"Alright buddy now barrel roll!" Hiccup shouted, adjusting the tailfin so Toothless could properly roll through the air.
As the dragon pulled up from the roll, Hiccup was jerked to the side as Toothless steadied himself. He groaned slightly and glanced behind him. The prosthetic tailfin was still swaying in the wind, meaning Toothless's flying was a bit rugged when he tried pulling off acrobatics such as they one they just did. Hiccup adjusted the tailfin up so Toothless could glide. Hiccup shifted around in the saddle to study the tailfin as they flew. The tailfin was a bit more steady, and Hiccup could feel that the wind had mostly died down by now.
"So I will need to use a more sturdy metal," Hiccup decided, turning back in the saddle. "But before that, let's enjoy the sky a little more. What do you say to more drills buddy?"
Toothless roared back enthusiastically, giving his rider a toothy smile, before beating his wings back and twirling up higher into the sky, He dipped and soared, circling high above the green serpentine dragon that lay resting in the grass with its long spiny body wrapped in a comfortable spiral much like that of a slumbering serpent. Rush stared up at them, waiting for her signal. The signal was a waving motion from Hiccup, which she got within moments.
With a proud growl, Rush threw back her bulbous head and let loose a fireball, with large rings of smoke expanding outwards from the fireball. Toothless pulled his wings halfway, flapping and angling them up so he could do a corkscrew around the fireball. As the fire drifted off into the clouds, Toothless flared his wings to pull himself up and steady out. Rush let loose two more fireballs straight at Toothless. Hiccup closed the tailfin partially so Toothless could dive under one before fanning it open again for Toothless to veer upward past the second. But as Toothless flew up, he accidentally dipped his tail too low, letting his tail fins lick the edge of the flames. Immediately the tailfin caught fire, much to both dragon and riders' alarm.
"Water Toothless! Water," Hiccup yelped, and Toothless roared in agreement, flapping aggressively and trying hard to keep in the air as the fin smoked up a storm behind them.
Hiccup quickly lost control of the fin altogether as the leather burned off. But Toothless was able to keep them aloft just enough so they were gliding over the ocean. He immediately dove, crashing into the water within a second. Rush had followed their very ungraceful fall, slithering after them from the ground and stopping on the beach once they crashed.
Hiccup had to unhook himself from the saddle so he could swim to the surface. It was a bit of a struggle, with Toothless squirming about trying to collect himself. Once he got free he pushed himself away from the dragon and quickly swam up. Burst through the water, Hiccup waved his arms about and, gasping for air. He wasn't very good at swimming, as he spent most of his time inside, or more recently playing and flying with Toothless.
One he had his breathing under control he was able to also tread water at a more calm pace. He glanced at water a bit worried, but that worry washed away a moment later as Toothless finally broke through the water's surface. The dragon moved his arms like paddles and waved his large wings gently in the water. Hiccup kicked his legs back and waved his arms, swimming back over to Toothless. The nightfury glanced over to see the boy, and extended him a wing. Hiccup graciously grabbed a hold of Toothless's wing and held on as Toothless swam them to shore. Toothless stepped into shore, and Hiccup let go of Toothless's wing once he too was safely on the beach. Toothless then proceeded to vigorously shake himself, soaking Hiccup even more in the process. Rush however had been a safe distance away and didn't get any salt water on her scales. Hiccup sighed, trying to wipe his eyes with his sleeve, but winced when he only ended up robbing more salt in his eyes. He clenched his eyes shut and tried rubbing his eyes to clear the salt and sand from his face but only ended up in making his eyes sting more.
"Toothless," Hiccup managed to say after he spat out some of the sand that he had swallowed when they crashed. He could hear Toothless croon, then suddenly felt the rough, wet texture of Toothless's tongue.
A few quick licks from Toothless and surprisingly most of the particles were gone. Hiccup shook his arms and then rubbed his eyes again to free his face of the dragon saliva.
His eyes still hurt, but at least he could open his eyes now. He looked over at Toothless who was sitting back and scratching his ear panels. He saw Rush slither over to them, voicing growls of concern. Hiccup just gave her a reassuring smile and moved to examine himself. He looked down to see that his clothes and rushing harness were completely soaked and covered in sand. He gingerly felt his shirt. He pulled it a little and he felt it almost peel from his skin. The amount of water that soaked his body had plastered his clothes to his body.
I need to wash my clothes, He thought with a heavy sigh. Without a word, he started to trudge up the beach back toward the cave.
As he walked, he thought about all that happened in just the last week. They had been on this island for three days now, and all the while Hiccup had been working. Scouring the island for resources. So far he found almost nothing except some strange red flower that the dragons seemed to like.
After his rest with Toothless, Hiccup went out with Rush to scout the island. It was a quick that took no more than an hour, and the island was quite small. Besides some lizards and birds in the trees, and Turtles basking in the beach, They were alone. This was a big relief to Hiccup, because it meant he and Toothless could at least stay here for a little before moving on. Following the initial search, Hiccup returned to the cave while Rush went back to the river. He began the task of sorting the fish Rush had caught. He set. Two fish aside for himself, and then split the rest evenly for both dragons. Once that was done, he moved on to sorting out his supplies. That took him well into the evening. He had been taking his time, enjoying the peace and quiet. By the time Rush returned a couple hours later with some twigs, Hiccup hadn't even realized the sun was now setting. After starting a fire with the kindling, Hiccup prepared his fish and woke Toothless so he could come eat. For the next hour, the three ate and played. Toothless and Hiccup drew pictures while Rush watched with fascination, and quickly joined in with her own scribbles. Then using the firelight against the cave, Hiccup made shadow puppets, which ended up with Toothless trying to pounce on the shadows.
It was a fun time, but the three found themselves quickly going tired. Rush curled up at one end of the cave and fell asleep. Hiccup tried sleeping in his bedroll, but found himself shivering a bit. Toothless noticed this, and came over to curl up around him. Hiccup abandoned the blanket and Moved to lay with his dragon. Toothless pulled his fore paws around the boy, and curled his long tail around them, and then enveloped Hiccup with his wings, forming a warm tent for the young Viking. With the two snuggled up together, they quickly found solace in each other and were able to sleep soundly through the night.
Waking up the next day, Hiccup got back to work. He pulled out his notebook and recorded the actions he did that day and arranged a schedule later that night during dinner.
After the next day rolled around, Hiccup left again let the dragons sleep in while he got up early. He continued what he had spent last morning on, drawing out plans for a new tail. He sketched a basic design, focusing more on the skeleton then the leather webbing and casing. He decided to go with a more sturdy base, so the tail wouldn't flap around as much. He would keep the iron rods the same, as he feared adjusting them would change the weight of the fin to much. He needed the rods to be durable but not too heavy, which they already were. After scouting over multiple ideas, he decided to reinforce the main rotator socket on the tail and also the side bar that extended from the main rotator socket and connected the over four rods of the tail, with the smallest bar being connected in the rotator cuff and the lever that opened the entire tailfin. He prepared one of the iron ingots he had gotten from the forge, and by the time Toothless woke up at noon, he was ready to start forging. Using Toothless's fire, Hiccup spent the next few hours melting the iron and carefully molding it onto the tail pieces he was fixing. After allowing the pieces to dry, Hiccup put the tailfin back together and saddled Toothless to take it for a test flight, which had ended the pair in the water after wanting to practice avoiding fireballs. If they were going to take on the Queen, they needed to be prepared.
Hiccup made it back to the cave before he knew it. And picked up a fresh pair of clothes, consisting of clean underpants, grey pants and a blue wool shirt. Carrying his bundle of fresh clothes he trudged down to the river. Once he arrived, he quickly took off his wet clothes and went to soak in the water. He at first felt a shiver run down his spine because the water was a little cool, but not freezing. He wade down to around the center of the river, which came up to his shoulders much to his surprise. After a few minutes of letting his body get adjusted to the water. He began to run his hands along his arms and legs, trying to clear off what sand was still left on his skin. He then dipped under the water, wetting his hair. He then ran his finger through his messy bedhead, trying to unknot it. This actually took a little longer than he expected, as he hadn't done anything with his hair since he left, and it was thus matted with days of dust, dirt, and sand. However before he knew it, his hair was clean of debris and it was silky and smooth, with him easily being able to run his fingers through his hair. He threw it back so it wasn't in his face, and slowly made his way back to the shallows. He reached up and grabbed a fur towel off of a low hanging branch that he had hung there to dry earlier that morning. He left the water and dried himself using the towel, after which he got dressed.
Hiccup emitted a relieved sigh, feeling much better in clean and dry clothes. Though he was barefooted now, he didn't mind because the grass was soft, even tickling his feet a little. HIccup hung the towel back on the low-hanging branch, then moved to soak each of his dirty articles of clothing and lay them to dry by the river bank.
He then dipped his hands in the water once more, swishing them around a little. He lifted them up and shook his hand's free of water, then stepped back, turning around and heading up the riverbank and making his way back to the cave.
Once he arrived a couple minutes later, he saw Toothless and Rush waiting for him. The black-scaled dragon flicked his wings back and padded over to Hiccup, nudging his arm with a croon. Hiccup nodded and scratched Toothless's nose, causing the dragon's ear panels to twitch and making the dragon emit a relaxed purr.
"Let's continue fixing that tail," Hiccup decided, heading back into the cave with Toothless.
