I dreamt about Eret that night. It was a collection of memories we had shared together, like reliving our most precious moments. 

Playing together when we were little and learning to fight dragons together. 

I remembered one time, as we were training, we fought against each other. 

I had quickly kissed him on the cheek, distracting him, and knocked him over to win. 

Though Eret greatly disagreed, it's not cheating if it works.

I also dreamed about the night my father died.

On my father's death bed, he had made Eret swear to look after me, which is part of why he was always so concerned for me.

Then after my father was finally gone Eret was the only one who could console me.

Then I saw the two of us on my birthday. 

A bittersweet moment, being that it was the first birthday I had spent without my father.

I remembered sitting at home alone that day, I had almost forgotten it was my birthday till Eret showed up with a homemade cake. 

We sat together that night and celebrated my birthday, Eret had made things feel normal again for the first time in a while, even if my father wasn't with me. 

The cake was . . . well let's just say baking maybe wasn't Eret's calling. But I guess it's the thought that counts.

Then finally I realized what I was seeing was just a memory. Eret. He was waiting for me back home. 

I snapped awake.

I was in a cavern, alone (Or so I thought.)

I noticed light streaming in from an opening. 

I had been sleeping in a pile of leaves that looked intentionally placed. I had plenty of scrapes and bruises but otherwise I looked fine.

I stood up and immediately felt dizzy, so I kept a steady hand on the rock face of the cave as I approached the opening. 

Outside was a lush forest, birds singing in the trees, a slight breeze hitting the leaves.

I shivered. I guess I didn't dress for a dragon abduction the day before.

As if on cue I heard a groaning sound from inside the cavern. 

I whipped around to see the Hobblegrunt that took me curled into a ball in the shadows of the cave. 

Like me, it was badly scraped up, we had clearly fallen through trees, and looking at the state of my clothes it had dragged me back to the cavern with it. There were deep gash marks on its side from the crossbows.

Out of curiosity I approached slowly. 

The Hobblegrunt had turned to a purple color and was peacefully sleeping. It was a lot less menacing than it looked last night. 

I reached my hand out to touch it, thinking that maybe if it was in a deep enough sleep, I could sneak away.

Right before my hand could touch its face its eyes burst open; they were bright yellow with black slit pupils. 

The dragon screeched and leapt up; seeming a lot more scared of me than I was of it. 

It scrambled to the opening of the cave and squealed one more time at me before hobbling off.

I decided since it was gone I would search for food and kindling to start a fire. I found some twigs and sticks and headed back to the cavern to make a fire, and I hoped the Hobblegrunt wouldn't find its way back. 

I found some small berries as well, but I couldn't remember whether it was the red or the purple berries that were poisonous, Eret would know. 

While debating if I should eat the berries I had found and staring deep into the fire I thought about Eret again. He knew more about dragons and had plenty of survival skills. 

I wished he was there with me.

Suddenly I heard scratching from outside the cave, and just as I feared, the Hobblegrunt had found its way back. 

It wobbled into the cave dragging a few fish along with it, and jumped when it saw I had moved in. 

I guess he thought he had already claimed it for himself (But in my opinion, screeching and running away doesn't really guarantee you dibbs on a cave).

It hunched closer to the ground as it made its way further inside, and kept close eye contact with me as it sat opposite of me on the other side of the fire. 

"Welcome back." I said, nodding at the funny creature, who seemed to be tolerating my presence.

You must be wondering, '(____)? Why haven't you killed the dragon yet?'

Well, I was in no state to kill a dragon after being dropped from the sky, and it didn't appear like the dragon was in a mood to fight either.

The dragon squinted its eyes at me, and made a chirping sound. Then it took a fish in its mouth and tossed it over the fire to me. 

"Thanks." I replied promptly, and I took the fish and stuck it over the fire. 

The Hobblegrunt then gave me a look as if cooked fish wasn't to his taste.

We both sat eating in silence until the fish was gone and our stomachs were full. At least I hoped he was full. I wasn't planning on becoming dessert. 

The dragon made his way to the far wall of the small cave where I was still in sight and plopped down again. 

We both stared at each other, not entirely trusting one another. It was a game of who would fall asleep first.

I don't remember who fell asleep first, but it didn't matter, because I was too busy dreaming again.

In my dream I woke up safe and sound in my room back home. 

The house didn't seem to have any fire damage, the sun shone through the windows and birds chirped outside. 

I hopped out of bed and made my way downstairs, and I could smell something delicious cooking in the kitchen.

Mmm breakfast. Pancakes sounded good (Much better than fish anyway), it was too bad this was a dream. 

And it just got worse.

I turned into the kitchen and saw my father making pancakes just how I liked them, perfectly brown on each side. 

His back was turned, as he flipped pancakes flawlessly. 

I stood there and stared at him, as if I knew as I was dreaming how valuable this moment was, seeing my father like this again.

"Uh . . . morning." I spoke. 

My father spun around to look at me, a big hearty smile on his face, one I didn't think I'd see again.

The wrinkles around his eyes had the same mischievous light I remembered, and his long, braided hair framed his face, the color matching mine.

 "Morning (____). What are you doing just standing there? Sit down, food's almost ready." He chuckled.

So I sat down as he set plates and forks on the table. 

We ate there in silence, an eerie silence. 

"Dad?" I asked. 

"Yes, (____)?"

"Do we have to fight dragons?" I questioned, "Of course! We're vikings! That's been our job for generations." he responded like it was common knowledge.

I was worth a shot. But what's done is done. 

I thought that maybe in my dream world, at least, I could stop him from fighting. 

Stop him from sealing his fate. 

But he's gone. 

And this is a dream. 

We continued to eat in silence till there was a knock at the door.

I jumped out of my seat and stepped towards the door. 

I opened it and there was Eret. 

Did this dream really have to include all of the people I'd lost? 

"Ready to go train?" He asked. 

"Train?" I replied. Eret gave me a confused look. 

"Yes. Like we do every morning. Are you feeling alright?" He chuckled, attempting to put a hand on my forehead. 

"Yes. Sorry. I'm just tired." I answered, taking a step backwards.

"Well. Let's get a move on then." I said, slipping past him and heading towards our usual training place by the lake in town. 

I found my axe and twirled it around in my hand, it felt weightless as I dreamt. 

"Let's practice some defensive positions." Eret said, holding up his sword.

"Right." I responded.

I held up my axe and he lunged at me, striking at my axe with his sword. 

I held my position, trying to fathom how I could even be home. 

Finally I started to get distracted, and I realized this entire scene was completely fake. 

I wasn't with Eret, and my father wasn't alive.

Eret knocked my axe of my hand and it fell to the ground. 

"Are you sure you're okay?" Eret asked. 

"No. I'm not." I replied, sitting down near the lake and putting my head in my hands. 

"What's the matter?" He asked, sitting next to me. 

"This isn't real." I responded sadly. 

"What do you mean?" He asked, the image started to disintegrate. 

I was waking up. 

"I miss you." I said, before his face fully disappeared.

The next morning I woke up to a dragon in my face. When my eyes opened the next day they met a big pair of yellow eyes on purple scales staring me down.

I screamed louder than I ever had before, and the dragon jumped back, making an offended squawking noise. 

I looked down and saw another pile of fish in front of me. 

"Oh. Breakfast. Thanks." I said, picking up a fish.

The Hobblegrunt laid down in front of me and stared at me again.

 "Uh . . . the fire's gone out." I mentioned, it just stared back at me. 

"I'm uh, not really a fan of raw fish." I stated, holding out the fish to the dragon. 

Afraid of the dragon possibly biting my arm off, I turned my head away and squinted my eyes.

I looked back to see the Hobblegrunt hesitantly taking the fish from my hands and starting to chew. 

"See." I said, "Fish is good." 

I reached out my hand like I had last night, and the dragon jerked back, turning red in its face. 

"It's okay." I reassured, "I . . . I won't hurt you." 

The dragon's scales turned to a yellow color.

The nervous dragon closed its eyes and I rested my hand on its head. 

This was really something I'd never seen before. 

I mean, I had spent my entire life learning to trap dragons and you know . . . rid the world of them, but this Hobblegrunt was different from any other dragon I'd seen before. 

It had real feelings like us, it was just as afraid as me.

I stoked the dragon's head, "I suppose you'll be needing a name now won't you?" I asked, and the dragon made a curious chirping sound in response. 

I thought for a moment.

"How about Flinch?" I asked, and the dragon's head popped up.

"Flinch it is."