Chapter Fourteen: Hunting for a Lynthear
Secluded places. Sounded simple enough. Hiccup and the other Riders had been to several secluded places before, both near and away from Berk. Hiccup also knew of several remote islands thanks to his flights around the archipelago with Toothless. The young viking smiled to himself. He knew exactly where he and the Riders would look. Hiccup pulled out his map and looked it over. He tapped a gray shaded island and patted Toothless' head.
"Turn here, Bud," said Hiccup. Toothless grumbled and turned to where Hiccup had directed. The other Riders followed.
"So where exactly are we going?" asked Astrid. The blonde girl flew beside Hiccup. "If we're going to actually search through every secluded island we know of, that's going to take some time."
"Actually, we're going to the most most secluded island," said Hiccup. Astrid blinked at him, bemused.
"Did Hiccup just say 'most most?'" asked Snotlout. "Isn't that, I dunno, improper grammar?"
"Wow, and Hiccup's usually the one correcting us when we mispronunciatate something," said Tuffnut.
"It's 'mispronunciate'," Hiccup corrected the male Thorston.
"See?!" said Tuffnut.
"Well, there is a first time for everything," Ruffnut said.
Hiccup shook his head. "Anyway, Toothless and I were on one of our flights testing dragonfly and—-"
"Dragonfly?" exclaimed Ruffnut. "You mean the flyable death wish?"
Hiccup deadpanned. "Yes, the flyable death wish."
"I thought you gave up on that thing when you nearly died testing it several times," said Tuffnut.
"It's perfectly safe," Hiccup said.
Ruffnut shook his head. "And that's what we said when Tuff and I said we should explode buildings that we don't use anymore back on Berk."
"That isn't safe!" said Astrid. "You two would explode the whole island if you had the chance!"
"Yeah, we would," cackled Tuffnut.
"You two scare me," said Snotlout.
"As I was saying," continued Hiccup, drawing them back to the original subject. "Toothless and I were testing dragonfly and we...landed on a deserted island way away from Berk. We explored it for a while, but it was completely empty except for some strange noises coming from a super dark cave."
"When you say 'landed', you mean crashed, right?" said Astrid with a raised eyebrow.
Hiccup scratched his head, a light blush creeping onto his face. "We didn't exactly crash as you say. More like...er...landed in a not so neat manner."
"That's literally the definition of crashing," said Snotlout.
"Oooooh, Hiccup's in trouble," said Ruffnut and Tuffnut in unison.
"I'm not in trouble!" said Hiccup. "I'm perfectly fine! I am alive and talking before you, aren't I?"
"Or maybe you're just Hiccup's ghost," said Tuffnut. "Tell our Uncle we said hi."
"Oh! And ask him what he did with his stuffed yak collection," said Ruffnut. "He had a rare one that I really wanted!"
Hiccup facepalmed. "I'm not a ghost."
"That's exactly what a ghost would say," said Tuffnut with a skeptical expression.
"So, we head to this super secluded island with creepy sounds, then?" asked Astrid.
Hiccup nodded. "Yep. We're not too far away. We should arrive there soon."
The Dragon Riders continued their way across the blue ocean. The skies were beginning to turn into pink and purple hues and Hiccup hoped that the sun would stay out long enough for them to take a look around the supposedly abandoned island. A dark, rocky looking island came into view, and Hiccup pointed straight ahead.
"There it is," said Hiccup. "We'll land and set up camp on the coast when we're done taking a look around."
The Dragon Riders nodded and landed on the rocky coast of the forsaken island. They dismounted their dragons and took a look around. A cold wind blew, bringing a chill into the air, and Hiccup felt as if something was watching them. The young viking stomped the feeling out and turned to the others.
"The cave is this way," said Hiccup. The Dragon Riders followed the chief's heir through a rocky terrain. Astrid looked around, a frown on her face.
"I don't like the looks of this place," said Astrid. "I'm not the only one who feels as if something is off, right?"
"I hafta agree with you, A," said Tuffnut. "This place is giving me the creeps...and I like it!"
"Me too!" said Ruffnut. "I haven't felt this jittery in ages!"
Astrid rolled her eyes. "You two are hopeless."
The Dragon Riders eventually came to a large, deep hole in the ground. Like Hiccup had said, it was extremely dark and even if the Riders squinted, they couldn't see anything at the bottom. Low, almost menacing-like sighs echoed across the walls and up to the entrance.
"I think only a few of us should go down," said Astrid. "We don't want to disturb whatever's down there."
Snotlout, Ruffnut, and Tuffnut pointed to Hiccup, Astrid, Toothless, and Stormfly.
"You guys should go," said Snotlout. "Not because I'm scared, but because you two are a couple, and couples should spend as much time as they can together."
Astrid narrowed her eyes at him. "Are you kidding me? You're such a muttonhead."
"I'd rather be a muttonhead than mutton for whatever dragon is down there!" said Snotlout. He backed away from the hole timorously and turned to Hookfang. "Come on, Hooky. We can go set up camp, start a nice fire, and have some bonding time. Man to dragon."
Hookfang didn't seem interested. The Monstrous Nightmare spotted a butterfly fluttering in the wind and began to chase after it, leaving Snotlout high and dry. The Jorgeson boy frowned.
"Or we can frolic and chase butterflies," he said. He chased after Hookfang, and shouted at him to come back. Ruffnut and Tuffnut turned back to Hiccup and Astrid.
"Uh...I guess we're going to go and join them, right sis?" said Tuffnut to Ruffnut.
"Hang out with Snotlout? No way," said Ruffnut. She turned to the Zippleback. "Come on Barf, we're going with Hiccup and Astrid."
Barf began to walk toward his Rider but Belch pulled away.
"Belch doesn't want to go down there, so we're going to leave and join Snotlout at the campfire," said Tuffnut in a heated tone.
Ruffnut shook her head. "No! We're going down there whether you like it or not!" And the twins got into a brawl. Hiccup and Astrid sighed.
"Let's go before they realize we're gone," said Hiccup. Astrid nodded and she, Hiccup, and their dragons leapt into the hole without hesitation.
…
The air was musty and smelled like old yak milk. Hiccup, Astrid and their dragons scrunched their noses. Toothless whined.
"I know, Bud, but we need to find that Lynthear," Hiccup said. He turned to Astrid. "Stay behind me."
Astrid pulled out her axe. "You know I'm not going to sit aside and watch you get hurt, right?"
Hiccup shook his head but smiled. "Fine. But be careful."
"You should be telling that to yourself," Astrid said. The small group began to walk blindly down the tunnel at first, but Stormfly and Toothless opened their mouths, a small fire glowed inside, providing enough light for them to see.
"Thanks, you two," said Hiccup. The four began to make their way through the dark, rocky tunnel. The air was tense. Several small noises made them jump. The creepy sighs were just up ahead.
"What do we do once we get there?" asked Astrid.
Hiccup shrugged. " How about we make it cry?"
"But then we'd have to hurt it or make it so angry that tears of frustration come out," said Astrid. "And I don't think we want to deal with an upset dragon right now."
Hiccup nodded. "You're right. We probably should've bought onions."
Astrid laughed lightly. "Yeah, then things would have been way easier."
The cave eventually opened to a large room. Three tunnels laid ahead of the ground of four. Hiccup looked down each one and listened carefully. The eerie sighs seemed to be coming from all three tunnels.
"Which way should we go?" asked Astrid.
"I really don't want to do this, but maybe we should split up," said Hiccup. He turned to Astrid. "We might find something faster."
The blonde nodded and gestured to Stormfly to follow her. The Nadder complied and walked behind Astrid toward the left tunnel.
"We'll go down this way," she said. "If we find anything, we'll dragon call as quietly as we can."
Hiccup nodded. "Good luck."
"You too," said Astrid. She patted her dragon's side and the two began to walk down the tunnel. Hiccup watched as the Deadly Nadder's orange fire walked down the tunnel walls, and eventually out of sight. Hiccup turned to Toothless.
"Which way should we go, Bud?" Hiccup asked the Night Fury. Toothless looked at the center tunnel and right tunnel, then moved his head toward the middle tunnel. Hiccup nodded and patted the dragon's scaly head.
"Down the middle tunnel we shall go," said Hiccup. Toothless took the lead to light the way and Hiccup followed beside him.
What they didn't notice were the large, dark shadows following them from behind.
