Hi! Sorry about the long wait and the brutal cliffhanger I gave you guys! But, here is the next chapter of this story! I hope you like it!

Onto the story!

Equinox

"Equinox."

The runes on the blade lit up in an eerie green colour as soon as Dani said the name of the sword, washing her face in green light as she looked transfixed at the blade. Gobber looked at all of this, face blanched of colour, while Hiccup and Astrid stared in silence, both spooked and fascinated at what was happening.

Suddenly, just as it happened, the runes stopped glowing green, and Dani blinked, obviously out of whatever trance she had fallen into.

She held her head and said, "Whoa, what hit me?"

She looked at the sword in her hand and looked to see Hiccup, Astrid and Gobber still staring at her.

Dani nervously chuckled and said, "I, uh, think that the sword picked me."

"It didn't just pick you, Dani," Gobber said. He levelled her with a serious look and finished, "It chose you."

Dani's eyes widened and she looked at the sword, obviously stunned, and Hiccup asked, "Gobber, why are you so shocked that this sword, Equinox, chose Dani?"

Gobber looked at him, then back at Dani, then back at him again and answered, "That's a question that will be better answered by Gothi."

Hiccup and Astrid looked at each other semi-worriedly. If Gobber, the village blacksmith, was willing to let Gothi, the village shaman, talk about this sword, then there must be something more than meets the eye with that sword.

Dani, meanwhile, frowned and asked, "Gothi. That's the medicine woman, right? Why do we need to go to her to talk about this sword? It's just a sword, right?"

Gobber didn't answer. Instead, he headed out of the forge. Hiccup, Astrid and Dani looked at each other before they followed after him, Dani sheathing her new sword into it's sheath.

The four headed towards Gothi's hut, Gobber muttering about Equinox, Hiccup and Astrid getting more confused and more interested by the second, and Dani marvelling her new sword. Soon, they arrived, and began walking up the steps, Dani amazed at how someone could live that high up.

It's like a treehouse… before treehouses were even possible, Dani thought as she climbed up the stairs. Although it was obvious to her that people walked up these stairs to go to see this Gothi to cure them of whatever sickness they had, or for advice, she couldn't help but worry over making a mistake and falling off these stairs and dying all the way.

Don't look down, she chanted to herself. You've flown hundreds of feet above the ground. If you fall, you can always slow it by flying, even if it exposes your secret. But still, don't look down, Dani. Don't look down.

Soon, they arrived at Gothi's home/workplace. The village shaman herself was sitting out front, stroking a Terrible Terror, which was purring contentedly on the old woman's lap. However, as soon as Dani came onto the platform, the Terror perked up, and scrambled off Gothi's lap and flew up to land on Dani's head, purring.

Dani groaned. "Okay, this is getting annoying."

Gothi looked up… and saw Dani. She gasped and, standing from her seat, shuffled over to the dark-haired girl, her blue gaze locked on Dani's equally icy eyes.

Dani looked uncomfortable and whispered to Hiccup, "Why is she staring at me like that? She's creeping me out." And I'm half-ghost, Dani added in her mind.

"Maybe it's because of your sword," Hiccup whispered back.

Gobber, unaware of the staring contest Gothi was having with an increasingly uncomfortable Dani, greeted, "Hey, Gothi!"

Gothi, hearing Gobber, broke out of her staring contest with Dani and focused on the hook-handed blacksmith.

"My, don't you look well today!" Gobber complimented, trying to stall. Gothi just gave him a blank look.

Gobber tried to smile, before he gave up and said, "Look, we're here because, well… because the sword's chosen her."

He pointed at Dani.

Gothi once again refocused on Dani, and this time, Dani got the feeling Gothi wanted to see Equinox.

"Erm, sure, Gothi," Dani said uncomfortably, before she drew out Equinox. The silvery runes gleamed on the blade. Gothi gasped again, before she used her staff to draw in the dirt on the platform.

Dani, confused, asked as she sheathed her sword, "Uh, what's Gothi doing?"

"Gothi's not really much of a speaker. She communicates through symbols that she draws," Astrid explained, as Gobber began to translate.

"In all my life, I would never have imagined to see the one chosen to wield the spoon of life and death," Gobber translated. Gothi glared at him and hit him on the head with her staff. "OW! Sorry; the sword of life and death."

Dani, who had snorted at Gobber being hit by Gothi's staff, felt her eyes go wide and her mouth go agape. Hiccup and Astrid had similarly stunned looks.

"The sword of life and death?" Astrid asked.

As Gothi began to draw more symbols, Dani got a dreaded feeling in her stomach.

"Equinox was created to battle an enemy that could not be killed by anything living or dead. This enemy would, if it escaped it's realm of death, send the living world into one of death and darkness, and could achieve this as nothing either living or dead could kill him. So, as a precaution, Equinox was made; a blade forged in the fires of death, and cooled in the waters of life. A weapon, designed to kill an enemy that could not be killed, destined to be wielded by someone who waddles the line between life and death," Gobber translated. Once again, he was hit on the head by Gothi for his mistake and corrected, "Who walks the line between life and death. You know, your writing isn't as clear as it used to be."

Gothi threatened him with him being hit again by the staff, and Gobber refrained from commenting anymore.

Now Dani was feeling sick to her stomach, while Hiccup and Astrid had confused looks on their faces.

"Walks the line between life and death? But that's impossible; no one can be alive and dead at the same time. It's a paradox," Hiccup said.

And that paradox is standing right next to you, Dani thought. However, she said out loud, "I don't know why Equinox chose me if it's supposed to choose someone who's both alive and dead; as far as I know, I've been alive all my life. Maybe it got sick of waiting for someone who's both alive and dead and decided to choose the first person who gave it attention?"

To compliment her sort-of lie and weak attempt at a joke, Dani smiled nervously.

The Terrible Terror on her head squawked as Gobber, Hiccup, Astrid and Gothi looked at her, Dani growing increasingly more nervous, especially with Gothi still staring at her in that unnerving way of hers.

And the prize for the "Worst Lie Ever" goes to Danielle Fenton!

Gothi, continuing to stare at her, made a Follow me, gesture, and shuffled back to her hut, breaking her stare.

Dani let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding in and noticed everyone was looking at her, obviously expecting her to follow the creepy medicine lady.

"Uhhh…" Dani said intelligibly.

Gothi turned to look back at her and again made the, Follow me, gesture, although more impatiently then the first time, and then disappeared into her hut.

Dani, now knowing that Gothi wanted her to follow her into her hut, said, "I should probably go into the hut."

And with that said, Dani walked to the hut with dread in her steps… and entered inside.

Again, super sorry about the long wait! Anyway, I hope I made it up with this chapter, as it explains more about Equinox. I hope I got Gothi right, too.

I promise that the next chapter will come out faster!

Please read and review!

GhostWriterGirl out!