So it turns out that I am equally as impatient as you all must be to get to the exciting parts of the story. I have now posted 2 chapters in two days. I will try to do this with the next update as well, just to get the story moving along at a better rate and maintain your interest. Enjoy :)

ooOOoo

It had taken some quick thinking and a little help from Toothless to keep Eret from running, screaming through the village. Once the initial shock had worn off, Hiccup introduced the family to Toothless. He was exceptionally glad that he had gotten them used to Sharpshot first or he doubted they would have handled it quite as well. It had still taken a fair few days for them to stop flinching whenever the night fury moved or made a noise. Eventually though, they did manage to relax around the dragon, and even come to enjoy the black beast's playful nature.

After Eret had seen him with Toothless, Hiccup had given up sleeping in the forest. He was exceptionally glad of this as the seasons began to change. Though the weather was milder than what he was used to, it would still have been very unpleasant to spend the nights on the ground in the woods. The villagers had been surprisingly accepting of the dragon too. It was better than Hiccup could have ever hoped for. Eret senior had even cleared out a spot in the smithy for Toothless to sleep in after he had realized that the dragon was well trained. It also helped that he was quite good at heating metal in the forge in much less time than the traditional coal and bellows method.

Over the next moon, Hiccup continued to practice magic with Bríghid. He found he had definite aptitude for controlling the essences and took much joy from this. Though his most notable ability was in the mental arts. He excelled at shielding his own thoughts as well as breaking down the shields of others. The mental arts and magic combined gave him a sense of power and self-worth that he had never thought to achieve. He had never excelled at anything other than smithing before.

There was one particularly memorable evening that weighed on his mind however. He had been learning to summon the essence of fire and he had successfully created a glove of glowing green flame around his hand, while the skin underneath remained unharmed. The other members of the order had become eerily silent at seeing this display. After he had released the magic, Bríghid had called a stop to the training session. When they reached the village the other druids all hurried back to their homes after casting nervous glances at Hiccup. When he questioned Bríghid, she simply sighed resignedly.

"They are afraid of you. Or, more correctly, they are not certain if they should be afraid of you or not. The power and control that you continue to display has only been heard of in their legends. Not all of those that have power use their gifts for good. It does tend to bring out the very worst in us, regardless of our initial intentions. Remember this always, Little Shadow, for it may be the only thing that protects you from yourself or those that would use you for their own gain." She looked at him more seriously now.

"It is unclear whether your powers will be a blessing or a curse. Most likely they will be both. It is clear however that those closest to you will pay the price, no matter how steep. From this point I will be continuing your training on my own. For now, you need to get some sleep. I have much to teach you and I fear we do not have nearly as much time as I would like." Hiccup thought is was strange the way she had said 'their legends', as if she was not one of them. He figured it was best to leave it alone though. This night had already become uncomfortable and confusing enough.

Now that the Eret men understood why the high priestess had given him his new name, they had also taken to referring to him as Scáth Rothaí (meaning Shadow Rider). With all his new found free time, Hiccup had been able to complete his bow. It was a beautiful thing that curved first one way and then back on itself. After his first attempt had broken, he altered the design until he found one that worked. Made of multiple strips of yew and ash married together with pitch for added strength, the bow was lighter to draw than any other he had ever used.

Despite this, the arrow flew truer and delivered more force than he could normally hope to achieve with the traditional Viking longbow. Eret the younger had even begun to teach him archery from horse back which was much more difficult than just standing on the ground. Eret insisted that it would be of great use to know how to use his bow from dragon back since Toothless only had a limited number of his own shots. Hiccup had to agree.

*

Back on Berk, Astrid was barely holding herself together. Stoick had been furious when he had first discovered his son gone. He had arranged parties to comb the entire island for some sign of his son or this mysterious friend that he had mentioned in his letter. After coming up empty handed, the chief had been ready to send out every able bodied man and woman to sail to every surrounding island in search of his errant child. Only Gobber had been able to talk him down from this with a simple truth.

This was, that without knowing where Hiccup had been intending to go, they would be unlikely to catch up to him by ship. Unless they somehow stumbled upon him by chance. They would do better to wait until they received word from some neighbouring tribe that had seen him. Stoick had conceded to this logic and backed down, but he became sullen and withdrawn from the rest of the tribe.

Stoick blamed himself for driving Hiccup away. Though almost every villager agreed with the chief, none would dare mention it where Stoick might hear. Instead they were to be found huddled in corners of the mead hall at meal times. Often muttering about how the chief's bull-headedness had chased the boy away just as he was beginning to show some promise. Everyone still praised Hiccup's surprising abilities during dragon training and were certain he would return with some new solution to their current situation.

To Astrid's relief, no one had suspected her of having any information on Hiccup's departure. Nor of being the one to set the dragons free from the ring. Many in fact suspected that in all the excitement, the gate had not been properly secured in the arena and the dragons had simply escaped. Astrid was not about to correct this delusion. For the first few days in fact, she had done her best to stay out of sight of everyone. Hiding in her room or escaping to the forest every chance she got.

There had been only two small raids since the night that Hiccup had flown away. Despite her new doubts about the rightness of it, Astrid had done her best to help out with protecting the village. She only used her axe in self defence with the dragons and even then it was with softened blows and causing only minor injuries. Every time she fought one of the beasts she would see an image of the scrawny boy throwing himself between her and his pet dragon and be unable to land a killing blow. Luckily no one else seemed to notice as very few villagers were able to defeat a dragon in single combat.

So it was that Astrid carried on as if nothing had changed in front of the villagers, while her guilt and despair tore her apart inside. She did not see how Hiccup would be able to survive out there on his own. Sure he had managed to shoot down and tame a night fury, but the world was a hard and cruel place for a small boy on his own. Her own mother had arrived on this island from a far-away land and she rarely spoke of her early years.

Occasionally she would tell them stories of how, in the absence of dragons, the people of her homeland fought each other with just as much brutality. This was hard for Astrid and her brothers to comprehend. They had grown up in a village where every man relied on the others to survive. Her own family, for example, only held a high status due to the fact that her father captained many of the village's fishing vessels. When they asked her about this, her mother stated that in her homeland, status was given to those who had the most extensive material wealth instead.

Trudging into her room after another day of helping her father and brothers unload at the docks, Astrid was lost in her thoughts of Hiccup. The summer season had drawn to a close and autumn was upon them. Usually Astrid liked this time of year. The weather was still somewhat warm during the days. The whole village alive with preparations for the annual celebration to honour Freyr in the hopes of a good harvest. This year however just felt bleak and routine. She could not find it in herself to enjoy the festivities while she had no idea if Hiccup was alive or dead.

Distracted as she was, it took her a while to notice that there was someone else in the room with her. Perched on the corner of her sleeping pallet was a small green terrible terror. She stopped dead and reached back to grab her axe. Was this the start of another raid? She couldn't hear any sounds of destruction outside, so she guessed not. Then why would this one lone dragon be hiding in her room? It shuffled nervously at the sight of her axe and eyed her warily, but did not fly away.

Astrid lowered her axe to the floor and then began to slowly approach the terror. It gave her one more questioning glance before fluttering up to land on her shoulder. She stiffened in shock, but the terror simply crawled part way down her arm and began waving his hind leg in her direction. It was only now that she noticed there were two rolls of parchment tied to the dragon with a piece of twine.

Knowing that this could only be from one person, Astrid reached out to quickly untie the scrolls. Once freed from his burden, the dragon promptly scrabbled back to Astrid's shoulder. He nuzzled once against her hair and then took off out the window. Looking down at the scrolls Astrid saw her name on the outside of the larger one. With shaking hands she unrolled it. The first page was a beautiful charcoal drawing of a village with an unfamiliar landscape behind it. Some people milling around in the foreground. It did not look all that different from her village. Except for the intricate curling designs that decorated their clothing. She instantly recognized the style as Hiccup's and flipped to the next page eagerly.

It was a letter from him that mostly documented his travels so far. He told her of the islands that he had seen on the way and of his adventures surviving on his own. He told of sneaking into villages at night to avoid being seen. He talked of his guilt over the thefts he had to commit because he couldn't chance word of his location reaching his father. The letter took on a distinct tone of excitement as he spoke of reaching the mainland and the people that he had met there. He claimed that he missed her and thought of her often, adding that he wished she could be there with him to experience this new world. He claimed that he had been working in the village forge to pay his way while training with the Order of Druids (the local shaman, like Gothi).

"They are not so different from us!" he exclaimed, describing the villagers and their customs. Lastly he asked her to keep herself safe. He stated that he understood she would need to continue to fight the dragons, but hoped that she remembered what he had shown her. He promised that he would send her another letter with Sharpshot as soon as he was able. Sharpshot must be what he named the terrible terror, Astrid thought to herself. Well, it was a better name than Toothless. She chuckled quietly thinking of the terrifying black dragon with the ridiculous name.

Sighing, Astrid rolled up the parchment with Hiccup's letter on it. She then took another look at the drawing he had made. This must be the village on the mainland that he was staying in now. She tacked it up on her wall where she could look at it. Then she hid the rolled up letter under a loose floor board beneath her bed. This was also where the note he had left with her axe that first night resided. It would be safe there.

Then she finally took a look at the other scroll the terror had brought. It was Gobber's name on the outside. Hmm, so he had written a letter to the old smith as well. Listening closely to make sure that her parents were not home, Astrid hurried back outside and practically ran to the smithy to give Gobber his letter. She couldn't wait to see the look on the old man's face!

When she arrived at the forge, she was thankful to find Gobber alone. She did not want to give him the scroll in front of an audience. Noticing her, Gobber set down the sword he had been sharpening and came over to join her at the doorway to Hiccup's back work room. Astrid couldn't help notice that it had been left untouched and she found that she was glad. The papers and projects strewn around haphazardly made it feel as if he would return at any moment to start work on one of his crazy contraptions. Feeling Gobber's presence behind her, Astrid turned around and wordlessly handed him the parchment. The look he gave her was distinctly confused as he reached out to take it, but Astrid simply perched herself on a stool and waited for him to open it.

Shrugging, Gobber unrolled the parchment and his eyes went so wide Astrid feared they may pop right out of his skull. He glanced back up at Astrid as if he was about to say something. Then he appeared to change his mind and instead went back to the letter in his hands. After a few more minutes, Gobber sank down onto another stool beside Astrid and dropped the letter on the table in front of him. Astrid looked curiously towards the parchment. With Gobber's silent nod of approval, she picked it up and read over it. It was mostly the same as hers in that it mentioned his findings and travels. It also contained a few beautifully done sketches of various weapons that he claimed he was creating.

Instead of the warm and personal sentiments that he had concluded Astrid's letter with, Gobber's contained a written warning at the bottom. There was also a quick sketch of a terrifying looking dragon alongside it. The passage stated that Hiccup had been to the dragons' nest and seen what lay in wait there. He claimed it was a boulder class dragon the likes of which they had never seen. According to him, this queen ruled over the nest and used mind control to enslave the other smaller dragons. He begged Gobber to keep Stoick from trying to find the nest for he feared that if they reached it, it would mean the death of the village.

Astrid glanced again at the sketch of the dragon Hiccup had done. It had a large armoured head with six eyes and a huge, gaping maw filled with gigantic dagger-like teeth. The malice radiating from the creature's eyes was enough to chill her to the core despite it being only a drawing. This thing was pure evil. Also, if one assumed that the background proportions were correct, this dragon was enormous. It was easily the size of a small mountain. There was no doubt in Astrid's mind that Hiccup was right. If their ships ever reached dragon island, it would be to find their doom awaiting them. Could a dragon of this size really exist? She had to believe that Hiccup was telling them the truth.

She put the letter back down on the table and looked to Gobber, her eyes as wide as his. "What can we do? Hiccup is right, we can't beat that thing! I don't now how we will ever tell Stoick without revealing that we have received contact from Hiccup, but he will never stop the searches for the nest if we don't."

Gobber sighed and ran his hand distractedly over his braided moustache; a clear sign that he was doing some hard thinking. He finally turned back to her and said, "don' you worry abou' Stoick. I'll think'a somethin' ta tell the stubborn boar. Once winter sets in there won' be any searches until the thaw starts next spring. Hopefully I can keep him distracted enough with other problems until then. I'm more interested in how you came ta have this letter young lass. 'ave you seen Hiccup? Was he here?"

Astrid shook her head and told him about the terrible terror delivering the letters to her. Gobber threw his head back and laughed heartily at this. "Trust tha' boy ta find a way ta turn a dragon into a messenger boy! Well, if anyone was crazy enough ta try it, it would be him. Tha' child always did have more brains than sense." Still laughing, he patted Astrid on the shoulder and returned to his work on the sword. Dumbfounded by his reaction, Astrid got up and meandered back to her house, her brain filled with questions that had no obvious answers.

*

Hiccup's life now carried on much the same as it had before Eret had seen Toothless. His magical training was getting more difficult, but he never confided his thoughts on it to anyone except the Druidess. Toothless continued to attend Hiccup's lessons in the stone circle with Bríghid, except now he participated as best he could. He seemed to have a lot more difficulty controlling and directing his magic than Hiccup did. It often just burst out of him at unexpected moments in surprising ways. Hiccup did soon realize that he could draw on the magic inside Toothless to strengthen his own power though.

This had come in very handy as Bríghid had begun teaching him how to use illusion magic. She had said that it was one of the most difficult abilities to master as it required extremes of both focus and control. She claimed that his skill in the mental arts would be a huge asset. Telling him that she was sure he would be a natural at it.

To his utter surprise, he did excel at it. Hiccup found that it was not so different from projecting images and thoughts to the dragons. Soon he was able to force those around him to see whatever he wanted them to just by willing it to happen. He was also quick to realize what a heady and dangerous gift this magic was. He would need to be careful to not abuse it.

These training sessions however, had brought forward a question that Hiccup had been pondering for days. He finally got up the nerve to ask Bríghid at the beginning of their next lesson, sure she would be horrified that he had even thought of such a thing.

"Lady Bríghid" he began respectfully. "I have had a thought. I am able to manipulate the essences in the earth and air around me and bend them to my will. That essence is simply the life force of the world. Does it not then stand to reason that I could manipulate any essence with my will. Including that of the animals, or even humans? Also, since I can still sense the essence living inside the body of a fallen tree, does that mean this essence will also linger in the body of animals?"

He said all this whilst not meeting her eye and waited with bated breath for her reaction. She, however, merely smiled mysteriously. "Once again you surprise me Little Shadow. You have arrived at the one secret that the ancients know, but is never taught to seekers of the arcane arts. You are correct. If one is powerfully magical enough and their will is strong enough, then it is possible to manipulate the life forces inside all creatures to do your bidding. As essence cannot be destroyed other than by extreme means, it too stands true that this force will linger and take on a new form in sentient creatures as well. It would, therefore, be possible to manipulate this essence as you would any other."

Hiccup began to run through scenarios where he flew Toothless to dragon island and through their combined powers, convinced the queen to free her dragon slaves and leave forever. This would mean an end to the war and he would be able to go home to Berk. Just maybe...

Bríghid must have seen the telltale gleam in his eyes of a reckless plan in the making for she was quick to bring him back to reality. "You must be very careful with this knowledge young apprentice. You and your dragon may have great power, but there will always be those that are greater and more powerful than you. Also, every time you manipulate the essence, you take a small part of it into yourself. This is not dangerous most of the time, as much of the life around us has no particular allegiance or ill will to speak of."

"Be wary of touching the essence or minds of sentient creatures in this way however. They can carry a darkness inside them that may latch itself to you if you are not careful. The more powerful the spell you are casting, the more you will open yourself up to this darkness. If not properly shielded, this darkness will eventually stain your spirit and may drive you mad. It is possible to release or channel this dark essence into an object to prevent the madness, but that object itself would need to be extremely powerful to contain such energies." Well, there goes that dream, he thought morosely.

Bríghid allowed him to wallow in defeat for only a moment before she started speaking again. "I feel that it may now be time to extend your training into the 'darker' side of magic. You will likely need the knowledge one day and I would hate to think that I left you unprepared for it. The art of shielding oneself and channeling away dark energy is considered a taboo practice, as you would only need to learn it if you were planning to use dark magic. This is expressly forbidden and the one using it is often considered evil. It is not really all bad though. Without the dark, how would we know of light? Sometimes we must allow the darkness to take the lead, for it is inside all of us and is strong enough to do what is necessary. As long as you do not lose yourself to it, that is."

With this heavy thought, Hiccup returned to the village. All his hopes of single handedly defeating the queen of the nest had been dashed from his mind. He couldn't even fathom how powerful and evil she had to be in order to enslave that many dragons. Her spirit had to be twisted beyond repair to be able to warp that many creatures to serve her desires. Maybe one day he would find a way to stop her, but he could not face her alone. Not yet.

When Hiccup and Toothless arrived at the house, it was to discover that Sharpshot had returned and was waiting for them. He was overly excited that he had managed to deliver the letters to the correct person. "And she didn't even attack me sir! Sure she was startled at first when she discovered me in her sleeping room, but then she put her weapon down. She is very pretty for a two-legs my lord. I must say..."

Hiccup laughed out loud at this as the dragon prattled on about the flight over and how nice Astrid was. He thought back to the night he had said goodbye to her. As an image of her rose to the forefront of his mind he found that he had to agree with the little monster. She was indeed very pretty for a two-legs. He allowed himself to wonder what she was doing now. What had she thought of his letter? He should have asked Sharpshot to stay and bring back a reply. Oh well, perhaps next time.

He knew Gobber would get a kick out of the descriptions and schematics of the weapons he had built. Maybe the old smith would even try his hand at copying a couple of them. He hoped so. Gobber had always loved a new project that challenged his plethora of skills. Hiccup worried his mentor would go crazy from boredom without him around to dream up insane new things for them to build.

Well, he would just have to make sure to send more ideas along for Gobber when he sent his letters to Astrid. He did hope that they would heed his warning about the Red Death, as he had begun to call the queen dragon. It was no use bettering himself and seeking answers if he had no village left to return to. Hiccup also couldn't bear the thought of Astrid facing that monstrous creature. She was one of the best fighters on Berk and he did not doubt for a moment that if Berk sailed for the nest, Astrid would be with them. Shaking his head to clear these images, he pushed open the door of the house.

ooOOoo

Well, there it is. I'm sure it came as no surprise to anyone that Hiccup has stumbled his way into the darker and twistier avenues of magic. Curiousity and intelligence do seem to have that effect. Whether or not he will use this knowledge remains to be seen. Bríghid is right though. Things that seem dark or dangerous, are not always evil. Likewise, some things that seem good, are not always.

We finally got to see how things are back on Berk. Poor Astrid has some moral dilemmas to sort through. At last, Gobber and Astrid now know that Hiccup is alive and well. Too bad the good news came with some unsettling information. Will they tell anyone? How long do you think they will be able to keep Stoick from trying to find the nest?

Hopefully the extra chapter this week, plus the promise of two next week will keep you hanging on until we get to the exciting bits. I know you all are only here for the adventure and romance. Lol. Once again, thank you to all that have favourited, followed, and reviewed. It definitely makes my day to see that people are reading it and enjoying it.