Aw! I can't believe you guys! All those readers, and I only get one review? T_T Anyway, next chapter, and I'll be bringing in the other guys soon enough. I'm trying to decide which character gets the honor of discovering our young castaway. Right now Hiccup and Tuff are dukin' it out, since it was Hiccup's spot, but it's Tuff's girl. What do you guys think?
Toothless: Akari doesn't own How to Train Your Dragon, me, or any of the other characters.
Me: O.O YOU CAN TALK?
Toothless: Well, duh.
Storm spent the next several days collecting her things out of the boat, starting with things like her food and spare clothing. The crates were far too heavy to lift by herself while full, so she had to transfer the supplies to her bag to be carried, then she would move the empty crate into the valley by use of her launching ropes before filling them again. All the while, she thought of ways to keep her craft safe and hidden. It was way too big for her to drag ashore on her own, and too wide to fit through the channel in the rock created by the stream. She finally decided to find another place where she could tie it safely.
So, the day after she'd brought off the last box, she grabbed a spare bundle of rope, and set off around the bend of the land she hadn't yet explored. As she rounded the corner in her little craft, Storm finally saw that, if she hadn't ended up on the mainland somehow, then she'd reached a very large island at least, for this stretch of beach went on for a few miles before it curved out of sight again. And she found just what she needed about a hundred yards away: a part where the sand curved inward, and another body of water was winding its way out of the trees, this part being level ground.
When she reached the larger stream, Storm was happy to find that it was deeper as well, and sought to steer the boat upstream. She'd barely gone a few feet, however, before the boat struck the bottom of the waterway. Deeper it was, but still not deep enough. Storm sat a while, stuck firmly in the sand, thinking. 'I don't really weigh a lot, so I doubt getting out of the boat will get me much farther. Maybe I could dig some of the sand out and make it deep enough.' She jumped out of the boat to take a look. 'Damn! It's all rocks and mud! I can't dig that up!' she straightened up, looking around until a tree branch extended just over the entrance to the forest caught her eye.
Storm already knew that the rope she had was too short to reach the boat, go over the limb, and extend down to where she could reach it. She began tugging at the bow of the craft anyway, her mouth set in a stubborn line across her face. For the better part of an hour and a half she pulled at the vessel, dragging it inch by inch through the muck until it was close enough. Quickly tying one end of her rope through the hole in the bow-board where the launching rope had previously been, she aimed carefully before releasing the coil. Her efforts were rewarded as the rope sailed over the limb and dropped several feet to where she could reach it. She rushed over, grabbed the rope securely, and gave a huge pull.
The vessel moved a lot easier than she'd thought it would, so that she almost fell over backwards as the craft was lifted onto its stern and dragged a few feet forward. Grinning in triumph, she pulled hand over hand on the coil, bring the boat farther and farther upstream towards her, until the bow hovered just in front of her face. She gently lowered it to the ground, and quickly selected a strong enough limb on a tree farther in to repeat the process; and another after that, before she was satisfied that the craft would be safe enough.
She tied the free end of the rope around a stout tree-trunk, checking the knots on both ends before she was satisfied that any flooding would not easily carry the vessel away. Knowing that she would not be able to find her way home through the trees just yet, Storm backtracked down to the beach, and it was getting dark by the time she scaled the rock face to her camp. Spent from the day's work, she shared a quiet meal with Coal before falling onto her impromptu bed, made up of a tarp making the base, the bundle of cloth for a blanket, and a grass-stuffed bag for a pillow, and was asleep within minutes.
Storm spent the next several weeks in projects to make her home more livable, starting with ways she could expand on what she ate, because there was only so much heavily salted meat and hard sourdough bread she could take. She'd seen the decent-sized fish leaping out of the water in the large pond that took up most of the little valley, and spent several days unwinding the cords of one of her ropes to weave into a net. Honestly, it took her longer to learn how to use the net properly than it had to make it. She eventually got it, though, and set to work making a way that she could more easily get in and out of her home.
Using slightly thick, strong branches from the larger trees, Storm set to turning her climbing rope into a ladder, knotting the wood at equal intervals into two ropes. The finished product was by no means easy to use, but it was safe and sturdy, and was easier than rock climbing every day, plus she could, if need be, quickly scale the rock face and pull the ladder up behind her, becoming unreachable.
Throughout this time, Coal became her steadfast friend, following Storm wherever she could, and becoming a welcome source of companionship and entertainment as she grew larger and more curious. Time and again she would cause the 16-year old to laugh when she would poke her head over the edge of an open crate, only to fall in with a startled yowl, or fall into the pond while staring at the fish. The cat grew more coordinated as she grew, however, and began to stalk the birds that visited their hollow. As the months passed, the temperatures grew steadily colder at night, and Storm found it necessary to wear her white-fur vest and a pair of leggings constantly just to drive off the chill.
The chill brought thoughts of the seasons to her mind one night, and she quickly counted up the time from the date of her escape from the ship to that night, startled when she realized that it would be October soon, meaning two things. One, she had to start hoarding up on food and wood before everything became bound in snow and ice; and two, her seventeenth birthday would be arriving in a little more than a month, on November 7th. The latter wouldn't have been that big a deal, except for if she never paid attention to the day, she'd probably forget her age sooner or later. Having no immediate jobs pressing, she resolved to spend all her time doing things to prepare for the winter, which was sure to be harsh if August had been chilly and rainy.
Fishing proved to be less fruitful than Storm had hoped, having decided to get her provisions from the sea, rather than over-fishing her small pond. She'd fashioned a crude rod with a long, straight branch, with the line and hooks she'd brought, but the waters seemed a little devoid of fish. She'd barely catch any of decent size throughout the day. Some days, when she grew tired of sitting on the sand all day, she'd switch to scouring the land for provisions. This proved a little more successful, as she managed to find edible sources of plant-life, though it seemed she didn't have any completion for food when it came to animals. She only ever saw small things like birds and rabbits, which she set many snares for.
Anything she did manage to catch, though, went straight to the fire to be dried or smoked so that it would keep. It took the last week of September and the entire next month, but she somehow managed to fill up one of the larger crates and a basket with provisions for the months ahead. After making sure that both of these were sealed tight against any marauders, including Coal, Storm set to coming up with a way to protect herself and her abode more fully against the coming winter. The hollow was shelter enough in milder weather, even in rain. But she knew they wouldn't last the winter if she couldn't find a way to seal heat more fully in the space, for the gaps between the roots were very large.
It was a fleeting memory of beavers that finally gave the girl the idea she needed, and Storm set to work with a will. Gathering many branching boughs and shrubs, she used the small amount of carpenter tools she'd brought to weave these together over the gaps in the tree-roots, leaving only tiny spaces in between to let smoke out. By the time she was done, there was only one gap that stretched from one root to the next, from the ground to about five and a half feet up, so that the girl only had to duck lightly to get under. She'd opted to leave that part, so that her home would still be a little open during the warmer months. For now, though, she closed the space fully with the heaviest tarp, leaving only a small entrance in one corner.
Storm stood in front of the house she'd just finished closing in that evening, cat in arms, admiring her handiwork. She'd gotten done just in time, as her birthday had come and gone, and it was now late November, and as she looked the completed project over, snow began falling from the heavily laden clouds above. Looking up sharply, the girl stared a moment at the falling ice-crystals, slowly placing Coal on the ground beside her.
"It's snowing…." Storm whispered up to the sky. "Coal, it's snowing!" she then yelled, spinning in a circle and laughing. The cat paid no mind, retreating from the rapidly dampening ground into the house as the flakes melted on the ground, which had not yet frozen. Storm, still laughing, began a strange dance around the valley, running this way and twirling that, her arms spread out to feel the large flakes hit her skin. The girl danced this way for quite some time before flopping onto her back, panting, as the snow settled on her hair and clothes, melting on her flushed face. She opened her eyes, staring up at the specks of white that seemed to just pop out of nowhere to gently float around her.
Storm finally heeded the slight shivering of her body and sat up, bits of snow falling off her front as she did so. She directed her gaze to the top edge of the circle of rocks that had sheltered her for more than three months, thanking the gods for bringing her to such a place. Just then, her gaze fell on something to the east that perplexed her. Way off in the distance, there was a bright orange glow reflecting off the thick clouds. She knew the glow was caused by a fire, and a big one at that, but the weather was constantly damp, if not rainy, and there should not have been any possibility of a fire starting. Unless….
Storm had never been able to fully explore the land she'd found herself on, being far too busy making it possible for her to live here. It was possible that there were other people there, but she'd never seen any evidence on the land or sea. But there was another idea that surfaced in her mind, one that made her blood run cold. Could she have found herself on an island inhabited by dragons?
Dun dun dun! Yeah, trying to move it along without rushing. ...That's a bit contradictory, I think. Anyway, in case anyone's wondering, yes, Storm will eventually have a dragon, but I'm not telling which! REVIEW PLEEAASE! I really want you guys to vote on who should meet her first!
Tuffnut: I'm gonna do it! She's my girlfriend!
Hiccup: Gimme a break! You're such jerk, you'll just scare her clear off the island!
Me: ...Does this mean you guys are gonna be my muses?
Tuffnut and Hiccup: NO!
Me: *pouts* Fine.