"So let me see if I've got this straight." Heather stuck a twig upright into a circular depression in the sand by her crossed legs, noting that the moon was so bright it actually threw a faint shadow. "You were offered everything on a silver platter, and instead decided to publicly say a nice big-"
"No thank you," Maour hastily cut her off. "Yes, correct."
She held in a grin. For someone who had done that, he was easy to embarrass. "After killing the thing everybody was so excited to finally get at."
"Not like they knew it was there," he muttered. "And it wasn't really me so much as Toothless and Cloey."
"Right." She twisted the stick, driving it further into one of the three eyes visible on a very rudimentary sketch of the Queen dug into the sand. "And why do you call it the Queen, exactly? If anything deserved the title of 'demon', that would be it. What made it different?"
"Aside from its size?" Maour shrugged. "The name just fit."
Right. He was lying this time. She could read him, the oddity with the names notwithstanding.
He was lying about a lot of this, actually. Or leaving things out. Sure, the story made sense… if she assumed he was the luckiest now ex-Viking in the archipelago. Dragons wouldn't naturally do what he said they did. Toothless would have to be a mind-reader to so easily go along with Maour's every plan. Not once was there mention of confusion, or the difficulty in training a dragon to follow any orders, or anything of the sort. The way he explained it, they both just understood each other. She knew that the Night Fury could understand, but there was never a mention of training, or explaining his plan, or even of miscommunication, which had to have happened. Apparently, everything worked out perfectly in regards to communication, even though one of them couldn't talk. That wasn't possible.
"Why didn't the other one kill you?" She made it sound causal. "You said you were made to fight it in the arena on Berk but ended up flying off on its back. I'm sure that if all it took was not attacking, somebody would have figured it out by now." A child or someone who was injured surely would have stumbled across that little trick, but that wasn't all. She knew, from the rumors Maour didn't know she had heard, that he had spoken to that dragon. This was a test.
"Well… it's a bit more involved, but that's the general idea. Vikings like to attack mindlessly, so I guess it's not so weird nobody put two and two together?" He shrugged as if stymied by that.
Yeah, he was lying again. He had such obvious tells it wasn't even funny. Even reading old bartenders who might or might not turn her over to Berserkers was harder than this, and those guys were all the same, give or take a few warts; a smile if they intended to sell her out, or a lack of interest if they couldn't care less. Or, a sly grin if they intended to slip her something just to ensure they collected any potential bounties, one that meant she needed to leave immediately. High stakes meant fast learning.
But she didn't call him out on any of it. He had reasons to hold back, and she needed to remain on his good side if she wanted to convince him to let her stay permanently. This place, from the very little she had seen of it, was wild but not inhospitable. If he could survive long-term, so could she.
"So…" She looked up, taking in the empty beach. "I'm going to assume they didn't just strand you here. Toothless and…"
"Cloey." A sly grin. "No, of course not. That's one of the many reasons I'd prefer to remain anonymous out here."
She might be far more concerned if it weren't for her confusing encounter with a Night Fury earlier. Cloey? Maour spoke of Toothless as a 'he', and that would bring the dragon count to the two she knew existed, Toothless being the one who checked up on the one she assumed was Cloey. Yes, that made sense…
But he was still hiding way too much for her to be sure.
"So, do I get to meet them, or are they your imaginary friends?" She made her voice skeptical. "I see no proof of any of this."
Maour met her eyes, looking entirely serious. "Would you want to meet them? Because if the honest answer is no, maybe it is all just a story. Maybe I leave you on the shore to flag down a passing ship, and you tell them there's absolutely nothing here worth even thinking about."
She took a moment to honestly consider that veiled offer… but only a moment. "I'd rather meet them."
He chuckled. "Well then, maybe you should turn around before Toothless succeeds in smelling your hair without you knowing about it."
She didn't move. There was no way anything was that quiet. She had spent months on the run, and her senses were-
A soft snort sent a very hot and vaguely fishy wind down the back of her neck.
So much for her senses being good. She blindly stuck a hand behind her, not all that worried, and felt around for a muzzle, assuming it was close. "Quit it."
The dragon, she wasn't sure which yet, nudged her back, warbling at her.
"You're very calm about this," Maour noted with more than a hint of surprise.
Rats. She needed to be less suspiciously okay with this. She scuttled away, moving on her hands and knees across the sand a short way, not bothering to stand. "Define calm."
Some distance created, she turned to look. Yes, if that was a Night Fury, she had definitely interacted with one earlier. This one was a bit bulkier and had green eyes, making him the one Maour called Toothless. He was staring calmly, not advancing.
Hopefully, this one was less pushy. "So that's a Night Fury. They're…" She thought back to the stories, trying to recover what she might have thought if this had actually been a revelation. "Smaller than I assumed they would be."
A disgruntled snort. She noted with amusement that both Maour and the dragon seemed insulted by that.
"I don't think I need to remind you that they're the only dragons Vikings run and hide from," Maour commented.
"Maybe they wouldn't if they knew what they were hiding from." She was pushing him, and she knew it, but it was funny, and she very much doubted he was the kind of person to set a Night Fury on her in retaliation for a joke.
"No, bud, don't tackle her and lick her until she apologizes," Maour abruptly continued, staring at Toothless. "She doesn't deserve that level of punishment."
Was he serious? Now that she thought about it, Toothless did seem to be eyeing her with something in mind… she scooted a little further away.
"Just go for the normal introduction, I think." Maour waved a hand in Heather's direction.
Toothless obediently walked over to her, eyes wide and innocent. She wasn't buying it.
"No licking," she commanded, feeling slightly guilty and somewhat annoyed. This level of interaction didn't match what she had felt with the other dragon earlier, and she was pretty sure both man and dragon here were acting. That, or Toothless was really, really simple compared to the one she assumed was Cloey.
A distinctly deep stare was the only response she got, a nonverbal 'you don't get to tell me what to do'. The dragon, after a good few seconds of that, stuck out its snout.
Clearly, she was supposed to imitate what Maour had told her of doing… "What does this mean, exactly?"
For some reason, that made Maour uncomfortable. "Right now, nothing except 'hello'. But that's not all."
"Hello, then." She put a hand perilously close to the closed mouth, resting it on the nose. "Do I get to meet the other one?"
"Actually…" Maour paused, staring at her. "I mean, you can if you want to. Toothless?"
Toothless cast Maour a long-suffering glance before darting off into the trees.
"He'll be back soon. I think Cloey is probably by the caverns," Maour muttered, cutting himself off quite abruptly.
Something was odd here. She decided to go with a semi-innocent question. "So, how smart are they?"
"Dragons?" Another subtle flinch. She was on the track to something. "Well, smarter than the average Viking, though that's not saying much." He smiled weakly.
"But still not like us," she pushed, thinking of Cloey from earlier even as she said that. Cloey was like her. But Maour didn't know Heather knew that...
"I don't know about that," Maour muttered. "I know a few as questioning and curious as you."
She might have continued that line of questioning, but Toothless interrupted her, followed by-
She held in her shock as well as she could, knowing that what remained could be interpreted as just general shock from seeing another dragon so close.
This was not the Night Fury she had interacted with earlier. The one from before had sported grey eyes and no scars. This one had a strangely scarred back and green eyes, like Toothless.
So Maour knew at least three Night Furies, not two. There was one lie laid bare. An understandable one, all in all, but still a lie.
But she still didn't want to reveal what she knew, so she went through the motions of introducing herself to the other Fury. This one acted just as reserved and careful. Clearly, this was all a carefully scripted act.
"So, now what?" She wanted to know where the script was supposed to lead. "I assume this isn't all there is to your life."
"A beach and a cave," Maour mused. Toothless had sat down beside him, while Cloey disappeared back into the trees. Neither had flown in her presence, oddly. "No, there's more, and given you'll be here at least a few more days, I guess you need to know your way around, at least a little." He stood.
A tour, of sorts, she supposed. "Like what?"
"Well, the garden, for one thing." He shrugged, leading the way. "It's not much, but it means I don't live off of fish alone. That just doesn't work."
"Why not?" That was an interesting statement. "And why fish, anyway? Dragons take livestock."
"Took livestock, and not for themselves." He shoved aside a hanging branch, leading her towards the mountain centered in the background. "But they eat fish, normally. I tried, but it made me sick to only eat fish. And going to villages for food constantly is okay, but it's not safe enough to rely only on that."
Heather didn't ask any more questions, engrossed in making sure she didn't trip. How in the world was he doing this? She could barely see her feet here in the forest, the moonlight filtered and as a result no help whatsoever.
Thankfully, they got there quicker this time around, and walked out into the moonlight of a small, already somewhat overgrown clearing, set against a steep rocky slope, right at the base of the mountain. There were some small plants there, a few potato plants being easiest to recognize.
"I keep this running," Maour explained, kneeling by one of the plants, "and I don't need to go to civilization very often."
He was being very careful to say 'I' and not 'we'. She wasn't sure if that was because of his hiding a third Fury, or if it was something else. "Do the dragons eat any of it?"
"If they're feeling adventurous, but generally they don't care for anything but fish." Maour smirked at the disgruntled rumble coming from the Night Fury, who was stalking through the garden, glaring at the plants.
"And he doesn't like them," Maour quite unnecessarily supplied. "Last time he tried something new, it gave him an upset stomach."
A mocking gurgle emanated from the Night Fury, who sat on his hind legs and mimed kicking out at a nearby bush.
Heather caught Maour's flinch out of the corner of her eye, and noted that Toothless immediately cut it out.
So, they were definitely hiding how intelligent Night Furies were. The question was, why?
That had an easy answer. So that she would underestimate Toothless. If she thought Maour was the only intelligent creature on the island, she would be more likely to play her hand, and also more likely to play it badly.
If she had a hand to play. But this was something she had no interest in spoiling. Let the dragon-man and his Night Furies live in peace here, hidden from the cruel and pointless world. They'd keep her hidden too if she could get permission to stay, and that was all she wanted. A place to hide from the Berserkers.
So, should she tell Maour what she knew?
Something stopped her, a gut feeling that said she had better be entirely certain there were no other big secrets to be learned before she revealed her knowledge.
The rest of that night was spent simply. Heather was given a chance to wash off the grime, dry sweat, and dust of captivity by the small stream that led to the ocean, some fruit and scorched fish to eat, and pretty much nothing else.
"You don't have any spare clothing?" She wasn't in desperate need yet, but it would have been nice.
Maour shrugged apologetically. "Let's just say that if I do, I don't know where it's kept, and I don't have permission to take any." He cast a significant glance at Toothless, who stared right back.
Right. There was no way the dragon had clothes but wasn't sharing them. More things she did not know. "And what do you wear?"
"Armor," Maour replied seriously, tugging at his scale gauntlets. "It's all one thing, underclothes and armor combined. And believe me, this was not easy to make comfortable."
Well, if it was comfortable now… "Fine. It was wishful thinking anyway." She yawned. It was strange, being up this late for absolutely no real reason.
"It'll be sunrise in an hour or so," Maour estimated. "Time to return to the caverns, I think."
She might have objected, but part of her was hoping her guard would be present. So, she said nothing and let Maour leave her there in the same emptied-out side cavern with lit candles and a hanging cloth doorway.
But… how could she be sure it would be the same guard? To check would be to risk being noticed by someone less likely to tolerate her breaking one of the few rules.
The question was resolved when the same black snout and grey eyes pushed the curtain aside. Her friend was back.
"Just get in here," Heather began, standing against the wall. "It's not like I could stop you." After the last encounter, Maour's story, and interacting with Toothless and Cloey, she felt a bit safer.
Her guard quickly slipped in, letting the curtain flutter back. They were in close quarters once again.
This time, there was something else in the mood of the moment. Tension. Something was different.
"What..?" Heather tried not to flinch when a black, soft fin came up and slapped down on her shoulder. "Hey!"
A paw with sharp claws grabbed her leg. Okay, now this was-
Pain erupted in her skull, a sharp splitting headache that slammed into her out of nowhere. She barely even noticed that the dragon had also collapsed, wrapped up in trying to remember how to breathe, falling almost bonelessly, barely missing the shelf on her way down. It wasn't quite bad enough to knock her out on its own, but it was close.
After a while, the pain receded, slowly drawing back and fading for no apparent reason, departing as randomly as it had arrived, if much slower on the way out. Heather kept her eyes closed, sprawled where she had fallen, trying to figure out what had just happened.
It had hit both of them. But not until they had actually made contact.
But she had done the same with both Toothless and Cloey. Nothing had happened…
'There. Now I can be sure.'
A soft but stern voice, one that sounded like it came from a girl around Heather's age, give or take a few years. What-
Heather's eyes shot open, but she saw nobody. There was nobody else around, and the dragon didn't even seem to have heard it, slinking out with its ears down, leaving her alone.
Was she hallucinating? Had one final blow to her sanity broken her? She didn't feel crazy.
'I should talk to myself.'
The voice was still there, sounding like it was right next to her. She spun around, feeling oddly disoriented. Where was it coming from?!
She could feel a strange pulsing from some small part of her mind, but she ignored that. The remnants of that strange headache were nothing compared to this.
'I need to think. How did I get into this mess?'
How did she… was this her own mind speaking to her? No, because she wasn't crazy. But it made sense despite that.
'I should talk out loud.'
It had already said that. She needed to talk out loud? To answer her own mind? Why wouldn't she be able to think at it?
Fine. "I got into this mess because I was caught by Berserkers."
An immediate follow-up. 'I didn't intend to be here.'
"Of course not." The voice didn't feel like her own, but it spoke as if it was a part of her.
'And what do I really want out of this?'
At least these were questions she could answer. "I want to hide here. This place has someone who will keep it secret, even if he does hang out with dragons."
'I could turn him in…' a leading statement.
But she had already gone over this. "But I won't, because that makes no sense. Why should I ruin what he has? I don't benefit from it. The Berserkers will not stop." No reward would be better than a place of secrecy. Besides, Maour was kind enough, and she did sort of owe him for rescuing her, all in all.
'Why are they chasing me?'
"I wish I knew." She sighed. If this voice was her own, it was as if that part of her had memory loss, which was annoying.
'I don't want to hurt or exploit dragons.' A questioning lilt.
"Since when have dragons ever been a problem in my life?" She couldn't help but laugh bitterly. "Humans are the ones that ruin my life at every opportunity."
'And I can manipulate Maour into helping me stay safe. I'm using him.'
"I wouldn't put it like that, but yes." This was getting oddly specific, and that feeling in the back of her head wasn't going away. Were the two really connected? "I'd rather he just let me stay."
'He won't do that until he has satisfied the requirements placed upon him,' the voice said, now speaking far more confidently, and sounding a lot less like how she would think with every word. 'The pack is cautious and my Father is paranoid.'
Pack? Father?
She had been tricked. It hit her like that suspicious headache had, and she groaned in some mix of frustration and embarrassment. How had she not connected the dots? Somehow, Maour and the Night Furies were very good at communicating, and now this other oddness… the grey-eyed Fury had done something to her that let her hear it, or hear someone, in her mind.
And it had immediately played her like a well-worn Viking panpipe, dredging through what she really thought about everything, using her confusion to get unsuspecting, unguarded answers.
"Clever trick," Heather said aloud. "I did think that voice was a bit forgetful, all in all."
'But you still told nothing but the truth,' the female replied smugly. 'I got lucky and smelled it on you.'
This had to be the grey-eyed Fury. "What…" She decided to hold that particular question for later in favor of a more important one. "What did you do to me?"
'I made sure I could question you without you knowing what was going on, because Maour would spend weeks slowly,' and here the voice became heavy with frustration, 'and carefully going over every little thing five times, giving you every opportunity to change your mind and get off the island. My father is already nearly inconsolable. We need to be faster about all of this, even if the pack wouldn't approve. I'm just doing what needed to be done.'
Well… practical, if nothing else. "So I'm really hearing you."
'Yes, but not for long if I decide so.' A strange rumble. 'I am moderately certain we are compatible, but if you put one paw wrong I'll snap this link faster than you can react.'
She spoke as if it was a privilege, which it might be, but Heather didn't see it that way. "Then snap it now, because I never asked for this. You forced it on me!"
Really, the more she thought about it, the worse it felt. "You gained my trust, cornered me, and put something in my head without my consent." She felt betrayed. What else was new? But this hurt more than it should have.
'I did, but it was necessary.' An uncertain growl. 'It was necessary,' she repeated.
"Was it really? You just said Maour was working towards the same thing you tried to get at now," Heather said angrily. "Seems to me this was just you being impatient!"
'Maybe I was!' A snarl Heather heard from the other side of the curtain, reminding her of what, or who, she was arguing with. 'Maybe I was tired of waiting! Maybe I found someone like myself and didn't want to wait weeks for Maour to say "oh she wasn't right for all of this" and then go back to waiting!'
There was a world of frustration in those words, and something deeper, simpler. Heather only saw it because she knew it herself.
"What do you have to feel lonely about?" She said it without thinking.
'I shouldn't feel lonely, but somehow, I do.' A soft warble. 'Sorry for doing this. I just wanted someone aside from my family and Von to talk to, somebody who would see things the way I do.'
"Lucky you!" Heather responded sarcastically. That really rubbed her the wrong way. "At least you have family and friends around at all! And you thought some random prisoner would be exactly what you wanted?"
'After you took my manipulation in stride and turned it right back at me?' A soft, bitter laugh. 'I figured it had to be fate.'
She had done that. "But why does that mean anything?" She still felt vaguely violated, but it was hard to stay mad for some reason.
'It's who I am. Who my entire family is. We manipulate, scheme, plan. We're cynics, practical problem-solvers… who have bad pasts, sometimes. Sound familiar?'
She didn't know about problem-solving, but the rest of that did ring a bell. "Bad pasts?"
'Not me personally, but Mother and Father.' A growl. 'But you do not want this, so I don't know why I am saying anything at all except "sorry, please don't tell Maour".'
"Wait." Heather resisted the urge to hold up a hand, knowing she couldn't be seen. "I never said I don't want this, because I don't know what this is."
'Forget it.' Another, longer and deeper growl. 'This was a mistake.'
"Hey!" Heather stood and threw aside the curtain, startling the angry dragon on the other side. "You're just making another decision for me! That's what was wrong with this in the first place."
'Get back in there.' A dismissive wave of a black paw, something Heather might have found amusing in different circumstances. 'Someone might see.'
"Again, you have more to lose than I do. Way more, now." Heather crossed her arms, leaning against the side of the opening to pin the curtain open. "So tell me exactly what you did, and I will decide if I want it undone."
'No. I shouldn't have-'
"What..?" Maour turned a corner and ran into the grey-eyed Fury, almost falling over. Then he saw Heather glaring at the Fury.
No one spoke for a moment.
Maour put a hand to his forehead. "One rule," he muttered in what sounded like resigned frustration. "One rule, for both of you."
The grey-eyed dragon cringed and whined. Heather almost felt like doing the same, though she felt more guilt than embarrassment. Being in this position to start with had originally been her fault, and being caught right now definitely was.
'I was curious,' the dragon explained sheepishly. 'She's fine.'
"Yeah," Heather agreed, "I'm fine."
Maour's eyes widened… and then narrowed, focused on the Night Fury. "You didn't."
No response.
"You did." If Maour had been exasperated before, he was truly angry now. "And what exactly made you think that was a good idea?!"
'You were going too slow!' There was more than a spark of defiance in her voice. 'I knew how to be sure, and it worked!'
"And to do it, you basically…" An uncomfortable silence. "That was wrong, Einfari, so wrong. You forced yourself on someone who had no way of knowing what you were doing, without even the excuse of it being necessary. Slow or not, I was doing what the pack had decided, and it would have gotten to the same end if Heather was suitable and willing."
'I did not think of it like that. Forcing her into this… but I did.' The grey-eyed Night Fury- Einfari, he had called her- whined apologetically. 'I was going to break it, but you interrupted.'
"How, exactly, did you plan on doing that? Were you going to knock yourself out, or were you going to just knock her out?" Maour pointed at Heather. "Either way, that doesn't make this any better."
"Hey, this was partially my fault," Heather interrupted. "I was the one who pulled open the curtain… last time."
"And did she assault you then?" A groan. "Were you entirely aware of everything Toothless and I were trying to keep secret until you could handle it, and just messing with me all night?"
"No… well, yes." Now she knew what needed to be known. "But she didn't do this until a few minutes ago."
"A small mercy," Maour muttered. "At least I caught it before I sent her out to find the others."
'Sent me out? Out where?' Einfari perked up. 'I can still go,' she offered meekly.
"To go get Fishlegs and the twins- but no, you're not going anywhere now." Maour shook his head. "Was this your father's-"
'No!' She gave a defiant growl. 'It was my idea and I did not intend to keep the link unless she agreed to it. This was to be sure of her intentions before she got a chance to act!'
"I was doing that!" Maour shouted. He closed his eyes and dragged a hand down his face. "Einfari, did you really think I wasn't handling it right? Why not just talk to me?"
'I was impatient,' she admitted. 'I see that I was wrong to act on my own now. Can we just move on to what happens now?'
"Fine. You didn't actually break any pack rules, mostly because nobody thought this would ever be an issue," Maour supplied thoughtfully, "but this isn't good, either."
"Just have her break this link thing and we can all pretend this didn't happen," Heather interjected.
"I'm not going to lie, Heather." Maour crossed his arms. "And a lot of this is up to you, but that is not an option. Einfari is not getting out of answering for what she did. It would set a very dangerous precedent."
'Not if nobody knew…' Einfari slumped, not looking anyone in the eye. 'But you are right. I must answer for this.'
Heather's heart cracked a little at that. Einfari had just been a little impatient. Her intentions were apparently good. And now, she was probably going to be punished for…
"No." Heather made her mind up. "She's going to be in trouble for doing whatever this was without my consent?"
"And for doing it at all, but yes, that one's the more serious offense," Maour confirmed. "She basically attacked you."
"Well, I consented." Heather met Maour's eyes. It was a good thing she knew how to lie, though he already knew, or at least suspected otherwise.
'But you…' Einfari trailed off when Heather put a hand to her mouth. 'I do not speak with my mouth, Heather.'
"I consented," Heather said, subtly kicking Einfari's foot to get her to play along.
'Oh, right. She did,' Einfari agreed, kicking Heather back, her paw hitting much harder. Heather held in a wince. That was probably going to leave a mark.
"But...," Maour objected. "You just told me-"
"What harm does it do?" She really wasn't sure. "I say yes to whatever this is now. Surely you can let her off with only a warning?"
"You don't even know what you're agreeing to." A sigh. "But if you actually said yes, she wouldn't even need a warning. That doesn't save her from answering for going against the pack."
"And will that be nearly as bad as the other?"
'Explaining to my family what I did will be worse than explaining to the pack,' Einfari put in worriedly. 'Much worse. But not as bad if you let me get away with hurting you.'
"We will settle any fault there between us," Heather decided. "Once I understand exactly what you did to me."
"She put something of herself in your mind," Maour said coldly. "You have no privacy, now, and neither does she."
'For someone who once referred to it as "the best thing that has ever happened to me", you are describing it quite harshly,' Einfari complained.
Maour reddened. "I did say that, but things were different. Neither of us knew what it would do, and we trusted each other."
'So? It is the same link no matter the circumstances.' Einfari shrugged her wings. 'I can explain it to Heather. You figure out how to spin this so that I am not punished too harshly for it.'
"No." Maour shook his head. "I'm going straight to the rest of the pack, and I'm telling them exactly what happened…"
Heather cast Maour a glare.
"Except that I will imply you somehow got her consent first," Maour finished with a sigh. "You get to come up with a good story for that."
'We will think of something,' Einfari purred. 'And I will get my family to accept her… somehow.'
"Good luck." Maour sounded deadly serious. "You'll need it, I think. Any plan for what happens if you can't?"
'Why plan for failure?' A shiver. 'I will not be in a position to do anything if I fail to get them to accept this, anyway, so there is no point in planning. You'll have to break the link and get Heather off this island before my brother or father kill her.'
Heather felt the blood drain from her face at that matter-of-fact remark. "Okay, now I really need to be brought up to speed."
"Here's the short of it," Maour sighed. "We sometimes bring humans into the pack, if they match a willing Fury, after an extensive and careful screening process." He emphasized those words as if to drive in what they had skipped. "The humans are vetted by the pack, and are offered a place here. If they accept, then they link with their friend, and are considered a part of that family."
"The pack…" Heather was putting it together, and what she was beginning to understand was worrying. "How many of them are there?"
"Dozens," Maour laughed sourly. "Einfari can fill you in. But you need them all to like you, and unlike with the others, none of them know you as anything but a threat."
'None of them knew you either, Maour,' Einfari snapped. 'You survived and prospered.'
"And I almost got killed by your brother and father," Maour shot back. "I didn't have to convince them to let me into their family! Getting them to accept me on this island was hard enough!"
'But I have no choice, so that's what I'm going to do.' Einfari wound her tail around Heather's feet. 'What we will do.'
So she might die… but if she succeeded, she would definitely be allowed to stay here. There was more, but Heather kept that in the forefront of her mind. This was a way to get what she wanted. The rest could wait. Anything was better than what she had before setting foot on this island.
"We've got this." Heather tentatively put a hand on her…
What was Einfari? Her attacker, her savior, her friend? Hard to tell, honestly. This was all so messed up.
Just like the rest of her life. But she already had too many enemies, so for the moment she would choose to think of Einfari as an ally, at the very least.
Author's Note: So Heather decides to be fine with all of this… to hide from the Berserkers. Well, at least she has priorities, no matter how warped. She might have asked a bit more about what all of this means first, though… Talk about an underinformed decision.