The Voyager and the Rogue

Chapter 13

After a week of packing and organizing, Eyarr and I finally left. Hiccup and his family and their friends were there to bid us goodbye and good luck wherever we went.

"Don't do anything stupid while I'm gone." I teased Nuffink, wanting to ruffle his hair, but I was not quite tall enough to reach his head. He rolled his eyes, giving me a quick side hug instead.

"We'll be waiting for you when you return." Hiccup said, giving me a tight hug, "And we'll miss you."

"I know, I'll miss you guys, too." I gave Ana and Astrid hugs as well, but Zephyr was the one who held her hug the longest, her head resting on my shoulder.

"You're the best, I hope you know that. You've become like a sister to me." She sniffed.

"Oh, Zeph, don't get sentimental on me now." I teased.

"Be careful out there, and don't forget to write about your experiences if you can. I can't wait to hear about everything you've seen!"

"I will!" With our last goodbyes, Hiccup and Nuffink assisted with loading our stuff onto Cliffire's back. I heard Hiccup whisper something to Cliffire, patting his snout good-heartedly. It was lovely to see the chief interacting with the Nightmare-Skrill mix in the way he did. Every interaction was natural and carried a certain air to it.

"Safe travels." Came Hiccup's assuring words. With a small wave, Eyarr turned Cliffire towards the edge of the cliff, and after a small sprint, Cliffire took to the skies.

I watched as the silhouette of the towering island disappeared in the oceanic fog behind us. My home for a year now... my new home. But now, I was returning to what I felt I was meant to do. To follow wherever the wind and sea took me.

I was lucky I met Eyarr, because now I had a reason to travel again, regardless of the difficulties we'd given to each other. To see what I wanted, to explore.

We had presented different challenges to each other at first, and even though we still had much to learn about each other and figure out what we clashed on. But it seemed that we had a decent friendship building. I felt like he trusted me.

"You know, I'm proud of you," I said, breaking the silence. I felt his body shift under my hands, back straightening. He slowly turned his head.

"You are? Why?"

"Because you allowed yourself to take a chance and trust someone new. That's a very difficult thing to do, and I'm thrilled you allowed yourself to let down your wall." He twitched slightly, flexing his shoulders under my hands.

"You're the first person I've genuinely trusted in years. I don't know why or how you somehow knew what I was going through, but... I guess I needed it."

"To be fair, I think I needed someone new, too. My whole life I was told I was born to sail. To see the world, meet new people. And then I ended up on New Berk, and everything flipped upside down, and I was forced to ground myself. It felt like no one else had the same level of ambition that I do." I sighed, running my hand on the saddle seam, feeling the hand-stitched thread on my fingertips.

"Seems that once I came around, I was stuck in your head." I nodded in embarrassed agreement.

"Yeah, basically. I couldn't stop wondering about the kind of person you were."

We chit-chatted for hours, surprisingly able to talk about anything. But deep down, I knew I wasn't seeing all of him or knowing all of him. He was still hiding. But I didn't expect him to reveal everything about him. In time I would probably understand.

I looked down at the vast sea below. Occasional sea spires or a whale would break the surface. I was going to ask if we could fly closer to the water to see if Ocean was in the mood to respond. But before I could ask, Cliffire took a sharp nosedive down, causing us both to yell out in surprise.