Hiccup felt nothing but relief. His future was anything but clear, but at least Svarturkló was giving him a chance. That was all he could hope for, right now. He would earn her trust and acceptance over time, like with Toothless. He had to. Toothless was the only family Hiccup had and Svarturkló was the only family he had - as far as Hiccup knew, at least. Hiccup wanted to be on good terms with her, and any other family Toothless might have.

Speaking of which... "Uh, Svarturkló, where exactly are we going to go?"

Svarturkló stared at him for a moment. 'Back to our pack. The other Night Furies. My mate and daughter are still there.' Toothless whipped around to stare at his mother incredulously as she continued. 'I haven't seen them in fifteen years.'

She glanced at Toothless, who was still listening intently. 'And Svarturkappi has never even met them. They don't know he exists. I laid his egg a few weeks after being captured by the Queen.' She looked down, unhappy with the memory. 'The Queen was ecstatic. She had captured two Night Furies for the price of one.'

Toothless spoke eagerly. 'I know the Queen forbade talking about the outside world, so I'm not surprised I didn't know any of this. What are their names?'

Svarturkló purred. 'Svarturvon is your sister and elder by three years, and Svarturskuggi is your father.'

Hiccup was starting to understand Night Fury names. He figured that Svartur was like a last name. He was proud of himself for figuring that out until he remembered Toothless telling him exactly that back when they were discussing what Hiccup should call him. Something was bothering him though. "You know where they are? Fifteen years is kind of a long time."

Svarturkló didn't look impressed by his objection. 'Night Furies live alone, on islands with only their own species, usually with just their immediate family. But our group is different. Our pack has four families, and more than ten adult Night Furies. What could make them leave?' She shook herself. 'Besides, we can just go see. It's a week or so south of here.'

That seemed to be the signal to get ready to go. Hiccup quickly repacked the saddlebags, and he and Toothless were ready. Svarturkló simply stretched her wings and waited the short time they took by circling the sea stack, looking for fish. As Hiccup and Toothless took to the air, she found a school, and so they briefly paused their expedition to eat. Hiccup was somewhat surprised to watch Toothless and Svarturkló catch the fish like normal but eat them then and there. While flying, doing their best to glide smoothly long enough. Toothless had never done that before.

Svarturkló, on the other hand, was even more surprised by what came next. Toothless grabbed one last fish, but instead of eating it, he briefly returned to the sea stack, charred it with his flame, and gave it to Hiccup, before rejoining his mother.

Svarturkló had to ask. 'I understand giving him fish when he can't catch his own, but why ruin it first? Was that out of spite?' She didn't think it was malicious, but it was a very strange thing to do.

Hiccup laughed. "Oh, yeah that. Svarturkló, humans generally don't eat raw fish. We have to heat it first. I mean, we can eat it raw, but it's really disgusting to us. He was doing me a favor." He thought of something. "Oh, but don't worry. I didn't expect you to know that when we were on the sea stack before taking out the Queen. It was still a nice gift." He didn't mention that he had ended up throwing it up, maybe she wouldn't remember that.

Toothless perked up, ears twitching. 'When was this?' He realized that Hiccup hadn't told him some things. 'Hiccup, what happened after I was taken? In the village, I mean.'

Hiccup was happy to share. "After you were taken, I eventually pulled myself together and realized that the only way to keep Svarturkló alive and save you was to get her to trust me and take us both to the Nest. So, I just spent the rest of the night worrying, because of course, I couldn't sleep, and then went to the arena. They put me in there with Svarturkló, and I guess the fact that I knew your name and hers, along with your scent on me convinced her to hear me out. I explained as best I could, and she decided to trust me and get us out of there." Hiccup looked over at Svarturkló. "Anything I'm missing so far?"

Svarturkló did indeed have something to add. 'In the middle of that, the big Viking with a hammer tried to startle me into attacking. He might have succeeded if I wasn't so focused on Svarturkappi's scent and the fact that the human said he was still alive. That Viking wanted me to kill you.' She was sure of this. Startling dragons usually always ended in them lashing out.

Toothless growled wordlessly, shaking his head Hiccup didn't seem at all happy with that news either. "Of course he did. Seeing his only son dead was better than seeing him a traitor. Too bad for him, that's exactly what he got anyway."

He shook his head, trying to rid himself of the resentment. That part of his life was in the past now. "Anyway, Svarturkló blasted a hole in the arena roof, and let me on her back to escape."

'I would have made it too, if I didn't have a weight slowing me down.' Svarturkló glanced at Hiccup.

"Toothless flies fine with my 'weight'," Hiccup replied, "though you can't really call the skinniest Viking on Berk that big of a weight to start with. Anyway, thanks to Astrid I ended up giving away how to get to the nest while getting us back into the air."

"She wasn't very fast." Svarturkló commented dryly. "Angry and slow, even if her weapon made her dangerous."

Hiccup snorted. "First time I've ever heard someone refer to Astrid as slow. Once we made it off Berk, Svarturkló was about to collapse. So we landed on a sea stack about halfway between there and the nest." Hiccup wasn't sure how to continue.

Surprisingly, Svarturkló continued the narrative. 'I set down, and my wings cramped up. Hiccup helped fix that.'

Hiccup laughed. "Human hands to the rescue."

Svarturkó eyed him oddly, though it was impossible to tell whether she was annoyed or amused. 'Then I wanted to keep flying. He didn't agree with that, he said I was too exhausted. I was going to go anyway, but he put me to sleep like a hatchling.' She stared at Toothless, daring him to laugh. 'He didn't seem to consider where he was standing when he did, so I ended up pinning him.'

Toothless burst out laughing and looked back to see Hiccup turning red. 'Seriously, you forgot? That happened when you found out about the pressure point in the first place.'

Hiccup defended himself sheepishly. "Hey, I had a lot going on. Save a friend, kill a Queen, end a war, prevent a stubborn dragon from killing herself-" Svarturkló glared at him. "No offense. Stubbornness is considered a positive trait where I come from." He coughed. "So anyway, when we woke up a while later, Svarturkló thanked me by giving me a whole raw fish. I ate as much as I could because I had no idea when I'd get anything else." He shuddered at the memory. "Still, it was a nice gesture. Then we flew the rest of the way, and you know the rest."

They continued on in silence. About an hour later, they sighted an island and landed at a stream. Hiccup filled his stomach and the canister while the Furies drank their fill. Then they continued on.

Hiccup discovered that night that Furies can sleep while flying. They would fly extremely high, to the point where it was freezing cold, and then they would lock their wings and tail and fall asleep. Apparently, they would only do this when flying in pairs, because the other Fury would need to wake them up before they glided too low. It didn't mean they could fly forever, because they still got tired physically and needed to set down eventually, but it greatly increased the distance they could fly without landing.

They did it that first night because Svarturkló was anxious to get back to her mate and daughter as quickly as possible. The only problem was that it was a horrible method of travel for Hiccup. Unlike Toothless, he couldn't fall asleep because he would fall out of the saddle. He was also freezing cold, almost to the point of frostbite. Despite the issues he bore it silently that first night, not wanting to get on Svarturkló's bad side by slowing them down.

Hiccup paid the price for his silence. By the time they set down the next morning on a convenient island, he was freezing and totally exhausted. Toothless took one look at him as he tumbled out of the saddle, and leaped back in shock.

Toothless had just set down from their overnight flight. He hadn't ever done that before, sleeping on the wing. It wasn't very restful, but it did make a night of flying pass quite quickly. He felt Hiccup dismount, rather oddly this time. Hiccup had stumbled.

Toothless turned to look at him, and jumped in shock, letting out a startled bark. Hiccup's skin was pale, and his hair had bits of frost in it. He looked horrible and was visibly wavering, struggling to keep his feet. Toothless tried to figure out what was wrong. After a moment it hit him. Hiccup had been up there with him, and humans had almost no insulation against the cold and wind. Hiccup had his clothing, but it wasn't built to keep that level of cold out. Then Toothless realized that Hiccup hadn't been able to sleep through the flight. He was probably dead on his feet after a whole night of that.

The dragon rushed to Hiccup and immediately curled around him, desperate to fix what he had unwittingly put Hiccup through. He could feel that his friend was freezing cold. Hopefully his body heat would fix that. Hiccup slumped, held up by Toothless's constrictions.

Hiccup tried to talk, but he was too cold still. "Th-th-anks," was all he could manage.

Toothless felt terrible. This was mostly his fault, but he was just a little mad at Hiccup too. He should have said something! Why didn't he say something? Maybe he had said something, but went unheard and assumed nobody cared.

That was a terrible possibility. 'Hiccup, you should have said something!'

Hiccup sighed. He was finally warming up, and the pins and needles in his hands and feet were almost welcome in comparison to the cold numbness. "I didn't want to slow you guys down. Thought I could handle it." He was regretting that now. Maybe if he had specially designed clothing, and a way to stay in the saddle while asleep. That was something to think about later. He was so tired right now, after staying up freezing all night...

Toothless watched as Hiccup fell asleep, still sitting upright between his forelegs. He let the human down slowly and arranged himself in their usual position, wing and tail working as a tent to trap body heat. He was glad he hadn't missed Hiccup objecting but angry his brother chose to suffer in silence rather than just tell him he couldn't travel like that. A few seconds later he noticed Svarturkló watching.

'Why didn't he tell us?' Svarturkló was more confused than anything. She hadn't noticed the human's plight during their flight, because the Fury who stayed awake flew below the sleeping Fury. As a result of that, she had either been asleep or flying below Toothless the entire night. Not that she had known a change from mostly white to entirely white in color meant anything. If she had noticed Hiccup's pale and shivering appearance, it was likely she'd have written it off as inconsequential. 'That was foolish of him.'

Toothless thought about it, and after a moment hit upon what he thought was the answer. 'He probably didn't want you to see him as a liability, something that slowed us down.' He didn't mention Svarturkló's understandable intense focus on finding the rest of their family. For Toothless, they were still an abstract concept. He had never met them. For Svarturkló, this was her chance to finally do something she had wanted for fifteen years.

There had been no accusation in Toothless's tone, but Svarturkló still felt it. She felt more than a little guilty. Despite how she had dealt with him on the sea stack, she didn't dislike Hiccup, she was just wary. Making him think he needed to prove himself by not complaining about what clearly was bad for his health had not been her intention. This was partly her fault.

She made a decision. 'We will stay here until he has recovered. And we won't fly like that anymore. It's too dangerous for him.'

Toothless snorted. 'Like we would even be able to leave like this.' He gestured to the unconscious human beneath his wing. 'No matter how instinctive it may be, he still needs to be conscious to operate the tailfin.' He rested his head and closed his eyes. Sleeping on the wing was no replacement for real sleep. Svarturkló settled down nearby. She probably felt the same.

But they hadn't explored this island, and someone needed to keep watch. He opened his eyes. 'I'll keep watch for a while, then wake you.'

Svarturkló agreed and promptly fell asleep. Toothless remained awake, head slowly swiveling to take in the grassy island they had stopped on. There was nothing around of interest, and nothing that looked like it could hide a threat. He kept watch anyway.

When Hiccup regained consciousness, he was no longer cold and tired, though his head felt stuffy, and his hands and feet felt stiff and cramped. He crawled out from under Toothless's wing and noticed that the dragon in question was still asleep. Svarturkló, however, was awake and looking at him.

Hiccup was a bit wary of her right now. Would she be mad for him delaying them? "I'm sorry for making you guys stop."

Svarturkló eyed him. Then she spoke. 'It is no fault of yours. It is mine, for choosing to rush, and for making you think I would think less of you for admitting you couldn't stand the same conditions we can. You're only human, after all. It was entirely my fault for not realizing that.' She bowed her head slightly as she continued.

'I should have considered the wellbeing of all of us, not just the dragons of the group. So I am sorry. Next time, do not hesitate to speak up. I may not fully trust you, but I would not see harm come to you, especially if it was easily preventable. I think no less of anyone for admitting weakness, especially when it is no fault of their own.' Her voice was neutral, a statement of fact.

Hiccup blinked, too thrown by that completely unexpected reply to say anything for a moment. When he did eventually speak, his voice was quiet. "Thank you. That means a lot to me."

'Wy?' Svarturkló snorted. 'I made a mistake, it hurt you, and now I am apologizing.' She seemed nonplussed.

"Why?" Hiccup waved a hand aimlessly as he tried to explain. "Where I come from, I'd be the one apologizing for slowing you down! For being too weak to take it, whether or not it was my fault. So for you to say that... yes, it means a lot to me."

'The place you came from sounds-'

"Barbaric, stupid, biased." Hiccup grinned. "I agree." He was beginning to realize that now more than ever he wanted nothing more than to be seen by her as a trusted friend and not just necessary baggage, however little she blamed him for that status. Gaining her trust and respect would be instrumental in being accepted by the other Night Furies... instead of eaten by them. Toothless was only one dragon, but Svarturkló was an elder.

'Then it's a good thing you left.' Svarturkló huffed. 'And a good thing you were not injured further by my negligence.' She looked down, ashamed.

"It was my fault too. I should have said something. But I accept your apology. We can both try to learn from our mistakes. I'm just glad I didn't lose any fingers or toes." Hiccup winced.

Svarturkló's head jerked up. 'That can happen?' She sounded horrified.

Hiccup nodded. "If they get cold enough for too long, they stop working entirely. At that point, they have to be taken off. Apparently, it can also happen to noses and ears, but that's really rare." He noticed Svarturkló's still horrified expression. "Don't worry, if I can still feel all my parts, I won't be losing them."

Toothless interrupted by yawning, apparently now awake. 'I take it you two have worked things out?' He saw Hiccup and Svarturkló nod and got up. 'Good.'

Without warning he pounced on Hiccup, pinning him to the ground. 'Don't you ever do that again! I don't care what you think will happen, tell me next time!'

Hiccup nodded again from his pinned position. "I promise." Toothless licked Hiccup, drawing out a groan. "Seriously?"

The three resumed their flight towards the location Svarturkló knew as the island the Fury pack called home. Now though, they stopped for nights. Hiccup was still somewhat surprised that Night Furies weren't nocturnal. Everything about the suggested that they would be. He asked Toothless and Svarturkló about it.

Svarturkló had an explanation. 'Usually, we are. However, the Queen was also nocturnal. Because of that, all dragons in the nest tended to sleep at night, to better avoid her attention when she was awake. So while we are usually nocturnal, Svarturkappi and I are not right now. Not that it really matters. Night Furies eat fish, so it isn't like we need the night to surprise our prey.'

Hiccup wasn't sure how he was going to deal with that. He supposed he could in time adjust his sleeping so that he was also nocturnal, but he couldn't see in the dark. That wasn't something he could fix.

Or was it? He also wasn't supposed to be able to understand Svarturkló. Thinking back on it, Hiccup realized something he had missed until now. The last time Toothless established the link, Hiccup went from hearing his dragon echo Svarturkló to directly hearing her own words. Until now, he always assumed he was just using Toothless' hearing, but what if it was something else?"

Hiccup turned to Svarturkló and Toothless. They were all resting on a beach for the moment. "Uh Toothless, I have a favor to ask."

Toothless got up. 'Yes?'

"I need you to go far enough down the beach that you can't hear me at all from there. I want to check something."

Toothless had no idea what this was about. He eyed Hiccup and Svarturkló for a moment. 'Why?'

"I want to check something." Hiccup smiled comfortingly. "I'll be fine. Your mom probably won't kill me."

Svarturkló stared at Hiccup, her expression unreadable. 'Why would I?"

Toothless sighed. 'Okay. How long should I stay there?'

Hiccup considered that. "Give us two minutes." He watched as Toothless trotted down the beach, and out of sight. He waited a minute, then turned to Svarturkló, who was watching him intently. "Svarturkló? Talk to me please."

'Why? What are you trying to do?' Svarturkló had no idea what Hiccup wanted. She was surprised to see him grin wildly.

"Yes, I was right! Svarturkló, I can still hear you, and I'm not listening through Toothless's ears. He can't hear this. So that means one of Toothless's attributes, hearing dragons talk and understanding, has been passed over entirely." This made Hiccup very hopeful. He had been helped to this realization by something else, something he hadn't really noticed until now. His hearing was getting sharper. It wasn't a big change yet, but now that he suspected he might be gaining other traits related to his senses, he could tell the difference. By always accessing Toothless's hearing to one degree or another, he was slowly gaining the attributes associated with that sense.

Which troubled Hiccup, actually. He was pretty sure hearing was a physical thing, and he had thought that the link was purely mental. Was it possible for the link to change him physically? He wasn't sure if that bothered him. But he had another pressing concern, one that had to wait until Toothless returned to be addressed.

Toothless ran down the beach. He continued running until he couldn't see or hear Hiccup or Svarturkló anymore, then waited for a few minutes. He had no idea what Hiccup was doing, but he trusted him. Toothless spent those minutes running in the surf. He felt a bit silly doing it, which was why he didn't do it around his mother. But the pure freedom he felt in the spray of the sea, the feeling of wet sand squishing around his claws… Maybe it was silly, but he'd never been able to do this as a fledgling, so he was making up for lost time. Lost time spent in the depressing and rocky confines of the nest, the Queen an ever-lurking presence.

Once a few minutes had passed he returned to Svarturkló and Hiccup. Hiccup looked happy but also troubled.

Toothless sat down in front of him, panting. 'So, what was that about?'

Hiccup looked him in the eye. "Toothless, has your hearing been getting a little worse lately? Like, just a little, but noticeable." He seemed like he was dreading the answer. "This is important."

Toothless thought about it. He really did. 'No, not at all.'

Hiccup stared at him. "Are you sure?"

'Yes. Now, what's this about?' Toothless was relieved to see a grin on Hiccup's face.

"Toothless, I can understand dragons now. Whether or not you are around. I think my hearing is changing to match yours. I can hear a little better now, and it's been improving ever since we relinked at the Nest."

Toothless understood now. 'So you wanted to know if you were somehow taking mine, instead of just changing to match me. Well, you aren't. So this is great!'

Hiccup frowned. "Yeah, but how far will it go? I was under the impression that the link was purely mental.'

Svarturkló intervened here. 'I may be able to help explain.' She grimaced. 'Rather, the Queen might. She liked to wax eloquent about her powers.'

Hiccup nodded. 'Toothless told me that.'

Svarturkló continued. 'The Queen was apparently able to control every part of a dragon, even parts they could only control reflexively themselves. That included their minds, of course. She once bragged that she could increase a dragon's sense of hearing and sight simply by manipulating their mind. Apparently, it has limits, but only part of those senses are physical. So your sense of hearing is probably only changing on the mental side of things, not the physical one.'

Hiccup thought about that. "So my hearing might get better, but it won't be as good as Toothless or you, because I don't have the physical equipment for it." That was good. He didn't particularly want his ears to change in appearance as well as sensitivity. That'd be a bit odd looking. Following this logic... "So if I figure out how to do this with my other senses..."

Toothless picked up the train of thought. 'Your sense of smell would increase, but still not be as good as mine. Same with sight. You'll probably develop night vision because that's determined by how much you can expand your pupils. It's a mental thing.'

Hiccup had to disagree with that last part. "But my eyes are much smaller, so my pupils will still be way smaller no matter how much they expand. I probably will be able to see better at night, but it won't be night vision. Actually, all of this is gonna be pretty limited by my lack of a Night Fury nose, ears or eyes. Not that I'm complaining. The most useful part of all of it has already transferred over entirely. Being able to understand dragons." He smiled.

Toothless chuffed. 'That is true. But we don't really know what will happen. This is all guesswork. Are you going to try to improve your other senses?'

Hiccup considered it. "I guess I'll try to do the same thing I have with hearing. But I want you guys to tell me immediately if I start looking different. I'll probably need to interact with other humans occasionally, and I'd rather not look half-dragon if we end up being wrong and the link is changing me physically. Deal?"

Toothless snorted. 'We have to look at you, so we'll be sure to prevent you from turning into some abomination. Easier on the eyes that way. But I'm pretty sure it's all mental.'

With that reassurance, Hiccup focused on the pocket of senses in his head. He could still see that he was holding hearing ever so slightly open. He did the same with sight and smell, but left taste and touch alone. He didn't think he would benefit at all from those, and he really didn't want to develop a love of raw fish. "Done. I guess we'll see in a few days whether it's working."

Toothless crouched, and Hiccup got on. Svarturkló and Toothless took wing. The break was over. By Svarturkló's calculations, they would reach the island by the day after tomorrow. She was practically vibrating with excitement by the time they set down that night. Toothless was much calmer, but he was still excited. Hiccup was happy for them both, and personally intrigued by the idea of meeting more Furies, but he was also nervous about how he would be received. He spent the entirety of the next day's flight trying not to think about what would happen the next day. That night, none of them got much real sleep. They were all up bright and early, ready to finally reach their destination.

Toothless was flying beside Svarturkló when she spotted a blob on the horizon, in front and somewhat to the left of their current course.

She swerved and set a course straight for it. 'That's it!' She spoke the next words softly, not really meaning them to be heard. 'It's been so long...'

Toothless couldn't contain his curiosity. What was it like? What would his father and sister be like? He and Svarturkló both flew faster, almost racing towards the island. It was a fairly nondescript epitome of a habitable island, complete with forests, plains, a few small hills, but no mountains or cliffs.

And, Hiccup noticed right as Toothless and Svarturkló faltered, it had a village in the middle of it. A large, sprawling village. Not exactly what he had been expecting, given Svarturkló said Night Furies live in isolation, for safety. "Uh, guys? I'm not sure they're still gonna be here."

Svarturkló whined softly. She spoke in a tone close to despair. 'Sometimes, the islands we lived on would be discovered by humans. We live in secrecy. If they started to settle, we would leave. We all had thought this island wouldn't be found, because there's nothing around for a very long flight. They must have left. They could be anywhere, and I have no idea where to start looking!' That last bit was almost a howl. 'We don't even know how long ago they left!'

Hiccup felt that same despair for a second. But at Svarturkló's last comment, he straightened his back. "Well, we won't give up. We can start by finding out how long ago they left."

Toothless looked back at Hiccup. He saw his determination and took heart from it. 'Yes. And I think I know how we can start. You can find out from that village how long they've been here. If we're lucky, they can even tell us which way the pack went when they left!'

Hiccup sighed. "That'd be a really lucky break, given they were probably trying to hide when they left. I'm not sure if the humans even knew the Furies were here if they were so dedicated to secrecy. But I can definitely find out when the village was settled." He surveyed the island. "We'll circle around and fly low, and land in that forest." He noticed Svarturkló's continued despair, and his voice softened. "Svarturkló. We aren't going to give up here. We just need to find out where they've gone. We can ask every dragon within fifty miles if we need to, and I can help by asking humans."

Svarturkló slowly regained some of her composure. 'Right. We will.'

Toothless curved low, almost skimming the water, and Svarturkló followed suit. They circled around as Hiccup had said. Half an hour later, the three travelers set foot on the island that had been their destination. But now they had a much more difficult journey ahead. They were going to try to find their long-lost pack, a group of dragons who were known for their secrecy, and who had a fifteen-year head start.

Hiccup laughed a bit bitterly as a thought occurred to him. This might take months, or even years if they were unlucky. The irony was, they had time. All the time in the world. It wasn't like they had anywhere else to go.