Thank you to Kaitlyn Maria for introducing me to this song. It is truly beautiful.
Prompt: Hiccup goes on a midnight flight alone.
Song: Small World by Idina Menzel
Where the World is Small:
It was weeks after their defeat against Viggo, and Hiccup couldn't sleep. She couldn't stop thinking about how she lost the Dragon Eye and what that would mean for dragons everywhere. She couldn't understand why Viggo let her go; he had her and Toothless frozen still, unable to move a single muscle, and yet he hadn't done anything but take the Dragon Eye and leave. At least the Flightmare was okay, but that was its own basket of questions. It was all too much.
Hiccup just sat at the edge of her bed, too stressed to even think of sleep. It must have been some time in the middle of the night. She looked to Toothless, her dragon sound asleep on his slab. She wished she could get her mind to rest as well as he could. Carefully, Hiccup stood and made her way down the stairs and out her hut. Normally, she would go flying with Toothless to clear her head, but right now, she needed to be alone.
(Start song) She took a deep breath, in and out. Her wings unfolded, then her feet lifted from the ground and into the air. "…No one here will see me, no one will hurt me now…" She flew over the base, so quiet and still. The stars shined above. Up here, it felt safe. Here, nothing below mattered. She pushed up higher, further from the base, further from the ground. "…I'm going up to a place where…"
With a thrust of her wings, she cut through the air, freedom coursing through her veins as the wind blew through her hair. The stress melted, simply lost in her ecstasy. Her arms flew out underneath her wings, titling with whatever direction she chose to turn. Left, right, it didn't matter. But this wasn't enough. No, she needed to go higher. "…and the world is small…"
Sweeping up to the clouds, she flew to where they floated high above. They were cold and wet like thick mist, but she didn't care; it was soothing.
"Still rising towards the dark…" By now, as her hand ran along the soft nothingness of the clouds, her troubles felt long forgotten, a distant memory in her mind. "…The atmosphere is lonely, and beautiful…" she looked to the stars, like shining diamonds all around her. "…I used to know…" She flew into a cloud, the world cut off from sight, and that was okay. She looked up, then thrust her wings… "…up to a place where the…"
She breached the cloud, before stopping her wings and diving back in, then out again as if playing with water. "…fly above it all." She then practiced her barrel-rolls through the clouds, the mist coiling around her as she spun. "…from here I'm weightless, no stars…" Clouds around her were fading, and with them their safety. Her eyes closed. "…I feel so tall."
She slowed to a hover.
And with the ocean below, at this moment, it was as if everything came back. But, it was muted, as if some form of acceptance was washed over her. "…And maybe I was always small!" she cried to the night, "But I could fly before I crawled", then flew up in an arc, before free falling to the sea, wings splayed out.
The air rushed passed her, her back to the sea as she reached up, hand reaching towards the stars. "…and the world is small", her eyes closed. "And the world is small."
Twisting herself around, Hiccup caught herself, and continued passed the ocean into the night.
