Exodus and Return-us

Author's Note: This is my first story, but I have read nearly every story over 40,000 words with the same premise (Hiccup leaves with Toothless) so I have an idea of what I hope to accomplish with this story. Updates will likely take a while because I am doing this as something productive to do in my down time, so if you like the story just park a "follow" and whenever the update may be you will see it. This IS a Hiccup Leaves story, Toothless WILL talk (his personality will be very much like Hobbes from Calvin and Hobbes), and I will not use personal info for storylines or characters because it ticks me off when I see that from other authors. I definitely won't do a song-fic. HECK nah. That being said some small events in some chapters may have wordings or plotlines very similar to modern rock songs. I will be impressed if someone can guess them all.

This first chapter begins right after Hiccup and Toothless' first real flight where Hiccup lost his cheat sheet. This takes place on that rock column.

I present….

Exodus and Return-us

That was literally the craziest thing I have ever done. In my life. Period. Hands DOWN. It puzzles me why, with certain death just ahead in the form of jagged rocks, I threw away the cheat sheet and flew FLAWLESSLY. I mean it could not have been better. Toothless and I hit sideways flips that weren't truly necessary but made us feel alive nonetheless. Now that I do think about it, I felt eerily calm during that moment, as if something had 'clicked' but I can't figure out just what. Whatever happened, it was as if I knew what Toothless wanted to do. Crazy, huh?

"Aww crap." During my moments of thought, I let my fish burn catch fire and almost burn me. But not quite; I must be getting less clumsy… huh, as if. "Well bud, if the smell of cooking fish wasn't already strong enough to attract company, burnt fish should bring anything within miles that's hungry" I said to Toothless who was currently making a Thawfest sport out of ignoring me despite the fact I was leaning against him. As I looked up, I saw a few terrible terrors fly to our rock outcropping and I inwardly groaned a little. Toothless noticed the small herd of dragons approaching and covered all of his fish up. If I was hungry, one small fish that apparently must not have been big enough for the mighty Night Fury was all that was left for me.

The Terrors approached the Night Fury and a battle of wills took place; after Toothless shot a plasma blast into one of the Terrors the battle was over. However, it was the moments in between that left my mind spinning: while Toothless was growling at the diabolical dragons (because anything taking your food is obviously evil, Viking thinking apparently coming from a Night Fury) I could have sworn I could hear a slight buzz in my head, near my ears but still easily within my brain. I tried to focus on the sound (a task made difficult by the growling match between Toothless and a dragon the size of my arm) but all I could ever hear was closest to a quiet mumble that never truly could be discerned.

I was jolted back to reality again, this time when the defeated Terror wobbled over and coughed the tiniest, most heartbreaking cough ever. Likely one of the least manly things I had done that week (cuz I am not truly known for my manliness, ok?) I practically melted and gave the dragon my little piece of fish.

The Terror gave me a look that plainly stated "this human is insane. He just gave me food. There must be something wrong here" for about half a second before attacking the fish. Afterwards, the Terror scrambled up to me and curled up like a cat, asleep in an impressive 4 seconds flat.

"Everything we know about you guys… is wrong." The statement flowed out of my mouth without me ever even realizing what it could mean. However, once stated it seemed like the most obvious but important thing in the world. The Terror is sleeping next to me after giving it a fish. A NIGHT FURY is curled around me like I am his pet and he enjoys (and sometimes tolerates) my company about as much.

I sat in silence for a few moments while my painstakingly obvious epiphany sunk in. Then my mind wouldn't stop thinking about what all this could mean. Did dragons have their own language? Can they communicate with each other? Do they coordinate the raids on the village or do they all just attack at once? What other things can dragons do that Vikings may never find out? I mean if the Night Fury can have retractable teeth, what other strange things could exist?

Just as my mind began to spiral into more questions than I could keep up with, Toothless rumbled (and my head buzzed slightly again) and started to get up from his now-empty pile of fish.

"Alright bud, I gotta get back to the village. Gobber said we gotta 'start preparin tha village so your father at least has something good to focus on. Odin knows he didn't find the nest, and I feel bad for anyone stuck in a room with him when he's in one-a those moods.'" Toothless seemed to understand, as he stretched and then tilted his wing so I could climb aboard. As we headed back to the cove, two questions stuck in my mind: How did we fly so perfectly earlier, and why does my head only buzz when Toothless does something?

The next day in training was both exciting and absolutely terrifying at the same time. The exciting part was the dragon we fought. Gobber was content with letting us fight the Nadder again, and I was eager to do anything BUT draw attention to myself. Unfortunately, some idiots had other plans, and that's where to day got terrifying. But it didn't have anything to do with the dragon, or even the idiots who made me "fight" a Nadder blindfolded; it was Astrid that really scared me.

Upon walking into the arena, everything seemed normal. The twins were fighting to the death (more than likely) in one corner, Fishlegs was trying not to look as nervous as I usually felt, and Snotlout was… not flirting with Astrid. That was the only thing that was odd. Aside from the maze that Gobber had set up for the Nadder fight, of course.

Even as Gobber opened the cage and we all scrambled (I ran to the farthest side of the arena, hoping Astrid would take the dragon down before I had to try something), Snotlout was nowhere to be seen.

After a few seconds, I heard a distinct, high-pitched squeal followed by Gobber making some snide remark to Fishlegs about always getting out first. I figured that the Nadder would next go for Ruff and Tuff (who were still arguing), but all of a sudden everyone went quiet. No sounds of a Nadder attacking, no yelling twins, no flirting Snotlout. Nothing. I looked around a corner that led to the longest path in the entire maze, stretching nearly across the whole ring. About 15 feet from me was the Nadder, facing the other way and listening for its prey. I moved to the other side and tried to move away from the lane until Gobber caught me going the other way from the dragon. "HICCUP! What do ya think you're doin? It's RIGHT THERE, facing the other way fer crying out loud!" Well, crap, he saw that. I turned the corner, finding the dragon preoccupied with picking under its far wing with its beak-like snout. It was then that the idiots happened.

I heard a snicker behind me… before I knew anything else someone clamped their hands around my arms, effectively holding me in place, and someone else wrapped a blindfold around my eyes impossibly quickly. A good shove forward later, and I was standing about five feet from a Deadly Nadder, holding a dagger while blindfolded…

There was only one problem. I thought I was five feet away from the dragon. However, I felt a very large, very angry presence above me. Not in front of me, above me…

^Gods above, I can't die like this...^ I inwardly groaned as a realized I was holding a weapon. My very NEXT thought was 'hey Hiccup, how about dropping the pointy object that makes large dragons like the one above you angry?' I dropped the dagger, then heard a questioning squawk from in front of me and decided that now was as good a time as ever. I reached out my hand (hoping I didn't put it inside its mouth and make the job of dying easier) and as soon as I felt scales a scratched for all I was worth. I must have worked around to a sweet spot, because I felt a thump next to me and heard satisfied croons, followed by incredulous cheers from Tuffnut and Snotlout… which reminded me…

"WHAT in Thor's hammer where you thinking when you had the idea to BLINDFOLD me in front of A VERY-MUCH-SO DEADLY NADDER?!" I burst out, assuming my rage would scare up a quick answer. It didn't. Tuffnut and Snotlout were laughing so hard that they were nearly crying. Ruffnut tried to laugh but just kinda starred slack-jawed at me. Astrid, on the other hand, looked both shocked and angry.

After 30 seconds for the guys to cool down from their laughter bit, Gobber came over and demanded an answer to the same question I did. While I ignored most of the lecture, I enjoyed seeing Snotlout and Tuff in trouble until Gobber mentioned something about "all this recklessness fer a prank? Don't you have anyone else you can use?" Snotlout suddenly looked smug, and responded "I wasn't a prank! It wasn't even our idea! Astrid wanted us to do it, I swear."

Astrid, never one to have her reputation tarnished, immediately justified her actions, "yea, it was my idea. I wanted to see how well he performed under pressure, seeing as he all of a sudden became a prodigy. I figure he can't cheat if he can't see." "Meh, I guess that's fair enough. Odin knows I put you kids threw worse. But class, if there was any way to cheat a dragon, we would have figured it out by now…"

I left before Gobber said that Vikings would have cheated dragons for easy kills, and I was not just mad that Astrid planned this, or that Gobber let it slide, but was also increasingly terrified of what Astrid might do if I interfere with anything else she wants… Such as placing first in training, of which I am currently leading…

After I left the arena, I unsurprisingly found myself at the cove, and began telling Toothless everything that had happened earlier. I must have assumed that he needed a tiny bit of background information, because before I knew it I was telling him every frustration that I have endured as Berk's 15 year old screw-up. Soon I found myself sorting out what hurt that most about Berk not just for Toothless, but also for me, "…it's not the fact that they've hated me my whole life, or that the only like me because I can suddenly fight dragons, or that everything I stand for seems to be 'unvikingly,' or that my hopeless crush (Toothless chuckled on that part, and the buzzing in my head grew) is orchestrating my downfall, or even that my dad doesn't even want to be around me… the worst part is the only place I can be myself and am happy is here with you." Toothless gave me a flat look, and I corrected myself, "Not that being here is bad at all. It's great! It's that Berk isn't great like this. Or even half-way decent…" Toothless must have decided that my talk was getting too depressing, because he closed his eyes and nudged my just with his forehead. I could have sworn I could hear him purring, but the buzzing from my head grew so loudly that for a moment I could have sworn it sounded like a very satisfied "MMmmmm," but Toothless pulled away before I could truly discern what this thing in my head is.

Toothless sat back and looked at my with those large, lustrous green eyes before he started tugging his head up and to the side. He seemed to want me to do something, but I was distracted by the buzzing in my head again, which was now buzzing on and off as if it was trying to annoy me. Toothless gave a small growl and I was jolted back to the scene in front of me. "Do you want to go flying or something?" As I said this, Toothless gave large nods and adjusted so I could hop on, and we were gone.

Our flight was going normally for a while. Toothless and I were in pretty good sync, and we were able to pull off some cool dives. A few times, on the hardest tricks or routines where we really got going, the buzzing in the side of my head stopped and I felt that same calm feeling that I did the day of our first flight. All things were going normally until I wanted to try flying in clouds that completely block any vision whatsoever. The clouds felt amazing, very soft and puffy, but with a slight cold, wet sting to them that always sets my hair on edge. We followed the longest cloud trail until I realized where we ended up.

We had flown to the location with the most clouds and fog anywhere around: Helheim's Gate. As we neared the fog, I felt Toothless go a little stiff as we fell into what was apparently a dragon-only route to who knows where. When we exited the fog, I saw a volcano protruding from the ground, and could hear what I assumed to be thousands of dragons talking. As Toothless flew into what I presumed to be the nest, I was immediately overwhelmed by the sheer amount of dragons. "What my dad wouldn't give to find this" I said as Toothless flew over to a small outcropping with a large rock to hide behind.

I noticed all of the dragons flying to the center of the room before dropping their food in, and my sarcasm could not be contained "well it is satisfying to know that all of our food is being dropped down a pit." After I said this, a small (for a gronkle at least) gronkle bobbed up and down on its way into the center to drop one small, regurgitated fish. The next moment, large teeth, followed by a massive dragon's head clamped around the gronkle, sending all of the other dragons cowering back as far as they could. I knew in that moment that it was definitely time to leave.

"C'mon bud, we gotta get out of here" I whispered to Toothless, who seemed to be frozen in place, with a facial expression as intense as if he were trying to push a mountain with all of his might. "Toothless, come on, we need to go" I said a little louder, and looked up to make eye contact with the massive beast. Oh, that can't be good. Like on a scale from one to screwed we are probably a solid 9. Instead of immediately blasting us with fire, or eating us, the behemoth slowly moved towards us.

"TOOTHLESS, we need to GO!" I tried raising my voice but did not get any response, so I desperately tried anything to make him move. I continued shouting his name, and started spurring him with my heel, flicking his earflaps (which I KNOW he hates), and shoving his head, but worked. I even tried to will him to move, but that unsurprisingly did not work… until all of a sudden it did.

TOOTHLESS, move move move move get up we gotta go move move now fly run TOOTHLESS Toothless

^TOOTHLESS, WE NEED TO GO^

I am not sure what happened next, but that last bit stirred him out of his trance. He shook his head and looked around, and I swear to Odin I heard someone say *What the…? Oh crap I'm outta here!* Toothless began to take off, jumping up vertically and getting a huge lift from his wings, and as he did this I looked at the giant dragon and I could have sworn that it look dazed, confused, and angry. I didn't give it much thought as I helped Toothless navigate up and out of the top of the volcano.

Within a minute we were out of sight of the volcano, and on our way back to the Cove. Half way there, I was startled by a disembodied voice and jumped so badly that I barely hung in the saddle by a handhold.

*So, uh… how did you do that back there?*

"WHO'S THERE?" Come to think of it, I am lucky I didn't wet my pants. The whole "massive dragon" thing may have me on edge.

*It's me, idiot. Talk with your head again, it's too hard to here you over the wind*

I may have jumped this time, but not as much. This is improvement, I guess.

"Huh? How do I-"

*What you did back at the nest. You called out my name with your head which broke Her concentration and freed me. Try it again. I've never heard of a Thumby talking like this.*

I realized that the voice had a slight buzz to it, and that it was all, located within my ear. I focused on the buzz-turned-voice, and found that it was in the same spot of my head but felt like it was coming from… below me…

^Toothless?^

*Ding ding, give the man a prize! And here I thought you were one of the smarter Thumbies… huh.*

This can't be happening. Any second now I am gonna wake up and forget about the talking Night Fury and massive mountain-dragon. I pinched myself, closed my eyes, and then reopened them. Nothing changed.

^I can HEAR you? How does that work?^

In all honesty, a very fair question. Something told me that this would be a very odd answer…

*Dragons have always talked like this. All those growls and rumbles don't actually mean that much. You are the first Thumby I've ever heard of talking like this.*

There's that word again. What the heck does he mean by "thumby?"

^Why are you calling me that? What's wrong with my name?^

*Not much, aside from you've never told me your name…*

^…I haven't? Are you sur-well, huh. I guess not…^

*…aaaaand?*

^Oh, sorry. My name is Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, so just Hiccup.*

^…really? You have a chance to tell me any name, impress me with something, cuz your 'vikingness' isn't scaring anyone, and you go with 'Hiccup?'*

*…shut up.*

^Heheh. I called you Thumby cause that's what we call your type. Not just the Vikings, but just Thumbies in general. It's a joke about how you are so defenseless except for all those stupid weapons you build with your thumbs… but 'Hiccup?' They must really have hated you to name you that… Oh well, I guess it is better that 'Toothless'^

*Ugh. Hurtful. Wait, so you don't have any other name?*

^No, dragons don't usually give names to anyone but family. We usually come up with titles based on something we have done. I am usually called Ghost, but that's just cuz I am the only Dark Death around.^

*Dark Death? Is that your term for your species?*

^First of all, 'species' is offensive. I am much more regal that you ever can hope to be…^

I chuckled at this, and he flicked me in the face with his earfin.

^Secondly, yes, but I think 'Night Fury' is more eccentric and splendid, so you may continue calling me that.^

*Oh, I'm sorry, your highness* I said very sarcastically and flicked his earfin in order to get back at him.

Although we continued to talk for a few more minutes, it was mostly banter back and forth. I guess either my sarcasm rubbed off on him, or I managed to shoot down the only being in existence who is as sarcastic as I am. I'm not sure how I feel about this.

The one thing Toothless managed to be serious about was the topic of my village. Ever since my rant earlier, he decided that I am too good to them and that I should leave. When I tried to argue against leaving, I found that I couldn't. I did not have anything truly tying me here, and with a Night Fury on my side I could go anywhere. The more I thought about it (and the more he nagged), the more I had made my mind up.

I am going to leave Berk, probably not forever, but that is still possible. As I headed back to the village, I told Toothless I would be back soon in order to plan my departure. I still am not sure whether or not I want to fake my death, write a letter, or just disappear.

But one thing is certain: my exodus has been set in motion.