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In this chapter we check in with our heroes and see what they're up to. Adventures are never very exciting at the beginning, but I think Hiccup is going to get an abrupt head start.

HORIZONS

Arc 2: Verðandi and the End of All Things

Chapter II

It was like something out of a half remembered dream.

He had imagined this exact scenario many times before, with the oceans below him and the stars far above his head. The pack on his back was a weight he was willing to carry into the unknown, alongside the only friend who had ever truly accepted him for who he was. It seemed like an eternity ago when his only problems had been living out a double life, one of secrecy and one of deception.

But things had changed.

Probably for the worse.

It was nearly impossible to see anything as the two explorers soared in complete darkness amongst the clouds, flying steadily with the eastern wind at their backs. Hiccup's eyelashes felt as if they were almost frozen together, no thanks to the drops of cold water that swam through the seemingly solid clouds. All his life he had imagined that the swirls of opaque mist would feel like a coat of sheep's wool, spongy and supple beneath the weight of his palms. And although he hadn't minded the sudden bursts of moisture during the balmy summer months, he was definitely feeling the disenchantment now.

Toothless waved his wings forcefully and, thanks to the extra momentum, they burst through the tiers of butter cream clouds. Hiccup's posture softened slightly as they finally made it back into the light, soaring soundlessly through the frosted, open air. The young explorer let a visible breath of relief pass through his lips and started blinked wildly, forcing his eyes to adjust to the soft moonlit glow.

Toothless felt his rider relax marginally on his back and slowly banked downwards, soaring closer to the bed of clouds sprawled out beneath them like a celestial landscape of swirling hills and vales. Hiccup wasn't fooled by the seemingly solid terrain and took a moment to breathe deeply, glancing up at the sky. His discomfort momentarily receded as the magnificence above him overtook his senses, the heavens suddenly that much closer to his eager fingertips. The stars glittered like molten gold in the moonlight, providing him with the motivation he needed to continue his quest, though mundane as it had become.

They were rapidly approaching the precarious currents of Jörmungand, something that would have taken them weeks to do by boat. They were planning on resting somewhere before reaching the treacherous rapids during the morning and then sleeping for most of the duration of the afternoon. Toothless, though comfortable with travelling in the daylight, was nocturnal by nature and his guarded disposition urged him even more to travel only at night, much to Hiccup's disdain. He had trouble changing his sleeping patterns to one more suited for their quest and he felt more than a little apprehensive about leaving all of the seeing up to his dragon. Under the cover of dark, Hiccup wasn't able to see more than a few inches in front of his face unless they chose to soar above the cloud cover, and even then it was difficult unless the moon was full.

Hiccup closed his eyes and pressed himself closer to the leather saddle strapped onto the dragon's scales, hoping to absorb some of Toothless' molten heat. His fingers felt like they were frozen solid into mitten shaped ice cubes and the rest of his appendages weren't faring much better. For a moment, he almost considered turning Toothless around and heading back home.

But only for a moment.

Hiccup leant slightly in his saddle and Toothless peered up at him in acknowledgement, dipping down as fast as he could manage through the layers of thick, icy clouds. Hiccup tried his best to steel himself against the damp chill but found that no amount of acclimatization could have prepared him; the brutality of the freezing cold clouds never failed to chill him to the very bone.

They finally emerged on the other side of the thick haze and once again, Hiccup lost all ability to see. He closed his eyes and trusted his dragon to find an island to rest on, even if it meant another hour in the consuming darkness. The sudden blindness made him anxious and claustrophobic, and Hiccup tried to hide his distress as much as he could manage in hopes that his anxiety wouldn't rub off of Toothless. Hiccup knew first hand that there was nothing quite as horrible as a panicking dragon.

After what felt like hours in the frightening darkness, Hiccup felt Toothless prepare to land. The young rider unconsciously helped the dragon restore his balance, the movements of his hip and knee against his prosthetic almost second nature to him now. The Night Fury folded his wings back and dove down onto the ground, the hard surface violently jarring the blind human bundled on his back. Toothless warbled quietly and nudged at him gently with his nose, beckoning Hiccup off of his back so that he could tear down a tree branch or two and hopefully start a fire.

Hiccup grappled sightlessly as he sought for a place to sit in the absolute darkness, his heart pounding in his chest as he finally collapsed onto the snow covered ground. He listened with heightened senses as Toothless ventured into whatever forest they had managed to land in, and cringed as the sound of splintering branches filled his ears. Toothless deposited them with a crash somewhere in front of him, near enough that one of the limbs slashed across his face, splitting the skin on his chin. He cried out in a mixture of surprise and pain, grasping his bleeding jaw in one hand and pushing himself to his feet unsteadily with the other.

"Light them for Odin's sake!" Hiccup exclaimed as he backed away from the perceived mass of boughs before him, urging the dragon with his free hand to use his fire and set the branches aflame. Toothless yelped and started towards him before stopping in his tracks, the glare of reproach on his rider's face evidence enough that he should probably just listen. He pinned his ear plates back apologetically and let a tiny spark escape his scaly lips, finally allowing his human to see. The smell of iron stung the air as the fire took to the branches and Toothless galloped over to him as fast as his tired limbs could manage, using his tail to force the human to collapse into his grasp. Hiccup squealed in protest as two giant dragon paws wrapped themselves around him and he braced himself for the slimy encounter he knew was about to happen next.

The superficial wound was coagulated within seconds but all of the gain wasn't worth the bucket of dragon saliva that soaked his clothes and dampened his hair. He groaned but wasn't allowed out of the death grasp until the dragon was sure his human wasn't bleeding anywhere else. After a few minutes of poking and prodding and general irritation on the part of Hiccup, the dragon finally let him go and allowed him to approach the fire, but only barely.

"Was that really necessary?" Hiccup grumbled, mussing his hair with his exposed fingertips in the direction of the fire. He stepped closer to the flames and removed his outer fur, holding it out so that it would dry; there was dragon slime all over it and Hiccup didn't think it would be particularly pleasurable to sleep with a damp coat over his body. It wasn't long before his tired arms gave out on him and he wrapped the soggy fur around his shoulders anyway, nearly collapsing back onto the ground.

A sudden weight fell over him despite pulling the woven wicker basket off of his back. He tried to ignore the wave of dread that rolled over his thoughts like an avalanche, closing his eyes to bite off the astringent sting. It passed after a minute or two, leaving Hiccup drained and confused; what was that?

He swallowed his nausea and pulled out a large spool of leather, laying it upon the ground for him to stretch out on. He barely took notice as his dragon padded forward and curled up behind him, shielding him from the glacial eastern winds. He hauled out another fur and pulled it over his body to keep him warm despite the two furnaces surrounding him on both sides; had there been some sort of cave or shelter, Toothless would have certainly flown them there. But tonight, he had nothing but the cloudy sky to look up at, and its clammy depths were sure to liberate a heavy stream of snow the moment he fell asleep.

He closed his eyes, careful to hide them in the crook of his jacket sleeve so that he would not be awakened by the rising sun once dawn arrived. He sighed and rolled over onto his side, only to be jarred wide awake once more by the painful metal hilt of his sword stabbing him in the abdomen. He let out a hushed cry of pain as he flipped onto his back and stared up at the sky wide eyed, trying his best to fight off the sting of agony that threatened to make his eyes water in a way that would be most unbecoming. He bit his lip as the throbbing began to ebb away and Hiccup took the opportunity to unlatch the sword from his side, wrenching it out of his leather belt to place alongside of him.

He breathed out and watched as his breath came away in a cloud of vapour, swirling upwards and ultimately disappearing in a gust of wind. He followed it with his eyes as it took a few errant leaves in its grasps and Hiccup took a moment to simply let the world go by. Perhaps it was an omen from the gods, a sign that he should simply trust the wind to take him wherever he was destined to go. The wind was his shepherd now, and for a moment he couldn't help but feel a little nostalgic.

When he had taken his first flight with Astrid, he had expected to be his last; after all, he was prepared to sacrifice himself for the life of his dragon, even if it meant losing everything. And he did lose everything, if only for an instant, until the one woman who had never spared him a second glance finally talked some sense into him. But it was up there, when they were lost amongst the sun kissed clouds that Hiccup truly realized the gravity of his situation.

He tugged his sleeve over his eyes and rolled onto his side again, this time facing Toothless who was already blissfully fast asleep. He swallowed thickly and tried to imagine that he was back in that moment again, the wind in his hair, her arms wrapped around his chest as they floated against the summer breeze and into the aurora borealis, away on the clouds.

He imagined what her skin must have felt like when she had pressed her cheek to his from behind; her hair was flying everywhere when he had peered back at her, her blonde tresses loosened and wild like the warrior goddess that she was. When he would get his chance to kill the great serpent Jörmungand, Hiccup would tell Odin himself when he landed in the realm of Asgard that Astrid was the most beautiful woman there ever was. He would urge him to ask her as a Valkerie when she came to Valhalla, though Hiccup would beg that she be given a long and wonderful life. He smiled regretfully in his half-conscious slumber, his hopes bittersweet that she would find a suitable husband and have a family up until she became an Elder herself.

He hoped that Astrid would understand; it had been four days now, nearly five sunrises to be precise, and he tried to assure himself that leaving Berk behind had been the right thing. After all, he had always been somewhat of a curse to the village; his nickname had reached his ears after many seasons of cold silence, after all. Hiccup the Cursed certainly was fitting for a boy who only seemed to bring damage in his wake. He may have been Hiccup the Hero now, but it wouldn't have been long before they saw him for who he really was and exiled him again.

I mean, surely they didn't think that all of their years of cruelty would just go away? Hiccup rolled over onto his back and tried to ignore the torments that sought to overtake his mind – for so long he had been ridiculed, beaten, belittled, mocked, scorned...and then suddenly praised? It was too quick of a transformation, even for a boy who sought to revolutionize. But what could a boy, a mere boy of weakened stance and minute size, do to stand a chance? To harmonize? To transform?

To change?

And for an island that was known for their abundant and copious amounts of stubbornness issues, change was wrong. And somehow he had managed it.

Hiccup let a swell of pride wash over him as he shifted in his makeshift bed, a small smile playing gently on his features. Despite everything that had been put up against him, every barrier, every wall, he had done it. He had changed it. It had changed him.

Perhaps the Gods didn't hate him so much after all.

When Hiccup woke up a little later that morning he found himself to be completely unaccompanied, which was something he knew was nothing to concern himself with. The lack of heat coming from both sides of his body was probably due to the dragon's need to gather more kindling if the current condition of their fire was anything to go by. The young explorer moved onto his side in his snug cocoon of furs and barely cracked open one of his eyelids, unwilling to let the cascade of light past his eyelashes. He groaned as the first bit of sunlight nearly blinded him outright and chose to collapse back underneath his furs once more, too reluctant to get his tired limbs moving after all.

Having witnessed his rider's ultimately futile efforts to wrench himself out of his borrowed animal skins from the boundaries of the forest, Toothless decided to let him sleep until the shadow of the closest tree reached his paws. He took that time to study his surroundings more closely than he had in his hasty landing, analyzing the vibrations beneath his paws. If there was some sort of large animal prowling around what seemed to be a moderately small island he couldn't feel it, not that it would have approached them anyways. A dragon such as himself was quite often the cause of more heart attack related deaths than ones that actually required any physical undertaking on his part. It was oddly satisfying to know that, at least in his case, looks could kill.

The shadows of the towering pines quickly reached the apex of his pudgy claws and with an upturned lip that looked more like a human's smug grin than anything remotely draconic, the Night Fury sashayed over to his prone rider and promptly scared the life out of him.

"AHHHHHH!"

Hiccup nearly leapt to his feet as dragon saliva continued to slither into his ear canal, cursing and swearing all the while. Forgetting about the lack of prosthetic crutching his left leg, he soon found himself flat on his behind and with his chuckling dragon smirking on top of him.

"Toothless! Gods, that's disgusting. I swear you useless reptile, you'll pay for this! Agh!"

Unable to move on account of the two giant paws suddenly pinning him down onto his back, Hiccup didn't really have much of a fighting chance to take hold of his prosthetic, owing that he found it of course. He didn't count on it hanging off the tip of his supposed ally's tail; the accused swished it around once or twice with an expression on his features that looked as if he were saying, 'Looking for this?'

Hiccup heaved a heavy sigh and finally stopped squirming, closing his eyes in both tiredness and defeat. It was far too early for roughhousing, or late for that matter; Hiccup didn't really feel like trying to tell what time it was from the movements of the sun. The dragon above him smiled victoriously and loosened his hold on his favourite pet, only to nearly crush him in what the Night Fury perceived to be a gentle embrace. Hiccup began to flail wildly as the dragon's two front legs began to practically throttle him with love and luckily Toothless got the picture, promptly rolling onto his back so that Hiccup could be smushed into his chest with emphatically less pressure.

"You do realize I hate you right?" Hiccup muttered in his signature monotone against the Night Fury's scaly hide. The dragon lolled his tongue happily and brought his elated face closer to the entirely unimpressed human.

"Fine. Have it your way. Kill me with kindness. Then you'll never get off this island."

The dragon made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a scoff and he proceeded to lift his huge head off of the frosted grass, throwing him a look of self-satisfied condescension.

"Oh shut up you brainless lizard," Hiccup tried with all his might but even he couldn't withstand the powerful force that drove those incessantly lovable puppy dog eyes to coerce him into submission.

"Yeah, yeah. I love you too buddy."

After a moment or two, Toothless felt satisfied enough to release Hiccup and set the crumpled human gently onto the ground. Before letting go of the unstable boy however, he fetched the human's metal prosthetic by bringing around his tail, and held the little device in the air. He quickly provided him with it, knowing firsthand how important the tiny piece of squeaky metal really was, and dropped it softly into his outstretched arms. The boy thanked him with a huff and collapsed against Toothless' flank in order to pull on the walking device, taking his time in attaching the leather straps onto his thickened stub.

As the dragon observed him he noticed that the little nub of human flesh was looking much healthier than the last time he had taken the time to stare at it; where it had once been covered in swollen, red-looking welts and cuts, it was now smooth and beige coloured. If anything, the only indication of trauma was the erratic line of scars that mottled the pallid surface of the amputation long healed, a reminder of his cauterization the night they had plummeted into the very depths of Hel.

Hiccup tried to ignore the dragon's probing eyes and managed to finish applying the prosthetic to his stub without muttering something particularly insulting. He pushed himself to his feet and glanced back at his dragon only once as he limped his way over to his wicker basket , dragging it over to his furs so that he could sit down while he went through the contents of the backpack. He pulled out a roll of tanned leather and quickly unravelled the tube as he sat cross legged on his sleeping arrangements, catching the little bundle of tools that had been hidden in the middle.

"Okay bud, do you mind if I work on this for a little while and then we'll go hunting?" Hiccup spared the dragon a glance as he opened the little packet and fished out one of the thick sewing needles within, "I'd like to get a good start on this, you know, so that we can start gathering more food," Hiccup sighed and started unravelling a spool of broad thread, "It won't be long before it starts getting really cold...we've been lucky so far but we can't always count on such nice weather. It won't be long before we're neck deep in snow – like we're back in Berk all over again."

The dragon grunted in agreement and settled with pacing the perimeter as Hiccup hunkered down and continued stitching what would be his latest project; somehow he needed to free up more space for the food he would have to start collecting if he wanted to live to see the springtime and he figured what better way to do so than to outfit Toothless with a pair of saddlebags. The dragon didn't seem to be opposed to the idea so Hiccup jumped on the endeavour eagerly, if only to help him clear his mind while he worked on his needlework.

The reinforcement of the hemming was taking longer than he had anticipated when Toothless finally nudged him with his muzzle, begging him wordlessly to give up his craft to go hunting. Hiccup glanced up at the sky and noticed that the sun had moved far more quickly than he had realized and apologized to the starving dragon, stumbling to his feet in order to climb onto his back. Toothless wiggled with anticipation as his boy finally clipped his prosthetic into the saddle's robust stirrup and the dragon unceremoniously shot them both into the sky.

Toothless circled for a little while as he kept his eyes trained on the island, looking for any sign of movement. Hiccup stayed tuned for the tell-tale twitch in the dragon's muscles as he prepared to dive downwards and waited on the edge of his seat in anticipation for him to strike. He kept himself occupied with trying to make out whatever on the island Toothless was seeing within the depths of the forest that nearly coated the entirety of the average sized island, yearning for the same tremendous eyesight his dragon so luckily possessed.

Twitch.

Hiccup twisted his ankle to one side and the two of them dove downwards towards the island with mind-numbing speed, barely hitting the ground before Toothless snatched up a deer in his paws. He cracked its neck with unnerving precision and turned for their camp, entirely impervious to the shade of green his rider's face had become. It didn't matter how many animals he had been privy to seeing get slaughtered – the noise still made him sick to his stomach every time.

Hiccup made the most of it when they landed back at camp again, squeamish but nonetheless thankful to be having a decent meal. He took his sword from its pocket of leather and hacked off the back legs of the animal, setting them off to one side. Feeling awfully queasy, Hiccup took a step back and tried to get a decent hold over himself – at least he wasn't completely covered in blood.

Yet.

He set aside his sword and snatched the dagger from his belt, holding it gingerly in his palm. He swallowed his pulsating nausea and began skinning the hide off of the saddle portion of the elk, doing so with careful, agile fingers. Hiccup tried his best to keep his eyes from venturing over to the deer's face, knowing that the look of frozen horror would force him to starve. It was that damned facial expression, the fear in its eyes... He wouldn't be having any of these problems right now if the stupid deer didn't have a head.

He finally managed to discard the all of the hide from that particular region, leaving the loins of the elk fully exposed. Carefully, Hiccup started to quarter and dislodge the meat from the spine, setting steak after steak aside on an open piece of leather. He tried to consume his mind with the monotonous task, slicing and carving and slicing and carving, but he couldn't really stop himself; sure, he had butchered and cut fresh meat before, but never with the head of the beast still attached! Hiccup swore it was staring at him, and he muttered something unintelligible beneath his breath, brushing back his unruly hair with an unspoilt sleeve.

He finished hashing the venison and pulled himself to his feet, turning away from the corpse entirely so that he was facing the fire. Toothless took his retreat as a hint and began filling the hungry void in his stomach with the elk, both worried and relieved when he had finally eaten his share. The hatchling still had yet to turn around and face him which was strange; his human wasn't usually like this and it scared him.

"Are you done?"

Toothless immediately stopped gnawing on the garish remains of what had once been the body of an elk and perked his ear plates, delighted to finally hear the small human make some sort of sound, no matter how unintelligible. Toothless tossed the rest of the carcass behind a rock and made an affirmative whine, grinning gormlessly.

Hiccup turned around and tried not to pay attention to the meaty mess his best friend had made of their camp, taking the now chilled meat by the lapels of the leather it was laying upon. He picked it up and sat upon his humble sleeping arrangements, counting the fresh pile of rations in front of him. The dried mutton he had stolen from the shelves in the Great Hall was almost gone and the rest of his provisions were disappearing faster than he had anticipated – he was always starving for some inexplicable reason and the lack of food was beginning to take its toll. He frowned unhappily at the thought and hoped that his reaction time wouldn't suffer from the lack of nourishment.

He rid the cuts of meat of the silvery linings that surrounded the muscles and discarded then into the fire. He began to prepare the venison, slicing it into small strips so that it would cure faster; considering the nomadic situation he currently found himself him, time was quickly becoming of the essence. It was never very safe to take refuge at a particular site for very long, especially now that they were reaching the outer grasps of known Viking territory. Who knew what was waiting for them out there…

He was itching to find out.

He left one of the round steaks intact and set it aside so that he could cook it later, after they had toured the islet for what had to be a salt basin somewhere. Every island they had camped on so far had seemed to be filled with them, and Odin be damned if there wasn't one here.

Hiccup hoisted himself up from his sitting position, unknowingly doing so with relative ease. He turned towards the charcoal dragon and tried his best to smile; now that the body, and that Thor forsaken face, was out of the picture, he was finding it a lot simpler to calm his nerves. The dragon caught his glance and sauntered over to him, barely crouching so that Hiccup could hop on. He gave the dragon a quick scratch on his withers and started strapping his prosthetic into the stirrup portion of the saddle.

"Ready bud?"

Toothless wiggled his hind end in anticipation, eager to get off the ground.

"Then let's fly!"

They shot off vertically and Hiccup swallowed back the whoop of elation he always couldn't help but voice every time they burst from the ground in the Night Fury's favourite fashion. They levelled soon enough and turned towards the south coast, the crest of white and navy stretching across their horizon.

The island they had landed on this time was surprisingly vast, considering the others they had taken refuge on in the past few days and Hiccup quickly realized that they were probably nearing the west coast of Grœnland. Hiccup smiled, shaking off the goose bumps as they encountered a particularly chilly updraft. They were almost there – once they were past the island of Grœnland they would encounter the treacherous currents of Jörmungand and hopefully the beast would rear its ugly head right into his sword. The implausibility of the feat never crossed his mind as they neared the snow covered beaches, his mind too occupied with heroic fantasies to pay attention to their progress.

Hiccup was roused from his daydreams when Toothless suddenly reared beneath him, banking left and downwards. Instinctively, Hiccup moved the stirrup in the opposite direction and they ended up spiralling downwards in a chaotic nosedive; they barely managed to avoid a shift of limestone before Hiccup regained control of the situation, balancing them so that they were flying flat.

"What in Midgard was that?" Hiccup cried with accusation once the panic had ebbed from his bloodstream. Toothless turned his head sidelong towards the boy and Hiccup immediately shut his mouth, catching a glimpse of the dragon's tapered pupils. The young rider followed the Night Fury's line of vision into the distance.

And that's when he saw it.

"What is that?" Hiccup leant his body down against the dragon's neck instinctively, urging the Night Fury closer. Toothless, held back by his instincts but nonetheless morbidly curious, conceded to his hatchling's request. He veered lower and kept within the cover of the trees just in case they needed to turn on a hairpin and bail with a vengeance. Toothless reeled as he slackened their already cautious pace; it burned his nose with a stench he didn't think he could stomach for much longer and considering the scene that was appearing before his eyes he didn't think his hatchling would be able to either.

The pair nearly skidded to a halt mid-flight as the source of their marvel came into view; right in front of them laid the biggest whale skeleton Hiccup had ever seen, huge and half embedded in the sand. Scavenger birds were perched all over the huge mammal's broad ribcage; it looked as if the flesh of the animal had simply been sucked right off of the skeleton like one would suck out the flesh of a prawn. There was no way the whale's body could have rotted away that quickly, at least not naturally anyway. The bright ivory colour of the whale's bones indicated that the carcass had not been there very long at all.

Toothless landed some ways away and Hiccup leapt down off of his steed, his foot and prosthetic planted firmly in the sand. He stepped closer to Toothless' large head and placed his palm at the nape of his neck, looking onward in matching expressions of both wonder and horror simultaneously. Something huge must have done this, something far larger than anything out of their wildest imaginations. Hiccup and Toothless exchanged a glance before staring back at the gruesome remains of what once had been a truly hulking water creature, now reduced to nothing but little bits of tendon and bones. Hiccup swallowed thickly, his thoughts suddenly occupied with one lonesome, horrifying thought.

The Romans had one thing right – the world was one big game of chance to the gods, and Hiccup found himself thinking that he was smack dab right in the middle of it.

I have a beta now! Big thanks to Sir Nick! Hooray! So blame him if you see any spelling mistakes ahaha! Just kidding! :D

Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter. What did you think of the ending?

Love and fluff,

Brontë