CHAPTER 8: At the top
The platform ascended up and up. Eventually, after about ten minutes of it being pulled up, it finally reached the top of the island. Michael was still stood in the middle staring down at the wooden platform, the four girls in Hannah, Laura, Lisa and Sarah were all still frantically moving and screaming, but not quite as loudly as before.
"If you could all stay still now, we're about to arrive to the top," the main viking said.
"Thank god," Michael whispered.
If any of them were to look down they'd see that the ocean had shrunk in its entirety, and that they were basically standing shoulder to shoulder with the peak of New Berk's height, on this side of the island at least. With their weight feeling light throughout the platform's ascension it felt like gravity had completely stopped for the duration of it.
The wind was noticeably stronger this high up, and every now and then some of the clouds would congregate amongst the group. The whole environment when the clouds emerged resembled the whiteness of winter, and it was like their surroundings had undergone a transformation entirely. The clouds were quite thick as well so they really did block off the distant and lower down ocean when it happened.
Finally, the platform came to a stop. In front of everyone on the platform now was a huge wooden pole that was built within a thicker wooden foundation. This was what held the platform all the way to the bottom and generally what held the stability of the contraption. The ground of New Berk from this side was pure rock, and a few minutes before they reached the top the entirety of New Berk's structure was nothing more than gigantic, enormous rock pillars that had a boring grey to them. So it was no surprise that this part of the island had rocky grounds.
"Carefully hop on off folks, we're now at the top," the main viking said, being the first to hop on off the platform onto the solid surface of New Berk.
Michael was the first to walk off as the other vikings on the platform did. The four girls then followed. The relief in Michael was huge. He felt safe once again, as did the four girls, but not to the extent Michael did. As everyone hopped off the platform and onto the solid structure of New Berk the main viking walked on over to a couple of other vikings who were pulling the lever to bring the platform up. They were the ones who were watching through telescopes before when the group had arrived here on the boat.
"Thanks men, you've done us a good job here," the main viking said to them, patting them on the shoulder.
"All in a day's work for us vikings," one of them replied, "but my palm is absolutely killing me, I need a rest."
The main viking turned his focus back to the group. Right away he was keen to assert his authority.
"Alright you five, we need to form a single file line over here," he pointed to where the forests began beyond this rocky edge of the island, "preferably you should all line up with your partners, but Michael, because you don't have one, you can stand in the middle."
The four girls were still uneasy. But nonetheless they obliged. Michael too nodded at the command. As he thought back on the boat; following the rules keeps you out of harms way. They struggled and rushed amongst one another to stand with their backs facing the entrance into the forests that probably led to the villages of New Berk. Their shoes had grey looking dust on them from the rocky surface they were stood on.
Despite the fact they had been elevated just now on that wooden platform contraption, they felt their weight again, and it felt like gravity had returned. But a couple of the girls had felt a tad light headed from it. Michael, because he didn't at all look out or panic, felt totally unaffected by it.
The other vikings who had accompanied the five fans stood amongst each other in front of the single file line of Michael, Hannah, Sarah, Lisa and Laura. They were stood amongst the main viking in front of the five.
The sun was setting and the sky was orange in the corner where the sun was, meaning it was very close to night time.
"Right, I'd like to introduce you all to yet another group of ours," the main viking uttered, pointing towards the vicinity of forest that had surrounded them. Emerging from it were precisely ten other vikings, and these vikings looked a lot more bigger and stronger than the ones who had just accompanied the five fans on the boat, "we're, alongside these guys, gonna escort you five to the village we've set up for you all for the seven day stay."
Michael glared at the ten vikings and tried to see if any of them looked at him, so he could give off a nod towards them as a form of greeting to build a rapport with them. But none of them did look, unfortunately.
The four girls, particularly Hannah, had heart beats that emitted aches of a worrying nature, they felt anxious.
"I should probably introduce myself as well since you're gonna be seeing me every day," the main viking said, "call me Harner, my full title is actually Harner the Hasty, because I like to be organised and prepared on the fly, with no obstacles. It's my reputation around here. For what it's worth, my surname is Halsome, so if you wanna refer to me by that, you're welcome to do so."
Michael nodded, as did the four girls, but unlike Michael, the four girls nodded slowly to the point they were conveying their feelings from their sheer physical movements, and not in a good way.
Michael thought Harner was a cool sounding name. It definitely sounded like a viking's name, as well as the full title.
"Before we head off I just need you all to do two things for me," Harner said, his voice echoing loudly into the forests to the left and right of everyone, "firstly, be considerate of the fact we are now on the same territory as our dragons. You all know what I expect of you on that basis, do not walk up to, interact, or engage with the reptiles for the reasons provided on the boat. It's what Hiccup told us to do and I'm inclined to enforce it."
"Be respectful if there ever comes a point where we have to walk past any dragon. They don't know who you all are, they'll never have seen people like you, and as used to humans and as intelligent as they are, we don't know how they'll react. You can be excited at seeing them, that's human nature of course, but we draw the line on being disruptive around them and engaging with them."
"Number two, as I said on the boat, I don't want to have to catch anyone wandering off on their own. The reason why we've gotten these ten extra guys here is to ensure that nobody wanders off. This trip and journey you all wanted is going to be the biggest fun that'll exceed your expectations, but with that, there comes rules, and the rule is that under no circumstance, without a viking with you, can you walk off into the main village or around our island. You'll be accompanied by me or anyone sent by Hiccup to oversee the tour of the island at all times, and there's no question to it. It's to keep you all safe and ourselves safe."
Harner had concluded. Before they set off on the path through the forest to the fenced off village though, he was keen to answer any questions any of the five fans had.
"Do you have any questions before we set off?" Harner asked.
"Yeah, I do," Michael said, being the only one out of the five to not be uncomfortable or hesitant, even though he was proper mad secretly that he wouldn't be allowed to engage and meet with the vikings and dragons, "what's like the plan for the next week, like?"
"Ohh, good question Michael. I can only tell you what we're doing tomorrow. Tomorrow morning we'll be up early and we'll be heading off to our village's main hall for your breakfast, this will be so we're there before anyone else wakes up. Afterwards, tomorrow is going to basically consist of us showing you around our island, our many statues, and so on. We'll take it from there. Anymore questions?" Harner asked.
There was no more questions to be asked. Michael was hoping, in light of the reality that they wouldn't be allowed to meet the dragons or vikings, this whole tour of his favourite movie franchise wasn't going to be a complete and utter borefest.
"Alright, we'll head on out to the village then. OH, before we get going, there's one more thing I need to say..." Harner said, "some of our dragons have babies, so if there ever comes a point at which we walk past them or make sight of them, make sure you keep your distance and stay put with us, and do what I said above, not being disruptive and so on. Female dragons with babies are more likely to get aggressive with a bunch of strangers they don't know if they're around their babies."
Harner, after that, had gestured for the five to begin walking, as suddenly, the ten vikings had formed their own sort of circle around the five fans as they started walking.
The whole vicinity sounded like the inside of a hall as they began walking, where voices were being echoed left right and centre from everyone talking to each other at once. The skies were darkening, and the scent of nature became prominent to everyone as they walked into the forest.
"I...I don't like it," Hannah said, slowly nudging Michael, "I wanna go home."
Michael quickly looked back at Hannah.
"I dunno, it might not be that bad to be honest, I'm gutted myself but it is what it is ain't it?" he said, trying to make a reasonable case.
"No Michael, the whole point of us coming here was to meet our favourite characters and dragons, not to be dictated to in a fashion where we can't even walk off on our own. We're not in school, we're all adults. For some reason as well though he, Harner, whatever his name is, comes across as kinda passive aggressive and that scares me. We're four women surrounded by big viking men, you can understand how we feel. You're a man yourself, it's easier for you."
Michael shrugged
"Honestly, you don't need to feel that way. I might feel a bit more relaxed but I'm just as annoyed as you four are at all of this. Gender literally doesn't even come into it, and it doesn't need to," Michael said.
Michael then tried to look at the positive side, in a bid to try and reassure not just Hannah but the other three girls.
"We'll get through it, at least we're here still though?" he assured Hannah.
The bottom line was that Michael himself was happy to be here, it still felt surreal and dream-like to be here for real, so he was more than willing to tolerate whatever harsh restrictions were put upon him and the other four. What disheartened him though was Harner's description of the dragons just now as defensive, aggressive if they see strangers, so on.
From the movies, Michael knew very well that the dragons were not what they were made out to be by Harner just now at all. It disheartened him because he knew it just wasn't true. Maybe though the dragons are much different to how they were in the movies?
In any case, the tour was now on. Surrounded by dozens of vikings who were guarding them like celebrities, the five fans were being taken to their fenced off villages for the night, and tomorrow was going to be the first official day of the tour of New Berk. The contrast of mood amongst the fans here couldn't have been bigger to what it was when they initially set sail for the island.