The Courtship of Toothless Chapter 11

The silent vigil went on. No one could miss the significance of it – humans had brought this disaster on the dragons, but other humans were doing their best to stop it. Gothi tried everything she could think of to get some kind of response from the unconscious little Night Furies, but their breathing grew slower and shallower with each passing minute.

At last, Guana murmured to Toothless, "There's one thing we haven't tried. There's something about being a dragon that you haven't taught me yet, and I think it's time."

"Are you talking about learning to dive?" Toothless was puzzled. "That won't help them very much."

"No, I'm talking about using my Power to heal them."

"Guana..." He shook his head sadly. "I wish we'd thought of that an hour or two ago; I guess we were too busy with the rescue mission. It would take me too long to teach you that. I don't... I don't think they have that much time. It was a good idea, though."

"Didn't Hiccup teach himself how to use his Power, without being taught?" she asked.

"Yes, but Hiccup was a special case. He was a natural dragon. I don't know how else to put it. You're a fine dragon, and you learn fast, but you don't have that innate ability to know and understand dragon-ness like he did. We need an adult dragon who hasn't already used his Power, and there may not be any of those in Berk. There are only a few in my own nest, and it would take two hours to get there and bring one back."

That was when a nearby Zippleback exclaimed, "Hey, we haven't used our Power yet!"

"Yes, and we'll never find a better time to use it," his other head agreed. Without a moment's hesitation, the first head blew a smoke ring, the second head sparked into the middle of it, and the ring coalesced into the spinning disc of colors that Guana recognized from her own recent past. She stepped over to the sand table.

PASS BOTH LITTLE ONES THROUGH
THE DISC AT THE SAME TIME

Gunnarr Hofferson and the other Vikings read her instructions, picked up the limp Night Furies, and prepared to pass them through the disc. But there was one big problem. The disc had formed just beyond the edge of the Nest platform. If someone threw a little dragon into it, that dragon would immediately fall twenty feet to the ground below.

"Could one of the other dragons catch them if they fell?" Gunnarr asked.

"Without hands, I'm thinkin' the answer is 'no'," Gobber answered. "A couple o' humans might catch 'em, but with four legs, two wings, an' a tail floppin' around, we'd be sure to injure 'em somehow. Ye canna be too careful with a dragon's wings."

"Wouldn't they be better off injured and grounded than dead?" Gunnarr persisted.

"I'm nae so sure a Night Fury would see it that way," Gobber replied sadly.

"Can you move the disc, brothers?" an anxious Gronckle asked the Zippleback.

"It takes... all our concentration... to maintain it," the first head said. The second added, "We don't... have enough will power... to move it as well." The disc was fully formed and ready, but the patients couldn't get through it safely. They were at an impasse, and the twins were running out of time.

Suddenly, the disc moved. It was slow, and it moved only an inch, but it had visibly slid to the edge of the Nest. "Guana, did you see that?" Toothless exclaimed. She didn't answer. He glanced at her.

She was completely fixated on the colored disc. "Will power," she whispered, so quietly that he almost couldn't hear her. "Will power." It became a chant. As he watched, the disc moved again, two inches this time. She tracked it with her eyes, but didn't move otherwise.

No! She wasn't tracking it! She was moving it!

Toothless stared, his mouth hanging open in shock, as the disc slowly worked its way away toward the center of the Nest platform. Everybody knew that the Power was something unique and personal to each dragon; cooperation was either impossible or counter-productive. How was she doing it?

He wanted to help her; maybe he could do it, too? He tried to concentrate on moving the disc. It began sliding the wrong way, back to where it started, so he quickly stopped. He could see Guana's legs and tail shaking from the effort she was putting forth. He wrapped a wing around her; she leaned against him gratefully, but her concentration did not waver. Inch by agonizing inch, her mind forced the disc to go where she wanted it.

At last, it had moved far enough. The Vikings counted out loud, "One, two, three!" and passed the young Night Furies through the disc, while others waited on the other side to catch them. There was a blinding flash, and a loud blast like a clap of thunder. The disc vanished; the Vikings who weren't catching small Night Furies flinched away, covering their eyes; the Zippleback's heads sagged to the ground from exhaustion; and Guana collapsed on the floor with a thud. But the sounds that somehow drowned out all the others were the gasps of two small Night Furies, taking their first full breaths of air since before midnight.

The Hiccup-dragon and the Astrid-dragon crawled over to their children; the Vikings moved aside to let them through. Each adult Night Fury poked at one of the little ones with his/her nose, and both twins responded with groans and slow shakes of the head. In less than a minute, the children were more alert and energetic than the parents were. Just seeing that gave Hiccup and Astrid a visible boost.

Toothless made sure they were okay, then turned to Guana, who was still lying on the floor. "Are you okay?" he asked, very worried.

"Did it work?" she whispered.

"Perfectly," he reassured her. She opened her eyes and took in the scene. The parents were still very sick, but they were trying to act normal so they didn't upset the children. The young ones could only talk about the horrible dream they'd both had, and how glad they were to be awake now, even though they were both kind of sleepy.

"Lady-night-fury, that was totally awesome," Toothless said quietly. "None of us has ever heard of a dragon who could influence another dragon's Power. By the way, you picked a great time to not get distracted."

"I guess I was motivated," she sighed. "I'm so tired..."

"You rest," Toothless said firmly. He lay down next to her and kept his wing wrapped around her. "You've earned it. You made all the Night Furies proud tonight. No, cancel that. You made all the dragons proud tonight."

That seemed to be the signal for the Vikings to leave. There was nothing else they could do for the adult dragons, and the young ones were as good as new. New-night-fury and Night-fury-mother-of-twins used the last of their energy to thank the Zippleback who had saved their children's lives. Then the family of four collapsed in a sleepy black heap, next to the other two Night Furies who formed a smaller heap of their own. Most of the other dragons left, but a few stayed on guard around the Nest, just in case some more Outcasts tried to do anything to their beloved Night Furies.

The sun was at its zenith by the time those Night Furies stirred. The little ones had glided to the nearest fish tray for a quick brunch, then returned to the Nest. Hiccup and Astrid were still fighting off the last of the drug's effects; they didn't feel like they could fly safely yet, so they glided to the ground and walked to the fish tray, where the little ones picked up fish in their jaws and dropped them to their parents. Some food in their bellies helped them get back to normal. Toothless was feeling normal anyway, but he didn't want to wake Guana, so he stayed right where he was until she awoke.

She saw his face a few inches from hers, felt his wing wrapped around her, began to pull away, then relaxed. "I had some wonderful dreams," she sighed.

"I can't imagine a dream that would be better than your reality," he said. "What you did last night was unheard-of. Plus, you fought in your first battle, you brought Young-boy-night-fury safely home... you, my lady-friend, are one amazing dragon."

After all his endless criticisms and suggestions for improvement, she had a hard time believing he would offer her an unalloyed compliment. She smiled.

"Tell me more nice things about me," she murmured.