Toothless continued to drag Stoick's kill towards the camp until they were close enough that Stoick could take over and clear the tree line without anyone seeing the dragon. Toothless once again dropped the deer and then looked towards the camp.
"What are you going to do now?" Stoick asked. Toothless looked out into the forest. "Going to look for Hiccup next? Help him too?" The dragon looked out for a bit longer before nodding. "Well I hope he appreciates the help as much as I do, always seem to forget just how damn heavy these things are. No matter how many times I gotta lug one around." Stoick chuckled to himself. Stoick watched Toothless shake himself before racing through the trees and quickly disappearing. "No wonder we get a head start." The large human thought while picking up his deer.
Toothless ran through the forest back to the point where he'd caught Hiccup's scent before. His scent had grown weak and Toothless searched around for a bit before finding Hiccup's scent again. He raced through the trees towards Hiccup's location. As the scent grew stronger so did the smell of blood. Toothless grew concerned that it was Hiccup's and didn't bother trying to hide himself. Toothless ran into the small clearing to find Hiccup covered nearly head to toe in blood. The dragon's blood ran cold and he started checking Hiccup over. The blood rushing in his ear preventing him from hearing his human, trying to get him to stop. But he kept nosing through, and licking everywhere that was red, trying to uncover any cuts or gashes so he could lick them clean. Eventually Hiccup gave up on trying to stop his dragon and let him check him over. Toothless eventually gave up after not finding anything wrong. He took a step back and looked Hiccup over again.
"Why are you so bloody? What happened?"
"Why are you even here, is the real question? Shouldn't you be looking for your own so that you can win this whole thing?"
"You're more worried about me right now, when you're covered basically head to toe in blood?" Toothless questioned.
"Well it's not my blood, for the most part." Hiccup shrugged.
"By the gods." Toothless rolled his eyes. "Can no one in your family hunt without getting hurt in the process?"
"Meaning?"
"Meaning your dad hurt himself too, getting his kill. I had to help drag his back to camp cause he got a bit cut up and definitely had a bit of a limp." Toothless recalled.
"So you found my dad and what? What was your plan?"
"Well I had intended on simply watching you both. And I watched your dad get his kill, no involvement on my part, I promise you that. But after your dad got his kill, it would have been far beyond dark before he got back on his own. So I helped drag it back for him. Then I come find you and I smell a ton of blood and think that you got gored or something while trying to get your takedown. So I didn't even bother trying to hide and observe cause I thought you were in trouble. So now just like your dad you're all cut up and hurt, so I'm going to have to help cause you're not going to make it back in any sort of reasonable time. Why can't humans be better at this?" Toothless sighed.
"You do realize that I'm smaller than this deer and I have to actually fight to get it down and if I don't, I have to go chasing it around and it's faster than me, and scared and everything else. I can't just jump on its back and bite its neck and be done with it." Hiccup crossed his arms and laughed.
"You know you were allowed a weapon. We had plenty of them in camp, you could have taken one."
"Well normally I don't do this alone anymore. So I didn't even think to grab something. Normally I have some big Night Fury backing me up. And we work together to get our kill. So while I'm not out of my element I'm not in my normal groove." Hiccup paused. "Do you think that I rely on you too much? I've kinda realized how little I do alone anymore."
"I don't know." Toothless shrugged. "If I had someone bigger and stronger and faster, I'd probably rely on them too. At least to make stuff easier. No reason not to, I guess. If it's easier for them to carry something, or they can get somewhere faster and get you there faster, why not use them? From my end, I don't even notice anymore. We're just together. I don't roll my eyes if you ask me to help you, it's what I'm there for. Plus it's not like I don't rely on you for stuff too.
I can't hold stuff like you. Or clean myself as thoroughly as you can clean me. I can't do things like draw or write like you can. I can't make tools or things like that. You do plenty for not only me, but for everyone. So don't worry about leaning on me when you need it." Toothless pressed himself against Hiccup. Hiccup laughed and wrapped an arm around his dragon.
"Alright then big guy would you help bring this back to camp with me?"
"Of course." Toothless grabbed Hiccup's stag by the antlers and began the long haul back to camp. Hiccup helped where he could, picking up and moving the deer around to help make Toothless' job easier.
"So should I be worried about my dad's entry into our competition?" Hiccup asked. Toothless stopped for a second and let go of the deer.
"I'd say you're within reason of each other. Hard to tell just by dragging them on the ground though."
"You think you'll have enough time to get this back and go get your own at this rate?"
"Don't know, right now I'm kinda doubting it."
"Well why don't you just stop here and go on and get your own then? I'll probably be able to get this back from here."
"No, no I'll get you close and go from there."
"You sure? You might not make it in time. You don't want to lose do you?" Hiccup smiled. Toothless step up to Hiccup and stared him in the eye.
"I've already won, Hiccup. Just by making the conditions for this game I'd won."
"I think you need a deer for everyone to vote on to win big guy."
"Sorry but that's where you're wrong." The dragon licked Hiccup from chest to chin. "You see my little halfbreed." He circled around Hiccup. "When I put the thought of us mating in your head it was all over." He pressed his snout into the back of Hiccup's neck. "We're just two lovers in need. Haven't had time to ourselves. Haven't had the chance to be alone really."
Hiccup sighed and turned to face his dragon. "I really do miss you." He reached up and took Toothless' head into his hands. "Sometimes I wonder if you're with me or against me."
"When have I ever been against you?" Toothless smiled.
"I could make a few arguments I'm sure." They both laughed.
"Well either way, we should get this back to camp." Toothless took the stag by the antlers again and started pulling.