So, here begins of the second chapter! I don't know what else to say really, so I'll let the story speak for itself.
The farther north Ash takes me, the colder things get. I have to put on my helmet to keep my ears from getting frostbite, and I have to zip up my jacket to fend off hypothermia. I look down, only to see a few small islands surrounded by more ocean. Fantastic! I've given up trying to get Ash to turn around. This dragon rider stuff involves trusting your dragon right? So I guess I should just trust that she'll keep me alive and eventually get me home.
Ash spots this really tiny island, probably the last one we'll see before we get to the polar ice cap, and she dives down. It takes a lot of zooming in before it even begins to look like civilization might exist here. The first thing I notice: this place is really primitive! There are no actual roads, no modern-ish buildings, and no technology! Everything looks like a recreation of a painting out of my history textbook, except there are actually people living down there! The second thing I notice: the Scottish guy who fed me was right. These are Vikings. Everyone has those metal hats with horns coming out of the sides, the buildings look like ships cut in half and turned on their side, and everything is a lot bigger than it probably need to be.
Of course, here is where Ash decides to land. And of course, everyone stares at me when she does. "Get Stoick!" I hear someone shout. "Don't move!" Someone else demands (That one was probably directed at me). "Be prepared men! You don't know what she might do!" At that, about half the crowd that has formed around me draws out a weapon. Axes look pretty popular; that's very reassuring!
"Calm down! Put down your weapons!" This really big, hairy dude shouts as the crowd parts for him to walk up to me. This must be Stoic, whoever he is. He stares down at me, probably choosing his actions very carefully to look more intimidating than normal. And it seems to working! "What business do you have on my island?" he interrogates. I have no answer for him.
I awkwardly lift the visor on my helmet (I don't think I should remove it though; I might need the protection). "I… uh, didn't… You see, I had no idea... "
"Stop your stuttering!" Stoick bellows, cutting me off. I happily shut my mouth. "What's that behind you?"
"That would be my, uh… Dragon?" I answer hesitantly. I'm almost positive that these people are going to kill me. Why the heck did Ash bring me out here!?
Stoick looks like he's debating something in his head. Then he turns around and shouts, "HICCUP!" This scrawny, teenage boy comes forth from the crowd like he has no idea whats going on right now. It almost looks like he assumes he's in trouble.
"What did I do- WHAT THE…?" The kid I assume is Hiccup is suddenly taken way off guard. Then two seconds later, he regains his composure and begins inspecting Ash. Not really what I would expect from a scrawny teenager meeting his first dragon.
"Son," Stoick begins, "why does this stranger have your dragon?"
"Hold up! 'Your dragon'?" I question, suddenly gaining a lot of confidence. "Ash is my best friend and I found her out in the forest by the Des Plaines River so if she's anyone's she's mine!" All the Vikings look at me like I just spun my head around.
Hiccup notices this too. "Dad, she's right," he defends, "The scale pattern on her dragon is different from Toothless. Plus, Toothless's eyes are green, not blue."
The Vikings calm down and Stoick gains a very "oh…" look on his face. "Well then, if you didn't steal my son's dragon, why are you here on my island?" Stoick demands.
My confidence has receded again. "I didn't plan on being here, uh, sir. You see, Ash kind of took me here… and I didn't really know what she was doing. If I'm not in any trouble I'd be happy to, uh, leave now." I manage to tell him. "If the stupid dragon will let me leave."
"Wait!" Hiccup interjects. "I mean, uh, we would be happy to let you stay on Berk. At least to rest up before you head home, right Dad?"
"I suppose if the girl means no harm, she could stay for the night. As long as you look after her," Stoick agrees somewhat begrudgingly. "Take her to Dragon Training with you."
Hiccup nods at his dad and walks away. I guess I'm supposed to follow him now, so I do. Ash follows me, pushing the still crowded Vikings out of the way. I look around at everything, and it all looks like something out of an old legend. There are sheep and chickens wandering around, buildings that look fortified like the island is always at war, and ancient style carvings on everything. Plus, I can tell that they use torches to light everything around here; little metal things with scorched branches are attached to every upright surface. "So why are you here anyway? You never said," asks Hiccup, breaking my train of thought.
"Well," I begin to explain, "Ash just kind of dragged me here. I found her by the river a little while away from my house. Just wanted to get away from things for the night so I told her to take us anywhere. I guess 'anywhere' is here." Hiccup nods like he wants me to continue. "See, I live just outside of Chicago in America, so we can only fly at night. God only knows what would happens if she ended up on CBS! Or worse: if the FBI found her!"
Hiccup takes a second to think about what he's going to say. "I think I understood half of those words…" he muses. I guess he was actually thinking about what I said. "I get it though. You don't want Ash taken away from you. I know I'd be devastated if Toothless wasn't here anymore." He pauses before asking, "I don't think I've heard of Chicago before. How far away is the Sea of America?" Oh, if only he knew how weird that sounds!
I stifle a laugh, but I understand where he's coming from. He probably thinks Chicago is an island, like this place. I quickly try to explain in his terms, "Actually, America is the, uh, island I live on. It's really big as far as islands go though, so there's a… a lot of villages on the island. The one I live in is called Chicago."
"...Okay, that makes about as much sense as anything else that's happened this morning!" he deadpans. I can tell he's given up trying to understand me. He's probably going through as much culture shock as I am right now.
I take this opportunity to start asking about this place. I mean, I'm going to be here for at least the next few hours. "So tell me about this place," I request, "since my dragon didn't tell me anything about this unexpected journey she took me on."
"Your dragon probably had a reason to take you here. They always have reasons for the seemingly insane decisions they make. But anyway, this is the Island of Berk. It's the farthest north you can go before freezing to death. I suppose we would move, but we Vikings have stubbornness issues! It's winter for pretty much the entire year, and anything that grows here is tough and tasteless." Hiccup describes (with a little more sarcasm than I expected). As he finishes, we approach this huge structure that looks like Soldier Field with a chain canopy. "But, at least we have our dragons!"
Ash and I follow Hiccup around the the entrance to what I can only assume to be their version of an arena or a coliseum or whatever. It looks kind of like those old cellar doors where the stairs were outside and the door was more of a hatch you pulled up, but on a massive scale. There was a ramp leading down to the stage area where who knows what is usually killed or maimed on a regular basis for entertainment.
Holy crud, do they make the dragons fight each other for fun!?
Hiccup walks down the ramp, but turns around when he notices I'm still following him. "Maybe you should stay up here for a minute. So I can tell the others what's going on and make sure the other dragons are calm," he suggests, "You know… so nothing bad happens." Yeah, he probably just doesn't want Ash to get hurt before they can put her up against the reigning champ.
"Okay, I guess that makes sense," I pretend to agree. If he is up to something, I don't want to let on that I'm on to him. Hiccup nods and continues down the ramp. I wait a few moments for him to get out of earshot.
"Stay put!" I command Ash, then I sneak down the ramp, just close enough to where I can hear what's being said. I don't want any of them to see me listening in to something they probably don't want me to hear.
"What was your dad so worked up about today?" I hear a girl ask.
"That's actually what I wanted to tell you guys about," Hiccup answers.
"Did something catch fire?" a boy asks.
"Did something get crushed?" a similar sounding girl asks.
"Did something get crushed and catch fire? the first boy asks. Wow. They must be geniuses!
"No! Nothing like that. Someone from an island we've never heard of came to Berk. She says that her dragon brought her here," Hiccup tells them. I hear various exclamations of "what!?" and "huh?" throughout the people Hiccup's talking to.
"If she's a she, then I guess you'll have a little more competition, Astrid," says a new boy. Said boy then makes a sound like he just got punched in the gut, probably by Astrid. I can tell he's that kid who thinks every guy wants to be him and every girl wants to date him.
"Ugh, you guys just need to give her some space okay? My dad told me to bring her here so I can keep an eye on her. She's been through enough today as it is, being dragged Thor knows how far away from home to an island that probably doesn't seem like the friendliest place on Earth." Hiccup must be the group's leader because no one argues this point with him.
"So I shouldn't try to see who passes out first if we ran our heads together?" the not-so-bright girl clarifies.
"Exactly." I hear Hiccup start walking again so I sneak back to Ash before he has the chance to catch me. I busy myself with Ash's saddlebags so it looks like I've been waiting patiently for Hiccup to come back. "Okay, they agreed to not bombard you like the rest of the village did when you got here," Hiccup tells me.
I smile back and say, "Okay, cool," and follow him back down to the stage. To be honest, the place is really unimpressive. The floor and the walls are all stone. There's cages (probably for the dragons) to the side, but that's really it. Standing in a group are the people Hiccup must've been talking to a second ago. I can already put some faces to some voices. The chick in the spikey skirt is probably Astrid, the only one who doesn't seem to want to goof off. The twins are obviously the ones who kept asking about things being destroyed. They look like they don't have a clue about anything. The muscle-y boy is the one who pretty much said I'd want to date him. And then there's the shy kid who didn't say anything at all.
"Guys," began Hiccup, "This is, uh- What's your name?" That must've been awkward for him. Though, I did kind of forget that he has no idea who I am.
"I'm Elizabeth," I say, "I sort of accidentally found your island." However, everyone's attention suddenly draws from me to behind me. I guess they noticed Ash.
"Another Night Fury!" shouts the aforementioned shy kid, "We can study how they interact with each other! Maybe we'll find out why we haven't seen any of them other than Toothless! This is so going in the Book of Dragons!" He seems a little over excited.
I want to shout, "Study!? Ash isn't just some science experiment! She's my best friend!" but the situation suddenly becomes a little overwhelming. For starters, I see five dragons emerge from seemingly nowhere to stand behind the group of frankly already intimidating teenagers. Actually, make that four dragons; the green one has two heads.
"Fishlegs!" sighs the jock-y one, "Obviously she doesn't want you gawking at her dragon!" Thank you! Maybe he's not as bad as he sounded. "She wants me to take her up on Hookfang and show her how an expert dragon rider flies!" Nope, I was right the first time.
Hold on. The shy kid's name is Fishlegs!?
"Leave her alone Snotlout! She's freaked out!" Astrid defends, punching him in the gut. Snotlout (seriously, what is with these names?) says something back to Astrid, but I don't hear it. Hiccup enters the fray to try to calm them down. Meanwhile, the twins start hitting each other over the head with shields, probably feeling a need to be involved in the violence. Fishlegs slowly backs away from the group to partially hide besides what I can only assume to be his dragon. I take his lead and decide to get the heck out of here.
I hop on Ash's back and nudge her with my foot so she starts running. Before anyone visibly takes notice, we're back up in the sky. "Take us home, girl! I've had enough of this insane, lost-in-time island," I complain. Of course, Ash doesn't listen.