Snart's Saga, Part I Chapter 35
"Hiccup, that's the fourth day in a row the fishing boats have come back almost empty." Stoick shrugged helplessly. "No one knows where all the fish have gone, but... they're gone. I told you yesterday what that means."
"Yes, Dad. We'll need all the fish for the village, with nothing left over for dragons."
"I know how you feel about them, and the Academy, and everything," Stoick said softly. "But we have to put people first; you know that, don't you?"
"Yes. I know that." Hiccup turned and slowly walked up the ramps from the docks to the town's main level.
The Academy was shocked at the news. "But if there's no food, the dragons will leave!" Astrid exclaimed. "We won't be able to train new riders. Even our own dragons might not stay."
"Except for the cripples and the crybabies," Lout chimed in.
"We can't argue with Stoick's thinking," Snart cut in. "One dragon eats more fish in a day than a family of eight."
"Or a family of one, if it's Fishlegs," Lout added.
"We've gone too far with this Academy to just quit!" Fishlegs exclaimed forcefully. "We owe it to our dragons to do something!"
"Like what?" Tuffnut asked. "Put the village on a diet?"
"It's like this," Snart continued. "We need fish, both for us and for our dragons. We used to have plenty of fish; now we don't."
"Yeah, and two plus two is twenty-two, we know all that stuff," Ruffnut interrupted. "Get on with it!"
"So there are two things we can do," Snart went on. "Either we find out where all our fish went, or we find some other place to get fish from. Dragons can help with both of those." He outlined his ideas. Hiccup agreed to take on the first part of his plan, which involved making an offer to the fishermen.
The fishing-boat captains were skeptical. "We're supposed to let a dragon tell us where to fish?"
"Fish can't just disappear," Hiccup explained to them. "They have to be out there somewhere. A person riding a dragon can look straight down into the water, and see a school of fish where someone on a boat might not see them. The dragon rider won't give you orders; they'll just tell you what they see."
"Nobody ever told me where to fish before," another captain grumbled. "We've been fishing this way for seven generations! Can you give me one really good reason why we should change everything?"
"How about, 'the way you're doing it isn't working'? What's more important: to stick with tradition, or to catch fish?" Stony silence was all the answer he got. "Fine. If any of you changes his mind, I'll put a dragon at his boat's disposal. The ones who ask first get the Sea Dragons; they'll be much better at navigation and seafaring. For the rest of you, I wish you luck." Because luck is all you've got, he added mentally. Hiccup turned and left the Mead Hall, leaving the fishing captains to their meeting.
"Any luck?" asked Snart when Hiccup returned to the Academy.
"Not even a nibble," he answered sadly. "Those sailors have to be the most hidebound, stubborn, narrow-minded —"
"They're Vikings. It's a prerequisite for the job," Snart replied. "If we could get just one to change his mind, the others would see the results, and they'd be beating down the door with demands for dragons."
"Can our dragons wait that long?" Astrid wondered. "Maybe we ought to send out the Sea Dragons anyway, just to see how good they are at finding fish. If nothing else, we'll have some solid facts to work with, not guesswork. What do you think, Hiccup?"
"Astrid, pick a couple of your best and send them out to look for schools of fish. Don't leave us short-handed if a storm blows up."
"I'm on it," she answered, and left quickly.
"Snart, I guess it's time for you to try out your Plan B," Hiccup continued. "Do you want anyone to go with you?"
"Maybe I'll take Fishlegs," Snart mused. "He's never been to Machen before, and the more of us who know the way, the better. What do you think, Fishlegs?"
"Oooh, I'd love to! Meatlug seriously needs some exercise."
"It wouldn't do you any harm either," Snotlout commented. That did it. Snart made a hand signal to his dragon, and a green Nadder tail shot up, spines erect, aimed at Snotlout. Lout suddenly went quite pale.
"One more comment like that," Snart said mildly, "and everyone will have to call you Spike. Do you mind that?"
"Uhhh... n- n- no offense," Lout stammered.
"Good," nodded Snart. "We'll be gone all day tomorrow, so you can get any other non-offensive comments out of your system. If you have anything really offensive to say, save it for when we get back, so I can enjoy it when my dragon nails you to the wall. Fishlegs, this will be a day trip; we'll leave at sunrise."
As he got organized that evening, Snart found himself looking forward to the trip a lot more than he thought he would. In particular, he liked the idea of seeing Hildi again.
The Nadder and Gronckle left Berk shortly after sun-up. The harbor was empty; most of the fishing boats were already at sea. They flew north along the rugged coastline.
"Fishlegs, as we fly, keep your eyes open for signs of fish," Snart called.
"I thought the Sea Dragons were doing that," Fishlegs answered.
"They are, but it won't do any harm to help them out a little. We don't know where the fish have gone, and if they're all two days' sailing north of here, our riders will never find them. But we might." They mostly flew in silence; they saw no signs of fish.
When they approached Machen's harbor, they saw many fishing boats there. They circled until Hildi flew up to join them.
"Did I miss a message? I didn't know you were coming," she called.
"No message. We need to talk to your town leaders."
"Follow me in," she nodded, and brought them back to the clearing where Snart and Hiccup had landed last time.
"We're concerned on Berk because the fish have disappeared. All our boats are coming back empty or near-empty. Has that happened here?"
"No, not at all," Hildi answered. "We've got all the fish we can handle, and more. Were you thinking of bringing your dragons up here to feed?"
"No, that's not our plan. For one thing, it's not fair to make your fishermen feed our dragons. For another, we may not have enough for our people, either, and we can't bring the whole village up here. I had another idea, which I'd like to discuss with your chief."
"You mean my stepfather, right? He's going to be busy all day. Once he's seen the fleet home tomorrow morning, he should have some time for you."
"Hmmm," Snart thought out loud. "We were planning to go home tonight. I guess the first question is, is there a place we could spend the night?"
"You might have to spread a blanket in a warehouse, but we can provide the blankets," Hildi answered. "We have no guest house, because we're so remote; travelers rarely stop here. We can certainly offer you food in the Mead Hall... Is your dragon still afraid of being apart from you?"
"Skybaby can live without me for a while, and Meatlug doesn't have any issues."
"Good. Lunch will be served in about an hour. You have the freedom of the town until then. And... it's good to see you again."
As they walked around, Snart noticed Fishlegs scanning his surroundings for something. "Looking for runes that might tell you more about ancient dragons?" he asked.
"No, I'm looking for signs of Terrible Terrors," Fishlegs answered. "We need to send a message to Hiccup, to tell him we won't be home tonight. Oooh, look at the raised foundations of that storehouse! Terrors love resting in places like those." He bent and looked under the building. "Look at 'em all! Come here, cute little dragon! I just want to — OW! He bit me! Thank you for nothing, you useless reptile!" He tried another one, with better results, and the messenger was soon winging south to find Hiccup.
Snart was expecting another chilly welcome in the Mead Hall, but the people there were friendly enough. They became even warmer when he related the news of Tetnuss' defection and Kallous' end, which probably meant no more raids from Hulm. But as they left the hall, Hildi hit him in the arm, very hard. He cried out in spite of himself.
"I'll just go look at these fascinating firewood storage sheds," Fishlegs mumbled, and excused himself.
"I told you once, I hate it when people keep secrets from me!" Hildi exploded when he was out of sight. "When were you planning to tell me that Tetnuss, who was my student, had turned around and gotten right?"
"Honestly, there's been so much going on, it slipped my mind," Snart tried to explain.
"Am I that easy to forget about?"
"Not even close, Hildi! But I have a ton of stuff going through my head all the time. If I told you half the things that have gone on since I first trained you, I doubt you'd believe it."
"Try me," she ordered.
So they walked back to the dragon clearing, where Skybaby was very happy to see him again. They sat in the grass, reclining against their dragons, and Snart talked. He told her about killing the second Red Death, and his poetic retelling of it. He told her about leaving Hulm and being added to the Academy. He told her about operating on the Gronckle. He told her about finding Skybaby, and the sea rescue the following day. He told her about the Berserker raid, and Dagur's death. He told her about the egg-hatching island — she had plenty of questions about that. He told her about Boartooth and the ring around the dragon's neck. He told her about the renegade Skrill. He told her about the Norpi riders. He filled in more details about Tetnuss.
Finally, he paused. She nodded. "I have missed a lot, haven't I? I really had no idea you were that busy. And always with great things, too."
"Ha! Hildi, well over half my time is taken up with very minor things. Who owns this dragon, who's going to clean up after that dragon, one petty thing after another."
She laid one hand on his. "I'm sorry I hit you... that hard. But I still think you should have told me about Tetnuss first."
"You're right, I should have. Like I said, it slipped my mind until the people in the Hall asked me for a tale. So I told them one they could relate to." He looked down at her hand, which was still on his, then back up at her. "Something else you told me once is that you're stronger than you look, and you have a temper. One thing you're not, is a liar." He smiled.
She looked down. "You know my real name is Brunnhilde, right?"
"I kind of figured. It's a good name for a warrior princess, but for a pretty lady... not so much. I'll stick with Hildi."
She suddenly blushed and pulled away. "We ought to find Fishlegs. It's not right to leave him all by himself in a strange village." She rose and ran back toward the village. He followed, more slowly.
Finding Fishlegs wasn't hard. He was with the village storyteller, plying her with questions about anything she'd ever heard about dragons.
They all returned to the Mead Hall for supper. There were many who had eaten lunch in the fields or elsewhere in the village, so Snart got to tell the stories of Tetnuss all over again. They loved the part where he brought the Gronckle down into the sea. When he told about Tetnuss' change of heart, there was much disbelief.
"Why do you believe it when I say I brought down a dragon with a handful of grass, but you don't believe it when I say a man who was good once, then went bad, has gone back to good? Is the second one that much harder to believe than the first one?"
"We'll believe it," said a young fisherman, "when he stands here and apologizes for what he tried to do here." Many agreed with him.
"Then I'll try to arrange that," Snart stated.
As the meal wound down, Germburg came over to Snart's table. "I understand you want to talk to me? I'm sorry I couldn't see you today; I was busy judging property lines and ending a family feud. Can you wait until tomorrow morning? Good. I'm sure Hildi is taking good care of you."
Better care than you realize, Snart thought warmly.
He and Fishlegs spent the night in a building that smelled of beef jerky, with their dragons just outside. After breakfast the next morning, Snart met with Germburg and Rainbit, who was serving as his... (what do you call a right-hand man when she's a woman?) He explained Berk's problem, and his proposed solution. They had spent half an hour discussing possibilities when they learned he was dealing on his own, without Stoick's approval.
"What if he doesn't go along with this?" Germburg demanded. "Have you just wasted our time here?"
"I can't imagine him not going along with it," Snart answered. "We may have to adjust some of the details, but the main agreement is exactly what we need, and he'll know it when he hears about it."
"I hope so, dragon-man," Rainbit replied.
"Will you ever call me by my name? It's Snart."
"I know, but it's hard to forget a day when you held the entire town for ransom."
"Frue, if there was one day I could erase out of my life, it would be that one," Snart said. "Except for the part about me agreeing to train Hildi; that was good. I guess forgiveness is something that Berks have an easier time with than other people."
"When the raider has threatened the people you love, you'll understand us a little better," Germburg replied, not unkindly. "Please let us know as soon as possible if Berk wants to make this deal of yours."
"I will, sir, Frue. Thank you for your time. We should get home quickly now. I need to present this to my chief."
Hildi met them at the clearing. "Thank you for coming," she said, a little shyly.
"If my plan gets accepted, there's going to be regular contact between Berk and Machen," Snart said softly. "I could be up here a lot."
"I'd like that," she whispered, touched his hand lightly, and returned to town.
"What was that about?" Fishlegs asked as they winged home.
"Absolutely nothing!" Snart said firmly. "Please keep it that way."
"I know nothing, nuh-thing!" Fishlegs promised.