Chapter 33
Maximilian DeGroot made sure nobody was watching him as he yawned. The last time Reed Branson had seen the odd little man show any sign of boredom, he had been offered some very difficult work by the One and All's captain to help pass the time. Waiting for Blue to call may have been tedious, but it did give him time to make alterations to the ancient maps of the island.
"Exploration Team to Berk HQ; are you reading me?"
DeGroot jumped in his chair and almost fell over backwards. He grabbed at the two-way radio and almost dropped it as he fumbled carelessly.
"Yes... yes I can be reading... I mean I read you loud and clear. Is it there, did you find it?"
"Uh... yeah we found it; right where the map said it would be" the radio crackled.
"Oh I wish I could see it" DeGroot sighed "Is it just like the drawings?"
Blue looked over the sinkhole where Hiccup Haddock of Berk had made history by befriending a Night Fury over a thousand years ago.
"Weeeell... kind of... but it has changed a bit over the years."
"Changed how?" DeGroot asked.
"It's a high sided lake now; looks like the mountain stream that fed the pond has increased its flow since the days of the Vikings, so the pond now covers the entire sinkhole to a depth of about one to two meters. Still, not all bad news; we could easily run a gravity fed pipe down to the village from here and have a permanent fresh water supply on tap."
"Yes... that is good news... I suppose...can't expect everything to be exactly the same I suppose."
"That's the spirit Max" Blue tried to cheer him up "What's an old land mark when you have dragons? Speaking of which, Firefly led us to this spot so I get the feeling he's been here before. He and the other dragons went for a swim and brought back a few fish for their lunch. We're continuing on to the far side of the island."
"Okay... I mean roger" DeGroot corrected himself "Keep me apprised of your progress."
"Will do, Exploration Team out."
Blue clipped the two-way radio back onto his belt and shouldered his backpack before addressing Calla.
"Ready to continue m'lady?"
"I am" she replied "but I can't speak for several lazy dragons who seem to want to have a post lunch nap."
"Well fortunately they're Terrors and not Gronckles" Blue noted as he picked up Firefly and placed the dragon on his shoulder.
It did not take the dragon long to position himself on top of Blues backpack before closing his eyes once more. All the other dragons did likewise except for Azrail, who seemed to be full of energy; she flew circles around the group as they continued on to the far side of the island.
Berk may not have been the biggest island in the archipelago but it was quite hilly in parts so, the party founds paths through the overgrown forest quite difficult to come by. Eventually though, they managed to find large clearing with several large winged beasts aimlessly wandering about while grazing. Each one had a spike overed body and was roughly the same size as an elephant, but with much shorter legs. The head looked like that of a tortoise with a forward facing horn on each side, and a single horn pointing up on top.
"Whoa... what the heck is that?" Haley gasped.
"That my dear shipmate is a dragon known as a Buffalord" Blue grinned.
"Are they dangerous?" one of the party asked nervously.
"Looks pretty docile to me" Calla shrugged.
"And you'd be right" Blue agreed "You have be careful as those spikes on its body make an excellent defence but if we don't act aggressively, they should ignore us."
To test his informed theory, Blue slowly walked out into the clearing. Although he did draw closer to the dragons, they could all se he was not walking directly at them; so they simply watched him with mild interest while chewing on the herbs growing on the field.
"Okay it seems safe" Blue called back "Everyone follow me along the same line."
One by one the entire party crossed the field as the dragons continued to show little concern about their presence.
"Look at the size of them" a sailor from the Striker remarked "They must be the biggest dragons of all."
"Not even close" Blue remarked, causing a shiver to run up the man's spine.
Firefly's nostrils flared as the smell of strange dragon wafted towards him. The suddenly alert Terrible Terror sat up and looked around, spying the docile dragons to his left.
"Hey, where are you going?" Blue tried to keep his voice low when his dragon flew off.
The entire group held their breath as Firefly circled the Buffalord heard before landing near the one closest to Blue.
"Rrooowl" the little dragon seemed to be giving some kind of greeting.
The massive Buffalord lowered its head and the two dragons just sniffed at each other. A low rumble emitted from deep within the Buffalord's chest, sounding something like the purr of a kitten that weighed several tons. The other Terrors reacted to the sound by waking up, looking over at Firefly, then laying down their heads and going back to sleep.
"Wait here" Blue told the group as he took a few steps closer to the dragons.
"Like hell" Calla replied as she took his hand.
Daisy opened one lazy eye when she felt Calla turn but did not seem overly interested in the new direction.
"Hello" Blue said softly.
He held out the back of his hand for the Buffalord to inspect and prompted Calla to do the same. As soon as the beast seemed satisfied with their smell and manor, Blue turned his hand palm up and reached out for the creatures chin. He was pleased to discover that the Buffalord enjoyed the attention just as much as the Terrors had.
"I'm amazed he's so calm" Calla smiled.
"Oh he knows he could kill us with one blow if we tried anything" Blue said what Calla did not want to hear "so it's good he now knows we're not a threat."
At first Calla wondered if she should start backing up, but if Blue could make friends with the dragon, maybe she could too.
"Aren't you beautiful?" she cooed as she reached out and lightly rubbed the creature's nose.
To her surprise, the dragon actually pushed its snout firmly into her hand, expressing its desire to be petted.
"Aww how sweet" she grinned.
Unable to stop gushing, Calla moved her hand up to the top of the creatures head and gave it a big hug.
"Can I keep him?" she asked.
"I... don't think so" Blue shook his head "I doubt a Buffalord would be as easy to domesticate as a Terrible Terror.
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Acute paranoia is a very unhealthy malady to endure. A sufferer feels constantly on edge and has much trouble sleeping, making their fears even worse. Unfortunately for Doctor Sarah Spencer, Sage's levels of paranoia were currently reaching brand new heights. Late one night inside the main staging areas, the last group of technicians had just arrived from deep in the tunnel, where they had spent the last twelve hours installing some of the massive electromagnets in the lower section of the railgun. The only things ahead of them now were food and sleep followed by an almost identical day tomorrow.
Sage stood in the shadows and watched as the exhausted group stowed their equipment before bidding each other goodnight. The beam of a small torch came on as soon as the main lights had been turned off; now it was time for Sage to go to work.
"Are you sure this is necessary sir?" Cason Rake asked.
The light from Sage's torch was pointed up in the eyes of his companions.
"You don't seriously think you can trust them, do you Rake?"
"No sir, but in all this time, we haven't found anything wrong with any of the capsules, or the rocket boosters."
"And you would know if you saw something wrong; some piece of sabotage perhaps?" Sage sneered sarcastically.
"No sir, but you would; and still we haven't found anything" Lex Morrison agreed with Rake.
"Well I'm still not satisfied" Sage shone his light around the room.
He paused the beam on several pieces of equipment while trying to work out in his head, how each one could possibly be made deadly without anyone noticing.
"Maybe I'm missing the obvious" Sage mumbled "Maybe Spencer's people knew I would go over the capsules with a fine toothed comb, and found a better way to..."
Morrison and Rake looked at each other and shrugged when their leader fell silent.
"Of course..." Sage continued "... the railgun itself."
Soon the three men were inside one of the Work Trams, making their way down to the end of the tunnel. Carson Rake tried to hide his yawn as he faced the fact there would be very little sleep for he and Morrison that night.
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"Hey there Hiccup, can you do me a favour?" Snotlout called out with an evil grin on his face
"Considering how nicely you ask, how could I refuse" Hiccup replied even though he knew it was only a set up.
"Can you steer clear of my house please? It wasn't badly damaged in the last attack and I'd prefer you didn't burn it to the ground during the next one."
"I didn't burn anyone's house down Snotlout."
"Maybe not, but it took seven Vikings to get you out of trouble last night. With you around we may as well burn down the village ourselves. You're not working for the dragons, are you?"
"No Snotlout, I am not working for the dragons" Hiccup sighed.
"Come on, you call tell me; how much are they paying you?"
"WILL YOU PLEASE JUST LEAVE ME ALONE?" Hiccup cried out in frustration.
Snotlout strutted away, laughing and with his head held high. He felt very sure his chances of becoming the next Chief of Berk ere very good indeed. Hiccup sighed again and started to clear up some debris near the edge of town, well away from the other villagers where no one would abuse him. As he worked, he mumbled softly and cursed himself for being foolish enough to think he could ever be a hero. Hiccup was so caught up in his work and self loathing, that he did not notice someone else was approaching.
"Hey Hiccup" Astrid called out.
Startled beyond belief, Hiccup jumped up and spun around to face the pretty young girl and promptly dropped the heavy stone he was lifting.
"Oh... hi Astrid, it's good to see OWW!" he declared as the stone block landed on his left foot.
"There you go again" Astrid hissed "The way you're going, you'll end up losing a foot someday. Stop letting yourself get distracted and concentrate on what you're doing."
"Thanks Astrid, I'll..."
"I'm serious Hiccup, look around you and what do you see?"
"Um... Vikings... cleaning up and repairing stuff..."
"They're doing what they know; they're doing what needs to be done" Astrid interrupted "and that's why you are such a failure. Everyone else is working to build the village, strengthen the village, feed the village, defend the village. All you ever do is destroy the village in a vain attempt to impress your father."
"So you only came here to tell me how useless I am" Hiccup shrugged.
"No I came to tell you Gothi wants to see you right now" she replied "the rest was for my benefit."
"Oh well... glad I could help" Hiccup turned and went back to what he was doing.
"Didn't you hear me? I said Gothi..."
"I know, Gobber told me" Hiccup declared "But she wants me to go to that weird cave so..."
"Stop it Hiccup; stop just doing what you want and try doing what is expected of you for a change. Gothi's waiting, so shift your butt and GO!"
"Okay... since you've put it so eloquently" he replied, resigned to his fate.
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It felt good writing about the Buffalords. Sometimes I wish I could put new dragons in every chapter, but it just doesn't work out that way.
Happy to see you made the connection Vin, I wasn't sure it would work.
Back soon, Marty