The Second Night Fury
"Hiccup refuses to accept that Toothless is the last Night Fury, and that the breed will die out. Willing to stop at nothing, he goes on a search, with the others, for another Night Fury. In a storm, the group is separated and Hiccup wakes up to find himself on Outcast Island with Astrid...and no Toothless. Determined to get home, he will do whatever it takes to get off the island safely, and with an enormous amount of luck, wit the second Night Fury in tow. But will he succeed?" HiccupXAstrid ToothlessX? First fic for HTTYD.
"There are some things you can't control, and some things you can. Funnily enough, often the circumstances we can't change are the ones we want to change the most. Some people will think its impossible. And sometimes, it really does seem that way."
Hiccup sighed, flicking his pencil up his desk with his index finger, only to watch it roll back down. He flicked it up again, his head resting on his crossed forearms that were on the desk, and stared at vaguely at the drawings posted above with nails in the corners. Most depicted saddles, or other mechanical things, or little scribbles about dragons that were only legible to him. A lantern with a flickering candle sat near the edge of the desk.
Toothless looked up at his rider curiously. Hiccup glanced down at him. "Oh, it's nothing bud." He flicked his pencil, but this time it rolled slightly to the right and fell off the desk. Hiccup bent down, expecting to pick it up, but found Toothless had caught it in his mouth. Hiccup took it from him, smiling slightly. "Thanks." The dragon still thought he sounded downcast. The Night Fury made a questioning noise.
Hiccup pushed his chair from the desk, allowing there to be enough space for Toothless to put his head on the almost seventeen year old boy's lap. "I just..." How should he put this? "Toothless, you know how Astrid is my, uh" -would Toothless understand the word girlfriend?- "mate," he finished lamely. He thought he saw recognition in his companion's eyes. Sometimes Hiccup forgot how smart Toothless actually was.
"Well I've been thinking," he continued. "Maybe it's time to find you one. I don't think there are any other Night Furies on Berk?" The dragon shook his head in a way, and Hiccup took it for a no. "I wish I could figure out what happened to them all. I mean, nobody had ever killed one on Berk before, so where did they all go?" He sighed, experiencing one of the many times he wished Toothless could talk.
Toothless nudged Hiccup in the stomach slightly, indicating he wanted to be pat, and Hiccup obliged. "I dunno what's going to happen bud," he admitted. "But I won't let your breed die out. I'll find another Night Fury, and then they'll be little Night Fury babies running around..." He looked sternly at the dragon. "Just don't have too much fun...I don't want to have to handle a hundred all at once." Toothless looked at him, and gave him an awkward, gummy smile, and Hiccup's lips twitched upwards. The young viking knew he could do nothing about the 'mate problem' tonight, but he didn't feel like going to bed yet.
"C'mon bud," he said, getting out of the chair and placing his good foot on the floor first, where it was followed by his prosthetic one. "Let's go flying."
This had to be the best feeling in the world. The wind whistled in his ears and pushed his redish brown hair back from his freckled face. "Whoo-hoo!" he yelled happily. No matter how many times he and Toothless flew, it was always exhilarating. Especially when it was just the two of them, practicing tricks and seeing their limits.
The black dragon soared through the sky, and rose a bit so his rider could reach out and touch the clouds that covered most of the starry sky. Hiccup patted the dragon's head twice. "Ready bud?" he asked with a grin. Toothless glanced back at him and jerked his head down, which mean 'yes'.
Toothless changed directions and shot upwards sharply. Toothless started to spin. After a few moments, Hiccup reached for the strings that were holding him onto Toothless' saddle, and undid them, with the black dragon still spinning. Hiccup felt the familiar sensation of falling, and he grinned, seeing Toothless continue to do his part of the trick.
The Night Fury stopped spinning, and changed directions again. He shot downwards, and flew a little bit in front of Hiccup, making sure to stay at the boy's pace. Hiccup reached a hand, and grabbed Toothless' tail firmly as they came closer to the churning ocean below. The dragon jerked his tail and flipped Hiccup over. The young viking landed neatly and perfectly in place, tying himself back on with a few seconds to spare, his leg and prosthetic one already in place. The duo, threatening to crash the into the rock pillar that surrounded the area, when he moved his leg, and Toothless' fake tail changed and they shot upwards.
Hiccup grinned, happy at their success. It had taken them about a week to finally master the difficult trick -of Hiccup's own invention of course. The rest of the flight was more peaceful. Toothless glided near the shimmering, dark water, before the two headed back to their house.
Hiccup opened the door, and they went upstairs, treading carefully and quietly so as not to wake his father. Even with the war between dragons and humans over, there were still many -albeit, less dangerous, problems to deal with. Hiccup, Astrid, Snotlout, Ruffnut, Tuffnut and Fishlegs were all doing there best to keep the dragons in check, but they were just five teenagers, and sometimes problems arose because of the sheer number of dragons that inhabited Berk.
But no Night Furies, Hiccup thought, glancing at Toothless as the dragon settled down for the night. Hiccup laid back in bed and stared at the ceiling. No matter what it took, he would make sure that Toothless wouldn't always be the only Night Fury on Berk. After all, Toothless had helped him "get the girl" if you will. Shouldn't he do the same for him?
Hiccup, and his dragon, already loved flying. But one thing that added to the enjoyment, was flying with Astrid and Stormfly. It was nice to have a change from flying by themselves, and it was also fun to have races. Nine out of ten times, Toothless won these races, but once in awhile Stormfly pulled ahead. Luckily, like Hiccup, Astrid wasn't one to gloat. She liked winning, sure, but she wasn't like Snotlout.
"Wanna have another race?" she asked him, her blonde hair more windswept and her face slightly pink from the cold wind.
Hiccup nodded. "Raven's point!" Both dragons took off, moving their wings as fast as they could. They sped over the village, but only the small children that clutched onto their mothers' hand in the crowded street looked up in awe. It had soon become a familiar sight in Berk, something that greatly pleased Hiccup. Probably around 95% of the population was fine with the dragons, and he was glad there weren't more people like horrid old Mildew.
The young viking boy looked down as they soared through the sky at the dense forest below. Raven's Point was a favourite spot of his. Not only was a good place for flying in general, or for the landscape, it also held the cove where Hiccup had met Toothless -if only he had known then how much it would change everyone's lives...
He smiled and bent lower over Toothless' back, willing the dragon to have more speed. Even though neither of them bragged, Hiccup still liked to beat his girlfriend at their races. Luckily, this was one of those times. Slightly breathless, Hiccup hopped off of Toothless and onto the soft ground of Raven's Point.
"Are we were I think we are?" Astrid asked, smirking at him, and already predicting his answer. In fact, she already knew this place fairly well. She enjoyed training here, especially practicing with her ax. It was quiet and private, not to mention beautiful.
"The cove? Yeah. C'mon, the entrance is somewhere around here." Hiccup led the way as the two vikings and two dragons rounded the corner of the pile of boulders. After walking for a few minutes, Hiccup grinned and dashed ahead, climbing over the now worn shield that had gotten stuck between two big boulders the second time he had visited Toothless. He bent down like before and went under it. Astrid did the same, while Stormfly and Toothless imply leaped over it.
Toothless looked around excitedly, and nudged Hiccup's arm with his nose. Smiling, Hiccup patted it. Even though in reality it had only been a few months, it seemed like years ago when Hiccup had shot down a Night Fury. Speaking of Night Furies, it made Hiccup think about the previous night.
"Hey Astrid," he said, turning to look at her. She too had been caught up in her own thoughts about this place, but his voice took her out of her stupor.
"Yeah?" she replied, looking at him curiously.
"Well, so far on Berk, Toothless is the only Night Fury I've seen, and I didn't see any at the island where the dragons laid their eggs" -now that had been an interesting Snoggletog experience- "and well, I've been thinking on trying to find another one...you know, for Toothless."
Astrid thought about it for a moment, before voicing her thoughts. "Well," she said slowly. "It's a good idea, and important, but it would be extremely difficult."
Hiccup sighed. "I know...but even if we can't find a female, just finding another Night Fury would be exciting, don't you think? All the other dragons get to see others of the own species. I figure we can look around at nearby islands -we wouldn't go too far," he assured her. He knew she was always worrying about him. He couldn't really blame her for it. Losing his leg to the Red Death, jumping off a cliff when Toothless faced off with that Whispering Death, getting stranded on Outcast Island...the list went on and on. Even though the girl was good at hiding her emotions, you could always see the true emotion -or emotions, she was feeling.
"I suppose we could go this afternoon, take the others," she said thoughtfully, tilting her head slightly to the side. Hiccup grinned at her.
"Something crazy and stupid again eh?" he said happily. She smiled softly at him.
"It does seem to be a reoccurring theme in our lives," she admitted, and laughed.
It seemed like Snotlout had finally shut up. He had started complaining only an hour in the Finding-a-female-Night-Fury search flight, until Astrid had glared at him so fiercely, and said she would hit him in a...certain spot with her ax so badly he would want to die that he quieted down.
They had been flying through the sky -more specifically the clouds, which seemed to be getting darker and darker- for hours. Hiccup's fingers felt numb as they held the rein that Toothless' saddle was connected too. Although technically Toothless did all the steering, it was another way to keep Hiccup from sliding off the saddle unintentionally and it allowed the rider a little more control of where they were going.
"Hiccup?" The boy heard Fishlegs' scared voice somewhere from behind him. Hiccup glanced over his shoulder to see his friend on Meatlug. "It's getting kinda hard to see...maybe we should head back, start again another day..." None of the others, who Hiccup was grateful had stayed out this long as it was, objected. He knew they must be cold and tired as he was.
Hiccup sighed. They had passed a few islands and landed shortly on each one, asking the villagers if they had any Night Furies. All of them had said no. None of these islands had trained dragons, but they were certainly open to the idea, and had heard all about Hiccup and the Red Death, and were very impressed. They were also fascinated by Toothless, since he was a dragon species they had only heard about before, and he was trained. Explaining to each chief -or in one case a chieftess- that they were only trying to find another Night Fury, and were unable to help with each village's dragon problem, but told them one day maybe they could come back to help.
It was true though, it was getting hard to see. The clouds were getting darker; he hoped a storm wasn't coming, although it had started to rain -quite heavily now. Fog was rolling across the waves, so they could barely see land, even as close to the water as they were flying. He didn't want to give up the search, but it would be pointless to continue.
"Yeah," he said. He raised his voice so the others could hear as well. "We're heading back guys!" They all changed direction, and had only gone a little while, when a huge wave of water came crashing down on them.
Hiccup broke through the surface, still on Toothless who was trying to resurface, as the winds picked up. Wind was whipping hair in his face, he couldn't see through the fog, rain was pouring down. All he did know, was Toothless. The rough feel of the dragon's scales, he could hear the heartbeat...
"Come...on...bud..." he said, trying to avoid mouthfuls of water with little success. "We...gotta...get...out...of...h-" Thunder rumbled as another wave came crashing down. Hiccup vaguely heard Toothless roar in frustration, and felt them rise out of the water. It seemed like the twins, Snotlout, Fishlegs and Astrid -along with their dragons, had managed to rise as well.
Nobody had time to say anything as wind started whipping them around. Hiccup's head hit something hard, but he hardly registered the pain as he was thrown around like a rag doll. He blinked a few times, fighting to not pass out, and in the clouds, he saw a purple and white light. Not lightning, but not unlike it...It looked like what Toothless' fire was...had they found a Night Fury? He couldn't be sure, it could have just been a coincidence...
He was suddenly aware he had landed on something hard. Something...rocky. He weakly opened his eyes. Oh Thor, he thought miserably. A pale face with blonde hair was bending over him; Astrid.
"What happened?" He tried to sit up, but she pushed him back gently.
"I think one of Hookfang's horns hit you in the head," she replied. Her voice shook slightly. The experience had obviously scared her.
"Where are the others?" he asked. If anything happened to them...it would be his fault. He hadn't realized he was leading them into a storm, and they had only come out with him because he had asked. The guilt settled uncomfortably in his stomach.
Astrid bit her lip, not wanting to tell him. "I don't know...I think we all ended up in the same place, but I'm sure..." she trailed off worriedly. "I'm afraid it gets worse...Hiccup, I think we're on-"
"Outcast Island," he finished, looking around. "Yeah." Everything looked similar when he had gotten stranded with Snotlout about a week ago. He suddenly noticed the abscense of someone who normally never left his side for more than five minutes (and that was just for going to the bathroom!). "Astrid -where's Toothless?" His voice almost broke. His dragon had to be okay.
She shook her head. "I-I don't know..."
Hiccup felt ashamed to find tears prickling in his eyes. He couldn't change the horrible circumstances, but he would find this dragon, the possible Night Fury he had glimpsed, and his friends, and they would all get off this island, alive.
Can I just say how epic the HTTYD soundtrack is? "Forbidden Friendship" and "Test Drive/Coming Back Around Mix" is what I've been listening to for the past four hours of my life while I wrote this. Like I said, this is my first fic for HTTYD, so if you think anyone is acting OOC, please let me know. Another thing, is that I haven't been in this fandom long -I've loved the movie for a while, and I watch the TV series (I can't wait for episode seventeen!)- but I haven't read a lot of fanfiction, so if this idea has already been used, I apologize, but I won't stop my story. After all, no two writers will write the exact same thing right? :) Please review.