Chapter Thirteen: A Chief And A Champion
He woke up.
Hiccup came wide awake, the world sharp and focused and unmistakably real. It might have had something to do with the nature of his bed, which was little more than a pile of hay and a few scratchy blankets. It wasn't real comfy, but considering how good he felt, a few prickly pieces of dried grass hardy mattered. The constant soreness and weakness that had all but enveloped him was gone, replaced by a placid sense of relief and ease.
Not his bed and not his house, though. A barn, from the looks of it, and a clean one at that. Light filtered in through a slightly ajar door to the side, allowing a good view of an otherwise nondescript barn and the dust motes that flitted through the air. The barn's design was not one used in Berkian architecture. Guess he'd been too fragile to move after drinking the antidote… except that he didn't remember drinking the antidote. It broke during the crash. Hiccup recalled how stupid he felt after that, though it was a short-lived feeling as consciousness mostly left him at that point. How did he survive after that?
Further thought on the question left him as a dragon tongue came in from the right and slobbered his face. Wiping away the spittle from his eyes, he was greeted with a happy dragon making little happy grunts and doing his best to refrain from drowning Hiccup in further tongue baths. Toothless had parked himself in the darker section of the barn, most likely standing vigil over Hiccup for as long as he was out. It had become standard procedure for the dragon, no surprise considering how often Hiccup wound up convalescing in bed.
Hiccup gave Toothless an affectionate rub on the face. "What number are we up to now, bud? Four or five? I'm not sure I count that mishap with Gobber's anvil… Hold on a sec."
He removed his blanket and did a quick limb check. Five, five, five, one – all good. No new additions or subtractions.
He looked up to see Toothless enthusiastically bounding out the door, letting more sunlight into the barn and giving Hiccup a narrow view of the outside. Not much to see except a section of forest and a partly cloudy sky and a few sheep grazing in a clearing. It gave him no clues about the state of things other than nothing was burning.
He thought about waiting for Toothless to return, as he suspected the dragon had gone off to notify the world of Hiccup's awakening, but he couldn't stand the thought of staying in bed any longer. He tested his muscles and found them disconcertingly lacking. He succeeded in sitting up in bed, but doing so made him groan with effort. Either his muscles had atrophied from a long period of bed rest, or the poison had done a bigger number on him than he expected.
A shadow entered the doorway, and in came Astrid at a jogger's gait, Toothless close behind her. Hiccup anticipated an eager greeting from her that involved a tackling hug or something equally physical, but she skidded to stop well before him and knelt down instead. She must have feared for him a good long while, her face marred with thick bags under her eyes and an expression crossed with equal parts relief and love.
"How are you feeling?" she asked.
"Like I might live," he replied, attempting to reassure her with a little smile.
Her eyes let slip a few tears and she gingerly kissed him on the forehead. "You're not allowed to do anything stupid for a good long while, you hear me?"
"I think we both know I can't make a promise like that," he joked. "How long was I out?"
"Four days. I hope you got a good rest because I sure didn't. You gave us a good scare a couple of times."
Hiccup nodded, his smile slipping away. He gave her a kiss on the cheek, part thank-you and part pure affection. "Well, if you get me up to speed, you can have as long a rest as you need. Just help me get to my feet, will you? I've been on my back long enough."
She filled him in as they walked from the barn, the sunlight harsh on Hiccup's eyes after his time in the dark. He leaned on her as he had been doing for years now, and it pleased him to hear how she took down Random and saved Tempest Point before too much damage was wrought. A bit disconcerting that Random up and disappeared as if she had never existed, though non-existent people didn't leave their clothes behind in the process. Random must have some powerful mystical qualities to her, which naturally meant she would be showing up in the future, because that's how these things worked.
The barn resided outside the village proper, not so far that any healthy person couldn't have made the village center in a few minutes. For Hiccup, it took longer. The soreness in his muscles now only materialized when he moved, though it had diminished to a tolerable ache. He asked Astrid to go slow just the same, with Toothless walking beside them in protective-dragon mode.
Much to Hiccup's easement, most of the village stood intact. Those structures tarred with burn and collision damage were under repair, though a few looked too far gone to be salvaged. The villagers themselves had fared better, several injured but none fatally or permanently. The initial brunt of the dragons' anger had been reaped on Random's men apparently – two dead, several wounded, and the rest having fled during the chaos. If Astrid hadn't recovered the ASD when she did, the villagers would have been next.
Hiccup expected a lot of dirty or even angry looks from the villagers as he passed through the center, but mostly he got a lot of tired eyes, uncertain eyes. Most of them were too busy trying to put their lives back together to give him much thought. Perhaps that was for the best.
Positive signs were in good supply as well. Fishlegs buzzed in on Chomps to deliver a supply of rocks for the foundation of a new home, Chomps holding them in her mouth like a chipmunk collecting nuts and then letting them avalanche out where needed. Snotlout was overseeing Fenrir, Beatrix, and Barf-Belch as they carried in lumber from the forest, with Ick and Rick… Mike and Dick… the village leaders giving him instructions on where to put it. The Twins appeared to be doing nothing more important than entertaining the villager children, sitting on a log with a crowd of youngsters thronging them, but it kept the kids from running underfoot. Surprisingly, the Twins were keeping the children's attention. Hiccup got close enough to overhear why.
"So there was this giant ship that was flying in the sky," said Tuffnut, "and it had all these angry people on it that wanted to go down to this big city and take away everyone's stuff."
"How did the ship fly?" asked one interested child.
"Oh, you know, magic," said Ruffnut. "How else would it fly?"
"Maybe it had big wings like your dragons," said another child.
Tuffnut looked over at his sister. "I don't remember. Did it?"
"No, it didn't have wings," she replied. "It floated, like in the ocean. They also had these special harnesses that could make rocks float as well."
"That's silly," said a third child. "Rocks can't float, they sink."
"That's what I thought, too," said Ruffnut. "But then I saw this mean lady throwing rocks at everyone and I believed it."
"How'd you stop her?" said a fourth child.
"Well, first we had to find her," said Ruffnut, "because we wound up in this big desert, which is a really hot and dry place. My brother and I…"
Hiccup didn't need to hear any more. He knew this story already. At least Ruffnut seemed to be enjoying her role as storyteller. Ruffnut was finally getting some appreciation for her exploits. Also, the Twins weren't doing anything stupid – always a plus.
"Ruff and Tuff – babysitters," commented Astrid as they moved on past the crowd of kids. "Who'd have thought it?"
Hiccup chuckled at the idea, but then felt a more serious concern creep in. Two of them, in fact. "So everyone's been here this whole time, waiting for me to wake up?"
"Fishlegs went home to check up on the village and let Gobber know what happened," said Astrid. "We thought about bringing more people over to help out with reconstruction, but I decided that more dragons would probably make the villagers nervous."
"And that brings me to my other question: what happened to Marcus's dragons?"
Astrid pointed to a grove of trees outside the village, where the beginnings of a clearing could be seen. "We're keeping them over there. Marcus and what's left of his men are keeping them calm and away from the village."
"Marcus is here?" said a surprised Hiccup. "Why isn't he back on his island?"
Astrid hesitated before speaking. "I'll let him tell you. I only know the story secondhand."
Hiccup wanted to ask for further elaboration – he was sick of mysteries – but then a recognizable villager popped up right in their path, wielding an axe this time instead of a hoe and looking only marginally friendlier than before. Funny how Hiccup couldn't remember the names of the village leaders but had no trouble recalling Maddie and her sullen disposition.
"I see you're out and about finally," said Maddie. "Did you get tired of napping while the rest of us worked?"
"You're not serious, are you?" said Astrid, giving the heavy-set woman a dark glare. "After everything we just did…"
"Easy, Astrid," said Hiccup, really hoping to avoid any further diplomatic incidents. "If she has something to say, let her say it."
Toothless eyed her warily, mostly because of the axe in her hand. Maddie smiled thinly, making no threatening gestures but keeping her intentions impossible to read. "It was close to three years ago when this impossible metal creature came rampaging through our village, destroying our homes, wrecking our lives. Not just a metal beast, but black fire dropping from the sky, this strange guy who glowed every time he whacked something, and a couple of kids riding on the back of a scary dragon. We didn't know who was fighting whom or why, we didn't know why it started or why it ended. We never got any answers. All we could do was rebuild and go on with our lives, wondering what we did to deserve such insanity, wondering if it would happen again."
Her stare intensified as it bore into Hiccup, making him feel like he was on trial for his life. "That was the craziest day we've ever had, and I know the village doesn't remember you, Chief Hiccup. But I do. You and Astrid here just showing up, bringing mayhem into our lives and then taking off after the damage was done. I always wondered what I'd do if I ever saw you again, and then you showed up a few days ago, acting like you'd never been here before. I recognized you, Chief Hiccup, and I have to say that I didn't think kind thoughts of you. I half-suspected you were the one leading the dragon raiders."
Hiccup wasn't doing a good job of hiding his guilty look, and he opted to be straight with Maddie. She and her village deserved that much. "I know what happened three years ago looked pretty bad…"
Maddie waved away his words. "It really doesn't matter to me what your explanation is. I probably wouldn't like it anyway. I suspect the village wouldn't like it either. But you know what? I'm not saying a thing, and I never will. Because you didn't have to come help us. You never had to come help us. You almost died trying to help us. Yet you came just the same. When it's all said and done, that says it all, and I will never forget it. We will never forget it."
She put her axe to the side, took Hiccup's hand in hers, and gave it a gentle squeeze. Her judgmental expression became one of gratitude, sincere and genuine.
"Bless you, Chief Hiccup."
And just like that, she was off again, axe in hand and on her way to the forest. Hiccup, Astrid, and Toothless stood there for a few moments, silently watching Maddie leave. Hiccup felt a bit lighter now, as if one less brick-of-responsibility had been lifted from his shoulders. Even if nothing else good came from all this, he would've found Maddie's words reward enough.
The only things that grew in the clearing was dead stumps and rocks, making it perfect for a dozen traumatized dragons that were still a little flame-happy. They had found spots on the ground to bed down on, some of them having incurred new injuries and scars from the recent chaos. Bandages and splints had been applied, fresh fish had been supplied, and they had all the distance they needed from the village to feel safe for now.
Hiccup watched them for a time before going to see Marcus, who was dividing up the dragons' morning meal into separate baskets while his three remaining men served it. Tents and stockpiles of worldly goods were scattered about the front of the clearing, enough to imply that Marcus intended to stick around longer than a few days. At least there were no dragon-sticks lying around or any related equipment.
Hiccup hadn't wanted to think about it until now, but it was hard to ignore the dilemma he had on his hands. These dragons could flee the scene at any time, but they chose to stay. They accepted a certain degree of human presence, but they would never fit into a human society. And thanks to Random, they had even less trust of humans than before.
"I hope your dragon-training instincts are good to go," said Astrid solemnly, "because I don't have a clue what to do here."
Toothless seemed almost sad as he gazed on his fellow flyers. Hiccup reasoned Toothless must feel their pain, or at least had some dragon empathy. That didn't stop Toothless from sticking close to Hiccup, his body tense in anticipation of action. Just because you felt empathy for someone didn't mean you trusted them.
Marcus noticed Hiccup's little trio and came over to greet him, though his mood was more somber than jovial. Like Astrid, he looked like he hadn't slept at all over the last four days, and he wore a bandage on his right arm that wasn't there the last time Hiccup had seen him.
"Glad to see you awake, Chief Hiccup," said Marcus, shaking Hiccup's hand. "I guess the Valkyries weren't ready to claim you yet."
Or maybe my dad had a hand in it, Hiccup mused. He hadn't told anyone about his dream encounter yet, and he didn't plan to. It might have been only a dream brought on by near-death, or it might have been more than that. Regardless, he felt like it was a moment made especially, and solely, for him. No need to share such things.
"I'm too much Viking for even them," Hiccup joked. "I'm glad to see you, but a little surprised you're here instead of on your island."
Marcus sighed heavily, clearly not armed with happy news. "There's no reason to be on my island any longer. My workshop is gone."
Hiccup gaped at the news. "I'm guessing that it didn't get up and walk away."
Marcus turned and looked back at his dragon wards, as if facing away from Hiccup and Astrid made it easier to speak. "The supply room, the one with my stores of combustion gas. It just… exploded, without warning and without a known cause. My men and I were on the other side of the workshop when it happened. The door flew across the workshop like it had been shot out of one of my dragon-sticks, followed by this great wave of fire and heat that scorched and melted my equipment on contact. There was no way to contain it, and the wave started igniting every flammable substance in my home. I knew we had minutes before the entire workshop was consumed. Thankfully the dock was untouched and I able to get my men and a few belongings to our ship before the flames reached us."
He faced Hiccup again, and there was evident sadness rimming his eyes. "Maybe it was only a matter of time. Maybe it's penance for my role in these terrible matters. But I watched as my workshop, my home, everything that I had spent years building, burn up in less time than it takes to cook a fish on a skewer."
"I am sorry, Marcus," said Hiccup sincerely. "What about Alvin and his men?"
"That's the interesting part – they were already gone," replied Marcus. "Despite my feelings toward the man, I wasn't about to leave him to die like that. I went to free him from the storage room we had locked them in, only to find it empty. I'm not sure how long they'd been gone, or how they could've escaped the island, but I strongly suspect Random was behind it."
"I'd go with that idea," said Astrid.
"Was anything else missing?" asked Hiccup. "Gas, weapons, equipment?"
Marcus shrugged forlornly. "I don't know. Random played me so well that I'm surprised I'm not wearing lyre strings. Who knows what she managed to steal or ship off before the workshop went up. The only thing I can account for is the ASD."
He pointed at a tree stump near his tent, where a very-smashed thing lay in several jagged pieces. Hiccup had planned on asking what had become of the Alpha Signal Device; now he didn't have to.
"I should have destroyed it a long time ago," explained Marcus. "Too tempting not to use and too easy to abuse."
"Could anyone else make one?" asked Hiccup. "Are there plans hiding somewhere?"
Marcus shook his head. "Drago was the only one who knew how to build it. Hopefully we'll never see the likes of it again."
"What about your dragon-sticks?" asked Astrid. "You starting up again?"
Marcus let out a rueful laugh. "I think I'm finished with that particular dream of mine. I wanted so badly to turn what I learned under Drago into something good that I didn't consider all the consequences. Instead of stopping war, I almost caused one. I was a fool all around."
"You weren't that much of a fool, Marcus," said Hiccup. "It's not a bad thing to want to help others. By themselves, your dragon-sticks aren't evil. What they're used for depends on whose hands are holding them."
"Maybe," said Marcus, "but it always seems like the wrong hands are the first ones to reach out for them. I have to wonder – if we could go back in time and find the inventor of the crossbow and tell him about all the lives ended or ruined due to his invention, would he think of his creation as just a tool? No, after all this, I can't be the one responsible for bringing more pain into the world. Someone else can have that distinction."
Hiccup honestly felt bad for the guy. Hiccup had had a pretty good run with his dreams in the last few years, and it was hard to see a guy whose heart had been in the right place watch a dream explode before him. Then again, Hiccup was kinda glad that it had failed. The world didn't need any more instruments of destruction than it already had.
Unfortunately, Hiccup suspected that this was only an interlude in the steady advancement of human ingenuity. Marcus had made a giant leap forward in the field of explosive-powered projectiles, and even if he chose not to pursue it further, somebody else eventually would. On the day, the world would become a more dangerous place to be, and people would have to learn to live with it.
Hiccup glanced over at Toothless, who was giving him an are we going flying at some point today? look, and as Hiccup patted his pal's snout he considered once again how dragons weren't easily categorized as friend or foe. They could help repair a village or raze it to the ground, bond with you or destroy you. But more than that, dragons had minds and wills of their own, and given a choice they desired happiness and peace instead of violence and hostility. If you were responsible with your dragon, if you treated them with love and friendship, you had little to fear from them. Even if you created a machine that could strip away the will of a dragon for a time, you couldn't strip it away completely or forever. They still had their minds, and they remembered all acts of kindness and cruelties. Marcus's dragons might not like humans in general, but they did respond to Marcus with toleration. They accepted him in their lives because he cared about them.
That was the one important difference between a dragon and a dragon-stick. A dragon-stick, like any weapon, fought for whoever wielded it. Take it away from its owner, and it could kill its owner without any doubt, hesitation, or consternation. Hiccup would gladly take one dragon over a hundred dragon-sticks any day of the…
"Chief Hiccup?" said Marcus. "You okay?"
Hiccup started again. Man, he really had to stop with the mid-conversation musings. Bad habit. "Uh, sorry. Miles away again."
Astrid smiled knowingly. "He does that sometimes. So, Marcus, if you're out of the weapon business, what do you plan on doing now?"
"I need to tend to my dragons," he answered. "They are Drago's true victims, and I haven't been helping them like I should have. For now, they need to heal, but they will need to either return to the wild or become part of a willing human settlement. The village leaders of Tempest Point are willing to let them stay here for now, but I doubt they are willing to go any further than that."
"I wouldn't be so sure," said Hiccup. "They've had four days with our dragons. They've seen the good and the bad. They might surprise you. You can also make the argument that a community with dragons is not likely to be messed with by pirates and such."
"You could also sweeten the deal by becoming their blacksmith," added Astrid. "The one they have here can't forge a horseshoe to save his life."
"Just know that we'll help you if you need it," said Hiccup. "Dragon-training is kind of my thing, you know."
All the helpful suggestions did brighten Marcus's mood, and a smile made it to his lips. "Thank you. Thank you both… and you too, Toothless." The dragon waggled his head at him in gratitude. "I wish I had more to offer you than just…"
His eyes widened as an epiphany struck, and Marcus disappeared into his tent only to quickly reappear with a set of rolled-up parchments. He handed one to Hiccup, who then unrolled it and found a nicely detailed schematic inside. It took Hiccup a second to realize what it was, and he wasn't sure whether to be grateful or shocked.
"Uh, Marcus, these are your gas canister designs," he said.
"And they're yours," said Marcus. "My gift for all your efforts, since I know you're not a fan of dark bitter."
"Well, thanks, but I'm not sure what I can do with them."
Marcus grinned and chuckled lightly. "I'm sure you'll find a purpose for them. Certainly a better one than what I had planned."
It was almost too much a gift to accept, especially since Marcus was all but handing over his dream project to Hiccup. But intrigue and inspiration soon curbed his doubts, and he graciously accepted the plans. Marcus was right – given enough time, Hiccup would find a use for the technology that didn't involve accelerating metal balls to fatal levels of velocity. And maybe Marcus's dream could live on in some way, even if Marcus himself had given up on it.
A day of kibitzing and well wishing and negotiating went by, and Hiccup felt absolutely exhausted just from standing around and talking. Not quite one-hundred-percent yet. But he managed to get a basic treaty with Tempest Point going and put in a good word for Marcus with the village leaders, What-Their-Names. He and his crew would leave for Berk in the morning, as Astrid insisted that he get in another good night's sleep before riding Toothless for a long period of time. He did miss his bed and the comfortable surroundings of Berk, but he could stomach one more night on a hay-bed if it made Astrid feel better. She had put in the dragon's share of the work this time out and she needed a good night's rest more than he did.
He and Toothless now stood upon a little hill above Tempest Point as the sun began to hide itself below the horizon. The hill was the same one that Hiccup had visited three years ago after a harrowing battle with undead abominations and metal Guardians. A few of the trees had died off over time, but for the most part it was still the same lovely little vantage point it had been all those years ago. Better yet, he was looking over a village in a far better shape than he'd left it last time.
"Funny how things work out, bud," said Hiccup to his silent companion, who was more focused on a mouse rustling around in the brush than Hiccup. "I've always felt like I left these people in the lurch all those years ago. Maybe the Gods were giving us a chance to make things right this time."
Toothless didn't offer any reply. That mouse was just too interesting. So be it. Hiccup did have a purpose for visiting this hill again beyond nostalgia, and said purpose finally decided to show himself, squeezing through the brambles and groaning from the exertion of climbing the hill.
"Geez, did we have to do this all the way out here?" said Snotlout, plucking burs and prickly seeds from his clothes. "And did I have to leave Fenrir behind?"
"Yes, and yes," said Hiccup. "Consider it part of your penance."
Snotlout heard the word penance and his attitude immediately shifted to a more chastened state. He came before Hiccup and stood quietly, awaiting (and dreading) Hiccup's next words.
"Snotlout, you and I have known each other all our lives," began Hiccup, "and let's be honest, what we've had going could not be called a friendship. I couldn't call you an enemy, either. I'm… not sure what we have. There's no word in Norse that describes what we have. Over the years, I've taken your abuse, your insults, your selfishness, and your body odor, and I've tolerated it because I had to… and because I believed you were a good person at heart."
Snotlout looked at Hiccup timidly, unsure if this speech was heading in a good or bad direction. "And… what do you think now?"
Hiccup sighed. "Snotlout, you crossed a line with Random. There's no other way to put it. You put your own interests above your chief and above Berk. I know why you did it, and I know you didn't know Random was using you, but that doesn't change the fact that your actions put Berk in danger. But then you went and risked your life and saved mine, even when you had the chance to get exactly what you've been wanting – wealth and power. That muddies the waters a bit for me."
"Does that mean I'm not exiled?" said Snotlout hopefully.
"It means two things, Snotlout," stated Hiccup. "As a reward for stopping Random and saving my life, I'm not telling anyone about what you did. It stays between you and me."
Snotlout didn't seem that impressed with Hiccup's idea of a reward. "That's my reward?"
"Yes, Snotlout. You got me out of the mess you helped create. Even though I'm willing to forgive you, if Astrid and the others were to find out what you did, they'd demand a trial and I'd have to give them one. Your father would find out, your family would find out, everyone in the village would find out. Even if I wasn't forced to exile you, your reputation would never be the same."
Snotlout's face made the expression of a man who had come to realize the severity of the situation. "When you put it that way, it does sound like a good reward. But what's the other thing?"
Hiccup grew more serious and took a step closer to Snotlout. "The other thing is that this is your last chance. I'm not the guy you used to bully, Snotlout. I'm your chief. I'm going to be your chief for a long time if I can help it. You're going to have to put away your resentments of me. I don't expect you to kowtow or act like you're my best friend, but I do expect a level of respect and common sense. If we ever have a conversation like this again, I will not cover for you, and I will not let it slide. Do you understand?"
Snotlout gravely nodded his understanding. "For what it's worth, I've learned my lesson. I'm done competing with you, or blaming you for my problems. You're in charge and I'm… still me. And that's the way things are, I guess. So you don't have to worry. I won't screw up like this again."
Hiccup allowed Snotlout the last word, and he dismissed him to go get some sleep before their trip back to Berk at sunrise. As he watched Snotlout walk down the hill, a doubt crept into his mind that he couldn't shake. Not a doubt about his decision – he felt Snotlout deserved a second chance – but about their future. People were capable of changing, but they could only change so far. Was he and Snotlout forever doomed to suffer this idiotic rivalry, or could Snotlout learn to put his childish nature aside and live more harmoniously with his new chief?
Hiccup hoped he could, because he wasn't getting a third chance.
The trip home proved deliciously uneventful for once. And the homecoming was wonderfully dry and boring. Other than the traders finally fixing their ship and sailing off, nothing more than a few disputes had occurred in Berk over the six days that Hiccup was absent. Hurray for small favors.
A few days afterwards, once Hiccup felt well enough to walk around without grimacing the whole time, there was a call for a general village assembly, which meant lighting up the Great Hall and filling it with practically every soul in Berk. Such assemblies occurred when a matter of importance needed to be addressed in the presence of the village populace. It would be the first one Hiccup had called, and the first time he had spoken to the people all at once since giving a little acceptance spiel on the day he was made Chief.
As such, his nerves were on edge, more so than any time flying on Toothless. Aerial maneuvers he could handle. Standing in front of a bunch of burly Vikings with jobs to go to, short tempers, and accessible weapons? Not so much.
At the far end of the Great Hall resided a raised platform for special ceremonies and speechifying. Hiccup took the center stage. For moral support he had Toothless standing to his left and the Dragon Squad on his right, Astrid having ordered them to attend under threat of hideous injury. They shuffled their feet and looked as confused as the general audience as to what this was about, but otherwise acted professionally.
Hiccup still had his doubts about what he was about to do, what he was about to say, but his heart was telling him that this needed to be done. He took a deep breath, raised his hands to his people to get their silence, and started in with the speech.
"I thank you all for coming here this morning. I know we have fish to catch and dragons to fly and roofs to thatch up and a million other things to worry about. But I wanted to clear the air here. I wanted you all to understand who your Chief really is, and where I intend to take Berk for here on out."
So far, so good. He had their attention and no one throwing produce yet.
"I think of my father as a great leader. Not because he could wrestle a dragon to the ground with his bare hands, but because he put the village before himself. 'A chief protects his own' – he said that a lot. He said a lot of other things as well, like don't sneak up on a yak from the rear, but he really meant that one phrase. A Chief has to be look out for his people. Not glory, not fame, and not wealth, but the good of the people. It was a good saying… but it's not the best saying I've ever heard."
A small reaction from the audience that time, uncertain glances and faces. Hiccup questioning his father's wisdom – that was unexpected.
"When I first started this job, I thought the best way to lead you all was to be just like my dad. I know it made me feel better, and I got the impression that it made all of you feel better. I've tried to keep us from getting involved in other people's problems, to put the village first and not let my own personal curiosity and adventurism bring trouble to our front doors. Again, just like I thought Dad would want it. But my dad's way of doing things worked back when we didn't have dragons that could fly us to other islands in hours instead of taking days by boat. It worked back when the world was closed off to us and we only worried about surviving the next dragon attack. Most of you know something about what happened to me over the six days I was gone from Berk, but the thing you need to know the most is that there are forces out there working against us, forces who don't need to ever invade or attack us to hurt us. They're not like Alvin or the Berserkers – they're a lot smarter. They will make people afraid of us and use it to their own advantage, and they won't have to work hard to do it. We're Vikings with dragons – the horror story almost writes itself."
Hiccup gauged his audience's mood. Some people still had uncertainty, others were more skeptical, and still others seemed to be in a receptive mood. A split crowd, which was better than a hostile one. Hiccup took another deep breath and kept going.
"But it's more than just our own self-interest. Astrid and I were out in the big world for almost a year, the longest time I've ever been away from Berk. During that time, we met all kinds of people; some just like Alvin, some a lot worse than him. But we also met a lot of good people from many different cultures, people who only want to find their way through this crazy thing we call life. People who want peace, who don't want fear and hatred to run their lives. And… and I met a few people with no family of their own, no tribe to belong to, who were willing to put aside their differences and their misgivings with each other to do something greater. They were willing to lay down their lives for people they had never met, for a future they may never be a part of. I fought alongside them… and I consider them my own just as I consider all of you my own.
"You see, folks, you have a problem. I am your Chief, but I am also a Champion. And while a Chief protects his own, a Champion stands for all. So I am not going to sit by while other people suffer. I am not going to ignore a cry for help. I am not going to have us hide and play it safe. We are going to go out there and show the world who we really are. We are going to reach out to our neighbors – not just other Norse tribes, but all tribes. We are going to forge bonds and trade routes and alliances. We are going to make mistakes and get into fights, because there's no way around that. We are going to do this because it's right. And if we put the same amount of effort into this that we once put into fighting dragons… I know we will make it work."
Hiccup hadn't realized how passionate he'd gotten toward the end until he quit talking and heard the reverberations of his speech echoing around the Great Hall. Then the echo quit and only silence remained, a lot of surprised eyes watching Hiccup as he stood in place, awaiting the inevitable response and keeping the worry off his face. It was the first time he'd ever gotten fired up during a speech, and he surprised himself with how easily the words had flowed. Maybe some of his father really was stuck in him somewhere, not that it would do him much good if his people walked out the door or started protesting loudly.
But if anyone was in fact protesting, it was hard to hear them over the chorus of enthusiastic claps and less-enthusiastic cheers when the crowd finally reacted. There remained uncertainty in some people's eyes, a few scowls and shaking heads here and there, but most of the people responded to him with a hearty round of support. Astrid and the rest of the gang joined in, Toothless growling happily as well, and the Hall rang with thunderous applause that made it feel like the village was five times bigger than it should be.
Hiccup allowed himself a smile. At the very least, he had performed a great speech. That was the easy part. Now for the hard part… which was everything else.
When Hiccup was finally able to escape the Hall and get some fresh air, he wandered over to an old familiar spot not far from his family home. Funny thing was how much it looked almost exactly like what he had dreamed before, right down to the number of pine needles in the trees flanking the vantage point. The weather was different, no circling clouds in the distance, just your normal rolling mist and distant thunderheads.
He stood there alone, sorting his thoughts out. He felt better here than next to his Dad's statue, as if this spot had a part of his father's heart and soul residing in the dirt under his feet. He felt tethered to his dad here, like this would be the one place in the world that he could always find a connection if he needed it.
No ghost-dad arose from the sea, though. Nothing dramatic like that. Just a little piece of serenity in a world that was always running short. Maybe that was the real point of his dream/vision/visitation, and if it was, it would be enough.
"I hope I made the right decision, Dad," Hiccup said aloud. "It certainly felt like the right one."
Neither the trees, nor the ground, nor the clouds, nor the sea, gave him any response. No answer from his dad, either. Perhaps that was the point.
"That was definitely more like it," came Astrid's cheerful voice from the side. She and Toothless had escaped the Hall as well, Toothless racing past Astrid with several happy bounds and getting a good head scratch from Hiccup for winning the race. Astrid got the runner-up prize: a good long kiss and a tight hug.
Beatrix showed up right then to greet Astrid, filling up the final slot in their immediate family at the spot that once belonged only to Hiccup and his dad. The idea of family was a broad one to Hiccup; it included friends both close and distant, a series of overlapping circles that spread out across the world. But it always started with the people who kept you going in the best times and the worst times, whether they were human or dragon.
"So you don't think I'm flying us all into a hurricane?" Hiccup asked Astrid.
"I'm sure there are storms ahead of us, Hiccup," she replied. "But anything worth doing is worth a few storms, don't you think?"
Hiccup nodded. "I suspect one of those storms is going to be named Random. She and her boss are going to show up again."
"Yeah, she will," agreed Astrid. "But she can't be anything worse than what we've already taken on before."
Hiccup closed his eyes and groaned. "Did you really have to say that?"
She smiled. "No, but I like daring the universe."
He pulled her in close in preparation for another kiss. "There's no way I'd have survived this long without you. You know that, right?"
"I thought that was a given," she replied, right before their lips warmly met again.