Author's Notes: It's time for stage one of the plan to be enacted. What plan, you ask? The plan Adeline and Hiccup came up with in the last chapter. But don't fret. They aren't escaping yet. Just putting the pieces in place for the eventual escape.

Okay, I just want to say THANK YOU to all the people that have reviewed, favorite-ed, or are following this story. Every time I see the numbers and the comments on my screen, I just get this funny feeling in my chest cavity, like the feeling when that person you have a crush on walks by. You people make me thankful to be a writer, and I'm not just saying that so you'll post good reviews. I'm being perfectly serious. I just love you guys. Okay, enough feels. On to the story!

Please R&R!

P.S. I went trick-or-treating (because it's not just something little kids do and I wanted free candy), and my feet were killing me by the end. Quick anecdote: twice my group came across signs that said "no soliciting", so when they opened the door, I said we were solicitors :). How was your Halloween?

Disclaimer: I don't own HTTYD. Just my OC's.

Day 4

Adeline's POV

Day broke with the sound of something... well, breaking. And let's just say, when a couple of dragons are startled awake, it isn't fun for anyone who's sleeping near them. Frostwave slapped me in the face with her tail, Toothless nearly flung Hiccup across the room, but merely sent him crashing into me, and the two of them hopped into a guarded position below the grate and started growling. When nothing else happened except for a woman swearing like a pirate (duh) and the soft clink of pottery shards being picked up, they relaxed. The pair turned their heads to look at us, and, unless my eyes were playing tricks on me, Frostwave and Toothless were smirking. Or, at least, as close as Frostwave gets to smirking.

I, meanwhile, was busy coping with the fact that Hiccup and I were now VERY close together, closer than we had been previously. My mind was panicking, my face was bright red, I was feeling uncomfortably hot, and I'm pretty sure the garbled sounds of shock coming from my mouth were not helping. Hiccup seemed just as surprised as me, and as soon as we could gain control over our arms and legs we scrambled apart.

"Uh, um, I-I'm sorry," Hiccup stammered. I had my face buried in Frostwave's side, so I couldn't really see or hear him clearly (for obvious reasons), but I got that much.

"Don't be," I replied, my voice muffled by her shiny scales, "It wasn't your fault. Some bozo up there dropped something and startled the dragons, that's all. You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

'Though what they broke, I have no idea,' I added silently. It was odd. There were very few breakable objects on Blackstone. We try to make things last, because there's no guarantee that the next ship we attack will have what we need. And fragile things like clay, glass, and really delicate wood and metal are not tough enough for daily use by pirates, no matter how pretty they look. So what had broken? I looked up and heard something skitter across the floor above us. There was a movement at the edge of the grate and I could see something small and still.

"Hello there, " I murmured, fascinated. My legs bent into a deep crouch, then pushed me up with enough force for me to reach the bars of the grate and grab them. The rusty bars rubbed against the calluses on the bottom of my hand and made them rougher, but they weren't too bad. I swung my way across the grate (it was a very large woven metal sheet) and over to the thing. Fingers snaked between the bars and clutched at it.

If someone above was watching, it must have been strange and somewhat scary to see a hand pop out of the ground. But apparently no one was watching, because I didn't hear any screams of surprise or invocations of Odin and Thor, so my hand pulled my prize back through the bars and I dropped down. And nearly landed on Hiccup, who had come to stand below me, watching what I was doing curiously. He moved out of the way quickly, but I think my foot clipped his shoulder, because I definitely kicked something and one hand was holding it gingerly while he looked at my hand.

"What is it?" he asked, pointing at it with his injured arm. I unlocked my fingers from around the shard and revealed what I had retrieved.

It was a fragment of some sort of pot, from what I could tell. The outside surfaces were glossy and had a blue flower on a white background on one side, while the inner parts where it had broken were rough and grainy. I barely recognized it as being a piece of one of the pots that was used for the special hot brew of the Household heads that they drank during certain trials. Wait... Trials?

I slapped my free hand to my head, and promptly let out a yelp of pain, mostly because I had swung it with too much force to be comfortable.

"Oh, I'm an idiot! How do I forget that? I even went over it yesterday!" my angry (mostly at myself) voice scolded me. Hiccup raised an eyebrow. I grinned abashedly and chuckled nervously at him.

"Uh, I may or may not have forgotten that I have my hearing today," I explained. He put a hand to his forehead, making sure not to imitate me and smack himself.

"Addie, why would you forget something like that? Isn't it a part of our plan?" he questioned worriedly. Maybe he was concerned about my sanity (that ship has sailed), or my memory (what's that?), or maybe his and Toothless's safety (the likeliest choice). My money was on the third. I shrugged, exercising my shoulder and back muscles some more, and held it out.

"Hiccup, in case you hadn't noticed, I've been in a cell for three years. Forgetting something is the least of my worries. Now put this somewhere safe. I want to keep it as a memento of this day, but if I take it with me to the hearing they'll just take it away," I told him. Hiccup took it gently and pulled his furry vest out to put the shard into a pocket, but stopped before he did.

"What? Is something wrong? Did Frostwave say something?" I joked lightheartedly. Hiccup didn't share in my amusement. Instead, resolve spread across his face like a ripple on the surface of a lake. He pulled out a knife and showed it to me. I took it gently and balanced it on one finger.

"It's well-made, but what's the point?" I said, looking at the edge of the blade carefully (AN: Oh, I crack myself up. What? Someone has to laugh at my cheesy jokes. It might as well be me). Hiccup smiled a little, but soon went serious again.

"Can't we fight our way out? I've got this, and we've got two powerful dragons. You can lead the way out, and we won't have to wait for some initiation."

3rd Person POV: Hiccup

Addie shifted from a casual stance to a closed-off posture and looked away. Hiccup didn't know what in Thor's name was going on with her, but it had something to do with what he had said.

"Addie? You okay?" he asked, putting out a hand. She took a step back, then another, and another until she reached Frostwave's side.

"Um, yeah, I'm fine," she replied distractedly. The Silver Horror by her side nudged her with her nose and growled reproachfully. The pirate girl looked at the dragon and sighed.

"Fine, I'll tell him. Hiccup, there's something I haven't told you. See, me and Frostwave could have escaped a few days ago. In fact, we were planning on doing so, until you and Toothless dropped in." She blurted this out at 90 miles an hour then dove behind Frostwave and under a wing. Toothless, being the awesome and amusing dragon he is, padded around to sniff her worriedly. Hiccup, being the awesome and amazing Viking he is, joined them. Frostwave growled something softly, but it wasn't threatening, merely amused.

"Shut it, Frostwave," Addie mumbled. "We can go where we want. It doesn't have to be a party when we're all together." She had her arms wrapped around her legs, which were folded up against her body, and her face was hidden in her arms and knees. Her dragon had pulled back her wing to reveal the rogue pirate girl to Hiccup and Toothless, and was now pushing lightly against Addie's arm with her nose.

"Please stop, Frostwave. Isn't it bad enough that I already had a plan for escape, and didn't bother sharing it with them?" she grumbled despairingly. Hiccup knelt down and wrapped an arm around her shoulders cautiously. There was no doubt in his mind that Addie could probably kill him easily, and Frostwave could handle Toothless while the whole slaughtering-the-offending-Viking-boy-event was happening. And he was kind of fond of being alive. Strange, right?

At the touch of his skinny arm, Addie looked up, stunned. Hiccup smiled at her reassuringly.

"Hey, it's okay, Addie. You probably had a good reason for it, right?" She nodded slowly and looked down at her boots.

"Well, when you and Toothless showed up, I couldn't count on being able to help you guys too, or on managing to lead you out safely. We're good at fighting, but not that good. And I didn't want to escape anyways and leave you two here, because that would just be cruel. I try to avoid being cruel, especially when a dragon is involved, so that was out of the question." Addie then frowned and set her chin on her arm.

"See? You did have a good reason. You didn't want to leave us to the tender mercies of the guards. That sounds like a good reason to me. What do you think, bud?" he said to the Night Fury. Addie watched with surprise as he pulled his lips back to give her his trademark gummy smile. A matching one grew from her own mouth, and soon everyone was smiling, except for Frostwave. She never smiles. Never, not ever. Not even once.

Adeline's POV

KNOCK! KNOCK!

Our grins changed to looks of surprise, and I had to resist the urge to call out, "Who's there?"

I don't think I would have liked the answer.

There was a metallic jingle, the sound of many tiny pieces of metal hitting one another. The keys of Blackstone, forged from iron stolen long ago by pirates from trade ships. And they were being used at the door to our cell. Naturally.

The crisscrossing metal swung in to allow several guards in. A pair of leather bands connected with a thick chain was in the hands of one woman, and they were not comfy. I should know. I've worn them before, once a month for the past three years. Today was actually the three-year anniversary of the day I was thrown in here. Yay! Let's all throw a party! Returning to the matter at hand, it was time for me to go have my hearing. Time for stage one of my master plan to escape with Hiccup and Toothless.

The woman with the shackles came forward, carefully skirting around Frostwave and Toothless to secure me. Like that would help. I had made those shackles personally, and later (aka when Frostwave and I became friends) added a certain flaw to them. As she tightened the bands, I glanced over at Hiccup. He looked worried, but the confidence on my face must have helped, because he relaxed and got out of their way when the others escorted me from the cell. How fun. I get my own fan club.

We marched down the rough, stony halls toward the heart of Blackstone: the zitka-nuus, the taletehk-nuus, and the Jyimd, all vitally important locations. The Jyimd was where all the treasure and confiscated goods went. The taletehk-nuus and the zitka-nuus were where I was going. My guards pushed me into a vulnerable position in from of one solid metal door. There are a lot of metal doors in Blackstone, but this one was special. It was made of the finest steel we could, well, steal, and was reinforced with the same incredibly strong wood the boats were fashioned from. Not only that, but the inside had several locks and metal bars preventing entrance... or exit. There was another door on the far side, but it was reserved for bringing in evidence against the accused. Like, for example, a certain silver-white dragon in a cell not far from here.

The lead guard, a grim man with a purple circle over his eye, curtly knocked on the door twice. A small rectangular panel at an adult's eye level slid open from the inside to reveal a pair of bright green, cold eyes. They alighted on me, narrowed, and rose to meet the guard's eyes. He saluted.

"I've brought the Ytubdaa for her hearing," he informed the person stiffly. His answer was the panel sliding shut. We waited a few tense minutes until we heard the unmistakable sound of keys in locks and bars swinging up on hinges that desperately need oil. There was a pause in the grating sound and the squeal of metal on metal, then the door swung open to show me a familiar face.

Now, if I had been in a different situation, I would have called Kiynt a handsome woman. Her hair was strictly tied back in a neat black braid – the better for her icy green eyes to stare into the depths of your soul – and the purple hourglass over her eye contrasted nicely with her pale skin. I'm sure that when she was a girl she had no shortage of potential boyfriends. Her time as a guard had changed her, though, and instead of being a fragile flower she was now a force of nature, strong and unrelenting. Even the imposing lines on her face made her seem tougher than anything else around, including the door, which was probably why she had been chosen for the elite guard of Blackstone. Intimidating people is a part of the job.

I was pushed through roughly, and heard a few quiet snickers from the less experienced guards, the ones that had been freshly marked and still had the bandage around their heads, but they were quickly silenced when Kiynt glared at them and shoved me further inside so she could close and lock the portal into the inner sanctum of the eight Heads. Here, they had all the power. Nobody of lower standing could question their decisions, not when they were made in the taletehk-nuus and announced in the zitka-nuus. Only in minor changes announced in the Ynahy could the general public have a say.

Kiynt glared down at me, and I smiled warmly.

"So nice to see you again, Kiynt. I hope the family's doing fine," I said nonchalantly. If she was taken aback by how calm I was, she didn't show it; that was the House of Stones for you. Their motto was "conceal, don't feel". Or maybe that was the House of Snows. I always get those two mixed up.

Kiynt ignored me, as usual, and started unlocking the second door leading into the zitka-nuus proper. Where we stood was more of an antechamber than anything else, able to strike fear into the hearts of grown men with the absence of comforting light. I think she had grown so used to this job as guardian of the zitka-nuus that Kiynt could feel her way around while the prisoners were forced to fumble around in the darkness of this tiny room. Eventually, the second door was unlocked and she shoved me into the zitka-nuus.

To say I was tired of being pushed around is an understatement. I wanted to break free of my chains and go crazy on them, but that would not end well for anyone, especially me. So when yet another guard (we have a lot of those on Blackstone) pushed me forward into a stone chair and tied me up against the back, I was getting pretty mad.

The zitka-nuus hadn't changed much in the last month. There was still the stony gray floor, the stairs sweeping around the edge of the round room to the eight thrones, and said thrones looming over me with their intricate carvings and comfy cushions. They were empty right now, so I could see the central designs carved into the backs of each one in the flickering torchlight, if I twisted around enough.

On the far left was an upside down triangle, the symbol of the House of Winds. Continuing right there was the heart of the House of Flames, the square of the Shocks, and the diamond of the House of Lights. Two large metal doors were between these four and the others, high above where I sat, and through there was the taletehk-nuus, where they made their decisions away from the guards and the accused. To the right of these doors were thrones with the circle of the Shadows, the six-pointed star of the House of Snows, the teardrop of the House of Waters, and finally, the hourglass of the Stones. This was all they had to indicate which seat of power was which (If you ask me, it was stupid of them. I mean, what if they forgot who sat where, or they couldn't see the markings?).

There was the clank of metal moving, and I did my best to look where it had come from. It wasn't easy – ropes are not conducive to successful contortion attempts – but I did catch a glimpse of the eight heads walking through the door I had come through and going up the stairs to their appropriate thrones. The Captain came in last and sat down first, as was customary for these sorts of things, and once his rear end was planted on the black cushion my hearing began.

Little did they know this was the first part of my escape plan.

3rd Person POV: Gale

Watching the Ytubdaa girl answer the usual questions differently was... strange. She accepted that she had done something wrong, conceded that she was willing to right that wrong, and even acted like an ashamed-but-repenting girl. Normally she would be denying that befriending a tnykuh was wrong, claiming that she would never kill it, ever, and refusing any attempts at compromise. And naturally, Gale was suspicious. Someone doesn't have that big of a change of heart in a month, not without major external factors. And the only new things in her life were the prisoner and the Night Fury...

"Captain, if I may be allowed one thing?" she said meekly. Gale shifted his attention back to her and away from his suspicions. Adeline wasn't meek. She was brash and loud, rebellious and adventurous, not this quiet, obedient girl. What had happened in the past few days to change her so?

"Go on," the Captain said, mildly intrigued by her manner. The stupid girl bowed her head before stating her request.

"Might I be allowed to redeem myself on the day of the bnecuhan's initiation? I could set an example for him and convince him to kill that Night Fury, and then he can be initiated," she suggested quietly. The Captain considered her proposal while every nerve in Gale's body was screaming that it was a trick, then raised a clenched fist. The other heads stiffened and sat up straighter.

"The Luihlem uv Amtanc will adjourn to the taletehk-nuus to discuss your request, Adeline. Guards, keep an eye on her. She's wilier than you think." HE stood, signaling that the other seven, including Gale, could rise, and all eight walked through the imposing double doors.

Half a tense, worried hour later...

Gale was fuming. Hadn't the other heads realized she was tricking them? Boulder, Cryta, Drift, Bolt, Blaze, Fyja, the Captain, couldn't they tell she was lying? But he had no way to prove it. All he had was his gut and one vote against the gullible minds and eight votes of the others (The Captain, being the leader of the island, had two, unlike the others. This was to prevent ties in the Council, though usually votes were never that close.), and he knew where those were going. Toward helping that conniving little buecuh-cilgehk tnylubrema in her goal. And the worst part was that he had no idea why she would ask to kill her dragon before an initiation ceremony. Adeline had never cared about anyone before, never shown the slightest interest in anything but her duties and, sometimes, Simon, so why now? After all these years, why now- Wait.

Inwardly, Gale was laughing hysterically. All it had taken was a few days locked in a room, and already she was in love with the prisoner. Maybe they should have done that a long time ago; then they wouldn't have this big of a headache when it came to Adeline.

Outwardly, he was grim, any chance of being able to tell what he was thinking diminishing with every passing moment. He had tuned out the authoritative drone of the Captain informing Adeline that yes, she could redeem herself at the prisoner's initiation in three days time, and if she could convince him to kill his dragon at the same time, well, she might even be welcomed back with open arms. That last part was unspoken, but implied with every syllable. He knew that stupid Ytubdaa could hear it. She was smarter than she looked, even if she was clueless sometimes. How else could she not see that he, Gale, the head of the House of Winds, had caught on to her little act? Or perhaps he was just too good of an actor.

Movement caught his eye, and he realized it was time to stand and leave. As the Captain walked past him, his black eyes shot daggers at the older man. One day he would be the one leading the way out, not that foolish man blinded by hope and love for a silly traitor.

And when that day came, Adeline was going to regret ever disobeying the Luda uv Benydac' sacred inscriptions.

Adeline's POV

After that stunning yet welcome decision, I was marched back to the cell I shared with Hiccup, Frostwave, and Toothless, who was being surprisingly sedate right now. When I asked Hiccup, he told me that Frostwave had showed him where to find the dried dragon nip flowers and had used them on the agitated dragon.

"He was worried about you," my dragon explained calmly, eating the last morsels of her ration of fish. Hiccup had managed to save my food from the ravenous appetites of the dragons, and eating the mutton stew cold wasn't much different from usual. They waited until after I had scarfed down the meal to ask me how it went.

"Well, I definitely managed to convince them that I was repenting my traitorous ways and returning to their side, and I arranged for me and Frostwave to get into your initiation ceremony, Hiccup. Oh, but... I may have said that I would try and convince you to kill Toothless."

"What?" Before Hiccup could protest further I hurried the conversation into the less awkward zone.

"But don't worry, I'll get us out of here without it coming to that," I breezed over his protests quickly. Better not dwell on the fact that he had to pretend he was going to kill his best friend, or that I must do the same if we ever wanted to get out of here.

That was when I realized I had nowhere to go. I had been so looking forward to escaping this place that I hadn't planned ahead for where Frostwave and I would be living out our lives as fugitives from these people. Sure, we could probably find somewhere to live that was peaceful and didn't have any hostile people or dragons on it, but I had no skill with cooking. In fact, that had been the one thing I had been warned away from when I was eight and choosing what field or fields I would go into. It wasn't that I was bad at it. It's just... I liked sour things more than other people, and my cooking reflected that. Salty food as well, though that was mostly in the form of salted boar cooked into a savory stew with some carrots. And because of my tastes, I had been steered away from that field of expertise.

"What's wrong, Addie? You went pale all of a sudden," he asked, and I could feel a comforting nudge from both Toothless and Frostwave. They also looked worried about me, and I sighed affectionately as I stroked the Night Fury's head while I talked.

"Me and Frostwave have nowhere to go when we leave. I guess we could find an island somewhere, but I'd get tired of roasted fish real soon, and I have no skill at cooking. She might not mind, but I rather like eating things other than fish, and while I can catch other things, I can't cook them into something reasonably edible," I explained sadly. We could probably try and find somewhere near civilization where we could live and still be able to have real food, but people might get suspicious if a strange girl appeared out of nowhere and started asking for food. And there was the matter of my reputation...

"Come with us," Hiccup said frankly.

3rd Person POV: Hiccup

It took a few seconds for the offer to register in Addie's mind, and during those moments her face shifted from an expression of depression to a hilarious look of shock. Her mouth was open in a silent "O," her eyes widened, and she didn't move during that time. Then she grinned widely and jumped at him.

"Thank you thank you thank you!" she squealed joyfully, wrapping her arms around his waist and hugging him tightly. He willingly returned the gesture, but grunted in pain as the scratch in his side twinged. Addie pulled back swiftly, her face turning faintly pink.

"Uh, sorry 'bout that. Forgot about the whole Hiccup-is-injured thing," she said, waving her hand at the wounded area. He shrugged, ignoring the slight stab of pain that came with the movement.

"It's okay. You were just too excited to think straight," he replied amiably. She nodded and clapped her hands twice. Frostwave came over and let her get the antidote and bandages from the kit, then gently huffed a cloud of ice into his hair. He brushed it out and looked at a silently chuckling Addie.

"What?" Her laughter broke its vow of silence and burbled up like one of those springs she had been talking about earlier.

"Frostwave only does that to people she likes. She thinks it's funny to see them get mad because of it."

"I see." Hiccup lifted up his green tunic and gritted his teeth through the stinging sensation of her removing his old bandages, applying the next dose, and wrapping a new strip of cloth around his waist.

The good thing about this was that it gave him a chance to study her face while she worked, completely focused on helping him survive what had essentially been an accident, but could be fatal if left alone. The look of concentration and grim resolve didn't seem to fit with what he knew of her, but it did make him feel better that she was trying so hard to save someone she had only known for a few days.

The bad thing about this was that Frostwave was watching him and making amused little hums every time he met her disconcertingly red eyes. Almost all of the dragons he had met had yellow or yellow-green eyes, not that deep blood-red, the color of war. And what really got him was that it was a dragon that breathed ice, not fire. He knew that there were dragons, like the Scauldron, that used things other than flame to attack, but ice?

Addie finished tying the strip of fresh cloth and tucked the ends of the knot into the wrap, then backed away to give him some room to adjust to the feeling of tight, clean cloth around his waist.

"How is it? Not too tight, I hope," she said. Hiccup nodded.

"It's fine, Addie. Anyways, I was serious about you coming with me and Toothless. It might take awhile for the others to get used to you, but Berk is a good place to have a dragon right now. It's definitely better than here, and there are loads of different species for you to see." She held up a hand to halt his sales pitch.

"Hiccup, you had me at 'dragon.' Actually, you had me at 'come,' but that doesn't matter. I'd love to go with you guys to Berk," Addie said gratefully. Frostwave also seemed pleased and whisked her tail over his head affectionately. The dragon growled something, and Addie blushed.

"What did she say?" he asked, curious. She plastered a nervous smile to her face.

"Oh, nothing important. Frostwave said she'd love to go to Berk, too." Frostwave's crimson eyes narrowed and she blew a cloud of ice at Addie's head before growling reproachfully. Addie hissed under her breath in Benydeyh in reply.

"Crid ib! E lyh'd damm res dryd! Pacetac, E tuh'd vaam dryd fyo ypuid res."

Adeline's POV

Geez, Frostwave didn't know anything. I didn't have a crush on Hiccup. How could I? I had only known him for a few days. I mean, sure, he was funny, and he loved dragons, but there were probably a bunch of other boys on Berk like that. If Frostwave thought I had feelings for him, she was sadly mistaken. That's it, end of story.

The evening passed with dinner (stale bread, water, fish stew, and dried fish), Frostwave and Toothless deciding to play a game of chase while Hiccup and I took shelter in the center of the room away from swiping tails and clipping wings, and me deciding to start exercising for the job ahead. It wouldn't do to lose my touch when we needed it most, so I started with basic pull ups with the iron grate above us. Unfortunately, I was really out of shape, so I was only able to get to thirty before I had to stop and hang out. Literally. I hooked my ankles in the holes and hung like a bat. Toothless saw this, cocked his head to the side and lifted his ear flaps up with interest, then tried to do the same with his tail. Poor Toothless. His tail couldn't fit through the holes enough to pull him away from the ground, and no matter how hard he tried he couldn't get a firm grip on the bars with his claws.

Soon, it was time to sleep again, but I was having trouble entering the wonderful land of dreams. I was too excited over the fact that in three days, I would be living a new life in a new village, with new people who wouldn't hate me because I had a dragon. Nope, instead they would hate me because of what I had done in the past. But, in my defense, I can say that I never killed anyone. I was never given the chance. On the few raids I had been on, they had been either practice raids on old shipwrecks or the usual visit to Trader Johann. We kept him around because he had some rare goods that we loved, and because the kids loved hearing his tall tales (that is, before they realized he could go on for hours).

Hiccup patted me on the shoulder amicably before joining Toothless in the small circle of warmth the Night Fury made with his breath. I smirked a tiny bit at the thought of one of the dnyehaac trying to scrub the scorch marks out of the stone, but it changed into a look of dread when I remembered the punishment for failing at a task that was incredibly simple. Before I could say something to them about leaving the cell as they found it, Frostwave wrapped her tail and neck around me, pulling me against her warm scales and dropping her head into my lap.

"Don't worry, Addie. I have faith in you, and so do Toothless and Hiccup. You just need to believe in yourself," she crooned before snoring softly. Man, Frostwave could sleep through a thunderstorm while I banged some pots and pans together and sang at the top of my lungs. Not that I had tried or anything like that... heh. Her little growls of sleep were rhythmic enough that my eyes started to close, and I fell asleep to visions of flying freely in the clear blue sky, safe from any harm that came from Blackstone.

Author's Notes: Translations! Get your freshly typed translations here!

zitka-nuus – judge-room; where trials are held

taletehk-nuus – deciding-room; where the heads go to decide the verdict on a trial

Jyimd – Vault; again, where treasure and confiscated goods go

Ytubdaa – Adoptee; and by now you're probably getting tired of seeing it

Ynahy – Arena

tnykuh – dragon

bnecuhan – prisoner, aka Hiccup

Luihlem uv Amtanc – Council of Elders

buecuh-cilgehk tnylubrema – poison-sucking dracophile; yeah, basically yet another insult (the pirates can get pretty creative with their slurs)

Luda uv Benydac – Code of Pirates

Benydeyh – Piratian, the language of Blackstone. Nuff said.

Crid ib! E lyh'd damm res dryd! Pacetac, E tuh'd vaam dryd fyo ypuid res – Shut up! I can't tell him that! Besides, I don't feel that way about him (Yeah, right)

dnyehaac – trainees

Sorry about how long it is. I kind of got carried away.

Here's something funny for you. When I copy and paste this into the document manager after typing it up in OpenOffice, things are underlined, like the perspective swaps and the AN's. But it was only after I did a live preview of Frozen Flames that I realized it wasn't transferring the underline, just the bold. So I went back into the most recently created chapter, opened it up, and added the underlines that should have been there already. Maybe I'll do the same with all the previous chapters later. Maybe... Also, the word "likeliest" is so weird. It looks like the "e" shouldn't be there, but it must. Go figure.

And yes, I will talk about completely random things here.

I'm thinking of doing a poll on the subject of the next chapter. Do you people want to know what Simon thinks of this whole thing? Do you just want more Adeline and Hiccup interaction in a locked room with no adult supervision? Or do you simply not care and want me to write more? All this and more, when I get around to it. I'm thinking after about 100-200 answers I'll close the poll and post the next chapter. Whichever answer is highest wins.

Also, should I call these Author's Notes or Author's Nonsense? Maybe that'll be another poll. But either way, the abbreviation will be AN, so... yeah, just vote and I'll do my best to comply.

Wild Cat 214, out!