1) His son was different from himself.

.o.o.o.

It was a painfully obvious. Size, appearance, temperament; it seemed impossible that they were related.

.o.o.o.

Stoic was confident, strong, large, a natural leader. He demanded respect of those around him, and was well able to perform the most strenuous of physical tasks. He didn't always think things through, something he was well aware of, but he was able to rally those around him, and things always worked in the end.

He was focused, he knew what he wanted, what was expected of him, and how to accomplish it.

.o.

Hiccup on the other hand was small, timid, and couldn't seem to make friends. He was constantly overlooked, unless he was causing some sort of disaster. He was scrawny, and physically speaking the opposite of impressive. And he thought, so much... maybe too much.

The boy's head was always elsewhere, and he came up with the most outlandish schemes. Always inventing, asking questions, wanting to know everything! And yet he seemed to have no clue what he really wanted.

.o.

There was something so bone-deep about how he knew. Beyond seeing the evidence, beyond watching him grow.

From the moment his boy screamed his first breath into the night, he'd known they were so, so different.

And now he was asking to fight dragons...

.o.

How could he allow his only son to follow in his footsteps? To fight dragons, when it was obvious he was just too different? How could he take the risk that he wouldn't survive?

.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.

So this is an idea I got a while back.

Trying to get inside Stoick's head. It's already finished, so I'll be posting it pretty quickly.

No worries, Nura: Rise of the Mutant clan is not abandoned. I'm going through and editing it, so I'll be updating the previous chapters before I get the next one started.