Life with the Night Furies Chapter 5
Chief Night Fury had been unable to get all the Night Furies together in the Nest for his council of war, for the simple reason that they didn't fit anymore. They had to meet down on the beach, where there was room for all of them. The very idea of Night Furies taking up too much room to fill a building would have been an impossibility just a few years ago. But fate, luck, and Astrid's ability to lay twin eggs had produced a veritable population explosion among their kind. Gathered along the rocky beach were nearly every adult and near-adult Night Fury in the Northland:
Chief Night Fury, also known as Hiccup
Night-fury-mother-of-twins, also known as Astrid
Night Fury himself, also known as Toothless
Lady-night-fury, also known as Guana
Night-fury-makes-one-heck-of-a-bang, known as Bang for short
Night-fury-six-shooter, known as Six for short
Night-fury-full-of-surprises
Night-fury-faithful-brother, also known as Agmundr
Night-fury-smith-flies-for-fun, also known as Agnarr
Night-fury-new-beginning
Night-fury-chi-wen
Night-fury-bi-xi
The only adult missing was Night-fury-pu-lao, who was taking his turn as the resident Night Fury at the mountain-lake nest. All the others had responded to their Alpha's urgent summons. He quickly summed up the grim political situation with the other Viking tribes, and the danger that Berk was in.
"We have three basic options," New-beginning said after everyone had processed Chief Night Fury's initial speech. "It's the same in any confrontation. We can fight, we can fly away, or we can surrender and hope for merciful terms."
"That last one isn't an option," Bang said heatedly. "We'd get no mercy. Vikings kill dragons."
Agmundr added, "The whole point of them wanting to go to war against Berk is to keep us dragons from fighting against them. Why would they show us any mercy?"
"Let's talk about the fighting option; at least that option might work." That was Six, who was every bit the fighter that her mother was.
"Can we fight all those tribes of humans, and hope to win?" Chi-wen asked.
"If we could get all of our nests to fight together," Mother-of-twins thought out loud, "then yes, we probably could. Toothless' nest did a pretty good job of fighting all the tribes to a standstill, back during the days of the war. There are more of us now, and there are more Night Furies to lead and guide the fighting. I think we could kick some Viking butt!"
"That's not a valid comparison, Astrid," Toothless replied. "In the days of the war, we were just launching hit-and-run raids for food; we weren't trying to defeat anyone for keeps."
"Besides," Guana added, "we saw how willing the nests were to help each other during the Berserker War. Namely, not a bit! If Berk is threatened, the other nests will see it as our problem and not theirs, unless one of their Night Furies gets hurt."
"Or worse," Toothless added.
"We don't want that," Guana finished. "That's called 'forging an alliance, the hard way.' "
"I think Berk's dragons can outfight any one Viking tribe," Hiccup decided. "Maybe two at once, especially if our humans come in on it with us. But all the tribes at once? We're good, but that's asking way too much."
Bang nodded. "If each tribe came at us one at a time, we could probably defeat them in detail. But we can't count on them to be that stupid. They'll mob us and overrun us by sheer numbers."
"But only if they can get to the shore!" Six objected. "They have to come by ship, right? That would nullify their advantage in numbers, right? We know how to sink ships!"
"They'd still have a huge advantage in numbers," Full-of-surprises countered. "Look in the harbor. See how many ships Berk has? And this is a fairly small tribe, by Viking standards. If the other tribes all got together, they could send hundreds of ships against us, and those ships would be full of men with spears, bolas, and nets, because they'd know we'd send dragons against them. They could trade two or three ships for every dragon and still have plenty left over to attack Berk's humans after they'd wiped us out."
"She's right, unfortunately," Toothless nodded. "Full-of-surprises, you're turning into quite a tactician."
"Thank you," she smiled. "I think I got it from Dad."
"Well, if we've ruled out surrender and fighting, that leaves flight," Mother-of-twins said. "I don't like running away, but I'll do it if that's my only choice. Is that option any better than the others?"
"Where would we go?" Bi-xi wondered.
"How about the ice nest where Hiccup's mother is helping the Stormcutter Alpha?" New-beginning suggested. "You've said that there's plenty of room for more dragons there."
"But there's no room for humans there," the chief objected. "I've been entrusted with the care of these humans, as well as the care of all the dragons. I'm not going to fly away and abandon them to the Vikings' rage."
"Even if it's the only way to save the dragons?" his mate asked pointedly.
"I'm not convinced that it would save them," he answered. "Drago Bludvist's men found that nest, and I'm sure that the ones who survived the battle can remember where it is. Other men can find it, too. It's just a matter of time before some human tribe decides that the ice nest is a threat to them, and then, wham!" He smacked his tail on the rocks. "Blockaded, besieged, and battered into submission. They wouldn't even have to break down a wall, the way Berk did at Dragon Island. They'd just wait until the dragons got too hungry to stay inside anymore, and they'd pick us off as we flew out the exit. Some would die, others would escape... but where would they go? Humanity is taking over this world; safe places for dragons are rare, and they're going to keep getting rarer. We can't run away."
"Does that leave us with no options?" Guana asked warily.
"Impossible!" Six exclaimed. "Dad always has options!"
"I'm flattered at your confidence in me," Chief Night Fury smiled. "Actually, there is one more option that no one has mentioned yet... but, judging by the smile on Faithful-brother's face, he may have guessed it."
Faithful-brother took a deep breath. He still wasn't accustomed to speaking in public, or to anyone actually listening to what he said. "Can we persuade them not to attack us at all?"
"My thoughts exactly," Hiccup nodded.
"That will never happen," Astrid said flatly. "Talk a bunch of Vikings out of attacking someone? You'd have better luck talking a bunch of dragons out of flying. This kind of annihilation war is what they live for. Some of them are probably inscribing anti-dragon runes on their swords right now."
"They would enjoy wiping out an entire tribe?" Bi-xi asked, astonished.
"Yes, and then they'd really enjoy taking all the plunder," Guana replied.
"I agree, we can't just talk to them and make them agree to leave us alone," the chief nodded. "But there are other methods of persuasion than just talking. We'll have to apply a little leverage."
"Which means... what?" Bang wondered.
"We've got two kinds of leverage to play with," Hiccup went on. "There's the positive kind, which we'll call a bribe, and there's the negative kind, which we'll call a threat. We also have one big advantage over them; I've been to the Thing many times with my father, and I've met most of the chiefs of the other tribes. I know where their greed is focused, and I know some of the things that make them nervous. They, on the other hand, know Berk's new chief only as a skinny, incompetent anti-Viking. We can apply our leverage exactly where it will do the most good, while any plans they make against me will be aimed at a target that doesn't exist anymore."
Toothless wasn't convinced. "Are you really willing to bet your life, and the lives of your entire family and your entire nest –"
"...And your entire human tribe," Chi-wen cut in.
"Yes, them too," Toothless nodded. "Anyway, are you willing to bet all their lives that you can pull this off?"
"It's not a bet, my friend," Hiccup said. "It's a plan. And yes, I think we can do this."
Astrid also had her doubts. "You think you can apply some kind of leverage to all eleven of the other tribes, and convince them to not attack us?"
"We don't have to convince all eleven," the chief corrected her. "At a Thing, decisions for war are made by majority vote. If we can get six of the tribes off of the pro-war side, plus ourselves, that means the 'kill Berk' faction will lose every vote that comes up. We'll win a victory and protect ourselves without shedding one drop of blood."
"Okay, Dad. Next question," Bang began. "What if you win this vote, and then the five tribes that still hate us decide to attack us anyway?"
"If they did that, they'd start a war without the blessing and guidance of the Law-Speaker," Chief Night Fury replied. "That means they would be disorganized and uncoordinated – nothing but a great big mob, made of factions with nothing in common except their hatred of us. Each tribe would contend for the right to attack first, or the right to make the final kill at the end. If I know my Vikings, there's a fifty-fifty chance they'd fight a few skirmishes against each other before they sent a single ship in our direction. If they did manage to coordinate their attacks, that still means that their combined fleet would be down by over fifty percent compared to what it could have been. A fight between our dragons and a fleet like that would be bloody, but I think we could win."
"There's a third possibility," Lady-night-fury added. "If four or five tribes decided to fight us, they might not coordinate themselves at all, but each one would just attack as soon as they could. If they came in separately, instead of in one huge combined fleet, then I'm sure we can handle them."
Hiccup's ears pricked up. "You said 'we.' Does that mean your nest will stand with us?"
Toothless shook his head sadly. "My friend, my mate and I will stand with you, no matter what. Maybe a few volunteers from our nest will join you, especially among the young hot-heads who have gotten bored with a peaceful existence. But it's like she said earlier. Our nest won't get involved in your battle unless one of the two of us gets hurt."
"Okay, that's a starting point," New-beginning said. "Let's get down to details and see if it will actually work. How to you propose to bribe, or threaten, an entire tribe?"
"I don't," Chief Night Fury replied. "As I suggested earlier, we'll apply our leverage directly to the chief of each tribe. If we can change the chief's mind, then the rest of that tribe will have no choice but to follow where he leads. And I've got some solid ideas for what kinds of bribes and threats we should offer. One kind of bribe, in particular, is something I'm going to work on with you two." He gestured with his head at Faithful-brother and Smith-flies-for-fun, who grinned hugely at each other. They had heard so much about Hiccup's skill in the forge; now that none of them was human anymore, were they all finally going to cooperate on a smithing project?
"As for threats," he went on, "we'll try those only if the bribes don't work. If we could pay off the entire Archipelago to leave us in peace, I'd do it in a cold minute, but I know it won't be that easy. I know the weaknesses of some of the chiefs around us, and a well-placed threat could paralyze them for just long enough to keep them from making trouble for us."
Six raised a paw and waited until her father gazed at her. "If the bribe doesn't work, and the threat doesn't work... then what?"
"If that happens," Hiccup said slowly, "then we will do something I hate doing. We will resort to brute force."
"You mean, the dragons will raid someone's village?" Bi-xi didn't like the sound of that.
"I mean a precision strike to keep the small but stubborn tribes from casting a vote against us at the Thing."
"I have to admit, I don't see the point of that," Toothless objected. "If they know that Berk's dragons attacked them, that will make them even more determined to wipe you out."
"Then we'll just have to arrange things so nobody knows we did it," Hiccup replied. "I've got a few general ideas on that theme. I really, really hope we don't have to use them. But I assure you, I've got a Plan C, in case Plan A and Plan B don't work out. I also assure you that I will do whatever it takes, no matter how distasteful it is to me personally, to protect this island and everyone on it. That's what an Alpha does. That's what a chief does." He glanced from Bang to Six to Full-of-surprises. "That's what a father does."
"We're with you, Dad!" Six shouted and lunged forward to rub noses with him.
"Yes, we're with you!" his mate echoed. All the others roared the same thing and rushed to encourage their Alpha and friend. The tangled black heap of supportive Night Furies was so thick that Hiccup was caught on the bottom and almost couldn't breathe.