Colossal Cave Chapter 1

A/N
Chief-night-fury, formerly known as Hiccup, has led the dragons of Berk in two resounding military victories, one against the huge and powerful Berserker tribe, and the second against the combined tribes of the Barbaric Archipelago. He had hoped that these victories would lead to peace. But now, he may have another war on his hands... and this time, his enemies will be dragons!

...and yet another expansion of "Lightning and Death Itself" begins. This won't be a long story, but it's one of those ideas that wouldn't leave me alone until I wrote it out. I hope you like it. The name "Colossal Cave" comes from the name of the first computer game I ever played, and it has a double meaning that you'll learn later in the tale. If you need to refresh your memory about how all the Night Furies relate to each other, feel free to refer to the genealogy at the end of Chapter 7 of "Dragons Against Drago." (I did so several times as I wrote this.)

o

The Night Furies held a meeting the next day and decided that the Outcasts' new heavy weapons had to go.

Once Night-fury-new-beginning had described the problem for everyone, Chief-night-fury stepped forward. "I don't think there's any need for debate," he stated. "Those ballistae are a real threat to the dragons on Outcast Island, and to any other dragon who visits there. So far, we've been lucky, but it's just a matter of time before the Outcasts get lucky instead. I don't want to hear that they shot one of us down."

"Not only that," Night-fury-makes-one-heck-of-a-bang added, "but it's also a matter of time before those Outcasts decide to make some money by selling a ballista or two to their neighbors. Those things could spread all over the Archipelago in less than a year! Yes, some of the Viking tribes are thinking about being nice to dragons, but some of them aren't. I got hit by a hand-thrown spear in the Berserker War, and the memory of it still haunts me. When I think about getting hit by a machine-thrown spear... I'm sorry, but I don't like that thought, not even a little."

"We all remember that awful night," Hiccup nodded. "None of us wants a repeat. Still, I'm a chief, not a dictator. We're running a risk by attacking those things; I want us all to be in agreement about it. If anyone has any good reasons why we shouldn't blast those things off the map, I'd like to hear them."

"I have just one worry," Full-of-surprises said. "What's going to stop the Outcasts from building more of those 'things' after we blow them up?"

"I'm sure they'll try," Chief-night-fury replied. "But there have to be some specialized parts that go into a weapon like that; otherwise, all the Vikings around here would have figured out how to make them by now. The Outcasts can't have many of those parts. It's possible that they can make a few themselves, but they probably have to trade with the Romans to get them in any quantity. And the Outcasts, as we all know, are not a wealthy tribe. They don't have many resources on that island beyond dirt and rocks. They'll quickly run out of the kinds of trade goods that the Romans want. When that happens, they're going to run out of those special weapon parts in a hurry, once we start turning their fancy new weapons into holes in the ground. Maybe they can rebuild them once; maybe even twice. But once we start a sustained campaign against them, they're going to reach a place where they can't replace their losses, and I think that will happen sooner, not later."

"Good point," Full-of-surprises agreed.

"There's another aspect to that," Night-fury-six-shooter added. "Once we start a sustained campaign against them, they're also going to run out of volunteers to man those weapons. Nobody wants to put themselves at Ground Zero for a Night Fury firebolt when you know it's coming!"

"Another good point," Toothless said.

"But Alvin doesn't ask for volunteers," Night-fury-mother-of-twins pointed out. "He gives orders. Loud, scary orders."

"He can give all the orders he wants," Hiccup said. "But if his men know they're as good as dead if they stay near a ballista at night, then whenever Alvin isn't watching, they'll keep a safe distance away from those weapons. Some of them might desert their posts outright; they'd figure that even an angry Alvin isn't as dangerous as an angry Night Fury. Either way, Six is right. Our first raid on the ballistae will be hazardous, but our follow-up raids may not be much more than target practice against motionless targets."

"About the 'hazardous' part," Lady-night-fury cut in. "These weapons have proven themselves deadly to dragons. What's the plan for keeping us from getting hurt, Hiccup?"

"The plan is 'safety in numbers,' which is something that the Night Furies have never been able to do before. New-beginning, you've told us that the ballistae are usually emplaced in groups of three?"

Night-fury-new-beginning nodded. "The last time we counted, they have two groups of three and one group of four. They move them around a lot, and they always have one weapon facing to the rear, to guard against sneak attacks."

"I'm surprised that they thought of that precaution," Mother-of-Twins said. "Vikings aren't known for their flexible tactics, or their flexible thinking, for that matter."

"I suppose even the Outcasts can learn from past mistakes," Night-fury-faithful-brother murmured to Night-fury-smith-flies-for-fun, who nodded.

"Anyway," Chief-night-fury went on, "we're going to divide ourselves into three groups of five Night Furies each, one group for each of the three emplacements that New-beginning has told us about. In each group, the first Night Fury will hit the rear-facing ballista, then pull out toward the rear, which will become a safe place for us to go. The second one's job is to watch for anything unexpected that might threaten the others, like a crossbow-shooter or a nearby catapult, and take it out. The third, the fourth, and the fifth one if necessary will each hit one of the other ballistae, and they'll all pull out toward the rear. We'll meet at New-beginning's nest afterward and compare notes, to make sure we got them all. Any other questions?"

"This isn't a question," New-beginning said, "but I really want to thank you all for being willing to put your lives on the line to make my nest a safer place."

"Night Furies look after the nest," Toothless intoned. "We all know that; it's one of our oldest traditions."

"But it doesn't say which nest we look after," Hiccup added impishly, "so as long as I'm making the final decisions, we'll look after every nest we can. Any other issues? Okay! Mother-of-twins, break us up into teams."

Half an hour later, three line-ahead formations of Night Furies were silently winging toward Outcast Island at high altitude. New-beginning had described where the three ballista emplacements were, as of last night. It was possible that they might have moved, but Hiccup wasn't too worried about that. They could make adjustments on the fly if they had to. He flew in the first team, along with his daughters Six and Thing One, Faithful-brother, and Smith-flies-for-fun. His mate led the second team with Bang, Full-of-surprises, and the two ex-Chinese dragons, Chi-wen and Bi-xi, who were slowly overcoming their reluctance to inflict fiery punishment on the dragons' enemies. New-beginning led the third team with Thing Two, Toothless, Guana, and their oldest daughter Night-fury-first-girl, who was nearing adulthood and was counted worthy to take part in this strike. First-girl was secretly hoping to do something special tonight and finally earn an adult name.

Finding the ballista emplacements wasn't hard; very little can evade a Night Fury's keen night vision, especially when they know what to look for and where to find it. The emplacement assigned to Hiccup's team had been shifted about a hundred yards away from where they expected to find it. That was actually good news; it had shifted further away from a nest of Outcast catapults as well. The Night Furies said little; they had exchanged TrueSights with each other before they took off, so there was nothing left to say except, "Let's do this!" They got into position, spaced themselves about three seconds apart, and rolled into their dives.

The first three firebolts hit almost simultaneously, and it went without saying that nobody missed. None of the number-two attackers found anything in the emplacements that was worth shooting at. Six altered her dive path toward the nest of catapults and loosed her trademark sextuple bolt; she set three catapults on fire and cracked the firing arm on a fourth. The other number-two attackers, Full-of-surprises and Toothless, just fired where their leaders had fired, not because they thought the target needed more damage, but simply because they couldn't hold back their fires any longer. The others took out the remaining ballistae according to plan. They all swooped back up to high altitude before circling down and meeting in New-beginning's nest.

"I'd call that raid a success," Smith-flies-for-fun said offhandedly.

"I'd say it was perfect," Chief-night-fury nodded. "It's about time one of our adventures went exactly the way we planned it! All targets destroyed, and no casualties among the dragons."

"What about human casualties?" Bi-xi asked soberly.

Mother-of-twins answered that. "We have no idea about Outcast casualties because we didn't dare stick around and count them. An Outcast crossbow can kill a Night Fury as easily as a ballista can, if the user gets lucky. The numbers were probably low, though; as soon as the first firebolt hit, it looked like the rest of the men scattered in panic. Besides, our goal was never to harm the humans, although that was unavoidable to some extent. We just want to persuade those humans to stop making ballistae and shooting them at us."

Guana finished her thought. "They probably won't get the message this time, but after we hit them once or twice more, maybe they'll get the idea."

"Again, I want to thank you all," New-beginning said. "You probably saved the life of one of my dragons, maybe more than one. Maybe even me."

"You're welcome," Toothless answered. "You'll let us know when they make another batch of targets for us?"

"Definitely," New-beginning agreed.

"That's it, then," Hiccup decided. "We'll say, 'mission accomplished' and head home." They all exchanged wing-taps and took to the skies, except for New-beginning, who was already home. Toothless, Guana, and First-girl headed back to Dragon Island, while the others returned to Berk.

"Did I do anything special tonight?" First-girl asked her parents eagerly.

"Well," Toothless mused, "you did everything you were supposed to do, but I'm not sure you did anything out of the ordinary."

"Please, Dad?" she begged. "Why do I have to wait so long to get my adult name?"

"You'll get it when you've earned it," her father replied. "You just have to be patient. I know it's hard; every young dragon has trouble being patient."

"And every young human, too!" her mother added.

"But why do I have to wait so long?" she demanded. "My brother was barely a yearling when he..." She broke off. Night-fury-young-teacher was still a sore subject; Toothless, in particular, still missed his firstborn son terribly.

Guana fielded that one. "Your brother earned his adult name by traveling halfway around the world, teaching a trio of young Night Furies to fly, and teaching another new Night Fury how to talk. And he did those things by completely disobeying your father and I! We'd rather keep calling you by your hatching-name for another year than see you go through something like that. Just wait; your opportunity will come, and you'll get a good adult name without earning a world-class tail-smack along the way."

"I hate waiting," First-girl said quietly, "but I hate tail-smacks, too." She let the matter drop. Acting impatient wouldn't help her cause.

Meanwhile, Smith-flies-for-fun and Full-of-surprises had left the family group and were taking the long way home. "It sure is a beautiful starry night," he said softly as they glided over the ocean.

"Does that mean something special?" she asked, hoping that it did.

"When you're a human and you're in love, taking your special one for a walk on a starry night is considered very romantic," he explained. "I never got do to that as a human because the girls didn't like me... and now, if you and I tried to walk here, we'd get very wet."

"That's true," she nodded with a suggestive purr, "but there are other things that Night Furies can do on a starry night. Too bad you don't think you're ready for those things yet."

He smiled shyly. "Or maybe I am. Want to try that half pair-pivot again?"

"You've got it!" she exclaimed, and there was nothing shy about her smile.

. . .

The Night Furies had been completely focused on their ground-attack mission. They hadn't searched the skies around them. They never knew that their attack had been watched. One of the watchers turned to the other. "These Night Furies will meet our needs perfectly!"

The other smiled a toothy smile. "Yes, the Alphas need to know about this." They turned and flapped away.

o

A/N
The "half pair-pivot" refers to an incident in "Life with the Night Furies," chapter 3.