The Courtship of Toothless Chapter 5

Hiccup and Toothless glided lazily on the wind, climbing or diving as the mood took them. They didn't talk much. Both were lost in thought, and both were thinking about the same thing – how could Toothless and Guana get back together? They stayed in formation with each other, not because they were trying to do so, but because their long, close friendship made it natural for them to do so.

After a while, Hiccup noticed motion out of the corner of his eye. He gestured with his head to Toothless, who also saw the two dark specks circling in the distance. "Astrid and Guana," Hiccup said unnecessarily.

"Should we glide over and say hello?" Toothless asked, a little bit nervously.

"No, let's leave them to their girl-talk," Hiccup answered. "They'll sort this thing out their way, and we'll do it our way, and somehow we'll meet in the middle. That's how it is with guys and girls."

"I guess I'll have to take your word for it," Toothless nodded. "You know more about female Night Furies than I do."

"That isn't much," Hiccup commented.

They watched for a few more seconds. Then, without warning or preamble, one of the females folded her wings and dove about half a mile. Then she spread her wings, arched her tail, and zoomed back upwards again, spinning a few times on the way up. Hiccup had to admire his mate's flying form; he caught himself smiling.

After a moment, the other distant Night Fury went into a dive. Instantly, Toothless surged ahead. "Her wings aren't folded enough," he exclaimed. Hiccup labored to catch up with him, while keeping his eyes on the diving Night Fury. As he watched, she wavered to one side, then overcorrected to the other, then tumbled out of control.

Hiccup had just gone through a similar tumble, when Toothless threw him through the air. He'd had months of practice flying, and it still wasn't easy for him to recover. Guana had no such experience. She panicked, curled up into a ball, and fell even faster. Toothless grunted and pushed over into a full-power dive, desperately trying to put himself between her and the cold grey ocean beneath her. In spite of all of Hiccup's amazing Night Fury skills, he found himself falling farther and farther behind his friend. He'd never realized that anyone could move that fast!

Somehow, Toothless managed to get partially beneath her as she fell. She bounced off his back, which slowed her descent somewhat. Hiccup tried to copy Toothless' move, and she bounced off his back as well. The sensation of hitting something twice and still being alive startled her; she opened her eyes and her wings somewhat. That slowed her even more, which gave Toothless the chance to do a split-S and get under her again, and this time she landed limply across his back and stayed there.

He couldn't flap with another Night Fury lying across his back; all he could do was glide, and he was losing altitude steadily with Guana's weight on him. He aimed for the nearest land, which was a tiny rocky islet that would almost disappear when the tide came in. Hiccup was close behind him, worried but helpless. He heard a familiar whistle from overhead; that would be Astrid, who had gone into a dive of her own when she saw Guana tumble, but hadn't been able to catch up with her until now.

Astrid braked with her wings and glided by his side. "Is she all right?" she asked worriedly.

"She might have wrenched a wing, but she looks okay from here," Hiccup answered.

"I'm sure she had the scare of her life," his wife thought out loud. "It scared me, and I was just watching! I wonder what went wrong?"

"I'll tell you exactly what went wrong!" he replied, a bit sharply. "She can't stop herself from looking all around! I taught her to compensate with her tail in level flight, but... you just don't do that in a dive! Besides, like Toothless said, her wings weren't furled enough. Hit a half-open wing with the turbulence from turning your head at high speed, and you'll lose control every time." They watched Toothless and his living burden skid to a halt on the rocks below. "I think we ought to leave the flying lessons to the expert." Astrid nodded.

They circled and landed next to the pair. Toothless was gasping for air, and Guana was lying on her side, visibly shaking. "I thought I was going to die," she whimpered.

"Not... with your friends around," Toothless puffed. "Hiccup... thank you. I couldn't have done it without you."

"I couldn't have done it at all!" Hiccup exclaimed. "I never saw you fly like that before!"

"I guess I was motivated," Toothless nodded.

"Guana, what happened?" Astrid asked. "You started into your dive just fine, and then you came unhinged."

"I heard that whistle from behind me," Guana said weakly. "It's the scariest sound I know, and... I tried to see where it was coming from, and that was that."

"That whistle," Toothless began, "is the sound of a diving Night Fury. You made it yourself! It's the sound of air rushing between folded wings and your sub-wings. If you ever dive and you don't hear that sound, it means something is wrong. Like Astrid said, you started well; the dragon in you knows how to dive. But then you talked yourself out of it, and... well, here we are."

"Really?" Guana demanded, suddenly angry even though she was still shaking. "I just came within a hair of falling to my death, and all you can do is point out all my faults? You have got to be the most arrogant, high-handed, insensitive –"

"ENOUGH!" Hiccup roared. "Maybe you don't realize it, Guana, but Toothless just broke several speed records so he could save your life. He also put his own life on the line – the force of you hitting him could have stunned him and sent him into the sea right next to you. Then there's the part where he glided half a mile, with the full weight of another Night Fury on his back... I really don't know how he did that." His voice was rising with every sentence.

"Can Toothless be arrogant? A little. Can he be high-handed? Sometimes. Is he insensitive? Not even close! He's the truest friend I've ever had, and he just proved that he's your friend, too, and... and a little gratitude wouldn't kill you!"

Guana and Toothless both stared at him. In the sudden silence, Astrid quietly said, "Yeah, like he said."

Guana slowly shook her head. "I'm sorry. I guess I'm a little shook up. Thank you for saving me, Toothless."

Toothless nodded, slightly embarrassed.

"So, what happens next?" Astrid wondered.

"Once we've all gotten our equilibrium back, and once we're sure that nobody's hurt, we'll take a nice, slow flight back to the Nest," Hiccup decided. "We'll grab a bite to eat, and go to bed early. I think we all need it." Three other Night Furies nodded in agreement.

Guana stretched her wings experimentally. "My shoulder joints hurt, but not badly. Do you think I can fly again?"

Hiccup started to answer, then stopped and glanced at Toothless. The older dragon held up a paw. "Push with your wing against this." She did so. He repeated the exercise with her other wing, then nodded, satisfied. "You aren't hurt. You just strained your muscles, which doesn't surprise me. You can get to the Nest from here easily, if you do like Hiccup said, and keep it straight and level."

"Oh, believe me, I will!" Guana exclaimed. "I've had enough of crazy flying for one day. Maybe for the rest of the year. Do you think that's funny, Hiccup? Because I don't!"

"I'm not laughing at you, Guana," Hiccup tried to explain. "I just know you. You just had a big scare, and it's humbled you, but it hasn't changed you. You're still Guana, you'll still be looking all over the place as we fly home, and you'll be tempted at the thought of more 'crazy flying' as soon as your wing muscles stop aching. You can't help yourself. You're a Night Fury."

She glared at him for a few seconds, then slowly nodded. "I suppose you're right. I was about to lose my cool at you for presuming to know me better than I know myself. But now that I'm a dragon, I don't think I know myself at all." She flapped twice hesitantly. "Maybe I'll start listening to the experts. I'm not very good at it, because no one ever tried to teach me much before."

"You're better at it than you think," Astrid replied. "You're very quick to learn new things. You just need to be more picky in your choice of teachers."

Guana gave her a puzzled look.

"What she means," Hiccup continued, "is that Astrid and I, or maybe I should say Night-fury-mother-of-twins and I, are well-trained and battle-tested, but we've been Night Furies for less than half a year. This morning, I tried a short cut around Toothless' way of teaching, and it worked, but it also backfired, because it gave you too much confidence too soon. You thought you could do anything after that. You didn't realize that you still have limits, and we haven't been teachers long enough to see those limits. We got caught up in your enthusiasm; we remembered how exciting it was when we were brand-new Night Furies; and... well, we let you down. We didn't show the kind of wisdom that teachers should have. We pushed you further, or maybe we let you push yourself further, than we should have. You almost got killed as a result.

"There are still a lot of things we want to show you about your new life. But in the things that really matter, we both agree, you'll be better off learning from the master."

Astrid glanced at Toothless. She would have sworn it was impossible for a Night Fury to blush.