REVIEWS:

Shaonics6: It's amazing how much humans can miss about themselves.

Silverleone: I must admit I borrowed the idea of a blood eagle from a story on AO3.

tOSdude: Me too. I normally only review on the last chapter of finished stories, if at all, but I try to review on every chapter if I'm following the story or author.

Stardust333: That would not have been a good place to stop, I admit.

Tim2060: You shouldn't swear *wags finger* but the occasion called for it. I'm glad someone's enjoying the sleeping scenes as much as I do!

Voices fight inside my chest

To my utter shock, the scrap of yellow fabric was still fluttering in the breeze, untouched, when I got to Dragon Training. Shrugging, I scrambled up the wall and tugged it out while waiting for Gobber to arrive.

Unfortunately, Snotlout was the first to arrive. I desperately searched for somewhere to hide, but there wasn't any cover anywhere. He caught sight of me and his eyes lit up with a nasty glint.

"Hey, Useless!"

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, bracing myself. "Yes, Snotlout?"

He grabbed the neck of my shirt and pulled me down to his level. Nose to nose, eye to eye, I held my breath to avoid his stench. His eyes were mud brown, unlike Toothless', and I felt small and scared, despite being taller than him.

"Tell me how you did that thing with the dragons."

"I—" It was a secret, I couldn't reveal it. The words scraped the back of my throat as I spoke. "I c—can't…"

He growled, shoving me backwards into the wall. I gasped, closed my eyes, and waited.

"What's going on?"

Thank you, Gobber. Snotlout's hand shifted from my neck to my chest, and his other arm wrapped around my back. I stiffened, then stifled a groan as he squeezed so hard I heard my ribs creak.

"Congratulations on that Zippleback!" he announced loudly, then hissed in my ear, "One day, Hiccup Haddock! One day!"

"Th—thanks," I muttered when he let me breathe again. Not playing along would only result in something worse.

"It's good to see you two finally getting along," Gobber announced cluelessly. "You'll need that bond when Hiccup's Chief."

I winced and Snotlout glared at me. The twins rolled in at that moment, kicking and punching each other. I briefly wondered what they were fighting about, before I decided I didn't want to know. Astrid sauntered over, and we were all ready. Gobber pulled the massive lever and the door opened with a short groan.

"Right, we'll start by checking how you did with the work I set for you," Gobber announced. "If you still have a piece of cloth, hold it out."

I obediently stuck my hand out, my hideous lemon fabric wrapped around it. Fishlegs looked down in shame and the twins stared at Gobber in confusion.

"Uh, what cloth?"

"Yeah, we don't have any cloths."

"Muttonheads," Snotlout rolled his eyes, producing two strips of cloth, one green and one blue.

Astrid had three strips, green, red and brown. They'd each managed to steal the other's cloth, but lost their own in the process.

Gobber nodded. "Well done, Astrid, Snotlout. Good offensive. Hiccup, you'll make a good defender one day."

I blushed under his praise and the other teens' stares, and hunched forwards to cover my eyes with my hair.

"Fishlegs, twins—" click "—keep practising."

I looked around, looking for whatever the click had done. Astrid was doing the same thing, her eyes twitching from side to side alertly. A rattle behind me made me spin around, searching for the noise.

"Move!" Astrid yelled, somersaulting to one side. Everyone scattered under the Nadder's fierce attack, and I raced to the side of the Ring away from its cage. Gobber casually tossed me a mace, and I grunted under its weight, almost dropping the stupid thing. It wasn't like I could actually use it anyway.

An axe flew through the air, perfectly on target—Astrid's, then. The Nadder simply knocked it out of the way with its head spines, and charged straight at us. Astrid dived past me, chasing after her axe. The first thing I did was drop my mace—weapons only made dragons mad—and stood still.

I flinched and tried to hold still as a head that probably weighed as much as I did, with dozens of razor sharp teeth, came within a foot of me. Its breath was hot and heavy on my skin.

"Aaaarrrggghhhhh!"

Astrid found her axe and charged straight at me and the Nadder, holding it high above her head while yelling a battlecry. Because the Nadder had turned its head to smell me, its neck was completely exposed and vulnerable.

Technically, we weren't supposed to kill the training dragons, but if we did it was considered an excellent achievement. No one would stop Astrid from slaughtering this magnificent beast. Dragon nip? Don't have any. Eel? Ditto. My thoughts buzzed like a provoked beehive, trying to find a way to save the Nadder. If I could just take it down first, Astrid would have to back off. There was no glory in killing a dragon that was already defeated and she knew that. In a raid, it would be fair game, but taking down a dragon that was considered my victory in Training was taboo. Scratching!

I started higher up, working my way downwards as quickly as I dared. Toothless had gone down with the slightest touch, so I had to hope Nadders were the same. Nothing behind the horns, nothing down the cheek, the base of its throat, where head met body—

I only just got my foot out of the way before the dragon collapsed. Astrid stood on the other side of its head, her axe still raised and her mouth open in a warcry. For a terrifying moment, I thought she'd go ahead and kill it anyway.

Then she let her arms slump and looked at me in defeat.

"Hiccup, you're totally going to come in first," Tuffnut muttered, and I paled. That was something I definitely didn't want—but I couldn't let dragons get killed either. I was trapped, being pulled between two sides.

oOoOo

A few more days passed uneventfully, but I had to spend more time in the village due to my newfound fame. People actually noticed if I wasn't in the Great Hall for dinner, so I had to go there or they'd start looking for me. I hated it, feeling caged, but it was necessary to keep Toothless safe. When I sat down at a table, instead of everyone ignoring me, they started crowding around and sitting down next to me.

It was getting harder and harder to pass off my achievements as flukes, and I started to hear my name and Astrid's whispered in the Great Hall and around the village. Several people were placing bets on who was going to win the 'honour' of killing the Nightmare, and the odds were tipping more in my favour every day.

oOoOo

I winced as the Gronckle fell to the ground in front of me again. I hadn't had a choice, Snotlout was seconds away from crushing its skull in, but I'd done it again. I'd drawn attention to myself, something I was desperate to avoid. Since a lesson that was supposed to take the whole morning had only taken about ten minutes, Gobber had to let us go early. I wasn't complaining, that meant more time with Toothless, and thankfully there weren't too many people hanging around. Every time I did something 'miraculous' people would come and watch the next few lessons to try and catch me doing it again. However, after about three lessons without anything unusual, the crowd had started to disperse.

"Hiccup," Astrid called, her voice hard and unforgiving. In saving dragons, I was also chipping away at her position as the best trainee, and she'd been giving me dirtier and dirtier looks lately.

"I've got to g—" I stuttered to a half as her axe buried itself deep in the wooden beam right next to me. I looked from her livid face to the axe and back again, then started running.

Snotlout raced after me, eager to do anything for Astrid, only to be shoved aside by the girl. Her footsteps sounded behind me, but to my surprise and relief, they didn't draw any nearer. All those times I carried heavy baskets of fish or the saddle and tail fin rig had started to pay off, as well as the countless games with Toothless. I was faster, if barely any stronger. I hadn't even meant to train, it just kind of happened.

Whatever the reason, I was glad I could match Astrid's speed as I raced across the fields to the woods. Out of all the villagers, I was the one who spent most time there, so it should be easier to lose her.

Sure enough, about five minutes into the thick vegetation, I heard a muffled curse as Astrid tripped over something. I switched direction suddenly, and headed back towards the village. She didn't follow. Without being spotted, I grabbed a basket of fish and raced back to the woods. It didn't take long to reach the cove, which was practically invisible unless someone was right on top of it.

"H—hey, b—bud," I panted, bending over. Toothless bounded over and offered his head to me as support, which I gladly accepted.

"Y—yeah, Astrid is a b—bit mad," I told him, heaving for breath, and he snorted. "Okay, a l—lot mad," I conceded. "Now, shall we try flying today?"

We'd done a few more short flights, but I thought we were as ready as we were going to be for the Big One. I strapped the saddle and tail to Toothless, then leapt onto his back. Taking off and landing, as well as mounting and dismounting, were pretty much natural to me by now, and we were soon riding unsteadily on a thermal in the air.

I looked down at the shiny sea below—far below—us, and gulped. Toothless' wings held us easily, but I was far less confident in my own abilities to manipulate the tail fin. Still, I couldn't help feeling the tiniest bit excited.

This was all or nothing. Either we flew… or we didn't.

I was tired. Tired of hiding an impossible secret, tired of avoiding both Astrid and Snotlout, tired of short flights that always seemed incomplete. I was ready to risk it all.

Toothless flared his wings a little, swinging from side to side to stay on top of the wind. We glided a little more, and I looked down at my cheat sheet, firmly pinned into the saddle.

"Okay there, bud, we're gonna take this nice and slow." Risk was alright, but there was no point in inviting certain death. "Here we go. Here we go…"

Which was the one for turning?

"Position three. No, four." Toothless didn't seem very confident in my confidence.

I twisted my foot in the stirrup and looked over my shoulder to check that it was working. So far, so good. He bent his head down to check as well, matching his living fin to the position. With both tail fins folded, we started to slide through the air. He used his main wings to steer us left, and we managed to pull the manoeuvre off, though I felt like I was about to fall sideways and plummet the whole time. My fin wouldn't open as fully as Toothless' and it flapped a bit in the wind, but we were doing far better than on any of our other flights.

He ended the turn and started trying to glide again. I twisted around in my seat and looked back to figure out which position he wanted. I fiddled with my leg until it looked right-ish, then inwardly cringed as he pointed his nose downwards. A dive was what we'd practised the least, mostly because we crashed before getting high enough to start.

"Alright, it's go time. It's go time." Thank Thor, I got the position right. Falling almost vertically to the ocean was both terrifying and breathtaking. The way the wind played with my hair, the way my stomach suddenly changed its mind about flying and tried to stay behind, the way Toothless was strong and reassuring beneath me—everything was incredible.

Just before we would have hit the surface of the sea, he pulled out of the dive. I gasped as the air pressed me into his back like an enormous hand. We skimmed the surface, and sometimes his wing dipped into the water for a few seconds at a time when I was a little slow with the tail fin.

"Come on, buddy, come on, buddy!"

We managed to steady ourselves just as we passed through a massive archway between two sea stacks. I looked up, and saw birds flying effortlessly above us. I was quite happy to be nearer the surface of the sea, thank you very much.

We didn't even come near either side of the arch. "Yes, it worked!"

I clicked the tail fin into a new position, and we started a wide curve upwards. Unfortunately, I'd underestimated how much space we would need, and Toothless' claws carved deep gouges in a rock when we almost flew straight into it.

"Sorry!"

We started to fall sideways in the air, but he beat his wings hard and righted us. I winced at his grumbling growl, and promptly flew us straight into another pillar of rock. This time, he crashed into it side-on, and I winced. That probably didn't feel very nice.

"That was my fault."

When we were pointing straight again, a black ear plate slapped my face. It wasn't hard enough to hurt too much and I knew he was just annoyed at me, but it still stung a little.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm on it." It might be a good idea to get out of the sea stacks for now. I consulted my cheat sheet. Which one was for gaining height? "Position four, uh, three."

Toothless' massive wings cupped the air, driving us higher and higher. We passed the tip of Berk's tallest mountain in seconds, rising and rising towards the clouds.

"Yeah! Go baby!" I could see everything. The sea, far below me, glittered like the purest metal, and the sea stacks seemed like nothing more than pebbles.

"Oooh, this is amazing!" He rumbled in agreement, just as excited as I was. I didn't quite dare let go of the saddle and try to touch the clouds, but I wished I had the courage to.

"The wind in my—"

A piece of paper flashed by me, and a glimpse of the empty space where my cheat sheet had been was enough to turn my exhilaration and adrenaline into heart stopping terror.

"CHEAT SHEET! STOP!"

I waved my arms about wildly, trying to catch it before the thin sheet of paper was gone forever. Very very very unfortunately, Toothless decided I'd asked him to stop, and he stilled his wings. If they'd been tucked in, that probably wouldn't have been a problem, but he kept them spread to catch the air. A strange weightlessness overcame me, and I rose up out of the saddle as the greater air resistance brought him to a stop, then watched in horror as the safety hooks came undone. When making them, I'd never thought I'd be falling upwards!

We floated in the air for a moment, then his eyes met mine and we shared a terrified gaze. How did something so amazing turn scary so fast? Gravity decided to start working on us again, and we plunged towards the sea, far far below us.

"Ooooh gooooosh!" My stomach lurched into my mouth as I spun in the air, catching glimpses of sea stacks that no longer looked as innocent as small pebbles. They looked terrifyingly solid, growing far too quickly, and right below me!

"Oooooohhhh goooooods!"

Toothless! I had to get to Toothless! I had the cheat sheet in my hand somehow, I just needed to get to the stirrup. I spun upside down again, forcing my eyes open against the blistering wind, and saw him. He was right below me, wings outstretched uselessly because of his missing tail fin, even more terrified than I was. He was used to flying, he relied on the air. Now, because of me, it had betrayed him. My eyes watered from more than just the freezing air. I'd befriended the most wonderful, magnificent creature I could ever imagine, only to kill him. The fact that I would die with him didn't seem to matter much.

I was gaining on him, I realised. Despite being so much heavier, his wings were actually stalling his fall a little. I fell straight towards his wing, thankfully facing downwards at the time, but I couldn't get a good grip on the smooth surface when it slapped me in the stomach. I went straight past him, and now there was nothing between me and the unforgiving water.

"Alright!" I needed Toothless to work with me, which meant I had to think rationally and get through to him. "You gotta kinda angle yourself!"

He tucked his wings in and fell next to me as I spun. I tried to stabilise myself, stretching my arms out as though they were wings. It partially worked. He reached my level and tried to slow down, but his efforts to right himself had somehow sent him into a whipping sideways spin. A tail came snapping straight at me, but just missed.

"Okay, no, no, no—"

The tail whipped past me again.

"Come back down towards me! Come back down—"

Smack! His tail slapped me hard across the face, and everything went dark for a split second. When I opened my eyes again, everything was murky white except for Toothless' bright purple flame. We were running out of room to fall in, and panic threatened to overwhelm my brain. Panting and screaming in complete terror, I reached for him again.

Somehow we both had a few precious moments the right way up at the same time. The saddle was so close, falling just a few inches below me. He tried to slow down without going into a spin, but I could see the ground, barely a hundred metres under us, and it was harder and harder to keep calm and clear-headed. I tucked the cheat sheet into my mouth, trying to keep it dry-ish, and left my hands free. I touched the saddle, almost there, reaching with everything I had, and finally, finally, got a firm grip. It was a strange experience, pulling myself down onto a spinning surface, but I hooked my legs into the stirrups as fast as I could.

The first thing I did was reattach one of my safety clasps, then look ahead, squinting into the wind. Toothless tilted his wings, trying to compensate for his lost tail fin, and we ended up pointing straight down. We were heading straight for the very hard, solid, concrete side of a steep mountainside, covered in trees that were quite capable of crushing my bones to bits, but at least we weren't spinning anymore. I leant back as far as I could, pulling on the saddle, and yelled in terror through the paper in my mouth.

I could barely see the sheet of flapping paper by my nose, there was no way I could read it before we became nothing more than a bloody splat on the ground.

We stopped falling so fast, black wings fanned out like giant parachutes, and I screamed in sudden pain. Ow ow ow ow ow!

Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse, giant sea stacks emerged from the mist in front of me—and not the big, easy ones from earlier, that we'd still managed to crash into. This was a pure labyrinth, where one mistake would erase us from existence forever.

I pulled the cheat sheet from my mouth, trying to keep it still in the wind long enough to see any of the positions. The pain steadily got worse, and I yelped. My wings weren't supposed to be used like that! The way they caught the wind was all wrong, the air under my tailfin was flowing wrong, it needed to be shaped by my human's—oh!

I let the cheat sheet fly away in the wind, excess baggage I didn't need. Twisting my ankle, I relied on the foreign sensations flowing between me and Toothless. Tilt the tail fin a little higher, more closed—left round that sea stack, through a gap so narrow we flipped sideways and the rock still brushed against my head, spread our wings while we could for lift, no time to flap, tuck them in again and barrel roll through a handy archway, right, up, down, watch that sneaky wind! Over, under, way too fast but just fast enough, ouch misjudged that one—we were free.

I slumped in relief and disbelief, unable to comprehend what had just happened, then Toothless tilted a little, his shoulders moving a fraction, and my feet automatically responded, crafting the wind under my mechanical fin like soft metal under a hammer. We lifted up a little, emerged from the mist and into sunlight—beautiful, gorgeous sunlight I'd thought I'd never see again.

Excitement bubbled up in my chest. That—crazy turns and near misses and minute adjustments of every muscle and sinew in perfect synchrony—was flying. No wonder Toothless had missed it! I felt like I'd just opened my eyes for the first time, and everything leading up till now had only been a dream. I thrust my hands above my head.

"YEEAAH!"

Roaring in the same triumphant spirit, Toothless shot fire in front of us. I could feel everything; how gas filtered into my—his—mouth, the small click as it lit, and the warm ball of fire lying on his tongue for a moment, before he spat it out forcefully.

"Ah, come on," I whined as the giant ball of fire spread across the sky right in front of us. He beat his wings once, my foot clicked, and we rushed straight through the fire. It was hot, extremely hot—but only for a split second. My hair crackled and burnt, then we were out of it, into the cool air.

He leaned downwards and I followed his lead, knowledge and instinct crashing in my mind to enable us to fly. It was so much smoother than my clumsy flying earlier, and I never wanted to land. I could've lived in the sky my entire life if I was a dragon.

I didn't want to land—I never wanted to land—but I couldn't force him to stay in the air if he didn't want to, and I didn't want to treat him like anything less than he was. There was a secluded beach, mostly rock, just below us, on the far side of Berk, that must be the goal.

He tipped backwards in the air, just over the beach, then flung his wings back and brought us to a stop. The moment he touched the ground, the sensations muted. I could still vaguely feel his wings and tail, but it was like I was wearing a coat far too large for me. It was fuzzy and hard to feel small details, but I still got general impressions.

He tipped me off his back roughly, the movements harsh and annoyed. I flinched. What had I done wrong?

"What the—?" Unlike every time before, I was still connected even when we broke physical contact.

He sank his head low to the ground, wings rising up to make himself seem larger. His purple fire writhed in his chest, tumbling and turning on itself, and it abruptly stretched out towards me. I watched, frozen as it came closer to me, ghosting against my skin. I couldn't feel it, but when it plunged through my skin, I gasped, suddenly squeamish.

I could imagine it passing through my ribs and muscles, and quickly tried to banish the image from my mind. I didn't quite dare watch its progress, and closed my eyes tight. An instant later, it touched something similar inside me and mine quivered and curled up, trying to escape but unable to. The foreign snaking tendril slithered around whatever I was trying to protect, probing at every opening. I shivered, helpless, as my very core, what made me who I was, was searched thoroughly. It made me feel horribly vulnerable, knowing that someone knew everything about me—faults and flaws, weaknesses and secrets.

Finally, it seemed to come to a conclusion and drew back. Lightheaded and gasping, I fell to my knees, clutching at my chest. The alien tendril might have withdrawn, but it had left behind a gaping wound and I still felt like any random person or thing could reach in and pluck my heart out.

Toothless growled at me genuinely for the first time since we bonded in the cove, and I leaned away in fear, holding my hands at chest level. "Uh, whatever I've done, I didn't mean to?" I said, forcing a nervous smile. He took a step forward, and I stiffened as the alien presence returned. It didn't penetrate nearly so deeply this time, but ghosted against the surface of me. I struggled to my feet and backed away, not sure what was worse: having my privacy invaded so spectacularly, or being strung as tightly as a bowstring while waiting for the inevitable.

'Flaming goddess of the air! Why in the four elements didn't you tell me you had a Flame?! This could have been so much easier!'

I screamed, pressing my hands to my ears as waves of annoyance crashed into me through the tendril. And the words! They were a mixture of growls and warbles that I somehow understood! I stared at Toothless for a moment, weakly mouthing the words in time to the noises coming out of his mouth. Oh Thor. Oh Thor! Oh Thor!

'Answer me!' he demanded. My legs buckled underneath me, and my ears rang.

'Are you even listening?' He seemed far away, and I feebly tried to reach for him.

'Hiccup?' The last thing I saw was a black blur darting towards me as I passed out, falling towards the ground.

Well? Surely that deserves some feedback?