Run Away (HTTYD)

My Friends

Chapter 4

They were silent for a moment.

Gobber broke the silence. "You were tellin' tha' truth after tha' raid, weren't ya... What in Thor's name made you decide t' tame a Night Fury?!" Hiccup hesitated, frowning slightly at his dragon's tail, not sure how to answer. Luckily, Gobber wasn't quite done asking questions. "So... Ye ride tha' thing?"

"Toothless isn't... A 'thing,' Gobber." Hiccup replied absently. "And yeah, I do. I'll... Save the story for after I've... caught all the... Vikings that landed here. I'm only... Going to say this... Um..." Hiccup faltered, having forgotten the word he needed. "So... Would you know... Who came?"

Gobber nodded, nervously inching away as Toothless sniffed him curiously. "It's jus' me an' the teens, we came here for a fishin' trip."

Hiccup grimaced slightly, cursing in Dragonese. "Great... Um... Snotlout and the... Twins find out about the... Biggest, um... Secret of my life. Wonder how that'll go," He said, scowling.

"They're not tha' bad." Gobber waved him off.

"The last time I saw... My cousin he said I was... Useless and pushed me into a mud... Puddle." Hiccup deadpanned. "Going to catch them now..."

"'Strid won't appreciate bein' snatched by a dragon," Gobber warned. Hiccup smiled at his mentor.

"Astrid's... Not a problem. She's lying on my, um... Bed, asleep." He frowned. "She, um... Fainted when she... Saw me." He wasn't quite sure what to think of that. The girl he'd liked forever, fainting at the very sight of him?

"Well, in tha' case..." Gobber said, looking around for some sort of house but not seeing anything.

"Don't tell them I'm... Alive," Hiccup told Gobber, who was actually a pretty good actor. "I want to see their... Reactions." Gobber nodded, confused.

C'mon, bud. Let's go play fetch." Hiccup murmured in Dragonese, hopping into the well-worn saddle. They shot through a gap in the netting and into the sky. Hiccup scanned the beaches first and saw a familiar hulking figure pouring over a book. "There's Fishlegs! Go get 'im, Toothless!"

Fishlegs had no time to react before he was dangling a hundred feet in the air. "Oh my gods! It got me! IT GOT ME!" He screamed, hiding his eyes. Toothless let go when they soared directly over the hidden grotto, leaving Fishlegs to fall about thirty feet to the ground. Not so high as to cause any serious injury to the boy, but high enough to knock the wind out of him.

Tuffnut and Ruffnut were next, with Tuff screaming about how hurt he was until Ruff interrupted him with "This's AWESOME!" Typical twin behavior. They were dropped into the grotto the same way Fishlegs had been, though they had the luck of landing on the larger teen, sending him to the ground again.

"Only one left is Snotlout," Hiccup muttered, patting his dragon. Toothless warbled, having caught the scent of Hiccup's cousin. "Go get 'im, bud." Hiccup encouraged. Toothless dove into the trees and plucked the young Viking off his feet, making him drop his weapon in shock.

"Wha- Oh no no nonono! No! Stupid dragon! I have my whole life in front of me! Put me down!" Snotlout wailed, clutching at the foot Toothless was holding him with.

When they reached the grotto, they dove inside, dropping Snotlout just before they landed behind a boulder. Hiccup crouched down against Toothless so the scales on his cloak matched with Toothless's and hid him from sight. Not that anyone saw them land, of course. He directed Toothless up onto the rock.

"Oh, the dragon got you too?" Fishlegs asked Snotlout, helping him up.

"Yeah. I'm going to kill that thing... Where'd my mace go?" Fishlegs shrugged as Snotlout searched for his missing weapon. "When I'm done with that dragon it'll regret touching me..."

Toothless laughed at the thought of Snotlout actually catching him, and accidentally let them know he was there. They spun around, searching for weapons that had been dropped when their owners were snatched up.

"Um, what're we gonna do now?" Fishlegs asked nervously.

Tuffnut stared hard at the Night Fury. "...Can I pet it?" His sister punched him.

"Dimwit, it's a dragon. It probably wants to eat us!" She said, then paused, thinking about it. "Wait... That'd be so cool."

"I know, right?" They grinned at each other. Nothing better for sibling bonding than getting kidnapped by a Night Fury, Hiccup thought sarcastically.

"I'm still gonna kill it..." Snotlout said, clenching his fists. He paused for a moment before adding, "With my face."

"No, ye won't." Gobber told him firmly.

"Why not? It killed Hiccup! He was my cousin, and..." Snotlout hesitated. "Killing it would honor him, you know?"

Hiccup was startled. Snotlout wanted to honor him? He decided it was time to show himself, before Snotlout did something stupid. "No. ...Snotlout. Killing my... Dragon wouldn't... Honor me at all." He said, sitting up on Toothless's back.

Snotlout's eyes almost popped out of his head as he stared at Hiccup. "Is- Is that... Are you a draugr?" He squeaked. Everyone looked at Hiccup warily, as if expecting him to start moaning about doom or something.

Instead, he burst out laughing as he pulled the cloak's hood off his head. "A... draugr? Snotlout, I'm not... Even dead! Why would you... Think I was a draugr!?"

"But Astrid said the dragon...That dragon... And then we followed her to this cove, and she found your dagger in the water..." Snotlout hated being made a fool of. "You mean I spent three years, uh... Trying to avenge you for nothing!?"

Tuffnut giggled into his hand in what he considered a manly fashion. "You mean you spent three years crying over him, right?"

"No I didn't!" Snotlout insisted.

Hiccup grinned. He was actually enjoying this little reunion. "I'm... Gonna go... wake Astrid up." He slid off his dragon's back and grabbed a bucket from his porch. He filled it in the little stream and went inside.