Home-bound can have two meanings:
1. When one is bound to their place of birth or residence, usually due to memories or familial ties
2. When one is bound towards (i.e. going in the direction of) the place they consider home.
In this book, Hiccup discovers he is not home-bound (in the tied sense), and he is home-bound (in the direction sense).
In other words, Hiccup leaves what he thought was home for a place he discovers seems a bit more like a home.
.
"I'm leaving!" Hiccup exclaimed, setting down his heavy basket filled with flight gear and a saddle, nearly crushing his feet in the process. He yelped and backed away from the pile of rubbish.
He was not going to kill a dragon. He just couldn't. Everyone thought he was the "dragon killing champion" but he wasn't. Leaving was the easiest way to get out of this mess.
Some people would call it cowardice but for the first time in his life, Hiccup felt brave.
"Toothless!" He called, waiting for the dragon to come to him. There was no response, which was strange for the dragon. Toothless usually always heard Hiccup coming from a mile away, and was waiting eagerly for when his rider got there.
"Bud?" He looked around the cove, and gave a yelp of surprise when the Night Fury pounced on him, knocking him to the floor.
"What? Did you bring fish?" The excitable dragon asked, nudging the equipment, looking for any sign of a snack.
Hiccup stood up and dusted himself off. "Sorry, bud, but no. We can hunt later," he huffed. "Right now, we should concentrate on getting out of here."
The dragon barked in agreement.
Hiccup dug through the basket, and took out an old shirt that barely fit him. The color was a faded brown, and some moths had already started to eat away at the hems. He held it away form his face with a distasteful frown. It smelled weird...
"Can you damage this?"
Toothless grumbled a bit, confused about the command.
"I want it to look like a Night Fury killed me..."
"Ok," the dragon said without further question, ripping apart the shirt with his claws and shooting small plasma blasts at clearly having fun destroying something for once. As soon as he was satisfied, Toothless threw it at Hiccup. The dark green garment landed perfectly on his rider's head, blocking his eyesight.
"Is this good?"
"Yeah, thanks Bud." The boy said, yanking the shirt off his head and shooting a smile at him.
Toothless stared at him, barely containing his excitement. They were leaving! Only the two of them. No more waiting for his rider to come back during the day, and no more being stuck in this tiny cove. Freedom!
.
With just a tad too much liveliness, the pair messed up the sand, tore branches off the trees, chipped the rocks, and even left scorch marks just for good measure. They completely destroyed the cove and it's immediate surroundings for the sake of making everything look believable.
To tie it all up, Hiccup placed down a broken dagger and a torn up piece of cloth from his shirt.
"There!" He exclaimed. "Perfect!"
"But how will they know it's a Night Fury?" Toothless asked.
Clearly the dragon was thinking this through.
"Oh, right." Hiccup said. "Can you shed some scales?"
With a sly gummy smile, the dragon rubbed against some rocks which removed some dark, glossy scales.
Hiccup picked up one and couldn't help but stare at the black object, which seemed to be burning in a bright array of colors right in his hand. If he blinked, the small disk turned back to midnight black, before dancing in front of his eyes again. It was mesmerizing. Like a gem with a fire lit in the very center.
He let it fall to the dirt with the other scales.
"Great! Now they will think I got carried off by the 'Unholy Offspring of Lightning and Death'. Phew. That's a mouthful. You sure have a long name, huh Bud?" He smiled down on his fragile until Gobber's face fell into his mind. He would leave the only person who ever treated him like a friend. A father.
The only one. He thought. What's the use of staying when only one person cares about you?
"How will people find the cove?" Toothless asked, breaking the silence.
"Oh, right." He said, jumping on the dragon and flying over the cliff. "You're really thinking this through, aren't you? I'll create a trail."
He tried to make it look like he was running from something and made deep footprints in the exposed dirt. There were moments that he—out of genuine clumsiness—tripped over an exposed rock or root, but decided to leave the imprints his body made in the dirt. It would make the scene look a bit more believeable. Once he got back to the place of his "murder" he dusted himself off.
"More scales please?"
Toothless grunted in annoyance, but rubbed his hide against a tree and shed about twenty scales. The boy dropped them along the path he made.
"Toothless, your turn." Hiccup held out his hands in a weak flourish.
The Night Fury huffed, and walked down the path, leaving large paw prints over Hiccup's steps. He also created some more scorch marks along the trees, being careful not to set fire to anything.
Hiccup and Toothless studied their handiwork. He felt it was... missing something.
He reached for the dagger with a shaking hand. Toothless crooned in curiosity. When Hiccup picked up the blade, he closed his eyes and ran it across the top of his right hand, letting the blood run down the shallow cut and off his fingers. Toothless let out a few concerned clicks but Hiccup ignored it until he was satisfied with the amount of blood and dropped the dagger back in the middle of the circle. With what remained of the old shirt, he hastily bandaged his right hand.
Sacrifices were worth it for the greatest cause.
"Great!" He said, walking back to the village. "I'll pack some things and tell everyone I went in the forest." Hiccup smiled at Toothless one last time before saying, "Be back tomorrow."
The dragon looked toward the setting sun and slinked back into the cove through a hole high enough that he could not reach from inside.
Hiccup hoped their plan would work. He desperately needed it to.
As soon as Hiccup broke the line of the forest, and into the sight of the villagers, everyone swarmed him asking "how did you do it," or "congratulations".
He smiled warmly at all of them and walked slowly to his house with a large crowd following. He waved once and then promptly shut the door behind him. They only cared about him now because he was succeeding.
Shaking his head, he walked away from the now dark windows and to the kitchen.
He took a sack that would hang on his shoulders and packed a couple of apples, some clothes, a compass, two knives, and his journal.
And a pencil, he mentally added, stuffing a couple charcoal pencils into his bag.
What else? He thought. Maybe a blanket in case it gets cold? No, Toothless could just create a fire for me.
Maybe a tent for rain and snow? Nah, caves are easy to find in a rocky archipelago.
Once satisfied that he had packed all that he needed, he stopped and looked around the hut. The only house he'd known. Well, kinda.
Aside from all the former houses that were blown up in dragon raids, this was his house. Always on the same hill, in the same spot. And now he was leaving it behind. He felt like there were invisible ropes holding him there, and each step he took painfully tugged on him, begging him to stay.
This is for the best, Hiccup thought, though still not thoroughly convinced. He was so determined, so set in his ways before but now that he was actually planning on going through with it... it made the situation a whole lot scarier. And real.
He had never even stepped foot off Berk except to accompany some fisherman once when he was younger. Before Toothless came into his life, he thought Berk was huge. It was all he knew, all he had ever experienced. And now he was leaving it all behind.
Once the crowd outside his house dissipated, he walked swiftly down the path to the Great Hall for dinner, unseen by all but one.
EDIT: Looking back on this story, I realize just how bad my writing was hahaha. Oh well, I hope you enjoyed anyways...
-MseriesJ143 <3