We'd gone so far out, the only land was chunks of solid ice and snow, floating in the endless ocean. Cloudjumper did a twirl in the air before he and Valka stopped. Hiccup and I turned around to see the large herd of dragons stopping in mid-air, hovering in anticipation.
"Hey, I-I thought we were going to eat," Hiccup spoke up.
"Oh, we are."
She swung herself around and stood atop her dragon, holding out her hand to completely halt the movement. She smiled eagerly at the two of us just before the sea started rumbling and bubbling below us. Three Sea Shockers circled around the bubbles, interested in whatever their source was. However, they quickly swam out of the way as the Bewilderbeast shot out from the sea and bellowed loudly. It shot water up into the air as it started to fall back down below, causing it to literally rain fish. Valka laughed joyfully as the dragons all dove to catch as much fish as possible.
Toothless looked up at Hiccup with big eyes, asking if he could go after some as well. Hiccup gestured his hand down, signaling him to go ahead, and Toothless suddenly shot down. Shriek looked like she was about to burst if she didn't get her chance to grab some fish, and I wasn't about to stop her. Gently, I tapped my foot against her side, and with that, she dove down. I desperately grabbed at her saddle as the wind bit at my face, my cloak flying out behind me as she snatched several fish out of the air and held them tightly in her cavernous mouth. I found myself laughing uncontrollably, even as Hiccup steered his dragon a little closer, obviously just to check on me.
A playful look crossed his face, and as the other dragons flew back to their home, he steered Toothless down to land on one of the larger masses of ice and snow. I raised an eyebrow at him, but followed behind on Shriek anyways. Hiccup flashed me a mischievous grin, then I found myself crying out as I was suddenly thrown from Shriek's back and into the snow, my back hitting the soft bank. Laughter overtook me again as I sat up and looked at Hiccup's grin.
"You..." I started to stand up, but before I could do anything, Hiccup rolled off of Toothless and pinned me down. "Hiccup, stop, I'm cold!" He picked up some snow from behind my head and threw it down on my chest.
Whether he realized it or not, that made in vulnerable. As his arms recoiled, I reached one leg up and wrapped it around his waist, using the leverage to pin him down. The both of us laughed again, but the fight was over—and I'd won. With that, I pushed myself up to my feet, then extended a hand down to help him do the same.
"Are you okay?" He got closer and placed his hands on my arms.
"Yeah, yeah..." I was still attempting to catch my breath as I smiled at him. "I feel fantastic."
I leaned forward and kissed him as his mother landed, smiling at the two of us.
"Hey, Hiccup, we should show your mom that map you've been working on," I suggested.
"Oh, yeah, you'll love this." He removed the journal from the pocket on his leg and pulled it out to present it to his mother.
Watching the both of them stand together, talk, gesticulate... everything looked exactly the same. Everyone always questioned how Hiccup and his father could possibly be related, and although he certainly had his father's bravery and knack for leadership—despite his own lack of belief in himself—but his mother... that's where his personality came from; that's the parent Hiccup resembled more. They were practically the same person.
Watching the two of them finally getting to meet and learn about each other warmed my heart. And it almost felt so perfectly timed with the rest of our life.
I snapped out of my thoughts and smiled as I watched Hiccup explain the map.
"And then, from Dragon Island, we found this archipelago..." He looked up when he noticed that his mother wasn't listening, instead drawing intricate lines and patterns in the snow. I walked over to admire her work, realizing it was Hiccup's map, drawn on a larger scale.
"There," she stated proudly.
"Whoa," Hiccup sighed. I moved my gaze over to Toothless as he bellowed, laughing when I realized he was drawing nonsense in the snow with an icicle, concentrating intensely on what he was doing. The Night Fury sat down to admire his work once he'd finished, but found that his drawing tool was fused to his tongue, causing the three of us to laugh harder.
"Come."
Valka managed to get the icicle off of Toothless' tongue, then climbed up onto Cloudjumper and waited for us to get onto our own dragons before taking off. Valka guided us to what appeared to be a geyser of air, smiling at the two of us as she flew directly over the stream and allowed it to lift her and her dragon up into the air on its own. Shriek and I gently floated on the streams, watching Hiccup and his mother take on the more daring stunts. She was somehow standing and balancing as though it were nothing, then started jumping from dragon to dragon; she danced over our heads before slipping herself off of Toothless' wing and landing back on Cloudjumper. Satisfied- and clearly ready to eat dinner herself- she motioned of us to head back.
"Oh, when I'm up here, I don't even feel the cold. I just feel..."
"...free," Hiccup finished. He and his mother smiled at each other, and she puffed her chest out, extending her arms and closing her eyes.
"This is what it is to be a dragon, Hiccup."
"It's all well and good to call yourself a dragon..." He reached down and locked Toothless' tail, then unclipped himself from the dragon. "... but can you fly?"
Suddenly, he jumped from Toothless' back and let himself plummet for a bit, before slipping his arms through the belts and shooting his arms out, extending the flaps of his wing suit. I watched him carefully, but certainly not as closely as Toothless.
Knowing that this could only end in disaster, Toothless grumbled and dove down in pursuit of Hiccup, which was actually a good idea, that way we were close when something happened. Hiccup cheered into the wind, and flipped himself over so that he was now floating on his back. Valka urged Cloudjumper to dive down, then slowly rose up beside Hiccup, laughing and smiling at her son's accomplishment.
In that split second we weren't paying attention, Hiccup had steered himself straight toward a rock formation. I panicked as Toothless dove straight for his rider, trying to get to him before he crashed. Thankfully, we caught up, and just before he took what would be a fatal blow, I jumped from my dragon's back and pulled him into my arms and Toothless curled himself up around the both of us, violently bouncing and jarring as we shot through the hole in the rock formation and crashed onto the ground. As soon as we had landed, Hiccup shot up, out of my arms, and yelled.
"Whoo!" He jumped in the air as I pushed myself up and looked at Toothless, my unamused expression mirroring his. "Man, almost!" Toothless sneezed some of the snow off his nose. "We just about had it that time!" Still unamused with the stunt Hiccup has just pulled, Toothless glared at his rider before sweeping his tail out and knocking Hiccup off his feet. I laughed and leaned against Shriek, needing to take a second. She looked up at me with big, yellow eyes before nuzzling into my stomach.
"They're okay, girl," I laughed.
Valka raced over to her son as he got himself up and started admiring the wings on his suit.
"Incredible," she marveled.
"Well, not so bad yourself." She moved from looking at the wing to inspecting her son for injuries, resting her hand against his cheek as she reached it. He smiled at her before gently nuzzling into her hand, causing her smile to grow.
"All this time, you took after me. And..." Her expression dropped. "...where was I? I'm so sorry Hiccup. Can we start over?" He didn't respond. "Will you give me another chance?" He seemed to like that idea. "I-I can teach you all that I've learned these past twenty years. Like..." She made her way to Toothless and extended her hand out, giving me a silent cue to get up. She made her way around his side, then carefully pressed her fingertips into his neck, causing him to shake as secondary fins popped up all down his back.
"Wow."
"Now you can make those tight turns." It took Toothless a second to realize what had happened, but as soon as he saw his new set of fins, he started bouncing around happily and flapping them together to show them off.
"Did you know about this?"
"Every dragon has its secrets. And... I'll show them all to you. We'll unlock every mystery, find every last species- together, as mother and son." I crinkled my brow, not only had I been erased from that picture, but Hiccup staying here with his mother would have bigger consequences than he realized at the moment.
While the two of them watched Toothless pop up from the snow- only to have Cloudjumper jump more on his head- Hiccup gave no response to her proposition.
"This gift we share, Hiccup, it bonds us. This is who you are, son. Who we are. We will change the world for all dragons. We will make it a better, safer place."
"Yeah, I mean, that sounds amazing." I kept my expression made of stone. He couldn't be serious, could he?
But then again. If this is what made him happy... it may be a sacrifice I'd have to make.
Valka practically jumped on her son as she hugged him, shocking him for a few seconds before he hugged her back.
"Oh, this is so great!" he exclaimed, pushing away from his mother. "Now you, Reign, and I can go talk to Drago together."
"What?" His mom seemed to find this idea funny. "There's no talking to Drago."
"But we have to-"
"No. We must protect our own."
That was the exact thing Stoick said... but he included people in at as well.
"Come on." Hiccup scoffed. "We should be getting back." I reached out and took Hiccup's hands and brought his eyes up to meet mine.
"Let's go back with your mom. We'll collect ourselves, and when you have a plan, we'll head back out there," I suggested. He nodded, and seemingly out of nowhere, his expression softened.
"I can't leave you behind," he sighed. "I mean, you gave up living with your family and being chief to live on Berk, I should honor that." I smiled and kissed one of his knuckles. "Besides, we've got another member of our family now, and I'm not about to miss a second of that."
I smiled and leaned closer to him, but it was short-lived.
"But I did it to stay with someone whom I promised I would support, no matter what decision he made. And if your decision is to study dragons with your mom, then I say go for it. I don't want to be the one holding me back."
He suddenly wrapped his arms around my waist and kissed me, shocking me for a moment before I placed my hands on his arms and kissed back.
"I'm not leaving you... and you're not holding me back. I promise, I'm deciding this on my own will. We're going to change Drago's mind, then we're going to head back to Berk, have this baby, and who knows from there?" He squeezed me again. "We have so much of our lives ahead of us."
I sighed and placed a kiss on his cheek, trying my best to ignore my guilt.