"Are you sure your dad will be ok with this?" Erick asked me for what felt like the hundredth time. He sat on the edge of his bed, wringing his hands like he always did when he was nervous. I was laying on it behind him, hands behind my head and staring up at the ceiling. My long brown hair was a mess, splayed out over his pillow, but I was still recovering from our...session. "Erick, it's fine." I said. "What dad doesn't know won't hurt him."

"But he kind of does know." Erick said, still wringing his hands. "He's already been giving me looks in the dining hall."

"He looks at everyone like that." I said in an irritated huff, shaking my head and sitting up. "Look, you're gonna have to stop worrying about him so much."

"I'm not worried about myself really." he said, turning to look at me, his cute face still convering his nervousness. If there was one thing about Erick that drew me to him, it was his expressiveness. None of the other boys in the village conveyed their feelings like he did. "Him and my mom get along too well, so I won't be the one in trouble."

I snorted. "So what? Last time we got caught, all he did was growl at me a bit. Nothing he hasn't done before."

"Last time, we were just sitting together in the mead hall." he said, raising an eyebrow. "How do you think he'd react if he figured out about you sneaking into my room at dusk?"

"So...what you're saying is you want me to stop coming?" I asked, trying to look hurt, but inside I was holding back a laugh at his suddenly guilty expression.

"That's...that's not what I said..." he mumbled, rubbing the back of his head and turning away.

I scooted over to him and grabbed his shoulder, pulling him down onto the pillow with me. He smiled and seemed to be calming down a little now.

"Relax, like I said, what he doesn't know won't-"

I was cut off as suddenly the door flew open, making both Erick and I jump. We both quickly turned to look at who had opened it, and my heart sunk as I saw that it was Errol Thornback, local village fisherman...and also my father. He stood there, staring at us laying in bed together, expression completely neutral save for one of his black eyes twitching. Both Erick and I stared back, neither of us daring to move, him out of fear, me out of defiance...ok, maybe a bit of fear.

A woman walked up beside my dad, looking confusedly at him, before laying eyes on us and putting her hands on her hips. "Erick Drakehunter." she said, smirking at us. "You are a little devil."

Erick pulled away, blushing hard and trying to avoid eye contact with either of the adults standing there. "Hey mom...and uh, hello Mr. Thornback." he muttered, looking at me with a face that screamed that this was all my fault. I rolled my eyes and sat up, trying to look nonchalant as I redid my hair back into it's usual ponytail.

"Looks like I was right Beatris." my dad finally said, turning to look at Erick's mother. "Told you she'd be here."

Erick's mom sighed. "I kind of suspected it myself, though honestly, his father was the same way. Here's hoping he takes after him in other ways as well." she said, with an amused wink towards her son.

"Mom!" he exclaimed, blushing hard. "Not in front of her..."

My dad turned to face me. "Caitriona, let's go. You and I need to talk." I gave a humph in reply, but otherwise didn't say anything as I approached the door.

"Nice to see you again young lady." Erick's mother said as I walked past. "You're always welcome here, though preferably with my knowing about it."

"Don't count on that." I mumbled under my breath, and I could have sworn I heard my dad say the exact same thing as he followed me out.

The entire walk home, dad was practically breathing down my neck. I could hear him grumbling behind me, but I didn't bother trying to make it out; I would be hearing it when we got home anyways. As we approached the front door to our house, I reached a hand out to whip it open, thinking that perhaps I could run upstairs and ruin any chance for him to confront me.

No such luck. The door was locked.

My dad sighed deeply behind me, and I moved aside, crossing my arms tightly in front of me. He stepped forward with the key, then turned to look at me.

"We're going to talk about this." he said bluntly, in a way that made it clear my desperate plan wouldn't have worked anyway. I shrugged my shoulders in response, trying to appear nonchalant despite my heart beating in my chest.

He opened the door and let me go in first. I refused to make eye contact as I did so, and I heard the door shut behind me. I turned around, arms still crossed and looking down at the floor.

"Sit down at the table." he said, taking off his boots and helmet, revealing matted and sweaty black hair. I turned around with another humph and headed to the table, wondering how I should approach this conversation. He wasn't yelling yet, and from what I could tell, he probably didn't want to. Perhaps I should give him a listen...

He sighed and ran a hand back through his hair, looking more tired than angry now. "Catriona, I don't want you hanging around with that boy..." he began, rubbing the back of his head.

"Why not?!" I blurted out, interrupting him. He looked up at me and narrowed his eyes. So much for listening.

"First off, you will not interrupt me." he practically growled. "Second, I don't need you doing something stupid while you're still young."

"I wasn't being stupid." I replied indignantly. "We were just...look, we didn't do anything." I blushed at that. Talking about this with dad was so much more awkward than it had been with mom.

"You were in his bed with your hair down." my dad said, raising an angry eyebrow at me. "And in any case, you were there without my knowledge, nor his mother's."

"You can ask him, we didn't do anything." I said, looking down at the ground and for a moment picturing Erick and I together, going further than what we had.

My dad rolled his eyes. "Look Cait, I just don't want you to make a mistake when it comes to choosing a suitor. You should really be looking at some of the other men of the village."

"Men?" I chuckled. "Have you seen how some of the other boys carry themselves? All pompous and complete blowhards?"

"They can at least carry an axe." dad said. "Erick, as pleasant as he may be, struggles to even lift one off the rack."

"I'm not gonna marry someone and have their kids just because they can lift an axe." I said defiantly.

Dad sighed. "Yes you will." he muttered coldly.

I gasped and stared at him, watching as he realized what he just said, out loud, to his own daughter.

"Cait..." he said. "I don't mean to be so-"

"I hate you." I breathed, recovering and narrowing my eyes at him.

His eyes widened and he stopped. "W-what?" he asked dumbly.

"I hate you!" I repeated, louder this time.

He stared, and I could tell that my words had stung him deeply, which was more than I expected. We sat there together, neither of us saying a word for the longest time. Then, he slowly stood up, got his boots and helmet on, and opened the door. He turned around as if to say something, and I could have sworn I saw his eyes looking bloodshot, but he just as quickly turned back and left, closing the door behind him.

"Good riddance." I muttered, standing up and heading upstairs to my room. It didn't matter to me all that much that I had hurt my dad emotionally, all I cared about what that I didn't have to hear any more from him. At least right now...

…

I don't remember falling asleep in my dad's arms, so it was a bit of a shock when I woke up and found his concerned eyes staring into mine. He pulled his hand back with a guilty expression, and I realized he had been touching one of the horns of my head.

My heart raced as the emotions from earlier that morning bubbled up again, but I didn't have any more tears to give. There was a dryness in my eyes that told me I had cried myself to sleep, but I hadn't done so for very long. Still, I wondered how long he had been holding me in his arms...he was so warm and comforting...

"Caitriona." he said. Then he paused and peered at me. "You can understand me right?" I gave a quick and short nod, wanting to hear what he had to say.

"Ok, look, I know this is a scary time for you right now, but I just want you to know that I'm still your father." he said. "I love you, and I'll take care of you, no matter if you're a dragon." From how he was saying all of this, it sounded as though he had rehearsed it a few times, propaby while I was sleeping. It didn't matter though, for I could already feel my anxiety beginning to fade a little.

"I don't know if you heard me earlier, but you're not the only one who got changed." he continued. "From what I saw, it looks like every child in the village, from the teens on down, has turned into dragons."

I took this all in passively, giving a simple nod in response. Dad eyed me strangely, as though he had expected me to react differently, but I waved a paw at him to go on.

"I don't know why this happened." he said, frustration evident in every syllable. "All I know is that I was coming back from the mead hall, then I heard Beatris screaming." He paused for a moment. "I don't think I've ever heard her scream like that."

It took me a second to remember who he was talking about. Beatris didn't sound familiar, until I remembered that it was Erick's mom's na-oh Odin Erick!

"I ran to her, and she was outside of her house, hysterical and saying that there was a dragon in her home. A couple of other men and I grouped up and went inside, and that's when we saw it...him."

My eyes widened as I realized where this was going. No...they didn't...

"It had to have been a Night Fury, I'm sure of it." he said. "The scales, the eyes...everything about it just screamed death. I remember the eyes...it looked hostile..." he trailed off, looking at me gulitily.

"Cait, please don't hate me. If I knew then what I know now..." he said, adjusting his arms and putting a hand on my chest. I stared at him, thoughts whirring. What had they done?

"We all attacked." he said, and I could see his eyes glaze over, recalling the scene from memory. "Swords and axes in hand. I remember the cry it gave as it tried to avoid us, but we were relentless. It was a dragon, we were Vikings. We were only doing our jobs." He sighed and looked away from me out the window.

"How could we have known it was Erick?"

My heart stopped. I had already suspected that it was what had happened, but that didn't stop me from feeling every emotion that it was possible to feel then and there. In a way, it was worse. Remorse for Erick. Anger at dad. Sympathy for Erick's mom. Guilt at my own survival.

"It was a mess of a fight." he said. "It was so cramped in the room, the dragon kept knocking things over in it's struggle to get away. I was puzzled as to why it didn't fight back, I think the other's were too, but we were lost in the moment."

I was barely listening at this point, I knew how this story was going to end. They had killed him, the only boy worth a damn thing in this place. Regret filled me...I wish I had said more, done more-

"He got away."

I did a double take. A smidgeon of hope began to grow inside me again.

"I don't think he even knew how he did it looking back now. All I remember is a great flash of blue and suddenly the back wall of the room was gone." dad said, sounding almost in awe of what he was describing. "We all just stood there stunned for a moment, even the dragon...Erick did. At least before he ran off."

I breathed out, not having realized I had been holding my breath as I listened.

"Then we started hearing more screams, and suddenly there were dragons everywhere." he said. "In the village square, in the smithy, in the dining hall, just everywhere all at once." His expression darkened. "I'm sorry to say that some of them weren't as lucky as Erick before we realized what was going on."

My heart sank. I had been one of the lucky ones. Then I looked down at my new paws, and realized I probably wasn't.

"It all happened so fast, there was no way for us to know Cait." dad said, almost pleadingly. "I...I don't want to imagine what would have happened had I been here, and found you like this."

I gripped my dad's arm softly, being careful not to hurt him with my claws. He stared down at me, eyes looking ready to cry, which took me aback. He didn't say anything more, but in his face was everything I needed to know. I couldn't help but feel guilty. I understood we were just Vikings, it's an occupational hazard to be attacked by dragons. But when said dragons were your own children...

"Caitriona..." he said, but a choke interrupted him. His eyes began to look bloodshot, and wrapped his arms tight around me, using the hand closest to my head to stroke my cheek. "...I love you so much."

I looked up at him, my own eyes starting to water. I had already cried for myself. Now I guess it was time to cry for the others, and what could've been...

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