A/N: Good God, I never realized how much Hiccup repeated himself until I wrote this. Most of the dialogue, and, you know, mostly everything else, is kinda pulled straight from the movie. Sorry about that. But, you'll love the ending! :D Just curious, does anyone actually believe that if someone says it? Anyway, to my American friends (do you realize, the US has set up a system in which the only way we can identify ourselves - think, in the vein of the words French or German or Canadian - is to call ourselves American, even though the term can be applied to anyone in North America? Or South America.) happy belated Fourth of July! To everyone else... Happy day to-be-a-person-who-reads-fanfiction! :) This is your present to make up for a week's worth of not posting anything! Bonus chapter!


Chapter 8

Flight

Toothless was extremely curious when I tipped the basket over. "Hope you're hungry." It must have been like Snoggletog came early when he saw the mound of fish I presented to him. "Okay, that's disgusting... Uh, I got some salmon, some nice Icelandic cod, and a whole smoked eel!" Toothless growled at the pile of fish, stepping back.

I picked up the eel. He stood on his back legs, cringing away from the slimy black and yellow eel. I didn't know what he would do, but I didn't give him the chance. "No, no, no, no!" I tossed it away. "Okay!" He calmed down, and I wiped my hand off on my vest. "Yeah, I don't like eel that much either." He returned to nosing through the pile. Thankfully, there was only one eel. He must have decided it was safe because he promptly dug in.

I started moving slowly toward his tail. "That's it," I encouraged. "Don't you mind me; I'll just be back here minding my own business." I sat my creation down next to his tail, watching him carefully. He was really tearing through that pile of fish.

His tail kept moving as I tried to get the artificial tailfin close enough to it to strap on. "It's okay," I told him, grabbing on to his tail. Gods, he was strong, pulling me back and forth as he moved his tail. The fish was gone and, in a last-ditch effort, I straddled his tail and started strapping on his prosthetic.

His right tailfin flexed as I worked, but I thought nothing of it. "Good," I said as I pulled the strap tight and fanning out the fake. "Okay. Doesn't look too bad. If it works..."

Then the ground was five feet away. And it wasn't getting any closer. "Woah!" I held on to the dragon's tail for dear life. The tailfin had folded back closed, and we were heading toaward the rock wall. Panicking, I fumbled to pull it open once more. The ground was a lot closer than I wanted it to be.

Then we were heading back up. "Oh my, G- It's working!" Toothless banked right and dived back toward the cove. We flew over the pond and I saw myself reflected as we glided. "Yes! Yes, I did it!" My victory was short-lived because Toothless turned suddenly and I lost my grip on his tail. I skipped across the surface of the water like a smooth stone once before landing with a great splash.

I surfaced just in time to see Toothless hit the water.

It worked... It worked! It worked it worked it worked! My mind was swimming as I sloshed my way out of the water. Toothless wasn't very happy with me, but it worked! Sure, it had a couple of bugs that would need to be worked out, but when I did...

Even I didn't know what would happen if I could make a downed dragon fly again.

~OoO~

A saddle, I realized that night, was the answer I was looking for. A saddle. I could attach the prosthetic tail to a saddle, have a peddle with rope that connected to the tail. Move foot forward, tail opens. Move foot back, tail closes. If I could study the way the tail moves when Toothless turns and backs and everything, I could learn how to move the peddle to match. And we could fly.

Drawing up the plans for the saddle was no problem. I could convince Gobber to let me use the forge again, maybe give me some spare leather. We were going to fly, I promised Toothless.

I learned a lot about dragons as I worked with Toothless. For one, they aren't used to saddles. That, of course, was to be expected. I finally got it on him without so much as a scratch, too!

Dragons are completely enthralled by shiny things. Toothless chased the reflection of my hammer for nearly half an hour on one particularly sunny day.

Dragons go completely crazy for certain types of grass. We were practicing flying; I had Toothless tied to a stake in the ground and we glided in the wind. A strong wind made the rope break and we landed in a patch of tall grass. He would have rolled around in it all day if I hadn't practically drug him away.

Dragons love being scratched. After he got over the whole, I don't want to touch you thing, Toothless started letting me pet him a bit, and he loved it when I scratched behind his ears. There's even one spot on his neck that made him turn to complete jelly when scratched.

~OoO~

Finally, I was sure I had all the kinks worked out. I had a chart drawn of what foot positions move the tail in which way. The moment of truth was upon us. I was going to fly a dragon.

We were in the air. And we were flying. It was a bit unsteady. "Okay there, bud. We're gonna take this nice and slow." I patted Toothless reassuringly and began going over my foot chart one last time. "Here we go. Here we go. Position... three. No, four!" Drawing in a breath, I opened the tailfin. I looked between the dragon's massive wings and the tail I created as we glided smoothly through the sky.

"Alright. It's go time. It's go time." Toothless began to fly faster. And we dived downward, toward the ocean. It was so big and blue, and it was almost like I was seeing it for the first time (well, I actually kind of was...). We were just over the surface of the water. "Come on, buddy! Come on, buddy!" We were nearing the sea stacks. Seeing the birds when we flew under an arch, something no Berkian had ever seen before... it made my chest tighten.

"Yes! It worked!" My heart was pounding quickly, and a smile grew in my face. I could taste... freedom. And it was was delicious. Toothless poured on the speed.

Until I made him hit a sea stack when I fumbled with the foot peddle. "Sorry!" He huffed indignantly. We hit another, and he growled. "That was my fault!" He fwacked me with his ear. I knew what he was trying to tell me. 'You gotta get those foot control down, or you'll kill us both!'

"Yeah, yeah, I'm on it. Position four, er, three." I realized I wasn't entirely sure anymore. I pulled up, and Toothless, with a small growl, started climbing higher in the sky. "Yeah! Go, baby!" We were closing in on the clouds. "Yes! Oh, this is amazing! The wind in my-" Said wind tore the paper out of my hand. "My cheat sheet! Stop!" I snatched it out of the air.

Toothless stopped. I, being much lighter, kept going up a couple more feet, lifting off of his saddle. The cord that kept me attached to the saddle came undone, and we were falling. "No!" Toothless shrieked in fear as we started plummeting back toward the ocean.

"Oh, gosh! Oh, gods! Oh, no!" We both clawed the air in vein. Neither of us could fly without the other. I needed to think. "Alright, okay, you gotta kinda angle yourself!" I called out to Toothless. He was flapping madly, pulling away from me. "Okay, no, no, no! Come back down towards me! Come back down-" His tail slapped me in the face and I cried out in pain.

He spun underneath me. I stuffed my cheat sheet in my mouth and reached for his saddle, fingers closing around air several times before I finally caught hold. I pulled myself back into place and hooked my cord back on with some effort.

We were plummeting towards the forest. I pulled back on the harness and Toothless's wings opened like sails, slowing our fall. But we weren't slowing down enough. I ripped the cheat sheet from between my teeth, desperate to find the right position, but the wind blowing on it made it impossible to read.

I tossed it away as we raced toward an outcropping of rock. Toothless growled, realizing that we were staring at death. I pushed the peddle back and we missed the rock. But we weren't out of the woods yet... okay, we were out of the literal woods, but we had entered a forest of stone jutting out of the water.

I trusted my gut, moving the peddle like I had been doing it forever. We banked around rock after rock, turning and swerving and spinning just in time to miss every single one.

It took me a breathless moment to realize we had come out the other side unscratched. I threw my hands in the air. "Yeah!" Toothless sent out a plasma blast in celebration. My hands fell back down, smile melting away, when I realized what he meant to do. "Come on!" I cried.

He flew us through the fireball.

~OoO~

I cleaned the smoke off of myself at the cove and returned home that evening. Toothless was asleep before I left, saddle still in place. I decided it would be easier to just leave it with him. It wasn't like he could fly without me, anyway.

I was bone tired and ready to hit the hay when I pushed the door open. And all of that flew right out the window when I met my father's enraged eyes. Gobber stood behind him, a parade of emotion marching across his face, none of them particularly good.

"Hey... Dad!" I said slowly. "Kill any dragons while you were away? I know I didn't." If looks could kill, I would have been a dead man ten times over.