Life with the Night Furies Chapter 26

The sun was setting when Chief-night-fury got the call. A middle-aged Viking man and a woman approached the Nest and hesitantly called out, "Chief-night-fury? Can you help us with something?"

Hiccup had had a long, busy day already. Handing off his position as the dragons' Alpha to his daughter hadn't reduced his workload as much as he'd thought it would. Or maybe the Vikings were getting more demanding, now that they knew he wasn't overseeing the dragons and had more time for the humans. Either way, he'd been looking forward to a nice relaxing night flight with Astrid, but now, that would have to wait.

He leaned forward, spread his wings, and half-fell, half-glided down and around until he landed on the ground floor of the Nest. The two Vikings started back a few feet; they knew their chief at sight, but it was still startling to have a half-ton dragon land right in front of them. Hiccup did this on purpose from time to time, to remind the Vikings that, although their chief was a benevolent dragon, he was still a dragon.

WHAT KIND OF HELP
DO YOU NEED?

"Well," the man began, "we never tried to make friends with any of the dragons when you first came to this island. We just didn't see the attraction; I have to go fishing every night and sleep during the day, and my wife is usually busy spinning wool into yarn for the knitters and the weavers. We didn't have the time for a dragon."

"But then our first child got into her pre-teen years," she took up the story, "and we saw how a lot of the other young people here made friends with young dragons, and it was a benefit to all of them. The dragons had a friend to help care for them, and the children learned responsibility from polishing their scales, encouraging them to avoid useless fights, and all the other stuff that young dragon-riders do. Now, our daughter is thirteen years old, and while that's kind of young to go flying by herself, she can definitely benefit from making friends with a dragon."

"Not only that," her husband continued, "but we heard about how half your dragons flew away to join another nest. Now, almost all the ones that are left have human friends, and we thought maybe the ones who don't have a human friend might be feeling left out."

SO YOU WANT YOUR DAUGHTER
TO PICK OUT A DRAGON FRIEND?

"Yes, exactly," the wife nodded, "but we need a little help. You see, there are two young dragons whom our daughter likes, and they both seem to like her... and she can't make up her mind which one should be her special friend."

The man went on, "We figured, since you're a dragon and you used to be a human, maybe you could give us some guidance? Help her make a good choice?"

Hiccup's first thought was, Hoo-boy, has this town changed! Was it that long ago that dragons were every Berk Viking's favorite target, and the village chief was also the head dragon slayer? Now, the villagers came to the chief for help in making friends with a dragon! And the chief was a dragon himself!

As though reading his mind, Night-fury-mother-of-twins called down from the platform, "You've certainly transformed this village, Hiccup! Now we're advisors and friends to the Vikings instead of targets and enemies, and you deserve a lot of the credit for that. I wonder what our Viking ancestors would say if they could see this."

He raised his head so he could look at her. "I don't know whom they would be angrier at - us for our very existence, or this couple for coming to us for help. Either way, they'd be angry. Fortunately, we don't have to deal our ancestors." He turned back to the couple.

I'D BE GLAD TO HELP.
WHERE ARE THESE DRAGONS?

"They're probably resting near our house," the wife said. "Both of them seem to like our daughter a lot. It seems a shame that she has to disappoint one of them." She looked thoughtful for a moment. "She can't have a special friendship with both of them, can she?"

Chief-night-fury thought that over for a moment, but he had to shake his head "no."

CARING FOR A DRAGON TAKES
A LOT OF TIME AND EFFORT.
ONE PERSON CAN'T SPLIT
THEMSELVES IN TWO, AND
MOST DRAGONS WOULD GET
JEALOUS. ONE DRAGON IS
PLENTY FOR ANY HUMAN.

"Okay, I guess that makes sense," the man nodded.

LEAD THE WAY

The couple turned and walked toward the part of the village where some new houses had been built recently. Hiccup padded along behind them, casually looking from side to side to see if he might notice any chief-worthy problems while they were still minor. It was a quiet evening in Berk; no one was even shouting at anyone else, except for someone in the Mead Hall, bellowing an ancient seafaring ballad without regard for tempo or key. He could take a small amount of credit for the absence of shouting and violence, maybe; the people were busy with peaceful trades and all their basic needs were being met, so no one had much of a reason to be angry. But he wasn't concerned with patting himself on the back. He treated every chief-worthy situation as being as important as the others, whether it was guarding the island against raiders, helping the shepherds sort out their sheep for the fifty-ninth time, or helping a young couple choose a dragon friend for their daughter. Okay, helping the shepherds was getting tired. But he never refused a request for help.

He tried to guess which dragons might be involved here. Even with his nest's population reduced by half, there were still a lot of dragons on this island, with new ones added every year. Some lived in the village and stayed close to their chosen humans; others came and went as the mood took them, and still others avoided the village altogether, preferring a wild existence like their kind had always known (but safe from humans on an island where there were no more dragon slayers). Young dragons, the Vikings had said. They were probably two-year-olds, just big enough for a pre-teen girl to ride. It would be good to get another dragon/human pair going. The more the two species interacted, the less strange they would seem to each other, and the fewer misunderstandings would crop up. That would make life easier for him as the Viking chief, and also for his daughter, Night-fury-full-of-surprises, as the nest's Alpha. Anything that promoted peaceful coexistence was good, as far as Hiccup was concerned. In spite of all the fighting he'd done recently to protect this island and its inhabitants, he still hated violence.

Then he turned a corner, saw the two dragons in question... and stopped in his tracks, wide-eyed, his mouth hanging open in shock.

The Vikings didn't notice; they were calling for their daughter to come out of the house and meet the chief. The young dragons noticed, though. The green one looked concerned and asked, "Is everything all right, Chief-night-fury?"

When he heard her voice, Chief-night-fury relaxed. He mumbled, "Sorry. I thought you were someone else." Of course, he was mistaken. It couldn't have been her. But it was an understandable mistake. That small green Nadder looked almost exactly like...

He shook his head to clear it. He didn't recognize either of the two young dragons; neither the green Nadder nor the blue Dramillion looked at all familiar. But, just behind them, he noticed a third dragon, and he had no difficulty recognizing her.

"Full-of-surprises? What are you doing here?"

"Dad? What are you doing here?"

"I'm missing out on my night flight with your mother so I can help a Viking girl pick out a dragon friend! What are you doing here?"

His daughter looked mildly aggrieved. "I'm missing out on my night flight with Smith-flies-for-fun because these dragons asked me to help them decide who gets the human girl! Do they need both of us to do that?"

"I'm sure the humans had no idea that the dragons were asking you to get involved," Hiccup thought out loud, "and the dragons didn't know that the humans were coming to get me. It was a simple communication failure; no one is to blame."

"Okay," she nodded, "but what do we do about it? What if you recommend that the girl take one dragon and I suggest that she should wind up with the other one?"

"Simple," Chief-night-fury decided. "We'll tell the Vikings it's getting dark, and pretty soon, they won't be able to see our runes when we write in the dirt. That means we won't be able to communicate with them at all. We'll tell them that we'll return in the morning and discuss it then. In the meantime, you and I should probably have a short meeting to decide who's going to help them out and who isn't. There's no reason for both of us to be involved."

"A meeting?" Full-of-surprises asked. "Can we have donuts?"

"I don't know what those are," Hiccup admitted. "But we definitely need to start communicating with each other, chief-to-chief. This is the third time this month that our spheres of responsibility have gotten tangled up, and I'm sure it wont' be the last time, either."

"With most of my dragons interacting with most of your humans, that's to be expected," she agreed. "How many of these meetings do you think we need?"

"If we just check in with each other at the start of every day, that will cut down on the misunderstandings and the confusion," Hiccup decided. "We'll still have situations like this one from time to time, but even if we can cut the problems by only half, it will be worth it."

"Sounds good," his daughter said. She wrote a quick message in the dirt, and grunted and snorted until she'd gotten the Vikings' attention. They read it, shrugged, and nodded. "Tomorrow morning, then. Okay." The two Night Furies explained the situation to the other two dragons, then flew away to collect their respective mates. The crescent moon was rising; it would be a beautiful night for a long, relaxing flight with the ones they loved most.

o

The chief and the Alpha had their meeting the next morning and decided that, since three Vikings and only two dragons were involved, the situation fell into Chief-night-fury's bailiwick. They were trying to think of any other issues where they should coordinate themselves when Night-fury-smallest-boy landed on the edge of the Nest and began trying to get his father's attention.

"Son, please hold that thought," Hiccup told him. "Your sister and I are having an important meeting, and we're almost done." The young Night Fury nodded and did his best to hold still until his father and sister were done conversing. Then Hiccup turned back to his youngest child. "Now, what's on your mind?"

"I think Uncle Toothless needs help," Smallest-boy said nervously.

"Why do you think that?"

"I was flying over the sea stacks, and I looked down, and Uncle Toothless stuck his head out of a cave and saw me, and he said, 'Please get help!' He looked sad," the yearling added.

Chief-night-fury's wings were unfurled instantly. "Show me where!" Smallest-boy was off like a shot, with his father right behind him. Full-of-surprises followed them after a moment. It took them less than a minute to fly from the Nest to the rocky shores of Berk, but it took another minute to find Toothless. A black dragon can be hard to see against black rocks. To say 'he looked sad' was a serious understatement.

"Bud, what's wrong?" Hiccup called as they glided down and landed next to him.

"It's Cave-flyer!" Toothless nearly sobbed. "We were flying through the stacks, the way you and I did just before I transformed you... and she took a wrong turn into a dead-end cave, and she hit the end, and she's out cold! She might be seriously hurt, but I can't even get to her!"

"She must have been moving pretty fast," Full-of-surprises observed. "Didn't she know these rocks can be dangerous when you're flying at full speed?"

"It's my fault," Toothless said, hanging his head. "She said she wanted an exciting ride, and I thought she could handle these rocks. The last thing she said was, 'Dad, we're going too fast! I can't keep up with you!' And then... if she's hurt, I'll never be able to forgive myself!"

Hiccup took charge. Maybe this was a dragon matter that Full-of-surprises should have handled, but when it came to his best friend, there was no way he would take a back seat. "Okay, the first thing we have to do is get her out of there. Show us where she is." The four Night Furies glided halfway through the maze of sea stacks until Toothless landed on a flat, tide-washed rock covered in barnacles.

He pointed into a horizontal black hole with his wingtip. "She's in there. You can just see the ends of her tail fins. Cave-flyer, can you hear me?" There was no answer.

"That's a tight fit for any dragon," Full-of-surprises said. "How are we going to get her out of there?"

Hiccup thought fast. "I'm seeing some Vikings going in there and tying ropes around her tail," he decided. "Then they can pull her out. How does that sound?"

"How many Vikings will it take to move an adult-sized Night Fury?" his daughter asked.

"Hmmm." Hiccup nodded. "You're right. We'll need dragons to pull on the ropes. You and I are going to have to coordinate this rescue together."

"Hold on," Toothless said urgently. "Once you drag her out of the cave, are you just going to leave her here until she wakes up?"

"No," Chief-night-fury decided. "Once she's out of there, the Vikings will bring a ship's sail and tie the ropes to the corners of it. The dragons can roll your daughter onto the sail, and then grab the ropes and carry her home."

"That'll work," Full-of-surprises nodded. "I'll get some Monstrous Nightmares; you get your Vikings and your ropes and sail."

As they turned to leave, Hiccup realized that his young son was still there, looking curiously into the darkness of the cave. "Smallest-boy, I've got a special job for you. I need you to climb into that cave and see how Cave-flyer is doing. I need to know if her wings look okay, or if they might be hurt. Then stay here and keep your Uncle Toothless company until we get back."

"Okay, Dad," the young dragon said solemnly. Full-of-surprises was back in less than fifteen minutes with two Monstrous Nightmares in tow, along with two dozen other dragons who were worried about one of their beloved Night Furies. It took Hiccup over half an hour to round up four Vikings who were able to drop everything for a dragon rescue, along with ropes, a sail from the sail loft, and a lantern so they could see in the dark cave. (One of the Vikings was the girl who was supposed to choose a dragon friend today; she volunteered to hold the lantern.) He and Astrid explained the situation to the humans with runes in the dirt, then carried them out to the sea stacks, along with their ropes and other dragon-extraction gear. Lady-night-fury had arrived while they were gone, but she stayed out of the way as the rescuers got themselves organized.

As the Vikings were tying ropes around Cave-flyer's inert tail, Hiccup turned aside to Toothless. "She probably knocked herself out, but she'll be fine after a while. By this time tomorrow, she probably won't even be thinking about this."

"Hiccup, this is all my fault!" Toothless burst out, his eyes wide. "My daughter trusted me to give her a fun ride while keeping her safe, and this happened! What if her wings are injured? What if she loses an eye? How could she ever forgive me?"

"I think the bigger question is whether you can forgive yourself," Hiccup said quietly. "Stop blaming yourself! This wasn't your fault! It's just one of those things that happen sometimes; trying to assign the blame is useless."

"How can you say it's not my fault?" the older Night Fury exclaimed. "I'm the one who suggested this flight. I'm the one who led her through the rocks. I'm the one she trusted not to do anything dangerous! Who else's fault could it be?"

"Didn't you tell me that she said, 'I can't keep up with you?' Bud, she knew she was going too fast, but she didn't slow down. I know that you still think of her as the hatchling who rubbed noses with you when she hatched - I feel the same way about my own children sometimes - but she's almost a full adult now. She's responsible for her own actions. You can't blame yourself if she didn't do the smart thing and slow down, can you?"

"Hiccup... she trusted me! I can't let myself off the hook that easily!"

Hiccup paced back and forth for a few seconds. "Bud, one of the things the Vikings love to do is tell each other scary stories around the fire. Ruffnut and Tuffnut are absolute masters at that, and one of the scariest stories they ever told was about a clan of half-human monsters who lurked around the edges of society. They looked like people, but they had no hearts. All they ever did was wait for something to go wrong in the Viking village; then they'd decide whose fault it was, and try to turn it to their own advantage. They were called..." He shivered at the memory. "...lawyers! Bud, please don't turn into a lawyer. Don't obsess over whose fault this was. Did you notice that your own mate isn't blaming you? You know she'd be the first to jump on your tail if she thought it was really your fault. I know you're upset, but turning the blame on yourself isn't going to make anything better."

"You know I'm upset?" Toothless echoed him. "Do you think you really know how I'm feeling?"

"I think I do," his friend answered. "You're feeling helpless, desperate to do something, and frustrated because you know there's nothing you can do. I felt that way when my older twins were drugged and kidnapped, and I felt that way when they and their riders came back covered in blood from that crossbow attack."

"But you knew exactly who to blame in both of those situations!" Toothless said. "Both times, it was the Outcasts who did it to your children." He gestured with his wingtip toward the cave, where the dragons were slowly pulling his daughter's tail into view. "It wasn't the Outcasts who did that!"

Hiccup took a deep breath. "My friend, you are a good father, better than most. No parent wants to see anything bad happen to their children; most of us would rather take pain on ourselves than let our kids suffer, even if the kids are full-grown. We try to protect our children the best we can. But no parent can do a perfect job of that, because our children are so creative at coming up with brand-new ways to do things wrong. Sometimes these things just happen, and they aren't anybody's fault."

Lady-night-fury joined them. "He's right, Toothless. You didn't do this to her. When she wakes up, she's going to need you to be strong for her, not paralyzed by guilt that you don't deserve. That will make her feel even worse!"

"You don't understand!" Toothless snapped. "None of you do. I've lost one child already... and I thought I was about to lose another one, and this one would be at least partially my fault! You can't imagine how that feels. Don't tell me you can imagine it, Hiccup, because all of your children are still alive and well!" He turned away resentfully, almost angrily.

"Yes, they are alive and well," Hiccup nodded slowly as he stepped in front of his friend. "But my adopted little sister isn't. I do know what loss feels like, and I know what it's like to helplessly watch it happen, and to wonder if there was something I could have done to prevent it. I was forcibly reminded of it yesterday evening; I ran into a young dragon who looked so much like Nadder-green-follows-new-night-fury, I thought it was her for a moment! It really shook me up, almost as shook up as you are now.

"Toothless, there are some wounds that just don't heal. I acknowledge that. But don't let those wounds define who you are! Learn from this accident, remember it whenever you're about to try something dangerous with your children, but please don't become a prisoner of it. Some people never escape from those prisons once they lock themselves inside."

"Listen to him," Lady-night-fury added, very quietly.

Toothless stared at him wordlessly for several seconds. He seemed to get a hold of himself. Then he turned to his mate. "What about her wings?" he asked nervously. "Will she fly again?"

"Smallest-boy says her wings are folded almost completely back," she replied. "She must have pulled them back when she felt the cave closing in on her. That's an uncomfortable position for sure, and her shoulder joints are going to be sore for days; we'll probably have to ground her, for her own good. But there's no sign of any injury, at least not from what we can see of her from out here."

"Thank Tannin for that!" he burst out. "I was fearing the worst."

Then they heard the Nightmares call, "She's out of the cave!" "I think she's coming around!" All the Night Furies converged on the cave at once; the others backed off at the last moment to let Toothless go first. He found his daughter moaning and slowly shaking her head. He crouched down next to her.

"Cave-flyer? Can you hear me? Are you all right?"

She opened her eyes a bit. "My brain hurts... and so does the rest of me. I really feel out of it."

"You've been out for nearly an hour," her father said anxiously. "I'm so sorry I let this happen to you!"

"It wasn't your fault," she sighed, closing her eyes again. "I was going too fast in an unfamiliar place. Next time, I'll take a trial run before I try to fly a strange obstacle course at full speed." She paused. "My wings really hurt. Am I going to be able to fly again?"

"Yes," he said firmly. "There aren't any marks on the leading edges of your wings, so that means you folded them before the impact could do them any harm. You probably wrenched your shoulder joints, though. You'll have to rest your wings for at least three days, maybe four."

"How am I going to get home if I can't fly?" she asked.

"The Vikings brought a sail for you to lie on. If you can roll onto it, the Nightmares will carry it and you back home. Your mother and I will feed you until you can fly again."

Cave-flyer made a face. "Feed me? You haven't fed me since I was a hatchling!"

Toothless nudged her with his nose. "Moms and dads take care of their children, no matter how big they get. We know you're not a hatchling anymore. You'll just need a little extra care until you're all better. We won't bring you regurgitated fish; we'll carry some whole fish back to you with our paws."

"I guess I can live with that." She tried to raise her head and grimaced. "I hurt all over. Are you sure I didn't break something?"

He looked her over from nose to tail. "The only mark on you is a cut on your chin; that's where your face must have hit the rock wall. That's probably going to leave a scar... but now that I think about it, that scar will be almost exactly the same as the mark that Chief-night-fury has on his chin. You'll be twins, sort of. But I'm not surprised that your neck is sore, after doing a full-speed face plant into the end of that cave. Are you sure you still want to be a cave-flyer after this?"

"Yes," she said without hesitating. "I still love zigzagging around rocks and stuff. I just have to be sure I know where the rocks and stuff are before I attack them at full velocity." She paused. "Did you arrange this to teach me a lesson or something?"

"No, I didn't arrange this," her father said as the Nightmares carefully rolled her onto the sail. "And if you think you learned a lesson, that's good, but I never meant for you to learn it the hard way."

He stepped outside to give the Nightmares room to move. As they dragged the sail out of the cave with the Night Fury on it, he turned to Hiccup. "Thank you for being patient with me," he said quietly.

"Are you going to be okay?" Hiccup asked him.

"Me? I'm not the one who flew face-first into a rock wall! Why are you worrying about me? You should be worrying about Cave-flyer, shouldn't you?"

"Cave-flyer has a mother and a father who worry about her and will take good care of her," Hiccup replied solemnly. "But who's going to take care of the father? Go easy on yourself, my friend. She isn't blaming you, Lady-night-fury isn't blaming you, and neither is anyone else. Don't blame yourself."

Toothless paused, blinked twice, and shared a TrueSight with his friend. All he saw was concern; every word Hiccup had spoken was the simple truth. He gave his friend a half-smile, then turned back to his daughter.

"I'm glad you learned a lesson today. But I think I learned one, too."