It seemed that luck was on their side. A fog had rolled in as soon as Hiccup, Astrid, and Arn had left atop Toothless and Stormfly, thus it would allow them to remain better unnoticed as long as they kept their distance.
Of course, rather than landing in the center of the crowded area where everyone would be able to see them, they landed at the end of one of the piers, thus they could tread and start out with better ease.
As Hiccup dismounted, he looked back at his friends and gave them a nod as he wrapped his brown fur cloak around himself. "Let's go slowly now. We can't draw too much attention."
Astrid and Arn nodded back at him, and the three vikings along with their two dragons made their way slowly down the pier. Glancing around however, they noticed quite the amount longships docked into the port. At least a dozen if not more.
"One of these ships must be Helgan's," said Arn. "But how are we going to notice her through this fog?"
"We'll just have to look around, of course without getting caught by any of Bjornar's spies," Astrid replied, glancing back at the crowds in the distance of whom were wandering around the docks, trading. "Maybe we should search one pier at a time. The more eyes we have, the better we can-"
"Or maybe she's right there?"
Hiccup spoke up as soon as he spotted a distant votun behind the counter of a set up tent, talking with one of the townsfolk. Astrid and Arn stared at the figure and noticed the clothing that they wore, and it matched Torstein's description. Leather gear, a red cloak, and a hood over their head. Judging by the shape of a figure, they could tell right away it was a woman.
"Are you certain that's her, Hiccup?" asked Astrid, to which the young chief nodded.
"It must be her," said Arn in agreement, looking back at Hiccup eagerly. "Should we go up to her?"
"Best we do," nodded Hiccup, spinning his head to face Toothless and Stormfly. "Bud, I want you and Stormfly to stay behind us. Keep your eyes watched for anything suspicious."
"All right," responded Toothless in Dragonese as Stormfly bowed her in a nod.
"Shall we get to it then?" the Nadder squawked.
The three vikings without another word began walking towards the half-giant merchant, all while Toothless and Stormfly kept behind them, just enough for no one to notice them. Making their way closer, they could overhear the female merchant talking with her patron.
"Now remember, here's what you need to do," said the merchant, speaking with a Nordic accent. "Next time you are cooking over your fire, put these herbs into the pot and it will make your food taste many times better. Don't use too much however, or else it might ruin whatever you are making."
The patron nodded happily. "I'll make sure to remember that. It was a pleasure doing business with you," he said as he placed a small satchel filled with silver on the merchant's counter, and the merchant eagerly accepted it.
"Same to you," she smiled, watching as the patron walked off cheerfully. Now that she was opened to talk with, the three vikings could get down to business.
Hiccup looked back at both Arn and Astrid, and they responded with agreeing nods. The three of them then proceeded to approach the female half-giant, and as they stood in front of her counter, she looked down at them with her brown eyes, giving off a curious smirk.
"Humans? I haven't seen your kind in these parts for a long while… you two don't seem to be part of the Alsworn tribe, yet your friend here seems to be-"
"We're allies," Hiccup assured her. "We come from another tribe, that's all."
"Hmph... Well, if you say so," the merchant chuckled. "Now then, what can I do for you?"
"We're looking for a woman by the name of Helgan," said Astrid, inspecting the votun from top to bottom. "We were wondering if… well- if you might be her."
The merchant's brows rose up in surprise, staring at the three young vikings with interest.
"Strangers, how do you know my name?" asked Helgan.
"Long story short, we had the opportunity to meet with your friend Torstein," immediately replied Hiccup. "He sent us to find you because he needs help with his farms. His crops are... well- failing."
Helgan's eyes slightly widened at the mention of this. For a moment she looked up from the three riders and glanced towards her right, gazing back at the crowds in the distance to see that no one was watching them, and to their luck, they were in the clear.
Her eyes fell back to the group. "We'll talk about this on my longship. Come," she said.
The votun merchant swiftly made her way out of her tent, heading towards the edge of the pier where her longship was docked near the tent. She jumped atop her boat, and with her hand she motioned for the young vikings to come aboard, and they did so as well, leaping over onto the vessel.
Upon boarding, Hiccup noticed how large the longship was. Of course it was votun sized, but it was also twice as large as a normal longship. To him, it was a bit intriguing, but not in his general interest.
Looking back towards Helgan, she gave them a nod. "Please, sit anywhere."
Hiccup, Astrid, and Arn sat themselves down on the deck of the ship along with Helgan as she leaned forward, giving them her full attention.
"So," she began. "Torstein sent you because his crops are failing… no doubt it's all thanks to that fool Bjornar?"
"Wait, you know about this?" asked Astrid, to which the woman nodded.
"Torstein and I are good friends - I've known about this for a while. But never would I think that things would become so desperate for him and his farmers. Their pockets must be running empty."
"His failing crops are one thing, but some of them are also starting to rot," replied Hiccup. "Torstein has almost nothing but worthless seeds in his storages, and if nothing is done soon, the Dragonskarn tribe may not be able to gather enough food in the future... Helgan, is there anything you can do?"
The merchant thought about it for a moment. She narrowed her eyes down to the deck and started to mumble quietly to herself. Although she had what Torstein needed, she knew the risk she was taking by partaking in this… yet at the same, it also did not matter. The commander of Lakestead was nothing but a corrupt fool to her. What was the point of being afraid?
After a moment of silence, she looked back up at them and slowly nodded. "There are sacks of crop seeds at the back of the ship. I purchased them a week ago, so they are fairly new. But you must not let anyone see you carrying them, do you hear me?"
"We understand the risks," replied Hiccup. "But fortunately, our dragons are with us, so we can simply fly out of town without being seen, especially with this fog."
Helgan rose a brow, looking around. "Dragons? Where are they?"
"Up on the pier," answered Astrid as she stood to her feet. "They shouldn't be noticed with this fog around us, but we'd better make this quick. If we're caught by Bjornar's spies, we'll be-"
"And what do you think you're doing!?"
The four of them were suddenly startled by a voice that spoke up; one that wasn't their own. Immediately Hiccup and Arn rose to their feet. They all turned around to look up at the pier next to the ship, and before them was a votun, armored in leather and black cloths, along with a hood over his head.
The votun spat on the deck of the dock beneath him, lowering his brows in a glare. "So, you've shown your true colors at last, Helgan! I've overheard everything you said, and you have the audacity to offer what our commander has outlawed!? You can't hide secrets as long as we are around!"
"What is it to you, spy!?" growled Astrid, now tempted to reach for her axe and hurl it at him.
The spy let out a wicked giggle, but then gave off a straight face. "What is it to me!? I work for Bjornar, little girl! And from what I remember, he told you to help out that old man out in the fields, not to do scummy work behind his back!"
"Scummy work!? We ARE helping him out! This is for the good of this town, you fool!" Hiccup growled in response. "Your commander sits back while the rest of the town does all of the work. If these seeds are not planted soon, this town will starve to-"
"So, you admit to helping her then!" gnarled the spy as he took a step back. "Commander Bjornar will know about this, and there's nothing you can do to- ARGH!"
A large arrow through his chest. That was all that was given as everyone turned their heads to see where it came from, and in her hands, Helgan held a votun-sized bow aimed directly at the spy. To that, he expresses wicked but surprised eyes.
"I've had about enough of you. Seriously, do you ever shut your mouth?" asked Helgan mockingly.
The spy choked on his words. "He… he will find out... about…"
Despite the effort, no other words escaped his mouth, and with that, he fell into the water in between the ship and pier.
Helgan looked back at the vikings, giving them a nod as she pointed towards the back deck of her longship. "Take what you need. I'll give them to you free of charge, but make it quick. You're not safe here."
"We won't forget this, Helgan," smiled Hiccup. "Thank you."
...
"As you can see, these rocks shouldn't be here," said Fishlegs to Torstein, pointing out large rocks beneath a hole that they dug in one of the fields. "So this is probably another reason why most of your crops are slowing down. Rocks can prevent plant roots from getting the water they need to grow, and they can even hinder the soil. I figure there are more rocks around here like these that haven't been dug up yet."
"I could have sworn that we dug every last one of those up years ago. And not only that, but I don't recall ever seeing green-like rocks in these fields…" replied Torstein, stroking his hand against his beard. "This can't be right. Why are they here?"
Fishlegs shrugged, narrowing his eyes up curiously. "I don't know…" he said, pausing for a moment before a smile suddenly met his face and grew. "But at least we'll be able to get this sorted, because it looks like luck is on our side. Look over there."
The Ingerman pointed his finger in the distance, and from above Torstein caught the familiar figures of two dragons flying in, carrying three figures, and at the sides of their saddles they hauled a total of twelve sacks of crop seeds. To this, the old foreman grinned.
As Toothless and Stormfly made their landing in front of Fishlegs and Torstein, Hiccup, Astrid, and Arn swiftly dismounted and proceeded to show and unload the sacks of seeds and grain to the foreman, placing them down one by one in front of him and presenting them to him.
"This is all our dragons could carry. It wasn't exactly easy considering the load," said Hiccup. "But they should be able to last for a couple of years. Though it's not much, it should be enough to start anew."
"I can't thank you enough, my friends," smiled Torstein as he knelt down towards one of the large sacks, opening it up and revealing the fresh seeds inside. "That'll show Bjornar not to mess with my farm."
"And speaking of your farm, did you guys by chance discover anything while we were away?" asked Astrid.
"There were half a dozen strange-looking rocks that we found beneath the soil," replied Fishlegs, pointing down towards the hole that they dug up. "Meatlug helped me dig this hole up, but at the moment she's… well- sleeping."
And indeed she was. Off to the side behind the Ingerman, the Gronckle laid down sleeping on her side, snoring quite loudly.
"And what have the others been doing?" questioned Arn with his arms crossed, but immediately his answer would be given as they heard the sounds of loud laughter and snickering from the Twins in the distance as they watched Barf and Belch run blindly in circles. It seemed they thought that it would be funny to place their helmets over their dragon's heads, and because of this, the Zippleback could not see anything, and began running around in confusion.
"Where is everyone!?" gargled Barf in Dragonese.
"I don't know! I can't see!" replied Belch.
Astrid gave a grunted sigh at the sight of this, as she muttered under her breath, "Muttonheads…"
Snotlout on the other hand was laying his back and head against his sleeping dragon Hookfang while writing through a small book of his that he strangely brought along, and to this, Hiccup gave a curious look. Usually Snotlout was not one for writing, and it was odd to see him scribing in what he assumed was perhaps a journal.
Regardless, he shook his head at the thought and turned back towards Fishlegs. "So these rocks," he began as he approached the hole along with Astrid; both pairs of eyes looking down it. "Why weren't they dug up? I mean- we all know how they can affect crops..."
"I don't know, but Torstein neither knows why they're here," shrugged Fishlegs. "And for some reason these rocks are… green, like emeralds - or at least that's what their tints show. Their surfaces are smooth, almost like crystals, but the middle of these minerals are black, a bit like obsidian. Whatever the case, I don't like the look of them one bit."
Astrid gave a nod in agreement. "They do look rather out of place if you ask me."
Though both Hiccup and Astrid questioned these rocks, the way that Fishlegs described the look of them made Arn curious. Clearly no rocks he knew were green, nor looked like that, so he knew that Torstein was not daydreaming nor wrong. Something was not right.
Approaching the hole, Arn took a glance at them for his own, and almost immediately a red flag hit him. The way the rocks were positioned appeared to be somewhat in a circle, and in the center was a rock larger than the rest of them.
"Hiccup," he said. "Have you ever seen rocks placed like this… naturally?"
"Now that you mention it, no- I haven't…"
That question sparked a red flag for Hiccup as well. When had he ever seen rocks in a hole that he dug up placed around like this-
...And then it hit him. What if the rocks were never there naturally? ...What if they were placed there?
His eyes, now a bit widened, turned back to Arn. "Mind giving that big one in the middle a poke with your sword- or rather a slash?"
The Alsworn viking gave a nod as he unsheathed his blade Runefang, and slowly leaned over the three-foot deep hole. His eyes fixated on the large rock in the center, and as instructed, he raised his sword up, and with a quick but firm slash, brought it down upon the small boulder, and what followed was unexpected.
The impact that Runefang left caused a crack in the mineral, and for a moment it glowed green. Arn immediately knew that was a bad sign, and as he backed away, green liquid sprayed up from the crack - nearly getting in his eyes.
"COVER YOUR FACES!"
Instantly, the five of them placed their palms over their mouths and noses as they shut their eyes, making sure that they did not inhale the liquid nor get it into their eyes, and as soon as it dissolved, everyone looked back at the 'rocks' in concern…
"What… was that?" asked Hiccup.
"Our problems may have escalated," replied Arn. "Those, are not rocks. Those are chaos crystals. I know this because I remember the elven king of Nordell, Elendar, once studied these crystals. He told me that they were made by orc warlocks, used for a variety of spells involving different forms of chaos energy... That liquid was chaos magic in the form poison."
"Poison!?" exclaimed Hiccup, Astrid, and Fishlegs in unison.
Torstein's eyes widened in anger. "Are you telling me… that my farms have been poisoned!?"
"It's why most of your seeds are dying," answered Arn as he shook his head. "Last time I saw chaos crystals, they had a higher dosage of magic than this, and they were more green. However, I think we may have a possibility as to why these crystals are here."
"There's a traitor among us…"