Night Fury's Venom

Part 25: Doubts

-Hello! For those of you who read this story before I revised it, you might notice that the events that happened in and around this chapter are different. You'd be right! I noticed a few unnecessary things in the older versions of these chapters, as well as a few plot holes that I didn't see before. I don't know if any of you saw it, but I think I fixed them! Some things just didn't fit with the later chapters very well, so I made them more relevant. Enjoy!

-NFD

~~~

"Why?"

"Because I can," Stormfly replied smoothly.

I scooted a bit to the left to avoid touching her. "You've been acting strange," I whispered. She scooted against me again. "Stop that!"

"No."

"This is only going to make Toothless's teasing worse!" I complained, unable to move away without breaking through a building's wall.

"So?" She warbled carelessly, "let him." I blinked as she smirked. "I hear you've been paying a lot of attention to me."

I groaned, looking straight ahead to avoid her gaze. "I'm a human," I said bluntly, knowing what she was thinking. "That would never work out between us. Toothless is just seeing things that don't exist, that's all."

"Do you know what I am searching for?" Stormfly warbled. I glanced at her for a moment, surprised by the sudden question. "I have been searching for my soulmate. That means I need to find the one dragon who is my perfect match, someone I can spend the rest of my life with. I've been searching for two season cycles."

"Well, that special one isn't me," I muttered, laying my head on the ground. "I'm not really a dragon. And I'm not exactly boyfriend material either, not even close."

"What's a boyfriend?"

I sighed. "It's a guy who is in a relationship with a girl before they get married. I guess Toothless called that new-mates or something."

"Oh... Why aren't you?"

"Just trust me," I muttered sourly, "I'm not."

I couldn't get Astrid's attention no matter how hard I tried, and she was the one I had a crush on. I knew why. Who would want to date someone who made so many mistakes? I couldn't even do the one thing every other Viking could!

Astrid's voice interrupted my thinking, "Hiccup? Where are you?"

I poked my head out of the alley. "Here," I called quietly. Her head whipped to her left, catching my eye before limping toward me. She had white cloth wrapped tightly around her burned leg, the burned clothing looking like it was replaced with new ones.

I ignored Stormfly's irritated snort as Astrid clambered onto my back again. "I still don't want it sitting on you."

"Her," I growled, startling Stormfly with a glare. "Not 'it.' And this is my body, why do you get a say in what I do with it?"

"Because I want you safe!" She pleaded desperately, "she has that ax-claw!"

My eyes widened, and before I realized what I was doing, I had bucked Astrid off of me. She yelped before landing flat on her back with a wheeze, the air knocked out of her lungs. And sure enough, her ax dropped heavily to the ground close by.

I bristled, backing away from the weapon quickly. I abruptly stopped, finally getting a grip on my mind as Astrid shot me a heated glare. "Crap..." I mumbled. What was wrong with my head?!