There and Back Again

Chapter 1

>Hiccup's POV<

"No, it totally makes sense! It's like a giant beehive. They're the workers and that's their queen! It controls them. Let's find your Dad," Astrid said, jumping off of Toothless.

"No, no! Not yet," I followed Astrid off and grabbed her arm. "They'll kill Toothless! Astrid, we have to think this through carefully."

"Hiccup, we just discovered the dragons' nest! The thing we've been after since Vikings first sailed here! And you want to keep it a secret?” She scoffed slightly. “To protect your pet dragon, are you serious?"

I turned around to look at her. "Yes."

Astrid looked shocked for a second, but it melted and a look of realization took its place. "Okay. Then what do we do?"

"Give me until tomorrow. I'll figure something out."

“Okay..”

There was a pause, then she punched me in the shoulder. "That's for kidnapping me." I rubbed my aching shoulder and looked back at Toothless. He stopped drinking water and returned the gaze. Next thing I know, Astrid had just kissed my cheek. "And that's for. . . everything else." With that, she ran out of the cove.

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I got up and put on the Viking helmet my dad gave me a few days earlier. He was probably already in the Meade Hall, so I didn't have to worry about running into him. I opened the door to get out of the house, only to be face-to-face with Astrid. I yelped and stumbled backwards.

"Have you figured out what you're going to do?" Astrid asked, helping me off the floor.

I opened my mouth to respond, paused, closed it, then sighed. "Yes."

"What is it?" Astrid questioned, slightly worried about what I was going to say.

I knew it was the coward’s way out, but I said it anyway. "I'm leaving."
"What?!" she gasped. "You can't just leave!"

"Why not?" I challenged her. "I not like I have a reason to stay."

“Yes you do!” she protested. “What about your father?” I scowled. She just HAD to go there.

“Since when did he care about me? All that talk about ‘a Chief protects his own’, when really what he was saying was, ‘a Chief protects everyone except his useless, scrawny, good-for-nothing son who can’t do ANYTHING’.”

Astrid looked shocked, and looked like she wanted to say more, but she went on to her next question. “Okay. . . What about the tribe? You’re the next in line.”

That made me freeze. I hadn’t really thought of that. I sighed and responded, “Then Snotlout is the new heir, I guess.”

I heard a sigh of exasperation. Astrid had her forehead resting on the palm of her hand, tugging at her bangs. "Fine," she growled, breaking her stance. "Under one condition."

"And that is. . ?"

She had a look on her face that said, I can’t believe I’m doing this. "I'm coming with you," she blurted out.

"Really? You want to come with me?" I was shocked.

"What, you think can just leave me here after what you’ve shown me? That I’m just gonna go back to my normal, dragon-slaying ways? No, Hiccup. I’m coming with you, whether you like it or not."

I just stared at her with my mouth hanging open like a muttonhead.
She laughed slightly and closed it. Then her face grew serious. "We better hurry up before you're called to kill that dragon."

"Right," I said, walking back inside the house. "Meet me at the cove when you're ready!"

Astrid nodded, then ran to her house to get packed.

I stumbled as quickly as I could up the stairs and looked around for the sack that was meant for yesterday. After a few minutes of searching, I remembered that I had left it in the cove. I ran back down the stairs, managing not to trip and tumble down this time. I poked my head out the door to see if anyone was watching, then bolted for the cove.

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To my surprise, Astrid was already there. She had two full bags, as well as her axe.

"Ready?" I asked her, attaching my bag to Toothless's saddle.

"As ready as I'll ever be," she muttered. She attached her bags to the saddle and climbed on behind me.

"Let's go, bud." Toothless roared and took off into the sky.

We were just in front of the sea stacks when I paused and realized that I had just left behind pretty much everything I'd ever known.

Unfortunately, my falter had caused me to miss a tail transition, which made us run straight into a sea stack and I ended up falling off. "TOOTHLESS!!!" I screamed as I plummeted towards the rocks below.

"HICCUP!" Astrid yelled.

Toothless caught me by the leg right before a rock sliced my face open. I breathed out a breath of relief. "Thanks bud."

I looked up to see Astrid in control of Toothless’s tail fin. "You're welcome!" She called.

"Thank you," I called back. Toothless flew up and set me down. He landed next to me. Astrid scooted back so I could control Toothless’s tail.

Once I hopped on, a felt a sharp pain in my arm. “That’s for scaring me.”
I knew she punched me. “Owww. . !” I complained. She merely smirked in response.

Toothless took to the skies once again. We continued to fly pretty much in silence until dusk. We spotted an island with a cave, and it looked like it had no access to it unless you fly into it. "Let's stop there," Astrid suggested.

"Good idea," I agreed. I patted Toothless's head and pointed towards the island. Toothless flew towards it and landed in the mouth of the cave. We set up camp not far inside it while Toothless stayed at the entrance as our guard as we slept.

>Fishlegs's POV<

I was making my way up to the arena when I something passed overhead. It was a dragon! A black dragon! Why would a dragon be out now?

I watched in a mix of awe and fear as something fell off its back. I heard a faint scream. . . or multiple, I was too far away to be sure. It swooped down and grabbed it.

Then I realized in horror that that something was a person.

And that person was Hiccup.