Special Thanks to Ferith12 and Dimensional Phaser for helping with grammar and fixing some of the words in this chapter.

Neurie

I squinted as I woke to the bright sunlight resting upon my face. 'Today should be the day we return home as long as everything goes according to plan,' I realized. 'But for this to work, we need Ronde to stay as a dragon until we're close enough to Afri.'

'Speaking of which, where is my son? Did he ever return from reuniting with his Dragon family?'

I got out of bed and changed into my casual clothes. Once my boots were on, I gently step out into the hallway. By the sound of it, everyone was still asleep. 'I guess I'll just have to wait for the others, but it shouldn't be too long now.'

My eyes drift to the other end of the hallway and saw that the latch was hanging wide open, letting in the occasional ocean spray. 'Why would any sane person leave it open? We could have attracted bugs! Ew, just the thought of those things being anywhere near me makes my skin crawl.'

I quickly climb up the ladder resting on the wall next to the latch and almost close it when I see something on the far edge of the afterdeck. I squint my eyes to try to get a better idea of what it was. It was purple, whatever it was...wait. I realize with a pang in my chest that it was Ronde's sleeping form.

I am happy to see him, but upset because he's sleeping outside again. He should know that there's plenty of space for him inside this ship.

I had climb up towards the upper deck, I need to see if he was even on top of the ship. He needs to know what's happening today and my plan to return home and if everything goes correctly the 2-day trip will turn into a 12-hour sail. We should be home before sunset.

As I am walking towards him I notice that he was sleeping in a very odd way. He is curled up and using his wings to cover the area around his stomach. AsI got closer, I noticed something around his stomach, the figure almost looked like a person's head.

That's when I notice it is a person but it isn't anyone from our group. It's a girl with a light brown complexion sleeping on him. Where did she come from?

Suddenly my weight caused the floorboards under me to shift.

...Creeeeek...

Before I could even react to the sound of the floor creaking dueto my weight, my son's eyes shot open and he bolted up, looking in my general direction. His eyes slits and his fangs showing, I am a little bit scared when I see him like this. Does she not recognize me?

Suddenly I see him yawn then he rub his eyes, "Good morning mother...what are you doing up so early?"

I can't find the words to say to him.

"Oh, did I scare you? Sorry, it's a little bit of instinct to look threatening when I wake up when I hear a noise."

"No it wasn't that," I lie, "What is with that girl next to you?"

He and I both look at the girl and it looks like she is waking up. Once her eyes are open, she looks up towards Ronde, "...Right, that wasn't a dream. I'm really away from my tribe. And you came to rescue me," she lays her hand on Ronde's snout, "Thank you."

"I didn't rescue you. You wanted to leave so I... don't really remember."

The girl's eyes widen then she backs away from him but in the process, she trips over his tail and lands on her back. She rubs the back of her head and gets up off the floor, "I completely forgot you can talk, that means I really wasn't dreaming after all. But this is good. I'm finally free from the shackles of my home! I can't thank you enough."

"Hold on!" I yell to get everyone's attention, "Ok first off who is this?" I point towards the girl, "And what happened last night?"

He looks a little nervous while looking at me, "Mother this is Kindle. She's my...I'm her...we are long time friends. Last night I went towards her island to reunite with her but one thing led to another and I took her off her island."

I look at him, confusion obvious,, "You kidnapped this poor girl?"

He's scared, unable to remember, "No I...wait did I? I don't really remember what happened last night."

Before I had a chance to respond, the girl spoke out, "He didn't, I wanted to leave, there was nothing for me there plus I wanted to start a new life somewhere else."

"You wanted to leave the place you were born in? What is wrong with the kids this generation? Their answer to a problem is to run away from it."

After a moment of silence, I realize that was the wrong thing to say.

"Mother..."

"That is not what I meant, look I understand that you may have some problems with your parents Kindle but running away is not the answer."

"Mother."

The girl looked upset but calms herself down, "In that case, I would see why it would be ridiculous to run away. But imagine that you were my age, you're a woman so the only thing you can do is to only satisfy the men in your village. Imagine both your parents were killed and your village leader forced you to marry his son, a person who you want nothing to do with. Tell me wouldn't you try to run towards a place that can offer you freedom?"

I'm speechless. She went through all of that? But asI think about what she went through, I begin wondering where it is she's from. She has to be a part of this archipelago because of her complexion. But it sounds like she and others like her were oppressed. Wait a second she is from the FitaFita tribe isn't she? She probably doesn't know how to do a lot of basic things such as read or write. They handle things so differently there.

"Well?" The girl asks.

I look over towards Ronde who's a little worried and then back towards the girl. I lower myself in a formal bow, "I'm sorry, it was wrong of me to say that. I don't know what you've been through so it was wrong for me to assume. Please forgive me."

"I'm not mad at you for not knowing but don't always assume something when you do not know what is going on in a person's life."

I get up and place my hand out, "You are right I apologize, may we start over? My name is Neurie queen of Afri and that dragon over there is my son Ronde."

She looks surprised and looks between me and my son, "I'm Kindle, Nice to meet you but you're his mother? Does that mean you can turn into a dragon?"

I giggle, "No, my son is a very special case but I don't believe I have a right to tell you what happened to him. However, yes I am a queen and we were all trying to get back home."

Kindle looks surprised but only says, "I see."

I feel a little bad for this girl, but what she said earlier about being free makes me wonder if she just...

"Mother."

Ronde saying my name distracts me from my thoughts, "Yes, my son?"

"Could you find me some clothes to put on? I'd like to change back."

"Actually Ronde I need you to stay a dragon just for a little while longer until we're close to Afri," I say.

"What? Why...Oh, it's because I brought an extra person and there wouldn't be enough room for everyone to fly on."

I shake my head, "No, however that would be a good point. But I need you and the other Dragon Riders' dragons to pull this ship until we're at Afri."

I noticed His eyes widen, "What!? Why!? It would be much faster if we just fly there! I would only take 6 to 7 hours at the most!"

"I'll explain more when the others get up, but it's for the safety of the Dragon Riders. You know how our people can be when it comes to outsiders."

He scratches his head, bafflement obvious, "I honestly don't, you and father never told me anything about that. Plus I was gone for 7 years if something happened I wouldn't know."

Right he was too young and I didn't want him to know, "Let's just say that they'll be endangered if I don't announce who they are. And this ship is the safest way to protect them. Like I said before I will explain more when the others get up."

He looks to the girl and sighs, "I guess that's fine."

Several minutes later.

Ronde

I just sat down near the front of the boat next to Kindle. The others had woken up and were surprised to see another face on our ship. My mentor looked at me funny, then had a strange grin on his face. Some of the others said hello to her but Kindle only waved nonchalantly back towards them. Was she nervous or did she just not want anything to do with them?

I was about to ask what was wrong but when I did we just stared at each other for a moment before my nervousness kicked in and I looked back up. At that moment my scales color had a pink hue to it, I just hoped she didn't notice.

Suddenly my mother began speaking and that is when I noticed she has a bag next to her, "Hello everyone, I believe that today is the day that we return to my kingdom if everything goes correctly. But here is my plan, we are going to take this ship. Normally it would take 2 to 3 days based on the weather but we don't have time for that. So I need each of you and your dragons to pull this ship with these ropes I have in my bag."

She pulls out multiple ropes from her bag and gave one to each of the Dragon Riders, "I need each of you to tie this rope to a structure, a part of the ship that won't easily break and fly towards my home."

That's when the knucklehead Snotlout spoke up, "Why? Wouldn't it be much faster to fly?"

She nods, "Yes it would, but I believe that if we take this ship with us your safety is guaranteed. Like I told you all before, my people are not used to seeing outsiders. They will think that you guys are threats unless I announce it. However, if we were to bring this ship towards our docks and harbor it would make things easier."

"How?" Hiccup asks.

"In our docks are a group of watchers that detect things that are coming from our water such as fleets or if a massive wave could endanger one of our tribes and they'll announce it or take care of it themselves. Since this is one ship they'll probably send one or two people with dragons to inspect this ship. Once they see me they'll help guide us to our docks and then guide us towards my kingdom."

"Excuse me," Fishlegs has his hand up, "I don't normally agree with Snotlout but why can't we fly over everything until we reach your home."

My mother just sighs, "My scouts have telescopes and if they so much as get a glanced at you they will use our trained dragons to take you all down without any hesitation. Plus, there is a way for guards to know who is trespassing or who is one of us. We train our dragons to do a special sky dance that helps to identify who is a part of our nation. But since we will have a guide they will protect us and show the others that we are nonthreats."

"I see, so it is better to take this boat then. It's a real good thing that it was here."

My mother looks over tome and smiles then at the others, "To tell the truth it was a bonus, I would have found a way to protect you all but this is the safest way right now. And I'm sure that my kingdom is waiting for me so they'll be generous with us."

Hiccup nods and turns around so he's facing the others, "Ok, let's tie these ropes around the structures of the ship."

They all separate to different corners of the ship. My mother turns to face my mentor, "Skild, lift up the anchor and get ready to sail. You know the way to use the rig to guide them in the right direction."

I am sitting next to her, confused as my master went towards the back of the ship, "What about me? You don't have any ropes for me to pull on."

"Actually, Ronde, I need you to be either in the back of the ship pushing it or in front pulling it towards our home just like you did yesterday. You are the biggest one here so with your strength we can get to our home much faster."

I'm beginning to understand why she planned it this way, "Oh ok, this is something I've done before with my other ship. I think it's best if I move it from the front for a few hours then I'll push it from the back just to rest certain muscle groups. Alright, once we leave the island I'll get right on it."

Kindle stood, walking away from us, "I guess that leaves me on watch duty, but I doubt that you need me for anything so I'll be near the man who is steering the ship."

She was walking away from us but I can tell from her facial expression that something is bothering her.

"She seems cute," my mother casually remarks aloud.

"Yeah she is but I'm worried about her," I soon realize I said that outloud and my mother then grins at me.

She points at me, "So you do like her, that's why you took her from her island."

"It's not that I...I...can't lie to you. I do like her but I don't think she likes me the same way. I think she sees me as an animal and I think there's something wrong with her, like she's bothered by something. She doesn't have to like me back but I do worry about her."

My mother looks away, "From what I can tell it has something to do with us. She doesn't want to interact with anyone either because she's nervous or she feels guilty about something."

I'm confused, "Guilty about something? How do you know?"

"I don't know but it may have something to do with you, her experiences from her home, this trip, or all the above."

When she said that there was something in her voice I noticed. 'Did she just lie or was it my imagination? But I think I have a solution', "Mother since we're going to be sailing for a while is it possible for you two to talk? You know girl to girl or woman to girl whichever you prefer."

She shakes her head, "No, I believe that may make things worse. I believe she needs time but when we get home I'll like to have a conversation with her, there something I need to know."

I'm about to say something but she stops me, "Ronde when we're close you can talk to her but it's not my place to bring you two together. A partnership requires two or more people to communicate or to work together. But a relationship is two people bettering each other and themselves. It's up to the both of you to make it work."

I'm a bit disappointed with that answer but I understand what she's saying. I notice the ship beginning to move out of the stream. I look over to see my mentor steering the handles of the ship. "The stream should guide us towards the ocean and from there we should be on our way."

Kindle

I just sat down behind the wall, next to the person they called Skild I believe. I was happy to be free of that miserable place. But now what? I didn't think this far ahead, I didn't think it was possible for me to leave but I don't know what to do now. And this boy...this dragon...I don't know what to call him anymore is offering me a place to stay, a place to live. Why? I don't need to be pitted.

But it might be more than that. He's not trying to do that. What he said...he told me that he liked me...but do I feel the same way about him? He was...is a dragon. If I were to like him back would it still work between us? I don't know him that well. But then again I remember he said, ["I'm still the same dragon that you met 5 years ago. I promise I am no threat to you."]

I don't know. He did listen to all my rants and ramblings. As a dragon, he helped with part of my training. He tried to teach me stealth and swing with momentum with my whole body strength as a dragon without ever getting annoyed…that much.

I guess it makes sense now that he knew how to do all those things. I assume that he was a very observant and intelligent dragon that watches humans do things and learned from them. But now I know it's because he was human. This situation with humans becoming dragons is just all too weird, and now one of them is telling me that he's like me. I just don't know how to feel about him. It feels like I just met him but we played together, train together 5 years ago. But should I give him a chance? I know for a fact he's a better choice for a partner then Valea but...

He did rescue me from that island and has offered me a new start. And he said again, ["Like I said before you don't need to be with me but the least I can do is to get you off this island so you can experience true independence and freedom. I believe I owe you at least that."] he's told me that. He just wants the best for me. I do somewhat feel guilty though, it feels like I've used him to escape my home. Maybe I'll try to be a bit nicer towards him and see where it goes. But knowing men they don't think with their heads they think with their...

Immediately as I thought of that, the image of the boy being naked in front of me last night flashed in my mind and I instantly blushed. 'No don't think about that...'

The man in front of me began yelling, "Alright start pulling, Dragon Riders!"

Each person on top of their dragons began to pull the ropes tied to each part of the ship, the ship surging forward. The change of speed nearly made me slide off the crate I'm sitting on. The ship is now off the island and heading towards the open ocean.

The man was yelling again, "Ronde, go ahead and start pulling!"

Ronde looks back and for a moment he stares at me, but his gaze shifts over to the man named Skild, "Alright, hold on tight."

He quickly glides over towards the front of the ship. Once he's at the nose of the ship he holds onto it with his claws and feet, opening his large wings. He angles them in a position where I think he's trying to get a feel for the wind. But before I could respond he took his first few flaps and our ship began to increase its speed, causing everyone on board to nearly topple over and fall. We're going very fast from what I can tell. I look back behind us and can barely see the island we just came from.

"That Ronde, he was strong before and now he's even stronger."

Ronde

After several hours of pulling the ship I I'm tired, more so than I have been in a while. I've flown longer than this but pulling on something so massive with my arms and feet is very exhausting. My wings and part of my back are burning and aching. Even my mother can tell I'm exhausted because I heard her walking towards me and saying, "Ronde, it's been several hours, you can take a break."

I stopped flapping my wings and the momentum of the ship decreased. I slowly walked towards my mother, but I collapsed on the deck next to her trying to catch my breath.

My mother was worried and I think I saw Kindle behind her as well. But I heard my mentor yell, "The Ronde I know doesn't get exhausted like that...unless he was overexerting himself."

I had my eyes closed but my mother asked, "Is that true? Why would you push yourself towards exhaustion?"

"Sorry, I just wanted to cut down our time sailing there. I knew I could rest there, but we shouldn't be too far out from there now. But I am sorry but I need to rest now."

"Fine, but do you have enough strength to move inside of the hallway below? Just in case you don't wake up in time if we make it home."

I slowly got up and nodd, "Yeah I think so."

My mother, with the help of Kindle, opened the latch to the bottom floor. I try to take my time going through it without falling or slipping. I manage to get down and I slowly walk to the end of the hallway. Once I'm there I curl up and slow down my breathing, falling asleep.

Some time had passed before I awoke. As I slowly open my eyes, I notice that Kindle is leaning against the wall, asleep. It's surprising to see her here next to me. A smell suddenly entered my nose. I look down to see a plate of food. Well, it's cooked fish but still, I'm surprised. But I don't know if it's for me or she was saving it for herself, because I can tell that it was still warm.

I try to call her name to wake her up, "Kindle, hey Kindle."

She slowly opens her eyes and stretched, "Oh sorry, I didn't want to wake you so I waited for you to get up. But I guess I fell asleep in the process."

She looks down at the ground and tries to hand me the plate, "I've noticed you haven't eaten anything since this morning, so I've asked the other people with dragons to help me get you some food. I know this isn't enough but it's better than nothing right?"

I am again surprised she cared and I was happy, but it feels like she's trying to force something, "Thank you, but what about you? You haven't eaten anything since I rescued you. You need your strength as well."

"I'm fine. So here take it."

She places the plate out and I grab it carefully out of her hands. I then slid the contents on the plate into my mouth. It isn't that bad and it was small enough for it to be safe for me to turn back into a human. I look over at her and say, "Thank you for the food and for caring enough to get it for me."

She has a nervous smile, "It's not a problem. Also, your mother wanted me to give you this."

She pulls out from behind her my clothes, given to me by Berk, folded up nicely but my boots aren't there. I held my claws out in front of her and she slid the food on them, "Thank you. Hey if you don't mind, I would like to put these on."

She looks at me, confused, "Why would I mind?"

I'm a little bit embarrassed to explain this again, "In order for me to put these on I need to change back and when I do I'll be...naked just like last night. If you could please just turn around until I'm done."

"Oh, right, I'm just not used to this."

I laugh, "I don't believe anyone would be either. I don't even believe my mother is getting used to seeing her son being a dragon."

As I am changing back, I hear her ask, "Why is that?" Before she cut herself off while listening to my body changing. Once it was finished I only had the strength to put my pants partially on before I had collapsed from the pain.

Kindle turns around and tries to help me up. I'm trying to pull up my pants while she's helping me. She looks slightly worried, "Are you ok? That sounded painful just hearing all those pops and cracks."

"This is normal for me. I'm somewhat used to the pain from changing back and forth. But I apologize if I worried you."

She is holding my arm around her shoulder looking around in the hallway, "Let's go inside one of these rooms."

We went through several rooms, but each of them had something either from the Dragon Riders or my mother and mentor-until she found an empty room with a bed and a window. She led me towards the bed and sat down next to me. I leaned against the wall, trying to find my shirt. I must have left it in the hallway.

I notice she was staring at me and I am a little nervous about why until I realize she was looking at all of my scars.

She finally asked, "You didn't have these scars all over your body when you were a dragon. What happened to you?"

"Training with my father is the majority of how I got them. The others are from a maniacal maniac that tried to take over the world and manage to cut me. The one on my chest is from a dragon that scratched me. But some of these scars were here when you first met me, they were just hidden underneath my scales."

I tried to sit upright and closed my eyes. I'm just a bit tired from changing but Kindle questions, "Are you sure you're ok?"

"I'm just a little tired from changing back and my body is still slightly aching from moving the ship. But I should bounce back in a few minutes, sorry for making you worry "

I open my eyes to see her twirling and stroking her hair nervously, "It's not that, what...I mean...you didn't make me worried."

I can't help but laugh at that, she still does that after all these years, "You still pull your hair when you're nervous? I'm glad to see nothing's changed from the last time I saw you."

She looks away from me and I'm confused as to why. But I can tell that it isn't from embarrassment, "Hey, what's wrong?"

She doesn't look at me, but she said, "It feels like this is the first time I'm meeting you."

I am confused, "Isn't that a good thing? I mean we had so much fun as kids."

She shook her head and looks down at her hands, "No, what I mean is, this is like I'm seeing you for the first time. I can't associate your face with the dragon I met. I barely know you, yet you know a lot about me because I told you what I was going through during those days. You couldn't talk as a dragon so I just assumed that you were a very intelligent and observant dragon that learned from watching others. And now I've learned yesterday that the dragon was a human who likes me."

I don't know how to respond at that moment, the way she said 'who likes me' feels like it meant that she was disgusted by the idea or possibly confused.

But she looks at me and asks, "How did this happen to you? Were you born like this? Is this some kind of curse place on you? You told me yesterday about your family, but you didn't explain how this happened to you."

"I don't want to explain the whole story, it will take too long, but I'll tell you this, I wasn't born like this. I was 10 years old at the time when I was poisoned by one of my dragons. My grandmother tried everything she could to remove the poison but the anti-venom wasn't working on me. So she told me that she tried another method but I don't know what she did. All I remember was her giving me a drink and then unbearable pain and after that, I woke up as a dragon."

She looks surprised, "You've been this way ever since you were 10 years old? How old are you now?"

I scratch the back of my head, "I don't know I wasn't keeping track of the days just the years by keeping track of the seasons so it's been a little over 7 years since I've left my home and it's getting close to the end of spring so I believe I'm either still 17 or very close to 18 years of age."

"Oh, I see how it would be difficult for you to remember. I'm 19 but I'm about to turn 20 next month."

'So she was around 14 or 15 when we met, so we're a year and a half apart maybe even 2. But that doesn't matter right now. I look her in her eyes and ask, "Kindle do you mind if I ask you a question?"

She looks somewhat surprised, "Yeah, sure what do you want to know?"

"Now that you're free from your island, what are you going to do? Like I said before, if you want you could live in my castle with your own room until you find a way to sustain yourself. Or I could ask my mother to help you find your own home and job."

She looks down towards the ground, "I don't know actually. I want to see your home for myself before I make any decisions. If your rooms are nice I'll take that but if I have more of an opportunity from owning my own house then I'll like to have a home for myself."

I don't know why she looked towards the ground instead of me. Was she mad about something or does it have to do with me? I try to sit up and I look at her but she's still looking at the ground. I had an unnecessary idea that would get her attention, I grabbed her hands with mine, much to her surprise.

She looks over at me but I tell her, "If you need a place to be by yourself you can have time to process this then you can have a home in our village but..."

I stopped talking when I felt something while touching her hands. I look down and look at the palm of her hands and to my shock, I saw scars on her fingers and thumbs and calluses all over her hands. They were on the creases on her fingers as well as her thumbs. I'm shocked to see this, it this from all the times she pushes herself?

Suddenly she pulls away and grabs her left hand with her right. She looks somewhat angry at me, "What? Do these scars disgust you!? You think that I'm weak, don't you!? Do you think that these scars make me ugly and unattractive!?"

I slightly back away from her, surprised that she yelled at me. But what confuses me is that she thinks that those scars make her unattractive? Why does she think that or in fact why does she think I would find that unattractive?

Wait, last night that boy that she was arguing with said, ["All you need to do is to look pretty and satisfy me Kindle, is that so hard? All those calluses over your hands won't help you become a better wife if anything they make you unattractive."] She must think that I was thinking the same thing as that boy.

I try to be as serious as possible and say, "No, believe me when I say that not the reason why I made that expression. It just worries me that these calluses would interfere with normal activity in a person's life. It must be hard to move around your fingers because of the hardness of the skin in each area. I wonder how you can deal with this on a daily basis."

She somewhat calms down but turns her head to face away from me. I can't help but giggle but I still need to see something, "Kindle may I see your hand?"

She didn't respond but she placed her hand onto mine. I look closer at the scars and calluses, "This is from training by yourself in the woods, isn't it? When you would touch me back then you didn't have any of these scars on your hands. I'm guessing it's from swinging your ax around or maybe it was from the job you said you had."

She only mutters something underneath their breath but I thought of something that could help her. I look at her and say, "I think I know of a way to get rid of or as the least soften these calluses if you want to."

That got her attention. She looks at me and asked, "You know away? How can you do that."

"Well not me specifically but since we're going to my village my grandmother is a specialist when it comes to healing the human body as well as dragons. My mother hasn't said anything bad about her so I know she's still alive and working, she can help with the calluses but I don't know about the scars. We can go tell her tomorrow about healing your hands if you want."

She looks surprised, "Oh, ok I would like that very much."

I smiled at her but then what she said before came to mind, "By the way Kindle."

She's still looking at me, "Yes?"

I look deep into her eyes and say, "Beauty is subjective to a person. What we deemed as beautiful could be ugly to someone else. That boy who hurt you yesterday thought that these scars make you unattractive and I believe he's made you think that as well but I know for a fact that he is wrong. These calluses and scars show how much time you put into improving yourself, trying to make yourself stronger despite all the pain that it caused you. You've endured and to me, that shows that you are strong which makes you even more attracti-"

I stop talking when I realize what I was trying to say but it's already too late. I look over at her for a split second before looking away, blushing. I hope because of my complexion she can't see the red on my cheeks.

We don't say anything to each other for the next couple of moments but then we hear a knock on our door and the voice behind it was my mother's, "Hey, we can see land guys it's about time you two come out so we can get going."

We both stood up and walk to the door. I hold it open for her. She looks at me but when she does I look away, I'm just so embarrassed that I just said that she was attractive out loud.

She is still looking in my general direction but she walks out of the room as I did as well shortly after.

As we are walking towards the latch I grab my shirt that was left in the hallway and quickly try to put it on. I can hear noises coming from the other rooms. It seems like the Dragons Riders are gathering their supplies. It also seems that the dragons are still at the top waiting for them.

As Kindle and I are about to climb up to the latch, she suddenly tells me, "Thank you."

I look up, completely confused, "Huh? Why are you thanking me?"

"For telling about these scars. For a long time, I believed the things that I did were unladylike so that made me feel ugly. But I don't care as long as I became a warrior it was worth it. But when I was told that I had to marry that scumbag I knew it was all over for me. He told me that physical training is unattractive for women. And for a while now because he and others said it so many times I've believed it until now because of what you said. So that's why I'm saying thank you...Ronde."

I can't help but smile when she said that while we're climbing up towards the top of the ship.

She climbed to the top deck of the ship and so did I. But when I got to the top I'm immediately tackled to the ground much to Kindle and my mother was surprised. When I look up, it doesn't surprise me to see Thunder staring at me with big excited eyes, ("Partner I haven't seen you since yesterday when we left your Kin Sire and Dam and now I can see a huge land. Is this place where you were hatched at?")

I try to push her off of me and after that, I got up, "First of all Thunder humans don't come from eggs, second if you're asking if that is my home I think so.")

She look almost disgusted about what I said, ("Your kind doesn't have eggs!? How are the whelpling's born!?")

"My grandmother told me we humans just come out after being in our Dam's belly for nine months or nine moon cycles."

("No egg?")

I nodded, "No egg. But now I have a question for you."

("What is your question partner?")

I give her a serious look, "Where were you when we were pulling this ship?"

("I was at the back resting and watching you from afar.")

I'm a bit angry, "Why didn't you help us move the ship? We probably would have gotten here quicker if you would have helped."

("I saw no point to help. By the time I've woken up you were already pulling this Sh-IP. Plus I don't want my talons to get ruined by pulling on those strings.")

I'm angry by that lame excuse, "You still could have helped! You know what Thunder just for that I'm not helping you find a mate. If you're too lazy to help move this ship then I know you're going to put any effort into helping me in the future."

She got angry, electricity beginning to crackle around her body as she roared, ("You will help me find a mate as you promise! If you won't I will use my light against you!")

I look away from her with my arms crossed.

She becomes even more frustrated, ("I mean it! Say you will help me or I'll shock your partner!")

I still don't say anything or look over towards her. Even if she uses her lightning against me it won't hurt as much as it did before.

("PARTNER!") She roars.

As the moment of silence went by, I still didn't say anything.

Then all of a sudden she starts to whimper, ("Fine you win! I'm sorry just please help me!")

I turn around to look at her, "Put in more effort next time and I'll do my part. I'll help you sometime next sun Thunder. And stop tackling me to the ground!"

She looks away from me dissatisfied with my response. That's when I notice Kindle staring at me confused and I think I know why.

She comes a little closer to me and asks, "Ronde what was that?"

"Oh uh, this dragon is my partner Thunder she was being lazy by not helping out so I called her out on it."

She has a confused look on her face, "It looked like you could understand her. Wait can you understand dragons?" She suddenly she face palms herself, "Of course you can, you are technically one of them."

Thunder suddenly nudged me with her snout, ("Hey partner who is this? I don't remember seeing this one last sun.")

"Oh right Thunder this is Kindle," I look over to Kindle, "And Kindle this is Thunder the Skrill."

Thunder walks over to Kindle to sniff her. However, I notice Kindle is a bit stiff being sniffed, as if she's scared to move. But then Thunder looks over to me and had a grin on her face, ("This is the female Two-leg you like isn't it? The one you said you wanted to be mates?")

"She is not my...! It doesn't work like that Thunder."

Kindle is confused, "What did the dragon just say?"

I blush, "Nothing! Nothing at all!"

Thunder looks smug, ("Oh, you must like her I can feel something coming off of you when a male meets a female. But this is weird what I'm sensing isn't lust, do you not want to mate with her?")

"Thunder stop right now!" I yell, embarrassed.

She smiles, ("Fine, it is fun to tease you, males, sometimes. But before we go I need to see something.")

She suddenly gets behind Kindle and pushes her in my direction, much to our surprise. When it looked like she was about to fall I tried to catch her. She did slightly lose her balance but I held her up and we just stared at each other.

Thunder makes a soft cooing noise, ("See I can help too I can tell that you two will have many hatchlings when you're ready.")

I blush again when she says that and I think Kindle notices that Thunder was teasing me. She sighs and asks, "What did the dragon say this time? It was clearly about us because you're blushing."

I help her get on her feet and step a little further away from her and say, "You don't want to know, trust me."

("Don't deny it, partner, you want to be with her and have plenty of your own whelpling running around your home.")

My whole face is turning red. I thought that only my mother could embarrass me this much. But I don't know what worse than the fact I'm the only person who knows what she's saying or the fact of the content of what she's talking about!

Kindle then faces Thunder, "Dragon I don't know if you can understand me but could you please stop messing with him?"

I'm surprised she was talking to her. I thought she may have thought it was weird.

("I only understood the word 'please stop' and another word that means teasing. Ok I think I understand, ok my partner potential mate I'll stop for now.") She warbles while walking away.

I look over to her, "Thank you Kindle."

She looks towards me and says, "It's not a problem, I don't know what that dragon was saying but I was afraid that if you got any red you would have died from embarrassment."

I see her slightly giggled when she said that and it makes me laugh too.

Just then the other dragon's Riders came out with their stuff.

"Ronde come here and look!"

I look over, towards the front of the ship and see my mother waving to get my attention. I ran over to her side with my Kindle behind me, curious as well. I look to see what she is pointing at and I see a sight that I believed I would never see again. It is still as beautiful as the day I looked back when I was leaving. My home, my country, the place I was raised and born in, Afri is just on the horizon.

It isn't that far from where we are. All the progress we made has led up to this. I look over towards the bright orange sky, there is still some time before it gets dark. I am happy seeing the mountain and the forest in the distance.

But then I notice something, some sort of dot in the sky. No wait there are now two dots getting bigger and coming towards us. Then I saw the outline of a dragon, "Oh no Mother I think we have company!"

She looks over and saw where I was pointing at, "Those are the guardians of our borders. Just do not attack them and we'll be fine."

Was she sure? I mean a lot of things have happened while I was gone but they looked very threatening.

It didn't take long for the dragons to hover around our ship. It turns out to be two monstrous nightmares with a person on top of them. Each person looks around our ship and shouts in my people's native tongue, "utapita Maji yetu ikiwa hautageuka tutashambulia!"

("you will pass our Water if you don't turn around we will attack!")

My mother waves to get their attention. One of them notices her and calls for the other man to look down. They look confused to see my mother on this ship with people from outside of our home. She spoke out, "Mimi ni malkia wako Neurie watu hawa ni nadhani yangu tafadhali usiwashambulie. na ikiwezekana tunahitaji mwongozo wa kurudi kwenye ufalme wetu."

(I'm your queen Neurie these people are my guess please don't attack them. And if possible we need guidance to return to our kingdom.)

They look confused but they accepted the explanation and slowly flew back with us. They were on different sides of the ship, traveling at the same pace as the ship. Hiccup asks, "Are we safe?"

My mother looks a little bit concerned, "Well...me, my son, Skild and possibly the girl Kindle are but you six...just don't do anything, don't even attempt to get on your dragons until I say so."

Several minutes passed by and we managed to get towards the docks. The two people on the Nightmare's landed on the docks and got off their dragons to signal us to approach. My mentor managed to position the ship correctly and used the anchor to stop its momentum. Once we had completely stopped, he then went towards the side of the ship and pulled down a rope ladder. My mother went first and then my mentor. I was contemplating whether or not to go down with them but I decided to stay on the ship.

There was an man that greeted my mother and mentor with a formal bow, "ah malkia wangu imekuwa muda sio hivyo? unaleta nini hapa? mumeo alifika hapa wiki mapema kuliko wewe."

(ah my queen it's been a while, isn't it? What are you bringing here? Your husband arrived here a week earlier than you.)

My mother respond, "tulikuwa tumetembelea kisiwa kinachoitwa Berk na labda tungeunda muungano nao. lakini ninahitaji kutangaza kuwasili kwao kwa ufalme wangu kesho ili wawe salama kutembea karibu. lakini ikiwezekana tunaweza kuwa na mwongozo wa kurudi kwenye kasri langu?"

(We had visited an island called Berk and probably formed an alliance with them. But I need to announce their arrival to my kingdom tomorrow so that they are safe to walk around. But if possible we can have a guide back to my castle?)

The man nods and look towards the men that guided us to the docks, "wewe wawili unahitaji kumsaidia malkia wetu salama kurudi nyumbani kwake. na wanaume walio kwenye meli ni mgeni wetu sio wa kuwadhuru."

(You two need to help our queen safely return to her home. And the men on the ship are our guests do not to harm them.)

Both of the men nod and get on their dragons. My mother looks back up at me and gave me a thumbs up. I immediately knew what that meant so I turned towards the dragon Riders and said, "They have given us permission to fly, grab your stuff, get on your dragons and follow the two Nightmares."

I look over towards Thunder and gesture for her to come towards me and she did, I then look over towards Kindle, "I can't change into a dragon while we're here out in public so you need to fly with me on top of Thunder, ok?"

"I understand," she said

I got on Thunder and helped up Kindle as well, "You can hold onto my shoulde-," I was cut off when she had her arm around my midsection, at that moment my heart began to race.

She's confused, "Ronde? Why do I feel your heart pumping so fast?"

I quickly think of a lie, "I'm just excited to be back home!"

She just accepted the answer and moved on but asI am getting ready to go, I look down to see Thunder with a smug look on her face, ("I know your lying partner.")

This dragon really knows how to get on my nerves, "Thunder just follow those kin please."

Both Nightmares flew off, one of them was carrying my mother and the other one my mentor. I and the others follow them to our next destination.

Several minutes later, we had to be getting close . The mainland where I was born has springs and water sources inside and around the outside borders. And because weather can change throughout the day, fog can appear around the afternoon when the area begins to cool off.

The two Nightmares that were in front of us flew lower towards the fog, that's when I tell the others to follow close by. We continue to fly just above the fog when I notice a tiny light on the other side where we are heading. Then the other one appeared and then another after that. I knew exactly what it meant.

"We're here!" I yell excitedly.

The fog became less thick as I see the many lights from my village appear before our eyes.

"My home, my village! It's been too long!"

I turned around to see the other dragons Riders with their mouth wide open.

I spread my arms out as if I was the one who flying but I yelled out for everyone to hear, "Welcome everyone to my home! My village Alkebulan!

It felt good to say that out loud.

Hiccup

I can't believe what I'm seeing, this village...no Ronde's home was huge! This village is much bigger than Berks! Not even twice as big, no ten times, maybe even more. Yet this is one of the other 3 tribes that he told Astrid about.

Then I look forward to seeing him in the far side of his village. There is some sort of huge building. But as we got closer, I notice it's a huge castle. By the gods, this has to be his kingdom but it was much bigger then what I was expecting and it has a huge stone wall surrounding the area.

The two Nightmares carrying Ronde's mother and mentor stopped flying towards the castle. We all stopped to see what they were doing. Suddenly, the two Nightmare's wings began to light on fire but it never spread towards their body and they flew together in some sort of pattern. They did slow twirls around the castle and came back towards the middle. After a few moments had passed the castle walls came down. They flew inside of the walls and followed them as well. Once they landed the queen and Skild had got off of the Nightmares and thanked the people who were escorting us here. But they said it in a different language that I can't understand but the two men and their dragons flew off.

The queen called on to us, "Everyone please follow me into my home."

Skild ran ahead of her and went to the door and put something inside of it. It wasn't a normal key, however, it was some sort of circular object. But once he put it inside, the castle doors began to open.

All of us walked inside and, to my amazement, the inside was big as well. There's a set of stairs in the middle that lead both right and left. There are open rooms on each side of us but it looks like they're filled with old artifacts. But what got my attention was the portraits of people, which I assume are the previous kings and queens hanging around the walls. But the one in the middle, above the steps, got my attention. I saw a portrait of Ronde's parents with two girls on the left and the right and a young boy with long hair.

Wait a second is that boy Ronde?

I look over and said his name, "Hey Ronde."

He looks over and walks towards me, "Yeah, what's up?"

I point towards the portrait, "Is that your entire family? And is that you with the long hair?"

He looks over at the portrait and just stares at it. His silence is a little concerning so I call his name, "Ron-"

"Don't say my real name while we're here," he said, cutting me off. He is still staring at the portrait and says, "I remember that day. We had to stand still close to an hour while the guy was painting us. This was a few days before I had to train with my father for the first time. And I hated having my hair all poofy so I either kept it straight or used a brush with some cream to keep my hair standing up. Those were the days."

Before he can say anything else, a young lady in some sort of formal wear came towards us and bows, "malkia wangu, hawa ni wageni wako? unataka nisaidie kuzunguka ngome?"

Ronde's mother points towards us and says in her native language, "ndio ikiwa ulikuwa na furaha. wametoka mbali lakini wanazungumza Norse. ikiwa ungewaonyesha mahali wanaweza kupumzika na kupumzika na Dragons zao pia. Ningependekeza sana vyumba kadhaa visivyotumika. watakaa hapa kwa siku chache ikiwa sio wiki."

She bows then comes over to us, "Hello you may call me Rose I'll be your guide to your rooms."

It shocks me that she spoke perfect Norse, "You know our language?"

She nods, "Yes, it is required to know different languages in this tribe. We need to communicate with others outside of our homes that are not hostile. Your language is one that I've chosen to learn, now shall I show you where you and your dragons are staying?"

"Yes please lead the way," I said.

"Hold on."

We all turn around to see Ronde's mother staring at the group, "Kindle and...the boy in the black shirt you two are coming with me."

She was preferring Ronde as the boy in black but those two walked over to her as well as the Skrill.

Ronde looks towards us and says, "Good luck my friends I'll see you tomorrow."

We separate. Rose walked us around the stairs towards the back of the castle as she was saying, "Now unfortunately your dragons can't fit inside of your room. Maybe that black dragon and the Gronckle can but the others must sleep outside or in our chambers if it gets cold."

"Our dragons can't sleep inside with us but why outside?" Fishlegs asks.

She turns around, "Oh, do not worry there is a place where I'm talking where your dragon can sleep wherever they want."

Once we made it towards the back she opens a massive door that leads outside. But what we see is a massive forest but the trees were organized in a path where there were bushes filled with fruit and others with flowers.

Rose gestures outside, "This is my queen's garden and home of some of our dragons. Some of your dragons need to sleep here and do not worry there is food and water and a wall to protect them from people breaking in. But your dragons can still fly away; however is this ok with you?"

Being separate from our dragons like that has been awhile. I'm not sure if others like that.

But before we could respond Stormfly, Hookfang, and Barf and Belch ran inside of the garden.

Rose then shrugs, "Well I guess you didn't have to decide for them. But they'll be fine. You may check on them during the first light."

Snotlout yells, "First light!? I can't wait that long! Just look at Hookfang, he knows it too!"

At the mention of his name, Hookfang looked in our direction and quickly scurries deeper into the garden.

Rose then looks confused, "Did I say something wrong? Oh, wait, first light means in the morning my apologies."

Astrid said, "Oh don't worry some of us got what you were saying."

She looks over and sees Toothless and Meatlug atour sides, "Well those dragons don't seem to want to leave your sides but that is fine there enough space in our rooms for dragons of their size. Now please follow me."

We head towards the front of the hallway to the entrance and walk up the stairs. We walk towards the left side stairs the towards a long hallway. We were about to enter when Rose spoke, "I believe this castle has a total 28 bedrooms but this hallway has only 7. I need to know who is sleeping together or separated, so please go into groups.

The group was me, Astrid and Toothless, Fishlegs and Meatlug, the twins, and finally Snotlout by himself.

"Ok," Rose says while pointing to Snotlout, "You come with me."

She leads Snotlout into one of the rooms and opens the door, "This is your room please enjoy."

After that, she leads Fishlegs and Meatlug to a room then she came towards us, "Mmmmm you do have the biggest group so I guess I can give you one of the rooms that belong to the previous King and queen. Come with me."

She opens the middle door and takes us inside. When we step into the room, myself and Astrid are both shocked to see how big this room is. This room is the size of my house, maybe a bit bigger! It even has stairs that lead up to another room! There's a huge bed on the right side. A desk in front of it against the wall on the left or the far right side of the bed were the stairs that had another bedroom. It almost looked the same as the one downstairs but reversed with bed and desk.

Rose announced, "These rooms were used almost as a nursery when our current king and his twin brother were born. The mother and father kept close to one another while taking care of them but separated if need be. That's why there is an upper level."

She also gestures towards certain areas of the room, "On the far left are the restrooms if you need to clean or relieve yourself. Right next to that are the doors that lead you towards the balcony if you want some fresh air. And it is safe enough for you to step outside and stand. From here you should be able to see our village, it is a beautiful sight around this time. But I hope you will enjoy this room."

"Oh we will, thank you very much, Rose," I say.

She bowed, "You are very welcome, either I or my queen shall wake you in first light so please get some sleep."

She walks out of the room and closes the door. Meanwhile, as Astrid and I are putting up our supplies and Toothless ran upstairs and slept. In the middle of finishing up, I pull out my latest project.

Astrid looks over, seeing it and asks, "Is that a suit?"

"Yes, for now, but it will be armor very soon," I answered.

She laughs, "Basically we're on vacation yet you're still working on your side projects."

"Well technically you guys are on vacation I have to talk to Ronde's mother about becoming allies and ways to communicate. So am technically still working."

"Well, you got me right there. But it is already looking good for us. Ronde's mother looks like she wants us together."

I look to the ground, "You're forgetting one thing."

She was confused, "What I'm I forgetting?"

I look at her, "Ronde's father."

Kindle

Ronde's mother took us to the upper level of the castle. Once we made it up the steps, it looks like this path would lead us to another room or hallway. She leads the Skrill into its own room that has open windows if she decides she wants to fly off.

Then Ronde spoke out, "Hold on a minute, are you taking me to my room?"

His mother answers, "Yes I was trying to surprise you but you remembered this area. It's just passed the hallway on the left."

Ronde ran up the stairs, excited, ahead of me and his mother. But once he was out the hallway, he stopped in the middle looking at something with a very weird expression.

Only once his mother and I got to where he is, did I see what he was looking at. It appears to be a man walking towards us.

His mother looks surprised and says, "Woede, I wasn't expecting you to be here."

He looks angry, saying, "I wasn't expecting you to bring random strangers into my castle. And who are these kids? What did you bring this boy and this girl to my..."

Woede looks over to me and it's like he was examining me until his eyes widened, "This Girl is not from here she is from that island full of savages isn't she!"

Before I or the queen have a chance to respond, Ronde has his hand out between me and the man, "She is with me. She was banished from her village and had nowhere else to go so I took her in."

The man, Woede, scowls and says, "Oh, is that so? How do you know she isn't a spy to destroy our way of life from the inside out?"

The queen steps in, "He's telling the truth husband. I saw it happen as well, plus you know how the FitaFita tribe treats their women."

Wait a second, if this is the queen husband doesn't that mean that this is Ronde's father?

Woede looks at me again and sighs, "Very well I'll accept that story if you are but we are going to talk later about bringing those Berkens to my castle."

Then he stares back at Ronde, "But you, I am your king, you are a servant to this kingdom and will treat me with respect BOY."

Ronde just stared at him but something was off about him, that I could tell.

Woede must have noticed as well, "What boy? Do you want to challenge me?"

I try to face him and that is when I notice his face was contorting in anger. I place my hand on his shoulder. And he quickly turns to face me and he looks so angry that it scares me. But in a few short moments, he seems to calm down.

He look at the man, who I believe is his father, and tries to hide his anger, saying, "No I don't want to fight you I just want a place to rest, it's been a long day for me."

He walks past us, "That's what I thought you lowly commoner. Neurie whenever you're done with this boy I need to talk to you."

She only nods.

As he was walking down the stairs he stopped, turning to look at us, "By the way, I never got your name, commoner."

I see Ronde's nose turn up but he didn't face him; instead, saying, "Orond, just call me Orond."

The king smiles, "Orond the commoner, the disrespectful, yeah I'll remember that name. But be thankful that I'll try to remember."

He finally walks down the stairs.

Ronde then looks over towards his mother, "Like I told you he wouldn't recognize me as his son. And now he's worse then I remember. How is that even possible? Calling me disrespectful when he refers to me as a commoner? Is that how he sees his people?"

His mother tries to calm him down, "Please just give him time."

"It's been over 17 years and I still don't remember him doing anything nice for me. If this continues I'm only staying here for a week."

His mother is shocked, "R-Ronde. Please don't."

He just walks on, "Mother, just shows us to our rooms, please, so I can feel better in the morning."

I felt bad for both of them. Ronde didn't tell me much about his father, only that he was ruthless and I can see why he would say that. But it seems like Ronde wasn't planning on staying here for very long. And because of that, his mother is sad.

The queen led us through the hallway and stopped in front of the door and opened it. I saw his room and I was amazed by how big it was. There was a very big bed with curtains around it, a desk with paper and pens, a shelf full of books and a huge window. I couldn't believe his room was bigger than my house with the amount of space inside!

Ronde was surprised but for a different reason. He looks back towards his mother and asks, "You left it the same? It looks the same, exactly how I remembered."

His mother has a small smile, "I would come in here once a while to straighten up the sheets or clean up the dust around your room. But I wanted it to be the same if you ever decided to come back. But is that a problem?"

He shakes his head, "No, thank you I like it this way."

She smiles, "You're welcome my son."

I feel something on my shoulder. I look over to see his mother staring at me, "Well Kindle I guess it's your turn. I'll help find you a room."

I wonder if it would be a better idea if...

I turn to face her, "Actually is it ok if I stay in this room with Ronde?"

Both she and her son are shocked, "You would like to stay in here with my son?"

I nod.

She looks at Ronde, "Is this ok with you son?"

I turn around to see what he would say but I notice he was blushing and scratching his chin while looking away from us, "Uh, yeah that fine."

I smile and try to hold in a laugh, he was trying to play it cool but I know he's excited.

Ronde's mother then said, "Ok but before you two get settled in I need to talk to Kindle."

I'm confused about why she wants to talk to me.

She leads me outside of the room and looks back at Ronde, "We'll be back in a few minutes my son."

I follow her towards the end of the hallway, "I just need to ask you a few questions. And I need you to answer them truthfully."

I only nod. I'm a bit scared to see where this conversation will lead.

She leans against the wall, "As you saw I lied to my husband about you. And that is something I would never do, but for my son, I'll try to do anything to protect him and keep him here. But I do need to know, are you from the FitaFita tribe?"

I sigh, "Yes I was wondering how did you know?"

"Your complexion is slightly lighter than mine and what you're wearing. But I assume that's why you wanted to leave, because of the way they treat women there."

I sigh again, "Well now you know but why did you want to know that if you already knew?"

She gave me a serious look, "Because I want to know if you used my son just to get off that island."

I'm shocked, "No I..." But in a way I did.

She closes her eyes and she looks disappointed, "Your silence says a lot."

I try to express how I felt about that, "I did ok. I just saw an opportunity to leave and I took it. Your son was offering me a chance of freedom and I wanted it. I know it was wrong which is why I didn't interact with anyone today because I felt bad that I did. And tried to make it up to him by being nice but..."

"Do you like my son?"

The question catches me off guard, "What no...I mean...I don't know...I don't know how to feel."

"But you are starting to develop something with him. Maybe a bond that will Blossom over time into something else. But now you're confused, not that I blame you. You've probably never met a man like my son, he's nice and tries to think of others first before himself. And for what I can tell he really does like you...a lot. I've never seen him so flustered around a girl before. But like I told him, A partnership requires two or more people to communicate or to work together. But a relationship is two people bettering each other and themselves. It's up to the both of you to make it work if you want a relationship with him."

She was right, but I still need time to see who Ronde really is as a person.

She looks at me curiously and asks, "By the way how many languages do you know?"

Again, I am confused as to why she would ask that, "Why does that matter?"

"It's because I want to know what you've learned from that tribe and I knew they communicate with some of our enemies and allies around these parts so you must know something because I noticed you were following my conversation with the two guards that were attacking my ship. And was your where speaking Norse."

I couldn't believe that she noticed that.

She looks impressed with herself, putting her hands on her hips, "Well it looks like I was right. My son is not the only person that notices things. To tell you the honest truth he gets that from me."

I look away from her, "You're right, they force us to learn your language, yours the language of Swahili and Norse."

She almost looks sad and I'm wondering why until she asks, "But you don't know how to read or write do you?"

I don't know what to say. I'm embarrassed, ashamed, and angry.

"If you would like I could teach you," she said.

Again, I'm surprised, "Y-you would teach me?"

She nods, "Yes and I'll try to teach you how to read and write among other things but you need to do something for me."

I'm a bit scared to know the terms but I need to learn to have power over those from my home, "What do you need me to do?"

She closed her eyes and exhaled, "Just be nice to my son."

I'm shocked, "What?"

"Now when I say that I don't mean you have to force yourself to like him or date him. But be his friend or at the very least just be nice to him. When Ronde was growing up, he really never had any friends other than his dragon. Not because he was bad or anything but being the king's son can have an effect on popularity based on a king's attitude. The adults like both Ronde and my husband but the kids hated them. It was rough for him growing up and I don't know how his life was when he ran away but I know it was hard. It's up to you if you want to go farther than friends with him but that's all I want."

I'm shocked to hear that coming from her but I don't want that to be my motivation to be friends with him, "I'm sorry but I can't accept those terms. I don't want that to be my motivation to be friends with your son."

I walk away from her until I hear laughter behind me. I turn around to see Ronde's mother laughing. She looks towards me and says, "You pass."

I look at her, completely confused, "Huh, passed what."

"You passed my mini test. To tell you the truth there was no wrong answer. If you would have accepted my terms it would have told me you weren't interested or at least you didn't know you were interested in my son. But the fact that you denied them and admitted that you want a friendship with my son lets me know that you do have feelings for him even if you don't know it yet."

I blush at that, she walks past me and says, "Tomorrow I'm planning on there being a feast at night but before that I need to take everything clothes shopping because you guys will overheat because of what you're wearing. But I'm sure that Ronde will take you towards our village to show you around. Before or after the feast come and see me so we can come up with a plan so I can teach you."

I smile, "Thank you."

She nods, "Now let us go see Ronde."

We walk back towards Ronde's room and when we go inside we see him at his desk drawing on paper. He looks back at us, "Oh hey that was a bit longer then what I was expecting. What were you two talking about?"

His mother said, "Figuring out ways to make her stay here more enjoyable. But anyway I have to go see your father. I'll talk to you two tomorrow morning. Get some rest you'll need it and don't do anything funny to each other."

She closes the door.

Then opens it a second later, "On second thought if you young adults want to try something go for it."

Ronde was red from embarrassment and I blushed but he yelled, "Mother go!"

After a few minutes, I went to Ronde's bathroom and changed into something more comfortable to sleep in. But I notice something as I am coming out, Ronde is making space on the floor. "Ronde, may I ask what you are doing."

"I'm making room for myself."

"Why?" I ask.

"So I can sleep on the floor."

I'm shocked that he said that, "Why do you want to sleep on the floor when there's a bed?"

"This way you can have the bed to yourself. I thought I would be awkward for you to sleep next to a male like me since you left that boy that hit you."

I think I see what he's getting at. He's afraid that I'll be uncomfortable next to him because of Valea and the way he treated me. But still, I don't want him to sleep on the floor. "Ronde it's fine, I'll be fine we can be in the same bed together."

"I'm fine Kindle, I've slept in cave floors before. This won't bother me," he said.

I'm getting a little impatient with him, "Ronde just because you can turn into a dragon doesn't mean you have to live like one especially if they're an opportunity for you to be comfortable. I want you in the bed with me...but we are not doing anything! No hugs or getting close to each other, anything!"

"Are you sure?" he asks.

I look over towards the bed, "There is enough room between us to fit a dragon on the bed yeah am sure.

I slipped inside the bed and covered myself with the sheets. Ronde, however, heads towards the other side of the bed and flopped down on the bed arms and feet wide apart, then says, "Oh my God..."

I'm a bit worried about that, "What wrong?"

He turns over and stares at me, "Sorry it's just...being a dragon for so long sleeping in caves, grass, bushes and now this bed it feels like I'm...I'm..."

"Sinking into the bed?" I asked.

He nods, "Yeah, the beds at Berk were passable but this I almost feel at peace..."

He looks at me,sayin, "Good night Kindle."

"Good night...Ronde."

I close my eyes and tried to fall asleep.

2 hours later.

...hot...

It's...getting...hot

Why?

I woke up in the middle of the night. It was hot in the room and it was getting a little hard to breathe. But why is it hot? Is the castle on fire from the bottom? I look around but there's no smoke or even the smell of it.

I try to turn around andwake up Ronde but when I did I noticed that the heat was more intense around his body.

Wait, the heat is coming from him? I look over and see his face contorted as if he was having a nightmare of some sort.

I can't touch him or I might get burned so I need to use my voice.

"Ronde get up."

He didn't respond.

"Ronde! Please!"

Still nothing.

It was getting hotter and harder to breathe, "RONDE WAKE UP NOW!"

Suddenly the heat disappeared and his eyes snap open. He quickly looks over to me and sees the sweat on me. He's confused, I can see, until he feels the spot he is in and gaspes, "Did I do this? Oh my God, I'm so sorry Kindle I..I..."

I try to calm him down. "It's fine I'm just hot is all."

He quickly gets off the bed and opens the window to let the remaining heat in the room escape, "I'll go get you some water I'll be back."

He runs out of the room as I try to cool off next to the window. But what the heck was that? He can create heat like that while he's a person? Yet it looks like it didn't affect him at all. He wasn't sweaty and he moved his body around normally. This has to be because he's part dragon but still, why now?

A few minutes later.

Ronde came back with a bucket and a cup full of water and handed it to me. I drank out of the cup and splashed some water on my face from the bucket.

Ronde looks scared, "Kindle I'm so sorry."

I look over at him while drinking the last bit of water from the cup, "It's fine, I can tell that you didn't have control over it. But what were you dreaming about? It seems to have a connection with the heat you were creating."

I can tell that he was frightened by something, "I was...dreaming about fighting my father like I did when I was younger. I felt helpless just like I did back then but..."

"What happened?" I ask.

He almost looks scared just telling me, "I got angry and...took it too far. I injured him badly and I hated it but it felt good just to get back at him but it horrified me how I did it and...you were there watching the whole time and you were terrified of me. Then I heard your voice and I woke up."

I wasn't too shocked about that, we all have strange dreams. But still, I think I notice something, "I'm no expert but it seems that you want some sort of payback from your dad. But it seems like also stress is why this happened."

He is obviously a bit confused by this, "Huh?"

"Well think about it, you never stressed when we were together in the woods together. And you are very different from anyone. In a way, I can guess that what happened today was a bit much for you and this is how your body reacted."

"So I just need to be calm minded and relaxed? That's a little hard, even for me, Kindle."

I try to think of something, 'He's right I don't know what he's been through. Heck, even I can have difficulty relaxing because of all the stress and memories I have experienced. But remembering my mother and father and knowing that Ronde is here next to me knowing that he's going to protect me does put my mind at ease. Maybe I should do the same with him, but if he tried anything funny...'

I sigh, "Ronde lay down on the bed."

He's confused but he doesn't say anything. He gets onto the bed, laying on his backside. I crawl over him but lay down next to him on his left side with my hand on his chest.

"K-Kindle?"

I feel his chest throbbing, "You need to calm down I can feel your heart racing again. I think this is the best way for you not to be stressed while you're resting."

"B-but I thought you said that there wasn't going to be any hugging."

"We aren't hugging. I simply have my hand around your chest and I'm next to you."

"But what if I burn you? I couldn't live with myself if that were to happen."

I pat his chest, "I would wake up before you would have a chance to burn me."

He raises an eyebrow and looks at my hand, "So we're cuddling now?"

"No, if we were cuddling I would have my leg over your body and you would have your arms around me. What? Would you like to do that?"

His heart is beating even faster now but he's silent for a moment, until he said, "I feel like both yes and no are the wrong answers to that question, I don't know how to respond to that."

I can't help but giggle because he is somewhat right but I say, "Look I just want to sleep right now Ronde so if I have to cuddle you in order to do it I will but we will not go any further than that. No kissing, no touching my body."

I can tell from his pulse that he is beginning to calm down but he says in a joking manner, "So you get to touch me but I can't touch you? You're such a tease."

Was that a joke? I can't quite tell if it was or not.

He looks up at the ceiling and slowly closes his eyes, "Thank you Kindle..."

And just like that, he falls asleep in front of me.

I look at him, 'He's very different from Valea, I can see that. He's very nice to me compared to the others on my island. I can tell that he likes me because when I'm next to him I can feel his pulse increase with excitement or perhaps its nervousness, plus his mother told me. But right now he had an opportunity to make a move towards me yet he didn't either because he's nervous or he wants to take his time and he's trying to get to know me.'

He is...cute but I want to see who he is as a person. Looks won't be enough to make me like a person. It's his personality and demeanor but so far I do like what I see and what you said to me. You made me feel good about these scars on my hands. You made me feel...good...no you made me feel beautiful.

Ronde, I want to see where this goes. Will we be good friends or something more...something beyond that? I guess the upcoming days will show me who you really are so I'll try to be nicer towards you.

I slowly close my eyes and sleep next to him, letting my thoughts go so I can enter the world of dreams.

I am very sorry for the long delay, the school was a bit rough this semester and I thought I would have time to finish the story by this part of the year. But things got just a bit out of control but it's December that means winter break and finally focus on this story and try to end it so I can work on the next one. But as a warning, the next chapter is over 36,000 words long. It is up to you all if you want me to break it down into three separate parts so you won't be overwhelmed. Also, there's going to be a lot of different language text In the upcoming chapters as well. My goal is to at least get 2 to 3 chapters done before I back to school. Again I'm sorry for taking so long to update this story.