Learning To Fly- C10- Promises And Test Flights

Helen wiped the sweat from her brow as she admired her handiwork. She had spent all night working on a prototype tailfin for Toothless. Made of tough leather and spare metal, it was resistant enough to properly test, but wouldn't be too terrible of a loss if it were to break or not work. After wrapping the fake tailfin in a large sheet of cloth to conceal it, Helen dashed to her house, grabbed the basket of fish that was half-frozen due to the cold, and ran through the woods to go see Toothless. The darkness of night began to give way to the light of dawn, and the rising suns cast eerie shadows over the path on which Helen ran. The girl's eyes narrowed, focusing on the nearing rock ledge. It was a short drop that she had jumped over many times before, but today she was carrying more than a simple lunchbox or change of clothes, so she slowed, leaping off carefully and landing with a thud on the ground before bursting into a sprint once more. As Helen neared the hidden entrance to the Cove, she slowed down, entering the tunnel at a slow jog and slowing even further to a walk as she neared the newly-made shield-door. The small Viking took the basket of fish off of its secure place on her back, made sure that the top was tightly latched, and rolled it under the shield. She then ducked under the shield, holding the wrapped tailfin close to her as she stepped out into the open and onto a stray twig.

Toothless lifted his head at the sound of a twig snapping, sniffing the air and leaping to his feet once he recognized the scent. He ran over to Helen and tackled the unsuspecting girl to the ground, knocking a bundle of fabric out of her hands. The Night Fury licked the side of his friend's face excitedly and nuzzled her neck, purring happily now that he knew his friend was safe. He then remembered that she had scared the living daylights out of him for a prolonged amount of time, and lifted his head, glaring down at the shocked girl.

*Don't you DARE scare me like that again!* But, seeing her frightened expression, Toothless couldn't stay mad at Helen. It didn't seem right, so he nuzzled her neck again to show her that he was more relieved than mad. Once Helen figured this out, she relaxed and petted Toothless on the head before speaking to the purring Dragon.

"I'm sorry. Class went later than expected, and I got an idea right in the middle of it. I brought fish?" She offered hopefully, remembering the tail and highly doubting that Toothless would let her mess with his TAIL, the very thing that helped him survive, willingly. Her bribe worked, and Toothless leapt off of her, sitting anxiously near the discarded basket of fish and waited for her to open it for him. Helen complied, unlatching the basket and tipping it slightly to empty some of the fish onto the ground before Toothless. Once the Dragon was thoroughly distracted, Helen grabbed the replacement tailfin and snuck over to where the real deal lay, twitching slightly with Toothless' happiness. She sat down on the part of Toothless' tail that lay directly behind the tailfin and unwrapped her newly made contraption, clasping the first buckle around the base of the real fin. Leaning forward, Helen then secured the second buckle around the small portion of tail that poked out past the fins and admired her handiwork.  The fake fin was slightly crude looking, but it would work as a prototype.
Suddenly, the ground was ripped away from it solid placement beneath Helen. All of her weight was suddenly being supported by Toothless' tailfin and her prototype as she clung onto the Dragon's tail for dear life. As the flight pattern began to falter, Helen pulled the flailing prototype out into its extended position, mimicking the way that the real fin was positioned for flight. Toothless continued to fly, with Helen clinging, unnoticed, to his tail and positioned her fake fin the same way that he did the real one.

"It's working!" Helen yelled in excitement, causing Toothless to look back at her and realize how much danger she was in. He flew back down into the cove, over the lake, and with a quick flick of his tail, flung his not-quite-human friend into the deep water. He soon found, however, that he was now unable to fly due to Helen not being able to control the flimsy prosthetic tailfin. Crashing into the cold water of the lake, Toothless resurfaced and heard Helen cheering and laughing. His friend swam over to him to make sure he was alright.

*What was THAT?!* Toothless demanded, spitting water out of his mouth and shaking it out of his ears.

"In class yesterday, we learned that a Dragon can't fly unless it has balance. I remembered that you tail was…" Helen petered off, remembering that SHE had been the one to cause Toothless to lose his ability to fly, that SHE had taken it away from him. "I'm so sorry, Toothless…" The Dragon recognized the regret in her voice and, almost like he was reading her mind, knew why she was suddenly quiet. He nudged her chest gently with his nose, sending her floating back a few feet, and swam playful circles around her.

*Don't worry about it. I got to meet YOU, didn't I? Now tell me more about THIS thing…* He lifted the end of his tail out of the water and the two saw that the prosthetic fin had been severely damaged by the force of the Dragon hitting the water. *Oops…* Toothless chuckled lightly, hoping that Helen wasn't too mad about the thing being broken. She didn't seem to be, as she simply shrugged and went on to explain what it was.

"I tried to make the other half of your tail, so that you could fly again. That was just a prototype; I didn't expect it to last long anyways. Plus, I need to get accurate measurements and weights and whatnot so that the fake tailfin will work just as well as the real one." The two swam back to shore, where Toothless shook himself dry and Helen managed to start a small fire made of some gathered sticks and leaves.

*I could've made that for you, ya know." Toothless grumbled, curling up with Helen snugly secured by his front legs.

"No you couldn't have. You were just in the water; your fire won't work for a while."

*That only applies to SOME Dragons, like… how do the Vikings call them? Gronkles, I believe… Yes, and Zipplebacks and Terrors, and…Nadders? What do they call the other ones… Monstrous Nightmares?* An amused nod from Helen confirmed this. *Monstrous Nightmares, along with Night Furies such as myself, are able to start their fires even if they've gotten a little wet. Night Furies and Nightmares are even able to start their fires underwater.* He blew a little puff of flame out into the air just to prove it.

"Interesting…" Helen mumbled, watching as the violet and white flame disappeared into the night. "Why is that, do you know?" She asked, looking to Toothless for the answer.

*Nightmares, or, as we call them, Rock Eaters, can spit molten rock, as you probably know. This is what also powers their flame. Their internal temperatures are so high, that all they need to do is eat rocks to make more lava. It is possible for lava to stay molten under water, if only for a short amount of time.* Toothless glanced to Helen to make sure she was still listening, which she was, before continuing. *Because lava heats the natural gas that they make to create their flame, the flame is hot enough to work under water once they hit a certain maturity.*

"What about you Night Furies?" Helen placed a small hand on Toothless' chest, where he was the warmest. "Can you spit lava too?" Toothless chuckled slightly, thanking whatever gods were looking down on them at the moment that he couldn't blush at Helen's touch.

*No, I can't spit lava. My fire is super hot though, hotter than what the Vikings use to melt metal. I don't know why my fire is so hot, it may have to do with the fact that my scales are black, and so I soak in the heat from the sun better than the other Dragons.*  He watched as Helen seemed to contemplate what he had said before she spoke.

"What holds the flammable gas in Dragons? It is their stomach or some other gland or…?

*There's a special gas sack thing that we have called the Fire Gland. In most dragons, the gas ignites on contact with air, obviously, the Zippleback, or Double Breather, has a different sort of deal going on. The gland is typically part of or linked to the stomach, because we need food in order to create the gas.*

"The Zippl- Double Breather… is able to produce a LOT of gas, but it's fairly weak and is used to set fire to large areas for a brief amount of time… not normally used to kill, but rather to distract…" Toothless tilted his head as Helen thought out loud. *She sure knows a lot about Dragons and their attack methods… Do the other Vikings know this much?* He then realized that Helen was a LOT smarter than other Vikings. *No, they're probably just as oblivious as always* Helen continued talking to herself, "…So in order to produce a lot of gas, the Double Breather would have to have a fairly large Fire Gland, which would explain its large body…. Most of it is the Fire Gland… And that would also explain the two heads… That much gas being set on fire INSIDE the Dragon could cause some SEVERE internal damage… What if YOUR Fire Gland is smaller? You're able to produce a lot of fire over a short period of time, but you aren't as big as the other dragons."

*That still doesn't explain how my fire is so hot.*

"But it DOES!" Helen leapt to her feet and paced back and forth as she explained her thinking to Toothless. The Night Fury had never seen the girl get this excited in the short time that he had known her, and was highly amused by her antics. "The gas would be super pressurized if it was kept in a small amount of space, so it would already be hot because with pressure comes heat! The extreme heat of the gas would be SUPER HEATED once you set it on fire!"

*That's a pretty good explanation. Better than what I came up with* Helen tilted her head to the side.

"What did you come up with?"

*I'm just plain fabulous, so my fire gets to be better.* Toothless smiled at Helen's amusement with his answer, happy to have gotten her to laugh slightly. The girl sat back down in her place and poked at the fire with a stick for a while before asking the next thing that popped into her head.

"What do you call the other Dragons?"

*What do you mean?*

"Well you said that what we call Zipplebacks are called Double Breathers, and what we call Monstrous Nightmares are really called Rock Eaters. What are Gronkles supposed to be called? And Terrible Terrors? And Deadly Nadders?"

*We call the 'Gronkles' Lumps, because…well, they're kinda lump-ish… The 'Terrors' are called Fire Biters because that's really all they can do. They can manage a couple breaths of flame, and then they're out, so they just bite all the time. 'Nadders' are called Sky Gazers because their eyes are near the top of their heads.*

"And you?"

*Huh?*

"What do Dragons call Night Furies?"

*Well, there's really only one… I just went along with the whole 'Night Fury' thing…*

"I'm sorry… Where did the other Night Furies go?"

*You know that whole 'Lightning and Death' thing?* Toothless responded, knowing very well that she would probably have the whole story memorized.

"Yeah, what about it?"

*That's about what happened. I am the only Night Fury. The other Dragons weren't sure of what to call me when I showed up one stormy night, but no one could leave, so they just got used to me.*

"What do you mean, 'no one could leave'?" Helen turned, leaning against Toothless' curled hind legs and looking at him curiously.

*On our… island of sorts… we are ruled by a large Dragon that we call the Red Death. It ordered us to find food and feed it, using a form of mind-control to make sure that we did. That bump in the head from your net-thing got the Red Death to stop controlling me, but the others are still stuck. We couldn't leave, we could barely even think for ourselves.*

"But you never stole any food?" Helen asked curiously. It was true, the Night Fury was never seen, never stole any food, and never missed…

*True, but only because I hadn't been ordered to. My job was simply to distract the Vikings* Helen mulled this over in her head for a while, and then looked into Toothless' eyes with pure sincerity.

"Once I have built a durable prosthetic tailfin for you and learn how to control it and help you fly, then we will go back and free the other Dragons from the Red Death's mind control. I promise."

*Thanks.* Toothless nudged her face thankfully with his nose. He hadn't cared much for the other Dragons, but it wasn't right for them to be unable to think for themselves. He remembered how it felt, being ruled completely by some invisible force and not being able to be truly FREE. He had hated it, and he didn't want the others to have to continue to suffer.
Helen yawned, sticking out her tongue as she did and surprising Toothless.

*You have a forked tongue!* He stuck out his own and wiggled the two ends to show her. Helen giggled and did the same with hers.

"Probably the…" She yawned again, "Dragon DNA…"

*Probably. Now go to sleep* Toothless said as he too yawned. He hadn't realized how tired he was, he was having too much fun talking to Helen.

"Okay. I don't have class in the morning, so I can go straight to the Forges after getting the measurements for the new fin in the morning." She lay down next to Toothless with her head on his front legs. "Goodnight, Toothless. Sleep well." She said before drifting off to sleep. Toothless smiled and lay his head down on the ground, watching as the flames of the fire flickered and dimmed slightly.

*Goodnight, Helen. Sleep well… I'll be here when you wake up…* He didn't know what had persuaded him to say it, but he had and Helen responded.

"Promise?"

*Promise.*