Careful. Careful now.
All of the dragons gathered around to watch as Hiccup began to shift his weight onto the prosthetic for the first time. How strange it was, to no longer feel his heel against the ground. As he tried to establish his balance, he held on to the top of Toothless' head. The Night Fury watched patiently as his boy managed to assume some stability in his posture.
Hiccup took a deep breath. He let go of his grip, and took a step forward with his good leg - more of a limp, really. Toothless came around beside him, watching for any need of intervention. Hiccup now tried taking a step with his new leg, and stumbled forward with a cry. The Night Fury quickly caught him, however, and Hiccup clung to him.
"Hoh, thanks bud." He got back on his feet, and tried again. All of the dragons watched as he slowly became more and more sure of his step.
Soon Hiccup was practicing with longer distances, walking from one dragon to the other - from Toothless to the Monstrous Nightmare, from the Nightmare to the Deadly Nadder, from the Nadder to the Hideous Zippleback, and from there back to Toothless. If he ever stumbled or fell, they were there to catch him, to support him as he regained his composure.
They were there for him.
The limp gradually faded from his gait, and he began to take on more challenging endeavors. Toothless accompanied him on a spelunking trip into the mountain, all the way down to the magma pool that the Red Death had lived in. After returning from that, and a day of rest, he decided to take a walking tour around the coast of the island, spending three days on the journey. This time, he was joined by his - he didn't know what to call it. His horde? His flock? And soon, it wasn't the label of his group that perplexed him, so much as the fact that it was his group.
The realization had not yet ceased to astonish him. The dragons treated him as a hero, the one who freed them from the grasp of the Red Death, and they were more than happy to follow his lead. How different from his place on Berk.
Berk...
"You know Toothless," he knelt on the beach, staring across the water, "I can't stop thinking about home."
The dragon lay beside him, and warbled as he tilted his head in curiosity. He followed Hiccup's stare to the horizon, then looked back.
"I mean, you know what it was like, you saw. But, I dunno..." He picked up a small stone, and stood up. "I guess you spend fifteen years growing up someplace, you're bound to miss it when you leave." He leaned a bit, and flicked the stone onto the ocean. It skipped twice before sinking beneath the surface.
Hiccup kept staring, and felt the breeze blow in his face. He slowly shook his head. "I have to go back."
Toothless grumbled his annoyance, and let his eyelids drop to express his disapproval.
"Don't worry, we'll be more careful, and once we tell them that the queen's dead, they'll warm up to you. That was our plan, remember?" But even as he spoke, he knew he was also trying to convince himself.
In the meantime, now that he had remastered walking, he began to rediscover how to operate Toothless' fin. The first problem had been that his prosthetic didn't fit into the foot pedal. Short of a complete rework of the system, though, Hiccup found that simply switching his remaining boot from his right foot to his left solved the problem. In fact, when he did so with his pant leg rolled all the way down, he discovered that it was impossible to tell the foot was missing at all.
The primary issue resolved, Hiccup now only had to grow comfortable again with operating the fin. Luckily, his muscle memory had persisted, and soon the duo were swooping and diving and corkscrewing through the air with more ease than ever. Days kept ticking past, and soon Hiccup realized he could not put off his return any longer. Three weeks after he arrived at the nest, he called all the dragons to him.
"Well guys," he slowly walked around his circular space as everyone watched him, "it's been a fun time, it really has. I mean, taking down the Red Death has really brought us all closer together. But, I'm afraid I have to get going now." He walked over to Toothless and mounted him. "You guys have fun, enjoy your new queen-free nest, and I'll come visit. Let's go."
These last few words were for Toothless, and the two lifted into the air and flew off.
"Alright, when we get back, I am not getting off you until I can get them to understand. I'll explain from the air, try to get everyone to keep calm. They won't shoot you as long as I'm on-"
A sudden squawk to his left interrupted him. Hiccup looked and saw a Deadly Nadder flying beside him. Scratch that. Five Deadly Nadders. Scratch that. Five Deadly Nadders, six Gronckles, a flock of Terrible Terrors...
He looked behind to see that the entire flock had followed him from the island.
"Whoa, whoa!" Hiccup turned Toothless around to face everyone, and all the dragons hovered in place. "No no no no, you go back!" He pointed back at the island. "Go back, you're free! Free!" He motioned his hands in a wide circle above his head. "Go back, you're free! You don't need a king or queen."
Some of the dragons did glance back at the volcano. But none of them moved, and they just watched him even more closely.
"Oh boy." Realizing this was one command they were not going to follow, he turned Toothless around again, and they began pressing forward. "This might complicate a few things."
"C'mon Astrid, is it done yet?"
"Just give me a second!" She refocused her concentration very closely as the sword ground against wheel. Sparks flew angrily as the blade screamed against the stone, which raced round and round at a dizzying speed. Finally she stopped pedaling, and held the edge up to her eye. "I think I got it!"
Gobber took it from her, gave it his own inspection. He turned it to see from dozens of different perspectives. "Good angle...little nick on the edge here, don' want that..." He gave it a few swings. "Good balance, sturdy...congratulations Astrid! Welcome to the smithy!"
"Awesome! When can I start?"
"Right now!" He snatched a smock from a nearby hook and held it out to her. "We need to get ourselves re-armed before the Berserkers or Outcasts find out the state we're in. No weapons, didn't get new ore until today, and what with Stoick..."
"Yeah, right, right." She quickly threw on the garment, then rushed to the forge. Suddenly, she stopped, and put her hands on the brown sooty smock. "This was Hiccup's, wasn't it?"
"Aye, one size fits all."
She took a moment to remember, to wonder where he was...
"That reminds me..." Gobber interrupted her thoughts. "Although I don't suppose, now that you're my apprentice, I can convince you to return to dragon trainin'?"
"I can't. I-"
"I know, I know. You can't kill the Monstrous Nightmare."
"Gobber, it's more than that."
"No no no, I understand. It's just a pain now, that's all. Hiccup won the Nightmare first, and we know how that turned out. You were runner-up, but now you don't want the privilege either. And now look who I've got left! I'm not lettin' the twins in the cage with a Nightmare!"
As he continued on with his spiel, Astrid used the tongs to pull a long piece of glowing iron from the forge, and she set it on the anvil. She took the hammer, and its falls punctuated her words.
"You know Gobber, have you wondered if maybe we may not have to worry about the dragons anymore?"'
"Aye, here we go again."
"No, but think about it! We haven't had any raids for almost three weeks, not since they came after our weapons."
"I still don' know what that was all about. Have you seen anythin' like it?"
"No."
"Pfft, course you haven't. Been around longer than you have, and I've ne'er seen anythin' like it, so how could you have?"
"Fair point, fair point." She kept hammering at the iron, and it gradually shaped into a blade.
"I swear to Odin though, it will be just our luck, that right at our weakest, the dragons are gonna come back in full force and-"
"Dragons! Dragons, incoming!"
Gobber stared out the window for a second, then looked up at the ceiling again. "Again Odin? What did I ever do to you?"
"Wait, it's daylight though!" Astrid leaned out the window. "They never attack in the daytime!"
"Look out! Night Fury! It's heading for the Great Hall!"
"Night Fury?" Astrid gasped. How many of those could there be? And where there was Toothless, there had to be-
Without bothering to remove her smock, she ran out the door.
"What-Astrid! Astrid, where are you goin'?!" Gobber watched as his new apprentice left. "Aye, she's worse than Hiccup was!"
Astrid sprinted to the Great Hall, where a large crowd was gathering outside. The dragons flew in circles far overhead, and one by one began to land on buildings around the plaza. Towards the center of the area, a Night Fury descended. And riding the Night Fury was exactly who no one expected to see alive again.
"It's Hiccup!" "He's back!" "And he brought the dragons with him!" "Look at that!"
"Everyone!" Hiccup shouted down, and they all quieted. "Clear a spot for me to land, please!"
The sea of people parted, forming a large space for Toothless to set down. The dragon glanced around in suspicion, but Hiccup tried to calm him.
"Whoa, easy bud, easy. I won't let them hurt you again." He then looked up at everyone, and yelled. "Nobody come any closer! And hear me out this time, please!"
The only person who budged was Astrid, trying to elbow her way to the front. A cold feeling came from the crowd as Hiccup talked.
"Now, I know that we've fought dragons for seven generations, but I'm here to tell you that we don't need to do that anymore!" Hiccup looked around as he spoke, including behind him, making sure no one was sneaking up. "They only raided us because their queen commanded them to. I'm here to tell you that we killed that queen!"
Despite the fear of dragons looming overhead, this outrageous nonsense prompted a chuckle from the crowd.
"I'm serious! We killed her three weeks ago, and have you had any raids since then?"
At this, everyone grew silent again. Except Astrid, still fighting her way forward.
"Toothless," he patted the top of his head, "and I worked together. It sounds crazy, I know, but it's possible! Peace is possible. The dragons don't have to raid us anymore, we can coexist now."
The dawning realization he hoped to see on their faces did not appear, and he grew nervous.
"I know I ran off, and it was kind of a foolish thing, but look at what I did! The dragons can be our friends," he gestured around him. Please, I'm asking you to reaccept me, and realize that dragons are not the monsters you think they are."
No one was answering. Hiccup was afraid that he was faltering.
"Here, where's my dad? I'll talk to him about it, he'll-"
"Hiccup!"
The familiar voice caught his attention. Looking over, he saw Astrid burst from the mass of people.
"Astrid!" He dismounted as she ran forward. Toothless recognized her, and relaxed as she approached.
"I was so worried about you!" She whispered softly, affection showing in her eyes. Abruptly, she seemed to remember something, and with her face turning to anger punched him in the arm.
"Ow!"
"And that's for scaring me!"
This prompted a furious hiss around her, deafening. Looking up, she saw every dragon glare at her, and they began to climb down from the rooftops. She gasped in panic.
"Oh no, no no!" Hiccup placed himself in front of her, thus diffusing their anger. "She's, uh, that's just what she does. She's weird, I know." He chuckled, put his arm around her back, and gave a playful shake at the shoulder. "See? Buddies."
Astrid watched as they retreated back up, and now stared at Hiccup. "You control them?"
"Uh, yeah, kind of, I guess...it was an accident, really."
"How?"
"Well, uh, after Toothless and I killed their queen, they needed a new one, and apparently I am the successor they chose."
She stared, her eyes wide in surprise.
"Yeah, you should have seen it." Hiccup tried to break up the tension. "Toothless and I were outflying her, dodging her fire, it was really something. In fact, I even ended up losing..."
He caught himself. He was trying to get back into the village's favor; the last thing they needed was something else to tease him about. Glancing down, he realized that with his boot on and his pant leg down, his left foot could easily pass as authentic. He didn't want "One-leg" to be added to Snotlout's list of insults...
"Losing...?"
"My boot!" He pointed at his right foot, still bare. "Lost my boot, it's pretty terrible." He laughed nervously, hoping he would pull this off. "But anyways, can I see my dad?"
Astrid bit her lip, then looked down. "Stoick-"
"What are you doing?" The two turned and saw Spitelout emerging now from the crowd, with Snotlout not far behind. Toothless snarled and backed away at his approach.
"Spitelout!" Hiccup went up to him. "Look, it's difficult to explain, but could I just see my dad, and I can-"
"Your father's dead."
Hiccup's mind froze, and the world spun to a standstill. "W-what?" His breath caught.
"Three days after you flew off, he left the island. Two weeks went by, he didn't come back. Some of us went out to look for him, and we found his helmet, floating in the water."
"B-b-but maybe he just dropped it! You don't know-"
"The next day, we found his ship. Pierced with arrows along its side, blood stains on the deck. Outcasts, from the look of their arrowheads."
"No...no no, oh gods..."
Hiccup sunk to his knees, and Astrid saw him clasp his hands over his eyes, his entire body shivering from the devastating tragedy as he began to weep. It broke her own heart to see the boy in such grief. It was several minutes before he managed to choke out any more words.
"W...why…why did he...leave?"
"He didn't tell us directly." Spitelout folded his arms and glared down. "But apparently, when Gobber asked, Stoick said 'I'm so ashamed.'"
Hiccup's breath came quicker now, still heaving with sobs, and he looked up at the unforgiving face. Astrid came around and saw him, his features contorting with agony.
"And I think we all know what he was ashamed of. The boy who wouldn't kill a dragon. Imagine, being a chief, and having a son like you."
"Stop." Astrid tried to confront Spitelout as Hiccup began sobbing more. "Stop it, right now. You don't know what you're doing."
"I know perfectly well what I'm doing."
He picked up Hiccup by his shirt collar, prompting a hiss of outrage from Toothless and the other dragons. Astrid tried to block the Night Fury with her body, but he still pushed against her, eager to get at Spitelout.
"You killed our chief. You brought the dragons to our village. You're not one of us." He set Hiccup on the ground, but still gripped his shirt. "You may have run away the first time because you chose to. Now, we're telling you. Go back to your dragons!" Spitelout shoved him away, where he sprawled on the ground. "And stay with them!"
With the final word in the matter said, he turned to go back into the Great Hall.
"No."
The voice was small, but so absolutely solid that everyone in the crowd heard it. Spitelout turned around again.
"What did you say?"
"No..." Hiccup got to his feet before Astrid could help him. His eyes still watered, but his face had more outrage than sorrow. "No! I belong here, just as much as you do, more than you do!" He took a step forward. "I have done more for Berk than you ever have. While you ran around screaming and hacking at things with axes, I found a solution. I made peace with the dragons, and it wouldn't be hard for everyone here to do the same thing, if you weren't all so thick about it!"
No one had ever heard such harsh words come from the scrawny boy before. Astrid tried to take his arm. "What are you doing?"
He put his hand on hers, gave a gentle squeeze, then removed it. He advanced more on Spitelout, almost comedic because he barely came up to the man's chest. "And on top of that, the position of chief is my birthright. You have no right to take it!"
"Except you ran off!"
"To fix the dragon problem! Aren't you even listening to me?! All I wanted was a 'thank you'!"
"You're the reason we need to replace Stoick in the first place!" Spitelout grew infuriated. "And if you won't listen to words, perhaps you'll listen to force!"
He made to grab Hiccup, who yelped and quickly stumbled back again. There was a loud roar as Toothless shoved Astrid out of the way, and he whipped his tail around to hit Spitelout square in the gut. The blow sent him flying backwards, landing with his back against the ground. An instant later, the Night Fury was atop him. The dragons screamed, and the people gasped.
"Dad!" Snotlout tried to break out of the crowd, but was held back by wise onlookers.
"Toothless!" Hiccup called.
The dragon's chest was heaving, not willing to release his prey, but exercising enough restraint to not complete his kill. He glared at the man beneath his claws, and hissed.
Astrid watched in fascination as Hiccup approached Spitelout. His breathing still came in shuddering sobs, but every inch of his body now exuded rage.
"Wait, wait!" Spitelout shuffled beneath the Night Fury's grasp, reached into his vest pocket, and pulled out a crumpled letter. "It's from your father, he said to give it to you if you returned before he did."
Hiccup took the letter with brisk fingers. "Well thanks for finally mentioning it. Going to send me off without reading it?" He glanced at it once, then stuffed it into his own pocket. "Probably more 'I'm so ashamed of my son' nonsense, though."
"Look, about what I said earlier..."
"What about it!?"
Spitelout's eyes were wide with horror; Hiccup had never been this incensed before. He glanced from the boy to the dragon, then back again, and over again - but words failed him. "For the love of Thor, Hiccup, just let me go."
Hiccup froze as he suddenly realized the true power he had. For once, someone had actually pled to him, and not the "Just go away!" kind of plea either. On the one hand, his stomach squirmed in disgust. On the other, he felt extremely satisfied that he was finally being taken seriously.
He motioned for Toothless to back off. "So, just to make sure we all understand," he swept his arms out to indicate dragons and people alike, "you tell me that I'm the reason my father's dead, you mock me, you force me to leave even after I risked my life to save this village, and then you try to attack me, and you expect me to do nothing about it!?"
With each accusation, the dragons could sense his rousing anger, and they clearly saw who it was directed at. Bit by bit, they began to climb and fly down from the roofs, taking their place by Hiccup's side and bringing more and more alarm to the Berkians.
Spitelout saw the hopelessness in his situation, but still tried one last time. "Hiccup...please..."
The boy shivered, and he took a shuddering breath. Then he looked at the dragons.
"You saw him," he pointed to Spitelout, "attack me?" He clawed at his face, and pointed at himself. The dragons cried out in anger, and drew closer.
"Hiccup!"
He gave Spitelout one last look in the eyes.
"Hiccup, don't do this!"
He closed his eyes, teardrops falling, and with a deep breath turned away.
"Hic-"
Everyone gasped in horror as the dragons closed in on the short-lived chief. Astrid covered her mouth in shock, stepping away from the scene as it unfolded. Hiccup did not watch, and tried not to hear. The ruckus shortly died away, leaving a terrible silence in its wake.
"Does anyone else have a problem with me?!"
No one dared to speak up.
"Anyone at all! I'm all ears for critiques at the moment!"
Even Snotlout, usually his most vocal critic, stayed silent - for once in his life, he was being listened to. One more disgusted look around, his eyes lingering with sadness on where Spitelout had been, then he climbed on Toothless.
"Astrid!"
She had been staring at Spitelout, and now jerked her head around. "What! Yes!" At the moment, she didn't know what to think of him.
"Come on." His voice suddenly became gentle again, and he held out his hand to her. After a moment's hesitation, she grabbed it, and he pulled her onto the dragon.
"Where are we going?"
Hiccup bent low to prepare for takeoff, and his voice regained its edge. "I want to have a little talk with the Outcasts..."