If Hiccup Died During Test Drive
DISCLAIMER: I do not own How To train Your Dragon. Those rights are reserved to Dreamworks and Cressida Cowell. This is for educational purposes only. If I did own this franchise, ooh boy, it would be a walking madhouse by the time I'm threw with it. Let's all have a moment of silence in thanks that I don't own this lovely piece(s) of work.
Test Drive Gone Wrong
Hiccup and Toothless soared up into the skies, the wind coasting against them and ruffling through Hiccup's hair. He grabbed on tight to the saddle, the sheet containing the six main positions for Toothless' tail clipped in front of him. The excitement in his belly caused him to smile, a giddy feeling similar to a small ship being tossed around during a storm surging through his body. Hiccup breathed, and steeled himself for what was about to happen. It was risky, but he believed they could pull it off.
This was the moment they'd both been waiting for. Nothing was going to stop them from flying, not today.
"Okay, bud, let's take this nice and slow." He patted Toothless on the neck, and moved to check his cheat sheet. "Here we go, here we go, f-three, no four." He turned and adjusted the fake wing, eyeing it to make sure it was in the right position. Toothless hummed a little, happily tilting his wings, and the two of them curved around from the left.
Hiccup smiled, sat up a little, and tugged on the rope connecting the saddle to the harness to see how well it was holding. He turned and checked the mechanical fin one more time before moving to face the front again, Toothless roaring a little in happiness as he climbed the sky and leveled out once more.
The Viking turned around to make sure the fin was stable before they continued on to their next move. "Alright, it's go time, it's go time." Talking didn't really help his nerves much, but it felt better to say something then just sit there in silence and suffer through anxiety. Or was it excitement? At this point, he couldn't tell.
Toothless dipped his head forward, and both Viking and dragon dived down to the ocean. The wind whistled against their ears–uh, ears and ear flaps–and gradually built up to a roar. Hiccup braced himself along the neck of his friend, gripping the saddle tightly and bending his body along Toothless'.
The dragon took the dive nice and slow, smoothing out to sail above the water, gigantic rock formations piled on top of each other and standing tall in the middle of the sea. "Come on buddy, come on buddy!" Toothless' wingtip brushed against the surface of the water, sending white spray against the wind, and he soared between two huge pillars of stone.
Hiccup warily looked upwards, spotting some seagulls and attempting to use them as a distraction towards his mounting anxiety. And yes, it was definitely anxiety this time. There were many things that could go wrong on this part, but he trusted Toothless, and Toothless trusted him. He was confident things would be fine. Just because he was nervous didn't mean anything. He just had to get himself together, and then they'd pull through.
"Yes, it worked!" They'd successfully passed the first obstacle, and currently were not sinking to the sea. Hiccup smiled in pride, and feeling a little more sure of himself, even grinned as both he and Toothless turned to avoid another huge stone column.
Or well, tried to, since Toothless still ended up bumping against it anyways. "Sorry!" Hiccup gripped the saddle and twisted again, but Toothless still slammed against another column, and the dragon groaned in frustration. "That was my fault."
Toothless glared upwards and back, to where he knew Hiccup was sitting, and snapped his head to the side. One of his flapper-things, Hiccup had no idea what they were named and ended up just calling them flapper-things, slapped Hiccup across the cheek, and the boy let out a sound of shock and slight pain. "Yeah yeah, I'm on it. Position four, uh three."
He double-checked the sheet to be sure, then tugged on the right pedal to see if it was secure before he clicked the left pedal into position. He heaved upward on the saddle, and Toothless followed, beating his wings up and down as they climbed higher and higher into the sky. The dragon let out a pleased little roar, Hiccup looking around and whooping happily as he felt the exhilaration that came with soaring up high.
"Yeah, go baby!" Toothless stuck out his tongue. They flew higher then they'd ever flown before, reaching and even moving beyond the clouds. Hiccup laughed, "Yes! Oh, this is amazing! The wind in my–CHEAT SHEET!"
Said sheet caught on the wind and flew away.
Hiccup grabbed at it and cried out, "Stop!" The rope that kept him clicked together with Toothless' saddle slipped out of its ring. Suddenly, the flight was looking a lot less cheery then it was before.
Toothless stopped, as was asked of him, and slowly felt himself start falling back to the ocean. Hiccup, now holding the cheat sheet in his hand, was much lighter then the dragon, and kept rising upwards until he stopped and started to descend. Except, he was now out of the saddle, and falling from the sky with a dragon that can't fly is a really bad situation to be in.
Toothless roared in surprise and mounting panic, scrambling in the air to try and catch Hiccup so he could fly them both out of this situation. Hiccup felt his stomach fall first, then his head, then his arms and legs and everything else. But he gripped tight to the cheat sheet, thanked the Gods that his heart hadn't fallen like his stomach did, and started to panic even as he already knew what to do.
"Oh gosh, oh gods!" He saw Toothless right underneath him, reached out to try and grab him, but instead bounced right off the dragon's wing. "Oh no!" The Night Fury cried out for its rider, turning to see the boy spiraling down much faster then he'd been going before.
Hiccup ignored his own panic, forcing himself to calm down enough to think this through. He moved around until he was as straight as he could be in midair, looking up to his friend and reaching out for him. "Ya-you gotta kinda angle yourself–", he dodged a wing and mentally smacked his forehead as Toothless just roared again, "–no, n-n-n-now come back down towards me–!"
Guiding a panicking dragon while falling Odin-only-knows how far up from the sea was some pretty tough stuff.
"T-toothless–Gyeow!" The tip of one of Toothless' wings slapped Hiccup harshly across the face and sent him spinning towards one of those gigantic rock formations. He rubbed an eye and turned with just enough time to start a scream, before he slammed face first onto the land formation.
A few cracks erupted from the side of the rock, dust and tiny pebbles now joining the descent as the unconscious Viking sped even faster down to the waters below. Toothless shrieked in worry, flapping his wings to try and grab his rider, but Hiccup remained unresponsive. The sheet flew up into the air as his grip slackened, and a few blood drops from an invisible wound on his head seemed to float up in a game of follow-the-leader.
Toothless roared again, louder, pupils shrinking in fear at the nearing dark blue expanse, trying to get his rider to wake up. Hiccup slowly turned around in midair, limp, making no attempt to stop his fall since he was no longer aware of it. The dragon kept flapping, and once he was near enough, he stretched out his paw and even his claws to try and reach Hiccup.
The Night Fury shrieked one last time before both dragon and human slammed into the water.
The crash was so loud that Toothless went deaf as soon as they entered the ocean. He opened his mouth to roar, but didn't hear it, only saw bubbles and Hiccup floating beneath him with red mist clouding up around the human's head. Toothless closed his mouth and narrowed his eyes, flapping his wings and trying to swim to Hiccup. He stretched as much as he could, claws scrambling and scratching until he finally snagged some cloth from his rider's tunic.
The dragon twisted upwards, beat his wings as hard as he could, and roared when he burst from the surface of the water. He fell right back in, but kept flapping his wings to try and stay above the water, whining a little when he realized he couldn't swim without Hiccup adjusting his brown-colored fin.
He jumped up as much as he could and threw Hiccup out of the water, expecting him to take a breath and then swim back towards him. But the boy soared up, then fell right back down, slapping through the ocean again and continuing to sink. Toothless croaked in worry and dived again, snatching his rider up more easier then last time and bringing him back to the surface. He jumped up again and tried to fly out of the water, but ended up sinking once more, having only floated a little bit in the direction of land.
Hiccup still didn't move.
The dragon struggled for what felt like days against the currents of the ocean, jumping and flapping and doing everything he could to get to land. He did, eventually, after so long that he didn't bother trying to remember. His wings were aching when he finally clawed his way onto the pebbles and rocks serving as a beach. First, he collapsed, breathing harshly and shaking off as much water as he could. Then he dragged himself forward, his paw bringing a soaked Hiccup along with it.
Toothless collapsed onto the ground, panting as he lied down and tried to regain his strength. He crawled forward, crooning softly at Hiccup, nudging his snout against the other's head. He stayed there for a long time, watching his rider and waiting for his wings to stop aching, the Sun slowly setting beyond the sea.
Night falls, and the Night Fury roars in shock and pain as he realizes his rider won't wake up ever again.
Stoick sends out the whole village to search for his son when morning comes and Hiccup still isn't in bed. It takes them two days and a night and a half to find him. When they do, Stoick is nursing a mug of mead and almost going mad with worry.
Gobber is the one to tell him. The Viking makes sure no one else is in the Great Hall to see when Stoick loses his composure, when he throws the mug to the floor and slams his fist so hard on a table that it cracks and almost breaks. He is the only one that is allowed to see the few moments in which Chief Stoick sheds tears for the son he lost.
But it really did only last a moment, because the Chief wipes his eyes and becomes stoic, just as his name suggests. He turns to his brother-in-arms and says, "I want to see him."
As they place the dead body down in the Elder's hut, Gobber informs him on how they found him by Raven's Point, on a stretch of pebbles by Dusty Beach. Stoick only nods, and gently pulls away the cloth they'd placed over his son. The man swallows thickly.
Hiccup's hair is thick and clumped together with seawater and blood. His face is dirty, a little green and puffy, dry blood chipping away on the left side of his forehead. His eyes are closed, one of them swollen. His clothes are mostly torn apart, one or two long cuts now closed with dried blood and seaweed. Three gouge marks are on his chest, leaking a foul smelling substance.
Stoick stares at the dead body of his heir for a full minute and thirty seconds before he covers it up again. Gobber waits outside, and sighs when he sees his Chief walk out of the Elder's hut as stoic as always. The two men share a look, a silent message, before they both head towards the Great Hall.
He is draining his second mug of mead when Stoick says, "A dragon did it." Gobber chokes mid-gulp, coughing and slamming his hand-mug on the table, spilling mead all over his beard and not even bothering to wipe it away. Stoick just sips his drink, living up to his name and not letting a single ounce of feeling through his armor and shield. Detachment has always been a strength of his. He's never needed it more then he has now.
"His clothes were torn and slashed. He had marks on his chest…Like when a dragon's claws grab hold of our sheep. It picked him up, Gobber. After it sliced him, it picked him up and flew Odin-knows how high up in the air, just to drop him right on his head. It's smart. It made sure he was dead…"
Gobber had no idea how Stoick managed to know all this simply by looking at his son's dead body, but he wouldn't question it. In his whole life, he'd only gone against his Chief once, and it cost him both his arm and leg. He didn't plan to do that again anytime soon.
The blonde man cleared his throat, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, though by now it didn't matter anyway. "So...Ya'r tellin' me a dragon went after Hiccup and made sure he was dead? Okay, well… 'Tis tah be expected. Dragons have killed hundreds of us. Wouldn't be the first time you–ah, we, I meant we, lost someone to them."
Stoick's hands tightened around his mug. His grip was so hard that the poor cup ended up shattering, spilling the amber liquid all over his hands and the table. Gobber took in a stressed breath, thinking that maybe he'd said something wrong. The Chief of Berk stood up, pushing away his seat, and began to walk out of the Great Hall. "And this will be the last time we do."
Stoick turned to Gobber for one last time. "Make sure everyone is gathered here tomorrow at noon. I have an announcement tah make." He walked to the doors and yanked them open, stepping out into the dark and cold night. "When I'm through with 'em, there won't be a single dragon left on Midgard."
The double wooden doors banged together as they swung back and forth, not fully closing, the sound echoing around the Hall. Gobber sighed, taking a long gulp of mead. "Oh Hiccup. Look a' what ye've done. Now I've gotta be the one to clean up your mess."
Sooo… Tell me whatcha think! Accents don't like me when I try to write them, so yah, ignore that. I'd like feedback on whatever you can find. Whether it be good or bad, I'm all ears for it.