"Gobber what are you doing?" the chief asked. I was about to beg for forgiveness when I finally registered that he was talking to Gobber.
"I'm finding out what skills she's got, like ya told me to." Gobber asked with his eyes still on me.
"I was talking about not telling her about the seal." the chief explained.
"Well you can't swing a sword properly if your not angry." Gobber concluded.
"What ... is going on." I said, out of breath from screaming at Gobber.
The Chief then turned around and said "You had better put the sword down and take a seat." as he gestured towards the anvil.
"You can keep the sword if ya want. Your not going to cause any damage with that grip." Gobber said with a short chuckle.
I looked at my hand and said rather insulted "I know that! I wasn't going to slice you with the edge for ignoring me." and I readjusted my grip as a demonstration.
Gobber looked at me nodded "Good with a sword. Short tempered but doesn't go too far off the deep end when your buttons are pushed. Rules at least a few places out." he said now turning to the chief.
"What!" I stated, utterly confused and emotionally drained. The chief gestured to the anvil and I walked over dragging the sword on the ground and sat listening, desperate for answers.
The Chief started up with his deep voice "I'm sorry but Gobber and I looked through that book several times and your seal was not in it.".
My heart sank. That was it. That was my only connection to my past and it didn't lead anywhere. A look of disparity came across my face. I just stared at the floor of the blacksmiths with everything dulling and muffling around me.
A voice cut through my shroud of desperation. It was the Chief's and he said "We talked to Gothi about your condition and she had an idea of how we might still be able to find your tribe."
My head perked up. I had a feeling I had never been so devoutly paying attention to someone as I was now with the Chief.
"How?" I asked.
"Gothi noticed that you didn't forget 'ow to walk or talk when you woke up so she thought that you might 'ave other skills that might give us a clue about where you are from. For example, as Gobber just got you to show, you know how to 'andle weapons which rules out a few tribes that we know of that don't let their women use weapons."
An idea just came into my head as they mentioned other tribes.
I spoke up and asked "If you have relations with other tribes can't you just ask if anyone from their knows me?"
Both of them started laughing. I didn't get what was funny. The chief then boomed "If I sent a message to every tribe saying that we 'ave a 15 year old girl who can't remember what tribe she belongs to or who 'er family is, they would all take advantage and 'alf of the return messages would be declarations of war for 'kidnapping' the daughter of their tribes chief and the other 'alf would claim you were engaged to their sons."
Gobber commented "Vikings don't share too well so we never say something doesn't belong to us. Until we know for sure what tribe you come from you are a Berkian to the rest of the world."
"They would really all claim me as their own?" I asked.
"Aye. I once saw two vikings almost fight to the death for a moldy sandwich no one claimed." said Gobber. I was a little angry that I had been so easily compared to a moldy sandwich but I quickly shrugged it off.
There was a slight pause and then the chief said "So. Gobber's going to take you around the island and see what you can do. 'opefully by the end of today there will be only one place you could be from."
The chief then walked away and I was left with Gobber in the forge.
"So shall we get started then?" Gobber stood up and grabbed a strip of cloth.
He moved over to me and I said in alarm "Wait. What are you doing?".
"Now that you know i'm testing you, you won't be able to show your skills. It has to be on instinct." Gobber said trying to blindfold me with the cloth.
I shoved him off and said "I think I can do just fine anyways.".
Gobber looked annoyed and said "Really. Now tell me the proper stance to have while holding a sword?".
"Well you just ..." I started. I tried to think back to my lessons. Wait, did I have lessons? The more I thought about my past the more my grip loosened on the sword. Gobber seemed to sense this and grabbed a mace from the assorted weapons around the forge and hit the sword out of my hand.
"My point exactly. Stoick couldn't even pull that sword from your hand a minute ago when you were acting on instinct. Now your grip is weaker than my frail old aunties tea." he pointed out. I didn't like it but he had a point. I had one more protest that I had to try before I let him blindfold me.
"Stoick said you had to take me around the island. How can I do that if i'm blindfolded?" I protested, half knowing what he was going to say.
"I'll guide you lass. Don't worry about a thing." he responded.
"Oh i'm just instilled with confidence." I said as I let him blindfold me. The next several minutes were very disorienting to say the least. Even trying to peer out the sides of the blindfold and using my ears to try to place where we were, I was still overwhelmed by the sounds of dragon roars, viking laughs and grunts, and the odd quizzical grunt of surrounding vikings, obviously wondering why there was a blindfolded teen being led through the streets by Gobber. All the sounds and the constant turning was beginning to make me feel sick when we finally stopped and waited in one place for a while. Gobber then untied my blindfold and my eyes adjusted to the daylight.
"Hopefully you do actually know how to sail because those shoals up ahead don't look too inviting." said Gobber. I was confused until I got a sense of my surroundings. I was on a ship at full sail headed strait for a bunch of jagged looking rocks sticking up out of the water. I panicked and looked for Gobber. He was lounging on the side of the ship nonchalantly.
"Do something!" I yelled at him.
"I don't know how to sail a ship lass. The crew that did, jumped off when I cut that rope over there." Gobber said as he gestured to both a rope swaying uselessly in the wind a bunch of black dots in the water behind the boat.
I rushed to the ropes attaching the sail to the ship and I spilled the wind from the sails. Were still going to fast so I moved to the rudder control. The rope that Gobber cut was the connecting line from the rudder to the control and so the control was useless. I stood for a second contemplating jumping overboard like the sailors did. I shuddered at the thought. I had had my fill of being stuck in the ocean and I did not want to abandon ship just yet. I looked around and noticed there was a hatch that would lead into the cargo hold. I yelled at the still lounging Gobber "GET YOUR USELESS TROLL HIDE BELOW DECK".
He acknowledge this and we both headed into the cargo hold. The connecting line was still connected to the rudder but was limp and laying uselessly on the floor. I yelled at Gobber again "Grab that rope and pull!".
He did and I did the same. Soon after the ship started to turn and slow down significantly.
I let out a long sigh and Gobber pulled out a notebook and said "Sailing check.".
I wound up and took a swing at him while letting out a string of curses. He expected this and picked me up by the scruff of my clothes and held me at bay.
After a bit of incoherent cursing I yelled "YOU COULD HAVE KILLED US!".
He replied "There was no other way for you to show you could sail.".
"What if I didn't know how too?" I asked.
"Well ... then ..." he stammered.
"We would have been torn to pieces in the shoals!" I concluded for him.
"Your not looking on the bright side. We just narrowed down where you could be from by quite bit actually." he said.
"What's the point of finding out where i'm from if it kills me!?" I yelled still angry.
"If you don't like my way of doing thing we can always stop. We don't have to find out where your from if you don't want to." he said coaxing his expected response out of me.
I sighed and he took that as a 'let's continue'. Now we were on the deck and Gobber leaned off the side of the ship and looked at the shoals whistling and saying "Close one".
"So what are you going to do now?" he asked.
I took this opportunity to push him off the side of the ship. When he resurfaced I said "Since your already in the water, YOU are going to replace the connecting line around the rudder.". I threw a rope down at him and then continued "Then we are going to pick up the men that jumped overboard.".
"Right!" Gobber said "I'd almost forgotten about them.".
As soon as the ship was repaired we sailed back to Berks port, while picking up the stranded sailors on the way. As soon as we got off the ship Gobber stopped me pulled out the blindfold again.
I sighed "If we end up in the middle of nowhere again and I have to save us, your finding your own way back." I said as I let him blindfold me again. I was pushed through the streets again and became completely disoriented. Once again I stopped and waited some time for Gobber to remove my blindfold. Before it was I heard a familiar voice saying "I still don't understand why you need Meatlug and all this rope.".
"Fishlegs!?" I called out, still blinded.
"Hi Freya." replied Fishlegs.
"Freya?" asked Gobber.
"Ya it's the name she chose last night so we can call her something other than ... her." Fishlegs answered.
"All that time we had walking through the streets and on the ship and you didn't once think to tell me your new name. I'm a little hurt ... Freya." Gobber said, still adjusting to the name.
"If you don't take this blindfold off me soon, your going to be hurting a lot more!" I threatened.
Soon after that I felt something attach to my leg and then the blindfold came off. My leg was attached to a rope. I followed the long rope through all of it twists and turns and saw that it was fead through two pulleys attached to a tree. The end of the rope was attached to a big, wide, green Dragon with a mace-like tail.
I stared at the dragon for a bit before Fishlegs said "Oh I haven't introduced the two of you yet. Meatlug this is Freya. Freya, Meatlug.". The Dragon just scratched itself and Fishlegs went up to it and gave it a hug. "Meatlug is the sweetest most caring Dragon there is. Yes you are." the boy said as he proceeded to baby talk to his dragon.
"What is this?" I asked Gobber.
"Well I took into consideration you not wanting to die while finding out where your from an made this. If you can't do this you will only walk away with several broken bones ... probably." he said walking over to the Dragon.
"You have a bola and a bow choose wisely." he said and them he gave the Dragon a smack causing it to fly high into the air to get away from him. The rope started shortening and I grabbed the bow and notched an arrow. I pulled back and fired at the section of the rope between the two pulleys. The arrow barely traveled anywhere and stuck into the ground a few feat from me. There was barely any rope left and I notched another arrow. I was then pulled off my feet by the rope as it became tight. Sliding along the ground I pulled back the bowstring aimed and let the arrow fly. I stopped moving. The arrow severed the rope and the severed part moved up through the pulleys and dangled under the flying dragon.
Fishlegs ran after the dragon screaming "Meatlug come back! Gobber didn't mean it!"
"Bow skills check" said Gobber looking in his book again. I was getting very annoyed with Gobbers way of doing things and I got up and ran over to the bola and threw it at him. The three round weights rotated in the air and then wrapped around Gobber tangling his limbs in a mess of ropes.
"Bola skills check" I mocked.
"Get me out of here Freya." Gobber yelled at me.
"I'd love too Gobber but it's not instinctual anymore. I wouldn't know what to do with the ropes." I lied. "You know what, it's lunch time and i'm getting hungry so i'm going to go to the Great Hall to get some food. I'll bring someone back that will know what to do about the ropes." I said as I headed to the Great Hall. On my way over there I fantasized about who I might have been before, based on what skills I had found out I had. Was I a pirate? Using my sailing skills to find ships and then take them over with a sword and a bow. Or was I a hunter? Sailing from island to island in search of rare game to hunt with my bow or trap with my bola. I snapped out of my fantasy when I entered the gates of the Great Hall. I saw all the Berk teens, except Fishlegs, at their table and I grabbed my food and walked over to them.