Soul of the Sky (HTTYD Runaway Fic)

Return

One month later...

A battered Viking ship pulls into port. The people on it look defeated and demoralised, and their craft is a crack away from sinking. Stoick climbs out, tired to the bone. He surveys his damaged ship and beaten crew, and sighs. One day they will find the nest, but that day is not today.

Gobber falls into step beside the Chief. "I trust you found the nest at least." he says questioningly. Stoick stares grimly ahead. "Not even close. I hope you had better luck than I did."  He sighs. "If by luck, you mean that your parenting problems are over with, then yes." Gobber answers cheerily. Other Vikings crowd around, offering Stoick congratulations about his son.
"Out with the old and in with the new!"
"No one'll miss that ol' nuisance!"
The Chief looks at Gobber, confused and worried. "He's gone?" he asks.

" Most afternoons, yes. But who can blame him? The life of a celebrity is very tiring. He can hardly step outside without being swarmed by his new fans." Stoick stares at his childhood friend in disbelief. "Hiccup?" Gobber grins. "Who would've thought it? He has this...way with the beasts."

                               *    *    *    *    *

Hiccup

As I crouched behind a hurdle, my mind drifted back to last night's panic. When Dad had almost found out about Toothless. When he'd said that he'd been hoping for this, and I had thought that he meant peace. But it turned out that all he wanted was for me to be like him. A dragon slayer. A murderer. He only cared when I started succeeding in the arena.

A few weeks ago, I would have been in heaven. But a few weeks ago, I hadn't befriended a dragon who was now giving me language lessons. I hadn't flown on dragonback and seen the world from a new perspective. I wasn't the same person anymore, and the prospect of running away was looking more and more enticing. No one would even notice my disappearance.

My extremely depressing train of thought was interrupted when Astrid slid in next to me. "Stay out of my way. I'm winning this thing."

"Please, by all means." Whoops, that came out a lot more sarcastic than I'd intended. Astrid glared at me before diving over the next hurdle and out of sight. Why do I always have both feet in my mouth when she's around?
Then the Gronckle came barreling towards me. Overanalyse self later, avoid dragon now. I moved to evade it, but stopped. Astrid was racing over the hurdles in my direction. She would kill the dragon unless I did something.

"Hello?" I whispered in terribly pronounced Dragonese. The Gronckle stopped in its tracks, staring at me as if I'd grown an extra eyeball. I can't blame her, I'd freak out if a dragon started speaking Norse to me. "Dragonese? But you're a human!" I glanced nervously at Astrid, still too far away to hear. The people watching were cheering too loudly to notice my weird hissing. "No time to...talk about? but she wants to kill you. Can you pretend dead so she doesn't?"  The Gronckle blinked at me like I was a mirage. "Umm, ok?" She then nodded her head and rolled on to her back with her tongue hanging out. I scratched the underside of her chin and felt her hum in pleasure.

Astrid

I vaulted the last hurdle, yelling a battle cry, only to find the dragon lying at Hiccup's feet. WHAT!? "No, no, no!" I cried. I was supposed to win! Now my parents would be mad, and Hiccup would get himself killed fighting the Monstrous Nightmare. Hiccup smiled sheepishly at me, standing awkwardly over the fallen Gronckle. His green eyes caught the sunlight, sparkling like emerald...Aargh! Why did my heart have to make things difficult!

Gobber held his hook over my head, looking questioningly at Gothi. She shook her head. A collective gasp arose from the crowd as he moved it to Hiccup. The arena was silent for a long, tense moment before she nodded. The audience cheered, Fishlegs lifting the victorious trainee onto his shoulders. "You've done it, Hiccup! You get to kill the dragon!" Hiccup grinned half-heartedly, the cute scar under his...Aargh! He just ruined everything, and I'm admiring his face! "Yay, I can't wait. I am so..."

                                               *    *    *    *    *

Toothless

"Leaving! Toothless, we're leaving! You and me are taking a little vacation, forever." I bounded over to Hiccup, almost knocking him over in my enthusiasm. "Leaving?"  Hiccup looked up at me. "Yeah."

"That is, if you don't mind me coming." he added. I snorted. His lack of confidence was saddening, something I would need to help the young one with."If I didn't want you to run away with me, would I have spent so long trying to convince you?" Hiccup laughed. "There is that."  I bumped him with my nose. "You don't belong here, I can see that. You'll be happier flying free. Now let's get the stuff that you need, and go!"

A/N: So, how am I going so far? If you like this fic, please comment, vote and tell your friends. I seem to have an update schedule of 2 chapters per day, which I will do my best to continue. OwO

For those who are confused, italics in speech marks is Dragonese, and without speech marks is thoughts.

Thank you for reading so far, Toothlets!

P.S. How do you like the name?

Edit from future Isarn09: Hey! This is me from the future *insert spooky sci-fi music here*. The old
A/Ns will mostly be staying as I rewrite, and I haven't really made any major changes so far. But I feel better about the story now, so humour me?