The Berserker War Chapter 12
Toothless was right about the welcome that Dagur received when he and his army staggered into the nearest of the Berserker villages. Every building of any military importance was a charred shell. Every able-bodied citizen was frantically trying to fish, hunt, or gather food to replace the stored supplies that had gone up in flames. The non-able-bodied just glared at their chief, not daring to say anything, but thinking dark, treasonous thoughts.
It took the army three days to find a village that could feed even a few of them. During those three days, the dragons repeated their tactic of flying high overhead and raining down random fire with impunity. Casualties mounted; morale, which was close to rock bottom, discovered new depths and promptly sank into them. Everywhere Dagur looked, there was only bad news.
He was running out of material, he was beginning to run low on junior leaders, and he was completely out of ideas for how to win this war.
Back in Berk, by contrast, it was as though there wasn't a war on at all. The fishing fleet sailed and returned without fear. Tradesmen had plenty of raw materials to work with, and plenty of customers with money to spend. When Trader Johann's ship pulled into the harbor, he was surprised to discover that his spring clothing was more in demand than his weapons.
The two young smith's apprentices decided that the life of a prisoner-of-war in Berk was much preferable to their old existence. Gobber was just as much a taskmaster as Slobberguts, but was never abusive and sometimes showed them kindness. They cheerfully pitched in and helped with the lesser chores around the forge. When he questioned them about Dagur's weapons, they answered freely.
"Those tanks full of dragon gas? Dagur gave our master a challenge – 'How can I destroy Berk's big Mead Hall with just one shot?' Each tank holds the smoke from four or five Zippleback breaths. The plan was to drag a tank into your Mead Hall, throw some green wood into the fire pit, shoot the tank once with a crossbow, slam the door, and run. The gas would slowly fill the room, the wet wood would throw out sparks, and when the two got together, BOOM!"
"Interestin'," Gobber nodded. "Which one of ye came up wi' that one?"
"We both did," Agnarr explained. "Agmundr usually comes up with the abstract ideas, and I figure out ways to make them practical. Individually, we're just a couple of hiccups, but together, we make one genius."
"Very interestin'. Where did ye get the gas from?"
"From the dragons in the Dragon Training ring," Agmundr answered. "That's in our capital town. We both wanted to be enrolled in Dragon Training, but Dagur has the final say over who the candidates will be, and he said we didn't have a chance of surviving, never mind succeeding. He gave our positions to his cousin Limpingox and his little sister Belibutton. We figured, if we used dragon gas for our invention, at least they'd let us see the dragons, but they never even gave us that much."
"Extremely interestin'," Gobber said. His information was quickly sent back to the Night Furies.
"Do we all strike tonight and set those dragons free?" Night-fury-six-shooter demanded.
"No, we six will fly down there tonight and check the place out," New-night-fury replied. "If that's their capital, then it's sure to have strong defenses, even if most of the men are still miles away with the army. I won't send our entire flock into battle until we know what we're up against."
"Should we shoot a few of those defenses while we're down there?" Night-fury-mother-of-twins asked.
"I'm undecided on that," New-night-fury said. "On the one hand, every catapult we wreck tonight is a catapult that can't hurt us tomorrow night. On the other hand, we haven't gone near that town yet. They may think they're out of our reach. As soon as we send down some fiery calling cards, they'll get their defenses organized, and there will be no chance of a surprise attack tomorrow. I'll make that decision somewhere between here and there."
The six Night Furies flew high and silently that night. Below them, the Berserker villages showed almost no fires. The dragons' relentless bombing and raiding, guided by the clever minds of the Night Furies, were slowly reducing the proud Berserker tribe to nothing. It was a powerful lesson in how to win a war by controlling the air. They smiled grimly at each other and flew on.
Ahead of them lay the small city of Raca, the Berserkers' capital and Dagur's home town. Here, the glows of hearths and firepits were still visible; the city was on a war footing, but had not yet felt the touch of war. They flew in a great circle around the city, then spiraled in so they could see everything worth seeing.
"Their shipyard looks busy," Guana commented.
"It's not doing them much good," Astrid answered. "They've laid the keels and the ribs for half a dozen big longships, and they've got plenty more heavy timbers in a storage area. But they've run out of boards for the sides, and I didn't see anything that looked like a mast. They probably made a quick start on construction so they could appease Dagur, but now they're at a standstill."
"What's that big, open field on the outskirts of the town?" Night-fury-makes-one-heck-of-a-bang wondered.
"It's got rows of barracks along two sides," Toothless noted, "so it's probably a training ground for teaching soldiers to fight as a group. Did anyone see the dragon training ring?"
They all looked at each other. No one had seen it.
"How can you hide something that big?" Hiccup asked. "I'd expect it to be even bigger than Berk's ring, seeing how it serves the whole Berserker tribe."
"Circle the town again," Astrid decided. "It has to be down there somewhere!" They spread out and circled again. There was no sign of the structure they were looking for.
It was Guana who finally figured it out. "It's the heavy-timber storage area!" she exclaimed. "It's too far from the shipyard to be an effective part of their shipbuilding work. But it's made of stone, and it's the right size."
"You're right," Astrid nodded. "Maybe I missed it because it's square instead of round."
"Let's land and check it out," Toothless suggested. The six Night Furies spiraled down, landed in front of the open gateway, and walked on top of the piles of timber that filled almost every square foot of the ring.
"Kids, you're our guards – watch out for Vikings! We don't want to get locked in here." New-night-fury looked around. "They've filled this place with so much timber, I don't think they can open the doors and let the dragons out. There certainly isn't any room for them to move around."
Guana had approached the nearest heavy door. "Are there any dragons in here?" she called. The response was instantaneous and heartfelt. Multiple dragon voices called, "Is that a real Night Fury? Please, get us out of here!"
"Actually, there are six of us," Guana called, "and I'm not sure we can break you out tonight – there's too much stuff in here. Are you all able to fly?"
"Some of us probably can't get very far," a Gronckle's voice came back. "They haven't fed us or let us out in nearly two weeks. It's like they've forgotten about us."
Hiccup could see his children's anger rising, and Toothless and Astrid weren't far behind them. "Let me think about this... okay, we can do it. But not tonight. We're going to start some fires out here tonight, so it may get a little warm. Tomorrow night, we'll be back with a strike force, and we'll break every last one of you out of here and take you back to Berk with us."
"Berk?" came a Nadder's voice. "The last place we want to go is another Viking village!"
"We've made peace with the humans in Berk," Hiccup told them. "It's a long story. But Berk is a safe place for dragons, with plenty of food; you can stay there for life, or just rest until you're ready to move on. Hang on and be brave, friends – tomorrow is your independence day!" The captured dragons managed some roars of approval.
"Okay," Hiccup said to his fellow Night Furies. "Our mission tonight is to incinerate as much of this timber as we can. We need to clear it out of the way so we can open those doors, and burning it is the best way we've got. Shoot the bottoms of the wood piles, not the tops of them, so the flames burn upward. This is the perfect time to try that little trick that Toothless and my daughter have been teaching us."
They all fired multiple shots in rapid succession, swinging their heads to spread those fires around. Night-fury-six-shooter made six quick fires, of course. Her brother strained and made five, just so his sister couldn't brag against him too much. The others made four, except for Guana, who managed only three.
"Now let's get out of here before some Viking sees the fires!" Astrid exclaimed. They all ran out and took wing, but quickly circled the ring and called down, "Tomorrow night!" The timbers were burning merrily as they turned for home. Apparently, the Vikings of Raca hadn't noticed the fire yet.
The next night, all the dragons of Berk flew. Every one of them had an important part to play in Hiccup's plan.
The fireworks began when the Gronckles and five of the Night Furies began bombarding the town. The Gronckles aimed at the town's buildings, while the Night Furies fulfilled their traditional role as they sniped at the catapults and other defenses. Fishlegs was really enjoying the mission.
"Yee-hah! Give it to 'em, Meatlug! You're a tactical bomber!"
Fires sprang up everywhere. The dragons stayed safely out of thrown-weapons range, and the Vikings who would have been attacking dragons were kept occupied with fighting fires. That suited Hiccup just fine; he didn't want any humans getting in the way when his own strike team landed near the training enclosure.
The Vikings had shut and locked the gateway this time. Hiccup had a plan for that. "Nadder-blue-flies-in-the-storm, would you be so kind as to open this door for us?" The Nadder's white-hot fire sliced the wood-and-iron door in half from top to bottom. The free part crashed to the floor, the hinged part swung open, and the way into the training ring was clear.
The ring itself was littered with ashes and unburnt chunks of heavy timber; the Berserkers hadn't done much to fight the fire, but there was still no way to get the dragon-cage doors open. Hiccup had a plan for that, too. "Zipplebacks!" The two-headed dragons used multiple shots to lay a curtain of heavy green gas along the floor of the arena in front of the dragon doors, and stepped back outside. "Spark it, Belch!" Tuffnut exclaimed, and the Zippleback with riders stuck a head through the roof bars and blew the whole cloud with one spark. Chunks of timber went flying through the bars and chains of the roof; hard-packed ashes were loosened; and the floor in front of the dragon doors was swept clean. To the Vikings in the town nearby, it was just one more explosion in the night. They'd deal with it once they'd saved the human buildings.
Now the dragons had to open those heavy, iron-reinforced dragon doors. Hiccup roared, "Dragon prisoners, step away from the doors! We're cutting our way in!" The Nadders of Berk had been invaluable for their ability to fly long-range scouting missions, but they hadn't had many chances to use their fires in this war, because those fires were so short-ranged. Now was their hour. Eight Nadders stood in front of eight heavy doors and began carving through them with their own built-in blowtorches. It took about a minute before the first door fell open; the others all followed quickly.
Two Gronckles, two Nadders, a Nightmare, a Zippleback, a Snaptrapper, and a Saber-Tooth Driver Dragon crawled to freedom. They were in rough shape.
"Are you really a Night Fury?" the Saber-Tooth asked. "I've never seen one before! I've heard about how wonderful you can be to other dragons, and now I believe it." The other dragons nodded in agreement.
"All you have to do is fly to that big open field over there," Hiccup said, and pointed with his wing. "Once you're there, we'll get you fed and move on with the plan."
The eight freed dragons helped each other fly over to the Berserkers' training field, along with Hiccup and the other rescuers. As they landed, they were joined by a Nightmare with a human rider who landed nearby. It carried a big net with its back legs; the net spilled fresh fish all over the field. "Eat your fill, friends!" the Nightmare called. "There's plenty, thanks to the kind fishermen of Berk. My mate will be here in a minute with another netfull!"
"Yeah, whatever he said!" Snotlout chimed in, aware that his dragon had said something but understanding none of it. "Whoa – that one's got four heads!" The starving dragons almost inhaled the fish, and quickly began regaining their strength. Within ten minutes, both netfulls of fish had been devoured, Hiccup's team had been joined by the dragons who were done attacking the town, and the newly-freed prisoners felt strong enough to try some serious flying.
They were a long way from Berk, and they had to stop halfway because the liberated dragons didn't have the stamina to fly all the way. They rested on an unsettled area of the coastline for half an hour, with the Night Furies flying cover in case some Vikings happened along, but they were left unmolested. The flock returned to Berk before the sun rose, their numbers augmented by eight.
Hiccup landed in front of his father, who always waited nervously whenever his son flew into battle, with the huge Snaptrapper just behind him. Stoick had heard of Snaptrappers, but had never seen one up close before; he just stared at it, open-mouthed. Hiccup couldn't resist the temptation to write a quick message in the dirt –
CAN I KEEP HIM, DAD?
HE FOLLOWED ME HOME