Well this took for-ever. Seriously I cant believe how long it has been since the last upload, hopefully everyone didn't abandon this story. Iv'e had crazy amounts of school work and studying for finals. Anywho, you probably don't much care about that so here is the chapter.

-LINE BREAK-

(Recap) Suddenly my eyes snapped open and my gaze shot up across the lake to the lip of the ravine. There, crouched in the shadow of a lone tree and staring straight back at me, was Camicazi.

I growled low in my chest and Toothless whipped around. Shaking her head Camicazi backed slowly away and then turned and fled.

-LINE BREAK-

It had been almost a day and a half since we had seen Camicazi at the entrance to our forced temporary home. They had spent the hours after her abrupt departure trying to find any way to escape from the enclosed space they were currently trapped in. If she came back with more vikings they would be vulnerable and unable to escape. It would come to a fight, which injured as we were would not be swayed in our favor.

So, finding no means of escape, we had made our way to the base of the waterfall where the cascading water and a nearby tree provided the most effective cover in the area.

There we had lain for hours and hours, dreading the moment when we would hear or smell the approaching viking threat.

However now it had been almost a day and a half since Camicazi's appearance as well as nearly three days since we had eaten anything. So it was the hunger more than anything else which drove me to the waters edge.

I was fairly sure that I could go weeks without food if need be and Toothless even longer, but that didn't mean either of us wanted to. As I hunted slowly at the waters edge I suddenly spotted a small fish, only about the size of my hand but definitely worth the meat.

Lighting quick my left arm shot out and I came up gripping the fish in my claw-like nails. Repeating this process multiple times I finally had enough food for a small meal. I brought the dozen or so fish back to the safety of our little rocky alcove to where Toothless was waiting.

Carefully avoiding my bad side I sat down and gave all but three of the fish to my brother. Finishing quickly I groaned in satisfaction, I had been so hungry. However I still wanted more. Rumbling my exit to Toothless (who was still finishing the last of his fish) I walked back out to the lake.

I was stood over my prey, eyes focused and waiting for the exact right moment when all of a sudden the wind shifted and I smelled it. Stiffening and immediately wincing in pain I turned towards the scent and bristled. I looked up to ground level and zeroed in on the same little tree by the waterfall. It was now almost directly above us and I hissed backing towards the water so as to get a better viewpoint. I couldn't see her but I knew she was there. My keen sense of smell told me that she was up there on that ridge and logic got me the rest of the way in ascertaining an exact location.

What was she doing back? And why did she seem to be alone?

Toothless, presumably hearing and sensing my agitation, came out to join me and immediately caught on glaring up at the offending tree.

Slowly the small form of Camicazi came out from behind the tree, she came into view with hands raised and a slightly nervous but haughty expression on her face. She reminded me of when Shimmer was caught doing something, she had the same underlying guilt and worry but it was masked by an expression that said 'this was my plan all along' and 'you finding me was exactly what I had planned.'

I couldn't help but mentally grin slightly at the comparison. My amusement at her veiled chagrin however was quickly replaced by suspicion and my newfound hate of her and her people. Continuing to glare I simply waited for whatever she would do next, I didn't wait long. "WHO ARE YOU!?" She called down.

I simply tilted my head, 'who are we?' That was what she had come to ask?

I suppose it was better than coming back with a group of angry vikings. I considered a moment before nudging Toothless and heading back under the waterfall.

He hesitated a moment before following me away from our intruder. "What are you doing? If we leave her alone she could come down here!"

I turned to my brother "I know, that's sorta the point." I grinned "if she comes down then we can make her help us get out." He just shrugged "but wouldn't she just let us up into a trap?" I shook my head "If that was the plan then why did she come back alone?"

"Trust me, this could work."

It was ten minutes later that that we heard the sounds of Camicazi beginning to descend the cliff face and nearly twenty after that that the sound seemed to stop. But it had not stopped at the bottom.

Cautiously Toothless and I exited our small cover, looking up we saw that Camicazi was perched on a small outcropping of rock that was only about seven to ten meters up the wall. I judged the height (I could probably get there if I had to).

She glared down with an air of superiority and raised her chin at our guarded expressions. "I am not here to hurt you. Do you understand me?"

I understood her just fine, it was close to the same way that mother and I talked not to mention that I had been listening to their conversations for months now, but I wasn't going to tell her that. Instead I growled to Toothless to just let her talk.

She visibly gulped but continued "what-" she paused seeming to rethink her words "who are you?"

I actually did grin slightly at that though I still made no attempt to answer her. She seemed to grow more and more annoyed before finally lifting her hands in the air waving expressively "how did you survive when I shot you down?" I bristled at her words and my eyes narrowed, so it had been her that had caused us so much pain.

She paled at the change in my expression "so you do understand" she whispered. She nodded to herself as if satisfied with how things had gone and turned to make the climb back up the cliff.

Angrily I noted that the only reason she had come down was so that she could get more information. I sat back watching her climb ignoring the searing pain in my side and just hoping I could make her fall using sheer willpower.

Over a half hour and a fish or two later she finally reached the lip of the cliff, and after a moment bent over catching her breath (these vikings were so weak) she turned back around, called down that she would be back, and then vanished again from sight.

I turned to Toothless who huffed at me, I translated what she had said and he rolled his eyes "probably be back with more vikings and more sharp things."

I pushed him lightly in the shoulder, "I don't think so, she seemed to be more curious than anything." I shrugged, "she claims that she was the one who shot us down so if she wanted to hurt us then why not just use more of those spiked balls?"

I raised my hands in defense at his look "I'm not defending her, just saying that maybe she won't tell the rest of her people about us." I looked at him "it's better than how we thought she would be returning."

-LINE BREAK-

Toothless and I were standing knee deep in the sparkling water trying to catch some kind of food.

After my surprising success two days ago there had been very little. Yesterday Toothless had felt well enough (and hungry enough) to come and help me, but we still had only had about five fish between us over two whole days.

As the morning turned into afternoon I wondered not for the first time where Camicazi was. True she hadn't specified when she would be back, but I still found myself twitching at swaying trees near the surface.

I was more than fine with her leaving us alone but she could at least come back to yell at us to leave or something. Not knowing when she would return was nerve wracking.

I saw fish darting through the deeper waters but I could barely move my arm without agonizing pain let alone go for a swim.

Toothless in much the same situation was keeping his wing gingerly out of the water and wincing anytime it touched anything.

Giving up on catching anything I turned and slowly walked back to the shore. Slowly sitting down I once again cursed those stupid metal balls and the infuriating girl who had shot them.

Just as I was laying out on the nice hot rock to rest I heard a soft whistle.

Opening his eyes and looking up I noticed the distinct form of Camicazi. Finally. But I scowled up at her and rose to a crouch while making sure that Toothless had also heard her arrival.

They watched as Camicazi shifted something over the edge of the cliff and used a long sort of vine (rope they had called it back on that first little island) to lower the object down onto that same little ledge just seven or so meters away.

As it came to rest on the ledge I realized that it was a large basket of sorts. Curiously I sniffed at the air and was surprised to find that it seemed to be filled with fish.

The different smells entered my nostrils and despite my caution I felt my stomach growl. Why had she brought fish?

Ten minutes later Camicazi had followed the basket down the rope and was stood on the small ledge next to to the fish.

She grinned down at us and I made an effort not to look interested. "Told you I'd be back!" She proclaimed it as if we had been waiting with baited breath every second hoping to see her return. Seemingly oblivious to our less than ecstatic demeanor she continued "sorry it took me so long, I had to take my time sneaking fish out of the store room."

'Store room?' I wondered. That must be the name for that little structure that the vikings kept food in.

Then it struck me, these fish in the basket were taken from her own people.

My gaze narrowed and I looked into her eyes for the first time. As we stared at each other I looked for any sign that this was some kind of trick but I saw only curiosity and stubborn determination.

"So" she said breaking our connection, "all you have to do if you want the fish is talk to me. I even cooked a few for you."

'Cooked'? Ugh sh meant burned, like mom liked her food. I wrinkled my nose in distaste.

She seemed to misread my expression and put her hands on her hips glaring down at me as if to say 'stop pretending, I know you understand me.'

I looked at my brother and (though he partially understood) gave him the details of what she had said. "Why would we trust her?" I shook my head, "I don't see that we have much of a choice, I don't know about you but those fish smell really good."

He huffed a bit but finally conceded "Fine, but don't expect me to hang around while you two speak viking." I grinned at him and nodded making a throaty noise that basically meant 'well fuck you too.'

Turning back to the girl I nodded my head towards her to start. She looked a bit startled at having my consent but recovered quickly and asked her first question, "Who are you."

-LINE BREAK-

Hours later Camicazi was sitting, back against the rock, with a somewhat awed look on her face. I grinned as she gaped, looking down at me and seemingly searching for a response to the information that I was both dragon and viking.

Over the course of the afternoon she had berated me with almost nonstop questions. She covered everything from "why were you a part of the raid a few nights ago?" To "how long have you been here?" (She wasn't particularly delighted to hear that we had been following her people from the first small island for months).

All her inquiries led her to a new conclusion but none seemed to surprise her as much as my status as part dragon. I knew ever since she had first almost said it that the real question she wanted answered was "what are you?" So I immensely enjoyed the look of disbelief that was now on her face. It was as if she was trying to wrap her head around the fact that someone like me could even exist.

Days passed and Camicazi came to visit almost every one of them, she told me of her life and her peoples' deep seated and (as I came to realize) not entirely unfounded hate of my kind.

How a Monstrous Nightmare (I realized she meant a Flamescale, gods even their names for different dragons were bad) had killed her father and how she was now meant to follow her mother and become the chief of her village.

Camicazi talked about the bimonthly dragon raids and her peoples suffering because of it. She told me that the reason she hadn't turned us in was because when she saw that a viking could be companions with a dragon she felt it her duty to find out if a truce was possible.

With no small amount of effort I convinced her that Toothless (whom she was still wary of) and I had never before taken part in or even known about these raids.

I asked her about vikings and about the existence of other "villages." My grudge agains her for shooting us down and my hate of what her people did to dragons slowly gave way to my curiosity and desire to learn.

On the eighth day of her return she managed to get a grin out of Toothless and on the tenth neither of us hesitated before digging into the (thankfully all unburned) fish that she had brought.

Camicazi was back on the little ledge and I was continuing our conversation from the day before by explaining to her the real names of the different kinds of dragons.

It was slow going because she would have to explain what each dragon looked like in order for me to guess which of my brethren she was referring to.

I looked at Toothless and we laughed as Camicazi waved her arms around describing a dragon that "Only lived in complete isolation, killed everything that approached, and wore the bones of its enemies as armor."

Toothless and I had just pulled ourselves together from her description of a "Boneknapper" when she let the fish basket drop at our feet.

Holding up my right hand to indicate that I would tell her after the food I tipped the basket letting the fish fall out onto the grass.

Tentatively I began picking through the pile for some of the gray silvery ones that I most enjoyed. Toothless took a small salmon onto his moth as I pushed back a trout. As I pushed the next fish aside an acrid smell assaulted my nose. There in the middle of the small pile was a long brown-yellow eel.

I recoiled and hissed at the vile thing, backing nearly to the waters edge Toothless and I put as much distance as we could between us and the eel.

I rubbed my nose on the back of my hand trying to get the stench off. What did Camicazi think she was doing? I thought we had been making progress, not quite friends but at least to the point that neither Toothless nor I were very interested in killing her.

"What's the matter?" Camicazi's voice seemed slightly louder and, distracted as I was, I almost missed the reason for it.

I tore my gaze from the vile eel to look directly at Camicazi. She was now stood at the base of the cliff. A little patch of grass, right beneath her previously permanent residence of the rocky ledge. She was on the ground, on our ground. Toothless seemed to realize in the same instant and turned sharp teeth and throaty growl on her.

Camicazi stiffened, "I- I brought you food, and I haven't hurt you guys." She was wisely looking down, "haven't I earned some trust?"

I stared at her. She had actually come down, despite what we could do to her. I could kill her in less then ten seconds wounded and all, Toothless could half that time with a well aimed plasma blast. What was she thinking?

I laid a hand on my brothers right shoulder and tilted my head at this brave, stubborn, stupid viking girl. "Haven't harmed us?" I asked her quietly, "you mean other than shooting us out of the sky and nearly killing us?"

She looked a bit uncomfortable but waved her hand as if dismissing it, "that was a raid, I thought you were just like all the others attacking us." She shrugged "doesn't count."

I had been slowly getting closer and closer ignoring my brothers small sounds of caution and I was now back standing next to the pile of fish, eel and all. "Uh huh" I said. Then, faster then I thought I could move with my injury I cleared the two meters of space still between us and, using my good arm, gripped her by the throat.

Lifting her to her toes agains the wall I studied her face. She had given a sharp yelp when I had grabbed her but was now perfectly still, impressively calm for someone in her position. But I could see the fear in her eyes.

"Trust comes later," I looked her dead in the eyes and ever so slightly loosened my grip once again letting her feet fully touch the ground. "The only thing that you've earned is your life." I let her go and walked back to Toothless who looked concerned at my pained expression.

Even that small amount of movement had caused my side to flare up again.

Reaching my brother I turned back to Camicazi who was rubbing her throat and gulping air. I glared at her but decided to simply continue conversation as if she were still up on her ledge.

"Why did you bring the eel?"

She glanced up seemingly startled by my question, "um?" She glanced questioningly towards the pile of fish. "It was a rare catch and I thought you might enjoy it?"

She posed it as a question, seemingly afraid of what our response might be. I felt myself loosen a bit.

So she truly didn't understand how terrible it was and hadn't meant any harm by it, vikings were weird.

I sighed, "definitely not enjoyable." She looked puzzled.

"I don't know what they are like for you vikings but for us that thing smells worse than a month old fish caught under a talon."

Despite the situation she actually let out a laugh at that. "I am very sorry, I truly didn't know." She walked over to the pile, bent over to retrieve the offending aquatic creature, and then flung it out into the middle of the lake.

With the smell now safely gone I felt myself and Toothless relax. I moved back to the pile of fish and started eating again while Camicazi just backed up to the wall and watched.

A few minutes later we had polished off the fish and I stood up, "so why did you come down today?" I turned my head to look at where Camicazi seemed to be studying my wound.

She hesitated, "well I kind of thought that I might be able to help you and your brother with your wounds." She grimaced "I actually do feel bad, though perhaps its not quite so bad as it looks," she raised a hand rubbing her throat.

I grinned, "oh it hurts, just not enough to make us anywhere near an even match."

She huffed a bit "I wasn't ready for a fight, I could take you, easy." She glared at me but her voice lacked conviction.

I only shrugged, "how would you help?"

She turned then rummaging into a bag that I only now noticed was slung over her shoulder. After a few second she pulled out a small container of what looked like green plant material followed by what must have been the rest of the contents of the bag, a long white strip of cloth.

She held up the items "this is made from a healing plant by the healer of our village" she held up the bulky white cloth and continued "and this should work to bandage your wounds.

I frowned, it was very similar to how mom bandaged us up at home. We had done the best we could to clean the areas with water, but leaves in our little ravine were scarce and the leaves with healing properties were nonexistent.

"Open the container" I told her.

She set down the cloth and removed the lid allowing the scent to cary. Smelling nothing that was immediately incriminating I walked over and took it from her. Sniffing it I walked back to Toothless, "smells good to me," I held it up for him to sniff. He recoiled a bit but nodded "same gross stuff that mom uses" he confirmed.

I turned and nodded to Camicazi, "thank you, this will help immensely." She just nodded.

After making sure that we used her materials appropriately she turned back to the cliff and made to start the climb. It was getting on towards sundown and I was feeling rather good about the idea of sleeping with this newfound lack of pain in my side.

Turning to look over her shoulder Camicazi gave a final farewell and made sure that it was ok to leave her vine, rope I corrected myself, hanging down to the ledge.

Uncaring one way or another, its not like I could climb it yet anyway, I told her that it was fine and gave her a grudging appreciation for the leaves and bindings.

In a record time of just twenty five minutes later I watched as Camicazi pulled herself over the top edge, waved goodbye, and disappeared.

Looking down at my newly bandaged wound I shared a look with my brother. This was going to be interesting.

-LINE BREAK-

A full moon cycle had gone by since Camicazi had first made the drop all the way to the bottom of our little ravine and I sat now on her ledge, waiting. My wound had healed well, aided by the supply of herbs and bandages from Camicazi, and I was now strong enough to clamber up the short distance to the little raised ledge.

At this rate I would be fully healed by another moon cycle.

Toothless too had greatly healed, he was by no means in flying condition but he no longer had to cradle his left wing when he moved.

As I sat waiting for the girl and her basket of fish I found myself reminiscing about life at the nest.

Mother would be worried, though it was nowhere near the time that she expected us home I knew that she would be spending the days concerned.

I thought of our friends; Bree and Bash, Boulder, Squeak, Firefang, and Shimmer. What were they doing without us? Spending lazy days flying and playing tag?

I sighed as a cool breeze blew through my hair, I missed the open sky, the wind in my face and air currents beneath my wings. I missed doing arial tricks and shooting after my friends as we leaped from the cliffs.

I was brought back to the present by a scraping of rocks from above me, and looking up I saw that Camicazi was making her way down the rope. I watched her as she descended, finally touching down next to me on the small ledge.

"You made it up!" She exclaimed excitedly. "Told you you were looking better!" She nodded in approval and busied herself with dropping her basket carefully off of the edge where it rolled to a stop next to the rocky bank.

Toothless padded over and giving her a slight grin he began digging into the small supply of fish.

I have an indignant cry "Hey! Save some for me!" Momentarily forgetting my injury I rolled from the ledge landing in a crouch on the ground below. The fall, while normally no problem hurt like hell and I gave out a soft gasp of pain.

However as my greedy brother had barely even glanced up at the noise I brushed it off and hastily made my way to the diminishing pile of fish. With only five remaining I pushed my brother away and bent down to take my share.

Scarcely had I finished one when I was pushed to the ground by a big scaly head. Leaping up and turning around I glared at my brother "nothing intentional" I told him.

He grinned and gave off an echoing rumble of challenge. I leaped at him and, using my left arm, brought his right foreleg around and underneath him. With a surprised yelp he fell to the ground his right shoulder taking the brunt of the force as I made sure to stop the movement before he rolled onto his injured side.

I growled in triumph as he got back to his feet "Lucky shot."

I rolled my eyes and merely moved back into a ready stance. Before anything else could happen Camicazi broke our intense stare, "What in Odin's name do you think you are doing?!"

I turned confused to see her glaring at us "You two are still hurt! And instead of taking it easy and healing you decide to attack each other?!"

I looked a little sheepish "he was going to take all the fish" I mumbled. "Plus, we do this all the time" muttered Toothless. Though I knew she couldn't understand what he had said she got the gist of it because she rolled her eyes and and shook her head disapprovingly "No more fighting until you are healed."

We muttered some kind of halfway assent but she obviously wasn't satisfied. "How about this? Any more fighting and no more fish."

I gaped at her "no more fish?" She smiled "none."

"Fine I ground out, "no more fighting." Toothless made an indignant sound and turned walking into the shallow water.

-LINE BREAK-

The weeks progressed and aside from a few scrapes neither Toothless or I had any sort of new injuries to speak of. So Camicazi continued to return with fish and we continued to gain our strength.

It was the middle of the day and, deciding that it was about time to try my luck again, I made my way over to the rock wall that was keeping me from the world topside. I had yet to attempt to make it higher than Camicazi's ledge since that very first day, but it had been nearly two months now and my wound was almost entirely healed.

The beginnings of scar tissue had appeared running from below my shoulder to right below my shoulder blades and the entire area where the spiked ball had hit was still sore. I rubbed my hand along the area and felt a painful twinge as the almost healed wound took the pressure.

I rolled my arm around and stretched the newly formed muscle that was just aching to be used.

Setting my left hand upon the rocky wall I hoisted myself up onto its surface. Somewhat hesitantly I found a handhold with my right arm and slowly transferred my weight. There was pain, but it was bearable and I continued to work my way up.

It was fifteen minutes later that I clambered up over the ridge. I lay there panting and exhausted, but I had made it. From below came the victorious roar from Toothless and raising to all fours I answered it with one of my own.

Looking around for the first time in what felt like forever I noticed first how small of a clearing was actually made by our little slice in the earth. After the edge of the crevice there was only about three meters before the woods took over again.

It was a miracle that we had landed just perfectly in this little space. Not far to either side and we would have been home free. The trees would have hurt but at least we wouldn't have been trapped. Plus, it had hurt anyway.

Calling down to Toothless I let him know that I was going for a quick hunt and that I would be right back.

I was back before the sun had even started to set and feeling happier than I had in a long time. Toothsnout hung over my shoulder I approached the edge of our ravine.

As I approached I began to make out the high pitch of Camicazi's laugh and my brother's indignant grumbling.

I grinned, glad every day that I had decided to give the viking girl a chance.

Over the last month or so we had been slowly growing our trust and now at the very least I felt confident that she wouldn't attack either of us. We had stopped taking shifts for sleep, stopped being on high alert for her people to come pouring into our home.

It was actually comforting to have Camicazi coming around, not to mention that the food supplies had been a life saver.

I cried out to Toothless letting him know that I was back and his answering plea for help with "The dammed viking girl" made me laugh.

At Toothless's distraction Camicazi looked up too and shouted her approval in seeing that I had made it out.

Knowing she would have trouble hearing me I simply grinned and waved down.

Hurt as I still was I realized that I would probably need both of my arms for the climbdown, which meant that I had to ditch my kill.

Toothless had once dropped a Toothsnout when we were flying back from a hunt, it had plummeted half the distance I was looking at now and still been mostly wasted as it splattered on the earth.

So if tossing it was out I would need another way to get it to the bottom.

Camicazi's rope!

Excited by my solution I walked past the top of the waterfall and over to where her rope was tied off to the tree. Hefting it up until I got to the end I tied it securely around my kill and lowered it all the way back down.

An annoyingly long time later I touched down on the ledge just below where the Toothsnout was now hanging. I untied it and tossed it the remaining distance to where Toothless was looking up at me expectantly.

"Lazy butt" I scolded him, "You could have made it up here."

He grumbled "yeah but mis viking over here said that I would just break her rope and then she wouldn't be able to get out." He shrugged "I don't really see a problem there though seeing as you can hunt now."

I grinned at him before turning my attention to the frowning Camicazi.

"Well hello, did you bring fish?" I looked around hopefully but didn't see any basket.

"I just brought fish yesterday" she crossed her arms "plus, seems like you have the food thing under control."

She gestured to the Toothsnout "exactly how long have you been getting other food on top of what I bring?"

I raised my hands in a placating gesture, "today was the first time I swear, I finally felt better enough to make the climb."

She huffed "well judging by how freaking quickly you did it I'd say that you have been better enough for a while."

I was momentarily confused before realizing that to her my climb had probably seemed quick. Toothless laughed at her assumption and I kind of rolled my eyes at the now indignant viking.

Glaring at Toothless I translated his rumbling laughs.

"My brother would like you to know that the time that it just took me to descend the cliff was more pathetic than when you vikings try to catch fish."

She looked taken aback, "what's wrong with the way we catch fish?" She huffed and then further defended "I don't see you two having much luck!" She gestured at the small lake and gave Toothless a glare.

I put on a look of mock pain, "we were severely wounded by some stupid viking's death balls." I grinned at her, "lack of fishing prowess should have been expected.

I could tell that she was trying not to smile now, "well obviously you now have no problem with hunting." She gestured to the Toothsnout "if you can take down a wild boar all by yourself than I think you should be just fine."

I frowned slightly and cocked my head. "Wild... Boor?" I repeated.

She laughed and thus I learned yet another of the strange names that the vikings used.

-LINE BREAK-

Alrighty good chapter? Bad chapter? Please leave your thoughts. Reviews are what make posting fun. Also I would very much like for people to share what direction you want the story to go, I have a general plan but I am completely open to ideas.

Ok, thanks again and I'm going to get started on the next chapter!

Oh, also, my other story (possibly stories) are in the works, I have no idea when they will be coming out but most probably soonish. So stay tuned!