Night Furies: the Next Generation Chapter 17

On and on they flew, retracing their path from the outbound journey. It had taken them nine days to fly from Berk to Fu-cang-long; they'd spent a week and a day there, making sure the new Night Furies knew how to fly; and it took another ten days to fly home, including the time they'd spent at the mountain lake, resolving the problems there. When they camped in the land of Rus, two days from home, they made sure to stay far away from any villages full of hunters in fur hats.

As they approached Berk, Bang motioned for Six to glide closer to him. "When we get home, it's going to be a mob scene. Do you have any ideas for how we should make an entrance?"

"None at all," she admitted. "I figured we'd just let the situation unfold, and deal with it as it happens. The best-laid plans of Night Furies and men will go wrong the first chance they get, so let's just go with it."

Newest-girl joined the conversation. "How about some ideas for helping me get out of the worst tail-smack of my life?"

"Don't try to escape it," Bang suggested.

"And don't be defiant about it," Six added. "That will only make things worse. Take your lumps and get it over with."

"That's not very encouraging," Newest-girl muttered.

"Your sister is right," Bang replied. "Trust me. I've been there."

o

Astrid and Hiccup were lounging around the Nest, waiting for something to happen, when they heard a Nadder shout, "Dragons approaching from the east!"

"From the east?" Astrid wondered sleepily. "We didn't send any patrols that way today, did we?"

"Eight dragons!" the Nadder added. That was a lot for a patrol. Other dragons began stirring from their naps, curious. Hiccup wandered over to the edge of the Nest to take a look.

"Astrid, you'd better get over here!" he exclaimed. She came fully awake and joined him. She made her eyes focus on what she saw, did a quick count, and was in the air and accelerating fast. Hiccup had expected that from her, but he still had a hard time catching up to her.

"Eight of them!" she exclaimed. "We only sent out four! What have our kids done this time?"

"Whatever it is, it will probably take us a week to sort it out," Hiccup replied, "so we'd better..." His voice trailed off. There was only one human riding the dragons. They'd sent out two. He shook his head sadly; he'd really hoped this story would have a happy ending. Now he'd have to think of something comforting to say to the surviving twin. That would be awkward at best, heartrending at worst.

Then they were close enough to recognize faces and markings. The returning Night Furies were flying in two finger-four formations. The lead group contained his twins, another juvenile, and a full adult dragon. Just behind them flew Night-fury-smallest-girl, Toothless' son, and two more yearlings. It would take them a while just to get through the introductions, never mind the explanations! Agnarr was firmly astride his son; it was Six-shooter who had lost her rider. He tried to imagine how Toothless would have felt if he, Hiccup, had been killed while still a human. What could he say to Six-shooter? What could he say to Agnarr?

Astrid was trumpeting a mother's welcome. "You're home! You're alive! You're grounded for a week, young lady! Don't you ever take off like that again!" Then they'd shot past each other. Hiccup and Astrid looped around quickly to join the formation, but they had to fly carefully – they suddenly realized that every dragon in Berk had taken off to welcome the young Night Furies home, and the skies had gotten very crowded.

He caught up with the leading formation and managed to glide between his twins. "Welcome home, kids," he began. "You'll get no tail-slaps from me; I'm too relieved to see you again. Before we land and the chaos breaks out, I'd like to say... Six-shooter, I'm sorry about your rider; Agnarr, I am sorry about your brother. I wish I knew more comforting words."

"It's okay, Hiccup," Agnarr replied. "He's adjusting pretty well."

That was not a typical response to losing someone's twin brother! It didn't even make sense! "Adjusting...?"

"Hello, Hiccup," the unknown juvenile said. "I kind of figured you wouldn't recognize me."

It took a lot to surprise Hiccup, but this turn of events almost knocked him out of the sky. He glanced back and forth from his son to his daughter, his eyes begging for an explanation.

Six-shooter looked embarrassed. "Heh heh... I, umm, I had a little accident with my Power."

"She turned me into a newt," Agmundr added, with the barest touch of mischief, "but I got better."

Hiccup shook his head. "Okay, obviously this is way too complicated to sort out in the air. Let's land and you can start explaining." He turned to Agnarr. "First we land, then we talk. Is all right?"

"Yes, it's good, New-night-fury," Agnarr replied in near-perfect dragon speech. This time, Hiccup did fall out of the sky a little.

o

When they landed, the first thing Hiccup did was to find the fastest Nadder he knew. "Fly to Dragon Island. Tell Night-fury and Lady-night-fury we're having a family reunion, and they need to get down here as fast as they can."

"Got it," squawked the Nadder, and away he flapped.

"This scene is getting out of control," Astrid fussed. "Where can we go to greet our kids and welcome these strangers without getting mobbed? The Nest isn't big enough for all the Night Furies anymore!"

New-night-fury jumped into the air and hovered above the milling crowds of dragons. "Everybody, listen up!" he roared. Once the hubbub subsided, he went on, "We need some time as a family to welcome everybody home. The Night Furies are going down to the beach. Please leave us in peace until we come back to the village. When we do that, we promise you'll hear our children's story, and I have a feeling it's going to be quite a story."

"And when Night-fury and Lady-night-fury get here with the little ones, tell them where we've gone," Night-fury-mother-of-twins added. With that, the ten Night Furies flapped away to the nearby beach, which was wide enough for everyone to lie down in a circle without crowding each other.

As soon as they landed, Hiccup looked with wide eyes at his twins. They nodded; a TrueSight would probably be the best way to start this. He took in Six's emotions, while Astrid shared feelings with Bang. It took the adults longer than usual to process those shared emotions, because there were so many of them. But it gave Hiccup and Astrid the beginnings of a clue what had happened with their children while they were away.

"I guess I should start with the introductions," Bang began. "For everyone who isn't from here, this is New-night-fury; he's the head Night Fury of our nest, and he's also my father. That's Night-fury-mother-of-twins, his mate and my mother. Mom, Dad, you already know Agmundr, sort of; we'll explain him later. This is Night-fury-new-beginning, and he's got a story of his own. This is Bi-xi, and this is Chi-wen; they were Asian dragons until Six transformed them. They had a third friend, Pu-lao, but we left him behind in the mountain-lake nest because they needed a Night Fury. So far, so good?"

"Can I ask you something?" Night-fury-mother-of-twins demanded. "Could you two stop calling each other Bang and Six? You have perfectly good dragon-names that you won in battle. Aren't you proud of how you earned those names anymore?"

"We picked up the habit from Agnarr and Agmundr," Six replied. "Their tongues got tired saying our full names every time they wanted to tell us something. We talk to them more than we talk to anyone else, so we started talking like them. Is it really that bad?"

"Mother, we're proud of who we are and what we've done," Bang added, "but the rules for dragons are changing. We don't just talk to other dragons anymore. We've got human friends, too. It won't do us any harm to drop a few syllables, as long as everybody knows who we're talking about."

"Not to change the subject," Six said with a trace of a smile, "but shouldn't there be another Night Fury around here somewhere? A much smaller, younger Night Fury?"

Hiccup smiled broadly. "Our new offspring were visiting their Uncle Toothless today, and working on their over-water navigation. They'll get here when Toothless does."

"They?" Bang burst out.

Six glanced at her mother. "You did it again?"

"A mother of twins has gotta do what a mother of twins has gotta do," she shrugged with an odd mix of embarrassment and pride.

"Identical baby girls this time," Hiccup added with fatherly pride. "They're as cute as you were, Six, and they've got Bang's talent for finding mischief."

"You mean they've got your talent for finding mischief!" Astrid shot back. "Even their names are an old-fashioned Hiccup disaster."

"That's not my fault!" he protested. "We were trying to decide what to call them, nothing sounded good to either of us, I made a suggestion as a joke..."

"And they overheard us, they loved your idea, and now they won't answer to anything else," Astrid finished crossly. "So, kids, when your little sisters get here, prepare to say hello to Thing One and Thing Two." Smallest-girl snorted.

Astrid whirled on her. "And that brings me to you, young lady, and what you've got coming!" She raised her tail; Smallest-girl braced herself. But the tail-smack slowed down in mid-swing, and Astrid's tail fins brushed across her daughter in a caress instead of a slap. "That's for coming home in one piece," she sighed. "But if you ever take off on me like that again..."

"I won't, Mom. I promise," she said earnestly.

"I think she means it," her big sister chimed in. "She learned a lot on this trip; I'd say she grew up a lot, too."

"Was she well-behaved?" Hiccup demanded.

"Yes," Bang answered without hesitation. "She took orders, she did everything we asked of her... she even let the humans use her as a footstool when they couldn't climb onto our backs anymore. The only thing she wouldn't do was go home when we told her to, and I have to admit, it's a good thing she didn't. We needed her."

"She did her part in the battles we fought, she helped comfort Agnarr when his brother got transformed, and she's the one who came up with Night-fury-new-beginning's name," Six added.

"Really?" Hiccup exclaimed. "You're just full of surprises." Suddenly his eyes narrowed as he stared at his second-oldest daughter. "Night-fury-full-of-surprises," he said thoughtfully. "How does that name sound to you?"

Her own eyes went wide. "A name? An adult name? A real name? I'll take it!"

"It definitely suits you," Agmundr commented.

"Hiccup, yearlings don't get adult-names!" Astrid protested.

"It's like Bang said," he replied. "The times and the rules are changing. If she's earned a name, then she ought to get one."

"Are we going to change her name again in a year or two if she does something really special?" her mother demanded.

"If we have to, then we will," he answered mildly. "I don't want to get into a new-name-every-year habit, but it sounds like she's done something noteworthy on this journey she took, and it's only fair if we recognize that."

"Then you should change my brother's name to Night-fury-makes-one-heck-of-a-leader," Six cut in. "He really pulled us together and held us together, kept us focused, and when we had to fight, he made plans that worked perfectly. It was almost like having you around, Dad."

"Oh, please!" Bang exclaimed, embarrassed. "Night-fury-makes-one-heck-of-a-bang is good enough for me."

"I hate to interrupt, but can I ask something?" New-beginning cut in. "What, exactly, am I going to do around here? I'm used to overseeing a nest – that's what Night Furies do – even though I did a really awful job of it last time. It looks like this nest has all the leadership it needs. What is my role going to be?"

Hiccup and Astrid looked at each other and shrugged. "Can we get back to you on that?" Hiccup asked. "We might need to think that over for a while."

"Actually, Dad, I had an idea about that," Bang said. "Outcast Island."

"I take that back," Hiccup said quickly. "I know exactly what you're going to do. Tell him about it, Astrid."

"Outcast Island is about half an hour away from here by air," she began. "It's partly full of the nastiest humans in the Northland, but it's mostly a feral dragon's nest. They're almost wild animals; they settle all their disputes by fighting. They desperately need a Night Fury, but not just any Night Fury. You'll have to be good at problem-solving, but at the beginning, you'll also have to be ready to bust some heads. And you'll have to watch out for the humans; they are not friendly. You'll have help a short distance away if you need it, but it will be your nest to guide. Does that sound like a role you'd be willing to take?"

"Night Furies lead the nest," he said thoughtfully. "It doesn't matter what kind of nest it is. I'd be reluctant to bust any dragons' heads after the way I treated my last nest, but I'll do what I have to do. When do I start?"

"Enjoy a quiet night here, and a good meal in the morning," Hiccup suggested. "Then a few of us will fly out there with you and tell the dragons that there are going to be some changes made. They'll be resistant, of course. We'll show them that you aren't standing alone against them, and once things are quiet, we'll leave you to your new nest. Don't hesitate to drop by and visit now and then."

"This is unbelievable," New-beginning sighed. "I thought I'd ruined my life forever, and now…"

"Now you're making a new beginning," Six finished for him.

"Speaking of which, what are you going to do, Agmundr?" Bang asked.

"I'm guessing I won't be a smith's apprentice anymore," he said hesitantly. "Honestly, I have no idea. I'm still adjusting to having wings and a tail; job training was kind of low on my list of priorities."

"At the very least, you need a proper dragon name," Six suggested. "We can't pronounce your Viking name. Neither can you, anymore."

"I guess I'll take whatever name you give me," he replied, "but to my brother, I'll always be Agmundr. Don't be astonished if he calls me that, even though he can speak dragon now."

"Then I think Night-fury-faithful-brother will be the perfect name for you," Astrid decided. There were no dissenting votes.