Chapter 8

Hiccup was sitting at his desk in the forge, flicking his pencil up and down the inclined table, lost in thought. He had wanted to stay the night at the cove again, but he decided that it would be too risky to not be seen in the village for that long. So he reluctantly bid Toothless goodbye after the two had finished their food, telling Toothless to collect all of the scales that he shed so that they could make his prosthetic fireproof soon. And Hiccup promised his brother that he could teach him how to fight the next day, as they had spent the entirety of the day hunting.

But as Hiccup continued to roll his pencil up and down, loud footsteps reached his ears. He turned just in time to see his father squeeze through the doorway. 

"Dad! You're back!" Hiccup exclaimed nervously, jumping up from his seat and trying to push all of his drawings of Toothless out of his father's eyes. He had drawn a large number of drawings of his brother over the past few days, and hadn't thought to hide them; no one ever entered his room in the forge except for him

"Uh, Gobber's not here, so," Hiccup stuttered. 

"I know," the chief said, "I came looking for you." 

"You did?" Hiccup asked with confusion. His father never wanted to talk to him. Unless it was to berate him or tell him he was leaving to hunt for the dragon nest. Again.

 "You've been keeping secrets," his father declared.

"I-I have?" Hiccup stammered, still trying to hide the drawings.

"Just how long did you think you could hide it?" His father asked, giving Hiccup a piercing look.

"I-I-I don't know what you're-"

"Nothing happens on this island without me hearing about it," the chief said loudly, making Hiccup flinch.

"Oh?" Hiccup said, looking up at his father, trying to mask his fear.

"So," his father said, "let's talk about that dragon." 

All of the blood drained from Hiccup's face, "Oh, gods. Dad, I'm so sorry. I-I was going to tell you. I just didn't know how to-" Hiccup was cut off by his father laughing.

Hiccup looked at his father with confusion, but decided to play along, letting out a nervous laugh, "You're-you're not upset?"

"What?!" His father exclaimed, a wide smile on his face, "I was hoping for this!"

"Uh, you were?" Clearly, his father didn't know about Toothless, or about him being Dragonborn, because if he did, there would probably be a lot more screaming and yelling. 

"And believe me, it only gets better! Wait till you spill a Nadder's guts for the first time! And mount your first Gronckle head on a spear!" His father gave him what was probably meant to be a playful punch on the shoulder, but actually sent him tumbling into a wall, "What a feeling! You really had me going there, son! All those years of the worst Viking Berk has ever seen. Odin, it was rough. I almost gave up on you. And all the while you were holding out on me! Oh, Thor Almighty!" Finally starting to quiet down, his father sat down on Hiccup's chair, scooting towards Hiccup, "With you doing so well in the ring, we finally have something to talk about." 

Hiccup stop there awkwardly, darting his eyes around nervously. Obviously, his father had heard about his escapades in dragon training, and thought he had become some sort of dragon killing aficionado while he was gone. 

Stoick scooted closer to Hiccup with a wide smile on his face, probably thinking that Hiccup's silence was because he was thinking of what to tell his father. But Hiccup continued to stand there quietly.

"Oh," his father said after a moment, disappointment clear in his voice, "Here, I, uh, brought you something. To keep you safe in the ring." Hiccup's father reached behind himself, presenting a signature Viking helmet to Hiccup, and handed it to his son.

"Wow," Hiccup said, surprised, "Thanks." He had never expected to get a Viking helmet, as they were usually gifted to child by their parent when they have proven that they have lived up to their family name. Almost all of the other teens his age wore theirs on a daily basis, except for Astrid, who Hiccup had heard earned her years ago, and had chosen to keep it in her home, away from harm. 

"Your mother would have wanted you to have it," his father said. "It's half of her breastplate." Hiccup quickly drew his hand from the top of the helmet, laughing nervously. 

"Matching set," his father said, tapping his own helmet. "It keeps her close, you know. Wear it proudly. You deserve it. You've held up your end of the deal."

Hiccup nervously placed the helmet on his desk, letting out a fake yawn to break the awkward silence.

"I should really get to bed," Hiccup said.

"Yes, good," his father agreed. "Okay, good talk."

"I-I'll see you back at the house," Hiccup said, wanting his father to go away. "Thanks for stopping by-"

"I hope you like the hat."

"And for the breast hat."

His father cleared his throat, "Well, uh, yep. Good night." 

When his father finally exited the room, Hiccup let out  sigh, putting his hands on his hips.

Staring at the Viking helmet on the desk, sadness overcame Hiccup. His father thought that he had finally gotten the son that he had always wanted, but it was all a lie. A lie that Hiccup had made up because he had wanted to protect the dragons trapped in the arena from the other teens, but had ended up giving him the life he had always dreamed of. 

If he wanted to, Hiccup could continue to keep up his lie. He had planned to run away with Toothless the moment dragon training was over, but he could also live out the rest of his days secretly taking down dragons in peaceful ways, but letting them free afterwards. He could finally be accepted among his tribe, his birthplace. But Hiccup didn't think he wanted that life. 

Hiccup didn't want to disappoint his father, he never had, but he desperately wanted to get out of Berk. He wanted to be able to live his life without being constricted to the walls of his human form, without the suffocating expectations Vikings put upon him. 

So he walked out of the forge, leaving the helmet sitting on his desk, and a plan starting to formulate in his head. 

* * * 

After meeting up with Toothless and discussing his plan, Hiccup picked the helmet up from the forge the next morning before racing off to the arena. Once there, a crowd started to form, his father included, and they all sat to watch Hiccup perform his masterful dragon wrangling feats.

The Gronckle buzzed around the arena, grumbling to herself about pesky humans. Hiccup sat behind one of the many half walls scattered around the arena, his Viking hat on his head, and a shield in one hand and a brand new axe in the other. 

Astrid was the only other recruit left in the arena, as all of the others had been called out a while ago, and Hiccup was startled when the angry blonde popped around the wall to kneel next to Hiccup.

"Stay out of my way," Astrid snarled, pushing Hiccup's shield to the ground and glaring at him hard. "I'm winning this thing."

"Please, by all means," Hiccup said as Astrid stood up to move away from him, and he stood up to look at his father gazing down at him intently. 

Hiccup gave his father a forced smile, before he turned around at the sound of buzzing wings. As the Gronckle approached him, he reached his hand into his pocket, grabbing the Bliss Grass he had collected that morning. He knew that taking down the Gronckle would almost certainly make him win the "honor" of killing the Monstrous Nightmare, but he didn't want Astrid to hurt the Gronckle, as all of the dragons needed to be in perfect flying condition for his plan to work.

As the Gronckle zoomed towards Hiccup, he heard the dragon mutter something.

"I smell Dragonborn on you," the dragon growled, and since you haven't killed us yet, I beg of you, get us out of here. There's only so much more of this torture we can take." 

The Gronckle's words hurt to hear, so as he gave the dragon Bliss Grass, he spoke in the quietest Dragonese he could muster, "I'm getting you out tonight, let the others know." 

He didn't know if the dragon heard him, but he swore he saw the Gronckle nod as the effects of Bliss Grass took control of her. When the dragon fell to the ground, her tongue lolling out of her mouth, a war cry filled the air.

Hiccup cowered at the sight of Astrid running towards him, thinking that the girl was going to attack him for winning. But then Astrid faltered when she noticed that the Gronckle was already taken down, and Hiccup gestured to the dragon awkwardly, trying to say that he was sorry for taking her spot. 

"No!" Astrid exclaimed, making Hiccup wince when she smashed her axe on the ground. "No, son of a half-troll, rat-eating, munge-bucket!" the scary girl swung her axe around in anger, cursing Hiccup's name in dozens of different ways.

"Wait!" the Chief yelled in to the arena, "Wait."

"So, later," Hiccup said, trying to scurry away from the arena before Astrid killed him.

"Oh, not so fast," Gobber said, grabbing Hiccup by his hook and keeping him from running away.

"I'm kind of late for-" Hiccup said, but was cut off by Astrid grabbing his neck with her axe.

"What?!" Astrid exclaimed, a crazed look on her face, "Late for what, exactly?"

"Quiet down!" the Chief yelled into the arena, "The elder has decided." 

It was tradition to have the village elder chose who got to kill the Monstrous Nightmare, and Gothi was part of the longest line of healers and elders to ever live on Berk. No one knew what enabled Gothi's family tree to live far longer than anyone else in the village, but many believed that they had closely guarded healing remedies that widened their life spans. 

Gobber stood behind both Hiccup and Astrid, and held his hook above Astrid's head; Gothi had taken some sort of vow of silence long before Hiccup was born, so the old woman could not speak the winner. But as Astrid stood her tallest under the gaze of the elder, Gothi shook her head. 

Murmurs spread through the crowd at the elder's decision, but then Gobber held his hand above Hiccup's head. The old woman seemed to stare into Hiccup's soul, and he felt a strange sort of familiarity as she gazed at him. Hiccup had been to Gothi a number of times, but never had he felt the strange sense emanating off of the elder. 

But before he could place his finger on what the feeling was, the elder nodded her head at Hiccup. The crowd erupted into cheers, and Hiccup winced at the noise. 

"You've don it, Hiccup!" Gobber exclaimed, "You get to kill the dragon!"

The other teens crowded around Hiccup, and Fishlegs hoisted Hiccup onto his shoulders. Hiccup let out fake and unconvincing proclamations of victory, but he reminded himself that he had a plan that would make sure that he wouldn't kill the dragon.

"That's my boy!" Hiccup's father exclaimed, making guilt seep into Hiccup's brain.

"Yeah," Hiccup said, trying to sound excited. "Yes. I can't wait. I am so-"

* * *    

"Leaving," Hiccup muttered to himself as he packed up his things. 

Everyone else in the village was out partying, but he was busy packing up all of the things that he would need when they left, but made sure not to take too much as to make people suspicious. So he packed one change of clothes-since he would probably be in his dragon form most of the time anyways-all of his drawings of dragons, and his spare smithing tools. In the end, he had filled up the leather bag that Gobber had given him for Snoggletog one year. 

Once he was sure he was ready, he took a second to step back and say goodbye to his room one last time. Though he had few good memories of Berk, he still remembered how the scratch in the wall got there because he threw the first knife he forged at the wall, and how one of the legs of his bed was sitting on top of a rock because he had kicked the bed out of frustration one night so hard that it broke. His toes had also broken, but it was still a funny memory. 

Hiccup didn't want to admit it, but he was going to miss Berk. No matter how much torment the other teens had given him, or how much the villagers hated him, Berk was where he had grown up. But Hiccup knew that it was time for him to leave. He had never left the walls of his birthplace, and he was getting sick of it.

Deep down, his entire life, all he wanted to do was travel the world, discover undiscovered things, and figure out who he was. So Hiccup tore himself away from his room, glancing around the house he had grown up in, thinking of the times when he was little and his dad spoke to him softly, and then of the times when nothing filled the house except for the disappointed yelling of his father. As he stepped outside and closed the back door, the memories that had always haunted him stayed behind. 

At a brisk pace, Hiccup walked into the woods. Following the path that he knew by heart, Hiccup payed close attention to the sounds and smells around him. He was not always this careful, but he wanted to make sure that nobody stopped him from leaving. But as he neared the cove, a familiar smell filled his nose. A smell that wasn't supposed to be there.

Instead of walking or flying straight into the cove, Hiccup climbed over the edge of it, discreetly gazing down. His eyes scanned the rocks and bushes and trees, before he finally spotted the girl whose scent he had smelled earlier. Astrid. 

The angry girl was sitting on top of a rock near the cove's entrance, sharpening her axe carefully. Hiccup quickly spotted Toothless on the other side of the cove, who was napping under a canopy of tree roots. If Hiccup didn't play this right, his plan could be in danger. 

One way he could go about it was just walking up to Astrid and stall her until she left, but Toothless would probably wake up by then and attack Astrid. Another idea was that he could just wait until Astrid left on her own, but Hiccup knew how stubborn Vikings could be, and didn't doubt that Astrid would wait all night until Hiccup got there. That then raised the question as to how Astrid even knew about the cove in the first place. 

Hiccup decided that it wasn't worth it to worry over if she had seen him and Toothless together, and to continue thinking of a plan to get either her or Toothless out of the cove. 

The easiest way would be to just shift into his dragon form a knock Astrid out, but she could wake up before the sun went down and alert the whole village, which could interfere with Hiccup's plan. If he somehow alerted Toothless to Astrid's presence and told him to fly out of there, Astrid could spot him. He could have Toothless fly away while he was distracting Astrid, but it was very likely that Astrid would not listen to a word Hiccup said and just beat him up.

As Hiccup weighed all of the options, a new idea popped into his head. What if he somehow told Toothless that Astrid was in there, not to panic, and wait for Hiccup to walk into the cove and talk to her. After Astrid had beaten Hiccup up a bit-which she almost certainly would-Toothless would come charging at Astrid and knock her out by throwing her to the ground and making sure that she hit her head really hard. After Astrid was knocked out, they could make it look like Hiccup had fought Toothless by smearing blood all over the place and blasting plasma shots throughout the cove. To make sure that Astrid stayed in the cove until sunrise, they would blast the entrance to the cove shut, sealing her in.

There were multiple ways that the plan could go wrong, such as Astrid waking up as they set up the fake murder, or the village being unable to find Astrid and her starving to death, but hopefully that wouldn't happen. Toothless would probably hit Astrid hard enough for her not to wake up, and with both Astrid and Hiccup missing, the village would probably search the entire forest to find them. 

So, as quietly as he could, Hiccup crept around the cove until reached the place where Toothless was napping.

"Toothless," Hiccup whispered down to his friend, "wake up, and do it quietly."

Slowly, Toothless grumpily came to, and glanced up at Hiccup. For a moment he looked confused as to why Hiccup wasn't in the cove, and then he was wide awake when he sensed Hiccup's unease.

"What's wrong?" Toothless growled silently to Hiccup, not daring to move a muscle.

"Astrid-another person in dragon training-is in the cove," Hiccup replied, watching Toothless's body tense up and his pupils shrink even more.

"What's the plan?" Toothless asked, and Hiccup was slightly taken aback that Toothless had enough faith in Hiccup to know that he already had a plan. 

"Okay, here's what we're going to do," Hiccup said. "You're going to stay here, and be as silent as you can while I go talk to her. On my signal, I need you to run at her and push her to the ground as hard as you can, enough to knock her out but not hurt her. Once she's knocked out, I'll tell you the rest of the plan." 

"Got it," Toothless nodded. "Be careful, brother." 

"No promises," Hiccup whispered, before bolting away as silently as he could. 

Hiccup walked into the cove as casually as he could, moving towards a spot near the lake where he knew Toothless could not be spotted, but Toothless would have a clean stretch to charge. As he walked along, he tried his best to only look where he usually would, as if he didn't know that Astrid was there. He silently sat down at the spot, pulling out his sketchbook and waiting for Astrid to approach him. 

To seem as normal as possible, Hiccup pulled out a spare sheet of paper and started to sketch out the Gronckle they had faced in the arena that day, making the dragon seem ferocious instead of his usual peaceful depictions of dragons. After a moment, Hiccup heard Astrid start to approach him, but waited until she was near enough that a human could hear her foot steps.

"Ah! W-What are you doing here?" Hiccup exclaimed when she was close enough, feigning surprise and flinching away from the girl gripping her axe. 

"I want to know what's going on," Astrid said, intimidatingly approaching Hiccup, making him have to stumble backwards. "No one just gets as good as you do. Especially you. Start talking!"

Hiccup stuttered in response, not having to pretend to be scared anymore. Though he knew Toothless would protect him, and he could protect himself if need be, the instinct to cower away from Astrid was too strong. 

"Are you training with someone?" Astrid asked. 

"T-Training?" Hiccup said, gesturing with the hand behind his back for Toothless to hurry up.

"It better not involve this," Astrid said, grabbing Hiccup's bag and tugging it to look inside.

Hiccup snatched the bag away, not wanting her to see his drawings of Toothless or his packed clothes.

Astrid narrowed her eyes, "What's in there?" Astrid moved to snatch the bag, but Hiccup moved away again.

"Nothing, just drawing supplies," Hiccup said, clutching the bag to his chest.

"I don't believe that for even a second," Astrid snarled, and then lunged at Hiccup.

Hiccup narrowly avoided her attack, and before she was poised to try again, a mighty roar filled the air. Toothless came raging towards Astrid, half flying, half sprinting across the cove.

Astrid screamed, trying to ready her axe to fight, but Toothless was already at her. In a fast and elegant move, Toothless launched himself at Astrid, pinning her axe arm to her chest and slamming her body into the ground. Her head hit the ground hard, and if that wasn't enough to knock her out, the flat of her axe banged into her nose, knocking her out cold. 

Toothless let out a snarl as he got off of her, "I do not like this one."

"Me neither, Toothless," Hiccup agreed. "Now, come on. We have work to do." 

Hiccup started with slicing open his forearm with his knife, and splattering his blood in a trail from where he was standing near Astrid to the cove entrance. Next, Hiccup littered empty pages of paper, pencils, and a couple dragon drawings around the blood, and tore a couple pieces of his vest off too. Before the last step, Hiccup gathered the small pile of shiny black scales Toothless had collected and put them into a small pouch in his bag for later. 

Finally ready, Hiccup climbed out of the cove so that if Astrid woke up, she wouldn't see him. Then he watched Toothless shoot plasma along the path of blood and paper until he reached the cove entrance, shooting the rocks until there was no entrance left at all. 

As soon as the destruction was finished, Toothless bolted out of the cove and into the trees, and if Astrid woke up then, she would have just assumed that Toothless had left with Hiccup's body just as she was coming to. But as Hiccup watched Astrid's still figure intently, he realized the precautions they took were not unnecessary.

With one last glance at the now ruined cove, Hiccup shifted into his half dragon form and flew through the trees in the direction that Toothless had gone. As he weaved through the branches, a pang of sadness hit him when he realized that he would probably never see the cove again. Another wave of memories and emotions hit him, these ones far more happy than the ones he had experienced in his house.

Tears pricked in Hiccup's eyes, but he only let one fall. He was flying away to a better life. So he gathered up the memories of his time with Toothless in the cove, and held them close. He would never forget those memories, but he was ready to make new ones. 

Toothless was waiting for Hiccup when he arrived, and greeted him with a smile, "Well, I think that went well." 

"Me too," Hiccup said, shifting into his dragon form. "We should wait until the village is completely asleep until we leave. It would be really bad if  someone saw us go into the arena and release all of the dragons."  

Toothless nodded in response, and the two of them flew to a place close to the village, waiting to see all of the movement cease. 

"While we're waiting, I thought it would be a good time to get this done," Hiccup said, shifting into his half dragon form and taking out the bag of dragon scales.

Toothless's eyes lit up, "Ooh yeah, let's do that now!" 

Hiccup smiled, taking out the wooden mortar and pestle and the brush he had packed with him for this very reason, "At some point, I'm going to need to take your tail off though." 

"That's fine," Toothless said. "As long as I can't fall out of the sky because my tail literally burned off, I'm okay with it."

"Sounds good," Hiccup said with a laugh, and began to set to work. 

Hiccup's theory had been proven right, as no matter how hard he tried, it was impossible to get Moon Sweeper saliva out of his clothes. So he had Toothless spit the still surprisingly large amount of spit into the mortar, and started to grind the scales into the saliva until it was a smooth paste. 

"I need your tail now," Hiccup said, and started to unstrap the prosthetic.

Carefully, Hiccup painted every small crevice of the device, making sure not to ruin any of the gears. Though, if a paint brush was able to mess up the tail, he doubted that it would last very long anyways. 

As the minutes ticked by, the sky got darker and the paint got dryer. Once Hiccup was satisfied with his work, he presented it to Toothless.

"Okay," Hiccup said, "it's ready. I just need you to give it a small plasma blast to make sure it's fireproof. Don't make it too loud, though. We don't want to wake up anyone in the village." 

Toothless nodded, and let out small plasma blast at the tail. After the plasma had died down, Hiccup glanced at the place Toothless had shot at. It was perfectly intact.

"It worked," Hiccup announced, a smile on his face. "I honestly don't know what we would have done if it hadn't."

Toothless laughed, and turned around to let Hiccup strap the prosthetic back on his tail, his body wiggling with excitement.

"I don't know why you're always excited about this," Hiccup laughed as he stood up. 

"You can't judge me, you're the one that took my tail in the first place," Toothless said amusedly as he gazed at his improved prosthetic, admiration in his eyes as it moved with his other fin's movements.

Hiccup winced slightly at his friend's words, but knew that Toothless hadn't meant for it to be hurtful. 

"Well, it looks like we better get going," Hiccup said, glancing at the now sleeping village.

"Oh, yes," Toothless said excitedly. "Lead the way, brother."

Smiling at Toothless, Hiccup shifted into his dragon form, and launched into the night sky. As they soared above the village, Hiccup again took a moment to take one last look at the island. With the faint fires glowing from inside houses, it looked entirely peaceful. But if their plan went well, or if it didn't, that peace would not last long. 

As the two neared the arena, Hiccup reiterated his plan, "We'll start with opening the cages from the outside, and then we'll tell the dragons that we need to make it look like the Night Fury that attacked Astrid and I helped the dragons escape. So we'll have them all fly out of the arena, but then we'll fire plasma blasts at the cage doors and the chains that would have kept them inside."

"Only one problem with that, Hiccup," Toothless said. "I think I used up all of my plasma blasts faking your death. So you'll have to shoot all of the plasma blasts." 

Hiccup hadn't considered that variable, but he supposed he would be able to adapt to it nonetheless, "That's fine. I think I can handle it." 

Toothless nodded, and they landed softly outside of the arena gate. Hiccup shifted into his half dragon form and pulled the lever that opened the gate as quietly as he could, before he lead Toothless inside. Hiccup approached the lever near the entrance that would open all of the cages, and pulled down on it hard. The lever squeaked because of disuse, but every single one of the cages opened.

At first, none of the dragons came out, seeing as they were used to only coming out in the day time, but one by one they cautiously came out.

The Gronckle was the first to come out, and she gazed at Hiccup and Toothless with wide eyes, "You really came," she whispered. 

"Of course we did," Hiccup responded, "we would never leave you here." 

"Really?" one of the Zippleback heads said as they crawled out of their cage.

"That's what we would've done," the other one added. 

"Yeah, Hiccup, I think most dragons would have left them here," Toothless said to Hiccup.

Hiccup blinked, "Well, I didn't want to leave you here. Especially since I was one of the people who was being made to fight you guys." 

"You weren't exactly fighting," the Nadder said, coming out of the cage now that she had realized that it was safe, "you were kind of just taking us out peacefully." 

"Yeah, that's what I meant," Hiccup sighed. 

"So are we getting out of here or what?" the Monstrous Nightmare asked, the last one to leave his cage.

"Yes, we are," Hiccup said. "You guys can all fly out of here now, but I need to make it look like a Night Fury helped you escape." 

"A what?" the Terrible Terror asked, tilting his head in confusion.

"Don't worry about it," Hiccup said, and he started to parade the group of dragons out of the arena.

Once all of the dragons were safely out of the arena, Hiccup closed all of the cage doors, and then the arena door when he had left. 

"Okay, I need all of you to hover right above the arena, so that when I shoot, we all fly away as fast as we can. This needs to look as natural as possible," Hiccup said, and the other dragons nodded seriously, though some of them did so begrudgingly.

The dragons all hovered over the arena, slightly above from where Hiccup was flying. Taking a deep breath, Hiccup began to collect gas in the back of his throat. Once he was sure there was enough power to break the chains, Hiccup reared his head up and gave his wings a powerful beat. As Hiccup dove into the arena, blasting through the chains, a whistle filled the air.

Hiccup landed hard on the rocky floor of the arena, and started shooting at all of the cage doors until he had no more shots to give. Then as fast as he could, he sped out of the gaping hole in the arena, and every single one of the dragons started to beat their wings as hard as they could. In the village, Hiccup could hear shouting of Vikings and clanging of weapons, but knew that by the time they all got to the arena, they would already be long gone. 

And as the group of dragons flew further and further away from Berk, for the first time that night, Hiccup didn't look back.