A/C - First person POV worked for the first couple chapters because the body-switch was hard to write in third person. But, I think as I continue I'll stay in third person! Please review, fav and follow!

Chapter 4 - Witches Ground

Jack had text Hiccup the next day.

Jack: Can we talk? (10:45am)

Hiccup had just finished eating a late breakfast as he read the text. An annoyed scowl must have been plastered on his face because his mother asked, "is everything okay, dear?"

Hiccup made his face neutral as he drank a glass of milk, "yeah everything's fine."

After he was done eating, he washed his plates and went upstairs, flopping onto his bed.

Hiccup: What? (11:10am)

Jack: Are you free? (11:10am)

Hiccup debating lying to him. It was a Saturday morning and he didn't have to see Jack until Monday at school. He still had to find a way to calm himself down after being lied to.

Hiccup: Not really. Busy all weekend. See you Monday. (11:20am)

Jack, to Hiccup's relief and dismay, didn't text back.

^.^

On Monday at school, Jack was unavoidable. Hiccup had tried during a non-mandatory faculty update in the morning, which was basically his father saying females were now able to try-out for any all-boys teams. Stoic had made clear that other teams would be adjusting their rooster to also include women.

Stoic announced, to a very happy Astrid, that she would be the first woman to pioneer this adjustment.

After the meeting Astrid found Hiccup and surprised him with a big hug. "Thank you so much, Hic!"

Hiccup enjoyed the brief embrace, wrapping his arms around Astrid's slender frame. "Don't worry about it. You deserve it. And you should really be thanking my mother, when she found out about it...oh man did she rip into dad."

Astrid pulled back, a beaming smile planted on her face. "Why do I feel like this is exactly how I imagined it would go. It doesn't matter. Thank you for..well, for starting that conversation."

She gave his hand a squeeze and Hiccup couldn't help the floppy smile his face conjured up. "You're welcome."

Hiccup and Astrid went their separate ways. He was surprised that, by the end of the day, Jack had finally found him. Or perhaps it was intentional.

Jack was wearing a light-blue scoop neck that clung to his toned arms and torso, paired with a dark-wash pair of jeans. Hiccup sighed out in annoyance that Jack could interchangeably manage to piss him off and arouse him at the same time.

Hiccup closed his locker once Jack reached him, blue eyes shining. "How was your weekend?"

"We're not doing that," Hiccup growled. "You lied to me. You can't expect me to just be 'okay' with everything and pretend we're cool."

Jack shrugged. "Fine. We need to talk about what to do now that you're a siphoner with witch powers."

Hiccup retorted, "what do you normally do with a siphoner that has witch powers?"

For once, Jack hesitated. He did not give a snarky, or sassy, reply. Instead, he remained silent, his face scrunched as if he had just encountered a real problem.

"Siphoners are rare. They tend to have no place in the witch and warlock world," said Jack. "Normally, they are the ones' who become hunters."

"I already knew I was going to help you find the witches and hunt down Pitch Black, if that's what you're implying." Hiccup said.

"Well," Jack gave Hiccup a harsh and almost degrading overall look. "You won't be helping me much if you don't know the basic rules of being a warlock. You need to learn about the magik-world. A lot."

Hiccup glared at him, "I know that. And I suppose you'll be teaching me?"

Jack smirked proudly, "you'll be learning from the best."

"I highly doubt that." Hiccup replied. "You're the only warlock, witch-hunter - whatever it is you are - I've met. That's not a fair comparison."

A flirtatious spark seemed to prowl back into Jack's blue-eyes. Slowly, he gave Hiccup a seductive smile. "Don't worry, you're in good hands. Virgin's are my specialty."

Hiccup set his jaw, in frustration and annoyance. He ignored the feeling of attraction from seeing Jack looking at him like that, saying those words. Instead he said, "When do we start?"

"Now." Jack purred.

^.^

They went back to that same abandoned building from Friday night, Jack had called it the witches ground. Hiccup had opted to drive himself even after Jack insisted they go together.

He followed closely behind Jack's fancy Mercedes, careful not to be too close.

Once parked, Jack grabbed a duffel bag from his trunk and they walked around to the back. The same barrel was there, minus the fire.

"So why do we have to train here?" Hiccup asked, looking at the abandoned lot now a little more clearly in the day-time. To the far north side, there was an area that was fenced off (not that it stopped the local graffiti artists from tagging the building) and directly to their left was the border of the pavement lot, edged with ravine woods.

"Four hundred years ago the original witch from the area was born here," Jack repeated what he said the other night. "It holds a special kind of land-magik that is untraceable. It's perfect for practicing magik."

Jack and Hiccup stopped near the barrel. Jack gently put the duffel bag to the ground and knelt beside it, unzipping the bag to reveal cut logs of firewood.

He began taking out the wood. "Untraceable, as in Pitch can't find us?"

"Correct," Jack said. He started to put a few pieces of wood into the barrel. Then, Jack pulled out a small canister that he began to unscrew.

Jack stood up and poured the contents of the canister onto the wood. The smell of fuel burned at Hiccup's nostrils.

A smirk lit up Jack's features as he put out a box of matches and lit one. "I'd stand back."

He swiped the wick across the pack and a small flame burned to life. He tossed the lit match into the barrel and the fire exploded to life. Heat embraced Hiccup's features for only a moment before it was cooled by a frosty sensation. He knew it was Jacks' doing.

"How does all of the magik stuff work?" Hiccup asked, watching as Jack started feeding the smaller kindle to the fire. "Like sensing it, or finding places like this?"

"You don't need to worry about that. First," Jack said. "We need to hone your abilities. It's not enough to stumble your way through working with mana. You should be able to control it."

"Alright," Hiccup agreed. "So, controlling the body swapping -"

"Not with that ability." Jack interrupted, quickly. "With all due respect, body-swapping is relatively complex. It'll take time."

Hiccup gave him a puzzled look. "All I have to do is kiss someone, do I not? Seems pretty easy and useless to me."

Jack chuckled. "It's actually the most powerful mana-ability there is, besides the elementals."

Hiccup blinked, now he was confused. How was kissing someone and body-swapping considered useful?

Jack understood the look. He stopped feeding kindling to the fire. "Properly trained and deadly body-swappers can do the swap at a distance, with only maintaining eye contact."

What?

"T-that's impossible," Hiccup stammered. If that were true, and Astrid knew how to use her powers, it could be a huge advantage in practically any situation.

"Precisely why we need to train your mana-abilities." Jack said. "Now, lesson one: we'll focus on the more elemental magik's like air, fire, water, earth and, my personal favorite, ice."

As Jack said that, he blew out a little puff of air that condensed in front of Hiccup's eyes, turning into ice. It fell to the ground with a quiet 'snap'.

Hiccup watched as Jack took a few steps towards him, "we'll practice with the latter first"

Jack stepped closer and Hiccup stiffened. Hiccup was slightly taller than Jack, by at least five inches, and the latter had to look up. His gaze momentarily dropped to Hiccup's lips before they flickered back to Hiccup's eyes. Jack purred, "This is the part where you kiss me."

Hiccup forgot how to breathe because Jack was so close. He took an unsteady breath in and closed his eyes. Hiccup bent down, angling his head and felt Jack's cold lips press onto his.

The magik, as always, swept him up. He felt the ice run through his veins, down his throat to his toes. He pulled back, momentarily stunned by the eutrophic buzz of the magik filling him within, and the icy coldness that threatened to turn him to stone.

"Control it," Jack urged as he watched Hiccup struggle for breath. Hiccup closed his mouth, and bent down putting his hands on his knees for support. His insides were freezing from the power Jack leant him. He wasn't sure he could stop shivering, or stop the ever-numbing coldness that threatened his consciousness.

Hiccup thought he was going to pass out. In the distance, far away from these thoughts, he heard Jack talking to him. "You need to contain the mana. Imagine there's a box within you and use it as a vessel."

Breathlessly, Hiccup started panting. He tried to focus his thoughts on Jack's words - a box. A box. He closed his eyes and tried harder. There, in the back of his mind, he created a plain, wooden box with a simple flip lid.

Shakily, he said. "I see it."

He wasn't sure if that was what Jack had implied, but he imagined the box in his mind. It was sitting open.

"Visualize the mana and lock it in the box." Jack instructed.

Visualize the mana. Hiccup had recalled when Jack used his mana it was like a blue-firelight. Hiccup imagined the blue flame in front of the box. At first, the image resisted him and kept slipping from his mind. As if it were made of water, it would not hold the shape. Hiccup clenched his jaw and tried again. This time, he willed the image to life and it stayed.

When the box closed over the blue-flame Hiccup snapped his eyes open and gasped. The sensation of coldness throughout his body disappeared instantaneously. The shock of it being replaced with warmth was a surprise.

Hiccup, who was panting, blinked and slowly stood up to regain his composure.

Jack was smiling at him. "Now, comes the hard part."

"That wasn't the hard part!" Hiccup complained, still trying to catch his breath and slow his heartbeat, all while maintaining his concentration on that damned box inside his mind.

Jack moved, and stood on the other side of the fire. His eyes were ablaze with a new intensity that Hiccup was about to learn was not a good thing.

Jack instructed him with only four words: "Put out the fire."

^.^