14 The Council of Dragon Island
Stoick the Vast, High Chief of Berk stood near the mouth of the small cave at the base of the volcanic mountain and reassessed his situation. It had been light for only a short time and half of the sun was still all that could be seen above the horizon but the tribe was already very busy cleaning up the camp after last night's storm. There were three rock fires where much of the activity was concentrated as the people of Berk created a temporary home. Around the nearest fire, about five yards from the cave, sat a few recovering warriors and a sleeping Nadder; all slowly drying out after the rain. The second fire was a little further away between two large boulders that were now connected by the huge frame and sail shelter that Stoick had observed being raised at first light.
It was the third fire that drew Stoick attention, for this was where Hiccups Night Fury rested with Snotlout and his dragon; the Chief strode over while Gobber struggled to keep up on his one good leg. The blacksmith was glad that Hiccup's missing leg still had a knee, because knees made it much easier to walk fast and the boy would need to walk very fast to keep up with his father.
"How are you doing today Toothless?" Stoick leant over and placed a hand on the black dragons back.
Toothless pushed out his front claws, raised his back legs and gave a long low growl as he stretched himself out. When he was done, he sat back down and seemed to smile at Stoick.
"Glad to hear it" the chief laughed, but then he noticed that some of the mangled control cords and rods were still wrapped around the dragons tail.
"Gobber, do you think you could see to this?" he indicated the tail hardware.
"I'll even start planning a new one so he and the lad can go flying as soon as they both feel up to it."
"Good... very good indeed" Stoick appreciated the trust Gobber was showing in his son's eventual recovery.
"Snotlout; go find your father and tell him that I said to gather all the others for a tribe council meeting outside the cave."
"You got it Chief" came the standard reply as the boy ran off feeling important.
Within fifteen minutes Stoick was sitting on a wooden beam by the fire, surrounded by the many of the people that he trusted most; Gobber and Olvor stood on either side behind him with Thorfinn, Olaf and Snotlout's father Spitelout on his right, Sigrid, Agnar, Freya and Fjori sitting opposite while Hoark the Haggard took up the entire left side with Stormfly snoring peacefully.
"Before I start, is there anything of urgency that I should know about?" Stoick enquired.
The Vikings looked around at each other curiously for a few seconds before Sigrid spoke.
"Much to report, but nothing life or death."
"Good, well we've got a..." Stoick began
"Err Chief Stoick sir" the frail voice came from Fishlegs Ingerman who was hiding behind Gobber.
"Would it be alright if I sat in with you for this meeting?"
Stoick was quite surprised at the request, but was inclined to suppress his usual fury and 'Warriors Only' policy, and so once again he used his special Chiefing voice with the subtle intent of letting the others know his mind while allowing them the opportunity to agree with his position; Stoick was very good at this style of leadership that made everyone feel like they were a part of the decision making process rather than just being unwilling followers.
"Hmm... maybe with your dragon experience, and in light of the bravery you all showed yesterday, we should allow this; unless anybody has an objection."
He looked around to see and hear a general murmur of agreement and so he gestured for Fishlegs to take a place near the front where Stoick could keep an eye on him. Seeing an opportunity for some advancement in his warrior status, Snotlout slipped in too and stood beside his father and although Stoick noticed this, he decided to let it slide. He was greatly relieved though that the twins weren't there as well, they could be a little disruptive in the same way that winter on Berk could be a little cold; and so the Dragon Island council began.
"Right; let's make this quick as we've got a lot to get done today" Stoick began. "Taking into account what happened yesterday, and how we have lost every ship that we sailed here, we appear to be in a reasonably good condition with only a few injuries and I believe that your broken leg is the worst of the lot Hoark; after Hiccup of course."
"I've had worse" mumbled Hoark, and indeed he had.
"How is Hiccup?" asked Agnar; a general murmur of enquiry rising around him.
"What happened to Hiccup?" Olaf asked puzzled.
"It was amazing..." began Gobber excitedly but Stoick quickly brought him to heel.
"Hiccups resting for now, and I'll fill you in after the meeting Olaf because we have to make the most of the day; so then... the first order is food and water."
Freya stood "I've looked over what's been found in the wrecks and we've only enough of the pickled fish for the morning meal and some for midday, but the main problem is water; with this many people and just a few small kegs it'll all be gone before the day's end."
"Err, Chief..." Fishlegs raised his hand slightly but Stoick held up a finger and gave him a look that said 'patience'.
"What's the latest with the shipwreck salvaging efforts?"
Sigrid took her turn "There are many more to be dragged up today so I've got a few men down at the beach with the twins and the Zippleback getting ready to start, and although I can't guarantee that we'll find more water kegs, there's already been two nets recovered so we should have some fresh fish by lunch time."
"Oooh!" an idea came to Fishlegs, but he quickly clamped his hand over his mouth as Sigrid continued.
"The best news is that Thorfinn spotted a wreck further out that looks repairable; if we can get it over the rocks and up on the shore of course."
"That is good news" Stoick nodded "Olaf, what's happening with your group; are they on their way back?"
"Not yet Stoick; when we got the word yesterday that you were all still alive, we started to walk back but it was obvious that we wouldn't make it back before dark so we made for a cave that Odd had noticed and we made our camp there. When Snotlout came back and told me that you only had a small cave here I thought I'd better check with you about whether to bring 'em all back now or have two camps."
Stoick considered for a moment and spoke. "It's true we've only one small cave here, but this is where all the ships are and where most of the work will be done, so I'd say best bring everyone back. Now then; let's talk dragons."
Half of the group looked at Stormfly and the others looked to Fishlegs as Stoick continued.
"There are many wild dragons in the area, but they seem to be keeping their distance for now; do you think they'll that give us any trouble Fishlegs?"
The young Viking nervously considered his response knowing he would have to impress quickly.
"Um... err... well they might be Chief because although they only seem curious at the moment, we are on their island and if we should ever appear to be a threat, it may upset them... but I think I have an idea."
"Good" Stoick encouraged him "spit it out lad."
"Well sir, when Hiccup was showing us how to make friends with a dragon, he told us that the first thing he tried, was to offer Toothless a fish."
"Who's Toothless?" asked Thorfinn.
"That's ol' Krabbi" replied Fjori laughed "he's got none of his own left."
Stoick dropped his head into his hands and spoke firmly.
"Toothless is the name my son has given to the Night Fury... now please continue Fishlegs."
"Err... yes Chief, well if we can catch enough fish for the tribe then maybe we could also try and tame some of the wild dragons, and then start to train them too; also a large dragon can carry a Yak so bringing back a large barrel of water from Berk should not be a problem for Snotlout's dragon."
"No need" came a voice from the cave mouth "there's plenty of water on the next island."
Astrid had awoken after little more than an hour of rest, and arisen to find herself not on the beach where she had passed out, but back in the cave and almost alone. She stood up, went over to Hiccup and saw that his leg had been re-dressed and covered with a piece of clean linen that was wrapped over the end of the leg as far as his knee; there was also the unmistakable aroma of the grain alcohol doing its work to keep his wound from becoming infected. After she had looked towards the mouth of the cave, just to make sure they were alone, she leaned over and kissed him gently on the cheek as a tear fell onto his face.
"Don't die" she whispered "please don't die... I love you."
Astrid inhaled deeply to regain her composure; she wanted so much to punch Hiccup in the arm and make him wake up, but she suppressed the urge and wandered over towards the entrance of the cave where she heard of Fishlegs plan for bringing water from Berk.
A collective gasp of amazement rose up from around the campfire as the bruise covered little blonde wreck emerged from the cave. Olvor quickly moved to help Astrid over to a seat between Hoark and Stormfly, where she placed her arm around the dragon's neck and firmly scratched under its jaw; without opening her eyes, Stormfly nuzzled the young girl and gave a satisfied purr.
Olvor began to explain "Astrid and her dragon..."
"Stormfly!" Astrid interrupted.
"...and Stormfly" Olvor corrected "left for Berk last night before the storm to bring back some important supplies for me; they only returned this morning at first light."
Another round of murmurs moved through the group.
"You rode your dragon all the way to Berk and back in one night... and in that storm?" Olaf exclaimed "It took us more than two days to sail here in good weather."
Although Stoick had realised the night before how different life would be with dragons as allies instead of enemies, this was the first time it truly struck home to all the other Vikings.
"We could all fly back home today" Thorfinn exclaimed excitedly, but then wondered "could we?"
"I know I won't be" Olaf was determined "I'm never going up on one of those again."
Stoick stood up for the meeting was getting a little out of hand.
"I'm sure it's not as easy as just giving a dragon a fish and then start riding it back to Berk, and I don't think Fishlegs was suggesting that at all; were you lad?"
"Oh no sir" he agreed with Stoick "I thought that we could simply show the wild dragons that they could trust us; we can start to train them later when they get more used to us."
"Fishlegs is right sir" Astrid spoke up "Hiccup told me that it took him more than a week of trial and error to ride Toothless, and the other dragons like Stormfly here, had been imprisoned for a long time before we tried to train them. Hiccup had also spent a whole night befriending the dragons in the arena before we even started training them, and although I don't know exactly what Hiccup did, if we follow Fishlegs advice on winning over the wild dragons with fish and friendship, it should be worth the effort in the long run."
Sigrid nodded thoughtfully "That Zippleback saved us much time and effort in getting those shipwrecks ashore, which enabled us to have some of the salvaged supplies in our hands before the storm, so if that's not worth a few fishes, I'll go spare."
Stoick still had one more question.
"Where is this island with the water Astrid, how did you find it?"
"Erm... last night we had a bit of trouble getting back."
"No kidding" mumbled Gobber.
"I... well... fell off" she lied not wanting to admit that she had leapt off her dragon on purpose when the bottle had fallen out of her bag "and Stormfly had to dive down to catch me; then we crashed onto a beach."
"You fell off... and the dragon saved you?" questioned Spitelout. "It didn't just fly away and leave you to die?"
Everyone present looked toward the sleeping dragon with a new respect; they could understand how a rider could make use of a dragon in battle, for they had seen that very thing yesterday with their own eyes, but for the beast to show such care as to save a falling rider out of nothing but loyalty, was something that none of them would ever have considered possible before.
"Yes she did save me, but after the long flight, the storm and the crash, she couldn't go on any more so we rested for about half an hour until the light came. As the wind died down, I could hear water behind me so we went to look and found a large fresh water rock pool being fed by a waterfall; it looked to me as if it was only full after a rain storm, so there's plenty there now of course."
"How far is this island?" Stoick sounded pleased
"Well after we both had taken a drink, I looked out over the ocean and could see Dragon Island near the horizon; it only took us a few minutes to get back here."
"Right then" Stoick stood up and began to give the orders.
"Fishlegs; take your Gronckle for a flight around the point and let Olaf's group know that it's time for them to make their way back. How long should it take them Olaf?"
"About an hour and a half I'd say" he replied.
"Good; Sigrid and Thorfinn can get the teams ready to raise that longship later today if possible. Spitelout and Fjori can grab a net each, and anyone you need to help, and bring in a catch before lunch time. Snotlout you can collect any empty kegs you can find and take a trip to Astrids Island for more water supplies while the rest of you can help out where needed; and get the camp expanded before tonight because I'd like to think that everyone will have a place to sleep tonight when they're not on guard duty, so if there are no questions..."
Stoick silently looked about him for a few seconds "Right, let's get to it."
As everyone took to their appointed tasks, Stoick placed his hand firmly on Fishlegs shoulder "Good job lad for a first council; come and see me when you get back because I've got another little task for you."
"What would you like me to do Chief?" said Astrid wearily.
Stoick spoke firmly "Get back into that cave and don't come out until you are fully rested, understand?" he stared sternly into her eyes until the look of protest left them, and she slinked away back to bed.
"Good!" Stoick was satisfied.
"Now then Chief" Olaf insisted "tell what's happened with Hiccup."
The two men sat back down as Stoick explained proudly what his boy had done.
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