Over three months later, but I have good reason, I assure you! Wheel has needed restructuring, so I took that time (while catching up on some other stories) to do that. During the restructuring, I added a new arc toward the end (an arc that I'm quite sure everyone will enjoy—there's Hiccstrid!). Also, I changed up some of the other planned arcs in attempts to make them more interesting. Hopefully, now Wheel will be worth reading. Haha. Let's find out!
Review Replies:
lorde (anonymous): You still waiting? It's been months. I will give you Hiccstrid. It'll be a little broken, considering they aren't together, but if you look, it is there.
Forever Me: I'm really glad that you like this story. Hopefully you'll like it even better now that it's been restructured.
Guest (anonymous): I don't know! That last "Hiccup" chapter was pretty ominous. Well, we'll see next chapter what's been going on with him.
Chapter 30: A Clue
Convincing her friends to join her unauthorized search party had been hard. Pulling strings to get her search party off the island of Berk had been harder. Astrid had played it off as a search-and-rescue drill for an academy lesson. Stoick had, at first, been unconvinced; he had tried to dissuade her, reminding her that the season of harsh snows was in full swing and snowstorms could start with little warning. The Chief only changed his mind when Astrid brought up Hiccup, claiming that this drill would help other Vikings lost on mission and was designed based on what had happened to Hiccup.
As much as Astrid hated lying to her chief, she was relieved when he finally granted her and her friends permission to perform the drill…as long as they returned to Berk well before nightfall. Approval granted, Astrid rushed off to again gather her friends and inform them about her conversation with the chief.
Astrid had expected that they would still be hesitant, but she easily convinced them (perhaps she should not have been so tough on them…) to join her search party for the "drill". They all gathered supplies and packed bags onto their dragons' saddles. Because this was "just a drill", Astrid had not been granted permission to use any of the village's tracking dragons. Our dragons may not be classified in the tracker class, but their senses are still adept for seeking Hiccup, so I think we'll be okay, she figured.
When they were all set to go, they all mounted their dragons and waited for Astrid to give instructions. "Okay, we'll start out following the path that Hiccup would've taken but along the way, we'll branch out and search around. Remember, we are looking for Hiccup or for any clues as to what has happened to him. Ready?"
The others nodded (though Astrid couldn't quite tell if the nods were sincere or not) and Astrid commanded Stormfly to take to the skies. Astrid and Stormfly led the search with the others flying either beside or behind.
Most of the early ground they covered had been searched several times, so, as expected, they found no clues there. The day passed uneventfully, the search leading to no clues…just like always. Astrid tried her hardest to remain optimistic, but she was frustrated. How can someone (even someone like Hiccup!) just disappear without any traces or clues? This just doesn't make any sense!
"Hey, Astrid!"
The call came from Tuffnut and Astrid rolled her eyes, slightly upset that he had to interrupt her thoughts.
"Is that a clue?" Ruffnut finished, seeing the thing that her brother had clearly just found.
Astrid looked down and saw something bobbing on the waves. From this height, she could not quite make out what it was, but it was definitely something out of the ordinary. "Stormfly, fetch!" she ordered, pointing down to the object in the water. Stormfly dove down toward the water and Astrid braced herself against the saddle for the change in flight direction.
When Stormfly had grabbed the object, she threw it up into the air so that it would fall into Astrid's waiting arms. The object was unlike anything Astrid had ever seen. It was covered in leaves and felt like…leather? Astrid looked to Ruffnut and Tuffnut. "This is definitely a clue. Good work. Let's go back to Berk. Then, I'll go take a look at this and let you all know what I can find out about it."
The others did not object and they turned to head back to their home island. No words were exchanged between the riders on the way back; Astrid was much too preoccupied with the strange object she held in her hands. She had never seen anything like it and, somehow, she just had a feeling that it was connected with Hiccup.
Once the group returned to Berk, Astrid ordered Stormfly to fly home and promised the Nadder extra chicken that night for her efforts. When they'd landed near Astrid's home, the girl led her dragon to the Nadder's stable and made good on her promise, giving Stormfly a double serving of chicken for dinner that night.
Retreating to her room, Astrid lit a candle and lay down on her bed. The object had dried out and Astrid carefully peeled the leaves away to reveal leather—just as she had suspected. It looked like the same leather Hiccup had used to create Toothless's saddle. Astrid's heart raced as worked to open the leather bindings to reveal a small piece of paper. She recognized this paper; it was the same size as the blank paper that Hiccup kept in his skectchbook. I was right! This is connected with Hiccup! It must be a letter. What does it say?
"Astrid," she read softly. The words were faded, but Astrid could just barely make them out. "I do not know if you or Berk will ever even read this letter and I'm not sure the best way to say this, but…Toothless and I never made it to our destination." Astrid gasped. No! I just knew something was wrong. Now I have proof to show everyone. She continued reading the note. "We were caught in a storm and crash-landed on a deserted island. I do not know how far off-track we became during the storm; all I know is that there is nothing familiar to me about this island on which we now reside. Astrid, I assure you that, if we could, we would have found our way home…or continued on to complete this mission, but right now that is impossible and looks like it will be for quite a while. Toothless's tailfin mechanics were damaged in our crash-landing and I have nothing that I can use to fix it. You know that I'm usually optimistic, but things look pretty bleak, Astrid. The season of harsh snows is quickly approaching and there is no shelter here on this island. I really hope you get this because…I don't know how long Toothless and I can last otherwise. Be safe and hopefully we will see each other again soon." The letter was signed HHH III.
Even after she had finished reading, Astrid continued to stare at the fading words on the paper. She couldn't believe it. This letter really was written by Hiccup. He was alive…well, at least he had been. Surely, he hadn't died; he couldn't have. Astrid wanted to race right out and show the letter to her friends and all of Berk, but it was dark now, so she just figured that she would wait until tomorrow morning. One day won't make much of a difference…will it?
Thanks to a snow day I've made my deadline for posting Wheel! Hope the chapter was worth the wait! Now things will start getting good, so make sure to stay tuned!
Coming Up Next: Darkness. Warmth. That was all Hiccup knew. It was comforting. Wait…what is this place?
Posted: January 26, 2015
My 24th birthday is tomorrow!
