Hiccup and Toothless sat quietly. The dragon in his usual position wrapped around Hiccup.

"Seems you were only telling me half the truth when you told me your mother was the smart one of your parents. A few weeks with us and he has us pinned down." Toothless joked.

"To be honest with you I didn't get to see this part of my dad much when I was younger. I just knew that when he talked about my mom she was always the smart one of the two. I guess it isn't exactly a surprise that he's pretty sharp. You don't get to be the leader of the clan that's considered the most dangerous. By us and other humans without something between your ears." Both Toothless and Hiccup chuckled to themselves.

"No, I suppose not. Just wasn't expecting this kind of thought being put into what he says. All I knew about him before this was that his preferred weapon was a hammer, and that doesn't inspire much confidence."

"So what then? The sword is smarter than the hammer?"

"I'm just saying that if I was human, I'd choose a sword. Much easier to kill one of us by stabbing then smashing. I mean surely you've learned how hard our heads are."

"Of course I have. With how much I get head butted, poked, cut, bumped into, tripped, I know just how dense you guys are." Hiccup said.

"Still though." The silence was broken. "Don't you think it's unfair for Hiccup to be the one deciding something like that? What happens when he doesn't care anymore and anyone who's slightly a risk to his dragons are in his sights?" One of the humans asked. The group was quiet again but Stoick spoke before Hiccup could.

"Do you care if wolves die?" Stoick asked.

"Wha-"

"Or deer, or fish? What about another human trying to kill you? You care about them?"

"Well…"

"The problem is that you're trying to justify this as something that has to be fairly decided. Dagur is known to be a dangerous person who intimidates people into doing what he wants. If they don't do it then they aren't considered useful to him and are normally attacked. What he didn't realize up until Hiccup blocked him in was that there were bigger fish than him in the sea. Dagur preys on those who don't have the numbers to resist him, and now has to deal with being on the other side of that. So now we wait and see if this will change him. Plus you must realize that if another tribe lived near him that could resist him or were bigger, they likely wouldn't let him do what he's done.

So now there's someone who can do just that and isn't going to let him hurt others anymore. Some people have to be forced into submission before they will see the error of their ways. That's just how it has to be sometimes.

I'd say that I've gone through something similar with Hiccup. Having people die while trying to kill him was me being forced to admit that going after him, and putting all those people and resources into it was a complete waste. Those people didn't need to die, but I was blinded by my anger. But I was lucky enough to realize that, and stop. Had I not stopped I wouldn't doubt that Berk would be in a similar situation as Berserker Island. I'm lucky to have the experience to know when things go too far.

If there's one other thing that I'm sure of. If Hiccup thought someone else was going to be a better ally he would have gone with them. As you probably realize by now, this alliance is not strictly for us. If anything I'd say we have the advantage over them. If we were against them in a war, all we have to do is hold out. Eventually we'll create something that would prevent them from being able to deal damage to us. Whether that be defensive or offensive.

For them, now is the time to strike. They have numbers impossible to defend against and weapons that we can't defend against."

Again the clearing grew quiet as the night settled down. Idle chit chat took over and people thinking about going to sleep. When far off yelling could be heard. The people who heard it first asking the others if they'd heard it too.

"Toothless you're hearing that right?" Hiccup asked.

"Yeah I am. I think it's coming from Berk's direction too. This is going to be interesting."

"Sounds like Gobber is about to arrive." Hiccup commented.

"So it seems." Stoick sighed. "Must have not gone that well if he's yelling that loudly. He normally saves that kind of yelling for either being very scared or very drunk, and something tells me he's stone sober." The group waited and soon saw three dragons crest the tops of the trees.

"Gods above I didn't think any human other than you could make a sound that loud." Toothless snickered. Hiccup rolled his eyes and smiled to himself. The set of dragons sat down and the group went to investigate the dragon with a human attached to him.

"Get this damned thing off me." The dragon with Gobber attached to him demanded. "Screaming his head off the entire way here. Twisting and kicking around. Probably damn near fell out of that binding." Under the dragon was Gobber tied up to ensure that he couldn't get out. The rope tied around his hands and feet then looped around the dragon's body.

"Help." Gobber continued to scream. Stoick crouched down and got the attention of his friend.

"Well if you'd calm down we'll get you out of there. But it might take a minute, you've bound yourself in there worse than when you started I'm sure." Stoick grabbed his sword and cut the rope away from the dragon, allowing it to step over its previous captive.

"Thank the gods. If I had to fly that banshee back I'd have to demand a year's worth of extra portions."

"Thanks for getting him here." Hiccup cupped the dragon's face in his hands and scratched under his chin.

"Of course my alpha." The dragon bowed slightly. "Though if I may suggest. Next time, get one of us who's hard of hearing to fly him."