Toothless slipped off the platform and floated down to meet up with the dragons below. He watched the black mass disappear before paying attention to the large angry man next to him.
"We can talk now." Hiccup said plainly. He continued to watch his people mill around finding things to do.
"So now we can talk? Not before you stole my only way out of this place?"
"I'll have an escort fly you and the others back to Berk. And right now I'm in need of that ship more than you are."
"Hiccup even if that were true, I'm not letting one of these beasts fly me anywhere." Stoic growled.
"Then you'll stay and fight. You're good at killing dragons anyway."
"Hiccup what's going on?" Stoic asked impatiently. Hiccup was still looking down at his people. Trying to get a good look at everyone he could.
"A dragon called a Bewilderbeast is headed towards us."
"So they are real then. We never could confirm their existence. There were tales that men would be attacked by them if they got too close. But that's true for most other dragon species. That's what the book says anyways but there isn't much on Bewilderbeast. What makes these different?"
"The Book Of Dragons has a lot wrong in it to start. But Bewilderbeast are in a class of dragon that the book has nothing on. Bewilderbeast belong to a new class I've called Titan. The previous leader here was also a titan class dragon called The Green Death. A monster in her own right. But Bewilderbeast are even more terrifying. Right now there are only three in known existence. They're huge beyond anything you've ever seen. They walk on the seafloor and they're tall enough that they're entire head is out of the water. Their breath is so cold that it can freeze the air and create solid blocks of ice that don't melt. Even being near the breath when it's happening can freeze body parts solid. Or encase you in a block of ice if you're so unlucky. Not even the hottest fires of the hottest dragons can melt it.
The odd thing about this one is that it's moving. Normally these dragons create a giant mountain of ice that they live in. And other dragons go and live inside it with them. They're called sanctuaries. This one has broken out of its sanctuary and is headed our way with it's entire flock.
This is where the problem lies. These dragons and the ones that live with them are often victims of human attacks and go to the sanctuaries to be safe and heal. Though I haven't attacked anyone without previous provocation. And we only defend our home. We've never gone out to attack anyone. We have enough resources that we're not in need of anything really at the moment. When the freeze comes around maybe then we'd be more desperate but even then I'm not going to attack anyone.
I'm mostly hoping that our allies will have seen what's happening and are coming to check on us." As though they'd been summoned a torrent of dragons flooded into the mountain and several landed next to Hiccup and Stoic.
"Backup has arrived." A proud looking Nightmare announced. A cackling rang out as even more dragons poured in.
"Yeah you better back up if you don't want to lose your flock." A deep blue Nadder with a perfectly grown crown squawked.
"And yet you'd both lose them to us." A plain looking Changewing revealed herself.
"That's because you cheat." The Nightmare said cockily.
"It's not really cheating. I'm just using what I've been given. It's not my fault that you weren't given anything good." The Changewing provoked him.
"Nothing good? At least when I do get hit I won't die on the spot. You'd get a scratch and wonder if you were going to bleed out. And I can use my fire unlike either of you." Again the Nightmare struck a pose declaring his victory.
"I have fire too you know." The Nadder reminded the Nightmare. The Nightmare and Changewing looked at each other then the Nadder and laughed.
"Your fire is about as useful as your claws. They go about the same distance." The Nightmare laughed.
"Yeah, I wouldn't even trust you to start a fire without burning your face in the process." The Changewing howled.
"Okay how did this get turned on me? Hiccup help me out here?" She turned to him but was immediately let down when she saw him laughing too.
"At least I have fire." The Nadder complained. "Hiccup doesn't even have that."
"That's true Hiccup." The Changewing said.
"Yeah you can't even cough up a flame so you have no room to laugh." The Nightmare extinguished a flame in his mouth and breathed out the smoke. Hiccup looked at the trio, then held up his hands.
"Don't need fire when I have these. Able to simply grab what I need. Sword, bow, dragons. And you haven't even seen my fire canisters yet. You think I don't have fire?" He smiled a small smile. "Oh and a set of nicely sharpened claws right where I need them. Not underneath me like all of you. That being said I can't fly alone. So draw?"
"Draw."
"Draw."
"Draw."
"Now then can we talk about the other human here. We've been avoiding that." The Nadder asked.
"Oh yeah. This is my father. He's here with a few other humans from his village." Hiccup explained.
"Why are they here though? Humans have a tendency to kill our kind." The Nightmare sized Stoic up.
"I invited them here after going to my old village to ask for some advice from my dad. He's the chief there. And I wouldn't worry about them too much. I've stripped them of their weapons, which I actually need someone to go retrieve. I'll do that in a sec. But they wouldn't make it very far even if they did. There's six of them here and a couple thousand of us. But the reason I invited them in the first place was so that I could ally with them. Then introduce them to my other allies, you guys and others. So that at least we'd have one human village to fight alongside us if necessary."
"Do you think it's that we need humans as an ally? Is there a reason other than their ability to fight that has you interested in them?"
"Well humans do, do one thing better than anyone else. And that's adapt. No matter the situation you put them in they find a way to survive and even thrive sometimes.
Just look at me as an example. I've adapted so well that I have a flock willing to follow me. All my friends and my mate are dragons. On top of that I only look human by basic shape.
So if anything we learn from them." Hiccup looked at his dad. "I'm trying to convince them that humans aren't bad." He told his father.
"Do all dragons have issues with humans?"
"Not as much as Berk did before Toothless and I took over here. But it seems that most dragons and humans value the same things when choosing a spot to set up their homes. So villages and flocks have ended up accidentally being close to each other a lot of the time. Which as you could guess can put a lot of strain on resources. Food mostly."