Night Furies: the Next Generation Chapter 2

Night-fury-smallest-girl was bored out of her mind.

"Go flying," her father suggested. She'd already done that for half the morning and most of the afternoon. It's not like she hated flying – she loved it as much as any Night Fury. But sometimes she wanted something new and different to do. There were only so many ways to drill holes in the clouds. She wasn't like her father, who loved flying for the sake of flying; she took after her mother, who saw flight as a means to achieve a goal. Today, she didn't have a goal and was trying to find one.

"Go visit your Uncle Toothless' nest," her mother suggested. Yeah, right – her mother never seemed to let up on that theme! She really meant, "Go visit your Uncle Toothless' son." Of course, Night-fury-newest-boy was a fine dragon; he was smart, patient but firm with the other dragons, and he wasn't full of himself. A lot like his father, in fact. He was also her only option as a future partner – there weren't any other young male Night Furies around, except her own big brother – and they both knew it. So did their parents, and that made for some awkward moments together, especially now that they were old enough to understand all the implications.

Lady-night-fury, Night-fury-newest-boy's mother, had recently complained to her mate that the two young dragons were spending too much time alone together. "That's how trouble starts," she said forcefully.

"You're still thinking like a human, my shepherd girl," Night-fury teased her, knowing that she hated being called that. "What's trouble for Vikings is good and natural for dragons, and the sooner they get into that kind of 'trouble,' the better off we'll all be."

"What are you talking about, Father?" Newest-boy had asked.

"I'm talking about you and Night-fury-smallest-girl mating some day," he replied matter-of-factly.

Both young dragons had squirmed at the thought. "Eww!" Night-fury-newest-boy had exclaimed. "I can't mate with her. She's my friend!"

"Yeah. It'd be so weird," Night-fury-smallest-girl had nodded. They'd both flown off in opposite directions, and hadn't discussed the incident after that.

Of course, it didn't matter – neither of them was remotely old enough to consider such an action. Night-fury-smallest-girl was a little under nine feet long and was a bit less than a year old; dragons didn't mate until they reached their adult size, which happened during their third year. Night-fury-newest-boy was just a friend. Sometimes he was fun to hang out with, but sometimes he could be a bit of a bore; he took his responsibility as a future leader of the nest very seriously. Her older brother and sister still treated her like a hatchling most of the time, but at least they understood the concept of "fun." And their human friends...

Yeah. She'd find that foursome and see what kind of mischief they were cooking up.

She found them down on the beach, talking and staring intently at a series of nonsense drawings the human twins had made. There were rows and rows of dots, dashes, slashes, curves and other simple figures that meant nothing to her, but which seemed to fascinate the two sets of twins. She landed, stuck her head between her brother and her sister, and asked them, "What's up?"

"We're inventing a language," Night-fury-makes-one-heck-of-a-bang answered distractedly.

"What's wrong with the one we've got?" she demanded.

"We're making up a way for humans and dragons to talk to each other," Night-fury-six-shooter explained. "It's made of sounds that both kinds of beings can make and hear." Night-fury-smallest-girl began to say something, but her sister held up a paw. "Before you ask any more questions, can I write out what we just said, so our humans can understand?"

As Night-fury-six-shooter scratched her runes in the sand, Night-fury-smallest-girl complained, "It must be hard, having to communicate so slow."

"That's one of the things we're trying to fix with this language," Night-fury-makes-one-heck-of-a-bang replied. "It won't be a complex language with thousands of words, just a few important ones, so we can tell each other things like, 'Look straight down,' or 'My tail hurts,' or 'So long, and thanks for all the fish'."

The boys finished reading the dragon's runes. Agnarr turned to face Night-fury-smallest-girl. He was nice like that; he treated her just like he treated any other dragon. "What we're doing, Smallest-girl, is making up a list of sounds that all of us can make, and all of us can hear. I'm drawing them as pictures so we can remember them, and copy them on paper later. A long line means a long sound, and a short dash means a quick sound."

Night-fury-smallest-girl caught on. She laboriously wrote,

DOES A FAT LINE MEAN A LOW TONE, AND
A THIN LINE MEAN A HIGH-PITCHED SOUND?

"Yes, exactly – very good!" Agnarr exclaimed. "You dragons can recognize at least a dozen different pitches when you talk to each other, not counting the overtones, but we can't do that. We'll limit our common language to five tones – middle, low, very low, high, and very high. We've got other symbols for different kinds of sounds like growls, snarls, warbles, and snorts. We're kind of making an alphabet for our language. When we have enough different sounds to work with, we'll start making words out of them."

"It will probably sound like baby talk to you dragons," Agmundr added, "and it will sound like a bunch of animal noises to most Vikings. But once we learn it, we'll be able to talk to each other."

CAN I LEARN IT TOO?

"Of course you can!" both boys burst out. Agnarr continued, "It won't be a secret for just the four of us. We'll open it up to anyone who wants to learn it... but I have a feeling there won't be many takers. Most Vikings aren't curious enough to put the time and effort into learning a new language if it won't help them in trade or in war."

"I bet Hiccup and Astrid will want to learn it," his brother grinned, "just so they won't wonder what we're saying when we're talking in front of them."

"I'm sure you're right," Agnarr nodded. "Let's get back to the sounds you dragons can make." Night-fury-smallest-girl got bored and wandered off long before the supper hour arrived, but by that time, the other four had cataloged all the distinct sounds they had in common, and had even decided what they would call each other in their new language. They knew the real work was just beginning, but it felt good to accomplish something.

When the young dragons and their human friends returned to the Nest that evening, New-night-fury was intrigued with how they'd spent the day. "Count me in on this new language," he said firmly. "I'm sure you want this to be your own personal project, but if you hit any rough spots, I'd be glad to help. I know I want to learn it once it's done."

"I suppose I'll have to learn it too," Night-fury-mother-of-twins added. "If I don't, you'll use it to say things in front of me that you don't want me to hear." The young dragons winked at each other (a gesture they'd picked up from Agnarr and Agmundr) and nodded their agreement.

DOES THIS NEW LANGUAGE
HAVE A NAME?

Hiccup always asked the hard questions! Agnarr turned to Agmundr. "You're the one who gets the ideas. What do you think we should call it?"

"Hmmm." Agmundr didn't have to think for long. "I once heard that people who are good with words are called wordsmiths, and smithing is what we know best, so we'll call it Forge."

Night-fury-smallest-girl had flown out to the Dragon Island nest when she'd gotten bored. She found all the dragons fishing for cod; they hadn't found much to eat at breakfast time, but the fish were here now, so the nest fished now. She told the other Night Furies about the twins' project. They weren't very interested.

"We don't deal with humans very much out here," Night-fury said. "If we do, I know a few words, and my mate understands Norse perfectly and knows how to write."

"Mother is teaching me to understand some human sounds," Night-fury-newest-boy added, "but this language doesn't sound like something I'd ever use." He swooped down on a fish that strayed too near the surface, caught it with his front claws, and quickly realized it was too big for him to swallow.

"I'll trade you," said Lady-night-fury, who held a smaller fish. Her son tossed his big fish to her; she caught it in the air and swallowed it neatly, and tossed him her own fish in exchange. She licked her lips. "Now that's a trick I never thought I'd be doing a year ago!"

Like the other young Night Furies, Night-fury-smallest-girl had grown up knowing that some of her kind hatched from eggs, and some were transformed from humans. It didn't seem strange to her. But to those humans, it remained a source of wonder. The only exception was Uncle Toothless, whose human past was so distant that he'd completely left it behind.

So they didn't want to learn the new language, did they? Fair enough. When she could talk to the various twins in words that the Dragon Island dragons couldn't understand, that would be their bad luck. She smiled at the thought as she turned away.

"Hey, Night-fury-smallest-girl?" Toothless' son called. "Try and stay out of trouble for a few days, just to surprise me, okay?"

"I'll tell you what I'll do," she called back. "I'll surprise you by finding a brand-new kind of trouble to get into. Deal?"

"That's not what I had in mind," Night-fury-newest-boy grimaced. "Please be careful." He was boring, stodgy, and predictable, but he really liked her. He was also smart, determined, and (she hated to admit it) very good-looking. She loved to shake him up, just to watch his reaction, but she never wanted to really upset him. That wasn't fun.

Speaking of fun, how would she find a brand-new kind of trouble to get into? She had no idea. But at least she finally had a goal that was worth pursuing.

Today had turned out to be a pretty good day after all.