That night we were having a cook out on one of the watch towers near the forge. I really didn't want to go but I didn't feel like eating alone either. It made me think about things and I didn't want to think about some things like most of todays events. Stopping at my home I grabbed my sketch book and a pencil. tucking the pencil away I opened my book as I left my home and to the tower. looking at the drawing of toothless I had I smiled softly. It was nothing compared to the real thing. He was a beautiful dragon and a very smart one too. As that crossed my mind.I started to chuckle softly to myself at the memory of how cute he had looked drawing the squiggles in the ground. "What's so funny?" A voice said behind me.
Gasping I turned around in a flash and saw Ashter behind me. Glaring at him I snapped my book closed and put it away. "Nothing that concerns you. now leave me alone." I said turning starting to leave again but he stopped me. He had clasped my wrist in an iron tight grip that I knew I couldn't break even if I tried. "Let me go Aster. Right now." I said to him looking into his Icy blue eyes. "Not until you hear what I have to say to you." He said to me his eyes and expression serious. I thought about it for a few moments. If worst comes to shove I could always scream for help. "Fine...just let me go." I said in a defeated voice. Ashter let out a sigh and dropped my wrist letting my bring my wrist close to me and rub it. He was quiet for a few moment. like he was trying to find the right words to say. Was he actually scared of scaring me off? Or hurting me more? No It couldn't Ashter didn't care about me...did he?
After a moment he finally spoke. "Hiccup..."He started before sighing again. "Look I'm sorry, I...I didn't mean to ...touch you like that. I was just so focused on the dragon that...I wasn't listening. After you left Gobber and Fishlegs really let me have it. Even your cousin. I really didn't mean to do that to you Hiccup. I mean every word I'm saying now. I'm sorry for...for practically violating you...can you forgive me?" As he asked me that I looked at him shocked. Ashter, The Ashter was apologizing to me for what he did. Looking away I thought for a moment. should I forgive him? In my heart I knew I had already forgiven him, but that didn't mean that I was going to be alright with him anytime soon. Looking up I gave him my answer.
"I forgive you Ashter, but I need time before I can accept anything else from you besides an apology." I told him. He looked at me as he thought this through. He sighed again after a moment of thinking and nodded. "Alright I understand, I'll see you at the tower." He said before he walked off the way he came. I still couldn't believe what just happened. Ashter was apologizing. he was actually sorry. Slowly I made my way to the tower thinking that today had to be the oddest day ever In my sixteen years of life. 'I'm going to have to tell Toothless about this tomorrow.' I thought as the tower came close into my sights. Walking up the steps I could see the village and the sea perfectly from how high I was. The view made me smile. 'I wonder if this is what the dragons see when they fly.' I thought as I reached the top to see Gobber and Fishlegs there already. "Hiccup!" they said before coming over to me surprising me greatly. Gobber I knew would be worried but Fishlegs? I thought he would only yell at Ashter for how he treated a girl. I guess he was starting to become my friend.
"Are you alright?" Gobber asked me as he looked me over any signs of wrong doing or bodily harm."Where did you go! We couldn't find you anywhere!" Fishlegs said looking a bit frantic as he looked over at me. I was touched that he was so worried. I never really had friends before besides Gobber. So this helped cheer me up. "I'm ok, I promise. I just went on a small walk in the forest and stayed there for awhile. To ...calm down after the..um...Incident." I said to them calmly. I could never tell them I was really with Toothless they would harm him. I could never let Toothless get hurt. I felt something stir inside me as I realized how protective I was over Toothless. As I tried to figure out this emotion I was feeling. Gobber was saying how he understood and sat down again followed by Fishlegs. taking my seat by Gobber I looked out at the forest. I hope Toothless would be ok till tomorrow he could be hungry again now.
When everyone arrived and we had a fire going. We started to roast our food over an open flame and Gobber started to tell stories that I've heard so many times as a child. "And with one twist, He took my hand swallowing it whole." Gobber said waving the prosthetic he was roasting a whole chicken on in the air as he took a dramatic pose. "That's when I saw the look on his face, I was delicious to him. This beast must have passed the word around to the other dragons, because it wasn't even a month later before another took my leg clean off." Gobber said this time lifting the prosthetic leg showing it to everyone. Remind me to have Toothless shot the one who asked him how he lost his limbs. "Isn't it weird to imagine your hand inside of the dragon? Like if your mind was still in control of it? You could kill the dragon from the inside. like crushing his heart or something" He said as I roasted my fish over the flame though that mental image made me lose my apatite a bit. I mentally sighed and thought of Toothless. I wonder if he was cold right now? "This makes me so angry. I swear I'll avenge your beautiful foot and your beautiful hand. From every dragon I fight I'll chop off its leg. With my face." Snotlout said making me glance at him like he was insane. He did realize that made absolutely no sense at all didn't he?
What Gobber said next really got to me and made me feel guilty from the inside out. "Not necessarily, Its the tails and the wings that you want. If it can't fly it can't get away. A down dragon is a dead dragon." He said and as added emphasis he ripped the wing off his dinner pointing it at Snotlout. looking down I realized that the missing fin on Toothless's tail is why he couldn't fly away. He was off balance, and it was all my fault he was like that. Gobber yawned getting up saying he was off to bed and that we should be too. Getting up myself I decided to leave as well. While Gobber told the others about what we would be doing next. I put down my fish and I made my way down the tower as I over heard about getting to the big boys. Ignoring it for now I had to get to the forge. I had an idea in mind, I was going to make toothless a new tail fin.
Going to my work area in the forge I lighted a few candles. Opening my book to the drawing I made of toothless. Looking at his tail fin I took out my pencil and redrew the missing fin. Getting up I took off my vest and put on my apron. I was going to work all night if I had to to make this fin. I started the blueprints drawing out what I needed to do and how it should look and estimating how long and wide. Looking over them when I finally finished then I smiled. Getting up I got to work on the fin. Melting metal watching it cool then heating it up to shape it. As I shaped the metal into a rod I stuck it into a barrel of water cooling it instantly. When I finished the rod I got to work on the next step. Going over to one of the shields I placed it on the work bench grabbing a pair of metal pliers. Carefully I pulled out the thick metal nails holding it in place. Placing them one at a time. I heated them up and shaped them into another new rounder shape. Weighing the rounded metal repeatedly till I knew it was just right. When all the metal pieces were complete I started putting them together and it was like a puzzle.
One that I was going to work on all night.
So after long hours of working It was finally done. Holding one side I pulled out the other making the new fin fan out smiling as it did so easily. Nodding satisfied I closed it up again and looked at the blueprint on the wall. Smiling to myself I started to clean my mess up thinking. 'Toothless is going to love this..but he probably wont let me put it on if he knew. So I'll bring him some fish a big bunch of them.' I thought as I finished cleaning up yes Indeed he was going to love this. When I finally got it on him that is. By the time I got to leave the forge It was well past midnight judging from the sky. Heading home I would at least get a few hours of sleep before I left early to see Toothless. We still had training tomorrow so I would go early to give him his surprise. Getting home I changed out of my closed into something light before undoing my pony tail. Laying down in my bed I curled up smiling. As I drifted off I mumbled one last thing. "Goodnight Toothless. I'll see you soon." I mumbled in a sleepy tone as I drifted off dreaming of my dragon.
The next morning When I arrived at the cove I was carrying a very heavy basket of Fish. A very heavy and smelly basket of fish. Walking around the cove I spotted him sleeping in a cozy spot by the waterfall. Walking over I smiled "Oh toothless." I said in a sing song voice placing down the basket. "I brought breakfast, hope your hungry." I said pushing the basket over with my foot. Out from within pour out large amount of fish that still looked slimy. "well..that's just gross. Ok lets see here we got Salmon, some nice Icelandic cod, and a whole smoked Eel." I said carefully moving to where his tail would be as he poked around in the fish pile.
Suddenly he pulled back his eyes slits as he started to make a cackling growl sound. Looking at what he was growling at I saw the black and yellow striped eel. Curious I picked it up and held it up so we both could see it. Rearing back he screeched and there was fear clear in his eyes. "No no baby its ok its ok." I said and tossed the eel away. Trying to pet him to calm down he pulled back. 'Right eel scent' I thought as I wiped my hand on my vest. "Don't worry about it. I'm not a fan of eel either." I said as he went back to nosing the pile of fish. As he started to eat again I moved more behind him. Smiling as he ate more fish I moved to his tail. "Don't mind me I'll just stay back here." I said in a quiet voice as I got ready to put the new fin on.
Kneeling by his tail I placed the fin down I moved the new fin close to his tail only to have it moved away. Looking up to make sure he didn't notice I turned back to his tail and tried again. Once more he moved his tail away from me. Scooting closer to it again I tried to put it on but his tail kept moving startling me as it shot up. "Hey ..its ok its ok" I said petting his tail. Seeing as it wouldn't stay still I pinned it down. I was not about to play 'Chase the tail' with Toothless's tail. Trying to keep the tail still I could barely get the new fin close enough. When I was pulled forward as toothless stuck his head into the basket I had had enough. Moving I climbed onto the tail before I started to fasten the new fin to it. I didn't notice that Toothless figured out what I was doing till I had finished fastening the new fin. Sitting up I moved the fin a bit. "Huh, it seems to work pretty well." I said when suddenly I was pulled into the air clinging to his tail for dear life.
"whoa boy! oh Thor!" I cried trying to hold on as he gained altitude. When he was high enough he started to falter and we started to plummet to the ground like rocks. As we descended I reached out and yanked the new fin open. instead of hitting the ground toothless gracefully pulled us back into the air near inches from being squished. "Its working! Woohoo!" I yelled as I turned the open fin making toothless turn with it. We were so high in the air as I clung to his tail. The feeling was exhilarating as we turned back into the cover. Gliding over the water I held the fin open smiling like crazy. "I did it! I really did it!" I cried out making toothless notice me. Apparently that ended my free ride on his tail as he made a sharp turn and flung me off. Tossing me into the water with a startled cry. Hitting the water once like a skipping stone before falling in completely. When I resurfaced I saw Toothless's new tail fin close and he too fell into the water.
'Well that serves him right.' I thought smirking a bit before it grew into a full out smile. I started crying out joyous shouts jumping up and down in the shallow end of the pond. Swimming over to Toothless I smiled. " I did it buddy, I made you a new fin and it worked!" I said as he looked at me then his new fin as he floated in the water. " Now just to get it to stay open." I said thinking as he nudged me to get my attention. looking at him curious I wondered what he wanted. "what is it boy?" I asked him softly. Toothless looked at his tail and the closed fin then he looked at me. A question of 'why did you do this for me?' clear in his toxic green eyes. I smiled a small sad smile at this as I lightly stroked his muzzle. " Its my fault you can't fly, If I hadn't shot you down you would still have your tail fin. I hope I can make it up to you with this new one." I said to him. toothless looked at his tail then to me before nudging me with a purr. At that moment I knew he had forgiven me. In a way I had given him his wings back. A chance to fly again and that made me smile. As we both swam back to shore I took my vest and started to ring out the water.
"I got to get heading back, I'll be back soon though ok?" I said to him as he looked at me. smiling I went over to him and pet his head. "I'll see you later boy." I said and kissed his snout lightly before starting to leave. I heard a purr and I looked at toothless as the sunlight hit him through the trees. His black scales that were wet glistened in the light making him look absolutely beautiful. Blushing a bit at this I turned and started to leave again. 'Why was I blushing! For Thor's sake he's just a dragon. A very beautiful one but a dragon.' I thought shaking my head. As I walked back to the entrance I noticed the eel toothless wouldn't eat. 'This might be useful' I thought picking it up before continuing to leave. 'Also I don't think toothless would go anywhere close to it'
When I did get back the the village I was at least semi dry. As I walked home I noticed odd looks from the villagers. well I was semi-soaked so I guess that was to be expected from them. Heading to my house I entered It to find Gobber sitting there waiting for me. "Oi what happened to you?" He asked me as he got up. "I went to the forest to think,and while walking I fell into a fishing pond slipping on a moss covered rock." I said heading up stares and to my room. "Alright, Well hurry up. We have training to get to." He called as I shut the door. stripping down completely I changed everything to fresher and dryer close. I was about to put on my vest when I saw the eel again. Remembering how afraid of it Toothless was I picked it up and put it over my shoulders. As I covered it with my vest I headed back down stairs to meet with Gobber.
"Well that was quick." he said as we walked out the door. "I've learned to move quickly to get things done" I said to him with a shrug as we walked. As we walked to the arena everyone was already there waiting. Opening the gate we all went inside. When we stood in the middle of the arena Gobber split us all into teams. Ashter and Ruffnut, Tuffnut and Snotlout, then Fishlegs and me. Each team was handed two buckets filled with water for todays lesson. I could only imagine what we could be facing today. As the lock was lifted from outside help the doors were practically blasted open and a green gas clouds filled the air. As the fog surrounded us we stuck close together back to back. "Now a wet dragon head can't breathe fire. When It comes to the Zippleback. one head releases flammable gas the other ignites it. your job Is to know which is which. that's the tricky part" He said as we couldn't see him anymore.
"Razor sharp claws. Serrated teeth that inject venom for pre-digestion. It prefers to ambush its victims. crushing them." Fishlegs said as I glared at him."Will you please stop that, it doesn't help me feel better." I said in a loud whisper. He gave me a sheepish look as we kept back to back. I could hear the dragon moving about he could probably see better in here then all of us. I could hear Snotlout say something then a screech from Ruffnut and a splash of water. 'Well there goes one team' I thought. I heard another splash and Tuffnut grunt in pain.
When the smoke cleared in front of us I could see Ashter and Ruffnut fall. One of the dragons tails having swept under them as Tuffnut came running out of the smoke in pain. "I am hurt I am very much hurt!" he cried out as he ran past me and Fishlegs. Wasn't he the one who wanted some scars? "our chances of survival are dwindling into single digits now." Fishlegs said as one dragon head poked out of the green mist. To me the dragon just looked curious if not playful as it approached Fishlegs. Panicking and stumbling back Fishlegs tossed the water at its head soaking it. Growling annoyed as it narrowed its eyes green gas filled the dragons mouth. "oh ...heehee wrong head." He said sheepishly as the dragon reared its head back shooting the gas at him.
As Gobber called out Fishlegs's name he ran past me screaming as the dragon's head chased him with the gas. When Fishlegs was gone the dragon head turned to me as its twin came out. 'Oh this is so not good...' I thought as the second head started to make sparks fly from his mouth. "Hiccup! do it now!" I heard Gobber yell out to me. Taking my bucket I tossed the water at the dragons head. Sadly I was to short to throw the water a good distance to the head.
Watching the water splash down I looked at the dragon with a sigh. "Oh come on..." I said in a groan as the dragon growled at me. Suddenly its heads shot towards me making stubble back and onto my duff. Its wings were shaking in a threatening manner as it came closer to. I heard Gobber yell my name and knew he was rushing towards me to help me out. At the same time the dragon caught the scent of the eel and backed away and I saw its fear. Getting up I moved my hands out in front of me in a pushing gesture. "Back now come on get back!" I called out to it as I stepped towards it and it stepped back towards the doors. I could feel everyone's stair on me but I ignored it and kept moving it to its pen. "Don't make me tell you a third time. yes that's it back into your pen." I said sternly like a mother would to her child. "Now." I started as I looked over my shoulder for a bit "You stay in here and think about what you've done." I said carefully removing the eel and tossing it in there with the Zippleback.
As I closed started to close the doors I could see the Zippleback try as hard as he could to move away from the eel. I felt bad as I fully shut the doors but he needed to learn a lesson and that lesson was no one hurts my friends...or well people I know. At least I didn't hurt him. Turning around and wiping my hands on my vest I saw everyone's shocked and astonished faced. As Fishlegs dropped his bucket I decided it was time I left. "So are we done for the day? Yes? Ok then ill just be...ya know leave" I said as I started to leave. "see you tomorrow!" I called out and ran all the way to the forge. I had another Idea to help with the new fin I gave toothless. I needed to be able to open the Fin for him but I was not willing to ride his tail again just to do it. As I entered the forge I got to work on a saddle.
Gathering what I needed I started to work with the leather, cutting it, sewing it, shaping it. I had to make it just right so both me and toothless will be comfortable. Smiling as I sewed the saddle together I was thinking again. About toothless and the events that happened. Why had I reacted so oddly to him when I saw him the way he was after falling in the water. Its true he was a beautiful dragon and he makes me smile. I'm so curious to know more about him each day that passes. I wanted to grow closer to the Nightfury I had befriended. I wonder If he thinks the same way about me?
Shaking my head I felt another flame of red come onto my cheeks. There was something wrong with me and I don't know what It is. Shaking my head once more I got started on finishing the saddle again. It was another all nighter but well worth it as I looked at my great beauty proudly. The leather saddle looked great and amazing. As I shut down the forge again I couldn't wait to show toothless this next surprise! Grabbing some long rope I had gotten to control the tail I made my way back home. When I got home with the saddle while everyone was sound asleep. I made my way to bed myself dressing in a long thick shirt that had belonged to my mother. Climbing into my bed I laid down curling up tightly. Smiling I closed my eyes. 'So much has happened since you left mama, I hope you are watching me and daddy from Valhalla. I miss you so much mommy. I hope I can make you proud some day.' I thought as I drifted off again. My last thoughts before I fully fell asleep was my mother, my father, and Toothless.