The roof, Saturday morning earlyish

[abitlegless.livejournal.com]

It was quiet on the roof this morning. The plants waved gently in the breeze and all was peaceful.

Until it was buzzed by a boy on a dragon.

They circled the dorms once, twice, three times before Toothless backwinged for a landing, dropping neatly onto the roof. Toothless' bright red prosthetic tailfin wasn't responding as well as it should, and this was a handy place to stop and check it out.

Hiccup was grinning, but then he always was after a flight. He unclipped his safety strap, swung his leg over and slid down, then paused, looking out over Fandom. It was both like and unlike Berk: tiny island, lots of buildings, taller in the middle than it was at the edges. Had its share of crazy people.

Toothless nudged him, making an impatient, demanding rumble, then pointed his nose at the harness. "All right, buddy," Hiccup said, turning back to the dragon. "Let's see if we can figure out what's making it stick."

[OOC: Open wheeee!]

Comments

[once-a-traitor.livejournal.com]

Edmund wasn't often on the roof, but he came up of a morning from time to time to get some fresh air and look out over the island and surrounding waters. He hadn't been expecting someone to be there before him, or for one half of said someones to be a dragon.

"Is that a dragon?" he blurted out. "Sorry, that was rude." Fandom was becoming a decidedly bad influence on him.

[wrongkindofsith]

Cara wasn't stalking Hiccup, exactly.

Well, fine this morning she was, but the dragon had been flying and she'd wanted to watch up closer. "Hiccup. Toothless." Positively gushing she was.

[abitlegless.livejournal.com]

"He's a dragon alright," Hiccup said without turning around, because one hand was holding a buckle, and the other was holding the lever, and he didn't have a third hand to grab that bit of leather and he couldn't quite get it with his teeth.

Toothless, however, gave the new boy an interested look.

"And that's not rude, not at all, rude would be, 'get that dragon off the roof, it's blocking my view'. Your question was just sensible."

[abitlegless.livejournal.com]

"Cara, just the person I want to see!" Okay, it was a slight exaggeration, because at that point he'd be happy to see anyone with working hands. "You couldn't do me a favour, and just pass that strap over Toothless' back, could you?" It was cinched up under the dragon's belly and threaded through a metal ring, but it was dangling back down towards the ground.

Hiccup looked over his shoulder and smiled at her imploringly. "It just needs to go behind his wings, there." He pointed with his chin because his hands were full of other straps.

[once-a-traitor.livejournal.com]

Edmund watched them for a moment. "Do you need a hand?" The dragon didn't seem aggressive.

[abitlegless.livejournal.com]

Hiccup threw a smile over his shoulder. "If you wouldn't mind passing me that strap there." It was lying along the side of Toothless' tail, dangling just above his hip. Hiccup hadn't thought this through very well when he decided to make adjustments with the harness still on the dragon. "I'm Hiccup, feel free to laugh at the name, and this is Toothless."

[wrongkindofsith]

Cara nodded and reached for the strap in question, making sure it wasn't twisted as she placed it behind Toothless's wings. "It's just like saddling a horse." A big scaly horse with wings.

[abitlegless.livejournal.com]

Toothless craned his head around to watch, and gave her an approving sort of snort, unfurling his wings above her head.

"I've never seen a horse," he admitted as he shifted the straps he was holding to one hand, grabbed the end of the strap Cara had passed him, and slipped them through the buckles, tightening them carefully. "Sheep, dragons, more sheep, more dragons, lots of fish, but no horses. They say my father's father's father saw a pony once, but he might have been drinking a bit too much mead."

[once-a-traitor.livejournal.com]

"I'm Edmund," he replied, walking over and grabbing the strap with a wary eye on the dragon. He offered it to Hiccup. "What are the straps for?"

[abitlegless.livejournal.com]

"Thanks." He took it with a quick smile, then slipped it through the guide ring, nimble fingers working quickly to put the harness back in place. "The straps are mostly so I don't fall off, because believe me that is no fun at all, but that strap there," he nodded at the one Edmund had handed him, "controls his tailfin, and that's what lets us fly."

Toothless looked over his shoulder, eyes wide and bright, and let out an excited chirruping sound. "I know, buddy, it'll be ready in a minute."

He grinned at Edmund. "He really likes to fly."

[wrongkindofsith]

That sounded like a lot of sheep and dragons.

"I learnt to ride when I became a Mord'Sith." And she decided right there and then she wasn't going to mention to Hiccup most of the other things she learnt at the same time. "They skipped the pony stage though."

[abitlegless.livejournal.com]

Hiccup looked at her curiously as he tested the straps. "What exactly is a Mord'Sith? If it's not rude to ask, which, okay, if it is I've already done, but you could just not answer it and pretend I asked about the weather or something."

[once-a-traitor.livejournal.com]

"He lets you fly with him?" Why yes, this was an awful lot of questions for a first meeting.

[once-a-traitor.livejournal.com]

Edmund nodded in greeting. He recognised her from the workshops they had together.

[abitlegless.livejournal.com]

Hiccup was all about the questions; asking them or answering them, he was happy either way. "Together is the only way we can fly," he explained. "See the red fin?" He pointed at the end of Toothless' tail, who obligingly swung it towards Edmund so he could see more easily. "He lost his real one, so I made that one to replace it. I control it with a lever and he does the rest." He gave a final tug on the strap, flipped the lever up and down, checking its action, and stepped back. "But it was sticking this morning, which is why we stopped in on the roof."

[once-a-traitor.livejournal.com]

Edmund was watching Toothless curiously until he realised again that he was being rude, and stopped himself. "That's quite the set-up. Did you make it yourself?"

[wrongkindofsith]

Not rude so much as hard to answer. Most people who knew of the Mord'Sith didn't want to know more about them.

"A member of the Sisterhood of the Agiel," she answered, double-checking the harness on her side to make sure it was secure. "We defend and serve the Lord Rahl."

[wrongkindofsith]

Cara nodded back. She recognised him as the poor bastard chosen to assist the insane teacher.

[abitlegless.livejournal.com]

Toothless felt no such compunction and eyed Edmund in a friendly enough manner.

"That's all my work, but it went wrong a lot more than it went right when we were working it out. Spent a lot of time going between dragon and forge and back again." Sneaking between, praying no one noticed him or found Toothless, but that wasn't important. "And then there was the time a buckle got jammed and I had to fit him into the blacksmith's...but nothing like that happens anymore."

[once-a-traitor.livejournal.com]

"Good craftsmanship," Edmund remarked. "Are you a blacksmith yourself?"

[once-a-traitor.livejournal.com]

After a few moments, he spoke. "I see you survived yesterday well."

[abitlegless.livejournal.com]

"And that completely clears things up for me," he said, smiling to show he wasn't serious. "Sounds interesting, at least." And no wonder she reminded him of Astrid, what with the whole warrior woman thing going on. "Do you like it at least?"

[abitlegless.livejournal.com]

"I was apprenticed to one, Gobber, but he's more a weaponssmith. I can do a bit of everything: smith, sharpen weapons, build things, sew just about anything." He patted Toothless' shoulder and the dragon turned his head to nudge him impatiently. "You need a tunic hemmed or a bit of mail mended and I'm your man."

[once-a-traitor.livejournal.com]

Edmund brightened. "Curious happenstance. Some of my leather armour is in need of repair. I was going to wait until I went home next, but if you're offering, I'd be happy to work something out with you." Don't mind him. He was a tiny bit gleeful at finding a random weaponssmith on the roof. "My sword could use some proper skilled sharpening too," he added hesitantly. He wasn't sure yet about letting someone handle his sword.

[abitlegless.livejournal.com]

"Leather armour I can do with what I brought with me, no problem, just let me know when and where, but a sword," Hiccup shook his head, "I didn't exactly come equipped for swords. I mean, I can work on it with whatever you've got, Odin knows I've had enough practice, but I don't have any of the tools I'd need to a proper job."