Book 7 - The Crimson Storm - Chapter 20: Famous Last Words

The Crimson Storm

Chapter 20

Famous last words

         “If you could so kindly drop the knife,” Annabeth requests as the new girl starts to turn around.  Annabeth counters, “Don’t turn around, if you know what is good for you.”

         I hear a slight sigh from the girl, her grip loosens on me, and lets me go.  I then step behind the newcomer, grab her wrists, and ask her to turn around.

         After complying, the girl then remarks as I see Annabeth’s trick, “You didn’t have arrow!”

         “Sure, I did,” Annabeth shows her the mini bow-caster.  “I said ‘arrow’ with nothing said of a bow, if that is what you were expecting.”

         The girl then sighs again, but more perturbed as if it is rare for her to be fooled like that.

         Annabeth addresses me, “Sorry for cutting our outing short like that, but I saw a weird shadow go over me.  Thinking it was one of our dragons, I didn’t think much of it, as it did look like one of our dragons.  But that got me looking around and I saw a shadow in the trees.  One thing,” Annabeth now address the new girl.  “If you want to be good at sneaking up on vikings, don’t sneak up behind them when you are between them and the sun, or any light source.  If your target is watchful, then they will spot you coming up behind them and your element of surprise is gone, for they might surprise you.”

         I then ask the girl, “Who are you?”

         She replies, “My name is Aiyana Thorgard.”

         The newcomer stands a bout five foot, nine inches in height.  Brunette hair down to her waist with golden ringlets scattered throughout several hair strands.  She has blue eyes and wears various gold jewelry of bracelets, a couple rings, and a necklace.  But what stands out the most is a pair of ruby earrings she wears.  Compared to the rest of her jewelry, the pair of earrings look new while the rest looks worn from extended use.  Some of her other gear and clothes look like typical Dragon Hunter attire.  My first impression is a pirate, but trying to take out me, my second impression is mercenary.

         Annabeth smiles, “Knife to meet you.”

         I think to myself, “Speaking of first impressions.” I roll my eyes and then speak out loud, “Excuse me why I hypothetically facepalm,” because I did not want to let go of the girl in case, she had something else in store.

         “Sorry,” Annabeth says.  “I think your puns our contagious.”

         Aiyana adds, “Then you’d better get it looked at.”

         “Eh,” I down play.  “There’s no cure.  Well, unless you count a worse pun or a better joke that takes your mind of the first one.”

         “Like what?” Aiyana challenges.

         Taking a moment, I then reply, “Too bad your name wasn’t Rudy.”

         Insert cricket noises.

         “You know,” I go on.  “Because… You were -rude- to interrupt Annabeth and me… And you are wearing -Ruby- earrings… Ah whatever, not my best.”

         Annabeth jumps in, “Okay, what is your best?”

         I think, then question Aiyana, “With being so ill mannered, are you sure your name isn’t Rudolph?”

         Aiyana grunts, “Could you just kill me know?  Didn’t know you Dragon Riders were into torture.”

         Annabeth states, “Well, that escalated quickly.  Puns used as a technique for questioning… Hmm… Could work.”

         “Could work?” I echoed.  “It already has.  She either works for the Dragon Hunters or stole the gear from them.  But this gear and her clothes are fitted, so I am thinking the Dragon Hunters hired her to take me out.  She also studies up on her targets, because she calls us Dragon Riders.  The way she jokingly says she didn’t know we were into pun torture further points out that she has been hired by someone who knows a lot about us.  While most Dragon Hunters probably already know about our outpost’s location, there are only a few that would go out of their way to hire a mercenary to do their dirty work of taking me out.  I have rarely been on the nerve of Viggo, so he has no real stake in seeing me out of the picture.  But I can think of a couple other players that I have run into that would.  This would be the first time that they themselves did not go to this length, instead put someone else up to it.”

         Aiyana turns her head as if to say something to me, but then turns it back forward and says nothing.  I further, yet briefly, question her “Why me?”, “Where are you from?”, and “How did you get here?”  None of which did Aiyana answer.  The only other question we got some kind of reaction is when Annabeth asked, “Who is Kaimana?”  Something is beneath the surface that we do not know keeping her from revealing why she is doing this.  However, she is fully cooperative when we ask if she could come back with us to the outpost.  Annabeth leads the way and I bring up the rear, carrying the basket I brought that had the food.

         Once we get back to the outpost, I do not know where to put her, so Annabeth says she would keep an eye on her.

         Aiyana assures, “I won’t try to escape.  What means would I have to escape by anyway?”

         “Fair point,” I shrug my shoulders.  I bid Annabeth, “Goodbye,” as I go back to my room.  Taking in a deep breath, I say under my breath, “Besides nearly getting killed… Twice… Today has been a good day.  What could be worse than this?”

         Next thing I think about is to go to Garth’s workshop.  When I arrive, I do not find him there.  Instead, I start cleaning my sword and my bow, as well as begin to make some more arrows.

         While I work, Skygge shows up, “Oh, hey,” I greet as I work on inserting fletching on the back ends of my arrows.

         “Not much, just thought I would stop and see if you could answer me some questions,” Skygge says as he goes about looking around the workshop.

         Skygge asks some general questions about my crew and I how long have we known each other, how long we have been a crew, how many mysteries have we solved together, what got me started doing mysteries, and so forth.  This goes on for a good fifteen minutes while I give lengthy answers.

         “Must be a good feeling to know you have friends who have your back,” Skygge states.

         “It is,” I reply.  “That’s how we work so well together as a crew.  We each have each other’s back so that while we get our job done, if something were to happen that we were not expecting, someone can step in and help.”

         “I know I first asked how long you have known each other,” Skygge continues.  “But how long have you known each other?”

         Confused, I give him a puzzled look; he clarifies, “I mean, how much of your friends past history do you know of each other.  Like, what did they do before they became your friend?  It also sounds like you have a lot of friends who are not from Berk, or at least originally from Berk.  How can you know you can really trust them?”

         After asking so many questions, then taking this turn, I am puzzled as to why Skygge is going this path, but I play along, “I don’t let people’s past define who they are today.  Regardless of their past, they can make a difference today.”

         Skygge counters, “Now I am not saying that one of your friends were or are still, but for example… Say one of your friends did some despicable things in their past and have been on the run ever since.  Then once years had gone by, they think they have escaped and can know live their lives helping you out.  If you found out one of your friends are not who they say they are, how would you respond?”

         Skygge does bring up something I had not really thought of much, “It’s an interesting question.  Sorry to answer a question with a question -as I am thinking of an answer myself to the question- how would you react?”

         Skygge gives a short laugh, “That would have to mean I have friends.  I do have friends, don’t get me wrong, but I have been on my own most of my life and wouldn’t mind keeping it that way.  Anyway, I would be very hurt by it and probably would never talk to them again.  Depending on the severity of what they did, I may have to make them pay the consequences.”

         Raising my eyebrows, “What did you think they would have done to have gone that far?”

         “I mean, like I said, I don’t have many friends, so I wouldn’t know,” Skygge puts up his hands.  “But one can never known truly what kind of past someone has if they have not lived it along side them.  Otherwise, they have to take their word for it.”

         “And that is what I have done,” I state, standing up finished with my arrows and putting them back in the stock with the rest of my storage.  “Because if you can’t trust your friends, then who can you trust?”

         Skygge nods, “Good point.”

         I start to walk out of the workshop and is nearly ran over by Ali running to my left.  Though blind, she has already memorized every pathway and how many steps or strides either walking, jogging, or running she is to the next pathway, ramp, or stairwell.  Looking to my right, I see Valkarik come running up to us, and then stops to catch her breath.

         She remarks, “This was more difficult than I thought it was going to be.”

         “What’s wrong?” I wonder out loud.

         “Well,” Valkarik sighs.  “For some reason, Ali now thinks that the only reason why I am helping her is she thinks that none of us think that she can take care of herself.  She thinks we are doing it out of charity to be nice -which is what we are doing- but she goes on to say that we are only doing that because she is blind and cannot do it herself.  Furthermore, the last few times she has done something on her own, she writes it off as us letting her do it and therefore she truly did not do it on her own.  And I know, finding that one clue on the island was all her doing.  None of us would have caught on if what had not searched over every inch of the island.”

         I put up my arms, “I don’t know Valkarik.  All I know is that Ali is in a very delicate time right now, still recovering over what happened.  She needs help yes, but she should know that we are helping her.  But if she figures it out that we are helping her without telling her, then it looks like that is worse than just asking her if we can help.  No offense, but you girls are sometimes difficult to understand how you reason things out.”

         Valkarik folds her arms, but rolls her eyes, “Thanks.”  Then figuring out the problem, she sighs, “I guess I will just give her some space and some alone time.  I mean, we did spend time together before, but maybe I have been spending too much time with her now that it no longer feels like a friendship but a burden.  See you later.”

         Valkarik walks back the way she came to go back to her hut.  Skygge goes on his way, and I decide to check on the rest of my friends.

         I tell myself, “A lot has happened in the last couple of weeks, so maybe it would be good to check on everyone to see how they are doing.”

         While I go, though, I mull over the things that Skygge brought up.  I am not sure what is worse, him asking so many questions or him bringing up so many good points?

         My first stop is by Fira’s, which is Garth’s hut.  Knocking on the door, she comes, opens it, and wonders why I have come.

         “Just wanted to see how my friends were doing,” I state.  “These last few weeks have been rough, and I want to make sure everything is alright.”

         “Oh sure, everything is fine,” she replies a bit on edge about something.  “You think that just because I am slow to trust, you think you have to check up on me?”
         “That’s-” I start to say but she talks over me.  “It isn’t my fault that Ali became blind.  I did everything that I could.”

         “I know-” She interrupts me again.  “Just because we disagree on how we see the world, doesn’t mean that you should put me in a position that would force me to make a discussion one way or the other.”

         I open my mouth and put up my finger to try and say something, but she instead talks louder, “And to top it all off, you think you have to come check up on me to see if you have hurt my feelings.  My feelings aren’t hurt, I can take care of myself!  GOOD DAY!!”

         BAM!  Fira slams the door in my face.

         Slowly closing my mouth and lowering my hand I stand there, probably looking dumbfounded.  Stepping away I shrug, put up my arms, and wonder what I did.

         Moving on, I go down a level to where Angie’s hut is.  As I come up to the hut, Meen is walking out of the hut.

         “Anything wrong?” I question.

         Meen sighs, “I was trying to teach Angie how to swing my pans.  Then I was teaching her how to parry with a pan.  I went to far, the pan slipped, and smacked her in the head near her eye.  Angie has a scar over her one eye and by tomorrow will have a black eye over the other.  I gave her an ice block to put on it and now she is resting.  Some how she thinks that it is her fault when I was the on that hit her.  But I think it is because she thinks she let me down by not doing what I had been telling her to do.  I don’t think you should say, ‘hi,’ or anything.  Just let her rest.  Wait until after supper if anything else.  Today is turning out to be a bad day.”

         I chuckle and agree with her.  She goes in the direction of the harbor, probably to check our fishing nets.  Meen usually is the one to do that, either that or Angie and she obviously cannot do it.

         Thinking to myself, “At least I am not the only one having a bad day and it isn’t my fault somehow.  Why don’t I go over to someone I know is in a good mood… I hope.”

         I go over to the other side and back up to the top to go to Cazi’s hut.  Coming up to the door, I raise my hand to knock, but I hear commotion on the inside.

         “Put that down!” demands a voice which is Cazi.

         “Why should I?” returns Hannah.  “She started it.”

         “I started it?” echos Abbie.  “You’re the one who got it in the first place.”

         Cazi’s voice changed to a serious tone, “It was you!”

         “You rat!” I assume Hannah means Abbie.  “Look, Cazi, I can explain.”

         “I’m done with excuses,” Cazi comes back.

         Abbie then exclaims, “Get her!”

         “Wha- Get off my back!!” Cazi shouts.

         I then hear three things thud to the floor followed by something hitting the wall near the front door, wood creaking, and then several things falling to the floor with a couple things breaking.

         “Look what you did!” Cazi exclaims.

         Hannah pleads, “Abbie jumped on you and you pushed me back into the bookcase.”

         “So, it’s my fault, you say?” Cazi sounds annoyed to say the least.  “Why did I ever agree to let you two stay with me.”

         The sounds of bickering, shouting, and pinning the blame on someone else from breaking a vase or something roll on.

         With my hand still raised to knock, I tell myself, “Nope.”

         Turning around, I start walking.  Going past the corner of Cazi’s hut, I run right into Dawn, who then pushes me out of the way.  Cazi’s hut is right by the main pathway to go to the Stables from the top level of the Outpost.

         “Watch it!” Dawn snaps at me.

         “Sorry,” I apologize.  Taking note of the look on her face looking more agitated than normal, I ask, “What’s wrong with you?”

         Dawn flings her arms at me, “Does everyone in the world suddenly care about my feelings?  Why does everyone wait until now?  Huh?  Do you know what I am saying?”

         “Uh,” I stutter.  “No.”

         “Well,” she slaps her hands on her sides.  “If you don’t know, then I’m not going to tell you.”

         Dawn storms off.

         I look up, “Could I just walk off a cliff and start the day over?” I then chuckle, “The way my day is going, I probably would trip right before the cliff, fall a few feet short, knocking myself out, then waking up to see that everything is still the same.”

         With the breeze, I smell some food cooking, probably Asvord getting supper ready.  To have a change of pace, without speaking to anyone, I thought I would just go and look in on what is cooking.

         Once I get over to the Clubhouse, not more than a moment before walking in, I smell something burning.  Entering, I see Asvord racing out of her room to the kitchen.

         “Elsa!” Asvord exclaims.  “I thought I told you to stir the stew?”

         “You did,” Elsa replies as she sets the table.  “Was I supposed to stay there?”

         “Yes,” Asvord sighs.  “I guess I didn’t tell you to keep stirring it.  It only had a few more minutes to go, which was more than a few minutes ago.  We’re you very hungry?”

         “Why?” Elsa questions.

         “Because there’s not going to be supper,” Asvord states.

         Elsa apologizes but Asvord says, “I know you didn’t mean to.  You did what you were told, and it isn’t my place to say you did wrong.  I should have said to keep stirring it.  Oh, hey Jarl.”

         “Hi,” I return.  “Is this a bad time.”

         Asvord tilts her head down and just looks at me, “Don’t start.”

         I chuckle, “Sorry.”

         Asvord whistles for Smoky, he flies in and gladly accepts Asvord’s offer of eating the burnt stew.

         “At least someone got fed,” Asvord declares.

         To try an ease her frustration, I say, “I wasn’t very hungry.  I just visited pretty much everybody and I don’t think they’re very hungry either.”

         “Thanks, too bad you didn’t tell me that before I got started,” Asvord folded her arms, but then puts them down right away and walks over to the living room.  “But I guess it is alright.  I didn’t know when our parents would get back or if she would want to fix us something… I’m just,” she says and then plops down on to the couch to lie down.  “Tired.”

         “We’ve all had a long day,” I state.  “I don’t think a lot of us want to do much of anything.  If we do, we don’t want to be disturbed.”

         “That’s nice,” Asvord says as she closes her eyes.

         I whisper to Elsa to clean up the rest of the kitchen while I put the dishes back up.  After doing so, Elsa walks outside to me but only that far as she goes to the pasture to see the Thunderwhips while I go to stop by Explod.  When I get to his hut, I see him at his desk near the window.

         The window is open, so I ask him, “How’s it going?”

         “Bad,” Explod sighs as he crumbles up a piece of paper on it and throws it back behind him.  “Been trying to write down some of my music, but it doesn’t sound right when I put it down on paper.”

         “Anything else going on?” I inquire.

         “Only that I wish I could write songs as well as I can come up with them,” Explod responds.

         I point out, “You know, coming up with songs is about the same as writing songs, just not on paper.  Maybe if you could learn to read notes, instead of playing by ear, you could write songs more effectively.”

         “You might be right,” Explod says.

         Explod then goes off into a flurry of writing notes, seemingly getting an epiphany out of something.  I leave Explod to that and then I make the next stop at Hyrith’s place, the one place I have yet to go by yet.  He is actually outside his hut, sitting in a chair just reclining.

         “How are you?” I put forth the greeting.

         He simply replies.  “Good.”

         “That’s good,” I respond.

         Hyrith asks me, “How are you?”

         “Pretty good,” I reply.

         Hyrith nods his head, “That’s good.”

         “Anything on your mind?” I question.

         Hyrith thinks then returns, “No.”

         Trying to think of something else to say or ask, I cannot other than, “See you later.”

         “Yep,” Hyrith raises his hand as I leave.  “See you later.”

         Once on my way again, I shake my head, “Leave it to Hyrith to be the only one that could have a good day or a bad day and you don’t even know it either way.  Unless there is something epic going on, Hyrith is pretty quiet.  Even when there is something epic going on, he is pretty quiet anyway.  His actions do speak a lot louder than he does.”

         Swinging back by Garth’s workshop to pick up my sword, bows, and a couple of my quivers, I see that Garth’s Tide Glider, Riptide, outside laying down.  She sees me coming and purrs a rumble as I come over to give her a few rubs on the nose.

         Startled a bit at me entering, Garth says, “Oh, Jarl, hi.”

         “Did you go somewhere?” I question.

         Garth paces for a few strides before sitting down at his work bench, but in my direction near the door.  He leans forward and puts his head in his hands.

         I ask, “Bad day?”

         “No,” Garth sighs.  “It’s not that.”

         I have never seen Garth like this.  He is quiet yes, but hardly ever flustered as nothing really gets to him.

         I ask, “Something wrong?”

         Garth looks up, runs his hands through his hair to lay it down straighter, and takes a deep breath, “How do I say this?  I’m not sure how to say this.”

         Now worried, I ask again, “Is there something wrong?”

         “The extremely short version… Yes… There is something wrong,” Garth states.  “You might want to sit down for this one.  It will take a while for me to explain for you to totally understand.”

         I pull up a stool and once sitting, Garth takes another deep breath, “Kind of hoped this moment would never come, but this is something I have prepared for, for a long time.”

         Garth pauses before revealing, “There is a lot more to me than I may have let on to telling you.”

         Garth waits for me to probably rail him or something, but as I lean forward to listen intently, he goes on, “These mercenaries… The Masked Vikings…,” Garth sighs.  “Ali’s accident… The tomb…  There is a lot of things that I could have prevented, or at least made everyone more prepared and there are a few more clues that I have found that I kept to myself that could have probably helped by now…,” Garth hesitates.  “What other way is there to say this but I need your help to win a war.”

         Sitting straight up, shocked at what Garth just said, Garth adds, “Perhaps I should start at the beginning.”