Dragon Friend (sequel to the dragon boy) Chapter 12 - Fishing Surprise
frostcup fanfic
Authors note: here we are- time to go fishing! ^^ hope you enjoy it! Please leave a review! you know the drill hehe- be back tommorow as always^^
Okay, so they'd been flying for a good few minutes now, and still nothing interesting had happened.
What was the big deal about fishing, anyway? If it was the human kind, it was boring. If it was the dragon kind, he couldn't do it, because his ice and stuff. Still, the way Valka's eyes lit up when she announced it made him think, perhaps, it wouldn't be so bad. Until then, though, there was just flying.
There was nothing to do. He didn't even need to flap any wings- that was Toothless' job. There wasn't even much of a view to watch, just an endless rolling ocean.
Eventually, though, he'd come up with a way to keep himself mildly entertained. It was after about the fifth or sixth time Hiccup realised it was him.
"Really?" He questioned, as Jack did it again. He was playing with the wind. Alternately creating tailwinds, to speed them up, and side winds, to make things a little more interesting.
"What?" He said. "I'm bored- if you'd rather have a little head wind?..." He asked, demonstrating so that Toothless couldn't move forwards no matter how hard he flapped.
"Nope, tail wind is good." Hiccup decided, they immediately jolted ahead, as Jack shoved them forwards on a tailwind.
Honestly, with all this going on, Hiccup was amazed they'd kept up with Cloudjumper. Then again, Jack was probably bothering them too.
Toothless growled, angrily, at getting tossed about. He bucked his back, making the two boys smack into each another like conkers, causing resounding "OW"s from both of them.
"What was that for?" Jack protested.
"Well I guess his ear doesn't reach far enough to give you a good slap." Hiccup pointed out, annoyed himself now- he hadn't done anything. "Do you have to be so annoying?" Hiccup asked, Jack smirked at him.
"This is me you're talking to." He grinned. Hiccup shook his head, torn between mild amusement and irritation- his head was still throbbing- then returned his attention to flying. Only to look back a second later, as a thump drew his attention.
Jack had flopped back, and was now half sprawled across the dragon's back.
"I'm booooored." He moaned, drawing out the moan as long as possible. Hiccup sighed, please let them be almost there.
Suddenly Toothless back flapped. Hiccup got the message, and angled his foot into the stationary position. Looking forwards, he saw that Cloudjumper had stopped ahead of them. Valka stood on his back, holding a hand out to get them to stop.
Jack rose up from his flop, and looked around, excitably, for something to happen.
A few seconds passed, nothing did.
Jack seemed to immediately label the outing a failure, and sat back down in the saddle, arms folded. Hiccup felt his annoyance and disappointment through the bond. Then, without warning, he stood bolt upright as though struck by a Skrill, staring at the water below them. Hiccup followed his gaze, and his jaw dropped.
The great white Alpha lunged out the ocean, just beneath them. His long tusks getting so close, Hiccup thought Toothless could almost reach out with a paw and touch one. Hiccup gaped, as the force of the gigantic dragon thrusting itself out the water caused hundreds of fish to be thrown into the air.
It was Toothless' idea of a dream come true. It was raining fish!
Hiccup saw Valka laughing at his dumbstruck, shocked, amazed and confused expression- he didn't know how he'd managed to roll all them into one, but that was exactly how he felt, so he imagined that was exactly how he looked. He saw her laughing face for about three seconds (in which time the swarm of dragons from earlier had dived in, and were snapping up as many fish as ther greedy mouths could fit) before Toothless couldn't contain his excitement a second longer, and he dropped into a lunging dive.
Hiccup barely caught hold of the saddle in time to stay on. Jack didn't even bother. As they neared the water, he slipped out the saddle, to grab some lunch of his own.
Hiccup's own excitement was bolstered by that of the Sky Dragon's. The fish fest was enough to make any dragon go crazy, but because of his ice abilities, and nervousness around water, fish was a rare delicacy to Jack- he hadn't had any since his last trip to Berk, over a year ago. When you add that to the fact that he loves the stuff, perhaps it was no wonder he went a little overboard with excitement.
He stayed quite a bit higher up than the the other dragons, but Hiccup wasn't surprised. He wasnt expecting him to come any closer. Still, he couldn't help but wish the Sky Dragon would come closer- even if he was annoying, he made everything so much better.
After the initial mad hype calmed down a little. Jack looked down at the hundreds of fish below.
He was staying up in the air, where only a few stray fish ended up, and only a few dragons flew. He loved the fish, they tasted amazing, just as always- maybe even better. But, looking down at the scene underneath him... it was like sitting trying to be content with a little bowl, looking at a full size buffet. He wanted to go down there where the fish was thicker, but at the same time he was reluctant to go anywhere near the ocean.
He'd almost drowned three times in his life, and the third time he'd all but died. So, he was uncomfortable, even a little scared, of the water. Still... that fishy filled air looked awfully tempting.
He stalled in the air with indecision. To stay or to go? He couldn't decide.
He heard the Alpha speak in his mind, though he could no longer see him through the deep murk of the sea.
'Why the distance, young one?' He queried. Jack didn't reply with words, but let the Alpha feel his nervousness and reluctance to go near the water, that had thrice proved a death trap for him. The Alpha seemed to be in unsatisfied with this response, and chuckled silently.
'The ocean holds no danger for you, young one.' He said, his voice inspiring confidence. 'You have skilled wings. You can fly the ocean with ease, if you so choose. The turbulent sea winds are just another venture, for a Storm Seeker like yourself, are they not?' He questioned.
He was right, Jack realised- he could more than handle anything the ocean could throw at him, what was he doing up here? He looked down, Cloudjumper had tilted a confused head at him.
"Come on, wind shaper." He prompted, having actually rather enjoyed Jack's boredom winds.
Toothless looked up, with no less than twelve fish in his stuffed mouth, and bounced playfully in the air- a silent invitation to come and play with him.
Well, he could hardly refuse that, now, could he.
Jack roared, as dropped towards the ocean. He never could abide by half measures. He either threw himself into something, or didn't do it at all- and he'd already pledged himself into this dive. The thrill of fear that coursed through him as he approached the ocean was- no, not terrifying, but exhilarating. Like flying into a storm with winds so strong they could almost rip his wings off. There was no kick quite like the fear of iminant death.
He roared with a mixture of fear and delight, as he approached the ever shifting, blue green carpet of doom, and found a fish suddenly found its way into his mouth. He swallowed it- was it just him, or did the fish taste sweeter down here. He opened his mouth again, and it was filled by one, two, four, seven?! Just how many fish were there down here? The air was practically swimming with them.
He spotted Toothless, now trying to choke the massive mouthful of fish down his throat (and failing) and flew in for a fly-by, snatching a fish right from the Night Fury's expectant mouth.
Toothless looked at him in surprise, then annoyance, as Jack dragon-chuckled at him. Hiccup's astonished voice entered his thoughts.
'What are doing so close to the ocean?!' He asked, incredulously.
'You doubt my amazing flying skills?' Jack smirked, flying backwards as the dragon and rider flew forwards.
'Nope, just your sanity.' Hiccup replied, his voice every bit as teasing as his dragon friend's. Jack chuckled again, and challenged Toothless to a "who can fit the most fish in their mouth" competition.
Toothless won, and milked the victory a little- he rarely won challenges against the white scaled dragon, so he had to make most of his moments. Jack wasn't too happy with the defeat, but claimed he didn't want "the title of biggest big mouth anyway".
In revenge, he floated a fish just beyond Toothless' reach. The Night Fury snapped at the fish, but it dodged out of the way. Confused, Toothless went for it again- again it dodged. He lunged for it like he would live prey, but the fish flew away. Thoroughly bewildered, the Night Fury persued it, but the snack always stayed one step ahead of him, floating on the wind. Until, finally, after all that hard work, Jack snapped it up instead. Toothless looked upset and disappointed at having his fish stolen, his ears fell.
Harsh? That was what Hiccup said. But flick four more fish in front of the Night Fury's face and- voila, instant forgiveness.
Jack even got so bold as to challenge the Night Fury to a wave top race. Well, it started off as a race, but ended up as a joy flight. Cloudjumper also joined in, the three dragons skimming the crests of the waves, whooping as a light sea mist sprayed them.
They continued flying atop the ocean, until the fishing ended. At which point they climbed to normal travelling altitude, but none of them felt like returning to the nest yet.
To avoid suspicion, Jack hitching a ride on a passing Hobblegrunt that took him up to Toothless, so it looked like he'd been dragon swapping the whole time. But Valka already suspected there was more to Jack than a simple traveller.
They covered Jack's transformations well, but Valka had lived wih dragons her whole life- she could tell there was something different about him... and that feeling that she knew him, from a long time, ago refused to go away. Of course, she still had no idea what either of those feelings meant, but she wondered all the same.
For a long time, they just flew together, enjoying the simple joy of flight. Surprisingly, Jack didn't get instantly bored. When he wasn't waiting for something, he could be mildly patient, and actually was just enjoying the simple happiness of flying in a group. It reminded him of the good old times, with North and the others. He'd forgotten how much he enjoyed it- flying with friends. Not doing anything in particular, just... flying. Enjoying each others company.
They flew in silence for a while, letting the wind beat gently about them.
Oddly, it was Valka who broke the silence.
"I just love it up here." She told them. "I don't even feel the cold, I just feel-"
"Free." Hiccup finished, smiling at his mother. Jack grinned too, at the irony of the statement- he'd never been cold in his life. Valka smiled back, then took a deep breath, throwing her arms out into the wind,
"This is what it is to be a dragon." She said, lost in the embrace of the wind.
Jack had to seriously fight the urge to jump off Toothless, and dragon out on her, saying "Nope, this is." Hiccup chuckled, as he imagined it.
"Yeah, but you can't say know what it's like to be a dragon, until you fly on your own two wings." He said- wait, was that out loud? Great, now Valka was going to think he'd lost it- which he had (truth be told, he never had "it"). He averted his gaze from the confused older woman, expecting a mental scolding from Hiccup... but none came.
Confused himself now, he looked at Hiccup's mind, expecting to see panic at the almost giving away of his secret, but, instead, he found a mental barrier. It wasn't sad, or defensive, or even annoyed, it was... excited?
He prodded and poked at it, but gained nothing. Ok, he was up to something. He leaned sideways to see Hiccup's face. He was wearing a contained grin, and, as Jack watched, he pulled back a lever on Toothless' saddle- was that the automatic tail thingy?
"So you're saying you don't know what it's like to be a dragon, until you can fly like one?" Hiccup began, standing up. Jack looked at him, suspicious- where was this going? "...and you know what? I think you're absolutely right." He finished... and then he jumped.
Jack would have been shocked enough with that- jumping off the dragon was his job: then again, it was somewhat gratfiying to know his evil influence was rubbing off. Jack looked off the side of the black dragon, more confused than worried... and his jaw dropped.
Hiccup wasn't falling- he finally knew what those massive pockets on his leathery suit did. They didn't do nothing at all, they hid large, flat pieces of smooth leather, that could be released to give the effect of wings; and they weren't decorative, oh no.
Hiccup was flying.