Everyone seems very happy about new Night Furies, which is a relief.

-HTTYD-

Eret groaned as he woke, confused about why he was so sore before he remembered the shocking turn of events the night before. Gentle fingers were playing idly with his hair.

"Are you awake?"

"Mmm."

He grunted, voice raspy with sleep and thirst as he sat up groggily. A few bleary blinks and a yawn later, he was looking at his wonderful wife.

"How long was I out?"

"A couple of hours, you could still go to bed if you like."

Eret shook his head, rubbing his face and hissing as he knocked the scratches there.

"I didn't imagine that right? I found a Night Fury who clawed me up?"

Chuckling lightly, Valka nodded and pointed outside. It was still dark out, but through the open door of their hut, Eret could see the Night Fury and her hatchlings curled up in a corner. She then handed him a cup of water, which Eret downed gratefully despite it being lukewarm.

"Better?"

"Mhmm. Need the bathroom."

He stumbled to his feet and headed off to relieve himself, noticing he'd bled through the dressing on his arm while resting. As he rinsed his hands and wiped them off, something occurred to Eret.

"Did you stay sat there the whole time I was sleeping?"

"Yes. You were comfortable, and I did not want to disturb you. The babe was quite settled too."

Eret nodded with a smile, reaching down with his uninjured arm to help Valka to her feet. She took her turn in the bathroom while Eret put water over the fire, both for tea and for cleaning his wounds.

"So, are you feeling better?"

He asked as Valka returned, watching him unwrap his soiled bandages.

"Much. And I'm just so shocked and... dare I say it, happy that Grimmel did not manage to eliminate the Night Fury."

"Yeah. I mean, I always assumed there had to be some out there, but Grimmel did a number on their numbers and that made them big earners for the trade, so if there were any, they had to be hiding. And apparently they were hiding up by my old homeland all along."

He put tea on to steep, and Valka grabbed a cloth and helped clean his arm up.

"Is it bad?"

"Nah. I've had worse. And really, I'm lucky. The size of her and those claws, it could have been a lot worse. You'll probably have to deal with some scars on my beautiful face though."

Valka rolled her eyes, but Eret caught her smiling.

"I'm sure I'll cope. And if not, you can just wear your helmet more."

Eret snorted as she wrapped his arm, feigning offence.

"You'll still find me irresistible and you know it."

Valka chuckled, finished with his wound and settling in a more comfortable position.

"Although, while we're on your face" Eret couldn't help but laugh at the image, and Valka seemed to realise her accidental innuendo as she fought a smile "I wanted to ask you something."

"Alright?"

"Did the women in your tribe also take those marks?"

Eret lifted his hand to his chin, tracing the lines of ink.

"Yeah, why?"

"I just wondered. Our babe may be a girl, after all, and I wouldn't begrudge you wanting them to bear markings of your tribe. I know you chose me and the dragons, but that's still where you came from, and it's a part of the baby's heritage all the same."

Surprised, and incredibly touched that Valka had thought of that and presented him with her acceptance of it, Eret could only blink a few times as he tried to find words.

"I uh... I guess I hadn't thought about it. I'd be proud to give them the marking if they wanted it, but it'll be their choice. It's nice to know you're on board though, if that time does come."

Valka cupped his face, tracing his tattoo with her thumb. He could see she was thinking, used to the way she pulled her lower lip between her teeth.

"What is it?"

"Oh. I was just thinking of all the events that had to happen for the two of us to ever meet. I never had cause to venture as far north as your tribe, and without Drago, you never would have had cause to leave."

"Yeah. Obviously, I wish Drago hadn't turned up and killed my father. But I can't change that, and if this is the path the gods laid out for my life, then I'm glad it

Smiling softly, Valka kissed him gently, mindful of his wounded face. They sat and drank tea in comfortable silence for a while, before seeing the first hints of sunrise through their still-open door. That was enough to start waking the dragons, particularly the juveniles - they didn't sleep as long at night, but tended to rest through the day in shorter and shorter naps until adolescence. Then their dragon naps tended to be for relaxation rather than rest to fuel their growth.

"We should go check on our guests."

Valka commented, and Eret nodded.

"Yeah, the babies are up so the parents are sure to follow soon."

It was hard to sleep with a bundle of scales and energy up and ready for the day, as Eret knew from the younger days of Alva, Vali, Storm and Junior. Once they'd jumped up on the bed and started fidgeting and chirping, there was no getting back to sleep.

Eret filled a basket with some of their fish stock and slung it over his shoulder, and then they headed outside where the dragons were stirring. They approached the newcomers slowly and carefully, mindful not to scare them off. The adults recovering from injuries were only too happy to see the fish, needing the energy to continue healing and it also meant they didn't have to expend more of their energy to feed their young.

"There you go, eat up guys" Eret dispensed fish to the adult dragon visitors to dispense as they pleased between themselves and their young "we'll have to refill our stocks later today, but my guess is we don't have long before Toothless visits, and then we probably have a meeting to get to."

Valka nodded as she knelt down, chuckling as the baby Night Furies nuzzled her hands. One sniffed at her belly, letting out little chirrups to his mother dragon. Eret smiled.

"Well, we know dragons can tell."

"Indeed, though it's impressive in such a young dragon."

"Hear that little Fury? You're impressive!"

Eret encouraged, and was rewarded with a rough, slobbery lick from the little Fury. He heard Tripfire grumbling in the background, biting back a laugh.

"Don't get possessive, Tripfire."

He chided, and his dragon huffed before turning around, obviously sulking. Eret rolled his eyes, turning back to the mother Fury.

"Don't mind her. You eat up, and then if you don't mind I'll check your bandages."

Eret gestured to her wounded paw, and after she'd done the oh-so-pleasant task of regurgitating fish for her children, she held out the leg in question to Eret. He peeled back the dressing, then replaced it.

"Looks like you're healing well. I gotta go feed the others now, you can relax."

Sleeping was such a communal activity for dragons, that sleeping up there where Eret and Valka's scent was all over the place seemed to have helped their guest dragons trust them a little more, and they had far less resistance that morning than the night before.

By the time they were done with breakfast, dawn was fully broken and all the dragons turned toward the direction the rest of Berk was. It was only a few seconds later a Night Fury swooped up, the straps around his neck enough of a giveaway even before the dragons all gave a courtesy bow to their Alpha dragon. Toothless landed down and immediately looked to the other Furies, waiting for a tired-looking Hiccup to dismount before he scampered over to his kin.

"Morning."

"Chief."

Eret inclined his head, standing back as Valka went to hug her son.

"Did you sleep Hiccup?"

"A couple of hours. Toothless woke me earlier, but I told him he had to wait until the sun was up to come up here so the other dragons could sleep, so I did some notes for this mornings meeting to pass the time. We didn't wake anyone did we?"

Valka shook her head.

"No, we'd just finished dragon breakfast time when you arrived."

"Alright. Are you feeling up to this meeting? I understand if you're still sick."

Hiccup volunteered, Valka's hands lifting to her little bump.

"I'm fine, the babe seems to have calmed down. I'll be there."

Hiccup offered his mother a tired smile and hugged her goodbye, before offering an acknowledging nod to Eret and turning toward his dragon.

" I've sent word out, so everyone will be turning up for breakfast any minute now, then we'll get on with the meeting. No point trying to talk to them hungry."

Valka chuckled lightly.

"Nothing more stubborn than a group of tired, hungry Vikings. We'll be down once we've taken care of the dragons."

"Alright. Come on Toothless, we have to be first at the meeting."

The Alpha sulked, but dutifully went back to Hiccup and the two left the mountaintop farmland. Valka headed over to the Night Fury mother, so Eret took his food basket back in and came back out with their box of healing supplies so he could change the bandages on the Woolly Howl and Windwalker injuries.

"We have to go to this meeting. You guys are welcome to stay up here and rest. Other dragons might pass by cus they are all friends with Valka, but they won't hurt you. There are feeding stations down in the village if you get hungry."

He spoke as he worked, occasionally seeing Valka play with the young dragons out of the corner of his eye, keeping them distracted while Eret applied balms and wrapped bandages. Once Valka had drunk some of her stomach-calming tea, they left the rescued dragons and took their Stormcutter family down to the village. Things had gotten easier around Berk since they got married, though Eret was definitely aware some residents of Berk still didn't like him much. Whether that was because of his trapper past or because he was married to their former chief's ex-wife, Eret wasn't sure.

It took him a moment to realise why some of them were looking at him more oddly - his face was still scratched up, and he had visible bandages on his arm. As the whole incident last night had essentially happened around bedtime, half the village was completely unaware.

Since they'd already eaten, he and Valka took over keeping the dragons entertained while the Berkians ate and chatted, waking up as the sun climbed up in the sky. When some of the parents began escorting their children out, Hiccup beckoned Valka and Eret to join him at the head table, joining Astrid and Gobber there.

Hiccup tried to get order, but his voice didn't quite carry through the hall. His wife-to-be had that handled though, standing up and whistling sharply. The sound carried very well, and much of the chatter around the room fell silent, save for a few dragons chittering to one another.

"Alright, thank you. So most of you don't know this, but while out flying yesterday evening, potential hunter ships were spotted by Astrid. She, myself and Eret went out to do some recon. They were hunter ships, and we followed them to a base of operations. While taking out Drago - thank you Tripfire" Eret watched his dragon straighten up, smug and proud "does seem to have put a dent in the dragon trade, others appear to be picking it up. While we were on this recon, it turned into an impromptu rescue. Some dragons were brought back here last night, and they were... good news, really."

Everyone was leaning in closer, obviously growing more intrigued by the minute.

"Well chief? What's the good news?"

"We found Night Furies."

A gasp rippled around the hall, even Toothless paying more attention despite the fact the dragon already knew about them.

"Night Furies?"

"I call dibs on one!"

"How many?"

The hubbub continued to grow, until finally Astrid had to whistle again to shut them up.

"Be quiet!"

Throwing Astrid a grateful look, Hiccup turned back to the villagers, expression one of annoyance.

"Nobody is calling dibs. We have traumatised dragons yanked from their home. Everybody here is to leave them alone until the dragons decide whether they want to stay or go, and nobody is going to try and force a bond on them. That's not how we do things here. There's a good chance the female we found had her mate killed."

"And Night Furies mate for life."

Valka added, her voice sad. Eret understood; that sort of loss could kill dragons. If she didn't have hatchlings, Eret doubted she'd have had much interest in being saved.

"Exactly. So like I said, leave them be. I catch anyone harassing them, you get cleaning duty in the boulder class stables."

That threat hit home. Boulder class dragons tended to be big dragons, with appetites to match. Several mumbles of acceptance sounded, though Eret wholly expected they were still going to end up with people trying to sneak up to see the Night Furies for themselves. Which meant they had to keep watch, because both the Furies and the Howls were dangerously powerful, and quite scared.

"What happened to the tr- to Eret?"

Eret let the slight slide, happy to give the Berk residents more reason to leave the dragons in peace.

"The Night Fury. She was spooked. These Night Furies have bigger claws than Toothless, and a much less positive opinion of humans."

He answered, and Hiccup nodded toward Eret.

"Precisely. Now, that was the good news. The bad news is that the dragon trade is no longer inactive, and we have to come up with a plan on how to deal with that."

"We blow it up!"

Hiccup sighed deeply, shaking his head.

"No, Tuffnut. We can't just blow up the dragon trade if it's not all in one place."

"Oh. Good point chief. See, this is why you're the chief!"

Hiccup opened his mouth to answer, but was interrupted by the door to the Hall creaking open. Everyone turned toward it, a man Eret thought might be called Seamus standing there.

"Uh, Chief? There's a guy at the docks, says he knows Eret, son of Eret."

Eret frowned.

"Who is it?"

Maybe-Seamus shrugged.

"I dunno. He has the same marking as you though. Think he said his name was... Tiny?"

Eret blinked.

"Do you mean Teeny?"

"Possibly?"

Exchanging a look with his wife, Eret shrugged.

"News to me. I'll go uh, see what he wants?"

"No, wait. You trust Teeny?"

Hiccup asked. Eret nodded.

"Yeah. He wasn't ready to turn Berkian, but he got the message about dragons before we parted ways."

Hiccup nodded slowly, then turned to maybe-Seamus.

"Alright then. Bring him here Seamus" well, that answered Eret's question "now back to the trade. What did you say their name was?"

"The base we found? That was Griselda's logo. Goregutter antlers. Have you guys ever seen a Goregutter?"

Hiccup shook his head.

"Only in the Book of Dragons, and even Bork only saw two in his travels."

"Well, tale is that Griselda's great-great grandfather slayed a Goregutter all by himself, and that's why her family use it as their crest. Which might not sound like a big deal to you guys who used to kill Monstrous Nightmares for competition, but full grown Goregutters are as big as some boats. One Titan Wing Goregutter could level Berk. They're incredibly rare, and very hard to capture, which is probably why you've not seen them before."

The reminder Berk had been dragon-killers not all that long ago had several of the older vikings looking a little sheepish, others awestruck at the description of the dragon.

"Are they dangerous?"

"Not at all. Except if they start yelling. Cover your ears. Which is another reason they're not a big deal in dragon trades, except for hides because they're so big. Basically a gentle giant, but they don't look it."

Fishlegs was starting to look incredibly excited from where he sat nearby, and Eret anticipated him quizzing himself and Valka on the Goregutter dragon, given that he spent a lot of time trying to get notes from Valka for the Book.

"Alright. How do we identify the others? You said there were three of these guys with Drago, right?"

"Right. They scattered after he died, but must have decided to start rebuilding quietly. We wouldn't have known if not for the hunters ship passing by. The other two are Chaghatai Khan, who used to capture dragons and breed them to trade in eggs, but you know how it is separating a mother dragon and her eggs... so he paired up with Ragnar the Rock, who is the third of the three. Technically, he's in charge, but he's... a little simple, and terrified of Griselda. Surprisingly friendly captor. But don't underestimate him, he's a very skilled fighter and built like... honestly, the only person I can compare him to would be Stoick. Size-wise, that is."

It was quite strange having everyone listen to him so intently, but it was nice that Eret's knowledge from his trapper days was coming in so handy.

"And who was this other guy? The Night Fury hunter?"

"Oh. Grimmel. He did some deals with Drago back in the day, but he's been quiet a whi..." something occurred to Eret that made his heart sink "Atja! I didn't even realise until we were talking about the Warlords just now."

"Realise what?"

Hiccup asked, voice urgent.

"When I was captured by the Warlords, they used a dragon knock out on me. It was all a little hazy... but I remember they said there was Deathgripper venom in it. The only person who has ever tamed a Deathgripper is Grimmel. They might have just bought the venom from him, but it does mean he's probably in contact with them, so he's gonna know about the Night Furies sooner rather than later."

Hiccup rubbed his face, weight visibly settling on his shoulders.

"Alright. Let me think..." he paced back and forth between Eret and Gobber either side of him, then turned back to the amassed Berkians "alright. For now, we increase patrols, and we send scouts out more regularly. I'm not asking anyone to overwork themselves, but we need to be on alert. I want the academy staff to start preparing some classes to hone battle skills, and mom, Astrid, Eret and I will come up with all the information we have on fighting hunters to help you with that. Be prepared for a lockdown, and be prepared for a fight. Make sure we have somewhere safe for the children and elders. We're not giving up our dragons, and we're not giving up on stopping the hunters either."

There were some cheers for Hiccup - several from Tuffnut Thorston, but a few others seemed fired up by his words too - before most of the villagers turned and left, having been given their tasks to complete. As they filtered out, only a handful of them were left behind.

"We should get back up the mountain soon, cus you know there's gonna be some villagers who have to see the Night Furies for themselves."

"Right. You two go on ahead, we'll join you up there to talk tactics soon. Do the dragons need anything?"

Hiccup asked. Eret though about it.

"Uh, more fish? We're running low and half of them need to stay off their wings right now."

"Alright, we'll bring a couple of baskets."

Sidetracked by his panic about Grimmel, Eret had all but forgotten Teeny was being brought to the hall. It was a bit of a climb from the docks all the way to the hall, so they basically bumped into each other at the door.

"Eret!"

"Teeny! What are you doing here? Why did none of you stay home?"

Teeny frowned, confused before realisation dawned.

"So you know?"

"That a bunch of our... your tribe wasted the chance to be free, and tried to sell of some dragons? Yeah, I know. They tried to kill us."

"That what happened to your face?"

He mimed a scratching motion across his cheek.

"No. That was a dragon, who thought I was one of the bad guys because of the tattoo. You haven't answered my question. What are you doing here?"

"I came to warn you about the others, but it seems I was a little late. It's a long trip by boat."

Eret nodded, remembering that much from his days at sea.

"Yeah. So you sailed here all alone for that?"

"Not alone, but they would only let me up here. A couple of the others figured that if you switched sides after what Drago did to your father, there had to be something to it. So they wanted to see."

Surprised, Eret could only stare at his cousin for a moment.

"Right. I uh, I really don't have the time for this right now. Go back to the ship and wait for me, I'll come down when I can. If that's ok with you chief?"

He asked Hiccup, who nodded.

"Sure. Hey Seamus? Make sure they get some food and drink while they wait. Never let it be said Berk is bad to our guests."

Thankful Hiccup was so agreeable, Eret watched Teeny being led away by Seamus before he helped Valka up on Cloudjumper's back, then clambered up on Tripfire himself.

"Up we go guys."

A couple of villagers were flying nearby, but none had actually landed down on the mountaintop outside Valka and Eret's home, and though their guest dragons were obviously wary, they hadn't tried to take off. And when they saw Valka and Eret were back, they seemed to settle a little more.

"I know the Berk lot are nosy, but the chief told them to leave you guys alone. So relax. Hiccup is bringing more fish soon too."

They left the hut door open again, and after a minute or two of Eret setting tea to steep while Valka poured herself some water, the open door was taken as invitation by some of the juveniles. Having baby Night Furies crawling all over their hut was not something Eret had ever expected to happen, but their home was set up to be as baby-dragon proof as possible since Storm and Junior were still at the stage of "everything is either a toy or flammable". Not keen to be apart from her hatchlings, a very nervous looking mother Fury edged in to the door. Valka soothed her, encouraging her in with her gentle tone.

"It's alright, you can come inside. There's nobody here but us."

She obviously didn't really understand what was essentially the human equivalent of a nest, sniffing curiously at tables and cupboards and empty baskets, keeping a close eye on her children all the while. The two young ones had found the humans bed, and decided it looked ideal for them as they started digging around until they all but disappeared under the covers before settling down.

"Well, that's nothing new. How many times were we kicked out of our own bed by Alva and Vali?"

Eret joked, and Valka nodded with a chuckle.

"Many times. If we move that table, the mother Fury can settle between the fire and the bed."

The fire was quite low anyway, just enough to heat water for tea and stop the inside of their hut freezing over. Once the space was cleared, the mother Fury seemed to accept the offered spot and stretched herself out there, ear plate occasionally twitching as she listened for the sounds of her children. It was very noticeable how much bigger she was than Toothless, as she barely fit lengthwise even with her tail curled up around her.

"Go wait for Hiccup, I'll finish making the tea and then we can talk outside so we don't wake the babies."

"Good idea."

Valka leant over and pressed a soft kiss to his temple, then smiled before she headed back outside. Eret waited for the tea to finish brewing, then poured it out into four cups and carried them outside, just in time for Hiccup and Astrid to land there.

"The Night Furies are in the hut, but the babies are napping so if you go in Toothless, you have to be quiet. And also not bug the mother, she's obviously still nervous."

Toothless was still visibly excited, hindquarters wiggling a bit as he looked hopefully to Hiccup.

"Alright, go, but behave yourself in there. If she smacks you cus you woke up the baby dragons, I will take her side."

Doing the closest thing dragons could do to a pout, Toothless walked very deliberately and slowly into the hut, and they all watched as he peered over to see the rising-and-falling of furs on the bed where baby dragons breathed beneath before he curled up on the other side of the fire. Eret handed tea to the others, and Hiccup stared into his as though it held great answers before he looked back up at Eret.

"Before we get in to trapper tactics, I have to talk to you."

"Me?"

"Yeah. I uh... after what you said about Grimmel, I can't just leave the Night Furies alone. At the very least, we have to go find them, and warn them. And since you know that part of the world better than, well, any of us, I want you to come with me."

"Just me?"

Hiccup nodded.

"Yeah. I don't want to take any more riders from Berk than I have to, and while I appreciate that you two don't want to be apart, I expect it's a pretty treacherous trip for mom to make during a risky pregnancy. On top of which, I also need a dragon expert here, and you two are our dragon experts. Astrid can hold down the fort here, and Gobber's here too. So once the Night Fury female can make the trip, I think we should go. Whaddya say Eret?"

Still reeling from the fact Hiccup was asking Eret to go on a just-the-two-of-them trip when they'd barely ever had a conversation, Eret took a minute to respond, but he knew what his answer was going to be right away.

"Alright."

-HTTYD-

Baby dragons are blanket hogs and you cannot convince me otherwise.