Chapter 21: Healing

Hiccup's POV

The next day, Gobber lumbered into my house, holding a bundle in his arms.

"One new leg and modified saddle, fresh from the forge!" he announced.

I had been doodling in my notebook, looking at the Flightmare's page in the Book of Dragons and brainstorming ideas with little luck. It's hard to prepare for a dragon you've never seen, and even harder when said dragon only appears once a decade; the Book of Dragons had about as much information on the Flightmare as it did on the Night Fury. I looked up, setting aside the notebook and welcoming the distraction.

Gobber unraveled the bundle on the table next to my bed, where he revealed a wooden cup attached to a device consisting of two pieces of metal with a spring in between. There was also a brand new saddle and a bright red tailfin with a white skull painted on.

I blinked in surprise. "You made a whole new tailfin?"

Gobber chuckled. "Aye; I did teach you everything you know, after all, an' you left yer designs in the back of the forge. Didn't take much to tweak the pedal for a fake limb."

Right. Between Astrid sneaking up on me in the cove and the catastrophe in the Ring with the Nightmare, I kind of forgot about the traitorous evidence in my workshop; it's a wonder no one bothered to look in there.

I pulled the furs off of my lower body, staring at the bandaged stump of my left leg. Gobber patted my shoulder sympathetically.

"I'm sorry lad," he said softly, "Losing a limb is never a picnic, especially at yer age." Gobber picked up the prosthetic. "Ready to get back on yer feet…er, foot?" He scratched the back of his neck with his hook sheepishly.

I cracked a small smile at Gobber's poor choice of words. "As ready as I'll ever be."

Truthfully, being stuck in bed since waking up was driving me crazy. My dad was keeping an abnormally close watch on me to make sure I didn't get out of bed; which was worlds better than being ignored, but cabin fever was starting to hit and I desperately wanted to get back outside and up in the air. Not that he had much to worry about; being down half a limb kind of hindered my ability to walk.

Gobber set the fake limb down on my bed and nodded at me. I took a breath and fit my stump into the cup. The limb fit like a glove, but I wasn't sure how it would stay on when I lifted my leg to take a step until Gobber, seemingly reading my mind, handed me a short length of rope and gestured at the pant leg rolled up past my knee. Swallowing nervously, I rolled the pant leg down until it covered the cup, wrapped the rope around the limb, and tied a firm knot. Instantly, my stump flared up with a slow burn of protest, but I ignored the pain and swung my legs over the side of my bed.

With my foot and the metal end of the prosthetic on the floor, my stump settled slightly into the cup, causing the burn to throb painfully against the wooden edges. I took a couple of breaths as the pain slowly decreased, and as soon as it had gone down to a level I felt I could handle, I stood up, keeping all my weight on my right leg and holding onto the bedpost for balance.

I don't know how to describe what I was feeling at that moment. It was bizarre; I was standing on two legs, mostly, but I only had the feeling of one foot touching the ground; the other limb ended in a light pressure where flesh met wood. I looked over at Gobber and Toothless, who were watching me carefully, and smiled hesitantly, though I was sure it was more of a grimace.

I carefully lifted my left leg, moved it forward, and lowered it back to the floor. Swallowing nervously, I slowly shifted my weight forward so I was balanced between both legs.

Instantly, my stubbed leg screamed in protest and I fell forward, landing awkwardly on a black, scaly neck; Toothless had darted forward the second I had started falling, whining in concern.

"Thanks, bud," I gasped, allowing the Night Fury to nudge me back onto the bed, crooning worriedly with pupils blown wide.

I tried to undo the knot holding the prosthetic to my flesh, but my hands were shaking so much Gobber had to undo it for me and set the fake limb aside.

"I'll go get Gothi," he sighed, "You stay…put. There. You know what I mean." I was about to protest that I had just demonstrated how I couldn't go anywhere even if I wanted to, but Gobber had already lumbered out the door with his trademark tap-thump rhythm.

The pressure on my stump from the bandages was starting to irritate my already-sore limb, so I unwrapped the cloth and grimaced in disgust. The rounded end of the shorter appendage was an angry red and swollen, making me groan in misery; at this rate, I'd be lucky to be out of bed by the time the Flightmare arrived, let alone walking on my power.

Toothless whined sadly as he looked at the irritated skin before looking up at me with big, intelligent eyes. I patted his head to try and comfort him, but he kept staring at my leg as if he was responsible for my pain. The sleek dragon leaned forward, sniffing the wound, and then licked it as gently as he could. My breath hitched as the contact with the coarse, wet tongue elicited a brief flare of pain before cooling into a dull ache.

I stared at my leg in astonishment for a few seconds before moving my gaze to Toothless. The Night Fury nodded in satisfaction and flashed his pink gums at me in a grin as the redness located on the end of the limb started to slowly fade and the swelling gradually reduced to a less worrying level.

Before I could say anything, the door opened once again to admit Gobber with Gothi hobbling along behind him. The wizened healer lumbered over to me and looked at my leg carefully. Her eyes widened slightly as she glanced from me to my leg to Toothless, who had scooted back to allow room for Gothi to work with a slightly smug look on his draconic face. Gothi's eyebrows raised as she proceeded to poke at my stump while glancing at my face to gauge my reaction; aside from the odd pressure of the numbed appendage being prodded, the stump felt less like a dragon was chewing on it and more like it was submerged in water.

Gothi stepped back to toss some sand on the floor and trace her unique runes. Very few in the village had the patience to learn another set of symbols, so Gobber usually ended up translating for the elder.

"She says that it appears Night Furry-ow! Fury, fury!-saliva has healing…proportions?" Gobber scratched his head in confusion for a second before Gothi whacked him with her staff again. "Oh, properties! Night Fury saliva has healing properties. Tha' makes more sense."

Gothi smiled at me as she gestured to the prosthetic that laid abandoned on the floor, pat Toothless' head, and wandered back out into the rare sunshine Berk had been blessed with recently.

Gobber helped me tie the prosthetic onto my stump again and watched as I gripped the bedpost determinedly, pushing myself to a standing position with a warble of encouragement from Toothless.

The first attempt I had been in too much pain to notice anything substantial, but now I had this bizarre feeling of pressure at a different height on each leg and a vague lack of balance on the left 'foot.' Taking a deep breath, I slowly put one foot in front of the other, Toothless acting as a sort of crutch on my left as I limped towards the door for the first time since the day I went head to head with Astrid in the training arena.

I hope everyone's doing okay; there's an awful lot of crap going on around the world lately. Part of the reason I started writing this fic was because I felt like I belonged in this community and wanted to give back; unfortunately, there are people who would take advantage of that and use it for their own purposes. If anyone needs an ear, my message box is open. I'm not too good at expressing myself and I get self-conscious about stuff like this, but I'm always willing to listen, even if you just need someone to vent to.

As of 6/13/2020, I've gone back through every chapter with Grammarly to try and improve the quality of writing. Unfortunately, the areas I need the most help with require a paid subscription, and since this is purely a hobby, I don't consider it worth the money, but I like to be sure my writing is as clean as grammatically possible.