"I uhm, yeah…" Hiccup stuttered. "It's what makes him, really… Really good." Hiccup was a bit beside himself. Toothless bumped him out of his stupor and gave him a smile. "Well let's uh, go start breaking up that wood so my dad and I can carry it." The Nadder nodded and started their way over to the tree, Hiccup took a few steps but was stopped by Toothless putting a leg out in front of him and nearly tripping him. Hiccup turned around and stomped his foot. "Why would you do that?" Hiccup said annoyed. Toothless looked at him confused.
"Are you mad at me?" Toothless asked.
"No. I'm not." Hiccup said flatly, and turned on his heel. Toothless dashed in front of him and blocked him.
"You don't hide anger well. What's wrong?" Hiccup tried to get around his dragon but was being continuously blocked.
"Get out of my way Toothless." Hiccup was tight-lipped
"I'm not going to do that until you tell me what's wrong. One minute it's fine and now you're being short with me." The dragon looked at his mate expectantly. "Did I do or say something wrong?" Hiccup tried to get past him again. "Hiccup talk to me."
"We'll talk about it later."
"No, you'll blow up about it later. I'm pretty sure this is a misunderstanding, and I'd like to get it out of the way now."
"There was no misunderstanding, Toothless. You think my dad is the best leader there can be and that he's sooo, strong for willing to work with us. And you made me know exactly how you felt when you made me look at you." Hiccup whisper yelled. Toothless took a deep breath and rolled his eyes.
"I was talking about you dummy." Toothless let out his breath. "I made you look at me so you knew I was talking about you. You've already turned to our side, as it were. We both know that's not actually what happened and you wanted to get us allied with them from the start. It's been your big goal the whole time.
You've found the path and now we're going down it. But this isn't the path to death, it's to life. To a new way of living that if it works out will make it so we don't fall behind in the future. You're the one who loses the big picture sometimes, you're the one who plays the game. You are the one who values himself so low that you'd rather drown trying to save someone than listen to reason from his mate.
You're the dangerous enemy and the fantastic leader.
Do you not understand, Hiccup? This whole time you've never wanted to be compared to your father. And tried your damndest to not become him. It's what put the fire in your belly and made you question yourself. But now that it's staring you in the face you don't understand. You and your father are the exact same. But don't think for a second that's a bad thing. You may not like it but you tried so hard to be different that you've come around and become exactly what he was trying to make you become the whole time.
But it wasn't the right path for you. He was trying to teach you how to lead, but you don't learn like that. You have to figure it out yourself, you have to be the one who made the mistakes. Even if they could have been avoided had you simply listened.
Hiccup you've ended up right where you're supposed to be, with who you're supposed to be with, and have become the person you were always meant to become. You may not lead your old village, but you do lead your village.
You may not like that, that's what happened. But do not shy away from looking at your father and seeing what's to come. Cause the only difference between you two is what your people look like. Cause the gods know we all weigh the same." Toothless smiled. Hiccup took a small step forward and leaned down, pressing his forehead against his dragon's snout.
"Thanks for keeping me in line, big guy."
"As much as I can at least."
"You must be doing something right cause I'm not dead yet."
"Yet." Toothless grumbled.
"Well if I die you die, so I can't let that happen. Or that's what they said."
Toothless sighed and began to regroup with the other three.
"Well know that if you die doing something that you think is right, noble, or anything along those lines, I won't be too mad that I'd die too." Hiccup caught up with him.
"Well they also said that we'll be together after we die so there's that."
"Great, can't wait to be used as a weapon or be damned to some other nonsense."
"Come on, it won't be like that."
"You're putting a lot of faith into people who only do things that will benefit them." Toothless warned.
The pair regrouped and started to help break up the tree's limbs and put them into piles. As Hiccup watched the dragons he took mental notes on how each of them went at breaking the branches. And couldn't help but laugh as Skullcrusher rolled himself over the tree and broke nearly every limb, and the trunk in half.
"Where'd you learn to do that?" Hiccup asked the Rumblehorn as he got up.
"I don't know. It just felt like the right thing to do for some reason."
"Well I'd say it worked, I think you basically finished what we needed single handedly. So nice job. Alright then." Hiccup called out. "I think we'll have enough for the time we'll be here, so let's get this loaded up and head back." Hiccup instructed Stoick to sit on Skullcrusher's back while he handed the man wood to carry. Once he had a big bundle piled under each arm Hiccup handed Skullcrusher a bigger piece to put in his mouth.
"You think you can carry this while flying? Or will it be too much?"
"It should be fine." The mountain rumbled. Hiccup put the wood in the dragon's mouth and they set off back to camp.
"Alright then you next." He turned to the nadder. "Do you think you'll be able to carry anything with your mouth?" The Nadder shook their head.
"Probably not."
"That's fine." Hiccup assured. "Do you think that you can carry that bigger piece in your claws then?" the Nadder nodded.
"Yeah I should be able to do that as long as I can get a good grip on it. Shouldn't be too much of an issue." Hiccup helped roll the large piece around until they found a spot the Nadder could hold onto effectively, and then they too were headed back to camp.
"And in a big surprise to no one, it's down to you and me, bud."