Author's Note: This was supposed to go out last Thursday, but life slapped me in the schedule sooner than it was supposed to. Sorry! The next one will go out on time this Thursday.

Toothless knew the peace of this island wouldn't hold perfectly. He had heard Heather's convoluted scenarios about how it could be totally breached by a prepared Chief, but his worries were far simpler. One did not trust madmen, or madwomen, to hold to anything. Every hour spent here was an hour spent within reach of enemies, peace or not.

But the hours did need to be spent here, so he held in his worry and focused it into a very healthy kind of temporary paranoia. Any human that came within ten feet could be the one to try and end his life or the life of his brother. There was no attacking first, but there was also no relaxing. Not even now, after Maour had verbally driven off both of the men intent on approaching them. Toothless saw no threats coming from any direction, and he could see every direction but directly on the other side of the fire, which was not somewhere anyone could attack from.

His biggest concern, in any case, was not being snuck up on. It was Maour being approached under the guise of discussion and then stabbed somewhere vital without any sort of warning. Maour talking to or even getting within arm's reach of any of these Chiefs was a dangerous proposal... but one that Maour could not avoid without making the other humans all think he was weak. Intelligent caution didn't seem like a weakness to Toothless, but what he thought didn't matter to these people. Most still believed he did not think any more than an animal would.

'Astrid is coming around the fire, headed your way.' Einfari's mental voice was loud, but Toothless knew he and Maour would be the only ones to hear anything. Nobody else even knew she was up above, circling in the dark, and she hadn't roared, which was the normal, entirely audible counterpart to a loud mental voice.

The important part of the message, however, was not how it was delivered. Toothless could not tense up any more than he already was, so he settled for pulling Maour in with his tail. 'We should go.' Astrid was insane, and Toothless knew it was a bad idea to talk to her.

"I want to, believe me," Maour agreed quickly, his tone suggesting he knew Toothless wasn't going to like what came next, "but to flee is to show weakness, and we can't afford to do that here."

'Why not?' Toothless still didn't entirely get that. 'What happens if we do?'

"We are not respected, other tribes will be less likely to want to deal with us, and if anyone has a problem with what we are," which Toothless knew meant almost everyone here, "they'll be more likely to act on that. We can't make any more enemies." Maour looked over at the left side of the bonfire, and then the right. They were standing close to the fire, but it was big, and Astrid wasn't in sight yet. "Be on guard, but don't strike first. We have to see what she intends."

'Fine. Same goes for you,' Toothless called out at Heather, Einfari, and Nóttreiði. 'Don't strike!' He didn't think Nóttreiði would be particularly motivated to fire on the behalf of him or Maour, but it was always good to not assume anything when dealing with the Nótts.

Then Toothless saw Astrid, creeping out from around the right side of the bonfire. Perfect. He could put himself between her and Maour. Maour could mostly take care of himself, but Toothless had a lot more bulk and physical protection, so if one of them was going to take a strike from the ax Astrid carried, he wanted to be the one, as he was more likely to not be severely injured.

Astrid was staring at them both from the side of the fire. Her blond hair was cast in a red, sickly light, and her eyes betrayed her madness. Toothless couldn't smell her, as they were standing right next to a fire and there was no strong wind, but he knew he'd smell insanity on her scent if he could smell her at all.

Then she caught him watching her through the flames. Those hateful blue eyes narrowed, and she strode out into the open, abandoning her slow, subtle skulking for a more direct approach.

Toothless took a quick look around. Everyone else on the hill was absorbed in their own dealings. Unless they made a commotion, nobody would think anything of what was occurring.

"Close enough, Astrid," Maour warned. He had shifted away from Toothless's back while Toothless was occupied in watching her, and was now by his side, annoyingly enough. Toothless held back the urge to try and usher his brother behind him; that would just make Maour think he didn't trust him to be safe, which he did. He would just have to jump in front of any sudden strikes, something totally doable for a Night Fury.

There they stood, motionless, a dark and fire-lit little tableau, a crazed dragon-killer with an ax facing a dragon and a man in dragon-scale armor. Anywhere else, the scene would have inevitably descended into violence, and even here, everyone involved was ready if that did happen, despite the consequences.

"Close enough?" Astrid sneered, gesturing to the five paces of grass between herself and them. "Coward."

"Sure," Maour agreed sarcastically. "Because for Vikings, being a coward can also mean being sensible. I don't trust you further than I could throw you."

Toothless liked that expression. It was a good one, especially for Maour, who wouldn't be able to throw anyone all that far. He was strong enough for something with his build, but nowhere near the bulk of the average Viking, like Fishlegs.

"Coward. You run and hide behind anyone who will let you," Astrid sneered, tossing her braid restlessly with her head as she replied. "Stoick. Dragons. The Order-keeper, now. You're going to run out of hiding places."

"Maybe," Maour agreed, totally ignoring the attempted barb. He was good at that, something Toothless knew came from years of practice and now no need to conform to the standard Astrid was trying to accuse him of failing. "But if that's all you've come to say, you can go now."

"I'm going to kill you, it," and here Astrid pointed her ax at Toothless, making him flinch for a moment, "all the other Night Furies you've found, and then all that exist."

"Empty threats." Maour wasn't happy about that, and neither was Toothless. That hit close to home because they knew she meant to try.

"I've destroyed nests," Astrid boasted, her voice dark and laden with malice. She was holding it together for the moment, but the wind had picked up, and Toothless was inhaling the scent of madness and old blood with every breath. "I've killed dragons, scores of them. Big ones, small ones, old ones, young ones."

Toothless felt a distinct urge to fire and be done with this. She was an enemy, and peace or not, she needed to go. Her boasting made him want to end it now. But that was a stupid, rash urge, and he easily stamped down on it. Her words could hurt if she used the right ones, but they could not injure or kill. This was not-

'She is trying to provoke us,' Toothless realized aloud, growing softly at Astrid just to make his displeasure clear. 'To make me or you strike at her. To get us killed.'

Maour did not physically respond, but he did briefly access Toothless's sight, just long enough that Toothless noticed. The message there was clear if only implied. Maour saw the same thing Toothless did, metaphorically speaking.

Meanwhile, in the realm of communication and action Astrid was privy to, Maour shrugged his shoulders. "Many Vikings have done as much." He wasn't happy about it, but it wasn't going to provoke either of them.

"I've raided nests," Astrid continued happily, fingering the handle of her ax. Her eyes never left Toothless, and her hands sometimes twitched in his direction, as if longing to do some sort of harm. "Crushed eggs under my feet. Thrown them off of cliffs, into the ocean. Gronckles and Nadders, mostly, but I'm looking forward to doing the same with any I find on your island."

How did she know there were eggs there? Toothless found himself snarling and physically struggling to hold himself back. Instinct was kicking in, an urge to kill any who offered threat to the eggs his family held. He could feel the muscles in his legs tensing, preparing for a leap and a quick kill. It would be easy, and he needed to protect.

Then reason kicked in as well. She didn't know for sure that there were any eggs to destroy. She was just striking blindly with her threats and hoping to hit a nerve, which she definitely had. Stamping down the desire to strike and protect was much harder now, and Toothless found himself burying his claws in the ground, clutching the dirt and weak grass roots as if that would help, were his self-control to falter. She was not going to win this, even if winning did mean he got to kill her. His advice to Heather held him just as thoroughly here.

Maour, lacking the instincts that were enraging Toothless so thoroughly, was able to respond without missing a beat. "Go ahead and search. You can't find what doesn't exist."

"Isle of Night," Astrid gritted.

"Names do not have to be literal," Maour replied smugly. He was putting every shred of deceptive acting he was capable of into this and doing quite well. If Toothless didn't know better, he would think Maour was gloating about some clever trick that meant there was no island of Night Furies anywhere. "Narrow-minded thinking means you're going to miss a lot."

Astrid visibly relaxed, the anger in her scent evaporating far faster than should have been possible. Toothless didn't like that at all; smelling the insane was unsettling. Useful, and he was glad the wind was just right at the moment, but unsettling all the same.

"My ax will find your throat eventually," Astrid replied calmly. "Sooner or later, all Night Furies and all the traitors that associate with them will die. I'll kill you, and you'll go to wherever the animals go when they die. Helheim is too good for traitors like you, let alone Valhalla or anywhere else."

Maour smiled right back at her, seemingly amused and not at all bothered. "Perfect. I don't think they let dragons into those places anyway."

"You're a weakling who hides behind dragons," Astrid snarled, once again enraged. Her moods flipped back and forth like a fish stranded on dry land. "Not a dragon."

"No," Maour said happily, "but we both agree I deserve to end up wherever my family does."

"Not what I meant, and you know it." Astrid had her ax out now and was pointing it at Maour in a way that sorely tempted Toothless. He could just take it from her and flame it to molten metal, and nobody could call that an attack on her... but even that was too risky. Any move would give her an excuse to call everyone else down on him.

"That's how I chose to take it." Maour crossed his arms and glared at her. "Neither of us is going to fight you here. But if you keep walking the path you're on, we'll meet again, and you'll get your fight."

Astrid smiled grimly. "You talk like you can stop me."

"I could stop you right now," Maour retorted. "All it would take would be a single request. It might minorly inconvenience her, but I don't think Einfari plans on coming back here in the future."

Toothless had to puzzle over that for a moment. What would Einfari have to do with-?

Then he got it, and the idea appealed to him. 'Can we just do that now?' he requested. Having someone else blast Astrid's threat to their kind right out of existence would fix this. Einfari wouldn't be able to come back, but that was the only downside. The same reasoning Heather used to explain how the Berserkers could circumvent the peace applied here. He and Maour wouldn't be punished for Einfari's actions, and nobody could punish her if she was out of their reach.

"Try it," Astrid offered with a sly smile, clearly not understanding what she was asking for. She must not know who Einfari was, or what Maour meant, other than his suggesting she could be killed here and now.

'It is not as if she is immune to fire,' Toothless reasoned. He didn't really think his brother would go for it, but it was a good idea nonetheless.

'I'm up for it if you are,' Einfari called down to Maour, apparently having overheard the proposal. 'But Heather says it's too risky; anyone could claim it came from Toothless and demand restitution.'

"But I don't kill in cold blood, or have others do so for me," Maour admitted, settling the question, much to Toothless's discontent. "Go away, Astrid. If you want to die trying to kill us, do the rest of your tribe a favor and leave them out of it. You're not getting us to attack you here."

"Berk will go down in history as having purged the world of our traitors and dragons," Astrid claimed, backing away without taking her eyes off of Maour. "I will be known as the one to destroy you."

"You will be known to try," Maour retorted coldly. "If anyone remembers you. People who tear things down don't leave much of a legacy."

"Like you have anything," she spat back. "Traitor."

"Family, friends, the knowledge that I helped end a war and stop a tyrant… I think I have more than you ever will." Maour, in a show of disdain for Astrid and trust for Toothless, turned his back on the retreating madwoman.

"You'll die slowly and painfully after I destroy everything you've ever done." Astrid was going down the hill now, looking to Toothless like she was slowly sinking into the ground. "I'll make you watch it all first."

"I don't mind that," Maour said quietly, intending his remark for Toothless alone. "One of the big flaws in all the heroic stories I've heard is that the villain leaves the hero alive. I'd be more worried if she promised to kill me on the spot upon capturing me. Where there's life, there's hope."

'Sure,' Toothless agreed absently, looking around. Their argument had not attracted as much attention as he would have expected, though Snotlout was watching. He favored that particular Viking with a toothy snarl. 'Can we get out of here now? Surely nobody could call you a coward for leaving after her.'

"Yes," Maour granted. "Let's go." He hopped onto Toothless's back in a single, seamless motion, accurately predicting how Toothless would move to make it easier for him to get on. They were up, safely into the air, in less than half a dozen heartbeats, which was an impressive feat given how fast Toothless's heart was beating right now.

'Do all lunatics have such self-destructive plans?' Einfari called out, falling in behind them as they flew directly away from the hilltop.

"That felt more like an opportunistic plan than a real one," Maour replied. "She wanted us dead and saw a chance to try for that without risking anything."

"Except death," Heather objected. After a moment, she seemed to realize what everyone else was probably thinking of, and wilted in the saddle, leaning forward so far her forehead almost touched the back of Einfari's neck. If she said anything else, Toothless didn't hear her.

That was good. Toothless liked any sign that Heather had entirely internalized how stupid sacrificing oneself for revenge was.

'Will she try again?' Nóttreiði asked, once again reminding Toothless that he was around. Ever since he had shown up with the other two at this island, he had been less obtrusive than ever before. It was an interesting change, one Toothless wanted to look into whenever a chance arose. He didn't stick his nose into other people's business all that often, but this concerned Maour's safety, as it was Nóttreiði who was acting differently.

"If she has any actual plans, yes," Maour replied. "And Dagur, too. We only need to be there until the end of tomorrow night. They will pull out any tricks they've been preparing."

Toothless glanced over at the dark ocean to his right, where the small group of Berserker ships floated, away from the island. There were guards and plenty of lights on their decks, which ironically would make them more vulnerable if he or one of the other Night Furies present decided to attack, as they would have no night vision.

'Tomorrow, we do not let each other be alone on that island for any reason,' Einfari declared. 'Any at all.'

"But we don't let fear rule us, either," Heather countered softly.

'Right.' Einfari inclined her head briefly. 'But being ambushed is a distinct possibility. We do not want to become careless with the knowledge that we are almost done here.'

That was a sentiment Toothless entirely agreed with. They weren't going to let their guards down in the slightest.

Heather yawned tiredly. They had gotten up at dawn, as usual, but she had not gotten much sleep the night before. Being tired and nervous at the same time was a heady combination, but neither was avoidable. Where she was now had made sure of that.

'I question the intelligence of any gathering that forces all to be present all day, every day,' Einfari grumbled. The danger of being on this supposedly peaceful island made her disagreeable, but only in a petty way not directed at anything other than the situation itself. Nóttreiði was as alert as ever, watching their backs.

"It wouldn't be so bad if Maour was with us," Heather agreed. Having everyone together would at least make the entire situation feel a little less risky. Toothless was up on the hilltop with them, but Maour was down on the beach. The separation was strange, from Heather's point of view, but understandable. The hilltop was a defensible position, and Bertha's camp was not. Having all of the dragons watching the whole island from above was the smarter choice, strategically speaking.

Even if it did leave Toothless watching from afar instead of standing right by Maour. Heather, tired and focused on watching her surroundings, had missed most of the discussion leading up to Maour departing to talk to Bertha without his dragon brother.

'I agree,' Toothless growled. 'But I can protect him better from up here. We can. And it is only a five-second glide down to him. He is not so far away.'

"I meant for the conversation," Heather clarified.

'Right.' Toothless shook himself and looked over at Nóttreiði, who was slowly prowling around the edge of the hilltop, looking down at all sides of the small island. 'But we are positioned as defensively as possible.'

'In the event of them attacking us, we send you down to Maour, and then get out,' Einfari repeated soothingly. 'In the event of them attacking him, we send you down to Maour while the rest of us cover you with our fire, and then we all get out.'

'And I am not down there with him because the tents block my line of sight and would hinder me in doing or seeing anything,' Toothless recapped unhappily. 'He can hear me from anywhere, and I can still fire on that area, so I am only absent in body. It still feels wrong.'

"You two do everything together, huh?" Heather asked sympathetically.

'Not even close to everything,' Toothless replied, surprising her. He shrugged his wings. 'That would be difficult and strange. But we do not often let each other go into dangerous situations alone.'

'This is the smart move no matter how one looks at it,' Nóttreiði growled irritably. 'If the enemy is stupid, they attack him and we annihilate them. If they are slightly less stupid, they attack us and we flee or annihilate them. If they are cunning, they do nothing. So stop whining over not being right next to him.'

'You should consider not criticizing someone for wanting to protect a sibling,' Einfari suggested slyly. That shut Nóttreiði up quite effectively.

"What are they talking about down there?" Heather asked, both as a way of breaking the silence and as a way of satisfying her own curiosity. "What is there to talk about at all?"

'Many boring little things,' Toothless replied dismissively. 'Right now, Bertha is describing her home island in a fairly obvious attempt to get Maour to open up about our home, which he won't do.'

'And you call these humans allies?' Nóttreiði asked rudely.

'Allies who have their own best interests to consider, yes,' Toothless replied calmly. 'It is in their best interest to know where support will be coming from, and what form, exactly, it will take. Maour is saying nothing that should be secret, but he is also trying to make her feel she has made the right choice in allying with him.'

'You hear a lot,' Einfari said, purring lightly.

'I know Maour well, and Bertha is not subtle,' Toothless rumbled back. 'She makes no secret of what she wants beyond what is necessary to not force an answer, and Maour makes sure she thinks he cannot give an answer, but would like to if he was allowed, whether or not that is the case. It is a process that takes a lot of time without actually getting anywhere, but it apparently would be rude to skip.'

Heather nodded in understanding. It would be rude to refuse to talk to an allied chief, and Bertha would, of course, play to her own benefit with that. After spending months mostly away from the restrictions of Viking society, Heather found herself surprisingly annoyed by what she would have taken as obvious and simple before. It was all worthless, in the end. A way to burn time and make people feel better about their choices without actually gaining them anything.

'And the other Chieftains are not down there doing the same because..?' Einfari asked promptingly.

"They do not like thinking about what they have tied themselves to," Heather answered, knowing the reason instinctively. "Bertha allied with Maour alone, and then them. The rest of them followed her lead, so if it all goes wrong, they soothe their egos by blaming her, and they assume she will pass on anything she learns, as Maour is the odd one out." All obvious, and not malicious in nature. Dangerous, if those other leaders made bad decisions based on incomplete knowledge, but not intentionally backstabbing or treacherous.

'So it is all worthless,' Nóttreiði said.

"Yes," Heather replied, "it is for them. For us, Maour talking to her costs nothing and could reassure an ally, and prevent future betrayal. A tiny risk for a small possible reward."

'It costs my nerves,' Toothless muttered inching forward on the edge of the hill. He was watching Maour, Einfari and Heather were watching the area around Maour and the Bog Burglar tents, and Nóttreiði was watching the rest of the island, looking out for any dangerous individuals or groups approaching either the hilltop or the Bog Burglar tents.

Heather had a thought, looking down at the sandy shoreline. "Hey, Nóttreiði, can you see the Order-keeper anywhere?" she asked without thinking about it. Einfari translated for her without hesitation.

Nóttreiði huffed and continued his circle of the hilltop. Just as Heather had decided he wasn't going to reply, he spoke. 'The Order-keeper, the one in the reflective false scales, is speaking with two very large and very upset…'

'What is it?' Toothless asked, walking over to look at whatever Nóttreiði was seeing. Heather, who had turned to watch him, could not see the other side of the island, but she had a great view of how Toothless tensed.

'Brother?' Einfari asked worriedly.

'I believe we have just seen the first breach of this so-called peace,' Nóttreiði eventually replied. 'Blood stains the sand.'

'Two men got into a fight, I think,' Toothless reported more helpfully, 'and the Order-keeper just disciplined the one who started it. Fatally.'

"That's the only kind of discipline around here," Heather murmured. One of the many parts of this that surprised her was that the Vikings all consented to letting the Order-keeper kill for any violent infraction. "How did he do it?"

'I did not see; he had his men surround the two combatants,' Toothless replied. 'Probably with that little knife we had to cut ourselves on. There might be some symbolism involved there.'

'They got what they deserved for being stupid enough to fight here,' Einfari said dismissively. 'The same thing Astrid would have gotten.'

Or Heather, if she had been stupid enough to go after Dagur in some self-destructive revenge attempt. Heather shivered, and moved away from Einfari, making a pretense of looking down at another group of tents to the right of the one Maour was standing within.

She didn't like to think about her revenge now. Toothless had made his point, and she knew it was stupid to go after Dagur here. That wasn't it, though. If it was just a past stupidity now corrected, before it could do any harm, she would be fine with it.

No, the real worry was that she didn't like that her past self had been willing to die for revenge. Was she wrong to not feel willing now, or had she been wrong before? She felt like she was being pulled in two different directions.

On one side, she had her past. Her mother, her father, and her whole island. Revenge, at any cost. And on the other…

On the other side of things, she had all of this. Einfari, Skarpur, Joy, a new island and tribe of sorts. Sure, there were some irritants, Nóttreiði and his father among them, but those were things she could live with. Toothless had told her that sacrificing herself hurt Einfari and the other people who cared about her, too.

Heather didn't know if she could have both. She didn't even know, exactly, what the latter group actually was to her. What Toothless had implied seemed wrong, but right at the same time.

None of it was good to think about. Not here, where half of her mind had to be on safety at all times. Later, on their weeks-long ride back, she could puzzle over all of that. Travelling as a passenger on a Night Fury gave ample time for thought.

'We have more trouble,' Einfari abruptly barked, drawing Heather's attention entirely to the present. Heather immediately remembered to use her friend's sight instead of wasting time accessing, and performed the little mental trick required to do so with only a little effort. She was getting better at that.

What she saw made her stomach turn. Dagur, alone and apparently unarmed, was walking up the hill, right toward them. He was moving slowly, but the sly grin on his face made her want to run, not confront him. One did not engage a maniac when he was both at a self-imposed disadvantage, and happy about it. Even for a lunatic, that didn't add up.

'I feel like we are under assault by half-formed plans and madness,' Toothless muttered. 'But it is a good plan. If we fire on him, we will be the aggressors.'

'In a situation where we can just flee and leave unpunished,' Einfari argued quickly. 'There is more to this.'

Heather tried to puzzle through their enemy's intentions. Sure, he was insane, and dying to a Night Fury might get him into Valhalla, but not even carrying a weapon implied he wasn't going to go for a warrior's death. He also, by that same measure, wasn't going for a warrior's victory.

"Where are his other men?" Heather asked aloud. They had at most two minutes before Dagur got too close for comfort, with how slow he was walking.

'I don't… there!' Toothless barked rushing over to the back of the hillside. Nóttreiði was immediately beside him, glaring down at whatever was below. 'They are watching from the shore, and from their ship that is docked. There is something on the deck that was not there before.'

A weapon. Possibly a net launcher. But there was no ship-bound weapon capable of doing anything from this distance. Heather knew the look of a ballista, and that definitely wasn't one. She would bet on it being a net launcher. Defensive, not offensive. Not from this angle.

"So he's not planning to distract us," Einfari snarled. 'We are not stupid. What is this?'

"We are not stupid, but he just might be," Heather reasoned, not sure where she was going with this. "There is no rational plan. Now let's consider the irrational."

'A good point.' Einfari nodded frantically. 'Irrationally, he might believe he can take you hostage if he approaches under the guise of no threat. He is bigger than you, and could do you harm if he got too close.'

Heather had a vivid mental image of Dagur snapping her neck from behind. He was strong enough to do it if she let him get into a position to try. "Definitely possible." But he might not want her dead. "It's also possible he wants to try and convince me to join him."

'As if that would work,' Einfari scoffed. Dagur was getting close now, almost within shouting distance. 'We should just flee now.'

'It is that stupid reputation again,' Toothless said unhappily, lashing his tail at the ground, though he was careful to not actually hit at all hard. 'If we flee, he will boast of the Night Furies fearing him. I am told we cannot be seen to be weak or scared.'

Heather nodded reluctantly. "True." She could totally see Dagur using any purported weakness on their side to coerce weaker tribes into joining him in attacking them later. Dagur already had enough of a numerical advantage without that, and there was the reputation of Night Furies as a species to protect as well, a reputation she now cared about.

Heather realized with a start that she had begun to include herself under that label. Night Fury. Fast, deadly, unseen, mysterious and dangerous. That was ridiculous, but it felt right, just like calling herself a Nótt did.

Had she ever thought of herself as a Nótt? Maybe? She couldn't remember. There was no time to search her memories. Right now, a decision needed to be made, and she was the one best equipped to make it.

"Dagur wants to be persuasive," Heather decided aloud, moving over to Einfari and getting into the saddle. "He might also want to distract all of us. We should split up. Einfari, Nóttreiði and I go and meet him halfway down, leaving Toothless to continue watching the island. We will not be taken off of our guard." She included Nóttreiði with her and Einfari simply because he would not-

'No, Nóttreiði needs to stay on top of the hill with Toothless; we do not leave anyone alone here,' Einfari immediately replied. 'And brother, before you argue, know that Heather needs a dragon to sit on in order to be out of reach, and neither you nor Toothless can provide both understanding of the conversation and flight if it is needed.' She spoke in a clipped, no-nonsense voice. 'This is the smartest response to the situation.'

'I watch you, Toothless watches Maour and the island,' Nóttreiði replied in a frustrated, worried voice. He stared at Einfari imploringly. 'Take no risks; do not let it get near.'

'Go now,' Toothless agreed, beginning to circle the hilltop. 'Before he gets too close.'

Einfari nodded and began to walk down the hill, directly toward Dagur, who stopped and waited the moment he saw her coming, his arms spread wide as if to reassure Heather.

Heather felt anything but reassured. The many things she had just decided to not think about until later were all coming up again, unresolved and plaguing her with doubts and questions. What was she doing? Was it better to avenge the old, or keep the new safe? This was not necessarily a suicide strike; Einfari could blow Dagur to pieces and be out of danger before anyone else so much as blinked. But it would not be totally safe.

And what was she going to say to him if she didn't have Einfari kill him on the spot? What was there to say for either of them? She was only coming down here because Dagur was forcing it through custom. If she had her way she would either be far away, putting an ax blade between his eyes or shooting him with the bow on her back, though she didn't really know how to use that last option.

"I'd rather have it as a hat," Dagur remarked, pointing at Einfari, "but your way works too."

Heather crossed her arms and glared at Dagur. She was glad she could physically look down on him from Einfari's back. That helped her keep all of this in perspective. He was dangerous and needed to die, but not right now, and not right here. Here, he was a vocal but unarmed annoyance, just like Astrid. More so, as even if he snapped right now he'd be physically incapable of besting Einfari, lacking any kind of weapon to do so with.

"What?" Dagur asked casually, seeing her glare. "Just saying."

"You're mighty bold," Heather replied angrily, "for someone with no weapon facing a Night Fury."

"Family doesn't kill family," Dagur retorted.

"How does that square with you killing your own father?" Heather didn't really want to know, but she did want to remove whatever delusion his crazed mind held about her. If she was going to be forced by circumstance to face him, she would try for something useful.

"I had someone else actually kill him."

"I have someone else totally willing to kill you now," Heather retorted, patting Einfari's head to draw Dagur's attention to the lethal dragon under her and growling at him. "But even if family didn't kill family indirectly either, it wouldn't matter, because there is nothing between us."

"You can't deny blood," Dagur asserted cheerily. He was at least holding to the same implacable, smug attitude. Heather planned on wiping all of that smugness right off of his face if possible, and it would be all the more satisfying since he wasn't shifting between moods as he usually did.

"I can and do." Heather hoped Einfari was watching their surroundings. There was no way this wasn't a distraction of some sort.

"You should at least hear me out," Dagur proposed, still unnaturally calm. There was an odd look on his face, something sinister but undefined. "Come over to my ship, let me show you what Berserker hospitality looks like, tell you about how it's your duty to help your tribe, all of that. It'll be fun."

'Toothless, Nóttreiði, tell me there is some sort of ambush coming,' Einfari loudly requested, calling back at the top of the hill. 'I did not take this madman for an imbecile.'

'His other ships are moving,' Toothless replied tensely. 'It will take a few minutes for them to get around to that side of the island, but they are moving.'

So it was a trap, and Dagur was using himself as a distraction. That was actually a relief; at least now Heather knew what was going on. Heather laughed scornfully. "You're not dealing with just me, Dagur. I know your ships are circling around the island. This is all a ploy."

"I want my sister working toward the same goal I do." Dagur narrowed his eyes and stared at her in a way she might have found menacing were they on equal footing. "Sometimes people need a push. Toward greatness or over a cliff. Your choice."

"Over the cliff," Heather replied without hesitation. "Because someone I trust would catch me before I hit the ground."

'Me, or any Night Fury that knows you, except maybe my brother,' Einfari hummed in agreement. 'And he is working on that.'

"Come on," Dagur pleaded, sounding like he would be resorting to force if there was any way to physically reach her, "think about it. You want me to punish the men that killed your family? Done. I'll have fun with that. Want power? I want you by my side, like Savage. You can even get rid of him if you feel like it. But you're a Berserker, through and through, and you need to accept that."

Heather wasn't tempted for a moment. "The word of a sadistic madman is worth nothing to me."

"You will be a Berserker," Dagur threatened. One of the Berserker ships was slowly sailing into sight beyond his right shoulder, too far out from the island to possibly interfere at the moment. "Dead or alive. You are one already."

"I'm anything but that," Heather gritted.

"You are part of no tribe-"

"The Isle of Night," Heather interjected confidently, seeing a way to entirely contradict him. She still wanted to try and dissuade him from pursuing her, and this felt like it might be the answer. "The same tribe Maour speaks for. I am one of them and have been for a while. The Berserkers have no claim to me. And you certainly do not either."

"Blood-"

"Will be spilled, between you and me," Heather threatened. "Not today, not here, but someday, somewhere. That's the only blood between us. Me spilling yours."

"Really…" Dagur took a step back for no obvious reason, and then one to the side. "Fine, we'll do it the hard way." He raised his right hand.

'This is obviously a signal, but there is nothing that can be done on it?' Einfari sidled over to the right, mirroring Dagur. 'He is moving out of the way of something.'

Heather saw that already. Dagur only made it more obvious by moving back to where he had stood before, once again maneuvering to not be directly between them and his ship, which was still too far away for anything-

Too far away for anything Heather knew about. She shouldn't assume anything, not when Dagur was this confident. "Anything happens to us, and you die."

"Why would anything happen?" Dagur sounded like he knew she had caught on, but didn't care all that much. "Come with me quietly. My ship has a nice spare cabin and a nice cell. You get to choose which one you want. Bring the dragon if you want." Here his smile grew truly sinister. "I have several open cells."

'Einfari, get away from there,' Nóttreiði called out. 'Now!'

Heather lurched back as Einfari sprung to the side and then took off, barely holding on to the saddle with her legs. There was a muted impact off to her right, and an annoyed yell from Dagur.

By the time Heather regained her position on Einfari well enough to comprehend what was going on around her, everyone was in the air. Toothless and Maour were rising up from the shore, and Nóttreiði was behind Einfari, flying down below her just enough that any attack at her from the shore would hit him first.

Attacks from the shore weren't what they needed to worry about. "What was that, and is it still a threat?" Heather asked quickly.

'A thick net, propelled by something strong, all the way from the ship,' Toothless snarled, pulling up to fly beside them. They were making good time and were now definitely out of range of the island.

"I guess somebody figured out how to make better net launchers," Maour yelled across. "It hit the hill from where the ship is now?"

Heather looked down and back at the island and the Berserker ship. It hadn't moved. "It did."

"Increased range and accuracy, to hit like that," Maour replied. "We need to be very careful."

'Surely this counts as an attack on us?' Nóttreiði snarled angrily. 'Let us get whatever justification is needed to kill them.'

'I am fine,' Einfari growled. 'And I think nothing was ever said about ships attacking people on the island. Besides, it did not actually hit.'

"We could still argue it," Heather said. "I'm with Nóttreiði on this." They shot at her and Einfari, and they deserved to pay for that.

'At best, will they not just let you kill whichever Berserker actually pulled the trigger, though?' Toothless asked skeptically, shooting the idea down without even trying.

Heather deflated a bit at that, as her anger was directed at Dagur, not his pawns. "Yes, that's how these stupid rules work." She just wanted to get out of this place. The rules only really made anything better if everyone chose to play by them in good faith. There were holes big enough to shoot a net through, it seemed.

'On the bright side,' Einfari purred, trying to lighten the sudden dark mood that had fallen over them all, 'now I entirely understand why Maour wants Dagur alive. That was a plan, but it was not a good one, and not even close to the best someone like you or me could have come up with.'

"Definitely not a good plan." Not when she had dragons watching out for her and keeping their eyes on absolutely everything. Without Einfari and the others, that would have gone far differently.

Without Einfari and the others, she would be Dagur's prisoner and would have been for months, having never been freed in the first place.

And that could still be her fate. She wasn't totally safe until Dagur was gone. "I still want him dead. We can deal with him and his armada at the same time. It doesn't matter who succeeds him if they lead a ruin of a tribe." To do that, they needed to fight, and to do that, they needed to leave.

Heather was done here. She wanted to get to whatever was next, and this entire gathering was a place of talking and danger with no further reward. Hopefully, they could leave soon.

'Midnight,' Nóttreiði bargained. 'Not a moment longer.'

'We will stay until Maour and Toothless know what is happening next; that might be another day,' Einfari countered blithely. 'We're not leaving before them. There's no point.'

No point? 'The point is to get away from danger before it hurts us.' He had grown complacent earlier, to let her get anywhere near a human, unarmed or not. He had failed. If she had not been agile and alert, she could have gotten hurt or killed. It was unlikely the net itself could have injured Einfari, but there was a madman with some sort of plan right there, waiting. And Nóttreiði had not been there.

'You were just fired on,' he continued, seeing that she didn't care about his previous reason. That should be all he needed to say! Toothless could risk his life by going back, but Einfari was not going to do the same. She didn't even need to be there!

'I avoided it.' Einfari paced along the edge of the small sea stack they had claimed for their discussion. Heather was off with Toothless and Maour, scouting out the human ships now spaced around the island, so it was just the two of them for the moment.

Nóttreiði did not think that was a coincidence. He knew his sister had arranged for this to be a private argument. She knew what he was going to say, but he said it anyway, because it was common sense.

'Why?' He was out of options. She was going to go back, and he didn't have a leg to stand on in arguing against it if simple, common sense did nothing. Getting mad wouldn't help, not when he still worried, deep in the back of his mind, that she feared him.

'Heather will be there, and I am her way off the island. I will not abandon her there, not even if she could ride Toothless out if things get ugly.'

'That is all?' Nóttreiði knew what she thought he meant, so he didn't wait for her response to her misconception of what he was thinking. 'Because she does not need to be there either, right? Both of you stay away.'

'She will want to be there,' Einfari hummed thoughtfully. 'But I do not want her in danger any more than you want me in danger, and you are right, she does not need to be present. And it is good you are looking out for her.'

Nóttreiði bit down on his first response, which was to deny caring in any way. He was a Nótt, and that meant he would use his sister's desire to see him bury his hate, not openly deny it and reveal his feelings on the subject, not after hiding them for weeks.

Besides, he wasn't sure what they were any longer. He hated humans, and Heather was a part of that group, but he just wasn't sure any longer, and that child from the day before had only muddied the waters further.

Ideally, in a perfect world, he would want to talk to his father about this. But it was entirely possible his father would tell him exactly what he didn't want to hear, assuming he asked straight out.

Nothing said he had to ask straight out, though. That was something to think about.

In any case, Nóttreiði could not wait to turn his tail on this place and go home. Things were hard enough with just his own internal problems, or external threats. Both at the same time threatened to make him fail at everything. Protecting his sister, dealing with the humans, and anything else.

"That was stupid." Astrid made no pretense to neutrality; they were alone in Dagur's tent, and she had her ax. She'd slit his throat if he attacked. "You gave away knowledge of a hunting tool. They will be wary."

Dagur laughed angrily, obviously holding himself back. He was sitting cross-legged in the center of his tent, his eyes closed, and had been since she arrived, shoving her way right past Savage. "I don't see you doing any better. Since when does little Hiccup get mad and attack?" he asked scathingly. "Come on, he would just run! I know that; he ran from me all the time."

Astrid threw her ax down, burying the blade in the sand. She knew better than to trust her own shaky self-control right now. "It was a chance. Anyone would try to shut me up." The plan had been simple; say the most enraging, insulting, hurtful things she could, and dodge whatever attack came. Then she could claim he or the dragon had struck, and get to watch them die.

"Don't you want to torture him first?" Dagur asked. "I do. They wouldn't let you do that here; you wouldn't even get to kill him yourself!"

"I do want to torture him first," Astrid gritted. She had not even considered that. "I saw a chance and took it."

"You've got to stop doing that," Dagur replied condescendingly. "Someone needs to check your thinking for you since you can't do it yourself. I have Savage for that. And you..?"

She knew what he was asking. Snotlout had blabbered everything about his deal with Dagur once she questioned him about it. "Gobber is coming with me." He was faithful, her Savage, her backup mind. She did need someone like that, and he was a skilled dragon killer, the perfect kind of aide with what she was going to be doing.

"Great. I don't have to kidnap him." Dagur grinned wryly, his eyes still closed. He had not so much as looked up since she entered the tent. "I have bad luck with kidnapping right now."

"Look at me," Astrid demanded. "What are you even doing?"

"Something you will learn. When I start failing at everything, it means I am getting too wound up," Dagur gritted. His teeth were literally locked, and his entire face betrayed some sort of foreign strain. "Too crazy, too excited. Tonight is too important for me to be ineffective, so I am unwinding. Calming myself."

Tonight was important, at that. Very important. "My things are on your ship. And the rest?"

"Berk?"

"Snotlout isn't committing," Astrid admitted. "And he's staying in public at all times." She'd have to rely on the momentum of the situation to get him moving; he knew she wasn't going to be around to control him after tonight. That made him frustratingly noncompliant.

"We'll get their support or we'll wipe them out in turn," Dagur asserted.

"Of course." She felt no loyalty to Berk. Her only loyalty was to her hunt, and Berk was through being useful. A puppet was good, but an equally crazed ally with a much larger force was better.

"Good. We do need his support for the first part."

"He'll do that for sure." He wanted to be rid of her, and not making the betrothal official would hinder that.

"This is going to be a fun night," Dagur asserted calmly. Everything about him spoke of calm. She didn't like it. Since when did he get to be calm when she was subject to every sharp turn her own unhinged emotions took?

"Teach me that." If it helped her focus, it would help her hunt, and she needed to be effective to hunt. Especially tonight.

"Later."

"Now."

"Later."

"I'll cut you in half." She put her hand down near the handle of her ax, crouching to do so without taking her eyes off of him.

"I'll kill you if you try."

"You have no weapon."

"I'm paranoid, not suicidal," he said wryly. "My ax is in the sand right next to my hand."

"You're bluffing."

"You're threatening your future husband."

"Future."

"We both know neither of us wants the other dead."

"But we also both know I would win if we fought now." She knew very well that they were both willing to kill the other if necessary, but it wasn't necessary, and wouldn't be so long as their goals were aligned. He supported her hunt, so they were good.

But thinking of aligning goals and fitness for the hunt... "You're not laying a finger on me until the hunt for the Night Furies and the traitor is over."

"I'm a Chief," he replied wryly, entirely following the rapid shift in topic. "There will be witnesses who need to see otherwise."

"We don't need to be married to hunt."

"We need to be married for you to have any actual power. I'm not giving any non-Berserker control over anything." His voice grew hard. "Not even you. So that has to happen first."

"What is your plan for Heather, then?" Astrid asked skeptically. She had heard the summarized version of the argument from Gobber, who had heard it from Savage, who had heard it from Dagur. All in less than an hour. Word traveled fast when everyone involved knew who wanted to hear it and wanted to talk. Heather was not a Berserker in mind.

"She's a Berserker. It'll just take some… persuasion." Dagur shrugged. "Maybe I'll marry her off to Savage. She'll kill him within a month, but anything that ties her to her rightful people helps, and once she's trustworthy she can take the place he held."

"She's a dragon rider. A traitor." Astrid knew she was stepping on thin ice but didn't care. She didn't believe Dagur really had an ax in the sand under his hand.

"Madness must run in the family. If we take the dragon alive, I'll break it, use it as a mount, and then kill it once it's not fun anymore. Or have her kill it." He giggled maniacally. "Come on, it would be so funny to see little Hiccup's face as I have my own slave Night Fury kill his and bring him to me."

"To us. I have plans for him." He was her biggest mistake, and she was going to savor fixing that mistake. He was going to die, but only after he had suffered as much as possible, and watched everything he loved crumble to ash in front of him.

"To us," Dagur agreed. "But there's going to be a public consummation before any of that." He pulled his ax out of the sand, proving he had it, and waved it at her tauntingly. "So get used to the idea."

All for the hunt. It was a good thing she planned to have Hiccup and the Night Furies here chained or dead at her feet before the end of tonight because there was a chance she wouldn't be physically fit to hunt for a few months in the near future. A necessary sacrifice to be able to use the Berserker armada at all if Dagur was going to be stubborn.

"Tomorrow night. We get married tomorrow." Not tonight. They had other things going on tonight, far more interesting things.

"Tomorrow," Dagur agreed with a predatory grin. He finally opened his eyes, which were just as pale and fey as always. He clearly thought he had won, which he had. But since him winning benefitted her hunt, she wanted him to win.

It was all coming to a point, here and now. A sharp, deadly point, one their abortive, half-planned forays had failed to reach. Those were all opening jabs. Tonight was the first real strike.

Author's Note: I didn't really want to leave the last chapter on a cliffhanger because, as you now see, it was a false one, mostly. This chapter has the real one. Sorry about that, but I totally wanted to leave this one where I did. Next chapter is at least not going to be as long in coming, thanks to this being late.

Once again, on a more positive note, writing that last scene was a lot of fun. Dagur's crazy, but he's used to that, and it stands to reason he'll have figured out how to calm down enough to use it instead of being used by it. He's aware of the madness and recognizes it as not being all good on its own, which is an approach I've only seen in one other story, one that had a lot of weird stuff going on. I won't recommend it, as it's not super high quality (definitely not high enough to make my favorites), and forever incomplete. (Also, I don't remember the name, so it would be kind of hard to find again to recommend if I wanted to).