I need to start off by apologizing for the delayed Update. From the Pm's, I know how eager you all are for the second part. But like writers, I was subjected to several events that prolonged this story.
Second, I am currently engaged with another story from my other favorite novel, so i won't be updating this one as often.
Let me finish off by saying that I will also try to make this part longer. Going back and reading the first part, I am disappointed at how I seemed to rush through the character development with Hiccup and Toothless. There for, I will attempt my hardest to make this part more interesting.
They had been flying for well over six hours, and the sun was nearing the Horizon yet again. Another four hours remain until night is upon them; however, both Hiccup and Toothless got a descent rest the night prior, so they could continue through the night.
Hiccup stretched his sore shoulder muscles, before lowering himself closer against Toothlesses back. Not only to cut down on her drag, but also rest his shoulders.
"You can rest if you want."
Toothless spoke loudly enough so Hiccup could hear her over the wind that whirled around them at this height.
Due to the length of time it will take to reach the outpost, but also for personal presences, Toothless is flying in what she called, Thin-air-Zone. A place in the sky, where the air is thinner, allowing for her to fly easier, with less effort.
Unfortunately, it is also freezing. Although, Hiccup isn't as effected as he was yesterday. Despite their altitude, and the knowledge that he should be colder than the ice bound lands north of Berk, he isn't.
On the contrary, it feels like he is on the ground, lying in the sun, on a bed of lush grass. He doesn't know how this came about, but that is something that he has grown used to.
Since finding out the truth, everything has been changing. Some things spring up on him, while others slowly manifest themselves.
His dreams for example, the reason why he was so troubled about it last night, was not because of what he remembered, well not entirely.
It was because he knows that these Ancestral memories are triggered by related events. The dream he had was filled with such passion, and love on both their parts, that it's confused him to the point of nearly falling unconscious, due to the effort it took to process the information.
In order to have that memory, he had to have felt something more towards Toothless, other wise he probably wouldn't have seen that one.
Hiccup gulped at the prospect of harboring romantic feeling towards Toothless. She's a dragon, and even though she told him that others of his race found mates with the Night Furies...He isn't one of them.
He wasn't raised with their views, or traditions, their ways of life, nor even knew they existed, until a few weeks ago.
Up until then, he had believed Dragon's where mindless animals, incapable of feeling anything besides anger, and wreaking chaos wherever they flew.
He never considered them to be intelligent creatures, capable of feeling everything that he is capable of, if not more. The idea of loving Toothless is...unusual, no, that's not it, it is...He doesn't know what it is.
Perhaps he is just confused about the idea of loving her. Then again...
Hiccup felt his mind begin its tall tale signs that usually signaled his start of a rant. Something that usually takes hours and always ends with him feeling weak, both mentally, and physically.
Focusing on the water, thousands of feet bellow. Hiccup directed his attention to the flashes of white, from the waves as they curled over, on themselves.
And began counting each one that he saw, slowly his mind began to drift away from the topics of Toothless, and his unknown feelings for her.
Before he knew it, the steady counting had lulled him asleep.
Toothless left his leg go limp, and glanced back to see him lay across her back. She warbled softly, happy to see that he was resting.
The cold evening air felt wonderfully nice against her back. Her body was still warm from basking in the sun all day, and now the crisp winds cooled her hide, as her muscles repelled against the cold.
The silver-night-sun was just starting to wake from its other worldly slumber, replacing the Warm-Radiating-Sun, with its rays of blue, and silver.
She retracted her wings slightly, and felt the pressure beneath them ebb as she began to decent, not at a fast pace, but a slow deliberate one.
Now that it is night, the air is cooler; there fore the air will be thinner closer to the water. She felt Hiccup flinch on her back, and turned around to see him readjust his arms to a more comfortable position.
It pleased her too see him relaxed. After witnessing how his people treated him, she made a pact to herself to save him from their cruelty. No one should have to endure so much hate from their own kin, Hiccup being no exception.
Now that he is relaxing, she feels like a weight has been lifted off her. To see him happy, to know where they are going, and what awaits them at their destination...That too makes her happy.
She's seen it in his eyes, in the way he chooses his words with precision, and elegance. His love for exploration, and his distaste for ignorance, she remembers when he began thinking about how to build her tail, the way he seemed to leave this world, and enter his own.
Where only he existed, a place where he was free to develop extraordinary feats of engineering. But then again, there is more to him than that.
Hiccup has shown her something she has rarely seen since leaving her nest. And even more uncommon since being assigned to her section of land to watch over.
That is something she hasn't though of in a while. The elders of her species, and the other Night Furies out there searching for the time when Fortido's ascendant remembers who he is, and come out of hiding.
And here he is, sleeping peacefully on her back, unaware of the horrors that rage around them, both seen, and unseen.
The creatures in the night, the serpentine monsters that remain undetected by the world, preferring the abyssal darkness of their watery realm.
There are a great number of horrors in the world, more than Hiccup can possibly imagine. Some just as deadly as the Tyrant, only kept at bay for they have no interest in spreading their misery.
And for the Sentinels. He asked her once if any of his race had survived. At the time she wanted to tell him the truth, but thought better of it.
He was not ready, despite his curiosity, the knowledge would have done nothing but hinder his learning.
The last time she saw their castle, it was just before she left to begin searching for the next heir. There where thousands of them, both old, and young. Despite losing their kings so many centuries ago, they have not lost hope.
Although, without the guidance of a king to lead them, they have been unable to do little more than farm, and trade amongst themselves, despite this inconvenience, she has never seen a happier group of people.
Hiccup will be right at home there...A home he never had, but always wanted. She slowly flapped her wings twice, settling forty feet over the silvery pool of star light.
Night flying is one of her favorite pas times. Here, out in the eternal stretch of sky, the world sleeps, as she is exposed to all the mystical secrets it has to offer.
There is an eerie peace about the night, whether it is the sound of waves, or her wings as she moves them in a steady rhythm to stay aloft. Perhaps it is both these things; then again, maybe it is neither.
How do you describe something that is beyond the reach of words? How can someone try to recreate this scene before her with verbal sounds? Impossible, there are some thing's that cannot be recreated with mere words.
Shouldn't even attempt to, no good will come of it. You will only end up tainting the beauty of it all. Rendering it as a jumbled concoction of adjectives, and nouns that has nothing to do with what you're trying to paint.
She inhaled a deep breath of the briny air. The salty moisture tingling her nose as it passed through, down to her lunges.
It was sometime around midnight, when Hiccup stirred from his rest.
"What time is it?"
He didn't have to speak as loud as before, due too their lower altitude, and the fact that there was barley any wind to muffle his voice.
"Some time around mid night. Did you sleep well?"
He mumbled something, but it was lost as he yawned, and stretched his arms above his head.
"Sorry, yes, I slept surprisingly well, giving the sleeping arrangement."
He replied with a hint of sarcasm, then she felt his cold hand press firmly on the side of her neck. She didn't know why, but there was something different in his touch now. It was still the same, but it was off...
"Well sooorrrrrry."
She replied in a similar tone, causing him to chuckle slightly at her reply.
"But with all seriousness Hiccup, the next island we come across, I'm landing."
Hiccup was about to protest, but straightened his back, and nearly fell off from the stinging pain that lanced through his lower torso, and up his spine.
"This is why we rest. To prevent things like this."
He mumbled something again, and then lifted both his feet. She felt him moving around on her back, and was about to say something, when a series of rapid cracks rang through her ears.
Followed by a coughing sighs of relief from hiccup.
"That is so much better."
He sighed, as he lowered his legs, this time resting them on her fore legs, which where tucked out of the way.
"What did you do?"
She said with a tone of exasperation.
"What, you don't remember teaching me how to loosen up before training?"
He said with a small chuckle.
She rolled her eyes, remembering several of the techniques. Although it was much more difficult for her to explain them, for she did not have the ability to replicate them.
For the next several hours, Hiccup and Toothless talked about anything that occupied their mind at the time.
First it was Hiccups curiosity with the ocean, and the dragons, and creatures that dwell bellow the surface. Toothless was happy to satisfy his curiosity, but there was one species she refused to mention. The evil Sea Serpents.
Before the Tyrant rose to power, before the humans knew about dragons, the Dragons wage a terrible war with the snakes of the sea. They believed that everything should be theirs, and the dragon's believed everything should be shared.
She's seen them now, and they have definitely shrunk over the years. Once over ten feet long, now they will be lucky to reach two feet.
Toothlesses next curiosity consisted of Hiccup's childhood, not how he was treated, but what he did for fun, and how he occupied his time.
"I spent most of the time in the forge, learning all I could from Gobber, the master smith. He taught me a whole range of things, from sharpening, to engraving."
She noted a dry under tone as he finished.
"Do you miss him?"
"He was the only one who actually tried to help me."
He needed to say no more, Toothlesses grasped the significance of his words immediately.
So it went on like this through the night, and most of the next day. Toothless was surprised by Hiccups curiosity, and his ability to string countless questions into a single sentence, then articulate the jumbled mass in the span of a few seconds, and some how manage to get the configuration of words into a coherent question.
Several times she had to remind him with an annoyed growl, which he immediately smiled and directed his attention to the ocean bellow. A few times she saw him smile, and his cheeks turned red, although it was hard to tell from the setting sun.
They spent the remaining time in silence, taking in their surroundings. Hiccup marveled at the view from this height, he's been to this altitude before back on Berk, but there was always a fear about being discovered.
Out here, they are the rulers of the sky this is their kingdom. Mounted upon their thrown of air, they are the seers, the watchful protectors, and the arbitrator of all beneath them.
It may be a lot for any one person to fully comprehend, and he knows that he is one of those people. But there is something about riding with Toothless that fills him with a sense of purpose.
He doesn't want anyone to suffer by the hands of misfortune. He wants no one to suffer through anything remotely similar to the events of his life. If there is something he can do, or they can do to help, then by Thor's hammer, he will get it done.
But for now, there is nothing more for him to do than sit patiently on Toothlesses back, and wait, along with some hope, and a prayer here and there, that they will find land before long. With little more to do, than wait out the flight, Hiccup turned his attention to the setting sun.
He was greeted with the beautiful swirling mass of color set before him. Yellows and oranges radiated away from a center orb of shimmering red, the clouds where painted dusky streaks of purple, and violet, the water beneath them was rendered a mirror for all these colors to reflect off of, only enhancing their natural beauty.
Hiccup couldn't help but feel like the luckiest man in the world. How many of this time can say they have seen what he is currently experiencing? Who claims the fact of flying on dragon back? No one, is his only answer.
He felt something knew form in the pit of his stomach, a warm throbbing that radiated warmth throughout his entire body. Confused by the new sensation, Hiccup pulled away from it, and focused on the expanse of molding color.