Happy Friday, friends!

Vvarden: It won at the Golden Globes, so let's hope for another! As far as Shade goes, it would appear that leadership comes naturally to him, as well as Aeri. They might run from it, but they can't deny who they are, at least, not forever.

Harkonnen28: I read your review while I was at the grocery store last night and it made my day. As you pointed out, many more people read than review, which may or may not be a good thing. (I don't know what I would do with thousands of reviews haha.) But I appreciate you taking the time to comment thoughtfully, it's always a pleasure to read what you excellent people have to say, and I hope that I can continue to provide at least some entertainment for you in the future. :)

"Are you ready?"

Vasara wiped her brow with the back of her hand. She had been in the forge since early that morning, working hard on a chest plate for one of the village men.

"Ready?"

"For our flight?" Oh. Turning, the smith saw Rádgatá leaning against the counter, arms loosely crossed. Vasara found that she wasn't feeling so bold as she had when she'd announced in front of the entire village that she'd like to fly on the dragon as well as Maara.

"Well, um, you see, I've got this plate to finish, and then, um, I have to, ah…"

Rádgatá grinned, and Vasara knew with a sinking feeling that she wasn't going to be able to make any more excuses. The taller woman walked over and paused, "May I?" before lifting the heavy metal plate off the workbench, carefully inspecting it. Vasara resisted the urge to snatch it away from her.

"It needs more work—" she started, but was cut off.

"Nonsense. Maara said you've been here since dawn, and it's in excellent condition. I couldn't have done a better job myself."

Vasara couldn't help but smile slightly at the praise. "Well, it's a heavier material, and you know I work better with things that can handle a few blows from my hammer."

"In any case, it's great, and you should at least take a break. Come on," Rádgatá urged. "He's been waiting ages for this." Peering around the taller woman, Vasara spied Dreki up the street, happily chasing and being chased by a small cluster of children. Rádgatá whistled and the dragon immediately looked up in their direction before bounding over, the kids not far behind.

"Vasara is trying to get out of the flight she promised us, bud," she informed her dragon, whose eyes widened in mock surprise. "Think you can convince her?"

Rather than respond, the dragon inched closer to Vasara, head low and ears back, with wide eyes and a pathetically adorable expression on his face.

"Your tricks won't work on me, dragon," Vasara said without much strength, unable to look away.

Dreki whined softly, and the children who had gathered around behind him squealed with delight.

"He's so cute, Vasara!" one little boy cried out.

"How can you say no to that face?" an older girl asked, one hand on her hip.

"Yeah, how can you?" Rádgatá repeated, smiling devilishly. For a moment, Vasara felt she understood why Haku couldn't seem to spend enough time with this woman.

"Don't you have training to do with Maara or Haku?" she asked in a last-ditch effort to escape.

Rádgatá's smile didn't waver. "Nope. Today is all for you. Come on, I never figured you to be a chicken," she goaded, and Vasara rolled her eyes.

"I'm not a chicken, I just don't have a death wish."

"Do I look dead to you? Does Maara look dead to you?"

"When she comes home after training for three hours, yes."

It was Rádgatá's turn to roll her eyes. "Come on. Just one little flight. We promise not to do anything too crazy." With that, she reached out and grabbed Vasara's hand, pulling her behind her out of the shade of the forge. Dreki bounced around them eagerly, a big toothless grin on his face.

"Can we come too, Missti Einn?" one of the boys called out, and Rádgatá paused, turning back to look at him without releasing Vasara's hand.

"If you ask your parents and they say it's okay, I'll take you all flying sometime. Deal?"

"Deal!" Immediately the children ran off, shrieking and laughing. The black dragon looked after them fondly, before lowering himself to the ground and gazing at Vasara expectantly.

Rádgatá gently pulled Vasara closer to him, finally letting go of her hand. "Ladies first," she grinned, and Vasara looked down at her long skirt dubiously. She was wearing leggings underneath, but still…

"Can we go back to the house first?"

"Of course."

Once there, Vasara snuck into Maara's room, hoping her sister wouldn't mind her borrowing some clothes. Her younger sister was a bit shorter and slimmer, but her baggy pants happened to fit Vasara perfectly, as did an old tunic of Haku's.

Throwing on her boots, she shivered with nervous anticipation as she ran down the stairs, reflecting for a moment on how different life was when her father wasn't around. At the moment he was being watched by Elama at her mother's house, allowing Vasara, Maara, and Haku the freedom to resume their lives. It was a good thing, too, because Rádgatá was rapidly filling up all of their free time with her lessons and adventures. Speaking of Rádgatá… Vasara threw open the front door, nearly colliding with Maara.

"Maara!"

"Are those my pants?"

"I just need to borrow them for a while…"

"Since when do you wear pants?"

"Since now?"

"Oh?"

Vasara sighed. "Did you see Rádgatá outside?"

"Yes… is that why you need my pants?"

"Maybe?"

Maara squealed, not unlike the children that had played with Dreki earlier. "Oh, flying is the best, Vasara!"

"Yeah, so I've been told. Look, is she still out there or not?"

"Yeah, Haku is talking to her."

"Surprise, surprise," Vasara rolled her eyes, though she couldn't suppress her smile. "Okay, well I better get this over with. See you, Maara." Blinking at the bright midday sun, she closed the front door behind her, taking in the sight of Rádgatá grinning, one hand on Haku's shoulder, and her brother laughing as though he hadn't a care in the world.

Rádgatá made him happy, happier than Vasara had ever seen him. He seemed less afraid of taking over the chiefdom, less afraid of messing up, and more interested in living life to the fullest. She does that for us all, Vasara realized, and it humbled her. How had she ever not liked the woman?

A rumbling caught her attention and she looked over to see Dreki lounging in the shade, his bright blue eyes looking both curious and amused. She waved at him, then glanced back to where her brother and Rádgatá stood, now looking in her direction.

"Is that my tunic?" she heard Haku ask.

"Uh…"

"You ready?" the auburn-haired woman called, saving her from having to answer. As Rádgatá strode away from Haku without a backwards glance, Vasara saw how he looked after her, his gaze almost longing. Oh boy.

"As ready as I'll ever be," she grumbled half-heartedly, before she felt something nudging her back and turned to see Dreki playfully crouching behind her.

Rádgatá came over and swung herself into the saddle, holding out one hand. "Let's go, then!"

Suddenly nervous again, Vasara slowly took her hand, squeaking in surprise when the other woman practically lifted her off the ground to straddle the dragon's shoulders. Immediately she wrapped her arms around Rádgatá's waist, looking anxiously over at her brother, who looked immensely entertained.

"All right, Vasara, we're going to do this nice and easy!" Haku gave her a cheerful wave, stepping back as Rádgatá told her to hold on. She felt Dreki rumbling beneath her as he crouched and spread his wings, before the entire world seemed to warp as he leapt skywards.

"OH. MY. GODS!" she screeched as they gained altitude, the wind roaring in her ears. She felt Rádgatá's torso shake with laughter within her desperate embrace, but was too terrified to be irritated.

By the time the black dragon leveled out, though, she was looking out over the island, jaw slack with awe. "Rádgatá… this is amazing!" she called out.

"See what you've been missing?"

"I never knew…"

When they landed about an hour later, Vasara couldn't contain her joy. Haku and Maara were waiting there, sitting on the deck stairs eating from the large bowl of fruit between them.

"How was it, Vasara?" Maara asked as she skipped over, followed by their older brother, who held out his arms to help her down. She welcomed the assistance, her knees nearly giving out as she returned to the ground, before Maara was upon her. Excited, the two sisters compared flight stories, each going to the bowl and taking out the biggest, ripest pieces to feed to Dreki.

Aeri accepted Haku's outstretched hand, though she didn't need it as she slid off of Shade's shoulders. Without waiting, her dragon followed Vasara and Maara, obviously ready for something sweet to eat, leaving her with him.

"I've never seen her so animated," Haku said, gesturing towards Vasara.

"He tends to have that effect on people," Aeri smiled, referring to Shade.

"I'm not so sure it's just him," he replied, and her smile faded a bit as she took in the implications of his words. But there wasn't time to brood for long, as there were things to be done, namely, getting Shade a real meal. After Vasara was finished hugging them, the pair left the three siblings to go fishing on the far side of the island, stopping in the meadow to grab Aeri's spear and basket, before heading to the beach.

Another two weeks passed, Aeri dividing her time between Haku's sisters, Shade, and Mika, who had quickly become accustomed to Aeri's presence, and even seemed to perk up when she and Shade would come by with a basket of fish every couple of days. Thanks to Vahna, Aeri had figured out which plants growing on the island would make a suitable salve to help with the pain in Mika's wing, which the young Grimler patiently allowed her to spread on the shredded, poisoned membrane. It was increasingly apparent that Mika would probably never fly again, which she was remarkably calm about. If only they were on Berk, Shade found himself thinking. Hiccup and Gobber would probably think of some way to get her back into the sky.

Shade hadn't been able to shake his growing worry of the existence of a Queen nearby. What should they do? He and Aeri had been expecting something like that, after all, why else would the dragons make such coordinated attacks on the humans' village? Even so, it was an unpleasant reality to finally acknowledge. Obviously, he and Aeri were going to have to do something about the Queen, and "do something about" translated directly to "defeat or kill", which in itself didn't necessarily bother Shade, but how were they supposed to accomplish that? They had their fathers' success to look back on and analyze, but they couldn't expect the coming battle to be exactly like the one that had taken place more than twenty-five years before.

He wished he could actually speak to Aeri about it, but even if he could, he would still hesitate to interrupt her gradual acclimation into the village. Shade had gone back there again a few days ago, following closely behind Aeri early in the morning with Vasara and Maara to the forge, which he lounged outside of as the people of Heimme slowly came out of their homes for the day.

He'd waited for the three women to finish whatever they were working on, before they all came out together, waving at the curious crowd that had gathered at the sight of the black dragon in their midst. Aeri and he had promptly taken Maara into the forest for another training session, but were privately pleased that the older villagers had not been openly hostile or cold towards them.

Maara was really progressing. In less than a month she was already able to hold her wooden sword up for several hours at a time, although she still couldn't land a blow on Aeri, who danced around the younger girl's increasingly quick strikes.

One day, after a particularly rousing training session and refreshing flight, Aeri and Shade had dropped Maara off behind her house, but instead of heading inside, the girl had turned and asked, "Where do you go when you aren't here?"

"Well, we live up in a meadow at the base of the mountain, so we go back there most of the time."

"Surely you do other things besides that, though."

"Actually… we do. Would you like to come with us? We're going to go fishing on the other side of the island."

Shade wondered what Aeri was about. They were going fishing, but then they were going to the meadow to see Mika. While the Grimler had become very friendly towards Aeri, he was unsure as to how she would react to another human. At his questioning glance, Aeri had nodded. She knew what she was doing.

"I'd love to!" Maara dropped the wooden swords on the deck, running back over to clamber up behind Aeri on his back.

Later, after they had a basket full of fish, Aeri gestured to Maara, who was lounging with her feet in the water in nothing but her underwear, soaking up the sun, knowing that no one would see her indecency.

"Is it time to go back?"

"Not quite," and, her interest piqued, the younger girl quickly threw her clothes back on, once again taking Aeri's hand to be pulled into the saddle.

Shade took his time walking them through the forest, and when they were close he called out. "Mika? Mika!"

Caught off guard by his rumbling, Maara asked Aeri, "What is he saying?"

"I believe he is announcing us."

"Shade?"

Mika's voice drifted through the trees, and Maara stilled, hearing the sound. "Is that another…" she trailed off, filling with excitement.

And then they were in the clearing.

"Hi, Shade," Mika said, glancing over at him as he walked out of the trees before resting her head back on her front paws. "Who's your friend?"

Relieved that she wasn't going to freak out at the sight of another human, Shade introduced Maara as she and Aeri slid off his shoulders.

"Hi, Mika," Aeri called over, and the Grimler rumbled in return. "This is Maara. Maara, this is Mika."

"A Grimler?" Maara sounded nervous, and Shade looked over at her curiously.

"She's a young dragon, maybe in her early teens. She can't fly anymore. I think her wing was hurt in the last attack, and she's been here since then, avoiding us," Aeri explained, hoping to get Maara to relax.

Mika seemed to sense Maara's slight anxiety and rose, curious. Aeri gently held the girl in place as the Grimler approached, sniffing the air. Quietly, Aeri reached down to where she had dropped the basket and pulled out a fish, handing it to Maara, who looked alarmed.

"What am I supposed to do with this?"

"Well, you should probably give it to her, unless you're planning on eating it yourself," Aeri replied. Shade laughed, the rumbling distracting Maara, who turned to glare at him. But when she turned back around, Mika was right in front of her, sitting on her haunches, waiting.

"Um…" Haku's sister held out the fish.

Mika glanced at Shade. "Do I just take it from her?"

"Let her toss it to you. Your teeth don't retract, and I don't think she'd appreciate losing her hand." The Grimler snorted, and obligingly opened her mouth.

"Do I let her take it from me?" Maara asked Aeri nervously.

"Toss it to her. She probably doesn't want to accidentally bite you. Her teeth don't retract like a Night Fury's."

Shade couldn't help but smile. He and Aeri were basically on the same wavelength, all the time.

Swallowing her fear, Maara tossed the fish at Mika, who snatched it out of the air, swallowing it in one bite, before licking her lips.

"Um, did you like it?" Maara asked Mika awkwardly. The Grimler nodded, leaning in closer. "Should I give her another fish?" she looked to Aeri, who smiled encouragingly.

"If you want. But I think she wants you to pet her."

Gulping, Maara slowly extended her hand, and waited.

"I personally find it funny that you barely hesitated to pet a Night Fury, the fiercest dragon my people know of, but you're afraid of a Grimler that isn't even fully grown yet."

"Hey!" Mika said, affronted. "Just because I'm small doesn't mean I can't eat whoever I want!"

Shade cracked up at that. "She has a point, Mika," and the Grimler turned to glare at him.

Maara looked a little offended, too. "Well my people never had to deal with Night Furies, so Grimlers are the scariest things we can imagine."

"You're right," Aeri said, apologizing. "I'm sorry. But she won't hurt you. She even waited for you to give her the fish. Shade generally just takes it if he feels like you've kept him waiting for too long."

Squaring her shoulders, Maara raised her hand again. "Mika, would you mind if I touched you?"

The Grimler seemed surprised that Maara was even asking, but nodded, lowering her face to look the girl in the eye. Hesitantly, Haku's sister reached out and gently rested her hand on Mika's nose. The red dragon immediately began to purr, pleasantly surprising Maara.

"She likes you," Aeri told her, and with a small smile Maara brought up her other hand to rest on Mika's jaw.

"Well, she's a very beautiful dragon. And very nice, as well. So I like her, too."

"See?" Mika said, gloating. "This is a human with good taste in dragons."

Shade rolled his eyes, but smiled nonetheless.

They spent the rest of the afternoon in the clearing, talking and laughing and enjoying each others' company.

Guys, I told myself I wouldn't do it, but… I kind of wrote some Hiccstrid stuff. No dragons, just… Them. Together. Exploring. I'll leave it at that, but if any of you have opinions on it, I might be persuaded to post some. Maybe.

Review!