renegades, httyd

xxxiii. Cliffside Playtime

renegades
chapter thirty-three

    Dusk was setting once we finally managed to finish the Hangar. There were celebrations, cheers and eager Vikings with their dragons to check out their new stalls. Stoick came to open the large centre officially with some Terrible Terrors to shoot out of a chest with Skullcrusher's roar and everything. I had planned on staying for most of it, but it was getting late, and in noticing Hiccup was around to see it, I had a feeling exactly where he might be.

    Saddling up on Winglash, I took to the skies for the place I usually went to think or hang out with Revna or Hiccup. I wasn't surprised to see him already there, staring at parchments piecing together a map he's been continuously working on ever since Vikings came to be on the back of dragons.

    Toothless was rolling around in the grass, itching off his loose scales with warbles and coos, but faltered in seeing Winglash and I soar above. The wind from this height in the winter evening kept us aloft even without my dragon flapping her wings. It was always windy up here.

    Hiccup, who was setting down rocks onto his map as the wind picked up, glanced over his shoulder as Winglash and I touched onto the grass.

    "You missed the grand opening," I chided lightly, slipping down my winter hood. My hair flew around━loose strands being joined by even more. I tried, I really did try to keep it all in, but my hair seemed to just do whatever it wanted.

    "I don't know what you're talking about," said Hiccup, amused at the way I had to brush all of my hair out of my eyes as I slipped off the saddle. Winglash immediately rushed to Toothless and he rolled off his back, the two dragons already starting up a wrestle game. "I attended from here. Perfect view."

    I chuckled, stepping up towards him and taking a seat on the edge of the cliff, dangling my legs over the side━like we used to. I took a deep breath, unable to stop the smile that formed on my lips. I missed this. I missed coming up here, being joined by Hiccup, or me coming to join him, or just coming to here after a long day. Just to chat, or to draw, to look over his map, train our dragons, or sometimes read books he brought from his father's house in search of anything to help me. We always came up dry on that end.

    He glanced at me, his lips quircking upwards, "What?"

    "Nothing," I sighed, and all the tension I've held recently just seemed to expell out with it. "Just ... I missed this."

    I looked towards his map, and was piqued in immediate interest at all the new islands outside the Archipelago. Some were marked with little notations such as: Dragon Eye Lens; Mystery━Zippleback flame. Or names like Armour Wing Island, Hobblegrunt Island, Scuttleclaw Island, Dark Deep ... "Been really busy?"

    "Yeah," said Hiccup, nodding. "Trying to gather up as many Dragon Eye lenses as we can━these Dragon Hunters, they want the Dragon Eye. It used to belong to them. They use it to find dragons, capture them, and sell their skins, scales, claws ..."