I'm Leaving Forever (a HTTYD Runaway Fanfic ~ Book 1)

3 - Dragons Edge

It was now two weeks since Hiccup and Toothless had left Berk and Hiccup was starting to realise how much he took for granted. He knew that a warm shelter, a comfortable bed and cooked food wasn't something he was going to find lying on the floor, but he never thought about how much he would crave for something like that every once in a while.

Him and Toothless were continuing with their search to find an island where they could stay permanently. He figured that he was now a decent distance away from Berk and anyone from the other tribes residing in that archipelago, so he was really hoping to find an island here. In addition to that, the journey had become a lot rougher the further out they went. The storms had gotten more violent, the temperatures continued to drop, and they also had the odd encounter with a dragon. Most of the time, they were quite aggressive, which resulted in Hiccup and Toothless leaving very quickly. One event Hiccup could remember was when he encountered a snake-like dragon that was clearly extremely venomous. Sleek poison coated its entire body and to add to all that, they congregate in packs, so the two of them had to deal with several at a time. Luckily, they managed to escape quite quickly, seeing as Toothless had a very key advantage over them. They couldn't fly, so as soon as the two left, Hiccup made sure that he wouldn't be returning to that island without taking extra precautions.

It had been a few minutes of flying into a new archipelago and so far, it looked like a peaceful place. Most of the islands from a distance looked like they were plentiful in natural resources and there were many dragons flying around, which further indicated a suitable living space. Toothless seemed to agree with him for the Night Fury was scanning around along with his rider and his eyes landed on a very tempting looking island. Toothless warbled to get Hiccup's attention.

"What is it, bud?" Toothless gestured to the island with his head before looking back at Hiccup, "you wanna go there, don't you," Toothless roared happily and he didn't need Hiccup to direct him towards the island because he was already diving down towards the island. Flying closer to it, Hiccup decided that it would be best to fly around to get a better look at the island. Numerous mountain peaks poked out from the canopy that covered patches of the landmass with waterfalls running down them, marked by the white streaks against the dark green. Many dips, ditches, rivers and coves were visible from the sky that left Hiccup further convinced that this island was probably the best one he had ever seen and there were also many cliffs and high elevations around most of the edges of the island.

After that quick flight around the island, Hiccup and Toothless made for a landing on one of the cliffs. The cliff wasn't the highest on the island, but it still overlooked some amazing scenery. Trees were clustered together, the sun in the sky shone brightly with no clouds to block its light and that light was reflected on the ocean water, leaving it glistening. Turning around, Hiccup saw that they were in fact at the entrance of a cave. Inside, the walls were decorated with luminous blue stones with miniature streams of water meandering in between the stones.

Toothless was quite proud of himself for choosing such an island that left Hiccup memorised by the appearance, especially considering that most of the islands Hiccup picked were full of danger. He sometimes wondered if danger just followed Hiccup around like metal to a magnet.

The two looked at each other before they heads snapped up as a low growl erupted from the depths of the cave. Toothless quickly moved into his battle stance, automatically baring his teeth and spreading out his wings slightly and Hiccup mounted the Night Fury just in case they needed to make a hasty exit. Seconds after the roar, a faint crackling followed it which almost sounded like lightning to Hiccup, which made him confused. Lightning in a cave? The only possibility he could think of was a dragon he had awed for some of his childhood but hoped he would never have to encounter. Unfortunately, fate had proven to be against him when a dragon emerged from the shadows.