Maour stuck a stick in the ground, and proceeded to lay a string on the ground between it and a small rock, staring with a look of intense concentration. Other sticks, rocks, and lines of string lay around him in other such setups, and he sat at the center.

He knew very well that anyone who happened across him would have absolutely no idea what he was doing. How any such person would respond to the oddness varied depending on who they were. An Eldur would probably ask questions. A Myrkur would shrug it off and not care.

'You do not usually do your creating here, at our meeting place. What is this, and why do you want to show it to me?'

… And a Nótt would see through it all right away, whether or not they understood the specifics. Maour looked up, glad he hadn't jumped to his feet in surprise, to see Nóttleiðtogi only a few feet away, looking down at the admittedly haphazard mess of string, sticks, and rocks.

"How are you doing, Togi?" he asked politely. "It has been a while."

'Very well, now that my children are back. And I have made progress, as insane as that sounds, given that both you and Heather have been absent,' Nóttleiðtogi said, lying on his stomach in front of the clutter surrounding Maour, so as to get a closer look. 'Am I meant to puzzle this out myself?'

"No, but I'd love to hear you try," Maour said challengingly. "And what do you mean by progress?" It was odd to have two different conversations at once, but it was not as if either was particularly complicated, so he didn't mind.

'I let Heather lean on my wing,' Nóttleiðtogi said absently, staring intently at the string Maour had just set up. 'She was in pain and needed a support, and I just acted without thinking. I'm not sure yet if I could make myself do it again, so please do not make a big deal about it. Are these meant to come together to make something, or are they abstract representations of an idea?'

Maour smiled widely. "That's great!" he said enthusiastically, entirely ignoring Nóttleiðtogi's request. If the Nótt didn't want to be praised, he should not have brought it up at all. "Really great."

'Is there a difference between the sticks and the rocks?' Nóttleiðtogi persisted. 'Or are they the same?'

"You're really going to try and distract me like that?" Maour asked, amused. "Come on, I'm not that easy to fool."

'No, I am not distracting you. It is just that there is nothing more to say.' Nóttleiðtogi looked uncomfortable. 'I cannot be proud of it.'

"Why not?" Maour didn't understand where Nóttleiðtogi was getting that from; he had always stressed that Nóttleiðtogi should be proud of progress. The alternative was being depressed because it was taking so long.

'Because I do not know why I could do it so easily,' Nóttleiðtogi snarled, pawing at one of the rocks on the outskirts of Maour's setup. 'I do not know why at all. I can guess, but that does not help.'

"Well, let's look at it logically," Maour suggested. "Have you been doing anything to try and improve while we were gone?" Fishlegs, Ruffnut and Tuffnut had been around, and even if he couldn't imagine Nóttleiðtogi going to any of them for help, that did not mean it couldn't happen.

'If I had tried, I would not be unable to say why,' Nóttleiðtogi grumbled crossly. 'I did nothing of the sort. Truthfully, I thought more of my son and daughter than any human. I forgot Heather was with them sometimes. I would expect to have lost some of my tolerance for her after so long. It does not make sense.'

Now Maour understood. He stepped out from his arrangement of sticks and string, and carefully held out a hand for Nóttleiðtogi.

Nóttleiðtogi, knowing what he was meant to do, leaned in with no hesitation, even closing his eyes once his forehead met Maour's palm. 'I do not like good things that I do not understand. I did not earn it, and it might go away.'

"It sounds to me like you did earn it," Maour countered, putting as much confidence into his voice as he could muster. "Just because you didn't have to fight tooth and claw for this doesn't mean you don't deserve it. Just try and keep yourself relaxed around her. If you can't then we're no worse off. If you can, then great."

'I think maybe it is because she is injured,' he growled to himself. 'Or maybe because she did good for my children. Or maybe because I am used to the idea of her, and because I am relieved my children came back mostly unharmed. Or maybe I am going crazy. Or… I do not understand!'

"It'll make sense someday," Maour declared. "You were right in the beginning. You need to stop thinking about it." Nóttleiðtogi looked like he was close to slipping into a bout of paranoia about his own issues, which couldn't be good. A distraction was exactly what he needed.

"Fine. So, abstract or literal?" Nóttleiðtogi asked, pulling away to walk around the circle of sticks, string, and rocks. 'I see four rocks and many sticks. Many white vines, but most do not seem to be in use. Five are out right now.'

"Five?" Maour asked, looking back over the arrangement. "Wait, that's wrong. There should be six." He had almost forgotten about that.

Nóttleiðtogi silently watched as Maour looped a string between the two sticks in the center. With a smug purr, he said, 'Those two sticks must be Skuggi and Cloey.'

Maour's jaw dropped in surprise. He was constructing an extremely vague and unintuitive model, and dragons didn't work with charts or diagrams. There was no way Nóttleiðtogi could have figured it out so easily.

"How did you…" he started to ask, completely at a loss for words.

'Numbers,' Nóttleiðtogi replied sagely. 'Five small rocks, five humans on our island. About as many sticks as dragons, clustered into four groups for the four families. six strands of string, five between stick and rock - dragon and human - and one between two sticks - Skuggi and Cloey. As for the four large rocks…' he drifted off in thought.

Maour shot him a wide grin. "Considering that such diagramming would be strange and foreign to a dragon, that really is impressive. And the four large rocks are the ships our four allies will be sending to help fight off Dagur." He had considered bringing another rock for Dagur's ship, but upon thinking about it had realized that Dagur didn't actually matter at the moment.

'The real question is why you need this,' Nóttleiðtogi continued, pawing at one of the sticks as he spoke. 'Is there a problem to solve? One you cannot handle yourself? I find that unlikely.'

"I just wanted a more… tactical… opinion." He had considered going to the Eldurs, but suspected he knew what their answer would be, and didn't feel like wasting the time. Nóttleiðtogi was more likely to take everything into account, not just the obvious factors.

'Starting where?'

"Four allies," Maour explained, pointing at the larger rocks. "The pack wants to send envoys to each, with several different purposes I don't think I need to explain." Watching over their allies, scouting a little for them, directing them to Mahelmetan, making sure they don't accidentally detour to the Isle of Night on the way there, and providing a physical proof that the Isle of Night kept its agreements.

'And it has been decided that since you brought two dragons back, we can send two reliable dragons with riders back out, plus the Myrkurs with riders, giving us our eight envoys. This has all been solved.'

"It was solved," Maour groaned. "Then Cloey told me that Toothless and I have to be here in about a month." That was when the eggs were going to hatch. "Can Heather be one of those envoys?"

'No,' Nóttleiðtogi replied without hesitation. 'She is healing. And I did not think you would send someone to suffer for your convenience.'

"I wouldn't," Maour said vehemently. "And I didn't think you would say yes. But that leaves us a problem with no solution… if you only look at the obvious options."

'But you see other factors,' Nóttleiðtogi rumbled knowingly, now looking truly interested. 'What have you considered?'

"I don't see other factors, actually," Maour admitted. "That's why I brought this here. I don't know what the best answer is, or if there is an answer that keeps both me and Heather here." There didn't seem to be one, but the nagging feeling in the back of his head told him he was missing something, something Toothless didn't see either, something an Eldur probably wouldn't notice. He needed someone who thought of everything.

'Think outside the problem,' Nóttleiðtogi advised. 'The envoys. What do they have to be capable of? I assume the standard is not all that high if we were planning to send Myrkurs to do diplomatic work.'

"Actually, the twins will be great for this," Maour explained. "They know how to talk to Vikings." He had thought to send Tuffnut to the Meatheads and Ruffnut to the Bog Burglars; they would both fit in well enough.

'So talking to humans, therefore requiring that each envoy involve one human,' Nóttleiðtogi hummed. 'Or so I assume. Is that true?'

"Probably." The only other option he could see was sending a dragon on their own, and that was far too tempting; he didn't trust some of their new allies that far, setting aside the total lack of communication on the dragon's side of things.

'Each envoy also requires one dragon, for safety and to prove our existence and willingness to cooperate,' Nóttleiðtogi continued. 'Four dragons, then. There is no problem with sending the human twins, any Myrkur, any one Eldur dragon aside from the parents tending their hatchling, and the human Eldur.'

"Sounds about right, but we only need to send Boom and Blast of the Myrkurs."

'I am not yet listing who we will send,' Nóttleiðtogi countered. 'Only those who have no issues going.' He pawed at the groupings of sticks near the center. 'I do not intend to send my son no matter what. This is not a mission for him. Heather is injured. Einfari, on the other paw, is hypothetically available, as is your sister. You and your brother need to be here.'

"Pretty much." They had to send their envoys, whoever they ended up being, soon, so as to catch their various allies before they set sail. It would be much easier to find fleets docked in a known place than fleets sailing in a general direction, at an unknown speed, and taking an unknown route there.

'Needed here…' Nóttleiðtogi mused, pulling the five small rocks that represented riders over to the larger ones with his paw. 'But we need four humans for communication. You or Heather must go.'

Maour sighed, discouraged. That was the conclusion he had known the Eldurs would come to if he had posed the problem to them. Cloey's wishes, and his own, weren't important in the face of something like this. He had hoped-

'She wants you there to be introduced to the hatchling so that it will trust you implicitly,' Nóttleiðtogi said abruptly. 'And to see the hatching itself. Both of those are reasons, yes?'

"I think that's the idea," Maour agreed.

'Hatchlings are kept away from others outside the family for so long because they will trust anyone they meet for the first few years, not minutes,' Nóttleiðtogi said smugly. 'You need not be here physically at the moment of hatching. And you can watch through your brother's eyes, correct?'

"Well, yes, but…" Maour trailed off, seeing what Nóttleiðtogi intended. "Toothless stays, and I go on someone else?" Somehow, that had never occurred to him. He felt like there was a problem with the idea, but couldn't see what that might be.

'Not only someone else, a Myrkur,' Nóttleiðtogi rumbled. 'You hear all dragons, all dragons hear you. There is no real benefit from sending both ends of a link so long as the human is linked.'

Maour smiled, looking at the link between the little rock out by Nóttleiðtogi and the stick near the center. "I think that's a good compromise," he declared happily. Sure, it wasn't perfect; he had really wanted to be there for the actual hatching, but it was far better than not being able to see it at all!

'Oh, I am not done,' Nóttleiðtogi purred, gesturing at the rocks he had pulled over. 'What else do you see here?'

Maour stared at the four strings trailing off of the rocks. They were all tethered to the sticks in the center, not just his, drawing a line between each of the four big rocks and the center. In real-life terms, the equivalent would be… "You want to send everyone with a different dragon?" One end of the link here on the island, and one on the fleet.

'Yes. Let us have a connection to all four fleets. It makes perfect sense.' Nóttleiðtogi eyed the pile of loose string. 'And I think the dragons going should also link with dragons here. Every envoy will have a connection to home. We will know the instant anything happens to any of them.'

Maour held up his hands as if to stop Nóttleiðtogi. "Hey, wait a second," he protested. "I don't want the links to be used like that."

Nóttleiðtogi paused for a moment, clearly considering that. 'For war, for information, and for safety. You do not want to make everyone safer?'

"Well, no, I do," Maour admitted. "But it seems to me that they'll already be safe enough. Any threat to the dragon will be noticed by the human, who has a link home already. We'd be making new links for little reason, and I don't want them used for nothing. They're not to be taken lightly."

'You feel strongly about this… and I agree,' Nóttleiðtogi declared, pacing around the rocks and string to face Maour, and warbling apologetically. 'I do not want it misused, and I know first-paw that it is not to be taken lightly.'

"You do?"

Nóttleiðtogi laughed quietly, looking over at the mountain looming nearby. 'Skarpur and I tried it once your parents told us that they had linked. We could not stand it.'

"Really?" Maour asked in bewilderment.

Nóttleiðtogi shrugged his wings and gave a wry purr. 'We started off with the agreement to keep the link for a week. We hardly lasted three days for how maddening it was.'

"But why?" Maour asked curiously. He would have expected them to like the link, if only for the tactical advantage. Always being able to know that one's mate was safe sounded like something Nóttleiðtogi would want for himself.

'We are both good at reading each other. It is second nature to try and interpret every movement, sound, turn of phrase, and so on, for the true intent and possible hidden motivations,' Nóttleiðtogi explained wryly. 'But with the link, we had at our paws a way to cheat at any time, a way to feel every movement and sensation the other did, to see the other's actions from their view… It was too much information, and too much of a temptation. As soon as we understood how much it could convey, we were constantly slipping into each other's minds, just to get an extra hint.'

"You can't actually read her mind, right?" Maour asked nervously. It sounded a lot like Nóttleiðtogi could, and that was unnerving to say the least.

'No, but it felt like I could. Only, I was interpreting incorrectly, reading into things that she truly did not intend, feeling every wayward twitch as some hidden message...' Nóttleiðtogi closed his eyes, as if remembering the sensation. 'And that was what it was like when she was just talking, sitting still and speaking. I was doubting everything I did the first day, then I almost went insane the second day, especially after… a certain activity we would both participate in...'

"Too much information," Maour complained, trying not to think about that. He could imagine how a constant overload of information to interpret might be maddening.

Nóttleiðtogi shrugged a wing. 'When I woke up the third day, I was ready to claw my eyes out, so I knocked myself out instead to break the link. I don't think Nótts can link with other dragons. We read too much into everything.'

"So how do you explain Heather and Einfari?"

'Simple,' Nóttleiðtogi purred. 'Einfari cannot read Heather because she is human. I do not think it will ever become a problem for them.'

"Probably not." Maour added that to his mental list of things to keep an eye on, even if Nóttleiðtogi would also be watching for it. He considered almost everything pertaining to the ability of linking and the effects to be his concern, given that he, Toothless and Cloey introduced it to the pack.

'So we will not try and encourage any new links for this,' Nóttleiðtogi continued, bringing them back to the reason they were talking about people linking in the first place. 'By extension, we know that Eldurberg, Myrkursprenging, Myrkursprengja, and Svarturkappi must remain here. Einfari, Svarturvon, and the various Mykurs are all available to serve as their temporary replacements.'

'Not Von,' Maour quickly corrected him. 'She'll never be allowed to go, if she would even want to.' Cloey wanted them all present, and wasn't going to be totally happy with the compromise as it was; there was no way she was letting Von go too. That defeated the whole point of not sending Toothless.

'We still have enough Myrkurs to choose from, not to mention my daughter,' Nóttleiðtogi replied thoughtfully. 'Heather is stuck on the ground, but I believe I can convince Einfari to want to go. I'll check with the Myrkurs and arrange for them to cover the other three riders.'

Maour nodded in agreement. "I guess that works." There would be more debate, arguments, and some convincing to be done, but the best plan had been determined, so the hardest part was done. He wasn't looking forward to leaving again, especially given the reason and the destination, but they were at war. He didn't have to enjoy it if it was the right thing to do.

'You forgot something,' Toothless said calmly.

"What?" Maour asked. He had just finished explaining Nóttleiðtogi's solution to their problems to his brother. They were flying above the island at the moment, gliding easily in the wind.

Toothless huffed in annoyance. 'Do not take it the wrong way. I like this plan, and you are giving up more than me.'

"What are you…" Maour trailed off as it slowly occurred to him, the thing he had not been able to remember while talking to Nóttleiðtogi. "Your tail."

'I can go a few months without flying,' Toothless said solemnly. 'I really can. And if I really need to fly, Heather will be here, and she seems bright enough to learn the basics.'

"Well…" Maour didn't have any real objections to that, aside from the vague feeling that it was his responsibility to keep Toothless in the air, and nobody else's. "I don't want to do it now."

'Too bad.' Toothless snorted in dry amusement, glancing back at Maour. 'It's fine. I'll live. If it makes you feel better, I'll go to Heather as soon as she is healed enough to help me.'

"I get that, but…" Maour only rarely had reason to really think about his brother's tailfin nowadays; he had long since optimized his end of flight as far as he could manage in terms of durability and flexibility.

And the final, most important possible improvement? He had no idea how to do it. A crude substitute to a tailfin could be made, one that might mirror Toothless's good fin, but that was not good enough, and he had never come up with any solution that would grant true flight. He was waiting for inspiration that might never come, as that was the only way he would ever figure it out.

'No buts,' Toothless objected after a long silence. 'It's a good plan, and I think Cloey and Shadow will agree to it. They get more help, I get to be here when the eggs hatch, you get to see, and you get to go instead of forcing Heather to take your place. All we are giving up is you physically being here, and me flying for a short time.'

"If I don't tell them then you will," Maour realized. "I'm not getting out of this, am I?"

'Nope,' Toothless confirmed with a smug purr.

"You're the one who's paying the price for this great plan, you know."

'Which means you don't get to feel guilty,' Toothless immediately replied. 'It will be harder on me to not have you around for months, but you're just a thought away, so even that is fine.'

"Okay, okay," Maour announced, forcing himself to let go of his unease and lingering guilt. "You've convinced me. But do you know what we need to do now?"

Maour pressed himself against the saddle as Toothless answered his question with a sudden diving corkscrew at terminal speed. If they weren't going to be flying together for a few months, they were going to use the little time they had left right now.

"You all know why you're here!" Maour called out, walking across the flat mountain top, being sure to remain far from the edges. Toothless was walking right beside him, but it was windy and he didn't want to risk falling off all the same.

There was a rumble of assent from the four dragons and three humans haphazardly scattered around the mountaintop.

"Yeah, yeah," Ruffnut yawned. "Why did we have to do this during the day?"

Tuffnut's forehead nodded, and he leaned forward, apparently almost asleep on his feet. Fishlegs, who was sitting down on the rocks, didn't say anything.

Maour looked over at Toothless, who shrugged his wings. They had both expected everyone to be a little more enthusiastic.

Still, it needed to be done, whether or not anyone wanted to do it. "Come on, this is important," Maour chided. "You all know that we're heading out on a long trip, and you know why Berg, Boom, Blast, and Toothless aren't going. We need to get used to how our new partners fly, just in case."

'In case of what?' Myrkurvængur asked curiously. 'Fighting? Danger?'

"If you're unlucky, yes," Maour admitted. "But that shouldn't happen." He would have preferred to put the youngest Myrkur with Fishlegs to hopefully counter his eagerness to get into trouble, but it was pretty much a given that whichever dragon was strongest would have to take Fishlegs, and that was probably going to be Myrkurheili.

'Let's just get this done,' Einfari rumbled disagreeably as she eyed the twins suspiciously. 'Who is carrying who?'

Maour shrugged his shoulders. "It's not just carrying, so I'll let you all work that out once everyone has taken everyone up at least once." He needed to see who could carry Fishlegs and who would tolerate the twins without amplifying their craziness. After that, he'd go with whoever was left.

None of this was comfortable or particularly fun; Maour was pretty sure the other riders felt just as unhappy as he did to have to leave their bonds behind for months on end, even if they were still going to be connected via the link.

'Einfari take Fishlegs, Myrkurvængur take Maour, Myrkurheili take Ruffnut, Myrkurljós take Tuffnut!' Toothless barked after a long moment of hesitation. 'Go! Fly around above the mountain and do not come down until I roar! Don't do anything fancy, and those of you not used to the saddles, fly slowly!'

"Thanks," Maour muttered to Toothless. "This is awkward."

'I don't see why, it's not like this means anything,' Toothless said confidently. 'Now get moving before I throw you onto Myrkurvængur,' he finished with a taunting warble.

"I'm going, I'm going," Maour laughed. "Ready, Myrkurvængur?"

The youngest Myrkur bounded over to Maour and knocked him into the saddle with his tail, eliciting a warning growl from Toothless. Maour clambered on and got himself settled, and they were off.

Riding with Myrkurvængur wasn't bad at all; Maour was at home in any saddle after years of riding Toothless and occasionally the other Svarturs, when the need arose. The same could be said for the other riders; they had plenty of experience.

The real issue, he could see right away, was going to be with the dragons. Einfari was the only one who actually had a rider, and she was relatively new at it. The other three had only flown in saddles once before, back when Maour made one for everyone who was interested, and that was years ago.

Four Night Furies flew in lazy circles in the noon sky, high above the mountain. A few minutes passed without incident. Then, Einfari swooped over to fly by Myrkurvængur.

'Tell him,' Einfari hissed angrily at Fishlegs, whose face was red.

"Why me?" Fishlegs asked timidly.

"Because," Einfari growled.

'Tell him what?' Myrkurvængur asked innocently.

"Fishlegs?" Maour hadn't seen anything happen, but he hadn't been paying them much attention, assuming that if there was trouble to be had, it wouldn't come from the only non-Myrkurs in the sky aside from himself.

"It just slipped out!" Fishlegs exclaimed in embarrassment. "I had a big dinner! Besides, I didn't think you would notice. It's not my fault you doubled back a second later."

Maour tried not to grin, and almost succeeded. Myrkurvængur's high-pitched squeals of laughter were far less subtle, and Einfari looked as if she wanted to throw Fishlegs from the saddle.

"Look, I'm sure it was an accident, and won't happen again," Maour offered helpfully. "Can you carry him without strain, Einfari?"

'Apparently not,' Einfari snarled. 'He strains my patience and my sense of smell. I want him off.'

"Look, this is why we're trying this now," Maour said a little more sternly. "And you're overreacting."

'Ugh,' Einfari groaned. 'I'm really not. This was never a problem with Heather.'

"Hey, I'm sorry!" Fishlegs exclaimed, growing angry. "It's not like dragons don't-"

"Okay, let me stop you there!" Maour interrupted, seeing absolutely no good end to where the argument had been heading. "Go down and dismount, you two. It's almost-"

'Time's up!' Toothless said mentally, as a faint roar could be heard from the mountain top.

Einfari dove for the mountain the moment she heard the roar. The other Myrkurs all headed down at a slightly less frantic pace.

'Okay,' Toothless called out once they were all down out of the air. 'Next rotation.'

Maour hoped, as he waited for Toothless to say how they were pairing up next, that Fishlegs' stomach issues were going to be their biggest problem in assigning riders to dragons once this was over with.

"So?" Myrkurvængur asked hopefully, landing with Tuffnut on his back. "Did we do great?"
"So-so," Tuffnut sighed. "Blast is faster."

Myrkurvængur squeaked in indignation, sounding much more like a fledgling than he probably intended to.

'I think I know who is going with who,' Toothless announced, garnering everyone's attention, including Maour.

"Weren't we both going to discuss it?" Maour asked tentatively.

'Yes, but I realized you would have a preference,' Toothless said innocently. 'You won't be totally fair. I will.'

Myrkurheili and Myrkurljós nodded in agreement. Einfari snarled angrily, for some reason.

"Okay, that's fine," Maour conceded. He had already figured out who he would be with; Myrkurvængur was barely more than a fledgling in mentality, even if he was years past that stage physically. Pairing him with anyone else wouldn't work. Maour was interested in seeing which twin Toothless put with Einfari, though. He would have chosen Ruffnut and sent them to the Bog Burglars.

'Fishlegs,' Toothless announced, 'you're going with Myrkurheili.'

Fishlegs looked over at Myrkurheili and shrugged. "Okay."

'You like stories, right?' Myrkurheili asked. 'I've got plenty. Sounds like a good trip to me, and a workout too.'

Maour smiled to himself; he had that matchup decided from the start. Myrkurheili was the closest thing to an intellectual the Myrkur family had to offer, so it made perfect sense, not to mention the strongest of the Night Furies present.

'Tuffnut, you will be going with Myrkurljós,' Toothless continued.

'Sounds fine to me,' Myrkurljós rumbled.

"I'm just glad I get to go with someone fun," Tuffnut gloated. "Sis, you're in for a boring trip."

Maour wasn't surprised by that pairing, either. Ruffnut and Einfari together was probably the most problematic duo, and that was unavoidable. Toothless had picked exactly as he would-

'Ruffnut, you get to go with Myrkurvængur,' Toothless continued. 'Einfari, you're with Maour.'

Einfari purred happily, walking right over to Maour. 'Good.'

Maour smiled back at her, too confused to say anything. What was Toothless thinking, putting Myrkurvængur and Ruffnut together?

"Well…" Maour said, trying to put that aside for the moment, "we're planning to leave in two days. We'll meet up here, at sundown. You can all go now."

The Myrkurs immediately flew away, Ruffnut and Tuffnut hitching rides on the Night Furies they had been paired with, while Berg flew in from somewhere to pick up Fishlegs.

Once it was just Toothless, Maour, and Einfari, Einfari purred loudly, eyeing Toothless. 'I owe you one,' she said vehemently.

'It was the obvious choice if we wanted everyone to get along,' Toothless replied. 'The twins were never an option for you, and Fishlegs-'

'Don't speak of it. My saddle still smells,' Einfari griped, shaking her head as if to drive the smell from her nostrils. 'He might not have been too bad, but he was pretty heavy, and I know I'd rather have Maour.'

"Bud, you did kind of put Ruffnut with Myrkurvængur to get me and Einfari together," Maour objected. "Do you think that's a good idea?"

'Myrkurhryðjuverk keeps a close eye on her children, and Boom is going to be around often enough that they'll have to check in,' Toothless said confidently. 'And the Bog Burglars are our least dangerous allies.'

'I presume Maour and I will be going to the most dangerous?' Einfari asked.

"Definitely. I can handle the Meatheads, but if anyone is going to cause trouble, it will be them." Mogadon was stubborn and quick to take offense. Maour didn't know much of Sigvard or Aldir, but neither seemed nearly as temperamental. He had originally considered sending Tuffnut to them, but with the added complication of new dragon-rider pairings, he wasn't confident enough to risk that.

'And I can watch his back for you,' Einfari said to Toothless. 'Do not worry.'

'No, I'll worry no matter what,' Toothless said cheerfully. 'And I expect to spend a lot of time sitting around with the eggs, so I'll be right there with you!'

"Reminds me of back on Berk," Maour remarked. "You sitting around, me going into tense situations."

'Just like old times. Not that those old times were very good,' Toothless grumbled. 'Einfari, are you okay with me going to Heather if I cannot stand being grounded?'

'What…' Einfari trailed off, looking from Toothless's tail to Maour, and then back again. 'I see. Once she is healed, if she agrees, and if you are careful.'

'Of course,' Toothless agreed. 'You take care of mine, and I'll keep yours safe.'

"Hey," Maour protested. "I'm not yours." He wasn't actually all that bothered by it, but felt he should protest on principle.

'My brother, my risk-taking brother,' Toothless said vehemently. 'Who will not do anything particularly stupid and dangerous when I am not looking. Right?' He nudged Maour's side, knocking him slightly off-balance.

"Of course not, Toothless. I'd make sure you're watching when I stick my neck out." Maour grinned at his brother. "So no risk-taking on this trip. Got it."

'What about you, Einfari?' Toothless asked. 'Got anything to make Heather promise? Or is it the other way around?'

Einfari shuffled her paws guiltily. 'Maybe… But she does not know I am going yet. Father is telling her right now. I hope she does not take it too badly. It was not my idea, after all.'

Heather had known something was up the moment Nóttleiðtogi had requested she not look in on Einfari for the night, let alone when Einfari slunk away in the middle of the day without a word of explanation. It was extremely obvious that Einfari and Nóttleiðtogi were plotting something she couldn't know about, yet it didn't even bother her that much. They were Nótts; she would be more surprised if they did not keep more secrets than her.

What did worry her, on the other hand, was Nóttleiðtogi bringing everyone but Einfari together in the cavern. What, she wondered, had Einfari done? It felt odd to be excluding only her.

'You are comfortable like this?' Skarpur asked tentatively, lifting her wing up a little.

"Yes, I am," Heather said gratefully. Skarpur was letting her lean back against her side. Her injury was slowly healing, but any sort of support was better than sitting on the stone floor of the cavern unaided. Having Nótthljóður by her side to provide a purring armrest made it even better.

Of course, it could not be perfect. Not when Nóttreiði was around. His grey eyes stared in her general direction every time Skarpur and Nótthljóður did not seem to be looking. He was not glaring, which she supposed was some small improvement, but having his eyes on her every so often kept her from fully relaxing.

Nóttleiðtogi stood between Heather's group and Nóttreiði, one eye on either side. He seemed to be waiting for something.

'If we are all going to sit here, at least come sit by your mate,' Skarpur suggested, tilting her head in the direction of her other side. 'Or do you have something to tell us all first?' Her tone suggested she knew what he meant to say.

'Yes, I do,' Nóttleiðtogi replied seriously. 'I recently spoke to Maour, and then to the other families. It has been decided which riders and dragons we are sending to escort our new allies to this part of the world.'

'Not Myrkurs, they'll give everything away in an instant,' Nóttreiði snarled from his place in the far corner of the cavern.

'That will be hard to do with a language barrier,' Skarpur observed with a laughing hum. 'And no Myrkur has the patience to act out what they mean to say.'

'All have been told exactly what not to say, and what not to admit to,' Nóttleiðtogi said seriously. 'That is not the important part of this. The important part is that I am sending one of us along to ensure we have a chance to learn as much about them as possible. It is an opportunity that cannot be missed.'

Nóttreiði's eyes flicked from his father, to his little sister, to his mother, and then finally to Heather. They narrowed suspiciously. 'Alone?'

'She is perfectly capable of defending herself, knows the situation better than most of those going, and will be checking in with us often enough through Heather.'

Heather knew who they were talking about; it was obvious enough. Her heart sank a little at the idea that Einfari was going without her, and far more at the fact that her friend hadn't told her.

'I told her not to say anything until I had told everyone,' Nóttleiðtogi said, looking directly at Heather. 'You will understand why in a moment.'

'Why alone?' Nóttreiði demanded. 'I am going-'

'Nowhere,' Skarpur growled. 'We have other duties for you. The pack cannot lose any more able-bodied, trustworthy dragons to this trip.'

'I wanted this kept secret from Heather,' Nóttleiðtogi continued, forcing the conversation back to where he wanted by ignoring the byplay, 'to prove a point to you, Nóttreiði. Einfari obeys me and her mother, whether or not she likes the order. Do you?'

Heather could see a setup coming with that, but she couldn't see where it might lead, and didn't particularly like that Nóttleiðtogi had made Einfari keep something from her to use here.

'I do,' Nóttreiði growled reluctantly, sounding like he saw the trap coming too. 'So what do you want of me that I would prefer not to do?'

'When I told Einfari I wanted her to go, one of the issues she raised was that she would not be here for Heather, and that they had planned to train many useful skills for the upcoming war,' Nóttleiðtogi explained. 'One of us here will always be occupied with Joy, and another out scouting most of the time. That leaves one of us who can accompany Heather, helping her where needed, and once she has healed, assisting her in training whatever skills she deems necessary, after running them by me or Skarpur,' Nóttleiðtogi announced.

Heather didn't know how to take that. At first glance, it didn't seem to be that bad, not in any way that would require Nóttreiði to be maneuvered into being unable to refuse to cooperate.

'So I will watch Joy,' Nóttreiði said quickly. 'I can do that.'

Nótthljóður chirped happily at that announcement, moving away from Heather and her mother to scurry across the cavern and bounced off of her brother's side. 'Yes!'

'Some of the time,' Skarpur said. 'You will not be patrolling at first, for the same reason the Myrkurs do not patrol alone now. They were reckless and forced us to attack instead of safely avoiding being spotted.'

Nóttreiði seemed to struggle with himself for a moment, but in the end hung his head deferentially. 'I suppose that is reasonable. But I am not going to do it again.'

'Prove to us that you will not repeat past mistakes,' his father suggested calmly. 'You will be helping Heather some nights, and so will I.'

Heather flinched at that. Nóttreiði, helping her get around? It seemed unthinkable, even more so than Nóttleiðtogi doing the same. At that, could Nóttleiðtogi even do it, if he was uneasy so much as touching her? She didn't want to be left in the cavern all night every night, and walking with assistance was better than sitting around doing nothing.

'I…' Again, Nóttreiði seemed to struggle with himself, looking down at Joy, who stared up at him with wide, innocent eyes.

Heather wasn't sure she believed his hesitation this time around. She still hadn't the faintest clue what was really going through his head when it came to her, so she couldn't believe it, not safely.

'You think it will help you?' Nóttreiði eventually asked.

'I think it is worth a try,' his father answered. 'You cannot understand something by avoiding forever.'

'Then I will do it,' Nóttreiði conceded quietly, not even looking at Heather, though it was her they were talking about.

Heather didn't bother asking whether anyone cared if she was comfortable basically relying on Nóttreiði for what sounded like a solid third of her nights for the next few months. Several things Nóttleiðtogi had said to her recently now made far more sense. Such as when he had promised that the entire family would help her against Dagur, and when he had said he would make sure that he would get used to her presence. Not to mention him telling her to keep pulling Nóttreiði in, whatever he had meant by that. He had been planning something like this from the night they returned.

And she couldn't say it wouldn't work. He had pledged their help in improving her skills, just like she and Einfari had planned. He had committed himself to spending entire nights with her, and he had given her other nights to work on Nóttreiði, whatever that would mean in practice.

He was giving her an opportunity to do everything she wanted to, despite Einfari leaving. She just hoped she could take advantage of it.

The next few months were going to be… Different. And she was going to be facing them without-

No, not without. Heather smiled to herself, not caring if anyone noticed. They had the link. She wasn't going to be devoid of her friend's opinions or advice, even if their physical paths were taking them separate ways for a while.

Astrid had never been to Berserker island before, but she knew exactly what to expect. Dagur had been in control for several years; that was enough time for him to remake his tribe in his image.

Still, she decided to at least show some feigned interest as her hunt would rely in part on Dagur's aid. His subordinates would be easier to control if they thought that the Berserker tribe did anything but make Astrid yawn.

The hunt that was coming soon. She left the cabin she shared with Dagur and ascended to the deck of the lead Berserker warship. It was not at all impressive, but that was to be expected. He had called this small fleet the dregs of his armada, after all.

Dagur was out on deck, calling orders with frantic energy. Astrid avoided him; she was no sailor, and if he could get them in to dock faster, she would leave him to it. Speed was of the essence.

Berserker island wasn't much to look at, in Astrid's opinion. She made her way to the very front of the ship and examined the island in the distance. Sure, there was a large village, and plenty of signs of a prosperous tribe, but that was all she saw. She didn't care about the people, only the warriors. In her eyes, they were nothing but fodder to be used.

Dagur saw it differently. He valued the tribe, not the hunt. But he liked the hunt too, and that was enough for her to work with. She could pretend to care about the Berserkers for as long as it took to wipe every dragon off the face of Midgard.

"Ah, the dangerous, awe-inspiring island of Berserker heritage!" Dagur sighed from somewhere far too close behind her. His hand clapped her pauldron conspiratorily. "It'd look better if the fleet was here."

"How soon can we set sail to where the fleet is searching?" That was the next step; everything else was irrelevant.

"Two days. We'll be married by nightfall, while the ships are resupplying."

"Acceptable. And I want to pick out some of your men as my personal detachment, once I have authority over them."

"Of course!" Dagur laughed knowingly. "However many you want to have, pick twice that. You can weed out the annoying ones on the way to the fleet."

Astrid smiled at what Dagur really meant by that. She wouldn't kill quite as freely as he did, given every dead soldier was one less to kill dragons with, but simply having the option was freeing. She would never have gotten away with openly killing the Berkians who annoyed her.

And on the subject of Berkians… "Have Gobber officially declared a Berserker." It wouldn't do any harm, and she wanted to make sure he was tied to her. There was no going back, and she didn't intend to lose her advisor. "Also, make sure everyone knows not to kill him. I need him."

"Of course," Dagur granted magnanimously. "You don't get to kill Savage, by the way. He's off-limits."

"Deal." She would kill Savage if he got in the way, but other than that, he was safe.

"Oh," Dagur continued, sliding his hand down her side to wrap around her waist. She restrained a sudden surge of murderous anger, forcing herself to remember what he was providing her hunt, and that they would be married by the end of the day.

"What?" she asked sharply.

"You don't get to kill prisoners either," he said casually. "Not without asking me first. I've got one right now that we kind of need alive."

"Really?" Astrid asked. "Who?" She knew Dagur hadn't taken anyone interesting; both the Night Furies and their cursed riders had gotten away.

Dagur told her, and as he explained the importance of the prisoner, a cruel smile wormed its way onto Astrid's face. The hunt was going to go very well.

Author's Note: You know, I had originally intended this chapter to cover a lot more time than it did. But the next set of scenes doesn't really fit with this bit, so I ended it here (and gave you a little bonus footage of our villains, just in case you thought we'd forgotten about them). Next week, we get some actual action!