Remember, Hiccup (HTTYD)

A Training Session Gone Horribly Wrong

"Ok gang, today we're going to do some trust exercises," announced Hiccup to the group of Viking teenagers and dragons before him. They were on their usual cliff that overlooked the ocean, where they did most of their flight training. Everyone, except Astrid, groaned and began to voice their own thoughts for today's training exercise.

"We've done this a million times before, let's do something really fun like blow things up with our dragons' fire!" the twins Ruffnut and Tuffnut shouted as they bumped each other's heads together with a Clang! of their helmets .

"Let's race our dragons, because I'd like a rematch. I only came in last that one race because the sun was in my eyes," Snotlout replied while dramatically shielding his eyes from the sun, earning a scoff from Astrid.

"Or, we could study the Book of Dragons," Fishlegs suggested, but when the other teens shot him weird looks, he added quietly, "Or not."

"Guys come on, we all know that trust is the first thing needed when training a dragon," Hiccup told them as the twins rolled their eyes and responded, "Yeah, but we've already trained our dragons."

Hiccup was about to tell them that trust was needed even after a dragon was trained but Astrid stole his words.

"Trust is needed even after you've trained your dragon, guys. I mean, just look at Hiccup and Toothless," she told the group as she pointed to said duo. 

Toothless, who had perked his ears up at his name, then purred as Hiccup scratched him on his head. The boy and dragon had a very close bond and the pair was inseparable.

"Exactly what I was going to say," Hiccup replied as he smiled at Astrid and withdrew his hand from Toothless' head, "Now, let's do some trust exercises." The Viking teens responded with mumbles but clambered onto their dragons anyway before ascending to the sky.

***

Hiccup fell through the air at an alarming rate but there was not a look of terror on his face, in fact, he looked rather calm. He had his eyes closed and all his limbs spread out as if he was welcoming the fall. The ocean was only a few feet away now, its waves hungry, but just as it looked like he was about to plunge into the sea, a dark figure rushed by and caught him. It was Toothless.

"Nice going there, bud!" Hiccup complimented Toothless with a grin on his face as he patted Toothless' head. Toothless crooned in pleasure, he would never let Hiccup fall, he would always be there to catch him.

Meanwhile, the other teens were doing, or trying to do, their own trust exercises. 

"Ok, Hookfang," Snotlout told his Monstrous Nightmare, who looked up at him with lazy, yellow eyes, "I'm going to close my eyes and trust that you don't crash us into anything. You got that?" Hookfang grunted his approval, before Snotlout closed his eyes thinking, Stupid dragon better not crash us into anything. He had already had a number of accidents with Hookfang.

The problem was Hookfang could get easily distracted even by something as small as a leaf, and soon a bird landed on his nose. Hookfang looked cross-eyed at the bird on his long snout before it decided it had had enough time to rest and flew away. Hookfang though was intrigued by the creature and soon he gave chase to the bird following its every move, including its dives and spins.

"Ahhh! Hookfang what are you doing!?" Snotlout screamed, with his eyes still closed, as his dragon flew crazily through the air in hot pursuit of the bird. Snotlout finally had the sense to open his eyes, but closed them again with a scream when he realized Hookfang was flying straight toward Ruffnut and Tuffnut's Hideous Zippleback, Barf and Belch.

"Ooh, a bird," Ruffnut and Tuffnut said simultaneously as they watched the bird Hookfang had been chasing earlier fly over them, but screamed as they saw the Monstrous Nightmare barreling towards them.

As Hookfang made impact with Barf and Belch, he lit himself on fire like all Monstrous Nightmares do when they are angered, forgetting all about Snotlout who was screaming on his flaming back, "Quit it, stupid dragon!"

Of course, that comment just made Hookfang even angrier than he already was and caused him to coat his scales with even more flames.

"Ouch! Ouch! OUCH!" Snotlout howled in pain.

The twins were having their own troubles controlling Barf and Belch but unlike Snotlout, they were rather enjoying it.

"This is awesome and scary!" they whooped together as their dragon spun out of control.

Fishlegs and his Gronkle, Meatlug, unaware of the out of control dragons, were trying to do a few flying tricks of their own when Hookfang and Barf and Belch came hurtling towards them.

"Quick Meatlug, up!" Fishlegs tried to warn his dragon, but it was too late because they too were soon caught in the chaos. The four that weren't in the midst of the fiasco were Hiccup, Toothless, Astrid, and her Deadly Nadder, Stormfly, but they soon saw what was happening.

"Oh my gods!" Astrid exclaimed as she saw the chaotic sight before her, "They really got themselves into a mess this time!"

"Yeah, come on! We've got to help them!" Hiccup said as he directed Toothless to fly over to the group of out of control dragons. As they got closer, Hiccup told Astrid, "Ok, you and Stormfly help Fishlegs, Ruff, and Tuff. I'll help Snotlout."

"Got it!" Astrid replied as she and Stormfly raced to go and help the three trainers with their dragons.

Hiccup then flew over to Snotlout and his raging inferno of a dragon and yelled, "Snoutlout! You've got to calm Hookfang down!"

"I can't! He won't listen! Now do something Hiccup, my butt feels like it's been fried!" Snoutlout screamed in fear, having no control over Hookfang. 

Just then, Hookfang slashed his tail, bursting with flames, and it made direct contact with Hiccup and Toothless.

Toothless screeched, taken aback from the attack, but gained his composure as quickly as the time it took for Hookfang to hit him. But something felt...different. Something was...missing. And then Toothless realized why he felt different, Hiccup wasn't on his back.

Toothless screeched with terror when he saw the unconscious Hiccup plummeting towards the ocean. Toothless then folded his wings and dived the fastest dive he had ever done in his life. Even though he was already diving at great speed, Toothless urged himself to go faster and faster until he was like a speeding bullet, he wouldn't let his friend fall. And just before his rider made contact with the ocean, Toothless managed to catch Hiccup in his arms.

The other teen's dragons were now under control and resting on the cliff after their horrific ordeal, but they all perked up when they saw Hiccup and Toothless flying toward the cliff. They expected their friend was okay, just a little shaken up like the rest of them, but soon realized he was not okay. Toothless landed on the cliff and gently placed Hiccup down, crooning with worry as he did so and gently nudged him to try and wake him up.

Astrid gasped in horror when she saw Hiccup lying unconscious on the ground with a slight burn mark on the side of his face. She rushed to his side and listened to his chest while whispering, "Please, Please."

"Is he dead?" Fishlegs asked on the verge of tears.

"No, he's alive," Astrid said as a weight was released from her chest when she heard the faint beat of Hiccup's heart "But he needs to see Gothi."

Toothless wasted no time once he heard this and then quickly, but gently, took Hiccup in his arms and ran to the edge of the cliff and cocked his head toward the island of Berk.

Astrid immediately understood and told the other teens, "Toothless is right, we need to hurry! Now come on!" She then climbed onto Stormfly and took off with the other teens and their dragons following close behind.

As Toothless led the way, he looked down at Hiccup in his arms with big, sorrowful eyes. The only sign that the boy was alive was the slight rise and fall of his chest. Toothless felt awful, how could he have let this happen? He was supposed to protect him. He then nuzzled him gently hoping, praying to all the gods the Vikings worshiped that his friend would be okay.