Fixing What Was Lost: Final

Sorry for the delay, some personal stuff has been going on recently. This was supposed to go out yesterday, and I didn't get the chance to go over it too much, so there may be some mistakes.

Anyway, as always, enjoy the chapter! If you guys have any suggestions on what I can add or do to make the story better for you all, just let me know in the comments. I do read them.

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The next day, I was out at the cove with Toothless early in the morning again. I spent some time trying to figure out how to control his flight. Honestly, what I came up with was the stupidest idea possible, but it was a start.

I had tied a string to Toothless' tailfin to pull and control its movement. But, as I expected, it failed miserably. After that failed attempt, it was another tough day of training and rest. At night, I realized I needed a better way to ride Toothless, so after a few hours in the forge, I made a saddle for myself.

The next morning, I tried to get it onto him, but the dumb dragon made me chase him around. Eventually, we started flying a little better, but I still needed a way to control the tailfin. I racked my brain for hours until I ultimately came up with a mechanism that let me click the prosthetic into different positions.

The next day, I tested the different gears I could place the tailfin in, and most of them worked perfectly. Unfortunately, testing while strapped to a dragon wasn't the best idea. The wind under Toothless' wings pushed us backward. Luckily, it wasn't a terrible crash, and I found out that dragons love a certain grass called dragon nip.

Toothless loved the stuff. I started using it to get an edge in training, making it easier for me to pass than the others. Because of how quickly I was handling the dragons in training, I started drawing too much attention for my liking. Astrid saw my progress and decided to make me her rival, even though she said it was just a friendly competition between friends.

'She's a crazy one.' I sighed as I grabbed some supplies I was going to need for Toothless.

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Third Person POV

One ship. Out of the dozen that left berk, only one could be seen returning to Berk. The vessel was visibly damaged, burn marks marred its wooden frame, and pieces were broken off.

The sail was shredded with gaping holes in it, and the mast was leaning toward one side of the ship. Vikings swarmed the docks to help those who had just returned.

The wounded were quickly taken care of and escorted to be treated by the only healer they had, while the rest gathered whatever remaining supplies they could find and hauled them off the ship. Stoick was the last to leave, a Viking helping him out as he took a barrel in one arm.

"Well… I trust you found the nest at least?" Gobber asked as he walked beside the man.

"No, we weren't even close…" Stoick responds, his fists tightening at the memory of more of his men, good men and women, failing to make it home, a grim reminder of what they were fighting to accomplish.

If they couldn't locate the nest, the casualties and deaths would only increase. Berk was already worn down, and many of their warriors were either too injured or dead.

Gobber sighed as they continued their walk along the docks. It was a quiet moment for the two friends before Stoick decided to break it.

"I hope you had a little more success than I did. How is Helga's training?"

"Well, to put it bluntly, she has exceeded either of our expectations. The leadership and unwavering will she's shown is far more than I thought she'd have."

"I see… Do you think it's because of Kaarik's disappearance?" Stoick asked out of the blue.

"I can only assume so… She seems a bit more distant than I last remember." Gobber sighed as they reached the town.

"I'll have to have a talk with her later. Where is she anyway?"

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Helga's POV

"Alright, Toothless, we're going to take this nice and slow. Mmm, position two, no, five." Looking at the sheet I had attached to Toothless' saddle.

I barely memorized all the gears that I had made, so the sheet helped with that. Clicking the prosthetic tailfin into the desired position, we dove toward the sea.

We glided above the water, Toothless' wings skimming the surface as I smiled at how smoothly the mechanism was working.

"Alright, so far so good. How about this?" Shifting the tailfin into another position, I tried turning Toothless in one direction, only for us to fly directly into a sea stack.

Toothless grunted, turning his head to look at me in annoyance.

"Sorry, that was my bad." I tried another position only to once again fly into another sea stack.

Growling, Toothless tilted his head with one swift motion, slapped me across the face with his ear.

"Ow! Ok! Jeez, I'm on it." Shifting the gears again, we began to ascend, climbing higher and higher into the sky.

The feeling of flying was exhilarating. Never in my whole life did I think this would be possible, and yet, here I am.

We continued to ascend before I tried looking at my sheet of paper with the gear positions on it. Unfortunately, the wind tore it from its resting place.

"My guide!" Almost immediately, my hand shot out to grab it.

I was so focused on trying to get it back that I didn't realize I had accidentally unhooked myself from Toothless. Without me to control Toothless' tail fin, we began to free-fall.

"Toothless!"

The ground was approaching fast, and I was nowhere near as close as I wanted to be to Toothless.

"Aw, screw it!" I didn't have any more time to think.

Letting go of my sheet of paper, I dove toward Toothless and rehooked myself to the saddle. Shifting the gears into place, Toothless corrected himself almost immediately, his wings opening to catch the wind and slow our descent.

As if someone took control of my body, I clicked the gears of the tailfin one after another as we weaved through pillars of stone.

It was as if we were one, my body leaning into each twist and turn Toothless made. And by the time I realized it, we were out of danger and gliding smoothly through the air.