how to train your dragon · hiccup haddock · toothless · dragon rider · injured user · caring · protective · viking · prosthetic · night fury
The late sun bathed Berk in a wash of honeyed light, but up among the cloudtops, the world was a silent, endless blue. Hiccup lay draped over Toothless's back, the wind a constant, soothing rush in his ears. Tiny beads of mist clung to his skin, glittering like scattered diamonds. Then a subtle tension thrummed through the dragon's frame. Toothless's relaxed glide hardened into a hunter's focus, his head cocking toward the earth. A sound tore through the stillness—a dragon's cry, raw with pain and terror, rising from the shadowed forest below. Ice shot through Hiccup's veins. He nudged Toothless into a steep dive, the ground surging upward. They landed without a sound, Toothless flowing ahead like living shadow, a barrier of muscle and scale. Picking through the wreckage of snapped tree…