Nina started when Hiccup appeared. Herby had left without warning, burbling worriedly about something. The sheep around her jumped then fell over, fainting from fright.

"Hey, Hiccup. I wasn't expecting you to follow me," she said. In the growing light she knew he could see her cheeks growing a little pink. She noticed he was blinking and squinting slightly. "Are you okay?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I just saw a Night Fury's blast land right outside Gobber's. I couldn't see worth anything for a bit," he said dismissively. She grabbed his shoulders and turned him to face her, looking straight into each of his eyes. He leaned his head away a bit, nervous at the sudden change of events. "Uh..."

"Your eyes are starting to return to normal. It's only temporary," she said after a second. "Sorry for freaking you out. I was just checking your eyes to see if they were cloudy...or almost black, which they're starting to return to normal."

"Nina."

"Hm?" she said releasing him.

"You're crazy. I'm glad we're friends." He pulled her in for a hug. For some reason she couldn't pin down, his words kind of stung.

"Y-yeah, me too," she said. She tried to sound convincing. She didn't want that to be the end of their conversation, so she patted the ground beside her and he sat down, the lambs grumping a bit at the disturbance but quickly readjusting to fall back to sleep. "So was there much damage done to the village?"

"Dad said there wasn't but I couldn't tell myself. Why didn't you help?" he asked, tilting his head as he looked at her.

"Weh- It's hard to explain," she said brokenly not looking at him. He stared at her. She sighed. "It was their decision in the end. They could have chosen not to go. I don't blame anyone. The dragons were just defending themselves. If someone came into your home, trying to kill you, how would you react?"

"Ah...I see your point," he said nodding.