First Contact Chapter 12

A/N
Congratulations and "thank you" to faisyah865, who wrote the 1000th review this story has received. I'm thankful to all of you reviewers – if it wasn't for the one who wrote number 999, or number 473, or number 1, then there wouldn't be a number 1000 today. I'm also thankful for the ones who hit the Favorite button (531 at this moment) and the Follow button (444), and for the ones who just read the story, like it, and keep coming back for more.

o

The attack on the trappers' ship was almost an anticlimax. With 26 dragons against one ship, fighting at night, there was no question of the outcome; it was only a question of who was going to get hurt. The dragons didn't set out to deliberately hurt anybody, and the Night Furies were determined that, if anyone did get hurt, it wouldn't be a dragon.

The three of them started with a low-altitude, high-speed attack on the ship's left side. It was aground on an island for repairs to its damaged mast, and half its crew were already ashore; it couldn't move and was close to defenseless. The men on board heard the screaming sound of approaching Night Furies, but couldn't see their targets. Three blue firebolts lanced out of the darkness and struck the middle of the ship, where the net-throwing devices were. Just like that, there were no more net-throwing devices on the left side. Hiccup, Bang, and Full-of-surprises pulled up, satisfied with their first shots.

"So much for that side," Bang grinned. "Now, we'll do the same thing on the port side."

"I thought port was left," Full-of-surprises wondered.

"Fine. We'll hit the other side!" her brother grumbled. This time, the men on the ship fired blind, realizing that their weapons were about to be blown up anyway. One net met Bang's firebolt in mid-air, which neutralized both net and firebolt. The other two shots struck the ship and took out the last of the net-throwers. The men saw the writing on the wall and abandoned ship, running inland in a panic to get away from the fiery Armageddon that was about to descend on them. Oddly, for several minutes, there was no attack, just the sounds of one dragon talking to another.

The dragon doing the talking was Cloudjumper. "Keep going… a little bit to your right… that's good. Now come down a bit… a bit more… you're almost there! Hover! Rotate left, just a bit! Hold your position." Hobblegrunt-likes-to-be-purple followed his instructions exactly. "You're about ten feet above the stern of the ship, facing forward. Take your shot, and then fly up and back." The sightless victim of the human trap had been given the honor of taking the first shot, and he didn't waste it. A small but heated torrent of flames set the deck alight. As soon as the Hobblegrunt had cleared the area, Cloudjumper bellowed, "Everybody else who wants to take a shot at that ship, dive in and flame it!" Twenty-one more dragons did exactly what he said, one after the other. All of them were missing claws, wingtips, or other extremities, thanks to the trappers; all were literally hot for revenge. After the first ten attacks, there wasn't a square foot of deck on the ship that wasn't burning or in danger of burning, but the dragon attack didn't stop until everyone had loosed their flames on it. Cloudjumper waited until they were done, then added a burst of his own fire to the only part that wasn't already aflame – the tip of the one remaining mast. Then they all flew home, feeling satisfied at a good night's work.

Behind them, a man with markings on his chin stood up from behind a rock and gazed sadly at the embers that used to be his dragon-trapping ship, along with much of his food and the next batch of construction materials for his new fort. "Drago isn't going to like this," he muttered to no one.

Back in the nest, Cloudjumper and the Night Furies reported their success to the Alpha, who had stayed up late, concerned about his subjects' well-being. "The trappers' ship was completely destroyed," Hiccup began.

"We're aware of no human casualties," Bang added.

"No dragons were hurt at all," Full-of-surprises concluded. "Except for one Hotburple who got too close to the burning ship and scorched his wing a little." That was the part that the Alpha was waiting to hear. He glanced at the Stormcutter for confirmation; the four-winged dragon nodded.

"I can see some value in having a Night Fury or two in my nest," he nodded, his great tusks swinging up and down. "If our arrangement succeeds, you'll be leaving one of your kind with me for three weeks out of four. Can anything be done about that fourth week?"

"I'll talk to the other Night Furies when I get home," Hiccup said, "but I don't see a problem. There are plenty of us, we all have a Night Fury's desire to lead and protect the other dragons, and there are too many of us for everyone to do much leading and protecting in our own nest. Between us and Toothless' nest, it shouldn't be hard to find one more volunteer to spend a week with you, Great One. It might be a good chance for the young ones to learn and grow."

"I'm very pleased," the Alpha nodded again. "Those humans needed to be taught a lesson. You have done well, Night Furies, considering that this isn't even your nest. I understand that some of you have to leave soon, but you're welcome here if you ever want to return."

"Thank you, Great One," Hiccup said. "We'll probably do that. This will be the fifth nest with which we've established ties. They're all self-governing and independent, but we stay in touch with each other, and we'll fly to each other's defense if we have to."

"An interesting concept," the Bewilderbeast said thoughtfully. "We will sleep on it. We've all had a busy night." The Night Furies recognized a royal dismissal when they heard one; they retired to a ledge halfway up the side of the nest, and were soon fast asleep.

The next morning, it was time for goodbyes. Agnarr and Bang weren't terribly torn up about it; they were surrounded by thankful dragons who wanted to express their gratitude for the human's help with the trapped Scuttleclaw, and the dragon's help with the attack on the trappers' ship. The dragons were also very intrigued by Agnarr's ability to speak their language. It was clear that the pair would fit into this nest without any problems.

Stoick and Valka's parting was more emotional. "It's like we've just met, and we have to say goodbye already?" he asked her sadly.

"We knew this was going to happen," she replied, with a hand on his cheek. "I can't leave yet, by the terms of our deal with the Alpha, and you can't stay because you have to watch out for Berk." They hugged each other tightly.

"I'll be back in a week," he promised. "I'll ride out with the next exchange team, and fly home with the team that's returning to Berk, and I'll keep doing that until the day you can come home."

"You know I won't be able to stay home, even then?"

"I know," he nodded. "We'll find a way to make this work. Even eighteen days will be too long!" They kissed, and Stoick climbed onto his Rumblehorn's back.

"You're coming with us?" Bang asked the stocky green dragon.

"Just to bring my friend back to his home," the Rumblehorn answered. "The King approved it. I like the taste of the fish in your waters, I like being free from the fear of traps… and I like the big human. Is that strange?"

"In Berk, it happens all the time," Bang smiled, with a glance at his own beloved rider. "Did you know the big human calls you Rumblehorn-crusher-of-skulls?"

"The woman explained it to me," the big dragon replied. "It doesn't sound like me, but I think I like it better than Walks-into-walls. I haven't walked into a wall in at least four years!" Hiccup, Full-of-surprises, and Skullcrusher (with Stoick on board) leaped into the air for the day-and-a-half journey back to Berk. The flight was uneventful.

When they landed, Astrid was all over Hiccup, as were Six and Thing One and Thing Two. Stoick was besieged by Vikings with minor problems they wanted him to solve. Skullcrusher didn't expect a welcome because this wasn't his nest; he glided out to sea in search of fish. Full-of-surprises got a perfunctory greeting from her sisters, but she quickly realized that she wasn't getting any attention. That was intolerable.

"Mom, do you mind if I fly north and visit Uncle Toothless' nest?" Mother-of-twins had no objection (she was probably distracted by the joy of seeing her mate again). Full-of-surprises was quickly aloft and northbound. Her thoughts wandered all over the landscape – she thought about the huge Bewilderbeast, the injured dragons in his nest, Night-fury-young-teacher, her role in destroying the trappers' ship, Night-fury-young-teacher, the human woman's enthusiasm to learn Forge, Night-fury-young-teacher…

Okay, hold it right there, she told herself. He's a nice dragon, he's good-looking, he's smart, he understands the art of being a Night Fury, he likes me, I like him, and our parents are all in favor of the relationship, but is that a good enough reason to obsess over him?

Are you kidding? she answered herself. You could wait a year for the eastern Night Furies to reach maturity, but what are the chances that they'll turn out nicer than Young-teacher? Pretty slim. Don't you think it means something that your thoughts turn to him as soon as you think about wanting attention?

I'm not two years old yet, she argued with herself. I'm still way too young for a mating flight. Why pursue a relationship that can't go anywhere for a year or more?

I don't have to mate with him today, she decided, but I can tell him I like him. I don't want his eye wandering toward some other female, like Bi-xi or one of my little sisters, just because he thinks I don't care.

Fair enough, she replied to herself, but how do you plan to do that without sounding like a dorky love-struck hatchling?

I'll think of something, she told herself.

That's what Dad always says, she replied.

Yeah, and it usually works when he says that, she rebutted herself. The internal argument went no further, because Dragon Island was in sight, and she could see Young-teacher spiraling up towards the top of the volcanic cone. He'd probably just grabbed a late-afternoon snack out of the sea. For a moment, she wondered why males seemed to be hungry all the time, but she'd come here for more important things than that. She sped up and managed to catch his eye just before he dove into the cone. He landed on the lip of the volcano and waited for her to join him.

"Welcome back, O brave adventurer," he teased her. "What kind of trouble did you get into this time?"

"Who, me?" she gasped, feigning innocence. "No trouble at all. I'm just glad to be home."

"What was it like out there?" he asked.

"It was, without a doubt, the most mushy, sentimental, over-emotional excuse for an adventure I've ever been on," she exclaimed. "First, Dad found out his mother wasn't dead after all. Then she found out her son is a dragon now. Then Dad taught them Forge, so his mother could talk to her dragon friend for the first time ever. Then the chief of Berk found out his wife was still alive, and hadn't been dead for eighteen years like he thought." She rolled her eyes. "One more emotional overload like those, and I would have shared my breakfast with them, whether I wanted to or not!"

"That sounds intense," he commented.

"It was," she nodded. "Don't get me wrong – I'm happy for Dad, and for everybody else. It was just kind of hard to watch."

"What did they do?" he asked.

"Well, they cried a lot. They hugged a lot. They went flying a lot. The chief and his wife danced and sang a little. They talked, and they talked, and they talked…"

"They sang?" Young-teacher wondered. "That's different. What does a human song sound like?"

"They're different from our songs, because human mouths can make more sounds than ours can, but they're limited in pitch. They try to make the end of a line sound the same as the end of the next line; they call it a rhyme. We can't do that very well."

Young-teacher looked thoughtful. "I'm having a hard time imagining how that works."

"I can't duplicate their sounds, but if I translated their words, they'd go something like this," she said, then suddenly smiled at him. The words might need a little tweaking so they'd apply to dragons, but the basic idea would come through just fine. She hoped.

"I'll soar and glide in savage storms
"With ne'er a fear of falling,
"And gladly ride the skies of life
"If you will fly with me."

She watched his eyes slowly widen as he realized she wasn't just reciting the humans' words to him.

"No scorching sun nor freezing cold
"Will stop me on my journey,
"If you will promise me your heart
"And love me for eternity."

She caught him staring at her; he looked away quickly. "You're right – that's intense," he said quietly. "I know your wings must be tired from all that traveling, but… I'd like to know more about this adventure of yours. Will you go for a long, slow flight with me?"

"I'd love to," she smiled.

Maybe those mushy, sentimental, over-emotional humans could teach her something after all.

o

A/N
I originally planned to end the story here, but when I got this far, I realized I've got quite a few loose ends that still need to be tied up. The more I write, the more I realize I've got more writing to do. This story isn't done!