Heather and the rest of the Nótt family watched as Maour and Toothless stepped forward again, addressing the assembled pack from their place in the center of the vertical cavern. Maour still spoke, presumably for her benefit, as she was the only one who couldn't hear Toothless at the moment.

"And now for the other part of tonight. The news we received from Johann. I'm afraid not much of it is good, although Gobber has slightly better developments to report, along with one horrific one." He inhaled. "First off, Stoick the Vast is dead, and Snotlout is now Chief of Berk. And of course, we know that means Astrid is in charge in all but name." He seemed to be trying to control himself now, to keep his voice neutral. Heather had a feeling the death of Stoick, regardless of the fact that the man hated him, was affecting Maour more than he let on. She saw Toothless wrap his tail around Maour from where they stood, and Maour seemed to take strength from that.

He continued. "The official story is that he died in his sleep."

Heather grimaced. For a Viking, that was the worst way to go. Without battle, without glory, no warrior's death.

Maour wasn't done. "But Gobber says otherwise. He says it happened the night after Stoick forbade Astrid from spending any more resources on dragon hunting. He apparently saw no point in seeking dragons out when none have gone near Berk in years." Maour took a deep breath. "Gobber was fairly sure Astrid killed Stoick in his sleep, with a dagger to the heart. So apparently he checked before they sent Stoick's body off in his funeral ship. It wasn't even a dagger to the heart. She stabbed him in the back, multiple times according to the wounds. Snotlout was the one who reported that Stoick had died in his sleep, so he must know the truth too. Not that that really surprises me."

Maour bowed his head. But he didn't stop. "Gobber says he told no one. But the Ingermans and the twins' mother apparently took that as the last straw. They begged Johann to take them to wherever their children were, and Johann agreed. So, we have three family of pack members on the island of Mahelmetan right now. We need to figure out what we'll do with them. Gobber also says that in one of Snotlout's first acts as chief, the nest hunts are being expanded. Astrid has full control now, and we know she won't stop. Gobber doesn't know where they're going first, but he's going to try to find out."

'That's why they were late, I guess,' Einfari whispered to Heather. 'They must have run into their parents when getting the news from Johann.'

There was a nervous shuffling of feet among the Furies. That really wasn't good. Astrid might go the exact opposite direction from their island, but they didn't know. It was possible she would sail straight towards them in blind luck. The limit to her travels that had made her irrelevant the last few years no longer applied.

Maour cleared his throat, to get everyone's attention back. "So, we have a few issues. First, we need to know where Astrid's going. Gobber might know by now, but we won't get any information from him until Johann gets to Berk and back again, which won't be for six months. We don't have that much time, because by then Astrid could be here with months to spare. Second, we need to decide what to do with the three family members of the twins and Fishlegs, who are neutral towards dragons at the moment."

Gobber again… there was something there. They were talking as if he was their informant… and that would actually fit what Heather had seen of him, though he was a very good actor if so.

Fishlegs spoke up. "I can give more information there. I've been writing letters, and I think after talking to me, my father and mother don't really hate dragons. I got the same vibe from the twins' mother. They've seen Maour's book, and we've been working on them for a few years by letter, slowly but surely."

Maour continued. "Thanks, Fishlegs. And we have one more problem. Dagur is going to find out Heather was 'captured' by one man, on this island. I've told his men that I'd be in touch. I think I need to go stop Dagur from looking for Heather, and we definitely need him to think I was just stopping here, a worthless uninhabited island only good for fresh water."

After a moment, Maour responded to what for Heather was an unheard question. "The Berkians and Berserkers are technically allies, however unstable their leadership might be. Astrid will leap on any mention of the dragon rider. So if Dagur draws a connection between a stranger hiding in the woods and another stranger with reason to hide, and I haven't contacted him, he might just tell Astrid where I was last seen. Here. We need to get his mind off of this island, no matter the risk."

Heather knew what needed to be done, both for her own goals and to protect this island, and leaped at the chance, raising her voice. "Maour needs to go. But so do I. Dagur won't believe him if I'm not there." Which was true. Common knowledge was that the Berserker chief was paranoid. But it would also get her, and by extension Einfari, into striking distance of their target.

Maour stared at her from the pillar. "You really want to risk that? We don't know why he wants you. He might just want to kill you himself, for some insane reason."

Heather shrugged. "But his attention will be on me, not you, and by extension, not this island. I'm going."

Maour seemed to listen to something. After a few moments, he spoke. "We'll have more time to plan this stuff anyway. The Berserkers who captured you are still probably about two months away from Berserker island, assuming they headed straight there from where we left them."

One of the twins spoke. "Wait, why don't we just sink that boat? Then Dagur won't know Heather was captured. Problem solved!"

Maour grimaced. "Besides the fact that that means killing those Berserkers? It won't work long-term. Dagur will still search for Heather, and Heather is known by his armada to be in the area. So more and more Berserker boats will sail these waters. We can't rely on all of them to dismiss this island. Eventually, one would decide to search here, and we'd have to stop them. And so on, more and more chances for things to go wrong and destroy our secrecy. One of the things that makes this island so perfect for us is that it's isolated, and therefore no one really sails near it. Even the Berserker boat that started all of this was off-course, according to their maps. But if we make that ship disappear, they'll come looking for it."

There was silence for a few moments, at least on the levels Heather could hear. Then Maour spoke up, possibly in response to someone else. "We can figure all the details out later. For now, all we know is that Toothless, Einfari, Heather and I will probably be going to deal with Dagur in a month or so and that we need to contact Gobber. Berserker island is close to Berk, so I can do that after we deal with Dagur."

At that, the gathering seemed to be over. Furies drifted over to speak to each other, and some left the central cave entirely. Heather wasn't surprised when none of the riders she didn't really know stuck around. They were probably dead-tired. Maour, however, did land on their ledge to speak with them.

He and Toothless both smiled, a somewhat startling image. Maour spoke. "Heather, there are a few things you need to know. First, have you tried accessing Einfari's senses yet?" It seemed he was going to treat them as if the story they had given was true.

Heather laughed. "I am right now. It's the only way I can see anything in here." It was true, she was still seeing out of Einfari's eyes. They were standing right next to each other, so she really didn't feel that disoriented, as long as she didn't move her head. That felt really weird.

Maour nodded. "I should have guessed. Anyway, you should access hearing and smell just slightly, not enough to actually get anything, and hold them open. Do the same with sight whenever you're not using it."

It took a few seconds, but Heather figured out what he was talking about. She discovered that they stayed open like that once she stopped concentrating on it. "Done. For how long?"

"A couple of months, give or take?" Maour seemed entirely serious. "It kind of... pulls up those senses to get as close to Einfari's level as possible with a human nose, eyes, and ears. This is how you develop good enough eyesight to see in here, or with any amount of light. It also allows you to hear all dragons, and that part only takes a few days. There are a few other small perks, like being able to go for longer times without sleep. I'm not actually sure why that works. But this is how you get that."

Heather had to ask the obvious question. "What would holding open touch and taste do?"

Maour laughed. "The Eldurs wanted Fishlegs to try that. He did, but we're pretty sure they don't do anything. Maybe because our senses of touch and taste are already stronger. Fishlegs was terrified he'd develop a love of raw fish. Anyway, keep those open, try to get used to being nocturnal..." He trailed off and stood there silently for a moment before apparently remembering something. "Oh, and I need to get Einfari's measurements for a saddle. But that will have to be later. I'll find you guys, I have no idea what Toothless and I are going to be doing."

Toothless addressed the entire Nótt family before him, and Nóttreiði growled.

Heather wondered what Toothless had said. She looked questioningly at Einfari.

'Toothless congratulated our family on adding a human member and wished us well. Of course, Nóttreiði took it as an insult. He doesn't really like Toothless anyway. Probably because Toothless beat him in a fight after Nóttreiði attacked Maour.' Einfari was whispering now, probably so Nóttreiði didn't hear. 'He deserved it, and it wasn't a fight to the death, because we're too few in number to allow that kind of thing. Toothless humiliated him because Nóttreiði doesn't have much fighting experience. He still remembers that, even though Toothless seems to have forgotten about it.'

"Why did he threaten Maour?"

'Maour met Nótthljóður in the forest by accident. Nóttreiði was looking for an excuse. He hates humans, even though Maour was the first one he had ever seen.' That was said sheepishly

Heather was confused by that. "Why?" She assumed there was some reason for it.

'He just does. I think he needs to have some enemy he can direct his anger at. Humans are a good one because so many of them really are enemies. But he isn't a bad person. He probably dislikes Toothless more than Maour now, and that's just a little grudge.'

Heather could tell Einfari was trying to reassure her. She would take Einfari's word on that one for the moment, unable to judge for herself. She awkwardly climbed onto Einfari's back, and most of the Nótt family went back to their section of the caves. Nóttleiðtogi stayed behind, as did Maour and Toothless.

Now that Heather could see, she saw that the caves were fairly tall and roomy and that the Nótt section was much larger than it needed to be. She asked Einfari about that.

'All the families have this much extra room. For expansion, and new Furies. When we can get any.' Einfari sounded sad. 'Generally, parents will have a new egg every three to six years, but sometimes they can't for a long time. It seems pretty random. My Mother and Father say they don't need any more children to deal with right now, but I think they're just holding off until Nótthljóður turns twelve, so that they can fully devote their attention to a new hatchling. The Myrkur parents say they have enough infants to deal with, including Myrkursprenging, Myrkursprengja, Myrkurvængur, and Myrkureyðileggingu. The first three are young adults, and Myrkureyðileggingu is the oldest Fury here, but they all act like children. The Eldur parents laid an egg last year, and little Eldurmælikvarða, or Vartha as we call her, is almost one.'

"What about the Svarturs?"

Einfari sighed. 'I heard Svarturkló tell my Mother that she and Svarturskuggi have been trying for a while, but no luck so far. As I said, it sometimes just doesn't happen for a long time. No one knows why. That, along with how long it takes hatchlings to mature, is a big reason there are so few Night Furies. We just don't have enough kids. Apparently, Gronckles can have a dozen eggs a year, and their hatchlings can fend for themselves in nine months. I've never heard of a Night Fury laying more than two eggs at a time, which is really rare, and Night Furies aren't capable of being self-sufficient until age twelve, and aren't really considered full adults until around age thirty.' She purred. 'The trade-off is, no one here even knows how long we live. But it's a long time. Gronckles die of old age at somewhere around fifty. Myrkureyðileggingu is over two hundred years old, and he still has the energy of a young adult. And the maturity of one, but we assume that's just how he is.'

Heather considered that. Something still didn't add up. "Why aren't there any old Furies in this pack?" Surely there would be if they lived that long.

Einfari whined softly. 'Our pack hasn't been around for very long. In a few days, ask my Mother. She and my Father were there, and they know the story better than me. Let's just say we four families didn't group together under the greatest circumstances.'

Heather didn't press further. Between that and the hints Einfari had dropped about the troubled pasts of her parents, she could tell there was quite a lot of sad history she didn't know. She actually wasn't sure she wanted to know about the history of the pack. It didn't really matter now. But she should probably learn about the people who had taken her in despite not trusting humans and not knowing her personally. It was only fair. They were burdened with her story, she would learn theirs. But that had to wait. She didn't want to force Einfari to act as a translator for what would probably be a personal discussion with the mother.

Einfari stopped by a side cavern. She seemed troubled. 'I should have asked Maour how he handled sleeping arrangements. It can get cold, at least for humans. I don't know what the other riders do to deal with that.' She pointed towards the small side-cavern she had stopped at. 'I sleep in the same cave as Nótthljóður, to make sure she doesn't get cold. Furies don't fully develop the thick scales and internal heating to be entirely self-heated until about age twelve, so keeping young ones warm is important.'

Heather lowered her voice. "How dangerous would it be for me to want to sleep here?" She was very hesitant about the idea, because if they all saw her as potentially dangerous, getting close to the kid when they were vulnerable might be a fatal mistake.

'I'm not sure,' Einfari hissed back. 'But I think the other linked pairs share caverns for warmth, so it would be strange for us not to. Just be careful, and maybe put your back to Nótthljóður, so that you cannot possibly be seen as positioned to hurt her.'

They entered the side-cavern, and Heather saw that it was fairly small, which she supposed was why it had been picked. Easier to conserve body heat. Nótthljóður was already there, fast asleep. And, just as Einfari had said, she was shivering slightly.

"Wow. You guys really aren't good with the cold as kids." It was actually a bit worrying. It was barely chilly in here. Most reptiles were bad with the cold, but she had always assumed dragons, who could breathe fire, probably weren't.

Einfari nodded as she settled down, curling around her little sister. 'It lessens with age. New hatchlings can literally freeze to death if they aren't kept warm at all times. Fledglings don't really have a problem unless they're asleep. Then they get cold just like hatchlings, and they still get cold easily when awake. By age twelve they start developing their internal fire, the thing that lets us breathe fire. That pretty much fixes the problem. After that, we're fully self-sustained, and it takes a ridiculous amount of cold to slow us down.'

Heather took in the implications of that. "So basically, parents can't leave their kids alone at all for the first three years, and after that, they need to constantly be on alert for another nine?"

Einfari purred. 'Exactly. Even eggs need to be kept so warm that doing this', she indicated how she was curled up around her sister, sharing body heat, 'is basically mandatory at all times. It's also why Furies have such strong protective instincts and family bonds. They have to keep their children alive for the first three years, never leaving them alone. That much close contact creates unbreakable bonds, especially at that age. Older children always help, as much as they can. So the bigger the family, the easier it is on parents to raise new children, though the first three years are always mostly on them.' Einfari's eyes were drifting closed now. 'The parents take turns warming the egg and new hatchling, while the other one fishes and exercises. The other children bring fish whenever they can. It's a group effort.' Her eyes were shut now.

Heather considered that, now using her own eyes, just barely able to make out Einfari's silhouette. She remembered having seen a space between Einfari's tail and head that left Nótthljóður exposed to the open air of the cave and made a decision. If she needed to make an impression...

Einfari opened her eyes as she felt Heather settling down next to her head. 'What are you doing?' She sounded curious now.

Heather smiled and gestured behind her. "Helping?" She leaned back, her back forming a part of the now complete insulative circle around the little Fury. It wasn't the most comfortable backrest ever, a small, occasionally shifting dragon, but that wasn't the point, and she would manage.

Einfari laughed softly. 'Yes, you are. Thank you.'

Nóttleiðtogi watched as his son, daughters, and mate flew off, back to their own caverns. His eyes were worried. Not angry, just scared.

What worried Maour about that was that they were still in public, and Toothless was right here. For Nóttleiðtogi to be showing true fear here, now, he must be almost beside himself.

Nóttleiðtogi turned to stare at Maour. 'You did not know.' Pleading, almost, for his hard-won trust in Maour to be upheld.

"No." Maour denied it vehemently. "I found out about half an hour before you, and came straight here after getting my brother." He was not insane enough to try and push Nóttleiðtogi with something like this. This could help the Nótt patriarch... or break him entirely. Or destroy all the progress they had made over the last few years. It was way too risky to be a ploy.

Toothless remained silent, watching Nóttleiðtogi suspiciously.

'I gave her a chance.' Nóttleiðtogi closed his eyes for a moment, looking old and tired. 'That was good, but it is not safe. Not safe at all.'

"Why did you?" That was what had really surprised Maour. He hadn't thought Nóttleiðtogi capable of something like that, given just how traumatized he was.

'I just... did. Einfari trusts her, and I trust Einfari to be careful in judging the ones she chooses to place her trust in.' Nóttleiðtogi shook his head. 'And her story is very similar to mine, in some ways. That helped me see a person instead of a danger. But none of that should have been enough… I don't know why.'

"And now?" Maour asked nervously.

'I try not to have a heart attack every time I turn a corner and see her in my home,' Nóttleiðtogi answered almost despairingly. 'I second-guess everything I see and hear, checking it for falsehood, and then second-guess that because my judgment is flawed here. I hold my son back while half wanting to let him kill just to rid myself of what I fear.'

Yikes. That didn't sound good at all. "Or maybe you could just have Nóttskarpur do that?" Nóttleiðtogi had done as much before, trusting his mate's judgment in these matters above his own.

'Oh, she will,' Nóttleiðtogi laughed sadly. 'I am speaking of the reactions I cannot help. Between my son and my mate, Heather will be under the most intense scrutiny imaginable, and nothing more. There is nothing I can add to that. I must simply try and survive the stress this causes me.'

"Good luck." Maour really did feel bad for Nóttleiðtogi. He was trying, and it still hurt. "Is there anything I can do?"

Nóttleiðtogi hesitated. 'I would ask you to speak to Heather and explain, but that is my own fear speaking. I will do that myself. Just, please do not change anything. I will still meet you for help.'

"Of course," Maour agreed. "Good luck."

He and Toothless watched as Nóttleiðtogi departed.

'I haven't seen him like that since that time on the mountaintop,' Toothless remarked. 'Is he like that when you two are alone?'

"I don't think I should say," Maour admitted. They kept all that happened there secret, for Nóttleiðtogi's peace of mind, and he never wanted to break that trust. Even if some of the things he had seen were far more embarrassing than controlled fear, revealing that Nóttleiðtogi sometimes acted like that during their sessions was still a breach of trust.

'Sorry, I know that.' Toothless abruptly turned around. 'And no matter how quiet you are, Boom, I still hear you coming.'

"Can't blame her for trying," Ruffnut remarked, swinging down and out of the saddle as Blast and Berg landed beside her and Boom. "So, what do we do about the parent issue?"

"We can't leave them there without some sort of answer," Fishlegs agreed, looking nervous. "I don't want to know what my mom might do if she doesn't hear from me soon."

"So," Maour began, "how bad is it really?"

Fishlegs sighed, looking down. "I don't know. She was too… emotional… to really tell."

"Yeah, and our mom is good with whatever," Tuffnut continued. "Fishlegs' family is going to be an issue. I half expected her to drag him back to wherever they're staying to save him!"

"Well, to try, anyway," Ruffnut corrected with a smirk. "He's a bit heavy to drag, even more than before."

"Hey, it's muscle," Fishlegs objected.

"Sure, sure," Tuffnut remarked sarcastically. "Berg has been getting bulky, but that's from carrying you."

Fishlegs frowned, frustrated. "It is."

'He's serious,' Berg commented. 'It is muscle.'

'Sure, you would say that,' Boom argued.

'Fishlegs, show them,' Berg growled. 'Don't let them walk all over you.'

Fishlegs stood a bit taller and reached out for Tuffnut.

Tuffnut stood still, grinning maniacally. "Show us-"

Fishlegs grabbed Tuffnut's tunic, his large hand getting a grip, and lifted Tuffnut off the floor, stopping once the twin was about a foot off the ground… and holding him there.

Maour felt his jaw drop a little. Sure, he had seen plenty of Vikings do far more impressive things… but this was Fishlegs. He had never really cared about physical strength, though he definitely had the build for it, unlike any of the other humans on this particular island.

"It wasn't fair that Berg had to bulk up to carry me," Fishlegs explained quietly but firmly, still holding Tuffnut in the air, though his arm was beginning to shake. "So I started trying to cut down on my weight. But somewhere along the way, I started getting stronger instead, and we decided that was the better way to go."

Tuffnut began battering futilely at Fishlegs' arm, trying to get down. Fishlegs quickly dropped him, and he scrambled back, bumping into Blast.

'I mean, I noticed it on Berg,' Toothless muttered, 'but I assumed it was just from the carrying.'

"How long ago was that?" Maour asked skeptically.

"A few years ago?" Fishlegs guessed sheepishly. "It's been a while."

"And you didn't feel like telling us?" Ruffnut asked. "I showed everyone when I first redid my hair to look like Boom's ears!" Four braided nubs, the two on the outside much longer than the inner two. It looked a little strange, but not so much that it was out of the ordinary for one of the twins… though she had never changed it back, and seemed to consider it her normal hairstyle now.

"There was nothing to show!" Fishlegs explained. "You really can't see the difference yet."

That was entirely true. Fishlegs looked just as… beefy, so to speak, as he had five years ago in dragon training. He was a bit taller, but otherwise just… larger. The twins hadn't changed much either, Ruffnut's hairstyle aside.

"Hidden danger," Tuffnut muttered wonderingly. "Remind me to figure out how to use that to our advantage later, Blast."

'A strong human to carry things, or lift things,' Blast warbled. 'We could use that…'

'He's not carrying things for either of you,' Berg growled.

"Okay, enough about Fishlegs," Maour intervened, wanting to stop a possible confrontation. Berg might be similar to Fishlegs, but they were not the same person. Berg could and would stand up to Blast or Boom, quietly holding his ground. It seemed he was rubbing off on Fishlegs too, given what had just happened.

It was a positive change, if one so subtle it had taken quite a while to see the results. Maour wondered if Toothless was rubbing off on him, too. If so, how would he know?

That was a thought for later. "Right now, I need to know what we're going to do with them."

'The parents? Ask them yourself,' Boom rumbled. 'You have to go talk to them anyway.'

"We were getting to that, Boom! Fishlegs' mom made him promise to have Maour meet them to explain a few things. Three days from now, the tavern that also has an inn on the second floor." Ruffnut delivered that information in a tone of total nonchalance, going so far as to lean on her brother in apparent boredom with her own words.

Maour rubbed his face with his hand, feeling immensely annoyed. "That would have been a good thing to lead with. We're going to have to leave…"

The day they made the promise was day zero. Then a night back, a day of sleep, and tonight…

"Tomorrow night," he concluded.

'We have to leave tomorrow?' Toothless asked, turning to glare at Ruffnut and Tuffnut. 'You should have told us this when you got back!'

Ruffnut shrugged impassively. "What's the big deal? We would have told you at some point. Also, we were a bit distracted by the new girl none of us knew existed."

"I'd be more distracted if she was anything but a Nótt," Tuffnut complained. "Why couldn't the Eldurs or Svarturs get the new girl?"

'If it was the Svarturs she would be too well-informed to have anything to do with you, and if it was the Eldurs she would be too busy learning to have time," Blast explained condescendingly, patting Tuffnut on the head with one of his wings. "It would need to be another Myrkur. So it's your job to find yourself a mate, not Maour's. And I do not see you looking.'

"Eventually, Blast," Tuffnut retorted, "I will see an amazing display of destruction that we did not create, and the one who is responsible will appear. There will be no searching involved. The only question is whether it is I or Ruffnut who gets lucky."

Ruffnut nodded solemnly. "He or she must be an equal. Ideally, they'd come in twins. Everything good does."

'Let's go tell mom and dad we're leaving tomorrow night,' Toothless interjected, tugging at Maour's gauntlet in his haste to be away. 'We may as well do that now.'

"No argument here," Maour agreed, hopping onto Toothless's back and letting his brother carry them away. "But I'm thinking you're more interested in escaping that conversation than in spreading the news."

'Definitely,' Toothless rumbled. 'I do not like thinking of yet another pair of troublemakers, let alone the troublemakers the twins could produce if they had mates. It is the stuff of nightmares.'

"Our island aflame," Maour remarked humorously.

'The caves covered in fish guts, so deep we have to wade,' Toothless added. 'The sky filled with fog colored yellow like a Myrkur's eyes…'

"Stop it, you'll give me nightmares."

'Be glad this link does not let us share dreams, brother, because I've had that one at least twice,' Toothless remarked seriously. 'It only gets worse.'

"What, do you find out you've somehow ended up as Boom's mate?" Maour asked humorously.

'Yes, actually,' was the surprised admission. 'It's horrible. I'm stuck cleaning up after her and the rest of the Myrkurs forever.'

"Of all the routes that premise could have taken, you should be glad that's where your dreams go," Maour pointed out. "I can think of worse."

'Of course you can. Get your mind out of the outhouse,' Toothless laughed.

"I regret teaching you that expression."

'Good to know.' Toothless glanced back at his passenger. 'Why do they want to talk to you, anyway? What can you talk about that the twins and Fishlegs can't?'

It was an abrupt change of topic, but Maour was more than willing to change focus anyway. "That's a good question. We should have asked Fishlegs."

'We still could, but it doesn't seem necessary,' Toothless quickly decided. 'We can find out from the parents themselves.'

"Good enough," Maour agreed. "I think I already know anyway. The twins aren't good with keeping secrets, and Fishlegs doesn't like it, so I'm betting they just told their parents I'll explain everything… even though the same rules apply to me."

'Can you?'

"I can try, and if not… oh well?" He shrugged. "They can't exactly do much if they don't like what I say. Fishlegs and the twins were smart to say three days, and I'll be sure to imply that I was already in the area on other business. There's no way to track us back here."

'It's still a long trip, even if we are only a full night's flight from there,' Toothless agreed. 'Speaking of which, do we leave at dusk tomorrow night, or do we have some time beforehand?'

"It's a tavern, so I should probably show up when it's busy. We should leave a bit after midnight."

'Good. I don't want to mess with our normal routine for this.'

Maour was fine with that. He wasn't particularly looking forward to this meeting, but it was pretty much his job to deal with the issue anyway. At least it would be a one-time thing.

Einfari lay awake, thinking. She heard clicks, claws on the stone floor in the patches moss did not cover, and knew that she was being watched. It was either her mother or father.

Then another set of footsteps, duller and slower. Both, now. They probably thought all three of them asleep. She did not intend to listen in, but her ears would not turn themselves off, and she definitely wouldn't mind hearing what her father really thought.

'Courage,' her mother said to her father. 'You will survive.'

'I always do, it seems.' Her father rumbled sadly. 'It is my children and you I worry for.'

'Then take heart in the fact that we are dangerous and forewarned. You taught them well.'

'All but Nóttreiði.'

'That was necessary. He showed signs of anger issues so early on. You planned for the future. It saved a life at least once.'

'Maour. He pities me.'

'He sees that this is not you, and wants to help. That is not pity.' A slight undertone of worry.

'I know.' A heavy sigh. 'How do I do this?'

'Take it one day at a time. Get to know her, as you did Maour.' A questioning warble. 'If it was him here, now, would you be so worried?'

'Of course not. I know him, and trust him more than any other human in the world.' That was admitted readily. 'He calls me Togi. That alone is more trust than I ever thought I could give a human.'

Einfari had to stop from barking in surprise at that little revelation. Since when?!

'So let Heather earn the same trust if she can,' was Nóttskarpur's pragmatic reply. 'I trust that Einfari was careful, and you trust me. As long as I am watching, you can act as if she is confirmed safe. It is safe for you to try and trust for the time being. If she slips, she will not live long enough to regret it." All said matter-of-factly.

'I trust Einfari's judgment to some extent too, which is why I am not going to punish her for this. Just lecture her on doing things that affect all of us without asking any of us about it.'

That was a huge relief. Now Einfari was glad she had listened in.

'You are doing better, anyway, to let this happen at all.' Nóttskarpur purred.

'Blame it on madness, for I still do not know how I managed to say yes at the moment,' her father grumbled. 'I am trying not to regret it now.'

'Even now, seeing her like this?' A soft laugh. 'I am not naive, but I can see no threat in this no matter how I try. Rather, I am almost worried Joy will cut her with her claws by accident like that.'

'I can see threat in that, manipulation to have us lower our guard.' A sigh. 'But I wish I could not. You are cynical enough, my mate. Anything more is not healthy.'

'I'll take that as a compliment.' Another purr Einfari reluctantly identified as seductive. Now she really didn't want to be listening.

'One of us should stay here and watch, just in case,' her father objected half-heartedly.

'I can come back after,' her mother quickly replied, not missing a beat. 'You need to take your mind off of this.'

With that, they left, twin footsteps receding. Einfari tried to put that last bit out of her mind. She didn't need to hear that, but at least they had left when they did. It would be mortifying to hear anything more.

So she wasn't in trouble for her decision, just for not telling anyone… and they both believed the version of events she and Heather had put forward. That was okay, at least. As for Heather...

They would just have to work extra-hard with her father. That was a given. At least he could allow this at all. If it wasn't for Maour, none of this would ever be possible...

And Einfari had spent years now wondering what having a human friend would be like. Envying Toothless, Berg, Blast, and Boom. Now she could find out.

Heather was trustworthy. There was no reason for her not to be. Sure, she was manipulative, but that was more comforting than worrying, because Einfari understood that kind of person. In some ways, they were easier to predict, because all of their actions went to whatever they wanted. Heather, both by her own admission and by her actions, wanted safety, and knew she would find nothing safer than this. It almost seemed as if Heather did not really care to end Dagur and end the hunt, but Einfari knew better. Once safety was obtained and secure, Heather would turn to that next goal… because that was who they were.

But as long as Heather understood that once she was a Nótt, she would have allies, Einfari feared no betrayal. True allies were far too valuable to give up, especially when crossing said allies would be fatal. Allies who were feared across the islands and who had no other attachments or conflicting interests, even more so.

That was how she justified her trust, and it was not false reasoning… but she also trusted Heather because she wanted to trust. Just having a friend who was within the family would be new. Von was great, but there were things one did not allow to be known outside of the family, and as a result, Von did not know the other Nótts very well.

Having a friend who would see the true faces of her family was new indeed. Not a little sister, not a short-tempered older brother. Einfari would work as hard as needed to regain Heather's trust, a valuable thing she had so carelessly broken, even if Heather didn't really seem all that bothered by it.

Author's Note: Lots of worldbuilding built into this chapter. More attentive readers might have noticed that I nerfed Night Furies quite significantly in this universe in regards to life-cycles and reproductive capabilities. That is intentional, a balancing of sorts (and also a built-in way to prevent certain things, such as a population explosion ala Lightning and Death Itself). Some of you may also be noticing over the whole of the series that the Night Furies are peculiarly ignorant about certain things, such as how long they live, and are oddly devoid of specific cultural peculiarities one might expect from a unique sapient species. This is actually intentional, a result of circumstance. We won't get a full reason for it for a long time, but know that it is intentional and will eventually be revealed.