Author's Note: Warning, unbeta-d content because I literally just now finished the chapter (which is what I get for writing half of it and then realizing it's boring and that I have to start over). This chapter may be subject to changes (mostly of the technical variety, but one never knows) going forward.

'Today it's Condescending,' Star said, as if she expected Toothless to know exactly what she meant.

He stalled for time by ducking his head under the frigid water of their little pond, wondering what she might mean. Only a day prior, he would have said she was just talking nonsense to annoy him, but now he knew they were all potentially under observation from inside their own heads. It could be some sort of code phrase the King wouldn't know, but other Night Furies would.

Not that he knew. He turned around and gave her a confused look. 'Is that a new kind of weather?' he asked innocently. 'I've never heard snow called that, but if you say so…' It wasn't like they would be getting any snow where they were, but maybe they would see some falling in from the opening at the very top of the mountain. Falling onto the already white mass in the center of everything, lurking ominously…

'No, her,' Star snorted, waving her tail in the direction of their Skrill overseer. She waved far more than strictly necessary to get his attention, and he stubbornly refused to look at her tail or anything it was connected to.

'She is called Condescending?' he asked. He didn't think he had gotten around to asking about the other Skrill yet… but it was possible that little tidbit of information had gotten pushed out of his mind by the massive revelation dropped on his head yesterday.

'Yes, and she fits the name, so be ready for a different sort of entertainment when we eat today,' Star grumbled. 'Maybe you will see the difference between fun and rude, once you have seen her idea of a good time.'

'Maybe there won't be that much of a difference,' Toothless shot back. He wasn't about to concede that her cruel mockery of Grey was acceptable; he had made his opinion clear, and stood by it.

'Oh, there is,' Hefnd huffed from where he sat with his father. He sounded especially annoyed, which boded well for later. If he was already aggravated, Toothless wouldn't have to push him very hard to get what he wanted without raising suspicion.

'Whatever you say,' Toothless snorted. 'What are the names of the others?'

'We call her Condescending,' Star elaborated. 'The ones that brought you in were Sadistic and Angry, and the one who explained the rules was Tolerable. Cold hasn't been around much since you got here. There was another, but she was killed just before Einn got his vacation.' She shrugged her wings. 'Those names are all you really need to know. Grey wasn't clever about naming them. Not a surprise, really.'

Those names tickled something in the back of his mind, and he vaguely remembered hearing them before. Grey must have told him about them, and he must have forgotten, somehow. It was a little embarrassing to need to be told again, though at least it wasn't the same person both times.

'Not a surprise, because she is not clever about anything except her stupid jokes,' Star added after a moment, as if unsure whether he had fully appreciated the insult.

He grumbled noncommittally and turned away from her, hoping she would get the message and stop talking to him. Asking her to shut up or go away wouldn't work, no matter how much he wished it would.

Of course, staring out at the rest of the ice nest meant he was staring through something troubling in an entirely different way. The ice wall, he had seen the moment he was dropped into their little enclosure, was back and thicker than ever, only partially translucent at the moment. Given the King had shattered it only a day before, he was surprised to see it repaired so soon… Surprised and just a little more desperate than before. The dark shadow it cast over him was both literal and metaphorical. So powerful, even without mind control, and all that power was at least tangentially devoted to keeping him captive.

'Nuzzle for your thoughts,' Star offered from behind him, her voice low and sultry.

That's a threat, not an offer,' he grumbled rudely. Hefnd's annoyed huff told him he was on the right track, though he hadn't meant telling Star off to be part of his 'anger Hefnd into wanting to do something violent' strategy.

'I could make it a threat, if that is what you like,' Star hummed. 'Is it about the big, bad alpha? Feeling like a lesser male today?'

'No,' he said shortly. Then he thought about it, and stomped his paws a little, acting frustrated. 'A little. I cannot even do what I usually do to make myself feel better.'

'Sounds intriguing,' Star purred. 'What would that be?'

'There was this game I played with the rock-heads back home,' he explained, speaking quickly so that she wouldn't have time to sneak in any innuendo. 'Hefnd, you might like this. We would take turns knocking each others' heads into the ground, seeing who could knock the other out first.'

'Why would I like that?' Hefnd asked coldly, glaring at him from his spot next to his Sire.

'Seems like you'd be good at it, is all,' Toothless said casually, walking away from the pond. 'And it's not fighting, so if you're not scared, we could do it now…'

Hefnd grumbled irritably, but he seemed to be thinking about it. Or thinking about how Star was watching them both now, looking extremely amused, and would see him backing down as a show of weakness.

Exactly as Toothless had intended. His original plan had been to provoke Hefnd into a real fight, but that was foolish for a number of reasons that had occurred to him over the long, cold night. The Skrill would almost certainly come down to break it up before any real damage could be done, and nothing said Hefnd would try to knock him out instead of using his claws and teeth to inflict plenty of pain in other ways. A made-up game where knocking Toothless out was the only way for Hefnd to win was much better.

'Okay, I will try your stupid game,' Hefnd declared, standing and walking out to meet Toothless roughly where the Skrill always dropped their fish, the center of their enclosure. There was hard-packed dirt and stone beneath their paws, and nothing else. No little rocks, thankfully; this was going to hurt without adding complications.

Hefnd stalked up to face Toothless, teeth bared and eyes narrow. 'Rules?' he asked. 'So you cannot claim I won by cheating.'

'We go back and forth,' Toothless explained. He slid his paw across the ground between them, tracing a line on the stone. It didn't stay, not even where his paw passed over dirt, but he was just trying to get an idea across. "No stepping over the line. One paw or two, your choice. You can hit or shove, but no pushing or hitting eyes or anywhere behind the ears.'

He was grateful, explaining his improvised rules, that the Myrkurs had made such an art form of knocking each other out whenever they wanted to mess with their links. He'd never done it to himself, but watching their antics had given him an idea of what was best, and listening to Eldurhjarta rant about the safety - or lack thereof - of such things had further refined his knowledge.

Hitting on the neck was very bad, and the same could be said for the eyes, for obvious reasons. The forehead was the hardest part of the head, at least for Night Furies, and the easiest way to knock someone unconscious was to drive the side of their head into a solid surface. Doing so tended to work, and without any side effects, though Eldurhjarta always said repeated impacts could rattle even a Myrkur's brain around and do real damage. Thankfully, compared to humans Night Furies were far tougher in that department; the Myrkurs had yet to suffer any noticeable injuries, and they'd been messing around with their links for years now.

'I can smash your smug face into the ground?' Hefnd asked, far too eager for what would be a limited amount of violence against a fellow prisoner. Toothless wasn't looking forward to hurting Hefnd… much. Maybe a little. The other male was frustrating.

'Yes, but you cannot stand on my head,' Toothless clarified. 'One strike, don't put your entire body weight into it. Killing doesn't mean you win, it just means I'm dead and the Skrill will probably kill you in retribution.' He wasn't too worried about that happening, if only because Hefnd looked scrawny and thus probably didn't weigh too much, but it was a distant possibility.

'I don't want to know what they would do any more than you do,' Hefnd agreed, casting a nervous glance back at Condescending, who seemed half asleep on her perch, her head nodding. 'Have no fear of that. This is a friendly competition.' He snorted rudely, little speckles of snot hitting the ground between them. Toothless wondered if he was sick, or just intentionally trying to be disgusting.

'A friendly competition where we try to knock each other senseless,' Toothless agreed. 'Any other questions?'

'Who goes first?' Star asked from the sidelines of their little standoff.

'Hefnd can,' Toothless offered. If he wanted it to be fair he would have suggested some way to randomly decide who got that advantage, but he just wanted Hefnd to win, so letting the other male have the first strike was fine.

Hefnd stomped his paws, one after the other, and settled into a low stance. He raised his right paw, then lowered it and raised his left, all without breaking eye contact. Toothless supposed he was meant to be intimidated, but instead he was just impatient.

'You won't be so confident when I'm done with you,' Hefnd growled, settling on his right paw and reaching his left out to hang over Toothless' head. Then he slapped down.

Paw met forehead, and immediately after chin met ground with a harsh smack. Toothless sprawled out, his ears ringing and his jaw hurting but otherwise unaffected. It hadn't even hurt that much; Hefnd really wasn't very strong.

'Make it obvious this isn't a fight before Condescending comes down here,' Star hissed.

Toothless hauled himself up, shook his wings out, and nodded agreeably in Hefnd's general direction. 'Good hit, but you're more likely to break my jaw than actually knock me out that way,' he advised loudly. 'Now my turn. Ready?'

'Ready,' Hefnd growled, closing his eyes and scrunching his face up. He looked even angrier with his eyes closed.

Toothless reared back, pulled both paws up, and came down on Hefnd, angling to strike from the left. He intentionally pulled back just before striking, blunting the hit as much as he thought was reasonable, but Hefnd still collapsed like a crumbling rock, every joint folding at the same time. For a moment, Toothless worried that he had accidentally won. He hadn't planned for that.

Then Hefnd snarled and stood, and his worries were alleviated. 'That was weak,' Hefnd asserted. 'My turn.'

Toothless braced for impact. He watched as Hefnd shuffled on his paws, lifted one, dropped it again, then swung a wing out, turning and twisting so the hard leading edge struck the side of his head-

O-O-O

Toothless blinked blearily, the world spinning under him, and felt a massive, throbbing pain in the side of his head, right above where his jaw met the rest of his head. He heard something crackling nearby, like frosted grass being crushed underpaw, but with an ominous resonance.

He also felt the absence of any foreign presence in his head, benign or malevolent. It was amazing how good that lack of a presence could feel, where he had been agonizing over it only a few days ago. Apparently, he only needed a reminder as to how horrible having someone he didn't want looking over his shoulder privy to everything he experienced.

'Up, foolish one,' a cold female said to somebody. He groaned as something in his tail jolted unpleasantly, wondering what Hefnd had done after knocking him out. A hit to the head shouldn't have hurt his tail-

The jolt turned into a spasm, and he yelped as the shocks spread, now obviously coming from outside him. He staggered forward a few steps, whipping his tail out of harm's way, and tried to turn to face his tormentor.

Instead, he face-planted in the hard dirt. If it weren't for having gotten what he really wanted, he would have been really frustrated by that. As it was, he held in a satisfied purr and settled for planting his paws more firmly and turning carefully, undeterred by the dizziness assaulting his senses.

The Skrill, who looked no different from the others he had seen, to the point where he would never have known she was female if it weren't for her voice and being told outright, tapped a pair of talons on stone, clicking them together impatiently. 'What was this?' she asked coldly. 'We do not allow fighting.'

'Wasn't a fight,' he rumbled. 'Contest. Hefnd won.' That was the story, and he was sticking to it. He didn't have it in him to pout, but pretending it didn't bother him - which it didn't - worked too.

'Stupid games get stupid rewards,' she hummed threateningly. 'No hurting yourselves or each other, no matter how much it seems like a good idea at the time. I had thought that would be obvious, but I suppose your little heads can only hold so much.'

'I will try to remember,' he huffed, gingerly pawing at his injury for emphasis. Now he knew why Condescending had her name; the first thing she ever said to him perfectly fit the title. He wondered if the Skrill intentionally played into the names they had been given, as that seemed a little too perfect. He would have, if he was in their place, just for something to do.

'Now run along and do something less self-destructive,' she instructed, a duo of seeking tendrils of lightning snapping out from her talons and toward him, though they stopped and ceased to exist long before reaching him, leaving only a loud snapping sound and the faint smell of a lightning strike. 'It is almost time for your feeding.'

He watched as she took off, disgruntlement breaking through his hidden satisfaction. Hopefully she wouldn't have much cause to interact with him in the future; her way of speaking down to him was already getting on his nerves. It reminded him of how the Queen had treated her captives, as if they were lesser…

At least he had taken a step toward ensuring he wouldn't be under another's control like that again. He looked out at the ice nest, and the white mountain lurking in the center. Two big tusks lay motionless on the ground near the pool, and there was a small swarm of little dragons playing around them. The King's body moved slowly, rhythmically, and his breathing could be heard, a deep rumble underlying the other noises of the nest.

He was asleep, and apparently losing one of his many, many subjects wasn't enough to wake him. When he did wake, he probably wouldn't notice.

'I won,' Hefnd called out from by the pond, having triumphantly returned to his usual spot. Star was entangled with him, her tail and paws all over him, which Toothless assumed was her way of rewarding the victor.

That made it seem like she considered their little contest a fight over her. He certainly hadn't meant it that way, and that she did made him even happier he had lost. The last thing he needed was Star throwing herself at him for any reason.

O-O-O

Star threw herself bodily in Toothless' direction, and he had to jump back to avoid being tackled. She barked wordlessly at him, her tail swaying happily-

'Good!' Condescending declared. 'Very good.'

Star's tail fell like a limp fish, and she quickly retreated, tossing her head irritably. Toothless had never seen her so angry or humiliated, and he totally understood why she felt that way. Condescending, as it turned out, was not a name that solely referred to the Skrill's way of talking to them. It also referred to what he understood to be a regular event when she was watching them.

'Now you,' Condescending called out. 'Surly, roll over and then beg, and put some feeling into it this time.'

Toothless watched as Hefnd reluctantly rolled over, all but throwing his body into the motion to be done with it, and then sat on his hind legs and whined. It was a pale mockery of how a fledgling might act, and Hefnd clearly knew that all too well.

'Good enough,' Condescending judged. 'Try harder next time, or you will not get to eat. Grey, roll over and play dead.'

Toothless averted his eyes as Grey did as told; aside from not wanting to stare at her unusually bare underside, he didn't want to watch her make a fool of herself in front of everyone for their amusement again.

'I will have to think of a new trick for you to learn,' Condescending mused. 'Now, for the new one… Beg.'

'And if I don't?' Toothless called out defiantly. He didn't feel very defiant; the others wouldn't have complied unless there was a threat waiting if they failed to humiliate themselves. Still, he had to check.

'You don't get to eat,' the Skrill said callously.

His stomach gurgled at the very thought of not being allowed any of the tantalizing fish sitting in front of him. He begrudgingly sat on his hind legs, leaving his front paws dangling, and forced out an unenthusiastic whine.

'Learning already,' Condescending purred, her body crackling with tiny bolts of lightning for no apparent reason. 'Eat up, everyone!'

'At least she is easy to please,' he muttered as they converged on the fish and took their portions.

'That is the only reason she is better than Sadistic, but it still makes her the third worst,' Hefnd growled. He bit one of the larger fish in half and swallowed it before gathering up his share and his father's and walking away.

'Cold is the absolute worst,' Grey added as Star left. 'He likes to have us put back early, so he can sleep instead of watching us. We do not get food unless someone else remembers to check on him.'

'I'm not looking forward to that,' Toothless admitted between careful bites. Careful because he was already learning to savor his food, and didn't want to finish it too quickly. He remained by the original fish pile, keeping Grey company. One of the few upsides of Condescending's regular 'practice' for them was Grey didn't seem to want to crack any jokes, so he didn't have to watch another cringe-inducing performance.

'Well, you could just knock yourself out and skip it,' Grey quipped. 'If you wanted to sleep the day away, you needed to have Hefnd hit you harder.' She swallowed the last bit of her fish and licked her paws, then looked over at him with wide eyes. 'Why did you do that, anyway? You could not possibly have lost to him if you were really trying, you have so much more weight.'

'Are you calling me fat?' he joked.

'Maybe…' She glanced over her shoulder at her rock pile, but made no move to retreat to it.

'Let's just say I wanted a little alone time in my own head,' he murmured, flicking his tail in the direction of the sleeping King.

'That was smart,' Grey hummed. 'He doesn't bother putting it back if you lose it. We are talking about… Hefnd's pet rock, right?'

Toothless resisted checking the Skrill's perch; if she was watching them, that would just make them look suspicious. 'Yes, his pet rock,' he readily agreed. 'I was trying to get it off my mind, and now I've done it. Though if he shows it to me again, then this was for nothing.'

'He doesn't bother. Once you've seen it, that's enough for him. He never does anything with it.' Grey shrugged her wings, a movement that emphasized the crooked bend in them, at least to his eye. 'He never uses it. I forgot about it a while ago, and he has not noticed.'

'Really?' That certainly boded well for his chances of escaping notice. 'I guess part two of my plan for not thinking about his rock isn't needed, then.'

'What was part two going to be?' Grey asked conversationally. She turned to walk back to her hideaway, but didn't actually start moving until he got up to walk with her.

'A stupid idea that probably would not have worked,' he admitted. He didn't understand how the link in all of its complexities actually worked; his plan had mostly just been the natural outgrowth of him only knowing how to do one thing of his own volition.

'But what stupid idea?' she pressed.

'I…' He cast around at the edge of her rock pile until he had found a small rock, then dug his claws around in the dirt until he had a circle of equal size. 'Look, it's like this. The circle is my mind. The rock is Hefnd's rock.'

'It fills your head,' Grey observed, sounding for all the world like she actually believed their deception. He had to hope she was playing along, not actually confused. With her, there was no way to know.

'So I got his rock out of my head,' Toothless narrated, pushing the pebble out and then flicking it away for good emphasis. It clacked against the ice wall. 'But I have this other rock, see,' he continued, finding another rock of similar size in the debris and bringing it back. Grey watched intently. 'I was hoping to put that rock in instead.'

'So there is no more room if Hefnd wants to make you think about his,' Grey hummed. 'You have a rock of your own?'

'Not on my own, but I can make one with someone else. Two, really, one for each of us,' he explained. They were getting into potentially dangerous territory, as that was something nobody else in this nest knew, as far as he knew, but he felt he could trust Grey to keep it secret, if only because it was already so hard to get her talking directly about anything serious. This was the longest she had gone on a single topic, and he suspected it was only because they had the deception to keep up that he had kept her on the subject.

'And… wait.' She ran over to the ice wall and retrieved the fallen pebble, bringing it back clutched between her claws. 'What if Hefnd does this?'

She stuck her paw down, dropped Hefnd's pebble right next to the circle with his in it, and then used Hefnd's pebble to push the other out.

'That was why it was a stupid idea,' he conceded. 'I don't know if Hefnd can do that. All I know is that there's only room for one.' In fact, he didn't know that, either, though he was pretty sure it was true. The Myrkurs and twins had proved only one link between Furies could exist, and he had no reason to think it would be different with the King's kind of link.

'That's not the only reason it was stupid,' Grey commented. 'Hefnd could just knock you out again if pushing your rock out doesn't work. That would get rid of it too, right?'

'Yes… It would.' He suppressed a groan. It seemed his plan had been even stupider than he had thought. 'Good thing none of that needs to happen now anyway.'

'I am interested in this rock you would be making,' Grey objected, pawing at the rock he had put into the circle to signify him making a link with someone else. 'What does it do?'

'It's a rock, it sits there and takes up space,' he offered. If she was actually asking about a rock, she would take that and not-

'I mean what does it really do,' she said quietly, her ears falling a little.

'Like what Hefnd's rock does, but both ways and without being able to take control of anyone's body,' he explained. 'Hearing, seeing, feeling, smelling, tasting, but nothing else, and those only when I want to, or you do.'

'You were going to do it with me?' Grey asked, perking up. 'Not Star or Hefnd or Einn?'

'You're the only one I'm on good terms with,' Toothless assured her, trying to keep his voice down. 'Einn doesn't talk and got me into this mess, Hefnd is frustrating, and Star acts like I've never met a female before in my life.'

Grey snorted at that. 'It would let you see what I saw?'

'And you me, but you would know when I was looking,' Toothless clarified. The last thing he needed was to come across as some creep trying to push into her privacy. She hid from all eyes for most of every day; he knew better than to let her think he was trying to get a look inside her sanctuary. That seemed like the sort of thing that would scare her off for good, and then he would feel horrible.

'Weird,' she said after a moment. 'Can we do that anyway? It sounds interesting.'

Somehow, he hadn't seen that request coming, and it took him totally by surprise. He stalled by scratching another circle into the dirt and sticking a rock in it, thinking the request over. On the one paw, there was no need now, and the link was something he'd only ever shared with Maour. On the other, Grey wanted to experience it, and it would open up some options for coordination that they might need for whatever plan they eventually came up with to escape. If they had an open line of communication they could maybe pull off complicated deceptions, things that relied on their captors not understanding what they could do…

And if it helped him get back to his family, who was he to spurn it? Maour was the one who was always pushing for the link to be seen as something sacred between friends, not to be misused or abused, and even he would say this was a good idea, strategically speaking. There was even an ironic parallel if he made a link with Grey here; he had already mentally compared their situation to how he and Maour had met.

'If you really want to,' he finally said. 'Keep in mind that one of us would have to be knocked out to break it, if you decide later that you don't like it.'

Grey nodded vigorously, her attempt at acting serious only slightly hampered by her wide eyes and wildly swaying tail.

'But do not feel afraid to tell me you want it gone if it makes you uncomfortable,' he added, abruptly feeling that he was trying to explain something serious to Fora or Vern, with all the understanding of consequences that it implied. Grey almost certainly didn't get how important and solemn this sort of thing was…

But she was an adult, and she would learn, and in the meantime it might somehow help them get out of this place. 'That said, we can try it,' he concluded.

'Right now?' Grey pressed. 'How does it work? Can I do it, or do you have to, or is it something that needs both of us, or do we have to trick the King into doing it for us-'

'None of that,' Toothless snorted. 'I touch you, look you in the eye, and then we both collapse with a bad headache, and it's done.' Now that he thought about it, them collapsing might be a problem; they wanted to keep this secret. Already, he could feel eyes on his back and knew that someone was watching. Grey loitering outside of her hiding place was not normal, and anything abnormal drew attention.

'You go into there,' he instructed with a gesture toward her usual hideout, coming up with a plan on the fly. 'Then turn around and let me stick a paw in, and meet my gaze. That way nobody sees you collapsing.' They could play off his collapse as lingering dizziness from his recent head trauma.

'Got it!' she chirped, turning to wiggle her way under the hanging rocks that made up the very low-hanging entrance to her place of refuge. He watched as she crawled in, feeling claustrophobic just looking. He still didn't think he could get in without upsetting the balance of the pile and getting himself crushed, but she was thin and flat enough to barely make it.

There was a shuffling noise, and he bent over to look inside. Her eyes, light purple around the large, blocky pupils, stared back at him. A paw was proffered, just within reach if he leaned forward.

'I don't think I can follow you there,' he said loudly, making a show of crouching and leaning forward, sticking a paw in to touch hers. Their eyes met.

He hadn't made a link in a long time, but it wasn't a process he could forget. Part of it was willpower, forcing something into being, but another part was reaching out with his mind, drawing a trail of nothing from his head to hers, directly into her eyes and what lay beyond-

It was there, and the headache was there with it. He saw himself for an instant, then managed to pull away from the new bundle of senses in the back of his head before collapsing.

It had been so long that he didn't entirely remember the last time he had felt this way. It seemed to go away quicker than before, but there was no way for him to be sure. Once the sharp pains faded to something bearable, he stumbled to his paws and growled loudly. 'Okay,' he announced to nobody in particular, 'maybe it was a stupid game.'

'Can't take my strength?' Hefnd called out smugly, giving away that he, at least, had been watching them.

'Not everyone has as thick a skull as you must,' Toothless retorted.

He felt, in the back of his head, a familiar sensation. Someone trying to see through his eyes. It was interesting, and a little disconcerting, that he couldn't feel any real difference between Grey's link and the one he'd had with Maour; the sensation was exactly the same. Maybe because he had created both, or maybe because neither of them was a King or Queen, whose invasions definitely had a different feeling entirely.

It was soothing, having that familiar presence back, but he didn't let himself fall into that trap. Grey wasn't Maour, and he wasn't satisfied with this. They were going to break out of this terrible place, freeing everyone trapped here, whether or not he liked them personally and then he was going to find Maour and Von and they were going to go home.

'You have a thick skull, to have suggested that game in the first place,' Hefnd belatedly retorted.

Toothless shook his head and walked off to find somewhere pleasant to sit. He knew from experience that Grey was going to be spending some time experimenting with her new senses - his senses - and he might as well be comfortable while that happened. There was no grass, but he found a nice patch of smooth stone that wasn't littered with irritating little pebbles, and had a good view of the newly reinforced ice wall.

Grey was using all of his senses to their utmost, including feeling and taste. He let her do that for a little bit, then began murmuring to himself. 'You can probably drop taste and feeling,' he said. 'Neither of those are useful.' After he spoke, he opened himself to her hearing, just enough to catch any reply she might give.

She didn't release her grip on his senses in any way, or reply. As far as he could tell, she was slumped limply in her little hideaway, completely caught up in the sensation.

'Okay, do what you want,' he conceded. 'But we're going to have to discuss boundaries soon enough.' For now, he was content to let the novelty wear off on its own. He had a lot of thinking to do about how this link might be used to circumnavigate the obstacles they faced. The King was, if Grey was to be believed, not likely to notice anything amiss, but that left the Skrill, the ice nest itself, and their total lack of options even if they made it out.

None of those seemed like things the link could help with, but he had spent too much time around his friends and family to think that meant there really was nothing it could do. Though he wished he had Heather and Einfari and Maour here to talk him through it…

Grey remained silent, caught up in whatever it was about his senses that had her so enraptured. He hoped he hadn't made a mistake in making a link with her.

O-O-O

It was dusk, or close enough to it that Condescending was beginning the process of snatching them and putting them in their icy pits for the night. This was a problem.

Toothless ignored the sudden shock of ice on his paws as he was dropped. 'Grey,' he hissed, 'you have to come out into the open to be picked up, and you can't do that while you're doing this.' She had yet to back off from his senses, and he knew from experience that moving while feeling someone else's body was almost impossible without a lot of practice.

He got no response, as he had come to expect, but that wasn't acceptable. He knew she could hear him. She was still experiencing all of his senses to the fullest.

'Come out, come out, wherever you are,' Condescending roared threateningly.

Toothless braced himself and pressed his wings against the ice. He usually avoided doing exactly that, as his wing membrane was extremely sensitive and it hurt like crazy, but this was an emergency. He held them there, gasping and panting as the cold invaded him-

'Okay!' Grey barked from her hiding place, abruptly dropping all connection to him. A few moments later, Condescending soared overhead with a distinct shape in her talons, and Grey thumped down in her own cell.

Toothless was glad he had gotten through to her - distant worries about the link somehow breaking something in her were already disappearing - but he wasn't content to let it rest there. 'Now we should talk about rules,' he said quietly. She was already going back to using his senses over her own, though he noticed that she was leaving touch alone for the moment, probably because he still had his wings pressed to the ice-

He belatedly yanked his wings away and did his best to press them against his back. He would be feeling the cold all night, probably.

'Okay,' Grey repeated morosely.

'You want to keep hearing open a little bit at all times,' Toothless instructed, sensing that she didn't want to talk about her apparent fascination with his senses. 'So we can communicate no matter where we are.'

'Done,' Grey agreed.

'Other than that, though, you want to not use my senses, or vice versa, unless there is a reason,' he suggested. 'I know when you are doing it, so you cannot totally invade my privacy without me knowing, but there are some things I just do not want a spectator for, and I am sure you feel the same.'

'You're warm…' Grey said slowly, quietly, with all the reluctance that was usually absent from her personality. 'I'm not.'

'I'm freezing cold right about now,' he said.

'Not compared to how I feel,' she retorted. 'You have scales, you have body fat. I got caught up in that. It won't happen again.'

He wasn't sure how to respond to that; on the one paw, if she was actually so cold she considered his frigid existence to be warm, he could empathize with her preferring his body's feeling over her own. On the other, letting her lie senseless in her hideout all day, every day was just asking for trouble, either from the Skrill or from just neglecting her own body.

'So long as you ask and explain, we'll see what works best,' he decided, effectively postponing dealing with that particular problem until the next time it came up-

'Can I feel you tonight?' Grey immediately asked.

'I… yes.' He was just going to be trying to sleep, there was nothing awkward about it. Though he was hoping this wasn't the start of a pattern…

Author's Note: Oh, Toothless. You really don't know what you've just gotten yourself into. Ah well, at least it can't be worse than the predicament you're already in. Probably.