The Berserker War Chapter 04
When the Night Furies returned to Berk, they found Toothless and Guana waiting for them.
"How did it go?" Toothless asked.
"Pretty well, for a first strike," Astrid replied. "The sea dragons' losses were small. The Berserkers are far from beaten, but their navy won't be launching any attacks for a couple of weeks, and I think we taught them a lesson about what a war with dragons is really like. The sea dragons will harass the Berserkers for the next couple of nights, just to make sure they don't get any sleep."
"How about you?" Guana asked the twins. "What did you think of your first battle?"
"Awesome!" Young-girl-night-fury burst out.
Young-boy-night-fury didn't answer immediately; he looked thoughtful. "It was awesome to pick a target, and dive on it, and see what my fires can do," he said at last. "But then I saw all those men swimming for their lives... and most of them were there because they were forced to be there, not because they wanted to be there. That part wasn't so much fun. Still, this is war, and I'll do what I have to do."
"Spoken like a true Night Fury," Toothless said approvingly. "What happens next?"
"We'll put up a patrolling wall of Nadders every night," Hiccup began. "As soon as the Berserkers march, or sail, we'll know about it before the sun comes up. Our attack plan will depend on their numbers, their location, and whether they come by land or by sea. Can we count on any reinforcements from your nest?"
"I've got three Gronckles, two juveniles and an adult, who will join us whenever we ask them to," Toothless said, almost apologetically. "The rest will defend their own nest, but not yours."
"That's pretty much what we expected," Astrid nodded. "I hate to say it, but the only thing that will change their minds is if one of us Night Furies gets hurt."
They all nodded silently. They knew she was right. They also knew that, when they fought against the might of the Berserkers, there was a very good chance that one of them would get hurt, or worse.
o
About a week and a half later, two of the patrolling Nadders returned from their station early and landed on the Nest. "They're coming!" they burst out.
The Night Furies woke quickly. "How are they approaching us?" Night-fury-mother-of-twins asked.
"They're marching up the coastline," the larger Nadder answered. "They've got wagons, and carts, and all kinds of things on wheels. They were camping south of Peregrine Point when we saw them."
New-night-fury was fully awake by now. "They must have started marching during the day. Thank you for the early report. Rest your wings; we won't fly until tomorrow night."
"Why not hit them now?" Young-girl-night-fury asked.
"I don't want to fight without your uncle and aunt, and it will take two hours to get there and bring them back with us," their father replied. "Then it's a three-hour flight from here to Peregrine Point, and by that time, the sun will be rising and we won't be able to strike in the darkness. We'll gather our strength, make our plans, and hit them tomorrow night, at a time and a place that suits us."
"Should we call in the rest of the patrollers?" Young-boy-night-fury wondered.
"No, we need to be on the lookout for diversionary attacks," Night-fury-mother-of-twins answered. "We'll keep them all on station, just in case."
"Why worry about the land forces at all?" Young-girl-night-fury asked. "We're on an island. They can't march across the water, can they?"
"No, but they can build rafts and float across," her mother replied. "Or they could build some quick-and-dirty ships under the trees where we can't see them, launch them in daylight when we don't dare attack, and be here in less than an hour. We can't afford to let them get any kind of foothold near us."
"I'll go warn my dad," New-night-fury decided.
His wife restrained him with a wing. "Let the man rest. There's nothing he can do tonight anyway, and those humans need their sleep. We'll tell him in the morning."
o
A winged armada made its way southward in the darkness, flying about a quarter-mile above the sea. It was composed entirely of Gronckles, except for one Nadder on each side of the formation, and six Night Furies out in front. A few of the Gronckles carried human riders. Fishlegs was in charge of those humans, but the dragons answered to the Night Furies, whose commands the humans could not understand. They knew that a complex command structure like that could cause problems in battle, but the riders didn't want their dragons going into battle without them, and the dragons were equally reluctant to leave their riders behind.
"We're about an hour out from our target," New-night-fury called to the other dragons. "I'll refresh your minds about the plan." He wasn't worried that the Gronckles would forget the plan; he was worried that they'd fall asleep in mid-air unless he kept their minds stimulated every few minutes. "We'll make landfall at Peregrine Point, then turn north and hit their army from behind. They may not even have a rear guard, and if they do, it's sure to be weaker than the front of their formation. That will keep our losses down.
"Our targets are anything on wheels. Those wagons and carts carry all the Berserkers' food and water, their tents and sleeping rolls, their extra shields and weapons, and everything else a human army needs to stay in the field. If we can take those out, Dagur will have no choice but to turn around and go home. It will take him weeks to replace the wagons, tents, and weapons, not to mention the ponies and teamsters who are probably going to suffer when we open fire.
"Everybody is going to take one shot, then turn around and fly back the way you came. This is going to be a long war, and we don't want to take any useless losses in our first battle. We Night Furies will take multiple shots if there are enough targets, and the dragons with riders will obey their riders if the humans see any additional targets worth shooting. The Nadders are mostly here to help everybody remember which direction we came from, but if you two can see something you can burn without risking yourselves, go right ahead and flame it.
"Any questions?"
"Yes," said Gronckle-lugs-much-meat, better known to the humans as Meatlug. "Why are we just stinging them instead of trying to really hurt them?"
"Even if we flew with every dragon we had, and even if they all had human riders, we couldn't do more than just sting them – there are too many of them! The idea is to keep knocking them back, keeping them off-balance, and making it so difficult for them to wage war that they eventually give up."
"The other reason is that, if we try to fight them head-on, we'll take losses as well," Night-fury added, "and there aren't enough of us as it is. We can't afford to lose any of you, and we don't want to lose any of you! You remember the saying from the Wars – 'He who flames and then takes flight, lives to flame another night.' That's going to be our rule for this war, too. We'll play it safe and wear them down until they quit."
"What if their off-center chief doesn't know when to quit?" another dragon asked.
"He probably won't," Night-fury-mother-of-twins answered. "But at some point, his people will be so sick of taking losses and seeing their lives disrupted that they'll get rid of him, and replace him with someone more agreeable. That's our end-game at this time."
"I can live with that," Meatlug replied. They flew on in silence, broken every few minutes by one of the Night Furies telling a joke or a story to keep the Gronckles awake. It was an incongruous way to start a war.
They passed Peregrine Point and curled toward the land. After a few minutes, the Night Furies' keen eyes spotted the first of hundreds of campfires ahead. "Okay, dragons, this is it! Remember the plan," Night-fury reminded them. "You're going to fly in a big circle while we gain height. When you hear us diving, that's your signal to go in. Remember – hit the things with wheels, strike once, and unless your rider says otherwise, go back the way we came! Let's go!" The two Nadders led the Gronckles in a wide turn to the right as the six Night Furies flapped hard and climbed quickly.
Far below them, they could see the Berserker camp spread out across the land. Outposts of guards formed an outer circle. The majority of the tents were set up in a thick middle ring, with some wheeled catapults and other heavy weapons scattered among them. In the center were the leaders' tents and the supply wagons. All was quiet and still. The men below had no idea that lightning and death itself were about to be unleashed on them.
"We aren't going to destroy many tents or sleeping rolls – they're all being used," Young-boy-night-fury observed.
"True," his father admitted. "I didn't think that part through very well, did I? But all their food and spare weapons are still on the wagons, along with something else I didn't think of before: food for their ponies. We can still deal them a serious setback."
"Then let's do it!" Night-fury-mother-of-twins exclaimed. "Everybody go through your checklists and set up for your dives!" After a moment, Night-fury rolled over and furled his wings for a long, fast plunge earthward. The others peeled off into their own dives, one after the other.
By prior agreement, they aimed their first shots at the heavy weapons. They unleashed their fires just as the guards heard the Night Furies' diving whistles and began to realize they were under attack. Six dazzling explosions lit up the night, ruining the men's night vision just when they needed it the most. The six catapults and ballistas that they blew into smoldering splinters were only a small fraction of the enemy's strength, but they left a gap in the human defenses that was more than big enough for the Gronckles to pour through.
The stocky dragons turned the center of the camp into an inferno. Gronckles are not the best sharpshooters in the dragon realm – they tend to shoot at colorful or shiny objects, as Fishlegs and his friends had discovered in their very first lesson in Dragon Training – but the carts and wagons were such big targets that they couldn't miss. Flaming debris from the wagons flew everywhere, setting fire to tents and causing utter panic in the ponies who were tethered nearby. Many of them injured themselves in their desperate attempts to get away from the fires.
The five Gronckles with riders didn't turn and leave the battlefield when they had taken their one shot each. Their riders had conferred, and agreed that a second shot against a heavy weapon would be worth taking. Those weapons were all facing outward, so they posed no risk to a dragon who was already on the inside of the camp. Five more wooden-framed weapons went up in flames. It would have been easy for them to take more shots, but the men below were beginning to throw spears and bolas into the air, and it was just a matter of time before they got lucky. The last of the Gronckles hummed away to the south.
Their escape was aided by the Night Furies, who had zoom-climbed back to strike altitude, and rolled in for a second attack. This time, they went after the few large wagons that the Gronckles hadn't taken out. Their fireworks were as impressive as a Night Fury's shooting should be... except for Young-boy-night-fury.
His chosen target was a wagon with some kind of metal tank on it. He assumed it was full of drinking water, or perhaps ale, either of which would make it a worthwhile target. He was the last of the six to dive, and saw his family and friends pulling out as he aimed and fired.
The resulting fireball lit up the entire night! The wagon, and everything and everyone within fifty feet of it, simply ceased to exist. All tents within two hundred feet of it were flattened, and dozens of men were knocked off their feet. The concussion threw Young-boy-night-fury through the air; the sound of the blast nearly deafened him. He regained his wits a few seconds later and found himself climbing toward the other Night Furies, more out of instinct than anything else.
"Are you all right?" Lady-night-fury asked. He nodded weakly.
"What did you do?" Night-fury-mother-of-twins exclaimed.
"I've never seen anything like it," New-night-fury said. "Except for when the Mother hit the ground and blew up. But she was a lot bigger than that metal tank. I wonder what was in it?"
"I don't know what it was, either," Night-fury agreed, "but I know one thing: that son of yours just earned an adult-name of some kind."
"Yes, I think you're right," Night-fury-mother-of-twins nodded. "How does Night-fury-makes-one-heck-of-a-bang sound to you?"
Their son couldn't help smiling. "I like it," he decided.
The dragons flew home silently, well-pleased with a good night's work. Behind them, they left a Berserker army that was beginning to realize that their dreams of conquest would be somewhat delayed. They had lost nearly all their food and much of their weaponry, including most of their ballistas' ammunition. They would have to either carry their tents and sleeping gear with them, or abandon them. Over a dozen of their ponies were no longer fit to pull loads. They couldn't even put out the fires that burned all over their campground, because the only water they had was their drinking water, and they had precious little of that. The nearest source of supply was a small Berserker village, about a day and a half away to the south, and that little village couldn't possibly hold enough provisions to re-equip a Viking warband the size of a modern brigade.
Dagur weighed his options, and declared that his army would advance in a rearward direction. "I am really starting to dislike those dragons," he said tightly. "Really, really dislike them! Ask me how much I dislike them! Somebody, ask me!"
None of his subordinates dared to ask.