=Hiccup's POV=
After the RPG, all I remembered was everything going black around me. Before that, I remember getting shot in the arm; I knew it wasn't life-threatening, though. It just hurt a lot, and I think that took over when things got crazy during the mission. At the moment, I could hear voices around me, but my eyes were fighting me on opening up. If I had to take a guess; I was knocked out, and my teammates and commanding officers were asking the medic when I would be waking up. I am awake, or at least I'm starting too since I can hear distant voices around me, nothing coherent. I needed to open my eyes and see where I was. I focused hard and willed myself to start moving, of course, my right arm hurt quite a bit.
"Hey, I think he's coming to finally," I heard Cody exclaim. I groaned, silently praying they didn't make a huge deal out of it.
"Hiccup?" Thuggory's voice came next. After a few tries, and feeling my body moving, I got my eyes opened and blinked to focus on my surroundings. "Oh, thank Thor," my friend breathed out in relief.
"Major Grimborn! Haddock is up," Eret said. And there went my hopes of it not being a big deal.
"Corporal. We're pleased to see you've woken up finally," I hear Viggo say. I turned my head to look at him. Coming up beside my major was Lieutenant Colonel Andersen, and Viggo's older brother, Ryker. I forced myself to sit up, ignoring the pain I felt. "Easy, son. We don't want you going unconscious again,"
"How…long have I been out?" I asked.
"What's the last thing you remember, lad?" Henrik inquired.
"I got grazed on the arm, then…there was an RPG coming at us. Toothless and I got in the air, but caught the force from the blast. I-I fell off him, and must have knocked out," I recalled while explaining.
"I found you wrapped in Toothless's wings; all three of us saw him wrap them around you, then you landed in the fire," Thuggory confirmed. My eyes widened.
"T-Tooth…less wrapped his wings around me when we went into the fire?" I questioned.
"Yeah, after you fell off, he dove to catch you," Eret nodded. Gods! Was Toothless okay?!
"I-I have to see my dragon, a-and make sure…he's okay," I insisted while trying to get up. However, Viggo and Ryker had me lay back down on the bed.
"You need to rest, Haddock. Toothless isn't going anywhere, and we don't want those stitches busting while you recover. You've only just woken up after being out for a day," Ryker informed. I had been unconscious for twenty-four hours? I looked outside seeing in nightfall again, then a clock on the wall read; 12:05 am. It was about that time yesterday when everything happened. I needed to see Toothless. I needed to call home and check on Astrid and our child.
"Everything is fine, Hiccup. Get some more sleep, my friend," Cody tried.
"B-But Toothless, a-and Astrid…I have…to make sure everyone is okay," I attempted to get up again.
"Astrid is fine, Hiccup, and Toothless is resting in the stables. Please? Come on now, it's just past midnight. You need to rest more," Thuggory pushed.
"No. Something isn't right here. I've been asleep for this long, why do you keep pushing me to sleep more? I'm not tired. I want to see my dragon, and you're not letting me. You're hiding something; I can see it in each of your eyes. What aren't you telling me?" I demanded.
Finally, I saw them sigh, which only confirmed my suspicions that something was amiss. "Your dragon was injured yesterday, Corporal, in the fight where you were hurt. The damage was too much, and-," Henrik started. However, as soon as he'd said Toothless was hurt on the mission, I threw my covers off, and forced myself out of bed. I ran to the stables, ignoring the pain in my arm, and found Toothless's.
"Toothless…" I whispered out in shock and fear. My Night Fury laid in his stable quietly as I scanned his form with my eyes. I saw that his left tail fin was gone. Without that, Toothless would never be able to fly again!
"Toothless got shot in the tail a few times, and it began to tear off after her dove to catch you, Hiccup. The medics did what they could, but there was no saving it, or he would have developed an infection, and it could have killed him," Eret said as I felt a hand on my shoulder.
"The best course of action is to send your dragon home, Corporal Haddock. Of course, we can't without your consent," Viggo informed. I moved inside the stable as Toothless lifted his head up, and crooned when I got close to him. I rubbed his head and checked over his tail; I could see that it had already begun to heal up, and it would likely be closed by morning.
"No," I said.
"Corporal. Your dragon can't fly anymore. This situation is no different if this were a service member losing a limb; he can't serve with you without his flight," Henrik stated.
"I don't care. I won't serve without Toothless. Alright? You don't get it. Toothless is my best friend in the entire world. We have done everything together since we bonded. He's my partner, and I know I can fix this," I assured.
"How? How could you possibly be able to fix him not having a tail?" Ryker inquired.
"A veteran who loses a limb can do all the same things they used to with a prosthetic, can't they?" I asked.
"Well, yes, but-," Viggo began.
"So it stands to reason that if Toothless had a prosthetic tail, that allowed him to fly; he could still serve beside me, right?" I questioned.
"Theoretically, yes, but no one has ever…attempted such a process, Haddock," Henrik remarked.
"There were a few tries, but nothing was successful. When things like this happen, the dragons are retired for good," Ryker added on.
"Well, I will be one of those tries then. Give me a month, and if I can't get Toothless back in the air…I'll send him home to my father. Is that agreeable, Lieutenant Colonel?" I asked.
"Hiccup, I don't know about this. Medical professionals couldn't pull this off, and those are people who study dragons, their anatomy, and everything. I just don't…know what you, a twenty-two-year-old young man can do to change this if they couldn't," Henrik admitted softly.
"Then you don't know me very well. Give me thirty days, and I will have Toothless flying again as if nothing changed, please?" I asked again.
Henrik sighed heavily. "Very well, Corporal Haddock. I will give you thirty days, but I expect to be kept up to date, understand?" I nodded quickly to him. "Now, will you require materials that we can provide?"
"Rope, leather, metal, hammer, and something close to a forge," I told him.
"I will get them to you by next week. I will give your arm a little time to heal, and then we'll start your thirty days. Fair?" Henrik informed. I nodded once more as I looked at Toothless.
"Don't worry, bud. I'll get you in the air again. I promise," I vowed as Toothless warbled and licked my cheek excitedly. I would do this, I knew that I could build Toothless a working tail.
Finally, the week had passed and I was cleared to get to work on my dragon's prosthetic tail. I had been working on designs with my week of recovery as Henrik, Viggo, and Ryker were calling it. Henrik got everything I asked him to get, including a spot I could do some forge work. Call it old-fashioned, but I was big on stuff like that as a kid; swords, spears, daggers. I loved how they were made back in the day, so I made it appoint to study blacksmithing. I understood what my CO's were saying, no medical professional successfully made a dragon limb prosthetic. However, all their ideas were those of the modern world using robotics and what not. My concept derived from the old life, the time of Vikings, where my heritage was. I was confident that I would have Toothless flying.
I had everything ready, now I just had to start putting it together, and testing it out. Oh, and I was twenty-two now. My birthday was yesterday, or my would-be anniversary of birth was. Astrid was turning twenty-two in eleven days; I already sent her birthday gift out, and it would arrive a few days before. Henrik arranged for me to work in a quiet place to configure this prosthetic thought I was having. I started with a basic design of Toothless's tail; matching the right side's shape with a piece of tan leather. I cut two of these, then added poles were the bones would have been and connected them to something else so they would swivel right to open, then left to close. I attached all that to something that would link to Toothless's tail. I measured it all to the size and made sure it would be symmetrical. When that was completed, Toothless and I gave it a test run. It worked, to a degree.
The problem became that the tail didn't open and close on its own unless I did it. However, this became the answer as I was on Toothless's tail when he flew with it. It only worked because I was adjusting the position. The desire was not lost. All this meant was that for Toothless to fly, I would have to be riding him, and control the tail, and I could definitely do that. The next things I worked on was how to do just that. The final installment was a saddle with peddles on the left and right side. The left side was connected to a rope that with a push of my foot, I altered the direction of the makeshift tail fin. And now with all that done, and two days remaining in my thirty-day arrangement with Henrik; I was testing this out. If it worked then Toothless would stay with me. I did tell Astrid about it, and she got worried, but I assured her that everything would be okay, and of course, she believed me.
"You ready?" Thuggory asked me.
"Definitely," I nodded to him. All we were waiting on was Henrik, Viggo, and Ryker to arrive to watch. Finally, they did so.
"Alright, Corporal Haddock. You say you're sure it will work this time?" Viggo inquired.
"It worked the first time. Toothless was flying, he just can't do it alone. So I've created this, a rig that lets me ride on his back, and control the tail," I explained showing the rig that was set up on Toothless. Of course, it was in all black to keep with the Night Fury appearance.
"Let's see it," Henrik invited. I jumped on Toothless's back, and pushed the pedal down to extend the tail fully. I took a deep breath, and then Toothless launched into the sky. We hovered there, then began to glide. Everything was going great in the test, now, we had to make sure we could fly the same as before. Toothless and I headed upward, climbing higher, and then I slipped from the saddle, falling again. Toothless no longer having control, dropped as well. However, I didn't give up.
"Toothless! Dive!" I called. Toothless adjusted himself, then closed his wings and came past me. I grabbed the saddle as we neared the ground. I pulled myself back into position, and locked my feet in place, then opened the tail as we swooped upward once more, and did a twirl. Toothless and I did it! We were flying, doing loops, spins, barrel rolls; it was incredible. Toothless landed before my commanding officers, then I got off his back.
"See. Toothless still does everything he used to, and all I have to do is work the tail's positioning," I told them.
"Well, it's still not ideal. Especially for situations like before where you fell. However, I also saw that you both worked together to recover from the incident. Therefore, with all of this I've seen in the last twenty-eight days; I am thoroughly impressed, Corporal. I've never seen anyone do what you did to assist your dragon. Using a forge, metal, leather, and rope? It's old world that you used to help, and I don't have the words for it. I will allow the dragon to stay, and I believe a job well done is in order," Henrik smiled.
"Hear that bud? You get to stay," I told my dragon as he licked my cheek happily. I was shocked with myself, there were a few times that I didn't know if I could do it. But I did, and now Toothless could fly again. For me, this only proved that Toothless and I had a bond like nobody else did, also that as long as I believed in myself, then there wasn't anything I couldn't do.
