This is the last chapter that really borrows from the movie. The last third of this chapter covers Hiccup and Toothless' first flight, but the rest of it is more or less original. You'll get to see some tension between Astrid and Hiccup, too, as Hiccup's lies and secrets continue to build up.

12. To Be a Dragon

Hiccup spent the next several days in a near-constant routine. He made sure to see Toothless every single day, and as boy and dragon grew closer, Hiccup learned more about dragons than he ever would've imagined. When night fell and he was finished with dinner, Hiccup holed up inside the forge and worked on Toothless' prosthetics.

By now, Toothless trusted him enough to allow Hiccup on his back. He'd built a saddle, which had been a blast to try and latch onto Toothless. The Night Fury had put on quite the game of chase to avoid having the leather contraption placed on him, but once it was on, Toothless seemed to accept it.

As for the tailfin, a lot had changed from the original design. It had quickly occurred to Hiccup that Toothless' tailfins adjusted back and forth between flight, and it wouldn't work to just have the prosthetic stay completely open at all times. His second design had involved a rope that he used to pull and push the tailfin open and closed, but that had only partially worked. It wasn't sustainable for free flying, and it honestly hurt Hiccup's shoulder.

The third design had become infinitely more complex and was taking much longer to build. The leather fin had been reinforced with multiple metal rods, and a multifaceted system of gears and pulleys had been set up to control the fin's position through a pedal in Hiccup's left stirrup. If things went well, Hiccup and Toothless would be able to fly freely, though the dragon would always need him in order to fly.

In addition, Toothless had taught him quite a few tricks with dragons. Eels weren't the only weakness that they had, Hiccup had found. By petting and scratching Toothless, Hiccup had discovered a sweet spot under dragons' necks that were extra sensitive and could bring them down peacefully with a simple pinch. By using his hammer to catch the sunlight, Hiccup had found that dragons sometimes liked to chase moving lights. And in a crash-landing involving the second iteration of Toothless' prosthetic fin, Hiccup had discovered a strain of grass that dragons were especially fond of.

Using these tricks along with his previously improved skills, Hiccup had become Astrid's only real competition at the top of the dragon training class. He'd brought down the Deadly Nadder with the neck-pinching trick and neutralized a Gronckle with a handful of that special grass. He'd even gotten the better of the Terrible Terror—who had previously made short work of Tuffnut despite being about six inches tall—by distracting it with reflected sunlight and leading it back to its pen.

His secret activities, however, had brought some difficulties of their own. Astrid came around the forge often, and he'd had to hide his secret projects exceptionally well to keep her from discovering his work. He'd never be able to get out of it if she found them. He could see in her eyes that she was growing frustrated with him, and it hurt him, but he couldn't spill his secret no matter how much he wanted to. The consequences would be severe.

Astrid insisted that she was proud of Hiccup, but he'd robbed her of more than a few victories in training and he saw that it had an effect on her. It was a point of contention in Hiccup's head; he knew that it wasn't right to keep tricking people like this. Gods, he wasn't even fighting the dragons the vast majority of the time. But still his legend continued to grow around the village. Villagers were showing up to watch dragon training, and they'd cheer for him and congratulate him on his successes.

It also didn't help that he'd blown off a lot of training sessions with Astrid to visit Toothless. He'd been seeing less and less of her more recently, and she'd become a bit more standoffish in some of their interactions. It puzzled Hiccup to no end. She'd been training on her own for years, why would she get so bent out of shape going back to that?

Hiccup sighed as he watched Berk from the safety of the forest's edge. He needed to focus. He had a lot to think about, but first he needed to finish his work. He just had a few more plans to carry out, and once he proved that Toothless could fly again, he'd try to tackle this moral dilemma.

Hiccup rifled through the forge's drawers and cabinets. He tried to work as quietly as possible; night had fallen and some of his fellow Vikings were still skulking around the streets, hopefully headed to bed. One of the Berkians left behind on the island, Sheepface, had passed by Hiccup with a torch and greeted him, narrowly missing Toothless. The Night Fury had been behind him up against the side of the house, and almost chased after Sheepface out of sheer curiosity. Fortunately, Hiccup had been able to steer the dragon away and they'd snuck over to the forge to get the things they needed. The latest tailfin was nearly complete.

He wasn't sure why he'd brought Toothless to the village tonight. In hindsight, it was a very, very bad idea. All he needed was a few tools to perform maintenance on the tailfin before they tested it tomorrow. Maybe his brain had decided taking major risks was how they did things now.

He'd all but finished his work and was carefully examining the tailfin when Toothless knocked over a pile of armor plating and scrap metal onto the floor. The steel pieces clattered noisily against one another, tumbling to the ground and startling the Night Fury as well as Hiccup.

"Oh, Toothless!" Hiccup hissed, "Can't you just stay still for two minutes?"

Hiccup stooped down and started to pick up the armor parts so that he could cluster them together again. Gobber would not be happy if he walked into the forge tomorrow and found metal strewn all over the place. Moreover, he would wonder how it had happened, and that was another risk that Hiccup didn't want to take.

The dragon warbled apologetically as Hiccup stacked the steel back into place, and then an all-too-familiar voice called from outside.

"Hiccup?" Astrid asked warily. Hiccup stiffened and cursed under his breath. Of course, of course Astrid had been walking near the forge at the exact moment that his pet dragon had made a loud, noisy mess of things.

Hiccup stood up, hoping that the stack of metal would stay together, and gestured to Toothless. "Okay, bud, I'm gonna ward her off. Stay put, you hear me? Stay put."

Toothless rolled his eyes at the boy and relented. Hiccup took a deep breath and then vaulted out through the forge window, throwing open the revolving boards covering it to slide outside the forge. Sure enough, there was Astrid, startled only for a moment as she recognized him.

"Astrid!" Hiccup greeted nervously, "Hi Astrid, hi Astrid, hi Astrid—ah, what are you doing here?"

"Headed home. We missed you again tonight." Astrid said. She crossed her arms, silently accusatory.

"Oh, y-yeah, I forgot about dinner, I had work to do here and I just got food from the Great Hall." Hiccup lied. In actuality, he'd overstayed his time in the cove today. That was probably why he'd brought Toothless back to the village with him, to go there and get back out with the tools quickly so that he could complete the new fin.

Hiccup's leg tugged behind him suddenly, and he briefly looked down. His eyes widened as he saw the rope attached to the harness loop on his belt. He'd completely forgotten about that still being tied on, it was how he was keeping Toothless close at hand as they snuck through the village. The pulling meant Toothless was moving around inside.

Damned dragon.

Hiccup quickly looked up, hoping that Astrid didn't notice. Based on her expression, she had.

"Hiccup, normally I wouldn't care, but you're acting weird." Astrid said with a scrutinizing look.

The rope tugged again, this time more urgently. What the Hel was that dragon doing in there!? Hiccup flashed a nervous smile, knowing Astrid had seen him stumble backwards from the rope. Fortunately, it looked like she still hadn't seen the harness sticking out of the window.

"Well, weirder." Astrid corrected, her lips curving in an abject frown, "Seriously, what is going on with you? You blow off training all the time now and you disappear for the entire day."

"I… I'm busy." Hiccup lied. Guilt swelled in his chest like a tumor. How could he tell her the truth? He'd be throwing away everything.

Astrid stared at him, her frown persisting, and she pointed her eyes at the ground. In an instant, her mood shifted, and she was scowling when she looked back up.

"Fine. Don't tell me. Keep your secrets from the one person who actually cares." Astrid snarled. She whirled around and began to stalk away.

"Astrid…" Hiccup choked out.

"I need to get home." Astrid cut him off, head cocked so she could glare at him in her peripheral vision, "I'll see you in the morning, Hiccup."

And then she stormed off, an invisible thundercloud hanging over her head and rumbling with the cold aftermath of her words. Hiccup wanted to go after her, he tried to go after her, but the rope fastened to his belt dragged him back into reality. He couldn't just leave Toothless. Dejectedly, he climbed back through the window of the forge, the rope binding him to his dragon relaxing as the distance between them dwindled.

"Hey, bud." Hiccup whispered as Toothless skipped over and sniffed him curiously. "Thanks for listening to me. What were you getting so antsy about?"

Toothless peered over through the other opening of the forge, green eyes locked on the frozen form of a sheep. "Oh." Hiccup muttered, "We should go."

Hiccup climbed into the saddle and Toothless immediately padded forward, instinctively checking to ensure that no one was nearby before bolting out of the forge. The wind whipped around them for all of a moment and Toothless lifted off once they were safely away from the village, gliding into the night towards the cove.

The journey to the cove was short and quick. Toothless bounded over the edge, gliding down to the ground below and landing by the lake. Hiccup slid off of the dragon's back and removed Toothless' prosthetic. Once he was free, the dragon bounded over to the lake to get a drink. When he returned, Toothless sniffed the boy curiously once again. The Night Fury warbled, catching a whiff of the boy's sudden pheromones and… anxiety?

Hiccup chuckled as Toothless warbled again and nudged him on the arm. "I'm guessing you heard that little talk back there. Naughty dragon."

Toothless cocked his head.

"That girl back there was Astrid. She… she's pretty amazing, bud. Strong, beautiful, determined, she's the best fighter of anyone our age, no doubt." Hiccup explained, "Do dragons fall in love, Toothless?"

The Night Fury warbled oddly.

"Is that a no?" Hiccup half-laughed, "Do you guys fall in love, or do you just mate for babies and then go your separate ways? In fact, how do dragons have babies? I mean, obviously you guys lay eggs, and we know how that…"

Toothless cocked his head again, eyes wide. Hiccup stopped himself. He was really talking about this. He'd had the birds and bees talk. He knew other animals did it too. It was just that in all the documented research there wasn't anything about dragon reproduction.

"Anyway, I… I love Astrid. At least I'm pretty sure I do. It hurts so much to keep this from her… to keep you from her. But how do you think she would react?" Hiccup went on, "This is pretty much the worst level of treason, and yet I still want to be honest with her so badly. There's a part of me that doesn't care what she would do to me if she knew the truth."

"We're engaged, you know that? We're expected to be married in a few years and… have kids, and all of… that. I thought she was going to kill me when she found out. She used to hate me. She might hate me again now. I probably deserve it."

Toothless warbled again and the dragon nudged him, offering the slightest compassionate lick. Hiccup flinched away from the licking and chuckled in that self-deprecating way, looking down at the tailfin in his hands. "Look at this, I'm talking to a dragon about my love life. How pitiful."

Hiccup reached out and stroked Toothless' snout, earning a happy croon from the dragon. Hiccup allowed a small smile to cross his face, and he tucked the prosthetic fin under his arm.

"Thanks, bud. Tomorrow, when I get here… we're gonna try this thing out."

Hiccup breathed in the salty sea air, the breeze singing in his ears and whipping the fabric of his clothes. Toothless hummed underneath him, calm yet elated to be truly in the air again. Hiccup glanced down at the saddle, where a small cheat sheet was clipped down so that he could remember the tailfin's positions.

"Okay, bud, what do you say? Ready to give this a shot?"

Toothless grunted in agreement.

"Okay, we'll take this nice and slow…" Hiccup said as he glanced down at the cheat sheet. The Isle of Berk sat hundreds of feet below them, tranquil and oblivious to the boy and dragon flying above them. "Let's go to position three—no, four."

Hiccup pushed back on the pedal, opening the tailfin as far as it would go. The fin slid open with a metallic click and Toothless turned his head to look back, eyeing the prosthetic and ensuring that it was working. Hiccup gently tugged Toothless to the left and the Night Fury turned, gliding along the wind and turning around to fly the other direction. Hiccup turned as far as he could to watch the tailfin, his breast bursting with pride as it stayed open and caught the wind correctly.

"Okay, okay, here we go, here we go…" Hiccup repeated to psych himself up. They'd be pushing their limits farther than ever before today. Hiccup took a deep breath and pushed on Toothless, steering the dragon into a diagonal dive.

"Come on, bud!" The wind picked up and howled as they sliced through it, Toothless intermittently beating his powerful wings to keep them airborne. Toothless and Hiccup wobbled as they approached the sea, the dragon dipping a wingtip in the surf and sending a brief spray of saltwater in its wake.

They quickly passed under an arch made of ancient weathered rock. Gulls flew around above them, paying no attention to the boy on the back of a dragon.

"Yes, it worked!" Hiccup muttered. He flinched as they started flying towards a small sea stack and Hiccup tugged on Toothless to turn. The move failed and Toothless smacked headfirst into the rock, roaring briefly and flapping away. "Sorry, bud!" Hiccup groaned. They started flying straight at another sea stack and crashed into that one as well, a sudden thump stopping all of their momentum.

Toothless growled as they flapped away and snapped his head sideways, slapping Hiccup across the face with his ear. Hiccup gasped at the slap and shook his head. "Yeah, yeah, I know, that one was on me. Let's get out of here… position four—no, three."

Hiccup changed the fin and Toothless quickly ascended, beating his wings more frequently now to give them more thrust. They went up, up, and up some more, eventually flying higher than Raven Point and continuing even further.

"Yeah! Go, baby!" Hiccup yelled, his voice hardly carrying against the wind, "This is amazing, Toothless! Yeah! Oh, the wind in my…"

The cheat sheet dislodged from the clip on Toothless' saddle.

"Cheat sheet! Wait-wait-wait, Toothless! Stop!" Hiccup stammered. Toothless obeyed and halted, not quite sure what the problem was, and the motion jerked Hiccup forward. His harness attaching him to Toothless became unbuckled and Hiccup flew up a few more feet, enough for Toothless to see him and realize with a sudden pang that they were both now in mortal peril.

Gravity took hold of both of them and boy and dragon began to fall rapidly. Toothless roared, spiraling without the slightest hint of control. This had never been a problem for him, he could fly… just not without Hiccup.

The boy reached out as far as he could, managing to snatch the slip of brown paper from the air and grip it tight before looking back to Toothless. "Toothless! Okay, bud, y-you gotta angle yourself! Try and come over here to—"

Toothless' huge tail slapped him across the face and knocked him back. The wind screamed in Hiccup's ears and he saw stars; they didn't have much time.

Toothless glided over to Hiccup this time, roaring impatiently. Hiccup reached and grabbed onto the saddle, pulling himself into place against all odds, and clamped the cheat sheet between his teeth as he tugged harder than ever on Toothless' neck to get the dragon to pull up. They fell along the side of Raven Point and down to the woods, and Toothless practically descended in a vertical position, wings extended as far as they could go to create drag. It ended up doing little to slow them down—they were moving too fast.

Hiccup saw the foggy sea stack maze and grabbed the cheat sheet, staring at it and trying to figure out the best position. They closed in on the maze and Hiccup realized that if he delayed any longer, they would certainly die.

"Here goes nothing, Toothless…!" Hiccup yelled, letting the cheat sheet fly away and relying on sheer instinct to get them through. He leaned down completely against the saddle and shifted the pedals to open Toothless' fin accordingly. With a jerking motion, they turned, avoiding a craggy pillar. Boy and dragon meshed together, moving as one and dodging obstacle after obstacle, even throwing in a few acrobatic flips.

When the maze ended and the fog parted, there was nothing but open sea in front of them. Hiccup released a breath he hadn't known he was holding and stood as well as he could, rear lifting off of the saddle and arms thrusting into the air.

"YEAH!"

Toothless, elated, fired a bolt of fire ahead of them, watching with amusement as the fireball exploded in midair and they approached it.

Hiccup paled. "Come on…"

They'd camped haphazardly atop a sea stack, watching the sunset and dining on fish. Hiccup's hair was disastrously tangled, and his face still felt warm from flying through the instance of fire that Toothless had delighted in so much. They were lucky that the fireball was a weak one and the tailfin didn't light up and burn.

Toothless grunted repeatedly and he regurgitated a half-eaten fish, glancing at Hiccup and nonverbally offering the meal to the skinny boy.

"Um… no thanks, I'm good." Hiccup said, stomach flipping at the memory of what he'd had to do to gain Toothless' trust that first day. The Night Fury snorted and eyed his hearty pile of fish until a meek screech split the air.

A pack of Terrible Terrors was swooping in from the sea. Toothless let loose a low growl and became protective of his fish, snarling as the Terrors came close.

"Aw, Toothless, c'mon." Hiccup teased. Toothless snorted in his direction. One sneaky Terror dove in and snatched a fish. The miniature dragon scampered away, ripping off a morsel once it was safely away from Toothless. Another Terror approached the stolen fish and tried to steal a bite, but the first Terror shot a small ball of fire to ward it off.

A second fish popped up from Toothless' pile, indicating another Terrible Terror. This time, Toothless retaliated and grabbed the fish, revealing the small dragon and easily winning a tug-of-war to reclaim and eat the stolen fish.

Toothless gave a deep, warbling laugh, mocking the Terror. The tiny dragon took offense and snarled, unfazed by Toothless' titanic-by-comparison size and readying a blast of fire.

As soon as the Terror opened its mouth, Toothless shot a miniature ball of fire, sending the blast straight through the small dragon's mouth and stunning it. The Terrible Terror's body briefly inflated, and smoke trailed from its nose and mouth as the small dragon smacked onto the ground. The Terror got up to walk away, stumbling and defeated.

"Well, not so fireproof on the inside, now are you?" Hiccup said. The Terror looked up at him and Hiccup grabbed a fish, ignoring Toothless' complaint as he tossed it to the small dragon. "Here you go, little guy."

The Terror squeaked and gobbled up the fish, smacking its lips happily as it gulped down the final bits. Squeaking with appreciation, the Terror ambled over to Hiccup's side, curling up against his hip and closing its eyes. The dragon breathed calmly and rapidly, and Hiccup reached down to stroke its scaly skin. The 'vicious beast' purred at the contact.

He'd been told his entire life that all dragons would gladly charge you with death in their eyes and the intent to kill hot on their breath. And yet here one was, happily accepting food and curling up beside him for a nap, not even slightly afraid of being butchered by the Viking boy beside it.

He couldn't hide the wonder in his voice even if he'd wanted to.

"Everything we know about you guys is wrong."

Tomorrow's chapter will focus on Astrid and how all of this secrecy is affecting her. And we'll be returning to deviating from the movie as well. I know this has been a bit of a slog, guys, but I hope you can all bear with me here. Things are going to change from here on out.