A New World, Complicated

Chapter 40: Cast Out, Pt. 2 (Hiccup)

"Everyone settle down!" he cried. "Hiccup will answer all your questions!" Before I could protest, he dragged me to the front of the room and set me to face the crowd.

"Why him?" I heard Snotlout ask from the crowd.

"He's the acting chief. That's why." He leaned down to me and whispered, "they're all yours'" before hobbling away.

"What are we gonna do?" someone shouted at me.

"Where's Stoick?"

"When do we start yelling again?"

Taking that as their cue, people started shouting again. My eyes darted around, trying to compose myself. I didn't have Reign here to help me get the people to calm down and make decisions. I had to do it on my own this time.

"Good questions... mostly. Uh... as you know, Berk is no stranger to hard times. But, the best thing is to— "

"Take arms!"

"Launch the catapults!" Snotlout stepped up to the platform, pushing me aside slightly.

"Why don't you step aside and watch a real chief in action. Hookfang." Snotlout snapped his fingers, and Hookfang descended from the ceiling, lighting himself aflame and causing people to scream, gasp slightly, and go silent. "That's better. Now, here's how it's gonna go."

The smell of smoke began to fill the air, and when Snotlout turned around, I noticed his clothes had been lit on fire.

"You are on fire, Snotlout!" Tuff shouted, taunting him without him knowing.

"Thank you, citizen." He inhaled deeply, and realized what Tuffnut meant. Panicked, he rushed toward the nearest water trough, and Gobber dunked him in. Astrid stood by my side as I stepped up to look out over the crowd again.

"Okay, good, so... where were we?" I turned to Astrid, looking for help. She and her sister were very similar, so I felt a lot more comfortable with her standing up here with me.

"You were about to tell them that they have nothing to worry about, and you have everything under control." Astrid winked at me, and I managed to smile.

"A-All right, people. You have nothing to worry about, and everything is under control." Although they fell silent at first, once they started shouting again, it was even louder than before. I looked to Astrid, lost, and she shrugged a little.

"That went much better in my head."

I sighed. At this point, there was nothing I could do to assure them everything would work out just fine. The only thing I could do was head home, and wait for Fishlegs to come back from scouting. Toothless and I paced the floor and I started to boil some water, trying to think of some sort of plan that wouldn't endanger my dad or Reign. I noticed his axe laying on the table, and I carefully picked it up as the door opened and Gobber came in.

"You know, Hiccup, there's nothing easy about chiefing." He hobbled closer to me. "You should've seen Stoick when he first took over. He was like a newborn yak trying to find its feet." He removed a fish from the pot and tossed it into Toothless' mouth.

"I find that hard to believe."

"It's true. In fact, there were some in this town that didn't think he had it in him. Alvin, for one. He never shut up about it." I shook my head and resumed pacing. "Hiccup, being chief doesn't mean everyone's going to agree with you. Sometimes, you have to deal with the Alvins and Snotlouts of the world." I crossed my arms as I took a seat in my father's chair, not meeting Gobber's eyes.