Alrighty, so another chapter up. Most of these are pretty good, except #75, which I think sucks, but you'll have to decide for yourself. Personally, #73 is my favorite of this bunch, and as for #74, you're going to have to have an open mind about that one, okay? I didn't really know where I was going with it when I started writing it, so it kinda just composed itself. Enjoy!

~.~

71. Abuse

Whump!

Toothless cringed as, ahead of him, his best friend was squashed unceremoniously into the ground.

"What was that one for?" Hiccup demanded of his attacker as he spit dirt from his mouth, sprawled out on his stomach.

Astrid, who had dropped from a tree branch onto Hiccup's head and was still seated casually on his back, smirked. "I'm toughening you up."

"Why?"

"Why not? Have you seen yourself lately?"

Hiccup had had this conversation before and apparently rather wanted to avoid it. He sighed. "Can you get off me, please?"

Astrid thought for a moment. "No."

Toothless blinked. They might be there for a while. . .

"Why not?"

"Because I don't feel like it. And if I do get off, you'll just run right back to the armory and hole yourself up in there with your latest project for the next week."

"You just like to abuse me," Hiccup concluded.

Astrid grinned. "Well, you are a pretty easy target."

"Brilliant."

72. Untouchable

Flying was their way to escape.

It wasn't running away, exactly—if they had wanted to run away, they would never come back—but more of a way of outrunning their troubles. When Toothless and Hiccup flew, it was their way of escaping the world and all its problems and gather their wits. The air was the only place where they could never be caught, unless, of course, they wanted to be.

After all, they needed an occasional escape, for the love of Thor. As Hiccup got older, he became more and more of a candidate to take his father's place as chief, which meant that Berk expected a lot from him. In addition to the pressure of politics, he also had to worry about restoring the armory, and Stoick's waning health, and being drug from one end of the village to the other to fix this and that for somebody, and generally being too busy to spend time doing anything particularly enjoyable.

Toothless, being Hiccup's designated shadow, spent most of his time following the Viking around, and when he wasn't doing that he was off being bored and lonely and useless because Hiccup's daily activities had become repetitive and boring as of late, and there was only so many ways to amuse yourself.

So some days, when Hiccup got sick of being yanked around to do this or that and having everybody always staring over his shoulder, and when Toothless had once again been denied face time with his best friend, they would go flying. It was a welcome release from the petty activities that went on below them, and nobody could find them or tell them what to do or ask that they come running—it was just the two of them, doing one of the things that they most enjoyed.

And for a while, they were untouchable.

73. Gullible

"Hey Dad? Mom said something about you yesterday."

Hiccup looked up from where he was working at the forge, suspicion written on his features. "What did your mother say this time?"

Toothless watched as the boy, the spitting image of his father but luckily blessed with his mother's physical capabilities, hauled himself up onto the table to sit and watch Hiccup work. "She thinks you're crazy."

"Oh." Hiccup rolled his eyes slightly and went back to his project. "Well, your mother is overly opinionated."

"What's that mean?"

"It means that she talks a lot."

Toothless grinned. That much was true, at least.

"She said that Toothless thinks you're crazy, too," his son reported.

"She said that, did she?" Hiccup flashed the dragon a look. Toothless smiled innocently. "And do you think I'm crazy?"

The boy shrugged, looking sheepish. "I dunno. But Grandpa Stoick says you're crazy."

Hiccup frowned. "Well, tell your Grandpa Stoick that he has a few screws loose himself. Besides," he said, suddenly serious as he looked his son in the eye, "if I'm crazy, then you're probably crazy, too."

His son's eyes widened. "Really?"

"Yep. If your grandpa's crazy, and your dad's crazy, then chances are you're going to turn crazy someday pretty soon."

The boy looked at Toothless, aghast, and the dragon nodded in agreement with Hiccup. "I'm gonna go ask Mom," he decided after a moment, looking caught somewhere between skepticism and horror. He leaped off the table and raced away to ask Astrid if this worrisome statement held any truth.

Hiccup winked at Toothless. "We're gonna pay for that."

74. Stranger

The world, as Hiccup and Toothless had come to discover, was a very big place. Not all of it was wonderful, and not all of it was awful, and Thor knew that there was more in it than could ever be discovered.

Some people, the duo had discovered, were shallow minded. Others were far more diverse and crazy than even Hiccup and Toothless themselves. Some things were for sure though—they had come to realize that Berk was quite a small and isolated place in the long run, and that dragons were found in places other than the far north (although not where you would expect), and half of their adventures bordered on the extraordinary and were not going to be believed by the residents of the Viking village they called home.

Another thing about traveling: you were always a stranger, and at the same time, you never were, because believers like them (and nut-cases, and dreamers, and survivors, and every other type of person or being imaginable) were always there to share a good laugh or story with—even if you had to look for them.

Take, for instance, the young man wiping down tables in the nearly-empty pub in some well-traversed island that the two travelers are spending the night at. He strikes both Viking and dragon as the type who has seen everything—and, indeed, the type who enjoys a good tale.

"So, what's your story?" he asks Hiccup conversationally, sizing up Toothless with considerable respect. In a place such as this, there's no doubt that he gets a number of wanderers every night who have seen more than their fair share of the world and everything it has to offer.

The Viking raises his eyebrows and smiles slightly. "You probably wouldn't believe us if we told you."

The waiter grins, and they know that he is one of those not-so-strangers who, like them, has been around the block a few times in his day.

"Try me."

75. If

Toothless has a mixed opinion about the word if.

It's so open, so unpredictable, that it's quite a wonderful thing. And yet it's scary. What if is, after all, like having all the world's possibilities in the palm of your hand. What if you died tomorrow. What if you became fabulously rich. What if your best friend got excluded from his father's will for blowing up his house (accidentally or otherwise).

If is chance, and luck, and fate. It's the good with the bad, and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. It's what keeps people going, keeps dreams alive, and fuels hope.

Toothless isn't the type that commonly walks around, pondering the deep meaning of two-letter words—that's more Hiccup's thing, the nerd—but if catches his attention.

After all, the dragon likes opportunities and dreams and goals, and if embodies all of them.