Hiccup POV...
I had a huge grin as the wind blew against my face from how high in the sky we were. Toothless and I were even at the same level as some of the lower clouds, although the mountains of Berk still towered high above us in the sky. It was a sunny day, with good weather conditions, perfect for our first real test flight. Toothless shifted slightly as he flapped his wings, and I grasped onto the saddle in order to better stabilize myself.
"Okay there bud, we're gonna take this nice and slow," I tell him, checking my cheat sheet, clipped onto the harness in front of me with the six different tail positions.
"Here we go. Here we go. Position... three, no four," I said, clicking the pedal into place. The tail fin reacts accordingly, springing out to the correct position. Toothless looks back at it before turning his gaze forwards, snorting in a mixture of exasperation of annoyance, I can't tell. I do get the feeling that he knows just how important that prosthetic tail fin is and how I need to learn to use it.
Toothless angles around in a wide, but smooth arc against the sunlight. He flaps his wings again during the turn, and I check the cheat sheet and the harness to make sure they work. Thankfully they do work, which is wonderful because I do not want to go through the failed attempts over the last month previously at this height in the sky. The wind blows against us in the sky, whipping my hair around and causing Toothless to shift from side to side in order to compensate. Every now and then I glance back at the tail fin to make sure it's working, and although a bit less stable in relative position to his actual fin, it does its job by keeping us in the air. I lean forwards and tuck tight against Toothless' neck.
"Alright, it's go time. It's go time." I mutter to myself.
We make a long dive towards the ocean, and Toothless lets out a long and excited roar. He pulls out of the dive just before hitting the water, his wingtips cutting through the surface a few times, lifting up a spray as we head towards the sea stacks.
"Come on. Come on buddy. Come on buddy!" I chant encouragingly.
We soar across the ocean's surface and through a massive arch from the sea stacks. A flock of birds fly and chirp overhead, which I catch a glimpse of as we zip perfectly through the arch, much to my delight. I grinned excitedly.
"Yes, it worked!" I cheered, glancing back at the tail before looking forwards. Spotting a few sea stacks close by, I smile eagerly and steer Toothless in that direction, hoping to weave through them as well. Unfortunately, I don't manage to position the tail properly, and start heading towards one of the pillars. Toothless growls, attempting to turn or stop by flaring his wings and flapping upwards, but we smack into it anyways. He lets out a quick cry of annoyance.
"Sorry!" I called out apologetically.
We start heading towards another pillar, and my attempts to turn once again prove to fail. I try pulling on the saddle to help Toothless avoid the rock pillar, but we still slam into it anyways, and he roars in irritation.
"That's my fault," I add.
To my surprise, he actually uses his right ear 'flap' or 'plate' to slap me in the face in order to express his annoyance. I yelp in surprise and slight pain, the place of impact stinging for a few moments as he grumbles.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm on it!" I exclaim in exasperation, looking back at the cheat sheet. "Position four, uh three," I say, checking the pedals and clicking in into the appropriate position. Toothless then angles upwards, and we begin to rise higher into the sky, piercing through the cloud layer and even rising above the high mountain peaks of Berk. Toothless had his tongue out in delight as he flapped his wings harder to go even higher.
"Yeah! Go baby!" I cheered in exhilaration, spurring him on. "Yes! Oh, this is amazing! The wind in my..."
Just then I notice my pedal position sheet get swiped off of the saddle and start flying through the air, causing me to panic.
"...CHEAT SHEET! STOP!" I yell, grabbing frantically for the airborne sheet. Luckily I grab it just before it's carried out of reach. However Toothless stopped at my command slowing down so that we we floating weightlessly in the sky. This causes the rings of my vest to continue moving and float off of the harness hooks, leaving me detached from the saddle.
"NO!" I scream in terror as we start falling. Toothless looks up at me in surprise, his expression quickly shifting to fear as he realizes that we were falling uncontrollably. Without me to help keep it activated, the tail loses control. We start spiraling downwards uncontrollably, my stomach churning uncomfortably. Toothless roars in alarm and struggles to get back underneath me.
"Oh gosh! Oh gods! Oh no!" I yell, trying to grab onto one of his wings, but getting flipped through the air instead. Toothless starts to spin around quickly, and I try to pull myself through the air closer to him. "Alright, okay! You just gotta- kinda angle yourself! No no no come back down towards me come back down-" I stammer out in a panicked rush, extending my arms and legs towards him.
However in the middle of my yelling the tumbling dragon smacks me in the face with the full end of his tail, sending me soaring away from him. "OW!" I yell out in pain, slightly dazed from the hit, and I have a moment of terror when the tip of the mountain seems to pass by me way to close for comfort. Thankfully Toothless stops spinning enough for me to shift closer to him, and I reach my hands out desperately for the saddle. After a few more misses, manage to grab hold of the harness and clip myself into the saddle. With me back on, I help to angle Toothless straight and then yank harshly on the saddle with a muffled cry to help pull Toothless out of his dive, the cheat sheet in my mouth. Toothless snaps open his wings to stop the fall, which helps, however we're still falling at an incredible velocity, just barely skimming past the treetops.
Toothless begins shrieking in terror as we approach a hazard of huge sea stacks covered in mist. We'd never be able to slow down in time like this and if we hit those, we will be splattered unrecognizably against the rocks. I pull the cheat sheet out of my mouth and try looking at it desperately for any sense of direction, but it's impossible to see with how hard it was flapping against the wind. Toothless continues to roar in terror and I continue glancing quickly between the sheet and the rocks, which are about to hit. With no time to think, I make the last-second decision to wing it (hah, no pun intended) and throw it away. Acting purely on instinct, I tuck myself tight against Toothless' neck with a determined expression on my face and start clicking the pedal, changing the position of the tail. Toothless immediately reacts and turns appropriately, managing a tight, terrifying series of split-second turns, weaving and ducking between the seastacks. After a few barrel rolls and narrow misses against the rocks, we come out of the maze of seastacks and make it to the open water, unscathed.
We soar out of the mist and I pant heavily, taking several moments to catch my breath before grinning widely at my success. I takes a breath and glance back at the death-defying obstacle course, now safely behind us. Sitting back in the saddle, I throw my arms up in to the air and let out a cheer of victory.
"YEEAHHH!" I exclaim in triumph.
Toothless quickly releases the same happy squeal as well as a victorious fireball. I drop my arms to my sides in resignation, a defeated look of dread replacing my look of triumph as I gaze at the blazing fire ahead of us.
"Come on," I say in exasperation, passing through the fireball.
I stare straight ahead, blinking my eyes while sitting on the rocky beach beside Toothless, still slightly in shock from flying through the fire. My face was slightly singed, the front of my hair and eyebrows singed and charred slightly to a black color. The singed hair was forced upwards, leaving my face clear of how it usually looks from hanging in front of my face. After the flight, Toothless and I caught a good amount of fish and came to a rocky beach to eat it. I was currently roasting my fish over a fire when Toothless begin to make some hacking sounds. I looked over at him as he spat out a fish head, looking at me with a happy expression. No way was I eating a raw fish again.
"Uh... no thanks. I'm good," I tell him, gesturing to the fish on my stick with a sheepish expression.
A sudden squawk from the sky gets our attention, and we look over to see several Terrible Terrors land like seagulls, hissing and nipping at each other. They quickly approach us, and I eye them warily, not sure if they'll be as peaceful as Toothless considering they're wild. Toothless growls lowly, hovering protectively over his pile of fish and pulling a few closer to him as they approach. One makes a grab for his pile, but he snaps at the dragon, causing it to hesitate. However another Terror quickly nabs the regurgitated fish head and drags it away, nibbling from the end of it, satisfied. Another attempts to steal it from him, however it squawks angrily, hissing. They face off with each other, and the Terror raises its head, unleashing a stream of fire to scare it away from its prize. I watch in amusement, however Toothless doesn't feel the same, giving the Terror's all the stink eye.
That is until Toothless spots one of his fish leaving the pile. he watches it with wide eyes in bewilderment before the movement is revealed to be a stealthy Terrible Terror exposed as the thief. Toothless growls and quickly grabs the fish, tugging briefly on it before it snaps back into Toothless' mouth. The Terror looks at Toothless in surprise, and he swallows it, laughing at the him tauntingly. Irate, the little dragon begins hissing furiously and paws at the ground, preparing to fire a blast. I watch nervously as he rises onto his hind paws, opening his mouth, and the gas hiss comes. However Toothless simply spits fires a tiny ball of flame straight into its mouth, causing the gas to backfire into the little dragon. It inflates from the interior explosion, collapsing pitifully on the ground with a whine before staggering away, looking ill.
I chuckle in amusement at the sight. Mara would probably laughing in satisfaction at the sight. She says that the Terror's are absolute cute, but at the same time very annoying.
"Heh, not so fireproof on the inside, are you?" I ask rhetorically, throwing the Terror my cooked fish. I could always get something to eat later, or just not eat tonight. I've done it plenty of times before. "Here you go."
The appreciative little dragon's eyes lighten up he quickly gulps down the meal as I lean back against Toothless. He then starts to approach with a curious expression, and curls up next to me underneath my arm. I widen my eyes in amazement, slowly petting the dragon as it purrs in contentment.
"Mara, Ahsoka and Jarik were right. Everything we know about you guys... is wrong," I say in awe, carefully petting the Terror, which sends it into a blissful sleep.
"Glad you finally figured it out dude," Mara's voice spoke up.
I widened my eyes in surprise and glanced behind me to find Mara striding towards me, Ahsoka and Jarik sitting against another rock a few feet away. They gave me a quick smile before looking out at the sunset. Toothless lifted his ear flaps and looked over with an excited expression at her approach.
"Gahh! You're, you're back!" I stammered in surprise.
"Yup, sure am," she quickly agreed, standing next to me before sitting down against Toothless. The surrounding Terror's eye them warily and begin to hiss threateningly, however they quickly calm down a moment later. Probably from their Force thingy or whatever.
I sighed in exasperation. "Why is it you always seem to appear out of nowhere and make me jump in surprise?"
All she did was smirk mischievously in response.
"She's gonna do it for as long as she wants, you'll just have to deal with it," Jarik calls out with a roll of his eyes.
I sigh again as Mara giggles. Toothless gives his own version of a dragon laugh, and I look over at him with a raised eyebrow. "Oh, you're gonna side with her too?" I demand, and he stares at me innocently in response.
"Hey don't be mad that Toothless likes me more than you!" Mara teases, reaching over to rub said dragon's head, which gets him purring in response.
"Hey, I've known him a lot longer than you have," I protest with a frown.
"Quality, not quantity," she retorts, much to my bewilderment.
I sigh in exasperation, crossing my arms with a pout, causing her to laugh again. "Chill out Hic, I'm only joking," she says with a grin. I wave an hand dismissively at her. "Yeah yeah, whatever you say Jade."
She then takes notice of the Terror between me and her. "You making new friends already? Can't say I blame you," she remarks, stroking the little dragon's back. "He's adorable."
"So far I haven't really seen much of the annoying part," I point out, and Toothless gives me a deadpan look. "Although they did make a fuss for Toothless' fish," I admit.
"Yeah, give it time. These guys are the worst troublemakers." Mara says. "You know the village actually a party going on for you," she said.
I raised an eyebrow disbelievingly at her. "That's funny. Real classic," I say with a roll of my eyes.
"No really," she insists seriously, much to my surprise. "Apparently you've been doing so well in dragon training that's its got everyone happy, glad that the heir is finally proving he can "fight" dragons," she says, emphasizing on 'fight' with sarcasm.
I let out a tired sigh. "Yeah, I'm not going to that."
"Didn't think you would," she said knowingly. "And fighting dragons would actually be a problem for you because of..." she gestures all around her, and at me. "...this," she finishes.
"You just gestured to all of me," I pointed out.
"Exactly!" she says with a nod. "Berk's first dragon trainer in history! Who knew?"
"Yeah I suppose you're right... I just don't know how I'm gonna..." I trail off hesitantly.
"How you're gonna tell the village?" she finishes quietly, and I nod my head.
"Yeah," I reply. "Oh gods, they're gonna hate me."
She shrugs. "Maybe. If they don't except it you could come live with us," she suggests. "But I have a feeling that one way or another they will."
"Because of your Force sense?" I question.
To my surprise she shakes her head. "No. Because of you. You're a good person."
I stare at her quietly for a few moments, taking in what she said with a slow nod. The fact that she has that much faith in me being able to get the village to see that dragon's aren't bad... Toothless rumbles lowly, seemingly sensing my distress as he eyes me in concern.
"You know what, enough of this depressing crap," Mara suddenly blurts out. "Let's talk about something cool."
"Ok... what d'you think they're talking about?" I respond, pointing over at Ahsoka and Jarik, the former giving his hair a few small Viking braids as they stare out at the sunset, apparently in quiet discussion over something.
Mara grins. "Hopefully talking about their future or something. I just want them to get married already!" she whispers eagerly.
"Married?" I question.
"Yes! They've been in a relationship before I was born, and yet they still haven't gotten married!" she whines.
Shrugging to myself, I glance back over at them as they watch the sunset.
Jarik POV...
While the kids talked and did their own thing with Toothless, Ahsoka and I took the opportunity to just relax and enjoying each others company in this rare moment of peace. The sunsets on Ahch-To were really something, and always cast a warm orange glow, even with two stars. True peace in our lives has never been a commodity, and we cherish every moment we get. Even during our days as younglings we were busied with lessons and training in the Temple, concerned with what came next. Ahch-To is the only place we've ever gotten the chance to sit back without any worries.
"Never gets old being able to sit like this," Ahsoka comments. through the bond.
"Yeah. Sometimes it just makes me want to stay here forever, and not worry about the rest of the galaxy." I admit.
"Yet that's not an option," she points out.
I nodded my head. "No it's not," I said quickly in agreement.
She then scoots closer beside me on the rock from where I'm perched and starts to fiddle around with my hair. "You know, I've always wondered what's its like for you guys with hair."
I glance at her with a raised eyebrow but respond. "Well, I guess it's just, there. Although we do have to wash it, brush it, and maintain it to keep it from getting unruly or smelly. I doubt you have to do anything with your lekku."
"The only thing we have to do is take care of our headdress, and even that's optional. Guess I should be glad I don't have to worry about my hair," she says with a small smile.
"Because you don't have any," I reply.
"Nope!" she says. "It was always interesting watching Padme fix up her hair whenever I was at her apartment." she recalls with a wistful smile.
"Oh yeah. She'd invite you over occasionally when you were both free for some 'girl time.'" I said with a frown on my face. She takes notice and nudges me playfully.
"Oh stop it Jarik, it was nice," she says defensively.
"What was that story I remember from one of your visits? That one of her handmaidens was actually a disguised assassin, and you exposed her?" I recall with a raised eyebrow in exasperated expression.
She shakes her head in amusement. "Even then, trouble always seemed to find us."
"No kidding," I reply quickly in agreement. We remain in comfortable silence, looking out at the scenery, and Ahsoka begins to stroke her hands through my long hair, pulling a few strands carefully and adding small braids. I glance over at her but say nothing. Kind of reminded me of the small and simple Viking braids that some of the villagers wore in their hair. Ever since living on Ahch-To we'd picked up a lot on their culture with interest. Ahsoka gave off a small but slowly growing smile of confidence.
"Eh, braiding hair's not as hard as I thought. It's kinda long though," she observes.
I shrugged. "Well I'm not cutting it short. I like it better this way."
"So do I little Jari. Gives you that roguish quality. Also it's wavy too, in a good way. Better looking than you're short Padawan cut style," she says.
"Anything's better than that style. You could ask any human Jedi about that, and they would agree." I tell her.
"Well, it's not like its ever been something for me to worry about. I stayed the same," she responds.
"Oh I wonder why," I say, rolling my eyes.
"Don't you sass me!" she says sternly, although the hint of amusement in her eyes betrays her look as she lightly hits me.
I grin at her. "My apologies dear Sweetie Horns."
She lets out an exasperated sigh. "Oh boy, just stop talking," she retorts with a fond smile. She continues to absentmindedly add small braids into my hair while we gaze out at the sunset, cherishing this moment of peace.
