Colossal Cave Chapter 6
"What do we do now?" Smith-flies-for-fun asked.
Three hundred dragons from the colossal-cave nest had tried to burn Berk to the ground, to cut Chief-night-fury's ties to the world of men. Only the unexpected revelation that Full-of-surprises had the determination and will-power of an Alpha dragon had stopped them. Now they were gone... but it was a virtual certainty that they'd be back. The Red Death leaders of that nest were determined to add Hiccup and Astrid to their nest of dragons, and the lives of humans meant nothing to them.
"It will take those dragons eight days to get home," Hiccup began. "Maybe nine because they're tired; they flew hard and fast to get here ahead of us. Even if the Red Deaths come up with a new plan instantly, it will still take them another eight days to get back here. So we've got seventeen days, at a minimum, to figure something out."
"What are we trying to figure out?" Bang wanted to know. "What are those Red Deaths likely to try next?"
"I have absolutely no idea," Hiccup answered. "They might just send more dragons, along with one or both of themselves to keep control over the flock, so Full-of-surprises can't control them again. Or they might try something totally different. They've been alive for centuries; they've probably fought dozens of battles, they know every trick in the book, and I'm not confident that I can out-think them, the way I can out-think the typical Viking chief. This is one battle I'm not feeling good about."
He turned to Full-of-surprises. "But there's one thing I'm very sure about. With the exception of mated pairs, a nest can have only one Alpha."
"That's not a problem, Dad," she answered, with a bit less of her usual confidence than usual. "I won't fight you for the right to rule. You're the Alpha here, right? You formed this nest! You've always been its leader, and all the dragons love you. Shouldn't it stay that way?"
"I don't think that's how it works," he replied softly. "You have the ability to command dragons and control them through sheer will power. I could never do that. I ruled them with logic, common sense, and the occasional passionate speech, and it's worked pretty well so far. But it's no substitute for the kind of control that you've got, especially in a crisis. If I'd been here instead of you when those raiding dragons came, I could not have stopped them. All I could have done was led a counter-attack that would have left a lot of dragons dead and wounded." He took a deep breath. "I think we all need to acknowledge that the nest of Berk has a new Alpha now."
"Dad, no!" she exclaimed. "I can't do that to you! I won't!"
"So what will you do?" Toothless asked her. "Will you wait until the next crisis, then take control again, and let all the dragons see that you're really in charge and your father isn't? Can you imagine how humiliating that will be for him?"
"Toothless is right," Mother-of-twins nodded. "It will be much better if there's an orderly transfer of power while we're not in the middle of an emergency. Especially because we're going to get our emergency in about two and a half weeks; you'll need to be established in your new position before that crisis hits us. All the dragons will still respect your father, and they'll never forget the things he's done for them. Unlike humans, dragons have long memories."
"But will the dragons respect me?" she asked nervously. "I'm still so young!"
"You've been a dragon longer than I was when I took over this nest," Hiccup smiled. "I had already decided that you would be my successor someday, seeing how Bang will probably lead a nest among the Meatheads, and Six will do the same among the Bog-burglars. You've got my brains and your mother's thirst for action, and you've proven yourself in this crisis. They'll respect you."
"I don't feel like I'm ready," she said, very quietly.
"That's reassuring," her father said. "I'm glad you're not full of yourself, and you don't think you can take on the world without any help. To be honest, on most days, I don't feel worthy of being the Alpha either. I have no qualms about handing the nest over to you."
"But what will you do, Dad?"
"I'll still be the chief of the Vikings on this island," he replied. "They'll keep me busy. I'll also be some kind of Alpha-emeritus among the dragons. You can come to me for advice anytime... and I hope you do. But I'll be honest with you. I never wanted all this responsibility! I took it because somebody had to do it, and I'm somebody, and it would have been a lot worse if someone else had taken it instead."
"What your father is trying to say," Mother-of-twins cut in, "is that he'd rather spend half the day flying for fun if he could. Once you take over the nest, he'll have a lot more freedom to stretch his wings than he does now. If you become the Alpha, then your father will be really happy for the first time since... since he first became a dragon, I think. Nothing would make him happier than to hand off this nest to someone who will care for it as much as he does. Someone like you. And he'll still be here if you need him for anything."
"Don't forget, you don't have to do this alone," Six added. "You've got a mate now, right? Smith-flies-for-fun is the practical one, so he can give you good advice, as well as backing you up in the firepower department."
"Yeah, like she said," Smith-flies-for-fun said firmly.
Full-of-surprises looked around at all the Night Furies around her. "Won't it be weird to take orders from me?" She glanced from Bang to Six to Thing One and Two. "Can you take orders from your sister?" Then she gazed pointedly at Astrid and Hiccup. "Can you take orders from your own daughter?"
"If you're the Alpha, then we'll all let you call the shots," Hiccup said. "That's how these things are done."
"I've adjusted to harder things than that," Astrid added.
She looked back at Bang. "That time during our trip to the East, when you gave the orders and I threw a fit and disobeyed you... are you going to hold that against me someday when I give you an order?"
"That was a long time ago, sister," he said kindly. "You're all grown up now. Our big adventure together had a lot to do with that. Maybe I even helped a little... but you're the one who grew. I've seen what you're capable of. I have no problem with calling you the Alpha."
"Me, neither," Six added. "You've got a rare and powerful talent. You owe it to the nest to use it for their benefit. We're Night Furies; we give our best to the dragons, and your Alpha ability is definitely right up there with the best."
"Well said," Faithful-brother nodded.
"I can't wiggle out of this?" she asked plaintively.
"Nope!" her father and mother retorted in unison.
"Not even a little," her older brother said flatly.
There were a few seconds of silence.
Then Hiccup shouted, "All who agree that Night-fury-full-of-surprises is the rightful Alpha of this nest, say 'yes' by offering her your salute!" All the other Night Furies reared back and shot their blowtorch-breath into the air. Their jets of fire met over Full-of-surprises' head, forming a blue glowing dome above her. She bowed her head, humbled and quite nervous, but still willing to be what they thought she could be. After all, her dad said she could do it, and he was usually right about things, so maybe...
Chief-night-fury and Mother-of-twins led her around the nest, letting all the other dragons know that they had a new Alpha now. They all offered her their fiery salutes; they had just seen her in action and had no problems accepting her as their leader. Some were more worried about their former leader. After all, the role of Alpha usually changed hands only after a fight, with the loser forced to fly away forever. The Night Furies reassured everyone that this was a friendly takeover, not a hostile one, and that Chief-night-fury would keep his name and his place in the nest.
"Can we change Alphas that easily?" one Zippleback wanted to know. "It's never been done this way before."
"I was breaking the rules long before I turned into a dragon," Hiccup answered easily. "Compared to some of my, uhh, exploits as a human, this is nothing!"
As they landed at the Nest afterwards, Full-of-surprises turned to her father. "Is this your way to avoid dealing with the upcoming fight with those Red Deaths? You're dropping it on me instead?"
"Hardly!" he burst out, with a hint of a laugh. "For one thing, that would be totally unfair, and I wouldn't do that to you. For another thing, it's me they want, so I'm stuck in the middle of it, no matter who's in charge of this nest. I own this problem, Great One, and it's –"
"Dad!" she burst out. "Don't call me that!"
"Sorry, I'm just teasing you a little," he grinned.
"It's not funny!" she protested. "I'm your daughter, and I'm not that great!"
"You're the Alpha, and you're a lot better than you think you are. Anyway, this is my problem to solve, although I'll probably need your help. To be honest, I've got no plan at all for dealing with this one. On the other hand, your promotion makes my problem-solving a little bit easier."
"How do you figure that, Dad?"
"The way I see it, the Red Deaths and their nest have pretty much declared war on the Vikings of Berk, but they want peace with the dragons here. If I was still in charge of both the Vikings and the dragons, I can't even imagine how I might handle that. How could I lead one group in battle against those dragons, and another group in peaceful negotiations with those same dragons? But now that you're in charge of the nest, that means I can do whatever I have to do for the Vikings, without any conflict of interest."
Full-of-surprises considered that. "Is there any chance that you defending the Vikings will push those Red Deaths too far, and make them mad at our nest, too?"
"I don't think so," he replied. "They really are benevolent toward dragons; they don't want to hurt any of us, especially the Night Furies. They just want our humans out of the way."
"Why don't we just attack them and fight for all we're worth?" was her next question.
"Because the Red Deaths are much bigger than we are, and because their dragons outnumber us by a huge margin," he answered. "We Night Furies could handle the Red Deaths, and you can handle their dragons, but if they attacked together? Not a chance! If we started a total war, we would lose. Even if we could somehow win and drive them away, the price in dead and hurt dragons would be so high, it wouldn't be worth winning. And, no matter who won, they would still want some Night Furies in their nest, and we're still unwilling to go, so a war would accomplish nothing, for us or for them."
"What if they attack us with everything they've got anyway?" she worried.
"I really don't think they will," he answered. "An all-out strike would have made sense for their first attack, but they thought three hundred dragons could do the job. Thanks to you, they were wrong. Now that all the Night Furies are home, a full-scale attack would work against their main goal, which is to talk some breeding pairs of Night Furies into joining their nest. That's becoming an obsession with them. They know that none of you will go unless I go too, or at least unless I give my approval. In a total war, there's a good chance that some of us would get killed or badly hurt, and then I'd never approve of any of us joining them. They won't risk that if they're smart, and they are definitely not stupid. We're walking a tightrope, trying to work out this conflict without escalating it... but so are they."
"Well, I'll help you in any way I can," she said firmly. "For starters, I'll put long-range Nadder patrols in the air toward the approaches to that other nest, so we'll get some advance warning when they come for us."
"That will be a big help," he nodded. "What we'll do when we get that advance warning, I don't know. But in a war like this, every little bit helps." After a moment, he added, "Thank you."
"You're welcome, Dad," she smiled. They rubbed noses, and for just a moment, she was his little girl again. Then they heard the sounds of a fight breaking out between two Gronckles. Chief-night-fury tensed to take off and deal with it... and stopped himself.
"It sounds like they're fighting over a female again," he said softly. "Duty calls."
"Yeah, I guess it does," she nodded, and took off without him to sort out the problem.
o
Three weeks later, to the day, one of the Nadder patrols flew back to Berk at full speed, shouting, "They're coming! They're coming!"
Six was the first to meet them in the air. "How many?" she demanded.
"Two," the leader answered.
"You mean two hundred?"
"No, just two," the other Nadder said. "Two really big ones."
"They're flying kind of slow," the first one added. "We flew fast to get back here in time. They won't be here for three hours, maybe more."
"I'll spread the word," Six promised, and she did. Full-of-surprises called an emergency meeting of all the Night Furies. Thing One was dispatched to Outcast Island to bring Night-fury-new-beginning back, and Thing Two was sent to Dragon Island to fetch Toothless and Guana. They brought First-girl with them.
"Any suggestions?" Hiccup began.
"They can't pretend to think they can take on a whole Viking village, plus a nest of dragons," Toothless thought out loud, "so they aren't here to attack us."
"We hope," Bang added.
"There's no predicting what they think they're capable of," Six agreed. "They're probably undefeated over a span of eight hundred years or more. Maybe they do think they can take us."
"If they aren't here to fight," Full-of-surprises asked, "then why else might they be here?"
"Perhaps they think they can force Chief-night-fury to follow them somehow," Pu-lao suggested.
"I can't imagine how they might try that," Faithful-brother said.
"And I can't imagine how they could force both of us to follow them!" Astrid snapped. "Remember, they want breeding pairs, so they have to get me into that nest, too. And I am not going, even if they drag me by the tail!"
"Let's talk about that for a minute," Hiccup cut in. "I'd like to know how each of you feels about that nest, and the offer that the Red Deaths are making. How do you all feel about living your lives in safety, never fighting another war against the Berserkers or the other crazy Vikings?"
"You mean, locked inside a cave forever?" Six burst out, wild-eyed.
"With a ceiling over our heads?" Bang added.
"Living in perpetual twilight?" Faithful-brother said.
"Having to dodge stalactites every two seconds?" Smith-flies-for-fun threw in.
"Actually, flying through the stalactites is kind of fun," First-girl said.
"But not if that's all the flying you can ever do!" Smith retorted. "I'd be bored to death in less than a day. I love gliding just above the clouds. I need my loops and my power dives and my zoom climbs."
"And your pair half-pivots!" Full-of-surprises smirked. Smith-flies-for-fun looked away, embarrassed.
"You need your smithing, too," Faithful-brother reminded him. "You'd never do that again in a dragon's cave."
"I'd have to give up my human friends," Thing One said. "I don't want to do that."
"I don't blame you," her twin sister added. "Your Anya did a wonderful job stitching up the injured dragons after that big attack."
"She's always using her needle and thread to make pretty things," Thing One nodded. "The Vikings call it 'embroidery.' I thought maybe she could use that needle and thread to help our injured friends, and I guessed right. She was a little bit squeamish at the start, but she got over it quickly. But even if she didn't heal the hurt dragons, I'd still want her around. I like her."
"What about you two?" Hiccup asked, looking toward Toothless and Guana.
She answered for the both of them. "I know my partner. He could never let himself get locked away like that. He's the most freedom-loving creature who ever lived. And it doesn't matter what the Red Deaths could offer me; I won't leave Toothless." He nodded and brushed her flank with a wingtip.
"I'll level with you," Chief-night-fury admitted. "I was thinking it over. The biggest appeal, to me, wasn't living a long life or being free from the fear of men. It was the end of coming up with plan after plan to solve problem after problem, both for the nest and for the tribe. Now that my daughter is in charge of the nest, that takes a lot of the pressure off of me, and it means that there's no way I'll let myself get trapped in a dark cave forever! I need the sun, and the stars, and the clouds, and the wind in my face! I need miles of air above me, and miles of space in front of me. And I'll admit, I need the challenge of solving problems for all those Vikings who can't figure them out on their own... as long as those challenges aren't relentless and life-threatening! If some of you wanted to go to that cave forever, then I'd be torn, because I don't want to lose any of you. But it sounds like you all think like I do. I'm staying out here."
"Even though it means leaving your mother behind?" Six asked him.
There was a long pause. "Yeah, that's a bitter price to pay," he finally replied. "But unless I can talk her out of going, then we're going to be separated forever. Her mind seems pretty-well made up about staying there. But if I keep her and stay with her, then I'll lose all of you. I have to stay in the light."
Mother-of-twins nodded. "Like Lady-night-fury said, they can't pay me enough, or threaten me enough, to leave my mate and my children."
"Besides," he added, "you'd hate it there, and I'm not willing to drag you into a life that you'd hate, by your tail or otherwise."
"Thank you," she said with feeling, and brushed his flank with a wingtip.
"So it sounds like we're unanimous in not wanting to join them," Full-of-surprises said.
"Thank you for summing that up," Hiccup said dryly. Astrid giggled. After all these years and all these changes, he still fell back on that line whenever he could!
"So what happens when the Red Deaths get here?" Smith-flies-for-fun asked. They all looked at Hiccup, then at Full-of-surprises. Neither of them had any ideas.
"Well, the Vikings need to know they're coming," Astrid decided.
"I'll take care of that; that's my job," Hiccup said. "I'll tell them... uhh... I'll tell them that there are two big dragons coming, and they probably aren't a threat to the town, so everybody should stay inside unless they hear a dragon roar three times. That will be the signal that we have a battle on our hands, and the Vikings need to help us fight."
"What can they do?" Astrid wondered. She had seen, first-hand, how helpless a tribe of Vikings was against something as big as a Red Death, and now there were two of them.
"Well... they can avoid getting trapped inside their houses and burned alive," Hiccup suggested.
"I guess that's something," she agreed. He trotted toward the Hofferson house; he would need Rangi for this. The other Night Furies sat and waited, watching for two huge silhouettes to appear over the horizon.