Good gods, this took WAY longer than it should have. I warn you that this chapter contains rampant POV hopping, which was completely necessary. Sorry about the brevity! I'm kinda building into some big stuff! This chapter also comes with the news that I've decided to start posting news about this story in my journal on DA. I will explain reasons for delays and in general keep anyone posted who's interested. Mine DeviantID is spidermaster14(.)deviantart(.)com (remove the parentheses)

Oh and I almost forgot! Thank you all so much for the review explosion that the last chapter triggered! You keep up that feedback and I keep up the writing! And for all of you who don't no what to say in a review, just tell me what you liked, or didn't like about the dang story! Not all that difficult. Anywho, onward!

Chapter 11

Astrid

So there was a mark. At the very least there was evidence that she had not dreamed the whole thing up. She saw it. A line of deep shining crimson. It was strange, it looked like blood, but darker. Much darker. She could only stand to look at it for a moment or two, before she felt the need to escape. She had to get away from this strange boy.

She whirled and made for the door as quickly as she could without actually running. Her ax. She had no idea where it was. The last place she had seen it, was buried deep in Hiccup's arm. And the only evidence remaining from that bone crushing blow that had occurred only the previous day, was a thin line of what seemed to be dried blood. She stomped down the stairs and shoved past the front door. It all had to do with that dragon. That enormous black monster. It was evil. It was wreaking it's magic on Hiccup. It controlled his actions, and it healed his wounds. Somehow, she had to keep Hiccup away from it; then she could go and kill it. The thing had used the scrawny excuse for a Viking as a shield. How dare it! She leapt down from the porch, skipping the stairs, and trudged off in the direction of the ring. She would be with the hunting party when it went out, whether they wanted her along or not. She would put an end to this thing. But first she'd have to find her ax.

XXX

Hiccup

Night was slow in coming. But Hiccup didn't notice. The sunlight streaming through the window had an extremely repressing affect on him. The light and warmth caused him to yawn and his eyelids drooped. Before he was even aware of the strangeness of it, he was asleep.

Toothless, being nocturnal, was only too happy to join his rider in sleep. Dreams danced and flowed from one mind, to the other. The two frolicked and spun through meadows and the clouds. Into oceans, and then just as quickly into trees. They danced between minds and occasionally became confused as to who was who. Then they both decided that they didn't care in the slightest.

This was a new experience for Toothless. He had been linked to other minds before, but he had never stayed in contact for so very long. And he had never shared thoughts while sleeping. The mixture of rapidly fluxing colors, sounds, smells and the many, many different landscapes he found himself spinning through, all held an aura of wonder. Some looked as if they came from his early days in the ice lands of the north. Others were scenes of Hiccup's short life on Berk. And still others seemed to come from nowhere, created spontaneously by one mind and then sent spinning off to the other. He saw enormous mountains, strange misty forests, and lands that spread wide and far from horizon to horizon, completely flat.

Eventually, night did finally fall. And with the birth of the starlight above, came Hiccup's jolt into wakefulness. He sat bolt upright and breathed deeply. Toothless slept on unaware that Hiccup's mind had slipped off into wakefulness. It was no time at all before Hiccup had pulled his tunic back on, and leapt out of the window. The ground below seemed to rise up to him in a very slow and dubious way. All of the impact traveled up into his knees and dissipate. One hand fell flat to the ground to steady himself, and he ended in a three point crouch. He froze there, and listened while the light of the three quarter moon blazed down on him. Most of the night's noise was emanating from the mead hall. Not the raucous noise it had once been, but rather a subdued chorus of muttering. The only watchman that Hiccup could hear was a ways off and slightly downhill. The coast was clear.

With a bound he was up and running over the grass and into the trees. He knew the spot exactly where Toothless hung sleeping. His friends scent permeated the air. That scent. Again he felt the warmth and affection of his Toothless' nose in the soft spot of his neck. He felt a hot two pronged tongue touch his jaw, lightly, ever so lightly. His hands itched to touch scale. They wanted to rub along the strong neck and caress that smooth eyeridge. He skidded to a halt in front of the tree where he could see the dragon's cocoon like outline. And like a lantern being unshielded, a luminescent green eye opened and gazed at him from within the shadows.

"Hiccup."

"Toothless." They stood gazing at each other for another minute. "Let's fly. Far, FAR away from here." Silently Toothless loosed his tail and slid to the ground, landing on all fours. Hiccup ran to his side and briefly checked to make sure the saddle hadn't shifted and everything was as it should be. And it was. With a jump, he was on his friend's back and with another jump, they were in the air.

Toothless dug into the air with each stroke of his wings, shoving them higher, and higher into the sky. Hiccup held on as best he could, and kept the tailfin locked in climbing position. The air whistled past his pale human skin, and the pain that throbbed below his skin intensified. They shoved their minds closer, and closer together, each feeling the wind and the world around through the other's senses. The night sky was afire with starlight. Thousands upon thousands, of millions of points of light burned above, and their light seemed to pulse in time with the pain. The pain was still in time with Hiccup's heartbeat. He felt Toothless' pulse between his legs, slow and strong and deep. His own heartbeat by comparison, was like a birds; rapid and shallow. But it was changing. As he and Toothless spiraled higher into the heavens, his heartbeat was slowing. His breathing likewise deepened, and slowed in tempo. He tasted the flavor of the air, letting it flow across his tongue and deep into his lungs. The wind told thousands of stories that he had never noticed before and that he still could not truly decipher. Finally his heartbeat stopped it's decline, and pulsed right alongside that of Toothless. There was no longer any difference. A single song sung by their bodies in perfect harmony. Then, suddenly, there was a snap. And they, were no longer They.

XXX

Stoic

There was a lot of work to be done. Most of the residential buildings were complete. With such a reduced population, they need only rebuild about half of the village. Even so, it was difficult to reconstruct all of the agricultural buildings. There was also the concern of the food. There were barely any crops left in storage. The store houses had all burned. Winter was setting in and most of the flocks were gone. How was he supposed to feed an entire village with those damned beasts destroying all of the food? The medical position wasn't too sunny either. Those with injuries severe, or otherwise, were all forced to work to get what food they could find in the wreckage, into proper storage. They would have to send out foragers at the first opportunity. And on top of it all, the sun was setting.

The group of youngsters the village had mostly seemed strangely cheerful. They kept pausing in their duties to talk about something. After the fifth such delay, he called them all over to him.

"Now what is it that you find so exciting, and so important that you're postponing the work that will get your home back in order again?" The teen's excitement was in no way diminished and they gazed back at him with smiling faces and light in their eyes. It was Fishlegs who spoke up.

"We were just talking about the final day of training sir, and when it would come." Ahh of course. He had forgotten all about dragon training.

"Ahh yes! Astrid's match with the Monstrous Nightmare." The childrens looks changed from anticipation, to confusion. "It is Astrid who won right?" She was the best of all of them, there had never been a doubt in Stoic's mind that she would be the one participating in that final fight. Fishlegs spoke again.

"N- No sir. It was Hiccup."

Stoic starred at him. Had he heard right? Hiccup? His son? Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III? THAT Hiccup? Had exceeded all of his peers, including Astrid, and would now kill his first dragon in front of the entire village? That was absurd. It was ridiculous. It simply couldn't be true. But what if it was? Any sort of skill on Hiccup's part would completely overshadow the fact that the chief's son was a useless, walking disaster. It let him right off the hook!

"Fishlegs, did you just say, Hiccup?" The boy wore a face of extreme nerves.

"Y- Ye- Yes sir!" Stoic's eyes swept the small group. They were all nodding in earnest.

"Hiccup. My son. He placed first?" More nodding.

Stoic felt the first smile that he had experienced in days crack beneath his beard. This was wonderful! "We can use this to wipe the depression straight out of the villages eyes! A good match, especially one with so much curiosity valure, should make them completely forget their troubles! And we have a lot of trouble that needs forgetting. If only briefly. You four get out there and spread the word! The killing of the Monstrous Nightmare shall take place tomorrow at sun rise!" And with woops of excitement, the teens sprinted off.

XXX

Unknown

We are as high as we can climb without depriving our smaller body of oxygen. We fold our right wing, and shift our heel to close the tailfin. We spin, falling faster and faster toward the water below. Layer after layer of clouds rush past us and we feel each layer of moisture as it passes. Below us is the sea. We can see it with both sets of eyes. Growing closer, and closer. We do not have much time to spare, but that is what makes it fun. We throw our right wing open and click our heel to open our tail to it's fullest extent. Air pulls harshly at both of our bodies. Our wings are strained to their limits. It feels as though they will be torn off and flung into the sky. But they are not. They endure and we find ourselves soaring, just above the crests of the tallest waves. The starlight reflects in the water. It is as if we fly between two night skies. One above, and one below. But beneath the surface of the sky, there is a long flash of silver. We trace it's movement. Without a moment's hesitation, we reach through the sky, and snare it in our claw. Dinner. We angle our wings and reposition the tailfin, and begin a climb to the cliffs where we will feast. The air dances on our skin, both armored and bare. Our bare skin is stifled. Confined. We do not like it. We reach up with our pale human hands, and rip away the fabric that impedes us. It falls away, far far below. And as the sky caress' our bodies, we unleash a double outcry of wild joy.

XXX

Toothless

"Hiccup?"

"Yeah?"

"Does this fish taste.. better than it should?"

"Kinda like it's the best fish in the entire ocean?"

"Exactly."

"I guess what they say is try. Food that you catch yourself does taste better than anything else." Hiccup ripped another piece off of the section of spine he was holding.

"I thought you human's couldn't eat meat without singing it."

"We can't."

"That fish is almost entirely raw." Hiccup looked down at the dead flesh in his hands, then shrugged.

"It tastes better this way." Toothless let out a loud and throaty chuckle.

"I couldn't agree with you more."

His Hiccup was reclined against him within their freshly made bed of warm ashes, and the carcass of the immense fish lay in front of him, beside a small fire that he had lit to help keep his human warm. The scaly body was torn open in the middle, and many of it's organs had already disappeared. Hiccup appeared particularly partial to the segments of muscle that lined the bones of the fish, odd, as it was the organs that held all of the real flavor.

His human was also bare-chested. He vaguely remembered tearing the cloth from his boy because of the discomfort. Wait. How could he have torn it off? He couldn't reach around his own spine to bring his claws anywhere near Hiccup. Had it been Hiccup who'd torn his own clothing? Yes that must be it. Keeping things straight with his human was so difficult.

The changes the boy was undergoing should have been strange. Frightening even. A human could not leap about in as agile a fashion as Hiccup did nor could a human eat meat that was raw. In fact, the chill in the evening air should have been causing Hiccup enormous discomfort without his upper second skin. The lower one remained intact, but still.

"Hiccup, are you cold?" The boy looked up at him and grinned.

"How am I supposed to manage that with all of this?" He wriggled and pressed his body closer against the scales at his back. "It's like leaning on a furnace."

"Hiccup I can smell winter approaching. The air is bracing and wind rushes from the north. It is only going to get colder. You can't run around without clothes on." His boy looked away and ripped another strip of flesh from the piece of spine in his hands. After chewing, somewhat noisily, and swallowing he said,

"It is far too uncomfortable to wear a tunic. It started out as just a trifling annoyance, but recently it's become completely unbearable. And besides, I can't feel the cold. He stood and paced to the edge of the cliff, then turned to face Toothless, a smug grin on his face. "In fact, it feels very nice. Balmy, almost as if it were a summer evening.

It was while his boy was standing before him, bare-chested and smiling, that Toothless noticed the other changes. The limbs, and oddly shaped human torso, seemed swollen. No, they seemed as though they had simply grown very quickly, swelling outwards in a natural fashion. His scrawny fishbone of a boy seemed to be rapidly filling out. Of course he was still a shrimp compared to the others of his age group, but he was definitely nowhere near as weak and helpless as he'd been a few nights ago. And it was this new bulk that allowed him to notice the other change. He had a clear view of the wound that had been left behind by that vile girl's weapon. It seemed wider than before, as if the skin had parted slightly.

"Toothless? What's wrong?"

"Come here Hiccup."

"Why?"

"Just do it." They boy slowly stepped over to his friend. "Let me see your wound." The boy leaned down and stretched out his arm to give the dragon a good vantage. The hard and shiny substance that resembled blood, was now completely inky black. It was also flaking. Cracks had appeared and shards had already fallen away. Beneath it was not the freshly healed pale skin that he would have expected. No. Beneath the odd crust was a segmented material. At first Toothless didn't believe his eyes. Then his nose interpreted the feint smell emanating from the mark. The black scales of a Night Fury.

XXX

Astrid

It was pure chance. She had simply been in the right place, at the right time. Her parents were still in the mead hall, drowning their sorrows deep in their tankards. She had been carrying firewood into her freshly built house to warm the place for the night, and it was then, during a pause for breath, that she spotted Hiccup. Her gaze had been random and only the movement made her focus. A shadow dropped from the second story window of Hiccup's house. She waited for the squawk of pain that would follow the damage the idiot must have done to his legs, but it never came. The shadow, framed in moonlight simply landed in a silent crouch, and was still. Unnaturally still. Then, without a sound, it lifted itself, resolving in the moonlight into the scrawny shape of Hiccup, and took off trotting towards the forest. She may not have found her ax, but she had her knives. She wouldn't attack the dragon, only watch, and gain insight. She would find out why Hiccup went to it and she would figure out the best way to kill it. Dropping her bundle of firewood, which was in fact wreckage from the raid, she jogged for the woods for the third time, in pursuit of the Viking she despised.

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