Toothless continued to watch over the area for anything out of the ordinary. After awhile he saw that something was circling above them. He charged a plasma blast and shot it near the circling creature. He watched as it suddenly stopped circling and was now coming down towards them. Quickly. Toothless covered Hiccup as he braced for a potential fight. The dragon slowed their rate of descent and landed.

"I don't like being shot at sir." A scout from Color's group said.

"Then you shouldn't circle in the open like that. The humans may not be able to get at you right now but one day they very well could. Hiccup had created something that could reach me and that was years ago. Humans are smart, do not, let them fool you into thinking they're not."

"Of course sir."

"Now then, tell Color that Hiccup and I are going into Berk tonight. Would you tell her to meet us near the edge of the forest tonight?"

"Yes, sir."

"Stop with that sir stuff."

"Thank you. Color has us act professional since we're out in the field right now. Doesn't want the chain of command to break down if something happens."

"That makes sense. Well just tell her to meet us near the big main opening to the city from this side of the forest." The scout nodded and quickly left.

The hours slowly passed by until Toothless shook Hiccup awake.

"It's time to go." Toothless whispered. Hiccup slowly removed himself from Toothless' warmth. Rolling his neck and shoulders. "While you were asleep Color's squad found us. I'm going to have them be following close behind. Just in case." Hiccup rolled his neck and shoulders.

"Can't be too careful. Gods please let this go smoothly." He whispered. Toothless nuzzled Hiccup's side.

"Let's hope that your dad had a good day then." Toothless half joked. Hiccup nodded as he jumped onto Toothless' back.

"Let's go meet up with Color, she's expecting us. Toothless slowly climbed through the overgrown paths that Hiccup used to use. As the first building came into view Hiccup covered his mouth and tried to hide the small sob. "Nothing's changed. Look at this place."

"Psst." They heard behind them. Toothless turned around and spotted the same scout as before. "Come with me, we have a little spot set up." Toothless followed the scout a little ways back and into a small clearing where the rest of the party had been stuffed into. The group spotted them and split apart allowing them into the middle of the circle where Color was sitting.

A small fire was made, allowing Hiccup to see a little better.

"You're going in tonight?" Color asked. Hiccup nodded. "We'll be watching out for you then." She looked at her Whispering Death. "Take one of your tunnels. Follow them. I'll leave it up to your judgment as to how close you can get. No sinking the city." She joked. The Whispering Death quickly disappeared. "As for the rest of you. Stay quiet, stay out of sight. This would be the worst time to start a panic." The Whispering Death poked his tail up signaling that he was in position. "We're all ready when you are."

Toothless turned around and began into the village. He slowly slinked around, hugging houses and taking his time getting to Hiccup's old home. Eventually they ended up at the front door.

"This is your last chance to pull out Hiccup." Toothless warned. Hiccup climbed off the dragon's back. He placed his hand against the door, feeling the old wood under his hand. Making a fist he banged on the door. They waited but no one came. He banged again, knowing his dad was trained to wake up at the sound. Again they waited and just as Hiccup was about to go at it again the door creaked open.

Soon his father was dimly lit and rubbing his eyes.

"Hiccup?" Stoick's accent as was thicker than he remembered. He had fully woken up and placed his hand on his hips. "You've got a lot of balls coming around here, boy." Hiccup grit his teeth, needing to stay on track.

"I just came to ask you for something." He was having trouble forming the words easily. Norse was no longer his primary language and it showed. Stoick's laugh shook the house.

"You want something from me? There must be something loose in your head if you think I'm going to help you."

"I just need some advice, then you'll never see me again."

"Advice? My advice is, you should get out of here before I wake the village." Stoick started to close the door. Hiccup pushed back and to both their surprises was easily able to push against his father.

"I'll trade you. Information, resources, anything. I just need your help. Please." Hiccup nearly begged. Stoick took a second before letting go of the door. Hiccup and Toothless followed behind Stoick. The large man walked over the hearth and placed wood in the fire that had nearly died. Hiccup sat on the large couch with Toothless at his feet.

"Be careful Hiccup." Toothless warned. "Don't trade something that we'll regret."

"Don't worry. Knowing my dad he won't ask for anything too hard to give. He's pretty reasonable, even if it doesn't seem like it sometimes." Stoick sat in his chair watching Hiccup talk with the Night Fury.

"You've learned to talk to them?" Stoick asked calmly. Hiccup nodded as he held Toothless' head in his lap. Stoick crossed his arms. "So what do you want?" Hiccup cringed at the straightforwardness of his question.

"I need advice on how to lead. I'd like to think that I've done well so far but… I have a bad feeling about this winter. And I fear that I won't have enough to feed everyone. I could lose the trust of a lot of people if we have to cut down more than I anticipate. I guess I just want to know how you kept everyone here on your side during the really bad winters?"

"Your talking as if you're a chief Hiccup."

"Not a chief, but something similar, yes."

"How many are under you?"

"I can't tell you that."

"And if that's the information that I want to trade?" Stoick asked.

"Then I'd have no choice." Hiccup smiled.

"Then how many are under you, and where do you live." Stoick inquired.

"Why would you want to know where I live?"

"Threat assessment. Figure out if I want to waste the time and resources on coming after you again."

"Hiccup." Toothless sniped.

"It'll be fine Toothless." He soothed. He look back at his father. "I have around five-thousand dragons living in Helheim's gate right now." Hiccup confessed.

"I have a hard time believing that Hiccup."

"I have no reason to lie to you. It's why I'm here. We recently nearly doubled our numbers and with winter around the corner, and my bad feeling about it, I'm scared. I have people who will stick with through everything, but some of the new ones think that I'm not strong enough to lead. I've mostly dealt with that but the problem is that because we gained so many people that our current storage of food won't be enough. And even though we can still fish and hunt, we won't be able to haul as much in.

I guess I'm asking how to keep everyone happy, or at least on my side, while everyone is going hungry?"