Chapter 38 - The Storm:
The following morning in Myrka, house 194…
Out of all the things he had went through, not once had Alrik not achieved an ounce of sleep in a night.
He simply could not do it. His brain had other intentions.
Even if he was lying comfortably, he didn't think he would be able to sleep. Even though he had slept there many times before, under the stairs with nothing but one blanket, and lying on freezing wooden planks.
What Erp had told him last night he simply could not get out of his head.
The name was circling around inside his head, like a persistent mosquito.
Viggo. Viggo. Viggo. Viggo. Viggo. Viggo.
He was getting a headache.
It was quite shocking to Alrik, that straight after Erp had told him all that stuff, that he then pretended as if it never happened. He had opened up all the windows and doors, and resumed ordering him around the house, doing chores and labour work.
Whoever Viggo was, Alrik knew he needed to spread the name around as quickly as he could, but also discreetly. He had no idea what Erp meant by, 'the Six', but assumed it was something important.
A thought even crossed his mind, thinking, maybe that has something to do with Hiccup and the dragon of the night. After all, they were a prophecy. I wonder if I'll ever see him again.
Alrik had a gut feeling, he had a feeling he would.
"Slave! Where's my breakfast?!" Shouted a voice from upstairs.
Damn! I forgot!
Alrik leapt out of bed, still having heaps of energy, and went straight into the kitchen. He began organising some food together, and tried to get Viggo out of his head as he worked relentlessly.
After his master was all fed, Erp took off to the markets to begin his business for the day.
Alrik was instructed to have dinner ready when he came home, and to retrieve more food from the markets during the day.
Alrik almost smiled to himself upon realising that his master, was an exceptionally smart man. When he said he wanted his dinner to be organised before he got back, he vaguely added, "I feel like seafood. But, it must be fresh."
The slave understood this meant he would have to go to the southern end of the markets, and perhaps onto the wharves, to find some fresh fish. Because the freshest seafood comes from the fisherman who dock at the wharves.
Myrka's wharves were an excellent place to go to pass the evil name to people, for visiting tribes go there, and traders travel and dock from there.
So Alrik set out his work for the day, a few hours after cleaning up Erp's house he headed out, one goal on his mind.
In the late morning, back on the island of Remola…
Hiccup stood at the edge of the cave, with Toothless standing next to him.
Both their eyes focusing on the darkening storm clouds rolling towards them. They both knew what that meant, a savage storm was on the way.
The gang had not entered the village yet, as yesterday they sat around a fire in the cave, and talked all evening until they fell asleep.
Thunder gripped the air, crashing around them. The sound reverberating throughout the tunnel's walls. The morning began to turn to night, as the clouds blocked out the light.
The rain started off slowly, but began to pick up pace. Eventually hail come down, forcing Hiccup and Toothless to retreat further into the cave.
Snow began to come too, turning the temperature to below freezing.
Hiccup turned around and walked back to the campfire further inside the cave, and re-joined the others.
"Guessing we're not heading into the village for a while?" Vali asked, looking at the pair. She was sitting down and resting her back against Spark. Who was enjoying some peace.
It was quite an interesting contrast of colour, with Vali wearing a light green tunic, and Spark with her metallic purple hide shining in the light.
At these words, Kormak of whom was also resting against his dragon, Seaflare, looked towards the entrance of the tunnel. Seeing the snow and hearing the pelting wind outside.
"Bit late now isn't it?" He spoke up, now turning to look at his leader Hiccup.
"For sure." Hiccup agreed. Sitting down in front of the fire as Toothless did the same. "Not going out in this weather."
Valka stood up, and Cloudjumper stood up with her. All heads turned to look at them.
"I've had enough rest. I might go for a look around the tunnel. I'd like to see how far the tunnel goes." She said, brushing her hair back.
Suddenly some noises of rocks falling and crashing were heard further down the tunnel. Quickly followed by some voices.
Immediately everyone stood up, and looked down there, but they couldn't see very far. Even Toothless and Hiccup's eye sight couldn't see far enough.
"Put the fire out! Quickly!" Hiccup whispered, gesturing to the fire.
Cloudjumper heaved his four massive wings, and drew a huge wing beat which blew the fire out.
"Let's go check. Everyone weapons at the ready. And cover your dragon marks with your sleeves." Hiccup said, drawing his sword and walking in front with Toothless was baring his teeth beside him.
Hiccup heard a few sleeves being pulled down some arms, and knew his wish was carried out.
Together, the eight of them walked as one slowly and steadily further into the tunnel.
Soon, a few torches which were set alight began to become visible, and the gang noticed nearly a hundred Vikings were pouring into the tunnel from a door, or more of a small hatch in the side of the tunnel.
"That's it everyone, take it easy. We'll be safe from the weather in here." A woman said, she was holding the hatch open as more and more people kept coming out. She had a quiver full of arrows and a bow around her.
All the people began sitting at the bottom of the tunnel, huddling together to keep warm.
These must be the Remolian Vikings. Hiccup thought, as he and the others stopped walking and watched all of them. The gang knew they couldn't see them. They were well camouflaged into the dark.
Toothless and the other dragons removed their aggressive expressions, and tried to look stealthier instead. Remaining quiet. They kept low, and rooted to the spot.
"Shouldn't we introduce ourselves? I can't see any weapons on them." Cloudjumper whispered quietly.
"Let's wait till they all come out first." Vali whispered back, her eyes on the open hatch the woman was still holding open.
"Good job, that's nearly everyone." The woman stated, as if she was counting everyone who was coming through. "Ah, Gordi. Your men bring all the food supplies?" She asked a man who came out.
"Yes your majesty." The man replied, turning around and beckoning some more Vikings through the hatch.
Several large men now squished their way out of the hatch, each of them holding lots of crates with sweet smelling scents coming out of them.
"Good good." The woman noted, looking at all the crates coming through.
"But we won't have enough for more than a week." The man named Gordi warned. Walking to stand beside her. "We will have to make some trips up to the village for more in a few days my queen."
She nodded, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Of course, let's hope not too much snow falls so we can get out."
"Yes." Replied Gordi. Half laughing. "We don't want a repeat of the storm we had a few years ago."
"No we sure don't." She agreed. She looked back at the hatch, and finally no more Vikings came through.
"That's everyone? Excellent." She then closed the hatch and locked it shut, before walking down the side of the tunnel to be amongst the villagers.
"All right. Let's do it now shall we?" Vali nudged Hiccup, egging him on to speak up.
"Okay. No one do anything until I say the word." He whispered back.
Before Hiccup could speak, an exceptionally bright flash of lightning struck a few times, somewhere close outside the cave and illuminated the cave completely for a short moment.
A few people had noticed them, and looked in their direction, but before they could speak, the lighting was instantly followed by another boom of thunder which literally cracked the air around them. Forcing everyone to cover their ears.
Once it was over, a few people started shouting.
"I saw something just over there!"
Hiccup stood up from his crouching position, and called out, "Uhh, hi everybody."
The reaction was instantaneous. Everybody got to their feet and looked in the direction of Hiccup and the gang. And soon the people realised there were dragons and Vikings there. Lightning began to become more frequent, revealing them.
"Who goes there?!" The woman who was apparently the Queen of Remola yelled, walking to stand defensively in front of her village's people. She drew her bow and an arrow from her back, and shouted, "I'm armed! Reveal yourself!"
"Please please!" Hiccup called out desperately. "We come in peace. We were sheltering from the weather in this cave. We mean no harm."
The woman's eyes kept searching for the voice, but she couldn't see them. Until another flash of lightning, and she noticed all the dragons.
"Everybody down! There's dragons!" She yelled, and the people all dropped to the floor and shielded themselves.
"How did you get here? We saw no ships! You're trespassing on our island!" She yelled, referring to the Vikings, drawing an arrow back, ready to fire.
Valka suddenly stopped Hiccup from about to speak, and whispered to the group. "Okay, I have an idea. Dragons, get ready to breathe out a low steady flame." She stood up, taking initiative again, and said loudly. "We are dragon riders. We will reveal ourselves if you promise not to harm us."
There were several gasps amongst the crowd. And immediately, all heads in the lying down crowd turned to look at someone of whom the gang couldn't see.
"More dragon riders?" The woman questioned more out of curiosity than fear, beginning to lower her bow. "All right. My bow is lowered, reveal yourselves." She commanded.
All heads turned back to face the darkness.
Hiccup whispered, "Go ahead. And pull up your sleeves."
Toothless, Spark, Cloudjumper and Seaflare all slowly drew a low and beautiful flame from their mouths. Illuminating them permanently. Revealing Hiccup, Valka, Vali and Kormak all standing together. They all pulled up their sleeves, and everybody's glowing dragon marks were shown.
Vali stood in front of her electrical dragon, Spark the Skrill, with her mark glowing brightest of them all, a fluent white. Kormak's mark was next brightest, with his glow of beautiful pink similar to Seaflare herself, matching the young Thunderdrum's lovely red streaks along her body.
Next was Valka and Cloudjumper behind her. The orange in Cloudjumper's flame mimicking the sunset colour of orange emanating from Valka's mark. Cloudjumper gave an intimidating presence, as the largest dragon present.
Last but not least, Valka's only son, Hiccup. The leader of the Six stood out in front, with his Night Fury soulmate behind him. Never leaving his side. The brilliant glow of blue vibrantly shining from Hiccup's Night mark, with the majestic powerful gleam of the Night Fury's purple fire. The eight of them were a magnificent group.
"Oh my…" The woman unconsciously stepped backwards, and several gasps again escaped the crowd. Most of whom suddenly looked shocked.
"You-yo-you-" She stammered, barely able to form words.
Hiccup stepped forward with his arms raised. "We may look intimidating, but I can promise you. We mean no harm."
"You-you ride dragons?" The woman finally managed to form a question. Keeping her bow lowered surprisingly. The riders were quite surprised at how easy this was going thus far.
"Yes." Kormak said, and as if to prove it, he climbed aboard Seaflare. And the other riders did too.
Suddenly someone burst forth from within the crowd, and now stood next to the Queen.
The gang noticed it was a young man, who looked closely at them, before looking back at the chieftain with a very smug expression. His lip curling to the left, and he said happily, "Yes! I knew I wasn't the only dragon rider!" He spoke so excitedly.
WHAT?! Thought Hiccup and the rest of the gang at once.
Upon seeing the expressions of shock and disbelief on all the faces of the gang, the young man walked forward confidently for a person of his age, and stood closer in front of them.
"Sven careful!" The Queen warned, grabbing him by the arm and holding him back.
He stopped walking, and stood next to Queen.
Valka looked at the young man and Queen. So Remola has a Queen instead of a Chieftain. Nice to see a tribe trying out some different Viking traditions, perhaps royalty should be used by some other tribes too. She thought.
At this point, it was easier for the gang to observe the person in front of them.
They noticed the young man seemed like a teenager, roughly around 17 to 19 years old as a guess. He had light brown medium length hair, tied in a ponytail behind him. He was quite short, but within a few years he ought to be a bit taller.
He wore a dark red tunic with long sleeves, with a brown fur coat over the top.
"Camosee!" The young man called out.
All of a sudden, to everyone's immense surprise, a bright red dragon materialised out of nowhere on the roof of the cave above them. Its claws had dug into the rock, and it stayed hanging from the top of the cave glaring down at the gang.
The dragon appeared to have teeth protruding out its lips from its lower jaw. Its eyes were enough to be terrified of, they were a bright yellow.
The dragon has three horns, two are going horizontally from either side of its head. The other one was protruding vertically just above its upper jaw.
It appeared to have small spikes rather like a Skrill, but a lot smaller. These spikes looked like leaves, and they started at the back of its neck, and ran all the way down the dragon's body. Over its back and down to the tip of tail.
Lastly, it appeared to have two rope like whiskers coming out on either horizontal side of the back of its neck, giving an almost catfish like appearance.
"Invisahound!" Cloudjumper noted, staring up at the top.
The entirely bright red dragon then slowly walked along the cave's walls down the right ride. Its yellow eyes transfixed on whole gang. It kept walking, until it reached the bottom and stood next to the teenager in red.
Once it was still, it looked right at Hiccup and Toothless.
"Hail the Viking with Nights mark. And the accompanying Night. I must say, it's about time you finally showed up." The dragon spoke, it's back two red whiskers moving around like skinny snakes through the air.
"Sven! You're scaring the villagers!" The Queen told off the young man, looking at him with irritation. Sven turned around and saw the villagers huddling together away from the dragon.
"Sorry mum." He apologised, smiling.
"Wait…" Hiccup said, finally managing to find his voice. "You-you ride this dragon?" He asked.
"Yeah man." He said, as if it was the casual thing in the world. "Her name is Camosee."
"She's a Changewing." Sven said happily, patting her softly. As he did so, his sleeve on his right arm fell down. Revealing a glowing multi coloured dragon mark.
The gang have stumbled upon the fifth member of the Six and his bonded dragon.