Hey guys, sorry it took so long. Hope you guys like it. I'd love to hear what you think of the story so far.

Darkness. It surrounded me. It preyed on my soul and filled every corner of my mind. It fought for control but I refused to give in to it. I was strong; correction I AM strong and I would fight until the bitter end. I tried to move my arms, my legs, anything that would allow me to fight back, but my mind felt disconnected from my body. I tried to open my eyes but with the same results. I struggled; I could feel a cold chill start to spread over my body. I knew that time was running out; that death was creeping in. As the cold climbed up my chest, I knew that I was finished. I slowly lowered my head in defeat until all of a sudden, the cold disappeared. As quickly as it came, the cold vanished and was replaced by a familiar warmth; a loving warmth. My eyes were still clamped shut but I knew it had to be Aria. I had felt this loving warmth before whenever she wrapped me in her wings. Whether she did it to protect me or to comfort me, it always felt the same; a warmth that tickled your heart and embraced you with a comforting heat. I called out to her, but I didn't hear her answer; instead I felt my body begin to rock back and forth. The soothing motion helped me to relax and I knew that wherever Aria was, she was watching over me. Knowing this, I allowed the blissful feeling of sleep to wash over me like water. After I had rested for a little while, I tried to open my eyes again. It took me a while to pry open my eyes that were still swollen with sleep, but I finally managed to open them, only to be blinded by a bright light. I blinked, allowing my eyes to adjust. When my vision had adjusted I realized the bright light came from a roaring fire only a few feet away. As I looked around, I realized I was in a small wooden room. It was filled with dried plants and some strange talismans. As I tried to figure out where I was, something stirred behind me. As I turned my head to see what it was, I came to look into two, pale green eyes. I smiled. I knew only one creature that had those eyes.

"Aria?"

At the sound of her name, Aria cooed and blinked in response. I sighed, quietly thanking the Celtic gods for keeping her safe. At that moment, Aria started licking me. She smoothed her tongue across my face and then began to lick my arms and legs. I knew that she was doing this because she was worried that I was hurt, but I still hated the feeling of being covered in dragon saliva.

"Aria stop…..Aria, look at me."

Aria looked up at me and stopped. Her eyes were filled with concern. I looked at her and smiled.

"It's okay baby girl. I'm fine. See?"

I shifted my legs off of her wings and began to stand up, using her back for support. But my knees buckled under me, sending me straight towards the ground. Aria swiftly wrapped her tail around my waist, preventing me from falling flat on my face. Then, she lifted me up with her tail and brought me back onto one of her wings while wrapping the other around me. I looked up at her.

"Okay, so maybe I'm less than fine." Aria growled at me. "Okay okay, I'm not fine. Happy?"

Aria snuffed, obviously pleased. I rolled my eyes.

"But that doesn't mean you can lick me into submission. I don't want to smell like your last meal."

Aria rubbed her head against mine. I sighed; I loved it when she did that.

"Oh good, you're awake."

I froze. I hadn't even realized that someone else was in the room. I turned to where the voice had come from and there, sitting against the wall was the boy. The boy who had saved me. The Dragon Trainer. When I looked at him, he got up from where he was sitting and moved closer to me. I was too weak to fight and I couldn't find my sword, so I shrank back against Aria. Aria made no move to stop him from approaching; instead she nudged me, trying to assure me that he meant no harm, but I didn't understand. With nowhere to go, I closed my eyes and waited for him to strike. When nothing happened, I slowly opened my eyes and looked at him. He just sat there with his legs crossed. He made no move against me, instead he held out a bowl of soup to me.

"Here, take it. I mean you no harm." He said as he held the bowl out to me.

I looked at it, my eyes growing wide with hunger. I was still suspicious of him, but I hadn't eaten for nearly a week. My stomach growled, begging me to take it. I finally gave in and grabbed the soup from his hands, greedily gulping it down. As I handed the bowl back to him, the boy smiled.

"Wow, you must be starving, let me get you some more."

He got up and after refilling my bowl, handed it back to me. He repeated this process seven times until I had had my fill, watching me the entire time. I laid my head down on Aria's wing and sighed. The feeling of a full stomach was absolutely delightful. It had been so long since I had had a decent meal. The men only fed me a few pieces of bread and some water each day when I was on the ship. I looked at boy and nodded my head in gratitude. He smiled and nodded back.

Hiccup smiled. He was glad that Keelie was feeling better. When she had collapsed in the hall, he had been afraid that the blow to her head had killed her. But after checking her pulse, he realized that they could still save her. So after calming her white night fury down, proving that he would do nothing to hurt Keelie, he jumped on Toothless and took Keelie from his father, who instructed him to take her to Gothi's house. He quickly left the hall and shot up into the night sky with Toothless, with the white night fury close behind them. Once they had reached Gothi's house, he set her down where Gothi motioned him to and watched as she began to work on her head wound. Once her head had been attended to, Gothi kicked him and both dragons out so that she could look for any other wounds. He then waited outside the hut for about an hour where he tried to keep the white night fury from breaking down Gothi's door, out of concern for Keelie. When Gothi came out, she signaled that he could enter. Once they were inside, Gothi left to inform Stoick of the girl's condition, Toothless had jumped onto the rafters and fell asleep, while Hiccup and the white night fury kept watch over Keelie all night. At dawn, Keelie developed a fever and began to shiver. He did everything he could to keep her warm and bring her fever down, but everything he did seemed to make it worse. The fever became so bad that she had begun to moan in her sleep; tossing back and forth. Hiccup had been at a loss of what to do and even Gothi had no idea how to help her. They both thought that she would be lost, until the white night fury approached her. Hiccup's jaw nearly dropped to the floor as he watched the dragon pick Keelie up from the bed with its mouth and laid her across its back. The white night fury then moved over to the fire and laid Keelie on one of its wings in front of the fire. It was then that Keelie mumbled something in her sleep and began to toss and turn. The white night fury then folded its other wing over Keelie and began to rock her back and forth as Hiccup looked on in awe. After a few minutes of rocking, Keelie seemed to stop shivering and fell into a peaceful sleep, while the night fury wrapped its tail around Keelie and kept watch over her.
Ever since he had taught Berk how to train dragons, he had never seen any dragon act like that around a human. Toothless didn't even behave like that. Sure he would look after Hiccup and woe to anyone that stood in his way, but Toothless had never acted so….tenderly. Hiccup spent the rest of the day observing the white night fury curled up around Keelie. He even took out his notebook and drew a few pictures of the two. When Keelie finally woke up, he stayed quiet so he wouldn't scare her and watched as she spoke to her dragon in the same, unknown language she had spoken when they met. He then decided to speak up to alert her of his presence after he witnessed her almost fall flat on the floor.

"Oh good, your awake." he said.

When she looked over to him, he stood up and slowly approached her. She looked terrified as she shrank back into the white night fury's wings. The white night fury nudged her to communicate that he was not a threat, but she was too scared to understand. He felt a lump form in his throat when he watched her close her eyes as if she was waiting for him to slap her. What did those men do to her, he thought. To show her that he meant no harm, he grabbed a bowl and filled it with soup.

When she opened her eyes, he held it out to her and said, "Here, take it. I mean you no harm."

She looked at the bowl with wide eyes and just stared at it. He could hear her stomach growling from where he was sitting. Eventually she took the bowl and gulped down every last drop of soup. When she was finished, she handed him back the empty bowl.

"Wow, you must be starving, let me get you some more." he said as he got up to refill the bowl. She managed to eat seven bowls of soup before she signaled that she had had her fill. She then laid her head down against the night fury's wing and nodded her head in gratitude. Hiccup nodded back and got up to put the empty bowl in the sink.

When he sat back down, he tried to explain to her where she was.

"My name is Hiccup." He said slowly. "This is the island of Berk. The men who brought you here are gone. You are safe now."

Keelie just stared at him blankly.

Hiccup smacked his forehead and sighed. "Oh who am I kidding, you probably can't understand a word I'm saying."

He got up from where he was sitting and signaled to the door. "I'll just let you get some sleep then."

As he reached for the door handle, he heard Keelie mumble something.

He turned around and looked at Keelie. "What did you say?"

Keelie sat up from underneath the dragon's wings, looked at Hiccup and said, "I said… Thank you, Hiccup of Berk."

Hiccup stared at her in amazement. So she did understand him.

"You… you can understand me?" he said.

She smiled, "Yes very well actually. Bear with me though; my Norse is a little rusty."

Hiccup smiled. "Your Norse is fine. Where did you learn to speak it so well?"

The smile left Keelie's face. "It's a long story."

Hiccup walked back over to the fire and sat across from her. "I've got time."

Keelie looked at him and then looked into the fire. "Then I should probably start from the beginning."