Night Furies: the Next Generation Chapter 18

They had barely settled the question of Agmundr's new name when Newest-boy noticed a V-formation of Night Furies approaching at high altitude – two adults and three hatchlings. Four of them broke formation and spiraled down towards them, but one of the adults stayed aloft.

"That will be your Uncle Toothless, counting Night Furies and wondering what the heck we've done this time," Hiccup suggested. Lady-night-fury was the first to land, and after threatening to give her son the thrashing of his life if he ever pulled a stunt like that again, they shared a TrueSight. It took her a while to process all that she received from him, and by that time, the three small Night Furies had landed. She introduced her daughter, Night-fury-first-girl, and the twin girls met their older brother and sisters for the first time. Thing One and Thing Two were every bit as cute as their father had suggested. It took a lot of nose-rubbing for everyone to meet everyone else. Finally, Toothless landed.

"What in the world have you done this time?" he demanded. "I should be used to the insanity this family produces every time I turn around, but how did you double your numbers in less than a month?"

"Long story," Bang replied. "I'll sum up: we met three Asian dragons who were Grounded and wanted to turn into Night Furies so they could fly again. Six tried to transform them and heal Agmundr all at once, but something went wrong and she transformed him as well. Then –"

"That never could have worked," Toothless exclaimed.

"What do you mean?" Six asked, perplexed.

"You can do a transformation, or you can do a healing, but not both at once," he answered. "That's why I couldn't heal my own tail at the same time I transformed your parents. The Power just doesn't work that way."

All the other dragons stared at him. "You're a fine one for keeping secrets!" Hiccup finally burst out. "None of us knew that!"

"You didn't?" Toothless looked as surprised as the others.

"I know you never told me that," Astrid said firmly.

"Or me," Hiccup added. The twins shook their heads.

"I never got a chance to teach you, Hiccup, because you used your Power before I could say anything about it," Toothless said defensively. "I didn't mention it to Night-fury-mother-of-twins because she was only going to transform one person… for which I remain very thankful," he added, wrapping a wing around his mate. "I thought the rest of you were still too young to use your Power."

"You thought wrong," Bang said with a touch of anger.

Toothless slowly faced Agmundr and hung his head. "Then I think I owe you a huge apology," he said slowly.

"Like Six said – even a dragon's life is too short to stay angry," the younger Night Fury answered. "I forgive you. I was toying with the idea of becoming a dragon anyway, so it's not like she hit me with something new and unheard-of. Life happens; it can't be undone; I'll adjust. I have to admit, flying is a lot more fun than hammering out ring bolts for longships." They shared a quick TrueSight, mostly because Agmundr wanted to be sure Toothless believed him.

"So it wasn't my fault?" Six quavered. "I didn't do something wrong?"

"Evidently not," Astrid replied. "I hope you weren't feeling guilty about it. And from now on, we are going to tell all our children everything they need to know, as soon as they're able to use that information, whether we think they're old enough yet or not. Right?"

"Right," Hiccup nodded. Six practically threw herself against Agmundr, who wrapped a comforting wing around her. He was getting more accustomed to making that gesture.

"Anyway," Bang said, "we found another nest that was being made miserable by an off-center Night Fury, so we made a battle plan out of Faithful-brother's idea, and I used my Power to heal the Night Fury's mind. That's him; he left that nest because... Uncle Toothless, what's wrong?"

Toothless and Night-fury-new-beginning were staring at each other, open-mouthed. They each took two steps toward each other, and then they were both trying to talk at once.

"Wait a minute..." "Hold on a second..." "You look familiar." "Don't I know you?" "Were you transformed near the Caspian Sea?" "Did your mother have a silver mark on one ear?" "Are you serious?" "I can't believe this!"

Astrid smacked her face with a wing, in a dragon face-palm. "Don't tell me you two know each other!?"

"Know each other?" Toothless burst out. "We're related! He's my nest-brother!"

"My father was the one who transformed him!" New-beginning added. "I was hatched two years before he became a Night Fury. I actually helped teach him how to dive! My mother took me away after that, so our population wouldn't be too concentrated."

"I haven't seen you in almost a hundred years!" Toothless exclaimed. "I didn't even know if you were still alive!" He turned to Hiccup. "Hatching family and transforming family wasn't enough for you – now your clan is bringing in family for me, too? Is there no limit to what you'll come up with?"

"If it really bothers you, I guess we could send him back," Six said slyly.

"NO!" both Night Furies burst out. They were nearly nose-to-nose by now.

"Anyway," Bang went on, "he left that nest because he knew they couldn't trust him, and we left one of our new yearlings behind in his place. The three of them are going to rotate their responsibility every three months until they reach adulthood. New-beginning is going to take over the Outcast Island nest in the morning."

"Could you make it a few days from now?" Toothless asked earnestly. "We need a little time to catch each other up on our lives, and... get to know each other again." They both blinked hard; the others recognized the signs of a TrueSight, and waited until both of them indicated they were ready and listening to the group again.

Guana was the first to speak. "Night-fury-makes-one-heck-of-a-bang, I thought you were supposed to use your Power to make a new Night Fury." She nodded at New-Beginning. "I'm sure he's grateful, but he's not new."

"I'm following in my dad's footsteps, healing an injured dragon so he can be of some use to the nest," Bang countered. "Besides, my sister used her Power to make four Night Furies, so if you take the two of us together, I don't think we owe our species anything."

"Well put," Toothless nodded. "It sounds like you had an adventure for the ages. When am I going to hear all the details?"

"We'll start telling the story to all the dragons tonight," Bang said, glancing at his father for approval. "You can stick around and listen, but it will probably take longer than one night to tell the tale. Maybe we'll visit your nest and tell it again in a few days; I'm sure your dragons will want to know what your son has been up to."

"That might be best," Guana nodded, then turned to Newest-boy. "At least there's one of you who isn't growing up too fast. Can I still call you Newest-boy?"

"With respect, Aunt Guana, I think he's earned a new name as well," Six said hesitantly. "He was the main flight teacher for the new Night Furies, he was Agnarr's teacher for dragon language, and he was very patient and effective in both roles. It wouldn't shock me if he became known as Night-fury-young-teacher."

Guana started to object, but glanced at her mate. Toothless looked like he might burst from pride. "Oh, go ahead, say it!" she said resignedly. "You know you want to."

"That's my boy!" Toothless burst out with a huge smile. "Son, I'm proud of you. Even if you did give your mother a heart attack when you left."

"We're all proud of all of you," Astrid added. "Maybe your odyssey didn't start the way we might have preferred, but you've done well. Very well. Please don't do it again!" The group took that as their cue to break up into sub-groups. Astrid and Hiccup were getting more details out of Six and Bang, with Thing One and Thing Two as fascinated listeners; Toothless and New-beginning were talking a mile a minute, while Night-fury-first-girl sat on her father's back, listening in; and Guana was eagerly hearing all three of the newly-transformed dragons' stories.

Night-fury-young-teacher pulled Night-fury-full-of-surprises aside. "I'm surprised you got off so lightly! I'm sure my dad will give me a good slap when we get home... but it was worth it. You've got to admit, doing things the adult way paid off a lot better for you than acting like a hatchling."

Night-fury-full-of-surprises grinned. "You've got to admit, I definitely found a brand-new kind of trouble to get into!"

o

Agnarr was wandering around the village in the dark, looking for something to kick. He knew he would probably hurt his foot, but kicking something might make him feel better.

He'd eaten supper in the Mead Hall for the first time in weeks. He didn't expect huge amounts of attention, but it would have been nice if somebody noticed that he was back! Gobber wasn't there, and not one other Viking in that room even noticed his existence. He'd never felt so isolated in all his life.

He passed a solitary Gronckle who had slept the day away and was now considering a late-night fishing trip. "Hello," he said in dragon. "Hello," the Gronckle replied, and buzzed away.

He wound up by the forge, which was dark and cold. He entered cautiously, not sure if anything had been moved since he went away, and not wanting to trip on anything in the dark. The clouds blocked the moonlight, so it was hard to see anything.

This workshop for metal was as close as he'd ever come to finding a place he could call "home." In the Berserkers' realm, he and his brother had been bounced from relative to relative, none of whom had any use for them. They'd finally been handed over to Slobberguts, the local smith, whose treatment of them bordered on abusive. Then they'd been carried off to Berk by the dragons, given a spare room to live in, and put to work in the forge under Gobber. Gobber could be kind now and then, but they still relied on each other more than on anyone else. Now his brother was spending quality time with the other Night Furies, their spare room was cold, dark, and empty, and the only place on earth that seemed even remotely pleasant was the forge. It was familiar; there were no threats there that he couldn't handle; he could do things there that would earn respect, for a few minutes at least. But not at night, not in the dark, not all by himself. He soon left... and nearly tripped over a darker-than-dark shape that was waiting by the door.

"Hi," Agmundr said.

"Hey," Agnarr replied listlessly. He wasn't fully comfortable with dragon-speech yet, either speaking it or understanding it, so he spoke Norse.

"I knew I would find you here."

"How come you're not flying to the moon with Six?"

"I tried, earlier tonight. She flies circles around me. I cannot approach her as equal in the sky yet."

"That must stink."

"No one has perfect place in life, except maybe Hiccup."

"There's only one Hiccup," Agnarr snorted. "I might be an underdeveloped, unappreciated smith's apprentice with no friends, but I'm no Hiccup."

"Neither am I, but you will always have one friend. I know you are feeling lonely."

Agnarr almost blurted out, "What do you know about feeling lonely? For the first time in your life, you're part of a group that accepts you and loves you! You might even have a girl friend! I'm the one who's been left all by himself! Don't talk to me about 'lonely'!" But he didn't say it. One simple thought held him back. He's still my twin brother. Of course he knows how I feel. He always knows.

He just rested his hand on his brother's black, scaly neck for a few seconds. Then, on a sudden impulse, he jumped onto the Night Fury's back. In dragon, he exclaimed, "Agmundr, let's fly together. Just you and me."

"I thought you'd never ask," his brother answered. "Hold on tight."

The End

o

A/N
Many people make suggestions for future stories when they write reviews; some of them are quite creative. I always take that as a compliment. But most of the time, your suggestions aren't my style, or don't catch my interest, so I don't follow them. The exception is when I get multiple suggestions on the same topic. I haven't counted, but I got enough requests for "more about Toothless and Guana's son" and "more about the smith twins" that I decided I ought to bow to public opinion and do something about it.

My original intent was for the chief of the Asian dragons to heal both of the human twins, who would both ask for long lives so they could live with their dragon friends for centuries. One of the dragons would then transform the three young Grounded dragons into Night Furies as an act of compassion. But that seemed just a little too much like "taking the easy way out." I decided to throw my characters (and you, the readers) a curve ball instead, and see how everyone handled it.

The idea of Toothless and Night-fury-new-beginning being related was almost an afterthought, added to the final chapter just three days before I posted it. At first, I meant for the two of them to be half-brothers, with the same mother but different fathers... but then I remembered, Toothless doesn't have a dragon mother! He got transformed – I established that back in chapter 3 of the original story! Fortunately, I remembered this and fixed it, just a day before I posted this chapter. Otherwise, the continuity cops would have been all over me for messing up my own timeline, and rightfully so.

As usual, I threw in an assortment of references to other stories. In this tale, they included The Lion King, The Hobbit, Star Wars (sort of), The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and The Cat in the Hat.

The interesting thing about this story is that the main characters (the two sets of twins) are all OC's. It's uncommon for a story like that to draw much attention. To all the readers who hit the Favorite and Follow buttons, and to all the reviewers, thank you.