The New Nest Chapter 4

"…and that's what happened."

Night-fury-makes-one-heck-of-a-bang was standing in the middle of a circle of Night Furies, relating the story of what had happened to the dragons' nest that he had founded with such high hopes, less than two weeks ago. The circle included most of his relatives, including his twin sister Six and her mate Faithful-brother, who had been called back from their own nest among the Bog-Burglars. Toothless and Lady-night-fury had also been invited, in case Bang's situation had some bearing on their own nest.

Bang had explained how he and the other dragons had found a fine resting place; how Thuggory, son of the local Viking chief, had made peaceful contact with them; how human raiders had discovered them and chased them off; and how they had rescued a baby Gronckle who had been captured by those raiders. Now, all the dragons were back on Berk. Most of them were looking for sleeping places. The exception was Bang, who was hoping to find a place to hide. He had set out as the optimistic leader of a new nest, and he had come back in defeat, with nothing to show for it.

Toothless shook his great head. "It sounds like you did everything right, Bang. You were betrayed by bad luck. One sailor who happened to have good night vision also happened to be in the right place at the right time to see you returning to your nest. It could have happened to any of us."

"But it didn't happen to you!" Bang burst out. "It happened to me! I failed!"

Hiccup, now known as Chief-night-fury, stepped toward his son. "Would you like a list of the things that have happened to me, and the things I've failed at?"

"I could make an impressive list like that," Faithful-brother chimed in.

"And so could I," added Full-of-surprises, Bang's younger sister. "Nowhere in our traditions does it say that we have to succeed at everything we try." She paused. "Does it, Uncle Toothless?"

"No, it doesn't," Toothless nodded.

Bang was unconvinced. "But aren't we Night Furies held to a higher standard than other dragons?"

"Yes, we are," Hiccup said, "and you've brought no shame to us with anything that you've done."

"When you knew you were under attack," Mother-of-twins began, "your first concern was for the other dragons, not for yourself."

"You made a quick plan to protect them," Six added, "and it worked perfectly."

"You held the Vikings off by yourself while your dragons made a clean getaway," Smith-flies-for-fun went on.

"You risked your life for them," Thing Two said, slightly awed by her older brother.

"And when you saw that one of your babies had been captured," Lady-night-fury finished, "you made another good plan, and you risked yourself again to make it succeed. Bang, you've done nothing to be ashamed of!"

"But I lost my nest!" he protested. "How many Night Furies have lost their nest before?"

"How many Night Furies have been forced into an unwanted battle and got away with no deaths and no injuries?" Toothless challenged him. "For that matter, how many Night Furies have talked Nadder-green-the-drama-queen into doing something brave? Even I never pulled that off!"

"Besides," Hiccup added, "it sounds like you've made a lifetime friend in Thuggory."

"Is that a fair trade for a whole nest?" Bang challenged him.

"Absolutely yes!" his father shot back. "Nests come and go. You can try to start another one tomorrow if you want to. But real friends aren't that easy to find, and human friends of dragons are very few and far between. Remember, the grand goal isn't to spread dragons all over the Archipelago. The grand goal is to spread peace and understanding between dragons and humans. If Thuggory, future chief of the Meatheads, still wants to see you every week or so, then you've done more for my plan in two weeks than I ever could have hoped."

"But, Father, my goal was to start a new nest and lead it!" Bang protested. "I'm glad you approve of what I did for your goals, but in terms of what I wanted to do, I completely failed."

Toothless took a deep breath. "My young friend, listen to me. You did not fail. You did the best you could, and it was very good. You didn't make any mistakes. Everything you did was in the best Night Fury tradition. It was bad luck that brought you back here, not any failure on your part."

"But is there a reason I keep having such bad luck?" Bang asked plaintively.

"I could ask myself the same question," Faithful-brother replied, "but I choose not to ask. Everything that looked bad in my life wound up pointing me to better things. I wouldn't choose to go through some of those things again, but I wouldn't change anything, because those bad things shaped me into a pretty good Night Fury."

"Well said," Lady-night-fury nodded. No one dared to contradict her on that score; her own human past was the bleakest of them all.

"Son, you've been away for a week or two," Hiccup began, "and you haven't been around for my fatherly lectures, so you're overdue for one. I know you're feeling down, so I'll spare you the verbiage and I'll keep it quick and simple. If you've done your best, then you haven't failed. End of lecture."

"I like that," said Thing One. "If I've done my best, then I haven't failed. Mother, does that mean that, if I've done my best to be good, then I haven't failed, no matter what happened?"

"Why?" her mother growled. "What happened? What have you done?"

"Well... uhh... there was this human fishing boat..." Thing One suddenly looked like she'd like to change the subject.

"Go on," Mother-of-twins growled.

"You two can work that out later," Hiccup cut in. "Bang, how about you and me going for a nice slow flight to nowhere together? If you want to talk, then we'll talk, and if you want to just watch the scenery with no pressure on you, then we'll do that."

"I'd like that, Dad," Bang nodded. "But I'll warn you, I probably won't talk much."

"That's fine," Hiccup agreed. The two of them spread their wings and launched themselves into the sky.

"How can they go for a long flight and not talk?" Lady-night-fury wondered. "That's just unnatural."

"That's males for you," Mother-of-twins sighed. Then she slowly turned back toward Thing One. "And now, young lady, you and I will talk at great length about that fishing… huh? Where did she go?"

"While you were watching the chief and Bang flying to the northwest, Thing One took off toward the southeast," Smith-flies-for-fun explained. They looked in that direction and could barely see a black dot with wings, flying for all she was worth.

"Aren't you going to chase her?" Smith-flies-for-fun asked.

"Why bother?" Astrid signed. "She'll be back, and I'll deal with her then." Her expression hardened. "And when it comes to reining in my children when they get out of control, I'm the one who has never failed!"

o

Hiccup and his son were gone for about two hours. The father didn't try to talk about his son's nest, but focused on his friendship with Thuggory. Bang was quite willing to talk on that subject. He was feeling somewhat better about life in general by the time they returned to Berk.

As they glided home, they noticed a solitary ship below them on the dark sea. "That's an odd-looking ship," Bang remarked.

"I've never seen a Viking ship like that one," Hiccup nodded. "Let's fly a little lower, and take a closer look." They did so. This ship had a single sail and oarsmen, like Viking ships did, but it didn't have the dragon figurehead common to most Viking ships. It didn't have any side-shields, either. Most tellingly, the crew weren't dressed like Vikings. They wore metal breastplates, their helmets were shaped differently from Viking helmets, and their shields (which were stacked on deck) were oval-shaped, in contrast to the usual Viking round shield. There was a pile of weapons nearby, but they were all javelins, with no hammers or axes to be seen.

"Where do you think they're headed?" Hiccup asked his son.

"They aren't on course for any of the islands nearby," Bang decided.

"And what does that tell you?" Hiccup pressed him.

"Is this another test, Dad?" Bang protested.

"I'd just like to see if your brain still works after being away from my good influence for a while," Chief-night-fury grinned.

"Fine," Bang said shortly. "If they aren't on course for anywhere in particular, that tells me that they aren't from around here, they don't have maps, and they're just cruising around to see what they can find. Their armor and weapons tell me that they're on a mission of conquest, but one ship can't conquer much, so they're probably scouts for a bigger force that we haven't found yet. We might be looking at the beginning of an invasion."

"There's nothing wrong with your brain, that's for sure," Hiccup nodded. "The question on my mind is, 'What should we do about it?'"

"I think your usual answer would be, 'Let's gather more information first,'" Bang replied. "We don't know anything about these people! It wouldn't be smart to – ow!" Hiccup glanced down and saw a small lead ball falling away; it had just hit Bang in the belly.

"Are you okay?" he asked his son.

"I'm more surprised than hurt," Bang answered. "It probably chipped one of my scales, but nothing worse. I think we're too high above them for their lead-ball-throwers to reach us with deadly force. On the other hand, that was a good shot, aimed at a black dragon on a dark night." As they watched, one of the sailors spun something around five times with his hand and released part of it. Another lead ball flew upward and narrowly missed Hiccup's left tail fin.

"Okay, we just gathered some more information," Hiccup decided as they flapped effortlessly and gained some height. "Now we know that they're belligerent and they don't like dragons."

"Don't forget that they're very good shots with those lead balls," Bang reminded him.

"Yeah, that too," Hiccup nodded. "If they're not from around here, then maybe they don't know what dragons can do if they provoke us. I can't imagine Vikings taking shots at Night Furies, because the Vikings know what will happen if we shoot back."

"If you want to shoot back, Dad, then I'm with you all the way," Bang said earnestly. He began powering up a firebolt, just in case.

Hiccup actually thought about it. "I'm tempted to show them how wrong they are, just because they took a shot at my son. But no. Let's not tip our hand too early. If we're facing an invasion, then the element of surprise needs to be on our side. However, I definitely want to learn more about these people and what they want."

"How will we do that?" Bang wanted to know.

"First, I'll wait until our friend Rangi comes back from his training cruise with the Law-Speaker," Hiccup decided. "He's a week overdue, so he should return any day now. If these strangers have visited any of the other tribes, then I guarantee you, Rangi will have heard about it. Then I'll speak to Six and find out if the Bog-Burglars know anything. You can speak to Thuggory and see if they have approached the Meatheads. There are lots of ways to gather information, especially when they're aimlessly blundering around in our territory. Let's go home." They did so.

When they arrived, the other Night Furies had dispersed to their various homes and nests, so the two males caught a few fish for a snack and then retired. Bang had just begun getting used to a night schedule; now he would have to shift to days again if he wanted to spend any time with his parents. He decided to stay on the night schedule instead. It would make things easier if he tried to restart his nest somewhere else, it would be more convenient when he visited Thuggory, and it would be much more convenient if Cave-flyer still wanted to spend time with him. He wasn't sure if she still had any interest in a Night Fury who couldn't lead a nest, but it was impossible to predict how a female might react.

The first news they received about the strange ship came from Trader Johann, and they weren't sure how reliable he was as a news source. But he was quite certain of the tale he told. "Ahh, yes, I saw some ships very much like the ones you describe. They were in the harbor of the Lava-louts, they were. But I had some odd dealings with the Lava-louts! I only saw a few men wearing the unusual armor you describe. But there were flags here and there that said, 'SPQR' in an odd set of runes that I've seen only when I journeyed far to the south, to the exotic lands of the Angles and the Saxons. And, wherever those new men went, everyone gave them much room and much respect. It was as though the new men had taken over. No one said a word to me about Chief Lunklunk or his family, and that is an oddity, because they are usually among the first to visit my ship and sample my fine wares. I can tell you no more, because I left that harbor after only a few hours. They did not wish to trade much with me, and if I can be honest, I felt uncomfortable there. It is bad when a free trader is made to feel uncomfortable."

"Were there any signs of a fight?" Hiccup asked him through Anya.

"There were no signs of fighting," the trader answered. "Everything looked very peaceful, except for the soldiers with their armor and their weapons of violence. But I do not wish to dwell on such unpleasantness. Will any of you sample my fine wares?"

The Night Furies stepped aside and let the Vikings through to check out Johann's trade goods. He was soon doing a bustling business.

"He didn't tell us very much," Astrid commented.

"He told us that these newcomers are bad news for Vikings," Six replied.

"Are they bad news for dragons?" Full-of-surprises wanted to know.

"We know that they'll fling their weapons at us without provocation," Bang answered.

"The Vikings used to think that our mere existence was provocation enough," Hiccup cut in. "These newcomers probably don't know anything about us except what they've heard from the other tribes. That won't be good news."

"So we should think of them as enemies?" Astrid asked.

"Potential enemies," her mate corrected her. "We don't want to start a war if we don't have to."

"That means we're going to let them fire the first shot," Smith-flies-for-fun fussed. "One of us is going to get hurt."

"We don't have to let ourselves be targets," Hiccup said. "We have the advantages of speed and intelligence. And by 'intelligence,' I'm not saying we're smarter than they are, although that might be the case. I mean that we're gathering up-to-date facts about them, but everything they know about us is wrong. We'll be able to see trouble coming long before it gets here."

"What will we do when the trouble gets here?" Full-of-surprises asked.

Astrid quickly added, "And if you say, 'Probably something stupid,' then I will tail-smack your head all the way to Greenland!"

Hiccup smiled. "No. Bang, tell them what I'll do when the trouble gets here."

Bang half-smiled. "He'll think of something."

"That doesn't give me much to work with," Full-of-surprises fussed. "If I'm going to organize the dragons to protect our island, I'll need some kind of a plan."

"I can't give you a plan without facts," her father answered. "We're gathering those facts, a little at a time. Once we know what we're actually up against, then we can make some plans."