Less than an hour of sitting in a poignant silence, Hiccup was - for some reason - not surprised when this Eira girl's theory about a storm approaching turned out to be true. He should have been surprised, there was no hint of a storm earlier, the seas weren't rough nor the winds hefty near the island where the Hunters had caught the Titan Winged Triplestryke, and yet he had somehow known her instinct would be right. It was the certainty which she held in her voice, he convinced himself, and thought of it no more for it was about time to act.

As the storm swelled and the waves became more and more violent tossing the ship to and fro, almost as though the colossal sturdy oakwood hunter's ship weighed nothing. Hiccup was sliding slightly along with the ship itself, but Eira on the other hand, had poised herself squatted on the balls of her feet, with only her fingertips on the floor alongside her tiptoes. She distributed her weight across the four points where her hands and feet touched the floorboards beneath her, and she swayed with the ship as though it was second nature. Hiccup realised she must have been on this ship for a long time. But it seemed to be deeper than that, though why he couldn't put his finger on. He just remembered thinking to himself: She almost looks like some sort of humanoid-animal before she suddenly locked his gaze and whispered, "Get ready."

As soon as the last syllable was spoken the mighty Thor clapped his divine hands and a boom of thunder crashed at seemingly the same time a bolt of lightening struck. Meaning that the storm was right over their heads. Just as she'd predicted, within moments the guards up top were screaming for assistance with 'All hands on deck!' repeated over and over as though it was a mantra to the Gods. The hunters in the captain's quarter emerged just as a bolt of lightning struck the deck overhead, and the smell of the igniting fire from above the Vikings' heads began to fill the air. The guards were out of sight in seconds, and Eira unlocked the gate, not hesitating a moment. She then pivoted, her fiery red locks fanning out around her in the motion and hauled Hiccup up with his arm draped across her shoulders before he was even prepared. He hobbled as fast as he could out of the cage, using the girl for support. Eira wheezed under the combination the weight of him and the strain on her injuries but didn't complain nor stop… and it was only then that Hiccup realised how much smaller she was than him. There was nearly a foot in height difference between them, but she refused to give up, despite her small stature and her many wounds.

They reached Toothless' cage and the future chief of berk held a finger to his lips before his best friend saw him, so that when the Nightfury eventually did turn, he smiled his gummy grin but didn't make a sound, recognising the gesture. The black beauty then looked at the frail figure next to his rider and realised that, though she was severely injured too, it was she that was helping Hiccup, not the other way around. Very grateful, the last of the Nightfuries was about to smile a proud grin for her… but when he locked eyes with her something instinctual and far less goofy than a smile kicked in.

Hiccup was aghast. Toothless had been so very … Toothless, until he examined the 5'1" red-headed Viking under Hiccup's arm, and without a moment the Nightury splayed its front legs ahead, and … bowed? He thought. No question, that's definitely a bow. Toothless put his chin right on the floor in front of the mysterious girl. Needless to say, the future chief of Berk was more than a little confused
"Hey Bud" He whispered "I know you're grateful to her, I mean I am too… but this is a bit much" Eira chuckled quietly, and another crash of lighting struck.

"We need to move" She hissed, her smile dropping as she leaned Hiccup's weight up against the bars of Toothless' cage as she unlocked it. Hiccup's one good leg was already beginning to tire, it had been a very long time since he didn't have his prosthetic on while he was upright. But despite this Hiccup couldn't take his eyes nor his mind off his reptile friend, who hadn't moved from his place, hadn't moved from this peculiar bow. Eira then, baffling Hiccup even more, spoke in a language that he had never heard before, but as soon as she had spoken Toothless snapped back to his normal self, and raced passed the girl to lick and lick and lick his rider. Hiccup did everything in his power not to laugh or cry out, and instead pushed his friend off and whispered his usual 'you know that doesn't wash out' and looked back to see the girl smiling at his dragon with… was that… remembrance?

Eira shook her head, tossing away some unknown thought, as she bent down to touch Toothless' prosthetic tail. The reptile, on the other hand didn't even flinch at the surprise touch and stilled his motions, almost trying to help her in her ministrations. Her hand was on the fake fin, but her eyes were fixed solely on the pedal where Hiccup's own prosthetic usually would be. She moved her hand and flexed the wing into different motions, mimicking turns, glides, even tricks Hiccup thought he had made up. To the untrained eye it looked like she was just playing around with a new toy, but the way her gaze was fixed on the foot clip and not the tail in her other hand gave it away that that was certainly not the case.

"What are you doing?" Hiccup whispered, surprise written beyond measure on his foreer wind-beaten face. He had an idea …. But surely she wasn't… I mean she couldn't!
"Learning to fly." She said matter-of-factly, not even looking at him as she spoke. His theory was correct. But despite what he'd realised to be true, he still couldn't believe it.
"Well.. I-I mean it took me months of practise to learn how to match up the gears of the prosthetic with Toothless' motions. So when we take off I'll just have to describe the steps for you as we g-"
"I got it." She said, smiling knowingly, with a cheeky half smile on her beaten face.
"Oh … so you've ridden a dragon before?"
"Nope" she popped the p.
"You've never flown-"
"I didn't say I've never flown" She said and Hiccup gawked, even more confused. Eira seemed to realise what she had said may have given away too much, so she quickly corrected herself with a chaste "But flying is-" She paused again to think of how to phrase it. "-all about instinct. I mean, or so I am told. Plus, I've spent a lot of time around dragons and I know their anatomy as well as my own. And I've just memorised all the corresponding positions of the fin device with the pedal. Picture perfect memory" She tapped her head "So I'll be okay." Eira beamed, "Probably." She added and winked as Hiccup gulped nervously. But without his own prosthetic there was no other option.

"Okay let's do this" She said, and awkwardly clambered up on to the Night Fury. It was so obvious that she'd never been on a saddle before, but her familiarity with the beasts themselves was more than evident too. Hiccup found himself unendingly confused with this girl. "C'mon we don't have much time, we need to use the storm clouds as coverage to get away. And speaking of the storm, considering how much closer it is that I expected I've come up with a way to avoid getting spotted and shot at altogether."
"Oh I'm all ears" Hiccup chortled out, and pulled himself on to Toothless, despite the pain from his stomach wound, sitting behind the girl. This was all so strange to him, to be a passenger on his own dragon, and not the rider itself.

"No time to explain we only have about … 6 seconds before I need to start it" She said and ushered Toothless forward to the side of the ship.
"There's always time to explain a plan! And what do you mean, 6 seconds until wha-" The thunder and lightning crashed and as it did Eira whistled a strange sound, almost like a bird call, and Toothless' ears perked and he instantly fired a plasma blast. All of this happened simultaneously, and thus the side of the ship was blown open, as suddenly as Yaknog ruins your day after a single sip.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING THEY'LL KNOW WE'RE ESCAPING" Hiccup hissed, but no alarm bells started, and the established chaos upstairs continued "They're not coming down?"
"They thought it was a lightning strike, I timed it perfectly with another one." She said and whistled yet another tune and clicked her foot and the fin tensed into position.

Toothless shot off up into the clouds, without the hunters even knowing they'd left. Hiccup was more than amazed as the flight felt… effortless, not as refined as his polished routines with his Nightfury friend, but the way Toothless and this girl fit together was… natural. The young Viking then looked back and sighed in relief. Thanking Thor that Nightfuries were as black as the night sky around them, otherwise they'd had been spotted during their escape. And Eira was clearly thinking along the same lines.

"They didn't spot us due to your Dragon's colour… but that Titan wing is a different story" Eira called over her shoulder, mirroring Hiccup's thoughts. "Even if I time another Plasma Blast with the lightning, when we blast the side of that boat they're going to know we've escaped when that great big white beast flies off."
"You're not suggesting we leave it?!" Hiccup was horrified, there was so much he didn't know about this girl, but he thought… from everything he'd seen so far that she was on the side of the dragons. He was about to continue his abhorrent thoughts out loud, until he saw her turn around and lock eyes with him with a determined smile glinting in her purple eyes.

"Never." She grinned "I was suggesting we get ready to fly like hell once we've got her out!" And Hiccup felt his face break into a massive goofy smirk. By Odin is she a masterpiece.
"May I do the honours then?" He chortled, distracting himself from his previous train of thought, and it seemed she was on exactly the same page mentally.
"Your dragon, mate" Eira tossed her hair out from her face and leant down over Toothless' neck, a pose Hiccup recognised: she was streamlining herself. Preparing for the sprint.
"Bud, you're gunna have to fly like you've never flown" Hiccup egged his friend on, and the Nightfury gurgled his usual happy noise, as Hiccup wrapped his arms around the tiny girl in front of him and splayed himself half on top of her to make the drag from the wind reduced as much as possible… they'd needed every second to count in the race ahead, "So, are you going to tell me how long till the next lighting strike?"
"I'd say…. 11, 10, 9, by the Gods you are heavy! … 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, say it!-"
"-Toothless now!" And the lightning crashed at the precise same time as the plasma blast hitting the boat's hull. A perfect shot, and the Nightfury was off, darting through the clouds as fast as it could. The hunters wouldn't be able to tell which direction they had flown due to the cloud coverage, which would by them more time. But not so much as to not need to leg it as fast as they could.

There was an echoing roar behind them, and Hiccup tensed thinking no, dreading, that the Titan wing had been caught. Eira felt his arms stiffen around her and she turned and reassured him, her volume only just above the wind "Don't worry, I know a happy roar when I hear one. And that … that was a roar of freedom." And after a deep breath she too let out a noise. It was a weird whoop which was more enthusiastic than Hiccup had ever heard before, and he found himself joining in on the absurd yet insanely joyful outcry, calling out into the sky. After Eira was done she settled in closer to the dragon again, and clicked her foot pedal going up a gear, and Toothless sped off North-East to find an Island they could rest at by the next afternoon. They knew they couldn't rest till before then, or risk the hunter's catching up, but Hiccup found himself not minding sitting back – metaphorically at least - and enjoying the feel of Toothless flying without his own actions in play, and a smile graced his rugged face as Eira's hair tickled his cheek, and they zoomed away.