Venomous Veins

Chapter 5

"And with one twist, he swallowed it whole." Gobber told his story with all his students around the fire. Including Hiccup. He roasted fish over the fire while the others roasted chicken. "And I could tell by the look on his face, I was delicious. He must have passed the word because it wasn't a month before another one took my leg." He gestured to his peg leg, holding it up off the ground for everyone to see.

"Isn't it weird to think your hand is inside a dragon," Fishleg started. "Like, if your mind was still in control of it, you could kill the dragon from the inside. By crushing his heart or something." Everyone, excluding Hiccup, who was deep in thought, and Gobber, gave him a questionable look.

"I swear I'm so angry," Snotlout angrily said through his teeth. "I'll avenge your beautiful hand and your beautiful foot. I'll chop off the legs of every dragon I see. With my face."

Gobber caught everyone's attention once again. "Don't worry about it, 'cause it's the wings and the tail you really want anyway," he said. "If it can't fly, it can't get away. A downed dragon is a dead dragon."

Hiccup's eyes grew wide at his last words. By shooting down the dragon, he'd also taken away one of its best defenses.

Gobber yawned and stretched his arms. "Well, I'm off to bed. You should be, too, for tomorrow, we move on to the big ones. Slowly but surely making our way to the Monstrous Nightmare." The teens leaned forward in anticipation, no one noticing that Hiccup was gone. His roasting fish on the stick sat leaning against his seat. "But who will win the honor of killing it?

"It's gonna be me," Tuffnut bragged, and then he went about how he got a tattoo, but his sister told them it was actually a birthmark. Hiccup was already heading down the wooden ramp.

He rushed all the way to the blacksmith stall. He pulled out all the screws from the old shield and carefully heated and hammered them into marbles. An hour later, he was done. Using the combination of the marbles and metal rods, they created joint-like features, able to open and close. Carefully, Hiccup slid cloth around and in between the joints. Overall, it looked like a pretty good imitation tale. Not too far from the real thing. Setting the tail down gently, he flipped his journal close.

"Hey, Toothless and I still don't know who to call you." Hiccup's voice echoed through the cove early in the morning with the prosthetic tail and a basket full of fish. The dragons sniffed the air, smelling the fish.  "I hope you're hungry." He sat down and pushed over the basket of fish.

"That's disgusting," commented Hiccup as Toothless and the other Night Fury sniffed at the food. "There's some old salmon, uh, Icelandic cod, and a whole smoked eel." Two dark figures stepped out of the shadows, slowly edging toward the fish. But the dragons growled at the pile of fish, pulling back as he finished the sentence.

Weird, Hiccup thought. He bent to pick up a yellow and black eel, showing it to the Night Furies. Once he picked it up, though, they roared, opening their wings, eyes slit pupil. "No, no, no!" Hiccup begged, tossing the eel into the pond. He reached for Toothless, but he shook his head. "Yeah, I really don't like eel either," he admitted, wiping his hand on his vest.

"I always hated eels." Venom said. "And Toothless? Really? You're gonna stick to that name?"

"Hey! It's not the worst name ever. Plus, I think it sounds iconic." Shadow, now named Toothless, said.
Venom shrugged his wings innocently.

"What makes my little brother happy, but he's not gonna give me a new name." Venom said. Toothless rolled his eyes and the two began eating. Moving behind the dragons, Hiccup mumbled, "I'll just be back here, minding my own business."

He set the prosthetic tail beside Toothless's real tail, ready to attach it. Until he moved his tail away. Hiccup chanced a glance at Toothless to make sure he was still eating and moved closer, but he moved it again.

Hiccup huffed and straddled Toothless's tail. The dragon moved again, and Hiccup lost balance for a moment, but then began to strap on the prosthetic tail. Toothless, on the other end, was no longer distracted by the fish as he finished eating. He lifted his head from the fish basket, and tried to feel what was on his tail. Venom lifted his head when he saw his brother's head was up and looked at Hiccup. He tilted his head to see what the Viking was doing and also wanted to laugh if he could.

Toothless's eyes grew wide and his wings fell to the ground by his side. He knew. At the look on his face, Venom backed up and let the entertainment happen. The sound of its joints cracking as they extended, and the sound of his wings opening wide to take off.

"There we go." Hiccup saw, not knowing what was going on. Without warning, Toothless took off into the air. The teen wrapped his arms and legs around Toothless's tail as he took to the air.

Hiccup noticed the prosthetic tail closed but the real tail opened, causing him to fall lopsided out of the air. He pulled it open just in time before the two hit the ground.
Venom watched as the two flew through the air, giving off a small crackle sound of laughter.

Toothless flew through the air, gliding across the waters and above the clouds. "It's working!"Hiccup cheered as he angled the tail to make his way back to the cove. "Yes! Yes, I did it!" As they flew over the pond, Toothless looked back at the sound. He turned quick, throwing Hiccup off his tail into the water. Seconds later, Toothless noticed the wind had forced the prosthetic tail close, and he fell into the water as well.

Venom waited for a few seconds till Hiccup swam to the surface up the water. Toothless resurfaced a moment later. "Yeah!" he cheered.