Chapter 20

In order to avoid running into any of Sage's ships, Doctor Spencer had advised the Star Runner to sail around the northern side of Java and up past Singapore before going on to the Nicobar Islands. Waiting for them in Galathea Bay was an odd looking sea tug; almost 90 meters long, and with a bow shaped like a puffin's beak.

"It's the Striker!" Reed Branson exclaimed.

The last time he had seen the sixty year old boat, she was in a sorry state of repair. The Striker was the biggest of the tug boats in Branson's refugee fleet back when they had arrived at the West Sumatra Railgun Complex. Its job had been to tow one of the larger vessels containing the fleet's portable bio-oil refinery but now, towering over the rear cargo platform, a massive bridge crane stood over a metal cradle.

"I like what they've done to it" Reed said to Emerson "But what is that on the rear deck?"

"Something they were working on when we left Sumatra to come and get you" Emerson replied "It's a cradle for the Star Runner."

"Clever... so now we head off to find the One and All as a single unit" Branson smiled.

"A bit safer and more comfortable as we cross the globe" Emerson agreed "The last message from you old ship said they were headed in the general direction of Portugal; so as soon as we're on board the Striker, we'll be on our way."

With his strength slowly returning, the memories of being Sage's prisoner gradually fading, and a new voyage ahead of him, Reed Branson finally began to feel like his old self again.

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After they first arrived back on Earth, April Dias did her best to keep Saffron close by her side, but it soon became clear it would be both impossible and unfair. The Railgun Complex and all the surrounding areas were now populated with many families and Saffron loved to spend much of her time with kids close to her own age. They would play together, eat together and learn together; except when the children were being taught about what they would encounter when living in space. As someone who had been born on a planet with a hostile atmosphere, and had also travelled extensively through space already, Saffron had decided to skip those lessons and do other things instead; like exploring.

On one of these expeditions, Saffron decided to see where her brother used to live and after making some enquiries, she was surprised to find out he had not been residing inside the Railgun Complex, but had moved into a cabin on the massive tanker ship beached many kilometres away. And so without telling her mother, who was sure to say no, Saffron hitched a ride to the coast on one of the trucks ferrying equipment back to the complex. Upon arriving, she had no trouble obtaining assistance from the people there and was soon climbing the internal stairs of the stern superstructure.

The door to Blue's cabin was shut but not locked and she was soon taking in the rather small surroundings.

"Ships... in space or at sea, they're all the same; cramped" she smiled to herself.

Climbing onto the chair next to the only window, Saffron finally got an idea of how high she really was. The view down the coast of West Sumatra was truly beautiful and the young girl hoped she would be able to see more of it someday. As she jumped from the chair, something odd caught her eye. On a small shelf over her brother's bed, was a large leather bound book.

"Wow... this sure is old... and heavy" Saffron gasped as she pulled it down from the shelf.

She placed the book on the floor in front of her as she sat down. Even before she had opened the cover, the book had her intrigued. First there was its size and weight, but there was so much more as well. Saffron recognised the rune lettering on the cover straight away, for she had seen something similar during her language lessons. Unfortunately she had never considered learning how to read it and had focused her past studies on modern European and Asian languages. One of the cover's most stunning features, was an embossed circle with the image of a sleek black dragon curved around the inside edge. The young girl stared at the creature with fascination as she ran her fingers around the image, feeling every feature of the frightening beast.

When she opened the front cover, Saffron was delighted to find a considerable number of her brothers study notes; including alphabetic instructions and examples of sentence structure. The top page of Blue's notes appeared to be a translation of the book's cover; the runes had been copied with the English words 'The Book of Gothi' written underneath. The image of the dragon had also been included along with its title, The Great Seal of Berk.

As Saffron read through more and more of the notes, she realised her brother had left everything she would need to teach herself the basics of this ancient language, and to discover the secrets held within. After spending over an hour pouring over this great treasure, Saffron gathered up all the loose note pages into the cover once more and started the long walk back to the bow of the ship, the heavy tome held close to her chest.

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The next morning, Calla and Abigail were both sent to the south wall to assist in its fortification. On their arrival, Calla was actually pleased to see Gran overseeing the project. She stood a few meters south of the main gate, sipping from a cup of piping hot soup while discussing the possibility of incorporating a hidden trap or two with some her more skilled builders.

"HEY! What's the big idea, moving me and Abby into a cell no bigger than a broom cupboard?" Calla cried out.

"Oh don't make a fuss" Gran said, not even bothering to turn around and face the young girl.

"Fuss? That's rich coming from someone who has three rooms all to herself" Calla sniffed.

"Give it time; we'll make it bigger eventually" Gran argued.

"So you can give it away to the next people to come along?" Calla accused "What'll you do with me and Abby next time; nail us up in a crate each night?"

Gran finally turned to face her accuser.

"You're just being melodramatic; your new room is perfectly comfortable."

"Well I beg to differ" Calla snorted "So how about pulling a few people off this totally unnecessary wall project and get 'em to start on our room? You still need to open up a second entrance to you tunnel system; or do you want to risk being buried again?"

"This wall..." Gran began but Calla interrupted.

"Is only being built because you're too stupid to realise that the last thing Sage would want to do now, is to come here just to annoy you. He works for himself now and wouldn't give the left leg off a dead Aardvark to see you again."

Gran tried to speak but Calla did not stop.

"No Phyllis... you're not too stupid, you're too scared. You think you can run this place, but you can't even keep your mind on what's important; food, shelter, survival. Get this through your thick skull; Sage isn't coming for you because he JUST... DOESN'T... CARE!"

And with that straw, the camel's back broke and for the second time in less than a week, Gran hurled what was in her hand at the person in front of her. But this time she was not intoxicated, this time she wasn't hallucinating about her feared enemy, this time she just wanted the girl to shut up because she did not want to face the truth in Calla's words.

Abigail could not help but grin broadly as she watched Gran storm off, too embarrassed to face the people who had heard the accusing rant from the wild teenager. She wasn't worried about Calla because the soup cup had missed her by several inches but when she turned back, Abigail noticed her friend had sunk to her knees and was holding the side of her head.

"MEDIC!" she cried out as she rushed to Calla's side.

As the cup had passed by, it's near boiling contents had covered the left side of Calla's head and neck. The painful burn stretched from behind her left eye, all the way to the back from just above her ear and down to her shoulder.

"Abby... it hurts... I can feel it burning..."

"Just relax... breath deep" Abigail tried to offer some comfort but there was little she could do until help arrived.

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Max DeGroot did not realise the One and All's captain had been watching him for the last few days, but it certainly came as no surprise when he was approached and questioned; for he had never been able to earn Jack Sumner's trust. As he approached, Sumner could see the odd man was once more studying one of his ancient maps.

"Your next shift is coming up" Jack informed him.

"Yes it would be about that time... I guess I'd better pack up all this up" DeGroot resigned calmly.

"Just what are you doing with those charts anyway?" Jack asked with suspicion.

"Oh nothing sinister Captain" DeGroot turned the map so Jack could see it "I like to refer to these maps every time I am in this part of the world. I never know when I might just manage to spot something that may relate to the past travels of the Dragon Riders. If I'm ever able to match just one island, outcrop, sea stack or section of coastline with a part of these charts, then I should be able to calculate the location of Berk on our more modern charts. "

"You do remember that we're headed for southeast Europe, don't you?" Jack said accusingly.

"Oh yes sir; that is why I put my hand up to take these late night shifts at the helm; it leaves my days free to scan the horizon and take notes."

"Alright then but listen closely" Jack leaned in "You may have done well recently helping the Dias children and Calla, but I still remember some of the stunts you pulled in the past over this dragon obsession. So if you ever go back to your old ways, I will take great delight in personally throwing you overboard. Do we understand each other?"

"I believe we do Captain" DeGroot gulped.

His heart was still beating faster than normal as he made his way to the rear deck to begin another spell at the helm. In spite of Jack Sumner's warning, DeGroot felt he may as well continue with his plan because he had already taken the ship so far off course, it was only a matter of time before he was caught. Therefore he figured he had nothing more to lose; and after all, in the end he just may succeed.

As soon as he had taken over from Jose Garcia, DeGroot produced a small piece of cellophane containing a wad of blue adhesive putty, out of his left chest pocket; embedded in this putty was a small magnet. As usual, the ship's compass showed the heading as ten degrees below due east. Being careful not to be seen, DeGroot placed his magnet under the north point of the compass, locking it in place. From his left vest pocket, the sly man then pulled out his own small compass before he turned the ships wheel ever so slightly to port. The ships compass continued to show the One and All on an easterly heading while DeGroot's own compass slowly turned to the north. The ship came about so gradually, no one on board noticed the course change.

DeGroot settled in for a night at the helm, hoping the clouds would continue to obscure the stars overhead. Meanwhile the One and All sailed on through the night; each passing minute taking her further and further off course.

End of Act One

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Must be two months or more since I wrote this chapter and I'm so glad to see it published at last. The reason for this is when I first came up with the plan for the whole Return of the Dragons saga, the first story idea was part of Act Two which starts next week.

That was way back in 2014 but before I could write the next bit, I had to do Red Sky Rising first. At the time I didn't think it would take me five years to get here but... well... looks like it did (the 2017 heart attack didn't help either). But the good news is my health is way better and everything is falling into place story wise.

Thanks once more to all my readers, and to Vin and Draco38 for your encouraging notes.

Till next week, Marty