Chapter 8 – Introductions

I shivered as the wind bit through my clothes, looking down over the familiar lights of Inverness as they marched below us.

Only one thing had been dominating my thoughts over the last two days—how would my parents react? Worst-case scenarios continued to rise to the surface of my mind; they could be terrified, the police could get involved, or worse: Ashburn could get hurt. But James would hopefully help prevent it. He knew HTTYD almost as well as I did, and would be absolutely ecstatic to meet a Night Fury.

"Are you okay?" Ashburn turned his head, brow lowered in worry.

"Uh…yeah, kinda. I've just got a bit of anxiety…I haven't seen my family in person for…nine months," I felt my face reddening as I admitted that fact.

"Why not?"

I cringed as Ashburn asked the very question I'd been dreading. "I…don't know…"

I tried to distract myself by scanning over the maze of streets, looking for something I recognized to locate my house from.

I slowly guided him down, anxious tingling rushing through my legs as we lost altitude. While I felt a lot calmer flying with Ashburn now, my fear of heights was not gone by any means. I hissed sharply and clung to his neck as we quickly descended towards my parents' back garden, before he flapped his wings several times, landing with gentle thud on the grass.

I breathed out, sliding off his shoulders and peering at the lit-up windows at the back of the house. We hadn't been particularly loud, but we hadn't been particularly quiet either.

We waited in silence, Ashburn crouching down just in case.

Nothing. Good.

There were high fences all the way around the garden, meaning that unless someone had night vision goggles and was looking out the upper window of one of the surrounding houses, a black dragon was almost invisible.

"Alright, wait here, I'm gonna go and…say 'hi' I guess."

The only forewarning I'd given them was sending a text earlier in the day to say I'd be arriving 'at some point'.

I walked up to the door and raised a fist to knock, realizing just in time that if they came to the door, they would see Ashburn before I could prepare them for it. Instead I placed my hand on the doorknob, readying myself.

'You might even be able to turn it too, if you could stop shaking so much.'

It was Ashburn's concerned warble that pushed me forward, wrenching open the door, quickly stepping inside and closing it again. The narrow, shadowy hallway felt cramped, and I could see movement through the light spilling in from the sitting room. I froze as my parents came into view, unsure how to even interact with them after so long.

Both their faces lit up, and Dad opened his mouth to say something, then—

"Aiden Lyndon, you will take those dirty boots off while in my house!" my mother said sternly.

"Uh…"

"Give him a break Marcie, he's not been home in months," Dad stepped forward and wrapped me in a tight hug, lifting my feet off the floor slightly.

"Oh alright," Mum said, deflating and coming over to do the same, though with not nearly as much force. "It's lovely to have you home again."

"Yeah um…" I started to feel incredibly uncomfortable, fidgeting with my space cadet badge again. "There's…someone you should meet. A-and it's not easy to explain…"

"Well, who is it? Are they outside?" Mum made to slip past me towards the back door, and I quickly stopped her.

"N-no! I mean, yes they are but…" I stared awkwardly down at the carpet as my parents gave me strange looks, trying to figure out a painless way to say what I needed to.

There wasn't one.

"Hesadragon," I blurted out.

They blinked at me.

"Could you…repeat that?" Dad said slowly.

"He's uh…" I started hyperventilating, feeling as though the walls were crushing in on me. "S-sod it, there's no good way to do this."

I turned around, threw open the door, flicked on the porch light so they'd actually be able to see, and walked back to Ashburn's side, waiting for their reaction.

To my surprise, Ashburn completely ignored my parents and instead focused on me, twisting to rub his head against my own.

"Why are you trembling?" he asked.

"I'm…just…nervous, it's fine," I smiled a little at the physical contact, feeling a wash of relief. I placed my hand on the back of his neck as he turned back to face my parents, steadying myself and feeling a lot more confident all of a sudden. "Mum, Dad…this is Ashburn. Ashburn…meet my family minus… James now that I think about it. Where is he?"

They were both just standing in the doorway, mouths agape and eyes bulging out of their sockets.

"Sleepover," Dad muttered stupidly.

"Damn, he would have made this a lot easier…"

"Hello!" Ashburn smiled toothily at them, which only caused my mother to recoil slightly.

Several seconds passed in tense silence, and I couldn't help but worry that my parents were on the brink of freaking out.

"That's…a dragon," Dad swallowed.

"That's what I said," I sighed. This was going worse than I had planned.

"Um…Aiden?" Ashburn glanced at me, seeming quite distressed all of a sudden. "I…I can't…"

"Can't what?" I prompted him gently.

"I…can't understand them. I-I know they said something, because you replied but…I don't understand it."

"What? But you can understand me just fine! You're speaking English, I'm speaking English, and so are they," I waved my arm at my parents, who were looking more and more like they were going to faint by the second.

Ashburn turned fully to face me, giving a small shake of his head. "I know you're speaking the same language as they are but…I'm not. And I can only understand you…"

"B-but…you are! I can…hear…it…" as I focused on specifically what I could hear, I remembered the first couple of days after I met him. I had always been hearing both English, in his high-pitched childlike voice, and the low draconic growls, warbles and whines that he made. At the time I had dismissed it due to the strange nature of everything that had been going on, and never really thought about the implications. It became so natural for me to talk to Ashburn just as I would anyone else that I didn't even consider the possibility that other people might not…understand him.

My eyes widened and my gaze flicked back to my pale-faced parents.

"Can you understand what Ashburn is saying?"

They both slowly shook their heads.

For a brief moment, absolute terror filled my body. If I was the only person who could communicate with him, was Ashburn even real? How much of the last two weeks had been real?!

But as I felt the firm texture of his scales beneath my fingers, the soft rhythm of his heartbeat, and remembered all that we'd done, I dismissed that thought as easily as it had come.

Of course he was real.

"Um…I…" flabbergasted stuttering was all that came out of my mouth for a few seconds. as my mind struggled to regain some traction, a thought popped into the forefront of my mind. "Wait a minute. You watched the entire How To Train Your Dragon film with me, and didn't think it was strange that you couldn't understand a word of it?"

"I thought it was meant to be in a different language…" I could almost see the gears turning in his head as his thoughts turned sour. "I just want to talk to them…" Ashburn was on the verge of tears, staring dejectedly at the grass. After we had to avoid everyone for the last two weeks, he had been really excited to finally speak to someone other than me, only to find out that he couldn't.

"Hey, don't cry, I'll translate for you," I suggested, nudging his chin up. "Ashburn says hello," I faced Mum and Dad again.

Apparently seeing him so sad had broken down the awkward barrier for my parents, as they now looked cautiously sympathetic.

"Well, tell...Ashburn—" Mum carefully mouthed out the word. "—that it's nice to meet...him?" she looked at me for confirmation, and I nodded. "And tell him...he's more than welcome to stay with us for a little while...so long as he cleans his...paws." I repeated everything back to him, chuckling as Mum picked up speed, falling into the routine of welcoming a new visitor and declaring all her rules. "No noise after eleven at night, knock before you enter my office, and you're welcome to share in every meal as long as you help...clean up," her eyes met mine again, clearly wondering how many of these would apply to him. I shrugged, joining Dad in laughing as she continued her spiel, still trying my best to translate.

Ashburn's mood quickly restored back to normal as he realized my parents were willing to take him in, and he nodded emphatically as Mum finished, readily agreeing to her terms. Dad stepped forward as his laughter died away, and Ashburn waited for his judgement.

"Well...I have to say this is a new experience," he chuckled, a little nervously. "But...you're a friend of Aiden's, so you're more than welcome to stay."

As soon as I passed the message on, a joyous coo burst from Ashburn's throat and he sprung forward, spreading his wings and wrapping them around my parents as he pulled them together, nuzzling them excitedly. They had a brief moment of shock before they realized what was going on and tried very hard to relax, but still ended up looking like fish out of water.

I only stood back and smirked as they received their first dose of draconic affection. "Better get used to that, he does it a lot."

After a few seconds Ashburn reined himself back in and released them, bouncing happily back to me with a huge smile on his muzzle.

"Well…" Dad started.

An awkward silence followed.

"We should get you inside!" Mum announced. "Dinner is almost ready, and there's lots to go around!" she turned on her heel and strode back into the house.

"She still cooks enough to feed three families," Dad whispered.

"Queens have to provide for their pawns don't you know!" she called from inside.

"Aaand she still does that," he pulled a face, before following.

I gave a small laugh; not much had changed since I had seen them last.

"Aiden?" Ashburn was trying to get my attention. "What are they saying?"

"Oh, uh…" I considered trying to explain my mother's ridiculous chess metaphors, then decided against it to avoid the inevitable barrage of questions. "Let's go inside, Mum's making food and there's loads extra."

"You mean I can try some?" his eyes lit up.

"That's what I said. And it'll be a lot better than the stuff I have when we're out and about. C'mon," I led Ashburn—who was getting more and more excited by the minute—into the hallway, where he took up the vast majority of space. I had to keep getting him to move forward, as he was fascinated by all the pictures on the walls, objects on shelves, every little knick-knack he wanted to examine.

Then the smell of food hit his nose, and his focus was completely diverted towards the kitchen.

I almost laughed when I saw Mum setting a place on the table for him. When he padded in the doorway though, almost knocking over a vase, she thought better of it, taking away the cutlery and putting the chair to the side. I led a very intrigued Ashburn to his place, sitting down in my chair as he sat on his haunches, my parents opposite us. I could see his nostrils dilating like mad as he looked over the meal—spaghetti and meatballs.

We each filled our plates, and then I asked Ashburn how much he wanted.

"Um…" he glanced at our portions. "I don't want to have any more than you…"

"There's a lot of food here," I gestured to the large, still very-full pot.

"Have as much as you like," Mum smiled, having realized what was going on without my translation.

Ashburn opened and closed his mouth, not wanting to ask for more out of politeness, nor wanting to deny it.

"Here," I spooned a human-sized amount out for him. "Start with that, and then you can have more if you want."

"Okay," he watched me as I twirled some spaghetti on my fork, then gazed at his claws thoughtfully.

I very quickly figured out what he was thinking.

"Probably best you don't try that," I pointed out. "Maybe just use your mouth."

My parents couldn't stop staring at him, but so focused was he on the food that I don't think he even noticed. He lowered his muzzle to the plate and carefully lipped up some pasta, but didn't seem to know what to do with it next, strings of spaghetti still connecting him to the plate. He went cross-eyed trying to look at it, pulling his head back and only succeeding in leaving strands of the stuff hanging from his chin.

"Suck it in," I suggested, trying to smother my laughter.

Ashburn choked a little as it hit the back of his throat with a slurp, and he pulled a 'weirded out' face. After a few moments of hesitation, he tried again, having more success with sucking up spaghetti and meat with less force, purring as he savoured the taste.

Within minutes, his plate was empty, and he made extra sure by licking it clean.

"This is amazing!" he warbled, and Mum smiled in appreciation when I relayed his praise.

"Have some more," she nodded to the steaming pans.

Ashburn licked his lips and gave me a hopeful look, to which I smirked and began loading his plate again, this time with a drastically larger portion size.

"So…uh…how…?" Dad waved vaguely in Ashburn's direction as he ate.

That was a question and a half. I debated for a few seconds on whether to tell them the whole story or not, especially since many of the details were still a mystery to us.

"We really have no idea…" I began to shift in my seat as we all finished eating, and I was left with nothing to occupy myself with, except the stares of my parents. Ashburn gave me a slight nudge and a curious look, obviously wondering why I wasn't telling them anything.

"Later," I said quietly.

"What was that?" Mum immediately cut in.

I only reddened and stared at my empty plate, neither knowing how to respond nor wanting to.

There was a long silence that followed where all I could hear was breathing and the rumbling of the washing machine in the background. Again, Ashburn could clearly make out my discomfort and moved closer, lightly nuzzling my chin and making the corners of my mouth turn up.

Dad broke the tension with a sharp clap, making us all jump. "Well, let's clean up dear, I'm sure Aiden would like to see his old room again."

"Well he has to help clean up first," Mum stated indignantly.

"Not tonight Marcie," he replied firmly. She seemed to catch on to what he was getting at, and they both started clearing the table. I met Dad's eyes briefly and he gestured with his head towards the stairs—that was all the permission I needed. I quickly and quietly got up, as though I would be told off for leaving, Ashburn following in my wake, a little confused.

I released a slow breath when I reached the top of the stairs, my tension releasing like a coiled spring. I was quickly distracted however, when I opened the door to my bedroom.

The walls were adorned with a cluttered collage of How To Train Your Dragon and space exploration posters, small models and figures of rockets and dragons scattered across every surface. A small bed was against one wall, a TV at its foot. My eyes swam with fresh tears at all the memories that came rushing back, many which I had intentionally buried; a past life I had tried to forget.

I stepped slowly inside, remembering all the times I'd spent with Sophie here, watching the HTTYD films and tv shows over and over, writing, drawing, playing. And when we weren't here, we were away on our bikes, camping and exploring the hills as far as we could go.

I sat down heavily on the edge of my bed, staring at my badge clenched tightly in my hands. I heard Ashburn shut the door and felt my hair shift a little from the huff of his breath as he looked down at me.

I couldn't help but shrivel under his kind-hearted gaze.

"What's wrong…? You haven't seemed like yourself since we got here."

"Its…" I sighed, long and hard, wiping my eyes. "…complicated. There is one thing I need to speak to Dad about though, get some stuff off my chest…"

"Why not go and do it now?" his naïve response got a snort out of me.

"Because there's this thing humans have, called anxiety," I pursed my lips, finally looking up and meeting his eyes. "It doesn't matter…I'll talk to him tomorrow."

I was about to slump forward again and put my head in my hands when Ashburn suddenly embraced me in a warm hug. I couldn't help but relax and gratefully return it for a few seconds, pressing against his chest before pulling back.

Feeling much more comfortable, we chilled out for a while, Ashburn looking over all the knick-knacks in my room. I stared off into space, trying to figure out how I would approach Dad about…what had happened with Sophie. And inevitably found a way to think about something else.

"Hey, I think I have a plan of how I can teach you English."

"Ooh! Ooh! How?" Ashburn rapidly furled and unfurled his wings in excitement.

"If…this works the way I think it does…you're hearing something you can understand coming from me, along with something you can't, which is English, right?"

He nodded slowly.

"Okay…so can you focus on the English part? And then learn from what I'm saying?"

"Umm…" he stared past me, focusing for a few seconds. "Yeah! I think I can! And I can reference the Library for similar languages too!"

My face split into a grin at this. I really wasn't sure if that would work in the slightest, but I was thankful—I really didn't know how I was going to teach him an entire language.

"Brilliant. So, you can handle understanding spoken English, now we just need to do…the rest," I lapsed into thought, trying to figure out how I would break this down. "It's probably easiest if you learn how to speak, understand and read English at the same time…you're already using my phone, so that's a good place to start."

I took my phone out of my pocket and Googled for English learning sites, finding hundreds going from absolute beginner all the way to extremely advanced, in all kinds of formats. I picked one and talked Ashburn through how to use text-to-speech so he could hear the words being spoken as well as read them. Now I had to solve the problem of teaching him how to actually speak.

I had to think about the actual motions I made with my jaw and tongue in order to create certain sounds, and found myself a little worried he might not be able to replicate some of them.

"Okay um…let's go through the alphabet and we'll see if you can replicate all the sounds. So the first letter is 'A', and it makes an 'aah' sound, just have your mouth open, tongue resting, it's a pretty simple one to start with," I started having flashbacks to primary school, how nice all the teachers were, learning about space…sitting alone in the cafeteria…being bullied…

I squeezed my eyes shut hard, trying to block the memories out.

'Just focus on Ashburn, focus on Ashburn' I chanted to myself, breathing out and coming back to the present. He was making a half-cooing, half-warbling sound that somewhat sounded like 'aaah', though I had to tune out his childlike voice to focus on the sounds he was physically making to hear it. Clearly his draconic voice box was going to have a strong effect on how he spoke, but it was still distinguishable.

"Great, so 'B' next…it's a 'buh' noise, so you need to squeeze your lips together and then let the sound kind of push them open."

This one caused him some trouble, as we realized that his lips really weren't nearly as flexible as my own, but he managed to replicate the sound eventually.

We quickly lost track of time as I walked him through the alphabet, and then went onto words, using a combination of the website on my phone and my own speech to teach him. By the end of the night, he was able to say, read and understand several words and short phrases, as unique as his 'dragon' accent made it sound.

We both found ourselves extremely tired not long after, and I fell asleep under his wing filled with pride, both in his achievements and my own.

- O -

- O – O – O – O -

- O -

One by one, each of the windows in the house went dark as the three humans (and one Night Fury) went to bed. Before long there was only one light left—the master bedroom on the ground floor. Eventually, that light was turned off as well, and it looked almost as though nobody had ever lived there at all.

But a shadow moved through the corridor, silent and stealthy, making nary a noise as it approached the staircase. Despite the creaky wooden steps, it slid smoothly upward as though it were floating, each foot placed with the utmost precision and care, one leaving the ground as soon as the other made contact. As it came upon the landing, its attention was focused solely on a single door, one through which low, rumbling snores could be heard.

Ever so slowly, the shadow turned the handle and inched the door open, discovering a view of the dragon and human in each other's arms, fast asleep. The small amount of moonlight coming from the window on the landing spilled into the bedroom, silhouetting the figure in the doorway.

The sight of the two caused the shadow to make a tiny, suppressed noise, one far afield of its appearance.

It immediately put its hand over its mouth, hoping not to have disturbed them, and drew an object from its pocket. After a small click, the door was quickly and quietly shut again, and the shadow retreated downstairs. Her 'lights out' check complete, Marcie returned to her bed with a gleeful skip in her step, accidentally disturbing her husband in the process.

"Ungh…you didn't just check Aiden was actually in bed, did you?" David sat up a little as she wriggled under the covers.

"Of course I did, it's house policy," she said with aplomb, but unable to keep the smirk off her face.

"Marcie…can't you give him some peace? He was really struggling at dinner, couldn't you see that?"

"We're his parents, there's no reason he shouldn't be comfortable. Besides, look at this," she held out her phone to him, showing the photo she'd taken of a sleeping Aiden and Ashburn.

"Oh you evil woman," he half-laughed, surprised.

Marcie couldn't resist a small cackle, turning off her phone and setting it on the bedside cabinet. "I'll be keeping that one for blackmail, just in case."

David sighed, knowing exactly what his wife was like.

"This…really came out of nowhere, didn't it?" he asked, staring up at the ceiling.

"I can't say I know what to make of…him," Marcie admitted.

"Ashburn," he corrected, turning his head to give her a serious look. "They've obviously become extremely close."

"I…can't get my head around that there's a dragon, in our house, best friends with our son. I feel like it's some strange dream…"

"I know, I've got that too. I think it'll just take time for us to get our stubborn old brains in order," he smirked as she shot him a nasty look.

"Call me old again and you'll be sleeping on the couch for the next month," she retorted, a small upturn of her lips showing she wasn't serious.

"Tell you what though, James is going to freak out when he comes home tomorrow."

"Oh yeah, definitely. Can he have a heart attack at the age of thirteen?"

- O -

- O – O – O – O -

- O -

"AAAAAHH!"

"James, please stop scr—"

"AAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

"JAMES!" I shouted, matching his volume. He was standing in the open front door, his bag of things dropped and forgotten at his feet, hands clamped to the sides of his head and his mouth wide open in shock. Ashburn was halfway down the stairs, torn between the excitement of meeting someone new, and cowering back from the volume of my brother's voice. I was painfully aware that half the neighbourhood would be able to hear him, and I didn't want anyone coming looking when there was a dragon in the house. Or calling the police.

I pulled him inside and quickly shut the door as I heard Mum and Dad come out of the kitchen.

"BUT IT'S TOOTHLESS! This is awesome!" he blustered, waving his arms around erratically.

I groaned, knowing that was the conclusion he would jump to. "Nope, not Toothless, Ashburn. Look at the tailfins."

As expected, he completely ignored me.

"Can I keep him? Pleease?!" James pleaded with our parents.

I don't think I'd ever felt my blood boil that quickly.

"Keep him?!" I seethed, fists clenched tightly at my sides. "He's a person, not an animal James! Or a fucking pet, for you to train to obey you!"

"Aiden Lyndon, you will not use that word in my house!" shouted Mum. It didn't do anything to abate my anger, but I didn't have anywhere to go, trapped in the corridor between Ashburn who had come down the stairs, James, and our parents.

"Who made you the boss? That's not fair!" James retorted.

"It's not a BLOODY CHOICE!"

"Aiden!"

"Now let's all just try to calm down…" Dad tried in vain to halt the screaming match, but was barely heard over the din.

"You've barely seen him for five seconds and you already want to sodding own him—"

"I want to train Toothless like in the movies—"

"There will be no more of that language under my roof or so help me God—"

"Marcie I'm not sure that's helping right now."

"You're just jealous because I called dibs on—"

"YOU CAN'T 'CALL DIBS' ON A PERSON JAMES, YOU STUPID, SELFISH—"

"Stop."

That one quiet word, slurred and undercut with a warble, brought dead silence over us all. We turned to look at Ashburn where he was standing, his expression one of worry and sadness.

"Stop," he repeated, a little more clearly. He stammered for a moment, before switching back to his usual speech, unable to continue in his extremely limited English. "Are you fighting…over me?"

I took several calming breaths, trying to slow the raging in my heart. "No…just—"

"Did Toothless just talk?!" James stepped next to me.

Another deep breath. "Not. Toothless. Ashburn, could you show him your tailfins?"

He obligingly curled his tail forward, flapping the fins a few times in demonstration.

"See? He has both, and he's learning English. He's not…technically speaking, a dragon," I sighed as I realized I was going to have to explain as much of the story to them as I could, if they were ever going to understand. "Can we go into the living room for this?"

- O -

- O – O – O – O -

- O -

I sat on my haunches and listened attentively as Aiden went through everything that had happened over the past two weeks, and all the things I told him about the Above. It was strange hearing him describe me when I was right there, and I jumped in with some of the details he missed, whether intentionally or not I didn't know. He didn't seem to be himself around his family; at least not how he acted when we were out on our own. I noticed he didn't really describe much of the time we spent playing or cuddling together, and I quickly stopped chipping in with those details after a few failed attempts. Each time Aiden would get a little red, and stop for a few seconds before carrying on with the story, omitting what I had said.

He didn't mention the Silhouette either.

It was frustrating not being able to talk directly to anyone except Aiden, with the exception of the few words and phrases I had learned. But I was slowly picking up things here and there from what he said, and that allowed me to begin to understand what everyone else was saying, to an extent.

Aiden's family wanted to ask me a few questions directly, and while he had to translate their question, I could usually answer with yes or no, which was nice. I couldn't wait until I could speak fluent English, and finally be able to talk properly. It would take lots of work, listening carefully to every conversation, using my memory to look back on old ones, and referencing the Library, but I was more than happy to put the effort in.

I couldn't help the wave of sadness that washed over me when Aiden told them about my exile from home. I turned my head away and pressed my eyelids shut, trying to block the tears from escaping as my throat closed up, a whine slipping out regardless.

I heard Aiden get up, and felt him wrap his arms around me, speaking consolingly. I was able to recover myself a little, his warm, soothing presence doing wonders to placate me. I pressed gently into the contact, reduced to hiccupping sniffles. I noticed the touch of someone else's hand on my head, and opened my eyes to see Aiden's mother smiling tenderly at me.

"T-thank you," I said in English, awkwardly wiping at my eyes with the side of a paw. I flinched slightly when I felt something furry rub against my leg, and looked down to see a little animal with a long, bushy tail and triangle-shaped ears.

"That's Hamish, the family cat," Aiden supplied.

I stared inquisitively down at him, my tears forgotten, as he purred and rolled around my paws, and I lowered my muzzle to him. He balanced on his rear legs and stood up to meet my nose with his own for a brief moment, before falling back on all fours and darting away.

I heard Aiden's brother, James, say something excitedly and then run out of the room, leaving me curious as to what was going on.

"Oh for—he's not an animal James!" Aiden shouted after him, and I tilted my head. A few moments later, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye.

I jerked my head around to face it, staring at the carpet. There was a little red dot jittering back and forward randomly, but it didn't seem to be physical…more like…light? I got to my paws and approached it cautiously, reaching out to poke it with the tip of one of my claws. It jumped away at the last second, moving a small distance across the room. I sat back in surprise, narrowing my eyes at it a little. Then I heard a stifled giggle and looked up to the hallway, seeing James standing there with a small device in his hand with a small light in the end. I quickly connected the two and realized the dot was coming from the thing James was holding.

"See? He's way too smart for that," Aiden chuckled behind me.

Just then, Hamish came sprinting back into the room, pouncing on the dot and rolling over himself in an attempt to catch it. James began jerking the light back and forward, Hamish leaping to and fro with reckless abandon, clawing at the carpet. I smiled at the cat's antics—this seemed like a fun game!

When the dot next came my way, I did a little hop forward, both my front paws landing squarely on it, and I gave a little chirr of glee. Hamish and I started taking turns at leaping for the laser, though I had to be careful with my size and weight; the room wasn't big enough for me to properly jump around, and I didn't want to accidentally hurt the cat. After a few minutes of this, James started pointing it towards the hallway, and into other rooms, so we quickly followed, the lure of the light difficult to ignore.

"Don't knock anything over!" Aiden called to me, and I barked an acknowledgement.

- O -

- O – O – O – O -

- O -

I slowly leaned back in my chair as I heard the thumps and bangs from throughout the house caused by Ashburn and Hamish.

"So he's…an alien?" Dad raised an eyebrow.

"Yep…"

"Somehow that's less surreal than a dragon."

I snorted.

"Does anyone else know about him? Are there others?" Mum asked.

"No, and I intend to keep it that way. Don't tell anyone about Ashburn, ever. I don't want to think about what the government would do if they got their hands on him. Please promise me you'll keep him a secret," I gave them a serious look.

"Shouldn't we tell—"

"No! Imagine if word got out that an alien arrived on Earth. People would go after him, he'd be a 'threat to national security', they'd lock him up, interrogate him, hurt him…" An involuntary lump rose in my throat at the thought. "No. I'm not letting that happen."

"Alright…we promise," Dad said, and Mum nodded.

"So…are there more? Outside of the…what did you call it?"

"Above. And no, we haven't seen any," I flinched as I remembered the Silhouette, filling my mind with blackness and twisting my memories into horrors. I hadn't told them about it, since it had never shown up again, and had almost forgotten what it had done to me that night. "I'm gonna…go up to my room."

I spent the rest of the day simply relaxing, enjoying the relative quiet. After spending two weeks with Ashburn at my side near-enough 24/7, having a few hours to myself allowed me to clear my head, along with shedding a few silent tears.

When evening came, we had dinner similar to last night, and James continued treating Ashburn as though he was a dumb animal. I had to fight the urge to shout at him again though Ashburn assured me he didn't mind.

Then James had the idea to show Ashburn HTTYD. I told him he'd already seen the first movie, so we began watching the second, and he said he'd heard rumours that they were making a third, but I didn't believe him.

I was sitting awkwardly on a chair, feeling numb to the world, Ashburn lying in front of me. The second film had come out not long after Sophie had been...hospitalized, and it was bringing back a lot of memories I didn't want to see. I longed to sit on the carpet and lean against Ashburn, fill my head with thoughts of him instead, but I felt the eyes of my family burning into the back of my head, judging me.

When Stoick and Valka started singing, I couldn't bear it anymore. Sophie used to sing that song all the time, like she was stuck on repeat. I quietly got up and went to the back door, closing it behind me and sitting on the porch steps.

Breathe in for three, breathe out for five…

In for three, out for five…

I shuddered as the chilly air swirled around me, and turned my sweat ice-cold. I looked up, hoping to see the stars, but only saw darkness, clouds and light pollution obscuring the night sky.

After a few minutes of calming myself down, I felt a brief wash of warm air exit the house as the back door opened again, and Dad sat down next to me. He gave me space, a brief comfortable silence before speaking.

"What's on your mind then? You've always been awkward around us, but this is something new…is it to do with Ashburn? Or how long you've been away?"

He didn't try to push an answer out of me, only waited as I gathered the courage to speak. My throat clammed up, and I found myself trying to blurt anything out, just to speak, get it over with—

"Sophie died."

"…I'm so sorry Aiden…" he squeezed my shoulder. "When did she…go?"

Another minute of shuddering and trying to force my mouth to open.

"A few m-months ago. She just…" I crossed my arms tightly as if to strangle the pain and my head fell limp into them, hoping to bury the anguish.

"Did you see her before she passed? I know you visited—"

"No, no Dad it's so much worse…" I shook my head, almost in anger.

"I know who you need to speak to about this…and it's not me."

"What?" I breathed. I felt dazed by his change in tone; I didn't know how to react.

"Can I tell you a story?"

"O-okay…?" I was completely baffled.

"Way back in my college years, I met someone. We seemed to click almost straight away, and found ourselves spending every moment we could together, becoming the best of friends. This wasn't anything romantic, despite everyone telling us to get together, we knew we only wanted to be friends. We started to grow extremely close, knowing everything there was to know about each other and…it scared me. So, I broke it off, and to this day that is my biggest regret. I never met anyone like her ever again, and I'll never know what we could have been."

"And?" I sniffed.

"And, I've seen the way Ashburn looks at you. There isn't an ounce of distrust. He loves you like a brother, and I imagine you feel the same way about him, whether you admit it or not. It's a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I just wanted to tell you…don't take it for granted."

I simply gaped at him for a few seconds.

"You might have lost one best friend…and gained another," he smiled, squeezed my shoulder one last time, and went back inside, leaving me to think over everything he'd said.

I stared into the darkness, not really perceiving anything that was going on around me anymore. I completely lost track of time as all of the past weeks swirled in my head.

Was he right? I felt torn—I wanted to deny that Ashburn and I were so close and yet, we obviously were. In the unprecedented events of the last fortnight, I had stopped thinking and worrying, and started feeling instead. And that logical part of my brain still whispered doubts, a nagging idea to break it off and run away.

'Don't take it for granted.'

A noise of muffled frustration leapt from my mouth as I was unable to commit to either side, but I knew this would be a life-changing decision, for better or worse.

I nearly jumped out of my skin when something touched my hand.

I spluttered and turned to see Ashburn, head lowered in worry.

"Sorry…the film finished, I wondered where you were."

"Y-yeah, I was…thinking," with my senses returned I began to realize how long I had been sitting out here, and how cold I had become. That thought was banished as Ashburn sat beside me and wrapped a warm wing around my torso, pulling me to his side. Goosebumps sprang up all over my body as I gratefully leaned into his body heat.

That act of selfless compassion put my mind at ease—if there was anyone who would understand, it was him.

I took a deep breath.

"Ashburn there's…some things I need to tell you."

"Okay," he replied softly, turning his large eyes on me.

"For…years I only ever had one friend. Sophie. We were both loners, but we had each other. And t-then…she got cancer," I paused, shuddering and remembering the day I got the news. "I-Its this horrible disease…it was terminal, and we knew she only had a few years to live. And I tried to visit her for so long, I r-really d-did…"

Sobs escaped me, and I clung to Ashburn as he tightened his hold, pressing his head to my own with a murmur.

"I even v-visited her from Keswick, every m-month I t-took the t-train…" my shoulders shook as I tried to speak through the tears. "B-but eventually I…I-I gave up! I couldn't t-take it anymore and I s-stopped visiting and I t-t-tried to forget everything…I c-couldn't go through that again!"

"It's okay, it's okay…" Ashburn gently rocked back and forth, cradling my head with a paw.

"I-it's not okay! I w-was her only f-f-friend, a-and I gave up. And when I h-heard that she was d-dead, the doctors s-said it wasn't the c-cancer that k-killed her, sh-she just gave up! I l-left her all a-alone and I…I k-k-killed h-her!"

I wailed into his chest as I finally confessed what I had done, the guilt that had built up over months finally released.

"I k-killed her, I killed her," I sobbed over and over.

"No…you don't know that…" Ashburn whispered soothingly as my shakes began to slow. "I can't imagine…what that's like…watching someone die. You did the best you could."

I clutched onto Ashburn's large form, trying to pull myself tighter against him, to bury myself in scales and never come out. I was still shaking, my eyes were sore and red, but I began to realize a sense of profound relief as I slowly relaxed my grip. It was out there now; I had told someone. And he didn't hate me.

I pulled back and stared up at him, trying to express a million emotions all at once. He only smiled, seeming to know exactly what I was trying to convey. I stood up, my legs jelly-like, and with my head now level with his own, I embraced him again, not out of sadness, but out of gratitude, and love.

I wrapped my arms around him as tightly as I could, his head over my shoulder as he pressed both front paws to my back.

"Thank you."

- O -

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Author's Note

I'm sorry this chapter took so long to get out…college is a bitch. Along with laziness. And I'm afraid the next chapter will probably take just as long, because this next semester is going to be hardest college has ever been for me, so that's...fun.

Many thanks to my beta-readers ItsYaboi, SteenGooier and netWARIOR for their help, I had some serious trouble with getting this chapter to flow right.

We also hit two milestones! ...kind of. We passed 5,000 views, which is INSANE, and when I post this chapter we will be almost at 50,000 words, which is crazy to think about. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and reviews are hugely appreciated!

Thanks,

Rowan