I do not own HTTYD or any of its characters. I only own Caroline, Luna and Nox Winds
Chapter 2 Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III
A small cold breeze swept over me, waking me from my sleep. I ignored it and pulled the blanket tighter around me. My eyes shot open. It wasn't a blanket, it was a wing! As I pulled away the huge wing, a few inches of snow slid off. Luna had used her wings to shelter us from the snow. As I stared at the dragon, last nights memories flooded back to me. Judging by the texture of the sky, I was guessing it was morning. I looked around; the landscape had changed since last night. A thick coat of snow covered everything and I could see more of the surroundings in the sunlight. Our fire had gone out long ago and I shivered, still in my summer clothes. In the distance I could see the tiny outline of a town. Maybe I could find some food there. But if Vikings really did live here, I wasn't anxious to meet them. I pictured giants that would kill me with whatever sharp object was in sight. My stomach gave a loud grumble, bringing the empty pit of mine to my attention.
Luna slowly opened her sleepy eyes, "Was that you?"
"Yeah, did that little sound wake you up?" I asked impressed.
"Oh yes," she yawned, revealing rows of sharp black teeth, "Us dragons have sensitive hearing."
Luna's head shot up in alert, and she looked around nervously, "Do you hear that?"
I quietly turned my head around, observing my surroundings. "No. What does it sound like?"
Luna's voice was barely over a whisper, "I don't know. It's like a swooshing sound…and…voices?"
I sat straight up, "Hey! I hear too."
The two of us quietly sat, listening to the strange sound. Indeed, the noise was a swooshing sound mixed with voices, but what they were saying I couldn't quite tell.
"Does it sound like it's getting louder to you?"
I nodded, "Now that you mention it…"
And then several things happened at once. Two huge objects zoomed over a close hill coming straight toward us. I screamed, Luna spread her wings and quicker than lightning she grabbed me by the shoulders as we hurled out of the way just before the unexpected objects ran us over.
"Wow!" My heart was pounding like a drum as I looked down at the ground. Luna was slowly lowering us down to the ground, taking great care not to drop me. Her claws held a firm grip, but it didn't really hurt. Her claws were freezing against my skin, but I wasn't about to complain to my rescuer. A few yards away, the two objects came to a sudden halt, sending up freshly powdered snow.
I gasped when I noticed it was two dragons, each with a rider on their back. One dragon had similar features like Luna. She stood on two hind legs with wings for front legs, she had a horn but unlike Luna, it was located on the end of her nose. Sharp ivory spikes gave her a sort of cresent crown, a long tail trailed behind her with some kind of quills covering it and her body color was blue with a purple and golden yellow patterned. Her head was more round than Luna's, and she had more claws on her feet and sharp pointy teeth stuck out from her mouth. A saddle was strapped to her back. Luna was just a little taller than her.
The other dragon was completely coal black and he wasn't as tall as his feminine friend. Unlike the other two dragons, he had four short legs with ear like flaps around the top of his head. He had mischievous green eyes and he had small black ridges down his back and his tail had two fins like Luna. But as I looked closer, I realized one was a man-made fin. It was connected to a wire that lead up to a leather saddle.
The rider on the black dragon was a skinny boy with shaggy brown hair. His shirt had long sleeves and he also wore a leather vest. One big leather boot covered his right foot while the left was a metal peg leg.
The other rider was a blonde girl. She wore her straight hair in a thick braid with a few eyebrow length bangs. A leather head band was wrapped her forehead. Her blue tight shirt was short with metal shoulder pads which had small spikes, dark blue leggings were under the strangest looking skit I had ever seen. It was fringy and made of leather with small metal stubs and around the waist were tiny little animal skulls.
They watched with concerned and curious faces as Luna gently placed me on the ground, then she landed right behind me then stared at the others with a suspicious expression. Both of them seemed to be my age.
"Uh, hello there," the boy waved as the riders dismounted and walked closer to us, "We didn't mean to try to run over you. We weren't aware anyone was up here."
Immediately, everyone was aware I was noticeably smaller than the other two. Even the skinny boy was a whole foot taller!
Luna and I shared a nervous glance. We looked up at the two Vikings who were trying not to stare at me. They both eyed me over as if I was the strangest creature they had ever seen. Must have been my clothes they found so weird. But it wasn't just me; they also eyed Luna in awe.
"What's the breed of your dragon?" the girl asked in a curious voice.
My dragon? What was I suppose to say? I didn't consider Luna mine, but my friend. I glanced up at her for help.
Luna shrugged her wings, "Just play along. Tell them I'm a Nox Wind."
I raised an eyebrow at her before turning to the two Vikings, "Uh…She told me she's a Nox Wind."
The two of them gave each other quizzical expressions before turning towards me.
The girl gave me a suspicious frown, "She told you?"
I tensed. Maybe I shouldn't have told them that.
The girl walked closer in an interrogating manner, "Where are you from?"
"Uh…" I live on planet earth. What do you call your planet? "I'm from far way."
"My name's Hiccup." The boy politely introduced himself, before gesturing toward the girl, "This is Astrid, "He pointed to the dragons, "and Toothless and Stormfly."
I smiled a little, "My name is Caroline and this is Luna."
While Astrid continued to stare at me with suspicion, Hiccup was admiring Luna.
"I've heard of a Nox Wind before." Hiccup walked closer, "But there's nothing about them in the dragon manual. I thought they were mythical."
I cocked an eyebrow, "What's a dragon manual?"
Hiccup opened his mouth to answer, but Astrid quickly cut him off.
"Not so fast," She got close to my face, "How did you wind up out here? There's only one village on the island, and that's miles away!"
"You wouldn't believe me."
"Try us." Astrid challenged.
I helplessly turned to Luna who shrugged again, "Go ahead. Maybe they'll believe you."
"Fat chance." I whispered.
"So there's a chance?"
I glared at her before turning to others. They were still waiting for there answer.
I took a deep breath and spoke quickly, "So, this necklace I'm wearing somehow teleported me to your world, and it also gave me the ability to talk to dragons which is good because it summoned Luna and I probably would have frozen to death last night without her and now I have no idea how to get home." After a pause I added, "You believe me, right?"
Hiccup stared at me as if I was mental and Astrid rolled her eyes thinking I was making it up.
"It's true!" I insisted, getting frustrated, "How else could I have gotten here?"
"Tell you what," Astrid placed an arm around my shoulders, "If you can somehow prove to us that you can understand dragons, we'll believe your story."
Oh great. How was I going to do that? Lucky for me, Luna had a plan.
"Hello Stormfly," she greeted in a friendly manner, "Your human doesn't believe that my human can understand us dragons. I take this as a high offence."
I wasn't sure what to think when Luna stated, "My human."
Stormfly gave me an amazed expression, "Can she?"
I nodded, "Of course."
Astrid raised an eyebrow, "Of course, what?"
I ignored her as Luna continued talking to Stormfly, "If you tell us something only Astrid would know I might consider it as an apology."
Toothless smiled mischievously and told me all the proof I needed.
A smug smile spread across my face as I announced to Astrid, "Toothless told me you kissed Hiccup."
Astrid gapped at me while Hiccup blushed furiously.
Then I added in a cocky voice, "Twice."
Still blushing like a tomato, Hiccup glared at Toothless who was trying to pull off an innocent face, but failed miserably. Right now, Toothless looked like Christmas had come early.
Astrid quickly recovered from her shock and glared at me, "Ok, we'll believe you…for now. But tell ANYONE else and I'll personally punch your face in."
I took a step back, "It's a deal."
Hiccup cleared his throat as he changed the subject, "So Caroline, you're welcome to come stay at our village until you figure out how to go home."
"That would be wonderful!" but then I looked over at Luna, "That is, as long as Luna can come too."
"Of course she can." Hiccup exclaimed as he and Astrid got on their dragons. "Let's go."
I just stared at them.
Astrid rolled her eyes, "Come on slowpoke, and mount your dragon!"
I glanced at Luna uncertainly as she lowered her back for me to get on.
"Its fine," She assured me, "Darcy did it all the time."
Oh what the heck? Riding a dragon sounds pretty awesome, and what could possibly happen?
Without protest I situated myself on Luna, my knees locked under her wings as a sort of hold and I placed my hands on her tough neck for extra support. When Luna stood up, I nervously tightened my hold. It was kind of high up here.
"Is this your first time on a dragon?" Hiccup asked, astonished.
I nodded nervously. Then added sarcastically, "How'd you guess?"
"You seem tense." Astrid answered.
Well, duh…
As Luna walked over to the others, Toothless and Stormfly laid down on the ground in positions to launch themselves down the snow packed hill. Hiccup and Astrid seemed not to think this was a problem. Something seemed to click in Luna's brain, then before I knew it, she aligned herself with the others looking like a race was about to start.
"Um," I didn't like where this was going, "What are we doing?"
"Slide racing," Hiccup called over as if it were obvious, "The fastest way to Berk is going down these slopes on dragon and it's a fun way to race."
Quickly I assumed Berk was the name of their village, but since this was my first time on a freaking dragon, I wasn't too fond of racing down the hill. Logically, Astrid and Hiccup had saddles, I was bareback. It would be more challenging for me to stay on.
Luna gave me a comforting smile, "Relax, this will be fun!"
I wanted to protest, but Luna had such an excited and gleeful gleam in her eyes, I only nodded.
"Yeah…Fun."
I realized that this might be the first time in a long while that Luna got to play with other dragons. I was not about to ruin it for her.
"Ready…" Astrid's voice rose in a competitive manner as everyone took positions.
"Set…" Hiccup squinted as we all tensed.
Realizing what they were waiting for, a thrill of excitement rippled in me and through Luna as I shouted, "Go!"
A tsunami of snow was left where we were only a second ago. Now all of us were zooming down the mountain, the dragons faster than a motorcycle! I should have been terrorized at the alarming speed Luna and I were going, but I felt strangely…exhilarated. There was no other word for it. As the foliage and scenery were nothing more than blurs in my vision, I was laughing at the sheer excitement of it all. Even through the whole time icy mountain air stung me, numbing every inch of my body.
After all, here I was, riding a freaking dragon while racing two others like a NASCAR driver on crack during the final lap! Mom would have killed me right then and there. Every now and then we would all have to dodge trees or boulders while trying to get the lead. I soon learned it was easier for Luna if I leaned to the direction she leaned, we went faster that way too.
Astrid got a few feet ahead of Hiccup, Toothless, Luna and me. As we all tried to catch up to her, Astrid shot up cocky smiles before Stormfly flung her huge quills at us!
I screamed as Hiccup yelled in surprised, the dragons dodging out of the way.
"Hey," Hiccup yelled in an annoyed voice, "Astrid!" Astrid tried to look innocent, but just like Toothless, failed miserably, "Oops? Did I do that?"
No one was questioning the fact that she could have killed us? Guess not. Because as Toothless glided next to Astrid, he pulled one of his wings in front of her and Stormfly, obstructing their view.
"No fair!" I heard her yell at him, but she when his wing was pulled away and Stormfly and Astrid gasped as they zipped through a dead tree. Snow and twigs flew of them as the two raced down the slopes.
Luna answered the door of opportunity before I could stop her. I'd have preferred to have stayed out of this growing danger of being in the middle of what the two Vikings saw as an innocent race. But thanks to Luna, that wasn't going to happen.
While the others were distracted, Luna impressively (but I will never tell her that) shot out a long string of blue fire and hit a huge pine tree that was packing with snow. As the four unsuspecting victims slid past the tree, they were all coated with piles of snow. This slowed them a little and Luna and I were in the lead!
"So it's going to be like that, huh?" Astride called to me in a playful manner.
Caught up in the moment and letting the impending danger slide, I called back in a cheeky manner, "I can't help it if Luna's the best dragon."
Luna seemed to beam at my words and I silently prayed to God that it wouldn't go to the dragons head.
At my remark, the four behind grew excited at the expanding competition.
This game was getting a little dirty.
My heart lunged in my throat at Stormfly sent blast of fire to a snow mound directly in front of us. Luna was able to dodge it, but Astrid succeeded at gaining the lead. I glanced back and noticed Toothless spinning wildly from the sudden impact. After Toothless managed to steady his path, Hiccup yelled at Astrid, "Hey!"
"It was her idea." Astrid defended, pointing to her dragon, "But I approve!"
Luna quickly gained speed, and now Astrid and I were at the same shoulder levels. We shared excited smiles of delight revealing each of us to have competitive, but fun sides to us.
But our smiles soon faded away when Hiccup yelled at us, his voice stricken with panic, "Avalanche!"
I spun my head around and sure enough, an angry avalanche tore at us, desperate to swallow us with layers upon layers of snow.
"Luna, can you take off from here?"
"No, I can't," she replied in a fearful voice, "I need some kind of launch in this situation."
As if God was watching out for us, a good seized pile of snow launched us into the air and Luna took the opportunity to seek shelter in the sky.
My eyes were the size of dinner plates as I clung to Luna for dear life. I have never been up this high on a mythical creature. If I were to fall…
I shook the horrible thought from my head. Stormfly flew next to us, but I shared a look of terror with Astrid. We were missing someone. We both stared back at the ground where Toothless was still zooming down the mountain. Hiccup was clinging to his tail as he was trying to do something with the manmade fin. It was frozen closed and with sickening horror, I realized Toothless couldn't fly without it. The avalanche was closing in and to make matters worse, a huge gorge was dead ahead. Wasting no time, the four of us flew down to the pair.
On one side, Astrid grabbed Hiccup's hand and struggled to pull him onto her saddle. On the other side, I encouraged Luna to grab hold of Toothless' shoulders. Luna was a little bigger than the others, and had the strength to lift him off the ground. Luna had almost lifted Toothless into the air, when the ground gave way, and all six of us were plunged into the gorge as piles of snow buried us.
