The following morning was depressing, no other words for it.

It was a commonsense statement, Hiccup doubted nearly anyone was having any fun, festivities or not, seasonal depression or not, even the children had stopped running around, hugging snowman- well, snow-dragons they had made yesterday before their departure.

Hiccup had woken up extra early. Ok, actually, she couldn't sleep. The tension and lamenting in her hut were palpable, but as soon as her husband had been sound asleep on their bed, she wrapped herself on a tick cloak and went for the kitchen, a candle and notebook in hand. Mind working and not really stopping at all, theories gone to practice on the shed they'd have built beside their house, as soon as the first pink rays of sunshine were visible. The fire from her small, personal forge would warm her up anyways.

It was a shot in the dark and… Something she had given up trying to build a long, long time ago. Before Snoggletog, before winter, before Red Death, before… But she could never forgive herself if she didn't at least try to get it done, she wasn't a fan of keeping anyone captive… Including the occasional slaves Berkian Vikings would bring from their expeditions, something completely accurate and normal for this time and place, not to count a quite different life conditions from the kind her descendants would sail further south to steal from centuries in the future. But let's focus on the now and here, shall we.

Hiccup went on her work, willpower as her sheer fuel to keep herself awake. Some people would come and go for greeting a quick good morning she'd soon reply. None as bright as Artichoke's though. Much later in that morning, he came in with a battle shield improvised as a tray, a couple mugs distributed above it.

"Here, happy holidays", he approached while she kept working, exhaustion and general bad mood across the tribe aside, she couldn't help but smile at his approach, figuring she might like the sound of his happy voice just too much. Even if this fake happiness was almost as scary as last night's with the others. "From me to you", he offered.

"Thank you, milord", she got a mug with her free hand, lightly bowing, what the fuck was that? But her eyes were too heavy to care about self-consciousness right now. He didn't seem to notice anyway, quickly turning over her worktable and asking what it was all about. "Okay", she started, vocalizing this for the first time, "you gonna think I'm crazy but…", she sighed, letting the mug rest on the balcony, "I just couldn't stop thinking about what Tuffnut said last night". He understood what she meant, slowing himself down. "Toothless can't just come and go like the other dragons and… That's not fair", he was looking down, not gazing anything in particular, but Hiccup knew he was listening. Artichoke tended to be a good listener. "So", she continued, "I was up all night and I think I found a way to fix that", she pulled a lever from her almost-finished one-night work as if to prove a point, feeling rather satisfied, she finally took in the drink.

Instant, instant regret.

The thick liquid tasted like rotten milk to say the least, her mouth became overwhelmed with the horror of whatever that was, her whole body flinched, and her eyes widened, refusing to swallow it. Hiccup had already risked her life before.

"Wow, you- you built her a new tail?", Artichoke asked, examination the sketches and new prosthetic at her table. "So she's gonna be able to fly without you?", he sounded genuinely amazed, and it'd have made her smile, case she wasn't completely busy trying to not have her insides poisoned, so instead, Hiccup hummed a yes.

Oh, gods, what is in this thing? She looked at the content of the mug, second instant regret, as the image was of the liquid just made it all worse, somehow.

"What a great gift…", he continued, "w-what if she never comes back?", the happiness mask he'd put on finally fell then. And she got what he meant. Hiccup wished to tell Artichoke that Stormfly and the others would come back, Toothless might follow them but they'd be back… Wouldn't they…? But then, talking implied opening her mouth, which still was not an option. Just as quickly, he composed himself again, putting on a show of holiday celebration satisfaction "what am I saying? Of course she will", she hummed an agreement again. "Well, I'm gonna go off spread more holiday cheer", oh, gods, how many people are you planning to kill? "You're amazing", he nearly sang his way out and, as soon as he was out of sight, she dropped the content raw on the ground, sure she'd be puking her guts out case she had anything in her stomach to do that. In fact, Hiccup was sure to feel her eyes burning with tears.

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Hiccup! Hiccup, wake up, let's go flying! After a quick breakfast and a short walk on the oddly silent, oddly empty human village, the Night Fury was back at digging the snow off the human-built cave Hiccup slept in with her mate every night. Let's go flying, Hiccup, we gotta get your-

But the human in question's voice called her attention. She didn't come from inside her hut today, but from somewhere else, had some odd device on her hands, one of her curious little inventions, no doubt. Toothless then hit the ground, finding quite weird whatever it was that Hiccup was holding, she sniffed. Sniffed. It definitely had Hiccup's working shed's scent but…

"Yeah", the human said, and went moving to her sideways, wait, what? What you gonna do? They twirled for a bit, chasing each other on circles until the dragon finally understood what it was. It was a new prosthetic. Which was rather odd, she saw nothing wrong with her red one so far, hadn't burnt to crisp like their first one, so that was a bright side, huh?

She finally let her human fix the tool on her tail. It felt strange. Stranger. The prosthetic feeling was… Well it was like seeing a part of your body you can feel nor control, and it took her, well, it took them months of trail and error to get it working and would only move with Hiccup's aid and… This one was heavier, what- what is this? Quick panic filled her in as she jumped in and out and- what?

Toothless opened her fin, carefully, focusing on the one-sided wing on her tail. Open. Close. Open… The prosthetic followed the movement. She… did… She turned to Hiccup. Did you make it grow or? Looking again, she couldn't feel it, her body was still incomplete, but… she could control it… she could… she could fly on her own.

Hiccup was smiling.

The dragon just stared back, stunned.

"There you go, see?", the girl said, leaning in to touch her "Toothless-".

She couldn't wait anymore, it didn't make sense, it… Without thinking more to it, the Night Fury took flight. A strong, impulse by her four paws, wings open wide, a flap, two, three, she wasn't falling. She was flying. Cold winter air and fresh snow were not enough to freeze her sensations.

Nothing was as natural to a dragon as flying and she had to learn to do it again, a different way ever since she met Hiccup, of course, but now she was up in the air on her own again, free, independent and… Alone.

She never felt very much alone at flying. Of course, Toothless knew Night Furies were not the most common breed on these islands and she could communicate and connect well enough with other dragons. She'd feel lonely rarely, not when wind chains were the ones to fold her in natural instincts and rightfulness. But that was before…

Up above, she noticed how empty the skies were. Birds were not common at that time, not so high at least and the dragons- oh, right. Other dragons were busy at that time, for obvious reasons. No Red Death to control them, just the utter wish to gather at the natural nursery of family growths and- she then remembered when they were heading out. She and her human were flying, and her horned hat had fallen, right towards… Yes, that way.

Toothless dove in, deciding how to retrieve her gift. Anything you do for me, I do for you, she'd decided that on the very first time she met her best friend.