A/n: Suggestion from MysteryCooper 101. Not much else to say here... how boring.
"Hey, Ruffnut." Snotlout leant into Hookfang casually. "What're you doing - ah!"
Ruffnut raised an eyebrow at the Viking, who'd just slapped himself across the face. "What am I doing ah? What's ah mean?"
Snotlout stared at his hand. "I was going to say," he continued, putting the offending limb back onto Hookfang's neck, "what are you doing - ah!"
Again, Snotlout cried out in pain as he found himself receiving a slap to the face, yet again coming from his own hand. "This isn't funny!" he snapped, despite the laughs from the twins that proved otherwise. "All I want to do is get a girl and - oh, come on!"
A few metres away, positioned behind a nearby house, Toothless crouched and watched his hard work pay off. He'd spent a lot of time working on his mind control with the terrible terrors, and he was getting very good at it. Good enough to get instant effects, and to interrupt Snotlout's pathetic flirting attempts.
He snorted with laughter as Snotlout huffed and stormed off, catching the attention of the twins.
"Was that you?"
'Yes.' Oh, they can't understand Dragonese... Toothless nodded his head.
"Cool!" they breathed, then gave simultaneous orders for the mind control to be used against the other.
Toothless was happy to oblige, and narrowed his eyes slightly. Both twins slapped themselves, then each other, hard enough to knock themselves to the ground.
I could get some use from this... Toothless realised. Go and get me some fish.
The twins nodded slowly, moving in a very controlled manner over to the harbour.
"Hey bud. Got yourself some dinner?" Hiccup asked, watching Toothless finish up a pile of fish.
'Yeah.' the night fury nodded. 'Want some?'
"No," Hiccup laughed - Toothless loved to offer him raw fish, despite knowing full well that he would never accept it. Perhaps that was the reason why; he was being polite, and he knew he wouldn't have to give up any of his meal.
"We have some more fish for you."
Hiccup looked over to the source of the monotonous voice, concerned to find that the twins were the ones speaking. Wait...
"Did you use your mind control on them?" Hiccup asked accusingly.
'No?' Toothless denied hopefully. Hiccup frowned pointedly. 'Okay, so maybe I did. Just a little bit. And they asked for it! Literally, they said -'
"I don't care what they said." Hiccup said patiently, like he was talking to a small child. "Let them go. Now."
Toothless looked over at the twins, then back to Hiccup. He pouted. 'No.' he refused petulantly.
"Toothless..." Hiccup said warningly.
Toothless huffed. Why should he let Hiccup tell him what to do? Never mind that he was right - Toothless was the alpha! He could do what he wanted! Go back to your job.
Hiccup nodded blankly and left Toothless to eat his next lot of fish in peace. While he was at it...
Go and slap Snotlout, then you're done.
Valka found Hiccup by the side of a house, calmly walking into the side of it repeatedly.
"Hiccup?" she asked tentatively, walking slowly up behind him with deliberately heavy steps. "What're you doing?"
Hiccup didn't respond, not even when Valka waved a hand in front of his blank face.
"You okay?" Valka pressed a hand on Hiccup's shoulder, and he blinked.
"What..." he asked slowly, looking around himself in confusion. "Toothless." he said darkly once he'd gained his bearings.
"Toothless?" Valka echoed. What did the night fury have to do with this?
"He used his mind control on me, because I told him to stop using it on the twins." Hiccup explained. "Honestly, he's so immature sometimes..."
Valka smiled at that, remembering all of the immature things Hiccup himself had done in the few months she'd been back in his presence. But still, abusing his powers was a cause for concern.
"I'll help you. We're going to need a blindfold."
Hiccup sat patiently behind his tree, listening out for Cloudjumper's signal. It was the dragon's job to lure the other out into the forest, where both Hiccup and Valka lay in wait, with a blindfold each. The plan had stated being put into action ten minutes ago, and there was still no noise other than the occasional rustle of leaves when the wind swept past them.
'Now!' Cloudjumper yelled, from a spot quite far from Hiccup. Cloudjumper had gone closer to Valka's hiding spot first.
"You couldn't have come up with a better signal?" Hiccup said as he wandered out from behind the tree. Valka had successful wrestled Toothless to the ground, using the element of surprise, and the blindfold was securely in place. "Something a tad (less bvious)?"
Cloudjumper huffed indignantly. 'It worked, didn't it?'
Hiccup shrugged. "Okay, time for Valka's story."
"This is a story for your benefit, Toothless, so you'd better listen." Valka advised, ignoring the night fury's irritated wriggling under her hold. "It's about an alpha who abused their power too often, using their mind control to get other dragons to do things for them. Can you guess what happened to them?"
'They got really lazy?' Toothless guessed sarcastically.
"No. They started to get power-hungry. They demanded more and more of the dragons under their care, ruling over their territory with fear, and forcing the dragons to go to more and more desperate measures to get food for their alpha."
Hiccup frowned; this story sounded awfully familiar.
"In the end, the only way to stop the reign of terror was by killing the alpha. It was done by a young Viking and a night fury - you might be familiar with them. And you might know the alpha, too: the Red Death?"
'Okay...' Toothless said resignedly. 'I'll be more careful with the mind control. Happy now?'
"Very."