Edited.

As the time passed and her stomach started to claim attention, Hiccup was forced to make her way up to any food, scared shitless of anyone, unable to bear their judgment. That's when she heard distant grunts and orders. From the harbor.

Experienced sailors, as most Vikings were, packing all ships, shields and countless weapons arming them up to their teeth. The cold waters surrounding Berk counted twenty something ships with a handful different layouts she barely recognized… Twenty ships needed more than all fighting adults of her people could fill. All those warriors were about to be burnt out to death by her father's command and it was all her fault honestly.

The life of hundreds was all due her inability to be one of her own kind. Toothless' life… she was completely trapped, immobilized. Ropes and chains covering her body, a muzzle break to stop her from shooting free. Yet, she kept fighting.

Hiccup couldn't regret saving Toothless, sure, but she couldn't stop thinking of how easy it would have been if she hadn't even let herself met. What if someone else had found the Night Fury or something…

Dreading into what ifs, she let herself stand there, on the pier, old wooden stairs letting a long path till the sea level. She was pretty sure her father had looked back at her lonesome figure, not hesitating, posting to the ship's tip, a conqueror, a leader, a dragon slayer.

Hiccup stood there for a long time, let the low sun turn the skies into strong pink shades as those ships sailed into distance, far from sight, towards a massacre.

Slow steps approached but didn't care if it was someone about to push her against pointy rocks and freezing waters. She probably deserved, anyway.

"It's a mess", Artichoke's voice surprised her again. Contained. Not gentle and eager, like on the forge, not condemning, just contained and neutral. "You must feel horrible", why, hasn't that pathetic crying from before didn't give it away? But she was in no mood for replies. Unfourtunally, he continued. "You've lost everything; your father, your tribe, your best friend".

"Thank you, for summing that up", she shot back, giving in, but Artichoke's listing of her screw ups stopped. A sigh. "Why couldn't I have killed that dragon when I found her in the woods? It would have been better… For everyone". For herself, for her father, for all those lives heading to slaughter… For Artichoke, too, and even for Toothless… Before she was Toothless, a quick death by a stranger instead of an interspecies betrayal.

"Yup, the rest of us would've done it" Artichoke shot his reply the same way she did, same neutral tone from before, though. "So why didn't you?". Lifting her eyes, Hiccup found his, against the forming clouds of an upcoming, way bigger than today's earlier pouring. He was looking at her, head inclined. "Why didn't you?".

She remembered Gobber's marking words saying, 'a dragon always, always goes for the kill', leading her to question why hadn't Toothless. The real source of her dangerous curiosity. Why didn't you? She'd ask herself, and an answer drifted by, eventually. Toothless was at Hiccup's mercy when they met in the woods. Ready to face death. Then, the teen would cut the ropes open, creating a debt soon to be paid. She didn't kill me when she could because I hadn't killed her when I could, but then… Why didn't I? Hiccup started that cycle, for whatever reason.

"I-I don't know", her shoulders sank even lower, the posture of a defeated human. "I couldn't".

"That's not an answer", so simple, so fast, why did it matter? She didn't, wouldn't change anything now.

"Why- why is this so important to you all of a sudden?", Artichoke hadn't asked any of this when she told him how she ended up befriending Toothless. She'd thought she owed him more explanations if he was a part of her secret from then on, so she'd tell that her engine worked, she freed the Night Fury on the woods and studied her on the cove, brought fish, noted the tail and so on… He made no questions then, just listened quietly, absorbing. She had thought him to be a good listener back then.

"Because I want to remember what you say right now". His voice wasn't neutral anymore, wasn't eager either. Still slow and clear. Not a demand, just a statement, but then, why? Why does it matter what she says now? A screw up, traitor, pathetic excuse of a Viking's words.

"For the love of- I- I was a coward!", she admitted out loud for the first time, nearly shouting it, actually, "I was weak! I wouldn't kill a dragon!", not just Toothless, not the Monstruous Nightmare, no dragon would just be laid on a silver plate and just earn a killing.

"You said wouldn't that time", since when did semantics matter?

"Whatever!", she spat, "Three hundred years and I'm the first Viking who wouldn't kill a dragon!". You're not a Viking kept singing on her mind as she snapped and yelled it out in this unexpected interrogatory.

At least it quieted him up.

"First to ride one though".

True. True, but having it said out loud and by someone else made her self loathing thoughts break for a while.

"So…", he pried, the spectrum of a smile dancing on his lips, much different from the thin, judging line from earlier.

"I wouldn't kill her cause she looked as frightened as I was", Hiccup had told him how intelligent dragons were, how their eyes were an important part of their body language and communication, how they could look right into your soul, but… "I looked at her and I saw myself", that's it. That's a connection she hadn't had with other dragons whose eyes she looked into, either.

Artichoke leaned back, as if reviewing and registering how her words tasted.

"I bet she's really frightened now", terrified, probably. "what are you gonna do about it?", she was gonna run into danger to help those in need again, like she had today and the day before. Except, she couldn't exactly swim to their island…

"Eh, probably something stupid", beyond that, really.

"Good", he looked at her like he approved whatever insane idea she came up with. "But you've already done that".

"Then something crazy", she shot to the village, to the arena, not bothering looking back, trusting Artichoke to follow.

"That's more like it".