If you're wondering what Springer looks like, she's my profile picture. Drew her about a year ago.

xXXx

There were two things the Haddock twins learned from the next day's evening campfire (that was held on a watchtower. Go figure). One, Fishlegs had a sometimes disgusting imagination. Two, they had a new project to focus on: a prosthetic tailfin. How they never thought of it before was a mystery.

xXXx

"Hey, Tooothless!", Hiccup called out as they arrived, carrying a bag of fish each.

Kernel bounced in her steps, not at all bothered by the weight that wasn't that heavy, "Springee~er! We got fish!"

She couldn't help it. She was excited. The two dragons looked eagerly at the feast spread in front of them, ignoring Hiccup's comment of 'disgusting'. After the twins showed off their selection of fish and got rid of eel (Dragons didn't like it. Who knew?) Hiccup silently crept towards the crippled tail as Kernel distracted Toothless. With Springer's unknowing help, of course. And then the Night Fury figured out what was going on. Kernel looked on worriedly as his wings unfurled, steadily but slowly.

"Uhh… Hiccup?", she warned nervously, Springer too busy eating fish.

Her brother didn't hear. And then it was too late as Toothless jumped into the air with him holding on to his tail. Kernel was on her feet in an instant, Springer by her side.

"Hiccup!", she called out in alarm.

Her brother held on as she watched with bated breath. They flew… and started falling. And at the last possible moment (why, close calls, why) Hiccup got the prosthetic tail open. And it worked. She watched in awe as they flew higher and higher before the teen turned them back. A circle, a dive, and Toothless noticed he had a passenger. Then Hiccup was flying through the air without a dragon and splashed into the pond. Kernel looked on as Toothless did the same trick, tail closed, and then her brother whooped in exhilaration.

She just slumped to her knees in relief. Then she started laughing with Hiccup. And after a moment turned her hopeful eyes to Springer. Said dragon rolled her eyes mentally and flew up to grab her by her shoulders… only to just flip her into the water. Kernel rose to the surface and pouted. Hiccup laughed harder.

xXXx

Teamwork. This day's lesson was about teamwork. In a gas covered area. Where a Hideous Zippleback was hiding. Which was a two headed dragon.

Well. Hiccup and Kernel were a team already. Taking Fishlegs to the mix didn't hurt them at all. They rotated slowly as the bulky viking teen narrated what he knew about the Zippleback. It was… disturbing. Hiccup told him to stop telling how it crushed its victims. He did, much to the twins' relief.

"Okay", Kernel breathed, "We have three chances. If someone sees it, only one throws water"

Silent agreement from both her teammates. She glanced at Hiccup, question in her eyes. He nodded discreetly. Which meant he had the 'last line defence'. Named eel. Kernel made a mental note to stay close.

Surprised shouts from their left. Someone had thrown water at the two other girls. Then a cry from Tuffnut. The trio tensed, looking for green heads.

"Oh, I'm hurt! I am very much hurt!", cried the blonde haired boy as he ran away from the clearing smoke.

A dragon's head emerged out of it, straight in front of Fishlegs. He backpedaled, throwing the water. Only to figure out it was the wrong head when it barfed green flammable gas.

"Oh. Wrong head", he said, strangely happy-nervous.

Which meant Kernel and Hiccup had the only bucketfuls left and that that green head in front of them was the right one. The one that lit the gas. It was annoyingly high up. Hiccup tried to throw his water and failed. Kernel tried and… actually got it.

"Good job! Now get outta there!", Gobber shouted a little ways away.

Too late… it leaned down… and backed off. From the siblings. Hiccup started ordering it to retreat and Kernel could feel everyone else gaping at them. She still had a little bit of water in her bucket and walked behind her brother to throw if either head decided to do something. If not the water, she'd throw the bucket.

Luckily it wasn't needed. The Hideous Zippleback was in its cage and the twins reached out to close one door each. The eel was still under Hiccup's vest, neither twin cruel enough to leave the dragon with something so hated. Though if they'd done this alone it would be a different story, as regrettable as it was. The Zippleback would've been back in the ring faster than you could say 'eel'. But as it were, they got the gate closed and turned to each other with identical looks of relief and triumph.

Then someone dropped a bucket and they noticed the others staring at them in shock, some mouths open.

"Uhh… is class over or…?", Kernel trailed off in the awkward silence. Hiccup picked it up with a half truth, "Because… we have a project to, you know…", a shrug. A pause with the twins fidgeting. Then they decided they'd had enough of the staring and just hurried away.

They had saddles to design and dragons to fly.

xXXx

Okay, they had saddles now but there was no flying. Why? Toothless wasn't that taken by the idea of something strapped on his back. Kernel just needed to show the saddle once and Springer leaned down to let her put it on. Now the two girls sat next to each other and watched the show.

"C'mon, you overgrown lizard, I have fish for you~!", Hiccup tried to persuade the black dragon perched on a tree branch.

Toothless' only reply was a smug stare. And a flick of his tail that hit the teen over the head. He grumbled and tried a new tactic.

"Don't you want to fly?", he asked, spreading his arms wide as a demonstration of wings.

Everyone could see the Night Fury was tempted now. It still stayed in the tree. The teen deflated and turned an envious glance Kernel's way. Then his face lit up as he got an idea.

"I'll just fly with Kernel and Springer then", he said with a defeated sigh. He started walking away.

Toothless stared after the dejected boy for a second, then looked in the girls' direction. They watched at him in a way that screamed 'just do it!'. He looked to Hiccup again, seeing him kick a rock to the side sadly. The dragon decided to have pity on his really sad looking friend and pounced from his perch. Hiccup's retreat was stopped by Toothless landing in front of him. The teen grinned. It worked!

Kernel and Springer exchanged discrete high fives with a hand and a tail.

xXXx

The next days went by with the teens learning more about their dragon companions. And experimenting with flying. Their first flight had been exhilarating! It was pretty short as Hiccup tried to use the tailfin with a length of rope and Kernel tried to stay on Springer's back. The Wind Chaser's flying was very much like the wind. Thus, very hard to ride. All those twists and turns with fast and slow spurts had made for some painful landings. But she did figure out how to land with minimal injuries. Granted, that was kinda copied from other worlds where she'd learnt that kind of skills.

Hiccup and Toothless took a while to get used to the concept of riding and being ridden. Hiccup wasn't used to being carried like that and the Night Fury wasn't used to having someone on his back, let alone that the rider was the only reason he could fly. But they got in the air eventually. After many shortened trips because Hiccup pulled the rope wrong, or just couldn't hold on. And Toothless forgetting he couldn't just fly however he wanted. It was hard because they had to listen to each other and anticipate what the other would do next.

After a few dozen tumbles the twins finally decided to make some safety gear. Riding vests and harness.

Really, they should've done it in the first place, what with having experience with the climbing safety and all. Speaking of, they hadn't visited their Hideout for a while.

"Hey, Hiccup", Kernel realized something. Her brother turned to her with a curious expression. She continued with an anticipating grin, "We don't need to climb to Hideout anymore if we get this flying thing right!"

His eyes lit up.

"We have to show it to Toothless and Springer sometime! There's room for a dragon perch and that ledge would make a perfect landing spot and-"

And Kernel knew his brother was gone to Invention Land. She listened patiently to the bubbling ideas and added her own tidbits here and there. They almost overslept the next morning, hurrying out and leaving the night's work lying around their room.

Sometime Kernel really should learn that setting ideas in her brother's head when it was time to sleep was a bad idea.

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Next chapter comes Astrid's interactions with these two...