First Contact Chapter 13
Bang settled down on a moss-covered ledge, and Agnarr sat and leaned back against him. They were both bone-tired after their first full day in the icy nest, even though all they'd done was teach Forge to willing pupils. More dragons were learning about the new way to talk to the human member of their nest, others were just curious about the human who could speak dragon language, and the number of enthusiastic students had more than doubled over the course of the day. At last, Bang had taken the new students aside and started their lessons from the beginning, while Agnarr continued tutoring Valka and the dragons who had already learned some of the basics. They realized that no other dragon/human pair could have done what they did today, and they felt good about what they'd accomplished. But they were still tired.
"Do you think Tian-long foresaw something like this when he gave me the gift of dragon speech?" Agnarr wondered out loud.
"I doubt it," his dragon friend replied with a yawn. "He did it so you could talk to your brother. He probably guessed that it might come in handy in other ways, but I don't think he ever even heard of a Bewilderbeast. You're expanding your own horizons, with no help from the eastern dragons."
"What are we going to do when the Alpha wants to start learning Forge?" Agnarr asked. "We'll need three teachers – one for beginners, one for intermediate, and one for the King."
"Hopefully, we don't have to solve that problem tonight," Bang replied. "Shall we get some sleep?"
"Gladly." They had barely closed their eyes when they heard and felt a dragon land nearby. It was Cloudjumper.
"The King sends his regards, and asks if the two of you could make a quick overflight of the human trappers' camp? He wants to know what they're building, he doesn't want to risk any dragons by overflying the humans in daylight, and he knows that Night Fury eyes are more sensitive in the dark than any others."
"I'll go," Bang sighed. "You might as well stay here, Agnarr. I doubt you'll be able to see much. Tian-long didn't give you a dragon's eyesight."
"I'm actually glad about that, Bang. From what you and the other Night Furies have told me, I have a better sense of color than you do. I can probably see variations in the colors of all these dragons that you can't perceive. But I might as well fly along with you. If I don't, I'll start to fall asleep, and then you'll wake me up when you return." He slid onto the black dragon's back.
"You just want an excuse to go flying again," Bang teased him.
"Darned right," Agnarr replied with a grin.
"The King will stay awake until you return and report to him," the big Stormcutter told them. "He thinks of you as members of his nest, and he worries about his subjects."
"Tell him we'll play it safe," Bang said as he bounded into the air. He swooped through the entry tunnel a lot faster than he had to, just because it was fun, and because he knew Agnarr was loving every moment of it. The outside air was cold and bracing, and the clouds were thin enough that they could see a few stars. It was a perfect night for flying.
"Shall we take the scenic route?" the dragon asked his rider.
"We're in no hurry," Agnarr replied with a grin. "Of course, we don't want to keep the King up all night. Let's compromise; we'll take the scenic route to the trappers' island, but we'll come straight home afterwards."
"Deal!" To a Night Fury, the scenic route had nothing to do with what was on the ground; it had everything to do with clouds, the moon, and miles and miles of open sky. Bang knew two ways of flying for fun – on the edge of insane, and one step away from the edge because Agnarr was on his back. Tonight, he backed off, just a little, so he didn't send his rider flying, but it was still a wild ride for them both. Agnarr never even thought of complaining.
The trappers' island came into view. The humans had a few campfires burning here and there, giving plenty of light for Bang to see everything; even Agnarr got a pretty good idea of what was going on down there. They circled for half an hour to make sure they weren't missing anything, then flew away so there was not the slightest chance of the humans overhearing them. "It looks to me like they're taking their fort apart to build something else," Bang commented.
"I agree, and the thing they're building is a raft," Agnarr nodded. "I didn't see them doing anything else except trying to catch some fish. Let's go report to the Alpha." They flew straight back, as they'd agreed.
The enormous alpha-dragon stirred when they landed and bowed before him. "Please make your report," he asked.
"The humans are cannibalizing their fortifications to build a raft, Great One," Bang said. "They have no other way of getting off that island."
"Could they use this raft to hunt dragons?"
"No, Great One," Agnarr explained. "There is no place on a raft to keep captured dragons. This is simply an escape attempt, nothing more."
The Alpha looked thoughtful. "If they escape, will they be gone for good?" he wondered.
"No, Great One," man and dragon chorused. Agnarr nodded at Bang, who continued, "They're Vikings; they have stubbornness issues. If they get away, they'll just come back with a bigger ship and better weapons." Agnarr nodded again.
"Will these humans starve if they stay on their island?" the Bewilderbeast asked.
"Probably not," Agnarr replied after a moment's thought. "There are plenty of fish in these waters, and they have tools to make holes in the ice for ice-fishing if they have to. Their diet will grow monotonous, to a human palate, but they won't die from that."
"Then I think it will be good if we keep the trappers right where they are," the Alpha decided. "Will the two of you destroy that raft tomorrow night?"
"We'll be glad to do that, Great One," Bang answered, "but I won't need Agnarr's help for a task like that. I'll want to hit them once and leave, which means I'll need to make a diving attack to gain full destructive power, and I can't dive at full speed with a rider."
"You'll be careful, right?" Agnarr said as he turned to face his black scaly friend. "They still had one or two net-throwers inside their fort."
"They can't shoot me if they can't see me," Bang replied confidently. "They were keeping their fires low, probably to avoid drawing attention from the dragons. They'll never know I'm there until their raft explodes."
"Please be careful, friend," Agnarr urged him. "I know you've done this before, but those guys are ruthless, and they aren't stupid."
"I'll be careful," the dragon nodded. They took their leave of the Alpha and found a quiet place to sleep.
The next day was much like the first one, with two separate Forge classes, except that Bang and Agnarr traded students after the lunchtime feeding celebration, just to make things interesting. Bang waited until long after sunset, even though he was impatient to get the job done. Finally, he took his leave of Agnarr. "It'll take half an hour, at the absolute most," he reassured him.
"What if you take longer than that?" Agnarr asked.
"Then send the Alpha and get my dad, because I'll be in serious trouble," he said lightly. "I could handle the Berserkers; I can handle these guys. Honest – I'll be fine!"
Agnarr gave him a quick scratch behind the ear, and watched him exchange wing-taps with the other dragons who were wishing him well.
"I couldn't follow that conversation," Valka said from behind him, making him jump, "but I get the impression you're worried about him."
"I didn't hear you come up behind me," he blurted out. "Yes, I do worry. He's a trained, experienced warrior from his nose to the tip of his tail, but he's my best friend, aside from my brother, and he'll be out there all by himself…"
She rested a hand on his shoulder. "If you went with him, could you help?"
"Not even a little," he shrugged. "I'm no warrior. I'd just be a weight on his back."
"Then let him go," she urged him. "If he flies into battle knowing that you're nervous, it won't help him and it might hurt."
"Thanks. You're right," he nodded with some embarrassment. He worked his way up to the end of the line of dragons, tapped Bang's wingtip with his open hand, and murmured, "Go get 'em!"
"I will, my friend. I will!" the dragon grinned.
As the Night Fury winged into the entrance tunnel and disappeared, Agnarr turned back to Valka. "How did you learn so much about warriors?"
"I don't know much about warriors," she said offhandedly, "but I do know a thing or two about dragons." She reached up and scratched under Cloudjumper's chin.
"Did you hear our conversation?" Agnarr asked him in dragon.
"I chose not to," the big dragon replied with dignity. "It was obviously personal. If you're worried about your friend, I wouldn't. Worrying never added one inch to the length of your tail. Well, I mean, if you had one."
"Point taken," the boy nodded. "I suppose I ought to sit down and wait until he gets back." He tried to sit still, but within five minutes, he was pacing nervously back and forth. Valka murmured some Forge sounds into Cloudjumper's ear, and Agnarr's pacing path was suddenly blocked by a very big dragon who obviously had no intention of moving. "Fine, you win," he almost snarled, and sat down again.
Waiting was hard.
After half an hour, he turned to Valka. "He should have been back by now."
"Give him a few more minutes," she replied, trying to sound confident.
Fifteen minutes later, he quietly told her, "If you and your dragon don't take me out there, right now, I am going to train another dragon and fly out there myself."
"The other dragons are all asleep," she answered. "Waking a sleeping dragon isn't a smart move. If you wake one up, they'll probably flame first and ask questions later."
"I know that," he shot back. "That's an indication of how desperate I am to find out what's happened to Bang."
"Fine," she sighed. "Cloudjumper, we've got a little work to do, and we're going to have a passenger." Her dragon couldn't understand that, so she tried again in Forge. "We fly now, with small human. We find Night Fury."
"Good," the Stormcutter answered. "I start to worry about him."