Chapter 12

They both sat on a small island's rocky shore, Hicca sitting beside Toothless's curled and lounging frame on the ground as the shock and adrenaline from the flight wore off. Hicca, to say the absolute least, was elated and couldn't care less that her face and hair were covered in the smokey soot from Toothless's victory plasma blast. She didn't care that her hair looked wind-swept and unruly, with almost half of it loose from her usually well-kept braid. There was an almost absent-minded smile on her face as she stared out to the open sea, where the sun was just about setting over its horizon.

For the first time, Hicca felt something that she hadn't even known existed: pure freedom. No dragon training, no pretending, no trying to prove herself. Just her and Toothless and the sea below them, the sky above, and the horizon ahead of them. The only thing she had to worry about was falling, and it only added to the exhilarating feeling of it all.

She was pulled out of her thoughts as Toothless started making coughing noises. As she turned to him, he coughed up half of a fish he had eaten and turned to Hicca expectantly, obviously wanting her to eat something too.

Hicca gave a slight grimace at the slimy half of the fish and lifted her own fish out of the fire with a stick, gesturing to it for her companion to see.

"Um, no thanks," she said with a small smile, "I'm good."

Toothless looked back at the fish on the ground and gave what Hicca could have sworn was a shrug as he slurped the fish back into his mouth. Hicca smirked brought her fish up to her mouth to take a bite but heard the unmistakable squawk of a band of Terrible Terrors flying into view.

There were only about five of them, but Hicca knew not to underestimate them based on their size. Tuffnut had made that mistake in dragon training and still had scratches healing on his nose, so it was needless to say that even though they were small, they could still cause a lot of damage.

The Night Fury didn't like the new company either and started growling. His mouth curling into a sneer as his tail curled protectively around Hicca and his front paws pulled his hoard of fish closer. One of the braver Terrors scurried close to the pile of fish and quickly tried to snatch one, pulling fish with it as fast as he could. Toothless was faster though, grabbing the fish with his teeth and tugging it from the Terror before it could make its escape. The Night Fury then swallowed the fish himself, and made a noise Hicca knew was his own sort of dragon laugh at the small Terror.

It was obvious that the tiny dragon didn't appreciate the gesture, and it raised the side of its mouth in a snarl as it planted its feet firmly on the ground. It was going to attack, and Hicca leaned away slowly while bringing an arm up defensively, but Toothless didn't move an inch and remained in his relaxed position on the ground.

The Terrible Terror, however, was still very much on the offensive and opened its mouth and arched its back, about to blast fire at Toothless. But just as the Terror was going to fire, Toothless shot the tiniest amount of plasma at the smaller dragon's open mouth, and the Terror quickly puffed up and plopped back to the ground, dazed and disoriented as smoke curled of its mouth. It was a pretty hilarious sight, Hicca would admit.

"Not so fireproof in the inside, huh?" She giggled as the Terror stumbled away from Toothless and his fish dizzily.

"Well, here you go." Hicca tossed a fish from her own pile towards the smaller dragon, feeling slightly sorry for it. And it wasn't like she was going to eat all the fish in her small pile anyway.

The fish landed by the Terrible Terror - Hicca was quite proud of her aim, her tosses and throws were terribly coordinated most of the time - and it seemed to sober up after seeing it. After quickly swallowing the fish, the Terror looked up at Hicca curiously and then made its way to Hicca in a small series of scampers. When it reached her left side, the dragon forced it's small body under Hicca's hand and curled up against her hip, closing its eyes contentedly with a full belly and a seemingly new friend.

Hicca, to say the least, was shocked. She tentatively lowered her hand to rest on the dragon's scaled belly. Was this all it took to gain the trust of a dragon? Simply feed it and, in the easiest of ways, not attack it.

"Everything we know about you is wrong," Hicca realized aloud.

She had been taught to fear dragons before she was old enough to understand why. The entire village believed that all dragons were vicious, vile, and out to kill. But here, Hicca had two pieces of proof that could prove them all wrong about dragons. One was making happy chirping sounds as it was scratched under the chin, and the other would be Toothless. The dragon who hadn't killed her the first chance he had. The dragon who had befriended her and the one she now trusted enough to fly over the open ocean with.

It was as if everything she had ever know was being flipped over. She wondered if it was ever absolutely necessary to hunt and kill dragons in the first place, and her eyebrows furrowed when she realized that just a few weeks ago she wanted to be exactly like the rest of her people. She wanted to be seen as one of them, one who killed these magnificent creatures in anger and defense and pride.

As if sensing her distress, Toothless hummed in a comforting manner and nudged his own larger head under Hicca's right arm, looking up at her with wide green eyes. The creases between Hicca's brows faded into a soft smile as she responded with a few good scratches between the Night Fury's ear plates.

"Don't worry, bud." She looked out to the setting sun over the ocean's horizon, a feeling of determination washing over her. "I won't be like them. I promise."

I know, I know. It's really short and I'm really sorry about that but I just wanted to get something out to you guys. But hey everyone, it's been a while. I hope you all are doing well :)

As for how long it's taken to update, again, I'm really sorry and I feel like I apologize so much it's starting to lose it's meaning and authenticity lol. BUT things have been a lot busier for me recently and I'm going through a big season of change in life right now, and writing this particular story has been on a back burner for quite some time, as you may have noticed.

I'm excited to tell you guys that over the past few months I've been working on a few original projects that were previously just ideas floating around in my head for almost a year. I don't know if any of you are interested and I don't want to give away too much, so that's all I'm going to say on that subject right now. If you guys are interested, I'll have my socials listed below so you can follow my creative process/life if you want :)

(also I'm like 500% more active on those platforms haha i promise)

Also, thank you to everyone who has read, commented, favorited, and followed during this hiatus. I get really really happy and motivated when I see notifications popping up on my phone and I love reading your reviews and I'm going to try my very best to respond to all of them soon!

But that's all I have to say for now, so thanks again for reading and thank you for understanding :)

Love you guys!

-Estelle

ps. if you want to follow my insta comment something random like "i know you're hiding a dragon" so I know you're from here and I can follow you back, it'll be like a secret community lol. also don't be shy! i really want to interact with you guys 3

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