Author's Note: Uh, well, this is a first. This chapter is two days late because I totally forgot to post it and only just now noticed. Sorry! Next chapter will be up Monday as normal.
Astrid bolted upright, alert and focused. She had slept soundly despite her nerves, but the sound of a large fist pounding on her door was enough to end that sleep. She quickly pulled on her heavy coat and left her room. Helga was awake, staring uncertainly at the door.
Astrid pulled the door open to see Fishlegs. "It had better be done," she immediately said.
"It is, come on!" Fishlegs scurried off into the dark. It was after midnight, probably near morning, and Fishlegs had looked exhausted. He and Gobber really had pulled an all-nighter.
"Astrid, what is going on?" Helga asked. "Do your parents know you're leaving in the middle of the night with a boy?"
"The blacksmith finished something I desperately need and have been waiting for, and that boy is his apprentice," Astrid summarized. "I won't be back until tonight, and my parents know that. You can tell them I left. They'll understand." And if they didn't, well, it didn't matter. She wasn't going to come back to the village until it was time for the demonstration, which would be taking place in the same field as the last one.
Astrid hurried out into the dark after Fishlegs, closing the door behind her. She ran, both to preserve warmth and to make haste, quickly catching up to Fishlegs. "It's all done."
"Yes, and we figured out why it kept breaking," Fishlegs relayed proudly. "I figured it out. We were misreading one of the rod lengths, and we had to bend it to make up for that, which made it brittle."
She had a vague idea of what he meant, but all that really mattered was that they had it done. "It won't break."
"Definitely not."
"Good." She let Fishlegs go ahead and enter the forge first. "If it does, that's my life on the line."
"It'll be good, lass," Gobber announced, hearing her last words. He stood in front of glowing coals, his figure silhouetted by the soft glow. "Sorry it's so last-minute, but we got it done in time!"
"Where is it?" She needed to get out to the forest without delay. No breakfast for her as there was no time, and no fish for Toothless, though she had promised to bring some. Something told her he wouldn't mind once he saw all of this.
"Over 'ere, but give me a minute to make this worth the wait," Gobber requested. "First, we got the saddle."
Fishlegs pulled out a sleek saddle, leather dyed black with a few blue accents, and blue trim. It was shaped like the one Toothless had been wearing before, but thinner and more streamlined.
"Slick, quality leather instead o' stolen scraps," Gobber announced, sounding like he was describing the prize for some contest. "Built from Hiccup's designs, with a few small tweaks o' me own. Mostly black, for blendin' in wit' the night. I'm thinkin' ya might wanna to do that at some point. The blue will look black in the dark."
She had noticed that already, seeing as the saddle was partly lying in a shadow. It was a nice feature. "It looks great."
"Glad ye like it." Gobber grinned slyly, motioning for Fishlegs to put the saddle down. "The tailfin was, as ye may know, by far the hardest part. Not much I coulda changed if I wanted to, but it's all the highest possible quality. The actual canvas tail is easily replaceable, so if ye've gotta break somethin', aim for that."
Fishlegs brought out a gleaming array of wires, rods, and blue canvas. He quickly demonstrated where the long end of the wires and rods connected to the saddle, ending in a pedal. That was how she would control it.
"Oy, and I took the chance of modifyin' the connectin' rods a bit. They're telescopin' now, just in case the measurements in his notebook are out o' date."
So if the tail was a different length, she wouldn't need to bring the tail apparatus back to be adjusted. That was good, because she didn't have time to do that.
She liked what she saw. It all looked good. "Is that all? I need to get going."
"No, not at all," Gobber laughed. "Now for the extra bit. I figured if we're goin' for impressive, I might as well get some help from Bjorn the Tanner and go all the way."
Fishlegs began to set out more leather pieces, varied shapes she did not immediately recognize. What was-
Then he set out a traditional Viking facemask, what some tribes wore instead of helmets, a sleek affair of black and blue with slits for eyes and two small horns rising from the top. Now she understood.
"It's insulated, padded, and built for mobility," Gobber said, picking up the helmet. "A helmet, a chestpiece, arm braces, waist, legs, and a black full-body tunic to go under it all. It's light armor, and a lot of it's from Hiccup's sketches."
"But I didn't give you anything like this," she objected, moving over to pick up the chestpiece, the leather and padding heavy but not too heavy. "Or my measurements."
Gobber laughed wholeheartedly at that. "Aye, ye did no such thing. But I had a few more things from Hiccup at me hut, stuff he gave me over the years to look over. That armor is the result of me takin' one o' his suggestions and updatin' it to deal with the cold. I got yer measurements from the tanner. His wife makes those armored skirts you like to wear, and she had what I needed."
That made sense. She hadn't known those measurements were kept afterward.
She absently pulled on the chestpiece, feeling the padding as she slid it over her tunic. "What are its weaknesses?"
"It's light armor. Probably won't stop a spear or stab from a sword. Knives'll slip right through the open spots. But it protects yer vitals from most projectiles. arrows, crossbow bolts, all o' that, and it's light enough to not hamper you fightin' or flyin'." Gobber shrugged. "It was either that or make ye a metal suit that would probably stop the lizard from takin' off, it would be so heavy. That design wasn't one o' his better ideas."
"This is great." She meant it. It was another change, but she liked it. Besides, the insulation took care of a problem she hadn't even considered. It would be freezing up in the air, what with the weather only getting colder every day, and somehow, she didn't think her heavy coat would have cut it. As for her skirt...
She sorted through the leather armor pieces until she found the waist. It was a little like her skirt, except not stiff and not lined with spikes and bird skulls, as well as being colored to fit the rest of the outfit. The tanner, for that was who she assumed had made this part, given Gobber and Fishlegs had no experience making leather armor, had done an amazingly good job.
"Don't ye have a lizard to outfit, lass?" Gobber asked after a few moments. "I'm lookin' forward to seein' what you can do today."
Astrid snapped back to attention. She needed to stop wasting time. She pulled off the chestpiece, using it to carry all the other leather armor pieces, and then flipped the saddle upside-down to set everything in the small depression on the underside. The metal tailfin could go under her arm, and both hands to carrying the saddle and armor.
It was a difficult task to get everything situated, but she did so quickly enough, driven by lack of time to be fast. "Thank you both."
"I'd say don' mention it, but after the trouble we went to, I'll take the thanks," Gobber remarked, putting his hook to his forehead. "Now if ye don't mind, I need a keg o' mead."
Astrid nodded, already maneuvering herself through the doorway. This was going to be quite the walk, especially given she didn't want anyone looking too closely at what she was carrying. Hopefully, she could make it to the forest before dawn. Judging by the grey tint to the sky in the East, she did not have long at all.
She broke into a run once she had gotten the hang of moving with her bulky cargo, jogging through the streets as fast as she could manage. Luckily, the forge was not too far from the forest edge.
She moved through the field with a rising feeling of determination. The next time she saw this field, she would show both Berk and the Windy Isle visitors who she really was. Who she had become, the person she had decided to make herself. Still Astrid at the core, always herself, but nothing like what they thought she or any Viking should be.
By the time Astrid arrived at Toothless's den, the sun was well above the horizon, and she was cursing her own lack of energy. Who cared if she hadn't gotten enough sleep last night? This was it! The last big push before the payoff.
"Toothless, I have something for the both of us," she announced, hoping he wasn't up and about yet. "Come out here and see it." She dropped the saddle onto the ground, shifting her own armor off of it and flipping it upright. Then she laid the tailfin behind it, in the position it would hold on Toothless.
Toothless walked out of his cave a moment later, looking as groggy as she herself felt. He yawned, showing a pink mouth and many very much present teeth. Then his eyes focused on what she had brought.
There was a moment of silence, a brief time in which Toothless did not comprehend what lay in front of him. Astrid watched his eyes, knowing those were the most direct way to see what he was feeling.
Those black pupils narrowed slightly, before expanding to a size she knew as overjoyed. That was all the warning she got.
Toothless jumped her, licking incessantly and purring all the while. She couldn't see his tail, but she imagined it was wagging furiously, a gesture that she had only rarely seen.
"Off, off," she requested, pushing at his broad neck. He jumped away with a happy warble, and immediately ran to the saddle, nosing it curiously.
"Glad you're excited," she deadpanned, sitting up and wiping the spit off of her face. Disgusting feeling aside, it was far too cold and windy to be wet out here. As it was, she was feeling cold and tired already, and the day was just beginning.
But there was no time to be tired. She stood, walking over to the saddle and now hyperactive Night Fury. "Stand still so I can get this on you." As she spoke, she gestured for stillness.
Toothless saw her hands moving, and after a few more seconds of hyperventilating and jumping about, he calmed down, standing at ease. He knew the drill.
She, on the other hand, did not, but the straps that dangled loosely as she picked up the saddle seemed simple enough. They all had a use, and they all had a matching strap on both sides, indicating she would connect them. The tailfin had its own straps, and Fishlegs had shown her how it would attach to the saddle. It should be easy.
She set the saddle on Toothless's back, placing it where it seemed to fit, the leather hugging his form. The first set of straps went across his broad chest and around his front shoulders... or were those hips? She wasn't sure which. Either way, that was easy enough once she stopped to look and understand why they would go there. They held the saddle in place against sliding back or up. The next set of straps went across his stomach to prevent the saddle from rising up, if that ever happened. Maybe at the top of a dive; she had felt like she was floating up-
No, no thinking about that. She was going to get this on, learn the very basics, and nothing more. It would probably take weeks of training to get to a point where she could even contemplate a dive like what Toothless had tortured her with on that first flight, so there was no reason to be thinking about that yet.
Two more sets of straps went around his backside and tail, to prevent sliding forward, and that was it. The saddle was very minimalist in design. The only loose pieces left did not even seem to connect to anything, including each other, and she suspected they were for her, designed to hook to some part of her new armor and keep her in the saddle. Nice of Hiccup- or maybe Gobber- to include those. She couldn't see using them in battle, when she might have to leap off in an instant for whatever reason, but they would be good for pure flying or aerial combat.
On to the tail. She lifted the metallic contraption-
And a black, asymmetrical tail slapped into it, almost knocking her over. Toothless huffed impatiently.
"Hey, I'm figuring it out as I go, and believe me, I don't want to move any slower than I have to." She quickly strapped the tailfin on, pulling the pedal out to attach to the side of the saddle, sliding into and locking around a slit cut into the leather.
There. She stepped back, admiring her handiwork as Toothless excitedly capered around, turning in circles to get a good look at himself.
He looked nothing like he had looked in the old saddle and tailfin. Where before he had sported a cheap piece of brown leather he now wore pure black with blue trim, the saddle seeming to blend with his back, only distinguished in places by the lack of a scale texture. His tail was now blue and black side by side, with the gleam of iron running back along the tail to the pedal the only real visual sign of technical prowess at work.
He was sleek and dangerous, wearing her colors proudly. This was a sight she had not really thought about on the way over, or at any point before now.
And it was not yet done. Toothless nosed at the leftover leather and black tunic, looking up at her expectantly.
"Mind if I borrow your cave?" She had no desire to change out in the open. The wind would be terrible. She gave the sign for go, then indicated herself and the mouth of his cave, just to be sure he knew she was asking permission first.
He nodded impatiently, bouncing in place with excitement. She didn't bother replying to that, gathering her armor and moving into the confines of his cave, quickly changing over. The black tunic was almost shamefully form-fitting, but it was supposed to be, and it was quite warm for how thin it was. The rest of the armor was the actual clothing, so to speak, and it covered all of the important areas.
It was a little odd to be wearing armor at all, much less a full body suit that was custom-made for her, but she liked it. On went the chest and waist, followed by the leg guards and shoulder pads, and then the arm braces. She stuck the shell she always kept with her into its respective arm brace, noting that it fit quite well, being so flat. She wouldn't notice it there, either. Her ax fit into a new loop on her waist, sitting as it had been made to fit.
Then, helmet under her arm, she stepped back out into the open, leaving her normal clothing in a bundle at the back of Toothless's den. She could come get it later. No animal was suicidal enough to enter a Night Fury's cave, so it would all still be there, undisturbed.
Toothless openly stared at her new attire for a moment, before rumbling in what she thought was approval.
She held up the facemask, looking it over in the filtered sunlight. It was a helmet as well as a mask, if a stylized one. A thin faceplate that seemed to flip up was connected to the actual helmet portion of the design, the main body of the helmet entirely pitch black. The color came in at the front, inside the slits for her eyes and breathing, the slightest hint of blue in the interior of the cuts, bleeding out ever so slightly.
How had Gobber known what a Night Fury looked like when it was about to fire? The blue glow looked just like this.
Maybe he had just gotten lucky. It wasn't perfect; the eyes had the same blue trim, not green, and Toothless had no real horns, while this mask had two small metal spikes jutting from the top. It was great nonetheless, the perfect blend of dragon and Viking inspiration.
She turned to look at Toothless, holding the helmet up and imagining herself on his back, with her ax in hand, descending from the sky...
"Gods. I'll look like some horrible monster," she remarked. If she had seen this descend upon the village in a raid, she would have actually feared it... assuming the warrior on the dragon's back lived up to the truly fearsome image she projected. She would, in that scenario, have still attacked it, but this was a look to strike true terror into the enemy.
But they were just following the theme. She had to live up to her mount's reputation, and he to hers, or at least the one she wanted to create. She had left her mark on him, and with this armor, he had definitely left his mark on her. She would have to thank Gobber for unintentionally making that truth visible to all who looked. The symbolism definitely didn't bother her, either; she definitely wanted to flaunt what she was now, with all of this. Riding in wearing her old battle attire would have felt wrong, now that she had seen this.
Her old clothing was that of a Berkian who killed dragons. This was that of a rider who wanted one specific dragon dead.
Astrid shook her head, realizing that she was either procrastinating or just tired, and put all of that out of her mind. She put the helmet on, noting that the slits were wider than she had thought. Visibility wouldn't actually be much of an issue with this on...
But for the moment, she needed her full range of sight, so she took it off again and set it on her waist, noting that even this had been planned out in advance, the helmet's top having a subtle loop she could secure to the other side of her waist, leaving it firmly attached to her armor.
There. No more stalling. She nodded seriously to Toothless, making the gesture for up as well as the one that put it into the context of a question, or in this case a request.
He answered by way of leaning to the side, offering an easy way onto the saddle. She carefully climbed on, noting that it might be easier to leap on in the future, and settled into the subtle depression that was meant for her.
This felt different. She had to think for a moment to understand why, but it came soon enough. The last time she had ridden Toothless, she had sat behind Hiccup. She was feeling the fact that she was sitting where intended this time around, in a saddle made for one.
She sent up a brief request to the gods, closing her eyes to concentrate. This needed to work. To die here would be to waste so much potential. Any small help the gods could give would be appreciated, especially given where she was going. Ascending to the sky of her own will was something only one other person had ever done. She was not the trailblazer, but she was the first to follow.
Her boot slid into the pedal almost of its own accord, a metallic click informing her she had the right position.
She tilted the pedal a bit and looked back. The tail flared open, only going about halfway. Further experimentation showed her the full possible range of motion. There were several other positions the tail could take, from entirely closed to fully flared, six in all.
Six different possibilities, and from what she had seen from Hiccup, she would need to use them all, switching constantly. This was going to be rough.
The only thing that gave her real hope for today's goal was that she knew how to glide. Hiccup had not moved his foot at all in their glide beneath the clouds, and she had looked back, seeing the tail fully flared. Gliding would be simple.
Getting into the air might be less so. "Toothless, we need to go up, but I don't know how," she admitted. "Can you show me which position works?"
Toothless looked back at her, and then at his tail.
She put the false tailfin through its full range of motion while gesturing the signal for a question. What did she need to do?
He got the message. The real side of the tail shifted, clearly demonstrating a position she could emulate.
She carefully set the false side into the position that most closely mirrored his end.
In response, he tilted his head up and barked softly. That was what she needed to do to go up.
Then the tail shifted again. She copied it, and he told her that was how they went to the left.
He was showing her the controls, or at least the basics. Had he done this with Hiccup? Or did he only know what to show her because Hiccup had been forced to figure it out by trial and error?
Either way, Hiccup had clearly gotten all of this down to reflex. She would need to do the same, eventually. Today...
"We need to go up, and then glide," she relayed, hoping he was getting this. "Just that. We can learn the rest later."
Toothless flared his wings, crouching dramatically. He was ready to go.
"Odin, please let all of this work," Astrid said almost desperately. Her heart was in her chest, and they hadn't even left the ground yet. She was half sure she was more nervous about this than she had been about taking her first ride! She shifted her foot, setting the tailfin into the position for up.
Toothless leaped upward, pushing off of the ground with all four legs and the base of his tail, only missing the canopy because they had been standing in the clearing, and flapped. They kept moving up, his wings pumping regularly now.
Yes, this was definitely scarier than anything she had ever done. They were only moving up, but she felt the fact that she was responsible for both of their lives down in her bones. The fear whispered to her that if they died, if a creature of the sky perished from falling, it would be her failure that was to blame.
She worked through that fear, determined to prove her own doubts wrong. Once they were well above the trees, but not so high as to be clearly visible from the village, she patted the back of Toothless's neck. "Gliding now."
She shifted the pedal to glide, and Toothless reacted accordingly. Suddenly they were not going up, but forward, slowly enough in the beginning. Trees passed below them, ever so slowly approaching as they lost height, sliding by faster and faster.
That was it. They were done. This was the bare minimum, easily achieved. They could just fly up high enough to glide all the way to the field when it was time for the demonstration. Mission accomplished, lesson learned.
So, for the moment, she savored the feeling of being ready. Of knowing that she had mastered all that had been requested of her. Toothless would cooperate in the demonstration, and in truth would be ordering her around as much as she did him, if more subtly. They had already worked out all of that and practiced it enough that she did not expect any complications. This was flight covered, so they could make an entrance. Stoick had promised to prepare the crowd for this, so she expected no trouble from the spectators, but she was also ready to deal with that if needed. Anything short of all-out attack from multiple enemies could be easily curtailed. There was no more to practice, no more to figure out or learn. Just this moment, gliding in the wind, approaching the trees.
Toothless lightly slapped her hands with one of his ears, nodding significantly down at the approaching trees, and then looking back at her. What did she want to do?
Actually... they could not land here; she did not want to know how much a Night Fury's scales protected him and not her if they descended through the canopy.
Well, they may as well go a little higher. As Toothless was still looking back at her, she made the gesture for up, and then the one for go, along with pointing out over the ocean. They would be less likely to be spotted out there, and the beach was a good place to land.
Once she saw Toothless pull his wings up to ascend, she set the tailfin in the correct position. She was going to have to get good at reading his body movements; she needed to be both fast and accurate to respond to his actions, and it was becoming clear that up here, she would not be able to direct them in more than vague, probably spoken terms. There just wouldn't be time for step-by-step walkthroughs here.
Still, they got going in the right direction with no problem, now that they were on the same page. They were gliding faster now, the treetops streaking by in a monotonous blur of green and brown. The air was bitingly cold up here, though they were not all that high.
She did not feel quite comfortable enough to take her arms off of the saddle, even with the connecting cords preventing her from totally falling off if she slipped, but if she had she would have put her helmet on to see if it cut the wind. Her armor and undertunic did a fantastic job of keeping her warm up here, because both were designed for the Winter that was on the verge of beginning. It was just luck that she was probably going to need this insulation year-round anyway.
Then they were out over the sea. She shivered, looking down with trepidation. Sure, in her mind it was safer than being over unforgiving land, but in her gut she dreaded deep water. It didn't help that she knew Toothless probably wasn't as at home in the water as the air and would likely struggle to make it to land if they went too far out. Best to stay close to home for the time being.
Toothless dipped to one side, not telling her to do anything different, and they banked in a large circle to the side of his natural fin. She guessed that to turn the other way she would have to partially pull in her tailfin, but to turn that way required no change on her part, which was likely why he picked it.
They soared closer to the water, gliding above the waves. Ahead of them, Astrid saw signs of a school of fish, telltale streaks of grey all centered around one spot in the water. They were headed right for it.
As they approached, Toothless inhaled and fired on the spot, an explosion of spray erupting in the midst of the fish, some of which were actually thrown out of the water by the force of the blast. Several more floated to the surface, stunned or dead.
That was what he was going for, clearly. Night Furies did eat fish out in the wild after all. They passed above the easy prey floating only a few feet below-
And that was where it all almost went wrong. Toothless dipped, snagging a fish, clearly forgetting Astrid's role in the process, and skimmed the water.
Astrid, panicked, immediately flicked the tail into the position for going straight up, hoping Toothless would understand. But Toothless was clearly planning some other method of recovering, because he powered forward instead, throwing himself off and into a spiral aimed only slightly up.
Astrid forced herself to think and react quickly, adrenaline sharpening her reflexes. She slammed the tailfin back into the fully open position, praying Toothless would level out.
He did, almost immediately. They were once again gliding, though they were dropping a little faster now.
That might be a side effect of the fact that Toothless had corrected their course into a glide just a little too soon- or maybe she had triggered the tail too soon, forcing him to correct immediately. Whoever was at fault, the fact remained, they were now gliding upside-down over the water.
Now Astrid was very, very thankful that all of this equipment was so well-made and brand new. Now would be a horrible time for any of the straps holding her to the saddle, or the saddle to Toothless, to fray and break. She was at a complete loss as to how to fix this.
Luckily, Toothless seemed to be far less concerned. He almost causally dropped a little closer to the water, flipping them back rightside-up in the process, and then very deliberately raised his wings to ascend.
Astrid chuckled guiltily, her heart still racing, and set the tailfin correctly, letting him bring them up out of danger.
"No more fishing today?" she requested quietly.
Toothless looked back at her, and then down at his empty claws. He must have dropped it during the struggle to regain control. He groaned mournfully.
"We can go hunting to pass the time until the demonstration," she offered, wanting nothing more than to get out of the air as soon as possible. "Take us back to the clearing. I think that's enough for today."
A pang of guilt made her continue. "And sorry, that one was my fault."
Toothless crooned consolingly and turned in almost a full circle to angle them at the clearing without forcing her to adjust the tail. He sympathized, it seemed.
Flight, real flight, was going to require a whole new set of prompts, and all the learning would be on her side of things. Astrid made sure to watch Toothless's wings and neck carefully as he approached the cove, looking for a telltale sign that he wanted to descend.
She saw it, a hitch in how he flapped and shifted the tailfin before he could request it. This was doable, even if it would take a lot of practice. She would really need to get used to understanding his every movement beneath her, because looking at his wings in the middle of an actual flight clearly wasn't how Hiccup had done it. There was more she would be able to use.
All to hopefully come close to matching what was natural. Astrid knew quite distinctly that Toothless would be able to put even her best efforts to shame if he had both tailfins. All of this was just trying to come close.
She slid from the saddle as soon as she could detach the safety cords, her legs shaking as she hit solid ground once more.
Toothless turned to watch her, his eyes concerned. He was worried about how she would react to that entire ordeal now that it was over.
That made sense. She was his ticket to the sky, where he belonged. If she swore off of it, she was grounding him once more.
She forced a smile onto her face, and affectionately tousled his frills, scratching behind his ears. "We need to get really good up there, so expect a lot more close calls in the future," she announced, being sure to let him know she was not put off by this particular incident. "I'm going to learn as fast as I can. Now let's go hunting."
At that reassurance his entire demeanor brightened, and he slunk off into the woods without a second thought, glancing back to be sure she was following.
Hopefully they could catch something for him before it was time to go. If not, she vowed anew to bring him the biggest fish she could find in the storehouses as soon as possible. He had earned it just by putting up with her lack of experience losing him a meal just then.
Then she followed him into the woods, putting the coming demonstration out of her mind for just a little while. There was no more to do except to wait and then act.
Author's Note: Yeah, I went all-out with Astrid and Toothless's ensemble. The demonstration for a neighboring tribe was the perfect motivation for Gobber to do it, and I wanted to get them kitted out sooner rather than later. I may draw them together at some point, as I can see it in my mind, and have some little skill with such things.
As for the resemblances to Hiccup's various flightsuits... I tried to make it feel like something Hiccup inspired, but Gobber updated, creating a hybrid between what Hiccup would make and what a typical Viking would envision. The thing is though, from here on out it's not really going to change or evolve that much, unlike Hiccup's stuff in canon. This is pretty much Astrid's final look, more or less. She and Gobber are not innovators who will never be satisfied with what they have, constantly improving and changing things.