How to View Your Dragons Chapter 13
On the flat panel, Hiccup had just jumped into Toothless' saddle and was hooking up for flight. His intention: to fight the largest dragon any of them had ever seen. His plan: unknown.
"Did he really think the two of you could take out the Queen?" Meatlug asked Toothless.
"The two of us had already done the impossible, several times over," he answered without taking his eyes off the screen. "I'd never tried fighting her, of course. But I definitely wanted to take her down, he seemed as confident as always, and I figured that, between the two of us, maybe we could do the impossible one more time."
Suddenly, Stoick stepped up and grabbed Hiccup's arm. "Hiccup! I'm sorry. For... for everything."
"For everything?" Stormfly exclaimed. "That's quite a lot!"
Toothless nodded. "For a proud man like that, if he said it, then he must have really meant it."
"I'll admit, that's not what I expected when he grabbed Hiccup's arm," Hookfang said. "I figured he'd pull Hiccup off of Toothless' back and scold him for being such a terrible Viking."
"There's one thing you need to know about humans," Toothless explained. "Most of the time, they do whatever works. Stoick had seen how all his old dragon-fighting skills didn't work against the Queen, and only the other dragons were making any difference at all. He must have figured that only a powerful dragon could take out another powerful dragon. And there I was, ready to fly and fight!"
"But what about the stubbornness issues?" Sizzle asked. "Wouldn't he keep trying to do the same things that always worked in the past, just because that's all he knew?"
"I guess, when a man gets desperate, he'll try anything," Stormfly suggested. "He was definitely a desperate man, if he was willing to throw his own life away just to gain a few minutes' time for the rest of his people to escape!"
They watched Hiccup for his reaction. "Yeah, me too."
"What was he apologizing for?" Meatlug demanded. "He didn't do anything wrong!"
"I think his conscience was bothering him a little because he didn't tell the other Vikings the truth about me," Toothless said.
"But they would have killed you!" Stormfly objected.
"Still, he's an honest human, and deceiving people didn't sit well with him," the Night Fury countered. "Even if he didn't really do anything wrong, saying he was sorry was a good way to make things a little better with his father."
But Stoick's next words stunned them all. "You don't have to go up there."
"What?!" Toothless exclaimed.
"Paws!" Meatlug shouted. "What is he thinking?"
"Is he thinking?" Barf added.
"Wasn't that the whole point of him rescuing you, Toothless?" Hookfang nearly shouted. "Why did he risk his life to save you if he didn't want you to fight for him?"
Stormfly nodded. "And since when was it optional for a Viking to fight to save his tribe?"
Barf agreed. "Since when was it optional for a Viking to fight at all? That's what they do!"
"At this point, I'm just guessing," Toothless said thoughtfully, "but I think Stoick is having yet another change of heart. He's seen Hiccup riding a Nadder and giving orders to the other teens. Maybe he's wondering if his son is really as useless as he thought before."
"Or maybe," Meatlug added, "he was thinking about how he might have felt if he hadn't rescued Hiccup from the water in time. Maybe he's realizing that he can't just throw his son aside as easily as that. Maybe... maybe he's starting to think of Hiccup as a son, and not as an embarrassment."
Barf and Belch chorused, "Nope."
"That'll never happen," Hookfang nodded firmly.
"People are resistant to change," Toothless told them, "but they can change. Stoick has seen his son change from an accident-prone kid into a dragon-riding warrior. Maybe the father can change, too. Keep watching. Play!"
They weren't expecting Hiccup's answer. "We're Vikings. It's an occupational hazard."
"Whoa! Paws again!" Meatlug exclaimed. "Isn't that the same line Stoick used when he was talking about killing all of us?"
"And didn't his father just finish telling him he isn't a Viking?" Barf objected
"And how can he be smiling when he knows he might die fighting the Queen?" Belch added.
Toothless smiled. "My answer to all three of those questions is, 'That's Hiccup for you!' Yes, that's his father's line. It must be something that Stoick said a lot, because Hiccup wasn't at that meeting in their Mead Hall when Stoick said it, but he still knew what his father said. Yes, Stoick took his Vikingness away, but Hiccup was kind of throwing that right back in his father's face, as a reminder that maybe he wasn't the best at swinging a hammer, but he was the best at riding a dragon. As for smiling... he knew he was up against a nearly unstoppable foe, but he was doing it with a Night Fury! Losing the battle was probably something he wasn't really thinking about. Frankly, I don't think he was thinking about winning, either. He just wanted to show what he and I could do."
"Are you guessing?" Meatlug asked him.
"Yes, but I think it's a good guess," the Night Fury answered. "After all, I know Hiccup pretty well. Play!"
Stoick clasped Hiccup's hand with both of his huge hands. "I'm proud to call you my son." He released his grip.
"Whoa again!" Stormfly exclaimed. "I didn't see that coming!"
"I did," Meatlug explained. "They've made their peace with each other. They both know there's a good chance that Hiccup will never come back alive. So the father is saying the words that Hiccup has always dreamed of hearing, so the son can fight his ultimate battle with nothing negative hanging over his head. It's almost a final blessing. And, if Hiccup doesn't come back, Stoick won't be haunted by the words he could have said, but didn't."
Toothless blinked hard. "Meatlug, that totally makes sense. I think Hiccup almost cried when he heard that." His voice dropped to a whisper. "The same goes for me."
Hiccup finally managed to say, "Thanks, Dad." Then he and his dragon braced themselves and sprang straight up into the air. Stoick watched them go.
"I'll bet he's thinking, 'I never saw a Viking fight on a Night Fury before,' " Hookfang commented.
"Considering that, before today, he never even saw a Night Fury before, that's not saying much," Stormfly countered.
"And now his son is riding his tribe's traditional worst enemy, to save them from his tribe's newer, even worse enemy," Meatlug nodded. "I can understand it if the man is a little bit confused."
As Toothless' wings propelled him skyward, Astrid saw and shouted, "He's up!"
"I guess that's what she was waiting for," Meatlug commented.
"Why?" Hookfang asked. "Didn't she think the rest of us could do the job?"
"It wasn't looking good for us," Stormfly admitted. "Meatlug, you were down. Hookfang, you'd lost your rider. Barf, Belch, and I were circling, staying out of the Queen's fire arc and trying to find something useful we could do. All her hopes must have been set on Hiccup and Toothless."
"Did Hiccup realize that he was on a kamikaze mission?" Meatlug asked.
Toothless shook his head. "I'm pretty sure that Camicazi was the last person on his mind at that point."
Meatlug looked irritated. "No, that's not what I... oh, forget it."
"Get Snotlout out of there!" Astrid shouted at the twins.
"Why did she wait so long before she tried to rescue my rider?" Hookfang wanted to know. "Did she want him to die?"
"No," Toothless answered. "She didn't save him before this because she probably hoped he could do the Queen some more harm while he was on her head. Now, she figured I was about to clobber the Queen, and they had to rescue Snotlout before he became a victim of friendly fire."
"What's friendly fire?" Sizzle asked.
"It means the fire-shots that were meant for the Queen could have hurt him, too," Stormfly explained.
"Oh," the Terror nodded slowly. "Why do they call it that? That kind of fire doesn't sound very friendly."
"Any fire is unfriendly if you're on the receiving end," Toothless commented.
After some squabbling, Ruff and Tuff got the Zippleback pointed toward the Queen's head. Snotlout saw them coming, timed his leap perfectly, and landed on Barf and Belch's body. They swooped away, with Stormfly just behind them... and that was her mistake.
"What were you doing back there?" Meatlug asked her.
"I think Astrid wanted to cover the twins' retreat," Stormfly said, keeping her eyes off the unfolding scene on the flat panel. "I don't know what good she thought we could do. But she cut it too close, and that was almost the end of me." As she spoke, the Queen began inhaling, and the blue dragon was inexorably pulled toward that enormous maw. They heard Stormfly scream in terror. Then they all heard that rising whistle.
"Toothless, your timing was perfect," Stormfly said. "I don't remember if I ever thanked you for saving my life that day, but if I didn't, then thank you."
"I don't remember, either," the Night Fury admitted. "But you're welcome. You can thank me with a fish, the next time you catch a good one." The Vikings were all screaming, "Night Fury! Get down!" But they weren't his target today. Just as the Queen began to close her jaws on Stormfly, Toothless dove and fired a shot straight into the gigantic mouth. That stopped the inhaling instantly. But, between the sudden end to the suction, the force of Stormfly's desperate flapping, and the shock wave from the Night Fury firebolt, the Nadder was flung violently forward, and she and her rider parted company.
"Oh, no! I can't look!" Sizzle whimpered.
"Again?" Hookfang complained. "You're missing half the show!"
Astrid screamed as she tumbled. Toothless pulled out of his dive, did a quick roll, and dived again to save her.
"Hey!" Stormfly burst out. "What was the roll for? Why didn't you just turn and dive to catch my rider? Why were you showing off when she was plunging to her death?"
"I guess I could have done things the direct way," Toothless said, keeping a totally straight face, "but that would have had no style. Besides, I had enough time; I caught her, didn't I?"
"That's not very reassuring," the Nadder said sourly.
"Actually, that roll served a good purpose," the black dragon reassured her. "I was in the middle of a zoom climb; I had to slow down in a hurry if I was going to reverse my course and catch your rider before she pancaked. The roll killed some of my forward momentum so I could do a flip-turn, then a quick plunge for a rescue."
"There were a lot of long words in there, Toothless," Sizzle protested. "I'm naught but a humble Terror."
"It means I knew what I was doing," the Night Fury replied archly.
On the screen, Hiccup anxiously asked, "Did you get her?" Toothless looked beneath himself. In spite of her brush with death, Astrid couldn't help smiling at him. He grinned and hooted back at her, flipped her right-side-up, and half-dropped her on land before gaining height again.
"It's a good thing her foot didn't come out of her boot!" Barf observed.
"And it's a good thing he slowed down before he dropped her," Belch added, "or she would have landed flat on her Astrid!" Barf snorked.
She looked up at Toothless and Hiccup in very much the same way Stoick had done. "Go!" she urged them.
"And now it was Hiccup and me against the Queen," Toothless said. "Everyone else was running away or trying not to draw the Queen's attention. Hiccup wanted to show everyone what we could do; now watch what we did!"
Hiccup looked down and said, "That thing has wings!"
"Gee, do ya think?" Sizzle smirked.
"Why do you say that?" Stormfly asked, puzzled.
"Doesn't he know that all dragons have wings?" the little dragon said.
"That's not true," the Nadder shot back. "There's the Speed Stinger, there's the Bewilderbeast, there's the Cavern Crasher, there's -"
"Okay, okay!" Sizzle burst out. "Thank you, Fishlegs!"
"There's no need to get snippy, little dragon," Stormfly said haughtily, glaring down at him from her full height.
"In any event," Meatlug quickly added, "Hiccup probably didn't know about all those wingless dragons yet. To him, being a dragon meant having wings, so he expected the Queen to have them, too. He may have been puzzled because she had stayed on the ground and hadn't tried to fly yet."
Hiccup and Toothless climbed, then flipped over into a power dive.
"Was the high-altitude stuff really necessary?" Meatlug asked him. "I'm starting to wonder if you really were showing off."
"No, there's a good reason for that," Toothless answered. "The longer and faster I dive, the more power it gives to my firebolts. It has something to do with fanning the flames in my throat. I wanted a really powerful shot this time. Watch!" They watched. Toothless' dive was so fast, he was nearly out of control. Near the end, he flattened his dive, lined up on the Queen, and fired a shot that made her roar with pain as it knocked her over. The Vikings could feel the shock of her hitting the ground.
"Ouch!" Stormfly grunted. "I'm glad that shot wasn't aimed at me!"
"I never saw the Queen take a fall like that," Meatlug nodded.
Hookfang also nodded. "Pretty good, for a small dragon."
Belch added, "It's a good thing she didn't land on all the Vikings when she fell over, or the whole battle might have ended right there." The Night Fury zoomed away as the Queen ponderously flapped upwards to chase them.
"Toothless, what were you thinking about at that point?" Stormfly asked him.
"Well," he began, "I was kind of caught up in the action, so I wasn't thinking any profound thoughts. Mostly, I was thinking, 'I've shot her twice and hit her twice, and it hasn't even slowed her down. Now it's us that she's mad at; she's forgotten everyone else. For the Vikings, that's good. For us... not so much.' "
"Were you afraid?" Meatlug asked him.
"Me? A Night Fury? Afraid?" Toothless asked levelly. "I was too angry to be afraid at that point. For the first time ever, we'd gotten the Queen out of her nest where we could take some good, clean shots at her. I wanted to take some more of those shots! That's what Night Furies do - we blast things. I was thinking about all the dragons who had died to appease that monster's gluttonous appetite. I was thinking about the time yesterday when she tried to eat me, for the crime of being in the nest. I just wanted to take her down once and for all. How that was going to work, I didn't know; I was trusting Hiccup for that part. But I definitely was not afraid."
"Well, he can fly!" Hiccup exclaimed. Toothless nodded and grimaced as he accelerated to full speed... and just in time. The Queen's jaws slammed shut on where they had been a second ago. They led her through a stone arch; she shattered it on impact and kept chasing them. They shot past the Vikings, who stared in amazement as they passed. Many cheered.
"Why were they so amazed?" Hookfang asked.
"They never saw a Night Fury before," Meatlug explained.
"They never saw Hiccup doing stuff right, either," Stormfly added.
"And they never saw either of us fighting to save their lives," Toothless finished.
The cheers stopped as the great bulk of the Queen shot past them and they realized how heavily the odds were stacked against Toothless and Hiccup. Again, they led her through an arch of stone, hoping that she would get stuck, or at least slowed down. She smashed that arch as well, and kept coming.
"I think it was about that time that Hiccup realized we needed a Plan B," Toothless commented. "Whatever made him look up, I'm glad for it." Hiccup adjusted the Night Fury's tail and they clawed straight up, with the Queen still in hot pursuit. They both heard the hissing from behind them; Hiccup shouted, "Here it comes!" just before they dodged the fiery blast.
"He didn't have to warn me," Toothless commented. "I've been around Terrible Terrors enough; I know what that hissing noise means, even if it was a lot louder from the Queen's throat than from yours, Sizzle." The fire shot would have incinerated them like a fly in Hiccup's forge. They swerved some more and plunged into the heavy clouds.
"Now were you afraid?" Meatlug asked again.
"Hardly!" Toothless answered. "We were hitting our stride now. Hiccup had a plan, and I had everything he needed to make it happen. I was focused on keeping track of where the Queen was, and on using my fires efficiently. I wasn't afraid at all."
The Queen bit down once more. "Missed!" she roared. "Come out and fight, you insignificant son of a sand lizard! You can't hide in there forever!" She hovered, listening and smelling for clues to the whereabouts of her quarry. Then she got a big fat clue when her quarry dove and shot a burning hole in her right wing. Toothless whipped past her far too fast for her to respond, gained height, and dove and fired again. And again, and again. From below, all the Vikings could see and hear were his shots, and glimpses of the Queen's silhouette.
"Paws!" Stormfly called.
"Right now? Right when it's getting interesting?" Sizzle said with displeasure.
"That's an awful lot of shots you're firing, Toothless," the Nadder said. "What happened to your six-shot limit?"
"Six shots? That's a crock of fish guts!" Toothless snorted. "Whoever came up with that number obviously never saw these moving pictures. I shot the Queen twice before we headed for the clouds. I shot her once on the way back down. And in between, I fired ten shots, five into each wing. That's thirteen, and I could have fired more if I needed them."
"Are you sure about that five-into-each-wing number?" Hookfang queried him. "That's a lot of shots."
"Yes, I'm sure, and I'll prove it when the time comes," the Night Fury answered. "Play!" They watched as the Queen lost her temper and sprayed fire in random directions, hoping to hurt her enemies by the sheer volume of flame she pumped out. It worked, to some extent; Toothless' artificial tail got caught in the fire and was set alight.
"Okay, time's up," Hiccup said, and he did look afraid. "Let's see if this works!" They charged straight at the Queen; Hiccup shouted at her, "Come on! Is that the best you can do?"
"Your time is up, dragon-eater!" Toothless snarled at the same time. He swerved slightly to avoid her jaws, and pushed over into a full-speed dive. She didn't hesitate to follow them.
"He sure didn't look afraid right then," Barf commented.
"It's like I keep telling you - I was mad, not afraid!" Toothless nodded. "I finally had the chance to do what every dragon dreamed of doing - taking out that Queen! And it was working, as far as I could tell. If she hadn't gotten my tail with that desperate fire shot, we would have shredded her wings even worse, and she would have fallen out of the sky whether we led her down or not. But I was starting to lose lateral control, and Hiccup could sense that. It was time to bring down the curtain on this performance!"
Straight down the Night Fury dove, with the Queen right on his tail again. Even in the clouds, she couldn't lose him; his glowing tail gave her a perfect target to follow. There wasn't much left of that tail but the supporting stays now. Hiccup tried to adjust it, and his adjustments had little effect.
"Okay, now you look scared!" Meatlug crowed. "It's in your eyes, in your facial expression... admit it, you were finally afraid!"
"Well, I was justifiably nervous about this turn of events," Toothless admitted, "but afraid? Never!"
"Stay with me, buddy! We're good! Just a little bit longer!" Hiccup's confident tone gave Toothless courage to overcome his... his justifiable nervousness. They continued their headlong earthward plunge. "Hold, Toothless," Hiccup urged him, until he heard that hissing sound from just behind them. "NOW!" The Night Fury spun and fired one more shot straight into the Queen's gaping maw, igniting her gases prematurely. Instead of breathing fire at them, her fire was burning inside her now.
"How did Hiccup know that would work?" Stormfly asked.
"I guess he remembered that little duel between me and the Terrible Terror who was trying to steal my fish," Toothless remarked. "He bet everything that the Queen wouldn't be so fireproof on the inside, either, and he was right."
They shot out the bottom of the cloud layer; the ground loomed larger and larger with each passing moment. "Paws!" Toothless shouted as the Queen spread her wings to slow her descent. "Hookfang, count 'em. Five holes in each wing. All the holes are red and glowing, which means they weren't old injuries. I hit her wings ten times, just like I said I did. That's a total of thirteen shots I fired in that battle. Anyone who says differently isn't paying attention."
Hookfang examined each hole up close. He counted all the claws on both of his hind feet, then counted the claws on one foot again, and one claw on the other foot. "That's thirteen, all right," he admitted. "So where did the humans come up with six?"
"Who knows?" Belch answered. "Maybe they just like even numbers."
"Okay, Toothless," Meatlug said. "Then what is your shot limit?"
"I don't have one," the black dragon said smugly. "My body continuously recharges my fires as I use them. I suppose I could run myself dry if I kept shooting full-strength firebolts, one right after the other. But Hiccup let me fight this battle my way, and I spaced out my shots enough that I was nowhere near running out of fire. I had more fire than she had wingsail surfaces! It was only that lucky hit on my tail that made me stop. Play!"
Toothless desperately spread his wings and got out from in front of the Queen. The huge dragon tried to brake her descent, but her wings were holed in too many places. With a despairing roar of "No-o-o-o!" she dove headfirst into the ground and exploded. The shock wave knocked over several Vikings. Sizzle, Barf, and Hookfang cheered as the fireball rose.
"Again, it's a good thing she didn't hit the Vikings when she crashed," Belch commented, "or the whole battle would have been for nothing."
"I disagree," Barf said. "Even if all the Vikings died, at least the dragons would have been free. That's what matters, right, Toothless?"
"I was fighting for the dragons and the humans," Toothless said firmly. "The humans were Hiccup's people and he cared about them, even though they were no friends of mine. Our fates had become completely intertwined by then. I could no more fight for dragons and not humans than you, Barf, can go for a walk without bringing Belch along."
"There have been times when I've wanted to do that," Barf muttered.
On the flat panel, Toothless was slaloming up the Queen's back, dodging her spines in much the same way he'd dodged the rocks during their first real flight together. But her tail knob rose up in front of them, the last of his burned-out tail fin fell away, and he couldn't control himself in flight anymore. They hit the armored tail at full velocity. Toothless was spun around out of control; Hiccup was thrown from his saddle and knocked unconscious. The Night Fury screamed, "No!" and desperately tried to catch his friend as they plunged together into the Queen's funeral fires.
"Okay, now I was afraid," Toothless said softly.