WARNING!: HTTYD2 SPOILERS AHEAD!

DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU!

"The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them." -Ernest Hemingway

"What is it, Toothless?" Hiccup asked as the Night Fury made a steep dive towards a beach. "What do you see?"

Toothless grumbled and continued his descent. Hiccup knew the dragon well enough to know that if the dragon veered off course, it was for a good reason. This was a beach on one of their new islands. Astrid had dubbed it Dragon Nip Island, because there was so much of the stuff everywhere. That wasn't it's name on the real map, of course. Hiccup happened to have two maps- one with the serious names and one with the silly ones.

Toothless landed smoothly on the beach, ignoring his favorite treat, and grumbled curiously towards

"A boat wreck." Hiccup said out loud.

Toothless approached the wreck, sniffing carefully.

"Is there anyone there, bud?" The beach was deserted and the boat looked like it had been there for a few days at least. The wreck didn't look so bad, but there was no sign of human life on the island. The wreck had either been very recent, contained no one, or the person on board the small boat hadn't survived. He hoped it wasn't the last option.

Hiccup stepped towards the boat and knelt down. There was a person Toothless was sniffing at. Definitely a girl on the younger side. He couldn't tell how old exactly, but she was likely quite a young child as she looked quite small. She was laying on her side, arms under her head. She looked very sweet, uncomfortable, but sweet.

"Is she-?"

At that second, the girl woke due to Toothless accidentally nudging her. She opened her eyes and when she saw the large reptile, she sat up and screamed a high pitched scream that made Hiccup put his hands to his ears and then she started crying. Toothless pulled his ears in close to his head and made a disgusted face.

"It's alright," Hiccup said when she stopped screaming as kindly as he could. She looked up him with wide eyes. "He's not going to hurt you. He's a friendly dragon." Hiccup scratched Toothless' head to demonstrate. Toothless purred.

The little girl still looked terrified.

"Do you understand me?" Hiccup asked her. Maybe the little girl spoke a different language.

"Yes," she said, sniffling. She had a baby lisp still, making her probably about three or so. She brought her knees to her chest. Her dress was torn under her left knee and there was a cut on her skin in the same spot.

"What's your name, little one?"

"Irena," she replied.

"That's a nice name." Hiccup replied, using the same tone of voice he used when he talked to little children in the village, especially the ones that were initially fearful of dragons. Astrid said it wasn't like most people's 'talking to kids' voice, it wasn't that much different than his own. He spoke to children like they were intelligent (they were) and he didn't use too much of the higher pitched 'baby voice'. He was simply calm and kind and that kept the children calm too. "You can come out of there, Irena. We won't hurt you."

Irena crawled out of the wreck and sat directly in front of him. Her blue eyes were full of curiosity and her braided hair was a golden blonde. She looked well. That was good. "What's your name?"

"You're going to laugh." he said with a smile.

She shook her head urgently. "I won't." She promised seriously.

"You can laugh, it's a pretty silly name." he assured. "Even I think it's kind of silly. Do you want to hear it?"

She nodded.

"My name is Hiccup."

Her face broke into a grin and she started giggling.

"See? I told you it was silly." Hiccup told her. Her giggle was rather cute and infectious and it made Hiccup chuckle. Hiccup patted Toothless' head. "This is Toothless."

She giggled more. "But dragons have teeth!"

"But he does only sometimes, see?"

Toothless gave the little girl a gummy smile and a nuzzle. Irena smiled.

"He likes you. You can pet him if you want."

Irena looked a bit afraid.

"Here," Hiccup put her hand on Toothless' nose. The dragon cooed softly at the touch of the little girl. "He's a nice dragon. Most dragons are nice, did you know that?"

She shook her head and rubbed Toothless' nose.

"Where I live, most everyone has a pet dragon. Where do you live?"

"Sola." she replied calmly. Toothless sneezed. "Ew," she giggled, wiping her hand on her dress.

Hiccup was stumped. He never heard of that place. "Where are your parents?"

"They went away." she said innocently.

"Where'd they go?"

She pointed up. "Heaven."

So this little sweetheart was an orphan.

"Why were you all alone on a boat?"

"I don't know. I can't remember." her thumb settled into her mouth.

"How old are you?"

She held up four fingers on her free hand.

Just a tiny little girl. Poor little thing.

"Do you want to come with me?"

She nodded without hesitation. Obviously she was very lonely.

"Alright," Hiccup stood up. "Come here." Irena stood up and held her arms up. Hiccup picked her up and put her on Toothless.

She looked at him as if he was crazy. Riding dragons? Was she dreaming?

"Well you didn't think we magically just ended up here did you?"

She giggled around her thumb.

"Alright, bud, take it easy." Hiccup said as they took off.

She was entranced and giggly the first few minutes but quite nearly fell asleep against Hiccup soon. When Toothless landed, Astrid was the first to notice.

"You were supposed to be back an hour ago! Where on earth were you?"

"Dragon Nip Island. It was dragon free, but I did find this little girl." Hiccup lifted Irena into his arms and got off Toothless.

"Oh no, was she alone?" Astrid said quietly, smiling at Irena, who was just barely awake. Irena smiled back shyly.

"Yeah, in a wrecked boat. She's four years old."

Irena cuddled against him. She was sleepy.

"Poor little thing. What's your name?" Astrid asked.

"Irena."

Half the village had taken notice of the odd sight of the young chief holding a little girl and had come to investigate.

"She looks alright, but I should probably make sure." the healer said, after hearing the story. She held her arms out for the little girl, but Irena wound her arms around Hiccup's neck.

"Where are we?" she asked sleepily.

"We're on Berk. This is where I live."

"Can I stay here with you?"

"Yeah,"

Irena had refused to go anywhere without Hiccup all day. She had cried when someone tried to take her away from him. Except for Astrid. She seemed to like Astrid too.

"I think she should stay with you for a while. Until she's more comfortable at least." the healer told Hiccup.

"With me?" Hiccup asked, bewildered.

"She's happy with you." the Healer replied nonchalantly.

"I can't take care of a little girl!"

"Sure you can. She already trusts you. That's the most important thing. And I'm sure Astrid will help you. You both seem rather fond of her."

Hiccup looked to where Astrid was siting with the little girl. Astrid was trying to show Irena how to make a flower chain. Irena couldn't quite get it, but she was watching Astrid with rapt attention.

Astrid had been the only person that had been able to get the little girl to calm down, other than Hiccup of course. She had been assigned to asking her questions to see where she came from and what happened. For a girl with such a quick temper sometimes, Astrid was very good with children.

"She's four. She needs parents, not some dorky chief." Hiccup tried to reason.

"Not necessarily. She needs people to love her. I do believe you won't have a problem with that. And besides, seems like a good girl."

Hiccup sighed. "Alright,"

"Of course you'll have to start to teach her how to write and read."

"I-I think I can do that." Hiccup said nervously.

"Good. Have fun." the Healer walked away.

Hiccup smiled a bit and turned to Toothless. "Looks like we've got a new member of the family, bud."

Toothless looked to Irena.

"Yeah, she's going to stay with us."

Toothless smiled. He liked the little girl already.

"Alright, Irena. You're going to stay here with me." Hiccup said, putting the little girl on her feet. Someone had found her a new dress and her knee was all bandaged up. Those were the only things wrong with her. She was in fine shape for someone found on a deserted island.

Irena looked around. She was awake now. "Here?"

"Yep,"

She looked around. "Is this your house?"

"It is."

She didn't know what to do. Toothless nudged her from behind.

"He wants to play with you." Hiccup explained.

She smiled and patted Toothless' head, making the dragon purr. "He's cute."

Hiccup smiled.

Toothless rolled on his back and let his tongue loll out.

"He's like a puppy-dog." Irena commented happily. "I like puppy-dogs."

"I guess he is a little like a dog, huh?"

Irena sat next to the dragon and rubbed his stomach. "He's better than a puppy-dog."

Toothless looked upside at Hiccup, clearly saying that he liked this tiny creature.

Hiccup had to agree. Instead of an empty house with only a dragon's snores in it, there was giggles. It sounded less lonely, because it was less lonely. Irena was a cute, happy little girl. She seemed to be very smart and and sweet.

Hiccup felt someone hug his arm from behind. "Hey," he said, smiling at the arm-hugger.

"It looks like she gets along well with Toothless." Astrid murmured as she cuddled close to his side.

"Yeah. She says he's like a dog."

"I think it's sweet that you're letting her stay with you, Hiccup." Astrid smiled at him. "How long are you planning on letting her stay?"

"As long as she needs to." he replied honestly. He didn't think Irena would be a problem at all. He'd happily keep her around for however was necessary.

Toothless licked Irena, making her squeal with laughter.

Astrid kissed his cheek. "You're a wonderful person, Hiccup."

"I try,"

A/N: Hi guys! Thanks for reading! This is my first HTTYD story! I hope you liked it so far. This story will probably get pretty long pretty quick. I already have an outline for the plot so I know where I'm headed. Updates might be every week to every two weeks depending on what's going on in my life. I hope you are all having a wonderful summer so far!

Please review! They mean so much to me!

See you next week!