Zephyr stared at the town. It was an absolute wreck. Complete stalls were missing. The pathways were dinted and torn up. The Great Hall looked like it was fifty years old and had suffered many battles.
Zephyr clenched her notebook and writing tool. She looked towards her father who was standing beside her. He strode forward and began to assess the damage.
When her father told her what needed fixing, she wrote it down. After the first five broken market stalls she gave up hope of surveying damage being interesting. Nuffink had been so upset that Zephyr got to accompany her father instead of him; the healer had advised his staying home for four days to prevent what she called "wound shock." She said the malady interfered with daily tasks and was best avoided.
When her father had lost his leg, he'd barely suffered any wound shock. Of course, he hadn't felt any pain since he'd hit his head on the Red Death's tail and was unconscious for a few days. Mostly he got used to his peg leg and was over it—at least that's what Zephyr was told. Honestly Zephyr didn't know every detail of how he lost his leg. She had asked her mom once, but her response was a version of "you don't want to know."
Zephyr and her dad walked over to another market stall with broken wooden poles.
"Wooden poles," her dad said.
Zephyr wrote it down. This was so boring. "Well, we have lots of trees left thankfully! Know what? The day of the attack, Nuffink, Fourlegs, Spearhead, and I found out someone had cut down our dragon ball tree!"
Her father didn't respond.
"So…have you assigned someone to fix the Toothless banner?" Zephyr asked. The banner that hung in their living area at home had been torn during the attack.
No response. How come he was concentrating on the repairs so much? It was easy to tell what needed fixing: shredded cloth, get a canopy. Broken pole, get a new pole. Shattered flower pots, no need to replace them as they weren't necessary. Why wouldn't he just say something?
She wanted him to talk because…truthfully, she was a little shocked, maybe even scared. What would have happened to Nuffink if they hadn't reached him in time? Would they suffer in winter without enough supplies? Would they be attacked again? She felt like she had wound shock, but she wasn't hurt. If she was feeling this way, she couldn't imagine how Nuffink was doing.
The attack had been randomly timed, carried out by random people…as far as she knew. Maybe her dad knew more? After all, he was the chief of New Berk.
"Dad?" Zephyr asked. "Who were the people that attacked us?"
"Shade cover and wooden poles," her father said. "Let's head to the Great Hall."
Zephyr quickly wrote the order down rather sloppily and followed her father. "So…who were the people that attacked us? And speaking of that, why did they?"
Her father stepped up the stairs to the Great Hall. He opened the large doors.
"We have time to talk while we repair… Dad? Isn't most of the damage outside?"
Her father lit candles placed on the floor because the tables were unusable. The fire pit in the middle of the Great Hall was empty of wood. The light was dim but enough to see by.
"What happened here?" Zephyr asked.
The tables in the Great Hall were cut and broken. The walls bore deep slash marks. The paintings on the walls, many of battles and dragons, were gashed and scratched. The inside columns were almost falling apart.
Her father walked over to a wall painting, a picture of him and Toothless next to a giant overgrown teal crystal, and began assessing the damage. Zephyr sat down on an un-damaged chair.
Zephyr waited, then asked again. "Dad, who were the people that attacked us? Why did they? Are they going to come again?"
Her father didn't say anything.
"Are you listening to me?"
He still didn't respond
"Why aren't you answering me?" Zephyr pressed.
"Because I don't know!" her father shouted. "Maybe I should have installed more defenses around New Berk. Maybe I should have trained more warriors. Maybe I should have just been more prepared, but I wasn't!
"I… What?" Zephyr asked. That was…not the answer she had expected. "I didn't ask you about the defenses."
"Sorry," her dad responded, crouching down to examine the damage to the walls again.
"You still haven't answered my questions. I have five now."
Her father sighed. "Start asking."
"Who are the people that attacked us?"
"Vikings. I don't know the tribal symbol we found on their armor."
"No one knows?"
"No one knows."
"Why did they attack us?"
"We don't have dragons anymore," her father said, looking up at the wall painting of him and Toothless, "so, I don't know why."
"Are they going to come again?" Zephyr asked.
"I don't know. Maybe, probably."
"Do we know anything about them?"
"Almost nothing. Except their battle ships are advanced. Completely different from ours. I'd only seen ships somewhat like theirs long ago…and back then we had dragons."
"But they could look like fishing ships from far away, right?"
"No…they don't look anything like any of our ships."
"What happened to the Great Hall?" Zephyr asked, looking over to a broken table.
"Whoever they were, they got into the Great Hall soon after the attack started. No one on our side was killed here at least."
"Why did you yell earlier? I wasn't even blaming you, and I'm still not."
"I didn't do anything to prepare for a future attack on New Berk. I should have years ago."
"Yeah, but we don't even know why they attacked us. What is there worth killing for besides dragons?"
"It doesn't matter what it is," her father said, standing up and turning around to face her. "I overlooked protecting New Berk and suffered the consequences. Two dead, three missing, and Nuffink—"
"Nuffink will be fine," Zephyr interrupted. "Whatever the healer calls wound shock must be invisible from all angles. Nuffink was upset he didn't get to go with you instead of me. He wants anything but to stay home."
"It's not about how Nuffink feels. It's the fact he was hurt at all. I left New Berk unprotected by not expecting the worst. I left my family unprotected. The truth is, Zephyr, I don't know what's going to happen."
Her father went back to instructing her to write down the damage to the Great Hall. When they finished, they started walking to the doors.
"Dad?" Zephyr asked in a quiet voice. "I have one more question."
"What is it?" he asked.
"Why did you kill that Viking? Couldn't you have just taken him captive?"
"Combat's a hard thing. It usually doesn't end until someone's on the floor…if you are brave enough to engage."
"I know you and Toothless fought, but killing sounded so different with a dragon," Zephyr said.
"It feels different too," her father said. "It happens fast. I wish I didn't have to do it, but I have to protect my people."
They exited the doors of the Great Hall and passed into the ruins of the town.
Zephyr walked down the path to her home. No Viking was waving happily today, or even smiling, just fixing whatever needed fixing. Zephyr pushed through the front doors of her family's hut.
No one was there, not on the first floor at least. "Mom?" Zephyr asked, climbing the stairs to the second floor.
"We're in here," her mother responded from down the hall in her brother's room.
Zephyr walked into Nuffink's room. Her mom was gently re-applying a cloth to Nuffink's neck.
"Can I go out to see how Spearhead and Fourlegs are doing?" Nuffink pleaded with their mom.
"The healer ordered strict house rest," her mother said.
"But it's just going outside to the town," Nuffink grumbled.
"I don't have time to argue. Your father should be home soon and he'll be hungry," their mom said. "Zephyr, stay here and make sure your brother doesn't try to sneak off."
"Okay," Zephyr answered, sitting in a chair by the wall.
Their mother left the room.
Everything was silent. Zephyr knew that Nuffink maybe was a little annoyed about her not helping him when he was being kidnapped. Nuffink didn't say a word to Zephyr, Zephyr didn't say a word to him, and she liked it that way.
For a little. After five minutes the silence became quite boring. Nuffink finally broke it.
"So…how was surveying damage?"
"It was fine," Zephyr answered. "Sort of boring, but fine."
"Nothing else?" Nuffink prompted before sighing.
"Why do you want to know about it anyway?"
"Because if the unknown Vikings attacking is still an issue when I grow up, I'm going to have to learn how to survey damage. I'm the next chief you know."
"It doesn't seem that hard. You figure out what's wrong and write it down."
"Like you were paying attention to what dad was doing. You were probably just talking and thinking of dragons."
"Hey, I would be the next chief if I could but you know, since I'm a girl and everything…" Zephyr said, and immediately regretted it afterwards. She was actually glad she wasn't next in line, after all, she had more free time to ride dragons that way.
Nuffink sent her that look that she hated, the one that read seriously?
"Are you doing okay?" Zephyr asked.
"It doesn't hurt," Nuffink said. "I just want to go outside."
Zephyr looked at the floor.
"Not even going to apologize. You just sit there and expect me to be okay with everything."
"I couldn't take on two Vikings with swords by just myself even if I wanted to," Zephyr protested.
"You could have gone for help."
"If I was riding Shadow Streak, I would have blasted them halfway across the island—"
"Don't you dare bring dragons into this! We left the dragons in The Hidden World for a reason. We don't have dragons here and we need to get used to that fact."
"Don't you wish you could bring Claw to New Berk?" Zephyr asked.
Nuffink stayed silent.
"Come down!" their mother called from downstairs. "Your father is here and dinner's ready. Your grandmother will be here in a bit."
Zephyr and Nuffink looked at each other in surprise. They hadn't known their grandmother would be coming for dinner.
