A/N: Longest chapter so far! :)
Disclaimer: I own nothing but Haedryin!
Chapter 11: Test Drive/The Helmet
The next morning, Toothless glides through the air, as I try not to hyperventilate. My hands shake and my breathing is hitched. Toothless's demeanor however is radiating confidence. Well at least one of us knows what were doing.
I pull my long bangs to the side and tuck them behind my ear. I pat the side of Toothless's neck softly, "Okay, let's take this nice and slow." I say. Toothless growls and I look down at the cheat sheet, "Position, three no four." I open the tail and Toothless soars forward, wind carrying him with ease. I bite my lip and look back at the tail fin then look at the ice rope. Everything is holding.
"Okay, Breathe Iyn, let's do this."I murmur the first part to myself but Toothless hears it anyway and his eyes narrow with determination. The wind is biting and frigid, to a normal person, it would have been cold, but to me, I'm in my element.I take in a deep breath of the cold air releasing it slowly. I look down at my fingers, I had left a life behind of Berk, but I'm to relieved too grieve. I'm not a Viking, I am the Snow Queen.
Toothless smashes into a sea stack and I jerk back into focus, my thoughts flying away from me. Toothless pulls away from the sea stack and I open the tail,"Sorry!" I call. We turn and run into another sea stack that has graciously, placed itself before us."That was my fault." I say. Toothless smacks me in the face with his ear and I bite my lip, "Yeah, yeah I'm on it." I say with a soft roll of my eyes.
"Alright, position three." I mumble to myself. I push on the stirrup and the tail opens Toothless flying straight up.
A smile finds its way onto my lips and I release a breath. Flying is both terrifying and exhilarating. "Ah! This is amazing! The wind in my- cheat sheet STOP!" The cheat sheet, flies out of it's holder and soars up above me. Toothless stops and I'm flung on of the saddle I reach up and blindly grab the paper before gravity remembers its purpose and Toothless and I start to fall.
My chest leaps into my throat, terror pulsing through me. If we reach the ground, the impact with ground will kill us. Trying to swallow the pulsing terror building up, I turn my attention to Toothless. "Toothless you gotta kind of angle yourself!"I yell. Toothless, instead, starts to spin. His tail whacks me in the face and I'm flung backwards. I shove the cheat sheet in my mouth and with determination racing through me, I reach down to grab the handle on the saddle.
I miss the first time but my fingers grasp it the second. I pull myself onto the saddle and shove my feet into place, I click back the tailfin and then I tug up with all my strength. Toothless wings snap open and wind whistles past us, Toothless roaring in pain or fear. I rip the cheat sheet from my mouth looking down at it, the entire paper is frozen from my panic and completely useless. I look up at the sea stacks and then down at the ice before looking up again. This is going to end badly.
I throw the paper to the side and grab the handles with both hands my fingers curling around the saddle. Toothless enters the valley of sea stacks and as he flaps his wings, I can feel the rhythm. I dont just feel like his rider, I feel apart of him. I click the tailfin and Toothless picks up speed, I push down again just knowing what the right one is, like Toothless himself is whispering it in my ear. We entered the sea stacks as rider and dragon, we leave them as one.
I throw my arms up in victory as we break free from the rocks. I throw both my arms up, "YEAH!" I cry. Toothless picking up on the excitement fires a plasma blast in front of us. My hands fall slowly, "Come on!" I groan. Toothless flies through the ring of fire happily and the flames bite at my skin sending waves of pain through me. I duck, shoving my head into Toothless's neck. I can't take anymore heat. I can't.
When I feel the heat pass I lift my head and Toothless lifts his head to look at me, "I am not fireproof!" I say trying my best to remain calm but still raise my hand out and point behind us for emphasis ice shoots out of my hand and I watch as it smashes into a sea stack. Ice spreads up the rock before it cracks a thunder like boom echoing through the air. The sea stack topples into the ocean with a loud splash.
I cringe and Toothless sighs before he looks forward, I pull my hand in towards my chest. Toothless flies forward for a little before he lands on a small island.
I jump off of him and reach up and feel my face. I pull my hand back and it's covered in ash. Well at least I didn't get my skin burned off, its happened more than once. Gobber had yelled things my dad probably would have washed his mouth out for before he had treated to it.
I look at the ocean and turn to look at Toothless, "Are you hungry?" I ask. he nods. I smirk slightly. Why'd I even ask? The Night Fury contains a bottomless pit for a stomach. I walk over towards the shore of the island and Toothless follows me curiously, as if asking what I'm doing, "I'm getting fish." I answer. I lift a foot and hesitantly place it down on the waves. Ice forms under my feet and I release a breath before I walk across the water until I see a fish jump up out. A sudden sharp cracking noise catches my attention and I turn my head as Toothless leaps away from the ice. Ah.
Shaking my head slightly I wave a hand and the ice thickens. Toothless puts another talon on it, when it holds he walks towards me. I reach into the water, the purple arm wraps around my wrist to my elbow getting completely soaked. I freeze what I can and my fingers scramble for a second before they wrap around a fish. I lift up the salmon and Toothless looks at me impressed, "This feels disgusting." I assure him. He snorts and I put the fish down on the ice next to us.
After gathering a rather large amount Toothless and I manage to drag them back to the shore. I look back at the ice bridge and lift both my hands up, my fingers curl from the pressure as I try to get a better grip on the ice. I've never tried to lift this much before. My stomach tightens and my breath catches but I manage to lift the ice up into one giant snowflake before I pull my arms apart. The ice bursts apart in a large flurry of snowflakes and sparkling water.
I turn around and look back at Toothless who is happily laying down next to the large pile of fish. I gather a few sticks and steal a fish from him looking down at the wood again. Even as hesitate as I am to look at anything that resembles heat except the sun, I haven't eaten anything all day. I wave a hand forward and ice surrounds the sticks like rocks. I look back at Toothless, "Can you ligh-" Toothless fires a blast the sticks flame up instantly, cutting off my sentence.
I shove the fish onto a stick and, sitting as far away as I can from the fire as possible, I lift the salmon over the fire. Toothless shifts forward so his side is resting against my back. I look back at him in surprise, Toothless isn't a hot dragon, his scales are cold to the touch. I already know this but feeling it against my back...its weird something else has a low body temperature.
A hacking noise catches my attention and I look at Toothless before he drops half of a dead fish onto the ground looking at me. I stare at the head for a second before I lift up the fish I'm cooking, "Um, n thanks, I'm good." I assure. Squawking noises feel the air and I look up to see a small pack of Terrible Terrors.
Toothless growls and pulls his fish in closer. I snort softly, sharing is caring unless you're Toothless.
The group of three land and a Terror races over grabbing the regurgitated fish head. The Terror drags it off and a second Terror grabs the fish, the two starting to battle over it for a second.
I pull my gaze away from them as one of Toothless's fish stands up and walks away. Toothless rips the fish away from the third Terror and eats it, laughing at the small dragon. The third Terror spits out a tooth and his body puffs up and he prepares to spit fire at Toothless. Toothless fires a tiny blast at the dragon and it lands in the dragon's mouth.
The dragon puffs up its body enlarging with air. It releases the air and walks away swaying. "Not so fireproof on the inside are you?" I ask softly.
I grab a smaller fish from Toothless and toss it to the dragon. The Terror grabs it and eats it, I lean back against Toothless and the Night Fury watches me from the corner of his eye as the smaller Terror walks up to me.
He sits next to my leg and curls up sighing contentedly. My hand raises up in surprise and I stare at the small dragon, "Everything we know about you guys, is wrong." I breathe.
Unlike Toothless, this dragon is warm and very warm. I touch it's back and begin to pet it, like a cat trying to make friends. But slowly the heat from the fire and the Terror start to work on me. The world starts to spin and my hand stops moving as I lay my head back against Toothless and can feel my body temperature rising. I looks over and see that Toothless has finished his fish. Not terribly surprising, he inhales them more than chews.
My hand starts fo hurt like a searing burn and I lift it from the Terror. I jump to my feet and Toothless and the Terror let out cries of surprise.
Dont throw up, dont throw up. I chant silently.
I race over to the ocean and throw up, my vision blurry my head spinning, everything hurts.
Well that worked well. I think sarcastically.
I start to dry heave and Toothless's shadow looms over me. Toothless nudges my shoulder and I moan clutching my stomach holding my burned palm close to my chest.
Toothless turns around and growls at something and I lift a hand up blindly finding the Night Fury's head. I rest it on his scales, "It's not his fault." I mumble. Toothless growls and and wraps his tail around me. I shakily get to my feet, but my legs give out and I fall forward onto Toothless neck.
I hate fire.
I climb onto his back and look at the small Terror, the Terror takes off and Toothless glares at it,"Toothless, le-let's go home." I say my voice quiet and shaky.
Toothless jumps into the air and I shake my head slowly trying to clear it. I shift the stirrup and Toothless slows down so I work the tail fin.
I pat his head on the side softly as a silent thank you. I pull my hand away and Toothless picks up the pace slightly. When we reach the cove a little close to half and hour later, I can think straight and my stomach isn't entering a acrobatic competition.
Toothless lands and I slide off of his back my long uneven dark blue tunic waving around my legs. I glance back at Toothless and see he's staring at me like I might fade away to nothing in a second. I pat his head and release a soft breath when I leave a small frost trail.
"I think I'm just going to go home and lay down." I say. Toothless gives an unhappy face but I put a hand on his head and create a small frost pattern, "I'll be fine." I promise. After several seconds, Toothless finally nods,"I'll see you tomorrow, Toothless."
…
When I reach the village the very idea of laying down makes me want to tear out my hair. I turn and slip into the empty forge and walk into the back room collapsing into the chair.
I lay my gloveless hands down on the desk and rest my head in them, idly rolling a pencil up and down the desk. Over my drawings of Toothless, inventions and other stuff.
Up and back down.
Up and back down.
Up and-hey get back here! I stop the pencil from rolling off the desk and lift my head slightly when a creaking noise catches my attention.
My dad's head pokes through the door and I gasp leaping to my feet. I ignore tue wave of dizziness that hits me, shoving the papers of Toothless to a corner of the desk and curl my gloveless fingers. "Dad! You're back!" I say and he starts to squeeze into the small room. "Uh, Gobber's not here, he's at the great hall." I say. Dad nods and finally shoves himself into the room.
"I know, I was looking for you." He says and stares at me. I look up at him in shock.
"You-you were?" I ask. I can only remember a few times he was actually looking for me. Chief duties are always at the top of his list, instead of me. Then again, who would want a cursed daughter?
He nods, "You've been keeping secrets." He says.
My brain flashes back to the forge a few days ago when I had left ice everywhere. Asher had probably seen it and told him! What if they killed me? Or worse what if he had found out about Toothless!
"I-I have?" I ask my voice quiet.
"Just how long do you think you could hide it from me?" He asks. I look at the man and my hands grip the side of the desk to keep myself upright as my legs start to give out.
"I-I, I don't know what you're talking ab-"
"Nothing happens on this island without me hearing about it, so let's talk about that dragon." He says. My weight falls onto my hands and I watch in horror as frost starts to spread up the table looking back at dad words start falling out of my mouth.
"Dad, I am so sorry! I was going to tell you, I just didn't know how I could-" I stop and look up at him when he laughs.
I take my chance and grab a spare piece of cloth from the floor and toss it onto the desk covering the frost. His head snaps down and he gives me a large smile, "Are you kidding! I've been hoping for this!" He booms and I cringe at his loud voice.
"You were hoping I would train a dr-"
He interrupts me again, "And just wait till you spill a Nadders guts for the first time or mount your first Gronckle head on a spear? Oh what a feeling!" I let out a breath of relief through my nose and I look up at him, not Toothless.
He playfully punches me on the arm and I topple backwards. My hands grab the edge of the desk and there's a windy sound as ice forms on the edge. I gasp and pull the cloth over it, dad completely oblivious to just what happened continues to rant,"Oh you really had me going there Iyn, all those years of the worst Viking Berk has ever seen!" He says.
Ouch.
Ouch.
Ouch.
"It was rough, I almost gave up on you but all this time you we're holding out on me!" He yells. I am lying though! My lies are so deep I am bound to drown very, very soon. He finally snaps his gaze to me, "With you doing so well in the ring, we finally have something to talk about." He says
Finally have something to talk about!?
He scoots closer on the chair and looks at me a happy smile on his face. I eye him awkwardly, and fold my arms across my chest. He looks back seeming to remember something, "Oh, I brought you something." He says. I stare at him curiously, I can't remember any time he has given me a gift, he's always too busy for Snoggletog and hardly remembers my birthday and when he does its just a "Happy birthday, Iyn."
He pulls out a helmet and hands it to me. I take it from his hands and my fingers brush against his palms. He stares at his palms then at my hands, "Thanks," I breathe and I hold the helmet in my hands.
"Your mother would have wanted you to have it." He says still staring at me fingers, "It's half of her breastplate." He adds.
I rip my hand away and put the helmet on the desk, "Oh," I voice before laughing awkwardly.
Dad looks at me, "Are you cold Iyn?" He asks. I look up at him. Um...
"No." I say and look at the helmet, he looks at my fingers again before he smiles at me.
"Wear the helmet proudly, you deserve it. You've held up your end of the deal." I stop drumming my fingers over my arm slight horror racing through me. My lips tighten into a tight line.
If only you knew…..
I look up at him and stretch out my arms a fake yawn eliminating from my lips, "I should probably head to bed." I say.
He stands, "Yeah, um, good talk." He says awkwardly.
I nod, "See you back at the house, thanks for the-the breast-hat." I say. He nods and squeezes out of the backroom. Theres several crashes and I assume he ran into the things hanging from the ceiling. Gobber loves seeing how many tall Vikings he could get to run into them.
Worst Viking Berk has ever seen.
I close my eyes tightly before my knees give out. I fall forward my head falling into my hands. Snow falls around me and I sit back against the wall, pulling my legs in close to my chest.
Oh, if only you knew.
A/N: :)
Please review!