Night Terrors Chapter 7

The five former humans and the former Night Fury still didn't sleep soundly that second night. Their bodies were too unfamiliar, and the ex-humans were getting hungry – even though their dragon bodies expected only one meal a day, their human minds were used to three. They all rose before sunrise and were eager to get on with their adventure.

"What's the plan?" Snotlout asked.

"We're going to repeatedly swoop at Arngrim and Skuld, and keep flaming in their general direction until they jump overboard," Hiccup began. "Once they're over the side, we'll land on the ship, cut the leather bag open with our claws, and let Astrid out. Then we'll get her to stand on one of Arngrim's furs, we'll each grab part of that fur in our claws, and we'll carry her back to Berk."

"First question," Tuffnut cut in. "Why can't Astrid fly herself back to Berk? Why do we have to carry her?"

"That's two questions," Ruff muttered.

"Simple," Hiccup explained. "Astrid hasn't had any flying lessons like we have, so she can't fly. She probably doesn't know how to make fire, either. For the first time since she was a baby, she's actually helpless and needs to be rescued."

Ruff smirked. "You're going to enjoy that part, aren't you, Prince Charming?"

"Not really," he answered. "I'm not used to her being helpless. It will be too weird; I can't relate to her that way. The sooner she gets back to normal, the happier I'll be."

"Even though she'll hit you in the arm?" Fishlegs marveled.

"Legs, I've gone a day and a half being worried sick about her. I'm actually looking forward to her little love taps."

Tuff leaned over toward his sister. "Remind me to never fall in love. It makes you weird."

She hit him with her forefoot. "That's for being a stupid boy!" she snarled.

Tuffnut smiled at her. "That didn't hurt! You're doing it wrong. You need to take some lessons from Astrid."

Toothless asked, "All right, here is question number two. What if the two humans act like typical stubborn Vikings and they do not jump overboard when we want them to?"

The Hiccup-dragon shrugged his shoulders. "If they do that, then I guess we'll have to set their clothes on fire so they have to jump in the water. I don't want to hurt anybody, but they're doing their best to hurt us, so it's not like we started it. If we have to make them a little warm, that's a very small payback, compared to what they did to us and what they want to do to Astrid."

"Hey, don't feel bad about doing the right thing!" Snotlout exclaimed. "They turned us into dragons, so they deserve a little dragon fire!"

"Yeah!" Tuff agreed. "Fair is fair!"

Hiccup tried to head off this impending rebellion against his plans. "Guys, did you forget the part about 'we don't want to make people angry at dragons?' "

Fishlegs weighed in. "Technically, that pair is already angry at us, because they're selling Toothless to Viggo Grimborn... or they think they are. I don't think a few Terrible Terror fire attacks are going to change their minds about us. But we might change their minds about staying in the ship."

Hiccup was stunned. "Fishlegs? You're the most mild-mannered and peaceful one in the group! Are you actually saying you think we ought to flame those guys?"

"I guess it's like I said earlier," Fishlegs explained. "We're thinking with Terrible Terrors' brains now, and that's affecting how we look at things. I never wanted to hurt anybody before, but when I think about those two planning to sell Astrid as a slave girl... I want to hurt them!" Snotlout and the twins snorted puffs of smoke and exclaimed, "Yeah!"

"Okay, okay, slight change in plan," Hiccup conceded. "As soon as we find them, we'll flame their clothes to be sure they jump in the water and stay there." Four Terrors nodded and pawed the ground in grim agreement. "Don't aim for their faces! Just set their clothes on fire. When the ship is in sight, we'll split up into three groups, just like we did when we were searching for them. That way, if they throw a net at us, they can't catch all of us at once. Then each group will take turns attacking until the humans jump overboard, and we'll rescue Astrid and go home."

"One last question," Fishlegs wondered. "If Astrid can't cut her way out of the bag with her own claws, then how will our claws do any better?"

"Umm... good question," Hiccup said. "Okay, if we can't cut through the leather, then we'll carry the bag back home and get one of the humans to open it for us."

"How do you propose to arrange that when you can no longer speak their language?" Toothless asked.

"We can write some runes in the ground with our claws," Hiccup answered. "Even if they don't really believe it's us and they don't think we're telling the truth, they'll open the bag just to appease their curiosity. Any other questions? Okay, let's fly!" With a frantic flutter of wings, the six newly-transformed Terrible Terrors set off to rescue their friend.

It took an hour of flying, and ten minutes of searching, before they located the ship with no sail and two oars. "Split up into three teams!" Hiccup called.

"Wait a second, Hiccup!" Fishlegs interrupted. "There's another ship headed this way! Off to the left!"

"Is it another trading boat like Arngrim's ship?" Toothless asked.

"No, this one is a lot bigger than that!" Fishlegs called back. "It looks like it has catapults on it. And I think I recognize the man who's giving the orders. No helmet, short dark hair, short beard, big shoulder pads..."

"It's Viggo Grimborn!" Hiccup exclaimed. "He came to meet his dragon-sellers halfway. They're over a mile away from here, but they've got the wind behind them, so they'll sail pretty fast. We've got less than ten minutes to settle our score with Arngrim and get Astrid out of there before Viggo's ship gets close enough to cause problems."

"Then let us do this thing, and do it well!" Toothless growled. Three pairs of dragons split up and swooped in on the two humans, who were scrambling to ship their oars and grab some weapons as their tiny adversaries closed in.

The twins were the first to get within firing range, and they targeted Chief Arngrim Dammen. Their shots were on target, but didn't last long enough to do anything more than make him feel warm. He swung a sword at them as they zipped past him, and barely missed Ruffnut. Dragon-Snotlout and Dragon-Fishlegs hit him from behind while he was facing the first pair, and they kept their fires on target long enough to set his pants ablaze. He dropped his sword and leaped over the side with a cry of, "Skuld! Do something!"

Skuld the Sorceress spun and ducked to the side, which made Hiccup and Toothless' shots miss (and nearly sent her into the drink right next to Arngrim). "I'll reverse my spell!" she decided. "I'll turn these dragons back into humans and see if they can swim!" Evidently, she didn't think the ex-humans could understand her. Once again, she crossed her arms at the wrists, hopped from one foot to the other, and chanted,

"Najeneun ttasaroun inganjeogin yeoja!
"Keopi hanjanui yeoyureul aneun pumgyeok inneun yeoja!
"Oppan – hey, quit that!"

Hiccup had noticed her chanting as he pulled up from his attack. He couldn't maneuver quickly enough to make a difference, but he'd shouted to Toothless, "Distract her, bud! Quick!" The orange Terror had turned on a wingtip, dived back toward her with a perfect mix of Night Fury style and Terrible Terror technique, and, unable to flame again on such short notice, he'd tangled his claws into her hair. That had the desired result; Skuld interrupted her chant just before she finished.

Fishlegs was the book-knowledge expert of the group, but Hiccup had encountered some ancient lore here and there as well. Specifically, he'd learned that, if a witch makes a mistake while casting a spell, that spell will often rebound onto the caster instead of the intended target. Toothless' distraction proved the truth of that. With a loud "pop," Skuld the Sorceress vanished. In her place stood a blue-green Terrible Terror, blinking and immobile on the rowing-bench of the ship.

"Awesome!" Fishlegs shouted. "Way to go, Toothless! I mean Swift-invisible... oh, whoever! Way to go!"

Tuff exclaimed, "She got perfect payback!" and stuck his tongue out at her as he flew by.

Ruff grinned. "She might have some real powers now, but she still can't do anything right!"

"Should we flame her so she knows who's the boss?" Snotlout asked.

"We don't have time for that," Hiccup shouted. "Viggo's ship is almost within catapult range! Just sink your claws into Astrid's sack and let's get out of here!" The group did as he said, and they were off and gone within fifteen seconds, leaving a burned, wet Arngrim climbing back into his ship with no sail, no sorceress, and no dragon for Viggo Grimborn, who would probably be very displeased that he'd brought his ship all this way for nothing.

The bag squirmed as they flapped homeward with it. "What's going on out there?" a female Terror's voice demanded.

"We're rescuing you," Hiccup explained.

"Who's 'we?' " she demanded. "I can't see anything from in here!"

"Me, Hiccup, and all your friends who got turned into Terrible Terrors at the same time you did."

"Mostly me," Snotlout threw in. "I'm your hero."

"Who's 'me?' " she asked.

"Who's 'me?' I'm Snotlout, of course!" he burst out.

"Ignore him, Astrid," Fishlegs said. "Hiccup did the planning and Toothless did most of the work."

The bag lurched as someone missed a flap. "Quit hitting me with your wings!" Ruffnut protested to her brother.

"Then don't fly so close to me!" he retorted.

"You're the one who's too close to me!" she shot back.

"Hiccup, tell your girlfriend she's too heavy and she needs to lose a few pounds." That was Snotlout.

"You tell her," Hiccup answered.

"I heard that!" came the female-dragon voice from inside the sack. "Why won't you idiots let me out of this bag?"

"Our claws can't cut through the leather," Fishlegs tried to explain.

"My claws are going to cut you if you don't get me out of here!" she snarled back.

A moment later, she got her wish. Skuld's spell wore off, just as the sorceress had promised. The leather bag split as its occupant suddenly returned to human size, and six humans and a Night Fury plummeted into the cold sea just below them.