Chapter five: New Tail

Why doesn't he fly?

The question had been hunting me the last week. He was hurt I knew that, it was the only thing I knew actually. That and that he got lots of cuts and scars; some were old but most of them from the ropes of the bola and I could only feel guilty. It was my fault but soon he would get better and fly again… I hopped.

Goober brought us to an abandoned catapult that we never had the time to fix. At the moment he was telling us some old stories of his travels and stuff, nothing I hadn't heard before. I knew them all from memory and I didn't want to listen to them again but I didn't have another option.

"And I saw the look on its face, I was delicious. It must have passed the word, because it wasn't a month before another one of them took my leg." He finished, showing his peg leg. I rolled my eyes, why did he have to be so melodramatic? Well, at least he's not telling the one of the Boneknapper.

They don't exist anymore and I was pretty sure Gobber never saw one.

"Isn't it weird to think that your hand was inside a dragon? Like, if your mind was still in control of it you could have killed the dragon from the inside by crushing his heart or something." All of them stared at Fishlegs, all except for me. If someone had tolerated my talks on how my weapons worked, it was Fishlegs; even Gobber can't stand that. He didn't judge me, I don't judge him.

"I swear I'm so angry right now," Snotlout said; here we go. "I'll avenge your beautiful hand and your beautiful foot. I'll chop off the legs of every dragon I fight, with my face." Don't worry, seeing your face will be enough to kill them I joked silently with myself. I couldn't manage to suppress a little smile so I looked at my boots to hide it.

"No," Gobber corrected him ripping out a wing from the chicken he was eating. "It's the wings and the tail you really want. If it can't fly, it can't get away." He shook the wing around, "A downed dragon is a dead dragon."

My smile disappeared. The tail… his tail. It wasn't a one-side tail (why would a dragon have a one sided tail? It would fall!), I ripped off the other side! I kept looking down, trying to hide my horrified look. It was my fault – it always was but this was worse than I thought!

"Alright! I'm off to bed, and you should be too. Tomorrow we get to the big boys. Slowly but surely making our way up to the Monstrous Nightmare. But who will win the honor of killing it?" Gobber said uncannily and leaved the tower.

"It's gonna be me." Tuffnut said confident and laid back as soon as Gobber wasn't on sight. "It's my destiny, see?" He rolled up his sleeve, showing a red dragon tattoo on his left shoulder.

Fishlegs gasped, "Your mom let you get a tattoo?"

"It's not a tattoo, it's a birthmark." Tuffnut said irritated.

"I have been stuck with you since birth and that was never there before." His twin scoffed.

"It was! You've never see me from the left side until now." I rolled my eyes and stood up letting my half-fish by the fire; I got better things to do than discuss over Tuffnut's tattoo. I walked to my house, wondering if I could find a way to make the dragon fly again…

"Hiccup!" Gobber yelled when I passed by the smith pushing me out of my thoughts. "Didn't I tell you to pick up all this mess?"

"Uh… no."

"Yea, I told you to pick up your things."

What? I got closer to the entrance checking if any of those were mine. "Okay, first of all: you didn't tell me anything, and second: these things are yours." I gestured at the things on the table and the floor. "You just don't want to clean it up and make me clean it up for you." He wasn't going to fool me again; I was not cleaning his mess.

Gobber stared at me for a second "Clean it." And he passed by my side without saying another word.

"What? No!" It had no sense to argue, he was already gone. "Agh!" I entered the smith and grabbed a wooden box, beginning to fill it with tools. I stopped when the box was almost full and looked at it. Why was I doing this? I dropped the box on the table and turned.

"If he wants it clean in here he will have to clean it by him-ah!" I fell taking down tools and unfinished weapons with me. I eyed what took me down: Gobber's hammer. "You, you son of a half-troll." I muttered and got up carrying the hammer with both hands. "And tell me, Gobber, how is this mine?" I put it on its place.

If he had a place for each one of his prosthetics why he never put them there? That's why I made the stupid thing!

I turned ready to leave. No, I couldn't.

The place was a disaster and now it was my fault. I kneel and began to pick up what I had taken down. I was almost done when a thought shocked me: a prosthetic.

Running to my little room on the back of the blacksmith I took out a big sheet of paper and moved all the models and old planes for weapons and machines off my desk and roll out the paper to draw on it. This would probably take me all the night but with this the Night Fury would be able to fly again.


I entered my house and put my back on the door with a sigh. My eyes stopped on my room; maybe I still had time to sleep a little. No. I needed to see if the tail works before I get busy with training. I took the fish basket; I would need something to distract him while I put the tail on its place. He didn't like me to get close to his tail.


"Buddy!" I shout without fear of someone – besides the Fury – hearing me. We were far from the village and if they didn't hear his roar when we first met in the woods they couldn't hear me in the cove.

The Night Fury head popped out behind the rocks he likes to hide in, he went after me jumping, happy to see me.

"I brought breakfast, I hope you're hungry!" I put the basket on the ground and kicked it down; the fish spread making a slimy noise. "Okay, that's disgusting." Clearly it wasn't for the dragon, his face lighted up – I don't think he'd seen that much fish in a long time.

The Fury gestured to me, then to the fish. "No, it's all yours." He turned his concentration to the pile to examine it. "Uh… I brought some salmon, some Iceland cod," Could he understand me? I sigh, probably not. Anyways I doubt that he knew about species, for him probably everything was just fish.

I kept talking anyways; it feels good to have someone who listens once a while. "And a whole smoked eel." The dragon backed up snarling making me stop talking, had he understood me? I took the eel with my fingertips, "Ugh." I hate this things, they taste horrible and why they have to be so slimy? I raised it the farthest away from me as possible.

The dragon roared, starting to freak out, and backed up showing his teeth. "No, no, no, no, no! It's okay!" I threw the ell to the water; he snorted and calmed down a little. "Yeah, I don't like eel so much either." I said taking off the slimy sensation from my hand with my vest.

He looked at the bunch of fish, growling at it. "Don't worry, it was the only one." He sniffed, searching for the eels but like I said, there was only one. "Dad is the one that likes eels, I just bought one." I assured him and moved the fishes with my foot spreading it more on the grass until no fish was over other.

The black-scaled dragon squinted his eyes and inspected me, then the fish in a second he began to swallow it in two bites without hesitation making that weird sound as he swallow. "That's it, just stick with the good stuff." I looked at his tail and slowly walked toward it. "And don't mind me. I'll just be back here, minding my own business." With a last look at the dragon I kneeled and put the prosthetic by his tail; this better be the same size.

I put the tail closer to him but he moved away, turning in panic I saw that the dragon was still distracted but not for much longer, he almost ate all the food. I pushed the tail closer and he moved again; I sighed as I made another try, this time he growled and lifted his tail. "Calm down, it's okay." I patted his tail to the ground and tried it one more time but now he began to move his tail side to side. Grunting I grabbed it trying to keep it still but I failed miserably; I sat on his tail frustrated – if he moves, he moves with me - and finally put the prosthetic on place pulling the straps to make sure it won't fail.

The Night Fury moved his fin – like if testing it – and opened it, finally someone was cooperating! I opened mine to size comparison. "It's not too bad," I said in approval crossing one arm and with the other on my chin, "a little bigger but it will work. Wow!" I felt something suddenly pulling me back, the last thing I saw before closing my eyes was the ground getting farther away. "Nooo! Put me down!" I hugged his tail with arms and legs, I didn't want to fly but neither fell.

Ironically, we began to fall; he didn't have control of the flight. I didn't understand: he had his tail! What was wrong? I opened my eyes a little and saw the problem just in front of me: the tail I made was flapping with the wind.

Having no other option I swallowed my gears and freed a hand to jerk the fin open. The tail cached the air taking us up before we crashed on the other side of the cove.

"Oh my- it's working!" We were in the air, flying above the trees. I twisted the tail changing the Fury's direction to lead us back to the cove. "YES, I did it!" I looked at the prosthetic more than proud.

As soon as we reached the pond the dragon tossed me away. I sank, the water was cold but at the moment I didn't care. I swam to the surface, throwing my fists to the air. "Yeah!" With my arms up I went down again so I used them to keep me in the surface; I may not be good swimmer, actually I don't know how to swim, but I can get me not to drown.

Without me the dragon had fallen into the pond as well and now he was swimming to land. I laughed and moved my arms in a pathetic try to swim but it worked, at least I was now on land.

This was the best thing that happened on the week and I couldn't stop laughing. The night without sleep was worth it.

But now I was freezing; I decided that the wet clothes didn't help and took them off. I gaze at the Fury with a smile on my face "Hey bu-" he was examining the prosthetic; he sniffed it and opened his fin.

My smile faded; I could perfectly see the sadness reflected on his eyes. He closed and opened the fin again but the result was the same: the prosthetic didn't move, it was just… there. I got close to the dragon; he heard me and turned his head.

"Don't worry." A cold breeze blew in the cove and I hugged trying to keep warm "You will fly again." The Night Fury lifted his ears, the surprise and confusion so clear in his eyes. He was really playing attention to me; he understood what I was saying. "I'll find a way, I promise." I said more firmly now. He seemed really surprised; I didn't know if for the tone of my voice or for what I said. Either way I was surprised too.

I was going to help a dragon.

A dragon that the only good thing that he had done to me was not killing me. That and listen to me, well, if you can call that listen. The whole past week I had been speaking out loud while trying to see his scars but he didn't let me touch him a lot and I thought he wasn't playing attention, that was why it was so easy to speak to him, he just listened. Wow, he was listening, he could understand me; even when I think he was trying to ignore me, most likely.

The Night Fury looked at his tail again, thinking. He made a conclusion and lay down gesturing with his head to me to do the same. I sat and to my surprise he moved closer. He put himself in the same position he puts when he's about to nap but now I was on the center of his little circle. I felt his heat on my skin; it was like a soft, warm hug.

He gestured at his tail letting out a soft purr and looking me at the eyes with his big rounded ones, somehow I understood he was saying thank you.

"Uh… you're welcome?" He nodded and laid his head by my side closing his eyes in silent. Did he really mean 'thank you'?

Slowly I put my hand over his head to pet him. I was expecting a growl or any aggressive gesture in return but I got a purr instead. A few days ago he didn't want me to touch him and now he was napping around me, giving me heat, and he was totally okay with this. I relaxed and laid my arm on his head and my body on his neck, scratching his forehead.

"The unholy off spring of lighting and death itself… you are not what I thought." The dragon raised his ears-flaps listening to me. "Hey, do you have a name?" I asked him, he raised his head and looked at me, curious. "I want to give you a name." he turned his head to one side "What do you think about 'Toothless'?" I asked remembering his smile.

His face turned to pure disgust and indignation; I laughed at his reaction, he snarled showing me his teeth, I could almost heard him say 'I'm not toothless' which made it even more funny.

"I know you are not toothless… it's because you can retract them." I said pointing at his mouth to see if he calmed down with that. He tilted his head and looked away for a few seconds then turned to me and opened his jaw. I pulled my arms to my chest and froze; a wet, warm, rough thing rasped over my face then leaved leaving a weird feeling on my face. Slowly I opened my eyes and drew my hand to my face, I looked at it and a thread of saliva followed it.

Saliva? Did he just…? I looked at him, he seemed very pleased with himself; yes, it was saliva. I stood, walked to the pond and sat back on my heels to wash myself. I looked at my reflection: my face was covered in his spittle and my bangs were standing straight up; Toothless joined my reflection, looking at mine then at his, did he realized that we have the same eyes?

He crouched and curiously extended a paw and tapped the water, making little waves. The dragon stared at them and tapped the water again but harder, the water splashed and waved. A childish smile appeared on his face as he exited drummed with his front legs.

I let him play with the water as I washed my face; I heard something moving behind me, I turned and saw his tail wrapping around me, turning again to Toothless I noticed that he was still playing. I allowed a smile in my face knowing that it had been subconsciously and returned to wash my face.

The Night Fury watched me curiously as I splashed water one more time to my face, why don't this get off? Toothless then plunged his wing into the water and dumped a huge amount of water all over me. "No! Agh, Toothless!" I scram as I got soaked in cold water again and jumped back to my feet.

Shaking off the water I gave him a sulked look that he responded with a gummy smile then he got close to my face and sniffed me. "Don't dare to lick me again." I warned him with a finger up. He hesitated before gave me a little lick on my check. I smiled. "Okay then." I gave him a scratch on his forehead and sat down on dry grass.

Toothless lay on the floor again and put his head on my lap. I scratched him softly and moved to stretch my folded legs under him. After a few minutes I crossed my arms over his head and put my chin over them.

"You know, you're not like the others…" I got a curious sound in response but he didn't moved, "In training I mean, well, in everything." I laughed softly, "They attack, they don't stop to think like you." Toothless made a worried sound. "Maybe they would if we give them the chance…" I closed my eyes and fell asleep.


My eyes opened slowly, I was still on the cove with Toothless on my lap. My legs were sleep. I stretched my arms and the movement woke Toothless up; he looked at me with sleepy eyes, I smiled at him and let myself fall back and looked at the sky: the sun was rising. When I got here it was just dawn and every one was asleep.

Training was going to begin soon and I should go but I didn't want to, I wanted to stay here with Toothless. I lifted my head and rested on my shoulder to look at him remembering what I said before I fall sleep.

"Maybe I should use what I learn form you in the ring." We kept staring at each other for a little bit before I made act to stand and he moved to let me. Still thinking in the subject I put on my now dried clothes. Do other dragons hate eels too or it was just he?

I searched for the eel and hided it on my vest; Toothless growled when he saw me pulling it out of the water, "Don't worry, not eels next time." I passed by his side and patted his head, "I need to do but I'll come back later, okay?" Toothless purred and pressed his snout into my hand.


"Okay, let's get started." Gobber said once we where all in the ring. "Take a bucket and choose a partner, today it's about teamwork." We changed our weapons for buckets filled with water that were heavier than my ax and got in teams; I went with Fishlegs since he's the only one who actually liked me.

Gobber opened a big gate and a heavy cloud of smoke came out, covering us. I could almost feel the tension as the fog took more and more room. By now I could only see Fishlegs at my side.

"Now, a wet dragon head can't light its fire. The Hideous Zippleback is extra tricky. One head breathes gas, the other head lights it. Your job is to know which is which." We could only heard Gobber voice coming from somewhere in the fog. I gulped and took a better grip on the bucket, positioning it to throw. Why does it have to be a Zippleback? I can't even handle a one-headed dragon.

I watched and listened for any sigh of the dragon, making circles in the same place with Fishlegs at my back.

"Razor, sharp, serrated teeth that inject venom for pre-digestion." Fishlegs began to mutter to himself, does he really find that comforting? "Prefers ambush attack, crushing its victims in its-"

"Could you please stop that!" I whispered, I didn't like to be rude with him but for Odin's shake, he was freaking me out!

We couldn't see each other's but we could listen. Snotlout was close to us; I think he was with Tuffnut. He was nervous, it was obvious in his voice; I think we all are, with the lack of vision we have.

"If that dragon shows either of its faces I'm gonna- there!"

"Hey!" Asher yelled angry. The fog began to clear up and now we could see the others. We weren't as far as I thought.

"It's us, idiots." Ruffnut said as soaked as Asher.

"Your but is betting bigger. We thought you were a dragon." Her brother laughed.

"Not that there's anything wrong with a dragon-esque figure." Snotlout flirted with her. I rolled my eyes wishing for someone to hit them. Asher let go off the bucket and punched Snotlout in the face. Tuffnut laughed before he got smacked in the face by Ruffnut's bucket. I didn't try to reprise my smile… wait, why could I see them perfectly? I looked around; the fog was almost gone.

"Where's the dragon?" I muttered more to myself. Something pulled Tuffnut inside the fog; he disappeared of our sight with a scream.

"Wait." Asher stopped Ruffnut from going after her brother; a tail swiped taking her and Asher down and spilling his water.

Tuffnut ran out of the fog, "Oh! I'm hurt! I'm very much hurt!" he passed by our side, stepping over his sister.

"Chances of survival are dwindling into single digits now." Fishlegs said and he was right, we where the only ones left with buckets; the others having nothing to defense themselves had gone back with Gobber.

A gurgling head emerged out and we backed up. Thankfully, the dragon's head went after Fishlegs, I had frozen hugging the bucket. Fishlegs hurled the water at it; the head opened its mouth spewing gas and growling, "Oh, wrong head."

The Zippleback head belched gas at Fishlegs, "Fishlegs!" Gobber yelled and the boy ran in panic. Why… then I remembered: the Zippleback's gas was poisonous. I gulped; dragon training was worse than I ever thought. Who was the knucklehead who thought that put a bunch of kids in a pit full of dangerous dragon was a good idea?

There was no more fog, letting me see the whole dragon; it was bigger than the others. The other head sparkled close to me before it extended its neck up and looked me from above. "Now, Hiccup!" I hurled the water at the sparking head but it was way too tall for me.

"Oh, come on!" The water even got close to it. I kept my arms up with the bucket over my head; the dragon's heads moved down to my size, moving around like they were snakes; the heads looked at each other and with a grin turned to me.

"Run, Hiccup!" Gobber screamed. The dragon shrieked opening its wings to intimidate me. It worked; I fell back dropping the bucked and crawling back in panic. "HICCUP!" Gobber's voice finally woke me up from my shock and I was ready to run but something stopped me; the dragon wasn't attacking me, it was thinking.

The Zippleback sniffed the air then retracted the decision to eat me. Following its gaze I looked to my left shoulder, I had forgotten the eel inside my vest. I opened it a bit and the dragon hissed in terror; I stood slowly and held my hands out as I was controlling him. "Back! Back! Back!" I got closer and the dragon backed away from the eel, in the others' perspective, from me. "Don't make tell you again!" the dragon reached the door of its pen "Yes, that's right. Back to your cage." I stealthily opened my vest and threw the eel inside. "Now think about what you've done." I closed the doors and turned cleaning my hands on my vest; man, I hate eels, the slime never wants to get off.

I slower my motions as I saw Gobber and the other teens staring at me, jaw dropped; Fishlegs' bucket that he had been hugging fell letting his arms hugging the air.

"Okay, so are we done? 'Cause I've some things I need to… yep, see you tomorrow!" I passed awkwardly to their side and ran through the village, stopping only at my house to take my sketchbook, then into the forest.


"It was awesome! You should have seen their faces!" I didn't bother to say 'hi' to Toothless, he looked at me with a question on his face, "Dragon Training." I shortly explained and sat by his side. "We faced a Hideous Zippleback," I doubt he know we call them like that but I was too excited to explain that. "I used the eel, he backed away instantly and I put him again in his cage-" Toothless interrupted me with an angry noise. "What?" He stood up and pushed me with his head, "Hey!" I stood up.

Toothless snorted, he was angry. "What?" He pointed to the village's direction with his head. "I don't… the Zippleback?" He nodded. Now at least I knew what he was talking about but, "What's wrong with it? He." I corrected myself, "I think it's a he." He roared at me, I knew he was trying but I still didn't understand.

I thought about what I told him, what would have bother him? "The eel?" He nodded again; they didn't like it and I had enclosed that dragon with one. "I'm sorry, he was attacking me." I tried to explain but the only thing I got in response was a sarcastic look. "What did you want me to do? Let him eat me?" He rolled his eyes and looked away. "Hey! I am talking to you." I walked trying to stay in front of him but he kept turning and sitting, giving me his back.

I sighed. "Buddy, come on." He turned to snarl at me and looked away again. "If it makes you feel better I'm going to take back that eel." Toothless looked over his wing and examined me up and down and narrowed his eyes when he stopped at my face. He stood after a few seconds and pushed me again with his head. Did he really think I was doing to do that? It was just to calm him down!

"Wait, wait, wait! I can't go now!" he looked at me with confused eyes. "They will se me!" he pushed me anyways to exit the cove. "Hey, buddy, stop- stop pushing me." I struggled with his head and fell on my butt.

Toothless tried to push me up but I rolled to the side and ended up on my knees, extending my hands to stop him. "Look, I can't go now." I said slowly, "But I'll go in the middle of the night when no one can see me. Okay?" the dragon sat and looked away, considering the idea, then looked at me and nodded. I sighed.

"Anyways, we have job to do." I opened my vest and took out my book from my belt; Toothless got closer to see the drawings as I turned the pages. "You can't fly by your own, this is gonna be a team work and I'm not gonna fly on your tail again, so…" I stopped in a blank page, "We need something to keep me onto you."


This day was going too well: I nailed it in Dragon Training, designed a saddle with Toothless help – he was more intelligent that I thought - and took a long nap with him. Of course when I left he reminded me that I needed to take the eel from the Zippleback's cage. Why was I even doing this? I could simply tell him that I did and he won't know the difference.

Looking around to see if anyone was close I ran across the bridge that lead to the training fields. Good thing I have light feet, that way the wood didn't creak with every step. I took a deep breath before opening the gate into the arena; I had to put all my weight in the lever before it started to open.

As soon as the gate cracked open the dragons woke up and began to scratch and hit their doors, except one. I forced myself to calm down and walked to the quite cage, slowly taking the fish from my satchel.

The arena was barely illuminated by the moon; we don't worry about put torches because who would come here at night? To a hole… full of dragons… feral dragons… that want to kill you. My breath and heart began to speed up and I could swear that the dragons could hear that because they began to hit harder.

A lout thud from the Gronckle cage made me scream and jerked back my arms, hugging the fish. Calm down, Hiccup, they are locked. I took a deep breath and released it slowly noticing that I was shaking.

The dragons had stooped making noises and the arena was way too quiet for my taste. I bit my lower lip and turned looking at the door, searching for the one with the Zippleback in it. All the cages were silent, I could hardly tell which was the right one.

They are almost all the same: two doors with a lever at their side and on top, outside the arena, and a big trunk kept them close. Anyways, it wasn't difficult to know which was which if you had seen them before.

In front of me, at the center, was the Monstrous Nightmare's; it was the only one with a vertical trunk… I had never seen it open. When the previous generation were in training I was eight years old so I sailed East to Flashburn's school of sword fighting (that decades ago stopped being just sword fighting) to learn to fight with any kind of weapon and even things that weren't weapons.

At my left are the Gronckle's and Nadder's cages, I had seen them get out of those doors to know. The Gronckle's doors formed an oval shape and the Nadder's was like a rectangle with a triangle on the top.

At my right is the Terrible Terror's whose door looked like a rectangle; the doors were enormous for such a little thing, and at the bottom, a little entrance the proper size. There, between the Terror's and the Nightmare's was the Hideous Zippleback's with rectangular doors with a concave tops.

I breathe in again and went to the lever raising my hands and pulling with all the little strength I had. The door cracked open but the dragon didn't came out, not even fog. I looked around for the eel ad walked slowly to it.

The two-headed dragon hissed when I stepped on the cave and I stopped looking at the eel just a few steps from me. Why did I throw it that far? I gave another step but the hiss turned into a growl. He surely remembered me.

I extended the fish. "I brought you food." I said almost in a whisper. I cleared my throat and spoke again, "I'm sorry about the eel, I- I'm just gonna take it, okay? I don't want to hurt you." Slowly I walked forward, took the eel from the floor and leaved the fish, instantly stepping back, leaving the cave expecting for the dragon to come out furious. But it didn't.

Then I realized it, he was afraid. Of me! That should make me happy, but it didn't, it broke my heart. I didn't want them to fear me, I should, I knew, how was I going to survive in Berk if they don't? But Toothless is my friend… he is my friend. Dragons could be friendly, playful and they were intelligent creatures. They were raiding us, that were true, but there should be an explication, a reason.

"Hey, it's okay." I threw the eel away. "It's just fish," I entered the dark cave and took the fish holding it up of the tail so he could see it. "See? I brought another." I took other fish from the satchel and raised it high like the other. "One for each of you." I didn't know if it has one stomach of two but there are two heads and two brains, even when they are one body they're two at the same time. Did that even make sense?

The dragon grumbled and a wavering head came out of the dark, looking at he fish curiously. I smiled and extended my arm at it. The head looked me with suspicious eyes, and my smile faded a bit but I wasn't afraid, those eyes were the same eyes that looked at me this morning when I said that I was going to come. Just as Toothless he was just making sure that what I said was the truth.

The Zippleback shook it's head to one side and the other head came out, looking at the fish. I extended my other arm to it and began to slowly back up to the light of the moon and away form the cave.

Both heads gazed at each other, then to me, then to some point behind me before they began to growl. Was someone behind me? The image of myself with my arms up to the Zippleback with fishes on my hands made a lump appear in my throat. I swallow hard, trying to make it disappear as I though in an excuse for the weird scene. Slowly I turned a little and looked over my shoulder. There was no one there, what was the dragon-

The fish were snatched from me. I yelped and jumped back with my hands pulled back to my chest. I looked at the two heads a little afraid but relaxed in a second after watching them enjoying the fish. They looked at me and sniffed, their eyes moved to the satchel. I took out another fish. "It's just one." I explained looking to a head then to another, they exchanged a look and without warning raced for the fish in my hand.

Not knowing what to do I tossed the fish to the air and recoiled my hand. Both heads cached the fish in midair; one head for the tail and one for the head and began to fight for it. The fish ended ripping apart giving each head a part.

They look at me with playful eyes, great: I fed them now they want to play.

"I can't. I have to go." They purred sadly. "Return to your cage." I jerked my hands and made the same movements that I did this morning, just without the eel to help me. The dragon backed anyways and I closed one door. The Zippleback looked at me from the other door, watching every movement. "Uh, I may see you tomorrow, so don't kill me please." The dragon shook its heads. "And don't play with me either, that would seems suspicious and they will know I fed you, that must be a secret." I said putting my finger in my lips.

The dragon nodded and I extended my hand to the closer head to pet him, the other head quickly got close to be petted too. I petted and scratched them for a while then I closed the door and pushed the lever up, whish was difficult.

I turned looking at the empty arena, well, now that I looked right it wasn't empty; the wooden barricades were on the wall with the shields and the shields, and buckets from this morning were still scattered on the floor with something metal. It was shining in the moonlight so it took me a moment to recognize it as my father's axe – I needed to fix it after that Nadder blasted it – I left it here that morning, I didn't even remember bringing it.

I grabbed it and was shocked when I only had to use one hand. It wasn't heavy anymore. I had to double check it to make sure that it was indeed my father's axe- well, I guess it was mine now. I smiled and leaved the ring, closing the gate behind me; when I fixed it I made sure to kept the same weight for when my father came back, men, I was getting stronger.

I made my way home without caring if someone saw me; even though by now every one was leaving the Mead Hall and the whole village, or at least those who stayed on Berk, could see me. They probably would be too drunk to notice me and if they did they wouldn't remember.

"Hiccup?" Asher voice stopped me, great.

"Hi, Asher." I said casually, trying to distract him but he turned his eyes to my back in the ring direction.

"What were you doing there?" He asked crossing his arms over his chest and straightening his back in a dominant position. He was also taller than me and the didn't helped.

"I… I forgot my axe." I said showing him the axe; it was a good excuse.

"Couldn't you wait until tomorrow?" He said suspicious, even when I didn't know of what.

"No, because… I need to sharpen it." I looked at the axe and inspect it as I made a face like if I had found a problem in the wedge even when it was perfect. I did it myself so of course it was.

"And you need to do it now? It's almost midnight-"

"What? I can't take of my father's axe properly?" I cut him off. "It is mine after all." I looked at hi with hatred in my eyes, since when did he cares? "Good night." I said bitterly and leaved to the blacksmith with the axe in one hand.

Was it because I beat him in Training today? If there was anything I knew about Asher was that he was a very competitive. And he probably always seen me like nothing on his way to win but today I did something anyone had ever done before.

Now I was in his way and even when I didn't wanted to kill the Nightmare, not anymore, I wanted to shoe them. Show then what I was able to do, shoe them that I was not afraid.

I reached the smith and dropped the axe and satchel on the table. I opened my sketchbook onto the designs of Toothless' saddle; it was super simple but it was going to be confortable for him and for me.

The eel was just one thing I learned with Toothless, I had the feeling that I was going to learn more about dragons, things that no one else has ever knew because no one had ever try to befriend one. And I was going to use that, I was going to use that and prove to everyone that I wasn't fragile.