Shade quickly made his way around the perimeter of the village, staying out of sight in the shadowy forest. He ended up back at the small clearing they had been in that morning, ears perked as he waited for Aeri and the boy to arrive.

Well, he thought as the two humans pushed their way through the brush, maybe not a boy. Haku was pretty tall, after all. And not many boys sported that kind of stubble along their jaws. But Shade wasn't sure he wanted his female human to be hanging out with a man, so Haku would remain a boy for now.

"-we'll stay away from the village for now. Wouldn't want to alarm anyone," Aeri was saying, and Haku nodded his agreement.

She turned to Shade with a smile, coming up to scratch him behind his ears. "Ready to go for a flight?"

"Am I ever not?" he responded, and though Aeri had no way of understanding his speech, as usual she seemed to comprehend his meaning, and her smile brightened.

Haku once again was mystified as Rádgatá said, "Well, alright then!" Holding her helmet under one arm, she grabbed onto the edge of the saddle with her other hand and nimbly leapt up onto her dragon's shoulders. Without hesitating she reached back and twisted her hair into an approximation of a bun before lowering her helmet over her head, tucking the edges of her collar and stray hairs underneath the edge. She turned to look at Haku, but he couldn't see her eyes, only shadows in the holes on the mask. He spent a moment taking in the sight of this strange woman on the back of the most powerful dragon he had ever encountered. They were an intimidating pair, the dragon with his all-seeing gaze and the mysterious, faceless rider. In fact, they were both anonymous figures, as much as he felt he had gotten to know them. He did not know their true names, and for some reason that made them seem unreachable to him.

Rádgatá seemed to notice his evaluation and spoke, her voice muffled from within her helmet. "Ready?"

Shaking his head to clear his mind, Haku gave her a nervous smile. "I suppose so."

She held out her hand, an invitation he realized later he never could have refused. Reaching up, he grabbed hold of her arm and did his best to swing up in the saddle behind her, almost toppling off the other side. Laughing behind her mask, she said to him, "You'll get the hang of it eventually." Not entirely convinced, Haku gently placed his hands on either side of her slim waist, forcing himself to think nothing of it. Rádgatá leaned forward and murmured something into Dreki's ear, before looking back at Haku, who was beginning to question his own sanity.

"Here we go!" her muffled voice was cheerful, and Haku felt the dragon crouch just before he launched straight up into the air, rising vertically to fly clear of the tops of the trees around the small clearing. Without thinking he immediately wrapped his arms completely around Rádgatá, not caring what she thought, just doing his best to stay in the saddle.

"Don't close your eyes!" he heard her call back at him, and with no small amount of anxiety he obeyed as they soared barely above the green canopy, flying away from the village. When they reached the base of the first mountain, Dreki ascended in a gradual spiral around the peak, before suddenly shooting straight up into the sky, wings beating hard to gain altitude. Haku felt his stomach drop and clung tighter to Rádgatá, feeling her body shake a few times as she laughed at his nervousness. Her amusement no longer irritated him, in fact, it managed to put him slightly at ease.

"You're enjoying my fear! You're sadistic!" he shouted at her good-naturedly, and he could hear her bark of laughter.

"I must be," she replied as Dreki leveled out just beneath the clouds. Haku could barely make out her words as she leaned forward to speak to her dragon. "What do you say we show him our evil side, bud?"

That didn't sound like Haku's idea of a good time, and he hurriedly interrupted her. "I don't think that's-" Dreki tilted onto his side and promptly began to fall from the sky. "-NECESSARY!" his cry was lost in the wind as they spun around wildly, the wind buffeting them as they fell. To top it off, Rádgatá raised her arms up high, nearly giving Haku a heart attack.

"WOOHOO!" she exclaimed, clearly thrilled. Haku, on the other hand, while thankful he wasn't prone to motion sickness, doubted that he could withstand much more of their insanity, even though it had only been a few seconds. He realized how tightly he was holding onto her, and briefly wondered if she was having a hard time breathing, before deciding that he didn't care so long as she insisted on purposefully terrifying him.

"Okay, okay!" he shouted in her ear. "I think you've proven your point, Rádgatá!"

The dragon flipped upright, seemingly without communicating with Rádgatá, and slowly unfurled his wings. The wind filled them with a sudden jolt, startling Haku, before they smoothly spiraled down towards the peak of the mountain. Dreki flapped his wings once, twice to control their descent, then landed on a flat stretch of rock on the side of the mountain large enough for the three of them to stretch out.

Without further ado, the dragon dropped to his stomach, lounging on the wide ledge. Peering over the side, Haku saw a sheer cliff stretching far below them, and gulping, he pressed his face between Rádgatá's shoulder blades.

"Haku. Haku," she said again from behind her helmet. "You can let go now."

"I don't think so," he mumbled, eyes shut tight.

She had the audacity to laugh again, and Haku felt her gloved hands come up to rest on top of where his own were clasped over her stomach. "It's kind of hard to breathe with you clinging to me like that." He could hear the smile in her voice as she began prying his fingers apart.

"What if we fall?!"

"Then my dragon will catch us. I would recommend getting off on the side without the cliff." Finally escaping his grip, she slid off the saddle and Haku promptly fell forward, hands instinctively reaching out to keep him from smacking his face against the dragon's neck. Slightly incredulous, he turned to see Rádgatá pulling off her helmet, her long hair spilling over her shoulders. Tying it to one of the straps on the side of the saddle, she grinned at him and held out a gloved hand. "Come on, Haku."

Slowly he reached out, and she almost had to pull him off the dragon. Stumbling to his feet, his knees shaking, Haku's stunned expression quickly darkened into a scowl. "You think this is funny, Rádgatá?" he demanded.

"Extremely," she said lightly, turning and picking her way over the uneven rock, moving to stand farther down the edge, about where the end of the dragon's tail was curling and uncurling out in mid-air. "Well? Come here," she sat down and scooted forward until her legs were dangling over the edge.

Well, Haku thought, I'm already up here. Why not? He followed her path and copied her movements, coming up next to her.

"Look at that," she said, and he looked out, immediately taken aback.

The island was laid out before them, the forest spreading from one side to the other. The sun was setting in the west, transforming the blue sky with its scattered puffy clouds into a riot of oranges, yellows, and pinks. Beyond the forest were the farms, and Haku could see the faint lights of his village as the people prepared for night. Beyond that was the ocean, glittering in the fading daylight.

"Wow," he whispered. "I suppose you see this kind of thing all the time."

Rádgatá nodded slightly. "But I never, ever get used to it."

Haku found his mind filling with questions, wondering about her and her past. But he barely knew her, how could he ask her to share personal information with him? "Is… is the sunset like this where you are from?" he asked hesitantly.

For a moment she said nothing, and Haku worried that he might have crossed a line by bringing up her past. "Yes," she said quietly, not looking at him.

They watched as night began to spread from the eastern sky, revealing a handful of twinkling stars. "I've always wondered if the stars are the same for everyone," Haku said, gazing at the heavens.

"They aren't," Aeri replied slowly. "I mean, perhaps they mean the same thing for some people, but the stars themselves change, constellations spinning ever so slowly between nights, revealing new stars as the seasons change. But they always return," she said as an afterthought. Would she ever return? Her fate was so unknown to her, her purpose, her true self. Did she belong on Berk, or was she really being called to faraway lands like Heimme, destined to spend the rest of her life in motion? Part of her liked the notion of seeing it all, learning everything she could about the world. After all, home was where the heart was, and her heart was firmly with Shade. But another, stronger part of her longed for some stability, a home of her own, with a family. You have a family, a small voice said in the back of her head, and she frowned. No, I don't. Not anymore. Shade was her family. But when she saw how Haku so obviously cared for his sisters, she could only be reminded of her own siblings, that they were growing up, and that she was not there to see it happen. What if something happened to them, and I never got to say goodbye?

Swallowing back her sudden upset, Aeri pulled off her gloves a bit roughly, staring down at her hands. They were rather slender, but clearly used to hard work. Callouses and scars marred her light skin, and she felt as though her hands reflected a part of her spirit, beaten up and recovered, only to be hurt again, prolonging the process, leaving scars and sometimes even open wounds. Wounds that just wouldn't heal.

Shade could almost hear the gears turning in Aeri's mind as he watched her out of the corner of his eye. He sensed that she was dealing with an unusual amount of inner turmoil. It better not have anything to do with that boy. But before his thoughts could travel in that direction, she spoke.

"Do you… ever fight with your parents?" she asked Haku suddenly, and Shade was unwillingly reminded of the last conversation he had with his father. Well, the last shouting match. He refused to even think of the last dragon he had spoken to before they had left Berk.

"Well," Haku began, and Shade returned his attention to the humans. "My mother died while giving birth to Maara. So I never reached the age of rebelliousness with her. My father, well, he's a different story. But he… he's not in a position to argue any more. So I guess it doesn't matter." He paused. "Do you?"

Shade wondered what Aeri would say. She made a point of disguising her past, suppressing her memories, doing her best like Shade to forget.

"I… I did," she whispered, bringing up one knee and tucking it beneath her chin. Haku turned to look at her face, which for once was expressing emotion. But it was a mask of confusion, and pain, her eyes wide as she stared at a point on the horizon.

"What happened?" he asked gently.

"I… they… I left." And just like that, the emotion was gone, replaced by a completely indifferent expression. Haku was unprepared for the sudden change, but he wasn't entirely surprised by it.

"You left?" he pressed.

"Yes." She finally turned to look at him, still holding her knee close to her chest. Her green eyes were unreadable as the breeze shifted stray strands of her hair.

"What happened to your father, Haku?"

Frowning slightly, he wondered how to answer her, turning his gaze back out to the vista before them. "There was a raid," he said finally. "A few months ago. The dragons had the upper hand, and were destroying everything in sight. Some of the women had gathered the children to take them into the forest, but one little girl strayed away, perhaps frightened by the noise and fire. Not to mention the enormous monsters attacking the village. In any case, the little girl was wandering through the streets of burning buildings, holding her doll and crying uncontrollably. We saw her around the same time the dragons did, and Lyse and I ran to rescue her as a Flashfang backed her up against a burning house.

"Lyse shouted at me to grab the girl while she distracted the dragon, and I obeyed without question. But the dragon was intent on the girl, and when I ran to get her out of the way, it immediately recognized me as a threat. It raised its tail- I don't know if you are familiar with Flashfangs, but their tails are covered in poisonous spines that they can throw like darts. I covered the girl with my body, but right before the spines hit me…" he paused, as the intensity of the moment welled up within him. "I waited for them to pierce me, with my eyes closed tightly. When nothing happened, I opened my eyes to see Lyse laying on the ground in front of us, half a dozen spikes sticking out of her torso."

"Who… who is Lyse?"

"Lyse… was my older sister. The heir to the chiefdom of Heimme. My father, seeing his most loved child lying as though dead before a dragon, attacked without thinking, running at the dragon with his axe raised. I was too stunned to react, still holding the girl as I stared at my sister's face. My father engaged the dragon, landing a few blows before the creature turned and swatted him down with its tail, his head smashing against a rock on the ground. The dragon flew off, following its brethren as they returned to wherever they came from.

"Lyse was breathing, shallower and shallower, her body beginning to shake from the effects of the poison. She and I had never gotten along particularly well, as she was the favored child and I was the disappointment of our father. But seeing the fear on her face as the blood spread through her tunic and past her armor, as her body went cold, as her heart slowed… I will never forget.

"My father, when he awoke, was gone. He does not recognize us. He cannot walk or speak or feed himself. He always hated me… I don't know why. I wasn't as perfect as Lyse but I never did anything particularly bad. He must have seen something in me that I have not noticed yet, a thought that still haunts me. I'm not sure whether or not Lyse was trying to save me or the little girl, but either way, she died and I lived. I suppose the only blessing is that my father isn't able to comprehend what happened and blame me for it, to make me suffer for it more than I already have."

Now, Aeri realized what Haku had meant when she had first arrived, when he had spoken to the people, saying that he of all people had reason to fear and hate dragons. Instead, he had placed his life in her hands, choosing to place himself in harm's way for a chance to end his people's suffering.

Haku continued. "Now, I'm in line to be Chief, and I don't want the job. But someone has to do it, and people are counting on me to lead them well, placing their trust in me as they trusted my father. It's just that Lyse was always the leader, always the favorite, always dependable. I have always preferred to be on my own, to spend time in the woods, but now my life is spent in the village, helping settle disputes and organize supplies and make plans and speeches… Lyse was meant to be Chief. My father wasn't the greatest Chief Heimme has ever seen by any means, but Lyse promised to be better. Now they're both gone, and I have to somehow make myself someone I don't think I can be, to do what's best for my people."

Aeri couldn't speak. She wanted to reassure him, but she was haunted by her last conversation with her own father- last argument. The fight that sent her running. She hadn't wanted to be Chief, but instead of displaying wisdom and understanding, instead of accepting her role with dignity and determination, she had done the most selfish thing she possibly could have, running away and taking with her the firstborn of the Alpha dragon, who had most likely been in line to become Alpha himself someday. Now, because of her, Erik, who had been even more vehemently opposed the idea of becoming Chief than she had, was going to become Chief someday. What have I done?

But it was too late to change her choices. Now, she understood. And while she might not be able to make amends for her past actions, she could ensure that she dedicated her life to making the world a better place in whatever little ways she could. Starting here, on Heimme.

"Haku… you aren't a disappointment to your people. They love you, admire you, and respect you. You want what's best for them, and they know that. You put your life on the line for them, not just during raids, but when a stranger riding on a dragon appeared, you chose to potentially sacrifice yourself in the hopes that perhaps you could end the war plaguing your village. I know enough about Chiefs to be able to say that sometimes the greatest leaders come from the most unexpected of places. Your position as the Chief's son might make more sense than most, but you can still be just as great a leader as Lyse, perhaps even greater."

The sun was gone, leaving only a faint glow along the horizon. The sky was filled with stars, glittering, and Haku felt close enough to touch them.

"I envy you," he said, allowing some of his frustration to show. "I envy that you have a companion as loyal, as fierce, as intelligent as Dreki. I envy that when life gets tough or dangerous you have the option of simply flying away. Not that you would always choose to do so, but if you wanted to leave, you could do so at any time. I'm not so sure I would be able to resist that temptation. I think that if I had a dragon of my own, I would have left long ago. I envy that you have the freedom to do that, and I envy that you would probably choose to stay anyways."

Shade couldn't suppress the overwhelming sense of guilt that washed over him at Haku's words. He knew from Aeri's stillness that she was experiencing the same thing. The boy believed them to be more noble, more honorable than they were. The truth was, they were cowards, who had run away rather than face responsibility. Not anymore. Shade now understood Aeri's desire to stay on Heimme. Where she had failed on Berk, she could do right here. She could serve people as she was born to, even if they weren't her people in the first place.

Shade hoped somewhere along the line a few dragons might come along to keep him company, but he had given up hope of having his own family. He would likely be a failure as a father anyways. Hearing Haku's story, he recognized that Aeri had a chance at redemption, though, and he would do whatever it took to make sure she reached that point. He had sworn himself to her happiness and safety, and he would not fail her. Not now, not ever.

"What about you?" Haku was asking Aeri.

"What about me?"

"Your name isn't Rádgatá, or Missti Einn."

"I know."

"What is it?"

She looked at him, once again unreadable in the darkness. "It doesn't matter anymore."

For some reason, it mattered to Haku. But he wasn't going to press her. Before he could speak again, though, Rádgatá quickly got to her feet. "I should return you to your people."

Haku wanted to protest, but he didn't have a good enough reason for doing so. So, he nodded, standing and backing away from the ledge. When he looked over at Rádgatá, she had already returned her helmet to her head, and was mounting her dragon's shoulders.

She didn't say anything as she waited for him to make his way over. In silence, she helped pull him up onto the saddle, and without a sound the dragon stood and spread his wings, letting the wind fill them before stepping off the ledge. Haku wrapped his arms around Rádgatá's waist again, but this time he wasn't sure if he was afraid of falling, or if he just craved human contact. Perhaps a little bit of both.

When they landed back at the clearing, he slid off the dragon's shoulders, offering him a light pat on his neck in thanks. Looking up at Rádgatá, Haku found that her mask somehow created an unbridgeable gap between them. He was relatively certain she was watching him, too, but doubt lingered. He had shared some of the deepest matters of turmoil in his life, and had learned nothing of her, except that she had faith in him. Which was nice, but he would prefer to know her better, too.

"Will you be back tomorrow?" he asked her, and she gave him a short nod, still not speaking. Stepping back, Haku wondered what had caused her to close up in this way as Dreki crouched and spread his wings, making no more than a whisper of sound when he leapt into the sky. Even after they were gone, Haku remained, lost in his thoughts.

When he finally made his way back to the house, he was greeted by his youngest sister.

"Vasara went to bed, but she told me that Missti Einn told the whole village an amazing story! I wish I could have been there."

"Well, she didn't finish the story, so tomorrow, if you want, you should come and hear the end."

"I don't want to hear only part of it, though. Could you… well, if you aren't going to sleep, could you maybe tell it to me?"

Haku figured that even if he went to bed, he'd just lie awake thinking, so he nodded. "I can do that."

A while later, when the candles were almost completely burned out, Haku finished where Rádgatá had left off. "And that's where she stopped."

Maara's eyes were wide. "That's… the best story I have ever heard. But how could she stop there?! That's just cruel."

Haku couldn't help but laugh quietly. "I agree, and I think everyone else in the village does, too. She said she hadn't even gotten to the most important part yet, so we will just have to wait until tomorrow to hear the rest."

"Wow…" Maara paused. "Missti Einn is very tall, Haku."

The abrupt change of subject threw him off a bit. "She is, isn't she?"

"Do you think I'll be that tall?" Oh. Haku almost laughed again.

"It's hard to say. Vasara is only a little taller than you now, and Lyse was only a little taller than Vasara."

"But you're so tall!"

"Then I suppose we will have to wait and see, won't we?"

"I hate waiting," his sister grumbled, and Haku grinned affectionately.

"All the best things in life are worth waiting for, wouldn't you agree?" he asked, pulling her into a hug.

"Maybe," she mumbled into his chest. "I still hate it, though."

"I do too," he replied, his thoughts wandering again. "I do too."

Once they were back in the meadow, Aeri pulled off her helmet, rubbing her face with her hand. The past was determined to haunt her, it seemed. Well, let it haunt, she thought crossly. It doesn't change anything. No. She had given her word to help the people of Heimme, and she would do so, regardless of one man's problems. Regardless of how interesting she found that man.

"Ugh!" she exclaimed, kicking at the grass. Shade looked up at her, concerned.

"We were wrong, Shade. We both know it. Why can't I get over it? I can't change it. I don't want to change it… do I? No. I don't. We were meant to leave. Hey, maybe we'll go back someday. But that day is a long, long, looong way away. Maybe when we're old, and we finally figure out where we are, we can go back and make sure everyone is still alive. I don't know. Ugh."

Shade watched her with one eyebrow raised. Obviously the boy was distracting her. "Aeri," he said, and she looked up at the noise to see his blue eyes gazing intently into hers. "Focus. You made these people a promise. You can do this. And once you've done it, we are free to go."

She must have found his rumbling soothing, because she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around his neck, letting out a groan. "I love you, Shade. I don't know what I would do without you," she mumbled into his scales, and he smiled slightly, purring to reassure her.

Aeri slept in her dragon's embrace that night, wrapped up in his wings. Her dreams were deep and indistinct, as she was comforted by the presence of her best friend, her partner for life. No matter what happened, they would always have each other.