Authors Note: Hello! :)
Disclaimer: I own nothing!
Chapter 7: New Tail
(Elsa POV)
"He took my hand and swallowed it whole. And I saw the look on his face: I was delious." Gobber declares. He throws out his chest and lifts up his head with nothing other than pride. It had been the blacksmith's idea to gather on top of a watchtower well we eat supper. Personally, I would have much rather we continued the Great Hall gatherings.
The other teens, except for Hiccup lean back the twins chuckling in awe. The seating arrangement goes like this, me, Fishlegs on my right Snotlout on my right then on Snotlout's right side is Tuffnut next to Ruffnut. Sort of off center and not really close to anyone is Hiccup.
His eyes are distant as if his brain is in another place entirely. Wouldn't surprise me, who knows what amount of trouble he'll get into next. Guilt however, has been working at my insides from this afternoon. I shouldn't have snapped at him, I rarely lose myself like that. Usually the anger and frustration comes out in random gusts of snow flakes not words.
I feel terrible.
I'll track him down and apologize when this is over. Let my brain rest in peace.
Gobber interrupts by continuing the story of how he lost his arm and leg, "He must've passed the word because it wasn't another month before another one of 'em took my leg." Gobber concludes and lifts up his peg for emphasis.
The twins take in breaths of amazement, Snotlout grins and Fishlegs smiles well Hiccup stares dully at the fish he's not even really roasting. What is up with him? He doesn't seem in the right mental state right now.
Fishlegs suddenly shifts and stares down at his chicken legs a stormy look flashing across his features."Isn't it weird to think that if your hand was inside of a dragon but your mind still had control of it you could have killed the dragon from the inside; by like, crushing it's heart or something." Fishlegs says and smashes the chicken legs together, trying to mimic crushing something with the food.
I give him a disgusted look and Hiccup's gaze finally leaves the chicken leg long enough to give Fishlegs an echo of my look. Crushing it's heart. Wow, food suddenly doesn't appeal. My stomach churns and I stare at the fire to turn my attention from everything else.
"I swear I'm so angry right now." Snotlout declares scowling down at his food before looking up and gesturing with the bit of fish bone in his hands adds, "I'll avenge your beautiful hand and your beautiful foot. I'll chop of the legs of every dragon I fight. With my face." Snotlout points to his face and sends me a smug look as if silently asking for my approval.
I roll my eyes.
Beyond a aching jaw and some possibly missing teeth, I doubt that plan will go very far.
Gobber chuckles and rips a piece of off his chicken, the wing, "Mmmm mmm, no, it's the wings and the tails you really want. If it can't fly, it can't get away."
Hiccup drops the fish he's holding and with everyone's attention rooted onto Gobber, no one notices, he looks up his eyes wide. What? "A downed dragon is a dead dragon." Gobber finishes.
I look up at the blacksmith and he yawns throwing out his arms, "Alright I'm off to bed, you should be to. Tomorrow we get to the big boys, slowly but surely making our way up to the Monstrous Nightmare."
My gaze moves back towards where Hiccup is-he's gone. I lift my head up and twist around looking at the stairs as Hiccup scampers down them jumping several steps. I'll never have a better chance. I swing a leg over the side of the bench and slip onto the stairway.
"But who will win the honour of killing it?" Gobber asks.
I start to run down the stairs to catch up with Hiccup,"It's gonna be me." Tuffnut says. "It's my destiny see." He adds his voice growing fainter.
Fishlegs gasps, "Your mom let you get a tattoo?" He asks.
"It's not a tattoo it's a birthmark." Tuffnut corrects.
"Okay, I've been stuck with you since birth and that's never been there before." Ruffnut retorts.
"Yes it has, you've just never seen me from the left side before." Tuffnut says and I don't hear the rest of the amazingly intriguing conversation as I hit ground level and take off running towards Hiccup's silhouetted form.
"Hiccup!" I shout and he freezes turning to look back at me his eyes wide. I reach him within a few quick steps and take in several breaths. "I wanted to apologize for this afternoon."
"What do you mean?" Hiccup asks, his voice is slightly hard. Not cold, just rough edged.
"About what I said after I-we crashed…" I trail off slightly cringing at the memory. Hiccup stares at me for several moments. "I'm sorry, I wasn't in the right of my head." I say. The Haddock stares at me for several more moments before he shakes his head.
"It's fine. I'm used to it." With that said he slips into the forge. I stand next to the building half of me wanting to chase after him but the larger part stands still in surprise for several moments. Used to it.
I turn away from the forge and start to pick my way through the village towards my house.
(Hiccup POV)
As soon as I step into the forge I let out a long breath leaning against a post for a moment. The words still hurt but at least she apologized, that's the first time in my life I remember someone doing that to me. I could tell it'd been bothering her for hours, maybe Elsa isn't shutting me out as much as I thought.
Shaking my head to clear it I turn and work my way through the forge towards the back room. Gobber gave it to me a few years back so I would stop feeling the forge with as he called it "random useless junk". I pull out my notebook and flip it towards the page with Toothless.
If I don't do something about him soon, he'll die. Gobber said so himself. A downed dragon is a dead dragon.
The words send a shiver down my spine and I look down at the notebook resting it on top of the desk and retrace the left tailfin onto Toothless.
I grab a larger sheet of paper and with a lot of guesswork, I stay up hours into the night making the prosthetic dorsal tailfin.
I close the fin and look up my eyes aching. My left eye feels red and raw and I shake my head and blink several times before looking up. The first streaks of sunrise are gliding through the sky happily. Ah, great.
I grumble something I don't understand under my breath before moving away from the backroom. It's not the first time I've stayed up all night, won't be the last either it's just dragon training is fun enough with sleep, without it will be even better. Who knows what fun activity Gobber has in store for us today.
If I hurry, I can make it to the cove and back before training, see if the tailfin fits. I sigh and tuck the fin under my arm and leave the forge. There's a large basket of fish at home from when I recently went fishing that I want to grab first. Toothless probably hasn't eaten anything serious in the food department for a while.
I pick my way through the village avoiding the patrols still wandering around. I make it to my house in under ten minutes and slip inside the wooden building.
It's dark and cold.
Nothing unusual. I move through the dark structure relying more on memory on where things are more than sight and make it to the kitchen feeling with my free hand for the basket. After a few tries my fingers brush over the knit sack and I grab the strap swinging it over my shoulder.
The weight of both the tailfin and the basket make my body want to tip backwards but I manage to keep myself upright. I grit my teeth and move forward pushing open the back door and slipping into the woods.
000o000
By the time I reach the cove, my entire back and shoulder have gone numb. "Hey Toothless?" I call looking around for the Night dragon jumps off a rock and walks over to me, nose in the air as he sniffs the fish. I toss the sack off my shoulders my limbs sighing with relief, "I brought breakfast. I hope you're hungry." I say and kick the basket over fish spilling out. Ah man, I am not going to be able to feel my shoulders and back and when I do...it's not going to be pleasant.
Toothless's eyes widen happily and I grimace, "Okay, that's disgusting." I note. I scan the fish quickly taken account of them, an eel, salmon and cod mostly.
"Um..Okay." I say and start to back up to his tail the prosthetic under one arm. "Got some salmon, some nice Icelandic cod and a whole eel." I say. Rambling. I ramble when I'm nervous.
Toothless pokes his head into the pile and when he sees the eel he slowly backs away growling. It's just a fish, with a shrug, I lean down and pick the eel up causing Toothless to rear.
Panicking slightly, I throw the eel as far away as I can. Toothless calms again and advances on the pile. "I don't really like eel much either." I admit watching Toothless as he begins to eat the fish. I slowly back up my eyes on his tail more words sputtering from my mouth, "That's it, I'll just be back here minding my own business…"
I reach the tail and lean down, I lay the prosthetic next to it. Toothless tail shifts and I bite my lip in annoyance grabbing the tail. Toothless shifts again and I toss my bangs from my eyes. "It's okay-" I start but his tail wiggles in my grasp like a disagreeing worm.
Deciding this isn't going to work I sit on the tail, pulling the prosthetic to it attaching the straps.
I sit back and pull the prosthetic out staring at it's flesh and blood counterpart. The black scales shine slightly in the sun and the leather matches it almost perfectly. It's surprisingly accurate for something made by guess work. I rest a hand against my chin debating inwardly for a moment. "Hmm. Not too bad it works- WHOA!" I screech as Toothless takes to the sky. I wrap my arms around the tail, terror pulsing through me as the ground gets further away. I have a soft fear of heights, nothing drastic but this, this pumps up every fear of that times twenty.
As soon as we get twenty feet into the air, probably less, Toothless starts to crash. He lets out a roar of panic and I squeeze my eyes shut for a moment before looking up again. The prosthetic is flapping uselessly in the wind leaning down.
Breathe, breathe…
With my heart pounding in my throat I stretch my hand out and rip the tailfin open.
Toothless soars upwards the back of my hand skimming the ground slightly before he does. My eyes widen, "Oh my- its working!" I shout and pull the tailfin right. Toothless turns gliding over the lake, then, finally seeming to notice me, whips his tail.
I fly through the air before I hit the pond.
I'm flung off and I brace myself for landing in the pond. I hit it with a splash, the thin sheet of ice covering it snapping under the sudden weight. My back taking most of the impact. I shove towards the surface everything soaking and weighing me down. Toothless crashes into the pond across from me giving a aggravated roar.
I throw my hands into the air despite the stinging pain racing through my back.
"YEAH!"
Authors Note: =D Please review!