How to Deal With Amnesia

Chapter 18: The Meeting

"So... I... I'd like to... to start... If everyone could just... listen to me..." Hiccup stuttered, trying to get everyone's attention, but they were all talking loudly and hitting their mugs on the rounded table, making even more noise. The boy sighed and turned to Toothless, right behind him on his left side. "Can you help me, Bud?"

The Night Fury shot a weak plasma blast to the ceiling. The Vikings shut up and froze in surprise and fright. Stoick, on Hiccup's right side, tried not to laugh at everyone's reaction; he managed to just smile. The chief of the Hooligans let his son lead the meeting; he'd help him, if needed.

"That beast almost killed us!" One yelled.

"The ceiling could have fallen on us!" Mogadon complained.

"Of course not! Toothless would never do that!" Hiccup defended his best friend.

"Precisely. Toothless had done it before, and he knows exactly what he's doing." Astrid came to his aid. "He just wanted to catch everyone's attention so we could start the meeting you all came here for."

"Speaking of said meeting, what is she doing here? She's not the heir to the Hooligans!" Dogsbreath yelled, pointing at Astrid.

"No, she's not." Hiccup said; his voice was unusually calm and strict. No one dared to speak, listening to the boy that moments ago couldn't even get their attention, but now spoke in an almost harsh way. "But she's my girlfriend, therefore, she's very close to our family, almost part of it, actually. Besides, she knows a lot about dragons as well and might help me answer your questions."

Dogsbreath snorted, indignant. He glared at Hiccup as if wanting to defy him, but decided not to. Instead, he looked and pointed at Heather.

"And what about that other girl?"

The black haired girl didn't even have to open her mouth to say a word; Dagur frowned and punched the table.

"She's my sister, and since I don't have any son or daughter, she's the heir to the Berserkers for now."

Dogsbreath sat back down, defeated, still looking at everyone with a defying expression. He wanted to cause problems, and he'd find another opportunity.

"Besides, young man..." Stoick started calmly, but strictly. "No one complained that your cousin is here as well and he's not an heir. So let's leave it at that and continue."

"And, as I was saying... This meeting was set so we could show you the life with dragons. Our new life with dragons. They had changed the way we live in many ways. For starters and most obvious, they changed the way we travel. Sure, we still sail, especially to go fishing, but now, we can travel faster than ever. The distance we'd have to sail for a weak, we can travel in a day! If we need to help someone or to solve an emergency, we can do this so much faster! And there's mail as well, we can use Terrible Terrors to send letters when we're traveling, being it to bring updates or to ask for help. That was something we could never imagine just a few years ago!"

"They can also help us in many other ways." Astrid complemented with things Hiccup didn't remember but were important. "They make us company; they can hear danger coming if we're on an island with wild dragons or enemies; they can help us build houses and do other heavy chores; they can even help us planting."

"And don't forget about how they help us defend ourselves. Now, the Outcasts, believe it or not, are our allies, but a few years ago, it wasn't like that. Once, they invaded our village when we had problems with the armory and we barely have any weapons. If it wasn't for the dragons, they would have succeeded." Stoick added.

Some of the leaders were skeptical, but most of the heirs seemed impressed.

"How can we know it's not a trick and they won't kill us on out sleep?!" Mogadon asked. It was still too difficult for him to grasp the fact that there was a Night Fury just a few meters away and the dragon was not attacking. In fact, he was sitting behind Stoick's scrawny son as an obedient dog.