Hiccup stirred his stew, today was not a great day. Of all the days that could be said to be not great, this was the most not great of them all. The ice from the winter seasons had thawed allowing travel among the archipelago once again and word had gotten out about Berk and their dragons. This was likely because Trader Johan couldn't keep his mouth shut about anything at all if it was entertaining enough to tell and the other being Alvin the Treacherous, who was trying to stir up trouble with the other viking tribes by telling them of what had changed on Berk.
The Red Death had been defeated and Berk controlled the dragons now, more specifically 'He' controlled the dragons. Apparently, the tales were that the Son of Stoick the Vast was now the Dragon Master who commanded the skies on the back of his Night Fury.
Of course, he suspected that most people who heard that were imagining the worst and if they believed Alvin then they would be afraid of Berk using the dragons as weapons to take over the world.
So, when his dad came into the Great Hall to announce that there would be a Summit of Chiefs on the island, it caused a bit of a kerfuffle as normally it was held in the warmer months, not so soon after the chilly winds of Jotunheim went away. But that he sat down with him to explain that he received word of the other tribe's unease about the last month's events meant he was really taking this seriously.
"Hiccup, there's a real chance for war to break out over this," Stoick finally said with a sigh. "We have dragons and the other vikings are afraid, afraid of what that means and what we can do with them. It's a power imbalance the likes never seen, we've mostly been equal with some tribes having better ships or metals. But no tribes have ever had sole control over the skies before. Dragons, with humans riding them, directing them to be more efficient, that was the stuff of my nightmares when I was younger."
"But dad, the dragons aren't weapons," Hiccup protested against his father's sweeping description of the newest addition to the island. "We wouldn't use them like that… would we?"
Stoick wanted to say that would never happen because he respected what his son had accomplished, but he couldn't lie to him. Not over something as serious as this. "I wish it was that way, in a better world, the tribes would get along and we'd all have enough to get through the harsher times. But it's not always that easy, you know how bad some of our winters can be and how much we struggled at times. Now with the dragons it might not be so bad, but it still might be. And the other tribes have had bad times too."
"So, if it came to it," Heaving his shoulders and looking down into his lap Stoick continued with sadness in his voice. "If my people were starving and on the brink death, I'd send out the dragons with riders to take what we needed to survive."
"I pray to the gods that it never comes to that. It's never a good time to raid another village just for food but it's a reality, with enough hope and the dragon's no longer our enemies, we might not have to ever again."
Hiccup thought back to the times when raiding parties would go out and how they would return with much needed supplies but many times with fewer people than they had gone out with. But using dragons would make it much easier to take from the others who couldn't defend themselves from coordinated aerial attacks. "So, then we just have to show them that dragons aren't weapons and that we can befriend them."
Stoick rested his massive hand on his idealistic son's shoulder. "You are such a good boy, just like your mother, always thinking the best of people. But we can't just do that, teaching them that the dragons aren't enemies is one thing, they'll likely see that for themselves as raids dwindle now that you slayed the queen dragon, but everyone riding dragons might not be for the best."
"Why would it be bad?" Hiccup questioned just why the idea of having everyone get along wouldn't be in the best interest of everyone.
"Do you really think someone like Alvin should be allowed to have a dragon?"
The young rider looked aghast at his father's question. "Of course not, Alvin would just abuse any dragon he had and then turn it on the tribes to cause chaos. Oh… I see what you mean."
"But still there have to be some tribes we can teach to live in harmony with the dragons?" Hiccup asked of his dad since he had clearly been thinking about this a while.
Stoick just offered a shrug. "Maybe, there are some tribes that we have treaties with, but that doesn't mean we can trust them with dragons."
"But but, we can't just keep the dragons to ourselves," Hiccup protested how guarded his dad was being about training others outside their own tribe. "Isn't that part of the problem, the fear that only we have the dragons, wouldn't teaching others make it go away?"
"It might, or it gives them a way to use the dragons against us," Stoick shook his head. "This is why it's a chief's job to sort this out. It's a very delicate problem, we could try your way and everything works out or it ends in every tribe killing each other with dragons. For the time being, we don't have ways to take down a dragon that has a proper rider on it."
"What, why would that be different, we took down dragons before?" Hiccup scoffed and looked at all the dragon skulls around the great hall, those were scheduled to come down since it made the dragons uncomfortable and was a part of their history they were leaving behind.
"Aye, but we'd never take down a dragon that had a human directing it, one that knows our tools and tactics and could come up with ways to counter them," Stoick chuckled before punching his son lightly in the chest. "After all you shot down Toothless, and I doubt anyone else would do it again with you on his back looking out for him."
"I mean, well- wow yeah, it uh, would be a whole different type of warfare," Hiccup realized that the game had changed and if everyone was doing it, then Berk might not be able to defend itself anymore.
"Which is why you will be at the Summit to see how the discussions go, if I feel it safe enough, you can explain how to train a dragon, but if I think that the tribes will use them against us, I won't have you spilling your secrets to them," Stoick explained how he wanted the situation in a few days to go. "After that it's anyone's guess."
"Jeez, this isn't just going to be a brand-new Berk, it's going to be a strange new world," Hiccup realized just how different things were going to become.