The next day, Asher visited the Night Fury. What was he thinking? Obviously nothing, he scolded himself as he stood in front of where the deadly beast was being held. Oh dear Gods what was he doing? When did he become a moron? What was he? A Thorston? No! He was a Hofferson, and Hoffersons were not buffoons.

Granted, he bit the inside of his cheek, Hoffersons didn't shy away from danger either.

For the sake of the village, he reminded himself. He was doing this for the sake of the village. Face a Night Fury and then no more dragons. He could do it. He could face a Night Fury.

Very carefully, Asher opened the door to the Night Fury's enclosure and peered in-

Only to see two very green eyes glowering at him in the darkness accompanied by a deep growl.

Well, it was most certainly alive.

Asher carefully lifted a torch he had previously prepared up to peer at the pitch black beast. It still seemed to have both wings. He couldn't see its tail from where he was and, quite honestly, didn't care to investigate further for the dragon seemed just about ready to pounce-

He slammed the door before something akin to death itself tackled and killed him. Oh dear Thor. It wasn't even that big and he still felt much more threatened than if it'd been a Monstrous Nightmare or Scaldron.

It had seemed so... intelligent. Asher swallowed; he didn't like it. He didn't like it one bit.

The stupid, fat guard had fallen asleep and Hicca was currently trying to convince a Terrible Terror to come over and talk to her.

'I swear it's not dangerous! Do me a favor, would ya? It's so boring I think I might pass out!'

'There is human here!' The Terror- Snip was her name- hissed. 'I will be killt!'

'A stupid, fat, slow human! You will be fine! C'mon, please? I'm already not allowed to eat!'

Snip snuffed and paced warily a few times while eyeing the human before quietly fluttering over to Hicca. 'Thank you!' she cooed happily.

'You best keep your word on tummy rubs,' she grumbled, nosing Hicca's outstretched hand. Giggling slightly, Hicca scratched the grumpy Terror under the chin before it flipped over, revealing a scaly little stomach. Hicca's smile only grew wider when Snip began to purr.

'So,' the woman muttered, continuing her ministrations, 'why are you in the human village in the first place?'

'Getting more food for queen. You lucky you left nest. She getting worser and worser.'

Hicca growled. That nasty alpha.

'Hope she chokes on the next dragon she decides to devour,' she muttered darkly. Snip laughed- Terrible Terror laughs were, in Hicca's opinion, one of the most lizard-like; their laughs were like a series of short hisses. Hicca smiled, it was very nice indeed to finally have some scaled company again.

Hicca quietly listened as the little dragon droned on about nest life: the annoying hatchlings, the attractive potential mate named Taft, the bossy Monstrous Nightmares and the airheaded Nadders, the whiny Scauldron that keeps stopping by. All of it made Hicca homesick.

She missed nest-life. She missed dragons.

She missed Toothless.

As Hicca was about to respond to one of the Terror's mundane questions, she suddenly heard footsteps. 'Not the annoying one!' she gasped in horror.

Yes, she knew his name, but that didn't mean she had to use it.

Asher appeared from around the corner to find Hicca and Snip acting similar to young maiden and a friendly cat. His face turned from one of boredom to wary in a split second as he grabbed a knife from his belt.

'Nonononononono!' Hicca cried, standing up and waving her hands sporadically. 'Don't-' Norse, she reminded herself. "Don't hurt her! Don't- she-" Hicca looked down at the little dragon. 'Snip, run,' she told it.

"She will not hurt anyone! Promise! Please don't hurt her!" Hicca's attention quickly shifted when she heard a yell sound from her left before the previously sleeping guard stormed after Snip. Panicking and trying her best to think fast, Hicca whipped off her boot and threw it at the charging man's head seconds before his axe could come down upon Snip.

The gruff man spun around to face her, clearly shocked to have had a boot to the back of the head. Luckily, in this fleeting moment, Snip was able to make her escape, loudly throwing curses back at the Vikings in true Terrible Terror fashion. Such obscene things they were.

The man who had received the boot to the head started yelling at her. Hicca quietly backed into her cage. Hopefully someone would eventually give her her shoe back- that was half of her only pair!

Glancing at Asher, Hicca tried to gage the emotions that flittered across his face. Sadly, she couldn't identify a single one. Jeez, even dragon facial expressions were easier to read.

During the fat, stupid one's tirade, Asher stepped forward and placed a careful hand on the angry Viking's shoulder. Hicca cocked her head and watched as Asher looked the man in the eyes and told him to go on home. Her eyebrows furrowed as the man diverted his eyes in a huff before bidding Asher a goodbye before leaving the cave.

If that hadn't been a show of dominance, Hicca didn't know what was.

Bringing her hand up to her mouth, Hicca quietly chewed on a stubby thumb nail while she thought. That had been the display of an alpha and a subservient dragon, but Hicca could have sworn that the strange man she had met with in the big building was the alpha of this "human-nest." Could it be that human nests have more than one alpha?

No, that couldn't be, Asher had seemed submissive towards that alpha.

Maybe since humans don't have as long of life-spans as dragons they were required to choose the next alpha? They have two alphas? Fascinating...

Hicca was awoken from her thoughts as her boot landed on the dirt floor in front of her. Looking up, she saw Asher looking at her with his arms crossed, seemingly unimpressed. "So, you can actually speak with them?" he asked.

She nodded hesitantly, wary of the question. "Are they," he paused, "intelligent?"

Hicca raised an eyebrow, "Yes..."

Asher hummed lightly and leaned against the bars, looking thoughtfully at the ground. 'Maybe,' Hicca muttered under her breath, 'just maybe...'

Could he- at least not hate- dragons?

"Have you," she stepped forward, slipping her boot back onto her foot, "ever pet one?"

Asher promptly stared at her as if she had grown a second head.

Hicca chuckled slightly, "Dumb question." Carefully, she placed her hands on the bars and looked into Asher's eyes, "Do you want to pet one?" His disturbed look only intensified, "Why in Thor's name would I want to pet one of those blood thirsty beasts?"

Hicca wondered briefly who "Thor" was but didn't pay it much mind. "They are not blood thirsty," she exclaimed. "They are warm, gentle, and smart. You have never tried to know them! All you do is kill!"

Asher glowered, "I don't see the dragons trying to make peace, if they're as smart as you claim. Dragons have killed members of my family and good friends. I have every right to bear a grudge against those bastards!"

"Every dragon you have killed had friends! Some of the dragons you have killed had babies!"

"Do you realize how many people have gone hungry during the cold months because of dragons?" Asher yelled.

"Do you realize how many dragons have died because of a selfish queen?" Hicca screamed back. How dare he victimize the humans. How dare he. Not when so many dragons die for a cause they hate but can't avoid.

Hicca exhaled and rested her forehead on the bars, "Why must humans hate everything so?" When Asher was silent, Hicca peeked up and asked, "Want to pet a dragon?"

Asher stared at her in complete and utter disbelief, "Seriously?"

"What about a small one?" she asked, holding her thumb and forefinger an inch or two apart. "I do not know what humans call them. They are small, reddish," she paused, "don't sting or burn or glow, just bite."

"A nanodragon?" he offered.

Hicca shrugged but filed the name away nonetheless. Moving the wrap on her waist, -her captors had only bothered to take her bear skin and arm guards—Hicca unstrapped a small bottle and held it up to Asher. "Go get one," she ordered.

Asher snorted, "No."

"Please," she mumured, pushing the bottle into his hands, "Give me a chance."

Asher looked into her eyes for a few long moments, silently contemplating, and then, after seemingly forever, he took the bottle and quietly exited the small cavern.

Hicca fidgeted restlessly the few minutes he was gone. Was she doing this? Was she really doing this? Who even does this? She must be insane. Dragons and humans are mortal enemies! And Vikings are the most stubborn of all humans! And Asher was the most bull-headed human she's ever met on top of it all! How is any of this going to work? And- and-

Hicca's stomach growled.

And holy terror was she hungry! Ignore it, she told herself. Ignore it. Make him like dragons. Yes? Yes. Good.

Asher walked back in a moment or two later, staring skeptically at the bottle in his hands.

Juuuuuust peachy.

With no small amount of distrust, Asher gingerly handed Hicca the small bottle. Hicca swiftly opened it and a small, very angry, nanodragon came tumbling out onto her hand. The little thing was squawking furiously and releasing small spurts of smoke in annoyance. 'Listen-' she tried to tell it. 'No-' full fledged fire was coming out of its mouth now.

Hicca tried to shush it, but it cared not for anything as civil as listening and bit down on Hicca's thumb before she could gain its attention. Now, to be clear, nanodragons' bites feel like a highly concentrated bee sting multiplied by three. Needless to say, Hicca cried out.

'Would you calm down?!' she yelled at it. That finally gained the little beast's attention as it stopped its angry- and profane- rant to look up at the human. 'I'm sure you're not even harmed,' Hicca grumbled, licking at her now sore thumb. 'The worst you've probably had to experience today is a bumped head.'

The little dragon humphed, 'It was still a kiddnappings!'

Hicca snorted, 'Hardly.'

It snuffed and looked away, sitting in the middle of Hicca's palm like a very tiny petulant child.

Sighing heavily, Hicca made the human(ish) equivalent of a slight purr in the back of her throat- a dragon's signal of submission- and said, 'I'm sorry for the trouble; my name's Hicca.'

The nanodragon snuffed once again and haughtily replied, 'I, stupid human, am Mighty: Fiercest of Fierce!'

Hicca had to force herself to not roll her eyes. Nanodragons were small and felt the incessant need to compensate for their size with their personalities. In other words, they were obnoxious snobs.

'Nice to meet you,' Hicca began. 'Would you mind speaking with us for a bit? I swear on the first queen's egg you'll be returned to your home safely.'

'Us?' Mighty queried skeptically. It turned around to look at Asher and Hicca quickly followed suit. Sure green eyes met confused blue ones for a split second and Hicca winked quickly before turning back to Mighty. 'That human speaks too?'

Hicca bit back a smile at that. 'No, he doesn't,' she answered. 'He is a stupid Viking.'

Mighty squawked, 'You want me to speak to a big nasty?!'

'Yes.'

'Never,' Mighty hissed. 'The Big Nasties have killed too many dragons. I don't trusts!'

'And you,' Hicca responded diplomatically, 'could be the dragon to ensure the Big Nasties don't kill anymore dragons.'

Mighty looked decently taken aback now, 'That is impossible.'

Hicca smiled ever so slightly, 'Only if no one ever tries.'

Mighty was quiet for a moment, swishing his tail in thought. 'As long as I am not squished, I will talk to the Big Nasty for you.'

'Thank you,' Hicca chirped. Cradling Mighty in her right hand, Hicca reached her left through the bars and groped the air a tad before seizing Asher's hand and bringing it through the bars and into her cell. She pushed down his fingers until only his index finger stood straight. When she began to move the hand harboring Mighty, however, Asher tensed.

Hicca looked up at him, mildly annoyed, and said, "Stop it. He thinks you will hurt him." Asher glowered but bit his tongue and relaxed himself as much as he could. Hicca watched him carefully until she was sure he had calmed enough for petting.

Carefully, the woman brought Asher's hand towards the dragon until finger touched snout. Mighty snuffed at the finger before lightly butting it with the top of his head. Hicca then used the offered finger to stroke Mighty's back. Mighty started purring quietly and arching into the pets.

Hicca smiled at this and took Asher's finger away only to have him cup his hand. Gingerly, she poured the little dragon into the waiting appendage. Asher sucked in a nervous breath as the dragon snuffed about his hand before nuzzling his thumb. The nanodragon bit the finger lightly and let out happy puffs of smoke. '—human smells nice,' Hicca heard him mumble. She bit her lip in a smile, strangely pleased to see such affections being expressed.

Asher shifted slightly before bringing his other hand up to pet the little beast seated in his hand. Hicca did not miss the soft expression that splayed across his features in that moment.

He was her own personal definition of beautiful in that one moment.

The two jumped from the peaceful moment when Mighty made a small cheeping sound. Asher's face reverted to one of scowling once again and Hicca was instantly reminded of how annoying he was.

He scoffed and said, "I'm putting this thing back."

Mighty chirped indignantly as he was roughly taken back outside. Hicca rolled her eyes and collapsed upon the dirt floor in a huff. When Asher returned to the cave this time, Hicca's only thought was: Damn, I'm hungry.

WOO NEXT CHAPTER. IIIII suck at uploading regularly. What's going to happen next chapter? Hell if I know. Hahahahaha...

So anywho, thank you for reading. I don't mean to be one of those writers, but reviews do tend to guilt trip me into writing. I'm an asshole like that. Please excuse any and all grammar mistakes.

Lastly, thank you for any and all support and all your sweet comments. You guys make my day.

See you next chapter!