Act I: BEGINNINGS
Chapter 1: Duties and Responsibilities
To say that Hiccup was not even slightly prepared for the responsibilities he had to undertake as chief was an understatement. It was like drinking from a waterfall, only to find out that you had forgotten to drink from three or four other waterfalls at the same time or your whole village would drown. He was extremely grateful for Gobber's tutelage in what he was supposed to be doing, otherwise he would have been far more lost than he already was. He had a general impression from watching his father, but actually doing it was entirely different. He was used to being able to slink off and while the days away on dragonback. What's that, a trade negotiation? No thanks, I'd rather be dodging in and out of stone pillars and ludicrous speeds. You need help with what, sorry couldn't hear you over my wanderlust. What'd you need, Dad? Sorry, I'm busy splitting my time between Toothless and Astrid.
Well now all his youthful lack of self-discipline was biting him in the ass. Being Chief meant more than just fighting giant dragons. He was involved in every intimate detail in the village, including many that he struggled to pretend that he cared about. Some days it was hard to give a shit who gets what amount of vegetables in exchange for fish. Seriously, why was that an argument that couldn't be agreed upon by them? Why did he have to get involved? He had more important things on his mind, like storing food for winter.
"Ok, that's fourteen barrels of mead, twenty barrels of fermented fish, and thirty sheep, right?" Hiccup said, glancing up from the sheet of paper he had been recording the entries on. He would prove to be some kind of awful Chief if in their first winter they didn't have enough food to survive the rugged winter months.
"Right," Gobber replied in his usual, extremely thick accent. Hiccup turned his attention to the parchment he held in his hand, bobbing his pencil up and down as he silently counted the tick marks he had made next to various items.
"Twenty six, no twenty seven weeks," he frowned. "It's technically enough, but it wouldn't be very comfortable. And there's little to no wiggle room, if this winter turns out to be extra long."
"Hiccup, you're worrying too much."
"Yeah, it's easy to say this when it's not your responsibility. If I mess up, everyone could die!" Unconsciously reverting to his usual wild hand gestures, Hiccup came dangerously close to smashing his knuckles against a barrel of mead that was stacked up next to him.
"Hiccup, I've done this how many times with your father? We'll be fine. In fact, we've got more food now than we ever have before."
"Yeah, I know you know that, but I still don't want to mess it up. Can you order some more from Trader Johann? Oh, and we'll need some more cattle, chickens, hay, and bird seed." Hiccup paused, snapping his fingers while shaking his hand at eye level. "And whale oil. We need to make sure we have enough for lamps. And while we're on the topic of supplies, I was thinking we might need to go hunt some elk or deer after the Gathering of the Chiefs. Plus, we could use the fur for winter clothing. Which by the way, do you think we-"
"Hiccup!" Gobber finally half-shouted, interrupting the poor young lad—er—Chief who had gone and started rambling again. He looked at the young man in front of him, head full of enthusiasm but lacking in experience. If he looked at the right angle, he could still see him as a boy, bouncing around at his knees like a hyperactive rabbit. Aye, what a fine young man he'd grown up to be. He was so proud of what he'd become, even if it was nothing like what he'd expected from him. In his eyes, there was no finer Viking in all of Berk. Hel, probably in all of the archipelago. And gods, that made him proud, almost as proud as if he was his own son. Had he ever had children, he wished they would have been like Hiccup.
"Aye, Hiccup. I can do that. But you needn't to fret so. Everything will be fine, you'll see."
"Yeah, I'm sure they will be," Hiccup's shoulders slumped slightly, his eyes trailing off into nothing as his mind raced a thousand leagues ahead. He was always planning something, ever since he was a boy. Gobber was glad that of all the things that had changed in the recent years, that hadn't.
"So how's the axe order coming along?" He asked, as the two started walking away from the storage.
"Ah, it's doin' fine! It's a bit harder wit' out you, though. I miss having my lanky assistant!" Gobber roared, slapping Hiccup on the shoulder. Hiccup winced internally as thought his shoulder might have actually come out of its socket on that hit.
"Yeah, sorry about that. I've been real busy lately, and I just haven't been able to be in as often as I'd like."
"Don't you worry, lad. I know that what you're doing out there is more important than what I've got goin' on in me shop. It's just I got used ta havin' ya, is all."
"Still, I often wish I could be there. I find it strangely relaxing, bending iron to my will." A giant grin split Gobber's face.
"A man after my own heart!" Hiccup braced himself for another bone-shattering slap, but it surprisingly didn't come. He chalked it up to the fact that they were leaving their storage areas now, and that Gobber was using his hand to work the door to the outside world. Hiccup stepped outside, breathing in the fresh, Berkian air. When the wind picked up, it got that biting cold feeling that winter was just around the corner. It wasn't the frigid death winds that penetrated your skin and tried to pull your bones with it, but it was also definitely past the warm summer months. He honestly liked this time of year though, the slight edge to the air made the hearths and longhouses feel friendlier. Sure they also felt friendlier still in the dead of winter, but the outside world felt far more inhospitable than it did now. This was kind of the best of both worlds; the temperature was still livable, but the indoors were welcoming. Speaking of which…
"Gobber, what are we doing for the longhouses?"
"The longhouses?" He replied questioningly, raising a blond eyebrow higher than it seemed like should have gone.
"You know, the places people sleep at night, big enough for a whole family?"
"I know what they are Hiccup. What about them?"
"Shouldn't we be spending time fixing some of them up for the winter?" Gobber reached up, scratching his chin thoughtfully as he stared off into the distance, pondering the question.
"We usually leave it up to the families to fix their houses for the winter. But I don't suppose that it could hurt if we gathered the town up to help each other out."
"Excellent, because I have some plans."
"I'm truly surprised." Hiccup kept talking, ignoring Gobber's deadpan sarcasm.
"Most of the housing still has damage left over from when we had to deal with Drago and his army. So that should be our first priority. That means we'll need both more wood and stone, and we it'll be far easier to make some daub before the ice freezes everything in sight. Number two is obviously houses for the dragons."
"Don't we already have a bunch of them?"
"Yes, but since Toothless became the Alpha, we have way more dragons about than before, and they all need a place to stay. That should be priority number two, since there's already some enclosures, plus we can put some dragons in longhouses if need be. Thirdly, if we have the time and resources, it's not a bad idea to build some new longhouses. Given the rate of expansion here recently, reducing the crowding in the halls will probably put everyone in a better mood."
"You know," Gobber said, "you and Toothless have both done a pretty good job assuming the jobs of Chief and Alpha." Hiccup looked at him askance at the sudden topic shift.
"Is this the part where you say 'surprise, you both have a coupla' more years before you stop being idiots?'" Hiccup asked, using grandiose arm movements to properly emphasize his words. Gobber replied with a hearty chuckle.
"Not even. I may like to give you shit on a daily basis just to be sure that your head doesn't get too big, but you are shaping up to be a not terrible Chief. And Toothless, I have no idea what it takes to be an Alpha, but he has it. Seems like every time a dragon does something stupid or sets something on fire, he's there to let them know he'll roast them alive if they do it again." Hiccup snickered.
"Yeah, there's a like three or four monstrous nightmares who once caught my house on fire once; I thought he was going to explode. Needless to say, they all avoid him like the plague now." Gobber joined in on the laughter.
"Aye, I remember. Poor beasts didn't know what was coming their way. I recall being able to hear Toothless' yelling from the docks, and by the time I got all the way up here, he was just finishing up tearing them a new one. Never seen dragons run so fast or look so scared. He can out-yell even the fiercest Viking chief, that I guarantee." Hiccup froze temporarily, his gait hitching in his walk before he returned to normal. Had Gobber not been looking directly at him, he wouldn't have noticed the display at all. "What's the matter, lad?"
"Nothing."
"Oh, but that weren't nothing."
"It's seriously nothing. Nothing important, anyway." Gobber snorted in response, obviously in disbelief. The two continued their walk a few more paces before Gobber spoke up again.
"Is it about the trade meeting, isn't it?"
"That obvious?" Hiccup said with a half sigh.
"Look lad, I know that you're worried about this meeting, but you needn't. Ev'rything will be fine."
"Easy for you to say, if you make a mistake, Berk's ability to trade in the Archipelago won't be ruined. Not only will this be their first time meeting me as Chief, but most of them have yet to meet a friendly dragon yet, and even those that have haven't been around as many dragons as we have on Berk. The whole thing's a disaster waiting to happen."
"You say that like you expect a disaster."
"Don't you? Look at the last few years, they've been mostly disastrous."
"Yeah, but we've always found a way to come out on top."
"Ok, do you have some sort of formula for me to make sure that we do come out of this one on top?"
"We're vikings Hiccup, we improvise and overcome."
"Such great words of wisdom. 'Just wait for disaster to strike and then make it up as you go.'"
"It's worked so far, hasn't it?"
"Yeah, but for how much longer? How long until me and Toothless winging it isn't enough?"
"Hiccup, they're Chiefs, trade partners. This isn't a war. You'll be fine!" Gobber said, swinging open the door to the forge. The two ducked past the short line that had gathered, each person looked ready to pepper Hiccup with questions.
He had moved most of his chiefly duties to his part of the forge for two reasons. First, it made it a whole lot easier to work on the stuff he wanted to when he could spare a minute or two. Second, he just felt more comfortable conducting business from here where he knew the territory. He'd originally tried to make executive decisions from his father's old hall, where he could get a lot of people in there and hear them all at once but it just felt wrong. Maybe his death was too recent, maybe he hadn't fully dealt with his father's death, but he just couldn't do what he needed to there. Here, he was in his element. He was master of all, both man and material and could reform impurities where he found them to make both stronger armor and a stronger tribe.
Gobber retreated to the original half of the forge, where three half-finished axes waited to get their final treatment today before being delivered to the families who purchased them. Hiccup scooted around his table, grabbing a half-finished sketchbook and tossing it onto the countertop. He sat down, opening it to the first blank page and paused for a second or two, breathing in and out slowly. He reached over, pulling a lever threw open the shutters, revealing the first 'customer,' of a sort. Simultaneously short plank of wood inscribed with the word IN flopped onto the sign that hung just above the window facing outward, covering the last word so that the inscription read:
THE CHIEF IS IN
"Hi, how can I help you today?"
"Chief, I have a problem!" Hiccup nodded, motioning to continue. Not that he needed to, Ulf was continuing his rant mid-gesture. "This bastard here owes me four cows and refuses to give them to me!" He half shouted, leaning forward into the window. The man behind him immediately started protesting.
"Not true, Chief! We had an agreement, and he didn't hold up his end, so I didn't hold up mine!"
"Listen here, you slimy bastard-" Ulf began, cocking his fist back.
"Woah woah woah, tell me everything." Hiccup lunged forward, grabbing Sven's hand before it could launch forwards.
Four hours later, Hiccup sighed his relief. Somehow, he'd managed to get them to come to an agreement of one cow. The problem had originated when Obasi and Ulf come to an agreement. Ulf would help Obasi build his shed, and in return Obasi would pay him with four cows. Ulf helped him gather materials from the woods by cutting down logs and such, and even moved them to the build site, but did not help with the actual construction itself. Feeling that Ulf had reneged on his end of the bargain, he refused to pay him.
At this point, Hiccup asked to be taken to the site of the build, so he could see for himself what Ulf had done or what he had not done. After surveying the build site, he realized how big of an undertaking this was, and similarly how much material needed to be gathered for this. And yet, Obasi should have received help on the actual build, since it was a fairly impressively large structure. He thought that a single cattle was sufficient payment for the labor Ulf did in bringing the lumber down. Neither were too happy with the outcome, as they had both come away with less than their ideal outcome. However, they grumbled slightly, shook hands, and made their exchange of payment.
On way back to the Help Desk, Hiccup ran into a whole new issue. Fishlegs came sprinting up, huffing and puffing with a slight gleam of sweat on his brow despite the cold air. Apparently, the Jorgensons were threatening a feud between their two clans. It had started off normally enough, the two families had been eating dinner together. It was half a social gathering and half a business meeting, as the two were coordinating a cut of the fish brought in by the Ingerman's in exchange for material from the Jorgenson's. However, since it was cold outside, Mrs. Ingerman thought it would be kind to serve some hot drinks, and unfortunately spilled some on Spitelout's lap.
Spitelout was never known for being the most rational of men, nor had he achieved the reputation of a drama queen undeservedly. Spitelout essentially flying into a rage over minor matters was fairly commonplace, unfortunately. When Mrs. Ingerson tripped, sending the hot liquid onto Spitelout's genitals, she knew there would be consequences. Nobody could have foreseen how much of a brouhaha he would create. Hiccup, despite being minutes away from going back to his Help Desk, had to go over and calm down the Jorgensens. After a good couple hours of haggling and debating, Hiccup had successfully talked down Spitelout from his overwhelming rage, and settled on the Ingerman's paying a quarter barrel of fish as recompense for his 'discomfort.' Despite it being seemingly unfair for an accident, it was a small price to pay to reopen the business negotiations for the Ingerman's. The deal they were working for would benefit the Ingerman's more than it would for them to keep those specific fish. The addition of those extra materials would have been a godsend for their family, allowing them a lot more flexibility when trading with others.
By the time that Hiccup was done however, daylight had left the majority of the sky. The bare edges on the horizon were lit in a vibrant ochre, fading upwards into a pure blackness marred only by the twinkling stars. The brilliantly clear night beckoned him, begging to be flown in, to be explored. Even though the relative warmth of the daylight air had faded to bitter cold, he still felt drawn to the skies above. A rush of wind tousled his already unkempt hair as a set of leathery wings folded next to him, causing a dark shape to hurtle to the ground.
"How's it going, bud?"
"Could be worse. Some of the new guys still aren't adjusted to the rules yet."
"Oh, what happened?" Life had improved drastically since Hiccup had picked up Dragonish. It's not like they struggled to communicate before, Toothless could understand Hiccup and Hiccup could get maybe 75% of the message via the growls, grunts, and body language Toothless gave off. Now though, they could have conversations about topics that required a finesse that was just harder to do through non-verbals. Like this, for instance.
"So there's this new Gronkle that arrived a day or two ago, Rockjaw I think his name is. He's uhh... he's uhh…"
"Difficult?"
"That's a nice way of putting it. Anyways, a group of us were helping out with building some more houses on the north slope."
"And?" Hiccup suddenly felt uneasy about where this story was going.
"Well, Rockjaw thought our supplies looked delicious and ate about half of our rock supply before anyone noticed." Hiccup groaned in frustration, his shoulder slumping slightly as he rocked his head from side to side. "Yeah, I felt similarly. Except I was a tiny bit more angry."
"What? You, angry? I'm shocked I tell you. I don't think you've ever been angry before." Toothless snorted.
"Don't make me bite off your other leg."
"Oh har-dee-har-har. You and I both know you wouldn't do that." Toothless sighed, a great puff of steam forming before him in the cold night air.
"Yeah, you're right," he paused, casting a sideways glance at Hiccup. "I much prefer the taste of sheep." Toothless savored the expression on Hiccup's face. Toothless tried to contain himself, but he soon erupted into his signature, chortling dragon laughter.
"Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up, loser." Hiccup said in mock anger, shoving Toothless's shoulder, jostling him slightly. "We both know you don't eat people."
"I mean, not if you have any other choice, no."
"Hey!" Toothless gave him the most mocking look of innocence he could muster.
"Hey what? You're telling me that before, if you were starving, you wouldn't have eaten dragon?"
"I'm fairly confident the answer is no, given that I could have easily killed you if I had wanted to."
"Oh please, I was waiting for you to get closer so I could counter attack."
"Uh huh. Right. The ropes all around you said otherwise."
"Well anyways, I could have eaten more of this one guy had I wanted, but I was only able to grab a piece of his leg as he was falling. Almost a waste of good meat. Using a very broad definition of 'good'… and 'meat.'" A smile played on Toothless lips as he struggled to contain another fit of laughter.
"Hilarious. You're hilarious." Toothless swung his head, shoving Hiccup in the arm, almost knocking the lanky man over. By the time he had righted himself, they were both smiling and chuckling. Hiccup tossed an arm around Toothless' neck in a half hug, half stranglehold. He was kinda curious about what the answer would be, but also kind of horrified at what the answer might be. Eventually his curiosity got the better of him.
"So, what do I taste like?" He asked after a few moments delay.
"Like really really chewy chicken. Not a huge fan, honestly. Seriously, sheep taste way better than you."
"Well that's good to know at least. In the event of a famine I'll be low on the eating list."
"I think if things ever got that bad we could just fly somewhere with more food long before any of us turned to you as a food source."
"Well I appreciate the concern, anyway." Hiccup leaned into Toothless' body, using him as a shield as the wind began to pick up, simultaneously absorbing some of the body heat that emanated off of his scaly friend in abundance.
"But seriously though, everything's ok Mr. Alpha Lord of the Dragons, May His Name Forever Be Praised?" Toothless huffed at Hicccup's mockery, though it may have been a bit deserved. The first couple days he'd been Alpha—it may have gone to his head a bit. Thankfully Hiccup smacked some sense into him before he became an overbearing prick. The two of them were really good at that, smacking each other in the head one the other was being a dumbass.
"Yes, everything is fine. Just busy trying to get the last few shelters built before winter arrives in full force."
"Yeah, I hear that. Anyways, I am going to head home, hopefully Astrid's back by now. You coming?"
"Maybe, I still have some things I need to do. Is Astrid cooking dinner?"
"Probably."
"I think I will be a while."
"You eat raw fish!"
"And somehow she still manages to mess it up." Toothless' eyes widened as if he was witnessing atrocities take place just a few feet away.
"Hey now!"
"Am I wrong?"
"Well, you're exaggerating significantly." Toothless looked at him with a cocked eye. "Ok, maybe not that significantly but she doesn't mess up raw fish!" Toothless chortled in laughter again.
"Fair enough, but she is still an awful cook."
"Well just because she's not a masterful cook, doesn't make it awful."
"Whatever you say."
"Last chance to come inside by the fire before it gets really cold outside."
"I honestly have things I need to take care of."
"Alright, suit yourself. We'll leave the door unlocked." Hiccup pushed himself off of his mobile body-warmer, and set a brisk pace down the hill. Toothless watched him walk a few more paces before launching in the air.
With his tail-fin locked in place, he couldn't maneuver as precisely as he wished, but it was good enough for flying around Berk. He soared well over the viking town which was slipping into slumber as the remaining slivers of light slipped from the sky. He shrugged off the nuisance of the biting cold winds, preferring to stay up and watch from above. Even with his limited flight capabilities, he preferred just drifting to being cooped up on the land.
Of course, the uncountable hours both he and his ancestors had spent hunting in the dark gave him impeccable night vision. When he had been raiding Berk, he always did his best to take advantage of the humans' comparative blindness at night. Even when he and Hiccup were walking around Berk at night, an area that Hiccup was intimately familiar with, Toothless occasionally had to nudge him in the right direction to keep him from walking into a stray bucket or something.
Combining his natural abilities to see with the lights that his human friends seemed to always have lit, and it might as well have been broad daylight for him. Every movement was picked up, both the humans doing menial tasks and getting ready to bed down for the night and the dragons actively doing what they were not supposed to do. Toothless swooped down as soon as he realized what a mess these two good-for-nothing dragons were up to. They were supposed to help build structures so that they could spend the winter in a warm building, but who knows what these two flying thunderstorms were doing.
"Hey! What are you doing?" Toothless snapped angrily, pulling up sharply as he landed, sending a quick blast of light twigs and dust into the faces of a Gronkle and a Hideous Zippleback.
"What?" The Gronkle, Boulder Tail, responded.
"You heard me, what are you doing, exactly?" Toothless narrowed his eyes, bringing his face down closer to the short, stocky dragon.
"Alpha I uh…" The gronkle trailed off into further unintelligible grumbles that wasn't Dragonish in the slightest.
Toothless had to swallow his irritation for a second. "What did I originally tell you to do?"
"Build shelter?"
"Did I say how?"
"Put melted rock at bottom of the naked tree?"
"Yes, that. So what were you, and both of you, doing?" He said, spinning briefly to look at the Hideous Zippleback that was cowering slightly behind the partial structure, one head poking around to the side and the other above the half-built wall.
"We were doing that for time" The pair of Zippleback heads nodded fervently.
"And then…" Toothless prodded.
"We thought how much fun it be if we played with rocks instead of melting." Unable to smack his forehead, Toothless ground his teeth in frustration. He somehow managed to speak in a calm vice.
"Why don't you two go back to what you were told to do, and you can play when you're done with your work?"
"Yes Mister Toofless."
"Yes Mister Toothless." The two heads said, finally chiming into the conversation. The Gronckle looked crestfallen.
"Yes Alpha."
"Alrighty then, I'll leave you three to your work." He leapt into the air, swooping gracefully in a big arc, coming back down and buzzing the construction site so they knew he was still there. Morons.
He didn't really have a problem with other dragons, just sometimes they pissed him off. They were so obviously not as smart as him, from their speech patterns to their logical reasoning abilities—or lack thereof. Especially Gronkles, they pretty much could be summed up into "See rock, eat rock, sleep by rock." He was just hoping that the newcomers could pull their weight without supervision. Obviously that wasn't the case.
I mean seriously, it is obvious how they will need shelter soon, do they think it just grows up out of the ground? I mean, probably. Gronkles were never known for their intelligence. Mostly just jaw strength. Toothless leveled out his flight, coasting slowly over the water that gleamed back at him with the moon rippling on its surface. He wished Hiccup were here. They could take this moment to go adventuring again. How he missed those days of carefree abandon. Just the two of them against the world. They could go farther and faster than anyone else, setting up camps on islands no dragon—or man—had ever set eyes upon before. Each day their campsite would change, each day they would learn new things, try new food, and sometimes meet new dragons—and people. Usually dragons though. A light splash grabbed his attention.
Toothless whirled, spinning halfway over and pumping his wings hard, gaining speed as he sped past the foamy wave tops. His jaw opened, rows of teeth snapped into place, gleaming white in the moonlight. He tucked his wings, diving into the water. He emerged a few seconds later, wings bursting through the surface, casting water in all directions as he flapped hardily to regain the speed he had lost diving into the water. Droplets showered he water behind him as the wind ripped the remaining condensation off of his body. Toothless grinned in the night air, readjusting his teeth on the mouthful of fish he had grabbed.
He looped upwards, back towards the cliffs that had become home. It's odd how a few years and a choice can change everything so much. He thought that after those years of impunity 'that puny human' was going to be the one to kill him would have been the ultimate irony. But then the knife that was aimed at his heart instead cut the ropes that bound him. At first he didn't believe his own skin; he had seen the knife raised overhead for the fatal blow, why would there be a subtle rubbing against his ribs? But no, the puny human had set him free.
In that moment, that instant, he made a choice that changed his life forever. By all rights, he should be dead or worse… captured and made to train their humans against his own kind. He remembered jumping up in a rage, furious at this human for capturing him, furious at himself for getting caught, and frustrated that his mortal enemy had shown him mercy. It was so much easier to kill humans when they were killing him. After all, he didn't kill humans for the sport of it. It was a kill or be killed world out there, especially at his then home. So why did this human, this tiny weakling, the only one to have bested him not kill? A million thoughts had whirled through his mind. He had started building an immense fireball to cook this human where he was, trapped beneath his claw. This close, he saw the terror built up in his eyes. Was this how the human felt? His fire evaporated into a scream that undoubtedly scared the shit out of the tiny human. Bah, one human. What could sparing one human possibly do in the grand scheme of things? Boy was he wrong.
Now these cliffs that once meant another fight and another struggle meant home and safety. What an odd twist that life brings. Toothless swept low before swinging his wings upwards like a sail to catch the wind, slowing him rapidly so that he fell the few feet to the ground where he could enjoy his meal in private. He dropped the mouthful onto the ground, catching them a few at a time so he could savor the meal more. A few wriggled mightily, doing their best to flop back to the cliff and into the water. He gave the runners a chance to get away before hopping over to gulp them up.
Satisfied, he spun in a circle a few times, heating the rocky ground beneath him. He laid down, a sigh being pushed out of him as he hit the ground. That hit the spot.
Food.
Damnit! That's what he had been forgetting! The realization hit him like a rockslide. He had totally forgotten about organizing additional food gathering. They'd been getting new dragons arriving at Berk almost every day, and he hadn't adjusted the amount of food he had coming in each day to match the extra mouths, especially considering the coming wintry months, they needed the extra food. And now came the critical decision. Should he get up and go address the problem, or keep laying here where the ground was already the perfect temperature? The ground did feel really nice…
After a few more minutes of deliberation, Toothless finally listened to his responsible side. He reluctantly jumped upwards, beating the ground with the downdraft of his wings. Food was one of those things he really had to ensure that there was enough of, or there'd be a mutiny for sure. All the dragons who had originally moved into Berk had no issues with him being in charge, but that wasn't necessarily the case with the new arrivals. They tolerated his Alpha status begrudgingly. They didn't care that he was a Night Fury, or that he had allegedly made an Alpha back down. To them, it was all hearsay, and they weren't huge fans of being subservient to someone that was smaller than them. But, everyone else went with it, so they went with it… for now. That's why Toothless was so tough on everyone, they had to know that he wasn't going to show favoritism to anybody, that he led everyone equally, regardless of how long they'd been there. And above all that, that he, as Alpha, would provide for them all. If there were to be a food shortage, well that would be all that the upstarts would need to start a dragon civil war, something he had no desire for.
Toothless sped through the rocky outcroppings, heading for home. Even if he hadn't been familiar with the housing at all, it wouldn't have taken long to figure out which one the Chief lived at. It was the biggest one, sat up on the hill looking down across the rest of the village. It had a commanding presence that let everyone know who was in charge and who was not. Of course he'd lived in there before he was Alpha, something about best friends with the son of the Chief which apparently comes with its own perks.
For a while he just shared a room with Hiccup and Stoic the Vast kept to the master bedroom. That had worked well, for a long time. After Stoic died though, there had been some changes. Astrid moved in, and Hiccup and her had taken the master bedroom. With Astrid, came Stormfly, and both she and Toothless had their own rooms. It was nice having some like company in the house, but damn if it didn't mean some competition for the freshest fish. The new housemates had almost fully adjusted to their new roommates. It had taken them a bit, nobody really liked talking about why there was suddenly more room in the house. It had only been a couple of months since the 'incident,' and they were just now feeling comfortable in the house, though the first couple of weeks were the worst. Toothless couldn't tell if it was harder on him or Hiccup, but there wasn't any joviality in the household at that time.
Toothless slowly glided downwards, circling once to land on the roof. It had been a couple of years since Hiccup had installed the 'Dragon Door' which was merely a hatch on the ceiling that could be opened and closed at his (or Stormfly's) leisure. It worked well too, it was simply a wooden door with a rope on it that they could grab onto easily, and another rope on the inside that they could use to pull it shut. He found out rather quickly that if he was going to use it at night, he needed to let it down lightly, or a grouchy human would berate him in the morning for waking them up. Stormfly made the mistake herself the first couple of times, but an irate Astrid solved that problem. However, since it was not quite the human's usual bedtime, he didn't feel the need to be quite as discreet as he would be. He jumped inwards, letting the door drop back in place with a 'whump.'
A light 'tak' noise accompanied each foot step as Toothless' claws clicked against the hard wood floors of the home. Looking back, he could remember the outside of the house in great detail from the many raids he had done beforehand. He could pick out the Chief's house from one of a myriad of details, from its craftsmanship to its position. He had sort of wondered what the inside of it looked like. He had seen the inside of the regular human longhouses, but even then he'd only seen those when they were on fire. The thought that one day he'd walk through them leisurely would have never crossed his mind.
As he walked towards Stormfly's room, his head drifted to the left, his eyes falling on a shield that adorned the wall. It was an ornate, decorative shield that was etched with Hiccup's family history. He paused, noticing the sheen of newly-cut metal on the lower left corner. He leaned closer until the shield filled his vision. Just below the images of Stoic the Vast's heroic last moments were a few new images. It was the symbol that Hiccup wore on his shoulder—the symbol that he had made for a night fury—joining in an alliance with Hiccup and Astrid's joint crest; a symbolic representation of his and Hiccup's partnership and friendship—he assumed. It was probably something Hiccup did late at night when he was trying to work through a village problem and wanted a distraction. Toothless let out a gust of steam through his nose, nodding slightly. It was something he never had thought about, but was nonetheless appreciated. A light tapping of claws on wood accompanied a new voice.
"What are you looking at?"
Toothless glanced to the right before looking back at the shield. "Nothing, just at the shield. I was actually coming to see you, Stormfly."
"What about?"
"Food, mostly. Have you adjusted the hunts to account for the new dragons we've been getting?"
Stormfly straightened up for a moment, before squawking a reply. "I have gotten more, but not much more. How many more food will we need?"
"I don't know off the top of my head, I'll have to check with Hiccup, see how much we'll need. Just be ready to tell the others that they'll need to gather more than they are currently getting."
"No worry, Toothless, we will get it done."
"Alright, I appreciate it," Toothless said, sidling back towards where he came from, and towards his own room.
He passed back through the dining area, taking note of its relative disarray. Cookware was still scattered about, clumps of food still stuck to the inside. Whoever's turn it was to clean up obviously hadn't done their job that night. Besides that, the eating utensils were still on the table, with food still on the plate. They hadn't done any cleaning at all, the lazy bastards. He sniffed at what was left on the table; it used to be cod. He had no idea what Astrid had done to it, but it smelled strange. It had definitely begun as cod, but now was something else, some sort of abomination that she had concocted trying to better her cooking skills. She obviously still had more learning to do.
Toothless left the kitchen, heading back towards his room, which was past the master bedroom. As he passed, he heard some giggling accompanied by an unmistakable smell that he had come to realize meant that Astrid and Hiccup were—preoccupied. He grinned slightly, suddenly understanding why the meal had been so rapidly abandoned. He lumbered past, realizing there was no reason for him to disturb them for the sake of dishes.
He quickly reached his room, which he had spent more time than he liked to admit in furnishing it how he wanted. Humans had some weird and strange habits, but their homebuilding was one of the things he really liked. It really felt like… well like home. It was a space that was constant, that he could come back to and have some solace in. His bed was a stone that he had heated and reshaped until perfection. He had some older tail fins decorating the back wall and some maps that Hiccup had made on the left wall. He had some old keepsakes leaning up against the right wall, like a piece of the tusks from the Red Death, an old log that he had played with in his youth, things like that. All in all, he was very satisfied with how his place looked.
He climbed up on to his bed, his breath creating a low heat that warmed his bed to a nice, toasty temperature that made him immediately sleepy. He lay down, his head fitting into the curves of the rock perfectly. In the last few moments before he fell asleep, a million thoughts raced through his head, each one vying to be the 'last thought' before sleep, each one something that he needed to remember to do as Alpha. But they could wait until tomorrow.