As I was walking through the village commons one afternoon, I felt something bounce off the back of my leg. It was familiar, but not from here.
I turned around to see a half-grown young Night Fury, the one I had noticed raising his wing in Substance's class the day I was asked to speak to them a couple months ago. He was balancing his left front paw on of all things a soccer ball, gesturing with his head between it and me.
"Þú vilt mig til at spila boltanum met þér? You want me to play ball with you?" I queried, in both Norse and English as I was usually doing now. He readily nodded with an eager bark.
"Well, I was more into hockey growing up in Manitoba," I smiled, then relaxing into English for the moment, as I didn't know what the Old Norse word for 'hockey' would be anyway, "but I played a little soccer. Fara á undan, senda þat vegur minn. Go ahead, send it my way. Sparka til mín í. Kick it to me."
The young Night Fury now got a determined look in his eyes as he kicked the soccer ball hard with his foreleg. Unfortunately I had forgotten that both goalie and defender had been my worst positions in what soccer I had played. The ball sailed right past me, bouncing down the commons out of the village, across the ceremonial area, and right over the cliff into the ocean.
"Whoops," I said apologetically as I looked at the young Night Fury again. He just sighed, almost seeming to smile at me, before he took to the air, soaring over my head and right over the cliff as I turned to watch him go.
"He probably found that ball in the ocean anyway," I now heard a familiar voice say behind me.
"I'm still sorry he has to go get it," I shrugged as my mate walked up beside me.
"So, he's learning you're a klutz," Roana kidded, nonetheless putting an arm warmly around me as I now automatically put one around her as well. "You wouldn't be a true Ýsa if you weren't. Hiccup was famous for it, even writing about it fairly often in his journal."
"Has anyone else ever written journals?" I asked as we looked out towards the ocean together. "I mean it's like everyone seems to know my ancient ancestor better than they perhaps do each other."
"Others have written letters, kept small or private journals," she said. "There are a good number of them in our archives. But Hiccup says in the last part of the journal that he wrote it during a time of great change to help the rest of us remember why we came here, and what we live for," my mate replied. "He knew he was writing it for all of us. But he also wrote it as a gift for his mate, a testament of their life together, and of his love for her and their family. I have read many stories and books, especially when I was on the outside. But Hiccup's journal is still my favourite. I even wanted a mate like he was," she said now looking at me, "and lo and behold, I got him."
I just turned and embraced Roana.
"You still haven't read that last third of his journal, have you?" she asked.
"It's been on my 'to do' list," I sighed, looking at her. "But I don't know where our household copy is anyway. Although with Substance, I suppose I could just go read the original in the archives."
"That is in fairly fragile condition as it's been handled so many times in the past," my mate cautioned. "We only touch it when we need to now. It's one thing we keep debating, whether to send it to the outside for proper conservation. I suppose one day we will, we just need a sufficient 'push' or reason to among ourselves. But reading the journal is mostly a wintertime activity among us—something families gather close together to do, having lots of interesting discussions along the way about various aspects of life. You and I have been busy, and I'm just waiting for winter for us to curl up and share it together, for days at a time."
"Winters are that bad around here, eh?" I wondered.
"They're that wonderful," she assured with a kiss. "Yule, reading the journal, warm baths and cozy fires and long snuggles under the sheepskins and quilts? I can't wait for ours."
"Don't you people enjoy summers while you have them?" I smiled.
"Summers we work," Roana replied. "Winters we do eeeverything else," she then seductively hinted, "which is why we enjoy and look forward to them so much. Your soccer pal is coming back though."
Sure enough, the young Night Fury was rising above the cliff edge in the distance behind me, flying back towards village from the west, with the soccer ball clutched in his front paws.
"He's been wanting to meet you for a while," Roana added, "but thought you were too important and busy. He could use a friend though, even a big brother, as he lost his mother two years ago when she was trying to lay his sister's egg, both of them dying. His father accidentally flew into a power transmission line on the mainland at night while hunting for deer during a thunderstorm soon after that. Our outside network had to scramble to get to and cremate his body on the spot before outsiders came, and flights over the mainland for hunting have been discouraged since then. Even dragons get sick of fish diets at times. This young dragon though, he's quiet but bright."
"Who takes care of him?" I wondered.
"An aunt, an elderly one at that," she replied. "He does the fish runs for them both however, and works pretty hard, since he isn't fully grown and can't carry that many fish. You should get to know him," my mate encouraged as the dragon now came in for a landing in front of us. "But why don't you two play in the upper part of the valley?" she then recommended. "There's plenty of space there, you won't lose the ball, and we try to discourage at least the older kids from playing in the village . . . and you qualify as one of those, just."
"Nice," I wryly smiled.
"Glad you enjoyed it," she continued with a smirk.
"One of these days I should start hitting you with zingers," I sighed.
"You're welcome to try," Roana invited. "But remember, I have Thorsten blood in me, and my ancestor was renowned for having the best zingers around. Rökkr and I are off to the dragon caves for check-ups. Play ball with your new friend here. See you later."
"You want dinner?" I guessed.
"Oooo, you get zinged, but still cook anyway," she smiled, turning back for a moment. "How lucky can I get?"
"Dragons aren't the only ones who get sick of fish," I replied.
"I just have a little trouble with mutton, even though Tana next door has given me whole roasts at times, since what we eat there was also a patient of mine," she reminded me. "I merely hid it from you in the beginning to win you over. But I simply have to remind myself that it's one main reason why we have them. Besides, we all die and get eaten by something anyway, even if it's just flames in our case."
I now couldn't help remembering the funeral we attended for an elderly village woman the previous evening as my mate talked. That woman had unfortunately already been eaten by flames, falling into the cooking fire in her house as she lugged a heavy pot, dying before the rest of the village could get to her after hearing her screams.
"As long as they have good lives," Roana continued though about the sheep, "that's what counts. I gotta go though, and you have some soccer to try and get better at . . . You okay?" she now noticed.
"Being 'eaten by flames'—it just reminded me of what happened yesterday. I'm worried about Tana," I said, concerned about our own helpful but elderly neighbour. "The same thing could happen to her. Tana lugs pots to and from her cooking fire, too."
"Invite her over for dinner then," my mate suggested, "so she doesn't have to. Here, we don't just worry—we do."
"We owe her a few, don't we?" I smiled. "Go see the dragons. I'll see you later."
"Love you," Roana said, briefly coming back to me as we parted with a kiss.
Even though Berk was appearing to last forever, something now felt tenuous to me about life here. I was already beginning to say goodbye to people and dragons I had met. I looked across the commons to see a new family with dragons already moving into that deceased elderly woman's house. In finding this village, I thought I had found a place that never changed. With all the change and tumult I had lived with on the outside, even in my own life—I thought here, I would escape from all that. I especially wanted to escape from the spectres a few of my microbial discoveries had created, especially one . . . that had come in on a meteor, which is why I fell for that 'Code Blue' ruse the way I had.
A ball bounced off my shins again, interrupting my thoughts.
It was time for me to play. "Come. Komdu," I invited the young Night Fury, picking up the soccer ball as I then led the young Night Fury towards the upper valley, and away from the cliff.
Soon, my young dragon friend and I were beyond the village amid pasturelands and farm fields. The memorial stone monuments were near us, off to one side on a prominent knoll. I turned, looking around me briefly—breathing in all the shades of greens and browns of the open valley and the surrounding forested mountains, as well as the fresh sea air, even the grey of the cloudy skies above. Ohh, how this was home to me now.
My appreciation of it all was interrupted by a bark however. "Okay, I'm ready for you this time," I smiled at the dragon as I placed the ball on the ground, holding it with a foot. "Let's see how good you are. Vit skulum sjá hversu gótur þú ert."
He crouched in readiness for me. I kicked the ball hard. He easily caught it with his right wing and smoothly scooped it back down to his right forepaw, ready to return it.
"No fair," I sighed, "you have wings and four legs. Nei sanngjörn, þú vængi og fjórar fætur."
The dragon just seemed to smile and shrug.
"Alright," I accepted, getting into the best defensive crouch I could. "Kick it. Sparka þat."
Of course it sailed right past me again, even though it was low this time. I ran across the open pasture to retrieve it. Finally picking it up, I then just turned around and kicked the ball high into the air, hoping that would at least be something of a challenge for the young Night Fury . . . and of all things, I got it past him! The ball sailed right between his outstretched wings as if they were goalposts.
"GOALLL!" I shouted, raising my hands in victory.
Now we had a contest!
The dragon and I remained apart as we each kicked the soccer ball back and forth as hard as we could, sending each other even further back across the fields in pursuit of it. I actually got better as I went, but so did he. I couldn't remember ever having this much fun now as an adult as I leaped, dived and rolled for that ball again and again. It was wonderful watching my Night Fury friend as well as he gracefully bounded, even soared at times to catch the ball using all the limbs he had. I no longer minded whether I got it past him or not.
"Lance! Dinner!" I eventually heard . . . from down in the village.
I stopped cold as I caught the ball this time. "Ohh boy," I said, as much to myself as to the dragon. "I'm in trouble, kid. I said I'd make dinner."
But then I had an idea.
"Komdu. Come," I invited, holding the ball. "Viltu kvöldmat? You want dinner?" I smiled, figuring that if I was in trouble, Roana would be nicer with a young dragon around.
The dragon nodded and barked eagerly, but then paradoxically took off and flew in the other direction, towards the dragon caves. I stood in the pastures for a moment, stupefied. Not seeing him return, I shrugged and began walking back towards the village carrying the ball, sure that he would look me up for it sometime.
As I approached the village with no small degree of apprehension though, I felt not one but two thuds behind me. I turned to see not only the young Night Fury, but the mature dragon I presumed to be his aunt as well, both looking at me.
"Uhh, I could be in real trouble here," I hesitated to myself out loud, knowing how much grown Night Furies eat. But this was Berk . . . hospitable, generous, help-your-neighbour-on-the-spur-of-the-moment Berk. Or so I hoped. I crossed the fingers of my left hand at my side as I held the soccer ball in my right arm, praying hard for the gods or Spirit to have mercy on me, even protect and shield me.
With the two dragons following behind, I nervously stepped up on my porch, almost as if it was laced with land mines now. Slowly, I opened the door.
"There you are," I heard as I saw both Rökkr and Substance already gathered in the family area for dinner as Roana brought a platter of raw fish to them. Our elderly neighbour, Tana, was helping my mate, her own Zippleback companion apparently elsewhere for the evening, as Tana brought a bowl of boiled vegetables to the floor dining area next to the dragons as well. Inviting the neighbour to dinner—another thing I had forgotten to do. I felt I was really in 'hot water' now, just as those vegetables had been.
"Hope you don't mind fish," Roana said without looking at me.
"Fish sounds absolutely wonderful!" I enthusiastically responded, figuring I might as well tuck my uncomfortable news right in with that. "I brought a friend—s. Do we have enough . . . fish?" I winced as the young Night Fury and his aunt now both appeared at the open doorway right behind me.
Roana turned and looked at me, at us. She just looked, without betraying an expression. Time came to an absolute standstill. I had experienced all of this before in my previous marriage . . . right down to the thumping of my heart as if it was trying to savour what could be its last beats.
"Of course," she smiled. "You and your young friend will just have to go raid our cold locker. Rökkr filled it up with fish this morning. One platter's worth should be fine. Velkomin, tengja okkur," Roana then said to the older dragon, gesturing with a hand for her to sit herself down next to our dragons.
I turned back towards the doorway, almost collapsing with relief.
"Lance," I then heard, closer behind me.
I knew the prospect of getting off easy here was too good to be true.
"Yes?" I said, slowly turning back around.
Roana just looked at me for a moment . . . smiling, almost unable to keep from laughing.
"You thought you were dead meat, didn't you?" she queried.
"What ever gave you that idea?" I now blithely tried to cover.
"It was written all over your face, even your body," she noted, "brighter than a billboard in Las Vegas."
"You've been there, to Vegas, eh?" I said.
"Ohh yeah," she smiled, giving me a deep, reassuring hug.
I hugged her back with equally deep relief, closing my eyes.
"Your ex-wife was really rough on you, wasn't she?" Roana gently said in my ear.
"Yeah," I simply sighed.
"You're in Berk now, Lance," she soothed, even rocking me a little. "You made a friend, gave a young dragon who's had some hard luck a very good time, even lost track of time, and then invited his family over for dinner."
"Well, the dragon invited his aunt," I confessed.
"You did good," Roana assured, " . . . and I love you."
I buried my face against the side of her head and neck, closing my eyes really tightly now.
This was heaven.
— — — — —
But just as I was out of one fire, as my young friend and I were bringing back a platter of raw fish from the cold lockers, walking across the grassy village commons, Árvekni stepped in front of us. The intimidating dark red Nightmare then grunted as he gave me one of his usual glares.
The young Night Fury beside me lowered his head and looked nervous.
"Roana var heima. Roana is at home," I said to the Guardian. "Ek get enginn skilji þig án hennar. I cannot understand you without her. Komdu. Come," I nervously sighed.
I glanced at my young companion as Árvekni allowed us to pass and proceeded to follow behind us. My new friend wasn't giving me any reassurance. It felt almost like we were bringing a policeman home, even the chief of police.
"Roana," I said as the young Night Fury kindly opened the front door of our house for me as I held the platter, "Árvekni wants something."
My mate rose from eating her own roasted fish and came over towards me, relieving me of the platter of raw fish while my young friend went to join his aunt. The three adult dragons were sharing a fish platter, while Tana sat on a floor pillow next to them, eating some of her boiled vegetables.
"You are nervous tonight, aren't you?" Roana smiled casually to me as she briefly moved to lay the platter down in front of the young Night Fury and his aunt, before returning while Árvekni towered behind me at our doorway. My mate then looked at the Nightmare, grunting at him, presumably asking him what was up. She gently turned me around to face him as he began grunting back.
"He's just saying that he's pleased with your progress as a Dragon Rider, but hasn't had the chance to tell you," she casually conveyed as Árvekni glanced aside at our guests. "He also wants to talk with you one-to-one, with me along of course, but sees we have company and now is not the time. He asks that you and I please look him up soon, as he would enjoy talking with you."
"That's all?" I wondered, looking at my mate. "No 'How's the protein regimen coming?' or 'Why isn't it done yet?'"
"He's learned, with help from both Substance and I, that such things take time," Roana replied. "He's cool with it now. No dragons have died lately, so we're doing good. But you are in serious need of some stress relief tonight, mister," she noted, passing a hand across my left shoulder. "Your shoulders are so tight I could play a tune on them."
"I wouldn't refuse," I sighed, before turning back to our guest at the door. "But thank you, Árvekni. We will talk soon. þakka þér, Árvekni. Vit munum tala fljótlega," I said bowing my head towards him.
The dragon bowed his head in kind, and then turned to go. For the first time, I noticed he was limping somewhat on his left leg as he stepped down off our porch, bracing himself with his folded wings in the way that Nighmares walked on the ground, almost as if they were crutches.
"He's limping," I noted to Roana beside me just as she was closing the door.
"He's had it for some time," she said, pausing to watch him with me. "It comes and goes. He's almost eighty years old, and has been our Great Guardian since World War Two."
"That's a lot of guarding," I remarked.
"He'll be doing it until the day he dies," she sighed. "He won't slow down or stop. It's just not in his nature."
"We should invite him over to dinner sometime," I thought.
"Good idea," my mate smiled as she now closed the door.
I finally sat down to dinner myself, as my new young friend insisted on taking and roasting a fish for me in his mouth, just the way I liked.
His aunt now began grunting as she looked at Roana and I.
"She says that her nephew has been looking forward to meeting you, Lance, as you were about the only human in the village, besides me, who he thought might understand soccer, once I told him what the ball he had found was used for . . . which I don't remember doing, but anyway. My doctor ex-boyfriend would understand soccer, too, having been educated on the outside, but he's not exactly the playful sort, the way you are."
"It looks like we've found another missing piece of your puzzle though," I gently encouraged, leaning over to give her a kiss.
She looked at me briefly, smiling. "Eat," she then encouraged me as the four dragons with us wolfed down more fish, and Tana finished her vegetables.
— — — — —
After giving the dragons stew for dessert, and sharing some simple sweet bread among us three humans, Roana and I bid goodnight to our two dragon guests and Tana.
"Don't forget your ball. Ekki gleyma boltinn þinn," I encouraged, offering the soccer ball back to my young friend. He simply looked at me, gesturing with his head off to the side, grunting.
"He says, 'Keep it for next time,'" Roana conveyed.
"Deal. Takast," I agreed with a nod and a smile.
Our own Night Furies contentedly settled themselves down on the family bedding nearby to simply rest and digest together as Roana and I closed the door and proceeded to clean up from dinner.
"Massage, or bath?" my mate soon offered me after we had dried and put the final platters and other things away in the simple wooden cupboards around the cooking area.
"Your choice," I replied, turning to face her again.
"What's eating you?" she asked however, putting her arms around me. "You seem to have been on edge for days now."
I sighed, finding my mood changing. "The elderly woman we tried to rescue, but had to say goodbye to, for one, if you want to know," I said looking down.
"She was in pain already," Roana replied. "I'm told that she had lost her husband just months ago after nursing him for a long time. The rest of us I'm sure looked after her, but even I saw that her body was failing her, and she wasn't the type who wanted a lingering death like some of our old experience. She went quick. It just wasn't something that was pleasant for the rest of us to deal with afterwards. I'm sure she's apologetic, but grateful."
"Where were her children?" I wondered.
"Not everyone has children," she responded. "It just never happened for them, and we don't have the most sophisticated medicine to figure out why. But death happens, Lance, just as surely as life does," Roana gently assured as she looked at me. "We just see it here more readily than you did on the outside because we're close, and everyone helps one another."
"I suppose so," I accepted, still looking down.
"But that's not all it is, is it?" she kept probing. "Because you were like this before yesterday. You still bothered about the two Soviets we got rid of a while back?"
"My past has come after me, twice now," I noted. "I try to put it out of my mind as you say, but things like seeing that woman die . . . it reminded me of an armageddon, or the possibility for one, that I inadvertently discovered some fourteen months ago . . . inside tiny microbes. I saw people burning, in my mind, after that. At the time, Pentagon brass in Washington, DC were initially congratulating me for the military and civil defense potentials of my discovery, until the first cultures on human tissue came back.
"I'm breaking security protocols here," I then said looking away and snapping myself back. "I've already likely just committed a federal offense, possibly even treason. I'd better just shut up."
"You carry all that inside you?" Roana asked, drawing closer to me and rubbing my heart with her right hand.
"Yes," I replied. "And with what I know, the Russians would kill to get it, no matter what. I don't know if I should be here anymore . . . if it's safe for me to be living anywhere but under guard in a secure U.S. federal facility. I'd have to take a lot of mind drugs to forget the valuable but dangerous knowledge I've been amassing for years now."
"Lance," she said. "I am with you, no matter what, or where, okay?"
"The dragons need you, here," I noted.
I now felt a nudging at my back, along with a dragon murmuring.
"Substance says, 'You're needed here, just as much,'" my mate conveyed. "'We are your home, and your protection. Do not trade us for a cell. You deserve better than that. So much better.'"
"But Lance," Roana then said for herself, "thank you for sharing your burden with me. I want to share it with you. I don't need to be aware of the top-secret details, but know that you are no longer carrying it alone. I know, with certainty, that you did your work for the best and noblest of reasons. It just went bad on you. That wasn't your fault, okay?"
"That I was good enough to discover it, and them, was," I sniffed.
"Then your curing the dragons is your atonement for that," she comforted me, "just as your very presence is the happy ending of Asger and Alltaf's tragedy."
Substance murmured behind me again.
Roana laughed a little, explaining, "She says, 'You have bonded with me as Dragon and Rider, even Knight. You sentence yourself to a cell, you sentence me with you, as well as your mate, and her companion—our whole family. I for one, want to keep flying in freedom, and I can't do that without you.'"
"You really could, Substance," I said without looking at her.
"She says, 'You know what I mean, Companion,'" my mate translated back as the dragon grunted.
"The more I've thought about it, this is dangerous, Roana," I cautioned as I looked at her. "I really didn't want to be discovered here, especially by the Soviets."
"From what you say, they discovered you were living here the night those two agents found us at the inn," she said, "the night I they took my memory of us from me. So it's already too late, Lance. But relax some, okay? Remember, Norwegian intelligence cleared the two Soviets we intercepted. They reported that the agents remembered nothing of their encounter with us, even under intense questioning, and no listening or other devices were found in their clothing. So all the Soviets have is a vague report from their first encounter with us that you are here, under our protection. Our riders have also reported seeing a Norwegian naval frigate patrolling the open ocean near us, so we are even safer."
"Alright," I accepted, looking up at the ceiling and trying to shift my attitude and focus, before looking down again and closing my eyes. "But Roana, you married a 'Doctor Frankenstein' here . . . or someone close to it."
"No," she tearfully reassured, now holding me tightly. "No. I have mated with a wounded angel, who has a heart of gold. A man who has suffered while doing the best he could, trying to do right."
"I want to make love with you," I sniffed.
"Take me," she said breathlessly before she kissed me, hard.
We couldn't remove our clothes fast enough.
I was able to sleep well that night, for the first time in a while, having shared my burden at last with my mate and dragon family. Roana kept herself wrapped around me even more closely than usual as I fell asleep.
Gods how I wanted to make my past, and that knowledge and those memories still in my head, just go away though.
— — — — —
"Good morning, my love," I heard breathed into my ear even more sweetly than usual.
"Roana," I sighed happily, just embracing her with all my strength as I took my morning stretch that way instead.
"Wow, what a hug!" she admired. "You cracked my back real good here!"
"Thank you," I just said appreciatively to her as we lay in our floor bedding for another precious moment beside a dragon.
"You're more than welcome, my Lance," she soothed, giving me a kiss. "Just enjoy this. Everything else will take care of itself."
"I wish it were that easy," I sighed.
"You're thinking too much like Árvekni," she smiled as she now caressed my face. "A threat or problem around every corner."
"Just don't let me start glaring like he does," I quipped.
"Not gonna happen," Roana warmly assured.
"Where's Substance?" I said, turning my head and seeing only Rökkr beside us.
"She must be off at her morning elders' meeting, or on pastoral calls already," my mate replied. "Time we got up anyway. We have our own work to do."
"I would enjoy weekends around here, you know," I sighed.
"That's what winters are for," she smiled, getting up out of bed as, well . . . her naturally beautiful self.
Roana and our dragons were right. As I enjoyed looking at my mate while she went over and dipped a small iron pot of mead tea from the cauldron and returned, kneeling down to ask Rökkr to heat it for all of us, I decided that life was just too good here to worry about other things all the time. So I sat up, leaning against Rökkr, and drank in the wonderful view of my mate near me. While our dragon quickly heated the teapot she was holding by the handle with a gentle blast, Roana just glanced at me, smiling.
Of course, there was a knock at the door to interrupt it all.
"Here," I said, finding Roana's under tunic amid our bedding, tossing it to her as I reached for my own.
"Thanks," she said, now putting the hot teapot safely down on the hardwood floor, catching her under tunic and quickly slipping into it before answering the door as I slipped into mine.
I heard a male voice just outside the door, although I wasn't really paying attention.
"Lance, it's a Dragon Rider stand-by," Roana came back saying after closing the door. "A whole group of outsiders are being watched. They're heading towards the beach by kayak and are close to landing there. They've done nothing yet, but if they climb the mountain . . ."
"It will be 'all hands on deck'," I surmised.
"You got it," she confirmed.
"Well, I probably shouldn't start a new series of cultures then," I sighed.
"And I could easily put off my vet calls for another time," she now began smiling. "There's not that much going on with the dragons, sheep and goats right now."
"Mmmmm, a day off after all," I smiled, still sitting up in bed against Rökkr.
"We are on stand-by," she warned, while nonetheless seductively stripping out of her under tunic in front of me once more.
"Come here, you," I sighed eagerly.
Even the tea could wait. And Rökkr? He just went back to sleep with a bemused smile on his face.
— — — — —
We were awakened by another knock at the door.
"Thank you," my mate nonetheless replied as she kissed me briefly but deeply. "This has been one fabulous day, or at least morning off."
"I love you, Roana," I said quietly, but so intensely.
"Don't stop," she said. "Just don't ever stop."
There was a second knock at the door, accompanied by some muffled words.
"I love you, too," Roana added, giving me a very quick peck this time as she grabbed her under tunic and rose towards the door again.
I began getting up as well, putting on my under tunic as Rökkr stretched and stirred himself, while my mate talked with whomever was outside the door.
"We're on, Lance," Roana said turning back from the door as she closed it and began hustling to rapidly put on the rest of her clothes and Dragon Rider gear. "They're climbing the mountain. It's a full alert to intercept that group and their boats, every Dragon Rider available."
"That beach!" I now cursed, quickly getting up to put on my own rider's clothing and gear. "I swear, I'm gonna start removing it with a shovel myself!"
"After this now, I'll join you," Roana agreed. "We've never had an entire group of kayakers show up and climb like this before."
"Never?" I asked.
"Well, maybe four to six at most from what I can remember," she said, donning her harness and knight's sash as she then moved to tack up Rökkr. "Families, or a group of friends. But this sounds like a dozen or more . . . an entire tour group."
"Where's Substance?" I said, now grabbing her saddle off its rack on the wall. "She's still not back."
Seemingly right on cue, my dragon almost burst through our door, grunting urgently.
"She says we're needed on the intercept team," my mate translated as I was already putting Substance's saddle on my dragon companion. "There are over a dozen trespassers—half on the mountainside, and half on the beach."
"They're scattering like roaches," I sighed with irony. "This is going to be really fun. Let's go."
I must have set a new personal best for tacking up my dragon quickly as Roana and I both mounted our rides. Rökkr and Substance then bounded right out the front door with us on their necks and straight up into the air, joining a veritable squadron of Dragon Riders as we all flew up towards the summits of the southern mountains.
I had never been in formation on a mission with this many Dragons and Riders before. As there was enforced silence among Dragon Riders once we reached the mountaintops, I looked to Roana next to me for hand signals, even though I was now a senior rider and knight as well. The left rider among pairs coordinated signals between them. Things just worked faster that way.
The leaders of any intercept were normally the one or two on-duty riders who had been watching the trespassers for some time, either from our observation posts or from the air, and were most familiar with them. So Roana watched ahead of us, as I also glanced ahead of us now and then, while the leaders of this mission made their hand signals, soon followed by other riders in front of us in turn. My mate then looked at me and first pointed straight down, then pointing three fingers at herself, and four fingers at me. We were headed down to the beach for whatever third and fourth persons there were in front of us to pick up.
Substance and I briefly nodded as I looked behind us to see another pair of riders on Night Furies looking at us, as one of them quickly pointed downward to the other, then holding up one finger, as the other nodded, holding up two fingers. The farthest two kayakers along the beach would be picked up first, then we'd pick up ours, with the nearest two trespassers at the front being picked up last . . . if nothing else so the trespassers didn't kick the others in their group behind them with their flailing feet as we hoisted them into the air. We Berk Dragon Riders were just that considerate.
Quickly glancing back down at the village, curiously I saw Árvekni down there on the ground this time, watching us and apparently waiting for our return next to Chief Roald. For the first time, I began to feel something for that intimidating dragon. He wouldn't normally be missing out on a mission like this. Maybe more than just a limp was catching up with the old warrior and guardian. I made a mental note to ask Roana to check him out afterwards, and invite him to dinner tonight.
I then noticed Nadder, Nightmare, Zippleback and Gronkle riders further back in our upward spiral, who would be picking up the kayakers' boats and gear, now had their left fists raised. The two riders immediately behind us then raised their left fists, as we all circled over the valley one more time before crossing the southern range of mountains. Roana and I quickly held up our left fists as the riders in front of us soon did as well. Instruction hand signals had passed from front to back along our two columns, and now fists were being raised in readiness from back to front—all in silence. Even in such large numbers, our Dragon Riders remained a smooth, coordinated force. I couldn't help the feeling of admiration and pride rising within me now. But while interceptions had become routine to me in the recent past, with Árvekni approving Roana and I returning to occasional patrol duty, always still accompanied by two other riders—this time I found myself nervous.
Our leaders on Night Furies now broke out of our upward spiral, leading us over the southern mountaintops. They slowed in the air though as over half of us began descending below them. In these situations, our dragons were focused on where they were flying and aiming towards, and it was up to us riders to watch for the forward sweep of our leader's hand and tell our dragons to go by pressing both our legs against their necks.
Both Roana and I looked up, seeming to wait for an eternity in the air off the mountainsides to the west of the beach. We were fast running out of the protruding ridge that would hide us from view of the beach though—just a few more seconds before we would become visible to the intruders.
Then there it was . . . the forward sweep of our leader's hand now high and directly above us. All of our riders swept our left arms forward as well to make sure the rest of the force saw the signal, as I then pressed both my legs firmly against Substance's neck. Both she and Rökkr drew their wings in as we plunged into attack dives at forty-five degree down angles, following the two Night Furies and Riders ahead of us and aiming for a reference point just in front of our interceptees on the beach.
At just the right instant, both our dragons began pulling up out of the dive and levelling off. I looked ahead as the pair of Night Furies in front of us rapidly picked up the farthest trespassers on the beach—one, two—just like that. Then, as I was slammed by g-forces down hard into the saddle, Rökkr and Substance swiftly picked up our interceptees right at the bottom of their arcs as they climbed back up into the air again, spiralling away from the island. I gave a quick glance behind me as the Night Fury pair of Dragons and Riders behind us then picked up the last two remaining kayakers on the beach. Only a few seconds had elapsed, and our team had retrieved every kayaker we had been assigned. Thankfully there were no escapees to be chased down with a second attempt.
I then glanced at Roana and Rökkr with their interceptee dangling below them, who was wearing a fairly oblong camouflage green backpack. I then finally looked at the passenger Substance was carrying below me, who was wearing one as well. This relatively young, pale-skinned man with short-cropped brown hair seemed to be struggling a little as Substance firmly gripped his right upper arm with her right forepaw. He just thankfully was not screaming in terror. But maybe that wasn't such a good sign, as it wasn't all that normal. I launched into my spiel anyway.
"You have entered a forbidden reserve. We will be setting you down in just a moment," I almost sighed in English as we flew over the southern mountains and our valley came into view. This man certainly didn't seem to need much reassurance.
"Danke," the man simply said in an odd kind of German, as he reached with his free left hand under the collar of his blue chambray shirt to what seemed like a black t-shirt underneath.
I now looked down cautiously.
"Just itch," my interceptee excused in English as he saw me looking at him. But it wasn't a normal German accented English.
Oh my God, I now thought as I now briefly looked forward. "Efni, lyfting honum svo ek geta ná til hans bringa," I now quietly but urgently asked my dragon in Norse.
Substance dutifully hoisted him closer to me, and I now reached down and shoved my right hand under his shirt against the t-shirt where he had 'itched' himself. Just under t-shirt, even under the skin of his right front shoulder, barely perceptible, I felt a hard square implanted, with one raised button on it.
Our force had likely made a critical mistake in picking up these trespassers at all.
The first Dragon Riders were already setting their interceptees down on the ground however, right in the middle of our village, as Nadders and Nightmares were setting down the first of their kayaks right beside them.
I had to think fast. "You're right, just an itch," I said, withdrawing my hand, trying to hide what I had discovered about my passenger now. I surveyed the scene as Substance and I now approached to set our interceptee down. "Efni, setti hann nitur í sundur frá ötrum, metal þorpsbúa okkar á vinstri," I quickly directed.
Substance now flapped, braking in the air as she set our interceptee down among some surprised villagers apart from the other kayakers. She then aimed the two of us towards a patch of open grass nearby. I now feared our guests might be able to understand Norse as well as English, so I couldn't risk tipping them off with my realization, as I looked for Árvekni and Roald with the intention of alerting them apart from my interceptee and any of the other kayakers.
Substance landed and I got off her. "Halda aftur af honum þar," I instructed the villagers as they held my trespasser nearby where he was, fortunately restraining his arms so he could not further touch or activate whatever that device was I had detected under his skin. "Komdu," I then said to my dragon, motioning her to walk with me as I set off across the commons towards Árvekni and Roald as the final interceptees were now being set down on the ground by our other Dragons and Riders.
"Lance, what is it?" Roana said as she rushed to catch up beside me. She could read I was troubled from a mile away now.
"Did your interceptee itch himself?" I urgently asked as we walked through a crowd of villagers drawn in by all that was going on.
"No, why?" she replied.
I had been targeted. Through those devices implanted in their shoulders, I now presumed that my interceptee was informing the others that he had found me with his 'itch', likely through triggering silent vibrations in those implants, which might also be capable of sending a message to the outside via coded radio transmission. That must have been how the previous two agents had been able to get their confirmation they had encountered me to the outside, I now realized—why they were so cooperative in not minding being drugged. It had all been a test run while their satellites must have watched how we intercepted and handled them . . . a damned test run!
They knew I was here now though, and the kayaker I had picked up could identify me. I was just thankful that I blended in as I walked through the crowd, looking like other village men with a goatee and longer hair along with my village clothing. I no longer really bore much of a resemblance to my old pictures on the outside.
But before I could even utter a word about any of this back to Roana, I and everyone else then heard one word yelled. "Syeĭchas!"
That word wasn't German though . . . it was Russian.
Machine gun fire, even explosions, then seemed to erupt all around us. Substance immediately took to the air behind me, grabbing me with her claws and quickly drawing me tight against her chest and abdomen with all four of her legs. I lost sight of Roana.
"Let me up!" I now shouted to my dragon in English amid the weapons fire as I tried to get out of her grasp and up into the saddle. But Substance continued holding me where I was beneath her with an iron grip that I couldn't fight if I tried. She was flying me up and away from village now.
"We need to help the fight!" I urged. But Substance was only flying me higher towards the mountaintops along the south ridge. A combined deathly roar of gunfire, explosions and dragon blasts continued erupting behind us, but I couldn't see what was going on, and I realized no one down in the village could see me either.
I managed to look around a little and saw a number of dragons now independently flying in almost a swarm surrounding Substance and I, both towards the peak we were headed for, and breaking off to other mountaintops as well. My dragon then flew us amid the trees of one forested mountaintop, finally setting me down on the ground before landing almost on top of me as I scrambled out of the way and back to my feet.
"What's going on, Substance?" I almost demanded. "We're Dragon and Rider, Knights no less. We should be in that fight, not fleeing it!"
I was now interrupted by both the cessation of gunfire down in the village, and an announcement on a bullhorn . . . in two languages. "Hættu! Vit höfum sprengju, öflugur nógur til at fletja þetta þorp. Stop! We have a bomb, powerful enough to flatten this village."
Amid a now heartrending carnage of a number of humans and dragons, I saw that the kayakers also had compact submachine guns at the heads of a village man and woman forced down on their knees, whom I didn't recognize from such a distance.
"Setjast á jörtina! Vopn bak höftum þitt! Sit on the ground! Arms behind your heads!" the apparent leader of the trespassers continued on the bullhorn. "Hver af þér er Lance Hyse? Which of you is Lance Hyse?"
I closed my eyes as my stomach sunk. I knew I couldn't surrender myself to them, but I couldn't just watch this go on either.
"Substance . . . we have to fight," I quietly said as I gazed in shock at the spectacle unfolding below us.
"No," I now heard in a deep voice that was not human.
I snapped around, looking at Substance as she now gazed at me. "Not fight alone. Remember knight oath," she said by herself to my amazement.
"Know when to fight . . . and when not to," I remembered, looking to one side. "But the others," I said, trying to overcome my disbelief that she was speaking English to me for the first time.
"Others also here," she replied as she and I looked at several dragons now gathered around us.
"They flew cover . . . for our escape," I realized, "so it looked like you were escaping with other dragons, without your rider."
"Yes," she simply replied. "This was plan. At least one elder, one knight escape."
"And we were it," I said, looking to one side, realizing what was going on. "What about Roana, and Rökkr?" I then asked.
"This for all now," Substance replied. "We go, get help. We only free leaders."
I knew she was right.
We and the other dragons then heard a couple of gunshots echo across the valley from the village. "Framleita Lance Hyse, eta fleiri munu deyja! Produce Lance Hyse, or more will die!" the Russian accented voice on the bullhorn demanded.
Among the surrendered villagers sitting down on the commons grass with their hands behind their heads, I then saw one I recognized as a fellow Dragon Rider, from the harness he was wearing, raise his hand. "I Lance Hyse," he said loudly in his best Norse-accented English as he proceeded to slowly rise and step towards the gun-wielding kayakers.
I briefly closed my eyes tightly, lowering my head. That villager was taking my place, stalling for time and sparing others. I had a terrible apprehension of what they would do to him when they determined he wasn't really me. It began to sink in though why he was sacrificing himself for me.
I then felt a nudging at my thigh, but it wasn't Substance. It was the young Night Fury I had been playing soccer with, my friend. The young dragon looked at me, gesturing with his head east, off and away from our island.
Feeling deeply conflicted, I knelt before him, taking his face into my hands. "Fyrir þig, mun ek fara. For you, I will go," I finally said. "En ek mun snúa aftur. But I will return. Og ek mun vera at leita at þér. And I will be looking for you. Fyrir því drekar."
The young dragon nodded before he moved to nudge me tightly, as I embraced his head. We then parted, looking at each other as I climbed onto Substance's saddle. My dragon and I then took off alone as the other dragons stayed behind amid our mountains and kept watch.
This was war now, and Substance and I both had a job to do . . . survive.