The Berserker War Chapter 13

Gobber took the axe from Agnarr's hands and examined it. He scowled. He took it outside where the light was better, and examined it again.

"There has to be somethin' wrong with it!" he exclaimed. "The last time I saw this kind o' workmanship from an apprentice was... well, it was a while ago."

"Weapons were the only things our master ever let us make, so we got a lot of practice making them," Agmundr explained. "If you'd asked us for a door hinge or an anchor chain, we probably wouldn't do such a good job."

"But speaking of apprentices, when are we going to meet this Hiccup you keep alluding to?" Agnarr demanded. "He was obviously talented, but we don't see any signs of him in the town; you've taken a new apprentice, but you've done nothing with the old apprentice's back room; there's some kind of weird mystery about this guy, and –"

"And ye think ye're entitled to know all of Berk's secrets, do ye?" Gobber growled, poking the young man in the shoulder with his pincers arm. "Ye'd do well to remember yer position!"

"You've treated us a lot better than we probably deserve," Agmundr said quickly, "but at the same time, it's like you're baiting our curiosity with these hints and clues! If you really didn't want us to know about this Hiccup, you wouldn't talk about him. But he keeps getting mentioned, so you must want us to know. So... let us know! Please."

The old smith scratched his stubbly chin for a moment. "All righty, then, ye'll get yer wish. Clean up yer messes, an' I'll take ye to meet Hiccup." They tidied up the forge in record time, hung their leather aprons on their pegs on the wall, and presented themselves to Gobber. "Follow me," he ordered, and headed for the center of town.

"I bet this Hiccup is really a girl," Agnarr whispered to his brother.

"I think he's one of those teens who ride the dragons," Agmundr whispered back.

They arrived at the Night Furies' building, or the Nest as the locals called it. All six of the dragons were there, the morning sun reflecting off their jet-black scales. One of them was lying on its back, paws in the air, snoring. Gobber climbed the stairs to the second floor, with the puzzled apprentices hot on his heels. When they got to the top, all they saw was the dragons.

Gobber stepped to the edge, cupped his hands to his mouth, and bellowed, "HIC-CUP!" at the top of his lungs. He waited until the Berserker twins were dying to say something; then he turned and pretended to notice the three-legged dragon for the first time.

"Ahh, there ye are," he grinned. The dragon's ear flaps went up. "These young 'uns have been havin' a happy time in yer old back room, lookin' at yer drawin's and talkin' about how to make 'em better. They said they wanted to meet ye, and today seemed like a good day fer it." He looked at Agnarr and Agmundr and gestured toward the dragon. "I'll leave ye to get acquainted. I'm sure ye'll find plenty to talk about." With that, he stomped down the stairs and returned to the forge.

Agnarr called down, "This isn't funny, Gobber! You promised us you'd take us to meet Hiccup!"

HE KEPT HIS PROMISE

The sounds of the dragon writing in the sand table drew their eyes to his message. They stared at him in shock and disbelief.

"You're Hiccup?" Agmundr finally blurted out. The dragon nodded, with a gurgling growl.

"Gobber had a dragon for an apprentice," Agnarr told his brother. "I admit, I never saw that one coming!"

NO, HE HAD A HICCUP FOR AN APPRENTICE

"Well, you're not a hiccup!" Agmundr exclaimed. "What are you trying to tell us? Did you eat the original Hiccup, and gain his skills somehow?"

The dragon laughed at that, as did the other Night Furies. The sleeping one woke up and exchanged some dragon noises with the others; it quickly joined in the laughter.

The twins were getting irritated, in addition to being perplexed. Everyone was telling them riddles! "Fine," Agmundr said, and sat down with his feet dangling over the edge of the platform. "I'm willing to believe that your name is Hiccup. But there is no way under Valhalla that a dragon could have done those drawings in that back room! I don't think you can fit in that room. You can't even hold a drawing stick!"

"I know we're just prisoners of war," Agnarr added. "But we've been open and honest with you, we've told you no lies, and all you give us in return is puzzles and enigmas! We never knew there might be another Viking who was like us; we thought we were the only ones. Now we find that there's another one here, somewhere, and we're dying to meet him, but you're all playing games with us! We don't think it's funny any more." He sat down next to his brother, folded his arms, and stared at the dragon.

Night-fury-smallest-girl chose that moment to return from a quick flight around the town. The meter-long dragon landed lightly on the edge of the Nest, noticed the two boys, and ambled up to them. All the humans of Berk were fascinated with baby dragons, especially the littlest Night Fury, so she just took it for granted that these humans would also want to be her friends. She considered both of them for a moment, then climbed into Agnarr's lap and trilled at him.

Agnarr was both intrigued and amazed. He'd never seen a baby dragon before, and he knew how rare Night Furies were. "Hi, there," he said hesitantly. She blinked expressively at him. He reached down and scratched behind her ear flaps; she closed her eyes and made a sound that was a lot like purring. Agmundr looked on, envious.

"Is this one... yours?" he asked the Hiccup-dragon.

YES, SHE IS MY DAUGHTER.
ASTRID IS HER MOTHER

Another of the dragons nodded with a quiet rumble as she watched the boys carefully.

"Your name is Astrid?" Agnarr wondered as he glanced at the second dragon. "Do all Night Furies have Nordic names?"

NO, JUST THE ONES WHO USED TO BE HUMANS

The twins stared at the message in the sand for what seemed like ages. They both read it three times to be sure they hadn't misread it. They tried to guess what it might really mean if the dragon had misspelled a word. They slowly looked back and forth from the message to the dragon who had written it. They looked at each other, as though each one thought his brother could somehow explain it all.

Finally, Agnarr spoke. "Okay, my brain has officially been blown into little tiny pieces."

"I don't even have a theory for that one," Agmundr added. He looked over at the dragon. "Could you... umm... explain?"

THE SIMPLE ANSWER IS "DRAGON MAGIC."
TOOTHLESS TRANSFORMED ME AND ASTRID
INTO NIGHT FURIES ABOUT TWO YEARS AGO.
BEFORE THAT, I WAS A LOT LIKE YOU
AND ASTRID WAS A CLASSIC VIKING WARRIOR

The twins digested that for a few seconds.

"Is Toothless another dragon?" Agmundr asked. The Hiccup-dragon gestured with his head toward the Night Fury that had been snoring. It gave them a grin that was definitely not toothless.

"Did... oh, gods, I hope this isn't a stupid question... did all of you used to be human?" Agnarr stammered.

OUR CHILDREN HATCHED FROM EGGS IN THE
TRADITIONAL WAY. THE REST OF US WERE
HUMANS ONCE

After a moment, Hiccup added:

I LOVE WHAT I AM NOW

Agnarr stood and hesitantly stepped next to the dragon so he could read the sand-runes right-side-up; his brother followed him. They were still reluctant to get too close to the scaly black beast that was having such a friendly conversation with them, but they didn't want to misunderstand one word of this. "Was it hard to make a change like that?" Agnarr asked, hoping the question wasn't too personal.

I WAS A MISERABLE FAILURE AS A HUMAN.
THE MOMENT I BECAME A DRAGON,
THINGS STARTED GETTING BETTER FOR ME

"But we've seen your drawings!" Agmundr burst out. "You had skill! You had technique! You were some kind of genius!"

WHAT GOOD IS THAT IF YOU'RE ALL ALONE
AND NO ONE LIKES YOU OR RESPECTS YOU?

The boys thought about that. Agmundr quietly said, "What would our lives be like, if we didn't have each other?"

"I really don't want to think about it," his twin answered softly.

After a few seconds of silence, Astrid stepped over to the sand table.

I DON'T SUPPOSE EITHER OF YOU IS
INTERESTED IN BECOMING A NIGHT FURY?

"No!" they both burst out. Agnarr went on, "No, no... we like the bodies we've got. They aren't perfect, but... nothing personal, but no, that's not for us."

Agmundr looked like he was thinking it over. "Is it something we could try, and then go back if we don't like it?"

NO, THE TRANSFORMATION IS PERMANENT.
UNDOING IT WOULD BE FATAL.

"No, thanks," Agnarr decided. "We'd rather be hiccups. We're used to that."

"It might be fun to fly, though," Agmundr said thoughtfully.

They were startled by the sound of heavy footsteps pounding up the stairs. They stepped back when they recognized Stoick the Vast, Berk's chief. He glanced at them, then turned his attention to the Hiccup-dragon.

"Have you got any interesting news from last night, son?"

NOT MUCH, DAD

The twins heard the word "son" and saw the word "Dad," and nearly fell off the platform. The dragon continued –

NOT MUCH, DAD. THE BERSERKER ARMY IS
STILL RECOVERING AND RE-EQUIPPING. THEY'VE
USED UP ALL THEIR TIMBER, SO NEW SHIPS AND
HEAVY WEAPONS AREN'T MAKING MUCH PROGRESS

He wiped the sand flat with his tail and added –

THE NADDERS FOUND A SMALL SHIP COMING UP
THE COAST WITH A CREW OF ONE

"Another deserter, looking to surrender?" the chief wondered out lout. "I guess Berk has room for one more. Let me know when he's a day away from us. Is there anything else?"

NO, DAD. IT'S A VERY PEACEFUL WAR TODAY

Stoick grunted. "I wish that fool Dagur would realize he can't win, and give up. Then it would be peaceful!" He stomped back down the stairs.

Agnarr and Agmundr approached the sand table again. One was on each side of Hiccup; it was the first time they'd let anything come between them since they'd been captured.

"That was your father?" Agnarr asked. Hiccup nodded.

"You gave up being a chief's son to be a dragon?" Agmundr blurted out. "Your life must have been..."

AWFUL

"Man!" Agnarr exclaimed. "Now that you're a dragon, I'd hate to be one of the people who mistreated you before!"

I WASN'T VENGEFUL THEN, AND I'M NOT NOW.
I WAS A TERRIBLE VIKING IN EVERY WAY

"You make a pretty cool dragon, though," Agmundr commented.

THANK YOU

Then the dragon's ear flaps pricked up.

I HEAR A FIGHT STARTING.
I HAVE TO BREAK IT UP.
WE'LL TALK LATER

He sprang into the air and flew swiftly toward the central cliffs of Berk. The other Night Furies went back to their napping, ignoring the boys in the Nest. Agnarr and Agmundr returned to the forge slowly; both of them were quiet and thoughtful, and remained that way for the rest of the day.

In mid-afternoon, Agnarr caught his brother gazing out the window toward the Nest. "I know what you're thinking," he said quietly. "I could never do it. We'd be separated from each other forever."

"What kind of a future do we have?" Agmundr replied. "Our own tribe won't trust us again, and they never had much use for us anyway. These Berks don't need any more smiths, and if they didn't have any regard for their own hiccup, would we do any better here?" He stared at his twin brother intensely. "Don't you remember how it felt to fly through the clouds on the dragons' backs, and look down on everything from above? Imagine if we could do that any time we wanted!"

" 'Imagine' is the key word here," Agnarr answered. "You're the one who imagines stuff. If you turned into a dragon, you'd lose nothing; you could imagine stuff just as well in a Night Fury body as in a human body. But I'm the tinkerer and the craftsman, remember? If I couldn't hold tools or make drawings, I'd be nothing!"

"Hiccup made it work," Agmundr said. "He was an imaginer and a tinkerer, and gave it all up, and he has no regrets. Maybe, when you turn into a dragon, you start thinking like a dragon, and you don't miss the human stuff so much. Besides, what if they changed just me? We wouldn't be separated – not really. I could write to you and you could read, and I could still understand you when you talk. I bet I could even do drawings, if I had a big enough sand-table. And I'd take you for a ride any time you wanted."

Agnarr thought for a second. "Riding around on your back? That just sounds a little bit... weird." He laid a hand on his brother's shoulder. "You can think about it all you want. You can talk to the dragons about it all you want. But I'm begging you, don't do it unless you talk to me first!"

Agmundr nodded readily. "Deal," he said. "I'm still just thinking anyway."

His brother rolled his eyes. "Is that supposed to reassure me? I know what happens when you start thinking!"

Then they heard Varinn's voice. "Could you two give me a hand, please? Gobber wants me to move the anvil to the other side of the forge, and I can't do it alone." They rushed to help the other apprentice, leaving their discussion unfinished.