Book 6 - Mystery of Shadow Mountain - Chapter 22: No Place Like Home

         We briefly stopped by Berk just to say, “Hi,” and pick up any supplies that would be intended for Mystery, for we are about due for a supply trip; we would just deliver it as we are heading that way anyway.  Reporting back to Stoick and Gobber our endeavors as well as our own families, we informed them all of what exactly went down and where our mystery stands.

         After I just told my parents about what happen, my father repeated out loud with his right hand on his chin, “‘So, you are crazy enough to pass the test.  Now you must head west to be my guest.  Because you have made it this far, nuts you must be to go to this nest.’  This one is a real puzzler.  The last one had a bit more of a clue as to where you could go.  This one stumps me.”

         “We’ll figure it out,” I assured.

         My mother gave me a big hug and waved to me as walk out the door.  They stand in the doorway as I pack up what my mother gave me onto my saddle.

         “Be sure to give your sisters hugs for me and tell them that we love them,” mother said.

         “I can do the hugs,” I smile.  “But telling I love them even though it is coming from you, they are hearing it from me.  They may not listen.”

         “Oh, you,” mother huffed but with a grin.

         Father had his left arm around his wife and waves to me with his right hand.  Mother waves with her right hand as I call back to them, “I love you two.”

         “I love you,” mother replied.  “Three.”

         “Ah, pretty good,” I remarked as I nudged Fredrick to lift into the air.

         As my dragon did, I saw the rest of my crew are doing the same as they say their goodbyes to their families.  We continue on our trip back to Mystery.

         On our trip, we basically raced back with each other.  All in good fun, but mainly because we just wanted to finally get back to Mystery and take a rest and not be in danger of anything.  So, any seastacks, small islands, or large we came across, we used them as an obstacle course to see who could maneuver through them the fastest or take the quickest route without touching the island itself.  Not touching the island would include the ground, trees and any surrounding rock formation.  Cazi made a quip about us touching the air around the island which is touching the island.  I made the clarification that it had to be direct touch.

         As much as we are all competitive with each other, we are not really doing it for a win who could get back to Mystery first, for we lost track of everything but concentrating on maneuvering through the islands and keeping out heading pointed at Mystery.  But doing this cut our trip time in half, if not more.  Because it was about midday when we got to Berk, only staying there for no more than a half hour, taking the racing way back to Mystery got us back there by early evening.  It might usually take all day to get to Mystery from Berk, but even if we are not competing for a prize, we are still competitive enough to push each other and fly the fastest we could push our dragons without extending them too much.

         But because we are carrying so much speed, I yelled back to the group as we came up on Mystery, “Let’s fly over the island and circle back around so that we can slow our dragons down.”

         I do not know if they even heard me, but with me in the lead they should follow my lead; which they did.  We zoom over top our outpost… waking up any of the locals… and circle back to land on our platform in front of the Clubhouse.

         “First,” Annabeth declares.

         “What?” I question.

         “I am the first to land,” she remarks with a grin.

         As my two sisters and the rest of our crew who stayed behind on Mystery comes up to greet us, I retort back Annabeth, “Well, technically Anora was first to land; you were second.  Also, I could have landed in the first place and not circle back around.  So, I let you win.”

         “You let me win?” Annabeth echoes.  “One could say, I let you let me.”

         Asvord quips, “Are you guys done now or should we just ignore you people?”

         I laugh and shake my head as I dismount my dragon to greet my friends and my two sisters, “Yeah, we are done.  Nice to finally be back.”

         Elsa runs up and nearly tackles me, “You’re back!”  It was more of a trip over a lose board which made her grab for my feet.  She just committed to grabbing my legs, playing it off as she meant to do that.

         “No, those are my legs,” I answer as she squeezes my legs.  “My back is back here,” I say as I try to pat it, which is not that easy by the way.  I add, “And you may kiss the feet when you’re done.”

         “Oh…  You know what I mean,” Elsa replied as she proceeds to punch me in the side.

         “Ay,” I grunt but grab her and give my sister a hug.  I also give Asvord a hug as we all head towards the Clubhouse, “I love you two.”

         Asvord steps back behind and looks around, “Didn’t Jarl come back without, because who is this dude.”

         “Oh, sorry, forgot to mention that mom and dad say told me to tell you that,” I grin.

         Asvord starts walking with us again, “Oh, so that is why.  That is the only reason why you said that.”

         “I give you what you want and respond with what you want me to say, yet it is never what you like,” I jokingly complain.

         “Yep,” Asvord confidently said.  “Deal with it.  The sister always has to play like that with her brother.  What would people think if it got out that I really did miss my brother, was worried, and couldn’t wait for him to come back home.  I mean come on, I’ve got a reputation to uphold.”

         I just rolled my eyes, but grabbed Asvord’s right shoulder with my right hand, “I really did miss you.  I missed all of you guys and gals.  But slap my yak’s behind and start a stampede do we all have a story to tell you guys.”

         Asvord held up her right hand as she turns to me and says, “Before you go any farther, supper won’t be ready for another couple of hours, especially now that I have to feed you vikings… I’ll have to put in a double portion just for Jarl… But you can tell us all about it over supper.”

         “Sounds good,” I answer.

         Elsa jumps for joy, “Welcome back, brother!”

         I whisper to Asvord, “What’s with her?”

         Asvord whispers out of the right side of her mouth and says, “She helped me ‘poison test’ the dessert.  The Stingers got into the Supply Shed again.  As far as we can tell, they do no harm, but that gave an excuse to Elsa to help me out in the kitchen taste testing everything.”

         “Sugar much?” I ask.

         Asvord nods her head, “More like sugar too much.  With supper some ways off, she’ll calm down by then.  Do what you want and you’ll know when supper’s ready.”

         “I’ll smell it even before you can ring the supper bell,” I state.

         “It’s a dinner bell,” Asvord corrects.

         I retort, “But if we call it supper, why do we call it a dinner bell?  Dinner can get is own bell.”

         Asvord then shoves me in the left side, “Oh just go get unpacked.”

         I chuckle as I go to my room to do just that.  Everyone else left as I went to my room to do the same in their own huts.  Ten minutes later, I am done and went straight for the forge to get back to working on something that I have been thinking about in the back of my mind ever since we left.

         For the rest of the day, I spent my time in the Forge working with Garth and the in-stock Gronckle Iron.  To finally work on something that I wanted to work on without having to be forced to do it, is most relieving, especially for Garth as he had to work -or the lack thereof as he was sabotaging Aberdeen- for them.

         Garth completed his work about an hour after I started, but I continued to work right up until I could start smelling supper.

         “Hmm…,” I took in a deep breath as the sunset light shown an orange glow over everything.  “Yak stew.”

         Getting a surge of energy, I put the finishing touches on the items I was working on.  Then putting them away as the supper bell rang twenty minutes later.  Surprising enough as I got on my way back to the Clubhouse, I saw a Dragon Rider coming this way from the east.  As soon as I spotted them, I recognized it to be Heather and Windshear.

         “Miss Heather and the alluring Windshear, Jarl Mollerson, your humble servant is at your service,” I ended with a respectful bow to the rider as she landed and dismounted.

         “Well, Jarl,” she chuckles.  “You’re in a good mood.”

         “Yeah,” I said.  “Been working most of the day.”

         Heather looked at me as if I was the Berserker here, “Usually that isn’t how it is supposed to go.”

         “Yeah, but when you are working just for fun, then it is completely different,” I further explain.

         “Ah, that does make a difference,” Heather says.

         I question, “What brings you all the way-out Mystery way?”

         “Have you seen Annabeth?” Heather asks.

         “Have I,” I call out and then whistle.

         Heather rolls her eyes but laughs, “You are in a good mood.  I mean, do you know where she is.”

         “Yes,” I chuckle, dropping the exaggeration act.  “We are about to have supper.”

         “Oh, well-,” Heather started but I cut her off by saying.  “Now, you came out here all the way out here, you might as well stay for supper.  Windshear can bed down with the rest of the dragons for the night and you can get a fresh start in the morning.”

         “You’re not going to take no for an answer, are you?” Heather looks at me as she already starts walking to the right towards the Stables.

         I answer as I walk with her, “Well, I got to start practicing some time.”

         Within the next five minutes after meeting Cazi at the Stables for feeding the dragons their supper, we made our way back to the Clubhouse for supper.  In the meantime, Heather recounted briefly all her adventures since the last time we saw her.  When she got done as we enter the Clubhouse, something seems to be on her mind, but she is intentionally keeping it under wraps.  So, I did not push further with a question about it.

         With a slam of the door, Asvord calls out, responding to the sound, “Well, it is about time.  I know we have more dragons now, but how many vikings does it take to do that?”

         “I would give you a punch line for that,” I reply.  “But we had to feed one more dragon.”

         “What?!” Asvord remarked.  “For flying out loud, are we all going to get a second dragon now?  Who’s going to take care of them when you are out solving mysteries?  Hmm?  For flying-.”

         Asvord trails off as Cazi, Heather, and I chuckle at my sister for my sneaky remark.

         “Oh, and a… while you are at it,” I say, trying not to laugh.  “Place another setting at the table.”

         The three of us are intentionally staying at the door, out of side from those on the left at the table.  Now, one would think Asvord has a Berserker streak as she went off on a tear complaining and remarking about me until she turned the corner and saw…

         “Heather!” Asvord held out her arms for a hug, Heather graciously gave her back a hug.  Although Heather did the conventional hug by doing it from the front, she still gave Asvord’s back a hug.

         “Aw, why’d you have to turn the corner,” I snapped my fingers in “disappointment.”

         “Oh, you would like to have had more time to confuse me, wouldn’t you?” Asvord said as she led the way in for Heather to greet everyone else.

         “No, I don’t need to help you do that,” I smile.  “You get rightly confused all on your own.”

         “Oh, be glad you are my brother or you would get a punch in the gut right now,” Asvord squinted her eyes at me.

         From out of nowhere, Elsa gave my punch in my left side as she came from there to set one more place for Heather.

         “Ay, where’d you come from?” I remarked.

         Elsa answers Asvord’s comment, “Don’t we do that anyway?”

         “Yeah,” I piped in, rubbing my side.

         “Huh,” Asvord thought.  “I guess we do.  You just don’t know who is going to punch you now, do you?”

         “I think I liked my odds with better with Aberdeen,” I teased.

         Asvord had enough as she went back to the kitchen to get the food, “Oh, just sit-down you idiot.”

         “Aw, well thank you for calling me an idiot,” I retorted.  “I hate you too?”

         “What?!” Heather could not believe her ears.

         I shook my right hand at Heather and said, “It’s okay.  Mollerson family inside joke.”

         “Oh,” Heather nodded.

         “Heather!” Annabeth cried out as she came back from the kitchen with Asvord.

         In the same kind of tone, I poke fun, “Ah, here we go again with the hugs.”

         “Oh…,” Annabeth wanted to start, but she was too happy to see her sister come.  “What brings you out this way, Heather?”  Annabeth says as she holds her sister’s hands.

         “I wanted to talk to you,” Heather answers.  “But I also hear that Jarl is going to tell a big story.”

         “Yes, he is,” Cazi says.  “If we can ever sit down to eat… I mean… Sit down to hear his story.”

         Annabeth took Heather over to the table and sat down on the bench with Heather on her left and Cazi on her right.

         “Do you want me to just go back to my room?” I said asking Annabeth but she just ignored me and asked about Heather.

         I could not help but grin and roll my eyes.

         “I had it coming to me,” I thought to myself.  “But I did not know she would go that far, though I have been going far with the jokes and quips too.  Annabeth does not get to see her sister as often as I see mine… Wish I had her family,” I thought rhetorically.

         Heather quickly went through the same things she told me and Cazi, but this time to Heather and everyone else.  By the time she was done, the rest of the food was out and Asvord started to serve everyone.  I reached with my right hand for the serving spoon of the stew, but Asvord slapped my hand.

         “This is your first night back,” Asvord stated.  “We will act civilized for at least one night.  Why don’t you go on with your recounts of what you guys went through on your grand adventure… without us?”

         I opened my mouth to begin, but it struck me what my sister just said, “Hey, you wanted to stay behind.”

         Through a couple of laughs, Asvord said, “Go on.”

         “Gosh,” Annabeth declared.  “Coming back to Mystery, doing nothing for a few hours, finding my sister comes to visit me and I get to spend some time with her, and Jarl gets to show his flair for storytelling?  What a night!”

         And so, I began with the story… but not before I had to wait to get a bite of Asvord’s stew.  I had to wait because she had to serve the whole crew plus Heather and that took a few minutes, in which we all took that time to get situated and ready at the table.

         Asvord began to open her mouth, but I held up my right hand, palm outward, “I just had to get a bite of your glorious food to have the strength to give a magnificent recount of our exciting endeavor to the land where butter can melt on a summer winter afternoon.”

         “Sure,” Asvord said as she sat down the last, got situated, and got her food.  “Whatever you say, oh brother.”

         “Oh sister, thank you,” I said.  “That made my day.”

         “It did?” Asvord looked up, but I could tell is not expecting much in return.

         “No,” I simply responded.

         “Thought so,” my older sister went back to eating her supper.

         “Could ya just get on with the story already?” Cazi replied impatiently.

         “You were there?” I said.

         Cazi answers, “I know, but you make it sound so much more heroic.”

         “Well, it was, and I don’t even have to add anything to it as I never do anything to my story but the truth and the facts,” I answer.

         Heather finished a bite of buttered bread, “Oh my-… What did you guys do?”

         As everyone picked between the stew, bread and butter, salad, corn, and apples along with nice, cold, yak milk and yak sweet butter parfaits for dessert, I began the story with what happened to the crew when the storm hit.

         Throughout the meal, everyone who had a part in the adventure told their part.  I just guided the story along and kept it moving, holding my friends and sisters on the edge of their seats; even Heather was engaged with the story asking questions.

         Now after the story was over, everyone else is repeating the clue, “So, you are crazy enough to pass the test.  Now you must head west to be my guest.  Because you have made it this far, nuts you must be to go to this nest.”

         Annabeth declares, “This one is going to be a tough one.”

         I lean back on the bench expecting there to be a back there, but there is none, so I have to catch myself before falling over.

         “Asvord,” I say after trying to lean back.  “Your stew was so good that I forgot I was on a bench and not a seat.”

         “Thank you,” Asvord says.  “I think.”

         Annabeth asks Heather, “Do you want to go talk now?”

         Rather halfheartedly, Heather responds, “Sure.”

         Annabeth and Heather get up as the rest of everybody goes back to their huts to spend a nice, peaceful evening… doing nothing and just going to sleep.  Being the nice brother that I am, I get up and help Asvord with all the dishes.

         “Why thank you,” Asvord said.  “Now, if going and coming back on trips is what it takes for you to do the dishes, I am all for that.”

         “I knew you couldn’t just say thank you without there being a jab in there,” I replied.

         Elsa comments, “Well, at least it wasn’t a right cross.”

         “True,” I ask.

         Just how we used to do it when we were growing up, Asvord would wash, I would dry, and Elsa would put the dishes up.

         “But seriously, I really did miss you two,” I speak to my two sisters.  “I know I can be a pain sometimes with all the jabs, pokes, teases, and jokes, but I do it to put a smile on your faces… even if you are smiling on the inside.”

         Asvord could only shake her head and then give a sigh of relief, “We love you to, Jarl.”

         “That sound like,” I then sighed too like she did.  “We’ll love you too, Jarl… if we have to.”

         Asvord sprits me with water and held up a plate in front of me to shield my face.

         “Now, look what I have to do?” I asked my sister.

         Asvord stops doing the one dish and looks me straight in the eyes, “What do you have to do?”

         “I,” I began but said instead.  “Get to dry the same dish of twice with zero complaints because I am a good brother.”

         “More like an awesome brother,” Elsa added.

         “Why thank you, Elsa,” I smiled looking at my older sister as if she should do the same.

         Then Asvord gave a frustrated, sister sigh, “We love you too, Jarl.”

         “There’s the Asvord I was looking for,” I replied.

         Asvord could only shake her head and continue washing the dishes.

         Once the last dish was washed, Asvord turned to me as soon as she dried her hands, “But yeah, Jarl, I missed you too.  Good to have you back.”

         “I missed you too,” Elsa said with a yawn.

         “You should get to bed,” I told my younger sister.  “I think that sugar is wearing off now.”

         “Alright,” she said slightly disappointed but put up no resistance.

         Asvord then questions, “What are you going to do?”

         “Give something to someone,” I say cryptically.

         “Oh, you finally finished the ax… I am honored, Jarl, you shouldn’t have,” Asvord speaks sarcastically.

         “How did you know?” I inquire.  “And you know it isn’t for you?”

         “I am a girl and I know,” Asvord said.  “Because I am a girl.”

         I roll my eyes, “I should have known, I have two to deal with.”

         “Three,” Asvord remarks.

         “It is just two,” I reply.  “For right now.”

         Asvord flicks me on the back of the head with her left hand, “Three.”

         “Hey,” I flinch away from her hand which she still had near my head.  “It will be three.”

         Asvord drops her arm, “It better be.”

         “Well,” I counter.  “It really should be one.”

         “Okay,” Asvord smiles.  “The viking can be taught.”

         “Yep,” I grin.  “There is more than a couple of boars playing pin the nut on the wall up in here,” pointing to my head.

         Asvord just grunts a sigh, “Goodnight, Jarl.”

         “Goodnight, sister,” I answer back.

         As I exit the Clubhouse, the sun is completely down and the stars are shining.  Although the sun will only be down for a couple of hours, with the Midnight Sun fast approaching us, it is extremely quiet out here and all the squeaky boards seem to be finding the bottom of my feet.

         I head back to the forge, pick up a few things, and then stop by the stables to pick up my dragon.  Not literally, just to use him to find where Annabeth and Heather have gone.  Saddle Fredrick, but with his normal saddle which is a little heavier with the all leather, however, is much more comfortable.  I secure my items behind me and nudge Fredrick in the air to find the two girls.  I take my time finding them as my dragon and I enjoy the fresh, night air.  About ten minutes later, I find them on the northwest side of the island, on top of a cliff overlooking the water.

         Heather and Annabeth are at the edge, talking to each other.  Windshear and Anora are standing behind their riders, but back a few feet.  I land Fredrick about thirty yards or so back and walk up the rest of the way.  Keeping my distance, I only get within a few feet of the two Razorwhips.  Both of them acknowledges my presence as well as Fredrick being here, especially Anora.

         I over hear Heather say, “I am sorry it has taken me a while to get this too you, but I did not even know it was here until I started moving around some things in my room on The Edge, plus processing all of this.”

         Annabeth starts to read something Heather gave her as I came up.

         “Annabeth.  If you’re reading this, I guess that’s bad news for me.  Sorry, I have let you down for so long, but I knew you would have had a much better childhood away from the Berserkers.  Tell Jarl he better take good care of you, or else I’ll come back from the...,” Annabeth did not say the word but sniffed and used the bottom of her left sleeve to wipe away a few tears.  “Also tell Jarl, that I have heard chatter from Vixxen’s splinter Dragon Hunters that she is planning something big.  Don’t know quite what it is but keep an eye out for her.  One other thing, I didn’t kill our father.  When he disappeared, I let people believe that so they would I was tough enough to be chief.  I also did not attack your village of your new family.  Truvor had a hand in it, but there was someone else who was backing him.  I did a lot of things I’m sorry for.  I saw the island on fire and the ships leaving in evacuation.  I was a lone scouting Berserker ship and would have been picked off had I not kept my distance because your people thought of me as an enemy too.  But I couldn’t rest in peace knowing you thought I did both of those things.  Be safe.  Your brother, Dagur.”

         I felt as if a part of me was just ripped out.  As much bad as Dagur has done, I always had hope.  I may not have believed it, but I always have hope for everyone that is some way, somehow, in sometime, Dagur would change his ways.  But not like this.

         Heather proceeded to tell Annabeth how it happened.  As soon as Heather said they did not see Dagur hit the water nor did they see him after he went in, Annabeth immediately denied it.

         “You didn’t see him afterwards,” Annabeth said, wiping more tears away with both her sleeves.  “I just found out I had a brother, even though he was evil then, but I had hope we could change him.  Now this?  No, this cannot be happening.”  Annabeth paces a few strides and then looks up seeing me, “Jarl?  What are you doing here?”

         “Feeling bad that I even came,” I said remorsefully.  “I’ll come-.”

         “No, come back,” She said and sniffed.  “You came up here for a reason.  And you wouldn’t go to all this trouble if it wasn’t important.”

         “Then I hope this will cheer you up then,” I spoke.

         I reach back to Fredrick’s saddle and grab the things I brought with me.  As I turn to face Annabeth, I pull back the cloth blanket I had over them revealing an ax, a bow, and a sword.

         “Jarl, you shouldn’t have,” Annabeth said.  “Which one’s mine?”

         “The ax,” I answer and then Annabeth grabs for it.  “After seeking advice from Cazi and Dawn what to get you for a gift in the form of a weapon, they both agreed you wanted an ax.  Knowing Heather had one too, I made it very similar to hers.”

         Heather comments, “I love the creative use of the Razorwhip scales as the ax’s blades, but how does it work like mine?”

         Wanting to get the ax back for a second, I put the other two weapons down and took back the ax.

         “What looks like a normal ax,” I say and then pull apart the ax by the handle, locking it down in place at one-hundred eighty degrees from the other part, and then rotating it to lock it in place again, it now looks very similar to what Heather has.  “You have a staff very much like Heather’s, but very much your own.”

         “It’s beautiful,” Annabeth admires as she flips back and forth between the ax and staff modes.  There is even a third mode after the first lock coming from an ax to a staff.  It really is the same as the staff mode, the only difference is the blades are facing the same way.  One has to rotate it to have alternate facing blades.

         “And what else do you have?” Annabeth questions.

         “Well,” I said picking up the bow and sword.  “I had grown to miss just sparing and battling with a normal sword and shooting with a normal bow, the I went back to a more traditional bow and sword style of weapon.  I like my two-in-one very much so, and it has its benefits.  But it lacks the grace and feel of traditional sword and bow.  I had to change my fighting style to meet the bow-sword’s capabilities, but it always seemed like I was fighting the weapon as much as I was using it as a weapon.  So, I simply made them separately again and used them to practice with the Gronckle Iron before I used it on your ax.  Because infusing the Razorwhip scales with the Gronckle Iron to reinforce it took a lot of doing.  So much so, that Garth had to figure out a way to do so.  He finally did and I finally was able to finish all three of them.”

         I finish, “The bow still flips over, but this time directly over in line with the other side.  Could kind of still use it as a sword, but that is why I made the sword itself too.  The bow still using the Gronckle Iron chain mechanism, but Garth and I improved it so that it would be much more efficient and quicker between firing arrows as well as loading them on.  And the sword is… well… a sword.  Has the grip I like.  The balance of the sword is my more to my liking thanks to the Gronckle Iron and is reinforced with Razorwhip scales on the blade.  It is going to take quite a bit of force to try and break this sword, even the dragon proof metal had trouble going against the Gronckle Iron and Razorwhip scales.  One last thing, our grappling hook gauntlets now have a Gronckle Iron hidden blade in them which will retract out by a stretch flex of the muscle on your forearm or can be retracted manually by the ratchet release.  Both ways work the same, it is just one is on one side while the other is touching the forearm.”

         Heather stood in amazement and admired the work, “You really do know how to craft a weapon.  I am impressed.”

         “Thank you, Jarl,” Annabeth said giving me a hug.

         Hugging her back, I put my arms around her head and whisper in her right ear, “I won’t give up hope, Annabeth, if you don’t.”

         Looking into my eyes, she nodded in agreement and I returned the nod.

         The three of us walked back to the outpost.  I had my arms around the both of them to comfort and support Annabeth on my right and Heather on my right.  Fredrick following behind me bookended by the two Razorwhips, Windshear and Anora.  We made our way back to the stables, put the dragons back up, and we back to our huts.  I walked the girls back to Annabeth’s hut where Heather would bed down with on the floor.

         Annabeth did walk me back out.  She wanted to say something, but nothing came out, only tears.  Gently with my right hand, I grab Annabeth’s chin and kiss her.

         I smile and softly say to her, “Goodnight Annabeth Everdeen, heir to my heart.”

         “Goodnight my Jarl,” Annabeth smiles and the mouths the words, “Thank you.”

         I smile and nod in answer.

         I walk back to my room in the Clubhouse and go to sleep.