5 Tinker Tailor Dragon Spy
The silhouette of Baldcrest Hill loomed in the pre-dawn light as the small horse drawn caravan rattled down the road slowly towards it.
"Wake up Victor, we're almost there" Fotherington reached back behind the driver's bench and shook the young boys shoulder.
They had only been travelling a few hours as it had taken the pair half the night to prepare the house for their departure. Fotherington found a place well off the road to hide the cart and horses before he and Victor left on foot for the hill.
"Arm yourself Victor" he instructed the boy just before he locked the chest under the driver's seat.
"Do you expect trouble sir?"
"Always Victor; I'm sure that you were successful it shaking off the generals men but I can't be sure what they'll do next. The wisest thing to do would be to proceed here since this was the last place mentioned in the master's report and if they do, then our time is short but if they return to the capital for further orders first, then that should buy us another few hours or more."
"A few hours for what... and sir... why did the master leave?"
Fotherington stopped short; he was used to the master leaving big gaps in his knowledge as a training tool for honing his powers of observation and deductive reasoning but Victor of course, was only just starting on this part of the journey.
"I'm sorry Victor; I've been so caught up with taking over the former master's duties, that I have not been acting well as your new master so let's go through it step by step." he recommenced his walk towards the hill "What do you know about the master?"
"Well... he is very wise..." Victor began "and that's not just because of his age."
"You're on the right track but I don't think you've noticed it yet; think about what older people like to do and what wise people always do and put them both together."
Not being old himself, the first part confused Victor a little but the second part was easy because both the master and the apprentice both live by this belief: Nobody knows everything and a wise person always seeks to learn more right up until the day they died.
"Older people like to do lots of things like fishing, whittling and all sorts of stuff" Victor noted "but the master liked to particularly seek knowledge and learn new skills."
"Exactly right" Fotherington nodded "and of all the things that older people like to do, when do they do them the most?"
"When they retire... oh... so the master has... retired?" that did not sound right to the young boy.
"Not in the normal way Victor, but the master could never be thought of as a normal person. He had often talked with me about what may happen in the future and one of the most likely scenarios he believed would happen, apart from his unexpected death, was that he would simply leave if he ever discovered something or someone worthy of further study and so when he failed to return after his meeting with the riders of the flying creatures, I began to suspect that either he was dead or that he had indeed found something of great interest to him."
"Flying creatures are definitely interesting" Victor noted.
"Yes but there was also the girl."
"What girl sir?"
"The master discovered that one of the people that rode on the creatures was highly experienced in our special skills. He believed her to be as good as he was even though she was only a few years older than you."
"And so the master must have decided to try and find out more about her."
"Yes but the flying beasts would have piqued his interest too; although the master took my training very seriously, he would often seek out something new to study and learn about and become very excited when he found a good subject."
"If that is why the master left, then why are we here sir?"
"I dare say that the general had you followed because he believes that the master has betrayed him and he may suspect us as well so we must stay away from home until we can be sure that we are safe there."
"But I still don't understand why we are here sir; do you think the master will return… or maybe the flying beasts?"
"I doubt that we will see either of them up there Victor but it is only a matter of time before the general sends someone, or even comes here himself so I want to be in a position to observe what he does and maybe even overhear what is said."
"So we'll be setting up a blind sir?"
"Two blinds Victor."
"There's the castle" Astrid pointed out the tiny circle from above the clouds.
"Great" Hiccup noted "we'll fly on past the hill and then come in lower from the south just in case there is anyone in the area."
"I was actually a little surprised that you didn't bring Dianta with you" Astrid noted "I assumed she tried to talk you into it."
"Oh yes" Hiccup sighed "but she tended to give away to much information when we met Darius here last time so I couldn't take the risk."
"Don't worry Hiccup, she'll learn in time."
The Dragon Riders followed their plan and set down on the top of Baldcrest Hill just over half an hour later.
"So this is where it all happened" Sigrid looked around as she dropped down from Skywolf onto the ground.
"Wait" Astrid held up her hand to the others before she drew her knife.
Hiccup and Sigrid both noticed that it was not only their friend but all three dragons had tensed up too.
"Don't tell me Darius is hiding here again" Hiccup sighed.
"Nope... there's two this time" Astrid pointed out "and neither of them is anywhere near as good as Darius."
"I don't know about you Astrid" Hiccup sighed even louder "but I just can't be bothered anymore. OKAY WHOEVER YOU ARE, COME OUT."
With rather sheepish looks on their faces, Fotherington emerged from the undergrowth with a shrub covered hat on his head while Victor dropped down from a tree hide on the other side of the clearing and both of them appeared very nervous.
"What is it with you?" Hiccup asked in a frustrated manor "Do people in this country do nothing but hide in bushes all day spying on travellers?"
"Well you're not exactly your normal, everyday, run of the mill travellers" Fotherington pointed out.
"That doesn't really explain your behaviour though" Astrid commented as Toothless and Stormfly approached and sniffed at the increasingly frightened young men.
"Erm... c-could you call off your err... creatures please?" Fotherington requested.
"No" Hiccup was adamant "but they won't hurt you... unless we order them."
"Then please don't order them to hurt us."
"Okay, if you tell me why there is always someone hiding here and waiting for us."
"We err... weren't waiting for you" Fotherington admitted.
"Hang on a second" Astrid chimed in "are you waiting for Darius... trying to capture him perhaps?"
"I don't know anyone named Darius; is he one of your friends who was here the first time?"
"Keep an eye on them Toothless" Hiccup ordered his dragon as he called his friends in closer and whispered "he knows that the other Dragon Riders were here before, so either more people saw us than we thought or he's lying about knowing Darius."
"They did say 'Creatures' not 'Dragons' so they can't have talked to Darius. I would guess that they are in the same business" Astrid thought out loud "but in a lower pay grade."
"Not very good at spying and hiding?" Sigrid asked.
"Actually they're not bad; better than almost everyone else I've ever met."
"But not as good as you and Darius I suppose" Hiccup added.
"Sorry to sound so arrogant but… well… yes."
"Okay then" Hiccup turned back and spoke at a normal level again "suppose you tell us why you are here then."
"We were waiting for some other people" Fotherington offered hoping that would get him out of trouble but it didn't work.
"Nice try but you're gonna have to do better than that" Hiccup frowned "What people?"
Fotherington and Victor glanced at each other; it was time to come clean before a big blue winged reptile was ordered to bite someone's head off.
"Not long ago, my master saw creatures like yours stop here and so he came to observe them should they return, but although I believe he is still alive, he never came back and now we suspect that his former employer may accuse us of some kind of betrayal. We came here because I am sure that the man who suspects us will come here or send others to investigate and I wanted to hear what they had to say; our lives may depend upon what he believes."
"Okay then, so what is your master called?" Hiccup asked.
"I don't know; I always referred to him as master."
"So what's your name then?"
"Harold" Fotherington declared.
Astrid gave Stormfly a quick hand signal and before 'Harold' knew what hit him, the Deadly Nadder had knocked him over, put a talon to his throat and screeched in his face."
"FOTHERINGTON; MY NAME IS FOTHERINGTON" he declared quite adamantly.
"That's better" Hiccup smiled "Thank you my sweet."
"Anytime Snookums" she replied as Hiccup did a double take.
"Now then Fothers" Hiccup helped the still shaking man to his feet "how long before these people you are waiting for arrive?"
"I don't know, honest; we were just going to wait until someone turned up but I never suspected it would be you" it was plain to see that Fotherington's heart was still on the verge of leaping out of his mouth.
"Any volunteers?" Hiccup turned to his friends.
"I'll go" Sigrid grinned "I think things will go better here with Stormfly staring these two down."
A few seconds later, Skywolf and his rider took to the air and went off in search of any approaching force.
"Do you want to take over from Fothers… if there is anyone on the way?"
"I think that would be for the best" Astrid replied "I'll stay on the ground so I can get close to any leader while Fotherington can take… what's your name lad?"
"VICTOR" the boy replied so quickly that he actually managed to compress his name into a single syllable.
"Fotherington can take Victor's place in the tree" she concluded "if he wants."
"I could stay on the ground as well if you like" Fotherington offered.
"No offence but I don't want you stumbling about giving the game away."
Astrid may not have meant it, but it was plain from the look on Fotherington's face that some offence had been taken.
"That was quick" Hiccup declared as Skywolf settled back to earth nearby.
"There's a force of fourteen approaching from the north; it should be about an hour or more before they arrive and climb to the top here" Sigrid informed them.
"Okay then; do you have a camp nearby that we can drop Victor off at Fothers?" Hiccup asked.
"Yes but you'll be seen if you go there now."
"Right… okay… he'll have to stay with us then; I'll take him on Toothless."
"DON'T I GET A SAY IN THIS?" Victor declared loudly.
"Well… no."
Hi everyone. The rest of Act 1 is comming along well (should be about 10 chapters all up) but I still have to work out the direction of Act 2 so there may be a week or two gap before posting - but don't worry because Act 1 won't have any huge cliffhangers in it.
Next chapter in a few days, bye for now, Marty.