HtTYD - There 01

Title: And it Begins

Summary: When you know there's something wrong, you fix it, but how do you get rid of something that's not there? A sequel to 'For the Better'.

Disclaimer: Even if you sue me, I don't have much. I already don't own HtTYD, what more do you want me to not own?

The winter months were hard in Burk. In particular, Hiccup recalled a winter when they had run out of food and had needed to eat a few leather boots to keep from starving. It had been the coldest winter he could remember. The sea around burke had been so cold that it took days to make a hole in the ice covering it.

'Yup, I sure am lucky.' he thought. Because being cold was the farthest thing he could be right then.

He was sitting in on the floor, between a roaring fire and Toothless' warm body. The sky outside was a nondescript gray that gave just enough light for him to read against the light of the fire. In a few hours, he'd have to turn around to keep reading. But right now, that seemed to require a herculean effort.

/What are you reading?/ Toothless yawned. Hiccup smiled and scratched him under the chin.

Some of the dragons around Burk had hibernated for the winter, something no one was surprised to find out they did. Snotlout's Monstrous Nightmare, Firewyrm, had dug a hole in his backyard and fallen asleep in it weeks ago. Fishlegs' Gronckle, Horrorcow, had fallen asleep even before that, but without bothering to dig, just settled himself right outside the Ingerman house like a large rock. The Deadly Nadders apparently flew south for the winter. Sensing adventure, Astrid had left along with Gunter, her dragon, to the dismay of her parents. They were proud, but they worried, as parents were wont to do.

Hiccup's father, on the other hand, felt he had very little to worry about this winter. There was enough food to last until spring, and not needing to rebuild too many houses this year had left them with firewood that was easy to access from town. And as for Hiccup, well, he had Toothless, didn't he?

/The new dragon... The new dragon.../ he started. He was getting better at Dragonese, but some words still escaped him.

/Book./ supplied Toothless. Well, technically, the word was for anything that could be read, but it's not like dragons did a lot of writing anyway, so that would do.

/Book? Book? Book?/ Hiccup tried out the word, but to Toothless it sounded more like, /Booooook? Buk? Bouk?/. He laughed.

"Well, I'd like to hear you speak human!" Hiccup said mock indignant tones. Toothless opened his mouth…

…and blew him a raspberry.

"Ugh, gross!" Hiccup wiped the stray dragon saliva onto his friend, who was still laughing.

/The book?/ the Night Fury asked again.

"Oh, right!" Hiccup closed the book, keeping his finger between the pages as a bookmark. Then he shifted so he was draped across Toothless' neck.

"Me and Fishlegs, we're making a new dragon manual for the library, but we don't know much more than we did before, you know…"

/And how many dragons have you talked to?/ Toothless wiggled and Hiccup got off him long enough for him to scratch under his chin himself.

"Well…" Hiccup felt his face turning a bit red. 'Duh, ask them! Why didn't I think of that?'

"Never mind!" he covered, getting to his feet. "Let's go outside, see what the others are up to."

Hiccup put the book in his bag, and headed outside. Toothless followed, a knowing smile on his face.

But just before they reached the door, Hiccup fell, clutching at his leg. He didn't get back up.


A/N: Again, I'm pretty sure the plot is transparent here. I hope you like it anyway.

As always, thanks for reading and I hope you send feedback. I need to improve!