Night Furies: the Next Generation Chapter 10
When they got up that morning, the human twins were in such pain, they could barely dress themselves. Every motion of every joint in their bodies hurt like fire. The dragons had to help them break camp and pack their belongings; that mostly meant the small dragons, because the bigger ones were just too big to help. It took nearly an hour, and it would have taken twice that long with any other pair of humans. The twins' brains were still working, and Agmundr's ability to see solutions to difficult problems, and Agnarr's talent for translating those ideas into actions, were invaluable.
Up they soared into the morning sky. They meant to cross the mountain range today and see what lay on the other side. What they didn't realize was that this range wasn't just a long, thin row of mountains. It went on and on in all directions, with no end in sight. They sent the young dragons north and south as scouts, with instructions to fly outward for an hour and then return, just in case they found an area where the range wasn't so deep. Both of them returned with the same report – there was no advantage to flying further north or south. On they flew.
Around midday, they found a lake high in the mountains, covered in ice. The dragons' firebolts broke a sizeable hole in the ice, and they were able to fish for themselves and their passengers. But there was no wood nearby to make a cooking fire, so the boys had to eat their fish raw. They choked down a few bites and gave up.
"They don't know what they're missing," Newest-boy commented as he finished off the fish Agnarr had started. When the boys tried to remount, it wasn't enough for them to use the small dragons as footstools. Agnarr and Agmundr had to step up onto the young dragons' heads, and then Newest-boy and Smallest-girl had to lift them up onto Bang and Six's backs.
Their flight resumed. The absence of the boys' heavy coats was a problem now. They lay flat against the backs of their dragons, trying to keep warm. All of them were thinking deep thoughts, but none of them was willing to say what they were thinking.
Night-fury-makes-one-heck-of-a-bang: "Our little sister may have learned her lesson. If she can finish this trip without any more incidents, I'll tell Mom and Dad she's earned an adult-name, even though she's still young."
Night-fury-six-shooter: "There has to be something we can do to fly faster! The thought of losing Agmundr... I can't even consider it."
Agnarr: "What can we do to live longer? Even if this Eastern dragon can help us, we'll still live out our Viking lifespan and then leave this world. That seems so unfair to our dragons! They'll miss us!"
Agmundr: "I would give anything, anything at all, to stop this pain. But I don't want to act like it's too serious – I think that upsets Six, and I don't want to do that."
Night-fury-smallest-girl: "I started this trip so I could be a hero. I never imagined my biggest threat would be being bored to death. I hope we get there soon."
Night-fury-newest-boy: "I hope Mom isn't too worried about me. Dad won't worry – he thinks I'm unstoppable. I don't feel unstoppable. Not anymore."
When night fell, they found no place where they could pitch a tent. It was questionable whether the boys could function well enough to pitch their tent anyway. They found a bare spot on the rocks, and the Night Furies used their teeth to spread the tent on the ground so the teens wouldn't have to lie on ice-cold rock. The dragons wrapped themselves in a tight circle around them and overlapped their wings to form a dark, heat-retaining Night Fury-style tent. Agnarr and Agmundr didn't sleep well, but the dragons got no sleep at all. In the morning, the small Night Furies had to figure out how to roll up the tent – the boys could do nothing but make suggestions.
"Why don't we just abandon the tent and all this other stuff, if the humans can't use it anymore?" Smallest-girl asked.
"They'll need it for the return trip," Bang replied firmly. "They'll be able to use it then."
They chose a flying height that took them over most of the mountains, without being so high that it froze Agnarr and Agmundr or made it hard for them to breathe. That meant they had to fly around a few of the taller mountains. They searched for signs of other dragons, but saw no evidence.
At last, near the end of the day, the mountains began to grow smaller. It looked like there might be a broad valley ahead, but they'd never get to it before nightfall. As they'd done when they entered the mountainous area, they found a hill with a nearby stream and bedded down for the night. Again, the boys could not erect their tent, or do much of anything, for that matter.
"What you do... when we can do nothing?" Agmundr asked through gritted teeth.
"You stay on our backs until we find help," Six answered. The boys had so much difficulty remounting the next morning, it looked like the day when they would have to stay on the dragons' backs had nearly arrived. Agmundr nearly fell off when Six sprang into the air – that hadn't happened since they'd first begun flying together.
As they'd suspected, the mountain range opened up into a long, broad valley in front of them. They followed it, descending to medium height just so the humans could see some of the scenery below them. It was rocky, but there were grassy patches and a few scattered trees; it looked much more pleasant than most of the terrain they'd crossed in the past few days. It was somewhere around two in the afternoon when the sharp-eyed Newest-boy shouted that he saw a single mountain in the distance, and it looked like a volcano. All four dragons sped up, and the humans made no attempt to slow them down.
It was clearly a volcano, low but broad, the first one they'd seen since their voyage began. They climbed higher so they could see into the cone as they approached. Would it be full of water? Or would it be fiery, or empty? They all held their breath as they got closer.
They all exhaled at once when they saw the dark blue water inside the crater. That part of the dream, at least, was true. They overflew their volcano and looked down. Again, it was Newest-boy who spotted what they were looking for.
"Look down, left, near water! Red dragons!"
They saw six of them, three young dragons, two adults, and one very old one. They looked exactly like the ones Bang and Six had seen in their dream – like a Nightmare, but with yellow markings around their faces. What was really strange was that none of them had wings.
"We'll circle down slowly," Bang decided. "We don't know what kind of welcome we're going to get; after that encounter with the dragons by the lake, I don't dare assume that everybody loves us. If they don't see us coming, then the two younger dragons will honk at them from about five hundred feet up, so we don't completely take them by surprise. Our long journey is almost over."
The dragons on the ground jumped to their feet and looked up when the Night Furies' shadows passed across them. Then they just stood there, motionless, as the four black dragons glided in for a landing about fifty feet away, then walked to within a few yards of them.
Then they all stood there and waited for someone to say something.
"Uhh... hello," Six finally said, trying to sound as friendly as she could.
"Hello," one of the adults replied politely. "You are obviously strangers here. I am Tao-tie. Welcome to the realm of Fu-cang-long."
"Thank you," Bang said. "I am –"
"Are you Night Furies?" one of the young ones burst out.
"Chi-wen! Mind your manners!" the other adult exclaimed. She turned to the black dragons. "I apologize for my son's behavior. He is excited because we have heard stories of the Night Furies, but have never met one before. Many of us thought you were legendary."
"We're quite real, although we're still rather rare," Bang said with a smile. He turned to Chi-wen. "Yes, we are Night Furies." Turning back to the adults, he tried again. "My name is –"
"Why do you have humans on your backs?" another young Asian dragon asked. "Did they enslave you?"
"Bi-xi, we will banish all of you young ones to the other side of the lake if you cannot control yourselves!" the adult female warned her. "Show respect to strangers! They have surely traveled a very long way to visit us." She faced Bang. "Again, I apologize, although this one is not mine. It has been years since anything different happened here, especially for us Grounded ones; the young ones are excited. Will you tell us your story, once you have rested for a moment? Perhaps you would like to fish in our lake to ease your hunger?"
"That would be wonderful," Bang answered, "and yes, we will tell you our story. But before we do all that, we're here on a desperate errand. Our human friends are very ill, and they both saw a dragon like you in their dreams, offering to help them. Are you able to heal dragon's-blood poisoning in humans?"
The two adults and the old dragon glanced at each other. The old one spoke. "The dragons of Fu-cang-long are able to heal nearly any illness. But we, here, cannot. As Chi-long has said, we are the Grounded. We can do nothing for you. You must wait until the others return from fishing."
It was Bang and Six's turn to glance at each other. Obviously, there were some differences between the dragons of the Northland and these dragons. Before they could respond, Smallest-girl asked, "What does 'Grounded' mean?"
"Later!" Six warned her. "We're trying to have an adult conversation here. You can join it if you can be patient like an adult." Smallest-girl clamped her mouth shut and nodded. The young Asian dragons followed her example.
"I'll try this one more time. My name is Night-fury-makes-one-heck-of-a-bang. This is my twin sister, Night-fury-six-shooter. The girl is our younger sister, Night-fury-smallest-girl, and the boy is Night-fury-newest-boy; he's a friend of the family."
"Your names sound violent," the old dragon said solemnly.
"We live in a violent land," Six answered politely. "Dragons have made peace with one human village, but many others still fear us and hate us. We are here because of that. We and our human friends were injured in a surprise attack; they contracted dragon's-blood poisoning from us, and they are dying. It's vitally important to us that they be healed before it's too late."
"We, too, do not understand much of what you say," the old dragon said. "I am Pan-long. You have met Chi-long and Tao-tie. The young ones are Chi-wen, Bi-xi, and Pu-lao. We welcome you, and we welcome the chance to learn more about our cousins from distant lands. As we said, there is nothing we can do for your human friends until the others return. But you are all welcome to whatever hospitality we can give."
"You can get down; this place is safe," Six told Agmundr. "Other dragons are friendly, polite. We translate everything once we know more."
"Thanks." He slid down her neck, and nearly collapsed when he landed. Agnarr didn't do much better. Both leaned against their dragon friends so they could stay on their feet. They didn't look good; black patches were breaking out all over their skin. Agmundr's face was set in a grimace.
Agnarr stared at the red Asian dragons for a few seconds, then turned to Bang. "Tell them we say hello." Bang passed on the greeting, which the red dragons returned courteously.
"I believe we all have many questions for each other," Pan-long said. "You are our guests, so we will appease your curiosity first."
"All right," Bang nodded, and then gave his little sister a half-smile. "I guess our first question is, what do you mean by being grounded?"