Chapter Summary: Hiccup learns what it feels to fly and that friends come and go.
Disclaimer: I do not own How To Train Your Dragon or anything related to the movie/ Netflix series.
Clarification: Hiccup is eight years old now and his relationship with Toothless as grown.
A/N: Thank you for all those nice reviews! I want to mention one review that caught my attention. This story is Non-Hiccstrid. As in no Hiccstrid. I don't have anything against the pairing in fact, it's one of my favorite pairings in httyd but I don't think it-the pairing- makes that much sense. I don't wanna ramble on so i'll just leave it at that. If you were planning on reading Hiccstrid then I guess you should either find another ff(or maybe keep on reading?). So yeah thanks for reminding me of that (You know who you are) .
Ps: This chapter gets a little violent towards the end. Read at your own risk.
During Hiccup's eighth winter, he had been allowed a top of Toothless.
A couple of months ago Hiccup had gone to visit the cove in search for Toothless. He met with an eager Toothless, who was waiting for him by the pond. Seeing that Hiccup had arrived at the cove, Toothless had bounced over towards Hiccup, looking a lot like how a kitten would look like when presented with a ball of yarn.
Hiccup had greeted Toothless with a pat on the head and a bag full of fish and Toothless, him with a lick and a nudge from his snout, making his way towards the bag.
Without fail, the fish were quickly devoured by the dragon with minimum effort and Toothless, as usual, having not been satisfied with the amount of fishes he was given, had turned to Hiccup and prodded him with his large, black snout in search for more food.
"All out buddy," He reached out and petted the dragon's head, gently pushing it away from him, "Sorry." he added though he didn't mean it. Hiccup had learnt that when it came to catching his own food Toothless was incredibly lazy and would instead bother Hiccup for some and when Hiccup didn't have any he'd pout (who knew dragons could pout!) and grudgingly go find his own food.
They had played a rough game of chase that day, Hiccup being the chaser and Toothless the chased. Hiccup was a bundle of laughs when he played with the dragon. They had run around the the entire cove, kicking up mud and grass that would result from the sharp twist and turns they'd make.
"Cheater!," Hiccup would laugh out whenever Toothless decided to glide over the water in order to escape him. The game would typically last a long time Hiccup being small but fast, was not fast enough to catch Toothless.
Except that day. Hiccup had managed to somehow sneak up on the dragon and had ended on top of him.
"I win!" He had declared,beaming with joy of having won in such short time. Still feeling giddy, he had bent his entire body forward, wrapped his his small, wiry arms around Toothless's neck was about to slide of the dragon but it had seemed that Toothless had other ideas. He had unfurled his wings, stretching them as much as he could, bent down and pushed up, going up towards the sky with Hiccup attached to his back.
To say Hiccup was scared would be an understatement. He had been terrified.
He remembered having taken a quick glance at his side and his eyes had widen at seeing the ground below him inching away from him as Toothless made his way towards the sky.
The feeling of dread had completely taken over his body. His stomach had turned and churned at the speed and height at which they were at. His heart had beaten furiously under his vest and shirt and he had felt his blood rushing towards his head.
His hands had latched onto the dragons plates and his eyes had squeezed shut. He had screamed for Toothless to land, to which the stubborn lizard had refused to do .
Eventually, Hiccup's throat had gotten sore from screaming and he felt a bit pique when he realized that he was still alive. He took a deep breathe and had counted to three, nervously opening his eyes as if opening them might kill him.
The view in one word - stunning.
The sól had always looked gigantic and unreachable from down below. Up here, up here it looked even more so. It's light glared at Hiccup, lighting up his face and making the Night Fury's scales gleam and twinkle. The sól's light streamed through the gaps in the clouds, illuminating the sky in various colors of gold and pink. And all around him were clouds; white, fluffy cotton patches against the azure blue sky.
Most of his fright had dissolved into thin air, which had let him enjoy the boundless feeling of being weightless.
He noticed that it was much cooler up here not at all like he had imagined, he had thought that being closer to the sol would mean it'd be a lot warmer.
The air was different too. It was thin and cool and crispy which made it difficult to breath. The wind was a different story.
While the sky was beautiful, the wind was harsh and unyielding, it striked hard and merciless, pushing him back. He squinted his eyes, making an effort in keeping them open but eventually had to shut them when his eyes had began to felt dry. He couldn't feel his cheeks, only a tingling sensation that had started to spread towards his hands.
'He'd have to bring more clothes with him next time' he thought and was certain that they'd be a next time.
And there was, and a time after that, and so on and so forth.
He'd become addicted to the feeling of flight, drawn to the sky like a moth to light. When they'd meet, he'd plead with Toothless to go flying with him and if that didn't work he'd bribe the dragon with some fish-
"Please….." He begged and threw his best puppy dog face at Toothless but it had taken no effect on Toothless. The dragon had rolled his eyes ( Something he had picked up from Hiccup a couple months back) and snorted not amused.
"Fine I'll bring you some fish," He looks to Toothless, his puppy dog face gone, who averts his eyes.
"Cod. I'll bring you cod your favorite!" Toothless grumbles, no longer annoyed but pretending. He kneeled allowing Hiccup to climb on and took of.
They had flown and stopped at a deserted beach on the other side of Berk. Instead of white crystal sand, the beach was made up of stones and driftwood which Hiccup collected to use for firewood .
They had met a colorful pack of friendly Terreros. He had played with them for hours on the small beach, (Toothless wasn't in the mood to socialize with the Terrors and had walked of to sunbathe on top of a large piece of slab) They had stopped to catch and eat some fish. Toothless had done most of the catching -much to his annoyance- seeing as Hiccup didn't have his fishing gear and the Terrors were too busy goofing off.
When the sol had reached it's highest point he said goodbye to the Terrors (Toothless had snorted at the Terrors and had tried to flame those who got to close to him) and moved onto the back of Toothless. Seeing that the large black dragon and his human were leaving they took that as their cue to leave. They squawked and pecked at each other as they took off away from Berk and towards the ocean.
It wasn't till they had arrived at the cove, that they noticed that they had seemed to be transporting a hitchhiker.
A little Terror, probably the runt of the pack, was curled up in a little ball of red and green inside of his satchel, sleeping soundly.
"Toothless, look!" Hiccup took the satchel and showed it to Toothless who snarled at the sight.
The Terror awoke at the sound of snarling and flew out of the bag, aware that he had been caught. He flew in place confused looking at his new surroundings, confused that he was no longer near the beach and his pack mates.
"Aw, Toothless he's afraid," Hiccup said confusing confusion with fear. He looked up at the little dragon and called to it, "It's okay, come here." The terror simply obeyed, having remembered the scratching and rubs he's received from the human. It flew down and landed on Hiccup's shoulder resembling a lot like pirate's parrot.
Toothless glared at the Terror.
The Terror looked alarmingly smug.
"Look Toothless, " As if Toothless hadn't seen the smug dragon newly perched on his shoulder. "We should keep it." he continued.
Toothless snorted. Terrible idea.
"We have to name him," Hiccup declared. He scratched his head trying to come up with something, "What about Sneaky, since you sneaked into my bag." The Terror picked it's nose with it's tongue clearly unconcerned about his name.
"Okay well it's Sneaky. Say hi to Sneaky, Toothless." Toothless unsheathed his teeth and growled at the Terror.
It squawked in alarm, digging his claws into Hiccup.
"Ow!"
The Terror kept flapping its wings and digging his talons into Hiccup's shoulder while Toothless stood on his two back paws and trying to shue Sneaky away.
"Stop!" he cried out. Toothless backed off and the Terror took to the sky, flying opposite from the beach. His shoulder was hurting and his shirt was scratched worst of all the Terror had left.
"Aw, Toothless! You scared him of!" Hiccup turn to give Toothless an accusing look which Toothless took in with stride. He gave Hiccup his best innocent look which always worked on him.
Hiccup glare soften but he still looked annoyed. "Why did you do that? He was just a baby dragon." Hiccup complained.
He assumed that it had been a baby due to its size.
Toothless crooned not liking that the boy was mad at him.
Hiccup sighed and went to pet Toothless but his hand was pushed away and instead was nuzzled by Toothless's huge, triangular head. He got pushed backwards and was attacked by Toothless's tongue.
"Toothless!" He shrieked at the feeling of a rough tongue on his cheek along with drool. "Okay! Okay, you win! I'm not mad." Toothless retracted his tongue and sat back while Hiccup stood up and tried to wipe of some of the drool he was covered in. "You know this doesn't wash off!" He whined, taking off his vest to rinse it. Toothless let out his dragon laugh.
"Don't laugh!"
After leaving the cove he had gone back to the village and headed down to Gobber's forge where he had been assigned to dismantle old shields and melt down the scrap metal.
When night fell he said goodbye to Gobber and headed back home.
He climbed up the last stone steps to his home and with some effort opened the door to his home. His home was cold and dark and a bit empty compared to other. He couldnt fix two of those problems till his dad got home so he made his way to the back of the house towards the storage room where all the food was at. From there he grabbed a piece of bread with some left over cheese so he could eat. He closed the door and went back to the kitchen, picking out the moldy pieces from the bread.
It wasn't long before his father returned. He didn't say anything at first just shut the door and looked around until his eyes landed on him after that remove his helmet and hanged it on the hook by the door. Then he went to the other room so he could put his axe back on its place and then he went got some wood next to the fireplace it and lit it . While he was tending the fire Hiccup got up from his seat and went over so he could sit next to the fire. "How was your day?" his dad asked.
"It was okay." he responded. His dad grunted in response and straighten up, heading towards the kitchen.
"You eat anything 'Iccup?" he asked.
"Yes dad."
"Good, good." he murmured. "You should go get some rest you're gonna go with Gobber tomorrow, see if you can help him with anything."
"Okay." he went to hug his dad just as he was sitting down in his chair, then walked over to the stairs and started climbing
"Night 'Iccup."
"Good night dad!"
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It was late into the night when the familiar sounds of a dragon ring started ringing. His dad had barged into Hiccup's room with his axe in hand and helmet just to teetering off his head.
"Dad," He slipped out his bed and made his way over to him. His dad put both of his large hand on Hiccup's side and knelt down to look him in the eye.
"No Hiccup stay here," he had said, "don't go out till I come for you. "
He nodded and hugged his dad. "I love you dad."
"I love you too son, I'll be back."
"I'll be here."
So here he was, hiding under his bed trying to block out the screams from both vikings and dragons. He wondered if Toothless was out there and if he was what he was doing. He certainly hoped Toothless wasn't out there, he didn't want his friend getting hurt.
A thud on the roof brought him out of his thoughts. He stayed still. He knew not all dragons were bad. Toothless and Sneaky were dragons and they weren't mean. He hoped this dragon wasn't mean. He continued to listen to the scrapes and scratches that the dragon made until he was forced to leave the protection of under his bed once the roof caught fire.
The roof burst with red, hot flames bringing down pieces of wood that crashed down onto the floor. He let out a gasp once he saw the head of a Deadly Nadder peak in and scrambled towards his door, slamming it closed once he was outside his room. He waited out side his room in the hall hoping that the dragon wouldn't come in.
He heard a crash and a squawk from the dragon. He also heard what he thought sounded like his bed being thrown.
. He gulped and moved away from the door heading towards the stairs.
He was stepping off the last step when he heard more than saw the nadder bursting through his door, which caused him to jump and quickly rushed towards the door.
He slammed the door open and ran down the hill stumbling on his way down.
Whenever a dragon raid took place,his father had made sure Hiccup got to safety which in turn didn't let him see much of the raid. He had heard how bad it got from the women that hid, from the twins and from the destruction he saw once he was allowed back to the village but he could have never guessed it was this bad.
Flames. Flames were everywhere and on everything. And the dragons. The dragon filled the skies in swarms. There were hundreds of them, maybe even thousands, many more than Hiccup could have ever dreamed of and they were all destroying his home.
The air smelled pungent of burning wood, metal, blood and heat. He froze when he came across a viking fighting off a Gronkle and let out a strangled noise when the viking killed of the dragon, spilling its blood onto the ground and before moving to kill of even more. It was a horrible scene that would forever be engraved in his mind.
"Hiccup!" he heard his father scream from behind him. Hiccup turned around and saw a pack of Terrible Terrors flying his way and not just any pack of Terror but Sneaky and his pack. They were flying straight for him.
He froze and the pack of Terrors land on him chittering anxiously as if they weren't in the middle of being killed. "Hiccup!" his, father screamed while running towards him with his bloody axe at hand, "Run!"
He didn't.
Perhaps it was the horror of seeing dragons and viking alike being slaughtered by each other.
Or the sight of his home on fire, turning it into ash and rubble.
Or perhaps it was because he wanted to know what would become of his friends.
Either way, Sneaky chattered happily towards Hiccup, clinging onto his tunic, oblivious of Hiccups father, the chief of Berk, running towards him with a bloody axe in hand and anger in his eyes.
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If you didn't catch it Sneaky got killed off sorry.
Comment/review and thanks for reading. :)