Colossal Cave Chapter 4
"What am I doing here?" Stormcutter-was-human repeated as she landed next to her son. "I'm doing the same thing that all the dragons here are doing. I'm saving my life, and the lives of my future babies. I mean, my young. Well, whatever you call them. What are you doing here, Hiccup?" Most of the other Night Furies ambled away to check out the stalagmites and give Hiccup some time with his mother. The female Red Death seemed not to notice.
"They invited me to check the place out, so I'm checking," Chief-night-fury said. "Does this mean you've left the nest that used to belong to the Bewilderbeast? The nest where you and Cloudjumper were the Alphas?"
"Yes, I've left it forever," she answered. "Me, and Cloudjumper, and almost every other dragon in that nest! Tarpits and Bigsmark visited us and made a very compelling case for the survival of our species. I've seen what men do to dragons, Hiccup. I went through dozens of raids when I lived in Berk, and I saw what Drago Bludvist did to the dragons in my own nest. I hated it when I watched them do it as a human; now that I'm a dragon too, it's personal. I don't want some madman trapping me and killing me, or putting a metal mask on me and forcing me to obey him! That's not what I turned into a dragon for.
"I want to live, Hiccup!" She began walking; Hiccup walked beside her, with Astrid and Cloudjumper just behind them, and Bigsmark plodding along, bringing up the rear. "I want to enjoy these wings for centuries! I want to bring more little versions of me into the world, even if I do it very differently from the way I brought you into the world. And I want to know that Cloudjumper is safe, too. We talked it over and agreed that joining this forever-nest would be the smart thing to do. As I said, most of the dragons in our nest came to the same conclusion.
"And it would mean the world to me if you came to that conclusion as well. I want to know that you're safe, too, Hiccup."
"Mom, you're the one who once said, 'When I'm up here, I don't even feel the cold! I just feel... free.' What happened to that love of freedom? Don't tell me you've lost it!"
"Never!" she exclaimed. "You want to see freedom? Follow me!" She leaped into the air and began zigzagging between the stalactites. Hiccup followed her easily, while their mates stayed on the ground and gave them some mother/son time together. For over an hour, they treated the cave like their own private obstacle course. They saw other dragons in the air, but no one came remotely close to a collision. Hiccup had to admit, this kind of flying was fun. But if this was the only kind of flying he could do, it would get tired very quickly.
"See?" she said as they landed where they'd started. "That love of freedom will never die in me, Hiccup. But I can't enjoy my freedom if I'm not alive! I can still fly in here; I can still play tag-tail with Cloudjumper –"
"...and usually lose," Cloudjumper added with a dry chuckle.
"Well, you have to admit, I'm getting better! And, as long as some human doesn't put a spear through me, I can keep getting better. I'm not choosing to be grounded, Hiccup. I'm not giving up being a dragon. I'm choosing to save my own life, so I can keep on being a dragon! I want to live, Hiccup! Don't you want to live, too?"
Hiccup glanced up at her. "Mom, I don't want to be cruel, but it sounds like you're scared."
She hesitated, then nodded. "Maybe I am. I never felt like a hunted animal before. I was born human, I was raised human, I married a human, I gave birth to a human... but I hate what the humans are doing to the dragons! If you can somehow train the Vikings around Berk to be nice to dragons, that would be amazing. But as long as you have to launch those 'pre-emptive strikes' to protect yourselves, it means you haven't succeeded yet. Maybe you never will. I'm not doubting you; I just know humanity too well. You know... stubbornness issues?"
"Yeah, I know," he sighed.
"Doesn't the plan for this nest make sense?" she pressed him.
He considered that. "There's one thing I don't understand. If the Red Deaths are so eager to have Night Furies in their nest, then why don't the other dragons just transform a few?"
"They can't," Cloudjumper answered. "Dragons can't transform up; they can't make a dragon that is more powerful and more intelligent than themselves. Of all the dragons in this nest, only the Red Deaths have the ability to create a new Night Fury, and they used their Power centuries ago. Even a Stormcutter can't make a Night Fury; we're your equals in intelligence, but not in raw power. The only way we'll get Night Furies in our nest is to import them."
Hiccup thought for a moment. "I guess that makes sense. Next question: will it work for such small groups of dragons to continue their species?"
"I'm sure the Alphas would rather have a thousand of each type if they could," his mother answered, "but they can't. There isn't enough room, there aren't enough volunteers, and with many species, like mine, there aren't that many dragons left to save. Cloudjumper tells me that inbreeding isn't as much of a problem with us as it is with humans. It has something to do with our DNA – Dragons Never Abnormal. Is that your biggest worry, Hiccup?"
"Hardly! Mom... If I stay here, then I'll have to give up everything else I've ever known, and that probably includes most of my own children! But if I don't stay here, then I'll never see you again. How can I make a choice like that?"
"Do you have any idea which way you'll choose?" she asked.
"Honestly, I haven't even started to think about yes'es and no's. I'm still wrapping my head around a cave this big, and dragons locking themselves away from the world forever, and can we really trust those Red Deaths anyway? That's a huge decision, and I'm not going to rush into it. I'll have to talk it over with my family, and with Toothless, and..." His voice trailed away. "What if I want to stay here and Toothless doesn't? Or the other way around? We'd be separated forever!"
"Then I hope you can do a good job persuading him to go wherever you go," Valka said softly.
"Just like you're trying to do a good job persuading me?" he asked. "Man, this is too complicated! Is there a simple problem inside this complicated problem, wanting to get out so I can solve it?" That triggered a thought. He looked back at Bigsmark. "What if a dragon joins you here, and later on, he changes his mind and wants to get out?"
"Once we seal the entrance, there can be no leaving here," she said flatly. "Joining our nest is forever. Choosing to stay out of it is also irrevocable."
"Is it possible that there's another entrance to this cave that you haven't found?" he wondered.
"There is none," Bigsmark answered.
"How can you be sure?" Astrid pressed her.
"We've done smoke tests," she said. "We had some of our Smokebreaths fill an area with a smoke cloud; then my mate and I blew air down the entrance with our wings. The smoke cloud went nowhere, no matter how long we fanned or how much smoke we used. There is no way into this cave or out of it, except through that one entrance. It was important that we know of any other ways in or out, so we could seal them as well. We don't want any humans stumbling on a secret entrance a hundred years from now."
"What about the underground river and the lakes?" Hiccup asked. "The water has to come from somewhere, and it has to go somewhere else."
"The water seems to come from several underground springs," the female Red Death said. "As for where it goes, we don't know, except that it isn't by a route that has any access to fresh air. It probably goes down a submerged tunnel and joins a normal river somewhere downstream. Only a water creature could follow that route, and he would have to be a strong swimmer to buck that kind of current."
"That raises another question," Valka asked. "What about the sea dragons? Are you going to try and save them, too?"
"My mate and I are still working on that," Bigsmark said thoughtfully. "We need to find out if sea dragons can live in fresh water. If they can, then our current plan is to find some juveniles who are willing to join us, and then the large dragons like you will carry them through the air and drop them into the lakes if they are unable to fly themselves. We don't want a single dragon species to go extinct if there's anything we can do about it. We have some scouts out over the seas as we speak; we'll probably have our answer in a week or so, and we'll have our sea dragons shortly after that."
"I hate to be indelicate," Astrid spoke up, "but what will you do about dragons who die of old age?"
"There are two very, very deep holes near the far side of the cave," Bigsmark said. "There is magma at the bottom of them. They're a good place for disposing of bodies, and for bodily waste as well."
Hiccup turned to Astrid. "It sounds like they've really thought this through. It's not some kind of half-hearted fly-by-day project that's doomed to failure."
"Does that mean you think it will work?" she asked.
"It could work," he nodded. "There are a lot of things that aren't very likely, but which could still go wrong."
"Name one," Bigsmark cut in, her deep voice reverberating in the cave.
"Well... what if there's an earthquake?" he asked. "A piece of the ceiling could cave in and leave a gaping hole in your roof. I can't imagine how you'd close that up again."
"As you say, it is possible, but unlikely. What else could go wrong?"
Hiccup thought some more. "You said your fresh water comes from springs. Sometimes springs dry up. You would lose your water, the lakes would dry up, and you'd lose your food supply, too."
"Again, possible but unlikely," the Red Death nodded. "There are at least three springs that feed our river, perhaps more. Losing one would lower the water flow, and also the water level in the lakes, but it would not kill us. Losing more than one spring? That's so unlikely, we won't waste our time thinking about it. Chief-night-fury, my mate and I have spent years preparing this place. We've considered all angles and thought of everything that could possibly go wrong, and we've talked it over with our dragons as well. The things that are within the realm of possibility, like overpopulation from too many eggs, or a dragon going off-center because of a fear of enclosed spaces, we've made plans for. The things that can't happen, or which are totally unlikely, we won't worry about."
That last comment gave Hiccup pause. Lately, he had been developing signs of what humans would call claustrophobia. When he'd been locked into that shed in order to fool the Law-Speaker, he couldn't wait to escape, and when his friends didn't move fast enough to let him out, he'd kicked the door down rather than wait for them. When he'd been inside the Mead Hall to work out the arrangements for Rangi and Anya's wedding, he'd been glad to get out of there as well. He had never had any fear of enclosed spaces as a human, so it had to be some aspect of his dragon brain that was affecting him. Could he live inside a cave for the rest of his life? At the moment, he didn't feel like the walls were closing in on him, but that might change if he knew there was no way out. That could become an inescapable horror show inside his own mind.
"Can we keep walking?" he asked.
"Of course," Bigsmark answered casually. They approached the sound of the rushing water.
The sight was impressive, Hiccup had to admit. From beneath a rough stone archway in the wall, wider than he was long, shining blue water rushed out into a rock channel carved by uncounted years of water action. A hundred feet away, a slightly smaller river gushed out, and a third one added its much smaller volume of water two hundred feet away from that. They all merged as they poured down a slope and splashed into a lake that looked to be as big as Berk Island. As he watched, two young Nadders emerged from the water where the rapids splashed them, shook themselves dry, and examined each other for signs of dirt.
"You're both immaculate, little ones," the Red Death said, amused.
"Thank you, Great One," they chorused and flapped away. Some more dragons began fishing in the lake; the Night Furies stood and watched them. It was a completely normal scene, except that there was no horizon, no sun, and no sky.
"You said this was just one lake of several?" Astrid asked their enormous hostess after a few minutes.
"There are at least four lakes, one flowing into the next, that are useful to us," she answered. "This one is the smallest of the four. There are also two smaller ponds that the water flows through, and even an isolated backwater filled with algae for the dragons who feel at home in a swamp. We think there are more big lakes and ponds beyond these, but we have not explored those regions enough to start the fungus producing light, so we can't see what's out there. Rest assured, we will someday."
She slowly lowered her huge head nearly to ground level. "Talk to me, Chief-night-fury. The advantages of what we're doing here should be obvious, and yet you hesitate. What ties you to a world that will be dominated by humans? Why do you stay on a path that means only death for your kind?"
"In part, it's because I would probably have to say goodbye forever to my children and my grandchildren," Hiccup began. "I can't tell you how precious they are to me. A life without them wouldn't be worth living."
"That problem is easily solved," Bigsmark rumbled. "Bring them here with you."
"I can't make that decision for them," Chief-night-fury answered. "Most of them are grown adults! It's not my place to order them around, especially if that order would turn their worlds upside-down."
"Are you an Alpha or aren't you?" she asked archly.
"I'm the kind of Alpha who leads by example, and by wisdom and common sense," he retorted. "I'm not a nest-tyrant. Even if I had the kind of power over other dragons that you have, I wouldn't use it. Freedom is too important to me, and it's too important to the other dragons in my nest, especially the ones I'm related to. They would each have to make their own decisions about whether or not to live here. Some might go, but some would stay. That would tear my family in half. Can you understand why I'm against that?"
"What other reasons do you have?" she pressed him.
"Well, the other big reason is that I'm not just the Alpha over my dragons. I'm also the chief over the Vikings there. Before I was transformed, I was the son of their chief, and even though I'm a dragon now, the Vikings trust me more than they trusted the other candidate for the job. That one is a brute who would make a good leader in battle, but a terrible leader in any other situation. My people rely on me to protect them, solve hard problems, and keep the peace. If I left them, that would probably be the end of the tribe."
"Not to mention," Astrid added, "that some of those humans are my relatives. We both want what's best for them."
The Red Death looked puzzled. "How does a Night Fury rule over humans? How does that work?"
"I understand their language, and I know their laws and customs, because I was raised on them," Hiccup explained. "You've met my children, Bang and Six, and Six's mate, Faithful-Brother. The three of them, and Faithful-brother's twin, Smith-flies-for-fun, invented a simple language that both humans and dragons can speak. I've trained my mate's younger brother, Rangi, to be my personal translator when I speak that language. The Vikings respect me because I'm bigger and stronger than they are, and I haven't hit any problems that I couldn't solve with the help of my family. So far, it's working pretty well."
"I think I understand you," she nodded after a moment. "But that problem can also be solved... and it soon will be solved. What else binds you to the world of men?"
"Toothless," Hiccup said. "He's my best friend. He's the one who turned me into a dragon and taught me how to live like a dragon. We've been on some incredible adventures together... but even if we hadn't, just the adventure of living and flying would be enough. If I moved here and he didn't, it would be like losing one of my tail fins. He means as much to me as any of my family."
"Then persuade him to live here with you," the Red Death said flatly.
"I don't think he'll do that. He has a strong sense of responsibility to the dragons in his own nest. He's an Alpha, too."
The Red Death blinked all six eyes. "Then he can persuade all his dragons to move here with him. There's plenty of room." She gestured with her wing at the expanse of empty cavern all around them. "We could add his entire nest, and your nest as well, and not even be a fraction of the way to the number of dragons this cave can hold."
Hiccup looked around. There certainly was a lot of room; that wasn't a problem. Then he noticed something else. He glanced up at the Red Death, suddenly nervous for some reason. "This cave looks emptier than it did when we got here. Where did all the other dragons go?"
Bigsmark chuckled deep in her throat. "Remember when I said we could solve the problem of your responsibility to your Vikings? Well, I've solved it. Or rather, it will be solved in about eight days. As my mate said at the beginning, sometimes the dragons can win a battle against the humans."
Hiccup was in the air in a moment, accelerating toward the cave entrance as he roared, "Night Furies! Out of the cave! Emergency!"
"What's the matter?" Astrid asked as she tried to keep up with him.
"They've launched a full-strength dragon raid against Berk," Hiccup explained tersely. "They're going to wipe out the whole tribe!"
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A/N
Thank you to "Dragon Lord Draco" for inspiring the comment about dragons being unable to transform up. And thank you for helping me think of it before I posted this chapter!