Last updated: Jan 15, 2018

Today is May 3, 2018

...Sue me.

((I know it's been a while, but what happened to the dang line divider? I can't find it among the doc manager tools. Until I can resolve this, have some x's between my notes and the actual story)).

Read and Relax, and see the end notes for some announcements!


Hiccup

I raced down the familiar pathway. My heart thundered, and I was possibly trembling, but I couldn't say for sure. The buzzing panic bouncing around in my head was getting in the way. I was practically counting down the seconds spent as I ran for the village. For once I didn't trip or stumble as I sprinted through the untamed landscape.

You're probably wondering what the heck is going wrong this time, am I right? Well…

Let's go back to maybe an hour or so earlier. Toothless and I had been out flying again. My brother was getting better at staying airborne; he no longer made a big deal about carrying me. In fact, I think he enjoyed it. Neither of us were ready to do any stunts or anything yet—we aren't that crazy!—but I was convinced that we were ready to go. Which is great because my time was running out.

"Why do the gods like to put me through the wringer?" I'd asked myself quietly.

We had been in the air for a while by now, gliding over the vast ocean for our trial run. A small bag of basic supplies was strapped to Toothless's saddle, so we could see how much he could carry alongside my own meagre weight.

Toothless crooned, as though asking me, "What's eating ya?"

"Well let's see," I stated before ticking off our issues one finger at a time, "I've accidentally bested everyone in class, Astrid's still ticked with me, at this rate I'm gonna be picked to kill the Nightmare so there goes my unnoticeable presence—oh don't look at me like that!—and if Gothi picks me—"

My ramblings were abruptly cut short when a spear wizzed through the air. I grabbed the saddle to urge Toothless away just in time, but the whoosh of the spear brushed so close to my head. I nearly lost my balance, and my heart began hammering as I looked for the spear's owner.

Toothless growled and his ears perked up as he zeroed in on a speck over the ocean.

"Toothless, pull up," I ordered. "Into the clouds."

Toothless nodded curtly, and we were soon inside the frigid mist and safely out of sight.

I reached into my supply bag to fish out my spyglass, and I tried to train it on the speck. We were too high up to hear anything, but once I made out the boat, the furious faces were easy to see. I recognized a good number of them: Dagmar the Dangerous, Frode the Frightening, Silent Sven's cousin Thunderous Torben…

All of them were Berkians—seasoned warriors who had joined my dad on his hunt.

Uh oh.

I followed the lone boat, counting off every head on board.

Where were the other boats? How many casualties were there?

I tallied them up several times until I was sure that every volunteer was accounted for, thank Thor. They were all overcrowding the boat, disheveled and clearly still in battle mode.

Another projectile was thrown in our direction!

"Oh SHOOT!" We barely missed being hit with a bola. "Are you sure we're completely out of sight?"

Indignant, Toothless growled. He was definitely certain, but we had to admit that his black body wasn't easy to hide in a white cloud.

"Okay, I trust you, but…"

I watched as some vikings pointed in our general direction and shouted over to someone. A large form pushed through the crowd to see us better, and I quickly realized that it was—

"Alright, it's time to go," I said, rapidly tapping Toothless's head. "Now!"

Toothless roared in agreement before turning us around. We risked compromising our cloud coverage, but we shot out of there as quickly as possible.

After zipping through the air, we arrived back at the cove in record time. I quickly unhooked my supplies and abandoned them next to a particularly large boulder. Dragon and the little ones welcomed us, of course, but I could barely get out a hello before I ran off. The chirping baby dragons were getting in the way while I made my escape.

"SorryguysgottagettothevillagewegotcaughtIneedtogo!"

My face was like ice from the flight, and my hair was a windswept mess by the time I made it to the village. I tried fixing both while I watched the activity before me. Vikings were milling about as usual, moving livestock and supplies from one place to another. It was wash day, so most of the women were coming to or from their houses, preparing to wipe the mud and blood of the week off their clothes. No one seemed to be running for the docs, thankfully.

I hurried to my house and trampled up the stairs as my thoughts scrambled for purchase in my brain. "Okay okay okay I need to think this through." I combed my fingers through my hair while I talked to myself. "They could have seen me, but—" I paused and sucked in a sharp breath. "They definitely saw Toothless." I started pacing the length of my room in the space between my bed and Toothless's. "Oh crap, this could be a disaster."

I was catastrophizing this, and I knew it. Two sightings of Toothless, on two separate occasions when I'd been careless enough to get him caught, would not be the end of the world. Not as long as either sightings remain unmentioned in the same conversation.

I tried to rationalize: I was too far away. They wouldn't note some random little dragon at sea when there are billions of them out in the world. Even if they did…they wouldn't have seen me. I'm too small. Nobody would be able to put two and two together.

I considered hiding out at the forge with Gobber until the boats came to shore. Hammering away at some scrap of metal sounded like a relief, but would Gobber question my early appearance?

Last time I worked at the smithy, he had dropped a million hints about his concerns. He was starting to catch on too.

So I stayed in the hut, far from everyone else but close enough to hear them spy the boats from the distance. When I heard the first shouts ripple through the village, I peeked out of the hut and took my time walking to the docks. I only needed to be present in case they saw me riding Toothless; it would be a while before people started chattering about things like dragon sightings.

"There ye are, boyo!" Gobber clapped my shoulders from behind, making me jump with a yelp. He laughed gleefully at my expense.

"Glad to see you too, Gobber. Thanks for the heart attack"

Gobber was still chortling as he shook his head. "Ah I was just mess'n around, 'iccup, ye know that."

I rolled my eyes but smiled. "Yeah yeah."

"Yer back a little early, no?"

I tensed. "Oh uh, yeah…yeah I just uh…"

"Yeh ain't lett'n up on yer training when we'r near'n the finish line, are ye?" he asked.

"My wha—"

"Ah no matter!" Gobber interrupted before clapping me on the back. "Yeh made it in time to greet yer father, so I'll let it slide."

"Uh…" Before I could respond, I realized that we'd made it to the docks. The boat my dad was on was approaching, close enough for him to cast the rope to shore. Another viking caught it and tied it to the post before reeling the boat closer.

The unfortunate thing was in even worse shape than I'd thought. It was battered and burnt, and I could see portions of wood that had been bitten, no, ripped off! Dad and a few of the stronger vikings pulled the more injured crew members out of the boat. None of them seemed worse off than some head wounds and new battle scars from claws and teeth. That was a relief. Gothi was ushered through the crowd, and the healer set to work immediately.

"Stoick!"

Mom pushed through the crowd, and Dad turned just in time to catch her into an embrace. I smiled as I watched their reunion. As much as Toothless and I gave them flack about their PDA, this moment was pretty heartwarming in spite of everything else weighing me down.

Gobber gave me a pat on the shoulder before he made his way through the crowd to meet up with my parents.

"They were hit pretty hard this time, huh?"

I jumped at the sudden voice. Astrid smirked. In turn, I slumped, exasperated. "What do you want this time?"

"Nothing," she replied.

I didn't believe her.

She didn't leave my side as more vikings began milling around the beat up boat and crew. Some of the more able-bodied men were already dragging the boat away, and several families were reuniting with members of the crew.

Many, many people began approaching my parents, some with sad eyes and others with a spring in their steps. As I watched them interact without being able to hear a word, Dad looked just as confused as I felt.

"So you came back early today, I see," Astrid said. "Any reason why?"

I shrugged. "I was bored. There was nothing better to do."

"Really?"

"And what about you?" I quickly turned the question back on her. "Shouldn't you still be training?"

She shrugged just as easily. "I can get bored too, you know."

I grunted instead of replying, and we fell into a tense bout of silence. Eventually I caught sight of my parents and Gobber talking, and their expressions became grim. Were they talking about the hunt? The recent dragon attack? Was Mom talking about Toothless?

I felt a pang of guilt about the last one. As though she could sense my thoughts, Astrid's eyes began boring into me again. I tried my best to ignore her.

Dad's eyes trailed over his people as he listened to Mom. Then he caught sight of me. Suddenly self-conscious, I tried to wave back. Gobber, Mom, and Dad exchanged a few more words before Dad beckoned me over.

"Please tell me you'll tell them."

I glanced at Astrid. "There's nothing for me to tell."

"Liar."

"Why do you care?" I finally snapped. "Just leave me alone."

She didn't try to stop me, which I was grateful for. I could guess why she was so determined to catch me red handed. My "improvement" in the Ring might have given me more free time with Toothless, but it was also too suspicious. She was probably just looking for something incriminating that would make me loose credibility in class.

Why she hasn't outright accused me of anything yet is beyond me.

I straightened up as I approached my parents. Dad and I were awkward together at best, and I certainly wasn't going to open the conversation this time around. At least, that was the plan. After a bit of awkward shuffling and attempts at starting from Dad, I cut him some slack and mumbled a half hearted "Hey, Dad."

Dad nodded curtly before placing a hand on my shoulder. It was warm but heavy, burdening in a way. "It seems like we have much to talk about tonight," Dad said.

"Uh…tonight?" I asked.

Mom elaborated. "Your father and I need to tend to the returning warriors." She gestured to the broken ship and the grizzled vikings who were tending to the damages. "After that, there's the village to manage, and…"

"We can talk about Toothless tonight in the Mead Hall," Dad finished. He squeezed my shoulder, which, I guess, was supposed to be comforting? "We'll find him, son. I promise."

I nodded and did my best to avoid eye contact.

XxXxX

The clatter and clamoring of viking men and women was rowdier than normal—and that's saying something. The stench of unwashed bodies was even stronger thanks to the returning party's rank clothes. They were probably still nasty from the decaying guts and blood of dragons they'd killed.

I cringed and shivered.

The heat from everyone's bodies filled up the suddenly compact space. It easily made up for the chill outside.

In the Mead Hall, nobody hesitated to crowd around the returning scouts, looking for tales of dragon killing exploits and other heroic, glorious adventures. The men handled the attention with as much humility as a blue-blooded Roman, and it was easy to pick out the exaggerators among them. Snotlout and the twins listened raptly to one man's obvious tall tale. He was saying he'd fought three angry Scauldrons with nothing but his bare fists and a dead fish. Ruff and Tuff shouted for more gorey stories, and they sometimes dissolved into chanting. They would pound on the table with their fists whenever that happened.

"MORE GORE! MORE GORE!"

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

"Could you guys tone it down?" Fishlegs asked as he scooped up his plate and drink to keep them away from the table. He tried to balance his food on his lap, and I soon followed his example when Ruffnut's flailing fist nearly knocked over my cup.

Astrid took it a step further and left the table entirely. Our eyes locked for a moment before we both turned away in a huff. Fishlegs was the only one to notice, and he openly gaped at me.

Snotlout, however, spoke up before Fishlegs could point anything out. "Oh lighten up Fishface!" He punched Fishlegs's shoulder, sending the latter's plate clattering to the ground.

"Aw man…"

I sighed and gave Fishlegs my plate. "I'm not hungry." I quickly excused myself from the table. None of them missed me.

I elbowed my way through the crowd, hoping to slip away while I still could. Everyone was too distracted by blatant fibs and newfound access to mead. They wouldn't be talking about any recent dragon sightings tonight. I didn't hear the words "black" or "dragon" so much as implied in any conversations.

That's fine by me. Besides I'd much rather do some more packing for my trip tonight.

Unfortunately, even though I was small, I couldn't blend in well with this crowd of giants.

"Hiccup!" someone called. It was Mom. She waved me over.

I didn't want to disobey her this evening, so I weaved my way through the crowd towards her. Dad was with her, talking heartily among several of the clan heads and members of the council. He brightened up even more as soon as he spotted me.

"Ah, there you are!" he boomed. "Don't just stand there; come!"

Welp. No running away now.

"Uhhhh…hey, Dad." I waved awkwardly as the other vikings gave me room to sit at the table. "What's going on?"

My dad chuckled. "'What's going on' he asks." Everyone else laughed along with him, and I blushed. He patted me on the back, and his enthusiasm was so great that he nearly sent me toppling. He continued to laugh, oblivious. "What's going on is that I hear that my son is showing some promise."

"Huh?"

"In the Ring, sweetheart," Mom supplied kindly.

"Oh." Right…crap.

"And to think!" Dad continued. "My son, my first born, finally growing into his fighting instincts! Who would've thought!"

The rest of the men and women at the table joined in their chief's joy. They regaled to him all of my "exploits" in the Ring. If you ask me, they made me out to be better and fiercer than I really was. All I ever did was fling some eel and use some dragon nip.

I know that vikings exaggerated their war stories to give a better story and all, but it also made me want to hide under the table. Actually, I probably would have done just that if Mom didn't keep motioning for me to sit up straight.

"I'm so sorry, dear," she murmured under the loud talking around us. "I know this is uncomfortable, but let him enjoy himself, please? He could use a bit of good news—what with the failed hunt and…" she swallowed "your brother on top of that…"

Well crud, what was I supposed to say to that? I glanced at my Dad, seeing the clamor and loud laughter in a new light. It…was a little but rowdier than normal…

I had to wonder how Dad was taking it, the blow of a failed scouting trip on top of the loss of a son. …Gods this sucked.

On the other hand…

I gave Mom's hand a quick squeeze.

Until I could get Toothless back to normal, I decided, I could grin and bear the embarrassment. For Dad's sake and Toothless's


Okay so announcements!

1. I now have a tumblr account! Look for tenchikotheauthor on tumblr to see reblogs of other people's fanart, fan discussions, fanfiction, and other cool stuff covering my favorite fandoms. (Gravity Falls, HTTYD, Fullmetal Alchemist, Rise of the Guardians/Guardians of Childhood, Bendy and the ink Machine, and much much more!)

Plus, follow my hashtag #tenchiko tries to write to remain up to date on my writing progress, receive announcements on projects and other related content. Sometimes you'll also be able to see quick shorts and story drafts that I choose to share through Google Drive.

2. The first three chapters of this fic are slated for alteration! Yeah I'm gonna be cleaning it up a little and making the intro a little stronger than it currently is. So enjoy the current versions while they're still here because soon they're gonna be outta here!

3. After I complete the new alterations, I will be posting this fic on my new AO3 account! I haven't posted anything on there yet, but believe me, I will soon enough. This fic will also begin getting posted on tumblr after the cleanup.

Thank you for all your support! The end of part 1 and the next portion of our boys's adventure will be coming in hot, I promise.

Reply to twilight sparkle: Glad to hear that the last addition was so relatable! I'm happy to be receiving good feedback on this alternate version of the "test flight". Astrid and Hiccup have been given a more complex relationship in my story, so I can promise you that Astrid will definitely be having more frequent confrontational interactions with him in the future than in the movies. Here's to hoping it suits yer fancy.

Oh and I don't really care who does or doesn't know my gender, so for the record EVERYONE I am a GIRL. My user name is meant to mimic that of a Japanese female name and therefore combines words from the language (I was an otaku once, okay?). It translates to "Child of Heaven and Earth". And don't worry about it; I've done stranger things. I'm too asexual to really worry about it anyway.

—Tenchiko