Chapter 7

Hiccup rose with the sun as the rays fell through his window. The sun brought back the issues and questions that the boy had come across the night before so Hiccup dragged himself out of bed, washed and approached Toothless.
"Morning, bud." He said as cheerfully as he could manage as it was a little early for him as well. Hiccup smiled as Toothless opened a bleary eye and crooned. "You look as tired as I feel." He commented and threw Toothless a salmon he hadn't eaten last night. It was enough to snap Toothless into a slightly more awake state. "Hey, I've got a question for you. What does yol mean?"
Toothless' reaction was curious. His ears flicked, his eyes widened and he generally just perked up and no longer looked sleepy. The dragon's head was tilted slightly in curiosity before he started to scratch his answer into the hard stone he slept on. Quick as a flash, Hiccup grabbed his journal but found he didn't need to look at it as often though he still made a record of their conversation.
Yol is dragon word for fire.Toothless had written which made Hiccup's eyes widen to the size of his father's appetite and all thoughts and wishes of returning to bed to sleep for a while longer were brushed away.
"So... you don't just have a written language?" He asked, his voice doing that curious thing where it dropped to whisper.
All can write, all know spoken tongue, not all can speak. Have to learn from parents who know how to speak. Takes years to learn to speak words instead of sounds.
Hiccup furiously scribbled Toothless' answer and took a moment to make sense of it. So, dragons had both a written and spoken language but not all dragons had the ability to speak. They had the chance to learn but it meant training their voices and throats to move in the right way to produce recogniseable words instead of typical draconic sounds.

"Do specific words usually glow when you read them?" Hiccup curiously asked, remembering quite vividly how the word had glowed a soft orange before turning bright blue. Toothless tilted his head and wrote another answer.
Will have to ask Hookfang. Words shouldn't glow but Hookfang knows more. He'll know.
"Okay. Shall we go see him now?" He asked and got a nod so the pair left the Haddock household and journeyed towards the home of Hiccup's cousin, Snotlout.

About halfway to Snotlout's, Toothless changed direction and headed towards part of the forest.
"Uh, Toothless, Snotlout's house is this way." He then watched as Toothless scribbled a quick message in the dirt just in front of him. The dictionary of his was coming in handy but, once again, Hiccup noticed that some letters were becoming easier for him to recognise.
Hookfang is leader of all dragons, he's doing business in forest today.
Hookfang was the leader?! From what Hiccup could gather, Hookfang was a rather temperamental dragon who quickly got fed up with his cousin's antics. To hear that the large red dragon was actually known as the leader surprised him.
"Why is he the leader?" He asked, genuinely curious. Perhaps he'd misjudged the Nightmare.
Hookfang is oldest and most knowledgeable. Was alive before war. One of first to fall under the Queen's spell. Everyone wanted him as leader.
Yet another surprise; Hookfang was not only a capable leader but the rest of the dragons on Berk had actually wanted him to be in charge. Hiccup nodded in understanding and continued to follow Toothless.
They arrived at a very quiet clearing where a tiny stream trickled through. There was plenty of Wintry sunlight peeking through green leaves and also plenty of shadow. Sat by the stream was a very frail looking emerald coloured Terror who was curled up next to a large red Nightmare; it was Hookfang. The Terror was making little growls and rumbles while Hookfang crooned back almost affectionately. Hiccup thought the Terror sounded rather frail.
"What's going on?" He whispered to Toothless.
Terror is dying. Hookfang is giving comfort. Terror will sleep and die peacefully.
Toothless' simple answer blew Hiccup's mind. Not only did it imply that Hookfang was actually a very gentle dragon, this practise of comforting an old dragon so it died peacefully was very normal.

He must have made a sound because both dragons suddenly lifted their heads and were staring right at him. Hiccup didn't know what was going on as Toothless was staring right back, tail waving slightly. Maybe they were talking? But he couldn't hear any sounds so that didn't make sense. He was snapped out of his thoughts by a nose nuzzling against his leg. The Terror was there, crooning and purring at him and Hiccup couldn't resist so he sat down and let the Terror curl up on his lap. Hiccup watched as the Terror's little chest heaved shorter and shallower breaths before stopping altogether. He'd never watched a dragon die before and he felt himself tearing up a little but Toothless just nudged him then nudged the Terror. With a closer look at the tiny reptile, Hiccup swore it was smiling. That cheered him up a little and encouraged a small smile of his own. Then Hiccup noticed something else, the Terror was glowing slightly; soft orange just like the word in the book last night. That slight tingle beneath his skin appeared again as he felt some kind of magic at work but there was a similar tingle at the very back of his mind. Hiccup swore that the orange glow was flowing in some direction; at him. No, not at him, into him! What the Hel was going on?! His green eyes locked on to his dragon but Toothless was only watching in wonder and confusion as was Hookfang. And then… the tingling sensations stopped but the word he had learned the night before was now strong in his mind and was connected to an image of a blazing fire. Confused and shaken, Hiccup watched as Toothless bounced around Hookfang and waved his tail excitedly.
:I told you, Hookfang! Didn't I tell you?!: That voice… young and over excited… where was it coming from? Hiccup looked around but he was the only human there.
:Yes, Toothless, you did.: Another voice. This time deep and rumbling but peaceful and wise. :He is the Whisperer.: Hiccup was still looking around for the source of the voices when he suddenly had Hookfang in his face, reptilian gaze boring into his green one.
:Can you hear me?: The rumbling voice asked. If Hiccup put the rather vague dots together… that meant…
"A-are you… talking to me, Hookfang?" He asked slowly and hesitantly only to get a great shock as the large red dragon nodded. Hiccup took a couple of steps back mostly out of shock.
"Gods above… what the Hel is going on?!" He asked, sounding rather like the frightened young Viking he had been before meeting Toothless.

Instead of an answer, Hiccup just heard Hookfang chuckle a deep amused chuckle.
:That is not how we greet each other.: He said, still sounding very amused. :Come, I will show you how. The elder always goes first in a formal greeting.: Hookfang lead the way to a solid wall with a few scratches on it; dragon writing. Hiccup was able to pick out a few letters that he recognised and used common sense to fill in the blanks. From what he could guess, it was a list of names, possibly of the dragons that had died. Hiccup watched as Hookfang scratched another name, the name of the Terror, into the rock face before blasting a smaller set of rocks next to it with red hot fire. The red dragon then turned to face Hiccup again.
:You know the word, I can sense it. Greet me again but this time, introduce yourself as dovah.: For a moment, Hiccup wondered what 'dovah' meant but that thought was wiped away as the word in his mind suddenly lept forward to be used. The young Viking felt some kind of powerful force in his throat slowly building and scorching and stretching his throat like he was about to throw up. Then his throat started to burn almost painfully but that power finally forced its way out of his mouth and he heard himself almost yell the word that had plagued his mind all night.
"YOL!" It had been pure instinct and it had felt right but when Hiccup looked at the rock, he saw that he had just breathed fire… like a dragon. He yelped and jumped back in pure shock and confusion and wondered what had just happened. He looked back at Hookfang who seemed to be very pleased with this and simply seemed to grin back at the Viking.
:Well done. I expect you want answers.: Hiccup could only mutely nod. :Toothless came to me two nights ago with a hunch. I now see that it's been proved right. You see, there is a story among dragonkind of a human born with the blood of a dragon. It has happened before, long before our time and it seems, it has happened again.:
"Woah, woah, woah. There is no way I could have dragon blood in me!" Hiccup replied, waving his hands in an 'x' formation to emphasise his point.
:Ah, but you can hear our mental speech, you've become well versed in our alphabet in just two days and you have used a power that only dragons and those with the dragon blood can use.: Hookfang responded calmly. :If you will calm down, I will tell you a story.: