Hiccup wriggled slightly.
"Yeah, I said it," Toothless said. "So unless you wanna be fed something nasty, I suggest…"
Whatever he was going to say, Hiccup didn't care.
He unfolded his wings once more, launching them into the sky.
Toothless screamed.
Hiccup struggled to rise into the sky, but they were falling.
Toothless kept screaming.
"You useless reptile! You useless, useless… Oh for Thor's sake, how do you do this?!" The boy hastily fit his metal leg into the stirrup, clicking it into place. He shifted it, opening Hiccup's tail.
Flying was nothing new to him.
Riding something that was flying… it was very different.
He swore he could feel Hiccup's side vibrating in laughter as they rose into the sky, perpendicular to the ground. Hiccup's muscle strained beneath his hands, and Toothless had to admit the former Viking was doing a fairly good job at flying.
Hiccup leveled out, hovering lazily on an updraft as they looked down at the village of Berk below.
To Toothless's human eyes, everything was too small to see the details.
However, Hiccup could see everything, from Stoick in front of the Great Hall, to Gobber at his forge, to Astrid… Astrid on Stormfly, coming their way.
Hiccup flapped his wings, going into a dive. Unprepared, Toothless yelped as they started hurtling towards the ground.
He understood, though, when they flew past Astrid. Neither of them wanted to deal with any questions for a long while.
Then Toothless remembered this was Hiccup's first time flying.
The boy leaned forward, shouting to be heard above the wind, "Open you wings! Now!"
Hiccup obeyed, snapping his wings open. They didn't catch until moments before they hit the water, causing a splash as their flight leveled out. Still, they didn't slow.
Astrid was right behind them.
Instead Toothless said instructions such as, "Tilt your wings this way… This way!" and, "Shift your weight a bit to the left!" as they flew among the sea stacks, weaving through them to avoid the persistent blonde.
Occasionally Toothless missed a beat, causing them to collide with the rocks, but he did his best without any help or instruction.
"HICCUP! SLOW DOWN!"
The same thought ran through both their heads - they could not acknowledge her.
If they did, game over.
After all, the girl would be furious if she knew they were intentionally avoiding her.
So they flew faster, aiming to return to the island and hide there. The only cave she didn't know of was the one housing that strange dragon, so that was the one they went for.
"I think… I think we lost her," Toothless said, out of breath as his adrenaline ran down.
Hiccup, who was breathing raggedly, flopped to the floor.
Toothless sat beside him, sighing.
"And now I can't see," he complained. They'd had to go in deeper for fear of being seen at the entrance.
Hiccup tilted his head, then opened and closed his mouth.
"Try sneezing," Toothless said.
Hiccup shook his head, lying back down.