Chapter Thirty-Four: I don't search for trouble, trouble finds me!
While Derandolia and every other place, except the Archipelago maybe, had been friendly and nice and colorful and inviting, was Barn, the capital of Baratellum, just…unfriendly.
Narrow grey stone houses built at the foot of a seventy foot tall cliff with a grey sea spreading next to them, grumpy people and with his first step Hiccup landed in a pile of dung.
"Oh, this great!" he groaned and tried to whip the dung off one small piece of grass.
Kate tried to hide a smile but she did a poor job.
The market was crowded but it smelled dreadfully like rotting fish and foul vegetables. "And suddenly I'm not hungry anymore." Kate decided. "Yep, I side with you in this matter."
Hiccup handed her some of the supplies from his back and they ate while they made their way up the cliff to the fortress on top.
"So, what do you know about Barn and it's leader?" Hiccup asked as he dodged under a long stick a guy was carrying on his shoulder.
"Well Baratellum is with Kinkal the oldest nation probably. Barn is the capital since eight-hundred years but it hasn't changed much just like the rest of the land. The main language is Diratan but they speak Tagel in some parts of the land. They life from fishing and they export wood because most of the land is covered in thick rain forest.
They have a long history in fighting bloody wars and having fearless leaders. But right now the throne is inhabited by the wife of the last leader. He died in the war with Talkin nine winters back. She hasn't remarried since and when she dies her son will probably take over. Usually they stab you and then ask questions." "They sound like Vikings." "Not really. They're great tacticians and feared warriors. They are one of the richest nations and usually don't interact with other lands, wars excluded." Hiccup looked around. "They don't look like they have much money." "All their wealth goes into the training of their warriors and knights. They have a camp in the middle of the land. It's a sanctuary, an abbey, a military fortress and a school in one you could say. People come from all over the world to be trained there." Hiccup was impressed. "Nice." "Not really. They are all idiots. Self-centered and arrogant." "You met one?" "Sometime back. They came to visit and commanded everyone around. Hate them." "Great." "Shut up."
"Anything else I should know?" Kate hesitated. "They believe in resurrection by their god. And he's the only god. If you were a good person, you are resurrected into a holy person and may stay in paradise forever. If not you are condemned you are resurrected on form of a poor old ill person and have to life the life of a slave." Hiccup raised an eyebrow. "At least you get to life." "But is it a live worthy to live?" "It's what you make out of your life. We're in charge of our lives. Sometimes a higher divine force messes with us but that doesn't mean we have to bow to that will. Look at me, I'm the living proof." Kate just shook her head. "Sometimes Hiccup…I don't know. Sometimes you're so…wise! It doesn't suit you." "Thanks."
With the next step he bumped into someone.
"Sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going." He apologized automatically. "It won't happen again." He added and looked up. He wished he hadn't.
The guy had a face like it had been penetrated with bricks. It was deformed and crooked and asymmetric and…different. His eyes were a pales grey and one eyes must've been blind because it was covered with something milky white.
He wore a breastplate that looked like it was made from several layers of hand-size metal plates that were sewed together until they formed a skin-tight panzer. Beneath that he wore a grey fabric shirt and black leather pants with matching boots. Two swords hung at his side and a grey cape flapped in the wind that came from the sea below them.
He snarled at Hiccup and before he could say something one of the swords was pressed against his throat.
"Yes" the guy said, his voice sounding choppy and hoarse and short-breathed "Yes, it will never happen again because I will cut your throat!"
"Ahm…" was all Hiccup could manage. He didn't dare to swallow.
"Last words?" Recovering his wits Hiccup said: "Yes. Eat my pants." With that he kicked the guys shin and punched his solar plexus.
The sword was gone and the guy bent forward into Hiccups waiting elbow.
He sunk to his knees groaning.
Kate looked at Hiccup then around at some gapping spectators. "Hiccup" she said kindly "Run."
Hiccup nodded and bolted off. Kate was hot on his heels.
He only heard the muffled scream: "Hold them! Hold those bastards!" behind them.
They stopped panting heavily in a small sidewalk.
He leaned against the damp wall and tried to calm his breath.
"Well done idiot! You attack a knight! Soon the whole town will know." "He was the one with the sword at my throat! Besides, if that was knight form this oh-so-great-fighting-school, why did I overpower him within seconds?"
"Because they have no magic patrons Haddock!" "Why do you always use my last name when you're angry?" "Don't know sounds better."
Hiccup grinned and after a few seconds Kate couldn't hold it anymore and burst out laughing too.
"By the gods Hiccup! You…you…I don't know. But you are either the most stupid or most brave person I've met!" "I like to think it's brave." "Yeah, but I side with stupidity. Do you have any idea how you will get out of this mess? The queen will know about this. And the knight will recognize you."
"Don't know. But I'll think of something! Promise!" Kate shook her head. "Let's get going. Or they find us sooner than later."
Another proof that Hiccup was the most unlucky person in the world happened when they were strolling through not so crowded alleys and streets.
Kate was standing at a market stall that sold fairly nice scarves and hats.
Hiccup rolled with his eyes. "We have no time for shopping Kate. Another time I promise. But now let's get out of here." "You idiot, those are not for me. Here" she handed him a fur hat and a thick scarf "And put your jacket on." she advice him while she draped a nice and long pale pink scarf around her head and shoulders.
"You're a genius!" "I know. Now come."
They only made it around the next corner.
Hiccup saw a familiar mob of dirty blonde hair and a group moving behind the boy who was around his age.
"Damn it, what are they doing her?" he cursed and looked down as the boys from the woods got closer.
"Kate, take my hand." "What?" "Don't ask, take it." "Why?" "Look ahead and I won't need to persuade you any further!" He didn't raise his head to see if Kate was doing as told but he felt her hand slip into his and he squeezed it. She squeezed back.
It would have been no problem to get past the guys but a short distance behind them Hiccup saw another familiar face. Horribly deformed and…ugly...dressed in breastplate and cape, followed by over a dozen similar dressed guys all scared and battle-hardened.
"Oh great." He heard Kate mumble. She'd spotted the knights as well.
Suddenly a bypassing man elbowed Hiccup the hat off his head and the scarf fell to the ground too.
Kate groaned and Hiccup hastily bent down to scoop his things up but Brutus had already spotted them.
For a second on one said something.
Then a smug look appeared on Brutus face. "Well if it's not fishbone and ugly." He said before he snarled: "GET THEM!"
"Kate?" "Yes?" "Run!" "You don't say."
To make matters even worse, the pandemonium had attract the attention of the knights. And judging by the loud and screams Hiccup had no doubt that the knight had recognized him.
He did the only safe and logical thing.
He ran as fast as he could, still holding on to Kates hand tight and dragging her along.
Hiccup let his feet lead the way.
He jumped over boxes, dodged around market stalls and carts, citizens, horses and a lot of other stuff.
Left, right, right, ahead, sharp left and on and on.
But the voices didn't seem to vanish. Instead they sounded closer and closer.
Hiccup again dodged into a narrow side way and nearly slammed into a brick wall.
"Hiccup! Please! I…I can't go on!" Kate gasped behind him.
Hiccup risked as look over his shoulder. Kate was pale and she was holding her sides. She stumbled again and he pulled her up. "Okay, we'll split up. You hide and I lead them away. You go to where we left Nightlight and Toothless. If I'm not there by night fall they probably got me and hung me or whatever they do to people who attack knights in this land." "Don't be ridiculous. They wouldn't hang you. They're not so nice. They would make you a slave."
Hiccup nearly lost his footing.
"They have slaves?" he asked horrified.
Back in the Archipelago, there were tribes too, who held slaves. It had always disgusted Hiccup. These were mostly innocent people taken from their homes. Men, women and children, young and old, alike.
"Yes, slaves." Kate panted.
Hiccup shook his head and continued running.
"Okay, were nearly at the bottom of the cliff again. We separate once we made it into the lower city, okay? Can pull through until them?" "Of course." "Good."
Hiccup was high on adrenalin. It floated through his body and electrified him, sharpened his senses and increased his stamina.
It was an exhilarating feeling he could get used to. Except that it started to wear off.
The lower town was nearly reached when he felt his run slowing down. He cursed. "What is it?" Kate asked. "Not now. You need to get out of here." He said and looked around.
There were dozens of empty barrels lying carelessly on their side at the mostly empty pier.
"Hide there!" he told her and shoved her off n that direction. "I'll be there soon." She squeezed his hand one last time and then was gone.
Against his screaming bones and muscles Hiccup forced himself to run further on.
He threw a glance back.
Most of his pursuers had fallen behind but Brutus, two of his friends and three knights, with them the one he'd overpowered, were still behind him.
He thanked the gods that none of them had seen Kate escape to the pier. They were too occupied chasing him.
Hiccup narrowly missed a chariot that came his way and the driver shouted some profanities he couldn't have cared less about.
He slithered into yet another small side way and looked franticly around. Left or right?
He'd no time to think properly he just turned right and ran deeper into the lower town.
Behind him screams grew louder and heavy footsteps echoed through the dark alleys.
This was the realm of the poorest of the poor. Women with little children sitting in dark front doors, crippled old men lying on the side and kids, whose ribs you could count.
What was that with richest nation again?
Hiccup wished he could help them but in his current position he wasn't even able to help himself properly.
He wished he'd taken is sword along.
All he had were his throwing knives, hidden in his sleeves and his right boot.
"There he is lads!" Oh no! Hiccup again took a left turn and sprinted down the alleys. There had to be a place he could hide!
"Yo! Fishbone!" suddenly someone next to him whispered.
Hiccup jumped at the sudden voice.
He turned left and saw that there was a dark alley just next to him, so narrow, only a very slim person would fit through.
From there, a pair of blue eyes looked at him, glowing in the dim light.
"In here or you'll be dead meat!"
He dived into the alley, sucking in his belly so he would fit in.
Surprisingly after a few steps to the side, the way got wider until he could feel the wall behind him disappear.
Instead there was a hole in the wall, big enough for a grown man to fit through.
A hand appeared from said hole and dragged him inside.
He found himself in a partly lit room and face to face with a boy, maybe two years older than him.
The guy grinned at him with too many teeth. "Hello!" he said. "The names Josh fishbone. And I have to tell you, you are like magnet for trouble. First Brutus and his gang, now the knights! Respect. You piss off more people in twenty-four hours then I in my whole life. And believe me, that's all I've been doing. But for god's sake, what did you do to make Sir Ulric angry?" Hiccup had problems to follow his stream of words so he just said numbly: "I told him to eat my pants and maybe or may not have kicked and punched him."
The guy looked at him, silent for a moment, than he burst out laughing uncontrollably. "Oh men, this is too good! I've been trying to get the old one mad for ages and here you are, one day in Baratellum and already broke my records! I like you man!"
Suddenly Hiccup realized something.
"Wait a minute! How could you possibly know I have problems with Brutus and his gang?" "Was there." the guy said, scrambling through his pockets searching for something.
"And man, that was so epic when you told him off and escaped right under his nose. Should have seen his face afterwards! Hilarious!" "You were there?" "I don't expect you to remember me. I'm at the bottom of the food-chain there. I'm standing mostly in the background, doing whatever I'm told."
He seemed to have found what he'd been searching for because another torch blazed with fire and Hiccup shut his eyes from the sudden brightness.
When he slowly adjusted his eyes, he saw the guy for the first time completely. He was tall and muscular in a Snotlout-Snotface-manner.
But he didn't look mean. He had shoulder-length blond hair, cerulean blue eyes and a matching blond three-days-beard and a white scar on his left cheek.
He was dressed in rough trousers made from something that looked like denim and a white shirt and a brown waistcoat, brown boots and he had an ax on his back and aback in his hand.
Hiccup recovered from his slight shock and asked in a low voice: "Why in the gods names are you helping me? Or are you just helping me to bring me to your boss?" He words stung from venom.
Josh's eyes narrowed down.
"Brutus' not my boss anymore. In fact he never was. Only reason I stayed was because of the guaranty of food and shelter until I could get a away from here." "Doesn't explain way you're helping me." "I overheard you and your girlfriend last night." "She's not my girlfriend. And how much did you hear?" "Or sister whatever. I heard a lot about gods and monsters and destinies and you were reading a book the whole night looking like you were trying to figure out the way of the world and it meanings. Anyway. I also saw your dragons." Here he stopped. "You know that dragons are…a sore topic around here?" "Yes. Now would you please come to the point?" Hiccup asked furiously, that Josh had been listing to their conversation all night long.
"Well, it sounded pretty good and after I saw how you made a fool out of Brutus in front of the others I thought I should repay you." Hiccup raised his eyebrows. "And how?" "By offering you my help and support. You're going on an adventure and you need someone with experience." Hiccup groaned. "Oh no, please! I don't need another companion! Kate's enough already and I don't need another dangerous adventures loving person in my life. It's already screwed up enough!"
E shot to his feet. "Thanks for your help but no. I can't take you along. That sounds more like a punishment then a reward to me."
He began squeezing himself back through the alley into the street.
"Please, Wait!" he heard Josh all out behind him. "You really do need my help! I know how to escape from every possible situation. I can survive in the wild and I can flay the flute!" Hiccup turned his head. "And latter is a reasonable reason to take you along?" Josh smiled at him in a strange way. "You never know when you maybe need e nice tune of music. Besides, the power of music is always underestimated." "Thanks for that philosophical comment but no, I have to decline the offer." "I won't go! Not until you take me along!" "We have dragons. We could just fly away!" "I'm sure I could still find you!" "No, you wouldn't." "Wanna bet?" "NO!" He swirled around.
"I'm going to give you the same talk I gave to Kate! This is serious. This is no play-ground adventure, this is deathly serious. This is about the fate of the world and I can't risk it to a joke like you! We're in constant danger and I don't want to endanger anyone!" "Did this Kate listen to you?" "No." "And you took her along." "Unwillingly." "And now you protect each other?" "More ore less." "Great, then I'll be coming too if she can!"
Hiccup threw his arms in the air and wanted to shout when a grumpy voice behind him said: "Got you."
Hiccup swallowed and turned around. There stood the knight. What had Josh called him? Ulric? Yes, Ulric.
The knight grabbed his shoulder hard and Hiccup suppressed the urge to hiss at him.
"You lead us on quite a chase boy but now I got you. And you are going to pay!" "Listen, I'm sure we can talk about this nice and friendly like civilized men!" "Why don't you just hit him like you did before?" Josh asked beside him. Hiccup could have self-palmed again.
"Josh, not helping!" he said before he faced Ulric again and the other knights that appeared behind him.
"Please, I'm sorry. I panicked. I'm sorry, I really am!" he tried and smiled at the man. But he only sneered. "And I'm a princess boy." Next to him Josh chuckled. "Then where is your dress and your crown?" "Josh!" "Shut up?" he guesses. "Right you are!"
"No, you and your funny friend there" Ulric nodded over to Josh who was grabbed by two other knights, "You will go in front of the queen and will be judged." "For what?" "Insulting and attacking a knight." "You're such a princess!" Josh sighed. "JOSH!" "And shutting up." Ulric chuckled dryly. "No, please continue. All your friend says can be used against you." Hiccup tried to fight his grip but it was tight as a bench vise. "I think friend is too strong a word. I just met that idiot." Hiccup said, teeth clenched. "Hey!" Shut up, I'm trying to save your life, Hiccup thought desperately.
Suddenly there were noises behind them.
"Oh good, very good, Josh, you found him! Nice job. So there is hope for you after all." "Oh no." Josh and Hiccup said simultaneously.
Brutus stood behind them, his gang behind him.
"I'm sorry but that fishbone over there and the blond belong to me. That idiot there angered us and we want revenge. If you could please hand them over?" Ulric seemed as irritated as Hiccup had the urge again to face-palm. This time because of Brutus stupidity.
"Go and play with your toys boy, these two are prisoners in the name of her majesty!" "No they are mine, the boy there attack us first!" "But I'm a knight!" "And I'm the Lord of the woods!" "You're just a boy." Hiccup laughed. "That's exactly what I said." "Shut up." Uric said. Hiccup pulled a face at him.
Brutus stepped forward. "Now hand them over. We are more then you gramps."
"Oh-o." Hiccup mumbled.
"Oh-o." Josh agreed.
"Oh yeah!" said the other teens.
"Oh-o." said the other knights chuckling.
"What did you call me dwarf?" Ulric asked. "G-r-a-m-p-s. It's a short form for grandfather. Knights really aren't the brightest, are they?"
Ulric turned to the other two knights.
"Size him." With no word they did. "Hey, you can't do that!" Brutus cried indignantly. "Shut up." Ulric said.
"And you" he addressed the remaining boys, "Scram, go home and stay there."
While the boy scattered away Ulric turned to face the remaining three boys. "And we're going to have a lovely talk with the queen."
He grinned.
An: Uh…..cliffhanger!