His time in the hospital had passed with the utter slowness such things usually prescribe themselves, fidgeting every few seconds and even trying for escape a couple of time, so it was with a particularly cheery jump that Hiccup flung himself off the edge of The Passage and back into the human world. His captain looked on with mild amusement as he took a measured step into the emptiness, falling with a calmness imposed by years of doing just that over and over, before flipping himself around in midair to fall headfirst toward Earth.

Even though the soul had been fine, and there wasn't really any penalty for letting a demon go since they simply reformed in Hell after a time, there was still the possibility that the soul could have been devoured by another demon. Due to this, Hiccup had been assigned what was called an escort but what was actually a babysitter, to make sure he didn't mess up a second time.

Since all of the regular escorts had been busy with other cases, because apparently this new batch of recruits was utterly useless, Hiccup's captain had offered to do it until somebody's schedule opened up.

They entered the atmosphere with no problems, streaking along through the cloudless sky with a single-minded purpose. Hiccup was completely focused on finding the soul, not thinking about Jack the white-haired demon at all, and anybody who suggested otherwise was clinically insane.

From the looks the captain was giving him, Hiccup thought he might have to be admitted.

They approached the site of death in an ever-diminishing spiral, a trick the captain explained was to provide maximum visibility for the beacon, and located it quite easily this time. The poor girl was in the middle of a park, having hit her head off the monkey bars as she fell off, and was most likely too terrified to go anywhere.

They landed with a fluttering of feathers and nary a sound, eyes darting around the children screaming and playing before finding the one girl that was enveloped in an aura of golden light. She was sitting on the ground a few feet away, knees drawn up to her chest, and the two angels could see the tear tracks on her face.

Hiccup was immediately sympathetic. The captain stood back to watch as Hiccup stepped up to the girl.

"Hey sweetie…" he began softly, biting the inside of his lip as her head whipped around to look at him in surprise. Just how many people had she found couldn't see her?

"Y-You're talking to me?" she stuttered, quickly wiping the tears off her cheeks and standing, "You're n-not ignoring me?"

"Of course I'm talking to you." Hiccup promised her, "Why wouldn't I?"

"I don't know." she said, slightly bitter and a lot sad as she looked around at all the kids playing, "I was playing yesterday, and then I hit my head, and when I woke up nobody would talk to me!"

Hiccup knew this wasn't true; souls took a bit to wake up after death. Their minds had to focus everything on creating an incorporeal form for them, and on organizing their memories. According to the alert that had came in for her, the girl had died about three months ago and woken up not five hours prior to their arrival.

"I don't think they're ignoring you." Hiccup started carefully, acutely aware of how easy it would be to set this tiny child off into more tears, "Maybe they just can't see you."

"C-Can't see me?!" the girl cried, immensely disturbed by the idea, "Why wouldn't they be able to s-see me?!'

'W-well, uhm, y'see." Hiccup flailed, trying to find a sufficient explanation in his head, "Uhm, y'know how in books, the hero will have something happen to them that puts them on an adventure?"

The girl's lip stopped trembling as she thought about this, her eyes darting off to the side for a second before she looked back at Hiccup and said clearly, "Like Voldemort killing Harry's parents."

"Yes!" Hiccup grasped, not actually knowing what she was talking about, "Exactly! Sometimes, something happens to change how things are. Harry's parents get killed by Voldemort, and you hit your head."

'So...I'm on an adventure?" she asked him, more curious now than sad, and Hiccup smiled widely at this recovery.

"Right! You're on an adventure, to visit a magic land made of clouds and learn lots of things from people with wings!" Hiccup spun, not actually lying but leaving some crucial details out. Like the fact that she was dead.

Her eyes were widened in awe and curiosity, staring up at him, but she managed to wrench herself away from her fantasy with, "What about mommy and daddy?"

Trying very hard not to freeze under the question, Hiccup floundered a bit before saying, "Nobody could see you because it's a secret adventure. Nobody can know, because the bad guys might find out."

The girl grew considerably more panicked at this thought, wailing out, "I'm not ready to fight bad guys yet! I have to get a sword and armor and learn magic first!"

"Exactly. Mommy and daddy will see you again, but not until you have a sword and a shield and learn enough magic to protect yourself and them." Hiccup told her, giving her an intense look to convey the importance of this, and the girl's eyes hardened in an impressive impression of the angel captain as she looked up at Hiccup.

"Right. I have to protect them." she said seriously, and Hiccup smiled down at her.

"Right." he agreed, stepping back slightly and taking a deep breath.

Flinging both hands out to the side, he closed his eyes as wisps of his inner light escaped from his skin and coalesced into a ball of glowing essence floating in front of him. With the recently deceased girl watching in awe, Hiccup clapped his hands together in front of him and crushed the ball into a cupped handful of glowing dust, which he blew onto the girl in front of him with a smart puff of breath.

It enveloped her, the cloud of gold seeming to grow into volume as more of the girl was obscured by the swirling dust, until it rushed in to cling to her form and immediately faded into a white tunic and leggings. White wings like theirs fluttered behind her, her eyes wide as she felt the new muscles that had been grafted onto her body with the seamless precision that was typical of magic, and she flexed her now-gloved hands almost instinctively.

And then she shot up into the sky, her muscles bunching before she jumped up with a powerful flap, and Hiccup flinched at the dust blown into his eyes. His smile was wide, though, as he observed her whirl and dive in the air with a reckless abandon, whooping in delight as she wheeled through the air on her newfound appendages.

"Good job." came the quiet voice of praise from behind him, and Hiccup whirled around in surprise to see the captain giving him a small smile of praise. Small, but there.

After a moment of stunned surprise, Hiccup managed a stuttered, "Th-thank you, uhm, sir." before turning back to the overjoyed girl and cupping his hands to his mouth.

"Alright sweetie, time to go!" he shouted, and the girl cried out a disappointed noise but nevertheless came in for a slightly awkward landing. Once she was standing in front of him, wide-eyed and anticipating, Hiccup snapped his fingers.

The air beside them was abruptly cut open in a neat line, a cloudy headquarters of angel dispatch showing from the other side. With an excited squeal, the girl raced through and started babbling about how she was going to save the world, with an amused Hiccup and angel captain following behind.