"Hiccup! Calm down!" Astrid yelled.
"NO! Viggo has the dragon eye, he's smarter than me, I've got no idea what I should do next and these morons go around and chase off our DAMN SENTRIES!" Hiccup yelled back. Astrid pulled together a bit, as she'd never really heard Hiccup like this, but the past week it happened three times already.
"Too our defence, we…" Tuffnut began, but was immediately cut off by Hiccup. "YOU don't get to defend yourself! We're sitting in a bigger shithole than with the red death right now, and you go around pulling PRANKS?"
Now the whole gang was there. "Yeesh, Princess Outpost didn't have enough beauty sleep…" Snotlout commented. "Yeah, Hiccup, you do know that's what they always do. Isn't it normal by now?" Fishlegs asked as he dismounted Meatlug.
Hiccup sneered. "Heh. Normal. Y'know, normally I would be working on new gear right now. Normally I would be going on an evening flight on Toothless today. Normally I would be planning some new concepts for the Edge when I'm laying in bed. Well guess what. THIS SITUATION ISN'T GODS DAMNED NORMAL!" He screamed in his face.
"HICCUP!" Astrid shouted. "STOP!" Hiccup looked at her with a cold evil glare. Astrid was now genuinely afraid of him.
"Alright. Fine. I'll stop. Why don't we all stop? I mean, it's not like our dragons, ourselves and Berk are in the worst position since the red death. Fine I'll stop. Stop planning, stop training, stop scouting. I'll just hang in my hut and build some stuff and then go on some high altitude flights with toothless. Go ahead. Make a plan for yourselves."
"Hiccup! You're overreacting!" Astrid told him, but Snotlout couldn't keep his mouth shut. "Come on. I can definitely come up with a plan, better than any of Hiccups plans." Astrid was about to slap him, but her arm was held back by Hiccup. "No. Let him be. So you'll come up with a plan? I'll tell you, coming up with one isn't so hard. But will you also take over the responsibility?"
"Of course! The glory will be mine!" Snotlout shouted and waved a sword around.
"And if you fail? Will you be able to walk up to all those parents and tell them that their children died because your plan didn't work." Hiccup asked him.
Snotlout became hesitant. "Um, I mean… uh…"
"I've come up with a total of twenty plans, y'know." Hiccup said. Everyone else looked at him questioningly. "There's only one problem to them. Every single one of them requires me to sacrifice at least one Viking or Dragon."
The silence in the round was heavy, until Hiccup spoke up once again. "I actually do have another plan though. Number 21. It would be me going alone. I'm very confident that I'd be able to take down Viggo and Ryker both at the same time, but my chances of survival are well below fifty percent.
"Hiccup, you're not going to use that plan! You've got friends here that'll help you! People you can trust!" Astrid exclaimed worried.
"Can I, Astrid?" Hiccups question was short, but it cut deep.
"Trust us!? Are you serious!? Of course!"
"I don't mean betraying me. I mean, can I trust anyone here that they complete a task if I ask them to? Will they be able to perform that task? Can I trust them that they don't do anything idiotic that will once again put me and everyone else in danger?"
"What do you mean with once again?" Astrid asked weary.
"Remember that little trip to outcast island Snotlout? It was your fault we got into that tornado. Fireworms on the Edge? Twins. Changewing eggs? Fishlegs."
"Okay we get it, we mess up sometimes. What's the big deal? We didn't do it on purpose." Snotlout remarked.
"The big deal is that you don't get points for effort! If any of you make a mistake, I'll be the one to blame, if anyone gets hurt, I'm the one to blame. So failure is unacceptable at this point in time. If you really want to join me and help me, I'll be the leader, I say what's right and wrong, and we're going fully Outcast on this. And I'll be Alvin. And I know from experience, that it's stupid to not listen to someone in your ranks and ignore him, so I'll listen to any of your ideas, as long as they are relevant. And I swear to the gods, if you bring up idiotic stuff, damage anything on this island, pull any pranks, I'll personally escort you to Berk, where you'll stay for the rest of your lives. And yes I'm serious."
The group had listened to him carefully, even the twins. "So wait, were not allowed to have fun anymore?" Ruffnut asked.
"No! We're in an all out war with the Hunters, how could you even think of having fun while the worst enemy we've ever seen is trying to take away everything from you that you love? Oh, I know. You don't have the responsibility."
Hiccup turned away and started walking towards Toothless, when Astrid held him back. "Why do you have so low faith in us!? In me!?"
"Astrid. You're the only person I have faith in. But I don't know about the others. I mean, sure, they're trying to help, but they're idiots. They're plain stupid, although they can come up with some stuff from time to time, such as Ruffnuts key trick. That's why I'm letting them speak. But I can't handle their idiocy at the same time as I'm trying to defeat a mastermind. We all make mistakes, but they've made to much. Especially Snotlout and the twins."
"I know you're upset Hiccup, but you can't just go around now and rule with an iron fist! It's still our Island!" Astrid tried to reason with Hiccup.
"Astrid. I'll do whatever it takes to keep you, Toothless, Stormfly and the others safe." With that he mounted Toothless and flew to his hut to work on new plans.