Chapter XI

A lone, battered ship ariwed at the dock, overloaded with equally battered-looking men. They disembared to a crowd of onlookers, looking like a team of hometown heroes who just had their butts kicked.

Gobber hobbled through the mumbling crowd to find Stoick, last to disembark and glowering with battered pride.

,,Where are the other ships?" asked Gobber.

,,You don't want to know." said Stoick lumbering past Gobber, leaving him staring at the trashed ship.

,,Well, I trust you found the nest at least?".

,,Not even close.".

,,Ah. Excellent." Gobber said following Stoick up the ramp, snaging his duffle bag with his hook appendage, sharing the burden.

,,I hope you had a little more success than me." said the depressed chief.

,,Well, if by success, you mean that your parenting troubles are over with, then... yes.".

Stoick stoped looking confused. Then a group of merry villagers rushed past cheering.

,,Congratulations Stoick! Everyone is so relieved." said one of them.

,,Out with the old and in with the new, right?!" said the other.

,,No one will miss that old nuisance!"

,,The village is throwing a party to celebrate!"

Stoick was stunned, overwhelmed by the insensitivity. He turned to Gobber.

,,He's... gone?" he asked horrified.

,,Yeah...most afternoons. He and his little friend. But who can blame him? I mean the life of a celebrity is very rough. He can barely walk through the village without being swarmed by his new fans." said Gobber walking along.

,,Hiccup?" asked even more confused Stoick.

,,Who would've thought, eh? He has this...way with the beasts." and with that said Stoicks face was filled with something new, pride.

..

,,Not that I'm against this, but are you shure you're ready?" aske Rina while we were floating in the air. I decided to try my luck and go big or go home. We finaly finished the saddle and fin for Toothless. I tought it was time we tested it out for real. Right now we were a few meters away from the cliff where we took off.

,,I'm sure. Now let's see..." I said looking at my cheat sheet. I suddenly looked down and the ground seemed miles below us. Now I wasn't so sure about this.

,,You wanna go back?" asked Rina but I sucked it up and shaked my head.

,, Okay there bud, we're gonna take this nice and slow." I said checking the cheat sheet.

,, Here we go. Here we go...position three, no four.". I pressed the pedal, causing the tail to flare in a position. We successfully made a glide and I was thrilled that my new fin and vest were holding.

,, Alright, it's go time. It's go time.".

We dived toward the sea, lining up to pass through the arch and succeeded. We didn't crash.

,,Youre doing good." said Rina and Heartbeat agreed nodding. Hold that tought.

,,Sorry." I said to Toothles when we crashed into one of several sea stacks. Two sea stacks. Three.

,,I'm working on it." I said when he started complaining.

,,You're thinking too much. Don't try to control him, feel him." said Rina taking a deep breath with me.

,,Okay let's try position three." I said grabbing the saddle and the cheats firmly.

,,Hiccup are you sure you want to..." but she didn't get to finish since she had to focus on holding because when Toothles went up so did Heartbeat. The feeling was just amazing.

,, Yeah! Go baby! Yes! Oh, this is amazing! The wind in my..." but then happened the most horrifying thing that could happen, I lost them.

,,...cheat sheet! Stop!" I yelled when I dropped them. I got it back but Toothless took it too literally and we started falling really quickly. The worst thing is that my vest got hooked off.

,,Hiccup! No!" screamed Rina and then she and Heartbeat dived after us even she never tried that before.

,, Oh gods! Oh no!" with out me the tail lost control and Toothles started spinning in the air.

He tried to get under me to his previous position but no luck.

I tried to hook myself back a few times but missed.

Finaly I managed to catch the edge of Toothless saddle and I gained control. I managed to straighten him but we were heading directly into a treacherous slalom course of jutting sea stacks. I couldn't see the sheet well so I throwed it and tried to feel instead to controle. I acted on instincts and together, we managed trough a tight, hair-rasing series of split-second turns, making it to the open water, unscathed. We were safe. We managed to create a strong bond in a few seconds and made the perfect team. A near death expiriance can make you do that.

,,Yeah!" I yelled throwing my arms up in victory. But Totthles had a different way to celebrate.

,, Ah, come on." I said as we fly directly into a fireball he fired with happiness.

...

We all lounged on a sprawling, deserted beach, snacking of freshly caught fish. As Rina was cleaning my burned face while I cooked a fish over a fire, Toothless suddenly regurgitates a fish head ofering me.

,, Uh..no thanks. I'm good." I smirked with forced politeness. Rina smiled.

,,Looks like Heartbeat learned that I don't like..." but then Heartbeat did the same thing as Toothless.

,,Never mind. No thank girl." she said rubbing dirt off my cheek.

,,Hey what do I say to your father when you die?" she asked smirking.

,,Ha, ha. Shut up and eat." I said handing her a fish.

We ate smiling and laughing when several Terrible Terrors landed like seagulls, hissing and nipping at each other as they approached Toothless' and Heartbeats' pile of fish. One grabed the regurgitated fish head from Heartbeat and draged it away while another attempted to steal from Toothless. They tugged on the fish, and it snaped back into Toothless' mouth. He swallowed it back taunting. We watched with amusement when the little dragon got angry and tried to fire at Toothless but he beat him to it firing a tiny flame straight into its mouth making it coughs up smoke and stagger away, looking ill.

,, Not so fireproof on the inside, are you?" asked Rina, smiling.

,,Here you go." I said throwing the helpless Terror my freshly cooked fish. The appreciative little dragon gulped down the meal and approached Rina and me cautiously but then he curled up next to us purring. Rina and I looked at each other in amazement. I knew we were thinking the exact same thing.

,, Everything we know about you guys is wrong." she said petting the poor little thing.