1 week later...

Shadow woke up feeling slow and sluggish. Her limbs felt heavy and her head felt like it weighed more than a large rock. She groaned as she tried to sit up. She saw Gothi walking around inside her hut through her lidded eyes and mumbled a greeting.

The tiny elder walked over to her and checked how she was feeling. Then she passed her a plate of fish and mutton and a flask of water. Shadow wolfed it down in record time, ignoring all flavour the meat had.

'I suggest you eat slower. You may have been unconscious for a week, but gorging yourself like that will make you feel worse.'

Shadow narrowed her eyes, but listened anyway and slowed her eating.

Gothi went back to her work for a few hours and left Shadow to gather her strength to move around. After spending so long knocked out and not moving, she was glad to get up and move. However, she soon became bored. There wasn't anything to do in there while the elder worked. She wasn't knowledgeable on healing, so she couldn't help, and would only get in the way.

Eventually, she just settled for reading the books on healing that were strewn around the room. Who knew when this sort of information would be useful to her?

She had just finished one of the books, and picked up the next one wen something caught her eye. The pages inside spoke of something that made her eyes widen.

Moonstone.

Said to be worshiped by Romans and other cultures who worshiped lunar deities. And said to be made from crystallized moonlight. This made Shadow very interested. She grabbed the book and studied every word scrawled on the pages.

The legends alone were enough to make her want to find some. She thought to herself if the legends were true, or could somehow contain or channel moonlight, it could make her stronger. When Gothi came back some time later, she asked the elder everything she knew about moonstone.

'I haven't used Moonstone in years, and I don't have any lying around here at all. You can find it in underground caves on some of the islands around the archipelago. A lot of the cave entrances are underwater and can only be accessed by diving through channels in rivers. I wouldn't recommend going to find some, as it is very dangerous to even get there.'

Shadow wasn't swayed by the warnings and still intended to find some moonstone in order to see if it could help her in amassing more strength. But she still had to deal with the issue of getting around. She still couldn't leave. She sighed.

"Where could I find it anyway?" She inquired.

'Normally, it doesn't occur in large quantities. But you could find it around Eel Island in the hidden caves under the river.'

So a strange and distant island then. It looked like Shadow wasn't going to go and find moonstone any time soon. Well, she thought, she could just wait until the new moon for the transformation and fly over there when the timing was right. But it wasn't a major issue. She could wait, and if it somehow came around early, fantastic.

She just hopped that this moonstone could somehow benefit her.

.

.

Hiccup, Astrid, Fishlegs, Snotlout, Ruffnut and Tuffnut were lounging around in the academy. Well, Hiccup was trying to teach, but the others weren't exactly listening. It was just another random day, with not much really going on that would affect their lives greatly.

If they were completely honest with themselves, they were worried about Shadow. She had run off in fear after attempting to hurt Astrid, hid in the village until nightfall avoiding them all, and acted extremely hostile and mysterious when Fishlegs found her before passing out at his feet covered in blood.

They had been horrified at the sight of her body covered in blood and had no idea where the wounds had come from. Their first instinct was to get Gothi in the middle of the night and patch her up from the ghostly wounds dripping blood all over her. But Gothi had kicked them out and sent them away as soon as Shadow was brought to her, and they were told to stay away. She had been locked up in Gothi's hut for over a week. They started thinking that maybe she was dead.

Hiccup looked over at the other teens, seeing their downcast and bored faces. He could tell that they were worried about Shadow, even after all the strange, hostile and shy behavior.

He sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "Alright guys, I know we are all worried about Shadow, but Gothi told us to stay away. I know you all want to check on her, but we aren't allowed. So can you guys stop moping please." He pleaded.

Astrid stood up from her spot on a barrel and walked over to him. "Hiccup, we know we were told to stay away, but we can't stop worrying. We can't help it. None of us knows what happened to her or how she is right now and its making us anxious. Shes been out of sight, locked up in there for a week we don't even know if she's still alive."

"Yea Hiccup." Said Ruffnut. "despite her not being here for very long, shes part of the group, and shes hurt. The fact that we don't know whats even wrong with her is driving us up the wall with worry. This is the second time we've found her passed out and covered in blood, and we still don't know what caused it."

Fishlegs spoke up. "Ruffnut's right. We cant exactly do any work if one of our own is out of action. And yea, we still don't know whats caused her to pass out from bloodloss, and its making us worry."

Hiccup sighed again. "I know guys. Its just- we cant do anything at this point. Gothi chased us off and we cant help with her injuries anyway."

"Blah blah blah. If we are all so worried about her, why don't we just go up there and see for ourselves how shes doing? We could just sneak up there and put our heads through the window. No biggie." Said Snotlout. Everyone but Hiccup perked up at the idea.

"I don't know guys. I mean… we shouldn't go busting in to see her. What if she freaks out at seeing us? What if- hey! Where ae you guys going. No, wait. Come back!" Hiccup cried.

But it was no use. The others had already mounted their dragons and flown off through the gate.

Hiccup sighed, again. He looked at Toothless who had come and stood next to him. "Sometimes it really sucks being in charge. Especially when no one listens to you."

.

.

Hiccup mounted Toothless and directed him to follow, but they hadn't gotten very far when they noticed the teens had landed in front of the great hall.

People were milling about outside, with sniffling noses, itchy eyes and explosive sneezes. Stoick the Vast was standing outside, directing people inside while trying to talk to the dragon riders. Hiccup landed right next to the entrance.

"Dad, whats going on here?" he asked.

"The start of an outbreak of eel pox that's what. People started developing the symptoms a few days ago, and now its already bad and spreading. I've ordered everyone with eel pox to stay inside the great hall until we can get the cure. I'm hoping we can keep the healthy and sick people separated so we can still get some work done."

Hiccup cringed as a passer-by sneezed loudly.

"Is there anything we can do to help out?" he asked.

"Go over to Gothi's and tell her whats going on. We will need her to cook up the cure for this eel pox as soon as possible."

Suddenly Hiccup thought that going to Gothi's hut was a good idea. At least now it might not include them getting whacked over the head with her staff for trespassing.

Him and the dragon riders flew off as soon as they were given orders. They made it to the healers house within minutes and dismounted. They had just walked up to the hut when the door opened and Shadow stepped out.

She froze in shock seeing them there.

"Shadow! Wow, its great to see you up and about. How are you feeling?" asked Hiccup. Shadow looked slightly shy. "I'm ok. Feeling a lot better than I did." She answered.

"What are you guys up here for?" she asked them. Astrid spoke up from her spot next to Hiccup. "Outbreak of eel pox. We need Gothi for the cure. But we mainly came up here to check on you. We were so worried when we found you. You were all covered in blood, again, from all sorts of mysterious injuries. And we have been worried sick for a week while you were up here."

Tuffnut barged to the front of the group looking wary. He was feeling quite suspicious. "Where did those injuries even come from? You were dripping blood all over the place but we couldn't see any cuts or anything. So where are these mysterious injuries? Huh? And what caused them?" he said.

Shadow felt trapped, like she was being interrogated. Her chest felt tight as she was being questioned. She did the one thing she could.

"Gothi! The teens are all here! Said there's been an outbreak of eel pox in the village!"

Gothi appeared immediately in the doorframe. She did not look happy. She was not happy that the dragon riders had come and disturbed her, especially while she was in the middle of something important. And especially since they were pestering her patient. Her patient who happened to be a giant, black, fire-breathing dragon in disguise who was afraid of being captured for what she is.

But most of all, she was cranky about the fact that they had a reasonable excuse for being there and pestering Shadow.

Instead of using her staff to write scribbles in the dirt, she used her hands to sign to them, mostly from habit talking to Shadow.

They looked blankly at her moving hands as they were unable to translate. Shadow saw their confusion and translated for them.

"She says 'I thought I told you teens to stay away. Shadow and her injuries was mine to deal with and I didn't need you lot hanging around and disturbing me'."

Hiccup took a tentative step forward and spoke. "My father sent us here. There has been an outbreak of eel pox and we need to get it under control and cured as soon as possible, he sent us up here to get you and to help with getting anything you need for the cure."

The elders expression softened, but she still scowled. Beckoning Shadow back into the hut, she went to get the list of ingredients. Shadow and Gothi spoke for a few minutes while they rummaged around for the list. The elder was concerned about her being seen by them with all her cuts healed and her back to normal strength. She believed that Shadow would arouse more suspicion if she stayed up here pretending to be sick now that the teens had seen her up and about.

Shadow wasn't overly happy at the situation. But she was caught, and had to go along with it until she could create a new alibi.

Gothi grabbed the list and her staff and went outside to see them. The lot of them, with Shadow in tow, went down the mountain and to the village where they prepared to set off.

Hiccup and the gang mounted their dragons after attaching their equipment and bags to their saddles, Gothi was paired with Astrid and Shadow was put with Snotlout and Hookfang.

The Monstrous Nightmare didn't like the fact that she was to be riding with him, and expressed his dissatisfaction by puffing smoke out of his nostrils when she came near.

The others watched as she approached the dragon calm and collected, with an air of authority surrounding her. Hookfang growled at her, and she growled back in response. The two of them looked into each others eyes as she approached him. Hookfang continued to growl louder as she got closer, all the other dragon riders were watching.

Shadow's growled turned into snarls and warbles and other draconic noises, making all the other dragons freeze in shock. She continued to make the noises as she approached him, and he seemed to calm slightly, enough for her to mount the saddle behind where Snotlout would sit.

Everyone was shocked at her, not for the first time. She had never been able to get that close to one o their dragons without it roaring at her, and they certainly had never allowed her onto their back.

Snotlout got onto Hookfang and signalled that he was ready to take off.

The five dragons took off into the air towards their destination in a diamond formation.

ok, I was in the middle of rereading all my work, and realised that I somehow left out a big section of the chapter. well, crap. but anyway, I fixed it. hopefully.

anyway, gimme a review on how its going. and thanks to everyone who has already left one. :)