A/N: Finally, I finish it! This chapter did include several bits and things that I could only learn after Heavensward came out, so I'm glad I waited. The rest of the 3.x patches will only help :D Thanks everyone for being patient!

The Downed Dragon

Leves were both a blessing and a curse. Most battlecraft leves involved protecting shipments, escorting and protecting a client, clearing areas of monsters, collecting monster body parts… Hiccup, who had never been a particularly good lancer, was now being asked to prove to the levemaster that he could successfully complete the tasks he was given.

Which meant of course, being sent far off into the woods to go kill things.

And of course, said things would be hippocerfs.

Really? Make me do this? This?!

Hiccup kicked over the last hippocerf, having finally finished the task. He had long given up feeling ill over killing these monsters, and he had all their sinew cleaned, tightly coiled, and wrapped in small packages. It was one of the benefits to having apprenticed to Gobber as a leatherworker and blacksmith – he was used to dealing in skins, sinew, and bone.

Of course he had never had to collect his own materials before. Now that he had the ability to, he was fairly certain that he didn't enjoy it.

What am I supposed to do with the dead hippocerfs now? Let snow coeurls eat them? Ugh, I don't know.

He ended up piling it with the other slain hippocerfs, hoping that some monster or aether consuming being would come and eat them or something. He certainly wasn't lugging them all the way back to the village.

It was only midafternoon; the morning had been spent in the training grounds, going over drills and practicing the Jump. Hiccup had not repeated his now infamous feat of the previous day (he was never going to hear the end of it, judging from the sheer amount of gossip), though he had managed to successfully trip and fall flat on his face, as well as somehow run and leap into the sandpit.

Gobber said it was overcompensation for the hysterical Jump earlier. "We know what you're capable of," he had chuckled. "That's why yeh wear the helmet. You'll get over it eventually, now get up and give it another go."

It wasn't a very helpful comment.

Hiccup immediately tried to distance himself from the hippocerf carcasses, striding away to find the nearest stream so he could wash the taste of bile from his mouth. He didn't want to go back to Berk yet; going back meant dealing with Gobber and the levemaster, the strange attention from his classmates, the curious stares from the villagers… what he wouldn't give to be left alone in the smithy so he could hide in the back and work on the bola bertha. Maybe he'd do that once he got back.

A streak of familiarity ran through him as he recognized a few trees. He knew that he had gone far into the woods for this leve, but hadn't realized just how close it came to his original path from two days before.

The memory of that Night Fury suddenly arose.

Hiccup sat himself down hard on the nearest rock, rubbing his temples and growling to himself.

The Dravanians hate us. Except maybe heretics and sympathizers, they hate all men. Is that why it didn't kill me? I didn't kill it, it realized I was a heretic, and flew off? Why didn't it go in for the kill…?

He gazed up at the sun. Midafternoon. Plenty of time to…

"Don't do it, Hiccup," he murmured to himself. "Don't dig yourself in any further than you already have. No one knows. No one has to find out."

He was safe as long as no one knew. As far as Berk was concerned, he was a very bad, if avid lancer who had somehow managed to kill a dragon, perform the Jump halfway across the training grounds, and could be considered a potential candidate for dragoon if he didn't get himself killed along the way. Naturally, this made him a curiosity. But a curiosity was better than a heretic.

The image arose in his mind, of being tossed off a cliff and shot on the way down. He shuddered.

But that question still bothered him.

We understood each other. He was scared. I was scared. Both of us saw that. Is that why…? Two scared soldiers on two different sides of this war…

Unbidden, Hiccup found himself striding towards the familiar paths, remaking his way towards where he had encountered the dragon. It wasn't long before he found them; that broken, splintered tree, then the long indented trail, then the rock…

The remnants of everything were still there. He saw the metal halves of the bola, still perfectly serviceable. The rest of the ropes were still strewn there, snapped and sawn through.

He immediately winced and gathered them together, muttering a quick Fire spell to remove the evidence. It took a few minutes to reduce all of them to ashes; Hiccup hoped that anything remaining for an expert tracker would only either confirm a trace of a Dravanian, or perhaps a stray fire sprite.

The memory of that dragon returned. It had deafened him with that roar, before bounding off and gliding away. If he could just recall…

Picking up the metal remains of the bola and stuffing them into his pouch, Hiccup quietly turned, trying to relive that moment. He had been on his back by the boulder - he strode towards it and stood where he had been thrown to the ground by that dragon – it had flown off in… that direction – he stared at the opening between the trees, seeing the dragon's image dip as it glided out of sight –

Stop it. This is how they win you over. You're bewitched, what was it that the Archbishop states as law? You can't touch a dragon, you can't look a dragon in the eye, you can't speak with a dragon, because that is how they bewitch you, and anyone who might have done these can be suspected as a heretic… I've done all three…

Dragoon training. That was how he was getting out of this, he had already decided. He poured all his efforts into dragon slaying, no one would ever know that he had once freed a dragon – and was now going after it, of all things… what was he even doing?!

Part of him didn't want to dig deeper into the hole he had already created. But it still made him wonder. Dravanians were dangerous, intelligent, and wanted all of Ishgard dead, yet this 'footsoldier' had spared him… was that Night Fury even considered a 'footsoldier'? What else did it know? Maybe it had tried flying back to its lair? Had it gone straight back to the heretics? He had no idea?

Hiccup had too many questions.

Curiosity won out.

Seven Hells. Know what, I'm already a heretic. Who cares at this point. What can possibly be worse?

People finding out you're a heretic.

… well then, they don't have to find out, do they?

With a resigned chuckle in his throat, Hiccup began forward in the direction he recalled the dragon flying.

It took some time, but there was a surprisingly obvious trail. The Night Fury had left behind several broken branches and stripped bushes, clearly dipping down and bashing its way through them every so often as it had glided. The trail eventually led him what looked strangely like a rock wall; he contemplated attempting a Jump to reach the top, but a nearly hidden path that seemed to lead in caught his interest before he could follow through ("Probably for the better," he muttered.)

He was surprised to discover a reasonably shaded but very beautiful cove, hidden from view both from land and from the air. The amount of green foliage above blocked out most of the sky, leaving the place secluded. The inclusion of several small trees inside, as well as a pond and small sandy area, plus what even looked like several boulders and a shallow cave, made it look ideal as a place someone could stay for a short time.

However, there were no signs of habitation, and certainly no pitch black winged Dravanian to be seen.

Hiccup sighed, looking down from where he had appeared in the cove atop something of a high rock ledge. "Well this was stupid," he said to himself, preparing to turn around and either attempt to Jump up the rock wall or give up the search entirely.

What looked like several smooth oblong shaped stones caught his eye. They were very flat and seemed slightly scraped, as though they had been drawn across a rough surface. Hiccup bent down to pick one up, curious as to what these were; it had a rough, leathery quality to it, and it reminded him of untreated materials he sometimes worked with at Gobber's workshop.

They were also black, and the same tone as –

A dragon shriek interrupted him as a black shadow flew past.

Hiccup yelped and fell backwards, dropping what he now realized was a dragon scale. He darted back into the security of the cove entrance, peeking out just enough to see the Night Fury struggling on the rock wall.

He stared in amazement. There it was, the dragon he had shot down and freed, who had then nearly deafened him and somehow not killed him out of mercy.

It was definitely the same one. The Night Fury was struggling to climb the ledge, and – now that Hiccup could see it more clearly – trying to scale the rock walls of the cove. Eventually it lost hold and fell backwards, but it gracefully flipped into a gentle glide and landed on the shore of the pond. Then flapped its bat-like wings again and launched itself back at the wall.

Hiccup, now very intrigued by this creature, emerged from the cove entrance and hopped a couple rocks down. Hoping to remain hidden, he watched as the dragon continued its attempts at the wall, occasionally fluttering in midair before falling back to the ground.

It was so rare… and so strange… he grabbed his sketchbook out and opened to a blank page, where he began sketching. It was larger than an aevis, certainly, its wingspan had to be well over ten yalms… maybe even fifteen…

The dragon shrieked again, jumping into the air and flailing for a good few moments before falling back on the ground. It gave an angry roar that translated, in Hiccup's mind, as something similar to a frustrated "AAAAAAAAARRRGHH!" before shooting a plasma bolt on the shore before it.

The odd ability to understand it aside, Hiccup was confused as he finished his sketch. "Why don't you just… fly away?" he murmured, watching as the dragon tried yet again to fly upwards and escape the cove.

It was only then that he noticed the tail. It was distinctly unsymmetrical, with a full fin on only the right side, as though half of it had been completely shorn off. He quietly adjusted the sketch to account for it.

Is that… tail… that can't be normal, right? Is that why it's having trouble flying? But there's so much wind aether around, you'd think…

The dragon crashed into the shore beside the pond. It gave a weak groan, then eyed the pond as a fish broke the surface. Hiccup watched as it proceeded to creep closer to the water's edge, then dart its head in as though trying to catch it. Then it withdrew, its eyes forlorn and despondent.

It suddenly struck Hiccup that the beast had to have been there since the day he had freed it. Two days trapped in the cove, unable to catch anything in the pond, and there were no signs of any animal carcasses around. The Night Fury could not have eaten much since, and in its current state, trapped within the cove…

He felt pity for it. The dragon would starve to death in this cove, if dragoons from Berk didn't find it first…

In his realization, the piece of charcoal slipped from his fingers. He gasped and grabbed for it, but it had already slid away, rolling off the ledge.

To his horror, the dragon's head shot towards the noise. It glanced at the falling charcoal clattering down the rocks, then up towards him until their eyes met.

Its eyes narrowed.

"Oh, it's you," it snorted, sounding resigned. "What do you want? Come to finish me off?"

Hiccup yelped and fell backwards.

"I-I-I just – I'm uh – sorry?" he stammered, staring into its large green eyes. "I just, uh – you're – I'm not trying to interrupt… uh, hi?"

The dragon looked highly unamused. "You came here to say hi."

"Uh, um… I don't know. Maybe?"

It suddenly struck him that he could still understand the dragon. His ears recognized that the sounds it made, the growls and the shouts, were all there in the draconic speech. That was it. That aevis had to have bewitched him. It wasn't going to wear off. He had even come looking for this Night Fury!

"Wait – you're of mankind yet you understand me? Dragonkin?"

The dragon below had tilted his head (the voice sounded male, but Hiccup wasn't sure what female dragons sounded like; the entire experience was new to him). He looked… confused. Could dragons look confused?

Hiccup just nodded dumbly, unsure of what to say. He was, after all, within range of potential attack.

The dragon gaped, looking more shocked than Hiccup had seen him yet. Then his eyes narrowed, the pupils became slits, and his face contorted into utter rage.

"You did this to me!" he roared. "This is your fault!"

Hiccup scattered back, falling hard onto his hands. His armor did little to blunt the force to his wrists. "I – I – "

"I can't fly!" the dragon lashed his ruined tail back and forth, and he roared again, furious. "That damn bola of yours ripped my tail fin off! The balance is all wrong! And now I'm trapped in this cove! You did this! You did this!"

It was one thing to know that you were guilty of maiming and nearly killing this creature that had seemed so like him. It was another to have said creature scream at you in fury for having done it.

"And now you're here, huh!" the dragon growled. "Changed your mind then, did you, Ishgardian runt. Had second thoughts? Finishing the job? Might as well make it quick, save me the trouble of starving to death."

"No!" Hiccup shouted back, desperately trying to say something. "I just – I couldn't – "

"Well here I am," the dragon flared his wings, flashing his teeth. "You found the dragon you, for some reason, decided to free after you caught him. Nice hunt that was. So go ahead, come at me shorty."

"I'm not going to hurt you!"

The statement finally wrested its way from his mouth, a strong enough shout that it practically echoed across the cove. The dragon sat there, blinking, looking very surprised.

"… you're not?" he said after a moment. "But… all Ishgardians kill dragons. We all know that. And you even have a spear, like the dragoons. Why else would you be here? Plus, you smell like you killed something earlier."

Hiccup glanced down at himself. He could just imagine what skinning those hippocerfs might have left on his armor.

"Hippocerfs," he replied, scratching his head. "It was an assignment." A thought crossed his head. "I left their remains about a malm or two away, I could get them and bring them to you for food."

The dragon looked utterly horrified.

"Ew! No! Eugh!" he practically shrieked. Then he outwardly cringed, his wings sagging. "Well I mean… it's not like I have much choice…"

Then he blinked again and the scaled ear flaps perked up in a confused manner. It reminded Hiccup of a Miqo'te he had seen working on one of the trade airships once.

"… okay, so you say you're not going to kill me, now you offer me food. This coming after you shot me out of the sky, said you were going to cut out my heart, and then freed me." His peered at Hiccup as though attempting to read him. "And now I'm actually talking to you because you understand Dragonspeak. You are the weirdest human I've ever met."

Hiccup winced at each of these statements. He recognized just how contrary all of them were to each other; after all, it wasn't until he had killed that aevis that he realized that something felt off about the dragons.

"Y-yeah, I'm not… well… normal," he chuckled weakly. He had always been something out of the norm for the Berk-born Hyur. It hadn't been until he finished lancer training that anyone really paid him any heed for something other than being a nuisance.

The dragon tilted his head, still giving him a very incredulous look.

"Okay, so not-normal Shorty," he addressed. "Why'd you come here in the first place if you weren't gonna finish the job?"

Hiccup had to think for a moment. Aside from apparently being called 'Shorty' by this dragon, he really wasn't entirely sure. Guilt? Curiosity? His most definite status as a heretic?

"I guess I was curious," he replied. "And besides, after everything, it was just… I didn't know… and…"

The Night Fury continued to gaze upon him expectantly. Hiccup didn't know how to proceed.

Very quietly, the thought returned, the one that had been firmly placed in his mind the moment it had occurred, and then slowly brought to the fore as he faced the one who had spared him.

Somehow his voice came to him and the question scratched itself out.

"Why didn't you kill me?"

The dragon stared at him, his eyes wide with shock.

A moment later, he swallowed and gave a low croon.

"I could ask you the same thing."

The two gazed at each other, silent. Hiccup breathed, looking down, contemplating the question, wondering why he hadn't been able to finish his goal. That moment should have defined him, fixed whatever was wrong after killing at aevis, but instead it had changed everything…

Something suddenly rung in his head. Hiccup yelped and held his temple, falling forward onto his other hand. That sound, the ache in his head, that echo –

Darkness. A forest, cool and damp with the night air, peaceful but for the screeches of Dravanians and blasts of fire from afar. He looked up at the sky from his place amongst the trees, staring at the flying figures barely visible amidst the smoke and shadows.

One of them stood out for some reason, a purer black against the night. It took Hiccup a moment to recognize it as a Night Fury, oddly illuminated in his vision. The dragon flew back and forth past burning buildings and flying rock, dodging other dragons' fire and the leaps of vaulting figures in the air, all in familiar spiked armor and sharp lances…

Wait… this is Berk. Those are Berkian dragoons! Then that Night Fury is…!

The dragon never aimed at the Berkian fighters, seeming more nervous and wary of his enemies. He focused instead on the armory tower – less armed enemies, more fellow dragons to keep safe… maybe Morn Rhe would stay her fury for once.

Yet when he opened his mouth to fire the plasma blast at the armory tower, circling gracefully around to withdraw back into the safety of the night, an aetheric explosion caught him off guard. It was the same as those hideous Ishgardian cannons, releasing a blast of ice; he tried to dodge, but something suddenly snapped around him, coils of rope twisted by metal that bound him, locking his wings tight.

He screamed as his body plummeted, wind rushing past him as dark boughs and hard land awaited him below. He could barely tuck his head in time for the ground to meet him, as wood splintered, trees broke, mud scraped against his scales, and he could barely register how everything hurt, he couldn't move, and a sharp, tearing sensation along the left side of his tail made him writhe in the terror of it all…

Hiccup stared in horror at the Night Fury before him, his features outlined in the darkness. The dragon shrieked one more time as pain caught up to him, and he rolled back and forth against his bonds, the tail lashing madly back and forth. Even now, Hiccup could see that the left tail fin was completely gone, but now this wound was fresh, and all of it was from that one attack… that bola cannon that he himself had created…

"Shorty! Hey! Shorty!"

The world shifted, and Hiccup suddenly realized that he was lying flat on his back, one arm bent under him awkwardly. Daylight shone straight into his eyes through the leafy canopy, though the contrast did not blind him.

"You still there Shorty?"

He groaned as he pulled himself back upright, rubbing his temples. He had no idea what had just happened, other than watching the Night Fury being struck down from the view of the dragon. Was it a vision, or a memory, or –

He jumped up and gaped at the dragon in the cove.

"You – did you just bewitch me?!"

The Night Fury could not have looked more confused.

"… what?" he blinked, one ear plate flipping upwards and one eye widened slightly in what seemed like the draconic equivalent of raising an eyebrow. "I did nothing, you sort of just flopped over and wouldn't move."

Hiccup stared again.

"Then – then, what happened to me?" he asked, more to himself than anything. "I saw that night, watched you get hit with that bola and fall, something about… Morn Rhe…?" He threw his arms into the air. "I don't know! You're a Dravanian! You – bewitched me or something, trying to turn me against my own people and make me a heretic or – I don't know!"

Now the Night Fury looked positively offended in addition to confused.

"What – that makes no sense! What kind of stupidness is that?!" he shouted back, teeth bared.

Hiccup groaned and waved his arms wildly, trying to make sense of the situation. "Then that aevis did when he bit me! I mean, I could understand him too! How did this happen? I can suddenly understand Dragonspeak, what is this?"

The dragon below gave a baffled shrug. "Don't look at me, I have no idea. You still sound like you're speaking Eorzean. Besides, you know aevis' used to be men, right?"

Hiccup sat up, staring. "Wait – what?"

The dragon snorted. "You didn't know? When an Ishgardian drinks of dragon's blood, they transform into an aevis. Or some other draconic looking thing. I think it's super disturbing, but lots of your heretics do it."

Hiccup turned completely white.

I didn't kill a dragon.

I killed a man.

Who had… turned into a dragon.

If he hadn't felt like vomiting the night he had killed that aevis, he certainly felt that urge now.

"Okay, so Shorty, I'm really not sure what your plan is anymore," the Night Fury spoke, drawing Hiccup out of his brief stupor. "You said you weren't here to kill me, then you offered me food, then you passed out, and now you're accusing me of attempting enthrallment or something. If you're done being absolutely bizarre, you can go do whatever your business is and I'll just hang around here."

Hiccup cringed.

"Sorry," he rubbed his head. "I'm just – I'm really confused right now. A lot of things just happened, I just found out that aevis' used to be men, and – I don't even know. I've never talked to a dragon before either."

Said dragon tilted his head to the side. "Well, I've never talked to a man before. Even if you're way shorter and more of a hatchling than all the other ones I've seen."

"Well I'm not of age yet."

"Then there we go."

"… you're really talking in Dragonspeak?"

"Yes, yes I am."

"Well then."

Hiccup sat there, still trying to process everything. The dragon below watched him with an odd mixture of patient curiosity and trepidation.

Whatever it was that had happened to him – seeing that vision and understanding that moment from the dragon's perspective, being able to understand Dragonspeak – it was strange, but very much real.

But in particular, it was making him sympathetic towards this one dragon whom he himself had shot down.

The more he recalled the vision and understood their interaction, the more he recognized just how little malicious intent the Night Fury had. He had known it, the day he realized he could not slay this dragon, and everything seemed to confirm it now. The dragon had never aimed to harm any of the soldiers fighting against his kindred… he only did what he minimally could to protect his kind during the raid. And he seemed more frightened than anything.

Hiccup supposed he could technically just ask said dragon, who was currently sitting trapped in the cove, but for some reason, he felt nervous to. He had wronged this dragon after all, by taking away his flight and condemning him to imprisonment and a slow death by starvation. He felt as though he had to do something to help… fix what he had done.

When had he begun to think of helping someone who was technically the enemy?

"Listen, I…" he spoke, grasping at the words. "I'm sorry, I really am. About all of… this," he gestured towards the dragon.

The dragon tilted his head, lifting up his injured tail. "All of this?"

Hiccup nodded. "Yeah. And for, uh… accusing you of bewitching me," he grimaced. "I really don't know what's going on there. But either way, this, all of what's happened to you, it's my fault. So I'm going to try to fix it… somehow."

The Night Fury narrowed his eyes, looking very skeptical.

"You're an Ishgardian runt, you already shot me down and almost killed me once, and you have a spear on your back just like a dragoon," the snarl was barely audible on his breath. "You really expect me to trust you?"

It struck Hiccup again the reality of the situation. And I'd wanted to become one so badly…

"… no," he answered, looking down at the ground before him. One of the Night Fury's scales rested just to the side. "I don't. That's why all I can do is try to help. Trust isn't really something I deserve at this point."

The dragon sat up, seeming taken aback by his statement. Hiccup glanced towards him, but sighed, feeling extremely guilty.

"Anyway," he continued, pulling himself to his feet. "What is it you like to eat? Hippocerfs obviously gross you out, so…?"

The dragon blinked several times.

"Fish," he finally replied, green eyes wide now. "I like fish."

Hiccup nodded, smiling. "Fish it is. I'll see what I can sneak from the stores, or from the morning's catch. I promise I'll try to bring it tomorrow."

The dragon gave a very confused grunt. "Tomorrow?"

"Yep. Tomorrow. Assuming I don't get dragged into something. I'll get food to you somehow though."

"… so you're serious about giving me food. You really are… strange."

Hiccup shrugged, grinning slightly. "I get that a lot."

The Night Fury still looked highly nervous regarding the whole thing. Hiccup understood exactly why. If anything, both of them knew that the dragon was at the boy's mercy.

The look in those draconic eyes only further cemented Hiccup's thoughts on the matter.

He's still scared… but it's like… me…

"I'll be back," he stated again, leaning down to pick up his fallen notebook. He hadn't even realized he had dropped it. "I promise. I'll help you. Somehow."

And before the dragon could protest or reply, Hiccup stumbled to his feet and ran out of the cove.

He would need to hurry. It was only a matter of time until a scouting party from Berk found the dragon, and the beast had no way of escaping that cove on his own. For that matter, Hiccup had no idea how much dragons ate; he would have to sneak food out of Berk, and the easiest way of doing so meant stealing from the morning catch near the docks after everyone had left for their daily work, and it would be tricky to do as he had dragoon training not long after, but there was a good hiding spot by a few boulders near there, and there wasn't anything beyond the tree line, he could sneak from there straight out of the village… he could do this. This was entirely doable. And then to actually get that dragon out of the cove…

He felt oddly driven, the same sense of determination that had pushed him through all of lancer training. But here, someone's life was at stake, thanks to his own hubris. This was his fault, and so it was his job to fix it. Besides, no one else in the Berk would be willing to help. In fact, if he asked, they would most assuredly arrest and then execute him for heresy.

The thought nearly made him stop his mad march through the forest. He had almost made it to the path where he had left the hippocerf carcasses.

I'm a heretic. Oh gods am I really a heretic now. I'm actually helping a dragon. I talked to him! They're the enemy! We've been at war for a thousand years! Oh Halone what have I done… what in the Seven Hells am I doing…

I'm making something right.

He quickened his pace once more. Several tasks awaited him now, not all of which involved dragoon training and claiming his reward from the levemaster. The sooner he returned to Berk, the better.

After all, flightless dragons trapped in coves rarely saved themselves.

And whatever it was that had been happening to him – the vision, understanding Dragonspeak – he doubted they were coincidence. He only hoped this wasn't a sign that Nidhogg was trying to enthrall him to his cause.