Chapter 2: Contact
"Welcome to Dragon Training!"
This is it, Astrid thought, stepping under the portcullis into the arena. "No turning back."
The other new recruits - Fishlegs, Snotlout, and the Twins, Ruffnut and Tuffnut - followed her into the amphitheatre, idly discussing the battle scars they hoped to get from training. "Yeah, it's only fun if you get a scar out of it" she put in when the conversation paused.
She glanced at up at the steely grey sky as they formed a line in the centre of the ring. If you're out there somewhere Uncle Finn, this is for you. I'll show them that the Hofferson family is still worthy of the name 'fearless'.
"Let's get started!" Gobber's voice shook her from her thoughts. "The recruit who does best will win the honor of killing his first dragon in front of the entire village."
"Hiccup already killed a Night Fury, so is that why he's not here, or...?"
Astrid carefully kept her expression blank while the rest of the group chuckled at Snotlout's comment. Nobody in the village was particularly bothered by Hiccup's apparent disappearance - he'd disappeared before and always shown up again eventually. Regardless, with most of the village focused on repairing and restocking after the dragon raid, Stoick didn't have people to spare on search parties for his son. Of course, Astrid knew what had really happened to him, and that this time he wasn't going to be coming home anytime soon.
"Behind these doors are just a few of the many species you will learn to fight!"
Astrid shifted her grip on her axe and dropped into a slight crouch. She pushed away all thoughts of Hiccup. In battle, distraction meant death.
Gobber began to slowly pace around the circumference of the ring, calling out the names of each dragon species as he passed its cage. "The Deadly Nadder! ... The Hideous Zippleback! ... The Monstrous Nightmare!"
After each name, Fishlegs muttered some indecipherable statistics that only made sense to him. She quickly tuned him out. Her body remained perfectly still, her eyes tracking Gobber as he approached the final cage.
"The Terrible Terror!" Gobber announced. "And... The Gronckle!"
Gobber rested his hand on the lever that opened the Gronckle's cage. Snotlout made the mistake of stepping out of line. "Whoa, whoa, wait!" he exclaimed. "Aren't you gonna teach us first?!"
She simply readied herself to spring into motion.
"I believe in learning on the job," Gobber replied, and with that, he unleashed the Gronckle. It burst out of its cage and flew straight across the arena, causing Astrid and the other trainees to scatter. It smashed into the far wall, then dropped to the ground, gobbling up some rocks knocked free by its impact.
"Today is about survival. If you get blasted, you're dead!" Gobber shouted over the drone of the Gronckle's wings, finally beginning his instruction. "Quick! What's the first thing you're going to need?"
"Plus five speed!?" Fishlegs shouted.
This isn't a game, Fishlegs! She thought angrily. "A shield!" she answered, already moving to grab one leant against the wall of the arena. She quickly slipped her arm into the strap and span around, eyes darting back and forth across the arena. Snotlout was slipping his arm into his own shield, while Fishlegs was running for a shield on the far side of the ring, ignoring several that lay on the ground closer to him. Gobber was still stood by the cage door, espousing the importance of the shield in the art of dragon fighting.
She watched as the Gronckle as spun lazily towards Ruffnut and Tuffnut, who had gotten into a fight over one of the shields. It spat out a fireball, which struck the shield they were wrestling for, knocking both twins to the ground.
"Tuffnut, Ruffnut, you're out!" Gobber yelled.
Astrid glanced over Fishlegs; he'd finally managed to pick up a shield. Together with Snotlout, the three of them began to slowly advance towards the dragon, herding it towards the centre of the arena.
"Those shields are good for another thing: noise!" Gobber advised. "Make lots of it to throw off a dragon's aim!"
Astrid began banging the head of her axe against her shield. The others quickly mimicked her, spreading out to surround the dragon, she watched as it it blinked and shook its head, clearly disorientated.
"All dragons have a limited number of shots," Gobber continued. "How many does a Gronckle have?"
"Five?" Snotlout guessed.
"No, Six!" Fishlegs corrected.
"Correct, Six! That's one for each of you, and two left over!"
The Gronckle launched another lava-ball, but the shot was high, it flew over Fishlegs' head and burst against the far wall. Fishlegs flinched and stopped banging his shield. Seeing it's opportunity, the Gronckle span fully towards him.
"Fishlegs, move!" Gobber ordered.
The boy let out a very unmanly shriek and ran for the far side of the arena., narrowly avoiding the Gronckle's second shot.
"Three shots left!" Gobber called out.
Astrid cursed under her breath, with just the two of them, they couldn't corral the dragon effectively. She tried to circle around to attack the dragon from behind, but it was wary, and she ended up stood next to Snotlout, as they both stared down the Gronckle.
"So, anyway," Snotlout said, "I'm moving into my parent's basement. You should come by sometime to work out."
Ugh, I'd rather kiss Hiccup than spend time with you. She thought, then she had an idea. He may be a lout, but he could still be useful...
Turning to him, she flashed her best smile. "You look like you work out," she winked. "Go get 'em, you Viking."
Snotlout blinked at her for a second, then let out a furious battle cry. Raising his weapon above his head, he charged straight towards the Gronckle, and straight into another fireball. The force of the blast almost knocked him back to the arena wall.
"Snotlout! You're done!"
Astrid hadn't expected Snotlout's mad charge to work, but it had distracted the Gronckle long enough for her to get into position. Letting out her own battle cry, she raised her axe above her head and sprinted forwards.
The Gronckle reacted faster than she thought possible. It span, swinging its mace-like tail towards her. She managed to get her shield up in time to catch the blow, but it still knocked her backwards several feet, skidding on the damp stone floor.
"You know," Fishlegs complained to Gobber, "I'm really starting to question your teaching meth-" He was cut off as the Gronckle's third shot at him finally connected squarely with his shield, knocking it clean off his arm and sending it rolling across the arena.
"One shot left!"
Foolishly, the boy ran after his shield, and grinning viciously, the Gronckle gave chase. At the last moment, Fishlegs looked back. With a gasp of horror, he realised it was too late for him to escape, and in his panic, tripped and fell. Flipping over, he scrambled backwards, pressing himself against the arena wall as the Gronckle closed in.
Suddenly, Gobber was at the Gronckle's side, hook-hand lodged in its mouth, as its final shot exploded against the arena wall, inches away from Fishlegs' terrified face. "And that's six!"
"Go back to bed, you overgrown sausage!" He grunted, wrestling the dragon back into it's cage, and slamming the doors closed behind it.
Astrid let out a breath, and slowly trudged towards him. She glanced over at the Twins and Snotlout as they approached from the edges of the arena, but said nothing.
"You'll get another chance, don't you worry," He said, finally addressing the five of them. Turning to help Fishlegs up he added, "Remember: a dragon will always, always, go for the kill."
Astrid knelt on the rim of the shallow crater where the Night Fury had crash-landed after Hiccup had brought it down. She'd intended to work off her frustration by throwing her axe into some trees - she'd been so close to that Gronckle - but before she'd realised what was happening, her legs had taken her back here.
Gobber's words from the end of the training session echoed in her mind. A dragon will always, always, go for the kill.
"So why didn't you?" she wondered out loud, absently picking up one of the balls from Hiccup's bolas and weighing it in her hand.
The Night Fury had Hiccup beneath it's claws, she'd seen it preparing to end him with a burst of fire, then it seemingly changed its mind and transformed him instead.
Why would it do that? she thought. Was it simply trying to sow chaos on Berk by changing the chief's son into a dragon? Or was this how Night Furies reproduced?
No, that doesn't make sense, she answered herself, If Hiccup was its 'child' why would it fly away as soon as it transformed him?
"And where did you go?" she asked, looking up from the ground. She'd seen the newly transformed Night Fury's reaction to the change when it woke up, the horror and panic had been obvious even on a dragon's features. That has to mean it's still Hiccup in there, right? But then she'd stood up and called out to him, and he'd fled.
She shook her head, there were just too many unanswerable questions. The Night Fury had obviously used magic to transform Hiccup; there was no other explanation. If Night Furies could use magic, could other dragons? Had the Night Fury used its power to free itself from Hiccup's bolas?
She stood up, The path 'Hiccup' had carved through the undergrowth when he fled from her was clearly visible, leading away into the forest. There was only one way that she was going to get any answers.
She needed to find Hiccup, or at least the Night Fury that had replaced him.
Hiccup was awoken by the morning sun shining through the leaves above him. He blinked confusedly at the bright light, disorientated by not waking up in the body he'd possessed for his previous fifteen years of life. All too quickly the memories came flooding back, it hadn't been a dream; he was still stuck in the body of a Night Fury.
His first day as a Night Fury had been downright miserable. A storm had blown in by late morning, and he'd been forced to spend most of the day sheltering beneath the buttress-roots of a large tree that grew from the cliff wall, flinching whenever a crash of thunder made his too-sensitive ears ring.
Hiccup stood up and groaned, his muscles were stiff from sleeping on the bare ground. The storm had finally blown itself out sometime in the night, and he'd eventually slipped into a fitful sleep. He glanced up as he padded out from his shelter, The sky was still thick with clouds, but the sun shone down through a narrow rent in the stony grey ceiling, dazzling blindingly off the droplets of water that clung to every leaf and blade of grass.
Hiccup opened his mouth in a large yawn. Of their own accord his front legs pushed forwards and his hindquarters rose into the air, his body stretching like a cat. He almost jumped in surprise when at the peak of his stretch, he felt his teeth retract back into his gums.
Relaxing his body, he wandered over to the shores of the lake and parted his lips, looking down at his reflection. Sure enough, he was as toothless as a baby.
"Huh," he said out loud, baffled by this new development.
After about a minute of pulling increasingly contorted faces into the lake, he was able to locate the muscles above and below his jaws that moved his teeth and snap them back into place.
Hiccup sighed and sat back on his haunches, staring out across the surface of the lake. He could feel the despair and hopelessness that had washed over him the day before threatening to overwhelm him again. With an effort of will he forced down his emotions and locked them away. If he was to have any chance of surviving this... this, he couldn't spend all his time lying around feeling sorry for himself, he had to try and learn what he could about the body he now possessed.
Getting to his feet and closely studying his reflection in the lake, Hiccup slowly extended his wings. As he did so, he felt the rest of his body move in response, his tail automatically lifted from the ground, the fins at the end unfurling. Turning his head to the side, looking underneath his left wing and down his flank, he noticed another set of fins at the base of his tail that he hadn't been aware of before. Experimentally, he moved his wings in what he thought was a flapping motion. Immediately the surface of the lake sprung to life, rippling due to the wind generated by even his first few slow flaps. Beating his wings harder, he felt his weight lessen in time with his downstrokes, but he still remained firmly rooted to the ground.
"Well it was never going to be that easy" he groused, folding his wings against his back - the new muscles in his chest and back ached from just that simple exercise. As he watched the ripples he'd created in the lake slowly spread out, he recalled how his tail fins had moved automatically when he'd opened his wings, and his mind drifted back to when he'd first fallen into the cove. He'd been too preoccupied to notice at the time, but his wings had instinctually opened to try and slow his fall.
When he thought about it, he realised that he had to be in possession of at least some basic dragon instincts. After his initial panicked attempts to flee from Astrid, he'd been able to adapt to walking on all fours without too much thought. Is that the key? he wondered, Do I just have to get myself into the right situation, then let instinct take over? He eyed the towering cliffs that protected his secluded hiding place, jumping off a high point and trying to learn to fly on the way down sounded like a surefire way of earning himself a premature trip to Valhalla. Or whatever dark corner of Hel is reserved for Dragons when they die, he added darkly.
He was saved from slipping into depression again by a loud growling from his stomach. It suddenly occurred to him that he hadn't eaten at all the day before. He wondered why it had taken him this long to feel the effects; had some side effect of the transformation suppressed his appetite? Or was his new body simply able to survive longer without food?
Hiccup shook his head, trying to focus his thoughts. Now he had a goal at least; he needed to find food.
A soft splashing sound caught his attention, his ear-flaps suddenly standing at attention. Turning back to face the lake, he spotted a pair of fish swimming in the shallows, less than two feet away from his paws. His stomach growled. Crouching low, he crept forwards until the lake was almost lapping at his claws. He fixed his gaze on the larger of the fish, and lunged forwards.
At the last moment, his shadow fell across the fish and they darted away, his jaws closing on only water. Before he could react, his body recoiled backwards several steps and his head shook violently, spraying water everywhere.
What in Thor's name was that? Hiccup thought, alarmed. Slowly, as if scared the water was going to bite him, he padded back to the shores of the lake. Then it hit him. He was a dragon, he could breathe fire - at least in theory - and he'd just gone and dunked his head underwater. Well, I'm an idiot, he thought. A newborn hatchling probably has more sense than me.
As if reprimanding him for letting his thoughts go off track, his stomach grumbled again. "Right, on it" he replied.
Hiccup let out a wordless growl of frustration as for the third time his paws splashed down on empty water. He'd made several more attempts at catching the fish in the lake - using his claws rather than his teeth - but every try had ended in frustration; he just wasn't fast enough to grab the elusive fish.
Padding out of the water defeatedly, he looked up at the trees that encircled the rim of the cove. Hunting his own food was out, so his only option was to scavenge a meal from somewhere, which meant that first he had to get out of this cove.
He felt a numbing sense of foreboding creep over him as he studied the cliffs. The walls were almost completely sheer, vertical rock. His gaze finally came to rest on a narrow crack at ground level and he bounded over excitedly.
As a human, he might have just been able to squeeze through, but in his current form, he could barely fit his head into the narrow gap, let alone his shoulders. Sighing, he turned away from the crack and began padding around the base of the cliffs. Experimentally, he raised one of his forelegs and hooked a claw around a low-hanging vine. The vine gave way almost as soon as he rested his weight on it, landing on top of him and tangling itself in his head-frills. He shook it off with an exasperated growl.
Eventually, he completed his circuit of the cove and arrived back at his starting point. The walls were nigh on impassable all around. His best bet was a large boulder that had fallen against the side of the cove, its top rising to maybe a third of the way up the cliffside.
Walking over to the rock, Hiccup found that if he reared up on his hind legs he could just about get his forepaws on top of it. With a heave and a lot of scrabbling of claws he managed to clamber onto the boulder. With a deep breath, he studied the natural edifice before him. Up close the cliff was even more imposing than it had been from the ground, at least forty feet of vertical, faultless rock.
"Well, here goes nothing..." Hiccup muttered, crouching atop the boulder. He shuffled his hindquarters, trying to get his legs into the best position to spring from. The high jump had never been his event at the annual Thawfest - not that any of the events had been "his". With a shake of his head and a final breath, Hiccup tensed his body, held the position for a heartbeat, then launched himself at the cliff.
Hiccup felt his claws dig into the rock, and for a single, hopeful, moment he dared to imagine that he might escape the cove. Then the stone crumbled under his weight, and he fell backwards, landing spine-first on the boulder he'd jumped from.
He groaned in pain, blinking rapidly to clear the stars from his eyes. Grumbling curses under his breath, Hiccup rolled to his feet - forgetting that he was currently lying on top of a boulder. A surprised cry escaped his jaw as he rolled off the side and tumbled to the ground, somehow ending up with a mouthful of soil in the process.
Rolling to his feet again, Hiccup spat out several clumps of grass and glared up at the treacherous cliff vehemently. "I don't care if the Night Fury survived being shot down from ten times this height" he growled, "I am not doing that again!"
Hiccup could see the marks that his claws had left in the cliff face; he hadn't even made it halfway up. With a defeated sigh, he slowly sank back onto his haunches. He was stuck; he couldn't fly, and there was no way out of his prison on foot. He almost wished he hadn't run away from Astrid the day before. A quick death on the blade of her axe would have been preferable to the slow, miserable death by starvation that almost certainly awaited him now. Then, overcome by the sheer unfairness of it all, he did something he never thought he'd do. He reared his head back, opened his jaws, and roared, letting out all of the frustration and helplessness he felt in one go.
CRASH! Crash! ROOAAAAR!
Astrid froze, automatically dropping into a ready stance and raising her axe. Her eyes darted back and forth, searching for the source of the noise. It had sounded like something heavy hitting the ground, followed by an unmistakably draconic roar, and it had been close too.
She glanced down at the soil, Hiccup's tracks lead up to a thick wall formed of undergrowth and low-hanging branches. Without making a sound, she crept forwards. Part of her wondered what she was doing. She might be the best student in Dragon Training, but she knew her limits, and even an experienced warrior would think twice about engaging a dragon alone on unfamiliar ground.
This is for Hiccup, she reminded herself. She knew that if she told anyone in the village, they wouldn't believe her story about Hiccup being transformed - gods, she wouldn't have believed it if she hadn't seen it with her own eyes. If she'd spoken to anybody from Berk, they would have stopped listening at "Night Fury" and sent out a hunting party to unknowingly kill their chief's heir.
Hardly daring to breathe, she reached out and gently parted the undergrowth with one hand. She barely suppressed her surprised gasp at what she saw. Just beyond the wall of branches the ground dropped away into a secluded cove-like depression, if she hadn't been following Hiccup's tracks, she would probably have never known it was there.
However, that wasn't what caused her shocked exclamation; sitting in the middle of the cove - clear as day - was a Night Fury.
Hiccup was staring morosely at a birds nest in a branch overhanging the cove, when he felt his ear-flaps prick up. He hadn't consciously noticed the sound - an almost imperceptible swish of movement amidst the rustling of the trees - but it had triggered some primeval instinct buried deep within him and he'd automatically risen to his feet, heart suddenly pounding in his chest. He closed his eyes and took a breath in through his nose, and was immediately assaulted with a multitude of scents. It took him a moment to filter through the vast amount of information. The scent was faint; barely a wisp of it had reached his nose, but that still enough to make the primitive part of his mind scream danger!
The predominant component of the scent was a faint musk of sweat, but it was layered with numerous other subtle odours. With a chill, he realised what it was:
Human. He'd been discovered.
Hiccup strained his ears, head darting from side to side, expecting a hunting party to leap from the cliffs and attack at any moment. After a few moments of sheer panic, he managed to reign in his emotions. He forced out a breath, which emerged as an agitated hiss through clenched teeth. Get a grip! He told himself, You're not that far from Berk, it's probably just someone collecting firewood.
He padded over to the tree where he had sheltered from the storm, and crawled into the space beneath its roots. However, the adrenaline in his system wouldn't let him curl up and hide, and he found himself unconsciously clawing the ground underneath his paws. Letting out a sound somewhere between a sigh and a growl, Hiccup pulled himself out from under the tree, and began to pace the circumference of his natural prison.
By the time he finished his first lap, he'd almost managed to convince his nerves that he wasn't in danger. Then he heard a clatter of rocks followed by a muffled curse from the crack in the cliffs he'd discovered earlier and his heart leapt back into his throat.
Hiccup looked around wildly. He couldn't hide; The tree he'd sheltered under was on the other side of the lake, and everywhere else he'd stand out like a sore thumb, a black dragon against grass and pale stone. His gaze fell on the boulder he'd launched himself off previously, from its top he'd have a good view of whoever came through the crack, and the height might give him an advantage if it came to a confrontation.
He managed to scramble on top of the rock moments before Astrid emerged from the gap in the cliffs. He pressed his stomach to the rock as she warily stepped out into the cove. His eyes darted to the blade of her axe; she held the weapon at her side one-handed, not in an overtly aggressive posture, but still ready to be brought to bear if she felt threatened.
"Hiccup?" She called out uncertainly.
Hiccup pressed himself tighter against the boulder, it seemed she hadn't noticed him yet.
"Are you there?"
He took in a shallow breath through his nostrils. As best he could tell, Astrid was alone, and that struck him as odd. Astrid was many things, but stupid or foolhardy weren't among them. There was no way on Midgard that she would walk into any dragon's lair - let alone one belonging to a Night Fury - alone.
At that moment, something about her sudden appearance the previous morning finally occurred to Hiccup. He'd been so focused on getting away from her, that he hadn't stopped to consider why she was there in the first place. Had she been following him?
Did she see what happened to me?
A small spark of hope ignited in Hiccup's chest. It was a long shot, but if she'd seen what had happened, and realised that he was still himself underneath the scales, it would explain her uncharacteristic behaviour. Or she could just be trying to win favour with dad by bringing the head of a Night Fury back to the village, his pessimistic side countered. He'd never understood it, but for as long as he could remember, Astrid had been almost unhealthily obsessed with warrior training, even for a Viking; She seemed to treat Dragon Training as some kind of do-or-die rite of passage.
He shook his head, raising his stomach from the stone. Well, its either this or starve to death, he told himself, padding forwards until he felt his claws begin to skid on the rock, then dropping to the ground.
Astrid let out a soft gasp and span around. Hiccup's heart clenched and they both froze as their gazes crossed. The next moment seemed to stretch out infinitely as they stared each other down, neither of them daring to move. Eventually, Hiccup managed to wrestle back control of his limbs and cautiously took a step forwards. His movement seemed to set Astrid free, and she recoiled backwards several steps, bringing her axe up between them.
Hiccup half-opened his mouth, then froze. How could he communicate with her? His voice box was no longer capable of producing human words, and she couldn't understand his dragon-speech.
"Hiccup? Is that you?" Astrid asked tensely.
Letting out a shaky breath, Hiccup sat back on his haunches and nodded his head up and down in an exaggerated motion.
She jerked in surprise. "Great Odin's ghost!" she exclaimed. "You can understand me?"
Hiccup nodded again, feeling the spark of hope in his chest grow - this might actually work!
"Gods above..." she muttered. Then, seemingly struck by a thought she narrowed her eyes. "Wait a moment, how do I know you're really Hiccup, and not just a dragon trying to trick me?"
Hiccup felt his blood go cold, and he nervously eyed the razor-sharp blade of her axe. "You'd think the fact that we're having this conversation and I'm not trying to claw your face off would be a big hint," he muttered.
Astrid stared at him blankly for a moment. "Right, yes or no questions only," She began. "Are you really Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the third, son of the Stoick the Vast?"
Hiccup nodded his head. Yes.
"Do you have any siblings?"
He shook his head. No.
"You're the village Blacksmith's apprentice, correct?"
Yes.
She thought for a moment. "Did you shoot down the Night Fury - I mean, the one that transformed you?"
He nodded again.
"Do you know why it changed you?"
He shook his head.
Astrid went quiet and in the silence that followed, Hiccup's stomach growled again.
Hiccup sighed inwardly, he could see the doubt in her eyes; they could do this all day and she wouldn't be convinced. Making what he hoped was a non-threatening sound in his throat, he crouched as low as he could and slowly crept forwards, practically crawling along the ground towards her. She started, raising her axe slightly, but held her ground. He took a step forwards, then another. The wind shifted, and he was suddenly hit with the full strength of her scent. His dragon instincts sprung to life, screaming at him to get away!
This is it, all or nothing.
Closing his eyes, he let out a soft croon, and extended his neck, touching his nose to the ground in front of her. My life is in your hands. he thought. Either trust me, or end it now. He heard Astrid's breath catch and everything went silent, the sounds of the forest receding as he tensed, awaiting the blow that never came.
After what felt like an eternity waiting in darkness, Astrid let out a noisy sigh, "Hiccup..." she breathed.
He opened his eyes, she was staring down at him in a mixture of shock and disbelief, her axe hanging forgotten at her side. He let out a sigh of relief and sat back on his haunches. He looked down at his paws, he'd been so tense that he'd unconsciously sunk his claws into the ground, leaving a collection of puncture marks in the soil. That's it! he thought, resisting the urge to smack himself in the face. By the gods, I am an idiot!
He raised his left paw from the ground, and clenched his fingers as best he could, leaving a single claw extended. Astrid eyed his paw warily as he lowered it back to the ground and began to scratch runes in the dirt.
'ASTRID' he wrote. 'IT'S ME.'
Author's Notes:
Friendly Greetings!
First off, let me apologise for the delay in posting this update, it's the usual reasons why: Real Life things (University work) taking priority, and other distractions (GTA V PC).
Anyway, If you didn't catch it, the reference to 'Uncle Finn' in the opening of this chapter was referring to episode six of Defenders of Berk, 'Fright of Passage'. I'm not the first person to write Astrid like this, but I like that episode because I think that the flashback at its start nicely provides motivation for Astrid's character in HTTYD.
For a while I was torn between ending the chapter here, or continuing on until the end of Hiccup and Astrid's conversation, but I eventually decided that the opportunity to leave you all with this cliffhanger was too good to pass up. I hope you don't think me unreasonably cruel!
Also, thank you to the guest reviewer who called themselves "Noctus Fury", while Astrid will not be transforming into a Night Fury at any point in this story, your question did make me think about her fate at the end of this story, and now I have some interesting ideas for what to do there.
Finally, your fanfic recommendation this time is the last major influence on this story. While not a Dragon!Hiccup story, 'Call of the Night' by Spidermaster does a great job of creating its own unique lore surrounding its Shades (Night Furies), and is generally a great, unique, work of fanfiction. (Any similarities between that story's title and this one are entirely coincidental :P)
As always, thank you for reading, and whatever you think of the story so far, please leave a review!
~Superbun