As Belle walked down the streets of her small French town home, she tried her best to block out the white noise of the townspeople. Not just because she wanted to focus on reading her book, but because she knew what the people were saying about her. Though part of her was flattered when some of the people in town talked about how beautiful she was, it was when they talked of her not belonging that made her want to drown everything out. Though deep down, Belle knew she didn't belong.

Yet to make matters worse Gaston, of all people, had pop out of nowhere and say hi, of course coming from him it was not a passing hello, his intentions were very clear. "Bonjour Gaston" Belle said politely, but just wanted to get home, yet Gaston snatched her book away from her and clearly had plans to keep her in town for a little while.

"Gaston may I have my book please?" she asked, her irritation was finally starting to show in her voice. "How can you read this? there's no picture?" Gaston said flipping through the book while holding it sideways "well some people use their imaginations" she replied with her arms folded.

"Belle it's time you got your head out of those books and paid attention to more important things, like me" Gaston replied. Throwing her book into a mud puddle. Trying her hardest not to show her anger Belle knelt down to fish out her book, hoping the pages weren't unsalvageable. "The whole town's talking about it" Gaston continued "It's not right for a woman to read, soon she starts getting ideas, and thinking"

"Oh that reminds me, I need to go pick up something for my father" Belle said instantly running off, before LeFou could show up to make a joke. "Have you ever seen a woman run so fast?" the short man asked Gaston "No, I haven't" Gaston replied suddenly looking very confused.

Belle ran down the streets, not caring that more gossip that was getting spread about her, she returned to the bookshop, her one saving grace from all this. As she got there the shopkeeper was talking to a young boy who was trying to sell a very old and faded looking book. "I'm telling you I can't buy or sell this, it's gibberish!" the shopkeeper said.

"May I take a look at it?" Belle asked and the boy handed it her, it looked like someone's private journal, though only browsing through the first few pages she could see what the problem was, "it's not gibberish, it's in a different language, though I'm not sure which one" she informed them. "Well what am I going to do with book no one can read?" the shopkeeper growled. As Belle turned more pages she became intrigued as she saw pictures of dragons, weird looking inventions, and maps to far off areas. "Uh, do you mind if I take this?" she asked, looking to the boy, he nodded, if he wasn't going to get any money for it he might as well give it away.

"Thank you" she smiled. "What did you come back in here for anyway?" the shopkeeper asked. "Oh, uh, do you know anything about getting water stains out of books?" she asked handing him the one Gaston threw in a puddle. "Sadly I don't, but I said it was yours, so you can keep it, it still looks readable" he said.

"Oh, alright" she said and walked out, only to see smoke coming from her house and ran all the way there. Leaving the townspeople to their gossip and day to day lives.

"Poppa?" she called out opening the cellar door.

As the smoke cleared, Maurice became visible, clearly angry with his new invention, he muttered about how he'd never get the blooming contraption to work.

"You'll get it to work Poppa, I believe in you, and you'll win first prize at the fair this year" Belle tried to encourage him but Maurice only huffed, "and become a world famous inventor" Belle smiled at him, which boosted his confidence, and got back to work on it.

"So did you have a good time in town today?" he asked, "I got a new book, two actually" Belle replied setting the storybook and the journal aside. "Poppa, do you think I'm odd?" she asked.

"My daughter? Odd? Now where would you get an idea like that?" Maurice asked. "I don't know" Belle replied even though she knew exactly where, "it's just I don't feel like I fit in here, there's no one I can really talk to"

"What about that Gaston? he's a handsome fella?" he suggested. "Oh he's handsome, and rude and conceited" Belle's list could go on and on but she stopped "oh, Poppa, he's not for me" she sighed.

"Well don't worry cause this inventions going to be the start of a new life for us, why don't we give it a try" Maurice smiled, and pulled the lever on his strange machine, after the bells and whistled blew it did chop firewood like it was supposed to, and sent the chopped pieces flying into place like they should.

"It works, you really did it" she smiled and hugged him.

"I did didn't I, this is going to be great, make sure you take care of yourself, I'm off to the fair!" Maurice smiled and got everything put together.

"Good bye, I'll miss you, and good luck" Belle called out as her father left.

"Good bye Belle, and take care while I'm gone" he smiled and headed out.

Out on an adventure, something Belle wished she could do.

As Belle returned to her room, she looked at the journal, it was so fascinating, though she couldn't read the text (was this what Gaston felt any time he looked at a book?) the pictures were still amazing to look at whoever this journal belonged to must've had some amazing adventures in his day. It was the picture of dragons that really started to interest Belle, were there real dragons in the past? or did the owner of this journal simply like to draw in his free time.

The pictures were so detailed, they had to have been drawn from life. Which left Belle's head swimming with day dreams, adding dragons to her far off imaginary adventures.

Over the next few days, as Belle kept things tidy and in order around the house, she couldn't help but think of the mysterious journal's owner. Perhaps he was a prince from strong civilization of dragon tamers, he probably had a lot of admirers. Yet for some reason, Belle didn't want to imagine another Gaston-type character, and started to wonder if the owner was an outcast like her, maybe someone who had to prove himself a hero, instead of having everything handed to him. Yes, that made a far better story.

Yet Belle's daydreaming about a potential kindred spirit came to a halt as there was a knock on the door, it couldn't be her father, it was much to early, the fair would've just started. Looking through her father's scope she saw that it was Gaston, sighing, she quickly hid the journal away, not wanting it to get ruined, yet before she even got back to the door it swung open and Gaston's massive presence entered the room. "Gaston what a pleasant surprise" she forced the words out.

"Isn't it" he smiled, "Belle this is the day all your dreams come true"

"And what do you know about my dreams?" she snapped

"Plenty" he chuckled, making himself at home.

Gaston spun a tale of the two of them married with six or seven little Gastons, and Belle felt herself cringe, wanting desperately to get the man out of her house, as throwing herself off a cliff seemed more desirable than being Gaston's "little wife"

"Gaston, I'm . . . speechless, I really don't know what to say" she said lining herself up with the door.

"Say you'll marry me" he said getting in close, trying to trap her in place and kiss her.

"I'm sorry Gaston, but I just don't deserve you" she said reaching for the door handle and sending him outside. As soon as he fell she made sure to lock the door. This was the last straw, she couldn't stay in this little town anymore!

But Poppa was still at the fair, it wouldn't be right to leave without him, he would be so worried if he came home to an empty house, but still what if Gaston came back and more forceful?

She sighed and once again pulled out the strange journal, "what would you have done?" she asked softly, looking to more pages she couldn't read, yet trying to imagine the mysterious journal's owner no longer seemed inviting, not with what just happened. What if I just leave for a few days? she thought, yes that would be perfect! she could leave just two or three days, come back before her father got home, and then they could pack up and leave this provincial life together!

Still though, she didn't have all the supplies she needed and going back into town meant more gossip and more Gaston! However, Gaston may be the most popular guy in town, but he was a simpleton, a big bruiting simpleton, he only wanted Belle because he thought she was the most beautiful girl in town. Then she got an idea,

What if she wasn't the most beautiful girl in town?

The next morning, Belle didn't brush her hair after waking up, she also had violently rubbed her nose until it started to pink and puffy. Wrapped up in layers, she went into town. Most didn't bother her but when Gaston came up, well, the look on his face was priceless.

"Why hello Be-elle! What happened to your nose!" he gasped.

"Oh, I'm sorry Gaston, I haven't been feeling well, I'm only in town to get some emergency supplies since my father's not here, I don't think I'm contagious but you better not touch me" she said walking through.

"uh, what does contagious mean?" Gaston asked.

"When an illness is contagious it means easy to pass on to another person, so if you were to hang around me for to long you could catch what I have" she said and Gaston's face clearly looked worried, for his own sake of course, and he was clearly considering just leaving right now.

"Don't worry I don't think you'll catch it, but still you best stay away from me and once I get the things I need, I'll be in bed for the next few days, resting up until I feel better" she said.

Leaving Gaston she went to get the things she needed, and came back home, her plan was to leave tonight, and be gone for the next few days. She didn't expect any well-wishers to stop by but surprisingly there was a knock on the door and even more surprising, it wasn't Gaston.

It was the triplets, three blond girls always following after Gaston, Belle would've preferred it if Gaston returned their feelings, they were all very pretty, and he could marry all three of them for all she cared.

"Hello" Belle said as politely as she could.

"Hello"

"Hi"

"Bonjour"

Each girl said as they walked into her home without permission, Belle was starting to wish she had recalled their names, yet she couldn't even remember all three of their names let alone which one was which, in her mind they were always just Red, Yellow, and Green, the three silly girls chasing after a just as silly but more dangerous brute.

"You have a lovely home" Yellow said.

"Lovely in deed" Green muttered, honestly not impressed.

"Thank you, but if you don't mind me asking, why are you here, I probably shouldn't be accepting visitors" Belle said.

"Because of your 'illness' we know, you rejected Gaston and the next time you see him, you're too sick to speak to him, but well enough to be walking around, and your nose looks fine to me" Red said.

Belle looked to the girls, if they all wanted to marry Gaston, maybe it would be for the best if she told them she did it to avoid him, then maybe that would give them hope, Belle would even help them get Gaston's attention if it meant getting it away from herself. Still though, she didn't trust these girls, not completely.

"Alright you caught me, Gaston tried to purpose but he's just not for me, and so I pretended to be sick to spare his feel-er-reputation" she said as the triplets looked to her. "Are you sure you're not sick . . . in the head I mean" Green said "like father like daughter" Yellow whispered but Belle still heard her.

"Alright, all of you get out of my house!" she yelled. The triplets raised their brows but left. Belle didn't know what they had planned but right now she didn't care, she just needed to get out of here.

Toothless had become nocturnal ever since the world became more "civilized". Dragons no longer had a place in the world, many had died out and those who survived became myth, a story to tell children to fill their dreams before they go to bed, but for one old Night Fury, he was still around, but seemed a spirit doomed to the shadows.

After Hiccup's passing Toothless had still interacted with humans, even had a few other people ride him, but none were the same, then when all the vikings were gone there was nothing to do but carry on, yet as a dragon who couldn't fly, without help, it became hard, it seemed the only thing he could do was wait, wait to die, wait for another human.

In a clearing much like the one where he first met Hiccup, Toothless was ready to sleep as dawn was cracking, but a voice kept him from doing so, it was clearly human, and female, and didn't sound like a hunter. He then saw a young woman climb down into the clearing.

"Ah, it feels so wonderful to get out" she told herself looking to the spring, however her eyes soon turned to the dragon. She gasped and fell backwards. While Toothless would growl at her, and try to keep her away, everything his gut told him she wasn't an enemy. Not with the way she looked at him.

The woman's eyes went wide as she then pulled out a journal.

Hiccup's journal!

Where did she get that!

Toothless let out a growl, which caused the woman to back up against a rock, dropping the journal between them. Toothless walked up to the journal, seeing Hiccup's old writing and drawings, it was to much, with one claw he was careful to close the journal without tearing it. "That journal, it belonged to a friend of yours?" the woman asked pulling herself to her feet, no longer afraid.

Toothless nodded, surprised she was so accepting and kind. "Is he still around, maybe I could help you find him" she said.

Toothless shook his head, Hiccup was dead, there was no finding him after that.

The two were in silence for a long time, not that she could understand him anyway.

"Your tail?" she finally said, noticing that he was crippled and couldn't fly, she looked back to Hiccup's journal, "you could fly once?" she asked.

Toothless nodded,

She found the page that showed the invention Hiccup made to help Toothless fly, when he created an artificial tail wing for him. "I might be able to help you, if you want" she offered.

Toothless could only look at her with hopeful eyes, after Hiccup's passing Toothless didn't think his heart could be mended again, but perhaps his spirit could be.