Saddles, grass and flying

Toothless' POV

I heard Jaiden coming before I saw him. He came through, holding something that looked like a… Saddle. Like a horse saddle, but different.

And he had no fish!

No way!

He was not going to ride me like a horse.

I jumped up as soon as he grinned and held it up to me and I darted up.

"Hey!" Jaiden yelled, chasing after me while he held the saddle above his head.

I just turned and poked my tongue out as I ran and…

Crashed into a rock.

I groaned in pain and flopped to the ground.

I had briefly forgotten how un-spacious this place was.

I was ready to jump up and run away again, but the delay had been enough to let him pounce on me.

Now I couldn't shake him off without injuring him.

And I didn't really want to do that. I was kind of relying on him to bring me food.

So I reluctantly stayed still, forced to endure the humiliation as he strapped the saddle on me and tied a rope to my fake tail fin. Then he climbed onto the saddle and kicked his feet into my sides.

No, it didn't hurt, but I refused to fly if he was going to treat me like a horse he could control.

So I stubbornly stayed on the ground, doing the closest thing I could do to a human frown.

"Aw, come on Toothless," Jaiden said.

I rolled my eyes and then even lay down to emphasis my point.

"I'll bring you some fish after you fly," Jaiden suggested.

I perked up.

Kicking me wouldn't get him anywhere, but bribery would.

I let a small roar out to warn him that he'd better mean it before I took off into the air.

Jaiden yelped at first, but clung on and managed to keep the artificial flap open. So I glided around, by I couldn't turn and so I pulled an unpressed face as he headed me straight towards a rock.

If he made me crash…

I felt a tug near my tail, urging me to turn but he fell off and the flap closed, causing me to fall again.

He sighed and went to get a hidden basket of fish for me.

"Wait here, I'll be back tomorrow," Jaiden said.

He unstrapped the saddle and took it with him as he left.

I let out a whine as he left.

Didn't he need the basket to bring me more food?

But he was already gone.

The next day, he was back, like he'd said.

This time, he wore a harness thing of his own and the saddle seemed to have a new modification.

I was reluctant to let him put the saddle on me, but the promise of fish was too tempting so I once again endured becoming his experiment.

This time, he directed me upwards and when he failed to open the tail to the right angles, we tumbled down into a patch of grass.

This time, he didn't fall off until we hit the ground and the hook came undone.

But by then, I was no longer concerned where the human went.

This grass. It smelt so nice. And it felt so good against my scales.

I rubbed my head against it. It felt like it was somehow finding all my itchy spots.

So disregarding anything else, I rolled onto my back and rolled around, relishing the feeling of the grass rubbing against me and the beautiful smell it was creating.

I could see Jaiden looking at me in wonder and he picked a handful of the beautiful stuff up, staring at it.

Then he looked back at me and groaned. "Aw, come on Toothless, you'll ruin the saddle."

I didn't want to get up.

"No fish if you destroy my saddle," Jaiden threatened.

I unwillingly stopped and sent him my best glare.

However, he didn't seem so afraid anymore. He walked right up to me and waved the grass across my nose.

So I ended up willingly following him back until I found myself rewarded with me dinner.

Maybe I would let him help me fly. I got my dinner after all and he was feeding me. He hadn't yet brought anyone else to kill me yet and I sure hoped he wouldn't.

Because I probably wouldn't be able to get away.

Jaiden's POV

In the arena, I stared at the grass in my hands. I sure hoped that this worked for the Gronckle that had just bashed Ash out the way and was heading towards me.

I know Toothless had loved this, but I didn't know if it would work for all the dragons. Maybe the eel was a fluke. I sure hoped I wouldn't die.

I cowered and held out the grass at the Gronckle charged at me.

I ignored Reggie screaming my name. It seemed he did that every session because I almost died every session.

However the Gronckle stopped, the pupils in its eyes dilated in pleasure as it stopped to sniff the grass.

I uncurled and rubbed the grass against its nose between its nostrils. It curled over and then lay on its side, its tongue hanging out goofily.

Paul looked suspicious and Reggie blinked in disbelief.

"Shall we put this one away?" I asked nervously, unsure of how long the grass would work for.

Paul just grunted and jumped in to drag it back to its cage.

I sighed and started to head out, only to be followed by most of the class.

"How did you do that?" Ash asked.

"I've never seen an Gronckle do that," Gary said.

"That was amazing," Harley admitted.

"I never expected that," May said softly, "you're better at this than you look."

However, with all the crowding, I couldn't get out. I only wanted to get away and go to Toothless so I could test my new harness.

Toothless' POV

It was strange actually. How we ended up like this. I swore to myself I would never let Jaiden touch me, yet here I was, enjoying the best back scratch I'd ever had. It was even better then the grass I'd found the other week. Though truthfully the grass smelt better than his hands.

But he would at least feed me.

I was finding that I was becoming more and more willing to let him touch me, to let him help me fly. It felt, like we were friends.

However, he kept mentioning his former best friend, Mina. It made me feel sick.

Couldn't he accept that Mina was gone?

Wasn't I his new friend?

It made me so annoyed when I heard her name and I hoped he would let it go. Anything I would do seemed to remind him of me.

The next day, I didn't see Jaiden at first. I saw a little glowing bug or something. Whatever it was, it kept running away. I chased it, but no matter how much I pounced on it.

But I didn't get to worry about it for long, because as soon as I saw Jaiden, he was laughing and the little glowing thing had disappeared.

I narrowed my eyes at him and then pounced on him playfully.

However, he just groaned and protested that I was too heavy.

I huffed at that and didn't let him ride on my back that day.

I was not too heavy. If I was too heavy, my wings wouldn't have been able to carry me.

Soon though, I found myself flying, really flying. Over the next few days, Jaiden's visits had increased and he had finally made a contraption that went around my leg that would help him control the tail flap.

The harness wasn't the most comfortable thing in the word, but I put up with it and as we gently flew around the little pool I was trapped in, I couldn't help but long for the skies again. I hoped he would take me soon.

"Oh, Mina would've loved this," Jaiden sighed softly, "If she knew about all of this."

I groaned and slapped him with my ear.

"Ouch, what was that for?" Jaiden demanded.

I just growled slightly again to show my dislike of the topic.

"Are you jealous?" Jaiden teased.

I landed on the ground and promptly dumped him off my back. At least… I tried to. His harness kept him attached, but I wished I could dump him off.

I was not jealous. But I refused to listen to him talk about Mina constantly. It was all Mina this, Mina that. Couldn't he let her go? She was not. Coming. Back.

I knew for a fact that he wouldn't see her again. I knew it so it would be better if he got over it.

I laid my head down and curled up.

"Hey, buddy, I was only teasing, don't go and brood," Jaiden said as he dismounted.

It was funny how much we seemed like friends now. So much so that he felt comfortable teasing a dragon.

I suppose something had managed to bridge the distance between humans and dragons. If only a little. There were still plenty of warriors who would kill dragons. And I was starting to feel restless about the dragons that I usually fought to protect.

Flying out in the open skies felt amazing. Jaiden had become good enough that we could easily fly through the skies now. The first flight, he'd managed to run my into many rocks. I'd slapped him for that so he knew how it hurt.

But somehow, it felt like we'd bonded. And now he could fly and control the little fake tail fin without looking at his drawings.

But he still talked about Mina. Quite a lot.

I hated it. I hated it so much. I did not want to hear that name coming from his mouth.

I wanted him to stop talking about her and I would slap him until he realised how much I hated it.

Or dunk into the water.

Or purposely disobey him.

I was a separate being from him and he needed to know that I had my own thoughts and feelings. And I did not share his opinion on Mina.

I recon if he saw her now, he wouldn't be so happy to see her. Didn't he know how utterly humiliated she would be? I could tell. And those other four warriors were the same.

But there was nothing I could do to show him that.

This Mina was gone for good. Mina and those four other warriors that attacked the nest. I knew they were all gone. I had been there when it all happened and watched them disappear before my eyes.

If I could speak, I would tell him so. I wished I had the ability of human words, even just for 20 seconds just to tell him that Mina, Drew, Solidad, Misty and Dawn were all gone and would never come back.

Those five warriors… Were gone and I watched.

Me: Lots from Toothless' POV this time

Jaiden: And some more about the warriors. Even though they're already gone. It seems like Toothless knows what happened.

Me: Yes... So it seems. Oh, if only Toothless could speak the words of humans, huh?