"Marianne…"
I cracked my eyes open and looked around. The coast was clear so I assumed that I imagined the whisper and got up from under Phantom's wing.
After we flew a bit more the previous day, we landed here and watched the stars until I think we both drifted into sleep. A sleep without any nightmares. But I didn't mind it though, a dreamless night was better than that nightmare.
We didn't talk at all in that morning as we flew a bit more around the island which looked awesome in the morning. Terrible Terrors singing sweetly in the morning air, Gronckles and Nadders playing through the shades of the trees, the sea was calm with the waves lazily hitting the beige shore, the sun was shooting warm arrows of light through the puffy clouds, the sky was blue and there wasn't even a breeze.
Yesterday was kind of odd besides the embarrassing first impression that others made about me. Astrid had been missing and I wouldn't have minded it if Ingrid didn't go as well. There was something in me telling me that something was off, that the blonde was hiding something. Maybe it was the fact that she hated me that made me assume things now but I just shrugged it all off and just relished the feeling of flying.
We went like this through half of the day, just flying around as I was trying to push away the plaguing thoughts that wanted to eat at my mind. Eventually we also went to eat and drink, then stayed the whole afternoon in a clearing in the forest on the opposite side of the island.
It was already past sunset when we landed on the platform of the clubhouse to see the others talking hotly about something inside.
I hopped off Phantom and walked inside.
All quieted down and turned to look at me as I leaned against the wall at the entrance "What?"
As I looked around I noticed that once again Ingrid was nowhere to be seen. This was getting weirder.
"Um—"
"This is actually not a conversation that you will be part of so do you mind, I don't know, getting the hell out? We don't need someone to ruin our plan"
I snapped my eyes to Astrid's furious ones and crossed my arms "You don't even know anything about me and you can't just go and assume that I not good enough or things like that"
"That's totally right. We don't know anything about you, so why don't you grab your dragon and go back to Berk?"
I scoffed "So Ingrid doesn't count as a stranger, huh?"
She narrowed her eyes slightly "Ingrid is a trustworthy viking who doesn't get her nose where it's not her deal. Unlike you, she doesn't cause trouble wherever she's going and certainly she doesn't talk with her dragon. Any more questions?"
Ouch. That one actually stung. I clenched my fist a bit but didn't move from my place.
"Astrid, what's gotten into y—"
Hiccup didn't even finish his sentence that I marched over to Astrid and grabbed her arm firmly as I stared at her in the eyes "I know you're hiding something and don't even try to deny it. I can't prove it but I know it. Your deal what, when, where and with whom you do. I don't give a shit" I whispered tightly and then continued "But I didn't come here to talk about this or get kicked from the second day. I love dragons and if I do talk to my dragon sometimes it's because I spent a lot of time with him and I kind of understand what's on his mind. Don't even say that you don't sometimes 'talk' to your dragon. Also, I want to help, alright? So just—"
She got my hand off her arm and gave a tight nod "Let's do it this way, we wait for when we finish with the discussion and then we see what we do with you. But believe me when I say that I am going to make this as hard as possible for you" she whispered back and I came back to my original place.
The others looked at the scene bewildered.
"Uh what was that?" questioned Tuffnut blankly but Astrid ignored him and continued with what she had to say.
"As I was saying…"
I didn't actually pay attention to the whole conversation, but apparently Astrid found out from Johann that the hunters were heading to Glacier Island. Which was not possible. Johann wouldn't be around here for at least a few more days. I shook off the thoughts as I saw Hiccup heading for the door.
"Get a good night sleep gang. We leave for Glacier Island at first light" he said as he walked out of the clubhouse with the Dragon Eye, leaving the rest of us to ourselves.
The others wished good nights to each other and were about to leave to their huts when Astrid spoke "Guys, I think we need solve another small problem here"
They turned to look at her with blank expressions "I talked with Marianne here, well we didn't really talk but that's beside the point. So she wanted to be a part of the riders, right? I say that we test her first to see if she's actually on our side. After the incident with Heather I really don't want to risk anything" all the gazes moved to me and I felt kind of awkward to say the least.
She still didn't trust me, it was all in her tone: small bits of hate and trust issues, but all covered up by her calmness.
"We have this mission and I think that she should come with us and we see how she's doing, her skills and bonding with her dragon and so on. If she helps us and doesn't make it harder, then when we get back, we vote for her to stay or not. I know Hiccup won't like this, so we do it without him knowing and if Anne doesn't manage she'll just leave by her initiative" she finished as she looked at me with a devious glimpse in her eyes.
Of course she wouldn't want to tell Hiccup, he would say it's ridiculous and he already treats me like a part of them, well almost part of them. And me leaving by my own accord? Seriously?
"Sounds good to me" replied Snotlout a bit annoyed "Now can we all just go to sleep?"
The others nodded in agreement and walked off. All besides Fishlegs who gave me a warm smile "You'll do fine. Astrid can be a bit edgy sometimes but I am sure you'll do great"
A small smile tugged at my lips "Thank you Fishlegs"
I mused for a second then spoke again "Have you seen Ingrid?"
To my disappointment he shook his head "No. I didn't. She headed to Berk with Astrid and since she didn't return I guess she made her way back home"
I gave a small nod and "Thanks anyway"
He wished me good night and walked out to his own hut.
I looked at the small fire crackling in the fire pit in the middle of the round table. It was pretty calming.
A yawn erupted from my mouth and I found myself looking around for a place to sleep on and something to cover myself with. On a chair in the far corner or the clubhouse I noticed a folded blanket and went to grab it. I spread it on the floor in that corner and laid on half of it, then covered myself with the other half. It was cozy and warm and sleep found me fast enough.
The next morning I woke up because Toothless was licking my face. After that I chased him down from the clubhouse to the dome and around the camp. The others almost choked on their laughs when they saw me trying to catch the black dragon.
Eventually I did catch him, to my surprise, just to find out that he slowed down so I could catch him. I was about to kill him when Hiccup came to me chuckling and told me that we had to go. I would have my revenge later though.
The flight to Glacier Island took like three hours and I was more than happy when I saw the island peeking out in the horizon. The twins had been driving me up the wall the whole flight and I couldn't be more happy than to land on that island. I've had enough of the twins for an entire lifetime.
The island was actually looked pretty much the same everywhere: ice, ice, ice and again ice.
As we landed a blizzard started and we couldn't see a damn thing. Hiccup assured me that it won't be a problem as long as I stay near them though, since, apparently, Toothless could use echolocation like a bat as he explained to me.
We didn't find anything though. No sight of the Snow Wraiths. No sight of the hunters.
We were all freezing and I was sure I would turn into an ice cube soon enough. So I went to where Phantom was staying and got under his wing. The others were talking about something and then I saw Tuff and Ruff hug Snotlout from both sides. I almost laughed my head off when I saw it.
I glanced at Hiccup and saw him gesture to me to come and I complied. Then the three of us went to scout the island: me, Hiccup and Astrid.
It was almost impossible to see anything in the damned snowstorm. I cursing under my breath the whole way through while I was looking down for any sign of the hunters or the Snow Wraith, who, ironically was white as well and it was basically impossible to see such a dragon through the blizzard.
"You see anything down there?" shouted Hiccup through the wind.
"I can barely see you half the time!" replied Astrid.
"Same here!" I added as I looked to my left at Hiccup and I didn't really see Astrid, just a blue blur from her dragon.
"Maybe, we should split up, cover more ground" she suddenly asked and I could barely hear it. Was she insane?! We'd get lost if we would split up with this weather and we didn't know when the blizzard would settle down, the whole thing would turn into a search mission, not a relocate mission.
"No! Stay together! It's safer! Okay?!" Hiccup shouted and I saw the blue blur disappearing in the white curtain of snow. She went on a damned suicide mission and I was going to follow her and see what she was up to.
So I petted Phantom's head and we flew the way she did hearing Hiccup shouting our name from behind but we went faster. As I turned around the only thing I could see was the white snow falling.
"Let's what the hell is going on here" I whispered in Phantom's ear and he let out a breath.
"Are you sure?"
I scoffed and nodded sternly "Of course I am sure"
He groaned in his way and flew faster forward. After a bit we saw again the blue blur and Phantom kept his distance, enough so we could still see them but not enough for the Nadder to smell us out. Not like she really could with this storm.
Soon enough they landed and Astrid hopped off her dragon. After they took a few steps, we landed as well and followed quietly behind. She turned a corner with her axe in her hands and her Nadder following.
I hopped fast off Phantom and sneaked to that corner. As I looked around the corner I saw a small light coming from a fire pit and silver dragon sitting on its hind legs with the wings opened, covering the fire and a figure from the snow and the wind. It looked like Sekweya. Could it be Ingrid? But what would she do here?
I barely heard what Astrid said but I heard the name 'Heather' between lines, so maybe that was Heather. Damn the wind.
The other viking got up as her dragon turned around. That definitely wasn't Ingrid.
The Razorwhip got into a fighting pose as Heather unfolded her axe in a swift movement, axe that turns out was double-headed. Great.
Both of them were standing still, staring at each other so as their dragons. I was about to jump out of my hiding place when I saw Heather pull her hood off and they both hugged.
What. The. Hell.
I gawked at Astrid and Heather as they got sit on the place Heather had been sitting previously and they started to chat as their dragons calmed down.
I just couldn't believe my eyes. How could Astrid do that. Wasn't Heather sided with the hunters?
My mind was racing and I just acted on impulse in that moment. I walked out from behind the corner with Phantom trailing behind me. He tried to make stay back but I didn't listen.
When I was like not even ten feet away from them I spoke loudly "So that's how it is after all? And I thought you were the honorable one of the group, Astrid"
Both of them stilled for a split of second before they turned around. Astrid had a blank expression on her face as she got up and marched towards me "Anne, what are you doing here? You were supposed to stay with Hiccup!" she hissed out.
I scoffed and crossed my arms over my chest "I was actually worried about you going missing in that blizzard. I didn't expect you to be on the other side of the board after all"
Her eyes widened slightly "What? No. This isn't what you think. Heather's on our side"
Heather was now standing beside Astrid and she looked at Astrid warily. The blonde turned and glanced at Heather as she sighed "This is Marianne, she's with us. Joined not long ago"
The raven haired girl nodded as she moved her gaze to mine "Come on. Let's get sit and talk it out"
I reluctantly nodded and followed them back to the camp fire. After they explained me what was actually happening, I felt somewhat of ashamed for assuming that Astrid went against her own friends. She wouldn't do that. Both of them asked me not to tell Hiccup though, just for a bit longer, Astrid wanted to tell him herself but she didn't find the right time still. He was pretty overwhelmed from what it sounded like.
After a bit Heather had to get back to the hunters since she apparently went just to 'scout' the island. She couldn't blow up her cover now and neither Ingrid's, they had to get more information. Astrid proposed that we show up from different sides so it would look like we didn't see each other or something like that. Just as a precaution.
Whatever.
After she flew first into the blizzard, I hopped on Phantom and flew after her but in a slightly different direction. As the storm started to settle down I realized that I actually had no freaking clue on which side of the island we were.
I glanced around a bit confused, searching for something that might help me get back to the camp when we started to hear the faint footsteps and the sound of metal. We landed fast behind a big chunk of ice and I heard some low male voices further from where we were.
I hopped off Phantom and looked around the corner to see the dragon hunters down the hill. We were on the top of some sort of hill with Phantom, which was a pretty good thing, we could watch them from here. I dropped on my belly and inched closer to watch.
They were walking away and I would lose them soon, so I walked off the so said 'hill' and followed them from a safe distance. Maybe I could stop them from catching the Snow Wraiths before the gang even got here.
That would be something.
