Stoick sat for a second, looking at his son. Question after question running through his mind. He wanted to ask so much but had no useful information to trade to ask more questions. So answering Hiccup's question was the only thing he could do right now.

"Okay." Hiccup snapped his attention back to his father. "What I do is, everything I can. Even if it's something small. Always say yes. You will be sacrificing yourself a lot, but the mood your people are in is the most important. It will lead to problems. Going hungry puts a lot of strain and pressure on everyone not just you.

Secondly, try to keep everyone's minds off of it for as long as you can. If they're having fun or thinking about something else they're less likely to think about being hungry. It's hard to do that sometimes, and it gets worse the longer its happening. On top of that you won't be able to get everyone at the same time.

Next is pretty simple but the hardest to deal with. People are going to complain. A lot. It's unavoidable and you should be trying to avoid it either. So when they come to you saying their hungry and whatever else you just need to try to calm them down. What I do is just remind them that's it's everyone not just them. You're all in the same situation together. Your not holding out on them.

Which leads into the last thing. You said that you had you food in storage. Is it centralized, do you all share it together?" Stoick asked and Hiccup nodded. "Then what you're going to have to do is guard it. And you can't do that, you must have others be the ones sitting there saying no to people. Get a group together of the ones you trust the most. These people must be able to look at someone and be able to say no for any reason. They cannot be influenced by anything, trades, work, other goods, nothing. Even their closest friends.

Oh, and actually one more thing. Be fair to everyone. No one gets more than anyone else. Everything is split as evenly as you can. Then when someone complains that you're giving more to another person or group, you either tell them to prove it, or simply ignore them because you know you're not." Stoick explained.

While Stoick was talking Hiccup and Toothless were watching as the door to his old bedroom opened but nothing came out. They gave each other knowing looks and Hiccup silently told Toothless to keep his eye on it. He didn't want his father catching wind that there was another among them.

As Stoick finished his instructions to Hiccup there was a knock on the door.

"Expecting company?" Hiccup asked. Stoick shook his head. He got his large frame up from the chair and went to the door. He cracked it open and poked only his head out, blocking the rest of the opening with is body.

"Is there something you need?" Hiccup heard his father ask. He tried to figure out what the person on the other side of the door was saying but couldn't make out who or what was being discussed. So they waited for him to finish with whoever was outside. Stoick closed the door and sat back in his chair.

"Someone thought they saw a couple of dragons entering the village. Know anything about that?" Stoick crossed his arms.

"In the village is the least of your worries."

"That must be what opened the door upstairs. Where are they now?" Stoick asked.

"Let's find out." Hiccup paused for a second. "You can come out Color." Stoick listened to his son speak in clicks and hisses, thinking he was crazy and yet a large green dragon fell from the rafters. "You're not supposed to be here." Hiccup scolded. "I wasn't kidding when I said my dad was the sharpest they come.

"I'm sorry, Tunneler couldn't hear you very well. So I made the call to sneak in and keep an eye on you personally." Color apologized. Hiccup looked at his father then back to her.

"Well he didn't reach for his axe so that's good. Anything else I should know about?" She shook her head. Hiccup turned back to Stoick. "Okay well I wasn't expecting to do this. But dad meet Color, she, and her team keep an eye on Berk for me."

"You spy on Berk?" Stoick sighed.

"I wouldn't say it like that. I don't have anyone giving me information. They just watch the village and report to me if you send ships out."

"You mean if we send ships out for you."

"You do pose the largest threat to us. Mostly because your the only village on the archipelago that still tries to get through the fog. Everyone else has given up, or never attempted in the first place. But since Toothless and I took over you haven't attempted you haven't tried. So I don't know if you've also decided that it wasn't worth it or if you simply don't have the resources."

Stoick sat in amazement of his son. Going from complete klutz to a man with near unmatched power at is finger tips.

"Son? I'd like to ask you some other things."

"What do you have to trade?" Hiccup asked. Stoick huffed at his.

"I won't tell anyone about your little spies. And I'll let you go up to your room and take anything out of it that you want."

"One of those is much weaker than the other." Hiccup laughed through his nose. "But okay what do you want to know?"

"First, I want to know if I'm the only one being Spied on?"

"No." Hiccup shook his head. "Everyone on the archipelago has one of my scouting parties watching it. But Berk is the only place I will not allow them to go into. It's the only place I've deemed to dangerous to get to close to. So you're the only place where I don't know things like battle plans, weapon schematics, hunting and fished locations, which I guess I already know, I did live here."

"Even Dagur, or Alvin's lands?"

"Dagur and his people are too caught up in trying to figure out how to attack everything they see to even notice. And Alvin thinks he has everything under control but wonders how the dragon's he happens to catch get loose. Plus he has a little problem with ships randomly sinking his his harbor."

"What happens if they do get caught? What's the plan there smart guy?"

"Fight and get out, or if that isn't an option, take as many with you as possible. My scouts are on their own out here. The second that they aren't in the area around Helheim I no longer have control over what they do. I have some rules that I like them following but I don't, or in reality can't enforce them. Their jobs are dangerous and I don't want to lose them because of some rule I have in place. They are my family after all." He paused for a second and reached over to scratch Toothless' head. "Losing even one because of something I said is not acceptable." Stoick huffed again.

"Hiccup that's part of your job. It happens, and is going to happen. The only way it won't is if you kept everyone pent up in your 'village', or whatever you call it. You already said you don't do that so it's too late for that. Look Hiccup if someone dies, everyone is going to look at you, and whether it's your fault or not, it's your fault, and you need to apologize. They need someone to be mad at, someone to blame. And it will be hard, your going through the same thing, you lost that person too, and being yelled at and blamed for everything won't help. You're their friend when things are good and their biggest enemy when things are bad. Just outlast the bad times and things will go back to normal.