Chapter 7

The Dragon Sanctuary

Astrid's room turned out to be a small chamber in the cave. By Viking standards it was rather unusual, yet quite comfortable.

Her bed consisted of a long slab of stone upon which a straw filled mattress and some woven blankets and a pillow had been placed. There were faded purple drapes to cover the doorway and to surround the bed with, giving it the appearance of a makeshift four-poster. On the drapes was the outline of a flower that was difficult to make out without closer inspection, except for the one that served as the door, which had a macabre image of a skull on it. Astrid couldn't help but wonder as to why this one was there and whether there was any symbolism behind it. The skull seemed to be grinning at her, so she intentionally left that particular drape pulled back as much as possible.

In the corner furthest from the bed was a small fountain carved from a block of stone. The water gently trickled down it with a sound that gave the room a soothing and meditative atmosphere. A square of the wall no bigger than a person's head had been removed, which allowed light to fall on one hollowed out rock that had been turned into a flower pot. A few lilies were growing in it, surrounded by blades of grass and clumps of moss. The center of the room had several stone benches placed around a statue of a dragon carved in a fashion Astrid had never seen before. Its body and tail made multiple zigzags, it had whiskers or something akin to them curving out from its nose, and it was covered in symbols that looked like two water droplets fused together into a circle. On the sides of one bench was carved the face of an owl, on another was the image of a bird with a long thin neck and beak, and on the third was the face of a cat with many stripes on it. In the case of these last two Astrid was completely unfamiliar with the species they were depicting.

In fact, as she looked around the room more, she saw carvings all along the walls, most of which she could not recognize. There were carvings of creatures with long noses, huge ears, and two teeth that protruded from their mouth, there were carvings of cats with human heads wearing a partly triangular headdress, there were carvings of winged horses, people on crosses, and a large house with curved roofs and circular doorways. In addition to these were carvings that she did recognize, mainly of dragons and a Valkyrie that bore a certain resemblance to her, she thought.

"I wonder how long this room took to make," she mused as she sat down on one of the benches, "and where did all of these designs come from?" She glanced around, almost hoping that the King would arrive to explain everything to her, but she was alone. With nothing to do, Astrid spent some more time examining the decorations. She then looked up and saw the ceiling, which only had one carving on it. It was of a Night Fury and a boy on its back. Both of them were looking confidently forward, as if to defy anything that might be coming towards them. It was a very good and detailed carving, she thought. There was something familiar about the boy's face, but she couldn't really place it. She then realized that they were looking in the direction of the Valkyrie that resembled her.

"Interesting," was all she said to this realization, "are they challenging the Valkyrie? Or are they looking at her as if expecting her to join them or something else?"

At that moment she was distracted by the Snow Demon returning with a tray of food balanced on its head. Awkwardly Astrid took it from the dragon, who then bowed and left her again. Dinner consisted of a loaf of warm bread, a fillet of salmon, green beans, an apple, and a stone goblet filled with wine. It was quite delicious, she thought as she ate with utensils made of a metal she didn't recognize. The tray and plates her food was on were pieces of slate with fish carved on them.

"How did he make these things? Did he make these things?" She abruptly asked out loud. She looked around again hoping he might show up, but nobody came until Midnight returned to take the tray away.

Astrid spent the rest of her evening exercising, examining the room more, and wondering. Her head was practically spinning with questions when she finally decided to get into bed, and the questions kept her awake for hours before she was able to fall asleep.

Breakfast the next morning followed the same procedure as dinner. The food tray also contained a note on it saying that Midnight would lead her to the main hall when she was ready. She ate quickly, washed her face with water from the fountain, tried to make her clothes and hair look neat, and then followed the dragon to where she had been brought the day before. The Dragon King and the Night Fury were already there. When she arrived the King jumped to his feet enthusiastically.

"Good, you're here! Did you sleep well?"

"Yes, thank you. That was an interesting room. Did you make it yourself?"

"I designed all of it, and I did most of the carvings, but a lot of it was made by dragons, under my supervision. The best work was done by Etcher. He's a Triple Stryke dragon who has turned out to have quite a talent for carving with his stingers."

"Huh. I didn't know dragons could carve," Astrid said.

"There are a lot of things you don't know dragons were capable of, but today you're going to find out. You can leave your axe and knife behind, by the way. You won't have any need of them here. I assumed it went without saying, but I forgot who I'm playing host and guide for."

She hated the idea of being separated from her weapons, but reminded herself this was diplomacy, so she reluctantly placed them in a corner.

"I don't want anyone touching them," she ordered.

"No worries. Now, shall we get started?" he led her to a wall.

Now that she was closer to the man she had a better chance to get a good look at him, and noticed two odd things. In the first place, attached to his armor in one spot were a few blades of some kind of grass, and in the second, his mask, which encompassed his entire head, had some kind of lenses covering the eye holes, so she could not even see his eyes. She asked him about this.

"This grass is called 'Dragon Nip', and they love it. It has a very tranquilizing affect on them. You put it up in front of their nose and any aggression melts away like butter in summertime. Get it too close and they might fall into a stupor. I wear a few on me as a precaution. Since I just wear a few it only takes effect when I'm right next to a dragon; standing close to one doesn't do anything. For instance, Toothless here is right behind us yet isn't affected by it."

"Do you think you'll need them today?"

"No, but I prefer not to take chances. You never know when an aggressive dragon might turn up."

"I thought you could keep them under control. I thought you were their King."

He sighed in annoyance. "I told you on Owl Gut Island: I don't control dragons. They follow me because they want to. Besides, not every dragon that comes here comes here for me. A lot just come here for a safe place to nest for a while, and they're not all at ease around humans. That Skrill you saw last night, Grimm, he dislikes humans so much he'd never even let me ride on his back. He told me so himself that if the day ever came where he'd have to fly me somewhere he'd carry me in his claws. And I'm not their 'King.' That's just a name you Vikings gave me."

"But you're still their leader?"

"Toothless is, being a Beta, but I only lead because they let me."

"And what's a Beta?"

"Well, there's an Alpha of all Dragons, whom all dragons are subject to, and next in line of the hierarchy are the Betas. Essentially the Alpha is the King and the Betas are the nobility, while all the rest are commoners. Just about every nest has a Beta, but there's only one Alpha at a time. And before you ask, I've never seen the Alpha."

Astrid nodded. "All right, I think I understand. So, what's up with the eyeholes on your mask?"

"Oh…these lenses allow me to see better," he said, rather quickly and dismissively, "They're tinted, to make it easier to see concealed dragons. Now, shall we get going?" He quickly moved towards a section of the wall before them.

"But—what about the letters from my chief?" Astrid protested, but he ignored her. He pulled a lever and a large portion of the wall was lowered down like a drawbridge.

"I built this contraption especially for this visit," he said excitedly, "I wanted to start this tour off with something impressive and theatrical."

"You and the theatrics," grumbled Toothless.

"Now, milady, if you would…" he gestured to the door and Astrid stepped through it.

The sight that greeted her was beyond anything she could have expected. She was standing on a trail in the middle of a large forest. Tall trees, thick mosses, groves of ferns, and tall grasses; a hundred shades of greens surround her, from the deep to the vibrant, from the dull to the lustrous. She took a few steps forward and saw she was actually standing near the edge of a long slope. Looking around she realized that they were on the interior wall of a crater. The face, where it was actually visible through the vegetation, was black and in many places craggy, and ran steadily down until it reached a large lagoon that filled the entire crater floor, several hundred feet down. A thin fog was languidly rising out of the crater's interior, draping the walls and trees as though they were ethereal. Here and there beams of sunlight poked through the fog and tree branches, as if to indicate that the places they were shining upon were sacred, and everything glistened with morning dew. The air smelled fresh and damp, as it often does at the beginning of a lovely day.

"We're standing in an extinct volcano." The King explained. "I had Whispering Deaths tunnel all over the place to build nests. The lake extends below sea level, so they enlarged some underwater passages that connect it with the ocean, allowing fish and any tidal class dragons to enter."

The fog suddenly cleared away, revealing a huge flock of dragons moving about through the air. The rapid movement and great variety of color gave Astrid the impression of a great menagerie of birds had just been released. There were hundreds of dragons, some diving, some rising, others darting east, west, north, or south, some landing on the ground or in trees, some taking off, zipping about in every direction conceivable, but constantly in motion yet never running into another dragon. A handful of them were simply lying around, some watching the organized chaos, some completely ignoring it. There were dragons of nearly every species she knew of and plenty more that she didn't know of. There were so many different kinds and they were moving so much that she didn't have time to study any. For short seconds, shafts of sunlight bounced off scales of every color in existence, save for black. There was only one black dragon that Astrid could see, and that was the Night Fury standing behind her. The sudden realization that the world's most feared dragon was right behind her made her at once uneasy and tense, but she began to calm down when she decided that if the dragon was going to attack her it would have done so already.

Meanwhile, the Dragon King had been watching her reactions and now excitedly raised his hand and gestured over the space before them.

"Well, welcome to our home, the Dragon Sanctuary! What do you think?"

"I…don't know what to say..."

"I understand that perfectly. I never get tired of looking at it. There's always something new to see, just like there are always new dragons to discover and befriend. Well, come on! Time's a-wasting and there's a lot to see!" He pulled her down a pathway that led them further down the crater, only stopping to point out things to here.

"See that trench over there on the hillside? Dragons don't need to distinguish between fresh and salt water, but I do, and for that I dug some canals to send rainwater into a storage cistern underground."

Now they progressed down a trail to a large grove of trees, where several dragons were standing. Astrid recognized them from the day before.

"Let me introduce you to some of my friends here! The Skrill is Grimm, and it's spelled with two 'm's, by the way." One 'm' would be just as appropriate, in Astrid's opinion, for if it wasn't looking at her grimly she didn't know how to read expressions. The Skrill made a scoffing sound and turned away from them.

"Remind me why I agreed to do this."

"Grimm!" Midnight said shortly, "You know what we agreed on!"

"Yeah, yeah…behave diplomatically, no killing, no dismembering, and no scaring her out of her wits, yeah, yeah, I've got it."

"Anyway, Midnight, you've met, and this is Persephone." He pointed to a pink dragon that bore a distinct resemblance to the dragon statue in Astrid's room: she looked more like a snake with legs. "She's from Japan. Roughly translated her species is a 'Gatherer of Cherries,' and they're one of only two species I know of to not eat meat."

"How can you even gaze at something so disgusting?" The dragon retorted.

"Thank you, Persephone." He said dryly, "word of our efforts here spread eastwards among dragons, so she left Japan to see for herself. She learned the name 'Persephone' when she flew through Greece and decided she liked the name so much that she adopted it. This dragon is a Treejumper, and he's named Shamrock. Like Persephone, he heard about our efforts and came from Ireland to see for himself, and decided to stay. Last but not least, here's our resident Timberjack Evictus, who got his name because he likes to 'evict' people from dragon trapping boats."

"'Evict'?"

"As in get on the boat and throw all the sailors overboard. Then he 'evicts' the dragons trapped on it." The red Timberjack raised its head proudly. "These dragons are the most prominent on the island after Toothless. It's largely thanks to their combined efforts that this place is what it is now."

"I thought you were the leader."

"A leader can only lead if others let him, and even so, a leader alone can't do much. Of course, nothing's exactly official here; it's just how things fell out as each dragon's abilities and talents became apparent."

"Talents?" Astrid repeated scornfully, "like the talent to destroy and kill?"

"Aren't those the kinds of talents Viking warriors value?" he replied cheerfully, "but everything has a use. It might not be easily apparent to the narrow-minded, but everyone on this planet has special abilities and skills. The trick is finding a way to put them to a beneficial use. Besides, if you doubt the abilities dragons have to create, look around you. Remember what I told you about your room? I designed a lot of this place and helped build where I could, but I didn't make everything, you know. Yes, dragons can destroy, but they can also help build. All they needed was somebody to give them an incentive to do so. It's the same with humans."

After this he said goodbye to the Council members and led Astrid further down the path, with Toothless right behind them. Occasionally he'd pause to direct Astrid's attention to something.

"That path over there leads to my forge. A nest of Fireworms live there, and they heat the furnaces whenever I need to use them." Astrid could only nod in reply. She suspected Gobber could have bombarded the King for hours on how the forge worked and how the blacksmithing work was done, but she had no experience in that field. For a moment her thoughts turned to Hiccup and she wondered if he'd have had the same reaction that Gobber would.

"Over here are some of the orchards." He said some time later. "We've got some dragons here like Persephone that can only eat fruit, and I like fruit too, so we've got a few spots around the Sanctuary for fruit trees. The fruit eating dragons take care of them."

"Take care of them as in farming and gardening?"

"Yep,"

Astrid really had to laugh. "Dragons gardening. That'll be the day. Do they have scythes and rakes and ploughs too?"

"Yes: they're called claws and tails."

"Oh. Well, what about fertilizer?"

"Volcanic soil is among the most fertile on earth, which was one reason for why we chose this island. It wasn't easy finding an island, I can tell you that. It had to be large, have locations for nests, good soil, a source of food and fresh water, and situated where humans wouldn't be likely to come to it. Finding this island was a stroke of pure luck. The first year was insane, trying to figure out how to accommodate everyone and survive while putting things together. I sometimes felt like I was like trying to live in a massive house that was still being constructed. A lot of dragons didn't stick around during those early days, but we pulled through in the end, as you can see. But even if this island wasn't volcanic, we'd have managed with growing crops at least. Dragon dung is an excellent fertilizer. I calculated once that if an island like Berk used it for crops, harvest sizes would triple."

That wiped the smile from Astrid's face. "You're serious?"

"It was a conservative estimate too."

"Huh." Impressive but she was still skeptical. "And I suppose you've got an arena and public baths too here."

Toothless abruptly put his paws over his ears. "Augh! Don't say that word, don't say it!"

"What's up with him?"

"It just so happens that the Unholy Offspring of Lightning and Death hates baths."

"Don't say it!"

"What? Say 'baths'?"

"NOOOO!"

The King turned to Astrid, who was looking incredibly confused. "He was taking a bath in a pond and an eel somehow got into the water. Consuming eels makes most dragons sick, and the larger eels have been known to kill dragons, so most have great fear of them and hate them. And ever since then, you even mention the word bath—"

"AUGH!"

"—and this overgrown lizard starts screaming and whimpering like a little kid." The King shook his head as his dragon dove into a pile of bushes. Persephone and Midnight happened to be nearby and were trying very hard not to laugh.

"Should we tell him it was the Hatchling who put that eel in there?" Midnight whispered.

"Maybe next time," grinned Persephone, "But for now we watch him suffer!"

Suddenly they heard a loud noise. The dragons were making loud calls that seemed to follow a certain rhythm and began diving down towards the lake.

"What's that?"

"Feeding time!" She sensed he was grinning behind the mask. "They're singing."

"Dragons can sing?"

"Sure, why not?"

"And just what are they singing, Mr. Expert?" Astrid retorted skeptically.

"Well…" He listened and then translated.

"Swoop, swish, swoop, swish

Dive and fill your mouth with fish!

Down, up, left, right

Help yourself but stay polite!

That's what the Hatchling tells us

And the Hatchling is always right!

Right, left, up, down

Fill the belly, drop the frown!

Swish, swoop, swish, swoop

Spot eels? Than warn the group!

Aside from that dine away

And watch Toothless fly loop-de-loop!"

"You made that up."

"I did not! The dragons did!"

And down the dragons went to this beat. And up they came with mouths full of fish. The King began pointing out various species to her as they flew by, but most of what he was saying went in one ear and out the other. Toothless had reappeared now and looked inquiringly at his friend.

"If you'll excuse me for a minute, milady, but Toothless is hungry." He climbed onto the dragon's back. "We'll be right back,"

"Why is his tailfin a different color?" Astrid asked, "And what's up with all that metal stuff?"

"He lost a fin, so I built him a new one. This particular one requires my help to operate. Let's go, Bud!" They leapt up into the air forcefully and then did a heart stopping dive straight into the lake. Astrid was impressed by how fast and easy they had made it look. She was enough of a warrior and instructor to recognize a team when she saw one, and she saw one right then.

They came up a few minutes later, the dragon with a mouth full of fish that he was trying to gulp down without gagging.

"Wait a minute—'Toothless?'"

"His teeth are retractable." The King said as he slid off the dragon's back. "I saw him with them retracted early in our friendship and the name just sorta stuck." The dragon raised its head and grinned at Astrid. Sure enough, its mouth was completely toothless.

"And how did he lose his tail fin?"

"A bola net got him, sent him crashing through the woods, and in the process a fin was ripped off," the King mumbled. He sounded ashamed. That and the way he was looking at her left her feeling odd.

"What?"

"Oh…just trying to gauge your reaction,"

"Don't tell her anything more about that night," Toothless warned.

"Relax Bud, I won't." He sighed, "I still regret it though,"

"What are you two talking about now?" she demanded. It was getting a bit annoying having them speak to each other and not be able to understand it. Who knew how many secrets they were sharing, knowing she was standing right in front of them?

"He's just telling me he's still hungry." The King said calmly. He turned to the dragon. "You're a bottomless pit, you know that, right?"

"Very funny,"

The King decided to show Astrid how the harness and tailfin worked. It was simply a matter of pushing a pedal with his metal foot, which changed the positions of the tailfin by the means of a cable.

Astrid said "So he can't fly without you?"

"Yes and no. I built him another fin that allows him to fly on his own. But he hates using it and will only do so during emergancies, like in a battle. But with the fin he's wearing now, he can't fly without me."

"And you managed to make a downed dragon fly again?" Astrid shook her head. "I can't think of anyone who could do such a thing. I can't even imagine how it could be done."

"You're a warrior, Astrid, not an inventor. In my case, I knew right at the beginning it was perfectly feasible. All I needed was knowledge of the mecahinics of a Nightfury's tailfin, the right material for the fin, and a means of controlling it." Only the third part posed any real problem, but that was taken care of with some time, patience, and effort—and a lot of crashes and near death experiences."

Astrid suddenly was tired of just asking questions. Everything she asked just seemed to open up scores of new questions. She especially wanted to know more about the King. She suddenly got the sense that she knew him…or perhaps he knew her. Either way, she wanted an explanation for it.

She tried to sound casual. "Do I know you from somewhere? Have we met before?"

"Yes, on Owl Gut Island, and on that island with the Zippleback."

"That wasn't what I meant."

"I know. But it's all I'm saying for the moment on that."

"Why?" Maybe if she got him to say more he'd let something slip.

His tone was serious. "Because I don't want to talk about it."

Well so much for that hope.

Now that the dragons had stopped feeding it had gotten a bit less noisy, though many continued to swoop about at random intervals for their own reasons. To Astrid, they were impressive to look upon, no question, but she could still recall perfectly all those dragon raids she had seen before. Those house fires caused by dragons had looked impressive too, before the walls and roofs collapsed on their trapped occupants. The King might have done something special here, but she clung to her Vikign upbringing, and did not discount what she knew of dragons. However tame they might appear now, the fact remained they were still wild animals, and she was not interested in trusting her life or her island with one of them.