The Black Sphere Chapter 8
The exile ship from Berk was a little over halfway to Outcast Island, and the crescent moon was rising, when the Night Furies arrived. Astrid hadn't exaggerated when she'd said she would bring them all, and now it seemed to the rowers on the ship that they were surrounded by a dense flock of Night Furies. There were only sixteen of them, in reality, and four of them were still quite small, but they flew and maneuvered so fast, and stayed so close to the ship, that their numbers seemed multiplied many times over. Even the smallest of them, like Hiccup's son Smallest-boy and Toothless' son Mama's-boy, did their part by flying in tight circles around the ship's mast, making the sailors dizzy trying to keep track of them.
At the opportune moment, six of the big ones swooped toward the ship, one after the other. They all had wanted the honor of snatching Hiccup off the deck and carrying him away, but Mother-of-twins had insisted on her rights as Hiccup's mate, so she got him. Thing One quickly grabbed Rangi, Faithful-brother took Orn away, and the other three battered Vikings who had challenged Spitelout and failed found themselves dangling beneath Bang, Six, and Smith-flies-for-fun. Just like that, the exile ship was suffering from a severe shortage of exiles. The rowers held a quick conference, turned the ship around, and headed back to Berk.
"We got them all, just like you asked," Full-of-surprises called to her father. "You, Rangi, Orn are ours, but why we take other three beat-up Vikings?"
"They probably don't deserve to be exiled, and I know they don't deserve the abuse that they'll get when they land on Outcast Island," Hiccup answered. "I won't allow them to go through that, even if I don't legally have any authority over them anymore. We'll set them down somewhere on Lava-Lout Island where they won't get in any trouble. If and when my plan works, we'll take them back to Berk with us."
"Got it," she nodded.
Smallest-boy was thoroughly enjoying his first adventure ever, but one thing really bothered him. "Mother, are you sure that human is really my father?"
"Absolutely sure," she told him.
"He should be bigger," the young Night Fury said.
"He will be, soon," she replied, and added in a whisper, "I hope."
"Astrid," Hiccup called, "your claws are kind of digging into my arms. Can I ride you for a while instead of being carried?"
"I not sure how to get you onto my back," she replied.
"Drop him on my back instead," Toothless called to her as he maneuvered directly under her. Hiccup couldn't understand his dragon language, so he cried out in shock when Astrid suddenly let him fall. That fall only took him down about four feet; he landed on Toothless' back, got over his surprise, and bent over to hug his old friend.
"I'm riding you again, bud! Just like old times, from a long, long time ago." Toothless couldn't understand his words, but his gesture was clear enough, so he answered with a soft, gurgling croon. it really was like old times.
It took them about two hours to reach Lava-Lout Island. It was around nine o'clock at night by the time they made landfall. After dropping off the three beaten-up Vikings in a brushy, overgrown area, Astrid led the other dragons straight to the dragon-people's huts, where the Night Furies set down their living cargoes and then landed. Rangi stayed out of the way; there wasn't anything for him to do at this point in the adventure. The dragon-people, who were still reassuringly human-shaped, ran out to greet them. One moderately-attractive woman did a double-take when she saw them, then hesitantly walked over to them.
"Orn? Is that you? What happened to you?"
"Emma!" he gasped, and threw his arms around her. It was partially a passionate embrace and partially an attempt to lean on her so he didn't fall over; he was still woozy from the beating that Spitelout had given him.
"I haven't seen you in months, ever since they took me away from you," she murmured.
"I never forgot about you," he murmured back. "I'm sorry I look so awful. I got into a stupid fight on another island, but it was for a good cause. Oh, man, I can't tell you how good it is to see you again!" They held hands and began a very personal conversation.
Meanwhile, Hiccup had sought out Leiðtoga, the leader. "Have we met?" she asked him.
"Yes, in a different body," Hiccup admitted, "but I have an important question for you. You're sure that the black sphere can't turn a person into a dragon? Absolutely sure?"
"As sure as I can be," she said. "I can't give you a 100% guarantee, though. Why?"
"Because we're going to destroy it," Hiccup said firmly. "Once it's gone, you'll be humans permanently. Lunklunk can never change you back again, no matter what happens."
Once again, she surprised him by showing very little enthusiasm. "Thanks, I guess," she muttered. "It's better than being a half-dragon."
"Maybe you'll feel better about it when it's a fact in your life," he suggested.
"Speaking of that," Smith-flies-for-fun interrupted, "how you plan to destroy that sphere? I hit it with everything I had, and my hammer just bounced off."
"We're going to hit it a lot harder than that," Hiccup said grimly. "We're going to blast that sphere with the greatest concentration of destructive energy there is: a Night Fury firebolt."
"And force of firebolt will just throw sphere halfway across island," Faithful-brother objected.
"I've thought of that," Hiccup said. "We aren't using just one firebolt. We've got sixteen Night Furies here. We're going to hit that thing from all directions at once, so it can't bounce away."
"What if it pops straight up?" Bang asked.
"I thought of that, too," Hiccup replied. "Some of our shots are going to come straight down, from Night Furies in the air. Others will come in at an angle. We'll surround that sphere with enough destructive energy to light a new star! Well, maybe not that much, but enough to blast that accursed thing out of existence, no matter what's holding it together."
"Sixteen Night Furies, all shooting at once," Mother-of-twins thought out loud. "What if somebody shoot too soon, or too late?"
"Not a problem." Hiccup smiled and gestured toward Full-of-surprises. "We have an Alpha dragon! Coordinating all the other dragons is what she does for a living. She'll control the range and the timing of the shots so they all hit at the exact same moment."
"Okay, I think I can do that," Full-of-surprises said. "But why we do it here?"
"Two reasons," Hiccup said matter-of-factly. "One, they have a big, flat expanse of solid volcanic rock about a hundred yards away from here. That will be the perfect place to put the sphere so we can smash it. If we do it on soft ground, I'm afraid that the ball will just sink into the ground from the force of the blow. But that ball can't sink into solid rock, no matter how hard we hit it. Berk is mostly soil and sand, and we don't have a big enough slab of rock to do this job, so we'll do it here.
"The second reason is that, when we blast that thing, it won't just free me; it will mean permanent freedom for the dragon-people as well, and they have a right to see it happen."
"They still be thralls," Lady-night-fury objected.
"But they'll be human thralls, and that has to be better!" Hiccup retorted. "At any rate, it's the best thing I can legally do for them."
"What if we smash ball, and it make you be human forever?" Smith-flies-for-fun asked.
"Do not bring that up!" Astrid hissed.
"No, it's a fair question," Hiccup said. "If it works that way, then I'm stuck like this, but if we don't even try, then I'll be stuck anyway. And if I do end up stuck like this, then the dragon-people will be 'stuck' being human for keeps as well, so it's a net gain, even if it doesn't give me back my Night Fury body."
Astrid nuzzled him. "I miss your old body."
"Not half as much as I do," Hiccup sighed. "But we have to try this, no matter how it works out for me. The thralls deserve it, and we have to stop Chief Lunklunk from ever using that black sphere on anybody else again."
"Okay," Mother-of-twins nodded. "I think we have no more questions. Is good that you have plan; if you think like Hiccup, then you okay on inside. Full-of-surprises, take charge."
Full-of-surprises technically took charge, but she wasn't arbitrarily giving orders. She consulted with Hiccup and with Smith-flies-for-fun to figure out which Night Furies should fire from which directions. They had to take into account the differing sizes of firebolt coming from the differing sizes of Night Fury. Even the babies had their part to play (and they were thrilled to be counted as important participants in this project, even though they weren't completely sure what it all meant). Rangi pulled the sphere out of its bag and set it down in a slight depression in the flat rock, then stepped away.
As their Alpha organized the dragons and told the flying shooters where to attack from, Hiccup got her attention. "You might want to back everybody off a bit further than that," he suggested. "They're only about fifty feet from the sphere. This is a powerful seidr piece with a lot of energy inside, and when it blows, we don't want anyone to get caught in the blast."
"Good idea," she nodded, and made sure everyone would be at least two hundred feet away from the sphere when they fired. The flying shooters took to the air and began moving into position, the grounded shooters braced themselves with all four legs, and Hiccup stood at a distance. He had done all he could; now it was up to the Night Furies.
"What if it doesn't work?" came a voice from just behind him. Hiccup jumped a foot in the air, startled. It was Orn.
"Sorry," Hiccup said, "but the last time you got behind me, it didn't work out very well for me."
"It worked better for you than it did for me," Orn said firmly. "I have no regrets, but I think I can promise you, I'll never try that again. Not against Spitelout, anyway."
"I guess I should be thankful," Hiccup admitted. "As to whether it will work or not, all I can say is, it should work. But I don't know much about seidr, and I can't predict what will happen when that kind of seidr meets the full firepower of sixteen Night Furies. It will probably be impressive to watch, but will it work? I sure hope so. If it doesn't, I'm all out of ideas. Maybe I'll be stuck like this."
"Is being human that bad?" Orn asked him. "I sure don't mind it."
"You can't know how it feels to have the freedom of the skies, and then lose it," Hiccup said. "Besides, I make a terrible human. I was a Viking wannabe for my first fifteen years, and I hated it. I've been a dragon for six years, and I love it. Not to mention, my mate, my children, and my best friends are all Night Furies. That's not a decision I have to think very hard about... except I can't make that decision now. It's up to the dragons, seidr, and luck." He took a deep breath. "I have full confidence in the Night Furies."
"What about the gods?" Orn asked.
"Pfft!" Hiccup burst out. "Our gods never did me any favors before; why would they start now? I'd rather put my trust in the dragons. With them, I know where I stand, and they're a lot more likely to actually do something for me."
"We ready!" shouted Full-of-surprises. "No, we not," she added with a hint of irritation. One of the Night Furies had broken formation and landed in front of Hiccup. It was Toothless. He let out an anxious croon. Astrid, who was one of the dragons who would take her shot from the ground, walked over to translate for him.
"Would you two please get back in position?" Full-of-surprises demanded. "I don't want to have to Alpha-persuade you."
"This shouldn't take long," Mother-of-twins answered, "and show a little respect for your mother, Alpha or no Alpha!" She turned to Hiccup and wrote,
HE SAYS, IF THIS DOESN'T WORK,
HE WILL STILL FIND A WAY FOR
THE TWO OF YOU TO BE FRIENDS
Hiccup smiled and rested a hand on Toothless' nose. "I know that, bud. It's good to hear you say it anyway, even if I can't understand you right now. But I think my daughter is getting impatient. You'd better get back in position. I think this ought to work, but I'm not sure, and the suspense is killing me." Astrid nodded, translated quickly, and walked back to her place; Toothless offered one more reassuring gurgle, then lifted off. For about half of a long minute, nothing happened.
Hiccup looked up, trying to see the Night Furies he could hear diving, resenting his inferior human-based night vision. The dragon-people watched passively. Full-of-surprises concentrated hard. They all heard the telltale sound of Night Furies charging up their fires. In perfect synchronization, all of the black dragons fired on the black sphere.
The blast of sixteen Night Fury firebolts wasn't much louder than the blast of one, because they all exploded simultaneously. But the resulting fireball of light was far bigger than any dragon firebolt, and was unbearably bright, like looking straight into the sun. For a few seconds, no one could see anything. Full-of-surprises had to influence the babies to fly straight and level so they wouldn't collide with anyone while they were blinded. As their eyes adjusted, they first focused on their target. The black sphere was unquestionably gone. In its place was a perfect hemisphere of a crater in the stone, one hundred feet across and fifty feet deep. Full-of-surprises had done well to back everyone off. As they watched, the nearer of the two Lava-Lout volcanoes launched a lava bomb that landed in the hole and splattered all over it, ruining the perfectly smooth walls of the crater.
Then they looked for Hiccup. They couldn't see him! Where had he gone? What had happened? They looked all around for him. What they saw made them stop in their tracks: every single one of the dragon-people had turned into a dragon. Leiðtoga was now a purple Nadder; Emma had become a dark-brown Gronckle; the others were a mix of familiar species. And they all were roaring and flapping their wings and swinging their tails with more excitement than a Viking child opening his presents at Snoggletog.
Faithful-brother was the first to figure it out. "The dragon-people – they weren't really people! They were dragons all along!"
"We all assumed that they were transformed humans," Six admitted. "Even Dad made that assumption. It must have been because they were thralls, so that meant humans, to everyone's way of thinking."
"No wonder they weren't thrilled about turning into humans forever," Bang said. "They wanted to be dragons again! They must have hated their human bodies as much as Dad did."
"Now I really hate Lunklunk!" Astrid decided. "Keeping human thralls is bad, but it's legal. Enslaving dragons in human bodies is wrong no matter how you look at it!"
Leiðtoga ran up to Full-of-surprises. "You've set us free!" she shouted, with none of the passivity that had marked everything she'd said up until now. "You've given us our bodies back! It's really true, how wonderful Night Furies are. We're finally free, after all those awful years! Thank you, thank you! How can we ever thank you enough?" She looked close to tears of joy.
"We need to thank my father," Full-of-surprises told her. "It was his idea, even though we didn't foresee how it would turn out. Now where did he go?" They looked all around. There should have been a seventeenth Night Fury, or a small, disappointed human, but they couldn't find either version of Hiccup anywhere. Had the magical explosion had an unexpected side effect and blown him out of existence somehow?
Finally, Rangi figured out what the dragons were saying to each other. "If you're looking for Chief-night-fury, I think he went that-a-way," he suggested, jerking his thumbs upwards.
High above them, they got their answer. A string of small firebolts went off in a row, one after the other. In their flashes of light, they could barely see the silhouette of a blacker-than-black dragon who was flapping, rolling and spinning with complete disregard for his own safety, and with at least as much excitement as the newly-transformed dragon-people. They could hear him roar, "I'm flying! I'm flying! I'm free-ee-ee!"
"Yup, that has to be Hiccup," Astrid said, trying to sound matter-of-fact about it, even though she was thrilled beyond words that her mate was back in the body he loved so well. He'd be flying with wild abandon for a few minutes; there was no use trying to call him down. She turned to Leiðtoga.
"What are you going to do next?" she asked.
"I think most of us want to put as much distance between ourselves and humans as possible," she said. "You said you share your nest with humans, so we won't be going there. Well, maybe a couple of us, but most of us just want to be plain old dragons again. We want to fly, we want to fish, we want to take naps, and we don't want some jerk human telling us what to do, ever again!"
"Then I think you'll want to join Toothless' nest," Mother-of-twins replied, and waved Toothless over with a tail gesture.
"Sure, we've got room for more dragons!" he burst out. "We lost a lot of dragons a few months ago to the colossal cave and the Red Deaths, so there are plenty of good perching spots in our nest. We're on an island, surrounded by good fishing grounds, and we're in a place where humans just don't want to go."
"That sounds perfect," Leiðtoga smiled. "Count us in!" Toothless smiled too; he'd been trying to figure out how to add more dragons to his nest, and, thanks to Hiccup, they had been dropped right in front of him.
The only one who didn't seem to be happy was Orn. He was staring in dismay at the Gronckle he had known as Emma. She finally noticed him, and grunted and growled at him.
SHE ASKS WHAT IS WRONG
Cave-flyer had seen the situation unfolding and took it upon herself to serve as interpreter.
"Emma... is that really you?"
The dragon growled and grunted some more; again, Cave-flyer wrote in the dirt.
YES, IT IS ME. THIS IS
THE REAL ME. CAN YOU
BE HAPPY FOR ME?
"Yes, I'm happy for you, but I'm kind of disappointed for us. I just found you again, and now you'll be gone forever!"
WE CAN STILL
BE TOGETHER.
"How?" Orn burst out. "You're a dragon now! We can't..."
WE CANNOT BE LOVERS,
BUT WE CAN BE TOGETHER.
"Huh? How would that work?"
I AM NOT SURE, BUT
THERE MUST BE A WAY.
"There is," Rangi explained as he joined them. "On Berk, it's common for humans and dragons to pair off. They go flying together; they take care of each other; they understand each other better than a lot of people realize. Not only that, but we've invented a language called Forge, so people and dragons can talk to each other without needing a translator. Some human/dragon pairs are almost as close as some marriages." Cave-flyer rendered his speech into dragon language for Emma's benefit.
"It's the 'marriage' thing I was hoping for," Orn admitted. "I guess that will never happen now. But still, you're a wonderful lady, or you used to be, but you're probably still wonderful on the inside, and I still like you a lot. When we talked together before, we had so much in common! I guess we still do, except... oh, man, this just got complicated! I could almost wish we were both thralls again."
NEVER!
"No, you're right," Orn said quickly. "Nothing could be worth paying that price again. Not even you... no, that came out totally wrong. I didn't mean it as an insult." He stopped and shook his head. "This is so confusing! I feel like I'm talking circles around myself! I'm trying to make sense out of all this, and it's hard. Maybe we should start by keeping it simple. Do you think...?" He glanced meaningfully at her wings.
YES, I WOULD LOVE TO
GO FLYING WITH YOU.
I'LL SHOW YOU THE SKY AND
I'LL KEEP YOU SAFE FROM
LUNKLUNK. CAN YOU ADJUST
TO ME BEING A DRAGON?
"Maybe," Orn said thoughtfully. "I'd like to. I never did it before, but the Vikings of my new tribe have gotten used to having dragons around, so maybe I can, too. Can you adjust to living on an island with dragons and humans together?"
YES, IF YOU ARE ONE
OF THOSE HUMANS.
"Then it sounds like you've got a deal, both of you," Cave-flyer nodded.
"This is going to be weird," Orn admitted. "But I'm still adjusting to life as a free man. This will just be one more thing to adjust to." He hesitantly rested his hand on the Gronckle's nose horn. "I'm glad you won't hold my being human against me, after everything that humans have done to you. Wow! I just stopped being a thrall, and already I'm going to be a dragon rider!"
I JUST BECAME FREE, AND
ALREADY I'M BONDING TO
A HUMAN.
"Life is strange," Orn decided. "But I guess it can be good, sometimes. I'd definitely rather stay with you as a dragon than lose you completely."
MOST HUMANS ARE BAD.
SOME ARE GOOD.
I FOUND A GOOD ONE.
BY THE WAY, MY REAL NAME IS
GRONCKLE-BROWN-
EATS-A-MOUTHFUL-OF-SALMON.
"That's a mouthful, all right. Umm... would it be okay if I called you Gronckle-Emma?"
The dragon considered that for a quick moment, then nodded her huge head. Orn smiled. A moment later, something thudded to the ground next to them, startling them both. Hiccup had seen the scene unfolding below him, guessed at what was going on, and caught a fish and dropped it for them. After a few seconds, Orn picked up the fish with both hands and tossed it to Gronckle-Emma, who swallowed it with long-suppressed delight and rumbled a draconic "thank you" that needed no translation.
Most of the former dragon-people wanted to get off this island of bad memories as quickly as they could. Lady-night-fury offered to guide them to the Dragon Island nest so they could check it out, and a minute later, only a handful of dragons was left on Lava-Lout Island, most of them Night Furies. They were waiting for Hiccup to settle down and return to land. Finally, Toothless offered to go up and get him.
"Who are you kidding?" Mother-of-twins scoffed. "He'll pull you into a game of tag-tail, and you'll both be up there for an hour! We'll get out of here faster if you wait for him down here." Toothless had to admit that she was right.
They soon faced a new distraction: a row of Lava-Lout Vikings was approaching with torches and weapons, led by their chief. They'd seen the bright flash of light, they'd heard the roaring of dragons, and now they wanted to see what was going on. "Should we attack them?" Gronckle-Emma wondered. "A little revenge on those enslavers would be nice."
"If you attack, some of you will probably get hurt," Full-of-surprises cautioned her. "You haven't fought like dragons in years; your skills are rusty. Let the Night Furies handle this one." For the second time that night, she got the black dragons organized for a coordinated strike. This one laid a straight line of eight firebolts in the ground just in front of the advancing Vikings. They stopped to rub the dust out of their eyes; when they resumed their cautious advance, eight more firebolts lanced downward and blocked their path again.
"I don't want to fight against all those Night Furies!" one of them protested, and the others agreed. Chief Lunklunk realized that, if he kept advancing, he would do so alone.
"Chief Hiccup!" he shouted. "This is my island, not yours! Call off your Night Furies or I'll... oh, donnerwetter, he can't call them off; he's not a dragon anymore. Vikings, fall back! I'll leave for Berk in the morning and deal with this myself." The men with the torches faded away into the night.
At last, Hiccup landed. Even though he had no hair anymore, he gave a strong impression of being windblown. He rushed over to Astrid, exclaiming, "I'm back! And, oh, baby, does it feel good to be back!"
Astrid greeted him, her eyes wide and happy. "And it's good to get you back!" Then she gave him a quick tail-slap on the flank. "That's for keeping me waiting for half an hour while you took a joyride in the sky!"
He smiled broadly. "I love you, Astrid. Don't ever change."
"I won't," she said earnestly. "Can you promise me that you won't change either?"
He grinned, showing a row of shiny white teeth. He snapped them into his jaw and out again, just because he could do it now. "If I don't run into any more black spheres, then you've got a deal. But for now, let's round up our humans and take everyone back to Berk. We need to be out of here before Lunklunk catches any of us on his island without an invitation, and I have some urgent unfinished business at home."