Author's note: I'm posting this a day early, because I don't think I'll be around tomorrow. So enjoy the 24-hour early update!

Hiccup entered the cove with a saddle, a long piece of rope, a basket of fish, and several plans for the day. Toothless had no plans. He wanted food, and flight, ideally in that order. He also wanted to be around Hiccup, and it was looking like he would get all three. Both of them were happy at that moment, despite the precarious thread of secrecy that their existence was suspended by. Despite the increasing alienation Hiccup felt around his own peers and village. Despite the fact that the only thing standing between Toothless and death by starvation or insanity was a ninety-pound boy who was often in some sort of danger. Despite all of this, they were happy.

"So, ready for a late breakfast? Sorry I couldn't get it to you earlier." Toothless dove at the pile of fish that emerged when Hiccup tipped the basket, eating at an astonishing speed. Hiccup had yet to determine if the apparent desperation of Toothless as he ate was normal or due to intense hunger. He couldn't be sure because he was only able to bring so many fish, and only once a day. He really hoped it wasn't hunger, because there wasn't anything he could do about that. Yet.

'Don't blame yourself for something out of your control. We both know you couldn't get here any sooner.'

Hiccup knew he was right. He waited until Toothless had swallowed his last fish, and drunk his fill from the pond. "So, ready to get started?"

Toothless sat on his hind legs, pupils and eyes wide and mouth slightly open. The very image of anticipation. Then he stopped. His eyes narrowed, and he leaned towards Hiccup. 'That looks painful.'

"What does?"

'You can't see it, can you? Use my senses.'

Hiccup expanded the pocket in his mind and gasped slightly. Aside from this being the clearest and most accurate image he had ever seen of himself, he could see what his friend was talking about. His nose was red and swollen, from when Snotlout had punched him... was it only yesterday afternoon? It felt like so long ago. He had been ignoring the throbbing of his nose this entire time. He was quite good at ignoring pain, having had more than enough practice over the years given a combination of Snotlout, forge injuries and a grumpy healer who was more likely to add to her patient's injuries if she deemed them not serious enough to warrant her time. Now that he thought about it, he could feel the painful force. He knew it wasn't broken, but it was bruised and sore. He collapsed the image. "I'll be fine."

Toothless returned to all fours, and circled Hiccup, looking for any other injuries that had escaped his notice. Though, how he thought Hiccup might have acquired them without him noticing was beyond Hiccup, given that the dragon had been piggy-backing on his senses pretty much all day. Once Toothless had completed his inspection, he looked Hiccup in the eyes. 'This time. What about next time someone decides to hit you? To hurt you. What then? You don't fight back, with words or claws, you don't run, you don't even hide from the ones trying to hurt you!'

Hiccup shook his head. I can't fight back against someone like Snotlout and running and hiding aren't the..." He had been about to say, "the Viking way," but he was starting to realize every time he said that the correct solution in his case was usually the opposite. He didn't like the idea of hiding or running. But he would have been happy to at least have the option, given he definitely did not have any other options at present. The problem was, he had almost no stamina, and was terrible at any kind of stealth or coordination. Hiccup explained this to Toothless, not really sure what to expect.

'That's because you've never had a reason to improve those skills. Or anyone to teach you how. Of course you aren't coordinated if no one teaches you how to fight, or any other skill that requires you to learn coordination. You can't improve what you don't practice.'

Hiccup was annoyed. "Who's going to teach me then?"

Toothless gave him a dead stare, as if he had said something stupid. 'I am, of course.'

Hiccup was silent for a moment, and then he could feel his face burning with embarrassment. "Oh. Of course, sorry."

'Apology accepted. We can start now.' Hiccup was a bit disappointed, he had hoped to do a few other things today.

"What about testing the saddle? And I wanted your help getting rid of that shield stuck in the exit..." That was one of the reasons Hiccup had brought the rope. He had planned to tie it around the shield, and have Toothless pull it loose.

Toothless chuckled, a strange gurgling noise. 'We can do those too. I can work the training around that stuff. In fact...' He crouched down, a playful look in his eyes. 'You want me to wear that saddle? You'll have to catch me first! Consider this the start of your running, and thus endurance training.' Hiccup started to object but stopped himself. If this was how he was going to improve, he might as well. He picked up the saddle. squared his feet. Met the Fury's eyes. And bolted straight at him.

The dragon took off, running at the same pace as Hiccup, speeding up as Hiccup did, and keeping the same distance. He seemed to be able to hear how far away Hiccup was and started correcting his form. While running. Without looking back. Showoff. Although, Hiccup supposed it was easier to do when talking didn't require breath on the runner's part.

'Back straight. Long strides, breath in through the nose and out through the mouth!'

Hiccup followed the dragon's instructions, and he kept up the chase for longer than he would have thought possible, though still not very long. As he really began to flag, Toothless slowed but didn't stop moving.

'Keep moving, walk for a bit before stopping completely. It helps.'

Hiccup did as he was told. After he had regained his strength, Toothless let him begin the process of attaching the saddle and noting any adjustments he would need to make. Thankfully, there weren't too many of those, and nothing major.

As he applied the saddle, Toothless began outlining future plans. 'I think we'll run like this every day. A short sprint before whatever we are going to do. Also, whenever you can you should run here through the forest. That'll help you with endurance, speed, and coordination. Especially if you're carrying a basket of fish.'

Hiccup laughed. "I'm not even coordinated enough to run up a set of stairs, I'd kill myself trying to run that fast through a forest."

Toothless replied patiently. 'You'd run slower at first, and I'm going to be helping you with your coordination. I can point out what you need to do before you have to do it. Dodge and vault enough obstacles, and it'll become instinct. That's how dragons learn to fly in packs without flying into each other. Constant practice.'

Hiccup was a bit daunted by all of this. 'I think if I do this I'll wear myself into the ground. It's too much."

Toothless huffed and responded seriously. 'I won't LET you run yourself into the ground. I know how that feels, and I can access your senses, remember? I can stop you well before you reach that point. Besides, doing it like this will help you improve fast. Much faster than taking it easy and training every once in a while.'

Hiccup weighed his options. He did want to improve, if only because Toothless so clearly thought it would be good for him. What it really boiled down to was, did he trust Toothless not to push him too far? If this had been Gobber, or his father, or any other Viking, he would have said no. But Toothless wasn't a Viking. He understood and accepted Hiccup's current limits. Besides, Hiccup did trust him. He had already trusted Toothless with his life, that first day in the cove, and he was about to trust him to take him into the sky. What was this compared to something like that?

"Ok. I trust you."

Toothless exhaled. 'Thank you.' Then he lifted his head and licked Hiccup in the face.

"Hey! What was that?!" Hiccup was, to put it mildly, disgusted. The saliva was everywhere, and it wasn't coming off.

Toothless had the grace to appear embarrassed, and he explained. 'For dragons, licking each other is an expression of thanks or happiness between friends or family. What do humans do?'

Hiccup thought about it. "I guess the closest thing we have is a hug, or maybe a punch in the arm for Vikings."

'Well, I can't punch you...'

"Good thing."

'... how does a hug work?'

Hiccup stood from the edge of the pond, resigned that this was as close to gone as the saliva was going to get. He demonstrated by holding his arms out. "A hug is when you wrap your arms around the other person, and they do the same to you."

Toothless walked up to Hiccup. He extended one paw and then attempted to extend the other. Because he was on all fours, trying to lift both of his front paws and hold them out with no support resulted in him face-planting.

Hiccup held in his laughter, as he was pretty sure Toothless wouldn't be laughing with him.

Toothless got up. 'That won't work.'

Hiccup was stumped for the moment, but he really would like an alternative to having to deal with Night Fury saliva in the future. It had taken forever to get that stuff off, and he was pretty sure there was still some on his nose despite his best efforts to... Wait. His nose. He interrupted Toothless's sulking to ask a very important question. "Toothless, does my nose still look as bad as before?"

The dragon perked, and lifted himself to get a better view. 'No, it doesn't look nearly as bad now. What did you do?'

Hiccup thought about it. He had registered the dull, throbbing pain, and it hadn't stopped until... "Toothless, I think your spit did something."

The dragon's eyes widened. 'That makes sense! We dragons lick our wounds to keep away infection and help them heal. It makes them hurt a little less too. Still, I've never seen it work so fast.'

"Maybe because I'm not a dragon? dragons have all that scale and thick tissue to get through, so your saliva is probably strong enough to work despite that stuff. So as a human, who don't really have scales..."

Toothless continued the thought. 'You get stronger effects from less saliva because all of it reaches the actual injury!'

Hiccup smiled, the pain in his nose mostly gone. "I think I don't mind your saliva as much now. Still, I'd prefer for you not to lick my face whenever you're happy. Maybe try the hug again, using one arm and your head instead of the other?" Toothless gave it a try. This time he didn't fall flat on his face and rested his chin lightly on Hiccup's shoulder while his opposite arm curled around his other side. It was probably weird looking from the outside, but it felt like a real hug. Toothless pulled away and adopted a contemplative look. "Does that work for you?"

'Yeah, that will work.'

Hiccup smiled. "Well, it looks like we can go flying now!" He gestured to Toothless, who was wearing his full saddle and prosthetic tailfin. Then he remembered something. "Well, almost." He got the piece of rope and tied one end to the edge of the tailfin. He held the other as he climbed onto the saddle for the first time. It fit, and he knew he would be able to lean almost all the way forward if he needed to reduce drag and make himself more streamlined. Most importantly, it was a far more secure perch than the dragon's tail. He pulled the rope, and after a moment he applied enough force to open the tailfin - from the saddle. Success.

This time Hiccup could see Toothless prepare to take off. He was still almost thrown from his saddle by the force. He needed to get used to that because it seemed 'abrupt' was the only way Toothless knew how to take off. As they flew over the cove, it was time to test this method of controlling the tailfin. Hiccup attempted to adjust the fin. and pulled. Harder. He looked back and saw the problem. His hand was further up than the tail, so the rope was pulling at an angle, meaning he had to pull way too hard to make any kind of slight adjustment. Unfortunately, he saw all of this and connected the dots right as he yanked even harder. And of course, this was the yank that actually triggered the tailfin. All the way. Toothless roared in shock as he was yanked to the left, and Hiccup left the saddle as he continued forward, and down into the lake. Again. Well, scratch using his arm to control the tailfin off the list of possibilities. It was too high up. Maybe his foot?

As he and Toothless dried off in their own ways (Hiccup built a proper fire for Toothless to light this time) Hiccup considered another adjustment he would make to the saddle. He was going to attach a line of some sort to the saddle and himself to keep him in place through things like tight turns. At least until he could hold on tight enough himself. Maybe having both hands would help with that. He explained his reasoning to Toothless, and the dragon agreed on all counts.

They sat there in silence for a while, Hiccup leaning against Toothless's side like the time before. Eventually, Hiccup decided to ask one of his many stored up questions. "Hey, Toothless. I was wondering, why do the dragons raid us? From what I can tell, you only eat fish, and you would be able to get all you want from the ocean, if it wasn't for, you know..."

Toothless had been somewhat dreading this conversation, as it would be difficult to explain, but he knew it had to happen eventually. 'We don't raid of our free will. You are right in that most dragons only eat fish. Dragons raid because the Queen forces them to.'

Hiccup asked the obvious questions. "Who is the queen? And how does she force dragons to do anything?"

'This is a bit complicated. The Queen is a massive dragon who lives in the nest. She is apparently capable of enslaving any dragon she sees. Once she enslaves a dragon, they can't leave her range, which is a couple hundred miles. They have to obey everything she says. This part of her power she extends over every dragon she has, and there is almost no way to get out of it unless she lets you out intentionally, which never happens, or you get hit over the head hard enough. That can sometimes shake it. I remember a Grockle who crashed at the nest and was freed from the Queen's control. He tried to fly away, but the Queen recaptured him pretty much immediately, and re-enslaved him.'

Hiccup interrupted Toothless, unable to contain the question any longer. "Is that why you aren't enslaved? You got knocked out when I shot you down?"

Toothless shook his head. 'I don't think so actually, let me finish. That is one of the Queen's powers, and she uses it on all of her subjects all of the time. Her other power is different. She can only use it on one of her subjects at a time. Because of this, she only used it on her most two most powerful dragons. That would be me, and another Night Fury. This other power the Queen uses, it is something like a much stronger version of what we have, but only one-way. Not only can the Queen use the senses of the other dragon, she can control them completely, to the point where they are no better than an extension of her body while she is in control.' Toothless shuddered. 'We two Night Furies were her proxies of choice. As such, I've felt this far too many times. It is one of the worst feelings, to be a passenger not in somebody else's body, but your own, and to know you can do absolutely nothing to stop it. Anyway, the Queen liked to use Night Furies as her proxies because not only were we the most powerful of the dragons she had enslaved, we could do something no other dragon could. We can use a much weaker version of the Queen's power and see through the senses of a lesser creature if we can find one, like deer or Terrible Terrors. The Queen liked to use Terrors as unwitting scouts. When she was done with them, she would, well, kill them.'

Toothless stopped for a moment, then forced himself to keep talking. 'I don't want to talk about that, because then I would have to remember... So, when the Queen gets hungry, she takes over one of her Night Furies, and through them leads her slaves to raid some island, in order to get enough food to satisfy herself. That is what she was doing with me the night you shot me down. However, I remember the Queen releasing me completely just before I hit the ground.' Toothless stopped. 'I think I know why she did, though it isn't a pleasant thought.'

Hiccup shuddered. He also had a pretty good idea. "Why?"

'Because I think she didn't want to experience my death. So, she pulled away as soon as she was sure I would die. I guess she underestimated how tough we Night Furies are. Ironic, given how much time she spends practically as one.'

Toothless seemed done with his story, so Hiccup began to ask the questions that he had been amassing the entire time. He started with an important one. "How long were you there in the nest?"

'As long as I can remember. I might have hatched there, but the problem is the Queen commanded all of her slaves to forget the time they lived before the nest, and never speak of the outside world. So dragons could talk, and teach their young the ways of life outside the nest, but no history, no reason for why customs and rules exist. So, unless I hit my head and remember or something, I can't even be sure of my age. And I still can't remember my name, or who the other Night Fury is, or what their name is.'

Hiccup and Toothless were silent. Hiccup because none of his previous questions could be answered by Toothless in his current state, and Toothless as he relived just how hopeless his situation had been, and in a few ways still was. The odds that he would remember were low, and unless he got lucky he could go his entire life unaware of his original name or past. It was a depressing thought. Hiccup picked up on his friend's mood. "Hey, cheer up. It sucks to not remember, but you'll get your memory back eventually. And I'll be here for you until then. And after."

Hiccup checked the time and knew he needed to leave soon if he wanted to make those adjustments and get to bed at a decent time. Apparently, he was going to need to get his rest from now on, given Toothless's training routine. Still, he decided Toothless could use some cheering up before he went. "I have one more thing we should do today."

Toothless perked up, eager for something to distract himself with.

Hiccup smiled. "I want to get that shield out of the exit to the cove, remember? Can you help me get rid of it?"

Toothless padded over to where he could see the shield, firmly wedged in the gap between the two narrow rock walls.

Hiccup ambled up beside him and considered the problem. "Well, we can't use the rope, because it's all tied up in your tail and saddle right now... and you probably shouldn't blast it because if someone is in the woods they might hear..." Hiccup snapped his fingers, startling Toothless, who had never seen or heard that before. "Got it." He ran off, and a confused Toothless sat there and watched as Hiccup selected a large, straight branch and brought it over, wedging it beneath the shield, forming a rudimentary lever. Hiccup returned to Toothless. "Alright, so we just need to put a lot of weight on the other end of that branch, without breaking it."

Toothless moved over to stand beside the lever. He lightly placed one paw on it and pushed. Nothing. He put both paws on the branch. And pushed. Still nothing. He finally tensed, and jumped a good three feet up, placing all of his weight on the branch.

THAT did it. A little too well. The shield rocketed out of its confinement, and Toothless stared in amazement as it shrunk, sat still against the backdrop of the sky, and then after a long moment began to re-expand. The shield plummeted down and landed in the top of a dead tree that was at least fifty feet tall. The shield struck with such force that the edge stuck into the dead wood, and as a result, it was all but invisible from below. From just above the treeline though, it would undoubtedly be a brazen marker for all to see. Hiccup and Toothless both knew this, and they knew they would have to get it down, so as to not tempt fate by leaving it up there to possibly attract attention. Hiccup turned to Toothless. "We'll have to get that tomorrow." Toothless chuffed in agreement.