How to Deal With Amnesia

Chapter 5: Re-Bonding

It was late at night when Hiccup woke up. He had no clue what time was it, but he didn't really care. It briefly crossed his mind that he hadn't gone out of his so-called hut, yet. Well, not after he woke up with a three-year memory gap. He didn't remember how the "Dragon's Edge" looked like. Hell, he didn't remember how any of his "friends" looked like now, besides Astrid and Fishlegs, of course.

He wasn't going out now, in the middle of the night, but the thought occurred to him, anyway. He sat up with a heavy sigh, feeling terrible, with sore muscles, a huge weigh on his shoulders and a weird feeling of emptiness, but at least the headache had vanished.

Hiccup looked to the side and was surprised to notice a black figure moving slightly in the darkness on the opposite corner of the room. He recognized it as the black dragon, the Night Fury he apparently named Toothless. 'Apparently' because he didn't remember any of it, so it still felt like a lie.

And the truth was that it scared the boy that the 'unholy offspring of lightening and death itself' got there in the middle of his sleep and he didn't even noticed! The dragon could have killed him, for Thor's sake! How could Astrid and Fishlegs be so calm around dragons? It was just way too mind blowing for him to take it.

Out of an impulse, he grabbed his prosthetic and silently put it on, standing up very slowly. He limped clumsily to his table and found a knife there, along with the food Astrid told him he'd find. With shaky hands, he grabbed the handle and slowly limped towards the dragon.

He had in mind the entire story Astrid told him, but deep down, he still doubted all of that. Besides, all he knew was the raids, the destruction, the shame of being the worse at everything and a burning will to prove himself as a Viking. He remembered the daily-disappointed scowl his father had every time Stoic looked at him and how he yearned to make his father proud by killing a dragon. All of these feelings dragged him in front of the sleeping Night Fury.

Hiccup gulped and raised the knife in front of him, he only had to bring it down to the dragon's heart and kill it. Yet, he stopped.

Astrid's voice sounded in his head, telling him the dragon named Toothless had saved him more times than they could count. Did it really happen? Did this dragon really saved his life but missed saving part of his leg? Did Hiccup really want to kill a dragon? Or better, would he really do it?

No. He knew he couldn't. He wouldn't. The poor dragon was sleeping so tranquil an unaware of the danger, Hiccup couldn't bring himself to do it, even if he doubted the story Astrid told him.

His heart squeezed inside his chest; killing a dragon was everything for him just yesterday; it was all he wanted to do! Well, maybe it wasn't yesterday, but it felt like it.

Yet, all he could do was watch a poor animal, unaware of the danger, unable to defend itself, almost as if he was strapped around bolas... Hiccup could imagine his bright green eyes with slit pupils starring at him, deep into his soul, daring him to go any further and giving up the fight as he acknowledged he had no way out of it. Was is true, or was it only his imagination?

The boy sighed and let his hands fall to his sides, the dagger he held soon slipped from his fingers and fell to the floor with a thud.

Toothless opened his eyes and Hiccup gulped at the sight of his slit pupils. The dragon saw his rider and his eyes got rounder again and he tilted his head, then the dagger on the floor caught his attention. He looked back at Hiccup with a hurtful and confused look, understanding what Hiccup was about to do, yet not believing what he saw.

"I... I...." Hiccup started not knowing what to say, but he yelled, startled, as the dragon stood up.

For a moment, Hiccup was sure the dragon would attack, for some reason, hearing Gobber's voice in his head saying 'a dragon will always go for the kill', after all, he saw the dragon understand what he was about to do. He backed away, but since he wasn't used to the prosthetic, he tripped and fell, again.