Okay people, sorry about not updating last week, there was another matter I had to address first. Anyway, I'm back now.
Enjoy!
The Adventurous Adventures of Hiccup and Wrenlou
A Blacksmith's Apprentice, Part II
"Okay," Hiccup said as he unrolled the map, "according to this the island we're looking for is... oh look at that, just east of Palm Beach Island. Alright, I know where that is. Come on bud, make it quick. We've got a week to do this."
Toothless crooned and sped up as soon as Hiccup had rolled the map back up. Hiccup smiled and looked around, enjoying the warm sun on his face, and the cool breeze in his hair.
"This is nice, isn't it?" he asked no one in particular, "I missed flying like this. Just you and me... and the clouds..."
Toothless crooned softly and Hiccup rubbed his neck. "Don't worry bud. I won't forget why we're doing this. How could I?"
He smiled a little as he looked down on the sea. It was a warm day, the sun high in the sky and not a cloud in sight. They just passed Palm Beach Island, and he checked the map again, making sure they were still going in the right direction. After he put it away again, he looked around. All he saw was ocean. According to the map the island he was looking for wasn't too far away from Palm Beach Island, a few hours tops. He suspected they would reach the island just before sunset.
"What do you think we'll find?" he asked, smiling when Toothless cooed, "yeah I don't know either. But it can't be too dangerous, can it? I mean, he would never send us there if it was really dangerous, would he?"
Hiccup looked at the bag, where the map was safely hidden away. The smith did tell him that it could be dangerous, possibly fatal if he wasn't careful, but surely that was just to scare him. There was no way that the island was actually dangerous. He had seen many of the islands around here, and they were all the same. White beaches, palm trees and uninhabited. This one wouldn't be so different, he was sure of it.
But the island that slowly came into view was much bigger than the ones he had seen before, and it was completely barren. There was not a green plant in sight, not even a little sapling. It was completely covered in black rocks and sharp jagged edges. As soon as they landed Hiccup slipped from the dragon's back.
"This is it?" Hiccup asked, not believing what he saw, "this is the island? Toothless, are you sure we have the right island?"
Toothless tilted his head and crooned. Hiccup pulled the map from his bag again and unfolded it, placing it on the ground. With his finger he traced the path they had flown, over Palm Beach Island, right to the island they were now.
"This has to be it," he said while he stood up, "there are no other islands nearby, this is the only one. I wonder why it looks like this..."
After putting the map in the bag again he picked a small rock from the ground. It was surprisingly light, unlike any rock he had ever seen before. He studied it for a while, then he dropped it again.
"Well, we're here," he said, wiping his hands on his shirt, "lets go find this metal, shall we?"
Toothless complained loudly, plopping on the ground where he stood. He looked at Hiccup with big eyes, almost saying that he wasn't going anywhere. Hiccup looked at the sky, the sun had already begun to set.
"You're right," he said, walking back to the dragon, "we'll stay here for the night and search tomorrow. We still have a week, so there should be enough time, right."
Toothless nodded and folded his wings at his side. Hiccup dropped the bag on the ground and looked around.
"Do you think that there's any wood around?" he asked, "to build a fire?"
Without waiting for an answer he walked off, searching all around their improvised camp site. He found a few small pieces of wood sticking out of the ground, and on the beach he found some drift wood, probably from sunken ships. It wasn't much, but it was enough to keep a fire going for at least a few hours. He brought them back to Toothless, the dragon seemingly already asleep. Hiccup smiled and put the pile of wood on the ground.
"Come on Toothless, wake up," he said while he pulled the food from the saddle bag, "time for dinner."
After they had eaten, and after Toothless had lit the wood on fire, Hiccup nestled against the dragon's side. The sun wasn't completely gone yet, colouring the sky with vibrant hues of red and orange, making it look like it was on fire. The setting sun also coloured the sea, giving the water a blood red appearance.
"You'll never see a sunset like this on Berk," Hiccup mumbled, "never."
He scratched Toothless' chin as he waited for the stars to come out. The red slowly made place for the dark blues of the night, spotted with millions and millions of stars. Even with the faint red glow on the horizon the stars were overwhelming in numbers.
"Or stars like this," Hiccup mumbled sleepily, and he rested his head against Toothless's side.
The dragon purred softly, and Hiccup quickly fell asleep. Toothless soon followed after folding his wing around Hiccup.
He shot up, his heart racing. Something had woken him, but then he heard it again. It was a low rumble in the distance, and it almost sounded like a flock of dragons. As soon as he crawled out from under Toothless' wing, he saw that the sound had woken the dragon too.
"What was that?" Hiccup asked.
Toothless growled a little and Hiccup stood up, looking around. The sound was there again, much louder this time, and suddenly the ground shook. Hiccup lost his balance, but Toothless was quick to catch him, curling his tail around the boy to keep him standing.
"What is going on on this island!" Hiccup almost yelled, "come on Toothless, we're going to figure out what that sound was."
He swiftly gathered everything that lay around on the ground. The fire had gone out already, leaving only a smoking pile of ash. After he was done he climbed onto Toothless' back and shifted the prosthetic into take-off position.
It was still dark, the moon and stars not giving much light, and the black rocks of the island didn't make it any easier, so they stayed low, close to the ground. As they flew the rumble grew louder, and a faint glow appeared in the distance.
"Careful bud," Hiccup whispered, "we don't know what we'll find. These dragons may be hostile."
They flew slowly now, almost inching towards the glow. Suddenly, there was an explosion, and a plume of fire shot into the sky. It was accompanied by thick black smoke that quickly filled the sky above them, blocking the stars and the moon, shrouding the world in black
"That's not dragons!" Hiccup yelled, pulling Toothless to a halt "that's a volcano!"
They could see the volcano now. It was a large mountain, right in front of them, still a few miles away. It was spewing fire and ash, the smoke that gulfed out of it and down the sides. There were several lava flows creeping down the sides.
"I can't believe he sent us to an active volcano," Hiccup gasped, trying not to inhale the smoke, "but that would explain a lot, wouldn't it. Like why he said is might be dangerous? I can see how molten rock is dangerous. But that may explain why the metal is so rare... come on bud, lets take a closer look. But be careful."
They carefully flew closer to the volcano and it's molten lava streams. Hiccup strained his eyes to see anything, but the smoke had blocked out all the light except that from the lava itself, and that was too bright and too hot to look at directly. After a short while he shook his head.
"No, this can't be it," he said, "it's impossible to tell rock from metal if it's that hot. Come on Toothless, lets go somewhere we can breath properly."
Toothless turned around and sped up, eager to get away from the angry mountain. It took them a while but when they finally did clear the smoke and the heat from the volcano, Hiccup took a few deep breaths.
"It's a volcano," he mumbled, "an active volcano. Well, one thing's for sure. This will be an interesting week."
He breathed in deeply, and looked around. Nothing of the island seemed familiar. They must have ended up on a completely different part of the island because of the smoke. He frowned a little when he looked down. There were several large holed in the ground, almost looking like something big and heavy had fallen onto the island.
"What are those..." he mumbled softly and he steered Toothless down.
From up close the craters were even bigger, huge even. As he looked inside of one, he saw that there was nothing inside, as he had expected. But just as he turned away a glimmer at the bottom caught his eye and he frowned. Curious, he carefully slipped into the crater, sliding down to the bottom. He quickly found the glimmer and when he picked it up he saw that it was a small piece of metal, not much more than a splinter. A smile spread across his face as he examined it, totally forgetting where he was. It wasn't until there was a roar that he remembered, and he quickly tucked the splinter away and climbed out of the crater, looking around.
"Did you roar?" he asked Toothless, "volcanoes don't roar, do they?"
Toothless crooned softly and Hiccup looked around. There was nothing in sight, nothing besides dark rocks and the shimmer of the lava in the distance. He shrugged a little, brushing it off as a trick of the wind, and pulled the splinter out of his pocket.
"You see this Toothless?" he asked and he showed him the splinter, "my bet is that this is the metal we're looking for. But this is just a splinter, and he wanted a sizable chunk. So we need to find more. Hopefully we don't have to collect a million splinters and melt it together..."
Toothless sniffed the metal in his hand and growled, backing away from it like it would bite him. He raised his wings a little, ready to run, and Hiccup frowned.
"What is it? Toothless?"
Toothless growled louder, this time with bared teeth and Hiccup quickly put the splinter in his pocket to calm his nervous dragon. He inched towards him, his right hand stretched out and when it touched Toothless's nose, the dragon calmed immediately.
"It's okay bud," Hiccup whispered softly, "it's okay. The metal won't hurt you. But since it seems like we're on the right track, why don't we follow the trail and see where it ends, okay? The sun is rising already and we don't have forever. So come on, lets see where this takes us."
Toothless protested a little, but followed Hiccup as the boy started walking from crater to crater. He now noticed that some where deeper than others, and some were a more oval shape. But no matter what shape they were, they all posed the same question. What had made them, and why.
He found a few more splinters of metal and by the time the sun was fully risen he had five. It led him to believe that maybe, long ago, something rained down on this island, maybe a meteor that had contained the metal. But he couldn't be sure.
"You know," he said to Toothless as he pulled some bread out of the saddle bag, "if all I'm going to find are splinters, then this will be a very long week. Not to mention the volcano erupting back there."
He sighed and stopped walking, looking around as he pulled pieces from the bread. He was surrounded by craters now, there were so many that he was walking on a small edge between craters. No matter where he looked the big holes were present.
"I can't check them all, can I?" he asked, "it's the first day... well... second, and I'm already losing hope we'll ever find enough of this metal."
Toothless crooned softly and nudged him gently, licking his hand.
"You're right," Hiccup said, eating the last bit of bread, "I can't let this put me down. I must find this stupid metal, and the sooner we do it, the sooner we can go back to Dragoncity. So, where do we go now?"
Before he could even think of moving, a loud roar ripped through the air and he froze. He looked around, not seeing anything until his eyes fell on a cave not too far away.
"I think it came from in there," he whispered, "come on, lets take a look."
Toothless whines softly but Hiccup paid no attention to the dragon. He was far too intrigued by the island and everything he had seen so far. As soon as he reached the cave he pressed against the rocks, motioning Toothless to do the same. When he looked inside, he saw nothing. It was pitch black.
"Stay here, okay bud?" he said softly and rubbed Toothless' nose, "I'm going in."
Before the dragon could protest he slipped into the darkness, giving his eyes some time to get used to it. When they did he saw that the cave was in fact a tunnel, with smooth walls and ceiling. He walked slowly, deeper into the rock, but he hadn't gone far when something caught his eye.
"More metal," he mumbled, "more this time. I'm definitely on the right track."
He carefully studied the small nugget he had just discovered before putting it in his pocket with the rest. Before he continued he looked back at the entrance, seeing Toothless look in.
"I'll be fine bud," he said softly, "stay there. And let me know of anything comes, okay?"
After taking a deep breath he turned away from the entrance, and started walking further into the cave. He found a few more scraps of metal, not really anything that was worth mentioning. He was beginning to think that maybe he wasn't searching in the right place when there was a low rumble in front of him.
"This is not good," he mumbled and he tightened his grip on the knife and tried to see anything in the darkness. He silently cursed himself for not bringing a torch in the first place. If he had, he would have seen the danger coming. He didn't have much time to think before two yellow eyes appeared in front of him.
"This is definitely not good... Toothless!"
He turned around and ran, back towards the speck of light in the distance. When he looked back he saw a boulder coming at him, and coming at him fast. He knew he couldn't outrun it. And in the narrow tunnel there would be no way he would be able to avoid it.
"Toothless!" he screamed again and he mentally kicked himself for being so stupid, and just walking into a dark cave without any light, "Toothless!"