A/N-This will be the first chapter with anything truly serious. Not terribly angsty, but anyone who's been in such a situation knows what it would be like.

Also, despite the note in the last chapter you will not be seeing me waiting for a certain number of replies before posting new chapters, that was just an experiment, testing to see if it actually makes any differences. Chapters will still be out regularly around the weekends. Speaking of chapters: only 11 more to go before Book 1 is finished, and we move on to the next part of the series, so stay tuned!

As always, read and review, I like hearing what you think!

Chapter 25

The Accident

"Hey Leighton! Wait up!"

School was finally ending for the day, and even better, it was a wonderfully warm late April day. Leighton and Cameron had both become regular visitors to my house and had become good friends, Leighton especially, with Hiccup and, surprisingly, Ruffnut. But at the moment, we were heading to the science room after school to see the animals and help the teacher keep the kids from being too rowdy.

"What's up?" she asked as I jogged up next to her. I shrugged. "Not much, but I was in Berk a couple days ago," I began, "and sorry for not letting you know sooner, but the gang has been working on a plan for picnic on the far side of the island and were wondering whether or not you'd like to come along. And is it just me, or does Ruffnut seem to have a hidden agenda with you?" Leighton chuckled as we reached the science room and went in. "Well, I'll have to see if I can, but I think that'd be fun," she said. "And yeah, Ruff bet me a Berk coin that I wouldn't be able to convince Hiccup to let me ride Toothless. I want to prove her wrong." I laughed. "So, do you girls ever stop competing?" I asked. "It's either Astrid and Ruff or you and Ruff, or so on. It's like watching one of those cheesy kid flicks with the two competing teenagers in the background."

The science room was pretty quiet that day, most of the kids playing outside in the warm weather (can't blame them really, I would have been too, if it weren't for the fact that it was feeding day for all the animals), so the hour went by relatively peacefully, Leighton, Cameron and I feeding the snakes and making sure they all had water for the weekend and making sure the few kids in the classroom (my sister included) kept in line. Leighton called home and queried on whether or not she was free the next day, and found she had an open day, so that was settled.

The hour wasn't completely dull, as Cameron was still a bit shaky about the idea of Berk and everything existing, so it was easy and entertaining to startle him with details as simple as color changing eyes. Being in a large room where no one is going to notice such things helps too. But eventually it was time to go, and after we got all of the kids out of the room, we helped the teacher lock up the room, and we headed out.

As we walked down the hallway, Cameron and Leighton tagging along with us for a little bit, I turned to Cameron. "So have you heard anything about the picnic this weekend?" I asked, having already told Cameron about it. He shook his head. "I'm afraid I can't go, have some things I need to do," he replied. I looked up to see his cousin, Sarah, waiting by the door. "I'm surprised she hasn't found out yet," I whispered. Cameron shrugged. "Not sure how she would react. Probably better than I did," he whispered back. It was probably true, too, as when Cameron found out, he freaked.

We reached the doors leading outside to the courtyard of the school, and Sarah, gave Cameron a glare. "You're late," she said. "Your mom was about to send me in to get you." Cameron winced. "Sorry, we got to talking a bit." He turned to me. "I'll see you on Monday then." I nodded, and turned to Leighton. "I'll see you tomorrow." She nodded. "Won't be late, I promise." I waved Holly over. "Come on, we don't want to be-"

SCRRREEEEEEEEEE! BANG!

Every one of us whipped around to see the source of the noise. It turned out to be the worst cause I could think of at the time.

"Oh, no."

Out past the football and soccer fields, on the main road, two cars had skidded out of control on a patch of water on the road, and collided dead on. Even worse, looking closely, I could see one car starting to catch on fire.

"Leighton, hold my stuff and keep Holly here!" I yelled, dropping my book bag and backpack, grateful I had decided not to bring a plant that day. "I've got to do something about that!" She instead jumped forward, grabbing me by the shoulder. "Hawken wait! What about your secret? You can't show anyone, they'll freak!" I sighed. "That's better than letting whoever's in that car die in an explosion," I returned. "Someone could be seriously hurt, and I wasn't given this gift to sit back and just enjoy the fun!" Leighton let go and nodded. "Yell if you need our help." "Just call 911!"

I turned and started running across the courtyard, ignoring the fact that there was a parking lot and a football field with an active game in the way. Reaching the lot, I jumped up and unfurled a pair of grayish wings, powering them down and gliding across the field, ignoring the stares I was getting from the kids below. I landed next to the cars and skidded to a halt, putting the wings away and walking up to the fire, which had spread to cover the entire front half of the car, and was following a flow of liquid on the ground. I pulled in a breath, and, focusing on another picture, let it loose, a blast of freezing air dousing the fire, the crackle of ice replacing it. I walked up to the door of the car and looked in. There were two people inside, a young, brown haired woman in the driver's seat. I grabbed the handle of the door and pulled, but the crash had crumpled it closed. I decided to try another tactic, claws stretching out of my fingers, and I grabbed the edge of the door, pulling it out with draconic strength.

SCREEEEECH!

The squealing noise of metal on metal stung my ears, but I ignored it as I pulled the door wide enough to see inside. "Are you okay?" I asked the girl.. She nodded, but looked understandably frightened, after just having been in a burning car. I extended a now clawless hand. "Can you get out?" "I... I think so," she replied. I stepped to the side, but kept my hand out, which she took and slowly stepped out of the car, obviously wincing from the bruises forming across her arms. Once she was out of the car, she turned to look back in, at the other passenger. "Is-is Claire alright?" she asked, trembling. I looked inside at the other passenger, a younger blonde girl, who wasn't moving. I looked back at the driver. "I'll find out. In the meantime, help keep those people away from the accident, I don't want anyone else hurt." She nodded and pulled out her phone, no doubt also calling 911, and shooed away the kids gathering along the fence. I moved to the other side of the car, and yanked the door open in the same manner I had with the driver side door. Gently, I unhooked Claire from the seat and checked her over for a pulse or anything broken. Luckily, it looked like she'd just fainted, and was out cold. I carefully picked her up and brought her over to the sidewalk and laid her down.

"Hello, 911? There's been a car crash at, uh.." the driver covered the phone and looked down at me, still trembling. "Where... what road is this?" "Tell them the crash is on the main road in front of Frontier Academy and University Schools," I replied, and told her the address. She stammered the information into her phone, then said, "Please hurry" and closed the phone. She looked down at her friend, laying on the grass. "Is she alright?" she asked. "As far as I can tell, she's just unconscious, but she probably has some bruises," I said. "Stay here and watch her, I need to go check the other vehicle." The driver sat down next to her friend, and I ran up to the other car.

This time, I was able to open the passenger door without the use of claws, and found another young, black haired girl. "Are you alright?" I asked. She shook her head, tears falling down her cheeks. "Mmmyy... my leg hurts real bad," she said. "I can't move it!" I looked down at her leg, and saw the dashboard was crumpled in on her, and her leg was bent at a strange angle from the pressure. As far as I could tell, though, it wasn't broken completely. I reached in and placed my hands around her leg, and shoved upward on the plastic, causing it to bend and crack, but lift up off of her leg. She gave a cry of pain as her leg moved back to a more normal position, and now I could see some swelling.

"Okay, this may hurt a little, but I need to get you out of the car and over to the grass," I said. She nodded, and I carefully scooped her out of the seat, taking care to support her leg so it didn't move. I walked over and set her down against the fence on the grass. She grimaced in pain, but stayed put. I walked to the driver side of the car, and found it much worse than the other doors, having had most of the impact. I wrenched the door open, and found the driver in much worse shape. He was unconscious, and there wasn't any evidence of breathing either. There was also a large cut across his forehead, and swelling was apparent. I carefully checked for a pulse, and found one, but it was very weak. I listened closely, altering my hearing, and heard faint wisps of breathing, but he was in bad shape. This time, there wasn't any way I could move him out of the car without hurting him more, either. I undid the seatbelt, but if I did anything more, I would cause more damage to his head, and from the fact that the steering wheel was bent, I suspected he had some internal damage as well. I looked over the car at the passenger.

"Can you tell me his name?" I asked her. "It's T-Thomas," she grimaced. From the pain in her voice I second-guessed my diagnosis: she probably had a hairline fracture in her leg, but as it was, I didn't have anything to treat it. However, we didn't have to worry any more, as around the corner...

WWHHHEEEEOOOOO! WWHHHEEEEOOOOO!WWHHHHEEEEOOOO!

The ambulance came racing up to the scene, followed by police cars and a fire truck. I smirked, as there was no fire to deal with anymore, but I was glad they were here now. They came up and stopped right next to the accident, police getting out and starting to redirect the traffic that had gathered to watch. A team of medics and firefighters rushed over to Claire and the raven-haired girl (who I later found out was named Jessica) and began to check them over for injuries, taking out a brace and bandages for Jessica's leg. Another group headed over to the unconscious driver and began cutting open parts of the car in the way, and checking him over. Meanwhile, a police officer came up to me.

"Excuse me," he started, "but were you here when the accident occurred?" I shook my head. "Not exactly, I was in the parking lot by the school," I replied. "But I can try and piece together what happened, if you want." The officer nodded. "That would be very helpful, yes."

I started off telling him that the cars had been coming down the road in different directions, and had hit the water that was on the road, making them skid, and the cars had hit nearly dead on. He nodded. "And was there anyone else here at the time?" "Not that I know of." "Alright. I overheard also, that the girl who made the call said you had helped them out of the car, and that it was on fire earlier." He gestured to the car covered in the sheet of ice. "Now, from the looks of the doors, there is no way anyone could have opened them normally, and it's not every day I find a car in an accident covered in ice. How did you put it out?" I winced. "It's, uh, complicated, I'd rather not explain it here. As for the doors, same story."

The officer gave me the fisheye, but shrugged it off. "It was a good idea that the passengers were moved from the car, though you may have risked the leg of the one over there," he pointed to the raven-haired girl. I shrugged. "Better than being stuck in a car with her leg getting crushed. And I thought it would help speed up the time it took to get everyone out safe." The officer nodded. "Very well." He eyed the ice again. "Are you sure you can't tell me how you put out the fire?" I shook my head. "Better that we focus on the accident for now, I think," I said. "The explanation is more of a headache than it's worth." "Then I hope you can give it to us later, when this is dealt with," the officer said. He looked over at the man who they were moving out of the car, the one I had been unable to help. "What about him?" "There didn't seem to be any way for me to move him without causing more injury at the time. he seems to be in bad condition, and if those instruments they have on him tell me anything, it's that it was a good idea I didn't move him."

Before the officer could ask me anything more, we were interrupted by another officer. "Hey Matt," he yelled, running up to us. "We've got a serious problem, that guy's in worse condition than we thought, according to the medics." The medics had placed the man on a stretcher and had strapped him down so that he wouldn't move around too much, and had what looked like an oxygen mask on him. One of the medics heard the other officer and nodded. "He's in critical condition," they said, "there's something obstructing his windpipe and we can't get it dislodged. He's also got some major internal hemorrhaging. I don't know why he's worse off than the others in the accident, but if we don't get him to the hospital within the next 5 minutes, we won't be able to save him."

The officer I had been talking to, Matt, looked down at the driver. "Can we call Flight for Life?" "Already did, they won't be able to get over here until it's too late. We won't make it by ambulance either, too much traffic right now, and the drive's still 8 minutes without." The mood quickly darkened at this thought, and Jessica gave a sob at the thought of Thomas dying.

"I can get you there in three minutes flat," I blurted, before realizing what that meant. At the time, though, I didn't care. There was a life to save, and if I didn't do something, I might as well have given up my abilities then and there. "How are you going to do that?" the medic asked. "Unless you can magically fly us there or teleport us, he's not going to make it." "Look, you'll just have to trust me on this one," I said. "We're wasting time as it is, and yes, I can fly you there, as long as there's someone willing to hold Thomas in place along the way. I can carry four people along with the stretcher."

For a second, no one moved, then the two officers and tow of the medics stepped forward. I smiled and nodded. "Good, now just stand back for a minute." I stepped out into the open street, looked both ways to make sure the firefighters had the traffic under control, and started transforming.

My arms lengthened and formed into massive wings, two rows of movable sails running down my back, and a tail stretched out behind me as I grew in size, until I was twice the size of a normal Monstrous Nightmare. I kept the teeth short to keep the image less daunting, but from the reaction of the crowd, it didn't do much.

I turned to face the group that had volunteered and knelt down, lowering the sails. "Yes, I know, shocking, and we can discuss this later, but hurry up and get him on!" I snapped. They didn't move for a second, then first the medics and then the officers moved forward, carrying Thomas, and gingerly set him down on my back. Two other medics came forward and wrapped straps around me, making sure the stretcher wouldn't slide off. Then the four volunteers climbed on as instructed, though unsurprisingly reluctantly, and positioned themselves to hold onto the stretcher. I looked at the medics remaining, who were taking care of the other passengers. "Make sure the hospital knows we're coming, and have them on the flight deck and ready to take him." They nodded, and I turned, making sure not to bump the stretcher around too much, flared my wings, and lifted off. I rose up into the air first, then turned and powered up, heading for the hospital, trying to keep the ride as smooth as possible.

"Everything alright?" I asked. "A little windy, and kind of strange!" one of the officers yelled back through the wind. I laughed. "That's just part of it, I'm afraid. Make sure he doesn't slip off!" We shot over the city, in a beeline for the hospital, and when it came into view, I angled myself down to land next to the helicopter. As promised, there was a group of staff on the roof, waiting, and they stumbled back upon seeing me approach. Slowly, I came in to land, and touched down as gently as possible to the landing pad. I bent down, and immediately, the medics on my back threw off the straps and slowly slid the stretcher down and off my back. they looked over at the rest of the hospital staff. "What are you waiting for?" they yelled. "This man is in critical condition!"

That got them moving. They ignored the dragon on the pad as best as possible, and helped take Thomas into the hospital. Once I was assured they were going to take care of him, the officers got back on, and I lifted off to head back to the school. After all, their squad cars were there, not here at the hospital. At least that was convenient, as I still had to get back to Holly as well, and make sure I wasn't needed for anything else. By now, I'm sure officer Matt could answer his own questions about the ice and claw marks on the cars.

We flew back and I landed first at the accident scene, where the other medics and firefighters had gotten everything taken care of, and were ready to take the other people involved in the accident to the hospital. Claire was now awake and luckily for me, she was young enough to take the appearance of a dragon at a crash scene relatively lightly. Or at least as lightly as anyone would. The girls all thanked me for helping them, and Jessica showed me the brace on her leg, saying she was going to have to get a cast. I nodded and smiled, and after making sure I wasn't still needed for anything (I just had to give my name, surprising it took them that long to ask), I flew back over to the school courtyard where Leighton, Cameron, Sarah, and my sister were waiting. I could tell that there was a lot of explanation that would be happening soon, but for now, we were all just happy to be going home after that. I turned to Leighton.

"Thanks for watching Holly," I said. "She stayed out of trouble right?" My sister protested at this, but Leighton nodded. "Yes, though she was convinced that she should go help. I hope you realize that there's going to be a lot of prodding about what you just did when we get back to school, right?" I nodded. "You're going to have to tell us what all happened down there too," Cameron added, crossing his arms. I laughed. "Explaining that to you guys will be the easy part. Dealing with the rest of the world is going to give me the headache that's coming." "Well, at least you'll have some of us to help," he said. I smiled and grabbed my stuff, and gestured to Holly. "We've got to go though, before I get caught by the crowds. See you later!"

We walked to the car and got in, and then Holly turned to me. "So now that everyone knows, what are you going to do?" she asked. I sat in silence for a minute, then started the car up. "I don't know, but it's going to take a few weeks to get everything calmed down again."

And it was very true. The next few weeks, with all the attention such a world-shattering secret would bring, would be hell on earth for me.