(dude please help me come up with a title-) Hiccup was stressed, to say the least. He was the newly instituted chief, but, still, he was never the best at managing the village. Sure, he was sharp when it came to battle tactics, and could think on his feet, but he was never good at long-term things. Managing supplies, working out conflicts, solving the problems his new (although not very bright) citizens. Of course, there was also the matter of his father’s death, which forced him into this position in the first place. All for a young man at the age of 20. Yes, stressed was most likely an understatement. Which is why he was on the far beach, away from the constant attention of the Berkians, away from the noise, away from the responsibility. At least for a while. Astrid was smart enough to handle them, anyway. Probably better than Hiccup himself. His large, dark dragon Toothless snuffled around the sand and sneezed. Hiccup looked over at his dragon. “Careful, bud. You don’t want to get all of that up your nose,” he jokingly commented. Toothless grunted in response and continued sniffing. Hiccup looked back out at the ocean. The Night Fury seemed like he sensed something. His ear flaps went up, his eyes filled with curiosity. He reared up and tilted his head at the scuffed sand in front of him. After examining it for a few seconds, the catlike dragon batted at the sand, his claws hitting something solid and leathery. Toothless shoved his head into the ground, grabbing the object in his mouth, retracting his teeth as to not damage it. He brought it over to Hiccup, sitting behind him and casting a large shadow over his small master. Hiccup looked up at him and noticed the brownish foreign object in his dragon’s mouth. “What do you have there, Toothless?” Hiccup asked. Toothless replied with a rumbling sound and dropped the saliva-covered object in Hiccup’s hands, and gave his face a lick. Hiccup laughed and dropped the gift to protect himself from the inevitable wrestling match with the dragon, but Toothless just licked him on his arms again and sat down next to Hiccup. “Come on, Toothless. You know that this stuff takes forever to wash out,” he complained, but he was smiling. He picked up the object that Toothless had deposited in his arms. It was a bit worse for wear. Past the dragon saliva and layer of sand that stuck to it, Hiccup recognized it as a book. Its leathery cover was covered in small scratches and the pages were a bit ripped around the edges. It smelled vaguely of smoke and had a few darkened stains of something that may have been ink… or blood. Hiccup opened the book carefully. Dust floated out, causing him to sneeze. The title page read "How To Train Your Dragon… By Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third."
The newly appointed (and improperly named) “King Hiccup the Third” was in a confusing state of relief and dread. He was incredibly grateful that the rebellion was over, but he had also just received the position he had been dreading taking for the last two years. Of course, from childhood, he was never looking forward to the day he would have to become chief (being the chief's son). But king? This was many times worse. For a 14-year-old boy, this was quite the responsibility. He had awoken early that morning, even though there had been partying late into the night after the end of the war. He looked over at the reddened horizon, the sun was just rising and the smoke from the dragon-fire still hung in the air. Blackened skeletons of the world he had once known were all that remained. But soon, the Vikings would rebuild. Today, they would all leave the Island of Tomorrow and try to repair their world. As Hiccup sat and the sun slowly rose, he heard a loud crowing sound. Most would mistake it for a rooster, but Hiccup recognized the triumphant cry that came from his hunting dragon, Toothless. Once he woke up, he assured that everyone else in the general area was awake as well. Fortunately, after the long night of feasting and singing, almost no one had woke up. Fishlegs had the absolute misfortune to be the one that Toothless had decided to sit on in the absence of Hiccup. Fishlegs yelped and fell over, causing Toothless to scream and flap off. Fishlegs’s dragons were still sound asleep. Camicazi was one of the others to wake up. As soon as she heard the noise, she hopped up, drew her sword and a dagger and looked around, hoping for a good battle. Then she realized nothing would happen. She decided to stay awake and see what was going to happen today. Hopefully, with everyone focused on departing Tomorrow, she could… pick up a few more items off of the unsuspecting travelers. Toothless flew off to look for Hiccup. He found his master looking at the sunrise, and landed on his shoulder. Hiccup yelped in surprise. “*Toothless!*” he said in Dragonese. “*Don’t do that! You scared me!*” “*S-s-sorry, Master,*” Toothless replied. “*I-I’m HUNGRY. G-g-go get me some F-FOOD.*” Hiccup gave his demanding dragon an annoyed look. “*You probably half of everything we had last night. You’ve got to stop eating so much, you won’t be able to fly at this rate.*” Indeed, the little dragon’s body had swelled up to twice its usual size and he was a bit wobbly on his feet. Toothless gave a snort of annoyance, gave Hiccup a little nip on the ear and climbed down to sit on the ground a couple of feet away, his back turned. He blew a few small angry smoke rings. Hiccup watched the small dragon for a few seconds, then went back to thinking. What was the world going to be like now? Could he really institute peace? What would he do if people didn’t want to follow him? Questions and worries swirled in his head. There was nothing he could do about it but try. And he had friends. He could do this. He hoped.
