Life with the Night Furies Chapter 24
Toothless was going to take the dragons' equivalent of a day off. Lady-Night-Fury had taken their youngest son, Night-fury-mama's-boy, to visit Berk and become more familiar with humans. (The term "mama's boy" would be very insulting to those humans, but to a dragon, it simply meant that he took after his mother more than his father.) The dragons in his nest were all getting along well, for now, so there was no reason to stay cooped up inside the nest when the sun was shining, the breeze was light, the clouds were scattered, and it was a perfect day for flying!
Of course, he couldn't leave all his responsibilities behind. He had three children now, which was one less than he'd had before the Drago Attack, but still three more than he ever thought he'd have before he'd met Hiccup and the two of them had changed each other's worlds. His oldest, Night-fury-first-girl, was two years old and was showing signs of outgrowing the mischievous stage that all young Night Furies went through. He had left her behind in the nest to test her; could she stay out of trouble for a whole day without constant supervision? Toothless thought so. (He desperately hoped so!) That left the middle child, Night-fury-boy-two, just over a year old and eager to prove that he could do everything a Night Fury was supposed to do. That included going on long flights, like the one Toothless meant to take today.
"Please, Dad? Let me come with you! I promise I'll do whatever you tell me to do!"
"Son, it's not your obedience that I'm worried about; it's your weight. You're getting too big to ride on my back if your wings get tired."
Boy-two was indignant. "Dad! You know I've been practicing my endurance flying! Last week, I stayed up almost all day – remember?"
Toothless' smile faded. "I remember your mother was in a panic as the sun went down because she didn't know where you'd gone. I know you want us to think of you as mature, but a big part of maturity is responsibility. That includes telling one of us that you're going to be in the air all day before you leave and we can't find you."
The young dragon hung his head. "I said I was sorry, didn't I?"
"Yes," his father nodded, "but you were so pleased with yourself for staying up all day, I wasn't sure you meant it. The humans say, 'It's easier to get forgiveness than permission,' but Night Furies have to treat each other better than that, especially family members." His manner softened. "Son, I'm proud of you for staying in the air that long. That's not something many yearlings can do, even yearling Night Furies." Then he forced himself to look stern. "You just have to let us know where you're going before you disappear into the wild blue yonder again."
"I promise, Dad."
Toothless nodded in satisfaction. "I know you won't make that mistake again, so I won't mention it again, unless you really need to hear it." Then he mentally added, But what kind of mistake are you going to make next? He realized that his son was entering the mischievous stage that his daughter was leaving behind. If that was the case, then there was no possibility of leaving Boy-two in the nest for the day! Whether he could manage the flying that Toothless meant to do today or not, the son had to stay with the father. That would cramp Toothless' flying style; he had been looking forward to a day of wild, unfettered flight. Now he had to set that dream aside. Ahh, the joys of parenthood!
After a moment's quick reflection, he thought, I wouldn't trade these "joys" for all the fish in the sea. Okay, no crazy flying that will wear my son's wings out. I need a Plan B.
"All right, son," he decided. "We're going to visit your uncle, Night-fury-new-beginning. We haven't seen him in a while. Does that sound like fun?"
"I guess so," Boy-two nodded with a complete lack of enthusiasm. "Isn't his island kind of dangerous for dragons?"
"The dragons have lived there for generations," Toothless replied. "Yes, the Outcast Vikings are a nasty bunch who would be as happy to kill us as look at us, but we aren't going to go anywhere near their village. Just follow me and do as I do, and you'll be completely safe."
"Okay, Dad," the young dragon answered. "What are we going to do?"
"For starters, you're going to find us a snack, so we'll be strong for a long flight!" Toothless knew his son would respond wholeheartedly to that idea, and to the chance to show that he could go fishing like an adult. Whether the fish would cooperate was another question, and in fact, they didn't. It took Boy-two nearly an hour to find a school of fish big enough to be worth eating. But the wait was worth it when the young Night Fury went into his firing dive and brought dozens of stunned mackerels to the surface.
"I got 'em, Dad!" the boy dragon grinned as he zoom-climbed back to his father's altitude.
"You sure did," Toothless nodded in approval. His son had learned this lesson without a hitch; there was nothing bad to say about his fishing technique at all. A big mackerel was almost too big for a yearling Night Fury to swallow, and Boy-two knew his limits (in this area, at least). He limited himself to the smaller fish, leaving the big ones for his father. Once their bellies were properly full, they turned south-southwest.
As Toothless had surmised, it was a perfect day for flying. Father and son started off flying straight and level, but that couldn't last. They began bobbing up and down with the air currents, then side-slipping from left to right and back. Boy-two's maneuvers weren't as crisp or as practiced as his father's, but that was to be expected from such a young dragon. It was when Toothless did a quick snap roll that his son couldn't keep up. The younger dragon's roll was sloppy and took him far off his flight path; apparently this was a maneuver that he hadn't practiced very much.
"Do you want some pointers on how to do a snap roll, son?"
That put Boy-two in a bind. He hated to admit that he didn't know everything, but he desperately wanted to learn how to keep up with his father. He finally said, "Okay."
"It looks like you're rolling with your tail," Toothless went on. "That's fine for a slow roll, but when you're spinning quickly, you need more than that. The way to do a snap roll is to roll with your wings, use your sub-wings to keep you from spinning too fast, and use your tail to keep you on course."
"Okay, Dad, but how do you use your wings to flap and roll at the same time?"
"You don't," Toothless said. "That's why you need to be moving quickly before you start a snap roll. You aren't flapping while you're rolling, so your forward motion is all you've got to keep you from falling. It helps to do a quick nose-up just before you start the roll." Giving lessons like these was second nature to him now. He'd taught Chief-night-fury and Night-fury-mother-of-twins to fly, he'd taught his own mate when Hiccup's teaching methods blew up in their faces, and now, even though the local Night Fury population included four or five dragons who could be considered fully-qualified flight teachers, they all thought of him as the master.
"Watch how I do it," he ordered, waited until his son was paying full attention, then repeated his snap roll. "Now you try it, son."
Night-fury-boy-two nodded, built up some speed, and tried another roll. This one went much better than his first attempt. "Hey, I think I got it!"
"Much better!" Toothless grinned. "Use your sub-wings more next time." Young Night Furies might be strong-willed, mischievous, and hard to rein in, but they were also quick learners and eager to please the ones they loved. I wonder if young humans are full of contradictions like that, he wondered. "Try it a few more times before we get to Outcast Island." By the time land was in sight, the young dragon had pretty well mastered the maneuver.
"What are those odd-looking structures on the cliffs ahead?" Boy-two wanted to know. There were three low wooden-framed... things... on the headlands, each manned by four humans. They bore a superficial resemblance to huge crossbows.
"I don't recognize them," Toothless answered, "but they're obviously man-made, and the only men on this island are dragon-haters, so whatever they are, they're probably bad for us. We'll keep a safe distance." They banked to the right as they approached the headlands.
"Umm... Dad? How do we know what a safe distance is if we don't know what those things do?"
"What are you suggesting, son?" Toothless smiled indulgently. "Should we keep getting closer until they do something to us? That doesn't sound like a good way to live to your five hundredth year."
Boy-two edged closer to his father. "I was just thinking... Night Furies are supposed to protect the nest, right? So it's our job to know what those things are and what they do, so we can warn the other dragons. We can dodge better than most of them, so if those humans try to hurt us, they'll probably miss. If some other dragon blunders into them, he could get hurt."
"That's true, son," Toothless nodded. "It's also true that the Outcasts are always looking for newer and better ways to kill dragons, so we have to be – BREAK! BREAK RIGHT!" He desperately rolled to the left, his son did exactly as he was told, and something like a huge spear tore through the air between them, making a sound like ripping fabric.
"Up!" Toothless shouted urgently. "Gain altitude!" But Boy-two was already climbing for all he was worth; he had the Night Fury instinct that equates safety with height. Two more of those huge spears lanced toward them, but both were aimed low and passed harmlessly underneath them. Father and son didn't stop climbing until they were almost a mile up. Only then did they close on each other and fly in a huge circle, side by side.
"That was way too close, son," Toothless said, shaken.
"We will definitely have to warn our nest about those things," Boy-two nodded. Now that his initial fear had worn off, he was analyzing the unknown threat, just like any Night Fury would do in battle. His son had the instincts of a leader of dragons; that was the good news. The bad news was...
"But we still don't know what those things can do," Toothless finished his thought out loud. "We don't know their shot limit, or their range limit, or anything."
Boy-two considered that for a few seconds. Then his face lit up. "I'll bet Uncle New-beginning will know! He lives on the same island as those Outcasts, so he's probably run into those things already! He probably knows all about them."
"Now that's a good thought," Toothless nodded. "We're here to visit him, so let's get on with it." They glided to the far end of the island where humans seldom ventured, spiraled down, and followed familiar landmarks to the dragons' nest.
Night-fury-new-beginning was in the middle of breaking up a disagreement, as usual. The dragons in his nest had been only one step above feral when he took over, and while they all acknowledged their need for a leader, old habits died hard. This time, it was two male Nadders fighting over a female. Toothless motioned for his son to land silently behind some rocks so they could watch how New-beginning handled this one.
He turned to the green one. "So you think Nadder-brown-with-four-spots likes you better than she likes him?" he demanded. The green Nadder nodded vigorously, and stamped his foot for emphasis.
Then he turned to the blue. "And you think she likes you better than she likes him?"
"Of course she does!" the blue one shot back.
"She doesn't even know you exist!" the green one retorted.
"Pretty soon, you won't exist!"
"I'll outlive you! I'll see to it myself!" Two sets of tail spines shot erect with a fearsome rattle.
"Okay, quit it, both of you!" New-beginning demanded. He took two steps so he was right between the two angry Nadders. "Now look straight up." They reluctantly did so... and were both dismayed beyond words to see Nadder-brown-with-four-spots flying wingtip to wingtip with a turquoise-colored male Nadder that neither of them recognized.
"What?"
"Are you kidding me?"
"Who is that, and who does he think he is, moving in on my female?"
"Your female? No way! She's mine!"
"No, she's his!" New-beginning said firmly. "I happen to know that she's been visiting the nest on Berk, looking for a mate, because none of the males on this island tickled her fancy. As you can both see, she's found one, and there's nothing that either of you can do about it." He stepped aside. "So, do you still want to fight each other? I won't stop you."
The two males glared at each other for a few seconds. Then, slowly, the green one lowered his tail spines. "I guess there's no point in clawing you to bloody bits now."
The blue one also relaxed his attack posture. "I still think I could have shredded you, but it won't change anything." He stomped off angrily.
The green was watching the two mating dragons as they gained altitude; they were starting a mating flight. He suddenly turned back to New-beginning. "Do you think there are any females on Berk who might want a mate from a nest like ours, because none of Berk's males tickle their fancy?"
"I wouldn't be a bit surprised," the Night Fury nodded. "It's definitely worth a look. Just be careful of the ballistae!"
"Thanks for the reminder," the green one said. "I'll be back before sunset... unless I go on a night flight with somebody!" He took flight and headed for Berk, hugging the cliffs so the human spear-throwing machines couldn't aim at him.
"I kind of hope you do go on that night flight," New-beginning muttered. "Every time a dragon finds a mate, it lowers the stress levels around here, and my job gets a little bit easier." Then he stopped, pricked up his ear flaps, and sniffed the air. "Whoever is hiding behind those rocks, come on out! You'll get a friendly welcome if you're here on a friendly visit."
"I guess we'll be friendly, then," grinned Toothless as he and his son stepped out from behind the rocks.
"Nest-brother!" New-beginning burst out. "And my nephew Boy-two!" They rushed together and rubbed noses; then Toothless and New-beginning shared a TrueSight. Boy-two waited impatiently for the two adults to regain their equilibrium. There was something urgent on his mind.
"Uncle New-beginning, what can you tell us about those human spear-throwing machines?"
"Oh, you mean the ballistae?" New-beginning made a coughing-up-fish sound, which was the dragon equivalent of a human spitting on the ground in disgust. "Those are a brand-new Outcast trick. They bought a ballista from a Roman trading ship and learned how to make copies of it. They aren't as good as a catapult for repelling Viking raiders, but they're better against dragons, and no Vikings ever raid this desolate island anyway. We don't dare approach the human side of the island now. Even in the dark, they're a threat to us."
"How far can they shoot?" Toothless asked.
"About as far as you and I can," his nest-brother replied. "I made a few test approaches to learn more about them, and they almost got me with their second shot. I blew that one up, but I didn't dare go back for the rest of them."
"Why not hit them from behind?" Boy-two wondered.
"They thought of that, and they keep one ballista pointed to the rear for every two or three pointed forward. The only safe approach is from straight above them, and even then, a ballista is easy for a couple of strong men to spin around. I'm afraid I could blast one, and then get shot by another one as I pulled out of my dive. It's just not worth the risk."
Toothless looked sly. "What if two or three of us dived on them in succession?"
"I get it!" Boy-two exclaimed. "One of us dives and takes out one ballista. Then, when they try to swing another ballista around, the second Night Fury takes that one out. And the third one can get a third ballista in the confusion."
New-beginning thought it over. "It's still a risk," he decided. "And I admit I'm amazed that you'd let your son go into battle against those things."
"No, not him," Toothless began.
"Aww, Dad, please?" Boy-two begged. "I can shoot straight! I won't miss!"
"You're right – you won't miss, because you won't take the shot," Toothless said firmly. "Yearlings don't go into battle unless it's an absolute emergency, and now that we know about these ballistae, they are an inconvenience, not an emergency. I'll bring Berk's Night Furies into the deal, and we'll take out your spear-throwers tonight. I'll bet Mother-of-twins and Six-shooter will fight for the privilege of launching the first firebolt!"
"That would be a big help to me and all of my dragons," New-beginning nodded. "I was wondering what to do about them. So what brings you here?"
"It's just a social visit," Toothless explained. "My mate is in Berk for the day, so I took my son for a flight to visit his uncle. I guess it was well-timed, because we found out about the ballistae before any of my dragons got hurt." He stopped suddenly. "Have any of your dragons gotten hurt?"
"Just one," New-beginning replied. "It was one of my Gronckles, the one who's so dark in color that his friends call him Gronckle-Black-Night. He and the other Gronckles were searching for fish one morning when the humans fired three spears at them, and one got him in the foreleg. They all got out of there in a hurry, doing evasive maneuvers all the way, just in case the Outcasts fired another volley. But I think it takes a while to cock and load a ballista. There was no second volley; all the dragons made a clean getaway. The injured one took it easy for a week, and his leg is just about back to normal. We all know it could have been a lot worse; we were lucky."
Boy-two nodded. "So, for Black-Night, it was just a flesh wound?" He smirked; apparently he thought there was something funny about that. The adults let the comment pass.
New-beginning went on, "Since then, the Outcasts have moved their new weapons around every night, trying to get the drop on us. But we're wise to them now, and we're careful to scout the nearby land before we do any serious fishing." He paused and looked sad for a moment. "I hope Chief-night-fury and his family know how lucky they are. For them, the war is over, and fighting the Outcasts is an option that they can take or leave. For the rest of us, it's business as usual."
"Oh, he knows; believe me, he knows," Toothless reassured him. "I don't think a day goes by without him realizing how amazing his life has turned out."
New-beginning nodded. "I guess that is something that a naturally-hatched Night Fury like me will never really understand." Then, as if wanting to shift the mood of the conversation, he turned to his nephew. "You've grown since the last time I saw you."
"Grown-ups always say that," Boy-two groaned.
"All right, then let's talk about something that grown-ups don't always say," the older Night Fury suggested. "Have you got anything unusual on your mind?"
"Well... yes, but it's kind of personal."
"That's okay, you can ask," New-beginning encouraged him.
"It's really, really personal."
"Boy-two, we're family! If you're old enough to ask the question, then you're old enough to understand some kind of an answer."
"Okay," Boy-two said, and took a breath. "I was wondering... what was it like when you were off-center?"
"That's way too personal," Toothless cut in.
"Yes, it's very personal," New-beginning said slowly. "But I've kept those thoughts and memories bottled up inside me for too long. Maybe it's time for me to talk about them, and break some of the power they have over me." He stared at the ground for a few seconds; they waited for him to go on.
"Toothless, do you remember Night-fury-miss?"
"Night-fury-miss... Night-fury-miss..." Toothless racked his memory. "Was that the little female from Southeast Asia who showed up at our nest one day, looking for a mate?"
"That was her," said his nest-brother with a bare trace of a smile. "You were fascinated by her, but you were too new as a dragon to consider mating."
"Why was she called Night-fury-miss?" Boy-two asked.
New-beginning smiled openly this time. "She kept insisting it was because she was a female without a mate, which meant that she'd be called 'Miss' in some human languages. But I think she was hiding the fact that she once shot at a target and... she missed." He looked away. "Anyway, as soon as she showed up, it was a given that she and I would pair off. We were the same age, and we were both ready. We took long flights together to get to know each other. We were just waiting for her to come into season. As soon as that happened, we'd mate, and she'd produce eggs, and we'd repopulate the Night Fury species all by ourselves, and everything would be wonderful." He took a long, deep breath.
"That was before we took that night flight over the lake. There were some humans camped on the shore, but we ignored them and we figured they couldn't see us in the dark. We were wrong. One of them had a crossbow of some kind, he fired one bolt into the air..." He closed his eyes.
Toothless moved to wrap a wing around his nest-brother. "I'm so sorry," he said quietly. "I never knew about this; I was sent out from our nest before any of this happened."
"I heard her scream," New-beginning said in a choked voice, looking away from them. "I saw her fall. I heard her splash into the water. I dove once and fired two shots that finished off the humans; then I turned to try and find Night-fury-miss. But there wasn't a trace of her.
He shook his head. "I felt something break inside me, and something dark and terrible began to grow in my mind. I knew it would control me if I let it. It would take all my strength to resist it."
"And you weren't strong enough?" Toothless asked softly.
"I didn't even try to resist it!" New-beginning burst out. "I invited it to control me! I welcomed it! I received it gladly, because it helped make the pain go away!" He fell flat on the ground and broke down sobbing. The other two stayed close but said nothing.
"I knew it was wrong," he finally said through a tightened throat. "I knew that the things I was doing were wrong. Every time I demanded that the dragons feed me, every time I tried to pair myself with a female of another species, every time I told my dragons to sort out their own problems because I had more important things to do..." He shook his head. "But I just couldn't stop myself anymore! I'd given myself over to the darkness, and now I couldn't find the light. I'd reached the point where the darkness was a safe place for me, and I loved being there. If it wasn't for your young ones risking themselves to rescue me, I would still be at the bottom of that deep, dark well, convincing myself that it was a good place to be. And, even though I don't think that way anymore, I still remember every single ghastly detail of what I did. Maybe the dragons in my nest can forgive me someday... but I don't know if I can forgive myself. I..." He broke off.
In the long silence that followed, Boy-two finally said, "I'm sorry I made you sad by asking about that."
"Don't be sorry, my young friend," New-beginning answered slowly. "Thank you for asking. I needed to get that out. There's a lot more where that came from, but today was a start. I've kept it all inside for far too long."
"You mean... me asking you about that was a good thing?"
"I wouldn't go asking total strangers questions like that," his father said drily, "but yes, in this context, it was a good thing."
"Night Furies take care of the nest," his uncle reminded him, "and that includes each other. We don't mention that part very much because there are so few Night Furies compared to the other kinds of dragons, but it's still true."
"Wow," Boy-two said quietly. "That never happened to me before. Usually I get in trouble for saying the wrong thing."
"But this wasn't the wrong thing, son," Toothless murmured. "It was just the right thing to say at the right time."
"I don't get it, Dad, but if I don't get a tail-smack out of it, then I'm happy."
After a few minutes, the conversation returned to something like normal. They talked about how the schools of fish were running, and whether the ships from any new Viking tribes had been seen lately; they swapped gossip about what kinds of trouble the various young Night Furies had gotten into lately. Thing One was settling into her new life as Rangi's house-dragon, and was thinking about changing her name to Night-fury-friend-of-Anya. Her twin sister, Thing Two, had flown with Night-fury-chi-wen (it was the first mating for both of them), so there would be another breeding pair that would fly away in the middle of the winter to help increase the Night Fury population.
"When that pair becomes tame and settled down, it's a sign that the Vikings' Ragnarok is upon us," New-beginning decided.
"What's a Ragnarok?" Boy-two wanted to know.
His father explained, "The Vikings believe that, someday, the end of the world will come and everything will be burned up. They call that day Ragnarok."
"Do they think that we dragons will do the burning?"
"No, they believe in a land of fire that will spill over into our land. The Vikings believe some odd things."
When they ran out of things to talk about, they went for a one-hour flight to the clouds and back together, enjoying the view and the delights of flying. Then they rubbed noses again, the adults shared another TrueSight, and Toothless and Boy-two set out on the trip home. They didn't talk much, although the younger dragon kept practicing his snap rolls.
They were nearly home when they spotted two dark shapes approaching their nest from another direction. "I think that's Mom and Night-fury-mama's-boy," Boy-two decided. His father nodded (he'd reached that conclusion at least two minutes earlier) and they altered their course to meet their other family members in the air.
"How was your day?" Lady-night-fury asked.
"It was okay," her mate answered.
"Just okay?" she echoed. "You don't expect me to settle for that, do you? Tell me what happened! Where did you go? Who did you see? What did you do? How much trouble are our children in?"
"I'll answer those in random order. We went to see Night-fury-new-beginning on Outcast Island, we dodged some new Outcast weapons, our children aren't in any trouble that I know of, and New-beginning is in better shape than he was when we arrived."
"I asked him what it was like to be off-center," Boy-two added.
"You WHAT?!" his mother exploded. "I hope your father gave you a good tail-smack for that!" She glared at her mate. "You smacked him, right?"
"No, I didn't, because he wasn't wrong," Toothless answered, speaking quickly so he could get his words in before she cut him off. "New-beginning needed to talk about it. It had been eating at him, and he desperately needed to let it out. He thanked our son for asking."
Lady-night-fury began to say something, stopped, started to say something else, stopped again, and then thought for a minute. At last, she said, "Okay, I can see how that could be a good thing, at the right time and place. When someone is hurting, sometimes all you can do for them is listen. And sometimes, just listening is all they need."
"True," her mate nodded. "Our son knows that he shouldn't go asking questions like those to just anyone, but he was right on target this time. New-beginning is feeling better, now that he's talked about it a little. We'll probably go back in a few weeks and see if he feels like talking some more. But speaking of talking, tell me about your day. How are things in Berk?"
"Pretty much normal, I guess," she said with a shrug of her shoulders. That shrug was a human gesture that made her bob in the air as she flew. "If there is such a thing as 'normal' in Berk, that is. There aren't any wars today, the Vikings are behaving themselves, there's nothing new among the dragons, Mama's-boy didn't get in any trouble to speak of... it was a pleasant day."
Toothless's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean, 'no trouble to speak of?' "
Guana hesitated. "Well... he's come up with a brand-new way for a dragon to cause a controversy, and blur the lines between humans and Night Furies. But he hasn't done it yet, and if I have anything to say about it, he never will."
Toothless shook his head. "You mean he's thought of something that Hiccup hasn't already come up with? I'd be impressed if I wasn't nervous at the thought of it. What has he done?"
She glared at her youngest son, who was gliding next to her, oblivious. "He saw some of the Vikings wearing gold and silver earrings, and now he wants one, too!"
o
A/N
Sometime on January 17, 2018, this story passed the 900,000-hit mark. I am still amazed that my dragon!Hiccup story broke out of the crowd of dragon!Hiccup stories and became so popular... and I thank you, the readers, for making it something special, and for encouraging me to keep writing.