Author's Note: Wow. I can't believe I am nine chapters in this story. It makes me want to press forward to finishing the fanfic.
Tq3942: Here's the next chapter. Hope you enjoy the story so far! (Any personal thoughts you'd like to share with me about the story?)
Chapter 9: Toothless's New Tail
Bright followed Hiccup into the blacksmith stall and entered a small room at the back of the stall. It was covered in drawings of weaponry and scale models. Bright lit up a candle for Hiccup, who laid his sketchbook out on the desk, opening it to the drawing of Toothless.
"What will you work on?" Bright asked quietly.
"A tail," Hiccup replied as quietly as he could.
Bright smiled, looking pleased as Hiccup put up a determined look and he picked up a charcoal stick and redrew the missing tail on Toothless's drawing.
Soon they began to work…and Bright pulled a leather which creakily bellowed, and the stone forge glowed with every pump. Tongs pull intricate iron pieces from the coals. The pieces are dropped on an anvil by Hiccup, twisted and lightly hammered, and dunked in a barrel.
The pieces are carried to Hiccup's workbench and laid out in a place on one-to-one schematic. It was a sketch of a mechanical fin.
Bright's smile grew.
…
In the cove, Hiccup and Bright arrived, winded, straining under the weight of two full baskets. Luna raised her head, as did Toothless, while the dragons had sensed their presence coming from their familiar scents. "Hey, you two," Bright grunted, "we brought breakfast."
Luna walked up to her brother, when Bright put his basket down on the ground, letting the fish slide out. "You remembered me!" she jokingly stated, mouth agape.
Bright chuckled, humoredly. "Yes I did, sis. Now dig in!"
She did, settling in on the feast.
"Okay, that's disgusting," Hiccup said, grimacing over the fish laid out before Toothless, who approached, settling in to devour the feast. "Uh, we've got some salmon…" Toothless didn't hear him, as he swallowed the salmon, "some nice Icelandic cod…and a single whole smoked eel."
Toothless nabbed it, chewed a few times, and then spit it out. He shook his head violently, snorted and scrubbed his massive tongue on the sand.
"Toothless, you okay?" Luna asked worryingly.
"That eel…it was disgusting," he replied with a grimace.
"No, no, no!" Hiccup said, "It's okay. Yeah, I don't like eel much either."
Toothless stared at him, but focused on the remainder of the meal.
Luna noticed the fin in Hiccup's hands. "What's he going to do?" she whispered to Bright.
Bright said nothing at first, but only whispered, "You'll find out."
With Toothless distracted, Hiccup began to unwrap his prosthetic fin and opened it like a fan. "Okay, that's it. That's it, just stick with good stuff. And don't you mind me. I'll just be back…here. Minding my own business."
Luna blinked, while Bright smiled. She turned to him. "What did you two make?" she whispered.
"A little something for your lover there," Bright teased.
Luna growled softly, disliking his teasing.
Hiccup cautiously approached the injured tail, but every time he tried to get near it, Toothless swept it away like a cat. "It's okay." He dropped a knee on top of the tail. Toothless's head jutted up, slowing his chewing to a halt. "Okay…okay…" Hiccup whispered.
Toothless tensed, slowly spreading his wings. Hiccup strapped the prosthetic fin in place. He cinched the straps.
"There." Hiccup looked pleased with himself for his work. "Not too bad. It works."
Bright chuckled, before Toothless bolted. He snapped his massive wings and took to the air, carrying Hiccup with him.
"Whoa!" Hiccup cried out. "No! No! No!"
He struggled to hold onto the tail. As the ground sped away, Toothless immediately tipped into an uncontrolled bank and dived. Hiccup saw the folded fin rattling uselessly in opposition to its flared counterpart. Flapping as he may, Toothless couldn't correct his trajectory.
Hiccup swallowed his fear, as he crawled toward the folded prosthetic. He reached it and yanked it open. The flared, fan-like appendage caught the air, stabilizing the twisting tail. "It's working!" He sounded both terrifying and exciting.
Toothless arced just short of the water and climbed high into the air.
"Yes!" Hiccup cheered, looking at the prosthetic in gleeful delight. "Yes, I did it!"
Toothless glanced back at Hiccup, who was busily holding the tail open while trying to hold on. They're going to crash, and Bright and Luna realized it at that moment with widened eyes. Suddenly, Hiccup was thrown off from the tail in the intense force of turn.
"ARRGGHH!" Hiccup screamed, as he bounced across the water's surface and took a dive. Without him to operate the tail, Toothless did the same, plunging in a massive cannonball.
Hiccup resurfaced, roughed up, but he was beaming in delight. Toothless appeared seconds later. "YEAH!" Very soon, he swam over to the edge of the pond, while Toothless was crawling onto the surface of the ground and madly shook himself dry.
Bright approached his friend. "How was the feeling of flying?"
"It felt great, even though it needs some tweaking here and there," Hiccup answered.
Bright placed a hand on his shoulder. "We'll make it work. Together. Remember that Toothless is our friend here."
Toothless snorted, smoke coming from his nostrils. "I'd rather be friends with a sheep than this weak human."
Luna looked at him. "Oh, come on, Toothless. He was only trying to help you to fly again."
"Even so, I still won't have him on my back," Toothless shook his head to her.
"What did he say?" Hiccup asked, looking at Bright.
"That he'd love to have you on his back again," Bright smiled, sensing the irritation in Toothless, who growled in defiance.
"No, that's not what I said!"
"Oh yes, you did," Bright chuckled.
Toothless's growl intensified as he glared at Bright, who growled teasingly back.
"I'm still not used to this, with how you communicate with the dragons, Bright," Hiccup admitted.
"Oh, don't worry," Bright reassured him by placing a hand on his shoulder once more. "We shall make this work out by helping Toothless to be able to fly. Besides, my sister would like to see her lover in the air and fly with him."
"Stop that, Bright!" Luna warned with a pointed claw. "I do not want you to tease me any longer."
"What did she say?"
"That she finds my teasing dislikable," Bright replied.
"Honestly? I don't find you dislikable," Hiccup said, unsure what to say.
"Thanks!" Bright beamed in delight at his words. "At least someone assists me, unlike a certain somebody." He looked at Toothless, who snorted in response.
"I am not helping humans in any regard," he said. "However, after what he did for me today would likely help me fly once more. I do not like being grounded, you know."
Hiccup still couldn't understand his dragon's words, but shrugged. "Well, let's head back to town, Bright. We might need to figure out what to add to the fin."
"Yeah, I agree," Bright nodded in agreement. "Some ropes, maybe. Oh! A saddle, that could work on your skills of riding a dragon," he added as he and Hiccup left the cove once more.
"You know, that could be useful indeed," Hiccup agreed.