Dragons Against Drago Chapter 3
The plan worked, more or less. The Alpha told the Night Furies and Scrubby, "I will send you a mental signal when I'm about to break the surface. That will be your warning to prepare for a quick take-off. I'll want to submerge again as quickly as I can." Varinn and Fluffernut very nervously climbed inside the Bewilderbeast's open mouth with little Dagnut, the five outbound dragons each gripped a thick spine with their claws, the Alpha closed his mouth, and they all took a deep breath just before he dove.
Hanging onto those spines was hard. The Bewilderbeast went a lot faster underwater than they expected, and the force of the water flowing past them nearly tore them away from their perches. Holding their breath was almost easy by comparison. After what seemed like far too long, the dragons felt a tingling in their minds, much like the go-out signal that Hiccup and Astrid remembered from their days serving the Mother in the Dragon Island nest, but less irritating. A few seconds later, the Bewilderbeast broke the surface.
"Faithful-brother! Scrubby! Get your humans, fast!" Hiccup ordered. Those two dragons swooped toward the Alpha's open mouth. Scrubby got there first and caught Fluff and Dagnut away. Agmundr was right behind him, and grabbed Varinn as gently as he could at the high speed he was moving. Hastily-aimed catapult stones and ballista spears began falling around them as they gained height; some of them hit the Bewilderbeast, and while they weren't damaging hits, they had to hurt. "Thank you, Great One!" Hiccup shouted as they watched him dive with a great splash; then he had to dodge a ballista spear that came too close for comfort.
Before they went very far, they had to sort out their passengers, who were dangling from their dragons' claws – they could never fly all the way home that way! Hiccup flew just under Varinn so the human could stand on his back. Agmundr released him, then flew just under Hiccup so Varinn could climb down onto Agmundr's back. Astrid repeated the maneuver with Fluff and Scrubby. Once the humans were seated comfortably on their dragons' backs, they all joined formation so they could talk.
"We're probably the first humans ever to enter a dragon's mouth and get out again," Varinn began. "And I really hope we're the last! That wasn't an experience I ever want to repeat, even though it may have saved our lives."
"We all seem to be okay," Fluff commented. "Thank you for the rescue."
"Anyone know why humans attack dragons?" Bang asked.
"Agmundr and I did some sneaking around, without the Alpha's knowledge," Varinn admitted. "Most of the time, we couldn't get out of the nest without being noticed, but we did get out a couple of times and did some scouting. Here's what we know.
"The humans are bossed around by someone called Drago Bludvist. We don't know what his goals are, but he definitely has it in for the Alpha, and he treats his people like slaves. His dragons... even worse. They serve him because they've been bullied and starved into obeying. They're so afraid of him, they won't even consider rebelling against him."
"Once you knew this, why you not fly back to Berk and tell us?" Astrid demanded.
"And leave my wife and son behind in a potential war zone? I'm not that kind of Viking!" Varinn exclaimed with a touch of anger. "My first priority is my family. You must know that about me!"
"I couldn't go, and leave them with no way home," Agmundr added.
"I couldn't sneak out with him," Scrubby added. "I'm not black and I'm not that fast."
"We can't fault them for that," Hiccup decided. "Okay, now we know a little bit about what's going on there. The next trick will be working out a strike plan that will warn the Alpha, hurt the invaders, and keep our own losses to a minimum."
"Actually," Astrid corrected him, "the next trick will be convincing our dragons to fight for a nest that isn't theirs."
"Hmm. You're right, I'm afraid," Hiccup nodded. Dragons had never been noted for their altruism. When they got back to Berk the following evening and told everyone their story, Astrid's fears were realized – everyone was outraged at their story, but the only dragons willing to join the Night Furies in their assault on Drago's forces were Cloudjumper and the Rumblehorn whom Stoick called Skullcrusher.
"It might be best if you stayed out of it," Hiccup told the Rumblehorn gently. "You'll be the only slow-moving target in our attack force, and you probably won't last five minutes." Skullcrusher thought that over for a few seconds and reluctantly nodded. "But if you want to help," Hiccup added, "can you fly to the Dragon Island nest and bring the Night Furies back with you?" He bounded into the air and was soon lost to sight.
Two and a half hours later, he returned with Toothless, Guana, and Young-Teacher. "If this is going to be a Night-Furies-only affair," Toothless commented, "then we don't add up to much of an air force."
Their numbers were small, but numbers rarely tell the whole story. When they gathered to discuss tactics, they included New-night-fury, Night-fury-mother-of-twins, Night-fury, Lady-night-fury, Night-fury-makes-one-heck-of-a-bang, Night-fury-six-shooter, Night-fury-young-teacher, Night-fury-full-of-surprises, Night-fury-faithful-brother, and Night-fury-pu-lao – ten deadly dragons, eight of whom had already earned the accolade of "awesome fighting dragon." Night-fury-bi-xi was persuaded to stay behind to look after the Berk nest and the young Night Furies there, in case something did go wrong, and Night-fury-new-beginning remained at the Outcast Island nest for the same reason, as did Night-fury-chi-wen at the mountain-lake nest. Night-fury-thing-one begged and pleaded for a chance to go along, but both of her parents firmly refused. Cloudjumper invited himself to join the war party; Hiccup thought for a moment and allowed him into the circle.
"So what's the plan?" Astrid wondered.
"The way I see it, we should divide ourselves three ways," Hiccup replied. "Four Night Furies to take out the catapults and the net-throwers, three to focus on the dragon traps, and three to deal with the dragons that have sided with Drago."
"Why focus on the dragon traps at the outset?" Bang asked. "They can't hurt us while we're in the air. It would make more sense to put five of us on the catapults and five on the dragons, wouldn't it? Once those threats have been dealt with, we can take out the traps at our leisure."
"The young dragon makes a good point," Toothless agreed.
"Okay, five and five it is," Hiccup decided. "The ones who fight the dragons are going to have a tough job, because you'll be outnumbered and because we don't want to hurt them if we can avoid it. I'm thinking that a few low-powered firebolts at those iron masks could send the message that they're messing with the wrong dragons. Any other ideas?"
"Shoot right in front of their faces," Six said after a moment. "We can ruin their night vision, and if they're mostly Rumblehorns, that vision won't be too good to start with. They can't hurt us if they can't see us."
"They can smell us," Bang objected.
"That won't help them in an air-to-air battle," Astrid said. "We'll be moving way too fast. Their sense of smell will let them track us, but it won't do them any good if they want to target us."
"What if we lured them into chasing us at low altitude?" Bang asked. "The humans will have a hard time seeing us, but they'll see the Rumblehorns, and they may shoot a few nets at them. Those nets probably won't miss."
"You think they'll shoot their own dragons?" Surprises wondered.
"I think they won't be able to tell the difference in the dark," Bang replied. "Once we start attacking, they'll probably shoot first and ask questions later."
"That will be a good tactic for the beginning of our strike," Toothless thought out loud. "Once we've launched a bunch of firebolts and lit up the battlefield with burning debris, the humans will be able to see the fires reflecting off those iron masks, so they'll know who's on their side. Our first attacks should have a long, flat pull-out instead of a zoom back to altitude; we want to lure their dragons to follow us. If they only shoot down one of their own dragons, that's one less dragon for us to deal with. Then, when there's enough light for the humans to see, we'll return to our usual dive-and-climb attacks."
"What is my role?" Cloudjumper wanted to know. "I can't attack like you can, but I think I've got a lot to offer."
"You'll make one low, fast attack, maybe two, before the humans get their defenses working," Hiccup said. "After that, your main role will be helping the dragons of your own nest get organized as they make their way out the exit. Once the Alpha gets into the battle, you'll do as he says, of course."
"What if Valka gives me orders?" he asked.
"Valka isn't going," Hiccup replied.
"Yes, she is," Cloudjumper retorted firmly. "We do everything together, even fight."
"Have you asked her about this?" Astrid wondered.
"I don't need to ask. I know her," the Stormcutter replied. "She hates being left out of anything I do."
"Won't her weight hinder you from maneuvering freely?" Toothless asked him.
"I'm a lot bigger and stronger than you are," he said with a touch of pride. "She isn't that heavy, and her weight doesn't hold me back at all. She's been my companion for twenty years, helping me the same way I help the Alpha. We make a good team, her and I; I think I will fight better with her than without her." He sat down, raised his head to its full height, and glared down at them with an air of finality.
Hiccup glanced at Astrid and Toothless to see if they had any ideas, then sighed. "Very well. Our strike force is up to twelve – ten Night Furies, one Stormcutter, and a human. Cloudjumper, please take good care of that human!"
"Of course I will! I always have," Cloudjumper answered. He sounded offended at the suggestion.
On and on they went, ironing out details and dreaming up contingency plans in case of something unforeseen. It took them over an hour. Then they exchanged TrueSights with some of the dragons who would stay behind, grabbed a quick snack from the sea, waited while Cloudjumper picked up Valka, and headed east for the Alpha's nest, and battle.
As they took off, they heard a human bellow. "Valka! What's going on? Where are you going?"
"I'm going to help the dragons, Stoick," she called over her shoulder. "My nest is under attack; I have to do this. I'll be back in a few days, when it's all over." A few minutes later, Rumblehorn-green-and-red caught up to them, with Stoick the Vast on his back, armed and armored for battle.
"Rumblehorn, I thought we agreed that you'd stay out of this," Hiccup burst out.
"My rider said 'go,' so I went," the big dragon said, a bit sheepishly.
"Stoick, this is going to be a dragon fight!" Valka burst out. "There will be no place for a Viking warrior in a raid like this!"
"I'll make a place," he called back, trying not to sound too belligerent. "If you're going into battle, then I'm going too." He folded his arms and glared defiantly at his wife, then at each of the dragons in turn.
"Now we all know where I got my boar-headed, stubborn side," Hiccup sighed. They flew onward, their numbers augmented by one more dragon and one more human.