Chapter 25

With Toothless resting in bed and the kids at home with their father, I went back to work trying to find the twins and their kids. I swear half the time those four made me want to tear my hair out. Barf and Belch finally came with Ruff and Tuff and their kids and left them with me. After reading them the rioting act for a few minutes but seeing that I was not going to get them to behave, I gave them the assignment to go help Mulch and Bucket with the fishing for the next few days until I could figure a more appropriate punishment for the four of them. For me this felt ridiculous, Ruff and Tuff were twenty-six years old with kids of their own and yet they still acted like kids themselves. When were they ever going to grow up?

After getting the problem with the twins taken care of, I went about other duties I had for the day. I married Darren Svenson's son to Helga Ragnar's daughter at the Great Hall, then down to not-so-silent Sven's farm where some kids, hopefully not the twins again, were rustling sheep again, then over to the forge to help Gobber with the saddles until I got word from Spitelout that there was settling disagreement up at the cabbage field on the other side of the island. Once that was taken care of, I had to head down to the docks to help repair a damaged ship that had just come back from Break-neck Bog. By the time I was finished, it was almost dark and time for me head home to get dinner ready for us.

I dragged my feet up to the house and felt like I was going to collapse. I went upstairs to check on Toothless and the kids and found them still sleeping. Keir sitting next to Keena with his head half on and half off the bed as if he had been watching her. Toothless was still asleep, probably from that struggle he no doubt had trying to expel dark magic from Keena after her attempt at trying to use it. Helping Keir into bed and tucking them in and then giving Toothless a nice rub, I went down stairs and then set the table and got dinner started. By the time Mom came home I was almost done with the soup to go with the yak that I had cooked.

Mom told me it all looked so good. I asked her to go up and get everyone else to come down to eat. The kids ate but didn't say much. They knew they were in trouble. Toothless also ate but just laid by the fire pit still exhausted from earlier.

"You know why you two are in trouble?" I asked then moving my empty plate to the side.

"Yes Mommy." They answered together.

"I want to know what happened out there and why either of you thought it was a good idea to practice dark magic." I said sternly.

"Well, Keena and I thought that if we could use stronger magic then you and Daddy wouldn't have to worry so much about the bad people that keep coming for us." Keir answered with his head staring at the table.

Mom took the plates and said she would be outside with Couldjumper if we needed her. The kids and I sat down with Toothless in our dragon forms. Toothless and I asked them where they even learned that spell that almost killed Keena.

"We thought we would try use a spell that the other Dark One told us." Keena continued.

Toothless and I looked at each other in shock, the other Dark One. Toothless' brother was back and this time he was going after our children.

"When did you talk to him?" Toothless said trying hard not to growl at the kids.

"He found us on the beach a few days ago. You had just left to go help Mommy and we stayed and kept practicing our defensive spells." Keena answered. "He landed and said he wanted to help us. So he told us about some spells he said that would help us and taught us how to use them."

Toothless and I looked at each other again and then turned to the kids again. "Keir, Keena, I don't want either one of you to leave this village without me, or your father with you ever again. You will train with either one of us where and when we say, you do not go alone to practice and you do not practice anything we have not taught you. Do you understand?" I ordered them.

"Yes Mommy." The kids answered guiltly.

"Okay, now you two go get ready for bed. I need to help your father back stairs." I told the kids.

I supported Toothless against my shoulders up the stairs as the kids jumped over us and up to our room. I helped Toothless down onto our bed. I then changed and helped the kids get ready for bed. I tucked them in and sang them the familiar lullaby I had for them as my aunt had for me when I was little. After they were asleep, I changed again and laid down next to Toothless.

"You were right, those two are going to be the death of us." I tried laughing to cover the worry I felt about what the kids had told us.

"You don't hide your feelings well, I'm worried too. My brother is trying to destroy us, but I swear he will not come anywhere near our children again." He said trying to calm my nerves.

I sighed in defeat, I couldn't hide what had been on my mind. "You're right he is after us, but why in the name of Odin would he try and go after two young kids?" I gasped slumping down by him in our bed.

"My brother I would say is like Drago, he has no conscious or mercy, he will kill anyone to get his way." Toothless answered lying next to me.

Hearing that made me shudder. Toothless and I spent the next few minutes trying to figure how we could keep the children safe from Drago or his brother. By the time Mom came back in we were almost half asleep. Toothless and I said we would discuss this the next day and we fell asleep as Mom came up to say good night.

Toothless slept pretty soundly, but I was restless. I had had a long day but I couldn't get myself to fall asleep. What exactly was Toothless' brother planning? What part would our kids play in that plan? As I lay there by Toothless, I heard Keir come over to our bed.

"Mommy, are you awake?" I heard him ask with his voice shaking.

"Yes, sweetheart, I'm right here." I answered sitting up.

"I had another nightmare." He said laying down next to me.

"What was it about?" I asked laying my wing over him.

"The bad man who took grandfather away came back with the Dark One that taught me and Keena the bad spell." He answered like he was about to cry. "I was so scared, you and Daddy tried to fight the bad people, but the bad man killed you and Daddy couldn't save you."

I shuddered. If this dream turned out to be like the last one, then I was afraid of what his vision meant for our family. What frightened me even more was the fact that mine and Toothless' fears of Keir having the gift of foresight. If what Toothless said was true about those who did have this gift, then I was terrified about what fate would await my son because of it.

"It's going to be okay honey." I said rubbing my head against his. "Daddy and I aren't going anywhere." I assured him.

Keir cuddled closer and asked if he could sleep with me and Toothless for the night. I said he sure could and he snuggled between me and his father. I stretched my wing over Keir and began to hum the lullaby for him to help him fall asleep. Once he was asleep, I again found myself thinking about what Toothless' brother's plan could be and how he could even think about joining Drago. Drago kills and controls dragons, why would Toothless' brother agree to join him? But as I thought more about it, they did have one thing in common, they both wanted me and Toothless dead. Maybe that one mutual goal would be enough to get them to work together.

While I didn't exactly sleep soundly like Toothless or the kids, I dozed and slept for a good while before I got up and Toothless was downstairs with the kids. Keena was looking better, and Toothless as well. Mom was getting breakfast ready for everyone as I was coming down.

"Hello love." Mom greeted me as I came down the stairs. "Sleep well?"

"Better than expected." Was all I could say thinking about what Keir had dreamed about last night. "Toothless, can we talk outside?" I asked turning to him.

Toothless nodded and we went outside and I changed into my Night Fury form.

"What's on your mind?" he asked yawning.

"Last night, Keir woke up and came to me telling me about another nightmare he had had." I started.

"What was it about?"

"Well the thing is, I don't think it was just a nightmare. I think he may have had another future vision."

"What did he see?"

"He told me he saw Drago working with your brother against us. In the fight, Drago managed to get the upper hand on me and you couldn't save me, he killed me." I said trying hard not to sound shaken by what I had learned.

Toothless looked like he had gone pale. He didn't say anything for a long time. "Was there more?"

"No, but what little there was, was more than enough to leave me worried. If your brother and Drago do end up working together and they come back for us, I don't think we'll be so lucky next time."

"I know, which means we're gonna need to be better for if and when it does happen." Toothless said staring at the ground. "That's assuming that Keir's vision is as accurate as we are making it out to be."

"Well, if you remember what happened last time, Keir dreamed about us being on Dragon Island and being ambushed by Dagur. And not even twenty four hours later, it turned out that way." I reminded him.

"That is true, but in it he also saw that Dagur had killed us, but what actually happened was that you were hurt and I cursed him the way I cursed you."

I thought back and realized that he was right. "Okay, so what are we looking at?" I asked.

"I think Keir's visions tell us what fights we may face, but they also warn us how they will turn out so that we can be prepared to face them. The future can be changed Hiccup, it changes when we change."

I thought about it and started to think that maybe he was right. "Alright, but we still have the situation with your brother working with Drago. If those two really do reach a mutual agreement to take us out together, I don't think anyone, even us will stand a chance."

"Then we'll just have to be ready when they do get here." Toothless assured me.

The rest of the day, Toothless and I were pretty busy, but this time, I felt strangely more at ease knowing that maybe Keir's visions weren't as dangerous as we had thought before. If he only had visions of future battles and their outcomes, then maybe he was in as much danger of falling into madness as we thought. Thinking this put my mind at ease.