This chapter goes out to Bintavivi who was an amazing sound board and helped me with this chapter in numerous ways when it was first worked on two years ago. It also goes out to Kurrow1 who was the first person to tell me it was alright if I didn't finish the story.

The entire world had narrowed to a single point.

Hiccup didn't hear the lantern clatter or the pound of his friend's feet as they raced towards them. He was blind to Toothless' alarm, Camicazi's frantic approach. Nothing in the world seemed to matter other than the figure that lay crumpled against the far wall. She had dragged herself from the opening, that was the only explanation to why she was laying hidden to the side. He had walked right past her and if not for the painfully obvious line of blood, he would have missed her in the darkness. As it was the few feet away he stood from her seemed like an unbridgeable gap. He was paralyzed, even as the lantern he had dropped rolled away and her body was lost to the shadows once more.

Then the world rushed back into focus.

Later he would not be able to tell how he ran on his makeshift prosthetic. The blackness was thick and dark but he was able to make out the shape of her in the darkness. He fell to his knees, trying to imagine that it was water that soaked through his half dried pants. But every viking knew the smell of blood, knew the feel of it, even the youngest of them who hardly spent time on the battlefield. Reaching forward his fingers connected with more blood and rough stone. Scrambling forward his fingers groped for her, finally coming in contact with her shoulder.

"Astrid, Astrid-" her name was a low fumble on his lips as he pulled her up and against him, his fingers desperately trying to find unbroken skin, to not cause her more pain, "come on Astrid," he said, trying to inject some strength in his tone, "Astrid, come on, I know you can hear me."

But as his fingers slipped over torn skin and leather, Hiccup couldn't help but wonder if that was true. He could feel the blood coating his forearms and soaking through his pants. There was so much of it he wondered how it was possible she was still bleeding. Shifting her so that her shoulders lay in one of his arms. Reaching over with his other hand he pressed his fingers to her neck, searching for the beat of her heart. There was blood there as well, though whether it was from his hand or another wound he couldn't say. His fingers gripped her shoulder as he searched for the beat.

A soft sigh escaped her lips.

Hiccup held his breath as looked down at her, half certain he had imagined the sound. But he felt her tense against him as she stirred, the pain reaching her even in her unconsciousness. Hiccup tightened his hand against her, his eyes searching the faint outline of her face in the dark for any sign she was coming back. He felt her shift against him, the movement faint and so un-Astrid like that he felt his stomach drop. Risking a glance behind him he looked for the lantern but was unable to see it in the darkness. His eyes had adjusted enough to make out the vague shapes of things but with a light he could see what was wrong. He could help. He could-

"Hiccup?" the soft, confused murmur drew his gaze back to the viking in his arms

"Astrid," his eyes widened as they strained to make out the form of the young woman, "hey," he began, relief welling up in him.

"Hiccup you're-" her voice stopped, "am I-" she began.

"No," he cut in, "no you're fine," he said firmly, forcing his voice to be strong.

Even in the darkness he could feel the heat of her gaze on him. He realized then that the last time Astrid had seen him he had been dropped overboard by Stormfly. He had still been in the heavy furs and without his prosthetic. She probably thought that he had drowned. Gods, he almost had drowned. She had spent the past days thinking that he was dead. Instantly a hundred questions jostled in his brain. What had she done? What had she thought she had to do if she thought he was dead? Had she missed him? But he pushed them all aside, focusing on the woman in his arms. He wasn't dead and if he had anything to say about it she wasn't going to be dead either.

"You're fine," he repeated, needing to hear the words, needing her to hear them, "I'm alright too. Camicazi pulled me out of the water and now Toothless and my Dad are here," he told her, "they've come to take us home-" he looked back over his shoulder, "Toothless!" he called, "we need the lantern."

He heard the affirmative sound from his dragon before" turning back to Astrid.

"We'll get the light and I'll take a look at your back," he said, she gave no reply, "come on," he lightly urged her, "this is the part where you tell me that's a woman's job and I tell you 'but i've never had a woman' and you accuse me of being sexist," he looked down at her, "Astrid?"

"You're rambling," Astrid pointed out, "even I know," her breath hitched, "know not to interrupt."

"Yeah," Hiccup agreed, fighting the odd tightness in his throat, "I guess I do that a lot huh? Comes from spending a lot of time talking to a dragon."

Astrid made a soft sound of agreement. Hiccup heard the padding of Toothless's footsteps as the dragon came over quickly. In his mouth he held the softly glowing lantern. Glancing around the dragon gingerly set it down to Hiccup's right. The blacksmith closed his eyes against the light before blinking them open to look down at the young woman in his arms. Immediately he found he wished the lantern had not been lit at all. Blood soaked his forearms and pants from where Astrid's body was pressed against his. Irrationally he wondered if he could scrub the blood from his prosthetic before they got back to Berk or if he would have to throw it away.

Angrily he pushed the cowardly distraction away and forced himself to look at Astrid. Her clothing was different, obviously courtesy of Alvin. But it was soaked. With a dull thud of horror he realized she had been in the water, Skullions and all she had gone in. Had she known they were there? His eyes moved up her form to the deep punctures in her wrists that he recognized as fang marks. Blood still flowed sluggishly from them, following the line of her arm and dripping onto his knee from where her hand rested. He could feel the gashed on her back, though he couldn't see them. The water had slicked her hair down and blood coated the bottoms tips, turning it as red as Camicazi's.

Her face, however, was perfect.

Untouched by the horrors that marred her body, the only indication of anything amiss was the pallor of her skin and the smudge of red on her bottom lip. It was a cruel joke because he knew if he only looked at her face he would be able to fool himself into thinking she was fine. A face that perfect did not belong on the body of a dying person. Before he realized what he was doing his hand had reached up to wipe the crimson from her lip. Lips that curved up into a faint smile as her eyes struggled to adjust to the addition of light, an errant tear breaking free and slipping down her cheek.

"Do I really," her breath hitched again, "look that bad Hiccup?" she asked, her voice tight.

"No," he said quickly, wiping the horror from his face and focusing on the good. Good like the fact her headband was still in place and her eyes were open and on him, "no," repeated firmly as he looked down at the blood that dripped onto him from her back, "I need to see your back," he told her.

She nodded. His fingers squeezed her should apologetically as he slid his hand around her back. Even at that she tensed, her jaw locking. Forcing himself to do what he needed to do, even if it hurt her more, he carefully pulled her up against him. Her face turned into his shoulder, a desperate, muffled sound escaping her lips as he looked down at the damage on her back. The gashes were numerous and deep, the two worst stretched from her left shoulder to her opposite hip. Hiccup tried to examine them but all he could see was blood and torn fabric.

Easing her back down, he looked at her tight features as she struggled not to cry out with pain. It was shameful to do so, though he was sure that he had screamed himself hoarse when they had fixed his leg. But Astrid had always been a better viking than he had. After a moment her features relaxed, her eyes opening to look up at him. More tears joined that first one, shocking the young viking. Hiccup couldn't remember ever seeing Astrid cry before. Fighting the horror he felt, he tried to smile reassuringly at her but the pain in her eyes made him stop.

"Sorry," he whispered, the false reassurances sticking in the back of his throat, "Toothless?" he glanced over his shoulder at the dragon who was instantly by his side, "we've got to get back to the others."

"No!"

The demand came harshly from her lips, harsher than Hiccup thought possibly. Astrid squeezed her eyes shut, her lips pressing together in a tight line, as if the simple act of putting force behind her words was enough to make her sick. It was so unlike the girl who used to punch him for no reason or hold his calloused blacksmith hands tight enough for him to feel every one of hers. The panic that seized him seemed to give way to something infinitely colder and far more deadly. He realized that one of his hands was pressing against her torn skin but she wasn't reacting. Not like she had when he'd turned her over.

"Okay, okay," he said quickly, "no others. It's just us, okay?"

She might have nodded but he couldn't be certain. A tremor raced across her as her eyes slipped shut before she forced them open. Hiccup felt as though he was drowning all over again. He had never seen wounds this bad because even though he was the chief's son, kids didn't get to see the dead, especially not when they were maimed. He knew how to tend to blisters and burns and scrapes but nothing like what tore Astrid's skin.

"Astrid what happened?" he asked.

"Hmm?" she looked up at him sleepily.

"You've got better scars than I do now," he said trying to lighten the mood, "how'd you get them?"

"Skullions," she said, "I was almost out of the water."

His throat seemed to close at the admission. She had almost been out of the water. She had made it through all the Skullions in the pitch darkness, only to be caught when she was almost there. And yet she had survived long enough to make it to the entrance of the cave, almost get everyone out and still hide herself so no-one else would see her body. But as horrible as the physical wounds were, Hiccup knew the real danger was the poison coursing through her veins.

Was there an antidote? Hiccup tried to think back on the dragon book but his thoughts were a muddled mess. If there was a cure it wasn't one he could think of. Just of how deadly the venom was. He tore his eyes away from Astrid's face and looked up at Toothless. A low whistle escaped the dragon's lips, but his eyes did not move from the gentle rise and fall of her chest.

"You did," Hiccup said, "you got there. The others are out."

Astrid looked up at him, but Hiccup could see her eyes weren't focusing. He opened his mouth to say something before stopping, not trusting his voice. In some ways he wished he could speak. The silence in the cave was worse, broken only by the steady sound of his breathing and the wet rasps of the girl in his arms. He knew what that sound was, what it meant. And with every pulse of his heart the cold feeling grew. He had walked past her. Missed her completely. He doubted that it would have made a difference if he had seen her, there was so much blood around them, but there was no justification for what was happening.

"It doesn't hurt anymore," Astrid said finally, her voice impossibly soft.

"It's okay," Hiccup said, "it shouldn't hurt anymore," he continued, "not after so long."

Astrid nodded, her fingers tightening almost imperceptibly on his knee.

The show of fear made Hiccup's heart crash. She was dying. She was dying and she was laying down in his arms. There was something-something wrong about that. Something that made his chest twist. Shifting his fingers against her skin, he looked for a reaction and got none. He didn't want to do anything that would cause her to feel more pain, not now at the end. His fingers tightened on her as he shifted so he was sitting fully against the wall. Carefully he moved her until she was sitting up, her head resting on his shoulder. Reaching down he laced their fingers together.

"This was some adventure huh?" he said. He felt her head tilt and a weak laugh escaped his lips at the expression he imagined would be on her face if she wasn't- "not just this. I mean everything. The dragons, me loosing my foot, changing laws," he leaned his head back, "I don't know about you but i'm exhausted. We're just supposed to fight dragons right? I mean what we've done, it's more than enough for a lifetime. Several probably."

It wasn't.

He tried to keep his voice steady as he spoke but it was hard. What they had done, what they had accomplished was difficult to believe. But it wasn't enough. They were supposed to have a long life, there were supposed to be things that happened after their adventure on the island. There was a life they were supposed to have, when they finally made it back and were seen as something other than children. Just the thought of it, of all those things happening with Astrid gone, it made his chest tighten and for a moment it felt as if he was the one who had been attacked by a dragon. But he forced his voice to be steady as he continued to ramble.

"And I guess we'd have to change things again because our daughter isn't going to settle for not being Chief."

"Our daughter?" Astrid's voice came soft against his neck.

"Yeah," he said looking at her, "come on, she's not going to settle for not being Chief. And she'll be a great one too, much better than her old man."

He swallowed, his voice oddly thick at the thought. It felt like the life he was just beginning to accept was slipping away, faster than the blood in Astrid's body. Astrid was the one who pushed him to be better, who didn't let him take the easy way out of things. She didn't slow down for him, she made him want to catch up. Hiccup's throat tightened as he looked down at her, trying to wrap his head around the idea that the world could be so cruel. Astrid had trained her entire life to hunt dragons and she was damn good at it. And then she had somehow learned to re-think everything and become an incredible dragon rider, all within the span of a year.

It wasn't fair that she was not going to make it off the island alive.

Even if there was a cure Hiccup knew it was too late. Something could take the poison from her veins, but it couldn't put the blood back in them. It couldn't stitch up the skin on her back either. It was too late. He was too late. He knew he was not the leader, not yet, but he should have been faster. Faster or stronger or something. Anything. Anything at all so it wasn't Astrid laying against his shoulder slipping away. Sickeningly, he thought, it should have been him.

A growl from Toothless broke him out of his reverie. Hiccup's head snapped towards the darkness, landing on the figure of Camicazi who stood outlined in the glow of the lantern.

His first thought was that she looked horrible. Her clothing was torn and matted with still wet blood. The arm that wasn't holding the leather bag was dangling limply by her side. The cuts were sharp though, even he could see that. They were precise, made by the edge of a blade rather than the jagged pull of a dragon's fang.

The second thought in his head was anger. Because when he looked at the wounds she bore and the leather bag, he knew she had been fighting. And with a sickening certainty he knew that the bag contained something that could have helped Astrid. Toothless let out another warning growl but Camicazi ignored it and stepped forward,

Hiccup wanted to tell her to get away. That Astrid wanted to die in peace, with just them. She didn't want anyone to see her. But the words seemed to get stuck in his mouth, clogged by the too painful feeling of hope that he was wrong. That she wasn't too late and whatever was in that bag would be enough to save Astrid. The red head came in front of them and knelt down, dropping the bag to the ground and gently grasping Astrid's shoulder.

The blonde viking's eyes opened hazily as she looked blankly ahead before focusing on the red head.

"You're-"

"I'm fine," Camicazi said, her voice far more gentle than Hiccup thought he had ever heard her, "sword wounds are easy to fix. I'm guessing Alvin has you to thank for needing an eyepatch?"

"Had to do something," Astrid said with a twist of her lips, something that should have been a smile.

"Hiccup," Camicazi looked at him, "help me sit her forward," she turned back to Astrid, "I left him out on the rocks. The poison will get him or a dragon will."

"Hope it's Bluebell," Astrid muttered as Hiccup leaned her forward, bracing her against his chest.

"Toothless," he hissed at the dragon, nodding towards the lantern. Toothless grabbed it and came over with it in his mouth, holding it up and giving them some light to work with.

Camicazi looked at the wounds on Astrid's back. Hiccup anxiously watched her face, waiting to see if he could read her reaction. Whether it was training or just the nature of the wounds, he could read nothing from her features as she looked. A sigh escaped her lips but instead of reaching back she leaned forward and peeled up a piece of the torn fabric on Astrid's back. She looked at the wound before looking up at Hiccup.

"She's lost a lot of blood," she told him, "these are deep," she looked down at Astrid's forearm, "those are worse."

"Is it too late?" he questioned, looking at her.

"I don't-" she looked down at Astrid, "I don't know," she said finally, looking up at him, "I-we-we can try. But it's going to hurt."

Hiccup swallowed thickly and looked down at Astrid's head. The light only made her look worse, look like she was closer to death. A part of him wanted to tell Camicazi not to. That Astrid had been through enough, she had done enough for her death to be honorable. That a peaceful passage into the next realm was the least they could give her. She deserved to just drift off, to close her eyes and slip away with the least amount of pain.

But something deep in his chest howled at the thought.

He believed Astrid deserved a quiet, peaceful death. But he knew Astrid. She had gotten into this position fighting with everything she had. Doing everything she could before someone else had the chance to. Even half dead she had managed to stab Alvin's eye and hoped that her dragon was the one who got to eat him. What he believed she deserved was irrelevant. Astrid always fought. If she was going to die so soon and so young, she deserved the kind of warriors death they had all strove for. Even if it was just with her own body.

Adjusting his grip, he wrapped his arms around her. Camicazi closed her eyes for a moment at the silent command. Hiccup doubted she agreed with him, but he didn't care. Astrid had proven herself to be as much a warrior as Camicazi, she deserved that honor. Camicazi looked up at Toothless and motioned him down. Gently she pulled the lantern from his mouth and held it out.

"Use your tail," she said, "we're going to need your fire."

Before you review:

-Yes I know that the dragons name is Stormfly, this story was started before the dragons were named by the creators.

-Please do not send me multiple pms harassing me for updates and/or name calling. I am trying to finish the story and I would appreciate it if you would meet me half way.

-Lastly there are 2/3 more chapters. Think of this as a sort of transition. I'm trying to get back into the groove of the story but I apologize if this chapter seems kind of disjointed.

Thank you!

Love,

E.