Key:

Normal speech

Thoughts/emphasis

Dragonese

Telepathic communication

Chapter Fifteen: Lesson Five - How to Speak Dragonese

Hiccup didn't want it to end. It was perfect - him, Astrid...they were engaged. Now all he had to do was make a ring for her to make it official. A scream brought him out of his daydream.

"You may have won this time, Haddock, but I have business to attend to!" Alvin called through the battle field, heading off to the chasm on the other side of Berk. "And a certain someone is sorry that she has to leave again so soon!"

"HICCUP!"

"KYRA!" Hiccup yelped, racing after the chief of the Outcasts with Astrid hot on his heels. Alvin had Kyra in a headlock and had dragged her across the bridge that stretched across the chasm. Hiccup and Astrid followed but no one else could. The disaster struck - a plank broke under Hiccup's prosthetic leg and he fell over, becoming stuck. Astrid raced to help him but Alvin got in first and cut the ropes holding the bridge up. It snapped up to halfway and the kids began to fall into oblivion. Hiccup's leg caught and stopped him falling any further and he was able to grab Astrid's hand before she fell. They were left dangling in midair but to their horror, the weak rope snapped again.

"Astrid, do you think you can make it to that ledge?" Hiccup asked, thinking fast.

"Not without momentum!" Astrid called back, clinging to her boyfriend...no, fiancé...for dear life. The rope jolted. Hiccup knew that one of them wouldn't make it.

"Astrid, I'm gonna have to swing you!"

"Hiccup, are you crazy?" Astrid yelped. "The rope will break!"

"It won't hold us both!"

"It will!" Astrid pleaded, although she knew otherwise. The rope jolted again - on the verge of snapping.

"Astrid..." Hiccup's face was filled with sorrow. "I'm sorry." Astrid gasped as Hiccup swung her over to the rock ledge. Seconds later, the rope snapped.

"HICCUP!" Astrid screamed. Kyra shouted the same thing and jumped into the chasm. "KYRA! Gods, I am surrounded by suicidal idiots!"

I couldn't lose him...not my brother. I had totally done something idiotically crazy but I had to try. I shut my eyes and I could feel my body changing. I concentrated till I thought my head would burst. I felt my limbs thickening and shortening; I felt wings sprouting out of my back; I felt my face elongating and I felt scales covering my body. I felt power; strength...I was a dragon. I plunged into the chasm and soon found the person I was looking for. Minutes later, I emerged from the darkness with Hiccup on my back.

"Thanks for the ride!" Hiccup grinned on my back.

"Any time, bro!" I smiled back. I was still speaking Norse! Oh, this was cool. Daring a peak at my new body, I recognised the sleek form of a Night Fury but on my legs and down my tail were star-shaped marks. I must be some rarer type of Night Fury.

"Toothless is so gonna kill me!" Hiccup laughed. I laughed with him - I was sure Toothless would understand.

"He'll thank me later, Hiccup!" I grinned. I could have sworn I felt him tense. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him dart his head to the side. He urged me to head to the forest but I didn't respond fast enough as something hit me in my left eye.

"HICCUP!" Astrid yelled as she raced through the forest. "Hiccup?"

"Up here!" Hiccup called. Astrid glanced upwards to see the teen stuck up a nearby fir-tree.

"Hiccup – you okay?" she called.

"Hang on – I'll be right...WHOA! OOFF!" Hiccup grunted as he fell out of the tree, bruised but alive. Astrid marched straight up to him and punched him in the face. "OOW!"

"That's for scaring the pants off me!" Astrid snapped before kissing him on the cheek. "That's for everything else - especially making it out alive." Hiccup couldn't help but smile. He'd made it out alive. But someone was missing.

"Kyra! Kyra, where is she?" he flapped, frantically searching the area.

"There!" Ruffnut and Tuffnut chorused, pointing to a small clearing where something large had broken through the trees. Branches lay scattered like match sticks and sunlight streamed in through the normally dark green forest. There, lying in that same clearing, was a Night Fury. But this was no ordinary Night Fury - its back and tail were decorated with silver white, sparkling flame and star marks and it had a silver streak running down its face; a face that was covered on one side with blood with the arrow that caused the damage strewn on the ground nearby. It was the Night Fury from Hiccup's dream - it was Kyra.

"No...NO!" Hiccup gasped, running towards his dragon-sister and kneeling at her side. His hand fell onto her wound and he realised in horror that her eye would not recover from something like this. This was all his fault. "I'm...I'm so...I'm so sorry," he murmured, close to tears. The dragon's body shimmered and shrank to form the body of a fourteen year old girl - the body of Valkyra Horrendous Haddock II. Hiccup almost did a double take and hurried to find a pulse...it was weak but it was there. "She's alive! Thank that gods, she's alive!" he cheered. The Vikings behind him broke into celebration. The girl had played a part in saving them - to think that they had almost given her away. Stoick walked up to his son.

"Hiccup?"

"Dad?"

"I...I never meant to hurt you that way," he comforted. "If I had known, well...maybe I might have thought things through more thoroughly. You'll make a fine chief someday, Hiccup." Hiccup grinned with pride.

"And Astrid will make a brilliant Chief-tess," he grinned, turning his gaze to his...he still couldn't believe it...fiancée. Astrid smiled back as the Vikings headed back to the village to celebrate the homecoming of their chief's daughter. But not until after Ruffnut pointed at something on Kyra's face.

I woke up dazed and heavy, as if I suddenly weighed the same as a Red Death. My eyes fluttered open but I could only see out of my right. Did I hit my head that bad? I could barely remember the battle but as I became more awake, it came flooding back. As did the vision of a small green and red dragon standing over my face.

"Hey, there," I murmured. "You must be...Camicaze..." I moaned as the Terrible Terror began licking my face. "Okay, okay, take it easy...OUCH!" I exclaimed as Camicaze accidentally hit my face. I was fully awake now and I was surprised to see Hiccup next to my bed.

"Nice of you to join the living," he joked. I grimaced - my head really hurt.

"Ha-ha. Very funny. What happened?"

"An arrow hit your face," Hiccup explained. "I was scared you wouldn't make it - there was so much blood."

"You managed - you lost a leg," I replied. Seriously; compared to my brother's limb loss, I could barely compete with an injured eye, could I? A crash sounded and Hiccup went downstairs to calm Toothless down - he sounded pretty restless. I couldn't help but laugh when I heard Hiccup scold his dragon for smashing one of the pots. I brought my hand up to my face to stifle the giggle but something hard on my face confused me. What was that? It was too smooth to be a scab and too hard to be my skin. I unravelled the bandage on my head and picked up a mirror that someone had left on the floor. I was in shock. It was me but something was off. I still had my freckles; my mud brown hair; my pesky cowlick that kept falling in front of my left eye; my emerald green...no...Hiccup poked his head into the room as I noticed. I turned to face him, tucking my bothersome cowlick behind my ear...

Revealing a golden green dragon eye surrounded by black scales.

Hiccup recoiled but not in disgust - more in shock than anything else. The left side of my face was covered in black scales - Night Fury scales - and my left eye, once the same emerald green as my brother's, was a pool of golden green, piercing and frightening.

"It's the Dragon Shifter healing mechanism," Camicaze squeaked. "Dragons heal a damn sight faster than humans. Those scales will go in time but the eye will stay the same - your human eye was damaged beyond repair. Your dragon of choice seems to be Night Furies and Night Furies heal the quickest which is why that happened over night." Over night? The battle was only yesterday? That could only mean one thing. Today was my sixth day in Berk and...

"I'm fifteen!" I squealed.

"I was getting to that," Hiccup shrugged. "Come on. Oh, by the way, I think the eye looks cool."

"Cheers," I snickered. He led me downstairs where Toothless was waiting. We growled a greeting to each other and Hiccup grinned.

"I can almost thank you for that scratch, you know," he said. I asked why. "I can understand him." My jaw was on the floor but I corrected myself quickly.

"There goes private 'let's-play-a-prank-on-Hiccup' conversations," I joked. Hiccup laughed to and opened the front door. Whatever I was expecting to see, I was not expecting this!

"Alright guys!" Hiccup called, mounting Toothless. "Let's go!" I could not believe my eyes. The whole village had gathered outside and shouting cheers of "Welcome home!" and "Happy Birthday!" and Odin knows what else.

"What's this?" I breathed.

"It's your birthday party, Hatchet-Head!" Astrid grinned, marching over. "Welcome home." I knew it - I died.

"Hey! It's Valkyra!" Spitelout shouted. Stoick walked over and Hiccup came down from the dragon display.

"Thought we'd welcome you back in style," Stoick boomed. "What do you think?" I thought it was incredible. "Turns out that we seem to keep needing more of this." Hiccup and I looked at each other as our dad gestured to us.

"You just gestured to all of us," we chorused. Stoick smiled proudly.

"Well, I think presents are in order," Gobber chuckled. "Who's first?" Predictably, the twins were first and arguing over who should give the present.

"That's you guys in a week," Astrid muttered to me.

"Make that a day and you've got a deal," I whispered back. In the end, Tuffnut won the fight and presented the most beautiful shield I'd ever seen. They'd made it themselves and it was decorated in greens, blues, black, gold and many other colours. Snotlout was next and his present was a wood carving of a dragon - it was very good, I had to admit. Fishlegs gave me a revised copy of the Dragon Manual ("You might as well know what you're taking care of.") and Astrid revealed the most stunning outfit ever. It was a knee-length warrior dress - emerald green and made of a light, cotton-like material. It had a low back to show off my back-mark - the one of a Night Fury - and elbow-length sleeves. Underneath, I could wear any under-garment I needed to keep myself warm or even to protect myself in battle. Despite its simplicity, it was actually quite pretty for a Viking garment. Hiccup was the last.

"Here," he said simply, rummaging around in his bag. "I made this for you - hope it fits."

It was a crown. Made of gold and decorated with sapphires, garnets, rubies, emeralds, diamonds and a large stone of black onyx in the centre, it was possibly worth more than all my other presents put together. Engraved on the inside was my name. It was more than beautiful...

"Wow... thanks," I breathed. I truly couldn't say anymore. I placed it on my head - it was a perfect fit. Things really couldn't be more perfect.

"Amazing," I couldn't stop thinking to myself aloud. "To think I've waited my whole life to get this back..."

"It is most certainly incredible to think what we have missed in our lives," a voice sounded. I didn't recognise it and so figured it was another Viking. I began speaking aloud.

"Who would've guessed, huh?" I grinned. "Me: Valkyra Rhinestone, the freak of the school...a Viking."

"Not just a Viking,remember."

"Yeah," I breathed. "The..."

"Uh, Kyra?" Hiccup waved his hand in front of my face. "Who're you talking to?" I blinked.

"I was talking to..."I began before stopping myself. That voice had been in my head? I began searching with telepathic communications. "Who areyou?"

"Someone who has waited a long time." The voice was melodic, much like Toothless', except this one was female with a sweet, caring tone to it. Hearing it made me feel as if I was talking to some older sibling at a time when I couldn't talk to anyone else. "I am yet without a true name or purpose but I feel that something brought me to this island for a reason."

I began walking round the back of the house to find the source of the voice and nearly jumped out of my skin when I saw the black lizard half dozing in the shade. The magnificent beast rose its head and opened its eyes of golden green to look at me. It slowly got to its feet and followed me back round to the front of the house where the entire village fell silent. In the blazing sun, I was able to see this new dragon in all its glory.

She looked very much like a Night Fury, sharing the same wing and body shape as Toothless did, but instead of being plain black she was covering in white-silver markings, very much like my own when I'd turned into a Night Fury the previous day, and her tail was forked with what appeared to be lightning sparks coming from the tips instead of having fins like Hiccup's dragon did. I kept eye contact with her as I backed down towards the village square. Despite being the dragons' Goddess, I still felt the need to treat them with the same respect they showed me.

"What kind of dragon are you?" I asked gently as I halted in my tracks. The dragon did the same. Out of the corner of my eye I could have sworn I saw Toothless' ears perk up.

"A kin to the One-Fin, over there," she joked with a smile glittering in her eyes. I glanced at Toothless who cringed slightly. "My clan call me the Star Backed Night Fury."

I somehow managed to contain my excitement. I slowly held out my hand - almost without hesitation, the Star Backed Night Fury placed her nose on my palm. I knew that the dragon had accepted me - we had chosen each other to become a team.

"You said you had no true name?" I asked. The dragon repeated that she did not have one. A memory sparked in my brain, "Then I'll call you...Windwalker," I announced aloud. The Night Fury nodded her satisfaction and we touched for the first time. Now I was home.

"You ready?" Hiccup asked as we prepared for our first flight. I nodded. I was so ready.

Have you ever wondered if you had been born in the wrong era? As if your birth has been prolonged for centuries and you just happened to appear at the wrong time?

Well, that was my life. I'm home now and I couldn't be happier. Who am I? The name's Valkyra Horrendous Haddock II. That really is my name, by the way. My friends call my Kyra; and trust me, I have a lot of them now. What am I? Well, depends who you ask. Hiccup calls me 'sister', Astrid calls me 'best friend' and the dragons call me 'goddess'. In short...

I'm the Dragon Shifter.

/

And that's the end of How to Speak Dragonese! Windwalker's design (and indeed, Kyra's dragon design) is based on a customised Night Fury I made whilst playing the How to Train Your Dragon game ages ago. I have a sequel planned, although if I am going to post it then it won't be for a while seeing as I've got MORE EXAMS coming up (urgh...) Hope you've enjoyed reading this!