I promise nothing weird is gonna happen, despite where it looks like this chapter might be going!

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I opened my eyes as beams of sunlight warmed my cheeks, alerting me the next started. I'd gotten a surprising amount of sleep last night. Alith and Kerrigan only started crying two or three times, meaning I almost never had to get up. Hopefully, this meant they'd start sleeping through the night soon.

Groggily, I rolled over, met with a pair of vibrant, green eyes, watching my form with a tremendous amount of love. A smile spread across my face as I leaned forward and planted a kiss on his nose.

"Good morning, love," he greeted, adjusting his arm draped across my waist.

"'Morning." He leaned down and gently kissed me.

"Can't we just stay here all day?" he whispered, bending down to kiss me again and again.

"As much... as I would... love... that... we have things we... have to do." He suddenly rolled me over, and his lips moved to my neck. But there was no time for this.

"Mm... like what?" I scoffed.

"Like taking care of the kids and the dragons—what has gotten into this morning?" I pushed him away, and as we sat up, his hand rested on my cheek.

"Just... every time I see you, I remember how much I love you." I rolled my eyes and pushed him away as one of the girls began to fuss in the next room over.

"You're a dork... but I love you, too."

I reached up and kissed his forehead before moving out from under him and moving to get the girls up and start the day. I changed them and brought them into my room to change before heading downstairs, where I found Hiccup had already gotten everyone's food ready, including a little bit of mush for the girls. We finished up before heading to the stables and meeting everyone else there, getting to work as soon as we could. I did my best to be careful in my work so the girls wouldn't fall out of their sling as Hiccup recounted the tales of last night.

"What do you mean 'gone'?" Snotlout questioned

"Vanished. Into thin air." Fishlegs made his way over and presented us with a drawing he'd done of the dragon, trying his best based on Hiccup's description.

"What do you think?" He shook his head.

"Uh-uh. Stubbier ears. No dorsal plates." Fishlegs took the card back to start over.

"Okay. Got it."

"What a night," Eret chuckled.

Toothless suddenly came up and nudged his rider, sticky Night Fury saliva falling from his mouth and onto Hiccup's clothes, much to my displeasure. He bounced up and down eagerly, trying to convey something my husband just couldn't understand.

"Bud, what's gotten into you? What is all this slobbering and panting?" I made my way over to him.

"Isn't it obvious? He's in love." I lilted my voice on that last word, trying to further drive the point into Hiccup's head. His eyes widened, before he leaned closer to Toothless.

"Trust me, relationships are nothing but pain and misery." Part of me knew he was joking, but I still reached down and whapped him on the back of the head for good measure, scoffing. "What did I just say? Am... Am I not enough?" Toothless bounded away again, heading toward a pair of Nadders performing their mating dance.

"I think that's a 'no'." Fishlegs came back over with another drawing.

"What about this?" Hiccup sighed and shook his head.

"You know what? Just trace your Toothless card and make her white."

"You could've led with that."

"Can you believe it?" Hiccup looked back at me as I set a bucket down. "Toothless has a girlfriend."

"I never took you for a romantic. Like, ever." I smiled and made my way over, resting a hand on his shoulder.

"But it's so sweet. I mean, look."

Everyone grimaced as we watched Toothless perform the mating dance he'd just seen with his own shadow, as though trying to figure out the works before going to find the Light Fury. At first, it was bearable, until he nuzzled and began to lick the rock.

"Maybe 'sweet' isn't the word I'm looking for." I placed a hand on my hip, making sure to keep one underneath the sling.

"Okay, that's just sad. And weird."

"Yeah, you better do something."

"Seriously? I'd rather shovel poop all day than watch that?" As Hiccup pulled a thorn out of the dragon's foot, he shook his head and stood up.

"All right. Let's head back to the woods and see if we can find her." Toothless picked up his head excitedly and bounded away.

"Ah, good idea." Before I could do anything, Tuff grabbed my husband's shoulder and began to push him away. "A little privacy."

"Uh..."

"Shh. It's boy talk." Hiccup looked back at me, and I just shrugged. Just before they made their way out to the woods, he pushed away and came back over to me.

"I can take the girls." I looked at him curiously. "What? I feel like I don't spend enough time with them."

"Are you sure?" The thought of passing my daughters off, even if it was to their own father, for even just a second made me nervous.

"Reign, I promise they'll be safe with me." I scoffed and shook my head at him.

"You're going into the woods with one dragon to find another dragon that tried to kill us last night."

"Uh, well... I mean, technically..." he stuttered, trying to dig himself out of that hole. Though I was still wary, I reached around and moved the sling off of my body, passing off my daughters to him. I watched as he walked away, already feeling more anxious the further away they got.

"Reign?" I turned around to face Astrid's calming presence. "Take a deep breath. They'll be safe with their father."

"I know, I know," I sighed. "I just... they're my daughters, and Hiccup tends to get into trouble. The dangerous sort of trouble. And when a wild dragon is involved—"

"Okay, we're going to talk about something else to take your mind off this." Valka had wandered in not long before Hiccup left, and moved closer to me when Astrid attempted to change the subject.

"I know Gobber made you both uncomfortable yesterday with the..." She cleared her throat awkwardly, "other child business. But you know he comes from a genuine place." I shook my head and fed the two Nadders Toothless had been watching earlier.

"I just... I'm not ready for that yet. We're not ready yet. Like Gobber said, we have to settle down first. Not to mention, I just gave birth to twins less than a year ago. And besides, I can't control what gender kid I have. It's a fifty-fifty toss up." She chuckled and pet a Terrible Terror that approached her. "I mean, yes, I'd love to have a little boy, just not so soon."

"Hiccup understands that, but the way his eyes light up when he talks about your girls... it's something unique. I can tell he wants another, but he wants to wait for you."

"He'll have to wait whether he likes it or not. We're closed until further notice." Val laughed, and for a moment, things were genuine.

"Are you sure you just don't want another kid with Hiccup?" I whipped around and stared at Ruff, unamused.

"What on earth are you talking about?"

"I mean, he's kind of awkward. Those legs on another human? That just seems like torture. Not to mention if they got his voice, or awkward limp—"

"He has a prosthetic leg," I interjected. "And I wouldn't have a) married him, or b) had 2 daughters with him if I didn't love all of those things."

"It wasn't just a lapse in judgement?"

"Ruffnut!" I glanced at Astrid and nodded.

"Everything that's happened, I'm glad it has. I just don't want to rush off into anything else before I'm ready."

"Which is perfectly respectable." Only now did I notice Snotlout and Fishlegs had made themselves scarce, abandoning their duties in favor of giving us privacy.

Dang it.

With my jobs in the stables taken care of, I made my way to Gobber's to help him and Eret out. They'd been working on saddles for all the new dragons, and needed extra help, so I'd volunteered to offer some assistance.

"Ah, Reign! Welcome." I smiled at Eret. "What can I do for the chieftess?"

"Stop that," I chuckled, rolling my eyes. "And I'm here to help out." Almost immediately, Gobber threw an apron into my hands and sent me to work. "Speaking of which." I started on outlines on the leather for saddles.

"Where'd your husband run off to?"

"Ah, he went into the woods with Toothless to try and find that Light Fury. Took Alith and Kerrigan, too." Eret glanced at me.

"And you let him?"

"Oh, trust me. I was hesitant. But, I mean, he's their father, and I'd like to think he's gotten a bit more cautious since they came around. What could really—"

My eyes moved up to see Hiccup and Tuff rushing toward the smithy, something shiny in Hiccup's hand. I immediately threw my apron off and approached the two of them. I checked on my little girls to make sure they were okay, and thankfully, that sat perfectly fine in their slings, awake and babbling.

"Someone's here." He set the object down on a table, revealing it to be a dart.

"Huh?"

"He managed to slip past our scouts and lay a trap in the woods."

"It ruined boy talk." Tuff picked up the dart and chucked it behind him, piercing a crate Eret was carrying.

"Let me at him!" Gobber lunged forward, but I help my arm out to keep him from charging.

"Slow down, Gobber. Let's get a search team on the ground, scouts in the air." I nodded. "Toothless and I will fly the coastline."

"Yeah, I wouldn't advise taking Toothless anywhere, chief." We both turned to Eret, who was carefully inspecting the dart. "Grimmel the Grisly. Famous back where I'm from. The smartest dragon hunter I've ever met. Well, next to me, of course." I scoffed and rolled my eyes.

"That's really not something to brag about around here."

"He can't be that smart. He left his trap unmanned." Eret laughed sarcastically.

"Nothing's accidental when it comes to old Grimmel. He lives for the hunt, to get inside the mind of his prey. To control its every choice. It's all a game to him."

"Well, he doesn't know who he's playing with." I smirked, confident.

"Yeah. We've dealt with his kind before." Eret shook his head, expression still somber.

"Don't underestimate him, Hiccup. Mark my words. He'll be back." We glanced at each other, and I nodded. Eret could say all he wanted, but at the end of the day, he just sounded like another Vigo*.

"Then we'll be waiting for him."

*Vigo—for those of you that don't know, he's who I would call the primary villain of Race to the Edge. If you've never watched the TV series, we'll meet him in "Dragon's Edge"