I'm hoping to have this fic done somewhere around the 55-60 chapter mark, cus it's already huge! But, well, I could probably write another dozen chapters of baby Night Fury fluff with no story progression if I wanted.

-HTTYD-

Valka sat on the sidelines, pride swelling in her chest as she watched Eret with Teeny and the others. She was there if he needed her, but as there was a language barrier and Valka considered her husband more than capable, she was happy to leave him to it. The Night Fury mother and her two hatchlings were perched next to Valka, watching in confusion as Eret introduced each of them to the Stormcutter family. Cloudjumper was more reticent than the others, but a pointed look from Valka had him relenting.

They'd agreed - for obvious reasons - that the Night Furies were out of bounds for this sort of training, as the mother had issues with the tattooed faces (except Eret now, thankfully) and they also didn't want to send back too much information on taming Furies, lest there still be some keen on trapping up north, where they were now quite sure Night Furies resided.

He occasionally let Valka know in Norse what was happening, but mostly he conversed in his native tongue with the others, save for when he needed to talk to the dragons. Thankfully, they were quite used to human interaction by then - especially Storm and Junior, who loved any and all attention and still thought of themselves as tiny babies even though they were well on their way to adolescence. Valka chuckled as Junior bowled over Matti a little too excitedly, but thankfully Matti seemed to take it in stride, brushing themselves down once Eret had hauled Junior off.

"Behave, you little menace!"

Junior simply licked Eret and scampered off, cackling to themselves. Eret wiped his face, rolling his eyes fondly. Valka chuckled to herself, looking down when she felt something on her lap and finding one of the little Furies climbing up on to her lap. They squeaked and wiggled their ear plates, only relaxing when Valka scratched behind said wiggly ear. Then she had a flopped out babe on her lap, letting out the occasional huff but seeming perfectly content to stay there. The mother Fury watched very closely, but she did appear to trust Eret and Valka pretty much completely, though she was by no means anything close to domesticated. In reality, none of their dragons were, but the Berkian dragons were more tame than wild dragons were. Slowly, so she could see at all times and wouldn't feel threatened, Valka held a hand out to the mother Night Fury.

After a deep sniff and a wary glance, the dragon leant in to Valka's hand, and allowed herself to be petted softly.

"You'll be going home soon, and they'll go with you to make sure you're all safe up there."

Her wounds were almost healed, and Hiccup wasn't ready to leave yet anyway, so there was time, but that didn't stop Valka being nervous to see them all go. And she also knew she'd miss the Night Furies when they left, so relieved to know they'd survived Grimmel's attempts to wipe them out.

After a couple of hours with the dragons, Eret sent the other Sami back down to the docks for a while, so he could tend to the Woolly Howls, who were not quite as people-friendly as the Stormcutters. Especially when wounded and displaced from their home by trappers. Valka changed the Night Fury's bandages while Eret fetched some fish for each dragon, and the two humans spent a couple of minutes in shared silence, the only noises coming from dragons eating.

"How is the training going?"

She eventually asked, and Eret nodded, smiling.

"Pretty well, all things considered. Artor and Hanna still kinda think I'm nuts, but they do get that dragons won't hurt us if we don't hurt them, and once you get that, learning to love them is kinda inevitable."

Years down the line, with marriage and pregnancy and Eret having displayed a willingness to put his own life on the line for dragons all under their belt, Valka took a moment to marvel at the journey Eret took himself on after Tripfire shoved herself into his life and his heart.

"I have every faith in you. You came around, and so will they."

Eret nodded, shifting an arm so Valka could lean into his shoulder. He turned and pressed a kiss to the top of her head, leaving her feeling warm and content. A more familiar Night Fury landed up on the rocky dirt, Hiccup sliding from Toothless' back.

"Afternoon Chief."

"Hello Hiccup."

"Mom. Eret. Everything going alright with the whole... introductions?"

He gestured to the dragons. Valka nodded.

"Well, I don't understand a word the humans were saying, but I do know dragons and they were all quite happy. Junior even jumped on Matti to play."

Hiccup looked pleased to hear it, nodding at the two of them.

"Alright. Well, I wanted to extend the invitation to them to come to dinner in the main hall tonight. I know they can't really chat with everyone, but I didn't want them feeling like intruders."

Feeling incredibly proud of her son, Valka turned to Eret.

"You'd know better if they want to do that."

"Uh, I mean they won't say no if there's food involved, but I know some of Berk still has no love for me. Will they be safe up there?"

Hiccup nodded.

"You have my word. If anyone has a problem, they can take it up with me. And by me, I mean Astrid's axe, because that mysteriously seems to appear whenever somebody has a problem."

Eret laughed next to her, and Valka felt a smile steal across her face.

"Yeah, your betrothed is quite something with an axe. Alright, I'll bring them along if you're sure."

"I am. I better get going, or I won't be able to drag Toothless away. Come on bud, you can come visit tonight if they're up for it."

Sulking, Toothless ambled over to Hiccup and the two flew off. Valka wasn't sure what was going to happen when they eventually took the Night Furies home. Toothless had found out he wasn't alone, but once they'd made the trip, he may well end up alone again.

Though she supposed they could always go visiting. It wasn't as though the Furies were going anywhere... unless they failed to stop Grimmel and the other hunters.

Eret noticed her tensing up, reaching to place a hand on her arm.

"What's wrong?"

"Oh. I was just thinking how it seems a little cruel that after we find that the Night Furies aren't all gone, Toothless may end up alone again when we take the mother and her babes back home."

"Unless he stays. But then I guess Hiccup would be pretty heartbroken."

"Oh. I hadn't even considered that possibility."

Valka tried to imagine Hiccup without Toothless. It didn't seem possible. It was like imagining her own life without Cloudjumper. But she wondered, if the choice was Cloudjumper's happiness or her own...

Her chest ached, and she shoved that thought away before it set off her nausea.

"I doubt he'd stay away. Maybe leave for short trips to visit them. A few days at a time. Or some might come back with him. Dragons gravitate to the Alpha."

"Perhaps. I suppose worrying will get us nowhere. We can only wait and see what happens."

Eret nodded at her side, though he also slid an arm around her and squeezed gently.

"Yeah. Wait and see."


It was tense, there was no denying it. But no more so than when Eret was first on Berk with Valka, and nobody had tried to pick a fight. Edo and Darja both enthused about Berkian food, while Bede complained he missed reindeer and Hanna became quite friendly with the Berkian ale. Matti and Artor were talking with Teeny about dragons, and Eret chuckled each time Teeny accidentally mixed up his Sami and Norse, leading to confused looks from the others.

Valka was fidgeting next to him, keen to get back and check on the Night Furies. They'd left Cloudjumper up there to keep watch, but that wasn't the same as being there to watch them themselves.

"You can go ahead."

She hesitated.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. I mean, you can stay, but if you are only staying for our sake, we can manage. Teeny and I did survive working for Bludvist. I think we can handle sitting with Berkians for dinner. Besides, they don't understand a word anyone is saying."

She let out a small laugh, but accepted Eret's insistence she leave and check on the dragons. Kissing him goodbye, she bade the others farewell before leaving, Alva following after her since Eret was going to need Tripfire to get back up himself. Eret smiled when she turned to look back, then turned back to the others.

"So you basically got kidnapped off the ship, and she wouldn't let you go?"

Edo asked in between mouthfuls of bread, soaking up the last of his stew with it.

"Sort of. I was injured from where Drago branded me, and she patched me up until I was fit to leave. By then, I'd sort of... not quite come around, but it was all in here" Eret tapped his head "and when I saw Tripfire fighting off the hunters, I couldn't walk away. It was a while before anything really happened with me and Valka though."

Matti, finished with their food and watching the Berkians share meals with the dragons for the last few minutes, raised a curious eyebrow.

"How come?"

Eret shrugged. He wasn't going to go in to details about Stoick, even if the other Berkians couldn't understand their conversation. He suspected the different language wasn't doing much to assauge the concerns of Berk, since they couldn't eavesdrop, but there was nothing he could do about that.

"Cus we were focused on the dragons, and we didn't really know each other outside of fights."

"Wild. When can we go see the little ones again? I like the noises they make."

Matti's question filled Eret with a great spark of hope, seeing how comfortable and even enthusiastic to continue spending time with dragons they were.

"You can come see them tomorrow, the Howls are a little on edge and I wanna give them a break tonight.

Matti pouted, but didn't argue. After dinner - with some slightly broken Norse words of thanks from the Sami to Hiccup - the others headed back to the ship, and Eret headed back home with Tripfire.

The next day, he introduced Teeny and the others to some other species of dragons - Astrid's Nadder, Fishlegs' Gronckle and Gobber's Hotburple. They were all quite happy to be befriended, and patient enough to let each of the newcomers get used to them. And Grump, the Hotburple, effectively slept through the entire thing, which was very low stress for everybody involved.

"Tomorrow, Valka's gonna talk to you guys about peaceful relocations, for in case any wild dragons try to settle too close. Unless they're nesting mothers, in which case it's a lot safer for you to move on than try to move them."

Edo snorted, giving Eret a friendly nudge.

"Alright. We're probably gonna start sailing back the day after tomorrow anyway. Don't want to overstay our welcome, and we're all a little homesick."

Though he'd effectively cut himself off from his tribe to begin with, Eret had been enjoying getting to reconnect, feeling his native language flow easier than he'd expected after so long barely using it. He knew he was going to miss them, but he was also proud to be sending them off... better, he supposed? Ready to make peace with dragons, and to take that knowledge back with them.

He looked up and saw Valka watching them, one hand on the Night Furies head and the other resting on her stomach. Eret had made his choice, but he was still doing some good for the land and people he'd grown up with.

He was happy with that.

-HTTYD-

I know this one was short and sort of filler-y, but I was struggling to find my feet with it a little and so I'm relieved just to have gotten a chapter out, to be honest!