Just fifteen minutes ago, the bright and luminescent moon was still hovering about the tranquil night sky. Now, the rain was pouring and streaks of white flashed every 5 seconds. It seemed as though the gods above were having a war. Probably Thor and Loki again. At least, that was what the superstitious Vikings would have thought. Hell, they would even have thought the thunder rumbles were the gods' bellows. The intimidatingly dark storm clouds, which had seemingly swallowed the round moon whole, spread out over the sky above the mostly asleep island of Berk. Mostly asleep, because while the normal Viking was busy snoring away and dreaming about killing dragons in their sleep, there was always Hiccup. The little Haddock lay on his bed, drowned in his sorrows and worries. The storm was nothing compared to the turmoil he was experiencing inside.

How desperately had Hiccup wanted to fit in. How desperately had he wanted to hear one, just one, word of praise from his own father. How desperately had he wanted to join his friends in their games...no, scratch that. He simply wanted to be treated equally, and not be trampled on all the time as if he was some puny ant. At an age of 13 years, he was at least a head shorter than all his other "friends". His legs were thinner than the arms of Snotlout. Another thing he never ever told anyone: for as long as he could remember, he had had a deep crush on Astrid, the finest teenage warrior on Berk. He had given up dreaming, that Astrid felt the same way towards him, a long time ago. He now just wanted Astrid to at least notice him and not treat him like dirt. Was all these too much to ask? Many a times, Hiccup wonders what atrocities he had committed in his past life to deserve such mistreatment. Hiccup never had the chance to add "childhood" into his list of vocabulary.

That said, his definition of Astrid was "Beautiful and amazing crush who will never notice me". What of the others? Snotlout was "Big bully who is the living epitome of devil"; the twins were "Torturers sent from hell to torment him". Fishlegs was, well, "An ex-friend". When Hiccup was younger, they used to best buddies. As they matured, Fishlegs started mingling with the rest and slowly begun ignoring Hiccup. He could never forget what had happened the one day when he snuck into the woods, wanting to play with his counterparts. That was when everything changed.

"Can I play with you guys, please?" Hiccup remembered himself asking.

"What do you think?" came the harsh reply from his cousin Snotlout. "NO! Of course not! Get lost now!" He bellowed.

Hiccup was taken aback. "But..but I just want to play. Why do you hate me so much?" He could feel his eyes starting to get wet.

"No means no, Useless. No one likes you so no one wants to play with you. Simple." A few cackles could be heard coming from the twins.

Hiccup was stunned. Useless? Was that his new title now? Every Viking had a title, such as his father Stoick the Vast. Hiccup the Useless? No, Hiccup could not live with that. "No, I'm not useless!"

"Then what are you? Oh yeah, I know! Weak, puny, scaredy-cat, cry-baby..and useless." Snotlout smirked. "Get lost now. Move, or you'll be moved."

Hiccup couldn't breathe. He always knew he was not very popular or welcomed. But he never thought that they despised him to the core. Like this.

"No," came his shaky reply. He was trembling, not sure if it was due to rage, horror or fear.

Punches after punches landed on him. He did not even have time to yelp or shriek. It was Snotlout at first, but the twins joined in shortly. As he curled into a ball on the ground and shook uncontrollably, he risked a glance up and saw Fishlegs just standing by. "Hel..help me." He cried out coarsely. No help came. At that instant, he wasn't sure which hurt more: His bullies' blows, or seeing himself betrayed by the only friend he had ever known.

That was the first time Hiccup was physically bullied. After that, as though Snotlout and the twins found pleasure in doing this, the bullying never stopped. In fact, it just got worse. Did his father, Stoick the Vast not know about this? Actually, he did. He was always embarrassed by how weak Hiccup was, and felt that this would help toughen his son significantly. This boldened Snotlout. From then on, the poor little Haddock could not live a single day without fear. Sometimes, the verbal assaults were worse, and hurt way more. Things said to him, such as "You can't do a single thing right" had absolutely decimated whatever confidence left in him. At times, even Astrid would join in scolding him and making him feel terrible. To Hiccup, the words that left Astrid's mouth hurt twice as much. To a certain extent, saying he couldn't do anything right was not true. Hiccup was extremely bright and intelligent, at least thrice more so as compared to his fellow Vikings. He was a great blacksmith, learning quickly from Gobber the Belch and discovering new methods which even Gobber did not know of. Hiccup could fix anything, and could build anything. He was truly talented in this aspect, but was just too blinded by sorrow to see that.

That was also when his view of this world had changed. He used to be an optimistic and cheerful boy. By now, he was seeing the world as though it was full of pure evil. Nothing was good in this world. Not even his father. Whenever he made eye contact with the chief, he could only see rage and disappointment. He loved his father deeply, especially after the departure of his mother Valka. Alas, Stoick never realized that. To Hiccup, the only goodness came from Gobber the Belch. He was the figure closest to a father Hiccup had ever known. When the tormenting got so bad, Hiccup could only seek shelter in his little room within the forge. Gobber would chase his bullies away, and sometimes also offer him some words of consolation while Hiccup cried his eyes dry. For this, Hiccup was eternally grateful towards Gobber. To a certain extent, Hiccup would have ended his own life, if not for such remaining goodness in it. Despite personally experiencing so much pain and trauma, Hiccup's heart was still brimming with kindness. Despite his pessimism towards life, he was still a good person. It was not easy to achieve this, especially when looking at how unfair life had been to him. For this, he truly deserved respect. Perhaps it was this period of torment, which had made him resolved to make sure that no one else is put through this much unnecessary suffering. Such mentality would see Hiccup go far, further than any of his friends.