"How much longer until we land?" Hiccup asked.
"Not long now. In fact." Toothless started to head downward, the group behind him following. He floated over the trees before ducking into them and landing. They walked for a minute through the endless rows of trees, no paths or markers to tell them where they were.
"Are you sure you know where we are?" Hiccup asked. He sat up and looked around them.
"Yes, I do. I saw it before we started to head down."
"Then why didn't we just land in it?"
"Well I know you like to make a good entrance. I think this will be a much more enjoyable experience from entering on the ground."
"Okay then…" Suddenly the rows of trees stopped and they entered a clearing. The grass rose up around them and a huge stone stuck up nearly as tall as the trees. "Woah." Hiccup whispered.
"What did I say?" Toothless asked smugly.
"How did? Who found this place?" Hiccup asked.
"The team that gets wood for us saw the rock one day while searching for a new spot for healthy trees. They cleared some of the ones around it and then when they came back they asked for us to look at it. But you must have been busy doing something cause I came out without you. I told them to clear the trees around it like this, pull all the stumps, and fill in the dirt. So no worries about falling into a big hole. I guess it's been a while since that happened given how tall this grass is." Toothless continued walking to the other side of the clearing. "And it even has access to a river" Hiccup climbed off Toothless' back and looked both ways up and down the stream. "This used to be a lot smaller so I tasked some others to come and make it bigger, so that fish were more likely to come down this way."
"Wow Toothless, that's really cool." Hiccup praised. He wrapped an arm around Toothless neck and scratched under his chin with his other hand. "This place might even be nicer than that place in Raven's Point that I found you in."
"You think?"
"Well that place will always be special to me. That's where I found you." Hiccup gestured to himself and Toothless. "That's where this started."
"And every day I regret it more." Toothless laughed.
"Oh shut it." Hiccup rolled his eyes. "At least be a bit more dramatic and play it up a bit." Hiccup turned around to the rest of the group. They were climbing off their dragons and stretching. "So what do you think?" The dragons started to roll around and have fun. Even Toothless got caught up in it.
"You'd think they'd be out of energy after all that." Stoick pointed a thumb over his shoulder.
"Yeah you'd think so." Hiccup crossed his arms. "They'll tire themselves out soon enough, and settle down. Either way, how were your flights? Uncomfortable after a while I imagine."
"Gonna have to put something to sit on." One said. Grabbing at their back.
"A pad? Gotta strap a whole chair to this thing." Said another.
"At least you weren't sitting on a damned mountain. I almost slipped off more than I'd like to admit." stoick complained.
"Once everything settles down we can make you saddles to sit in. It'll give Gobber something to do. At least more than just repairing training weapons and farm equipment. I'm sure he loves doing that." Hiccup said sarcastically.
"I did tell you that he's pretty much taken over for you in regards to making new things. Believe it or not, when you made things, as crazy as some of them were, he was always proud of you."
"Didn't seem like that."
"You know how Gobber is with words. Can barely string together a whole sentence half the time. But gods above he would talk my ear off about the things you made. Go on and on about stuff I didn't understand and how genius it was. You might as well have been the second coming of Regin The Craftsman with how he described your work. Plus he was your mentor, he was hard on yuh' cause he knew you could do better. He already knew you'd surpass him within the first few moons you worked there. So I told him to push you, make sure you actually got there. And now you have living furnaces who can rebuild whole mountains. I'd say you've surpassed Gobber and his run down ol' shop. Maybe when this settles down you can convince him to fix up that eye sore. Thing looks like a strong wind will blow it down."
"I don't know. He loves that run down shop. I tried to get him to fix it up too. It was always too small to have both of us in there at the same time. We were always getting in each other's way. But he always said that it would ruin the soul of the place if he changed it too much. Thought it would give the place bad luck."
"Of course he did. Well maybe you can gift him one of your Gronckles to help him out then."
"I'd love to, but good luck having it help him that much. They like getting loved on and being lazy. Gotta keep em' motivated to get anything worthwhile out of them." Hiccup laughed.
"Of course they are." Stoick rubbed his eyes. "At least it would give him some company down there. Gods know how long it's been since someone's gone down there just to talk to him."
"Not even you?"
"Unfortunately leading up to our departure I was busy making sure everything was going to run smoothly while I was away. Hopefully it'll keep running smoothly for my extended absence. But you know how he gets. Sleeps at that forge more times than in his own home. Hmm." Stoick raised an eyebrow. "Maybe I'll have one of these beasts bring that man here." Stoick turned to the other humans. "So who's going back?" None of them raised their hands. "Okay, well I know that ain't true. You've already been told that you can. I just need to know who so I can tell you what to do when you get there." A few hands went up. "Okay good. Now then when you get back stop by the smithy and have Gobber follow you. Have your dragons bring him back here."
"Okay but what happens when he see one and freaks out and tries to hurt it?"
"I don't know. Find some rope in his shop and tie him to one." Stoick turned to Hiccup. "Do the dragons understand enough to wait around for them to return or?"
"They'll understand basic commands. Like wait, and hide, and run. And they probably trust you enough to follow an order." Stoick turned back to the humans while Hiccup joined the dragons.
The first thing he did was blindside Toothless.