Chapter 5

Preparations and Missed Marks

As soon as I got home from work, and before I had to leave to pick up my sister, I went online and began searching the internet for any local places that dealt in gems and minerals. Luckily for me, the search was not long; there was a dealer less than a half-hour's distance from my house, by air that is. The next step then was to choose which of the gems in the bag I would take. There was a fair selection I was keeping for sentimental or symbolic purposes (I had started preparations to make a plaque with one stone to represent each tribe of Israel, as I had discovered I had in fact received at least one of each that I needed), but at the same time it was a large bag, with plenty of stones I could still use.

I didn't want to start right up at the beginning and use the more expensive gemstones, so when I retrieved the bag I started out setting aside those that I knew were of great value: blue and red diamonds, tanzanite, alexandrite, and others (some of the smaller of those stones I also had plans for). I ended up selecting one that I thought would be relatively inexpensive: an amethyst, violet as Stormfly's scales when she fibbed, that was about a quarter the size of my fist.

Okay, so inexpensive is still a relative term, as the thing weighed a good couple ounces (and therefore several carats per ounce), but hopefully it would cover my leftover college costs along with the new setups I'd need for the greenhouses. I returned the rest of the gems to the bag and hid it away once more, before placing the amethyst in a sealed pocket.

Picking up Holly didn't take long, and as soon as I dropped her off at the house I told her to let our parents know I'd be back in a couple hours, and that I just had a few important errands I needed to run. Then, I took off to the south, following the map I had printed and heading for Denver.

For the most part, flying is great, but there is a cost: you cannot go too fast for too long, or else you wear out very quickly, so I was stuck gliding at only a moderate rate the whole way. Traveling by air is still a magnitude faster than the cars that I watched passing below me, but after having spent time before moving at multiples of the speed of sound, a couple hundred miles an hour when you're on a mission instead of leisure even starts to feel slow.

Eventually I managed to find the dealer, a rather uninteresting building near the edge of the city. As I glided down I gave out a roar to announce my approach for landing, and after I was done laughing at the reactions of the pedestrians on the sidewalk, I touched down, morphed back, and walked in.

Glass cases full of various minerals and gems (each and every one protected by infrared) decorated the walls and counters, and just past the center of the room a middle-aged, somewhat nerdy looking man sat at a desk behind another decorated counter, lined with filing paper, calculators, a computer (the usual business gear) and such things as magnifying glasses, diamond cutting tools, and other various instruments I won't even attempt to guess at.

"Can I help you?" he asked, barely glancing up from his work on what appeared to be a small aquamarine stone. I fished the amethyst from my pocket and held it up between my fingers. "Well, that depends. I came to see if I could trade this in," I said lightly. The man (Alex going by the name tag on his chest) looked up completely now, and gaped for a second at the stone in my hand. Then he blinked and stood up slowly from his seat.

"W-well, we'll, uh, we'll need to get down a record for your information," he stumbled, "and examine the stone to determine its worth. Are-are you sure that is real?" "Completely," I assured, trying to keep myself from making a sarcastic comment. He nodded, and walked over to a file cabinet in the back of the room, pulling out a sheet of paper which he handed to me. "If you could fill this out then, I will examine the stone afterward."

After a couple minutes, I'd filled out the information sheet as best as I could, and then handed both the paper and the amethyst to Alex. He took it and carefully placed it on an inset to hold the stone in place, before picking up a magnifying glass and carefully examining the surface.

After about three minutes, Alex looked back up to me. "First off, I'll be honest and say this is the largest amethyst I have ever seen in my life. Secondly, I don't know where you obtained this from, but I can't find a single flaw! There are no chips, no impurities, and it's been cut expertly already." He glanced back down at the stone, curiosity sparking in his eyes. "I probably can't get an answer for this, but where on earth did you come across it? My first guess would be a very high-end shop."

I shrugged. "It was a gift from a friend some time ago. That's all I'm really at liberty to say at the moment." Alex nodded understandingly. "Some friend then."

The examiner took the amethyst and placed it on a scale, reading the measurement. Then his eyes widened again. "Wow," he muttered, glancing up at me. "This is a ten gram amethyst; that's working out to about 50 carats." He carefully picked up the stone and handed it back to me, before standing up and turning to the back of the building. "I need to consult with the supervisor to finalize if we are going to purchase it. I will be right back." He disappeared through the door at the back.

A couple of minutes later Alex returned, followed by another man in a groomed black suit. "I take it you're the new client?" He asked. I nodded, and he continued. "Welcome then. Name's Dillon, and I think we'll take you up on purchasing the amethyst you have. May I see it before we finalize the transaction?"

I held up the gem, and Dillon carefully took it, looking the gem over. Then he glanced at Alex. "You said 50 carats?" he asked. The examiner nodded. Dillon looked back at me and nodded. "At current value, and considering both this flawless color and the state of your stone, we can offer to purchase it for approximately $4200. Will you accept that offer?"

I could have sworn I heard that wrong. "Can you repeat that?" "$4200," Dillon affirmed. I nodded, mind going blank for a moment as I processed this. I had expected the amethyst to be worth maybe around $1500, max, but over $4000?

"Well, I…uh, that's certainly a better offer than I was expecting, actually," I admitted. "I guess the facts I checked were a little outdated. I will most certainly accept your offer." Dillon nodded, and a smile broke across his face as he handed the amethyst to Alex once more, and he headed into the back once more.

A couple of minutes later, he returned with a proper receipt and a certified check from the business. After checking over what he'd printed out on the note, he handed it to me with the receipt and thanked me for my business. Expressing gratitude in return, I turned and stepped out the front door, walking down the sidewalk a ways.

For a couple of minutes I didn't go anywhere, still trying to process this. $4200 for one of the cheapest (I had thought) gems in that bag? I was flabbergasted. After all, there were such stones as alexandrite, jadeite and diamonds in that sack that I had estimated were well over ten carats, and they were many, many times more valuable. Just what had Odin given to us?

When I returned to my own home town, my first action was to deposit the money I had made, before traveling around the city to find the items I had marked down as needed for the new setups I was building. Even after all the supplies were purchased, I had spent barely over $200, and still had more than enough to cover the remaining costs for my entire next year of college.

The first obstacle was found when I walked into my home carrying all the equipment, right in front of my mom and dad. My mother's first expression was downright suspicion.

"Do I even want to ask what that is?" she asked. "A greenhouse and supplies," I responded shortly as I began setting things down.

"Oh no, you're not putting another one in here," she countered. "That one you have already takes up way to much room, and where would you even put a second? We've already discussed this!" "Yes, and I have long explained why I have been needing one downstairs for some of them," I replied, "and I need to set up these systems as well because I am probably going to be incredibly busy soon."

"Then find somewhere else to set all this up," my father flatly retorted. "You're more than welcome to fill up space with plants in your own house."

"And I can't do that, recall?" I snapped. "First off, everything is already here, so it's not much effort or issue to expand a little. Second, I don't have the money yet for an entirely new house of my own yet. Thirdly and perhaps most important at the moment: need I remind you about the portal? I don't know if it would stay at this spot if I left or travel with me or something, but as of right now I am not taking that chance at the moment."

The argument continued for more than half an hour, before I managed to pull together enough support to not only continue what I was doing, but refute any idea that I would be leaving the portal behind any time soon. Even my parents agreed I was needed in Berk.

The next five hours (or, in other words, the entire rest of the evening) I spent dealing with setting up everything I needed. Immediately afterward, I went straight up to my room, and was asleep before I even hit my pillow.

Another day of work, and another hassle of dealing with the ever-present pain in the butt that is Holly, and then I found myself back on Berk. It didn't take long to find Hiccup again, in the forge as usual, and Toothless was dozing lightly nearby.

"Ready to go?" I asked as I landed, folding away my wings and peeking inside. Hiccup looked up, and shrugged. "Uh, not quite I'm afraid. I actually wanted to show you something first, real quick." He gestured for me to follow him into the back room, and I ducked inside.

Carefully, Hiccup bent down and opened a drawer, pulling out something wrapped in cloth. "I did this last night, after Gobber had left already," he explained, unwrapping the object. "Mostly, I waited because if it didn't work I didn't want him laughing at me again. Turns out, Mysteel has only a slightly lower melting point than some dragon scales, most notably Toothless', and they don't do well being heated at the same time. But, if melted separately and then mixed together…" he handed the object to me.

It was glossy black, similar to the armor we had made of pure Night Fury scales, but there was an underlying metallic glint to it as well. What was more, it was flexible, like well-worked leather. I looked up at Hiccup, a grin spreading across my face.

"How strong is it?" I asked. "Eh, pure Mysteel can usually still pierce it, if there's enough force behind the blow, but nothing else I've tried will even scratch the stuff, unlike our original dragon armor. You recall the steel arrow incident I'm sure." I nodded, remembering well; we had honed pure steel to as sharp as we could, and Hiccup had been wearing the armor to protect from heat in the forge as he tried to work the head on to the shaft. The shaft had snapped and sprung up at him, the arrowhead going with and stabbing through a loose section of the armor on his side. Nothing serious was hit, but it had scared the both of us.

Hiccup continued his explanation of the new material. "I also discovered that it retains that other odd feature of the metal; if you're wearing it and something hits you, you can't feel it at all." "And how did you discover this?" "Toothless smacked me with his tail when I asked him to." "After I thought he'd lost his mind for working that late, and asking me such a question," Toothless remarked, having awakened completely and followed us in.

I chuckled, before examining the material I was holding again. After a moment I held it out to Hiccup, who smirked and took it back, placing the sheet back into the cloth and covering it, setting the whole thing into the drawer again. "I have a feeling we just revolutionized our battle gear," he murmured, getting that inventive look on his face again.

We headed out of the forge after that, meeting up with the other teens and their dragons in the main plaza. "Everyone packed and ready?" I queried. "No, we were standing here uselessly waiting for you before we got everything together, duh," Astrid snarked. "You two take forever to get anywhere, you know that?"

"Is it our fault we're both the curious type?" Hiccup asked, before adding, "Never mind, don't answer that." The response brought chuckles to Ember and Orha, before everyone mounted up and we took off. This time I flew amongst the others in the same form I had first found myself in after arriving on Berk, the gray-green, elongate Western-style drake of no particular species. It was a flexible form, as I didn't particularly know what to expect with where we were headed.

Our trip took us northward, a couple of hours over flat, featureless ocean, the only visible spits of land being tiny, uninhabitable islands barely supporting handfuls of stunted trees. A single dragon could maybe survive on a couple of the biggest ones, with enough cover for a sleeping spot, but we still spied nothing more than birds.

"Man, did you guys just choose the lamest path to take because you thought it would be fun, or is there actually supposed to be something out here?"

I glanced back toward Snotlout, eyes narrowing, and gestured my head ever so slightly to Fireworm. She nodded in agreement, before promptly combusting.

"AAAHHH! Cut it out!" Snotlout yelled, raising himself up off his seat and attempting to quell the flames.

"Gee, if you would stop complaining every chance you get, maybe she wouldn't roast your rear, literally," Astrid snapped. "But there's nothing out here!" Snotlout protested. Seconds later the smell of burning leather immediately returned. "AAHHH! Alright, alright!"

Finally though, a much larger island began to grow visible on the horizon. We were a ways away still, but I could see rolling hills and forests covering it to one end, as well as a large bay on the other side. There was something extending up out of the bay, and curling around the shore to the far side of the island, but I couldn't quite make out what it was.

"Happy now, Lout?" Ember asked nonchalantly, glancing back warningly at the loudmouth. "Only if we actually find something for once," he replied.

"Well, it's the nearest large island, and the only one for miles, so there's got to be something there," Hiccup replied. "Only problem is, we don't know what yet. Could be a northern village, or what we're actually looking for."

"Uh, I think we're about to find out," Fishlegs said, pointing ahead of us as his face paled. I followed his finger, and my eyes widened. "Everyone, get ready to defend yourselves!" I yelled, flaring my wings and slowing as the others did the same.

A veritable cloud of dragons was heading our way, moving directly from the island ahead and at the rate they were traveling, they weren't in a happy, welcoming mood either. I glanced up, noting the condition of the weather.

"To the clouds!" I yelled, arcing upward and pumping my wings, the other dragons following me. The wet mist surrounded us, cutting off our vision, and we waited, just close enough to see each other. The screeches and roars of the other dragons grew louder, traveling upward as they tracked us, and suddenly we were surrounded by them, forcing everyone to split up in order to stay out of sight.

A loud roar sounded somewhere above me. ::Intruders! Show yourselves and state your business, or you risk great harm to yourselves!:: I grimaced, and shot upward. The dragon must have seen me coming and dove to the side, but not quickly enough that I wasn't able to catch a glimpse of a double pair of wings, and a very large head.

::Show ourselves to dragons who attack us without reason?:: I heard Toothless snap back. ::We are here to try and locate missing friends of ours, nothing more!::

I sidled up next to the Night Fury, who turned ready to attack before he noticed it was me, and we both found ourselves suddenly facing the larger dragon, as the rest of the teens distracted the mob surrounding us. His expression was not convinced.

::You come here ridden by Vikings bearing weapons, to find friends?:: he hissed, the crests of his forehead spreading as he hovered, looming above us. The clouds hid any distinguishing features, but I could just barely catch the sight of something eerily familiar: a figure, small but noticeable, standing behind his head. ::We have had far too many attacks as of late, by Vikings and otherwise,:: he growled. ::You are not welcome here.::

::Then if we cannot approach you can at least tell us if our friends have passed this way,:: I snapped, garnering his focus, ::and we will be gone. We are searching for a Changewing by the name of Spitfire, and a flock of Terrible Terrors led by a white one named Phil.::

The dragon narrowed his eyes. ::Dragons alone are free to come and go from here as they please. No such creatures have passed this way, and I will not divulge further information for our safety and theirs.::

His mouth opened and he fired a warning shot, a vortex of flames that drove between Toothless and I. Though not meant to hurt it was enough for me to lose my patience. ::FINE!:: I roared, flaring my wings wide as they would go in that form. Electric rivulets erupted across my skin and built up along the edges of my wings as I slammed them forward, a crackling bolt shrieking in the direction of the grump. He screeched in surprise and dove out of the way, the bolt illuminating him more clearly as he disappeared into the clouds, and his rider, who continued to look back at us as if uncertain of their decision.

I turned and yelled out to the other teens, "Fall back! We won't find anything here!" I dove through the clouds, ensuring the others turned from the chaotic swarm and moved south again, Hiccup and I bringing up the rear of the formation. The attacking dragons moved off as they saw us retreat, leaving us be as we headed back in the direction of Berk.

As Snotlout began complaining (unsurprisingly) about how "that was a complete waste of our time," however, I glanced back to watch for any followers or surprise attacks. The dragon was still there, just under the clouds and watching us with an expression of uncertainty. Out of the vaporous barrier above his features were clear; I knew that species, and that unnerved me all the more. The only place I had seen it before was from the trailers for the second movie that was fast approaching release, and there, too, it had a rider. If this was the same situation, everything would change drastically very, very shortly.

"Hey Hawken?" Hiccup called, jerking me out of my distracted thoughts. "What kind of dragon was that? I've never seen one before, do you know?" "A Stormcutter," I replied shortly. "And I have a feeling we may become very familiar with that one too." "Stormcutter…that was the other species Odin mentioned when he visited, the ones hunted by Jezebel," Hiccup mused. "Why do you think he'll become familiar?"

I sighed. "I will give you about three weeks, and by then, you'll probably know exactly why."

The Stormcutter looked on as the group disappeared again, before turning back to his island, the flock of dragons following. At the last moment their decision was regretted by him as well, much like it had been the rider on his back, who continued to watch the now empty horizon.

Something had been different with those people, something very different. And something was extremely familiar about that young man riding the Night Fury. The rider felt unnerved as well by that other dragon, the species she'd never seen before. It was similar to the Alagaesians of Asia, without the feathers, and to the drakes of Narnia to the southwest. The rider and the Stormcutter also knew well the details of Skrills and other electrical species of dragon, but the tactic that one had used was entirely new, and dangerous.

Concerning the group's approach, none had come off initially as threatening. The Stormcutter's rider couldn't speak or truly understand Dragonese, but she'd been around dragons long enough to understand what they were communicating on a basic level. The dragons had been ridden willingly, and that group had been looking for someone. Granted, there had been no new dragons showing up at the nest for weeks, and they would have been disappointed anyway had they reached the island, but the rider felt very at odds now with the decision she and her dragon had made. She leaned down to her mount, patting him on the back of the neck.

"I think we made the wrong choice, Cloudjumper," she said quietly. "They meant us no harm, weapons or none." The Stormcutter grunted softly in reply, voicing agreement, but unfortunately the response did nothing to soothe his rider, who continued to brood over the circumstances all the way back to the nest.

The pair would make no serious decisions until they were certain all other options had been exhausted, but as the dragons once living in the nest continued to disappear one by one, those options were fading fast. Soon enough she would have to return to the Barbaric Archipelago, to the islands she had once come from, but right then, she was certainly not ready to confront the past. Too many dangerous memories…and even if things had changed, there were far too many ways she could cause everything to go wrong.

A/N-Alright, things are going to start heating up. Next chapter will give insight as to what is behind the disappearances, as well as a bit of action. Stay tuned!

And still looking for suggestions to the Book of Dragons introductory chapter; if you have anything to suggest please let me know!