CHAPTER 9
Tengan gazed up at the Whispering Death hovering in the air before her. It's last three feet of tail were replaced with a crude hook that spun wildly as its body undulated to stay aloft. It's mouth opened, but instead of a roar, Gobber's voice sounded from between the gnashing teeth.
"Time for a bath!" the dragon cried out cheerfully as a large washtub rose into view.
Tengan peered into the tub at the black water. She tried to lift her leg to hop in but her limbs refused to move. The water began to rumble and quivver before exploding upwards. The Screaming Death's ivory body materialized from the wall of water while thousands of tiny Fireworms emerged from the stray water droplets. In one large arc the dragons rose and fell towards her, all maws open to bite. She tried to run, shield her face, even scream but her body stubbornly refused to move. She could only watch in horror as the millions of teeth grew closer.
"That's quite enough, I think." A deep rumble of a voice echoed, accompanied by a bright blue glow that swept the visions away.
Tengan, newly freed, turned in the direction of the glow, her breathing ragged. Before her stood the Flightmare, wings raised as if prepared to take off at any moment. On it's back sat a man with deep ebony skin, piercing green eyes, and close cropped, tightly curled hair. "Father?" Tengan whispered, staggering towards the vision. No matter how many steps forward she took, the distance between them seemed to stay the same.
"Dragons make a fine subject for your studies, Little Scribe. But it is unwise to let any one facet completely absorb you." He smiled down at her, the skin around his eyes crinkling after years spent in the unyielding sun.
"I know, Father." Tengan broke into a jog. The pair started to slide slightly away from her with each step. "Why are you here? When did you learn to ride dragons? Have you seen Mother? Are you going home?" She broke into a run, arms pumping wildly in a vain attempt to gain ground.
"No, it is not time for me to return to our shores yet. Nor is it yours. The Flightmare follows it's algae source. The very thing that gives it life." The dragon began to glow steadily brighter. "As do our people. We follow the path our knowledge seeking sets before us. Keep asking questions! I can't wait to hear what answers you uncover."
The dragon shone so brightly, Tengan had to throw her arm across her eyes to shield herself from its brilliance. "Wait! Don't go!"
"I'm not leaving yet." Astrid called over her shoulder as she slipped out the front door. "Just checking Stormfly's saddle for wear and tear. You really should get up though. Hiccup expects all of us on the sea stacks in ten minutes!"
Tengan sat up, chest heaving as if she actually had broken into a sprint moments before. Her eyes darted around the room in a vain search for the Flighmare's eerie glow before settling on the haphazard stack of notes on her bedside stump, now barely visible under her notes. Carefully, she extracted a small bit of parchment near the top of the stack and wrote down as many small details about her father as she remembered from her dream. Tiny paragraphs of descriptions and little details surrounded a crude sketch composed of all the details she could still remember. Like water through her fingers, the harder she tried to remember the dream, the more the events and details blurred until she was sitting with the heels of her palms digging into her closed eyes in a desperate attempt to keep anymore from escaping.
"Tengan!" Astrid's voice sounded from Stormfly's stall built adjacent to the house. "Lets go!"
Groaning, Tengan abandoned her attempt and slipped out of bed. "Alright. But I refuse to be used as the 'viking in distress' again. I still have the bruises from the last 'rescue' maneuver the twins tried!"
Nearly an hour later, Tengan sat yawning on the sun warmed rock of the sea stacks the group had dedicated as their recuse training station. Between her restless dreams and the finally mild weather, she was finding it difficult to do much more than scribble down very basic descriptions of the new maneuvers before leaning her head on her loosely clenched fist and lightly dozing as the others argued the usefulness of their respective skills.
"We are a team!" Hiccup explained in exasperation. "No one person is more important than the other!"
"That's easy for you to say!" Fishlegs replied. "You ride Toothless, a Night Fury. And the Night Fury is on the top of the list in intelligence, speed, accuracy, fire power, and well, everything!"
"W-What?" Hiccup stammered. "Tengan, back me up. Aren't we all equal on the team?"
Tengan's head popped up from her hand. She blinked the sleep from her eyes a couple times before responding. "Look Hiccup, I know you see everyone as equal but with everything I've seen from you guys, the wild dragons, and the Book of Dragons, not all dragons are made the same. Each has their own strengths and weaknesses. It just so happens for the purpose of the Riders that Toothless tops the charts in skills most used. And that can make it easy for him to 'outshine' the others." She yawned loudly. "But what do I know." she added quietly after noticing Hiccup's mildly hurt expression.
"She's right." Snotlout added smugly before anyone else could jump in. "We'll never know who the best dragon trainer is because we don't have a level playing field."
"But what if we did have a level playing field?" Fishlegs mused. "What if there was a way we could prove once and for all, who the best trainer is? Meet me back at the Academy in a couple hours!" Without waiting for a response, he scrambled into Meatlug's saddle and took off towards Berk.
Both dragons and teenagers cocked their heads in confusion at the sudden change in the usually non confrontational viking's demeanor.
"What do you think climbed into his pants?" Tuffnut asked, gesturing lazy towards Meatlug's retreating bulk.
"I have no idea." Hiccup sighed. "But we might as well see what he's up to."
"Well," Tengan stood and stretched. "We have a couple hours. I've been meaning to get a few more ariel sketches of the far side of the island. Can anyone offer me a lift?"
"Your saddle awaits my la-" Snotlout started with a low bow before Astrid elbowed him harshly in the ribs.
"I'll take you." she cut across the yowling Jorgenson before hoisting herself back onto Stormfly.
Tengan mouthed a silent 'thank you' before joining her in the saddle. The pair took off with the rest of the group before splintering off to circle higher, lazily drifting towards the other end of the island on warm updrafts. Tengan spent several quiet moments sketching the finer details onto her ever evolving map of Berk, paying special attention to rock formations that only appeared with the changing of the tides.
"So, you've been having nightmares a lot more lately. Care to fill me in?" Astrid suddenly broke the silence.
Tengan's hand slipped, creating the appearance of a fissure along one of the beaches she had sketched. "I didn't realize I was talking in my sleep. Sorry for bothering you."
"It's not a bother. You've just seemed troubled since the Flightmare came through. I can hear you talking to someone like you're begging them not to leave." Astrid carefully avoided eye contact while she guided Stormfly along the shoreline.
Tengan took several deep breaths. It was suddenly very difficult to swallow. "...My father. I've been seeing my father in my dreams."
"Isn't he off on a collection mission?" Astrid angled Stormfly to circle a low hanging cloud.
"Yes, I've only actually seen him a handful of times since my birth. Most of my people don't stay on the Shimmering Shores. We love learning too much to stay in one place for very long once we feel we've absorbed all we can. It never used to bother me. I'm proud to know he's out there documenting…" Tengan folded the map, tucking it away in her vest.
"But?" Astrid pressed lightly.
"But, I've spent a good amount of time here. With you all. And your families. I knew vikings tended to stay with their partners and children; I just never thought about how nice it must be to wake up with both parents home all the time. It makes me wonder how it would be like if my parents were always home. Always together. With me."
Astrid nodded pensively. "Yeah, it is nice to have them home. It wasn't always like that though. Back when we were at war with the dragons, we'd often send ships out with warriors to defend our fishing spots or search for their nests. Not everyone would come back. Either my mother or father would always be on those voyages. Sometimes both. Whenever I saw them sailing away I never knew if it was the last time I would see them. I was always proud that they were out there fighting for us but it never made it easier to see them leave."
The girls flew in silence for several minutes. Stormfly suddenly baked into the cloud, mouth open to gather condensation. When sated, she angled out of it's confines and started winging back to Berk with two very wet passengers.
Tengan laughed; Astrid now resembled something akin to a drowned rat. She was sure her wild, curly hair probably looked just as ridiculous as it typically swelled in size when confronted with high humidity. "...Thanks Astrid." She gripped the girl's shoulder for a few seconds in an attempt to convey the depth of her gratitude.
"Anytime. Now let's head to the Academy. I'm dying to see what Fishlegs has come up with."
To the entire group's confusion, it turned out the big reveal was a simple crate. Albeit it was making several soft scratching and cooing noises. FIshlegs smiled as he slid the lid off the crate with a small flourish. Instantly, several Terrible Terrors darted their heads in and out of the opening, eyes focusing on the teens standing before them.
"Terrible Terrors?" Snotlout sneered. "This is your level playing field?"
"Yup!" Fishlegs continued, unperturbed. "We'll each take one and have a day to train it. Then we'll see who is really the best!"
"You don't have a chance!" Snoutlout laughed. "You know why? Because there are readers and there are doers! While you're busy with your books I'm out there kicking names and taking butts!"
"I think you meant that the other way around." Astrid remarked dryly.
Tengan tuned out the ensuing argument as she sidled up to the box. The terrors reminded her a lot of the pups one of the wild dogs near her village had whelped. They scrambled over each other in a desperate attempt to catch her attention. Several times, one would lick its enormous eyes to retain moisture. Soon enough the other teens were jostling each other to select their competition partner. After the scuffle, a lone, sea foam green one sat curled up at the bottom of the crate, its eyes turned up.
"Uh, Fishlegs?" Tengan piped up. "I think you brought one too many."
Fishlegs peered into the crate, a light orange dragon wiggling in his arms. "What? Oh, no I counted correctly. That one's yours Tengan! You're part of the competition too. Don't worry we won't make you clean anyone's stall if you lose."
Tengans heart skipped a beat as she peered down at the small dragon again. She honestly never considered taking on a Terror as they never grew larger than a young boar. Certainly never big enough to ride. The dragon peered back up at her and chirped questioningly. Slowly, she scooped the reptile into her arms and held it carefully against her chest, feeling the rapid movement of its own breathing. "Fishlegs I-"
"Don't worry about it." he smiled at her. "Just make sure to beat Snotlout. Which, given all your extensive knowledge, shouldn't be a problem."
Tengan laughed, wiping her eyes on the back of her free hand. "You've got yourself a deal." Her gaze fell to the tiny dragon nestled in her arms. 'My dragon.' she mentally corrected as she walked out of the arena with the others. Hiccup's assurances that this was not an actual competition passed in one ear and out the other.
Nestled in a well lit corner of the Great Hall, Tengan sat on a long stone bench with her new companion sitting quietly on the table before her. Piled high next to them were a collection of notes she thought would come in handy along with a bucket of freshly smoked and grilled pieces of fish. "Ok, Kelp" she cooed, tickling her dragon's hide as it glittered in the firelight "We only have one day to work on some behaviors. I'm thinking of playing to your strengths."
"Kelp, eh? Good name. Better than DeathWing. Or was it Iggy?" Hiccup commented as he slipped onto the bench next to her. Toothless plopped his head on the table and vocalized gently to the Terror. "You're not taking this whole competition thing seriously are you?"
"Why not?" Tengan bristled. "This is the first chance I have for you all to see me as an equal, Hiccup. I really appreciate that you've all been making an effort not to leave me behind but I know I'm still seen as excess baggage. Or at best a referee when Snotlout wants to race."
"Woah, woah." Hiccup put his hands up defensively. "No one has ever said that about you." He scratched under Kelp's chin. "We all know you'll make a great Rider when we find you the perfect dragon. Just… don't let this silly competition get under your skin, alright? I'm barely holding it together with Fishlegs and Snotlout going at each other. And you know how Astrid gets."
Tengan eyed Hiccup's exhausted face closely for a moment. Exhaling slowly, she allowed her frustrations to ease out with her breath. "Why do you think we're practicing in the Great Hall?" she smiled.
Hiccup returned the grin uneasily. "You can always crash with us tonight if she gets out of control."
"And let you see all the top secret behaviors we're working on?" she playfully nudged his ribs. "Thanks Hiccup, but we'll be fine. We should actually get back to work. But, good luck with your Terror. The others will be hard pressed to top whatever you come up with." Tengan watched Hiccup meander back out the hall with seemingly lighter shoulders before turning back to Kelp, the bucket of fish ready in her arms. "Ok. Why don't we get started with squeezing in tight spaces? Then we can move on to object retrieval…"
They trained well into the night, only stopping when a yawn chain, started by Kelp bounced back and forth between them several times. Tengan scooped him into her arms before shouldering her pack and the almost empty buck of fish scraps. When they made it back to Astrid's, she wasn't surprised to see the viking was still practicing in the yard. Bidding each other goodnight, Tengan slipped into bed, placing Kelp down by her feet. She was rather surprised when the small dragon, grunting in disapproval, scuttled up the blanket and wedged himself firmly between her chest and pillow. She smiled, stroking his side lightly as they quickly fell into a deep sleep; her dreams nonexistent.
The next morning and early afternoon, they spent a bit of time finalizing their short routine before making the trek towards the academy, Kelp riding her shoulders with his tail wrapped around her right bicep for support. They slipped into the Academy relatively unnoticed and stood back to let the others demonstrate their behaviors first. As they waited, Tengan's heart began to hammer and the sound of roaring water crashed in her ears. What if what they worked on wasn't enough?
Hiccup went first. His Terrible Terror had truly earned the name Sharpshot with how it accurately blasted multiple targets launched into the air off of Toothless' wings. Astrid followed up with having her Terror, aptly named Shadow, stealthy climb and glide onto the unsuspecting heads of the other teens. Unsurprisingly, the twins had taught Head and Butt to fly full speed into each other on command. It was rather impressive they actually complied, as both dragons looked a bit loopy after the collision.
"Alright then, Tengan?" Hiccup turned to her. "What have you been working on with Kelp?"
Tengan gluped before setting her partner down. "Well, actually we've been working on a couple different things. I noticed that at times during missions there are a few ways we could utilize a smaller dragon. For example," She pulled out an old, rusted key that Gobber had let her have as it belonged to a house that burnt down nearly a decade prior. Walking over to the pens, she stuck her arm through one of the small gaps and threw the key as far in as she could. "There have been a few times where small objects were out of reach or were delicately balanced. Kelp, retrieve." She pointed towards the key.
Kelp chirped happily before wriggling through the close set bars. Once inside he flew quickly over to the key, snatched it up in his mouth, and flew back. Wiggling back through the bars, he settled on Tengan's shoulder before dropping the key in her outstretched hand.
"Fetching? Really? Is that all?" Snotlout scoffed.
"Actually small object retrieval would have been really useful on several occasions." Hiccup chimed in. "Go on Tengan. You said you were working on a couple things."
Slightly shaking, she nodded. "Uh, yeah. Well, we only managed to finish one other behavior. Um, Astrid would you mind helping me? There's some rope in my bag. Could you tie my ankles and wrists together?"
Astrid complied with an amused smile, binding her with incredibly difficult knots. "Alright, all secure!"
Tengan, sitting on the ground, adjusted her weight and tested the bonds. There was no way she would be able to undo these herself. "Ok, now if we were to be captured, it's likely we would be gagged as well. So…" She rapped her heels against the ground twice.
Kelp's head shot up, his eyes focusing on the ropes. After a moment he scrambled over and tore into the ropes binding her feet. Within seconds he had chewed completely through the thick rope. Without a moment's pause, he turned on the knots around her wrists. Despite his ferocious attack on the binding, his teeth never once touched her skin.
Once free Tengan stood and scooped Kelp into her arms. Fishing in her pocket, she produced a few strips of fish for her dragon before smiling nervously at her friends. "Uh yeah, that's all we were able to work on."
"That was actually really cool." Ruffnut commented with a thumbs up.
"Very useful." Astrid chimed in.
"Definitely made the right choice making you a Rider." Hiccup smiled.
Tengan's heart swelled. She hugged her dragon to her chest and pressed a kiss on top of his scaly head. "Thanks Kelp. You were great." she whispered to the Terror, who gurgled in response.
"That was pretty good." Fishlegs admitted. "But prepare to now be amazed by the smartest dragon on the archipelago!"
While Fishlegs had Iggy perform a more advanced form of object retrieval utilizing flash cards of varying objects, Tengan noticed Meatlug looked almost lifeless as she sat curled up along the wall of the arena, moping. She silently hoped once this was all over Fishlegs would make it up to her. The poor Gronkle seemed so lost without her rider's constant affections.
"Big deal!" Snotlout exclaimed as Iggy returned to perch on an upturned barrel. "So we have another Terror who can play fetch. How original."
"Well," Fishlegs responded slyly. "What does yours do?"
Snotlout stomped over to a heavy lidded box and flung it open. The purple Terror that had latched onto his arm yesterday sprung out and clamped down on his calf, digging its pointed teeth through leather and into flesh.
"Wait, so you trained it to bite you?" FIshlegs laughed. "This is ridiculous. Just tell everyone I won Hiccup!"
"YOU?!" Snotlout retorted, hobbling over for his leg was still being chewed on by the Terror.
"Woah!" Astrid chimed in. "My Terror's stealth skills were pretty awesome."
"Please Astrid," Fishlegs retorted in an uncharacteristically dismissive tone. "There's no brains in teaching a Terror to hide."
"Well our trainees ram their heads together at high speeds!" Shouted Ruffnut. "That takes brains!"
"Yeah!" Tuffnut added. "Really hard, rock-like brains!"
"Oh come on!" Fishlegs threw his arms up. "Tengan! Tell them you think I should win!"
Tengan's head flinched upwards as her brow furrowed. "Why would you assume I think you should win? Kelp is the first dragon I've ever trained and I taught him two behaviors in once day."
In the distance, a familiar roar sounded, putting an end to the argument. Fishlegs spun in a quick circle, only to notice that in the heat of their bickering, Meatlug had wandered off. "Meatlug? Where are ya girl!?" He ran out of the arena, followed by the rest of the group.
They followed her vocalizations to the path winding up the hillside behind the academy only to find the Gronkle had been muzzled and was being forced into an old Whispering Death hole by three large vikings. Toothless fired off a plasma blast in an attempt to stop them, but the force of the hit only sent several large boulders into the hole, effectively blocking anyone else from entering the den. The other dragons, Terrible Terrors included, spent several minutes trying to blast the rocks out of the way but only suceeded in packing them more tightly into the opening.
"What are we going to do, Hiccup!?" Fishlegs cried out in desperation. "Those tunnels go all over the island! She could be anywhere?!"
"They don't really go all over the island." Tuffnut added casually. "Just a few yak farms, sheep pens, and Mildew's cabbage farm. We spent a lot of time down there. It's a tunnel of fun!" He chuckled at his own pun.
"Oh, and one that goes to the secluded beach on the far side of the island. You know, with the white, soft sand." Ruffnut added.
"That has to be where they're headed. Mount up! Let's go!" Hiccup cried out, swinging into the saddle.
Tengan scrambled into Stormfly's saddle behind Astrid and placed Kelp on her shoulders. The crew took off, their numbers bolstered by the Terrible Terrors, and angled towards the spot the twins indicated. Just beyond the shore, an outcast ship was sailing away, propelled even faster by several pairs of oars.
The teens urged their dragons in a steep drive toward the boat, unloading a volley of fire and spines once they came within range. They were forced to halt and retreat as Alvin held a sword tip to the bound and muzzled Meatlug's throat.
"We can't just leave her!" Fishlegs cried out.
"We're not." Hiccup promised as the group leveled out above cloud cover. "It seems this competition was a good idea after all. Tengan! Think Kelp would do that rope biting trick again?"
Tengan nodded and held her arm out to her side, smiling as Kelp settled on the perch. "Not a problem. What's the plan?"
If the Outcasts hadn't threatened their lives on more than one occasion, Tengan would have almost felt bad for them. Almost. She figured it couldn't be good for a viking's pride to be bested by a small flock of dragons no bigger than sucking pigs. She had to bite her tongue to keep from laughing when Shadow perched atop several of the crew's heads, leading to more than one of the crew being knocked out by their companion. Iggy's object retrieval continued to be useful as he disarmed several vikings. Head and Butt's combined efforts made the air literally ring with the sound of denting metal as they rammed against their own targets. Even Snotlout's nameless purple Terror found a new teething toy, evident by the scream that sounded from the ship. Sharpshot and Kelp dove in together during the commotion, the former laying down cover fire while the latter quickly bit through Meatlug's bindings. Newly freed, Meatlug roared with joy as she climbed into the air and hovered next to Toothless as Fishlegs scrambled into her saddle.
"Let's get out of here!" Fishlegs called, has arms wrapped as tightly around his dragons bulk as he could manage from his perch upon her back.
"Just one more loose end." Hiccup called back before diving, having Toothless fire multiple plasma blasts through the hull of the now sinking ship before rejoining the formation.
Tengan held her arms out for Kelp, who cheerfully squealed as he dropped from the sky and into her embrace. "Good boy, Kelp! I'm so proud of you!"
"So how does it feel, training your first dragon?" Astrid called over her shoulder.
"Better than I thought it would." Tengan called back, snuggling her cheerfully gurgling partner closer to her.