Lost and Found: Family

New Tail

"Done!" Hiccup announced, holding up the new tail. It was dawn. Willow, Hanna, and their dragons had stayed up all night watching him work. Willow and Marina, he wasn't surprised. They were basically nocturnal. But Hanna and Stonescale? He had no idea why they stayed up. Well, Stonescale didn't really stay up. He snoozed in a corner and chatted a bit with Blade. Hanna and Willow were talking, when Willow wasn't gazing intently at his work, and Marina and Toothless seemed to be sharing stories next to the forge. Hiccup had to be honest. Willow made him a bit nervous.

But finally, he was done. This tail would switch positions so smoothly Hiccup would barely hear it. The silk was strong and would hold together through just about anything. The tail was lighter than all the other tails Toothless had had, and because of the scales sewn onto the silk, the tail was now fireproof and didn't look like a prosthetic. Hiccup was worried that stitching the scales to the silk would weaken the fabric, but instead, the stitches provided extra binding and the fabric was stronger because of it.

Toothless trotted over and warbled, "Whoa, gimme gimme gimme gimme!" He danced around his rider, clearly very excited.

"Okay, okay, bud!" Hiccup exclaimed happily, "Just hold still so I can put it on!" Hiccup had to chase his dragon around the kitchen before he finally caught him.

"Hurry!" Toothless barked at him as Hiccup removed the make-shift tail they had made at Berk.

"Quit being so rude and I will!" Hiccup barked back. Finally, the new tail clicked into place. The Night Fury lifted his tail up so fast it whacked his rider in the face.

"Ow, thanks, Toothless."

Toothless didn't apologize. He raised his new tail so he could look at it. He tilted his head and huffed at it. It looked almost like his other fin, with the exception of the leather strip. He shot a small blast at it, but it didn't even smudge.

"How do you like it?" Hiccup asked.

Toothless stared up at him before barreling him over and covering him in dragon saliva.

"Like it? Like it? I love it!" The Night Fury roared.

His rider laughed as he raised his hand to pat the dragon on the head.

"Okay," he said, getting up, "what do you say we go try it out?"

The dragon didn't answer. Instead, he dashed between Hiccup's legs and took flight.

Hiccup blinked, so he missed the entire thing. One second, he was standing in front of Toothless, then blink, he was on Toothless.

"Whoa! Bud! Just let me... There we go," Hiccup roared as he clicked his metal leg into the stirrup. The new tail extended and they shot forward into the new morning light.

"Hiccup! Wait!" he heard Hanna's cries from behind him, but they didn't register. He was one with his dragon, flying faster than they ever had before, as if they'd known each other all their lives.

"What do ya' think, bud?" Hiccup asked when they'd slowed down enough for the sound to reach the Night Fury's ear flaps.

"It's great!"

They spiraled into the sky before doing a barrel roll and changing direction. Plummeting to the sea as one, they pulled up just before they would have smacked into the rock hard water. They soared so close to the water, the wind from their speed left a wake three feet high.

They eventually pulled up to zip through the ice spikes, spiraling around one, soaring over another, easier than ever before.

Finally, Hanna's roar reached his brain. "Hiccup! Are you going to acknowledge me?"

"Gosh, she sounds like mom," Hiccup mumbled to his dragon, who laughed.

Toothless did a backward spiral/flip and landed on the tip of a spike. "What?" Hiccup roared, clearly unhappy about having to stop their flight.

"That was amazing!" Willow exclaimed, flying towards them on Marina. "How long have you been doing this again?"

Hiccup shrugged. "Only a couple of months."

"Wow," Marina breathed, sending a bit of her paralyzing mist into the wind.

"You're really good."

Just then, a roar echoed through the area.

"Cloudjumper!" Hanna exclaimed, "Mom's back!"

Hiccup looked up to see the massive four winged dragon over the horizon, with a familiar figure on his back.

All three riders took flight, and greeted Valka in mid-air.

"Hello, Willow," she spoke when they were close enough, "It's good to see you again!"

Marina and her rider bowed in the wind.

"And you two," she turned to face her children, "I hope you didn't get into any trouble while I was away..."

Hiccup and Hanna gave each other sideways glances.

"Nope."

"None."

Valka eyed them suspiciously, but didn't question them. Her dragon, instead, spoke up.

"Nice tail, Toothless. For a moment I thought you had miraculously recovered."

"It's great, isn't it?" He flipped his tail so he could see it again.

"You're welcome, bud," Hiccup rubbed his dragon's cheek.

"Yeah, we were in the middle of testing it out when Hanna rudely interrupted!" Toothless turned and scowled at the girl.

"Well sorry!" Stonescale sarcastically apologized for his rider.

"Guys!" Cloudjumper roared, taking their attention.

Valka spoke up, "Let's go inside. I'm sure Willow and Marina are very tired."

"Not really. This one time, we stayed up for 72 hours! We had been caught on a pirate ship, and were desperately trying to escape. If not for -"

"Not now, Willow," Hanna interrupted her friend.

"Oh," Willow looked downcast.

Once they were back in the sanctuary, and Valka had greeted the alpha, Stonescale offered to show Marina and Willow to their room.

"Thank you," Willow said, "Hanna, your dragon's such a gentleman!"

Toothless, Hanna, Hiccup, and Valka stared at her before breaking out into uncontrollable laughter.

"See!" Stonescale protested, "Someone finally realizes!" Then he led dragon and rider out of the sanctuary.