So, hehe, don't hate me? anyone who is still keeping track anyway. I've been gone for a while. I know. Don't really have any excuses other than writers block. I like the way this story is shaping and I want to continue, but there isn't much support. Yes I know it's totally my fault, regular posts = more views and reviews. That being said I am very grateful to those of you who do like the story and special thanks to those who reviewed!
And to say sorry here is an extra long chapter!
In answer to the anonymous question about other vikings, never fear it's not to far away. Should be in the next few chapters. Hiccup and Toothless are gonna go on a little sleep away trip :)
Now, so as not to keep you all waiting,
Hiccup moved from tree tops, to dragon back, to cliffside with as much ease as his friends were able to fly. With his increasing speed, strength, and agility, he could easily keep pace with the slower of his friends and was even able to sometimes catch up to Bree and Bash. However Hiccup was still bothered by the matter of his own flight.
It wasn't until a few years later that the answer finally came to him. It was a bright day and he had just made it back to the top of the cliffs and was taking a minute before jumping again. As he was looking out over the nest he spotted a Fourwing (Stormcutter) and watched as she jumped and spread her limbs letting the wind catch, Hiccup watched as the great dragon simply allowed the air to lift it along its desired path. Although he had seen this tactic many times before this time something clicked.
He gave a start at suddenly being quickly wing tapped by an excited Squeak, in his laps of concentration he had been tagged. Too excited by his new idea to finish the game he called for endgame and jumped to Toothless to get back to the cave.
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Valka smiled as she looked up from picking fruits to see Hiccup far above leap from the back of a Monstrous Nightmare tag a Gronkle, she assumed was Boulder, and then land on the back of a Zippleback and fly away whooping in victory. She remembered the first time she had seen him do that, it had been about two years ago and had nearly given her a heart attack.
She smiled at the image of her son flying through the air with such ease, all the dragons of the nest loved her son and she felt secure in the knowledge that, should he fall, someone would catch him. Valka slowly made her way back up to the cave to start making dinner and was just beginning to cut the fruit she had gathered when Hiccup landed gracefully on the cave floor with Toothless only a moment behind. With a quick "hi mom" he and Toothless quickly disappeared through his bedroom cavern and she assumed headed toward his workshop.
She smiled, he had first shown an interest in making things around a year ago and she had been quick to encourage his creative mind. He spent hours in there and sometimes came out with a new tool for her kitchen or a device that could lure and catch fish all in one. He was truly her little genius, she wondered what he was up to this time.
Over the next few days Toothless came and went but would never tell her what her son was working on. Hiccup came out for meals and to grab bits of material but that was about it, on the afternoon of the third day he finally emerged. He held in his hands what looked like a bulky leather jacket and matching pants, they were crude and she wasn't sure exactly what use they had, but knowing her son they definitely did something.
"What did you make this time?" Valka asked her practically glowing son.
"Watch and see," he and Toothless then launched into the air and she watched as they soared off towards the cliff.
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"You sure about this?" asked toothless as he watched Hiccup put on his new flight suit. Toothless still wasn't sure about how it worked but he was skeptical that his brother would get it right on the first try. After Hiccup was fully in the flight suit he made sure the wing flaps were hanging loosely took a few deep breaths, said "here goes" and then launched off the cliff.
Toothless watched as his brother spread his "wings" and... fluttered? It wasn't exactly a free fall but it certainly wasn't flying. Toothless sighed and then dove over the edge.
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Over the course of the next months Hiccup revised, refined, and refitted every aspect of his flight suit. By mark IV Hiccup was able to keep himself in the air long enough to realize that he needed some kind of back fin, and on the mark VI he finally added fins to the calves and back of the forearms. It was a month later with the mark VII that Hiccup finally perfected his design. He had created the ultimate flight suit.
It was made of mostly thin, light, black stained leather with nearly indistinguishable dragon scale plating, made from Toothless' extra scales. It was a two piece full body suit that went from his ankles to his waist and seamlessly up to his wrists and neck, light weight and surprisingly comfortable, it held concealed flaps where he kept his wings stored as well as a few hidden pockets and even a slot for his knife. The outfit was completed by a dragonesque retractible back fin, which while used properly with the arm and leg fins allowed Hiccup to quickly and accurately change or maintain his direction in the air. It was his greatest creation.
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Mere hours after I had put the finishing touches on the flight suit I decided to test it with a game of tag. It started out normal enough, I hopped on Toothless and we met friends over the cliffs to decide who would be it first.
"I say Shimmer" proclaimed Bash, "Yeah" agreed his sister "she hasn't been it in a long time!"
"What about Hiccup?" Shimmer defended, he hasn't even played in weeks because of this flight suit thing.
"Oh come on Shimmer," joked Toothless "It will probably never work anyway, Hiccup will be easy to catch," he said while grinning up at Hiccup.
Toothless laughed at Shimmer in his head (he knew full well that Hiccups invention would work, did work, he was the one who helped him test each and every one after all) boy were they in for a shock. So it was decided that shimmer would be it first and all the other dragons scattered.
Shimmer grinned to herself, she loved Hiccup but would not take it easy on him, she planned to outfly his fancy flight suit. Shimmer finished counting and looked around quickly spotting her desired prey. She made a hairpin turn and shot after the fleeing Night Fury, As she expected he shot off one way while she watched the smaller form of hiccup jump off in the other direction. She quickly dove in order to anticipate her friends fall, but to her surprise Hiccup wasn't falling. He was, flying! After a moment of shock Shimmer adjusted herself and shot towards her newly mobile friend.
Hiccup sensed rather than saw Shimmer as she made a wild dive down toward him, he grinned, "time to show them what I can do" he thought. Just as Shimmer would have caught up to him hiccup suddenly moved his right arm slightly up and veered sharply towards the cliff face. Despite his evasive maneuvers he could feel Shimmer close behind.
"That crack" he thought, yes it was his only move, Hiccup was flying straight at the cliff face and at the last second tilted his wings, raised his arms, and shot upward and disappeared into a small crack in the mountain. He listened to the frustrated sounds of Shimmer as she cursed him and his new aerial capabilities before changing targets and pursuing a shocked Bree and Bash . Hiccup grinned ear to ear, poked his head out and then began scaling the cliff face to reach an altitude from which to jump again.
With the new flight suit he had gone from one of the slowest to one of the fastest and as time passed he only got better. Soon he was keeping pace easily with his friends and could even sometimes manage to catch toothless. He never felt more alive than when he was soaring through the skies and weaving between the huge cliff trees. (A/N: The cliff trees are like huge widespread Baobab/Banyan trees with minimal leaves, that grow near the top of he cliffs). The widespread branches of the cliff trees were Hiccups most comfortable terrain. He could fly at a branch and swing himself around it to loose his pursuer, he could drop his wings and simply leap between the wide branches, he was even able to lose his friends by slipping nimbly back and forth between the thin layer of foliage at the tops of the trees. And it was all thanks to the flight suit.
This is where Hiccups mind was as he prepared for today's game of tag. He and all of his friends were standing atop the highest point of the cliff and had just finished arguing about who would be it. So, as an unhappy and grumbling toothless began to count, Hiccup and the others scattered.
Hiccup saw Shimmer fly off to the right, Boulder head left, Bree and Bash were going straight (though Hiccup suspected that was because they were arguing over a direction to pick), and Squeak and Fang were already out of sight. How does a bright red and blue flamescale disappear that quickly anyway? Thought Hiccup.
Looking around he decided to try and hide somewhere a bit closer. He leaped from the edge and glided down to the top of a nearby cliff tree. There he made sure that he was hidden in the sparse leaves as well as allowing enough wind to carry his scent away. He was still close enough to see toothless and so he watched as his brother looked up from counting, sniffed the air, and then launched himself of the cliff.
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Having won the tag game (been it the least) Hiccup returned home that night with a smug smile and a grumbling brother. "You wouldn't have caught me that last time if it weren't for Xena getting in the way." complained Toothless. "Hey, its not my fault the adults get in between our games" smirked Hiccup. Toothless just grumbled and and shoved Hiccup with his head. That was all the incentive that Hiccup needed to start a mock wrestling match that was quickly halted by the firm scolding of Valka.
"Tomorrow" Toothless said. "Yeah" Hiccup agreed "It's been a while."
The upcoming wrestling matches were the last thing on both their minds that night as they drifted off to sleep.
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Toothless, all the others and I were gathered around our traditional wrestling ring (really just a big section of grass surrounded by trees) and were preparing to begin.
"It's been a while" said Shimmer, "what with Hiccups new flight suit and everyone being able to play air tag." "Does everyone remember the rules?"
"Yeah yeah" said Fang. "Lets do this" agreed Boulder.
I had kinda tuned out the discussion and was adjusting the waist of my short pants, It had been a while since I hadn't spent most of the day in the flight suit and although I loved it, it was kinda nice. The suit was always so constricting, no wind on on my back or heat of day on my skin. Maybe I'll add periodic holes along the suit to allow for some airflow, or at least air contact. At least the pants aren't so bad, mom insists on them, they're lightweight and comfortable and so long as that was all he had to wear he was fine.
I was snapped out of my musings by a growl, seems I was in the first match up. I backed up slightly and prepared to fight. Squeak was the only one I knew I could physically overpower, I pulled back to the outside of the ring and bared my teeth growling at Squeak in return. Then Squeak darted forwards, he feigned for my head but then twisted towards my legs. But I was faster and before Squeak got a hold I launched myself up and over the little dragon to summersault and come up behind him. Squeak twisted just in time to meet my hand and the little dragon started to squirm, attempting to wriggle out of my grasp. But to no avail, I was stronger too and used my entire body to pin Squeak to the ground. It was a variation on the tactic that he used often when fighting his terror friend and it rarely failed.
The first mach being over he let his friend up, grinned and moved to the side in order to watch the next pair. Firefang and Boulderdash were a pretty good match, Firefang was bigger and quicker but Boulder was heavier. Hiccup watched as Boulder slowly wore Firefang down with his blunt body slams and was finally able to crash into him with enough force for the match to be called.
Next up was Shimmer against Bree and Bash. Hiccup grinned as he watched his friends square off. "Ha!" said Bash, "you have no chance, two heads are better than one!" "not when one of those heads is yours" his sister butted in. "Hey!"
"Hey yourselves" interrupted Shimmer, "you guys gonna bicker or fight me?" That got them back on track and they began inching their way forward. After a few seconds Shimmer lunged forward and to the right and as Bash let out a stream of green smoke. Hiccup watched as Shimmer entered the thin veil and disappeared. "Where'd she go?" shouted the panicked twins as they looked all around, as the smoke dissipated Hiccup caught a glimmer in the air directly behind the twins. He laughed as his camouflaged friend lunged onto the twins back and pushed them down into the earth.
"hey!" shouted Bree, "No fair!" Concluded Bash. "Oh but your allowed to breath your smoke?" retorted Shimmer.
"Its not my fault you guys haven't figured out your fire!"
"Oh you want to see fire?" Interrupted Boulderdash. With that he huffed and spit a flaming pebble at the twins.
That did it, everybody fell over onto the floor and laughed and laughed until they had tears pooling in their eyes.
"Alright alright" wheezed shimmer as the laughing subsided, "whose next?" Hiccup turned and looked at his brother, Toothless nodded, "we are" they said at the same time.
"How did this go last time?" asked toothless mockingly. Hiccup growled in response, "that was months ago."
"Yeah but I beat you pretty easily" he grinned back. Well not this time Hiccup thought, this time I'm gonna win! He grit his teeth and agilely rolled to the side as his brother lunged forward.
"Too slow" he taunted the black dragon. Toothless whipped around and grinned, "guess you have gotten faster."
"Or you've gotten slower" taunted Hiccup.
With another growl Toothless lunged towards him. Grinning Hiccup threw himself into a roll and ended up on his back directly underneath the leaping dragon. With every ounce of his enhanced strength Hiccup used his legs to send his brother flying over him. Using Toothless's momentum Hiccup reversed his roll landing smoothly on his feet as Toothless, now shoved off course, landed partially on his side.
Not wasting a second Hiccup leaped at his brother, using his legs to hold the dragons head he hooked his arms around the base of Toothless's fore legs, and held fast. Hiccup half grinned half grimaced as he felt Toothless begin to twist and struggle. His brother, feeling himself trapped began to flap his wings and writhe around attempting to dislodge his unwanted captor.
Hiccup held fast. After a full thirty seconds of tumbling around in the grass Hiccup was battered and panting but not letting go. Toothless finally stopped struggling and gave their give in noise as best he could with Hiccups feet pressing his head into his chest. Hiccup let go and clambered, dirty and cut, out from under his prone brother, never had he been happier.
"Beat you," he told his brother in victory. He was met by a grumble about luck and the sudden cheers of the others as their shock wore off.
"Yeah yeah," Toothless ground out, "next time you wont get so lucky." Then he playfully nudged Hiccup as they moved aside to watch the next match.
We'll see, thought Hiccup, we'll see.
So not my best, but most definitely the longest. Hope you enjoyed, and if you did, please leave a review. Actually, scratch that, leave one anyway, hate it, loved it? Let me know :) Anywho thanks all and I'll see you next upload!