CHAPTER 10: TEST PILOT
After class the day before Hiccup used the rest of his post nap afternoon to work on and complete his saddle and harness design. He rushed through his breakfast at home because he hadn't wanted to get pulled into an unwanted discussion in the Great Hall.
Hiccup had designed the saddle with shoulder straps and tie down straps. Strapping the hardware onto the saddle he then put the saddle on his back like a backpack. "Oi, this is going to be a workout for the first few hikes." Hiccup muttered to himself, and he still had to go buy another basket of fish from Mulch.
"But Hiccup, you gave me way too many marrks. I have money here for thrree baskets o' fish and ye'rre only buyin' one." It was a good thing Bucket wasn't the partner in charge of purchases because his short term memory was the pits.
Hiccup had managed a good guess at what Mulch was talking about since he was pointing in his cash box. "It's alright Mulch, I bought two baskets earlier this week. Please excuse me, I'm in a bit of a hurry." So Hiccup grabbed his basket of fish and high tailed it out of there.
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Gobber was looking for Hiccup after his breakfast in the great Hall but wasn't able to spot the boy. "Good morrnin' Fishlegs. 'Ave you seen Hiccup arround?"
"Not yet Gobber. Why do you ask?
The blacksmith replied quietly. "I wanted to get the announcement out o' the way, but not without Hiccup.
"I'm finished breakfast. I'll go over to his place and tell him you want to see him."
About a quarter of an hour later Fishlegs returned to Gobber with the note that was pinned to his front door.
On it Hiccup wrote, "I went out to test my sail design, I'll be home before dark. Hiccup" With days starting to get noticeably longer, that should be about time for the evening meal.
"Well I guess Hiccup gets a delay until supper time." Gobber said after reading the note.
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Happy as a puppy but bouncing around like a kitten, Toothless had bowled over Hiccup a few times in his exuberance.
"Hey, hey, Bud. I'm happy to see you too!" This warm and happy welcome puzzled Hiccup. Sure he had brought his dragon breakfast five times in this past week and even gave him back a taste of flight, but Hiccup just didn't think that explained such a warm personality change.
After taking a couple of fish out of the basket for his own lunch, Hiccup presented the basket of fish to Toothless for his breakfast. He didn't know whether or not to call it breakfast because now it seemed like he could go three to four days between feedings. That was only a supposition since he'd only come to know the dragon for little over a week now.
While he waited for his big black lizard to eat his meal, Hiccup laid out all the components for the tail fin controls and the saddle.
His activity hadn't gone unnoticed by The "Toothless" One, and if his little Viking thought he could saddle him up like a beast of burden, he had another think coming.
When Hiccup noticed the dragon sitting on his haunches and looking up curiously at him, he held up the saddle. "Hey Toothless, I brought you a surprise." The dragon in question opened his maw in a bouncing action and Hiccup could see the dragon's throat convulsing. He was either going to regurgitate more sushi for him, or could dragons laugh? That's certainly what it resembled.
Hiccup carried the saddle over to his dragon. The dragon was "game". Game alright for a little play time. The dragon cooperatively squatted down, but as Hiccup lifted the saddle to put it on him he created a huge blind spot for himself. When Hiccup went to put the saddle down on Toothless it dropped to the ground.
"Now where did you go?!" He exasperated. A natural tail fin tapped him on the shoulder and Hiccup let out a yelp while jumping 180 degrees.
Toothless just raised the protuberances on his head and quirked his head with an expression that seemed to say, "What? You expected me to make your life easy?"
Hiccup shot back with "Oh you useless reptile. How do you expect me to put this on you if you don't sit still." So Hiccup turned around to pick up the saddle to try again. When he turned back to the dragon, again he had vanished. Hiccup turned only to see the dragon circle around again. This was too many revolutions for Hiccup's compromised balance and he swayed somewhat almost falling over.
Toothless bounded in to catch the boy before he toppled over only to discover it had been a ploy of Hiccup's. This time Hiccup managed to place the saddle on the drake's back, but before he could buckle it on, his useless reptile closed his wings and rolled away from Hiccup leaving the saddle upside down on the ground.
"Oh ha ha, you think you're so funny!" Complained Hiccup with dripping sarcasm. This Stubborn young Viking was not giving up. He snatched up the saddle and just ran right at that black dragon, who of course just ran away. After a few laps around the pond, Hiccup finally collapsed breathless.
"Okay, alright, - fine, - I guess - you don't - want to be - able to fly - again." Hiccup managed to exhale between gasps.
Toothless froze as if to say "What was that?" Did his Hiccup just imply he could help him fly again? He had said on a previous visit something about fixing his tail, and somehow the boy had, at least while sitting on his tail for that one short flight. Toothless also remembered the two significant differences between man and dragon. Speech and the inventiveness of their fore-paws.
Cautiously, Toothless walked over to the hardware. He sniffed at it curiously. It smelled of man's iron and yet not just iron, but it did not look like one of the dangerous metal stingers. Then Toothless sniffed the saddle. It smelled of animal hide and sheep fur. Following this, he approached Hiccup who became a little apprehensive. While still on his knees catching his breath Toothless first sniffed his right hand, nuzzled it and gave it a quick lick. He then did the same for Hiccup's left hand.
Hiccup was now in awe over what this dragon just conveyed to him. Or at least what he thought was communicated to him. What really brought the statement home for Hiccup was the last gesture of Toothless. This beautiful, wonderful black drake stood sideways in front of him, turned his head to look at him and meekly laid down on the ground to accept the saddle.
Hiccup got up, but before putting the saddle on his mighty beast, he walked to his head and gave the dragon a kiss on the forehead and a hug around his neck as best he could. "Thank you Toothless"
A short while later he had Toothless saddled and harnessed up. "Okay Toothless. My balance is alright while it's light out, but I don't know how things will work once in the air with you. I also need to see how you work your natural tail so I can mimic your actions with your prosthetic."
Another big word from the small one. Toothless quirked his head in uncertainty.
"Uh, your tail fin replacement. Without flying just yet can you show me what you do with your tail for level flight?"
The dragon was intelligent but could not completely understand the query made of him. So Hiccup attempted a little sign language of his own. Getting off of Toothless just in case of a misunderstanding, he moved near the head of his dragon. He spoke a little at the same time. "Please show me what you do with your tail when you fly level."
Then Hiccup pointed to the sky, then to Toothless, made a y shape with his left hand in a bid to simulate wings, moved it in a large arc from left to right, then did the same thing with a flattened hand in a flat line to hopefully indicate level flight.
Miraculously to Hiccup, Toothless raised his tail and his good right fin became flat and parallel to the ground. That's what Hiccup had theorized but had to see to be certain. "Thanks Toothless. Position one." He then repeated his flying gesture and pointed up. Toothless raised his right tail fin to form half of a V shape and tipping the tail up slightly. "Position two." Hiccup anticipated this as well, after all he was practically a genius who was able to intuit some of the laws of aerodynamics. He had designed his rig to be able to simulate the various V shapes of Toothless's fin, but the up and down motion of his tail could still be done by Toothless. "Down?" Toothless's fin inverted to pointing down. "Position three."
The next couple of requests confused Hiccup a little at first. Hiccup pointed to the dragons right to indicate a right turn. Toothless dropped his tail fin to position one again and twisted his tail slightly clockwise. "Hmmm. I'm not sure about that one yet. Left turn? Ahh, now I see what you were trying to show me." Because half his tail fin was missing, Hiccup had to see the actions of both turns before he could comprehend what he was seeing. For a left turn Toothless lifted the right tail fin nearly vertical but for a right turn it was horizontal, so Hiccup figured he had to do the opposite with his prosthetic fin. "Positions four and five."
"One last request Toothless. Dive?" And the dragon collapsed his tail ribs. "Position six." Thanks bud.
Hiccup completed his positions chart and clipped it to the saddle. "Hey Bud, is it alright if I climb on board now?" Toothless excitedly nodded. "We'll do a grounded test first just to make sure the rigging works properly." Toothless was keen to see this new tail fin in operation as well so he looked back to watch it. "alright Bud. One at a time." So Hiccup gave the verbal commands for each direction and clicking the left pedal to the appropriate position, Toothless started prancing with excitement. The new boy made tail was working nearly as good as his natural one.
"Alright! So far so good. Now Toothless, I'm not so keen on going for a full blown flight yet but there's a place we can still do sort of airborne testing I'll take you to." Knowing how quickly some dragons could launch from the ground Hiccup had wisely designed a safety harness system to clip his belt to the saddle. "Okay Toothless. Be gentle with me. We obviously have to take a short flight to get you out of this cove. Since we have to fly up to get out of here, position two. Go for it."
Toothless managed a gentle ascent but Hiccup was still jerked back somewhat because the dragon still had to jump as he made his first downstroke. They flew to the far end of the cove giving this dynamic duo enough room to clear the top edge of the cove. "alright Bud. Please land." Toothless did so obediently because he didn't want to overwhelm his new partner. His boy had now become his best friend. For the dragon, even this short flight was an amazing success thanks to his boy. Hiccup dismounted nearly hyperventilating with the thrill of this success.
"Wow, just wow!" Hiccup gasped. "Okay Toothless, please follow me." Toothless drooped his head in disappointment. That just wasn't enough flying, but he followed along to see what Hiccup had in mind.
Hiccup was lucky it was a windy day on the western cliffs of the island which really wasn't far from the cove. It took the two companions about half an hour to walk to Hiccup's chosen cliff.
"Now, Toothless, I'm going to turn you into a giant kite." Whatever that meant. Hiccup tied a long length of rope to a ring on the front of Toothless's saddle harness then anchored it to a large boulder, climbed back onto the saddle with the dragons permission.
Hiccup took a deep breath. "alright Toothless, slowly open your wings." And so he did. Toothless was a little surprised. He hadn't thought he could fly in one spot, but because the rope secured him, the wind passed over his wings lifting him and Hiccup off the ground. This boy seemed full of amazing tricks.
Hiccup had Toothless repeat the exercises in the cove in order for him to get a feel for how it actually felt in flight. For his sake, not Toothless's. He figured the dragon already knew how to fly, but now they had to learn to fly together.
Everything seemed to go without a hitch, until the rope snapped, but that didn't bother Toothless in the least. He just started flapping his wings a little harder.
"Uh, Toothless? What are we doing?" A slightly worried Hiccup exclaimed. Not like the dragon could answer him, so he answered himself. "Holy yaks! We're flying!" This time Toothless was able to answer. Turning his head slightly he gave Hiccup a gummy smile with his tongue lolling out and nodded vigorously. He also warbled happily even though Hiccup couldn't hear it, but he sure felt it in the seat of his pants and laughed.
"Alright bud, since I'm doing better than I thought with you let's stretch your wings a little." Toothless was all too happy to comply. Toothless remembered about Hiccup's balance, so they didn't try any wild acrobatics this time around.
Sign of the Chapter - Pilot: Holding your dominant hand near your temple as a fist, extend only your thumb, Index and baby finger, push this hand out horizontally (Fly as in aircraft), then grab two imaginary joysticks in front of your tummy and wiggle them back and forth alternatingly twice. Pilot.