Chapter 34
Just like everyone else on Berk, Hiccup held Gothi in high regard. Not only was she wise but she was also very insightful; unfortunately she could also be very stubborn. If she wanted to see Hiccup, then maybe Gothi wanted to help him. But perhaps she just wanted to hit him with her staff as punishment for his part in the burning down of someone's home.
"You sent for me?" Hiccup asked when he found Gothi waiting patiently outside her door.
At first Hiccup wondered if the elderly lady had nodded off as she stood quietly with her eyes closed, but after a few seconds she lifted her face and gave the boy a knowing smile. Making sure her pack was well and truly secured over her shoulder, Gothi set off down the stairs towards the village.
"What the... why did you make me come all the way up here if we were only going back down again? Oh yeah... the cave."
Of course the wise old lady did not answer him because she never spoke. The villagers all showed their respect for Gothi as they passed by, so being in her company meant no one hurled abuse at Hiccup, or made any kind of snide comments as the pair made their way through the town. Even one very annoyed viking who had hurled his hammer at the boy earlier just watched them pass out of the corner of his eye. After half an hour of walking, Hiccup started to get a strong sinking feeling about their destination.
"Err... Gothi, I don't mean to be disrespectful but if you're taking me to your magical cave of revelation, I think you should know I am not like other Vikings."
Gothi stopped, turned and gave Hiccup the most sarcastic look he had ever seen.
"Yes well I understand it's obvious I'm not like other Vikings, but what I mean is you won't need to use the threat of bad omens or sock stealing trolls to get through to me. I know it's just your clever way of making stubborn, superstitious Vikings listen to common sense. We can talk... or whatever, any place you want."
Gothi smiled and nodded in agreement which made Hiccup very happy. Now they could go back home where it was warm and safe instead of climbing up this windy hill towards Mount Berk; or so Hiccup thought. To his surprise, Gothi kept walking slowly up the hill so the young man decided to try again.
"Did you understand Gothi? I said we could talk anywhere you..."
Gothi turned and gave Hiccup a quizzical look and he finally understood; wherever they were going, was exactly where Gothi wanted them to be.
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Everyone was pleased to see Blue and the Exploration Team arrive back at the ruins of the Viking village that evening, and none more so than Max DeGroot. Although his face soon fell when Blue declared it was too late in the day for another expedition to the foot of the mountain.
"Okay I agree you've been very patient, and I promise we will go in the morning... assuming there are no surprise emergencies" Blue tried to cheer DeGroot up a little.
"Hmm... but what would you consider to be and emergency" DeGroot asked sceptically.
"Don't worry Max; we'll get there in the end" Blue smiled and walked off, leaving the dragon historian to stew in his doubts.
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Although she found the hike around Berk to be both exciting and enjoyable, slightly sore feet were one result Calla had to deal with. Giving them a good soak in a basin of warm water certainly helped, and this was what Abigail found her friend doing deep inside the underground dragon stables.
"If you're almost done, dinner is almost ready."
"Fish stew again?" Calla asked.
"No, something different tonight; grilled fish and salad."
It was difficult to argue about the number of meals consisting of seafood. It may have been monotonous but at least it was fresh and everyone was well fed. Most of the limited number of chickens kept on board the Striker had been transferred to newly built pens on the island, but their eggs were mainly consumed only for breakfast.
"Fair enough; have you seen Blue at all?"
"Yeah he's out on the western cliff with Professor Adisa having a deep and meaningful conversation" Abigail replied "You wanna go get 'em?"
"May as well; are you two coming?" Calla asked the dragons on her bed as she reached out for a towel to dry her feet.
Later as the sun dipped below the horizon, Calla found Blue and the Professor precisely where Abigail had said they would be. As soon as Firefly saw Daisy and Azrail flitting around Calla's feet, he jumped off Blue's shoulder and chased after them.
"Hey guys; have you solved all the world problems yet?" she called out.
"No... but we're working on it" Linton Adisa smiled.
"Time for evening munchies" she informed them.
"You go on ahead" Blue told the Professor "I want to talk to Calla first."
"Alright my boy, good luck; you'll need it."
Blue invited his girlfriend to sit down beside him and she happily took up the offer, taking his hand in hers. The whole scene looked very romantic with the sunset throwing long shadows behind the three Terrible Terrors play fighting in the grass. Calla could soon tell by the look on Blue's face, that he had more on his mind than the pretty girl by his side.
"Have umm... you thought about what you want to do when Sage is gone and we can go back to Sumatra?" he eventually asked.
"Err... no... I just assumed we would help with the evacuation of Earth and then join our parents somewhere out in the solar system."
"Yeah... me too" Blue sighed.
"But..?" Calla prompted.
"But... well... what would you say if I told you I was thinking of staying on Earth?"
"I'd say why, and I'd say it very loudly."
"Hmm... that makes sense" Blue gave a little chuckle.
"So why do you want to say on Earth?" Calla made the question quite plain.
"Short answer, dragons" Blue admitted.
"Does the long answer have any more detail to it?"
"It was finding those Buffalord; if they have returned to the surface world, then..."
"Whoa, hold on a second; surface world?" Calla gasped.
"When the dragons disappeared a thousand years ago, the Vikings say they went to a place called the Hidden World. Two of my ancestors even saw it with their own eyes" Blue revealed.
"And this was in one of those old books?" Calla asked.
"There are several references to the Hidden World in a few of the old Viking texts; and if the Buffalord found their way out, how many others have too? And for that matter, how many more may come in the future?"
"And you want to be here to see them" Calla noted.
Standing up, Blue began to pace back and forth as he spoke.
"For the first fifteen years of my life, everything was the same. I went from learning how to maintain the railgun launch facilities, to actually maintaining the railgun launch facilities. But ever since the day we opened up the complex, life has been a constant adventure from Sumatra, to space, to the Asteroid Field, back to Earth, across the North American continent and on to Berk. I almost died after escaping from Gran's mountain refuge and that set me thinking; I just don't feel ready for this part of the adventure to end yet."
"I suppose it's true; when we leave Earth, it will probably be forever" Calla realised.
"And how does that make you feel?" Blue asked.
"Confused I guess" Calla admitted "I've been looking forward to our future in space, but finding the dragons..."
"Yeah... the dragons" Blue agreed "I mean I've always known the eventual destruction of Earth would mean the end of everything we left behind."
"From hamsters to elephants" Calla sighed.
"Gold fish to whales" Blue agreed "But for some reason, the thought of loosing every last dragon really bothers me."
"But can we save them?" Calla asked.
"No... I doubt it."
Blue sat back down heavily and let his chin rest on the backs of his fingers.
"All rather depressing really" Calla noted as she assumed the same pose "So if we stay, what happens when the big one comes?"
"Sarah has already launched observation satellites to try and find Sholf-4, and there are more trackers being set up in the Asteroid Belt. It's only a matter of time before we find it, and then we'll be able to calculate its orbit and predict when Sholf-4 itself or any of its cloud asteroids, will hit the Earth. We should know the precise time it'll hit weeks or even months in advance, so we'd still be able to get off planet in plenty of time, assuming we can get back to Sumatra."
"For sure?" Calla asked doubtfully.
"No... but I feel reasonably confident.
"What if we're the only ones who want to go looking for dragons?" Calla wondered.
"I must admit, I haven't quite worked out the details yet."
"Well we've always got the Star Runner, but some of the others are pretty smitten with the Terrors so I'd think there would be a few who would like to go with us."
"Us... does that mean..?" Blue smiled.
"Hey, I missed out on being the first to discover a dragon, do you think I'd pass up the chance to be among the first to befriend a monstrous sized one?"
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Funny how things work out. All of the fires are out here at last (even though the fire season goes on), but now I have to be careful every time I pick up people from the airport or a cruise ship. We drivers have been given anti-bacterial cleaning kits for the buses but I'm not sure how effective they'll be. I feel pretty sure I'll get this Covid-19 flu eventually but I'm not too woried about dying from it. Nearly twenty years ago I asked my doctor if I could skip taking antibiotics each time I git the flu and he said sure. Since then I have built up a pretty strong immunity so when the flu hits, it never lasts more than a day whereas it used to last a week or two. Of course I know this one is different so if it hits, I'll be doing whatever the Doc tells me to do.
Take good care of yourselves out there everyone, and I'm sure we'll get through this eventually. Hearing a lot about what has happened in Italy so thinking about you Vin.
More story soon, Marty.