Frozen/HTTYD Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Seventeen
The day that he finally got his leg, he was so excited that he could hardly sleep. It was like being a kid at Snoggletog again, even if he’d been watching Gobber put it together and even getting shooed out of the smithy for wanting to see how it was going at odd hours. As soon as sunlight began to creep round the edges of the window, he threw off his blanket and sat up, reaching for the flint and steel to light the candle at his bedside. At first it refused to light, then finally the wick caught and the room got just a little bit brighter.
Toothless’s head was already up, eyes bright. He huffed something that Hiccup had come to think of as ‘good morning’, and Hiccup smiled. “You too, bud.”
As his eyes adjusted, Hiccup realised that Toothless had spread one wing over his side again, rather than furling them as he usually did. Sighing, Hiccup gestured upwards with one hand, and Toothless obediently raised the wing and tucked it back to his side. Hiccup was not even surprised to see Elsa curled up against the dragon’s side again, frowning in her sleep and shifting as the cooler air reached her.
What Stoick did not know would not hurt him. He was more worried about Elsa, and what had driven her back to Toothless’s side again.
“Come on, bud,” he said. He gestured to Elsa again, and Toothless cocked his head curiously before snorting and reaching round to nuzzle Elsa’s hair. She stirred, but did not wake up, until Toothless nudged harder and she gasped and jerked upright. “Woah!” said Hiccup, as loudly as he dared in a house where sound carried so much. “It’s all right. It’s just us.”
Elsa looked around almost wildly, one hand raised, until her eyes came to rest on Hiccup. Her fingers were shaking as she curled her hand back to her chest again. “I’m sorry,” she said. There was a note of desperation in her voice, and she shrank back against Toothless. “I should not be here. I will go.”
“Elsa,” he said hurriedly, as she got to her feet, “it’s fine. It’s just my Dad being... well, my Dad. I don’t mind. And it doesn’t look like Toothless does either.”
Toothless brushed against Elsa’s back with his wing and chirped. She stroked his cheek absently. “You are sure?”
“Just don’t let my Dad know. Or Gobber. He can’t keep a secret.”
Somehow he had gone from secret wildling in the woods to secret wildling in his room. Hiccup wasn’t really sure how he got himself into these situations. With a grateful look, Elsa curled back against Toothless’s side again, and the dragon lowered his wing over her. Hiccup shook his head, but smiled all the same, and shuffled down to the end of his bed where his clothes chest had been put within easier reach so he could dress.
Stairs were easy now, as long as he concentrated while he was going down them. Tongue poking out of the corner of his mouth, Hiccup made his way down, poked open the shutters on the small windows either side of the door, and banged on the door to the downstairs bedroom with the end of one crutch. “Good morning!” he called out.
The immediate response was a groan and cursing, probably from his father and Gobber respectively. “Go back to bed, Hiccup,” said Gobber. “It’s not morning yet.”
“The sun is up, and I think that counts as morning,” he replied, a little more loudly than necessary. “Want to come and check?”
“For Odin’s sake,” said his father. “Could you not have waited a few hours?”
“I’ve been waiting over a moon.”
“Aye, so a few more hours shouldn’t have been a problem,” grumbled Gobber. Hiccup leant back against the wall and waited for the inevitable. “Fine. Go on, Stoick.”
There it was.
“Why me?”
“He’s your son.”
“It’s your leg.”
Hiccup examined his nails, and picked out a bit of dirt from beneath one of them. “I can go and fetch Gothi myself, if you’d rather.”
“That I’d like to see,” said Gobber, but nonetheless Hiccup could hear someone getting out of bed. If it hadn’t worked he probably would have just seen if Astrid was awake and gotten her to fly them up to Gothi instead. Perhaps they should have known something just from the fact that Gothi was never attacked, on her little spire away from the rest of them, but they had put it down to there being no food up there save that which was sent up by basket.
Grinning, Hiccup picked his way into the larder and picked out some of last week’s bread - only a bit stale - and some dried fish. He held the fish in his mouth and stuffed the bread under one arm as he made his way back to the table and sat down to wait and see who would emerge first.
Unsurprisingly, it was his father, still adjusting his belt. “Honestly. I’m sure that during the summer you had no interest in being up at dawn.”
That had mostly been because he had been out all night flying and talking to Elsa, but Hiccup was not going to point that out now. Instead he waited for Gobber, bleary-eyed, to emerge from the room as well. “Good morning to you too,” said Gobber, not sounding at all sincere.
“Can we go?” Hiccup grabbed for his crutches.
“Strange that by ‘we’,” said Stoick, “you mean those of us who will actually be going to fetch Gothi?” He was smiling faintly, though, as he straightened up his helmet. “Right, just let me wake Elsa and we’ll be good to go.”
He went to rap on the wood beside the curtain, and Hiccup almost jumped upright again. “No, no, we should probably let her sleep,” he said quickly. “She told me she’s been having nightmares. Best... let her sleep while she can.”
Stoick’s hand stopped just short of the frame, expression softening for a moment. “Aye, you’ve a point.” Instead, he patted the wood gently. “Come on, then. Let’s go get you a new leg.”
Gobber waited at the bottom of Gothi’s spire with Hiccup until Stoick bought her down, once again going over the story of how he had lost his own leg to a Nadder all those years ago. Hiccup could probably have recited himself by now, but at least it was a way to pass the time until Gothi unceremoniously grabbed Hiccup’s left leg, pushed his leggings aside to have a look at the state of the wound beneath, and nodded her approval. Only the fact that he was still struggling to balance on one leg with the other one hoisted up in the air stopped Hiccup from doing some sort of silly hop about with glee.
They returned to the smithy to retrieve the leg itself, and Hiccup was ushered round back to take a seat on a box while Gobber went to fetch it. Gothi unrolled her calfskin and scattered the sand on it, then began tracing lines back and forth even as Hiccup and Stoick glanced at each other uncertainly. Even Stoick had not managed to figure out how to understand Gothi’s form of writing.
She was finishing just as Gobber reappeared, and automatically walked round to interpret. “She asks if you’ve been taking care of your leg properly.”
“Well,” said Hiccup, “I had a forgetful moment about five weeks ago and managed to misplace part of it, but - ow!”
Gothi’s staff made a hearty crack on his knuckles. He snatched his hand away, vaguely offended, as she gave him a rather effective evil eye.
“Yes, I’ve been taking care of it,” he said. “Fresh bandages, checking the wound, everything. You saw yourself.”
She produced fresh bandages and a clean woollen sock from one of the pouches at her waist and handed them over, then gestured for Gobber to give her the leg. As she examined it, Hiccup rubbed the bandages between thumb and forefinger experimentally. They were thinner than the ones he had been using, the wool finer and softer to the touch. Then again, he was hopefully not going to actually bleed on these ones. He set to work bandaging right up to his knee, making sure that so far as possible there were two even, smooth layers, then slipping on the sock over the top. His hands were shaking, he realised, though it was not from the least touch of fear.
Gothi drew something out on her sand. “I know,” said Gobber, “but it’s him as has to live with it.”
Surprisingly, the leg looked just as Hiccup had pictured it; either his sketching skills were improving, or Gobber had actually been more concerned than usual about making sure his work looked like Hiccup’s design. It had a wooden socket that would hopefully be easier to reshape over time and give him a year or two before he needed a complete new one, but the main body was a squared -off metal rod attached to a stiff spring that should give him the feeling of actually having an ankle still.
He remained a sensible, patient adult and did not snatch the leg out of Gobber’s hands, nor interrupt as the older man showed him how to buckle the leather straps that would hold the whole thing in place.
“Remember,” said Gobber, “firm, not tight. We can always adjust it a bit.”
“I know,” he said impatiently. “Can I stand up now?”
“Onto your right leg first,” said Gobber, reaching out a hand to help him up. “Then onto your left.”
“I remember how to walk.”
“Not with that you don’t.”
Stoick did not speak, but there might just have been flickers of concern in his eyes as Hiccup took a good hold of Gobber’s hand and stood up, all of his weight on his right foot as he had been told. He put his left foot to the ground and felt a burst of elation at the sense of having a foot at all, even if it was metal instead of flesh and bone. It was strange around his knee and what remained of his lower leg, like pressing right on the point of his elbow, but it was a foot, and that was what mattered.
He slowly let go of Gobber’s hand and spread his arms for balance, shifting until his weight felt about evenly spread. Standing, he thought, with two free hands. Hiccup laughed with delight, then felt his balance go and pinwheeled his arms in the air until he grabbed Gobber’s arm to steady himself again. “I swear I could stand up five weeks ago,” he muttered.
“You’re doing grand,” said Stoick. His voice sounded a little uneven, and Hiccup didn’t dare look round for fear of what expression he might see on his father’s face. “Don’t you worry.”
“Just work on standing for now,” said Gobber, reading Gothi’s drawings over one shoulder. “Walking itself will take some more practice... I could have told him that.”
Gothi waved her staff threateningly.
“All right, all right, I’m sorry. But some of us do remember what it’s like to lose our first limb you kn- all right! So, are we going to try getting you home?”
That sounded a little bit more challenging than standing still, Hiccup had to say. He gave Gobber a look of panic and tensed everything so as not to wobble. Surely standing up hadn’t taken this much of his body before.
“With the crutches,” said Stoick.
“All right, that actually sounds like a possibility,” admitted Hiccup. He carefully transferred one of his arms over to the crutches, then the other, and Gobber stepped back completely to leave him actually standing once again. He tested his new foot against the ground; the spring gave only slightly, about as much as he had intended it to. It should help on uneven ground, even if it was going to make things harder in the meantime. And, the best part, the toe of the foot should slot into the new stirrup for Toothless’s wing and actually let them fly once again.
He squared his shoulders and took a deep breath. The smithy was not far from the house, after all.
“All right, then. Let’s do this.”
Elsa was awake by the time that they got back, sitting on the front step and throwing scraps of fish into the air for Toothless to catch. It was still early enough that most people were only just starting to stir, and they had not acquired the sort of audience that this would have garnered during the evenings.
“Look!” Hiccup couldn’t help saying triumphantly. “Feet! Plural!”
She laughed, and threw the last fish so high into the air that Toothless sprung up onto his hind legs to catch it. Brushing her hands on her skirt, Elsa got to her feet and looked Hiccup up and down. “It looks good.”
He grinned. Toothless padded over, and Hiccup paused to let him have a sniff, even raising his left crutch off the ground so that he can have a better look. “Check it out, bud. We’ll be flying again in no time.”
“Maybe let’s go for walking first, hmm?” said Stoick, patting him on the shoulder. Knowing how long it tended to take for people to get walking again with a new leg, however, Hiccup had his suspicions that flying would be the first thing he managed. He didn’t say so, however, just grinned at Toothless and waggled his new foot.
“So,” said Gobber, “are we finally going to look to getting you some breakfast?”
“I think I can handle that.”
It seemed only fair to wait until after nightfall before sneaking out of the house again. It was harder to put on the prosthetic without being able to really see what he was doing, and he almost put it on back to front the first time around, but the wood fit so well that he could feel when it was right, and the buckles were really the most difficult part.
“Toothless,” he hissed, and heard a rumble in response. “Come on, let’s go.”
He pulled Toothless’s saddle out from under the bed and tucked it under his left arm. He had to cling to the wall, first, and then switch to the bannister to make his way downstairs, metal leg first then the good leg following. Toothless crept down behind him, almost silent.
Getting the front door open was a bit harder without being able to put any muscle behind it. Toothless nudged his face in and finished opening the door for Hiccup, who pulled it closed again behind them.
“Thanks, bud. Come on.” He knelt down to put on the saddle, connecting it up and pressing the pedal with his hand to make sure that the tail still worked. Gobber had even had a new fin made up, red with the Berk crest picked out in white, and the sight of it by the moonlight made Hiccup smile all over again. “All right.”
He stood on his good leg to swing his left over the saddle and into place. It was hard to manoeuvre, like trying to control a foot that had already gone to sleep, but by watching carefully he was able to slot it into place and feel the click as it settled in. Pushing down, he heard the tail flare, and felt Toothless tense as if to fly.
“Woah, hang on,” he said, putting a hand on the back of Toothless’s neck. “Let me make sure I can close it again.” It was no good if he got the tail stuck in position six and couldn’t come in to land again. Pulling the tail closed again was a different sensation, tugging slightly on the end of his leg, but a glance over his shoulder confirmed that the tail had done exactly what it was supposed to. “All right, bud. Let’s... take this gently, though.”
He opened up the tail, and they took off. It was all in a breath, the whoosh and the wind in his hair and the slow pulsing movements of Toothless’s wings beneath and beside him. Berk and the rest of the world fell away beneath him and the night sky swallowed them up, away from the smell of people and animals and fires and into the clean fresh air and the trailing mists of clouds.
It didn’t matter that it wasn’t one of their flights that seemed to burn through the sky and tear it into pieces. Just the feel of the air beneath them, the tail moving at his command and with barely even a conscious thought. Moving the tail by pushing down or pulling up might have been different to the heel-and-toe method which he was used to, but it wasn’t any harder, and the tail positions were still the same. It was just as effortless as before.
“How is it that flying is easier than walking?” he said at one point, not expecting an answer from either Toothless or the wind but unable to help voicing it. It had taken him weeks to really get the hang of flying, until it became the most natural thing in the world, but now it came more easily than putting one foot in front of the other. Easier than standing still, frankly.
Even if there were people still awake, they would not be able to see Toothless against the night sky, unless it was as a faint shadow blocking out the stars for a moment. Easy to dismiss as a cloud. It felt like spreading his own wings again, in a way that flying with someone else had not, and in a way that he suspected flying on a different dragon could never be.
They did not fly for long, just enough to feel the sky again. It was starting to snow as they landed back behind the house, waited to be sure that there was nobody looking out of any nearby windows, and made their way around to the front. Hiccup climbed down once they were at the front step and knelt to remove Toothless’s saddle and harness once again. His muscles ached, but in the best of ways, and he finally felt like he could sleep without things feeling unfinished.
He turned around and went to grab the doorframe again, only to realise that he door was open and, worse, someone was standing in the doorway. Apologies sprang to his lips, but his brain finally caught up with his eyes and he realised that it was Elsa, smiling fondly.
“Hello,” he said sheepishly.
“It is good to see you fly again,” she said, holding out a hand. “Do you want help?”
“If you could take this,” he handed her the saddle, “that would be great, thanks.”
“And you did not fall off.”
“Indeed I did not.” He wasn’t sure whether or not he was justified in feeling proud of himself for that, all things considered. The number of times he had fallen in the pool back at the cove, or tumbled off on some particularly badly-timed landing, meant that even a basic flight without incident felt like a success. He could cope on crutches for now, he realised, just so long as he could fly again. Elsa reached up to rub at her cheek, and Hiccup cocked his head to look at her. “Nightmares again?”
Her smile faded, and she shrugged delicately. “I always have.”
He wasn’t sure if she was struggling with tenses again, or if she was trying to say that her nightmares were a constant thing. Or even if he should ask. “I dream about the Red Death sometimes,” he admitted, for want of knowing what else to do. “The fire. I don’t know if I’m going to wake up with a leg or not... or a leg that’s on fire again.”
It had come back in his dreams, first, searing pain and melting flesh, the air around him so hot that he could not even draw breath to scream. Then Toothless’s wings, lit through with fire so that he could see the veins against the faint light, turning into the total blackness of unconsciousness. Somehow it had taken longer for him to remember it while he was still awake.
“You were being a hero,” said Elsa.
Hiccup frowned. “Who taught you that word?” She started laughing, stifled behind her hand, and he found himself struggling not to do the same. “Really, who taught you that?” Somehow, he didn’t think Ruffnut was to blame this time around. “I think my friends have been bad influences on you.”
“They aren’t sneaking out to fly,” Elsa pointed out. She reached out one hand to Toothless, who butted it softly with his nose and then lifted his chin for her to scratch underneath.
“Again, beside the point.” His leg was starting to ache again and, despite the rush of flying, he needed to sleep. “Will you be all right tonight?”
There was only the most minute of hesitations before Elsa nodded. “I am fine.”
“All right,” said Hiccup. Elsa stepped aside to let him into the house again, and Toothless followed. Suddenly the stairs looked awfully high, but he supposed that the only way he was going to get used to the new leg was to make use of it. Gobber had already given him the ‘crash course’, including how to get up and down stairs, even if Stoick had been muttering that it wouldn’t be necessary yet. “Take care.”
“Do you want the saddle upstairs?” she nodded.
It probably would have been a good idea, but he didn’t quite feel up to seeing someone else climb the stairs with ease. “No, keep it down here tonight. It might stop me from going flying again.”
She laughed for a second time, softly, and drew up the saddle to her chest. “Good night, Hiccup.”
“Good night, Elsa.”
He waited until she was back beyond the curtain before looking round to the stairs and taking a deep breath. If the worst happened, he could always get Toothless to give him a helping hand. Or paw. Or however it worked with dragons. Maybe they could look to putting in a window big enough for Toothless to get in and out of, for that matter. Though he wouldn’t tell his father how he had come up with that particular idea.
It took all of his powers of charm and persuasion to get his father to allow him to officially go flying once again. By which Hiccup meant that he struck a bargain promising to practice walking for two hours a day before he was allowed to get Toothless’s saddle out from under his bed. On the other hand, having far fewer secrets in his life made it an awful lot easier to get enough sleep and still wake up early in the mornings, not only letting him practise walking first thing but also meaning that he could check under Toothless’s wing to be sure that Elsa hadn’t curled up there before his father actually woke up.
“Since when are you down to just a cane?” said Astrid, when he arrived at the arena one morning with the others waiting for him.
Hiccup grinned. “Since Meatlug a - argh!”
All right, so slopes were still something of an issue. Hiccup’s new foot refused to grip the wet slope properly, and he would have ended up on his rear again had Fishlegs not caught him under both armpits and held him upright.
“Thanks,” finished Hiccup.
Fishlegs deposited him at the bottom of the slope, and Hiccup dusted himself off with his left hand as Toothless hurried down to sniff him over.
“I’m all right, I’m good,” he said, brushing his hand over Toothless’s head. “Where was I? Oh, yeah. Meatlug ate one of my crutches. So I figured it was an appropriate time to learn to use the cane.”
“She didn’t mean to eat it,” said Fishlegs, not for the first time. From behind them, Meatlug gave an apologetic whine. “I was trying to teach her to play fetch.”
“I still don’t get how she can eat fish and rocks and wood. It just doesn’t make sense.”
“I told you, Gronckles must have several stomachs, I just don’t know whether there are multiple openings off the oesophagus or-”
“How long have they been doing this?” said Astrid, looking straight past both of them to Elsa.
“All the way from town,” Elsa replied.
Astrid rolled her eyes, but Hiccup wasn’t letting this one drop. “Seriously, just let me look down her throat. Come on. We can solve this once and for all.”
“No!” Fishlegs moved to stand protectively in front of Meatlug. “She’s... sensitive.”
“I’m looking down her throat, Fishlegs, not up her skirt!” Hiccup protested, then realised exactly what he had said and turned to see that everyone else was wearing expressions that ran along the spectrum from bewilderment to amusement. “That sounded weirder than I meant it to.”
“No kidding,” said Snotlout. He was leaning against Hookfang’s shoulder, arms folded across his chest. “First you take ages to show up, then you talk about looking up dragon’s skirts.”
He had long since learnt that arguing with Snotlout did not produce any tangible results, and given it up as a bad job. “So, who actually wants to go flying today?” said Hiccup instead. The twins glanced at each other delightedly, and even Astrid looked intrigued. “I figured if we stuck to the west of the village, headed out towards the sea stacks, we wouldn’t have to worry about anyone being able to see us.”
“Why do I get the feeling you’ve flown out there before?” said Astrid.
Hiccup refused to dignify that with an answer. “Has everyone still got some rope to let them hold on? We can take off from the clearing out front again.”
As one, the twins turned to face each other and slammed their helmets together. That was generally a sign of approval. Even Snotlout, though he was clearly fighting not to show it, actually looked pleased by the suggestion.
Hiccup might have felt more pleased with himself if he had made the suggestion before coming down the slope which he would now have to climb again. Then again, he had never claimed that forward planning was one of his specialities. At least Toothless was small enough to walk through the entranceway again fairly easily, compared to the larger dragons like Hookfang or Barf and Belch. He swung himself into the saddle and slipped his cane into the scabbard which he had strapped across his back.
“Really?” said Astrid, walking up beside him. When he looked round questioningly, she gestured to the scabbard.
“I figured it was better than trying to stuff it under my arm or something,” he shrugged. “Plus, it does look pretty cool, huh?”
Astrid raised an eyebrow.
“All right,” he said, moving on quickly. “Shall we get going? Elsa?”
He extended one hand to her. It had been made pretty clear that Toothless was more than strong enough to carry two people, and he wasn’t planning on recreating any of his more daring stunts anyway. Elsa hesitated, glancing round at the others.
Seeing an opportunity that probably wasn’t there, Snotlout patted Hookfang’s neck and grinned. “There’s always plenty of room aboard this beast.”
Apparently seeing the alternative was enough. Elsa took hold of Hiccup’s hand and climbed into place on the saddle behind him. It was somewhat tentative, but he still had the suspicion that was more to do with her magic than anything else. Even living in the warmth of an actual house had not done anything to stop her skin from feeling cold all of the time, nor the trollwort bracelets she still wore.
“All right,” Hiccup called, “we’re going to head outside, take off one by one, and then fly down to the sea stacks.” He gently nudged Toothless with one foot, and they started forwards. He doubted that this was at all like riding a horse or donkey, but it was the best comparison that he could make.
“Does your Dad know that we’re doing this?” said Fishlegs.
Technically not, but Hiccup didn’t see that it took any great stretch of the imagination to work it out. “He knows that I was planning on flying today, and he knows that you guys were meeting me at the arena. I’m sure he would have said something if he objected.”
That part, at least, was true. Stoick would have made it very clear if he objected to what was going on, and it was a lot easier for him to also do something about it now that he knew where Toothless’s tail was stored.
“Besides,” he couldn’t resist adding, “if you practice then you might not fall off so much.” As they reached the clear area outside, he pulled Elsa’s arm more tightly around his waist. “He’s stronger than Meatlug,” he warned her, and opened Toothless’s tail.
Toothless never needed to be told twice. His wings spread, and in a great pulse they were airborne, banking round sharply to face the others still standing on the grass outside. Hiccup heard Elsa’s gasp behind him, and she reached up to grab hold of the metal ring and the strap connecting him to Toothless. Perhaps he should look to installing a second one of those on the back of the saddle.
“That is so awesome,” said Ruffnut, standing next to her apparently preferred head of the Zippleback.
“Come on!” called Hiccup. “Just take off and hover in this area. We’ll all fly together.”
Flying to Dragon Island had mostly been in a straight line, and it had still been a farce. They had been clinging to the dragons, weaving back and forth, dipping up and down, and it had probably cost them time. Only Stormfly had been anything like responsive, but Hiccup had felt her straining to fly again after so long in a pen. Hopefully all of the dragons would be stronger now.
Astrid was the first one up, shouting triumphantly as the Nadder sprung up into the sky. It took her a moment to rein the dragon back in and pull around so that she was a few yards away from Hiccup, slightly higher in the sky and with her wings working harder to keep them in place. Fishlegs was next, the Gronckle hatchlings practically in his lap and the steady movement of the Gronckle more under control than anything Hiccup had seen from the others so far. The twins just about managed to get off the ground, briefly turning away towards the arena before managing to bicker the dragon back in the right direction again.
“Come on, Snotlout!” shouted Astrid, as he settled himself high on the dragons neck and fussed about where his hands rested on the horns. “Get your ass up here or we’ll leave without you!”
Hiccup rolled his eyes; he had no intention of leaving without Snotlout, and was about to say so when the younger boy kicked the Monstrous Nightmare on either side of the neck. Hookfang’s eyes shot open, he spread his wings - wider than those of any of the other dragons - and shot off directly over the ocean.
Snotlout’s scream drifted back through the air.
“Oh, for Odin’s sake...” Hiccup put one hand over his eyes for a moment, then turned to the others. “Meet me at the sea stacks. Land on the largest one you can find, big enough for all of us. And try not to crash!” he added, as they started off. The last part was mostly aimed at the twins. “All right,” he said to Elsa. “Let’s go retrieve Snotlout.
With only the slightest regret, he wheeled Toothless around and took off after the errant Nightmare. He supposed that he should be grateful how erratic Hookfang’s flying was, because otherwise it would have taken him longer than a couple of minutes to pull alongside and then in front, before whipping round so that the two dragons were all but face-to-face. Toothless shrieked, tossing his head, and Hookfang pulled up short with an almost guilty expression.
Snotlout had given up holding onto Hookfang’s horns, and was now clinging to his neck, helmet askew and face ashen. “You all right?” said Hiccup.
“Yep,” said Snotlout, none too forcefully.
“All right, then. How about you take back hold of his horns again, that’s it;” he wasn’t even sure for whose benefit the calming tone of voice was. It seemed to be working on both of them, though. “And we’ll fly over to the sea stacks. Sound like a plan?”
“Yep.” Either Snotlout had forgotten that Elsa was sitting right there, or he had given up on his machismo just for the moment. Hiccup didn’t mind either way.
They took a more sedate pace round to the sea stacks, passing within sight of a few fishing boats on the way. Considering they had probably been spotted - and heard - on the way out, it didn’t really seem to matter now. Perhaps seeing the dragons actually being flown without screaming and flailing would help somewhat.
Someone, Hiccup guessed Astrid, had found a suitably broad stack for them to set down on, though nobody had dismounted and he got a feeling there was impatience in the air. Toothless set down lightly, Hookfang landing with somewhat more of a clatter of claws behind them.
“So, like, how do we do this?” said Tuffnut. “How do we get the dragons under control?”
“It’s not so much control as learning to read each other,” replied Hiccup. “And it’s just practice. You need to learn how each other moves, so you’ll know what the other is about to do. And we’re going to learn that by weaving in and out of the sea stacks.”
Everyone started talking at once all over again. Was this what it was like for Stoick to be out chiefing? Hiccup gritted his teeth against the headache that was threatening to start up again. Those were getting rarer with time, at least, but he still had something of a tendency to them. Ruffnut and Tuffnut seemed in favour of it, Snotlout in favour but a little underwhelmed, Fishlegs concerned with the safety of it all and Astrid disappointed that all they were going to do was fly back and forth.
“All right, all right!” he shouted, managing to cut through everyone. “Fishlegs, Meatlug is not going to let you get hurt, you’ve got your babies with her. Snotlout, think of this as a step to doing more interesting things. And Astrid...” he saw the challenge in her expression, and narrowed his eyes. “If you think you can do better, come catch me.”
“What?” said Astrid.
But Toothless was already in the air again and dodging away between the sea stacks, and Hiccup looked over his shoulder and laughed as Astrid sprang into the air to pursue them.
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The day that he finally got his leg, he was so excited that he could hardly sleep. It was like being a kid at Snoggletog again, even if he’d been watching Gobber put it together and even getting shooed out of the smithy for wanting to see how it was going at odd hours. As soon as sunlight began to creep round the edges of the window, he threw off his blanket and sat up, reaching for the flint and steel to light the candle at his bedside. At first it refused to light, then finally the wick caught and the room got just a little bit brighter.
Toothless’s head was already up, eyes bright. He huffed something that Hiccup had come to think of as ‘good morning’, and Hiccup smiled. “You too, bud.”
As his eyes adjusted, Hiccup realised that Toothless had spread one wing over his side again, rather than furling them as he usually did. Sighing, Hiccup gestured upwards with one hand, and Toothless obediently raised the wing and tucked it back to his side. Hiccup was not even surprised to see Elsa curled up against the dragon’s side again, frowning in her sleep and shifting as the cooler air reached her.
What Stoick did not know would not hurt him. He was more worried about Elsa, and what had driven her back to Toothless’s side again.
“Come on, bud,” he said. He gestured to Elsa again, and Toothless cocked his head curiously before snorting and reaching round to nuzzle Elsa’s hair. She stirred, but did not wake up, until Toothless nudged harder and she gasped and jerked upright. “Woah!” said Hiccup, as loudly as he dared in a house where sound carried so much. “It’s all right. It’s just us.”
Elsa looked around almost wildly, one hand raised, until her eyes came to rest on Hiccup. Her fingers were shaking as she curled her hand back to her chest again. “I’m sorry,” she said. There was a note of desperation in her voice, and she shrank back against Toothless. “I should not be here. I will go.”
“Elsa,” he said hurriedly, as she got to her feet, “it’s fine. It’s just my Dad being... well, my Dad. I don’t mind. And it doesn’t look like Toothless does either.”
Toothless brushed against Elsa’s back with his wing and chirped. She stroked his cheek absently. “You are sure?”
“Just don’t let my Dad know. Or Gobber. He can’t keep a secret.”
Somehow he had gone from secret wildling in the woods to secret wildling in his room. Hiccup wasn’t really sure how he got himself into these situations. With a grateful look, Elsa curled back against Toothless’s side again, and the dragon lowered his wing over her. Hiccup shook his head, but smiled all the same, and shuffled down to the end of his bed where his clothes chest had been put within easier reach so he could dress.
Stairs were easy now, as long as he concentrated while he was going down them. Tongue poking out of the corner of his mouth, Hiccup made his way down, poked open the shutters on the small windows either side of the door, and banged on the door to the downstairs bedroom with the end of one crutch. “Good morning!” he called out.
The immediate response was a groan and cursing, probably from his father and Gobber respectively. “Go back to bed, Hiccup,” said Gobber. “It’s not morning yet.”
“The sun is up, and I think that counts as morning,” he replied, a little more loudly than necessary. “Want to come and check?”
“For Odin’s sake,” said his father. “Could you not have waited a few hours?”
“I’ve been waiting over a moon.”
“Aye, so a few more hours shouldn’t have been a problem,” grumbled Gobber. Hiccup leant back against the wall and waited for the inevitable. “Fine. Go on, Stoick.”
There it was.
“Why me?”
“He’s your son.”
“It’s your leg.”
Hiccup examined his nails, and picked out a bit of dirt from beneath one of them. “I can go and fetch Gothi myself, if you’d rather.”
“That I’d like to see,” said Gobber, but nonetheless Hiccup could hear someone getting out of bed. If it hadn’t worked he probably would have just seen if Astrid was awake and gotten her to fly them up to Gothi instead. Perhaps they should have known something just from the fact that Gothi was never attacked, on her little spire away from the rest of them, but they had put it down to there being no food up there save that which was sent up by basket.
Grinning, Hiccup picked his way into the larder and picked out some of last week’s bread - only a bit stale - and some dried fish. He held the fish in his mouth and stuffed the bread under one arm as he made his way back to the table and sat down to wait and see who would emerge first.
Unsurprisingly, it was his father, still adjusting his belt. “Honestly. I’m sure that during the summer you had no interest in being up at dawn.”
That had mostly been because he had been out all night flying and talking to Elsa, but Hiccup was not going to point that out now. Instead he waited for Gobber, bleary-eyed, to emerge from the room as well. “Good morning to you too,” said Gobber, not sounding at all sincere.
“Can we go?” Hiccup grabbed for his crutches.
“Strange that by ‘we’,” said Stoick, “you mean those of us who will actually be going to fetch Gothi?” He was smiling faintly, though, as he straightened up his helmet. “Right, just let me wake Elsa and we’ll be good to go.”
He went to rap on the wood beside the curtain, and Hiccup almost jumped upright again. “No, no, we should probably let her sleep,” he said quickly. “She told me she’s been having nightmares. Best... let her sleep while she can.”
Stoick’s hand stopped just short of the frame, expression softening for a moment. “Aye, you’ve a point.” Instead, he patted the wood gently. “Come on, then. Let’s go get you a new leg.”
Gobber waited at the bottom of Gothi’s spire with Hiccup until Stoick bought her down, once again going over the story of how he had lost his own leg to a Nadder all those years ago. Hiccup could probably have recited himself by now, but at least it was a way to pass the time until Gothi unceremoniously grabbed Hiccup’s left leg, pushed his leggings aside to have a look at the state of the wound beneath, and nodded her approval. Only the fact that he was still struggling to balance on one leg with the other one hoisted up in the air stopped Hiccup from doing some sort of silly hop about with glee.
They returned to the smithy to retrieve the leg itself, and Hiccup was ushered round back to take a seat on a box while Gobber went to fetch it. Gothi unrolled her calfskin and scattered the sand on it, then began tracing lines back and forth even as Hiccup and Stoick glanced at each other uncertainly. Even Stoick had not managed to figure out how to understand Gothi’s form of writing.
She was finishing just as Gobber reappeared, and automatically walked round to interpret. “She asks if you’ve been taking care of your leg properly.”
“Well,” said Hiccup, “I had a forgetful moment about five weeks ago and managed to misplace part of it, but - ow!”
Gothi’s staff made a hearty crack on his knuckles. He snatched his hand away, vaguely offended, as she gave him a rather effective evil eye.
“Yes, I’ve been taking care of it,” he said. “Fresh bandages, checking the wound, everything. You saw yourself.”
She produced fresh bandages and a clean woollen sock from one of the pouches at her waist and handed them over, then gestured for Gobber to give her the leg. As she examined it, Hiccup rubbed the bandages between thumb and forefinger experimentally. They were thinner than the ones he had been using, the wool finer and softer to the touch. Then again, he was hopefully not going to actually bleed on these ones. He set to work bandaging right up to his knee, making sure that so far as possible there were two even, smooth layers, then slipping on the sock over the top. His hands were shaking, he realised, though it was not from the least touch of fear.
Gothi drew something out on her sand. “I know,” said Gobber, “but it’s him as has to live with it.”
Surprisingly, the leg looked just as Hiccup had pictured it; either his sketching skills were improving, or Gobber had actually been more concerned than usual about making sure his work looked like Hiccup’s design. It had a wooden socket that would hopefully be easier to reshape over time and give him a year or two before he needed a complete new one, but the main body was a squared -off metal rod attached to a stiff spring that should give him the feeling of actually having an ankle still.
He remained a sensible, patient adult and did not snatch the leg out of Gobber’s hands, nor interrupt as the older man showed him how to buckle the leather straps that would hold the whole thing in place.
“Remember,” said Gobber, “firm, not tight. We can always adjust it a bit.”
“I know,” he said impatiently. “Can I stand up now?”
“Onto your right leg first,” said Gobber, reaching out a hand to help him up. “Then onto your left.”
“I remember how to walk.”
“Not with that you don’t.”
Stoick did not speak, but there might just have been flickers of concern in his eyes as Hiccup took a good hold of Gobber’s hand and stood up, all of his weight on his right foot as he had been told. He put his left foot to the ground and felt a burst of elation at the sense of having a foot at all, even if it was metal instead of flesh and bone. It was strange around his knee and what remained of his lower leg, like pressing right on the point of his elbow, but it was a foot, and that was what mattered.
He slowly let go of Gobber’s hand and spread his arms for balance, shifting until his weight felt about evenly spread. Standing, he thought, with two free hands. Hiccup laughed with delight, then felt his balance go and pinwheeled his arms in the air until he grabbed Gobber’s arm to steady himself again. “I swear I could stand up five weeks ago,” he muttered.
“You’re doing grand,” said Stoick. His voice sounded a little uneven, and Hiccup didn’t dare look round for fear of what expression he might see on his father’s face. “Don’t you worry.”
“Just work on standing for now,” said Gobber, reading Gothi’s drawings over one shoulder. “Walking itself will take some more practice... I could have told him that.”
Gothi waved her staff threateningly.
“All right, all right, I’m sorry. But some of us do remember what it’s like to lose our first limb you kn- all right! So, are we going to try getting you home?”
That sounded a little bit more challenging than standing still, Hiccup had to say. He gave Gobber a look of panic and tensed everything so as not to wobble. Surely standing up hadn’t taken this much of his body before.
“With the crutches,” said Stoick.
“All right, that actually sounds like a possibility,” admitted Hiccup. He carefully transferred one of his arms over to the crutches, then the other, and Gobber stepped back completely to leave him actually standing once again. He tested his new foot against the ground; the spring gave only slightly, about as much as he had intended it to. It should help on uneven ground, even if it was going to make things harder in the meantime. And, the best part, the toe of the foot should slot into the new stirrup for Toothless’s wing and actually let them fly once again.
He squared his shoulders and took a deep breath. The smithy was not far from the house, after all.
“All right, then. Let’s do this.”
Elsa was awake by the time that they got back, sitting on the front step and throwing scraps of fish into the air for Toothless to catch. It was still early enough that most people were only just starting to stir, and they had not acquired the sort of audience that this would have garnered during the evenings.
“Look!” Hiccup couldn’t help saying triumphantly. “Feet! Plural!”
She laughed, and threw the last fish so high into the air that Toothless sprung up onto his hind legs to catch it. Brushing her hands on her skirt, Elsa got to her feet and looked Hiccup up and down. “It looks good.”
He grinned. Toothless padded over, and Hiccup paused to let him have a sniff, even raising his left crutch off the ground so that he can have a better look. “Check it out, bud. We’ll be flying again in no time.”
“Maybe let’s go for walking first, hmm?” said Stoick, patting him on the shoulder. Knowing how long it tended to take for people to get walking again with a new leg, however, Hiccup had his suspicions that flying would be the first thing he managed. He didn’t say so, however, just grinned at Toothless and waggled his new foot.
“So,” said Gobber, “are we finally going to look to getting you some breakfast?”
“I think I can handle that.”
It seemed only fair to wait until after nightfall before sneaking out of the house again. It was harder to put on the prosthetic without being able to really see what he was doing, and he almost put it on back to front the first time around, but the wood fit so well that he could feel when it was right, and the buckles were really the most difficult part.
“Toothless,” he hissed, and heard a rumble in response. “Come on, let’s go.”
He pulled Toothless’s saddle out from under the bed and tucked it under his left arm. He had to cling to the wall, first, and then switch to the bannister to make his way downstairs, metal leg first then the good leg following. Toothless crept down behind him, almost silent.
Getting the front door open was a bit harder without being able to put any muscle behind it. Toothless nudged his face in and finished opening the door for Hiccup, who pulled it closed again behind them.
“Thanks, bud. Come on.” He knelt down to put on the saddle, connecting it up and pressing the pedal with his hand to make sure that the tail still worked. Gobber had even had a new fin made up, red with the Berk crest picked out in white, and the sight of it by the moonlight made Hiccup smile all over again. “All right.”
He stood on his good leg to swing his left over the saddle and into place. It was hard to manoeuvre, like trying to control a foot that had already gone to sleep, but by watching carefully he was able to slot it into place and feel the click as it settled in. Pushing down, he heard the tail flare, and felt Toothless tense as if to fly.
“Woah, hang on,” he said, putting a hand on the back of Toothless’s neck. “Let me make sure I can close it again.” It was no good if he got the tail stuck in position six and couldn’t come in to land again. Pulling the tail closed again was a different sensation, tugging slightly on the end of his leg, but a glance over his shoulder confirmed that the tail had done exactly what it was supposed to. “All right, bud. Let’s... take this gently, though.”
He opened up the tail, and they took off. It was all in a breath, the whoosh and the wind in his hair and the slow pulsing movements of Toothless’s wings beneath and beside him. Berk and the rest of the world fell away beneath him and the night sky swallowed them up, away from the smell of people and animals and fires and into the clean fresh air and the trailing mists of clouds.
It didn’t matter that it wasn’t one of their flights that seemed to burn through the sky and tear it into pieces. Just the feel of the air beneath them, the tail moving at his command and with barely even a conscious thought. Moving the tail by pushing down or pulling up might have been different to the heel-and-toe method which he was used to, but it wasn’t any harder, and the tail positions were still the same. It was just as effortless as before.
“How is it that flying is easier than walking?” he said at one point, not expecting an answer from either Toothless or the wind but unable to help voicing it. It had taken him weeks to really get the hang of flying, until it became the most natural thing in the world, but now it came more easily than putting one foot in front of the other. Easier than standing still, frankly.
Even if there were people still awake, they would not be able to see Toothless against the night sky, unless it was as a faint shadow blocking out the stars for a moment. Easy to dismiss as a cloud. It felt like spreading his own wings again, in a way that flying with someone else had not, and in a way that he suspected flying on a different dragon could never be.
They did not fly for long, just enough to feel the sky again. It was starting to snow as they landed back behind the house, waited to be sure that there was nobody looking out of any nearby windows, and made their way around to the front. Hiccup climbed down once they were at the front step and knelt to remove Toothless’s saddle and harness once again. His muscles ached, but in the best of ways, and he finally felt like he could sleep without things feeling unfinished.
He turned around and went to grab the doorframe again, only to realise that he door was open and, worse, someone was standing in the doorway. Apologies sprang to his lips, but his brain finally caught up with his eyes and he realised that it was Elsa, smiling fondly.
“Hello,” he said sheepishly.
“It is good to see you fly again,” she said, holding out a hand. “Do you want help?”
“If you could take this,” he handed her the saddle, “that would be great, thanks.”
“And you did not fall off.”
“Indeed I did not.” He wasn’t sure whether or not he was justified in feeling proud of himself for that, all things considered. The number of times he had fallen in the pool back at the cove, or tumbled off on some particularly badly-timed landing, meant that even a basic flight without incident felt like a success. He could cope on crutches for now, he realised, just so long as he could fly again. Elsa reached up to rub at her cheek, and Hiccup cocked his head to look at her. “Nightmares again?”
Her smile faded, and she shrugged delicately. “I always have.”
He wasn’t sure if she was struggling with tenses again, or if she was trying to say that her nightmares were a constant thing. Or even if he should ask. “I dream about the Red Death sometimes,” he admitted, for want of knowing what else to do. “The fire. I don’t know if I’m going to wake up with a leg or not... or a leg that’s on fire again.”
It had come back in his dreams, first, searing pain and melting flesh, the air around him so hot that he could not even draw breath to scream. Then Toothless’s wings, lit through with fire so that he could see the veins against the faint light, turning into the total blackness of unconsciousness. Somehow it had taken longer for him to remember it while he was still awake.
“You were being a hero,” said Elsa.
Hiccup frowned. “Who taught you that word?” She started laughing, stifled behind her hand, and he found himself struggling not to do the same. “Really, who taught you that?” Somehow, he didn’t think Ruffnut was to blame this time around. “I think my friends have been bad influences on you.”
“They aren’t sneaking out to fly,” Elsa pointed out. She reached out one hand to Toothless, who butted it softly with his nose and then lifted his chin for her to scratch underneath.
“Again, beside the point.” His leg was starting to ache again and, despite the rush of flying, he needed to sleep. “Will you be all right tonight?”
There was only the most minute of hesitations before Elsa nodded. “I am fine.”
“All right,” said Hiccup. Elsa stepped aside to let him into the house again, and Toothless followed. Suddenly the stairs looked awfully high, but he supposed that the only way he was going to get used to the new leg was to make use of it. Gobber had already given him the ‘crash course’, including how to get up and down stairs, even if Stoick had been muttering that it wouldn’t be necessary yet. “Take care.”
“Do you want the saddle upstairs?” she nodded.
It probably would have been a good idea, but he didn’t quite feel up to seeing someone else climb the stairs with ease. “No, keep it down here tonight. It might stop me from going flying again.”
She laughed for a second time, softly, and drew up the saddle to her chest. “Good night, Hiccup.”
“Good night, Elsa.”
He waited until she was back beyond the curtain before looking round to the stairs and taking a deep breath. If the worst happened, he could always get Toothless to give him a helping hand. Or paw. Or however it worked with dragons. Maybe they could look to putting in a window big enough for Toothless to get in and out of, for that matter. Though he wouldn’t tell his father how he had come up with that particular idea.
It took all of his powers of charm and persuasion to get his father to allow him to officially go flying once again. By which Hiccup meant that he struck a bargain promising to practice walking for two hours a day before he was allowed to get Toothless’s saddle out from under his bed. On the other hand, having far fewer secrets in his life made it an awful lot easier to get enough sleep and still wake up early in the mornings, not only letting him practise walking first thing but also meaning that he could check under Toothless’s wing to be sure that Elsa hadn’t curled up there before his father actually woke up.
“Since when are you down to just a cane?” said Astrid, when he arrived at the arena one morning with the others waiting for him.
Hiccup grinned. “Since Meatlug a - argh!”
All right, so slopes were still something of an issue. Hiccup’s new foot refused to grip the wet slope properly, and he would have ended up on his rear again had Fishlegs not caught him under both armpits and held him upright.
“Thanks,” finished Hiccup.
Fishlegs deposited him at the bottom of the slope, and Hiccup dusted himself off with his left hand as Toothless hurried down to sniff him over.
“I’m all right, I’m good,” he said, brushing his hand over Toothless’s head. “Where was I? Oh, yeah. Meatlug ate one of my crutches. So I figured it was an appropriate time to learn to use the cane.”
“She didn’t mean to eat it,” said Fishlegs, not for the first time. From behind them, Meatlug gave an apologetic whine. “I was trying to teach her to play fetch.”
“I still don’t get how she can eat fish and rocks and wood. It just doesn’t make sense.”
“I told you, Gronckles must have several stomachs, I just don’t know whether there are multiple openings off the oesophagus or-”
“How long have they been doing this?” said Astrid, looking straight past both of them to Elsa.
“All the way from town,” Elsa replied.
Astrid rolled her eyes, but Hiccup wasn’t letting this one drop. “Seriously, just let me look down her throat. Come on. We can solve this once and for all.”
“No!” Fishlegs moved to stand protectively in front of Meatlug. “She’s... sensitive.”
“I’m looking down her throat, Fishlegs, not up her skirt!” Hiccup protested, then realised exactly what he had said and turned to see that everyone else was wearing expressions that ran along the spectrum from bewilderment to amusement. “That sounded weirder than I meant it to.”
“No kidding,” said Snotlout. He was leaning against Hookfang’s shoulder, arms folded across his chest. “First you take ages to show up, then you talk about looking up dragon’s skirts.”
He had long since learnt that arguing with Snotlout did not produce any tangible results, and given it up as a bad job. “So, who actually wants to go flying today?” said Hiccup instead. The twins glanced at each other delightedly, and even Astrid looked intrigued. “I figured if we stuck to the west of the village, headed out towards the sea stacks, we wouldn’t have to worry about anyone being able to see us.”
“Why do I get the feeling you’ve flown out there before?” said Astrid.
Hiccup refused to dignify that with an answer. “Has everyone still got some rope to let them hold on? We can take off from the clearing out front again.”
As one, the twins turned to face each other and slammed their helmets together. That was generally a sign of approval. Even Snotlout, though he was clearly fighting not to show it, actually looked pleased by the suggestion.
Hiccup might have felt more pleased with himself if he had made the suggestion before coming down the slope which he would now have to climb again. Then again, he had never claimed that forward planning was one of his specialities. At least Toothless was small enough to walk through the entranceway again fairly easily, compared to the larger dragons like Hookfang or Barf and Belch. He swung himself into the saddle and slipped his cane into the scabbard which he had strapped across his back.
“Really?” said Astrid, walking up beside him. When he looked round questioningly, she gestured to the scabbard.
“I figured it was better than trying to stuff it under my arm or something,” he shrugged. “Plus, it does look pretty cool, huh?”
Astrid raised an eyebrow.
“All right,” he said, moving on quickly. “Shall we get going? Elsa?”
He extended one hand to her. It had been made pretty clear that Toothless was more than strong enough to carry two people, and he wasn’t planning on recreating any of his more daring stunts anyway. Elsa hesitated, glancing round at the others.
Seeing an opportunity that probably wasn’t there, Snotlout patted Hookfang’s neck and grinned. “There’s always plenty of room aboard this beast.”
Apparently seeing the alternative was enough. Elsa took hold of Hiccup’s hand and climbed into place on the saddle behind him. It was somewhat tentative, but he still had the suspicion that was more to do with her magic than anything else. Even living in the warmth of an actual house had not done anything to stop her skin from feeling cold all of the time, nor the trollwort bracelets she still wore.
“All right,” Hiccup called, “we’re going to head outside, take off one by one, and then fly down to the sea stacks.” He gently nudged Toothless with one foot, and they started forwards. He doubted that this was at all like riding a horse or donkey, but it was the best comparison that he could make.
“Does your Dad know that we’re doing this?” said Fishlegs.
Technically not, but Hiccup didn’t see that it took any great stretch of the imagination to work it out. “He knows that I was planning on flying today, and he knows that you guys were meeting me at the arena. I’m sure he would have said something if he objected.”
That part, at least, was true. Stoick would have made it very clear if he objected to what was going on, and it was a lot easier for him to also do something about it now that he knew where Toothless’s tail was stored.
“Besides,” he couldn’t resist adding, “if you practice then you might not fall off so much.” As they reached the clear area outside, he pulled Elsa’s arm more tightly around his waist. “He’s stronger than Meatlug,” he warned her, and opened Toothless’s tail.
Toothless never needed to be told twice. His wings spread, and in a great pulse they were airborne, banking round sharply to face the others still standing on the grass outside. Hiccup heard Elsa’s gasp behind him, and she reached up to grab hold of the metal ring and the strap connecting him to Toothless. Perhaps he should look to installing a second one of those on the back of the saddle.
“That is so awesome,” said Ruffnut, standing next to her apparently preferred head of the Zippleback.
“Come on!” called Hiccup. “Just take off and hover in this area. We’ll all fly together.”
Flying to Dragon Island had mostly been in a straight line, and it had still been a farce. They had been clinging to the dragons, weaving back and forth, dipping up and down, and it had probably cost them time. Only Stormfly had been anything like responsive, but Hiccup had felt her straining to fly again after so long in a pen. Hopefully all of the dragons would be stronger now.
Astrid was the first one up, shouting triumphantly as the Nadder sprung up into the sky. It took her a moment to rein the dragon back in and pull around so that she was a few yards away from Hiccup, slightly higher in the sky and with her wings working harder to keep them in place. Fishlegs was next, the Gronckle hatchlings practically in his lap and the steady movement of the Gronckle more under control than anything Hiccup had seen from the others so far. The twins just about managed to get off the ground, briefly turning away towards the arena before managing to bicker the dragon back in the right direction again.
“Come on, Snotlout!” shouted Astrid, as he settled himself high on the dragons neck and fussed about where his hands rested on the horns. “Get your ass up here or we’ll leave without you!”
Hiccup rolled his eyes; he had no intention of leaving without Snotlout, and was about to say so when the younger boy kicked the Monstrous Nightmare on either side of the neck. Hookfang’s eyes shot open, he spread his wings - wider than those of any of the other dragons - and shot off directly over the ocean.
Snotlout’s scream drifted back through the air.
“Oh, for Odin’s sake...” Hiccup put one hand over his eyes for a moment, then turned to the others. “Meet me at the sea stacks. Land on the largest one you can find, big enough for all of us. And try not to crash!” he added, as they started off. The last part was mostly aimed at the twins. “All right,” he said to Elsa. “Let’s go retrieve Snotlout.
With only the slightest regret, he wheeled Toothless around and took off after the errant Nightmare. He supposed that he should be grateful how erratic Hookfang’s flying was, because otherwise it would have taken him longer than a couple of minutes to pull alongside and then in front, before whipping round so that the two dragons were all but face-to-face. Toothless shrieked, tossing his head, and Hookfang pulled up short with an almost guilty expression.
Snotlout had given up holding onto Hookfang’s horns, and was now clinging to his neck, helmet askew and face ashen. “You all right?” said Hiccup.
“Yep,” said Snotlout, none too forcefully.
“All right, then. How about you take back hold of his horns again, that’s it;” he wasn’t even sure for whose benefit the calming tone of voice was. It seemed to be working on both of them, though. “And we’ll fly over to the sea stacks. Sound like a plan?”
“Yep.” Either Snotlout had forgotten that Elsa was sitting right there, or he had given up on his machismo just for the moment. Hiccup didn’t mind either way.
They took a more sedate pace round to the sea stacks, passing within sight of a few fishing boats on the way. Considering they had probably been spotted - and heard - on the way out, it didn’t really seem to matter now. Perhaps seeing the dragons actually being flown without screaming and flailing would help somewhat.
Someone, Hiccup guessed Astrid, had found a suitably broad stack for them to set down on, though nobody had dismounted and he got a feeling there was impatience in the air. Toothless set down lightly, Hookfang landing with somewhat more of a clatter of claws behind them.
“So, like, how do we do this?” said Tuffnut. “How do we get the dragons under control?”
“It’s not so much control as learning to read each other,” replied Hiccup. “And it’s just practice. You need to learn how each other moves, so you’ll know what the other is about to do. And we’re going to learn that by weaving in and out of the sea stacks.”
Everyone started talking at once all over again. Was this what it was like for Stoick to be out chiefing? Hiccup gritted his teeth against the headache that was threatening to start up again. Those were getting rarer with time, at least, but he still had something of a tendency to them. Ruffnut and Tuffnut seemed in favour of it, Snotlout in favour but a little underwhelmed, Fishlegs concerned with the safety of it all and Astrid disappointed that all they were going to do was fly back and forth.
“All right, all right!” he shouted, managing to cut through everyone. “Fishlegs, Meatlug is not going to let you get hurt, you’ve got your babies with her. Snotlout, think of this as a step to doing more interesting things. And Astrid...” he saw the challenge in her expression, and narrowed his eyes. “If you think you can do better, come catch me.”
“What?” said Astrid.
But Toothless was already in the air again and dodging away between the sea stacks, and Hiccup looked over his shoulder and laughed as Astrid sprang into the air to pursue them.
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