answering reviews:
CHSHiccstrid: yes, in the movie Hiccup is just carrying the tailfin, but in the next shot where he's attaching it, Toothless is eating out of a basket, so that's where the basket came from :)
Fangirlauthor430: yeah, I've had how to become a friend open in the background, so I can keep continuity between my stories! You'll see more of this later, as I'm going to reference several oneshots I've done post movie :)
Entry 79
If I thought today started bad, it almost got worse. Almost… instead, it became one of the best days yet.
After Toothless finished his meal, I told him about my plan to take him to the drafty field. He looked at me for a moment before simply gesturing to his back. I got on the saddle, and we made our way out of the Cove.
At the field, I tied Toothless to a sturdy tree stump, and got out my paper and charcoal. If we were really going to make this flying thing work, I needed to know just how Toothless shifted his tail. Then, I could match each movement with as much accuracy as possible, and maybe even make him feel as though he hadn't lost his tailfin at all. "Okay, Toothless, show me how you take off."
The updraft worked just as I'd hoped; as soon as Toothless spread his wings, he was lifted into the air, without any need for help. So, I studied the angle of his tailfin, quickly drawing it on my paper and putting a "1" beside it. "How do you land?" He shifted his position, and I made another note. "Flying upward?" Another shift, another note. "Diving?" Again. "Left turn?" He paused, seemingly thinking. Then, he moved his fin up first, then down. "It does more than one move?" I asked, and he shook his head. After another moment of thought, he showed me his fin moving up while raising his right ear, and his fin moving down while raising his left ear. "Oh, the right goes up and the left goes down?" He nodded. "Is a right turn the exact opposite?" Another nod. I quickly finished my notes, then clipped the paper to the saddlehorn. "Six positions. That's all I should need… at least for now. How 'bout we test it?" Toothless snorted, and I took that as him being ready. "Take off!" He did, and I worked to match the position with the fake tailfin. Once it looked right, I marked down how many clicks it took to get the stirrup to that point. "Land!" He did, and I repeated my process. "Take off!" This time, we did it in near harmony. I grinned, glad it was working just as I'd hoped, when a sudden gust of wind blew over us. Toothless tried to fight it, but the rope connecting us to the tree stump snapped, and we flew backwards, crashing through several trees and landing with Toothless on his back and me beside him. He flipped over and… I was pulled with him. Horrified, I pulled at our tether, but it didn't budge. The fall had bent the hook, and we were now stuck together.
This was bad. I had decided to leave all my tools at home, because "we won't need them anymore!" Way to go, Hiccup; always thinking ahead. I tried to wriggle out of my riding vest, but the way we were attached made it impossible. Finally, I just told him we'd have to take a quick trip to Berk. In response, he just started walking back toward the Cove, dragging me with him. "Hey! You can't just take me with you!" I yelled, struggling against him. He grumbled back at me, and I played the one card I had left. "Do you really want a human attached to you forever?" He stopped, considering this. I knew that even if he'd grown to trust me, he wouldn't want me with him constantly; and after a moment, he reluctantly turned around. I nodded, and started leading him toward the village.
It took the rest of the evening to get back. Honestly, that was probably a good thing, since nighttime is the best time to sneak a dragon behind people's backs. And we made it the forge relatively easily… until a certain blonde had to almost ruin everything.
As I was there, trying to saw through the tether as quietly as possible, I heard Astrid call my name from the front counter. I threw on my apron, jumping through the shuttered window to greet her. She made a couple comments about my weird(er) behavior, and Toothless did everything in his power to make me look as suspicious as possible. Finally, he ended up pulling me back through the window, and before Astrid could react, I told him to go and we leapt into the sky.
Now, we're back at the Cove (unstuck, thankfully) and I don't want to leave. Astrid is probably searching all around town for me… maybe I'll just stay here a little while longer.
But hey, at least the tailfin is a success!
...That's new. "Success" and "Hiccup's invention" in the same sentence. I just hope nothing else comes in to ruin it…
Until next time…
-H
