Chapter 49

It was not so much a flight down to Sund, as it was a glide down. It had taken the trio from the Star Runner over an hour to climb the steep hill, but it only took a minute to get back down again. It was nothing compared to their trip to and from the World of the Dragons, but it was more than enough for the three residences of the Faroe Island.

"Oh my goodness... I don't know how you do it" a very unsteady Olaf panted, still holding the Zippleback's neck even though they were on the ground.

"You've got to admit though, it's an experience you'll not forget for the rest of your days" Thorston laughed.

"Riding a dragon is something you can brag about forever too" Blue added.

While the others dismounted and petted the dragons in thanks for their help, Thorston looked out in the harbour.

"See, I told you, someone must have stolen your boat to get off the island" he noted.

"It's a yacht, and it's still here; see?" Calla pointed to the tip of the mast swaying in the water.

"Good heavens, there it is... and it sank!" Olaf gasped.

"Oh you're gonna love this" Calla grinned "Grab the rope please Blue."

He did what was asked of him while Calla removed the small remote control from her pocket and pressed the lower green button. A burst of air bubbled to the surface as the ballast tanks were purged of water, and slowly the mast began to rise up. In less than twenty seconds, the top of the cabin broke the surface followed by the main deck, now partially covered by sea grass.

"Eww; looks like she need a bit of maintenance" Calla realised.

"Don't worry, we'll soon have her looking her best again, but first I wanna make contact with Berk and the Striker" Blue said as he pulled the yacht to the dock.

After Calla and Blue had gone below, Olaf decided to get a closer look at this yacht with the full pack of optional extras. He wandered close to the edge of the wharf and peered over the side. In the calm water below, he could just make out the long tube attached to the keel, running the entire length of the hull. He found the sight far too fascinating to ignore, and so he decided to inspect it more closely. He climbed down amidships and followed the path recently taken by his two young friends to the rear hatch leading to the main cabin.

For an ocean going yacht, the inside of the cabin was surprisingly bare but he soon figured out that everything must have been stowed away in the hold below to prevent any damage. In the centre of the yacht Olaf found what he was looking for; a watertight hatch with a ladder leading further down. Curiosity soon got the better of him and he placed his foot on the top rung and started to climb down.

Once down below, he could hear the voices of Calla and Blue as they communicated with their friends over the shortwave radio, so he wandered back towards the stern. The tube was slightly wider than the beam of the yacht and the first aft section was nothing more than a narrow passage with stowage and bunks but further back, he found a battery bank and an electric motor with a shaft connected to a watertight bearing.

"Oh... it has auxiliary propulsion" he mumbled to himself.

"Hello... is someone back there?" he heard Blue call out.

"I'm sorry, it's me Olaf" he replied "I just wanted to see..."

"It's okay" Blue smiled as he approached "We don't mind you looking around; come up front and see the rest."

"Oh... thank you" Olaf nodded.

Being a thin man, the local resident had no problem with the narrow passage but being tall, he did have to mind his head. Forward of the ladder Olaf was shown two more bunks with storage, followed by the main computer and communications equipment.

"How on earth did you get all this" he gasped.

"Oh this is nothing" Calla said smugly "Blue has friends who can shoot you into space, and his dad has an interplanetary spaceship."

"Now you just pulling my leg" Olaf said sceptically.

"No... she isn't" Blue replied in a manner that said he didn't care if he was believed or not, because he knew it was true and that was enough.

The young Dragon Riders started to climb back p to the Star Runners main cabin, leaving Olaf to wonder if any of what they said could be true.

"Hey wait!" he called out, realising he had been left behind.

"Okay I've got the news" Blue said as he stepped back onto the wharf and the rest of the small group gathered round.

"Captain Debar sends her congratulations on taking care of the dragon problem here, and the Striker will be waiting for us when we get to the Shetlands. We only spoke to the radio operator on the One and All, but he said all is going well on Berk. They're still working on their accommodations while DeGroot and a few of his new students..."

"Students?" Haley interrupted.

"Yeah with all the Terrors, and Smokebreaths close to the town, there has naturally been a lot of interest in becoming a bit more Dragon Savvy" Blue replied "Anyway according to the radio guy, life with the small dragons is going well and they have even take a few trips to get to know the Buffalord herd on the other side if the island."

"Did you tell them when we'd be back?" Haley asked.

"No, quite the opposite; I told them we'd be heading back to Sumatra."

"Sumatra? You're kidding" Haley shook her head.

"Look I know we've still got a lot to do with the dragons, and Berk, and of course we still haven't found Dragon Island, but we really need to go back to the complex first and make sure things are okay. If we're lucky, Sage will be gone before we get there but even if he hasn't, we still need to find out Doctor Spencer's next move, and work out where we fit in to it."

"Yeah like what's happening with that new base we started on asteroid 16 Psyche, and when will they be able to resume the evacuation of the Earth" Calla added.

"Wait... what?" Simon gasped "Evacuation of the Earth?"

"Yes; I actually come from the railgun complex in Western Sumatra that has been supporting the Mars Base One colony for the last twenty years. It has always been our plan to resume flights from Earth as soon as possible, and that time is fast approaching" Blue informed them.

"But we haven't seen any meteors around here for decades; are you sure they are still a problem?" Olaf asked.

"Oh trust me, they are; we had a nasty encounter with one back in Canada recently" Calla insisted.

"But what about the dragons?" Thorston looked forlorn.

"Have you ever heard of an O'Neill Cylinder?" Blue asked.

"No" all three said in unison.

"Okay I'll explain but I'll have to be brief" Blue began "We've started mining out holes in asteroids several kilometres across or more. Inside these tubes we're gonna build cylinders, where they'll be protected from temperature variations and cosmic radiation. Once we can get these cylinders slowly turning, the inner surface will have centrifugal false gravity the same level as Earths and we'll be able to live there."

"And you want to take the dragons to these cylinders in space?" Olaf gasped.

"To be honest I don't know and I doubt it, but I do know there are already plans for introducing some animals once we have a few hundred square kilometres of living space."

"A few hundred... How big are these things?" Thorston gasped.

"Not very big at the moment, but their size is only limited by the size of the asteroid you build them in; and you could put a few inside Dwarf Planets or small moons if you wanted too."

The three men looked at each other in disbelief.

"Just to be clear..." Olaf asked hesitantly "When the young lady said your father has a spaceship..."

"My father is Major Luis Dias, and he's one of the command pilots of the Mars Transfer Vehicle Star Runner II" Blue admitted.

Thorston looked to Simon and asked a very simple question.

"Err... should we believe all this?"

"If this young man told me he had laser heat vision, I'd believe it" Simon replied.

"Just for the record, I don't" Blue smiled.

'

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Now there was only one more task for the Dragon Riders before they departed from the Faroe Islands; they still needed to make a bold attempt to show the local people they don't need to drive away the dragons, or at the very least not to be afraid of them.

"So what is this place called?" Blue asked Simon, who was now riding on a very contented Gronckle.

"We'll be headed close to the harbour at Torshavn; it used to be our capital city before the flooding over twenty years ago."

"Tsunami caused by meteorites I assume" Blue responded.

"Ya; a lot of people were killed and many of the survivors moved away to mainland Europe, so it's more of a big, half wrecked town now."

Simon took them to the harbour area because he knew that would be the best place to find people, waiting for the return of the vessels that had evacuated their children and elderly. Indeed there was a small group milling around on top of a bluff that overlooked the entrance to the protected harbour. Needless to say there was some more than mild panic when the Dragon Riders arrived, even though they touched down a safe distance away.

"What are you doing here? You told us you were going to take the dragons away, and instead we find you have brought more. I knew you were lying!"

Calla recognised him as one of the men who had marched on Simon's farm, and he did not look very pleased to see them.

"They are leaving" Simon got down from the Gronckle and limped forward "They just needed to talk with you before they go."

"NO! Just tell them to go and not to come back" the angry man was bolstered by the agreeing crowd who all shouted their support for the No Dragons idea.

Blue looked around and could see the reactions of people further down in the town. Some just stared in amazement but others quickly ran away, as it they expected the dragons to attack at any moment. Olaf and Thorston joined Simon in trying to get the crowd to listen but soon the rock throwing began, just as it had at the farm.

"We're not on your property now Lisberg, you've come to our home, and you've got no right to bring those murderous beasts here."

Windstorm did her best to shoot any rocks that came too close, but everyone could see the other dragons were getting quite upset and defensive. Boris was now on fire, so the angry mob kept their distance, and Blue could clearly see some green gas drifting in the breeze. Speedy was clearly the most disturbed by what was happening, because the young Night Fury had never expected the humans could be so cruel.

"Come on; everyone to your dragons, we're getting out of here" Blue ordered the riders.

Emboldened by the retreat, the crowd marched forward while still hurling rocks but Boris knew what to do. The angry mob soon did some retreating of their own when a huge fireball exploded on the ground a few meters in front of them, showering the men with clods of grass and dirt. As they flew off towards Simon's farm once more, Blue even noticed some of the people who had run away were now returning to the streets carrying firearms.

"Looks like you made the right call" Haley remarked.

"I... I'm sorry guys..." Blue begged "I never even thought..."

"Don't you worry about it lad" Thorston's voice boomed out "You can't be blamed for what happened down there."

"But maybe if we'd gone in without the dragons, we would have had the chance to..."

"No; it's not your fault, its them and their pig headed stubbornness" Thorston insisted, clearly upset.

"So what do we do now Blue?" Calla asked.

"We leave, and hope that no more dragons find their way here in the near future."

It did not take long to arrive back at the farm and as soon as they landed, Thorston dropped down from the Zippleback and strode over to Calla.

"My dear lady, I have a great request to ask of you."

"Err... yes?" she replied nervously.

"You and Young Blue mentioned a man named DeGroot, who was teaching people about dragons. Please let us use your yacht to travel to Berk and seek him out. If we can learn more about training dragons as well as you all do, maybe we can be better prepared if more dragons do come in the future."

"Can you sail?" Calla wondered.

"I can't" Thorston admitted "but Olaf has spent much time at sea."

"And I've had a little experience too" Simon noted eagerly "... in small boats... in sheltered waters, but I'm sure I could learn more of open water sailing with Olaf's help."

Everyone looked to Olaf to see if he agreed with the glowing endorsements being given to him.

"You can be sure I would do my very best to take care of your fine vessel" He said.

"Can you operate a computer?" Calla asked.

"A little" Olaf shrugged.

"Oh I've got plenty of experience there" Simon smiled proudly.

"Okay then the first thing you should do is check out the media folder in the laptop next to the radio. The people who built the systems you saw left some instructional videos on how it all works. For example you can't use the stealth system to hide underwater unless the air tanks are no lower than 40% capacity, or you'll never be able to re-float."

"We'll be sure to watch them all" Thorston said.

Calla looked thoughtful for a moment before she turned to Blue.

"What do you think?" she asked.

"It's you boat... I mean yacht, but I do like the idea of them learning more from DeGroot, since we don't have the time to stay here any longer."

"Alright then" Calla reluctantly handed over the remote control to raise the vessel.

"Well if that's all settled, I suggest we get going just in case those fools from town decide to come and see if we're still here" Haley stated.

"Good idea" Blue agreed "If we leave now, we should make the Shetlands before nightfall."

"It'll be good to see Abby again" Calla said as she climbed up on Windstorm.

"Goodbye lad" Simon offered his hand "I may be in the minority on this island, but I certainly are glad you came."

"We're a minority of three" Thorston smiled as he slapped Blue's back just a little too firmly.

Soon that minority of three were watching their new friends fly over the crest of the hill and disappear. One by one, they all sighed as they realised life was going to be much more boring in comparison, now that the Dragon Riders were gone.

"Do you think we'll ever meet with them again?" Thorston wondered.

"Well considering they are on their way to the other side of the world, I'd suggest you don't hold your breath" Simon replied realistically.

'

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Poor Boo Cat :(
I was making a shelf unit to put above one of my work areas in the garage, when she decided to climb on top of it before the pieces had been screwed together. Needless to say it fell apart sending wood and kitty crashing to the ground. She was okay but it naturally scared the living daylights out of her (and me too of course).

Haven't found a new anime to watch yet, so I checked out a few old ones from twenty/thirty years ago; some were mildly entertaining but oh so dated. I did enjoy seeing the first ten episodes of Owl House. I do like a cartoon where you can play the Find the Studio Ghibli Influence game every episode, but how on earth did they get Isabella Rossellini to voice the Bat Queen?

Hope you're all enjoying the story, and more soon (naturally) Marty.