Lightning and Death Itself
Finis Ludum, Chapter 10
The village of Berk was celebrating. Their champions (one woman and one Night Fury) had fought two holmgang duels against the hated Romans who were threatening them, and the Romans had come off second-best in both duels. The Vikings saw this as proof of their superior fighting skills, and a measure of their moral superiority as well. Only one being wasn't happy.
"This isn't working," Hiccup mused, shaking his huge black head. "I'm desperately trying to show these Vikings the mortal danger that they're in, but everything I try just makes our situation look better, not worse."
"What did you expect, Dad?" Full-of-surprises countered. "You've been winning all your battles for so long, you don't know how to lose anymore."
"Our daughter makes a point," Astrid nodded.
"I guess I should be flattered," Hiccup said after a moment, "but it doesn't help. Somewhere in the near future, the Romans are going to descend on our island with overwhelming force, and the Vikings will just assume that Chief-night-fury will take care of it, like he always does. How can I make them see that, this time, Chief-night-fury can't take care of it?"
"We'll have to lose a battle on purpose," Bang thought out loud. "As unnatural as it seems, Dad, you're going to have to make a bad plan, and then stand aside and let us lose."
Toothless nodded. "I can't think of anything else that will persuade those stubborn humans that they need to accept the transformation and get out of here."
Hiccup shook his head. "This isn't like throwing a game of Bashyball so your friends can win a bet. If we fight a battle against the Romans and lose, then some of the dragons we love are going to get hurt, maybe even killed. We could lose some humans, too. Think carefully before you push too hard in that direction."
For Night-fury-makes-one-heck-of-a-bang, who had had several close brushes with defeat and death in his career, that warning struck home. Astrid, the warrior, wasn't convinced. Their warrior daughter, Night-fury-full-of-surprises, was leaning toward her mother's side of the discussion. Toothless had no skin in the game; he just wanted what was best for his friend. Smith-flies-for-fun wasn't sure whose side he should take, Bang's mate Cave-flyer was listening and learning, and Thing One had no opinion because she wasn't very concerned about humans (except for her own chosen family). The Night Fury meeting broke up with no decisions being made.
The matter was taken out of their hands the next day. As she always did, Night-fury-full-of-surprises had sent out pairs of dragon scouts in all directions throughout the day. Around lunchtime, the pair who had flown in the general direction of Bog-Burglar Island returned earlier than usual, and they returned as a threesome. The third dragon was a Night Fury, she had a rider, and she was clearly wounded. Hiccup and Astrid were quick to join the scouts in the air.
"Help my rider!" Thing Two begged them. "Please help Alfrún! She's hurt badly!"
Astrid glanced at the two small spears stuck in the base of her daughter's tail. "What about you? You're hurt too!"
"She's got it worse than me," the young Night Fury answered. Indeed, the slave-girl-turned-Bog-Burglar was slumped forward on Thing Two's back, motionless. Her clothing was stained dark red in several places.
"Help her make a safe landing," Hiccup said as he turned on his tail. "I'll get Gothi!" He shot off toward Berk as the others cruised at a more sedate speed.
When Thing Two landed, Gothi was already hobbling toward the Nest, accompanied by her new apprentice, a girl named Anitra. They quickly helped slide Alfrún off the dragon's back and examined her. Gobber came up to help translate Gothi's written signs, but the old mystic wrote nothing on the ground. She was completely focused on saving the young woman's life. Finally, after applying multiple bandages and herbal treatments, she made a sign on the ground.
"Ye want water?" Gobber said as he read the sign. "I'll get ale instead. It tastes better."
Gothi poked him with her staff, shook her head, and pounded the ground next to her written sign. "Okay, okay, I'll get water!" Gobber protested. "What happened to the old-fashioned Vikings who came back from th' brink o' death after one good drink of ale?"
"Do I need to use my Power on her?" Thing Two asked anxiously. Hiccup translated her words into written runes on the ground.
"Nay, Gothi says she'll pull through," Gobber said after reading the dragon's message. "Save yer fireworks for a real emergency." He hobbled off in search of water. Anitra pulled the spears out of the dragon's tail and began bandaging the wounds. Astrid and Full-of-surprises decided it was all right to question her now.
"What happened on your island?" they both asked at once.
"They attacked in the daytime," the young dragon began. "It was a mix of Viking tribes, twelve or thirteen ships, with two ships full of Romans in the middle, shouting orders."
"You fought Viking ships in broad daylight?" Mother-of-twins was aghast. "We taught you better than that!"
"I know, Mother! Fighting in daylight is always bad for dragons, but we had to try it or they would have overrun the island. But it didn't matter. They had some kind of spear-throwing machine on every ship, they had dozens of spears and slings, and they knew how to use them. We lost five dragons before the humans even landed, with eight others injured, and we still couldn't stop them."
Astrid voiced the thought that no one else wanted to say. "What about your sister and Faithful-brother?"
Thing Two took a deep breath. "I don't know. Cami was riding Six in battle, and Naginatta was on Faithful-brother. The Vikings in the ships didn't get them because the Night Furies were launching their attacks from maximum range. But when the ships got to shore and it became a land battle, it was too confused for long-range strikes. They had to get close enough to tell friend from foe, and a lot of spears got thrown at them. That's how Alfrún got hurt. As soon as she cried out, I turned and headed for Berk as fast as I could. They got me from behind as I turned away. I didn't see what happened to Six or Faithful."
"What about all the other dragons?" Hiccup asked urgently.
Thing Two blinked hard and looked down. "Gone. All of them, I think. Some were shot down over the water… the others got it during the land fighting. I never saw so many spears thrown in one battle! One or two dragons might have survived, but I didn't see anyone left except the Night Furies."
Hiccup turned to Full-of-surprises with a look on his face that she hadn't seen in a very long time. It was a face of hardened rage. "We need a dragon force to go to Bog-Burglar Island, right now. We have to find our missing Night Furies, and either rescue them… or avenge them."
"But, Dad, it's still broad daylight!" Full-of-surprises protested. "That's how dragons get hurt!"
"Yes, I noticed that," Hiccup shot back. "But if our loved ones are downed and hurt, then they can't wait. We'll take all the Night Furies, a few big dragons who can carry an injured Night Fury, and anyone else who wants to come." He took a breath. "Technically, it's not my place to give you orders when it comes to dragons. But that's my daughter and my son-in-law out there! It's your sister! We can't wait until those Roman butchers finish them off! We have to go, now!"
Full-of-surprises paused, then nodded. She flew to the nearest open pasture and let out a roar that drew most of Berk's dragons. There, she outlined the situation and asked for volunteers to visit a battlefield on another island in full daylight.
It would have been easier to count the dragons who didn't want to go. Almost all of them quickly volunteered, with much roaring and stomping on the ground, and the Gronckles proved their readiness by eating some rocks.
"It's just like the time the Outcasts drugged us and kidnapped our twins," Astrid realized. "Or the time the Berserkers almost shot down Toothless. You can't reason with a raging dragon. The dragons still love their Night Furies, and if we say that a Night Fury is in danger, then the rage is going to drive their actions until that rage is sated by revenge."
"Whoever those Vikings are, it's a bad day to be them," Hiccup nodded. "This will probably be Berk's last big dragon attack, so we should do a good job of it. Let's get in front of the formation and inspire the others."
"I haven't forgotten how Night Furies fight," his mate agreed grimly. The mass of dragons took off, and slowly formed into something like a formation as their Alpha sorted them out in midair. The Night Furies took the lead (minus Thing Two, who stayed behind due to her injuries), the Gronckles and the fireball-shooting dragons formed the first wave, and the dragons with short-ranged fire brought up the rear.
When they got to Bog-Burglar island, they barely recognized the place. From a distance, they could see pillars of black smoke rising from the village. As they got closer, they realized that the entire village had been wiped out. Piles of burning rubble were all that was left. The Mead Hall had been absolutely flattened, and then the wooden parts had been set afire. The bodies of dead dragons were scattered here and there, looking like pincushions with multiple spears sticking out of them. A few dozen men, some in Roman armor, some who were clearly Vikings, were poking at the rubble with their spears and swords. The Vikings' shields no longer bore their traditional tribal markings; they now carried the same symbols as the Romans.
"They must be looking for plunder," Smith-flies-for-fun suggested. "Either they haven't found the Bog-Burglar treasure house yet, or they've already cleaned it out." They were distracted by the bursting of a Gronckle lava shot near one of the men.
"Hold your fire!" Hiccup bellowed over his shoulder. "Those men aren't hurting anyone at the moment. Save your fires for the enemies who are still fighting." The offending Gronckle obeyed, but didn't look a bit sorry.
Hiccup, on the other hand, did look remorseful. "Sorry, Full-of-surprises. I'm not supposed to be giving orders to dragons anymore."
"I was about to say the same thing, but you beat me to it," his daughter said.
"Where are our dragons?" someone in the back demanded.
"Look to the north," Astrid said suddenly. "There's a patch of forest there. It's the only cover on the island. If there are any dragons or Bog-Burglars left, they must have retreated there."
"Turn to the north and spread out," Full-of-surprises ordered. "And gain about three tree-heights of altitude! I don't want any of those spears hitting one of us." They did so as they closed in on the forest. As they got closer, they saw a double row of Vikings and Romans forming up to enter the woods. There were at least two hundred of them.
"They wouldn't be attacking unless there's someone in the woods who's worth attacking," Astrid realized. "The last of the Bog-Burglars must be in there, and if our dragons are still alive, then they're in there as well."
"Dragons, listen up!" Full-of-surprises bellowed. "We're going to form up for a quick attack on those humans. We want to keep them out of the woods. Dragons with long-range fire, get over the woods, form a line abreast, and turn back for one quick strike. As soon as that strike hits, the humans will be looking toward the woods. That's when the short-ranged dragons need to make a quick strike from behind them, and then get out of there. Remember, this is daytime and the humans can see us. Don't take any chances! One strike and get out! And swerve as you close the range, so their spears don't hit you."
"You didn't offer her any suggestions for the attack," Astrid whispered to Hiccup as they joined the long-ranged strike.
"She's doing exactly what I would have done," Hiccup murmured to his mate. He began powering up a firebolt.
"Should we aim at their feet, to throw dirt in their eyes?" Tenax asked.
"No," Full-of-surprises said coldly. "These humans are killers and they just killed two dozen dragons. We can't afford to be nice to them. I want their numbers reduced, permanently." The dragons nodded. Some of them were old enough to remember the dragon/human wars, when every shot was meant to be a killing shot. Even the ones who were too young for those wars were still driven by inhuman rage at the thought of their Night Furies getting hurt.
The bloodbath was somewhat reduced when the soldiers saw the dragons diving at them. The Vikings in the front row tried to retreat, but the Roman soldiers behind them blocked their path. So they threw themselves on the ground, and the dragons' shots passed over them and hit the Romans instead. Those legionnaires threw small spears at the oncoming dragons, but the swerves in the dragons' attack paths meant that only one javelin hit a target. That target was a Gronckle who was more irritated than hurt by the spear that lodged in the thick skin of her left shoulder.
As Full-of-surprises had foreseen, the Roman soldiers fixated on the dragons who made the long-range strike, and failed to guard themselves against the short-ranged fire of the dragons behind them. Between the two strikes, the Romans learned what "decimation" really meant. Fewer than one soldier out of ten was still standing when the dragons pulled away. The Vikings waited until the dust began to settle, then got up and ran in a panic toward the ruined village.
The Alpha snapped out orders. "Gronckles and Hotburples, chase those Vikings until you reach your shot limits! Don't finish off the wounded; keep the healthy ones moving. The rest of you, let's find our Night Furies!" The dragons spread out across the small forest, looking down through the trees.
"Over here, on the right!" Hiccup shouted. They converged on him and found places to land on the forest floor.
What they found brought them close to tears. Six's throat and underside had been battered by many lead sling-balls; they hadn't pierced her scales, but they had bruised her badly and she was struggling to breathe. Faithful-brother had a spear wound in his foreleg and multiple spear holes in both of his wings. Camicazi and Naginatta wore multiple bandages around their heads, arms, and legs. Bertha and Chelsea, the chief and her second-in-command, weren't injured, but the metal parts of their shields and helmets showed multiple dents from sling balls and metal-tipped javelins. Perhaps twenty Bog-Burglar warriors and a handful of men were all that was left of the tribe.
Bertha recognized Hiccup. She was not in a welcoming mood. "Are you here to help, or are you here to gloat?"
THERE IS NOTHING TO GLOAT
ABOUT. WE ARE HERE TO HELP
OUR DRAGONS
As an afterthought, he added,
DO YOU WANT OUR HELP?
Bertha's instinct was to refuse help from the males of another tribe. But her instincts, like her tribe, had taken a battering. "How can you help? My village is destroyed, my people are dead or taken away, even my dragons have been driven off or killed… what can you do?"
WE CAN TAKE YOU TO BERK
Again, the Bog-Burglar chief bit down on her first response. Accepting the Hiccup-dragon's offer would mean admitting total defeat and abandoning all of her tribe's cherished ideals. Refusing him would mean death or enslavement… and she could guess what kind of enslavement awaited her, with her distinctive figure, in a world of men.
While she considered her options, Hiccup wrote,
WE JUST BROKE UP AN ATTACK,
BUT THEY'LL BE BACK.
DECIDE QUICKLY.
"Mother," Cami said weakly, "we've done our best, but it wasn't good enough. We've lost this fight. Dying won't make anything better."
"Going out in a blaze of glory is the Viking way, right?" Chelsea asked, but she didn't sound sure of herself.
"What awaits us if we go to Berk with you?" Bertha asked.
WE'RE FACING INVASION JUST LIKE
YOU. MY PLAN IS TO TURN ALL THE
HUMANS INTO DRAGONS AND
FLY AWAY TO A SAFE PLACE.
"Is that better than being dead?" Naginatta wondered. "Why can't the humans ride the dragons when the dragons fly away?"
WE'RE GOING TO FLY FAST AND
TRAVEL LIGHT. CARRYING HUMANS
WITH US IS MORE THAN WE CAN
HANDLE. PROVIDING FOOD, PLACES
TO SLEEP… WE DON'T EVEN KNOW
WHERE WE'RE GOING YET.
"That doesn't sound fair," Naginatta muttered.
"The dragons are calling the shots in Berk," Cami reminded her sister. "They know their limits. If they say it's a bad idea, then I have to believe them." She thought for a second, then added, "Can we choose what kind of dragon we're going to be?"
YES, WITHIN LIMITS. WE CAN'T MAKE
A BEWILDERBEAST OUT OF YOU
"Cami, do you want to be a dragon?" Bertha was astonished.
"Flying would definitely be fun," her daughter answered. "Dragons don't have hands, so I guess I'd have to give up burgling. That would stink. But, Mother, didn't you hear our warriors screaming as the Romans loaded them onto their ships and took them away? You know what those men are going to do to them! I'd rather be a dragon than let them do that stuff to me."
"That part is hard to argue with," Chelsea nodded.
Bertha made her decision. "If we go to Berk and then decide that we don't like it, we can choose to try something else. If we stay here, those Romans won't offer us any choices. We'll go to Berk."
WE CAME TO SAVE OUR NIGHT
FURIES. WHEN THEY ARE SAFELY
AWAY FROM HERE, THE DRAGONS
WHO REMAIN WILL TAKE YOU
AND YOUR PEOPLE
Some of those people weren't happy with their chief's decision. "How are we supposed to get to Valhalla if we run away from battle?" one of them demanded.
"You'll have plenty of chances to get to Valhalla," Bertha rebuked her. "Those Romans will probably hit Berk next. But this isn't a glorious battle anymore. It's suicide. There's nothing left to fight for. If you really want to die for nothing, I won't force you to give up your dream, but the smart move is to pick a battle that we can win, and then give it all we've got."
"I want someone to write a saga about my courageous end," another Bog-Burglar warrior protested.
"Who's going to write it if you die here?" Chelsea answered. "The Romans don't write sagas, and they're calling the shots here. You'll be nothing but a forgotten corpse who threw her life away… unless they take you alive, and we won't talk about that."
As the Monstrous Nightmares and the other big dragons carefully picked up the Night Furies and carried them back to Berk, Chief Bertha and her sister methodically shot down every objection that the women of her tribe could raise. Two of them dug in their heels and refused to abandon their island, regardless of what their chief ordered. The others hesitantly climbed onto the backs of Berk's dragons and went for their first dragon ride. They kept looking back as they left their smoking, ruined island home forever.
Gobber met them as they landed, and he wasn't happy with even a small pack of Bog-Burglars on his island. "Hiccup, ye know what they think o' men. They'll try to take over everything, an' they've got their chief with 'em to lead 'em! This isn't gonna end well for Berk."
IF THE ROMANS COME, WE CAN USE
THEIR FIGHTING POWER. IF WE GET
A BREAK, THEY WILL PROBABLY MOVE
SOMEWHERE ELSE. THEY DON'T LIKE
THIS ARRANGEMENT ANY BETTER
THAN YOU DO
Berk didn't have any empty houses for the Bog-Burglars to occupy, so they set up tents on the outskirts of town. Gothi took on the healing of the two Night Furies in addition to caring for Alfrún. The dragons who had gone to Bog-Burglar Island described what they had seen to the few who hadn't gone. Soon, some of the human friends of those dragons became curious.
"Tenax and I are going to overfly that island," Felix Natalis informed Hiccup. It wasn't a request.
WHAT IS YOUR GOAL?
"I want to see what it looks like when Rome cooperates with Vikings," the centurion explained. "I've seen many armies of Roman auxiliaries, and I've seen some of them earn victories, but I never saw dragons lose before."
DO YOU KNOW WHO MIGHT
BE IN CHARGE OF YOUR
LEGIONS, NOW THAT WE
HAVE YOUR GENERAL?
Felix considered that. "If General Caveat Emptor is out of the picture, then his second-in-command is a senior centurion named Lorem Ipsum. He's more of an admiral than a general; he's in charge of Rome's ships and sailors in this part of the world."
"That would explain how he figured out that a day approach was safest for his ships," Hiccup mused. Then he resumed writing.
IS HE A BETTER GENERAL
THAN THE GENERAL?
"They're both seasoned veterans," Natalis thought out loud. "Lorem Ipsum doesn't have as much overall command experience, but he understands the naval side of war better than Caveat Emptor ever will. Why do you ask? Are you thinking of releasing the general, in the hope that he'll be less effective than his replacement?"
THE THOUGHT OCCURRED TO ME.
YOUR GENERAL COULDN'T DO
ANYTHING TO US, WHILE LOREM
IPSUM DEFEATED AN ISLAND
DEFENDED BY DRAGONS
"Remember, he had help," the Roman reminded him. "Those Vikings are undisciplined, but they know more about dragon-fighting than Rome does, and they have an advantage in sheer numbers. If the two kinds of soldiers are used together and skillfully commanded, they'll be hard to stop."
I'LL THINK ABOUT THAT. IN THE
MEANTIME, TAKE YOUR SCOUTING
FLIGHT
Four more human/dragon pairs decided to go with him. They returned a few hours later, sober and shocked. They told other Vikings what they had seen. Those others took their own scouting flights on their dragons, or on the dragons of friends. The news of the disaster on Bog-Burglar Island swiftly spread across Berk, and it had the effect that all of Hiccup's scheming had failed to produce.
By ones and twos, the Vikings of Berk began approaching Hiccup. The conversations went pretty much the same way every time. "Chief-night-fury, we saw what the Romans did to Bog-Burglar Island. Are they going to do that to Berk?"
THAT IS THEIR PLAN, YES
"Okay." (deep breath) "Then I'm ready to turn into a dragon."
