and probably in training, they might be stronger than he or his coworkers but they didn't know everything there is to know about using their dragon spirits just yet. And that he could use to his advantage.

As Hiccup stepped closer once again Gary's DES ignited around him. It then took the form of Hobblegrunt wings on his back, once fully formed they spread and he, along with Astrid in his clutches, soared into the air. Hiccup could just make out his laughing as he stopped at 50ft in the air. "You can't reach me up here kid! Now let me and the others go, or I'll drop your little girlfriend here. It won't kill her but without knowing how to manifest her wings it'll hurt like a bitch!" However instead of responding, Hiccup merely burned his DSE with greater intensity. Without warning Hiccup jumped into the air, using his spirit to increase the strength in his legs, as a result Gary was forced to fly an additional 24ft higher before gravity managed to pull the boy back down.

As Hiccup hit the ground he left two deep footprints, or rather one deep footprint and one deep square with his prosthetic. He glared up at the man holding his friend in the air and grit his teeth before jumping again, only to come short once by a few feet. Gary laughed at his attempts to catch him, sometimes it paid off to be fully trained as opposed to more powerful, and he continued to laugh harder at the next two attempts with similar results.

Hiccup felt his frustration grow all the more with every time he failed to help Astrid, she would've broken out of his grasp on her own if she knew how to manifest her dragon wings but they wouldn't learn that ability for several months. He needed to get her down, a fall from that height wouldn't kill her but it would hurt, a lot. He wished he could use one of the trees to jump higher but they were in the center of the clearing, the trajectory he would need would still leave him short, he needed someway to have a higher jump point or some form of… an idea struck him.

With another glance up his eyes sharpened and focused on Gary and Astrid, with a quick prayer his plan worked he launched himself once more. Just as he felt himself being pulled back down to earth he stuck his right leg out to its full length, the effect was both desired and immediate, DSE blasted from the sole of his foot and acted as propulsion. Hiccup closed the small gap between them, much to everyone's shock, and delivered a strong burning left hook to Gary's face. The man fell, releasing Astrid in the process.

Hiccup grabbed her hand and pulled them together, aiming his back at the ground with the intent to take the brunt of the impact for both of them.

It never came.

When the pair was about twenty feet from the ground the other teens witnessed a black blur catch them and fly back up. It looped round in the air and slowed, it was then they noticed the black bat like wings, the tail with a fin on either side, and their friends clutched in the front paws of what could only be a dragon. It banked right and began to descend into the clearing, when it came close to the ground it beats its wings furiously in order to land on it's hind legs and avoid hurting the teens. Hiccup and Astrid opened their eyes and looked up to see a dragon looking back down at them with wide eyes, it let them go carefully placing them on the ground before waddling back a bit and touching it's front legs to the ground.

"What the hell is going on!? Is that a dragon!? Where did it come from!? And why did it save you two!?" Snotlout shouted as they gathered around the black reptile which never took it's gaze off Hiccup.

As for Hiccup himself he looked around the clearing and found something missing. He looked back at the dragon which warbled at him as he stepped closer, he held his hand out, asking a question without words and the dragon responded. It pressed it's snout into his palm before pulling back and licking it. The others watched on in both awe and terror, dragons had disappeared centuries ago and training techniques lost when it was clear they weren't coming back. "Hiccup…?" Astrid asked cautiously.

"Toothless?" Hiccup said uncertainly, ignoring Astrid's question for a moment as he had to know himself first. The dragon cooed and licked his face then butted it's head into his chest in the exact way his black leopard did. "Toothless! You're ok!" Hiccup exclaimed hugging the dragon who used it's head to return the gesture. The other teens stood there in shock as Hiccup embraced the dragon and it did the same to him.

"That can't be the panther." Snotlout said

"Toothless is a leopard, but you're right for once in your life Snotlout. Hiccup that's a dragon, it can't be Toohtless." Astrid said as she inched closer to Hiccup, while she was skeptical the dragon was acting exactly like the big cat she knew.

"It has to be, look over there." Hiccup said pointing to where Toothless had been shot, "His body's gone, and he couldn't have gotten up and left on his own. He was too weak after he was shot." Hiccup turned to face the and the dragon cocked it's head as if it was listening intently. "I think that when I got mad and ignited my spirit next to him that he somehow absorbed a portion of it and turned him into a dragon, in this case a Night Fury since that's what my spirit is." Hiccup explained his theory to the group, only Fishlegs really following his logic, the dragon cooed again as if affirming his beliefs.

"But how?" Astrid asked, "There's never been any reported case like this before, a person turning an animal into a dragon with their spirit just sounds crazy!" The Night Fury ambled over to her and bumped her outer thigh with it's head like Toothless the leopard did after she accepted he wasn't dangerous, it then warbled at her sadly like it was sad she wasn't happy to see him. It was enough to break her as she looked down at the dragon who met her gaze with large round green eyes and cooed again.

"Maybe it has something to do with me and Toothless being really close, or because Toothless is probably close in size to what a Night Fury was, I mean he doesn't look any bigger does he?" Hiccup said, spitballing a few thoughts on the why rather than the how.

A snap caught their attention and they found the animal services men all limping their way out of the clearing, Gary was still out cold and being dragged by two of his compatriots. Toothless let out a growl, baring his new sharp teeth at them. Any of the teens that didn't already agree with Hiccup's theory were sold when the dragon's eye narrowed to dangerous slits when he spotted the man who shot him, it was only Hiccup's hand on his neck that prevented the reptile from either lunging or blasting the man.

Once the men from animal control were gone the group walked back towards the Haddock household, the twins and Snotlout discussing the fight they just had excitedly while Fishlegs offered advice on what they could've done to improve, which was ignored by the other three due to Fish's lack of participation in said fight. Hiccup was trailing behind with Toothless and Astrid, the latter of which was helping hold him up, all that jumping had caused his prosthetic to bend which left Hiccup with a limping gait. When the others began to get too far ahead Toothless slowed and came behind Hiccup, then nudged his large head between the boy's legs and tossed the startled teen unto his back. When Hiccup recovered his sense of balance he looked down at Toothless and then over to Astrid who had a similar look of bewilderment on her face, after a moment the two chuckled and patted the dragon's neck.

It took several minutes but eventually the group made it back to Hiccup's home and settled in the large living room, even Toothless could fit in the spacious area in his new dragonic form. Astrid once more helped Hiccup back to his room where he kept a spare prosthetic while the other marveled over Toothless's new look, much to the dragon's chagrin. "We should probably grab Toothless something to eat when we head back down." Hiccup suggested as he strapped on the spare limb, Astrid waited outside in the hall to avoid making him or herself uncomfortable by seeing his stump. There were only four people missing limbs in Berk: Hiccup, Gobber, Mulch and Bucket. Hiccup didn't like to talk about how he lost his foot and as for the others; Astrid felt it inappropriate to ask.

When Hiccup emerged from his room, sporting a prosthetic that looked more like a small metal shoe, they went to the kitchen. Astrid pulled water out of the fridge for the others while Hicup dug into a meat locker that was made to look like the counter for a steak to give to Toothless. The sound of a large breath on Hiccup's neck stopped him, he slowly turned around to find Toothless standing on his haunches, cooing and looking down at his human with wide pleading eyes. With a smile Hiccup offered him the steak, the dragon sniffed it a few times before shaking his head and shoving it into the meat locker, knocking Hiccup towards their blonde friend in the process. "Hiccup, get off me!" Astrid said as they hit the ground, "and while you're at it teach your pet some manners!"

"Sorry Astrid, sorry. I've never had him in the house before, let alone had him in here as a dragon." Hiccup said, pulling himself up. He reached down to offer Astrid a hand before she swatted it away, when they were both right side up again Toothless' head pooped back out of the meat locker with no less than seven fish in his mouth. The teens laughed when Hiccup noticed something. "Hey check this out," he said to Astrid as he pointed to the dragon's mouth, "Toothless doesn't have any teeth." This was a bit premature however, as Toothless reared his head up, tossing the fish into the air and sharp teeth protruded from his gums and gobbled the food down.

Both young adults stood there with wide eyes and jaws dropped. Retractable teeth, that was unheard of in every other species of dragon they'd eve heard of, of course much knowledge about them has been lost over the centuries, most of the things they had to go on were the abilities the spirits grant people. Hiccup really hoped he didn't develop that particular trait; Fishlegs chewing on pebbles was still weird to him. He also liked to think the twins obsession with explosions was just who they were.

After the last of the fish was gone, Toothless licked his chops and even let out a burp like sound, the others had found their way to the kitchen and helped themselves to the water Astrid retrieved for them. "So are we going to discuss what happened back there with Hiccup? Or are we going to just ignore that he beat five grown men fully trained with their spirits and turned a big cat into a dragon?" Ruffnst asked. Hiccup looked at the inhibitor back on his wrist, he'd picked it back up as they'd left the clearing and put it back on. As powerful as he felt when channeling his anger as opposed to letting it flow unrestrained, he didn't want to take any chances. He looked up to respond but was cut off when the tail end of a cod landed on the island beside him.

Toothless stood there nudging the regurgitated fish to his human. "Huh, no thanks bud. I'm good." The dragon made a small bark like noise in acknowledgement but kept his eyes on Hiccup. The boy reached out his arm, stopping just short of the dragon's snout, he'd done the same when he and Toothless first trusted each other, the then cat rubbed the side of his face on the boy's hand and purred. Now Hiccup hoped his leopard friend was still in there somewhere.

Toothless looked at his hand, closed his eyes and places his snout in Hiccup's palm.

Suddenly both lit up in the dark blue color of Hiccup's spirit Toothless' form becoming encased in the light. It vanished as soon as it started, when Hiccup and the others opened their eyes, the dragon was gone. Toothless was a black leopard once more. Hiccup didn't know what to make of anything anymore, but he embraced the large cat regardless, a leopard is so much easier to hide than a dragon.

"That's incredible!" Fishlegs exclaimed, "He must have used your dragon spirit energy to save himself after he was shot and that was how he became a Night Fury! And just now he must have returned that energy to you or you reabsorbed it somehow, he's not even injured anymore!" Hiccup felt the side where Toothless had been hit and sure enough there was no wound of any kind, no indication at all. Even tough he was curious as to how it happened, Hiccup honestly didn't care, he was just happy his best friend to was alive. The sentiment seemed to be mutual as two big paws landed on his shoulders and the leopard began rubbing his face against his human's.

"Well seeing as we've all been through a lot today…" Hiccup began as Toothless got down and then jumped up for the fish tail on the counter, "Would you guys like to just hang out for awhile? My dad has a ridiculously big movie collection and we got video games, my dad even got an early copy of the Halo game." A chorus of affirmatives was heard and Snotlout led them to the living room where they popped in the movie 'Secondhand Lions', Snotlout and the twins thought they were hilarious but they ended up genuinely enjoying the movie.

Astrid got Hiccup to give her a tour of the house, all the doorways where three times bigger than normal so his father could get through without trouble. They ended up back in the study with the two birds, which turned out to be his mother's office when she was in town, the owl turned out to be her personal pet Cloudjumper, and the falcon was a guest until she was healed and rehabilitated. Hiccup convinced Astrid to try and feed the bird of prey which to their surprise she was quite successful, as a result Hiccup asked her if she would mind helping feed her everyday, Astrid pretended to think it over for a minute before she agreed, she didn't want to seem like she had nothing better to do than hang out with a her friend with a missing foot, pet leopard and a strike class spirit.

When they rejoined everyone else the twins and Snotlout were in the middle of a match in a video game, while Fishlegs was buried in a book about dragon spirits. Toothless was curled up in front of the stone fireplace sleeping, Hiccup assumed whatever had happened in the clearing and reverting back to his normal form took a bit out of him. He'd offered the cat a steak but to his surprise his friend was only interested in fish now, possibly a side effect of temporarily becoming a dragon. Might be for the best though, fish are much cheaper than steaks. Hiccup and Astrid were soon pulled into swapping in the game when one of the other's character died, they were so engrossed in the good time they were having that they failed to notice Fishlegs look up from his book and at Hiccup with wide eyes. For the first time in forever Hiccup was enjoying having friends.

It was nearly ten o'clock when they left. Astrid and Fishlegs had to wait for the others to pull out before they could since their cars were blocked in, but the husky member of their group came over to her and tapped her shoulder. When Astrid turned to face him Fishlegs handed her the book he had been reading, Hiccup had generously allowed him to borrow it. "Astrid I think you should take a look at this." He pointed to a section towards the end of the book, the indicator at the top showed he was reading about Strike Class spirits.

Strike class dragons were known to be extremely aggressive towards other dragons, likewise those who have come to bare a Strike class dragon spirit are often people who have aggressive tendencies. These tendencies are usually overt and easy to spot, however there have been rare exceptions when the spirit wielder has spurts of anger and become violent.

Astrid re-read the small section a few more times just to make sure she wasn't seeing things. The next few paragraphs were on how to deal with an aggressing Strike class spirit wielder should you encounter one, most people probably skipped them since Strike class spirits were the rarest in the world, there had never been two alive at one time until Hiccup's spirit ignited.

"Hey, guys something wrong?" Hiccup said as he approached, causing both Astrid and Fishlegs to jump slightly. They had been focused on what he had to show her that they didn't notice the twins and Snotlout were long gone.

Astrid forcefully shoved the book back into their large friend's arms and gut, prompting a soft gasp of pain from him before answering Hiccup. "No, not at all. Fishlegs here just wanted to show me that the thing I did in the clearing where I used my Spirits spines is actually a suggestion if someone with a Nadder spirit is low on DSE. I didn't even know that, cool huh?" Hiccup shrugged and grunted noncommittally then smiled and waved good-bye before returning inside were Toothless was waiting. After waving farewell and watching the door close Astrid rounded on Fishlegs, "I don't care what that book says, got it? Hiccup isn't like that, he's our friend and we're not going to start treating him differently because you're a coward. Do I make myself clear?"

Fishlegs nodded vigorously.

Astrid dropped her arms to her side and let out a breath to calm down, she didn't know why she got so protective of Hiccup just there, but she didn't regret coming to his defense. She bid Fishlegs goodnight, then climbed in her car and left, she was going to sleep all day tomorrow.

Elsewhere

"So what exactly am I looking at here?" Dagur asked as the video played out before the group assembled. It was from the day prior, at Berk High during their dragon training. His 'brother' Hiccup was clearly in dragon mind and much to Dagur's delight causing quite a ruckus, when he found out that little Hiccup had been blessed with not only a Strike class spirit, but a Night Fury he was determined to bring the boy into the fold, but their group's leader had different plans in store for the boy.

The video continued to show a small group of kids trying to stop Hiccup's rampage in dragon mind, a set of twins kept diverting his attention until a beefy kid that Dagur recognized as Hiccup's cousin tried to attack him, the possessed teen on the screen dispatched all three without much thought and started to hover in midair, that's when things got interesting. Another teen, the girl that Hiccup had saved that day when Dagur brought his impromptu lesson to Berk High, stepped close and grabbed his wrist. Dagur waited with baited breath for Hiccup to send her spiraling across the arena, but that didn't happen.

Instead Hiccup turned to face her and returning to the ground. Their leader paused it when the girl placed her hand on Hiccup's shoulder and began to glow.

"That is why I called you all here Dagur. It seems the gods have placed a fail-safe on the boy that will hinder my plans for him." Their leader said.

"Well what the hell is that? Glowing class marks? I don't see how that alters whatever plan you might have." Dagur said while scratching his head.

"You're young Dagur so I don't expect you to know about these things." Alvin Treacher said from across the table. He pointed at the screen where the girl's hand and Hiccups shoulder were glowing. "This here is a rare happening called Odin's favor, it means that these two destinies are intertwined. There have been less than twenty documented cases of it in history, so if we tried to corrupt either of these two then the other could pull them back."

"So what their like soul mates or something?" Dagur asked.

"Not necessarily, only a few of the other documented cases became romantically involved, and even then only one pair actually lasted. No it just means they are going to be very close. Unless…" Alvin said before trailing off and turning to the man who called them all here who nodded.

"Unless what? I don't like being left in the dark over here!" Dagur growled as electricity crackled around him.

"Unless we can break the bond between them." An old lady next to Alvin said, she had wanted to destroy Hiccup when Dagur first brought the group's attention to the boy, she only stood down because she was outnumbered by everyone else's desire to keep him alive for one reason or another. "It's never been done before, but is theorized to be possible, we need to drive a wedge between them that's strong enough to make one of them despise the other."

"Exactly." The man at the head of the table said before turning to Alvin. "You're brother adopted a girl that's there ago correct?"

Alvin nodded, "Yes my niece is actually in there Dragon Training class, and she's been keeping me updated on the boy's progress."

"Excellent, have her cause mistrust between them. Make one lose faith in the other, which should be sufficient enough to break the bond at this early stage. You're all dismissed."

Everyone stood and nodded before leaving. The man they followed stood and looked at the image of the two teens with Odin's favor. "One way or another boy, you will serve my plans. Not even the gods can stop me from achieving my goal."