Chapter 29

Clear skies, calm waters, cold with just a dash of warmth? Seemed like good flying ahead to me. I didn't foresee any problems, not as long as things stayed this way.

Now somebody please tell Toothless that.

Toothless hadn't been around to watch me learn flying from the king, and in his mind, my flying skills were still very raw. It was for that reason, or just because he had missed me so much, that he didn't want me to fly. At all. Even though I was flying with perfect technique that would have made other dragons jealous. Nope. No flying for Hiccup.

He kept drifting above me, and then quickly diving and trying to grab me in his claws. Each time, I narrowly avoided him; I would hear wind whistling past his body and swerve out of the way. Thankfully, Toothless still hadn't figured out how I knew he was coming after me. If he did, then there would be trouble. Astrid, despite her best efforts, wasn't doing a very good job at dissuading Toothless, either.

"Toothless!" I flipped upside down, exposing my belly as Toothless retreated after yet another failed dragon-napping. "I'm fine. Knock it off!"

His big green eyes gleamed. Yep, he wasn't thinking of stopping anytime soon.

Groaning, I focused on the distant horizon. If I was going to spend my entire journey dodging Toothless, then this was going to be a long trip.

The wind whistled. I swerved again. As I did, my gaze passed over the rolling waters. We were just about to pass over an island, and as I watched birds rise from between the trees, an idea struck me.

"Oh, Toothless . . . If you want to catch me, you better keep up!"

With a wild shout, I folded my wings and dove.

It took barely a second for Toothless to copy me. Barely an arm's length away, he barked authoritatively. My guess is that he wanted me to stop, but that was not an option. I aimed for a gap in the treetops, large enough for Toothless to also fit, and my wake rustled the leaves on their branches. I pulled up, changing directions quickly and racing deeper into the forest. Toothless needed more time to stop his dive.

It wasn't quite the same as flying in the Nest had been. There wasn't a flock of dragons flying about to create air currents, and what ones naturally existed were broken into pieces by trees. It fell to my eyes then, but my body was ready. Adrenaline made the world pass by slower, giving my brain the time it needed to plot out my course. My tailfin did what it wanted, opening and closing as needed, while my wings sought out and moulded around those dips and rises in the air. Even my tendrils got in on the action. They felt around, judging when I passed too close to something, so that next time I knew not to turn so far.

Behind me, Toothless, with his wider body, wasn't quite as agile. I knew without looking that he was leaving a trail of destruction. It probably didn't bother him much, thanks to those scales, but his passengers . . .

"Ow! Toothless!"

"Ouch!"

"Watch out -!"

I sucked in a breath. "Sorry, guys."

I wound my way around a tree trunk, so close to the bark that I could smelt the sap underneath. Toothless slammed into it, digging his claws in, and on my second time around the trunk, I passed just over him as well. That was all the encouragement he needed.

We raced each other through the woods until we hit shore. Panting, I landed and waited for Toothless, who was breathing heavily himself. Otherwise, he looked fine. The same couldn't be said for Astrid and Snotlout, who were busy trying to clean dirt and leaves out of their hair (Snotlout was gagging; I think he swallowed a bug). Toothless sat next to me, entwining our tails together.

I looked up at him and drawled, "Now do you believe I can fly?"

He wasn't trying to lift me up and drop me on his back, so I think he did.

So, just to really bug him, I chose that very moment to catch a ride.

I made myself comfortable in Astrid's lap. My tail automatically curved to fit the contour of her legs. I looked up at her. Reached up and said, "Uh, Astrid, you got a little something there."

Curling my paw downwards so my claws didn't scratch her, I tried to rub the dirt off her chin. I had to go on my hind legs to get enough pressure, but I got it. She touched the spot afterwards, as if afraid the contact had made her sprout scales herself.

"Much better!" I said with a smile. I choose to ignore the assorted bits of debris she still hadn't quite gotten rid of.

Behind us, Snotlout pitched sideways. A big glob of spit splashed to the ground.

"Ugh, gross," he said, wiping his mouth with a shiver. "Never want to go through that again."

All Astrid said was, "I warned you that you would catch flies if you didn't keep your mouth shut."

She dug her heels in and patted Toothless's head, telling him it was okay to continue home. He took off. Without me to chase around, his flight was a lot smoother, and he quickly reached a speed he hadn't achieved following me. I drank it all in. I nestled down past against Toothless, kneading his skin hard enough that there were shallow indentation around my paws. My tail came around, and my tailfin opened and draped itself over my snout, as if trying to block the outside so that all I could smell was him. I had missed this – him, flying – I really did. If one good thing had come out of that ordeal with the dragon trappers, it was that I had a new appreciation for the freedom of flight. I was going to memorize every sensation.

I sniffed again. I already knew Toothless's natural scent by heart, but it had changed. I could smell his body's stress. A decrease in fish-stink told me that he hadn't been eating as much as he should. The ebb and sway of his body wasn't as fluid as it normally was either. It was stiffer, probably due to tired muscles. He must have run himself ragged looking for me. At least, now that he had found me, he could probably find some time to rest.

Astrid's fingers found the spot where my head and neck connected. They tickled me gently, and I purred.

"I'm glad you're okay," she said.

I looked back at her. "We never did have our heartfelt reunion, did we?"

Well, that could be solved right now. Hiccup Horrendous Haddock, Romantic Extraordinaire was on the job! My go-to plan wasn't really an option, since I didn't have any flowers or knick-knacks on hand. Time for Plan B, then: cute baby dragon face.

I knew it was working, because she was trying really hard not to look at me. Every few seconds though, she couldn't resist sneaking a peek. Every time she did, I made my eyes a little wider, moved a little closer. Until we were practically chest to chest, and she had leaned back out of reflex.

"Okay, Hiccup. What do you want?"

"Just spending time with my most favourite person in the world." I snuggled against her, still doing my best to maintain that adorable face.

She laughed delicately. "Hiccup, you know that doesn't work on me. I've seen it too many times on Toothless."

Ah, but I wasn't trying to manipulate her, so that part didn't matter. I crawled up her body, until I was standing on my back legs with my snout touching her chin. I stared at the skin there, thinking, struggling with my own pride.

Tentatively, I braced myself, and licked.

I had no idea what to expect, so her reaction took me completely by surprise. Astrid was used to dragon-kisses, but she was not the least bit used to dragon-who-is-actually-a-human-kisses. She lurched backwards, slamming into Snotlout who squawked indignantly. Her fingers flew to her chin, tapping the spot, searching for the source of whatever had touched her. Going by her glassy, straight-ahead stare, this hadn't been one of my better decisions.

Finally, she looked down. "Hiccup, was that you? Did you lick me?"

If I was still capable of blushing, then Snotlout's exclamation would have turned my face bright red. With a cringe, I nodded. The heat of my embarrassment made me long for the ability to sweat.

She was silent for a bit, seemingly oblivious to Snotlout's stream of questions. Then, she cupped my cheeks with both hands, leaned down, and as my heart pounded, kissed me.

It was on the tip of my snout, or the equivalent of my human nose. I tried not to think too much of it, seeing that my current form lacked a wide choice of kissable areas. Still, a kiss on the nose was not a normal something me and Astrid engaged in regularly. We went more for the cheeks. That was our little way of communicating with each other.

I rubbed my snout. Seeing that, Astrid said, "What? Were you expecting to lick you back?"

Before I could come up with an unintelligible, but witty, response, Snotlout groaned. "Can't you two wait until we're not stuck on a dragon together before you start making out?"

Astrid snapped, "Well, excuse me if I had been worried when he was kidnapped! I think we're entitled to be happy about finding each other again."

Just to drive her point home, she picked me up and clutched me to her chest. One arm was around my abdomen, supporting my lower body. The other was around my chest, squeezing me tight, like a child with a toy. I didn't mind that much.

I breathed in through my mouth, and tasted her scent. Like Toothless, her scent was stressed. Not the same kind of stress though. Toothless's scent had been thicker and held a lot of extra heat, the products of physical stress. Not to say Toothless hadn't smelt of emotional stress, but it was all emotional stress with Astrid and much more noticeable with her. I'm sure she wasn't frightened and worried now, but she had been for such a long time that I was still detecting echoes of it in her scent. It lurked underneath her natural, sweet scent, like a shark hiding underneath the ocean's surface.

I nuzzled her neck, fighting back the urge to lick her again. She held me tighter, and stroked my back. It was like an owner and pet, but I'd take what I could get.

Toothless twitched. At first, I thought the bugger was being jealous again. Then, he twitched again. Violently. Astrid shouted in surprise, and the hard bone of her arm dug into my flesh. Toothless shook his head, tendrils splayed oddly as he tilted to the side, almost like a strong wind was forcing him to roll over. But I didn't feel anything.

"Toothless?" Astrid said.

With a snort, Toothless beat his wings hard, forcing us away from the direction he had tilted towards. He levelled out after, wings spread for a steady glide.

I blinked suddenly. Only now did I realize that a small pressure, one that I hadn't even noticed before, had been lifted from my mind.

Things seemed okay. Toothless seemed okay. His tendrils lay flat against his cheeks again, even as his ears lifted, listening for something. Maybe it had been a pocket of rough air. I considered that, until Toothless glanced to the side, and growled.

"What's with him?" Snotlout asked.

"I'm not sure." Biting her lip, Astrid reached into her vest, pulling out a spyglass. I dropped onto her lap as she looked into the distance.

"I see a few ships," she finally said. "They don't look Viking-made. I'm not sure why they would set him off. Other than that, there's a couple of islands."

Weird. Whatever it was, though, it didn't seem to be bothering Toothless anymore.

We must have flown for at least a couple of hours before finding an island to settle on. Toothless stretched his wings after we got off, and then curled up on rock in the sunlight. Astrid was quick to ask – well, order – Snotlout to gather wood. Which he did after trying no less than two times to talk her into doing it instead.

With me watching, Astrid shuffled through her meagre belongings before admitting, "I should have stocked up on food while we were with your mother. We don't have much left, especially for four of us."

Sniffing, I verified that. "So, what's the plan."

She unclipped her axe from her belt, and swung it up. "I want Toothless to get some rest, so looks like we're going hunting."

I perched on her shoulder like a hunting bird as she picked her way through the forest. A minute passed of her pushing aside branches before I had an absolutely brilliant idea. Tapping my snout with one paw, I poked Astrid and hissed her name.

She stared at me. Squinted. After a few seconds, she caught on. "You can smell prey!"

I nodded and from there on, led the way.

A good ten minutes or so passed before I found anything worth catching. You could guess the size of a scent-source by the amount of space the main body of scent took up. This one wasn't particularly big, but big enough that someone other than me might get a few mouthfuls, unlike the many mice I had detected earlier. I led Astrid towards it, trading my trot for a quieter approach. Hopefully, she would pick up on that.

I stopped. This entire time, my mind had instinctively been using smell to map out the surrounding area. Now this map was telling me that my prey was close, very close. And still . . . there! I saw it. Watching us. Ready to flee the second Astrid moved.

I saw it stir. My dragon instincts told me it was about to run, and in that crucial second, I made a quick choice.

Screek!

Astrid stared at the smoking mass. "Well, that makes things easier."

Hunting actually went very well. I flew over the forest, found a glade, and we travelled there. Then, I had a fun game of spying prey from above, and flaming them, upon which Astrid would rush over to collect the spoils – and put out the little fires I had created. We got about five rabbits before the rest refused to come out of their burrows again.

"Clearly, I was worried for nothing," Astrid said, a spring in her step. "Didn't need to borrow food from your mother after all."

I grunted, trying hard not to linger on that last sentence.

" . . . It must have been a shock," Astrid said. "I really thought she was . . . you know. Stoick always talked about her like she was."

Because he honestly thought that, just like I had. Astrid didn't know that, of course. And I wasn't sure I wanted to tell her. It was bad enough that Snotlout knew. Yet at the same time, I really wanted to tell her.

"Your dad will be happy to know where she is. We are going to tell him, right?"

I swallowed. It was a question that had haunted my mind, despite my best efforts. I nodded without looking at her. He deserved to know. He deserved to know, just as I had . . .

"Hiccup, are you okay?"

Was I?

"She was happy to see you, wasn't she? She acted like she was . . . did I miss something? There's no way she's that good of an actor."

"You didn't miss anything," I said hollowly. "She was happy to see me. And explaining further is useless since you can't understand me."

"I'm sorry I brought her up."

I patted her neck. "It's fine. You didn't know."

We returned to Snotlout and Toothless. Snotlout had enough wood by now, and was bent over, desperately trying to coax a fire into being. I rolled my eyes and flamed the pile.

"Amateur," I huffed good-naturedly.

We dined. We rested. We cuddled – not with Snotlout. Soon, the day was fading and although we needed to get back quickly, I didn't want to interrupt what was probably Toothless's first good sleep for a while. So, wordlessly, the rest of us agreed to make camp. Astrid and Snotlout actually stopped arguing long enough to build a small lean-to. It would provide protection from the elements, but not much else.

They crawled inside, positioning themselves at the very edges of the shelter to fruitlessly avoid touching each other. I hopped inside, and Astrid pulled me in.

"You're the closest you're going to get to a blanket," she mumbled.

Only a few minutes passed before the not-quite sleeping Toothless wandered over. He stuck his head inside, and sniffed.

"I'm over here," I sighed.

Toothless tried to force his way inside with the intent of removing me, but paused when my teeth clacked together.

"No, Toothless," I said. "I'm keeping Astrid company."

Toothless grumbled. Eventually, he simply collapsed, and laid his chin across Snotlout's and Astrid's legs. They mumbled and squirmed, but Toothless was the only real source of heat around here, so I don't think they really minded.

Either way, at least their feet would be warm.


Review Responses:

Noctus Fury: There you go! Almost a whole chapter of Astrid and Hiccup chilling together. :)

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Jazz: Sounds like we had a miscommunication in tone. I wasn't at all angry or anything.

Well technically I've wrote a few drabbles about KH: Days ;p

The jumping would best be described as a happy dance for Toothless. Some parrots are known to greet humans they like with a dance (usually derived from their mating dance), and the idea was based off that.

I don't think anyone blames her for not wanting Hiccup to go. Despite everything, she does love him, and when you get hit with a bombshell like that, then it's natural to be like, "Everyone HOLD ON A SECOND!"

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a random person: Well, the Stoick-Valka situation will have to be dealt with...

Snowflake: An accurate representation of Toothless's mind!