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Some time had passed since the Red Death was defeated and the dragons had begun living alongside the Vikings on Berk. For Hiccup, it was such an unexpected change... perhaps that's why he initially thought he had died when he finally awoke from his coma.
But that was reality. A new and better reality. After Hiccup proved to everyone that dragons weren't as bad as everyone thought, he was no longer considered the worst Viking. All the people he trained with became his friends who actually respected him. And of course, the biggest change of all was the smiling dragon's face that Hiccup saw every morning after waking up.
"Hey, Toothless," the boy said, sitting up and rubbing his eyes. "Ready for a new day?" The Night Fury began jumping in place, then lunged at Hiccup, licking his face. "Okay, okay! Toothless, stop it!" the young Viking laughed, trying to control the joyful dragon. "We're going to fly now, don't worry!"
Wasting no more time, Hiccup rose from the bed and carefully stood on his feet... well, his foot. But this time he didn't even wobble.
"I think I'm getting the hang of this," the boy said, looking at his left metal leg. Until recently, he could barely walk because he wasn't used to the prosthetic, but he was getting better every day. Just like Gobber said he would. Hiccup smiled with a bit more confidence. "Come on, bud!"
With those words, he and Toothless ran out of the house and almost immediately took to the air. The weather was warm and sunny, perfect for flying. The Night Fury flew low over the ocean, avoiding the cliffs, before taking to the air again with the help of his rider. Now they glided gently beneath the clouds, flying past the island.
That was life.
"I wonder if anyone's already at the Dragon Academy," Hiccup said. Until recently, it was just an arena for fighting with dragons, where many of them unfortunately died. But ever since Stoick gave this arena to Hiccup and his friends, it had turned into the Dragon Academy. A place where he and the others could meet, train their dragons, and learn more about them.
It was an extraordinary gesture from the boy's father. Ever since Hiccup had convinced him that dragons could be trusted, his father had changed a lot. He started paying much more attention to his son, stopped calling him 'the shame of Berk,' and overall, the whole relationship had improved greatly. Hiccup was genuinely happy about that. For a long time, he felt like he and his father had been complete strangers. Even when the boy wanted to start a conversation, he didn't know how. What was he supposed to say? 'Hey, dad, I killed my first dragons! There were exactly zero of them!' Yeah, it was a bad idea to start a conversation when you had nothing to share that would make the Chief of Berk proud.
Thinking back, Hiccup couldn't help but wonder: What if this was only temporary? What if he blinked and everything went back to the way it was? These paranoid thoughts were killing him. After all, not long ago, his father had disowned him. The boy didn't want to admit it, but he still dreamed about that moment often at night.
'Get a grip, everything's changed,' Hiccup mentally scolded himself and focused on what was currently happening around him. It was then that he noticed his friends were at the Dragon Academy.
"Let's see what's going on there," the boy informed his dragon, which began to descend for landing.
They both flew into the Academy and landed. Hiccup jumped down from Toothless's back and surveyed the scene. Snotlout was running after his dragon, Hookfang, shouting nonsense while his dragon ignored him completely. And of course, Tuffnut and Ruffnut were laughing their heads off. Seeing Hiccup finally appear, his friends turned to him.
"Good thing you're here because we have a little problem", said Astrid, coming up to him and pointing her finger at Snotlout and Hookfang.
"I noticed," replied the boy. "So... what happened?"
"What's with the stupid question?!" Snotlout shouted, now running away from Hookfang. "That dragon won't listen to me at all! Tell him to stop this instant!"
Hiccup sighed. It probably wasn't a good decision to give a dragon like Monstrous Nightmare to someone like Snotlout. He had to admit, they both had strong personalities. Without saying anything, he simply walked forward and slowly extended his hand toward Hookfang who now stopped chasing Snotlout and looked at him.
"It's okay," Hiccup said gently. "Everything is okay, see?"
It didn't take long. Hookfang touched Hiccup's hand with his nose and calmed down almost immediately.
"How did you..." Snotlout began, but quickly interrupted. "I mean... I did the exact same thing and it didn't work!"
"Listen, Monstrous Nightmare is a difficult dragon," Hiccup began. "You have to approach him calmly if you want him to listen to you. And above all, build a stronger bond with him."
But Snotlout just waved his hand. Of course...
"Oh, please! Hookfang doesn't need anyone to take it easy on him. He's a real beast! And I have to show him who's boss!" After these words, he lunged at Hookfang, who, unconcerned, caught fire, causing the burned Snotlout to immediately jump off him, screaming loudly.
"Haha! You're screaming just like Tuffnut," shouted Ruffnut.
"Like me?" her brother asked, clearly offended. "Oh please, he doesn't scream half as well as I do!" he finished, then took a deep breath and screamed so loudly that the rest of them had to cover their ears.
"Um... anyway," Hiccup began, looking at Astrid and Fishlegs. "Is everything okay with you guys? With your dragons and everything?"
"Oh yes! Meatlug is adorable, aren't you? Aren't you?" Fishlegs announced, hugging his dragon who immediately became excited, wagging his tail.
"That's great," Hiccup said, ignoring the name his friend had chosen. "And what about you, Astrid?"
"Stormfly is a true warrior! We get along well," Astrid replied confidently. "Maybe soon I won't have to carry a shield to defend myself against her quills."
"So everything's going nicely," Hiccup said with relief. "That's-"
"HICCUP!"
Hiccup flinched at the familiar yell.
"Maybe not so nicely..." he muttered to himself, but Toothless still heard and stood next to him.
The boy turned and looked at his father, who had entered the Academy. Most importantly, he was visibly upset. This didn't calm Hiccup down. Great.
"Oh, Dad!" Hiccup said, pretending that everything was fine, totally fine. "Nice to uh, see you here."
"Hiccup, we're in trouble again because of the dragons!" Stoick said, perhaps a little too loudly, as Hiccup flinched again. "Mildew came to me today and told me that the dragons destroyed his entire cabbage field. Again!"
"Well, if it's Mildew, no one's upset," Snotlout whispered to the others, but none of them said anything more.
Well, he had a point here. Mildew was an old man who literally just walked around complaining over and over. And above all, he hated dragons. But if something happened to his field, it was Hiccup's fault.
"Listen, Hiccup. We decided to keep the dragons. But we can't have them running around and destroying everything!" Stoick approached Hiccup, who was practically stiff. "You know what that means, right?"
'You have to get them off the island,' Hiccup finished what his father wanted to say. He knew it wouldn't last long and that his father would change his mind. That he would have to say goodbye to Toothless, his first and true friend. He didn't even feel himself taking a step back.
"You'll have to train them all!" Stoick said, seemingly sternly, but still with a glint of amusement in his eyes. "What do you think, son? You up for the whole bunch of those beasts?"
Hiccup didn't answer, just continued to stand stiffly and stare at his father who suddenly looked confused.
"Hiccup?"
The boy felt everyone staring at him. He honestly wanted to just sink into the ground. Why had he thought his father would order him to get rid of the dragons? Everything had changed! It made no sense, his thoughts made no sense. Finally Toothless' gentle crooning snapped him out of... whatever that was.
"Ah, training! Oh yeah, you got it Dad!" Hiccup said, climbing onto Toothless, trying to cover his face. "I'll get to it now, okay? Let's go, Toothless!"
As quickly as he said it, he and Toothless flew out of the Academy. Hiccup heard his father shout something behind him, but he couldn't hear what it was.
"How could I even think it?" Hiccup paced back and forth along one of the sandy beaches on the other side of Berk. Yes, his father had told him to train the dragons that were causing chaos on Mildew's field, and Hiccup had said he will take care of it, but first he needed to calm down and sort a few things out.
"What's wrong with me?!" the boy asked himself, then threw himself into the sand. "Why do I keep thinking that in a moment, my father will come and tell me, 'Oh, sorry, Hiccup, I know I said I was sorry, but honestly I changed my mind, I prefered when I didn't have a son, deal with it!'. Ugh!"
Toothless approached him and, looking at him with his large eyes, let out a questioning growl.
Hiccup stood up and gently stroked his face.
"So much has changed since I met you," the boy began. "Berk suddenly stopped being this gray and cold place. But I can't help but worry about what would happen if one day thing went back to... the way they were."
Toothless didn't answer, but there was a hint of understanding in his eyes. He stepped closer and licked his rider's face.
"Still disgusting, bud," Hiccup said with a smile, wiping dragon saliva from his face. "But thank you for being here. I know I can always count on you, no matter what."
Seeing Hiccup brighten up a bit, Toothless began jumping around him happily and then fired a plasma blast into the sky.
"Since you have so much energy, why don't we go on a little trip, huh?" Hiccup asked the dragon, who seemed very pleased with the suggestion. "We'll take a day off today, but tomorrow we'll take care of those dragons."
With those words, Hiccup patted the Night Fury's head, and the two of them shot into the sky.
By the time they decided to head home, it was already dark outside. Hiccup only hoped his father was either asleep or not home yet. He didn't really feel like talking to him about what had happened at the academy, because it was stupid. Toothless landed in front of the hut, and Hiccup jumped on the ground and headed for the door, while the dragon followed. The boy took a deep breath, then pushed the door open.
Of course, his father was already home, and he wasn't sleeping, but he had his back to the door, busy with the fireplace. Hiccup glanced at Toothless, signaling him to be as quiet as possible. Then, with slow movements, the boy and his dragon began to climb the stairs to the upper floor, where the young Viking's room was located.
"Hiccup," Stoick suddenly spoke.
Stoick didn't say anything in an unfamiliar tone, but despite that, Hiccup jumped in surprise and then tumbled down the stairs (totally prosthetic's fault). Toothless followed and nuzzled his rider.
"Oh, hi, Dad," Hiccup said, quickly getting up and pretending nothing had happened. "How was your day? Uhh... anything interesting?"
His father just scratched his chin, "Hmm, nothing out of the ordinary, except for that one lad who ran away from his own father."
Hiccup stiffened again and started searching for a quick excuse.
"Oh, you see, Dad," he began. "I took what you said VERY personally. So... So I went to train those dragons so they wouldn't, you know, do anything crazy, again."
"Hm," Stoick hummed. "And did that work?"
"Oh yeah, totally! Wish you could see that!" Hiccup said with fake confidence.
"Me too. Especially since I went to the Mildew's field and you weren't really there."
Oh Gods.
The boy wanted to say something, but he literally didn't know what. He couldn't think of any explanation or any excuse. Looking at his father, he couldn't tell if he was angry with him or not, and he seemed to prefer to keep his mouth shut. So he just stood there, staring at the floor. He heard his dad sigh.
"Come on," Stoick said encouragingly. "I can see something's wrong. Tell me what it is."
Hiccup, however, remained silent. Because what was he supposed to say? He'd seen how his father had been trying to be a better since the fight with the Red Death. If Dad found out that Hiccup was still afraid of him disowning him again, he'd probably be devastated.
"What happened in the past is behind us, son," Stoick said suddenly, gently.
The boy, suddenly surprised, looked at his father.
"What?"
"Listen to me, Hiccup," he began. "As Chief of Berk, I've learned to see problems that aren't visible at first glance. It's my duty to care for every resident of Berk. But I'm also a father. So I'm definitely aware if something isn't right with my son."
Hiccup still didn't speak, but he listened carefully. Stoick knelt down to be on equal footing with his son and continued.
"Do you think I don't see how you stiffen when I talk to you? How you back away, look around and hide what's on your mind?"
"No, Dad, listen, it's not what you think!" the boy began to explain desperately. "It's not like I... You know! You know how I am! I—"
Hiccup suddenly stopped when he saw something he wasn't expecting to see. Tears were visible in his father's eyes. Stoick was a fearless warrior, had slain countless dragons in his life, always tough and brave and well... stoick. Like a true leader, he always defended his people. He was always prepared for the worst. But now, when he was alone with his son (and Toothless), he simply... broke.
"Dad, are you..." the boy stammered in disbelief. Even Toothless stepped closer, visibly worried. "Dad, I'm really sorry! I really am—"
He didn't finish, as his father grabbed him by the shoulders and hugged him tightly. The young Viking ignored the fact that he could barely breathe at that moment.
"Dad...?"
"I know you're still haunted by what I told you that day," Stoick began. "And not just that. For a long time, I saw you as a disgrace to Berk. The son of a Chief who has never killed a dragon. I didn't even hide it. I said terrible things about you in front of our tribe. I didn't listen when you tried to reason with me that we didn't have to fight dragons. And because of my decision, you almost... You could have died Hiccup. Because of me."
Tears welled up in Hiccup's eyes as well, but he continued to listen to his father, who suddenly loosened his grip so he could look at his son properly.
"I regret everything I did to you, my son," he said, stroking Hiccup's hair. "I thought you were a useless Viking, but you ended our war with the dragons and made us befriend them instead. Berk has never been in such a good place. And it's all thanks to you. I promise that what happened before will never come back. I understand my mistakes now. I love you and always will, my son, no matter what. Please remember that."
"Thanks Dad," Hiccup said, wiping away his tears. "I'll remember."
Seeing this scene, Toothless joined in, approaching Hiccup and nuzzling him gently, to which the boy petted him.
"But the credit for me almost dying is mine to take," Hiccup said shortly.
"Thor almighty! Hiccup, we're having a special father-son moment here!" Stoick exclaimed and grabbed his son tighter, now ruffling his hair.
Hiccup only laughed and managed to wiggle out of his father's grasp. "I'm just saying the truth!"
"Oh no, I'm not going to argue with you about that," Stoick only sighed, standing up now. "But seriously, son. You absolutely must train those dragons so they don't get so destructive, because I really can't stand Mildew coming and demanding I banish the dragons while my son is their trainer," he concluded, giving Hiccup a little nudge.
"Okay, okay! I'll take care of it, Dad!" the boy replied with a smile and glanced at Toothless. "Ready to get some rest, bud?"
Because after this conversation, he personally felt more than ready.