That is who you are

Chapter 2

The wind in my hair, the fresh morning air blowing in my face, I was free. Straddling Toothless, I flew over Berk as dawn was bringing in the new day. Soon the sun would be fully up and my night fury and I never missed it, nor the sunset for that matter. It was our little ritual, a flight every morning and every evening. Toothless rose higher in the sky, over the clouds, and I wanted to spend as long as possible with him before my responsibilities as chief required my attention. I affectionately pat his head.

"What do you say, bud? Shall we try it?"

Toothless grunted.

"Then let's go!" I shouted.

I untied myself from the saddle and let myself fall into the open. Welfare. My Night Fury was soon by my side, and we pulled up at the last second just before crashing into the ocean. I shouted out in glee and Toothless roared while firing a few plasma bolts to express his good mood. My 'wings' now spread out, I was flying. We were both flying in the light of dawn, and I never wanted it to end. However, duty called. We landed on a small island not far from Berk and went home. I dismounted my dragon and let him go find the other dragons. I was headed towards the great hall when something, or someone, gripped my arm. It was Astrid, and she didn't look very happy.

"Why didn't you wait for me?!" she accused me.

"What are you talking about?" I asked, disbelievingly.

"You promised we'd fly together this morning!"

"It's just... You were asleep Astrid, so... I didn't want to wake you." I tried to defend myself.

She gave me a violent punch on the arm and ran off, leaving me alone with my thoughts. I stood there, with a bruised arm, feeling pathetic. Astrid was already far so I went into the Great Hall for my daily speech. When I entered everyone was waiting, I was late. Gobber threw me a furious look, full of blame. I stood before the assembly, shy as ever. A deadly silence took over the room. I began to speak.

"Hmm, err, Hello..."

Gobber sighed and slapped his palm to his forehead.

"Right then, winter stores have been filled, but we're missing wood. We'd, hmm, need to send the dragons to fetch some. Snotlout, Tuffnut, can you deal with that?"

"Not a problem." replied Snotlout.

"Good. Fishlegs, are you still updating the book of dragons with all your new findings on the neighbouring islands?"

"Of course, don't worry Hiccup, I'm on it."

"Perfect. Err, any questions?"

Everyone scrambled forward with a thousand and one questions. About the dragons, how to take care of them, if I was going to renovate some of the infrastructures, when the next dragon race would be, all kinds of things. I tried to answer as many as I could to try to please everyone, but it was difficult. It was at times like these I wanted nothing more than to be able to take to the skies with Toothless and go exploring like before, but I didn't have time. I was more than happy to inherit my father's throne, but I needed freedom. When the assembly finally thinned out, I left towards the forge to help Gobber. I bumped into Mildew who looked at me with a rudeness I knew only too well.

"It's even worse than when your father used to lead this village..." he sighed.

He left, and so did I. Good old Mildew, he'll never change! I thought to myself. I headed towards the forge when my old master was waiting for me.

"We've got some work to do today!" he announced.

He showed all that needed to be done and started gathering my tools. As I started work on a new saddle, he called me out.