The two settled into a comfortable silence. The faint humming of the dragons inside milling around as the nocturnal dragons woke up to replace all the day time dragons. Hiccup had no idea how any of those dragons slept while the mountain was loud with the vast majority moving and talking. Hiccup knew he couldn't do that. As they set down into a nice calm the unmistakable stomping of Stoick closed in on them. The large man sat across the couple. The man sat quiet for a while with the two before speaking.
"This place is nothing like I thought."
"Better? Worse?" Hiccup asked.
"I don't think that it could get worse than I thought." Stoick chuckled.
"Well it's good that you didn't get in before Toothless and I took over. It wouldn't be so nice then."
"That's the truth" Toothless hummed behind him.
"Oh?"
"Yeah, Toothless and I had to fight to lead this place. Took down the biggest thing you've ever seen and her bones rest at the bottom of the sea now. She was what was attacking villages. She could force others to attack against their will."
Stoick took a second to choose his words. "So what made him stop listening?" Stoick wondered. Hiccup smiled and pressed himself against Toothless.
"He ended up meeting something that could speak louder than her. Someone who could show him that we weren't his enemies. Or at least, that the whole world wasn't against him. Only most of it. And hopefully less and less of the world sees them as monsters as we continue to try and make allies.
I suppose that sorta has to start with you."
"You think because of this that I'm just going to be friends with these beasts?"
"I didn't say friends, I said allies." Hiccup corrected.
"What's the difference?"
"The difference is whether or not you let them into your village. Have them available to you at all times. Or waiting for one of my scouts to come find me so that I can deploy them to you. One is asking for loyalty and the other is asking for help.
I don't care if you want the unique experience of living with these borderline magic creatures or not. I'm asking if you'd come to our aid in a time of need. And we'd do the same for you."
"How can I even begin to trust them? After all the damage they've caused. All the deaths. You expect me to drop all that?"
"I'm not saying it's going to be easy. Your village is very opinionated and hardheaded. It would be immensely tough to change their minds about dragons. Near impossible maybe. But wounds heal. It'll leave scars but it's healed. And look at what's happened since you've got here. Look around you right now. You're the only human up here. All the others you've brought are still in there, looking around, exploring, interacting.
Think about future generations. Think about the potential of children growing up, having one of our hatchlings growing up alongside them. Creating lifelong bonds.
And don't think for a second that there aren't dragons in there right now that have grudges against Berk. Their friends and family, killed. Their bones cast into the sea, never to be recovered. Those dragons may not like who I want to ally with first, but understand that a future of peace is worth playing nice for. Is worth letting the wounds heal for.
Just, please take this seriously. Cause in reality we're fine here on our own, and have room to grow. But I want to branch out, I want to give people security. Make people realize that they aren't the first and last line of defence against an attack.
That's all I want."
Stoick sat for a while longer before standing.
"I'll speak with the others, but I can make any promises."
"All I want is a chance dad." Hiccup stated. The large man lumbered off and disappeared again. Hiccup huffed.
"Don't worry Hiccup. He'll come around." Toothless soothed.
"You think?"
"I think that he's going to have to really look around and realize that we aren't who we were. If he can't look passed that then that's his problem.
Plus in theory we could make contact with another village and have just as much if not a better chance at making some sort of peace with them. Just to show him that what we want can work. You just have to put in the effort to make it work."
"Listen, I know, I know. If he doesn't take it we'll move on. I just want him to realize that he doesn't have to fight alone. Berk basically has no allies and having to watch all those people constantly be on edge. Ready to lay their lives down at any moment was very odd to watch. And sure, is it like that here? Kinda. But we have the safety of this place. Right now no one can get in here without us letting them in. And we know we can defend it with nearly no damage to us. So it's not like we really need them, I just…" Hiccup was cut off by Toothless pushing his snout into Hiccup's neck.
"You shouldn't worry so much." Toothless licked at the back of Hiccup's neck.
"I know. But you know how I get when I want something"
"I am the person who's probably seen you want things the most." Toothless chuckled.
"Thanks for putting up with me Toothless." Hiccup whispered. "It means more than you think."
"Oh, I know how much it means to you. Cause you do the same for me and I know how I feel about that. So I have an idea." Hiccup started to shake and Toothless could hear his breath hitching. Toothless slowly constricted himself around Hiccup, and flared out his wings to make a small dome around them, so that in case someone came up they wouldn't see Hiccup like that. Now that he'd moved around enough Toothless lifted Hiccup's chin with his snout. "What's wrong?"
"I can't tell you."
"Oh? Why?"
"It's too selfish, it's not fair to you."
"It's okay to be selfish sometimes Hiccup. Especially if it involves me." There was a long pause before Hiccup spoke.
"Please don't die."
"I promise to do all I can to make sure that doesn't happen." Toothless sat and waited for Hiccup to calm down. All the while he slowly groomed Hiccup to help speed it up and make him feel safe.
