The winter air surrounds the area of trees. Snow lies on the thin branches. A small bird lands on a pillar singing its turn. It quickly takes off into the forest dodging between each tree and branch before coming to the opening of a clear field. It soon makes its way into the clod city of Bowerstone. People getting on with their daily chores, others huddling around fires to keep warm. The bird lands once again on the edge of a roof top. It lets out a droplet before flying off again. The droplet finds its landing spot on the head of a young boy.
7 year old Hiccup is standing close to the fire hope to warm up. It is then he feels the droplet land on his head. He quickly realises what it is and tries to get it out of his hair. Heather, Hiccups older sister, a thirteen year old girl with black hair and a braid swung over her left shoulder was watching the fire closely when her little brother made the noise of "Eww."
"Oh yuck, well I hear that's good luck, like finding a four-leaf clover. Although I think I prefer the clover." Heather said as Hiccup wiped his hands on his already filthy brown pants.
"Yeah make that two." Hiccup said as he once again tries getting back to keeping warm.
"Oh look Little brother," Heather said as she looks towards the castle snow in the distances.
"Castle Fairfax looks so nice in the snow." Heather said. "Imagine the grand dining hall, bet Lord Drago has them roast up this time of year." Heather said as she started to picture the image. "But he must be really lonely since his wife and little girl died, in the big castle all by himself, oh if only we can live there." Heather says as she wakes up from her daydream.
"Yeah well, we'll think about it after we get a miracle." Hiccup said to his sister. Then at that moment the sounds of people cheering in the distances get both Hiccup and Heather attention.
"What is going on over there?" Heather asked.
"Don't know." Hiccup said as the cheering gets louder.
"Come with me little brother." Heather says as she took off ahead.
"Right behind you." Hiccup said as he run after his sister past a large tree and into an alleyway. He then comes across a man talking to his sister.
"Hello there young Heather you look hungry, have you reconsidered my offer?" old man Mildew said.
"We'll never be that hungry! The answer is no." Heather says with disgust in her voice.
"You'll be back and I'll be waiting for ya." he said.
"Come on Little brother let's see what going on." Heather said they ran past the old man. Heather then muttered under her breath "that filthy creep, I hate him!"
Once they approached a crowd of people. "Oh it's just a trader." Heather said with a little disappointment as Hiccup could see a caravan filled with some of the strangest objects.
"I can't see anything past this lot." Heather said as she tried to look past the adults that blocked their way.
"Gather round for the sale of the century!" Trader Johann said with a strange accent that Hiccup and Heather couldn't completely understand.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I have travelled the land accumulating wondrous and mysterious objects, which are now offered to you for the modish price of one gold." Trader Johann said as he rubbed his hands together like a creepy villain. "Consider this, this is truly a magical mirror for as long as you look into it, it will make you beautiful." He said as Hiccup and Heather rolled their eyes.
"I'll take it!" a man said as Trader Johann had this mischievous smile.
"Very wise, now just remember the magic only works if you look at it in complete darkness." He then turned his attention to a small box sitting on a desk.
"Ah now this is truly a marvel, this small unassuming box is actually a bow created by the ancients, as used by the old kingdom rulers themselves, turn the handle three times and you should be granted a single wish." Trader Johann said as Hiccup look over to his sister who had an annoyed look.
"There's no such thing as magic." she said as Hiccup nodded his head in agreement fully unaware of the hooded woman that stood behind Heather.
"We live in grim times indeed if the young are unwary to believe in magic, most children your age believe eagerly." the woman said turning to the children showing her pale white eyes and a faint scar that went across them.
"Look I can see your eyes are bad, but I'm telling you that music box is rubbish." Heather said as the woman smiled towards them.
"That's what the seller thinks, he has no idea what he's stumbled upon but you have an inkling don't you? Some part of you wants to believe it's magic." she said as she started to walk away leaving Heather and Hiccup confused.
"You really think it could be?" Heather asked with hope in her voice. The woman stopped walked and looked towards them.
"For five gold coins you could have your answer." she said.
"For five gold coins we can eat for a week." she said as the woman continued to walk slowly.
"Listen to me Heather at the end of the week you and Hiccup would be no closer to your dream no closer to the inside of that beautiful castle." she said as she walked farther away.
"How does she know our names?" Hiccup muttered softly. Heather turned to him, not hearing what he said.
"What if it is real? Bet we could get five gold pieces and maybe this could be a way out of here after all, what do we have to lose little brother?" Heather said as Hiccup thought about it for a moment.
"Come on, we might as well. This could be our luck from the bird." he said reminding his sister of the small event that happened minutes ago. Heather laughed.
"Come on, there must be someone around here who will pay us gold to do something." She said as they began to walk around Old Town in search for gold.
After taking a task for Gobber The Guard and taking a picture from a weird man named Barnum, they were able to earn their first gold piece. Heather and Hiccup began to walk down an alley the arrest warrants flew down when they heard a dog whining and a set of siblings ran down chasing the dog.
"Gustav got a dog and he's going to kick the crap out." They said. Hiccup and Heather ran after them, to where they saw a dog cornered to a wall and a large boy around Heather's age stood in front of it pointing a wooden sword at it.
"What's the matter doggy? Does it hurt?" he said about to hit the dog again. Heather stood behind him with her hands on her hips.
"Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Heather yelled catch the boy attention.
"Having a bit of fun. What's it to you?" he said heading budding Heather. She hit the ground crying out in pain. The kids all stood shocked.
"He hit a girl." one of the children said.
"Yeah and now I'm going to hit another one!" he said looking towards Hiccup.
"Do I look like a girl to you?" Hiccup said pulling out a toy sword.
"You do to me." Gustav said laughing, along with a couple of the other kids.
"Well would a normal girl do this?" And with that Hiccup began with whack Gustav with his toy sword. He got 5 good swings when he finally stopped. Gustav stood still holding his bloody face in his hands.
"Ow, stop it, leave me alone you nutter!" he said crying as he ran off. Hiccup ran over to his sister.
"Ow! Did you see that? That lunatic sought me right in the head!" Heather said rubbing her forehead as Hiccup attached his toy sword back onto his back.
"Thanks for your help, I could have taken him though." Heather said as Hiccup smiled.
"Yeah I know you could have." he said. Their attention was brought back to the scared dog that was still shaking.
"Ah poor thing had a horrible time." Heather said getting closer. "Don't be scared we won't hurt you." She said as the dog whined a little. "What you need is someone nice to look after you." she said as the dog barked and wagged its tail.
"Oh we can't keep you, we barely have food for ourselves." she said as dog sat and put its head down. "Well I'm sorry but we can't, now you just rest." she said looking over to Hiccup, "come on Hiccup let's go." she said as she started walking. Hiccup quickly walked over and petted the dog head as it looked up towards him.
"Don't worry I know you'll find someone nice." he said catching up to Heather as they walked furore down the alley.
After killing a bunch of beetle, and getting a man's bum booze back and handing it over to his friend Betty, the kids had four warrants as they saw the dog from before with a paper in front of him.
"There's that dog again." Heather said as Hiccup picked up the paper and saw it was a warrant.
"Heather look." he said handing it to her.
"Hey he found one for us, such a good boy." Heather said petting his head.
"Your a smart one." Hiccup said petting the dog too.
"Oh I know you're sweet but I told you before we can't keep you, come on Hiccup." Heather said as they got ready to return the warrants to the Gobber.
Just as they reached the alley ahead the man from before Mildew blocked their path with anger filled in his eyes.
"Stop right there you little brats!" Mildew said. Heather grunted.
"Listen creep I told you know this morning." Heather said.
"Shut it girl this isn't about that, those warrens you're collecting, I want them." he said.
"So does our friend the guard." Heather said.
"Yeah but you're giving them to me otherwise there'll be trouble." he said.
"There'll be trouble aright, you take these and I'll tell my friend what you really want." Heather said.
"All right you little hard case, how much is he giving you, a gold piece? I got one right here save you the walk back." he said. Hiccup then looked towards Heather. He the looked over to Mildew and stepped on his toe hard. Savage let out a cry of pain. Heather and Hiccup took this opportunity and quickly ran over to Gobber.
"Have you found them?" he asked.
"Yes we did." Hiccup said handing him the warrants.
"Thanks you're a lifesaver. Now normally justice is its own reward but seeing how this isn't normal circumstances here's a gold piece." he said handing them there four coin.
"That should sort out this town." Heather said as they walked towards a man looking up towards a balcony where a girl was looking down at him.
After helping a man with no sense in romance get the girl, the siblings got their last coin.
"We did it, now we can buy the music box." Heather said as they rushed over to Trader Johann caravan.
"Hello children." Trader Johann said.
"Hello we've come to buy that music box." Heather said.
"Very wise little one. Go ahead and turn the handle but how about you go somewhere more quiet like." he said handing them the box. Hiccup took the box and Heather handed him the collected gold.
"Let's go make our wish little brother." Heather said as they hurried back to where before to keep them warm and placed the box and a stack of crates. Heather place the box and began to turn the handle.
"I wish, I wish." Heather and Hiccup said together as Heather finish spinning the key as the top of the box opened and a yellow light flowed from the top and a beautiful song began to play as the box began to spin and the light turned red as the music began to play faster and faster and suddenly disappeared into a bright light.
"Huh, where did it go?" Heather asked as Hiccup looked around to see if anything happened.
"I can't see it." he said with disappointment.
"Why are we still here?" Heather asked.
"I don't know maybe it was a fake after all." Hiccup said as they began to walk back to their makeshift home.
"Five gold pieces." Heather said.
"Guess we didn't get good luck after all."Hiccup said. Heather grunted in frustration
"Let's just go to bed." she said. "I was so sure this was it, I had this feeling like we were going to get stuck in Old Town any more." she said.
"I know how you feel." Hiccup said.
"Why didn't the box take it with us with it?" Heather asked as they reached their home.
"I don't know." Hiccup said. As they arrived back to their little home they saw the dog from before emerged and barked at them.
"What are you doing here? I'm sure I didn't wish for you." Heather said looking over at her brother giving him a glare.
"Don't look at me, I didn't." Hiccup said defending himself.
"All right fine, welcome to our little paradise." Heather said walking over to her matt as Hiccup walked over to his. The dog walked over to Hiccup and rested in front of him.
"Come one Hiccup go to bed." Heather said.
"Night Heather." Hiccup said. They both soon fell asleep.
After a few hours of sleep the barks of the children newly adopted dog awoke Heather. She looked up and saw a man standing in the entrance of their shack.
"Oh all right just settle down angry stray dog." a guard said as Heather approached him.
"Quiet boy! What do you want?" Heather asked as the dog continued to bark and growled.
"I work for Lord Drago's miss, he would very like to see you at his castle. I've been sent to collect you." he said starting to walk away.
"It did work. Our wish came true! Come one Hiccup wake up." she said shaking her little brother.
"Go away." Hiccup groaned as he sat up and rubbed his eyes as Heather turned to the dog.
"It's all right. We're going to Lord Drago's castle." Heather said with a lot of excitement. The dog whined and Hiccup looked over to his sister in shock.
"We are?" he said.
"We'll come back for you, I promise." Heather said petting the dog who seemed scared but not for himself but for his new masters. Heather ran past the dog and Hiccup remembered something as he ran over to Heather's matt and grabbed her diary and his toy weapons.
"It's ok boy, once you get to the castle we'll give you a proper name and home and that's a promise." Hiccup said putting the dairy in his pocket and ran after Heather as the dog rested its head back down on the ground.
Once he caught up with Heather they were loading her up into a carriage. Hiccup climbed in and sat next to Heather as their escort sat in front of them.
"Let's go to the castle." Heather said.
"Let's go!" the guard yelled as their drive got the horses to ride them to their new home.
After an hour of riding and walking through the castle, Heather and Hiccup stood in front of large doors just above a spiral staircase as the butler stood before them.
"Evening Savage, here are the children Lord Drago asked for." the guard said.
"Excellent." the butler said looking down at the children, "hello young masters" he said.
"Hello sir." Heather said.
"Evening sir." Hiccup said a little shy as he hid behind his sister.
"If you'll follow me please." Savage said as the children followed him.
"We look up at this castle every day and think how nice it is, we both do," Heather said as Hiccup looked around the pictures and spotted a man ahead that caught his attention.
"But inside it's even more beautiful than I imagined," Heather said.
"It is quite wonderful isn't it?" Savage said as the man Hiccup saw from before began to walk past them and Hiccup got a good look at him.
The man had blue line on his arm and face and wore an outfit with scrolls on it that made Hiccup believe this man could be a hero.
"Ah hello Master Eret." Savage said as the man walked past him without a hello or even a grunt, "ha man of few words." he said with annoyance in his voice.
"Where is the grand dining hall?" Heather asked.
"Oh in the north wing, Lord Drago hasn't been in there since the tragic deaths of Lady Fairfax and little Emilia." Savage said.
"Oh I heard, that was so awful," Heather said.
"Yes he misses them terribly." Savage said.
"So where does he eat?" Heather asked.
"Actually he takes most of his meals in his study he's in there all hours doing research," Savage said.
"What does he research?" Heather asked.
"On history mostly, Lord Drago is keen on antiquity of all short but his chiefly interests is things related to the old kingdom." he said.
"There was a trader in Old Town who said his stuff was from the Old Kingdom." Heather said.
"Yes, yes I believe Lord Drago heard about that." he said.
"We got a piece of it, made a wish and now were here." Heather said not even concerned as to what she was telling him. They then stopped in front of the doors and Savage turned to the children.
"That wonderful now when you meet Lord Drago you must show respect at all times, address him as my lord, speak only when spoken too." he said looking at them closely.
"Yes sir." Heather said.
"And do not mention Lady Fairfax or Emilia." he said pushing open the door.
"Here we are, Lord Drago the children are here." he said as Heather and Hiccup entered the room and Savage closed the doors behind them.
A man with black hair with rolled up white sleeves stood by a desk. He then turned to them, "Children it's comes to my attention that you have some short of magic box, may I see it?" he asked with his hands behind his back.
"It vanished my lord we were winding it up we made a wish and it started to glow then it disappeared." Heather explain as Hiccup stood behind her
"After you used it?" Drago asked.
"Yes my lord the man who sold it to us said it was magic." Heather said
"The box is of no interest to me, what's remarkable is that you were able to use it, what was you wish?" He asked.
"Oh uh" Heather said as she started to giggle in embarrassment.
"Well speak up what did you wish for?" he asked.
"To live in a castle, like this one." Heather said.
"Ha, perhaps that can be arranged. I'm working to rebuild...I'm working on something wonderful for which I need individuals with particular talents." he said as the kids looked at him with curiosity. "Lets us see if you possess them, would you kindly stand in the circle please?" he asked gesturing a small platform by a window.
"Uh" Heather said as her and Hiccup didn't like the sound of this.
"I promise it won't hurt you." he said as Heather looked to her brother. He nodded his approval and they both walked onto a circle as it glowed blue.
"What's that?" Heather asked.
"Nothing to worry about." Drago said examining the blue light that surrounded Heather and Hiccup. "It true. Your blood, you heroes." he said.
"Heroes? You mean like in the old stories?" Heather asked with excitement in her voice as Hiccup watches Drago closely.
Drago then reached out and touched the blue light as his hand got burnt and the light turned red. He groaned in pain, "what are you?" he said rushing over to his desk and looked through his papers.
"Right there something here." he said.
"My lord what's happening? What that light?" Heather asked.
"Quiet!" Drago yelled. Hiccup immanently knew that they were in danger. "Your heroes but you're not any of the three, one of you is the fourth." he said pulling out a gun. Hiccup heart began to pound with fear as Drago pointed it at them and began muttering, "nothing must stand in my way."
"No wait don't! Noooooo!" Heather yelled. Hiccup was frozen in fear as the gun shot was heard and Heather collapsed to the ground.
"Heather!" Hiccup yelled as tears welled in his eyes. he looked towards Drago.
"I can't allow you to live either...I'm sorry." he said. Hiccup backed away as he heard the first shot and felt the pain in his shoulder as he fell out of the window and flew down towards Old Town as he hit a roof then landed on the ground.
A shadow fuzzy figure started to make its way to him. He felt a little heat of breath beat against his hand. He then heard the voice of the old woman from before say to him, "death is not your destiny toady Little Hiccup." before everything blacked out.
When Hiccup first awoke he first realised he was in a strange bed. He then heard some whimpering forming from his side. He looked to his left to see the dog from before. He reached out and pet it warm fur and saw the woman from before.
"Who are you?" he asked as he saw his bandaged hands and saw bandages covering most of his body.
"My name is Theresa and you are in a gypsy camp next to Bower Lake." She answered.
"Where's Heather?" He asked, not remembering the events from that night.
"I am sorry to say that your sister is dead. Drago killed her and attempted to kill you as well." she said. Hiccup let out a shaky breath. The dog whimpered once again and laid his head on Hiccups chest. Hiccup petted the dogs head.
"How long have I been asleep?" Hiccup asked with tears in his eyes.
"Three days," she said touching his face and wiping away his tears. "Rest now because you'll stay here and I'll train you so that you can avenge your sister death." Theresa said.
"For how long?" Hiccup asked.
"For as long as I believe." Theresa said. "I will leave you to rest." She then walked out of the room and left the dog and Hiccup alone.
Hiccup looked down at the dog and carried on petting his head. "What am I gonna call you?" The dog the lifted his head and let his tongue flop out. Hiccup the saw the dog was missing a couple of teeth. He let out a little laugh. "Looks like you're a bit toothless." The dog the barked. Hiccup then thought of something. "How do you like that? Toothless?" The dog barked once again. Hiccup smiled. "Alright, Toothless it is."