Author's Note:
Hello all and welcome to the next chapter. Largely with Stoick this time around though we check in on Snotlout at the end. Thank you for your continued support and I hope you enjoy the chapter.
I own nothing.
Time
Dawn was breaking by the time Stoick and his warriors reached the start of the mountain trail.
Leaping off the boulder where she'd been keeping watch most of the night, Astrid hurried to meet them, "Chief, the poisoner headed up the trail!"
Stoick nodded his understanding as he gave orders to the rest, "I want four of you to keep watch on the trail entrance, you two can head back to Berk and fetch some climbing gear while the rest of you take a short rest." He turned back to Astrid, "Astrid, I want you to head back to Berk as well. Fishlegs was investigating the area you'd seen the poisoner last, see if you can help him with anything he may have found after you've rested a bit yourself."
Astrid wanted to say that she wasn't tired but she yawned before she could as two nights of no sleep began to catch up with her, instead she simply nodded, "Yes sir."
Soon she was heading back to Berk along with the two who were fetching the climbing gear.
Once they'd vanished Stoick made his way over to the two boulders that marked the start of the trail. As he stood looking up it Gobber shuffled over to join him, "How far up do ye think they've gone?"
Stoick kept staring up at the mountain, "Most likely he hasn't gone far, even with the right gear this mountain is far too dangerous to climb, especially on your own. He may even be only slightly further up the trail hoping that we'll go away so he can come back down."
"Maybe we should wait for him to try and get past us. This is the only way off the mountain so he has to come this way at some point."
Stoick shook his head, "If he has stores up there then that could take days Gobber, Snotlout doesn't have that long. We need to capture this person and get a sample of the poison he used as soon as possible, we can't afford to wait any longer than necessary."
Gobber sighed resignedly, "I understand Stoick but ye should do what ye told Astrid to do and rest. Ye haven't slept since this whole thing started and ye need to be at full strength if ye want to take this guy on when ye find him."
"I don't think I can sleep right now Gobber."
The blacksmith was not going to be so easily deterred, "At least sit down for a bit. The guys aren't going to be back with the gear for a while so ye may as well get off yer feet. I'll keep watch with the others and let ye know the moment anything happens."
Stoick considered his friend's suggestion for a moment then relented, "All right Gobber, I'll go and rest by those boulders for a while but you better keep your word."
"I will Stoick." the man assured him, "Ye just let me keep an eye on things for now."
Stoick made his way to the boulders and slowly sat with his back to them. His intention was to keep an eye on the trail from where he sat but despite his previous words he soon found his eyes closing as tiredness caught up to him.
Without realising it he drifted off to sleep.
It was his honed battle instincts that saved him once again.
Stoick had been sleeping for some time when he snapped into full wakefulness and rolled away from the boulders. In that same instant a crossbow bolt came out of the blue and struck the rock right where the chief's neck had been moments before. The bolt rebounded off the boulder and stuck in the ground by Stoick's left leg as Vikings ran over to their chief's side. Stoick himself had focused his gaze towards the mountain trying to spot the one who'd fired the bolt, it had to be the assassin and the chief was hoping he'd maybe catch a glimpse and discover their identity. He briefly saw a figure vanish from further up the mountainside but they were too quick for him to see who it was. Gobber was naturally the first to the chief's side, "Stoick, are ye all right?"
The chief had already stood up and brushed of his friend's concerns, "I'm fine Gobber and I managed to get a glimpse of our poisoner."
"Who is it?"
He shook his head, "I didn't see clearly but he's not built like a typical Viking, he's slightly smaller with less bulk and I'm pretty sure he's a man."
"It could be an agent of Alvin's." one of the other men suggested.
Again Stoick shook his head, "I don't think so. Alvin is treacherous but assassination isn't his style, he prefers conquest and I'm certain that he wants to kill me himself, not hire someone else to do it." He picked out two of his warriors, "You two head up the mountain trail and see if you can catch up to him, don't go up too far as it gets dangerous very quickly but try and find out how far up he might be. The men I sent to Berk should be back with proper equipment soon so it won't be long before we're heading up after you."
The two he'd selected nodded and hurried off up the trail as Gobber tried to examine his chief, "That bolt ended up very close to yer leg Stoick, it didn't get ye did it?"
Stoick waved away the blacksmith's concerns, "I'm fine Gobber. It was close but it missed so you don't need to worry about me." He gestured to the rest, "Start overseeing the preparations for heading up the mountain, we'll get going the moment the others return from Berk."
With one last look at his friend Gobber shuffled off to do as he was asked and Stoick carefully checked his leg when no one was looking. As expected he saw a small cut where the bolt had just scraped it and although it was very small and normally not worth bothering with he had a suspicion about it. He quickly let his clothes cover it once more before anyone else saw.
They didn't need to know.
In Gothi's hut Snotlout was deteriorating fast.
The poison was working quickly and her medicine to control it was getting less and less effective. She'd upped the dose and regularity of it being given but it was getting to the stage where increasing it further would just make things worse. The boy's fevered dreams were now constant and Snotlout was now continually muttering, talking, crying out and sometimes weeping in his delusion-filled coma. The sounds were breaking Gothi's heart as she knew that they were rapidly losing him and whereas before he'd been kind of aware of what was happening around him he now noticed very little. The song that had calmed him before no longer worked and he didn't react to any of his cousin's words nor any sounds made by the two dragons.
Said dragons were also more distressed as they didn't know what was happening to the boy, Hookfang wept whenever Snotlout did and the Nightmare simply couldn't fathom why his rider wasn't getting better. Toothless wasn't much better and he would keep nudging Gothi in a plea for her to fix it while Hiccup continued to care for his younger cousin with an air of desperation.
Gothi herself felt powerless as she watched the boy slip further and further away and she'd begun fervently praying to the gods that Stoick would return with the poison soon letting her cure the dying boy. Without it Snotlout's fate was sealed and the Jorgenson line would be lost forever along with one of Berk's precious children.
They were rapidly running out of time.
PS-So time is getting short for Snotlout and the poisoner is still unknown. Keep the theories coming and I'll hopefully update soon.
