Learning to Fly Chapter Twelve- Repairs

Toothless happily ate the fish provided, and Helen attached the new fin to his tail while he was distracted. After the tail was snuggly in place, she sat on the ground nearby and drew a picture of Toothless eating. Once the dragon was done, the girl put away her sketchbook and grabbed the saddle, presenting it to her friend.

"I made a saddle so that I can stay on better while helping you fly!" She announced happily. "Come on; let me put it on you so that we can go flying!"

*Alright…* Toothless said, smirking mischievously. *But first… you have to catch me…* With that, he leapt back a few feet from Helen. She smiled back and chased after him as he made her run circles around. He knew that she wasn't really trying, and that once she did, she'd catch him easily. Sure enough, the Night Fury tuned his head to look back at the girl chasing him and found that no one was there. Looking ahead of himself, Toothless saw his mysterious friend in a crouched position, as if she had just landed. She leapt up and landed on his back, not knowing that he had planned for this. He rolled over, knocking her off, and then rolled back to his starting spot, pinning his friend and biting the arm that had the saddle lightly, with his teeth retracted so as to not hurt her.

*Say 'mercy'* He ordered around the arm, making Helen smile. Her eyes narrowed in determination and she reached up with her free arm, grabbing Toothless' shoulder and using it to flip him over. She knelt over the dragon, her legs on either side of his neck. The top of her body was forced to lean forward because her arm, while still holding the saddle, was also still in her friend's mouth. The soft skin of her cheek was pressed up against the rough scales that covered the dragon's.
Toothless froze, time seeming to slow down as Helen leaned forward and spoke, her voice filled with determination.

"Never." The dragon's jaw slackened as a chill went down his back. He let go of her arm and rolled over, pausing a moment as he hovered over her. *what if that was her way of showing that she cared for me as more than a friend… I've seen Vikings try to dominate each other to show affection… but then again, we WERE rough housing and she could have just been trying to get me to submit to her putting on the saddle… Gods, why does this have to be so complicated?! I know I have emotions for Helen, and I know that they are emotions of love, but WHY?! She's a HUMAN, I shouldn't feel this way! I'm not even supposed to feel this way about other dragons! Love between Dragons is NEVER between two separate species, it doesn't work! So why is this happening?* He backed up and allowed Helen to put the saddle on him. She hesitated before buckling the clasp, noticing his silence.

"Are you sure you're okay with the saddle? If you feel degraded by it, then we don't have to use it, I can figure out another way to help you fly…" The dragon snapped himself out of his thoughts and shook his head, lowering it so that Helen could get a better idea of where to put the saddle.

*No, the saddle's fine… I just can't get used to the fact that you're stronger than you look.* Helen blushed and smiled lightly, looking down at the ground in embarrassment.

"Sorry about that… Are you okay?" Toothless chuckled quietly before responding.

*Yeah, I'm fine.*

"What's so funny?"  Helen demanded playfully.

*You look cute when you're embarrassed* Toothless quickly added to his statement to make it less awkward. *I mean that in a friend kind of way… Let's uh… get that saddle on and do a test flight…* He looked up and realized that it was getting dark. Perfect for flying. Helen saluted him, giggling quietly as she moved to tighten the clasp around Toothless' neck so that the saddle wouldn't move, but the clasp wouldn't hinder Toothless' breathing. After attaching the saddle, Helen strung the connection rod through a loop in the saddle and connected it to the prosthetic fin.

"Alright, let's see if this guy works…" She tied a string to the rod to help her move it and position the fin before gently climbing onto the saddle. Tugging on the string to test it out, Helen looked back. Upon seeing the fin opened and ready for action, she nodded to the dragon below her and they were off. Toothless pulled them into the air by beating his powerful wings, and soon the cove was a mere speck below them. The Night Fury was finally back in his element, and it was amazing. The wind was brushing lightly against his scales, and the smell of the higher atmosphere mingled with the scent of Helen, making adrenaline flow through his veins. He was finally able to show Helen what his world was like, and he couldn't wait to show her how amazing flying was. The girl on his back gasped in amazement. She was seeing Berk like no other Viking had ever seen it before. It looked so small and peaceful, so fragile as the rocky shores were pounded by the furious ocean, as if the frothy waters were trying to reclaim their lost territory. A seagull flew nearby and squawked in surprise at the sight of a human riding a Dragon, flying away quickly to tell the other gulls of the oddity it had just witnessed. The clouds swirled around the strange pair as they glided through the air, the thin air breezing past lightly and ruffling Helen's hair. The suns began to set, painting the sky around them with brilliant shades of pink, red, and purple that soon faded to a deep blue and finally into the familiar black of night, lit by the cool light of the full moon above.

"Okay, Toothless, let's see if we can figure this out…" Helen tugged gently on the string in her hand, opening the tailfin wider and causing Toothless to go even higher into the air. Another gasp rang out through the silence of the night as the ground disappeared and was replaced by the unfamiliar fluffiness of the tops of clouds, stained a dark blue color from the darkness of the night sky. The moon seemed to pulse with light and energy as the two figures drifted through the night in silence; both exhilarated to be in the air, away from the noise of the mortal world and into the beauty of the world belonging to the gods. Too soon, though, the suns began to rise once more to paint the sky with the bright colors of the day. Toothless banked to the right, so that Helen didn't have to use the prosthetic tail to turn, and they soared quickly through the air, the wind screeching past them as they approached the cove. They slowed to a comfortable glide, and it came time for the tricky part: Landing.

*Okay, nice and easy Helen, we need to close the tailfin just enough to land…*

"Okay… here goes nothing.." Helen murmured, tugging up on the string to close the fin. The fin closed, but quite a bit faster than either of the two flyers were expecting, and quite a bit more than what was desired. Toothless suddenly found himself rider-less and falling at an odd angle towards the lake, while Helen flew off in the opposite direction. The dragon crash-landed into the water, which was a much softer landing than his companion's, as she had slammed quite ungraciously into the rock wall of the cove and fallen the remaining twenty feet to the ground. As soon as the night fury resurfaced, he began looking for his friend, finding her lying face-down in the sand and running to her with a screech of panic.

*HELEN!!!!* He nudged the lifeless body with his nose, turning the girl over. A small groan escaped her lips as she sat up, a nice gash on her forehead oozing slightly and a large ring of blood slowly growing on her right shoulder. Toothless licked the blood off of the girl's forehead happily, but with concern. *Don't do that! You could have died! Are you alright?* Helen smirked and pushed the dragon away playfully.

"Hey, I got us to land, didn't I?" She stood and winced, looking down at her shoulder where the fabric of her shirt was stained with blood and pulling the fabric back to reveal an ugly gash that looked far too deep to have been caused by her hitting the cliff.

*Where the hell did you get THAT?!!?!* Toothless screeched in alarm, sniffing the wound to make sure it wasn't infected. It looked as if it had been reopened by Helen hitting the cliff, rather than caused by the cliff.

"Must've happened earlier during class." The girl shrugged, wincing again as the scabbed portion of the gash split, allowing more blood to flow out.

*How on earth did you get THAT in a COOKING class?!?!*

"Cooking class?"

*Yeah, the class that you go to every day. The cooking class!*

"I never said anything about a cooking class…" Helen tilted her head, confused.

*Well… YEAH… I just sorta assumed that you were in one and… Nevermind that!* The dragon snapped impatiently. *If it's not a cooking class, then what is it, and how did you get that injury?* Helen looked down as her feet nervously.

"I'm in a… Viking training class… where they teach us how to fight dragons… we went up against a Sky Gazer today, and I guess I got hit…" Toothless stared at the small figure in front of him and imagined her trying to fight a dragon. The image was terrifying. She may be strong, but she was inexperienced, and there was no way she could beat a full-grown, well-adapted dragon.

*HELEN!!! Do you have ANY idea how dangerous that is?!?!?!*

"About as dangerous as trusting a Night Fury."

Toothless froze. She had a point. It had been foolish of her to trust him, but it had turned out alright in the end, hadn't it? She had trusted him with her life, now it was his turn to trust her to be able to stay alive without his help. "Look, Toothless… I'm sorry… I shouldn't have said that…"

*No, you're right. I'll accept that you're learning to fight dragons, because I know that you wouldn't hurt your own kind; but now we need to figure out how to keep you on this saddle.* Helen scratched the top of his head affectionately, and examined the saddle.

"It looks like everything it still intact… but I'm going to modify the saddle with some hooks, plus add a harness to keep me in." She unhooked the saddle and connection rod, setting them on the sand next to her so that she could use both hands to scratch Toothless' scales.

"You know, if you wanted, I could quit the class… if you really don't like me fighting dragons." The dragon purred contentedly, only half hearing what Helen was saying.

*No, go ahead with your Viking class… just don't get hurt.* Helen chuckled, stepping away from the now sleeping dragon and gathering the saddle and connection rod. After a nice sprint through the woods, the girl arrived at the village and was soon at the forges and hammering away at metal bits.