Lightning and Death Itself
Finis Ludum Chapter 3
Night-fury-makes-one-heck-of-a-bang glided easily through the night sky. It was too cloudy to see the stars, but aside from that, it was a perfect night for a Night Fury to be in the air. For a few minutes, he threw a string of random dives and climbs into his flight path – not enough to make him late for his meeting, but just enough to make flying fun.
Up ahead, he could see Meathead Island. It was nothing but a dark silhouette from this angle; the village was halfway around the island to the right. There was a slightly lighter patch along the shore that marked the clearing where he had tried to establish his own dragons' nest, and where he met with Thuggory, son of Mogadon the chief of the Meatheads, every few weeks. They enjoyed each other's company, and they could relate to each other as equals because they were both the sons of chiefs. They would often while away an hour or two by describing a battle that one of them had been in, and then try to think of ways for that battle to have gone better.
His keen eyes could see Thuggory in the clearing now. The young man was pacing back and forth as he waited for the dragon to arrive. That was unusual for Thuggory; he had a lot of energy, but he kept it carefully in check. Bang let out a quick snort so the Meatheat warrior would know he was coming, then landed lightly beside him.
"Hey, Bang," Thuggory said. He seemed very distracted.
IS SOMETHING WRONG?
"I'm not sure," the big youth said. "My dad had a meeting with some traders yesterday, and all they would talk about is the Romans and how they're going to take over everything. Did you know that they already conquered the Lava-Louts, the Uglithugs, and the Thunderheads?"
AND THE BERSERKERS TOO
"The Berserkers?!" Thuggory really looked shocked. "That's bad, that's really bad. If the Romans can take down the Berserkers... can anything stop them?"
WE'RE WORKING ON IT
"I hope you think of something good," the young man said. "And I hope you think of it quickly, before the Romans come after my tribe. We know how to fight, but we aren't that numerous and we don't have many ships."
IS THERE ANY CHANCE YOUR FATHER
WOULD SURRENDER TO THEM
TO SAVE HIS PEOPLE'S LIVES?
"Surrender?" Thuggory snorted. "You've got to be kidding! For one thing, that's a three-syllable word, and Dad doesn't know any of those. For another thing, he'd rather die than yield to anyone."
HE MAY GET HIS WISH
"Yeah. That's what I'm afraid of." The youth took a deep breath. "If he fights, and I fight beside him, then I'll probably die too. If I don't fight beside him, then I'll spend the rest of my life feeling like I abandoned him. Bang, what do you do when you find yourself in a no-win situation?"
I ASK MY DAD FOR A PLAN.
HE ALWAYS COMES THROUGH
"It must be nice to have a father who isn't ashamed to think. What's his plan for dealing with the Romans?"
HE DOESN'T HAVE A PLAN YET.
HE'S REALLY WORRIED
"That doesn't help. Hey, is something wrong?" The Night Fury was looking off into the distance, cocking his head at an odd angle.
I HEAR METAL CLANGING.
IT MIGHT BE WEAPONS
Then he turned to face the Meathead village.
IT'S COMING FROM THERE!
"It must be a raid! Take me home! Fast!" Thuggory leaped onto Bang's back without asking permission. Not many men would jump onto a Night Fury without an invitation, but Thuggory was more worried about his father than about his own safety, and he trusted Bang. The Night Fury gathered himself and sprang into the air, and they were on their way to the Viking village. It would have taken Thuggory at least half an hour to get there on foot; Bang got them there in three minutes.
Torches and burning buildings lit up the night without giving enough light to recognize faces. Bang thought he recognized some of the shield designs as belonging to the Uglithugs, who were attacking in an opportunistic mob. Another, smaller band of soldiers stayed in straight ranks and methodically mowed down every enemy in their path; those had to be Roman soldiers. Their discipline was impressive. The conquerors and their auxiliaries were fighting side by side. Together, they were pushing through the Meathead town, eliminating all resistance.
"I've got to find my father!" Thuggory said desperately. "I have to help him!" Bang could not communicate with him while they were in the air. He grunted and circled the town in an inward spiral, secure in the knowledge that the invaders couldn't see him in the dark. As they passed over the chief's longhouse, they saw one of the Uglithugs throw a burning torch into the front doorway. Thuggory moaned but said nothing. A minute later, three more Uglithugs burst out the back door, chased out by a one-legged man with a sword and an attitude. It could only be Mogadon.
"Dad!" Thuggory shouted. "I need to help him! Bang, set me down!" It was against Bang's better judgment to land in the middle of a human battle. But he cared deeply about his friend. He put a wing over and went into a short dive that would land him right next to the melee.
He never got there. One of the Romans threw a javelin that caught Chief Mogadon in the left shoulder. He roared and tried to pull it out, but while he was distracted, one of the Uglithugs ran up behind him with a two-handed hammer and...
Bang broke off his dive and regained altitude. Thuggory was pounding the Night Fury's back with his fists and shouting, "No! No! No!" Bang couldn't tell if he was reacting to his father's death or to the Night Fury's breaking off their attack. As for Bang, he never thought of Mogadon as anything but an enemy of dragons, but he was one of the last powerful chiefs in the Archipelago, and he had done something right by raising Thuggory. Now he was gone, and the entire Meathead tribe was about to go with him.
At last, Thuggory spoke. "Take me back to the clearing. We need to talk." His voice was quiet and emotionless. They glided back to the clearing and landed. Thuggory slid off his friend's back and just stood there for a minute. Then he pulled out his sword and slammed it into the ground, point-first. It sank in nearly to the hilt. He raised his fists to the sky and screamed, "Thor! Smite them! May all the gods smite them! May they be forever cursed! May their flesh rot and fall off their bones! May their eyes melt and leave them blind! May they die in acts of cowardice and never see Valhalla! Oh, gods..." He fell to his knees. "I am a Viking. Vikings don't cry. My father died valiantly. That's how he would have chosen to go. He's in Valhalla by now. He's..." He took a deep breath, hid his face in his hands, and trembled all over. "He's dead. My father is dead, and I watched him die, and I couldn't save him."
THERE WAS NOTHING
YOU COULD HAVE DONE,
EXCEPT TO DIE BESIDE HIM
The clouds were sliding in front of the moon, making it even darker; Thuggory strained to read Bang's runes. "I keep telling myself that you're right. Part of me knows that you're right. Part of me isn't listening to reason." He retrieved his sword, wiped the dirt off the blade, and sheathed it. "Now what do I do?"
YOU JUST BECAME THE
CHIEF OF THE MEATHEADS
"Yeah, what an honor," Thuggory said sarcastically. "I'm the nominal leader of a tribe that just got forcibly incorporated into the Roman Empire. The minute I walk into my own village, the Romans will demand my unconditional surrender and my unquestioning obedience. Either I can humiliate myself and give up my freedom and my birthright, or I can die. What kind of a choice is that?"
THERE IS A THIRD CHOICE
Thuggory gazed at the Night Fury for a full minute without speaking. Then he slowly nodded. "Yes, there is a third option for me. Being a free man in a strange place is better than being a slave in my own home." He took a deep breath. "This island is the only home I've ever known. I grew up here; I was destined to rule here; but now it means nothing to me but humiliation and death. Will you take me back to Berk with you?"
Bang crooned and nodded. They flew back to Berk in silence.
Hiccup met them when they landed; Astrid quickly joined them. Bang quickly summed up what had happened on Meathead Island.
THUGGORY, WELCOME TO BERK.
WE'RE SORRY ABOUT YOUR FATHER
Thuggory nodded, his thoughts far, far away. "He died fighting, it was quick, and he didn't live to see the subjugation of his people. If he had to die, I guess there are worse ways to go." He looked around at the darkened village. Berk looked a lot like his own village, except for the accommodations they had made for the dragons. "Thank you for the welcome. What will I do here?"
IF YOU WANT TO HUNT OR FISH,
WE CAN USE YOU. YOU AND YOUR
SPECIAL SWORD WILL HELP
DEFEND US, AND I MAY ASK YOU
FOR ADVICE NOW AND THEN
"You're a lot more generous than my father would have been if our places were reversed," Thuggory said.
LIFE ON BERK IS SMOOTH ENOUGH
THAT WE CAN AFFORD LUXURIES
LIKE BEING NICE
The black dragon paused, then added,
SO FAR
"Is that because the dragons are in charge of things here?" Thuggory asked. Chief-night-fury shrugged.
THAT MIGHT BE PART OF IT
Night-fury-mother-of-twins added,
WHAT REALLY MATTERS IS
WHICH DRAGON IS IN CHARGE.
"Aww, you're going to make me blush," Hiccup said to her with a half-grin.
"Night Furies can't blush," she retorted, "and it's the truth! The main reason we can afford to be so peaceful here is that you've crushed all the attempts to make war on us. We're still at peace – we're still alive – because of the way you lead us."
"What good is that," he retorted, "if we're up against a threat that I can't defeat? They just took down the whole Meathead tribe in one night!"
"The Meatheads are just a pack of typical Vikings, Dad!" Full-of-surprises cut in as she landed next to them. "You can't take them as a precursor to what will happen when those Romans come calling on our shores! They didn't have a single dragon to help protect them."
Hiccup shook his head. "If the Roman Empire is as big as that centurion says, then I'm not sure all the dragons in Berk will be enough to protect us."
"Then we just need more dragons," his mate said matter-of-factly.
"And where are we supposed to get dozens of battle-hardened dragons on short notice?" Hiccup demanded. "The other nests won't help us unless they see themselves threatened. I'm not going to commit our young dragons to a life-or-death battle, because most of them will get the 'death' part."
"They'll get the 'death' part anyway, Dad, if we lose this fight," his daughter reminded him. "This is another one of those all-or-nothing wars that we keep getting stuck with. How many more dragons to you think we need, anyway?"
"Many," her father answered. "I don't have a number in mind. But the way the Romans and the Uglithugs just swatted the Meatheads aside in one night really makes me nervous. It seems obvious to me that those Uglithugs weren't just launching the usual Viking raid. It sounds like they had some order and some direction, which they must have gotten from their new overlords. Every time the Romans win, they get stronger and the Vikings get weaker. We may have already passed the point of no return."
Full-of-surprises considered that. "You mean, even if all the remaining tribes got together to fight the Romans, you don't think we're strong enough?"
"That's exactly what I mean," he nodded.
"I can't imagine any of those tribes uniting under the leadership of a Night Fury anyway," Astrid commented. "Even if their very survival was on the line, they'd rather fight and die like Vikings."
"And that's exactly what will happen," Chief-night-fury agreed. "We can't hope for an alliance with anybody, while our enemies forcibly add new allies every two or three weeks. We're looking at something I've never considered before: a battle that we can't win."
"Can't we at least try to fight?" Full-of-surprises argued. "We're dragons! We've got Night Furies! I can't imagine a fleet of ships that we couldn't devastate in one night, no matter how many 'auxiliaries' the Romans throw at us."
"How many casualties are you willing to take?" Hiccup asked pointedly.
"How good are they at night fighting?" she shot back.
"They seem to be very good," her father answered. "When Bang and I went for a night flight a while ago, we overflew one of their ships. We did nothing to announce our presence, and you know how hard it is for humans to see Night Furies in the dark. But they took two shots at us with lead balls, and one of them hit Bang in the belly."
"Our son got hit?!" Astrid burst out. "You didn't tell me about this! How badly was he hurt?"
"He wasn't hurt at all," Hiccup protested. "We were too far away for their little metal balls to do any damage. But their aim was very, very good, and if we'd been closing the range for an attack instead of keeping our distance, they could have done us some serious harm. That's one secret weapon that the Romans haven't told us about. They probably have others. If we try to fight, it won't be like breaking up a Viking fleet. We know how Vikings fight and we know what their ships can do. This time, we'll be up against an enemy of great strength and unknown abilities. If we try it, dragons are going to get hurt."
"How are dragons going to get hurt?" Toothless startled them as he landed next to Hiccup. They repeated what they'd been talking about. He nodded.
After a long silence, Astrid asked, "So what can we do? There has to be something!"
"The dragons can fly away," Full-of-surprises said. "I don't know where we could go, but at least we can move faster than the Romans can move. There has to be some place in this world where the Romans aren't!"
"Even if we could find that place," her father answered, "I've got one big problem that doesn't involve you two. I can't abandon the Vikings. I'm their chief! They've entrusted me with leadership. I'm responsible for them. If I flew away to save my own hide, and abandoned them to the Romans... both humans and dragons would consider that a totally shameful act. I just can't do that."
Toothless snorted. "Is something funny?" Mother-of-twins demanded.
"It's not really funny," Toothless answered. "I was just thinking, it's a shame that the Vikings can't fly away like we can."
Hiccup's ears suddenly pricked up as his eyes went wide open.