Here's chapter 3, I hope you like it. If it seemed abrupt in its ending, I apologize. Read and Review.

Chapter 3

Hiccup stirred gently on his bed in the early hours of the morning, every bone in his body aching from the exertion from the night before. He groaned softly and rubbed his arms a little to try and dispel the stiffness in them before sitting up and looking around. The room was warmly lit by the glow of the fire burning in the fireplace and the sun was low in the sky, only just after dawn. Despite having passed out in bed mere seconds after falling into it, he had only slept for a few hours. He rubbed his face softly, yawning a little as he laid back down, his head bumping softly against Toothless' scaled hide. He looked up at the dragon who had a peaceful look on her face as she slept.

Hiccup could still hardly believe that the dragon who had been his friend all those years had been female. He felt kind of silly for never having figured it out but he defended his ignorance by bringing up the fact that their were no other Night Furies with which to compare anatomy to. Hiccup slid up a little bit more and softly stroked her neck, his hands careful to not waken her. She smiled a little and snuggled closer into the blankets of the bed, which made him grin. As deadly as she was, she still acted like a cute animal when she slept.

He sighed and turned to face the room again, resting his head against Toothless' side as he thought back to the night before, namely the strange woman who had come into the village after the large battle that had taken place mere moments before. He had no idea of how to view the newcomer, as an enemy or a friend, but one thing was for sure, he needed her knowledge. She knew many things that he did not and that alone made her a valuable asset. Whether or not his trust would be well placed or not remained to be seen. What was certain was that if she proved to be a harbinger of enemies worse than what they had faced the night previous, then he would personally see to it that she was destroyed.

He continued to lie there for another few moments when he heard a woman's voice from across the the room, "It really is remarkably beautiful. The sunrise, I've never quite gotten over the majesty of the it."

Hiccup lifted his head and looked across the room at the woman who had spoken, seeing the black skinned elf sitting in the windowsill of the window across from the door. She was no longer wearing her armor and cloak, instead, she was wearing a dark green tunic and leather pants, her back to him as her eyes stared out the window to the sunrise. Hiccup shook his head a little and asked, "What, don't they have a sun where your from?"

Illaea glanced over her shoulder at him and then looked back out towards the sun before saying, "Faerûn does have a sun, but I had never seen it until a few years ago. The Drow dwell deep underground, in large cities beneath mountains. Most never go to the surface."

She continued to watch the sun without saying anything more while Hiccup continued to stare at her. He had never heard of an entire civilization that dwelt underground but then, there were bound to be many things she had to share that he did not know. He stretched painfully and slid of the edge off the bed onto his mismatched legs. He moved to his dresser to grab a new shirt when he asked, "Do you miss them, your people I mean."

Illaea snorted derisively and said, "Not in the least rivvil. The Drow are chiefly evil by nature, allying themselves with the forces of darkness whenever it suits them, they are masters of the shadows, deceit, and poisons. I was a member of one of the more prominent houses of the Drow, that is until my family was betrayed. To be fair, I should have seen it coming and it was my failing that cost me dearly."

Hiccup had frozen halfway through pulling his shirt on when she had said that her people were mostly evil and still hadn't put it on when she finished speaking. She looked back over at Hiccup and shook her head a little before looking back out the window. Hiccup continued to watch her carefully for a few more minutes before he finally asked, "How am I supposed to trust you if your people are evil by nature, how do I know you won't betray me?"

Illaea chuckled a little and said, "You are wise to be suspicious, even more so to be wary of trusting the Drow. Many of my people do what they can to bring down their peers in the most elaborate and quiet ways possible, very rarely do we openly war. I was as deceitful as they come, but now, circumstances have forced me to understand the nature of trust and companionship. I'll say this rivvil, I will not betray you, you have my word, little as that is."

Hiccup continued to watch her for a few moments, contemplating on what to say, eventually he decided on changing the subject and asked, "What does rivvil mean? I've never heard the word before."

Illaea turned in the windowsill and looked over at Hiccup with a mischievous smile on her face before saying, "Ol mii'n rivvil, dos jaed lotha nesst."

Hiccup gave her a bewildered look and she laughed lightly and said, "I'll give you a gold piece if you figure it out, for now, I'll tell you that rivvil means human."

She slid from the windowsill and walked over towards him, stopping in front of him and looked him over, her eyes wandering over his torso, arms and legs in equal measure. At this distance, Hiccup couldn't help but examine her as well. He stared at her face and hair, examining the way it draped lazily down her neck and back. He tried to be professional about his examining but he couldn't help but be entranced by her exotic beauty. Her bright white hair glittered in the light of the sun and was very well kept, the muscles of her arms and neck were well toned. Her amber colored eyes seemed to glisten with an internal light and there was the unmistakeable smell of holly on her.

Though he didn't know it, Illaea had long since finished looking him over and had noticed the intensity of which he stared. Though she was allowing him to examine her, she couldn't help but feel increasingly uncomfortable with every silent moment that passed. She drew the line when he leaned in and sniffed at her hair at which point she abruptly slapped him. The shock of the blow certainly served to snap him out of his trance as he grabbed his face and groaned. The woman who had smacked him poked him menacingly on the chest and she flatly stated, "If you dare to do that again, my next strike will not be so forgiving. Do not take advantage of my generosity."

Hiccup quickly realized what must have happened and began to spout a long stream of apologies, which she waved away irritably. When he finally stopped speaking a silence once again fell on them that was broken by Illaea as she asked, "Your leg, how did you lose it?"

Hiccup looked down at his leg, thinking, mostly about the length of the story. Deciding it would be best to give her the full account later he said simply, "I lost it in battle."

Illaea raised an eyebrow a little and said, "Judging by how you fought last night, Its not hard to imagine why."

A flare of anger rose in Hiccup, feeling like he had just been insulted. He puffed out his chest a little and said, "I'll have you know that the battle which cost me my leg was incidentally one of the greatest of my life, In which Toothless and I laid low the Dragon Queen."

Illaea nodded and motioned over towards Toothless, saying, "So I take it that means you were a passenger to the whole thing."

Hiccup angrily glared at her and recounted the tale of the battle, about how his intellect had been key to winning the battle. After he had finished she looked him over again, reassessing what she had surmised of him. He was extremely intelligent, wise, honest, careful, capable and strong. She felt that he would be an individual she would need to be wary of if he ever plotted against her, though she doubted he would. After a few more moments of awkward silence Illaea asked, "Is there anything to eat around here?"

Hiccup raised an eyebrow but nodded regardless, motioning to the door and saying, "There is a kitchen and dinning room on the first floor but its not often used, most of the inhabitants of the Terrarium prefer to cook in their fireplaces mostly because its closer and more convenient."

Illaea nodded and asked, "Do you mind taking me there? I suspect that you have more questions for me."

Hiccup nodded and moved to the door, Toothless sliding off the bed with a thump and padding after Hiccup, eying Illaea as she passed her. Illaea frowned and followed behind Toothless as they moved down the stairs to the floors below, Hiccup staying relatively quite as the moved down the stairs. It wasn't until they reached the bottom floor that he finally said, "Here we are, the dinning room is just through there. I'll go get some breakfast from the kitchen and meet you there."

Illaea nodded and proceeded through the large doors of the dinning room, Hiccup just able to she her take a seat on one of the low benches as the door swung shut. After the door was closed, Hiccup let out a heavy sigh and moved towards the room adjacent to the dinning room, from which wafted the various smells and scents of cooking dishes. After pushing the door open, Hiccup said to Toothless, "Okay, lets get some food." Toothless nodded and padded over to a large portion of roasting beef that she lifted off the fire and carried by the spit out into the dinning hall, Hiccup smiling as her tail twitched like a happy wolf. As she disappeared Hiccup grabbed some bread, cheese, two tankards of ale and two bowls of venison stew that he balanced on a tray before exiting the kitchen himself after Toothless who had already begun to consume her meal.

Smiling faintly at her, Hiccup set the tray before Illaea, sitting down next to Toothless as he served himself. Illaea needed no prompting as she removed the offered food from the tray, sniffing at it tentatively before producing a dark green vial from between her breasts and pouring a drop of its contents into both the stew and drink. Noticing Hiccup's confused stare she smiled and said, "Only the foolish accept food from others without checking for poison, especially not when the individual is someone you met only recently."

She replaced the bottle before lifting the bowl to her lips and drinking from it. Hiccup didn't know whether or not he should be offended by her suspicion, but assumed that it was a natural trait of her people so decided not to question it. As he began eating his own meal he asked, "So, this language you used to talk to Toothless...what is it called?"

Illaea laughed gently and said, "It is quite simply called Draconic, the tongue of all dragons. I half expected you to ask me to teach it to you."

Hiccup sheepishly shrugged and said, "Yeah, I was going to ask you that, how many languages do you speak?"

She looked at him for a moment before saying, "I speak six in total, Common, Undercommon, Drow, Draconic, Abyssal, and Celestial. Each of them I learned in the course of my studies."

Hiccup took a drink of his ale wondering if she'd have the patience to teach him any of these languages. Before he could even ask her she forestalled him by saying, "I have no desire to teach anyone anything, however, as you seem to have a special interest in the language of the dragons, I will teach you this one, in exchange for your hospitality and help in the future, does this sound fair?"

Hiccup nodded eagerly and said, "Of course, So, can we start now?"

Illaea raised an eyebrow at him before smiling and nodding. As the morning wore on, Illaea became very aware of just how intelligent Hiccup was, in the 3 hours that they spent in the dinning hall, Hiccup learned and memorized the basics of the Draconic language and its importance in spell casting. While there was no way he had learned enough to start speaking it, she had no doubt that it wouldn't be long before he had mastered it. At the end of their first lesson Hiccup was grinning broadly, soaking up all he'd learned with his eyes fixed on the dark elf before him, very happy to have met her purely for the chance of learning that he now had. After another few moments of silence he said, "Thanks, hopefully soon I'll be able to actually have a conversation with Toothless."

Illaea smiled and said, "Maybe, though she seems to understand speech well enough, I do not know if she is physically able to speak."

Hiccup looked at her and said, "Why wouldn't she be able to? She is a dragon isn't she?"

Illaea nodded and said, "She is, but she is not a dragon of my world. That being said, she may never be able to speak to you. But as I found my way to this plane of existence from mine, its possible that she may eventually gain this ability."

Hiccup smiled at the possibility of Toothless getting this skill. He wanted so dearly to be able to actually speak with her, to have a full conversation, maybe learn things from her that he'd never known before. The prospect thrilled and excited him, but only time would tell if it happened at all.

Well, there you go. If the ending felt sudden, I apologize. Chapter 4 is coming.