Hiccup sat in front of Stoick; his hands clenched tightly. "I've been to the nest." He repeated, even as his father (no, Stoick) shook his head. "I can help you solve this problem."

"The only way to solve this problem is to kill every last dragon in that nest." Stoick growled. "You will tell me where that nest is."

The younger man scoffed. "I'm not telling you anything. I think you've forgotten I'm no longer a child Stoick."

"Okay!" Astrid finally spoke up. She had taken a back seat to the conversation so far, only speaking when Stoick had acknowledged her. Being with Hiccup for eighteen years, she knew how important it would be for him to talk with his father with no interruptions. However, they had come here for a purpose. Initially that purpose had just been to get Zephyr back, but Hiccup had always had a bleeding heart and she knew the moment they found the nest he would want to fix the problem once and for all. Astrid knew the necessity of Hiccup talking through the frustrations of his past, but the argument had gone on for too long and they needed to get to a compromise.

She turned to Stoick. "We can leave." She said, cocking her head. "We got what we came for. There's no benefit for us staying any longer." The woman leaned forward over the table with an intense stare. "We don't need to help you."

Stoick sat with his head bowed. His pride would never let him work with these… these dragon sympathizes. As much as he hated dragons, he hated these people more. Dragons were mindless beasts; they didn't have the knowledge to know what they were doing. And these people; they knew what dragons did and still sided with them. But…

But as a chief, as a warrior and a leader, he knew an opportunity when he saw one. Four hundred years of a dragon problem and Stoick and his father and his father before could not solve the problem. The village had been through generation after generation of destruction and violence.

Stoick looked into the eyes of his son, his only son. This man should have been his heir. This man would have inherited the throne after Stoick's death. This man was destined to lead their village. Maybe, just maybe, he held the answers to their dragon problem.

Hiccup stared intensely at him as Stoick asked, "What is your plan then?" Stoick gestured to the dragons outside the Great Hall. "You surely don't want to kill all the dragons…" The chief narrowed his eyes, "so what is your plan?"

The young man smiled, and for a moment Stoick caught a glimpse of that wide-eyed young boy who would run around the house, leaving Stoick dizzy and amused. But in a blink, he was gone again.

"The dragons don't come to the village to steal the food for themselves. They are forced to do it." Hiccup explained, gesturing with his hands as he usually does. "There's a Queen. A huge dragon the size of a mountain that controls the smaller dragons. If they don't bring her food, she eats them."

Stoick looked on in horror. What kind of beast could so easily eat a dragon, one of the most feared and dangerous creatures in the world?

Hiccup continued, "Our plan is to hopefully kill the Queen. Then the dragons under her control will be free and I guarantee they won't come back." He assured, but Stoick didn't feel convinced.

"How are you so certain that those dragons won't come back to destroy us even more?" He challenged. "Maybe without their Queen they will be even more ruthless."

Beside Hiccup, Astrid shook her head. "No, we've seen what dragons are truly like, out of the control of a Queen. They don't go out of their way to harm people."

"And how do you propose we kill this Queen?"

"We want to train your warriors to ride dragons."

Stoick stood still, staring at Hiccup incredulously. He searched the man's features but only saw honesty and sincerity. "You're crazy."

"Here me out—"

"No!" Stoick knew he was being stubborn. He knew that Hiccup could be the only one to bring this war to an end. But he, as their Chief and leader, would never approve of anyone in his village riding a dragon. "We will not bring ourselves down to that level. No one from my village will ever…" He trailed off, looking into the fire in the man's eyes before him.

He was going to say that no one from his tribe would ever ride a dragon, but that wasn't true, was it? Hiccup himself had been riding a dragon for weeks while still living in this village, and Astrid followed soon after. Even though both of them had left the village, under the Viking's laws, they still belonged to the tribe as they hadn't been disowned or publicly excused themselves from the village. So, here sat two Berkians who rode dragons.

Hiccup continued to look at him with those strong, unyielding eyes. Stoick conceded, "I must speak with my advisors." The other man nodded, understanding that such a decision could not be chosen by one man alone when the whole village was at stake. "For the mean time…" he paused and thought. "You will take your children and your… dragons and stay in my home. If I hear one report of your dragons harming anybody," Stoick scowled and glared at the two of them. "I will not hesitate to hand down necessary punishment."

The couple turned to each other and nodded. "We accept your terms." Hiccup stated, already rising from the table. "We hope to hear of your decision soon."

…

"We have continued this meeting because of…" Stoick paused and let out a humourless laugh. "Unexpected occurrences."

Bard laughed at him, his eyes cold and demeaning. "Stoick, you can't convince me that the man is Hiccup."

Stoick stopped and frowned, turning to face Bard. "What evidence do you have proving otherwise?"

"Well," the man started, smiling cruelly. "He's been gone near twenty years. Doesn't it seem strange to you that he just so happens to turn up in search for his 'daughter'?" He stood up from the table and moved to the front, where he could address the council more clearly. "It doesn't seem…" he searched for the word, "probable."

The men nodded their heads, seemingly believing Bard's argument. Stoick sighed, "As much as I hesitate to say it, he is my son. I would know that face anywhere."

"Oh yes," Bard nodded his, almost mockingly as he turned directly to Stoick, leaning against the wooden table in the room. "But Stoick, do you think that maybe," he smiled sadly but Stoick knew it wasn't real. "Just maybe, you want to believe he's your son?" Stoick grimaced, knowing Bard had made a compelling argument. He knew himself that the man who stood before him shared too many qualities of Hiccup not to be him. He knew it in his heart, but how could he convince the others?

Gobber laughed out loud, pulling his mug-hand up to his mouth to take a swig of the drink. "Bard, that man is Hiccup more than I'm the Belch!" He scrunched his nose up at the taste in his mouth before shrugging and taking another swig. "I spent more time with that boy than anyone else. The lad is who he says he is."

"Are you so sure, Gobber?" Another man, Erik, called out. "We haven't seen the lad in twenty years. I hardly remember what colour hair he had!"

A few men on the council laughed before a glare from Stoick had them awkwardly stopping, looking down at the table to avoid his stare. The chief then stood up and walked to the front where Bard stood. Bard took a step back nervously as he stared up at the towering figure. "I talked with him before, he said things no one else could say, no one else could remember." He turned to face the table. "He's my son, and he's proposed a plan."

Bard narrowed his eyes. "A plan? What could he possibly offer us?"

"The nest."

Snotlout, for the first time this meeting, spoke up. "The nest?" He asked, standing up and walking over to Stoick. "He knows where the nest is?"

"The nest?"

"No way!"

"We haven't found it yet…"

Bard's voice cut over all the other voices. "You're telling me this boy found the nest in twenty years when we haven't found it in four hundred?" He laughed as the other council members slowly stopped talking over each other. "This story keeps getting better and better."

"As someone who rides on dragons…" Stoick trailed off, unsure of how to finish the sentence. "He'd have the resources to find the nest. And they want to help us, they want to help us get rid of the dragon problem."

Erik raised an eyebrow. "You're saying they want to help us kill them? Stoick, they're dragon sympathisers!"

Stoick looked out among the council, and then looked to Snotlout and Gobber. They were his two biggest supporters and he knew that regardless of the decision, they would ultimately agree with their chief if the reasoning was logical. Gobber nodded to Stoick, as if he already knew what the man was going to propose.

"I will remind you," Stoick started. "That I have been chief almost forty years. Although I might not have always made the right choice, I always had the best intention for our village. I have survived with you, mourned with you, grieved through years and years of dragon attacks. I lost my wife to the devils, and until recently, I believed my son gone as well." He paused, allowing the council a moment to understand. "I believe that the plan that Hiccup has proposed goes against everything I was taught as a Viking, but perhaps it might be the only way to truly rid Berk of dragons."

Stoick thought back to the terror he felt at the idea of a dragon-eating dragon. Something so large and terrifying that it could swallow a Monstrous Nightmare whole. "Hiccup says that in the nest is the Queen of the Dragons, and it is she who makes the dragons raid our village. And if they do not bring her back food… she eats them."

The men before him leaned back in horror, imagining how big a dragon like that could be. Bard, however, only narrowed his eyes. Stoick continued, "Hiccup proposes that the only way into the nest is by dragon back. He wants to teach our warriors to ride dragons.

The room erupted into disagreement, voices calling out and echoing through the large chamber.

"Stoick," Bard started, "if you expect us to believe that we'll let anyone from this village ride a dragon—"

"But that's already happened!" Stoick counteracted. "Hiccup, under Viking laws, is still a Berkian. Someone from this village already rides a dragon." Stoick consciously decided not to mention the appearance of Astrid, knowing the council could only take one shocking announcement at a time.

The council calmed down after that declaration, but still had scowls etched onto their faces.

"Stoick, are you sure he's not telling tales at this point?" Erik asked, once the room had been quieted. "Maybe the boy's gone mad."

Gobber, once again coming to Stoick's aid, spoke up. "The boy's probably a lil' off in the head, going off with the dragons and all that," at this, Gobber took another swig from his mug. "But I saw the lad when he came in here. You all saw him when he came in here. Does that look like a man who's gone mad?"

Stoick nodded and, realising the meeting was going nowhere, raised his hand. "Men, I do not expect us to come to an agreement tonight. It's late. Go home and think on it."

The men grumbled as they left the building, talking amongst themselves as they walked home. Gobber and Snotlout stayed behind with Stoick, looking to him with many questions in their eyes. Stoick sighed, "What about you, Snotlout? You were unusually quiet during this meeting."

Snotlout shrugged his shoulders and leaned back. "Look, I was never a fan of Hiccup when we were younger. I used to treat him like dirt." At this he bowed his head, slightly remorseful of his actions. "But I don't think he's come here to hurt Berk. I don't think he's capable of hurting Berk."

"Aye," Gobber added. "You should've heard him in the forge. It was no secret how the village treated the young lad, but never once did he say a really… a really hurtful word against anyone." He turned towards Stoick; a sad expression written across his face. "Hiccup's a good man. He's come to help us."