First Contact Chapter 21
Valka had seen all there was to see from above. There was no sense in stalling any longer. "Cloudjumper, we land."
They slowly spiraled downward toward the town. The ring of dragons beside them broke up and followed them down, still curious about the big Stormcutter who was visiting their village. Their formation looked like a huge corkscrew as they descended toward Berk. She wasn't sure where the best landing zone was, so she left the choice to her dragon. He seemed to know where he wanted to go; he was aiming for a clear spot on the outskirts of town, near a building that might be the forge.
As they got closer to the ground, she saw a Night Fury galloping across the town, followed by a big man who was having trouble keeping up. There wasn't any question who those two might be. A slowly growing crowd of Vikings was streaming out of their homes and shops, following their chief. It looked like she was going to have the entire town for a welcoming committee. That was the exact opposite of what she wanted! She wondered if she should just orbit the town until the Vikings lost interest, and then land after the crowd broke up.
That was when Hiccup looked up at all the dragons and let out a warbling roar and a sharp snarl. Pu-lao and Bi-xi folded their wings and dove the rest of the way to the ground. There, the three of them had a quick conference and formed a living barrier to everyone who wanted to approach their landing area. The big man who led the way was allowed in; anyone else who tried to get past them got growled at, until he or she stepped back. Within moments, their landing zone was clear, except for one young man who left the forge at a dead run, carrying something wrapped in rags. It was probably Varinn, she realized. She had no idea what he was up to, but he wasn't obstructing her landing zone; she'd ask him about it later.
Valka sighed deeply. "Cloudjumper, land."
He opened all four wings for maximum braking power, and they settled to the ground as lightly as a falling leaf in the autumn. Now that she was at ground level, some of the buildings looked familiar again, although many had been rebuilt over the years, probably due to dragon attacks. She'd done everything in her power to stop those attacks, and failed, but her son had succeeded. Now her son was holding back the crowds as Stoick walked slowly, almost cautiously toward her. She slid down her dragon's side, and her feet touched Berk's soil again.
All the Vikings burst out in cheers and applause. She had come home.
Stoick took both her hands in his own, actually went to one knee in front of her for a moment, then rose again. "Welcome home" was all he said. He didn't dare try to say more; his eyes were watering and he was afraid his voice would break.
She looked around at the houses and the shops and the warehouses and the storage sheds. She glanced over the edge of the cliffs into the harbor, and saw the ships and the docks. She looked back at the growing crowd of Vikings who were staring at her.
She felt an overwhelming urge to jump back onto Cloudjumper and fly back to her safe, familiar nest as fast as he could carry her.
"Now that you're here," Stoick said, breaking her thought train, "what would you like to do?"
She didn't tell him what she was really thinking. She needed to stall for time until she could settle her nerves. "I guess I need a tour of the town, so I can see what's changed in the past eighteen years."
"A tour of the town, it is," he smiled, and offered her his arm. "You'll get the chief's tour! I'll show you everything! Uhh, Night Furies, could you move out of the way, please?"
Valka realized that, the moment the Night Furies obeyed the chief, the people of the town would flood in and surround her, blocking her progress and making her feel horribly uncomfortable. Hiccup seemed to sense her state of mind.
"Ride your dragon," he suggested.
Perfect! Cloudjumper heard Hiccup's comment and bent down so she could scramble onto his back. Up there, she felt safe. The Vikings did, indeed, flood towards her when the Night Furies moved aside, but they kept a respectful distance from that big, unfamiliar dragon. He turned his head around and smiled at her.
"You still need me," he said hopefully.
"Of course I still need you, you silly dragon!" she burst out, forgetting to speak Forge to him. Did he think she was done with him, now that she had her mate and her son back? She scratched behind his head frills, in that spot he could never quite reach; he quivered and purred in delight.
"Okay, my dragon lady," Stoick called from ground level. "We'll take our tour of the town, your way." He led the way, with Cloudjumper and Hiccup walking side-by-side behind him, and throngs of curious Vikings following them. The town had grown slightly, she noticed; there were more houses and a few more full-time tradesmen's shops than she remembered. The buildings themselves hadn't changed in size, only in style – the new ones were slightly more ornate and colorful in their dragon-shaped decorations than the older ones. She noticed that Stoick led them away from one house in particular. She'd have plenty of time to check out that house later, though. It was his. Theirs.
At last, they made their way up the stony steps to the Mead Hall. "Mom, you on your own here," Hiccup said. "Dragons usually wait outside when party happens. We too big."
"Party? Who said anything about a party?" she asked nervously.
Stoick smiled and held out his arms to her. "One of the perks of being chief is that you can call a celebration whenever you think the town needs one. Today, the chief's wife has come home, and we are going to celebrate!" She didn't seem to have much choice in the matter. After a moment, she jumped off her dragon and her husband caught her easily. The dragons stepped aside as Stoick flung open the doors and led most of the population of Berk into the Hall, where the smell of baking chicken made Valka feel hungry in a way she hadn't felt in a very long time. For a moment, she wasn't even nervous about being the center of attention at a party.
Stoick led her to the head table, where he'd sat with various friends for the past eighteen years. Tonight, it was set with only two places on one side, and there wasn't even a bench on the other side. Once he'd helped her take her seat, he went back to the door. After a few seconds, accompanied by much talk and a few surprised gasps, he returned with Hiccup and Cloudjumper. He directed them with his hands to stand at the empty side of the head table. Then he stood up on his bench and waited until the room was silent.
"Vikings, this is a very emotional day for me. This is a day I never imagined might happen, but here we are, all of us. Eighteen years ago, I lost my wife; three years ago, I lost my son; and today, all three of us are at the same table again." A well-timed burst of applause and cheers made him pause; that gave him a chance to regain his composure. "You need to know that Valka is a little nervous after all these years away from people, and she doesn't want to be surrounded by huge crowds. I know you all want to greet her, but please do it one at a time, and keep it low-key.
"That's all I have for now. Does anyone have anything really important to say before we eat?"
"Yes!" came a reedy voice from the back. A thin old man with a four-horned helmet stood up. "It's time we settled an eighteen-year-old debt!"
Gobber turned to face him. "Mildew, this is not the time or the place!" he hissed. Mildew ignored him as he strode up to the head table, shaking his staff so it rattled. He was spending the rest of his life cleaning up dragon droppings all over town, as his sentence for kidnapping the baby dragons, and his outlook on life had only gotten worse as a result. He was looking for a target for his resentment.
"Eighteen years ago, this woman stopped the late, lamented warrior Trollbasket from killing a Monstrous Nightmare. 'You'll only make things worse,' she said!" His tone had turned mocking. "Three minutes later, my house was set on fire by a Monstrous Nightmare. There was only one Monstrous Nightmare in that entire raid – the one whose life she spared! If she had done her duty as a Viking, my roof would not have burned." He banged his staff on the floor. "By Viking law, I demand that she repay the cost of replacing my roof, and I also demand an apology!"
People were murmuring all over the Hall. Stoick turned to Valka. "He's within his rights to make those demands. I can pay for his roof, but an apology from a chief's wife would not only humiliate you; it would also mean admitting that you were wrong about the dragons. That's probably what he really wants. Are you ready to do that?"
"I couldn't do that, Stoick," she said with a shake of her head. "We both know I was right; I was just ahead of my time."
Before Stoick could answer, Hiccup had turned and made some snarling noises. Hesitantly, Agnarr got up from his bench and approached the head table. "Sir," he said to Stoick, "Hiccup is asking me to translate for him, from dragon language straight into Norse. He says he has something to say about this matter. Will you let me speak for him?"
"I don't think a dragon has any jurisdiction in this case," Mildew scoffed.
"Dragons are definitely involved in this case," Stoick said thoughtfully, "and Hiccup is the chief of the dragons. He has a right to speak. Agnarr, do you swear that you will repeat exactly what he says, without adding, removing, or changing a single word?"
"I do, sir." For the next five minutes, Hiccup spoke to Agnarr, who translated for the rest of the Vikings; then Mildew would give an answer that required no translation because Hiccup understood Norse perfectly.
"First off, Mildew, are you aware that Valka was considered legally dead after being gone for seven years? The chief could have remarried, if he'd wanted to, without breaking his marriage contract. You're pursuing a claim against someone who was considered to be dead."
"What difference does that make, dragon? She's alive now!"
"The difference that makes is that, when someone dies, their debts pass to their family. You've got no claim against her anymore." Hiccup turned to Stoick. "Her debts would fall on you, as her husband. Are you willing to let them fall on me, as her oldest son, instead?" The Night Fury winked at him. Stoick had never flinched away from duty and responsibility, but he realized that his son was up to something. He knew how Hiccup could think. He nodded.
"All righty then, Mildew; you say it's my mother's fault that your roof burned, so you're pursuing a claim against me as her oldest son. Do you remember the events of a year ago, a little something called the Berserker War?"
"Yes, I remember that, dragon. What does that have to do with anything?"
"I seem to recall the chief saying that the dragons saved the village, and he gave credit to me as one of the dragons' leaders. That means I saved your whole house, not just the roof. The way I see it, that makes us even."
"Well... I don't see it that way, dragon," Mildew stammered. "I still had to have a new roof put on my house while you were still a baby."
"Fine, human. We'll play it your way. I'll pay for a new roof to be put on your house. Don't worry about where the money will come from; I'll find some lost valuables on a wrecked ship somewhere, or something like that. And I'm willing to apologize on behalf of the Monstrous Nightmare who burned the first roof. Will that do the job?"
Mildew thought for a moment. "I guess so. But I don't need a new roof anymore; that got fixed eighteen years ago. I just want the money."
"Oh, but I can't do that," Hiccup said through Agnarr. "If I'm going to spend that much money, I have a right to be sure the job is done properly. I don't want to pay for some half-hearted workmen who did shoddy workmanship almost twenty years ago. So I'll remove the old roof from your house tonight, the way dragons do it –"
"No!" Mildew shouted. "Not that! Not again!"
"...and then I'll arrange for some workmen to replace it and do a good job," Hiccup finished.
"But all of the town's workmen are tied up on other projects!" Mildew protested. "It could take a month before they start my roof! My house could be wide-open to the elements for weeks!"
"I guess that might be a problem, from your point of view," the Night Fury said through his interpreter. "But once we start this process, that's the only way we can finish it. Are you sure you want to go through with this?"
Mildew made a sour face as he thought it over. At last, he grudgingly muttered, "I withdraw my claim."
"We are witnesses!" exclaimed Gobber, who was waiting with bated breath for that admission.
"We are witnesses!" shouted several other nearby Vikings.
"Good!" bellowed Stoick. "My wife's name is cleared. Now, enough legalities – let's eat!" That brought unanimous agreement. The chief saw to it that Valka got the first platter of chicken. If her table manners weren't especially ladylike, no one complained. Table manners weren't a Viking specialty anyway. The cooks also brought out large platters of raw fish for the two dragons, so they could join in the feast. They did so, with gusto. Cloudjumper quickly cleared one platter and watched approvingly as a cook brought him another one.
"I think I could get used to living in a human village," he said to Hiccup. "But I have to ask you something. Your father wanted both of us at his table. I know you're his son, but why did he want me here? I'm not part of his family."
"You're special to his wife," Hiccup answered. "You're the one who took her away all those years ago, but you're also the one who brought her back. Seating you at the head table is his way of saying he forgives you for taking her. He won't come out and say it – he's too much of a Viking – but he wants to make you welcome because you're so important to her."
"Oh." Cloudjumper wasn't sure how he should respond to that. "Then I suppose I'll be a polite guest, and enjoy some more of these delicious fish he's provided for me." He proceeded to do so. His table manners fit in well with those of the Vikings around him; he might have been a neater eater than they were. Even if that wasn't the case, who was going to tell him?