The Courtship of Toothless Chapter 9
There was nothing left of Toothless and Guana's breakfast but the head and some bones. "We'll drop those in the ocean when we leave," Toothless commented. 'But first, we'll work on your marksmanship some more." He gave her some more training in aiming her fires, using the rocks of the cove as targets. She got the idea after a few more tries.
"Remember, any time you use your fires, you're putting your reputation on the line, and mine as well," he reminded her. "No one cares if a Night Fury makes a sloppy landing, or struggles to solve a problem, but if we shoot, it's expected that we'll never miss."
"I'll practice some more before I shoot any targets in public," she nodded. "Question: why are my fireballs so small? I remember what the Night Furies used to do to our village..." She stopped when she realized that "the Night Furies" were standing right in front of her, all one of him.
"It was nothing personal," he said with a trace of embarrassment. "The way to stoke your fires is to pass air across them before you shoot. You can do that to some extent by breathing in and out a few times, but the best way by far is a high-speed dive. That's why the diving attack is our specialty. It's not just showing off; it makes us far more destructive when we want to wipe something off the map."
"Which we don't want to do anymore, right?" she asked. "I mean, the war with the Vikings is over, so we don't have to worry about destroying things, right?"
"Maybe, and maybe not," he corrected her. "Not all the Vikings around here have gotten the word about the war being over, so we still might have to defend ourselves. Plus, we never know what the future holds. We might encounter some brand-new enemy tomorrow, or we might want to do something non-destructive with our fires, like drive a school of pollock toward a fishing boat. It's best to be prepared for anything. A lot of dragons might wind up depending on you to protect them, so you need to know how to do it."
"Got it," she nodded. She practiced until she was out of shots; it looked like she had mastered the concept. "Was that my big adventure for the day?"
"No, that was just a fire drill," he replied. "Now, we're going on a nice long flight." They discarded the tuna-fish bones and were soon winging high above the sea, out of sight of land again.
"More flying exercises?" she asked. That kind of thing wasn't much fun, but now that she could put a smile on his dragony face, that made it better.
"No, not today," he called back.
"Are you going to give me a clue?" she demanded.
"In a while," he replied, and grinned. "Maybe." Nothing else she could say would get another word out of him. She was beginning to get irritated. She made herself focus on flying, which was still fun, even if they seemed to be headed for the edge of the world.
After over an hour's flying, they finally came within sight of land again, but it wasn't the kind of land she was hoping to see. It was a tall, fog-wreathed volcano.
"That place doesn't look very friendly," she said nervously.
"You'll be surprised how friendly it is on the inside," he answered. "I wanted to bring you home to meet all my friends."
That startled her. She knew he had a nest full of dragons to take care of, but she'd never formed a mental picture of what that place might be like, and this certainly wasn't anything she ever would have imagined. "How do we get in?" she asked.
"There's a narrow crevice halfway up," he replied. "There's a hole the Vikings made at ground level, and there's the cone itself. We'll go down the cone, because I want you to make an entrance."
"What if I don't want to make an entrance?" she exclaimed.
"You have to," he said. "You're the newest Night Fury. The other dragons will expect something special from you."
"Did Astrid make an entrance when she was the newest Night Fury?"
"No, we had to use the crevice, because she and Hiccup had to pass the Mother's inspection as soon as they entered the nest... or else. The Mother is gone now, mostly thanks to Hiccup – you can see her bones out on the beach – so there's nobody here but us freedom-loving dragons. But problems still come up, and they count on Night Furies like you and me to keep order and sort things out. They'll be excited to meet you."
"What if I get distracted and bump into something while I'm making my big entrance?" she asked.
"With all those dragons in that enclosed space, you probably will get distracted," he said. "Don't worry about it. They'll all know that you're new at this. No one will care if you aren't a perfect flier. Just do the best you can, stay relaxed, tell the truth, and enjoy your visit." They spiraled down into the cone of the volcano.
Berk's dragon nest was made from dragons who had left this nest, she knew. Berk was home to about three dozen dragons, and she'd assumed that the numbers would be about the same here. She quickly realized that this nest held more than double that number. There were dragons of all kinds and colors, all over the walls, resting on ledges and in small caves, and it looked like nearly all of them were suddenly taking flight and headed straight at her.
"This is going to be a mob scene!" she said fearfully.
"You're right," he agreed. "I didn't foresee this. Land over there, on that empty ledge." She did so; he flew a fast zigzag in front of her to hold the crowd at bay. It was a large crowd, but not a hostile one at all.
"Night-fury! You've found another one!"
"So that's why you've been staying away from us lately!"
"She's beautiful! Where did you find her?"
"Is she coming here to stay?"
"Dragons, listen up!" he roared, bringing instant silence to the nest. "This is, ummm... this is Lady-night-fury. Night-fury-mother-of-twins transformed her about a week ago, and she's still very new at being a dragon. She's under my wing for now. We'll spend the day here so you can get to know her, but I think I should take her back to the place with the rocks to spend the night. Once she's more accustomed to being a dragon, she'll decide where she wants to live. Please, don't everyone swoop on her at once!" He landed next to her, and the crowd pressed in.
Most of that day was a blur to Guana. She met many, many dragons, all of whom were thrilled to meet her and wanted to hear the parts of her story that interested them. Some were curious about her transformation; others wanted to hear about the nest on Berk; still others wondered how she was adjusting to her new life. More than a few of the females dropped hints about her and Toothless and laying eggs; she tried to ignore those comments. None of them had any curiosity at all about her human past. Apparently, that kind of personal history didn't register on a dragon's radar.
But one scene stuck with her for the rest of her life. A small group of female Nadders landed on the ledge to greet her. One of them, bolder than the others, asked, "I know you're new at this, but you're a Night Fury and you're a female, so maybe you can settle this for us."
"Oh, don't start!" exclaimed a green one.
The first one went on. "Nadder-blue-with-the-orange-spot, over there, laid four eggs last winter. Her young ones all caught their first fish this week, and we wanted to celebrate with a fish party, like we do sometimes. But Nadder-green-the-drama-queen, here, won't give Nadder-blue-with-the-orange-spot a fish like the rest of us did! We threw her a fish party last year, and we all gave. Do you think that's fair?"
Night-fury was at her side in an instant. "Maybe I should try to handle this one," he suggested.
"It does sound like a matter for a female to deal with," she said thoughtfully, "and it's not a big issue with life-or-death implications, so it would be a good one for me to start with. Wouldn't it?"
He nodded slowly. "I'll stay close, just in case."
Lady-night-fury turned to face Nadder-green-the-drama-queen. "Is there a reason you won't give your friend a fish?"
"I can barely catch enough to feed myself," she whined, and held up her leg, showing an old scar. "I have this injury from the days of the war, you see. A perfect Night Fury like you could never understand what it's like to live in pain all the time."
That was not the right thing to say.
"Oh, really?" Lady-night-fury's voice started sweet, but slowly dropped to a growl. "Well, let me explain a few things to you. When I was a human, I had two legs that I couldn't even move without pain! One of my arms could barely move at all! My face was so burned and disfigured, the other Vikings couldn't stand to look at me! And I just found out that my eyes didn't work so well, either.
"And yet, when they asked me if I would care for the village's sheep, I did it! I knew I should give something back to my village in exchange for the food I ate and the place where I slept. And I never complained – not once!
"Now, you're going to wave an old, healed wound at me, and tell me that's a good excuse to be rude to your neighbors? How am I supposed to take that? Should I go out and catch a fish myself, and then bring it to you, Your Highness?"
"You're a brand-new dragon," an embarrassed Nadder-green-the-drama-queen mumbled, "and you hate me already."
"I don't hate anybody, but you're right about me being a brand-new dragon," Lady-night-fury agreed, with a conspicuous show of teeth. "There's a lot I don't know yet. For one thing, I don't know if dragons can be ashamed. But if they can, then you should be!"
In the sudden shocked silence, Nadder-green-the-drama-queen spun and winged away toward the crevice that led out of the nest. Lady-night-fury called after her, "When you come back, you'd better bring a fish with you!"
The shocked silence didn't last. One by one, the other dragons began roaring their approval; some of them sent out quick bursts of flame as well. Lady-night-fury felt her legs shaking, so she sat down. Toothless sidled over to her, gazing at her approvingly.
"Did I just do that?" she asked him. "Did I just get in a total stranger's face and tell her off?"
"You sure did," he nodded, "and you did quite a good job of it, too. You got the facts first, you made your decision, and you stuck with it. Being firm is the only way to handle that one. Congratulations – you just dealt with your first Night Fury problem, and you handled it in true Night Fury fashion. I've got nothing bad to say. The rest of the dragons are impressed, too."
Once she got over her nervousness, and once the crowd dissipated a bit, she began flying around the nest, saying hello and meeting the young dragons who hadn't joined the initial rush to meet her. There were a lot of young dragons! Most of them greeted her with something between politeness and awe. She loved little dragons – she had made friends with a few of them while she was a human, including the Night Fury twins – and was glad to meet them, even though she couldn't remember all their names.
She got distracted and bumped into the walls a few times. The little ones thought she did it on purpose, and laughed happily. Adult laughter would have hurt her feelings, but the children's laughter was innocent; all she could do in return was smile. It was late at night before the two Night Furies could break away and return to Berk.
"I'd say you made a good impression," Toothless commented as they flew between the clouds and the stars. "The next time you come back here, they'll greet you like an old friend, and then line up with problems for you to solve. How are you feeling?"
"I feel... good," she decided. "I used to dread getting attention, and I wasn't sure how I'd feel about meeting all your friends at once. They treated me a lot better than the Vikings ever did."
It was past midnight when they got back to Berk. They expected to find a dark, still village. What they found was a scene that reminded them of the days of the war. Dragons were flying frantically all over town; Vikings were running up and down the streets and paths with torches in their hands. There was no fighting, though. The center of activity seemed to be the Nest, so they headed there.
They met a sight that shocked them. New-night-fury and Night-fury-mother-of-twins were lying on their sides, struggling to breathe, seemingly unable to move. Gothi, Gobber, Gunnarr Hofferson, and several other Vikings were trying to make them comfortable. "What happened?" Toothless asked softly.
With great effort, Astrid raised her head to look at him. "The twins," she gasped. "Someone took my children!"