Ok… you all know the routine... I don't own How To Train Your Dragon or its characters… but I do own all new characters in this story… which just happens to be all of them so far. At the end please review and tell me what you think. Thank you. Now on with the story.

Chapter 6: Life On The Road, Or Sky.

The rain was beating down hard outside the cave Gunnar had found in his haste to get away from Skullette. His cheek still stung but it was nothing compared to the pain he felt in his aching heart. She had slapped him after everything that they had gone through. She had slapped him and he felt as though the world had stopped at that very moment. But one thing still bothered him. Why had she slapped him. She wasn't the violent type, in the few actually fighting practices they did out in the woods back on Gurand, he had learned that she would injure or disable before she would even think about killing someone. Even when it meant her life.

He was merely waiting for the rain to stop at this point. He didn't know where he would go after but he didn't care. It was then that he looked down at his bandaged arm. Skullette had complained about not needing help with the man that was flirting with her back in town, but did he need her to help him with his arm? "There is a difference between fighting and helping out of survival!" that is what Skullette had said. Was there a difference? He had always been fighting. It seemed so natural to him. He couldn't see if there was a difference or not. At least not until he thought back to Skullette and the village.

The villagers had always treated her like a disease. Like she would kill them if they touched her in any way. But she never fought physically back; she just faced it and kept moving. Was she always fighting silently? She may not raise a hammer to the villagers but she always tried to prove them wrong. That she was capable of fighting like they were. She didn't fight with a weapon. She fought with her head, and her Herbs.

"We don't know when we will run into these plants again and need to save as much as we can!" Did she have a point? The herbs worked well, but she had said there was enough to last the village till spring… hadn't she? What if she had said that to make the villagers believe she was done with her herbs. If this was true, how much was there really?

He was brought out of his thoughts by a loud growling cry from outside the cave. Getting up and walking to the edge he glanced outside trying to see what was out there. Another cry, this time closer. Why did it sound so familiar to him? That's when he saw the black mass walking just outside the cave entrance. Nightingale, what was she doing here? Why wasn't she with Skullette? He was sure she would have gone back to the cave when the rain started. But then why would Nightingale be out in this weather, which all dragon's hated getting to wet, roaring out into the woods? Finally he decided he couldn't let her stay out there by herself.

He ran out into the pouring rain to the mighty dragon. "Nightingale!" he called over the storm. The dragon turned to see him running to her. Deciding to make it easier for them both she bounded over to him. "Nightingale, we have to get inside, come with me, I found a cave!" He turned on his heal and headed the few feet it took to get back to the cave.

Once both were inside, Nightingale shook off all the water on her scales before burning the ground below her in a circle to warm up.

Gunnar went back over to his spot against the wall after ringing out his damp clothes. He relaxed and looked at Nightingale for a moment before speaking. "What are you doing out in this weather, Nightingale? Skullette would never have let you outside."

At hearing this Nightingale lifted her head and looked around the cave trying to find something. When she didn't see what she was looking for she got right up and started looking all over. Gunnar watched her carefully as she looked all over the cave. What was she looking for, fish? After a moment Nightingale's eyes fell onto Gunnar's and he could see the worry and anger in her eyes. Not being able to resist any more, he asked the question that had been bothering him ever since he first saw her outside in the rain. "What are you looking for?"

She advanced on him so quickly he pushed his body back against the rock wall. She had a look on her face that, if she could speak, would be around the line of, "Where is it?" or "What have you done with it?" She stopped in front of him and growled down at the young man, as if expecting an answer.

"Why aren't you with Skullette back in the cave?" He decided to ask in attempt to make her stop looking at him with murder.

At the question Nightingale stopped and looked at him with wide eye's in realization before looking out into the storm again. Following her gaze Gunnar wondered what the dragon was planning. That's when he realized she was going to go back out into the storm. "Nightingale, no. You're not going out into that storm." Not listening she bounded outside and started her roars again. Confusing Gunnar for a minute. Why was she doing this? Skullette would never…. Then it dawned on him. She was looking for Skullette. Had she not gone back to the cave? Was she still out in the storm? Another roar boomed over the rain.

If she was still out there…. He had to find her; the storm was bad and if she wasn't in a cave or safe he would never forgive himself. He had been the last one to be with her. Nightingale had no idea where she had been outside of the cave. Making up his mind he got up and headed outside. He came up beside Nightingale and yelled over the storm, "You're looking for Skully, aren't you!" A nod was his response from the dragon. "I don't know where she went but I know where I last saw her. I can take you there, come on." And they made their way back to the pond.

As they reached the side of the pond, he couldn't believe his eyes. Skullette was on the ground in the same spot as she was when he ran off. Why hadn't she moved? Gone and found a cave? Stayed warm and ride the storm out? Why was she still here? Running over to her he yelled her name and got no response. She didn't move and she didn't speak. He rolled her over and found her eyes not even open. She had passed out, but why?

A small roar from Nightingale brought him back. Now was not the time for questions. He had to get Skully out of the rain and where it's warm. Picking her up in his arms he hopped onto Nightingale's back and she took them back to the cave without a word.

Reaching the cave, Gunnar hopped down off of Nightingale and placed a soaked Skullette on the floor next to the dead fire. Nightingale went over to her, after shaking off all of the water from her scales, and laid down wrapping a wing around her to warm her slowly so she didn't freeze to death. Body heat was the best way to warm someone up after being out in a storm like that, if she was warmed any other way; she could catch cold and possibly die. Meanwhile Gunnar was putting dried sticks he and Skullette had collected the night before and started a fire.

Making his way over to the Dragon and her rider he bent down over Skullette to see if she was getting any warmer. When his hand touched her forehead, he was in shock at how hot she was. It was then that he realized that her breathing was labored and she was shivering. She was too cold and wet. The heat wasn't helping any.

A blush came to his face as he realized what he had to do. He had to get Skullette's wet clothes off of her. That was a violation of her personal space and body, but he would rather be hated for seeing part of her bare body than to see her die and know he could have prevented it.

So making up his mind he went to the pack and got out a set of new clothes to dress her in when he had gotten the wet clothes off of her. Finding the correct clothes he went over to Skullette and Nightingale. "I'm sorry for having to do this Skullette but seeing as you're not going to wake up any time soon and could die if I don't change you I really have no other choice." With that and a prayer to the gods above to keep him alive after this, he went to work.

First he took off her fur jacket, then went for the shirt. Just as he moved it past her stomach he heard Nightingale growl and cover Skullette from his eyes, while nipping at his hands to make him let go of her shirt. Looking up at the angry dragon and glared at her. "If I don't take off her wet clothes she could FREEZE to death! Is that what you want?" he asked her angrily.

Nightingale seemed to think it over for a moment before lifting her wing off of Skullette just enough for Gunnar to grab the shirt. As soon as his fingers grasped the fabric her wing came down and covered Skullette enough of her body so Gunnar couldn't see anything but her face.

Gunnar took a moment to smile at the dragon beside him and heard a soft growling purr come from the protective Night Fury. He looked back at Skullette and pulled her shirt off making her arms lift up with the shirt and slide out of the sleeves slowly.

He laid her head gently back down onto the ground before moving around the dragon's wing to the other side. This was the tricky part, how to get her pants off without seeing her top or anything that he shouldn't.

Once again it seemed Nightingale had an idea. Tightening her wing slightly more to her body, she was able to keep Skullette's top covered while Gunnar was able to see the pants and nothing above that.

Taking a deep breath he went to her pants and loosened them before taking the sides down slightly past her hips. As he did So Nightingale's wing followed covering any skin that was exposed to the young man. She did so as if she was flexing the back of her wing to lay on the floor as if coming in for a landing. Once he finally had the pants off of her he hung them along with her shirt and jacket on a rock close to the fire so they could dry. Her shoes were placed close to the fire to dry while he dressed their owner.

Grabbing the dry clothes he made his way back over to the dragon wing covered girl and started dressing her. Starting with her legs first. He slipped one foot in and then the other, making sure not to look up from her feet as he lifted her legs one at a time to pull her pants on correctly. Once he had them up to her mid thigh he sighed again. This was the hardest part of all, he had to get the pants up to her waist but in order to do that he had to go past her hips, and that meant seeing more then he should.

A growl alerted him to the dragon that the wing was attached to. She was glaring at him as if warning him not to do anything stupid. Letting out a breath he decided to grab the sides of the pants and pull up past her hips while looking at the stone wall to his right.

Thinking he had them all the way up he thought it was safe to look down. To his utter embarrassment he saw her lower abdomen and well some blond short hair, he still had four inches to go till he was at her waist with her pants but found that they didn't go any higher. Taking a look at the pants now he'd say that they were slightly shorter than the ones that were drying. Deciding to give them one more tug for good measure he quickly tied them.

Getting up Nightingale could see his blush and growled at him. "I didn't see anything." He defended, to shocked at what he had seen to be angry at being accused of such a thing.

He made his way around and took one arm and put it through the shirt sleeve then doing the same with the second and finally her head. He pushed her up so that her back was the only thing facing him and pulled the shirt down till it went past her pants.

Relieved that, that was over he laid her back down and Nightingale covered the girl enough to keep her warm now. He went over to check on the boots to find that they were now dry and warm. He quickly took them and placed them on Skullette's feet. Feeling he had done everything he could he sat down and started to cook some fish and hope that Skullette would wake up soon.

Gunnar sat by the fire, stomach full but his worry was far from gone. Skullette, while she had stopped shaking, hadn't woken up as of yet. He kept the fire burning and checking on Skullette from time to time, but there was only the slight warmth of her skin returning. Feeling her forehead he could tell her fever broke so now he had to make sure that her temperature didn't drop drastically. If it did it would be very bad for her and she might die.

It was with a small noise from Nightingale that Gunnar looked up from the fire to see what had roused the mighty dragon. He watched as Nightingale examined Skullette. She sniffed her and nudged her nose against Skullette's arm while whining quietly.

Gunnar's eyes turned to the girl and he couldn't believe his eyes. Skullette was waking up. She was going to be just fine. With a sigh of relief he walked slowly over to the rider and her dragon. "So you finally returned to the living." He half joked. As he watched her open her eyes he noticed something. She was awake but she wasn't aware of what was going on or that she was even awake. Her eyes were dull and looked as though the very life was taken out of them.

"Skully?" he called to her. No response. However, she did turn her head to look at him. So some part of her was there. "Come on Skully. I cooked some fish, are you hungry?" he asked as if hoping to bring her back completely.

She just looked at him for a moment before turning away and looking up at the ceiling. Closing her eyes slowly, she went back to sleep.

A whine came from the mighty dragon as she laid her head back next to Skullette's as if protecting her like a mother would her children. Gunnar came closer and wiped her bangs out of her face. He watched as her breathing slowed and she curled up into the warmth that was Nightingale.

Taking a long look at her, he couldn't help but notice that she looked tired. More so than she normally did. As if she had just spent the last few nights with no sleep. What had caused this change in her so suddenly? Had it been their fight? Had he hurt her that badly? All he was doing was standing up for her.

He stayed by her side that night as she slept. Getting up only to feed the fire. It was during one of these treks that he looked outside. The rain had turned into a light snow and was slowly starting to stop, which was a good thing. It meant that they would be able to leave as soon as Skullette came to her senses.

Walking back over he could see Nightingale look at him with her head still on the floor. He had gotten better at reading her facial expressions. This one was a light glare but he couldn't tell what she was trying to tell him. Shrugging it off for now, he sat down next to them and started to relax. Skullette had yet to wake up consciously, and if she didn't soon. Well, he didn't want to think about it right now. He just needed to figure out how to get her to snap out of it.

Deciding to sleep for a little while he turned his head to look at Skullette for a moment before looking at Nightingale. "Wake me when the fire starts going out. I won't be of any use if I'm too tired to move." Satisfied by a small nod from Nightingale he slowly drifted off to sleep.

Sometime in the middle of the night Gunnar was woken by a growl and a rough shoved in the direction of the fire. He landed just at the rim of the fire pit but his hair was less lucky. It was dangerously close to the fire. So much so that when Gunnar moved his head, his hair nearly caught on fire.

Moving swiftly in his now fully awake state, he took his hair and made sure it wouldn't go up in flames. After a moment he looks over his hair only to see it darker, almost a black color on the end of his bangs.

He turned around to see who had woken him so harshly. His eyes landed on…

"What was that for?" Gunnar yelled. Nightingale had pushed him in order to wake him up. The dragon glared at him before looking down at Skullette and then at the fire. Watching her he realized, after about three times of this motion, what she was trying to tell him. The fire needed to be warmer, Skullette was getting cold.

Grabbing some wood he got to work on making the fire warmer and then headed back over to the dragon and the shivering girl. He looked down at her sadly, only to be surprised when she opened her eyes. They were still dull but slightly more focused now.

She looked up at him slowly. Her eyes glimmering with sadness as she saw him. He watched as she didn't move, nor blink as she didn't look away. At least not until Nightingale growled lightly to get her attention. Blinking, she turned to look at her dragon partner. Slowly reaching out a hand she started to pet the mighty beast. Then the smallest whispering voice filled the cave. "I'm Sorry."

Gunnar was so surprised he didn't even see Skullette's hand leave her dragon as the girl fell back into a deep sleep. He just sat there for a long while trying to understand what she was sorry for. That's when he remembered his cheek that was stinging earlier. Or was it about his arm and her bandaging it when he told her not to? Was she really sorry about all of it? Or was she saying sorry to the dragon for worrying her?

As the sun began to rise in the sky, Gunnar stretched and looked around to see the fire just licking at the last bits of fire wood and the sun shining into the cave. The storm from last night was over, finally.

Turning around to see Nightingale still asleep he turned his attention back to the girl now back to her normal color. Her hands and forehead were warm again and the cold had left her body. Sighing in relief he added a few sticks to the fire and went out to find some food.

He came back about an hour later with a row of twelve fish over his shoulder. To his surprise Skullette was up and feeding the fire with some more wood she apparently brought back from the woods. He quickly set the fish down next to the fire before going over to Skullette. "Are you sure you should be up right now? You just got over a fever and nearly freezing to death, you should be resting."

She poked the fire a few times before turning away from him. He was about to yell at her for ignoring him but he was stopped as her voice reached his ears. It was sad and almost sounded like she was embarrassed to say anything. "I'm sorry I freaked out on you and slapped you."

He sat there in silence for a moment before deciding to clarify which she was talking about. "Is this including the man at the bar?" he needed to make sure he knew exactly what she was apologizing for so he knew what to do next.

A sigh crossed past her lips before she nodded her head so he could see. Understanding this entirely he thought for a moment before speaking as well. "I'm sorry I was so adamant about defending you. You can defend yourself. I just want to make sure nothing happens to you. You're my friend after all."

Faster than one could blink Skullette spun around in her spot and stared at him wide eyed. In their village she never had friends. At first it was because she was the chief's daughter and no one wanted to disrespect the chief by making his only child injured or cry. Later as they found out she was less Viking-like then the others, they made fun of her verbally. She never once knew what having a friend was like and now, here was Gunnar telling her he did everything in the village because he was her friend. That was the reason for his actions.

This realization brought tears to Skullette's eyes before burying her head in his chest crying. This action startled Gunnar before he wrapped his arms around her shoulders and back and held her tight. A muffled, "I'm Sorry." vibrated through his chest from the crying girl.

"It's okay. I know." He rubbed her back trying to get her to stop as all her frustrations over the years poured from her eyes. Every terrible word that was ever said to her; every word that was said when people thought she wasn't listening. And every word her so called father ever said about her and what he had been forcing her to do.

After a few more 'Sorry's' and more comforting words from Gunnar, she pulled herself back together and wiped the tears from her eyes. "Thank you Gunnar." Skullette said smiling at him.

He grinned back before a soft growl interrupted them. Nightingale walked over and nudged her head against Skullette's side while purring. Giggling She petted her head, "Thank you too, Nightingale."

"Well, now that that is all settled how about we get on our way?" Gunnar suggested.

"We will, I just want to do one more thing first." Skullette said with a grin.

Nightingale and Gunnar looked at each other and then back at her confused.

Skullette and Gunnar were back in the village an hour later. "Are you sure you want to go in alone?" Gunnar asked concerned.

"I'll be fine. And if I need your help, my scream is your signal." Skullette assured him.

"Fine but if I hear so much as a wine or whimper come from you inside I'm going in." Gunnar promised.

There was no arguing with that. She was going to do something crazy after all. It reassured both of them that he was close by just in case she needed him.

"All right, I'll be back soon." Skullette opened the door to the blacksmith stall and walked in.

"Well, look-y what we got here Babbitt." The man from yesterday called as he watched Skullette walk in. "The Girly came for some fun after all."

"Actually I'm here to collect the money you cost me." Skullette said calmly while glaring at the guy's friend.

"What money? If anything, you owe me something." He said before licking his lips as he walked around the anvil towards her.

She took out her bow and notched an arrow on it. "I wouldn't do that if you know what's good for you." She threatened. He stopped in his tracks while glaring at her.

"What's a girl like you going to do with that? You should be in the house making food or better yet under me in bed." He grinned suggestively.

A moment later an arrow went flying past his ear cutting the side of it as it went. "Like I was saying, you owe me money and I'll be taking it either by force or you can just hand it over." She said notching another arrow.

"Feisty, I like that about you." He walked closer to her grinning like mad the whole way. "And now it's time to put you in your place." He was about to grab her when an arrow went through his throat.

"I did warn you." Skullette muttered as the man grabbed his throat before falling to the floor in a heap of his own blood. She walked around him and over to the other blacksmith. "So are you going to pay me or do you want to end up like your friend over there?"

The man quickly ran over to the back door and came back moments late with a small sack of money. "Here, half our earnings please take it."

She smiled at him and took the money. "Thank you, have a nice day. Oh, and one more thing." She turned around and shot him in the calf. "Tell no one about this. Not even if they threaten your life because if you do you'll end up worse than your friend over there." She said menacingly as he fell to the ground holding his leg.

Getting a pained nod she grabbed her three arrows, the two that was across the stall and the third that was protruding from the man's leg making him cry in agony as she did so.

She left a moment later and greeted Gunnar who was standing just outside the door way. "So how did it go?" he asked while silently checking her for any scrapes or bruises.

"Better than I thought. We can go now if you're ready." She said before walking back through the woods. He quickly followed her and no one knew it was them that had killed the blacksmith and the other said he had driven a nail into his leg and before he could reach the other blacksmith he was dead. Claiming never to have seen who did it.

"All packed, ready to go Gunnar?" Skullette asked as she hopped onto Nightingale's back.

"Just one thing that bothers me. How much of that medicine do you actually have?" he asked looking at her with concern.

Sighing she leaned forward waiting for him to get on. "I only have two jars of antidote, a jar of healing herbs and maybe half a jar of herbs that help fight a cold or high fever, other than that I only have a few herbs that I got here or gathered when on Gurand." She explained.

Nodding in understanding he hopped on and held on to her waist. "All right so I'll leave the herbs and remedies to you then. I won't touch your jars unless you ask me to."

"Thank you, I appreciate that." Skullette said grinning at him. A moment later Nightingale took to the air and they were off.

Later that day around high noon a ship came into harbor. A large man with brown hair and braided beard walked onto the island. He walked over to the closest stall which just happened to be the blacksmith. "Excuse me, have you seen a girl with blond hair in a braid and blue eyes? She would be traveling with a young man about the same age as herself." His voice was calm but his green eyes told the blacksmith that if he didn't talk he was going to die.

"N-no, no one like that came here." He quickly closed the door and secured it.

Growling Bundar walked to the pub to ask one of the bar maids. "Have you seen a girl with blond hair in a braid and a boy traveling with her?" he asked.

She looked at him warily before answering. "No, best to look elsewhere." Before Skullette went to the blacksmiths' she'd paid the barmaid for the damages and asked her not to tell anyone that they had been there which took some bribing.

Growling Bundar left but as he reached the edge of the village near the docks he was stopped by a man selling herbs and some baskets. "I saw the girl she didn't tell me where she was going but her and the boy were headed for the woods my guess would be that they are headed south maybe south west." The man explained.

Grinning, Bundar thanked the man before heading to his ship and setting sail. "I'll find you and when I do you are going to pay."

Dun, dun, dun, that's it for the chapter. To find out what happens next it will be up next week. So leave me a review and I might put it up sooner. Thanks everyone. Oh and I Finally Made it to 5,000 words! Whoot, whoot!