*cowers behind bush* Please don't kill me! I know it's been, like, a month since I updated, but I have been totally braindead lately. Anyway, #108 came from an idea submitted from DOTB18, and although it doesn't have quite the impact I wanted, I rather like it. I also had noticed that in the most recent chapters a lot of the drabbles were more beginning to resemble very short oneshots, and they were so long, so in this chapter I really tried to make them more . . . drabbly. Enjoy!

~.~

107. Balance

The first time Hiccup sees the metal gadget that has replaced his left leg, his reaction is slight. Toothless watches, a tad of worry tainting the thrill of having his best friend returned to the world of the living. After all, losing a limb is no small thing—the dragon knows this, better than most.

A tiny spark lights in Hiccup's eyes then, as what he's seeing hits home finally, and he pales ever so slightly. Gently dangling his legs off the edge of the bed, he breathes deeply, and Toothless stands by for moral support. Panic is natural—again, Toothless would know—but the Viking boy is, for the moment, fending it off.

When he stands for the fist time, he wavers only a bit. Toothless hovers beside him, watching his friend's face closely. It'll be okay, he wants to say. I promise.

Hiccup takes a step. And promptly falls over.

He would have executed a face-plant if not for Toothless, who stretches out to catch him. Again, he wants to reassure the boy. It'll be okay.

"Thanks, bud." He tries it again, still leaning against Toothless, but this time, he's one step closer to balancing.

108. Scream

Because dragon riding was not exactly second nature to any of Hiccup's friends, the boy and Toothless often found themselves giving what had come to be known as "dragon riding lessons." Despite sounding slightly less violent than "Viking training" or "dragon killing practice," these lessons were just as much of an adventure as those that had been standard before dragons had become part of Berk's society.

Toothless blamed most of the craziness on Ruffnut and Tuffnut, who could not for the life of them make it through an hour without starting some competition that usually ended with somebody free-falling a few thousand feet through the air. Sometimes though, the sheer foreign feeling of riding a dragon would get to someones head.

Take, for instance, the day Hiccup decides that his friends are ready to try some fanciful flying. They handle it pretty well for the most part (even considering how a gronkle, much less a gronkle with Fishlegs on it's back, is not particularly graceful in flight) with a few hang-ups along the way, but when it comes time to try the spinning, Snotlout reaches his breaking point.

Toothless isn't quite sure how to describe the sound that comes out of his mouth when his Furious Nightmare goes completely upside down for the first time—a shriek, perhaps? Or maybe a high-pitched howl?

But, specifics aside, it's definitely a scream. Even if he won't admit it afterwards.

109. Scary

"Ooh, man, Hiccup, how bad is it?"

Glancing up from where he was working at his forge, Hiccup examined Tuffnut's face. Toothless thought that the boy looked a bit like he'd been tossed off a cliff, drug through the mud, and then stampeded by a small flock of sheep.

"It's . . . bad. What happened?"

Snotlout came in then, looking equally as awful. "Astrid's what happened," he complained, massaging the back of his head. "Gods, I think I have a dent here."

"You're one to talk," Tuffnut shot back. "Did you see my sister kick me? It feels like she dislocated a rib or something."

Hiccup looked exasperated. "Don't tell me . . ."

"I mean, we didn't actually do anything to them," Snotlout said. "It was totally uncalled for!"

"Oh, I'm sure you said something," Hiccup assured them, unhelpfully so, in Toothless' opinion. "You didn't happen to mention their weight in any way, did you?"

Tuffnut looked guilty. "No. Well, maybe."

Hiccup rolled his eyes.

Snotlout sighed and leaned against the table, mopping blood from his brow as Tuffnut went off to find some ice for his black eye. "Girls are scary, man."

110. Hazard

Hiccup had a thing for falling. It was worrying, actually, how many times in a week he keeled over, especially while he was learning how to walk naturally on his prosthetic leg. Toothless had considered attaching himself to his best friend with a rope, like they did when they flew, to ensure that the boy didn't end up cracking his head open or knocking himself out. (Because it was coming. Sooner or later . . .)

The dragon wasn't sure if anybody else had noticed this about Hiccup, but he knows that Astrid had started to worry the day that Hiccup took a truly spectacular nose-dive down a flight of stairs and landed at her feet.

She knelt down beside his head as he rolled over on to his back with a groan. "Hiccup, after everything that you've survived, I find it hysterical that you're going to kill yourself by falling down a flight of stairs."

"I'm a Viking," he told her, sitting up. "It's an occupational hazard."

Astrid smiled at him. "Something tells me that you're the hazard."

111. Heir

Astrid came and sat beside Hiccup, close, so that their shoulders touched and her leg brushed against his. They were silent for a while, the three of them, Toothless and his two best friends, as they sat in the house that had been shared by Hiccup and his father.

"It's rightfully yours, you know," Astrid said after a while.

Hiccup stared at the wall, where his father's helmet and cloak hung on a hook. The great chief's hammer lay below. "I don't want it."

"You'd be a good chief, Hiccup. Everyone thinks so. Plus you'd have the elders to help you, when things got rough. And us." She bumped her knee against his.

"I know."

Hiccup was silent for a while longer.

"But if I became the chief of Berk, it would be like, like I was . . . "

Toothless watched as Astrid took Hiccup's hand in hers and rested her head on his shoulder. "Like you were admitting that he's dead," she said quietly. "I know."

"I can't let him go," Hiccup whispered. "Even if I am his heir."

"I know."