Lightning And Death Itself Chapter 7
Toothless spent the next morning teaching Hiccup the basics of fire control. They practiced shooting fireballs at large rocks, leaving scorch marks all over the cove. The purpose of this lesson was so Hiccup could go fishing. Again, he learned quickly.
"Remember, look for large fish," Toothless advised him. "Small ones are fine if you're just feeding yourself. But if you're bringing them back for someone else, you can only carry one or two at a time, so they might as well be big ones."
"I am not eating raw fish," Astrid stated flatly.
"Fine," nodded Toothless. "You saw everything I taught Hiccup about fire control; you can cook your fish any way you like. But while he's out getting some lunch for us, you and I are going to work on your flying some more. It's not fair to make him do all the work."
That last comment stung Astrid's pride. She resolved to do better, just to shut Toothless up. At first, she was trying too hard and making things worse. But after an hour, she finally understood what he meant by "don't fight the dragon." When Hiccup returned for the first time, she was gliding easily and making good landings.
Hiccup was excited. "It worked just like you said it would, Toothless!" he shouted as he dropped them a twenty-pound cod. "Shoot a quick fireball, stun the fish, pick them up when they float to the surface. I'm going back for more!" He turned on a wingtip and flew back out to sea.
Toothless carved a line down the middle of the fish with his claw, and tore it in half. "One for me and one for you," he said to Astrid, who took her share without comment. She deep-flamed a patch of ground and laid the half-fish on it to broil. Toothless tore his half into smaller pieces and swallowed them raw.
"What frightens you the most, Astrid?" She stared at her fish and refused to answer. "Is it being cut off from people? Losing your beauty? Being attacked by friends?"
"It's losing who I am," she snapped. "I've spent my entire life learning who I am, what I'm supposed to do and when I'm supposed to do it, what people expect of me and what I can expect from them. Now, that's all gone, and I've got nothing to replace it with. I had a culture and a place in that culture. Now, I look at my reflection in the water and I see what I am, but I don't know who I am!"
"That's simple. You're Astrid. That's never going to change. Your values will shift a bit as you spend more time around dragons, but the things that make you special? They won't change."
"That sounds nice and simple, Toothless, but... this 'spending time around dragons' thing. That makes me nervous, too. What does a Night Fury do?"
"If you can wait until Hiccup comes back, I'll tell you both what a Night Fury does." They waited about ten minutes until their friend returned with another large cod. Toothless waved for him to join them.
"I'm glad you're having fun, Hiccup, but rest your wings for a few minutes before you go out there again. You've never done this before; don't overtax yourself on your first day in the sky. Enjoy some of this fish you've brought us."
Hiccup swallowed his pieces of fish whole and raw, the way he'd seen Toothless do it so many times. Astrid squirmed at the sight. "Yuck! How can you do that?"
"That's how dragons eat," he said, surprised. "I can't use a knife and fork." He held up a paw. "See? No opposable thumb."
"You really are turning into a dragon," she said with distaste.
"Astrid asked me a good question while you were away," Toothless cut in. "She wanted to know what a Night Fury does.
"When we're off duty, we're the judges of the nest. Other dragons come to us to settle disputes and solve hard problems. They know we're fair and impartial because we're the smartest, and because none of them can offer us anything as a bribe. We're loved, respected, and looked up to. We can go anywhere in the nest, any time, and get a warm welcome. They all love us because they know we protect them unselfishly.
"In battle, we guard the other dragons. They go in and grab the food for the Mother, and fight the close-quarters battles. We go head-to-head with the heavy weapons, the torches, the big targets that affect the whole battle. We never take prey; we keep ourselves light and free to strike quickly."
"You're talking about raiding human villages, like Berk," Astrid said heatedly.
"That's where the food is," Toothless replied.
"You're talking about turning us into killers," she went on.
Toothless lowered his head to look her in the eyes. "You already are a killer. You've spent your whole life training and practicing to be a killer. It's just a question of who you choose to kill."
Hiccup cut in. "Are you saying we're going to change so much that we won't have a problem killing people?"
"The first raid is the hardest," Toothless said. "You'll bend over backwards, go to absurd lengths, even take dangerous risks, to avoid shooting a human. But when you see one of your dragon friends taken down by a net or a spear, you'll know what to do."
"Will we have to raid Berk?" Hiccup asked.
After a long pause, Toothless said, "Until Berk is in your comfort zone, you can leave the group and do some fishing or hunting while the others do the raiding. Bring back some food to show that you weren't wasting your time. Or maybe they'll send you to some other village. The dragons will understand. The day will eventually come when Berk will be just one more human village to you."
"You don't seriously think we'll ever feel good about attacking our own town, our own people?" Astrid asked in disbelief.
"You're going to outlive everyone in that town by a huge margin," Toothless replied. "In eighty or a hundred years, do you think the people you know will still be there? They'll be a bunch of strangers to you. Berk will be just another village." That brought silence to the group.
"It all sounds so... cold-blooded," Hiccup finally said.
"I hate that term," Toothless replied. "We dragons are warm-blooded; I don't know where people got the idea we weren't. But I know what you meant, and all I can say is, we do what we have to do. The Mother demands it."
"What's this 'Mother' you keep mentioning?" Hiccup asked, leaning forward.
Toothless took a deep breath. "The Mother rules the nest. She is huge and terrible; she could swallow all three of us at once and still be hungry. She has the power to make us go out, and the power to call us back. If we don't bring enough food to satisfy her... some of us get eaten. Her rule is simple: bring food or be food. We all avoid her if we possibly can."
"Is that why you raid our villages?" Hiccup wondered. "Just so you can feed this mother dragon?"
"Most of us don't even like the taste of the animals we take from the villages," Toothless nodded. "Once she is satisfied, that's when we can hunt for our own food. No one likes the Mother, but we have no power against her calls."
"What happens if she calls while we're all still here?" Astrid asked quietly.
"When she calls, you'll have to go. You'll know the way. I can't fly, so I'll be here when you come back."
Hiccup understood what he meant. He would stay here, unable to find food and unable to escape a Viking hunting party.
Helpless.