Hello, friends! Here's that one-shot I promised you. It may seem rather irrelevant now, but I imagine those of you reading Choices, Change, and Fate will understand its purpose soon enough.

For anyone who has clicked on this without having read Of the Night or the sequel, might I suggest doing so? :)

Anyways, just a short little something to tide you over until Friday. Cheers!

Ash waited patiently outside the Academy for class to get out. She had promised Shade that she would hang out with him today, and she was glad to have escaped sister duty, which basically entailed her following Cinder around and helping him do everything Toothless needed him to do.

Now that Cinder was twenty, Cloudjumper was giving him more and more to do, which on the one paw was an honor, and on the other was a pain in the tail. But her brother never complained, always fulfilling his duties, and Ash couldn't help but take pity on him and help him out on a regular basis, sometimes without Cinder even knowing.

The young Vikings and their dragons slowly filed out of the old arena. I'm so glad it's not used for fighting dragons anymore, she thought, even though she hadn't even been around when the humans had used the space for that purpose. It would be horrible to see a fight take place inside that cage.

Last but not least, Shade bounded out of the hallway, grinning when he saw her, followed by Aeri, who was obviously trying to escape a conversation with an eager Fishlegs.

"That's awesome, Fishlegs. Oh, Ash!" she called, shooting her teacher a quick smile before hurrying over to where the two Night Furies sat.

"He keeps wanting to talk about Night Fury growth patterns, whatever that means," she muttered under her breath to the dragons, glancing out of the corner of her eye to make sure Fishlegs was walking away. Sighing with relief, she placed her arm around Shade's head and pulled him close, rubbing his neck and causing him to smile toothlessly with delight. "I guess you're big for your age, bud," she laughed, and for the first time Ash noticed that Shade was big for his age. He was only ten, but could easily be mistaken for a twelve- or thirteen-year-old. Which meant that, as a male, he was almost as big as she was, at fifteen. Huh.

"I guess you two have plans," Aeri was saying, and she scratched behind Ash's ear in farewell. "I'll see you later, Shade!" With that she walked off, making sure to stay a fair distance behind Fishlegs, who was on his way back to the village as well.

"Ready?" Ash asked the younger Night Fury, who nodded. He wasn't a very talkative dragon, but when he had something to say, you could bet he'd say it, no questions asked. Together they ran over to the edge of the cliff and leapt off, unfurling their wings and allowing the wind to catch them. They chased each other around for a while, sometimes shooting weak plasma blasts at each other, but never making contact.

"Hey, Ash? I'm getting pretty hungry, want to go eat?"

"Sure!"

They flew back to the village, landing near the feeding station, where a couple of Vikings and their dragons were refilling the large bowls with fresh fish. Excellent.

In between fish, they bantered back and forth, joking around with each other. Ash didn't care that Shade was so much younger, he was smart and funny and a good friend. He also did excellent impersonations of the Vikings, which nearly caused Ash to choke on her salmon.

"—what do ye mean, there's a nest o' Terrors in my bed?" he said with the deep accent of some of the older Vikings, and Ash snorted with laughter. She was about to ask what happened next when she heard her name being called.

"Ash?" Turning, she saw Svar and Palo, Holly's younger brothers, landing nearby. If they were here, Holly probably was, too, so Cinder was probably having a pretty good day himself. Palo immediately went straight for the fish, nodding a quick hello to them before digging in. Svar, on the other hand, looked at her intensely for a moment, and Ash frowned slightly.

"Hey, Svar."

"How are you, Ash? Long time, no see," he grinned.

"Oh, you know, same old, same old."

"That's great. Listen, if you're done babysitting this twerp, you wanna go flying?" Ash's eyes widened, and she looked over at Shade, who looked like he was ready to tear out the older Night Fury's throat.

"Actually, we were just—"

"I mean, Holly and Cinder are getting pretty serious, so we should probably spend some time together too, right? Make sure we all get along. Holly also figured you could show me around the island, seeing as how I'm probably going to be around more often." Ash wasn't sure she liked Svar bringing up her brother's relationship as a bargaining tool, but she supposed he had a point.

"Shade, do you care if I go with Svar for a while? I promise we can hang out some other time," she said, feeling bad.

He gave her a look that she couldn't decipher. "I don't mind at all. Have fun, Ash. Nice to see you again, Svar," he added a bit sarcastically, before turning back to the fish.

Svar looked like he wanted to whack Shade, so Ash quickly stepped between them. "All right, let's go, I guess."

Svar sniffed with disdain. "Later, Palo," he casually said to his brother, then turned and took off. Ash glanced over at Shade's back one last time, wishing the she wasn't always stuck with Svar, but she didn't have much of a choice. Holding back a sigh she leapt skyward, hoping that Svar would get bored of her quickly so that she could escape. He was rather full of himself, which was obnoxious enough, but he was also a pretty demanding dragon who always expected to get what he wanted. Putting all that aside, she decided to be pleasant and try to enjoy herself regardless.

Once she had taken off, Shade turned back around, scowling slightly as he watched them fly away. He had never liked Svar. And now that he was always hanging around Ash, he liked him even less. She was his best friend! Not his babysitter. Oh, when he was older, Svar would regret talking to him that way. But for now, there was nothing he could do, and fighting back a wave of strange sorrow and jealousy, he walked away from the fish, wondering where Storm was.

Oh how I want to tell you all what's going to happen. Virtual cake to any of you who has an idea of where this is going!