Chapter 1 – Meeting

"Aiden I'm not paying you to sit there! Get on with it!" my boss called as he strode past the front counter.

I sighed heavily and pushed myself away from the worktop I had been leaning against. One of the downsides of working in a small café kitchen is that there's nowhere to take a five-minute break without being immediately spotted.

I began unloading the industrial dishwasher for the hundredth time that day, shaking my sleeve when water dripped out of a mug and down my arm. Ugh.

"And why is your rucksack in the stock room again?" he came back around the corner.

"Because it takes up too much space in the office, and that's the only other place I feel safe keeping it," I placed the mug back up on the shelf with the others.

"Keep it at home then! You don't need a tent to come to work!" he replied exasperatedly.

"I like having it with me…" I reddened and went quiet, fingers automatically finding and rubbing the badge in my pocket. I could imagine every detail without even looking at it— 'National Space Centre' it read, 'Young Space Cadet'. Apparently, it was against safety regulations to wear it.

"Fine, it can stay there, but only because you're leaving tomorrow."

He walked away, and I relaxed.

"'Oh hey, look at all this really useful stuff, why don't you just leave it at home'," I muttered sarcastically to myself, shoving a couple of plates under the counter. "You'd think he'd remember when he ran out of painkillers and I just happened to have some, or when the stove was fu-"

"Excuse me?"

A customer was standing right in front of me.

"Uh…" I pushed the button on the wall to call someone over. "W-we'll have someone to serve you in a moment."

I quickly turned around, trying to hide my face and walked out of the kitchen to clear some tables.

Following that embarrassing incident, the hours dragged on until my shift for the day ended, and I was able to have lunch. After that I logged my hours, grabbed my—admittedly quite large—rucksack from the store room and made my way out to my bike chained to the fence.

It didn't take me long to get off the streets of Keswick and into the wooded trails that stretched for dozens of miles in all directions. I breathed a happy sigh as a smile made its way across my face. This was why I always had my rucksack with me; I could just sod off into the wilderness for a few days any time I wanted to—and often did.

I was half-tempted to close my eyes as I zoomed down the dirt track, the wind blowing my hair around, hearing the birds and the creaking and rustling of the trees. But as much as this might be one of the few straight sections of path in the entire forest, I could still very easily crash. So, on that occasion, logic won out.

I had long since passed the ten-mile mark, and was hoping to push for further before I needed to turn back, when I heard a loud crash and thump ahead to my right.

That area was thick with bracken, but I could definitely see…something moving. A pheasant maybe?

I cycled a little faster, hoping to get a look before it ran off.

My guess was very quickly thrown out the window and into oncoming traffic when the thing's head happened to appear above the foliage for a brief moment.

Black scales, huge pale-green eyes and ear fins on a large, wide face.

I stared at the space where it had been as it quickly disappeared out of my line of sight, turning my head as I continued down the trail to see if I could catch another glimpse of it. That couldn't have been…no, that was ridiculous.

Of course, I barely had time to process this before the very rare straight bit of dirt track ended and I had a head-on collision with a tree.

Thank god for bicycle helmets.

The next thing I knew, I was on the ground next to said tree, legs entangled in my bike and in a large amount of pain.

"Ow…" I groaned, trying to drag myself out from the frame of my bicycle. Not an easy thing to do when the thing you are trying to drag yourself out from under is made of metal, and you are also wearing a very heavy rucksack.

As I was flopping around on the ground like a depressed fish, I heard thumping and rustling coming from the bracken, followed by a yelp of pain and…crying?

I managed to haul myself out from under my bike and left my rucksack on the ground, feeling my head for injuries. That constant ache wasn't going away any time soon, and while the helmet definitely should have done its job, I couldn't help but feel paranoid that I might have a more serious injury.

I focused back on the sound, and what I'd seen only moments before exiting the seat of my bike in a most undignified fashion. That was definitely sobbing and crying I could hear, and a male voice by the sound of it. Along with…howling? Not wolf-like howling—I would have been seriously worried if that was the case, I thought they didn't exist in the UK—, but a sorrowful, keening, alien sound I'd never heard the likes of before.

I cautiously stepped into the chest-high foliage and began pushing through it, following the strange noises. The only things I could possibly think would be producing them would be a teenage boy and his dog; maybe they were stuck in a hole or something?

My thoughts immediately strayed back to the far-too recognizable shape that had appeared before. Maybe I had hit my head too hard – I was remembering things wrong.

When I pushed through the last of the bracken, all of my fears were thrown into immediate focus.

It wasn't a dog walker or some kid that had gotten hurt.

It wasn't even from this world.

What I saw was a large black shape, curled up and quivering amongst crushed plants and leaves, huge—and I mean huge—wings wrapped around itself as if to block out everything around it, so much that I couldn't even make out the head. Its tail and legs too, were pulled tightly around its body.

I'm not sure what the noise that came out of my mouth when I saw this was—it was somewhere between a gasp and a shocked yelp, but it ended up in me inhaling too much air at once and choking on it. This immediately caught the attention of the creature in front of me, and when my eyes had stopped watering and my coughing subsided, it had pulled back one of its wings a little to look.

The face that I could see was the same one I had glimpsed before, and it was painfully familiar.

We were both perfectly still for several moments, watching each other. He—and I realized, it was a he, judging by what I had heard earlier—seemed to be squinting and having trouble opening his eyes properly, keeping them in shadow with his wings. He had stopped crying, maybe out of shock from running into me, or for some other reason I didn't know.

"H-hello?"

My eyes widened in shock. I had seen his mouth move, I heard the noise that came out, but my brain refused to allow the two events to line up.

That was the final nail in the coffin for me.

Goosebumps sprang up all over my body and I backed away, feeling dizzy and nauseous. I shook my head violently, as if all of this would just disappear if I didn't believe it.

I took a couple of shaky steps back.

Then I started running.

I almost tripped immediately as I stumbled back through the bracken, my legs feeling like jelly.

"Wait!" I heard the dragon call behind me, along with a pained roar that only made me run all the faster. I glanced back to see him trying to get to his feet, only to immediately hit the ground again, as if he'd never used his legs before.

I just about fell on my bike as I reached it, clumsily pulling my rucksack over my shoulders. I pushed it back upright and pedalled my hardest to get away from that place.

Focus, I told myself. Pedal and breathe, pedal and breathe.

I nearly crashed multiple times with my body as shaky as it was, and only got about half a mile before I had to stop to vomit in the bushes.

I collapsed against a tree trunk and simply lay there for a while, trying to calm myself down.

I couldn't have seen what I thought I'd seen. Not this soon after-

No, stop, just breathe I told myself. I would feel a lot better if I didn't think about it.

I had hit my head too hard, and hallucinated. That was all.

After around half an hour, I got back on my bike, and cycled home.

- O -

- O – O – O – O -

- O -

I attempted to get up and follow as I saw the human turn and run, but I had no idea how to use a physical form, and only succeeded in planting my face in the dirt, a horrible stinging feeling shooting through it.

"Come back!" I shouted desperately after him, cringing at the volume of my own roar.

I tried in vain to get my legs underneath myself, and managed to push forward a small distance before falling again.

"…Don't leave me here…" I whimpered, my sight blurring as the tears came back.

Pain, that's what it was called, I remembered. I had been briefly distracted from the sensation by that human, but now it was all back tenfold, and I hated it.

The amount of light coming from the sky burned at my eyes, each noise caused my hearing to distort by how loud it seemed and everything that touched me felt like it was tearing the surface of my body to shreds. Smells overloaded my sinuses while the pain of my repeated falls and stumbles jabbed into my head and limbs.

I curled in on myself again, screwing my eyes shut and trying to distance myself from physical existence. This was so much worse than I ever could have imagined. I had barely even spoken to the person I had come here to help in the first place before he'd run off.

I just wanted to go home.

I tried to block everything physical out, and focus on the pattern matrix in my mind that would return me to the Above.

As soon as I did this, intense, searing pain whipped through my brain, so strong that I couldn't even think for several moments. I howled and clawed at my own head with my paws as if I could physically remove it.

What in all of Chaos and Order was that?

That matrix should have dissolved my physical form and taken me back!

I waited for the pain to fade away, before very carefully and slowly thinking of the pattern again.

Immediately I got the same result, and I could only wait for it to disappear, hot tears leaking from my clenched eyelids.

Why wasn't this working? Why was it causing me huge amounts of pain to even think about it?

I began to panic - was I stuck here forever? Would I be trapped in this body? What would happen to me? Would the Utopians look for me? Did they know what I'd done?

Oh Chaos, this was such a stupid, idiotic thing to do! Why did I think using pattern matrices that I had no experience in, was a good idea? Or even leaving the Above? Tutor would be so worried…

Slow down, I told myself. Having a body to panic with wasn't helping, but I still had a rational mind. Tutor would be able to track where I had gone—he'd probably figure out I'd copied the matrices from him…

I just needed to keep safe until they found me, and took me back.

With this realization I began to focus back on the physical world, and my overwhelmed senses.

Actually…it didn't seem as bad any more.

I slowly uncurled myself, raising my head and cautiously squinting through one eye. The light hurt a little at first, but it quickly began to fade. I felt something raise from the back of my head, and the sounds of the environment started to come through clearly. I needed to take a look at my physical form and hopefully figure out what I was stuck as, but I was quickly distracted by how beautiful everything was.

It outshined anything I could have possibly begun to imagine, if I had been able to do so at all. Seeing thoughts, ideas and emotions in a complex Network could be mesmerizing at times, but the physical world put it to shame a hundred times over.

The first thing that drew my attention were the colours. Pale greens and yellows dominated the area I was in thanks to the plant life growing from the brown earth. The trunks and branches of the trees were a mix of greys, beiges and other shades of brown that I couldn't even begin to name while the leaves were little bursts of oranges, reds and greens. Beyond them I could see nothing but white and light grey, the occasional patch of bright blue shining through.

The wind rustled through the air, causing a slight shiver to go down my back while the star of this planet warmed it at the same time. I could hear chirps, coos and little skitters from the creatures that inhabited this place, and a completely unidentifiable smell filled my nose.

The Utopian Library that I was drawing this knowledge from to even fathom any of this barely scratched the surface of what was around me. Then again, the Utopians sent their expeditions out to all of the multiverse, which was as diverse as you could possibly get, and as a result almost none of it applied to this single, small universe. And this was just one little place, on one little planet, in one little star system!

Excitement bubbled up inside me and a happy gurgle escaped my throat as my mind raced with the possibilities. Because the multiverse was so vast, I had no idea what could be out there! It could be literally anything, and I still would never have seen it before!

I simply lay there for some time, still trying to process what I had been missing all the time I had been in the Above. There, I could only see how sentient creatures interacted through Connections and Networks and how their minds were affected. Nothing had prepared me for physical space, not the Library, not the descriptions of those who had returned from expeditions, nothing.

Eventually, the strange movement I kept feeling on my head when I heard a louder than usual noise reminded me that I needed to take a good look at my own physical form. I hadn't a clue what I was, or what I was capable of.

I slowly and methodically tried to get my legs underneath me again. The sensation of being pulled downwards at all times by gravity was extremely foreign to me, just as much as having muscles to use was. I brought one foreleg forward, pushing down into the ground and feeling the pressure between the bottom of the paw and my shoulder. I did the same with the other foreleg, and succeeded in pushing the front of my body upward.

The back legs were more difficult since I couldn't easily see them, and I ended up trying to emulate the same feeling I had in my front legs, scrabbling at the earth and eventually managing to get them under me. Now that I was up, I could get a proper look at my body.

…Were those wings?! How had I not noticed them before now? And a long tail too, black scales all over and a line of spines going from my shoulders all the way down to twin tailfins. Yet no matter how much I turned and twisted my neck I could not see those things that kept twitching about on my head.

I needed to see myself from the front…somehow. A reflection! But, according to the Library, I could only get one of those from very still liquid, or polished metal, neither of which I could see in the immediate vicinity.

I resigned myself to be annoyed by the random movements of my head attachments and took a better look at the area. So…what did I do now? That human definitely wasn't coming back any time soon, so my original intent to help was gone. Now, I just had to wait for Tutor, or one of the other entities to find me, and I was stuck here for the moment so…

Time to explore!

I bounded forward, finding my back legs were extremely good for springing long distances, soared through the air for a brief moment, before my face plunged into the dirt for the nth time that day, and I immediately regretted my decision.

Maybe I should try to get the hang of walking first.

- O -

- O – O – O – O -

- O -

For the entire rest of that day, I tried to distract myself from what I'd seen in the woods.

No, hadn't seen, I reminded myself—it was a hallucination.

I watched tv, ordered a takeaway, watched more tv—I even got so desperate as to start scrolling social media sites. Eventually, I got tired enough that I went to bed at around nine, hoping I could get some good sleep in before my final day of work.

The unfortunate thing about sleeping, is that you need to either a) be so exhausted you fall asleep almost immediately, or b) be able to clear your mind of thoughts so you can allow yourself to fall asleep.

So, having a certain dragon invading my mind at every given opportunity meant that I didn't have much luck.

Three hours of tossing, turning, and frustrated groaning later, and I got back out of bed.

"Fine. Fine! You know what, I'll go back out to those woods, and prove that I saw nothing! Then can I have some bloody sleep?!" I ranted to myself, changing into my usual outdoor clothes. And when I found absolutely nothing, I could cycle home, and that would surely make me tired enough to fall asleep.

Of course, I realized the problem as soon as I left the front door of the building.

It was midnight.

The forest trails would be pitch black, since there wasn't exactly much lighting outside of town. It was for moments like these that I always, always had my rucksack with me.

I took a headtorch out of one of the small side pockets, and was able to securely wrap it around the handlebars of my bike with the elastic straps. It wasn't exactly as powerful as car headlights, but it would do the job well enough. I just had to be careful.

As I set off, the thought that kept running through my head was 'Why the hell are you doing this?'. I could easily crash and seriously injure myself, there was always a chance I might get lost, despite knowing these trails like the back of my hand, and all for a hallucination?!

But I couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.

I followed the same paths I had before for about five miles, keeping a slower pace and with my arms tensed and ready for anything. The further I went, the more paranoid I got that a rock would somehow slip under my wheels without me seeing it and send me flying.

Then, as I reached a Y fork in the track, something very strange happened. On the route I had taken earlier that day—or I supposed, yesterday now—I had taken a right turn here.

Turn left my brain insisted.

What?

I slowed down as I reached the split, trying to figure out why every part of my body seemingly wanted to go the wrong way. It was like a little virus, taking over my mind and then just sitting there, niggling at me to do what it wanted.

I genuinely couldn't bring myself to cycle down the right turn.

I shook my head in disbelief and went to the left. Immediately, I was rewarded with a weird feeling of…relief?

I put it down to sleep deprivation, and carried on. I could always take a right turn further along, and get back to the same route.

Except, when I got to the next fork, the exact same thing happened.

This time, I got off my bike, pulled the headtorch off it, and walked a short distance down the track my weird gut feeling was pulling me towards. I could only see a dozen meters in front of me, but that…that was the river I could hear.

I had gone much further off track that I'd realized if I was already at the river – where was this instinctual gut feeling thing leading me?

I got my answer when the trail turned to gravel as it met the shore of the river, and my headtorch lit up a large, dark shape lying on it.

It was real.

I would have dropped my headtorch right then and there in shock if not for the fact that it was, y'know, strapped to my head.

I stood there silently, completely flabbergasted, trying not to move in case it heard me. Him, I reminded myself. Right, of course, how silly of me. I forgot that this dragon was sentient and could fucking talk.

I took several deep, shuddering breaths, and then took a step forward, my walking boots crunching in the gravel. I winced, expecting the dragon to immediately look over for the source of the sound.

Nothing.

He was probably asleep, I reasoned. I was the only one stupid enough to be awake at this hour, wandering around the forest.

I took another step forward, then when there was no response, several more.

'What exactly is your plan here?' I asked myself. I had proven it was real, and that I hadn't hallucinated at all…so now what?

I mean, this was a Night Fury of all things. Something fictional that I was…connected to, just existing in this world, beyond all reason. My curiosity was thoroughly piqued.

But if what had happened yesterday was real, why had he seemingly been in pain? What was out there that could hurt a dragon? Then again, if one dragon existed, what was stopping literally anything else from existing, no matter how impossible it seemed? Maybe there was something hunting him down?

And I had run off, leaving him there, hurt, scared and alone.

I might as well have kicked a puppy.

The least I could do now was offer some help—I knew the area really well and I had all sorts of things that might come in useful in my rucksack.

'But how are you going to help a dragon?' the logical voice in my head asked.

Shut up, I told it, and steeled myself for what I was about to do. What was that phrase about letting sleeping dragons lie?

"Hello?"

My voice cracked, and I swallowed. But there was no response.

"Hello?" I tried again, taking a couple of steps closer. He was only feet away now. Maybe dragons slept very deeply?

I took a deep breath—this was probably the stupidest thing I'd ever done.

I crossed the small distance left between us, and laid a hand on his scales.

Cold.

Far, far too cold.

Oh Jesus was he dead?

A shudder ran through my body as I realized what might have happened. Was this my fault? When I left him before, had I…?

All of my trepidations and bewilderment fell to the back of my mind as I began desperately searching for a pulse. I ran around the front of his body and hauled one of his wings out of the way, pressing my hand to his neck.

For several seconds, I didn't dare to breathe.

There!

I let out a relieved gasp and half-fell over backwards onto the gravel. Okay, he's not dead, thank god, but why are his scales so cold?

It was at this point I noticed the stones I was sitting on were damp. And while this seems like a stupid observation, it being next to the river and all, it wasn't like rivers had tides, and it was far enough back that even a large splash wouldn't cause the entire area to be…

As I was looking down at the shore, my headtorch passed over the area between myself and the river, and I realized that there was a very dragon-sized trail of damp shingle leading from it to where he was lying.

So…he had fallen in the river? But how would that cause him to become so cold that he passed out?

Scales.

He was a cold-blooded reptile! I didn't know exactly how it worked—I knew snakes didn't just die if there was a cold breeze, that wouldn't make sense—but I knew all reptiles needed heat. And if he didn't have any body heat, and had fallen into the river, then he likely had whatever the dragon version of hypothermia was.

And he wasn't shivering.

I was in no way a medical expert, veterinarian or biologist, but I knew that was a really bad sign.

I immediately sprang into action, dumping my rucksack on the ground and running back towards the trees. I'd just been sitting there wasting time whilst he'd been slowly dying right in front of me!

I began grabbing any small sticks I could find on the ground and snapping others off low-hanging branches, quickly arranging them in a vague pyramid shape right in front of the dragon. I had a brief moment of doubt since I didn't know for sure whether his scales were actually fireproof, but the chance was so small, and the closer the fire was to him, the quicker he would warm up.

I then splashed a small amount of bioethanol onto the wood pile and lit a match—normally I kept the liquid fuel for emergencies when it was raining, and even tried to avoid using matches when necessary—but I wasn't taking any chances. As soon as the little flame got near the wood it sprang to life, heat radiating out from it. The fuel would keep it going strong for a while, and the damp gravel beneath it would stop it from accidentally spreading to anything, so it was safe to leave burning.

I threw my jacket off and placed it over his neck, but it was pitifully small compared to the size of his body, never mind his wings. I needed something bigger if I wanted it to have any effect.

I practically ripped my sleeping bag out of its cover and unzipped its entire length, wrapping it as closely as I could around his back and sides. I was almost tempted to take the canvas of my tent out and try to cover one of his wings with it, but I realized it might catch alight over the campfire.

I started bringing some larger branches back and setting them over the fire—my plan was to heat up some water, either to pour over the colder parts of his body, or for him to drink once he woke up. I unhooked what was essentially a small cauldron and some metal rods from my rucksack and began to set them up. I placed two on each side that had a connecting hinge near the top, buried both into the ground a ways so they would stay in that position in an 'X' shape, then slid the handle of the cooking pot over a single straight rod, sitting that on the hinges of the supports at the sides.

I realize most people would have a much smaller or easier way of cooking food over a campfire, but having a pot meant I could basically chuck anything in it along with some water, and it would cook it. If I needed to, I could also just remove the pot and use the horizontal rod as a skewer. It was simple, easy to set up, and easy to clean.

I made a couple of trips to and from the river with a water bottle to fill it, and then it was just a matter of waiting. I walked around his back and began rubbing the unzipped sleeping bag back and forward—the material it was made out of slid on his scales fairly easily, but hopefully it would create enough friction to generate heat.

I kept this up for around five minutes, repeatedly checking on the fire to make sure it was still burning and the water was still heating up. Once it had gotten to the temperature where I couldn't keep my hand in it, I put the pot off to the side.

I returned to the dragon's back and began rubbing my jacket on his neck, suppressing a yawn. I was starting to feel really tired now, but I couldn't stop—not until I knew he was at least beginning to recover. A chilly breeze blew through the trees and made goosebumps spring up all down my arms.

I continued this for…God I really don't know. Time was beginning to blur in my exhausted state and every time I felt my eyelids closing, I snapped them open again with no idea how long had passed. I had to keep taking the water on and off the fire to keep it at the right temperature, and I poured a little over his tail a couple of times.

Eventually I was broken from my near-stupor by his body shuddering and shaking, quickly spreading to all of his limbs.

I nearly collapsed against him in relief—despite how it seemed, I knew this was a really good sign.

"P-please d-do-don't stop," he croaked, twisting his neck a little to look at me. I only met his eyes for a moment before looking away, but that desperate pleading expression was enough.

I carried on alternating between rubbing his back and neck, beginning to feel immensely ashamed of myself, and responsible for everything. Why had I just left him there, when he was so obviously in need of help? Why had I freaked out over even seeing him?

Because of Sophie my brain chimed in.

Shut up!

I did not need to think about that right now, I had enough to deal with.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," I began muttering, over and over again. He didn't respond, but his shivering was gradually slowing down. That was good—I didn't think I'd be able to handle a heartfelt conversation with a dragon right now.

He was beginning to shift himself closer to the campfire, as if he wasn't nearly on top of it before. He unfurled one of his wings over it to allow the surface to warm up, and curled himself around the heat source. I remembered that I had boiled water for him, and moved the cooking pot over to his head.

"Here, drink this," I tipped it towards him, pushing it forward against the ground with the handle. He began to lap it up with his tongue, and despite knowing exactly what Night Furies looked like, the size of his mouth still surprised me.

I walked away and tried not to stare at him, sitting myself down on the gravel a short distance from the fire. I still hadn't quite wrapped my head around the fact that there was a dragon in front of me.

I ended up gazing up at the stars, which were bright enough that you could even see the faint shape of the Milky Way stretching into the endless void. I wasn't really sure what to do now—how do you even begin to communicate with a fictional creature whose life you had just potentially almost ended, and then saved?

I ended up lying down on the gravel, uncomfortable as it was, and staring vacantly upwards.

Moments later, I was out cold and fast asleep.

- O -

- O – O – O – O -

- O -

I greedily lapped up the last of the hot water the human had given me. It had done wonders to stop my shaking, and I could feel a pleasant burning sensation all the way down my body. I nudged the metal pot back upright and glanced over at him. He looked like he had collapsed to the ground in exhaustion, and I felt a little guilty. Even though he had run away before, he obviously cared, enough to save me.

I had been absolutely ecstatic at first, to be finally exploring the physical world, examining every last little detail, every little creature I could find. But over the course of time I'd found myself becoming dizzy, disoriented, and a little scared. When I searched the Library for answers, I realized I needed to maintain my body with food and water, and would end up dead if I didn't. There was no record of any entity's physical form dying in the Library though, and I had no idea whether my mind would die with it.

Desperate, I had searched for water and found the wide river. Quenching my thirst was easy enough, but I had no idea how to get food. Then I'd spotted some shimmering under the river's surface, and had dived in, hoping to catch whatever was moving around. I had underestimated how fast and deep the water flowed, and before I knew it, I was breathing in liquid and choking on it. I had hit something hard, became completely lost in the pain and shock, and had somehow managed to flail my way onto the shoreline.

Terrified, hungry, in pain and shivering violently I had tried to block it all out and retreat to my mind, but had no luck. Everything I experienced invaded my head and stuck there, forcing me through each little sensation.

The next thing I knew, I was awake again, with the human bringing warmth and comfort back to me.

I pushed myself up, now a little more used to the action, stretching my stiff muscles. I padded over to him, shaking the soft materials he'd put over me onto the ground. I gently tried to nose him towards the thicker one without waking him up. This didn't achieve much, and I didn't dare use my paws for fear of hurting him with my claws. I resorted to scooping him up with my wing and depositing him on the strange cloth, grabbing a corner of it with my mouth and dragging him closer to the fire.

I lay back down next to him, leaving my wing resting over his unconscious body.

I could at least make sure he was warm too.

- O -

- O – O – O – O -

- O -

Author's Note

First of all, if you saw the previous version I posted of this, just….ssshhh, ignore it :P Honestly it was terrible compared to this, but it did result in me getting some fantastic feedback. The people over at r/httyd are just the best, so thank you to all of them for helping me out. I also need to thank Layla for being my editor and refining the cover image so it doesn't look crap.

I don't know how quickly I'll be posting updates to this story; it depends on how much I've got going on, but I'm aiming for one chapter every two months at the ABSOLUTE minimum. I should mention that this story will be branching into the multiverse much later, and by that, I mean crossovers, and going into the HTTYD world itself.

Constructive criticism is 100% welcome, and thanks for reading!

Rowan