Heir and Pride

Chapter Eleven

Eleven.

The next morning was even stranger for he woke at dawn, blinking and rolling over in his bed, giving a huge stretch and yawn and then frowning. It hadn't hurt. It hadn't hurt! He sat up in a shot and dragged his grubby tunic up, staring down at his front and probing his pale skin with cool fingers. He frowned.

There should be a huge crop of dark purple bruises, blooming under his exploring fingers but the freckled skin was clean and unmarked. He tenderly slid his hand over the cracked ribs and, steeling himself, he took a deep breath. Nothing happened: it was normal and pain-free. His eyes widened so he dragged the tunic off and went to find a bucket of water. He turned round and stood so he could inspect his back in the reflection. And then he back-pedalled so hard he tripped over his bed and landed hard on his backside. He winced at the hot sting of an impact on his sore rear. He frowned. The reflection had shown his back was healed, the welts faded to the faintest of residual bruises. He took a shuddering breath.

But why was his rear still sore if he had healed so quickly? And then he realised. "Toothless!" he breathed. The dragon had licked his front and back-even growling at him when he tried to prevent the action-but he hadn't licked Hiccup's rear. Admittedly, allowing the dragon to lick his butt would have gone way past the borders of weird and kinky but where Toothless had licked him, his wounds had healed. Either he was magical-which Hiccup didn't believe (no offence, Odin, he added superstitiously)-or the dragon's saliva had some rather amazing healing powers.

He raced down the stairs, grabbed dried meat and bread for breakfast and a couple of fish for Toothless and snatched up his new flight vest and then ran-yes, ran!-to the cove. Toothless was waiting, having heard his eager steps and the dragon gave a happy croon as he appeared. The boy ran down to his dragon and threw a strong embrace round the blunt muzzle.

"Toothless!" he said in a choked voice. "You are amazing! You healed me, didn't you, bud?" The dragon could feel the wetness on his face and realised the boy was crying again. But he had healed the little Viking, hadn't he? Or had he missed another painful injury that was causing his friend distress? Hiccup heard the quizzical sound and lifted his face, cuffing the tears off his face.

"It's okay, bud-I'm happy!" he assured the dragon urgently. "I'm...happy!" And he grinned, prompting the dragon to mirror the action with his own, gummy grin. Hiccup hugged him again. "I'm happy!" he whispered.

They flew for longer this morning with Hiccup noting the limitations of a manually held rope to control the tail. He only had one hand free to control the tail and it was very approximate and inaccurate: not to mention with only one hand on the saddle, any change in direction basically jerked him free. He needed a better way-and the arrangement was really clumsy. But if he could run the cable along the tail and the dragon's flank...maybe over a gearing arrangement, he could deploy the tail with his foot and then he could hold on with two hands and it would all...work...

Hiccup stared down onto the cove as they gently banked and landed. The boy threw his dragon the fish as he began to unstrap his flight vest and snared his journal from the fur vest, urgently sketching his initial concepts and beginning to plan how he would construct this unique device. A tiny part of him longed to ask Gobber for his help but the rest of him-the sane part...saner, he amended-reminded him Gobber hated dragons and was in charge of dragon training class. No matter what his friend had asked him, this was something he could never share.

He gave the dragon a grateful scratch, his dexterous fingers digging into the soft scales as he scratched and the dragon gave blissful croons. Then suddenly, he hit a spot under the jawbone and and the dragon's eyes rolled back in his head and he collapsed, boneless. He was rumbling in ecstasy. Hiccup stared at his hands in astonishment. Now this was one he had to try!