"That was something huh?" Hiccup asked, as he watched his father walk towards the other humans.

"If by something you mean mess." Toothless responded.

"I do suppose that is what I mean." Hiccup sighed. "So what was happening over there when I was speaking with my dad?"

"In short, loyalty. They were ready to fight for us. Luckily for all of us they were waiting for orders before acting."

"And you?"

"I had no intention of killing your dad."

"That isn't what it looked like to me."

"Sorry." Toothless pressed his muzzle into Hiccup's neck. "It was just to send a message."

"Well he definitely received it, and he now understands more than ever just how dangerous you are. But it's good that this happened." Hiccup nodded.

"You're going to have to explain how killing each other is a good thing."

"Well no, the good thing is that we didn't. But it did make my dad realize just how much this is on a knife's edge. Especially on the human side of this. Whenever it's time to introduce a group of dragons to them as ones that are meant to live in Berk with them. It's going to be a complete mess. No doubt. But when I was speaking with my father just now I did come up with an idea that I think might work. Hopefully." Hiccup smiled.

"Go on."

"Well I was thinking, what if we took some of our younger but not the hatchlings to Berk in the first group and let younger humans connect with them. What I'm thinking will happen is that since both groups would be young neither group will have any sort of stigma against the other and they'll be able to make their own decisions on what to believe. I think what would happen is that we could foster a good relationship and have a group that would be willing to stick their necks out for the dragons who'll live there."

"I think we've had this conversation before."

"Probably, but now it's more real than ever. We're so close to getting the ball rolling properly that having a plan in place for when it does is actually going to matter. We're so close for real this time. I'm super excited."

"One step at a time Hiccup. You never know what's going to happen with this. I ask that you keep your expectations realistic for now. Work out the issues that could become bigger ones and celebrate at the end when things have worked out properly. If you celebrate now you'll lose focus on what needs to be done to keep it going. This is a massive undertaking don't lose sight cause you've gotten past the first barrier. And make sure that you work closely with your father on this. He's our way into Berk and we need him to be able to stand up and defend the dragons when things go sideways. He needs to be able to correct the ship since we're not going to be there every second to help. We still have an entire group that we control and we cannot forget about them because this thing with Berk has worked out.

You must promise me that whenever this actually happens and we send a group over for first introductions that you do not forget there are still thousands of dragons at home that need you too. I know this is the thing you've been focusing on for a while now but you can't abandon those who have helped raise you to where you are. Mostly because I won't let you."

"Come on Toothless, don't treat me like a child. I know I have responsibilities that I have to keep up with. And it's not like I'm losing interest with dragons or anything. There's still tons of people I haven't met in our flock, species that I haven't fully documented and a lot of them. What I'm trying to do right now is just. I don't know. Future proofing I guess. If it's not just me out here trying to protect as many dragons as I can there will be more success. When we die there will be a group of humans to carry the torch. There's no doubt in my mind that this may be the only way dragons survive. Humans make new better things every day. That'll give them greater reach. Who says that in the future there won't be a way for humans to completely destroy our home in one shot. Or be able to see through the fog without going through it themselves. We can't create like humans can. Even I created things that could and were used against dragons. The thing I hit you with was my creation. While hitting you was a complete accident, it was what that machine was meant to do. And eventually they'll make it better, or find something else entirely that works even better than that.

So I know it's probably sad for you to hear this from me, but I don't think dragons survive without human help. We're too big, too dangerous, and too misunderstood for them to care. There will come a point where it'll be them or us and they're not going to choose us. So this effort I'm putting into this is for a contingency plan. Having someone out there who will fight tooth and nail for us." Hiccup leaned back against Toothless' shoulder.

"It is hard to hear you say that. But I can't say you're wrong. You've thought about it a lot more than I have. I suppose I should thank you for looking out for us like that." Toothless pressed the side of his head against Hiccup's.

"No, no. No need to do that. It's my job as an alpha to look out for my people isn't it?"

"I'd say this is a bit more than being looked after, if you asked me." Toothless said. Hiccup slowly put an arm around Toothless' neck and closed his eyes.

"Yeah well, I didn't ask you." Hiccup chuckled.

"Look at you. Big alpha. Maybe I should step down so I can give you space. Don't want to get in the way."

"No gods please don't do that. I'd have no direction without you helping lead. Plus you're better with our people than I am." Hiccup said.

"I don't know about that. You can heal their wounds or even make fake parts for them. Like you did me when you took me down originally. While you haven't done a whole lot of that, it is something you can do for them. Most of them probably think you're some kind of miracle worker. Plus the more you learn the better you can help. I know that's basically half the reason you put so much effort into getting to know each species. It's why you have so many of those books with notes in them. You care a lot. More than most people probably think you should. But it's that care that is going to make us survive for longer than we would normally. I, or any other of the alphas would never think about the future like that. We survive day to day and that's it. By the time something happens we just react to it and fight our way out. Though the more you talk about the future and the things humans can make I don't doubt that eventually we would be defenseless against them. It's scary to think that there could come a day where we can't even put up a fight." Toothless curled himself around Hiccup a bit more. Hiccup moved out of his grasp and took the dragon's head into his hands.

"Don't worry bud. That probably won't happen for a long time." He kissed the dragon's snout. "Okay?" Toothless nodded.