Summary: First in the Children of Icarus series:

Equovolatus Magnificens

"The heights by great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight, but they while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night."

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Port City of Helice

Taiyetos Mountains, Southern Balkans, Achaea, Peloponnese Peninsula, The Greek Empire

Haustmánuður 5

1539 Hours

...

The Balkans were warm.

Warmer than Hiccup had ever experienced, the air almost felt thick, made more of heated water and boiled salt than oxygen. It was hard to breathe at seas level much less the higher and higher they ventured into the thinned altitude of the jagged peaks and gorges of the mountain range that Hiccup looked on like the ridges of a Nightmare's spine.

Humidity was a foreign thing to the young Nordic.

His russet hair slicked to his skull and the line of his neck with sweat, the heavy, thick fabric of his tunic and leggings and the leather of the harness and saddle rubbed and needled at his skin, made to guard pale and tender flesh from heavy sea spray, rough underbrush and the ever present chill of the High North that Hiccup's kind and kin had been bred to for centuries was now a hinderance and discomfort.

He felt flushed and the weight of the heat made his limbs and mind lazy, exhaustion wrapped around his throat like a weighed collar. The normal high pitched buzz of his mind had slowed, synapses and nerves missing connections in the unfamiliar heat.

Not even the up stroke of wings and rush of wind and air cooled him. It only felt as if warm air was being pushed into his face and making his eyes water even at the leisurely pace of their partnered flight.

Toothless.

Hiccup blinked slowly and looked down at where his hands were splayed across the base of his partner's neck.

If Hiccup was uncomfortable the dragon was possibly miserable.

A Night Fury.

Hiccup smoothed his hand across the thick skin shingled with circular scales, layered and overlapping each other created an armor that was impervious to water and wind, fire and stone. Even the outermost layer of this creature was strong.

But not without it's faults.

Toothless was born of fire, his ancestry ran as long and deep as Hiccup's own Nordic bloodline, but bred on the sea sprayed cliffs of the High North coast that iced in early fall and thawed in early summer for a few brief moments of flushed and lush warmth and true sun before the sea rose again to draw out the pack ice.

Toothless was probably suffering in the humid air that felt moments from steaming and spiced in a way that made the slim human drowsy. The Night Fury was denied the soft pourious flesh that could alleviate some of his strain but did not prevent him from dehydrating.

That's why they followed close to the river through the Taiyetos Mountains. The dark ribbon wound in and out of the peaks and valleys, coiling and pooling in some places, falling in steep foaming walls in others, burrowing under ground in others before rising to the surface again. It churned and roared, echoing in the core of the mountains in a way the made Hiccup sure that it was sentient, living and breathing as it cut and carved, built and eroded, like a near tame Jörmungandr, the Midgard Serpent, too content to coil itself around the world.

They glided, rising and falling on all to often thermals, staying low over the sleek surface of the water to catch bursts of cooling spray or if the river ran too smooth for too long to dive below for a moment before breeching and rising again. The water rising in thin trails of steam in the heat of their hides.

They moved as one, lost in one another in a compliment that was not caused by the climate.

It ran deeper. It was older.

They move easily, reading each other, responding and reacting to the slight shift of weight and twitch of skin on skin. The muscles and bones, sinew and tendon, rolled and churned and rubbing intimately against his legs and groin and hands, rolling his hips against his will. The sway of spine and ribs, the hum of lungs only separated from Hiccup by the thick leather of the saddle and the cloth of his leggings. Beneath the Night Fury ribs thundered the triple chambered heart. The muscle was a bass drum, pure, humming muscle that was almost fifteen pounds in weight, thundering in the chest, loud enough to drown out his own heartbeat. Each beat was a stroke of wings and rush of breath. A tempo, a true rhythm of life, a rolling strike of thunder that bore up the mount and the rider.

Their movements tuned and synced, their physical forms braided together in flight.

Bonded and bound together through trial by fire in ways that both knew they could not longer stand alone. The though of isolation, of singularity, was foreign to them now. There was no life before the partnership and there would be no life after.

Their bond was only strengthened by the shared misery of the heat.

Hiccup hoped that things went quickly and well. He couldn't be the only one of their party that was suffering the heat. Surely the climate was enough to thin Viking stubbornness to a more placating and agreeable creatures. As uncomfortable as it was the warmth was working for Hiccup, it would get him home sooner.

The Greecian Empire had never truly fallen into bed with the tribes and clans of the High North and the Nordic blood lines. The Greeks never saw the Vikings as a threat or an ally and for that had turned a neutral shoulder to them, giving only the unspoken warning that should Nordic violence fall on Greek territory they would be crushed.

If the distorted tales of the Spartans that traveled over sea and ice to the High North were to believed it would be too easy.

Hiccup shivered slightly, recalling night terrors of his youth that had been fueled by a few stories of the clan that had been truly bred and born soldiers, that knew no mercy and painted themselves in blood. Then they had seemed more fierce and harsh than dragons.

Greece was strong, it held earth at all points of the compass. North into the cold and shadowed forests of trees so tall and old they rose above the mountains and south into the dark, heated continent of rolling grasslands. To the east into the deep, spiced sea that was so heated it should have boiled and to the west were the rocks were blackened by the sun and the sand rose and fell in an ocean.

It had dug it's claws into the compass and bared down, it would not loose itself easily. So assured of it's immortality Greece busied itself with the finer nature of culture, letting its military stand idle but trained to the ready while the metropolises of the Empire were saturated with philosophers and scientists, politicians and figureheads, artists and athletes. The Greeks were deep thinkers and deeper students. A nation of scholars bred of warriors. Their common concepts of life and death and existence itself boundless and complicated in it's simplicity.

Curiosity unbridled and without exhaustion but turned so deeply inwards, spinning around and around their own theories and philosophies, that they were at times detached from their own realities.

Hiccup's father and tribal leader, Stoick, sagely predicted that this is how the impossible would come to pass and Greece would fall.

But something had shifted. A new name adorned the Emperor's throne and Greece, for the moment, shook itself from it's stupor and looked upon it's neighbors with curiosity and beckoned them forward, opening the seas and ports and inland passages, flushing itself with new blood and ideals and stretching itself outwards as well.

That included the High North; so it had come to pass that Stoick raised a band of their clan, driven idle by the pact made by Hiccup's kin and the draconic tribe and made ready to travel into the warmth of the south and into the heart of the Empire and make their own temporary mark on Greece, assimilating for a few short weeks before turning and skipping back along their path to the comfort and cool of the High North, porting all along the coasts of Europe as they had on the trip down.

Hiccup would have been content to remain in Berk, burrowing himself deeper into his own study of of the draconic breed, but Stoick was immovable on the subject. Hiccup was going to attend the voyage if he had to be trussed to the ship's mast. He was old enough, had proven himself a man and it was unlikely that another gallivant through Europe and North Africa would be so opportune, and even more improbable would a time come that Nordic blood would walk on land under Greece's claws.

And Toothless has been immoveable on attending Hiccup in the trip as well.

The straight journey from the High North into the warm sea trapped between Europe's belly and Africa's spine had taken its toll on the band. Their small armada of two large vessels and two smaller ones, a quarter of the Berk population had physically been prepared for their winter to set in, the pack ice and deep snow locking them into their huts. Stoick had ensured the survival of Berk, the larders stocked and those staying well provided for and well protected by the sentinel dragons and once slayers before setting out on their voyage for five of the deepest winter months.

Hiccup entertained the idea that a warmer climate for the winter would have done him some kind of good, and there was no denying his curiosity of the world he'd never seen once it was etched in stone that he was going to attend.

And Toothless was with him. Taking long, leisurely flights away from the ships over the oceans.

If Hiccup had realized the heat they would have to endure he would have fought more valiantly to remain behind.

The Nordic youth drew in a breath of heated air and managed not to choke on it, he half heartedly stroked the underside of Toothless' left ear, a bemused thoughts slipping through his mind at the image of the bulky, fur cloaked men of his clan lumbering through the paved streets among the slender and slime framed natives of southern Greece. Drawing attention and curiosity.

Had Hiccup shed his clothing and born without his russet hair and fair skin he would have easily been mistaken for a native himself.

The wonder of the port of Helice in Achaea had drawn Hiccup and he had been busy strapping the saddle across Toothless' broad chest and back when his father had come to him. The clan leader calm and steady outwardly but in his eyes brimmed the worry and fear of a parent over a child and had drawn the boy's attention completely.

He'd nearly collapsed to the decking when Stoick barred Toothless from making way into the city, Hiccup had flushed, ready to fight for his partner before his father had warned him that they were in the midst of one of the most powerful Empires of their time, that had Greece the notion it could take Toothless from him, that it was possible they would take Toothless.

Hiccup had slumped under the logic, not amount of curiosity for spiced air, foreign voices and enthralling trades could lure the Nordic youth to rise the Night Fury. He's resigned to staying captive on the vessel before Stoick offered a solution.

To fly Toothless away in the dawn before the sun and return in the pit of night. If he had the notion to see the port then to venture after his return and soak in the Greek night life. Unseen. Unheard.

Safe.

One look to the rise and fall of the strange and feral peaks of the Taiyetos and Stoick had Hiccup's word to follow the ideal and his internal fears for his son assuaged.

Again, if Hiccup had known that long days spent drifting and sailing between the peas and valleys would have subjected them to the humidity and heat he would have declined. He quickly worked out that flight would be reserved for the early morning hours and dusk, appeased by the glorious sight of the sun rising and sinking in painted hues of gold and red and a purple that never reached the skies of the High North. Long days spent walking through the lush gardens of the Taiyetos or dozing at the edges of the river's coiled pools.

But the warmth had truly begun to catch up to them, midway through the second week all the clan was ready to depart from the warm seas and make way towards home. The discontent was beginning to catch and Hiccup hoped that Stoick had begun tying up loose ends and making final trades.

The Nordic youth awned softly and leaned forwards, making sure his iron prosthesis stayed in position in the stirrup and did not disturb Toothless' lazy flight and looked down onto the surface of the river.

He idly watched their shadow, the surface of the river darkened by the massive stretch of the Night Fury's wingspan. Hiccup slid his hand to side and grazed his fingers over his partner's wing, the thin, delicate membrane felt soft and supple like well tanned leather, slightly rippled with the light scales. The fine leather was spun between the corded muscles laid along the bones and joints of the extra set of appendages.

Hiccup smiled gently, keeping his hand splayed on the wing, palm flush and firm against the softest skin, feeling the Night Fury's pulse and the tremors of contracting muscle and sinew at the down stroke.

Hiccup sighed, despite the heat, content.

His eyes drifted back to the surface of the river and watched their shadow as it glided over the surface, black against the dark blue.

His vision grew hazy for a moment and he narrowed his eyes.

The shadow had changed. The Night Fury's wings had stroked down once but the shadow had not. Hiccup's brow furrowed. He shook himself once, rubbing his eyes with his knuckles before looking back at the shadow.

He watched carefully and gently tilted his weight, asking Toothless to drift upwards, pulling up higher into the air and away from the river.

The Night Fury chirruped softly and followed the request, his wings stroking downwards three times before leveling out fifteen feet higher into the air.

The shadow below them had not changed, it had not shifted for the movement of Toothless' wings.

Hiccup stiffened and his tension bled quickly into the dragon. Toothless narrowed his green umber eyes and hummed quietly, an ear cocked back towards Hiccup.

"Stay calm, Toothless." Hiccup soothed. "A little faster, alright buddy?"

Puzzled the Night Fury hummed in agreement and beat his wings thrice, adding a new urgency to their leisurely flight and kicked up speed, Hiccup's eyes focused on the shadow.

It split.

A second set of wings fell across the water below them, staggered back from the dragon's own reflection. The other shadow fell across Hiccup's back and the edge of Toothless' wings. The wings of the other shadow a different shape and rippled at the edges.

Hiccup went so stiff in the saddle that his partner tilted slightly in their flight and moaned softly, trying, to look back at Hiccup, eyes narrowed and tension wrought though his muscles and stiffening in his wings.

"Fly, Toothless." Hiccup rasped, panic rising up to clutch at his chest. "Fly! Now!"

The Night Fury snorted and tripled the strokes of his wings, wheeling upwards into the sky and spinning towards the mountains around them. Hiccup flicked his eyes down and watched the shadow wheel after them in pursuit.

What ever it was it was large.

"Fly Toothless, everything you've got." Hiccup urged and bent low over the Night Fury's back. Toothless snorted, stretching his neck and pounded the air, wheeling and and spinning into the spines of the Taiyetos. The dragon pitched into a dive, plummeting along the outer curve of the peak swell towards the mainland and boarder of Arcadia.

Hiccup risked a glance over his shoulder, only catching a flurry of gold and black movement following their dive without hesitation.

Hiccup breathed out, turned his full attention to Toothless and to their flight. They would outstrip their stalker, Hiccup didn't need to watch them to do it. Toothless was a Night Fury. No other had his speed or strength. None could match him in the sky. No Empire dragon could catch them.

Hiccup snorted and pressed his belly and chest low against the dragon's neck and spine, whispering into his partner's ear, urging him on, coaxing more speed from Toothless, promising that he would keep up.

The Night Fury's great heart leapt at the consent given to truly fly. With a hum the lost himself in the most basic of his instincts, his feral nature reared up, flushing through him and the flight became something more ancient than written word.

Every cell of Toothless was flushed and flooded with the urge to fly, emotions spinning out of control as the predator felt himself slotted into the place of prey and thrashed against the idea. His existence tunneled down to the single, primal instinct to save himself and save his bonded.

The Night Fury pulled up, practically sprinting into the higher altitudes, slicing through the thick clouds and tilted towards the ragged edges of the mountains.

He used them, tore through the clouds and dove deep into the valleys, skimming so low to the earth Toothless and Hiccup were assaulted by a spray of shredded grass and leaves before hurtling back into the sky. The Night Fury banked hard corners and sling shot around the tips of mountains. He dove down the sides of each peak, flying recklessly close to the lethal edges, then sped tilted on his side through narrow gaps, his bonded clinging fearlessly to his back.

Hiccup trusted completely, he felt no fear, only the addictive flood of adrenaline, as he kept beat for beat with the Night Fury. Adjusting fractionally with each twist and tilt.

It registered, faintly, that is was doing no good. Their pursuer would not be lost and stayed a gold and black blur behind them.

"Time to get creative, Toothless." Hiccup coaxed the near wild dragon back down to some kind of sanity. The Night Fury snorted and fell into a series of perfectly executed manuevers. Heart stopping dives and dips, erratic and jerky climbs, spinning and turning, rolling onto his back and diving turned over towards the earth or the sky. They spiraled onto the sky, using thermals and drafts to each advantage.

Hiccup was dizzy and lightheaded, sure that had they not been in danger the flight would have been their most glorious.

But the stalker stayed with them, meeting their pace and staying at a distance. Hiccup glanced over his shoulder, the flurry of gold and black still behind them. The Nordic youth grit his teeth.

They'd have to outstrip him.

He urged the Night Fury to level out, steadying several thousand feet into the air, he risked a glance down and felt a flutter of panic.

The mountains below were unfamiliar. The coast was there, but the land had changed. Lost in their attempt to shake

their stalker they had flown up the Isthmus of Corinth and into the mainland of Greece, now in the Pindus Mountains and on a flight path that would take them over Athens herself.

Hiccup shook his head, they could find their way back after they lost their pursuer.

Hiccup hunched low over the Night Fury's back.

"Toothless, you got to use everything you have for this. As fast as you can go. If this doesn't work you'll have to fire on 'em, okay?"

The dragon moaned and locked his own jaw before his wings and muscles stretched to their limit, cording and snapped as he scooped them through the air, the speed kicked up and Hiccup had to duck his head, shutting his eye as the wind screamed in his ears, his breath short as he tried to gasp in air. The Night Fury flew faster, every cell humming with speed and something starting to peak towards desperation, spurned on by the discomfort his bonded felt.

And still the stalker persisted.

The Night Fury wailed in frustration, crying into the sky and swallowed a deep gulp of air, his gut churning in a broil of heat.

A noise spun up to him. A warbling cry that sounded some like a bird that pitched up into a whinny.

Toothless crushed the fire in his throat.

He'd been answered.

The dragon checked his pace slightly and let out a long, chirruping bellow over his shoulder.

The warble called back immediately, the ending whinny echoing off the mountains.

Hiccup's brown knit and he carefully opened his eyes as he listened.

Toothless gave the low cry a third time and for a third time was answered dutifully from behind.

The dragon snorted and banked his wings, slowing so quickly he rocked in the air, Hiccup sat up slowly in the saddle and twisted around in seat. His eyes catching the gold and black blur as it kept it's speed to catch up to them before slowing and gliding along easily at their side.

Hiccup and Toothless stared.

It was a horse.

The equine matched Toothless in size, possibly would stand taller than the Night Fury were their feet firmly on the earth. The horse's frame was solid and compact, a working type with heavier bones and thicker muscles than the sleek Arabians and other desert bred horses that Hiccup had glimpsed in the Helice market. This horse had a large head with a rounded profile instead of a dished one.

He was a different color as well, short fur a coppery gold that turned ebony black at the horse's knees and hocks all the way down to his hooves. His flying tail and mane the same pitch black, where a white blaze should have been down his muzzle was a solid back stripe that dyed the end of his muzzle the same color to the edge of his lips and nostrils. His perked, tulip ears were tipped in black and his large eyes were brilliant pools of chocolate.

A buckskin.

The horse gliding at their side on massive feathered wings. His shoulders were wider and thicker than a true horse, layered up with bulging flight muscles wrapped around the bones and joints beneath. On either side a stretch of finely furred skin that started at the base of the horse's tail curved along his spine and flowed into the wings, anchoring them to the horse's flanks as well as shoulder. The fine fur gave way to coppery feathers, each tipped darkly, looking as if they had been dipped in ink. The longest flight feathers were likely to be three or more feet long, the smallest, rippling feathers downy and soft creme, jostled into sight by the hard flight.

Braided all through his mane was a series of black feathers and along the length of the bones of his tail was a rudder of them, like the wings gold dipped in black that formed a diamond before the rippling length of coarse tail hair.

The rudder and wings twitched and tilted in sync, it was akin to watching a hawk fly.

But even the wings and gilded feathers paled in comparison to the petite girl perched on the winged equine's back.

She looked a few years Hiccup's senior, her frame slight and small. Dark hair tied back in a pony tail and braided with silver and black beads and shed feathers from the horse's wings. Her face heart shaped but the left side distorted with a series of long scars that ran from her hairline down to her collar bone. She was dressed in a short sleeved shirt of light, white fabric and a set of heavy, brown suede leggings, ending in matching boots. A single strapped leather satchel was slung across her chest and over a shoulder. There was a bone hilt knife strapped to one of her thighs.

Her left arm, from the wrist mid way to her elbow was marked with some kind of full cuff tribal tattoo, Hiccup couldn't make out the design. Her hands were loosely gripped around a simple loop of braided rawhide and black leather around the horse's neck. She was otherwise without bridle or saddle, seated bareback before the wings.

Her chocolate eyes surveyed Hiccup carefully and curiously.

After a long moment the Nordic youth gathered himself to lift a hand and waved numbly at her.

The woman lifted one hand briefly before settling it back into the braided loop.

The winged buckskin tossed his head and called to Toothless, his voice rising from his throat in a warble like that of a songbird before it pitched up into a horse's whinny.

The feathered wings stroked down and the buckskin's hooves and slim legs kicked, prancing in the air before his fore legs tucked back up under his chest and his rear legs stayed lax, loose and casual behind him. Flying a a perpetual mid vault.

Toothless chirruped back, his green umber eyes wide and curious. He sniffed towards the buckskin and the horse snorted in return, shaking his head and nickering low in his chest.

They glided along on thermals, just watching and learning each other, adrift in the humid, spiced air. The horse seemed to be catching his breath, part of his neck was flecked with sweat and as they glided along slowly the horse's breathing became softer and his nostril's relaxed. The woman pulled her hand from the braided cord and stroked the slant of the horse's shoulder. Her touch light and careful. Hiccup narrowed his eyes as the woman sat up and back, settling her hands onto her hips. The horse slowed more at the shift of weight, now lazily drifting.

Toothless banked, slowing to keep even, his eyes flicking from forward back to the horse, then back to his path.

Suddenly the buckskin gave a snort and the woman's left knee and calf pressed into the horse's shoulder.

The winged horse effortlessly turned to the right, dipping towards the earth in an arch.

Toothless hummed and quickly followed, letting his speed increase to get back to his place along side the horse. The buckskin flicked his ear towards the Night Fury and snorted and continued to drift right as the woman's leg stayed pressed into his shoulder. The slow arch towards the earth turned into a large, lazy spiral coiling down towards the valley below.

Toothless kept up with the horse, staying at his side and occasionally hummed or keened towards the other animal, who returned low nickers, the warbled whinny and occasionally a few high whistles that sounded entirely avian.

Slowly the horse evened out, weaving through the peaks, drifting ever lower. Hiccup kept half an eye on the woman and she seemed to do the same, glancing towards Hiccup from time to time, as if to make sure he was sill seated in his saddle.

Toothless followed the winged horse dutifully and the lazy flight dragged on until the buckskin's breath was even and the sweat had dried from his fur. The winged horse gave himself a full bodied shake, jerking under the petite woman and flexing his wings mid flight and dropped a few meters before catching himself again. Toothless hovered above, looking down at the horse and rider.

The buckskin nickered then without warning plunged towards the earth, the woman bending low over his neck and the wings tucking in towards his body.

Toothless gave a sharp churr of surprise and dove after them, Hiccup all to ready to follow. Horse plummeted, nearly free falling, Toothless swept the air with his wings, trying to catch up. The horse suddenly stalled, wings flaring and fanning out, sweeping back into the air too quickly for the Night Fury to follow. Toothless and Hiccup sped passed the horse and rider, pulled out of their dive, wheeled around and quickly climbed back up towards them.

But the horse was already flying towards the cloud line, well a head of them, he galloped through the air, hooves striking empty space in time with feathered wing strokes. Hiccup and Toothless sped up, rushing their ascent.

The horse banked, arching towards the peaks, evading Toothless again.

The Night Fury snorted, pinning his ears and wheeling to the side to catch up. The winged horse was determined to return the favor, granted his lead was more relaxed and slower than Toothless' own pursuit, but it was his own actions turned back on him.

The dragon understood. Had he been led to chase the horse that way he'd made the equine follow him Toothless would not have given himself over without some teasing as well.

He owed this eased gambol to the buckskin.

This stranger that the Night Fury knew was his brother.

The horse's wings and feathered rudder titled and he rolled on his side, wings stretched to their full span as he curved towards the earth. Toothless tucked his wings and dove only to glance over and watch the horse stroke the air once and swept back into the air in a tilted circle. Spinning back into the air towards the clouds in a streak of gold and black.

The Night Fury snarled, jerked around hard and pelted after them, his bonded leaning low over his neck and they flew through the thick cloud cover, blinded and cooled by the vapor bursting across their skin, before they breeched back above the clouds with only the sky and the tips of mountains for company. A flicker of gold to the left and Toothless sped towards it bursting through a cumulus to nothing but sunlight.

They drifted slowly in this in between space, breaking through cirrus and half formed thunder heads, stratus and more cumulus. The world lit and flooded in gold as the sun started to sink towards the ocean.

Toothless moaned softly and Hiccup stroked his partner's ears gently, assuring him. The Night Fury gave a small call into the air, it echoed and hummed around them. Silence rung after the cry. A half moment later he was answered by the now familiar warbling whinny. The winged buckskin pranced out of a stratus, neck arched deeply and lifting his legs in high, animated action on the nothingness under his hooves, wings half folded and the petite woman straddling his shoulders.

The buckskin tossed his head and threw out his wings, catching himself and drawing his forelegs back under his chest and let his rear ones loose behind him, wings flared up and stretched feathers spread like a splayed hand as he made an elegant dive downwards through the clouds towards the earth. The Night Fury rushed to follow, Hiccup just as eager and somewhat relieved that the paired strangers had not left them.

The horse fell gracefully, poised in a swan dive towards the earth, the woman's arms wound into the braided loop at his neck and hands into the dark mane and black feathers at his neck. Toothless came even, half mimicking the drive in his own way, watching the winged equine carefully for any sign of feints or sudden evades.

None came.

They plummeted towards the earth in tandem. Sailing towards the ground in a steep dive. When the buckskin tilted his wings and rudder Hiccup and Toothless mimicked him in the opposite direction, twisting until the horse and dragon were belly to belly, so close their ankles nearly touched. The pair tucked in their wings, folding them in close towards their flanks and spiraled around each other, spinning towards the earth. Their bonded pressed close to their shoulders, trusting their lives and safety completely the Night Fury and winged equine.

Hiccup breathed out and shut his eyes, feeling the free fall instead of watching it, listening to the sound of his heartbeat matching the dragon under his hand. Wondering idly if the buckskin and woman's pulse matched each other as easily as he did Toothless.

The horse and dragon broke away, coming out of their dives and spinning away from each other. The Night Fury banked in the air and wheeled back to the winged equine, gliding alongside the buckskin silently. Following a half stroke behind the horse as he led them down towards the earth again, drifting almost lazily into a deep valley nested in the Pindus, following a new river than the Midgard of the Taiyetos of Achaea, it's waters black and smooth, deeper and wider. They followed it along until it widened further and coiled into a deep lagoon surrounded by earth carpeted in thick, brilliant moss, and bent, arched trees that instead of branches sported long, winding tendrils thick with sleek narrow leaves, like ropes that wove into curtains and sheets that drifted and swung in the spiced breeze.

Toothless stalled, diving a little faster and lightly landed on the springy moss. Hiccup stiffly dropped down from the saddle, his muscles sore but buzzing pleasantly from the hard flight, he flinched at the pain in his left knee and ache of the prosthesis. The youth and the Night Fury looked up as the winged horse back stroked his wings, dropping his rear and like a a swan, landed lightly in the center of the lagoon. He bobbed on the surface, folding his wings over the rider's legs, floated lazily on his own wake like a duck. The horse dipped his head and sucked from the water surface before swimming slowly towards the bank, ears flicked forwards he nickered and whistled towards the dragon and young Nordic, swimming until his hooves met earth and he waded up the lagoon's shore towards them.

The petite woman slid from his back, dropping into the knee deep water and wading alongside the buckskin towards them she swept back her dark hair, smoothing the braided gold and black feathers. Her other hand rested lightly on the hilt of the the knife at her thigh.

Instantly Toothless tensed, hissing and his pupils narrowed, he flexed and flared his wings, taking a step to put himself between Hiccup and the strange female.

The buckskin snorted, splashing through the shallow water and did the same, ducking his head and pinning his ears, lifting his tail and rustling his wings with an equine, warning groan and snort. Hiccup licked his chapped lips and laid an assuring hand on the Night Fury's head. He caught the woman's eyes and looked down towards the knife.

She read the look and lifted her hand away and non-threateningly into the air. Hiccup breathed out and Toothless calmed, his eyes flicking to the knife. After a moment the woman slowly and carefully removed the blade from her thigh and tossed it far onto the bank, well out of her reach.

The Night Fury chirruped contently and relaxed completely, once the dragon was pacified the winged horse did the same, lifting his head and pricking his ears, moving forwards again.

The woman whistled sharply, making Hiccup jump.

"Ypostirizo." She commanded quietly and the buckskin stopped and backed up to her side, standing in the water. Waiting to advance on the woman's terms.

She turned chocolate eyes towards the young Nordic and Night Fury.

"Standard?" She asked in an accented hum of a voice. "You speak Standard?"

"Yeah. Yes." Hiccup said quickly, stroking the Night Fury and moving forwards carefully.

"Not from around here, are you?" She asked, cocking her head and advancing slowly. Keeping her hand out toward the horse. The buckskin snorted softly and stayed put in knee deep water.

"Not really no." Hiccup agreed, starting to relax and advanced more confidently. "We're from the north."

"How far north? Beyond the Balkans?"

"Way beyond." Hiccup smiled lopsidedly. "Up towards the Arctic Circle."

"Ah. Norjd. Viking."

Hiccup blinked and smiled. "Got it in one."

She gave him a small smile back, the scars on her face pulling slightly.

"Hiccup." He moved to meet her at the edge of the water, hand outstretched. She stepped up and wrapped her fingers around his wrist in a grip traditional of hunters and soldiers. The young Nordic returned the grip, squeezing her wrist.

"Calandra." She dipped her head slightly, pulling her hand free and motioned towards the buckskin. "Mavrospouli."

"Mavro... Mavrospouli." Hiccup stumbled over the word. "Mavrospouli."

The winged equine snorted and pricked his ears but stayed where he was and Calandra nodded.

"That's Toothless." Hiccup motioned towards the dragon and backed up a little, Calandra followed at a small distance, ensuring that she did not make the animal nervous for the safety of his bonded.

Hiccup puffed slightly and lighted a hand on the dragon's head, standing proudly next to his mount. Calandra looked the dragon up and down before slowly and carefully walking completely around him, giving Toothless a respectable berth of space. The dragon still twisted and turned to keep her in sight. When Calandra was back before them she backed up a few steps.

"What is he?" She asked at length, calm and blunt.

"A dragon. A Night Fury." Hiccup's tone was thick with affection. "Fastest and fiercest of his kind."

The Night Fury purred and nudged the young Nordic's hip gently, making sure not to overbalance him on his prosthesis.

"Night Fury. Nychta Mania."

"What?" Hiccup cocked his head.

"Nychta Mania. Greek for his breed."

"Oh. Nychta Mania."

Calandra nodded. Hiccup licked his chapped lips and looked passed towards Mavrospouli. Calandra followed his gaze, gave a twitch of her hand a soft whistle. With a melodic whistle the horse rustled his feathered wings across his shoulders and trotted up towards them, crowding at Calandra's back and arching his neck over her shoulder to stretch his nose towards Hiccup and Toothless, nostrils flared and ears pricked.

He nickered and whistled.

Toothless purred and churred back, tilting his large head to the side, ears cocked forward.

Hiccup carefully reached out, offering his palm the way he did normal horses. Fingers half curled.

Mavrospouli twitched his attention to the youth and nosed his hand, lipping his fingers and sniffing at the appendage before loosing interest and stretching towards Toothless again. The Night Fury stretched out and touched noses with the winged equine, making soft noises and breathing each other's breath.

Hiccup grinned at Calandra, who returned his smile slightly.

"What is he?" The young Nordic turned the woman's question back at her.

"Pterotaalogo. A... a pegasus." She seemed to have a little difficulty translating the word into Standard.

"Pegasus..." Hiccup reached out and scratched at Mavrospouli's cheek and under his jaw, feeling the smooth, short fur under his fingers. Unable to help himself from touching while Calandra kept her hands off Toothless, respecting the Night Fury's space.

The equine didn't shy away, to enthralled by the Night Fury to notice as the young Nordic slowly smoothed his hands all along his neck and shoulders, dipping them towards his belly and gingerly touched the airy, feathered wings, conscious of their sensitivity and moved down to the horse's rump. Hiccup threaded his hands through the rudder feathers and coarse hair of the tail, showing no fear of being kicked as he worked around to draw the same gentle path back towards the buckskin's head on the other side.

His touch was careful, graceful and clearly reverent. Worshipping and laying his hands on the pegasus in the same soothing way that he did Toothless' hide, there was not even a breath of spite in the young man. He moved and touched like a Healer, all his movements measured and coaxing.

When Hiccup traced Mavrospouli's nostrils and received a nuzzle in returned he turned, smiling towards Calandra. The woman was watching him with a cocked head and searching eyes.

Hiccup backed off and was slightly surprised when Mavrospouli side stepped to follow him, nudging at his shoulder.

"'M sorry, I didn't -" Hiccup fidgeted and stumbled over his apology.

"You truly are a Son of Icarus." She said quietly.

Hiccup blinked. "My father's name is Stoick."

"No Hiccup." Calandra said softly, giving a small shake of her head. "I wasn't sure despite the way you flew, but now I am certain. You are one of our kin, a Child of Icarus. A Son."

Hiccup looked at Calandra with brow furrowed and swallowed. "I'm sorry, Calandra... I don't understand..."

"Do you think you were the only one that took to the skies?" Calandra tilted her head slightly and Hiccup swallowed heavily. "You are not alone above the clouds, Hiccup. You're not the only who who feels lost with your feet on the earth."

Hiccup backed up a step and scrubbed at his throat, trying to keep his eyes away from Calandra but only succeeded in staring at her. Feeling the spoken truth raw and harsh on his mind and cramping in his harshest edges of the ache soothed slightly when Toothless shifted over and nudged his arm gently, purring softly. Hiccup sighed and offered a weak smile to the Night Fury.

"This is not a sin, Hiccup. It is just our natures." Calandra soothed, tilting her head to catch his eyes, pressing her words. Hiccup hesitated before nodding jerkily.

Calandra sighed softly, looking towards Mavrospouli. The buckskin flicked his ears, snorted before ambling a few steps away and roughly tearing a long tendril of leaves out of the nearest tree and busing himself eating it.

"Lot of help you are spourgitis."

Mavrospouli whistled and chirped like a sparrow back at her, rustling his wings.

"Hiccup-"

The teenager straightened himself.

"-tell me how you came upon your Nychta Mania." Calandra coaxed, stepped away from the mud softened bank and leading the young Nordic up towards a few large stones. She unslung her satchel and dropped it to the earth before falling after it, slumping down against a stone with a sigh before sitting up better and stretching her legs out before her. Hiccup hesitated before limping slowly forwards, Toothless following closely making sure that the young Nordic was firmly seated on one of the stones and sat back on his haunches next to him, the Night fury laying the tip of his muzzle into Hiccup's lap, shutting the green umber eyes and purred softly.

Calandra's gaze stayed on the pair for a moment until Hiccup's shoulder's hunched under her gaze. she looked away then, watching Mavrospouli grazing on the trees or stretching out a wing to preen his feathers.

Hiccup relaxed, no longer the woman's focus and keeping his eyes on Toothless stiltedly spoke. Forcing the story out slowly and stiffly, unsure how much to tell the stranger, each word reminding him just how little he had told others. Hiccup had always believed that if he set out to tell the story it would flow and come naturally, a relief.

It grew heavier with each word, it became harder to bare and before it was over his words were muffled from where his lips were pressed into the thick, dark scaled skin between Toothless' eyes, taking comfort in the Night Fury's presence.

Hiccup choked on the last of his tale and fell silent, shutting his eyes tightly. His breathing was hitched and harsh, rushed more than it had been after a flight. Toothless had fallen silent and was perfectly still, his wings arched in protectively around his bonded.

Hiccup flinched when a puff of damp, warm air ghosted across his ear and temple. Thick, velvet soft lips gently nibbled at his hair, tugging gently and breathing in his face. Hiccup breathed out softly but didn't touch Mavrospouli, keeping his hands firmly under Toothless' jaw. He was slightly surprised that the Night Fury allowed the pegasus to come so close when Hiccup was distressed, he didn't want to upset the balance that hung between them.

It may have been because Mavrospouli was a different species, a prey one, and Toothless saw no threat in him. Or they had mad some kind of pact in the sky earlier, recognizing each other in a way that the Night Fury did not with other dragons.

Mavrospouli sighed loudly, letting a soft trill escape his throat as he nosed and lightly nipped at the top of Hiccup's skull.

"I found him in a lion's trap."

Hiccup forced on eye to slit open, looking under the buckskin's throat.

"As a yearling. He was tangled in the wires, had shattered a wing. Screaming. He must not have been there long, a lion would have killed him when he heard the cries. I knew horses. But nothing of birds or Pterotaalogo. I cut him free, coaxed him to a gerakaris, a... hawker? The hunters with birds?"

"Falconer." Hiccup murmured and Calandra nodded.

"There was one in my village. He was old and unselfish... he helped us. Set Mavrospouli's wing and it healed... mostly. Dino pteryga."

In an instant the buckskin stretched out his left wing, laying it into Calandra's hands and she lightly traced a few long narrow scars along the structure of bones and joints, dark lines crowded by fine feathers, showing Hiccup a few strange dents along the main bones.

"He goes... lame... bad weather. While the wing healed I gentled him, like I did any yearling horse. Taught him to be ridden without the bit or saddle. And Nikos, the hawker, taught his wings. Made them strong again. Nikos had the bird and I had the horse. Together we taught him to fly." Calandra smoothed Mavrospouli's long feathers, pulling away when the equine arched his neck around and nosed and nipped at the wing, grooming himself and straightening his feathers. "Nikos saw us fly together for the first time. Then he went on his journey."

Calandra made a sweeping outward motion with one hand and let it fall back to her knee.

Hiccup swallowed. "I'm sorry."

Calandra shook her head. "It was his time, possibly beyond it. It was some years ago. Mavrospouli and I have been flying for a long time."

The young Nordic turned his head and pressed his cheek into the Night Fury's forehead. "How long?"

"Ten years."

Mavrospouli whistled softly, chirping, and nickered as he scratched his teeth into the joining of his flight muscles and shoulder, arching under his wing.

"There are others? Like... us?" Hiccup asked hesitantly.

"Not many." Calandra said honestly and Hiccup relaxed slightly.

The woman was still a stranger but her honesty eased Hiccup's nerves. He was not going to allow himself to be left alone with her but he felt no danger or fear of her or the winged horse. If he believed her they were alike, similar in their wants and passions. They felt the pull to leave the earth behind.

They were... possibly... siblings of nature and fate beyond bloodline.

"Are they what you called me?" Hiccup asked quietly. "Before?"

Calandra's lips tilted slightly. "Yes. Children of Icarus. Sons and Daughters. Made kin by the sky on the wings of another."

The young Nordic flicked his eyes towards Toothless' folded wings, studying the thin, supple leather of them before turning his attention back to Mavrospouli's gilded and ebony tipped pinions.

"I have met them." Calandra assured, "They're real. On the horizons of every sky, even those beyond the seas."

Hiccup nodded and breathed softly, it didn't make him feel any less small in the world but if it was the truth, and he was near desperate for the reality, then he was less alone.

"Is Icarus the tribe leader?"

Calandra smiled just slightly. "You don't know the story? It has not traveled so far north?"

"A story?"

"A boy, named Icarus, was imprisoned with his father by a king. Every night the father, an inventor, used what little they had to try and escape. With feathers from their beds and wax from their candles he made wings for them. The night came that they put on their wings and fly to freedom and Icarus was warned by his father not to fly too high to the sun or too low to the water. They flew from their window and started over the sea towards their home. When dawn broke and shore in sight Icarus lost himself in joy and flew towards the sun. It melted the wax and feathers tore away so that Icarus could not stay aloft. He fell into sea and when the wings became too heavy by water he was drowned. And his father had to fly home alone."

Hiccup's brow furrowed and narrowed his eyes, pulling away from Toothless for the first time.

"Well... that's not morbid or foreboding at all-"

"It's a reminder. A warning. We have been given a gift, it is not something to be played with or abused. Especially when another life is in the balance. That is why we take his name, to learn this lesson without the price."

Hiccup watched as Calandra stroked Mavrospouli's nose. The young Nordic looked down at Toothless his thumbs skating over the edges of the Night Fury's own nostrils, feeling the puff of warm, sulfuric breath over his finger tips.

He had given so much to make it so that Toothless could fly. That they could fly. The risk...

"I understand." Hiccup said quietly.

"You wouldn't touch Mavrospouli or Toothless in such a way if you didn't... you don't need to take his name to learn what he had to teach. But it's yours if you want it." Calandra pushed herself up slowly, levering against the rock, stiff from staying to still.

Hiccup watched her from the corner of his eye.

"You're father was wise to advise you against taking to Greecian skies so easily. And you wise to agree. There are those here who would not hesitated to pull you from the sky." Calandra stretched arching her back and looked towards the sky painted and streaked with the colors of the setting sun. She scooped up her satchel and strapped her forgotten knife back to her thigh. "What port are you in?"

"Helice." Hiccup pushed himself up and stumbled, the pain in his knee making his teeth rattled and prosthesis to slip. Toothless' head dipped, catching him in the same instant that a small but unusually strong hand wrapped around his bicep and hauled him back upright. Calandra's fingers squeezed into his arm and held fast until the younger man had righted himself.

"Thank you." He said quietly, cheeks slightly colored. He looked down at the arm and found his sight flooded with the bracer tattoo work on her arm. Two thick bars of solid black wrapped around her wrist and again mid way up her forearm, marking the boarders of the tattoo that was made entirely of stylized, tribal designs of over lapping loose feathers and downy wings. He studied the design before Calandra carefully extracted her arm.

"It's a symbol." She said seriously, making Hiccup look at her. "This design is a sign, a way we recognize each other. Should you ever be in need, look for this-"

She lifted her arm, hand tightened into a fist.

"Only your kin will carry these. Find this and you are safe. Do you understand?"

Hiccup nodded sharply, a few last flicks of his eyes sealing the bracer tattoo design into his mind.

"Good." Calandra let out a breath that sounded somewhat relieved. "Come on. We'll take you to your port."

She moved around and lightly vaulted up onto Mavrospouli's back, settling herself and combing her hands through the pegasus' coarse hair and feathered mane while Hiccup pulled and settled himself into the saddle, his prosthesis sliding into the stirrup snugly. He tilted it fractionally, looking over his shoulder to make sure the rudder sail was functioning before nodding to Calandra.

Mavrospouli was shifting and prancing in place, snorting, nickering and whistling in agitation. his wings rustling and flexing slightly. Calandra shifted her weight and gave a soft whistle.

"Orthios."

The equine nickered and launched into the air. Hooves galloping without earth, massive feathered wings whistling through the air as they fought gravity.

Toothless and Hiccup paused, giving the other pair time to gather some momentum before lunching into the air after them.

Their flight was bathed in light that looked like fire, even as the heat started to ebb away and the wind shifted in from the sea. Hiccup breathed easy, no longer suffering in the heat and feeling oddly safe as Toothless glided along side Mavrospouli, following the spine of the Pindus back onto the Taiyetos into Achaea. Toothless' sleek black scales flashed and reflected the light while the gloss and shine of Mavrospouli's fur and feathers soaked it in and turned near orange.

The flight was slow and casual, following the mountains and coast line, bypassing dots of pale glowing yellow below as farmholds or small towns in the creeping darkness below.

The light faded rapidly, though Mavrospouli and Toothless never faltered, superior eyes sight catching and reflecting what was given and cutting through the encroaching night. The warmth and time slipped by until Hiccup was looking down at the familiar roofs of and docks of Helice.

His eyes flicked forward and noticed a light bobbing in the darkness that seemed to be bleeding up from the water. It swayed, a different color than those of Helice and a boom of voice rose from the point of light. Distorted and echoing across the surface of the water.

Toothless and Mavrospouli flicker their ears forwards.

The made a low, roiling noise deep in his chest. A noise he only made around Stoick.

The next time the boom of a voice rang out Hiccup recognized the tone if not the word. His father was calling for him. Time seemed to have really run away from him.

Toothless pulled a head of the winged horse and led the other pair towards the bobbing light. He gave a soft call into the dark as they neared. The light stopped swaying suddenly and rose higher, as they glided closer outlining the massive shadow of Stoick's frame.

"HICCUP!" He bellowed.

"Here, Dad!" The young Nordic called and leaned with Toothless down to slow their decent and dropped down near the pool of reddish light of the lamp Stoick carried. The clan leader backed away, stifling a breath of relief poorly.

"Hic-"

The rush of air and rustle of feathers cut Stoick short. The adult stumbled back as Mavrospouli dropped down to light on the deck next to the Night Fury with a clatter of hooves on the woods and flutter as the wings settled. Stoick yanked a heavy dagger from his belt and held it at ready.

The winged horse pinned his ears and arched his neck, flaring out his wings.

"Dad, take it easy. She's a friend." Hiccup quickly dismounted and hobbled forwards to the clan leader, holding out his one hand out towards Stoick and the other to the pegasus.

The equine hissed like a hunting eagle but backed away a stride. On his back Calandra whispered soothingly to him in their native tongue and slightly skated her fingers over tensed muscles, relaxing them.

"She's a friend." Hiccup assured again but didn't step back until Stoick had stored his blade back to it's sheath.

The buckskin snorted softly and flicked his tail once before turning his attention away from Stoick all together and stretching to touch noses and shared breath with Toothless for a final moment.

"Dad this is Calandra. Calandra, my father Stoick. The leader of our clan." Hiccup made an awkward motion between them.

"Empros Archigos." Calandra dipped her head respectfully lifting a hand and placing a closed fist over her heart.

Stoick hesitated before mimicking her.

"Hiccup-" The woman motioned him forwards as she pulled the satchel around and dug into it, sorting through it's contents before coming up with a thick, leather bound book. She smoothed through the pages that looked to be made more of finely tanned hide as Hiccup strode over to stand at her knee, looking up and waiting patiently.

He sensed Stoick and Toothless tense when Calandra drew the knife from her thigh but used it to slice out one of the tanned hide pages and handed it to Hiccup. The young Nordic turned it over a few times, studying the fine, narrow inked lines on either side. It looked like a map, one side the world Hiccup new, Europe and Asia, Africa and Australia. The other side was a strange design of two continents connected by a narrow strip of land, one looked slightly like Africa in shape.

"The red marks." He motioned towards the small dots, scattered across the maps, each dot marked with a series of numbers, a heading, a longitude and latitude.

"If you have the desire, you can find them."

Hiccup started slightly,

The others that Calandra had assured him of. The Children of Icarus.

"Calandra... thank you but you'll need this-"

"No. I know where they are. I have no need of it." The woman assured with a small smile.

The young Nordic gripped the map tightly."You're sure?"

"Its my duty to know where they are, Hiccup. And the next map will be marked where your Berk is, so that the ones who come later will know to find you as well."

"Why is it your duty to know where they all are?" Hiccup paused and before licking his chapped lips. "You're the leader aren't you? You're in charge?"

"In a way." Calandra admitted. "I have been flying the longest. And am the eldest. So in times of trial I will stand as chief and in peace stand as a kind of judge."

Hiccup carefully folded the tanned hide map and held it gingerly in his hands and nodded jerkily.

"Something else." Calandra sheathed the knife at her hip and stroked her hand across the first joint of Mavrospouli's wing. "Dino pteryga."

The equine unfolded his wing and held it up and Calandra drew it forwards, her, bending it until she could reach nearer to the tip. With light and gentle fingers she delicately pulled free a gilded feather. It slipped from the wing with little effort and seemed to go unnoticed by the horse.

What little Hiccup knew of the woman he was certain she would do nothing that caused Mavrospouli pain so he didn't protest. She held out the feather towards him. It was as broad as his palm and the length of his elbow to his finger tips. The young Nordic carefully lifted it from her hands and reverently passed the quill through his fingers, feeling the fine, soft hairs that knit together into the complete feather, the spun gold color melting into the onyx tip.

"I'm certain we'll meet again, Hiccup. But that does not mean I won't leave you without a token."

Hiccup nodded before side stepping to Toothless.

"Can you shake a few scales loose?" He asked. The Night Fury was constantly shedding old scales but Hiccup only kept three, all three he'd found on a narrow rocky ledge of a small valley alcove were Toothless had been trapped, long before Hiccup had even held a notion to come to close quarters with the dragon.

Toothless chirruped before bending and lifting a rear leg, balancing on three and scratched at the thick skin behind his hear, tilting his head and enjoying the action more than he intended to.

A soft sound like breaking glass filled the air as a few scales broke free and clinked to the hardwood of the deck. a series of small, perfect circles, glittering and looking like droplets of pure jet. Hiccup scooped up the largest scale, a little over the size of a large coin. He turned it over in his fingers before offering it to Calandra.

She lightly plucked it from the young Nordic's fingers. She palmed it before slipping it between the pages of the book, closed it and slid it back into the satchel.

She hesitated before reached out and lightly feathering her hand through his russet hair.

Calandra pulled back and shifted herself on Mavrospouli's shoulders and the winged horse gave a soft snort towards Hiccup. Flicking his ears.

"Statheros anemos, Hiccup." Calandra smiled slightly at him. "Have you need of me, find me."

Hiccup smiled and nodded.

Mavrospouli tossed his head and side stepped, stretching his wings before trotting smoothly to the side of the ship and lightly vaulted over the side of the boat, wings flexing out and catching the horse as he dripped towards the surface of the water. The buckskin skimmed along the surface, the tips of his wings trailing in the water for a moment before a few long strokes and the horse climbed up into the last dredges of light.

The Night Fury called after them, rumbling out a low growl. He was answered by the warbling whinny, it echoed of the glass like surface of the water and the ridges of the Taiyetos Mountains.

A/N: This what happens when a good movie comes out... I write elaborate fic... oh and I HATE writing the word 'pegasus'. Hate it. Anyway the Nordic Viking Nation and the Greek Empire would have only JUST barely over lapped.

Greek Translations:

Calandra - Lark

Mavrospouli - Blackbird

Ypostirizo - Back up

Nychta Mania - Night Fury.

Pterotaalogo - Winged Horse/Pegasus

Spourgitis - Sparrow

Gerakaris - falconer

Dino pteryga - give wing

Orthios - up

Statheros anemos - Steady winds

Norse Translation/Notes (Not a lot, got wrapped up in Greek):

Jörmungandr the Midgard Serpent - a giant sea serpent that has grown so large that he has wrapped himself around the world and when he lets his grip slip the world will come to an end.

Haustmánuður - in the old Norse calender this is the months that corresponds from mid-September to mid-October and is known as the 'autumn month'.