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When Hiccup didn't return from his morning flight with Toothless, Stoick immediately suspected Alvin the Treacherous. The Outcast chief had already kidnapped his son once before, and Stoick knew from experience that it would take more than one defeat to deter his once friend, now enemy.
But Hiccup hadn't been on Outcast Island. And Alvin had all but declared all-out war at the intrusion and accusation.
Stoick was at a loss. Fear and doubt churned inside of him: What if something had happened to Toothless's tail fin? What if they'd gone down? If they had drowned? What if Hiccup was injured, stranded somewhere?
And then, a day later, the twins and Snotlout found Toothless stranded on a tiny island in the middle of open ocean miles from Berk, tail fin perfectly intact, saddle still on — but no sign of Hiccup.
Well. There was one sign, but it hadn't filled Stoick with hope. Quite the opposite. Back on Berk, Stoick had noticed something that the twins and Snotlout had missed: There, barely poking out of the top of the saddle bag, a scroll of parchment. The fear and doubt soured, curdled into stark dread. He had a terrible premonition of what would be on that parchment.
And he had been right — but it had also been worse than he had thought. He had indeed expected a ransom note, but he had not anticipated it being written in Hiccup's own hand. And he never would have expected the note to be from the most notorious tribal chief in the Barbaric Archipelago, one of the few who still had slaves and refused to venture out of the dark ages.
But the ransom note confirmed it: Ug the Uglithug had kidnapped his heir — a common practice in the old days between tribes but virtually nonexistent today — with the declaration that in making peace with the dragons, Berk had betrayed her fellow tribes, that the Uglithug tribe believed Berk was training dragons in order to take over the rest of the archipelago.
Ug's kidnapping of Berk's heir was, according to the ransom note, the Uglithugs' preemptive strike in the war Stoick looked to start. It demanded that Stoick come alone to the meeting place with an exorbitant amount of gold in exchange for his son. Clearly, Ug was trying to scare Stoick away from war and trying to bankrupt him so that he couldn't fund a war at the same time.
Stoick noted with concern the shakiness of Hiccup's normally neat and steady handwriting. Gods, what had Ug done to his son to force him to write this abhorrent message?
Stoick now flew over the island that had been marked on the included map, Toothless warbling anxiously beneath him. It was a small, scrubby spit of land. A ship bearing the Uglithug insignia, a decapitated wild boar's head, was anchored just off shore. Ug himself stood on the rocky beach, his daughter Tantrum — as beautiful as her father was ugly, with flaming red hair, a bored expression, clad in full battle armor — at his side. He saw no sign of Hiccup.
Begrudgingly, Stoick urged Toothless to land in front of the Uglithug chief and his heir. A low growl rose in Toothless's throat as Ug — an enormous slab of Viking with fists like sledgehammers, muscles like tree trunks, and a brutal face, slightly bigger than even Stoick himself and twenty times as cruel — stepped forward.
"Stoick." Beady eyes cut to Toothless as the Berkian chief climbed off of his back. "I told you to come alone."
"I needed a way to get here, didn't I?" Stoick growled. "You left my son's dragon stranded on that island. He can't fly on his own. By the time we found him and discovered your ransom demand, we could not have made the deadline by boat."
Ug grunted. "So the dragon really is as damaged as your kid said? I thought the little runt was lying, trying to save his own skin."
Stoick saw red; his fist clenched around the handle of his axe, but he didn't draw it. "Where is Hiccup?"
Now Tantrum stepped forward, tossing her fiery hair over her shoulder. She was around twenty, if Stoick remembered correctly, and had always been a rebellious spirit. Currently she looked like she wanted to be anywhere else, but she had a duty to her father and tribe. "Did you bring the gold?"
Stoick gritted his teeth and hefted Toothless's saddle bag, filled to the brim with most of Berk's store of gold. It would be a major blow to his tribe to lose so much, but Hiccup was his tribe's future, her only heir. More importantly, he was Stoick's son, his child, and he would do anything, give anything, to get Hiccup back.
He turned back to Ug and Tantrum and flipped the bag open, revealing the contents but keeping a tight hold on the strap. "First, you show me Hiccup."
Ug's eyes slid from the gold to Stoick to Toothless, where they lingered. "How do I know that beast won't kill me the second I bring him out?"
"Because this dragon loves my boy and would not put him in danger. There will be no tricks on our end, Ug, as long as there are none on yours. You give me Hiccup, and Toothless and I will fly away with him, and you can keep your filthy gold." He didn't add that he fully intended on reclaiming his gold in the future.
Then he turned and shouted in the direction of his ship, "Bring out the runt!"
Stoick watched, heart pounding, as the trapdoor on deck swung open and a large Viking emerged, a squirming form slung carelessly over one shoulder. His blood boiled as he watched his son being chucked into a rowboat that was then lowered into the water. He couldn't get a good look at Hiccup's condition from this distance, but the rough way he was being handled spoke volumes.
Toothless's hackles rose and Stoick roared in anger when he caught his first good look at his son. His resolve to make this a peaceful exchange wavered, but he tamped down the blood lust, only because attacking would only put Hiccup in danger, and who knew how many more men were in the belly of that ship.
Stoick watched, outraged, as Hiccup was hauled out of the rowboat and yanked toward Ug. His hands were tied far too tightly in front of him, and he was being pulled around by the short length of rope leading from them, like an animal on a lead. He was gagged, a strip of fabric forced between his teeth and tied cruelly at the back of his head.
Worst of all, his face was a mess of bruises and dried blood. A cut had opened over one eye, both eyes and the bridge of his nose were black and swollen, and his lip was split, and Stoick knew that beneath his clothes were more injuries. His child had been beaten by the monsters. His hair was disheveled and stiff with salt, which meant he'd been underwater at some point, and his face was smudged with dirt. Distinct tear tracks carved through the dirt and blood. Hiccup wasn't crying now, but his eyes were wide with terror, glittering in the early morning sun.
Ug took the rope from the Viking and jerked Hiccup forward. A muffled grunt sounded from behind the gag as Hiccup stumbled; Stoick saw with a fresh wave of fury that his son favored his left leg more than usual. "Here you go, Stoick. One runt, as ordered." Ug leered at Hiccup, who cringed at the insult. Tantrum examined her sharpened fingernails with a long-suffering expression; her apathy to Hiccup's treatment only fueled the flames of Stoick's anger higher.
"How dare you," Stoick growled. Toothless snarled so fiercely that Ug backed up a couple of steps, dragging Hiccup with him.
"Control that animal," Ug barked, giving Hiccup's rope another vicious tug, "or your kid's dead."
Stoick glanced at Toothless. "Settle down, boy," he ordered, even as inside his own chest a fiery storm of pent up ferocity to rival a Typhoomerang's raged. "We are here for Hiccup. Nothing else." Unspoken: We will take our revenge another day.
Ug seemed to have finally realized that he had bitten off more than he could chew. He now appeared to want to make the exchange and get off this godsforsaken spit of land as much as Stoick did. Gloating must have lost his appeal at the combined rage of Hiccup's father and dragon. He shoved the rope to Tantrum, who took it without hesitation. She didn't so much as glance at Hiccup as she began to lead him forward. At least she walked slowly and didn't drag him — Hiccup limped painfully behind her, his steps sluggish.
"You give my daughter the gold, and she gives you the rope," Ug called out from his place safely out of reach of Stoick's weapon and Toothless’s teeth. Odin, Ug was such a coward. Stoick didn't think much of Tantrum, but she was still Ug's daughter. That the man would willingly send his child somewhere he was afraid to go himself made Stoick furious on the girl's behalf.
The exchange, mercifully, went smoothly. Tantrum took the gold, Stoick took Hiccup's rope. The Uglithugs wasted no time clambering into the rowboats and retreating to their ship. Stoick was tempted to have Toothless plasma blast the ship, but his immediate focus was Hiccup. Besides, despite what Ug claimed, Stoick did not actually want a war, so he knew better than to kill the chief and heir of the Uglithug tribe in cold blood as they retreated. No matter how much they deserved it.
Stoick guided a trembling Hiccup to the ground. His son sat gratefully; Toothless immediately curled up behind him and supported his back. Hiccup leaned into the dragon's body and closed his eyes wearily.
Carefully, Stoick sliced through the ropes binding Hiccup's wrists and then through the gag. As soon as the cloth fell away, Hiccup gasped, "D-dad. He's got… he showed m-me. In his mines… pe-people and dragons in ch-chains. Slaves."
Stoick maneuvered himself so that he was sitting against Toothless at Hiccup's side and wrapped a firm arm around his son's small shoulders. Hiccup's teeth chattered, his lips trembled, his whole body quaked — with relief, shock, fear, anger, Stoick wasn't sure. But no matter the reason, it broke his heart.
Toothless keened and began cleaning blood and dirt from Hiccup's face with his tongue. Hiccup twisted in his father's grip so that he could wrap his arms around Toothless's neck.
"I know, son. About the slaves." He hadn't told Hiccup about the Uglithug Slavelands yet. Hadn't had the heart. "It's something I bring up at every Thing, but so far the tribunal hasn't expressly outlawed the trade in the archipelago. Chief Bertha and I suspect that someone on the tribunal is being paid off."
Hiccup took a shuddering breath and scrubbed an arm over his face. "We have to save them."
"And we will," Stoick agreed. "One day. We will find a way. But right now, you are the priority. Are you okay, son?"
That was a stupid question, he knew. Hiccup was moments away from falling to pieces. And why wouldn't he be? He had been kidnapped, separated from his dragon, restrained, and badly beaten. He had spent several days in the hands of one of the most brutal Vikings in the Barbaric Archipelago and had been forced to witness atrocities that Stoick had always tried to shield him from. Thor only knew what else his son had suffered at Ug's hands.
To his surprise, Hiccup answered his question honestly. "N-no. I don't — I don't think so. But I will be. Eventually." He scratched Toothless's chin and the dragon practically melted. Stoick watched them with a small smile, hope burgeoning.
"How bad are your injuries? Can you fly Toothless back?"
Hiccup rubbed at the back of his neck, a self-conscious gesture he'd been doing since childhood. "I don't — I don't think anything's broken. Apparently, I talk too much and need to learn my place. Thus, well—" He gestured to all of him. "This." He sighed wearily. "I want to fly you, bud, I do, b-but I've barely slept. I'm, I'm exhausted and I—"
"Say no more," Stoick interrupted, cutting off what was shaping up to be an impressive bit of rambling. "I'll fly, you can ride in front of me and rest."
Hiccup nodded. "Thanks, Dad."
Stoick stood and helped Hiccup to his feet. As he helped his son climb onto Toothless's back and then clambered on behind him, Hiccup asked, voice small, full of guilt that had no business being there, "But what about the gold?"
Stoick gently pulled Hiccup back against his chest in a one-armed hug. "The gold? It's nothing."
"But—"
"Hiccup. I mean it. I've got you back, son, and that's all that matters." He ruffled Hiccup's hair, engaged Toothless's tail fin. "Now. Let's get you home."
They flew off into what would surely be a glorious morning, clouds white and fluffy, sky painted brightest cerulean. They left the Uglithugs and the ransom and the scrubby little island behind them, but Stoick knew that they were not gone; part of them now resided in Hiccup, would haunt him for months, if not years, to come.
But he would not be alone when he faced those demons. Stoick wouldn't rest until his son felt safe again. That wouldn't be for a long time yet.
For now, he was just grateful to have him back. To be taking him home, where he belonged.