Defying The Rules

Taking Flight

Thalos furrowed his eyebrows and gave Hiccup a blank look. "What? What in Valhalla can Starclaw do?"

"Trust me, Thalos. Get him, and meet me and the other teens at the arena." Hiccup said.

"You want me to bring Starclaw to the village? In front of the other teens? Are you mad? How am I supposed to get a massive dragon here? He's not going to follow me like that."

"Then fly him here." Hiccup replied.

Thalos's eyes widened. "What!?" He shrieked. "You're insane! I can't fly him!"

"Trust me Thalos, please. Trust your dragon. This plan is our only hope. I need to go get the other teens." With that, Hiccup ran off.

Thalos ran his hands through his hair. He was insane! He couldn't do this. What in Thor's name made Hiccup think he could do this? All of Thalos's anger towards his father pretty much flew out the door. Fear and stress took it's place.

"How can-?" Thalos started to speak, but he ended off his sentence with a groan. He was torn. Part of him wanted to just let his father face the consequences of not listening to him, but the other part of him didn't want him and the rest of the village dead.

He was thinking selfishly, and he knew it. But how horrifying would it be to fly on the back of a massive dragon? He could easily fall of and die. Would Starclaw care enough to catch him if he fell? Did that dragon even care for him at all? How would he ride the dragon with a hurt arm?

He sighed in defeat and hurried his way to the cavern. He was going to regret this, a lot. Why was he even doing this again? Thalos didn't even know. His father? Hiccup? The village? His future wife that hopefully he would get someday? Himself?

Once he made it inside the cavern, he looked for Starclaw. Was it bad that his heart was already racing? He was increasingly growing more nervous by the second.

Thalos didn't even have to call Starclaw. The dragon walked right up to him when he saw him. He nudged Thalos's chest with his head and gave a type of cooing or purring sound. It wasn't aggressive. It was an affectionate sound.

Thalos pet Starclaw's head. He thought a moment before speaking. "So, uh... Starclaw." He said as if he was trying to persuade a human into doing something he didn't want to do. "When's the last time you flew around? You know... with those massive wings of your's?"

The big dragon stared at him and tilted his head. He had the look of "why are you acting so strange, human?" Starclaw snorted.

"Well... So my tribe will probably die... but Hiccup, the guy that came her once, has a plan. But, I have to fly you to the village..." Thalos aid hesitantly, patting the dragon's neck. He didn't know why he was explaining the situation to his dragon. He talked to him as if he was a human

Starclaw made that same purring sound he had before and lowered his head to the ground just as if he had understood what Thalos had been saying. Thalos eyed the dragon carefully and scratched the back of his neck, maybe trying to help him not notice if he climbed on.

"I'm just gonna slowly climb-" Thalos started to lift his leg to get on Starclaw, but the dragon quickly raised its head up. Thalos's foot got caught on the other side of Starclaw's neck, so Thalos went up as the neck raised.

Thalos shrieked in shock and fear as he gripped the Xeno'jiiva's neck with both his arms and legs. "Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey!" He shouted, holding onto the dragon's neck as tight as he could.

The dragon gave a throaty sound that almost sounded like he was laughing... if dragons could even do that. Thalos's heart couldn't have been beating any faster. He couldn't have been breathing any faster. "Not so high!"

Starclaw stood there and didn't move, as if waiting for Thalos to adjust being on him. It didn't take a genius to know that Thalos was horrified. Thalos laid there for a good two to three minutes, gripping for his life with his chest and face pressed against the back of the dragon's neck.

After that time, Thalos slowly tried to sit up. The dragon didn't move and stayed motionless. "Be nice to me, please." Thalos begged as he very slowly sat up. His back was hunched over, as if that was going to somehow keep him on if he were about to fall off.

Starclaw started walking, and Thalos cried out in surprise, barely keeping himself on. "Hey, hey, hey! Slow down!" Perhaps he shouldn't be yelling at the dragon, but he was in panic mode at the moment. He had never been more afraid of anything in his life.

The dragon snorted and shook its head, shaking Thalos with it. It wasn't moving that fast. Thalos gripped two of the little spines that grew out of the creature's head and closed his eyes. The spines were really the only thing he could hold onto. Starclaw started walking towards the entrance to the cave. The dragon seemed to know where Thalos was supposed to go.

Thalos often wondered if Starclaw could understand him like any other human. He really seemed to sometimes, but then other times, he didn't. That could also be him just ignoring Thalos, but still. It was pretty easy to see that the dragon was very smart despite whether or not he could understand human speech.

By the time they were outside of the cavern, Thalos had gotten a slight hang of just sitting here. He almost fell off a few times, but he somehow managed to stay on. He had relaxed a bit in the sense that his heart rate wasn't nearly as high as it was a few minutes ago.

Thalos carefully patted his dragon's neck to thank him for not throwing him off. He did this quickly, because he didn't like letting go of the spine that he was holding onto.

Thalos really had no interest in getting up into the air. However, he was already irritated with himself that it had taken him this long to even get outside the cavern. The entire tribe's life was at stake, and he was being a cowardly baby yak about riding a dragon.

"Just get in the air carefully. That's all I ask for." He said weakly. They didn't have time to go slow. Who knew how close the fleet was to the island. What if there were unloading already!? He couldn't be selfish like that. His fears didn't matter at a time like this.

Starclaw raised his wings, waited a moment, then pushed himself into the air. Thalos gripped the spines so tight that his knuckles were white. He shut his eyes and dare didn't look down. His legs gripped tightly to Starclaw's neck. This body was insanely tense as he felt himself lift up into the air.

The Xeno'jiiva roared, enjoying the flight. Who knew how long it had been since Starclaw had been in the air? It had to have been a while.

After a minute or so, Thalos slowly opened his eyes. He gripped even tighter and hunched his back over further when he saw how high up he was. His heart raced and he took deep breaths.

"Odin help me." He begged. Holding on for dear life. Where was Hiccup when you needed him? He would know what to do. He just needed to pray that he wouldn't fall off before he got to the arena.