Reckless Behavior
This, is the dragon sanctuary and it has been home for my mom and me for the last 15 years. Most vikings would call me a freak. Not just because of my size but also by my friendship with the dragons. Do I care? No I don't. My family is awesome and my best friend, even more so. We found each other at age five and haven't been separated since. The dragons fawn over me and my mother likes to keep me in check. But every now and then I need to get away. Take to the skies and just go
Wind whips in my face as I glide across the sea. A small dot on the horizon appears and I urge Toothless faster.
"Seriously Hiccup? We have gone here for the three weeks. Can't we do something else?"
"One last time. Please. I think I have it down this time."
"That's what you said last time. And what happened? You were stuck in bed for a week."
"That's not important." A maze of sea stacks approach. "Toothless, take us up."
Once we are high in the sky, I give Toothless the signal to dive. He drops and rotates into a large spin followed by rapid spins. We straiten out and Toothless expands his wings right before we smash into the sea. The pressurized air from under Toothless wings causes the sea to rupture outwards. Using the momentum of dive, we level out till we are about in the middle of the sea stacks. As an overhang comes closer, I hop up. Planting my feet firmly on the saddle, I prepare to jump.
"You sure about this Hiccup?" Toothless shouts over the wind. "Last time you almost got us both killed." I roll my eyes at Toothless weak attempt to get out of it.
"I'm positive buddy. Trust me." The wind carries away most of Toothless reply but I snatch up parts of it.
"…greedy little two face…he has a death wish for us both…should've never bonded with the little twerp…" I laugh in his face before focusing in the rapidly approaching object. As soon as the sea stack is close, I leap up and forwards with all my might. I get a brief glance of Toothless flying under the overhang before the rock comes between us. The moment of weightlessness in the air is thrilling. Gravity begins to pull me back down before I have completely cleared the overhang. Narrowly escaping the rock, I come crashing down on Toothless.
"You're heavy Hiccup. Maybe you should slack off on eating so much fish." Laughing I secure myself in the saddle and throw back,
"You shouldn't put yourself down Toothless. It isn't nice to talk about yourself like that." A quick gerk of his head, and Toothless ear is in my face. Pushing it away, I guide us out of the maze and out to open sea.
"You up for exploring bud?"
"Always am."
"Lets go farther North." We fly for about an hour before landing on an island. "Looks deserted. I wonder where the dragons are."
"We could be at one of those islands. You know, the ones your mom is always tell us not to go to!"
"Come on you big baby. There are no vikings here. We would have spotted their village in the air. Now come on. Let's check this place out." There isn't much to see. Trees, grass, streams. Nothing out of the ordinary. I suggest to Toothless that we stay here and relax for the day. He quickly agrees.
All too soon the sun is setting and we have to head home.
"I'm telling you, Hiccup. We should go straight home and not take your round about detour to the east. I don't want your mother to take one of my tail fins. Could you imagine how much of a disaster that would be?" I ignore this last comment.
"Come on. It'll be fine. If we do get caught, I can always make something up. Now let's go." I hop up onto the saddle and secure myself in. Once I'm settled, Toothless takes off in a southeast direction.
Darkness arrives and we are still far out from home.
"I told you not to go east. Not only are we going to feel your mom's wrath, but we are lost now too."
"Quiet. I think I hear something." I hiss to Toothless. After a moment of silence I hear it again. The steady beat of dragon wings.
"There." Toothless points out a flock of dragons flying parallel to us.
"Come on. Let's go ask them for directions." We fly closer to the dragons and Toothless calls out,
"Hey, can you help point us towards the dragon sanctuary?" The dragons don't respond. They keep flying and looking at an invisible point on the horizon.
"Ok, that's weird." An island pops up out of the mist. As it nears, a small chanting rises up from the dragons. It starts soft, like a whisper in the breeze, to a deafening roar.
"Feed the queen. Make her happy. Take what you can, then get out. If you don't, you'll be killed. By them. Or by her." The dragons repeat the chant over and over as they descend on a viking village.
"Come on bud. We can't just let them all be killed. Let's take out the catapults." Toothless grumbles in agreement and rises in the sky. I survey the village and spot the catapults. I point them out to Toothless and he dives down to destroy them. A whistling sound is created as we dive and I hear below me,
"Night Fury! Get down!" Toothless releases a plasma blast destroying the catapult. Using the momentum of the dive, Toothless angles his wings and takes us up. We destroy another catapult and get in position to destroy a third one. We begin the dive when I hear it. A soft clang coming from the village. It is hard to spot the net thrown at us until it is too late. It tangles around Toothless wings and I am forced flat on my back.
I stretch my arm down towards my boot, trying to grab the dagger hidden there.
"Hiccup! Look out!" Toothless barely has time to twist around and wrap his wings around me, before we slam into the ground. A slight slope in the ground causes us to roll a bit before stopping. I lie there trying to remember to breath.
"Toothless, are you, OK?" I ask between gasps of breaths.
"Besides my ego being slammed into the ground, the massive head ace and the pain racing through my entire body? I feel fine."
"You aren't the only one bud." The steady beat of footsteps nearby reminds me of our current situation. I grab my hidden knife and begin sawing at the ropes. I create a gap large enough to fit through. Then, I untangle my limbs from Toothless grasp and the net; I then proceed to release Toothless from the entanglement. Vikings climb over the ridge near us as Toothless stretches his wings out of the net.
"Over here! I've spotted him!"
"That's our queue to leave Hiccup!" I swing myself into the saddle just as Toothless begins to lift off the ground. The vikings below throw weapons and anything else they can get their hands on trying to stop us. Toothless barely manages to dodge the objects and takes us higher in the sky.
"OK, we are going home. The dragons will to go without us. We need to get you home so you can rest from that fall."
"Hiccup, you are not helping my injured pride."
"Sorry." The fly home is silent as we brood about the raid, gone wrong. Toothless sneaks into the sanctuary. I hop off and stretch my sore limbs before Toothless has even touched the ground.
"Um Hiccup, hate to break it to you, but the danger isn't over yet."
"What are you talking about?" Toothless looks at me, waiting for me to figure it out. "Oh! Right. Mom." Toothless tries to suppress a shudder but utterly fails.
"Come on bud, it is well past two in the morning. Mom and Cloudjumper are fast asleep right now. Besides, I have an idea on how to get out of trouble. We'll go to the forge, say I was up late working on some new ideas and fell asleep."
"Really? That's your master plan? You can create a system allowing the baby dragons, who can't fly, to go up and down to the different levels of the cavern. But you come up with that ridiculous plan? No one would buy that. Especially not your mom."
"Do you have a better idea?"
"Nope."
"Let's go."
Authors note: Thank you guys so much for support you have been giving me. I really appreciate it and it makes me feel better on how things are turning out. I just wanted to clear up a question on the crystals in the last chapter. Are they magical or not? So, I left it open ended because I wasn't sure if I wanted them to be magical or not. I will decide later on in the story. But for now, they are just normal crystals. Thank you so much. See you next chapter.