The Power of Gold Chapter 2

Night-fury-makes-one-heck-of-a-bang decided to go for a joyride. There was precious little for him to do on Berk; the Bog-Burglar dragons had left, and his younger sister Full-of-surprises had the Berk dragons well under control. To be honest, that wasn't as hard as it used to be. Berk's dragon population had been halved by the events of the Green Deaths and the colossal cave, and now they'd lost three dozen more to the brand-new nest among the Bog-Burglars. The dragons who were left were almost all bonded to humans, which tended to settle them down and reduce their natural belligerence, so fights and disagreements were few and far between. Bang's father, Chief-night-fury, intended for Bang to start his own nest among the Meathead tribe after the Meatheads' current chief passed from the scene, but that was probably years away, and with Berk's dragons less numerous than ever, Bang had no idea where he'd get enough dragons to start another new nest. There was nothing for him to do and nothing for him to plan. So, in the best Night Fury tradition, he went flying.

Like his father, he loved flying for flying's sake. Unlike his father, he'd been a dragon all his life, so he never had any flashbacks to a past when he had no wings. That didn't dampen his simple delight in soaring through the sky and punching holes in the clouds; it just meant that he never had any moments of amazement that he could fly at all. Today, he was just gliding at three-quarters-of-a-mile up, occasionally flicking his tail to change directions, and delighting in his freedom. If he ever got bored of flying, he might have a problem dealing with the tedium, because he had so little to do aside from flying. Fortunately, flying was never boring to him and never would be.

Far below him, he spotted a dark shape, half-flying and half-gliding just above the ocean. From this height, he couldn't tell one Night Fury from another, so he eased down until his sharp eyes could pick out the unknown dragon's markings. It was Night-fury-cave-flyer, Uncle Toothless' oldest daughter. Judging by her arrow-straight course, she didn't seem to be on a joyride; it looked like she had some kind of destination in mind. He sideslipped until his shadow passed across her. She looked up, startled, then climbed up to his altitude.

"Hi, Bang," she said brightly. "What are you doing out here in the middle of nowhere?"

"I could ask you the same question," he said.

"Yes, you could. Are you asking?" she came back.

He grunted. "Fine. What are you doing out here in the middle of nowhere?"

She looked ahead of them for a moment. "When I was coming home last night, I think I found a cave in one of those islands just ahead. It was too dark to check it out, so I'm headed that way now."

He smiled. "Would this cave be big enough for you to fly around in?"

"Of course it would!" she exclaimed. "Why would I care about a cave if I couldn't fly in it?"

"Just making sure," he said. "Would you mind if I flew with you?"

Cave-flyer looked surprised. "I guess it's okay. I mean, I don't mind. I'm not trying to keep any secrets or anything, and it'll be good to have another Night Fury around in case I do another face-plant in an unfamiliar cavern. But I didn't think you were the cave-flying type."

"Believe it or not, I'm still figuring out what type I am," Bang admitted.

"You are?" she burst out. "I thought everybody knew their destiny by the time they got into their third or fourth year."

"Hardly!" he laughed. "I've ruled out a lot of destinies that are not mine. I'm not a fighter like my mother or my twin sister are, I'm not a natural Alpha like my little sister is, and ever since Agnarr turned into Smith-flies-for-fun, I'm not much of a friend to the humans like my father is. But I can't honestly say I know what I'm supposed to be."

She didn't try to answer right away. She didn't want to say the wrong thing. For years, her parents had been dropping not-so-subtle hints that she should consider him as a future partner. She was finally old enough to consider that possibility, and, much like him with his destiny, she honestly didn't know what to think. He was certainly a good-looking dragon. He'd been in multiple battles and shown himself to be a clever tactician and a good leader, albeit one with very bad luck when it came to getting hit with Viking weapons. He was patient with other dragons' hatchlings and skillful in the air. The only thing that was missing was some kind of chemistry between them. With Night Furies, that wasn't necessarily a deal-breaker; their numbers were still so low that she might be expected to pair off and reproduce for the good of the species, regardless of her feelings. But it would be nice if her mate could make her heart flutter, the way her dad once admitted he felt about her mother.

"I hope you find out," she finally said. "Hey, there's my island! The cave entrance is under a rocky overhang on the other side." They gracefully swung into matching curves as they circled the island until they could see the cliff. Then they dipped down nearly to sea level so they could see the cave entrance.

"That's a pretty big opening," Bang observed. "It's almost big enough for a Green Death. What if there are dragons already living in there?"

"Then I won't go swooping and diving all over their home," she decided. "That would be kind of rude. But I don't smell any dragons from here, so let's check it out." They backwinged to decelerate, glided to the lip of the entrance, and landed. The cave went straight into the island, then dipped down slightly; they couldn't see anything beyond that point.

"I think you're right," Bang nodded. "This looks like a perfect place for a small dragons' nest, but there aren't any dragons in here."

Cave-flyer paused. "Maybe there's a reason for that. If it looks good for dragons, but the dragons never went here, then maybe it's a bad place for us to be. But why?"

"Let's do a little test," he said, shot out a small firebolt, and quickly stepped aside. The firebolt flew into the cave, moving too fast to illuminate any details, then struck the descending ceiling and detonated. The brief flash of light suggested that this cave was at least two hundred feet across and more than five hundred feet long. It was hard to guess how high it was, but there were suggestions of some good-sized stalactites and stalagmites. A few startled bats flew out of the cave, but nothing else moved.

"What were you testing?" Cave-flyer asked Bang.

"If the air in there was bad, then my firebolt probably would have set off an explosion of some kind," he explained. "The bolt exploded normally, so I think we can breathe the air in there without any problems."

She scowled at him. "If it had set off an explosion, then we would have been caught by the blast when it vented out the cave entrance! You could have warned me, so I could step aside like you did."

Bang looked embarrassed. "You're right; I'm sorry. I'm so used to going on adventures by myself, I've kind of forgotten how to play well with others." Cave-flyer felt like she should have been angry at him for hazarding her life. But his willingness to admit he was wrong was an endearing trait. She decided to withhold judgement on him for a while longer.

They stepped inside and looked around. The cave was darker than a new-moon night, but their sensitive eyes adapted to the darkness quickly and they could see shapes and shadows.

"It's not as big as the cave where I earned my name," she decided, "but it's definitely big enough for me to fly around in circles, assuming that I could see where I was going."

"I'll take your word for it," he said. "I never saw the inside of that cave."

"Trust me – it was ginormous," she said as she looked around.

He joined her in looking around. "I don't see any signs that dragons have ever lived here. Or humans, for that matter."

"Why would the humans want to live in a cave?" she wondered. "I thought they liked to build their own homes to live in."

"Someone who broke their laws and was on the run might like to hide in a cave like this," he suggested. "Sailors caught in a storm, with a badly damaged ship, might have taken refuge in here. There are humans called hermits who just don't like to be around other humans. There are lots of reasons why a human might live here, either short-term or for life."

"Maybe it's because this island is far from any of the bigger islands that have Viking tribes on them, so maybe none of them ever found this place," Cave-flyer said.

"I'll take your word for it," Bang said as he strained to see the far wall. "But dragons love places like this! I'm honestly amazed that no dragon ever found this place, because if they found it, they probably wouldn't want to leave. It's far away from the humans, there's deep water nearby for fishing, and –"

He was cut off by a low rumble and a deep crash from inside the cave. They both jumped back. "What was that?" Cave-flyer begged him.

"It sounded like a big hunk of rock falling," he decided. "Maybe the ceiling of this cave isn't rock-solid. Maybe no one lives here because it isn't safe. We probably ought to leave."

"No, wait a moment," she thought out loud. "If this place was always having rock falls, then it should have completely collapsed by now. Or maybe your firebolt jarred something loose. Those falls must be very infrequent. They'd scare away anyone who wanted to live here, but a quick visit should be safe, especially now that the ceiling has gotten its falls out of its system for a while."

"You don't know that!" he burst out, but she was already back in the cave, re-adjusting her eyes to the darkness. "Cave-flyer, this is not a good cave to go flying in!"

"Just a few quick circles, so I can say I did it, and then I'll leave," she decided, and suddenly leaned forward and flew. Bang was torn; he wanted to rush in and get her out of there, but he had no way of making her leave, and he was afraid that another rockfall might trap, or kill, both of them. He settled for standing in the entrance, trying to see where she'd gone.

A few seconds later, a bright burst of light to his right ruined his night-adjusted vision. "Bang! Come here!" he heard her call. "This is proof that the humans never found this place!" He tried to walk toward her, but the floor of the cave was too rough and full of crevasses; he had to fly. He went slowly, following the sound of her voice until he'd found her.

She was standing next to a low, rounded stalagmite, perhaps three feet tall. "Look at this!" she exclaimed. "If humans had ever been here, there's no way they would have left this behind!" She lit up the stalagmite again with her blowtorch-breath. It gleamed a shiny, metallic yellow color in the darkness.

o

Night-fury-cave-flyer took her story to her father. Toothless heard her out, then shook his head.

"I think Bang is right. That cave sounds like bad news. Between the falling rocks and the mound of gold, it's hazardous all the way around. I'm glad you had the sense to go there with a friend, not all by yourself. Now I hope you have the sense to never go back there again."

"What's so bad about gold?" she wondered.

"It makes the humans go off-center," he answered. "We dragons don't own things because we can't hold onto anything. Looking at pretty things is fun, but we know we can't do anything except look. What would we do with a lump of gold – sit on it? Try to balance it on our noses?" She laughed at that mental picture. He went on, "But to humans, a hunk of gold like that would be a treasure worth dying for. They wouldn't care about the falling rocks; they'd risk everything to get their hands on that shiny yellow metal and take it home with them. I'd hate to hear that one of Chief-night-fury's friends got hurt, or worse, trying to recover that stuff."

"So what do you think I should do?" she asked him.

"If it was me, I'd never mention that cave, or its contents, ever again," her father said. "I know you want to find a cave to go flying in, but that's not the cave for you. Keep looking. And it would be a really good thing if nobody ever hears about that gold."

"They're probably going to hear about it on Berk," she said. "I'm sure Bang is going to tell Chief-night-fury all about it."

"Yes, I suppose he will," Toothless thought out loud, "but Hiccup is a sensible dragon. He won't do anything crazy, like try to claim that gold for his tribe."

"He used to be human, right?" she asked. "What if the gold appeals to his human side?"

Toothless looked grim for a moment. "Then I'll be there to set him straight. But I don't think I'll have to do that. Hiccup's mind was half-dragon even before I transformed him. He wasn't in love with money then, and he's even more sensible now. He'll be fine."

At the same time, Hiccup heard the story from his son, and shook his head in much the same way that Toothless had done. "That sounds like trouble," he decided.

"Trouble for who?" Bang asked him.

"For anyone who gets involved," Hiccup said. "Vikings go crazy over gold; the ones who have it get paranoid and possessive over it, and the ones who don't have it go larcenous and homicidal on the ones who do. If we brought a little bit of it here, it wouldn't do any harm all by itself. But every Viking on the island would want to know where it came from, and they wouldn't rest until they'd found the rest of it. Half of our fishing boats would spend their time gold-hunting instead of fishing, and that would hurt everyone on Berk – the dragons would get just as hungry as the humans." He thought for a few moments. "Can I count on you to never mention that gold, and that cave, to anyone on this island?"

"Yes, Dad, you can count on me," Bang nodded readily, "but what about Cave-flyer?"

"She doesn't live here, and she rarely visits, so I'm not worried about anything she might say. My real worry is our new nest."

"Our dragons won't fall in love with gold, will they?" Bang wondered.

"Our dragons, no. Their new human allies, maybe. You see, from the way you described that island, I know the exact place you're talking about. That cave is on Kornfritter Island. It's claimed by the Bog-Burglars because it's closer to them than to anybody else, but they never settled there. At the last Thing, Bertha mentioned that the Uglithugs are starting a small settlement there so they could claim the island for themselves, and she wanted our tribe's help in expelling them. Now that she has her own dragons to call on, she probably won't need Berk's help. But if either of those tribes finds that cave and recovers that gold, it could destabilize the whole Archipelago. One tribe could suddenly buy anything they wanted, including allies in any war they felt like fighting. The other tribes would stop at nothing to get their hands on that gold so they could be the rich ones, and so the tribe who had the gold couldn't call all the shots anymore. There's no predicting who would fight whom, but I can almost guarantee that Berk would wind up on the losing end. The other tribes still resent us, our dragons' numbers are way down, and we just lost three Night Furies as well. I see nothing good coming out of that cave."

"My lips are sealed," Bang promised.

o

The formation of 37 dragons, formerly of Berk, closed in on their new home. They all knew the way; they'd all visited the island in the recent past, to see if it was a place where they really wanted to live. They let Six lead the way out of respect for their new Alpha, not because they'd become lost if they didn't follow her.

Bog-Burglar Island appeared over the horizon and slowly grew larger. It was a smaller island than Berk, and its forested portions were even smaller. There would be no buildings there that were custom-made for dragons, like the one in the center of Berk that housed the Night Furies. Bertha had assured them that the roofs of her village's buildings had been reinforced to take the weight of a dragon, and her Mead Hall was now strong enough to support two or three of them. Six meant for that central building to be her own perch, and Faithful-Brother's perch as well. Thing Two had decided that the roof of the nearby blacksmith shop would be the best place for her (it would be the warmest roof in the village during the winter). The other dragons would stake out their own places, some on the roofs of houses or shops, others in rocky spots near the seashore. There were a few former night-vision torches that now would be filled with fish to feed them all, so their new home would not feel completely alien.

"Okay, just let me give you some quick reminders," Six called over her shoulder. "The most important thing is to remember that these Vikings aren't used to us yet. They won't throw spears at us when we land, but they're probably going to be very nervous for a few weeks. Don't make any sudden moves toward them, and don't overfly them at low altitude if you can help it. None of them speaks Forge, so if you need to communicate with them and you don't know how to write their runes in the dirt, come get one of the Night Furies to write for you."

"What are we going to do when we get there?" a reddish-brown Nadder asked.

"Our first mission is to find sleeping spaces for ourselves. Most of us have already picked out our spots when we visited the island earlier; if you haven't found a sleeping space yet, find one before the sun goes down. When that has been taken care of, we'll start looking for the best fishing spots. I honestly have no idea where those might be; I've been too busy getting everyone organized and fending off Camicazi's demands for dragons to go burgling with. If you find some fish, eat your fill, but report to me or one of the other Night Furies afterward so we can spread the word to the entire nest.

"And that's another thing. These Vikings spend a lot of time and energy stealing things from other tribes, and then fending off raids when those other tribes retaliate. I do not want us getting sucked into the Vikings' affairs. If they want to be the worst thieves in the Archipelago, we have to let them, but we do not have to join them! We aren't here to become accomplices in their crimes."

A blue Zippleback took issue with that. "On Berk, the dragons' affairs and the Vikings' affairs were often one and the same."

"Yes," Six nodded, "but we're in a different situation now. For one thing, the Viking chief on our new island is not a dragon and she doesn't understand dragons. For another thing, Berk just wants to live peacefully; they aren't out provoking their neighbors with grand larceny every chance they get. Chief-night-fury wants people to understand that dragons aren't a threat to humans. If we start playing a role in stealing stuff with the Bog-Burglars, the other tribes will see us as a threat in no time."

"Not just us, but all dragons," Faithful-brother added.

"Exactly," she nodded. "If we become burglars' helpers, we'll be undermining everything my father is working to accomplish. Many of us will probably find Vikings to pair off with, just like our friends did on Berk. It's going to be a delicate balancing act if your human friend wants to go flying with you on a burgling expedition, and you want to tell her 'no' without hurting your relationship. We'll deal with that situation when we come to it. For now, the only one who's likely to give us a hard time is the chief's daughter, Camicazi. She's the only one who is completely at ease with dragons, and she is convinced that the main reason we exist is to help her make speedy getaways after she takes things that aren't hers. If she wants to go flying with you, and she's dressed in all black, then refuse to go with her; that's her burgling outfit and it means she's looking for trouble. If she gets too forceful, come and get one of the Night Furies to help you. We're going to avoid becoming burglars, for the same reason we avoided fighting when we lived on Berk: because it's bad for us and everyone around us.

"But we've talked about all of this before. Has anybody thought of any new issues that we haven't worked out yet?" No one replied as they overflew the Bog-Burglar coastline. "Okay, then! Let's go make ourselves a home!"