For the rest of the afternoon and night, Hiccup worked on a dragon sized saddle for him to used on Toothless so he wasn't always on the tail to operate it.
The next day, after breakfast, because there was no training today, Hiccup went straight to the cove to show off his masterpiece to his new best friend.
'You want to put that on me?' Noche asked smiling 'Then you'll have to catch me first,' he said before he began to run around the cove with Hiccup following every step.
Eventually Hiccup got the saddle onto the big black puddy-tat like dragon and like before were flying over the pond in case they fell, so they wouldn't get hurt too bad.
Not sure how to work the tail while he was so far away from it, Hiccup had tied a piece of rope to it tugging on it when the situation called it.
But pulled on it too much at one point making him fall off Toothless which in turn made him fall.
***A Dragon Soul***
That night after taking the saddle back for some improvements, and thinking up some ideas, Hiccup came up with the idea of a hook and loop connector which joined to a belt he would wear while flying.
***A Dragon Soul***
The next day they only had the space between sunrise and just after breakfast to see if the 'improvements' worked.
Deciding to tie the rope to his ankle this time... didn't really do much better.
Somehow they ended up in a field of tall grass, Hiccup flying off Toothless a bit.
Turning back to see if he was alright, Hiccup was stunned to see the fabled ''Unholy offspring of Lightning and Death itself'' rolling around in it trying to get covered in it as much as possible.
Noche was in heaven.
The sent that this tall green stuff was giving off smelled just so lovingly he couldn't get enough.
Hiccup picked a few blades and sniffed it to see what was so amazing about it, his mind going slightly numb by the smell, but he quickly shook that off as the fall.
***A Dragon Soul***
In the arena that day it was another go with the Gronkle, who was buzzing around and bashing into everyone.
When she saw Hiccup, she accelerated towards him to knock him over as well, but then he held out the grass and looked away.
The Rock-Eater stopped almost in mid air when she caught the sent of the grass, her eyes growing wide.
Looking back to see that the grass worked on the Gronkle, Hiccup made it roll over dropping the grass to the ground.
Up around the banisters, Gothi was paying very good attention to Hiccup and the skills he showed.
After the Gronkle was back in it's cage, and the class was dismissed, Hiccup rushed out saying he had stuff to do, but was caught by the other teens on the bridge each asking how did he do that.
"Oh... I left my axe back in the ring..." Hiccup said giving a goofy smile and backing away from the others.
"You... You guys go on ahead, I'll catch up with you..." he said nearly bashing into Astrid running off towards the ring but then when he was out of sight of the others headed to the cove.
***A Dragon Soul***
"Hey Toothless!" he called bringing his friend out of the cave where he was taking his nap.
"Hey thanks for showing me that you over-grown-reptiles like that grass for some reason," he said scratching the beast in appreciation.
Noche had no idea what his brother was talking about but he didn't want this delightful sensation to stop so said nothing and just leaned into his brothers claws a bit telling him he wanted more.
He had just reached out his neck leaning backward into the scratching when he felt something on his chin and the next thing he new he was knocked out.
Stunned Hiccup looked at his hands in wonder.
Whipping out his note book he quickly noted this down along with the fact about the grass he dubbed 'Dragon Nip'.
Deciding to wait for his friend to wake back up, Hiccup stayed the rest of the afternoon in the cove, using the time to think up some more improvements for the saddle/tail.
As the sun was setting, Noche began to stir looking around to recall what had knocked him out finding a curled up Hiccup sleeping right next to him hugging onto the pile of paper he had been scribbling in the last few suns.
Getting up, Noche stretched a bit before going over to wake his brother to tell him it was time for him to go.
He might not know why Hiccup needed to go or where he went or anything, but Noche had learnt that as the sun was beginning to set, Hiccup had to leave.
"5 more minutes dad..." Hiccup mumbled pushing Noche away and turned the other way.
Looking unimpressed, Noche looked around to see what he could do to get his brother up and leave.
Then his eyes spotted the pond, and a truly evil, yet fun, yet horrible idea came to him.
Now did he want Hiccup to be soaked to the bone and possibly get sick? Or did just want to wake him up?
Deciding that just for this time at least, it was just to wake him up, Noche rushed over to the pond and took a big mouthful of water, being careful not to swallow it.
Then, after coming back to the boy, like a Water Sprayer spat the water into his brothers face, only instead of it being boiling hot, it was freezing cold.
"AGGGHHH!" Hiccup screamed jumping up in shock looking around to see what had awoken him expecting to see either the Twins or Snotlout, somehow calming down when he saw it was only Toothless who was rolling around laughing his big fat head off.
"Ugh... What you do that for Toothless?" he asked drying his face and rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
All Toothless did, after a few more minutes of laughter was look up to the sky.
"Oh snap I need to go!" Hiccup said collecting his things screaming a thank you to Toothless as he left.
***A Dragon Soul***
The next day in the arena it was the Nadder again.
After Astrid flung her weapon at it but nothing happened the dragon rushed forward to attack, causing the blonde to roll out of the way.
Quickly Hiccup, who had been standing behind Astrid, dropped his mace and held up his hands to show he was defenseless.
***A Dragon Soul***
Confused, the Spike Tail stopped right in front of the boy her head slightly turned so she could see him, her nose detecting for some reason two different scents of Night Fury on him one much much older than the other.
Suddenly a scream from across the fighting area from the female from before made the Spike Tails' frills stick up as she looked to her.
Quickly Hiccup began scratching the Nadder's neck and chin trying to find the 'knock-out-spot' finding it just in time before Astrid reached them and hurt this most beautiful creature.
That night after coming back once again from the cove, to again thank Toothless for showing him these ticks, Hiccup decided to have dinner in the Great Hall.
What he didn't expect was as soon as he sat down, everyone who saw him come rushing over to sit next to him.
***A Dragon Soul***
A few hours later Hiccup was back home, only being let off by coming up with the excuse that a good Viking Warrior needs his rest, bringing out his box of tally's.
Taking up a pencil, he added a few to the I-Feel-Loved, and I-Feel-Appreciated lists marking them mostly towards Toothless.
Then taking out a new piece of paper he made a new list writing 'Days-Since-Someone-Called-Me-Useless/Blamed-Me-For-Stuff-That-Went-Wrong' and placed five marks on there marking the last few days.
After packing them up, Hiccup began studying his saddle/tail notes he added today, deciding he needed to do some work tomorrow while Toothless was wearing it to see where it needed it, for measurements.
***A Dragon Soul***
'Shiny!' Noche said jumping for the little glowing light, checking under his paws to see if he had it, seeing it over to the right a bit. 'Mine!'
Hiccup was over by some rock playing with his hammer moving it so the light bounced off it, grinning at Toothless' action/reactions to it.
He had brought his tools to the cove to work on the saddle (he was allowed metal objects there now) but as he was getting started the sun caught the hammer and Toothless shot off after the light.
Quickly making a note about this in his diary, Hiccup returned to playing 'Hunt-The-Light' with his friend, forgetting why he came there enjoying it as much as the dragon, only stopping when a cloud blotted out the sun making the spell shut off and making him look up and saw the sun was too far across the sky.
After a quick goodbye, Hiccup left and put his new, new found dragon tricks to the test.
***A Dragon Soul***
"Meet the Terrible Terror..." Gobber said to the class everyone expecting a dragon with that sort of name to be a huge ferocious beast with razor sharp fangs, sharp claws and...
Not that puny little green thing that came out a cat flap sized door.
"Ha it's like the size of my..." Tuffnut said grinning a mad grin which was cut off when the Terror jumped at him biting it's teeth into the boys big fat nose. "AGHH GET IT OFF!"
'DON'T YOU MOCK ME SIZE,' the Tiny One said annoyed 'YOU UGLY SMELLY STUPID SMAUG INTRUSTED... Oooo shiny!' it said releasing the boy and following the shiny, blocking everything else out it's only focus that puny speck of light.
"OH I AM HURT," Tuff said holding his nose and getting away from the beast "I AM VERY MUCH HURT!"
Everyone was stunned as they saw Hiccup somehow leading the Terror back to it's cadge.
"Wow he's better than you ever were," Tuffnut said to Astrid who was the most shock and annoyed that the Useless is beating her at Dragon Training.
~*~*~*~*~
(Astrid's POV)
Astrid was in the woods letting her anger out towards Hiccup by imagining all the tree have his stupid face on them and was hurling her axe at them.
After the tenth one she pulled it out did a forward roll to get to the next clump of trees to practice on something different, was about to throw her weapon of choice and...
There was Hiccup... carrying something in his arms and having a 'So... busted...' look on his face.
Not saying anything, shocked that Astrid had stopped throwing her axe for a whole ten seconds, Hiccup moved on deeper into the woods leading her away from the cove in case she followed him.
(Astrid's POV)
Bringing down her axe confused, Astrid began to follow Hiccup for a bit to try and work out where he was going.
Seeing him go behind a big rock, she went to look over it expecting to see the heir of this stupid island but saw nothing but vegetation.
Fist pumping the boulder, Astrid left.
Just below the top of the boulder Hiccup was as close as he could be flat to it, trying not to show anything.
Waiting ten seconds after she left just to be sure, he stepped out and continued his trek to the cove.
***A Dragon Soul***
In the cove Hiccup had brought his friend another basket of fish to keep him busy while he worked on the tail, and adding a foot pedal to control the device instead of string.
While Noche had no idea what his brother was doing, playing with all this stuff, he said to himself 'As long as I'll get to fly again, and keep getting fish, he can do anything to me...'
Later that afternoon, Hiccup and Toothless were tied to an old tree stump at the top of one of the 'far-enough-away-from-the-village-no-one-will-see-us' cliffs as they worked together to work out each setting.
After successfully noting the first setting though, a strong gust of wind flung them back, snapping the rope and sent them flying into the woods.
Noche slowly turned back over just in case something was wrong.
True he had worse landings, but he also had better ones and none of them were with his brother so he didn't know how to react to it.
Standing up he felt Hiccup's weight follow him and looked to see him tugging at his 'safety-line'.
"Oh... Great," he said mockingly.
"Well looks like you'll be seeing where I live tonight then bud..." Hiccup said trying to be fun about it, causing Toothless to give him a confused look.
"That wind, made it so the hook-and-loop-device on my safety harness to be bent so much," he explained "That I can't fix it with out my tools. And since I didn't think we would need them today, they're back in the village. Oh... This can go so... wrong if anyone finds us together..." he said, that last part to himself tugging at his hair a bit.
Sensing stress, worry, panic, slight anger, and some other negative emotions from his brother, Noche butted his nose against Hiccup's arm telling him not to worry.
'We'll get it sorted out Hiccup,' Noche said smiling 'Don't worry...'
For the rest of the day, the two worked on the gear's and positions of the tail making sure to note down everyone and to be more careful when the winds got a bit too ruff.
***A Dragon Soul***
That night after the sun went down and a bit after the moon was up, Hiccup put the new found knowledge into play for the first time (even if it was only to the village).
Sneaking in between a couple of houses close to the forest, they took alleyways to keep Toothless hidden from the night watch men of the village.
"Hiccup," one says nodding was the two were just a short walk away from the forge.
Smiling, Hiccup waved in greetings then as soon as the man left, looked both ways checking the coast was clear, before walking out pulling Toothless along with him.
Noche had never been in a Human village before.
Amazed he looked at everything with wide eyes wile trying to pay attention to where Hiccup wanted him to go and what...
'Oooo what's this thing do...?' he asked sticking his nose into a small wooden thing sniffing it.
When nothing interesting happened except the thing getting stuck on his nose, he threw his head back and threw it off making a noise.
"Ok bud," Hiccup whispered turning around with some tools in his hands "Now just hold still and I should be able to sort this out..."
"Hiccup?" Astrid's voice called out getting both boys to look up worried "Are you in there?"
Telling Toothless not to do anything or make any noise what-so-ever, Hiccup threw on his apron covering up his safety suit and jumped out the window immediately shutting the doors again to keep his dragon a secret.
(Astrid's POV)
Astrid had been heading home from the Hall after dinner, when she heard a noise from the forge, knowing only Gobber or Hiccup is allowed in there - you can't have inexperienced people in a forge when there's a war going on - and that Gobber was back at the Hall, Astrid called out
"Hiccup? Are you in there?"
Before she could open the doors to see, Hiccup came jumping out apron on and trying to be all 'cool'.
"Astrid hey," Hiccup said trying to be calm about this "Hi Astrid, hi Astrid, hi Astrid."
Back in the forge Noche was rolling his eyes at his brothers stupidity.
That was no way to talk to a female then again...
"I normally don't care what people do but you're acting wired..." 'Astrid' said, that was no way to speak to anybody either, especially Noche's brother.
But then Noche's attention span ended when a 'Baa...' came from outside.
Walking towards it to get to it Noche felt Hiccup pull back on the string and tried again.
"Well weirder..." the female said but she was now being ignored but both boys as Noche began to go after the sheep, eventually pulling Hiccup through the window.
As soon as Hiccup was through he grabbed the tools, stuffed them into his pockets and jumped onto Toothless circling around the building while Astrid becomes confused about where Hiccup could of gone, and flew off back to the cove.
When they got there the first thing Hiccup said after jumping down was 'I thought I told you not to do anything?' getting a small wine of 'Sorry' from the dragon.
"Meh it's doesn't matter," Hiccup said a bit nicer getting back to fixing his safety line. "I doubt I could of lasted any longer anyway..."
Confused by that meaning, Noche tilted his head asking Hiccup what did he mean?
"Well... Astrid's the best worrier my age group has to offer," Hiccup began letting his feelings out, beginning to blush a bit. "She's smart, she's pretty, she has these eyes that just... And her hair... And the way she beats up Snoutlout..." he continued sighing finally fixing the line.
"But the thing is I'm just the useless weakling 'Hiccup the Useless'," Hiccup said going off to sit by the pond.
"Before you came along, and yet still, I can't lift a throwing hammer," he said identifying them because you had hammers in blacksmithing and he could lift those, "I can't throw an axe, I couldn't even throw that bola that brought you down a couple of weeks ago... I made something to do it for me..."
Pulling his knees up to his chest Hiccup looked to the stars as he felt Toothless come sit next to him.
"Sometimes Toothless, I just feel that... that I don't belong here..." Hiccup said looking unknowingly to the constellation of Draco, one of the stars shining a bit brighter than the rest.
"I'm not sure where I'm meant to be if I'm not, but I just feel... that this isn't it."
Not sure what to do, or how to explain that Hiccup didn't belong here, Noche just stayed quiet as he sat next to his brother looking to the stars too.
Then thinking up the right thing to say, even though he doubted Hiccup will understand said 'You are NOT useless Hiccup. You just look at things differently and have different talents than the others. Who else could of made me my new tail and all the stuff to go with it?' he asked curling his tail around to show the boy nodding to it with questioning eyes.
"Hmm... you're right bud," Hiccup said a small smile coming back and hugging his best friend. "I may be different. But I am not useless."
After a couple of shocked seconds Noche thought that it was just coincidence and that he must of just been thinking the same thing.
'Even though you should be able to understand us anyway brother...' he thought settling down to sleep Hiccup curling up next to him a smile now on his face too.
AN: Sorry for the length of this chapter, it was not meant to be this long, but if I cut it short it would not of seemed right.
Hope you're all enjoying it and thank you for all your support.