"Some would say that it makes you stronger." Stoick said plainly.

"Scraping your knee or cutting yourself on accident might. Kinda not really. But seeing people die only makes you sad and angry. Which only leads to blind justice and eventual emptiness."

"Some people would be okay with that."

"And those people haven't ever lost someone."

"Seems I did teach you something." Stoick smiled, and took the monocle away from his eye and looked down at his son. "Well at least I got through to you a little bit." Stoick shrugged. Hiccup stood for a second thinking about that.

"Yeah I suppose you did, a bit." Hiccup took the monocle from Stoick's hand and looked out towards the ship.

"So where are they headed?" Stoick asked.

"A place called The Edge."

"The Edge huh? Why's it called that?"

Hiccup continued to look at the ship slowly sailing away from them. Watching their future being safely taken away.

"Because it's the furthest island out from the archipelago. There's nothing but ocean as far as you can see. Even being a Thor's mile in the air there's nothing out there. It's the safest place they can go right now."

"So somewhere past that place is where the world ends. Interesting." Stoick stroked his beard.

"I've been told that our world doesn't work like that actually."

"And who told you that?" Stoick raised an eyebrow.

"It wasn't told to me explicitly. But as I thought about what I was told more it's hard to deny. From this high up we should be able to see every other place in the world from here. But we can't. I don't know how or why and I can't get any answers from the person who told me. Even though I know they have them. I think there are places beyond what we know."

"If that's so, why haven't we found those places?"

"I think they're just unreasonably far away. Like months of blind sailing away. I don't even think that we could fly there. It's just that far away."

"That's an interesting thought for sure Hiccup. But I suppose we'll never know. I personally don't like the idea of sailing into the open ocean without knowing what's out there, or if anything's out there at all."

"Well that, and you probably aren't going to drop being the chief just to go find out."

"No, I probably won't do that." Stoick chuckled.

"You know, you're taking this whole thing quite well." Hiccup complimented.

"Yes well I'm not exactly happy that my ship has been stolen from me, loaded up with dragons, and is now sailing away. But, I do understand why it's happening."

"Yeah, so that's kinda what I came up here to talk about." Hiccup shuffled around a little. "We kinda need to figure out how you're getting home."

"You act as though I have many choices as to how that's going to happen."

"Well yeah, I was just making sure you knew. But there's always the choice to stay…" Hiccup trailed off.

"Are you asking me to stay and help you fight?" Stoick raised his eyebrow again.

"I'm… Giving you the choice. I know you probably miss fighting. There wasn't a whole lot of it when I left and I can't imagine there's been much sense. And I won't ask you to stay. This isn't your fight. It never was and doesn't have to be now."

"You know technically, Hiccup, we are allies now." Stoick reminded him.

"Then as your ally, I'm going to tell you that this place isn't safe to be at right now. And while I understand that probably doesn't scare you, what should is what's coming at us. Unfortunately we still don't know where our scouts are, and at this point it's likely that they aren't coming back. So the likelihood that we have a fight coming is basically guaranteed. When that Bewilderbeast finally gets here it'll be nothing but ice, and blood. When that thing gets here, Helheim's Gate will probably fall, and with it all the people who are willing to try to protect it."

"You think that you aren't going to make it?"

"I don't know." Hiccup whispered. "In my short time as one of the alphas here, I've somehow gained the trust of thousands of dragons." Hiccup sat down, pulled his legs up under his chin and stared out at nothing. "I don't know why or how, but someway I've convinced thousands of people to stand with me. To give their lives for me. Plus it's not like a human village. This place stands on our policy of freedom. The one thing they didn't have before, Toothless and I showed up.

All those people down there could up and leave if they wanted, and we wouldn't stop them. But I haven't seen a single one of our people fly off yet. Except those heading to safety. Then we had those three other alphas show up to help. I don't know what I've done for them to have come and help, or what advantage they think they'll have over me if we live. But if they're going to fight then all I can do is hope that their demands of me after aren't too much for me to handle."

"Allies with conditions are not the best thing to have Hiccup."

"Yeah I know. But I don't know what they could ask for. My guess is territory but I don't really have any to give. While technically I hold domain over all the islands from here to The Edge, we haven't claimed anything other than The Edge. If they ask for Helheim I'll just laugh at them. This is my home, my people's home and no one will take it from me while I still breathe." Hiccup stood up and stretched. "Well either way the first thing we need to do is figure out what to do with you and your people. The way I see it, you're going to have to get used to being on the back of a dragon whether you stay or go." Hiccup smiled at his father. "You'll be useless on the ground."

"Was this your plan all along?" Stoick crossed his arms.

"Believe it or not, it wasn't. It's just worked out this way." Hiccup shrugged. Hiccup walked up to the largest of the holes leading inside and peered down into the hoard of people. He whistled and the whole mountain stopped making sound. He called for Skullcrusher and then the mountain resumed preparation. Soon the behemoth of a dragon joined them. The dragon closed his eyes and bowed its head a little.

"What do you need?" The dragon asked while opening its eyes again.

"I have something rather interesting for you to do actually." Hiccup turned around and began walking towards his father. "You see, the human's ship is currently sailing away from us with the hatchling and nest mothers in it."

"I'm aware." Skullcrusher said. Hiccup took his place next to Stoick.

"Then you must see the predicament that the humans are in now, don't you?" Hiccup smiled. The dragon looked at Stoick, then back to Hiccup.

"Me? Huh?"

"While you may not have noticed, my father took a particular liking to you when he first saw you. Or well, he seemed more interested in you than anyone else, plus you happen to be big enough to carry him."

"You're going to owe me extra food for this." Skullcrusher deadpanned.

"While normally I'd agree right away with that, right now I can't do that. When this is all over and the freeze is through, though, I'll heed your request."

"I suppose it'll have to do."