[He smiles a little bitterly at the notion of Stoick being proud of him, remembering how he inadvertently led Berk to another war and caused his best friend to kill his father. But he doesn't tell Dave that, only shrugging.]
I went from being the Hope and Heir to the Pride of Berk, you tell me. My mom tried to do the same thing fifteen years earlier but people just rebuffed her ideals. Nobody believed dragons could be anything more than coldblooded creatures who raided our village for their own sake. Then I shot down Toothless and learned differently and used what I learned from him in the arena where we were learning to kill them. I'd intended on showing the whole village what they were really like during my graduation 'killing', but...it went wrong.
[Hiccup gives a small sigh, remembering the clang that had sounded in the arena due to his father hitting the barrier with his hammer and the way Hookfang's eyes had dilated with the noise. Still, that had been a thousand years ago. There was really no use feeling guilt for it, or so he kept telling himself.]
Well, when dad started pressuring me to become chief and succeed the family, I started to travel and add to the map. Which...I guess you can't do that now, but it kind of drove the feeling away for a bit. I didn't know what to do. I wasn't really ready to settle down with Astrid or anyone, much less have kids. [His smile turns a bit sad.] I guess that's why I took Jack's offer to become a Guardian. Then the battle with Drago happened and I became chief and I didn't have a lot of time to get the village back on its feet before I...stopped being visible to them.
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I went from being the Hope and Heir to the Pride of Berk, you tell me. My mom tried to do the same thing fifteen years earlier but people just rebuffed her ideals. Nobody believed dragons could be anything more than coldblooded creatures who raided our village for their own sake. Then I shot down Toothless and learned differently and used what I learned from him in the arena where we were learning to kill them. I'd intended on showing the whole village what they were really like during my graduation 'killing', but...it went wrong.
[Hiccup gives a small sigh, remembering the clang that had sounded in the arena due to his father hitting the barrier with his hammer and the way Hookfang's eyes had dilated with the noise. Still, that had been a thousand years ago. There was really no use feeling guilt for it, or so he kept telling himself.]
Well, when dad started pressuring me to become chief and succeed the family, I started to travel and add to the map. Which...I guess you can't do that now, but it kind of drove the feeling away for a bit. I didn't know what to do. I wasn't really ready to settle down with Astrid or anyone, much less have kids. [His smile turns a bit sad.] I guess that's why I took Jack's offer to become a Guardian. Then the battle with Drago happened and I became chief and I didn't have a lot of time to get the village back on its feet before I...stopped being visible to them.