úlfheðnar, httyd

xi. Test Drive

𖣯 ✹ 🌷(úlfheðnar) ꏍ ！┈─❟
╰───►chapter eleven; hiccup
❝ test drive! ❞

"OKAY, there, bud. We're gonna take this nice and slow..."

The wind shook his grip a little in the saddle. Hiccup held on tight, his heart racing as he stared out at the horizon before them; endless stretches of ocean and sea stacks. The clouds parted from the afternoon sun, casting a shadow over Hiccup's cheat sheet that he kept glancing down at. Toothless warbled, if not just as nervous for this as he was. But he was also excited. His wings extended out, trying to keep the both of them steady as they advanced out towards the deserted north beach of Berk.

Hiccup was looking forward to today. Not only could he test out what he's been working on for a good month, but it also distracted him from everything that was going on in his mind. Like: why did Yrsa hate him all of the sudden? Why did she go from being his friend, and making his chest flutter, and laugh in a way that sent his knees weak, and then turn around and purposefully cause him trouble?

Because that was the thing. Hiccup started to feel weird around her. He started to grow flustered as he did with Astrid, but in a way that was also comfortable. Hiccup searched for Yrsa in the crowd; for her black curls instead of blonde. He always wanted to see her reaction, wonder whether she could hear his sarcastic mutters, hoping to hear her laugh like he did that one time in the Cove. Hiccup had started to see Yrsa Olofsdotter as someone else. Not as the girl he used to roll his eyes at and call crazy under his breath, but as someone kind, and mischevious with a really pretty laugh and even prettier hair with uneven bangs.

And then, he must've done something wrong, because it was like nothing even happened.

He cursed himself. He had told himself to come out here and not think about it, and yet here he was, thinking about it.

But it made him annoyed. What was her problem? What had he done? For sure, it felt like nothing, but whatever it was, it annoyed him more how it upset him than anything. He grew lonely in the Cove, Toothless warbled, always wondering where his other friend was, and it wasn't the same as it had been before. He couldn't hear her laugh, even if it was over him tripping on Toothless's tail trying to attatch his new one.

Stop thinking about it, he reminded himself. You have other things to worry about, like not falling off.

Hiccup's hair blew in the wind, and the chill hit his cheeks, but there was a part of him that loved it. His chest exploded with a thrill of: I'm about to fly on a dragon.

So, he fixed his gaze back on his sheet, finger brushing over the small illustrations he made himself. "Okay, here we go. Here we go. Position ... three━no━" he corrected himself, "━four." Toothless huffed as if to say, don't get this wrong.

Hiccup scoffed down at him and tilted his left foot back. The contraption attatched to Toothless's saddle clicked into place and his prosthetic tail fin snapped out.

They stumbled a little in the wind. Hiccup checked over his shoulder to see whether it worked, and nodded to himself, a little breathless in anticipation. Underneath, Toothless growled, determined. He shiftled his body and wings, glaring out defiantly towards the horizon.

And with a tilt to the side, they begun.

Hiccup felt a rush to his face as Toothless veered to the left, his body almost going completely sideways in the wind, and he had to hold on desperately to keep his back straight. The air chapped his lips, but he didn't care, he started to have a grin on his face as Toothless flapped his wings and they shot forward with a small burst of speed.