INT. GREAT HALL - DAY
A noisy din of PROTESTING VOICES leads to... STOICK, glowering in the firelight. Surrounded by his men.
STOICK Either we finish them or they'll finish us!

"Did anyone ever thought of a third option?" asked Hiccup.

It's the only way we'll be rid of them! If we find the nest and destroy it, the dragons will leave. They'll find another home.
He sinks his blade into a... LARGE NAUTICAL MAP, spread out on the table... the blade pierces the middle of an uncharted corner, swirling with painted sea monsters and dragons.
STOICK (CONT'D) (DECIDEDLY) One more search. Before the ice sets in.
VIKING Those ships never come back.
STOICK (MATTER-OF-FACT) We're Vikings. It's an occupational hazard.

"Occupational hazard, huh?Better I remember this for later"said Hiccup.

Now who's with me?
Stoick throws up his fist. No one follows. The crowds shifts in restless silence. Head scratches. Eyes averted.
VIKING (FEEBLE) Today's not good for me.
VIKING (CONT'D) (EQUALLY FEEBLE) I've gotta do my axe returns.

"Cowards!" yells the terrible terror from the ring,causing all the dragons in the room plus Hiccup and Astrid to laught.

STOICK Alright. Those who stay will look after Hiccup.
Hands jut into the air, volunteers galore. Enthusiastic murmurs of prep and packing fill the room.
PHLEGMA THE FIERCE To the ships!
SPITELOUT I'm with you Stoick!

"That's how you get so many to come?Geez, I feel so loved."

STOICK (DRY) That's more like it.

"What's with you and undies?" asked Snotlout.
"It all started twenty years ago..."
"Back to the movie, back to the movie!" yelled Hiccup.
"Why did you interuped me?" asked Gobber confushed.
"Because I've heard this story before.I don't want the others to go through what I did."

The Vikings rush for the door, leaving Gobber and Stoick alone. Gobber gulps back the contents of his tankard attachment and scrapes back the bench.
GOBBER I'll pack my undies.
STOICK No, I need you to stay and train some new recruits.
GOBBER Oh, perfect. And while I'm busy, Hiccup can cover the stall. Molten steel, razor sharp blades, lots of time to himself...what could possibly go wrong?

"I'm not that I?"

Stoick sinks onto the bench beside Gobber, his brow burdened.
STOICK What am I going to do with him Gobber?
GOBBER Put him in training with the others.

"It was you that gave him the idea?!Thanks Gobber that was all I wanted, be trained to become a heartless murberer!"

STOICK No, I'm serious.
GOBBER So am I.
Stoick turns to him, glaring.
STOICK He'd be killed before you let the first dragon out of its cage.

"I'm sorry 've prouved us otherwise."

GOBBER Oh, you don't know that.
STOICK I do know that, actually.
GOBBER No, you don't.
STOICK No, actually I do.
GOBBER No you don't!
STOICK Listen! You know what he's like. From the time he could crawl he's been...different.

"Is that a bad thing!I would take it as a compliment if you called me different."said Kat.(it's true.I would take it as a normal is boring.)

He doesn't listen.
STOICK (CONT'D) Has the attention span of a sparrow. I take him fishing and he goes hunting for... for trolls.

"One time! I did that one time and you won't let it go.I was five and Gobber told me trolls exist!"
"Trolls do 're indiscriminate,great singers and love experts." said our host.

GOBBER (DEFENSIVE) Trolls exist! They steal your socks. (DARKLY) But only the left ones. What's with that?
STOICK When I was a boy...

"Oh, here we go!" said Hiccup.

GOBBER (GRUMBLING) Oh here we go.
STOICK My father told me to bang my head against a rock and I did it. I thought it was crazy, but I didn't question him. And you know what happened?

"Um... you became an idiot?" asked Kat and Hiccup and the dragons failed miserably on hidding their laughter

GOBBER You got a headache.
STOICK That rock split in two. It taught me what a Viking could do, Gobber. He could crush mountains,

"With his butt? I'm ready to belive that, you know." said Kat.

level forests,

"Only dragons" said Hiccup.

tame seas!

"Yeah,right!"

Even as a boy, I knew what I was, what I had to become.

"An idiot?If thats corect, then you've succssed." said Kat.

(BEAT) Hiccup is not that boy.
GOBBER You can't stop him, Stoick. You can only prepare him. (BEAT) Look, I know it seems hopeless. But the truth is you won't always be around to protect him. He's going to get out there again. He's probably out there now.

"You hit the nail on the head Gobber"

ON STOICK, as Gobber's words hit their mark.
EXT. WOODS - DAY ON AN OPEN NOTEBOOK
A drawn map of the island, covered in X's.
Hiccup looks up from it and peeks over a gorge, expectantly. Sees nothing. He adds another 'X' to the page, then scratches his pencil over the whole map in frustration. He snaps the book closed and pockets it.

"That's not nice did the poor book ever did to you?" said toothless.

HICCUP Uggh, the gods hate me. Some people lose their knife or their mug. No, not me. I manage to lose an entire dragon!
Hiccup WHACKS a low-hanging branch. It SNAPS back at him, hitting him in the face.

"Wow, your luck does suck" said the terror.

He looks up to see a snapped tree trunk. His eyes follow it to a long trench of up-turned earth. He follows it to a downed, black dragon, its body and tail tangled in a bola. It appears dead. Hiccup approaches, beaming.
HICCUP (CONT'D) (IN SHOCK) Oh wow. I did it. I did it. This fixes everything. (ELATED) Yes!
He strikes a victory pose, planting his foot on the fallen Night Fury.
HICCUP (CONT'D) I have brought down this mighty beast!

"Thanks for the compliment" said Toothless, trying to lighten up the mood.

It suddenly shifts.
HICCUP (CONT'D) Whoa!
Hiccup springs back, terrified. He turns his blade on it. Rattled, Hiccup creeps along the length of the weak, wounded dragon, dagger poised to strike. As he reaches the head, Hiccup finds the Night Fury staring coldly at him. Hiccup tries to look away, but he's drawn back to its unnerving, unflinching stare. With the dragon safety tangled in the ropes, Hiccup jabs with his dagger, puffing himself up with false bravado.
HICCUP (CONT'D) I'm going to kill you, Dragon. I'm gonna cut out your heart and take it to my father.

Stoic beamed with son was thinking about impresing him when he killed the most feared dragon of all.

I'm a Viking.

"No, I'm not" he said quitely and noone heard him.

(BEAT) I am a VIKING!

"NO, I'M NOT!"he yells and everyone hears him.

Hiccup raises the dagger, determined to prove his Viking- ness. The dragon's labored breathing breaks Hiccup's clenched concentration. He opens an eye, uncertainty leaking through. The dragon holds the stare. Something profound is exchanged. Finally, the Night Fury closes its eye and lowers its head, resigned to its fate. Hiccup tries to go through with it, holding the dagger aloft... fighting himself... until finally lowering it with a frustrated sigh.

The hall froze.

He looks over the dragon's chaffed rope wounds.
HICCUP (CONT'D) (muttered, ashamed) I did this.
He turns to leave. Pauses. And glances back at the dragon, chest heaving. Hiccup GRUMBLES. He checks over his shoulder to ensure that no one is watching... then hurries back to cut the ropes. The Night Fury's eye shoots open. With the dragon watching his every move, Hiccup hurriedly saws through the bola ropes. As the last rope falls free, the Night Fury suddenly POUNCES! In a blur, the dragon is upon him, pinning Hiccup down, grazing his neck. Looking like it's about to kill him. Hiccup is paralyzed. The dragon's breath ruffles his hair. Hiccup opens his eyes to find the Night Fury's wolf-like stare boring into him. The exchange is intense, profound. The dragon draws a deep breath, as though it's about to torch him, then lets out an ear-piercing scream instead.

"You know, that hurt."
"Sorry."

It turns and takes flight, flapping violently through the canopy of trees. It bashes against a nearby mountain side, recovers, and drops out of view some distance away. Winded, Hiccup struggles to his feet, staggers a few steps, collapses to his knees, and faints.

Everyone is 's the calm before the then the storm comes.
"What were you thinking Hiccup?!You could have killed the destroyer of the village, that beast, that monster, that devil,that-" Stoic yells.
"You have no right to call them 're living beings and if anything, the monster in here it's you."
"THEY'VE KILLED HUNDREDS OF US!"
"AND WE'VE KILLED THOUSANDS OF THEM!" Everyone is 've never heard Hiccup never stood up to anyone to defent he was standing up against the chief of the village,his own father, to defent the dragons.
"They defent themselves,that's 're just trying to you were in their place you would do the same."
"We're Vikings kill don't-"
"You don't give them a I'm not a Viking.I'm not a dragon killer.I'm a dragon rider!" He goes ahd sits among the dragons from the ring with Toothless next to him."I've choocen what side I'm on.I'm with the dragons."
" Hiccup Handerous Haddoc III, you are from now on forever banished from the island of you're not my son." Hiccup was shocked from that managed to hide his nuzeled him.
"It's ok Hiccup."said Toothless.
"Yeah, and you still have us" said the Zippleback.
"And me"said the Gronkle.
"Me too" contined the Nabber.
"Me tree" contined the Nightmare.
"Don't forget the little guys!" yelled The terror making everyone laught.
Astrid then stood up and walked over to the dragons.
'Is there any room for me too?" Hiccup smiled at her and moved a little to the side so there were room for her to were now both leaning against Vikings were had just lost the heir and most promising warior of the village to the dragons.

Hiccup enters to see... STOICK, seated on a thick slice of tree-trunk. He is slouched over the fire-pit, stirring the coals with his axe. Embers waft around his beard. Hiccup tries to sneak past, up the stairs to his room. Stoick seems none the wiser, when...
STOICK Hiccup.

"Busted" says Kat with a singing voise.

HICCUP (CAUGHT) Dad. Uh...
Stoick stands, takes a deep breath.
HICCUP (CONT'D) I, uh... I have to talk to you, Dad.
STOICK I need to speak with you too, son.
Hiccup and Stoick STRAIGHTEN at the same moment.
HICCUP STOICK I've decided I don't want to I think it's time you learn fight dragons. to fight dragons.
(BEAT) (BEAT) What? What?

"When I want to fight dragons, he doesn't let, when I don't want to, he lets me.I guess the whole universe is against me."

STOICK (CONT'D) You go first.
HICCUP No, you go first.
STOICK Alright. You get your wish. Dragon training. You start in the morning.
HICCUP (SCRAMBLING) Oh man, I should've gone first. Uh, 'cause I was thinking, you know we have a surplus of dragon-fighting Vikings, but do we have enough bread-making Vikings, or small home REPAIR VIKINGS-

"Those were the best you could come up with?" asked Gobber.
"Hey, I was paniking, okay?"

STOICK -You'll need this.
Stoick hands Hiccup his axe. Hiccup avoids taking it. HICCUP I don't want to fight dragons.
STOICK Come on. Yes, you do.

"Ah... no, I don't.I thought I made that clear with the whole ' I'm with the dragons' thing before"

HICCUP Rephrase. Dad I can't kill dragons.
STOICK But you will kill dragons.
HICCUP No, I'm really very extra sure that I won't.
STOICK It's time Hiccup.
HICCUP Can you not hear me?
STOICK This is serious son!
Stoick forces the axe into Hiccup's hands. Its weight drags him down. He looks up to see Stoick under-lit with firelight.
STOICK (CONT'D) When you carry this axe... you carry all of us with you. Which means you walk like us. You talk like us. You think like us.

"No Thanks.I think I'd prefer jump of a cliff."

No more of...
(GESTURING NON- specifically at Hiccup) ... this.
HICCUP You just gestured to all of me. "Does this happens a lot?" asked Toothless. "More than you think."
STOICK Deal?
HICCUP This conversation is feeling very one-sided.
STOICK DEAL?!
Hiccup glances at the axe in his hands. It's a no-win argument. HICCUP (RESIGNED) Deal. Satisfied, Stoick grabs his helmet and duffel bag... and heads for the door. STOICK Good. Train hard. I'll be back. Probably.

"Seriously?Not even a 'take care' ,'be safe' or something?"

HICCUP And I'll be here. Maybe. Stoick heads out the door, leaving Hiccup holding the axe.