Book 6 - Mystery of Shadow Mountain - Chapter 10: A Long Trek

Chapter 10

A Long Trek

         After we decided who would go on the trip, we prepared our belongings.  Those who are going on this trip are as follows:  Annabeth, Cazi, Dawn, Hannah, Garth, Hyrith, Ali, and myself.  Once back at our outpost, fifteen minutes went by before we grouped up to say our goodbyes and lift off together.  We double check our saddle straps.  The dragons going are my Thunderdrum Fredrick, Annabeth’s new dragon Ultra Violet the Skrill, Cazi’s Skrill Sparklebolt, Dawn’s Hybrid Sand Wraith Fire Song, Hannah’s Deadly Nadder Winter, Garth’s Tide Glider Riptide, Hyrith’s Deadly Nadder Sun rose, Ali’s Thunderdrum Undyne, are the dragons we will ride.  Annabeth is also taking her Deathsong, Sirena.

         Before leaving, Annabeth quips, “Funny, we played a tough and tiring game of Dragon Basketball, yet I don’t feel tired.”

         Asvord retorted, “Well, I feel tired.  Maybe because we actually worked smart for the wing.”

         Hannah grimaced, “Ooo, Asvord, with the gut punch wasn’t that close to being below the belt?”

         Asvord gave a chuckle, “Could be, could be… But at least you guys started to catch on and learn fast.  More than I can say for mystery man over here.  I stole the ball how many times?  And all Jarl could do was design a play that would win us the game is all.”

         Annabeth could only close her eyes, try not to laugh, and literally facepalm into Ultra Violet’s saddle.

         “Asvord,” Annabeth says.  “You have such a way with words to make an insult sound like a compliment; and a compliment sound like an insult, especially when it is to family.  You have perfected the honey ‘n hatchet way of speaking.  No, maybe even gone above and beyond to create a whole new method.”

         I cannot help but smile as I ask, “You vikings ready to roll?” I then exaggerate Asvord’s voice, “But Jarl, you idiot, you can’t roll on dragon.  They fly.”

         Asvord rolls her eyes and shakes her head, “Just get out of here, will ya?”

         She proceeds to try and smack my head but I mount my dragon before she got me.

         As we start flying off, I call back, “Love you Asvord, Elsa.”

         “I love you too… you idiot,” Asvord laughed.

         I laughed too.

As we fly along, we had previously decided to stop at Berk.  After about an hour or two, we arrived.  We updated our families on what is going on and updated Stoick on our Dragon Hunters activity.  Of course, Stoick told us to stay vigilant and ask for help if we needed any.  But as with Hiccup and his gang, we have plenty of dragon power to fend for ourselves.  However, there are always those certain situations where it is nice to know that you do have support, you do have back up; all one would need to do to get help is to ask.

When I visited my parents, they are of course concerned for mine and the others safety as we travel to lands we are not familiar with.  Stoick expressed his concern when I talked with him, but both him and my parents knew we could take care of ourselves.  They know that we will use sound judgment when knowing when and when not to show them we have dragons.  The lands in which we are heading are rough, in both vikings and land.

Resupplying our food, by insistence of everyone’s mothers mainly, we left Berk.  They gave us fried Brown Trout sandwiches.

“Where are we exactly going?” asks Cazi.

I reply, “Frankly, I do not know.  That’s what’s going to be the fun part.”

Hannah echoes, “Fun part?  What part about, ‘Not knowing where we are going,’ do you and I see differently?”

“Well,” I answer.  “Think of it this way.  For most of our mysteries, we have been following clues to leads, and leads to answers… for the most part.  Rarely have ever had such a vague clue as we have know that just really says, ‘Go search in this area,’ where that area happens to be the span of several hundred miles.”

Hannah interjects, “And this is fun why?”

I chuckle, “I’m getting to that…  It is fun because we actually get to do some sleuthing work for a change.  This is what mysteries are really about.  Searching for clues where some may say there are none, knowing where to look and what to look out for, see patterns, and make connections.”

Hannah nods as if she agrees, but I know she does not really agree.  She just wants to get this over with.  Like her older sister, if it does not involve punching Snotlout in anyway, then they settle for punching anything else.  If neither of those are options, then they will go along anyway to wait and see if anything develops that they can hit.  If still nothing, they may just start something on their own just so they can punch something.

A few hours later, we stopped for a snack.

During the snack, Hannah nonchalantly proceeded to ask me, “What are you giving Annabeth for a betrothal gift?”

Cazi nearly choked on her bite of her sandwich, I just froze as did Annabeth, both middle of our bites.  It took us a couple of seconds to finish our bites before I responded first.

“I actually do have something in mind,” I respond.  “Though, I have not had the time I wanted to work on it.  I can make the time, there is just some complications I need to figure out first before I can continue.”

Annabeth smiles, “So, you are making me something?”

“Did I say make?” I repeat.

“Well,” Annabeth came back.  “Knowing you for this long and a few things rubbing off that I picked up on how to solve a mystery, keeping something secret from me is going to take a lot of work.”

         I add, “That is another thing, I don’t ever want to keep a secret from you… but I reserve the right to keep special occasions, birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, and Snoggletog presents a secret from you.”

         “Deal,” Annabeth said.  “Only if I get the same.”

         I frown but, “It would only be fair to do the same.  If I get something, you get it too.”

         “I agree,” Annabeth said, but then quipped.  “But if you get punched, shot, or defeated in anyway, I don’t want that to happen to me.”

         I nod, “Because I am in those situations, I would be taking the heat for you so you don’t have to.”

         “Aw, aren’t you so sweet,” Annabeth replies.

         The rest of the group say similar things, but I quip, “I may not be so sweet if you I take a win for you in Dragon Basketball.”

         Sirena, who is eating a Perch next to Annabeth, sings a laughing call.

         “Oh, be quite, silly,” Annabeth just sighs, stands up, and changes the subject, “You guys ready?”

         We finish our sandwiches and mount our dragons.  Within minutes we are airborne again.  I mention to the group we will have to cover our biggest distance in a while to get where my dad advised me to go, a port called Aberdeen in the very southern edge of the archipelago.  But the difficult part will that it will be over open water all the way.  They all say they are up for it and ready for anything.  We pace our dragons to make sure they can make it.

         Two hours into our flight, I start to notice the cloud cover.  But not just any cloud cover, Cumulus that are starting to tower.  Over the next half hour, I keep a very close eye on them.

         “I was afraid of this,” I say out loud.

         Annabeth, who is to my right on UV -Ultra Violet-, “What’s wrong?”

         “The clouds,” I spoke.  “They are towering.”

         Just as I say that, an east gust of wind came at us and move our dragons of course a few feet, as we are going slower than normal the wind caught our dragons’ wings.  It is cold.  Bad news.  Cold front with towering Cumulus clouds… Storm is coming.

         “Oh,” Annabeth’s tone became serious.  “Should we pick up the pace?”

         “Yes,” I answer.

         It is amazing how fast weather can change.  Just ten minutes ago, we had partly cloudy skies with sunshine.  Now we have a cold an east wind on us, clouds choking out the sun, the ocean below us becoming choppy and agitated, and a noticeable change on the horizon: Gray, menacing clouds, Cumulonimbus clouds.

         We do pick up the pace.  But as we do, so does the intensity of the storm.  Now on the horizon… Rain.  There is nowhere to seek shelter for safety in the middle of the ocean.  We have to push forward.

         Twenty minutes later, it starts to rain.  It is not bad at first, however, it just starts pouring.  It gets to the point we cannot really see where we are going.  I can hardly see those around us.

         Cazi yells out to be heard over the pounding rain, “How far are we to the port?”

         I shout, “We have to be close by now.  Keep pushing.”

         Lightning starts to strike as the ocean below us is being churned like fresh yak butter on a hot summer day.  It seems like everything is coming at us in the extremes.  The ocean waves are picking up in magnitude and height.  So, we try to fly higher to keep above them.  Fly to high, the lightning strikes are too much to handle; not to mention that the Skrills are attracting the lightning too.  Then there is the pelting rain.

         Fredrick feels like he is flying fast, but in relation to our surroundings, it feels slower than Snotlout in a Dragon Race.

         I think to myself, “It can’t get any worse than this.”

         “Look out!” yells Annabeth.

         A large wall of water is barreling towards us.  With visibility so low, we only saw the wave until it was nearly on top of us.  We all narrowly fly over the top of it.

         The has soaked our gear and our dragons are just as soaked.  If being on a long trek was not enough to tire our dragons, the rain doubled the work.

         Trying to dodge lightning strikes and giant waves all the while staying on course for our heading, I could not see any of my friends.  I can hear them, though, but being separated is the worst thing that could happen to us right now.

         A glimmer of hope is that Fredrick can “call” out into the area in front of him to see if there are any obstacles in our way.  My gut is telling me we are close to land, I just do not know which way to go.

         Suddenly, I feel Fredrick under me want to fly upward.  The poor guy is getting so tired, he cannot get as high as he wants.  He whines…

         CRACK!!

         Out of nowhere, a lightning strikes yards away from in front of Fredrick.  It startles him and me.

         My ears start ringing so loud, I cannot even hear myself declare, “Oh no.”

         The reason why Fredrick attempted to climb is a tsunami size wave coming straight for us.  Fredrick had to start when he did and would have had to stay moving to get up over the wave.  The lightning strike distracted him long enough that I knew we could not hurdle the wave.  Fredrick kept going though.

         “Come on buddy,” I called out, even though I know he cannot hear me.

         I encourage my dragon through nudges of my feet a hand pats on top of his head.

         The feeling of not making it over the wave sinks in, so I brace for impact.

         SPLOOSH!

         Fredrick and I plunge into the wave.  I misjudged the sheer force and speed the wave was coming and my head smacks on Fredrick’s head as it gets whipped back.

         My body goes limp and my eyes close.

         All I hear is, “JAR-!”, just as a wet sensation takes me over!