First Contact Chapter 1
A/N
Reunions can be joyous, bittersweet, awkward, or any of a hundred other feelings; they're usually a volatile mix of emotions. When you thought such a reunion was completely impossible, it can hit you like an earthquake. This story is rated T to go with the rest of "Lightning and Death Itself," although it probably needs a K-plus at worst. The language is all K.
Welcome to the next expansion to "Lightning and Death Itself." This scenario was suggested to me by two reviewers, Northwest Brony and Havic; Magnor also requested it while it was already in progress, but before it was posted. This is only the second time that I've written a story based on someone else's idea. I probably would have written something similar anyway, but it was their idea for me to do it in the LightningVerse. This story takes place about two years before HTTYD2.
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It was a relaxed day in the nest on Dragon Island. Night-fury-young-teacher, Toothless and Guana's son, was tutoring Hiccup and Astrid's newest daughters, Thing One and Thing Two, and his own little sister, Night-fury-first-girl, in how to fly a chandelle – an upward spiral. He'd had to make a game out of it in order to hold their attention. Guana was taking her turn at holding Night Fury Court, judging one dragon dispute after another, solving problems and dispensing justice as only a Night Fury could do it, while her niece, Night-fury-full-of-surprises, watched and learned. Agnarr, their human friend, was sitting on a ledge with Nadder-all-blue-talks-all-the-time, putting his growing knowledge of dragon speech to the ultimate test as he listened to her rattling off all the news and gossip of the nest. Hiccup and Toothless were lying on top of a rocky spire, their tails dangling off the edge, lazily watching it all.
"Adventures are all well and good," Hiccup decided, "but sometimes it's nice to just sit and watch nothing happen."
"Are you actually wishing for a boring life?" Toothless teased him. "That's not what I transformed you for!"
"Back at the beginning, I seem to recall you offering me adventure, and then offering me the chance to get away from it all, in the same welcome-to-being-a-dragon speech," the younger Night Fury replied. "There's nothing wrong with wanting a break now and then, is there?"
"I guess not," Toothless shrugged. "It didn't really matter, anyway."
"What didn't matter?" Astrid joined them on their ledge, landing lightly as she always did.
"Not much, really," Toothless replied casually. "A few days ago, two dragons from another nest joined us for a while. They'd been blown off course by that big storm that passed through, and they needed a place to rest before they tried to find their way home. They told us about their nest, and it sounds like an interesting place."
"Are there Night Furies there?" Astrid wondered.
"No, they haven't seen any of us in many years."
"Who rules this nest, if there aren't any Night Furies?" Hiccup asked nervously. "Is there another Red Death there?"
"No, no Red Deaths." Toothless was trying to keep a straight face, but his attempt at hiding his smile was as obvious as his smile would have been.
"All right, old friend. Spill it!" Hiccup demanded. "What is in this nest that's so interesting?"
"You were close," Toothless admitted, and finally let himself smile. "Have you ever heard of a Bewilderbeast?"
The other two both shook their heads. "Is it as big as a Red Death?" Astrid wanted to know.
"Bigger."
"Whoa," Astrid exclaimed.
Hiccup glanced at Toothless nervously. "Is it as cruel?"
"Not even a little," Toothless answered. "I suppose the breed could turn cruel, but apparently, this one is quite easy-going. Benevolent, even. He rules his nest with a light paw." He paused. "I've never actually seen one before, either. They say he breathes ice instead of fire."
Hiccup and Astrid glanced at each other and chorused, "Road trip!"
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"You're sure you can keep this nest under control for a week?" Night-fury-mother-of-twins wasn't fully convinced.
"Mom, we're practically adults!" Night-fury-makes-one-heck-of-a-bang retorted. "We've already had practice keeping a flock on course, and we've got Night-fury-faithful-brother nearby if we need extra muscle. If we really need help, we can send for Aunt Guana or Uncle New-beginning. We just wish we were going on this trip with you. It sounds like it could be amazing."
"We've already been through this," New-night-fury retorted. "You had your big adventure a few months ago; now it's our turn to go flying while you take your first turn at managing our nest. This other nest is supposed to be about two days away, so we shouldn't be gone for more than seven days at most."
"There won't be much adventure, either," Night-fury-mother-of-twins added. "We're just going to find the nest, say 'hello' to the big dragon, learn what we can about the other dragons there, and fly home again. No transformations, no aerial battles, no excitement at all."
"How come you're taking our little sister with you?" Night-fury-six-shooted asked querulously.
New-night-fury leaned over to whisper in her ear. "We're taking Night-fury-full-of-surprises with us so she can't cause any disasters for you! You can thank me later." Six had to nod at that. Her sister had grown up a lot during their great voyage together, but she was still naturally drawn to trouble, as surely as sparks fly upward.
The four dragons – New-night-fury, Night-fury-mother-of-twins, Night-fury-full-of-surprises, and Night-fury himself – all exchanged TrueSights with the rest of their kind before they left. It took a few minutes, because there were so many Night Furies now, even with two of them away managing other nests.
"Hey, that reminds me!" Astrid burst out. "Next week will be the end of Night-fury-pu-lao's third month in his new nest. Figure out which of his friends is supposed to take his place, and one of you will have to fly out with that replacement and bring Pu-lao back."
"I'm sure Chi-wen and Bi-xi won't let us forget, but thanks for the reminder," Bang answered. "Honest, Mom, we'll do fine!"
With a final few goodbyes, the party of four sprang into the air and headed eastward.
"You know where we're going, right?" Hiccup asked.
"The dragons who visited our nest gave me pretty good directions," Toothless answered. "The exact entrance may be hard to find, but all we have to do is get into the neighborhood and wait for some dragons to show up. Then we'll ask if someone will make the introductions for us, and we'll find out how the locals do things."
"What if they don't like us?" Full-of-surprises asked fearfully.
"Everybody loves Night Furies, remember?" Toothless replied. "This will be like a vacation."
"Like my last big trip?" Full-of-surprises wondered.
"Kind of, except you're supposed to be on this trip," her father teased her. "You'll probably meet some yearlings who have never seen a Night Fury before, so you'll have all kinds of chances to show off. Just don't get too proud. There may be some dragon types there that we've never heard of, and one of them might be fast enough or powerful enough or clever enough to put you in your place. You're here to learn. Remember that."
"Yeah, yeah, okay, dad," she answered absently. She'd tuned him out right after the "show off" part.
They flew lazily, not trying to set any speed records. This was mostly to test a theory of Hiccup's. This trip was probably the first time Full-of-surprises had her parents to herself, with no other young dragons around, since she'd hatched. He wondered if her rebellious tendencies stemmed from a lack of attention, and if so, maybe some parent-child bonding time might settle her down. At first, it seemed to be working. She asked some serious questions about her mother and father's human past, and how it affected their outlook on life now that they were dragons. She willingly talked about the great journey she'd taken with her older brother and sister and their human friends, and shared some details of the trip that she hadn't mentioned to her parents before, like the rebellious episode that nearly got her sent back home again, and what she'd learned from it. Best of all, she did nothing even close to disastrous.
Bu then Toothless made the mistake of asking if she and his son were going to become a couple soon. Embarrassment instantly took over, and she barely spoke a word for the rest of the night. She wouldn't even make eye contact with anyone, for fear that they'd try a TrueSight and she'd reveal some emotions that she didn't want to make public. The adults gave up trying to coax any more comments out of her, and took over the conversation just to fill the awkward silence.
When they stopped to rest that morning, Full-of-surprises wandered off for a few minutes. "I thought it was an innocent question," Toothless said quietly as they waited for her to return.
"Adolescent girls have their own ideas of what's innocent," Astrid replied. "Don't even bother trying to guess about that stuff – it's like walking through a Fireworm nest without watching your step."
"When you were that age, in human years, didn't you sometimes wonder whom you'd marry?" Toothless asked her.
"When I was that age, I knew exactly who I was going to marry," Astrid said firmly. "Nobody! I was going to grow up to be Astrid the Shieldmaiden, not Astrid the Wife of So-and-so. Even if any of the boys in the village were good enough for me – which they weren't – I wasn't about to let them upstage me or take away my glory. I worked too hard at being a warrior to let some boy cast his shadow over me! Nope, no marriage for me. I even had a little speech all worked out to recite to my father if he ever brought up the subject. I'd tell him I would marry a boy only if that boy could beat me in an axe-throwing contest... with me using the boy as the target!"
Hiccup snorted; she gave him a dirty look. "Do you find that funny?" she demanded.
"No, I just think it's a typically Astrid thing to say," he replied. "You eventually got your wish, in a way. The dragons didn't name you Night-fury-wife-of-Hiccup, did they? They named you because of something you accomplished."
"True, but there wouldn't have been any eggs if it weren't for you, so you still kind of cast your shadow over me," she said.
"Luckily, you can't see a shadow when it falls across a Night Fury," Toothless interjected. Full-of-surprises rejoined them a few seconds later, so the conversation ended and they all fell asleep together. They'd reach their destination tomorrow.