Chapter One

Hiccup groaned as he opened his eyes and looked around his bedroom, he saw that Toothless was still asleep on the floor rather than his bed, so Hiccup figured that he'd have a little more time to himself, in his bed, whilst he waited for Toothless to wake up for the day. Hiccup quickly began to think to himself, pondering about different subjects; most of all about how he was going to get up and carry on as normal when he felt as ill as he did. The green-eyed boy had been feeling a little off all week but he'd blamed it on worry. He blamed it on worry because Astrid seemed to be avoiding him yet he'd done nothing wrong, the last time they'd spoke properly had been a few weeks ago; as crazy as it sounds, Astrid hadn't spoken more than a sentence to him since he'd grown a couple of inches taller. Now, every time Hiccup even tried to talk to her she'd mutter a few words in response before mumbling something about having something to do and quickly walking away, her face often taking on a light red colour.

"Ugh…" Hiccup groaned as he thought about the fact that he had to get up and go riding, he would usually love this sort of thing, after all, he was the one that brought it into Berk, but right now he just felt plain sick. After groaning and moaning quietly he suddenly began coughing, hitting his head off the headrest of his bed before trying to lie down again however Toothless was now awake and literally jumped on top of Hiccup, wondering if he was okay. "I'm fine, bud!" Hiccup insisted, no matter how much he complained to himself in his head he wasn't willing to accept that he was ill out loud, not to other people. Hiccup didn't want any sympathy or any more of people treating him differently. Yes, he was almost seventeen now but he was being treated differently be many people now, maybe it was because he'd be coming of age next year.

Toothless pulled a confused face and turned his head on its side as Hiccup coughed again, almost pushing Toothless off his bed as he jolted forwards. Toothless tried to make Hiccup lie down again but Hiccup disagreed.

"I'm fine! Stop worrying, I probably just have a cold! All Vikings get colds, Toothless!" Hiccup shot at his dragon. Toothless looked to the teenager for a few short moments before sliding off the bed and standing by the side of it; waiting to help Hiccup out of bed like he did most mornings now that he was finding it hard to walk since he was growing out of the prosthetic leg. Besides, nobody else could help Hiccup because his father was out travelling and insisted that he do it the traditional way, by ship, as he claimed that he needed a break from the dragons after his own almost burned down the house. Stoic wouldn't be back for another couple of days, neither would Gober, that's why Toothless had to help him.

Hiccup stumbled out of his bed and steadied himself with Toothless' help; he led Hiccup over to his desk and flew out of the window to stretch his wings whilst Hiccup changed clothes. The dark coloured dragon returned five minutes later to find Hiccup crouching on the floor and looking as though he was trying to cough up a lung or something.

"Get back here you little devil!" Hiccup and Toothless heard yelling outside, it sounded like Astrid's mother, probably going after Stormfly for something or another again.

"I'd better go out there and help." Hiccup sighed, using this as a good excuse to miss breakfast without his dragon thinking anything; Toothless had probably caught some fish to eat whilst he had his five minutes of freedom, much like what he'd done many previous mornings before this one.

"Give that back!" The women shouted again, Hiccup got on Toothless' back for better and quicker mobility before barging out of his front door and into the cold, winter sunlight.

"What's going on here?" Hiccup asked, extending his lanky arms away from him.

"That beast; stole my basket of bread and won't hand it back!" Astrid's mother told him,

"I'll get it," Hiccup sighed, coughing into the crook of his arm, feeling sicker by the minute, "Stormfly, hand over the bread and then we'll go for a ride, how does that sound?" The tall blue-ish dragon seemed to think it sounded fair as he plodded over and handed the basket of bread over before sheepishly joining Hiccup and Toothless.

"I'll go and get Astrid, she isn't busy today. Thanks Hiccup!"

"No problem! I'll wait here." Hiccup coughed again once the women had gone inside, he coughed so hard that his head began pounding. "Great…" He muttered his voice raspy from coughing. Hiccup heard a little bit of shouting faintly coming from inside Astrid's house, she was probably complaining, Hiccup rolled his eyes at the thought. He didn't even know what the problem was!

"No… I….Don't wan- Oh hey, Hiccup!" Astrid said as she was practically pushed through the door, she noticed three things about Hiccup and she moved closer to him and the dragons. One; he looked sick,

Two; he looked hurt, or upset or confused, maybe a mixture of them.

Three; he looked different, Astrid's heart pounded as she neared him. She could see how his face was changing and she knew that when he stood he was probably taller than her rather than the same height.

"So, what'd you wanna do?" Astrid asked cautiously, stuttering slightly as she climbed onto Stormfly's back.

"Well, I was hoping we could go for a fly and maybe, you know, talk a little." Hiccup suggested, changing the gear of his dragon's tail with his prosthetic foot, finding it a little hard because of his growing height.

"Sure… Talk, cool." Astrid muttered as they took off, clearly not wanting to be where she was.

"O-" Hiccup cut himself off with another fierce and unexpected coughing fit, after about half a minute of coughing he groaned and straightened up his posture, great, he'd indirectly let Astrid know that he was sick. This was going to make everything worse in Hiccup's mind, on the other hand, maybe she never noticed; maybe she just passed it off as nothing.

"Hiccup, are you sick?" Astrid asked, turning to look at him, 'Damn it!' Hiccup thought.