11 Exit: Stage Left
To say that Hiccup was getting impatient would have been a massive understatement to say the least. He and Toothless had been standing just outside the barn door for over half an hour watching the light fade after sunset and itching to get going.
"Okay bud... time to go" he declared as he climbed onto the saddle.
"Are you sure?" Sigrid asked "Fothers didn't want us to be seen and it's not totally dark yet."
"Hey, I'm riding a Night Fury" Hiccup smiled "Ain't nobody gonna see us, but you'd better wait here a bit longer."
Without another word and not waiting for a reply, Hiccup and Toothless shot into the sky and Sigrid had to admit to herself that he was right as the black dragon disappeared completely into the oncoming night.
Toothless covered the miles between the old farm and the capital in only a few minutes. Torches shone from the outer walls as soldiers kept watch at their posts so Hiccup did not dare to fly over the castle yet, but instead came into land a safe distance away from the main gate.
"You've arrived sooner than I expected" a familiar voice spoke low from a nearby clump of bushes.
"Fothers! Is Astrid with you?" Hiccup asked hopefully.
"I'm afraid not... and stop calling me that. I waited outside the palace all afternoon but the only thing I saw was General Karoc and his men leaving late in the day... and the General look very satisfied with himself."
"So what do we do now... and where would they be?"
"Ah... now here's the good news; I heard a loud metallic creaking coming from one of the high towers. It was too far away for me to see what was going on but I think there is a good chance that it was Astrid and Victor being hung out in one of the cages."
"Cages?" Hiccup panicked "What cages?"
"Prisoners are sometimes placed in small cages hanging from near the tops of the towers. Usually to scare them but sometimes just to be left and forgotten about. For anyone else this would be a disaster but with your dragons to fly you up there..."
"Say no more Fothers" Hiccup declared as he and Toothless took to the air once more.
"But wait; I didn't tell you about..." Fotherington called but too late "And don't call me Fothers."
Hiccup made sure that he and Toothless had gained sufficient height before they flew over the castle wall just to be sure that the light from the torches would not fall onto the Night Fury and give away their presence. Together they began to circle about thirty feet above the tops of the towers and only a few seconds had passed before Toothless's keen senses noticed someone very familiar so he signalled to his rider.
"What is it Toothless; is it Astrid?"
The dragon took the lead in their direction of travel; straight down to the girl sitting on top of the cage.
"Is that you Babe?" she stared into the darkness.
"No, it's some other cute guy with one leg on a Night Fury" Hiccup called back from the hovering Toothless.
"Neat" she smiled "are you looking for a girlfriend?"
"When you two have finished flirting, I would like to get down from here" Victor called out.
Hiccup had been trying hard to ignore the way that Toothless was growling but he found that he could not keep it up any longer.
"What is wrong with you Toothless?" he asked the agitated dragon.
"Oh don't worry about him" Astrid told Hiccup "he just concerned about the Changewing behind me."
"CHANGEWING?" Hiccup panicked.
"Don't you start worrying too" she huffed "if he was going to be a problem, Victor and I would both be dead by now."
"But how did you... well... not get killed?"
"To be honest Babe, I really don't know" Astrid admitted "I simply tried talking to him and he just sat there... listening."
"So... is he still there?" Hiccup asked.
"Yup, sure is" Astrid turned back to the dragon "Say hi to my friends Hiccup and Toothless."
"Err... hi there?" Hiccup waved at the dragon he couldn't see.
Changewings are hard enough to spot in broad daylight but they are virtually impossible to see at night. Hiccup wasn't sure if the grunt that came from the dragon was a very friendly one, but at least the Changewing wasn't attacking.
"I'm with Victor" he decided "I think it's time we left."
"Okay Babe" and without another word, Astrid leapt off the top of the cage and onto Toothless's back.
Victor found the transfer from cage to dragon much harder to accomplish but fortunately he was light and Astrid was strong for her age, like most Vikings. He did stumble after he had taken her hand, but Astrid was able to easily swing him up behind her, loading poor Toothless with three people who were all, thankfully not very heavy.
Sigrid followed Hiccup only a few minutes after he had left the farm. The sky had turned completely dark and she could at last be sure that Skywolf and Stormfly would not be spotted from the city wall. When she arrived, Fotherington explained to her that Hiccup and Toothless had already flown off to the castle towers and she had immediately wanted to go after him.
"Wouldn't it be better to give him a chance to have a quick scout around first?" Fotherington suggested and although it was not what Sigrid had wanted to hear, she could see the wisdom in his idea.
When they returned, it was plain to see that what Hiccup and Toothless had taken was more than just a scouting trip, for when the Night Fury landed a few minutes after Sigrid had arrived, she was pleased to discover his trio of passengers.
"Astrid!" Sigrid smiled as she hurried over and hugged her friend "I can't wait to hear what happened to you and Victor in that castle."
Nobody else had a chance to give any greeting or indulge in any pleasantries before all hell suddenly broke loose. Unknown to Hiccup and Astrid, the Changewing had followed them down out of curiosity, causing Skywolf and Stormfly to immediately get defensive. The small group of dragons, riders and spies were far enough away from the city walls to be safely hidden by the darkness in any normal circumstance, but when Stormfly and the Changewing began to roar at each other, any attempt at normalcy went flying out the proverbial window. Up on the ramparts, the eyes of every sentry gazed out into the night in reaction to the sudden raucous noise coming from far in the distance. Those sentries would have been no more than frightened and concerned if it were not for Skywolf spreading his wings and setting himself alight to warn off the unwanted intruder.
Astrid had already rushed over to calm Stormfly so Hiccup attempted to help out Sigrid with her mighty Monstrous Nightmare. Fotherington and Victor almost fainted at the sight of the burning dragon as they both realised at last, that the name dragon was much more than just a nickname.
"It's alright Skywolf" Hiccup comforted the dragon "He hasn't tried to hurt us."
The member of the group who was most surprised by what was happening, was Stormfly and not because of the Changewing. She and Astrid had always been close and had also been able to communicate easily with voice tone, body language and even hand signals but now, thanks to the psychic spider sitting on Astrids headband, Stormfly could now vaguely understand everything that her little blonde pet was saying to her.
'My cage... they've taken me from my cage' Dylan panicked 'and I had two uneaten mosquitoes stashed in the web too.'
Although he was extremely relieved not to have been eaten or burnt to a crisp by the Changewing, Dylan was still very upset that the peaceful life he had planned for himself, hanging from one of the towers in the New Loren capital and growing fat on flies, was no longer going to eventuate. He had already travelled the spider's equivalent of a hundred miles from his home and he knew that he would never be able to find his way back again.
'Oh well, I suppose I'd better make the best of things' he decided as he crawled down inside of Astrid's headband.
The enterprising little spider soon found a small hole in the back of one of the metal studs that surrounded the leather strap, and made himself a new home inside of it. Although he did not know how long he would stay, Dylan felt safe there so he spun a small web around the entrance and settled down for a well deserved rest. Outside he could hear people talking and dragons roaring, while visions of a young girl attempting to calm a group of angry dragons echoed back and forth inside his head. He soon began to dream and this was a dream like he had never experienced before. He dreamt that he was a mighty Viking warrior spider, standing tall on the edge of a sea cliff with waves crashing down below. He was clad in yak skin with a horned helmet on his head and in his two front right hands, he held aloft a pair of broadswords (such were the nature of Dylan's dreams because in reality, he did not have hands).
The general air of panic that had engulfed the group after the unexpected arrival of the Changewing, had at last settled down but of course it was much too late. The roaring of the dragons would have been bad enough, but Skywolf had briefly turned himself into a flaming beacon that could have been seen from over a mile away, so he definitely drew the attention of every sentry patrolling the ramparts. It was not the most perfect of situations, but at least they were all together again and had hopefully achieved their goal of directing all suspicion about an invasion away from Elydonia.
"I think it's time we left" Fotherington declared as the first of many arrows struck the ground near his feet.
"Agreed; pick a dragon" Hiccup suggested as he hurried back to Toothless where Victor still sat waiting.
Not wanting to get an arrow in his head, or any other tender spot, Fotherington ran over to Stormfly. Astrid helped him up onto the saddle just as Sigrid climbed quickly onto Skywolf's back.
"Where do we go now? Astrid asked her passenger as the four dragons gained height.
"Head back to Baldcrest hill; I'll show you where we left our caravan."
Stormfly led the way as the dragons turned to the south. It was a short trip much to Astrids delight because she had not enjoyed the journey as much on horseback. After following Fotheringtons directions for half an hour, they all set down just off the road slightly north of the hill that had accidently become the centre of all their adventures in New Loren.
"This way" Fotherington dropped down from Stormfly and led them all away from the road and back into the forest where a covered cart was hidden well.
"Get a fire going Victor" he ordered his assistant "and then check on the horses."
"Go see to the horses and don't worry about the fire" Astrid grinned as she looked for a suitable spot."
Soon there was a warm glow in the camp as Stormfly turned a nearby bush into a temporary source of heat and light that Hiccup and Astrid immediately turned into a more permanent campfire by clearing the area around it as well as throwing on some more wood.
"That looks better" Sigrid complimented them "but now I could really use your help."
For the first time since their arrival, Hiccup and Astrid noticed that Sigrid was still sitting up in her saddle, but not for long as she fell to the ground with a thud having fainted because of severe blood loss.
At the beginning of chapter 8, I told myself to wrap up Act 1 by chapter 10… yeah right. It looks like happening around chapter 13 now, but we will see. I am now glad that I decided to give Act 1 a good and proper ending because I have just found out that I will be having a couple of minor 'Procedures' later this month involving my eyes and some powerful surgical Lasers, and I don't know how long I will have to stop writing when it is done. But don't worry because I should have this bit of the story finished well before I have to go to the clinic on the 18th of March for, as Homer Simpson once said, "Less yapping; more zapping."
Moon says it serves me right for staring at the computer screen for so long instead of rubbing his tummy, but what would he know.
Well the next chapter should be done in less than a week and should be a good indicator as to how long the rest of Act 1 will be, so bye bye for now and take good care of your eyes.
Love from Marty & Moon (purr).