The Fool (spoilers for all RotE books, including LST)

[Farseer]

Right. Small steps, and just a few for now, especially as it is now almost 1am here...

By the time this event happened in Fool's Fate (Fitz being caught between the Skill-pillars), Tintaglia and Icefyre had already met and mated and Tintaglia had managed to force Icefyre to place his head on the hearthstone of the Mothershouse. The dragons in the Rain Wilds had also long ago emerged (Fool spoke of them to Fitz right at the beginning of TM while both were reunited at the hut). So. By the time Fitz came into contact with this presence, Tintaglia was in company with other dragons....

You say that dragons had hatched "long ago" by the time the Fool visited Fitz at his hut,

No, o0Ampy0o. I did not or do not say that 'dragons had hatched "long ago" by the time the Fool visited Fitz at his hut'.

What I said was, as per the post of mine quoted above (with brackets with comments inserted herein to help assist with your understanding of my comments),

> that Tintaglia and Icefyre had already met and mated {so Tintaglia had been joined by Icefyre prior to Fitz being caught within the Skill-pillar} ...

> The dragons in the Rain Wilds had also long ago emerged {by the time Fitz was caught in the Skill-pillar}

> (Fool spoke of them to Fitz right at the beginning of TM while both were reunited at the hut) {during their reunion in FE, Fool told Fitz about the dragons having already emerged so not only were they in existence even then but, by the time Fitz was caught within the Skill-pillar at the end of FF, the dragons which had emerged during the 'hatching' were aged even further - made older by the timeframe that had elapsed from the moment that Fool had told Fitz of them and when Fitz had been caught within the Skill-pillar}

I initially made these points in response to your post which suggested that the star could not have been Tintaglia due to Tintaglia being the only true dragon left by the time that Fitz had come into contact with the brighter star among others when caught within the Skill-pillar toward the end of TM. While, as I have already stated, I agree that the presence was likely not Tintaglia, it is not because she was the only true dragon at the time as there were *many* true dragons in the realm at the time. As I have noted here.

(cabin? ....was it the cabin where Fitz lived with Hap and Nighteyes or a hut? I don't recall a hut.)

Yes, I was speaking of the hut/cabin where Fitz lived with Nighteyes. As a North-West Queensland-dwelling Australian, I would name such a structure a 'hut' every time. Still, no matter where you lived in the world, I'd expect that a 'hut' or a 'cabin' would mean the very same thing and cannot see why there would be confusion here. Or maybe the two words only sit side-by-side in an *Australian* thesaurus? Truly, we are splitting hairs here over my use of the word 'hut' as opposed to 'cabin'?

As it happens, after Fool and Verity-as-Dragon and co flew away and Fitz had seen the death of Will etc at the end of AQ, Fitz and Nighteyes did live in a hut in the Mountains that Fitz himself had built.

After a time, and many other happenings, they both also moved into and lived in a hut near Forge, on 'Bramble Creek'. It was here where Starling brought them Hap, where Chade came to seek out Fitz and where Fitz and Fool were finally reunited. You may not "recall a hut" but it was, indeed, a hut...just as it was, indeed, a cabin and just as it was, indeed, a cottage and just as it was, indeed, a house. As I would expect, Robin Hobb actually used *all* such terms interchangeably to describe the dwelling that was the home of Fitz and Nighteyes.