As Lucasdiaz9000 helpfully pointed out in their last review, it would be helpful to everyone, actually including myself, if I put a list of the parents in the author's note, so here it is:

- Solveig and Edvard Hofferson

- Majken and Gisli Ingerman

- Ebba and Gerik Thorston

- Fjola and Spitelout Jorgenson

I'll probably keep this in for the remainder of the story.

Chapter 4

The repairs after the raid were fast, as only 5 houses had been damaged and none destroyed. Valka insisted that hers would be taken care of last, even though it was the one with the least damage. Meanwhile her and Hiccup were staying in the Meade Hall. Majken and Gisli met Valka for breakfast every day, after which Hiccup would go with the Ingermans. Her days were spent overseeing the repairs and caring for whatever matter was taken to her. She didn't think it necessary to make a list in the morning the way Stoick had done.

It didn't take long for Valka to notice the dragon following her around. It started a few days after the raid. At first, she didn't think anything of the steps she heard from the forest whenever she was walking near it. It could have been any of the many animals living in there.

On the third day though, she decided to investigate the noise and came face to face with the same dragon that had broken into her house.

"You really shouldn't be here." she told it after the initial surprise died down. "If anyone other than me sees you, they'll kill you."

The dragon cocked its head and Valka wasn't sure if it didn't understand her or if it didn't care.

As the dragon was completely calm, she felt safe even with her back towards it as she walked around it once. It indeed had two pairs of wings and its scales were a beautiful grey-beige colour with orange accents all over its body.

"It was you who has been following me those past few days, right?" she asked. It almost looked like the dragon was nodding as an answer. "But why?" Of course, she got no answer. Dragons couldn't talk in a way that humans would understand them.

"This is really amazing" she whispered as she turned to leave the dragon. "You should stay in hiding. The forest should be big enough for you not to be found."

"I met the dragon again" Valka told Majken quietly during dinner. Looking around she made sure nobody was listening to the conversation, but the Great Hall was full of people talking over each other loudly enough that nobody heard the two young women whisper across their table in the corner. Even their little sons playing on the usual blanket were louder than them.

None of the Hoffersons, Thorstons and Jorgensons were with them that evening. Neither was Majken's own husband Gisli. So they valued their quality time.

"He's been following me around these past few days since the raid. Or at least, he started not too long after it" Valka continued while Majken leaned closer. "And I have to tell you something else. I've kind of been studying dragons in recent years and I noticed that they usually aren't aggressive. I suspected that they were like that towards humans, too, for some time and the raid as well as meeting the dragon in the forest today confirmed that."

Majken's eyes had gotten bigger and bigger the more she heard Valka talk. "There's a dragon hiding in the forest and its docile toward humans?" she asked in disbelief, trying hard to keep the whisper and not to scream at her friend.

After a minute or two of silence Majken looked at Valka. "That goes against everything we learned since birth! Everything that we've been teaching our children for six generations."

Valka nodded. "I've been thinking of showing Gobber what I learned. But I'm not sure if that's the right thing to do right now. Maybe we could start by not fighting back when the dragons attack during a raid." She stood up. "You know what, I'll go right over and propose that part to him."

"Please Gobber, listen!" Valka was basically running after Gobber as they made their way towards the forge. As soon as they were inside, he stopped and turned toward her.

"You come to me and suggest we stop defending ourselves during raids? Cause you've seen some dragons in the wild, probably from far away, that weren't fighting?"

"I've been studying them for years, Gobber. They aren't aggressive killers."

"How would you want to keep hundreds of men and women from fighting if they were attacked?"

Valka decided to throw all caution to the wind. "Remember that dragon that broke into my house during the raid?"

Gobber nodded. "Sure do. I ran to help you as soon as I noticed."

"That dragon wasn't attacking, neither Hiccup, nor me. He even flew off when I told him to, though he seemed reluctant to leave me."

Gobber was sceptical. "I was fearing for both of your lives and now you're telling me that neither of you were in danger? And … you're calling the dragon a he?"

"Yes. The dragon has been following me around almost the entire time since the raid. Today I decided to investigate what's been making the noise in the forest. I think that maybe he sees it as his job to protect me."

"Huh" was all Gobber said.

"I could show you if you let me. That dragon is most likely waiting for me somewhere close."

Valka led the way, towards her house and past it, and stopped just shy of the treeline near the spot where she had met the dragon just a few hours earlier. She motioned for Gobber to be quiet and for sure, they heard rustling from within the forest.

"Do you trust me?" she asked, and only after receiving a nod continued to walk forward.

The dragon cocked its head questioningly at the newcomer. Gobber was used to be around dragons, from his own training as a youth and his fairly new role of training the teenage generation himself. But never had he come across a dragon so peaceful.

"You were right" he said after a moment of silence during which he stared in wonder at Valka and the dragon interacting with each other. "I don't know if this is true for all dragons, but it sure is for this one."

I'm so glad to be back with a new chapter! Back in September, I basically wrote myself into a corner about halfway through the chapter and it took me over four months to find my way out again. But letting a piece of work sit for a while and come back to it with a fresh mind does wonders for creativity.

Originally, I wanted this chapter to be a Valka and Majken bonding chapter with Valka confiding into her best friend about her new dragon friend. Instead, it now has Valka and Gobber bonding over her secret. Sometimes characters just won't do what you want them to.

I was thinking about a number of things while writing this chapter, and even before then, and decided to share my ideas here to ask your opinion:

1. Do you think Valka would be willing to marry again in this story? Neither her nor Stoick did in actual canon, but I was thinking that maybe she would like her son to have another daddy while growing up. Please just tell me your honest opinion, cause I fell in love with this idea and therefore lost the ability to look at it from a neutral point of view.

2. I was thinking of doing a little timeskip. Now that Valka has a friend who shares her secret and won't tell anybody, maybe it's time I skip ahead a few years. On the other hand, I still want Majken in on the secret, so I'll probably wait until she knows as well.

As I'm already working on the next chapter it likely won't take me another four months to update. I hope you enjoyed. See ya next time!