Fly On Your Own

Chapter 12

        The sea stretched on endlessly in all directions, looking no different than the last mile we crossed. It sparkled in sections where light broke through the cloud cover, tricking me into thinking the world below was something beautiful. But, when I came back to reality, it was just more stretches of the same thing I'd been staring at for hours. The hopeful spirit I had earlier began to dwindle, realizing the Hidden World might actually be just a myth. But that doesn't explain where Toothless and the Light Fury could have disappeared to. Not to mention, Shriek had been following the scent of something she recognized this whole time.

"Where... Where is she headed?" Hiccup finally asked, strangely not questioning it up until this point.

"She's tracking something," I muttered, glancing down at her again. "Aren't you, girl?" She couldn't be leading us nowhere, there had to be some sort of destination.

I shifted a bit, attempting to get as comfortable as I could on the back of a dragon I normally rode on my own. Despite our earlier argument, I still wanted to help Hiccup find this place, if for no other reason than to put his mind to rest. He'd talked about how obsessive his dad had become when he was trying to find the Hidden World, and I was starting to see that trickle down to him.

"So, if we manage to find the Hidden World... what then?" I asked, trying to figure out how much of a plan he really had.

"We'll have to see what it looks like, of course. We'd have to find a specific place for our people to settle in without disturbing the dragons," Hiccup explained casually.

That last part caught my attention. There was a pretty important detail in there that I wasn't exactly sure he'd completely thought through.

"Hiccup, do you think this is really a good idea?" He huffed at my question. "Hear me out. I'm not going to bother with the logistics of it all, because I'm sure you've got thousands of plans either in your head or one of your journals. I'm more wondering about people being in the Hidden World." He remained silent, but I continued anyways. "Think about it—the nest, their breeding ground, Vanaheim... none of these places were meant to be touched by people, and when they were, their order was disturbed. Why is the Hidden World any different?"

I'd never get an answer to that, but the question at least caused him to think. The both of us fell back into silence, waiting for Shriek to get to the source of whatever she was following. Ideally, it would've been better to bring Stormfly, given that Nadders were tracking dragons, but I wasn't about to steal Astrid's dragon from her. Not to mention, while Stormfly was an agreeable dragon, sometimes she had trouble with other Riders that weren't hers for long periods of time. Thunderdrums weren't the best trackers, but Shriek couldn't be following nothing... right?

"I'm sorry about earlier," Hiccup eventually said. "Me being worried about Toothless isn't an excuse to snap at you. And you were just looking out for our daughters... and me, I guess."

I tried my best not to smile just a little bit, amused by the way he'd finished that off. The tension hadn't completely dissolved, of course, but when he reached forward and kissed my shoulder, it certainly helped.

Suddenly, Shriek dipped down closer to the water and picked up her speed. Hiccup grabbed onto my waist in an attempt to keep himself from falling off.

"There's nothing but miles and miles of--"

Before Hiccup could finish, he was drowned out by the rapid rushing of water, creating a crescendo that pulled us closer. My eyes widened as I watched a circle of rocks come over the horizon, a large beam of sunlight casting itself as a spotlight onto the area. Shriek flew over the gap as Hiccup and I looked down, unable to spot the bottom. Smiles stretched onto our faces as our eyes widened in awe. We'd finally found it... we'd finally made it to the Hidden World.

"A great waterfall at the end of the world," I muttered.

Suddenly, Shriek turned up in the air and dove straight down, right into the depths. Hiccup and I cried out as he reached out and clung to my waist, attempting to keep himself from falling off. The dense fog and mist blocked me from seeing the descent, and it wasn't until Shriek leveled out that my eyes began to adjust. The moment they did, they widened, completely awed with the scene in front of them. The whole world below stretched out in expansive caves, almost looking as though it were its own planet. The darkened world in front of us suddenly began to glow blue, as the waters below took on an unearthly shine. The entrance to the Hidden World itself was beautiful enough, but it was nothing compared to what emerged in front of us.

Stalagmites and stalactites cast purple and blue spotlights onto Hiccup and I, following us as Shriek made her way further in. It wasn't long before Shriek herself began to glow, bits of purple and pink standing out against her bright, white spots.

"Wow," Hiccup whispered, a smile on his face. He pointed down at a pair of Sea Shockers bouncing in the pool of water below us. Waterfalls spilled out of secret caverns on every wall, disappearing into the endless void of color below.

As more dragons came to fly alongside us, we passed into an area completely filled with Fireworms. They undulated as they flapped their tiny wings, desperately trying to reach wherever the rest of the dragons were going. Eventually, the landscape spread out into large pillars that looked as though they were made of rocks and leaves. Large flocks of dragons headed toward a large rock in the center, where two dragons stood atop. In an attempt to not disrupt the wild dragons, I pulled on Shriek to get her to branch off from the rest. She landed beneath the cover, and Hiccup and I climbed off. I found his hand slipping into mine as we looked around.

"It really does exist," he marveled. The closer we got, the more the two dragons looking over all the rest came into focus. Hiccup and I gasped at the same time. "Toothless." He lunged forward slightly, but I pulled him back before any of the dragons could see him.

"Shh. You'll spook them," I warned.

Toothless and the Light Fury descended from their perch, to a point in the center of all the dragons. Dragons roared and cried out as they passed by, praising their alpha. Toothless spread his wings and roared once. The sound echoed off the walls, as each of the dragons bowed down to him.

"Now that's a king."

His mood suddenly switched as he looked back at the Light Fury, his stern and victorious expression changing to one of overwhelming love and affection. She spread her wings and nuzzled him, before the pair began to prance around each other, performing their Fury mating dance. A smile stretched onto my face as I watched the two of them, feeling a strange sense of pride.

As I glanced over at Hiccup, I noticed he couldn't muster a smile. In fact, he almost looked devastated. I knew he wanted to be happy for his best friend, but the realization that he might not come back was starting to hit him. I moved my hand up to his shoulder in an attempt to comfort him, resting my forehead against his cheek. All from earlier was officially forgiven. In this moment, he needed someone there for him. He'd been so used to having Toothless there, he'd been part of Hiccup's life before I even was, and the sudden loss certainly was shocking to him.

"We should go." His voice crackled as he forced out the suggestion.

My heart jumped in my chest as I heard a low grumble behind us. We both quickly whipped around to see a Rumblehorn looming over us, eyes narrowed.

"Oh, no!" We both began to back up, reaching the edge of the rock too soon. Hiccup reached his hand out in an attempt to calm it, but before he could do anything, it spread its wings and roared, alerting the other dragons their utopia had been invaded. "Shriek!" I grabbed Hiccup's hand and pulled him with me as I jumped off the cliff. We slid down the crystalline surface, narrowly dodging the jaws of several dragons. We suddenly came crashing down, but didn't have a second to collect ourselves.

"Go, go!"

We were just running out of path, when Toothless and Shriek suddenly swooped down and snatched the two of us up. The wild dragons attempted to catch up, but Toothless sneered at them, warding them off.

"I... I'm sorry, bud," Hiccup apologized. "I'm so sorry."