Hiccup sat in the field of grass, lying upon Toothless' side as he watched the clouds float by.
His sketchbook lay askew in his lap, dropped next to his charcoal. The dragon's side was cool, in comparison to the hot day. Emerald grass tickled him as he lay there. Perfectly content.
It had been 63 years to this date since he had become chief. Yet nothing felt different from that time long ago.
His beard was long and somewhat thin, braided at the ends into twists. It was a lighter gray, like the tops of storm clouds at dawn's break. The same hair went down his head from underneath his Mom's Viking helmet, thin like small wires that happened to be tangled together. He was wearing Stoick's cape, one of the only things he had left of his father. It was warm and worn, probably had too many washes in it. But it was his, so he kept it had on some metal shoulderpads, and a green shirt that tucked into his dirt brown pants. His dark boot only went up a bit past his ankle. Metal prosthetic leg was beginning to rust slightly, and he reminded himself to clean it later. It would be very problematic if it broke. Beside him in the grass lay a long stick of wood, knarled and smoothed on top from constant touch. Hiccup hated calling it his cane, it was just his helping hand.
Toothless fidgeted slightly, but stayed relatively still, looking about at everything around them. He managed to keep the movement slow enough that it didn't shift the chiefton around too much. The dragon fidgeted slightly with his paws, getting tired of sitting in the same place for such a long time.
He did want to spend time with his rider, he just needed to get some extra energy out. He looked down at the chiefton, watching him as he looked up at the clouds peacefully. The Night Fury looked up as well, gazing into them to try and figure out what was so interesting about them.
The moisture on his scales, as his wings carried through the wind on the soft caress of a warm thermal and a couple of wing beats. That was what real freedom was like, wasn't it? Only if he could touch it.
He grunted to himself, tearing away his gaze quickly and glancing at his tail.
It hadn't been upgraded all that much since Hiccup was busy being chief. It was a good working design that was sturdy enough that only occasionally it broke. His rider always made time to fix his tail if it ever broke. Even though he never really used it anymore…
The red design was still on it, bright and stark. IF only he could…
Toothless ground his teeth lightly, trying to pull his thoughts away from the subject. He looked away, further into the fields of green grass they were laying in.
It was on another nearby island that they had found long ago. The dragon couldn't quite recall the name that they had picked. Well, Hiccup picked since he couldn't really communicate his idea to anyone except the other dragons. The name didn't matter anyways.
The island was rather small and squat, only holding the field they were in and a bit of sparse forest to the side. There weren't any dragons that stayed on the island, since there wasn't anything to eat on it except birds and bugs. And no dragon wanted to stay on a diet of birds and insects if they could just fly over to a neighboring island.
Unless they couldn't fly.
Toothless had to shake the thoughts out of his mind again. They rung so true it hurt. But Toothless barely ever flew anymore. Of course there had been the flight over to here. But that had been a minute tops and Hiccup was already in pain.
Of course the dragon understood his rider could only take small bursts of flying. And those would land him in deep arthritic pain that had his hips deciding to host a small rebellion with the spine joining in. But it still hurt him too.
Hiccup noticed the dragon's slight agitation, and patted him lightly on the head to calm him down. Toothless pressed into his touch somewhat, purring happily.
Hiccup always knew how to make him feel better.
The chief knew that Toothless wanted to fly more. But it was impossible. He was getting older, and regrettably it was harder to be able to fly with his friend even though he wanted too. If only there was some way that he could fly again…
With a sigh of small defeat, Hiccup grabbed his helping hand and slowly got up. His bones creaked slightly, popping into place from being so still for so long. He stretched out a bit, hearing his spine settle back into place.
Toothless stood up along with him, giving him his side for more support as the older man stretched out all his tensed muscles.
After a bit, Hiccup slowly got onto the dragon, leaning forward and clicking the prosthetic into its piece.
With a small woosh, the dragon gave a big flap of his wings, ascending quickly into the sky. Shooting out into the outer reaches of the clouds.
Toothless was exhilarated, his tongue hanging out of his mouth as the wind bent around him like an old friend. The clouds tickled the top of his head, the moisture clinging to his obsidian scales tightly like a hug. Another wingbeat and they were above the clouds, sailing above the world oblivious to the things below. The sun their only guide and Hiccup's map. But Toothless set it out of his mind because they were free.
It was over too quickly, dropping through the clouds to show the quaint isle of Berk. Toothless bit back any sound of complaint of returning back to the cage. To not fly until Hiccup wasn't so busy.
Hiccup had been thinking most of the ride, about how he could get Toothless into the sky once more. So he could be free like a dragon once again. There were a lot of problems with that though. Chiefly the loss of part of Toothless' tail. The prosthetic he had on his tail was great in many ways, but it couldn't be operated solely. It had to have some form of direction or command by a third party, namely him. But there had to be some way to get the dragon off the ground. Because that half of his tail wasn't going to grow back by itself. It would still need some form of prosthetic that Toothless could work by himself.
They landed back on Berk near the town hall, and Hiccup nodded to the Night Fury and gave him a pat on the head. He slowly slid off, unattaching his helping hand from the side of the saddle. He slowly hobbled away from the dragon, and repeated some stretches as his hips decided to attempt mutiny. He cursed his old bones silently as the dragon watched him carefully. Since the one time Hiccup had fallen over while Toothless had idled off somewhere else. Now he stayed so it didn't happen again. He'd rather not have his rider even more broken than he already is.
Hiccup finished, his bones still rather not happy with him. He sighed as he slowly went over to the Night Fury, patting him again on the head.
"Thanks bud." He whispered before he went into the town hall, his head whirling with ideas for a tail. A tail for Toothless' freedom.
The dragon sat outside for a bit, staring at the door before slowly turning about. He walked away, saddened at not getting to hang out longer with the chiefton. But, a job was a job, and his was one of the most important. He needed to protect the people of Berk, and needed to solve issues and such. He just wished he could help.
He started off in a trot towards the Dragon Training Academy. He always liked to watch the new dragon riders learn more about their potential new friends. It reminded him slightly of when they had first created it.
It had grown a bit, so it could hold more dragons and to do it in more relative comfort. It used to be a dark small stone room, but now it had even more. There were feeds and waters and warm wool to sleep on . There was a bit of sky room so the dragons could fly about incase there was a storm and there wasn't any training. It was a lot better than it used to be.
They had also expanded the arena, upwards and outwards. There was a hole on the side so dragons could fly in and out with ease instead of getting them through the big clunky door. The hole could be closed, but it was generally kept open unless there was an emergency.
As he approached, he noted the sounds of flapping and a bit of yelling. It didn't seem like urgent yelling, so he kept his slow trot, climbing up and into the old bleachers with ancient ease that aluded to him having to do it a lot.
There were a couple of new riders in there at the moment, but it seemed like official training wasn't going. They were probably practicing extra.
One was riding a Gronkle about, but seemed to be having difficulties. Because of the Gronkle's naturally low maneuverability, the person was definitely having a difficult time. But it also didn't help that she was yanking at the poor dragon rather roughly when he would get close to wall.
Another was down on the ground with one of the smaller Terrible Terrors. They seemed to be doing some form of a practice fight with eachother. The person would throw a pebble, the Terror dodged. The dragon shot a small bit of fire, the person held up their shield. It went back and forth a bit. A couple times the person would get hit in the shoulder, but the blast was light and all it did was make them stumble slightly. And occasionally the dragon wouldn't dodge and would get hit by a pebble. The throw was light and wouldn't hurt much it seemed. It seems like they had more wins than losses, and were about equal in skill.
There was one last dragon rider, that was also practicing with their dragon. The dragon was a Monstrous Nightmare, that was practicing lighting itself on fire a bit. The rider sat on top of his dragon, and would pull some string when the dragon did it that protected him from the fire. Useful, incase the dragon suddenly lit the rider wouldn't get badly singed.
Toothless sat down to watch for a while, since he had nothing else to really do. They would get better soon, and would be the newest protectors of Berk.
Hiccup finally got a break from the many meetings and conferences that awaited him after they got back. He was only gone for an hour and the pending issues went up by twenty. It seemed like he really couldn't take a break around here.
But, he had gotten through all of them, and now had some extra time on his hands. Time he was going to put to good use.
He pulled his sketchbook out from a pocket in his pants, charcoal following suit. He spread it out on his desk, and flipped through all his sketches to a new page.
He started sketching out a tail, adding on strings that could attach to the dragon's legs. He could pull them himself, so he could guide the tail.
When Hiccup came home that night, he was grinning as broadly as could be in the jolliest of moods. Because nothing could beat the heart of an inspired inventor.
A/N: Thank you for reading the first chapter of Endings! This is an already-finished 5 chapter story. I'm torn between updating Every Friday or on every Friday and Tuesday. Please let me know what you think?
As always, Reviews and Constructive Criticism is appreciated so this author can become a better author. I hope you enjoyed/enjoy/will enjoy!