The Glass Dragon

Winter was coming, and quickly. Very soon, our dragons would be heading back to Dragon Island to lay their eggs. So much for getting out of Berk. At least for right now. I was still planning.

Stormfly was getting anxious. She’d get to see her babies again for the first time in a year. I’m sure that they were all grown up by now, and going to have babies of their own.

I was rubbing her scales down, exfoliating the dry bits off. After all, she needed to look good for her male.

“At least one of us has a male to rely on,” I muttered to her. I hadn’t seen Hiccup in weeks, not since that day in the area - erm, Academy. Thor's hammer, when would I get that right?

I scratched her down, getting the hard-to-reach, itchy bits for her. My sweet, sweet girl.

I gave her a bit of dragon grass and a generous portion of fish before I left her to head back to my lodge. It was late, and I knew that I had to be the only one still awake.

I stepped out onto the path and saw the giant, black form of Toothless swooping down and landing, his bright eyes practically glowing in the bright, Berk moon.

Hiccup was sliding off of the saddle, talking to the dragon. He could always read Toothless. They seemed to have conversations that no one else understood.

I ducked behind the nearest lodge, trying to give them their privacy. At least, that’s what I told myself I was doing. Eavesdropping on Hiccup was below me. Well, it was if it was said out loud. In the confines of my own head, however, it sound logical.

“I know, Bud,” Hiccup was saying. “I’ll miss you too.”

There was a soft, whining purr from Toothless.

“I won’t be alone,” the boy was trying to explain, though he sounded like he’d said the phrase a hundred, if not a thousand, times before. “I’ll have the Academy, my dad…” Toothless inserted another soft mewl, making Hiccup chuckle a bit. “Yeah, Bud, and Astrid.” My heart fluttered in my chest. Stupid organ. “If I haven’t blown that one-Ow! Hey, I can’t help that I get mobbed,” he said in defense to the dragon. “So much raw Viking, it’s hard to resist, you know,” he teased.

That made Toothless (and me) snort, and Hiccup laughed again.

I had to smile though. My back was pressed to the side of the lodge as I listened. Hiccup had such a good heart, and such a great outlook and personality. It wasn’t hard to see why people loved him.
There was a small clicking sound by at my feet. I looked down to see a little Terror scuttling about, sniffing at my boots.

I fought down a groan. I knew the thing could smell the fish that I’d given Stormfly.

“Go!” I hissed, nudging it back some with my foot. “Get!”

He let out a little growl, shimmying back like he was going to pounce.

“Seriously, get!” I tried to push it away again.

He jumped back about a foot and shot a fireball right at my foot, catching the suede of my boots on fire.

I yelped and he took off. I chased after him. “You little monster!” I yelled.

He squeaked and darted off, disappearing. I tripped and fell on my face. And right in front of my nose
were a pair of brown leather boots.

I looked up the legs and to the face, right into Hiccup’s amused eyes, and gave a nervous laugh. “Uh, hey, Hiccup.”

He looked from me, to where I had come from, then back. He cracked a grin. “Hi, Astrid. Terrors giving you problems?”

I pushed myself up and brushed off. “I was feeding Stormfly, and the little bugger smelled the fish! Set my boot on fire!” I looked down and saw the scorch marks on the soft suede. “And these are my good ones!” I hadn’t meant to whine, really.

I pouted for a moment before sighing.

Hiccup gave me a sympathetic smile as he crouched down to look at them. “They don’t look that bad,” he tried to assure me.

I just shrugged some as he stood back up.

His eyes darted around, taking in Berk bathed in the moonlight. Toothless shoved his nose into the middle of his boy’s back, making him stumble right into me, our chests touching.

I looked up, biting my lip a little in the awkwardness of the situation.

“It’s late,” he pointed out stupidly. He hadn’t stepped back at all. Then again, neither had I.

“Yep…” I said popping my ‘p.’ “Everyone is pretty much asleep.” I awkwardly glanced around too, noting that we really were alone.

He nodded and rubbed the back of his neck again. “No one mobbing the Hero of Berk…”

I rolled my eyes, fighting down a grin that was threatening to bloom across my face, and hit him. He just laughed.

“I’m kidding. Not really,” he said, still grinning and giving me a wink. “Want to go for a ride with Toothless and me?”

My eyes lit up and I nodded, finally grinning at him.

He clambered up onto his dragon and got strapped in. He reached down his hand to pull me up, that giddy, exhilarated, kid on Snoggletog grin on his face. I reached up and gripped his rough hand, worn form being a smith for so many years, feeling the warmth on mine.

With so long, working in the forge and with the dragons, he easily hauled me up onto the saddle behind him. I gripped his trim middle, and felt a rather hard plane under my fingers. That was new. I just grinned.

Hiccup shared my look and leaned forwards, over Toothless. “Alright, Bud. Ready?” The dragon gave a small chirp. “That’s my boy,” he cooed.

He pressed the pedal back and Toothless leapt up into the air.

I closed my eyes as the air rushed back over me, that familiar feeling of my heart fluttering and my stomach in my throat never ceasing. I would never get tired of this. The air was cool, it felt like tiny daggers all over, but it felt so amazing. I was alive.

I tipped my head back, relishing in the soaring feeling. A small laugh escaped Hiccup’s lips and I tilted my head back up to look at him. “What?” I called over the whistling wind. I should have been annoyed with him, but I was much too giddy at the moment to try and be.

“Nothing,” he said back, turning his head a bit so that he could look at me. A grin was plastered on his face. “I just forgot that you’re as into this as I am.”

I hoped that my cheeks were wind burned so that he wouldn’t notice the color creeping into them. Instead, I settled on scowling playfully at him and punching him in the shoulder.

That earned me a small grunt and a soft ‘Ow!’

“Of course I do. This, up here, all of it, it’s freedom, Hiccup.”

I looked up at the stars as we burst through the clouds. So many stars, like diamonds glittering in a dark lake. “I would love to touch the stars,” I whispered.

The next thing I knew, Toothless was sweeping higher. I grasped Hiccup tighter with a small gasp and laughed some.

I felt his chest vibrate with a chuckle and I buried my face in the middle of his back, between his shoulder blades. He smelled like my Hiccup. Wood smoke and metallic, mixed with pine and salt water. It was as warm and comfortable a smell as anything. Familiar.

Eventually, Toothless leveled out again, just soaring, gliding through the night sky like a fish through the crystal waters of the Cove. I just grinned, raising my head and moving to lay my cheek on his back.

Thank Freya for our dragons.

Toothless landed in the cove. Hiccup unhooked himself and slid off the dragon’s back. He reached up, taking my waist and helping me off. Normally, I would have swatted his hands away, but I was in too good of a mood.

I hopped down and smoothed my overskirt out.

“So, why did you drag me all the way out here in the middle of the night?” I teased.

He laughed and flopped down in the grass, leaning back against the Night Fury, who had lay down and curled up like a giant scaled cat. “I told you. We’re both awake, and we finally have a few minutes alone.” He looked up at me, his bright eyes glittering in the borrowed light of the moon. “I’ve missed you, Astrid.”

I felt both thrilled and angry. “Then why haven’t you tried to see me?” I asked, hurt, as I sat down with him against Toothless’s warmth.

He put his arm around me, pulling me to his side and heaved a great sigh of breath. “I’m sorry,” the boy gently muttered into my hair as I lay my head on his shoulder. “I got so caught up in all of this. It’s like…I blinked, and I lost a year. I don’t know what I’m doing with all of this, Astrid. I don’t know how to be a hero, I don’t know how to be a chief. I know how to be a hiccup.”

I turned my gaze upwards to look at him. “You are not a hiccup. Stop that.”

He heaved another sigh, a smaller one, and leaned his head on top of mine. “Maybe not now, but do you remember before Toothless? The Nightmare? Dragon training classes?”

“That was almost three years ago,” I started, trying to make him feel better.

“It doesn’t matter when it was. It’s what I was, what I am. That is a part of me. It will always be a part of me, making up a part of who I am. I can’t just stop being what I was. I’m not a hero, Astrid. I’m just not.”

I lifted my head to look at him better. “Hiccup, you have always been my hero,” I told him sincerely. It was true, no matter how much I didn’t want to admit it.

He smiled just a touch, and my insides felt like a million little Terrors were flapping around. I punched him. “That was for being a dweeb,” I muttered at him.

“Ow! Must you?!” he cried incredulously, rubbing the spot on the shoulder where my fist hit.

I rolled my eyes and grabbed the back of his neck, pulling him down, my lips crashing onto his. “That…That was for being my hero, Hiccup Haddock.”

Hiccup just grinned down at me, and put his finger under my chin, tilting my face up to look at him. “You’re mine,” he told me gently, and before I could say anything against it, he stole my lips and kissed me deeply.