The New Nest Chapter 3
Three nights later, the scouts returned to the new nest, extremely agitated. "Ships are coming! Ships are coming!" one of the Nadders twittered.
"Here?" Night-fury-makes-one-heck-of-a-bang said as he struggled to alertness; he still wasn't fully on a night schedule yet. "Are you sure?"
"There are four small ships," the other Nadder said. "They were sailing along the coast, but when they came abreast of our nest, they turned toward the land. They'll make landfall any minute!"
"Cave-flyer, verify that," he snapped. The other Night Fury bounded into the air, and returned less than two minutes later.
"It's verified," she answered. "There are four ships headed right at us, and they're all overflowing with armed Vikings."
"We need to wake everyone, quickly, and get them out of here," Bang decided.
"Aren't we going to fight for our nest?" Cave-flyer asked. "If they chase us out of here, we'll never find another place that's as good as this one."
"No," Bang said firmly. "If they know we're here, then they'll keep coming until they get lucky and surprise us. I won't risk that. I don't know how they found us, but our time here is over. Let's get everyone awake, get the babies on someone's back, and get them all away from here. That tiny islet between here and Berk will be a good place to bring everybody for now. Then you and I will fly back here, and if there's anything to be gained by shooting at them, then we'll do what Night Furies do. I want to avoid injured humans almost as much as I want to avoid injured dragons."
"Why?" Cave-flyer asked as she began waking up the dragons. "They're raiders and intruders! We're not bothering anyone here; this is an unprovoked attack. Why should we take any risks to avoid harming them?"
"Because, if they were sailing up the coast of this island, then they're probably the Vikings we're supposed to be protecting," Bang answered. "Ships from another tribe wouldn't risk hitting submerged rocks in unfamiliar waters at night. They'd stay far out to sea until they were ready to make landfall. Only Vikings who know this island well would pull a move like that."
"There's another reason," Nadder-green-the-drama-queen said as she came fully awake. "Raiders from another island wouldn't attack us. They'd attack the Vikings on this island so they could get some plunder. Fighting dragons in their own nest at night... that's a recipe for death, with nothing to be gained if they succeed, except for the knowledge that there aren't any more dragons nearby. Vikings from a different island wouldn't care about that."
"Good point," Bang nodded. The whole nest was stirring now, even the deep-sleeping Gronckles. In another minute or two, they would all take off and fly to safety. But they could hear the Vikings grounding their ships and shouting orders to get organized; the dragons might not have two more minutes.
"So how are we supposed to fight them if we aren't supposed to fight them?" Nadder-green demanded.
"I'm going to create a diversion," Bang said after a moment. "Cave-flyer, you take all the dragons to that little island, then come back here as fast as you can."
"Please be careful," Cave-flyer pleaded. "Your track record in battle... it makes me nervous."
"You and me both," Bang nodded, "but it's got to be done. Go!"
Both Night Furies sprang into the air. Cave-flyer took charge of the dragons, most of whom needed no prodding to get away from a surprise Viking attack. One baby Gronckle panicked and ran into the bushes; Cave-flyer had to catch that one in her forepaws and carry her, kicking and struggling all the way, back to the other dragons. Then she led them away from the island, being sure not to overfly the Viking ships, and set a course for the islet where they would stop and get organized.
Bang flew in a tight circle above the nest. It looked like there were about sixty Viking warriors on this raid. If he had chosen to stand and fight, the dragons almost certainly would have won, but casualties on both sides would have been heavy. He found the leader, who was bellowing orders and invoking the names of several scary-sounding Viking deities when his men didn't respond quickly enough, and saw that he had an eye patch and a wooden leg. That meant that his guess as to the Vikings' origins was correct; if their leader was Mogadon, then they were being attacked by Meatheads, the very tribe they were here to protect. He tried to locate Thuggory and thought he saw him supervising the unloading of the ships.
Bang waited until the Vikings had formed up into a skirmish line, with spears and swords drawn. Then he went into a shallow dive, just fast enough to make his sub-wings whistle so they'd know he was there. Then he launched a string of six small firebolts, just like his sister Six-shooter loved to do. He spread them out so that they covered the entire skirmish line, landing just in front of the Vikings. His attack had a triple purpose: the row of dragon-fire blasts would stop the Vikings' charge, the flashes of his firebolts would ruin their night vision, and many of them would be temporarily blinded when the firebolts threw sand and dirt into their eyes.
Just for once, his initial plan succeeded. Many of the Vikings were knocked back, and they all stopped in their tracks. Mogadon pulled up short, rubbing his good eye and invoking the name of Thor in a curse that sounded biologically impossible. Then he shouted, "Thuggory! Take over the attack until I can see again!"
"I can't, Father!" Thuggory shouted back. "I've got too much dirt in my eyes!" That puzzled Bang; Thuggory was nowhere near where the firebolts had hit. Then he realized that Thuggory was making up an excuse not to attack the dragons, and his temporarily-blinded father had no way to find out if his son was telling the truth or not.
"I'll take over," shouted a rough voice. "I'm the third-in-command anyway. Everyone who can see, follow me!" About half of the Viking raiders followed him through the bushes that hid the nest from view from the sea, and spread out in the rocky bowl that, until a few minutes ago, had been full of dragons.
"They were here, Mogadon," the impromptu leader bellowed. "It stinks of dragon here, and I can see some footprints in the sand here and there. They must have heard us coming, and the cowardly lizards all flew away!"
"There was a Night Fury overhead," Mogadon said. "We all heard it. Everybody be quiet; maybe we can hear where it is, and throw some spears at it." They all went quiet. Bang quickly folded his sub-wings so he'd be quieter than a whisper. They never heard him. But they heard something else instead.
"There's something in those bushes on the left!" the third-in-command shouted. "I think it's a small dragon!"
"Take it out!" the chief roared, and six spears arched through the darkness. A series of metallic thumps and an indignant squawk showed that the spears were on target, but that they couldn't pierce the hide of even a very young Gronckle. Then someone threw a net, and their prey was quickly tangled up.
Bang could have hit himself. He didn't count the babies! One of them must have scrambled for the imagined safety of the bushes, and no one noticed in the darkness and the confusion. But why didn't the baby's mother say something? Had she also lost count of her babies in the darkness and the confusion? It didn't matter now; he had to do something. But what should he do? He couldn't think of anything that wouldn't endanger himself, the baby dragon, or the humans. What would his father do in a situation like this?
"He'd get amazingly lucky," Bang grunted to himself.
"What was that?" Cave-flyer had just rejoined him.
"They got one of the babies in a net," Bang said, gesturing with a wingtip.
"Oh, no!" Cave-flyer gasped. "What are we going to do?"
"We'll keep an eye on them from the air," he decided. "If they try to hurt the baby, then we'll... umm... I don't know what we'll do, but I don't think they'll try to hurt her. They'll probably take her back to their village. We'll see where they imprison her, and then we'll arrange an escape plan when we aren't dealing with all of their warriors at once."
"I'm with you," she nodded.
"This thing is tiny!" someone on the ground shouted. "Do dragons have midgets?"
"It must be a baby," Thuggory said as he ran up to look at it, struggling in the net. "It's probably too young to breathe fire. What are you going to do with it, Father?"
Mogadon had finally gotten the last of the dirt out of his one good eye. "There's no honor in killing a dragon that small. We'll take it back to the village, lock it up, and feed it until it grows as big as a man. Then I'll have the honor of slaying the beast in single combat!"
"That will take a lot of fish," the third-in-command objected. "We barely have enough to feed ourselves! Do we want to waste our catch on a dragon?"
Mogadon slowly turned to glare at him, his hand on the axe that hung from his belt. "Do you want to deny me my glorious kill?" he demanded.
"No, no, no, sir! Not me!" the man stammered. "You can have your glorious kill! My wife will gladly go hungry so you can afford to feed your dragon."
"That's more like it," Mogadon grunted. "Well, there's nothing else we can kill here. I'm declaring a victory because the dragons were afraid to fight us. Everyone, back to the ships!" They all shuffled back to the shoreline, disappointed that none of them had gotten any glorious kills tonight, and climbed back into their longships. They sailed back to the Meathead village, unaware that two dark shapes were gliding overhead, listening to them and understanding every word.
When the Vikings arrived, they tied the young Gronckle's legs to a pole and paraded it back and forth through the town. The streets were not lined with cheering Vikings at that late hour, but most of the women were awake, waiting for their husbands' return. They stuck their heads out the doorways of their houses and nodded in sleepy approval at the sight. Most of them were happier that their husbands were home and unhurt.
When they had paraded the young dragon back and forth enough times to appease Mogadon's need for a spectacle, they imprisoned it in the village treasure house, a small stone building with an iron-barred door. It was the only building that a fire-breathing dragon couldn't burn from the inside.
"Should we leave a guard?" the third-in-command wondered.
"Thuggory, what do you think?" Mogadon rumbled.
"We don't usually guard the gold and the silver," Thuggory thought out loud. "If that iron door is good enough to protect the treasures, then it's good enough to keep a dragon inside. Besides, you have the only key."
"I'm not sure," the chief said hesitantly. "We never captured a live dragon before..."
"It's a Gronckle, Dad! It can't breathe fire unless it eats a rock, and there aren't any rocks in there. Besides, all the men are tired. They'll think good things about you if you let them all go to sleep, instead of making one or two of them stay up all night on guard duty."
For Mogadon, that settled it. (Thuggory was past master at manipulating his father.) "All of you, to your houses! We chased the dragons away, and they won't dare come back!" The men cheered, even the ones who remembered how stubborn dragons are, and who wondered if the dragons might, indeed, dare to come back. But they could resolve that in the morning. For now, they reckoned it a successful dragon raid and went home to bed.
After the village had gone still and silent, the two Night Furies circled down and landed near the treasure house. "Now what?" Cave-flyer asked.
"We need to get her out of there," Bang replied.
"Our firebolts will wake the whole village," she observed.
"Then we won't use our firebolts," he replied. "We'll get a Nadder to do it. We've got a couple of those in our nest. You stay here and keep an eye on this little building from the air. If someone tries to open the door, knock him off his feet with fire. I'll be back in a few minutes with a Nadder." She nodded, and he sprang into the air and set off toward the little islet that lay about ten minutes away as the Night Fury flies.
When he arrived, he realized that he wasn't a moment too soon. There were shoving matches breaking out all over the islet, and voices were being raised in anger. He fired a quick firebolt to burst over the islet, both to distract them all and to announce that a Night Fury was here. Once everyone was looking at him, he roared, "What in Tannin's name is going on here?"
"This islet is too small for all of us!" one of the Nightmares roared back. "We don't have enough room to stretch out and sleep!" His complaint was a valid one.
"These arrangements are strictly temporary," Bang tried to explain.
"Then where are we going to live?" a Raincutter demanded.
Bang thought fast. "Okay, this is what we're going to do. Everyone with babies, and everyone who's having second thoughts about this whole thing, please return to Berk. Tell the Alpha that you're carrying out Rule Three. You probably won't get your old sleeping places back, but it's a familiar place, it's safe, and they won't turn you away. Whoever is left..." He broke off as nearly all of the dragons took wing and headed back to Berk as fast as their wings could carry them. The ones who remained could be counted on the claws of one paw. One of them was the mother Gronckle whose baby had been captured; no surprise there.
But Bang was very surprised to see Nadder-green-the-drama-queen still here.
"Why are you staring at me like that?" she asked nervously.
"I'll be honest," Bang admitted. "You're the last dragon I thought would stay."
She hung her head. "Maybe I overreacted a little bit with the 'sail ho' thing."
"Yes, maybe you did, a little," he agreed, while his posture and facial expression indicated that her overreaction had gone way beyond 'a little.' "Are you willing to stay here and work with the rest of us?"
"Yes," she said firmly. "I've been called a lot of things, but I'm not a quitter. I don't know how this story is going to end, but I was here for the beginning and I'll be here until it's done." She paused. "Besides, if I go back to Berk, everyone there will treat me like they always did. I can't tell you how tired I am of that! At least you've given me a chance to become someone different."
"Okay," Bang nodded. "Then how would you like to be a hero? We've got a human door that needs cutting by Nadder fire, and we've got a baby Gronckle trapped inside. Will you fly back to the Vikings' island one more time, and help us rescue that baby?"
"Back there again? In the dragon hunters' village?" Nadder-green was having second thoughts. Then she steeled herself. "All right, I'll do it for the baby! Can we do it quickly?"
"As quickly as you can get it done," Bang assured her. He looked at the tiny remnants of his nest – Nadder-green, the mother Gronckle, a young Hobblegrunt, and an aging Snafflefang. "You all might as well come along. We might need you, and if we don't, then you can say 'goodbye' to our home and get some closure."
"Where are we going to live?" the Hobblegrunt asked, turning a bright purple.
"I honestly don't know," Bang replied, "but we'll solve that problem later. Maybe we'll go back to Berk so we can think it over. For tonight, let's rescue the prisoner and make a clean getaway from this place. Then we'll figure out the hard questions. Follow me!" He turned back toward the Meathead island, hoping against hope that they would all choose to follow him, and was relieved to see that they were all flying behind him.
When they returned to the Meathead village, they found Night-fury-cave-flyer circling the town at medium altitude. "Someone is awake down there!" she warned them. "I saw him about two minutes ago, and I got out of there so he wouldn't catch me on the ground. I think it might be Thuggory, but I don't want to risk my life if I guessed wrong. I'm still not good at recognizing individual humans."
"They all look the same to me, too," the Snafflefang agreed.
Bang overflew the town quickly. "Yes, that's Thuggory," he decided, "and he's headed for the building where our dragon baby is being held. I'll go down and talk to him. The rest of you, stay up here and stay alert. If I wave my tail from side to side three times, that means it's safe to land."
The Gronckle had a question. "How will you signal us to unleash flaming death on the Vikings?"
"I'm not planning on sending that signal," Bang answered. "If you see trouble happening, you won't need a signal from me. Just try not to hurt anyone if it can possibly be avoided."
"You're trying to protect the humans who kidnapped my baby!" the Gronckle protested.
"I'm trying to protect the humans who made a deal with us for protection, even though most of them don't know it," the Night Fury shot back. "A deal is a deal!"
"But they've broken the deal!" Nadder-green added.
"And that is why we are going to rescue our baby and then leave the Meatheads to their own devices," Bang replied evenly. "If they don't want peace, then we won't enforce the peace on their island for them. But at least one of those humans is a dragon friend, and for his sake, I don't want to kill any of his friends or family members. Now I need to see what Thuggory is up to." He silently spiraled down and landed next to the small stone building just as Thuggory got there.
The Viking jumped and reached for his sword. Then he recognized Bang and slid the blade back into its scabbard. "Sorry," he said, embarrassed. "You scared me! I wasn't expecting you."
Bang wrote in the dirt with his claw. It took the Viking a few seconds to read the runes in the darkness:
WHY ARE YOU HERE?
The Viking chief's son grinned wryly. "Our philosophers have been arguing about that question for centuries. As for me, I wanted to set that baby dragon free while no one was looking." He laid a hand on the iron bars and pulled them. "But my father has the only key, and it looks like he remembered to lock the door. I was really hoping that he'd forget in all the confusion."
THUGGORY,
WHAT WENT WRONG?
The Viking faced the dragon squarely. "I don't know for sure. I think one of our sailors saw you returning to your nest at night, and told my father about what he saw. But my father never told me what he was thinking; he just told me to help him get a warband ready, and that we should arm ourselves against dragons. I couldn't do anything to prevent it." He turned back to the door. "How are we going to get your baby dragon out of there?"
I HAVE A PLAN.
"Plans are good," Thuggory nodded. Bang waved his tail from side to side three times. Less than a minute later, five more dragons landed all around the treasure house (and all around Thuggory, who mastered his fear at being surrounded by dragons). "Nadder-green, do your stuff, and do it quickly. Aim for the hinges of the door; that will give us the best results."
"Will you call me Nadder-green-the-fire-queen?" she asked hopefully.
"I'll think it over," the Night Fury answered. "Now, please open that door!"
Nadder-green-the-drama-queen braced herself and let out a superheated blast of fire. Thuggory winced at the sound; in the past, that sound had always meant that someone was about to get hurt. The bottom hinge was quickly melted through. Drops of liquid iron fell to the ground, sparking and spattering. Then she cut away the top hinge. Unsupported, the heavy door fell straight down an inch, then began falling outward. When it hit the ground, the resulting "thud" might wake half the village.
Thuggory didn't let that happen. He leaped forward and caught the door as it fell. The Hobblegrunt helped support it with a foreleg, and the two of them slowly lowered the heavy door to the ground. "Whew!" he gasped. "That door is heavy! Thanks for the help, uhh... dragon."
THE DRAGON SAYS,
"YOU'RE WELCOME."
While Bang was writing, the mother Gronckly was calling her child. At first, the baby didn't respond. Then she came out and rubbed noses with her mother.
"Okay, mission accomplished!" Cave-flyer said. "Let's get out of here!" Nadder-green vaulted into the air and was quickly out of sight.
"No! Don't leave!" Thuggory suddenly exclaimed, guessing from the dragons' unfurled wings that they meant to take off.
WHY NOT?
"That little dragon somehow got a silver necklace around its neck while it was in there," the Viking told them. "Rescuing your baby is one thing; stealing my tribe's valuables is something different. I can't allow that."
WE DON'T HAVE THUMBS.
YOU TAKE IT OFF OF HER.
He glanced doubtfully at the baby Gronckle, which seemed to be all mouth. "Will she take my hand off?"
MOVE SLOWLY AND
MAKE NO SUDDEN MOVES.
The baby dragon wasn't at all willing for Thuggory to get within arm's length of her. Her mother had to stand right over her, both to give her courage and to keep her from escaping, and Thuggory slowly reached out until he could touch her. Then he grabbed the necklace and pulled his hand back.
"Okay, now I guess you can go," he said. "I suppose this is goodbye?"
WE HAVE TO ABANDON THIS
NEST, BUT I'D LIKE TO SEE
YOU AGAIN SOMEDAY.
"Likewise," Thuggory nodded. "As one chief's son to another, I think we understand each other. Can you come back and visit when the moon is new? No one will see you on a dark night like that. I'll meet you where your nest was." He paused. "I'd just like to say 'hello' and ask how things are going."
LIKE FRIENDS DO?
"Yeah, like that." Thuggory stepped back, slapped the scabbard of his sword, and raised his hand. "My tribe has a special blessing for when we part from each other: 'Travel far, eat well, fight hard, and return home.' I wish you those things."
AND I AS WELL.
The dragons gathered up the baby, took flight, and headed back to Berk to see what the future might bring.