CHAPTER 2
Hiccup awoke to a strange cacophony of noises. There were chittering, croaking, braying, barking and squeaking noises, all reverberating in his ears.
He groaned, blinking his eyes open. All that swam in his vision were shapes, blurry and unfocused He felt lethargic and dizzy, as if he'd been sick and asleep the whole day, completely drained of energy. He slowly blinked again, trying to clear his cloudy vision. Strange shapes and figures swarmed before his eyes, and there was a soft red glow somewhere nearby, radiating warmth. He blinked again, the shapes becoming more defined by the moment.
Panic seized him as he suddenly remembered the events that had transpired moments ago—or was it hours? Days? How long had he been asleep?! What had happened?! Where was he?! Where was Toothless?!
Hiccup sat bolt upright, his heart pounding wildly as he surveyed his surroundings.
He was in a small, cluttered cabin of some sort. There were no windows, or if there were they'd have all been covered up. The walls were filled from top to bottom with shelves full of vials and bottles of this and that, and pots filled with different plants littered the room—but the thing that caught Hiccup's eye was that the cottage was filled to the brim with different cages, each holding a different type of animal. Some sat on shelves, many hung from the rafters above him, and others lined the walls, stacked on top of each other.
A split second later, Hiccup realized that he, too, was in a large cage next to the wall. If he hadn't been panicked before, he sure was now.
"Toothless! TOOTHLESS!" Hiccup cried, his dragon's safety the first thing to enter his mind. There was a weak warble nearby, and when Hiccup looked to his left he realized Toothless was also in a cage just next to his. It was larger than the others of course, and was completely covered by other cages filled with creatures, which was why Hiccup hadn't noticed him there before.
Hiccup breathed a sigh of relief, crawling over to his dragon and reaching a hand through the bars. Toothless sniffed Hiccup's hand and gave Hiccup a gummy grin, but his eyes drooped lethargically. A moment later Toothless dropped his head back down, his eyes closing.
Hiccup's stomach was in multiple knots.
"Okay," he breathed, "I take it back. The universe really does hate me. Not barely a day after I run away, I get caught in this giant storm, then land on an island which is inhabited by a crazy lunatic who likes to cage people and… oh gods, I hope I'm not on the menu tonight or something," he shuddered, suddenly thinking back to those legends Johann liked to tell him where a traveller was often tricked into entering a witch's home, stuck in a cage and then promptly eaten for supper. Those stories though usually ended with a young hero tricking the witch, or troll or whatever, ending in the monster's demise. At the very least outsmarting it and getting away.
Perhaps that was what Hiccup had to do, if he was to get he and Toothless out of there.
A strange noise shrilled from one of the cages next to Hiccup on his right. He looked up in surprise, having never heard that noise before. It… it had almost sounded like some sort of cross between a cat's meow and an owl's hoot.
In the cage next to him was an owl of some sort. He couldn't quite see it's full body because of the creature's angle and the dim light of the fire, but he was quite sure it was one of the strangest owls he had ever seen. It had the coloring of a barn owl, but on top of its head were two large, pointed ears. Catlike ears.
Hiccup inched closer to the edge of his cage, trying to see the strange owl more clearly. The owl suddenly flapped in it's cage, extending its wings and turning its head to face Hiccup—and Hiccup yelped in shock.
The owl had four legs—four legs!
It's face resembled that of a cat, except where it's muzzle should have been there was a small beak protruding from its face. He suddenly noticed the tail—it was long and slinky, but covered with feathers. A cat's tail on an owl.
Hiccup stared at the abnormal creature, breathing hard, before tearing his eyes away and wildly started to look into the other cages.
They were all. Abnormal. How had he not noticed this before?!
In one cage on the ground, there was a small foxlike creature, but its fur was grey and it's snout shorter and rounder than it should have been. Its ears were long and floppy—much like that of a rabbit. A fox-rabbit? In another cage there was a raccoon… something. It looked to be crossed with some sort of deer, considering the antlers that jutted out of the top of its head, but it was much too small—whatever it was, it scared the heck out of Hiccup.
From what he could make out in the other cages, there were frog-rabbits, seagull-mice, lizard-birds, fox-deer, deer-birds—all of them, all of the animals were some sort of combination of two completely different species.
In a panic, Hiccup quickly checked himself over, and was relieved to find he was normal. But the relief was short lived.
Where's that old man?! he wondered, his heart racing, what does he want with me? Is he going to make me half—half something, too?!
It was no doubt that this was all the result of magic. The man was obviously some sort of witch or warlock, or perhaps the man was actually a troll in disguise!
However, with the exception of the many animals in different cages, the cabin was empty. The old man was nowhere to be found, for now.
Hiccup quickly tried to search for some sort of lock on his cage, something like a door—but he found none. He examined the bars of his cage on all sides, the roof, the floor, but there was no seam or any hint of a door. Magic? Probably. No—it was definitely magic.
"Ohhh gods, oh gods, oh gods, oh gods—Odin please get me out of this," Hiccup begged to the sky as he patted his pockets for anything sharp that he could use, but there was nothing. Nor was there anything in his cage he might possibly use against these metal bars.
He yanked on the sides of his cage, hoping to find a weak spot, but to no avail. The bars were strong and unyielding. Hiccup stopped tugging and leaned against the back of the cage. He kicked the bars, hoping that would be more effective. He kicked, shoved, rattled, and even rammed the bars with his bony shoulders—but the result was the same. Nothing happened. The cage hadn't even moved slightly when he'd rattled against it, it was like it was nailed to the floor. That or Hiccup's bony physique just couldn't do anything to budge the cage a mere centimeter.
Sweat trickled down Hiccup's forehead and he glanced back into Toothless' cage. The dragon was snoring, his tongue lolling out.
"Useless reptile," Hiccup muttered, but couldn't stay angry at him. The warlock—troll—old man—whatever the hell he was probably had Toothless under a heavy spell so he couldn't try to break out. He tried to nudge Toothless' nose to wake him up, but the dragon merely snorted and tucked his head under his wing, continuing to sleep deeply. Hiccup worriedly looked around. He couldn't just wait here for the old man to come back. He had to find a way to get out of—
Before he could finish the thought, the door of the cottage opened and in came the old man. The owl was still perched on his shoulder, and in the old man's hand was a basket with an assortment of plants, herbs and other things.
Hiccup tilted his head, trying to peek past the man's shoulder outside. It was dark outside. Probably nightfall… Again, he wondered how long he'd been unconscious, but was immediately brought back to attention when the old man set down his basket of plants and shuffled towards a shelf, gathering different vials and bottles. Hiccup slowly inched away from the front of his cage, hoping to put as much space as possible in between himself and his kidnapper. He ended up pressing his back against the cage, pressing hard against it as if willing to become part of the cage itself to avoid being seen.
The old man paid him no attention anyway, though, as he stuck some plants into a pot by the fire. He was muttering to himself, rather grouchily. The owl on his shoulder squawked again, flapping off and landing on the mantle of the fireplace.
"Not perfect, damaged, can't work with something damaged," the old man was muttering. "Not going to work, not going to work… unless…" The blue eyes suddenly flashed in Hiccup's direction and he flinched. He didn't like that look he was being given.
"Where am I?" he tried to ask in the bravest voice he could muster. "Why did you bring me here? Why am I in a cage? And who even are you?!"
The man said nothing, simply continuing to mutter to himself rather incoherently. Hiccup opened his mouth to ask again, when the old man let out a cry of excitement and dug through one of his shelves. He took out a small vial of clear liquid. A look of feverish excitement overcame the man's face, and he approached, not Hiccup's cage, but Toothless'. Fear jolted through Hiccup and he launched forward, gripping the bars hard.
"Hey, get away from him!" he yelled, "Get away from him!"
The man paid him no attention again, and moved some of the smaller cages out of the way. He reached through Toothless' cage and lifted out the dragon's tail. Hiccup realized his prosthetic tail was gone, as well as the saddle.
"I said, get away from him!" Hiccup screamed through the bars of his cage.
The man popped open the vial of liquid and, to Hiccup's horror, a few drops of it fell onto his tail. A golden light flashed through the air. Hiccup shut his eyes, tears brimming but he would not let them fall. What was he doing to his dragon?! What was going on? What was the bright golden light?
The light faded as quickly as it had appeared, and Hiccup blinked his eyes open. He didn't want to look at his dragon, but he forced himself to.
He nearly choked in surprise.
Toothless' tail… it… it was whole. Where one of his fins had been completely ripped off, courtesy of Hiccup and his net's contraption, there was now a new, fully regrown black fin. Hiccup's jaw dropped.
The man… had healed Toothless?!
"You… you healed him," Hiccup whispered in amazement. "You… why? Why did you… how did you…"
The man once again ignored him, capping the bottle of liquid and storing it in his pocket. A strange smile had grown on the old man's face, one that made Hiccup's insides squirm in fear. He was extremely confused; the old man had just healed his dragon which Hiccup had thought impossible, yet he couldn't shake the feeling that something was still incredibly and undeniably wrong with this man. But why heal Toothless? What would make him want to fix his tail?
The owl on the mantle gave a screech that made Hiccup nearly jump out of his skin for the second time that day. He glanced at the owl, which was agitatedly flapping its wings, then back at the old man. Hiccup jumped again. The old man was staring at him with an eerie smile.
"Boy and dragon, dragon and boy. Boy and dragon, dragon and boy," the old man muttered, "Perfect species, perfect bond, perfect health hee-hee-hee."
The blood drained from Hiccup's face.
Boy and dragon, dragon and boy? Perfect species… perfect bond…
Hiccup's eyes darted to the other cages, and he suddenly knew what was about to happen.
"No," he croaked, wanting to scream, but his throat was so tight with terror that he could hardly even make a sound.
The man started to cackle even louder than before, a raspy, half-cough, half-laugh that only added to Hiccup's horror.
Hiccup once again looked for any possible way he could get out of his cage, but he was stuck fast. His heart was beating a million miles an hour as he started to get an inkling of an idea of what the man wanted to do with him… with him and Toothless. He couldn't let that happen.
"Years… years, years, years, I've spent. Spent I've years, years I've spent…" the old man was going into a frenzy as he gathered different things together and piled them on a table in the corner. He grabbed the pot hanging over the fire and poured out its contents into the flames, nearly extinguishing the fire. With a flick of his wrist and a snap of his fingers, though, the fire jumped back into life. He began to throw things into the pot, a leaf from that plant, the contents of three different vials, and dozens of other things Hiccup didn't catch because the old man was moving so fast.
The cauldron suddenly puffed a large cloud of silver smoke. The old man cackled and started to mumble incoherently once more. He took something small, black and round from his pocket—one of Toothless' scales!—and dropped it into the cauldron. The silver smoke turned an inky black. The man then approached Hiccup's cage, who immediately backed to the furthest corner away from him.
"W-what are you doing, get away from me!" Hiccup yelled, pressing his back against the wall, but the man pointed his staff at Hiccup. A red spark shot out at the end, and Hiccup felt a strong, invisible force pushing him away from the wall and towards the man. He struggled in vain, and a moment later his cheek was pressed uncomfortably against the bars of the cage, inches away from the old man's face. Hiccup shut his eyes tight. He could smell the man's rotting breath and fowl oder quite clearly from such close proximity, and both combined was enough to make Hiccup gag.
He felt a sharp tug on his head. The man had pulled out a couple of his hairs. Hiccup's eyes flew open in time to see the man dropping the hairs into the cauldron, and the smoke went from black to a deep, emerald green. Black flecks of ash flew around in the smoke, glistening like scales in the light of the fire.
The force holding Hiccup was suddenly released, and he fell forwards.
He coughed and straightened up, before realizing with a jolt that he was no longer in the cage! He whipped his head up, ready to bolt at a second, but froze when he realized Toothless was still trapped.
He couldn't leave Toothless.
The old man snapped his fingers, and Toothless' cage suddenly started to move. The cages that had been sitting on and around it also magically scooted away, rearranging themselves in different places in the cottage. Toothless's cage rattled the floor, scooting along the rivets in the wood until it came to a complete stop in the middle of the room.
Hiccup desperately wanted to make a break for it, but he couldn't; not with Toothless still here. Would the man free Toothless, too, though? Would they have a chance?
The bars of Toothless' cage suddenly disappeared, and Hiccup felt a surge of hope—until an invisible force not unlike the one before shoved him forward, and he crashed into the cage with Toothless. The bars reappeared once more, trapping the two of them. Toothless continued to snore, still heavily sedated by the old man.
"Toothless," Hiccup shoved at his dragon in desperation. "Toothless, wake up. Wake up!"
The dragon remained motionless. Hiccup cursed, turning back to the wizard, tears of hopelessness stinging his eyes, but he wouldn't give up.
"Hey!" He yelled, clutching the bars of the cage, "Let us go, we haven't done anything to you! Please—I'll, I'll even make you a deal!" he said, thinking quickly. He had no idea what kind of deal he was trying to offer, but he needed to do something; anything to stall what the man was about to do.
The old man continued to be tone deaf to Hiccup's cries, giving the cauldron a tap with his cane. The cauldron suddenly tipped over, and glowing, emerald green liquid spilled out of it.
The liquid did not spread on the ground like how liquid normally should have acted. Instead, it weaved through the ground like a snake, in the direction of Hiccup and Toothless. Hiccup backed away as far as possible from the green liquid as it traveled into the cage. His heart was racing a million miles an hour.
He wished this were all a dream, that he was still back on Berk—or even in the woods just outside, where they had camped, and he had merely fallen asleep from the exhaustion of traveling and was having quite the crazy dream. But when the liquid came in contact with his foot, he knew for certain that this was no dream.
It burned like fire, and Hiccup had to clench his teeth to keep from crying out. He gripped the edge of the cage, terrified at what was about to happen.
Odin save me! Hiccup prayed, as all of the liquid surged into the cage. It seemed to have a mind of its own as it crawled up Toothless' body and Hiccup's legs. Hiccup let out a scream of pain as he felt the liquid seep through his clothes and burn his skin. Toothless moved, finally, opening his yellow eyes and letting out a pained, hoarse warble. The liquid was hurting him, too.
Why is he doing this?! Hiccup wanted to scream, but all that came out was the sound of agony. His body was on fire. It traveled up his torso, and Hiccup felt the potion working inside of him, as he felt his insides practically liquify. He didn't know how he did, but somehow Hiccup found the energy to crawl over to Toothless and wrap his arms around his large reptilian neck. Tears streamed down his face from the pain. The terrible, immense pain.
I'm sorry, Toothless, he wanted to say to him. This was all his fault. He had dragged his dragon out here, thinking they would have a fresh start at a new life, but now they had found themselves in at the mercy of a madman.
Make it stop, please make it stop, please! Help me!
"GYAAAAAAAAHH!" Hiccup screamed as the last of the liquid seeped up his neck, down his arms, and over his head completely enveloping him.
Hiccup felt in that moment extreme, blinding white-hot pain and then… he knew no more.
Hiccup hurt all over. His limbs ached, his head ached, his chest ached; everything ached. It was the pain that had woken him from his deep sleep. In his groggy, half asleep state of mind he vaguely wondered if he had fallen off of Toothless the other day, which might be the reason why he felt he'd been beaten with a cane by a hundred elders.
"Pssst!" Hiccup cringed; the soft noise of whatever that was hurt his tender eardrums. He wanted to ignore it and roll back over and fall asleep again, but his limbs felt like wood. He was far too stiff and sore to move even his hand, much less his body. "Psssst!"
Perhaps if I ignore it, it will go away, Hiccup thought tiredly. He wanted to do nothing else but sleep right now.
"He's not waking up, I vote we use more extreme measures than just whispering 'psst' in his ear." A new voice spoke up, in a hushed tone.
"Let's throw a rock at his head!" another voice offered.
"What, no! Bad idea!"
"A small pebble?"
"…a small pebble might work. Loui, gimme that little pebble."
A small blunt object suddenly made contact with Hiccup's temple and he flinched, finally opening his eyes. All he saw was a dark, very low ceiling above him. Strange… where was he? Hiccup turned his head slightly to the right, and his eyes caught sight of bars surrounding him. Bars? He was in a cage?
Events of what had happened seemingly moments ago suddenly flashed in Hiccup's memory and he remembered where he was.
Cages.
Strange animals.
A crazy old wizard.
Toothless.
Hiccup gave a strangled yelp and sat up, but immediately regretted it as his body responded with searing pains and aches as he moved. He gasped, wincing, clutching his stomach. He felt like he could hurl right now. His back, especially his shoulders, felt… weird. It hurt, just like every other part of his body, but it also felt strange and quite ... heavy.
What had happened before he blacked out? It was so hazy… he remembered being in a cage—he still was in the cage, actually—and Toothless was there… and the old man… but then what?
"He's awake!" whispered a voice. Hiccup blinked open his eyes again, trying to see through tears of pain. He glanced around, confused.
"Who—who said that?" he whispered, his voice hoarse and raspy. His jaw was stiff and his tongue felt, much like the rest of him, like wood.
"Us! Over here!" another voice whispered. Hiccup slowly turned his head, careful with his extremely tender neck, and faced the speakers. His eyes bugged out and his jaw dropped in shock. Immediately Hiccup tried to scoot away but something big and bulky behind him blocked his way. He ignored whatever it was as his attention was completely captured by the people before him, just outside the cage.
Only, they weren't people.
They were creatures—strange, strange creatures that Hiccup had never seen before in his life. The tallest of them stood two, maybe three feet high, their skin was grey and mottled, and their faces bore comically large noses and very round ears. They almost appeared to be nothing but a face, as their bodies were incredibly small in proportion to their heads. Their hair was like long blades of grass, and their clothing appeared to be made out of a green material, almost like moss. There were six, maybe seven total, and all of them were staring at Hiccup with large, curious eyes.
"Hello!" one of them said cheerfully, but was quickly shushed by the others.
"Be quiet, you don't want to wake up the wizard!" another hissed to the one that had greeted Hiccup.
"But he's in the cottage next to this one," the first one frowned, "He can't hear us."
"Doesn't mean he doesn't use magic to listen in for intruders!" the second one shot back. "This is a very important rescue mission, we're trying to not get spotted here!"
"Are you alright?" A third one whispered to Hiccup, ignoring the two bickering creatures and looking quite worried for Hiccup's well being. It was hard to tell, but Hiccup was quite sure this one was a female. Hiccup swallowed.
"I… I think so… I'm just.. uh… wh-what are you…?"
"Oh, we're trolls!" the female whispered brightly. Hiccup's hopefulness that had just started to perk up dropped like a stone as he flinched back.
Trolls? Like the kind that stole away little children who didn't behave, or took your socks?
The trolls seemed to notice Hiccup's sudden change in demeanor, and some rolled their eyes.
"Oh, I get it, I get it, you've only been told about how ugly and vicious we are, and how we steal away naughty kids or eat goats who like to cross bridges," a large one huffed, "It was just one goat."
"That's not what he needs to hear right now!" the female hissed, before turning back to Hiccup with an apologetic expression, "Listen, sorry about him; but we're here to help you! We're going to break you out of this cage and get you as far away from the wizard as possible."
Hiccup could hardly believe his ears.
"You're… going to help me?" he whispered. "Why?"
"Because that's what we do! Before, we pretty much ignored what the wizard did, and kept our distance; part of an ancient truce between trolls and wizards; but it wasn't until recently that we discovered what he was really doing with all these animals," the female troll explained. "And by recently, I mean… just now when we came in here to rescue you. When we noticed he had a human in his grasp, we realized we should probably help you out because we know that wizard to be quite… unstable… only… " she trailed off, a somber expression on her face as she glanced at something behind Hiccup for a moment. "I'm so very sorry we couldn't get to you sooner…" she whispered tenderly.
Hiccup frowned, wanting to ask what she meant by that, but the female had turned her attention to the cage. "Loui, what do you make of these cages?" she asked.
"Well, the one holding the kid is especially strong, which isn't surprising, considering he's, well—you know—but…" the troll named Loui tapped his chin thoughtfully, "I bet… if I could just… Oi, Norb, help me out here." A troll with an especially large nose, Norb, perked up from munching on a leaf. "Get on the other side of the cage, see if you can help me with the vanishing charm."
"On it." Norb walked around to the other side of the cage, and Hiccup's eyes followed him, to be stopped when he noticed a large black something blocking his view. His eyes narrowed and he turned his head more.
It was a wing. Toothless, Hiccup thought in relief, turning around fully to see his dragon.
Only, the wing moved with him when he turned. Hiccup stopped short, staring at the wing. His heart started to pound as another memory entered his mind, as he remembered what that wizard was going to do to he and his dragon. He remembered a glowing, emerald green liquid seeping up his body…
A pool of dread began to form in the pit of his stomach. Hiccup's eyes slowly, fearfully, followed the edge of the wing as it trailed nearer to him, then up ... and connected… to his shoulder.
Hiccup screamed as he grabbed the ink black wing in his hand, to see if he really was right and the wing was a part of him, then realized that he could actually feel what the wing touched! It was a part of him! The wizard—he had made Hiccup a half-something, too!
No… not just a half something, as Hiccup looked to the right and saw another jet black wing connected to his other shoulder, and a long tail protruding from just above his rear. He recognized that tail, those wings.
Toothless.
Hiccup's jaw was hanging open as a silent scream escaped him. He stared at his tail, his wings. Toothless' tail and wings.
Hiccup's head started to spin round in circles, as he looked at the rest of his body. His hands; they were larger than they used to be and jet black claws jutted out from where his fingernails had been. Pale human skin still showed, but around his hands, mostly on his fingers and on the back of his hands were small black scales, growing larger and further apart the higher up his arm they traveled. A terrified dry sob heaved from Hiccup's gut as he stared at himself.
Odin, what had happened to him? Why had this happened to him?
He was vaguely aware of a voice speaking somewhere in the distance, but he ignored it as he continued to stare at his disfigured hands. At some point he'd started to hyperventilate as he stared in shock at his body. Toothless' body.
Hands suddenly grabbed his face, and Hiccup found himself nose to nose with the female troll.
"Calm down, calm down," the female troll was saying. "I know this is hard right now and you don't know what's going on, but you need to freak out later. We're going to get you out of here, okay? Stay calm, we got some of the bars on the cage to disappear, and we need to go now. Can you walk? Stand? You don't have to speak, just nod your head yes or no. Could you manage to walk?"
Hiccup blinked slowly as his brain processed her words, then slowly nodded his head. The troll nodded back. "Good," she said, "Then, quietly, crawl towards us out of the cage."
Hiccup did what he was told and followed the female troll with slow movements. Some of the bars on one side of the cage had disappeared, and would have been enough for Hiccup to go through, originally. But as his shoulders slipped past the bars, the thick, black wings became painfully tightened as they tried to squeeze through the small space. Hiccup squirmed, trying to push himself through, but the more he moved, the more he realized he was getting stuck and the more painfully the bars squeezed his—Toothless'—wings. His heart began to race as he worried that maybe he wouldn't make it out in time, maybe the wizard would come back, maybe he would never get out of this mess!
"Hold on, hold on, don't panic," the troll named Loui said as Hiccup started to hyperventilate again. "Deep breaths, calm down. Norb, help me out again, we need two more bars gone."
Hiccup gulped and closed his eyes, trying to calm himself down. His nails—claws—dug into the wood floor as he waited for the trolls to work their magic and create a bigger hole for Hiccup to crawl through.
Magic. The word ran through Hiccup's mind like lightning as another flare of hope surged through him. The trolls had magic! Perhaps they could fix this, perhaps they could reverse whatever spell the wizard had created!
"Got it!" Norb cheered, and the pressure around Hiccup released, enabling him to crawl through. He realized, when he glanced around the cottage, that the cage he'd been in was still in the center of this strange little cottage, from where the wizard had moved it from last night… or had it been last night? Time was disorienting, and since there were no windows, he couldn't tell what time of day, or night, it was.
Hiccup moved to stand up, but a wave of dizziness overcame him and he stumbled, crumpling to his knees. He squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for the vertigo to pass.
"Can you stand?" he heard the female ask again. Hiccup slowly shook his head.
"He can't stand, we'll have to carry him," he heard one of them whisper.
"I—I'm—uerghh…." Hiccup felt a wave of nausea hit him and he clutched his gut again.
"This way!" One of the other trolls waved to them, and Hiccup saw he was standing next to, not the door, but a hole in the floor of the cottage where some of the wood flooring had been removed. It was large, thankfully. He just might be able to fit through it, but the idea of moving at the moment did not appeal to Hiccup. He closed his eyes again, breathing deeply.
"That's it lad, just breath slowly," the tallest troll said in a gruff but kind voice. "Just relax, we'll carry you through." Hiccup could only nod, and he felt himself being lifted by small hands and carried across the room. Hiccup felt his world swim and fatigue washed over him once more.
The world suddenly felt like it had turned upside down, but when he opened his eyes he realized that was because they were carrying him down the hole head-first.
The ground leveled out, and Hiccup's nose brushed against something gritty and cold. The dirt ceiling of the small tunnel was brushing up against his face just slightly, but he was too tired to even think about complaining. He just wanted to get out of there.
The door to the small cabin opened, and the old wizard, Xenophilius Rastemund, shuffled out. A large brown owl with haunting green eyes was perched on a small post not two yards away from the two conjoined cottages. It sat calmly as it watched the old man shamble towards the second cottage, then, disinterested, turned its head intent on grooming its feathers.
A horrific shriek echoed through the air, startling the poor owl and ruffling its feathers. The wizard hobbled out of the second cottage in a frenzy.
"Gone, gone, gone, gone, where has it gone?!" he cried, clutching his staff. "Gone, gone, he's gone, it's gone, my dragon boy, my dragon boy!" The owl flapped its wings again, hooting in annoyance. The wizard turned to the owl with wide blue eyes, then pointed his staff at the owl. The wizard made a strange, throaty incantation and white sparks flitted out of the end. The owl's eyes flashed white in a similar manner.
"Find him," the wizard commanded the creature. The owl immediately flapped off its perch, and began to scour the island.