Quick authors note before the chapter starts. Some of the actions of some characters may seem weird but I will properly explain my thought process at the end of the chapter to give an idea on why they are going to do what they do.
Whilst Hiccup and Toothless were out having their adventure, exploring new lands and making new inventions, Berk was fracturing. For the Berkians nothing could be better, their heir just came first in dragon training, in just one more day their future chief would get to kill his first dragon in front of the entire village. Just One More Day. All they had to do now was drink and celebrate this mighty achievement and yet some were beginning to wonder at this party for the future chief, where was he? The answer would soon arrive in a form most unexpected.
Astrid ran, ran as fast as she could from the cove she followed Hiccup to. Never could she have imagined that he was friends with a dragon, with a Night Fury and the fact he chose to leave. How could he choose to leave? Why? What could be better to him than staying here? These questions raced through her mind over and over and yet she couldn't think of an answer for any of them. Not that it mattered at this moment. SHe had to get back to the village, back to the chief and tell him what happened. But how? How does someone tell chief Stoick the Vast that his heir, the sudden dragon training prodigy, chose to leave, and chose to abandon his people, his village and his family for a dragon? How do you tell a father his son decided to leave him?
It only took a few minutes for Astrid to make it back to the village and now she just had to find the chief. Of course there was the obvious place. The great hall, where practically the entire village would be gathered. Everyone gathered in one place to celebrate, celebrate a traitor. As she thought this she began to feel a hatred growing in her, her hatred for dragons for taking the heir, and a hatred for Hiccup for abandoning the village like this, for abandoning everything vikings stand for. However she would have to put these feelings of hers to the back of her mind as she entered the great hall. Immediately she was assaulted by the smell of mead and the various types of food causing her to gag and stumble before she was able to adjust to it. Now all she had to do was find the chief among this sea of people. Astrid struggled to pick out just one face among the crowds, struggled to pick out the face of the chief among the horde. Whilst it only took a few minutes for her to spot him for her it felt like an eternity. "AH Astrid, so good to see you join the party!" the mighty chief of the Hooligan tribe bellowed out as the young viking ran up to him pushing past some of the vikings in the way. "Chief! Finally I have been looking for you. I need you to come with me. It's about Hiccup" Astrid blurted out to the somewhat drunken Stoick, almost too quickly for him to realise most of what she said but he heard enough. "Hiccup? Why what happened?" Stoick responded, almost as quickly as he said it he was up out of his chair and following behind Astrid as she led him out of the great hall. The other vikings seeing their chief rush out of the hall like that would have followed had it not been for Gobber telling them to go back to their drinks.
"Lass slow down, what is it you wanted me to see and how is Hiccup involved?" the vast viking chieftain asked as he eyed the young girl who seemed a bit rushed. "I need to tell you it in private, it's something only you should hear for now, though I guess Gobber should hear it too." responded Astrid as she kept trying to figure out how to word it "Okay then, let's go to my house, last I checked Hiccup was there as well" Stoick responded as he, Astrid and Gobber made their way to his hutt on the hill. Astrid slowly growing more concerned on the way considering Hiccup is in fact not in his home nor is he even on the island anymore. After a couple of minutes they arrived at the chief's home, Stoick opening the door and leading the two behind him inside. Though when they got inside something immediately caught their eyes, a helmet sat on the middle of the table, to Astrid this didn't seem like it would be anything out of the ordinary but for Stoick he was instantly drawn to it as he knew it wasn't there when he last came in. Stoick walked in and picked up the helmet but didn't notice what was underneath it. Gobber did however, as he picked up the note and read the top of it. "Stoick, there's a note, it's from Hiccup." Gobber spoke up in a somewhat low voice. Hearing this Astrid had a moment of realisation, Hiccup was a lot more prepared to leave than she thought. Stoick put down the helmet and took the note from Gobbers hand but before he could open it fully to read Astrid finally broke her silence, "Chief I think I know what's in the note and you should probably sit down for this." she said, taking a seat herself before continuing "It probably has something to do with what I came to tell you, Hiccup he. He left, he left the island on the back of a dragon, he chose to leave on the back of a Night Fury." As she finished she let out a breath as she felt a weight lift from her chest, finally having been able to put into words what she needed to. "What! What do you mean, how could he have left, how can you be sure he chose to leave!" Stoick demanded in a booming voice startling both Astrid and Gobber, "I, I followed him after he left here, followed him through the woods until he got to a cove, I waited and watched wondering what he was doing and then, then I saw it a dark shape shifting around in the cove he had descended into and so I chose to go down there. That's when I saw it, it was a dragon, sleek and covered in pitch black scales, they just sat there together, like friends and when I confronted him he told me himself, told me he is leaving. You should read the note, I am sure he left it to tell you himself." Astrid responded not wanting the chief to get any more worked up. Gobber seeing that it would probably make sense to leave his old friend alone for a minute began to usher Astrid out of the house "Come lass, no point staying in here right now, let's go to the forge for now and come back later when Stoick has had time to process this and you can tell me more about what you saw" the blacksmith spoke up as he practically pushed Astrid out of the door.
Astrid agreed with Gobber and the two headed over towards the forge but neither were expecting what they saw when they got there. Underneath Gobbers large hammer on top of a shelf, they saw a small bit of paper sticking out. Gobber, of course now extremely intrigued by it, would pick it up and light up a few torches so he could read it. "Sorry lass, I was going to get you to tell me about what you saw but I need to read this first" Gobber said as he started opening the note he was left "I understand, after all you were probably closer to him than anyone" Astrid responded as she sat down and waited. "Dear Gobber, I know you will probably be hurt by this, maybe more so than my dad but I have decided to leave, I just can't stay here, I have always been different. I have never really been a true Viking and now I know why. If you remember a few days ago I said I shot down a Night Fury, well I wasn't lying, I found it in a cove just of raven's point, it was wrapped up in a bola, pinned, defenceless, I could have easily killed it, become the hero of the village or something but I couldn't bring myself to do it. When I looked at him I saw myself, and so I freed him, I cut the ropes and let him go and of course he let me live, in one instant I knew everything we knew was wrong, they aren't mindless beasts, they are complicated emotional creatures just like any viking, okay maybe not any viking, but like most of us at least. After our first session of dragon training I went back, followed some of his scales to a cove where I found him, he was missing one of his tail fins, he couldn't fly away and then we had the talk at the catapult. When you said how a downed dragon is a dead dragon. I understood this and with you reaffirming it, I got to work, using everything you taught me and everything I have learnt on my own and I made him a prosthetic, I made him a new tail fin and not long after I made a saddle, I could ride him and fly with him. I felt free in the air and then everything went wrong. Winning at dragon training, getting the right to kill the Monstrous Nightmare, I knew I couldn't do it so I made my decision. Thank you Gobber for all you have done for me, you were truly a second Dad for me, too often you were more of a Dad for me than my actual Dad. I just decided I needed to get away from this village that I can't be a part of if I wanted to be myself. So I am sorry Gobber but this will probably be the last you hear from me, Goodbye. Oh I left copies of my designs in my room in the forge and some illustrations of my dragon, Toothless. I figured you would like them and please remember there is a better way."
Gobber had a few tears running down his face as he finished reading what Hiccup left him before he chose to regain his composure and wiped them away. "Lass, did he say anything else to you when he left?" Gobber asked "Aside from that he was leaving, I only remember him answering something I said to him on the second day of training, and one other thing. He told me he was leaving because the village only cared for a fake him and he knew they would never be able to accept the real him, or something along those lines, sorry I was a bit shocked and focused on the dragon at the time I spoke to him." she responded looking down as she felt disappointed she couldn't give him anything more. "It's alright lass, I doubt any other viking would have been able to talk in that situation so the fact you remember that much is good, thank you." the one legged one armed viking replied. "Can I ask what he wrote to you?" Astrid asked, interested in what Hiccups last words to his mentor were "Sure lass, here, have a read, but then you should go home to and get some sleep tomorrow is sure to be hectic for you, I am going to talk to Stoick, he is going to need someone there for now. Oh and Astrid, don't tell anyone else about this not yet, not even your parents and remember, Hiccup will come back, one day. After all, he is still Hiccup." came the response of the somewhat disheartened man as he turned to walk back up to his friends home leaving the blonde viking to herself for now. "Yeah, of course he will come back." She whispered out as she began reading through the letter Gobber was left and by the end she knew why the stubborn blacksmith had shed a few tears. Now though instead of listening to Gobber, she decided she wanted to have a look at the illustrations Hiccup's letter mentioned.
Whilst Gobber and Astrid were in the forge, reading Hiccup's letter to Gobber and having a small conversation, Stoick read his, and all he could do was blame himself. Blame himself for his own son leaving, blame himself for driving his only remaining family away. Had he not had this letter then maybe he would have blamed the dragons or even Astrid for Hiccup leaving, anyone but himself because it's who he was, but here, right here in his hands was the proof that it was his fault. He failed, he failed as a chief and more importantly he failed as a father. He couldn't tell that the son he had seen the last few days wasn't the same boy just the short week before. He couldn't tell that his son didn't feel like he belonged. In the end he couldn't do anything. "Sorry Val, I made a mistake, and I don't think I will ever be able to fix it." He said in a quiet and defeated voice, as he remained motionless in his chair save for a few tears he couldn't hold back. He stayed there for what would have felt like hours, disconnected from the world, until he heard a knock on his door and his best and oldest friend walked in. As Gobber entered Stoick's house the sad chief seemed to regain some of his senses yet he still remained motionless. "Stoick" Gobber started in a hushed manner as he sat across from his old friend "Hiccup left me a letter too, thought you should know" the blacksmith continued before being cut off. "It's my fault Gobber, I couldn't see it, I couldn't see any of it, I failed as a chief and as a father, I failed the village, I failed to fulfil my promise to Val and worst of all I failed my son, I failed Hiccup. And I failed in the worst way imaginable." the chief croaked out, his voice breaking as he finished. "No Stoick, we failed. We all failed him. Not just you. Remember when you lost Valka, I said the same thing then, it wasn't just your fault, any one of us could have done something but we were just too blind to see it till it was too late, it's the same here with Hiccup, had any of us payed more attention to him, had any of us tried then maybe this wouldn't have happened." Gobber responded immediately as if he had been practising the line, which truthfully he had been to some degree on his walk over. "But you're wrong Gobber, this is my fault, this is all my fault, if I could have just accepted Hiccup before he succeeded in dragon training, if I had just listened to him then none of this would have happened!" The stoic chieftain almost shouted. "You don't know that!" the blacksmith shot back before returning to a calmer more considerate voice "You can't just blame yourself, and I can't let you either. The village will need their chief tomorrow, and we are going to have to tell them something, they will need to know that Hiccup left, they will need a plan." he finished, watching his chief look up at him, a look of pure heartbreak on his face. "I know Gobber, I know but how, how can I face them tomorrow? The entire village is celebrating, ready to watch my son kill a dragon tomorrow and instead they will get to hear that he is gone. And then what am I supposed to tell them, that their heir left with a dragon, that he chose a dragon over them, his own tribe? What would that make them think, would they demand we hunt him down because of the betrayal? What Gobber? What am I supposed to do?" Stoick responded, the grief obvious in his voice. "Maybe we don't have to tell them" Gobber started "What? But you just said that we will need to" the now perplexed chieftain responded, confused by his friend's statement. "Let me rephrase that, Hiccup left on a dragon, A Night Fury no less, quite possibly the most dangerous dragon in the entire archipelago, he trained the dragon well enough he could call it a friend and ride on its back and he did it alone whilst learning how to kill dragons at the same time, what if there is a better way, maybe Hiccup is right, maybe we can end the war with the dragons without any more bloodshed." Gobber said, trying to pick his words carefully but of course being Gobber that plan fell through almost immediately. "Gobber, what you are suggesting is against everything Vikings stand for, it borders on treason!" Stoick responded in a booming and commanding voice. "Yes, but it is possible, Hiccup is proof of it, please Stoick, at least for him we should give it a try and maybe he will come back, but we need to be better! Learn from the mistakes we made. Years ago was it not your own plan to travel to the edge of the world, and block the entrance to the home of the dragons, it was your plan to end the war without bloodshed? And your son might have found a different way to do so!" Gobber responded matching the volume of his friend in his responses hoping that he would at least understand "Enough! Gobber please, just enough. Even if I agreed to the idea, just how could I get the village to do the same? In what way would the villagers not see this as their chief betraying them and everything they believe in?" Stoick replied his voice dropping back to a reasonable level "We use tonight to learn, in the letter Hiccup left me he said he left some illustrations in his room at the forge, drawings of his dragon, and maybe in those we will find a way to tame the dragons, we should ask Astrid to join us as well if she has not gone home yet, after all she is the only one who ever saw them both together and how they interacted, and then tomorrow when the village gathers at the arena, instead of showing them a fight we show them how to train them." Gobber responded as he stared at his chief. "Maybe you're right Gobber, maybe all we needed is just a bit more of Hiccup." the large viking concluded as he stood up. The one armed one legged viking joined him and they both began to walk towards the forge.
After a short while the two vikings arrived at the forge just to see Astrid starting to leave, causing the young viking to be startled by their sudden appearance. "Astrid." Gobber started being cut off for a second time that night by Astrid "Yes yes I know I am heading home now." she said in a rushed manner "No lass, wait we need to talk to you about what you saw, and what we plan to do" Stoick spoke up quickly making sure that she couldn't get away. "We need to know everything you remember about how Hiccup interacted with the dragon." Stoick continued "Uhm sure chief of course, but can I ask why?" Astrid responded a bit taken aback by her chief's odd eagerness. "Ah, that's right, we're planning on" Stoick began to say before Gobber chimed in with a bit too much excitement for everyone else involved "training a dragon." His response elicited a small glare from Stoick and a look of pure confusion and concern from Astrid, "Train a dragon? That goes against everything we stand for! How could you even think of doing this?" Astrid all but screamed at the two older vikings seemingly forgetting her place in the moment "Keep your voice down" Stoick spoke out, his voice low but commanding. "We plan on trying it, trying to see if maybe Hiccup's way is better." He continued "But why? How? What?" Astrid could only blurt out short questions as she struggled to comprehend what her own chief was telling her, stumbling back as she did so. "This war has gone on long enough, and now thanks to Hiccup we might have a way to end it without any more bloodshed, we owe it to him to at least give it a try." Gobber spoke up "And since you are the only other person aware of what has happened and the only person to have seen him with his dragon, you are going to help us." he continued when Stoick chimed back in with "I am going to give you a week to think it over but tomorrow I am going to announce to the village that Hiccup is gone and that we will be postponing the dragon killing for the foreseeable future but I am not going to say why or how he disappeared. But so you know I will expect an answer by this time next week and if you agree we will start attempting to follow in Hiccup's footsteps and maybe we will be able to end the war." Stoick said as he turned around to go back to his hutt "This is insane, this can't be happening." Astrid started to say to herself in a muffled voice, "Aye lass, it might be insane but it is happening, just go home and think it over and remember no one can know what you know until the chief says so." Gobber said as he observed the young viking start to leave.
Unfortunately for the 3 vikings, with around 4 days left until Astrid was meant to give her answer the dragons in the cages were freed by what people could only identify as a Night Fury due to its unmistakable blast. Of course those who knew the truth of Hiccup's disappearance would know it would have been his doing but now what were they meant to do. With no dragons they couldn't try to follow in Hiccup's footsteps just yet, not in that way at least but maybe they could find him. Due to the raid by the Night Fury the entire village wanted some kind of revenge which made it easier for Stoick to start sending search parties for it. The village would agree with the idea of hunting the Night Fury without much convincing. After all, to them the beast was growing too confident launching attacks by itself and they being stubborn vikings did not like the idea of a dragon seeing them as little to no threat. For 2 months search party after search party would launch hunting in the rough direction that they believed the Night Fury flew off with the dragons it freed. What came as a surprise to them was the fact that they were being led away from Helheims gate where they believed the home of the dragons was. This single fact made the Berkians more confident in their chances of hunting down the elusive dragon. The attack itself almost had Stoick rethink the plan but in the end Gobber was able to reason with him as they knew it could only have been Hiccup's doing.
About 1 month after they started searching Trader Johann would be at their docks with a decent sized basket filled with odd coloured weapons. "Johann! Always a pleasure to see you." Stoick bellowed, walking to meet the persistent trader "AH Chief Stoick, the pleasure is all mine." Johann responded quickly, turning to face the imposing figure of the Berkian ruler. "So what brings you to my island today?" The chief questioned eyeing the trader and his wares. "Ah yes, well today Chief I have something interesting to show you. A friend of mine made these weapons for me to trade away, made from volcanic metals. I am sure they will serve you well." the skittish trader responded, bringing the basket to the front of his ship as Gobber arrived as well. The blacksmith eyed the weapons with a noticeable gleam of interest as something about their designs and the craftsmanship seemed so familiar. Though he couldn't quite place his finger on how. "They certainly look well made but the colouration of the metal seems strange. Do you know what the material used is?" Gobber asked as he picked up a sword and inspected it thoroughly looking at each and every part of it. "I don't know the specifics, it's a trade secret if you will. What I am sure of is these are better performing than their iron counterparts. Which reminds me of a time when I was" Johann started about to go into another one of his tales when his voice was cut off by Stoick speaking up "Alright then, if you are sure they perform better then I am sure you wouldn't mind letting us test them a little now would you?" Stoick said, as he took hold of one of the axes and compared it with his own as other vikings began swarming to have a look at the wares on Johanns ship. "What would you want for these weapons?" Gobber spoke up, somewhat surprising Stoick as he turned to face the blacksmith. "Well the man who gave me these asked that I find him some specific items and the last on that list is medicinal items, medicines and medicinal books, so I believe that would be a place to start." came the traders reply. Stoick still analysing the axe in his hand made note of the request and decided to do the only thing a viking can do to test the weapon, he lifted his axe up and brought it down on the new axe only for nothing to happen, at least that's what seemed to happen to the people watching as Johann jumped from the sudden sound of the two weapons clashing and Gobber turned to look at his Chief. As Stoick brought his axe towards his face to look at the blade he noticed part of his axe was damaged to the point it would need repairs for that side to be useful again, on the other hand the axe he was testing out survived undamaged. This show was all Gobber needed to confirm his suspicions and all Stoick needed to give the go ahead to ask Gothi if she had any medicinal books and excess medicines she could provide to be traded for these weapons. A couple vikings went to Gothi whilst Gobber quickly ran back to his shop to get something. Surprisingly Gobber returned with a book on medicines, where or why the blacksmith keeps a book on medicines is anyone's guess but it didn't seem to matter as he handed over the book to Johann and in exchange took one of the larger weapons, a large double headed axe that he would be able to melt down into enough material to reforge a few times. The vikings that went to Gothi were able to return with one more spare book and a promise to copy the rest over for future trades. Johann was also given a few other items, some unique to Berk items which they decided to trade for some more of the items made from the mysteriously strong metal and other miscellaneous merchandise from the talkative trader.
Johann visited two more times after the first batch of new items, each time coming with an even larger selection, his last visit was a little less than two months after hiccup left and the Berkians started searching for the Night Fury. It was on this most recent visit he figured out the Berkians were preparing a large expedition to an island, an island his new trading partner lived on. In the end Johann managed to get enough information on where and why they were going to the island thanks to his trading skills and probably more importantly, the eagerness of the average Berkian to boast about how they have finally tracked the most elusive dragon. Though he did find it odd that neither Stoick or Gobber were at the dock that day, normally they would be the first to greet him after all but he figured they were busy discussing how they would deal with the Night Fury if they really did find it. He would never know how right yet wrong he was. In the end he was right that the two older vikings were planning what they would do if they found the Night Fury, he was unaware of them knowing that Hiccup left on one and unaware that at the very least these two were planning on a capture mission only. They didn't want to kill it, not if Hiccup really had found a way to end the war without any more bloodshed, a goal they once held but had abandoned long ago. Naturally they also needed a way to make sure the other vikings didn't just kill the dragon if they had the chance and more importantly they would need a way to temporarily hide Hiccup if they found him. The only person who knew what they were planning was Astrid simply because she was also the only other person to know about any of this to begin with.
Another week and a half passed, the vikings had finally arrived at their destination only to find an island so deserted it was devoid of any evidence that could point to a dragon having been there, a fact disheartening to many of the vikings simply due to this most likely being their last chance to find the dragon yet some were weirdly happy about the scenario. As it turned out a few of them were happy they didn't have to fight the 'offspring of lightning and death itself'. And yet even with these two vastly different groups Stoick and Gobber had different feelings, once again they were too slow or maybe too blind to see the facts, or maybe it was just they were too hopeful, after all they believed they could find Hiccup again and they could make things better but they failed to understand one simple thing, something Hiccup had tried to convey in his letter for Stoick. He doesn't want to be found yet and yet they still failed to comprehend this fully, or perhaps they did understand but were too stubborn or even too foolish to accept it. Regardless they returned to Berk just a little over two weeks after leaving, their trip having ended up pointless. The trip had a secondary effect as well, besides just being a failure and setting them back in their search it also destroyed most of the remaining motivation the Berkians had for the hunt. Now with two full months of nothing most had given up with it and those who still wanted to hunt it knew it was impossible now as the ice had fully started to take over the waters and it would be another four months if they were lucky before they could sail another hunting fleet. Of course regardless of the weather they would still be getting visits from Johann, his experience on the seas allowing him to travel even with the icy waters, they would slowly start seeing newer and more appealing looking items with him from whom he claimed to be the same manufacturer as the oddly coloured weapons and other tools they had received before, some were sceptical due to Johanns claims of the materials capabilities and even less at his claim at the two things being made by the same person but Gobber put both of those concerns to rest in a simple action, he brought one of the swords he acquired previously and compared the two, whilst he could easily tell the craftsmanship was identical, he also proved the materials effectiveness as he sliced his sword in half with the newer lighter and shinier weapon. Gobber quickly traded for some as did the rest of the island, though something was eating away at the back of his mind, this craftsmanship was familiar to him, he knew he had seen it before but he just couldn't figure out where and with Johanns refusal to provide a name at this time he was left to try and figure it out. And so Berk would go on almost as if nothing had happened for the foreseeable future unaware just what their heir was truly doing.
Alright I know I said at the start some of the choices may be weird and I know most will agree with that, after all Stoick actually listening to someone and changing his mind is not something you expect this early into the story alas here it is. Now I know I said I would explain and I am getting there but I just wanted to give a quick explanation on why this chapter took so long, aside from being 5 and a half thousand words, 5520 to be exact, I had planned to get it done around two weeks ago alongside a chapter for my other story, unfortunately life had other plans and I ended up not being able to focus and work on anything properly, I won't go into further details but know I am going to try and get back into updating this a bit more frequently but we will see. Anyways back to the topic at hand, Stoick and Gobber and their strange actions in this chapter. Now this is of course my own interpretation of their personalities so discrepancy is going to be there between this and the original versions but I am trying to at least keep them similar, now first I will address how Gobber is I guess speaking, I know other stories do that more faithfully but I personally am unsure how to have him say what I want him to whilst making it read like he speaks so that's that, As the story progresses I will probably try but we will see. Now onto their choices, Gobber has always been up for a new perspective, he has always been a lot more accepting of Hiccups randomness and would probably be quite easy to convince to change his mind but with Stoick, he is well stoic so as is normally put, he is a difficult to change person but I wanted to go with a different view of the character. Now again this is just how I see him but between the revelations in The Hidden World with him wanting to end the war with no bloodshed at one point, something that came after he lost Valka as well, which I think is important because you would think for someone like Stoick losing a person as important to him as Valka he would want to slaughter every single dragon for taking her from him but in the end that's not what he says to Hiccup. Aside from that I also think he is much easier to change than people give him credit for. He immediately took Hiccup back at the end of the first film, he would do anything for Hiccup, regardless of what it meant for him, he got into a barehanded fight with a monstrous nightmare, he jumped into what would have been freezing waters twice, once to get his drowning son and the second time to get his dragon, he could have easily left Toothless but he chose to save him because his son wanted to save him and was willing to die for him. He even tells Hiccup he doesn't have to fight. And in the end by the time Hiccup woke up Stoick probably with help from the teens and Gobber had managed to convince almost the entire island to accept dragons, (Aside from Mildew) so I feel if Stoick's best chance to get his son home was to change his ways and try and befriend dragons then he would do it, he might take a little convincing but he would do it. He might be well stoic but he is also quite possibly one of the most devoted parents ever, in his own strange way. But yeah that's my reasoning for their actions oh and also this chapter including author's notes increased the stories word count from 6859 to 13011 adding a nice 6152 words to it.