A/N: OMG I am such an idiot. Apparently I saved this wrong so it came out looking like a bunch of coding and weirdness. ;u; *smacks self* I'm sorry about that! Maybe this looks better?

The night was still and silent save for the hungry squalling of a baby. Stoick the Vast stood tall but rigid as he tucked his young son's blankets tighter around him. No, not his son. Stoick had to remind himself that Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III was just that—a Hiccup. Only the strong can belong on Berk and the tiny squirming baby in Stoick's arms was not strong.

He nodded somberly at the village elder and handed the hiccup over to her. She frowned at the Berk Crest embroidered on the blankets, but Stoick couldn't bring himself to send the hiccup off without them. Valka had insisted on it; citing that they owed their son that much at least. The stubborn woman wouldn't allow herself to think of the hiccup as anything but her child. Stoick wished he was strong enough to think that way too.

The elder gave the hiccup his last rites in silence. She tucked a sprig of holly into the blankets and looked up at Stoick to see if he wanted to say goodbye. He didn't.

With a heavy sigh, the old woman placed the bundle into a small boat and shipped it off. The baby's cries carried on until he was too far away to be heard. Stoick hoped those awful sounds wouldn't haunt him in the night. He lingered a bit longer than was necessary before turning on his heel and marching back home.

The baby, meanwhile, had gone silent. The boat rocked him gently on calm waters and pacified the hunger pains in his belly. Hiccup cooed and tried to reach for the stars twinkling high above his head. The pretty lights enchanted the wide-eyed infant. Down below the ocean's surface, a serpentine eye blinked open.

A Scauldron had caught the scent of human and wood. Such scents usually preceded a haul of fish ripe for snatching. The dragon uncurled from her sleepy coil and slithered towards the surface. She was confused when she didn't find a large fishing boat when she broke the surface, but instead a tiny coffin-sized raft. The Scauldron snorted in disappointment; it was just another funeral boat that failed to catch fire. That happened sometimes. The dragon was about to submerge herself back under water, but a warbling coo coming from the boat caught her attention.

Curiously, the Scauldron swam closer to the boat to see what was inside. A squishy pink thing with eyes like seaglass stared back at her. A baby! The Scauldron realized. A human baby! What was it doing all the way out here without it's pack? And why did it smell sick and hungry?

The baby giggled and gurgled cutely as he tried to reach for the pretty green lady in front of him. He knew it was a lady because his mommy was a lady and this lady looked like her a little. Hiccup's tummy hurt and his feet were cold, but he didn't mind so much when he was distracted by such wonderful things! The lady lowered her nose closer to him and seemed surprised when Hiccup's chubby fingers only went to pet her.

Odd, the Scauldron thought. Usually humans were more violent than this—even the smaller ones—but this one was content just to play with her snout. The dragon took the opportunity to get a better feel for the baby's scent. She snuffled the mop of brown fur on top of his head and rumbled angrily. The babe wasn't even a day old and he smelled empty. He'd obviously been out at sea the whole night—that was the only other thing the dragon could smell on his tiny form—so why didn't he have food in his belly? The dragon hazarded a guess and figured the boy's pack had left him to die. That happened sometimes too—not often, but every once in a while she'd come across the bloated remains of drowned babies cast out to sea. The Scauldron felt lucky she'd caught this one in time. But what to do with him?

Well first things first, the baby needed to be fed. The Scauldron still had some fish left in her stomach from her last meal, so she coughed it up and fed it to the child.

Hiccup's face scrunched up from the strange taste in his mouth, but his tummy wanted it so he didn't complain too much. Already he felt so much better and ready to play! But the pretty lady in front of him wouldn't let him touch her nose again. Instead, she rumbled like his tummy was doing not too long ago. Was she hungry too? Hiccup didn't mean to make the lady's tummy hurt! His face scrunched up and he started to fuss.

The dragon didn't know what she did to set the boy off. He started squirming and fussing as soon as she started growling, and she didn't know why. The Scauldron stopped growling and almost immediately, the babe quieted down. She blinked and regarded the boy with curiosity. She growled again and the baby started crying again. She stopped and he stopped. How cute! The babe thought she was hungry! The Scauldron lowered her head to nuzzle the boy and growled again to show him all was well. The baby seemed fascinated.

As adorable as the whole thing was, the Scauldron still had a problem. She didn't want to take the human back to his pack if they were only going to throw him back to sea, but humans couldn't live in the sea. They needed gills just to breathe and fins to move around properly—wait. That's it! That's what she could do with him! The Scauldron had nearly forgotten about the magic she'd been gifted with that could make her human more suited for the sea. She couldn't turn him into a dragon—oh no! That was far too complicated for her to pull off, but she could give him gills and fins—perhaps even scales and webbing! Oh it was perfect! The Scauldron gathered her magic without further ado, and let it siphon into the child.

Hiccup felt weird. His neck was itchy and so were his arms and legs! He started to fuss again, but he didn't think he had enough tears to start crying anymore. Hiccup wiggled uncomfortably and went to stuff his fist in his mouth, but it felt different. Hiccup whimpered and looked down at his hand to see what was wrong, but instantly brightened when he saw his hand was now the same pretty green as the lady! He gave the lady a gummy grin and reached out with chubby webbed hands for her to pick him up. She did so and let him ride her neck! How fun! The lady growled again, but this time Hiccup knew it wasn't because her tummy hurt, and sank down into the water. Hiccup wasn't old enough to know that he shouldn't have been able to breathe.