The Power of Gold Chapter 5

A/N
I usually post my chapters once a week. But, as a public service to those of you who are cooped up at home due to the coronavirus, with nothing to occupy your minds except fan fiction, I'll double up my posting rate so you can have something fresh to read every few days. Enjoy!

o

The entire tribe turned out to see their warriors return from their raid on Kornfritter Island. They hoped that their dragon had helped, and that seemed to be the case. They hoped that their tribe had triumphed, and they were not disappointed. They hoped that their warriors had brought back some plunder, and they were not disappointed there, either. What they were not expecting was the biggest load of gold they had ever imagined.

Chief Bertha had ordered the lump of gold to be cut up into chunks about the size of a Viking's head. That was the heaviest chunk that a strong woman warrior could lift without hurting herself. It was also a safeguard against any of her raiders who might have sticky fingers. It would be nearly impossible to abscond with such a large, heavy piece of precious metal without someone else noticing it. Now, everyone stared in open-mouthed silence as the raiders unloaded fifteen massive chunks of pure gold and lined them up for the whole tribe to see.

"Fellow Bog-Burglars!" Bertha shouted. "I'm not used to having so much good news to share with you, but here we go! First off, we have retaken Kornfritter Island for ourselves, and we've fixed things so, if the Uglithugs have any brains in their heads, they will never go near the place again!" The people cheered.

"Thanks to our dragon friend, we won our battle without taking any casualties in return!" That got an even bigger cheer.

"We have taken all the plunder that the Uglithugs no longer needed, including weapons, tools, and tents. This will be shared out among the tribe, with the warriors who went on the raid getting first choice." The crowd cheered some more.

"We also traded ships with the Uglithugs, and we got the better one!" The sailors and fisherwomen among them cheered lustily at that.

"We have rescued a woman from being an Uglithug man's thrall, and she is going to be one of us from now on!" That got a very loud cheer.

"But the best news is that, again thanks to our new dragon friend, we are now the richest Vikings in the Archipelago!" She gestured toward the row of gold lumps. Applause built into the loudest cheer of the day, with the warriors beating their weapons against their shields to add to the din. They all knew what this meant. From being the most hated and persecuted tribe in the area, they had suddenly become the most important tribe for miles around. Everyone would want to trade with them. If a tribe threatened them, they could bribe another tribe to attack the threatening ones. They could make deals to acquire anything they wanted. Their children would never go hungry again.

"Guards! Take these two hostages away and put them to work." Four sturdy Bog-Burglar women siezed the two Uglithug hostages and frog-marched them away. The men would not be thralls in the classic sense; they would not become anyone's personal property. Instead, they would be "owned" by the entire tribe, and they'd be kept busy on work projects that benefited the tribe. They would have to work hard, but their treatment would not be inhumane or cruel, and they would have the company of eight or nine other hostages from various other tribes who had crossed the Bog-Burglars in the past.

"What are we going to do with all of that gold?" someone asked.

"We will put it in our treasure house until I think of a better plan," Bertha decided. "Chelsea, see to that." The chief's sister gave some orders, and her crewwomen grunted as they lifted the heavy metal and laboriously carried it to the tribe's treasure house.

When they returned, Bertha clapped her hands three times. "It's not often that we get only good news, but today is our day. We won, we're home, and now it's party time!" More cheers resounded; the Mead Hall workers rolled out a brand-new barrel of ale and prepared some pigs for roasting; and the whole island took on a rare festive mood. Even the men were allowed to join in the celebration.

As people began dancing in the streets, Bertha located Night-fury-six-shooter. "I don't know if dragons ever have celebrations. Can you keep the island safe for a few hours while we enjoy our victory? We'll make it up to you with fish afterwards."

YES, WE WILL GUARD THE ISLAND.
DID YOU SAY YOU SUCCEEDED,
THANKS TO THING TWO?

"Yes, she intervened at the key moment and turned the battle in our favor. As far as I'm concerned, you dragons are not on probation anymore. That Night Fury has shown that you're serious about sharing our destinies. We appreciate that."

I'M GLAD THAT YOU'RE HAPPY
WITH HER PERFORMANCE.
NOW I NEED TO DEBRIEF HER.

With that, Six put her head back and bellowed, "Thing Two! Get your sorry backside over here, now!" Thing Two, who had been helping the Vikings celebrate by flying loops in the sky, swooped down and landed on the Mead Hall roof.

"What did I do?" she asked, puzzled.

"That's what I need to find out," Six said firmly. "What did you do?"

"The Vikings were lined up and staring at each other; they were afraid to attack. I swooped across the battlefield and my wings blew dirt in the bad guys' faces. The Vikings did the rest."

Six took a deep breath and released it. "Which part of 'stay out of their battle' didn't you understand?"

Thing Two struck a defiant pose. "You told me not to join a fight, start a fight, or provoke a fight. I didn't do any of those things; when I did my swoop, there was no fight. You told me not to use my fire, claws, or teeth, and I didn't. I did exactly what you told me to do! Why am I in trouble?"

"You were supposed to stay out of their battle!" Six exploded.

"You didn't say that," Thing Two shot back, unrepentant.

"Technically, she's right," Faithful-brother cut in.

"My instructions to her were perfectly clear," Six began.

"...and I didn't break any of your rules!" Thing Two protested.

"She might not have followed your intent," Faithful-brother nodded, "but she did follow your orders to the letter."

"Yeah, like he said," Thing Two said.

Six rolled her eyes in exasperation. "What am I going to do with you?"

"Give better orders next time?" Thing Two said mischievously. Six tried to tail-smack her, but Thing Two jumped straight up and Six's tail passed beneath her.

"Meanwhile, there's another problem," Faithful-brother said quickly, trying to defuse the confrontation. "What about all that gold? These Vikings weren't supposed to find it."

"Nobody told me that," Thing Two said defensively. Six tried to remember when she'd warned her sister about the cave and the gold.

"You're right," she finally admitted. "That part isn't your fault at all. I've got a bad feeling about how this is going to turn out, though."

"What's the problem?" Thing Two asked. "The humans love gold. Now they've got some. See how happy they are?"

"The problem," Faithful-brother explained, "is that all humans love gold, not just these humans. When the other Viking tribes find out that this tribe has hundreds of pounds of gold lying around, what do you think is going to happen?"

"Uhh... they'll want to join the party?" the younger Night Fury guessed.

"You don't think like a human," Faithful-brother corrected her. "When they find out about all that gold, they'll want to take it away for themselves. And they'll hurt anyone who gets in their way."

"We dragons can stop them from doing that to our humans, can't we?" Thing Two asked.

"That's part of the problem," Six took up the tale. "If the Bog-Burglars become everybody's number-one target, then we'll get stuck in the middle of all that fighting. Some of us will probably get hurt, and Dad's project will take a big setback."

"You mean, people will be afraid of dragons again if we fight against them? I hadn't thought of that," Thing Two admitted.

"A lot depends on our ability to keep the peace," Faithful-brother went on. "Our humans have just made that very difficult."

"So... what are we going to do?" Thing Two asked.

"What am I going to do? I'm not sure yet," Six said. "What are you going to do? You're going to fly home and tell Dad I need to talk to him as soon as he gets a chance. I need a good idea and I need a plan, and he's always the best one to come up with good ideas and plans."

"I can do that," Thing Two said eagerly, now that it looked like she was no longer in trouble. She leaped off the Mead Hall roof, accelerated to full speed, and swiftly vanished over the horizon.

"I don't want to criticize," Faithful-brother said hesitantly, "but you're the Alpha of this nest. Solving our problems is your job. Why are you calling for help from Chief-night-fury so quickly?"

"I've got a bunch of reasons," Six answered. "One, this problem could involve Dad's peace plan, so he should be involved in the solution. Two, he warned us about this gold in advance, so he may already be thinking about the best solution. And three, I'm honestly stumped. I have no ideas at all, not even a glimmer. And I want to take this problem out before the other Vikings take our tribe out."

"You want to be proactive?" Faithful-brother smiled. "I don't think the Vikings even know the meaning of that word."

"I think Bertha understands the concept," Six said. "But whether she does or not, I want this problem to be halfway solved before the Vikings even know they have a problem. Otherwise, people are going to get hurt, and some dragons may get hurt, too. No amount of gold is worth that."

"The Vikings may not see it that way," her mate cautioned her, pointing with his wingtip at the celebration taking place below them. "Thing Two doesn't think like a Viking, and neither do you. I was born human, and I still think like a human sometimes. I've seen the effects that great riches have on people. It's like an insane disease sometimes. Words like 'I have enough' or 'I don't need any more' are meaningless to them. They'll face any consequence short of death itself to get that shiny yellow stuff into their lives. Some of them will even risk death for it."

"What about you?" Six wondered. "Does gold have that effect on you?"

He snorted. "I'm a dragon! What would I do with gold – sit on it? Balance it on the tip of my nose?" He glanced down at the party, which was getting louder now that the ale was flowing. "I'll admit, I had a few greedy thoughts when I was still a poor smith's apprentice in the Berserker tribe. There was one time, when a rich jarl brought a silver platter to the forge to have a dent flattened out, and I caught myself wondering if I could shave some silver off the bottom and get away with it. But I never went that far. I know what's mine, and I won't take what isn't mine."

Six had to smile. "In that case, you're a terrible dragon for these Bog-Burglars! Taking things that aren't theirs is their favorite thing to do." She paused. "Do you have any ideas for what to do about all that gold?"

Faithful-brother considered that. "As long as nobody else knows about it, there won't be any problems. No, let me rephrase that: there won't be any problems that we dragons will have to deal with. A few of the Bog-Burglars will probably fight each other for a bigger share of the gold, but that's Chief Bertha's problem, not ours. As soon as the other tribes find out about it... then there will be trouble, and plenty of it."

"Could we make most of the gold disappear, so our tribe isn't such a tempting target?" Six thought out loud.

"Bertha would skin you alive and hang your head on her wall," her mate cautioned her. "She's smart, but she's a human and she's a Viking. Getting rid of gold is the last thing she'll want to do, unless she can see the problems that it's causing for her, and unless she can convince her tribe that throwing away a fortune is the best thing they could do."

"So we can't do anything to fix the problem until it's already blown up in everyone's faces?" Six asked sadly. "I hate to handle things that way."

"The Vikings won't leave us any choice," Faithful-brother replied. "We can act in advance to save their lives, and they'll hate us for it. Or we can let them suffer until they've had enough and ask us for help, and then they'll demand to know why we didn't do something in advance." He looked out at the party again. Someone was getting sick on the ground. "Aren't humans fun to deal with?"

"There are days when I'd rather kiss a Nightmare with a rotten tooth," Six said disgustedly. "So we don't have any plan at all?"

"We can tell Bertha about our concerns," her mate replied, "so, when things do blow up in her face, she can't blame us for not warning her. That way, she'll still be willing to listen to us, assuming that we've come up with some kind of good idea by then. Aside from that, I can't think of anything."

"We'll do that," Six decided. "Tomorrow, not today. I don't think any human on this island is fit to talk to, now that they've got their celebration going."

She was mildly mistaken; there was one Viking who was fit to talk to. That was Bertha's 14-year-old daughter Naginatta, who was too young to celebrate like the adults. She was a lot more interested in learning some words in Forge so she could talk to the dragons. Faithful-brother was more than happy to tutor her in the basics of the language that he'd helped to invent, and she was an eager student and a quick learner. By the time Thing Two returned that afternoon, Naginatta was able to greet her by name in Forge.

"Smart mother, smart daughters," Faithful-brother commented.

"But they all use those smarts in different ways," Six said. "Thing Two, what's happening? Why didn't you bring Dad back with you?"

"Dad says he can fly out here and talk to you sometime tomorrow," the younger Night Fury said. "Some of the dragons had a big misunderstanding about sleeping places, Full-of-surprises is still sorting it out, and Dad is busy making sure the Vikings stay out of it."

"How could they have a misunderstanding about sleeping places?" Faithful-Brother sounded mystified.

"They waited for three days after we left, to make sure we weren't going to get sent back," Thing Two explained. "After that, all the sleeping places that used to belong to our dragons were considered free for the taking. The dragons with the worst places to sleep were supposed to get first choice of the new spaces, but some of the bigger dragons decided that they should get priority because they were bigger. They, uhh... there were a couple of fights, and some of the dragons got hurt. Of course, when one Viking's dragon got hurt, that Viking would blame the other dragon's Viking for not keeping his dragon under control, and then the Vikings were fighting as well. Dad and Full-of-surprises are both full-time busy trying to restore order and keep more fights from breaking out. Dad says he can't fly out here today."

"That's fine with me," Six commented. "There's nothing here for him to see today except a bunch of drunken Vikings, and I'm sure he can see plenty of those at home."

The dragons kept their word and stayed on guard while the Bog-Burglars celebrated. Bertha had asked for a few hours of protection, but the party lasted well into the night. As it turned out, it didn't matter; no one from the other tribes tried to do anything hostile to them. It was good practice for the dragons, though.

Hiccup flew in early the next morning, with Astrid alongside him. They circled the island once, then spiraled down to land next to Six and Faithful-brother, who were relaxing after stuffing themselves silly with codfish.

"Hi, Mom. Hi, Dad."

"Hey, there, Six-shooter," Hiccup nodded. "What in Tannin's name happened to your island? It looks like your warriors raided themselves and left bodies strewn all over the landscape."

"No, it was just a big party," Six explained.

"A big party," Astrid smirked. "We know about those, don't we?"

Hiccup rolled his eyes. "I'm sure Thing Two told you all about the fun we've been having with sleeping places. The Vikings were absolutely determined to get in on the fighting! The only way I could settle them down was to open the ale kegs, and hope that they drank themselves stupid before the ale made them even more belligerent than usual. I guess it worked, but that's called 'keeping the peace' the hard way. I've got our dragons on patrol against raiders; our Vikings are in such rough shape, they couldn't repulse an attack from an angry sheep."

"We're on patrol here, for the same reason," Faithful-brother told him. "But it's not random raids that we're worried about."

"Yeah, I heard about the gold," Hiccup said. "I thought you were taking steps to keep that from happening."

"I did," she sighed, "but I overlooked one small detail." She gestured with her head toward Thing Two, who was sound asleep a few rooftops away. "But the Terror is out of the bag now. The question is, what can I do about it?"

Hiccup glanced at Astrid and they both shrugged. "You're going to have to deal with a whole bunch of problems, and just hope that they don't all hit you at once," Astrid said sadly. "We don't have an answer for you, unless 'drop the gold in the ocean and make the Bog-Burglars hate your guts' works for you. We can see the problems ahead; the Vikings can't, and you'll never convince them until they're up to their necks in trouble."

"That doesn't sound very helpful," Six said unhappily.

"Welcome to the wonderful world of being the Alpha dragon!" Hiccup burst out. "If there was an easy answer, I'm sure you would have thought of it already. All I can tell you for sure is, don't try to solve your problems the way I would. Don't try to solve them the way your mother would. Solve them your way; that's the only way that will work."

"And if I don't know what 'my way' is, what then?" Six challenged them.

"Find out," Hiccup said shortly. "Try stuff and see what works. That's what I wound up doing."

"Did you have a major crisis hit you during your first week of finding out what worked for you?" Six asked pointedly.

"Well... no," Hiccup admitted. "Time is definitely against you."

"But you've got one resource that he didn't have," Astrid added. "You've got a family full of Night Furies who will gladly come to your rescue in an emergency. We can't supply you with a foolproof plan to solve all your problems, but we can supply all the muscle you need if you hit a crisis and you need some firepower."

"Or some intimidation power," Hiccup added. "We're trying not to solve all our problems with firepower anymore. Remember?"

Astrid grunted. "There are days when I wish we could find a problem and completely solve it with nothing but a few well-placed firebolts. Sometimes I wonder if the bad old days were really that bad."

Hiccup had to smile. "Is this the dragon who almost panicked every time Bang got in trouble? is this the dragon who had to inspect me from nose to tail when Full-of-surprises healed me with her Power, just to be sure she didn't leave a scar from that Viking spear? Astrid, you're full of extra guts and glory on the side, until the moment when one of your family gets hurt. Then you turn into the biggest peace-lover in the Northland!"

She swatted him with her tail. "That's for telling all my secrets when my daughter is listening!" Six and Faithful-brother looked away and tried not to giggle. Chief-night-fury hadn't revealed anything about Night-fury-mother-of-twins that they didn't already know.

"Well, anyway, thanks for flying out here, even if you couldn't solve all my troubles," Six said. "You're welcome to do a little fishing before you go home, but the fish here taste pretty much the same as the fish around Berk."

"Thanks, but we do need to be getting home," Astrid told her. "We left Bang in charge of the tribe, and he wasn't happy about it, even though most of the tribe is going to be moving slowly and nursing a hangover all morning."

"I wish I could give you some solid advice," Hiccup added, "but the best advice I can give you is, 'Be yourself.' Do things your way. Nothing else will ever work." They all rubbed noses, and Hiccup and Astrid set off for Berk, leaving Six in very much the same mental state in which they'd found her.