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Chapter 44

Going home.

High king Aske thumped his fingers on the wooden desk. He watched at the big door at the other end of the room. He had seen Hiccup walking away from the breakfast-table moments ago, so it shouldn't take long until he got back here.

Aske looked down in his lap at the "to-do-list" he had received for the day. Amongst those things was holding a speech, visit a new farm in the area, and wave Hiccup goodbye. He looked up again as the doors slid open on quiet hinges.

"Good morning Lord Hiccup, slept well I hope?" He said in a polite and cheering voice.

"Good morning my king, I've had an excellent night, once again thanks to your exquisite guest room." Hiccup answered in a tired and low voice, still trying to sound polite.

"Is there something troubling you Hiccup?"

Hiccup was just about to open his mouth to speak when Aske cut him off.

"Well, doesn't matter, your new task surely will cheer you up a little. I have decided, with the help of my lovely wife that you're going home."

Hiccup looked up from the ground and was about to shout in joy. He ran up to Aske and shook his hand with both of his. While sliming broadly and a noticeable cheer in his eyes.

"Thank you my king, this is just what I was hoping for. I mean no disrespect, I love your country and your people, but I have been missing home so much lately, thank you!" he shouted in cheer at the tall king.

"However…" Aske said and pulled his hand to himself and took a step back from the over-enteric Hiccup. Hiccup's face faded into a sinister look.

"You will have to return in two weeks after departure. And you will bring two of my people with you, to look over the village's progress in the machine of war. When you sail back I want you to bring a first troop of riders ready to fight." Aske said and nodded at Hiccup with a demanding glare in his eyes.

"Yes, my king. That will be arranged." Hiccup said and sighed quietly.

"How long will I be stationed here after that?" Hiccup asked in a shivering voice.

"I do not know that yet, friend. It's up to you in matter. But don't get hung up on such a thing now, I'll tell you your new quest when you return. Now, let me introduce your traveling-comrades."

Aske clapped his hands and the big doors behind Hiccup opened again. Two persons dressed in long cloaks appeared and walked straight forward, into the middle of the room where they stopped. Aske pointed his hand at one of them, dressed in a red cloak.

"My wife, Violet. She will accompany you to see how your warriors are doing. She is, after all, the best warrior alive…"

Hiccup chuckled a little at that compliment, he knew she was a fine warrior, though not the best… the best one was currently pregnant.

Aske moved his hand to point at the other one.

"You might recognize this one… she have been traveling all week to meet you."

The girl to Hiccup's right pulled off her hood and looked at him with big blue eyes.

"Hello Hiccup. How's Ast doing?" she said and smiled at him.

"A-Agnes!?" Hiccup stuttered and laughed. They ran towards each other and fell into a friendly embrace.

Agnes hadn't changed much since she left Berk. She was now about thirty years of age, but she still looked to be twenty. She had the same hair color as Astrid, and the same eyes too. She was taller though, and more slim and gracious. She had her hair spread out over her back like a waterfall and she was dressed in a long blue dress with golden rims and stitches, the dress was identical to the one Astrid had worn last winter, only a bit longer.

"Wow Hiccup, you've changed a lot, last time I saw you, you were like this high." she laughed and held her hand in the height of her chest.

"And you're a lot more handsome too, I see why Ast married you…" She said with a smirk and nudged him in the side.

Aske cleared his throat loudly to get everyone's attention back.

"So, you have quite a travel ahead of you, you know where the ships landed, it's almost a half days travel. You better be off now. I have arranged the ships to be filled with supplies, and the crew is waiting in the courtyard for you."

"Yes my king. Though, may I take one more person with me?"

"She's already waiting with the crew, she told me she wanted to follow you this morning. No idea how she knew you were leaving."

Hiccup smiled, that seemed like Sandra alright…

"Thank you my king, I'll be back in two weeks."

Aske nodded and clapped his hands again, the guards opened the doors and the group walked out. Hiccup ran up the stairs to his room and quickly packed his bags, he put the saddle onto Toothless and filled the saddlebags. He opened the window and the swooshed down from the high tower to the sound of cheers coming from the crew.

The two crews turned around and started walking towards the city gate. With Hiccup and his feminine friends atop of their mounts in tow.

**
People had gathered along the streets to wave the heroes and dragon rider farewell. They threw bundles of colorful herbs and autumn flowers at their feet.

Hiccup felt really strange of all the commotion while Sandra and Agnes looked as happy as they could be. Hiccup leaned over to Violet who had put on her usual face.

"My queen, why are they cheering? We haven't done anything great yet…" he whispered as quiet as he could and still being heard above the noise.

"My husband have made a big promise out of this mission, he have told the whole land that when we return we will wipe the land clean off any invaders. My people have suffered greatly from the invasion and any promise of freedom is a reason to cheer." She answered coldly in an equally low voice.

Hiccup straightened up in his saddle and swallowed, he now felt the burden settle down over his shoulders. These people had been promised that HE would free them? If the Highpeaks and the Trident hadn't managed while working together, how would Berk make any difference?

As the group came out of the city and onto the open fields that covered these parts of the land Hiccup looked at Violet again.

"My queen, may I take a flight?"

"You may. You don't have to ask for permission for such a thing. You're a great and notorious lord, you can do pretty much what you want…"

Hiccup looked awkwardly at her. And then at the group of men in front of them.

"Is there anyone who could managed to carry my packing for a short while?!" he shouted out to his black-clothed crew.

"I can!" A man shouted back, it was Carl, the first mate of the Nightwing.

Hiccup stopped and let Carl walk up to him, he untied the heavy bags from Toothless and swung them over his own broad shoulders.

"Thank you Carl." He said and nodded at the big man. He then looked over at Sandra who rode her brown horse.

"Miss Sandra, would you like to accompany me on a flight?"

Sandra stopped and looked at him in surprise. She quickly gathered herself and answered.

"Yes my lord Hiccup, I would love to."

She jumped down from her horse and gave the reins to a man from the Highpeak's crew. She ran over to Hiccup but stopped in front of Toothless and looked wondrous.

"Where am I supposed to sit?" She asked and frowned.

"Right here…" Hiccup said and patted a are in front of him on the saddle. He had already picked up and extra security strap from a pocket in the saddle and now held it between his hands.

"Is it really…okay?" she continued skeptically.

"As long as you don't hope for anything then yes…" he said and patted the area again.

Sandra flinched her shoulders and jumped up in the saddle. She wrapped the strap around her waist just like Hiccup told her to do and then she grabbed the rim of the saddle with both hands while Hiccup leaned over her back and grabbed the handles.

"Okay bud, up…gently." He said and patted the dragon.

Toothless growled low and braced himself. She shot away with a strong push from his hind legs and a swipe with the wings. Sandra screamed high as they shot up in the sky, she didn't stop screaming except for when she took a new breath. Hiccup let go of the handles with one of his hands and held it around her waist, in a try to calm her down. It worked, eventually. After a short while more Sandra stopped screaming and allowed herself to open her eyes. Toothless had now evened out and flew horizontal right under the grey clouds.

Hiccup let go of Sandra and sat up straight in the saddle. This reminded him an awful lot like his first flight with Astrid…

Sandra's eyes was wide in amaze, she too let go of the saddle and started to stroke her hands through the clouds.

Hiccup smiled at the view, he nudged Toothless in the sides with his knees and he slowly angled himself upwards. When Sandra felt the shift in his movements she quickly grabbed the saddle again and looked at Hiccup with a frightened look. Hiccup just smiled and nodded upwards. Right now they couldn't see much since they were in the middle of a thick layer of clouds, but soon the was above them, and instead of the murky weather it was down there it was sunny, cold and hard to breath.

"I-is it always sunny up here?" Sandra asked quietly as she turned her head around to savor the sight.

"It is, and as you may notice, it's also hard to breath."

"Why is that?"

"I think it's because we're too close to Alfheim, and the light elves don't need to breathe as we do. Therefor there is not as much air up here…" he said and shrugged.

"But I don't know…"

They flew in silence for a moment, until Hiccup could hear Sandra's breath increase, she started to take many short breathes and her hands started shaking a little.

Hiccup nudged Toothless and they slowly descended down through the clouds.

When Sandra's breathing was stabilized Hiccup pated her on the shoulder to get her attention.

"Would you like to fly him?" he asked and smiled.

"I don't know how to do…"

"It's easy, I'll teach you. Hiccup locked the tailfin into a gliding mode and released his peg-leg from the steering-mechanism. He crawled a little further back on Toothless back and gently grabbed Sandra's legs, he guided her feet to the pedal and secured them with a strap behind the heel. He took hold of her wrists and moved her hands to the handles.

"So, there are four main modes, gliding, which were currently in. then there's right turn, left turn and up and down. As you can feel now your foot is horizontal, that's gliding."

Hiccup walked on Toothless back and sat down in front of Sandra with his face towards her.

"Now try to push your heel down…"

Sandra carefully shifted her foot so that her toes pointed upwards and the fin broadened a little and made Toothless slowly turn upwards.

Sandra laughed at her success and looked at Hiccup with glittering eyes.

"Now, can you push your toes down until you hear a click…?"

Sandra did so and the fin slicked together along the tail-core, which made Toothless dive quite steep downwards. Sandra held a quiet scream in her throat that luckily enough never reached her lips. Hiccup noticed her fright and pressed down her foot even further with his own. The fin opened a bit more at the left side of the tail and Hiccup pushed himself a little to the side to make the turn a bit sharper.

"That's how you make a right-turn, toes down two clicks… push yourself inwards when you turn, to make it quicker. You will automatically gain height when turning, since the open tail generates lift. Now, how do you think you make a left-turn?"

"Heel back two clicks?" Sandra answered with a shattered voice.

"Yup."

Sandra pushed her heel back tilted her weight to the inner side of the turn. Toothless growled encouraging to her and let out his tongue to flap in the air. Sandra slowly let go with one hand and placed it behind one of his ear-laps.

"Thank you…" She whispered.

"Can you take him skywards? Right under the clouds…"

"I can try. Be with me if I do something wrong…"

"If you feel that you lose control of the situation just go back to gliding mode, it's the most stable of the four."

Sandra nodded and shifted her foot to make Toothless fly higher.

Hiccup watched the land underneath him to see a safe landing spot for later. Since the whole landscape was a single vast field there was far more difficult to find the opposite of a safe landing spot.

Sandra had now flown up to the level of the clouds and with a bit of insecurity put the fin in gliding mode.

"So my lord, what now?"

"Stop calling me 'My lord', I'm no one's lord!"

Hiccup smirked at her and released his security strap from the saddle.

"Catch me if I fall..." he said and glided to the side.

"HICCUP!" Sandra shouted in despair as she saw him fall right down from Toothless, he seemed to have fainted or something for he did not move as he fell, she pushed her heel back and to her anger and fright she started to fly upwards. She grunted and pushed her toes downwards and now Toothless growled playfully and started to glide down again. Sandra watched Hiccup fall, but suddenly he curled up into a ball and grabbed the two straps at the sides of his legs. He pulled them up towards his head and with them, two 'wings' followed. He evened out and now glided horizontal, he quickly punched something at his chest and a fin shot out from his back. When she finally understood what had happened she started laughing and put Toothless in a gliding mode at the same height as Hiccup. She watched him flying there, smiling broadly under his helmet. She started to laugh and cheer. Se reached her arms up and punched the sky in happiness.

"I Love This Hiccup!" She shouted in an excited voice.

He didn't answer but looked at her, he swung his body to the side and turned himself so he lay on his back. He looked up at her and nodded.

"Care to pick me up before we crash?!" he shouted over the wind.

Sandra put Toothless into the gliding mode and shuffled herself back in the saddle. Hiccup carefully angled himself in the air and slowly turned towards them. He grasped the handles and pulled himself into the saddle, he connected his leg with the steering-mechanism and made Toothless fly straight forward about ten yards over the few threes that was scattered across the fields. They flew over the group of comrades that by now had made good progress. They shot by only a few feet over their heads with the whistling sound following them that made both men and horses to panic.

They shot to the sky again in a speed that was completely unknown on this island. They looked like a black arrow shooting through the grey sky.

"Have you ever seen the white cliffs from a distance?" Hiccup asked and smiled at her.

"Of course not, this is the first time ever flying…"

Hiccup looked down onto the beach and saw the two ships laying anchored right at the shoreline.

"Well, that will have to wait…" he said and yawed Toothless towards the ground. They landed right in front of the ships and greeted the workers that was in the middle of packing them.

Another hour went past and now the crews joined them.

The sky had cleared under the day and was now almost cloud free. Hiccup stood in the bow of the ship with Toothless. He held his hand atop of the dragon's head and sighed calmly at the sight of the scarlet sun descending into the ocean.

Sandra and Agnes walked up to him and stood on each side of him.

"What're you thinking about Hiccup?" Sandra said calmly while gently grasping his arm.

"How good it will feel to get home…"

"You must miss her very much…" Agnes said and sat down on the gunwale beside him.

"I do, most of everything in life actually…"

"I do too, it was at least ten years since I saw her, almost as long since I heard from her." Agnes said in a low voice with a stain of sadness in it.

"She seems to be a nice girl, I too look forward to meet her." Sandra said and leaned closer to Hiccup.

(( Thanks for reading, pretty good chapter in my opinion. Stay tuned!))