CHAPTER ONE – and so it begins

The boys grew fast, quickly developing a strong bond, regardless of the younger boy's strange tendencies.

Hiccup and Astrid had finally decided on naming him Drayko, because of his unreal natural connection to most dragons in the village he'd met so far. They had all taken an immediate interest in him, most of them friendly, but not all.

Luckily, the other children of the village, though cautiously, also took a friendly liking to him, all except one. Son of Snotlout and Bargatha, Gareth was a temper mental boy who had an ego to rival his fathers. He took one look at the strange looking boy and determined that different meant bad, worthless and potentially dangerous.

When Drayko started dragon training at age seven Gareth had taken no time at all in teasing him to the point of starting a fight, thus causing Gobber to make them sit beside each other while the other children learn about why dragons hate eel.

"You're creepy. You know that right tawny-eyes?" Growled Gareth from the seat beside Drayko's. Drayko turned to the other boy and glared at him. "Don't call me that." He stated through gritted teeth. "Aw, is the snake-skinned freak mad at me?" Gareth purred in a mock baby voice.

Drayko felt a growl trickle out of his lips as Fishlegs walked over to them.

"Now you two need to stop that, save that anger for more useful things like hunting." He warned fiercely. The two boys glared at each other. "Are you sure this thing isn't going to hunt us?" Gareth pointed to Drayko as he spoke.

Drayko dug his fingers into his palm to control himself.

"Gareth, go stand over there." Gobber commanded as he hobbled over to the small group. Gareth grumbled angrily but got up and walked to the other side of the training stadium.

Gobber kneeled down to look Drayko in the eyes. "now you listen to me, don't bother yourself with the likes a' him. I happen to know someone who was somewhat...different than the other Vikings." Drayko gave him a confused look. "He ended up being very successful. In fact," he stood "he's now the chief of this village! So don't go kicking yourself for being...special." he gave Drayko a hard pat on the shoulder and stalked off with Fishlegs. Gobber's little speech did not make Drayko feel any better; actually it made him feel worse.

When he came up the stairs to his family's house Greenscale- his mother's dragon- and Toothless- his father's dragon- came bounding toward him, but when they saw his face they stopped just short of him. He patted Toothless on the nose. "How was your day?" he asked them. They continued to use serious looks. He sighed. "This is nothing I can solve using a dragon...that is...without causing an uproar and possibly getting myself kicked out of the tribe." He gave a small smile and walked inside the house.

His father was cooking frying something in the kitchen. The smell of burning meat caused Drayko to frown with slight disgust. He walked into the foul smelling room anyway, as he was already used to the family eating cooked food. "Dad?" Drayko asked tentatively. The ginger-haired man stopped what he was doing and turned. Obviously Drayko's tone of voice had somewhat worried him. "What is it Drayko? Something happen at dragon training, did you fall off the training dragon?" he asked. Drayko shook his head. "Why do people always seem to assure me that it's okay that I'm...special? I don't understand; why am I so different from the other kids?" tears stung in his throat at finally admitting the words from his own mouth. Hiccup's expression turned embarrassed. "Well as you may have noticed, you don't really look anything like your older brother Leif..."

Drayko had a feeling that he knew where this was going. "We don't have anyone in the village that looks remotely like me, and any village around here is too far or too hostile to let you adopt their kid, and if there's an orphanage in this village I've never seen it." The young boy explained.

"Well, you see, I didn't find you in an orphanage-"

"So you found me?"

"Yes, in the middle of that forest," Hiccup pointed out a window at the forest he had found the baby in.

"What if my parents were just hunting or something?"

Hiccup kneeled and grabbed the boy harshly by his shoulders. "If there had been any chance of your parents' return, I would have left you, but you had been left for days. If I hadn't taken you home, you would've died."

"How could you have told that? From how pale my skin was? By how scrawny I was? These are things- after years of growing and being fed all the time- that I still have, and you're telling me that there was no chance of them coming back?" the tears now flowed effortlessly from the small child's oddly coloured eyes.

Before Hiccup could say anything, Leif came running down the stairs. "I smelt some food so I came down, is it dinner time yet?" he said, completely unaware of the atmosphere.

Drayko ran up to his room without warning, as he disappeared up the stairs he could hear his adoptive father calling after him.