A dragon that can't fly is dead. And now that I had at least gotten him to trust being around me, I wanted to help him. When I got back to the village the smithy is where I stopped.
I started my new project that night. Slept in the extra room early in the morning and barely made or to class later on. We were training with the nadder again I think, them being the most common dragon during raids. Luckily for me it was a short class and we were dismissed earlier than usual. I ran to gather my things for Toothless. The fake tail fin I built him after I got home and a basket of fish I can't believe I picked up in the first place. I slowly made my way to the cove having to stop every once and awhile so that my arm wouldn't fall off. Each time I stopped I looked at the bundle under my other arm. I was so proud of my work. I couldn't contain myself, I was laughing and giggling the whole way.
When I reached the cove I looked over the side for Toothless. After spotting him on the other side of the cove, I dropped the fish basket down and quickly followed it. He gave me a nonplussed looked and laid down again. He only became excited when the smell of fresh fish came into his range. Once that hit him, I was the most interesting thing in the world. And when I tipped the basket over he went crazy. Until he found the eel, that stopped him cold. Backed away and freaked out. Wouldn't even get close to the pile until I took it out. He went back to normal though right after.
While he ate I had time to attach my new project to his tail. After some fussing and a little elbow grease I got the thing put on. I was pretty happy with the results. Close to the real thing. Even with my eye balling it and doing it in the middle of the night, along with being really tired after getting back to the village. But much like many things with that dragon it wasn't long lived. Having the weight of something on his tail again must have set him off because before I could do anything about it, I was hanging onto him for dear life. He was going to get out of that cove whether I liked it or not. He ran and ran and just before we hit the pond he jumped. For a second I thought he was flying on his own, without the new fin until we started falling. That's when I pulled the fake fin open and it took the air immediately. Working just how I wanted it to. If I was happy before I was ecstatic now. I even had time to test how moving it around worked. That's what ended our short flight though. I pulled it too hard and knocked Toothless off balance. Luckily we landed in the pond though. I would have been in a much different mood afterwards otherwise. We both swam to shore, which started a game of stay away from me, but I couldn't do that since I needed the tail so I could work on it. After cornering him, he submitted and let me take it off. I stayed a little longer, started a fire to dry my clothes, looked around the cove a bit more and even had time to sketch a little. All the while Toothless tagged along and even sat still while I drew him. Overall one of the coolest days I ever had with him. Though I wouldn't say it we had many days I would consider bad either. Of course we had our days were we fought, especially after what happen to my dad. But it's understandable. That was a rough bit for us.
After leaving with my new ideas for improving the tail, I was super happy. I had someone who trusted in me, someone I could trust as well. As I walked back to the village to work on the tail and make a way to control it, I let bad thoughts cloud my mind. I pushed forward unhappily, hoping that Toothless wouldn't just run if he got out of the cove. At the time I just had to hope that I had made enough of an impression on him that he'd at least give me a chance to show him I meant well. Even if we weren't going to be best of friends. Luckily I didn't live in that world.
Once in the smithy I went to work reinforcing the tail, so that it wouldn't fall apart if Toothless' flights lasted longer than a couple of seconds. I also had to come up with a way to control the tail so that his flights would last longer than a few seconds. I decided that the best way to control the tail would be to be along with it. Which in hindsight was a terrible idea. Riding something that could kill me with a flick of its tail. But I ended up making the saddle anyways. Much like the fin, I was proud of how well it came together. After finishing I could see the sun rising, which didn't surprise me but I didn't like it either. I hadn't even realized how tired I was until I stepped outside. Without any real thought, I grabbed the new tail and saddle and left for the woods, skipping class. Trudging through the woods while tired is a bad idea. Going into a giant hole while tired even worse. I almost fell in when I reached the edge. Luckily I tripped which woke me up enough to safely get down to Toothless. That awakeness didn't last long though. Once reaching Toothless I dropped, too tired to even stand. Toothless simply gave me company as I slept. When I woke up I found Toothless watching me intently, probably wondering why he hadn't killed me yet. But he'd quickly learn that killing me would have been terrible for him. Once up and around I showed him what I brought.
He was genuinely curious as to what I brought, which made me happy since that meant that we had something in common. Though when I tried to put the saddle on him he ran away. Playfully making me chase him around for a while. Once he allowed me to get it on him, it looked great. After some adjusting of the straps it looked like Toothless even liked it. The tail fin went on just the same as before. When I got the rope attached to the tail he gave me his 'what are you doing?' look, but once I jumped onto him back he went from confused to suspicious. Then after some convincing he started his run and when I pulled the rope we got just enough air to get over the lip of the rock.