How To Train Your Dragon 2 Takes Animation to New Heights

"Dragons and Vikings…enemies again"

Do NOT read this review if you have not yet seen the movie. The term "spoilers" does not even begin to cover it. If you haven't seen it yet, what the hell are you waiting for? Go. Now.

As I was walking into the cinema to see "The Empire Strikes Back," some teens in the car park, leaving the previous show, shouted, "Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker's father!" and sped off before they could get the beating they so richly deserved. That was over 30 years ago; I was a small child then, but I had much the same feeling when the trailers for HTTYD2 revealed that Valka is Hiccup's mother. I realize that every promotional decision is finely calculated to increase revenue, but I cannot fathom the marketing strategy there. It may not be a third act reveal but it is a sequence rich with tension and mystery. Imagine seeing that bizarrely costumed figure rising through the clouds seemingly unsupported, as Hiccup fumes about his father, and not knowing who it is. (It is one of the film's innumerable perfect touches that Hiccup initially assumes it is his father.) Is this Drago? We might wonder, as Hiccup does, if this is the introduction of our antagonist. Is it even human? Considerable screen time is devoted to waiting for the alien figure to even acknowledge that it understands human speech. And we would certainly be frantic about Toothless's fate if we did not know the stranger's disposition. With that build-up, and no prior knowledge, our eyes would grow as wide as Hiccup's when Valka drops the bombshell. The reveal is clearly designed to be as major a shock to the viewer as it is to him; instead, we are forced into the dramatic irony of waiting for the character to learn what we already know. I could spit plasma.

Before I continue, I have a confession to make: I have yet to see the first movie in an actual cinema. Forget 3D, I just wish I had seen it on the big screen. The death-defying, cheat sheet-flapping test drive, Astrid's first flight through the clouds, surrounded by the Aurora Borealis—how these must exhilarate even more on a proper sized screen! (Yes, it seems surprising that I only saw HTTYD after it came out on DVD but, in my defense, I hadn't a clue then what a life-and-career altering event it would be.) So, I hoped that a local cinema might offer a double feature, as many of them do when sequels are released, but no luck.

In parallel with HTTYD, HTTYD2 bestows two showpiece flight sequences. The first acquaints us with the progress of Hiccup's and Toothless's flying prowess and the second is a vehicle for some bonding time with mum, as the comparable flight sequence in the first film had facilitated bonding with Astrid.

No-one would accuse me of being an adrenaline junkie (deadlines don't count, ahem) but the combined effect of the music and the animation in the opening flight is irresistible. The cinematography is staggeringly evocative. You are not merely watching; you, too, are soaring through the sky, the ocean sparkling below. This is what it means to be alive; up here with the clouds, this is living. It is crucial that you experience this viscerally because in the next scene Hiccup explains that he doesn't want to give up his freedom for the duties of chiefing. Instead of thinking him feckless, you empathize.

The cinematography never lets you down: from the eye of baby Hiccup in the flashback dissolving into his adult eye to the prow of Stoick's ship emerging from the bottom of the screen, much thought was put into each shot and full advantage was taken of the lack of live action limitations.

Just as much consideration was given to the relationships between the characters. I love that it is completely unambiguous that Hiccup and Astrid are lovers. No wait-until-marriage Disneyesque prudishness here; the casual intimacy of their body language proves they've ridden more than their dragons by now. It is also cleverly revealing how Hiccup reacts to Astrid's unflattering physical mimicry rather than to what she is saying.

As a writer with expertise in dialogue, I am not qualified to comment on the visual effects, so I can only express a layman's awe at the photorealism. The surfacing has reached a level of proficiency and attention to detail that is unrivaled. Fingernails with a hint of dirt under them, and Toothless's eye when he is lying on top of Hiccup during their play fight leap to mind as examples. One of the actors commented in an interview that he thought they had filmed the ocean. My favourite touch is the claw scratches on the dragon perches in the opening rooftop view of Berk.

This attention to detail, DeBlois's gift for storytelling, Powell's transcendent music, and the skills and talents of the cast and crew combine to make this franchise ascend high above its genre. When I ask people if they're planning to see it and they sneer that it's a children's movie, I want to ensnare them with a bola and drag them to the cinema. It's not a great children's film; it's a great film that children can watch. This isn't merely a matter of opinion; the vast difference in quality between HTTYD2 and much of what gets released today in either live action or animation is self-evident. Rarely is this much effort put into a sequel; this is a unique labour of love. The evidence of the filmmakers' care and pride is as moving as the story itself. I credit DeBlois and (on the first film) Sanders with inspiring that kind of devotion from everyone involved. Their attitude struck me when I watched them interviewed for Lilo & Stitch and they explained how they reworked the story for years to get it right, visited locations to get every detail of flora, fauna, and culture correct, and used elements that are often clichéd and caricatured in a respectful way. HTTYD2 is the kind of animated film that can be made when you really care. That's what inspires me and draws me in. Yes, aesthetically it is tailor-made for me, but Brave ticked every boreal Celtophile aesthetic box and it wasn't a life-changing experience. This film works on every level. It is an epic story, it breaks new ground in animation, both technically and thematically, and the constellation of talent combines to achieve a rare synergy in filmmaking.

The few criticisms I have read strike me as misguided. Of course no-one wants Stoick to die but dramatic necessity cried out for it. It doesn't fit with Viking culture, or Stoick's personality, for him to grow grey and creaky, watching Hiccup run the village from a dragon-carved rocking chair. He was only 50 so, in theory, he could have chiefed another decade or two, spent some quality time with Valka, and held his grandchildren. But Hiccup becoming chief at the end with his father in the background would not have had the same dramatic and emotional resonance. It's fitting that Stoick died selflessly in battle. He didn't just save his son; he was protecting all his people by saving their next chief, who is the only Viking equipped to deal with the new challenges that they will face in future.

I knew the entire plot before I saw an early screening (don't ask), and the one question mark I had going in was how DeBlois was going to orchestrate Hiccup's forgiveness of Toothless. The choice to have Toothless kill Stoick struck me initially as totally insane and then, on reflection, as incredibly brave. I hope someday to hear how it developed in his head – did he know Stoick was going to die, and then need a catalyst to deepen Hiccup and Toothless's bond, or was it like the leg in HTTYD, one day someone quipped, "How about Toothless kills him?"

HTTYD2 has also been chastised for not passing the Bechdel test but, again, there were both dramatic and running time constraints. There are only three female characters, and I don't think Ruff would have gotten into any deep conversations with Astrid or Valka given the running time of Götterdämmerung. I am certain that Valka and Astrid will talk Nadders at great length, but there was no scope for including that here.

The last major complaint I've seen leveled unfairly at the film is the accusation that Drago plays to racial stereotypes. Good versus evil has ever been depicted as light versus dark but there are no racial implications behind that dichotomy. Nor is Drago black. He is voiced by a black actor, but appears to be vaguely Slavic. He has dreadlocks but then so does Tuffnut. And, let's be honest, the race his caricatured face most resembles is Muppet.

Am I so besotted with the franchise that I cannot find anything that could have been done better? Hardly. As soon as I can get ahold of the script, I will compose a line-by-line critique. For starters, I love how Gothi is now the Berkian version of a crazy cat lady, but the soot on the forehead was straight out of the Lion King. The filmmakers have charmed us with their daring and originality throughout; there was no excuse to hiccup right at the end.

Suspending disbelief has never been a strongpoint of mine, and a few oversights were hard to let slide. Drago couldn't just hop on Toothless and fly off. As simple and intuitive as Hiccup's engineering genius may have made the tail control mechanism, it would take some practice to master.

The village scene where Stoick is showing Hiccup the ropes is meant in part to highlight the time and work involved in chiefing. It does fulfill that function, but the Viking's request for a fancy dragon saddle makes the chief seem more like Father Christmas than legal arbiter and protector. The village has artisans, a division of labour, and a barter system; the chief would certainly help build houses and provide for basic needs, but fulfilling custom saddle orders seems a bit over the top, even in an era of peace and prosperity. Besides, from Hiccup's perspective, conducting legal business and resolving disputes would be far less to his taste than making a saddle. But, I understand the scene had to convey many things in a short time frame, and needed to make it difficult but not impossible for Hiccup to talk to his father, and we needed to visit Gobber's smithy at some point in this film.

The scene where Cloudjumper regurgitates food for Toothless is adorably disgusting (disgustingly adorable?) and I would never want it cut, but didn't the dragons just gorge on a veritable fountain of fish? But perhaps, like a just-fed dog sniffing around the table for scraps, they are always eager for more. Or maybe they did not just eat – another issue is how the film works temporally. It is already afternoon when Astrid joins Hiccup, but only dawn of the next morning when they arrive at Berk on their baby dragons for the final battle sequence. Having lived in Scandinavia, I know it stays light very late in the summer but it still seems like there were too many hours in that day.

Some of my quibbles are, admittedly, unfair: The film feels to me like it flies by (no pun intended). My thirst for this world and its characters is unquenchable and I don't want the adventure to end, ever. You could show them brushing their teeth or cleaning out the dragon stables and I would be riveted. But I concede that 92 minutes is standard for a film whose target demographic is children and their parents. I wish it were a Wagnerian length but that would have been a hard sell for the director.

I longed for more interaction between Hiccup and Astrid but I concede that it would not serve dramatic purpose here. The security of their relationship forms a critical part of the foundation on top of which the drama plays out. In order for it to feature more prominently, there would have to have been conflict. But including conflict in their relationship in addition to everything else Hiccup is facing would have been emotionally insupportable and structurally awkward. Astrid knows that Hiccup is fully capable of being chief even though he doesn't believe it himself yet; she is needed as second-in-command to move the plot forward with Eret and Drago, and because the dramatic focus is on Hiccup's coming-of-age. I can't fault that objectively; I simply wish for more personally. Have you ever seen two animated characters with better chemistry? No, you haven't.

Now go see it again.

Why Stoick Had To Die

Before I explain, here's a little scene we will never see due to Stoick's death:

"Fishlegs!" Hiccup hailed his friend as he methodically chose fish to put in a basket for Meatlug's evening repast, "Can I spend the night at your house?"

"Uh, sure. I'll ask my mom to make crabcakes." Fishlegs straightened, a fish in each hand, looking puzzled.

"Did you have a fight with your new mom?" That was Tuffnut.

"She's not his new mom, she's his old mom who liked dragons better than him." Countered Ruffnut.

"Whatever. Did your parents kick you out?" Tuffnut persisted.

"No! I just want to give them some privacy tonight – maybe for, uh, a few nights. They've been apart for 20 years…."

"Oh, I get it," said Ruffnut.

"I don't," said Tuffnut.

I explained this plot point briefly in my review of HTTYD2, but it has generated such ire, to the extent that negative comments may interfere with the film's gross, that it warrants its own rant piece.

No-one wants Stoick to die, let alone be killed by Toothless. His death and funeral are so excruciating to watch that they make repeated viewings challenging. Each time (and I've seen HTTYD2 nearly a dozen times) we get to the wonderful Stoick-Valka reunion, a highlight of the film, I start to tense up in anticipation of the pain in the next scene. It's akin to ripping off a fresh scab that is never given time to heal over and scar: Just when I begin to come to terms with Stoick's demise, the wound is re-opened.

Stoick is a beloved central character, and it seems cruel for him to die just after reuniting with his wife after 20 years of presumed celibacy. Thinking himself a widower, he had no obligation to be faithful to Valka. If he had wanted another woman in his life to help raise Hiccup whilst he was busy chiefing, he would have remarried, or as chief had his pick of the women in the village for light dalliances, but one gets the impression that he was nursing a broken heart the whole time. So, I wanted them at least to have one night together. Yes, they got a kiss, a song, a dance, and group hug, but ……. 20 years! It had already been a long day, and sleeping in the cavern, with Bludvist's invasion occurring at dawn the next morning, would have made sense temporally. But, the film is PG, and there is a sense of urgency about keeping the story moving. I can understand why they opted to rush from Valka's decision to reunite with her family into the battle that destroys those giddy plans; I just wish on a personal level that they'd had one night alone together first.

But sex and romance aside, the central theme of this instalment is Hiccup's coming-of-age, his ascension to the chiefdom. He can't embrace the role of chief whilst his father is still on Berk. Can you see Stoick deferring to Hiccup and letting him make his own mistakes? Or the villagers refraining from appealing to Stoick when they disagreed with Hiccup's decisions? Peaceful transitions of power between living leaders are a feature we associate with modern democracies – one of the first took place in the U.S. in 1801, nearly 1,000 years after HTTYD – not hereditary monarchies. Yes, elderly or infirm monarchs have sometimes abdicated in favour of their younger and fitter offspring, but it's not a practice that is easy to reconcile with Viking culture in general or Stoick's larger-than-life presence in particular.

Also, until Hiccup facilitated peace with dragons five years prior, the Viking lifespan was battle-limited. You don't see many grey-haired Berkians aside from Gothi and (probably not first to the front lines) Mildew. That could change if Hiccup maintains the peace, but the image of an arthritic and liver-spotted Stoick whittling quietly into his dotage is antithetical to his character. And as much credit as we must give Stoick for his ability to embrace change, there is a certain feeling of rightness in Hiccup having his father by his side for the first 20 years of his life, in the dragon-fighting days, teaching him the old ways, and now having his mother advising him for the next 20 in the new dragon-friendly age. Having the whole family together would have been wonderful – you can see it in Hiccup's eyes when his parents reunite – but the story required a new leader for a new era.

Remember, this is the middle film of a trilogy; as self-contained and satisfying as it may be on its own, it is inherently transitional. Hiccup has been brought up short in his self-perception: Getting people to change and keeping the peace is not going to be as easy as it has been so far, but he has inherited some tools for the job. He can no longer take the dichotomous stance that he is opposite his father in every way. Reality is more nuanced. He takes after his mother substantially but he is, as Gobber noted, "every bit the boar-headed stubborn Viking" Stoick ever was. When he states through tears at his father's funeral that he did not think he could ever be that brave, that selfless, we in the audience grasp the irony as no-one could have been braver or more selfless than Hiccup in his battle with the Red Death. He needs to learn and grow as chief now. As Stoick said, he's ready.

On Patrol

Story idea for episode of "Dragons: Defenders of Berk" in which Hiccup makes some interesting discoveries. It needs some tweaking to make it G-rated but it features Hiccup finding a new dragon, a new fruit, and a new orifice (hey, I did mention tweaking for younger viewers).

One of the least arduous duties of the Academy members was patrol.  Patrol entailed taking it in turns to fly around the island in pairs, scanning for unusual activity, such as strange boats on the horizon or, worse, moored in a cove.  Berk had many of these sheltered bays, and in the past enemies had made great use of their feature of concealment.  In pre-Academy days, patrol had been conducted by boat and on foot from the cliff tops.  It was easy for an enemy ship to anchor out of sight behind the hollowed limestone spurs of an inlet or the nook of a cliff.  But dragons changed everything.  They could traverse every natural harbour, zooming around ridge and crevice, able to perform a thorough inspection in a fraction of the time it would take a boat.

Ruff and Tuff patrolled together, for obvious reasons.  But they usually got distracted by their incessant bickering or an interesting burn pattern in the ground and failed to make a report upon their return.  Hiccup privately wondered if they'd report an entire enemy fleet or raging forest fire moving toward the village if they saw it, such was their unremitting appetite for violent destruction.

Fishlegs and Snotlout patrolled as a pair.  Or, at least they started out that way.  Snotlout always managed to lose Fishlegs soon after they departed, and when called on it retorted that it wasn't his fault that Meatlug was too slow to keep up with Hookfang.  If anything of substance was spotted on their patrol, it was always Fishlegs who noted it.  For Snotlout, the cool factor of being officially on patrol as a Defender of Berk was an end in itself; he failed entirely to grasp that there was any real work or responsibility attached to it.

Hiccup knew that he and Astrid should take it in turns to patrol with the others, that the patrols would be substantially more effective that way, but his flights with Astrid were a highlight of his life that he could not bear to give up.  They both took their duty seriously but they also managed to explore much more interesting terrain than Berk's hidden caves and inlets.

If it wasn't sleeting too hard or actively hailing, they packed a lunch and alighted post-patrol at a place that was dubbed Eating Outside Rock.  It would have been more sensible and less unwieldy to call it Picnic Rock but the word "picnic" didn't exist in the Viking language.[*]  The weather was usually so appalling that it simply hadn't occurred to them to coin a pleasant term for dining al fresco, any more than they would have a word for sunbathing or surfing.  In any case, this rock was large, low and flat.  It was located where a slope of rough, windblown grass met a narrow, stony beach.  It had a certain stark northern beauty but Hiccup and Astrid did not choose it for the scenery.

Today, as the thin strip of beach came into sight, Hiccup felt his stomach leap with nervous excitement.  He turned to Astrid and pointed down towards the rock.  She nodded, and Stormfly and Toothless both dove smoothly and landed on the grass.  Astrid pulled their lunch out of her saddle bag and both dragons made their way over the sand to the shallows to fish.  She withdrew from a leather pouch two sandwiches, some dried smoked fish, and a handful of the small, tart apples that grew on Berk and arranged them on the rock.  Hiccup had taken something from his own saddle bag before he let Toothless go fish, but he didn't add it to their little repast, tucking it instead in a pocket of his tunic.  They watched their dragons splash as they dove for their own lunch, and made small talk about the day's patrol as they ate.

"I keep telling my father that we can use Hlin's Cave as reserve storage in case of a raid.  It stays dry during high tide, we've proven that, but he thinks it's too hard to reach.  But with dragons, we can easily store and retrieve supplies—" Hiccup broke off.  Astrid was finished eating and she was regarding him, but not as if she were paying attention to what he was saying.  She looked like she wanted dessert, and an apple was not what she had in mind.

This reminded Hiccup of something.

"Astrid, close your eyes and hold out your hands."

She raised an eyebrow and looked at him suspiciously.

"I have a surprise for you, from my last trip South."

"You already gave me a present."  She leaned in towards him, "And you coming back in one piece is the only gift I need."

But he didn't take up the invitation to kiss her.  He persisted, "Come on, I think you'll like this, close your eyes."

With a very Astrid expression that combined exasperation and curiosity, she did as she was bid.  Hiccup withdrew a pink, oval object from his pocket and placed it on Astrid's outstretched palms.  She immediately opened her eyes and regarded it warily.

"A dragon egg?  You found another new species down South!"

"Nope, not an egg.  Guess again."

Astrid felt the egg-like object.  It had green spikes that reminded her a bit of dragon scales, and it gave a bit to the touch, like a piece of ripe fruit rather than a shell.

"Is it….edible?" She enquired doubtfully.

"Is it ever," replied Hiccup enthusiastically, "Let me show you."  He plucked the thing from her hands and set it on the rock.  Taking out his knife, he sliced it in half and held it up to show her.  It glistened white and shiny on the inside, with tiny black seeds, and a sweet scent reached her nose.

"Try it!"  Hiccup urged.  "Here, let me peel some for you, the skin isn't very nice."  He peeled the strange object quickly with his knife and handed half back to her.  It felt sticky in her hands.  She was leery of tasting it but she knew Hiccup wasn't the type to trick her with something foul and it did smell enticingly sweet.  She took a tentative bite, and her eyes lit up as she chewed, and then took a bigger bite.

"Hiccup!  What is this?" She breathed excitedly between mouthfuls, "It's delicious!"

"See, I told you to trust me.  Toothless loves it so I am calling it dragonfruit."

As if on cue, the dragon himself bounded up and sniffed the other half of the fruit.  He sat back on his hind legs and looked at Hiccup with large round pupils.

"Oh, go on then," said Hiccup, and Toothless snapped up the dragonfruit and sprang off to rejoin Stormfly on the beach.

"I suppose it wouldn't grow on Berk?"

Hiccup shook his head, "The island where I found it is hot and sunny.  I don't think it would like our climate.  But I'm going to ask Trader Johan to bring it for us as often as he can.  Toothless will like that."

"So will I," said Astrid, and reached for the back of Hiccup's head, pulling him in for a kiss.  He tasted the sweet fruit on her lips, and his tongue met hers as their kiss deepened.

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The first time they'd alighted on 'picnic' rock they hadn't brought food.  It just seemed a convenient spot for a break, and to let the dragons fish and rest after a morning of tricky flying around Berk's coastal rock formations.  At first, Hiccup was so excited about the success of his dragon patrol idea that he had held forth elatedly about how it was going to revolutionize security on the island and how happy his father was going to be.  But when he'd gotten that out of his system he seemed to remember that he and Astrid were alone together, far away from the village.

The sun was as high as it ever got in what passed for summer on Berk and whenever the clouds allowed it, the sunlight flashed off the jewelled kransen in Astrid's gold hair.  The ornament symbolized maidenhood in their culture.  All the unmarried women in the village wore a similar circlet woven into their hairstyle in some fashion to keep it secure.  From the quality of maidenhood, Hiccup's mind leapt immediately to maidenhead.  Astrid was his girlfriend now and, since their very public first kiss, everyone knew it.  Even Snotlout had stopped his annoying attentions and shifted his vain leering to other young women in the village.

That first kiss was followed by many others, stolen behind the smithy or in shadows when he walked her home from Meade Hall at night.  Each kiss was like a bright star in Hiccup's memory, and together they formed a constellation of the highlights of his life thus far.  One time, when Astrid was behind him on Toothless, with her arms tight around his waist and her chin on his shoulder, he'd managed to turn his head around far enough to kiss her.  It hadn't been exactly comfortable, but it was worth it.

They also held hands, and sat thigh-to-thigh at meals, but that was the extent of it thus far. Their interactions at the Academy were intensely physical, but not in a sexual way.  Their feelings for each other were strong and sure, but despite grappling with axes and shields in training, and clinging onto whatever body parts were within reach during daring aerial rescues, they remained unaccountably shy about exploring each other in private.

Astrid watched Hiccup's animated face with love and admiration in her eyes, and also a sparkle of desire.  Her Hiccup had always been winsome but now he was a confident hero, and puberty was good to him.  He was taller than Astrid now, and broader in the shoulders.  He'd started shaving, and his voice had deepened from a timid alto to a melodic tenor.  His auburn hair, windblown today from flying, was getting longer and thicker.  Soon he'd start braiding it with leather cords as the Viking men did.  She reached up and touched the hair at his temple, stroking it back from his face.  He smiled and they both leaned forward for a kiss.  Presently Astrid's fingers were tangled in the hair at the base of his neck as she pulled his head toward her, pushing her tongue deeper into his mouth.

Hiccup had always been aroused by Astrid's sexual aggressiveness and met her kiss with enthusiasm.  He tentatively placed a hand on her knee.  When she didn't immediately remove it, he started to slide it up, under her skirt, expecting her to slap it away any second.  When he reached the top of her thigh, he could feel the leather laces of her leggings against his thumb.  He held his hand perfectly still, not trusting his luck.  They were still kissing but he could not believe she wasn't aware of the location of his fingers, which were now trembling slightly against the woollen fabric.  Suddenly she did reach under her skirt and Hiccup started to pull his hand out, an apology forming on his lips.  But she silenced it with a forceful kiss, her other hand now gripping the back of his head.  He felt her soft fingers under her skirt press down on the back of his hand, holding it against her leg.  When she seemed satisfied that he would not move it, she released his hand and deftly unlaced the criss-crossing length of leather that held her leggings closed.  Picking his hand up off her thigh, she put it against her lower abdomen and slid it down.  He felt the rough wool against the back of his hand and her soft warm skin under his palm.  The tips of his fingers touched hair, curly and silky, as she pushed his hand lower.  Suddenly his fingers found the divide where her labia began.

"Welcome," breathed Astrid against his mouth, and withdrew her own hand.

Hiccup was still afraid to move.

"Go on," urged Astrid, "aren't you even a little curious?"

Still not quite believing his luck, he traced his fingertips lightly along the gap, down between her legs, and the temperature of her skin rose the further he descended.  Astrid still seemed to be waiting for him to do more.  They had stopped kissing but she had both her arms around his neck and he could feel her breath against his cheek.  He eased his fingers into the folds of her labia and was surprised to feel wetness.  He slid his fingers forward and back and everywhere was slick.  He continued to explore this fascinating new territory.  The Vikings didn't have formal sex education but they were not a prudish or reserved people.  He knew from crude stories, jokes, and drawings, roughly what features he could expect to encounter in the landscape.  He ventured a few exploratory fingers forward and felt deeper folds parting, revealing a hard nub that made Astrid catch her breath when he touched it.  He ran a finger around the nub and tried to take it between two fingers but Astrid involuntarily twitched her pelvis, jerking it away from his grasp.

"It's, uh, really sensitive when you touch it directly," she mumbled into his neck.

He backed off and went the opposite direction.  Probing deeper, he expected to find—ah, there it was; his fingers sliding in the wetness found her entrance.  He circled it with the tip of his index finger, getting a little deeper with each revolution.  Astrid lifted her head from Hiccup's shoulder and looked at him with wide eyes.  But she didn't seem to want him to stop.  He was right there; the gentlest push of his fingertip and he'd be inside her.  He held his breathe and slid his finger in.  He gazed back at her with unseeing eyes; having just reached paradise, he found his other senses had taken their leave.

The walls of her vagina held his finger snugly.  He pushed in until his palm was against her.  He hadn't reached the end but he could explore no deeper.  Now what?  He slid his finger part-way out, then in again.  Her muscles gripped it and she moaned softly into his shoulder.  Hiccup couldn't believe what he was doing.  He had his finger inside Astrid, an Astrid whose breath against his neck was growing uneven.  He hadn't seen or touched her bare breasts yet and here he was exploring the most private and secret of places.  He must be dreaming this.  Or he had fallen off his dragon and drowned today.  He could certainly drown in Astrid, with her hot juices now soaking his fingers.

Suddenly she pulled his hand away and reached for his belt.  "Your turn," she chimed as she unfastened it.  Now his tunic hung loosely and she slipped a hand underneath it.  She was going for the laces of his leggings but stopped when her fingers encountered the ridge straining against them from underneath.  She felt along it curiously, up to the tip, and Hiccup suddenly found it difficult to breathe.  She untied the laces now, and worked them loose.  She glanced at Hiccup's face, which had gone crimson, as she reached inside to draw his penis out.  It was hidden by the overhang of his tunic, but she explored its length with her hand.  The first thing she noted was how incredibly soft the skin was.  The organ was quite hard but the skin that covered it was softer than a baby's.  She felt a ridge just below the head, and a large quantity of sensitive skin could slide up and down the shaft with the assistance of her hand.

"Astrid, this is amaz—Oh!…I can't believe you are…" Hiccup gasped.  He was extremely red in the face now.  "Aaaaaaa-ooooo….!" It was no use; he couldn't hold back.  Just the idea of Astrid touching his cock, let alone the actual sensation of it, was enough to send him over the edge.  Astrid's hand was abruptly covered in hot sticky fluid; she pulled it out from under Hiccup's tunic.  She knew what had happened, of course, but it took her by surprise.

"I guess you answered my question," she laughed, "I was about to ask you if I was doing that right."

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Now, months later, he was still so excited when Astrid touched him that it was difficult not to come quickly.  For his part, he had been learning how to touch her in ways that she liked.  She'd shown him, her hand over his, the rhythm she needed, and how to indirectly get at that sensitive nub without hurting it.  He used two hands now because, to come, she liked him to work that nub and slide his finger in and out of her at the same time.  He could do this with one hand if necessary, using fingers and thumb, say, when they were standing furtively against the back wall of the smithy on a dark moonless night, but he took the opportunity to use both hands when they were alone at the rock.

"What's the matter, babe?" Queried Astrid, pulling back from their kiss.  "You seem distracted."

"I was thinking of the first time we came here," Hiccup blushed at his inadvertent double entendre.

"Oh?  What about it?" Astrid leered at him.

"You let me put my finger inside you straightaway. We'd only ever kissed up to that point." Hiccup shook his head bemusedly, "I'm still blown away by it."

Astrid raised an eyebrow. "Blown is one thing you weren't that day."

Hiccup reddened again and mumbled, "There wasn't exactly time.  I was a bit excited."

"You were," Astrid concurred.  "Let's see how excited you are today."

She pushed him back against the rock.  With one hand on his chest, she unfastened his belt with the other, flipped up his tunic, and made quick work of the laces on his leggings.  Pulling his cock out unceremoniously, she rubbed her hand up and down it preparatorily, her eyes glittering.  She knelt over his legs, sitting somewhere around his knees and bending forward as she licked her lips and rubbed them together in what Hiccup considered in his unbiased opinion to be a very sexy manner.  Some stray hairs fell over her face and she brushed them aside, tucking them behind her ear, as her mouth reached his cock and she took the head between her lips and gave it a few exploratory licks followed by a firm suck he felt to the roots.  She then let some saliva flow down to add lubrication as she pulled the skin taut with her hand.  Her tongue traced the ridge around his glans and trailed down his frenulum.  His glans was glossy and purple and Astrid covered it with her mouth again, rolling her tongue around it playfully.  Hiccup put his hands behind his head the better to watch her.  Behind her, in the distance, he could see Toothless and Stormfly curled up asleep on the beach.

Astrid clearly enjoyed giving him pleasure, and he relished pleasing her just as much.  But today she seemed even wilder, the wind was blowing her hair around her face again, and she made no more attempt to smooth it back as it stuck to the saliva on his cock.  Her other hand had been resting on his thigh.  Now it felt its way under his tunic and explored his chest.  His skin tingled wherever her fingers touched, but then her mouth and other hand began a rhythm that captured his full attention and focused it deep in his groin, where he felt his orgasm rising.  Astrid's deft strokes along his shaft increased in speed, as she continued to tease him with her lips, occasionally encasing the head fully in her mouth and melting her warm tongue around it.  He was inside her, in a manner of speaking, and not for the first time wondered how this sensation compared to being within her other lips.  The point of no return was approaching.  He closed his eyes, putting his head back against the rock and gripping her shoulders.

"I'm coming, Astrid!" He warned her, "Oooooh…..Astrid."  His semen ejected with some force.  He was still amazed that Astrid swallowed it without complaint, but she always did.  He'd apologized the first time he'd come in her mouth, when he, uh, hadn't been able to give her much warning, and made it clear he did not expect it.  But she refused to countenance any other option.  Besides, she had countered, he had to taste her when he pleasured her with his mouth.  But, in his opinion, there was no comparison.  He loved how she tasted; that was the nectar of the gods.

Astrid wiped her hands and mouth on Hiccup's tunic then snuggled down on top of him.  She slid her arms under his shoulders and put her head on his chest.  He wrapped his arms around her.  He could feel the outline of the strips of linen binding her breasts under her clothing.  She didn't like to unwrap it out here on the rock, too inconvenient to re-dress, and usually very chilly.  He liked what the chill did to her breasts, as he had once pointed out cheekily.  She had slapped him playfully, of course.

Astrid's body was warm on top of him but the rock was very cold and hard underneath.  It made a poor substitute for a bed.  When would they be able to be together in a proper bed and take all their clothes off?  Out here, they had a lot of fun getting in each other's pants, but it felt like time to take things to the next level.  They loved each other and it was understood they would marry eventually.  But they were still a bit young for that, even in their culture, which encouraged early marriage to increase the population.  Viking culture, like most, frowned upon premarital sex, and for the usual patriarchal reasons, but it was far from unheard of and carried no major sanctions.  He didn't know what the women said, but Viking men boasted of their sexual prowess and conquests as men did the world over.  Hiccup never joined those conversations because he felt his precious time alone with Astrid was sacred and private.

"I love you," Hiccup said into Astrid's hair.  She lifted her head and slid up his body on her forearms until she could reach his lips.  Her huge blue eyes that always mirrored her feelings were full of tenderness now as she kissed him softly.  As their kiss intensified and her tongue danced into his mouth, he could taste himself, sharp and tangy.  Even though he was still recovering from that recent orgasm, desire was rising in him again from the movement of her body against his.  The rock was painful under his shoulder blades, though, and he abruptly tightened his arms around her and rolled them both over.  Since she had been straddling him, he was now between her legs.  He flattened his palms underneath her to take some of his own weight and avoid pressing her against the uncomfortable rock, and she wrapped her arms and legs around him as their mouths continued to connect hungrily.  As Hiccup's tongue probed forcefully into Astrid's mouth, he felt his cock hardening again.  He found himself rubbing it against her, catching the front of her pubic bone.  He felt the leather laces of her leggings under his bare skin.  He rubbed up and down, as if he had an itch to scratch, and she lifted her pelvis to meet him, holding him to her with her legs.  She reached down between them and Hiccup realised she was trying to unfasten her leggings.  "Not here," he thought, "not like this."  But he was incapable of saying it out loud or trying to stop her.

An enormous crash shook the ground, startling both of their dragons into the air.  Hiccup leapt off Astrid and they both jumped to their feet with warrior-trained reflexes, Hiccup looking wildly around as he attempted to stuff himself back into his clothing and fasten it.  Rising dust at the foot of the limestone cliff that bordered the beach told them that a chunk of its face had broken off, rocks hitting rocks piled below from previous landslides.  Realising there was no danger, they both caught their breath and looked at one another.

Hiccup felt in one sense ridiculous, humping Astrid nearly fully-clothed on this cold rock, but he also felt the stirring of a new need.  Something had shifted today, for both of them.

"Your turn," Hiccup tried to grin casually, gesturing for Astrid to sit back down on the rock so he could pleasure her with his hands or mouth.  But she ignored him.  They both knew what had almost happened.  They couldn't go back to simply bringing each other off, as enjoyable as that was.

Toothless and Stormfly had alighted near them.  Toothless put his nose into the small of Hiccup's back and gave him a shove.

"Ok, bud, we're going," he said, still looking at Astrid, who hadn't spoken.  She didn't say anything as they collected the wrappings from their picnic and mounted their dragons.  They flew over the bluff to investigate the new gash in its face.  The sea was gradually eroding the cliffs, piling debris and changing the landscape, but it was rare to see it happen.  Their curiosity satisfied, they flew back to the village in silence.  Astrid landed in front of her house and gave Hiccup a small smile before going inside.  He glided the short distance to his own doorway and landed lightly in front of it.  Patting Toothless absently he went inside, washed up, and lay down on his bed, staring at the ceiling.

It was a minor feast day so the villagers assembled for a communal dinner that night in Meade Hall.  Hiccup and his father arrived before the Hoffersons.  Stoick ambled off to sit with Gobber and some of the higher-ranking men in the tribe, and after Hiccup had filled his bowl and his mug he walked toward the other members of the Academy, not wanting to sit with them this evening but feeling it would be rude not to.  As he hesitated, the door opened and the Hoffersons came in.  Astrid said something to her parents and they nodded, moving off in the direction of the hearth as Astrid looked around.  Spotting Hiccup, she made a beeline for him.  As she approached, Hiccup noted with surprise that she had taken much more trouble with her appearance than usual.  Her windblown hair had been washed and freshly braided, and it smelled fragrant.  She wore a dress that she put on for feasts and holidays, the only occasions when she left off her warrior garb, and not even then if she was intending to go dragon-riding later.  Astrid was always beautiful but tonight she looked radiant.

"Hi," said Hiccup dazedly, feeling strangely shy again even though Astrid had his cock in her mouth only a few hours previously.

"Hi," she blushed slightly, for no discernible reason, "Let's find a seat."

Ignoring their comrades, they found an empty table and sat side by side.  Astrid darted away briefly to fill her own mug and bowl, then sat beside Hiccup, her thigh against his as usual.  This always made it difficult for him to eat but tonight it was nearly impossible.  He clutched his mug and drained it, intoxicated by the scent of Astrid's hair and having no idea what he ate and drank.

The liquor in their drinking horns must have been strong, for the singing began early, and almost everyone stayed to listen or join in.  Astrid and Hiccup slipped out, leaving their dishes on the table to collect in the morning.  They went off by themselves often enough that no-one paid any mind, and their friends now had boyfriends and girlfriends of their own to occupy them.  Well, except for Snotlout and Fishlegs, but Snotlout had his ego to keep him company, and Fishlegs had his books.

"Come to my house," said Astrid, "as I'm more likely to be missed."  She took Hiccup's hand and he followed her across the empty village square, knowing exactly where this evening was going and yet not believing it.

Once inside her house, Hiccup followed Astrid up the creaking ladder to the loft, and she led him past the beds of her parents and younger siblings.  Astrid's sleeping area was actually a small storage room at the back of the main sleeping loft. At a certain age, she demanded privacy and dragged her bed inside it, separated from the communal sleeping area by a sturdy door.  The room was tiny, with barely space for her narrow bed, a painted chest for her clothing, and a place to lean her axe and shield against the wall.  There was a window, into which Stormfly tried to stick her head every morning.  She couldn't fit, but she considered it her duty to wake Astrid with the sun.

"So you don't hang upside down from the rafters like Ruff and Tuff?" Quipped Hiccup in a vain attempt at humour as he eyed her small bed.  It was low to the ground, and made of rough wood, with a carved and painted headboard.  The headboard was old and its paint was fading.  The design was of a dragon but, having been carved in the days when Vikings and dragons were not yet on friendly terms, it was a frightening image, with wild bulbous eyes, smoke curling from its nostrils and fire emerging from between the long sharp teeth in its wide open mouth.  Apparently, Viking parents thought nightmares toughened their kids up.

Astrid wasn't paying attention.  She crouched behind her wooden chest and pushed it until it was in front of the door.  It left long scratch marks where it scraped across the wide-plank wood floors but she didn't seem to notice.

"Afraid I might change my mind?" Hiccup tried again to be funny.

Astrid didn't dignify that with a response.  "This will give you time to get out the window if anyone tries to come in," she said, as if he had not spoken.

That's comforting, thought Hiccup, an extra 30 seconds to jump out the window to my death before Jurgan Hofferson can get in to dispatch me with an axe.  He watched Astrid move to stand in front of him beside the bed.  She was wearing a long red linen dress embellished with green and gold knotwork patterns at the hem, wrists, and neckline that matched the green ribbon braided into her gold hair.  She was tall, slim, athletic, with a well-cultivated air of physical prowess.  The traditional dress skimmed her lithe figure, leaving a lot to Hiccup's vivid imagination.  Her enormous blue eyes met his as her lips parted in an uncharacteristically shy smile.  She looked, he thought with more sincerity than originality, like a goddess.  I think that this night, he reasoned as he bent to kiss her, will be worth death and dismemberment at dawn.

Their lips met and broke apart, met again, like sipping hot mead that would burn if you took a long drink.  Astrid's hands were on Hiccup's shoulders and he lightly held her waist. Gathering the fabric of her gown in his hands, he pulled it up.  She raised her arms and let him lift it over her head.  Extracting her arms from the sleeves, she let it float to the floor.  Underneath her dress she wore…..nothing.  Hiccup was momentarily stunned.  He expected layers.  Vikings usually wore plenty of them in their boreal climate.  But after her bath Astrid had slipped the dress on for the feast and that was all.  Except her boots.  She stood before Hiccup, with the moonlight from the window illuminating her pale skin, naked except for her boots.  She bent to unlace them but Hiccup said "Let me," and knelt quickly before her.  He unlaced her right boot and held it for her to step out of, then did the same with her left.  He stood and looked at her, his goddess in the moonlight.  She advanced toward him and reached for his belt, unfastening it and letting it drop.  Next her fingers brushed his collarbone as she worked at the leather cord holding closed the neckline of his tunic.  When this was loose, he held up a wrist, and she untied its lacing, and then the other wrist was freed.  Now it was his turn to lift his arms whilst she reached up to push his tunic over his head.  Her breasts bounced slightly with this motion, but the tunic passing over Hiccup's face momentarily blocked his view.

Astrid's fingers lightly skimmed down his chest and then along his waist.  She unlaced his leggings, as she had done earlier that day at the rock, but she didn't pull them down.  First, she knelt and unfastened his right boot.  She paused after he stepped out of it, considering the metal prosthesis that replaced his left foot.

"I think we'd better leave this on," she said, "In case you need to make a quick exit."

Hiccup nodded and swallowed, looking again at the brightly painted trunk blocking the door.  Astrid reached up & pulled his leggings down.  He kicked them aside as she stood and faced him.  They were alone and naked together for the first time.  Hiccup's erection formed a comical exclamation point between them.  Again, he felt unaccountably shy.  For Thor's sake, they had known each other practically since birth.  Born days apart (Astrid was the elder by less than 48 hours), they had shared a naming ceremony.  It was highly unusual for a chief's child, especially his eldest son and heir, to share a naming ceremony with another baby, but the birth of his son had put Stoick in a magnanimous mood and, Hiccup suspected, the shared naming ceremony may have been a way to take the spotlight off the fact that he was, well, a hiccup.

He'd had a crush on Astrid for as long as he could remember.  Until his heroic transformation at 15, his crush had been painfully unrequited.  But from the moment Astrid had stopped seeing him as a weak loser or worse, a traitor, she had been his staunchest advocate and loyal confidante.  Like Toothless, she was always there for him, and brought out the best in him.  He trusted both of them with his life and loved them more than life itself.  They were his best friends but, in Astrid's case, there was the complication that he was also passionately in lust with her.  His relationship with Toothless was strictly platonic; not so with Astrid.  She was so strikingly beautiful and sexy that all of Berk's young men harboured a secret desire for her.  Hiccup was the only one who was blessed with the reality instead of just the fantasy, and he still could not believe his good fortune, certainly not now when she stood before him luminescent and hopeful, aching as he was to be as close as two people could be.

Astrid's family would be back soon; it was time to move things along.  His hand came up and he brushed a pale breast with the back of his hand, his fingers lightly grazing the nipple.  He traced her collar bone with his finger tips and trailed them up her neck to her jaw line.  They kissed once, twice, then moved a little closer.  One of Hiccup's hands held her face gently as the other slid down her rib cage, past the indent of her waist and over the smooth curve of her hip, then around behind.  This was the first time he'd run his hands over her body unhindered by clothing, and felt her bare backside.  Astrid, for her part, seemed to have much the same idea.  Both of her hands crept around his back as they kissed, and felt their way down to his arse.  These excursions pressed Hiccup's erection up against Astrid's lower abdomen as their torsos met.  It was a cold night, as usual on Berk, but the temperature seemed to rise in the room.  Astrid broke away and lay back on her bed.  Hiccup followed, lying half beside her, half on top of her.  Their foreheads and noses touched affectionately as they eased their bodies together on the bed, skin to skin for the first time.  This is really going to happen, Hiccup thought.  A fond smile played at Astrid's lips and in her eyes at Hiccup's solemn expression.  She reached for the back of his head to pull him in for a kiss and the bed creaked loudly.  They paused.  Then Hiccup shifted and it creaked again.  This creaking could certainly be heard in the next room.

"Do you toss and turn a lot at night?" asked Hiccup, suspecting that the bed was probably much less creaky with just Astrid in it.

"No," said Astrid, "I—" she broke off.  They both heard the distant sound of a door opening and closing, followed by voices getting louder and the scuff-thump of feet on the ladder.  They held their breath and didn't move.  The thud of discarded boots hitting the ground, and the jingle and scrape of metallic items being stowed in chests or just dropped on the floor was followed quickly by silence.  Everyone was clearly sleepy, and dull from imbibing heavily at the feast.  Gradually, their tense muscles relaxed and they smiled nervously at one another.

"I think we should try the floor," whispered Astrid.  They both stood as quietly as they could, and Astrid pulled the thin wool blanket off her bed and spread it on the floor on the far side.  They lay down with care, willing the floorboards not to squeak, and met each other's eyes.

"I'm not sure this is much improvement over the rock," Hiccup quipped and they both suddenly found themselves struggling not to laugh.  Astrid bit Hiccup's shoulder as her own shoulders shook with mirth and Hiccup tried to quell his own laughter with deep breathes.  They both gasped for air and their eyes watered as they silently convulsed with supressed hilarity.  When their nervous mirth subsided they reached for each other with quiet determination.  Hiccup kissed Astrid passionately as he rolled himself on top of her as noiselessly as possible.  His knees parted her legs and he eased his pelvis against hers, his erection against her mons veneris, as it had been earlier that day, except now without any clothing in the way.  Instead of the laces of her leggings, he rubbed against silky hair.  He moved back and forth, then changed his angle and his cock slipped between her labia.  Oh, sweet blessing of the gods!  The feeling of sliding through the slick folds was almost unbearably good.  He rocked his tip up over her clit and then down, up again until he felt himself bump over that nub, and then back down over it again.  Using his penis, he was stimulating her as he had done previously with his hand, and apparently it was successful.  Astrid was trying valiantly not to make any noise.  She kissed him at first to stop herself moaning aloud, then bit his shoulder again hard.  He rubbed faster as she was clearly enjoying this, but he began to worry that if she came she would either wake her parents or do him serious damage, or both.  His increased speed made it harder to control exactly where he slid in her wetness and on his next stroke, he suddenly felt himself pushing in instead of up.  He had slipped down to her entrance and with one thrust he would be inside her.  This was it.  Astrid clearly didn't want him to stop; she was close to orgasm from his stimulation.  He'd never wanted anything in his life like he wanted to be inside Astrid now.  He was going to do it.  He tensed, gathering himself to thrust forward, and a horn blast shattered the quiet night air.  The blast repeated.  It was Berk's emergency warning system that meant extreme danger  – an enemy attack or a punishing act of Thor.

For the second time that day, Hiccup leapt to his feet (well, foot), and scrambled for his clothes.  Astrid did the same.  Loud bangs and exclamations issued from the next room.  A fist boomed on the door, "Astrid, lass, are you up?  Did you hear the horn?"

"Yes, father," Astrid shouted back, "I'll meet you outside."

"They won't expect me to go out that way," explained Astrid, as she lunged for her trunk, threw it open, and rummaged for her practical warrior garb.  Snatching up her axe and shield she leaned out the window to call for Stormfly, but the dragon was already there.  With practiced grace, Astrid jumped out of her window and onto Stormfly's back.  Hiccup clambered after her.  Securing himself with an arm around her waist as Stormfly took off, Hiccup asked with exasperation, "Do you think the gods are trying to tell us something?"

Toothless was pacing outside Hiccup's house when they reached it.  Hiccup dashed inside for his shield, then mounted Toothless with a flying leap.  He and Astrid flew off to join the rest of the Vikings at Look-Out Point, the highest bluff above the village that afforded a view both inland over the interior of the island and far out to sea.

Hiccup landed near the chief.  "What's going on, dad?"

"I was hoping you could tell me!" exclaimed Stoick.  "You weren't at home so I figured you were off investigating.  But then Toothless showed up, obviously waiting for you."  He looked from Hiccup to Astrid, who had alighted beside him. "Where were you? What took you so long?"

"I, uh, walked Astrid home from the feast and we were talking."

"You two left the feast ages ago, and you had your tunic on right way 'round then," observed Stoick.

Hiccup looked down in horror.  His tunic was indeed on backwards, and he'd forgotten his belt.

"We, uh, we just…" He looked helplessly at Astrid, who had at least managed to get her kit on properly.  "Just never mind that now, dad, why did the horn sound?"

Stoick raised his eyebrows, then sighed and answered Hiccup's question. "Night patrol found the cliffs on the other side of the island falling away into the ocean.  A quarter mile of coastline has disappeared in one evening."

"We saw some of that this afternoon," said Hiccup in confusion, "but it was just a small piece; it looked like natural erosion."

"There's nothing natural about this.  Old Ragnfast ran back and blew the horn and has been babbling on about Berk disappearing into the sea.'

"Screaming death!" Exclaimed Hiccup, remembering the last time a dragon made entire islands vanish into the ocean.

"I thought the same," responded Stoick, "but Ragn said he didn't see any dragons."

"Let's check it out," Hiccup said to the members of the Academy, who had now assembled around him on their dragons.  They took off, fanning out to scan the ground as they crossed the island.

"Everyone says I'm the dumb one," said Tuffnut, "but even I know how to put my clothes on."

"No, you don't," said Ruffnut, "mom has to put them out for you right side up."

"Oh, is that why she does that?" said Tuffnut.

The others cast sidelong glances at Hiccup and Astrid as they flew to the cliffs near the 'picnic' beach.

"Maybe we could all wear our tunics backward," suggested Tuffnut.  "It could be our secret way of identifying ourselves as members of the Academy."

"Everyone knows who's in the Academy, moron," retorted Ruffnut.  "Although I think Hiccup should kick you out."

"Um, guys, I don't think Hiccup wants us to call attention to the fact that his tunic is on backwards," interjected Fishlegs, inadvertently calling attention to it again.

"Yeah, it does make him seem pretty stupid," said Tuffnut, "and he is supposed to be our leader.  I can't respect a leader who isn't smarter than me."

"Well, luckily that leaves everyone," muttered Astrid.

Snotlout directed Hookfang over toward Astrid and leered, "He doesn't want to talk about it because it means he and Astrid were up to something."

"That's enough," declared Hiccup, "Drop it!   We are out here to find out why Berk is falling into the sea."

"Oooo," said Snotlout, "I'm shaking in my yakskin boots.  What are you going to do if I don't drop it?"

Hiccup usually let his cousin's teasing roll off of him but he was in no mood tonight. He flew over until he was as close to Snotlout's face as he could get, given their dragons' wingspans.

"I'm going to—" but whatever Hiccup was going to do was rendered inaudible by the splash and crash of rocks hitting water and other rocks.  They sped over to where they could see dust and sea spray rising over the cliff top.

"This is no natural erosion," shouted Hiccup to the others, "something is deliberately destroying that cliff."

"Fishlegs!" Hiccup ordered, "get as close as you can and tell us what you see."

"Why me?" Fishlegs whined, but he dutifully flew off in the direction of the cliff.

"Because Meatlug is the best hoverer," Hiccup called after him.

They could see Meatlug fly over the edge of the cliff and disappear down the sheer side to scan it.  There was another explosion of dirt and rock and they all raced toward where they had last seen Meatlug, peering desperately through the rising cloud of dust.  Suddenly Fishlegs and Meatlug shot straight up into the air in front of them.  Fishlegs' face was white but it wasn't just from the powdered limestone.

"Uh, guys, I think Ragnfast was wrong about there not being a dragon."  He stammered.

"Is it a screaming death?" asked Hiccup?

"No, just before that explosion I saw something flat and green on the side of the cliff.  It looks liked a leaf or…or maybe a fan.  The screaming death is albino with red eyes, if you recall."

"I do recall…in my nightmares," said Hiccup.

"Can we trade nightmares?" said Tuffnut, "Mine have a blue yak.  I'd rather have a screaming death."

"So, it is a dragon," mused Hiccup, "But why is it destroying Berk?"

"Well, the screaming death wanted its mother," said Astrid.

"So, is this dragon looking for its mother, too?" queried Hiccup, "Wouldn't we have seen its mother if she lived on Berk?"

"Not if she's invisible," said Ruffnut unexpectedly.

"Yeah, we couldn't see those change-y dragons, remember?  That's how they were able to steal my stone of good fortune," said Tuffnut.

"It wasn't a stone of—never mind," Hiccup sighed, "Fishlegs, could this dragon be a changewing?"

"I suppose, but I don't know why it would choose to be green against a white cliff."

"Maybe they can't control their colour when they're really upset?" wondered Hiccup aloud.

"They seemed pretty upset when we had their eggs," said Astrid, glaring at Snotlout.

"Right.  Let's see if we can get a better look at it."  Hiccup flew out over the ocean and turned to glide along the shore at a safe distance, scanning the cliff's rough surface for any sign of movement.  The others followed.  This time they all saw it.  A shadow seemed to move across the surface where the water lapped the bluff.  It spread over the cliff like a wet leaf sticking to a rock, then disappeared into the water.  A few heartbeats later there was another explosion, and more of the cliff fell into the sea, splashing and sending out ripples against the tide.

"We have to stop this," said Hiccup, "c'mon, Toothless, we need to get closer."

Toothless flew as slowly as he could along the face of the cliff, rising and falling rhythmically as his wings beat the air.  With his wide wingspan, he could not hover in place like Meatlug.  Hiccup thought he saw something moving on the surface of the water again but he could not see it clearly in the moonlight.

"Toothless, plasma blast," he ordered, and a jet of blue and white light shot from the dragon's mouth, bursting into a bright ring against the rock face that illuminated the surface of the water long enough for Hiccup to see a bright green dragon walking along as if it were on dry land.  It dove in reaction to the sudden light, folding in on itself like a furled banner.

"What in the name of Thor's iron skivvies was that?!" exclaimed Snotlout.

"Get back!" Hiccup shouted, knowing by now that the dragon's dive beneath the surface would be followed by another eruption of rock from the cliff face.

They all raced out to sea and conferred out of range of the splashing and flying stone.  

"Fishlegs?" Hiccup turned to their resident dragon scholar.

"It has to be a double-crested basilisk[†]," said Fishlegs in an awed tone, "they're the only dragon that can walk on water.  But they aren't usually found this far north."

"Maybe it's lost and that's why it's so angry?" wondered Hiccup but then shook his head as another explosion of rock rent the air, "No, I feel sure it's looking for something.  Fishlegs, what else can you tell us?"

"Oh, it's such a cool dragon!  The males have a huge double crest behind their heads, and their feet are webbed so they can walk on water, and--"

"But why would a dragon need to walk on water?" interjected Astrid, "Dragons can fly."

"I was just about to tell you," Fishlegs continued with the usual reverent enthusiasm he accorded dragon lore, "they lay their eggs in shallow caves and fissures of seaside cliffs.  They walk on water to reach their nests."

"Fishlegs, what do the females look like?" demanded Hiccup, getting an idea.

"They only have a single crest, and it's a lot smaller," said Fishlegs.

"The males sound so much cooler," said Snotlout, puffing out his chest, "as you'd expect."

"Let's see if we can get a better look at you," said Hiccup, flying up to where he was sure the dragon was lurking along the new gash it had made in the headland.  He asked Toothless for another plasma blast and used the brief flash of light to search the cliff face for the dragon.  He saw a glossy green figure appear to float down over the broken rocks and alight silently on the water.  He focused his attention on the back of its head.  He could just see what appeared to be a single crest framing its neck, undulating slightly with the movement of its shoulders as it crept across the murky and frothy sea at the cliff's foot.  He flew back to the others.

"I think she's looking for her eggs!  Astrid and I saw a section of cliff break off today when we were, er, on patrol in this area.  What if this dragon had laid her eggs in that section of cliff and they've now disappeared?"

"Of course!  She's tearing up the shoreline trying to find them!" said Astrid.

"And she doesn't look like she's going to give up anytime soon," said Fishlegs apprehensively, as another explosion of rock reached their ears.

"Let me think," said Hiccup, "If her nest was in the section that fell this afternoon, her eggs could be underwater, they could be crushed underneath the rock that fell.  How do we placate her if they've been destroyed?"

"First, let's find out if they have been destroyed," said Astrid, flying off toward shore, "dragon eggs are pretty hard."

She landed at the far end of the thin strip of beach near their rock and slipped off Stormfly.  Climbing over the rocks that had fallen onto the beach and into the shallows, she began to look for dragon eggs.  The others joined her, wading into the freezing water and clinging to the cliff face as they shimmied along it at the water line, feeling for indentations and picking up and inspecting the rocks they could reach under the surface.  It was cold, dangerous, frustrating work.

"Can we come back and do this during the day," said Snotlout, "I can't see anything and my feet are starting to get webbed from standing in this water."

"By daylight, half the headland will be gone," said Hiccup.  "But you're right; this is no use.  We're never going to find her eggs in the dark underwater."

Hiccup ached with cold, exhaustion, and frustration.  In a very few hours, it would be light, but the dragon had been unceasing in her destruction the whole time they were searching.  She'd moved farther away from them along the cliff.  Eventually, she'd make her way around the island to the village.  Hiccup didn't want to hurt her, or have to try to drive her away from her eggs.  He sighed.  "Let's keep searching a bit longer, unless someone has a better idea."

"I've got a better idea," said Ruffnut, "going to bed."  She yawned and strode out of the water, dripping, over to Barf and Belch.  "Dry me off, guys," she called, and the dragons gassed and ignited a fire that lingered long enough for the heat to dry her clothes.  Barf put his head down on the sand and Ruffnut lay against it like a pillow.

"Wait," said Hiccup, "can you get them to make that fire over the water right here?"  He pointed to where the initial rockslide had occurred that afternoon.  He ordered everyone else out of the water and waited a few minutes for the silt to settle and the water to become as clear as possible.  He directed the twins to make a large ring of fire around where he was going to dive.  The gas would take some time to burn off, giving him a bit of light underwater as long as the sea wasn't too cloudy with silt.  Four times he dove, holding his breath as long as the fire light held out, grabbing at every stone in hopes it might be an egg.  The zippleback had one more shot; this was his last chance.  He panted on the boulder that he was using as a diving platform, cold and tired, and steeled himself for one more dive.  The others were sitting on the beach – Snotlout was asleep in his saddle on Hookfang's back – except for Astrid who stood on the shore as close as the fire would permit and clasped her hands.  "Last one," she called encouragingly, "you can do it!" He looked back and smiled gratefully at her.  Taking a deep breath, he dove one last time into the icy dark water. The fire sprang up above him and the ocean glowed orange to a depth of about 10 feet.  He picked his way, propelling himself along by pushing off against the larger chunks of rock.  He was running out of air, and light, and just about to surface in defeat, when something sparkled in the fading glow.  It was probably just quartz, there was plenty mixed in with the limestone, but he grabbed two winking rocks in his hands as he lunged to the surface and gasped for air.  He put them on the boulder and examined them in the moonlight.  Yes, they were eggs!  But was that all of them?  He had no way of knowing for sure.  Could the dragon count?  Probably.  He sighed.

"I found some eggs!" he called.  "But I am going to need more light to get the rest."

Barf coughed and a few wisps of green gas emerged from his mouth.  Belch looked at it contemptuously and didn't even attempt to light it.

"Uh, yeah, these guys are done," said Ruffnut.

Unfortunately, Toothless's plasma blasts didn't work under water.  Stormfly's fire was dangerously hot and Meatlug made molten lava.  That left Hookfang.

"Snotlout!" Hiccup shouted, "Wake up!"

Snotlout looked momentarily surprised to find himself asleep on his dragon, "Wha-?  Are we done?  Can I go home and go to bed now?"

"Almost.  Can you bring Hookfang over near this boulder and get him to flame up?"

Snotlout looked like he wanted to refuse but he was too tired to argue.

The previous dive hadn't been his last, thought Hiccup resignedly, as he slipped once again into the chilly water, trying to remember exactly where he'd found the eggs so he wouldn't waste time.  He didn't expect to get nearly as much light from Hookfang.  Luck was with him for the first time that day as he made two more dives, feeling in the dim light until he was relatively certain he had brought up all the glittering faceted eggs.  He thanked Hookfang, something Snotlout never did, and gathered the five eggs he'd recovered in his wet tunic.  Climbing carefully onto Toothless, he flew off along the shoreline in search of the dragon.  By now, she had gone around a corner of the headland and her blasting work was out of sight.  As he got closer, Hiccup saw huge pine trees toppling over a tall precipice and crashing down into the water below.  She'd reached the forest that ran up behind the village.  He had to placate her quickly.

Hiccup landed on the new edge of the bluff.  Sliding carefully off Toothless with the eggs still rolled up in his tunic, he piled them on the ground, holding up one for her to see.  "Toothless, get her attention."  Toothless called out, an eerie sound, and shot a plasma blast into the night sky.  A green wing appeared over the raw edge of the cliff, followed by a low, flat green body and spindly legs with outsized feet.  It was the first dragon that reminded Hiccup as much of an insect as a reptile.  She looked quizzically at Toothless, then spotted the egg in Hiccup's hands.  Her eyes grew red and she swelled and opened her mouth.  Hiccup didn't know what kind of fire power she had; he'd forgotten to ask Fishlegs.

"No, no!" He protested, putting the egg on the pile and gesturing to it. "I'm not taking your eggs, I brought them back for you."  He backed away and Toothless did the same.  The dragon's mouth closed and she glided forward silently.  Without a sound, she gathered the eggs gently in her mouth and floated back over the cliff.  She was gone so fast Hiccup didn't get a good look at her in the moonlight.  He'd have to look in the Book of Dragons tomorrow and figure out why she might be so far from home.  But, for now, he didn't hear any more explosions of rock being blasted off the island.

They all flew home in a haze of fatigue.  They met a contingent of warriors on foot crossing the island with torches, Stoick and Gobber at the head.  They explained what happened, and Hiccup sent Snotlout and the twins off to inform the boats that were sailing around the coastline from the village.  Hiccup said good night to Fishlegs and Astrid and turned Toothless toward the chief's house.  Astrid flew toward her house, circled around it, and came back alongside Toothless.

"Is your father going to give you a hard time?" she asked, supressing a yawn.

"I don't think so," replied Hiccup, "but I'm too tired to really care."  He gave Astrid a weak grin, "I'm supposed to work at the smithy tomorrow.  Meet me after?"  She nodded and flew off.

Hiccup slipped off Toothless and gave him a pat goodnight as they went inside.  His father and Gobber were standing in front of the fire, having a strong drink after the night's excitement.

"Just a minute, son," said Stoick, as Hiccup put his foot on the bottom stair.  Toothless melted into the darkness out of the firelight.  "Are you really expecting me to believe that you and Astrid were just talking?"  He gestured to Hiccup's backwards tunic.

"No, dad, I don't expect you to believe it, but it's, uh, true we did talk.  We talked about….." Hiccup cast in his memory for what words had passed between them.  He could remember little conversation other than invoking the deities whenever they neared climax. "We, uh, talked about the gods, and, uh, furniture.  We had quite a humourous discussion about furniture."  That damn bed had them in fits.

Gobber regarded Hiccup as if he were a particularly slow-witted gronkle.  "You know, Hiccup, if I were your age and alone with a fetching lass, I'd find better things to do than talk."

Hiccup rolled his eyes as he went up to bed.

"Do you sometimes wonder if he's right in the head?" Gobber asked Stoick with concern.

It was Stoick's turn to roll his eyes.  "Gobber, he was pulling the wool over our eyes."

"Oh," said Gobber, as recognition dawned slowly across his face, "so they weren't talking then?"

"No, Gobber, they weren't talking.  But if Jurgan Hofferson finds that out, we will be scraping Hiccup's guts off the ceiling."

"So, as far as we're concerned, they just find it more comfortable to have a conversation in the skuddy?"

Stoick covered his face with his hand.  "Just, leave it to me."

Hiccup was so exhausted he stumbled on the stairs that went up to his sleeping loft.  Grey light suffused the room; it was dawn.  He and Astrid had started their patrol early yesterday, meaning he had been up for 24 hours.  Toothless wasn't curled up on his fireproof bed but that didn't surprise him.  The dragon loved early morning and often crept out silently to enjoy it before Hiccup awoke.  His steps faltering with fatigue, he staggered over to his bed, intending to topple upon it clothes and all.  But there was already someone there.  He caught himself before pitching forward and stared.  Astrid was in his bed.  She was under the blanket but he was certain from her outline that she was naked.  She was lying on her side facing him, her eyes shining in the weak light.  She put her finger to her lips and they both listened.  Gobber had left and Hiccup could hear the muffled sounds of his father divesting himself of his armaments before bed.  Stoick had taken to sleeping downstairs after Hiccup's mother had been abducted in a dragon raid when he was a baby.  Unusually for a Viking household, the loft had always been his private space.  His father never came up here, and he had room not only for his bed and trunk, but for a desk and the enormous slab that had been hauled up to serve as Toothless's bed.

Hiccup sat down heavily on the edge of the bed to take off his boot and Astrid whispered, "I had Stormfly put me through the window.  Everyone is going to sleep late today.  When my parents wake and find me and Stormfly already gone, they won't think anything of it."  Hiccup nodded and stood shakily to undress.  As he slid into bed beside Astrid, he saw the dark shadows under her exquisite blue eyes.  They were both asleep by the time his head hit the pillow.

When Hiccup awoke, he was lying on his back.  He could tell from the slant of the light on the ceiling beams that it was after noon.  He wondered groggily why he was in bed so late until he remembered: He'd spent the night persuading an angry water dragon not to destroy Berk.  And Astrid, he looked to his left and saw the back of Astrid's gold head, hair coming loose from its formerly neat braid, Astrid had stolen into his bed after a day of comical sexual frustration.  Had they finally…?  Hiccup searched his memory.  He recalled nothing after he'd undressed and gotten into bed.  He smiled ruefully.  They'd fallen asleep!  Holy hammer of Thor, they'd finally been in bed together naked for hours, uninterrupted, and they'd slept the entire time.  He put his arm around Astrid, spooning her and burying his face in her hair.  It smelled more dusty than sweet now after the night's commotion, but he didn't mind.  Once again, they were lying together with his erection between them, but this time he did not care if the entire village and every dragon Odin ever made came pounding on the door.  If Berk was going to slide off the edge of the world, fine, let it, but he was going to make love with his girlfriend first.

Astrid stirred, similar thoughts to Hiccup's passing through her foggy brain as it ascended to full consciousness.  She turned her head and reached for Hiccup, pulling him in for a kiss.  She rolled back against him from where she had been sleeping on her left side and he manoeuvred on top of her.  He felt her legs spread to make room for him to settle between them, his cock once again finding her entrance, with pointed haste this time.  He supported himself on his arms, his chest against her breasts.

"You ready?" He breathed against her mouth, and felt her nod.  Hiccup pushed.  He was in!  The physical feeling was everything he had imagined, even better than he had dreamed.  But nothing compared to the emotions that washed over him.  It was akin to the elation he felt when flying; he didn't have words for it.

He went in as far as he could and paused.  Astrid hadn't cried out or moved.  He searched her face.  She looked gobsmacked and pale.  "I'm not hurting you, am I?"

"No!"  He felt her hands flutter to life on his back again, "I just can't believe we're doing this," she gasped.  "Hiccup!  You're inside me, Hiccup!"

"I know," his reply came out almost as a groan as the feeling of her internal muscles embracing him overwhelmed him, "I can't believe it either! This is amazing!"

There seemed to be little explosions happening in his head.  Just being inside Astrid was so good it almost seemed superfluous to move.  But he felt a primal urge to thrust.  He arched his lower back, which changed the angle and drew him out a little, then tucked his pelvis and thrust forward.  The resulting sensations made his world complete.  Why had they waited so long?  No, they waited the perfect amount of time; this was worth waiting for.

Hiccup's bed was newer and sturdier and didn't creak.  He didn't think his father was home but he was past caring anyway.  He'd just saved the village, yet again.  He deserved to be left in peace for at least as long as it took to come inside his girlfriend.  And that would not be long if he didn't slow down.  Gods, this felt good.  It felt right in some fundamental way; he definitely belonged here.  Hiccup held back and caught his breath before his next thrust.  He could feel Astrid's inner thighs brushing his hips as he entered as slowly as he could, then withdrew incrementally.  Astrid finally cried out.  "Oooooh, Hiccup," she moaned.  Their eyes met as she took his face in her hands, gripping his hair.  He held her gaze, warm green eyes looking into blue as they made love, for the first time, with sweet torturous slowness.  Their unaccountable shyness was finally gone, replaced by complete openness.  As he pushed himself inside her again, Hiccup was acutely aware that Astrid was opening much more than her body to him.  He was hers, and she his, in every way.  She 'got' him, helped and supported him, loved and teased and guided him, as no-one else ever had.  She was herself, Astrid, different from him, and complementary, but they were so close that in some sense she seemed like another side of himself.  It would be worse than missing a limb to lose her.  Hiccup had never really articulated their relationship to himself; he'd taken the depth of their intimacy for granted because it had arisen so gradually and naturally since the battle with the Red Death.  But, now, being as intimate as it was possible to be with another person, he appreciated her more than he ever had before.

Hiccup found it was even more stimulating to keep the pace so intensely slow, and his impending orgasm became harder to resist.  He felt Astrid's body tensing the way it did when she was about to come.  She continued to meet his gaze but then her eyes widened and shut tightly and her head tipped back.  The contractions of his own orgasm joined hers as they came together, his face against her neck and his semen flowing inside her for the first time.  They paused for a moment, awestruck, then Hiccup felt Astrid's breath on his face as her hands guided his mouth up to hers and they kissed for a long time.

No-one interrupted them.

---

[*] Hiccup uses the word "picnic" in "Riders of Berk", Episode 16: "Defiant One", saying that being stuck with Snotlout was "no picnic".  So, I may have to cut this joke.

[†] This is the real name of the real lizard upon which this dragon is modeled.  "Basilisk" was not stolen from the Potterverse.  In any case, Hiccup always privately thought of it as the Blue Balls of Death dragon.