"Do you think that Opaleye will let us take a photo of her cubs?" asked Charlie mischievously.
They were on their way back from the trip to Annick's hybrid, which they found in a very awake mood standing in front of her cave. Every time she looked back, she spouted a little bit of fire into the cave. Karl managed to sneak sideways enough to have a nice view of the inside of the cave. He saw several pale eggs and so it was clear to them that the dragon's behaviour meant protection. Annick's face expressed a strong disgust upon hearing the news.
"Doubt it, but any trip like that will have to be done without me," she said now.
"Hard luck she stuffed them in that cave. We'll have to come along every other day to make sure they haven't hatched yet," remarked Matt, grinning when he heard her disgusted sigh.
"That won't be a problem," Charlie jumped over a small rock elatedly.
Nate, walking right behind him, took to jumping over every little rock in his way with a mad grin on his face, imitating Charlie. Annick coughed. Charlie went on, never noticing a thing.
"There are enough of us to do so and not much work to do."
"Except for that Hungarian Horntail that plucked out a couple of trees and maliciously dumped them straight on a Muggle road during a nice sunny day. Or that pesky green beast who took a strong enough liking to the nearest Muggle sheep farm to try and sneak down there every couple of days. And of course there's also that pair of injured Vipertooth cubs. When we finally manage to heal them up enough for them not to get infection, their mother'll be fit to be tied. Unless she gets killed in a fight with Cannibal before that, in which case we'll be left with two injured and cranky Vipertooth dragonets, which will have to be taken care of," Matt nodded agreeably and rolled his eyes. Charlie never saw work if there was something funny to do instead.
"I still think that's a really stupid name for a dragon," stated Simon, glancing up from his camera for a littlest while. "Really, how can he be a cannibal if he's a Hebridean Black? Please!"
"It's still a dragon. What else d'you want to call him?"
"All I'm saying is that if you want to call every dragon that attacks another one a cannibal, you'll get pretty confused, very soon," Simon frowned.
"Let's call him Idiot then," Annick joined the discussion amusedly. "He can be nothing else if he thinks angering a dragon mother is a good idea."
"Remind me never to anger you when you have children, Annick," snickered Charlie.
Others burst out laughing when they imagined a 'dragon mother' Annick. Only Matt, Elwin, and she didn't laugh.
Annick paled and her face twitched. Matt watched her when Charlie said that, and he noticed her reaction immediately. It intrigued him enough to forget he should be laughing, himself. Elwin quickly joined the discussion.
"Yes, Idiot would be quite fitting. Even though next to none dragon species recognizes the blood feud, they surely can act on it subconsciously. That Black is in great deal of trouble."
"If the dragons could swear the blood feud we would in real trouble," laughed Nate.
"They'd need a wand to swear it the wizard's way. That would be a problem. Imagine the horror of a dragon with wand," cut in Karl.
Everyone burst out in raucous laughter again.
"Hell!" blurted Simon suddenly, pointing at the crest of a high cliff before them.
They were being watched by red eyes of Chinese Fireball, which took off from the top of the cliff when their laugh interrupted its sunning.
"Damn!" hissed Annick, glancing quickly at Elwin.
The whole group stopped in their tracks and prepared for the confrontation. The dragon, however, didn't seem too inclined to fight. It just stared at them for a while, then it seemed to nod and fly away into the depths of the Reservation. They were left staring after it in confusion. A dragon foregoing a fight?
"Was it an animagus, too?" ventured Nate hesitantly.
"Highly doubt that," Charlie shook his head and scratched his red hair. "That was really weird."
"Not really. I guess it was sated and not in the mood for fighting," shrugged Elwin and gave a little laugh. "Quite nice of him. I'm not really that good in fighting dragons anymore. We should rather head back, before he decides to come back or we lure another one in."
"One would think you're afraid of dragons, Elwin," nagged Annick.
Matt woke up that night to nothing in particular. His brain was quite busy when he fell asleep, and it seemed to be still in overdrive. He wasn't used to having this much to stress over.
He sighed in the confines of his dark room and went through everything that happened in the last couple of days, again. When he really looked, he saw many signs indicating that Annick wasn't who she seemed to be. And Elwin knew a lot if not all of that.
He saw it again during the 'dragon mother' incident earlier that day, or maybe yesterday. Annick's reaction offered two explanations - she was already a mother and didn't want anyone to know for whatever reason, or she could not bare children at all. Whatever it was, though, Elwin knew about it and made sure nobody noticed her reaction.
That wasn't the only thing he saw, though, and it certainly wasn't what had him in such a state. Chinese Fireball was the only dragon species to consciously recognize a blood feud. Funny thing they were talking about it just minutes prior to a Fireball showing up. It had a whole ritual it went through when beginning such a feud. It even recognized if other dragons sought revenge against others. No one could be really sure, what with the beast being that far away, but Matt would swear the dragon was looking at Annick when it nodded. It was the only explanation he had as to why it left them alone. A Fireball would never interfere with the process of the blood feud. It wouldn't attack a person who was seeking it.
He noticed her glance at Elwin as well as Elwin's easy rebuttal of the dragon's behaviour. He must have known it would react that way and tried to avert their attention. Elwin as he knew him would never be so careless about any kind of atypical dragon behaviour. The whole thing didn't leave him with much of a choice, really. Annick must have sworn a blood feud to somebody. That was the only feasible explanation he could come up with regarding the whole situation. The Fireball felt the active blood feud, so it didn't interfere with her, and in extension with them. Elwin knew about it as well, so he came to her help. That wasn't what mattered to him though. Blood feud was not a joke. It was a serious, potentially lethal matter, and it could seriously endanger anyone who would, even unknowingly, interfere with it. If Annick has sworn a Blood feud to somebody, Elwin or she herself should have come clear about it the very minute she came, maybe even the minute they knew she was coming. Even interference in ignorance could set the violent magics off, they had to know in order to behave accordingly! And Matt was sure it was. It was the only thing that added up and he felt instinctively he was right about it. Them being kept quiet about it was not right!
And they could use information on why the hell she swore the feud and to whom. It wasn't easy nor harmless magic. It was old magic and it mattered on bleedingly large scale!
And although the children question seemed personal, too personal to be of any use in all of this, if she couldn't bare children because of what somebody else did to her, it technically could be a reason for a blood feud, maybe not the only reason, but a reason none-the-less.
Even if she wasn't dangerous to them, even if the feud wasn't aimed at any of them (and they couldn't even be sure about that, for Merlin's sake!), the look in her eyes that shook him the day of her arrival spoke tons. Now he understood the very weight behind it more. Being able to activate a Blood feud meant to feel enough anger and violence to cast an Unforgivable curse effortlessly. The old magics behind it demanded for a stable level of those feelings, feeding the magics until the feud was revenge. Her careless and cheerful behaviour was just a mask that she used to escape from herself, from all that darkness powering the feud.
By not disclosing information about the feud, she was deceiving everyone in the Reservation as well, though, as well as actively endangering them. That were his friends and he, himself, that she was endangering!
Matt got up from his bed, put on some clothes and ran down the stairs, and out of the building. It wasn't the first time he woke in the middle of the night and couldn't go back to sleep. Sometimes the other dragon-tamers were about, too. Tonight he walked the path leading to the lake alone with the Home silent as rarely before. People who weren't on duty next day used to stay up long into the night, talking and playing games. Today wasn't one of those days, it seemed.
Turning the corner, he could see the still water of the lake. He saw he wasn't the only one to be awake. But he wasn't sure it was a good idea to meet her there. He was still rather strung up.
But really, a Blood feud?
A lonely, diminutive woman figure knelt on the ground near the lake, her head bowed and unmoving. She didn't notice him yet. He approached her quietly.
"Hey, Annick."
She winced, looking back at him, but averted her head to the other side of the lake almost immediately. He thought her eyes were a little too shiny in the short moment when she looked at him, but he couldn't be sure.
"Hey, Matt. Why're you up?" she asked quietly.
"Couldn't sleep. It happens sometimes, though I'm usually not the only one in the Home to be up and about. It seems everyone else went to sleep already, though. What about you?"
"The same. I'm usually alone though," she looked at him again, but didn't turn her face to him fully and in the light of a half-moon he couldn't see her expression well.
"I can leave you to your thoughts if I'm in the way," he offered quietly, but then he changed his mind and continued. "Are you thinking about that Chinese Fireball from…" he glanced at his watch. "Yesterday, too?"
She took her time in answer. "No," she said.
"Do you?" she asked after a while, still unmoving. She was staring at him intently. He didn't need to see her face to feel it. He shrugged.
"Yes, quite a bit, actually," he sat down on the ground, just a meter or so away from her. She squirmed a little, averting her gaze.
"Why?" she breathed unwillingly.
Matt repressed a smile. She tried to act as if nothing was amiss, but the fact she kept the conversation going only passively meant she was uncomfortable. Whether it was because she wanted to be alone or because of the discussed matter was yet to be seen. She behaved very differently than she did during the day, though. He hoped he could get some answers from her, though.
"It's actually very intriguing that it didn't attack us, you know. I don't think Elwin was right. If it was full, it wouldn't take off of that cliff in the first place. It's a common fact that only immediate danger can make a fully sated Fireball move."
Annick mumbled something under her breath unintelligibly.
"I've a theory," he continued conversationally, looking at her expectantly.
She sat stiffly, with rigid shoulders.
"Yeah?"
"Uhm, you remember how we talked about the Blood feuds before, don't you? Everyone knows that Fireball is the only species that is able to consciously recognize it, not necessarily in connection to itself. Maybe you noticed he seemed to nod at us before he left. Interesting, isn't it?"
"Matt-" Annick said suddenly and moved, as if going to stand up. That gave him all the confirmation he was needed and he wasn't going to let her go now. It was time to drop pretences.
"It was looking at you," he said.
She tensed.
"What?" She looked at him.
He returned her gaze steadily.
"The Fireball was looking at you when it nodded. The others may not have noticed, but I did, as well as you and Elwin. He must know you quite well - he knows the Annick that's hiding from us all. He even knows you swore a Blood feud to someone - why else would he come to your aid so quickly? And even better, that was actually the second saving of that day; he helped you avoid attention during the 'dragon mother' talk as well, just like you like to do."
Annick gritted her teeth and averted her eyes to look at the ground. "Matt, leave it be."
"Not yet. I just want you to know that hiding who you truly are isn't always the best thing to do. If anyone notices, they might not like it. Even more if what you are hiding is anger and hate. Such feelings have to be strong and long-living to enable you to swear a Blood feud, haven't they? You definitely are capable of uncontrolled fury. If someone notices those feelings despite the harmless picture you're trying to exude, you can't expect them to trust you, Annick," Matt finished dispassionately.
Annick winced as if he yelled or hit her.
"Matt, please... please let it be," she whispered. He narrowed his eyes, got up, and glared at her coldly. She shivered.
"Let it be? A Blood feud is an old magic, Annick, and it's a bloody unstable one! It has a tendency to lash out at everyone and anyone around if it feels you are interfering with it, even if unknowingly. Either you bloody well tell everyone you hold a Blood feud and to whom and why, or you make yourself scarce! This is my home and my friends, Annick, and I won't have them endangered by some stranger who doesn't even know what's appropriate! We should have been informed about this the minute you showed up here, to be on the safe side. Not to be kept in the dark and deceived by some happy-go-lucky illusion," he turned and walked away. He didn't see her wince again.
AN: Edited chapter. Just to set things right here, some of you may think Matt is behaving unreasonably or overreacting. I am trying to explain his point of view - the Reservation is full of people he thinks friends, maybe family. Blood feuds in this story are a serious and rather volatile matter, and can be really dangerous, mainly if kept quiet, and even more so if their holders are portraying themselves as your everyday happy and carefree person - thus, there would be more opportunity for someone to inadvertently do or say something to set the darkish violent magics off. There is a lot Matt doesn't know about her yet and about some circumstances of the feud and her arrival to the Reservation. He's just reacting to a rather sudden and potentially mortal danger to people he loves, and reacting in a manner befitting his amount of knowledge about her particular feud.