All through the rest of the day, Hiccup still couldn't believe what had happened.

He was stuck in his own little world, and everyone noticed right away.

The teens were sitting with Gobber around a fire pit and he was telling the story of how he'd lost his hand - one that Ember had heard several hundred times.

She and Hiccup had been sitting in awkward silence through the entire thing. Him thoughtful and wondering, her nervous and on edge.

"And with one twist, he my hand and swallowed it whole! And I saw the look on his face. Can't deny it, I was delicious. Must've passed the word, because it wasn't a month before another one took my leg."

Fishlegs said, "Isn't it weird to think that your hand was inside a dragon? Like, if your mind was still in control of it you could've killed the dragon from the inside by crushing its heart or something."

Ember looked sick. "Even for you, Fishlegs," she said, "That's disgusting."

Snotlout burst out on a tirade. "I swear, I'm so angry right now. I'll avenge your beautiful hand and your beautiful foot. I'll chop off the legs of every dragon I fight!" He tried to impress Astrid by adding, "With my face!"

She rolled her eyes.

Gobber took another bite of food. "Nuh uh. It's the wings and the tail you really want. If it can't fly, it can't get away." Seeing that they were confused, he added, "A downed dragon is a dead dragon.

"Alright! I'm off to bed. You should be too. Tomorrow, we get to the big boys, slowly but surely making our way up to the Monstrous Nightmare. Who'll win the honor of killing it?" He chuckled as he left.

Tuffnut looked around. "It's gonna be me," he said matter-of-factly. "It's my destiny, see?"

Hiccup stood and began to head back to his house, but he didn't get too far before Ember tapped his shoulder.

"Oh! Hey!" he said, trying to cover his awkward exit.

She took a breath. "Look, I don't get why you're acting like you didn't look through my notebook."

"I-"

"It's alright," she said, "I just... I don't know if I was ready for anyone to know. But it's not really my choice- And that's fine!" She had added the last sentence in response to Hiccup's guilty face. "It's fine. But if you have a problem with it, I want to know. And if you don't, the great! But... I don't think dragons are entirely bad. And-"

"It's fine, Ember. Really." And he left, once again leaving a confused friend.

He ran to the forge once he was out of her line of vision, hoping she'd just go home.

He closed the door to his little work room and cleared off the desk.

He placed his drawing of Toothless on it and, determined, redrew the missing tail flap on a separate sheet of paper.

He worked at the forge, creating intricate iron bits. Each was taken to the anvil, twisted, hammered, twisted again, and doused in cold water. He finally put all the different pieces down at the work bench and stayed late into the night, creating a mechanical tail.

Toothless was going to fly again.

~~~~

The Night Fury heard a sudden, albeit small, noise, slightly startling him.

Boy was back! Toothless hopped to his feet and walked over, sniffing.

Fish? he thought hopefully.

Then Boy placed a huge basket on the ground. "Hey, Toothless. I brought breakfast. Hope you're hungry!"

Fish! he cheered as the basket fell open, and spilled said fish out onto the ground.

"Okay, that's disgusting..."

Toothless settled, ready to dig in, but Boy decided to go over everything he's brought. "We've got some salmon-"

Toothless tried to eat one.

"- some nice Iceland cod-"

Tried to eat that too.

"And a whole smoked eel!"

Toothless suddenly hissed and backed up, on edge and ready to fight. "No! No eel! Eel bad! EEL BAD!!!"

"No! No, it's okay," Boy reassured. He picked up the eel and threw it out of the mix. "Yeah. I don't like eel much either."

"Stupid Boy..." Then Toothless dug in.

"Yeah, that's it. That's it. Stay up there, I'll just be back here. Minding my own business."

The Dragon couldn't care less. This was a whole FEAST!! He moved forward once or twice, and kept feeling like there was something by his tail.

Which was just ridiculous, of course, but to be safe, he flipped it back and forth.

Then he felt something heavy set down on his tail. He lifted his head suspiciously, but then his jaw dropped.

My tail...?

As if it was a dream, he slowly spread his wings, astounded to feel the balance of his tail back to normal.

Then, satisfied it wasn't a dream, he brought his massive wings down, sending him straight toward the sky.

But it didn't work, he was headed straight for the ground- again.

~~~~

"WOAH!!!! NO NO NO!!!!" Hiccup yelled as they took to the sky.

He felt the moment when Toothless began to dive, out of control. He wrapped his lags around the tail and reached for the mechanic flap.

He yanked it open in the nick of time, allowing Toothless to fly straight up - and out of the cove!

Hiccup tilted it to make him turn back towards the forest.

"It's working!" he yelled, excited and somewhat astounded.

As they flew back over the cove, Toothless's head snapped around to look at him, and he narrowed his eyes. He flicked his tail, sending Hiccup into the water.

The dragon felt half of his tail close, and looked down at it, panicky. He landed in the water as well, with a massive splash.

Hiccup, beaming, yelled, "Yeah!"

~~~~

Toothless heard Boy's yell, and, half-furious half-shocked, he looked back at him. Boy was sitting on his tail! HIS TAIL!!

The Dragon turned sharply, to throw him off. Boy landed with a big splash in the water.

Then something went wrong. His tail snapped shut and he careened into the pond. Toothless shook the water off as he clambered out of the pool. He turned to Boy, who looked a little scared, but mostly elated.

He gave him a look, saying, "Try that again, and I'll eat you."

He growled at him, then bounded away, irritated.

Boy left soon after, seeming both upset and excited at the same time.

Once he was gone, Toothless found himself calming down, and actually thinking about what had just happened.

He had flown. He could fly! Flight was what made it all worth it to him. And he could fly again!

And it was all because of... Boy.

He looked at the small crevice Boy entered and left from, shocked.

Why would a Boy, eventually a Man, help a Dragon fly?

Perhaps... perhaps they weren't all that different. Perhaps they could get along.

It was the same kind of thinking that had brought down his father's wrath, but maybe his father was wrong, just as Boy was beginning to think his father was wrong.

The Dragon looked after him, curious and thoughtful.

"Thank you."