Hiccup mounted up onto Toothless' back.
"Ready bud?" He said into the dragon's ear.
"I cannot believe that this is actually working." Toothless complained. "If I didn't already know that the gods weren't helping you I'd have my suspicion that they were. But it seems your luck outweighs any help they could give you." Toothless lifted off and began to travel towards the ship.
"You act as though you don't want this to happen." Hiccup pointed out.
"You'd be wrong about that. But I am wholeheartedly still somehow surprised that you constantly pull off the impossible."
"What can I say? I'm a natural." Hiccup chuckled.
"Whatever you are, I'm glad I'm on this side of it." Toothless pulled in his wings and dove down and Hiccup tucked in close. As the pair neared the water Toothless splayed out his wings. The membranes made a snapping sound as they took in air and took them out of the dive. Toothless' belly hovered just over the water. Enough that his claws would occasionally catch the water and spray them.
As they neared the ship, people began to crowd the railing trying to get a view of what was approaching them. Blindingly fast and impossibly dark. Had they not known better they'd think it was a shadow from high above.
As the ship became ever closer Toothless slowed them down just enough that he could cleanly land on the main yard (the lowest cross beam of a mast). Toothless looked down at the people curiously and Hiccup popped out above him. The group of humans below, on the deck, couldn't look away as death stared them in the face.
"Well don't keep scaring them. Get down here." Stoick called up to them.
"You heard the man." Hiccup hung on to Toothless' neck so he wasn't bucked off as Toothless landed heavily on the deck.
"Must you be so dramatic?" Stoick scolded. Hiccup climbed off Toothless and the dragon promptly sat. The humans on the ship had a variety of reactions to seeing Hiccup for the first time. From looking away to gawking at his appearance. Hiccup became very aware of his nudity.
"Oh uh, hey everyone." He waved awkwardly. "Sorry about my whole being naked thing. My old clothes don't fit me anymore and it's hard to wear pants with a tail and my scales get all caught on fabric and my dragons have a thing about it… It's a whole thing. You're just going to have to deal with me like this. I'm sorry." Hiccup turned to his dad. "Well anyway you still have that signal I gave you?"
"Aye." Stoick crossed his arms
"Well aye'm gonna need it." He held out his hand. Stoick handed it over.
"Hey, not fair." A raspy voice yelled.
"Stoick said we could shoot that." Another voice followed. Hiccup sighed.
"Of course he did." Hiccup took a few steps. "Well come on, gotta show you how to use this thing." The crowd began to shift and move and Ruffnut and Tuffnut pushed people out of the way.
"Hey Hiccup. Lookin' weird as ever." Ruffnut said.
"Yeah hey what's up Hiccup." Tuffnut held out his fist for a fistbump. Astrid slapped his hand.
"He's not our friend." She said sternly.
"Uh, h-hey Hiccup." Fishlegs greeted nervously.
"Hey Fishlegs, I can't wait to show you all the stuff I've discovered about the dragons. Did you know that a Nadder's spikes change depending on what they eat?"
"Later son." Stoick shook his head.
"Okay yeah. Alright you two hold this and don't put your face over it." Hiccup looked for a torch and found one on the deck. After grabbing it he brought it in front of Toothless. "Light this for me?" Hiccup asked politely. Toothless took a breath in and with a simple puff the torch was lit. "Thanks big guy." He gave the Night Fury a peck on the snout before turning back to the twins. "Alright you two hold onto that thing." Hiccup held the torch up to the fuze and stepped back. The flame quickly traveled the length of the exposed section and disappeared into the device. They waited. Then waited some more. Everyone looked around confused and just as Hiccup went to look it shot off. The flaming ball went high into the air and seconds later landed in the water. Hiccup looked towards the mountain in hopes that they saw the underwhelming signal. When nothing came he rolled his eyes. "Guess I'll have to figure out how to make that more noticeable for next time." He shrugged. "Toothless would you kindly signal for them to come get us." The Night Fury shot two plasma blasts high into the air, both exploding as they reached the end of their life. Hiccup looked again and saw a cloud forming. "You said you wanted dramatic, didn't you dad?" He pointed and everyone looked.
Thousands of dragons streamed from the mountain. A hoard of wings and teeth came flying towards them.
"You must get this kind of thing from your mother." Stoick shook his head. The cloud descended onto them and then a number of dragons touched down on the deck, delivering the rope. The other humans from the mountain also began to touch down and dismount their dragons. Hiccup made his way towards the ropes and started to pull them apart and sort them. Toothless joined him and helped pull the heavy rope. Stoick and Gobber soon joined after. Most of the humans on the ship watched as Stoick the Vast and a Night Fury helped one another. They didn't know what to do or say. Many simply watched in disbelief. As the sorting continued Hiccup began to drag rope along the deck and lay it out spanning the width of the ship. The spans continued to be laid out along the length until all the rope was set up and ready.
The group watched as Toothless and Hiccup began to call out and instruct dragons on what to do. They couldn't understand what he was saying. Clicks and growls that were nothing to them. But dragons would watch him intensely and seemingly respond in kind with the sounds he was making. The ropes in turn would disappear off the deck. Dragged into the water by something they'd barely see. They could hear the rope snap against the hull as dragons on each side began to take it into their mouths, readying for something.
"Hiccup, what is going on?" Astrid broke the confused silence.
"We're going to fly." Hiccup responded calmly.