Arden's POV

I took my time cleaning my hands and almost ten minutes later we were ready, Toothless stood at the edge of the cliff stretching out his wings while Sarah checked his tail. I stared out at the tops of the trees, it was therapeutic to look across the thick branches and see the sky in the distance.

"Alright, we're all good, let's go, I want to try and do this right. You'll have to try next though, there can't be only one flyer." I went to argue, opening my mouth as I made my way to his saddle, only to close it. I didn't have any excuse to use. And the more I thought about it the more it made sense. What if she was injured and needed rescuing? I couldn't let her down.

Climbing on I wrapped my arms around her waist and held tight, my cheeks reddening at being so close. I was glad she couldn't see me or I'd turn into a tomato.

I could feel Toothless preparing to take off, a little sluggishly, he had just woken up. He leapt into the air, his wings expanding and gliding for the first few seconds before he took one powerful flap of them and rose high into the sky, above the cloud cover.

We flew around for almost half an hour, Sarah testing his tail as much as she could without giving me a heart attack in the process. We had travelled out onto the sea to practice diving away from the watchful eyes of the hunters.

Large rocks sculptures naturally scattered the area, forming the best training course in her opinion. I spent the majority of the first trip around clinging onto her and screaming internally. I wasn't able to look around until the third trip. And by that time she'd gotten fairly good, she looked pleased with herself. She landed him on a rock sculpture in the middle of the water, the arc like stone more than big enough for us to swap places but a twinge of fear balled itself in my stomach.

I stood on the stone, arms stretched out wide to stay on my feet. The wind wasn't very strong, but it was just enough to give an unstable feeling. My eyes were firmly fixed at eye level, never dipping down to glance at my feet or anything in that direction. My heart still pounded intensely in my ears, drumming against the inside of my skull and paining me.

I made my way towards the front of the saddle, moving my feet a few millimetres forwards at a time. I could feel her annoyance burning into the back of my head but at the same time she didn't rush me. Seeming to understand that I needed my time, I was still getting over my fear after all.

Climbing onto his back I held on tightly, feeling the saddle shift slightly as she got on behind, my heart speeding up as she wrapped her arms around my waist.

"Are we going?" She asked after what must have been a long silence.

"Uh, uh, uh yeah, um, let's go." I fumbled, my words falling from my lips half formed making me sound idiotic. She laughed, the sound of her voice picking me up a few good notches, even if I did have the mother of all blushes on my face.

He took off, flapping his wings strongly a few times before levelling out. I wasn't sure if it were just me but he seemed to be going slower the small islands and rocks below us passing under our dangling feet at a snail's pace. I couldn't hide my relief at that, knowing that Toothless understood and wasn't racing ahead like he would with Sarah. It was almost pleasant like this, the wind barely brushing against me as I took my time to find the right angle for the tail to fall into to fly straight.

I had watched how Sarah had done in numerous times, how even the slightest change could alter the position massively and potentially lead to our death. I glanced back and forth between the tail and the peddle quickly, not looking forwards, the expansion of blue sky and water not appealing as much as ensuring I don't make us plummet to our deaths.

Clicking it into a new position the tail altered and we veered to the right. His body seeming to freeze as he took a wide turn. Panic welled up in me at that, my immediate thought being that I'd hurt him or something along similar lines. I returned it to the other position once we were fifty or so degrees to the right, and thankfully he moved from his rigid position.

Taking in large gulps of breath I could feel a hand on my chest sooth me. It was relaxing, reassuring and I couldn't thank her enough for it. Forcing even more calmness through me I slouched, relaxing against her. Though it was fairly obvious I was as rigid as a nail, this one just happened to be bent too.

"Don't get too calm. You need to stay focused." She chastised softly, I could feel a small smile work onto my lips. I'm not sure why but it made me happy to hear her worry about me. Though it could just be because she doesn't want to die because of me.

Sitting up a little straighter I sent Toothless down, closer to the water, my heart speeding up rapidly as we dipped. Every fibre of my being screaming at me to stop. And I did, just as his toes grazed the water's surface I levelled us out and allowed him to glide slowly across the top. He would dip his toes in subtly spraying us with the lightest sprits of water.

I could hear a quiet laughter from behind and glanced back quickly to see what was wrong. She shook her head, nothing, and continued to chuckle to herself happily.

"Sorry, I'm not laughing at you. I'm just so relieved, I could just see us going underwater and not coming up." She spoke into my ear, her chin resting against my shoulder and her hands tightening around me. I would have nodded in acknowledgement but I was much more focused on not accidently head-butting her.

My feet were shaking in the stirrups as what I had just done hit me like a ton of bricks. I had been practically daring. Brave or stupid? Both seemed like logical answers.

"Bet you can't go upside down." I know she's taunting me, pushing me to do something she knows I can't do. But for some reason I'm feeling cocky enough to give it a go.

Despite feeling the regret bubble in my stomach at an alarming rate I clicked his tail down, forcing him to follow and sending us feet up. Even though I caused it I still found myself screaming in shock and terror, a large part of me being convinced that it wouldn't work and we'd stay the right way up.

Silencing myself I clutched onto Toothless like a koala, hating myself and my idiotic confidence. Which of course left me the second I committed to this. Had I had the courage I'd have turned and yelled at Sarah for managing to make me do it. But if I was honest it was bravado that tipped me over the edge. Bailing out quickly I flipped us back the right way up, blood rushing from my brain back to every other cell in my body and giving me intense pins and needles. I felt sick, the taste of bile worming its way into my throat and making me curse myself all the more.

"Why did I do that?" I asked myself, hating every part of my being for allowing myself to be so easily led.

"I don't know. I almost fell off though. I didn't think you'd actually do it, I was just teasing you." She giggled into my back, her arms tight around my waist and her head rested on my shoulder. "I'm proud enough that you've gotten onto him in the first place." I could feel a blush worm its way onto my face at her words.

"You could have said that before I made an idiot of myself."

"Well, you did deafen me with your pterodactyl scream." She giggled softly to herself at that, my face burning in embarrassment.

"Shut up." I turned him around, heading back towards the cave, hoping that I didn't get any more idiotic ideas that could lead to me needing to change my trousers. The very thought of something like that happening with Sarah around causing me to blush profusely.

I landed us with minor difficulty, but considering what had happened a little shakiness was understandable. Sliding off of him I patted his head and I could almost swear he shook his head at me. Probably as surprised as Sarah was at what I'd done.

Pushing that memory to the very back of my mind I turned to her, opening my mouth to speak but before a sound left my lips my stomach rumbled loudly, embarrassing me further.

"Should we head back then? Get something warm from the shops?" She offered, the idea of warm food very appealing to me. Almost as if to remind us of his presence Toothless' stomach grumbled too. "Yes, yes Toothless I know, we'll fetch you some too."

"Hey Sarah," I interrupted, grasping onto her arm as a thought ran through my head. "Why don't we just take him to catch the fish from here? I mean, we are by the sea. We could have done that. While you're taking him I'll fetch us something warm." I could see that she hadn't thought of that and beamed with pride at her subtle head nod.

"That sounds ok. Don't forget where to come to. Off you go. You've got a long way to walk." I raised my brow when I saw her sit on the edge of the cliff after shooing me off. "I'm not taken him off yet, he hasn't even rested yet." Nodding I began to leave, already wondering what I could buy her, so caught in my mind I didn't think to just ask.

Sorry it's so short. I've been really busy studying for exams at school. Please read review.