Important announcement at the bottom. PLEASE CHECK IT OUT.

Okay, I'm really sorry for not posting this earlier. But seriously, I had mocks and essays… And writer's block, and I was sick… and generally I was just procrastinating. Sorry D:

I kept rewriting this chapter over and over again because I just had to perfect it… I'm still not happy about the smoothness of this, but look out for some "romance" XD I've decided that this story will not have too much romance because Aleda and Hiccup are just 14. (By the way, how old do you guys think Niall is? XD)

Here's the chapter that's been long awaited for – Thank you for some of the reviews for slapping me awake. (And wow! So many views . Thanks guys.)

Disclaimer: I do not own How To Train Your Dragon or the characters in it.

Pain

The two Night Furies swerved to dodge several attacks. From the ground level, it seemed like the two dragons were dancing in the air, creating beautiful patterns and drawings. However, they could also see that they were dangerously close to the chasing dragons.

"We have to gain height!" Niall yelled, his tail moved just out of the way from a gel like fire line.

"This is the highest I can get!" Aleda's eyes started to water from the height, her wings ached as she pumped harder. The confusing clouds surrounding her wasn't helping either.

"Turn around and shoot!" He snarled as he tried to bite someone that got too close.

"I can't attack them! They're dragons!" She desperately flicked her tail the other way, tilting to the right more than she was supposed to, and fell.

"Under control by the damn Queen!" He dove tightly to avoid being scratched, and rose back up to face those same dragons that tried to cut him.

Meanwhile, Aleda panicked as she fell from the sky. Calm down! Calm down! She commanded herself and recalled the lessons she received from Niall. Breath, breath… Flipping her body around in the air, she heaved and changed her tail position, and shot upwards again.

She hesitated when two dragons turned to face her. Her pause gave them enough time to attack, and as a result, she found herself flying away again, instead of attacking. "Gods Aleda! Attack!" She heard his shout, wincing as a hot fire burnt her scales. Must be the Nadders.

"Sorry!" She gritted her teeth as a few scales fell off from the heat and turned around in her mid-flight, charging her mouth with purple blasts of energy. She found her targets and let go, hoping that at least her target practices would help. It was weaker than her dive-blasts – but it will have to do.

One of her blasts hit her target, while the other merely exploded in a few inches before the dragon. One of them scampered off, while the other spun and shot back towards her. Her eyes widened when she realised what it was about to do, and tried to twitch in order to avoid the blow. The dragon missed by a few inches, brushing past her in high speed. Above, she could hear Niall's whistles and blasts as one after another dragon began to escape.

Still, she couldn't help the anxious feeling when she saw that he was fighting more than two dragons at once. One side of her argued that he could handle himself, but the lump in her heart only grew.

This is not the time to contemplate my feelings! She snapped at herself and flew upwards towards Niall, shooting a weak fireball towards one of the dragons to distract it.

Without seeing whether the shot made it, as Niall had taught her, she turned and dove downwards, hoping that it would follow. She heard flaps of wings, and smiled as she realised her plan had worked. She continued to dive until she broke the cloud layer and saw the green land below her. Without warning, she extended her wings and twisted to the side to prevent crashing into the dragon (which she did once against Niall in a lesson – it didn't end well) and swerved upwards, using her agility against them.

She heard a crash, but didn't risk turning her head back – that would cause her to lose balance again. She continued to pump her wings upwards into the clouds until she could see him again. Judging by the silhouettes, she figured that he was only facing two dragons now. They spun around each other, their shapes becoming bigger by seconds. When she finally reached their height, she faintly heard Niall's pants – He's tired! That's why they're falling!

She forced her wings to continue flying up, and waited for the right time. Then she dove into the middle of Niall and the two dragons as they formed a hole, successfully distracting one of them for Niall to strike down. He risked a glance at her, and nearly hissed when he spotted a shape hurling towards her. "Watch out!"

Surprised, Aleda stopped her movement to let herself fall freely, watching a dragon snapped at where she was a second ago. She involuntarily shivered when she imagined what would have happened if Niall hadn't warned her.

She struggled to fly upright when she noticed the dragon that tried to sneak up on her recovered, and started to flap towards her. The wind underneath her prevented her to turn at the right angle, and she tumbled through the air without control.

Come on! Now that she was under the clouds, she could see that it was no longer white and fluffy – they turned grey, an indication of another storm. She cursed Berk's quick weather changes, the wind blew harder underneath her half stretched out wing.

Wait. She was still falling, but there was something missing. Where was that dragon?!

She yelped when she felt the heavy contact on her side. Through the tears that gathered, she recognised the dragon – I thought he scampered off! She felt another crash against her, and she couldn't help but scream at the strong collision.

There was a distant shout, and the extreme pain that suddenly bloomed across her body. Her screams turned into whimpering, her head threatened to shut down, the side of her vision turned black. She could only see trees – lots of trees.

Was that a dragon? She couldn't tell whether her mind was imagining that or not. The small focus of her eyes detected an orange blur that closed in on her. Her instincts screamed at her to move, to dodge, but her limbs couldn't move no matter how hard she tried. The black zone wormed its way towards the tiny space left in her vision.

She could hear scraps of her name, the voice fuzzy and blurry… Everything around her seemed so insignificant and blocked out.

The last thing she heard was a furious roar and a black shaped leaped across that tiny hole as she fell into the darkness that surrounded her.

The adrenaline still pumped through him.

That was too close. He was too close to losing her – he meant, losing the only other multi-breed that was not his family.

Yes, that's why he was worried. She was his friend, nothing more than that.

Right?

If he had been just a second later, in front of him would not be an unconscious Aleda, but a dead Aleda.

Of course, he would win in a one on one dragon combat. He had loads of experience and lessons on that, thanks to his mother.

But he had always been prepared. That, however, was not.

He had always prided to have a plan when he attacked or defended, because he could see the results and knew exactly what to do. It kept him from unnecessary injuries, big or small.

So when he received not a scratch, but a few deep scratches… he was disappointed at himself.

It didn't help that it started to rain.

Oh, and there was lightning as well.

Niall was prepared to yell at the sky, but right now, he needed to tend to Aleda. Who was lying on the ground, unconscious.

Note to self, teach her how to figure out weather patterns and what to do in a bad weather. He grumbled, At least she had the right mind to wrap her wings around herself before falling. By the way she looked, he thought there was no broken bones, but that's something a healer was supposed to know.

The healer between the two was unconscious.

Those scratches hurt, but right now, it didn't matter. Aleda was injured and unconscious, and the rain would most likely worsen her situation.

And it was hard to tell how much time has past. But he knew that she had family somewhere on this island, and that they will come find her when night falls.

He also knew that her village hated dragons.

Problem was, she was in dragon form. If someone found her right now…

He shuddered at the thought.

He quickly formulated a plan. Step one – turn Aleda back to a human.

But how? She was unconscious, so waking her up was not an option.

He searched in his memories, the lessons his mother taught him. Now he wished he had listen, so he wouldn't be stuck in this position.

Scales… Nope. Behaviour? Nah. Control… Not really. He stomped his forelegs in frustration, accidentally on an area of wet mud that was caused by the rain, and his balance suddenly slid forward as his legs continued to slip forward.

Ow! He swore when his stomach hit the ground, sending pain through his body and the natural instinct to stop that from turning him into another form…

Wait a minute.

Pressure point! He roared triumphantly, trying to ignore the pain to trot over to her limp form.

He considered using his hands by turning back into man form – but it was raining, and that would most likely give him a nasty cold.

He used his legs to untangle her wings, which was easier said than done.

Sticking his head at her stomach, he heard a grunt and the form in front of him shrunk.

"Niall…"

He whipped his head upwards when he heard his name.

"Don't… leave…"

"What?" He blinked, "I'm not going anywhere."

"Good…" She sighed, her eyes still closed.

He held his wing over her to prevent the rain from soaking through, silently wondering what she meant.

She's just delirious. He thought. Does she need help?

Now he really wished he listened to his mother – He could barely remember what she had taught him about simple injuries and treatment, but he was so engrossed on stretching his wings and fly, he did not listen.

His eyes wandered back to her, and gratefully noticed that she had her cloak on. If it weren't for the fight that just occurred, he would have thought she was fast asleep.

I think she needs help. He tilted his head and his heart nearly stopped when her chest went still.

Wait. No. No. What?!

And then he heard a rasp breath, and her chest moved upwards.

Alright. She definitely needs help. He lifted his head to listen and smell around him.

Nothing.

Maybe a fire would help. He spit a small fire ball at a nearby tree. It was extinguished quickly by the rain.

Far away, he heard a yelp.

Then shouts.

And then rapid footsteps.

Looking back at her one last time, he bounded away to the cove, trying to not look back and worry about her.

He soothed himself by repeating that her villagers will come to her. I'll get some sleep and tend to my wounds later.

When the villagers found Aleda, who was cold and soaked, they passed off her moans as illiterate babble.

"Niall."

Why hello there.

What?

The heir to the throne, huh?

Niall stiffened.

"Who is this?!" He tried to mask his worry, voice coming out more confident than he expected.

So evasive… You thought leaving your family and kingdom would stop me from finding you?

A chuckle echoed all around him, and he was starting to realise what this… thing was.

You never stayed in one place for longer than a month… Escaping from my claws for twenty years! But finally! My effort will not go to waste!

"No, this is impossible." He breathed. "You're just an illusion."

Illusion? Ha! You've grown more foolish. Must be your human side… This is why you must be destroyed… or serve under me.

"This is impossible." He repeated, exasperated, "You were dead! I made sure you were!"

It takes more than that to kill me, fool. Another chuckle rang around him, but it was more… bitter.

"What do you want, you monster!" He gritted his teeth, finally coming around that She was indeed, still alive.

Monster? She seemed unfazed, I am not the monster, I am the Queen. The monster, is you. You took everything away from me… now you will feel my pain… but many more times!

"Try me." He snarled this time.

Oh, I already have. Who was that girl that you so fiercely protected from my minions?

He froze, "What did you do?!"

So worried, so concerned. My my, are you in love with her? Foolish humans, foolish multi-breeds…

"Tell me what you did to her!" He shouted, slashing at… nothing.

I don't know… What did I do to her? A cold laughter rang around him again, and he was left in the darkness, trembling with fear and anger, but could do nothing about it.

Pain.

How many times did she wake up with that?

Especially around her head?

That murkiness – it was starting to become familiar to her…

Her body throbbed with pain similar to broken bones. Her muscles complained, but her experienced mind told her that there were no broken bones.

Opening her eyes, she looked up at the ceiling that she knew so well, both in work and when she was injured.

How did I end up here? What happened? Her head hurt, as if it would tear her entire head apart. She took deep breaths – it didn't seem to help.

"Aleda." Hiccup's voice echoed over and over in her head. She squeezed her eyes shut to stop it, and for the first time for as long as she could remember, she felt something wet in her eyes.

She suddenly felt so useless. She hated the hovering, she hated those patterns on the roof, she hated the smell, she hated… just about everything around her right now.

Is something wrong with me?

And there was this ache in her chest that she didn't understand. It made her want to tear the furs under her hands, to yank her hair out and punch someone, something.

Normally, Aleda would be very suspicious of herself at this situation – but nooo, her heart said to scream as loud as she could, and her brain had no say in it.

"Leave me alone!" She screamed, hot fat tears rolling down her cheeks (but of course, nobody could see that). She choked and felt as though she was drowning in air. "Gods! Why do I have to be so different! Just because I wear a damn cloak doesn't mean I'm not normal! Why won't you leave me alone?!" She let out a string of curses – most in Norse and some from Latin, which she had a problem remembering anything but the curses.

And even then, she really didn't know why.

Gods, she felt as if she was abandoned, over and over again, and then poked and jeered at, and nobody would save her from the world tumbling down.

Well, she wasn't far away from the truth.

And then she sobbed – sobbed! – uncontrollably, her uneven breaths jagged, her hands shook again. She felt as if the world was tumbling down, but for what reason, her brain couldn't decipher.

She felt like as if her mind was immersed in fog – she couldn't see anything, couldn't hear anything, couldn't feel anything… And then all the words she heard in her life, but determined to not let it get to her…

Useless.

Freak.

Runt.

Abomination.

Coward.

Hopeless.

Pathetic.

Disgrace.

It was as if she was reliving every bitter, acidic moments in her life. Stop it! She tried to bat them away, but they only wrapped around her tighter. She could only curl into herself, hide and hope that they would go away.

"You're saying that just so I'm happy."

The sudden change of her surroundings confused her, but at least it wasn't so dark anymore.

"That's not why I said it."

"You're lying!"

"I'm not."

"Yes you are!" She turned away, tears leaking from her eyes.

The confusion slowly turned into recognition, her mind still fresh about the conversation.

"I'd be lying if I said you weren't." His voice softened, "You're different, but that's not a bad thing. You are most loyal, true person I've ever met. It sets you apart – it makes you unique."

She stayed silent, and wiped her tears away with the back of her hand. He turned her around so she was facing him, her hood down and black scales shone under the sunlight.

"You are not an abomination. You're a multi-breed. You're not pathetic – heck, you carried on with my training even if they hurt like Hel." She let out a little chuckle, allowing the salty tears to enter her mouth.

"You, Aleda, are the most exceptional person I have ever seen." And without a warning, he put his hand on hers. She managed a weak smile, feeling his warmth on her hand, feeling slightly better from her random outburst.

"T-thanks." She croaked.

And she could never forget that day too – the day where her compressed feelings and emotions were released and solved, just by the words he said. She could almost feel his hand on hers at that moment – but no, it couldn't be real.

Indeed, when she dared to open her eyes again, it wasn't Niall. It was her twin brother, Hiccup.

"Hey, you alright?" His green eyes filled with concern – how she wished those were dark blue instead.

"Wha-What happened?" She slurred.

"You tell me. You suddenly started screaming."

"Oh. Sorry about that." She felt sheepish. Why did she shout again?

"So tell me, why were you in the woods when there was a thunderstorm?" His voice was a little… suspicious and… angry?

"Huh?" She was confused – very, confused.

"You were unconscious in the woods." She could practically taste his impatient.

"I was?"

Hiccup stared at her for a little while – and knew she wasn't lying.

"What was the last thing you remember before waking up here?"

She scrunched up her face, trying to remember what happened… "Well, I remember… walking to the woods. I remember… sweating. A lot."

She blinked to get rid of the tears, and when she opened her eyes again, Hiccup was gone, presumably to go find Gothi.

Huh, I probably blinked longer than I thought. She rubbed her head and winced at the pain, her mind full of Niall.

I wonder what he's doing right now.

She tried to recall what happened, but her head hurt and she could not remember. She suspected that she went to find Niall, though.

I must have had a concussion again. She thought, That would explain the loss of memory.

But how?

Uh oh, looks like Aleda lost her memory about what happened. If you're really interested in what really happened, go search up the symptoms of concussion – I just exaggerated one of them.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT:

I'm rewriting this story, because I am unsatisfied with how this story started. I will be replacing the chapters with more detailed and less OC-centric chapters, but the overall content should stay the same. This may mean a long hiatus, and I'm sorry about that D: I know we all hate hiatus, but it's necessary. I don't know whether replacing chapters would alert you, but I will post another announcement when I've finished rewriting (Don't worry, I'm only rewriting those that I'm not happy with, a.k.a. the first few). So far, the prologue, which was 600+ words, have now been rewritten to over 3000 words :D I would highly recommend reading the reposted chapters, because some of my future chapters may have some reference from them. There will also be more character development of other characters as well as my OCs (currently Aleda and Niall), and a much more subtle development of their relationship instead of the big jump I gave you guys.

Anyone else obsessed with Big Hero 6? XD

Reviews Replies for the anonymous :P

Guest: Glad to know you love this :D I've finally got around to update this chapter. Yay?

Guest: I'm sorry D: I did not realize that it had been 3 months (though really, it's been 4 .) I had just been quite busy with my school life.

Unknown: I don't know if you're the same person as the other Guest, but I'm so sorry . Just been too busy and life's been dumping crazy stuff for me.

Unknown: O_O I didn't know that my story can give you inspiration XD And don't worry, he will, just not now… :)

Now that I'm done wasting your time, tell me what errors I've made in this chapter (or in any other chapters really).

I've been straining not to add more language I here. XD Just to let you know.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter and check out the rewritten chapters when I have time to post them :P (Oh and, tell me how old you think Niall is - Aleda is 14).

EDIT: Rewritten prologue should now be published. Go back to the first chapter of this story and read! Enjoy :)