Edited.

"Please! Please don't hurt her!", Hiccup kept begging, begging while seeing the best warriors she had grown up with use their bodies as a weight to pin her best friend down. Tears began to follow with the choke. Artichoke's arms were holding her back, too, but she hardly took in any of that. Away, was all she could think, simply, just starting to accept what had happened, they're taking Toothless away.

"Hiccup! Hiccup, Hiccup stop…", the male voice wasn't a command like her father had been when he told them to put 'it' with the other. She'll suffer, Hiccup thought, face still frozen in a painful scowl. They all suffer there.

No. She couldn't let them do this, she couldn't accept it, but the boys' arms around her held her like steel, stopping her from helplessly throwing herself against a wall of warrior Vikings. At that exact time Hiccup, who risked her life to try saving his without second thoughts, now only wished he'd let go so she could do the same for her friend, even if it turned out hopeless, she had to try, her whole body demanded her to go in aid.

This was a hellish day. The worst she's ever lived. And even the skies above knew, a drizzle was soon to follow her in these horrors.

But not a storm.

Not yet.

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As soon as the Night Fury got contained, Stoick turned to look at the cause of all this… This disaster. His daughter was crumbling down, hysterical in her husband's arms, struggling to leave, a fragile hand reached out to the beast. Artichoke still managed to keep her still in her place. Her husband. The legitimate chosen one by Gothi. The one meant to either kill or be killed in the rink today.

Stoick's offspring should not have took a single step in this rink in the first place, and that dragon… Clear as day, solid as the ground, the monster had come here for her.

Firm steps and barely controlled wrath, the Chief stepped in the couple, ripping his daughter's still too thin arm from the blond boy's grip. A boy. Any male Berkian unable to fight a dragon was just a boy, not a man, he thought, wondering how many things he had been wrong lately. The child who nearly got himself killed in here by just a few bad decisions with his shield, either knew better or didn't have the balls to keep his wife with him, silently letting Stoick walk her to the Great Hall. Alone.

They all saw it. Nobody followed. Good.

The large building was quiet and dark. And empty. But Stoick barely registered that, just shoving Hiccup in after slamming the door closed. Thoughts running, the betrayal, the nerve… The man had no idea how to even begin to let his full, bitter rage out.

"I should have known…", yes, he spent so many years working so hard in his place on this village and for quite a few years, he'd even say he got a good job done, aware of all events, but this… "I should have seen the signs…".

"Dad…", she started, but he didn't want to know, he wasn't done, and she should only answer now.

"We had a deal!" he shut her down with another yell, not worrying about who and how many were listening close by. The walls were for privacy, he wasn't anywhere near a state for thinking about politics.

"I- I know we did but that was before- before I- I- this is so messed up" stuttering, always the stuttering, but at least no sarcastic comeback. She had her nails up in her hair's roots, but no amount of stress this- this child was feeling could compare to his betrayal and stress. He was their leader. And this girl was a traitor of the worst kind.

"So everything in thar rink... A trick? A lie..." he couldn't believe, it hadn't sunk in yet.

"I screwed up!", oh, you have no idea, kid. "I should have told you before- just- you" told him? Told him what? How do you tell any of this? She herself couldn't find the words; Odin help him…

But then, Hiccup did what Stoick doubted there was any room left for her to do, she surprised and disappointed him more. She took his favorite axe and stabbed into his beating heart when she said "Take this out on me! Be mad at me, but please- just don't hurt Toothless".

"The dragon? That's what you're worried about? Not those you almost killed?" All. All Berkians were reunited there, all Berkians knew dragons never came close while the sun was high, all Berkians were facing the rink with full attention that very few even heard the characteristic humming from it. He was thankful, yet again, for Gobber when he yelled 'Night Fury' and they all got down, ducking away from fire strong enough to melt iron and make its way in the arena.

"She was just protecting me!" Hiccup would insist, was she not aware of what she had caused? Surpassing all the limits. Had he raised a retarded or a traitor? Which was worse? "Sh- she's not dangerous!". Not dangerous? NOT DANGEROUS? How many raids hadn't she seen? How many burnt scars and destroyed huts hadn't she seen? Hadn't she seen that monster, that offspring of death itself, as the book said, to attack him and his men?

"They've killed hundreds of us!", was all he could put into words. Hundreds. Hundreds, since forever, since his father and the father before him and-

"And we've killed thousands of them!".

He shook his head. How could anyone say those things? He thought they were teaching their children well… He thought no human could go this far into madness…

"They defend themselves, that's all!", she continued and Stoick couldn't even hear any of this anymore, any of her voice. Walking back and forth, undecisive of what he should do next, what to say next. "They raid us because they have to; if they don't bring enough food back, they'll be eaten themselves!", yes, dragons needed food like any other animal. Was she going to defend a wolf pack next? Suggest they just threw all their cattle away? Stoick felt his hands turning into tight fists ready to snap in shouting. "There's- something else on their island, dad, it- it's a dragon that-". Island?

That made his anger tremble, he leaned down the height she was still lacking, even for a woman. "Their island?", he whispered, "so you've been to the nest?". It could be just another mad thought, but Stoick couldn't risk with a topic like this.

"Did- did I say nest?", she tried to step backwards but she wasn't getting away with it this easily.

"How did you find it?", Stoick needed to know, he spent his whole life looking for it. All Chiefs before him had lead sailing rotes to find their nest but he decided this was his goal, that's how Stoick, The Vast would be reminded in history. That's what would make his people grow and trade and sail to better lands, once this plague was erased by its roots.

"What- no, I didn't", he was growing impatient, and Hiccup knew he wouldn't let this go "Tooth- Toothless did. Only a dragon can find the island". His gaze shifted to how close the future was. He could smell it as good as he could smell the air of an upcoming storm. This was it. All those years with caged dragons and any could take them in.

"Oh- oh, no! Dad, no! It's not what you're thinking, you have no idea what you're up against, this is like nothing you have seen it", it is, he was ready to face this hellish nest, the portal forever open from Muspelheim for these beasts to get in. He had traveled so much over the years, he had seen so countless, enormous of those beasts and he knew just what a nest of those would be awaiting. "It's like nothing you've seen, I promise you can't win this one". It doesn't matter, and she should know that. It doesn't matter if his life was the needed sacrifice for his people to prosper. And he knew many of his men and women agreed it was worth. Yes, the ships are ready, only two days since we got home, we need to do this now or waiting for the next spring could be only worse.

"Dad, no", Stoick barely heard the light footsteps while thinking of the preparations "for once in your life will you please listen to me?". A quick, effortless swing of his muscular arm and she was back, fallen on the floor. Listen? When had she ever listened to him in the first place? Her Chief, her father... Hiccup had betrayed everything and everyone. "You've thrown your odds with them". He couldn't even look at her, couldn't even hold in how he'd deal with treachery when he came back. "You're not a Viking". Being a failure at fighting dragons? He could deal with, but working against their people, endangering their lives? No... It was a never-seen level of selfishness.

Stoick, the Vast, Stoick, the greatest warrior of his generation, a natural born dragon slayer and oldest Chief alive, couldn't remember the joy he felt when Hiccup was born. He couldn't remember the singing with Valka when they applauded her first words. He couldn't remember telling her stories of campaigns and youth adventures till she had shinning knights to protect her in her sleep. He couldn't remember the first time she got herself into life-threatening danger and he knew he couldn't lose her. Or worse, he could remember, and her actions made it unbearable.

"You're not my daughter".

With that, he left the Hall, forcing his tears to go back in and blaming in the sharp wind when he went to call those who he knew would accompany him.