New Tail

3rd Person

Hailey was walking through the hallway when she happened to run into the one person no one ever wanted to run into. Silvia Johnson. She was wearing all black. Black jackets, black leggings, black shoes, black shirt, black hair, black earrings, and a black hat. The only color about her that was not black was her brown eyes. But that was covered by the hat. She was two inches taller than Hailey was.

"What are you doing, nerd?" she asked, looking down on the red-headed girl. Hailey may have been short and skinny, but she was not a coward. And she definitely was not going to let herself down again. Not after the last few times.

"None of your business, gap-tooth," she replied, looking at Silvia's missing tooth.

"Oh, so we have a fighter of words here. Well, let's see how good you are with hand-in-hand combat. Travis! Robin! Get over here!" The twins rushed to Silvia's side, acting like she was their leader. This was probably true. "Attack this little nerd here, will you?" The twins nodded and slowly stalked towards Hailey, menacingly. Travis punched his palm with his fist while Robin cracked her knuckles. Both of them smiling evilly at the girl.

"Look guys, I really do not want to fight," said Hailey, raising her hands to block any attacks and backing up to create a small distance.

"Too bad!" said Travis. He quickly raised his fist, and as if at the speed of light, he quickly punched Hailey in the eye and knocked her to the ground. She dropped her books to the side as a nail in the ground pierced the side of her head. She yelped in pain as she rolled away from the nail and towards the lockers. Lucky for her, the cut wasn't deep enough to make her bleed too much, though it still hurt. The twins snickered as they walked past the sprawled out Hailey.

But not before Robin was able to kick Hailey in the side, making a huge bruise to form and stay for about three weeks. Then they left with Silvia following close behind, sticking her tongue out at the red head. Hailey coughed as she attempted to stand up, only to have herself fall back against the red lockers lined up against the hallway. Her head banged against the handle on one of the locker doors creating a whole new bruise to form and stay. She raised her hand to her forehead and covered her eyes in despair.

"Great. This day already sucks and it's only 9:30," she muttered miserably. She sighed once again as she slid to the ground. She then raised her hand from her eyes to her cut, only to jerk it back in surprise and have it slightly covered in blood. "Great, dad's going to throw a fit." She wiped the blood off on her pants as she pulled out a small mirror she kept in her pencil bag and looked at her left eye. It was swollen. No chance that it would stay like that for at least a week.

She shook her head, which gave her a massive headache. She rubbed the back of her head while placing the mirror back in her pencil bag. Then, she quickly gathered up her fallen books and made her way to class, using her hair to hide her black eye. She also hoped that the blood wasn't noticeable through her auburn hair. As she entered the class, her teacher was sitting at his desk with a 'Do Not Disturb' sign perched at the front.

The chalkboard had the words, Pages 17-18 in math workbook. Once you are finished, you may talk quietly to each other or do something that will not disturb me. Then next to it were numerous insults written specifically for Hailey. The girl sighed and walked to the farthest seat in the room. Far away from everyone, including the teacher. She pulled her workbook out and began her assignment which took her no less the ten minutes to finish. When she did finish, she put her work away. Then, she took out her journal and flipped to the page that she had drawn Toothless.

I'll get you back in the air somehow,she thought as she looked at the missing tail fin. Not sure how, but I will do it. And nothing is going to stand in my way.She looked over to my side, and to her surprise, Frank was sitting in the desk right next to her with his face in his book.

"Hey, Frank?" she whispered. He turned away from his book to look at the girl.

"Yes?" he whispered back.

"Do you know what type of dragon this is?" she held the page of Toothless up to Frank.

His eyes widened in surprise. "That's a Night Fury. The rarest and most dangerous dragon of all. How did you find one?"

That question made Hailey freeze. She couldn't give Toothless up. No matter what. "I saw one earlier today. I was able to draw it, but it flew away to the gods knows where."

"Oh. Alright. But I am surprised you were able to draw one so accurately. Thanks for showing me."

"No problem." He then planted his face back in his book, leaving Hailey to her thoughts. A Night Fury, eh? I engaged that dragon and he didn't kill me. The things we know about dragons have to be wrong.

Hailey had just left her house to go and work in the black smith her uncle owned. He would make swords for attacks, axes for chopping trees, and other types of weapons with tons of uses. Working in the smithy was one of the few things she was good at. Her uncle wasn't there, so she decided to go into her own little workshop. It was the back room the her uncle Gordon never used, so he gave it to his niece. It had a large desk, a lamp, and many other decorations she used to fit her style. There was a storage unit that contained all sorts of materials and gems.

"Alright, let's see if I can make this tail fin correctly." she said to herself. She opened the doors and pulled out a sheet of leather and metal bits she may need to have the fin function properly. Then, she headed off into the main room of the forge, and set to work. First, she began measuring how much leather she would need to make it actually catch wind. Then, she started on the metal wiring. She made connecting rods, a large rod to slip the leather onto, and three thin strips of metal to act as the three bones showing on the real tail fin. After that, she began sewing.

She slipped the sewn leather onto the largest metal rod and attached everything else necessary. She smirked proudly at her work. She grabbed a basket of fish from the storage, as well as an extra bag of leather and other materials, the tail fin in her arms and made her way to the cove where she could attempt to give Toothless his flight back. She also grabbed her purse that contained her cell phone and journal. But she managed to trip at the door and fell flat on her face, giving herself a face full of dirt. She brushed the dirt off and continued her run to the cove.

It took her a shorter time to get there, since she knew the way a little more. When she reached the entrance to the cove, she saw her dragon friend hanging upside down on a branch. She smirked.

"Toothless!" she shouted. The dragon slipped off the branch and landed in all fours, with a very surprised look on his face. The girl chuckled at his reaction. "I have the fish I promised!" she withdrew the basket from her shoulders and kicked the basket over, letting it's contents fall onto the ground of the cove. Toothless walked over to the pile of fish, sniffing it curiously.

"Alright, that's gross. Right here we have some salmon, some nice Icelandic cod and a whole smoked eel." as soon as the red-headed girl said 'eel', Toothless backed up, hissing at the pile of food. Confused, Hailey reached inside the pile and pulled out the eel as if to ask if he didn't like eels.

"Get that away!" the Night Fury screeched. His pupils turned to slits and he spread his wings out.

Taking this reaction as fear, she quickly said, "No, no! It's okay, bud." She tossed the eel to the side and away from Toothless. "It's alright. Don't worry. I'm not much of a fan of eels myself." she wiped the slime of the eel off on her pants. But as the dragon looked at Hailey, he grew more and more concerned. Her left eye was swollen, there was a slight line of blood trickling out from the side of her head, her face was covered in dirt marks and scratches, and she looked like there was a bump on her head as well.

"What in the world happened?" Toothless asked, sniffing the girl.

"What do you mean?" she asked, shrugging. She was trying to pretend that nothing happened, and Toothless didn't like that at all. So he tackled the girl into the ground, but very carefully so he didn't give her any more injuries. She dropped the tail fin as she fell to the ground for the third time that day. But this time, it was a bit gentler than the rest of her falls.

"I know something happened to you. Tell me or I will have to force it out of you." he looked the girl straight in the eye. She wasn't afraid though, she was amused. Though, she was happy that Toothless was concerned for her.

"Not saying. Besides, what could you possibly do to make me say something?" the dragon smirked.

"You're ticklish!" he pushed his head into her side, but it was the side she had a bruise on and she yelped as the bruise began to get worse. This startled Toothless and made him retreat his head. "What's wrong?"

"Bruise on my side." she replied clutching her side. She sighed and looked the dragon standing on top of her right in the eye. She almost was side tracked when she saw that his eyes were the same color as hers. She shook her head, only to make her headache worse, but it made her focus.

"Fine. I'll tell you. But not while you're on top of me." Toothless nodded and slowly walked off of Hailey.

"Sorry about your side." Toothless said. Hailey looked at him and petted his snout affectionately.

"It's fine bud. It will take a while to heal, though." Toothless laid on the ground and allowed her to lean against his side. She sat down beside him and began her story. She told him everything. Though, without her realizing, her voice had grown bitter as she slowly increased on telling him. "Then Robin kicked me in the side as she left with her brother and Silvia and then I got this huge bruise on my head and–" she stopped, only just realizing that her voice had grown angrier as she ranted. She rubbed her hand down her face, groaning. "Sorry." Toothless rubbed his head against her shoulder to calm her down.

"Rough day then, huh?" He looked Hailey in the eye waiting for a response.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that." She scratched him behind the ears, earning a purr in response. He then laid his head in her lap. Hailey chuckled. "Alright. I have a tail fin for you. I have no clue if it'll work or not, but we've got to try it, right?" Toothless shot his head up at the words 'tail fin'.

"You mean, you made a new tail fin for me?" the girl nodded. Toothless didn't know what to say, so he just nuzzled her head with his. She placed a hand on the side of his head.

"You're welcome. Now, let's put it on you and test it out." The Night Fury nodded and allowed her to put the tail fin on. But as soon as she finished, Toothless's senses took over his awareness to his surroundings. Before either of them knew it, Toothless launched up into the sky, letting his instincts take over. He was finally up in the air again!

Hailey, however, was not used to this kind of altitude and she clung to Toothless' tail for dear life, letting go of the tail fin in the process. Then, his flight began to fail. He started falling towards the wall of the cove. Luckily, Hailey noticed the tail fin close, so she re-opened it and they were back in the sky.

"Oh my- it's working!" she exclaimed in disbelief. She saw Toothless' original tail fin turn right, so she did the same thing with the prosthetic. It turned them back to the cove and they were flying over the pond. "Yes! Yes, I did it!" The Night Fury looked back at his tail and was shocked. He realized just how much danger he had put his human friend in, so with a flick of his tail, he flung her into the pond.

Terrible mistake. His tail fin closed on him which sent him flying into the pond as well. When he resurfaced, Hailey was floating up and down in the water, pumping her fists in the air. She then swam over to Toothless. "It worked! I can not believe it actually worked! One of my contraptions actually worked!"

"I can tell you are very happy with the results."

"Of course I am! It's the first contraption that has actually worked!" Toothless raised his tail up to look at the prosthetic. Then he looked back at the girl.

"Thanks. Now, brace yourself."

"What? Why? WHOA!" Toothless had grabbed her by the back of her shirt and swam over to land. He then started a fire for her to warm up.

"Thanks buddy." She patted his back and laid down against his scales. Then, inside her purse her phone was ringing. It alarmed Toothless until he remembered it was a phone. Hailey walked over to her bag and took out her phone.

"Hello?" she asked as she held the phone up to her ear.

"Hailey?" her dad asked through the phone.

"Yeah dad?"

"I am going on a business trip for a week. And if you are in the forest, I have no problem with you camping out. Just make sure to stay away from wild boars."

"I'll be fine dad. And yes I am in the forest. I will be careful of boars and I'll make sure to call uncle Gordon every once and a while."

"Alright. Love you, sweetie."

"Love ya too dad." Then she hung up her phone and placed it back in her bag. She then walked back to Toothless and sat back down next to him. "Bud, do you mind if I stay here during the night?"

"I don't mind at all. But, won't you have to go to that school place?"

"Nah, it's Friday. I can stay here during the night."

"Yeah!" he nuzzled her shoulder and laid his head on her lap again. "But, you have to be dry first."