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Chapter 8: Face to Face

"HICCUP"S GONE"

As the words left the chief's mouth he could see the shoulders of the Nightfury stiffen considerably. Toothless's eye's darted to the door and within seconds he was launching his long body out the small entrance, with Stoick trailing behind struggling to keep up with the beast.

"Stoick!"

The chief came to a stop as he heard a gruff voice calling out to him. Turning he found the Blacksmith wobbling up the path to his house with frantic speed.

"Gobber, what is it?" Stiock inquired, worried about his friends' current panicked state.

"I saw 'im," Gobber replayed slightly out of breath as he reached the chief and Toothless, who'd stopped reluctantly to wait for the chief. Toothless might not have the relationship with the chief that he had with Hiccup, but he respected the Human enough to wait so they could find the young boy together. After all He was sure Hiccup had run to avoid the man, so it should be said man to bring him back home.

"Saw who Gobber?" Stoick asked confused.

"Hiccup" the black smith replied exasperated by his friends slow up take. "He was hightailing it in ta the forest. Never seen 'im move so fast in my life, you'd think Loki himself was after 'im."

"Which way did he go?! Show me." Stoick demanded franticly but still attempting to retain his composure, which was proving to be more difficult with each heart attack his son seemed to be inducing in him these last few days. Maybe this was his son's demented form of revenge, to just keep stressing his heart until it eventually gave out.

"Follow me I'll show ya" Gobber said wobbling off toward the tree line located behind the chiefs cabin.

Reaching the edge of the forest, Gobber lifted his arm and pointed two calloused fingers and pointed towards the inside of the, still dark, woods. "I saw 'im run off that way, I couldn't see 'im past that rock over there, His blasted scales blended in so I lost track of 'im."

"It's Okay Gobber, at least we know where ta start, I'm gonna go look for 'im before he gets 'imself inta trouble. If he comes back, try to keep 'im in the village." And with that, Stoick and Toothless headed off into the trees, the shadows swallowing them as they left the blacksmith's sight.

They ran for what seemed like an eternity, every turn brought forth more despair as Hiccup was still nowhere in sight. Stoick could feel his legs begin to burn with the effort it took to keep up with Toothless, who continued to barrel through bushes with such aggression that Stoick had begun to wonder if it was the dragon's way of letting off some steam or if he simply had some sort of grudge against the local fauna.

But one thought kept repeating itself in his mind, giving his tired legs strength renewed, and filled his rapidly emptying lungs with air.

Just please let him be safe, I can't lose him again.

The sun had fully risen in the sky by the time Toothless seemed to have an epiphany and rushed off downhill towards the cove, and hopefully Hiccup.

Hiccup pulled his wet body out of the small pool of water with some difficulty. His wings kept dragging heavily through the water, slowing him considerably and weighing him down as they kept trapping water between the webbing in the bat like appendages.

He'd fallen pretty hard, and the surface of his skin burned with the ungraceful back flop he'd done. Flying was a lot harder t than he'd thought it would be. Riding the air currents manually was widely more complex than just flicking a pedal around and directing one single tailfin. Granted, learning how direct even a single tailfin had been extremely challenging in the beginning, with the many trial and error experiments with his prototype tail. But what Nightfuries, and dragons in general, did on their own without the aid of a rider had no comparison.

They rode the wind and flowed through the currents like fish in the sea. Maybe he'd be able to fly like that one day but for now he was content to rest his sore back, and slightly wounded pride, and stretch his limbs in the lukewarm sand.

Flattening his, so far troublesome, wings against his back he glanced around the small cove and spotted the shield he'd accidentally lodged in between to large boulders months ago. This place was where it all started. Where he'd faced his fears, against his better judgment, to satisfy his nagging curiosity. Where he'd learned about one of the known world's most lucrative dragons, and where he met his first and greatest friend.

However, it was also where he'd turned his back on his own village in favor of the enemy. Where he'd put his father's name to shame as he cavorted with "demons" and beasts.

Maybe…..maybe it would have been better if I'd never meet Toothless. Maybe I should have done things the Viking way and finished him off when I found him in the forest that day. Maybe then my dad would have looked at me with pride instead of disappointment and contempt.

Almost as soon as the thought crossed his mind he felt guilt settle itself into his chest. No, even if he could take it back he never would. Even if it meant his father hating him and being a dragon for the rest of his life, he would never betray Toothless like that.

Before he'd meet Toothless he'd been nothing. He'd felt fake, like he'd never really truly been himself until he meet the Nightfury. He'd hidden himself behind sarcasm and indifference in an attempt to seem strong, even if it was just to himself. For as long as he could remember he'd been trying his hardest to be just like everyone else, trying to be the Viking his dad could be proud of. But that wasn't him, no matter how hard he tried, or how much he didn't want to believe it Gobber had been right. He always tried to be something he wasn't, and he'd never be a true Viking, at least not in his father's eyes. But Toothless had made him realize that that was okay, he didn't want to be one. He loved to fly, the excitement of the wind rushing past his ears as he plummeted toward the ground at breakneck speeds and dodging through the sea stacks.

Toothless had allowed him to finally discover what his place was in life, and that place wasn't where his dad wanted him to be. But even so he'd never take back a single moment he spent flying through the air with his best friend. It'd become part of him, to the point where he'd never be able to live without it. He was eternally bound to soar though the sky.

That was when a he had a horrific realization. Toothless can't fly! He can't fly without a rider to steer his tailfin, but now that he was a dragon too, Toothless was grounded. A memory of what Gobber had told them during training floated up to the front of his mind and rang menacingly in his ears. "A downed dragon is a dead dragon." Just how was he supposed to make toothless able to fly when he didn't even have fingers to make a fist with? It's not like he could hold a hammer between his teeth and hope for the best.

Here he'd been thinking about his own problems and had even been immature enough to run off on his own when he couldn't even fly, but he hadn't even been thinking about Toothless' predicament. Now he just felt foolish, selfish and guilty.

He still didn't want to go home and face his father and his new found guilt towards Toothless, but staying here wasn't going to achieve anything except make the problem worse. So, with no small amount of reluctance, he pulled himself to his feet and set off to leave the cove before he remembered something. He still didn't know how to fly. Getting into the cove had been fairly easy, just jump over the cliff and fall into the water. An idiot could have done that. But that hadn't been flying. And if memory served him even Toothless had trouble getting out of the cove without flying out. If an experienced dragon had trouble getting out what hope did a newbie like him have.

Walking along the walls he searched desperately for some sort of foot hold or ledge for him to use to bust himself up and out of the cove. If he could just find a tall enough rock he might be able to fly up from there. After a few moments he ended up on the same rock he'd seen Toothless use before in his attempt to escape the cove. Carefully he crawled up onto the highest point of the boulder and crouched low. Hesitantly he spread his wings and gave his tail a small wiggle as he pushed off the ground with his strong legs and flapped vigorously, only to land soundly onto his butt and failing to reach the cliff's top.

Cursing low under his breath in frustration he tried again and only achieved in getting the same result. However, not easily deterred by the challenge, he launched himself over and over again into the air, his wings beat furiously. But each time he landed roughly onto his hindquarters. Just what was he doing wrong? Was his angle wrong? Maybe he needed to angle his tail better, or flap harder. But no matter how hard he flapped, what angle he was in, or which way his tail was pointing, the result same still the same.

Sitting with his wings spread out on either side of him lazily, his rib cage expanded and contracted rapidly with his heavy panting. Now he had another problem all together. He was stuck down there.

Stoick and Toothless raced through the trees at a surprisingly steady pace. The chief's lungs had long since started to fail him, but even so he keep going not wanting to be left behind by the dragon. Rounding another boulder they came to a scene of such destruction that Stoick felt his eyes widen slightly in surprise. Trees were bent and splintered like twigs in a child's hands. Angry looking fangs of wood jutted out of stumps and sharp pieces of bark lay strewn this way and that. But what really caught his eye was small black scale like object littering the forest floor like dust ,and suddenly it made sense.

This was where Toothless landed when Hiccup shot him down. Even though he'd spent the last few days in the Nightfuries presents it had never really felt real to him that his scrawny son had shot one of the strongest and fastest dragons right out of the sky with one of his crazy inventions, and in the dark of night no less! Only now did it feel real to him and the impressive sight made Stoick feel a sense of pride. His son had shot down a Nightfury.

Passing through the last of the broken trees and turned over stumps, the cliff edge of the cove was finally in sight. With his last burst of energy he pushed himself forward with such speed he quickly over took the Nightfury, who had been so far in the lead. Coming to a grinding halt at the cliff edge he peered down into the cove and what he saw made him heave a sigh of relief. A Nightfury sat staring at his wings with a look of frustration near the wall to his left.

He quickly ran off toward the path he knew existed between a large gathering of boulders. He nearly tripped in his mad dash to reach his son. Part way down he stopped, there was a shield wedged between to boulders, blocking the end of the path. How in Thor's name had that gotten there? He was too tall to be able to wedge himself underneath the small space left by the blasted thing. The only other way down would be to jump, so getting to the lowest point he could he launched himself from the path and landed right in front of a startled pair of Green eyes.

A/N: So they finally come face to face dundunduh. lol So a lot of people have been asking me if I'm going to be turning Hiccup back into a human at some point and the answer is yes, it's just a matter of writing it into the narrative. I also have been asked if I plan on turning this into a Toothcup pairing, and the answer is no, I don't typically like that pairing if it goes beyond friendship, it's just my own personal opinion. If you like that paring more power to you. I really appreciate all the reviews, and i know I'm being repetitive, but it really keeps me going and gives me a lot of inspiration. Just please don't send overly harsh reviews, constructive criticism is fine just make sure it's helpful not hurtful. So far everything's been helpful so no worries there. Please fav, follow, and review and until next time bye, bye.

-Tsuchihana