17.

It was easy.

Easy to get the dragons trust, easy to make the two boys trust the dragons. The only thing none of them, apart from Hiccup, had gone on a flight on their own dragon. Letting the dragons out of their pens was one thing, getting them out from the academy was another. A thing that was not possible without endangering themselves and the dragons alike.

Hiccup felt scared. Terrified even. Sure, the fact that her, newly acquired, friend group had their own dragons was amazing. Even the fact that she had friends would have made her happy.

Two days until her final exam and her nerves were frayed. Everything led back to one thing and one thing only: she couldn't do this alone. She also couldn't kill a dragon. She didn't want to kill a dragon, but it was starting to seem she would have no other choice.

Maybe pretending to be the dragon killing prodigy would be easy.

She didn't want easy this time.

-o-

Hiccup finally had a moment alone with Toothless. It started to be rare, the times she had with the first being that had accepted her for who she was from the very beginning. She did have Ruffnut, but the Fury rider knew full well that the female twin started being her friend out of desperation. If it hadn't been for that Ruffnut wouldn't have tried talking to her, Hiccup knew this and didn't blame the blonde girl.

They had just gotten back from a flight, something that Hiccup wouldn't get tired of no matter what. The wind had made her ponytail come loose and tree leaves and small branches were tangled in her hair – the result from taking off and landing through the small gaps between the trees.

She had gone to the pond to rinse out any dirt that clung to her hair, she let the hair down completely. Her hair reached her shoulders barely, a sign that she would need to shorten it soon. After a few mishaps in the forge when she had started learning blacksmithing she and Gobber had decided that it would be the best for her to keep her hair short, until she gained some height and was farther away from the flames at least.

Hiccup cupped some water and let it wet her hair. The water was cold enough that dunking her head would be a bad idea. Her plans on being careful were ruined when Toothless ran through the water splashing her from head to toe. She gasped as the cold water rained down on her, a smile breaking out on her face a moment later as she gave chase to the chuckling dragon.

That was how the others found them. Hiccup giggling and soaking from head to toe and Toothless playing along with the girl, acting as if she really did have the strength to hold him partially beneath the water. The night Fury noticed the others first, the dragon jumped up and accidently showed Hiccup backwards into the water. The girl got up sputtering from the water.

"Toothless," she growled half-heartedly as she wiped her hair away from her eyes.

The dragon ignored her and continued staring at the others with wide eyes, like he was caught doing something he was not supposed to do. The teens were not better, frozen in place, still shocked that Hiccup could be this care free. Finally the girl noticed the other teens too.

"Oh, hey guys." She waved to them, breaking them out if their frozen state.

"Hi," Ruffnut called back with an amused smile on her face.

The pair made their way out of the water and went separate ways when they reached dry land. Toothless went directly to a sun-lit spot to dry off while Hiccup joined her friends. She decided to dry off before she would bring up the subject of flying. Arne had already flown with her, she wanted to offer the same thing to the others, so they could get a taste of it, if everything went crumbling, at least they would know what pulled at Hiccup all this time.

-o-

Hiccup was alone with Toothless again. The night before was amazing. She got to show her friends what flying felt like, they stayed through the whole night just enjoying themselves and having fun. Because their whole night wasn't spent on sleeping, none of the gang were awake yet as far as she knew.

Hiccup hadn't gone to sleep yet, she didn't feel the need to do so. Plus, tomorrow was the day of her final exam, the day she had to kill a dragon or betray her tribe right in front of them. She had already betrayed them by becoming friends with a dragon, but it was a different thing to show them.

Hiccup didn't know what to do and she was freaking out. It seemed that that was all she did this past week" freak out, breakdown and argue. She didn't like it one bit.

The Night Fury sensed her bad mood. From the moment they were left alone the dragon had sat next to her, enjoying her presence, catching up on sleep and keeping her company. Toothless was just as exhausted as she was, probably even more than she was.

The sun rose and Hiccup was still awake. The Night Fury woke up a few hours after sunset and cautiously nudged the girl to get her attention. She gave him a weak smile as she turned to look at him, the dragon gave a pointed look at his stomach and Hiccup chuckled.

Soon they were back in the air. The cool morning air vanished any tiredness the girl felt before. Hiccup took a deep breath of the cool air as Toothless dived for the ocean. She couldn't' find it in herself to think of something other than the endless sky.

Maybe she should have pushed herself to think of something else a bit harder.

She didn't.

Maybe that was just another mistake on her part.