Chapter 5: Evasive Maneuvers:
Author's Notes: Thanks so much for all the reviews I love it! This chapter will feature Toothless as I cannot get enough of that lovable creature. It will also feature Astrid and Gobber…and a forge
Enjoy!
Astrid heard a shout coming from Gobber's forge and rushed to the building just in time to see him shooing a Terror away as he hopped up and down clutching his foot.
"Away wit' ye now, I can manage!" Gobber grumbled.
"Gobber what are you doing?" Astrid asked, coming into the forge and looking surprised as she spotted Toothless off to one side looking incredibly amused at the entire situation.
"I'm trying to create a new saddle and rig for Hiccup when he wakes up but I'm havin a terrible time with the whole thin'" Gobber explained.
Astrid hid a smile behind her hand and stepped close to him, she noticed he had grabbed Hiccup's blueprints and the wrecked saddle was sitting on a nearby table.
"You just going to fix the saddle?" Astrid asked.
"No I was goin to fix it all up so it was even sturdier, only trouble is the steering thingy is attached. And this beast has been no help at all." Gobber complained.
Astrid looked again to where Toothless sat looking interested but sad at the same time, he wished Hiccup were here doing this.
"I can help I saw how the mechanism worked, sort of." Astrid told him.
"Alright first we have to finish the saddle, its almost finished."
Gobber went to another table where the new saddle sat, polished to shine and made of even sturdier metal and leather than before. It made Astrid smile to see it.
"What's left?" she asked.
"We have to attach the leads to it." Gobber told her and between the two the work went swiftly.
"Now for the blasted tail." Gobber muttered going back to the forge.
"I have all the parts according to Hiccup's plans but most of these are just rough sketches there isn't anything real concrete like he took the basic rough sketches and fine tuned them on the job." Gobber muttered.
"Well we for sure know where he was escaping to all those afternoons, I do wonder how he managed to keep it all a secret for so long. It was mostly by mistake that I even found out about Toothless he was protecting Hiccup from me." Astrid laughed.
She looked over the designs again before looking over to Toothless.
"Toothless can you help us out here?" Astrid asked.
The Night Fury perked up interested and he came over to look over her shoulder at the gadget currently being made.
"Here's the actual tailfin- it's just the matter of the mechanism to attach it to the saddle so Hiccup can work it." Gobber explained as he carefully attached the tail to Toothless, and seemed amazed that the dragon seemed completely unbothered by the goings on.
"Ok now the saddle." Gobber took the saddle with the ropes leading to it and strapped that onto the dragon as well connecting the leads to the fin,
"Stop moving ye beasty!" Gobber had to yell when Toothless started to twitch and roll his shoulders- he knew what this meant for him.
"Hold on Toothless we need your help in this- you do want to fly again with Hiccup right?" Astrid asked.
Immediately the dragon calmed but Astrid could feel him almost shuddering underneath her hand.
"There the leads are ready and attached, we also have this pedal thingy that apparently Hiccup was using but I don' understand how it was steering it!" Gobber was getting frustrated.
"Toothless I'm going to come up to you for a sec ok?" Astrid got up into the saddle and turned Around so she was facing the tailfin. She moved the fin to the right and it moved, then she tried to pull the lead to the right and the fin moved, sort of.
"Oh you're right we really need Hiccup for this." Astrid realized.
She tried again pulling the rope down and to the right and it moved but still barely and too sluggishly for how fast she's been riding on the dragon with Hiccup.
Toothless had grown bored after five minutes of it all- they hadn't figured anything out and they had everything they needed- why couldn't they get it when his human had?
He finally became tired and frustrated as both of the ones trying to figure it out and growled until Astrid picked up the pedal he nodded.
"I know this is how he did it, but I don't get how it worked to steer the fin." She replied huffing in annoyance.
Toothless huffed back, imitating her annoyance at the situation.
"Gobber have you looked through all his books and pictures of the contraption?" Astrid finally asked.
"I think so, why don't you go see if I managed to lose a page or something." Gobber suggested.
She sent a glare at the blacksmith but relented with a huff and left the forge heading to the chief's house. She headed up the steps to the Chief's house and stepped in quietly thankfully noting that Stoick was gone. She did pause however as her eyes took in Hiccup lying on a table turned bed in the main room next to the fire. She sighed sadly- he got what he wanted he was one of them but looking at the cost was it really worth it?
Shaking her head she double-timed it up the stairs to his room/workshop and looked around shuffling papers. She smiled at the sketches of Toothless and the other dragons even one of a Terrible Terror trying to steal a fish from a snarling Toothless. The drawings were good, and he paid close attention to detail. She spotted some drawings for the catapult devices they used- she didn't know that he had made them! She finally spotted some pictures of the tailfin and all the mechanisms that he used and she grabbed them up, groaning when several other pages spilled to the floor.
Astrid cleaned up quickly and sped out of the house shutting the door quietly behind her nearly tripping down the steps in her haste to get back to Gobber and Toothless.
"Here Gobber I found some more sketches!" she exclaimed.
"Ah good I was nearly ready to leave it to Hiccup to figure out once he wakes up." Gobber sighed.
Toothless, who had fallen asleep curled so close to the forge that he was nearly in it blinked sleepily at her arrival as she slapped the designs down on the table and the two poured over them- even more determined now that they should figure it out.
"At last!" Gobber exclaimed so loudly that Toothless started awake and jumped hitting his head on a table and snarling.
"Easy Toothless, we finally figured it out and got it to work." Astrid calmed the still grumpy dragon.
Toothless however was already over his bruised skull and ego and had moved over to where the saddle tail mechanism was sitting on the ground of the shop. He was suddenly excited- it looked right at least!
Toothless turned towards his human's house but suddenly his tail and ears drooped as he realized Hiccup wasn't awake to fly with him, he was still grounded.
"Tell you what boy, let's try this out tomorrow you and I see if it works for Hiccup?" Astrid asked, trying to encourage the "downed" dragon.
At Toothless eager green eyes she knew she had made the right choice in offering- she just hoped she didn't regret it tomorrow when she actually tried flying…