A/N: This is a sneak peek of chapter 1 for my upcoming HTTYD story, "A New Route". Ever since this idea of a story came to me, I've been super excited to write it. I adore the Night Lights so much, and I've been reading some fics on them. I always thought it would be so cute for Toothless to be a father. I can't just sit there and not write a story about Toothless and the Light Fury's adorable hatchlings. Because of school and important life stuff, I'm not even close to being done with chapter 1 yet. I haven't even started on the dialogue. I've started writing this story on March 11, and it is currently April. I'm gonna try to post this chapter this month, but if not, maybe at the end of the school year in May. I want to give you guys at least a preview of my new story so you all won't have to wait for the full release of chapter 1. Consider it a little treat, although I'm not done with the chapter yet. I did some revamping on the preview in the doc manager to make sure it is set and ready to go for publishing. I want this chapter to be great for you guys, my self included. I'm deciding to post the first paragraphs of chapter 1 so that you can get the idea of what this story is about. Plus, I haven't continued on chapter 1, and I feel guilty for not publishing any HTTYD works for months. This is my second HTTYD fanfic, and I want to create more for people to enjoy. I already have an idea for another HTTYD one-shot. I'm really excited for you to read this preview. I placed my hard work and effort into this. After the first chapter is published, I'll delete this preview. When the story does get released, I fully appreciate reviews, favorites, and follows on it. Ideas are always welcome. I proudly present to you A New Route.

Disclaimer: I do not own How To Train Your Dragon and any of its content in any way or form. The wonderful characters, story, art, etc. do not belong to me. It is proudly owned by DreamWorks and the one that started it all, Cressida Cowell.

Somewhere a long distance away from Berk beyond the Barbaric Archipelago in the vast, blue sea beneath the darkest depths lies a mythical legend, a famous one told by countless Vikings. The legend was an ancestral home to all dragons, big and small, young and old. It was a safe refuge for dragons, acting as a barrier against humans of any kind. Legend has it that many sailors lost their ships when they entered the majestic place, never to be seen again. Those who have returned described their experience of what they saw: a massive waterfall with dragons guarding the entrance to a hidden world beneath the sea. The entrance was called the Caldera, a giant destructed volcano in the mids of the ocean. Entering the place was no easy task. It required a lot of skill, maneuvering the tricky mazes and chambers that only dragons could do. Humanity was forbidden in the dragon world. This beautiful world had a name, known for hiding under the sea. It was no other than the Hidden World, sometimes known as "a world beyond the sunset." The island was known for its secrets and beauty. The refuge was set in a cavern typesetting, residing local wildlife and plant life, like coral and fungi. It also had gorgeous bioluminescence of light with the use of colored crystals. The world's stunning light could beautifully illuminate a variety of colors. Since the Hidden World was housed in a cavern, the light remained to shine. Dragons couldn't exactly see the day and night outside, but they could always take a trip outside to admire it. Besides crystals, it had rocks, ancient rocks that took billions and billions of years to form. Some of them were even enhanced by colors. Stalagmites and stalactites were typical, hence a cavern. The Hidden World was filled with surprises and secrets many humans didn't know. It was definitely a perfect place for dragons, a paradise one would dream to go. The world was widely popular, as it had more than 65,000 dragons residing in the place. Nothing could be more peaceful to them than the Hidden World.

The Hidden World had a chief, or king, like in Berk. He was named Toothless, the king of all dragons. The dragon was very famous, well-known for his heroic actions with his former rider, Hiccup, back in his previous home. The legendary stories of he and Hiccup were eventually spread throughout the Hidden World. Dragons would sometimes bring them up to each other and the little dragons, who absolutely adored them. Toothless didn't lead alone. He ruled alongside his queen, Luna. She was his beauty and pride. She made being king in this place already better than it was to him in Berk. He had to lead alone in Berk, but with a queen by his side, it made things superior to him. Luna was always affectionate and kind, as well as being fierce and protective when needed. His queen was his first and only true love, and he couldn't have asked for a better mate than her. She was a spectacular queen, organizing dragons and doing her duties in a precise action. Without her by his side, being king would be more stressful to him, having to take care of so many dragons. Toothless was the king, the alpha, before in Berk, but he had fewer dragons to handle. There were hundreds in Berk, but in the Hidden World, there were thousands. Luna made Toothless's tasks much easier to handle. No dragon was perfect, though. When the two first entered upon the Hidden World, they were kind of struggling of keeping the place efficient and well running. But with Toothless's knowledge of being king beforehand and teaching Luna a bit on how to be a queen, they eventually got it down. Currently, they were being excellent jobs of being king and queen. Every dragon loved and respected them. During the time span of ten years, they wonderfully ruled this ancient place. The king and queen were perfectly capable of keeping this world organized and running in an orderly fashion. They did their best on protecting their home.

Toothless was very grateful to be living in a world where nothing could possibly harm him and to just have his own home and a mate who he loved deeply. He also had a lot of room where he could fly miles upon miles in distance. In his old home, it was packed with a lot of dragons, not as much as in his current home, but still a lot. He had to fly away from the village to avoid bumping into dragons and annoying circumstances. Now, he had the freedom to spread out his wings whenever he wanted, even with an excessive amount of dragons in his home, more than Berk could ever handle. As the king, he could do whatever he wanted with the exception of doing his duties. There were no missions to worry about, no dragon hunters to be cautious of, and no drama. Toothless had his own lifestyle, a very happy one with that. He started a new chapter of his life here with Luna, and he couldn't be more proud. The king eventually learned to adapt to wildlife again, a new and improved life with his title. It didn't take very long though, as he was born into the wild. He quickly relearned his past life. Even though he felt content in this dragon world, he would still miss the companionship he had with Hiccup, his first human Viking friend. Hiccup was the best friend he could ever ask for. They were like brothers, and he was for sure Odin thought they were destined to be together, a dragon and his human combined to be the one element they had together: their friendship. Everyone on Berk knew the adorable iconic duo. Their friendship was definitely the strongest. The two basically did everything together. They even went as far as risking their lives for one another. Hiccup and Toothless were known as Berk's heroes, fighting for their Vikings, dragons, and home. Their heroic actions lead to stories to tell for generations beyond generations. No one could ever forget what inspiring things they had done for Berk. Toothless considered himself a very lucky dragon. Without Hiccup and his crafting skills, he wouldn't have met his beloved queen and started life as king in the Hidden World. He missed him dearly, and he hoped he would someday see his best Viking friend again... his little human. The dragon still thought of Hiccup as his little human, despite his growth. It was special to him, and it reminded the days when Hiccup was just a lanky Viking, being criticized just about everything he had done. Toothless wondered what Hiccup and his wife Astrid were doing now in New Berk and if they had hatchlings of their own yet.

Toothless and Luna were about to start their own family soon. It was such a huge step up on their lives. Over the past decade, they had been really busy with their jobs. They weren't ready for a new change, a new role that they would have forever. Having two responsibilities would be pretty difficult to handle. The two would discuss the subject every so often in their free time, but they hadn't come up with the finalization. They would sometimes take care of their friends' hatchlings, but it wasn't the same as having their own. With having hatchlings, dragons were entirely responsible for them and not somebody else's. In addition, they had a chance to create a bond with them and doing everything that it took to protect the vulnerable things under their wings until they were old enough to take care of themselves. Emotions like love are not generated in babysitting. Not the standard love like you love someone or anything like that, but a genuine parent love. It's a factor that every parent and child enjoys. Love and nutrition are what children really need, and if a parent does those two things, they are already set on being a nurturing parent. The two furies sometimes wondered what it would feel like to take on a whole different perspective on parenthood, but they decided to wait for a bit, more than a bit actually. A decade was a really long time for a pair of dragons to have babies. Dragons would often speculate when the two would have babies. When a king and queen have children, it's a pretty big deal. Having heirs are great things to have when the king and queen die in the future. They would replace them, being the next ones to look up to. Their friends all had babies way before them, with the exception of Cloudjumper. He was more of a godfather-type. Luna and Toothless finally decided to have hatchlings after ten long years of waiting. All of the Hidden World rejoiced when they heard the amazing news of expectant hatchlings. The news spread around the Hidden World like a wildfire. The dragons longed for them to have hatchlings, more than their king and queen did. They were so happy for them, and they were sure they were gonna make great parents. Soon, new little heirs would be flying around. When Toothless and Luna first realized they were expecting, they felt so many emotions. There were mixed emotions, so many to handle all at one time. The soon-to-be parents didn't know what emotion they should be in, although their first reaction was ecstatic. The others just crept up on them like a predator stalking its prey. Let's say it was a roller coaster of emotions. Parenthood was gonna be their new journey, and they would soon learn the importance of raising children. The duo practiced handling children, as they had babysat their friends' hatchlings, who adored them. They would soon have their own little ones. Parenthood was gonna be such a task for them, and they couldn't wait to experience it. Along with taking care of the dragons in the Hidden World, they would also take care of their hatchlings. Little ones to love, protect, play, teach. The two were gonna be some busy dragons. The new route to their parent life was gonna be such a wonderful, scary, journey they would have to explore and discover.

With Luna about to her lay her eggs in a couple of months, Toothless grew anxious. The king's anxiety got worse by each month when the time drew closer to his mate laying their eggs. He was gonna be a father for the first time, and he would have to be a really good example for their hatchlings. He felt like he was ready, but at the same time, he felt like he wasn't. Toothless was not the type of dragon to be anxious, but it was such a new thing to him. He had been a king for his lifetime, here and in Berk, but not a parent! He liked hatchlings, but they weren't his main specialty. That was part of the reason why he and his mate had to wait for a full ten years to have little ones. Now, parenthood was almost starting for him. The Night Fury was happy at first, but now a hidden emotion had finally come out of its shell. He felt silly to be expressing anxiety, but he knew that everyone had it once in a while. The king could ask a million questions that were whirling around in his head. Was he really ready to be a parent? What if he didn't do a good job at it? What if his little ones weren't strong enough to venture the Hidden World? What if he made too many mistakes on parenting? What if... What if he would fail? Luna sensed his feelings, and she comforted her king like a good queen would do. She advised him to not stress and worry too much or it would make the life of a parent more complicated. Luna herself was just as nervous as he was, and she made no doubt that they would get through their life-changing journey if they portrayed patience and unconditional love for their children. Parenthood is no way in an easy task. It requires a whole amount of time management as well as important qualities like honesty and empathy. They had shared those qualities with themselves, and they could without a doubt pass it on to their hatchlings. No one is perfect in parenthood. Toothless and Luna could be successful at it by learning from their mistakes they would make, and it would prove they would be sufficient parents at the end of the day. Toothless was thankful that he had met his caring, affectionate, honest, and respectful queen. She had taught him things that were indispensable in life, and her love and good nature had made him the magnificent king that every dragon looked upon.

Strong, black wings lead their way to the crystal, blue lake, a lake where all dragons were welcomed to catch fish, drink water, and take a dip when needed. Toothless gave a long, exhausting sigh as he slowly made his way to his destination. His emerald eyes desperately wanted to close for a good night's sleep, but the Night Fury resisted. He had to grab some fish to satisfy his pregnant mate's late night cravings. It was a tedious task to him, and ever since Luna's cravings had started during her early pregnancy, she had been asking him to retrieve fish super late at night. The pleadings kept occurring almost every night. It was the same process. Luna would give Toothless a small tap on his back with the tip of her tail, then Toothless would wake up drowsily, and he would be met with puppy-dog eyes that the dragon couldn't resist, following a grumpy king who just got disturbed by his daily dose just for some silly craving. Rinse, cycle, repeat. Don't get him wrong, he loved helping his mate, and he would do anything for her, but the process kept getting repetitive. It got to the point where he was just used to it now. The cravings were really late at night, so having to wake up by his mate to deal with her cravings was unsettling to him. It wasn't exactly Luna's fault though, it was her pregnancy's.

Pregnancy was this new, difficult thing for both of them. It was scary, especially to Luna, but a really beautiful thing. Carrying and protecting the eggs that housed their babies inside of Luna made her feel special. Gestation was one of the first things to the long journey of parenthood. It reminded her that she and Toothless were gonna be parents to the little ones really soon, and she can hardly wait. As any expecting mother, pregnancy was not the easiest thing. The extra weight inside of her made the queen a little harder to move around, let alone flying. The cravings and mood swings were another thing. One uncontrollable outburst of irate plasma blasts would cause a huge mess if not handled properly by Toothless. Anger would change into sadness, and sadness would turn into happiness. In terms of her cravings, she only had one resource that suits her palette, and that would be the one thing that all dragons ate: fish. The queen consumed more fish than a pack of wolves who hadn't eaten in a week, and that was an embarrassing factor to her. At least her king didn't mind. Dragon pregnancy was different than a human pregnancy. All humans had the same gestation period, nine months. Dragons had different time periods. For a Light Fury, it was half a year. Only two more months to go. The experience thus far had been incredible to her despite the troubles she had to witness. Stomach and wing cramps were a no-no to her. The only other problem with her pregnancy was the king himself, Toothless. Since the beginning, he had been an overbearing, overprotective king. Luna felt like she was trapped in a cage, unable to stretch her wings and fly out into the world. They both wanted the pregnancy to go well, but Toothless had become nothing but a security dragon. Gods, he wouldn't even let her fly. She showed him she was capable of flying on her own, though a little slow due to her pregnancy. The king wouldn't allow it at all costs; a little accident would make him go nuts, any mishappens would. Don't even let him get started on the cramps. Toothless would even cancel his king duties just to assist her on those. His overprotectiveness was getting out of hand, er, wing, and Luna didn't even do anything for the time being. A protective mate got in the way of that, in the way of everything to be precise. Luna barely did duties with Toothless; he mostly did all the work. That made the poor queen frustrated and annoyed. Now all she did was just lying around, thinking about the desire to just fly around, stretching her wings, getting some exercise. One little flight and she would be faced with an angry Toothless. At times, she would find her king's certain expression to be cute, but she didn't want his anger to go too far. On days when Toothless would be out, it would just be her and the eggs that settled in her stomach.

A/N: So there we go! A lot of long paragraphs, I know. I just had to write the information before going into the dialogue. It's just my type of style sometimes. I think I did great on the first part of chapter 1. What do you think? Please tell me your thoughts in the reviews. I promise to have this story published soon. Please wait patiently. If I feel forced to continue, I might not be able to do it. I love the support for my stories. It makes me feel motivated to just keep going. You don't have to necessarily fav/follow on this story since it's only a preview, but when it gets published you can do so. Also, for the pregnancy, I only made a guess for a Light Fury gestation. I don't know the life span for any species of dragon pregnancies. If you know the accurate term for a Light Fury pregnancy, please leave it in the reviews. I really hope you enjoyed this sneak peek. :)