First Contact Chapter 4

Hiccup had to wonder what this strange woman was thinking. On her right was the Stormcutter, a very big dragon that seemed to be her close friend. On her left was a Night Fury, a much smaller dragon that she had probably never seen before in her life. They were talking to each other in dragon language, leaving her right in the middle of a fearsome-sounding dialog that she couldn't possibly understand.

"I found her on a Viking island during a raid," Stormcutter-brown-likes-the-female-human told him. "I had found a human hatchling and was checking him out – I'd never seen one before – when she burst into the building with a weapon. I think the hatchling must have been hers. A fight in those close quarters would have been nasty, but she didn't even try to fight me. We made eye contact. It wasn't a TrueSight, but we shared something, somehow. I can't explain it."

"I think I know exactly what you mean," Hiccup said quietly, recalling the first few times he'd made human-to-dragon eye contact with Toothless.

"Anyway, I could sense that she was out of place there, so I brought her here, where I thought she would fit in. That was eighteen years ago. She never tried to escape or return to her island. She's been a great asset to us, and she seems happy here, even though we can't communicate with each other except with simple signs and gestures. It took the other dragons a while to trust her, but now she's part of our nest, just like a dragon. I think she's curious about you."

"I'm sure of that," Hiccup replied. "Like I said, I can understand her speech. Humans speak many different languages, so the moment she opened her mouth, I knew she was a Viking woman of some kind."

Stormcutter's eyes went wide. "If you can understand her, that will solve half of the communication barrier! I'd give anything to be able to talk to her! Is there a way you can talk to... no, of course there isn't. Dragons can't speak human languages." His face fell again.

"There's always a way," Hiccup said. "You just have to find it. I've been communicating with humans ever since I got transformed. Watch this." He scratched some runes in the ground.

WOULD YOU REMOVE YOUR
MASK AND STAND UPRIGHT?
IT WOULD HELP ME RELAX

The woman went rigid. She stared at the runes for nearly a minute in silence. Finally, and very quietly, she said, "Can you understand me?" Hiccup nodded.

"How did you learn to understand Norse? Where did you learn to write it?"

I WASN'T HATCHED A DRAGON

She stared again, then hit her mask with her hand. "Of course – you're a transformed dragon! That explains a lot. Does that mean you aren't afraid of me?" He nodded again. She slowly stood and removed her mask.

The woman appeared to be in her mid-thirties, which made her middle-aged by Viking standards. She was moderately pretty, with striking green eyes that looked everywhere and took in everything. Her hair was long, and braided in the Viking style.

"You're a lot like me, in a way," she said. "We were both born human, and we both became part of dragon society instead, only it's a little more permanent with you. Did you accept your transformation willingly?"

NO, IT WAS IN WARTIME, BUT
I ADJUSTED QUICKLY.
I LOVE WHAT I AM NOW

"So do I," she nodded. "I've never seen a Night Fury up close before. Would you mind if I...?

GO AHEAD.
BUT NO TICKLING

She laughed out loud. "I like the way you think!" she exclaimed. "What's your name?"

THEY CALL ME NEW-NIGHT-FURY

"Okay, New-night-fury. Show me what you've got!" He spread his wings and fanned his tail fins as she looked on rapturously. After a few seconds, she sat down right in front of him and felt under his chin. He allowed her to check him out; he could understand what it meant to be curious about dragons. She examined him from head to tail, commenting on his coloration patterns, his scales, his sub-wings, and all the other little details that made Night Furies unique. She made a sour face when she saw the stump of his injured leg, and moved on quickly. He wasn't exactly showing off – after all, he was only being himself – but he didn't resist being the center of her attention for a few minutes.

The Stormcutter looked on curiously. Finally, he said, "Will you ask her if she's happy here?"

YOUR DRAGON FRIEND WANTS
TO KNOW IF YOU'RE HAPPY HERE

She glanced up at the Stormcutter, startled. She looked back at Hiccup, then at his runes, and suddenly realized that this black dragon was the key to breaking the communications barrier between herself and the dragons. "Yes! Tell him I'm very happy here, and I understand that he never meant to hurt me when he took me away from my home, and... I think of him as a special friend." Hiccup passed on this message to the big dragon, who blinked expressively and lowered his head so she could scratch under his chin.

"Can you tell her to scratch a little bit to the right?" Hiccup wrote that in the dirt, and she did what he asked. The Stormcutter closed his eyes and almost purred in delight.

"I'm glad you came here, New-night-fury," she said. "Maybe I can keep you here? I've always wanted to know what the dragons were saying, especially Cloudjumper. Night Furies are very rare, but a Night Fury who can translate Norse for me... you must be the only one in the world."

ACTUALLY, I KNOW OF A FEW
OTHERS, INCLUDING MY
TWIN SON AND DAUGHTER

The others were Guana, Agmundr, and Full-of-surprises, but he wasn't ready to try and explain them yet. He was still figuring out this odd woman and what she wanted.

"Twins? But that's impossible!" she burst out. "Everyone knows that Night Furies lay only one egg a year." She paused. "Don't they?"

MY MATE HAS SEVERAL TWINS IN
HER FAMILY. SHE INHERITED THE
TENDENCY TO DOUBLE UP. IN 3
YEARS, WE'VE HAD 5 HATCHLINGS

"Five? That means your kind is making a comeback! Now that's good news!" She really sounded happy about it. Then her face fell. "I just wish I could have made some contribution to my kind. It's not like the human race needs my contribution – we seem to be taking over the world, at the dragons' expense. Still, it would have been nice..."

YOU HAVE NO CHILDREN?

"I had one... I left him behind when Cloudjumper carried me away from Berk. I have no idea if he's dead or alive; I'll probably never see him again... what's the matter? What's wrong?"

Berk. She was from Berk.

His knees buckled; he barely stayed on his feet. His mouth fell open and his ear flaps went fully erect. He searched his memory; had he ever heard of someone from his village who was carried away by a dragon? No, he couldn't think of anyone. The dragons had never carried off people, just sheep and fish. To be sure, the occasional warrior got carried out to sea because he wouldn't let go of the dragon he was beating with his hammer, but those warriors always got thrown off into the ocean eventually, where they either swam back to shore or drowned. Besides, if she'd been carried off eighteen years ago like the Stormcutter had said, that would have been when he was a baby. He'd never remember anything from when he was that young.

"What's the matter, New-night-fury?" the Stormcutter asked, concerned.

"She's from the same Viking village I came from," he forced himself to say.

"Is that a big coincidence? I mean, how many Viking villages are there?"

"Hundreds," Hiccup answered. "Maybe thousands, depending on how far you fly. Yes, it's a big coincidence. I'm trying to figure out if I know who she was."

"I'm afraid I can't help you," said the Stormcutter. "I don't even know her name."

"Can you tell me what's going on?" the woman asked anxiously. "Did I say something wrong?"

His claw was shaking slightly as he wrote.

I AM FROM BERK.
SO ARE MY FRIENDS

"You are?" she burst out. "From Berk? Then maybe you know my son!" She actually grabbed Hiccup's head and turned him to face her. "You must know him! He's the son of the chief! Is he all right? Did he grow up to be strong and brave, like his father? Is he preparing to become the next chief? Tell me! His name was Hiccup."

For the space of two breaths, he could not move. He finally pulled away from her, unwilling for her to see him cry. But she was determined. She moved around to stay in front of him. The sight of a tear rolling down his black cheek startled her. Now it was her turn to be unable to move.

"You know him," she whispered. "Something bad happened to him. That's why you're crying. Was he disgraced? Was he exiled? Is he...?" She grabbed the sides of his face again, much harder. "Tell me what happened to him! You have to tell me! You're my only link to my only son! I don't care how bad it is – I have to know! TELL ME!" she nearly screamed.

The huge, angry head of the Stormcutter came down, looking over her shoulder directly into Hiccup's eyes. "What have you done to her? Why is my friend so upset? What did you say, and why did you say it? Answer me, Night Fury!"

Hiccup looked at the ground in front of him, where two huge teardrops had left wet stains on the ground. "I can't do this. I can't face this. In my wildest dreams, I fantasized about a moment like this, and now that this moment is actually happening, I can't go through with it. I should go."

"You're going nowhere, Night Fury, until you undo the damage you've done. I care more about this human than you can imagine. I do not like to see her upset like this. You're going to make this right if it's the last thing you ever do!"

"I can't make this right," he said softly. "I don't have that power. No one does. I can't lie to her, and the truth will probably kill her."

"And what terrible truth is that?" the big Stormcutter demanded.

Hiccup glanced at her, and gazed into those green eyes that suddenly looked so familiar. "She's my mother," he whispered back.