Author's Note: So yeah, a relatively short chapter for this story. Soory for the wait, but I do have good news.
I have decided to update at least every Friday. I find this story much easier to write than my first two stories, but the bad news is that New Life Ahead may take awhile for me to finish. I apologize to any who are waiting for the next chapter to that story.
Thanks to those who followed, favorited and reviewed! They are all welcome and appreciated.
Chapter 4: Unfortunate Damage
Hiccup sputtered. Water was getting into his mouth, and the salt was stinging his eyes. That damn prosthetic of his was weighing him down and making it very hard to swim properly. Luckily, the beach was just shallow enough for him to tough the bottom with his one good foot. Balancing though, was a whole other problem altogether.
His right foot was tired, burning, and personally, he was sick of water at the moment. When he got out of this...
If he got out of this, he would make sure to avoid the lakes, beaches, and all large bodies of water in general for a LONG time.
Before he could do anything else, he felt a sharp tug on the collar of his shirt that began to drag him towards the shore. He turned around, expecting Toothless to be the one pulling him. His eyes widened when he saw the wolf staring back at him with its own hazel ones.
Both he and the wolf regarded each other in curiosity for a moment before a large black form cut in between them. Toothless growled dangerously at the wolf while Hiccup scrambled up his back, coughing and retching from the taste of the disgusting sea water. The wolf meanwhile, whimpered fearfully in the large looming shadow of the dragon. It stared, terrified as the dragon opened its mouth, retracted the teeth, and a light green gas began to form in the back of the dragon's throat.
Hiccup, who had finished clearing his throat of the salt water, froze as he heard the familiar sound of gas hissing. Without hesitating, he threw himself on the Night Fury's head, shocking the dragon from completing the fireball and causing them to tumble back underwater.
Taking the opportunity to get away from the pissed off dragon, the wolf turned around and began to paddle back to shore. It heard splashing behind it, looking back only to see the dragon that was currently having a hard time seeing with the boy covering its eyes. The dragon thrashed around, with the boy struggling to hold on.
Now Hiccup was normally an easy-going boy. He was not what most people would call an angry person; rather he was sarcastic, witty, and always managed to make light of something no matter how serious. However, even Hiccup himself had his limit considering the circumstances of the situation involved. And at that moment, after having almost been drowned twice, bitten by a wolf for no apparent reason, and sweltering in the bright, hot heat of the afternoon sun in less than a day, he exploded.
"TOOTHLESS, IF YOU DON'T CALM DOWN RIGHT NOW, I SWEAR I WILL NOT FLY WITH YOU FOR A WHOLE MONTH!" Hiccup shouted in a bout of uncharacteristic anger. Toothless calmed down instantly, never really having heard his rider angry before. The duo went completely still, floating silently in the ocean; the wolf, meanwhile, got back on land, shook its fur of the water, and then sat down to observe what was happening.
"Okay, Toothless, I'm only gonna say this once." Hiccup explained in a tone of forced calm. Toothless slowly nodded. "I'm going to remove my hands from your eyes. And when I do, we're head to back to land," Another nod, "You're going to leave that wolf alone," Toothless growled slightly, but nodded again. "And I'll try to figure out why we couldn't fly."
The Night Fury gave one last nod, and Hiccup removed his hands from the dragon's eyes. The dragon didn't even look at his rider, but instead turned his body upright and began to idly paddle back to shore.
Hiccup sighed while shaking his hands through his hair to get the water out. He knew that Toothless was very protective of him and probably did what he did with the best of intentions, but this misunderstanding nearly resulted in the wolf ending up a red stain in the water. And from what he had seen before Toothless had intervened, the canine was trying to prevent him from drowning. If it considered him a threat earlier, then why would it have even bothered? He wished that he could read minds so that he could understand the thought processes of animals.
The trip to the shore was a short one. The dragon walked up the beach, before flopping down in the sand. Hiccup grunted from the unexpected drop, but he proceeded to climb off the saddle. Right now, he needed to check the flying harness to see what the problem was.
From the looks of it, the saddle was fine, his leg was fine, the attachments between the leg and tail-fin were secure, so what...
...
Hiccup stared at the tail-fin, and groaned as he saw the shredded fabric hanging off the metal skeleton of the harness. Why was it that of all the things to go wrong, it had to be the most important part of the harness? Did the gods really hate him that much?
If it had just been a tear, it would have been easy to patch up, but the whole fin was currently in tatters. Without it, he and Toothless would be stuck on the island for a long time. Unless...
Hiccup turned around, seeing if the wolf was still there. To his surprise, it was. It had apparently been watching them both the whole time. It sat just a few feet away, tilting its head as it took in the sight of the situation. Surely, if this thing was trained enough to understand what a 'goodbye meant, then it probably had an owner who could help him.
Now he only needed a way to approach it without scaring it off. Or preferably, with both hands intact.