Several months passed after that day. It was weeks before winter.
Scorpion had prepared the dragons to be taught by Hiccup. They were split into batches and trained in rotation. It was done like this so Hiccup would not be overwhelmed from teaching them. They were all eager to learn. Hiccup was patient on teaching them what he know.
Hiccup had proved himself to be a diligent teacher and a capable leader. He taught his dragons on medicines and how to treat common wounds that most dragons usually came there for. The knowledge of medicines were very helpful for them, even if it meant to help other dragons in the nest, they could use it for themselves when needed to.
Hiccup taught his dragons about literacy. In a few months, they understood Norse and how to read them. It was a useful skill for them, as that could mean they can understand what the humans were planning to do.
Combat was something that Hiccup taught them as well. Dragons knew how to fight, but what Hiccup put them through were akin to a sadistic, merciless teacher. They cursed his name for his teaching method on this subject, but they admitted that was very effective for them.
Coordination and awareness were something he emphasized. He forced discipline onto his dragons, and in just several months, they were more formidable than their fellow dragon species.
"That, should be the last of them."
The Night Fury was resting inside the security sector. He had just dismissed a group of dragons from his lessons. They looked exhausted, but happy at the same time. Scorpion was also there, standing next to him.
"What if we have new dragons migrating in?" Scorpion questioned.
"Then the nest will be the one to teach them." Hiccup firmly spoke. He paused, before continued speaking. "Speaking of migration. Scorpion, I'm putting you in charge for screening and filtering dragons that wanted to migrate here."
"Yes, Leader." The Deathgripper bowed to him.
"I'm off to check on Indigo." With that said, Hiccup flew up into the air. He went out towards the huge cave way, which led to the transit area.
While passing through, Hiccup noticed that Cloudjumper just came into the nest with several dragons behind him. There were some injured dragons on their tow. Seeing he was needed elsewhere, Hiccup redirected himself to fly up into the living quarters sector.
The Night Fury landed onto the grassy area. The Stormcutter flew down towards him, along with the other dragons there. "Hey, Toothless."
"Cloudjumper." Hiccup slowly nodded at him. "The usual?"
Cloudjumper grimaced. "Yeah. They were captured by humans. We heard that you could heal infection, so I brought more for you there."
Hiccup let out a sigh. "I'll get the ones that lost their limbs first, then."
The Night Fury began to work. He approached the dragons and began healing the ones that lost their limbs. He started with a Gronckle that was partially blinded. He pressed his paw on it, recovering its eyes in an instant.
When that was done, the Gronckle stood from the ground. It bowed to him. "Thank you, Dark Chaser." Then, it flew away.
Hiccup continued to work with the other dragons. As he did, he noticed that his dragons were looking up from the balcony out of curiosity. Most of them never saw Hiccup working or healing the dragons before. The Night Fury ignored them as he continued his work.
"So, how's the nest?" Cloudjumper asked, looking around.
"They're doing fine." Hiccup absentmindedly spoke. He grew the missing wing on a Deadly Nadder. "There were couple of things that I had to sort out when we started."
"Really?"
"Yeah." The Night Fury nodded as they walked. "It's just culture shock to me. I've never really managed a dragon nest before. There are things that I just had to get rid of completely."
Cloudjumper was curious. "Like what?"
Hiccup healed a Hideous Zippleback with missing paws. The dragon bowed, before flying away. "Like the fact that dragon nest kill their own dragons because they were sick?" The Night Fury responded. His voice was dripping with sarcasm. "Or how they won't even eat unless I'm present in the nest? Or how nobody seem to know anything about plants or fruits other than the fact that they're food? I had to personally teach them how to do it, so they don't die."
"Not all dragons know about them, Toothless." Cloudjumper reminded him. He noticed that some of the nest dragons were talking with the injured, visiting dragons. "Some of us just rely on the smell to know if they're good or not. We just avoid the ones that don't."
"That's a safe way to do it." Hiccup commented. He paused to look at the Stormcutter. "But you'll never know what they actually do to you without checking what they are."
"Did you teach that to your dragons?" Cloudjumper asked.
"Yeah." Hiccup nodded. He tilted his head. "Well, mostly the stuff that heals dragons. You'd be surprised how much fruits and plants out there that could heal dragon diseases."
"I see." Cloudjumper nodded approvingly. "You taught them how to do it and set yourself as an example."
The Night Fury frowned. "What do you mean?"
The Stormcutter only looked at the crowd of dragons. Hiccup turned to follow where he was looking at. He saw his dragons, carrying fruits and herbs. They were helping and healing the injured visiting dragons. The Night Fury was surprised and confused. He did not order his dragons to help them. He did not order his dragons to help him heal the visiting dragons.
"Like I said." Stormcutter chirped. "Example. You're a good one."
"But why would…" Hiccup paused. He remembered what Tree Hugger told him before.
"Of course." He realised as he stared with wide eyes. "One kindness would reflect to one another, and eventually, peace would spread amongst them. That's what Tree Hugger told me years ago."
Cloudjumper seemed surprised by that. "Tree Hugger told you that?"
"He did…" Hiccup mumbled.
"Leader!"
Hiccup and Cloudjumper turned to look at the newcomers. They were Indigo and Scorpion. The two looked somewhat panicked and scared. The Night Fury greeted them. "Hello."
"Leader." Indigo reported. "The dragons are picking food from the storage."
"They were giving them to the newcomers." Scorpion spoke up, looking around the place. "Did you order this, Leader?"
Hiccup realised what was going on. His dragons were copying him. Ever since he made the nest, he occupied them all by himself to help dragons in need. Other dragons knew it. His dragons knew it. That was until dragons came to join his nest.
The dragons paused to look at their leader. They were curious as to what Hiccup had to say about it. They had done it to help the injured dragons, seeing that their leader helped them, they thought they were allowed to do so as well. They wanted to know if it was something that their leader approved.
"Well." Hiccup spoke aloud. "I guess I have to expand the farm for more plants later."
"Leader?" Indigo tilted her head, confused. The others seemed confused as well.
Hiccup turned to look at the sector leaders. "Few years ago, I created this nest all by myself, so dragons doesn't interrupt me when I was doing something else outside." He explained to them. "That's the purpose of this nest. It was a place for me to help other dragons."
"But then, you and everyone here came along." The Night Fury continued speaking. "I had to accommodate because I have other dragons living here now. I don't really have anything in mind as to what exactly I want this nest would be after you come here."
"Then I realised that I don't really need to think that far." Hiccup explained to them, gesturing to the dragons behind him. "It still serve the same purpose; to help other dragons in need. I taught you and everyone here how to take care of yourself, and you decided to follow my steps to help others with it."
"To answer your question, no." The Night Fury shook his head. "I did not order them. They did it willingly."
"Did you approve of this, Leader?" Scorpion asked.
Hiccup looked back to see his dragons. They were staring at him with admiration. The Night Fury looked back to the Deathgripper. "Yes." He finally answered.
The Deathgripper stared at Hiccup for some time. Then, he bowed to him. "You are the most kind, Leader."
"Just make sure they're not being unruly while at it."
"Yes, Leader."
"And Indigo." Hiccup turned to look at the purple-indigo coloured Deadly Nadder.
"Yes?"
"Make sure we still have some left for ourselves." The Night Fury ordered. "We have winter coming up. We need to prepare."
"Yes, Leader."
The dragons had gone back to do their activities. Scorpion and Indigo went off to do their duties and the others went to heal the injured newcomers. Hiccup let out a sigh. He threw the smug-looking Cloudjumper a dirty look, before moving to continue healing the others.
Weeks had passed. It was roughly a week before the winter.
Dragons had begun visiting Hiccup's nest once more. They were surprised to see that Hiccup had become a leader of a dragon flock. Hiccup's dragons were kind as well and they would tend their wounds that did not involve missing or broken-beyond-repair limbs.
The nest had become famous amongst dragon-kind for their generosity and kindness to other dragons. It was extremely rare for non-alpha nest to be so kind to other dragons like that. Other dragons migrated into the nest, thus increasing the number of dragons inside within few weeks. Hiccup and Scorpion had been busy screening the migrating dragons. There were plenty that wanted to serve under the kind Dark Chaser.
Other dragon nests acknowledged that Hiccup's nest were powerful. They acknowledged that they were neutral. After all, almost everyone were indebted to Hiccup for helping them. The fact that his nest were willing to help meant that maintaining relationship with them were far beneficial to them than making an enemy of them.
The nest was growing. Where he had over 40 dragons before, it had grown to roughly 100 dragons. The numbers would be increasing as time passes. The management was slowly taking more of his time. He used every opportunity to sneak away from Berk to manage his nest.
"Leader, you summoned me?"
Hiccup was inside the Food sector. He was overseeing the dragons collecting and dropping food into the storage. The Night Fury looked to his side. Indigo was standing there.
"Yes." Hiccup nodded. "How's the food situation?"
"We managed to collect enough for the winter." Indigo explained to him. "However, the dragons shared some of them to visiting dragons. If we keep doing this, we might not make it through the winter."
Hiccup narrowed his eyes. "You are put in charge of the Food sector." He declared. "You have the rights to stop outsiders from eating our food. You have all the rights to stop the whole nest from eating. Talk with Scorpion how you want to deal with this. Tell the others of this situation, so they could stop."
"Yes, Leader." Indigo bowed. That was a huge responsibility under her wings. The Deadly Nadder flew up into the air, heading towards the Security sector room.
The Night Fury turned to look at the crowd of dragons. Hiccup roared, getting their attention. "DRAGONS!"
Everyone paused to look at their leader. Hiccup continued speaking. "We're close to winter! Stop giving food to the visitors! We need everything we have right now!"
"YES LEADER!" The dragons chorused. Half of them went back to drop the food, while the rest moved to enter the nest. Hiccup did not mind. He had ordered his dragons to be somewhat independent, which includes taking food to eat and cleaning up their own quarters.
He did not want his dragons to wait for him to do their daily rituals.
As much as his dragon side relished commanding dragons, he hated micromanaging others. They were adults! Unless he was teaching them, why would he be so specific about things that others should do? He was above doing those menial tasks.
Hiccup saw Indigo and Scorpion flying towards him. He waited for them to land, before asking. "Have you informed the others to stop sharing food?"
"We have." Scorpion reported to him. "Indigo insisted on sharing the fruits and herbs. We seem to have too many of them here."
"That's fine." Hiccup nodded. "Those are easy to get. We need to focus on fish and meat. Do you think we have enough time for them?"
"We do." Indigo answered. There was a hint of relief on her voice. "All the nets are being used. They were extraordinarily useful for us. We could survive long enough for the winter."
"Good."
"Leader, if I may suggest…"
"Go on ahead, Scorpion."
"We might be able to accelerate the food gathering by raiding human village for them." Scorpion suggested.
"Denied." Hiccup instantly spoke.
"Leader?" Scorpion was confused. Did he just denied his suggestion to raid human settlement for food? "We have the skill and power to take humans down, thanks to your-"
"Scorpion." Hiccup interrupted. His tone was stern, meaning that he was serious. "You are suggesting me to put the dragons at risk of raiding human villages for food."
"Other nests are currently raiding villages." Indigo pointed out.
"Why do you think they do that, Indigo?"
"Because they need food." The Deadly Nadder answered.
"We need food as well." Scorpion added.
"And what's the risk when we raid the villages?" Hiccup raised one eyebrow.
Scorpion and Indigo did not answer. They already know the answer. The dragons would be at risk.
"I refuse to put my dragons at risk without any good reason." Hiccup declared. "That includes you two. Humans could gather so much food for short time, and I have taught you how they do it."
"You've given me the estimate." The Night Fury continued speaking, mostly directed to Indigo. "You told me we have enough time. You didn't make any mistake on that estimate, did you?"
"N- No, Leader."
"Then I trust you to handle this." Hiccup nodded. He turned to look at Scorpion. "That did not mean I disregarded your suggestion. I will take it into consideration, just in case we might actually need to raid a human village someday."
"Yes, Leader." Scorpion bowed down to him. He was somewhat relieved. While he was annoyed that the leader did not want to take the risk, he admired him for prioritizing the safety of his dragons first. It was very much unlike other dragon nest, and he liked how it was going.
Weeks later, the winter finally came.
The nest were talking about what Hiccup had said weeks prior. Some dragons had overheard the conversations and spread it amongst others. Their leader did not want to risk them starting a dragon raid for food. They already have enough as is.
That made his dragons admired him even more. After everything he had taught them, they were already extremely loyal to him. It made them even more loyal to him. They would follow his orders diligently, going as far as to make sure they succeeded without any hesitation.
Hiccup knew none of this, as he never really bothered listening in to the nest gossip and scandal. They were none of his concern, unless they pose a risk or threat to the nest. He already had problems with his work as the nest leader and village blacksmith.
He thanked himself for training to become the fastest dragon out there. The travel was not the problem. The problem was keeping up façade in the village. Thankfully, they were not privy of his doings in the forest.
"Leader, we have a problem."
Hiccup turned around to face the purple-indigo coloured female Deadly Nadder. They were at the nest inside a cave. The place was large and there were papers strewn around the place. The paper had drawings and texts. It had white glowing crystals at the ceiling, illuminating the place. It was Hiccup's quarter in the nest.
"What is it, Indigo?" Hiccup asked.
"I had counted the amount of food we have in our storage." Indigo reported to him. "We don't have enough to go through the rest of this winter."
The Night Fury frowned. "I thought we had enough." He questioned. "We gathered a lot of food before the winter."
"We did." Indigo nodded. "However, we don't know why, but a lot of our food disappeared the day before the winter fell."
Hiccup's frown deepened. "Strange." He spoke. "And nobody noticed until now?"
"Yes." Indigo hesitantly nodded. "I had asked some questions with Scorpion about this. There were plenty of visiting dragons that day."
Hiccup was annoyed. "We have other nest stealing from us." He growled. "This is a problem. Let me go check with the others."
Hiccup went out of the cave. Indigo followed him from behind.
The nest was cold. The top exit from the nest were completely covered in ice and snow, meaning that nobody could get in or out. That did not mean there were no other ways to get out, however.
Hiccup and Indigo jumped and flew down to the bottom side of the nest. They flew into one of the cave paths and travelled along with the other dragons. Moments later, they exited the cave path, entering a rather massive cavern.
They reached the Food sector. There was an exit cave mouth not far from there. It led to the outside of the nest. Dragons were coming in and out from the nest though there, mostly collecting food from the outside and dropping them in. However, there were very few that dropped food into the hole. Most looked distressed and frantic.
Hiccup and Indigo noticed Scorpion standing on the balcony. They landed next to him. The Deathgrpper noticed that the two arrived at the scene. He had been guarding and commanding the others while food were being collected.
"Leader." The dragon addressed Hiccup.
"Scorpion." Hiccup responded. "What's the situation?"
"We found some evidence that a dragon nest was stealing from us." Scorpion reported. "However, we do not know who it might be."
"Add more dragons to guard the food storage and the farm." Hiccup ordered. "We need everything we could get right now."
"Yes, Leader." Scorpion nodded. He flew to somewhere else and began barking orders to other dragons there.
Hiccup began walking around and started checking every food pits. There was a lot of fishes and dead animals there, and there were holes at the bottom that was connected to the surrounding ice holes. He noted that while there were plenty of food, it did not look enough to last them for few more days.
The Night Fury looked up to see the cave mouth. He could see the snowstorm happening outside from there. Dragons coming in were cold. Some of them were covered in snow. The winter was as terrible as it was years ago.
He turned to look at Indigo. "How bad was it outside?"
"We could hardly find any animals in surrounding islands." Indigo reported. "We assumed that they had gone to hibernation."
"What about the ocean?"
"The ocean is completely frozen." The Deadly Nadder reported. "There was no open path anywhere. The fishing parties could not break through them, and they don't want to go too far from the nest."
Hiccup frowned. That was bad. There were not a lot of options to do there. He pondered on what to do. "What about the fruits we have in the farm?"
"We have plenty of them." Indigo reported. "But most dragons are unwilling to eat them for daily food."
"That's fine." Hiccup nodded. "I'll think of something else. Pull everyone back to rest. Come to my place when you're done."
"Yes, Leader." Indigo bowed. She flew up into the sky and began shouting to the incoming dragons.
Hiccup flew up into the sky. He buzzed over Scorpion, who were still barking orders to the other dragons. "Scorpion! Come to my place when you're done."
"Yes, Leader!" Scorpion shouted.
With that, Hiccup flew into the cave path that led into main nest area.
Later that day, Indigo and Scorpion arrived and entered Hiccup's cave. The Night Fury were waiting for them there. The two dragons approached and sat in front of him.
"What do you need, Leader?" Indigo asked.
"I have assessed the situation and found that we don't have many options left." Hiccup started. "Have any other nest offered to come help us?"
"The surrounding nests are starving." Indigo explained. She steeled himself. "Some of our food search parties were attacked by other dragons while searching for food. Thankfully, everyone made it back alive."
"Most dragons outside were desperate." Scorpion explained. "We managed to question some of them. Most nests around us were dying."
Hiccup frowned. That was not good. Desperate nest meant that there was a possible chance of an attack. While everyone acknowledged that they were neutral, dragons do not care about such status when they were truly desperate to get something. Especially food.
They were technically desperate as well. If they could not find any food, they would starve, and dragons will die. At least they have a few days' worth of food before that happen. Hiccup pondered on what to do on the situation.
Suddenly, Hiccup remembered that Berk was flourishing with food. They had collected far more food than necessary in preparation for the winter. They knew that dragons would never raid them during winter, as the whole place would be too cold for everyone to travel. It was why they gathered plenty of food right before the winter.
Hiccup grimaced. He did not like where that line of thought was going.
Oh well. Vikings were getting a bit too fat for his liking. He would be doing them a favour by putting them on an involuntary diet.
"Scorpion." Hiccup started. "Prepare the dragons for tomorrow. Separate them to squadrons. Make sure they carry nets with them. You'll be leading half of the nest."
"Indigo." Hiccup continued. "You'll be leading the rest of the nest. You're in charge of looting and gathering from the target to the nest."
"Sorry, Leader. But what exactly we're planning to do here?" Scorpion questioned.
"We're going to raid a human village tomorrow." Hiccup spoke, surprising them. "I know a village that had far more than they needed for the winter. It should keep us fed until the winter is over."
Scorpion and Indigo looked at each other. The nest had all the resource and skill to take down a human village. They respected Hiccup for not wanting to raid village because they found them unnecessary to do so. They had plenty of food, until someone stole from them, that is.
However, when there was no other choice, Hiccup was willing to make the hard decision. It was something that they respected from their leader.
"Now." Hiccup said aloud, getting their attention back. "Here's the plan."
The next day, the dragons were flying through a terrible thundersnow. Hiccup was at the front and his trusted dragons on his sides. The rest were grouped behind them. They pushed through the cold sky, as they head towards their target, led by their leader.
Monstrous Nightmares had their bodies lit, helping on keeping the surrounding dragons warm. Deadly Nadders and Gronckles were holding onto nets on their claws. They had little visibility, but it was not that bad for everyone.
"Flame Skins. Fire off." Hiccup commanded. "We're close."
They could see the island at the distance. Hiccup, Indigo and Scorpion looked at each other. They nodded. It was time for action.
"The purpose of this raid is to steal their food with as little loss as possible." Hiccup explained to the two. "To minimalize casualties, we need to use the nets. While it was useful to capture fishes – and dragons too, obviously. It is also useful to restrain humans. Humans won't fight back once we restrained and disarmed them."
The Monstrous Nightmares turned off their fire. Once they were close enough, they spread apart and shroud themselves amongst the thick, cold fog that was winter. The dragons moved in, spread their nets and threw them over the patrolling Vikings.
The Vikings yelled in surprise. They did not have any time to react, as the dragons swooped in and immediately pinned them down. Deadly Nadders moved to disarm them through the net, while Gronckles went and sat on them. Monstrous Nightmares landed close to them and lit up their fire, keeping everyone there warm.
"But what about those Vikings that stayed in their homes?" Indigo questioned. Her voice echoed throughout the cave. "How do we deal with them?"
The rest of the Gronckles that were not restraining them moved to block the doors. Several Gronckles went to block the Great Hall, while each house doors were guarded and blocked by at least one Gronckle.
Suddenly, thunder sounded in the sky. The Vikings at the watchtowers shuddered. They could not see anything in the thick snow. They wanted to end their shift to get it over with.
Hiccup twitched his ears. He sensed another thunder coming. He silently swoop down towards one of the watchtowers from the sky. The Night Fury fired a plasma blast. It exploded and the explosion were synchronised amongst the thunder in the sky.
The Viking fell from the crumbling watchtower. He groaned, before nets sprung up around them. Dragons swooped in to restrain and disarm them. When that was done, they stayed there, guarding them. The Viking froze at the sight, terrified to see the dragons there.
Hiccup flew back up into the sky. Nobody noticed the explosion, thinking that it was the thunder. Knowing that it worked, he waited for another thunder. Sensing another one, he dove and fired to the other watchtower. It blew up just as the thunder resounded.
The watchtower collapsed and the Viking fell to the ground. Like before, the Viking was immediately netted and restrained by the dragons.
"Rock Eater watch and block the doors. I blew up the watchtowers, so they won't alert the others." Hiccup answered. "After that, the rest should be easy. When everyone is restrained, nobody else will know we're inside. All we have to do is swoop in and take the food."
The dragons that were not occupied moved to search for food. They found the fish stash first and moved in to collect them. Deadly Nadders, Hideous Zipplebacks, Terrible Terrors, Monstrous Nightmares – all assortments of dragons swooped in to loot the goods.
Soon, they found the rest of the food storages. Other dragons moved to grab from there as well. Yaks, chickens and other various meats were taken, along with some sleeping animals there. The animals did not know that they were even there until it was too late, mostly because the thundersnow was so loud.
They stayed in group together with at least one Monstrous Nightmare. They flew back and forth to gather the food they need from the village. Indigo noted them to leave some for the village, to make sure that they did not completely starve them. It would be their source of food sometime in the future.
"Hmm." Indigo hummed as she looked down at the map of Berk that Hiccup had spread onto the floor. "… alright. That makes things easier to do. What about our nest signature?"
Hiccup was confused. "Nest signature?"
"Well, it's going to be our first debut on raiding a village." Indigo explained. "Every nest usually have this… sort of signature that dragons recognise. For example, Red Death's dragons usually went pillaging and destroying villages. Great King have Cloudjumper and Valka. It doesn't always have to happen all the time, but it's mandatory for our first time."
Hiccup nodded, understanding what she meant. "I think I understand." He spoke, thinking. "Hmm… I do have something in mind."
While the dragons were taking the food, Hiccup landed in front of the blocked off Great Hall door. There were a lot of restrained Vikings around. They looked up to him and cowered in fear upon realising who it might be. They had seen the Night Fury.
Hiccup smirked. He slowly moved around. His paw squished through the thick snow, as it created marks of his paws. He looked around the restrained Viking. They seemed to know who he was. That was good.
Suddenly, Hiccup saw someone at the centre of the area. He slowly came closer to it. It was his father. He was sprawled on the ground with net over him. Multiple Gronckles were holding him down, pressing their body against his arms and feet. His weapons were out of the net, out of his reach.
Hiccup came close to him. He slowly creeped to Stoick and walked to the top of him. He saw fear and recognition in his eyes. It felt good to be the dominant one. His father rarely listened to him when he was a human. Now that he was a dragon, maybe he would finally listen to him.
He pressed his paw onto his chest and came close to his face. Stoick looked determined. Hiccup did not expect him to fear him. The Night Fury's pupil slitted. His calm posture made him even scarier to the observing Vikings.
Hiccup wanted to know how far he could push him. He pressed his paw harder onto his chest. He prepared himself to fire a plasma blast. The Night Fury made it obvious that he was going to kill him.
He saw his father's eyes widened. He struggled to release himself but found himself unable to. The weight of the dragon were too heavy for him to lift from that position. After some time of struggling, he finally gave up.
He glared at the Night Fury. "I should've known." He mumbled. "Killed by the dragon that saved me. Just a mindless beast."
Hiccup glared. He moved forward and pinned his shoulders with his paws. He prepared a plasma blast and he made it very obvious that he was going to kill him. However, Stoick did not budge. He kept glaring at the Night Fury.
After some time, Stoick gritted his teeth. "What are you waiting for? Come on. Kill me."
Hiccup stopped. His eyes delated and he relaxed his stance. That made his father confused. The dragon came closer to his face. "Fearless, in the face of death." He whispered in human language, shocking Stoick. "Your legends were well deserved, even amongst the dragons."
"You can speak." Stoick whispered. He was stunned that the Night Fury could speak human.
"Sorry about your village." Hiccup whispered. "We need food, you see. I hope you understand."
Indigo landed behind him. "Leader." She spoke. "It's done."
With that said Hiccup jumped back and took off into the sky. The dragons blocking and guarding the doors were the first to fly away, then followed by the dragons restraining the Vikings. They took the nets with them. All the dragons immediately disappeared into the fog, leaving the confused and disoriented Vikings behind.
Hiccup, Indigo and Scorpion landed at the food storage. Dragons were dropping a lot of food into the storage. The Night Fury looked down into the hole. It was half-way full. That should be enough to last for the rest of the winter.
"Well, glad to know that's over with." He commented.
"It should last until the end of winter." Indigo commented, looking down into the food storage as well.
After some time, dragons stopped coming into the nest. All the dragons in the nest gathered at the food storage, waiting for their leader to say something.
Hiccup looked around. "Good job. All of you." He said, aloud. "We got enough food that could last us through the winter."
"I'm not going to be the one to ration our food." Hiccup continued speaking. "I'm leaving that to Indigo. I trust all of you to eat when you need them and leave the rest for the others to eat."
"Yes, Leader." The dragons chorused.
"Now, as you probably know, this situation happened because there was another nest stealing from us." Hiccup explained. Dragons growled when he said it. They were angry that another nest dared to steal from them.
"To fix this problem, I decided to set up another sector." Hiccup explained. "So far, we only have Security and Food sector. I'm going to add Intelligence and Medical sector in the nest."
Seeing the confused look, Hiccup explained. "Intelligence sector would be assigned to scout and spy other nests." He spoke. "And other information gathering related things, including humans. This way, we can know any potential enemy that might make a move against us."
The surrounding dragons nodded. That made sense to them.
Hiccup continued speaking. "Medical sector would be dealing with injured dragons." He explained. "This one will be in rotation amongst everyone, because I know all of you know how to heal dragons."
"While others were busy with things around the nest, Medical sector would be dealing with visiting dragons that need help." Hiccup finished. "This way, we can have food and security, without any interruption on our daily nest operations."
"I will pick the sector leaders tomorrow." The Night Fury spoke. "Right now, just enjoy yourself. Rest assured; we will make it through this winter."
The dragons cheered. With that note, Hiccup turned to look at the other sector leaders. "You two, come with me."
With that said, they flew up into the sky. They both flew into the main section of the nest, heading into Hiccup's quarter.
Entering the quarter, they sat at the centre of the cave. Hiccup turned to look at them. "Scorpion." He started. "From now on, I am allowing you to initiate dragon raids."
The Deathgripper was surprised. Their leader was quick to change his mind.
Seeing his expression, Hiccup continued speaking. "I realised that we could not always rely on me to gather human contraptions and supplies. We cannot make our own contraptions. We need humans to make them. There was no other way other than raiding them."
That made sense to both sector leaders. It was a dragon raid, but they would be coming there for different reasons. That was fine.
Hiccup bored his eyes to Scorpion. "Keep in mind that dragon raid need to have a good reason and strategy. Make a list of things to gather, find the village that have plenty of them, and then raid the place." He spoke to him. "I want report on each and every dragon raid that our nest did."
"Yes, Leader." Deathgripper bowed to him.
"However." Hiccup's voice was suddenly cold. The dragons froze in fear. His eyes were slits. "If I heard you misusing this right, I will not hesitate to chop your head and pike them in front of the nest."
"Y- Yes, Leader." Scorpion stuttered.
"Good." Hiccup suddenly became cheerful. He began walking to the exit. "I'll take my leave now. Good luck. I'll see you tomorrow."
With that, the Night Fury left the quarter.
Indigo and Scorpion were still frozen there. After some time, they let go of their breath. They did not know they were holding them. Their body was shaking under the pressure. They felt immense relief once their leader had left the place.
Their leader was incredibly strong. They would not replace him for anyone else.
The next day, Berk was at uproar.
It was expected. There had been a dragon raid yesterday. The whole village were caught off-guard. Nobody expected a dragon raid during winter. To add insult to the injury, almost nobody realised that there was a dragon raid, until everyone outside came barging into the Great Hall.
The raid were quite unusual. There were no burning houses, yelling Vikings or roaring dragons. No death or destruction. Everyone outside were taken down by nets and disarmed. They guarded and blocked off their houses, making so that Vikings couldn't even get out of their place. The watchtower were blown apart, so the guards could not even sound the alarm.
The worst part was the fact that almost everyone was at the Great Hall. Nobody even noticed what happened outside. Nobody heard anything. They did not even hear the watchtowers being blown to bits. The Vikings outside were helpless to watch the dragons take their food.
The chilling part was what they had seen outside. A Night Fury had come down to them and revealed itself. It had approached Stoick and looked very angry at him. Their chief were just as helpless as them and it looked like it was considering on killing him.
They did not know why the Night Fury spared him. Then again, nobody died. They did not know what it did to their chief, since he looked very shaken after the encounter. The chief refused to talk about it. Considering what happened, they were not surprised.
Thankfully, they still had enough food to last for the winter. They simply had to work harder after winter to get more food later.
If people outside never told them about it, nobody would ever know what happened to their food. Nobody would know that they had been raided by dragons. The raid looked extremely coordinated.
It terrified them.
In his human form, Hiccup walked out of the Haddock house. He was back at Berk. It was late in the evening. The boy stretched his body as he began walking down the snowy path. The sky was cloudy, but the fog had disappeared. It was a good weather for winter.
The boy yawned. He made his way to the Great Hall. He needed to eat something before going to the forge.
Coordinating the raid were taxing at best. Given the extremely low visibility, it was not surprising. Most dragons had to rely on him and following their friends in order to go back to the nest. He was the only dragon that know echolocation, and some dragons remembered the direction back to the nest.
Hiccup reached the Great Hall. He opened it, entered the building, and closed the door behind him. He looked around and noticed that everyone was busy whispering amongst each other. The air was somewhat tense.
Hiccup knew why, but he stayed silent. He moved to grab a large tankard of mead. After that, he went out of the Great Hall, heading straight to the forge.
It was best not to deal with it. After all, he preferred to keep himself low from any attention.