Chapter 9

The small band of dragons soared quickly through the sky, desperate to get away from the horrid island that Hiccup had called home for his entire life. It hadn't quite hit him until then that he was truly leaving behind all of the misery he had gone through. He was leaving his disappointed father. He was leaving the teens who would relentlessly hurt and bully him.

But he was also leaving Gobber. Hiccup was definitely going to miss the old blacksmith, but he knew that it would be for the best. If he didn't leave, then his secret would get out, and he and Toothless would probably be burned at the stake. 

Images of burning fire twirled around Hiccup's mind, and he was startled out of his thoughts when real fire began to burn. 

The Monstrous Nightmare let out a roar of delight, lighting his entire body a flame and spinning through the air. Hiccup yelped and tried to move away from the burning reptiles excited movements. 

"Watch where you're going, Blaze Builder!" the Singeing Singer exclaimed, who had been flying just over the Nightmare's shoulder, and reminded Hiccup that he now had to use the dragon version of dragon species names.

"Hey, I haven't felt the wind beneath my wings in three Winters, cut me some slack!" the Blaze Builder replied.

"We've been flying for thirty minutes," the Nadder, or Sear Spine said, "and you haven't decided to celebrate our escape until now?" 

"It hadn't hit me until just now," the Blaze Builder said, slightly sheepish.

"Three Winters?" Hiccup said, "You were really in there for three Winters?"

"I was," the Blaze Builder replied sadly.

"I've been in there for five," the Gronckle, or Lava Grubber said.

Hiccup gave the Grubber an incredulous look, and the other dragon nodded sorrowfully.

"Man, that sucks," the right Zippleback, or Vapor Spark head said.

"We were only in there for two," the other head said.

"I think the Blaze Builder arrived a little after I did," the Sear Spine said, "so I was trapped in there for three years as well."

"How long were you trapped, Singer?" the Lava Grubber asked the Singeing Singer, "I'm pretty sure you were already there when I arrived."

"I was caged for seven years," the small dragon responded. "Seven very, very long years."

The air was silent between the dragons, and Hiccup was absolutely horrified at what the other dragons had gone through. 

"What about you, Dragonborn?" the Sear Spine asked, "Obviously you weren't in a cage like us, but surely you were mistreated as a Dragonborn among humans."

"I was definitely not treated well," Hiccup said, grimacing, "but it wasn't because I'm Dragonborn." 

"Why else would they mistreat you?" the Singeing Singer asked.

"Well," Hiccup said, trying to find the words, "I've never exactly fit in among humans. My mother had a hard pregnancy, and when I was born, I was smaller and weaker than most humans. Usually, when a weak child is born, the village healer takes the baby to the ocean and tosses them in." The dragons all gave him horrified looks, "But thankfully, I get stubbornness from both my mother and father. My mother refused to let the village healer take me, saying that I would grow strong with her help.

"My father loved my mother more than life itself, and as Chief, he had the ability to give into her pleads. He let me live, thinking that I wouldn't survive very long anyways. But turns out, I was more stubborn than both of them combined. I held onto life for months, and just as my mother sad, I thrived under her meticulous care. But it all came crashing down when I was about five months old. My mother was taken by a dragon, and no one has seen her since.

"Because of that, no one was able to feed me the milk that I needed, but since I was already strong enough to live, I didn't die. My father took care of me the best he could, but because he was grieving my mother, his best wasn't very good. For the first couple years he took good care of me, fed me, told me stories, and raised me to be the next Chief. But eventually, it became apparent that I would not become the big strong son he wanted me to be.

"Instead of gaining muscle like the other children did, I just became skinnier and skinnier, and my father began treating me like I was a disgrace to his name. It started small, like forgetting to feed me, or raising his voice every now and then. But then he started ignoring me completely, like he was pretending that I didn't exist. After he had gotten tired of me trying to get his attention all day, he sent me to go learn smithing with Gobber. It worked; I was occupied in the forge, and happy to help people. But still, my father continued to ignore me.

"So, I decided to use the lessons that Gobber had taught me to invent things I thought would help the village, like water dispensers and automatic weapon sharpeners. But for some reason, my inventions usually ended up with something on fire, flooded, or destroyed beyond repair. My father started acknowledging me again, but only to berate me or tell me to do better. But I kept trying to make things, kept trying to help, and it only made things worse and worse.

"The other kids my age started to bully me, verbally and physically. I'd be walking home from the forge one night and they would pop out of nowhere and jump me, leaving me having to stumble home covered in cuts and bruises. My father didn't do anything about it either, saying that it would be good for me to toughen up a bit. So for years I'd been in constant fear of walking trough the village alone, and kept trying to earn respect from the villagers through my inventions. 

"It wasn't until one of my inventions shot a dragon out of the sky that I finally started feeling happy again," Hiccup said, and couldn't look any of the other dragons in the eyes.

"What?" the Sear Spine asked alarmingly, "You shot down another dragon?"

"He shot me down," Toothless interjected, and began to tell the story of how Hiccup had shot him down, gained his trust, and given him his flight back.

"You made a tail fin?!" the Sear Spine exclaimed, gazing at Toothless's prosthetic in awe.

"That's fake?!" the Blaze Builder said incredulously, "It looks real!"

"I don't know how he did it," Toothless said, smiling at the aghast dragons.

"It wasn't that hard," Hiccup said, embarrassed. "It only took me a night to design and build."

"One night?!" the Lava Grubber exclaimed.

"Well, the designing part took the majority of the time, building it was easy," Hiccup said.

All of the dragons except Toothless looked at Hiccup, dumbfounded.

 "But I thought you said that your inventions never worked," the Sear Spine said.

"Well, they don't usually work the first try," Hiccup said. "But somehow, I was able to make the prosthetic without having to make any modifications."

"Besides making it fireproof," Toothless said.

"There's no way it's fireproof," the Singeing Singer said.

"Feel free to test it," Toothless challenged.

The Singeing Singer narrowed his eyes at Toothless, and quickly flew over to where his prosthetic was holding him in the air. The tiny dragon blasted a hot stream of fire towards the tail fin, and was about to announce his triumph when he noticed that the prosthetic was not charred to a crisp.

"Whoa," the Vapor Spark heads said in amazement.

The Singeing Singer humphed, and flew back next to the Blaze Builder. 

"Moon Sweeper," the Sear Spine said, looking at Toothless, "you definitely chose well when granting the Dragonborn his magic."

Toothless beamed, holding his head high in pride. 

Hiccup's face warmed, and he knew that if he was in his half dragon or human form, he would be blushing. 

"Dragonborn," the Lava Grubber said, looking at Hiccup, "we are forever in your debt. Not only did you save us from that prison, but you prevented us from pain whenever you and the other humans tried to fight us. For that, I think I can speak for all of us when I say that we will follow you wherever you go."

"I would usually disagree with another dragon speaking for me, but I'm afraid that I agree with the Lava Grubber," the Blaze Builder said.

"So do I," the Singeing Singer said.

"Agreed," the Sear Spine said.

"Definitely," the Vapor Spark heads said.

Toothless gave Hiccup the proudest look he had ever seen, and Hiccup stared with wide eyes as the dragons around him looked at him with gratitude.

"What?" Hiccup said, not quite understanding what the dragons were saying.

"Hiccup, I think they just pledged allegiance to you," Toothless said excitedly. "Which means that you are now leader of our Flight." 

"What?" Hiccup asked again, still incredibly confused..

"Dragons are social creatures, we need to be part of a group," the Lava Grubber explained. "And since we have all escaped the Red Death's control, and are no longer trapped on the human island, the only logical solution is to become an independent Flight."

"And since you're the one who saved us, as well as the fact that Moon Sweepers have enough magic to be Alphas, and you have powerful Dragonborn magic, it makes sense for you to be our Leader," the Sear Spine added.

Hiccup looked at them all incredulously, "But I barely understand how dragon life works! I've lived as a human my whole life! I can't possibly lead you all."

"If you would like, I could be your second in command," Toothless offered. "That way I can help you learn how to live like a dragon."

"But I'm not a leader," Hiccup said desperately.

Toothless snorted, "Hiccup, it is very clear that you are a natural born leader. You came up with the plan to make it look like a Night Fury attacked and killed you, you came up with the plan to break everyone out of the island, and not to mention that you had the compassion to free them in the first place."

"But-"

"Dragonborn," the Sear Spine interjected, "don't worry. You saved all of our lives, we are all willing to let you be our Leader, and we will all help you learn the way of dragon life."

Hiccup looked to Toothless helplessly, but his friend just smiled at him, silently telling him to accept.

"Well," Hiccup said after a moment, "okay." 

The dragons roared in excitement, and immediately started shifting their flying positions.

"What are you doing?" Hiccup asked.

"There's a simple flying formation that all Flights follow," Toothless explained. "Nests don't follow the same protocols simply because there's too many dragons for that to work, but Flights fly in a simple v formation like birds do, with the leader of the Flight at the front and the dragons with descending levels of magic going down the v from right to left."

Hiccup looked behind himself and saw that the dragons were indeed in a v formation, with Toothless right behind Hiccup to his right, the Sear Spine right behind Hiccup to his left, the Blaze Builder behind Toothless, the Vapor Spark behind the Sear Spine, the Singeing Singer behind the Blaze Builder, and the Lava Grubber behind the Vapor Spark.

"But if the flying formation has the dragons with the least amount of magic at the back, doesn't that make us vulnerable to attacks from behind?" Hiccup asked.

The dragons blinked at him.

"I don't think I've ever thought about it like that," Toothless said.

"Me neither," the Sear Spine said.

"So why don't we change it?" Hiccup asked.

"But it's always been tradition for the most powerful dragons to lead the Flight," the Blaze Builder argued.

"And that tradition puts at risk of an attack," Hiccup said.

"So how do you suppose we fly instead?" Toothless asked.

Hiccup contemplated it for a moment, thinking out the different scenarios in his head. 

"I say we keep the v formation but mix up the places a little bit," Hiccup declared, and the dragons listened to him intently. "We need to have dragons who can keep a look out behind us at the back of the v, so the Vapor Spark should be at the back since they have two sets of eyes. In the case that the Vapor Spark spots something, they need to be able to alert a dragon who can quickly fly up the v to alert me to the threat, so the Singeing Singer, as the smallest and quickest, should be in front of the Vapor Spark so he can be easily alerted to danger.

"We also need to make sure that side of the v is protected by a large fighting dragon. The Vapor Spark can definitely protect themselves, but in the case of an attack from behind, we would need a long rage fighter in the back to prevent them from getting to close to our tails, so the Sear Spine should be in the back next to the Vapor Spark. Since one side of the v has the Vapor Spark and Singeing Singer, we should have the Blaze Builder on that side as well so that side has two large fighting dragons. That leaves the Lava Grubber to be in the middle of the side that has the Sear Spine and Toothless on it," Hiccup finished with a definitive nod and looked at the dragons for approval, but their eyes all seemed to be glazed over slightly.

"I think you lost me at some point there," the left Vapor Spark head said.

"Yeah, I didn't understand a single word of that," the right head agreed.

"I think I understood most of that," the Sear Spine said, "and your logic definitely makes sense." 

"I agree," Toothless said, "but you might want to just tell us where to go, because I don't think any of us know where we're supposed to go.

Hiccup nodded, "So on my right side, we'll start with Toothless, and then the Lava Grubber, and then the Sear Spine." The dragons that were addressed moved to their assigned spots, "And then on my left, we have the Blaze Builder, then the Singeing Singer, and then the Vapor Spark." The other three dragons moved around to where they were supposed to go.

"And just to clarify, this is not by magic level or seniority, correct?" the Lava Grubber asked.

"Nope," Hiccup replied, "it's simply logical." 

"Awwww," the Blaze Builder said disappointedly, "it would have been nice to say that I was third most powerful in my Flight."

"Well, there's only seven of us, so it wouldn't be much of a brag anyways," Hiccup said.

"There's only seven of us for now," Toothless said. "You never know if other dragons will join us in the future." 

"We'll see," Hiccup said skeptically.

"So where to, Leader?" the Singeing Singer asked, catching Hiccup off guard. 

"Wait, do you just call the leader of a Flight "Leader"?" Hiccup asked.

"You can call the leader of a Flight anything," the Sear Spine responded. "You could be "Leader", "Captain", "Commander", even "Boss" if you wanted to."

"You just can't go by any Alpha titles," Toothless said. "Those are reserved for the Alpha dragons who have the ability to control the minds of those they rule." 

"Is it possible that I could just go by my birth name?" Hiccup asked, remembering how Toothless had told him always to specify if it's your birth or Mated name. 

The dragons looked at him strangely.

"Why in the Great Sky above would you want that?" the Blaze Builder asked incredulously.

Hiccup winced, "Well, I would feel more comfortable with that." 

"Hiccup, calling the Flight Leader a title is a form of respect," Toothless said. "By asking them not to call you that is like asking them not to respect you."

"Oh," Hiccup sighed, "then why are you calling me by my birth name?"

"Well, did you say I could be your second in command?" Toothless asked carefully, and Hiccup nodded, "Then I don't have to call you by your title unless you wish for me to, because as your second in command I am your closest friend, your best advisor, and only slightly below you in rank."

"Okay, well I don't want you to call me by my title, but if I have to choose one for everyone else to call me," Hiccup said, and began weighing the pros and cons of each title. "Leader" sounded too plain. "Commander" sounded cruel. "Boss" just sounded dumb. 

"What about "Captain"?" Hiccup asked his Flight.

Noises of approval flitted between the dragons, and Toothless smiled at Hiccup.

"It suits you," Toothless said.

"So now that we have that decided, I will repeat my question," the Singeing Singer said, "where to, Captain?" 

Hiccup pondered the question for a moment, thinking about how far he wanted to venture away from Berk. He thought before that he wanted to get as far away from Vikings and humans as possible, and he certainly didn't want to stay near Berk, but he also couldn't bear the thought of leaving the Vikings of the archipelago and the nest ruled by the Red Death fighting each other until one reaches extinction.

"Okay, before I somehow end up killing every single one of us, I need you guys to tell me if you think that this is a good idea," Hiccup said, and waited until all of the dragons gave him a nod. "Good. So as you know, I was raised among humans, and I got to see the human perspective of the raids that the Red Death makes you do. I have seen humans torn apart before my eyes, dragons gutted for stealing food, and the limbs of both creatures being taken from the other. The war between dragons and humans is bloody, and it needs to stop.

"I now know that it is not the dragons fault that they have to raid and hurt human villages, so as the only Dragonborn in the archipelago, I feel the need to help stop the pain and suffering. If you were willing to help me, we could set up a home on an island somewhere in the archipelago, and  map every single inch of the inhabited islands around it, figuring out which human islands are hit most by the Red Death's attacks and if any other Flights or nests could be possible allies. We could work out a plan to take out the Red Death once and for all, and make sure that no dragon has to endure her suffering ever again. 

"But I promise you this: since I know that most of you probably just want to live out the rest of your lives normally, if even one of you feels uncomfortable with this half-baked plan, then I will immediately discard it and lead us somewhere safe far, far away from here." Hiccup looked each member of his Flight dead in the eyes, and waited for their responses.

Toothless looked deep in thought, "Hiccup, I think that none of us really know what living out a normal life is like, and I would absolutely love to end the Queen's reign, but I honestly don't know how we could possible do it."

"I agree with that," the Sear Spine said.

"I don't know how we could to it either," Hiccup said, "but I'm willing to try."

A silence overtook them as they all contemplated their answers, and Hiccup knew that they were all thinking back to their time under the Red Death's control.

"I'm in," the left Vapor Spark head said after a moment, "I've been ready to kick that Queenie's ass for a long time." 

"Yeah, let's kick her ass!" the other head exclaimed.

"Well, I don't see why we shouldn't try," the Sear Spine agreed, "let's do this."

"Hey, I know a reason why we shouldn't try," the Blaze Builder said. "We could die, get mauled, lose our wings, lose our tails, or maybe even, I don't know, die!"

"You said that already," the Singeing Singer snapped, "so are you in or not?"

"Yes, I'm in," the Blaze Builder grumbled.

"Good, cause' I'm in too," the Singeing Singer announced.

"I would do anything to kill that Queen," the Lava Grubber said fiercely, "I'm in."

"Toothless?" Hiccup asked hopefully.

Toothless smiled at Hiccup, "Anything for you, brother."

The entire Flight roared with excitement, and Hiccup started veering them North, back into the heart of the archipelago.