Snart's Saga, Part II Chapter 13

The first really bad storm of the winter was hitting Machen hard. The fishing fleet had come home early, and had beached themselves rather than risk being blown away or swamped by waves. On Academy Island, the south-facing cave entrance kept out the worst of the wind and snow. The three dragon riders huddled around a fire, while their dragons curled up in some of the cave's side chambers. None of them wanted to fly in this weather; they were trapped on their island unless an emergency forced them to fly.

"I could bore you with some more recognition drills," Snart was saying, "or we could stretch our brains a little." He glanced at Nagmire.

"Stretch, please," she begged.

"Okay, let's try to think like a dragon. When Berk took out the dragons' nest at Helheim's Gate, a few dozen dragons flew to Berk and made it their new home. But there were at least a hundred dragons in that nest, probably more. Where did they all go?"

"Does it matter?" Hildi asked.

"A lot of people think it does. Germburg wants us to find them so we won't have to go to Berk every time we pick a new dragon trainer. Hiccup wants to find them because it's a pet project of his. I want to find them because I'm curious, and because I'd like to beat Hiccup to the punch, just once."

"Are we sure they haven't gone halfway around the world?" Nagmire wondered.

"They all converge on Lovecraft Island to lay their eggs every year," Snart replied. "I saw hundreds of dragons there. They had to come from somewhere, not too far away."

Hildi got up, took another log, and laid it on the fire. "Then help us think like dragons. What does a dragon look for in a nest?"

"The nest in Helheim's Gate was a huge cave inside a volcano. It was filled with ledges and smaller caves, and had two entrances that we know of."

"Okay, so it's rocky," Hildi summed up. "It's far away from people, it's a place where they can't get trapped, and it's a big communal nest where many of them gather. There can't be too many places like that."

"But if it's far away from people, then it's probably someplace unfamiliar," Nagmire added. "The hard part for us would be finding the entrance. It might be invisible from the air."

"True," nodded Snart. "A good shortcut would be to find some wild dragons and follow them home. But Hiccup has tried that at least once, and he found nothing."

"Is Helheim's Gate the only dragons' nest we know of?" Hildi inquired.

"No, there was a nest in the Noidback Mountains, in what we call the Valley of Smoke," Snart replied. "I saw it from the air; it was a long valley filled with a yellowish gas. That's where the second Red Death set up housekeeping. We don't know where he got all his dragons, though."

"Maybe they never went anywhere," Nagmire commented.

"What do you mean?" Snart sat up and stared at her.

"Well, you said the dragons started raiding people's villages. What if the dragons were always there, and then the Red Death came along and took over and made them do raids and stuff? And after you killed it, what if the dragons just stayed there and went back to doing dragon stuff that doesn't bother people?"

"That makes a huge amount of sense, Naggie," Snart agreed. "The only problem is that Hiccup went back and tried to find dragons there. He found nothing."

"Did he try going down into that valley?" Hildi asked.

"I don't know, but probably not. That gas looked nasty."

"But dragons can breathe it, right?" Nagmire wondered.

"Yes, they can," Snart said thoughtfully. "And if they can, then our dragons can, too. So even if we can't breathe it, our dragons could get us out of there before it was too late. I think you're on to something here. Once the weather clears, and after we've taken care of Jond, I think we ought to make our Academy's first expedition to the Noidback Mountains and the Valley of Smoke, and try to find us some wild dragons. All in favor?" Three hands went up.

"Great, that's settled. My next idea is to figure out who our next new trainer ought to be. Any suggestions?"

"My stepfather is going to bring up Jackbart again," Hildi said sourly.

"What's wrong with him?" Nagmire wanted to know.

"He knows a little, and he thinks he knows a lot," Hildi answered.

"And you'd never make a dragon trainer out of somebody like that, would you?" Naggie replied with a grin.

"The difference is, you're willing to learn," Snart cut in. "You had one of those 'aha!' moments when you saw the limits to your own understanding. Jackbart would resist having a moment like that; I think he enjoys his delusions of know-it-all-ness too much to give them up."

"If you had two know-it-alls in the Academy at once, that could be a problem," Nagmire agreed, still grinning.

"On the other hand, if the chief demands that his son be the next trainer, there isn't much we can do about it," Snart countered. "Unless we have a really outstanding alternative to offer him."

"I could name four or five of our young people who might qualify, but nobody I'd call outstanding," Hildi shrugged. "Jackbart has already gone on his test flight, so we know he meets our minimum standards. Since we're bound to add him eventually no matter what we do, why not add him next and get it over with? What's the worst that could happen?"

"I'll speculate," Snart answered.

"Possibility #1: he does what Tetnuss did, rejecting his teacher and doing his own thing. That will eventually get him hurt, and it's sure to make the Academy look bad.

"Possibility #2: he ignores orders and tries to play the hero at the wrong time, and gets either himself or his dragon hurt, or worse.

"Possibility #3: every time he doesn't get his own way, he runs to his father to get him involved in Academy business. We'd lose our autonomy, which is one of our greatest assets, and one that we've worked very hard to earn and keep.

"Possibility #4: he becomes so abrasive that we spend more time and energy trying to get along with him than we spend on dragon training. We've got a good mix of personalities here; I hate to add a sour ingredient."

He dropped a log on the fire. Sparks flew everywhere.

"Shall I go on?"

"You paint a pretty bleak picture," Nagmire scowled.

"But a realistic one," Hildi retorted. "I know my stepbrother. He's got potential, but only if he gets over himself. Like Snart says, a dragon can bring out the best in a person, or the worst. With Jackbart, I'm afraid to find out which."

"But, as we all know, we're going to have to deal with him sooner or later," Snart concluded. "Unless we find a better candidate very soon, I'm going to tell Germburg that his son will be our next new trainer. Just telling him will buy us some time; we won't have to follow through immediately. I have a more important project I want to get off the back burner first."