It was late at night when the sounds started. It began as grunts in the night of a creature in discomfort, but then it manifested into louder guffaws and snarls.

Hiccup woke suddenly in the night, wrapped in furs and lying on his bedroll. The sounds didn't stop when he sat up to survey the area. Some of the dragons were awake and looking for the source of the noise, and a few of the teens were stirring in their sleep as the noises penetrated their dreams.

A choking and suffocating sound echoed inside their camp, and Hiccup sat up to look for the source. Astrid, Snotlout and Fishlegs were slowly wakening, being alerted to the noise.

Toothless warbled in concern at the echoing sounds, and his eyes were widened as they searched the darkness. The teens got up and looked around, and looked at the others still asleep in their makeshift beds.

The twins looked uncomfortable in their sleep, as the noises entered their minds as they slept, and Shadow was sweating in her sleep.

As Hiccups eyes went over her form, Shadow lurched from a phantom force. She whimpered in her sleep and thrashed under the furs. Her eyes were tightly shut and her body was curled up, but she moved around as if she was fighting a battle in her dreams.

Everyone's eyes whipped over to her as she gasped in her sleep and rolled over. Her body convulsed painfully on the ground and her clawed hands swiped the empty air around her.

"… n- no… wh-wha-at a-are you d-doing…?"

She mumbled in her sleep. She was having a nightmare. She cried out again louder and grasped her shoulder in phantom pain. "…Hic-Hiccup… w-why are y-you doing t-this…?"

Everyone's eyes widened and they rushed over to Shadow's sleeping form and drabbed her arm and pulled it away as it drew blood. Her movements became more erratic as if she was being assaulted. Her head shook and her body twisted away from them, and she seemed to unintentionally hurt herself with the way her claws raked her skin. The teens grew frantic and did everything they could to hold her down, but it just seemed to irritate her more.

By this time, the twins had woken up and were groggily asking questions about what was going on, before their eyes landed on Shadow. They watched in shock as she cried out in her sleep.

"Hiccup… No, don't… I meant to tell you… I trusted you!" her sleeping body lurched forward like she had been kicked in the gut, and she struggled to breathe. Her eyes remained tightly closed.

"S-stay away!... I don't want y-you to hurt me, and I don't want to ha-have to- kill you…"

Everyone struggled to hold the girl down, her actions became more erratic as her dream version of Hiccup hurt her in unknown ways. They didn't know what he was doing to her, or what she was speaking of, but they were frightened all the same.

Hiccups eyes were widened like twin full moons as he witnessed Shadow in pain from himself. The dream version of himself. What was he doing to her? Why would he hurt her? These questions roved around his head as he watched her writhe in pain from invisible blows.

The night terror took on a new intensity as her gasps and cries turned into shrieks. Their only option to end her nightmare was to awaken her, but her eyes remained firmly closed.

"D-don't make me… do this. I don't want to have to k-kill you… p-please… I'm ashamed of my form… don't make me hate myself more…" she screamed in pain and swung her fist up in the air. It only just missed Hiccup himself, her claws coming too close to his face.

"… Don't kill me for… for what I a-am… I d-don't want t-to have to k-kill you t-too… Don't m-make me do it."

Tears rolled down her face as she pleaded with the nightmarish Hiccup who seemed to be torturing her. The teens were horrified at what they were hearing. What did she mean by her being 'ashamed of her form'? They did not know.

The night terror became worse and worse, with her breaking out of their grip to swipe dangerously at the air, or at herself, leaving gashes in her skin. Nothing would wake her.

"…N-n-no! No don't! Hiccup please!...No-" her voice cut off into a loud scream that shook to their very core. It was a scream filled with heartbreak and raw pain. It broke their hearts and shook their bones as she wailed helplessly against the onslaught of her nightmares.

The scream turned into a fear filled roar and she shot up out of bed, her jaw wide open and claws outstretched and she grabbed the closest person in an attack. Hiccup was grabbed in her clawed hands and pushed back with a yell. The still asleep Shadow came closer and closer until her fangs latched on to his shoulder, making him scream.

Her teeth sunk into his flesh and her claws threatened to rip the fabric of his clothes and she attacked him like an animal. Blood flowed out of the wound down his chest. Hiccup couldn't do anything but scream.

It seemed to wake Shadow up from her horrible nightmare, and her silver eyes snapped open in shock.

With a scream of horror, she leapt back and scurried away from him breathing fast and heavy. Blood dripped down from her fanged mouth.

Shadow looked absolutely horrified at what she had done, and what she had experienced in her mind, like her worst memories had been combined, with Hiccup as her tormentor.

Hiccup's shoulder hurt like hell, and his vision was foggy. Pain erupted in waves from the bite all the way down his arm, stinging like pins and needles. He had some trouble breathing from shock and it hurt to even move.

Astrid immediately was by Hiccup's side looking at the bite mark and trying to wipe the blood away.

"Hiccup, I am so sorry… I don't know what came over me… I don't- I don't know what happened." She stammered. Her face had gone white in horror, the crimson liquid contrasting brightly against her skin in the darkness.

Hiccup made a move to speak, but gasped in pain when Astrid touched the wound. Shadow saw and cautiously made a move over to him. Unknown to them, Shadow noticed a new problem with her nightmare fuelled attack, and she couldn't let herself sit by and watch as it hurt Hiccup more. It was her that caused it, and she had to fix it.

Pushing the horrible, disturbing thoughts of her nightmare Hiccup out of her head, she went over to him to assess the damage she caused. Hiccup flinched away from her claws when she reached out, and she froze.

"Hiccup. I'm so sorry for doing that… it wasn't me that did it… please, let me help you…" she pleaded. Her eyes were still wet with tears as she begged him. "… It's the least I could do…"

Slowly and precisely Hiccup allowed Shadow to approach him, like he was placing his trust into a wild dragon, which was exactly what he saw her as. She was wild, unpredictable, dangerous, and untameable. He didn't know if he could trust her after she attacked him like that, but she had been induced in a nightmare. And she was now trying to help him. She truly was a wildcard.

He decided to place his trust in her, for now, and test where her loyalties lie. She was offering to help him after inflicting the wound, so maybe she didn't mean what she said in her sleep.

Would she try and kill him if he did anything she deemed a threat?

Shadow approached cautiously and looked at the bite mark, her bite mark. Just as she suspected, there was residue from her venom glands covering the wound, meaning there was poison in his system. She would have to neutralise it before it killed him. She immediately set to work, activating the anti-venom glands in her mouth and covering her fingers in it, before rubbing it over the sticky substance threatening to kill him.

Thankfully, Black Moon dragons could produce not only venom that could kill in a short number of hours, but they could also produce their own anti-venom to counteract the poison. It was mostly used as a backup to their venom, to have a better chance of killing their target even if they got help to counteract their venom. By using the anti-venom instead, and if the victim got help thinking they had been poisoned, a healer could make them overdose of the very antidote used to save them.

At least she had the means to save him now.

Everyone watched as she cleaned the wound with her own saliva, not understanding what she was actually doing. They knew that what she was doing was not the proper way of treating a bite. Fishlegs voiced this to her once he gained back the use of his voice. Shadow stared flatly at him with a dark glint in her eyes. He shivered involuntarily under her gaze.

"I understand that there are things about me, and things that I do, that don't make sense to you. But right now, I need you to understand that I cannot tell you anything. They will have to remain a mystery for now. Please… I know it's a lot to ask, but I need you to trust me and not ask these questions." She said sullenly.

No one knew what to say to this, especially Hiccup whose life was currently on the life at this point as he was forced to trust her. Shadow said no more and went back to treating the bite mark on Hiccup's flesh.

The aching throb in his arm dulled to a more manageable pain after the bite was thoroughly covered in anti-venom, and Shadow sat back on her haunches. She cast her eyes down at the ground.

"What kind of dream did you have?" Hiccup asked. Shadow tilted her head away from him and spoke softly.

"You had- you had found out about me… my biggest secret… you tried to kill me because of it…" Shadow shivered at the memory.

"My old self would have killed you in that dream as soon as you raised your weapon… but I couldn't do it… I couldn't kill you, even though you were killing me…"

The teens and their dragons listened intently as she laid her deepest fears bare before them. Shadow was clearly horrified at what happened, and after her saying that she couldn't kill Hiccup, their thoughts on her were changing. She was supposed to be a cold blooded killer. But she was terrified and disgusted at having to kill Hiccup.

They all had to mean something to her if she didn't just go straight for the kill. Could she be learning to trust them, and opening up to them? They hoped so, because they didn't know what they would do if she turned against them.

She was still wild and untamed, and she continued to see her own survival as the most important thing for her. But after this, they were beginning to think that her views were changing. She obviously couldn't kill the nightmare version of Hiccup, she didn't want to, and she begged him not to make her, but they were still unsure if it was a permanent change in her.

She did wake up claws and teeth bared in attack after all. Did she fall back on her old way and kill him in self-defense to end the dream, or was it something else? If a similar event happened in reality, what would she end up doing?

Shadow stood up and held her arms around herself. Her silver eyes, filled with new, raw emotion stared into Hiccup's forest green eyes.

"I am so sorry Hiccup… I don't know if you can forgive me for what I did… what I said… and I don't think I deserve your forgiveness… but I want you to know that I truly am sorry."

With that, she grabbed a fur from her bed and walked down to the river and sat down with the fur around her shoulders. Her head hung down on her chest and she retreated within herself while the water calmly flowed past, lulling her mind back into a state of calm.

woah, that actually took a while to write. I hope I managed to portray the amount of emotion that I wanted to. In this chapter, it is starting to become clear just how much Shadow is changing because of the gang. they opened up to her and now she cant help but do the same, but its hurting her. as seen in her nightmare, she is torn between her old nature, and her friendship with the gang. she doesnt know what to do now.

Also, I would like to make a shout out to thatcrazyguy2 for their inspirational message about my writing. you my friend, rock! thanks for the message, it made me smile :)

please leave a review on this new chapter and what you think may happen next. Im thinking of a chapter of just Hiccup and Shadow after this incident as they talk by the river. perhaps Hiccup will admit something to Shadow that he never mentioned to anyone else. and maybe Hiccup has scars too, just not from battles with his foes.