32. Small talk

The next morning came with a light drizzle, the Storm was almost over. During the night the storm had stopped two more times, both times Storm had gone out with Shadow and flew around the island for as long as she could. Hiccup had noticed, yet he hadn't said anything, Storm needed to be alone for at least a moment and he respected that.

The pair was up before first light, they led their dragons back into the woods in case anyone went to the academy. The pair needed to gage Stoick's, and the tribe's, reaction to yesterday and having their dragons near wasn't a good idea – if there was shouting the dragons would certainly intervene, especially after yesterday with how Storm had been.

Sitting around in the arena wasn't the best way to pass the time, so they let the gang's dragons loose. The light drizzle didn't bother the dragons as much as full-on rain did, so the dragons appreciated the fresh air.

Still the pair had nothing more to do, talking was something neither wanted to do, neither had anything to talk about. Their comfortable silence was tainted with tension, the tension came from not knowing when someone was going to show up.

Footsteps alerted them that someone was coming to the arena. The footsteps were uneven, a footstep followed by the sound of wood on rock, for some reason Gobber was coming to the arena. The pair stayed still, not looking towards the smith even as he entered, they had their helmets on so they had no reason to move.

"Ah, it's good to see my sanctuary still intact!" Gobber cheered.

"Isn't the forge your sanctuary?" Hiccup couldn't help but ask.

"I have more than one, lad. I didn't come here for that," he waved any other questions off. "Stoick's looking for you."

Storm tensed, Hiccup wasn't any better, both felt dread not knowing what the man wanted. Hiccup stood and Storm quickly followed, she managed to hide her growing panic from the other two in the academy, but it didn't fade.

"What does he want?" She asked as confidently as she could, fortunately her voice betrayed nothing.

"He wanted to talk to you. He was impressively passive considering what happened yesterday, so you have nothing to worry 'bout," Gobber said with a smile. "He's over in the plaza, get goin'."

They followed Gobber back to the village, keeping a few paces behind the smith. The pair shared a glance once in a while, the stares of the wandering Hooligans bore into their backs, clearly the incident hadn't gone unnoticed.

Stoick was ordering around the people in the plaza, sending them to do various chores. The uneven footfalls of the trio gained his attention, he turned towards them, arms crossed and a calm expression on his face. Hiccup didn't trust his father's disposition, he knew the Chief could be deceiving with his expressions and Storm was just naturally cautious.

Gobber left the pair standing in front of Stoick, on his way back to the forge the smith let out the occasional yell to people to get back to work as a lot of them had stopped to observe the interaction that would happen between their Chief and the pair.

"Good morning," Stoick started. "I've given thought to the things that were discussed yesterday, I would like for you to start the dragon integration as soon as possible." He calmly stated.

"So is that why your people are trying to kill us with their glares?" Hiccup asked cutting off anything Storm was about to say. She nodded at him in thanks, he needed to start talking with his father and she needed a break from doing so, so it was a win-win situation.

"My people, they don't know yet," Stoick sighed, Hiccup's eyes widened in shock. Stoick always put his people first, him not telling them something that would affect them was a weird thing. "Your plan is the best solution in the worst case, their safety matters more than their prejudice and… having dragons living among my tribe is what my son would have wanted. Speaking of which," he held out a piece of parchment to Storm, "This is a letter I wrote to him, if you ever cross paths with him again, please give this to him."

Storm looked at the piece of parchment for a moment before slowly taking it. She flinched when Stoick grabbed her wrist, with wide eyes she fearfully watched the man. Hiccup tensed, he was about to intervene when Stoick spoke again.

"I trust you with this… and thank you for getting me to see the truth," he released her wrist, she pulled her arm to her chest which was rising and falling rapidly. Hiccup put a hand on her shoulder, bringing her back to the present and helping her calm down.

"When can we start training again?" she asked instead of acknowledging his appreciation.

"When they are done helping to rebuild what was lost to the storm, their hands are needed here." He said somewhat regretfully. Hiccup shared a look with Storm, a smirk found its way to his face.

"You talked about integration?" He asked, Stoick nodded. "Let us get the gang and their dragons and your repairs will be done in no time."

"How?" the Chief asked.

"Integration. Working alongside dragon in repairing your village will help your people get used to them and the gang will get valuable skills in working together with their dragons outside of battle maneuvers." Hiccup confidently answered.

Stoick thought for a moment and nodded once again. He let the pair know where the gang was stationed for the repair work and went to find Gobber. During times like these a lot of Hooligans went to the forge for supplies and telling Gobber to spread the message that dragons will be helping with the repairs was the best if he wanted everyone to know in time.

On the way back to the arena Storm silently pressed the letter into Hiccup's hands. He put it into his breast pocket without even looking at it. He would read it, just not yet. They had people to find and buildings to repair.