The Cullis Gate
After traveling around, seeing how different the world now is I headed back to the Guild. Once arriving I saw Eret and Theresa.
"Did you see Astrid? She is on her way, as well with the information she's gathered." Theresa said. Eret then turned to me.
"Our friend has told me much about you. That night in the castle, your sister...I had no idea. If I'd known, I would have stopped him." Eret said.
"It's ok Eret. You couldn't have know. Right now we need to focus on the task." I said. The gate then activated. I turned to see Astrid entered the room.
"Sorry it took me so long. Drago's men are all over the place." she said.
"You must be Astrid." Eret said looking at her.
"And you must be Eret. Drago's Lackey." she said.
"I was made to understand you might be mistrustful. I didn't anticipate your staggering wit and intellect." he said.
"Oh yeah? And did you anticipate that I like to take a axe and whack smug little spell-flingers?" Hammer said ready to hit him.
"This is not what we're here for. Astrid has information on the third hero." Theresa said.
"Mostly gathered from a tavern, I hear?" Eret said rolling his eyes.
"Not one, lots of them. I did a proper tour." Hammer said pointing her axe at Eret.
"Astrid.." I said said to her.
"Right. I think its this bloke the Thief is a pirate called Snotlout. He runs a port of Bloodstone to the southwest." Astrid told us.
"And you got this from some drunk?" Eret asked.
"Yeah? He sailed with Snotlout for years, said they captured hundreds of ships." Astrid said.
"Doesn't mean he's a hero. Lots of pirates capture ships." Eret pointed out.
"Snotlout takes down galleons with one bullet. High winds, rough seas, a mile away: it doesn't matter. He picks off the captain, the more impossible the shot the quicker the crew surrenders." Astrid explained.
"Impressive, but we're not trying to make Drago surrender." Eret said.
"No, we're not." Astrid said.
"Bloodstone is surrounded by Wraithmarsh on three sides, and ocean on the fourth." Theresa said.
"No matter, we can reach it via Cullis Gate." Eret said.
"Not this one it leads only to Hero Hill." Theresa told.
"Got another one handy have you?" Astrid asked.
"I built one at my tower. It can get us to Wraithmarsh." Eret told us.
"Okay, you're a genius. Does it work?" Astrid asked.
"It will take some time to activate, but it should work." Eret said.
"Should?" Astrid said.
"Its better that won't." I said.
"You must do this together. Drago has sent men to guard Brightwood Tower." Theresa said.
"Okay then let's go. After you, your brilliance." Astrid said sarcastically.
"Barbarian." Eret said as he entered the Cullis Gate.
"Can I please use my axe on him?" Astrid asked, gripping her axe harder. I laughed and placed my hand on her back.
"Come one." We both one by one stepped into the gate and traveled to Hero Hill. We soon arrived at the locked front gate.
"We shouldn't use the front gate. Drago's men will be expecting us." Eret told us.
"Then what do we do?" I asked Eret. He then began to walk away.
"Followed me I know another way in." he said heading the opposite direction.
"So Astrid, what happened while I was away?" I asked her.
"I went back to the Temple for a while. Same old nonsense. Ignorant men trying to tell everyone how to live their lives based on books written a thousand years ago." she said.
"Right- nothing that ancient could possibly contain any wisdom." Eret said.
"Hey, these aren't Old Kingdom schematics that teach you how you how to build guns that shoot lightning. It's a load of superstitious nonsense that never helped anybody. And if you swallow it all, it can get you killed." Astrid said. Eret stopped.
"Hmm, we may actually be in agreement there, but let's cut this short we have a lot to do." Eret said. We followed Eret down the path as we reached the bandits camp. As we began to run a bit faster my leg started to hurt slightly. I began to slow down.
"Hold up." I said. Eret and Astrid stopped and looked at me. Astrid walked up to me.
"Are you alright?" She asked. I nodded.
"Yeah, just my leg, no problem." I said to her. She looked down at my leg. Her face turned to shock. Right. She didn't know about my peg-leg.
"No problem? Hiccup, what happened?" She asked with a shocked voice.
"We don't have time right now Astrid. I'll tell you when we finish this." I said to her, and slowly began to walk again. She walked by me and placed my arm over her shoulder to help me walk.
We soon approached a statue on a hill that had a view of Brightwood Tower. We looked down to the bridge to see Spire Guards.
"Drago's men. They're looking for me. They're between us and the Cullis Gate." Eret pointed out.
"What do we do?" I asked asked.
"We'll have to fight our way through." Eret said.
"Just how I like it." Astrid said. I pulled away from Astrid and stood on my feet again.
"Let's go." I said. We ran down the hill to the bridge and we attacked the large number of Spire Guards. We were able to fight them off pretty quickly. We soon continued up the tower to the entrance as we fought more guards.
Once we reached the top we found the Cullis Gate Eret approached it.
"I will need to concentrate to start the gate. I must rely on the two of you to watch my back." he said as he released will energy into the Cullis Gate.
"Oh sure we'll do all the work while you sit there and think. Let me know when it's my turn for a break will you?" Astrid said. Before I could say anything back to her I saw a shard appear next to the tower.
"We've got one." I said to Eret, who knew what I meant.
"Is that...a shard?" Astrid asked.
"Amazing isn't it?" Eret said.
"Are you serious? A sunset's amazing. That thing's a bloody nightmare." Astrid said. The tip of the shard had a yellow orb form above it and a lightning bolt went into the tower.
"We have a small advantage, they don't want us dead." Eret said.
"I know that's supposed to be comforting but it's not. And it's not alone looks like it's brought its own army!" Astrid said.
"Astrid, you focus on protecting Eret. I'll take care of the first row." I said.
"Let's do it!" Astrid said drawing her axe. I drew my sword and charged at the enemy.
"I'll have this thing up in no time." Eret said.
After a few minutes of fighting close to thirty guards I turned to Eret to see how it was going "We're almost there." he said as more waves of Spire Guards began to show up.
"Eret, look out!" Astrid yelled as Toothless tackled the guard and bit at the man neck.
"How much longer Eret?" I asked.
"Just a bit more" he said. "Just hold them off a little longer." he said as more Spire Guard appeared.
"Eret, hurry up!" Astrid yelled as she continued to take out more guards.
"All right I'm nearly done." Eret said as I started to lose my strength.
"Come on Eret." I said.
"Almost there." Eret said as the Cullis Gate opened and more Spire Guards appeared. Toothless went into the gate first.
"Hiccup go now!" Eret yelled.
"Wait what about you guys?" I asked.
"Hiccup! Don't worry about us! Just go!" Astrid yelled.
"Hiccup go now we'll handle them and follow you!" Eret said. As much as I didn't want to I ran up to it and I used the Cullis Gate.
