Wow. 7 Reviews in one day for Chapter 28. Most chapters don't get that many reviews over the course of a week! And even better, the traffic map finally listed 400. That's the highest this story has ever gotten. Thanks everyone!
And I would very much like to thank the guest who gave me that very long review. I found it very touching and insightful.
But I've got a problem: excluding the revision each chapter is subjected to, I have only a chapter and a half left to write to complete this story, and I don't feel any motivation to write it!
If anyone finds parts of this chapter confusing, the author's note at the end will hopefully clear things up!
Chapter 29
The Alpha
Hiccup and Toothless stepped quickly down the tunnel. Toothless had to lead, because it was so dark Hiccup could not see, and he had lost Inferno in his fall. The tunnel was barely large enough to accommodate Toothless; if he were half a meter wider or taller he would have hit the walls. Much of the walls and floor were smooth and worn down, clearly indicating this tunnel had been used by something frequently.
They had lost sight of the Night Fury, but as there was only one way to go they knew they would catch up to it soon enough. Then all of a sudden the tunnel gave way to a larger cavern, and they found 10 black dragons right in front of them, mouths opened and wings lifted menacingly.
This probably would have been the end for Hiccup if he had been alone, for the Night Furies had showed no hint of merciful intentions, but the appearance of Toothless sent a wave of surprise and confusion through them. Most looked at each other uncertainly, not knowing what to do. It was one thing to attack a human intruder, but when the intruder was accompanied by a fellow Night Fury, and one that was behaving very protectively at that, that was something they had no idea how to react to.
Toothless and Hiccup were likewise astonished. Until this day, neither of them had ever seen so many Night Furies, and they were more than a little unsure of how to approach them. Would the usual methods for approaching a dragon work here? But they realized that their only way out was back through the tunnel, so they held their ground and waited, ready to back up if needed.
Finally one Night Fury, the largest of the group, came forward a little ways. "Who are you and what are you doing here?" She spoke to Toothless, "Why were you chasing my plorip? What is that umanu doing with you?"
Under different circumstances, Hiccup would have joked "which question do you want me to answer first?" but he said nothing. Toothless eyed the Night Fury who had addressed him. She was a bit larger than he was, and looked fairly older.
"Apologies about your…what was it?" Toothless said at last, with carefully chosen words.
"My plorip! The Notoraquin whose egg I laid and hatched, you inferior minded fish!"
"I think she means her daughter, bud," Hiccup muttered.
"Oh…well, like I said, sorry about that. And the human is a friend. We came here searching for you, and my name is Toothless."
The Night Furies snorted. "'Toothless'?" One of them repeated scornfully, "What kind of identification is that? Did the umanu give it to you?"
"If by 'umanu' you mean 'human', As a matter of fact, he did," Toothless turned to Hiccup and muttered, "Keep quiet for the moment, all right?"
"Is it some kind of enforcer?" one asked anxiously, "Did it enslave you? Hold on, we'll set you free!"
Hiccup raised his hands. "Now just hold on a minute! Toothless isn't enslaved by anyone!"
"So much for keeping quiet," Toothless groaned. The Night Furies were horrified.
"It can understand us?"
"It can speak our tongue?"
"If I got paid for how many times I got asked that," Hiccup muttered.
"Silence!" the largest Night Fury snapped.
"Shall we attack them, Menomem?" one of the Night Furies asked.
She looked like she wanted them to, but held her temper. "The Alepha will want to know of this. He shall decide their fates."
"Or she'll decide it for him," one Night Fury whispered to another, who nodded in agreement.
"What was that?" Menomem shouted, but everyone stood perfectly still. "Take them to the Alepha, now!"
As they moved through the cavern Hiccup got to observe the Night Furies more attentively. For the most part they were all about the same size as Toothless, give or take a few cubits. Even the one called Menomem was not much larger than him. He noticed their eyes were not the bright forest green that Toothless had, but more of a muted and bluish green. Most of them had small spines running down their backs, and, Hiccup could not help but notice many of them looked a bit overweight. Whereas Toothless was very muscular, they looked more pudgy and plump. It was not evident in some of them, for instance Menomen and another named Sclepus looked very fit, but the rest reminded him of humans who did not exercise regularly. It was not quite what he expected Night Furies to look like.
And yet, there was unmistakable power and pride in all of them. It was evident they knew they were Night Furies and were proud of being part of such a species. The way they moved, held their heads, raised their legs, moved their tails, these all carried an aura of self importance and superiority. He had seen it in Toothless on occasion. Hiccup could not help but feel he was in the midst of Dragon royalty, and would not have been surprised if they saw themselves that way.
The passages were all pitch black. Toothless had to light up his mouth so Hiccup could see where they were walking, something the other dragons disapproved of but saw the wisdom behind it.
And then they stopped. Hiccup looked around and guessed they were in an immense cavern, though he had no idea how large. He could see only the dimmest outlines of dragons where the light from Toothless did not reach. A Night Fury, who he supposed to be Menomem, stepped forward.
"Alepha, we bring trespassers," she said in an authoritative voice.
"Trespassers? You woke me up for something that boring?" someone responded impatiently, "get rid of them and let me sleep!"
The other dragons looked uneasy. "Forgive me, my Alepha, but perhaps you should take a closer look at this for yourself. One of the…'trespassers' is a Notoraquin," said one of them.
"So?"
Menomem moved in the direction of the voice. "So," she growled softly, though everyone easily heard it, "you should take a look at him and find out how there is a Notoraquin outside of the flock, and why he brings an umanu with him!"
"And why they were chasing your plorip," another added.
"Be quiet, Nikalean," scowled Menomem, "Well, Alepha? Will you grace us with your presence and honor us with your wisdom?"
"Oh fine," the dragon grumbled. Hiccup heard the sound of claws on stone. Slowly a new Night Fury came into view and Hiccup and Toothless saw the Alpha of Dragons for the first time.
And were unimpressed. Hiccup had to remind himself that appearances were deceiving and one should not judge based on them. He had been living proof of that. Still, it was hard to be underwhelmed by the sight of the Alpha. He was smaller than Toothless and probably younger, and looked very plump. His legs resembled stretched out potatoes, especially when compared to Toothless's, his tail was short and stubby, and his wings were ragged, thin, and limp, clearly showing a lack of usage.
A much larger and more muscular dragon stood beside him, eyeing them like a tiger eyeing a buck. The Alpha looked at them only half interestedly, and said impatiently, "Well? Speak up! Who are you two and what do you want? Whatever it is, see my hoah about it and leave your Alepha in peace!"
Menomen nudged him in the tail. "And what were you doing chasing my plorip?" he added sulkily.
"Where is Radamar, anyway?" one Night Fury whispered to another.
"Menomen told my mate to watch her while we investigated," the other returned.
Hiccup stepped forward, his hands up, "I'm sorry for any—"
"You will bow when you speak to me!" the Alpha cried, "I am the Alepha! I command you all, bow!"
Every dragon bowed at once, even Toothless. Hiccup looked around, a bit amused.
"Why doesn't that thing bow upon my command?" the Alpha demanded, "What is it, anyway?"
"It's an umanu," growled Menomen, "You know what those are,"
"Of course I do! I was only testing everyone else!" the Alpha said hastily.
"And it does not bow upon command, my Alepha, because, as you know, only dragons obey your commands instinctively,"
"And why is that?" the Alpha demanded.
"Obviously because Night Furies are much more important creatures and humans are not worthy of your time and efforts," Toothless said quickly. Hiccup at once fell onto his knees. "I apologize for his shortcomings, Alpha. These humans are so dense that orders have to be repeated a few times before they respond. And he is just so awed by your presence his mind was not reacting to anything else."
The Alpha looked pleased. "Really?"
The Dragon next to him snorted. "Lies! We all know what those creatures are like! Sniveling, murderous, conniving worms, the lot of them! I'll bet this one's here to kill you, my Alepha!"
The Alpha was alarmed, but Hiccup quickly put a hand up. "We are here for no such thing! We only wanted to have a look at the Alpha, and to find other Night Furies!"
"What are Night Furies?" one dragon asked, "We are the Notoraquin!"
"And what's an Alpha? It's pronounced 'Alepha',"
"Why have you been looking for the Alepha?" the Dragon next to the Alpha demanded. "Tell him now or I will make you!"
"Oh calm down, Agaruba, and let them talk!" exclaimed the dragon named Sclepus. Then in a gentler tone he said "But he is right, and we would all like to know how it is that there's a Notoraquin here who does not belong to our nest. Right, my Alepha?"
"Err…of course! Well? Speak up!"
As disarmingly and succinctly as he could, Toothless explained that he had hatched alone, with no other Night Furies present. He hastily added that the term Night Fury was what Vikings called their species. He then revealed that throughout his life he had been searching for his own kind (to a certain extent, but they did not need to know the full details). So when he had learned that this was the Isle of Night, he had come to search it.
The dragons by and large sympathized with him, and understood that end of the story easily.
"Hatchling alone, that must have been difficult."
"Murderous umanu, they probably killed your kalk and hoah before you hatched!"
"Impressive that you've survived on your own,"
"And he's quite a fine example of our race, wouldn't you say?"
"Except he hasn't been on his own," the one named Agagruba growled, "have you forgotten the umanu?"
They had not, and that meant a longer explanation which proved much harder for them to swallow. Toothless glossed over certain details, like who had shot his tailfin off, and he completely left out anything about returning to Berk. As far as these Night Furies knew, Toothless and Hiccup had run away years ago and had been in the wilderness ever since, nor did they know that the two had brought others to the island.
"But how did an umanu get this close to our island without us knowing it?" asked a female.
"The Alepha knew and simply decided not to inform you, Kalitalavook," replied her mate, "there is nothing odd about that. The Alepha can sense the presence of any dragon whenever and wherever he wishes,"
"Why of course I can!" the Alpha cried proudly, "Thomaingot is right! I knew all about this Notoraquin, but I have been trained to keep my innermost thoughts to myself!"
"Really?" Hiccup said, "So it's true then? You can command any dragon at any moment wherever you are?"
"Of course he can!" Menomen snapped, "He's the Alepha! Every dragon bows to him and does whatever he desires."
"Pardon my curiosity," Toothless said carefully. He knew what Hiccup wanted to ask and he felt it would be more respected if the question came from a dragon. "But a decade ago I was under the control of a tyrannical Beta. All of us there often wondered why the Alpha…err…Alepha, I mean…why did the Alepha not tell the Beta to stop eating us?"
"Are you accusing the Alepha of inaction?" demanded one of the Night Furies, and the others at once got down on their hunches and growled.
"Not at all! I'm merely wondering why my nest suffered so much, when the Alpha—sorry, Alepha—could simply have ordered the Beta to stop." Toothless tried to keep his tone gentle, but in vain.
"If you dare to insult me again, I—I shall—!"
"Stop it!" shouted one of the Night Furies in the back of the group. Hiccup recognized her as the one they had followed into the caverns. "Vav, he asks a reasonable question."
"Radamar, keep quiet," Menomen growled. "What are you doing here? I told you to stay put! I'm going to have a word with Monarvom about this!"
"My hoah, I want to know too! If there are other nests out there that are suffering, why aren't we doing anything?"
Menomen growled again. "Always thinking of the outside world as if it matters." She turned to Hiccup and Toothless. "And to answer your question, the Alepha can sense and command any dragon he choose to, but only when he choose to. If he does not desire it, it will not happen. As for your nest, answer me something first: was it a nest of Notoraquin?"
Toothless shook his head. "I was the only one. The rest were dragons of all kinds. The ones unlucky enough to get caught by the Red Death."
Menomen had shown some concern at first, but as soon as she learned the nest contained no other Night Furies she let her lack of interest show. "Oh. Well then, I'm sorry for the losses, but that's how it is at times."
"At least there weren't any Notoraquin being eaten," another agreed.
Toothless looked ready to start arguing, but Hiccup made a quick motion to urge him not to. They were outnumbered nearly 7 to 1 at the moment, and had no idea how many others might be hiding in this subterranean world.
"If you ask me," another female said, "what matters most now is what we're going to do with these two?"
"Just what I was going to suggest, Nikalean," Agaruba said approvingly, "Now, with the Notoraquin—what's your name, anyway?"
"I told you. It's Toothless."
"No, no, what is your real name?"
Toothless eyed him in annoyance. "That is my real name."
"But it's not a proper Notoraquin name!" argued Nikalean.
"It's not really a proper name to any culture," Hiccup remarked lightly, "it just sort of ended up sticking with him,"
Nobody listened. Instead the one named Kalitalavook said "How about 'Emaracluse'? That's a dignified name that would suit you just—"
"My name is Toothless."
"Not anymore!" the Alpha announced, "I have spoken! Now, my hoah, my plorip, why don't you find Emaracluse a den?"
"And what about the umanu?" Agaruba demanded.
"Kill it," Menomen said as if it was obvious.
"NO!" Toothless shouted. Simultaneously Radamar cried the same thing, much to everyone's surprise.
"What is the meaning of this?" demanded Menomen, "You would speak out against your own hoah?"
"And her Alepha! Radamar, what is the matter with you? Are you trying to undermine my authority?"
"I mean," Radamar said nervously, trying to recover the initiative, "shouldn't we keep him alive until we can learn more? What if he's secretly got an army nearby, and they're waiting for his signal before attacking? How did he find us? What else does he know? How did he enslave Tooth—Emaracluse? Shouldn't we find out these things first?"
"She has a point," Agaruba grimaced, "And I would certainly no object to spending a little time with this thing,"
Hiccup's hands began to shake. People only used that tone when they intended to do something horrible to someone else.
"What can an umanu possible tell us that we don't already know?" demanded Menomen, "But he could tell his own kind about us and they'd come here and wipe us out. We'll kill him and ask Emaracluse your questions, my plorip." She turned to the Alpha impatiently, "Now, may I?"
The Alpha shrugged. "Go ahead, my hoah."
"WHAT?" Toothless yelled, lunging in front of Hiccup, who had pulled out his shield.
"Get away from him," the Alpha ordered, "Don't worry, Emaracluse, we'll soon have you freed from his control."
"But he's not controlling me—!"
"And be quiet for now, all of you."
Toothless had no choice but to move away and stop talking.
"Toothless?" Hiccup called nervously. Menomen opened her mouth. "Now look, if we just talked this over, I can prove that I'm not—"
She spat plasma at him. Hiccup instinctively moved his shield and deflected it.
The Night Furies looked stunned. Menomen regained her composure and fired again. Hiccup blocked it and sent the plasma shooting into the wall. She tried twice more in quick succession from different angles, but he blocked them both.
Menomen would have attacked him with her claws and teeth at this, or suggest others join her and blast him together, but the Alpha suddenly held up his tail. "How can this be? Our shots can penetrate anything! What is that thing you're holding?"
"It's a shield, my Alpha," Hiccup said, not taking his eyes off Menomen.
"May I see it?"
"If you don't mind, I'd rather not, unless you—"
"Oh, of course. Hoah, don't hurt him. Nobody hurts him for now, understood?" he looked around waiting for an answer. "Oh, do I always have to give orders around here? You're all free to speak."
"Good! Now why are you letting this thing live?" shouted Agaruba, "just blast it from both sides and get it over with!"
"Over my dead body!" Toothless bellowed.
"That can be arranged," the other snarled. But every other Night Fury, including Menomen, shook their heads vigorously and shouted "The First Law!"
"I believe it is the Alpha's turn to speak!" Hiccup said loudly. "Sorry, I mean Alepha,"
"Of course it is!" the Alpha said, "now, this shield of yours—what else can it block?"
"Pretty much everything that's been fired at it. Arrows, blasts from other dragons, spears, swords, tail spines…"
"And pomegranates," Toothless added, hoping to reduce the tension a little, "remember those fruit pickers we ran into passing through Italy?" They laughed but the Night Furies looked confused.
"What are pomegranates?" one asked.
"They're a kind of fruit," Hiccup said.
"Fruit?"
Hiccup realized that these Dragons had probably never paid attention to such things before. After all, they did not eat them and no fruit grew down in these caverns, so such knowledge was beyond their reach and use.
"They're these squishy, round, and juicy things that grow on trees. We humans and other animals like to eat them. And I know of some dragons that do too!"
"Never mind them," the Alpha's mother said impatiently, "Alepha, what is it about the shield that you are so interested in?"
"Think about it, hoah, if I had scales like that, I'd be invincible! Well, umanu? Can you put that shield onto my body or something?"
"You want a suit of armor?" Hiccup asked. "Certainly, that's feasible, except…well this is made from Gronkle Iron. I'd need a Gronkle,"
"What's a Gronkle? Never mind. If it's a dragon, I can summon one right now!" the Alpha cried, but his mother shook her head at once.
"No! Our nest must stay secret! And inferior species have no right to come here!"
Hiccup frowned. "'Inferior'?"
"Yes, inferior." She snapped, "I suppose I should not expect a mere umanu to understand. But the Notoraquin are the greatest species of dragons to exist. They have furnished the Alepha for generations. They must endure at all costs."
"Even if it means hiding out in a cave forever?" Hiccup said incredulously.
"As I said, I should not expect a mere umanu to understand."
"But I want armor that strong, hoah! I want to be invincible!"
"You already are invincible, as long as you stay where it is safe. Where we are safe." she said firmly.
"But I still want that kind of armor! I want it!" he looked at Hiccup eagerly, "Does it have to be Gronkle—whatever that stuff is, does it have to be that? Couldn't a Notoraquin produce even better stuff?"
Hiccup looked at Toothless who merely shrugged. "It's possible. We won't know until we try, of course,"
"Good, than you shall try!" the Alpha said, "You will make me a suit of armor that will make me invincible! Then we'll kill you. I have spoken!"
His mother and Agabruba especially looked displeased but saw little chance of changing the Alpha's mind for the moment.
"Where shall we put the umanu than?" Sclepus asked.
"Oh find him a den, I don't care. This is tiring me out. I'm going to go back to sleep." The Alpha said impatiently, "Well, umanu, I expect to see my armor tomorrow."
"But I can't have it ready in a single day!" Hiccup yelled after the retreating Alpha, "I don't even have the materials to make anything!"
The Alpha groaned. "Why do they always bring problems to me? Talk to someone about it, I'm going back to sleep."
"Where should your…'friend' stay?" Asked Radamar uncertainly. She, her mother, and Toothless were walking down another passage, with Hiccup beside them.
"With me, of course," Toothless said severely.
"Nonsense," Menomen snapped, "I won't have some filthy umanu in a Notoraquin den. Put it in that chamber over there. I'm sure it'll be comfortable enough,"
Toothless looked ready to argue but Hiccup put a hand up. "Let's submit, Bud—for now," he added in a whisper.
Toothless turned to the other Night Furies. "I'd like a word with him alone."
"Anything you have to say to it can be said—"
"I said alone."
Now Menomen looked ready to argue. Radamar quickly said "Hoah, let them have one last word together. What harm can it do?"
Menomen turned away with a scowl. "We'll be over here. Join us when you're done, but don't take too long!"
"Sheesh, Mala's friendlier than that one," Hiccup said, "If I'd known your ego was small in comparison to the rest of your species we'd have stayed home."
For a fleeting moment Toothless gave his namesake's smile. "Look, we'd better be quick. Whatever plans you come up with, don't let me in on them, all right? For all we know, the Alpha could read my mind and discover them. Or he could give me orders and I'd have to obey them. But I won't talk if I can't talk."
"And what if he orders you to never leave this island?" Hiccup's voice trembled slightly.
"We'll have to find a way to change his mind in that case, I guess," Toothless said quickly, "Or we'll have make sure he never has to give such—see, that's what I mean, you say something and we start making plans about it. You can't share anything with me now, Hiccup. For both our sakes."
"I know," Hiccup said grimly as he took his gear off of the Dragon's back.
Toothless looked at him proudly. "You've already got a plan in mind, don't you? Your brain always was faster than your legs."
"But not as fast as my body in freefall,"
"Ugh, don't remind me of those. But as I was saying, don't let me know your plans. The Alpha might force me to spoil them."
"I know. But what about—?" he gestured upwards. "Any chance you could send a mental message to you-know-who without anyone knowing?"
"Not likely. And if they find out we've got more—"
"They'll probably tear every human to pieces, yes, I get it." Hiccup shifted his weight. "So we're on our own, it seems."
"Are you done yet?" Menomem shouted impatiently.
"'Are you done yet'?" Toothless muttered in a high pitched voice, "Are you done saying goodbye to your best friend for the time being? Oh pardon me, I only want to talk with him to exchange scents! Oh do excuse me, I'm off to the Roman Circus!"
"You don't talk like that normally," Hiccup sniggered.
"This is hardly a normal situation." Toothless replied dryly.
"Now that sounds like something I'd say,"
Toothless gave him a quick lick. "Take care of yourself. I'll try to see you when I can. And remember, they can't hurt you unless the Alpha changes his mind, but still…just don't give him any reason to change it, all right?"
"I get to make a shield from nothing and you get to spend time with old sourpuss. This isn't what I expected when I thought of finding Night Furies, you know."
"Me neither," Toothless turned away, "All right, all right, I'm coming!"
Hiccup's 'chamber' resembled a tunnel that had been started and abruptly abandoned. He had not expected any comforts in it and he was not disappointed. It was just rocks and darkness. It reminded him of the cell in Spain where Adoncia had tortured him, and his hands twitched.
"Actually, I think that cell was even more luxurious," he muttered, "that at least had some straw and walls you could actually see. This is just…nothing."
Mostly by touch, he put his gear in a corner, unrolled his sleeping pad while praying there were no cockroaches underneath it, and sat down to think.
First he thought of the terms he had heard, trying to make sense of them. 'Alepha' and 'umanu' he gathered meant 'Alpha' and 'human', and he guessed 'hoah' meant 'mother.' The way Menomem had talked to the Alpha, or Alepha, he reminded himself, implied that she was probably his mother. As for the other words he had heard, judging by the context in which they were used, 'plorip' seemed to mean 'sister', or perhaps daughter, or maybe both. That would make Radamar the Alpha's sister, so 'Vav' would mean brother, and 'Kalk' might mean 'father'.
"This Night Fury vocabulary is pretty interesting. Oh right, it's not Night Fury, it's Notoraquin," he reminded himself, "I wonder where they came up with that one. And they didn't know what a Gronkle was? I suppose a nest that's been in hiding for so long would have different words from other dragons, but still…how long have they been in hiding? And how long are we going to be hiding?" his thoughts turned to Astrid and the others. Good Gods, was it not even a few hours ago that Snotlout had pushed him into that ravine? It already felt like ages. And what would happen when they realized he and Toothless were missing?
"A better question is what will happen if the Alpha realizes there are other dragons with 'umanu' on this island," he thought darkly, "Astrid and Snotl—well, Astrid doesn't have a shield like mine. I wonder why she never wanted one. Evidently that lesson of Gobber's didn't sink in enough." He snorted but was not really in a humorous mood.
A barely visible shadow descended in front of him and Hiccup found himself face to face with a Night Fury again.
"What are you thinking about?" Agaruba asked menacingly.
"Dragon friends of mine in the outside world, who will probably miss me sooner or later,"
"And are these 'friends' here?"
"I have no idea," Hiccup said truthfully.
Agaruba moved so his nose was almost touching Hiccup's face. His breath smelled foul. "Now you listen, umanu. My duty is to protect Salistus, this nest, and my kind, and I am going to do just that. Salistus might want you alive for the moment, but the instant he changes his mind—and he can easily be persuaded to do so—I will have no qualms about ending you, regardless of what that newcomer says or thinks."
"I'm guessing Salistus is the Alpha's real name?"
"He's the Alepha, but I should not expect an umanu to know the proper word for anything related to my kind. You understand nothing but your own desires."
Hiccup raised an eyebrow. "And you don't?"
Agaruba might have killed him then and there if not for his orders. "Heed my warning, umanu. If I get one hint that you're planning something, I will tell Salistus without waiting. One wrong move and it will be the last thing you ever do—except scream when my teeth pierce your ribs."
Hiccup smiled grimly. "I've been threatened many times, Agaruba. You know what I've found? Threats are harmless if you can't back them up."
"And I can." Agaruba spat and turned away.
"And has he ever actually hurt anything?" Hiccup asked lightly, but he sensed Agaruba could indeed back up his threats. Physically speaking the dragon certainly had the advantage. That meant Hiccup's safety depended on keeping the Alpha amused.
"Well that shouldn't be too hard—I hope,"
He was aware he did not know the whole story, but from what he had seen the current Alpha looked like nothing more than a spoiled brat; a kid put on the throne by ambitious nobles to serve as their puppet. He could not help but think of the Bewilderbeast. When he thought how that magnificent creature aspired to live up to the standards an Alpha should have, and compared it to the real Alpha, he almost felt sick.
And the other Night Furies seemed little better. How long had they been hiding down here, sitting comfortably in their cave while the rest of the world had bled and starved? Probably 400 years, he thought darkly. He guessed the last known Alpha had gone into hiding with the rest of his species, and they had probably been hiding ever since. And because no Alpha had bothered to exercise their power, the Red Death had been able to become a tyrant and began a 300 year war with the Vikings in the area. And because no Alpha had bothered to exercise their power, there had been no way to stop the Razorwhip from ordering the destruction of the Sanctuary last year.
These thoughts were making him grow angry and he felt justified. He still blamed himself for a lot of what had happened in the war with Drago Bludvist, but even so, those lives and many hundreds more might never have been lost if the Alpha had actually acted like an Alpha.
"So they hid from the world and left me to clean up the mess."
Author's Note on the Night Furies:
In early development the Night Furies were going to be named after celestial objects like stars and constellations. This was because Radamar was originally named Aurora and she was the only named Night Fury at the time. While this concept would work just fine in other stories, the more I thought about it the more I realized it was out of place in this one. A society that has been avoiding the rest of the world for centuries would never use human terms for names, and giving them original names would further separate them from other dragons. So every Night Fury got a completely made up name, and the only rule was the first and last letters had to be the same.
Similarly, I decided that they should have some of their own words which no other dragons use, and that some words should have grown altered over the course of centuries. That is why these dragons call the Alpha 'Alpeha'. The way I see it, at first they said 'Alpha' but over time they started pronouncing it differently and since nobody was around to correct them, the alteration became their standard usage.
Here is the page I created and consulted while writing these chapters:
Night Fury—Notoraquin
Mother—Hoah
Father—Kalk
Sister/daughter—Plorip
Brother/son—Vav
Alpha—Alepha
Human—umanu
You will note that that two Night Fury terms have multiple meanings. That is because the Night Furies use different pitches to express the usage. I got the idea from the Navajo language, where they use low and high tones for words that, if transcribed, would have the same spelling. So Menomem and Salistus both may call Radamar "Plorip," but Menomen is saying "daughter" and Salistus is saying "Sister."
