How to train your Dragon Rider

~Chapter six: the flight of the Toothless~ (Hiccup)

   Gobber and the recruits were seated at the top of an abandoned catapult tower, toasting campfire food around a roaring bonfire. They all sat in a circle, some roasting marshmallows over the fire.

"And with one twist he took my hand and swallowed it whole." Gobber made a twisting motion with his hook, making some of the recruits flinch at the image created in their heads. "And I saw the look on his face.I was delicious. He must have passed the word, because it wasn't a month before another one of them took my leg." He showed off the wooden stim, making up the rest of his right foot.

"Isn't it weird to think that your hand was inside a dragon. Like if your mind was still in control of it you could have killed the dragon from the inside by crushing his heart or something." I scrunched up my nose at Fishlegs comment.

"I swear I'm so angry right now I'll avenge your beautiful hand and your beautiful foot. I'll chop off the legs of every dragon I fight," he passed. "with my face."

With a mouthful of food, Gobber shook his head. "N-unh. It's the wings and the tails you really want. If it can't fly, it can't get away. A downed Dragon is a dead dragon..." I turned away, hiding my horrified look from the others. I thought of the dragon in the cove that didn't have a tail. He would die if he couldn't fly out of there.

Gobber stands and stretches. "Alright. I'm off to bed. You should be too. Tomorrow we get into the big boys. Slowly but surely making our way up to the Monstrous Nightmare." Gobber playfully taunted. "But who'll win the honor of killing it?" He hobbled off, leaving the rest of us to think about what he'd said.

"It's gonna be me." Said Tuffnut a matter of factly. "It's my destiny. See?" Tuffnut rolls up his sleeve to reveal a red dragon on his arm.

Fishlegs gasped "Your mom let you get a tattoo?"

"It's not a tattoo. It's a birthmark." Tuff rolled his eyes.

"Okay, I've been stuck with you since birth, and that was never there before." Ruff glared at her twin.

Yes it was. You've just never seen me from the left side until now." Tuff defended.

"It wasn't there yesterday. Is it a birthmark or a today-mark?" Snotlout mocked.

Unable to take it anymore, I got up and walked away from the group, determination in my green eyes.

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I entered through a small room at the back of the stall. I was covered in drawings of weaponry and scale models. Gobber had let me make this room my own a year ago, no longer able to stand my constant inventory in his space. I lit a candle and laid my sketchbook out on the desk, opening it to the drawing of Toothless. With a look of determination I picked up a charcoal stick and re-drew the missing tail.

Creaking leather bellows. The stone forge glows with every pump. Tongs pull intricate iron pieces from the coals. They're dropped onto the anvil, twisted, lightly hammered, and dunked in a barrel. The pieces are carried to my workbench and laid out in place on a one-to-one schematic. I walked past my open notebook, where a sketch of a mechanical fin lay open on the paper.

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The next morning, I arrived at the cove, winded, straining under the weight of a full basket, and soon, Toothless approached, sniffing me.

"Hey Toothless. I brought breakfast. I hope you're hungry." I dropped the basket and kicked it over, fish spilling out. "Okay, that's disgusting." I shuddered as Toothless approached, settling in to devour the feast. "Uh..we've got some salmon..." Toothless swallows it. "... some nice Icelandic cod..." Swallows those too. "And a whole smoked eel." Toothless nabs it, chews a few times, then spits it out. He shook his head violently, snorted and scrubs his massive tongue on the sand. I took mental note of that, before moving on.

"No, no, no! It's okay." I picked up the eel and tossed it off to the size. "Yeah, I don't like eel much either..."

Toothless focused on the remainder. With the dragon distracted, I unwrapped the prosthetic fin and opened it like a fan. "Okay, don't you mind me. I'll just be back...here. Minding my own business." I cautiously approached the injured tail, but every time I got near it, Toothless swept it away like a cat. "It's okay, it's okay." I dropped a knee on top of the tail, Toothless' head juts up, slows its chewing to a halt. "Okay...okay.." As I began attaching the fin, I felt him tense slightly, but thought nothing of it. I strapped the prosthetic fin, perfectly into place, before cinching the straps. I then sat back on the tail and examined my work "There. Not too bad. It works." Suddenly, Toothless bolts, snapping his massive wings and takes to the air, carrying me with him. "Woah! No! No! No!"

I struggled to hold on to the tail as Toothless climbed higher, and as the ground speeds away, Toothless immediately tips into an uncontrolled bank and dive. My eyes fall on the folded fin rattling uselessly in opposition to its flared counterpart. Flap as he may, Toothless can't correct his trajectory. I swallowed my fear and crawled toward the folded prosthetic, holding on with my legs the best I could. I reached forward and yanked it open with as much force as I could muster against the strong wind. The flared, fan-like appendage catches the air, stabilizing the twisting tail.

"It's working!" I exclaimed, a smile etching its way onto my face. Toothless arcs just short of the water and climbs... high into the air. "Yes! Yes, I did it!" the dragon glances back at me, busily holding the tail open while trying to hold on.

WHOOMP! I was suddenly thrown from the tail in the intense force of a turn.

"AAAAAGGGGHHHHH!" I bounced across the water's surface and took a dive. Without being there to operate the tail, Toothless did the same, plunging in a massive cannonball. Barely able to swim, I resurfaced, roughed up, but beaming. Toothless appears seconds later. "Yeah!"

I dragged myself onto the shore and shook my head of hair and Toothless shook himself, both rid of the water. My attention was suddenly pulled upward when I heard a loud scream. my green eyes flashed with worry that I would get caught, and I looked all around me for the source of the scream. I whipped around when he heard a sudden,

KERPLUNK!

There, lying on the ground,was a figure, but not one that I recognized. To be fair, however, I couldn't really tell, as they were on the other side of the lake. Toothless growled from beside me, and I narrowed my eyes, trying to get a better look as I stepped forward. When I did, the person moved, groaning loudly.

"Spark!" A girl's voice called. I stumbled back, slightly startled. "Spark!" She called again, now standing to her feet.

She wore a hooded cloak, and a black mask covering her face and most of her clothes. I could tell that there was armor under the cloak. It was an oddly familiar black color, with a dark purple trim around the hood. Suddenly, she whipped around to face me, keeping her head at just the right angle so that I still couldn't see her face, yet I felt her piercing blue eyed glare from across the lake.

She stuck her arm up, and suddenly she was picked up from the ground, causing me to stumble back onto the mossy earth, my eyes going wide. I watched as the Skrill easily carried the girl out of the cove.

The realization dawned on me at that moment.

"The Night Rider."