A pair of tails

Humans with hate

"Bud," Hiccup said as he reached out towards Toothless. He smiled towards me before gently letting Hiccup put his palm against his snout. Hiccup calmed a little, and smiled. "I'm better now bud," he said as he tried to sit up. He looked weak and smelled salty. He managed to get into an upright position on the furs, but it didn't look quite comfortable. The wind caressed his face and made his hair dance in the wind. His dull green eyes looked over the battlefield. Assessing the damage, probably. His eyes swept over faces, piles of weapons and initially towards the pile of dead people with a mix of fear and desperation. Then he turned towards Stoic, "where is Astrid?"

I was drawn between saying that I was here, and pretending as if I didn't understand him. I looked over at Toothless, unsure of what to do next. Stoic looked troubled. "No one knows, Hiccup. They think the queen might have..." Hiccup interrupted him. "No she couldn't have. Not her." He looked desperate. "She saved me, she was the warrior of our age", he looked desperately at Toothless, forgetting I was here. Shame filled my veins. "Not her," he said and finally tuned towards me. His brows drew together. I had to tell him. But how?

I turned towards Toothless, "how do I turn back? Is there even a way?" His eyes told me everything I needed to know. He had no idea. I warbled at Hiccup and his eyes meet mine. "That is the other night fury that joined the battle," Stoic said to Hiccup. "It has blue eyes," Hiccup noted. Well thanks for calling me an it.

I walked closer to him, maybe I could write in the ground? Tell them, "hi it's me Astrid, no you don't have to worry, it's really me". It did sound kind of weird, but I couldn't just let them believe I was dead. I turned towards Toothless again, "can't we try something?" I asked. I walked over, maybe I could control the transformation. "Maybe, its worth a try, but be careful beautiful". Toothless said as I backed away from Hiccup. Who knew what might happen? Toothless stood calm and collected at his side, probably the only thing keeping Hiccup from doing something he would later regret. Before I even tried to transform, which to be honest I had no idea how to do, I drew runes on the ground to tell Hiccup who I was. Other Vikings around us made a collective gasp as they read what I had written, and then I focused.

It as hard. I didn't know what I was going to focus on. I tried to feel my core, like Toothless had thought me. Dragons had magic. Fire come from that magic. Maybe I could force a transformation or something like that to happen. I focused and closed my eyes. A warmth inside. I found it and feelt it spread. Pain racked over my body again. I stumbled into the mud as I looked over at Toothless, only to discover a black pile in the bloody mud. Not really thinking, I might blame that weird mate-instinct, I crawled over to him. He was covered in a pile of scales, no they were his clothes. A mop of black hair lined his head. Human. He was human. I looked over myself to se the same thing had happened to me. I was to covered in clothes made from ebony scales.

Green eyes opened and I noticed his pupils were almost docile, but not quite. The eyes were also intense like they used to be. He looked at me and a little smile graced his lips. I rose, paying little attention towards all the people that now were watching. I helped Toothless get up. He had trouble standing, but what can you expect when you have walked your entire life on all fours?

...

After all of this, there was a lot of talk about dark magic, and if they should let us on the ships. Toothless didn't understand what the Vikings said, but what he had learned from Hiccup in the cove. It turned out that I was lucky to have been magically granted understanding of the dragon language and Toothless understood what I said to him, but not if someone else told him the exact same words. It was all quite interesting, Hiccup noted as we sailed back towards Berk. I'm sure many Vikings would have liked to se us fly back there, if back at all, but we had helped fixing the ships together with all the other Vikings, well I had, not Toothless. He had learned to walk and do other human stuff, (a little of them). We had been put on the ship with Stoic so that he could 'control' us.

It was weird how everyone had once been all about that I was the best warrior on the island. The after Hiccup became the "best" I had become sort of a person everyone had forgotten. I had gone from the best to invisible in an extremely short period of time. And now they looked at me with a mix of fear and awe. They feared dragons, even hated them. But I had helped them. They though we were going to eat them when they turned their backs on us. Everyone avoided Toothless, everyone sent harsh looks in my direction. It was a long trip back to Berk.

...

When we finally landed at the docks, we easily moored the boats and helped carry what supplies there might be left. The harshly harmed were already with Gothi getting treatment, but Toothless and me were guided towards the great hall. I think I might know why. But before we could get there something dropped from the sky, a dragon who had the red marks and was infamously called the monstrous nightmare. And on his back sat Snoutloud. I tried to think back to what had happened, and couldn't recall seeing him after the battle. He wouldn't know. He demounted the big dragon as the twins came down. Vikings surrounded us with uncertainty. I somehow noticed all the dragons nesting on the roofs as if this was their new nest. And all their eyes where on us as Snoutloud came closer. I stood still, mostly I wanted to try to hit him for the unappropriated things he said. He tried to get me like he usually did, but this time if I lashed who might know what might happen.

Fishlegs landed and quickly noted the odd situation and calmed Snoutloud (a big deed indeed). "What's going on?" he asked looking from me to Stoic. I wanted to tell, but Hiccup got to it before me. "Astrid has mastered the art of magic!" he said as he stepped forward. It sounded a little prepared, of course he would defend us. I smiled a little as the gesture warmed my hearth and looked over at Fishlegs. "Astrid, as the brave warrior she is, took the form of a night fury to battle the queen. Now everyone acts as if she is the enemy," he said that last part directed towards the crowd surrounding us. Fishlegs eyes widened. "So you where that other dragon," he said and turned to the twins. "Awesome mate," Tuffnutt said as he came around and snaked his arm around my neck. Concerned looks was what I got from the crowd, as if they expected me to turn and rip his head of. "Cool outfit," Ruffnutt noted and hinted with her head towards a part of the crow that was thinner. I walked with them thanking the Gods for Ruffnutt's and Tuffnutt's craziness, but regretted it when they started talking about blowing up stuff.