Dimmadreki Chapter 16

He felt a wave of horror as that huge head came up level with his own. Myrkrid had warned him not to look in the Monster's eyes, and now he couldn't break eye contact. The three eyes on the right side of its head, each nearly the size of his own head, gazed back at him with an impossible mix of hatred, contempt, and sincere concern.

"No one told me I had a guest," she rumbled. "That was rude; I'll have to speak to my servants about that. But it's been a very long time since a Night Fury has joined me. Please come in and make yourself comfortable. We've got plenty of room, you'll make lots of new friends, and I'm sure you have many interesting stories to tell me."

"If you don't mind," he quavered, "I'd rather stay outside."

Those eyes glared at him, focusing on him the way he used to focus in on some ornate engraving project in the forge. "I said, please come in!"

"I hope I'm not being rude, but I'm really enjoying the fresh air, and it smells kind of stuffy down there." He was ready to leap and fly, but was unsure whether that would do any good if the huge creature tried to chase him. An incongruous thought hit him. If this child of Tannin is this big, then how big was Tannin?

"Why won't you obey me?!" she demanded.

"I really don't think that's in my own best interests," he stammered.

Those eyes bored in on him for another moment; then they blinked, and the huge dragon backed off. Now she looked at him with a mix of curiosity and amazement. "I can't control you! This has never happened before. Could you be the Worthy One?"

"I don't understand," he said hesitantly.

"Before Tannin returned to the skies, she predicted that we Titans would rule over all dragonkind, but our triumph would not be complete until a Worthy One arose. We would know him because we'd be unable to influence him, the way we influence all the others. Once we befriended that Worthy One and saw him ruling at our side, nothing could hold us back. I think you might be that Worthy One."

"Uhh... uhh... with all due respect, I think you got Tannin's words wrong. She predicted someone who would make you regret controlling the other dragons."

The Monster snorted, letting out a thick puff of smoke that blocked his view of her for a moment. "Oh, you mean that nonsense about one who is a dragon and not a dragon? That version of the story has been totally distorted, because it's been passed down through dozens of species over hundreds of generations. How could someone be a dragon and not a dragon? Is a dragon going to breed with a human, or maybe a dolphin, and create a hybrid? No, my small but brave friend; what I just told you is the truth. I know it's true because it has come down to me through a bare handful of generations, so it could not have been distorted by time. We Titans live long and breed slowly; my grandfather knew the very first Titan, and was only three generations removed from Tannin herself. There are only six of us in the world today, soon to be seven from what I hear, and all of us are hoping to find the Worthy One. Today, you came to me! I am blessed above all other dragons!

"So join me, Worthy One. Rule beside me as the King of the Dragons. The ones who might fear me will not fear you; you can persuade them to join us. They will bring us the offerings we deserve, so you need never hunt your own food again. We'll move our nest every few decades, as I have always done, collecting more and more servants until all the dragons are united under us! We can subdue the humans, or we can wipe them out if we –"

"No!" he shouted. "Myrkrid told the truth – you are a monster! I'll never serve you!"

"Indeed?" The threatening rumble of her voice rose in volume. "Perhaps, in order for you to fear my power, you need to feel my power!" The huge maw opened and began to fill with a sickly yellowish smoke, and Dimmadreki knew it was time to go.

He jumped backwards, put his head down, and dove, hugging the outer wall of the volcano until he could build up some speed. He heard a deafening roar from right behind him; he rolled and broke left, and felt the heat on his right from a shaft of flame that was bigger around than he was. The flame left a trail of thick black smoke, and he used that smoke to hide in as he leveled off and headed out to sea, flapping for all he was worth.

"You'll be back!" the Monster roared. "You can't help yourself! It's your destiny! And you will rule the world beside me... or you will die!" He didn't dare look back. He had to find Myrkrid. Where had she gone? He tried to remember which way she'd flown when the Monster appeared. There was nothing in sight in that direction, not even a tide-submerged rock.

He glanced back at the sea stacks. There she was, hiding behind a particularly thick rock, looking up at him. He reversed course and spiraled down to join her. She cringed and backed away.

"Stay back!" she cried. "She's enslaved you, too! I'll never join you, no matter what you –"

"Myrkrid, it's me! She didn't enslave me!"

"Of course she did!" his mate shouted. "That's what she does when you look in her eyes, and you were looking right at her!" She closed her eyes and shook her head. "I warned you! I warned you! Why didn't you listen? Losing you is going to hurt most of all! Why did you have to –"

"Then don't lose me!" he ordered her. "Look in my eyes and tell me what you see!"

Hesitantly, she looked him in the eye. She went wide-eyed; she stepped closer until their noses were almost touching. "It's you," she said, in a voice full of wonder. "You're still free! She didn't get you! How..."

"It must be because her power only works on dragons," he realized. "I've still got a human mind inside this dragon body, so she can't control me."

She laid her head against his and let out a huge sigh of relief. "Dimmadreki, just for once, I'm glad you used to be a human." They enjoyed a quick tender moment. Then she pulled away. "Now let's get out of here, before she decides to chase you."

He slowly shook his head. "Myrkrid, I can't do that."

"What?! What kind of crazy issue have you come up with this time?"

"You've seen those dragons! They're intelligent, they have personalities… they're just as much persons as the Vikings in Berk! How do you think I feel, seeing them enslaved by that Monster?"

"Dimmadreki, we've been through this! I hate seeing them that way, too, but there is not one thing we can do about it! We can't fight a Monster!"

He braced himself, not sure if he really believed what he was about to say. "But don't you see? I can fight her! I'm the one Tannin predicted – I'm the one who's a dragon and not a dragon! I've got a body that you once called the most powerful dragon in existence, and a human mind that the Monster can't control! I'm the one who can take her down... and I'm the one who wants to!"

She sat down weakly and shook her head. "I don't believe this. Are you trying to set a world record for delusions of grandeur? You've been a dragon for less than a month, and you're appointing yourself to be the fulfillment of our oldest prophecy? Are you serious?"

"Yes," he answered confidently. She saw a rock-solid confidence in his eyes that had never been there before.

"Okay," she nodded slowly. "I'll admit, it's not completely impossible, but you're forgetting one small detail: maybe the Monster can't control you, but she can kill you! That fire shot didn't miss you by much, in case you didn't notice. You can't possibly fight her alone!"

He gazed back at her. "I was hoping I wouldn't have to fight her alone."

Her eyes went wide, and she shook her head hard. "Oh, no! That's not happening! I'm carrying a Night Fury egg, remember? Preserving the species, creating the next generation, and all kinds of other good stuff like that? I can't go into a battle against a Monster, not even for you. I'll be killed, and my unhatched child will die too, along with all the eggs I might have laid in the future."

Her voice softened. "Dimmadreki, how many times are you going to put me through this? How many times do I have to remind you how much your son is going to need you? How many times do I have to remind you how much I need you? Why is it so hard for you to think of the ones who love you first?"

Her words hit him hard. For a few seconds, he didn't even try to answer. At last, he said, "Part of it is because I'm still not used to being loved. But most of it is because there are a hundred or more intelligent creatures in that volcano, and nobody is thinking about them except me. No one in the world even cares about them, except me! Myrkrid, do you know what it's like to have no one in the world care about you? I do. I'm the only creature in existence who even wants to try to do something for them. If I fly away to save my own skin, or for any other reason, I'll be denying everything I've ever lived for.

He stepped closer to her. "I'm sorry, but this is bigger than you and me, and it's bigger than our child. This goes to the very heart of who I am. I understand if you can't join me. I don't expect you to understand why I have to do this. But please believe me – I have to do this."

She sighed, sniffed, and turned away. "I guess I should have seen that coming. I'll tell your son that you were stupid, but very brave." She glanced at him one more time, then bounded into the sky and flew away to the south without looking back.

Okay, Dimmadreki, you've really done it now, he thought. You've thrown away the only one who ever loved you, and you don't even have a plan to achieve what you threw her away for! He slumped to the ground, trying to think of some way to take down a creature that could swallow him whole. Just thinking at all was difficult. It took him over an hour to come up with something that might be useful, and "might be useful" wasn't good enough. Not here. Not now.

Will those dragons care what I'm trying to do for them? If I succeed, will they even say "thank you," or will they just high-tail it out of here as fast as they can? If I fail, will anyone ever know? Why am I doing this?

Because it's the right thing to do. I've always lived that way, and if I have to die that way… I guess there are worse ways to go. That's my final answer. I'll take a stand on it, even though I'm fighting completely alone. I hope that answer is good enough.

At last, as the sun began to set, he decided he was as ready as he ever would be . His plan was only half-formed; he figured that the Monster would play the game her own way, and a plan that was too rigidly formed would quickly become useless. If he was going to have to wing it anyway, he'd start by planning to wing it, so he wouldn't be shocked when it happened.

It would help if he knew more about Monsters, but apparently, no one knew much of anything about them. They probably had the same weaknesses as any other dragon, the eyes and the wings. He'd gotten a good look at her eyelids; they were as heavily armored as the rest of her. Only a direct hit would do one of those eyes any harm, and a direct hit against a small target like that, on a fast-moving dragon in the air, was just about impossible. Even if he succeeded, she'd still have five more eyes. No, it had to be the wings. He hadn't actually seen her wings, but she had to have them or she couldn't have reached the top of the volcano to talk to him. They were surely tougher than any other dragon's wings, but they couldn't be armored or she wouldn't be able to fly. He knew his fires could hurt those wings. The question was, could he hurt them enough, and could he do it before she caught him with her own fires?

It was time to gamble his life against the freedom of a hundred total strangers, in a game he had never played before, against an unknown but fearsome-looking opponent who would probably change the rules as soon as he gained an advantage. I must be an idiot, he thought, and rose off the ground toward the volcano's cone.

"Monster!" he bellowed into the cone. "I know you can hear me! I'm back, just like you said I would be! I know you're afraid of me! And you should be! You told me there are five others like you, and they all want to rule the dragons! There can only be one ruler over all, right? Well, I'm going to find one of your sisters who will give me a better offer than just a mouthful of fish! I'm going to ally with that dragon, help her rule the world, and where will that leave you? Nowhere! See you later!"

He waited for a response, and he didn't have to wait long. He heard an ear-stunning bellow, much louder than the first one, and he saw something huge and dark rising up toward him. He spun on one wing and dove to build up some speed. He risked a glance over his shoulder, and watched as the huge bulk of the Monster heaved herself out of the cone, looked around for him, and dove at him with unbelievable speed. He'd seen her head, and he thought he knew how large she would be, but his mind wasn't prepared for the reality of how big she was.

Maybe this wasn't such a great idea, he thought. But it was way too late to back out now.