I got up the next morning and wolfed down breakfast in the great hall. Didn't even taste it. Too preoccupied. Sneaking around back, I checked to see if there were fish at the ready. Plenty. I ambled to the other teenagers in front of the armory, where Gobber was waiting. We headed back to the arena. As we entered we saw a maze of wooden walls about ten feet high, probably trying to teach us about how to hide or sneak around.
"Grab a shield and weapon and hide," Gobber told us. Slowly, we made our ways around the maze when Gobber shouted, "Today is all about attack!" I heard the bole crank upward, but that was it.
From somewhere across the arena came a loud, staccato warble. A Deadly Nadder. Gobber confirmed my fears when he shouted, "Deadly Nadders are quick and light on their feet. Your job is to be quicker and lighter."
Gobber wasn't kidding when he said that. Deadly Nadders are tall dragons, probably comparable in size to a Night Fury, just vertical. They stand on two strong legs, and their wings are about what you would expect for a standard dragon. They remind me more of birds than they do dragons. They're always vocalizing about something, and it usually sounds like a cackle or warble. Their fire is said to be the hottest fire in the dragon world. And just to make it worse, they'll throw poisonous tail spines at anyone. I remembered when Gobber got stuck with a Nadder tail spine a few years ago. It lodged in his right side, and for a week after, he was holding his right arm horizontally, resting it on the swelling welt the spine had produced. The Nadder we had was a bright blue on its back and white on its belly.
I found Gobber standing on the outside of the ring, leaning over one of the chains as he was instructing us. I glanced around, making sure the dragon wasn't near me and turned my attention to Gobber. I said to him, "So, I noticed there wasn't really anything in the Book about how to kill a Night Fury. Is there, like, a Night Fury pamphlet or a sequel to the AUGH!" The Nadder had just found me and blasted off the top of my hatchet with its fire. That's another thing about Nadders: they don't launch fireballs. Their fire is more like a white-hot continuous blast.
"Focus, Hiccup! You're not even trying!" Gobber shouted at me.
"Oh, no," I mumbled. The dragon was headed straight for me with its head turned ever so slightly to its right. It made some kind of cackling noise as it rushed toward me.
A Nadder's eyes are on the sides of its head, kinda like a bird. Standing directly in front of a Nadder is one of the best ways to hide, because it can't see around its large snout.
I tried to run, my legs pulling me in different directions. Eventually, I dove to my left just before the Nadder chomped on the space I was in just a second ago. I ran around a corner and heard a high-pitched grunt followed by a light clopping noise above me. Looked up. The Nadder was staring straight down at me. I dove behind another wall, hoping to lose the dragon for good this time. So much for attacking.
The Nadder raised its tail and several spines emerged from the end section. It whipped around and fired them at Fishlegs, who must have blocked them with his shield. I saw him take off with a bunch of spines protruding from his shield but none from his body. "I'm really beginning to question your teaching methods!" he shouted at Gobber.
The Nadder cackled a little bit before jumping back down, looking for someone else to maim. The twins rounded a corner at the exact same time as the Nadder, coming face-to-face with the dragon. Gobber noticed them and shouted, "Every dragon has a blind spot! Find it, hide in it and strike!"
Ruffnut and Tuffnut immediately crowded in front of the dragon, moving to keep its snout in front of them. I heard the dragon grunt, trying to figure out exactly where they were. We knew from experience that a dragon wouldn't blast someone with fire unless it could see them directly.
Ruffnut caught a whiff of Tuffnut's hair and nearly gagged. "Ugh, do you ever bathe?"
"If you don't like it, you can find your own blind spot!" her brother countered.
"How about I give you a blind spot!?"
The twins were shouting at each other, totally ignorant of the dragon, who had just caught a glimpse of the two bickering Vikings. It tried to blast them with a stream of fire, but they noticed it just in time and scurried back the way they had come.
"Blind spot? Yes. Deaf spot? Not so much," Gobber said, laughing.
I found Gobber again and asked him, "So, how would one go about sneaking up on a Night Fury?"
"No one's ever done it and lived to tell the tale. NOW GET BACK IN THERE!" he shouted.
"I know, I know, but hypothetically…"
"Hiccup, shut up!" Astrid whispered in my direction. She and Snotlout were hunkered down behind a wooden wall. A few walls down, the dragon was stalking us.
Astrid waited for the dragon to turn its attention elsewhere. It did soon enough. Both she and Snotlout somersaulted across the gap to the other wall, trying to buy time. I tried to follow, trying to show everyone I could at least be somewhat competent. I got through the somersault, but couldn't pick the shield up fast enough. It fell back onto the ground, making a loud clanking sound. The dragon noticed and started barreling toward us. I scrambled up and ran back towards Gobber. The Nadder saw Astrid and Snotlout first, so it turned toward them.
Astrid was ready to defend herself when Snotlout hip-bumped her out of the way, saying, "Stand aside, little lady. I'll handle this." He readied his wooden club and threw it at the dragon. Predictably, Snotlout missed, because I heard the club crash into the wall and the dragon cackle at Snotlout. Laughing at him. I couldn't help but smirk for a second.
Snotlout looked befuddled that he could miss a dragon from near-point-blank range. "The sun was in my eyes! What do you want me to do? Block it out?" he said as they ran away from the dragon, who was now shooting fire in their direction. "I could do it, I just don't have time!"
"Snotlout, just shut up!" Astrid shouted.
The Nadder jumped back onto the wall and whirled a few more spines at Snotlout. No hit, but he would probably think twice about throwing a club at that dragon again. The dragon jumped from walltop to walltop, becoming more and more frustrated as time went on. It couldn't catch us, so its movements were becoming quicker and more haphazard. It was trying to follow one of us until it knocked over one wall. The wall spilled into another wall, and a domino effect started, until about half of the makeshift walls had toppled to the ground. Astrid was in the way of one of them and jumped back just in time to avoid the wall. Unfortunately, she collided with me, lodging her axe into my shield. To make it worse, my shield looped itself around my elbow, where it stuck. Even worse, the dragon saw us.
Astrid grunted, trying to pull her axe out of my shield, but it was stuck tight. Tuffnut, the ever-present clown provided commentary on what Astrid was doing. "Oooooh, love on the battlefield!"
"She can do better," Ruffnut said.
Astrid gave up on dislodging her axe, because she started pulling at my shield. I felt my shoulder trying to dislocate before she popped the shield off my arm and grabbed the axe handle in one quick motion. With a lightning-fast half-turn, she swung her new weapon composed of an axe and shield, clobbering the dragon in the side of its face. The shield shattered, and the Nadder stopped in its tracks, giving a bizarre awk! sound. The dragon stumbled away, knocked silly by the blast.
"Well done, Astrid," Gobber said.
Astrid was panting, glaring at me. "Hiccup, IS THIS SOME SORT OF A JOKE TO YOU?" I just lay there, dumbfounded as usual. "Figure out which side you're on and quick, because our parents' war is about to become our war." She wheeled on the spot and strode out in a huff.
Gobber shoved the Nadder back into its pen and told the rest of us, "Same place after lunch tomorrow, everyone!" Nobody had to ask him to repeat that little sentence. He walked out, with the rest of the teens following, me brining up the rear.
I limped my way back to the great hall and ate lunch. Once again, I didn't even taste it. Sneaking around back, I found a fresh two-foot-long cod and grabbed it. I already had my knife, pencil and notebook on me. Snuck by the armory to nab a shield. I had all of my supplies. I was in business. Quickly, I made my way back to the cove. I knew I had to hurry for two reasons: I was really anxious to see if my plan would work and the fish would start smelling pretty bad soon.
When I got to the cove, I was slightly out of breath. But I soon realized that getting all my gear through the opening was going to be more challenging than I thought. I hadn't figured out that the opening wasn't much bigger than me until today. I hunkered down behind my shield and tossed the fish a couple of feet into the cove, where it landed with a splat. I waited, peering around, hoping the Night Fury was still here. Nothing. I peeked around and saw the coast was clear, so I started to walk through the opening with my shield in front of me. I had forgotten about the size of the opening, so the shield lodged itself in between two of the rocks, stopping me abruptly.
"Crud," I said under my breath.
I crawled underneath the shield and tried to pull it from the other side. Nothing. I kicked it. And stubbed a toe. I hopped around, nearly jumping on the fish, cursing my clumsiness.
"Great," I said. Now I had no way to defend myself from a fireball. I thought about leaving the fish here for the dragon to find, but figured what the heck. If I was going to do something stupid, it might as well have been monumentally stupid. It just wouldn't be the Hiccup way if I didn't. I picked up the fish and slowly started down toward the bottom of the cove.
The cove was empty. No trace of the dragon whatsoever. I looked around and saw nothing but a couple of trees on the other side of the stream and a few boulders to my left. Just like normal. To my right was the column of rocks my pencil had bounced down, alerting the Night Fury to my presence yesterday. I looked to my left again and saw the same boulders.
With a black dragon crouched on top. Looking straight at me. Daring me to escape now. I froze on the spot. My feet had taken root and wouldn't obey me no matter how much I wanted them to. Total fear. The dragon slinked down to the ground and stared at me, seemingly expecting something. It was between me and the opening to the cove, so I was trapped.
I held the fish out in front of me at arm's length, as if doing so would keep the dragon far enough away from me to allow an escape. The dragon grunted and looked at the fish in interest. It sniffed at the air, slowly moving toward the fish, ready for an easy meal.
Then it stopped. Glowered at me. I really was going to die. This dragon had a large fish offered and it wouldn't take the meal. Because it saw me as a threat. Maybe it was because of the knife I had in my belt. The same knife that I had showed it two days ago. If I disarmed myself, I hoped it would take the fish and leave me alone. So far this plan was working out exactly how I didn't want it to: easy for the dragon to kill me.
Slowly, I reached down to the knife on my waist and heard a deep, rumbling growl come from the Night Fury. The expression on its face intensified. It tensed, ready to tackle me and blow me apart with a fireball from point blank. I took the knife out of my belt and dropped it on the ground. The dragon kept on glaring at me. I kicked the knife away as the Night Fury watched. The knife ended up on the water's edge, closer to the dragon than me. Not good, especially if I had to defend myself.
Suddenly, the dragon's expression changed. The menacing growl stopped. It sat back on its haunches with that same expectant look. Its eyes had gone from slits to rounded. Although, I saw something more behind its eyes. It seemed to be pleading me for a meal. Like it was hungry. It had two ear flaps on the back of its head, one on either side. Both were raised. Something like a dog's or cat's ears. If they were up or facing forward, the animal didn't feel threatened. But when the ears were plastered back, the animal was angry, ready to attack.
On all fours, the dragon crept up to me with a low, quiet rumble where I had offered the fish again. Its mouth was open, but I saw no teeth.
"You're a toothless dragon? I could have sworn you had…"
Without warning, both sets of gums sprouted sharp conical teeth. The dragon snatched the fish out of my hands, bit it in half and swallowed.
"…Teeth…" My hands were still extended, not realizing the fish that had been in them a millisecond earlier was gone. I quickly pulled my hands back as the dragon licked its lips. It must have wanted more, because it crawled towards me, sniffing the air around me expectantly. I heard a deep rumble come from the dragon.
"Uh, no no no," I started. I was shuffling backwards in hopes of keeping the Night Fury from attacking me. I tripped over a fist-sized rock and ended up on my rear. I couldn't get up, so I backed away on all fours until my back met a boulder. No way around, and the dragon was mere feet away. And getting closer.
"I…I don't have any more!" I whispered as the dragon's face got within inches of my own. Its front legs were planted about even with my knees, so I had zero chance for escape. It stared at me for a couple of seconds.
The dragon's stomach sucked in hard. Once. Twice. A gagging sound came from its throat as it regurgitated half of the fish it had eaten into my lap. The dragon's saliva was quickly soaking through my shirt, leaving a disgusting feeling and smell on my chest and abdomen.
"Yeeurgh…" I muttered. Gross. The Night Fury sat back on its haunches looking at me with that same expectant look. Waiting for something to happen. It exhaled every few seconds, sounding like the bellows in the armory.
I looked at the half-fish in my lap and then back to the dragon. I realized it was waiting for me to do something. It looked at the fish and back to me. Signaling.
The fish was a gift to me. From the Night Fury. The dragon could have eaten the entire fish and kept it. I wished it would have. "Great," I mumbled under my breath. I had to eat this fish, because the dragon had given it to me. Slowly, I raised the fish to my mouth and faked a bite. I chewed the invisible piece of fish and swallowed as naturally as I could, trying to wriggle out of yet another situation I had gotten myself into.
I didn't count on the Night Fury being crazy smart or observant. Right away, it knew I had faked eating the fish it had given me. Its face twisted into a snarl, threatening me to eat the fish. Or else.
I sighed. I didn't want to do this. I just knew I was going to get sick off of one bite. But I guess when a dragon tells you to do something, you had better do it. I raised the fish to my mouth again and slowly bit into it, trying to keep my lips off of the fish hide. I tried to take one of those minimalist bites, where you don't want to have anything to do with the food because it's awful. Or it looks gross. For me, it was both reasons. But I had a problem. My teeth wouldn't cut into the hide. It was too tough. Crud, I thought. I bit harder and slowly tore off a small chunk of fish, holding it in my mouth. I showed the dragon that I had really taken a bite this time, thinking I would be able to spit out the piece of raw fish in my mouth soon.
The Night Fury raised its ear flaps in interest, but just continued looking at me. Then my situation got worse. The dragon made a swallowing movement, telling me to actually eat the piece of fish, because it had given me the meal. As a gift.
My shoulders slumped. Yep, I was gonna get sick off of this. I quickly tried to swallow the piece of fish, hoping I could get rid of the aftertaste within the near future. I tried once and my throat forced it right back up. No good, I felt like I was going to hurl soon. I swallowed again, this time in agony, because my throat wanted to reject the fish again, but I wasn't going to give it a choice. The piece of fish went down with a lot of complaint, but the Night Fury looked satisfied this time.
"Ugh," I groaned. That was gross. No doubt, I preferred my fish cooked. Thoroughly. Heck, even burning the fish was better than raw.
The dragon smacked its lips together a couple of times, probably asking me if I thought it was good. Not even maybe, I thought. Raw fish tasted horrible. But I knew if I was going to even have a prayer of getting out of this cove alive, I'd have to convince the dragon I liked it. I gave an unnatural smile, considering I had done something that would make most people faint. I was trying to lie my way out of this problem.
The Night Fury suddenly looked very interested in what I was doing, because it blinked a few times and I saw its eyes cloud over in concentration. Its mouth was twitching, trying to do something it wasn't familiar with. After a couple of seconds it had the left half of its face wrenched into a mock-smile, trying to copy me. The right side of its face soon followed. I just kept the same dumb look on my face, not wanting to incur the dragon's wrath again.
I noticed the dragon's teeth were retracted. Toothless, I thought. Ironic nickname for a killing machine. But, hey, I have that kind of sense of humor about things. I guessed the dragon was male.
Toothless had his face drawn into a hilarious attempt at a smile, trying to copy me. I put the half fish with a bite missing down and tried to reach up. I wanted to show him that I wasn't a threat, and I'd probably come back with more fish. Slowly, I reached toward his snout, trying to touch him. That was mistake number I-don't-know in this little excursion, because Toothless turned his "smile" into a snarl, including teeth, within a millisecond and growled at me. His eyes went from round to slits, and his ear flaps turned backwards. He flew off to the other side of the cove, caroming into the ground. I watched as Toothless shook his head slightly and breathed a continuous stream of white fire, charring the ground. He tromped on the ground a few times and curled up, like he was about to go to sleep.
Slowly and cautiously, I crept around and sat down near him, where he had his piercing yellow-green eyes closed. My cover was blown, however, by a small bird chirping and flying off. It caught Toothless's attention and his gaze turned in my direction. I just sat there, hoping he would let me touch him. I had a feeling that I could gain his trust, because he stared at me for a short moment before groaning, adjusting his position and hiding his eyes behind his one remaining tail fin. He didn't try to escape. He didn't "go for the kill." I knew I could do this.
As quietly as I could go, I sidled up to him, trying to reach his tail. I got within a few inches before his tail fin instantaneously disappeared, revealing Toothless glaring at me. I quickly stood up and shuffled away, hoping Toothless wouldn't blast me with a fireball. He just huffed in irritation.
He lay there on his charred spot, watching me. I decided not to try again with him there, or I just might earn a fireball to the face. I shuffled around, kicking up a little bit of dust, finding a stick about four feet long. It was light and had a narrow tip. I sat down on a small boulder about twenty feet away from Toothless with my back to him and dragged the stick aimlessly in the dirt. Waiting, as a plan for the afternoon formed itself in my mind. Every now and then, I rubbed out the scratches with my foot and started again. After about the fifth restart, my hand took on a life of its own, trying to draw a portrait of Toothless. I had gotten a few good looks at Toothless's face and thought about how I wanted to draw it. I figured it was practice for if (or more accurately, when) I felt like updating the Night Fury section of the Book of Dragons.
I had gotten the general shape of his head and was working on the eyes when I heard something on four legs shuffling up behind me. If it was Toothless, I wasn't going to turn around. I was forming a plan in my mind on how I wanted to show him I wasn't a threat. In fact, I wanted to help him get out of here.
I had gotten the second eye done when I felt a short whuff on my back. Yep, it was Toothless. He watched the end of the stick as I finished his portrait in the dirt, churring with interest as I drew. The entire time, I never turned around. It was difficult, trying to keep my focus in front of me, while hoping Toothless would get my message.
I heard Toothless snort and lumber off. To my right, he ripped off a large branch from a tree growing at the bottom of the cove. My curiosity finally got the better of me as I watched him drag the broken end of the branch back toward my little area. He began moving in a flowing, random path, dragging the branch in the ground, creating a furrow wherever he went. Occasionally, he switched directions and dragged the branch in the opposite direction. I just watched in fascination, finally realizing Toothless was trying to copy me. I thought about the first entry I was going to add to the Night Fury page: observant and displays mimicking behavior.
Toothless picked up the branch and glanced at me, his eyes and ears telling me he was content. He touched the branch into the ground, making a "dot" in the middle of his drawing before he resumed dragging the branch. I watched as he galloped behind me, twirling. The leafy end of the branch smacked me in the back of the head, but I paid it no mind. I was too dumbstruck to react.
Toothless finally dropped the branch next to his feet and sighed in contentment. He looked at his "drawing" like it was the finest creation of anything anyone had ever done. I just stood up and looked around. It looked like a bunch of squiggles and curves with no definable shape. But Toothless was proud of it.
Aimlessly, I took one step to start walking somewhere. I wasn't sure where I was going to go, but I was going to go somewhere. My right foot came down on top of Toothless's drawing. Once again, he turned his face from that contented stare to a snarl (teeth included), growling at me. I jumped and lifted my right foot. Toothless gave a low sigh, telling me he was happy I wasn't going to destroy his artwork. Just to make sure, I touched my right toe on the drawing again. And Toothless gave me another snarl. I knew if I kept this up, he'd eventually get angry and launch a fireball in my direction, so I lifted my foot again and placed it between the furrows Toothless had created. He reacted by giving that sigh again. The way I had it figured, a happy dragon was better than an angry dragon. Especially when that dragon was a Night Fury. Especially especially when I was the only target nearby.
I waltzed and tiptoed around Toothless's artwork, avoiding the lines until I had gotten out of my "prison." Then I felt it. A short whuff again on the back of my head. This time, I turned around, seeing Toothless mere feet away from my face with that expectant look on his face again. His eyes were round, piercing directly into me.
This was it. The moment I had been waiting for this whole afternoon. Slowly, I reached up with my right hand and held it open, moving cautiously towards Toothless's snout. He snarled at me again, but this time it was more reserved. Like he wanted this to happen too. It just had to be his idea, not mine. Toothless didn't try to get away from me, but he did want to make sure that he was in control of the situation.
I took a deep breath, trying to hide any anxiety I had, because what I was about to do was going to shove this afternoon from ridiculously stupid into a level of stupid that was beyond Hiccup-esque. I was going to offer my hand to Toothless to do whatever he wanted with it. I closed my eyes and turned my head away from the black dragon in front of me, placing my trust in him. Like he wanted. If he took my hand off, then Gobber could show me how to use a prosthesis. If he killed me, then so be it. I wanted to cry or scream because I knew I was doing the exact action you never wanted to do in front of a dragon. I was waiting for Toothless to decide what to do with me.
I heard a low sigh and felt the breath from Toothless's snout get closer to my hand. He was going to take it off, I just knew it. He wouldn't let me get away with ripping one of his tail fins off without some punishment. I figured with how smart Toothless was, he'd probably bite clean through my elbow. My face tensed, getting ready for unimaginable pain.
But it never happened. I felt a gentle pressure on my right palm. My eyes opened, and I looked to see what Toothless was doing. His snout was resting in my palm, eyes closed. No biting. No fire. Toothless was telling me that I was okay. That I could trust him.
That he trusted me.
I wanted this moment to last forever. Me, a Viking, touching a dragon. Possibly building a friendship with a killing machine. A friendship with nature's most dangerous airborne creature.
A forbidden friendship.
I let Toothless stay there until he decided what to do next. Slowly, he pulled back and looked at me. Blinked. Then he snorted and dashed off. I looked at my hand and saw it was still there. No damage. Looked at Toothless, who was charring the ground again so he could get some real sleep this time. It was getting late, and the sun had already sunk below the rim of the cove. I could barely see him except for his piercing yellow-green eyes, which looked way more benevolent now than they did just a couple of hours ago. He just stared at me without moving. I thought about approaching him again, but decided against it. I was going to take this slowly. My guess was that my father would be away for about a fortnight, so I figured I could get a bond with this dragon underway during that time. Slowly, I turned away, heading for the exit. I heard Toothless sigh and put his head down to sleep as I walked away.
"Goodnight, Toothless," I whispered to the night air in front of me. "See you tomorrow."
I was flooded with warm fuzzy feelings as I ambled my way back to Berk. Toothless had, if only briefly, accepted me for who I was when his snout met my hand. There was no judgment passed, no telling me I didn't belong there. It was just Toothless letting me know that he understood who I was, even if it was rudimentary. Somehow, I felt like I was able to relate better to Toothless, a dragon, than any Viking in Berk.
I got back to Berk, noticing Gobber and the other teenagers were exchanging horror stories around an outdoor firepit. They were eating supper together. Needless to say, Gobber had way more to say than all of them combined.
"Ah, Hiccup!" he said as I approached. "Come join us!" He held out a skewered salmon for me. I took it and held it in the fire, making sure that it was not going to be raw when I started eating.
"Thanks," I mumbled.
Gobber continued his story I had interrupted by showing up. "And he bit my hand off and swallowed it whole," he said, motioning with his prosthetic skewer, which held a whole cooked chicken. "I saw the look on his face. I was delicious. He must have told all his friends, because not two months later, another one took my leg." All of the teens except for me were enraptured with his story. I was focused on the fish at the end of my skewer, watching it blacken as the heat wrapped around it.
"Man, I'm so angry right now!" Snotlout gritted. I glanced up at him. Snotlout was prone to these bizarre outbursts, so I turned my attention back to the fish. "I'll get revenge for your beautiful hand and foot. I'm going to chop off the legs of every dragon I meet…with my face." I looked at him in confusion. Thinking that would take amazing skill. My dad would be hard-pressed to compete with Snotlout's promise.
"Mm-mm," Gobber said, ripping off one of the legs from his cooked chicken. "You can use your face, but don't go for the legs." I pulled the fish out of the fire. Examined it. Not raw. It was safe to eat.
"Why?" Snotlout asked.
"Because if you remove one leg, the dragon can still walk, stand and fly. It's the wings and tails you want to attack."
The rest of the teenagers stared at Gobber, waiting for an explanation. His spiel hadn't connected with me, so I was about to take a bite of my thoroughly cooked salmon.
"You take off the wings or tails, and the dragon can't fly anymore. A downed dragon is a dead dragon." I had taken a bite of fish when Gobber's explanation crashed its way into my brain. I choked on the bite and brought up pieces of fish from coughing so hard.
"Are you okay?" Astrid asked. "Geez, it looks like you just saw a ghost, Hiccup."
I held up a hand to show her everything was fine and continued coughing. Eventually, I dislodged all of the fish in my throat and said, "Yeah, uh, I'm fine." I continued eating my fish because I knew I needed to get some food in me. After hearing what Gobber had said, I knew Toothless was in trouble, so I wolfed down the third meal of the day. I figured this was going to be a loooooong night. And a hellish morning, because we'd resume dragon training.
"Wouldn't it be cool if, like, when a dragon eats your hand or something," Fishlegs started, "if, like, you still had control over your hand and you could, like, kill the dragon from the inside. You know, maybe something like crush its heart."
I heard Ruffnut ask her twin, "You got a tattoo?" She didn't pay attention to any of Fishlegs's idea.
"When?" her brother asked. "Oh, this? I've had this since I was, like, three."
"No, I've been right by your side since birth, and I know that wasn't there recently."
"Yes it was. You've just never seen me from the left side before. That's all." Ruffnut rolled her eyes at him.
There was an awkward pause. Astrid broke it, asking, "Hiccup, you're awfully quiet. Is there something going on?"
I froze, looking at her. "Um…not really. Just…well, nothing's on my mind right now."
Before anyone could say anything else, Gobber interrupted our broken conversation. He yawned audibly and said, "It's getting late. I'm off to bed. You should be too." He pointed in our general direction as he said this. "Slowly, we're working our way to bigger and more dangerous beasts," he said eerily. "Who among you will be the one to kill a dragon?"
"It's gonna be me. I just know it, 'cause it's my destiny," Tuffnut said, leaning back with arrogance.
"Are you serious?" Snotlout asked. "There's no way you could even touch a dragon."
"Yeah there is. I'll show you tomorrow," Tuffnut countered.
"Deal!" Snotlout said excitedly.
I used the distraction provided by Gobber, Tuffnut and Snotlout to finish the salmon. I quietly put the skewer down, stood up and snuck away toward the armory. I hoped nobody would follow me, so I took a meandering route through home to get there.
I crept into the armory and waited for about five minutes. Nobody came calling, and I watched Gobber walk back into his house. Good. Time for the main event. I walked into my little workroom and sat down at my desk.
I had never embarked on a project this intense in my life. I knew this would be probably the most difficult idea anyone could ever conceive as a blacksmith. And I had nothing at all to start with. No plans, no drawings, no designs. This was all going to have to be designed in my head and created with my hands.
From concept to creation, I had to build a functional tail fin for Toothless.
The first problem I ran into was the dimensions of the fin. I pulled out my notebook and flipped to the page with my Toothless drawing. The right tail fin had been rubbed out, so I drew it back in with three crossing lines. I knew these would hold the tail fin rigid when it was extended. But it also needed to be collapsible. I figured I could get to that later. But the dimensions. If I got these wrong, it would be an entire night wasted and another night making a new fin.
I remembered when Toothless was hiding his eyes from me earlier his tail fin was roughly the height of his head. The length of the fin was probably from my neck to my waist. Two and a half feet, give or take. I eventually settled on this number, simply because I was going with my gut feeling. I was going to trust my instincts, seeing whether I could just let my creativity flow.
I had a blank sheet of parchment in front of me, so I began drawing the specific design parameters I needed. There would be a metal rod holding the fin in place on the dragon's tail. Three crossing beams to hold the fin open or closed. The fin would open and close using ball-and-socket joints. The fin would have to be held together by a sturdy leather. I wrote down the specific numbers I thought I would need for each dimension: the length and diameter of the central rod, the width of the ball bearings, the length and width of each beam, distance from the central rod to the end of the leather. Lots of numbers, lots of sketches.
I started with the central rod first. I had never made something this intricate before, because it had a ball bearing affixed to one end, which prevented the leather from sliding off, and three hinge joints at regular intervals going down the rod. The hinge on the end controlled the rest of the crossing beams, forcing them to open or close. The joint was held together using shaped screws from the shields we had lying around the armory. I wrenched them out and shaped them for the hinge. I also fashioned several ball bearings. You could never have too many of these, so any extras I saved for later.
I made the three crossing beams and designed them with their sockets, finally securing the ball bearings into the central rod. The fin wouldn't open or close until I got the leather on, but each joint could move fluidly, indicating to me the joints worked perfectly. Searching around the armory, I found a large sheet of leather that felt sturdy enough to work as the prosthetic fin. I laid it on the ground and placed the frame on top, the central rod in the middle of the sheet. I folded the sheet over on itself and cut away any spare area of leather I didn't need for the fin. I left a quarter-inch between the end of the leather and ball bearings on the ends of the rods, making sure the leather wouldn't be stressed at all. I also cut out holes where the joints were so that the leather would be completely flat and aerodynamic. Toothless was built for speed, and I kept thinking about how to design the tail fin for speed.
I sewed the leather to itself on either side of each crossing beam and on the inside of the central rod. Working the first crossing beam on the tail fin, the leather folded up neatly on itself. I pulled the beam back toward me and the fin expanded to a fin-like shape. Success. Well, for now. I'd have to see whether the tail fin actually fit Toothless or not.
I cut two leather straps to work as fasteners to Toothless's tail and outfitted them with small belt buckles. I threaded them through the holes that had been cut in the leather. We were ready for tomorrow. Boy, this was going to be interesting. I hid the prosthetic fin inside my little corner, underneath the drawing table. Gobber usually never ventured into here, simply because he didn't understand what all of the drawings and designs meant. No interest to him, as long as I was keeping out of trouble. I figured I was keeping out of trouble because I hadn't been caught helping a dragon. Like they say, it's not illegal unless you get caught.
I walked home and tried to catch some sleep before morning could find me.