Many hours later, the darkness of the evening had fallen. With Gobber and the Berkians now gone, the island felt much more empty, though the antics of the twins and Snotlout kept it almost as noisy. Hiccup had called a meeting. He planned on having it in the clubhouse, where all their important meetings were usually held, but with Eira still bedbound he moved the group to his hut and they all brought chairs up to sit around Hiccup's bed – still occupied by the five-foot-one red head. The mood was currently, and surprisingly, light. The twins were being themselves and Eira was giggling away while fishlegs watched on with a smile as Snotlout got madder and madder about some irrelevant thing. It felt… normal. And Hiccup was almost sad that he was about to change the air of the room, but it was a conversation the riders needed to have.

"Okay guys" Hiccup began, and for once silence instantly fell over the rowdy group of teens. They clearly knew that this meeting would be a big one. "By now you already know that Eira interrogated that hunter and got him to talk to Gobber."
"Still can believe someone so small could out-intimidate the mighty Gobber himself!" Snotlout interjected, turning his voice all nasally and sarcastic towards the end. He was a little annoyed that he, Gobber, Hiccup, no that just aboput everyone had failed to get Gorm talking. But Eira had succeeded, somehow.

"Aaanyway" Hiccup continued, "we now know what Astrid and the hunters have planned… well what they don't have planned to be more precise. Because according to Gorm that attack on us was a hail Mary assault while their troops were still semi-banded after Vigo's last attempt. Basically, Astrid's position among the hunters isn't as strong as she needs it to be to take control completely. She's got a lot of politics to do before they'll all rally around her. The forces from that surprise attack were seriously all of the loyal troups she had left, and we were able to take out a massive chunk of them, so it'll take her months to regroup. Gorm doesn't think they'll be able to make a move for at least 3 months." Hiccup explained and the group stayed attentive till suddenly a rumble from the earth shook them all. Like Loki himself had wobbled the island to mess with them.

"Well it seems like we have more pressing issues at hand anyway" Hiccup all but sighed,
"I don't know what you're talking about. The volcano hasn't erupted in weeks!" Snotlout shrugged
"Wait... you mean to tell me the volcano ERRUPTED and no one said anything?!" Hiccup guffawed, and Eira stared at the group incredulously, realising she too was out of the loop. A natural disaster occurred and they didn't know?
"Well, I mean, the base was fine and you got kidnapped so we got distracted… and then there was Astrid's attack" Fishlegs chimed, fiddling with his chubby fingers defensively.
"Yeah! We had more important things to think about, like the fact that you brought home a babe like Eira!" Snotlout gestured at the redhead before folding his arms in a harrumph as he spoke. The ginger at hand went as red as her hair.

"More important things than fire and brimstone spewing down upon us!?" Hiccup ignored the Eria comment and his voice went up in pitch in his usual Hiccupy way.
"It only spewed for a few hours and then calmed down. I don't know what the big deal is." Tuffnut added, and just as the words left his mouth the ground shook again… but after not even a few seconds it stopped again. And Ruff, preparing for another strange mini-rant put one hand on her chest and outstretched the other dramatically and put on a weird fancy voice as she spoke "Indeed. The spewing, as it were, has become a light dribble if even that-"
"I guess we really can't do anything much about it 'till it does blow again Hiccup…" Eira now interjected, trying to keep the group on track. And all eyes turned on her small beaten form in Hiccup's bed. "I hate to say it but the others are right. We have other things to focus on, for now."

Hiccup reluctantly agreed. And the group were notably happy to hear it.
"Exactly. I mean, we have dragons! If the volcano blows, it blows, and we can just fly away." Ruffnut grinned, back to her exploady self, instead of her thesbian-in-real-life self.
"Easy for you to say." Eira rolled her eyes and smiled cheerily at her blonde friend despite her sarcastic words. "I have neither a dragon nor the ability to walk on my own two legs at the moment."

"Don't you worry Ei-Ei" Snotlout waltzed over and threw his heavy arm around her "I'll protect you" Eira had winced at the contact from her protesting wounds but she plastered a shit-eating grin on her face nonetheless.
"Snotlouuut," she said in a sing song voice.
"Y-huh?" He looked at her, only to find her poke him semi-violently in the eyes with two outstretched fingers. He yelped and fell to the round in discomfort, yelling all sorts.
"Don't ever call me Ei-Ei again." She concluded.

The group laughed freely as the meeting ended.

Eira sat alone once more as the Dragon Riders had gone to bed some hours before. She flipped the page of the Book of Dragons, taking notes in a list of things she wanted to add to the encyclopedia once she ran them all by Hiccup – she had, after all, learned a thing or two out there on her own. She was just adding a note about Titan Wing Flightmares when she heard a scratching sound. Ears perked, she looked around the rafters – where the sound had come from. But a second later the scratching came from beneath the bed. "Probably just a Night Terror mucking about." Eira tried to soothe herself. But when she felt a tickle of breath on her neck she jumped up and scrambled away - yelping at the strain on her injuries the movement had caused.

The ginger viking had ended up on the hard, wooden floor, hair even more frazzled than usual, staring wide-eyed up at the bed. And her racing heart began to slow at the sight of what had just scared the yak dung out of her.

A teeny dragon gracefully half leapt, half plopped down from the bed head onto the pillow. It's icy blue eyes never leaving Eira's as it moved to the plush new seat. It's gaze was curious, not threatening, but not entirely friendly yet either. The miniscule monster had thick emerald green skin dotted with redish brownish spots all over its back, neck and wings. His snout looks similar to a Shivertooth's… but he's so small? Eira thought, trying to discern the dragon's species. Maybe a baby? No… if it were a baby it'd be more skittish, this little guy is bold… so he's fully grown even at only this big. She continued to examine the small reptile. He had two tiny twisted horns atop his head, and a long fin that ran down his back, and a large tail-fin that fanned out in a feathery way, swishing lethargically in mild interest. The little guy was no larger than a fireworm, about as big as Eira's forearm.

Eira had been so keen to examine this unfamiliar species that she failed to notice the fact that she'd reopened several of her wounds leaping from the bed. A pang in her… well everything actually, reminded of this fact and she hissed at the pain. Distracted for a moment before a dread-filled creaking of the wooden support beams in the rafters rang out. The tiny Viking froze as she realised that she and the even tinier dragon weren't alone.

Her eye scanned the roof, even with the fervour of panic, however, her heart was steady. Her instinct said to be weary but that she needn't be afraid. And Eira always trusted her instinct. The wooden roof twisted and shifted before her eyes, and she knew what that contortion of space meant.

Two beady eyes opened and locked on the tiny green dragon, completely ignoring the redhead. And slowly and surely the skin of a bright red Changewing appeared out of the nothingness. The beast had followed the little snack in.

Ignoring her injuries once again Eira got onto her knees and shuffled by the bed, placing herself in between the Changewing and the strange small dragon in a defensive pose. It's view on it's target now blocked, the camouflaging dragon's vision now locked on the Viking. At first it seemed happy to have a proper meal to go with his entrée, but then when their eyes actually met something changed.

Eira growled. And her purple eyes glowed for a moment, flashing brighter than a Night Fury's plasma blast. The Changewing yelped, realising the emotional stature of his opponent and fled speedily. Able to breathe again normally, Eira returned to her state of a collapsed heap by the bed. Now nursing her wounds.

After a few moments of preening, the girl looked back to the little fella she had defended. Half expecting it to have run away by now. But he hadn't. The little dragon cocked its head sideways slightly in query… then quickly and suddenly inhaled and opened its mouth, an icy blue light forming in its gob. And Eira realised it was about to launch an attack. She thought about trying to run away, but she knew at this distance, with her injuries… there was nothing to be done. So Eira closed her eyes and resigned herself to her death.

But death didn't come.

Instead, a coolness washed over her and she inhaled at the chill. She opened her eyes to see that the tiny dragon was still showering her with the tingling cold blast. But she wasn't being hurt… instead her injuries began to … tickle?

Looking down in shock she unwrapped her thigh wound, the biggest gash remaining from her fight. And she watched it shrink before her eyes. It wasn't being reversed, as such… it was like time was flying by in fast motion on her lacerations. A scar was forming taking the place of the massive cut. Eira began to pat herself all over, feeling with shakey fingertips that the smaller cuts like the one on her cheek had all but finished healing, and her broken ribs now only felt like a dull ache from working out too strenuously. The petite reptile must have ran out of firepower or something, because his blast spluttered out and he coughed and tried to bring it up again but couldn't.

Eira touched her neck wound – still there though much smaller – and the dragon saw her do so, and leapt onto her chest. Claws digging into her sleeping tunic to stop it from slipping off. The human didn't move, knowing that the little fella was up to something non-menacing whatever it was. It scrambled up to her shoulder and perched itself there happily, then proceeded to lick the red-heads neck right on the wound. Eira flinched, but from surprise not pain. After a few strange laps the tiny beast sprung back down and scurried away out of the hut … but not before bowing.

More than shocked, the viking girl just sat there on the floor.

Her legs in a W shape around her as she eventually worked up the will to give herself a once over. Touching her neck again she realised that the wound was now completely gone. Eira deduced that whatever healing power the ice blast had, it was a diluted version of the little beasts saliva. But licking wounds individually must prove time-wasting hence the blast, she concluded. Plus the cold of it must have anti-inflammatory properties considering how soothed her ribs felt. The internal nerd in her - which these days was sounding suspiciously more and more like Fishlegs' voice - postulated that it must be the proteins in the dragon's saliva which coagulate and sped up the natural healing process of its patients.

After her brain stopped spinning like a Jorgenson on Yaknog (a phrase which the twins assured her was DEFINITELY a thing, or at least they were going to make it a thing, much to Snotlout's disapproval) Eira looked to the floor beside her and saw that the Book of Dragons lay face down strewn beside her, having been knocked off the bed in the kerfuffle. Eira picked up the book and turned it over…. And thought Thor was laughing at her when she realised what page it had opened itself to. A picture-perfect drawing of the tiny dragon she had seen only moments ago:

The Prickleboggle.

She read, gobsmacked. "From the sidelines of the battlefield comes the Prickleboggle. There is more than meets the eye with this dragon. What they lack in a fight, they make up for in their calming and healing talents in some of the most chaotic of circumstances." Eira continued reading "Prickleboggles have, instead of a fire blast, essential healing breath effective on other dragons. This ability helps them bond to some of the most ferocious of dragons, who are often very loyal to them after being healed." The redhead registered what had just happened as she kept reading.

"They prefer to find the most fearful dragon friend they can and stick by their side, submitting only to the most terrifying of alphas. So don't be surprised if you see they hovering near Titan Wings. These dragons are known to hate humans more than most other dragons, as they have healed many wounds inflicted by them." Eira skipped over a passage about their tough skin and it's defensive abilities, noting the most important information. Clearly, whoever had written this page was writing from hearsay and oral history, since it listed the dragons size as similar to that of a Deadly Natter – the author had probably taken a best-guess from the image drawn by some third party who'd actually seen the beast long ago but not made note about it.

She wanted to run as fast as she could to Fishlegs and Hiccup and tell them and the other riders what had just happened. But she had to stop herself as she realised the implications if she did tell them.

The group now knew about her reaction to dragon root, she knew Snotlout had noted the fireproof skin, albeit subconsciously… and frankly, it was a miracle Hiccup hadn't put 2 and 2 together with the timing of the attack on Berserker island… If she ran to them saying how the dragon-healing dragon had just healed her. It wouldn't be more than a few seconds before they finally realised what she was.

But they were going to notice if her and all of her injuries suddenly got worlds better and she didn't say anything. Eira sighed and rubbed her face angrily, noting how remarkably not-in-pain she felt at the movement for the first time in days, no… years. She closed the book and put it on her nightstand before rewrapping her thigh wound… now one of the only ones left other than her two remaining gashes from the dragon root arrows, one from the assault on the Edge as she defended her allies as a human, and the other from when she had attacked the Berserkers as a monster.

Eira climbed into bed and rolled over to stare up at the rafters. Sleep would not come for many hours as she realised that, for the first time in her life, Eira had absolutely no idea what to do next.