“This is ridiculous!” fumed Baggybum the Beerbelly. “This is a national emergency! You can't put this boy in charge! He isn't even a proper Warrior yet. He's not ready. He may NEVER be ready. Let's face it, nobody dared tell Stoick, but he's a bit of a little weirdo. Look at his arms, like two picces of spaghetti! I should be the temporary Chief, as Stoick's younger brother!”
“Hiccup will become a full Warrior tomorrow,” said Gobber the Belch heavily. “And we must give the boy a chance. By report he fought bravely and cleverly on the Angry Face, leading them all to victory... Perhaps he will do the same for us...”
“LUCK!” roared Baggybum. “Sheer luck! We can't make this boy the Chief because he was the one who set free the Dragon Furious! We all know that. None of the other Warriors will even speak to him. The other Tribes think he may be cursed...”
“The setting free of the Dragon Furious was an accident. I had plenty of accidents when I was thirteen,” argued Gobber the Belch.
(Hiccup had no idea that Gobber would stand up for him in this way, and he was rather touched.)
“None of this matters,” said Nobber Nobrains.
“Hiccup is the Heir, so he is the Stand-in-Chief.”
Back and forth the Warriors argued, until at last they voted, four against three, that Hiccup should be the Stand-in-Chief.
“But if it all goes horribly wrong,” grumbled Baggybum the Beerbelly, “and trust me, it will with this weirdo in charge, I will take over.”
Hiccup swallowed hard, white as paper. “What is going on? Why do I have to be the Stand-in-Chief? Where is my father? Is he ill? Is he wounded?”
“Your father has gone missing,” said Nobber Nobrains. “He went out earlier this evening, he said he had someone to visit, and he has never returned. You are the Chief for the moment. What are your orders?”
They were all looking at him.
Beyond the circle of the seven men, all the Hooligans were awake now, and looking at him.
Snotlout gave Hiccup his meanest most spiteful look, and whispered, “Go on cousin, CRY... Blub for your father, like the baby you are...”
‘A Chief puts his own personal feelings aside for the good of the Tribe...’
Stoick's words floated through Hiccup's brain.
A Chief must show no fear, no worry... A Chief is a leader first, and a man second...
Hiccup stood up, and buckled on his green swordfighting belt, trying to keep his hands steady. He looked Gobber the Belch straight in the eye.
“Search the castle,” ordered Hiccup.
Gobber the Belch and the six other Elders bowed, three of them furiously and reluctantly.
The Hooligans had the castle all in uproar, searching for Stoick, going through every chamber in the school, waking everybody up
But they found no trace of Stoick.
“Search the witch hut, too,” ordered Hiccup.
“But, Hiccup,” protested Nobber Nobrains, “the witch is an Elder! (And she's SUPER scary.) It's an insult.. You can't search the hut of an Elder...”
“Search the hut,” repeated Hiccup.
— “How To Train Your Dragon: How To Steal a Dragon’s Sword” Book 9 (by Cressida Cowell)