Remember, Hiccup (HTTYD)

The Cove

Hiccup was not sure which of the pair standing before him made him more nervous, the girl or the dragon. Sending a wary glance to the Night Fury known as Toothless, he gulped before averting his gaze to Astrid and stammered, "H-Hey Astrid."

"Hi, Hiccup," she greeted him with a smile on her face that made him melt inside. "You ready for an adventure?" she asked him with equal enthusiasm.

All Hiccup could do was laugh nervously as he looked at Toothless, who cocked his head at Hiccup and warbled gently. Pointing towards Astrid and then Toothless, he murmured, "You and..."

"Yeah, Toothless will be joining us," Astrid replied before noticing a slight fear glaze Hiccup's eyes. "Don't worry, we're going to have loads of fun!"

Before Hiccup could object, Astrid had grabbed him by the neck of his shirt and was soon hauling him away to Berk's wilderness.

***

Being in a dark, creepy forest with a dragon that was only mere inches away from him only rattled Hiccup's nerves even more than they already were as he followed Astrid through the forest. He could hear its breathing and footsteps padding behind him as he silently preyed to the gods that it wouldn't become wild, like Hookfang had in the academy, and kill him.

"Um, A-Astrid? Are we almost there?" he nervously called out to the girl leading them through the forest.

"Almost!" she called over her shoulder in reply.

Hiccup drew another shaky breath as he continued to follow. Almost, almost until we finally get to this place, where we can stay for a little while, before I can finally go... Hiccup so lost in his thoughts failed to see the small dip in the earth and began to feel himself falling, but something caught him.

With wide eyes, Hiccup realized it was Toothless who had put his head between Hiccup and the hole, catching him before he landed flat on his face. Hiccup gasped and backed away from the dragon who crooned at him with perked ears.

Hiccup could've sworn he saw worry in the beast's eyes before he shook his head and told it warily, "Uh, thanks?"

It bobbed its head in reply before it turned its head at the sound of Astrid's voice who had shouted, "We're here!"

Hiccup watched his footing as he walked over to Astrid who stood on an overhanging. When he finally reached her and realized what lay below them, he felt his mouth slightly open and heard himself ask, "What is this place?"

Flashing him yet another smile she replied, "Welcome to The Cove, Hiccup."

***

After a series of stumbles down the rocks and last minute catches from both Toothless and Astrid, the trio finally made it down into The Cove.

Hiccup couldn't help but look in awe at the scene before him complete with a small lake that was fed by a trickle of a waterfall. "Wow, th-this is amazing!" he whispered.

"This is where you trained a Night Fury, Hiccup."

Hiccup looked over to Astrid who simply gazed across the lake that glistened in the morning sun.

"This-Wait-What?" was all he could stammer, waiting for some explanation from Astrid.

Astrid turned to face him and was about to reply before she was interrupted by the sound of water splashing.

Toothless was flailing in the water as if wrestling with something, and for a second Hiccup thought the creature was drowning and to his surprise was stricken with fear at the thought. That thought was proven false however when the dragon bounded up to the duo carrying two haddocks in his jaws. He dropped them on the ground and nudged one towards Hiccup, the other towards Astrid.

Astrid laughed before telling the dragon, "No thanks Toothless, you can have mine."

Toothless then looked towards Hiccup for a response.

Hiccup looked at the fish to the dragon to the fish and back to the dragon again before he weakly replied, "Uh, no thanks." 

Even though he hadn't eaten anything that morning, Hiccup still didn't want his first meal of the day to be raw fish. The dragon continued to stare at him with penetrating eyes before Hiccup hesitantly smiled and repeated "No thanks."

Then, Hiccup saw the most extraordinary thing happen. He began to see the Night Fury's lips curl up into a...smile? Its teeth then retracted so that there was only fleshy gum and made the smile seem even goofier.

Hiccup blinked as if trying to see if this was real or not but to his surprise it was. The dragon was smiling at him. 

"Wow..." was all Hiccup could breathe as he looked at the smiling dra- no, Toothless that's what it- no, his name was.

Toothless then scampered off and broke a branch off a nearby tree and began to carry it around in his mouth while running and spinning around.

"What's he doing?" Hiccup asked Astrid who just answered with an all knowing smile.

"You'll see."

Toothless then threw the branch to the side and admired his work as Hiccup gazed on in wonder. All it was was just one giant scribble, but it was amazing and impressive in any way.

"He knows how to draw," Hiccup observed. He himself loved to draw and create and to see a dragon doing the same exact thing seemed to show him that they weren't really different. His fear soon began to gradually dissipate.

Toothless padded up to Hiccup and crooned, his eyes filled with hope, begging for his best friend to remember him.

Hiccup merely smiled at him and extended his arm, hand just inches away from Toothless' twitching nose before Astrid's question interrupted him.

"Hiccup, do you smell something?" she asked taking a few whiffs of the air.

Hiccup then sniffed the air. He did smell something, something bad. Something that was cheerful in his fireplace but uncontained, destructive. 

Turning towards Astrid he told her what he smelled, "Fire."