(DISCONTINUED) When Lightning Strikes you down.

Ghost Rider

Hiccup smiled as he lifted up the Changewing skin, pinching it between two fingers and rubbing the material.

His smile widened as he flipped the skin and watched his arm disappear.

He could certainly use this.

oOo

"Here Earthblade," Hiccup called, tossing a fish to the large white and red whispering death. Turns out once he got over his initial grumpiness, he was quite intelligent and was easily trained, he bonded to Hiccup quickly, though not so much that he would let the boy ride him.

Not that Hiccup would want to ride a whispering death, far too spiny to be comfortable. He scratched the dragon's snout, smiling softly.

"I don't get how you do that," his uncle said, shaking his head.

"Here," Hiccup grabbed his uncle's hand, noting with some satisfaction that he had finally started bathing more regularly, and pulled it toward Earthblade. "It's okay," he soothed the dragon, holding out his second hand to calm the beast.

He watched his uncle's face as his hand made contact with the dragon, smiling at the awe visible in his face.

It was incredible that first time, and it never got old.

"Where is that slacker!?" a voice rang through the hall, and Hiccup realized he was late for his lessons.

"I gotta go uncle, bye," he pulled his uncle into a quick hug, before racing out the hall. Alvin smiled as he left. He recalled when they had been enemies, and how often Hiccup had thwarted his plans, and wondered what would have happened had things played out differently.

Would he have grown so close to the boy that he cared for him as one of his own?

Only the gods knew.

(And us who watched Riders/Defenders of Berk, we also know (: we know all.)

oOo

Fishlegs leaned against Meatlug, finally feeling some semblance of peace after Hiccup's... departure.

Unlike Astrid or the twins, who felt confident Hiccup was alive and was going to turn up sooner or later, most likely later by the look of things, Fishlegs wasn't so sure. The chances were in the single digits!

But for right now, he felt at peace, leaning against his dragon.

Inner peace.

The thought came to him almost like it was being meditated by a red panda in an alternate universe, when Meatlug suddenly got up and started digging in the sand, causing Fishlegs to fall over.

"What are you..." Fishlegs trailed off as Meatlug uncovered some kind of glowing, color changing stone.

"What is that?"

oOo

Hiccup grinned as he finally figured out how to properly work the dragon skin, how to get it to change when he needed it too, and to be visible when he didn't.

Now he just needed more.

But where would he find more Changewing skin? Outcast island only had two changewings, and he highly doubted Changewings shed their skin more than once a year.

So he would have to find more Changewings.

"Great, just what I needed, to have to steal from a pack of highly aggressive, invisible, acid spitting dragons. What could possibly go wrong?

Apparently no one ever taught Hiccup not to ask that.

Even in the spirit of sarcasm.

oOo