PROLOUGUE TWO - fresh meat
The man walked through the wooden door holding a bundle in his arms. "Astrid! There's something I really need to show you." he said as he held out the bundle to an attractive blonde woman as she came down the stairs. "What's this Hiccup?" she said as she grabbed the bundle. "We found him in the forest alone. He looked like he was in an abandoned dragon's nest." Explained Hiccup.
The woman looked up with an expression of concern and confusion. "Who would leave a baby in the middle of a forest, in a dragons nest?" the last was said with disbelief. She looked down at the peculiar baby and smiled after a long look at him. She looked up at Hiccup. "You know, Leif has been asking for a brother lately. Maybe we should...keep him." Astrid hinted.
Hiccup had noticed over that past few years of having a child that Astrid had become a lot softer...at least around her child. "But what if his family comes back..." he started to say but trailed off as he already knew that the child must have been left for days. "...all right, after all even Toothless has taken a liking to him. I hope Greenscale doesn't mind him." Greenscale was the name of Astrid's dragon, the not-so deadly Nadder.
"I don't think she'll mind." Astrid stated. The baby made a noise like a whimper. They both looked down at it. "I wonder what he likes to eat." Hiccup wondered aloud. Astrid looked up at him. "I'm giving you the job of finding out." She handed him the baby. "I'm going to wake up Leif and tell him about his new brother." And with that haughty comment, she walked back upstairs.
He didn't have to wait long after entering the kitchen when a little strawberry blond boy of about two years of age came bolting down the stairs. "Let me see him! Let me see him!" the small boy demanded. Hiccup tilted the baby so that Leif could get a good look at him. The small child beamed at the odd baby and held out his arms. Hiccup carefully gave his son the child.
"When you grow up, I'm gunna teach you how to knock down a bee hive, and how to eat five bowls of meat soup, and we'll play with Brokle! He's my dragon. He's kinda smallish, but compared to you he's huge!" Leif went on as he walked to the kitchen table.
Astrid came around the corner and leaned closer to Hiccup. "Don't worry, he may look different but I'm sure he'll be a fine son, just like Leif...and another odd-looking little red-haired boy I think you'll remember." She smiled knowingly and strolled toward her new son and Leif.
It was hours into the night and Hiccup was getting desperate. Everything he tried to get the baby to eat, it would gag, so he decided to seek advice from his most trusted friend, Fishlegs. "I've tried everything in the house! I can't let his starve until he'll eat something! That'd be cruel and Astrid would kill me." Hiccup explained. He and Fishlegs had been at it for a while. Hiccup could tell Fishlegs was getting as restless as he was.
"Why don't we just ask someone else?" he asked as he glanced out a window. "Maybe Toothless with know. Hey, Toothless!" he called. Hiccup sighed. "How will a dragon know what a baby, a human baby, wants to eat?" he argued as Toothless's head appeared in the window. Fishlegs gave a rather desperate gesture toward the Night Fury. Hiccup frowned but turned sarcastically toward his dragon. "Toothless, do you think you can find something that the baby will eat?" he said in a drawled sarcastic voice.
The dragon looked down at the baby, and then turned to look behind him. He called to Greenscale. Hiccup gave Toothless a confused look, turned to Fishlegs, who shrugged, then looked out the window.
Green scale was now flying away into the forest.
The two men gaped at the returning Nadder, who was now holding a dead animal. She flew into the yard, cantering toward the window. When she got there, Toothless ripped a chunk of meat off the bloody animal and threw it on the table beside the baby. Hiccup gave Toothless an angry look, but when Fishlegs elbowed him he looked down at the child to find half the meat slab had already been eaten by baby.
Toothless gave him a sarcastic look that clearly said I told you so.