How to Train Your Dragonblood

A Faulty Tail

That night, Ed and Edna had the gang sat around a campfire, roasting their dinner. All eyes were on Ed, who was telling a story most had heard millions of times and could probably retell it backward. While Edna was passing out the food, Ed was telling his story and Plundar was mouthing it behind his back as the others tried to hold in their laughter. As they listened to the gory details, Zane paled and had a look of disgust.

"Then, out of nowhere, the biggest dragonblood you've ever appeared! Its hide was littered with the weapons of fallen warriors, his face scarred, with one eye; the warrior raised her sword and woosh! With one swipe her sword shattered and then her head was bitten clean off! Down the monster's throat it went, the beast has never been seen since, and is roaming the wilds waiting its chance of revenge!"

"I'll chop the head of every dragonblood I fight!" Harumi smirked, but Edna shook her head.

"No deary, it's the wings and the tails you need to go for, if they can't fly then they can't get away, and then the dragonblood would be like sitting ducks, and a downed dragonblood is a dead dragonblood." She explained and Jay's eyes widened in horrifying realization when he thought back to Kai in his dragon form. The way he flew crookedly and when he hadn't left the cove yet. While everyone was talking about the different ways to kill a dragonblood, he ran off while they were talking.

He was in such a rush he didn't see that Cole saw him leave.

He almost looked like he was going to follow him, but Ronin called him back to the others. Jay continued running into the darkness towards the blacksmith shop, knowing this was going to be a long night...

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Jay ran as fast as he could into the blacksmith shop at the far end of the village. Firing up the furnace and opening his notepad to the sketch on Kai in his dragon form, he got to work. He knew he wasn't as skilled as Ed and Edna yet, but he thought he'd do well enough to get the job done. He found a long piece of metal he thought would be perfect for what he wanted to make. It was very thin and light but it was incredibly strong. He hoped this would do the trick.

After hearing what Edna said about how a dragonblood was unable to fly with an injured tail or wings, Jay had headed to the forge late at night.

He was going to make a brand new tail-fin for Kai to replace the one the Fire Dragonblood had lost when had been he was shot down since it was his fault. Looking carefully at the drawing of the dragon's tailfin, Jay began to carefully forge it into the shape he wanted. He worked well into the night and it was a miracle nobody came by. As the early morning sun began to rise over the icy sea, Jay wiped the sweat off his brow and smiled at his handy work...

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Once he was sure the new tail fin was ready, Jay packed it up and hoped that all his hard work was worth it. About three hours after the sun had risen, Ed had come into the blacksmith shop and kicked Jay out. It was the one day of the week they didn't have any training and since Jay couldn't go back to sleep, he decided to go to the cove. Soon Jay was back at the cove, with the prosthetic fin under his arm. As he climbed down into the cove where he last saw Kai, he frowned in confusion when he saw Kai was nowhere to be seen in the bowl.

"Hey, Kai, are you still here?" He called out, wondering if the brunette had left in the night.

"And where else would I be, genius?" A familiar voice asked sarcastically. Jay looked up and there Kai was, sat perched upon a humongous rock with a bored look on his face.

"Why are you always up there?" Jay asked and Kai leaned back, his head falling over the side of the boulder to face the human.

"If I'm always up here when why do you need to ask where I am?" He asked and Jay sighed in frustration, even though Kai had a point. With a smug grin, Kai sat back up and continued with whatever he was doing before Jay arrived.

"Could you please come down?"

"Hmm... No," Kai replied. The lack of sleep and frustration was starting to get to Jay, so he was not in the mood for the dragonblood's little mind games, especially since he had worked all night to try and help Kai regain what he had lost.

"Please?"

"But if I climb down I'll have to climb all the way back up later." He whined like a child and that was the final straw for Jay. If Kai wanted to play a dumb game, he'd play along. Walking a few feet away, Jay felt a smirk starting to grow on his freckled face.

"Fine, I guess I'll just have to keep this then." He shrugged and gestured to the tail fin he'd left on the ground a few feet away, still wrapped up so Kai's couldn't see what it was. When he saw Kai glance over, Jay unwrapped the prosthetic fin, and suddenly he had Kai's undivided attention.

"What is that?"

"Well, I saw that you were missing a tail fin." He replied, flinching when he saw Kai's expression saddened. He realized that to a dragonblood it must feel like losing a limb. "I worked all night to make you this." He added and properly showed the prosthetic fin to Kai. The next thing Jay knew, Kai had him in a headlock, cutting off my air supply.

"Kai!"

"Give it to me Jay." He growled as Jay struggled to breathe. Seeing this, he let go of the human's neck and stepped back, leaving Jay on the ground fighting for breath.

"What that really necessary?"

"Yes, do you know what this means?" He asked as he looked over the tailfin. The tail consisted only of a strap-on prosthetic tailfin with dark brown leather and a dark grey metal frame. "It means I can finally get out of this place." He muttered as he examined the man-made tailfin in awe and joy. That joy faded, however, when he realized he didn't have any way to attach it. He could only access his damaged tailfin when in dragon form. When in that body, however, he knew he'd be unable to put it on without the use of his human hands.

Seeing his dilemma, Jay stepped forward.

"I can put it on for you if you want?" He offered and Kai was suddenly engulfed into a bright fiery glow. Jay was forced to shield his eyes, but when the glow died down there was no sign of Kai. What was there though, was a lot more terrifying. Jay almost screamed, jumping back, before slowly calming down. It was Kai's dragon form, and he waited for Jay to do what he promised. The human quickly crept around to his damaged tail with the prosthetic tailfin.

As Kai started to become impatient, Jay carefully climbed onto his tail and started strapping on the prosthetic tailfin.

The brown color clashed with Kai's naturally crimson red scales and it was a little bigger than his real tailfin but otherwise, it was a perfect copy. As Jay smiled with pride, he failed to notice Kai freeze as he flexed his real tailfin. He felt the fake fin attached to his tail and his eyes widened in shock, realizing he might be able to fly again.

"That doesn't look too bad, hope it works," Jay muttered to himself. The second those words left his mouth, however, Kai suddenly took off into the sky. Jay screamed as he gripped onto Kai's tail tightly. The dragonblood was only able to fly a few hundred feet off the ground before he started to fall. Jay looked at the tailfin and saw it was flattened against his tail while the other one was open wide. He heard Kai yelp and glanced over his shoulder, only to scream when he saw they were heading straight for a stone wall.

Thinking quickly, Jay grunted as he opened the prosthetic tailfin like the real one was.

Kai let out a screeched roar as he suddenly flew up, missing the large stone wall by mere inches. When Jay gathered enough courage to open his eyes he laughed. They flew around the cove as Jay would adjust the prosthetic tailfin to match the real one as Kai changed positions. Kai was getting annoyed with the human boy clinging onto his tail, so when they were right over the pond, he suddenly whipped his tail sharply. The grip on his tail loosened as Jay fell into the pond with a yelp of surprise.

Now that he had his tail fixed, Kai tried flying away.

The second the human was off his tail, however, Kai growled in frustration as he found it harder to stay in the air. He looked at his tail and his eyes widened when he saw the prosthetic tailfin was flattened against his tail again. He transformed into his human form as he fell into the shallow end of the pond. When Jay surfaced he saw the brunette crawl out onto the grass, his normally spikey hair soaked and limply hanging down. He sent the ginger-haired teen a hateful glare before lying on his back on the grass to sulk as he scowled at the blue sky...