And as Hiccup had said, he began searching for his mother in every direction that came to mind, but as the days turned to weeks and the weeks turned to months he started searching for another purpose and forgot his old.
His new priority was to help and rescue dragons in need, though, his first priority never left his mind. It just kept itself far behind everything else.
Hiccup had done plenty of things as the nine months passed by and the winter was closing up on Berk. He finally finished his friend's saddles, learned quite a lot from new species that decided to show up some times, he had managed to convince Gobber on upgrading the tools and practically the whole forge, and finally had he finished his flight suit.
And as the months had passed Astrid and Hiccup's relationship grew and so did the village. They became closer and the village got a few upgrades here and there, but not everything was finished just yet. Hiccup's plans and blueprints of inventions, that would help the village, and inventions were finally in official use. Vikings worked from dusk to dawn every day; enthusiastic with the plans from their heir. It only took them a few seconds of overlooking the blueprints (and getting an explanation) and voila! They agreed and waited for their tasks.
The daily plans, of each workable Berkian, held the different tasks they were given in small and big groups; constructing, planning, gathering wood and much needed material and so on. Hiccup on the other hand was given a completely different task. Namely being the chief for this ongoing project, as he would call it himself.
In opinion, he didn't mind at all since he was just as enthusiastic as his workers, but each day spent on working he would be praised by his father a little more than the day before; also brought one step forward to earning the title Chief of the Hooligan Tribe.
By the constant praise he got every evening at home, he had promised Toothless some extra Icelandic cod if he got him out of the rather awkward conversation. And Toothless being, well, Toothless, didn't hesitate to approve on the offer. After all, he is a dragon. And because of the deal he now got away much easier.
As for his friends, they couldn't get away that easily from their work. Not that all of them wanted to either. They were happy to help Hiccup with everything. The girls helped Hiccup (whenever he was there and not by the edge of the world) planning and decorating and cleaning with the other workable women on Berk. As for the boys, they helped with the manly work like constructing and getting the heavy, needed, material closer to town. Of course being manly doesn't mean: don't use your dragons.
Hiccup was having his daily check up on the village, which had become a habit after his long period as acting chief, with his loyal best friend, greeting everyone he passed by with a smile and a small wave.
"On your daily check up again I presume?" Hiccup spun around to find a certain Hofferson smiling at him. Her face was covered with sot from cleaning all day and she carried a large pile of wood on her shoulder.
"Let me help you with that," Hiccup said, gently taking a hold of the planks and pulled her closer to lightly peck her lips. He took the planks out of her grip and into his own.
"Thank you kind sir," Astrid teased with a slightly crooked smile and felt the heavy weight on her shoulder lessen.
Hiccup bumped the wood higher up in his arms and rested them against his left shoulder. They started walking again. "So how is the new saddle for Stormfly?" Hiccup asked, keeping an eye on their surroundings to make sure everything is a problem free progress.
"It's remarkable," Astrid laughed. "I can finally keep my axe on the saddle without personal contact," Hiccup chuckled.
"And I guess that's a good thing?" Astrid nodded.
"Any problems with Toothless's saddle?" Hiccup laughed nervously, knowing she wouldn't be exactly what you would call happy about this.
"Not exactly, though, we would like to show something Toothless and I have been working on."
"It's not another one of your stunts right?"
"I'm not promising anything," Astrid rolled her eyes. "Besides, we haven't exactly tried it out yet."
"Then it better not be dangerous," Astrid said firmly, staring at him seriously.
"Still not promising anything," Hiccup said in a singing tone, walking a little in the lead.
Not an hour passed before the youths were up in the air testing, for the millionth time, their saddles while waiting for Hiccup to show up. Astrid was looking around frantically in search for her boyfriend, expecting him to make a dramatic entrance, like always, and the others lay back in their saddles, playing with the foot pedals.
"How can he make such awesome saddles but not be on time?" Snotlout complained, kicking the foot pedal for the hundredth time. As if on cue a dragon screeched behind them and something black swooped past them. The signaling Night Fury turned direction towards them in a calm pace, slow enough to catch up to them. His rider opened his helmet.
"First of all, thank you for the compliment and second, I didn't set any time for you to come," Hiccup said with a frown. Snotlout rolled his eyes, sitting up straight and holding onto Hookfang's horns. Tuffnut flew, having dragged Barf and his sister with him, in front of them
"You should totally give us more free from working all day, because I could really need some time to blow things up," He said enthusiastically on what Hiccup expected no one to be. Of course, he is Tuffnut after all.
"Tuffnut, that was a one timer," Hiccup said, deepening - if that was even possible - his frown. "And why would I even consider giving you time to blow things up?!" Tuffnut opened his mouth. "Don't answer that," He closed it again, flying over to his previous spot in their formation.
"So Hiccup, what are you going to show us?" Fishlegs butted in from his left side.
"Nah, just some upgrades, nothing big," Hiccup chuckled as if it was nothing.
"Nothing big? So we came up here for nothing," Snotlout muttered the last sentence.
"If you don't want to see I can just send you back to work," Hiccup grinned. Snotlout shot up at the mention of work, waving his hands in front of him in a gesture that fitted almost perfectly to his sentence.
"No, no, no that's fine-everything's good! Yeah, I'll watch-of course I will, tch-
"Snotlout…," Astrid growled threateningly.
"Okay, I'm just going over there," Snotlout chuckled nervously, steering Hookfang away from Stormfly and Astrid. Astrid grinned.
"Then let's see it," Astrid smiled towards Hiccup.
"Alright bud, you ready?" Toothless's eyes widened as he heard the familiar click of the lever that kept his fake tail fin on automatic and a flick of a helmet. He growled warningly. "Come on, Toothless! It'll be fine," Hiccup encouraged him with a pat on the saddle, removing his safety gear from the saddle.
"Something tells me this will be dangerous," Fishlegs squeaked, covering his eyes.
"Hiccup I don't think you should-
"Come on Astrid, we've done this plenty of times!" Hiccup said, holding him up on the saddle for a little longer. "Well, half of it," he muttered. He turned to Astrid and leaned a little to the side. "See ya," He called, falling side-ways off the saddle.
"Hiccup!" The teens yelled after him. Toothless growled, diving after his rider. "WHOHOOO! YEAH BABY!" Hiccup yelled, closing his eyes for a second and opening them again to be met by a pair of neon green eyes. Toothless flicked his tongue out of his gums with a coo, looking downwards at the skies below. Hiccup looked down and counted silently to five. When his thoughts counted five he saw the ocean coming in close and in a quick move he bent his knees closer to his chest, pushed his arms through two loops and stretched them out.
"YEAH!" Hiccup yelled as both he and Toothless was taken gently by the air beneath their wings. Both thrown gently up a few stages before flying smoothly towards Berk with wide grins.
"Are you insane?!" Astrid's yelled from beside him. Hiccup chuckled, pressing a button on his chest armor before smoothing out his uneven flying. "When did you make this?" She asked, looking at the orange red back fin that popped up on his back.
"I had some free time!" He called back through his helmet that muffled his voice.
"This is amazing!" Fishlegs came in on the opposite side, though, struggling to keep up. "Do you know how much we can learn from this?! We can learn how to fly in on attacks or we could even "Blah, blah, blah," Snotlout rolled his eyes. "You can learn all that after you've made me one too."
"Make that two!" The twins yelled in unison behind them.
"I'm not making any promises-
"HICCUP!" His angry, yet worried, father yelled from outside the forge. Vikings stopped to look up in the air, finding their heir…flying?
"Oh man," Hiccup muttered, putting his arms to his sides and turned around quickly to the others before letting his wings keep him steady once again. "You should get back to work, I'll meet you guys later," He called out before calling for his dragon to come get him. He turned around quickly and grabbed the handle of his saddle, letting him in a lying position. Gently, he removed the loops around his armored forearms and pulled himself into a sitting position right before the two landed in front of a rather unamused Viking.
"What were you thinking doing up there without your dragon?!" Stoick snapped, stopping a foot away with arms crossed over his chest. Gobber wobbled, on his wooden leg, over to the two with the opposite reaction than his father.
"Forget that! How did you even fly without a dragon?" Gobber asked dumbfounded but with a gleeful smile.
"As mentioned, I had some free time," Hiccup chuckled nervously, picking up one of his wings before slowly rolling it back into its place. He turned back to his father who had his fingers rubbing his eyes in irritation. "Relax dad, Toothless got my back! And who knows? It may come in handy too."
"Alright, alright, but don't use it unless it is absolutely necessary," Stoick said firmly, pointing a finger to mark his statement.
"Fine," Hiccup sighed in defeat, rolling down the other wing. Stoick heard whispers behind him and turned around to find most of the Vikings watching them.
"Well what are you all looking at? Get back to work!" Stoick commanded them in which they obeyed almost instantly.
"I'll just be going now," Hiccup muttered, walking away when he felt someone grab a hold of his neck armor.
"Oh no you won't," Stoick said, letting go to be careful not to strangle him. "You still got work young man," Hiccup groaned, turning in the opposite direction of his house - in which he decided to head back to before his father grabbed him – to work.