Symphony of Shadows

2. Leader

More grammar edits😖

Hiccup Haddock found humor in his current position: former village runt/disappointment now formidable dragon rider. While some did call him Leader of Dragons, he rather disliked that authoritative connotation it had and preferred dragon rider much better. It was Toothless after all who had challenged the Red Death to save him, Hiccup had just helped his best bud figure out a course of best action. Now that all of the dragons were free from their queen's clutches, they seemed to be rather attached to Toothless and didn't mind having Hiccup around either.

The first few weeks had been stressful, finding a big enough island as a homestead for the dragons, and hidden enough that most dragon hunters would not find them easily. The dragons also seemed to wait and follow Toothless' lead when hunting and it had been a rough adjustment trying to find other sources of food that didn't come from pillaging villages. Hiccup once felt pity for the villages that the dragons would wreak havoc upon, but then he saw the brutality and apathy vikings were so prone to. He witnessed one of his favorite dragons, a blue Deadly Nadder with a beautiful crown of yellow horns, almost get butchered for simply flying above the village. The Nadder hadn't torched a blade of grass, yet the vikings launched a bola at her and were so close to chopping her head off until Toothless and him came to the rescue. The rage he felt that day was unparalleled to anything he had ever felt before.

How could humans be so heartless, so inconsiderate?

Echoes of conversations with his father breached his thoughts,
"Don't you see how the dragons have made our lives a living hell? It's either them or us, and as Chief, I have a duty to my people to win against the dragons every single time."
"But Dad, what if they're not that bad?"
His dad laughed boisterously, "Oh Hiccup, that was a good one. But you're getting to an age now when the ancestral war we've been fighting against the beasts is being passed on to you. You have to be ready when the time comes because you certainly aren't ready to be a viking now."
"What do you mean Dad? I thought I was a viking?"
His father laughs again, but this time a deep humiliation reddened Hiccups' face.
"Oh Hiccup, you're not even half of a viking. You don't walk like us, you don't talk like us, and you certainly don't think like us. But one day you'll learn, yes, one day you will," his father stared off into the space behind Hiccup, almost as he was imagining a new and improved version of his son that was much more to his liking. Hiccup went to sleep with tears streaming down his face and unto his pillow and with a deep resilience to never ever think like a viking.

"Mrooowwrrr," gurgled Toothless, his best friend sensing Hiccup's somber mood.
"I know bud, I was just reminding myself why I'm here. But don't worry, I'm not planning on leaving anytime soon Toothless. It's you and me, always." Hiccup scratched the right spot under his friend's chin and Toothless lay down next to him, slobbering at the sight of Hiccup's prosthetic leg. The addition wasn't too hard for Hiccup, he had lost it during the fight against the Red Death and was lucky that had been the only thing he had lost that day. It also made him feel connected to Toothless in a way, a bond that became just as apparent as his friend's torn tail.

Plus, with the new dragon scale armor suit he had made using Toothless' scales, not only was Hiccup fireproof, but he had mastered solo flying by creating a set of gliding wings that were handy for quick get aways. He remembered how just last week he had been chased by a hoard of angry vikings on Berserker Island and jumped off the cliff in a narrow escape. Toothless had been preoccupied at the time with freeing a tied down Zippleback so Hiccup had glided down the beach and waited until he could signal Toothless to come find him.

He had also been able to make a sword of fire that he could fill with canisters of Zippleback gas and ignite, which was his weapon of choice. He had seen a dragon hunter use one and took some creative liberties while making his own. That same night, he had been able to set fire to many ropes that had been tying down dragons and scare away any viking boar-headed enough to confront him. It had been a thrilling adventure and the dragons (or the Flock as he had recently been calling them) had experienced no casualties so it had been a successful raid.

Hiccup knew that the raids could sometimes get intense and he did his best job to keep the dragons in check, but he wouldn't call them off on a mob of violent vikings with flying bolas and axes. It would be a death sentence for the dragons, they had to defend themselves and Hiccup understood that, so he would turn a blind eye when vicious, dragon killing vikings happened to be thrown into the ocean or slightly charred.

All's fair in love and war right?

Hiccup looked out into the archipelago from the seastack him and Toothless currently sat on. The sun was already setting and painting the clouds a picturesque pink, signaling his sunset ride with Toothless, a favorite pastime of Hiccup's.
"Come on bud, catch me if you can!"
Hiccup took off in a run and jumped off the edge, opening the wings of his suit and feeling the wind bring him up until he was gliding. He could hear Toothless' wings flapping behind him and his roars of discontent. While Toothless found Hiccup's suit dangerous, it was the closest to free Hiccup had felt since he had first ridden with Toothless. Nothing but cold air rushing past his wings and his eyes. His helmet kept his hair from getting plastered over his face and made flying more enjoyable without feeling like his face was going to fall off from frostbite. Toothless flew under him and Hiccup positioned himself on the saddle and locking his prosthetic leg into place. They flew down until Hiccup could practically taste the seawater on his tongue and they pulled up, flying towards the beautiful clouds.

Once they were flying above the swirling reds and pinks that covered the sky, Hiccup lay back on Toothless, letting himself stare in awe at the otherworldly scene around him. Such beauty pushed a thought he had long forgotten into his head:

Astrid.

Astrid? As in the girl who couldn't give a shit about him until he started getting good in dragon training? And then all of a sudden hated his guts? Hiccup almost laughed at himself, it must be the solitude getting to him, he'd have to visit the Eastern Market and get himself a proper lay. Astrid Hofferson, a typical stubborn viking who's too narrow minded to even think about other possibilities. Knowing her, she was probably out there right now chopping dragons to bits with her prized axe.

This stirred something in him, call it retribution or revenge, Hiccup was going to go back to Berk, and make them pay. The Flock had already raided Berk a few nights ago, but Hiccup never went since he was worried about someone seeing Toothless and tracing it back to him. But no one in that worthless village had ever listened to him, so why would they remember when he claimed to have shot down a Night Fury? Hiccup was finally done running away from his past, it was time to come to terms with the present, he was a dragon rider and he was one with the dragons.

And he wasn't going to let the vikings hurt his dragons like the vikings had hurt him.