Do You Mind? Chapter 2
It had been four days since dragons and riders first intruded on each other's thoughts. Hiccup had delayed their mission in hopes that the strange effect would wear off, but it hadn't. Quite the contrary – it was getting worse. They could share thoughts with their dragons without touching them now. The distance seemed to depend on the closeness of the dragon/rider relationship; Snotlout couldn't hear Hookfang from more than three or four feet away, while Hiccup could "think at" Toothless from as far as forty feet away. The range seemed to be slowly increasing with the passage of time.
Toothless was the only dragon who was bothered by this; to him, it was a privacy issue. The other dragons seemed to enjoy communicating with their riders at last. The riders didn't enjoy it so much, because although their reptilian friends were intelligent enough to talk to, they tended to have one-track minds, and the conversations weren't too interesting. Stormfly was mostly interested in her own appearance and how others perceived her; Meatlug had twenty-eight different words for "sleep" or "nap" and used them frequently; Barf and Belch were primarily interested in playing one-upmanship games with each other; and Hookfang's main interest was whatever happened to be in front of his eyes at the time.
Hiccup had been able to learn a few facts from Toothless, on the infrequent occasions when the Night Fury was willing to exchange thoughts with him. He'd learned that the dragons couldn't hear one another's thoughts, but they could all communicate with each other with their roars and grunts. He'd learned that nothing like this had ever happened before, as far as the dragons knew. And he'd learned, via Toothless talking to the other dragons, that the other boys spent just as much time thinking about girls as he did, and that the girls weren't happy about it and were waiting for the opportune moment to do something about it.
But now it was time for them to take off on their fact-finding mission; it could not be delayed any longer. One of Berk's Gronckle riders had gotten caught in a storm a week ago and been blown over the mainland. He'd found a mist-filled valley in a mountain range, with small dragons flying overhead. If this was another dragons' nest, the members of the Dragon Training Academy needed to know about it.
They flew in their usual formation, with Toothless and Stormfly vying for the lead, Hookfang and Barf and Belch out to the sides, and Meatlug behind them and higher up. They expected to be away for days; they carried tents, sleeping rolls, and food behind them on their dragons. Just getting to the valley would take them four or five hours. This was a special trial for Meatlug, who tended to fall asleep if she wasn't mentally stimulated every minute or two. Falling asleep in the air, over craggy mountains, with a rider on her back, would not be good.
"Are we there yet?"
"It won't be much longer, Meatlug."
"You said that an hour ago! I haven't had any rest since last night!"
"You had a good night's sleep, and you had a healthy breakfast. Now you need some exercise, or you'll lose your trim figure."
"Oh, the things I could say in response to that..."
Hiccup glanced back over both shoulders to keep an eye on the other riders. Every now and then, one of them would take on a completely blank expression. That meant they were swapping thoughts with their dragon. He probably made the same face when "thinking at" Toothless, but he didn't do it as much because Toothless didn't like it.
"Astrid, why are you holding me back? Don't you want me to outfly Toothless any more?"
"If we're in front of them, that means Hiccup is staring at my... it's not happening, Stormfly!"
"I love it when you look at me and think I'm pretty. Why don't you like it when he thinks you're pretty?"
"I'm pretty sure that's not what he's thinking."
"Oh? You mean you can exchange thoughts with other humans, like you can with me?"
"No, and it's probably a good thing. I wish your fire didn't burn so clean; you could make a smoke screen, so we could get in front of Toothless, and Hiccup couldn't gawk at me."
"Then I'd get covered in soot! That would be bad."
They crossed a sawtooth ridge, and there before them was the misty valley. It was at least five miles long and nearly a mile wide. Those were estimates; they couldn't see the ground anywhere. The entire valley was cloaked in a thick layer of cloud; there were no visible features except a few rocky spires that rose above the fog. Everything was quiet and still below them.
"Yeah! I got here before she did!"
"I really think I was an inch ahead of you."
"I really think it doesn't make any difference."
"I'm with you. Especially because I got here before both of them."
"My nose got into the valley half a second before yours did!"
"Did not!"
"Did too!"
"Did not!"
"Did too!"
"Is that what you and me sound like?"
"I hope not. It sure sounds childish."
"You guys stay out of this!"
"Actually, they started it."
"You stay out of this, too!"
"Okay, we're here," Snotlout shouted. "Now what do we do?"
"Look around for anything that might be a way down into that valley," Hiccup called back.
"Why don't we just go down and see what's there?" Ruff wanted to know.
"Because we could fly into a tree or a cliff or something," Astrid answered before Hiccup could reply. "It's not smart to charge in when we can't see where we're going."
"She's a smart girl," Toothless decided.
"I always thought so."
"Then why don't you listen to her all the time?"
"Well... I'm a guy, and most guys don't like it when girls tell us what to do."
"But you'd listen if a male gave you the exact same advice? You humans make no sense at all."
"Hiccup, look up there!" Fishlegs was pointing at the sky near the end of the valley. Some dark specks were flying in circles, slightly above their altitude.
"Good eyes, Legs! Those might be the dragons we came for," Hiccup called. "Everyone, form a tight group, and let's fly in that direction and see what we find. Be ready to move fast if they aren't friendly." They glided silently down the valley toward the flying specks at the far end.
"They look strange," noted Astrid as they got closer. "Their wings look like dragon wings, but their heads are long and thin, and their bodies are way too small."
"They do more soaring than flapping," Fishlegs observed. "I wonder what they're doing."
"Something about them makes me nervous," Ruff admitted.
"You mean afraid?" her brother leered.
"No, I mean nervous," she shot back.
"You hear that, Barf? Your rider is afraid!"
"She really means nervous."
"You stay out of this, hornhead."
"I'm kind of stuck in the middle of this – it's hard to stay out of it."
"Besides, who are you calling hornhead? You've got twice as many horns as he does!"
"That's just my helmet, Sparkbreath!"
"Knock it off, all three of you!"
"I had an idea," Snotlout announced. "Since they soar a lot, and they make people afraid, we should call them Terror-soars."
"We'll think about that," Hiccup said.
"I am not afraid!" Ruff shouted.
"Look out!" Astrid cried. One of the flying creatures had suddenly rolled over and was diving straight at them, followed by the others.
"Evasive action!" Hiccup yelled.
"Hold on tight!" Fishlegs added. Five dragons took evasive action as they thought best, trying to avoid the diving flock of whatever-they-were.
Two creatures were going to pass close to Stormfly and Hookfang. Both dragons dodged, took their eyes off each other, and collided in mid-air with their necks crossed. Their riders were thrown from their perches by the force of the collision; Snotlout wound up hanging from Stormfly's neck by both hands and one leg, while Astrid was clinging to Hookfang's horns for dear life. The dragons, tangled together and unguided by their riders, spiraled downward into the white murk.
Four of the flying creatures converged on Meatlug. "Dodge 'em, girl!" was all Fishlegs had time to say before they were swooping past him. The Gronckle flew straight and level and watched as all four creatures missed her.
"How was that?" she asked mentally. She sounded pleased with herself.
"It wasn't quite what I had in mind, but I won't argue with success."
Three or four were diving straight at Barf and Belch. Zipplebacks aren't strong fliers, and they aren't the best at evasive action, either. The big dragon swerved left, then right, then did a right-hand snap roll. That pushed Tuff firmly into position on Belch... but Barf rolled right out from underneath Ruff. Her hands slipped off his horns and she fell, screaming.
"Catch her, Toothless!"
"I'm on it."
As the Night Fury rolled into a dive, Hiccup was actually glad for the mental link. "Thinking" his order had been half a second faster than saying it, and Ruffnut needed that half a second. They plunged downward towards her tumbling form, flapping every few seconds to gain speed.
"Can you get her before we reach the fog?"
"It's going to be close."
Hiccup held on tight, in case Toothless had to make some last-moment maneuvers. The dragon caught her awkwardly, her left arm with one forepaw and her right leg with the other. A half-moment later, they fell into the mist.
Toothless spread his wings to change their dive into a zoom climb; Hiccup adjusted his tail fin, and they began to level off. They had just begun to climb when the dragon's right wing crashed into something solid in the fog.
"My wing! My wing!"
They spun and tumbled out of control for a few seconds before Toothless was able to straighten them out. All their supplies flew off his back. Somehow he held onto Ruffnut.
"Can you fly us out of here?"
"No, it hurts too much."
"Then just try to land. Anywhere is fine; just get us safely on the ground."
"I can't see anything!"
"I trust your judgment, bud. Bring us in. Then I'll look at your wing."
"Okay, Hiccup. I don't think there's anything right beneath us, so... Going down!"
Toothless went into a tight downward spiral, favoring his injured wing. It took about half a minute before he sensed land below him and eased up on his descent rate. Still, they hit the ground pretty hard.
Hiccup slid out of his saddle. Ruffnut picked herself up off the ground slowly. "That would have been a lot more fun if I'd known I'd be alive at the end," she sighed.
All three of them looked upward. There was nothing to see but the murky whiteness.
Up on top of that murky whiteness, Fishlegs and Tuffnut suddenly found themselves alone.
"Now what do we do?" Tuff demanded.
Fishlegs wished he had an answer, any answer at all.