AN: Hey guys, here's another chapter of my story. Thank you for the reviews, my heart always skips a beat if there's a new one.

Hope you like this new chapter.

Love Kate

Chapter Sixty-Three: Not giving hope us yet

Hiccup knew they were now being followed.

Ever since they had discovered the moving sand it had become more obvious.

Still Hiccup didn't know what to think and what to do of it.

Whatever it was, it didn't appear to be hostile.

It always kept a certain distance but it was following them and that was the unnerving part about it.

That and the fact that they were now on their last water-skin.

Hiccup knew they were doomed without water.

They would survive a day, maybe two without it but after that it would be only a matter of time until they would crumble.

He tried not to think about it what it would feel like slowly drying out, unable to move or do anything.

Just wasting away….

That night, when everybody else was sleeping, he knelt down in the sand, a few feet away from the roaring fire and gazed up at the countless stars above him.

More than he'd ever seen before.

Staring into the endless void he clasped his hands desperately together and whispered: "Please!" His voice was raspy and dry from the lack of water and the dry air and the sand in the air.

"Please show me that you were right Loki; that you are with me! Because if you are…help us! I don't know what to do. I've led us into a deathtrap. We're all going to die is you don't help us now."

He waited a few seconds.

"Please. I beg you."

His eyes were too dry to spill any tears. There was no water left in his body.

There was nothing but silence.

He was so exhausted that he fell asleep on the spot.

They were up early the next morning.

They enjoyed the cool morning air as long as they could.

Much to fast it changed into the already familiar heat.

Staggering through the sand Hiccup eyes his friends.

Kate was still deathly ill, getting weaker with every hour. Despite her fever and the heat of the noon, she was shivering. Her conscious times were getting shorter and less.

He sighed and looked at the two boys of his merry group of adolescents.

Under the torrid sun their skin had first become angry red, and then had started to peel off and now turned into a strong brown. Where their skin had gotten darker their hair had gotten lighter. George's usually platinum blond hair was now white and seemed unnatural with his now dark skin. Josh's hair had turned from muddy-blond into a light blond.

But both their faces were now decorated with the hard lines of exhaustion, lack of sleep, worry and stress.

Their cloths were torn and bleached but nobody really cared anymore.

Hiccup was sure he didn't look much better. His skin was itchy and still peeled itself off his arms and face.

His hair that had grown long again was now more red than brown and he'd cut it again with no hesitation.

Also his slave-mark, which he now showed openly, itched and burned under the sunlight.

His lips were dry like paper and hurt when moved.

As for the dragons, they too dragged themselves through the sand, their own water-reservations growing short.

Looking around at the endless sight of sand he thought bitterly 'Great we're going to die and no one will ever find us n this abandoned land.'

He was jolted from his merry thoughts when something touched his shoulder.

He turned around and saw to his surprise that it was Kate, who was lying on Nightlights back, who had reached out to touch him.

"Hold up!" he called out.

Josh and George, who had walked ahead stopped and turned around.

"What is it Kate?" he asked silently and took her feverish hand in his. "How are you feeling?" he added silently.

She stayed silent for a few minutes then she whispered: "Hiccup….I…I'm dying, aren't I?"

Her words startled him.

"What? No! No you're not!" he retorted back hotly.

She sighed slightly.

"I'm dying." She said again. She weakly grasped his hand with both hers.

"No. You're just ill. But you'll get better. I promise!" he said shaking his head defiantly.

"It's okay." She whispered. "I know I am dying. Please don't beat yourself up about it."

Hiccups eyes burned with tears he couldn't spill.

"How can you say that?" he whispered.

"It was always my choice. My choice to warn you, my choice to help you, my choice to follow you, my choice to listen to you…And it was my choice to face that monster." A cough shook her trembling body.

"And…I regret none of those choices!"

"Kate…" he started but she wouldn't hear any of it.

"Until you came along I was trapped in a vicious circle of royals and good manners and limits and deranged sisters. It was awful." A small laugh escaped her and he too had to smile weakly.

"But you" she smiled fondly "you were my stupid knight without any armor on the back of a dragon that saved me from my tower. I swear I would have killed myself otherwise."

Another weak chuckle then she grabbed his hand tighter.

"But…you must continue now without me. Please."

Hiccup gulped. He didn't have the heart to tell her that they all would die in a matter of hours. How could he? She was already dying.

"You will not die Kate. I forbid you, do you hear me? I'll find a way to safe you." To safe us all, he added in his mind.

She just shook her head and smiled weakly.

"No. You won't. But that's okay. You gave me danger, adventures, fun, despair, kidnapping, friends and joy. You showed me the real live. The real world. The world I only knew from books and stories. Never could I have imagined standing at the shores of the other side of the world, never would I have imagined camping in forest and sleeping under the open sky or die in a desert miles and miles away from my old home and my family.

You gave me a live worth living. Most important you gave the feeling of belonging. Traveling these past months, the constant danger, living on the run? Those have been the happiest months of my life." "Can't mean much them" he muttered, trying to joke. She just smiled.

"Shut up and fulfill a dying princess her last wish. Keep on. Promise me you will save the others. You will fight Darkness."

He shook his head. "No…not without you by my side. Because you're no princess, remember? You hit me when I called you princess the last time. You are ass-kicking super-Kate! Besides, you are my first real friend. You've been with me practically form the beginning. Pleas not let me have your fathers castle burned down for nothing!"

"She ignored what he said and whispered with eyes closing: "When you won the war, can you tell my father that I'm sorry? And my sister that I love her despite what she did to me?"

"Stop talking like that." He muttered.

She sighed.

"But I'm mostly sorry for not staying with you till the end. I would have. Hiccup, I would have died for you."

"You are not dying." "Yes I am."

Her eyes closed fully and her breathing slowed down.

"KATE, NO, WAKE UP GOD-DAMN-IT!"

His hand flew to her throat, checking for a pulse.

It was still there, weak and irregular. Her breathing was faint.

He swirled around to face the others that had silently watched and listened.

George had his hands clenched and Josh looked utterly hopeless.

"There must be something we can do!" Hiccup whispered.

He looked up at the starling blue sky and the white hot sun.

"LOKI! THOR! ODIN, HEIMDALL, FREYA; FRIGG, ANYONE! PLEASE!" eh fell down to his knees.

"If this is some kind of test or game, stop it now! You swore you'd help me! So damn it, do it and help us!" he shouted at the heavens.

But nothing.

Something stung in his heart.

The already familiar feeling of betrayal.

The gods hadn't heard him. Or chosen to ignore him.

Either way, he somehow knew that there would be no help.

He jumped back to his feet.

"Have it your way then." He shouted.

He swirled back around to Josh and George.

"We have to get help. But if the gods don't want to help us, we have to find someone else."

Josh looked warily and muttered: "Hiccup, if there were any humans here, wouldn't we have found them by now? I mean come on, who can live in the middle of a desert? There's no water, there are no plants, no wild-life except for whatever if following us. We haven't found anything that's not sand or rock! Face it Hiccup we're lost and we're going to die."

Hiccups head snapped up.

"Of course! Josh, you're genius!"

"I am?"

"He is?"

"Yes!"

Hiccup pointed to where the sand was slightly shifting.

"It's some kind of animal. Therefore it has to eat, drink, sleep, whatever! So there has to be water, there has to be food."

George didn't seem convinced.

"So you're saying we're in its hunting ground and we're going to be its next meal probably? Gee, that reassuring." Josh shrugged. "Probably better and faster than slowly dying of dehydration." He said. George shook his head. "Can't say I agree on that one."

Hiccup shook his head impatiently.

"If it wanted to eat us it would have attacked as soon as it spotted us." "Maybe the dragons presence is keeping it away?" George suggested. "I don't think so." "So you're saying…?" Josh asked.

"There has to be something somewhere nearby! All animals have their own hunting grounds. They only leave them should they not provide enough food anymore or if it's destroyed or if they are chased away."

"Keep going Professor Hiccup I want to get a good grade on the test!" George said sarcastically. "How does that help us?" he growled. Josh nodded. "Yeah, I agree with him for once, what does that have to do with us?"

"There has to be something around."

"Hiccup, who knows how big this things hunting ground is? What if we're walking in the wrong direction? Assuming you're right, it could be anywhere!" Josh asked.

Hiccup shook his head.

"I can feel it. I know we are close!" he said with new confidence.

"Great, now we are relying on your funny feelings. Where did they come from?" George sneered.

"They were always there. My gut always tells me if I'm right or wrong. Right now it tells me I'm right." "You probably just have problems with digestion seeing that we are all dried meat from the insides." George growled.

"We're not giving up hope yet!" Hiccup said, ignoring George's comments. "We keep going. That is of course if you rather want to stay and maybe get eaten by that thing anyway."

"I thought you said you think it does not want to eat us!" Josh said with a frown.

Hiccup shrugged.

"You really want to bet on that?" he asked.

The other boys looked at each other.

They maybe were not best friends but these past days had changed them all.

"Fine. We're dying anyway. Then we can still make something of our last hours on earth." George grumbled.

An: BTW, I try not to make mistakes but the English grammar and stuff like that if not my territory as well as spelling and stuff. I too realized that I used wrong words at certain parts in the story. Sorry about that I hope you still got the right meaning of the sentences after all. If not…well, the I'm sorry that I confused you.

Reviews please, thanks

Yours,

Kate