Camille Frost gave me the prompt of 'Hiccup taking his son/daughter out flying for the first time' (At least, I think that's what the prompt was. Sorry if I got it wrong, my Spanish is a little rusty after ten years of disuse! DX) So this one's for her. Hope you enjoy it!
Flyer's Training
Ever since I could talk, I would beg to go flying. Uncle Snotlout even told me before that 'fly' was my first word, and mom had just rolled her eyes and muttered something about me being dad's kid when I said it. Even after I got a bigger vocabulary, I would still ask dad to take my flying with him at least once a day. Every day, my dad would laugh nervously and tell me to wait until I was a little older as my mom glared warningly at both of us. Eventually, I started to suspect that no matter how old I got, it would never be old enough to go flying.
Then, on the day of my tenth birthday, I woke up and came down to find brand new riding gear laid out for me on the table.
"We aren't going to do much today." Dad warned me as I thanked him and mom up and down and hugged them both as hard as I could. "Just the basic riding form, and getting you used to being in the air. No crazy stunts, okay?"
It was more than fine with me. Even before getting on the dragon's back, I was already floating in the clouds. Dad tried to keep a straight face as he saddled up Toothless, but I could tell he was smiling under his beard, that weird little quirk of the mouth that was a little higher on the left side then the right, just like mine.
"We'll just do a lap around the island for now." Dad told me as I climbed on Toothless' back. Ever since I was little, I would sit on the dragon and pretend to be flying, and now I was finally going to take to the air. "You'll control Toothless' tailfin, but I have a backup pedal that'll override yours if necessary."
"It won't be," I assured my father as he climbed on the Dragon behind me and attacked his fake leg to the pedal he'd mentioned. "Flying's in my blood."
"Better hope so," Dad said dryly as Toothless opened his wings. "Otherwise it's my blood your mother's gonna be after if you get hurt." I grinned at that as Toothless' muscles tensed underneath us. It didn't matter what kind of enemies my father faced, or what accomplishments he achieved, my mother would always be the one thing my dad feared and respected more than anything else.
I was about to say something else when Toothless, impatient to fly, suddenly sprang up. He didn't go at full speed, but it was still a lot faster than I was expecting, and it left me off-balance and panicking as I scrambled to adjust my grip on the saddle, which was difficult with the awkward and unsteady gait of the dragon's flight.
"Open up the tailfin a little wider." Dad shouted to me, sounding almost bored despite my confusion and panic. I immediately slammed my foot all the way down in response, which only seemed to make things worse and sent us plummeting to the ground. "Too much. Ease back a little." Breathing as deeply as I could with the wind whipping past me at breakneck speeds, I cautiously lifted my foot up a little until Toothless' flight evened out. "There, see. That's not so hard."
"Easy for you to say." I shot back, suddenly a lot less confident in my flying abilities. There was no way I'd be able to control Toothless without Dad telling me what to do.
"You'll get better." Dad promised me with a smile. "You should've seen the first time I tried to fly. Now are you going to quit freaking out long enough to take a good look around you? Dunno if your mom's gonna let me take you back up here again anytime soon, after all…" A little hesitantly, I looked down at that, my eyes going wide at the sight of Berk floating past me far below.
"Whoa…" I breathed, a little awestruck at the sight. It was hard to believe that the small, peaceful island so far beneath me was my home. It was even harder to imagine it like the elders would describe it before my father defeated the Red Death, without dragons or flying or the harmony that had existed since before I was born. And even though I'd always been really proud of my dad, it wasn't until that moment that it really hit me what he had done, what he had left for me and everyone else on Berk.
And suddenly, I was all too aware of what big shoes I'd have to someday try and fill.
"Okay, we got coasting down." Dad told me, oblivious to my sudden epiphany. "Now let's try cornering. You're going to have to feel Toothless' movements and close and open the tailfin at just the right rhythm, or else we're gonna lose altitude and end up drowning in the ocean and your mother's gonna drag my corpse from the bottom of the sea to murder me. Ready?" Breathing deep, I tried to push back how intimidated I suddenly felt of my father and the legacy he had left behind. Gripping the saddle tightly, I turned forward with determined eyes, trying to mask my uncertainty as I answered his question.
"Ready as I'll ever be."
"In other words, no." Dad translated with a chuckle before reaching forward to tousle my hair. "Don't worry, kid. No one's ever ready when the have to step up and do something new for the first time. But the more you work at something, the better you'll get and the less scary it becomes." Not for the first time, I wondered if my dad could read minds or something. He was always scary intuitive about what I needed to hear. Still I had an image to maintain, so it was probably better to pretend I wasn't as worried as I was. Besides, I was ten now, and ten year olds don't DO mushy.
"We're Vikings, Dad. Vikings don't get scared."
"Except of spiders."
"That thing was almost as big as Toothless! Besides, I didn't see you running over to kill it either. Mom took care of it."
"Don't exaggerate, kid. It was barely bigger than a Terror. And anyways, I've already lost one limb doing battle with oversized monsters. I'd like to keep the ones I have left, if that's alright with you. Now are you gonna quit stalling, or are we gonna do this before I realize that I'm an idiot for letting a ten year old drive?" I grinned a little at that, feeling better at Dad being so… Dad.
"Fine. But you better be prepared to start calling me the new Dragon Master of Berk."
"Fair enough. Now show me what you got, Dragon Master." Grinning even wider, I leaned forward, suddenly a lot less scared of screwing up.
Dad was there to help me, after all. And big shoes or not, I was definitely proud to be the kid of Hiccup the Useful.
