Colossal Cave Chapter 9
A/N
Break out the tissues.
o
The Night Furies flew together, the ones who were joining the cave-nest mingled with the ones who were staying under the sun. For four of them, it would be their last farewell.
The other dragon types had flown on ahead with the Red Deaths, their new Alphas. The Night Furies had delayed their trip until Pu-lao and Bi-xi had been able to fly to the mountain-lake nest. There, they told their old friend Chi-wen about what had happened and about their decision. He was stunned by this development, but made no attempt to talk them out of it.
"You know your own minds, and you know what is best for yourselves and your growing family," he finally said. "But I will miss you! We used up all our chi together, we faced being Grounded together, we received a new life as Night Furies together... I thought we would always be together. But now, we will never see each other again."
"Will you be all right?" they asked him.
"I will miss you terribly," he admitted. "But I am happiest when it is my turn to manage this little nest. After all, that is what Night Furies do. If you are both going away, then the nest will be permanently mine to oversee. That is a very small consolation for the loss of my two dearest friends, but I suppose it is better than nothing. I will be all right." They shared TrueSights. The other dragons in the nest said a sad farewell to the two Night Furies who had helped them recover from Night-fury-ruler's excesses. Then Pu-lao and Bi-xi returned to Berk, and the entire delegation of Night Furies resolutely headed for the cavern-nest.
They repeatedly exchanged TrueSights with each other during the eight-day flight. They tried to think of anything they needed to say to each other that had been left unsaid. Lady-night-fury wept several times at the thought of losing her daughter. Toothless flew silently, unwilling to face what was about to happen. He'd lost his son, and now both his nest-brother and his daughter would be lost to him as well. Hiccup flew as close to him as he could without being obtrusive; he was very worried about his friend.
At last, the entrance to the cavern came into view. Both Tarpits and Bigsmark were standing near it, looking impatient, along with an assortment of other dragons that included two Stormcutters. Hiccup flew towards those Stormcutters while New-beginning, First-girl, Pu-lao, and Bi-xi presented themselves to the Red Deaths.
"Mom, are you sure about this?" Hiccup begged her. "Really sure?"
"Hiccup, are you really sure about this?" she replied. "You know what the humans would do to you if they could! I've seen them do it to other dragons, far too many times, and now they'd happily do it to me, too. Seeing Drago Bludvist in action scarred me, Hiccup, or maybe I'm just getting older. I'm not the risk-taker that I used to be. I can't risk letting another Drago vent his dragon-hate on me, or on Cloudjumper, no matter what the cost might be! This will be best for me. The only bad part is... is losing you again." She blinked back tears.
"Yeah, that stinks." Hiccup couldn't think of anything more profound to say. He'd lost his mother when he was a baby; he'd assumed it was forever. Then, miraculously, they'd found each other again, and now they were saying goodbye again. This time, it would be forever.
"Yes, Mom, I'm sure about this. I can't live in enclosed spaces, and I love the clouds and the stars too much. Besides, the Vikings on Berk need me to keep order, and my mate and my children all want to stay. And finally, if I leave the Archipelago, that will mean the end of my plans to bring peace to the men and dragons here. I don't think anyone else can do it. The price for joining this nest would be way too high. But the price for not joining it..."
"Hiccup, please stay! Stay here with me! Get away from the crazy Vikings and the senseless violence, and grow old with me in peace and safety! Please!"
"Mom... I can't. I just can't." He tried to blink back tears and failed. "Cloudjumper, take good care of my mom, okay?"
"Always," the Stormcutter said softly.
Hiccup shared one last TrueSight with his mother.
"Bye, Mom. Take care of yourself. Don't fly into any cave walls."
"I won't. Goodbye, son. Try to be good."
Then the Stormcutter pair flew down the entrance tunnel and were quickly out of sight. Hiccup couldn't bear to watch them go.
He looked over at Toothless, who was saying goodbye to two family members at once. The ex-Chinese Night Furies had politely greeted the Red Deaths, introduced their young children, and flown down into their new nest without a backwards look. Night-fury-new-beginning was saying his goodbyes to his nest-brother while First-girl waited her turn.
"If you ever get out of there somehow," Toothless said through a throat constricted with grief, "come and see me before you go anywhere else, okay?"
"I'll do that," New-beginning said hoarsely, "but we both know that isn't going to happen."
"I love you, brother!"
"I love you too."
One last TrueSight, one last wing-tap, and then New-beginning stepped away and perched on the edge of the entrance to his new home, waiting for First-girl, who would become his mate as soon as she reached full maturity. All the other dragons of the nest flew down and in. Now only the two Red Deaths and the Night Furies waited outside. It was First-girl's turn.
"Dad... I don't know what to say!"
"Say anything except 'goodbye,' " her father urged her, and swallowed hard. "I know you have to say it, but..."
"Dad, please don't make this harder than it has to be."
"I... I don't know how it could be any harder."
She sniffled.
One last TrueSight, one last wing-tap.
"Goodbye, Daddy."
"Goodbye... Night-fury-cave-flyer."
"Oh, Daddy!" she sobbed. Her tears overflowed and she flung herself at her father, embracing him with both wings as both of them cried uncontrollably, totally forgetting the rule that Night Furies aren't supposed to cry. The other Night Furies looked away. Even the Red Deaths looked uncomfortable. Finally, the dragon formerly known as First-girl found her voice.
"No.
"I am not doing this. I can't do this!"
She pulled away from Toothless far enough to look him in the eye. "I thought about losing the sky – I really did! I thought about living in the dark all the time. I thought about humans, both the good ones and the bad ones. I thought about the sun and the moon and the stars. But I didn't think hard enough about how much I'd miss you! I can't go through with this." She glanced toward New-beginning. "I'm sorry. I can't be your future mate if it means living down there. It's nothing personal." Then she looked up at the towering form of Bigsmark, who was glaring balefully down at them now. "Did you hear me? I'm not going in there! I don't care if it does start a war! I'm staying in the light, with the ones who love me!"
Bigsmark was clearly displeased. Her six eyes focused on Toothless. "Will you allow your daughter to plunge our nests into war over her broken promise?"
Toothless edged toward his daughter. "She's old enough to make her own decisions about life. She's my daughter and we stand together." Guana joined them, quickly followed by Bang. The other Night Furies also stepped up beside them until they formed a solid row of black dragons, with Night-fury-cave-flyer squeezed so tightly in the middle that she couldn't have flown away if she tried. Only New-beginning stayed where he was, at the edge of the cave opening, looking uncertain.
"This is unfortunate," the Red Death growled menacingly. "Very unfortunate! We were promised two breeding pairs of Night Furies." She glared at Hiccup. "Do you Night Furies keep your promises, or don't you?"
Hiccup let his teeth show. "A promise that's made under threat of violence isn't a promise that binds us. First-girl... I mean Night-fury-cave-flyer has free will. She can choose to go or she can choose to stay, and we will support her choice."
"Unlike you," Full-of-surprises added, "we won't threaten her if she tells us something we don't want to hear."
Now Tarpits showed his teeth. Bigsmark sidestepped slightly, possibly so she and her mate could hit the Night Furies in a crossfire. Guana and Bang were powering up. Again, war was in the air.
"You'll have your two pairs," New-beginning cut in. "You'll just have to be patient. Pu-lao and Bi-xi have a daughter already. She'll be mature in two years or so, and she'll need a mate. I'll be there waiting."
"So you are not changing your mind as well?" Bigsmark demanded, relaxing slightly.
"No, I am not changing my mind," he answered defensively. "We Night Furies do keep our promises, as long as it's possible for us to do so. Keeping the peace is part of looking after the nest, which is what Night Furies do. For the sake of maintaining peace among the dragons, I will keep my promise." He dove into the tunnel and was gone. Toothless swallowed hard.
Bigsmark glanced at Tarpits, who shrugged. "It would have been better to have four Night Furies who had no blood relation to each other," he said. "But we've gotten what we asked for, so our work under the sun is finished."
"That's it, then," Bigsmark said. "We've visited every nest in the region, and we've gotten some of the sea dragons as well, so there won't be any more dragons joining us. We will now seal ourselves into our destiny." She lowered her massive head to ground level, and her voice softened. "You will never get another chance like this, Night Furies. I hope you do not regret your choices."
"And we hope you don't regret yours," Chief-night-fury answered.
Full-of-surprises added, "Now stop threatening our dragons, and do what you came here to do." They watched as the two Red Deaths eased themselves down the tunnel. After a few minutes, they could hear the sound of heavy rocks being rolled, pushed, and carried into position in the cave entrance.
Hiccup blinked back one last tear. Then he leaned back and launched a firebolt high into the sky as a final salute to his mother, and Cloudjumper, and New-beginning, and all the other dragons he would never see again. The other Night Furies did the same. For a few seconds, the sky above the cave entrance was dotted with bright blue explosions; the sound of their rapid-fire blasts rolled across the desolate landscape. Then they turned away in the sudden silence, took wing, and slowly flew back the way they had come.
Hiccup flew close to Toothless. "Are you okay, bud?"
"I'll get by," his friend said softly, and glanced toward his daughter. "Somehow, today didn't turn out nearly as badly as I thought it would."
Astrid flew up on his other side. "For what it's worth, I heard the three remaining dragons from the Outcast nest saying they'd probably move to Dragon Island, so they could get away from crazy people without giving up their freedom. I think you'll also gain the few non-joiners from the Bewilderbeast's nest. So you lost a lot, but you gained a few."
"Your nest lost a lot, too," he commented.
"Yeah, there will be a lot of empty perches around Berk tonight," Hiccup sighed. "I'll explain it all to the Vikings when we get home. It's kind of an epic story, and the Vikings love stories like that. The dragons who were paired with humans all stayed, so none of them had to say goodbye, and that's good for both the humans and the dragons. If Scrubby or Nadder-blue-flies-in-the-storm had left with the others... I think Varinn and Fluffernut would have taken that really hard."
"Speaking of that," Toothless said suddenly, "how are you doing, Hiccup?"
Hiccup sighed again. "I've been through a lot of changes, both good and bad, and I've always found a way to get through them. I'll find a way to get through this one, too. Besides, I've already had some practice missing my mother." He drew aside; Mother-of-twins and their five grown children flew protectively around him, ready to offer him comfort if he needed it.
At last, Cave-flyer flew up alongside her father. "Dad, thank you for standing up for me back there."
"You're my daughter," he said simply.
"Still, thank you. I really could have made a mess of things. I almost did. But there's one other thing. Now that I'm not going to live in a cave... do I have to give back my name?"
"No," he said, with the first trace of a smile he'd shown all day. "You can keep your name. You earned the right to an adult name by making some very hard decisions. We'll find another cave for you to fly in."
"Thank you, Daddy." The sleek black shapes winged their way home.
Together.
The End
o
A/N
...but, of course, it's not the end of the story, just the end of this story arc. I already have some more plans for expanding this tale. But first, I want to see if this expansion to the story receives enough views to push the whole story past the magic million mark. When I wrote this, it had gotten almost 946,000 views. At the time of posting, it was up past 986,000.