Chapter 11: The Test Drive

The ship creaked as it made its way to the docks. It was almost in splinters and carrying more people than was probably safe, but it was the only boat left after the dragon's attack. And, it was normal as vikings to live precariously.

Stoick stood at what remained of the boat's bow as they made it to the docks, a scowl on his face. After yet another search for the dragon nest, they were still no closer to finding it than they were before they had disembarked. He was so sure of it this time, too.

Standing on the dock waiting for his life-long friend was Gobber, who'd been among the first to see the boat coming towards Berk. After spreading the news to the other villagers he waited to see which of his friends and colleagues had made it home, though judging by the condition of the ship he imagined it had not gone very well.

"I trust you found the nest," Gobber said in attempted optimism as Stoick was stepping off of the boat, taking his friend's basket for him and swinging it over his own shoulder.

"Not even close," he said shortly. He shook his head slightly as if to shake off a bit of his anger. After all, it wasn't Gobber he was mad at. It wasn't even so much the fact that they hadn't found the nest, but the fact that, once again, he was wrong about where to look for it.

He turned back to Gobber. "I trust things went well with the training."

"If by well you mean that all of your parenting troubles are over then, yeah. It went pretty well." Gobber's vague and somewhat cryptic answer confused Stoick, but as he opened his mouth to question it multiple villagers piped up when they saw him.

"Congratulations Stoick! Everyone is so relieved!"

"It's out with the old and in with the new, eh?"

"No one will miss that old nuisance!"

"The village is throwing a party to celebrate!"

Stoick simply stood shocked as one by one they congratulated him on what seemingly was his only daughter's death in training. As his steps faltered he turned to Gobber once again. "She's gone?" was all he could manage to ask.

"Yeah," Gobber slowly began. "Most afternoons. But who can blame her? The life of a celebrity is tolling and with her being a wee lass she could easily get trampled by the crowds tha-"

"Wait, what?" Stoick raised an eyebrow as his friend spoke. Now, from what he gathered, his daughter was not dead.

"Who'd've thought, eh?" Gobber had an amused look on his face. "Hicca doing so well in training and all. She just has this way with the beasts."

The chief's raised eyebrow melted into a smile that was almost proud. His only daughter was finally learning to be a viking, and was even excelling at it. With the small smile still on his face, the two friends made their way up to the village, discussing Hicca's progress with lighter hearts than before.

This was it. Today was the day. Today, Hicca and Toothless were going to fly for the first time. And not just glide over the water in the cove or use the wind coming up from the ocean to test out tail positions. They were going out and flying over the open ocean on the far side of the island, so they wouldn't be seen.

Hicca was nervous, but excited at the same time. Sure, they could end up falling to their deaths, but it was kind of awesome in her mind. Toothless was definitely anxious to get back into the air. Hicca realized that it must have been hard for the Night Fury. She would definitely be upset if something happened to her and she wasn't able to walk anymore.

Toothless was almost bouncing with excitement as they walked to the cliff where they were to take off into the air. His tail was moving side to side excitedly as Hicca strapped the saddle onto his wriggling body.

"Toothless! Toothless, hold still, come on!" Hicca laughed, but was having a hard time. The first time she had shown Toothless the saddle he had thought it was a game to play. He had leaned forward on his front paws with his backside moving from side to side. His tongue was sticking out of his mouth and his eyes were wide with playfulness. At least she didn't have to run after him right now.

She chuckled as she finally attached the saddle and checked the tail fin for anything that might be wrong.

"Well, looks like everything's good, bud. You ready to go?"

Toothless growled happily and sauntered over the the cliff's edge, sending back a look that seemed to say "Of course I'm ready, let's go!" Hicca wasn't as ready as he was, but she was ready nonetheless. Taking a deep breath in, she brought out a cheat sheet of all of the tail positions out from a pocket inside her fur vest. Then she took off her vest and put on the leather harness that would keep her hooked on the Toothless.

With a low growl, the black dragon lowered his body to the floor so his rider could climb onto his back easily. When Hicca had climbed on his back, she attached the harness to a small ring on the saddle under her so she wouldn't fall off of Toothless mid-flight. That's a scary thought, Hicca thought to herself. Falling off of Toothless was definitely something she didn't want to happen. With a deep breath, she cleared those thoughts from her mind, clipping her cheat sheet to the saddle in front of her. This is going to work, I know it will, she thought in her head repeatedly. She gripped the leather handle in front of her. It was time.

"Toothless," she paused and took a breath. "Go."

The dragon narrowed his electric green eyes at the edge of the cliff. Then, tucking his wings, he ran towards the cliff for a running start. Hicca readied her left foot against the peddle and shifted the gears enough to position the artificial tail fin best for take off. With a small leap off the edge of the cliff, Toothless spread his wings and they were airborne.

Wind was blowing through Hicca's hair as they glided, making the hair closest to her face come out of its braid. She would have found it exciting and exhilarating, if there wasn't a one-hundred-foot drop to the choppy waves of the ocean below. Checking the cheat sheet, she adjusted her footing as Toothless banked to the left and away from the cliff.

"Position four. No wait, six. Position six."

Toothless made a growl that was clearly in annoyance, but adjusted his wings to bank to the right. The air was crisp and cool against Hicca's face as Toothless's glided through the air. She could definitely get used to this kind of cold.

Just ahead, tall sea stacks towered over the ocean. There weren't many of them, Hicca observed, and maneuvering through them didn't seem difficult. So Hicca thought, why not give it a try?

"Okay Toothless, ready to try this?" Hicca called loud enough for the dragon to hear over the sound of rushing wind. Her response was a low hum and flattening ear plates. She took that as a yes. Quickly scanning her cheat sheet she changed the position of the wing, but only a second too late.

While Hicca was looking for the right tail position Toothless had bumped into a sea stack. Luckily, the hit wasn't head-on and Toothless was somewhat ready for impact.

"Sorry!" Hicca grabbed the leather handles in front of her and pulled on the saddle, urging Toothless to push off the rock. He managed to do so, only to bump into another rock formation.

With a growl, Toothless moved his head just enough to be able to smack Hicca in the face with one of his ear plates.

"Ow- okay! Okay, I'm on it. Position three, I think. No, position two." Hicca repositioned her left foot and the tail's new position allowed them to climb higher and higher into the air. The air began to clear of the fog that hung just above the ocean and the sea stacks became smaller below them. Hicca whooped and screamed in delight as they flew higher into the air.

Any previous worry had faded from the young girl's mind and was replaced with pure joy. Hicca looked down and the world beneath her shrank as they ascended. Her fear of flying was completely gone and what was left in its place was the need to be airborne.

"This is amazing!" She shouted into the air around her. "The wind in my ha- cheat sheet!" The wind had blown the tail position cheat sheet from its clip on the saddle. The care-free feeling was gone.

"NO STOP!" Hicca yelled to the inanimate object fluttering away in the wind as she desperately grabbed at it. Unfortunately, Toothless thought she was yelling for him to stop flying higher. She was able to grab the paper, but Toothless stopped, and the momentum kept Hicca moving higher until her harness had unhooked from the saddle. After an almost slow motion moment, they were free-falling towards the ocean at a rate faster than either of them liked. At the moment it seemed Toothless was the most afraid as he spun in circles with wide eyes.

"Level out! Just level ou- Ow!" Toothless's tail whacked Hicca in the face as she tried to get close enough to grab his saddle, sending her farther away from the dragon. The wind had blown them above land while they fell, and trees were coming into focus as she tried to blink away the tears caused by the rushing wind in her face.

"Come on, Toothless! Just stop spinning!" Somehow Toothless understood long enough for her to push through air towards him and grab the saddle strap on his back. Quickly clipping her harness into place she placed her foot on the prosthetic's pedal, opened the tail fin to a flying position, and pulled up on the saddle as hard as she could.

Toothless was able to level out and stop the free fall, but their momentum kept them moving diagonally towards the ground for a few seconds. The cheat sheet was still gripped in her right hand as her left held fast to the saddle. They were quickly approaching another cluster of sea stacks and at their rate of speed, flying up and over them wasn't an option. Hicca brought the sheet up to read, but the wind was relentlessly refusing to cooperate.

A look of horror flashed across Hicca's face, but was the sea stacks came closer, she was more determined than ever that she and Toothless could make it through. With her brows drawn in concentration she let go of the cheat sheet, gripped the saddle with both hands, and lowered her body - because aerodynamically it made sense in her mind. She didn't know exactly how she knew what tail positions would work, but somehow she and Toothless were twisting through the sea stacks at an extremely dangerous speed. Turning, barrel-rolling, and diving through and around the rocks. Together, they swerved and twisted through the misty air between sea stacks until the rocks became open seas.

"YES!" Hicca whooped and threw her arms up and Toothless howled happily into the open air. True exhilaration and freedom is what she felt, with her arms stretched out wide as the vast expanse of blue sky and sea called her to explore. Her smile was almost impossibly big as they glided towards the open ocean, and Toothless felt almost as free as he had before he was shot down. In a moment of happiness Toothless shot a plasma blast ahead of them as a celebration, which maybe it was to him, but as the blast turned to flames that they were quickly approaching, Hicca defeatedly dropped her arms.

"Oh, come on."

So… I obviously have some explaining to do.

But first, hello again! Yep, I'm back after practically a year of inactivity and not uploading anything and not even continuing to write this story. I'm really surprised that this story still has some reads after a year, but that's besides the point.

If you're among those who've been following this story since way back whenever I started it, and still came back to read this, I am deeply and truly sorry for how long I've been away. I feel terrible about how it all happened, but I'm keeping true to what I've said before and I'm not going to stop writing this story (a year late on the whole apology but hey, I'm trying!). So if you've stuck around, thank you, from the bottom of my lil heart.

That being said, welcome to everyone who's favorited or followed this story while I've been gone! I promise I'll try not to do this again! But thanks for reading this story and deciding it was entertaining enough to want to read more.

The next chapter is in the works, so look out for an update in the near future! I hope this chapter was worth the wait (it probably wasn't, I'm very very very sorry). Thank you all! I love all of you and I'll see you soon :)

- Estelle