Night Furies: the Next Generation Chapter 15
All the new Night Furies had learned the basics of flight. They had gotten some rudimentary instruction in using their fires; the former Asian dragons had taken target practice, while Agmundr had used the time to learn how to fish. They were almost ready to start the long flight home. But before they left, Tian-long had a special request.
"It may be many years before we see any of you again," he told them. "We have never seen Night Furies before, and there is still much about you that we do not know. Before you leave, could you give us a simple demonstration of what a Night Fury can do?"
They spent half the day making plans, and the other half of the day practicing, out of sight of the crater. As the sun began to set, they flew toward the caldera and gave a display of Night-fury-ness.
The four newest Night Furies flew by first, along with Newest-boy, who had taught three of them. They came into view in a symmetrical pentagon formation. He barked, and the four new ones shifted into a square, while he rose up to become the peak of the pyramid. Then he dropped straight down through the square to become the peak of an upside-down pyramid. They shifted through half a dozen other formations as they overflew the crater.
As soon as they were out of sight, Bang and Six flew by, barrel-rolling around each other as though they were tracing the lines on a candy cane. She went into a tight turn, and he followed her on the outside, staying wingtip-to-wingtip. They did a series of loops and swoops together, with Bang in the lead and her nose almost touching the tip of his tail. They glided off at last, again flying wingtip to wingtip.
High above them all, Smallest-girl watched and smiled. It was her turn. As soon as her big brother and sister had cleared the lip of the volcano, she folded her wings and dove.
She felt her speed building up, heard the scream of the air rushing across her sub-wings. Her target, a flat rock near the shore, was getting larger by the second. She waited until the last moment, then launched her firebolt and pulled out of her dive. She nearly waited too long – she pulled out barely three feet above the water, and her high-speed passage raised a rooster-tail of spray behind her. The firebolt exploded with a satisfying purple flash. Night Furies never miss, she thought happily. Sometimes we put on quite a show, too.
They all landed in the crater and were met by the Asian dragons. Flying with chi was graceful, but not fast; they had never seen such maneuvers. "I admit, we are impressed," Tian-long exclaimed. "We will be talking about this visit for years to come. Thank you for giving some of our Grounded a new life."
"Thank you for healing our friend, and for all the kindness you have shown us," Bang replied. "The dragons of Berk will be eager to learn about you. I think some of the humans will also be eager."
The next morning, it was time to go. They packed the human's supplies and tied them onto the backs of assorted Night Furies, said a final farewell, and launched themselves into the sky. Their human numbers had been cut in half, from two to one, but their dragon numbers had doubled, from four to eight. The long hours of cross-country flying would still be monotonous, but four of them knew the way, so their fear of missing their destination was gone. Three of the others were full of questions about Berk, and Dragon Island, and the other kinds of dragons, and the ocean, but about humans most of all. Bang and Six took turns teaching them about Berk's Vikings, the Berserkers, the Outcasts, and some of the other tribes and groups in the Northland. When Six wasn't answering their questions, she stayed close to Agmundr, who seemed to like it that way.
When they made camp the first night, Bang called a meeting of the Night Furies. "As some of you know, we found another nest of dragons on our way here. They were being mistreated by a Night Fury who has gone off-center. I promised them we would do something about that. I'd like you all to think about ways to deal with a powerful, unstable dragon without killing him."
"That could be hard," Bi-xi thought out loud. "We have a huge advantage in numbers, but he is probably bigger and more experienced than any of us."
"Our fires aren't the way to do it," Six added. "Either they'd be too weak to hurt him, or they'd be powerful enough to knock him out of the sky, or damage his wings. Either one would be fatal."
"May I say something?" Agmundr asked hesitantly.
"Of course you can! You're a Night Fury too," Bang answered, slightly surprised.
"I don't think we should be trying to hurt him," Agmundr went on. "I think we should do something nice for him." He explained his idea, but admitted he had no thoughts on how to make it happen. "My brother always does the practical thinking," he explained.
"It's the best idea we've got," Six nodded. "Maybe the rest of us together can come up with something as good as your brother would, if he was thinking in terms of dragon tactics." They spent two hours coming up with ways to implement Agmundr's plan.
"The best thing I can say is, it might work," Bang commented at last. "We'll have to try it and see. Six, I'm sorry we gave you such a rotten role to play in this, but you're the only one who can do it."
"I can handle it," she said confidently. "Just don't let me down."
Then they heard Agnarr's sleepy voice. "I don't suppose you guys can keep it down out there?"
"You are not asleep?" Bang asked. "We thought you sleep better this time, now that you are not sick."
"I'm sleeping worse," Agnarr replied. "I've never slept in a tent alone before." Without a word, Agmundr lay down right next to the tent. Apparently, that was enough, because Agnarr slept through the rest of the night without difficulty.
"Are there any other little details we should be thinking about?" Six asked her brother quietly.
"I'm not sure how much thinking this will take," he replied, "but I realized this afternoon that we started our journey just before the Vikings' winter holiday. We might get home and find that we've got a brand-new hatchling brother or sister waiting for us."
"You're right! I'd forgotten about that, too. What do you think we'll get – a brother or a sister?"
Bang thought for a second. "I've already got two sisters, so I'd like to have a brother."
Six shook her head. "The odds are in favor of another girl. Mom and Dad have made twice as many girls as boys, so that's what I'm predicting."
"I guess we'll have to wait and see," Bang nodded as he curled up to sleep. Six padded over and lay down next to Agmundr, who stirred slightly but didn't wake up.
It took them two more days to cross the mountain range. As they passed a particularly impressive peak, Agnarr said out loud, "I'll never get tired of the view from the sky."
"It always amazes me too," Bang replied. "Do you feel normal? Your voice sounds different. It is lower."
"My throat has been scratchy ever since we left the volcano," Agnarr replied. "What's really weird is, my ears feel scratchy too." He suddenly looked grim. "Could I have caught some kind of strange sickness from the dragons?"
"We know almost nothing about them," Bang admitted. "It is possible."
"They said they limit their contacts with humans," Six chimed in. "Maybe there is reason for that."
"That would stink," Agnarr said disgustedly. "They healed me of one disease, and they gave me another one in its place."
"Tian-long would not have sent you away if he knew it was serious," Six decided.
"As usual, I hope you're right," Agnarr said resignedly.
Then came the two-day flight across the rocky desert. The tepid water of the water hole was probably the most delicious thing most of them had ever tasted. They used the time in the air to refine their plan as much as they could. They explained it to Agnarr, who merely said, "I don't know much about dragon fighting, but it sounds good to me."
They finally approached their first destination. "We're going to stop just before we get to the mountain lake," Bang decided. "We'll use half a day to rest and relax; I think we need it, especially all these brand-new Night Furies who aren't used to flapping and gliding all day. We need to be fresh and strong when we take on that off-center Night Fury." They landed next to a chilly stream that flowed out of the lake, and spent the day fishing and sleeping. Agnarr stretched his legs and paced back and forth a lot. He was surrounded by friends, but he was the only human around. That was a sensation he had never known before, and it bothered him more than he would admit.
He wandered over a hill and sat down on the far side. He wanted to be alone to think. But after a few minutes, he heard something coming up behind him. He didn't bother to look to see who it was.
"Hi, Agmundr."
"Is it all right if I join you?"
"Of course." The dragon flopped down in the grass next to him. "Agmundr… what are we going to do?"
"You will be smith helper, I will be dragon, and we will be brothers."
"But how is that going to work? I always got my ideas from you! Is Gobber going to clear a dragon-sized space in the forge so you can sit and watch me work? Will he add a sand table so you can make sketches of your ideas for me to refine?" He stared into his brother's huge green eyes. "For the first time in my life, I'm feeling alone! I don't like it. I don't know how to handle it."
"But you are not alone! I will always be your brother. Nothing can change that."
"But it's not the same!" Agnarr burst out. "When we started this journey, I was scared that I was going to die, but somehow it was okay because you were there, too. Now, I'm perfectly healthy, except for this…" He suddenly looked puzzled. "Huh. That scratchy feeling in my throat and ears went away. I didn't notice when it stopped, but good riddance. Anyway, even though I'm healthy, I don't feel like we're together anymore. We can't do things together anymore. We can't even talk normally anymore! You have to use Forge, and that still isn't a normal way for any of us to talk."
"I can understand you perfectly." "At least, I sure hope I still can," he added quietly in dragon speech.
Agnarr stared at him. "Say that again."
"I said, I can –"
"No, not the Forge part! Say the part that came after that!"
"That was dragon speech."
"Agmundr, say it again!"
"I said, I sure hope I still understand you perfectly."
"I heard that," Agnarr exclaimed softly. "All of it! I didn't understand what you said, but I heard it! Like I've never heard it before…" He looked utterly amazed. "Overtones, undertones… what a voice you have…"
Agmundr smiled. It was the first time Agnarr had seen his brother really smile since he'd been transformed. "What ears you have! I think Tian-long did more for you than we thought."
"He changed my ears so I can understand dragon! So I can understand you!" Agnarr was on the verge of jumping up and down for joy.
"Agnarr, your throat also itched! He changed that, too! Make this sound." He said something in dragon. Agnarr tried to imitate him.
"Not bad for first try. You said, 'I speak dragon.' Now you learn third language. More work for you."
"I'll take it," he said softly; then he threw his arms around his brother's thick black neck and wept. "You can talk to me! I'll be able to understand you! Maybe it's going to be okay after all." It took him a few minutes to regain his composure.
"I think you are taking this harder than me," Agmundr observed.
"You were thinking about being a dragon anyway," his brother replied shakily. "You lost some things, but you also gained some things. I'm the one who thought I lost everything... I've never been so glad to be wrong." They stood and walked back to the rest of the Night Furies.
"I speak dragon," Agnarr proudly announced. Seven black dragon heads whipped around to stare at him… in puzzlement.
"You speak watermelon?" Bang asked.
"Oops. I guess I need some practice with my overtones," Agnarr admitted sheepishly in Norse. "I meant to say," and he switched back to his new voice, "I speak dragon." That time, he nailed it.
"How did you do that?" Smallest-girl had to know.
"Tian-long didn't approve of his choice of dragon aspects," Agmundr explained, "so he threw in a couple of freebies without telling anyone. My brother can hear us and speak to us now. He just has to learn all the words."
Bang had to chuckle. "So both of you got transformed by dragons on this trip! It's going to take us almost as long to tell the other dragons what we've done as it took us to actually do it!"
"Who's going to be Agnarr's dragon-language tutor?" Six asked, and looked around.
"I'll try, if he's willing," Newest-boy said hesitantly. Bang translated all this for Agnarr.
"I have seen you teach," Agnarr nodded at Newest-boy. "I have no objection."
"Then we should step aside and start," Newest-boy began. "We will start with our names." The year-old Night Fury and the teen-age boy were soon immersed in basic dragon-language study.
"When we started this trip," Smallest-girl commented, "there were a few things I thought would happen, and a few things I hoped would happen. Most of those things didn't happen, and this trip has been full of other things I never even dreamed of. Dragons turning into Night Furies! Humans turning into Night Furies! My best friend turning into a language teacher for a human!" She shook her head. "Life is weird."
"We aren't done yet, Smallest-girl," Six said. "We still have to deal with that off-center Night Fury."