A/N- A quick reminder to all my readers: if you leave a review as a guest, I am unable to reply directly to you, which makes me somewhat sad. Further, if a review is left as only "Guest" or "Anonymous" it is very difficult to address you if needed in the author's notes here as well.

With that out of the way, let's continue, shall we?

Chapter 9

Concealed

It looked like nothing more than a lush, tropical volcanic isle. There was a massive, beach-lined bay that stretched across the side we were approaching, and numerous hills rose up in the distance, beyond the first band of trees.

"It looks uninhabited," Peter muttered, staring out at it over the railing. Caspian shrugged and replied, "Not many people have been this far east. It may very well be untouched." Toothless came out from below, eyes darting from one side to the other, like he was expecting some sort of surprise, and stood next to me, looking over the water as well. ::There's something strange about this place,:: he crooned. ::I'm getting a feeling that there's something powerful here, something we're not seeing right now.:: I shrugged. ::Not seeing, almost certainly. But I can feel something too, power from somewhere.::

"Caspian, should we take boats ashore?" Susan called out, as she was standing near the prow while we stayed by the side of the ship. "If there's food to be had, we should gather some while we're here. No reason to start running low." Caspian peered at the island, as if squinting would help him see something he couldn't already, then glanced up toward the slowly setting sun. "We'll spend the night ashore," he finally decided, "then we'll look for food or possibly signs of the other lords passing through tomorrow."

"You're kidding right?" We all groaned as Eustace poked his head out of the door that led toward his room below. "What, you're complaining about me," he griped, "when we're all now planning to sleep ashore on an unexplored, uncharted island with no idea of what's there, or if it might be dangerous?"

Susan sighed and glared at her cousin. "It's nothing any of the rest of us haven't done before, Eustace," she tiredly returned, "and we've never really come out for worse." "There's always a first time," Eustace muttered darkly. I groaned and threw my hands up in the air in exasperation. "Oh, come on, relax Eustace!" I snapped. "We have dragons with us, and I'm probably the scariest thing out here anyway!" Eustace glared at me in response. "And that's supposed to make me feel better about this situation, is it?" he queried. "That you'll be out here with us?"

"Eustace, shut up," warned Edmund. He turned to face Caspian, whom he stood next to. "Should we set out, since we've nothing else to take care of on board at the moment?" Caspian nodded in agreement and glanced at the captain. "Drinian, load up the rowboats. We're heading ashore."

The island was very, very quiet, far too quiet for such a lush place. Barely a birdcall was heard every now and then through the trees. After the camp was set up on the beach, and it was confirmed we could see anything that might come out of the brush at us, Toothless, Hiccup, and I took a temporary leave and set out on a flight around the island to scout the terrain.

"This is weird," Hiccup said. "And I mean weirder than just our normal lives. I don't see anything but plants down there, not even butterflies or beetles moving around." ::Not a bird or even any smaller reptiles,:: Toothless added in agreement. We all glided down toward the forest and into the trees, landing gently on the ground and I morphed into a Viperwyrm so as to move around through the brush silently (think of your average venomous snake, but with a dragon's tail and ridges on the head, colored in diamonds of red and brown), and climbed silently up into the nearest tree.

"See anything?" Hiccup called as I slithered into the canopy. "Ssshhhhh!" I hissed, trying to convey I needed quiet, and perked up my miniscule ears to listen to the habitat. All around me, there were faint rustlings in the leaves and a short period after the forest quieted from Hiccup's yell, I caught the sound of a nearby cricket beginning to chirp. Silently, slowly, I followed the sound to a large leaf lying across the base of another tree, and carefully I slipped the tip of my tail under it and flicked it up.

The sound of something small jumping across the forest floor replaced the chirping, and I saw leaves shake and scatter slightly, but no visible insect appeared. Quickly, I slithered back to Hiccup and Toothless and morphed Night Fury again. "Well, there are living animals here, but even sneaking up on them I can't see them at all," I reported. "So, they're really good at camouflaging?" Hiccup queried. I shook my head. "Not unless they're better at camouflaging than a Changewing is," I said. "No, they're invisible, like a Shadow Lord is. An I'm betting it's not just the cricket I found, but everything on the island."

SNAP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!

All three of us spun to face the sudden sounds echoing through the trees, but as expected, nothing showed up. "Let's get back to the others," I suggested quietly. Both my friends nodded, and we shot upward and back to the camp on the beach.

"See anything?" Peter asked as we landed. I flared my wings and dropped, changing fully human as I did so. "Not see, per se, but we did find something," I replied. "What do you mean?"

"The creatures here are invisible," Hiccup explained, "or if not, ridiculously see-through."

"And we're staying on the beach?!" Eustace asked incredulously. "Please tell me this is enough to put some sense into your heads!" "Just because we can't see them doesn't mean that anything that tries to jump us can't burn anyway," Stormfly said, raising her head up from the sand.

"I'd bet they'll still give off heat," I said, giving the gold dragon a glare at her unnecessarily morbid comment. "And that's something certain dragons won't miss." To emphasize my point, my eyes changed to a bright azure, and suddenly everything around me began to glow various shades of red and blue.

Caspian cleared his throat and nodded. "Well, if you think you have a way of seeing them, then you can keep guard for now," he said. Eustace groaned in reply as he turned to the other crew. "Everyone else? Keep your ears open for anything that could be dangerous."

Evening arrived rather quickly, and while everyone else gathered around the campfire they built, I sat some distance away staring into the forest. I couldn't look at the flames as the infrared light would blind the eyes I wore at the time, but I could watch the movements of the faint reddish dots that signified small insects or other scurrying animals in the brush. I hadn't sat there for long before Camicazi and Thuggory came to sit by me.

"Aren't you two wanting to enjoy the fire?" I questioned lightly. They both shrugged. "It's quieter over here," Thuggory said. "Plus, we can actually see the stars if we're in the dark here," Cami added. I glanced at her, surprised. "I didn't know you fancied being a stargazer," I toned.

She laughed. "Hey, not everything I do has to be tough and Vikingly, does it? Besides," she continued, "this is a strange sky to me. We travel a lot, but never this far south." She pointed up at a group of stars that appeared to spiral around each other. "That's a constellation I've never seen."

"Kind of looks like your forehead," Thuggory teased, elbowing me lightly in the side. "Ha ha," I quipped back, and we laughed before going silent for a few minutes, doing exactly what Cami had mentioned: staring up at the stars.

"Think anything big is going to happen?" Thuggory finally said. "I hope not," I sighed, " but I've had the bad feeling that we're probably walking into a problem since we arrived. That mist at the Lone Islands was definitely not natural, that was demonic in origin." I looked at both of them, a serious expression worn. "And, don't tell any of the Narnians just yet, but I fear it's searching for us. Certainly, I've felt something following us."

That got both of them jumpy, but there wasn't much I could do about it either. "Hey, calm down," I said, trying at least. "There's always a battle in life, and unfortunately to get past some of them you have to walk right into them. We'll get through it."

Eventually though, the crew began to drop off, followed by the Vikings, lying down next to the rocks scattering the beach for a little more protection. I continued to keep vigil as all the fires and the lanterns slowly went out one by one, save for Lucy's. Big surprise, she was lying on her mat, reading a book. I sauntered over and climbed up on the nearest rock and peered down at the novel in her hands, and almost immediately recognized the story written there: by Jules Verne, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

"How far you got to?" I asked. Lucy jumped a little and looked up in surprise, before seeing me and relaxing. "Oh, not very far yet," she replied.

"Past the pearl diver and the shark yet?"

She looked at me somewhat confused. "You know this book?" I laughed. "Oh, it's a classic, apparently in more than just my world." Lucy smiled. "Well, it's pretty good so far, though I've got a long ways to go. It was one of the few books in the pack I had when we washed up here, but I haven't had a chance to read much." She glanced around, noticing everyone around was already asleep. "Though, it may have to wait a little longer, as I should probably get to sleep. Good night, Hawken."

I waved goodbye with my tail as she lay down, and headed off again to watch the forest's edge. "You're in good hands," I whispered to no one in particular, setting down to stare into the dark.

The night dragged on, and as even the moon began to drag toward the horizon, I began to slowly feel the tendrils of sleep tugging at me, but as nothing unusual happened the whole time I watched, I found it harder and harder to fight the urge to rest my head on my paws. "Go to sleep already," my mind seemed to whisper, with the rhythms of slow songs and rhymes seeping through my head as fatigue took its toll on my focus and body. "Nothing is out here but the bugs. There's no danger, it's safe to have some shuteye." I nodded in agreement with myself, finding it finally too hard to hold my head up. With one last look around, spotting nothing new glowing in the trees, I finally lay my head down and fell fast asleep.

The figure smiled in pleasure. With the half-dragon finally sleeping like a log, that part of his plan had been effective, and there was one less obstacle in the way of their entire purpose, at least for what was left of the night. "Sleep well, little pest," it hissed, the shape of its body fading out of recognition and remaining only as a hint of greenish fog, before drifting fully out of sight into the air.

A/N-And there you go, another piece to the puzzle, but also another question or two to be answered. More will be revealed very soon, so stay with me.

As always, make sure to leave a review, let me know what you think!