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Serenity Cove, mid-day Wednesday

First there had been fish, because Toothless was a hungry dragon. Now, Hiccup was going over his flying rig carefully, checking each buckle and strap, and shining the metal bits.

Yes, he was fussing.

Toothless craned his neck around to watch, but when Hiccup checked the tailfin for fourth time, he flopped down into the sand with a sigh. A very pointed sigh.

Hiccup grinned sheepishly, left Toothless' tail alone, and walked around to lean on the dragon's shoulder. "Okay, okay, I get the hint. Waiting patiently, I can do that."

No he couldn't. After a minute, he started fidgeting, holding his false leg out in front of him and squinting at it. "So, what do you think? Should I trade the leg in on a better one?"

Toothless sniffed the leg, looked up at Hiccup out of big golden eyes, and sneezed. "That's really helpful, buddy. Thanks."

[OOC: Expecting one, but open, though with SP proviso due to me disappearing in a couple of hours and being slooooow due to plague.]

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Ender had his hands stuck down his pockets as he walked down the beach, a faint if distant smile on his face. "Toothless," he greeted, first - it was hard to ignore the giant dragon flopped over on the beach, after all.

"And hey, Hiccup." A beat. "This time I'm invading your beach."

Toothless scrambled to his feet, careful not to send Hiccup flying, and gave out a small sound of greeting, ears up.

Hiccup grinned. "My fault for not putting up those 'No Enders allowed' signs," he replied. "But as long as you go easy on the flaming torches and the pillaging we should be just fine."

Ender grinned wryly. "We Enders don't often go for the flaming torches," he said, but didn't elaborate any further. Instead, he strolled up towards Toothless, extending his hand for the dragon to sniff.

The dragon continued to be fascinating.

Toothless sniffed Ender's hand, sneezed again, then looked expectantly at Hiccup. "Not just yet," he told the dragon. "He wants to fly," he explained to Ender, patting Toothless' shoulder.

"He knew we were waiting for you. But we have to show him the rig first, and your tailfin. Wouldn't be nice if I could make it out of something that wouldn't burn?" That last was addressed to Toothless, and the dragon turned an expectant, and extremely intent, gaze on Ender.

"I think I could come up with a few materials that might help you with that," Ender said, smile increasing slowly, if surely. He stroked a steady hand over Toothless's neck, then patted it.

And then he let go. "Let's see about that rig," he said, and stepped past the dragon's head, giving Hiccup an equally expectant look.

"Just lift your wing up there, buddy?" Toothless complied, arching it high over both boy's heads, but kept his own turned to watch them. "So, I had to make all of this up as I went along, and most of it I made up twice. Sometimes three times, but we finally figured out what worked." Toothless made a sound of agreement.

"Saddle was obvious, but it had to fit in front of his wings, and he's not exactly shaped for it to stay on, so I forged the metal supports, they curve around under his front legs and attach underneath." Toothless lifted up his front leg so Ender could see.

"Strap behind his head so I had something to hang onto, also important. He goes pretty fast. And upside down." He paused to give Ender a chance to ask any questions before he went on.

Edited 2010-05-26 10:02 (UTC)

"Ever fallen off?" Ender asked, lightly, and leaned in. He studied the construction: primitive, but as something forged out of nothing, pretty impressive. He matched the shapes of it up to a few things in his head, his eyes tracking towards the metal supports.

Hiccup and Toothless exchanged a glance at the question, remembering. "Let's just say there were a few kinks in the system at the start. That's why this is here." He reached for a long piece of leather cord with a clip at the end. "Safety strap. Keeps you attached to the dragon in case of midair accidents. But this is the key to everything." Hiccup crouched down to touch the lever, forged metal, shaped to fit his metal foot. "This controls the tailfin."

Toothless curved his tail around so the fin - bright red, with a white stylised skull on it, made of stiffened leather with flexible wooden struts - was closer to Ender. As Hiccup moved the lever, the system of pulleys and relays and leather straps running down the dragon's side and tail flexed and moved and the fin stretched out to full size. "I watched him, and I worked out that this is what he needed to fly. Different positions do different things, move him up and down, left and right. With this, Toothless and I can do anything."

"Did you spend a lot of time learning the right tailfin positions?"

Ender's fingers ran over one of the leather straps, frowning in thought. There were better materials that'd hold it longer - it wouldn't be that hard to get a hold of them. The fin itself...

He examined it. "Maybe you should look into classic airplanes," he mused.

Hiccup nodded. "It wasn't easy. I ended up having to tether Toothless to the top of a mountain, so we could fly without going anywhere." He smiled and Toothless nudged him. "When I got it wrong there was a lot less far to fall. And I had a cheat sheet the first time we tried it out for real, but paper and fast flying, not really a good combination." He touched the lever, then stood up. "And now I have to ask what an airplane is, but you probably knew that was coming."

"Airplanes are, to put it simply, machines made to fly," Ender explained, and now that Hiccup was a little further out of the way of the device itself, he could consider that, too. "Your tailfin has a lot in common with early airplane designs. Which became the blueprint for modern airplanes. Might be worthwhile."

"There are machines for flying?" Hiccup looked intrigued; Toothless looked vaguely offended. "The library would have something about those, right?" Toothless turned his offended look on Hiccup. "Hey, it might help us fly even better!" he protested. "I know no machine is ever going to be better than a dragon." Toothless snorted, but looked mollified.

Ender patted Toothless as soothingly as he could. "You're something special," he said, sincerely. "Don't worry about it."

He glanced up at Hiccup. "The library should have more than a few books on the history of aviation," he agreed. "Although I'm pretty sure they didn't take dragons into consideration."

"Ahh, I'm sure they'll still have something good in them." He grinned and then gestured at Toothless. "So, are you ready to fly?"

Ender shot him an amused look. "Ready as I'll ever be," he said. "Just don't drop me."

"We won't." Hiccup climbed aboard, locking his foot into the lever. "Climb up, just put your foot there. Once you're up, clip this to your belt just to be safe." He held out the safety strap. "Hang onto me if you need to. And if you really make the effort to fall off, Toothless will catch you, won't you, buddy?" The dragon nodded, then gestured with his head at Ender, obviously telling him to get on.

His foot found the right place with a little effort, and he hoisted himself up. Then Ender reached for the safety strap, yanking it down and making a neat little knot to make sure it stayed in place. He pressed his hands to Toothless's sides, at first - he could always grab a hold of Hiccup if it was really necessary.

"This is a new experience," he said, wryly.

Hiccup just grinned over his shoulder. "Hang on." Toothless shuffled his feet in the sand, gathered himself, then launched himself - not straight up in the air, as he was wont to do, but rather up and out at a reasonable angle. He was moving, for a Night Fury, fairly slowly, where slowly is fast enough to make the wind whistle over his wings. "You okay back there?"

Ender was quickly finding that the placement of his hands wasn't quite working. He tried to grip the saddle next, but even that still left him at an awkward angle.

"I can handle it," he called back, shutting his eyes briefly to reorient himself. Travelling into the sky at a speed like this always played havoc on your senses-- that part wasn't unfamiliar.

Hiccup could feel him shifting around, and so could Toothless. With another powerful wingbeat, Toothless reached a satisfactory altitude and levelled out, gliding smoothly along. "What do you think?"

"I think I should stop making friends who like to drive things very fast," Ender said, mock-seriously, then sobered. Chiefly because he'd finally steadied out, and now he could peer down, and experience the rush that was a little like floating through the Battle Room, except not quite. "It's really something," he said, sounding more solemn, sincere.

Hiccup worked the lever and Toothless canted into a smooth sideways glide, taking them in a circle around the island. "Better than anything," he replied, sounding calm and happy as he looked back over his shoulder at Ender. "And this is nothing!" Hiccup might be a little proud of his dragon, yes. "When we get going, we can hit around eight, ten times this fast."

"I'm not sure whether to encourage you in that," he said, wryly, rubbing idly at Toothless's side as they moved. "But it is pretty amazing." And he really meant it. He'd have more words - more sophisticated words for it, but the truth was fairly simple. It felt like drifting - on his raft again, except back the first time, when that was all he wanted. "Definitely better than an airplane."

Edited 2010-05-27 08:23 (UTC)

"We won't go that fast with someone else on board," Hiccup said, a laugh in his voice. Toothless tilted an ear back, and Hiccup reached down to pat him, then pointed at the ocean below.

With a gentle tilt of his wings, the dragon slid aideways, angling his body through the air, drifting downwards until one wingtip trailed through the water, sending up plumes of foam behind them.

Ender grinned, although the sudden tilt did mean he had to grab Hiccup's side once to keep himself steadily in place. He was confident he'd get a grip on the dragon's movements pretty quickly, but right now, everything was a little new.

"I've flown before," he confided. "A friend of mine has portable wings, believe it or not."

Hiccup turned around to stare at Ender in surprise, one hand braced on the saddle's edge. Even Toothless craned his head around to stare as he flattened out. "Portable wings?"

"They keep you afloat," he agreed, "It's mostly a magic thing - I don't think dissecting it would lead to anywhere worthwhile, unfortunately."

Which reminded him of a conversation he'd had. "Magic is real here?" he asked. "A couple of people have talked about it, but I don't know...it seemed a bit farfetched." Said the boy viking with the pet dragon.

"I think it's the multiversal aspect of the island," Ender said; he let go of Hiccup's side and planted his hand more firmly on Toothless's. "Everyone's abilities work here - whether you call them magic or science. It is farfetched. Back home, magic is just a fiction." Beat. "As are dragons, by the way."

Hiccup grinned and turned around to face front again as they began slowly climbing higher, Toothless' wing beats slow and easy. "This place is pretty incredible, huh?"

"It has its moments," Ender agreed, "As long as you don't get caught up in the whimsy of it all."

He was faintly aware that riding on a dragon's back was probably whimsy, too, but it was too real to chalk up in that category - especially with the memory of what little Hiccup had told him about the war.

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Serenity Cove, mid-day Wednesday

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