The roof, Saturday morning earlyish

[abitlegless.livejournal.com]

It was quiet on the roof this morning. The plants waved gently in the breeze and all was peaceful.

Until it was buzzed by a boy on a dragon.

They circled the dorms once, twice, three times before Toothless backwinged for a landing, dropping neatly onto the roof. Toothless' bright red prosthetic tailfin wasn't responding as well as it should, and this was a handy place to stop and check it out.

Hiccup was grinning, but then he always was after a flight. He unclipped his safety strap, swung his leg over and slid down, then paused, looking out over Fandom. It was both like and unlike Berk: tiny island, lots of buildings, taller in the middle than it was at the edges. Had its share of crazy people.

Toothless nudged him, making an impatient, demanding rumble, then pointed his nose at the harness. "All right, buddy," Hiccup said, turning back to the dragon. "Let's see if we can figure out what's making it stick."

[OOC: Open wheeee!]

Comments

[abitlegless.livejournal.com]

"Cara, just the person I want to see!" Okay, it was a slight exaggeration, because at that point he'd be happy to see anyone with working hands. "You couldn't do me a favour, and just pass that strap over Toothless' back, could you?" It was cinched up under the dragon's belly and threaded through a metal ring, but it was dangling back down towards the ground.

Hiccup looked over his shoulder and smiled at her imploringly. "It just needs to go behind his wings, there." He pointed with his chin because his hands were full of other straps.

[wrongkindofsith]

Cara nodded and reached for the strap in question, making sure it wasn't twisted as she placed it behind Toothless's wings. "It's just like saddling a horse." A big scaly horse with wings.

[abitlegless.livejournal.com]

Toothless craned his head around to watch, and gave her an approving sort of snort, unfurling his wings above her head.

"I've never seen a horse," he admitted as he shifted the straps he was holding to one hand, grabbed the end of the strap Cara had passed him, and slipped them through the buckles, tightening them carefully. "Sheep, dragons, more sheep, more dragons, lots of fish, but no horses. They say my father's father's father saw a pony once, but he might have been drinking a bit too much mead."

[wrongkindofsith]

That sounded like a lot of sheep and dragons.

"I learnt to ride when I became a Mord'Sith." And she decided right there and then she wasn't going to mention to Hiccup most of the other things she learnt at the same time. "They skipped the pony stage though."

[abitlegless.livejournal.com]

Hiccup looked at her curiously as he tested the straps. "What exactly is a Mord'Sith? If it's not rude to ask, which, okay, if it is I've already done, but you could just not answer it and pretend I asked about the weather or something."

[wrongkindofsith]

Not rude so much as hard to answer. Most people who knew of the Mord'Sith didn't want to know more about them.

"A member of the Sisterhood of the Agiel," she answered, double-checking the harness on her side to make sure it was secure. "We defend and serve the Lord Rahl."

[abitlegless.livejournal.com]

"And that completely clears things up for me," he said, smiling to show he wasn't serious. "Sounds interesting, at least." And no wonder she reminded him of Astrid, what with the whole warrior woman thing going on. "Do you like it at least?"

[wrongkindofsith]

No one had ever asked Cara that before.

"Richard needs me, he'll end up in a dragon's belly without someone watching out for him." She looked down at Toothless. "Not yours."

[abitlegless.livejournal.com]

Hiccup looked at her for a bit, then he, too, turned his attention to Toothless. "Now I finally understand why you thought he was going to eat me."

It disturbed him to hear her talk about dragons like that. He was already learning his world wasn't everyone else's world, and okay, just because his people had been wrong about dragons doesn't mean Cara's people were. But it didn't mean they weren't, either.

What he said was, "Hey, I've got a crazy idea. Want to hear it?"

[wrongkindofsith]

To be honest Cara wasn't entirely sure dragons weren't only a myth in the Midlands, but if anyone was going to get himself eaten by one...it was Richard.

"Only if it doesn't involve poetry or tiaras." Cara had reasons for not wanting anything to do with either of those. Trust her.

[abitlegless.livejournal.com]

"No poetry and no tiaras, cross my heart," he did so, "just the dragon." He tilted his head, addressing Toothless. "What do you say, buddy? Want to take Cara with us on our test flight?"

Toothless flipped his ears, indicating either agreement or 'I don't care, can we just fly already?'.

"What do you say? Once around the preserve?" And maybe, just maybe, she'd start to change how she thought about dragons.

[wrongkindofsith]

Considering Cara's thoughts about dragons (or at least this particular example thereof) involved no small amount of deeply hidden 'eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee', they didn't really need to be changed.

"If he doesn't mind," Cara replied, trying at casualness.

[abitlegless.livejournal.com]

Toothless flicked his ears again, then crouched low, wanting to be off.

"He doesn't mind," Hiccup promised, and gave the flying rig a last tug. "Okay, so you'll have to sit behind me, and I want you to clip this to you," he held out the safety strap to show her, then climbed on, clicking his metal foot into the lever and turning to grin at her. "Climb aboard."

[wrongkindofsith]

Cara hoisted herself up behind Hiccup before taking the strap and fastening it to herself. A single strap was simpleness personified compared to a full Mord'Sith outfit. "I'm strapped in."

He could probably hear the grin in her voice.

[abitlegless.livejournal.com]

He could, and so could Toothless. "Hang on!" he said, and Toothless beat his wings once, twice, then they were up, over the roof and gliding high above the lawn, heading for the Preserve, the wind whistling past them.

[wrongkindofsith]

Given she was seated behind Hiccup, Cara didn't even bother trying to keep the grin off her face as she automatically gripped the harness tighter.

She might trying claiming the laughter was actually the wind though. Might.

[abitlegless.livejournal.com]

He glanced over his shoulder at her, grinning. "Doing okay?" he asked, leaning forward to pat Toothless' head as they hit the Preserve, just clearing the tops of the trees.

The dragon's wingbeats were smooth and strong and even, making branches wave and leaves go swirling up on either side of them.

[wrongkindofsith]

Cara nodded, watching the ground and trees speed by under them.

"Faster than a horse," she yelled by way of reply.

[abitlegless.livejournal.com]

"He's a Night Fury, they're the fastest dragons in the world!"

Hiccup leaned forward. "What do you think?" he asked the dragon. Toothless let out an agreeable sort of rumble and he sat up.

"Want to see how fast?" he called. "You're going to have to hang onto me."

[wrongkindofsith]

It was a good thing Cara's personal space issues only had to do with gestures of affection then.

She curled her arms around Hiccup's waist. "Too tight?"

[abitlegless.livejournal.com]

He shook his head and curled his fingers into the front of the saddle. "Hang on!"

And Toothless's wings began to slice through the air, fast enough to make it whine as he lifted away from the trees, arcing upwards, going faster and faster every second until they tore through the clouds.

[wrongkindofsith]

The only time Cara had gone anything close to this fast had been when Darken Rahl had changed her and her sisters into birds to search for Richard, and even that had nothing on this.

She laughed as they passed though a cloud. "They're like fog!"

[abitlegless.livejournal.com]

And Hiccup couldn't help but laugh with her, because he lived for this. "Everything is different when you see it from up here!"

Toothless sped up, flying high above the clouds, and began to curve slightly to take them back the way they'd come.

[wrongkindofsith]

"Everything's so small, but you can see so much more of it." The babbling would be blamed on oxygen deprivation later.

[abitlegless.livejournal.com]

Hiccup smiled as Toothless slid back through the clouds, slowing slightly, but still the island was rapidly growing larger. "You can see the whole world. It changes how you look at things."