Chapter Seventy-Three: Deranged wild-life
Being back on a ship made Hiccup uneasy.
As the wind ruffled through his already unruly hair he felt his insides turn into knots and he had a lump in his throat.
It wasn't just sea-sickness.
Ever since his encounter with Alvin a week ago old memories had started resurfacing. Memories he would rather have kept away.
His last trip with a boat like this, burned clear behind his closed eyes.
He saw the giant shadow of a man, a wide toothy grin, he even thought he smelled the hard stench of alcohol and heard a gruff voice say: "Whatever dwarf."
And of course he saw blood, the flashing of metal and heard the huge splash as a heavy body went overboard.
His fault. His entire fault. His fault that Will was dead.
"Hiccup?"
He looked up from the foaming sea and smiled. At least he wasn't the only one feeling miserable. Hope was very green under her dark skin, he could tell. He face was sunken in and she had puked over the side of the boat for the fifth time this morning. She was without a doubt no one for sea-travels. Flying was a thing everybody could get used too but boats…not so much.
"Yeah?" "How long until we can leave this vehicle of death?" she asked in a small voice. He smiled sympathetically.
"I would say another few hours. Try to fix your eyes on the horizon. At least that what my dad always told me when we were on voyages and I got sea-sick. It's a fixed point, it doesn't move. Maybe it will steady you a bit." "You mean you're not sure if it works?" He flashed her a smile. "To be honest I think it's just a fairy tale because it always made me worse but maybe you…" he trailed off.
Hope groaned and went below deck.
.
Two days after the Alvin-debacle they had spotted an island on the north-north-east coast of Kinkal.
Hiccup had taken out his maps and consulted them.
According to the map they were on an island called Zephaniah. From there it was only a matter of three days with the ship till you reached the Western point of Durgonheim.
Under normal circumstances they would have flown the distance in a matter of a day but the weather was against them.
Heavy storms that came from farther north and winds so strong they would knock the riders off their dragon's backs. They would never make it in one day.
The sun never showed itself and Hiccup had the uncomfortable suspicion that it wasn't all natural.
So they had decided to ferry across the sea between the two lands and had discovered that the island, small as it was, was inhabited by fishermen and their families. Very suspicious and unfriendly fishermen and their families, if Hiccup said so himself.
After lots of diplomatic talk and yes, a huge amount of goods and whatever money they had, two of the fisherman, a father and his oldest son, agreed to take them over to Durgonheim on their biggest ship.
But only under the condition that the dragons were kept in the brick all the time. And really, who was Hiccup to argue with them about that?
They had agreed and now they were on the high sea, nothing but the raw power of the nature around them and a dark patch ahead of them which was their current goal.
Behind them the sun was setting.
The sound of thunder rolled over the sky and Hiccup counted subconsciously and calculated the approximately distance of the storm. It was far far away but that didn't calm Hiccup. The sky was dark, the sea was dark, even the air seemed dark.
He saw shades in the water where there were none. At least that was what he hoped. He had enough sea-monsters for a life-time.
The captain approached him shortly after hope had left.
He was an old man with skin hardened from years working on the high sea.
He didn't greet Hiccup, he never said a friendly word; this was all just business for him.
He pointed ahead and sad in his gruff voice: "That 'Cap Mermaid'. Once we rounded it we will be at the entrance of a ten kilometer and roughly two kilometer wide bay. At the bottom you find the biggest city of Durgonheim. It's called 'City of Fallen Heroes'. The island inside the bay's called 'Ghost-Land'. No one dare going there. They say it's cursed." Hiccup nodded. "What do they do for living?" "Fishing and hunting in the woods around."
"I will dock at a small harbor not far from the Cap. I do not sail so far inside." "Why?" Hiccup asked. The man gave him a look as if the answer to his question was obvious. "This is Durgonheim boy. You're better off with the wild animals of these woods than with the humans living in that city."
With these words he left to join his son back at the steering wheel.
.
.
Indeed he left them at a small dock once they had rounded the cap.
There were no houses, just an old dock and a small hovel with no walls and a caved in roof. To say it bluntly it was a ruin with not a single soul around.
The boat had already disappeared from their reach before they had fully adjusted to their new surroundings.
Josh made a very rude gesture but Hiccup didn't say anything. He felt very much the same.
Hope was practically kissing the ground. Namhera hovered above her.
He was nearly worse than Toothless.
Speaking of which, Toothless was being a big baby and was pouting because he wasn't allowed out for three whole days. He was ignoring Hiccup and whenever he had the opportunity tripped him or whacked him over the head with his tail.
George thought it was hilarious, as did everybody else. Hiccup didn't.
"Great, my first girlfriend is a dragon." He muttered at one point to Kate started laughing so hard she fell to the ground.
"Laugh all you want." He grumbled and picked up his backpack. "Let's see who much you are still laughing once we started our two hour walk." He grinned at them.
Imminently they started groaning.
"Why can't we fly?" George groaned.
Then he froze.
So did everybody else.
"Did he just…" Josh asked Hiccup.
"I think he did." Kate confirmed.
Hiccup grinned triumphantly at George.
"You want to be on the back of a dragon!" he exclaimed.
George's face was tomato-red.
"Yeah, so what?" he grumbled.
"We always have to force you!" Hope grinned.
"You could just leave me."
"As if you would want us to do that. You would never 'get home' to say it with your words." Josh laughed.
George grumbled something under his breath.
"What did you say?" Kate asked sweetly though she was grinning as wide as a horse.
"I was thinking practically. Not because I want to or because I like it." He claimed.
"Whatever floats your boat princess." Josh said grinningly, patted his shoulder and started walking after Hiccup. The girls passed him in similar fashion.
Mumbling to himself he picked up his stuff and followed them.
.
.
.
They were walking through a ravine when Josh suddenly grabbed Hiccups shoulder and said: "Wait."
They all stopped.
"Josh, what's the…" Hope asked but Josh shook his head and gestured for her to stay quiet.
They listened but there was no sound.
"Josh, what is it?" Hiccup whispered.
"The wind has stopped."
He was right. The wind that had shaken them for the past days was completely gone. The air was still. Not a single breeze.
"So what?" George asked annoyed.
Josh cast them all an ominous look.
"Then why are the trees still moving?" he whispered and pointed at the slightly swinging tree-branches overhead and ahead.
Too late Hiccup understood.
He shouted: "Weapons everybody!" but it was already too late.
At least a dozen creatures jumped from the trees above, talons and teeth ready.
Toothless opened his mouth to shoot the nearest thing with a plasma blast to hell but Hiccup shouted: "No fire! If one leave catches fire we'll have a full-grown wildfire within minutes."
Swords and knifes found their ways into their owners hands.
The creatures reminded Hiccup of chickens. Really deranged, mutated chickens with sharp teeth and talons.
They walked on two strong legs, were at least three meters high with long necks, big heads and a feather-covered body.
Their teeth grew over the sides of their mouth. They were the size of Hiccups hand.
Their front-paw's talons were curved and wickedly sharp.
One stepped forward, maybe the pack-leader, opened its mouth, but before it could scream or do anything for the better part, there was a whistling sound and in the next second it had a long feathered arrow in his mouth, sticking out of the back of its head. It dropped dead to the floor.
All heads shot around and they saw a person clad in dark greens and browns sliding down the narrow side of the ravine, bow in hands with an arrow notched in the string, one between his teeth. It went flying, hitting the next beast through the left eye. It too dropped dead to the floor.
In the next second he had loaded again and shot a hole through the head of the next beast. The arrow stuck quivering in a tree-trunk.
Beast four and fife took arrows to the head too before the beast reacted. The screamed, fluttered with their short wings and scattered. Not that it did any good.
Within the minute four more were dead and the rest fleet.
Heavy breathing the person stood there in the middle of the ravine, looking after the fleeting beasts.
Then he turned around and pulled down the cloth he had wrapped around the lower half of his face and the hood on his head.
He was a handsome young man of maybe eighteen or nineteen. His hair was coal-black and his eyes were stormy grey. His skin was tanned and he had a faint scar running down the right side of his jaw.
His cloths were covered with mud and leaves, camouflaging him perfectly.
"What…are you doing here? This is Revatoren-Territory. Only mad-men would dare put a foot in here."
"The you must be pretty crazy." Hope said.
He glared at here. "That's different. I live a few miles outside of it. But you didn't answer my question."
"Why should we…" George started but Hiccup cut him off. He smiled at the boy.
"The captain of our boat left us a few miles back at the old landing base. He said he wouldn't go any further."
"Wow, then he really didn't like you lot. What did you do to piss him off that he wanted to feed you to the beasts?"
"Nothing." Hiccup said as Josh snorted: "We existed."
The boy looked from one to another and shrugged.
He started collecting his arrows from the corpses and wiped them clean on his cloth.
"Well, I suggest you get going, they won't stay away too long. Luckily they never leave their territory. If you want I can show you the way." He said and grabbed one of the beasts by its feet, dragging it behind him.
"That would be very nice." Hiccup said.
The guy nodded.
Then with a side-glance at the dragons he said: "Smart not to let them shoot fire. Would have ended in a catastrophe."
"That was pretty wicked what you did with that bow." Hope commented after a few minutes of silence.
"Thanks. It's a natural gift." He said though he didn't sound too excited about it."
"What's your name?" Kate asked.
"What's yours?" he asked.
"Kate. This is hope, the grumpy over there is George, the idiot here is Josh and that is Hiccup. He's sort of our leader." She said nicely.
The boy eyed them all for a moment. He starred at Hiccup longer before hastily turning away.
"Names don't matter here."
"But you have one, right? I mean everyone has a name." Josh said jokingly, before he frowned and asked: "You do, right?"
The boy smiled slightly.
"I do." he said.
"Would you mind telling us?" Hiccup asked.
Again the boy gave him a long look before he said: "Conner. Conner O'Connell."
Then he added: "It's getting late and darker by the minute. You need a place for the night I guess?"
"Yes. Do you know a good place?" Hiccup asked.
Conner nodded.
"You can crash at my place for the night."