The Hidden World

First Flight

"You're coming to watch our training?" Astrid asked her boyfriend casually. She walked slowly so he could catch up with his handicap.
"Nah. Not today. Still got some work in the forge to do since Gobber's occupied." He explained. Astrid didn't believe him, he said that every time she asked him.
"Not to mention searching for the dragon eye. The sooner I find it, the sooner we can leave." Hiccup had gotten better at lying, but was still miserable.
"Have you tried looking in the village?" She questioned suspiciously. Hiccup was already sweating nervously.
"Uhm yeah, but i was pretty sure the dragon took it into the woods."
Astrid puffed her cheeks annoyed.
"Then you shouldn't walk through the woods. What if that dragon finds you? It will kill you mercilessly. As soon as I brought down my first dragon I'm gonna find that dragon and I'm gonna kill it! Avenge your leg and bring you home." She promised determined. Hiccup cringed at the thought.
"Don't you think that's a bit harsh? I mean... A life for a leg?"
Astrid's eyes narrowed dangerously.
"Of course not, what was I thinking. Life for a leg it is! Great." He pressed through gritted teeth. Hiccup stopped abruptly since he had reached the forge. Hesitantly Astrid stood still, too.
"Hiccup, you're hiding something from me." She finally confessed. Hiccup looked surprised. Hadn't he by now realized how bad of a lier he was?
"Me? Come on Astrid! What should I be possibly hiding from you?" He asked rhetorically, but Astrid would've preferred it to be a real question with an actual answer.
"You tell me." She hissed.
Hiccup's hand went through his brown messy hair and Astrid got weak, realizing again how hot her boyfriend was.
"It's just that I'm still confused." He admitted embarrassed and if he hadn't done the hair move, Astrid would've been a lot more suspicious.
"We've been here nearly half a year." She pointed out weakly instead.
"Well guess what, you never get used to having a dad living in a complete different world with dragons." He explained bitterly, but also with a hint of humour.
"And actually it's only been three months." He corrected.
"Whatever." Astrid sighed and turned around.
"I'm just worried."
With that she left.
Just like that.
Why would she be worried? It's not like Hiccup intended to get himself into trouble.
He searched the forge for his saddle and Toothless' prosthetic tailfin. He entrapped those things under his arm and left for the back door to continue training his dragon.
Ok, maybe he was playing with fire more often than anyone should. Or lava, doesn't really matter.
Every Viking would call him crazy and suicidal by visiting a dragon daily unarmed and even mounting it.
Hiccup sighed. He wouldn't be here too long. As soon as Toothless was able to fly again he would snatch away the dragon eye and leave. But Toothless seemed very protective over the dragon eye.
Why?
Dunno. Though Hiccup had to admit it wasn't his cleverest plan to strengthen a dragon before stealing it's toy. Anyone would use the advantage and leave the dragon behind. Wait, in reality everyone would kill the dragon and brag with it's death, then take the eye.
No. Hiccup wasn't like them. He would grant Toothless another chance, like he had been given. Thanks to Gobber he could walk again and thanks to Gobber Hiccup could give Toothless the ability to fly again.
Anyways, Toothless seemed to be a very reasonable dragon. Even as if he was able to understand Hiccup's every word. Maybe he could convince him to let them travel back home?
Finally Hiccup spotted the cove. Down there was his beautiful black dragon. He seemed to play with a leaf, but there was almost no wind in the protected cove. Therefore playing with a leaf wasn't all too amusing.
Hiccup carefully climbed down to the cove. He pulled his hammer out of his pocket and hid behind a rock.
Toothless lifted his paws and observed the motionless leaf. It wasn't going to move anytime soon.
Toothless sighed disappointed.
He was bored and missed his human. The days of constant training had been so much fun, but unbelievable exhausting. It wasn't quite easy for Hiccup to steer a dragon's tail. It was something he had never done in his life before. Or anyone else had done who could possibly teach him.
He was all on his own.
Well, he had Toothless. And together it meant trying, trying and trying. Hiccup had lost count of times they had failed and crashed to the ground. He had also lost count of the blue spots he had gained.
Quietly Hiccup positioned the hammer on the stone. Sun beams met the metal Toothless somehow had missed to smell during his glooming.
The light reflected in form of a small dot on the ground.
Toothless head perked up like a black kitty cat. The small dot danced lightly in front of Toothless' nose and he was quickly getting caught up in the game.
Quickly he jumped onto the spot and purred in triumph. When he opened his paws to acknowledge his prey, there was nothing.
Confused he glanced frantically through the cove and discovered the dot again. He positioned himself and- HOP!
Nothing.
Toothless rushed over to the point, placed one paw over it again.
Missed.
Another paw, right there on the dot.
Wait no, missed again.
What was this freaking dot?!
Toothless wanted to find out, but therefore he needed to catch it first which seemed to be an impossible task. Like a cat his eyes were fixated on the shiny dot and he crawled after it. A plan formed in his brain.
Carefully. Sneak up to it. The thing won't even notice.
And jump!
If I didn't catch it now I don't know what else to do, growled Toothless and opened his paws.
Nothing.
What! Roared the Night Fury in disbelief. He had had it this time! So why had it suddenly disappeared!? Vanished! Completely!
Just by now Toothless noticed a small giggle.
His head snapped back and he found his human behind a rock. Hiccup couldn't hold it anymore and broke into a fit of laughter.
Toothless grunted offended and leaped at his human. The boy jumped out of his hiding place just in time. Hiccup laughed happily, the black reptile snorted insulted before he swung his tail and flipped a small stone onto Hiccup's brown hair.
"Hey!" Hiccup protested and easily noticed Toothless' I am very much hurt face.
"Oh what? You want an apology?"
Hiccup mocked his dragon. Toothless afirmed with a slight look at his human before he continued pouting and staring away.
"Is that why you're pouting big baby boo?" Hiccup asked with fake sympathy and tried to get a peak of his dragon. Just to prove his point the dragon really pouted in a low attempt of imitating his human and rolled his eyes annoyed.
"Well try this on!"
With that Hiccup attacked his flying reptile in a hug. After failing in pushing or pulling him to the ground Hiccup decided to use his whole weight.
"You're feeling it yet? Ha?"
Hiccup wrapped his legs around the dragon's neck, but the outcome stayed the same.
"Picking up on all my heart filled remorse?"
Toothless gained a sudden idea and lifted his upper body. The human, as clingy as he was stayed wrapped around Toothless' neck with the only difference that his feet slipped down.
The human boy grunted exhausted as Toothless marched awkwardly to the lake on two legs.
"Oh come on come on. Yeah yeah you wouldn't hurt a one legged-"
Hiccup looked over his shoulder to see himself dangling over the cold lake.
"Wuah!" He cried out in panic and held onto the dragon for life's sake. Still he kept sliding down and he had to think very fast to prevent this unwanted outcome. There was no doubt Toothless would drop him into the water. The dragon laughed victoriously.
"Oh ow ow ow you're right, you're right! You win! You win." He confessed in defeat. Suddenly he was pulled back with Toothless as the dragon let himself fall onto his back.
"Wow wow wow!" Hiccup yelped in panic but landed comfortably on Toothless. The dragon rolled making Hiccup fall to the ground. He had pinned him down with one paw.
"He's down!" Hiccup yelled as he was, well, down. He pushed away Toothless' paw.
"Argh, it's ugly! Dragons and Vikings!"
He lunged forward with his fists at the black dragon, but missed miserably.
"Enemies forever!"
Meanwhile Toothless fought back carefully with one paw. He simply poked Hiccup with his black foot so Hiccup concentrated more on blocking the attacks.
"Locked in combat to the ba- Oooow!"
Hiccup whined playfully as Toothless ended the fight by placing down his majestic head on Hiccup's complete upper body. Toothless' tongue shyly leapt out and licked Hiccup under the chin. When Hiccup realized what was about to happen it was already too late. Toothless and his big tongue that was probably bigger than Hiccup's head started to lick all of Hiccup's head.
"Argh!" Hiccup grunted in disgust and tried to back away, but the big tongue didn't happen to miss him. Eventually Hiccup set himself free with a backwards somersault and jumped to his feet.
"You know that doesn't wash out!" Hiccup pouted and tried to clear himself off the dragon saliva, without luck though.
After their long days of training, Toothless had taken a liking in licking Hiccup like a pet. And Hiccup had taken a liking in scratching Toothless, like a pet.
Toothless immediately started to laugh at Hiccup with all his might. Hiccup therefore got him back and shot Toothless own saliva back at him.
The dragon lowered his ears and narrowed his eyes.
Rude, he protested and started cleaning his face like a cat.
Hiccup meanwhile walked back to his former hiding place and pulled out his flying equipment.
Quickly he picked it up and looked at his dragon with expectance. Toothless smiled playfully and lifted his butt, wiggling his tail like a dog.
And then he leapt off.
"Hey!" Hiccup yelled and started chasing his friend, the saddle over his head. Putting up the saddle was no problem, not as much as putting up his tailfin.
"Would you stop!" Hiccup laughed playfully annoyed. Toothless spinned around, Hiccup focused on his incomplete tail walking in circles.
"Common. Lemme get this on ya." Hiccup giggled and Toothless finally stopped, allowing his friend to sit on his tail in order to strap on his prosthetic.
"There!" Hiccup presented proudly. Toothless smiled happily at his tail, looking forward to combine the two things he loves. Hiccup and flying.
Mentioned boy turned around to pick up his notebook. Toothless couldn't wait any longer and lowered his head to pick Hiccup up on his head.
"Toothless!" Hiccup chuckled surprised, nearly dropping his papers. Toothless positioned the young adult comfortably on his saddle and motioned into the sky.
"Calm down Toothless. Today's gonna be serious." Hiccup explained, making Toothless only more excited.
"Remember the tail sheet?" Hiccup mentioned and held out a paper with different positions of Toothless' tail.
The dragon snorted less excited.
The making of this tail sheet was arduous work. Hiccup had him tied up on a windy cliff where they practiced flying without actually flying, just floating in the wind.
"We're gonna try them out in the real field." Hiccup grinned. Toothless smiled and jumped excitedly in circles. They would fly! They would really fly!
"Alright Toothless."
The black beast heard the clicking of Hiccup's prosthetic on his riding geer.
"Let's keep this nice and sloOOOOW!"
Toothless roared happily as he lunged into the sky and Hiccup barely just managed to steer Toothless out of the cove in time.
The Night Fury spinned joyfully, almost losing his human in the process and crash landing.
"What did I say?" Scolded Hiccup offended as he climbed back onto his saddle.
Toothless crooned an apology. He opened his wings to let the air slow him down. Honestly, what did Hiccup expect? The fastest dragon to slow down?
But Toothless would do anyway, for now at least, until Hiccup got the hang out of it.
"Nice and slow." Hiccup reminded Toothless and patted his head. Toothless agreed with a purr. They had already reached the ocean and neither one of them was eager to take a bath.
"Alright, position number four, er three. Position number three." Hiccup read of his tail sheet and did as it said. Toothless rolled his head on his neck, readying himself.
He flapped his wings and they gained again in speed.
Suddenly Toothless took off to the right and glanced worried at Hiccup. It was unusual to fly without deciding himself where to fly.
"You've gotta trust me bud." Hiccup smiled and patted his neck.
They passed a big sea stack that looked more like a gigantic gate. Hiccup looked up and enjoyed his sight. Seagulls where flying up there and chirping happily, knowing no human could reach them.
And there, right there Hiccup suddenly realized.
He was flying.
He was flying like no human could ever imagine.
Hiccup started to understand Toothless better now.
Flying meant freedom.
He felt so light, lighter than the air itself. He enjoyed the strong wind caressing his brown hair. He just felt free.
"Woohooo!" Hiccup roared, fists into the air. He had never felt this good in his life before.
Toothless looked over his shoulder with a toothy grin.
See? I told you.
Hiccup laughed. This was awesome.
He felt like the king of the world!
Toothless roared slightly, dragging Hiccup back into reality.
It was a little bit like driving. Never take eyes of the road.
They flew straightforward into a sea stack. Toothless relied on Hiccup to get him out of the way. Unfortunately Hiccup missed the experience, timing and strength to pull Toothless out of the way.
The Night Fury and his rider crashed against the sea stack.
Toothless tried to stay optimistic and pushed himself off the sea stack with his paws only to land against another one. Again he compensated the hit with all of his four legs.
When they had finally passed the obstacles, Toothless used his ear to slap Hiccup.
"Yeah yeah. I'll do better next time." Hiccup promised.
Now that the hard part was over, Hiccup decided to spice things a little bit up.
"Position number three. Ah, er... Four."
The prosthetic clicked and Toothless snorted happily, feeling the urge to fly up.
"Come on Toothless!"
The black beast stopped midair to shoot up into the cloudless sky. It felt too good.
"Come on baby!"
Toothless tongue fell out as he enjoyed the flight so much. Hiccup did, too, filled up with enthusiasm from head to toe.
"Yeah!" He roared into the sky, screaming I'm home! I'm there where I'm supposed to be!
He felt it with sudden clarity, the sky was his home. It felt right. The same feeling he realized he was left handed not right handed, although his governess forced him to be right handed. Suddenly everything went ironically right, it felt like walking on arms all life long, stumbling and falling until you realized you could walk with your feet.
Now that's what it felt like to be in the air. Why walking if you could be flying?
"This is amazing!" He yelled, fists into the air and laughing.
"This is my-Sheet!" He suddenly yelped when his sheet flew out of his saddle. He barely caught it with his hands and sighed relieved. The wind under his back like a matress, his hairs pulling up into the sky, pleading to stay up there.
A terrified screech dragged him out of his trance.
Finally he noticed he was alone, falling down from the sky.
"Toothless!" He screamed horrified, more concerned about the well being of his dragon than the fact he was plummeting down into his certain death.
Right there below was Toothless, falling down himself, his face filled with panic and fear. They were so high, even a Night Fury couldn't survive such a fall.
Hiccup had never jumped out of a plane or anything, but he supposed it couldn't be that hard to control the speed of your fall. Instead of making himself wide to fall slower, he needed to fly faster, so he could reach Toothless. He didn't plan to surpass Toothless.
"Try to angle yourself!" He shouted against the strong wind to his dragon.
Yeah you talking there!
Yelled Toothless annoyed, trying to angle himself for quite some while, but failing miserably. He was spinning uncontrollably through the air, even hitting Hiccup in the process.
Do something!
He pleaded for his human desperately and soon felt small hands on his saddle. Hiccup had reached him.
Click!
Toothless sighed relieved knowing the worst had been survived. Oh how wrong he'd been. They weren't over the ocean anymore.
They were right over Foggy Askel.
Askel meant devine scauldron.
If you survive a flight through the constant foggy field full of nasty sea stacks, you were a god.
If not, well, then you'd be a good company to the gods in Valhalla.
Abort!
Screeched Toothless horrified and opened his wings to slow themselves down. After the fall they were so fast, it was in vain.
Hiccup looked at his tailsheet, but barely recognized anything in the strong wind and the missing time.
Hiccup!
Mentioned boy looked at his dragon, who needed him and back at his sheet. His decision was quick and final. He threw the paper away and gone it was.
He pressed his body against Toothless, looking through the eyes of a Night Fury. He breathed slowly in and now- Right!
Left! Position number who cares, right, left, now up! Sea stack!
Click!
Right, dodged it, down and immediately up to the left!
Hiccup's brain stopped working, his body took over, deciding instinctively where to go and what to do therefore.
It seemed like Hiccup was granted or spent his whole life in the air flying on a dragon.
The spinning which made him almost ill on the beginning was now pleasant and they spinned out of the Foggy Askel, whirling up the fog like in a whirlpool.
Back over the empty ocean and deep blue sky, Hiccup panted relieved and speechless.
"Yeeeaaah!" He roared triumphant and Toothless joined in, releasing a purple plasma blast in the process.
"Ow great..." Hiccup muttered grumpily as he flew straight into the explosion.