The vanir was still battling against the Gothars and it looked as if neither side were giving an inch. Some of them tried to attack Cadman, but he merely cut one down and Toby swiped the other with his tail. They then moved out with Cadman riding on top of Toby's head.
"Together those two are a problem," Rachel noted.
"We have to find some way of separating them," Kaapo.
"Hey, I got an idea," said Genbo.
They nodded and followed his lead.
Cadman continued swatting vanir when suddenly here's an explosion above him, he looked up and saw that Genbo had fired on a tree which was falling towards him. He had no choice but jumped to safety and Toby when the opposite direction. A group of vanir then took the opportunity began firing at Toby without his master.
Cadman whistled telling him to return to him, but then he sensed a few vanir hiding within the bushes. "Three attackers."
He then quickly charged at them just as they jumped out from the bushes and then quickly cut them down with his sword. Rachel then began firing shots from her rifle, but when she moved to get a better angle Toby appeared out of nowhere and head-butted her. Cadman then caught her with his sword using it to snag the bag of vearth she had been carrying.
"Rachel!" Genbo cried.
"You look so sad dangling there while all your hope drains away," said Cadman as vearth pulled out of her bag. "Is that stuff really worth to die for?"
Rachel then activated her skates flipping herself around and then quickly aim it directly in his face. However, he anticipated this and moved it slightly with his hand causing her to miss. He then smiled pulling on the rifle, disarming and began removing his sword from its sheath.
"Rachel!" Kaapo yelled as he moved in towards her.
He grabbed her just as Cadman swung his blade missing her and striking him in the two of them then fell to the ground. Vanir then quickly fired their rifles at Cadman to give them covering fire.
"Kaapo you've got a move!"
"Thanks, I owe you one after that, Kaapo," Rachel groaned, but she then noticed that he was not moving and blood was over her hands. "Kaapo!"
A vanir then moved to inform Wyper of the situation.
"Wyper, Kaapo has taken a hit!"
"What happened?" Wyper asked.
Before he could answer, Toby then appeared out of nowhere hitting him with his paw and the giant mutt landed in front of Wyper.
"Damn," Wyper cursed. "So close to victory."
"But you never even had a chance," Cadman smiled. "When night falls we'll have an even greater advantage."
Wyper could tell that his people were worn out from all the fighting now one of his best fighters was injured. The fighting continued there would be even more casualties which meant he was left with no choice but to retreat.
"We're moving out!" he ordered. "Grab all of our wounded and meet back at the rendezvous point now!"
With that, they began retreating through the trees grabbing every one of their wounded.
"You're not getting away," said Cadman as he was about to chase after them.
"No, wait," said a voice behind him.
He turned around and saw Gable had landed behind him, clearly surviving Wyper's attack. "What is it?"
"We have been summoned by All-Father Enel," he said.
Cadman looked at him, this was rather surprising and despite how much he wanted the chase down the vanir, he couldn't ignore a summons from his master.
Hiccup and the others were busy setting up camp; Ragnar was making a stew and asked Toothless and Chopper to search for ingredients. They were making their way back when Chopper stopped suddenly.
"Why did you stop?" Toothless asked.
"All that racket seems to be getting farther and farther away," said Chopper.
"Well, maybe all those gorillas and Gothars decided to call it quits for the night," Toothless assumed. "Which sounds like the right idea. Let's go."
"Don't leave me behind!" Chopper yelled running after him.
Ragnar was already cooking up a stew with the ingredients he had and the twins were just watching the fire impatiently. So far, the only exciting thing was the lid moving from the pressure within the pot.
"Boring!" they yelled.
"No one told you to watch the boiling water," said Ragnar. "You to have one job and one job only, take the distilled water and fill up the canteens. We'll need fresh drinking water tomorrow."
"Whatever," Tuffnut grumbled.
"Why can't we get any cool assignments?" Ruffnut sighed.
"Ragnar we found tons of great stuff," said Chopper as he and Toothless returned with baskets of food.
"Excellent let's see what you've got," said Ragnar.
"We found walnuts, olives, bananas and garlic," said Chopper as he placed the basket on the table.
"Rats and frogs too," Toothless added presenting his catch.
"Nice it all goes in the pot," said Ragnar.
"That sounds disgusting," said Fishlegs looking up from his work. "You don't expect us to eat that mess, do you?"
Ragnar looked at him. "Fishlegs, do you really think I'll present you something that was totally inedible?"
"Okay, good point," said Fishlegs.
"You really should put more trust in cook," said Astrid as she and Heather returned holding a crystal.
"Indeed he only serves the best," Heather agreed.
"Is that some kind of gem it's huge?" Fishlegs asked.
"Huge yes, but it's not a gemstone," said Astrid.
"That's a big chunk of salt crystal, nice find guys," said Ragnar.
"We found it on the shore and we figured we would find some use for it," said Heather.
"You're right, without that my food will taste awful," Ragnar nodded.
Chopper began going through the basket of food. "If I take half of the garlic and olives I can make anti-septic and burn ointment and use it to heal the Sky Knight."
Ragnar then turned to Hiccup. "Hiccup whenever you're ready."
Hiccup was in his dragon form and was using his breath attack like a blowtorch against a large rock. Once it was hot, enough he transformed into his hybrid form and then picked up the burning rock.
"One smouldering rock just as you ordered," said Hiccup.
"Good job the part," said Ragnar.
Hiccup did what he was told and then Ragnar close the lid.
"Uh, are you making rock soup something?" Tuffnut asked.
"I'm using the rock to help the pot cook," Ragnar explained. "The rocks heat cooks the stew from the inside out, just trust me on this one you'll need all the nutrients in this dish to survive this place."
Toothless noted that they were missing one person in their little group and went out to search for Snotlout, who was by the shore.
"What are you doing Snotlout?" he asked. "Ragnar's almost got dinner laid out for us."
Snotlout was sitting by some driftwood and was removing his shoes. "Figured if I wasn't doing anything that I should start hauling this wood to the ship for repairs."
"So you can swim over there?" Toothless asked raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, not all was can fly like our captain," Snotlout pointed out.
"I know that, but I'm just asking if you have a problem with the giant sharks?" Toothless asked pointing towards the sky sharks swimming around the bay.
Snotlout blinked at them and then turned around. "The ship will still be broken tomorrow, I'll fix it then. Let's go and eat Toothless."
Toothless shook his head and picked up Snotlout's shoes. "Does he ever think ahead?"
Back at camp, Fishlegs had finally finished his research.
"Yes, done it," he said.
"Soups on," said Ragnar as he began pouring it into the plates. "If you would all take your seat I will give you your food momentarily. And need I don't want anything getting cold."
"And if you would listen out while you eat, I'm going to explain how are going to handle this tomorrow," said Fishlegs.
"Oow, it looks tasty," said Snotlout as he took his plate.
"You can say that again," Astrid smiled.
"Hey, this is important you guys," said Fishlegs.
"We're all ears, Fishlegs," said Hiccup.
"Let's begin by reviewing Noah's book, he discovered the city of gold 400 years ago," Fishlegs began. "However after leaving the island and returning with his king, he had found the gold ruins had vanished. Luckily, we now know what happened to these ruins. Instead of falling into the ocean as we thought, it was shot up here by the Knock Upstream just like we were."
"Do you really think the whole island could have done that?" Chopper asked.
"Well, it's the only thing that makes sense," said Fishlegs. "Remember Cricket said that every time this phenomenon recurs it's a different location."
"Yeah, that explosion was enormous I'm not surprised that it lifted an island," said Astrid.
"It's just hard to believe that the forest we're sitting in is the same one we saw back on Jaya," said Toothless as he looked up at the massive trees.
"I believe that has something to do with the odd composition of the island clouds up here," said Heather. "Look at all the trees, fish and wildlife something about this environment dramatically increases growth rates which could explain why society here could have been swallowed up here by these merging enforcers."
"I would explain why the South Birds that saved us was so huge, I couldn't believe it," said Chopper.
"Yeah, 400 years of growing would do that to a bird," said Toothless.
"But why would those South Birds go to such lengths to save you guys?" Ragnar asked as he sat down.
"Umm, I don't know, but when they saw him," said Chopper looking towards Gabriel. "They call the Sky Knight the All-Father."
Everyone's eyes widened as they turned towards Gabriel and none of them were aware that he was listening to their conversation.
"Well, one more question to ask him when he wakes up," said Hiccup.
"So is he the one that was supposed to beat up, because I'm confused?" said Tuffnut.
"Same here brother," said Ruffnut.
"You guys aren't beating anyone up, until we get an explanation," said Astrid strictly.
"Getting back on track, does anyone recall what Noah's logbook said about the city of gold?" Fishlegs asked.
"I think you wrote about South Birds and a giant gold bell, but of course there could be a lot more," said Ragnar.
"The last thing he wrote a logbook before he died was something odd, it's something I can't figure out even after seeing this island," said Heather. "It says that the 'city of gold is in the skulls right eye.'"
"That's it," said Fishlegs and then he began fiddling with the old map of Skypiea as well as the map of Jaya. "Look at this I much up Heather's map of Jaya with the old Skypiea map that we found in the shipwreck, of course, this isn't exact and there may be some incorrect overlap. But if you match up the location of Cricket's house with the broken part we found up here this is what Jaya looks like 400 years ago."
Everyone made their way towards him and saw when he faulted the two maps together they formed the shape of a skull.
"It's a skull," said Hiccup.
"Way to go, Fishlegs," Astrid smiled.
"We did it!" Chopper cheered.
"Okay, but wherein the skulls right eye?" Snotlout asked.
"I'm thinking right here," said Fishlegs pointing to a structure in the map of what should be the skulls right eye. "It's the one structure that's actually inside the eye and no one is founded yet because of all the people who tried, we are the ones who had both maps."
It was now nightfall and the vanir had all reached the rendezvous point and now we're tending to their wounded.
"Wyper," said Genbo as Wyper approached him.
"How serious are Kaapo's injuries?" he asked.
"Well, they're tending to him right now, he's back there," Genbo pointed.
"Is he going to make it?"
Genbo shrugged. "See for yourself."
"I didn't expect him to be defeated like that."
"What can we do, Cadman won't be easily beaten?"
"It's me," said Rachel ringing with guilt. "It was my fault; he's dying because of me."
Wyper then turned and looked at her.
Hiccup and finished eating and now cleaning things up.
"That was delicious," said Hiccup.
"And tomorrow we'll get the gold," said Chopper.
"You got it," Astrid smiled.
Hiccup towards the sky. "Guess the sunsets here just like it does in the Blue Sea."
"Obviously," Snotlout muttered.
"Let's put out the fires we don't need them, it's beginning to get late you guys," said Heather. "We don't want to announce our direction to our enemies."
"True, but the same time it's best to keep as many wild animals away from us as possible," said Ragnar. "Anyway, I'm willing to bet they only know where here."
"You do," Fishlegs gulped.
Astrid nodded. "If this guy is as half as powerful as I've heard, then I say that Ragnar was right."
"You mean we could be attacked at any time," Chopper panicked.
"Normally I would say that it was quite likely, but if the Gothars have been fighting those gorillas all day I imagine that their worn out and the more likely to conserve their energy for tomorrow," said Toothless.
"Those wild animals might be afraid of fire, but their surrounding us," Fishlegs noted.
Sure enough, they heard some monstrous growls and then stepping out of the trees was a wolf and began growling at them.
"Chopper I think it's trying to say something, care to translate?" Ragnar asked.
"'You jerks have been so loud that we can't even hunt, why don't you dumbass humans go to hell and sleep already,'" Chopper translated.
"How's a dumbass!" Snotlout yelled.
"Hey, don't kill the translator," Chopper quivered.
The wharf continued to growl and Chopper translated. "'You two legers had better not muzzle in and take what doesn't belong to you.'"
Chopper quickly looked at him. "No, we're not like that we were brought here against our will."
The wolf growled. "'This is our forest, you think you can just come here and start building fires!'"
"Sorry," said Chopper.
The wolf growled. "'Everything here belongs to us, the land, the trees and the air!'"
Astrid then suddenly punched the wolf right on its snout. "Stop being so greedy!"
The other wolves that had surrounded them began to growl fiercely.
"Great now we have a pack of angry wolves on our hands," said Snotlout.
Before the wolves pounced on them, the alpha roared and the immediately stopped in their tracks and Chopper translated.
"'Backdown boys, we may have the numbers but they have the raw power, it's not worth it,'" he said. He then rubbed his snout and looked at Astrid. "'Girl, you pack one mean punch there. Gotta say, you're my kind of angry.'"
"So that's what a happy ending looks like?" said Hiccup.
"I guess so," said Toothless.
"Then I say it's time to party!" Tuffnut yelled.
Everyone immediately cheered and the wolves howled in agreement.
Within moments they lit played a large fire and began dancing around it Snotlout, the twins and Chopper joined the wolves and began dancing rather enthusiastically.
"It's the festival of the night before gold hunting!" Snotlout yelled as he banged his hands on a makeshift drum.
"This is fantastic," said Astrid as she tasted some special kind of wind the wolves gave them. "You make this stuff, it's great!"
Toothless looked at the alpha and the toasted before drinking down the wine.
Heather merely laughed at the site; it wasn't every day that they parted with a bunch of wolves.
"Tomorrow we hunt for the treasure!" Tuffnut yelled.
"Tomorrow we get rich!" Snotlout yelled.
"To tomorrow!" Chopper cheered.
"I'm surprised you getting along so well with the cloud wolves," said a voice. They turned around and saw Gabriel approaching them giving them a small chuckle. "I know of no one else who could have such raucous festivities on Enel's land."
"It's good to see that your wake," said Heather. "Are you feeling any better?"
"I apologise for being such a burden, to you all," said Gabriel.
"It's the least we could do after you saved Chopper and stopped our ship from being blown to thousand pieces," said Hiccup.
"That is my duty," said Gabriel as he sat down.
"There's plenty of stew left, would you like some?" Ragnar asked.
"Thank you, no," he said. "Not right now."
Hiccup looked at him. "Is Arial okay?"
"Very much so, I shielded her and her father at my house, they're fine," Gabriel assured him.
"What a relief, I'm glad the both of them a safe," said Fishlegs.
Gabriel smiled as the party continued. "I'm sorry for eavesdropping, but I heard your earlier conversation about how this island was known long ago by the name of Jaya."
"Yeah, that's right," said Heather.
"But I believe you have yet to hear the story on how which this island we set came to be known as such holy ground," said Gabriel. "The ground of the Upper Yard must remind you Blue Sea people of your home far below, it is similar right?"
"It is," Hiccup nodded.
"Yes, you're lucky," he smiled as he grabbed a chunk of dirt. "What you see all around us and beneath our feet is something that does not naturally exist in the sky. Island cloud can support plant life, but it cannot generate its own. Greenery and soil are foreign things start life here. Our people have our own name for this it's vearth, those living among the clouds hold this sacred it's what they all desire."
Back at the Vanir camp, Wyper snatched the bag of dirt Rachel was carrying.
"Is this what was so distracting for you in battle Arial?" Wyper growled. "Are you here to sabotage as? Get in our way and slow us down?"
"No, I'm not," she said. "I feel awful for Kaapo."
"We were fighting the Gothars, we can't be affordably off task at all if we hope to reach All-Father's Shrine."
"Apologising won't fix anything, I know that!" Rachel snapped and then attempted snatched the bag back. "So give that back to me now it belongs to Aisa it's hers! I promise that I would bring back some vearth for her, give it back to me please!"
"Shut up!" Wyper snarled.
"You have to let me have it!" Rachel yelled.
Wyper then pulled back fiercely and was about to toss the bag away, but Kaapo then grabbed his arm before he could.
"Kaapo?" Rachel stared. "You should even be standing right now."
"I can still fight," he said. He then released Wyper's hand and the bag of dirt fell to the ground. "You're right about this being our best time to strike the Upper Yard. With Selhen gone, we proved today that we can defeat the remaining Gothars. I say we attack again tomorrow at first light."
Wyper had calmed down and Rachel was grasping hold of the bag of dirt.
"Once we kill Enel there will be no need for you to sneak around obsessing over a single bag of vearth," Kaapo said to Rachel. "The time is now, we will return after 400 years of exile to the true home of the vanir."
