Smidvarg Chapter 4

Terror-white had resumed his useless struggle against the weighted net that held him prisoner. He could hear the dragons of his flock screaming in terror, and he could hear the bellows of the Changewings that were hunting that flock... and there was not a single thing he could do about it. It was his job to protect the flock by gathering them into defensive formations. But the humans and the intruding dragons had captured him and taken him away, for reasons he could not fathom, and now he was helpless in his flock's darkest hour.

Then he saw motion. The black dragon was back, with its human rider. What new horrors awaited him? The human leaped off the dragon's back, ran awkwardly over to him, and... removed the net! He sprang into the air, but not before turning to the human and screaming, "If anything happens to any of my dragons, I'll take it out of your soft pink hide!" Then he was off like a shot, headed for the sounds of his flock in distress. They needed their Alpha. They needed him!

He didn't get a hundred feet before he needed help himself. Two Changewings materialized out of nowhere and closed in on him with a scissors move. One quickly got hit by a fire shot of some kind and gave up the chase. A fire shot? Was the black dragon helping him now? That shot couldn't have come from anywhere else. But he didn't have time to analyze the situation; the other Changewing was too close, and getting closer. One quick bite, and...

That bite never happened. The Zippleback with the two riders shot a green gas cloud toward them, and ignited it just as the Changewing flew into it. Yes, somehow, the intruding dragons were helping him now. The male Zippleback rider shouted something that had the "Smidvarg" sound in it. Terror-white turned and watched the smoldering Changewing turn tail and flee. The humans had a quick meeting of some kind, then spun and headed for the Night Terror flock. He raced in the same direction, with the black dragon in front and the two-headed dragon behind him. If they changed their minds again and turned on him, he was powerless to do anything about it. But if he didn't trust them, he'd never get back to his flock in time. His need to protect his dragons overrode any fears for his own safety.

It looked like the other intruder dragons had been trying to defend his flock, with mixed results. They had gotten the Changewings' minds off of eating Night Terrors, but now the color-changers were attacking the intruders instead. One after another, his erstwhile allies went down, the victims of mid-air collisions or near-collisions. Three of them lay sprawled on the ground now, stunned and helpless as the chameleon carnivores closed in on them.

He reached his flock, which hadn't dispersed but was still swarming in mid-air. "I'm back!" he shouted.

"How did you escape from them?" his father demanded.

"They let me go," he answered quickly. When his father was about to ask him more, he added, "There's no time to go into details. We've got to get ready for a giant-dragon formation, quickly!"

"No, we need to get out of here!" his mother tried to correct him. "The Changewings are distracted by those other dragons; we need to hide while we have the chance."

"We can't," Terror-white shot back. "Those other dragons and humans are helpless. We need to help them."

"Help them?" Terror-ate-a-moth squeaked. "They kidnapped you! They left us defenseless! We don't owe them anything! Your mother is right. Let the big dragons fight it out while we make ourselves scarce."

"She's right!" his sister added urgently. "You're still new at being an Alpha. Listen to your flock! We need to escape while we can. Those humans and their dragons are no better for us than the Changewings. You need to say, 'Go-go Gadget wings' and get us out of here!"

"No," he said firmly. "I don't pretend to know what's going through the minds of those humans, or the dragons they're riding. But we do owe them something. They've saved my life from those Changewings twice tonight. Now we'll save them. Formation, get ready... now!"

Once again, the little black dragons turned themselves into one huge black dragon. They swooped down en masse toward two Changewings that were about to pounce on two of the humans. "Roar!" the white Alpha commanded, and the huge faux-dragon bellowed at them. "Roar again!" and they roared at the Changewings once more. Those dragons went wide-eyed at the sight of the formation, turned, and flew for their lives. The others took off right after them. The threat was over.

The black dragon and his rider made a quick circle around their formation without doing anything hostile. The Night Terrors let them go, watching them very closely but not trying to frighten them. Terror-white squeaked, "Nice teamwork!" at them. Of course, they couldn't understand him. The big dragons spoke a language of their own, and the humans... there was no communicating with them at all. Was there?

He took stock of his situation. The flock had lost two dragons, both in the early stages of the attack, before he'd gotten there. That upset him. But it wasn't nearly as bad as the price they'd usually pay if a big flock of Changewings got the drop on the flock, so he didn't feel like he owed the humans any payback for pulling him away from the fight at the worst possible moment. Neither of the lost dragons was anyone he knew.

"Nicely done, son," his father admitted. "Especially because you're still new around here. But the Changewings were only half of the problem. Now that they're gone, what are you going to do about those humans and the dragons they ride?"

"Good question," his mother added. "We can't share this island with them. One of us has to go."

Terror-white thought for a moment. "Why does one group have to leave? It's a big island. Why can't we share it with them?"

"Because they'll eat us!" his sister blurted out. "Duh!"

"Did they eat any of us tonight?" he asked pointedly.

"Well..." his father said, and then paused. "Now that you mention it, no, they didn't."

"They spent all their time fighting off the Changewings," Terror-ate-a-moth admitted. "I didn't see them even try to take a bite out of one of us."

"That's what I thought," Terror-white said. "I can't guess why, but they seem to be on our side now. We'd be fools to turn away allies like that, especially with Changewings in the neighborhood."

"But they kidnapped you with a net!" his mother protested.

"I think that was some kind of a misunderstanding," he replied. "They let me go afterwards, and they haven't tried to catch me again since then. They even protected me when the Changewings tried to eat me. They helped us, and then we helped them. I think they'll do it again if we don't antagonize them. Let's try coexisting with them instead. It's not how Night Terrors usually live, but I think it will be for the best."

"Terror-pale-blue never would have tried such a harebrained scheme," his father muttered.

"Dad, Terror-pale-blue isn't the Alpha here," he said firmly. "I am!" His family members started back at the sudden intensity in his voice. He went on, "I'm willing to try sharing the island with these humans and their dragons. I don't know what the rules are for sharing an island, but do you know what? I don't think they know, either. We'll all make it up as we go along."

"What if they eat all our fish?" his sister asked worriedly.

"Five dragons couldn't eat all those fish if they worked at it for their whole lives," he answered. "I can't see any reason to fear them. To be honest, after seeing them fight, I think they need our protection as much as we need theirs. We'll all benefit from this arrangement. We can frighten away invaders better than they can, and they're better at close-range fighting than we are. There are plenty of fish in the sea to feed all of us. I have no idea what humans eat, but even if it's something we need, six of them won't eat much of it. I say, let's give it a try."

"How are you going to tell them that they're welcome here?" Terror-ate-a-moth asked. It sounded like a sincere question, not a challenge. That was a nice change.

"I guess that will be my responsibility to figure out," he decided. "In fact, I think I have an idea already..."

o

A few nights later, he led the whole flock to the edge of the humans' encampment. "They'll probably call me, seeing how they have a name for me," he said to them. "Stay out of sight until I call for you; then we'll do what I suggested."

"What if they turn hostile?" his sister asked.

"I really think they won't," he said. "I don't have a good reason why; it's just a feeling. But it's a strong feeling."

A few minutes later, they heard the thin young man shout, "Smidvarg!"

"That's my call," he announced, flew straight up into the humans' view, did several fast spins, and landed on a man-made wooden perch that was perfectly sized for Night Terror feet. That was thoughtful of them, and it confirmed his belief that they wanted to coexist. He squeaked at them; they made some human noises back at him, but there were no more signs of hostility. It looked like he'd guessed right about them. The humans exchanged some more human sounds, but nothing much was happening. It was time.

"Let's try out our new formation!" he shouted. "Night Terrors, make your entrance!" and he sent out his thought. The hundreds of Night Terrors in his new flock flew up the way he had done, but they appeared one by one, and each one flew a loop around the black dragon, who watched with a delighted expression. Once most of them were in the air, he flew up and shouted, "New dragon formation, ready... now!" It took more concentration on his part than usual because the flock had never made this formation before, but they came through like champs. They spiraled up and formed into the shape of the black dragon, only many times larger, with himself as its eye. The Night Fury watched from the ground and let out a string of happy roars.

"I think that will tell them that we aren't mad at them, and they're welcome to stay on our island," the Alpha said, satisfied. The formation rose straight upwards, then broke up and scattered on his command. They had sent their message; now it was fishing time.

"I have a few questions, if you don't mind," Terror-ate-a-moth asked him as they searched for a school of fish.

"Ask away," he replied. "I don't keep secrets from the dragons in my flock."

"Okay, question number one: why did we make a formation like that black dragon?"

"The black dragon is the one who saved my life the first time," the white Terror answered, "and his rider is the one who let me out of the net. I don't know if those two are the leaders or not, but they are definitely the nicest ones. We copied that one to say, 'We like that one. We like the way he treats us. If the rest of you treat us that way, then we'll like you, too.' I don't speak his language, but he seemed to approve."

"That makes sense," she agreed. "Second question: what's going to happen to that Alpha Terror you left behind... what was his name? Terror-Salty?"

"Nothing good," he decided after a moment. "He's holding onto what's left of his flock by sheer will power. That means he'll probably lose a few dragons every time he falls asleep, unless he changes his ways and starts treating his dragons better. His flock is none too big as it is; it will soon be too small to make any kind of formation, and that will be the end of him. The dragons who get away from him will wander for a while, but hopefully, they'll find this island and join us."

"What if he wanders and finds this island, and then tries to take over the flock from you again?" she asked.

"Good luck with that!" he said firmly. "The dragons in this flock are already under my influence. He can't use his own Alpha power on you; none of you will obey him as long as I'm in charge. If he challenged me to a fight for dominance, I'd never pull any unfair tricks like he did, but I might say something like, 'Any of you who don't want a selfish, power-mad Alpha, feel free to chase him away.' Most of the dragons in this flock already know what he's like and how he'd treat them. I think that would be the end of that challenge in a matter of moments."

"I'll agree with that," she nodded. "And my third question might not seem very important, but... just before we made the new formation, how did you know the humans were calling you?"

"It's because they used my name in their language," he said. "My new name, that is. We're making a lot of changes around here, and one of those changes is that I'm not going to answer to 'Terror-white' anymore. I've gotten tired of always being reminded about how different I am from everybody else. From now on, as a sign of the new way we're doing things, everyone on the island will call me by the same name, regardless of which language they speak. I am now Smidvarg!"

"Smidvarg?" she asked. "That's not a dragon-language word! What does it mean?"

"It means," he said with a smile, "that the humans, the big dragons, and the Night Terrors are going to write a brand-new story on this island together. None of us knows how it will finish. But it's got a great beginning."

THE END