#chapter snippet

Cautiously she’d taken a step back, and then another. Her gaze never leaving his as he’d stood there motionless to the ever growing distance she’d created between them.

Maybe…maybe she could run away? No this place was probably crawling with crimson stars, ones she doubted would be as gentle or passive.

So what could she do?

The question remained unanswered as the star before her moved.

She couldn’t describe the sound that escaped her as his hand moved, far faster than her mind could, grabbing her and pulling her towards him, eliminating the carefully created distance she’d put between them.

How had he-

The scream died in her throat as she felt his hands wrap around her, holding her firmly. all but hurried backwards from him.

She hadn’t realized that she hadn’t been breathing until she’d felt him lean down, his mask close to her ear as she felt his grip resting on her backside tighten.

“Don’t.”

It was the only word he’d said as she took in one breath then another.

She didn’t know how long she’d been standing there, shakily breathing until she realized that her father was right.

Stars didn’t breathe.

But that hadn’t been the worst discovery she’d made as her eyes landed on the asterius’s bark. The shadows or what had appeared to once be shadows had materialized into claws, carefully scraping alongside the asterius’s bark, leaving thin trails in its wake. Red liquid swelled and flowed from the bark’s scratches as a face materialized in the shade of the Asterius.

A strange sound filled the air as she couldn’t stop herself from shaking.

“Asha,” the star spoke again. She braved a look, upwards, noting that he was watching something, or…someone. “Asha.”

“Close your eyes. Think of somewhere else and it’ll all be over.”

Easier said than done, but with the figure slinking out from the darkness, she felt more than encouraged to at least try.

She took in one breath- then another and then closed her eyes. For a moment she’d thought she’d felt a passing wind, but with all that was happening she wasn’t sure what was real or what she had been imaging.

Think of somewhere else.

Somewhere else huh. There was only one other place she wanted to be right now.

Her eyes opened as she felt his grip on her slacken before withdrawing.

“My bedroom?” She started, looking around for any familiar sign of Valentino. “Am I awake now?” She asked, catching sight of herself in her broken mirror.

“No, not quite,” she murmured, her grip tightening on her dress skirt. She was still wearing this dress, so she must’ve still been asleep.

From behind her she could spot the star’s dark figure. Oh…he was still here too? She supposed she shouldn’t have been surprised seeing as he was the reason he’d been here now.

He shifted, cutting her voice off as his body seemed to shudder.

“Are you…are you okay?” She asked, as he leaned his body against the door, and slowly pried the lower half of his mask from his face.

“I’m fine,” he replied. His posture said otherwise as he drew in a deep breath.

Why he was lying was beyond her- after all it wasn’t as if she, the most powerless human could do anything against a star of all beings. But she supposed she should still be grateful- he had after all, somehow someway saved her.

“Is that blood?” She squinted at the red liquid trailing from his mouth down his chin.

He paused, almost as if mulling over the question before he straightened himself. “It’s not my blood,” he smoothly corrected as she felt her concern partially melt into annoyance.

“Why am I not surprised?” She replied, turning to face her bed. Nothing in this dream made sense anyway.

Not the sprite, not the star and especially not the things she’d seen or heard. A part of her had wished that this was all a dream, some feverish concoction of her mind, but another part, had a sinking feeling that maybe there was some reality to all this.

“The one court,” the star’s voice came from beside her, interrupting her thoughts.

“What?” She snapped, partially turning as she felt her back almost collide with him. She hadn’t hit him that hard but he’d felt as concrete as the stone door she’d nearly run into earlier.

“Of course you’d come across and draw the attention of the one court capable of killing someone in their dreams…”

“The one what?” She repeated, immediately backing away a few steps.

But unlike before he seemed intent on closing the distance. Silently moving as she watched his fingers grew into claws and his feathers appeared before quickly reversing as he shuddered once more and straightened himself.

“What? What are you doing?!” She snapped feeling the back of her legs hit her bed, effectively cornering her.

The Prince didn’t reply merely standing over her as she looked past him and to the door.

She wondered if she could bolt past him, but the thought of facing whatever lay on the other side of that door was more than enough to keep her in her place before he continued speaking.

“You weren’t supposed to be here-,” his hand rested over his mask- shifting it enough as he began to lean forward.

“Whoa- whoa hold on!” She cried, collapsing back onto the bed as the prince’s weight settled on top of her.

This was it. She’d been foolish to forget that beyond their beauty stars were above all else dangerous and now she was going to pay the price for her folly one way or another.

“Dinner!” She cried, squeezing her eyes shut as she felt him shift above her.

He stopped “What?”

“I said if you’re going to pin me down on a bed like this the least you could do is give me dinner first!” Confusion filled her at the sound of laughter- no not just laughter…Cepheus’s laughter as he carefully peel himself off of her. “You-!” She started, sitting up. “I outta kill you for this!”

He stopped laughing as he carelessly tossed his mask from his face. The mask soundlessly swallowed by the floor as he replied “Fair enough.”

“Fair enough?! Fair enough!!” She indignantly repeated, forcing herself to her feet as she angrily stepped towards him. “Why are you dressed like the prince from Waltz of monsters? Was that the crimson court back there?! If so Why were you with them?! How were you with them?! How did I get here did you have anything to do-,”

“Whoa whoa whoa,” he held up his hands in a surrendering gesture as he took a step back. “Okay first of all, it’s great to see you too.”

oh and some updates tags for ya 😘

Snippet from chapter five of But Where You See Weakness I See Wit:

From the blood and burns on her lower leg come the signs of an infection too, a yellow-green tinged pus sluggishly leaking down the side of her leg; and focusing now, she feels the telltale indications of a fever as chills and shivering wrack her body. Bile rises in her throat, which she uncomfortably swallows back down, and as the sight catches up with her, so too does some of the pain she had unconsciously been ignoring.

A choked off scream of pain catches in her throat as Hilda gasps for breath, tears beginning to pour from her eyes, stinging the few cuts that are on her face.

As she stares at the mess that was once her lower left leg, a thought distantly occurs to her— how is she meant to fly with Toothless now, when it’s her left leg that controls the steering pedal. She— wait…

Panic grips her swiftly, her breaths coming quick and ragged as she looks around for the Night Fury.

“Toothless?!” She shouts, coughing immediately after from how dry her throat is, but she doesn’t care about that at the moment, shouting her best friend’s name once more.

“Toothless!!? Toothless please where are you!! Tooth—” Hilda cuts herself off with a gag, nausea from the pain overtaking her, and she leans her head to the side just in time to avoid getting vomit on herself. She coughs as she finishes, spitting up the final bits of bile and phlegm that had gotten stuck in her throat.

Snippet from chapter seven of All the Ashes in My Wake (co-written by me and my best friend!):

The edges of Hiccup’s vision start to blacken as the nausea worsens, but he can’t seem to bring himself to look away from his completely ruined leg. Every breath he takes feels like nothing, so quick and shallow it seems to him he’s almost not breathing at all. He can feel his heart pounding in his ears as his vision tunnels to the point where all he can see is his leg… all he can think about is his leg. He tries his hardest not to pass out, not to throw up all over himself, but his consciousness is slipping… until Toothless. Hiccup almost forgot he was there amidst his panic.

Toothless nudges Hiccup’s arm with his snout, the Nightfury’s sleek scales jolting him back into reality. He takes deeper breaths, and his vision clears up a bit. Toothless looks at him with an offputtingly guilty expression, and he can’t figure out why, until the Nightfury looks at his leg and then back at him, protracting his teeth. Hiccup takes a deep breath, nodding, before laying back down.

Toothless hesitantly approaches Hiccup’s leg. This isn’t going to be fun, exactly, but Hiccup’s leg can’t be saved, and it’ll only cause issues if it stays. The Nightfury can hear his rider’s breathing quickening as he gets closer to his leg. It pains him to be the one causing Hiccup so much panic, but they both know this is something that needs to be done. Quickly. Toothless bites the bullet, metaphorically, and the leg, literally.

Hiccup’s vision starts to blur again as Toothless’ teeth make contact with his leg, the adrenaline no longer any help against the pain at all. The nausea quickly sets in too, as he hears his bone crunching as the Nightfury’s teeth sink deeper, a horrific, grating sound— and one that won’t be leaving his memory any time soon. He tries his hardest not to vomit, to no avail. The most he can do is angle his head so it only hits the floor.

Snippet from my oneshot They Say Time Heals All Wounds (But This One’s Only Growing Worse):

He grabs what he’ll need to make his tea, and slides himself down to sit on the floor, keeping a hand on his lower back as if that will do anything to ease the pain in it he feels right now; all it does is remind him of the aching in his fingers and wrist. He’ll make his tea from the ground tonight and hopefully that will keep him from making the pain worse until he drinks his tea and the willow bark kicks in.

Hiccup used to be able to move from room to room without the pain causing him to struggle so much at a distance he used to consider so short. He used to be able to make tea without having to sit down just to do it.

But now his hands hurt, his back aches, his shoulders feel stiff, his knees feel tense, his head is pounding, and it’s all been getting worse, worse, and worse since he first noticed these pains several years ago.

He gets the fire lit and the water boiling as his eyes start to water; he’s not sure if it’s from the pain or the reminder of how much he’s had to adjust as it worsened. At this point he’s not sure there’s too much of a difference between the two reasons anyway.

Snippet from chapter four of Once you’ve earned his loyalty, there is nothing a dragon won’t do for you.:

Curled beside him is Hiccup, unconscious and sluggishly bleeding from cuts and scrapes obtained in the collision that line his whole body. His breathing and heartbeat are slow, slower than they should be, but he is alive. The fire did its damage too, and some of his clothing was burnt away, patches of his skin beneath it an angry red. Though he has small, minor burns in several places all over that will surely scar a little, the injuries are the worst on his left side— the side that touched the fire first, the side that was exposed the longest before Toothless could reach him.

The skin on his left arm and the back of his left shoulder surely won’t ever look the same, the burns there worse than most of the rest. But Hiccup’s left leg…

The lower part of it is burnt so badly that his skin and muscle are charred black, and it’s bent at an angle no lower leg should ever bend at, bone sticking out of charred flesh. Flecks of fresh blood poke through the charring, dripping down the broken and exposed bone. The burns on his leg don’t stop at the part of it he’ll surely lose, though— no, they continue higher, warping the skin and leaving it an angry red up to his thigh, just past his knee.

Snippet from chapter four of Decidedly Unreasonable:

Hiccup falls into the water, and struggles to stay above the surface of it. All his struggling just forces the water around him to move and splash, and it gets in his eyes and mouth, only serving to make him struggle more as he begins to struggle to breathe and sink lower in the water.

Dagur manages to dive in after Hiccup just as the small boy’s struggling begins to subside. He is terrified he won’t be fast enough to keep him alive. He reaches Hiccup quickly and wraps an arm around the boy, pulling him back above the water; Hiccup, having not quite fallen unconscious, renews his struggling in a panic, too out of it to quite recognize he’s being saved and doesn’t need to keep trying to save himself from drowning.

In his panic, he sinks his teeth into whatever is in reach of his mouth, once and then twice in a different spot; only, the thing in reach of his mouth happened to be Dagur’s arm… the older boy’s blood leaks into the water, turning it the color of rust where it touches. The metallic taste of blood in his mouth ends up being grounding, and he stops struggling as Dagur pulls him up onto dry land.

Hiccup is shivering, coughing loudly as he tries to catch his breath, and Dagur is roughly patting his back to make sure that if there’s any water in his lungs, he coughs it all up. When he’s done coughing, Dagur pulls Hiccup into a tight hug, holding him securely.

Snippet from my oneshot Hold Out Your Hands:

It’s the fourth thwack of the strap against his palms that breaks his skin, blood beading out of the smallest of cuts. His hands are red and angry, a burning pain shooting through them.

Hiccup flinches as his father brings the back for a fifth stroke, but he keeps his hands held out steady as the leather bites into his palms again. Tears well up in his eyes and Hiccup bites his lip to try and distract himself from crying.

(The team finds Rogue in Mexico)

"Kurt, if you're here to tell me Remy's dead-" Rogue felt herself begin to tear up. "I can't take it. Not just yet. Got so much left to figure out, and I just- Can't take it."

Kurt took her hand. 

"I am not here to say that." 

She sniffled again. 

"That mean he's in a coma? That I managed to take away his life anyway-" her voice caught. 

"No. It does not mean that." 

Rogue felt her brow furrow. 

"Then-"

She looked at Kurt in confusion. 

He looked past her, smiling. 

"Here they are." 

Rogue turned, still perplexed. 

Team members faced her, soft smiles on their faces. 

And at the front, despite a sallow complexion, despite the thick bandages his trenchcoat couldn't quite hide, was a very much alive Remy LeBeau. 

Rogue gaped at him, looking around at the rest of the team. Morph was in their usual form. The others were all accounted for. 

"I-" She looked back at Kurt. "He real?"

Kurt nodded. 

She turned back, continuing to stare. 

"Hey, chere," Remy rasped. 

Rogue stood, still at a loss. 

"Remy- I-"