I'm sorry, I missed my last two deadlines (I suppose you guys can infer why, but I'll explain below anyway), and because of everything last week had me doing, I've been struggling to catch up (which is odd seeing as I purposely tried to prepare for it, funny how I couldn't)

Ok now...let's get right to it

Time for some train wreck Astrid, and hopefully I don't screw up the fluff section, but I've rarely ever written them, let's see how good I can do…I hope this works…

Chapter 9: A Promise

It's my fault, I bit her and caused her to become her worst enemy, living her own worst nightmare, I caused her pain, so I should do my best to help her through it. I fuel myself on my guilt. "Astrid?" I come around the boulder, knowing she wouldn't be this distressed if it weren't for me, and I hear her sob, her now onyx colored back facing me. I feel uncomfortable thinking about how she is no longer 'decent' but I push all thoughts out of my head, because I did all of this.

"Astrid…" I speak gentler, near a whisper, approaching her from behind. I've never really comforted anyone before, and it's especially hard when neither of us were born in our bodies. "Astrid…I'm so, so sorry I did this, but…" I gulp, hoping she isn't a full pessimist for this next statement. "…I'll do everything I can to fix this…and at least you still have your mind…you're not a beast…or a monster…you're still you." I stutter the last part, but hope she'll recover…but it did nothing. She continues to sob.

I lay beside her, careful not to touch her, she probably doesn't want that, especially from me. "Astrid," I say slower, trying to get her attention. "Astrid?" I don't know how to continue, so I move closer, to get her to look at me, I need to get her out of this, even if it kills me.

I get right next to her drooping wings, and I stick a wing around her, hoping to get a reaction of some kind.

Still fails.

"Astrid, look at me."

"I'm a monster." she sobs. I look over her, thinking of a way to get her attention. I finally decide I have to break her out of this mood myself.

I move to in front and lift my paws to her face to pull her out. Though they are bad at it, they work good enough, and get her to look me straight in the eyes. This is gonna be hard for me, so I take a deep breath. "You are not a monster, I will fix this, we'll be human again." Confidence spilling from my tone. I can only hope that helps.

"But…" she tries but I interrupt her there.

"I will, I promise, it was my fault, so I'm responsible" As question where this tone came from, and where it's been all my life. "And until then, we can survive as we are."

She looks down, still distressed. "Hofferson are never weak" she babbles. "If you hold that dear, then stay strong" I tell her "This'll all be over soon"

She looks back at me, still upset, but gaining some composure. Then she looks back down. She doesn't respond. "I'm not even a Viking anymore" she starts to sob again.

"Astrid, you are the strongest Viking I know" I need to get her out of this mood; I know I can fix this, all of it. "And you're still a Hofferson, you're still you." I hope she believes that, I know I do.

"I should kill you…" she whispers slowly, I flinch back a bit at her harsh, hoarsely calm and quiet tone. She lifts her head slowly. "You caused this." She starts approaching me "This is your fault, so…maybe if I kill you…" and she leaps at me clumsily, with my better Night Fury experience I tackle and hold her down, she needs to get through this first. "If you want to fix this, let me go, the Gods, Loki even, maybe they'll stop this, if I kill you."

"Astrid, listen to yourself, do you realize how insane that sounds?" I try to reason with her.

"Does becoming a dragon sound insane?" she hoarsely replies pinned under me. This is probably the first time I could ever hold someone down.

"Compared to how this started, I don't think Loki is going to care, he's never been 'appeased', he only wants a joke…no, we need to find another way." Though I do question some of our forms of appeasement, drinking sacrificial blood seems like an awfully strange method for a God to care about.

"I…I just can't be a dragon…I just can't be…I shouldn't be a dragon, isn't there anything to fix this." She twists her head to the side and close her eyes.

"I told you Astrid, we'll find it together, I'll make sure you return to your normal self" With a large dose of confidence.

She stares back at me, her now dark turquoise eyes looking straight into me, and I hope for a second that she stops hating me. "Really?"

"Yes…and if I can't be human anymore, then I'll make sure you can. I owe you that much." I look her deeper in the eyes.

"I…"

"I'll do everything I can…it was my fault" I drill into her.

"T…hank you…Hiccup" Her final surrender dazed me; it's the first time she's actually used my name, to refer to me.

"Of course" as I finally get off of her. She's still upset, but maybe what I said will hold her over.

I can only hope.

So my friend seems to be crazy again, he apparently thought the Viking in the cove would become a dragon, what kind of lunacy is that, and his insanity grows to say his bite was causing it; He is way past lost it. At least I'll gain a good pile of fish out of it; good thing I also taught him how to fish.

I walk to the cove he was left in, and he hasn't bothered to escape it for hours, maybe he's going finally after the fish cause he figured out he was crazy. I look in to see no one going in the small pond.

I jump into the cove, looking to see if my friend is around, and searching around in the now darkened cove, I find his tail sticking out from a rock, as if he was being obvious trying to hide. I jump on top of the boulder to try and startle him…and I see another figure, a dark one, under his wing. His wing covers most of it but it looks to be another Dark One, and it appears much more slender. I make the assumption that it's the first female I've seen since my mother. It smells a lot more like my mother. A female…then that means we're not damned, I…we have a chance. And they seem to have fallen asleep like this. If it's a female, it is probably his mate, and he finally realized his insanity seeing her again…seems like a good time to bug him for his lost bet.

"WAAAAKKKKEEE UPPPPPPPP" I roar smugly, he jumps.

"Ah! What…when did you get back?" He asks me, before he looks down at the other Dark One and flinches away, and the one beside him rises from sleep.

"What in Hel was that?" Her obvious feminine voice portrays I was right, and her frustration at being woken up also appearing in it. "Why would you yell in my ear?"

"I didn't, he did." And she turned to see me, with very interesting eyes, never expected her colors from a Dark One. She looked somewhat shocked?

"Hiccup?" So she used that stupid name too? "Is that…the Night Fury…?" Night Fury? Her too?

"Yes, he's the one who bit me" he told her.

"I didn't bite you by the way"

"I was shredded by a black dragon, which I shot down and trapped in a bola." I look at him oddly; I remember a rope…a bola? And I remember crashing, but nothing much else. "Three guesses as to what it could've been."

"I still think you've lost your mind, and I suppose your mate thinks she was a Viking too." I snidely reply.

Putting anger in her voice. "I was a Viking before he...wait, what do you mean by mate?" She glares back a very hate filled eye. What did I do?

"His partner, other-"

"WHAT?!" She nearly blasts my ears out. "WE ARE NOT MATES" She darts further away from 'Hiccup'. He looks at her jump from him and then shifts his vision to me.

"What gave you that idea?" He puts a tad of aggression into the response. Knowing him and his insanity, I'm unphased.

"You were sleeping, covering her with your wing, that's not a friend thing." It is a deep gesture.

"I was comforting her, it's my fault she's a dragon." Now my glare is questioning.

"That reminds me, what happen to that Viking you had in here?"

"You just surprisingly pissed her off" He told me, emphasizing surprisingly, glaring at me with a deadpan. Is his insanity really working on other Dark Ones?

"You really expect me to believe she didn't fly in here"

"You wouldn't believe me if it happened in front of you, I still can't believe it happened to me." He looks down upon himself, examining his left paw.

"We've been over this, now are you gonna be serious and tell me what happened-" but I was abruptly stopped.

"I already told, I'm being as serious as possible, you just upset her. Whether you believe me or not, she'll tell you the exact same thing," He pauses for a moment "If she doesn't try to kill you first." We both dart a look towards her.

"Why would she-" Wondering, I was cut off again.

"You really don't remember that bite?" He glares back at me.

"Do you remember the egg?"

"What?" He stresses the word, nearly hissing back at me unintentionally.

"You were hatched from? Do you recall it?" I slowly stare back at him.

"That's the thing, I wasn't hatched, I wasn't born like this," lifting his forelegs and shoulders awkwardly "And neither was she," he points back to the female. "I shouldn't have to keep explaining it."

"And assume I do believe you" With sudden conviction in my voice. "Say you are even Viking, and you both happen to have become Dark Ones somehow, how do you suppose you get back?" He looks back at the female.

"I...I don't know, all I do know is your bite and my bite were capable of more than anyone thought." He then looks downwards. "And I can't believe I brought Astrid into this, I can't believe I bit her."

"What do you mean by that anyway?"

"I never meant to bite her, I never meant to harm her, I just wanted to stop her axe from killing that friend, but I...I had no control, I...it was like I had complete control without any" He mutters that last one a bit, but I get the picture, though it's confusing. That reminds me of something but I'm not sure what. I recall hearing similar stuff before, but not sure what.

"That doesn't make sense"

"I don't know how to...uh, explain it, it felt like I was the one attacking, and couldn't stop, but I wanted to" Now I know I've heard that somewhere, but when?

Then Hiccup gets even more upset and just curls up right next to me, and starts to sob. "I can remember anger, fear, hatred, but it wasn't me" He sadly moaned. "I didn't want to harm her, I didn't want to bite her, she didn't deserve that." He sobs a bit louder. "I never meant for this" Good thing his 'friend is asleep now, she seems to have cried sobbed herself out like Hiccup appears to be doing. "I don't even recall much of the bite either, I just recall the anger, the last I remember is shooting her axe." His wings then droop slowly over his head. "Even as a dragon I'm a screw-up"

It feels odd seeing to dragons upset enough to actually sob, especially Dark Ones, in public. We are the strongest and these two felt so weak, it just isn't right. Oh, and another thing.

"You two can't stay here all night either, you guys should probably come into the cave."

"I told you she wasn't born a dragon, so she can't use her wings" His statement held less sadness and more cold fact in it. "And I'm not leaving her."

"How did you guys survive so long...doesn't matter, we need to teach her-"

"She already is pissed at you and enough at me, we need to let her alone for now, maybe tomorrow." He lifted his wings during the statement to glare back harshly

"Fine, tomorrow, I guess I'll just have to keep watch" I say frustrated and with thirty minutes of help from Hiccup get out of the cove to the cave, watching over the two."

Toothless leaves with my help, then I go back to Astrid. She's now asleep, and probably sobbed her eyes a bit over being a Night Fury, though she'd never admit it.

I curl up beside her without draping my wing over, watching over her incase something happens. Don't want the strange sneaking up on us do we. As I curl around I feel the need to speak to her silent body. "I'll fix this, even if it kills me, and I'll get you back your humanity" I say "I promise."

Whew, you have no idea how hard that was to get on, but I had fun. Also, sorry for missing last Friday and Monday, but when your school dislikes the way you think, they tend to not like giving you more chances. Either way I have a more difficult time with writing this and that has made me yet again unreliable, sorry :(

(Also I made the schedule idea before my PC broke so it makes me sad to say that I might get stuck only releasing on either Fridays or Mondays and not both)

In either case, I hope you liked my writing, I tried to pull some more heart strings and I hope I did, like I really hope I didn't screw it up. Tell me if I did, this is not the only time I'm going to do it and I rather know if I can take this as a learning experience or as a good example.

Either way, I hope you enjoyed, and I'll be honest, I'm nervous over this chapter (if you couldn't tell) so please tell me the truth.

Anyway, if you liked this story, don't forget to fav and follow, and whether you liked it or not, tell me in a review. (In fact, tell me if I should switch up these small ANs a bit, cause I'm thinking about it, and would like to know if you guys are too)