The Courtship of Toothless Chapter 10
Gunnarr Hofferson left off trying to make the Astrid-dragon comfortable, and turned to face the other Night Furies. "I know you can understand me, Guana," he began. "Someone sneaked into town in the darkness. They must have been a very small group, because they got past the night watchman and didn't wake any of the dragons. They threw those blankets over the Night Furies – they're soaked with some kind of liquid that makes you sick and dizzy if you breathe the fumes. Apparently, they waited until the little Night Furies passed out from the stuff, and then carried them off. We've got people and dragons searching everywhere!"
"Get them back," Hiccup begged, slowly and softly.
"Does he mean bring his children back, or get even with the kidnappers?" Guana asked Toothless.
"Probably both," the other Night Fury answered. "The dragons are searching every-which-way, but there's no plan. We need to take charge." He flapped up onto the roof of the Nest and roared until all the dragons were paying attention to him.
"Listen to me!" he shouted. "It's no use searching the island. Whoever took the little Night Furies is long gone by now. They're in a ship – I'm sure of that. You need to form up into pairs, and fan out over the sea in all directions. If you don't find anything within half an hour, come back here. If you see a ship, find out if the little ones are on it. If you find them, do not attack! Fly back here and tell the rest of us! Lady-night-fury and I will stay right here to coordinate the search, and we'll lead the rescue party once we find who we're looking for. Now, fly fast and look sharp! Go!" There was a mighty flutter of wings, and within a minute, the Night Furies were the only dragons in Berk.
Lady-night-fury was crouched near her friend. "Astrid? You don't look so good." She looked slightly pale, and her eyes had an unhealthy yellow color to them.
"Poison," Night-fury-mother-of-twins gasped. "If they hurt my little ones... I will kill."
"Save a couple for me," New-night-fury whispered hoarsely.
"They used that drug on the twins as well?" Guana asked. Astrid nodded weakly. Guana was shocked – who could be that ruthless to young Night Furies? Everybody loved them, or so she thought.
"We've got all the dragons searching the sea around Berk," Toothless told them as he returned to the second-floor platform. "A ship can't outrun a dragon, even with a two-hour head start – whoever the kidnappers are, they can't get away. As soon as we find them, I'll lead a rescue mission. Your children will probably be home before sunrise."
Slightly less than half an hour later, two fast-flying Nadders swooped down to land on the platform. "We found them! We found them!" they exclaimed.
Hiccup and Astrid tried to get to their feet, but couldn't stand. "Where?" all four of them asked.
"They're headed toward where the sun goes down," the leading Nadder answered. "They're in a small ship with fourteen or fifteen humans. They're wrapped in nets and their mouths are tied shut, and two humans with spears are guarding each one." Night-fury-mother-of-twins managed a feeble snarl at that news.
"You've done good work," Toothless said quickly. "Rest your wings and be ready to lead us back to them, as soon as some more dragons return." By the time another twenty minutes had passed, there were seventeen healthy dragons back in town, and Toothless didn't think his friends could stand it if he made them wait any longer.
"We'll fly with the dragons we've got," he announced. "These Nadders will lead us to the ship."
"And then, goodbye, ship!" a Monstrous Nightmare growled. "This is going to be fun. I thought I'd never be allowed to flame a longship again!"
"That's the one thing we can't do," Toothless corrected him. "That ship has two sick little Night Furies on it. If we sink the ship, they'll go down with it."
"Can we aim for the pirates?" asked an angry Gronckle. "Please?"
"I'm afraid they'll kill the Night Furies if they think they've got nothing to lose," Toothless answered. "We need a plan that lets us protect the young ones while we're rescuing them."
After a few seconds, Hiccup weakly waved a paw; Toothless came over to hear him whisper. What he heard made him smile grimly. "That will work. We'll do it."
They made their arrangements and took flight. Toothless worked out the details as they flew at their best speed toward the last known position of the ship. Only the low speed of the Gronckles held them back, and they couldn't leave the Gronckles behind – their numbers were too few as it was.
The pirates' first inkling that they had been discovered was when they heard a rising whistle from directly overhead. "Night Fury!" "Get down!" "No, guard the dragons!" The whistle got louder, and louder... and then it pulled out in front of them. Where was the fireball? There was none! Toothless had never intended to shoot. His only goal was to distract the pirates with his diving sound.
As they looked ahead to try and spot the elusive black dragon in the dark, they neglected to look to port or starboard. Four silent, fast-flying Nadders closed in on the ship, two from each side. Their mission was to protect the young Night Furies, and their method was brutally simple: each of them stretched out his legs and kicked one of the spear-toting guards over the side. All the other pirates heard was four thumps, four surprised grunts, and four splashes in rapid succession.
Now that the little Night Furies were safe for a few seconds, the rest of the dragons closed in. As each dragon passed over the ship at low altitude, it slowed, and an armed, angry Viking dropped off its back and onto the deck of the ship. Guana was one of those dragons, and her passenger was a vengeful Gunnarr Hofferson. Stoick himself led the attack, fighting with pure rage to rescue his grand-dragons. It was a slaughter. Some of the pirates jumped overboard to escape the wrath of Berk. They just became fair targets for the dragons, who were even angrier than the Vikings. It was all over in less than five minutes.
Gunnarr crouched near each motionless young dragon's head. "They're still breathing," he announced with relief. "We need to get them home, fast. Maybe Gothi can do something for them." Toothless hovered next to the ship and let out some expressive roars and grunts. "Can you carry them home?" The Night Fury nodded. Gunnarr and another Viking gently lifted a four-foot-long Night Fury off the deck and held her up over their heads. Toothless retracted his teeth, caught her sideways in his mouth, and vanished into the darkness. Mr. Hofferson and the other Viking lifted Young-boy-night-fury in the same way.
Guana hesitated for a moment. Could she do this? Could she do it without getting distracted? She looked at Young-boy-night-fury's limp form, and there was no question – she had to try. With teeth retracted, she flew as slowly as she could, took the little dragon in her mouth, and accelerated for Berk.
When she landed at the Nest, Gothi was leaving. Gobber and several other Vikings were still tending to Hiccup and Astrid. Guana landed next to Toothless and carefully set her motionless burden down in front of them.
"He's alive," she whispered.
Night-fury-mother-of-twins weakly pushed at him with her nose. He didn't respond.
"Gothi thinks she knows somethin' that might help," Gobber explained. "She's goin' home to get some herbs. Can either of ye tell me anythin' about what happened out there?"
Guana stepped gingerly over to the sand table. She felt funny using it; it was Hiccup and Astrid's means of communicating with the Vikings, not hers. Still, he'd asked a fair question, and the other Vikings must also be brimming with curiosity about the action they'd missed because the adult Night Furies needed care, too.
WE FOUND THE PIRATE SHIP.
NO MORE PIRATES.
A FEW MINOR INJURIES TO OUR VIKINGS.
"That's the first good news we've gotten tonight," Gobber said. "I suppose Stoick an' the others will sail the ship back to Berk, an' we'll see 'em in a few hours. Maybe we'll have some good news to give them."
Gothi returned in about half an hour with a bucket full of a steaming liquid. "Infused herbs," Gobber translated for her. "The sick dragons need to drink this." She dripped it into the little dragons' mouths; the adults sipped it and forced themselves to swallow the bitter mixture. Gobber and some other Vikings held torches so Gothi could see what she was doing. He glanced around him after a while, and realized that the Nest was completely surrounded by a silent, slowly-growing crowd of dragons, with some people mixed in.
Stoick and the other warriors docked the captured ship as the sun was coming up, and quickly made their way to the Nest. "They were Outcasts," he said disgustedly. "One of their wounded told me everything before he died. Alvin wanted some baby Night Furies so he could raise them to be his own private air force, loyal to him alone. That shows how much he knows about Night Furies! The ship itself is so old and waterlogged, it's useless, except to be stripped for the metal parts."
"It looks like yer son and yer daughter-in-law are gonna make a full recovery," Gobber told him as he joined him at ground level. "That was some nasty stuff they were drugged with, but they're tough."
"What about the little ones?" Stoick asked quietly.
Gobber turned so the Night Furies couldn't see his face. He whispered, "They took th' same dose o' that poison that the adults did, but they're much smaller." He stared at the ground.
"Gothi doesn't think they're gonna make it."