Chapter Text
Hiccup
The whole arena was cheering, cheering for Hiccup. He had done it. He had won the right to kill the dragon that was waiting behind that iron door. Hiccup’s heart fell when he was being carried out of the arena, and out to the village. When he finally managed to escape the crowd of people he ran into his house and up to his loft. He grabbed a basket and filled it with his notebook, pencil, knife and extra clothes. Heart pounding he grabbed the dragon book from the shelf above the fire and opened the back door. He didn’t go completely unnoticed though.
Hiccup ran as fast as his legs could carry him. He knew which direction to go. He had been there every day since that night about a month ago. He stumbled into the cove and dropped the basket on the ground.
“Alright we’re leaving. Looks like you and me are taking a little vacation, forever”
His friend melted out of the shadows and came up to him with a questioning look in his big green eyes.
“I can’t do it, bud. The whole village hated me for years, and the only reason they like me now is because I can kill something.” He hurled a stone into the pond with frustration.
Toothless trudged up to his side giving a small groan of concern.
“I know bud. But I don’t see any other way.”
something rustled near the entrance of the cove. Toothless’s ears pricked up and his wings snapped open. Hiccup jumped on his back and together they flew away, hopefully to never come back.
Astrid
Astrid stormed out of the arena.
-how in all the realms did he win?!-
Of all the nitwits in this village, why did Hiccup Haddock have to win the final exam? Why not her? She was so caught up in her rage that she didn’t even notice when she crossed into the forest.
Astrid flung her ax into the nearest tree watching it splinter as the ax lodged into the truck. She ripped it out and threw it a few more times, each time the anger she felt slowly went down. The tree also went down.
The tree fell, revealing an open crevasse. The crevasse was not that deep and looked fairly easy to climb. Astrid slid down and landed on a solid dirt path that wound through the rock on either side of her.
Cautiously she made her way down the path, careful not to trip over any stray roots or vines. Eventually she came to the end which opened up into a large cove in the middle of which was a pond. Looking around Astrid saw something glint in the sun. She walked over to the scale,(for that was what it was) small, round and midnight black. She tensed looking around, she now noticed the amount of footprints that surrounded her.
A dragon had clearly been here, and it might come back. She turned to run having to tell someone, anyone about this but as she turned her toe caught on something sticking out of the dirt and she fell. Pushing herself back up to her knees she bent over to see what exactly had tripped her. It was the hilt of a knife. Pulling the blade out from the wet earth she recognized it almost immediately. It was the knife that hiccup used in the arena sometimes, Astrid never knew why. Astrid got up, put the knife in her belt, and ran. Stoick was going to be devastated.
Toothless
This was his chance. He could get help. He could show her to Hiccup. He tenses, sensing other dragons in the area. He felt claustrophobic as more and more dragons appeared around them in the fog.
“What’s going on Toothless?” Hiccup asked.
“Please not now. Why must more show up?”
Although he knew that the boy couldn’t understand him, he could feel Hiccup tense as well. They glided through the entrance to the large mountain and Toothless flew up to one of the crags surrounding the abyss. The smoke, making the hole glow an eerie red, flooded into his nostrils. He heard the other dragons chattering, talking about how “my raid was more successful.” And “why do we have to be here?”
As the last of them dropped their hunt into the chasm a young gronkle tumbled around, dropped a single fish into the pit and moved on with his life. His life was cut short abruptly by the very reason Toothless had run away in the first place. A great green dragon shot out of the smoke and it’s jaws snapped closed over the gronkle.
The Queen showed her face. Her gaze drifted over every dragon before she sunk back down into the smoke. Immediately all the dragons got the same feeling at the same time.
“Toothless, we have to get out of here now!”
Suddenly the space erupted into a tornado of different dragons all scrambling and fighting to escape. Somehow in the flurry of wings and tails they managed to fly out and away.
Fueled by fear and not wanting to return to Berk, they didn’t fly in any particular direction, just hoping to find land and a place to rest. They flew for several hours, landing, then being chased away, either by a hostile dragon or lack of food. Just as it started to rain they landed on a rather large island with tall cliffs, plenty of water, space and vegetation. Deciding that both dragon and rider were too tired to continue, Toothless curled up under the boughs of a tree pulling Hiccup under his outstretched wing. And there the two friends fell asleep.