Life with the Night Furies Chapter 21

Chief Night Fury made his way to the head table, where Rangi was trying to get back into a wedding-reception frame of mind after surviving multiple attempts on his life. "I think we got all killers," he said. "No more problems."

"It's going to be really hard to relax and enjoy the party after this," Rangi quavered, and Anya mutely nodded in agreement.

"I fix that," the dragon-chief said firmly. He gave some quick orders to the other two Night Furies. His mate and his daughter took up guarding positions at either end of the head table, and they stayed there for the rest of the evening. They carefully sniffed every bit of food that was brought to the groom and the bride, but there were no more attempts at poisoning the happy couple. Once the Night Furies were sure that Rangi and Anya were safe, they began taking advantage of their position. Several times during the feast, Thing One made puppy-dog eyes at Anya, who responded by tossing a fish from her plate to her dragon friend. After the second time, Astrid-the-dragon made the puppy-dog eyes at her brother.

"Am I still a little troll?" he demanded of her.

"You always little troll," she answered without batting an eye, "but now you brave, grown-up, married little troll."

Rangi rolled his eyes. "I guess that's the best I can hope for," he sighed, and tossed his sister a baked fish. She snatched it out of the air and swallowed it with great relish.

No one knew if there were any more assassins among the guests. If there were, the sight of their intended prey being guarded by two black dragons took all the belligerent zeal out of them. Yes, they wanted to die and go to Valhalla, but they wanted to win a victory first, and they had no hope of victory against two alert Night Furies. The rest of the reception went smoothly. The cooks found a fresh source of ale so Anya could present the ritual mug to Rangi again (after Astrid suspiciously sniffed it three times), they laid a hammer in Anya's lap and recited the ritual prayer to Thor so he would bless their children (which made Rangi squirm some more), and there was plenty of food, drink, songs, dancing, and toasts to the presumably-happy couple. The bride and the groom actually began to relax and enjoy the party a little.

Many of the guests wanted to see the gold-inlaid wedding sword up close. Anya was happy to show it off, but she always kept herself between her new husband and the guest with the sword, just in case that guest wanted to test the blade on Rangi. No one did anything to make her nervous, but after what they'd already been through, she was feeling very defensive.

At one point during the evening, all the Berserkers began banging on their drinking mugs with their forks or knives. When someone from the Berk side asked what it meant, they said, "It's an old Berserker wedding tradition. When we tap on our mugs, it means the groom has to kiss the bride." Varinn and Mr. Hofferson had to ask them to stop, in part because Rangi and Anya were unwilling to kiss each other (they still weren't comfortable with that idea), but mostly because the banging noise was very upsetting to the Night Furies. It hurt their ears; it was too similar to the sound of weapons banging on shields, which the Vikings used to do in order to distract a dragon they wanted to kill.

At last, Chief Night Fury made his way over to where Varinn and Fluffernut were sitting. He spoke some syllables in Forge to him, whereupon Varinn walked over to Sigurd the Sociable and whispered in his ear. The Berserker chief stood up on the table. "Vikings of Berk and Berserkers! It's time for the happy couple to retire to the bridal chamber for the night. Will the chosen witnesses please gather by the Mead Hall door?"

Rangi and Anya both knew this moment was coming, and they faced it with a mix of nervous anticipation and raw terror. Rangi wasn't in line to become chief of the village, so they would be spared the indignity of a public consummation. But Viking law still required them to be escorted to their chamber by at least six adult witnesses who could positively identify them. The pair would have preferred to sneak off at a moment of their own choosing, but that wasn't allowed. They made their way through the Hall, accepting blessings and congratulations from all the guests, and eventually made it outside, where it was much cooler and quieter than it was inside. Hiccup, Varinn, Gunnarr Hofferson, Gobber, Chief Sigurd, Svenhund, and Sigurd's son Sirius led them to their house by torchlight, where the human witnesses identified each of them by name and left. That left the bride, the groom, the village's dragon-chief... and Thing One, who had tagged along out of curiosity. Chief Night Fury nodded and said, "Good night, happy ones. We see you in morning," and turned to leave. Rangi held the door open for his bride, and was startled to find Thing One trying to follow her in. The chief dropped a paw on his daughter's tail, which stopped her in her tracks.

"Where do you think you're going, young lady?" Chief Night Fury demanded.

"My human friend is taking a mate, so I want to watch," Thing One replied, as though it was obvious.

"No," Hiccup said firmly. "Humans don't mate in public like we do. It's a very personal and private thing for them. The only exceptions are for chiefs and for those who will become chiefs someday, and only a select handful get to see those. And they don't like it." Rangi guided his bride into the house and firmly shut the door while they were talking.

"You're a chief, Dad," Thing One observed. "Did any humans watch you and Mom?"

Hiccup had been a Night Fury for several years now. He had fully embraced his dragon nature, and had left behind virtually all of his human ways. But there were situations in which he still felt and acted like a human being, and being questioned about his love life by his own daughter was one of them. "That, young lady, is no concern of yours. I know you like Anya a lot, but this is one night when she'll be a lot happier if you aren't there with her. I used to be one of them, so I know what I'm talking about. I can't explain it to you; you'll just have to believe me."

"Oh." Thing One looked glum. Then she suddenly brightened. "Can I stand guard outside the house, just in case someone else tries to hurt them?"

"Will you promise me that you won't try to sneak inside after I leave?"

"Yes, I promise, Dad."

"All right," Chief Night Fury nodded. "We think we got all the assassins, but if it makes you feel better, you can stand guard." He shared a quick TrueSight with his daughter, saw nothing in her that suggested disobedience or mischief, and returned to the party. "I hope I'm not going to regret this," he murmured.

Thing One took up a fierce-looking pose next to the front door and looked all around for intruders. There were none. She could hear distant music for a few seconds as the Mead Hall doors opened; then the doors were slammed shut and the music was no longer audible. Now all she heard was crickets and the distant sound of the surf hammering the rocks of Berk Island. Minutes went by. Nothing was happening. Thing One grew bored.

Few forces of nature are more unpredictable, more unstoppable, or more potentially destructive than a bored young Night Fury.

She decided that she could see better if she perched on the roof of the house. She didn't have much practice in perching on wooden Viking houses, but other dragons did it all the time, so how hard could it be? She flapped upwards, gained just enough height, and settled onto the roof. Three of her legs came to rest on the main roof beam; the fourth leg landed on an unsupported part of the roof and broke through with a crash. The couple inside the house was suddenly showered with dried mud and straw from the roof.

"Hey!"
"What in the name of...?"
"Thing One, what are you doing to us?"
"How can you tell it's Thing One? All I see is a Night Fury's foot."
"Well, who else would be caving in the roof on our wedding night?"
"Good point. Thing One, what are you doing to us?"

The dragon pulled her leg out of the hole, which sent another shower of dirt and straw raining down into the house. She really felt bad; she hadn't meant to cause any problems for her friend. "Sorry," she called down through the hole in the roof. "I hope I not ruin your mating."

"No," Rangi called up. "We, uhh, we hadn't really started yet." Anya brushed out her hair with her hands, which got most of the straw and dirt out of it. Rangi pulled off the topmost of the bed's sleeping furs, carried them to the door, and shook them briskly to remove all the debris that had landed on them. He spread them back onto the bed, and Anya adjusted them so they were just right.

"Now, where were we?" she asked absently.

"I think you were about to kiss me for the first time," he asked her with a twinkle in his eye. "Want to try that again?"

"First, we have to do something about the Night Fury on the roof," she replied, jerking her thumb upwards. "When you told me what it meant to make friends with a dragon, you never mentioned this!"

"Honestly, I never foresaw any of this," Rangi admitted. "But then, predicting the actions of a young dragon isn't much different from guessing. It's kind of hard for me to be mad at her, especially because she's saved my life at least once today. But if we try to ignore her, she'll be dancing on the roof all night."

"That definitely does not sound like fun," Anya decided. "It would also be very distracting. Do you have any good ideas for what to do about that?"

"Just one." He opened the door.

"Rangi, wait a minute!" she pleaded. "I thought we could... do this thing tonight without any witnesses! I don't want anyone watching us, not even a Night Fury!"

Rangi gently rested his hands on her shoulders. "Thing One is a dragon," he said kindly. "She thinks differently than you and me. She doesn't understand ideas like privacy or modesty; she just wants to be close to her friend. If we appease her curiosity, she probably won't bother us again for the rest of our lives."

"Are you sure of that?" Anya asked pointedly.

"Umm... no, not completely sure," he admitted. "Actually, not even a little bit sure. But she's your friend, and she knows that tonight is something very special for you, and she wants to share that with you. Just like any friend would want to share a special time with you, only different. Besides, we'll be under the furs, so she won't actually see anything."

"But she'll hear everything! What if she gets nosy and pulls our covers off so she can see what we're doing? Does she really have to come in and join us on our most special, private night?"

Rangi thought hard for a few seconds; he desperately wanted to make his bride happy, and he very much would have preferred some privacy on his wedding night. But he'd spent enough time with Night Furies in general, and Thing One in particular, that he knew a losing battle when he saw one. "If you'd made friends with a Gronckle, she'd be sound asleep by now. But you picked a dragon who's naturally curious and who stays awake at night. Any friendship has its pluses and minuses, and one of the minuses with this one is that we're going to have a guest with us tonight. Either that, or she'll eventually bring the whole roof down on us."

Anya wrung her hands and shrugged. "There are still a lot of things about tonight that I'm nervous about. This will just be one more of those things, I guess. All right, let her in."

Rangi stepped outside. "Thing One, you can –" and just like that, Thing One thudded to the ground right in front of him, eyes wide and shining.

"You were listening to everything we said, weren't you?" She nodded enthusiastically. "Well, if you promise to be good and not bother us, then you can come in."

"I promise."

"Okay." He stepped aside. "The floor at the foot of the bed probably has the most room for a dragon your size. This is a very personal time for the two of us. Please don't try to talk to us or distract us, unless we talk to you first."

"All right." The Night Fury ambled into the house with a bounce in her step, looked around for a few seconds, curled up near the foot of the bed, and watched as Rangi shut the door again.

"Are you sure this is going to be all right?" Anya asked.

"No worries," Rangi said confidently. "After all, we got through three or four kinds of attempted murder tonight, and we got through a Night Fury almost falling through the roof right on top of us. What else could possibly go wrong?"

Well...