Fly On Your Own

Chapter 4

              I watched the dragons retreat into their homes for the night, the new ones trying to find places to stay, before adjusting the sling around my neck and making sure I held my daughters securely against my chest. It had been a couple hours since the dinner incident, and Hiccup had yet to come home. He was likely still hiding out somewhere, waiting for everything to blow over before he came back. But no way in hell was I going to just let this slide. He'd been... oddly silent when I'd protested having another kid.

Keeping one careful hand on my daughters, I climbed up onto Shriek and had her fly slowly. It really shouldn't be too hard to find a boy and his Night Fury among all other dragons, but Hiccup had a knack for disappearing when he didn't want to be bothered. Unfortunately for them, I knew Hiccup like the back of my hand, and had a pretty good idea where they would have run off to. I steered Shriek toward an isolated cliff side that dipped down into the forests, and spotted a large, black dragon using the updrafts to glide as his rider inspected something, most likely a map, laid out on the ground.

"You're getting pretty good at gliding on your own, bud," he encouraged. Shriek let out a little roar, and Hiccup averted his gaze just as we landed.

"Oh! So this is where you come to get away from Gobber," I teased.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." As I hopped off my dragon, Toothless plopped something wet and sticky into my free hand. I looked down to see it was Hiccup's prosthetic leg, and quickly threw it away in disgust. Toothless jumped up excitedly and flew off to chase it.

"Well, he's right, you know." I sat down beside him and shifted my daughters slightly to make sure they were comfortable. Hiccup quickly looked over at me in surprise.

"Really? You think you and I should have another kid already?" Internally, I let out a sigh of relief.

"Oh, gods, no," I spat out quickly. "Honestly, I don't think my body's ready to have another kid yet. That's a lot to go through, and we literally just had two six months ago."

"Oh. No, yeah, I get that." I sensed the slight disappointment in his voice, so I reached into the sling and handed Alith to Hiccup. He smiled as he took one of his daughters and pressed her against his chest. He always held her like that, as close to him as possible.

"I mean he's right about all this." I used a hand to gesture to our home island.

"It does seem like the whole world knows about us now," he sighed.

"Yep. And the more dragons we bring back here, the bigger a target we become." Toothless dropped Hiccup's leg at my feet again, still covered in Night Fury saliva. "Ugh." Careful not to disturb Kerrigan, I reached over and tossed it for the dragon to chase. "I just wish there was some way to make them leave us alone."

"There might be a way." I looked over at Hiccup, curious, and he stuttered for a moment before launching into his explanation. "Dad used to talk about an old mariners' myth—of a secret land on the edge of the world where dragons live totally out of reach." I chuckled.

"Well, sailors are known for tall tales."

"True. But what if it's real?" I shook my head at him. Of all the long shots he'd taken in his life, this was the biggest one. "It could be the answer to all of our problems."

"How? By moving the dragons there?"

"Uh-uh. All of us."

I blinked at him a few times, completely thrown off by his proposal. Of all the ideas he'd had in his life, all the times he'd taken a risk, this was somehow the craziest one. Sure, on any other day, I might agree to at least go and check things out, see if this place is real. But we weren't alone in this relationship anymore. I couldn't just keep leaving our daughters behind. Not to mention, if we just packed up and went, like I thought we were going to, what would be do with our daughters?