Chapter One: You Remind Me of the Babe.

Once again, it was Sarah to watch Toby whilst her parents were out to a nice dinner. Only now, now she didn't mind so much. He didn't cry as much as he did, though he really didn't much of any kind of noise. Children his age should be making small, probably somewhat incoherent, sentences; but Toby wasn't. He sat quietly and played with his toys, his big blue eyes staring much too intently on the world around him. As if he was waiting for something.

People usually commented what a well behaved child her baby brother was, but he always seemed to worry Sarah. Worry her in a way that chilled her to the bone. They had taken him to doctors and speech therapists, and nothing. No one could figure out why the little blonde curly head boy remained silent. And even beyond the unexplainable affliction that her brother had, Sarah loved him and protected him with all that she was worth. Ever since that dream, she would watch over him like a hawk, not wanting him to get whisked away by some unknown force.

"Let's go for a walk, okay Toby?" Sarah had said, leaning down to the little boy, her long silky brown hair falling forward, creating a dark curtain between the two of them. As predicted, Toby said nothing, but stretched his arms up, to be picked up by the young woman. Hoisting the three year old up, she balanced him on her hip while she walked down the stairs and to the living where she set him down to prepare his stroller.

It was when she was strapped in his stroller, and Sarah was putting on his shoe, that she had to pause. The bottom of the young boy's foot was rather leathered. The rough patches seemed too old for a three year old's rough-and-tumbles. She ran her thumb over his heel, only to draw her hand back when small flakes of skin snowed down in her hand, revealing something much darker underneath.

"Ugh!" She exclaimed, wrinkling her noise, and quickly shoving Toby's foot into the shoe. Wiping her hand on her jeans promptly afterwards. It was then, that a strange gurgling sound came from the toddler. Sarah looked up at him, in a brief moment in panic. With a shaking hand she examined the little foot again, her mind jumping to so many reasons, before her own eyes could really comprehend what they were seeing.

"Woof!" The baby shrieked, giggling profusely. A thick string of drool trailed down the soft chin of the boy, his blue eyes sparkling in the light. It was the first word he had spoken clearly. Woof. Complete and utter nonsense. Sarah looked around the room in anguish, calling out a name that she hadn't uttered in over two years… long after she had convinced herself it all really was "just a dream".

"Hoggle? Hoggle… I need you."