The day before the ship finally appeared on the horizon proved at times boring with moments of excitement in the form of training. The warriors assigned to engage the ship, should its crew prove hostile, insisted on the Riders doing drills with them around the island. Hiccup enjoyed those moments, but he knew Astrid relished in them. She took to executing the drills the ranking warrior and his seconds thought up like Fishlegs took to his Elder training. Hiccup had to admit he loved the smile on her face each time a drill went as planned.

During the lulls in between drills, they held meetings with Toothless' father and the ranking members of each part of the nest's warriors. Hiccup learned that the patrol flocks were different than the nest guards. Though the ranking systems was the same with both groups, the two functioned differently in all aspects. A third group existed, which included the guards assigned solely to guarding the alpha family and those tasked with missions Toothless' father deemed needed doing but were away from the nest.

After one such meeting with the three heads of their respective parts, Toothless' father did confess the strike flock part of that third group was only kept for tradition's sake rather than actual use. It had been devised in the Days of Chaos. They apparently aided Onyxwing, his rider, and the others in his flock to finally stop the bigger dragons from warring with each other and dragging their nest and everyone around them into their battles. No dragon alive today wished to remove such a group, even if their role was largely ceremonial now.

Hiccup took in all these aspects of the nest and its way of guarding its members as he learned each new thing. He knew once he got home he would need a meeting with the Council, the Elders, Toothless, in his role as Nest Protector, and several distinguished members so they could set up a similar version of this nest security. While he knew he would ultimately draw a great deal of inspiration from what he was learning here, Hiccup was adamant that each species would get their say and the Berkian nest would use all species' versions and combine them into one.

It was also in one of the meetings that Hiccup let Snotlout pose his idea about using the Light Furies. Hiccup was proud of his cousin for taking the whole thing seriously and delivering the idea without any jokes or comments that would detract from the proposal. The head the scouting flocks, a third part of the third group, a cream colored, female Light Fury with green eyes, offered suggestions based on her knowledge of how Light Furies used their cloaking skills. Even if the strike flocks were ceremonial, scouting flocks were still active and mostly comprised of Light Furies due to their talent. Ultimately though, Snotlout's pincher move was accepted.

Hiccup's offer to the one to speak to the ship and its crew was reluctantly accepted. Toothless' father only allowed it when Hiccup promised to not get close to the ship, to not land upon the ship for any reason, and to have guards with him at all times. Had Hiccup not seen just how much Toothless' parents cared for him over the time they had been visiting the nest, he knew he would have taken offense to the difference in acceptance. He knew he probably would have viewed it with eyes from the past instead of eyes from the present. Right then, he just enjoyed the fact there were others in his life who cared enough about his well-being to ensure he did not come to harm.

The day the ship arrived started calm enough. Hiccup awoke to a sleeping den that had more space than normal. Toothless' boys had been left with Haizea and the hatchling. All three were tasked by their father to guard the dragons and Skulder. All three had vowed to make sure everyone down there was safe. The lack of three younglings did give Sneaky a chance to curl up in the den. She had been staying with Stormfly before.

Hiccup also did not wake to searing pain shooting up his absent leg. He did, however, wake to warmth covering him and a weight upon his chest that was decidedly not Sharpshot.

He tried to remove the few strands of Astrid's hair that stuck to his teeth and tickled his tongue. All without waking Astrid, who somehow, someway, in the middle of the night, had crawled on top of him and fell asleep. Hiccup had had many dreams before and after meeting Toothless about Astrid, and this had happened in many of those dreams. The reality was vastly better though, even with the mouthful of hair. Holding her as he was, knowing she trusted him enough to respect her and not disturb her sleep that she put herself in such a vulnerable and compromising position both thrilled and humbled Hiccup. It also caused him to silently thank ever god listening that she chose him.

He, after successfully ridding his mouth of strands of her hair, slightly tighten his hold upon her. She responded by sleepily snuggling closer. Hiccup laid his head back against the furs. He felt and heard all parts of his soul begin to purr. Knowing that an actual dragon's soul resided in his, caused Hiccup to differentiate the purrs he heard.

His own human soul sounded an awful lot like Fishlegs' soft snoring, barely there as to be not noticed unless listening for it. A fact about his friend that Hiccup realized during the snowstorm that had everyone sheltering in the Great Hall and Fishlegs fell asleep right next to him one night.

Hiccup had taken to mentally calling Toothless' uncle's soul Link as the Night Fury said he did slightly enhance the rider's bond and he also offered the suggestions that caused dragons to see Hiccup as dragon in a human body. Link's purr was deeper than Hiccup's human version and soothed Hiccup just as much as Toothless' did.

The alpha magic side of his soul held a purr vastly deeper than anything Hiccup had ever heard before.

All three together gave a harmony Hiccup did not know three separate things could produce. He also realized that when his alpha magic activated and coated his words, all three parts of his soul responded, not just one.

It gave him great peace to know what he thought made him like that Red Death was not the monster he feared. Meeting, for lack of a better term, Link had shown Hiccup the part he called his connection to Toothless was as honorable as he believed. It also showed Hiccup that Link trusted the alpha magic part of his soul. Knowing that helped Hiccup to trust the alpha magic as well, which caused calm to wash over Hiccup the moment he realized that.

Astrid stirred and pulled Hiccup from his thoughts. The purring continued but his focus turned to his promised as she slowly lifted her head and stared down at him. Hiccup could see she was still half asleep, but her eyes shown bright in the little light flitering in under Toothless and Moondust's wings. Astrid smiled at him, lowered her head and captured his lips with her own. He swallowed the moan that threatened to escape as he returned the kiss.

[Do I get a good morning kiss as well?]

[I would like one also and I think the females do too.]

Hiccup shot glares to his brothers when Astrid jerked back. Both dragons just winked at him. To add insult to injury, so did their intendeds. Hiccup did let out the groan lodged in his throat as he laid his head back down and the dragons surrounding him chortled.

Kirika: Hehe basically she caused him to sleep so deeply he did not realize he was being removed from the cave and taken via her dragon to somewhere else. More on her and that dragon later. Plus Savage has his uses in the next book so.. ah, no, not gonna spoil anything.

Literally: Hehe, why wouldn't you be? Snotlout will be one of Hiccup's Generals. There will be others but I'm not gonna say who right now. RTTE is what showed me that Snotlout can grow up and he'll be more of that version in this story, with the difference of all he has seen and learned adding to his overall personality. Eret son of Eret will be in this version. Not in this book though. We are almost done with this one. Have a good day/night as well.