Stoick felt his energy fade from his body. The warmth of his blood soaking his skin. At least now he had something to keep him from freezing to death. He didn't know how long it had been since Alvin left to track down the Night Fury, and since he had heard the familiar sound of an attacking Night Fury, followed by several blasts. All he knew, that it had been a few hours and the worry of his son's safety grew for each minute. Of course, he wasn't sure if it was even his son returning, but his mind kept telling him it was because of the only remaining Night Fury that belonged to his son.

The Great Hall was dark. All the torchers were left unlighted. Just hanging by the walls, waiting to get lit by anyone. Stoick could barely remember how the Great Hall even looked like. He could barely remember the last time Alvin had lit up the hall. Usually, he would come in with his personal torch and have the pleasure of torturing him in the dark.

Suddenly, the huge doors of the Great Hall opened, revealing daylight that blinded Stoick's eyes. He tried to open his eyes several times, each time noticing a blurry black figure coming closer to him and the doors leading the light back to the outside slowly.

"Could you light it up, bud?" A familiar voice rang in Stoick's ears. He sighed in relief. "Hiccup," He breathed out quickly.

"Dad? I'm coming, just hang on a few more secon- oh gods," Hiccup stared in shock as the huge fire pit in the center of the hall lit up. Stoick was chained against one of the columns, covered in blood and bruises. Hiccup ran over to him, inspecting the chains that held his father a few inches up from the floor. "Hang on, I'll get you down," Hiccup turned to Toothless. "Plasma blast on three, bud," The dragon growled focused.

"One."

Hiccup brought his hands up, getting ready to support his father's body even with an injured hand.

"Two."

Stoick braced himself. He knew it would be difficult for him to stand after having hanged there for a few days straight. Each time he was fed, they untied him from the columns, but still had him chained.

"Three!"

Toothless fired the plasma blast on Stoick's left hand chain and jumped to the other side behind Hiccup, firing on the right one. Stoick winced in pain as Hiccup held his body up with all his strength until the second chain snapped from the blast. Toothless immediately came over to them, supporting Stoick's weight on his as they slowly walked over to one of the tables. Hiccup pushed away the plates of food and goblets of mead to the floor before he laid his father down on the table. He went to Toothless's saddle and took his satchel before he said,

"Toothless, go get help," Toothless nodded and ran out of the hall towards the academy where people were already making their way out. Hiccup opened his satchel and took out a few band aids he had with him. "Where does it hurt the most?" He asked his father, but received no answer. His father just looked at him in shock. Figuring out he wouldn't get any answer soon, he inspected the most visible gashes.

"Okay, I need you to sit up," Stoick nodded as Hiccup pulled his feet to the side and helped him sit down on the bench. Many times had he learned how to treat wounds and with the chief training, he learned even more.

"I'm sorry," His father whispered. "I'm so sorry," He repeated over and over again, staring at his son. He admired how much he had grown up. How much more responsible he looked.

"Dad," Hiccup said, trying to get his father out of some sort of trance he was in. He looked away from the deep gash on his forehead, let go of the band aid, and cupped his father's cheeks so he would look at him. "I'm the one who should be apologizing, not you," Suddenly, he felt warm, strong arms pull him forward. His father buried his head in his neck, crying out softly.

"I'm so sorry," Stoick paused. "I'm sorry for not being there for you."

"It's ok. Shh, everything will be alright," Hiccup patted his back. He had never seen his father break down like that before. He was always the brave chief who wouldn't show any emotion, barely even to his own son. But somehow it felt good. It felt good because he now knew truly how sorry his father was. And that his father still loved him. Now he can't even understand why he was nervous of coming back to him. Hiccup pulled away a few minutes later once his father calmed down.

"I need to stop your bleeding at least until the other's come here," Stoick nodded and leaned back. Hiccup took the band aid and wrapped it around his head. "I don't have anything to prevent it from getting infected."

"It's okay, I think I'll survive that," Stoick chuckled along with his son. Hiccup wrapped the last part around his head and secured it. "What happened to your eye?" Stoick asked, noticing the dried blood around it.

"Nothing bad, I hope," Hiccup chuckled nervously. "I got it while freeing the others," Stoick's eyes widened.

"The others are free?" He asked in shock.

"Yeah, everyone is free-

Hiccup was interrupted by the doors opening. Toothless ran towards them, with his tongue out happily. The two laughed at the dragon. Toothless nudged Stoick's hand and smiled up at him.

"It's good to see you too," Stoick chuckled, scratching his head. Outside they could hear loud voices cheering and soon the door opened. Vikings were walking in with smiles on their faces. Stoick tried to stand up to greet his people, but Hiccup pushed him back down.

"Nuh uh, not happening," Hiccup said, trying to keep a serious face. He too, was happy that everyone alright and well. His friends came walking over to them along with Gobber and a few outcasts.

"What are they doing here?!" Stoick growled standing up, but Hiccup pushed him down again. "Calm down! They're not going to hurt us. We've made peace with them," Hiccup said, struggling to hold his father down with one hand.

"What?" Stoick asked dumbfounded. Peace with Alvin? Stoick asked himself.

"We have a lot to tell you about," Hiccup stated, stepping to the side so the outcasts could look at his father. Stoick tensed a little at first, but then some of the Berkian's healers came and helped.

Hiccup sat down on the bench beside his father with some medicine. He dipped some cloth in a bowl of water and pressed it against his palm. The water burned his wound like hot metal. He gritted his teeth to keep himself from groaning out in pain. A shadow came over the table. Looking up he saw Gobber sitting down on the other end of the table, taking his hand with his hook.

"Let me look at that," Before Hiccup could protest, Gobber removed the cloth and looked at it.

"Looks like we're going to have to wait for the final task," Gobber said, placing a hand on Hiccup's shoulder.

"What final task?" Hiccup asked confused. It obviously had something to do about him, since Gobber was referring to his hand, but the question was, what did he mean?

"The final task of your chief training. Chief training consists of three parts. First part, the physical training. Second part, learning about chief business. And the third part is the one where you fight the best fighters of your village in different categories to show that you're worthy enough to become the chief and is able to defend everyone from anyone. If you succeed on winning all the points, you will be honored as the newest protector," Gobber explained.

"How come no one ever told me about this?" Hiccup asked.

"We thought it would be better to tell you when you came back. That way you wouldn't beat yourself up to get ready for the last lesson," Gobber explained, wrapping a band aid around Hiccup's left hand.

"Then when will that take place?"

"In a month's time or so," Gobber let go of his hand and stood up. "See ya later, chief," Gobber chuckled, patting his shoulder before he disappeared through the crowd of people. Hiccup stood up from his seat, about to run after him and question him, but someone called his name.

"Hiccup!" His father called out to him. Hiccup turned around to see his father waving off the healers. He walked over to him.

"What is it?" Hiccup asked.

"I need you to be…chief…while I recover from the injuries. The healers wouldn't allow any stress on me and preferred that you took over for a while," Stoick explained.

"WHAT?!" Hiccup screamed in shock. All attention turned to him.

"Don't worry; I'll be by your side helping you. You just need to take the main part of the chiefing while I recover."

"Alright, I'll do it," Hiccup sighed, rubbing his forehead bud winced when he remembered his gash.

"You need to get that looked at," Stoick said, standing up as he held his ribs. He called for a healer and only seconds later, one came through the crowd. Hiccup sat down on the bench and let the healer clean his wound, listening to the questions the healer asked him.

"Does your head hurt?" The healer asked. Hiccup shook his head. "Your eye?"

"A little from the blood, but nothing more," The healer nodded and continued cleaning. The healer looked at the cleaned wound and sighed. "What is it?" Hiccup asked worriedly.

"Looks like it'll heal and leave a scar," Hiccup sighed, but nodded.

"He's getting a scar? How cool!" A voice from the crowd shouted, running towards them. Hiccup groaned, turning to look at Tuffnut as the healer got some medicine.

"I could give you a scar right now," Ruffnut smirked, punching her brother to the ground. The crowd groaned in annoyance, having put up with that for two years straight, and turned back to their own business.

"So how's the pride of Berk doing?" Astrid asked, ignoring the twins fighting and screaming at each other. Hiccup blushed at the nickname, but winced once the medicine was applies to his gash.

"Good actually," Hiccup chuckled. "Except for the fact that dad made me acting chief for an unlimited time," Stoick fake coughed, alarming him that he was still there.

"You're the acting chief?" Fishlegs asked in wonder.

"Come on chief, what do you see when you look over here?" Snotlout pouted, flexing his muscles.

"A childish, selfish teen," Stoick pointed out and walked away. Hiccup couldn't help but chuckle.

"And you're cleaned up!" The healer said happily, packing away her stuff. "Your eye will be a little red for a few more days, but that's normal. Make sure you clean both your eye and the wound twice a day," Hiccup nodded and thanked her. He stood up and turned to Snotlout.

"Relax, I will need some help though," Snotlout's mood lightened up at the sound of that.

"Of course you do. I mean, what would a fishbone like you do without me?" Snotlout laughed. Astrid growled, punching him in his guts and square in his face. Snotlout fell to the ground, one hand on his stomach and the other on his nose.

"How insulting," Hiccup said sarcastically, pulling Astrid away from Snotlout before she got the chance to jump on him again. "Easy there Astrid," She grunted in annoyance and calmed down. Hiccup let go of her and let her face him.

"So what do you need help with?" She asked.

"I'll have to talk to my dad first, be right back," He said, walking off to find his father. Once out of sight, Astrid turned towards Snotlout with an evil smirk, cracking her knuckles.

"Oh no," Snotlout muttered, standing up and running away from Astrid who trailed closely behind him.