Hiccup landed his Night Fury on his island home taking in a deep breath of fresh spring air. Bounding away from Toothless, as his faithful dragon followed, the Chieftain's son smiled as Astrid walked towards them.
"Hey there…" The blonde greeted as she grabbed his hand. "How was your flight this morning?"
"It was…fun." He replied, and ran a hand through his wind-blown hair.
Astrid observed the tousled state his hair was in and rolled her eyes.
"You weren't freefalling again, were you?" she asked accusingly.
Hiccup blushed, but nodded; guilty again.
Astrid appeared exasperated.
"Hiccup, you know I don't like it when you do that!" she said.
Hiccup groaned, obviously having heard this spiel before.
Astrid ignored his protest. "Hiccup, you've already lost one limb; don't you want to keep the other three you have left?"
"Well, if you'd try it, you'd understand why I risk it." He retorted.
Astrid shook her head good-naturedly. "Can't; it's my job to be the sensible one."
Hiccup smiled mischievously. "Good, you wouldn't be very good at it anyway." He challenged, walking ahead of her.
Astrid's eyes widened, perplexed at his remark. She sped up to match his steps precisely, her nose in the air.
"You, Hiccup Haddock, need to be put in your place." She said haughtily as she strode ahead of him.
With a high-pitched whistle, she summoned her dragon, Stormfly. Before Hiccup realized what was happening she had already mounted and taken to the sky.
"ASTRID!" he called after her, but she was too high above the ground to hear him.
He glanced back at Toothless with a horror-stricken expression. Toothless chortled with a shake of his head, as if to say, 'It's your own fault.'
He sighed heavily and drug his hand down his face. "Come on, bud. Let's go get her before she kills herself."
They took off with a swooping wing-beat, shooting like a cannon into the sky after Astrid and her bruised ego.
Astrid urged her Nadder even faster along the imposing slope of the tower-like mountain looming before them.
Who was Hiccup to play on her pride? She thought, determinedly.
"I've free-fell before…maybe not intentionally, but graceful just the same." She said aloud over the rush of the wind.
Except, Hiccup had always been there to catch her. She realized, but shook the thought away.
She signaled for her dragon to slow and hover as she reached the peak.
Peering down between the steady rhythmic wing-beats, she gulped. But steadied herself. She may not be jealous anymore, but that didn't mean she had stooped to accepting Hiccup was better than her at flying.
"Anyone can just…drop, right?" she said aloud, trying to assure herself.
Steeling herself, she lifted her right leg to her dragon's back and slowly began to stand. She closed her eyes, and with a silent prayer, she leapt.
At first it was serene, the wind rushing past her face, whirring in her ears. Her stomach slowly dropped and she felt an exhilarating weightlessness. Finally she opened her eyes.
And she screamed.
Where is STORMFLY? She thought hectically.
With nothing much else to do, she flailed helplessly, letting out an endless, and impressively consistent cry of distress.
"HIC-UUUUUPPPPPPP!"
Finally she heard the swoop of wings, and steered her body towards the sound, there was Stormfly diving after her.
Oh… you're supposed to dive and then you jump off. She realized.
Shortly after her moment of enlightenment, she took to screeching like a banshee once again.
Finally she landed on her dragon's back as it dove underneath her with a resounding plop. Righting herself, she clung fiercely to her neck, catching her breath.
During their descent, Astrid realized that Hiccup and Toothless were close behind them, keeping a steady pace with Stormfly.
As they landed and Astrid stumbled away from her Nadder, breathless, Hiccup tripped out of his stirrup tackling the unassuming blonde.
"Don't ever do that again!" he said, his head buried in her shoulder.
Astrid hugged him back briefly, but then shoved him off.
He rolled over, sighing with a low whistle as Toothless tromped over next to them, seating himself to the right of Hiccup, and looking down at the two Vikings quizzically.
"You scared me to death, Astrid." He said panting.
She clasped his hand next to hers, laughing, despite herself.
He propped himself up on his elbow, looking over at her.
"And your technique was terrible." He teased, ere she punched him swiftly in the ribs.
Flinching, he sat up and drew her close.
She shrugged grinning.
"You know what they say; the bigger the pride, the harder the fall!"