Hiccup smiled as Toothless eagerly took the fish from his hand, even gnawing on his hand playfully before gulping down the fish and nuzzling him. Chuckling, Hiccup then closed the basket and after shifting it to his back, started to get up to leave. But then Toothless got up and followed him, snuffling at his hands. "No, no more..." Hiccup said, showing the dragon his own palms.
Toothless saw the empty hands and in the manner of a dragon, solved it the best way he knew how; he gave his starving, begging human a piece of fish, coughing it up right into the open hands. This bit of fish still had its spines attached to it and Toothless licked his tongue, feeling a tiny cut from when one of fish spines had cut him on the way back up. And the blood now dripping on Hiccup's hands wasn't ONLY fish blood. Toothless then licked at his snout, cocking his head and looking at his Viking expectantly.
Hiccup grimaced as the bit of bloody fish was spat into his hands and he sighed as Toothless watched him. Might as well try, since Toothless had gone to all the effort. Though he didn't like it, Hiccup bit off a big hunk of the fish and noticed that it tasted different than Toothless' other offerings. This one had a spicy, burning taste to it, like the blood was strange. But soon he only tasted the raw fish and he gulped it down as fast as he could, grimacing and shuddering at the luke-warm, wet, dead, slippery meat sliding down his throat, gagging a little bit towards the end as he felt his stomach revolt at the cold, slimy fish. Toothless looked pleased, but then nosed at his hand forcefully when Hiccup tried to offer him back the rest. Sighing and trying his best to hold it down, Hiccup forced himself to make short work of the rest of the fish, focusing on spitting out the scales and the bones so he didn't become sick.
Toothless seemed to purr in delight when the fish had been finished and he nuzzled warmly against Hiccup, demanding rubs and murring. As Hiccup could only smile and happily started to comply, he noted that Toothless would often feed him. Why? Did Toothless think of him as his hatchling or something? Thought of him as something to protect and feed?
After a few minutes, he gave Toothless a final rub and started to leave, wriggling himself back through the crack and waving to his dragon, who was now basking happily in the sunlight, before walking back to the village, scratching idly at the back of his arm. On the way back though the wilds of Berk, he passed a small glen with a tiny spring and he took the opportunity to gulp down a few mouthfuls of water to take away the nasty taste of the fish.
As he walked to exit the glen, Hiccup scratched at his arm again, right on the back of the upper arm, twisting his shoulder a bit to reach it. He frowned as his scratching wasn't able to appease it this time. Maybe it was hampered by the straps of the fish basket? Putting the basket down, Hiccup then managed with some effort to slide his hand up the narrow sleeve to scratch right at the skin, but his fingertips felt something weird on his arm. It felt like a scab! But when he had hurt himself there last? Not for ages!
Frowning in mild concern, Hiccup scratched at it again and then felt a bit of it come off, making him sigh in relief as some of the itchiness vanished. So it had just been a scab then... As he brought his hand out, he carried out the bit of scab to throw it away, but when it was in the daylight, he stared in shock. It was only about the size of his thumbnail, but it wasn't a scab. It was dark, yes, but more than he had imagined. This was jet black; jet black and shiny. He had seen this sort of thing before, but someplace utterly different. It looked just like a miniature version of one of Toothless' scales!
He stared at it in confusion. How had one of Toothless' scales gotten into his shirt? When the dragon had been nuzzling him, maybe? As he thought about this, Hiccup unconsciously felt another itch, this one on the back of his wrist. He scratched at it without realizing, and then looked to see. Had he cut himself? But his green eyes suddenly went very wide when he realized that on the back of his wrist were about a dozen tiny, shiny disks of black, only the size of his pinky-nail. More scales! But how?!
