"A pinnacle part of a dragon's life is when he learns to fly." Rageripper, Typhoomerang
-Sky High-
So what with the previous four winters not really having anything of note, I should state that I still treasure the memories I have from that time. Once again, they give me a nostalgic feeling for when my life was so much simpler. I really do wish I could go back to then, long before I had to deal with being the figure of power that I am today. Long before I had to deal with the politics of being the Alpha. I've considered running away with my mate and three hatchlings to start a life anew, in a position where my hatchlings wouldn't have to bear the brunt of being the offspring of the most powerful dragon in the world. Needless to say, I want my hatchlings to grow up with the same level of quiet solitude I did.
And yet here we are. I'm in a privileged position, I'm more respected than I've ever known in my entire life, and yet I long for my first five winters of life to return. More times than I care to admit, I've almost broken down just remembering back to those days I spent playing with Shiver. Even writing the WCAOSF section, I couldn't help but smile the stupidest smile possible at the mere prospect of the life I used to live.
However, in accordance with time's cruel realities, we do have to move on. I can't just sit and reminisce about my long lost hatchlinghood. Instead we must turn to one of the many series of events that turned me from a hatchling into a dragon; the day I learned to fly.
On a quiet, peaceful, but mildly windy spring day after my fifth Winterday, Logan would be teaching us flight since Rachel was taking care of some errands. Her usual calm and casual nature had been destroyed by her sudden need to pursue six things all day. And even then, leading up to this day, she had seemed to lose her own peppy nature somewhat. During the time I would spend learning to fly, she would be meeting with a kin-sharp spine. I wasn't sure why, but I didn't have reason to question it.
Logan had taken us to a cliffside that had quite the view of the ocean, though I had discovered that I have a fear of heights. This was going to be a rough couple of hours. If I can't learn to fly properly and am forced to fly above the ocean, most certainly I would drown! Although, then again, Logan wouldn't be so careless as to make a hatchling who can't fly attempt to fly over a very dangerous tide.
We would be learning individually. Logan had explained that it was simply too dangerous for us all to learn the basics at once; basic hovering could be wobbly and one of us hits into another, our wingspans could have been larger than we realised which could cause the same outcome, meaning it was just generally safer to learn individually. Even if it would take nine times as long. As well, Logan had lined us up by name, and so I would be going last as a direct result of that. Not that I particularly minded: ever the nerd I was, I watched the others learn intently to see what mistakes they made so I could try to avoid them myself. Little did I know when Logan called my name, it would be way easier said than done!
"Well, T, you ready?" He said. I nodded in response and stood from the spot where I was laying. He took me over to the edge of the cliffside. I looked over and what I saw was the ocean, which was utterly terrifying. I looked up at Logan and he began laughing. "Oh, Toothless, look kiddo, the water can't hurt you… well, uh, not if you come across kin-boiler belly, or kin-sonic roar… or kin—"
"Okay, Logan, I get it. Basically, I'm not safe if I come across all those kin," I said. I looked back down over the cliff's edge. Logan continued to laugh.
"Okay buddy, you won this time. Anyway, let's get down to business. Your wings are your best friend when you're flying. That might seem like a given, but most dragons who start learning to fly don't realize how invaluable they are. Obviously, it's how you stay up in the sky, but the fact of the matter is that you've got to do a lot of focusing to fly for hours on end. It's especially difficult for kin-lava breath, since they have small wings," he explained, all while I was standing watching him, getting a bit antsy, which he picked up on.
"Anyway, you obviously want to get down to it so, let's get started. Your take-off position consists of you crouching down on your front legs like so," He demonstrated the form by crouching down, shifting all of his weight on his front legs.
I followed his movements. "Next, you're going to spring up. Like this," He jumped up in the air gaining quite a large amount of height from it. I repeated his actions and I noticed how high I got. I ended up almost seven feet high, or so Logan told me.
I didn't feel as scared as I used to be. So, I asked that he take me straight to flying, to which he was hesitant, but he obliged in due time.
"Well, when you're in the takeoff position, you're going to ready your wings by opening them halfway out. For when you jump up into the air, open them fully and lower them as low as you can." He performed the actions he described and began hovering in the air to describe the next part of the flying procedure. As he landed, I caught a glimpse of Logan wincing. I thought nothing of it, maybe he was just tired. "When hovering, try to get your wings into a steady rhythm like this. Now, if you want to gain height, just beat faster. When you're gliding, you won't need to pump your wings much if not at all."
"Now, when you want to gain height quickly, you'll face in the direction you want to go, but in order to stay in place, your wings have to stay as level and parallel to the ground as possible. This can be a bit tricky to get down but go ahead and give it a shot."
I froze very briefly trying to process everything Logan had just explained. At a certain point, he'd completely lost me. After a few seconds of replaying his description in my head, I gave it a shot. I crouched, opening my wings slightly, and sprung up, attempting to pump my wings down and keep myself in place. However, managing both my wings in sync brought about a few difficulties. At first, I only pumped with my left wing and so fell onto my right side. Second time, I focused too hard on my right wing and fell to the left. Third time, I got up fairly well, but my wings began to desync and my hovering became so wobbly and turbulent I bailed and fell to the ground again. This went on for some time with varying degrees of failure, all the while, Logan was giving me various tips to try and keep me hovering straight.
However, luck finally came my way for the twenty-first attempt; I crouched, jumped, and began pumping my wings. I closed my eyes and winced, baring whatever teeth I had, expecting to feel myself hit the ground. But it never happened. I slowly opened my eyes and noticed that I was staying in place above the ground, and upon looking straight down, noticed every single part of me had separated from the earth. I exploded into joyous laughter.
"YES! HA HA!" I exclaimed.
This was the most euphoric I had felt since Rachel took me in. "Yes, I got it! Oh, yes!"
"Very well done, Toothless!" Logan said to me from the ground. "Now, try flying around a bit. You're going to pump your wings with them slightly angled down. Go ahead and try it! Let's see what you've got!"
I beat my wings and tried moving around. I'd always wondered how the other dragons made it look so effortless and here we were, discovering how easy it was on our own. If we simply wanted to fly around for fun or sport, turns out it was much easier than I thought. I tried turning to the left, and it seemed like all I had to do was think about it. I tried going straight up and again it was entirely effortless. I tried landing, and that was where I had struggles. Logan hadn't told me how to land, and I just crashed straight into the ground. I rose and shook my head to get rid of the dizziness. Then, I burst into laughter, as did Logan.
We both sat there giggling for a little while before we were calm enough to have a somewhat normal conversation. "Well, I guess I should have told you about landing, shouldn't I?" Logan said, still chuckling lightly. I nodded with a smile, eagerly awaiting his instruction.
"Well, for landing, you're going to want to land with your back legs first. Since your tail is what is supplying your balance, if you land with your back legs and tail first, you can keep your balance. Give it a shot," Logan explained.
I jumped up in the air and began flight again. I showboated around a bit, and once I had done that, I tried what Logan told me. And it worked. I dropped my tail to the ground first, then my back legs, and landed comfortably on my front legs. I looked at Logan who was giving me a proud smile and nod.
"Fantastic, Toothless!" He said. I smiled up at him but noticed him wincing, and soon the smile faded. He wasn't even moving very quickly all day, and he'd been wearing that same pained expression, with varying degrees of showing. I'd not paid any mind to it, but it seemed whatever he was feeling was getting worse.
"Logan, what's wrong?" I asked, now beginning to worry for my step-sire's health. My heart ached to see the attempted smile fade from his face as he started to speak.
"Hmm?" He asked, looking towards the ground and back at me in quick succession.
"You seem like you're in pain. What's wrong?" I repeated, slowly approaching him. His colors seemed to be fading in some capacity; his green scales were usually way more vibrant, but today they just seemed… less youthful, if that makes sense. I watched in concern as he pondered my question.
Logan sighed in response, looking up to the sky, and then back down towards the ground. "Toothless… what I'm about to tell you I kept secret from you because I needed to find a right time to explain it. You were already stressed enough with needing to grow accustomed to your new environment. So, to save you from becoming overwhelmed, I kept it."
"Okay, go on,"
"Toothless…" he said, hesitating for a brief second, seemingly getting choked up. Tears were visually forming in his eyes, and he let out a shaky breath. "I'm dying." He spoke firmly, but softly.
My heart sank. I understood the meaning and implications, but for him to have dropped it on me after hiding it for five winters of my life. I looked down to the grass below me in search of a response. There was only one I could find.
"What happened, Logan?" I said, finally. I struggled to hold back tears as I finally locked eyes with him again. Logan usually had a kind and energetic personality, but that was completely lost; all that was left was a shell of that personality I knew before.
"A very rare disease had apparently been incubating in my body for several winters. Based on what I learned from several dragons, it had to have developed genetically, or entered my body some other way. All I know is, there's nothing that can be done. Chances are, I'll be lucky to live another month."
I started to tear up, letting a lone tear fall. I didn't speak, remaining in deep thought with a level of betrayal. He could have told me this! It's not like I'd been doing anything particularly stressful for the last four winters, I'd grown accustomed to the nest within a year! I honestly would have preferred to know that Logan was dying in that time rather than be stuck bored out of my mind.
Or, at least, that's how I felt at the time.
With a soft sigh, I returned to the group, remaining in quiet solitude for the rest of the day.
The day had arrived. The day that I had been dreading since I heard the sorrowful ultimatum; the day Logan would die. I didn't want to wake up until I knew for certain it was over, but I got woken up by Shiver.
"It's time, Toothless." I shook my head, covered my face with my tail and tried to get back to sleep. "You can't stay here, T. You must say goodbye." I opened my eyes again.
"Why? Can't I suffer in peace?" I mumbled, fixating my gaze on a single blade of grass.
Shiver shook his head softly. "No, he wants to see you."
I stood and followed Shiver to the location of Logan. He was laying there, eyes closed. I could see his weakness. Clearly the toxin had taken its toll on him. I nearly broke down on the spot, but I swallowed hard and entered the den, nonetheless.
I sighed. "Hello, Logan." I said as I entered. He opened his eyes and looked up at me with a weak stare and smile.
"Toothless. Did you sleep well?" he tried to smile despite his weak state.
"No. I've been worried about you all night."
"Well, this was coming, and I was bound to die at some point anyway. I just didn't think it would be today," Logan murmured.
"Yeah, me either!" I scoffed.
"Toothless. I want you to know one thing. I have some extreme respect for you. It takes an immense amount of talent to learn flight that quickly. I see good things for you in the future." His voice was becoming weaker.
"Thank you." Drawing a deep breath, I looked up at the sky, to see what the time was; noon was passing and so it was that his time had come. I wanted to say my final goodbye's, but he interrupted me before I had the chance.
"Take care of yourself, Toothless." He found the luminous green of my young eyes, the shimmering light full of life as the final drops of his own wasted away.
His eyes finally closed to the darkness with a soft breath of air, the last to leave his lungs as death rested him to an eternal sleep.
