7 Trust Me; I'm a Doctor
"The way I see it, is like this" Fotherington called out to Hiccup as the three dragons flew north from Baldcrest Hill "you don't want General Karoc, or anyone else for that matter, to know that you came from Elydonia."
"We're not from Elydonia" Hiccup replied "so we don't want to be responsible for starting a war."
"And that's very noble of you, but if the General or the Emperor believes that you came from there, they would see it as an invasion from the north."
"So I've been told" Hiccup agreed.
"And so the best thing for us to do is to back up your captured friend's story."
"But we've been through all this" Sigrid interrupted "none of us know enough about New Loren to be able to pass ourselves off as locals, so when they start asking Astrid awkward questions that she can't answer..."
"That's where we come in" Fotherington grinned and pointed to some trees a few miles north from the town of Krundon "Put Victor down over there and we'll continue on to the capital."
With very little choice available to them, Hiccup and Sigrid decided to go along with Fotherington's plan, whatever it was. Toothless dived down sharply and left Victor where Fotherington had indicated before flying back to join Skywolf and Stormfly once more.
"I know a place where you can hide your... what do you call them, reptiles, lizards?"
Hiccup gave Sigrid a knowing grin before answering "We like to call them dragons; it makes them seem special to have such a powerful name."
Sigrid shook her head and sighed. Although she would no longer have to refer to them as 'Flying Creatures', she knew it was only a matter of time before the truth came out (if Snotlout or the twins were there, it already would have).
"And why not indeed" Fotherington agreed "I have read about many large reptiles that have the word dragon as a part of their names."
The place that Fotherington had chosen as a hiding place was far from pleasant. It was a half wrecked barn on an abandoned farm several miles west of the New Loren capital.
"The old man who lived here was branded a traitor by the authorities and his house was burned to the ground after he was executed in the castle" Fotherington informed the Dragon Riders.
"Are you sure nobody else will come here though?" Sigrid asked.
"It's doubtful; an order was given that his lands now belonged to the Emperor so his children could no longer farm here, so they just fled and have not been seen since. It's just been left to rot now as an example to everyone else; be loyal or your whole family suffers."
"This emperor sounds like a nice guy" Hiccup noted "a bit like King Rekkur."
"You know King Rekkur?" Fotherington looked surprised.
"Yes indeed; on his orders a ship from Bolthorn Castle came close to our home and his son Prince Nainn, started claiming all the islands in the area as his; in fact, that is how we came to be here in the first place."
"That's right" Sigrid continued "Our chief, Stoick the Vast captured Nainn and ordered him to leave forever. We followed his ship for a few days just to make sure that he did as he was told, but while we were keeping an eye on him, Nainn's forces kidnapped me and Astrid and took us back to Elydonia."
"And so we had to follow his ship all the way to Elydonia to rescue our friends. I tried to come to come to a satisfactory agreement with Rekkur, but he was determined to kill me and invade our home so he's king of the dungeon now?"
"Rekkur's been overthrown?" this was shocking news to Fotherington "so who's on the throne in Elydonia."
"I hear it's the grandson of Joric the Fourth" Hiccup said without hinting that the future Queen of Elydonia was currently in the old barn with them rubbing her beloved dragons chin.
"Well I hope He's an improvement on Rekkur."
"We all do" Sigrid grinned "so what's the plan?"
"Victor will try to join up with Astrid by pretending to be her younger brother; he will be able to cover for her during the questioning. Hiccup and I will help her to escape before they all enter the city gates if Victor fails."
"So why the crutches?" Hiccup asked.
"To make you appear harmless... or should I say... legless."
Victor walked cheerily along the road north of Krundon listening to the sound of the approaching hoof beats. He move to the side and gave a slight bow as a sign of the respect that was demanded by the Imperial Army. As they all rode by, he looked up and feigned surprise upon seeing Astrid being held by one of the soldiers.
"ROSE... ROSE MY SISTER!" he called out "IT'S ME, RUPRECHT."
Astrid turned her head to see Victor waving profusely.
"Oh... Ruprecht my brother" she wiggled free and dropped to the ground.
The leader of the horsemen called for them to halt and he turned his mount around. Victor pretended to start crying as he and Astrid ran into each other's arms.
"Oh my sister, what have you done? Why are these soldiers taking you away?"
"It's alright Ruprecht, they just need me to answer some questions about the Sky Riders and then I'm sure they'll let me go."
"Oh... well... I should go with you then" Victor turned to the leader "I can help you too sir as I have seen the Sky riders more than once sir."
The man looked at the two before him and considered what they had said. "You don't look like siblings."
"No sir we don't" Victor was used to covering his story "Rose has many of our father's features where as I take after my maternal grandfather... or so I'm told as they have both passed on these many years now."
"I see" he appeared to accept all this and ordered one of his men to pick up the boy while he retrieved Astrid.
Victor smiled and nodded to Astrid in a subtle way as they continued their journey to the capital.
"I don't see why I have to do this" Hiccup complained as he hobbled along on the crutches.
Fotherington had allowed Hiccup to use his spring loaded leg for the first part of their journey from the barn to the main gate of the capital, but as soon as they drew near, he insisted that Hiccup remove the false leg and hide it under his tunic.
"You'd be surprised what you can get away with in this place if people think you're crippled. They will assume that you want money from them so they will pretend not to see you. It's a method that I've used many times to avoid detection."
"That's amazing" Hiccup declared "where I come from, everyone treats me exactly the same as they did when I still had both limbs."
"You don't see yourself as crippled, do you?"
"Don't get me wrong Fothers…"
"Please don't call me that."
"…I was quite shocked when I lost my leg and it was very upsetting, but it wasn't the end of the world and none of my friends had a problem with it. A few of them like to make fun of me, but they always did before so there was no change really."
"Oh believe me, I do admire the way you just accept it and get on with life, but for the sake of espionage, you are better off pretending to be weaker than you truly are."
"So how do you do it Fothers? After all, you can't take your leg off."
"It's a simple trick for me to just tie my leg up, but there could be trouble if I get caught."
"I'm beginning to see your point" Hiccup sighed.
The stone wall that surrounded the New Loren capital had looked so small from the back of a dragon, but it loomed high over Astrid's head as the horses passed through the main entrance. Without trying to appear obvious, the young lady currently known as Rose scanned her surroundings and took careful note of anything that may be of assistance to her later. Alleys, hiding places, rooftops that could be vaulted across and high open windows were just some of the things that she took note of, but her attention was brought back down to earth when she heard a familiar voice ahead of her saying words that she did not expect to hear.
"Alms for a poor cripple sir" the one legged beggar asked as he held up his hand to the passing horsemen.
Just as Fotherington had said, the men all turned away from Hiccup allowing him to safely make eye contact with Astrid and give her a few quick hand signals. She smiled back and gave her return message before one of the horses almost knocked him over, forcing Hiccup to step back out of the way.
"Success?" Fotherington asked as he casually approached Hiccup.
"Err... won't people think it's suspicious if they see you talking to me like this?"
"That's why I wore this" Fotherington grinned "the short length coat with long tails is commonly worn by doctors and no one would think it odd for you to be talking to a doctor."
"Fair enough; I asked her if she needed help" Hiccup replied as he moved off to follow the horses "she said no, but we should wait close by just in case."
"I managed to get a quick word from Victor as well and it seems that the generals men bought the whole brother and sister bit."
"I'm finding it hard to keep up with them on these crutches" Hiccup complained.
"Just take it slow; I know where they're going."
In the centre of the city was a tall castle with three taller spires reaching up to the sky and Astrid naturally assumed it to be their destination, but the horsemen turned off the courtyard and through the archway of a stately looking home nearby.
"Come on you two, don't dawdle" the leader barked as he led his captives through a side door.
With four men surrounding them, Astrid and Victor were half lead and half pushed down a long ornate corridor with a polished marble floor before the party stopped in front of a large pair of doors.
"Wait here" they were ordered as the leader disappeared inside.
"Remember this" Victor whispered "siblings don't always agree on everything."
Astrid just smiled and nodded as they waited to be admitted into see General Karoc and barely a minute passed before the door was opened once more. The General appeared to Astrid to be quite an imposing figure with dark sunken eyes and thin pursed lips. Victor pretended to be both impressed and a little scared even though he had been inside that room, and in the General's presence, many times over the last several years although never while wearing such clean, well tailored clothes.
"I understand that you two have some information about the... err... what did you say they were called?"
"The young lady referred to them as Sky Riders sir" the head horseman informed the general.
"So you have met these invaders then, have you miss..."
"Rose sir" Astrid responded "and I haven't met them; Sky Riders is just a name I made up because that's where we always see them."
"I thought of it first" Victor protested.
"Quiet Ruprecht" Astrid hissed "General Karoc doesn't care who thought of it first."
"Then why do you always tell everyone it was you?"
"Children please" General Karoc sighed "just tell me what you know about where they went and what they did, when they arrived from Elydonia."
"Well first they went south sir" Victor spoke up quickly.
"No they didn't Ruprecht, they went north first" Astrid corrected.
"But Rose, the General asked where they went after they returned from the north" Victor argued.
"You said that they went south 'First' whereas you should have said 'Next'.
"Why do you always have to make me look stupid in front of other people" Victor whimpered.
"Well it's not hard if you keep getting things wrong."
"ENOUGH!" General Karoc shouted "who was the first one to see them?"
"I... I was... sir" Victor replied in a very shaky voice.
"And where were you when you first saw them boy?" the frustrated man sighed.
"O-over on the Rockport Peninsula with my cousin Marcus; we were checking on his father's farm because he doesn't trust the men that work there. I saw them fly in from the southwest one evening and I thought they were birds until they got closer."
"And did Marcus see them too?"
"At first no, but I called to him and he saw them just as they disappeared in the east but he also thought they were just birds and would not believe me when I said that they weren't."
Astrid was impressed at the way Victor appeared to simply make up these lies on the spot although she also began to wonder if she could ever trust anything he ever said in the future.
"And when did your sister first see these invaders?" the general turned to the girl he knew as Rose.
"Well sir" Astrid thought quickly "I heard a rumour about the Sky Riders being seen the evening before and landing on a big hill..."
"Baldcrest Hill sir" Victor filled in the gaps for Astrid.
"Err yes, Baldcrest Hill... and so I went for a walk to see if it was true and I witnessed them leave and fly off to the north. There were five of them and a few days later I heard a rumour that they were seen returning and then going south."
"Who saw that" the general snapped.
"I err... don't know sir" Astrid realised that she and Victor had better not pretend to know everything but just enough to get General Karoc to believe that they were not in league with King Joric in Elydonia.
"What do you mean you don't know" the general fumed "are you just making all this up?"
"Oh no sir, but not many people have seen them and... well... as I said, sometimes when you just hear more rumours about what was seen and I just had to try and put it all together."
"That's right sir" Victor piped in "but I've never heard anyone say anything about the Sky Riders before the time that I first saw them over on Rockport Peninsula, so I'm sure that was when they first arrived."
"And when was the last time you saw them?" Karoc eyed them carefully.
"The last time was when they returned from the south" Astrid played her final card; the lie that she desperately wanted to be believed.
"They landed on err... Baldcrest Hill again, stayed for an hour or so and then went east. That was several days ago and we haven't seen them since... they may have moved on sir because it looked to us like they were just exploring."
"I see" General Karoc pondered their story for a while as Victor and Astrid just stood there pretending to be nervous and innocent.
"Excuse me sir" Victor asked quietly "may we go home now."
"I don't see why not" the general sighed.
"Oh not just yet" a strange voice came from a chair in a dark corner on the other side of the room "I think they have much more to offer."
Hi everyone. I have been very busy at work so I am a bit behind with my writing so I was surprised when I managed to get this one done on time, although it was mostly thanks to the hot weather - Moon likes to be outside (so he's not bothering me all the time) and it's too hot for gardening.
Thanks for reading and I'll be back soon, Marty & Moon.