AN – All right. So this took a little longer than expected. Yes, the chapter may be a little lamer, but it'll pick up more soon. It was really troublesome to write, actually, since my mind didn't want to focus on it and I had a busy week, so that just makes it all the more annoying. Not sure if page breaks are working again or not, but I'm just going to keep typing it out just in case. I hope you all enjoy this chapter.

The next day was icy as I awoke to a dead fire. The smell of morning dew hung in the air along with the lingering scent of the once burning wood. I shivered as I felt the desire to continue sleeping, although I knew better than to let myself fall back asleep. I opened my eyes to bright blue skies and little birds gliding in the air. Stretching my arms high above my head and arching my back, I slowly moved my stiff muscles to Falkor and began tapping on his nose playfully. It took him some time before he noticed my fingers drumming on his thick hide before he lazily opened his eyes and grumbled as he began waking up.

"Come on," I said. My voice was quiet, as I continued speaking. "Even though we aren't back home, we can't sleep in. Get up, now..."

I stood up and folded the blanket in a small square, setting it beside the campfire. As I waited for Falkor, I stretched my legs and picked up my quiver. My hands desired to grasp the wood of my longbow again, but were denied this as I left it behind, to be used as firewood when I needed it. I might have gone out in the forest that day, but who knows what's out there. There was no chance of me going back just yet, not after what happened yesterday.

When Falkor finally stood up and stretched himself out, I patted him on the nose and said, "Why don't we go find Hiccup. A friendly face would be nice, don't you think?"

As we walked back into the village, we found it bustling just as it had been the day before. It must have been that it was so late in the morning; the sun was climbing high into the sky. I couldn't help but yawn as I eased my way down the road. Before I could get anywhere, though, my stomach started growling and I stopped to look down at it.

Turning to Falkor, I smiled sheepishly. "Maybe a bite to eat would be nice first." So I turned down another way and headed to the mead hall. While I didn't enjoy just strolling in and taking what I wanted, I still needed something to eat. I just hoped that nobody would be mad at me for doing so.

I pulled my braid over my shoulder and ran my hands along its length as I turned to Falkor, "I'll be right back, ok? I'll get you something to eat, too." The dragon stopped just as we got outside the door to the mead hall and I opened the large doors, feeling a wave of heat hit me. It felt good as I walked inside. I marveled once more at the vastness of the room and found myself traveling to the far side of it to find the cooks. Quite a few people were still eating their breakfasts and watched as I walked by the tables.

I reached the opposite side of the room and found a long table with numerous plates of different meats, breads, and even a few vegetables here and there. I plucked a few lamb chops and stacked them on one plate and took a salmon for myself. The lamb chops were precariously perched on their plate and it was quite a balancing act as I made my way back to the door. That was until a man stopped me. He had short brown hair and the start of a beard and was very large, both in muscle and a little fat. He leaned against a table and was in my way enough to make it difficult to walk around him without dropping something.

"Hey, I don't think I've seen you around before," he said suggestively. "Not afraid to eat a lot, huh? That's pretty hot."

"And you are...?" I pryed.

He stood up and started to offer a hand, only to retract it due my situation. "I'm Snotlout. Chief's nephew, and probably future heir, too."

"Probably?"

"Well, my cousin Hiccup is first in line, but there's no way he'd make a good Chief."

"So you're cousin's with Hiccup?"

He nodded with an annoyed look. "I wish he were my cousin instead of the other way around..." His words were not well thought-out and it took him a moment before he realized what he said. That's when I pushed past him, nearly dropping all of Falkor's share into the floor and heard him call after me, "W-wait! That's not what I meant! Come back!"

I sighed and stopped, looking back to the poor man. He ran up and said, "Listen, why don't you go out on a date with me sometime?"

Date. I racked my brain for something, anything. Have I really been out in the woods for so long? There was a memory, granted it was very vague. Something about hanging out with a potential... Lover? I stood there for some time before I spoke again. "I'd rather not."

"Oh, c'mon! You gotta give me something!" Snotlout pleaded, but not in a necessarily sad manner.

I paused for a moment. Setting my plate down on the table beside me, I reached around to my quiver and plucked a tiny feather from the ends of one of the arrows. Then I held it out to Snotlout.

His face broke into disbelief, but he smiled, too. "That's not what I meant..." Snotlout said, humor in his voice.

"You asked for something, and I gave it. Now, if you please," I picked up my plate again and regarded him one last time. "I'll be leaving now." With that, I turned about and walked away. I pushed the doors back open with my side and found Falkor waiting patiently outside. Beside him, sat Hiccup, who had his hand hovering over Falkor's right leg. No doubt inspecting his wound.

I cleared my voice to announce my presence to him as I held the fuller plate out to Falkor. The dragon delicately picked it up with his good hand and pulled one of the lamb chops away with his jaws. He chewed the slab of meat up, bones and all, and swallowed it with an audible gulp.

Hiccup stared at me and smiled. "Sorry, just noticed your dragon and I figured you were around. What happened to you yesterday?" He stood up and leaned against Falkor, only to fall over when the dragon moved. Falkor wasn't always too kind to strangers and acquaintances.

I chuckled and put a hand to my hip. "Well, I decided to let you go ahead to... Uh, wherever you were going. I didn't think Falkor would want to start running around yet."

"My dad said that he liked my new girlfriend..." Hiccup said. He sounded unamused.

I stared at him for a minute, an amused smile on my face, before saying, "Your dad... That was Stoick?"

"He got me a meal last night and we talked for a bit, funny how he got 'new girlfriend' out of that," I laughed, but saw Hiccup was still unamused. I sighed, disheartened, and relaxed my pose. "Yeah... Not funny." Shoving some salmon into my mouth, I was quick to silence myself.

"Astrid was sitting there when he said it, so you can imagine how I might have felt," Hiccup said. I was relieved to hear he didn't sound annoyed or angry with me. There was a short moment of silence before he spoke again. "Listen, I came to ask you if you wanted to eat dinner with me and some of my friends tonight. I know you're gonna be here for a while, so you might as well get to know some of us."

"Your friends?" My voice was soft. Usually soft, actually.

Friends...

Falkor was my friend. My best friend, in fact. But he was the only one. I had forgotten what it was like to have human friends.

Hiccup had paused, noticing my change in tone. "Y-yeah..." He said, unsure of his words. "Just come down to the docks when it starts getting dark, all right?" Then he took off without another word.

What was there to do until then? I sat down beside Falkor and took a bite of my salmon. He took another whole lamb chop in his mouth and crunched it to pieces. We sat there, just eating in silence and watching the people walk by. A few men went down the road with a pile of boards on their shoulders. Children chased each other down the hill, laughing and screaming. I smiled, amused by their game. A couple young men came along, arguing loudly about who was the better fighter. A young boy walked into the mead hall with one of his friends, talking about what kind of dragons they wanted to have when they were old enough. A moment later, four beautiful maidens traveled uphill with linens in their arms, giggling amongst themselves. I found myself looking at them with envy. They wore dresses of the finest silks and cottons, all brightly colored with vivid reds, blues, yellows, and greens while beautiful jewels and beads adorned their necks. It was obvious they were heading out to the woods, to wash clothes in the river. Even these kinds of women had jobs here.

Falkor's voice rumbled sympathetically. I turned around to see him looking at me. In his eyes, I saw that he understood what I was thinking. Then he reached his head down and nibbled at my braid. I smiled and laughed, then pulled my braid from his teeth. "Come now..." I said. "You know I couldn't live without you." My hand moved up to pat him on the nose. I finished the last of my salmon quickly and stood up. Falkor had already downed his lamb chops, no doubt hungry from not eating yesterday. I took the plates and set them on a table inside, and returned.

Resting an arm on his shoulder, I looked around at my surroundings. I felt lost and useless. This place was so different than my own. My village didn't have so many people and they never stayed in one place like this. Not to mention these people didn't need protection. Not only were they Vikings but they also had dragons. I doubted they even had any enemies.

From the corner of my eye, I saw a tiny lizard about the size of a cat crawling up to us. It surprised me since it walked around from behind Falkor. The tiny thing seemed to be sizing him up. My dragon leaned his head down to get a better look and rumbled curiously.

"Looks like a pest, if you ask me," I said as I crouched down. The lizard breathed quite fast and darted its head back and forth between us.

That's when Falkor moved his hand out and startled the creature when he picked it up by its tail and brought it up to his nose. The lizard squirmed about as Falkor opened his jaws to eat it, thinking it a mere pest as I had said. It stopped squirming and turned to face the dragon's rows of sharp teeth and right as Falkor was about to eat the thing in one bite, the little lizard opened its jaws wide and shot a tiny fireball right down the dragon's throat.

I leapt back in surprise and Falkor dropped the little thing. He held his jaws wide and groaned with pain, smoke seeping from his throat. He wheezed and coughed in a sickly way and I reached out to see the creature. "Not an ordinary lizard, now, are you?" I said as I reached around and pulled on its very small wings.

"Hey! Leave my dragon alone!" A boy called and scooped the dragon up in his arms. "Haven't you seen a Terrible Terror before?"

"N-no. I-"

"Do you live in a cave?" The boy said with disbelief and stormed away.

Falkor wheezed again and turned to me, slowly closing his mouth. His head was tilted in a questioning way.

"L-let's just... Get out of here..." I pushed Falkor into motion and walked downhill, deciding to go see Old Wrinkly.

(page break)

The sun had begun to creep down towards the horizon. Fire caught the clouds and the sky bled. It was an amazing sight, and truly the first time I'd really seen it. Although I enjoyed the sight of fireflies dancing in the air, this was something entirely different. A cold, nightly wind bit at my fingers as I made my way down a wooden walkway to the docks. In the dimming light, I saw dozens of ships tethered down by little ropes. On the front of each ship was a frightening character, some being wolves, bears, birds, and dragons. As I reached the bottom, I noticed that there wasn't a soul in sight. I wondered if I had come too early.

"Hey! Kelda!" I heard a distant voice call to me somewhere above. Turning about, I saw a figure standing on a walkway high above me. I could barely make out Hiccup's brown hair and fur vest. "I didn't actually think you'd go all the way down there!"

"Why not? You said the docks!" I called back up.

"Wait, I'll come get you!" Hiccup turned to leave, but I stopped him.

"Save your strength!" I said and calculated the distance between the dock and the pillars holding up the walkway. There were numerous boards holding the pillars together and it was easily observed someone could climb up that way. I preferred it to following a complicated route through the village. Taking a running jump, I sailed over the water and grabbed onto one of the horizontal boards. I pulled myself up to stand on it and then leapt for another, pulling myself up again. I did this until I reached the top, some 20 feet above my head. It was able to move quickly up the wooden beams; It helped that I'd done this more times than I could count with trees. When I reached the top, I jumped backwards and dangled from the walkway for a moment before I pulled myself up. I stood and peered back down at the structure with a quick nod.

"You know, it would've been easier if I had just went down and gotten you," Hiccup pointed out.

"The quickest way is not always the easiest," I said and placed my hands on my hips. "So, where to now?"

"Right..." Hiccup said and began walking up a winding ramp. "This way." It wasn't a very steep incline and it took only a minute to reach the top. As we wound around the base of a wooden tower, we came up behind a small group of people sitting around a fire. Three pillars stood around the circular area and held up a small tarp. Five faces turned to look at us, but locked on me. Astrid and Snotlout were here from earlier, not to mention the twins I had encountered the day before. But there was a large man sitting beside Snotlout that I'd not seen before. "Hey guys," Hiccup said and walked around to Astrid.

"You already know Astrid. This is Fishlegs, -" He waved a hand toward the beefy-looking man - "Snoutlout, and Ruffnut and Tuffnut." He waved a hand towards the two in front of me. "Everyone, meet Kelda."

Astrid, Ruffnut, and Fishlegs each muttered their "hellos", but Snotlout and Tuffnut stood up to personally greet me. Tuffnut, being closer, spoke first. "Hey, nice to meet ya. I'm Tuffnut, toughest guy in Berk."

Someone snorted in an attempt to hold back laughter. Tuffnut turned toward his sister and said, "What's so funny?!"

"Dude," Ruffnut said. "That's the girl that punched you in the face!" Then she lost control and broke into laughter.

"That's not funny! Stop laughing!" He pushed his sister to make her stop.

"Tuffnut was beat up by a girl!" She sang and shoved him back.

That's when Snotlout squeezed past the two and leaned on one of the pillars. "Allow me to introduce myself again," He flirted and did a small bow.

"You guys! Break it up!" Hiccup said and pulled the twins apart. "Snotlout, cut that out."

Snotlout gave an annoyed look, but sat down anyways. The twins calmed down long enough to sit down again, although you could tell they were still tense. I eased around to sit on an empty log opposite Snotlout and Fishlegs.

Hiccup sighed and said, "So, is everyone ready to eat?"

"Yes!" Everyone said, almost in unison.

"We've been waiting forever!" Tuffnut complained.

"Yeah, really..." Ruffnut said.

Hiccup chuckled and said, "Okay, okay. We've got venison and bear meat tonight." He dropped a basket onto the ground that I failed to notice earlier and pulled out plates for everyone. Each person shouted out their choice and Hiccup yielded the food to them. When everything was settled and we all had our meals, everything became hushed for a while as we ate. I sliced my share of venison up with my knife and took a few bites before people began talking again.

"So, tell me Tuffnut. How exactly were you beat up by a girl?" Snotlout said.

Tuffnut growled. "I don't wanna talk about it."

Ruffnut giggled and shared with everyone, "Actually, he was carrying some planks down to repair one of the houses and smacked Kelda in the back of the head. That's when she turned around and punched him right in the face. Tuff was actually knocked back by the force of her fist!" She laughed as she recalled the event.

"Oh yeah, you just have to tell everyone, don't ya?" Tuffnut said and shoved a slice of venison in his mouth.

"Yeah I do! It was hilarious!"

Snotlout laughed along with Astrid, Hiccup, and Fishlegs.

"It's not funny!"

"I told you to be careful," Ruff said.

"So, Astrid, how was dragon training today?" Fishlegs said.

Astrid took a moment to swallow her food and said, "Terrible! I swear, these kids think this is all some kind of joke!" She took a moment to point her fork at the man. "If you have a kid, please, for Odin's sake, raise them right!"

"What happened?" Tuffnut said.

"You all know they got their dragons yesterday, right?" Astrid said. Everyone nodded except me. "Well, I decided to give them dragon combat training and they just completely ignored me and flew off. One of those little trolls fell into the sea! He's lucky I'm nice enough to save him. I was so furous by the time it was over I wouldn't put Thor to shame!"

"That bad, huh?" Snotlout said.

"Oh yes. Honestly, the kids need a good lesson. That one figured out it was worth listening to me when he nearly drowned, but the rest of them oughta be tied to a tree and bathed in honey for the bears." She sighed and, ironically, took another bite of her bear meat.

They group talked on length for what seemed like ages, and I was just as absorbed into the conversation as the rest of them. They laughed together and vented together, and while I recalled Snotlout told me he hated Hiccup, he probably still loved him in a cousinly way. Occasionally they would ask me a question, and I would respond as simply as possible. One part of the conversation really caught my attention, however.

"Turns out some of the hunters said another Night Fury had been here," Fishlegs said. I remembered that Night Furies and Black Devils were the same and listened intently. "They were hoping to find it, but didn't see one anywhere."

"How did they know that?" I said automatically.

"It left a fresh print in the sand on the beach across the island. And we already know Toothless wasn't out there. Nobody ever goes out there."

"Is it dangerous out there?"

"Naw, there's just never any reason to go there." Fishlegs said and that was the end of the conversation. My mind wandered after that, and I came to the conclusion that the Black Devil must have returned home with its rider. Probably to resupply. When the conversations began to die off, the group decided to go home and get some sleep. They gave their plates to Hiccup and Astrid and walked into the shadows of the ramp, disappearing into the night.

Hiccup, Astrid, and I followed shortly after and wound our way down. When we got back to the center of the village, where the massive bonfire burned bright, Hiccup turned to me and said, "So, I guess we'll see ya tomorrow. Good night, Kelda." Turning away, they, too, disappeared into the night and I was alone once more. I picked my way out of the village and returned to my campsite where Falkor was already asleep, a fire warming his scales. I laid out my blanket and watched Falkor's chest rise and fall for a short time before I drifted asleep, as well. That night, I dreamed of being home again.