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Astrid watched as Hiccup saddled Toothless, fingers finding and cinching buckles in a way that seemed second-nature. The rig was more complex than Stormfly’s; Toothless’ saddle was attached to pulleys and joints and cinches all down his body and tail, and Hiccup tested the position and tightness of each as he went.
“How do you cope in emergencies?” Astrid asked, eyes widening a bit in awe.
“Practice.” Hiccup pulled the last strap tight, then gave Toothless a little pat. The dragon swayed and hummed, shooting his rider an ardent glance as he waited. Hiccup stood and wiped his hands on his pants, then gestured to the saddled Night Fury. “Your turn,” he smirked.
“I thought I was just learning to fly him,” Astrid replied, startled. “There’s no way I’ll figure that out.”
“It’s not that hard,” Hiccup insisted, sidling closer and giving her an encouraging nudge. “And in a situation where you need to fly Toothless, I might not be around to saddle him for you.”
The thought of such a situation made Astrid’s heart tug a little. They had powerful and vindictive enemies, and what went unspoken was that if Hiccup wasn’t able to fly Toothless, he may have been abducted or worse. Without further complaint, she knelt beside the dragon.
“I take it off starting with the tail,” Hiccup suggested. “It’s easier to keep it from getting tangled.”
Astrid moved to Toothless’ tail, which twitched as he looked from Astrid to Hiccup, trying to parse out what was happening. Astrid’s hands hovered over the tailfin as she took in all the little interconnected parts. She didn’t often take time to appreciate the ingenuity of the rig; it seemed as much a part of Toothless as anything, and remembering that Hiccup had made this gave her a bit of vertigo. She tugged a little on the pulley and watched as the fin fanned out.
“The tail is detachable from the rig,” Hiccup warned, then kneeled beside her. “Don’t mess with this latch. It’s the buckles running along the bottom that you need to deal with; then you can move up his body. After that it’s just like Stormfly.”
Astrid obeyed, unfastening the tiny buckles one by one and easing the leather straps off around Toothless’ spines. The dragon waited as Astrid folded the rig up, keeping track of the pulley per Hiccup’s advice. It was easy enough to take off, but it separated into what looked like about a hundred different pieces. They were meant to run across Toothless’ belly and under his wings and over his back, but when they weren’t fastened together she couldn’t tell which was which to save her life.
“Good job,” Hiccup grinned, looking pleased. Gods, it wasn’t even patronizing. He was as impressed with her as if he’d never done it himself. Then a little spark of mischief entered his smile. “Now put it back.”
Putting the rig on was different from taking it off, not in the least due to the abundance of straps. Hiccup showed her his tricks for identifying them, explaining that even he sometimes got the thing turned around, which did wonders for her confidence. Hiccup instructed her to do the straps up loosely, then run over the entire thing two more times while tightening them to make sure the tension was correct and that nothing was chafing. He warned her about which straps were prone to twisting and which ones were easiest to do wrong, then laid his hand over hers and showed her how to check the tightness. Her pulse jumped.
About halfway through the painful process, Toothless began to shift and grumble.
“Humor her,” Hiccup whispered, pitching his voice to be sure Astrid could hear him. “She’s doing her best!”
Toothless crooned in a way which suggested Astrid’s best was not quite good enough.
“Hey, I’m not the one who feels the need to make everything such a production,” Astrid retorted, readjusting the collar so Toothless’ stupid legs sat in their stupid leg holes properly.
“She’s jealous you look so good,” Hiccup stage-whispered.
Astrid managed to avoid ripping the rig in half out of frustration and, given enough time and verbal instruction, managed to adjust it to Hiccup’s satisfaction. She felt victorious seeing Toothless saddled by her hand, like she’d unraveled some great mystery of the cosmos.
Toothless seemed overjoyed to be finished with the ordeal and flounced off to roll in the grass, releasing his own pent-up frustration and energy. He had been quite patient with her.
“Bud,” Hiccup laughed. “That’s not good for the rig, let up.” Toothless gave a final defiant roll before standing, shaking off, and bouncing over to curl around his rider and douse him with love and saliva. Hiccup flailed and hit the ground, clawing his way toward freedom with handfuls of grass. Toothless pinned his rider, wrapping a gummy mouth around his arm, gnawing and staring with huge excited eyes as Hiccup laughed himself breathless.
Astrid couldn’t imagine her life without this.
When Hiccup finally escaped, he took Astrid by the (ugh, slimy) hand. “Let’s go,” he grinned, and Toothless chirred his agreement.
“Wait, how are we doing this?” Astrid asked, realization hitting her upside the head. “Are you just going to turn me loose with him?”
“Of course not. We’ll start with both of us on his back. You can get a feel for it.” He swung his right leg over Toothless’ neck and adjusted his seat before clicking his prosthetic into place. “Astrid’s coming up, alright, bud?”
Toothless grumbled amiably and Hiccup offered Astrid a hand up.
She’d ridden Toothless before, of course; behind Hiccup, just like this, had been her first flight ever. She had forgotten how wide his body was, used to Stormfly’s tapered chest and spine. Forcing her nerves to settle, Astrid wrapped her arms around Hiccup for balance. Toothless was fast and he wasn’t at all what she was used to, and while Stormfly steered easily enough, Toothless’ rider had partial control of keeping him up . Plus, she wasn’t used to his cues, or his personality under the saddle. She’d never been in sole control of a dragon who wasn’t Stormfly, she realized.
“You’re going to be fine,” Hiccup assured her. Maybe he could feel her heart hammering. The curve of his back was comforting and warm against her chest, and she used him to anchor herself. She was Fearless Astrid Hofferson, and a little Night Fury riding wasn’t going to get the best of her.
“Of course.”
Astrid felt Hiccup’s legs move, nudging Toothless’ neck, a request just like he’d taught the rest of them, years ago. “Slow, please,” Hiccup asked. They jolted into the air, leaping off Hiccup’s balcony and shooting away. Toothless’ ‘slow’ was still a quick ascent, and the island shrunk to a speck.
“Can you feel my leg?” Hiccup asked over his shoulder, raising his voice to contend with the wind. Astrid nudged forward until her foot found the place where Hiccup’s prosthetic met the stirrup; it was further forward than she would have expected. She looked back to see that Toothless’ tailfins were both spread.
“Yeah.”
“It’s all the way forward,” Hiccup explained. “The further forward you push, the more the tailfin opens up. It has to be all the way flexed when he’s gliding, so he can balance.”
He turned back to Toothless. “I’m going to relax now, and you’re going to lose your balance. It’ll only be for a second,” he promised, then raised his voice to address Astrid. “When I relax, he’s going to bank to one side. Push against my leg, hard, to open the fin back up. Okay?”
“Okay.” Astrid steeled herself, tensing when she felt Hiccup’s left leg slam back against hers. Toothless started to wobble, as if the air under his wings had vanished.
Soon, as Hiccup had predicted, they were thrown off course, Toothless churning his wings and yowling as they plunged to the side.
Astrid pushed forward with her left leg, finding more resistance than she’d expected; she opened the flap without incident, though, and Toothless leveled out, griping.
“I know, I’m sorry, bud. We gotta teach her.” Hiccup patted Toothless’ neck. His leg was still relaxed, giving Astrid the partial illusion of control.
“It’s hard!” Astrid said.
“The wind resistance can get really high, and the fin wants to lay flat. All you have to do to fly in a straight, level line is keep the stirrup all the way forward. Easy.”
“Easy,” Astrid agreed. “And what if I want to do anything other than this?”
“Well, then it gets complicated,” Hiccup replied, and Astrid rolled her eyes. “The fin only needs to be completely closed in a few situations, like diving,” he elaborated. “If you’re climbing or descending at an angle, I think you keep it all the way open.”
“How do you not know ?”
“It’s instinct, mostly.”
“Oh! Great.” Astrid squeezed as much sarcasm into her voice as possible. Hiccup continued to find new and creative ways to make this a terrifying experience.
“You can feel when he’s off balance and open the fin more, and you can feel when it’s creating too much resistance and close it. I don’t really…I can’t give you an exact formula for it. You kind of have to feel it.”
Astrid’s leg was starting to feel the strain of keeping the fin open.
“Turning is just like with Stormfly, but you need to work with him more. For a left turn, let the fin fall back a bit. For a right turn, keep it open and he’ll close the right one. Relax your leg and feel what I’m doing.”
Hiccup leaned to the left, letting his leg fall back. “The more you flatten the tail, the more turn you can get. Lean into it like Stormfly. If he starts the turn, you need to catch up.” They looped around and leveled out, and Hiccup pushed his leg all the way forward again. “The fin will need to be open a different amount depending on how far you’re turning; if it’s wide, you can get away with having the fins fully open. But that’s too much resistance for a narrow turn. The most important thing is that you can get both fins back into the open position at the end.”
“That’s a lot,” Astrid said, hoping she didn’t sound apprehensive.
“It’s not as hard as you think it is,” Hiccup promised. “And he’s better at feeling it than I am. He knows how much to open his other fin to balance if you don’t have quite the right position. No matter what happens, as long as you can hold the fin open, you won’t fall.”
Hiccup leaned back, then, and Astrid followed. She felt his leg move back as Toothless’ tail snapped under them, then forward again as they began a steep ascent. That in itself seemed complicated.
“How do you know to do that?” She asked, leaning forward as they climbed.
“The faster you need him to reposition his tail, the more closed the fins should be. If the fins are open it creates a lot of resistance, so he wouldn’t have been able to bring it under that fast. But he needs them open for balance, so we opened them up again as soon as the tail was where we wanted it. You can climb without closing it. It takes longer to reposition, but it’s harder to make a mistake. Lean back and hold on.” She obeyed, Hiccup pressed back against her, and Toothless flipped belly up, repositioning his head toward the ground. Halfway through the turn, Astrid felt Hiccup’s leg move back all the way, letting the tail close as they fell straight down.
Astrid’s stomach rose into her throat as they plummeted, and the wind was taking too much of her breath for her to even scream. She’d forgotten how fast this was; Toothless was the only dragon they’d trained who could dive straight down like this, and his streamlined body allowed him to pick up far more speed than Stormfly would. Hiccup leaned forward, and Astrid forced her body to lie flat against his as they dropped.
“Open the tail when you’re ready!” Hiccup shouted, and Astrid slammed her foot forward, fighting the air to force the fin open halfway. She could feel Toothless feeling her , intuiting what to do next by lifting his body and opening his wings. She leaned back and pushed the rest of the way, and they leveled out.
Hiccup whooped and Astrid realized that her cheeks were sore from grinning.
“Amazing!” Hiccup shouted, and Toothless yawped agreement. “Alright, we’re going down. Then you’re in charge.”
Astrid’s cry (“What?!”) was swallowed by the wind as they banked right and began to descend toward a sea stack. She tried to pay attention to the minute movements of Hiccup and Toothless’ bodies as they communicated.
“It’s really not that complicated,” Hiccup repeated, once they had landed. He rubbed Toothless on the head with a closed fist. “And he’s gotten good at it. If you don’t wanna do the fancy stuff, just keep it open and he’ll keep you up.”
Hiccup slipped from Toothless’ back, then offered her a hand. She took it and tried not to look woozy. While she could kick Hiccup’s butt in hand-to-hand combat on an off day and had worked hard to fly Stormfly as they way she did, this was his turf. Him and this very, very fast dragon.
Hiccup was rummaging through the saddle bag. He made a little sound when he found what he was looking for, which lit a spark of fondness in Astrid despite her nerves. He fidgeted with the footpiece of the rig and Astrid startled when she realized what he was doing.
“You’re not serious,” she said.
“One hundred percent.” He tightened something and gave the foot pedal a sharp tug, then twisted it up and down, watching the tailfin respond. It looked just as it had when they’d first gone flying, back before the Red Death. “It would be difficult for you to have any kind of fine control the way it was. This way, we don’t have to worry.”
Somehow, Astrid was not less worried. If something went wrong, it would be a clumsy operation for Hiccup to take over. “You really trust me this much?”
He turned away from his work then, straightening up and meeting her gaze. “Hey,” he said, and smiled crookedly, placing a hand on her shoulder. “With our lives.”
Toothless made a sound that implied he had not agreed to signing his life away.
Hiccup turned to the dragon, spreading his arms. “I’ll be right there, Toothless, what’s the worst that could happen? We need to practice. It’s just in case, alright?”
Toothless huffed, but he seemed to be putting up a fight more on principle than due to real distress. Astrid stepped toward his head and laid her palm between his eyes.
“It’ll be okay, Toothless.” She tried to smile. “If we’re having trouble, I’ll just keep the fin open.” Green eyes scanned her, and she couldn’t quite read the emotion behind them. It wasn’t distrust or fear, not the way she’d seen him express it before. Maybe he was also concerned about the need for this kind of training. Of what that need implied. Maybe he just didn’t want anyone but Hiccup to ride him. He wouldn’t throw her, though, would he?
After a moment, Toothless whuffed through his nose, which seemed like consent.
Astrid stepped to his side, slotting her foot into the pedal. It wasn’t a perfect fit, but Hiccup tightened some more straps to wedge it in place.
“Toe up is the same as foot forward,” he said. Astrid swung herself onto the dragon, wrestling with how off it felt to flank Toothless’ neck with her legs, feet trapped in place. She couldn’t leap off him, ax in hand, at a moment’s notice. She had to be part of this creature.
She offered a hand to Hiccup and he climbed up after her, wrapping his arms around her midsection and resting against her back. Her heart leaped, and she scowled at how little she could control her own body, let alone a dragon’s . This felt like a phenomenally stupid idea.
“Alright, on your mark,” Hiccup said, right next to her ear. She could feel his heart racing, with their positions reversed, and realized with a hint of satisfaction that he wasn’t as calm as he wanted her to believe. Maybe that’s what had Toothless antsy.
Toe up. “Alright, Toothless,” Astrid said, hoping her voice wasn’t wobbling too much. She nudged the dragon’s neck with her legs. “Up.”
Again, Toothless sprung into the air, jarring both riders a bit. Astrid felt Hiccup trying to lean against the dragon. She gave in to the pressure, chest brushing Toothless’ neck. She kept her heel down, noting that this was a bit easier than moving her whole foot forward.
Without being asked, Toothless started a right turn, throwing Astrid off balance. Both riders jolted to the left. Astrid’s heart dropped as she envisioned falling straight over the side and into the ocean. Hiccup yelped and leaned them back into the center of the arc.
Halfway through the turn, Astrid remembered something about closing the fin. She pressed her toe down and they rolled to the left. All three of them cried out. She corrected herself and Toothless jerked them back into flight, wings wide, yawping in frustration.
“Closed for a left turn! Keep it open going right!” Hiccup reminded her, voice a little tighter than usual.
“He didn’t tell me we were going anywhere,” Astrid accused. Toothless made another right turn, less severe, and she remembered to keep the fin open.
“Yes, he-” Hiccup stopped short of arguing. “It’s trial and error,” he said instead. “It went rough our first time, too, Bud, remember.”
And it had gone extra rough Astrid’s first time. At least the dragon wasn’t dunking her in the ocean today.
Turn complete, Toothless climbed a little, then leveled out. This was easy enough. Astrid could keep her heel down just fine, as long as she kept reminding herself it was the only thing keeping them airborne.
“See! You’re doing great,” Hiccup said. “You too, buddy,” he told Toothless. “Let’s try a circle to the right.”
Astrid shifted her weight first this time and kept the tailfin open, letting Toothless take care of the rest. The saddle was slick under her sweaty, white-knuckled grip as Toothless performed a tight turn which put his riders all but horizontal. She forced herself to relax as they leveled out.
“Great job, guys! Now let’s do one to the left. Astrid, relax the tailfin slightly. ”
Astrid leaned left and followed the advice, grinning and patting Toothless on the neck when he completed a wider, more comfortable loop. “Yeah!” Hiccup said. “And for a tighter one, you’d relax it more. I don’t think you’ll ever need to do it all the way. You don’t need to do any crazy acrobatics up here. This is just fine. Serviceable.”
“That’s me,” Astrid snarked. “Astrid the Serviceable.”
“If you wanna do somethin’ crazy, be my guest,” Hiccup shot back. “Let’s go weave through those sea stacks.”
He gestured to a random scattering of outcroppings nearby. There weren’t too many of them, but it would be tight. It looked like the perfect death trap for a novice on a fast dragon. Astrid’s courage had been bolstered by the successful turns, though, and she asked Toothless to veer left, remembering the tailfin. This may be Hiccup’s turf, but she’d show him just how comfortable she was with it.
“Okay. You don’t need to open and close the tail here, just keep it half mast so he can maneuver.” Hiccup said, voice strained. He hadn’t expected her to take the dare, she realized, grinning.
“How do I ask him for speed?”
“Politely.”
Rolling her eyes, Astrid did as she had seen Hiccup do a hundred times before and leaned into the wind. It was thrilling and terrifying, and without looking down at Toothless she felt like she might tip over the front of him. She enjoyed the way he gathered speed as they sloped toward the ocean, using his shape and weight rather than flapping his wings.
“Okay, comin’ in a little hot for a first time,” Hiccup warned, and leaned back. Astrid tilted further forward, and Toothless pressed on. “Hey. Hey. Guys?”
Astrid half-relaxed her foot and they dipped to water level, Toothless picking his own route through the sea stacks. Riding him took less convincing than riding Stormfly, in terms of pressure or even asking at all. Despite requiring a rider, Toothless spent a lot of time flying himself.
Astrid knew this wasn’t how he flew with Hiccup. Hiccup and Toothless together were a complex choreography of back-and-forth cues and minute adjustments, allowing for speed, agility and accuracy in flight that always left Astrid stunned. She was proud of what she and Stormfly had accomplished together, of how far they had come in their communication, but it couldn’t touch what Hiccup and Toothless were capable of, which was so in-tune it bordered on telepathic.
With Astrid on board, Toothless certainly wasn’t doing any mind reading. The Night Fury was just very good at compensating. Either way, they cleared the sea stacks, and Astrid’s confidence surged.
“How’s that for Serviceable?” She prodded.
“Okay, yes. I regret the Serviceable comment,” Hiccup replied. “That was good! He can do that a lot faster, though.”
Astrid rolled her eyes and leaned right, bringing Toothless around. “How about a barrel roll?”
Toothless made a hrrrrr sound that might have been, are you serious?
Hiccup laughed. “I don’t even know how to describe what I’d do. You just kind of feel it,” he said again.
“Well, then. I guess we’ll just have to make do. Toothless, let’s climb.” At this, she could have sworn she saw the dragon smile. She kept her heel down and leaned forward as they gained altitude, slower and clumsier than before, but climbing nonetheless.
She felt Hiccup’s arms tighten around her, and was delighted by the idea that Hiccup Haddock was nervous in the air. He wasn’t used to being in the backseat - if Astrid had to guess, despite his proclamation of one hundred percent trust, he was regretting his lack of control. He was probably worrying about what would happen if one of them did fall.
“You’re sure about this?” he asked.
“No,” Astrid replied. “But I’ve gotta make the most of the opportunity.”
She felt a moment of regret upon seeing how high they’d climbed, and was inches from aborting the dive when Toothless took it into his own claws to flip them over and plummet toward the water. She let the tail lay flat, then felt Toothless as his muscles tensed in preparation. Like before, they unfolded his fins together, and his great wings caught the air as they leveled out.
It wasn’t the last-minute save Hiccup was perfecting, which had Toothless skimming the water with sea spray in his wake, but it was a victory. Hiccup whooped and laughed, and Astrid found herself joining in, patting and rubbing Toothless’ scaly neck in appreciation.
“Oh, I’m sorry, do I hear Astrid Hofferson laughing?” Hiccup teased as they slowed to a glide. His grip on her had relaxed.
“And if you tell a soul, so help me Thor, I will systematically rearrange all the straps on this dragon’s stupid saddle,” she threatened. Toothless chortled.
“You do have an image to maintain,” Hiccup agreed. “Was that payback for making you guys do this?”
“Maybe just a little,” Astrid admitted, turning to look at him from the corner of her eye. Toothless hummed and dipped a little in the air.
“Well, thanks for humoring me.” Hiccup smiled.
Astrid brought her hands up to rest over his, leaning back into him. “You’re welcome.” Despite herself, she felt better for it. Anyone could keep Toothless in the air, but now they could fly. Kind of. It could be indispensable in an emergency.
Hiccup rested his chin on her shoulder, and for a moment she felt as much a part of him as Toothless was. “You are amazing,” he murmured. “You did in one afternoon what it took me ages to figure out.”
“Well, I had some very good teachers.” Astrid closed her eyes, reserving one corner of her mind for keeping her foot flexed. Her other senses took over, and she let herself fall back into the sound of the rushing air, punctuated by Toothless’ mighty wingbeats. The wind was biting and smelled like ocean. Hiccup was warm against her back. They were floating nowhere together, with nothing and everything supporting them.
“However long it took, you figured it out,” she said after a long moment. “How in the world you managed to do that is beyond me. You might be the first Viking who ever flew.”
“I love it up here,” Hiccup said. “I love him.”
Some seagulls shrieked nearby, and Astrid opened her eyes to find Toothless had brought them home. She realized she was disappointed.
Hiccup shifted. “And I…you know, Astrid, you’re…” she heard him swallow, so close to her ear. She waited for him to continue, sighed when he didn’t.
“I know,” she said, and turned her face into his hair. “Me too.”
One of them would manage to say it one of these days. For now, they were interrupted by Stormfly shrieking a welcome as she flew up alongside Toothless. For now, Astrid just said “your hair smells like dragon spit” and landed them on the beach.
For now, she accepted his challenge to a flying race, even knowing he would win. She’d kick his ass in the arena later.