A/N: Hey! Ok, so, since all of my other writing is currently on a flash drive lost somewhere in my house, I started this story to have something to work on. Hopefully, I find my flash drive soon and can get back to work on my other stuff, but in the mean time, there's this. I hope you enjoy it.~

Disclaimer: I don't own any characters or the movies/books they come from. They are all property of their respective creators. I'm making no money from this.

Warnings: Hinted character death and dismemberment. Hinted alcoholism. Hinted child abuse.

Prologue

"Momma, do you think Toothless will like his new food?" A small, freckled boy asked the woman walking just ahead of him alongside the roughly paved road. He made sure to skip over any cracks along the crumbling edge of the pavement, his dirty sneakers making barely a noise as he did so. He didn't want his mother to fall and break her back after all.

"I'm sure he'll love it, Hiccup." responded the young mother with an indulgent smile.

"It's got beef in it, right? And chicken? Do puppies like beef and chicken?" He continued to question, his green eyes darting up to follow the sway of his mother's braided hair.

"They can't get enough of it!" She ensured enthusiastically.

"He wanted my fish last night. Maybe he thinks he's a cat. Maybe we shoulda got him cat food."

"He wanted your fish because you were holding your plate in front of his nose." The woman chuckled as she glanced ove her shoulder, throwing an amused look towards the small boy with her own green eyes. The boy puffed out his cheeks. He'd hoped neither of his parents had caught that. The woman laughed again at the expression as she once again faced forward, shifting the grocery bags in her arms to have a more comfortable grip on them.

"Don't you worry, my little one," She reassured as she stepped over the old railway tracks, "I'm sure the new pup will be happy with what we got him. You double and triple checked the shopping list several times yourself after all..."

The woman continued to speak, but the voice was gradually lost on the small ears of the boy as she continued to walk and he remained where he was. He'd meant to keep going with her, really he had, but his foot had gotten stuck between the boards of the railway tracks. Annoyed, he knelt down and wrapped his hands around his ankle, giving a few sharp tugs that did nothing to dislodge his trapped foot. Too bad he didn't have any butter. That always worked really well to unstick things.

The sudden dinging of a bell startled him. He fell backwards, landing on his bottom with a soft 'oomph'. The big white bars on either side of the tracks began to lower, the sound of the bells almost deafening in his ears.

"Momma!" He yelled, frightened by all the noise. Over a block away already the woman stopped and turned abruptly at the call, having thought the boy was still just behind her. Her green eyes widened at the sight of her small son still on the tracks all that ways behind her.

"Hiccup!" She yelled, dropping her shopping bags and taking off at a sprint back towards her struggling boy. The boy saw what he thought was probably a tennis ball roll out of the bag and across the old, uneven pavement. It was hard to tell at this distance, especially with tears of fear clouding his vision.

To his left a train blared its whistle.

Hiccup jolted awake, his sheets tangled around his sweat soaked body and his chest heaving as his heart thudded painfully in his chest. Wide green eyes stared unseeingly up at the darkened ceiling above his bed, dim starlight peeking in between the slats of his blinds to make sight only just barely possible in the dark room. He swallowed reflexively around his gasping breaths, his mouth feeling too dry and too warm. A high pitched whine came from the side of the bed.

Trying to calm his breathing, Hiccup turned his head to the large black face propped on the edge of his bed, the sparse light catching on large, glassy green eyes. A thin freckled hand came up to push damp hair away from his face so he could see his best friend properly. A dull thumping could be heard as the large dog's tail waved lazily back and forth across the carpet.

"Hey bud..." he greeted quietly, reaching out to place his faintly shaking hand on the broad furry head. The contact alone went a long way toward calming him down. The silence stretched for a few minutes. Hiccup's breath gradually evened out and his heart slowed to a more natural rhythm. He rolled onto his side and gently moved his fingers to scratch behind a big triangle ear, causing the thumping noise from the floor to start back up with an increased tempo. "It's ok Toothless. It was just a dream." He lied. His body curled a little into itself, the sensitive, scarred skin on what was left of his left leg rubbing against the sheets in an irritating way.

His new found calm was shattered when a door slammed on the other side of the house, followed by the clink of bottles and a few muttered swears. His dad, Stoick 'The Vast' Haddock, was home from work. Hiccup checked the clock as Toothless began to whine again at the growing anxiety in his master. It was just after two in the morning. His father usually got off at one. Which meant he'd made a pit stop before coming home again. He'd probably be up drinking for the next hour or two before he passed out on the couch. Hopefully, the large man wouldn't see the need to come to Hiccup to start yelling at him for some odd reason or other. There was always some reason. Something Hiccup had done wrong or neglected to do, or sometimes his father just wanted to rant at him about things he had no power over.

Shifting carefully in his bed, and thanking every god he knew of that his springs didn't squeak, Hiccup made room for his dog on his bed and made a quick patting motion beside him. The large animal quickly and quietly complied, hopping up on the bed and settling down next to his master protectively. Thin freckled arms wrapped around a broad neck and a pale freckled face buried itself in thick dark fur. He needed to get some more sleep. He had school in the morning. Something told him that his rest would be elusive, however. At least until his father's curses petered out into silence in the early hours of the morning.

A/N: So that's it. Sorry it's pretty short, but this is just the prologue, so... Let me know what you think? I've got a plot all figured out but I'm a little shakey on the details. I'd love to hear your ideas and opinions and maybe pull some inspiration from them. :3