A/N: Hey folks! Thanks for reading and reviewing! I hope you've liked the story so far. As I'm updating once each month, I believe we'll get to "known areas" sometime during August/September. Hiccup and the gang will appear in the story sometime during October/November. This, of course, will be because of character development, trouble along the road etc.

III

Lost Hope

No one were allowed in, nor out of the harbour. Calypso had taken to strolling the streets, wondering what to do now. It was about noon when she ran into the boy. He seemed to be about her own age, but she couldn't tell for sure. The boy turned around the corner and crashed into her. They both fell to the ground.

They boy got to his feet, glanced behind and then pulled Calypso up. "Come on," he told her. "If they find you here, you won't have much left when they're finished with you!" Then, with a tight grip of her hand, he pulled her further.

Calypso had always been quick, so it wasn't that hard for her to keep up with the boy. Soon she was totally lost in the streets, but the boy didn't seem to have problems with finding his way. Occasionally he would stop, tell her to hid and then disappear in some minutes, before returning from another direction. Once he even jumped off the roof above her, and landed easily beside her.

Eventually they came to a dead end. The boy motioned for her to follow as he started climbing the wall. Calypso followed. When she hauled herself up at the roof, the boy was sitting there in a crouched position, watching the streets bellow them. She climbed up towards him, but her foot slipped on the way and she barely managed to hold on.

"This way," he told her. "And be careful. It's slippery."

"Thanks, I noticed," Calypso replied sarcastically. They didn't talk for a long while after that, but Calypso couldn't help wondering why the boy hadn't just left her behind earlier. Good Lord, she wasn't helpless either!

The boy lead across roof after roof, until they reached an end. There he easily slid off the roof and in through a window just below the roof. Calypso didn't wait for an invitation, and followed him. The room was dark, except for the light falling in through the window they just came in through. It wasn't much warmer in there, than outside. A moment later a little flame was lit, and in it she could finally have a look at the boy.

He was tall and seemed pretty skinny, and his eyes glimmered like gold. He had messy black hair, but she could tell he was pale. Half his face was covered in a purple scarf, and he wore a brown jacket which seemed too big. He had grey gloves, but she noticed they had plenty of holes. His boots, however, didn't look as if they were twenty years old. In fact, they seemed pretty new.

"Who are you?" Calypso asked, frowning at him. "Why did you bring me here?"

The boy had been eyeing her with interest, but when she spoke he glanced sideways and shrugged. "Name's Briskir," he only said. Then he walked over to a table and some carpets. "Are you hungry?" He held out a piece of bread.

"I've got my own food," she replied. "Why did you bring me here?"

"They asked for a girl who looked pretty much like you," he said. "And they didn't look too friendly, so I figured they didn't want you any good."

"Who are 'they'?" Calypso inched closer to Briskir.

"Four men," he replied easily. "They weren't from here."

"Abelardus..." Calypso muttered. "Why were they chasing you?"

"Suppose they didn't like being thrown pies at." A grin had appeared at Briskir's face. "Pretty bad at hiding their anger were they too." Then his face fell serious. "You're not from England, are you?"

"No, and about that – I have to get to the harbour. I need to find trader Johann."

Briskir seemed like the best person she could've met just then. He helped her find her way back through the labyrinth of streets. After wondering whether she should tell him of her problem or not, she decided not to tell anything. He asked more than once what she was doing that far north, and alone, but she mostly managed to steer the conversation away from it.

"We're here," Briskir eventually said. They emerged from a street and were standing beside a trader. The man didn't seem as if he was planning on going further north. "Why won't you tell me?"

"Tell you what?"

"Why you're here alone, why you're going further north, and why the soldiers are looking for you."

Calypso opened her mouth to answer something a little harsh, but then closed her mouth. She glanced towards the docks for some seconds. "I can't risk it," she eventually muttered. She glanced back at Briskir with a tentative smile. "I can't tell you, because what if you told the wrong persons and I suddenly had all of my father's soldiers after me?"

Briskir tilted his head slightly. "In other words, you don't trust me." There was a thoughtful expression at his face as he tilted his head to the other side. "You're clever not to trust the first you meet," he eventually decided. "Then I wish you good luck on your journey. May God watch over you."

Calypso smiled and was about to reply, but Briskir had already disappeared in between the houses. She sighed. Now she was on her own again. She walked over to the trader.

"Excuse me? Do you know where I can find trader Johann?"

The trader muttered something she didn't catch, but pointed towards a small ship not far off. "But hurry up, he's leaving soon." Calypso thanked him and hurried towards the ship.

The owner of the ship was a slim, tanned man with dark hair and moustache (and a tiny beard), and dark eyes. He was busy talking to a man, but his ship seemed ready to leave. The two men finished talking and the trader started making his way over to the ship.

"Trader Johann!" Calypso called. The man turned towards her with an arched eyebrow.

"That would be me?"

"I've got a letter to you..." Calypso pulled the letter out of the dragon-skin bag. "From Bjartr." Johann's other eyebrow raised too and he opened the letter. Calypso waited in some tense moments before Johann finished reading.

"So, let me get this straight," he said, folding the letter. "He wants me to bring you to Berk, and then bring a message back to him that you're in the good hands of Stoick the Vast?"

"Yes." Calypso let out a relieved breath. Now that everything was clear, Johann would let her onto the ship, take her north and she'd finally be safe from her father's soldiers. Safe. When she thought about it, she'd never been really safe. But that would change, she told herself.

"Sorry," Johann said, returning the letter. "I'm a trader. I trade food, ink and tools. My job is not to bring people back and forth." He let out an annoyed huff, and turned away.

Calypso was stunned. She couldn't believe what she'd just heard. "But... You have to help me!" she exclaimed.

"I don't have to do anything, miss," he replied.

"I'm being chased! I have to get away from here!"

"It's not my fault you ran away from home," Johann said with a frown. "My, look at the time! I've got to leave. Bye!" With that he told the man he'd been talking to earlier, to loosen his ship, and Calypso was left to stare after him with shock and panic.

Calypso stared after the ship. She couldn't believe it! Bjartr and his ship were gone. She was being chased, and now her only possibility of being transported north to Berk, had left... Without her. If she hadn't been so shocked, she would've sat down and cried.

She forced the hopelessness away and took a deep breath. She had to think of something. As she stared after the ship, she thought she heard Briskir beside her, saying, "I wish you good luck on your journey. May God watch over you." Briskir. Maybe he could help her? At least that was somewhere to start.

She made her way back to the trader and peered into the labyrinth of streets. She regretted not paying attention to were they went earlier. After glancing back towards the harbour a last time, she set off in between the houses.

It only took her a few turns to get lost. A normal person would've stopped just there and asked someone for the way back, or tried to make his/her way back. Calypso, however, turned around so she was facing the street she just walked through. She thought there was something vaguely known about it. That settled it. She turned back and continued.

She had no idea of how much time passed, but eventually she reached a grocery she was pretty sure she remembered. She glanced further down the street, and there it was. The house where Briskir had brought her earlier. At first she only stared at it, but then she hurried towards it. She eyed the street beside the house and the steep staircase. It wasn't very nice of her to just enter someone's house like that... Without another 'if' or 'but', she started climbing the stairs.

When she finally pushed up the door, she found the room just as dark as she remembered it from her first visit. "Briskir?" she whispered. No answer. No light.

Slowly she made her way across the room, towards the table and carpets she remembered. Her foot hit something soft, and she froze in her steps. She lowered her gaze to the floor and squinted at whatever it was. As she stood still, her eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness and she could make out the shape of a big bird laying there. Carefully she crouched down and placed a hand on it. It was warm and the chest was quickly rising and sinking.

"Don't be afraid," she muttered and picked it up. Then she glanced about to find that candle... She quickly walked over to the table. There was a box of matches laying beside the candle. She placed the bird at the table and lit the candle. There was a cold draft in the room which made the tiny flame dance and flicker. Calypso held her hands around it to keep it from going out. She dropped the bag at the floor and sat the candle beside it, taking the bird into her lap as she sat down at the edge of the carpets.

In the light she could have a better look at the bird. It was huge and black with a black beak. A raven. And it was wrapped into some warm cloth. Calypso removed the cloth. As soon as the raven could move about, it notched for her hand. She quickly pulled back and the raven jumped away from her. It held one of the wings in a strange position, as if it hurt.

"You can come back when you feel like letting someone have a look at that wing of yours," Calypso told it. While she waited, she took off the quiver and bow, and put them beside herself. Then she opened the bag and found some of the bread Bjartr had provided her with. She broke off a piece of it and settled to eat it in silence as she watched the raven jump around the room, trying to fly.

Outside the sun started to settle. Calypso yawned. Soon enough she nodded off.

Next chapter up 1. Mars...

A/N: Now you'll just have to wait another month for next update!

If anyone's interested, I'll do some HTTYD-prompts. More information about this at my profile.