Soul of the Sky (HTTYD Runaway Fic)

Home Again

Hiccup
"We're home."
They had said it with such happiness in their voices, smiles like the sun breaking through clouds. They were coming back to their homes, their families. And so was I.
Somewhere on the green-carpeted island below stood the house I was born in. Somewhere down there was my father.
But I didn't feel like I was coming home. Berk wasn't home anymore. Perhaps it had never been.

All I felt as we neared my birthplace was unease and a lingering feeling of danger. The Vikings down there would shoot first and ask questions never. If we were shot down, it wouldn't matter that I was a Dragon Friend or the the teens were warriors of Berk. Gravity would kill us all, if a high-speed boulder didn't do the trick.

"Stay out of shooting range." I muttered to the dragons. "Toothless, think you can outfly the catapults?" He snorted. "Catapults versus awesome Night Fury. I think we all know who's going to win."
"Yeah, the catapults." Hookfang snickered. Toothless ignored him.
I turned to the teens, still perched on their respective dragons. "You guys will stay back. Toothless and I will fly in and explain, and I'll signal the others if it's safe."

"I'm coming." Astrid said determinedly. "Our chief is far more likely to listen to me than a random person mounted on a Night Fury." She glared at Toothless. Evidently she was still holding a grudge, but there wasn't much risk considering that I had her weapon and she was sitting on the back of a Deadly Nadder who could drop her from several hundred feet. "Okay." Toothless turned his head to look at Stormfly. "Can you keep up?" he asked challengingly. Stormfly snickered. "Please, we all know I'm faster than you." And the dragon rivalry returns. "You won one race!" Toothless complained. "And that was only because you ate chicken."

Stormfly gets faster when she eats chicken. Deadly Nadders are weird.
Chicken is now classified as cheating.

"GUYS!" I yelled. "You can compete later. We have a job to do." Toothless snorted. "Fine, Mister Fun Police. Hookfang, Meatlug, Barf and Belch, you stay back. Don't injure the Vikings." Barf pouted. "But we wanna keep them! We'll take good care of them, and feed them, and..." Stormfly interrupted before they could finish. "Shut up, both of you. We have to go."

As we flew closer to Berk, it was clear that a lot had changed. It was a lot more colourful, the huts looked less scorched, and the people seemed a lot less warlike. No one yelled 'Dragon Raid!' or blew the horn as we neared, and it seemed like they were expecting us. Not even a single cry of "Night Fury! Get down!", which I think disappointed Toothless a bit. "No catapults?" Hookfang questioned. "I told you to stay back!" I hissed. The others had followed as well. "There was no reason not to follow you." Belch pointed out. "No attackers."
A group of Vikings stood in the square. At the forefront was my father and Gobber, neither of whom looked any different. The sight brought back memories of the fifteen-year-old boy who'd left years ago. The people that had driven me away stood there or flew alongside me - albeit unwillingly. But I was no longer that boy.

We landed before the small crowd. The teens practically fell off the dragons, Snotlout hugging the ground and muttering about never flying again. No one moved or spoke until a voice broke the spell.
"We're back."

Stoick
"We're back." Astrid said cheerfully. I stared at her, at the other teens, at the dragons, at the masked figure standing beside them. Gothi's warning had not prepared me for the shock of seeing them fly in on dragonback. "That you are." I managed to say. Before I could continue, something completely unexpected happened. Gothi marched up to the unknown warrior and drew a series of pictographs in the dirt beside him. She gestured to the dragons, them to him. "She says..." Gobber started, before the dragonrider cut him off. "The one who is friend to dragons knows where the lost heir hides."

Hiccup
And this is bad. I don't even know how Gothi found out, but now Berk knows I'm alive. Toothless and I exchanged 'uh oh' looks. "Who are you?" my father asked. With a start, I realised that I was nearly his height. "Well," I began, casually leaning against Toothless. "That d-depends on where you come from. In this part of the Archipelago, I'm known as the Dragon Master." Yes, I know, recycling introductions. But their faces are hilarious.

The small group collectively gasped. "This is Toothless," I continued, pointing to each of the dragons in turn. "Stormfly, Hookfang, Meatlug, and the Zippleback is Barf and Belch. "I'm assuming these are yours?" I gestured to the teens, standing in a huddle apart from the crowd.

Stoick
"Excuse me for a moment." I said, pulling Gothi aside. "What do you mean, 'he knows where the lost heir hides'?" Gothi sketched in the dirt for a moment, then used her staff to yank Gobber over. "She says that Hiccup's alive and this Dragon Master knows how to blind...Ow! Find! Find him." I shook my head in frustration. This had to be some kind of cruel joke, and the elder's second sight was very capricious. "That makes no sense. He...passed six years ago." The tiny elder drew some more, poking Gobber again. "Apparently not." he translated. "But what do we do?" I asked. "Ask him to pelt...Ow! Help!" Gobber yelped, ducking Gothi's staff. "You want me to ask the Dragon Master - a character from one of Johann's stories - to help find Hiccup." The elder nodded, gesturing to him. I sighed.
That escalated quickly.

"We can be grateful for his help in finding the missing teens. But...Hiccup," I stumbled over his name, pain piercing my heart, "was buried long ago. It's not worth digging up old ghosts."
"Hiccup's ALIVE?!" Astrid interjected, face half-shocked and half-hopeful. "Gothi said she saw it." I muttered, forcing out the words. "But second sight is unreliable. Don't get your hopes up." The look of crushed disappointment on her face was almost as painful as the idea that Hiccup might not be gone. I might have been unnecessarily harsh.

"If there's any chance, even the slightest, what would it cost us?" Gobber was the last person I'd expect to trust the word of a mystic. He's always been practical, one of the things I most admire in him. But his words had me thinking. "The man could ask for anything in exchange for help." I pointed out, trying to interject some logic. "And he rides the very dragon that was responsible, if Gothi's wrong. Which she PROBABLY IS." That part was more for my own benefit than anyone else's, although it did earn me a smack on the ear from the importunate elder.
The hope of seeing my son again was the tiniest of flames in my heart. But my pragmatic side wanted to douse it before it got out of control and burned me to ashes.

"We can ask." Astrid suggested. "If the price is too high, forget it. If not, then.." She trailed off.
Hope springs eternal, and in the end some things are worth more than pride.
"Alright."