Chapter 10

A Small Fortune

When the Zippleback gas explosion had occurred all of their attackers ran for it, except one whom Snotlout and Fishlegs tackled and pinned to the ground. Before anyone could interrogate him, however, a second and louder explosion took place. The whole building shook, plates that Fishlegs had not thrown yet fell off the counter and broke, and chairs fell over. And then Ruffnut came running up from the cellar, shouting that her brother needed some help.

"What happened?" Hiccup shouted anxiously.

"He blew himself up," Ruffnut said as if it was a common occurrence. "Would you guys help me out? He's kinda stuck."

Leaving Snotlout and Fishlegs to watch their prisoner and Hiccup to try to calm down the poor tavern keeper, the three women went downstairs and beheld a curious sight. Much of the cellar was blackened and the air was thick with dust. An unconscious man lay in one corner. At the opposite side of the room Tuffnut's legs were sticking out of the wall. He was shouting something but they could not hear what until they grabbed his legs and pulled.

"That was amazing!" he shouted once his head was free, "right through a plank of solid oak!"

"I swear, you're head must be made of iron!" Heather laughed.

"It may be, but his brains are made of jelly," Astrid said.

Tuffnut took one step and fell onto the floor. "Hey, Heather, since when have you been a quintuplet? And Astrid, you never told me you had five heads! That's so cool!"

Hookfang roared and ignited himself instinctively, but the fire did no harm to his attacker. The Nightmare swung with his claws and the creature leapt off and darted to another part of the cave, so quickly Windshear thought there were two of them. Toothless shot plasma at it and Windshear swung her tail. The creature dodged both attacks and got down on its hunches. Muddy green mucus bubbled through large pores in its back.

"What the heck is this?" Hookfang exclaimed.

"I know what that is! That's a Cavern Crasher!" Windshear cried, "they can throw mucus that's—"

The Cavern Crasher flung the mucus at them and spat a thin but forceful jet of green fire after it. The instant the fire hit the splattering mucus it exploded.

"—flammable," Windshear coughed.

"Thanks for the warning!" Toothless snapped. He had been thrown into one of the walls and his temper was roused.

The walls of the room suddenly trembled, but the Cavern Crasher did not retreat. It darted to another side and readied another blast.

"Bring that wall down!" Hookfang shouted before he shot out a fireball. Toothless and Windshear followed it up with shots to the left and right of the Crasher, cutting off its escape as several large rocks came crashing down on it.

"That got it!" Hookfang cheered. He went up to the pile of rocks and looked through one of the gaps between them. He had to leap away at once because the Crasher was somehow squeezing its way through the gap, even though it was much larger.

"I'd say that's magic except I don't believe in magic," Hookfang exclaimed.

The Crasher emerged looking much thinner than it had before. Then its body somehow expanded back to its original size.

"A collapsible skeleton?" Toothless said, "That's interesting."

"Never mind that, how do we get rid of it?" Hookfang shouted, "LOOK OUT!" For the Crasher was flinging mucus at them again. Toothless dodged to the left and spat plasma at its back. For a brief instant the mucus there was destroyed, but it readied more quickly. Toothless fired again with a more powerful blast and the mucus was destroyed a little longer. Sensing that Toothless had gained a potential advantage, the Crasher lunged for the exit, leaving a trail of mucus behind it. At one moment it turned around and ignited the mucus, creating a large wall of fire. Hookfang blindly leapt after it, only to take a blast to the head. The Crasher darted in to finish the job but Windshear flung her tail spikes at it, imbedding two in its front legs. The Crasher ran for it.

"Thanks for that, Windy. Oh, my head," Hookfang said groggily, "I think I've got three wings now,"

"How fast can you move?" Toothless asked urgently. Hookfang tried to stand up and fell over instantly.

"About as fast as a snail right now. That's so undignified—or is it undugnifeed? I forget. And when zebras mate with impala they make lots of little zimbralas!"

"He's a lost cause right now," Toothless said to Windshear. "Stay here and watch him. I'm going after that crasher."

"Alone?" Windshear exclaimed.

"No. I'll head back and get some help. I noticed my plasma burned the mucus off it, maybe Stormfly's fire will be more effective." Nadders had some of the hottest fire of all dragons.

"This is just too much for my nerves!" the Tavern Keeper wailed, "Oh my poor nerves, I just can't take any more of this!" He flopped into a chair and tried to fan himself with a broken plate. "I can stand brawls but explosions—oh my nerves!" Hiccup poured him some ale, which the Keeper swallowed in a single gulp.

"I hope you don't blame us for this. After all, we didn't ask to be attacked."

"Yes—yes—yes—I—I can't think too—oh my poor nerves," the man moaned deliriously.

Hiccup pulled out a few jewels from one of his pockets and slipped them into the Keeper's. "That should cover it." He turned to their prisoner, whom Fishlegs and Snotlout had tied up. "Right, Snotlout, remove the gag,"

"I swear it wasn't my idea!" were the prisoner's first words.

"Then whose idea was it?" Hiccup demanded angrily.

"Yeah!" Snotlout shouted, "Start talking or we'll take you flying and drop you!"

"I don't know!"

Hiccup pulled out Inferno, ignited it, and held the blade close to the man's neck. "Tell me exactly what made you attack us, or so help me I will burn your skin off, one section at a time." Either he was the best bluffer in the world or he meant what he said, and the prisoner decided not to risk it.

"All right, all right, my pals and I were here last night and a woman came in. She told us some people might be in town tomorrow, and she'd give us a small fortune if we killed them—except for you. She specifically said 'spare the one with the metal leg'."

"Who was this woman?" Hiccup demanded.

"I don't know. She didn't stay very long and I haven't seen her since."

"Did she say or do anything else?"

"Like when she'd come back to pay you?" Fishlegs suddenly asked.

The prisoner blushed. Hiccup was running out of patience and moved his sword closer. The prisoner's red cheeks at once reverted to white.

"She—she just said she would come and give us a small fortune if we gave her any dead bodies." He suddenly blushed again.

"And what was she doing when she told you this?" Hiccup asked.

"Taking her clothes off," he grinned, "I've never seen such—!" But his glee was cut off by Hiccup grabbing his throat.

"And when did she say she'd be back?"

"She didn't say that part—or if she did I didn't hear it,"

"I'll bet you were paying so much attention to the striptease you weren't listening," Hiccup growled, "All right then, since you focused so much on her, tell me what she looked like!"

"Well she had black hair, had a missing eye—that was the only ugly part of her—"

"That's what I thought. All right guys, gag him. I've learned what I want to know." Hiccup stood up.

"You think it was Adoncia who set them on us?" Fishlegs asked.

"Who else could it be? I'll bet she went around to every nearby town last night and made the same promise everywhere she could. She probably expected us to go get some fresh supplies after she poisoned Ruff's water. And she'll be coming back sooner or later. Get the girls up here and we'll prepare a warm welcome for her."

"And what do we do with him?" Snotlout asked, gesturing to the prisoner.

"Leave him. He can start cleaning up the room once the Keeper comes to,"

"That's not much of a punishment,"

"He's not much of an assassin, is he?" Hiccup snapped. He was more interested in catching a bigger fish. "Move him over there and keep your weapons out. If what he says is true—what was that?" But he knew what it was. It was the sound of a Nadder squawking. At once he rushed outside, Fishlegs right behind him.

They ran right into the midst of a small crowd. The fight itself had probably not attracted much attention, but once the explosions had happened villagers had put down their work and rushed over to see what was going on. They had all heard the dragon call and were looking around anxiously.

Suddenly a Nadder flew over them at full speed and dropped something from its claws. Hiccup pulled out his shield, intending to use the grappling hook, but as the villagers ran for cover they banged into him and ruined his aim. Cursing, he looked around, just in case the Nadder was a diversion and Adoncia was hiding somewhere. He saw Fishlegs picking a coin from the dirt.

"She promised them a small fortune," Hiccup laughed harshly. "It couldn't get much smaller."

"Does it strike you that this feels like something you'd do yourself?" Fishlegs asked.

"That's probably why she did it," He kicked a rock, "and without our dragons, she'll be long gone by now."

"Or lying in wait for us somewhere," Astrid said as she joined them, her axe out. There was now nobody else in the road beside the three of them. "Snotlout just gave me the rundown. So what now?"

"Is any place safe for us?" Fishlegs asked anxiously, "She's found us in the wilderness and ensured villages are dangerous—where can we go where she can't find us?"

"We're staying here for now," Hiccup said, "we told our dragons we weren't coming back until sunset. They don't know about this development and we've got no means to tell them, so they won't come for us any sooner. And we are not going to try finding our way back to that cave without them. We'd probably get lost and be easy pickings for that Nadder."

The Cavern Crasher darted down the tunnel, its legs throbbing badly. It spat some mucus onto its injuries to serve as scabs while they healed. The walls grew blacker the further it went, but it did not care. Its main intent now was to get the food those humans had brought. It had tried the night before but saw there were too many opponents. So it had waited. Making noise and luring them away had been an excellent plan, it assured itself, even if those three had put up more of a fight than expected. Still, now the food stores were less well defended, which meant the opportunity to take them had come.

Its strong sense of smell could pick up traces of food in the air. And then all at once it stopped. For it smelled a Night Fury.

Of course, the Cavern Crusher did not know it smelled a Night Fury. It did not even know the dragon was named that. But it recognized the scent from before and it looked around eagerly for the scent's owner. It saw nothing. Even though its eyes were well suited for the dark it could make nothing out. It prudently moved up to the passage ceiling and waited for its unseen foe to make a move and reveal itself.

Toothless was standing perfectly still, his red tailfin tucked under his legs and his black pupils as round as possible so the green in his eyes was minimal. It felt strange that in a tense waiting game he had to force himself to look cute. He had seen the Crasher climb onto the ceiling and was quickly formulating a plan. From what he had seen, the Crasher's abilities were largely negligible at close quarters: it fought best when at a distance from its opponents. But if a fight came down to sheer muscle, Toothless might have a chance. The main problem was how to get closer enough, and that meant getting the Crasher off the ceiling. And he knew of only one way to do that.

Without warning he opened his mouth and spat 3 plasma shots in quick succession at the Cavern Crusher. The wingless dragon dodged them but in the process it detached itself from the ceiling and Toothless lunged for it. He tried to make eye contact and use his Beta Powers on it but the creature refused to stay still and Toothless quickly dropped the idea. The dragon flung mucus onto Toothless and blasted it, but the Night Fury's scales were fireproof. Nevertheless, he felt as though a hammer had struck his back. The Cavern Crusher readied more mucus but Toothless was prepared this time, and he shot more plasma at its. The mucus disintegrated. Toothless fired again. This time the Crasher dodged it, shot up around a wall, onto the ceiling, and let go, hoping to land on Toothless's back, as it had done with Hookfang. This was a mistake, for Toothless at the last minute rolled over and caught it in his claws.

Now the fight was nothing more than a brawl. The two dragons scratched and bit and rolled around, each trying to pin the other down and crush them. The Cavern Crasher could not escape for Toothless had gripped it too tightly, but Toothless found it very hard to crush a creature with a collapsible skeleton. Still, its hide was not impervious and Toothless took advantage of that and bit hard. The Crasher threw more mucus onto both of them and lit it up, but Toothless was seeing red and felt almost nothing when the mucus burned. His mind was back on Berk the day he had fought and killed that Razorwhip. As far as he was concerned now that was what he was fighting, not the Cavern Crasher.

The Crasher slipped free, but Toothless had intentionally gone for its legs as a precaution for just such a thing. Subsequently the Crasher could not move as fast as it had earlier and Toothless went after it again, blasting its back with as much plasma as he could muster. The Crasher tried to fling more mucus, only to find its supply had run out. Now in desperation it spat green flames, first at Toothless and then at the wall, creating a gap, which it dove into. Toothless tried to snap at its tail but he too had lost some of his speed through injuries, and he bit only empty air.

The Night Fury took deep breaths and quickly licked his wounds. He could feel that mucus on his skin. It felt like being covered in tree sap and made him feel dirty. It also meant a bath.

"Ugh, baths," he grumbled to himself. Suddenly he heard movement from both ends of the tunnel. He readied himself for another fight, but held back when he saw Stormfly and Meatlug appear.

"What's going on?" Stormfly shouted.

"Have you been fighting?" Meatlug shouted at the same time.

"As a matter of fact, I have," Toothless said.

"You should have called for me earlier!" Stormfly said accusingly. Before the second fight Toothless had sent a call out with his mind summoning Stormfly to come to join him. It was one of the powers Betas had. The Red Death, Toothless's old tyrant, had made frequent use of it. "Did that Razorwhip attack you? I knew she would have—"

"Think again, Nadder," Windshear growled as she joined them. It had been her whom Toothless had heard coming from the opposite end of the tunnel. Hookfang was a ways behind her. "Where's the Cavern Crasher?"

"A Cavern Crasher!" Meatlug shrieked. "You met one of those horrible things?"

"I fought with it and it fled," Toothless explained, a little proudly.

"I thought you were going back to get help!" Windshear said accusingly.

"I was, but I caught its scent and I couldn't pass up the opportunity!" Toothless said, "How's Hookfang?"

"I'm just fine! I just made a rhyme!...I did, right?"

"He's still a bit addled," Windshear whispered,

"More so than usual anyway," Hookfang said smugly.

"What happened to him?" Stormfly asked.

But Toothless now looked alarmed. "Wait a minute—you guys left Barf n' Belch alone?"

"Well, we all felt you summon me and Meatlug decided to come—hey!" Stormfly shouted, for Toothless was speeding off to their campsite. The others rushed after him.

They found Barf n' Belch gleefully banging his heads against a wall, and Chicken was sitting on their back watching with fascination. The night before, the humans had pulled out all their food that was potentially poisoned and put it in a pile, to ensure it would not get mixed up with the new provisions. Much of the pile was gone. In the wall closest to where it had been there was a long thin crack. And by the looks of it the Zippleback had not heard or seen a thing.

"I suppose it doesn't really matter much," Toothless said slowly, "that stuff was dead weight to us anyway,"

"And Barf n' Belch are safe," Meatlug added happily, "As is Chicken!"

"Not as safe as they should have been," Toothless scowled, "Guys—never leave them alone for the rest of this trip, got it?" This was why he had not summoned Meatlug to aid him, but she had decided to come anyway.

Windshear went back to help Hookfang, who had fallen behind. Toothless described the fight briefly, and then asked Meatlug how she knew about Cavern Crashers.

"My mother's first two nests were raided by them," she said gravely, "after that she grew almost paranoid about the safety of her eggs and warned us all the time about Crashers,"

'Maybe that's what happened to my nest,' Toothless thought, 'maybe a Crasher stole my egg but never had the chance to eat it,'

"So Windshear fought well?" Stormfly asked skeptically.

"Yes she did," Toothless replied, "and I notice she's the only one helping Hookfang out,"

"Oh, right,"

But there was no need to go, for the two were returning. "Hey guys!" Hookfang said cheerfully, "you'll never guess what I just saw! That Crasher thing's dead! Yeah, it was on the ground with a hunk of dried fish sticking outta its mouth! Looked almost like it had fallen asleep while eating! Is that just disgusting or what?"

The others exchanged stunned looks.

"I guess they were right to buy new food after all," Stormfly said at last.

"Yeah," Toothless agreed hastily.

They picked up the humans at sunset, as agreed. The humans had brought lots of food and drink with them as well as bad news. Toothless nearly exploded when he heard about what had happened and Stormfly was little better. She destroyed part of the ground she was standing on with her claws.

Heather now insisted they tell her who exactly they were dealing with, but Hiccup, who was in a foul mood, went to stand in a corner of the cave, so Astrid told her. Even then, Astrid only told her as little as possible, knowing Hiccup did not want to hear it and fearful it might make him have a fit. She could see his hands were trembling a little.

Toothless went to join his human. Hiccup looked him over. "What happened to you?"

"Oh, nothing," Toothless said quickly. "We destroyed all the poisoned food,"

"What's that stuff on your back?"

"Oh, just some of the nasty slimy stuff you find on cave floors." He did not want to give Hiccup something else to worry about, especially as it was a moot point now.

Nobody was in a good mood at these late developments, for the dragons, excluding Windshear, had almost as much hate for Adoncia as Hiccup had and with good reason. This was the woman who had first tried to make Hiccup her latest lover and then blackmail him, and when that failed she had thrown him in prison and helped torture him. Then she had sided with Bludvist, had given him the idea to build a formidable iron ship, and had captured Hiccup a second time. Then she had killed Grimm the Skrill and made her then mount the new Beta. This was the Razorwhip Toothless had later fought with, with whom Adoncia had caused the destruction of the Sanctuary and had killed any flightless dragons who lived there. And then she had fought against them in battle, killed several Vikings, and escaped.

With such a list of accomplishments, small wonder Adoncia was hated bitterly by most of them. And this hatred was not softened by the idea that had Adoncia and Hiccup never met, it was quite possible that none of this would have happened. While Hiccup could be held responsible for all of this as well few, aside from himself, blamed him for it, mainly because Adoncia had done these evils willingly and intentionally.

So Hiccup went over to a rock, sat down, rubbed his temples, and sighed.

"What are you thinking about now?" Astrid asked anxiously.

"I'm thinking maybe you guys should go home."

"WHAT?" everyone exclaimed, including the dragons.

"That's three times now someone has nearly died because we're being followed! Heather and I are bound to go for the sake of politics, but that's no reason why the rest of you need to risk your lives any further." He had a private reason as well. If they did catch up with Adoncia, he did not want anyone else to see what he might do to her.

Everyone began speaking at the same time.

"We're not going anywhere!" Stormfly snapped. "If it means catching that murderer and roasting her I'm staying put!"

"If we're going back to Berk you're coming with us!" Fishlegs shouted.

"I will take your other leg for that!" Snotlout announced.

"We don't wanna go home!" the Twins shouted.

"Like you guys could last two days without us!" Hookfang sniggered.

"We can't leave you on your own like this," Meatlug shouted.

Astrid's first response was to slug Hiccup in the shoulder.

"Do that again, Astrid! I'll hold him down for you!" Snotlout cried.

"Hiccup, you are not sending us home and we are not leaving you!" she shouted.

"Yeah, we—"

"SHUT UP!" Toothless roared. Even those who could not understand him fell silent. "Honestly!"

"Nice set of lungs," Windshear commented as she scratched an ear hole.

"All right, look," Hiccup said slowly and earnestly, "I know you guys don't like the idea and I don't blame you, but do you think I want any of you to get killed because Adoncia is chasing us? You all know she told that guy to only 'spare the one with the metal leg'. Do you think I want to find your dead bodies in the woods? I've already gotten enough people killed and, so help me, I am not adding your names to that list!"

"And do you think we're just going to abandon you to her tender mercy?" Astrid retorted. "Do you think we want to find your dead body in the woods?"

"I—" Hiccup could not answer, for any argument he could make could be turned around and applied to him.

Astrid turned to Heather. "What have you to say about this?"

"I don't want any of you guys to get hurt, but I don't want you to leave either," she replied. "But personal interests should not matter here. What matters is what's best for the group as a whole—"

"You sound like my father," Hiccup grumbled, "'A Chief looks after his own.' But what happens when his own are either so stupid or so selfless that they don't want him to look after them?"

"What happens when the future Chief is either so stupid or selfless that he needs someone to look after him?" Astrid retorted. "We've made it this far, haven't we?"

"—If you would let me finish, I was going to say I think the group as a whole would be better served united than split up," Heather said firmly. "Unless splitting up will draw our pursuer away and confuse them—and we have no guarantee that it will—our safety lies in numbers." Everyone except Hiccup and Toothless nodded vigorously.

"It's all of us or none of us," Fishlegs said firmly.

Astrid now turned to Hiccup. "We're all aware of the risks. But we're Vikings and Dragon Riders. Risks are occupational hazards for us." Her blue eyes met with Hiccup's green ones. "And so is obedience. You're the Heir of Berk. If you order us to go home, we'll go. But please, please, don't order us to leave. Don't order me to leave you." This last was said in a whisper.

"Toothless?"

"I'm not going to make up your mind for you," Toothless said, "that's something you need to do yourself."

"I know. I just want to know what you think about this."

"Ah. In that case, I'm on their side. If keeping them here keeps you safe—and so far it has—I say don't send them away."

Hiccup stepped away for a minute, turning his back to them.

"All right," he said at last, "tomorrow we make for Greenland."

Happy Easter everyone! And if you don't celebrate Easter, have a happy weekend anyway!

Quiz: today is April 15th. What two separate and famous tragedies happened on this day, one 152 years ago and the other 105 years ago?