How to Be a Dragon Star 1

Chapter Nine - Test Drive

Training's over, Hiccup thought, terrified at what lay ahead of him. It was time.

He tried not to look down as he carefully steered his dragon— yes, he thought of Toothless like that now— out of the safety of the pit. Out of the island. No one would look this way, so it was safe... as in that no one would discover them. And if they did, what could they do about it?

There was no rope tethering them to a tree anymore. It wasn't just twenty feet of fall if something were to happen to his safety rope and he slipped off. It would be two hundred.

The water below them, the island behind them, Hiccup took deep breaths to calm his racing heart. "Okay there, buddy," he called to the dragon below him. "We're gonna take this nice and slow. Here we go. No, here we go." He peered at the cheat sheet attached to the saddle, where he could easily see it. "Position... four. No, three." He tapped #3 on his sheet and followed through the movement, driving Toothless into a nice, slow turn. "Yeah!" Hiccup cried, glancing back. The tail fin held. As Toothless righted himself again, Hiccup glanced back down, emboldened by the small success. Maybe we can actually do this.

They soared on the wind, and Hiccup felt a sense of freedom shining through his immense concentration. Every muscle in his body was taut to snapping point. He took some more deep breaths, forcing his body to calm slightly.

He glanced back one more time at the tail fin. It was flapping in the wind, but showed no sign of failing. "All right. It's go time, it's go time," he muttered to himself, and swiftly leaned forward, positioning Toothless into a dive. They gained speed, and Hiccup remembered to pull Toothless back up. Only the very tips of his wings sliced the edge of the water before Hiccup gained control again.

Sea stacks were approaching quickly. Hiccup attempted to pull Toothless out of the way, but the dragon smacked into one of them. "Sorry!" Hiccup shouted, yanking him out of the way of another one. It still didn't quite work. "That's my fault!" Hiccup cried again. Toothless, annoyed, smacked him with one of his preposterously long ears. "Yeah, yeah, I'm on it," Hiccup said. "Position... three, uh, four."

The tail fin snapped into position like Hiccup planned, and suddenly Toothless was climbing in the air. They gained altitude swiftly as Toothless's wings beat and his tail flailed to help. Toothless's tongue hung out of his mouth and he clawed the air as if there was something it could do. "Yeah!" Hiccup shouted joyfully. "Whoo-hoo! Oh, the wind in my—"

The precise wind making him feel alive changed position and made him feel he was going to die. "CHEAT-SHEET!" Hiccup screamed as the wind took control of the flapping sheet, tearing it away. "STOP!"

But it wasn't that easy. A trillion things happened at once. Hiccup clawed the air, trying to get the paper back, and in doing so, took his foot off the pedal keeping the tail fin in position. Toothless's heavier body came to a halt in the air before Hiccup's did, so the safety rope unhooked itself as Hiccup's body kept flying upward.

And then they were falling. Separately.

Free-falling, hurtling toward certain death below. Hiccup screamed, seized the paper and tried to swim through the air back toward the dragon. "Okay, you gotta kind of— angle yourself— come on back this way, no, this way, no, no!" Toothless's tail smacked him in the face, sending him farther away.

Hiccup maneuvered back, his heart pounding in his ears, and managed to grab the saddle. He yanked himself back down, quickly hooked the safety rope back on, and faced the new challenge.

They were still hurtling closer to the ground, and Hiccup estimated they only had about ten seconds before they would crash. He pulled Toothless upward, barely gaining control, but they were still going too fast, and the sea stacks were approaching. Only this time it was a maze, and they would be going too fast for Hiccup to consult the sheet every time they needed to make a turn. He watched, terrified, as the maze got closer and closer, trying to memorize his sheet. But it would be fruitless, so he let go of it. It flapped away into the wind, and Hiccup had barely half a second to get back in position before they were in. Hiccup drove the tail fin on pure instinct, swerving around boulders and threading the needle through the canyon. He didn't register the sight of the open water getting closer and closer until they'd rounded their last turn and found themselves facing only the open ocean.

Hiccup fell back, breathing heavily, and felt exhilaration seize him. "Yeeeaaahhh!" he shouted, throwing up his arms in triumph. Toothless exhaled a light burst of plasma that exploded the air in front of them—

But Hiccup wasn't fire-proof.

"Oh, great," he groaned, dropping his hands and glaring at the fiery inferno they were facing.

Ten minutes later, recovering on a sea stack, Hiccup still couldn't wrap his head around what had just happened. If his hair and clothes weren't singed from soaring through the fiery inferno, he would have thought it was a dream.

The two friends were surrounded by the contents of a celebratory bucket of fish. Hiccup was holding one in his lap, pretending to take a bite whenever Toothless was looking.

Toothless made the choking noise again, regurgitating another fish for Hiccup.

"Uh, no thanks," Hiccup said, raising his own fish. "I'm good."

Squeaking sounds reached their ears, and Hiccup looked up to see a flock of Tiny Terrible Terrors. He drew up his knees and inhaled, slightly tense. Here on the outskirts of the island, in daylight, dragons seemed neutral. Hiccup and Toothless had had a fine time dragon-watching, but now that dragons were coming to them, Hiccup didn't know what to expect.

But the dragons seemed to be after the fish only. The tenfold flock surrounded them, squeaking. One dove into the remaining pile of fish, but when it came out dragging one, Toothless leaned forward, taking the other end of the fish in his jaws. A tug-of-war ensued, ending in a tiny bit of the fish ending up in the Terror's mouth and most of it in Toothless's.

The grass-green Terror bared its teeth, but due to its large yellow eyes and the fact that it was less than two feet long, it appeared more cute than threatening. It raked its claws on the ground, like a bull getting ready to charge, and opened its mouth.

Toothless shot a tiny burst of flame into its open mouth. The gas that the Terror was gathering inside its body sparked with Toothless's flame. The Terror briefly inflated, then the gas deflated and the small dragon was left looking very indignant.

Hiccup chuckled. "Not so fireproof anymore, are you, little guy?" he asked. "Aw, here you go." He flipped his own fish towards the dragon.

The Terror perked up and scampered forward, losing all hints of wariness. It gobbled up the fish and gazed upon Hiccup, friendly and relaxed. Then, to his amazement, it padded forward and curled up against Hiccup's side, closing its eyes. Hiccup tentatively rested his hand on it, stroking its spines. The texture was rougher than Toothless's smooth, glossy scales. Hiccup gazed down on the little dragon, now asleep. "Everything we know about you guys..." he realized aloud, "is wrong!"

A/N: This is the last chapter without the remake section being introduced in it! I'm super excited (partly because this is already the ninth chapter, but also because I'm about to introduce some new characters)! I've been teasing about it forever, and it's finally ready.

I'm also ready to publish this story. It's not done yet (obviously), but it's on its way. So, who was the first person to get to this point? Comment right here!

...

Onto the next chapter!

-Pepper9990