"Without Toothless I'd be long gone. Or I would have never left Berk. If Toothless and I never met I'd probably still be getting kicked around and made fun of."

Stoick became physically uncomfortable.

"I don't know about that Hiccup. As you grow up people more or less stop that type of pettiness. They would have seen what you were good at, and had no choice once you'd taken over as chief."

"Yeah right. You would have just given it to Snotlout and nothing would have changed."

"That may be what you think but I assure you, your place as chief had been all but decided when you left. A little, or well, a big bird could not keep his mouth shut about you." Stoick chuckled. Hiccup raised an eyebrow.

"And who was that?"

"Oh gods Hiccup, really? You know it was Gobber."

"The man who would constantly tell me I'm doing my job wrong? And that what I made was never good enough?"

"There were some factors to that, that I think you overlook."

"Like?"

"Like you were a child. Gods above Hiccup do you really think that he was good at what he was doing when he was your age? Of course not. Count your blessings that you didn't have his master. That man may have been good at smithing steel but there was a reason no one liked him. But to no one's surprise, Gobber did. I don't know how he does it but that man can see through anyone. When I would complain about you not being as I expected he would always laugh at me. He would tell me about all the crazy contraptions you'd make, all the drawings and notes. After you'd left he told me he was sad that you were gone, and even asked to pardon you."

"Really?"

"Oh yeah, his reasoning was selfish but I was blind with anger.

When he asked me to pardon you, it was because of your skill. He's a fantastic smith, irreplaceable really. But he told me that he could have stepped down and let you take over completely by the time you'd left. Even a year prior. He'd thought you had succeeded him and you were only fifteen. Of course I didn't really care what he had to say at the time."

"It must have been hard going back without a trophy. I bet there was a lot of complaining."

"I thought I'd never hear the end of it." Stoick sighed. "From some people it was understandable. Snotlout's and Horrace's families made sense. They'd lost people, they were angry, I got that. But other people, people who weren't even there that night would come up to me and say that it was a disgrace that I let you go. And that I was weak because you were my son. What am I even supposed to say to that? They weren't even there, they didn't see what happened. Plus if I had told the rest of them to go for you who knows what would have happened. How many people would I have had to throw at you to get you. And if you stay and fight, the Night Fury joins in and now there's suddenly two very dangerous people fighting. Who knows how many would have died just to get one of you, not to mention both. And on top of that you could have just run and it wouldn't have changed anything. You still would have got away. So it's not like there was anything I could do to make that situation better. People just don't understand sometimes that it's better to move on, and think about the future. I'm sure you understand that." Stoick looked at his son. Meanwhile Hiccup was looking out at his home. Then turned to his father.

"Sometimes, yeah. But I understand not wanting to, too. And within the next couple of days we may have to make the decision to move on again. I want this place to survive, my whole goal for this place was to disrupt the way things are, as little as possible. While at the same time coming up with new things that made sense to me to add to their lives. Like letting them come and go as they please. And some take advantage of that, they know they always have a home here if they need it. But most, if not basically all of them have stayed. They've never left the 'safe zone' of this place. But with what's coming at us." He paused. "If there's a fight, I have to be able to make the decision to save lives, or save the way they live. And that'll probably be the hardest choice I'll ever make. And while technically we do have a back up place to live. The Edge. It isn't here.

I'm sure they'd adjust but it would take a while and there would be a lot of complaining. So we'll see."

"What do you know about these people that are coming here?" Stoick asked. "I know you've said some things before, what do you really know?"

"That's sorta the problem. None of these dragons have been to a Bewilderbeast's sanctuary. Most who go tend to stay there. But from what we do know this situation is quite odd. There are very few situations where one would break out of its place. But we don't know the reason which is why we sent people to go look and see what is going on. But they haven't returned yet. Though we did receive notice that a high flyer has seen at least one of them returning. So we'll finally learn what's going on but that'll just confirm our thoughts that it's going to be hostile, or they're going to come and tell us that they're coming in peace and something else is going on. But until then we wait and I make sure that my people are as happy as they can be with the looming presence of a potential fight."

"You're a good leader Hiccup."

"You think?" Hiccup smiled. Stoick nodded. There was another long but comfortable pause between them. Both dragons nearly silently flying, allowing the wind under their wings to lift them.

"I wonder what people will think when I return to Berk like this." Stoick mused. "There will be a lot of anger, or a lot of questions. Or a lot of both." He sighed.

"What are you going to tell them?" Hiccup asked.

"I don't know yet. I came out here on a whim Didn't know what to expect. All I knew was that, because you'd come to me that night that you mustn't have hated me. And inviting me here was your way to show me that you…? Trusted me? Gods know why. To be honest with you Hiccup, I didn't think I'd make it this far. When we say Helheim in the distance, I nearly turned us around."

"What? Afraid of a few harmless overgrown lizards?"

"I'm not going to lie to you Hiccup. Most people aren't going to find these devils as cuddly as you do."

Hiccup leaned forward and circled his arms around Toothless' neck.

"Good. That just means more for me then." He rubbed his cheek against the top of his dragon's head.

AN: Happy Snoggletog everyone!