Chapter 6 - What's a Story Without a Little Montage
Helga found the next few days very amusing, she did not need to see to know the limited success Hiccup had been having with getting Toothless airborne longer, without either of them ending up in the pond as they usually did. The first time he fell off the saddle was one of the funniest things she had ever heard as the pair of them plummeted to the ground. Should she have been more worried about their safety? Probably, but she found it too funny not to laugh instead, the noises just did it for her. He eventually tried using a hook and loop to tether himself to the saddle so that at least they'd fall together, making it easier to get back on top of things. They ended up crashing in a patch of grass that apparently had Toothless rolling around like a dog.
Sure enough, he had tried that trick later on in the ring, using the grass, he had dubbed 'dragon nip,' to placate the dragon, so that Gronckle had not known what hit it. Helga and her brother were currently on their way across the bridge away from the arena, mostly content to revel in his defeat of yet another dragon without having to do much. She was about ready to disrupt the silence when the other teens came running up to them, surrounding them as they tried to walk. "That was incredible," Snotlout all but shouts in their ears, "I've never seen a Gronckle do that."
All the noise and the surrounding presence was making Helga feel mildly suffocated, losing her sense of where she was and what was going on. Hiccup, not liking the attention and feeling her tremors, quickly makes an excuse to turn around, "I left my axe back in the ring. You guys go on ahead," he pulls her to the right quickly, and she realises by the sound that Astrid makes that he had stopped her from running into the other girl, "I'll catch up with you."
They run back towards the arena, and panting, they finally stop. "Are you okay?" he asks her after they take a moment to catch their breath, "You got a little tense."
"I'll be alright," she reassures him, "I heard them coming, but wasn't prepared for them to suddenly surround us like that, all trying to speak at once. It was disorientating."
"Alright then, you ready to head back to the Cove then?"
"Am I ever."
Apparently, dragons liked being scratched just as much as dogs do, because Hiccup had Toothless basically at his mercy just by scratching him and the Nadder as well later in the day during training. However, it continued to draw attention they honestly did not want as they were always bombarded by both the other teens and the adults wherever they went, they could no longer enjoy dinner in peace. With Hiccup's successes in the ring, they were no longer just the Chief's twin children, usually being ignored wherever they go, now they were getting too much attention and honestly, neither of them really appreciated it. Neither did Astrid based on the frustrated noises Helga usually heard her making.
Being back at the Cove with Toothless was now their only escape from the crazy that was going on in the village. Hiccup usually used those chances to learn something new about dragons and ways to stop them without hurting them. Today, he was planning on using one of those methods. He and the other teens were gathered around in the arena, as they usually were, ready to meet a new dragon. They had their shields at the ready, "Meet the Terrible Terror," Gobber calls as he opens a very small opening in the door.
They stare for a short while, but Tuffnut is the first to speak, "It's like the size of my…"
No one was able to hear what he was going to compare the dragon's size to before the small dragon had clamped its teeth down on Tuffnut's nose. The others went running, but while Tuffnut was shouting for someone to get it off, Hiccup took the opportunity to use his new trick. Using his shield, and catching the light, he gets the attention of the dragon with a little dot of sun on its face. Tuffnut runs off shouting, "Oh I'm hurt, I'm very much hurt!"
Hiccup barely paid attention to what the others were doing as he used the light to draw the dragon back towards the door to its cage. He did hear Tuffnut's next words, "Wow! He's better than you ever were."
He had no doubt been talking to Astrid, but Hiccup tried not to focus on how mad that sentence is probably making her as the dragon finally returned to its cage. After a quick escape, he grabbed his sister and made his way back to the Cove to see Toothless.
They had gone straight to the forge to pick up all his equipment before making their into the forest. Needing both hands to carry everything, Helga was holding onto her brother's arm instead of his hand as they walked. "This time, we definitely have it, how much longer could it possibly take?"
Knowing her brother was only talking to himself, she shakes her head with a small smile as she follows him along. However, the further along they get, the more she can hear something in the distance. It sounded like shouting and thumping. Was a fight going on? No, she could now tell the thumping was an axe hitting a tree and the shouting was whoever was wielding it, "Hey Hiccup, I don't think we want to keep going in this…oof."
She had not been able to finish before her brother had unexpectedly stopped, her crashing into him. She would have spoken up but then she heard the shouting very near, and even getting closer before it suddenly cut off. She now realised it must have been Astrid based on the shout and the way everyone seemed to freeze. Her brother quickly tugged her along without a word, and they hid behind a large rock, hoping Astrid would go away. When it became clear she was not going to follow them further, they sighed a breath of relief and continued on, "Well that was close," Hiccup says.
"No kidding, I know for a fact she'd give anything to find out what we're doing out here."
"Oh yeah."
They had then gone to Toothless, putting on all the new parts of the apparatus to make him fly, before the three of them made their way to a cliff side with a nice up-draft. Helga had settled herself against a tree nearby, listening as Hiccup tied Toothless to a tree stump to test out the different tail positions. This went on for a short while before she heard the wind pick up. She was going to warn them, truly she was, but she ended up laughing instead as the wind picked up under Toothless' wings, snapping the line and sending both dragon and boy for a tumble. "Oh, great," she heard her brother mutter.
She stopped laughing, because it seemed something had happened, "What's the matter?"
"The hook bent and now I'm stuck to the saddle," he answers, and she can then make out the sound of the two metal pieces jiggling as he tried to get free. "We're going to have to sneak into the village, I need the tools at the forge."
"Oh, well that doesn't sound very safe," she says as she walks over to where she can hear his voice coming from.
"Well no, but we don't have much of a choice," he grumbles, "Well come closer so I can help you up."
"What?" she asks, not believing what she was hearing, "You want me to get on his back with you?"
"Well yes, I'm not leaving you out here, it's almost night time and by the time we get into the village, it will be."
She tries to think of an argument, but in the end concedes, reaching out her hand towards him. She feels as he grabs her around the wrist, pulling her up on the saddle behind him. No longer having any idea of where the ground is from her current position, she wraps her arms around Hiccup, not willing to let go at all.
Hiccup had eventually gotten off Toothless' back, but Helga had stayed up there. He was leading Toothless through the village, as stealthily as he could, not wanting anyone to catch them. He led the dragon over and into the forge, keeping an eye out for anyone else. He noticed the concentrated look on his sister's face, she was probably trying to listen out for anyone. Hiccup started looking around for something to use, Toothless picking up a bucket and throwing it away.
He was in the middle of trying to pry it apart when it happened, "Hiccup? Are you in there?"
Both he and Helga gasped, it was Astrid. Thinking quickly, he grabbed his apron to cover his harness, and throwing it on, he jumped out the window, closing it back up as soon as possible. He did not need Astrid seeing his sister casually sitting on the back of a dragon. "Astrid, hey. Hi, Astrid. Hi, Astrid. Hi, Astrid."
"I normally don't care what people do, but you and Helga are acting weird," it was at this moment that he was tugged back by the tether, "well, weirder."
He was then being lifted up into the air, and he could only wonder what in the name of Odin Toothless was doing, but he was then pulled back into the shop, the window closing behind him. Without time to do otherwise, he jumps up behind Helga, reaching around her to the saddle in order to steer Toothless out of there before Astrid looked in. They quickly ran away and he took a quick glimpse back to see that she had not spotted them. They fly off and manage to escape.
Thank Thor.
The next day found Helga sitting back on the same cliff as yesterday, only this time, Hiccup and Toothless were somewhere in the sky. He had decided to finally see how well they could do in the air. Although, it meant she would have to stay behind, he did not want to risk her falling off and getting hurt. She honestly did not mind, she was in no way ready to be flying on the back of a dragon when her brother had yet to even figure out what he was even doing. So she decided to spend the time thinking and listening.
She had never had a reason to be out this far from the village, before the accident, she was too little, and after the accident, well, it is kind of obvious on that one. She did not know what any of it looked like, but she could imagine. The sound of the wind told her that although there were trees nearby, she was in a wide clearing, the wind rustling the grass around her. She could hear the waves crashing on the bottom of the cliff, far enough away for her to realise it was a long way down. She could smell the ocean and the clean air. It was peaceful here and if she had any way of getting here herself, she would have planned to come here more often.
Alas, without any help, she would never be able to get here on her own. While the village was safe for her to wander around in, anything passed the bridge to Raven's Point was too dangerous. She might trip, fall in a whole, run into a wild boar, and quite possibly fall off a cliff. None of those options sounded pleasant. Unfortunately, all of her safe places were near the village, so it was hard to ever find a place such as this, where the only sounds and smells were the ones nature provided.
She was pulled from her thoughts when she heard what sounded like a shout of excitement coming from below the cliff line. She hoped it meant that her brother had finally figured out what he was doing. Though the next sound, which could be nothing short of a Night Fury blast, was a little disturbing to hear. A few minutes later, she could hear the beat of a dragon's wings as it drew closer. They must be done. She waited for them to land before she stood, "Oh Helga, it was absolutely amazing, quickly get on, I want to take you somewhere while I tell you about it."
Another unexpected ride on the back of a dragon, but it sounded like this time, there was going to be a lot more flying involved. "Um," she starts carefully, "I'm not so sure that would be such a good idea."
"Come on," he prompts jovially, "It's fine, I have it all figured out."
Realising he was not going to back down, she reached her hand towards him and felt as he did the same thing as the previous day; grab her by the wrist and hoist her on behind him. He waited until she was secure, her arms locked around his waist, before he had Toothless back in the air. She tried really hard not to scream as she felt the wind push along her face in a way she was not used to. Before long, she had no way to even know which way was up and which way was down, the only thing she knew for certain was that one fall would no doubt end her existence.
In fear, she ended up squeezing her brother tighter, not wanting to fall. As nice as the wind in her hair was, her complete lack of any sense of direction felt scarier to her than when she was told she would never see again. Flying messed with all of her senses, without her sight, it was a frightening experience. She felt Hiccup reach for her hands with one of his own, "Helga, I know this is probably as scary for you as it is awesome for me, but trust me, we won't be in the air long."
Not being able to find her voice, she simply nods her head from where it was pressed to his back, hoping he would understand. His silence told her he did.
"In the end, I just let the cheat sheet go and did what I had to do, I already knew what all the positions were, the sheet was just a crutch I didn't need," Hiccup recounts with excitement. "And of course, we did it, we got through those stacks and…"
The reason he had trailed off was because he had turned his head to face Helga, only to find her curled up against Toothless' flank next to him, fast asleep. "Well then bud, I guess it's just you and me for dinner."
Toothless must have taken that as an invitation, because he started hacking and before long, regurgitated a fish head. He looked at Hiccup expectantly, "Uh…no thanks, I'm good."
As if to make a point, he shows Toothless the fish he had on a stick, hovering it above the fire he had made. Only a few minutes later, he sees as a small flock of Terrible Terrors fly over. He was not sure what to make of it, but Toothless was not impressed as he put his front leg around his pile of fish, protecting it from the smaller dragons. When a couple tried getting close, he snapped at them, but then watched as one made off with the fish head he had wanted to give Hiccup. It then began fighting with another one over it as Toothless' eyes were then drawn to one of his fish moving out of the pile.
He quickly bit down on it, playing a very unfair game of tug-o-war with the little dragon. Toothless won of course, being the bigger and stronger dragon, he swallowed the fish and then started laughing at the Terror. The smaller guy was ready to fire at Toothless, but as soon as it opened its mouth, Toothless spat a small blast into its mouth, causing it to have a mini explosion inside. "Huh," Hiccup utters, "Not so fireproof on the inside, are you? Here you go."
He threw the dragon a fish, and it looked super excited as it swallowed the fish whole. Hiccup sat back down to lean against Toothless, with a quick glance to see that the incident had not awoken his twin, before he turned back to face the Terror. It had started creeping its way closer to him, but then it cautiously lifted his arm to lay down under it. It was literally purring as he pet it. "Everything we know about you guys is wrong."
This gave him much food for thought, after all these years being told that dragons were mindless beasts that would sooner kill you than leave you alone, Hiccup finally saw dragons for what they were. Now the only thing he could think about was what he was going to do now.
A/N: and we're getting to the the big moment, the end is in sight
So this entire chapter was basically the back and forth montage of Hiccup learning things from Toothless and then using it in the ring before they have their epic first flight. I just added things here and there to give it some substance and to, of course, find ways to throw Helga into the mix. She may not be the main protagonist, but she is the reason I'm writing this fic, so there's that.
As for my faithful reviewer, Luna Nightrider, thank you again. I think the fact that the plot of the story is not my own makes it easier to dish out a chapter a day, though on days when I work, I'm not able to do that, by the time I get home, typing (and thinking) is the last thing I want to do haha. And yes! I saw that you already have written a Hiccup has a twin sister fic, I haven't read it yet, but I have the tab open ready to do so.
As for a love story for Helga, I have thought about it. I want to, but still thinking about the how. And honestly yes, I did think about Fishlegs, but at the same time, when I'm re-telling a story, I tend to stick to canon as much as possible. So considering he has a love line with Heather during the show and then ends up with Ruffnut, it might not be him Helga has something with. I'm still deciding though, so we'll see. I probably won't go into that until I reach RTTE anyway. Still gotta get through GOTNF, ROB and DOB, so it'll be a while before I really put much thought into it.
Seza, out.