For those curious enough, Tehom is commonly read 'ti-hum'. This however is likely just the version I'm most familiar with as the name comes from old Hebrew and as far as I know is written תְּהוֹם. Enjoy.
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I stared Astrid down, waiting for her response. Judging from how she stiffened up, there was likely some natural pressure behind my gaze. Something I rarely, if ever, experienced in my past life. But in hindsight, my brother could have felt it on occasion - running away to call parents, yelling that I bullied him... with my eyes apparently.
While I enjoyed another flashback of my past, Astrid opened her bag. After some fiddling she took out a slightly crumpled from drying piece of paper. On it were two long strings of Anglo-Saxonian Futhorc runes. 'They look somewhat like an imitation of Roman numerals. A weird one, but that's likely it.'
Before I got the chance to ponder them further, my mind caught up and I focused back on the word clumsily written with a charcoal pencil above those strings of, most likely, numbers. 'ᚠᚱᛁᚦᛥᚪᚹ. As in Friþstōw, again? That's how dragons call this island. Was she looking for it?' I didn't want to say more than I would have liked to, so I stayed quiet and waited for Astrid to ask for her favour.
She took her sweet time, looking at the piece of paper with a troubled expression, probably thinking what she should ask of me. 'That's a good sign, that she doesn't know much about any of this.'
"Can... can you tell me what this is? No, wait. What does this mean?" Astrid said with an amusing mix of excitement and anxiety. 'She makes me feel like a djinni. Maybe I should play along?'
"Friþstōw. 62162822. 00289481." I obviously said that is draconic, after all, I can't speak 'human'.
"...?" She looked very confused for a good while,... until it clicked. "You! You're impossible! I officially hate Night Furies! As if it's not enough to have Toothless act like this. God damn it, are you Loki's children or something?" Fortunately, she was smiling by the end of her outburst, though was still clearly mad.
'Unexpected, since I did it without thinking, but I won't complain about her regaining trust in me.' To my dismay, Astrid still didn't forget about her requests. "But seriously, what's written here, and answer in a way I can understand."
"It's a name and location of this island." I wrote without any explanation as I judged it to be unnecessary. And I was right as she nodded and stopped pushing me for information.
"Will this information allow someone to enter this island without external help?"
This was a valid question from Astrid's perspective so I decided to answer. "No, but since I'm still here I will tell the owner of this island about it."
Before I even finished, Astrid opened her mouth to ask me about it, but she closed it after I gave her the look. "I will take you back to the alcove and don't go anywhere. After I'm back we will leave."
I could have sworn, I saw some regret on Astrid's face when I closed the topic like this, but she already knows too much.
Our walk was spent in silence, but it was obvious that Astrid relaxed a lot from her initial apprehension of me, due to my lapse in self control. It was also clear as day that she was still mulling over my answers.
The walk wasn't long and after making sure Astrid actually stayed inside, this time. I left for the meeting place.
To my surprise, this time, someone else that answered my call. This Skrill was vibrant dark blue with pristine, smooth scales and wings unmarked by time. "How can I help? You're Zoya, right?"
I didn't know what I was expecting, but not to be recognised. "Yes, but did we meet somewhere or...? I'm terribly sorry, if I forgot your name." This whole winter that I spent with Caniyo, Devyn and Gylfi, I did meet a lot of other Skrills and even if we didn't speak much I came to like this clan.
"I think I saw you once or twice, but we didn't talk. I'm friends with Gylfi, though, and he talked about you. Oh, and you can call me Harald." In this case, the world is literally small.
I was also relieved that it's not someone completely new to me, because I find it quite uncomfortable to spread to every dragon in the sanctuary, that I helped bring a human onto the island. "Oh, nice to meet you, then. I came with some last minute news for Tyrfähl. Could you send a message to him for me, Harald?"
He swished his tail in silent curiosity, but I'm pretty sure he will just ask Tyrfähl about it. "Sure, what is it? I hope it's not too long, though. I'd hate to mix it up."
If I hadn't known better, I might have believed that, not that the huge grin on his face helped his case. "Good for you, it's quite simple~." I said in a teasing voice. "Tell him that the thing that he allowed me to keep, brought a message that a note with this island's name and location on it, written in runes, has found its way into dragon hunters hands."
I could barely contain my smirk at seeing his frozen expression. 'Ah yes, the revenge shall be mine. I love messing with them.' "No need to ground yourself - it's not that bad. Just keep an eye out for unwelcome visitors in the next decade and it should be fine." I comforted, not wanting to worry him too much.
"You are right. Humans while a lot more cunning than most dragons, live very short lives. They will probably lose this piece of knowledge in a couple of decades." He nodded seriously at my comment and spread his wings to leave, but paused and added. "How sure are you?"
"I saw a copy of that note." He just nodded and took off. "Thanks for that and have a nice trip. You are leaving today, right?"
"Yes, and I'm sure I will." After he disappeared into the clouds, I left as well. 'Time to go. We were supposed to leave at noon and it's already mid-afternoon.' However, this didn't stop me from going for a quick flight around the island before we had to leave. 'No matter how I look at it, I will miss this place. Skrills sure are good at garden keeping.'
Swooping down to the base of the waterfall, I could see Astrid as she waited for me in the alcove, with everything packed and ready to go. "Are we leaving now?" She called out as soon as she saw me.
"Almost." I wrote down in front of her. Astrid was about to ask me something, probably for a reason behind the delay, but was cut off as a thin, black whip hit the back of her head. "It's for the bet- !"
I dove for her as she fell forward and face first on the rocks, fortunately landing on my head and rolling off with much less force. "Oh no, I hit her too hard!"
Looking her over, I found no blood,... thankfully.
"I'm so sorry for that bruise, which you will likely have, but you don't know about the gate and it's better for everyone, if it stays this way." Using my tail, I gently placed her between my wings and slowly took off. Making sure to be as gentle as possible.
"I'm so terribly sorry. I'm absolutely going to beat up Devyn when I see him. I'm sure it's his fault for making me get used to his sturdiness."