The Midnight Flower

Chapter 7 - Humans have it hard

Toothless's POV

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Breathing in, breathing out.

Half awake I listen to my surroundings.

The light rain makes it harder but I can still hear how animals move deep in the forest and even more clearly so the owl who hoots in the distance.

My attention gets pulled closer by the trees' rustling leaves and I lightly sniff the air.

Like always I can smell Hiccup by my side and hear the sound of his heartbeats. However, despite his reassuring presence, I can't seem to relax and fall back asleep.

Something feels off.

Opening my eyes, I stare straight ahead at the small lake as my memories of what happened come back to me.

I blink a few times.

My vision seems to be strange, not the colors or sharpness, I don't know what but something's different. I shake my head to rid myself of this feeling and try to sit up.

However, I instantly collapse back to the ground again.

My eyes widen and I move my arms, which are folded by my side, forward and stare at my paws.

Human, they're human.

I lie there in disbelief for a while as I repeatedly contract and extend my fingers, then carefully use my arms to push myself up until I sit on my knees.

Eyes closed, I roll my shoulders and move my arms, ugh... I whine a bit, then look down at the skin on my arms. It seems so soft. Using two of my five fingers, I give it a pinch. So soft and squishy... And wobbly... I tilt my head and lift my arm to my face, giving it a wiff.

Still smells like me though...

I stare at it for a bit before shifting my attention to the lake.

It shouldn't be that hard.

I raise my head and observe my surroundings, then focus on one of my legs as I move it forward, setting my foot against the ground. After testing that it's stable, I carefully push upwards.

In the end, I still stumble a bit as I hurry to unfold my other leg and put my foot on the ground. These limbs are so so long after all.

I no longer have my tail so I raise my arms to give myself better balance as I slowly take a few steps, but soon put them down as I get a hang of it.

Walking up to the water I look down, the rain disturbs the surface but I can see that I no longer have my usual reflection.

Although blurry, it reflects a human boy with black hair and green eyes.

I lightly growl in happiness and excitingly run over to Hiccup, I need to show him this, he needs to know that the flower worked, I didn't die.

Sitting down beside him, I push at him with my head, and then, remembering how humans do it, I lean back and use one of my new hands to grab his shoulder and carefully shake him a bit. Then a bit harder.

However, he isn't waking up.

I frown.

Going down on all four, I put one hand on each side of him and move closer, then give his face a lick.

It's wet and cold.

I raise my head and look down at him, he's paler than usual and his breathing is weaker. I should get him out of this rain. I really should get him out of this rain... How though?