How To Train Your Dragon One-Shots

Tea With The Chief

Hey! Hope you're well. I'm currently sick and can't focus on law school, so I figured I'd quickly write up a story. I can barely see right now, but that's fine. Stoick is important. 

This takes place a little before Stoick meets Skullcrusher. He's missing Hiccup, but things aren't so bad yet that Gobber needs to ask Hiccup for help. It's getting there though.

Hope you enjoy!

***

"There you are, Chief! I was wondering what was keeping yea."

Stoick grunted as he pulled up a chair next to the fire. Maybe a little roughly, he slammed the chair down the floorboards, adding a few more scuffs to the already scuffed floor.

Gobber chuckled to himself, brushing his mustache with his remaining hand and using his hook to hold a kettle in the fire. He pulled the kettle out and poured boiling water into two of Stoick's most voluminous wooden mugs. The sweet aroma of tea filled the room – no doubt acquired in a trade with Trader Johann. Gobber always loved his foreign teas. "Another one of those weeks, eh?"

"You don't know the half of it," Stoick replied. He thumped down into the chair and leaned forward, putting his head in his hands. He took a sip from the tea Gobber placed in front of him, but it did nothing to ease the headache. It tasted like hot water that someone had accidentally dropped some pine needles and loose dirt into. "What am I going to do Gobber? It seems like this village is falling apart. Everyone needs help but no one wants to listen. I'm the Chief, for Thor's sake! They should have to listen to me."

Gobber took a sip of his own tea, pinky raised delicately into the air. He lowered his mug to the table, and sighed in delight. "Sorry Chief, can't say I was listening. This tea is divine. Johann said he picked it up in Japan himself. Something about receiving it as a gift for retrieving something from the peak of Mt. Fuji. Now, I don't believe it of course, though this tea is still remarkable. But anyway, what was it yea were saying."

With a growl, Stocik repeated, "No one on Berk wants to listen."

"Well, who can blame them?" Gobber said, matter-of-factly. "From the day a Viking is born they're taught three things. First, how to fight. Second, how to smell. Poor yaks must not know what hit them when a Viking steps out into the pasture. And third, how not to listen. Frankly, I'm amazed we still have a chief, what with all the free-spirits we have around here."

"You mean with all the Jorgensons we have around here," Stoick corrected.

"Aye. Only way to make a Jorgenson happy is with an axe."

"So what am I supposed to do then?" Stoick asked. "Use my axe on every Jorgenson until everything is right in the world? Mind you, I'll do it. I can't wait for Spitelout's visit to Outcast Island in two weeks. Things will be a lot quieter when he's gone. But that won't solve all the issues. He'll have to return eventually."

Stoick tried sipping his tea again, but the flavored water was anything but relaxing. He slammed his mug down, sloshing tea all over the table. Aggravated, he began pacing in front of the fire while Gobber watched on. He continued, "I mean, with Dagur out there building up his armada again, things are only getting more dangerous by the day. We need to be on top of our game, ready for everything. Instead, we have Gustav and Fanghook sneaking off to do who knows what when they should be patrolling the island, Bucket and Mulch can't catch a decent fish, Sven doesn't seem to understand how to organize weapons properly, and Gothi can't even plow a field."

"You have Gothi plowing a field? Isn't that, well, cruel?"

"The word you're looking for is simple, Gobber."

"Interesting word. I think I'll keep looking though." Gobber unscrewed the hook he used instead of a hand, replacing it with a small set of scissors. In between sips of tea, he used the scissors to trim his eyebrows. "You know Stoick, there's something my old Grandmammy used to say in times like these."

"And what is that?" Stoick asked.

"Oh, she'd say, 'Gobber! You can't make the world do whatever you want. Put up a roof over your head, but the moon will still shine. Build a boat to travel across the seas, the wind will still blow that boat wherever it pleases. The snow will fall even if you shoveled a day ago, and the sun will shine no matter how much yea want to stay in bed. The world does what it does, and there's no fighting it. You can try, and maybe you win some small battles, but you'll never win the war. Not really."

"But we're not talking about the moon, Gobber! We're talking about weapons not being organized properly, fields not being plowed. These are things we all know how to do but can't seem to manage. If everyone just did what they were supposed to do and stayed here then maybe we'd get some work done."

Stoick sighed. He breathed deeply, feeling his chest heaving as he drew in huge amounts of air. With one hand grabbed the helmet he always wore from his head, and his other hand he placed on his left shoulder pad with its dragon insignia. He could feel the stylized outline of a Thunderdrum dragon beneath his fingers.

"Hiccup is out there doing what he needs to be doing, Stoick," Gobber said in an undertone.

And Gobber was right. Stoick knew that. Hiccup couldn't rest, wouldn't rest, while there were new dragons to discover. And now that Dagur was back, Hiccup would feel even more duty-bound to stay at the edge and make sure the deranged Berserker never grew as powerful as he once had been. Keeping Berk safe was a daunting job, and there was no one as up to the task as Hiccup. Only, Stoick wished that his son didn't have to be so far away.

With a nod, Stoick said, "You're right. Right now, Hiccup is needed out on The Edge."

"And you've got a village to lead, even if said village is filled with the most stubborn Vikings you've ever set eyes on."

"Aye."

Stoick placed his helmet on the table and sat back into his seat. More carefully than he had before, he picked up the mug of tea and took a small sip.

"Feeling better?" asked Gobber.

Stoick swallowed the tea and shivered as it went down. "This tea is terrible."

"And what do you know about tea, eh?"

"I know enough. It's just water and leaves."

"Every time it's the same with you. I bring exquisite tea, and you have to criticize it."

Stoick smiled. Fighting and stubbornness. It could be frustrating at times, sure, but it really was the Viking way. Whether it was Hiccup leaving to explore the Archipelago, or Spitelout getting on everyone's nerves again. And he wouldn't exchange it for anything. Certainly not for any of Gobber's tea.

***

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