A Trip Through Time

Chapter 5

Hiccup

Hiccup woke the next morning feeling nice and refreshed. He stretched and sauntered downstairs to make breakfast for himself and Astrid, only to realise that his betrothed had beaten him to it. Again. He sat down at the table and sighed, before asking, "when can I make breakfast for you?"

He heard her chuckle before replying. "What do you mean, wanting to make breakfast for me? Have you tasted how bad your cooking is? I'd rather eat something your mom made," she teased, sliding a plate in front of him. Hiccup scowled. Practically the whole village knew how bad his mother's cooking was, and the fact that Astrid said that his cooking skills were even worse than his mother's, the worst cook on the Isle of Berk, annoyed him a bit.

He ate his breakfast as quickly as he could, before giving Astrid a quick kiss and jogging out the door. Hiccup went over next door to check on the two mysterious new guests: Alexandra Jennings and Kaiden James. As he neared the guest hut that they were staying in, he saw the preposterously giant form of Xiraxus, Alex's dragon, sunbathing in front of the wooden house like a giant guard dog. Hiccup marvelled at the sight. This dragon, Xiraxus, was even larger than the Crimson Goregutter they had housed until a few months ago. He smiled to himself as he climbed the steps and knocked on the door of the hut, but he had to wait just less than five seconds before the door swung open and Kaiden stepped out, glancing over his shoulder to the still-sleeping Alex inside.

Before Hiccup had time to ask whether his guest would like to join him for an early-morning flight, Kaiden beat him to it. "An early-morning flight would be great, thanks," he had said, smiling warmly, whilst Hiccup had started, dumbfounded, at what just happened.

"H-how..." Hiccup trailed off, still in too much shock to produce full sentences. He tried again, with much more success. "How did you do that?"

Kaiden grinned, before raising his index finger to his lips. "Let's just say that I'm... gifted." He lightly touched Hiccup's shoulder, indicating that he would say more during their flight. And with that, he woke Xiraxus up and informed the creature of their flight plans for that morning. Once the brilliant, blue-eyed dragon had properly digested what was going on, he stretched out his wing, and to the chief of Berk's amazement, Kaiden managed to run up the wing and onto the dragon's back. And he made it look so easy, too. Once he saw that Kaiden was ready, he called for Toothless, and together, the two of them took off into the sky.

* * *

Toothless, Hiccup, Kaiden and Xira were now flying high above the massive island that was New Berk. Hiccup was giving Kaiden and Xira a tour of the island, followed by a relaxing flight around the island, where they were both able to question and answer each other without being interrupted. Hiccup loved how Kaiden seemed to be such an enthusiast on learning about dragons, and Hiccup promised to show him The Book Of Dragons later, and at this, Kaiden seemed pleased. But Hiccup was curious. Where did Kaiden and Alex come from? How did they find Berk? How did Xira know Toothless? All these questions, and many more, were swirling through Hiccup's mind. He was just about to ask Kaiden, but when he glanced over to the other boy, he found a knowing grin plastered on his face. He really wanted to ask the other boy about who he was and where he came from, but his smile threw Hiccup off a bit; it made him slightly uneasy.

He was confused at first at the stranger's knowing grin but was shocked (again) when Kaiden spoke up. "It's fine. You can ask all the questions you want," he said, with a respectful look in his eye. What? It was like Kaiden had read his mind. Hiccup was so shocked that he almost crashed Toothless into a nearby sea stack, and that earned him a slap in the face from Toothless's ear plate. He grumbled an apology and turned to Kaiden.

"First question: how in Odin's name did you just do that? It was like you read my mind. Twice!"

Kaiden just sighed. "You know what? Let's go back. We're going to have a lot to talk about on this subject."

OK, I'm back! Sorry for not updating in a while. I'm busy (procrastinating) for my final end-of-year exams, so I'm not having enough time to write and update like I once used to. Sorry for the inconvenience. Hope you enjoy!