Hiccup woke before dawn, as per usual nowadays. He had gotten into the habit to have time to make it to the cove and back before training, but he stayed with it even when his increasing speed and endurance made in unnecessary. Besides, he wasn't getting much sleep of the restful variety today anyway. He wondered idly for a moment whether Stoick was up yet. Avoiding him would be extremely suspicious. His father had just returned from a life-threatening raid, he should be happy to see him. Instead, he only felt worried.

He decided not to go downstairs until daybreak, in about half an hour. Stoick would be up by then. Until then, he could practice talking in his head to Toothless. If he figured it out, he might be able to wake him up. Toothless had said he wanted to be present for everything in the village now. Hiccup had to assume it was an offshoot of Toothless's protective (at least of Hiccup) nature. Toothless wanted to be there, even if he couldn't physically do anything. Hiccup strained to get a message across for the entire time he waited. No success whatsoever. He felt like if he tried any harder, he would give himself a headache. The harder he tried, the less he felt like he was making progress.

'I see I'm just in time.' Toothless announced his presence after a few minutes of Hiccup sitting in his room, waiting.

Hiccup smiled. "Actually, I've been up for half an hour. I was kind of waiting for you."

'Darn. Well, almost guessed when you'd be up. Ready?'

Hiccup spoke softly as he descended into the rest of the house. "Nope. Remember, I can't talk to you at all."

'I'll just offer moral support. No response needed.'

Hiccup smiled. That had been a well-timed comment because it meant he greeted Stoick with a genuine smile by complete accident, as he descended to find him already at the table.

"Ah, Hiccup." Stoick shifted in his seat at the table.

"Hey dad, glad you're back. I would ask how it went, but the trashed ships seemed like a pretty good hint."

Toothless snorted. 'Are you always like this?'

Stoick smiled, though not at Hiccup's comment. "Good to be back. No luck with the nest, but I hear you've been doing well! Doing great in training, and from what Gobber's told me, maybe developing some other Viking-like qualities, like a temper! I always told you you'd grow into this stuff, looks like I was right! All it took was being thrown in a confined space with a firebreathing reptile!"

Toothless chuckled at that. 'He is way more right than he'll probably ever know. And I guess it does look like you have a temper, from another perspective at least.'

Hiccup wasn't particularly happy with that, but it was better than the alternative.

Stoick continued, unaware of the other participant in the conversation. "After all these years of the worst Viking Berk has ever seen! The clumsiness, the weird inventions, the penchant for setting things on fire..." Stoick trailed off, still smiling happily.

Hiccup wasn't happy anymore. In his attempts to compliment Hiccup, Stoick was being way more offensive than normal, not that he would know that. Hiccup's 'weird inventions' had shot down a Night Fury. His clumsiness could have been helped if anyone had bothered, apparently. It had taken a dragon to finally care enough to help him with that, albeit as a side effect of other things. And the fires had always been accidents! He was making it sound like all of these 'horrible habits' had just been Hiccup messing around instead of legitimate accidents, fixable problems no one cared about, and what made him unique.

But Stoick was just getting started. "Odin! It was rough. I almost gave up on you. But all the while you were holding out on me, Thor almighty!"

Almost gave up? At what point, Hiccup wondered furiously, was he planning on giving up? Because he had straight up said he was considering it, that he was nearly at the point of giving up hope his own son would ever do anything he could be proud of.

'Hiccup, calm down. Your hands are shaking. You can't let him get to you, he isn't saying this stuff on purpose. He thinks he's congratulating you.' At this point, Toothless was intentionally playing the part of Hiccup's rational side. He didn't want to, because he was offended on Hiccup's behalf, but if he didn't, Hiccup might snap. And that wouldn't end well if he did it here. He could vent it later, in the cove.

Hiccup listened, albeit reluctantly. He unclenched his hands. No one except Toothless noticed the small marks where his fingernails had dug into his palms. That wasn't important. Hiccup had been avoiding eye contact this whole time. That wasn't unusual for him; Stoick didn't see the rage in his eyes because of that. Hiccup quickly reset his face's neutral expression, focusing on holding it.

Gobber had been right about Stoick's somewhat stunted powers of observation, and Stoick noticed none of the subtle signs that he was doing something wrong. He sighed happily, and said in a quieter voice; "With you doing so well in the ring, we finally have something to talk about. How are you beating Astrid in the arena? We all thought she was a shoo-in for the best warrior of your generation, but you seem to be intent on proving us wrong."

Hiccup wanted to answer that Astrid was proving them right because if it wasn't for Astrid, there would be one less dead dragon's blood staining the arena's stone floor. He, on the other hand, was decidedly the worst dragon fighter, because he didn't want to be one. He couldn't say that. But what could he say? How would he explain his victories? The truth wouldn't work. Stoick wouldn't accept that it was all a series of tricks, learned by non-violent interactions with dragons. And he didn't want to give any Viking some of the knowledge he had used. Eels, pressure points, distractions. All could be used to make the slaughter of every raid ten times worse. That ruled out any explanation with even a shred of truth. He needed an explanation that a Viking would believe. They weren't big on brainpower, instead valuing muscles and instinct- that would work. "I don't really know. I just get in there, focus, and stuff just happens. I'm probably just working on instinct. I don't know what I'm going to do ahead of time, and I don't think I could repeat any of it to demonstrate. It just happens in the moment."

There was a moment of silence.

'That was a great excuse. He'll believe it, and won't pressure you to demonstrate or explain, because you can't!' Toothless was relieved. He was sure Stoick would fall for that.

Hiccup inwardly collapsed in relief when Stoick replied favorably.

"Ah, I knew my blood and my father's blood would show eventually. Doing it all on instinct. Hah! Bet that's what's got Astrid so mad. She practices for years straight, and you trounce her on instinct!'

Hiccup inwardly cringed, because there was probably some truth to that. It really didn't look like he was trying to improve outside of the ring. Well, he was, but not for dragon training. And no one knew about that.

"I can't wait to watch you in the ring. I'll have Gobber move up the final test, you and Astrid both seem ready. We'll have the deciding round tomorrow morning. I would do it today, but Gobber will be mad if I take his apprentice away after loading his schedule. Well, off you go. Gobber's probably already working." Stoick grinned.

Hiccup was speechless. Just like that, Stoick had brought events to a head. There was no more time to think, to plan, to prepare. Tomorrow, he would either lose to Astrid and watch the Nightmare die the next day, or beat Astrid and be expected to kill the Nightmare the next day. Unless he could think of a third option. In the little time he had left.

'Get out of there before he starts talking again.'

Hiccup jolted back to reality. He left out of the front door in a rush, heading to the forge and a day of metalwork. "Will you be okay? I'll be stuck here until dark. I'll come over then, even if I have to go through the woods at night. We can fish then, and figure out what in the world to do about this mess."

'I'll be fine. I've gone far longer without food. While you work, I'll float ideas as to what we can do. You don't have to respond, but maybe something I say will help.' Toothless was trying to make Hiccup feel better, and he really did hope they could find some way out of this.

'So, let's break it down like we did with the Terror in the arena.'

Hiccup winced slightly. Not the best memory at a time like this. He was busy sharpening things from a stack of weapons that was steadily growing faster than he could work. He didn't mind because that meant he would be undisturbed for a while, and the grinder drowned out his responses for anyone but Toothless so Hiccup could participate in the brainstorming as he worked.

'We know the Nightmare is the only dragon in danger at the moment. Whichever one is used for the final test, Astrid won't kill a dragon against orders in front of the entire village. We know that you could let her win, or you can use something like the pressure point to win yourself. We get to decide who fights the Nightmare.'

"Then it has to be me. If it comes down to one of us in the arena with it, there's nothing we can do to stop Astrid."

'If it comes down to that. It might not matter. Think, Hiccup. What else is there? Can we postpone the actual fight with the Nightmare?'

"Not without a good reason, and we don't have one. Besides, my dad is itching to see me be the best, so he won't listen to excuses anyway."

'What if he has no choice? You can't fight a Nightmare if there's no Nightmare to fight. If we could set it free, he'd have to wait until they can capture another.'

Hiccup liked that idea, even if it was only a temporary solution. "Yeah, and he'd have to wait at least until the next raid, unlike with the Terror, because Nightmares aren't just found lying around everywhere. That buys us time, but it doesn't solve the problem. The village doesn't guard the dragon pens, but if we set one free, they'll probably set a guard on the others. We can only do this safely once."

'If we can only do it once, we need to set them all free. That will make it less suspicious than if just the Nightmare got out.'

Hiccup was getting into the problem now, his brain unfreezing now that they had the start to a plan, and wasn't working from scratch. "If we set them all free, it will be obvious some person did it. But the village does have enemies, so they'd probably blame the Outcasts. That would be something Alvin would do."

'Who is Alvin?' Toothless didn't know Berk fought other Vikings and not just dragons.

"Alvin the Treacherous was a member of this village, but he did... something. No one ever says what. Stoick made him an outcast, and now he leads a whole island of other outcasts. Alvin wants revenge, so every once in a while he attacks Berk. If we free the dragons, he'll definitely be blamed. No one will suspect the guy who just had his 'day of glory' postponed by the attack."

'So, that's our plan? Win dragon training and that night free all the arena dragons. Then, we have time to figure out a real end to this.'

"Yeah, but we don't know how much time. The raids are pretty random, and we should expect them to catch a Nightmare in the first raid they know they need one. Stoick will probably do it himself."

'Okay, we know what we have to do. How are you going to handle Astrid? She'll be on the warpath.'

Hiccup gulped. "By hoping she told the exact truth on what she plans to do to me."

'I don't follow.' Toothless didn't like the sound of it either.

"She was specific, she's gonna wait to see if the Nightmare kills me. It'll keep her hands clean if it does, and it'll mean she really is the best. She has to prefer that outcome over killing the best, and me always remembered as the best until... Wait, would she just kill me outright and not hide it? No, she'd kill me and make it look like an accident, or hide the evidence and make it look like I just disappeared. That way she isn't punished. But then she'd be taunted for the rest of her life because people would remember me as the best. She'll definitely wait and hope the dragon does her work for her. And that means she'll have to wait until they catch another one."

'Are you sure? You're betting your life on a crazy person following logic.'

Hiccup laughed bitterly. "Astrid isn't even close to crazy yet. I've seen crazy. Right now, she's just obsessed and capable of killing in cold blood. The crazy won't show up until whatever we do once they get another Nightmare." He was, again, basing all of this off of his experiences with Dagur. "I have no idea what we do at that point because unless, we come up with a really good plan, Astrid won't be our only problem."

The rest of that day passed in a blur of smoke, near-misses with molten metal, and unhappy Vikings finally admitting to themselves that their weapons were mangled beyond repair. Hiccup and Gobber worked just like old times, but Hiccup was silent.

That was unusual, and Gobber tried several times to get him back to their usual bandying of insults. He was always met with a cold gaze and a polite "Sorry Gobber. Not in the mood." Or some other variation of that phrase. Hiccup didn't want to talk to Gobber, but he had no such reservations talking to himself, the blacksmith noted sourly. He saw several times that day the unsettling sight of Hiccup mumbling to no one, his expression occasionally changing for no apparent reason. It gave Gobber the shivers. He was almost relieved when Hiccup requested to leave a bit early and quickly agreed. Hiccup left, though Gobber worried a little more when the boy exited the forge in the direction that only led to the woods. No doubt that was where Hiccup spent all of his free time recently, though Gobber hadn't the faintest clue why. "Why" seemed to be a prominent question in regards to Hiccup. Gobber just wished he had a few answers that didn't involve madness.

Hiccup ran at full, Toothless-assisted speed on the way to the cove, although that wasn't much faster than he could manage on his own, recently. Burning some energy was a must right now. He hadn't really realized how much he had gotten used to all of the exercise Toothless had him doing on a daily basis until he spent most of a day doing what he used to do. Actually having to fake fatigue near the end of the day because even after a full day's work he felt energized was a strange experience. He also wanted to get to the cove before it got dark. He didn't care if Stoick noticed he was gone, he had a good excuse ready about how he had gone running through the forest to clear his head and ended up sleeping under a tree. Usually, that would have been a stretch, but Hiccup was pretty sure Stoick would believe it now that he thought Hiccup was becoming a real Viking. It was an excuse he had actually overheard Snotlout use on occasion with his father. Thor knows what he had been doing; Hiccup was pretty sure in that case ignorance probably was bliss. He expressed these thoughts to Toothless once he reached the cove.

'He's probably just trying to stay away from home. Older hatchlings, what we call fledglings, do it all the time as some show of defiance. I've overheard some dragons saying that that was one of the few good parts of the Queen's control. The fledglings couldn't wander far, because no one was allowed to leave the island.'

"Well, I've never... you know what, forget I was about to say that."

'Were you about to say that you don't stay away from home, while sitting in the middle of the forest after dark, with no intention of returning until the morning?'

"I said forget about it!"

Toothless turned serious. 'You are correct though, you don't. Because you don't really consider the village home.'

Hiccup wished he was in a position to deny that, but it was true. If it hadn't been before all of this, it was now. He didn't consider the village really home. Because to him, home had to contain at least one person who understood you. By that criteria, the village hadn't ever really been home. Also by that criteria, the cove was. Hiccup was good with that. It didn't mean that he wouldn't at least try at some point to get the village to understand. It just made the fact that they probably wouldn't listen easier to bear.

Toothless and Hiccup went fishing, both of them using Toothless's eyes because he could see in the dark. They went back to the cove once they had caught enough for the night and went over the plan for the next day and the night following it. Get to the village, win dragon training, avoid death by Astrid (Toothless's addition, Hiccup didn't think that would be necessary), make himself scarce until night, free arena dragons, get out unseen, be seen in the village as an alibi. Easy.

Needless to say, neither slept easily that night. They were both worried. Hiccup about pulling everything off correctly, and Toothless about being unable to help if something did go wrong. Hiccup found no relief in his restlessness, but Toothless actually had an idea about what he could do.

The next morning, he explained after they went fishing, which also meant flying. 'You can leave the saddle on, and I can stay out of the cove. No one will be in the woods today, everyone will be at the arena and the celebration afterward. That way, if everything really goes bad I can get to you and we can leave. Just in case.'

Hiccup was uneasy about it, but Toothless had a point. He agreed. That was how they parted ways that day.

Toothless saw Hiccup off and left to travel to one of the forest's most isolated spots. He needed to be with Hiccup, and he needed to be safely hidden to do that. He located a particularly dark and shadowed overhang in the deepest part of the forest and curled up beneath it. To passerby, he would be invisible. To anyone who somehow managed to see him, he would seem asleep. But he was very much awake, and his heart was beating quicker in anticipation as his mind joined Hiccup in his run to the village. Ready to see how everything would play out. And ready to intervene if he needed to. Hopefully, he wouldn't.