Chapter Text
Flying.
Is there really anything better in life?
Whooshing above the water surface, flying so low Toothless could feel droplets touching the tips of her claws, the duo went on, faster. With no need for warning or verbal communication, the human rider inclined herself at the same time with the Night Fury and they made their safe way across a group of oval-shaped sea dragons Toothless didn’t care enough to take a note on which breed they were.
Another bold move, a swift from the human’s foot and the prosthetic blood-red tail attached to the saddle shifted too. Years of training and the pair went on smoothly in perfect timing just below the sea dragon’s higher swimming.
And then, Toothless guided them to up above, to the light, cold veil of gray clouds on high. There they stood, never-stopping, twirling, upside down. As fast as the wind, feeling as home as the clouds felt belonging on the skies. The black-scaled dragon let out a whirring and went on higher, tucking in her large wings, her human friend closely attached to her back as they linked themselves with the air, spinning up and fast, and then- the free fall. She allowed herself to simply close her eyes in sheer extasy before her and Hiccup fell backwards, her mighty wings now all the way open to lessen the impact. A short impulse, another spin and they were steady again, ready to do it all over
She saw a group of wild Monstrous Nightmares soaring above and lowered the pace of her flight, just enough to avoid air traffic and to catch her breath, although just then her human leaned in and said “so, what do you think, girl?”. Hiccup sounded as overconfident as these acrobatics would usually leave her. “Do you want to give this another shot?”, she asked, and Toothless didn’t need her human to tell exactly what. She knew what it was and rolled her eyes, letting a disapproving growl. “Toothless!”, the human whined, “it’ll be fine!”, we almost died last time, you idiot.
But it would always be like this in these past three years of interspecies friendship. The Night Fury, as most dragons, spent most of her life flying up above, granted, but this human… Hiccup didn’t content herself with simply flying, with simply racing fast across the winds, no, she insisted on trying the most odd, impracticable, dangerous tricks mid-air. Sure, some of this training could end up useful in the future, but most times and, really, most times, it ended up as them purposefully chasing death just to run on the last minute. Or at least, get pretty hurt and pretty wet, at least she considered using the endless sea as a buffer.
Not bothering on waiting for a reply, Hiccup fixed her complex gear, her own prosthetic and a ladder, things Toothless had given up on understanding. “Ready?”, she asked. Does it matter? The dragon thought, certain this wouldn’t end up well, but also with excitement filling her in.
Dropping her reigns, Hiccup sat still, slowly letting her body fall, looking lifeless not for her yelling. A thrilled yelling, actually, and even worried, the dragon couldn’t help but mirror her, as both friends fell upside down, bodies weightless in the sky. At some point, they were even face-to-face and, even with that odd leather helmet Hiccup had adempted to lately, Toothless could see euphoria shinning on her green eyes and then opened her own mouth to smile, she was getting quite better at this over the past few years.
As if their fall was still endless, Hiccup pulled something from her flying armor, so much had evolved since her simple belt to be attached on their saddle, now it was like she was a big human pocket with things. Blacksmith and inventor, the flying gear was as much Hiccup as her own skin. And then, her latest addition.
Toothless let her wings wide to lessen the fall, and Hiccup did the same with her own, personalized, “wings” and then, as both natural-born dragons, they soared side by side. Okay, maybe this is working, the dragon thought, shooting a small fire blast against the clouds in excitement. Hiccup barely minded, still shouting out her content. So Toothless did the same twice more, as their soaring began to decrease just a little.
“This is amazing!” Hiccup bellowed, seconds before dread filled their sights, as the fluffy endless clouds suddenly turned into the usual foggy mazes of high pointy rocks so characteristic of this land. Damn it, thought we were higher!
“Toothless!”, the girl called out, still too much ahead to reach. Screeching, she quickened the flaps of her wings, and, just before her human collapsed against a tower of stones, she gathered her biggest breath and shot on it. Between air, smoke, and dust, she saved her friend from harm. Well, the biggest harm, since the pair still suffered on a pretty hurtful fall through pointy, tall trees.
Exhausted, they both sighed as soon as their uncontrollable path ended.
Hiccup was the first to get up, obviously, it wasn’t your body we used as a shield there, Toothless thought, rather dizzy, ignoring the stinging cuts. She has had it worse.
“That came out of nowhere!” she exclaimed, and, as if the gods were to reply a warning to her damage, the stones crumbled down at last. You see what we just done there? She growled, aware words wouldn’t transcend, but her tone would… That is, if she was being heard.
“We-we gotta work on your solo gliding there, girl”, she started, getting ready to unpiece bit by bit of her flying armor. “That locked up tail makes for some pretty sloppy rescue maneuvers, huh?”. Oh right, go on about the techniques, it’s not like I just saved your life. Hiccup took out her funny hat. Pretty different from the one Toothless once dived into the cold winter’s sea to find. Yeah, this one had no horns and was sized up to her ow head. And it should be, she built it herself. covered her entire face but her eyes. Other riders didn’t get these, but other dragons didn’t do the crazy whooping they just did. In fact her whole… Self was different. Not only from the odd flying gear she doubted any human knew how it worked, but it was a full suit now. She didn’t get the details, but ever since she started wearing those, their flights became much longer, and the human didn’t see close to freezing.
Hiccup didn’t bother looking at her savior before walking towards the cliff they stood in, admire the new place they’ve found. Or at least Toothless thought it was a new place, considering all that time on the sky.
“Yeah, looks like we’ve found another one, girl”, Hiccup breathed in.
Now, the human language was still very much a pit for misunderstandings if you asked the Night Fury or any other dragon, really, but tones were the key for communication and try living with someone for three years, you’ll be able to catch a few meanings here and there and Toothless was most certainly sure nor the word for thank you nor for sorry had been said there.
Ungrateful toothpick, she grunted quietly, rightfully grumpy.
Seeing it hadn’t even cross Hiccup’s mind, the dragon threw a pebble on the human girl’s head, and turned around, upset. “Oh- what?”, she noticed, but Toothless just sighed, waiting for what she just earned up there.
“Oh, you want an apology?”, Hiccup finally approached, condescending in her voice, and crooking her head.
That’s not good enough, she roared low.
“Is that why you’re pouting, big baby boo?”, yeah, definitely condescending. The dragon simply rolled her eyes, slowly and mocked the same sounds Hiccup had just done.
“Well, try this one!”, the human dropped her funny hat and attacked the dragon, bare-handed. Really?
Using all her strength to push her friend, Toothless just breathed, bored. Aren’t we getting a little old for this? “Oh, you feeling it, yet?”. One day, years ago, a pile of strong, buff, adult Vikings had managed to lock Toothless up, and that simply because she chose not to shoot anyone. Not to count the emotional tool she had been in, besides, how many men took? Ten? Twelve? No way a single human could ever even shock her, and she was just getting a little too old to pretend it did. Especially right now.
Effortlessly, Toothless got up on her two lower legs, like humans did, Hiccup still grabbing her neck. The Night Fury took three long, clumsy, but functional human steps and they were both near the edge now. “Ah- ah, c’mon, c’mon, I know you wouldn’t hurt a one-legged-”, but Toothless really wasn’t feeling it. Wanna play fight? Let’s play, she thought, dropping on all fours, leaving her friends hanging on to her and screaming for help. “You right. You right. You win. You win”. Eh, that’s good enough, she thought, before rising on two feet and falling backwards with no warning.
Within seconds she ended up giving in though. Hiccup on the ground, grumbling about her endless descriptions while they playfully pretend to attack each other, until Toothless finally dropped her head on Hiccup’s torso, earning a loud “woof”, aware of her weight, a “woof” she easily killed with affectionate, teasing licks onto the human’s face. Somehow, Vikings happen to not enjoy licks as a form of showing affection, Toothless obviously knew that, and had developed other ways to show her human support when needed but continue to do this just for teasing.
“Ugh!”, Hiccup exclaimed, her face now all sticky with her friend’s saliva. “You know that doesn’t wash out!”, she was annoyed. Mission accomplished, and the dark scaled dragon let out a laughter just then. Yet another human habit she had adapted to within the last few years.
Taking the excess of her skin, she sprinkled the saliva right on the distracted head of its source. Toothless only puffed in return, cleaning her forehead with her paws. Even, now? Hiccup though, a short smirk in her face as she reached for her chest, where she kept her sketchbook. Well, one of her sketchbooks. Another was kept on her left forearm, and on her right forearm. She wasn’t running out of space to resort to other areas, though this new suit did make her a walking pocket.
The wind wasn’t so strong now, and another propriety of the dragons’ tricky saliva was its sticky part, one she used to glue all pieces of paper together now, as she laid down a huge, rather disorganized but understandable map.
Vikings were sailors by nature, her father used to say, and it might have been true, but it turns out dragons were a much faster way of traveling. Safer even, if you asked her. A loyal dragon would never let you fall unless they fell with you. Hiccup’s illustrating skills and constant time wasted in the air granted her the new job to map down their area. She couldn’t go as south as the continent and some of the land was pretty known, sure… For humans. Lots of dragon-limited places had surrounded them for years, and she had been nourishing this maybe unrealistic wish to find and catalogue them all.
Quickly sharpening her pencil with her old, only knife- well, dagger, she turned to her best friend to ask “so, what should we name it?”. Toothless stood beside her, far from paying attention, much more interested in scratching her own armpit. “Itchy Armpit it is”, I mean my name’s Hiccup, who’s gonna care about places being named like this?
“What do you reckon, girl?”, she continued, just needing to speak and aware Toothless would listen, in her own way. “Think we might find a few Timberjacks in those woods?”, based on the type of thin, light toned trees from this place. “Maybe an odd Whispering Death or two in these rocks?”. Toothless approached, sniffling other ends of the map. “Who knows, maybe we’ll finally track down another Night Fury…”. It always unsettled her. Even before they met. Toothless was the only one. Not extinct, just… Uncatalogued, not registered, not seen… Nobody even knew their shape until Hiccup caught Toothless that day years ago and even flying, even back in the Red Death’s volcano… Toothless was the only one. Why? Were they from other, further parts of the world? How did you even get here, then? Hiccup fought to not let sorrow fill her brows. Being one of a kind could make you unique but it also made you… Alone.
The dragon simply grunted quietly, softly.
“Wouldn’t that be something?”, the girl sighed. “So what do you say? Just keep going?”, it’s always an option. Midgard was no small place, after all.
Toothless let out a low warbling, sounding as an agreement, until a screeching broke their attention.