Chapter 7: The Surprise
Cami had just finished breakfast when she heard a knock at the door. The healer went to open the door, and Hiccup and Astrid walked inside. Astrid looked very annoyed, and Hiccup looked worried.
"I'm not sick Hiccup!" Astrid protested. Hiccup just pulled her inside.
"You've thrown up three times this morning! You need to listen to me," he replied. She rolled her eyes but sat down at the table, across from Cami. Right away, the healer picked up some herbs and started crushing them into a paste.
The healer said, "Once I'm finished with this I'll check you over, but this takes a while."
Cami offered, "I can do that for you." The healer nodded and gave her the bowl. Then she turned to Hiccup and asked, "Could you go get a bucket of fresh water?" Hiccup nodded and took the bucket outside. The healer asked Astrid questions, and checked for illnesses but could find none.
Hiccup returned, putting the bucket by the stove. The healer took a pot and filled it with the water and then put it on the stove.
"Well Astrid, I can't find what's wrong. It might be the weather." The healer took the paste from Cami and put them into a cup of hot water and gave it to Astrid. "Drink this tea to soothe your stomach. Just rest for a few days and you should be fine," she told Astrid.
Astrid stood up and said, "Thank you." She drank the tea and put the empty mug beside of Cami's breakfast dish. "See Hiccup? I told you I was fine."
Hiccup shook his head and replied, "Yeah, yeah. You're still going to bed though." He said, grinning. "I can't have Berk falling to pieces because you're not there to run everything!" he said as he took her hand and pulled her out the door.
"Thanks!" he called over his shoulder.
The healer started cleaning out the bowl and Cami silently rose to her feet. She had the door halfway open when the healer turned her head and saw Cami trying to sneak out.
"If I were you, I'd do whatever I needed to do to get better quickly," she commented, a warning in her voice.
Cami's shoulders slumped. "Of course. I'll go upstairs and rest." She shut the door and slowly made her way up the stairs and to the room she was supposed to stay in. Cami laid on the bed, and said, "This doesn't feel right." She climbed out off bed, then laid on the floor. "Why does this feel better?" she asked herself. She rolled on her side, and something under the bed caught her eye. She stretched out her arm and pulled out an old box. When she looked inside, she gasped.
The box was filled with notebooks. There must have been at least fifty of them. There were little ones and big ones, some were old and battered and some looked brand new. Cami picked up a few and looked inside of them. She saw drawings, diaries, and log books. She found a empty one, and she found a piece of charcoal in the bottom of the box. Her hand seemed to draw on its own, making people and faces. Cami didn't realize what she was drawing until the sketch was almost finished, but she kept drawing.
Cami sat up, looking over her work. It was a picture of Hiccup, Astrid, and Stoick, with a girl about the same height of Stoick, with a blank face. She sighed in frustration. She couldn't make herself believe this was her village. It would only make the disappointment of leaving worse.
Cami spent the rest of the day drawing pictures of all sorts of things. She drew dragons, islands, and she drew a picture of stables were she used to sleep, and she drew Starblaze the way she looked when they first met.
When the sun set and it was too dark to see, Cami sat on the bed and wondered where Starblaze was. She was probably playing with the other dragons. Cami laid there for a while, just thinking about what she would do when her shoulder got better. As she thought, she slowly drifted into sleep.
Cami woke up and immediately heard loud voices coming from outside. She jumped out of bed and put her boots and furs on, then went out the door as fast a possible without running. Today she could ride Starblaze!
When Cami made it outside, all thoughts of her dragon vanished as she met chaos outside. Vikings were running everywhere shouting something about dragons. Cami looked over the sea of people and located the problem- every dragon on the island of Berk were surrounding the house on top of the hill. The one that Stoick told her was the chief's house.
From where Cami stood, she could see a way to get to the house from behind, where there were no huge screaming Vikings. She darted into an alley, then behind a few huts. Finally, she was at the back of the house. Cami saw a back door and eased her way towards it, using all the sneakiness inside of her to not alert the dragons. She put her hand on the doorknob. Should she go in?
Before she had time to chicken out, she opened to door, stepped inside, and closed the door all in one quick motion. Cami looked around. She was in the kitchen, and she saw dirty dishes on the table where no one had cleaned up from breakfast. She tiptoed to the other end of the room, and saw Hiccup and Astrid looked out the window, trying to see the dragons surrounding their house.
"Why do you think there're here?" Hiccup asked. Astrid shook her head and didn't answer. Then out of the corner of her eye she saw a slight movement and turned to find Cami in the kitchen.
"Cami! How did you get in here?" Astrid asked, making Hiccup turn around. He looked shocked that she somehow got into his house without knowing, but he didn't say anything.
Cami stepped in the room and said, "I'm sorry for sneaking in. Your back door is unlocked." She glanced outside. "I thought you might want some help with the dragons."
Hiccup messed up his hair with his hand. "And how do you suppose we get them away from our house?" Hiccup's voice told Cami that he was annoyed that a teenager might know something about dragons that he didn't, but Cami ignored his tone.
"Oh, you aren't going going to get them very far away from your house, but I know how to get them to let you out," Cami told him. Then she remembered what she came in here for and said, "By the way, congrats!"
Astrid looked confused. "Congrats for what?"
Cami realized her mistake too late. "Oh... You don't know why there're here, do you?"
Astrid shook her head and replied, "No we don't. The dragons have never acted this way before."
"Well, spending eight years listening to dragon hunters talk about eggs all the time means I have picked up a few facts!"
"Eggs?!" Hiccup said somewhat hysterically.
"Ok, maybe I should start from the beginning. Hiccup, is Toothless the dragons' alpha?" Cami asked.
Hiccup nodded.
"So, would the dragons recognize you as the humans' alpha?" Cami questioned.
Hiccup shrugged and said, "I guess so."
"Well, that explains it! You are Berk's Alpha. When Alpha dragons pick their mates, they usually only have one egg in their lifetime. So, when the dragons of the nest sense that their alpha's mate has an egg, they will gather around her to protect the egg," Cami told the couple. "The same goes for humans. So they are just protecting you, so your new baby will be healthy. Congratulations!"
Cami didn't think Hiccup or Astrid heard her past the word baby, because they were too busy kissing each other. Cami decided to give them some privacy, and she left the house the same way she came. Once outside, she spotted Starblaze with a group of children, making life-size sculptures of them with ice. Cami smiled and walked towards her dragon. Right beside the children there was a ridge the perfect height for sitting. Cami sat down on the ridge and watched Starblaze play.
The dragon made the sculptures perfectly like the children. Every time she made a new one, the kids would laugh and climb over it, and then yell out who they thought it was. Soon, there was a sculpture of each child there. When the children had left, Cami said, "Hey Starblaze, do you want to go flying?"
Starblaze wiggled all over in excitement and could only stay still long enough for Cami to climb on her back before taking off. Cami laughed into the wind and held on to Starblaze as hard as she could. Since she didn't have a saddle, it was hard to stay on the sleek dragon, but she still managed.
Cami loved flying. The wind whipping her hair and the weightless feeling in the sky made her feel amazing. Better than she had felt in her whole life.
A blue and red flash streaked past her, she spotted Norbert ahead of them. "Let's go Starblaze!" she yelled. Starblaze sped past Norbert and into a thick cloud. Cami could hear Stoick laughing behind them, so she urged Starblaze in a dive. Norbert followed them to the water. At last second Starblaze pulled out of the dive, but Norbert and Stoick were not so lucky. Cami looked back to see them emerge from the water, and followed them to a cliff not too far away.
When they landed, Cami jumped off Starblaze and laughed at the look of disgust on Stoick's face.
"What are you laughing at?" he demanded, trying to shake the water out his hair, "That water is freezing!"
Cami stopped laughing and said, "I almost fell in too! It's hard to fly without something to hold on to."
Stoick looked surprised to see there was no saddle on Starblaze. He said, "Gobber can make you one. He'll probably do it for free since you helped him with the scales."
"Oh, that's great! It's not like I have any money to spend," Cami replied. She sat down on a rock and Stoick sat beside her. Suddenly, Cami had a question, "Why isn't Norbert climbing all over your house like all the other dragons?"
Stoick shrugged and said, "I don't know. Dad told me what you told him. Maybe Toothless told Norbert he could handle Astrid by himself." Stoick turned his body so he was facing her. "How did you know about that?"
"The dragon hunters loved to hunt for eggs. I had to listen to their stories for weeks before they left on another mission," She told him. Cami took her notebook and pencil out of her pocket and started drawing. She drew all different kinds of dragon eggs, she even drew a Bewilderbeast egg- one that she had never seen before, but saw drawings of it.
Stoick watched her draw and when she drew the last egg, he said, "I recognize most of those, but what is this one?" He pointed to a very smooth dragon egg in the corner of page.
"That's a Fury egg. The color is how you tell what kind it is. Black for Night Fury, white for Light Fury, blue for Ice Fury, and so on." Cami shrugged. "It kind of looks like a large chicken egg."
Stoick nodded and asked, "Do you know what a Dramillion egg looks like?"
Cami shook her head. "I don't know. Dramillions are very rare."
Stoick leaned in closer to the book, "Oh, I didn't know that! I found Norbert here in Berk-" a clear arrow flew through air and lodged itself right beside Stoick's foot. He fell backwards off the rock in surprise, trying not to take his eyes off the arrow.
"Starblaze!" Cami jumped up and helped Stoick up. "Sorry, I guess she is a little mistrustful these days. Are you ok?"
Stoick nodded and picked up the arrow. "Can she make any shape out of ice?"
Cami nodded. "Watch this," She said walking over to Starblaze. She whispered, "Hey girl, do one of Norbert." Starblaze took a deep breath and formed a dragon figure out of ice. It was a few inches tall, and the ice dragon was posed with his wings up like he was about to take off. Cami picked it up and took it to Stoick.
"Wow," he said, taking it from her, "Wait until dad sees this!"
Cami jumped back on Starblaze. "I'll race you there!" she called over her shoulder as Starblaze took off.
"Not fair!" Stoick called back, running to his dragon. The two red-heads landed in Berk less that thirty seconds later.
Cami smiled and teased, "I beat you by a good three seconds."
Stoick shook his head. "Oh no you didn't! I totally won!" They laughed for a minute, then Cami looked up as it started raining. "Ugh, lets get out of the rain. We can go to my house," Stoick suggested, glancing at Cami.
"Um, maybe I should go back to the healer's-"
"There you are Stoick!" a voice called from the hill. Hiccup was walking towards them. "Did you go flying?"
Stoick nodded. "Starblaze is amazing! She can make ice sculptures of anything!"
Hiccup chuckled, "That's very interesting. Cami, you must come eat supper with us. I was just going to get Stoick to ask you."
Cami glanced at Stoick. He had a smug expression that said, 'Told you so.' Cami bit her lip nervously and said, "Well, if you want me to..."
"Yes!" Stoick exclaimed, leading the way to his house, pushing through the sea of dragons. Cami followed him apprehensively, her feet making no sound on the well-worn path. They arrived at the front door too fast for Cami's liking. Stoick opened the huge door and walked in.
Cami hesitated at the threshold, but Astrid saw her and said, "Hello Cami, I'm glad you could make it! Come in. We are just about to eat!"