Siren

I woke up to find myself bound and gagged. Everything around me was dark. Nothing was to be seen.

I could hear Annette groaning loudly; her groan was sharp, and it made my ears hurt.

I could've called out to her there, but my mouth was bound, and so were my hands and legs. I had no way out. Unless I could locate Annette and have her chew through the ropes.

I closed my eyes and tuned my ears in to the sound. It seemed to be coming from the left.

Quietly, I inched toward my left until I felt scaly, rough skin and wood and metal not too far from its surface.

"Is that you, Siren?" Yeah. It was definitely Annette. I obviously didn't respond because of my mouth. Instead, I just held my hands near her mouth. I could feel sharp teeth piercing into my skin and into the ropes. I could feel a liquid trickling down my hands.

"Sorry I pierced your skin," Annette said. "It's bleeding, you know."

Great. That was yet another set of scars to add to my collection. I kept them hidden underneath my kimonos. That way, I wouldn't have to remember.

I removed the gag around my mouth and took a deep breath. It felt good. So good.

I rubbed my wrists to restore circulation to them. Then, I turned to Annette and rubbed her skin. I could feel wood and metal along the length, as well as a lock on the metal. From what I could feel, there was no way to get her out unless I had a key.

"I can't get you out, Annette," I said, rubbing my forehead, trying to think. "I think we need a key."

As I said that, I could hear a door opening and I instantly could feel sunlight onto my skin. I turned around, my eyes blinded by the sun.

The man who opened the door had a large red beard, and weighed around 400 pounds. He wore a green robe with chainmail and had a brown belt around his waist. He reminded me a lot of my grandfather, Stoick the Vast. I'd seen a painting of him and Hiccup the Dragon Conqueror from when he was fifteen. Hiccup had just then found the treasure of Hamish the First. He'd discovered that Hamish the Second, his son, was also a hiccup like him.

Like me as well.

"She knows Nordic!" the man shouted. In the sunlight, his eyes pierced me, with fear and curiosity. "She might be a Viking!"

Another Viking tribe. The last one I'd seen were the Meatheads.

Al

"She ran away and you didn't even question her?" I yelled, as Freya cowered down with her hands over her head, trembling with fear.

"She said she was coming back," Hod said, back arched over a stalk of rice. "I hope she meets some hot females."

"Hot females?! HOT FEMALES?!" This is what Hod's worried about? Hot females instead of Siren's safety? What if she was kidnapped by the Celts again?! Immediately, I went into the rice field and pulled Hod up to face me. Quickly, I slapped him hard.

"That's what you get for being more concerned about hot females instead of Siren!" I shouted, waving my arms around. I put my hands on my waist and turned to Valkyrie, who was nibbling at the fish in the basket I'd brought for her.

"Come on, Valkyrie," I called out. "Let's go find Siren."

Valkyrie looked up from the fish basket and ran to me. She thrust me up in the air with her snout and I landed on her back. I readjusted my position and she spread her wings and took off.

Siren

"There are Vikings married to Celts?!" I said, completely astounded.

"Yes," Od said. He was the man who looked like my grandfather, Stoick the Vast. "We settled with the Scottish Celts and intermarried. I have three sons with my wife, Marvina. She's quite a lovely girl, you know. She knows Nordic, and I know Scottish Gaelic. Many of us do."

"But you speak a different language than the other Celts, though you do have the same gods and myths. Why-"

Od held his hand up. "There are different groups of Celts. The ones some Viking tribes are at war with are the French Celts. They live in France and have the same mythology and customs, but speak a different language. Their language is closer to the Normans' language, who are a tribe that also live in France. The ones who generally intermarry with Vikings are the Irish and Scottish Celts. The Scottish Celts live here. The Irish live on another island. The Welsh Celts live farther south than we do. You'll also meet the Manx on another island just north of the Welsh, as well as the Cornish another thirty or so miles from here. So that's what you need to know. Tell me about you. You said Nordic and Celtic French were only two of the languages you knew. What others do you know? And is it true that groups of Vikings have an alliance with dragons?" He leaned forward, hands supporting his chin.

"I know Mayan and Japanese, and I'm learning Korean. I have a library back in the Barbaric Archipelago on an island called Dragon's Edge. I teach at a nearby island. My students are taking a break, so I thought I'd travel around a bit more. My father, Hiccup the Dragon Conqueror, was responsible for the peace between dragons and humans," I said, not wanting to reveal too much because I'd just been tied up by these Viking Celts. They only let me go because I'm a Viking. What if they didn't like anyone who different?

"Where do they speak Mayan, Japanese, and Korean? Do you have books in other languages? Have you been to other places? And how did your father make peace between Vikings and dragons?" Od asked, leaning closer. "And one more thing: Your dragon's safe. He's with the king of our village."

"King?!" I almost spat at the idea.

"Yes, I know Vikings are used to chiefs because of their villages, but when Vikings intermarried with Scottish and Irish Celts, the village got too big, so the chief became a king instead."

"Wow," I said. Then I remembered what Od asked me. He seemed trustworthy. I could tell by instinct. So I went ahead and told him the story about how my dad made peace between dragons and Vikings, me running away, finding the Mayan Empire and meeting the Quetzalcoatls, going to Japan, seeing Korea and China, moving around the Arabic Empire and stealing plenty of books from the libraries there until my bags became too heavy and I had to leave. Then, I told him about being kidnapped by the Celts. I couldn't bring myself to describe the torture I endured because I couldn't without crying. It brought back horrible flashbacks. I didn't want to think about it.

I told Od about how Trader Johann saved my life, and me starting my life as a teacher on Meathead Island. I also told him about the books written in Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Nordic, Arabic, Mayan, Latin, Hebrew, and Greek. I didn't say anything about the instruments because I didn't know how to play them yet, but I planned to start learning when I went back to Japan for the summer.

"So that's it," I said, slapping my hands on the table. "Any questions?"

Od didn't answer.

That was because Al burst in through the door all of a sudden.