Chapter 22
"Alright you lot, you've had your fun now get back to your posts" Captain Sumner said as firmly as he dare, not wanting to spook the small dragon running around below deck.
Like children being told not to open their Christmas presents early, the crew of the One and All whined as they started to disband. Jack then called back a few of his senior people, so they could talk over some very disturbing news.
"See if you can keep that little beast calm" Jack said to Blue as he spread out one of his charts on the galley table.
It took just a whistle to get the creature's attention and when Blue held out a piece of beef jerky, the dragon spread its wings and leapt onto the shoulder of its new friend.
"This is where we should be Jack said, indicating a central point in the North Atlantic.
"I assume you're saying we are not there" Haley noted.
"No; in fact we are over one thousand kilometres north of this point, but I'm not sure of exactly where yet" Jack admitted.
"But how could this happen?" Blue wondered.
"Two things" Jack informed them "Maximilian DeGroot, and this."
Everyone looked on with confusion when Jack tossed a small blue wad onto the table, until he explained what it was.
"There's a magnet inside; ever since we set sail, DeGroot has been pulling a split double shift at the helm taking three hours as the sun set, and then doing another shift before sunrise. He volunteered to do this so he could change the ship's course each night by putting this magnet under the north point on the compass. On his second shift, DeGroot would put us back on course before the sun appeared so we would be none the wiser."
"But couldn't we have known about the course change by the Moon and the stars?" Marion Green asked.
"Yes... but that is my fault" Jack admitted "I was content just to keep an eye on our speed and heading to keep track of our position; I won't make that mistake again."
"So where are we then?" Jose pondered the map.
"As best I can calculate from the information I've extracted from DeGroot, we're somewhere between Greenland and Norway, northeast of Iceland."
Blue lowered his head and leant forward with his fists on the table. Everyone noticed how he began to breath in slowly before emptying his lungs with an audible huff. Suddenly his right fist rose and punched the table as Blue showed an anger like he had never displayed before.
"I'll kill him... I'LL BLOODY WELL KILL HIM!"
Putting the confused dragon down on the floor, Blue took off up the stairs after DeGroot with the others hot on his tail.
"YOU BASTARD!" Blue cried out "YOU KNEW HOW MUCH ABBY AND CALLA WERE RELYING ON US. WE DON'T HAVE TIME TO GO OFF ON ONE OF YOUR LITTLE ADVENTURES."
Captain Sumner had once threatened to throw DeGroot overboard, but it would have been Blue who had finally done it if the others had not caught him before he had the chance.
"I... I'm sorry... but I was sure this was the right time to..." DeGroot begged.
"THE RIGHT TIME IS WHEN WE HAVE GOTTEN ABIGAIL AND CALLA OUT OF THAT PRISON, AND BACK WITH US SAFE AND SOUND!" Blue declared.
With Marion and Jose holding his arms, Jack Sumner tried his best to talk some sense into the angry young man, but it took a lot of doing.
"It's okay Blue; I'll make contact with the other ships and tell them to proceed straight to Canada. We'll go ashore on the island ahead to take on fresh water, and then make our way south again."
Blue thought about what the captain had said and although he was still more than a little upset, he decided to let the matter drop for now.
"I was really beginning to think I could trust you" he sneered at DeGroot.
Blue walked forward and stood at the foot of the bowsprit and stared at the approaching island. As his rage slowly subsided, he heard an inquisitive growlish chirp and turned to see the dragon once more sitting on the forward hatch. He little creature actually seemed to be concerned about his new friend and appeared to be offering comfort. Blue smiled at the winged beast and sat down beside it.
"Do you think I over reacted?" he asked.
In reply the dragon stood up, walked in two complete circles and then lay down with it head on Blue's lap.
"You're right... getting angry won't help at all" he nodded "You really are quite wise for a lizard."
The dragon purred as Blue scratched its snout but suddenly it sneezed, sending a small fireball shooting away over the ships starboard bow.
"Whoa... I'm glad you weren't facing towards anything important, you little firefly."
Blue looked down at the resting dragon and wondered about what he had just said.
"Hmm... Firefly... Does that sound like a good name to you?"
The dragon did not answer, it only yawned leaving Blue to decide if the beast was not going to object, then it must find the name Firefly to be quite acceptable.
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Having found some protection from any possible bad weather in a small cove, the crew of the One and All lowered one of the boats and prepared to go ashore. The captain decided to take Blue, Haley and Jose with him on the first scouting trip to see if they could find water. DeGroot was adamant that he should go too but would not give Jack a legitimate reason as to why, and so he was ordered to stay onboard. The only other passenger on the boat as it motored ashore was Blue's scaly little shadow. He sat up on the bow of the boat with the wind in his face, very excited about the excursion. No sooner had the bow touched the sand, when the dragon leapt off into the air, flying up to the top of the short cliff at the back of the beach.
"I think Firefly wants you to follow him" Haley declared as she stepped ashore.
"He certainly does look keen" Blue agreed.
The team pulled the boat up on shore and set the sand anchor before grabbing their backpacks and heading off. The dragon meanwhile had glided back down and was now sniffing out a way up the cliff for all those not fortunate enough to have wings. The path though steep, could easily be hiked up without the need of ropes or climbing axes and when they reached the top, the view gave the group a good idea of the lay of the land.
A meadow stretched out before them with the base of the islands central mountain visible some four or five kilometres inland. Without even bothering to discuss which way to go, the four explorers simply followed the dragon as it scampered through the grass and wild flowers. The island was quite beautiful and if felt so good to walk on solid ground again, so in a short time Blue began to feel conflicted. He was happy to be there, he was ecstatically pleased to have found a genuine dragon, but he was also worried about the time they had lost through their enforced detour. To put it mildly, DeGroot was definitely still on the young man's naughty list, and he didn't need to check it twice.
"Hey look at that" Haley declared, pointing up the hill.
"Yeah... that is definitely a road" Blue realised.
On one hand it was only some flat rocks on the path they were taking, but these rocks ran in a straight line and with a defined edge.
"It's quite narrow and was probably just used by small carts to take farm produce to a town" Haley noted.
"Yeah that meadow could easily been farmland in the past" Blue agreed.
"What on Earth are you two talking about" Jack shrugged "We're here to find water, not indulge in archaeology."
"Ah... but that is what we are doing Captain; working out the best place to find water" Haley smiled.
"You've lost me" Jack shrugged again.
"You see Captain, if there was a village here in the past, the two things they would have needed to survive were food and water. The road tells us the meadow we've just come from is a likely place for crops and farm animals, and so the village is probably at the other end. What's more, the best place to put a village is near a water source" Blue explained.
"Chances are good there's a stream fed by melting snow from the mountain top" Haley continued "We may be wrong but it's still a good place to start."
"Good heavens" Jack gasped "and you just... came up with all that now?"
"No..." Blue admitted "we were talking about it back on the ship while you were shouting orders at the crew about stowing sails, setting anchors, battening hatches and all that nautical stuff."
"So... there may... or may not be an ancient village near a water source at the other end of this road."
"Precisely Captain" Haley nodded.
"Hmm... I suppose we may as well find out then" Jack realised.
"And about time too; your little friend is getting rather impatient" Jose noted as the little dragon leapt about on the road ahead, trying to get everyones attention.
"Impatient little dude isn't he" Haley smiled as they resumed walking.
The ancient road constantly disappeared and reappeared as the group walked up a gentle slope. Sometimes the ground would rise up a little and leave the stone road long buried, and sometimes the team would have to walk through or around a wall of shrubs and bushes before finding it again. They walked for almost a quarter hour while Firefly continued to lead the way, getting more excited with each and every step.
"Hey... I wonder if this is it?" Haley wondered when she saw something else.
"Are they... walls?" Jose pondered the piled up stone ahead of them.
"I think they're foundations" Blue replied "They all have square corners and each one looks to be the size of a house. Chances are there were once wooden structures on them hundreds of years ago."
"I do believe you are correct" Jack agreed as he examined the nearest one.
"That one at the top of the hill looks way too big to be a house" Blue continued "It must have been some kind of communal..."
Everyone turned towards Blue, wondering why he had stopped mid sentence. Following his gaze, they all saw what had surprised him. Carved from the rock cliff face behind the ruins of the village was the visage of a huge Viking man, with a horned helmet and a long flowing beard with braded ends.
"Wow, that's impressive; I wonder who he is?" Haley mused.
"That... is Stoick the Vast: the last Chief of Berk to reign during the Dragon War, the first to reign during the time of the Dragon Riders, husband of Valka the scourge of the dragon hunters, and the father of Hiccup the Dragon Master himself" Blue informed them.
"You're kidding" Jack stated sceptically "How in the world could you possibly know all that?"
"Oh I've seen sketches of this carving in the ancient writings of Berk. There's a really good one in the Book of Gothi and another in the Ingerman Chronicles. It was made in the months following Stoicks tragic death; and that was about a thousand years ago."
"Wow... that is even more impressive" Haley noted.
Blue took a few steps further forward while trying to ignore the small dragon urging him to keep following it.
"This is incredible... DeGroot was right" he said to himself.
"Right to misdirect the ship" Jack said with clear disgust.
"No..." Blue clarified "about Berk. I must admit I didn't think it existed any more. I thought it was something like Atlantis; a place now resigned to being nothing more than a legend, lost in time."
"And you're sure this is it?" Haley checked.
"There is no doubt in my mind" Blue replied "Even after so many centuries, the carving looks just like the pictures and even the layout of the dwelling foundation stones, fits the layout of the first Berk village exactly."
"What do you mean the first?" Haley asked.
"Eventually the entire tribe was forced to abandon this island, so one day they just packed up and left; Vikings and Dragons both. According to Gothi's writings, they found a wonderful new home but had to say goodbye to their beloved dragons soon after. And ever since that day, the dragons became mere legends... but now..."
"Now they're back" Haley finished Blue's sentence.
"Indeed... well... one is anyway" Jack noted.
"I have a very strong feeling Firefly is not the only one here" Blue revealed "in fact I think I know where he wants us to go."
"Where?" Haley said impatiently
"To the former Dragon Arena that became the Dragon Academy; the place where the Hiccup the Dragon Master would teach the other Dragon Riders how to train their dragons."
"Are you just trying to see how many times you can legitimately put the word Dragon into a single sentence?" Haley smirked.
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Wow publishing two stories at the same time is harder than I thought. Still, it's only till Christmas I suppose. So have fun jingling those bells everyone, and I'll be back with more of this story next week.