Stupid stupid stupid! You're a fool. An absolute fool!

These words repeated themselves over and over in her head as Shadow lay unconscious. Her mind creamed at her because of her stupidity. How had she not realised that despite the transformation, her wings would not be strong enough to fly her away? The memory of the deadweight limbs pained her.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

She could hear voices nearby, muffled by the confines of whatever room she was in, and her fuzzy hearing. Her body was incredibly stiff, caused mostly by the bandages wrapped around her body. She cracked her eyes opened and hissed.

The light was heaps too bright. She was mostly used to working in darkness, and it hurt her eyes to look at bright things for long.

The muffled voices were becoming clearer, but she still couldn't make out words. But she recognised the voice of Hiccup, Astrid and Fishlegs. They must have been talking about her.

Shadow hoped that they hadn't found out about what she could do. What she was. If they had, they could have been planning for her execution. Wonderful.

A door opened somewhere, and she heard someone walk in. Shadow forced herself up to look her aggressor in the eye, but saw no one. Looking down, she realised the healer, Gothi, stood before her.

She did not look pleased.

Dealing with elders was nothing new, however at this point she had no respect for the tiny old lady. She huffed at her to show dominance. The elder wasn't going to get any respect unless it was earned. That's how it worked.

Gothi glared at her and tapped her foot on the ground. The little old lady was definitely not happy with her. The elderly healer had been woken up in the middle of the night by a group of annoying – and loud – teenagers, carrying an unconscious and bloodied girl with them.

Gothi had a hard night.

And she was not appreciating the glare and slight snarl her patient was giving her.

Gothi grabbed her staff and swiftly bonked her on the head. Shadow cried out and rubbed her head. "What was that for?" she demanded. Still glaring, the elder used her staff to scratch drawings and scribbles on the ground.

Shadow was at a mind blank. "I can't read this. Wouldn't it make sense to have a translator?" her head shook. "Then how we communicate back and forth? I only know sign language as a way to communicate with people who cant talk. And I doubt you know of it."

To her surprise, the elder started signing away in front of her face.

'Of course I know sign language. As one who doesn't speak, I need some way of communicating.'

She was rusty and slow at signing to her – her primary way of 'talking' was using her scribbles – but Shadow could still understand her.

"Well then. With that issue out of the way, why the hell did you whack me with your stick?" she hissed.

'You growled at me, that's reason enough.'

Shadow huffed. In her culture, respect was always earned. Everyone started out on the same level, and they earned their way to the top in levels of respect. In her eyes, the tiny elder hadn't done anything to earn respect yet. But she couldn't dwell on that now, Gothi was signing again.

'I hope you understand how much work I had to do for you. Those teens wanted to see what was wrong with you and hang around while I stitched you back up. It was a hard task keeping them away, especially since you were bleeding out at the same time.'

Shadow blinked a few times. Curiously, she rolled her shoulders and moved her back muscles, and sure enough, she could feel movement of torn and bleeding muscles right were her shoulder blades were. And there was something else too.

'Now why don't you start explaining to me why there are black scales sprouting from your back, and why I could find a small pair of horns hidden under your hairline'

Shadow froze under the elder's gaze. This was it, she was caught. She was done for. She could try and run, but she felt too weak – most likely from both her transformations and the blood loss – not to mention Gothi kept that stick of hers within easy reach and whacking distance. Perhaps it was time she gave up. There was only so much she could do before wanting to stop.

She sighed. "Alright. You got me. That Black Moon dragon that showed up about a week ago, it's me. I am the Black Moon dragon. The curse I bare subjects me to take on two forms that changes with the lunar cycles. I believed that I was going to be hunted for attempting to kill Astrid when I lost control, so I tried to force the transformation and escape. I reverted back to human form to try and salvage the situation because I couldn't fly away. I foolishly didn't take into consideration the moon phase and how much strength it gave me, and I was grounded." She said.

There, it was said. Gothi stepped forward and laid a hand on her knee in comfort.

'None of the teens know of this. They haven't seen your injuries and I haven't heard them mention any other form you may have. Its safe to say they don't know what you are. But they are onto you.'

Shadow sighed and hung her head in relief. There was still a chance she could keep her head attached. She ran a clawed hand over her throat as horrible memories resurfaced. She didn't was to come that close to an execution ever again. But at least now she had a chance. She could still run when the time came, but this time she would have more strength.

Shadow looked back at the small elder with a plead in her eyes. "How am I going to stay hidden?" she asked. "I cannot leave until the night of the new moon, which is weeks away. And the dragon riders are onto me. I'm sure their dragons already know – but they can't tell their masters because they can't speak. If I hang around them for much longer, they are going to find out about me, and that will unleash all sorts of doom, death and destruction. What am I supposed to do until the new moon?" she asked.

Gothi thought for a few moments. An idea was starting to form. Unexpectedly, the tiny woman started walking around her hut, grabbing all sorts of jars and containers and mixing ingredients together. Shadow looked at her curiously and wrinkled her nose at the horrible smell. It was putrid. She put a hand over her mouth to stop from gagging.

Gothi looked back up at her and started explaining. 'I can help create an excuse for you to stay up here and away from the dragon riders. By intentionally making you sick, they will not have a choice but to leave you alone up here with me or risk getting sick too. This little potion will knock you out for about a week while it heals the wounds on your back and helps your body produce more blood. After you wake up you will be incredibly weak from lack of exercise and food, so you will have to stay for another couple of days. Then we will need to figure out what to do from then.'

It seemed like a reasonable plan, although Shadow didn't like the idea of getting intentionally sick. Last time she did, she felt horrible for days. However, she couldn't ignore the fact that it sounded like a good idea. A week and a bit out of action would keep her away from curious eyes, and closer to the full moon. From that, she could gain more strength.

Although, many things could happen to her while she was out, and she would be helpless to attacks. If someone barged in and saw the remnants of the transformation – those traitorous scales growing from her back – they could kill her without her resisting.

But even now, she was in a predicament. The little old woman at her feet held her life in those frail bony hands. She felt compelled to do what the little woman suggested, as to not aggravate her into threatening to give her away.

Shadow started feeling respect towards the elder. And she wondered if she intentionally planned to have the dragon girl at her mercy now.

Shadow had to bide her time, and Gothi's suggestion sounded like the best one at this point. She nodded to the tiny woman and accepted the potion.

"Can you swear to me that no one will find me here? And that I won't be discovered?" She asked.

Gothi smiled at her and nodded. Shadow could see no lie in her wise old eyes. She braced herself against the bed and ignored the horrible smell as she sculled the entire potion.

It tasted far worse than it smelled, but Shadow forced herself to drink it despite her wanting to throw up.

Her head started feeling heavy and her limbs were going numb, so she laid back down on the bed in the healers hut and fell asleep.

Woohoo! ten chapters. yay! thanks to everyone who has been following this fanfic since I started writing, your support has been great :)

gimme a review on how I've been doing so far, and any ideas for the future chapters. I need to kill a lot of time in this story so I can get to the time of the new moon, where shit will really start to go down. so any ideas a valued, if I dont get any, then I will just have her knocked out for a week and Shadow help Gothi up in that hut. not really fun. but fear not, shit will go down soon, on a major scale. lol.