"Now then." The tall woman said. "I'd like to ask that you try not to kill anything that looks mystical, godly, or otherwise not of this plane. Having to come down here and fix it while not hard does take me away from my other duties." Freya put her hands on her hips.
"We're sorry, we'll try not to." Hiccup apologized.
"Eh, don't worry about it." She waved her hand. "Your finding Eikthynir here is surely out of coincidence as he has nothing to do with you, and I doubt ever really will." She looked around at the others all trying to figure out what was going on. "So, who's all this then?" She asked.
"Oh." Hiccup jumped and moved to Stoick's side. "This is my dad, and the other humans are from his village. My old village. Before I was forced to leave. It's worked out for the most part now though. We have an alliance. Or well, most of one at least. There's still some details we have to work out, but I'm hopeful."
"And what's your hope with this?"
"I've always wanted to show other humans that dragons aren't big mean monsters." He walked over to the group of dragons sitting together and began to pet and scratch them. "I want people to see that if you treat them right and learn just a bit about them, they're amazing. They can be so kind and gentle when they don't feel threatened." Hiccup pressed his cheek against the Nadder's before walking back to Toothless' side. And if you get the right one they can be down right romantic." He kissed the side of his dragon's head. "Not that I think anyone will go that far with one." He laughed.
"Why do I even spend time worrying about you two?" Freya chuckled to herself. The tall woman walked up to Stoick just inching him out in height. She looked him over for a second. "I can see the resemblance but I assume you take more after your mother?" She asked.
"That's what I've been told. I haven't seen her since I was a baby. I don't actually know what she looks like. I was too young to remember when she disappeared. There are some drawings of her but I don't know myself."
"I see, I'm sorry for your loss. I'm sure that by the time you join me and fulfill your purpose she'll have also joined us, I'll see if I can get you to meet her."
"Well, thanks, I guess." Hiccup didn't know how to answer her.
"I see, well I must be off. Oh and." Freya snapped her fingers, and all the others besides Toothless and Hiccup went into a stupor.
"What did you do?" Hiccup asked panicked.
"Don't worry, they're fine. In a few minutes they'll come to and forget this all happened. We'd prefer that we stay hidden to regular mortals. Makes our lives a whole lot easier that way. And you've been keeping your mouth shut, yes?" She asked.
"Yes, mostly." Hiccup admitted.
"Mostly?" She looked at him sharply.
"All they know is that there's a third party that has helped us in the past."
"It better stay that way." Her lips were tight. "That was a nice break, but I do have to go." Her generally nurturing demeanor returned. "See you around boys." She waved to them as she turned away and went into the tree line.
A handful of minutes later the group came out of their daze and picked up right where they left off.
"Still waiting on Toothless to return eh son?" Stoick asked, but jumped a little when he saw the dragon standing next to his son. "When did he get here? Think we woulda saw the big bastard when he came through the trees. Or heard him or something." Hiccup turned to face Toothless then turned back.
"I bet he was trying to sneak up on me for the thousandth time and scare me." Hiccup griped. "But it looks like you got him before he got me. Thanks dad." Hiccup hoped his father would accept his half lie.
"Well I suppose it don't matter to me." The large man shrugged. "But where's your prize ya sneaky bastard?" Stoick asked. "And what's that in your hand son?" Hiccup held up Eikthynir's antler.
"I don't know." He played along. "Toothless just gave this to me when I turned around. But wow." Hiccup held it up higher and examined it. "I've never seen an antler this big." Hiccup played up his confusion.
"How many points are on that thing? Musta come off the biggest buck to walk the earth." Stoick quickly counted the points on the antler. "Damn near thirty points on that horn. Must have gotten away if we don't have the body here." They looked around for a second. "Good thing you didn't though. Something like that would produce great offspring. In a few years here, you're going to be eatin' good. Nice strong deer are going to be all over the place."
"I bet that's what Toothless was thinking too." Hiccup lied. "Probably just brought this here to prove he could have had something huge." Hiccup turned to Toothless. "Right bud?" Toothless nodded.
"Thing could fight too. Knew how to use those horns to their fullest." Toothless recalled his fight with Eikthynir. "Was hard to get in on him without one of those points jabbing me in the neck or something. I eventually just had to Ignore the pain and go for the kill." Toothless looked at the other dragons listening to him. "Uh, but I didn't get it of course. But snapped that off him and he ran away. I would have chased but decided that letting him go and getting back here was just better. Didn't want any of you to worry about my extended absence." Toothless smiled sweetly and nudged Hiccup. "Mainly you." He winked at his human.
"When did you learn to wink?" Hiccup chuckled.
"I don't know. You've done it to me so many times that I just wanted to learn. It means something right? Did I use it right?" Toothless asked. "I've been trying to figure out when to use it."
Hiccup laughed and placed a kiss on his dragon's snout. "Yes you used it right." He shook his head with a smile and turned back to Stoick and the others. "Anyway, yes Toothless just told me he ended up just letting it go. Thinking it would be better to get back here, but he did get this big consolation prize. He can be proud of that at least. But I suppose since he doesn't have a body to show, he's disqualified. So it's just between you and me then dad." The group once again stepped over to the two deer. Again they mulled over whose was better. In the end Stoick won just so they could get the deer dressed and ready to be cooked.
"So who wants to dress these quick?" Stoick asked.
"I'll just have Toothless do it." Hiccup shrugged. "That'll probably be fastest. At least for the initial skinning and stuff."
"With all due respect Hiccup, something tells me he's just going to destroy the hide."
"You must stop underestimating them. They all have knives at the ends of their legs, you can teach them to use them in a way that isn't destructive." Hiccup said. "Go ahead bud, show them." Toothless moved one of the deer out of the way and positioned the other how he wanted, and started making precise calculated cuts with one claw. The humans watched in amazement at how easily the dragon's claw cut through the deer's skin. "I personally taught Toothless how to field dress a number of animals. And now if a dragon wishes to join one of our hunting parties they must learn to do this first before they can officially join." Hiccup smiled. Stoick didn't know what to say. He just continued to watch Toothless work. He was almost embarrassed at how well Toothless was doing. He knew plenty of humans who couldn't dress an animal to save their life. Eventually Toothless stopped and Hiccup jumped in. "You're still going to have to help a bit once the skins off" Hiccup said casually. "They can have a hard time getting the insides out cause their paws or whatever they use are so big. So you'll have to get in there to help, make sure they don't pop the stomach and stuff like that."
Soon the first deer was done and they moved onto the second.
