Hiccup sighed deeply. Now that he was chief of the tribe, he had so many duties, ones he really didn't feel prepared to do. Like this one, having to visit other tribes of Vikings in a nearby land to discuss treaties. He had never gone with his father to one of these meetings and right now he wished he had.
He didn't even bring Astrid with him, he couldn't bear it if he were to fail and she saw it. Most of the nearby tribes knew that he could train dragons, but he didn't really want that knowledge to become too wide spread, so even though he had brought Toothless with him, he had decided to keep him onboard the ship until night, when he would sneak him off.
The place they were meeting at was also recently taken over by a girl of his generation. Her father had merely stepped down though, so he would probably be there to guide her. In fact a lot of the tribe leaders were also new, younger ones. But even this knowledge didn't make him dread it less. How he wished he had asked Astrid to join him now instead of letting pride control him.
Bucket came back to where he was standing to let him know that they were nearing land. Hiccup thanked him and moved to the bow, to catch sight of this land that he would be visiting for probably quite some time. After all they were Vikings, which made them very stubborn.
His timing seemed to be pretty good, as a lot of other ships were docking and preparing to dock at this moment. Fog surrounded the shore, but he could already tell it was going to be a beautiful land. Now he really wished he had brought Astrid to share this with. He knelt down on the deck and whispered, "Toothless, stay quiet, I promise I will be back for you tonight."
And then they were docking, a girl with bright red curly hair waited for him on deck. "Welcome. I am Merida, Queen of this land. If you need anything during your stay, do not hesitate to ask." She said with a smile. "Thank you my lady. I am Hiccup, Chief of Berk." Merida giggled at his name, but said nothing and quickly brought it under control. "Enjoy your stay here, Hiccup." She replied as she moved on to the next boat.
Hiccup saw an older man, who must be her father, following her at a distance. If he was anything like his father, Hiccup knew the girl would probably here it for laughing at his name. Not that he blamed her though, I mean not too many people with the name Hiccup went on to be chiefs. In fact he couldn't think of anyone in the history of Berk with that name that had amounted to anything.
Later, as they met in the great hall, Hiccup looked around the room. He was relieved to see that everyone who knew his secret that was there were his allies and trusted friends. Heather, a girl who had once washed up on Berk, had become the leader of her village, and he smiled at her, to which she smiled in return.
Eret was also there, though he didn't technically run a village, he was in charge of a large amount of men, and so had been invited. They both nodded at each other, and Hiccup relaxed, realizing that these two, along with the other recognizable faces, would keep his secret.
Looking once more around the room, he was covered by a wave of sadness. Every young leader had their father or mother there to guide them as they learned their duties. While Hiccup did have a mother, she hadn't been around for very much of Stoick's, Hiccup's dad, time as chief. Still Hiccup wished he had brought Valka along, if for nothing more than moral support.
Merida's voice snapped him out of his thoughts as she said "Welcome everyone, to the meeting of the clans. I am so glad that so many of you could come, and that you call had relatively safe journeys." She looked at her father as if to be sure she was doing all right, before continuing, "I see there are many new faces, like my own, this year. I hope we can all come to the terms to a successful treaty. Who would like to start?"
A hand was raised off to Hiccup's right, and Merida motioned for the owner to go ahead. The girl that had raised it, stood up and said "Thank you Merida. I have to agree it is wonderful to see so many new faces. Maybe new blood can figure out how to solve our dragon problem." Hiccup shifted uncomfortably as Eret and Heather shot him a look, before returning their gazes to the girl.
Merida frowned and said "Dragon problem? We have had no problem with dragons here. What kind of problem do you have… I'm sorry what your name is?" "Forgive me, how could I forget, I am Anya. Almost every night our village is attacked by dragons. They steal our livestock and burn our buildings. We have never provoked them and this only started happening recently."
"How recent?" Hiccup asked before he could stop himself. He tried to keep his emotions off his face, his mind was moving a mile a minute. Perhaps there was another nest of dragons be ruled by an Alpha that was cruel. Anya gave him a curious glance, and Eret and Heather worked to keep their gazes off of him, as she said "About two months ago. Worse of all, we are pretty sure there was a Night Fury, we never saw it, but we heard what we believe was one."
A gasp filled the room as the tribes that had ever dealt with dragons heard this. The unholy offspring of lightning and death itself, the Night Fury was one of the most feared dragons. Merida, and a handful of other tribes looked confused at this, but Hiccup had to work to keep his face from showing his delight. Another Night Fury! Could it be possible they had finally found another one?
The room exploded with options for Anya's tribe to try, but Hiccup remained silent. How he wished he knew where Anya's island was, he would fly Toothless there tonight. Course he would have to make up some sort of excuse for not staying at the tribal council and he would have to agree to follow everything that they decided on, even if it was something he didn't agree with, so it was probably for the better that he couldn't go.
After the meeting, Heather and Eret walked over to him, both unsure if they could speak freely in front of the other until Hiccup, in an excited hushed tone, said "Did you guys hear that?! Another Night Fury!" "That is wonderful Hiccup, but did you hear the suggestions afterwards?" asked Heather. "I have to admit I was too excited to listen. What were they?"
"Some people suggested me and my men be allowed to capture them." Eret said, "But the worse suggestion is that they allow Dagur and his Hooligan Tribe to come here and tell them about this knowledge that it is rumored they have. And we all know what that knowledge is." "Oh great, if the other tribes learn that I can train them, they will either get angry and declare war on Berk or they will get angry and just kill me. Worse yet, is I did bring Toothless with me."
"Yea that will really show your loyalty to Vikings." Heather said "You do know that we will stand with you Hiccup, but I really hope it doesn't come to that. Since most of the tribes are being run by a new generation, that means we would have to wait a lifetime for them to get over it, if they even did then." "I know. We really need to keep this a secret, Eret you have to push for them to pick you and your men. If it doesn't work out that way, this could end in disaster."
The other two nodded then said their goodbyes. As Hiccup gathered up his things, he heard a throat clear behind him. Turning he saw Merida standing there as she said "You were awfully quiet during the meeting. Why were you so curious as to when the attacks on Anya's village started?" Hiccup gulped before saying "My village was once attacked almost nightly for quite some time. I wanted to see if it had started in the same month, if maybe there was a pattern so I could predict a possible day when it would end, but they were totally different months, so there went that theory."
Merida looked like she didn't believe him, but just said, "Well to bad your theory didn't work out. It was nice meeting you Hiccup. See you tomorrow." As she walked away, Hiccup sighed in relief, not seeing the smile that it brought to Merida's eyes. He left the hall and went to his boat to check up on Bucket and the rest of the men, as well as Toothless.
Later, when he deemed it dark enough to safely take Toothless out without being seen, Hiccup went below deck and said "Okay bud, we can go, but we have to be careful that we aren't seen. Not to many people here are crazy about dragons." Toothless nuzzled Hiccup, before Hiccup climbed up into the saddle and they took off into the sky.
First they got some fish for Toothless to eat, who had eaten all that Hiccup had given him that morning not to long after he did so. They flew for some time after that so Toothless could stretch his wings, after being confined below deck all day and for most of the last week. Finally they decided to land and find a place for Toothless to stay for the remainder of the visit.
"Down there looks like a good place bud." Hiccup said and Toothless gently took them to the ground. As they touched down, Hiccup slid out of the saddle and turned to face Toothless. "I know it must be uncomfortable to sleep with that thing on bud, but I have to leave it on in case we need to take off in a hurry."
But Toothless had other things on his mind besides sleeping and he gently tackled Hiccup to the ground. Hiccup pretended to fight back and the two got so caught up in it that they didn't hear the pounding of the horse's hooves until its rider said "Don't worry I will shoot it, help is coming!" Hiccup looked up quickly and his eyes widened as he said "No, don't!"