The dwarrow folk of Ered Luin started telling stories to travellers of strange cries heard at night, a black thing in the sky, and the unmistakeable smell of dragon. It worried the ones who escaped from Erebor, reminding them of the fire, the long trek and the hardship their people faced. They slept a little closer to their weapons at night. The markets saw the demand for cram rise. The hysteria rose to such an extreme among some of the people that Princess Dis had to give an official speech to dispel the rumours. However, the unmistakeable rise in the guard and in the defences around settlements could not be ignored.
Of course, none of this was known to Toothless or Hiccup. From their lofty perch in the skies they saw very little of the activity below, hidden in the mountains. They spent their days sleeping, Hiccup often curled under one of Toothless' wings, and their nights hunting. They saw no further dragons, but instead, discovered many different animals, ones they had never seen before. The glimpses of the peoples that lived in this strange were, well, strange.
From what they had seen, some of the people here looked a little like the Meatlug tribe, or the Beserkers, but were all too short to be full grown men, but yet had some of the most magnificent beards he had seen. The normal sized men he had seen, seemed to be few and far between, but the ones that he did see looked like the Peaceable Farmers that Gobber talked about raiding when he was a lad. They didn't speak the same language either, from the snatches of conversation he heard, the short ones practically growling, whilst the taller ones spoke a soft, sing song sounding tongue. Either way, neither Hiccup nor Toothless could make head or tails of it.
All around the clearing Warg fire was leaping. But the wolf guards did not leave the trees. Maddened and angry, they were leaping and howling around the trunks, cursing the dwarves in their horrible language…
After a week or so resting, they began traveling in ernest again, heading further inland. Hiccup had never seen so much land before, stretching out like a sea of lumpy earth, waves of rock jutting out, frozen like ice. It fascinated him, although Toothless seemed unnerved by some of the creatures. They still flew by night, the waning moon providing more coverage for them to travel unnoticed.
AN: About Hiccup on beards; looking at the Hairy Hooligans in the film and the books, they are hairy (As the name suggests) and seem to take pride in facial hair. I mean, just look at Stoick's beard! So it seems natural he would like the beards. Also, in the book it mentions that having your beard cut off was the ultimate Viking shame. The tribes he mentions are lifted from the book series. The language I'm using for Westron is Welsh, as a) Tolkien based the elven languages off Welsh, and as both men and elves are made by the same God, it seems a logical way to continue, and b) I need to practice my Welsh (Any speakers, I would be glad for advice).
Neil Finn's 'Strangest Friends' was the music for the latter half of the chapter. Incidently, he also recorded the song at the end of the first Hobbit film.
Disclaimer: HTTYD does not belong to me, and neither does the Hobbit. In any form of media, they both belong to their respective owners.