Night Fury's Venom

Part 34: Revival

"Hiccup is coming back!"

Those four words repeated themselves over and over in my head as I stared up at Stormfly's joyful face. This obsession was going too far, she was imagining that Hiccup was going to suddenly come back to life! Dragons don't do that!

I pushed Stormfly off of me, standing up slowly to look into her elated eyes. "Stormfly," I crooned gently, "you have to stop."

She blinked in confusion. "Stop... what?"

I sighed. "Hiccup's dead, Stormfly. Dead. He's not coming back. Please, you have to understand that, or you are only going to hurt yourself more with this delusion!"

Her expression instantly turned into anger. "Delusion?!" She snarled, advancing on me and backing me against the cave wall. "I'm not delusional! I know Hiccup is coming back! I'm not imagining things to cope with my grief, I'm not pretending! This is happening, and I will be here when it does!"

She bared her teeth, coming uncomfortably close to my face. "You can keep living your delusion while I go prepare for when he wakes. Stay here and protect his body, or I swear to the Moon herself I will bind your wings and send you off the nearest cliff!" I nodded quickly. "Good. Stay here." With that, she turned and stalked out of the cave.

I let out the breath I didn't realize I was holding. She was never this hostile before Hiccup came along. Sure, she threatened me and sometimes attacked me, but I always knew she held back. Now, though, I had no doubt that she would seriously injure me if I pushed too far. And all because she believed that coming back from the dead was entirely plausible! I even worried that she might be going insane!

Insane or not, she definitely knew how to scare me.

I groaned and stepped back toward Hiccup's body, only to see the Scaleless girl was already next to him. I had to admit, she was quite sneaky. I sat down in front of Hiccup's head, making her jump up and back away. I snorted and stared at her, curling my tail around me and flicking the tip of it in a beckoning motion. I couldn't smell any metal-claws on her, so it didn't matter. She did nothing. I tapped a forepaw on the ground, rolling my eyes when she finally understood.

She watched me carefully as she crept closer before sitting down just out of my reach, probably making sure I wouldn't attack her. Huh. Smart little thing. She started yammering about something, making me tilt my head in confusion. I assumed she was trying to talk to me, but wasn't it obvious I didn't understand her? She stopped and put a paw on her face, only confusing me more. What was that supposed to mean? Was it some kind of Scaleless thing?

She dropped her paw and used it to gesture between Hiccup and me, repeating the same sound. This continued for some time before I started to remember hearing that sound somewhere. I always heard it when Scaleless were around Hiccup, so was that his name? She was probably saying his name while gesturing between me and Hiccup's body.

She sighs and does the face-paw-thing again. I tilted my head. Maybe she wanted me to do that, too? I lifted a paw and put it on the side of my face, feeling very silly doing so. She stared at me like I had grown an extra head. I dropped my paw, giving her a glare for making me act stupid.

She pointed at me and made the familiar noise again, sounding like she exaggerated a questioning noise. Did she want to know if I was Hiccup? I shook my head, hoping she knew what that meant. If her suddenly slumping posture was anything to go by, she did. She did the same thing again but pointed at Hiccup this time. I slowly nodded. She looked down at the ground and went silent. I shrugged and turned back to Hiccup's body.

I couldn't help but wonder if she was once friends with Hiccup, or if Hiccup had a better life before I transformed him. I know he told me that he couldn't go back because his home wouldn't accept him anymore, but what if he said that to make me feel less guilty? I had no idea how to change him back, let alone how I did it in the first place, and I couldn't remember actually doing it. I remembered up to glaring down at him, then it was like I just woke up, standing over his unconscious body.