Night Furies: the Next Generation Chapter 8
"Now what do we do?" Smallest-girl demanded as five presumably-friendly dragons fled them in fear.
"Catch up with the Zippleback!" Six decided. "He'll be the easiest to catch, and with two heads to talk to, we're more likely to get some answers." Overtaking the big dragon was easy for even the small Night Furies. They came up fast, two on either side of him.
"Slow down," Bang exclaimed. "Are you afraid of us?"
"Wait – there's two of you!" one head exclaimed. "Make that four!" the other head added. "And none of you look familiar! Should we know you?"
"No, we're just passing through," Six explained. "I'm Night-fury-six-shooter; that's my twin brother, Night-fury-makes-one-heck-of-a-bang; this is my sister, Night-fury-smallest-girl; and that's Night-fury-newest boy; he's a friend of the family."
"Twin brother?!" both heads of the Zippleback burst out at once. "We thought Night Furies laid one egg a year!"
"It's a long story, and we'd be glad to tell it to you," Bang began, "but that can wait. Why did everyone panic and take off when they saw us? Where we come from, everybody loves Night Furies."
The Zippleback slowed down to an easy glide. "I'm Arson," the right-hand head said, "and he's Sterno. We're sorry we flew away, but we thought you were someone else."
"We used to dream of having a Night Fury in our nest," Sterno said sadly, "but that was before Night-fury-ruler came along, about five years ago. He's been terrorizing the nest ever since! He demands tributes whenever we go fishing, he throws firebolts around if he doesn't get his own way, he does nothing to help us with our problems, and…" He turned to his other head. "Should we tell them?"
Arson nodded. "He tries to mate with our females," he said, hanging his head in shame at the thought.
"WHAT?!" the four Night Furies exploded.
"He says it's his destiny to mate and repopulate his species," Sterno added. "He doesn't care that he can't make eggs with other kinds of dragons, or that none of our females even like him! They don't let him, of course, but..." He stared at Six. "You're a female! If he ever catches sight of you, he'd…"
"It'll be a cold day in a Fireworm's nest before that ever happens!" Six exclaimed.
"It'll be an even colder day when I let that happen!" Bang snarled. "The way you're talking, you make this Night-fury-ruler sound like he's… off-center."
Both Zippleback heads nodded reluctantly. Then they both perked up. "But there are four of you, and only one of him! We know Night Furies are supposed to help the nest. Can you do something for us? Please?"
Bang looked at Six. "You know, this would be a really good time to have the adults around."
"You said it!" she exclaimed. "We've both been in battle, but I don't think we could kill another Night Fury. And if he's off-center, I don't know what else would do any good."
"We could chase him away," Newest-boy suggested.
"And he'd come back as soon as we went home," Bang finished. He turned back to the Zippleback. "We can't stay anyway; we're dealing with a life-or-death situation, and time is getting short. But I promise you this: when we've resolved our big problem, we'll fly back here and we will do something about this rogue Night Fury. You have my word on that."
"And mine," Six added. "I was totally shocked when you fled from us. That renegade could give us all a bad name! Our parents have fought too hard and sacrificed too much to teach us what it means to be a Night Fury; we will not let this guy ruin our reputation." The younger Night Furies nodded in agreement.
"If that's the best you can do, then we'll wait," Arson said slowly.
"Well, there's one more thing we can do before we go," Bang decided. "We're about to go fishing. Once we've gotten our breakfast, there will probably be quite a few stunned fish left on the surface of the lake. Feel free to help yourselves."
"Thank you!" both heads smiled. "Thank you very much! I guess the old legends about Night Furies are true, and Night-fury-ruler really is an exception."
Sterno added, "Can we tell the others you'll be back to deal with him?"
"If it will give them hope, then yes, please tell them," Six replied. "We don't know when that will happen, but we've given our word, and to us, that means something."
"We'll tell them," both heads chorused. "Shall we go back to the lake?" They gracefully turned one hundred and eighty degrees, returned to the lake, and found a school of fat sunfish.
"Want to do the honors, Smallest-girl?" Bang smiled.
"Yeah!" she grinned. She pulled up into a loop to gain some height, folded her wings for a quick dive, and let fly with her best firebolt. In seconds, the surface of the lake was littered with floating fish.
"Nice shot," Bang complimented her. The four Night Furies filled themselves, grabbed a few good ones for Agnarr and Agmundr, and flew up to their cliff. "Enjoy the fish!" they called over their shoulders to Arson and Sterno, who were having a hard time deciding where to start.
Back on the ledge, the dragons dropped their fish to their human friends. "Girl, Boy, keep them company," Six called. "We have to round up some firewood for them – they just don't appreciate raw fish for some reason." The dragon twins headed for a stand of pine trees where they hoped to find some deadwood they could carry.
"How, exactly, are we going to help those dragons get rid of an off-center Night Fury?" she asked her brother.
"I haven't the slightest idea," he replied. "Like I said, I wish Mom and Dad were here. We're going to have to handle this one on our own. Maybe I'll think of something by the time we pass this way on the homeward-bound trip."
"Maybe we should explain the situation to our humans," she suggested. "They've got good minds, and they'll probably be glad for the chance to use them. It might even… help take their minds off the pain they're in."
"Now that is a good idea," Bang nodded approvingly. They found plenty of downed, dry branches, and brought an assortment back to the ledge. One small firebolt later, the humans had a fine fire going, and the air was filled with the smell of fish cooking. The dragons explained what had happened below; it took a while because their Forge vocabulary didn't include all the words they wanted to use. They had to scratch a few runes on the ledge to fully get the idea across.
"Interesting problem," Agmundr said slowly. "I think about that."
"Likewise," his brother added, "but he is the real thinker. Between the six of us, maybe we come up with something."
"I hope," Six announced. "It burned me to see dragons fly from us, afraid! Very much do not want!"
Soon, breakfast was over, and it was time to pack up and resume their journey. Night-fury-smallest-girl didn't give anyone a hard time, but a new problem surfaced. Agmundr's arm was hurting him enough that he had a hard time tying knots; his brother had to do the bulk of the work. That went slowly because he was beginning to be affected by the pain in his leg.
"What's going to happen when we can't do this anymore?" he asked.
"I guess my next project should be figuring out some way for the dragons to do it," Agmundr said distractedly. "If we'd had more time to plan this trip, we might have brought some leather and some tools so we could make straps and buckles. Let me think about that." He was talking as though he was planning some improvements to the forge, not the impending end of his own life. Agnarr could have wept. But that wasn't the Viking way.