I could just feel it, the icy cold of death gripping me, wrapping itself around my body, then, warmth. Air being forced back into my lungs just as it had when Void was there to save me. I bolted upright, like a replay from that afternoon. I was breathing again, having swallowed the water down the right pipe. Tears flooded over my eyes, fear flowing through my veins, terror inside my mind as I shivered, pulling life back into my body. The two people that were taunting Void were still there, smirks on their faces as I curled into a ball, sobbing into my knees. I never wanted to know that feeling ever again.
"Hey... are you okay?"
"Hn... y... yeah... I... I'm sorry..." I sobbed, my eyes red with fear.
"It's okay." He smiled, his expression oppositing as soon as he looked at the people, a shiver running down my spine. He let go of me, jumping up, his hands, arms, legs, head, everything turning into a Night Fury. He bounded for the girl, fear flooding into her eyes as she tried to run, his claws pinning her to the ground. She struggled to get free as the man with the deep voice morphed into a two headed dragon, flying off at full speed. "
"You're on your own Mida." He called, flying off with his dinner.
"Traitor!" She screamed, Void's arm raised to behead her. I jumped up and ran as fast as I could to stop him. No one else needed to die because of a Viking. Just as he threw his hand down, I put my arm in the way. I winced, blood running down my arm as I took the blow. Three uniform claw marks dug into my skin began to pour blood over her.
"G... Get out of here." I winced, the girl scampering up, only morphing out her wings as she flew off at a speed just under the Night Fury's. Void morphed back into a person, his eyes wide with shock seeing what I did.
"Wh... WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" He shouted, tearing his hand from my wound.
"I don't care what happens, no more people, dragons or humans, have to die." I smiled, my head feeling a little light as the blood ran down into the ground.
"Why did you do that?"
"I guess... because... I'm the one who wants peace in this world..." I thought, digging my nails into the skin around the wounds, numbing the pain.
"What? Are you mad?"
"No... I'm just... I'm tired of seeing death where I live."
"You... give me that." He snapped, taking my arm. "You idiot. Don't you get why people don't live after being attacked by Night Furies?"
"N... no?"
"Our bite, claws, and fire has poison in it. You'll die!" He shouted, bitting into my arm.
"Then what are you...?" I cried out, pain running through my arm.
"If I don't get it out, you'll die."
"But isn't the poison in your fangs..."
"I'm not injecting it." He mummbled, his teeth still in my arm. I could feel the numb feeling taking over my arm. Why couldn't I feel anything? Was I really dying?
He began to suck the poison out of my arm, my face growing hotter and hotter as the poison left my body. I was losing it, my mind growing confused and burning up, my head spinning.
"Hnn... st... stop!" I shouted, the poison leaving me with a burning fever.
"You need to get out of here." He sighed, turning into a Night Fury. "Get on."
I groggily climbed on his back, wrapping my arms around his neck, my consciousness only half there. He crawled back about twenty feet, then ran, jumped, and flew into the sky and over the ravine. He couldn't fly the rest of the way, so he bolted through the trees and the shrubs that lined the hillsides. Why was he doing this? Why did he care so much to save me from his attack? Why was he saving my life?
"Thank you... Void..." I smiled, leaning my head against his back, the soft sound of his heartbeat lulling my sleep.
"H... cup... Hic..." A voice echoed, my head spinning.
Was it Void? No, he didn't know my name.
"Hiccup!" My dad's voice shouted, shaking me senseless. My eyes shot open to see him standing over me with fear in his eyes, the medicine woman sitting by the fire, mixing gods know what. "Thank the gods you're alright!" He cried, hugging me tight.
"Aah!" I shouted, pain ripping through my grogginess as I realized the numb feelign in my arm had disappeared. "A... Arm!"
"Oh, sorry." My dad flushed, letting me go.
"Wh... where am I?"
"You're home! Alive! One of the luckiest of us, of anyone ever having seen a Night Fury! You lived!" My dad beamed, as if it was all thanks to him.
"Oh, him... Uh... not like I'd know... But... how did I get back?"
"We found you in his teeth, half dead! The poison was all in your arm! Luckily for us we got there in time to save you before he ate you. Beat the living hell out of that thing." My dad smiled, fear running across my mind. They hurt him?
"Was he okay when you left him?"
"Oh no. He was bleeding pretty badly."
"Hnn..." I winced, a tear flooding over my eye.
"What? Don't tell me you've gone soft for that thing?"
"Huh? NO! Something was in my eye! I'll kill it. Finish it off." I spat, putting on my best act.
"Oh no, you are in no condition to leave."
"Like hells I am!"
"You aren't. This is a job for you when you've gone through Dragon Training."
"I... I don't need that!" I growled, jumping up.
"Oh really now?"
"How many of the people here do you think can lasta Night Fury attack when I nearly won."
"That was luck."
"And I've got a lot of it."
"You'll die!"
"I'm going to die anyway! I might as well do it with something to talk about." I pushed him aside, running up to the hay balcony where I slept. I had everything up there. Clothes that weren't ripped and burned, medicine, food, blankets, a bed, more... I had just what I needed to patch Void up. If he was "bleeding badly" as what refered to my father was missing limbs, slices ten inches deep, and or dead, then I had to hurry.
"Hiccup please."
"Please nothing." I pushed, kneeling down by the medicine woman named Sheelah.
"Hiccup, if you go anywhere, take this." She smiled handing me a terra cotta jar. "It's an herbal remedy for pain."
Lady Sheelah was our age, fifteen, but she had a gift of healing, so she didn't have time to waste on looking for her love of her life. She was wasting away as fast as I was. "Thank you Sheelah." I smiled, taking the jar and running out the door with nothing but a dagger for protection.
"What am I going to do with him? He'll die?" I could hear my father ask Sheelah.
"Don't bother running after him. He's just like you. He won't stop until he wins his battle inside."
"what do you mean?"
"That curse is eating him inside out. He needs to make his mark before he runns out of ink." Sheelah smiled, reassuring me that my father wouldn't follow.
I ran at full speed into the forest, jumping over spears and swords left behind that symbolized sanity for those people, blindly attacking a dragon that couldn't fly. Fair wasn't a word too oftenly used in Viking language unless refering to the fact that life wasn't fair so the possibility that the one and only Night FUry I'd ever meet that cared for me was dying was all to real.
"VOID!" I shouted, knowing he could have collapsed any length of the way to the ravine. "VOID!" Tears began to fog my sight as I ran faster and faster until I reached the edge of the ravine, my eyes shifting from one end of the inset land to the other, searching for him. I finally saw him, my eyes widening as I jumped over the edge, landing on my feet, running to the edge of the pool. He was lying in the center of the pool, bleeding out. My luck he'd be the one place I couldn't get to him.
"Run!" Void gasped, wincing as he sat up. How he was sitting on water I'll never know.
"No! Wait, what's wrong with the water?" I asked, poking it, the surface as wiggley and gel-like as I'd ever seen anything. It looked like Spanish pudding.
"I'm doing it. I was hoping to have enough strength to get across, but I guess not."
"I'm coming out there to get you!" I shouted.
"NO!"
"Okay, so how do you think you're getting back across?"
"Time."
"Time waits for no one." I chuckled, slipping my shoes off and stepping on the surface. It was hard to stand on and it wouldn't stop moving, but I figured if I ran fast enough I could get to him quickly. Running to where he was, I took his hand. "Come on."
"What are you doing?"
"Get moving. I'm not liking this stuff." I panicked, my feet begining to sink into the water portion of the pool. I ran back to the land part of the ravine, the gel collapsing into water as soon as Void stepped away from it.
Finally we'd reached land, the water rippling widely as the gel had gone away and the sun was making its reflections on the surface creating a dance of light for the few that could see. The sun was going down fast and it had probably been a few days or something like that. I didn't care. I was just glad that Void was okay... well... less dead than I thought he'd be.
"Are you insane?"
"No!"
"Then why did you come back here?"
"To fix what I did!"
"What did you do?"
"I caused this." I pointed to his bleeding arm.
"I get cuts and gashes like this all the time. What's one more slice going to do?"
"You don't get it do you? My father's sword is specifically laced with black acid. That will bubble up, fester, and kill you." I shouted, hitting him across the face.
"What was that for?"
"Leaving me." I teared up, biting into his arm. He winced, letting out a grunt of pain, but the acid had to come out. Black Acid was a special poison only found in the ashes of snakes and dragons of high power, but the dragon can't take the acid itself. I began to suck the poison out of his gash, the flavor unbearably disgusting and putrid, but once again, he'd die from the acid before he died of the cut. The acid began to burn my mouth so I spit it out.
"Stop that!"
"I'm serious, this will kill you, not could." I said, wiping the black acid from my lips, biting down on his arm again. He began to struggle, the acid seeping into his muscles and burning up anything it came into contact with.
"Damn it!" He thrashed, crushing a rock in his hand.
"Just... hold on..." I mummbled, taking in the last bit of the acid, spitting it on the ground. "Here." I panicked, handing him a rag.
"What do I need it for?" He puffed.
"Bite." I instructed, forcing the medicine Sheelah had given me into his arm. He snapped out of his calm nature, the pain too much. I tore off a piece of my shirt, wrapped it around his arm, and pinned him to the ground in a hug. He had to stop moving or the medicine wouldn't have enough time to take effect.
"Gods... this isn't WORTH IT!" He grinned a little, pain written over his face. I knew how bad it hurt. One time a girl, stupidly, made a shaman from another village furious, so he threw the black acid on her arms, the pain so bad she died just before Sheelah could get to her. She was one of the cursed girls who died before she could stop her clock. Void laughed really loudly, gripping his arm tightly just as I had when he scratched it.
"I know... the medicine should take into effect soon." I smiled, stepping off of him, sitting on my knees.
"H... h... Hiccup is it?" He managed, hoping to distract himself from the pain.
"How did you know?"
"Your... father I think was shouting it at me when I tried to get near your village. That's when I got this." He laughed, pointing to his arm.
"If you ever see that sword, run. He uses it for everything when he's not using his hands so that is the only weapon he needs." I explained, leaning back in relief that he was okay.
"Why doesn't he use something else?"
"Because he only needs to nick you with that sword and you're down for the count."
"How does he not get the acid on him when he puts it on his sword?"
"That's just it, he doesn't have to! Once the acid has been put on an object, unless removed thoroughly, it won't be needed for another three years. That acid has taken down countless dragons and people alike."
"Sounds just like the Vikings... so... What makes you different?"
"Hmm?"
"What makes you different? What makes you the one that comes back and helps the dragon?"
"That... is from my mother. She wasn't a Viking."
"Then how did your father meet her?"
"She was a runaway. Well, more or less, a traitor to the Vikings. She refused to fight or slaughter anything without reason or with reason. She got sick at the sight of blood and she couldn't stand the thought of murder. She always taught me that no matter what, killing is wrong and we shouldn't do it. Just because the dragons attack us, doesn't mean that we should attack the dragons." I explained, remembering her long blonde hair flowing in the wind as she stood up for a dragon that slaughtered her without a second thought.
"Ezmarie."
"How did you know?"
"She used to feed the babies back at the nest. She was so kind and caring that everyone liked her... except for Agnis..."
"Who's..."
"Another time..."
"I see..."
"She was right you know. About the murder. Agnis... he just didn't agree... like the Vikings..." Void smiled, the medicine coming into effect.
"I know." I nodded, the pain returning to my own arm. "Ouch..." I winced, gripping my arm. I'd used all the medicine on Void's arm, so I was left to wallow in pain.
"You used that all up? Why didn't you use it on your own arm?"
"I thought you'd need it more."
"Idiot." He puffed, taking my arm and unwrapping the bandages.
"What are you doing?"
"Helping." He sighed, licking my wounds. Numbness went up and down into my arm as he licked it, no more feeling in the pain that was once there.
"What... are you...?"
"My saliva has a nerotoxin that paralyzes nerve cells and their ability to feel. You won't be able to feel that for another two days." Void smiled, tousling my hair.
"Everything we know about you... is wrong..." I frowned, looking at my arm and how that it didn't feel a thing.
"That is true... in every sense."
"What was your connection to my mother?"
"Oh... Well, honestly, you should be asking your father that question."
"What do you mean?"
"You mother wasn't human. She was a dragon, just like me. She was stupid and fell in love with your father and had you."
"How was she stupid?"
"She gave up her ability to fly and heal for him. So, if push comes to shove, you are techinically a dragon."
"What?"
