Hidden Night (Hiccup x Fem!Reader)

[29] Learning How to Not Crash

"You're doing great!" You heard Varor yell from somewhere behind you. Looking over your shoulder, through your wildly flying (H/C) locks, you spot him on Remus, who is totally focused on Skyler under you. Which you should probably be doing to make sure her wing beats are even and stable. Just as you think that, you feel that her healed wing flaps just a bit too slow.

"Skyler!" You yell out in warning, leaning the opposite way of her injured wing just as she begins to tip. She lets out a roar, kicking in the air as she drops a foot and struggles to regain her stable wing beat. You apply slight pressure on the tip of the saddle downward, just thinking in your head that you two need to land or jump off of something so she can regain her rhythm. Skyler responds to this pressure by diving down towards an ice spire gleaming in the sunlight. She flared her wings to slow your descent before landing on the spire. With the straps and you bracing for it, you weren't knocked off by the impact. But Skyler's claws slipped and scraped to find a decent hold on the slippery spike. You gritted your teeth and pulled up on the saddle. Skyler, registering the action, jumped off the ice and was back in the air again. You mentally crossed your fingers that it would work as she wobbled in the air.

"Come on, come on," you gritted your teeth, "you can do it." Skyler let out a growl and her eyes narrowed in determination. Your worries were soon eased when she balanced out once again. You let out a breath of air to release the stress you felt after that ordeal. Skyler looked back at you and let out a relieved gurgle herself.

"Nice save!" Ruffnut yelled up at you, hands cupped around her mouth. You smiled back down at her in response.

"Hey, how about I give you some pointers?" Snotlout's voice suddenly said right next to you and Skyler. Hookfang rolled his eyes at his rider's suggestion. You looked over in surprise, not expecting him to be flying next to you on his monstrous nightmare.

"Snotlout," Hiccup's voice groaned to the opposite side of you. "She's fine on her own."

"If she is," Astrid now came up beside Toothless. "How about we see how well she can maneuver."

"That gives me a great idea! Hey (Y/N), think you can stay in the air without me knocking you off?" Snotlout smirked at you. You really didn't like where this was going.

"Guys! This is not why I didn't give orders to the rest of us to train. We are to help (Y/N) so we can do the surprise." Hiccup gritted his teeth as he exaggerated the word surprise. You eyebrows shot up, along with your curiosity.

"Surprise?" You question. Skyler tips slightly as she makes a curious sound in her throat, but is able to even herself out this time with a few powerful wing beats.

"You all aren't spoiling the surprise now are you?!" Varor had to yell behind you all to be heard.

"If we want to actually get to the surprise while you're still around." Astrid said, looking directly at Hiccup. "For once, Snotlout has the right idea."

"Why thank you," Snotlout smiled smugly. Then it fell as he fully processed the comment, "Hey!" Hookfang's throat rumbled in a laugh.

Hiccup looked down at Toothless, thinking over the idea. Toothless looked back up at him with awaiting emerald eyes. Then Hiccup looked over towards you. You gave him a closed eye grin. You knew you would come out of this fine no matter what he chose to do. In the end, you would still get to find out the surprise.

Turns out, Hiccup's plan was to have them try and snatch you off of Skyler. Which, admittedly, they managed to do successfully over dozens of times. Easily snatching you from Skyler within minutes. Either from Skyler focusing on retaining her balance, falling out of the sky, or just being too slow to maneuver out of the way. Only now, with the sun high above in the sky signifying that it's noon, do you and Skyler actually make any progress in flight. Skyler is now able to get around without needing to land, its just the problem of her moving too slow that you two have yet to get over.