Lightning and Death Itself Chapter 12
Toothless and Astrid flew an easy criss-cross pattern above the dragons who were headed for the place with the circles. They were dark dragons on a dark night, but sensitive dragon eyes could see them, and their presence had quite an effect on those dragons. Astrid heard comments like, "Two Night Furies! That's never happened before!" "We've got two! I'm feeling better about this already." "That's Night-fury and one of the new ones. This ought to be good."
Toothless used the flight time to teach Astrid his attack checklist. "This was taught to me by the Night Fury who transformed me and taught me, and it's served me well for many years. It'll serve you well, too, but only if you stick to it."
"Would I be right in guessing that your mentor didn't stick to it?" she asked.
Toothless didn't answer for a moment. "He messed it up once, just once. He didn't choose an emergency escape route. When a squad of men ran out of a building right in front of him as he pulled out of his dive, he didn't have any other place to go. He flew right into a volley of spears." He shook his head. "I haven't thought about him in a long time. It's been just me, for so long... We're getting close. I need to focus on the job.
"They call this the place with the circles because the Vikings built circular stone corrals to hide their sheep in. It makes our raiders' jobs difficult. This village doesn't use heavy fixed catapults like Berk does; they use smaller ones on wheels. That makes our job difficult – each time we visit, we never know where our main targets are.
"Astrid, I know you don't want to shoot any people, so you go in first. Hit the catapults before they're manned. I'll watch from above. Once you're out of unmanned targets, meet me above the town and we'll decide what happens next. Okay?"
"I guess so." She still wasn't crazy about the idea of attacking other Vikings.
"There's the village, straight ahead. Remember your checklist. Gain some altitude, and go get 'em!"
She flapped a few times to gain height. She could see the village now, heartbreakingly similar to Berk and yet very different. She searched until she found a catapult.
Entry route? Curving gently to the left.
Other dragons getting in the way? There shouldn't be; I'm the first one in.
Target? That catapult.
Nearby defenses? Doesn't look that way.
Exit route? Straight out and up.
Fires ready? She prepared her firebolt.
Here we go! She dove. Her angle was a bit too shallow; she'd pick a steeper path next time. Her target was unmanned. It couldn't escape.
Escape. Where was her emergency escape route? She'd forgotten part of her checklist already!
She looked from side to side desperately. If her main exit route became too dangerous, she had to have a Plan B. Just continuing her curve to the left would be good enough. But in looking around, she'd interrupted the flow of air across her growing fireball. It wouldn't be strong enough now.
She fired. Pieces flew off the catapult, and it began to burn. But she knew that wasn't good enough. When she'd fought fires on Berk, she'd seen the devastation that came from a full-strength Night Fury firebolt. Her first real attempt wasn't even in the same league.
Toothless met her as she zoomed up. "Astrid –"
"Yeah, I know what I did wrong! I'm going to try again." Without waiting for his answer, she flipped over, found another catapult, and dove on it.
This time, she did it according to the list, and was rewarded with a satisfactory explosion. That catapult would never fire again! It's kind of like throwing an axe, only it blows up when it hits. I can see why Hiccup likes doing this. She zoomed up to meet Toothless.
"Much better," he smiled. "We're going to take turns now. Pick out a target or two, and wait until I climb back up here, so we don't collide in the air." He folded his wings and screamed downward towards a large night-vision torch that had just gotten lit.
She watched the scene unfolding. From above, she could see how the dragons on the outskirts of town were making quick progress, while the ones strafing the central buildings were having a harder time of it. The bursts of dragon fire marked the leading edge of the battle, while the burning houses marked where the battle had already passed. She hoped everyone had gotten out of those houses.
A brilliant blast and a flower-like spray of flying embers marked the success of Toothless' attack. He was hard to follow in the dark, even for her exceptional eyes. She spotted him as he pulled out and soared up to rejoin her.
"Your turn," he said. "It looks like our folks on the north side need the most help."
"I'm on it," she nodded. She tried to find a suitable target on that side of town. There was only one catapult in that area, and it was already manned. Well, there was nothing she could do about that. Maybe they'd hear her whistling dive and yell, "Get down!"
She went through her checklist again and folded her wings. As she dove, she watched the catapult's crew wind the arm down and reload it. Then they looked up for a moment, and threw themselves to the ground. Her shot tore their weapon apart; she couldn't tell if any of the crew had gotten hurt.
With the catapult out of the battle, the dragons began to make some headway. Astrid returned to her original altitude and met Toothless again. He reached out his wing and tapped her wingtip. "You're doing well, for your first battle ever. I see only one more catapult, and it's mine. See if you can find something else worthy of a Night Fury's attention." He flapped away and set up for his next dive.
What else could she shoot at? The heavy weapons were gone. They didn't use many night-vision torches like Berk did, and the only one she'd seen was gone, too. Perhaps a tight cluster of warriors – no! She rejected that idea immediately. She could have hit herself for even thinking it. Was she turning into a dragon or something?
She refused to even consider answering that question.
On the south side of the town, the dragons had gotten all they were going to get, and were flapping away, with prey or without it. The Vikings in that area saw that they were no longer under attack, so they charged up the main street toward the north side, where the battle was still raging. If that many Vikings got into the battle at once, it wouldn't go well for the dragons there.
It would be so easy to flame them, but she couldn't. No, she wouldn't. Was there a difference? She'd sort that out later.
There was a tall wooden statue in the center of town. From above, she couldn't tell if it was in honor of some god, or in memory of some famous Viking. To her, it didn't matter; it would meet her needs perfectly. If it was in honor of a god, hopefully that god knew her intent wasn't sacrilege. Or maybe the gods didn't care what dragons did to their statues. She'd try to sort that out later, too, but not now.
She went through the checklist once more and dove. Her firebolt hit the ground at the very base of the statue and blew a crater out from under it. The statue slowly tipped over and crashed to the ground, blocking most of the street, just before the charging warriors got there. A few of them could go around it; the rest had to laboriously climb over it. Either way, their headlong charge was broken up. That was what she'd wanted. She let herself smile as she pulled out and returned to strike altitude.
She found Toothless there, waiting. "Very nice work, Small-night-fury! None of the other dragons saw you do that, but I did, and I'm impressed. Let's see what else we can do."
For a moment, she couldn't say anything. She was so used to being borderline-hostile toward Toothless, and even in the heat and stress of battle, he wasn't being unkind to her at all. Had he ever been unkind to her? Did he deserve the way she'd treated him? That was one more thing she'd have to sort out, once she got home.
"I'm wondering if we can do anything to those circular sheep pens," she finally said. "It looks like some of our dragons are going home empty. I don't want any Vikings to go hungry, but I don't want any dragons to get eaten alive, either."
"I've tried fireballing them in the past, but the stones are interlocked; I haven't been able to knock one down. If I did, the stones would probably land on the sheep, so there's no point in trying."
Astrid gazed at the nearest stone enclosure. "Hmmm. Maybe if we give it the old hammer-and-the-hatchet?"
"The what?"
"If one blow won't knock it down, maybe a one-two punch will do the job. Let's find a few Nadders who can pounce if this works." They found a small flock of Deadly Nadders who were hovering outside the town; they had found no prey to take.
"If we can get some sheep, that will probably save our lives!" their leader said. "What do you want us to do?"
"Watch that closest circle, and be ready to grab your prey as soon as we strike," Toothless told them.
He and Astrid quickly conferred, then dove in quick succession. Astrid did a repeat of her shot at the statue; her firebolt undermined part of the stone wall, which sagged but didn't fall. Then Toothless' shot struck the inside of that wall, and half of it crumbled into the crater that Astrid had made. Half a dozen sheep escaped through the hole; the others were stunned by the double fireball, and stayed where they were. The Nadders quickly collected the escaped livestock and flew away, grateful that the sheep and not the dragons would be a meal for the Mother tonight.
"I never could have done that alone," Toothless commented as they met again. "When it was just me, I only had enough time, and enough fires, to take out the dangerous targets. With two or three of us on the job at once, we can start rewriting the rules for what Night Furies do."
The battle on the north side began to break up at this time; evidently, the dragons there realized they were getting nowhere and were endangering themselves by trying. "Those dragons will be coming back empty," Toothless noted. "Let's break another circle so they can bring something home." They did so. This time, Toothless aimed higher inside the stone enclosure, so as not to stun so many sheep. This time, eight or nine got away... but not far.
The flock reassembled outside the town and counted noses. "Only three missing," said the Nightmare who had led the fight. "That's a lot better than usual! It's good to see you back in action, Night-fury, and thank you too, Small-night-fury. I'm sure our low losses are thanks to the two of you."
"Believe me, it's good to be back!" Toothless replied. He began swinging around the formation, collecting wing-taps and thanks from all the dragons. Astrid hesitantly followed him; the others treated her the same way, to her great surprise.
They all flew home in good spirits. Most of them had managed to take some kind of prey, so the Mother would not be displeased. The Nadders spread the word about how the Night Furies had made special attacks just to bring some sheep within their reach. This was something new for Night Furies, and it made them even more popular.
"You've become quite the attack dragon, Astrid," Toothless grinned.
"I'm still not sure that's really me," she replied.
"Well, if you're not an attack dragon, you're doing a great job of faking it," he said. "Except for that one misfire at the beginning, I can't say anything bad about your work tonight. You're clever, determined, brave, and an awesome fighting dragon."
When they got home, she hadn't yet decided if she should take that last part as a compliment or not. She was leaning toward accepting it.