Rift-Raft brought the angst. Less Wrong brought the thought. I might bring some angst, I will bring some thought, but more than anything, it's just fun to call the shots.


"Birds of a feather flock together."


"Alright, close your eyes. And no peeking!"

I groaned again at Hiccup's insistence that I don't see his "surprise" yet. I finally managed to corner him in the 'forge', which was weird because he hadn't worked in it while the Sun was still in the sky, meaning that today was probably a 'free day' from his 'job' and... okay, that was one human word too many. If I don't watch it, I might start turning into a human. Hiccup's been trying to get me to call things by human names, but I'm still not sure how to feel about it; the only reason I'll say 'forge' is because he spends so much time here. At first I was ticked at how much Hiccup wanted me to learn about the humans we're living with, especially when he started his 'human lessons' a month ago; I would wish for Hiccup to not be insistent when it comes to stuff like this, if most of what he taught wasn't so damn useful to know. For instance, the large, smelly human he calls 'Gobber' isn't here either, so today was definitely supposed to be a 'free day', and I wouldn't have been so sure about it if it weren't for those lessons. The fact that Hiccup came back here on his 'free day' and during 'closing hours' (which he has done before) made me remember all about why I woke up early this morning.

Ignoring the smoke and sweat scents, I sniffed the air, trying to figure out what he thought I would be excited about before he came back, but all I could smell was the usual metal-and-leather musk that comes from this particular nest. Hearing his footsteps come closer, I sniffed one last time, but was only met with a stronger leather scent.

"Okay! You can open them!"

I opened my eyes, immediately focusing on Hiccup to see what was making him so giddy. I tilted my head at the thing in his paws, not sure if the long, folded-up piece of leather was supposed to be the surprise. It apparently was, if Hiccup's wide smile had anything to say about it. Thoroughly confused, I gave it a wary sniff. "What is it?"

Beaming even wider, Hiccup unwrapped the leather and spread it open. "It's your new tail!"


"Yeeeeaaaah!" I shouted, raising my hands in triumph. I was so excited that I forgot to click my heel to avoid the fire. "Come on..."

It took a whole week of trial and error, but I finally managed to invent a system that works! Granted, that fall was pretty scary, but this totally makes up for it! The first time I showed Toothless his new tail fin, he gaped for a full minute, then tackled me and gave me a very thorough bath. Being the extremely patient dragon that he is, he of course wanted to try it right away. He even jumped into the air before I put it on him, forgetting that he actually, you know, needs two tail fins to fly. When I had managed to strap it on, I wasn't expecting him to take off with me still sitting on his tail. And so, the process of trial and error began. Early on, I noticed that somebody would have to control the left tail fin positions during flight, so I made a saddle; one thing led to another, and here we are, flying away from the sea stacks that almost crushed us not moments ago and right into the smoke of a plasma blast.

I still don't know how I kept this a secret from everybody. I mean, dense Vikings are one thing, but not even our flare knows, and they follow us everywhere when they can get away with it. Well, now we don't have to keep it a secret anymore, do we? Grinning widely at the idea that was forming in my head, I leaned down close to Toothless' ear so I could be heard over the wind and, forgetting how good dragon hearing is for a moment, started to shout my question. "Hey, do you think-"

Toothless instantly lost the smile he'd been wearing and his whole body shook at the volume.

I grimaced as I realized what I'd done. "Sorry," I whispered, trying to keep my voice as low as I could. "I'm so sorry Toothless. I forgot how much that hurts."

He shook his head hard to clear the dizziness (which I can attest works very well, so long as the noise is gone), and his body stopped shivering when he did. Now more annoyed than distressed, he gave me a glare and slapped my cheek with his ear right after in a single motion.

"I'll never do it again. I'm really sorry." I leaned down and scratched the side of his neck. If I weren't on his back, I wouldn't have felt his soft purr when I did.

He glanced over his shoulder and sighed, then made a low grumbling noise as he spoke. "It's alright."

Toothless hasn't always been the most forgiving dragon, and I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding when I heard him drop it so easily. I finished the scratch and felt my own shoulders relax in relief, leaning back as we caught an air current and settled into an easy glide. We both took a deep breath of the late fall breeze as we simply enjoyed the feeling of being airborne once again.

Gods, I missed this. It was like all my worries were being carried away by the gentle breeze and I was finally free again. I bet Toothless missed this just as much as I did, and the carefree look he's now giving to the world just made everything better.

A rough patch of air decided that the time for relaxation was over, pushing us both out of our reveries and forcing me to click my now-metal leg into position to keep us steady. I only then noticed the Dragon of the Sun's intensity, and sighed when I did. He was just beginning to make His way down the sky, barely beyond His highest perch. "I think we should start heading back to Berk."

In a grunt of approval, Toothless began the motions for a turn and I moved the tail fin so we could make a sharp pivot. With one last pump of his wings, we began to drift back to the village.

I gasped when Toothless decided to make our return flight a little less boring. Giving him a quick glare, only to see the evil grin on his face, I had mere seconds to grasp the saddle and shout "Toothless!" before we started gaining altitude very quickly. At first I struggled to keep up with his quick turns and flips, keeping my attention only on his flight for what felt like hours. My arms and legs were aching after the tenth flip (at which point I stopped counting), and I knew from experience that his shoulders, wings, and tail would be aching even more than I am. But, after the next few sharp twists and dives, it became easier to keep up, though my sore muscles wouldn't agree with that, and by the time we had made it high above the town square, we were completely in sync with each other's movements, enjoying the breeze and dancing with the freedom that only comes with flying.

The Dragon of the Sun was much lower by the time we entered our final dive, but I didn't even notice the amount of time that had passed, or the sore muscles, or even our gaping nest mates. I had my eyes closed in a wide smile as a thought returned to my mind. It was a little different this time.

Maybe I should get used to this after all.