Last updated: Dec 17.

'Tis: Jan 15.

Happy new year guys! Here's to hoping I can get more stuff out during the spring semester!

Read & Relax!


Hiccup

"—and when the dragon collapsed, everyone just went crazy!"

Toothless listened patiently as I went on. I was bringing him up to speed about life at home.

We were out in the woods again, by the ocean. Toothless and I were standing by a cliff, while Dragon and the babies were a little further back, resting in the sun. The day was pretty calm—which is a gift from the gods here on Berk. The sun was shining, there was a pleasant breeze whispering around us, and I could hear the calm crashing from the waves below us. It's just a really nice day to probably die.

Today, we were taking Toothless's flight training to the next level: flight with a rider. He and I had been practicing for days, but we were always tethered to a tree or something whenever we did so. This time, we would be flying together solo.

With our luck, one of us was probably gonna die.

I tried to shake away the thought, but it lingered in the back of my mind. Rambling to Toothless was sort of helping me vent out some of my nerves, and he always insisted on hearing about my day anyway. I jumped from one subject to another. At one point I was talking about Dragon Training, then later I realized I'd switched over to talking about my day at the forge with Gobber. In my defense, my mind was all over the place—plus, I was busy adjusting Toothless's saddle.

Another change of topic came to mind, but I almost hesitated to start it. "…After classes today, Gobber announced that we were ready for the pre-exams." My fingers paused when I was about to loop one of Toothless's belts into place.

I couldn't help but feel a little…trapped. While I'd been training Toothless, I'd been picking up a few tricks that I used in the Ring. Subduing dragons with chin scratches and sweet smelling grass had gotten them off my back, and it let me get away from classes sooner, but it also drew more attention toward me. At this point, all I wanted was to take care of Toothless—I didn't have time for all this other junk. But nooo, things are never that simple for Hiccup Haddock.

Everyone thinks all my tricks in the Ring are some miracles from the gods—they thought I was becoming more like them. They were expecting me to win. Meanwhile, I just wanted this all to go away.

Toothless nudged me in the head, leaving moisture and warmth from his breath to linger. Even though he now had the face of a dragon, I could still see the human in his eyes. He could probably feel all the worry rolling off of me. I tried to smile.

"C'mon." I flicked his ear. "Let's finish this up."

He nodded.


Toothless

Once we got to the edge of the cliff, a vast ocean greeted us. If I looked down, I could see the rocky bottom of the cliff. If someone was pushed off this cliff, his body would probably become nothing but a splat of blood and a few limbs.

When Hiccup and I were kids, we would sometimes wander around our house on winter evenings, looking for bugs that had sought refuge from the bitter weather. We had made a game out of it, and sometimes, Dad would encourage us to kill them with our bare palms. We did this to prove which ones Hiccup or I had found first. Sometimes the bugs would still be moving even after we'd struck them.

Now, as I looked down from the cliffside, I suddenly got the horrific image of a human reduced to splat and still trying to crawl away.

I felt a little sick.

"Okay, are you ready?" Hiccup asked as he adjusted his flight gear. It was a leather vest with an extension that tethered him to my saddle. This meant that, essentially, the only things that were keeping my brother on my back were two slabs of leather and some rope.

Crap.

"You are so gonna die," I growled as he climbed on. I could barely feel him climb onto my back. Sure, he jostled me a little, but my bodily strength was canceling out the effect of any weight he might have.

Hiccup tugged on the rope, and shifted around behind me. "Okay." He placed a hand on my neck. "Everything checks out. Ready to go?"

I grunted. "Not really."

I could almost sense Hiccup rolling his eyes. "Oh, are you still being grouchy?"

"Oh shut it, Hic." I smacked him with my ear. "My sanity is returning to me."

"Don't tell me you're chickening out now!"

We bickered a little more, until we were both in a huff. Finally though, he won the debate. Growling, I backed up a few feet from the cliff. Dragon and the hoard of baby dragons stayed in their sunny, meadow-like area. Even though the Stormcutter watched with rapt interest, the babies were too busy play fighting with one another to notice us.

As soon as I'd backed away far enough, I took a running start. I got closer and closer to the cliff's edge, and I spread out my wings. I could already feel the air gathering under them, prepared to pull me off the ground when I was ready. Unfortunately, I didn't really make it that easy. As soon as the cliff got too close, I started second guessing myself. The heat of the moment vanished, and I was not ready to risk Hiccup's safety like this.

I skidded to a jerky stop, ending my slide waaay too close to the edge. Hiccup shouted "Woah!" as he lost his balance from on top of me.

He grappled for purchase. "What happened?" he asked as I quickly backed up from the cliff.

I strained to see him, and I tried to shake my head. "This is a terrible idea."

"Hey." He placed his hand on my head and asked carefully, "Are you okay?"

"Obviously no."

Hiccup undid his strap and slid off my back. Once he was by my side, he gave me a look. He nodded to the saddle and said, "C'mon. We need to get off the ground."

Shaking my head, my eyes roamed from the cliff to Hiccup. My mind returned to the thought of the dead bugs. Gods dammit, he be nothing but a mangle of limbs down there if he fell. Would I even be able to find him at all if he fell into the ocean?

No. Nope. There was no way I was doing this. It was too risky.

I'll just…tell Dragon that he can carry Hiccup instead, I reasoned. I can handle the supplies and I'll keep working on those solo flights. No problem. Everyone wins, right?

As I considered all of this, I didn't notice Hiccup walk over to the cliffside. He peered over the edge himself before studying me with that look on his face. It was the look he makes when he's trying to solve a problem in his head. I hate it when he makes that face, and because I didn't notice it, I wouldn't realize what was coming until it was too late.


Hiccup

Gods, he was being a mother hen again. I'd lived with him for almost fifteen years; no one knew him better than me. It was easy to put two and two together, really.

I was miffed.

We'd been planning this for days now, and I quickly decided that I wasn't going to let him off easy. I had no problem giving him a heart attack if it would make him fly with me. I mustered up all the courage I had.

Let's do this.

I casually walked a little closer to the cliff, humming an innocent tune as I did. Dragon was eyeing me cautiously. I smiled and waved before putting my plan into action.

I cupped my hands around my mouth and called, "Hey, Toothless!"

Toothless looked up, and his eyes quickly widened. I couldn't hide the smug look on my face as he took in more of my situation. He could probably already see where this was going.

I looked down the cliff casually and said, "I wonder how long it would take me to reach the bottom." Then, before he could do so much as squawk, I jumped.

It was a suicidal idea, yeah, but in my defense, I needed to work with what I had.

If it's any compensation OH MY GODS, I thought riding Dragon was insane!? I was free falling! In the sky. To my death! Everyone is right: I am insane!

If I was screaming, the howling wind in my ears drowned it out. My fingers became ice, and My stomach churned from that sick, sick, my-body-is-not-on-the-ground-where-it-should-be sensation. My life didn't flash before my eyes or anything, but my entire body was tense, waiting for impact.

I swear, I do trust my brother, but I think a bit of fear-induced doubt was only natural. It was probably a little healthy even.

The rescue took much longer than I'd hoped, but Toothless's screech finally reached my ears. He swooped in and snatched me up with ease. I don't know how I ended up on his back; honestly, I'd thought he'd try to grab me with his talons, but whatever. My fingers shook as I immediately hooked myself into the saddle.

Toothless loudly berated me. He probably said a few things he didn't mean, and I could almost hear every one of his curses. Frankly, I was too relieved to care.

He tried to turn back to land, but I immediately started screaming my protests.

"Wait! Let's keep going!"

He roared.

I think the adrenaline was making my voice shake. "Lo-Look. I know you're mad but—"

An ear piercing shriek cut me off.

I snapped back, "I don't care!" I tried to steer him away from the cliff. "I'm ready! Let's do this!"

We wasted another fifteen minutes arguing. Toothless probably didn't realize that we were still cruising through the air as we shouted at each other over the wind. I don't know when the bickering ended, but soon enough, Toothless was huffily flying through the air—no longer fighting to land us.

As I calmed down, I could look at my surroundings again. As always, I was speechless. I can hardly imagine a more amazing place than up there, in the sky. The world seemed so…so small…but so big at the same time. No matter how far I looked, I couldn't see the edge of the world. Maybe there was none, I realized. Maybe the world went on forever and ever. Maybe there was an infinite number of countries and people out there, and no man would ever be able to meet them all. Suddenly, the Barbaric Archipelago seemed so small, so…insignificant.

Was this wanderlust?

I first heard the word from the traders that stopped by Berk. They used it a lot when they talked about some of the passengers they sometimes transported. I used to love listening to the stories they told. I would hide under the crates with Toothless, listening to the adults talk about the traders's travels. I stopped listening to the stories after Snotlout told me that the traders were only telling tall tales and told me that I was stupid for believing them all.

Now I was thinking about those "tall tales" again. I was thinking about the wanderlust.

We kept going on. As Toothless swooped more and swung around an obstacle course of sea stacks, he began building up speed. I pressed myself closer to his back as he went faster and faster. His streamlined body was perfect for this sort of flying.

Somewhere along the way, Dragon had taken flight, and now he flanked us on our right. Dragon roared to grab Toothless's attention. He then started doing some air tricks, dive bombing and back loops and the like. Toothless was always the competitive one. He copied and succeeded in every challenge Dragon threw at him, and I was cheering him on along the way.

If we'd done this a few weeks back, I'd probably have been sick with fear.

Of course, all things come to an end eventually, but I was still disappointed when we had to land. We'd been in the air longer than I'd realized. The sun was now setting, and it was painting a warm glow over the island and the sky above. We did one last trick before we flew back to the cliffside. My strap had nearly come loose, but I made sure that it went unnoticed.

Once we were back on the island, I nearly stumbled off of Toothless's back.

"Oh. My. Gods." I abandoned the saddle, and ran in front of Toothless. "That was amazing!" I punched him in the shoulder. "You're amazing! We-we actually—gah!"

Toothless pounced on me, and I was on my back with a thump!

"Ah gez." I tried to sit up. "What was that for?"

Toothless growled at me. You damn well know what you did! I could imagine his saying.

I scoffed. "You, my friend, are dramatic."

He growled even lower.

"Think you can keep me down, eh?" I smirked before I wrapped my arms around his neck. I couldn't exactly pull him into a headlock like this.

Toothless was not amused.

"C'mon, bud!" I strained myself. "Fight me!"

Instead, he got onto his feet. He was soon on his hind legs, and I was dangling off his neck like some sick trophy necklace.

For a minute there, I thought he might dangle me over the cliff, but no. Instead, he moved us away from the cliff, in the direction of the cave. Dragon soon joined us with the babies in tow.

"Oh c'mon! Are you really that mad?"

He grunted.

"Toothless, don't be a baby!"

Later, I would find myself confined to the cave for the rest of the evening. Mom would kill me for coming home late, and I think that was Toothless's plan all along. It was so worth it.


Honestly, I was going to finish this chapter with Toothless's POV, but he didn't really have much to say. He was peeved, and he had his sweet, sweet, Dragon-inspired revenge.

…Plus, he secretly enjoyed getting to fly with his bro (just don't tell Hiccup that.)

twilight sparkle: I will. One of these days... Hm. that's an interesting way of looking at it. Yeah. Then I guess it is. *gives you some Italian kisses*

—Tenchiko