This is officially my longest and most popular story to date. Wow! Thanks everyone for well over 7000 views! Extraordianary!
Guest: Thanks! You'll find out when you stop asking! Ehehe, that's a joke, but seriously, there isn't any point asking because I can't tell you until the next chapter comes out and usually, like in this case, the answer would be 'This chapter!'
Guest: Uh, his guts were spilled all over the floor. I don't think anyone can survive that, unfortunately! As for the rest, you'll just have to wait to find out!
Hideous Zippleback: Imagining this chapter almost made me cry several times.
"Look at this; you Berkians taking a criminal into your midst and treating her as one of your own. Astounding!"
"Shut up, Kat!" Snotlout stood before the doors, hands on his hips, scowling viciously into the darkness of the cell. "All the time, I'm hearing your whiny, pathetic little voice. Why don't you just go back to Hel, where you came from? Or better, just die and leave us all in peace."
"Perhaps I would if you hadn't taken all my sharp implements away. I want that sword back when I leave, remember that." Kat drawled drily, leaning back against the cell wall. She sat just out of the stream of moonlight peeping through the window and leaving a sparkling drawing on the floor.
"Yeah, but you're not gonna leave. Not ever."
"Not without my dragon, I'm not." Suddenly, she loomed out of the darkness like something from a nightmare, hollow cheeks and haggard features bristling. "You could have spared him, Snotlout. He didn't have to die."
The two stood glaring at one another in silence for a long time, daring one another to look away. It wasn't until Snotlout felt a tap on his shoulder and turned to find Hiccup standing beside him that he seemed to relax. With a few calm words, the chief's son sent him away. He then turned to Kat, who was slinking back into the darkness of her cell.
"I don't know why he has to guard you. It's not good for either of you." He slouched on the bench set just outside the door.
"To make my life a misery?" She responded quietly. He heard her throw herself onto the bed in her cell. "I wish I was the one who died, not him..."
"We all think that after someone we love dies. I still wish a dragon took me and not my mother, and that was eighteen years ago." Hiccup stared at the dirt floor beneath his feet.
"Doesn't that make you a baby?"
"Yeah, it does. Doesn't mean I don't wish she was still here." He wrung his hands in his lap. There was a moment of silence between them.
"My mother was killed when I was six. She wasn't a very good mother, but she was alright. I was still sad. My father and I escaped from our village as it was torched, but she got left behind."
"Dragons?" Hiccup whispered, sitting forward with interest. He found that Kat wasn't on her bed, as he'd thought, but sat right behind him, her back to the wall beside the door. He could just see her when he turned his head.
"No. People." Hiccup stood, observing what he could see of her face. She stared at the ground as memories flourished in her mind. Her eyes turned glassy. "They stormed the island, taking no prisoners. Mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, slaughtered without mercy. My father and I made for the edge of the town as quickly as we could. Mother tried, but... she was never very fast. I remember seeing her cut down like a sapling under a woodcutter's axe."
"That's awful!" Hiccup exclaimed. "But how did you escape?"
"Easy. Father and I got to the woods in time and dashed between the trees. We knew all sorts of hiding places that the soldiers just wouldn't know. There, we hid until they went away. It felt like days, but it can't have been that long; the fires were still burning in the village when we came out. Well, after that, father and I were left alone. If others got out, I'd never know. They were all gone when we got there."
"And what about Blueflame? How did you meet him?" Hiccup cringed slightly as she paled.
"We were starving on our own, so Dad was desperate. He saw a dragon on the ground and went to kill it so that we could eat it. Honestly, he was so big, we could survive for weeks, but then he moved. He saw us, and I think he understood. When he flew away, we never thought we'd see him again, but then the next day, he was back with fish he'd caught in the ocean. We went on, depending of Blueflame for our food and the berries that I'd learnt to pick when I was young. The next thing I knew, they were back, those soldiers. They murdered my father, beat him to death. I forever hear his screams, just in the back of my mind, constantly... And people think I'm crazy because of it."
"I don't think you're crazy." Hiccup tried to encourage her, but she simply scoffed at him, scowling.
"Yes, you do. All of you do."
"Okay, so, what then? How did you get away? Did you hide?"
For the first time, Hiccup saw her smile, albeit to herself. "Blueflame saved my life. Snatched me up and flew away. He was so clever, he knew exactly where to go. It was then that I swore vengeance against those people, to find them and do to them what they did to me. Now, I guess I realise that that makes me no better than them..." Her head slumped forward into her hands. "It just lost me the best friend I've ever had. Great quest, Brynhild, You're such a genius." Standing up, she sloped back over to her bed and tossed herself down onto the hard wood.
"Who's Brynhild?" Hiccup asked curiously, but to no avail. He received not another word from her for the remainder of his vigil, nor did she speak to Astrid or Fishlegs after him. All they could hear was the occasional whispering, fast and hurried, though when queried, it was always silenced.
Hiccup called together his friends to talk with them about what she had told him. There were a few murmurs of discontent; the soldiers could easily have been Berkian. However, none of them, nor any of the adults they asked, knew anything about raids carried out in the time-frame they assumed it would have happened in. They couldn't think of anyone ruthless enough to carry out a raid of this sort.
"So, there's nothing?" Astrid muttered. "She could be lying, Hiccup. You do know that, right?"
"She wasn't. I know what people look like when they lie, and she certainly didn't look like it at all." He replied. "There has to be something else. She mentioned a name, actually. She said 'Great quest, Brynhild'. Who could Brynhild be? And why would they be sending her on a quest?"
"Well, if she called herself Sophie in the woods, maybe Kat isn't her real name. Have you ever heard of anybody called Kat before?" Fishlegs offered, holding out his hands.
"He's got a point," Ruffnut shrugged unhelpfully. "She could be using any number of fake names for anything."
Tuffnut perked up slightly. "Hey, when I was on watch, she kept asking for her sword. Do you think something, I dunno, could be on it?"
"Its possible..." Hiccup stroked his chin, frowning in thought. "Why don't we check it, just in case?"
The others quietly followed him to the armoury, though they left Astrid behind to take over her watch from Snotlout, who they'd all been tactically avoiding during their whole investigation. Either he would hate anything nice they said about her or would be feeling too guilty to say anything helpful. It was hard to tell exactly how he felt, seeing as he was so good at disguising his emotions. Either way, they made it to the armoury without bumping into him and managed to sneak inside without any of the adults noticing them.
"There it is," Hiccup breathed softly, looking into the corner of the room. There, in a puddle of sunlight, Kat's sword gleamed back at them, tempting them to take it. "I'm not sure that if we check it, we're going to find anything. I think, if we stand any chance of finding out who Brynhild is, we've got to take this to Kat."
"What? Are you crazy?" Ruffnut hissed, eyebrows raised.
"I think she trusts me, even if only a little. I can't give it to her, I know that, but if I can tempt her to tell me who Brynhild is with it, hopefully she'll stop being so secretive."
Fishlegs looked down. "I only hope you know what you're doing..."
Another one down! The next chapter will probably be the last. Has everybody had a look at my new one-shot featuring the twins? 'Storms' is waiting for you in my stories list! Go check it out!
Who is Brynhild? Why would they sent Kat on a quest? Leave your suggestions in your reviews, if you do them!