Shadow's wings failed soon after she escaped the arena. They were too weak to support even her small frame, and the muscles were weak from lack of use. Shadow's wings collapsed with her in mid-flight, and she fell to the ground with a painful thud. The roar of a Night Fury spurred her into running again. Hiccup was in pursuit.
This time, as she ran for her very life, Hiccup herded her to the one enclosed area he thought she couldn't escape from. The Great Hall. He could corner her in there until she calmed enough for his words to resonate into her mind. She had to know what was going on. He only hoped she would listen.
Hiccup and the other dragon riders tightened formation around her, blocking her on her left, right, behind and from the air. She could only go where they made her.
Shadow tried to break away once she realised where they were making her go. They were luring her into a trap! But no matter how hard she fought, they didn't let her escape their formation, and she was forced into the confined space of the Great hall.
She stopped in horror once she saw how many Vikings were inside, and most were carrying weapons. Hiccup and the other dragons burst inside and blocked the only exit, everyone closed in around her.
Never before had she been so helpless in her life. Sure, she had been in similar situations, but at those times she had some sort of escape. Now, she couldn't rely on a bargain, hostage, or her dragon form to escape. She was unarmed, her fire lungs unusable, she had no bargaining chip or hostage to use against her captives in exchange for her freedom.
With a start, she realised that her wings were brushing up against the back wall, with the villagers blocking all sides in large numbers most brandishing sharp weapons ready to cut her down, and the dragons reinforcing the barricade. She was well and truly trapped.
Stoick pushed his way to the front, Shadow noting the large axe at his hip, and he held his hands in front of himself to try to calm her. Shadow didn't see the expression as peaceful, instead, her previous experience screamed at her and flashed in front of her eyes.
The army general, the guard captain, the hunters. They had all done the same thing at one point, and it always ended with her in pain and near death, because she surrendered and trusted them.
No more.
Surely Stoick was planning to capture her, maybe publicly torture her before finally letting the remainder of her life force drain away. She was sure of it, sure that she would be tortured horrifically.
She never wanted to suffer that pain again. The attempted burning at the stake, the whipping post and near drowning was enough for her. She didn't want to endure whatever evil they could conjure.
Shadow thought and thought for a possible escape, but she could only think of one…
Tears pooled in her eyes as she mulled it over. Did she really want to do this? Would she finally take that path to escape the pain? Would she do the deed and rid herself of everything? Shadow didn't see any other choice.
Hiccup watched the emotions flash over her face as she stood, cornered by the entire village. The pain in her eyes continued to break his heart. She seemed to emotionally break in front of them all as she silently mulled over her choices.
But then, as she seemed to relax her muscles in defeat, Hiccup saw something in her eyes. A look that he had only ever seen once before. His blood ran cold at the dead look in her eyes, eyes that gazed solemnly at her razor sharp claws.
He knew that look, and it didn't mean anything good. As the first tear fell down her face, Hiccup launched himself off of Toothless to stop her. At that same moment, Shadow closed her eyes and raised her clawed hand to her own throat, poised to slash open the weak flesh. She was going to end her own life.
Everyone stared in shock and horror as Shadow attempted to take her own life, and as Hiccup ran towards her to stop her. He cannoned into her, putting his own throat in front of her dangerously sharp claws, and wrapped his arms around her. She froze as soon as he touched her.
Hiccup didn't care that he was in the clutches of a monster, he didn't care that his life could be ended by her if she so chose, he didn't care that he could be used as a bargaining chip or hostage for her escape, he only wanted to never see that look on her face again. He never wanted to see the face of a suicidal person ever again, lest on Shadow's face.
His own had been scary enough…
"Don't do this…" he begged as he tightened his arms around her. Her scales were cold and touch under his palms. "I don't want to see you take that path… don't think the same things I did." He whispered.
The realisation hit Shadow like a hammer to the face, and in response, she wrapped her arms around him in a tight embrace as she came to terms with what he meant.
The tears that pooled around her eyes finally fell, and she cried into his shirt, all audience members forgotten. Her legs gave out and she sunk to the floor, pulling Hiccup down with her. He didn't protest and continued to hold her, running his hands down her scaled back to calm her down.
No one moved as Hiccup cared for and calmed the monster. No, she wasn't a monster, for how could they see her as that if he so willingly held her as she wept. Despite her form, she was still like them, strong and tough but still breakable.
Half an hour later, Shadow was seated around the large fire in the Great Hall with Hiccup by her side, and the whole village watching her. Stoick was seated up the other end with his counsel, quietly speaking to them about the dragon girl in their midst. People were talking to one another and throwing curious glances towards her as they asked questions to their neighbours.
Despite Shadow's dark and foreboding history, she had never faced an interrogation like this before, and it kept her on edge. Solemnly she thought that she could handle an interrogation with a whip better than this. The tension in the air was making her very nervous.
"Shadow. The counsel and I have some questions for you." Called Stoick. Shadow lifted her gave and nodded.
"Firstly, can you tell us who you really are?" he asked. Shadow sighed, no sense in lying anymore.
"I am Shadow Void-Wing, member of the Black Moon Dragon Society." She answered.
"Where do you come from?" asked Stoick again. "Technically I do not come from anywhere. I cannot remember where I was born, but ever since I was three winters old, I have been traveling all over the known world, never settling in any place longer than necessary. Like the rest of my kind, I am a nomad. A gypsy."
People started muttering around her, but Shadow paid them no mind.
"What can you tell us about yourself and your status amongst your people?"
"I am a level three scout for the Black Moon dragons. It is my job to search out possible nesting grounds for my kind. As for my status, my sire is one of the five major army generals in our society." She answered calmly. Daughter of a general? That was new. Hiccup decided to add in his own question before his father could.
"What do you mean, 'level three'?" he asked.
"Levels are awarded to hatchlings every time they live through a century. I am three hundred and seventy five years old from three lunar cycles ago. Therefore, I am a level three. Levels are used to calculate and decide what tasks a member of our council may partake in. However, with my lineage, I have been given some tasks meant for level fives. My sire's status allows me to bend and break rules and gives me special privilege."
Everyone took a few minutes to talk amongst themselves before they went back to her. Stoick and his council members spoke quietly to themselves for some time.
"What about your ability to transform into a dragon? What can you tell us of that?"
"The Black Moon is the only dragon in existence with this ability. Our creation is not entirely confirmed, however it is said that our ancestors were demons created in Hell and released upon the world. It is said that after the dragons began attacking and killing gods, that they were cursed with human forms to limit their power. Although this is not confirmed, this is our belief. Our power was much too great, and we couldn't be left to wreak havoc upon the world without having some sort of leash.
"Our bodies and forms transform in accordance to the moons' lunar cycle. Like with the name, we transform on the night of the new moon, or black moon. We have used this so called curse to live amongst human society, even if it is just for a short time." She said. Hiccup watched her sigh and drop her gaze.
"As for this half-form which I am currently taking, as far as I know this has never happened before. None of my kind has ever been able to become a perfect hybrid of our two forms. However, strong Black Moon's have been able to manipulate themselves to partially transforming when it is not the new moon. I myself have attempted this in the last month, with painful repercussions."
Hiccup watched as she rubbed the back of her head around her huge horns, a sign that she felt pain in that area from those attempted transformations. A few things clicked in Hiccup's mind all at once.
The time of the crescent moon, when Shadow had been hidden for hours after her fight with Astrid. After she had run and hid, and after Fishlegs found her covered in blood, she must have attempted a transformation then leaving her in immense pain.
And that time, around the half moon, on Eel Island where she got sick and ran off into the forest. It made sense now why she ran, she must have been coughing up fireballs, not a wild dragon.
The fight with the Screaming Death. She attacked it directly by tearing at its throat with her claws and teeth. Before that, Hiccup remembered her quizzing Fishlegs on smaller dragon stats. Venom was the common denominator, and he guessed she somehow must have used venom to attempt to kill the beast.
Each of these events had her use something far too unnatural that could only be explained by the use of a partial transformation. It all made sense now. Each time those events happened, Shadow had suffered from pain that they didn't know the cause of. Now he knew why.
Well, there it is, another chapter. I hope everyone liked this as much as the others, and I hope this begins to explain just who and what Shadow really is. in this chapter and the next, I will be explaining the workings and culture and fundamentals of the Black Moon's as a race. if there is anything you would like explained, send a review with your question, and I will write it in and answer it as best I can.