Dimmadreki Chapter 11

Dimmadreki and Myrkrid glided easily on the evening breeze. It was the night after their mating flight. There was nothing on their agenda, as far as teaching and learning went. They'd found their daily meal quickly, stuffed themselves with fish, and set out on a long, relaxing flight to nowhere in particular. Dimmadreki loved flying for its own sake, much as his mate had predicted, and she was content just being with him.

"Can you tell me something?" he asked. "Every now and then, you'll say something like, 'Oh, for Tannin's sake!' Who's Tannin?"

"Tannin was the great ancestral dragon, the mother of us all," she began. "None of us knows exactly where she came from. It's agreed that whoever made the sky and the earth made Tannin as well, but if we dragons ever knew who that was, we've long since forgotten. Whoever he was, he sent her down from the sky at the beginning, to fill the earth with dragons. She was huge, wise, and very beautiful. They say she was purest white in color, but when she stood in the sun, all the colors of the rainbow reflected off her scales.

"When she got to the earth, she saw that there was another intelligent race already there – the humans. She approached them and offered them her friendship. The men were frightened at her size and her power, so they said, 'No, we can't be friends with you. You'll frighten our animals and our children. You'll eat all the food that we need for ourselves. Please stay away from us.'

"Tannin was distressed because she knew, if the two races remained separate, it was just a matter of time before they misunderstood each other. War would surely be the result. But the men remained afraid, so she flew far into the wilderness, into places where men would never go. There, she laid a clutch of eggs.

"That clutch hatched into all the common types of dragons – the Nadders, the Gronckles, the Fireworms, the Terrors, and all the others. The hatchlings were all female and already gravid, so they could begin to fill the earth with their offspring. Tannin taught them what they needed to know, told them to be kind to humans but to stay away unless the humans invited them, and sent them out, all over the world. She saw that her children were beautiful and clever, so she laid another clutch.

"That second clutch hatched into all the uncommon kinds of dragons – the Timberjacks, the Scauldrons, the Changewings, the Smokebreaths, and the rest. They, too, were all female and all ready to lay eggs. Tannin taught them the same things as the others, including the warning about humans, and sent them out. She saw that her second clutch was even more wonderful than the first, so she laid one more.

"The third clutch contained just three eggs. One hatched into the first Night Fury, one became the first Bewilderbeast, and the third hatched into the first Monster. She was amazed at the Night Fury, which was the most intelligent and powerful of all her young, and which was beautiful even though it was her opposite in color. The Bewilderbeast was also very intelligent, but it had a power to enslave other dragons that made her nervous. Its nature was kindly, though, so she did not worry. But she was terrified at the Monster, which had the same power as the Bewilderbeast, and a selfish streak that suggested that she and her offspring would certainly use their influence against other dragons. She feared that, if she laid any more eggs, some would be even more wonderful than the Night Fury, but some would be much worse than the Monster. So she ended her work.

"She taught her last three children what they needed to know, and she had a special warning for the first Monster dragon. She told it, 'Do not mistreat your brothers and your sisters. Someday, a hero will arise who is a dragon and not a dragon, and if you have enslaved my other children, that hero will become your enemy, and he will destroy you.' When she had finished her teaching, she flew back into the sky, never to return. It's said that, if you look into the northern sky when you're above the clouds, you can see a pattern of stars that shows where she went. Others say it just looks like a human's long-handled drinking cup." She smiled. "We dragons are a practical bunch; we don't have many legends. That's one of the very few that will be worth passing on to our children."

Dimmadreki was trying not to think about his own children yet, even though he'd already started an egg in her. "Do the dragons worship Tannin, or pray to her?" he asked.

"No, not at all. She's not a supernatural being; we see her as more of a mythic semi-historical figure. There aren't any gods or goddesses who watch out for dragons, like the humans believe in. We have to look out for ourselves."

"Speaking of looking out, what's that down there?" he asked. "Those look like ships."

"They probably are," she replied after a quick glance. "Let the humans do their fishing. There are plenty of fish in the sea, so if they don't bother us, we won't bother them."

"Fishing boats don't sail in a tight formation like that," he noted. "Most fishing boats aren't that big, either. Those are war vessels. It looks like they're on a course for Berk."

"What if they are?" she asked. "The humans aren't happy unless they have someone to fight. Some of us have tried to be peacemakers in the past, and break up their battles. When that happens, they all turn on us instead, and that ends badly for everyone, but mostly us. Stay up here where it's safe and peaceful."

"Myrkrid, I can't do that. I'm not a human anymore, and Berk village isn't my home anymore, but those people were my people once. I can't just stand aside and let them get invaded! Especially when I'm in a position to actually do something about it. No more failed inventions, no more minor calibration issues – I'm a Night Fury! I could stop that entire fleet in its tracks."

"Dimmadreki, I thought those Vikings hated you! I thought they made you miserable and treated you like dirt! Why would you risk one scale off your belly for people like that?"

"I don't think it's a human trait," he answered. "I think it's a Dimmadreki trait. This is just something I have to do." He folded his wings and prepared to dive.

Suddenly, she swerved downward and got right in front of him. "Don't you remember the promise you made?" she begged him. She sounded scared, not angry. "How can you stay with me and help raise our hatchling if you're going to throw your life away, sticking your nose into every senseless battle you see? Those Berks would be just as happy to kill you as the men on the ships. You don't owe any of them anything! But you owe me a promise. That was the deal. Please stay out of it, Dimmadreki. Do it for me!"

He gazed at her sadly. "I'm going to keep my promise to you, and to our hatchling. When he's grown, I'll make you another promise for the next egg, and another one for the egg after that. But there are people on Berk who I care about, even if they don't care about me in return. This isn't about what they deserve. It's about right and wrong. Please don't stop me."

"There's nothing I can do to talk you out of doing something stupid?" she asked.

"You got involved with an ex-Hiccup. It's an occupational hazard."

"All right," she said resignedly. "Then you take the ones on the left, and I'll get the ones on the right. Fire at long range so they can't see you. If they turn back, we let them go. Deal?"

"I love you," he smiled. "Deal."

o

Alvin stood in the bow of his flagship, feeling the wind blowing his hair and beard into a bedraggled mess. He liked it that way; it made him look fierce in battle. He'd been looking forward to this for weeks! This wasn't a full-scale invasion; he didn't have enough men to conquer Berk and keep it. But he could raid Berk, steal their goods, kidnap a few of their women and children, kill any men who got in his way... and then do it again in a few months... and in a few years, he would have enough men to conquer Berk and keep it. They could leave behind that useless rocky wasteland known as Outcast Island forever. The town's defenses would be less formidable than usual because the Berk chief was distracted over the disappearance of his son. This was the time to strike. Maybe he'd even get a chance to face off against Stoick himself!

He grabbed a lantern, held it out over the side of the ship, and waved it up and down three times. After a few seconds, he saw a similar lantern waved up and down three times from far back in the formation. That would be Savage on the aftmost ship. Their signals told each other that all was well in the fleet – no mutinies, no leaky ships, no one jumping ship.

Just for once, things were actually going according to plan.

Then he heard one of the few sounds that could make his blood run cold. It was a rising whistle, from somewhere above him and to the right. A brilliant, fast-moving blur of blue light came out of nowhere and shot toward him. It struck the second ship in the right-hand column and blew the mast in half. The severed top half toppled overboard, taking the sail with it. There was nothing for the crew to do but cut it away and run out the oars. That forced all the ships behind it to veer to the side to avoid colliding with it as it slowed down.

Night Fury! Of all the rotten luck! A lone dragon had chosen this night of all nights to pick a fight with Vikings! "Lookouts, eyes right!" he bellowed. "It may come back for another –"

...and then he heard that whistle again, this time from the left side. This time, the firebolt hit the lead ship in the left column and tore its bow off. The ship was obviously doomed; its men dropped their weapons and threw themselves into the sea, trying to swim to another ship nearby. Some of those ships slowed down to pick up survivors, which threw the left-hand column into almost as much disarray as the right column. Alvin, in the center column, didn't know which way to look.

For a minute or two, there was silence, and the Outcast chief began to hope that the dragon had had its fun and left. Then he heard that whistle again, and it came from both sides. Two Night Furies...? He got his answer when the lead ship in the right column and the second ship in the left column were both hit at once. The ship on the right had its rudder and much of its side blasted into matchwood, and several men were thrown through the air and into the sea. If one good wave hit it, it would founder immediately. The unfortunate ship on the left was hit near the base of its mast. The mast was pushed a foot to the side, then fell straight down, punching a hole in the bottom of the ship. Water poured in; the men tried to plug the leak, then joined their friends in the water, looking for an undamaged ship they could swim to. Adding to the confusion was the fact that every dragon fireball caused a brilliant flash when it hit, and the men's night vision was now completely ruined. They had no chance of seeing their attackers.

After a third attack damaged two more ships, Alvin had had enough. "Turn back!" he bellowed. "Back to Outcast Island! Leave the swimmers behind and make full speed, or we're all dead!" His men hastened to obey – they had no desire to join those swimmers – but they managed to reach out to the men in the water with oars and rescue most of them on the way by. Oddly, as soon as they reversed their course, the dragon attack stopped.

Alvin sat in the bow of his flagship, thinking dark thoughts. He'd lost two ships, and four more were seriously damaged. It would take weeks to repair them; it would take months to import enough wood to replace the lost ones. Then there was the question of the men he'd lost. The worst loss, though, was the loss of his golden opportunity to attack Berk. By the time he was ready to try again, Stoick would probably have recovered from the loss of his son, and Berk would no longer be an easy target. His perfect chance was gone.

He stared up at the dark sky. He'd never even seen his assailants; none of his men had had a chance to fire a single weapon at them. If one of those dragons used to be Stoick's son, he thought, then if my mother was still alive, I'd kill her!