Hiccup took a deep breath as he slowly walked over to Toothless. The Night Fury crooned at him, as he slid his leg over the muscular back of the dragon. Hiccup was terrified; he had failed so many times in his life that the thought of failing now was painful now.
But this was different; for as long as he could remember, Hiccup had always felt uneasy whenever he rolled out his inventions. Looking back, Hiccup realised it was a mistake to try to fit into the village that way, but his stubbornness and his determination to make his father proud of him had led him down that route, but all he'd gotten was years of pain and humiliation.
Every single weapon he had built was crushed, ruined especially when they were destroyed.
Every single tool he'd made to help the tribe was wrecked, either by the twins or Snotlout. The twins destroyed them for a joke, but each of their losses brought more damage to the village and he was humiliated and ostracised even more. Sometimes Hiccup wondered why he even bothered or helped the tribe.
Hiccup sighed again and he slid himself onto Toothless's back. He had done this many a time before, getting onto Toothless' back to check the prosthetic and to test how well it was holding up. It was Hiccup's intention to one day design and build a prosthetic that the Night Fury could use on his own, but while his research was going well and he was learning how to use the prosthetic from the original prototypes, he knew it could be years before he fulfilled his promise and redeemed himself in the Night Fury's eyes. Hiccup hadn't forgiven himself for taking away the dragon's flight after tearing off a piece of the tail fin.
"C'mon, bud," Hiccup said as he got on.
Flying above the island, so high up and moving gracefully through the air was nothing that Hiccup had experienced before. As the Heir of Berk, even if he had been mocked for his size and build and clumsy nature, Hiccup had spent enough time on boats. The journeys were so slow, even with the Viking's uncanny navigational abilities, and masterful shipbuilding skills.
But up here.
Gliding through the air was extremely gentle and quick; while Toothless was streamlined like a bird and was quick, even with the human on his back, the dragon was extremely fast, and Hiccup knew it would have taken several hours for a Viking long-ship to get around the coastline they were passing, never mind to the rocks near the island. The swells of the sea would have made a fishing boat toss and jump up and down, bucking on the waves…and yet Toothless just darted towards them without any problem.
For the first time in his life, Hiccup…Hiccup felt like he was home. Properly, home; all of those years, wasting his time building those inventions, and trying to trap and kill dragons…he was glad he had failed.
Losing the cheat sheet was a disappointment, he had only fitted it to Toothless to help him learn how to move his foot to the right positions, Hiccup quickly learnt what to do, and even when Toothless fired a bolt of plasma in triumph and Hiccup felt nothing but irritation as he knew he was about to suffer minor burns, but that was nothing compared to how good he felt.
Hiccup was no mere Viking.
He wasn't a mere Heir of the Hairy Hooligans.
He was a Dragon rider.
And he wasn't sure if he wanted to be a Hairy Hooligan, a Viking, or an Heir anymore.