Chapter 5: The Plan
The night fell quickly, just like most winter nights did. Funny thing is, it wasn't even winter yet. It was late autumn at best, but the problem with living in the far north is that winter seemed to be ever present. Daylight became a precious commodity as winter drew nearer. With darkness falling over the land, most people would have been wrapped up in their cosy homes, sitting in front of a crackling fire and preparing to turn in for the night.
Not Jerrick. He was dressed in warm clothing, preparing to head out. Although the warm fire and mattress practically pulled him into the hut with invisible strings, he had to go and see his friends. The guest hut Jerrick had been given was situated on the far side of the village. It was one of the furthest huts from the Great Hall, but the good thing about the hut was its proximity to the arena. Being near the arena meant that he would be near to where the dragon riders trained.
Jerrick opened the door, and immediately the cold air stung his face, forcing an involuntary shiver out of his body. If it was this cold, how were his friends surviving in the open? He filled a few flasks with hot water from the kettle. Warm food would have been better, but he didn't have any on hand and he didn't feel like explaining himself if he went into the Great Hall to get the leftovers. The food there wasn't the best, anyway. Jerrick suddenly realised that he was just convincing himself that they wouldn't want the food. What kind of a friend was he? Of course they would want warm food. Besides, he could always say that he was hungry from his shipwrecking ordeal. He grabbed his bag and headed into the frigid cold.
As he walked, his mind wandered back to the two meals he had in the Great Hall. He had attached himself to Hiccup the whole time. If anyone had asked, he would have said that he didn't know anyone besides Hiccup and his friends. The friends with names that could easily pass off as the worst names in the world. There should be a record for these kinds of things. Either way, weird names or not, staying close to Hiccup gave him a lot of insight. For one, he learnt that Toothless was really tame. When he first walked into the hall, to say that he was scared to see a Night Fury in the hall was an understatement. He simply froze at the entrance, none of his limbs responded to anything his brain was telling them. The fear in him was primal, as though a large venomous snake had suddenly appeared in his lap. There was nothing he could do to avoid it. The people in the hall probably started to freeze from the cold air coming into the hall, because Hiccup quickly came to him and reassured him that the dragon was friendly - after closing the door. Jerrick was shaking as he slowly approached the dragon, but nonetheless, with Hiccup's soothing reassurance and through his own determination, he placed a hand on Toothless' snout. The feeling of the rough, scaly snout under his hand was surreal. Never in his lifetime did he imagine coming face to face with the most feared dragon in history, much less touching it. He didn't want to push it though. Toothless, as friendly as he was, was still a dragon. He didn't want to risk losing a limb or two, so he kept his distance from the sleek, black dragon. He wouldn't say that he was friends with Toothless, but the pair mutually accepted each other. Toothless probably sensed his fear too. Whether a dragon could actually smell fear he didn't know. How a dragon worked or even the basic characteristics of the dragons was never something he took an interest in. He'd rather steer clear of them altogether.
Jerrick also learnt that the twins leaked information faster than a barrel with a gaping hole in the side could leak water. For the twins, every conversation seemed to somehow drift towards the 'operation', as they called it. Jerrick noticed that Hiccup would always kill any conversation of that topic as fast as possible. Prying when Hiccup was around would never be an option. He was too smart. That's another thing that Jerrick learnt. He wouldn't be able to pry if Hiccup - or even Astrid for that matter - was around. If he wanted to pry, he had to find some time to spend with the twins. That wouldn't be too hard to do. They seemed to have a knack for causing some mischief, and all he had to do was reciprocate their feelings.
Jerrick took the stairs to the Great Hall two at a time. The tall pillars stood tall and looming over him, as though reminding him how small he was. At this point of time, getting warm food for his friends was his priority. Would there even be food? It was quite late, after all. No harm trying. Jerrick pushed open the large doors and entered the hall. Immediately the warm air rushed out and warmed his frozen face. After walking through the freezing cold, the warmth of the Great Hall was so inviting.
But the stares he was getting from Hiccup and his friends were not.
Hiccup was simply looking at him with a bewildered expression on his face. He had a small stick in his left hand, and the others were seated in a semicircle around him. There was a board behind him, and on it was a map of a place that Jerrick couldn't identify. The map had many red markings on it. Arrows, dashes, circles and lines, and all sorts of symbols that probably made sense to the riders. It took a while for it to dawn on Jerrick that he probably interrupted a briefing or a lecture. Before he could pull his eyes away though, Astrid stood up and grabbed her axe.
"What are you doing here?" Her voice dripped with icy coldness. It hinted that he shouldn't be here - scratch that, it told him without any doubt that he shouldn't be here. Her ferocious glare and the axe in her hand didn't help the cause. Jerrick found himself unable to respond. He felt his eyes widen at the sight of the axe, his jaw hung loosely.
Hiccup must have noticed his fear, because he stood up and whispered something to Astrid. She gave Hiccup a glare that should have killed him if looks could kill, but ultimately she sat back down. The moment she sat down though, Jerrick saw her eyes lock back onto him, as though warning and threatening him against trying anything. Hiccup didn't seem all that bad now. Maybe Astrid was the murderer.
"Don't worry Jerrick, we won't kill you," Hiccup said, chuckling and smiling awkwardly at his attempt at a joke. He scratched the back of his head with his hand. Jerrick doubted that statement very much, but he heaved a sigh of relief nonetheless. Hiccup sighed, probably because no one found his joke funny, Jerrick thought. "What are you doing here at this time?" Hiccup asked.
"I was searching for some food," Jerrick answered. That much was true. He didn't need to say who it was for.
"There's some at the back of the hall," Hiccup said. "Some people are already packing it up so you better hurry."
Jerrick made to leave, but he stopped. This would be a good chance to pry a little. No need to go into details, but just to have a general gist of what they were planning. He turned back to face them. "Are you sure I can go to the back? Am I interrupting something?"
"Not-" Hiccup began, but the twins interrupted him.
"You're interrupting the greatest destruction plan of all time!" The male twin said. Tuff was his name, if Jerrick remembered correctly.
"Yeah!" The female twin - Ruff - said.
"How dare you interrupt this mighty destruction?" Tuff stood up and placed his hands on his hips. If he was really angry, Jerrick couldn't tell.
"This awesome catastrophe!" Ruff waved her arms around to emphasise her point.
"This grand explosion!" Tuff did the exact same thing as his sister.
"This-" Ruff was cut off by the short Viking, Snotlout.
"I think we get the point, muttonheads," he said dryly. "Is this a good enough reason to throw these two idiots out, Hiccup?"
"We're not throwing anyone out, Snotlout." Hiccup pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Fine." Snotlout crossed his arms. "But if this goes wrong, you know who to blame. And it's definitely not me!" He pointed a finger at Hiccup. Hiccup sighed.
"What are you planning on blowing up?" Jerrick feigned a shocked look. It seemed to work. Hiccup's exasperated look softened.
"We're not blowing anything, or anyone, up," Hiccup said.
"That was so not the plan," Tuff sighed.
"Actually it was," the largest Viking, Fishlegs, remarked in a soft voice. "Hiccup didn't plan any explosions. It was the two of you who planned to explode the whole place. We're not using all that Zippleback gas for a large explosion." Another leaky barrel, Jerrick thought. Maybe Fishlegs could be useful too.
"We'll do it sis," Tuff said softly to Ruff, almost as though he was consoling himself. "We don't need their approval."
"And that's why any plan Hiccup makes always fails," Snotlout remarked while waving his hands in the air.
"It doesn't always fail…" Hiccup protested, but his voice trailed off. He probably remembered that Jerrick was still standing there. Suddenly Jerrick felt very isolated and alone. The urge to see his friends became even stronger all of a sudden. But he didn't want to go to them empty-handed. Whether it meant going with food or going with information… he had yet to decide. But he had to make a decision right now.
"What plans?" Jerrick asked. He felt one of the riders shoot him a glare. He took a brief glance at all the riders, but none were glaring at him. He shrugged it off. Weird feelings weren't uncommon ever since he reached Berk.
"It's nothing," Hiccup shrugged it off. "Just a couple of adventures that we had together."
"Where did you go?" Jerrick asked.
"Nowhere in particular," Astrid interrupted. It seemed that every time she talked, everything in the path of her voice would turn to ice. People could probably pluck icicles off her voice if they tried hard enough. "Didn't you come to collect some food?"
"Yeah," Jerrick said. "Where can I find some again?"
"At the back of the hall." Astrid pointed towards the other end of the hall. Her actions made it very clear that he was overstaying his welcome. Jerrick began to walk towards the other side of the hall, deliberately cutting through the middle of their meeting. He glanced at Hiccup as he passed him. Jerrick thought he must've been dreaming, because the way Hiccup looked at him Jerrick could almost imagine that Hiccup pitied him because of the way Astrid was treating him. If he were Hiccup he would pity himself too. Then again, did Hiccup really pity him? Maybe he thought too much about his facial expressions. He was a terrorist after all. Masking emotions and displaying fake ones shouldn't be a problem.
He finally reached the end of the Great Hall where a few women were scooping the leftover food into barrels. Politely, he asked them if he could have some. They obliged. The savoury smell of the warm goat stew tickled his nostrils as he scooped some of it into a few waterproof satchels. He smiled. His friends were definitely going to be delighted to have warm food. And warm food wasn't the only thing he was bringing to them. A plethora of information was coming their way, and it was all thanks to Jerrick.
Little did Hiccup know, but as Jerrick was listening to the riders talk about random things, he was memorizing every detail on the map. All the red markings, all the arrows, every single detail went into his memory. All he had to do was rush back to his guest hut and write down everything he had memorized.
Jerrick filled the last satchel and began to head back to the guest hut. He decided to take a back entrance so he didn't need to see the living incarnation of a female ice demon again. Silently, he began the frigid walk back to his hut.
XX
"You found the plan?" Kari asked. He couldn't see her eyebrows raise in the darkness of the night, but he knew her well enough to know that it was happening right now.
"Yeah," Jerrick said. He laid out the crudely recreated map that he drew. He squinted his eyes, but he couldn't see anything in the dim moonlight. Dustin went over to the caged Terror and pulled its tail. Just as they were taught, the dragon let out a small glow. Bright enough to see the map, but dim enough to be spotted from a distance away. At least, Jerrick hoped that the light was dim enough. He didn't want their makeshift campsite to be discovered. That would be bad.
The map was now illuminated enough to be seen. The five of them poured over the map. Jerrick found it quite an amusing sight, five teenagers on their hands and knees, hunched over a small, crudely drawn and completely not to scale map. Jerrick could see Corey's analytical mind began to work immediately. His head tilted as he looked at the map from a different angle, and his eyes squinted and his eyebrows furrowed as he absorbed and processed the information the map held. To be fair, the plan on the map was quite a unique one. He had seen enough battle plans to understand the basics, courtesy of his father. Generally, arrows would be used to indicate the direction of attack, while other weird symbols that Jerrick couldn't remember off the top of his head would mean other things, such as places to keep watch or protect.
In this case though, there weren't any of these symbols. Information could only be extracted from the arrows, dashes, and circles on the map, and these were quite confusing. The map had a large circular area in the centre, and four straight paths led out of this circular area. Jerrick remembered that Fishlegs said something about tunnels. The centre portion must be a chamber, and the four paths had to be tunnels that led out of the chamber. There were four arrows on the map, one for each tunnel. Oddly enough, the arrows were pointing out of the chamber. It didn't make sense to attack from inside the chamber, unless there was a hole they could enter from. Even so, diving head first into a hole without any information of what was inside was a stupid move, whether they had dragons or not. Besides the arrows, there were dashes across two of the exits, as though those exits were blocked. There were two lines leading into these two exits. One of these lines was curved, and the other was straight. It was probably some entry or exit route, but what relation did the dashes or arrows have to these lines? There were circles on the ends of the two tunnels that didn't have dashes drawn against them. Once again, Jerrick found himself unable to determine what these circles meant. It could mean anything. Was it where they planned to fight? Was it a warning not to enter through that route? Jerrick hoped Corey would be able to do a better job than him. He looked at Corey expectantly, but expectations don't always match reality.
"There isn't enough information on this map," Corey said. "I can't tell what their plan is from this map alone."
"What else do you need?" Jerrick whined. He had expected this conclusion, but to hear it out loud was a different thing. Going back and interacting with Hiccup was the last thing he wanted. Doing it for one day was tiring enough. How much longer did he need to keep it up?
"I don't know," Corey said. Very unhelpfully, Jerrick thought. "Anything can help though. Did you hear anything by chance?"
"They mentioned something about tunnels and explosions…" Jerrick said. He realised that in his hurry to pass Corey the map he forgot to mention this. Corey returned to the map. His eyes narrowed again, trying to make sense of the new information. But it didn't seem to help. Corey's shoulders slumped.
"Doesn't help that much," he admitted. "If anything, it makes it worse. There aren't any explosion symbols."
"What would help?" Jerrick whined. Corey shrugged his shoulders.
"I can't say for certain," he said. "A lot of things would help, but at the same time a lot of things wouldn't."
"Thanks." Jerrick rolled his eyes. The darkness of the night probably prevented them from seeing him do so.
"Just get whatever information you can get," Corey said. "It might help in the long run. Be quick though, if they have a map with sketches on it, it probably means that they would strike soon." Jerrick pursed his lips and looked away. He knew what was in store for him. More interactions with Hiccup and his idiots.
"Thanks for the food," Dustin said happily.
"Yeah, whatever," Jerrick said dismissively.
"Hey, be glad you have a hut to stay in and warm food to eat," Helka chided.
"Believe you me, I would rather be here in the cold with you guys than in the warm hut with them," Jerrick said darkly. He stood up and sulked off a short distance away from the rest. Sitting down, he leaned back on his palms and looked up into the sky. The Terrible Terror had stopped illuminating the area, leaving the moon as the only source of light. The branches cut off most of the light from reaching the forest floor, creating patches of darkness that seemed to close in on him. The tall trees in the night sky stood menacingly overhead, squeezing the life out of him. The leaves seemed to sap the strength out of him, which gave them energy to sway freely in the wind. As the wind blew, he smelled the familiar scent of lavender around him, and immediately Jerrick knew that Kari had come to sit beside him. She sat directly beside him, with their shoulders touching. The two of them sat in silence for a while.
"Are you okay?" Kari asked at last. Jerrick sighed.
"Yeah, I'm fine," he lied. It probably wasn't the most convincing lie, because he could feel Kari's eyes press into his soul. An awkward silence ensued, and Jerrick knew that the only way it will end is if he talked. Dipping his head, he sighed again.
"Okay, maybe I'm not fine now. Don't worry about me though, I'll be okay." Kari looked forward.
"I can't simply stop worrying about you," she said softly. "You haven't been yourself ever since we met Scarface."
"Yeah, I was just told who my father's killer was, and given a chance to hunt him down. That should cause a lot of people to change." Jerrick said sarcastically. He suddenly realised that was exactly what Kari was talking about. Jerrick turned to look at Kari. "I haven't changed that much, right?"
Kari's green eyes met his. "Well, you haven't been your usual cheery self. Ever since that day you've been all business and no games or chit-chat."
"I don't want to chit-chat," Jerrick hissed. He immediately knew that sentence came out wrong when he noticed Kari dipped her head. Another awkward silence began. Jerrick knew he should say something, but what could he say? He dared a glance at Kari. She was looking up into the sky, a look of worry and thoughtfulness etched on her face. Sighing, he turned and enveloped her hand in his.
"I'm sorry, Kari. I didn't mean it that way. I would love to sit and talk and hang out with all of you, but I've a lot on my mind. Talking to Hiccup while resisting the urge to drive a knife into his eye is taking a lot out of me." Jerrick chuckled a little. The thoughtful look on her face stayed, but it softened a little. Her brown hair twirled magnificently against the moonlight as she shook her head.
"I can't imagine what it's like having to be near and interact with someone who hurt you so much," she began. "I won't know how you feel. But know that we're always here for you, Jerrick. We'll always be here to help you." She smiled, and for a brief moment the moonlight illuminated her warm, forest green eyes. They sparkled like a beautiful emerald in the bright moonlight.
"Thanks, Kari," Jerrick said. She retracted her hand, and immediately Jerrick missed the warmth that her hand brought. The moon continued to shine brightly in the night sky, creating bright patches among the darkened shadows. They were sitting in a bright patch, bathed in the warm glow of the moonlight.
Suddenly Jerrick stilled unnaturally. Kari shot him a worried look.
"What is it?" Kari asked.
"Worm," Jerrick said suddenly, pointing at Kari's leg. Her head jerked down to where he was pointing and she began to shake her leg rapidly, muffling a scream at the same time. It took her a few seconds to hear Jerrick's stifled laughter, and Jerrick saw annoyance flash across her face before a smile appeared on her face.
"Demon child," she said. Jerrick couldn't help himself anymore. He broke out in laughter. Kari jabbed a finger between his ribs, and if she thought it was going to stop the laughter, boy, was she wrong.
"You should've seen the look on your face," Jerrick said between fits of laughter. He felt the jabs on his ribs continue. He grabbed her hand just as another jab was about to prod his ribs, and quickly grabbed the other one too before she could attack again.
"Let go!" Kari squealed.
"Not unless you stop tickling me," Jerrick responded. Kari tried yanking her hands back, but Jerrick held firm. The warmth from her soft hands felt nice against his freezing hands. Finally, Kari stopped struggling.
"Fine, you win, now give me back my hands." Jerrick released her hands. She jabbed him once more in the ribs for good measure, earning an indignant cry from Jerrick. They continued to sit beside each other for a while in a silence that was comfortable and relaxing. But all good things must come to an end, and Jerrick knew that all too well. It was getting late.
"I should head back," he said sadly. Kari glanced at the sky, and nodded her head. She turned to look into his eyes, her emerald eyes sparkling in the bright moonlight.
"Take care, Jerrick," she said. Jerrick smiled.
"I will."
"We're always here if you need anything." They stood up. Kari gave him one more smile. They continued to stand there facing each other, both sides expecting something else that would give them an excuse to stay a little longer.
Suddenly, Kari leaned forward, and kissed Jerrick on the cheek. He felt her soft lips linger there for a moment. Jerrick didn't react as Kari pulled back. She seemed just as stunned as him, and all Jerrick did as she turned and ran back to the campsite was stand there dumbly.
