Chapter 8: Breaking Limitations

(Excerpt translated by Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III)

When I was young, brave, and unburdened and free, I would practice flying. I would climb to the top of the tallest trees in Raven Point, glide from one branch to another. Sometimes I'd attempt pulling out of a dive, other times, I'd try beating my wings so hard, I'd reach the highest branch solely through that. Once, I went on a solo-flight around the mountain range, taking in the amazing sights in total awe of the sheer beauty that no one else could experience.

These flights ended once regular hunts occurred around the forests, searching for a baby Stormcutter one of the younger kids had seen (I believe it was a Hofferson, the family famed for having strong warriors and loyal women).

In that short period of my life, those flights were easily the greatest thing I could've ever experienced. I was immensely saddened when I could no longer indulge in my guilty pleasure, in fear of death or injury, but perhaps, one day, I'll be able to do it once again.

When Hiccup was young, very young, his father had taken him on a 'tour' of the island of Berk. He'd walked with him along the coast lines, in the areas that were relatively safe and didn't have dragons running amok. The ending highlight was taking Hiccup to the top of Thor's cliff, letting him look over the surrounding shores, the ships coming and going, all proudly displaying the Hairy Hooligan symbol.

Being atop that cliff was the highest Hiccup had ever been in his life. If he jumped off the edge, he'd die, plain and simple. The thought had terrified him, and he clung to his father's leg, nearly succumbing to tears when he felt a strong breeze blow his hair back. He thought that he'd never reach a height greater than that.

Then again, he'd never thought he'd be 'bound' to a Night Fury and soaring in the skies in the middle of the afternoon.

Gobber had announced to them, very early in the day, that boats had been spotted approaching Berk from a watch guard. As such, training was cancelled, and they were sent home after breakfast in the Great Hall.

Which meant he had time to grab the saddle, fix the safety ring, and get to Toothless. Which meant that right now, they were flying, high above the ocean, not tethered to anything but each other, trusting that one would not bring the death of the other.

They weren't going too fast: Toothless understood that this was a test flight for more than simple gliding, and that Hiccup wasn't used to going any faster than a sprint. But that didn't mean that it wasn't terrifying, or that going slow eliminated the height between the air and the ground.

There were no words to describe how Hiccup felt in that very moment. Scared? Anxious? Slightly panicked? All paled in the face of this numb sense of determination, everything bubbled in the background, waiting to pop once he could properly process what was happening. He was hyper-focused, his more dragon-like, instinctive traits out in the open. Scales covered his entire body, but his hair was still atop his head, buffering in the wind. His eyes had also changed, his slit pupils focused and centered on the 'cheat sheet' he'd made and pinned to the saddle.

The cheat sheet, crude in design and made so that way he wouldn't screw up everything, was a small sheet of paper divided into six separate boxes. Each one had a different tailfin position that helped with different parts of flight. For example: position 5 helped slow Toothless down and ease them into landing.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Toothless crooned beneath them. "I'm willing to wait if you're not ready, we could just teach you how to do—"

"I'm fine!" Hiccup hurriedly replied, breathing deeply to calm himself. If he got panicky, then the whole flight would spiral out of control. "I'm fine. Let's just… take this slow, okay?"

"Slow, huh?" Toothless chuckled, trying to lighten the mood. "I think I can manage slow."

Hiccup breathed out, eyes locked on the cheat sheet, and refusing to look at the sky or sea. If he didn't look, he wouldn't panic. "Here we go. Here we go, position three—no, four."

Pressing the pedal down with his heel, a squeaking click informed him that the fin had gone into a flared, spread position. Toothless had twisted briefly, and assured him once they began to turn to the left. "It's looking good so far!"

He looked back, watching as the prosthetic flapped and waved in the wind, forcing Toothless to repeatedly twist to compensate for the out-of-sync movements. In his mind, he made small adjustments, ways for the fin to act more 'attached' and less at the whims of the wind, but he filed it away. Right now, he and Toothless had to focus on the skies, and make adjustments later. "Alright, it's go time. It's go time. Let's go!"

Toothless roared with delight as they fell into a dive, aiming for a collection of arching sea stacks. The tip of his wing sliced through the water, the spray hitting Hiccup and panicking him for a moment. "C'mon buddy, come on!"

"Relax, Hornless-head, I know what I'm doing." He called as they passed under the arch, seagulls cawing above them, either oblivious to the dangerous predator or minding their own business. In a brief moment of panic, Hiccup wondered if the ships Gobber had mentioned could see them, so close to the surface.

The panic vanished as they continued under the arch and he could see the wide, vacant ocean surrounding them. Sighing with relief, Hiccup let the sense of factory wash over him. "Yes! Yes, it worked!"

And then he watched it get dashed as they collided with a sea stack. Jolted, Hiccup quickly said an apology. "Sorry—!" Another collision, this time accompanied by an irritated grumble from Toothless. "That was my fault!"

He slapped the Rider with his ear fin, flapping his wings a few times to regain a comfortable speed. "Can we try to not break my legs? I'd like to be able to walk when we land again."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm on it." He ran his finger over the cheat sheet once more, feeling anxiety build. "Position four—no, three."

"Get your numbers straight!" Toothless jested as they climbed into the sky, wings beating fiercely as they continued to ascend. It felt different from the first time in the cove: more controlled for both parties, and less disappointment to be found. As they climbed alongside the highest mountaintop in Berk, Toothless let his tongue flop in the wind, and Hiccup cheered, anxiety being replaced for adrenaline-fueled excitement as they passed the cloud line.

"Oh, this is amazing!" Hiccup yelled, feeling the clouds' moisture stick to his face—his scale-covered face that he was comfortable with. "The wind in my—"

He nearly missed it, only when it slapped him in the face did he realize that the cheat sheet had fallen loose from his clip from all the turbulence. He screeched, a bit of a roar leaking into his voice. "Cheat sheet! Stop!"

Thankfully, he'd grabbed it, the leather a thick, comforting presence in his hand. He twisted his torso, ready to clip it back on to the slowing dragon and fall into a semi-controlled dive.

And then he realized, as he became completely airborne and not connected to Toothless at all, that the safety cord had fallen out of the ring.

Now was the time to panic.

They both screamed, Toothless falling faster than Hiccup and screeching, trying to pull himself into a slower descent but only managing to spiral rapidly. Without Hiccup, the tailfin was stuck in the position and wouldn't change, meaning he couldn't adjust accordingly. Hiccup cursed under his breath, swearing against every God and Goddess he could summon to the forefront of his mind as he tried to calm Toothless. "Alright, okay, you just gotta, kinda angle yourself towards—towards me, come back down towards—"

His tail slapped Hiccup in the face, a sharp piece of metal cutting into his cheek and grounding him slightly as they both continued to spin. "I'm trying! You have to get to the saddle, or we're both going to die!"

Grunting, Hiccup tried to dive towards Toothless, only to discover that he was still falling a bit behind. Desperation and fear clouded his thoughts, and he barely noticed the sound of fabric ripping as he shoved his cheat sheet into his mouth and reached with both his hands, wishing he could pull closer.

The muscles on his back convulsed, and he did. Propelled forward, it was just enough for him to wrap his clawed fingers around the saddle and pull himself into a seated position, feet sliding into the straps as changed the tailfin and pulled. Toothless straightened and flared his wings, the dive changing into a desperate attempt to slow down and land as they skimmed the tree tops.

"Hiccup, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there's more coming up!" Toothless screamed, and he looked up to see an approaching collection of sea stacks, all pressed together like a twisted obstacle course from Hel. He ripped the cheat sheet out of his mouth, looking down at it only to be unable to read it due to the buffing winds.

Forget it. He threw it over his shoulder and pressed his chest against the saddle, allowing instincts to guide him as he and Toothless flew in tandem, twisting and maneuvering with grace through the sea stacks. The squeaks of the prosthetic tailfin were drowned out by his pounding heart and the whistling gales, his mind silenced as they spun and made shallow but effective turns. Everything else was flushed from his mind as it focused entirely on the task in front of him.

It felt like an hour, but when they left the stacks, it had only been a minute at most. They both looked at the horizon, awed and stunned, only to both scream their own victory cries. Hiccup threw his hands up in the air, flailing slightly as he was nearly pulled off the saddle. He looked over his shoulder, and was meat with a pair of wings identical to Toothless', along with a long, black tail coming out of his back. His shirt was ripped, but thankfully the harness had remained intact, keeping him attached to Toothless.

His friend beneath him was oblivious to the new development as he shot a plasma blast directly in front of them. A pulse of purple energy spread out from the epicenter, Toothless heading headfirst into the gigantic fireball with no signs of slowing or stopping.

"Aw, come on."

Toothless gagged three times, a fish head falling from his lips as he crooned at the still stunned Hiccup. He'd yet to bring his wings and tail back in, mainly because his clothes were torn irrepairably. However, he'd brought in his scales covering his body, and his pupils were now circular. In his hand was a fish he'd caught on his own and cooked with Toothless' plasma blast, and he politely declined his friend's offer. "No thanks, bud. I'm good."

"Suit yourself." Toothless managed a shrug, looking out at the coast. The island wasn't too far away from Berk, but it was far enough that no travelling merchant ships would be able to spot them. It was primarily made of stone, with little plant life along the coastline. "We found a good spot to watch the sunset."

"Yeah. Bet it doesn't look this good from the cove." Hiccup joked, grimacing as he took a bite of the unseasoned and rare fish. It'd been cooked, but only enough to make the meat a bit tougher and to burn away any diseases, enough for Hiccup to live if he ate, but certainly not enough to make it taste good.

"Food!" The duo looked up, Toothless letting out a low growl, as a small flock of Terrible Terrors clumsily swooped towards them. "Dark Shot food! Friendly? Food food food! Hungry eat dinner food!"

Toothless' growl rose in volume as they landed and practically slithered across the ground, inching closer to his pile of fish. A red-scaled one darted forward, snatching the regurgitated head and dragging it away. Before he could snap at it, his attention was grabbed by one of the fish standing straight up, bobbing away from the pile. His growl took on an irritated note as he snagged the head, exposing the green Terrible Terror as they engaged in a small game of tug of war.

With a snap, the Terror fell back as the fish was ripped from its mouth and swallowed whole by Toothless. He let out a series of quick huffs, almost chuckle-like in quality, as he taunted the yellow-scaled dragon. "You want it? Come and get it."

Huffing and pushing out its chest, the Terror rose on its hindlegs, chittering and scratching its claws against the ground. As it opened its mouth, Toothless shot a small plasma blast, the gas that had built up in its throat creating a miniature explosion and expanding the Terror's stomach almost comically. Thankfully, it hadn't actually exploded in front of Hiccup, and it walked away. It was dazed, almost drunken with its stumbling, criss-crossing steps, but otherwise unharmed.

One of the Terrors, one with light blue scales, gasped as it noticed the wings and tails protruding from Hiccup's back. "Dark Shot Rider! Dark Shot Rider!"

The remaining Terrors snapped away from the food, crowding Hiccup with awe clear in their eyes. A flurry of questions streamed forth, the small dragons not noticing Hiccup's wings pull close to his body and his tail wrap around his legs. "How long was it? Did you plan it? How long did you know Dark Shot? Did it hurt a lot? Are you here to end the war?"

"ENOUGH!" Toothless roared, startling not only the Terrors, but Hiccup. "LEAVE!"

The Terrors practically climbed over each other to get away from the duo, panicked chirps and growls leaving the flock's mouths as they jumped into the air. Their wings blurred in the dying sunlight, a testament to how fast they were going to get away. The enraged Night Fury slapped his tail against the ground, the chimes of metal and leather adding to the effect as he huffed and went back to slurping up his dinner. "Idiotic dragons. They can be the most insensitive, blunt, careless creatures on the archipelago sometimes."

Careful to not disturb his friend and give him a minute to calm down, Hiccup spread his wings and uncurled his tail, watching as the fins spread and then snapped together. He nibbled at his fish, his earlier hunger having left in a rush. An awkward silence hung between them, only broken by Hiccup's tiny voice. "Toothless?"

"Yeah?"

"Could you… tell me what you did? Specifically?"

He tensed up, only to let out a sigh and protectively curl his tail around the smaller boy. "You're sure you want to know?"

"Wouldn't be asking if I wasn't."

"Yeah, you have a point." Toothless chuckled, slurping up the last fish before breathing deeply. "What I did to you was what we dragons call a Soulbond. I give a part of my soul to you, and you give a part of your soul to me. The dragon half of this duo is known as a Skifte, and you are known as a Rider."

"So that's why all of the dragons have been calling me that…"

"It's not too hard to tell a human apart from a Rider." He joked before continuing. "You already know what happens to a Rider, but a Dragon can change into a human. Riders and Skiftes were considered the great mediators between humans and dragons, settling conflicts and negotiating peace across the Archipelago. There were whispers that they were directly descendants from the Goddess, and they were always present and willing to listen. No village or nest was complete without one."

"What happened?"

"The War." Toothless growled. "Too many differences, not enough similarities. Controlling Betas and Alphas being used by humans to gain power. Dragons drove out Soulbonds and made them taboo, afraid that the Rider would side with humans and give away the locations of their nest. Humans killed Skiftes and Riders in fear that they'd kill them all in their sleep and give away their weak locations to Dragons. They faded into myths, forgotten by Humans and only whispered amongst dragons."

"So then why do it to me?" Hiccup worried his bottom lip as he felt scales appear on his hands. "Why do this with me, if it's such a taboo, if you hated me after I shot you down?"

Toothless looked away, something like a sigh leaving his throat. "I… I was angry. Furious, even. A human had brought down a mighty Dark Shot in one blow, then had the audacity to show him mercy and release him? I didn't know much about Soulbonds, but I knew the basis of what would happen. If you weren't killed by your village, then you'd be cast out without a home and abandoned. You'd lose everything in your life that had meaning, and become an outcast.

"And then… and then I discovered I my tailfin had been damaged, that I was grounded. I was now a Skifte, but I couldn't regenerate limbs. I felt depressed, but I'd accepted it. I was going to starve in the cove, never to see the nest again, never to feel myself soar through the skies. If I did grieve, it's because I knew what would happen to you."

Toothless stopped, and Hiccup swallowed nervously, wringing his fingers together. "What… what would have happened to me?"

He hesitated again, and Hiccup could feel him tense beneath him. "If one half of the Soulbond dies, then the other will grieve and be in immense pain. You'd experience your soul literally ripping itself to shreds, and be almost immobilized by grief at points. Because you wouldn't know what was happening…"

Toothless didn't need to finish the sentence. If he hadn't been labeled as insane, then he would've died in Dragon training. The silence hung heavy between them, only broken by the lapping waves at the shoreline in front of them and the far-off chatter of the Terrors.

"Well." Toothless abruptly stood, and Hiccup fell back, unbalanced due to his new wings. "I think that's enough uncomfortable heart to heart for one evening. Frankly, I'm exhausted, and I'm not in a mood to teach you how to blast a fireball or properly fly. I think we'd both rather just… head back."

Hiccup sighed and pressed his lips together, wincing as he heard cracks and pops as his wings and tail pulled back into his body. His pants and shirt were, unfortunately, ripped, but his vest had come out mostly unscathed. Uncomfortably stretched, maybe a bit scorched, but still in one piece.

"Yeah." He stood and mounted Toothless' saddle, throwing away his half-eaten fish. "I'd like that."

Hiccup flicked his pencil away, watching with vacant disinterest as it rolled back down to his waiting hand. His workshop was lacking a flame, or banging metal, and Gobber was missing, off in the Great Hall probably. The walls and his desk were covered in sketches of Toothless, or his prosthetic fin. The only light in the room were the various candles he'd lit upon entering.

He… didn't know how to feel after this afternoon. On the bright side, the saddle, as well as the tailfin positions, worked perfectly, even in high-stress situations. Sure, he'd want to improve the speed in which the positions changed, but that'd be something he could do later when he had free time.

On the other hand, however, Toothless had told him that he was intending to kill him and make him a freak even in his own village. He could understand why, it wasn't hard for him to understand that. In any other situation, Hiccup had run away and refused to have ever talked to Toothless again, but…

Toothless had obviously felt guilty about it, reluctant to talk about what his original intentions were and wanted to avoid it as much as possible. Besides that, Hiccup couldn't ignore the fact that that had happened more than a month ago, and their relationship had changed since Toothless had been shot down. They'd both bonded, and they'd both matured. Hiccup was allowed into a world no Viking had ever seen before, and if he was being honest, he liked it. He felt more accepted with Toothless up in the air, seeing his scales, feeling his wings and tail twitch behind him, than with the other humans.

It was somewhat of an eye-opener to realize he felt more comfortable with his would-be killer turned best friend than the people he'd grown up with.

To his left, some of the candlelight dimmed, and he turned with a disinterested stare. The candles in his room were at varying states of burning out, and it wasn't completely unlikely that a few had burned out. His brain stopped when he saw his father standing there, his frame lit ominously by the remaining light in the room.

"Dad!" Hiccup jolted, hands scrabbling over his desk and hiding as much of his work as he possibly could and prayed to the Gods that he ignored the large drawing of Toothless' prosthetic. "You're back! Gobber's not here right now, probably out in the Great Hall, so…"

"I know." Stoick's deep voice seemed to reverberate throughout the small room, rumbling like thunder, even as he stepped down slightly, caging Hiccup in. "I came looking for you."

Hiccup felt his throat close, heart dropping into his stomach. Despite this, he pushed back the urge for his scales to pop out onto the surface of his skin, and tried to meet his father's steely gaze. "You did?"

"You've been keepin' secrets."

"I… I have?"

"Just how long did you think you could hide it from me?"

"I don't know what you're—"

"Nothing happens on this island without me hearing about it."

Hiccup could feel his heart threatening to burst out of his chest, a cold sweat starting to run down his neck. His eyes darted around the room, already cursing that he never made a second exit door in case of a fire in the main forge. "Oh?"

"So." Ignoring his son's clear panic, Stoick lowered himself down further. "Let's talk about that dragon."

Hiccup felt the blood drain from his face, and he fell back, barely catching himself on his table and avoiding landing in the stack of buckets behind him. "Gods." He whispered, trying to gauge Stoick's expression, half expecting his axe to swing out from behind him and chop Hiccup's head off. "Dad, I'm so sorry. I was going to tell you, I just didn't know how to—"

Hiccup cut himself off as he saw a deranged smile break across his father's face. The smile grew into chuckling, which grew into full-body laughter, the chief having to hold his stomach as his laughter boomed. He joined in, reluctantly, and then carefully stuck his toe into the waters. "You're not… upset?"

"What?" His father cried out, his smile still there, and Hiccup took a step back at the crazed expression. "I was hoping for this!"

"You…" He watched in somewhat stunneded horror, wondering if the last trip to find the nest had led to him losing his mind. "You were?"

"And believe me, it only gets better!" Lost in his own world, Stoick looked around at the range of machinery and scrap parts scattered around the room, completely missing the prosthetic sketch. "Just wait 'til you spill a Nadder's guts for the first time, and mouth your first Gronckle head on a spear. What a feeling!"

He smacked Hiccup on the shoulder, sending him into the buckets. As he struggled to push himself out of the bucket, the reality of the situation dawned on him. His father was happy that he was in the top two for dragon training, and hadn't discovered Toothless. No one had discovered Toothless, or about the bond, or anything.

If anything, that made his heart's current residence in his stomach solidify as his father's exuberance skyrocketed. "You really had me going there, son. All those years of the worst Viking Berk has ever seen! Odin, it was rough, I almost gave up on you, and all the while, you were holding out on me. Thor almighty!

He grabbed an extra seat, one that could probably hold his weight, and pulled it up so he was sitting directly across from Hiccup. "Ah, with you doing so well in the ring, we finally have something to talk about."

Hiccup adverted his gaze, fingernails digging into the palms of his hands, and an awkward silence descended in the room. Whatever hopes he had that his father would care about his interests were crushed, now. Stoick would only care about him if he was a bloodthirsty dragon-killer, something that would never happen, not now. He had interests that he did well in, drawing he doubted any Viking would care about, and yes sometimes his inventions went awry, but he had a promising career as the village blacksmith. Gobber must've said something good about him at one point or another, something to qualify him for tending to the forge instead of fighting.

...How long had it been since Stoick had called him his son?

"Oh, I brought you something." Stoick spoke up, grabbing something from underneath his arm. In his hands was a small, horned helmet, just large enough to fit comfortably on Hiccup's head. "To keep you safe in the ring."

"Wow," He accepted it, turning it over in his hands and then placing it upon his head. It felt… odd, but he attributed it to the fact that he just wasn't used to feeling a helmet on his head. Typically, helmets for them were worn as a gift, something that families would give to their kids once they grew up and knew the path they were about to take.

Clearly, Stoick expected him to become one of the best dragon killers on the island.

He didn't know how to deal with that.

"Yer mother would've wanted you to have it. It's half of her breast plate. Matching set. Keeps her close, y'know?" Hiccup froze and looked up to see Stoick tap the side of his own helmet, whatever sentimental value he'd accepted was flushed away in a rush of embarrassment. "Wear it proudly, you deserve it. You've held up your end of the deal."

And that was something else he didn't want to think about. Squirming, Hiccup leaned back and covered his mouth with his hand, faking a yawn. "I should really get to bed."

They both started to talk over each other, trying to cover up the past few embarrassing minutes, somehow both ending on the word 'hat'. Both blushed, and Stoick choked out a reluctant and somewhat embarrassed, "Good night."

Once Stoick left, Hiccup sighed and took off the hat, looking over it and turning it around in his hands. The horns were strong and sturdy, fashioned with care, and the metal had been recently polished. He could imagine his mother looking down on him from Valhalla, feel every eye in the village, all their hopes and expectations physically weigh down on his back.

He wanted nothing more than to vomit, throw the hat away in disgust, and dive into the ocean to never resurface again.

Why was it that when he did anything 'good', it only made his life worse?

AN: AAAAAAAHHHH I'M SO SORRY.

I could spout out endless excuses, but surprisingly, none of them have been writer's block (or, well, maybe?). First of all, I hate writing expositional moments-it's actually why I left out the opening scene from the movie-and that entire scene with Hiccup and Toothless talking is AU exposition which sucked to write. Another thing is my school has no breaks for six weeks as it's 'AP Season', meaning it's the main time where all the advanced placement classes cram. This isn't even mentioning college tours, ACT and SAT prep, as well as dealing with stress from prom.

And on top of all of that, Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild came out, and I've been waiting for this game for nearly three years now and I got so sidetracked from that (and I haven't even killed my first Divine Beast because I'm still grinding for towers and shrines in that game god it's so good, it's so good).

This all amounted to me either forgetting about this fanfic or writing snippets in a journal or looseleaf paper and getting barely any progress done. I pushed to finish this one and actually cut out the next scene in order to get it out on time for the seven-year anniversary of the first film.

Still, this one is pretty long, and it provides a fair amount of answers to some questions the AU brought about! I hope everyone enjoyed reading and, I will admit, I cannot guarantee an update next Sunday, but I will push to get it done. I'm ready to come back to this!