warning: this chapter has content referencing self harm.
Hiccup watched Shadow from a distance. The campfire had burned low and cast the area in a dark light. He could barely make out her form as she sat by the river, engrossed in her thoughts.
His shoulder still stung from her vicious bite. But her treatment of the wound seemed to be working. The pain was down to a manageable throb. The teens were wound up after the night terror, and they didn't know what to do. Sleep eluded them after the events that just happened, but there was nothing for them to occupy their minds with.
Hiccup didn't know what to think at this point. Shadow had been dreaming of him, but a nightmarish version of himself where he had been tormenting her, hurting her, torturing her. Shadow had been crying out in her sleep to him, begging him not to force her to kill him. Hiccup wasn't sure if she ended up attacking the dream version to stop him, or to kill him.
Hiccup wondered what it was that forced her to have that dream. She had said that she was ashamed of her form, and he had no idea what she meant by that. Her deepest secret had been revealed to him in that dream, and for some reason he had hated her for it and tried to kill her, and it made Hiccup wonder – not for the first time – what she was hiding.
It had to be something big, because if it was something minor, it wouldn't have caused her to lash out like that. He shivered at the recent memory of her claws swiping the air around her, and her sharpened teeth lunging for him.
He had to know. He had to know what it was.
Hiccup stood up, against the questions and protests of the other teens, and went over to where Shadow sat next to the river. He sat on the cold grass next to her hunched form, staring out at the bubbling river. They said nothing. She did not move as he approached, nor when he sat next to her. Her silver and unwavering gaze was locked onto the churning water before them.
Hiccup took a moment to look at her face, truly look at it, and memorise her features. Her skin seemed to almost glow in the darkness with the way it contrasted against the scenery, her pale face looked like the moon was casting its shine down on her. Her angular features and narrowed eyes made her look like a predatory animal. And her eyes, they seemed to glow unnaturally in the dark, their silver colouration looking like twin moons. Her dark short hair was ruffled from sleep and stuck out at odd angles, but it all seemed to be slicked back away from her face. Some parts of her hair looked solid. Spiked.
Her face turned towards his. "Hiccup, I'm sorry for what I did. I know that you may not forgive me for it, but I want you to know that I wasn't in my right state of mind. What happened in that dream was… unsettling." She said.
He looked at her with understanding. Then he cast his gaze back out to the water.
"You aren't the only one who has nightmares. I constantly get them, reminding me of the final moments of the fight with the Read Death. The moment when I lost my leg."
She looked down at the prosthetic in sorrow for him. Losing a limb was hard to deal with. There had been times where Shadow herself had been seriously hurt, but not as bad as what Hiccup had endured. He was similar to her in many ways.
"Its hardly the first scar I got though… but, those scars aren't from my enemies."
Shadow cast her gaze towards him and tilted her head curiously. Her eyes were searching, and bore deep into his soul. Without a word, Hiccup rolled up his sleeves.
Tiny white lines littered his skin, some old, some much newer. They covered the flesh of both his arms in a grotesque criss-cross pattern. Some had been shallow, but others were made with deeper cuts. There was no mistaking what made those scars. It had been Hiccup himself.
Hiccup stared at the marks in shame, and a few traitorous tears rolled down his face. This was Hiccup laid bare before her, his deepest secret revealed. He was letting her see the darkest part of his soul, the part that he hadn't shown his own father, or the people he cared about most. He was showing her, because he trusted her. Saw her as someone who he could really trust.
Shadow stared at the marks, her eyes full of compassion. She had no idea, that someone seemingly so strong on the outside, could feel so weak on the inside. Hiccup was strong in her eyes, despite his lanky form. His body did not reflect the soul she saw in him, but this part of him seemed so fragile. It just didn't seem like 'Hiccup'.
An eye for an eye. A life for a life… a secret for a secret.
"In that nightmare, you had discovered my secret, what I'm hiding. You had seen it as a major threat like so many people have before, and you tried to destroy it, destroy me. I tried to protect it, and myself… but you wouldn't stop. The only way to protect it was to kill you." She said. Her voice was barely above a whisper.
He gazed deeply into her glowing eyes, and whispered back. "What are you hiding? What would cause me to turn against you?" he pleaded. His voice was begging. He wanted to know what was causing her pain, what caused him pain.
"I'm hiding a dragon. The Black Moon. I have been protecting it all my life, since it was just a hatchling. It has always been my job to keep it alive, but those who see it attempt to kill it. Its survival, my survival is paramount. Above all else it has to survive, and in the past, anything that even attempted to do so had to die… but when you tried to kill it in that dream, when you tried to kill me, I couldn't kill you."
She sighed heavily as she let it all out. "There is something about you, something different from everyone I have ever met, that is stopping me from being able to cut ties with you if you turn. My emotions and feelings of you as my friend are getting in the way of the protection of the Black Moon dragon. And it scares me."
Hiccup sat and processed this information for some time. This explanation showed why she was so erratic and aggressive when they tried to learn about that dragon. She was protecting it from them. Stopping them from learning too much. She had thought for every part of her life that if people knew too much, they could use that knowledge to stab her, or the dragon, in the back.
"I know this dragon is very important to you, but I believe there is something else to it. What makes this dragon in particular so important? What makes it so essential that you would defend it with your own life?" he asked.
"Your Night Fury, do you know who his sire is?" she asked. Hiccup shook his head.
"Have you ever wondered why there aren't any other Night Furies around? Even in the nest where Toothless lived for the beginning of his life?" again, Hiccup shook his head.
Shadow took a deep breath and sighed. "The Night Fury is technically a genetic defect. Toothless is a part of a hybrid species. The Black Moon dragons are the Night Fury's ancestors."
Hiccup's eyes went wide. Wider than they ever had before at this new information.
"Toothless, and every other Night Fury in existence, is the result of a Black Moon dragon and a Skrill becoming mates. That's why a Night Fury is so rare, because one side of its lineage is almost impossible to find, and the number of mated pairs is even fewer."
Hiccup's mind swam with this new information. His head hurt with the amount of thoughts flowing through his brain. His breathing became ragged and uneven and he rocked back and forth on the ground, his eyes staring forward. Shadow gazed at him for a moment, before touching his back to calm him down. His breathing evened out.
"This is why I have kept this secret for so long. Not only can a Black Moon produce a Night Fury offspring, but the Black Moon in itself is enough to obliterate an army single handed. It is an extremely dangerous creature, but in danger of annihilation as well. I've had to keep it hidden all this time to keep its lineage alive, as well as the potential to create a proper bloodline of Night Furies. The Night Fury is the next stage of its evolution, and I have had to help it."
Shadow took a shuddering breath after her speech. All those secrets, exposed. He knew why she was hiding it. Why she had killed for it. The only thing he didn't know, was how she was hiding it. And that was something she didn't want to tell.
She still feared what he would do if he got a hold of the Black Moon dragon. He would have the potential for an army of Night Furies at his command. That sort of power could get to anyone's head. Sweet innocent Hiccup, fearsome warrior Astrid, or even fearful and intelligent Fishlegs. That amount of power could drive them mad.
She trusted him with this knowledge, but not with her precious black beast. She didn't want to see him corrupted by the beast, nor have him try to kill her or it because of its sheer power. Power that could reduce the village of Berk to a pile of toothpicks if it saw fit.
Suddenly, her life seemed even more bleak and lonely.
Dun Dun DUUUUUUUUUN. the secrets have been revealed. but not all of them, not yet. they still don't know that Shadow is the Black Moon dragon, and they wont know for a little while still. there is still more time I have to kill. after this little camping experience, they will all return back to Berk. after that, I am not certain of any plot details. I need to think of a good enough reason as to why all the dragon riders and Shadow would be away from the village on the night of the new moon. that's when all sorts of shit goes down. but they specifically need to have a reason for leaving that night. I need inspiration. Please review your thoughts.