II.
He found nothing more exhilarating than flying. To plunge into formless clouds, to sweep and dive and hurl himself toward the earth, to zip along the ocean surface, to shoot up to the sun. Twirls, spins, aggressive barrel rolls, reckless racing, sudden altitude drops and a near-nauseating sense of vertigo. Whipping wind howling loudly in his ear, muffling his excited whoops. Air hurtling at his face so strongly he had to crouch in the saddle to remain steady. Blues and whites and browns and greens all swarming together, spinning, twirling, rolling rapidly past his eyes too quickly to take any meaning. Heart pounding heavily, thumping against his rib cage, urging him faster, faster, faster.
Here in the skies, he was free.
Hiccup hardly cared he was missing today's dragon race taking place back in the village. As enjoyable as he found the sport, avoiding other human company felt far preferable. Especially, avoiding the company of one particular human. Competing in today's event would only exacerbate issues and force him to confront his father, but here, racing along the shoreline, heading increasingly further from human civilization, he could fly away from any problems and nearly forget memories from earlier today. He hunched down low and urged his dragon Toothless down toward the ocean water so that the two of them glided along the tops of the wave crests.
He could feel the powerful beating of his dragon Toothless' wings as they skimmed along the ocean water, so close to the surface they could catch sight of fish and other sea creatures swimming underneath. Powerful wide-mouthed Thunderdrums, bright blue sea dragons with tiny yellow eyes and disproportionately wide jaws, leaped in and out of the waters, glancing warily at the young man and his dragon speeding recklessly past them. Wings flapped, and Hiccup and Toothless again took to higher altitude, this time to complete a loop-de-loop that turned both their worlds momentarily upside-down. All sense of gravity ended; they floated, weightless, in the clouds.
Their flight was wordless. Boy and dragon needed no words to communicate, no conscious thoughts to direct them on their course. They flew as one. Hiccup did not have to think here – only fly – exactly as he needed to forget this morning's conversation.
When they reached the tip of the sky, Toothless' movements slowed and he simplified his daring spirals to steady wing flaps. Hiccup, in turn, sat up straighter in his saddle. For a moment the heady rush of fast flying faded into peaceful calm, but Hiccup had no intentions of ending their morning adventures yet.
"What do you think, bud?" he asked, leaning down and patting Toothless on the right side of the neck. "You want to give this a shot?"
The dragon immediately understood Hiccup's intent and pulled a worried groan out from his throat.
"Come on, it'll be fine." And before Toothless could object any more, Hiccup pulled two levers from the saddle to stiffen Toothless's tail, unclipped himself from the saddle's horn, and leaned straight-backed to his right. He dove head-first off his dragon with an excited screech. Toothless followed suit and hurled straight downward toward the earth.
With a sudden mutual snap, Toothless unfurled his wings, while Hiccup grabbed two straps near his ankles and pulled out a set of hand-made sails. In an instant, both were gliding again, side-by-side. "This is amazing!" Hiccup shouted.
If only his entire life could be spent in the air amongst the dragons.
He could see the world in all its beauty for miles around, everything stretching below him, the ocean to his left and straight ahead, the land of Berk to his right. Trees swarmed every inch of earth, even craggy precipices and impossibly straight, tall cliff sides. Strict vertical rises clashed with gentler rolling hills. And something, something in the distance, he suddenly realized, roiled in a cloud of smoke.
"Toothless, do you see that?" he shouted out. Though he could not point to anything with his flight suit extended, his dragon bellowed an affirmative response. Toothless dipped under Hiccup for a second and allowed the boy to resettle himself in the saddle, and the two of them flew forward to investigate. It appeared as though some structure in the distance were burning.
Clouds of black smoke thickened as the two of them approached, obfuscating their target from view and leaving them flapping in a silent, colloidal void. Gray smoke churned all about them. The only reason Hiccup knew they still flew straight was that the scent of burnt wood became increasingly strong and pungent. Then suddenly, without any warning at all, the smoke cleared, and an entire, looming fortress of blue-green ice burst into existence.
It seemed to grow organically out from the ocean, this fortress. Much like many-faced, sharp-edged gems grew out from the depths of cave, so did this enormous frozen mountain bust forth from the bottom of the ocean and climb to the sky's chilling heights. Hiccup and Toothless were instantly dwarfed. And while they left the clouds of smoke behind, drifting behind them in a slight north-heading breeze, the smells of recent destruction burned in the ice.
Simultaneously awed and frightened, Hiccup asked to himself, "What is this?"
As he and Toothless approached the enormous spikes of ice shooting to the skies, they noticed the shattered beams and ruptured roofs of what might once have been some human habitation. So large were the fangs of ice piercing the demolished building that these recently-made ruins looked like nothing more than a shattered dollhouse. Not one foundational stone had been unturned, and well more than half of those had been shot up to great mountainous heights and left resting on top of giant ice shards. Wood probably used to construct the walls and interiors had been burnt and ripped apart so thoroughly it looked more like blackened sawdust than timber wood. Once Hiccup thought he spotted a tiny hand resting in the middle of the ice, nothing attached to it, just resting casually on top a small chunk of wood like ham on a platter, an image which made him shudder and urge Toothless on faster.
They continued to circle the strange glacier. Toothless flew in close, but even then, they could locate no sign of any living creature.
"What could have done all this?"
Hiccup strained his ears to listen in case whatever monster destroyed this outpost still resided nearby. He detected nothing that indicated the structures' attacker remained here; he could hear the creak of the ice expanding and contracting with the temperature, as well as the constant beat of Toothless's wings, and a faint whistling that slowly became louder. With shock he suddenly realized nets were flying toward him, but neither he nor Toothless could react in time before one caught his dragon's left wing, another Toothless's front feet. Once again he and Toothless plummeted downward, though this time, not out of their own intention. The world turned into spinning aqua green ice, and with a shout from Hiccup and a roar from Toothless, they braced for impact.