Book 7 - The Crimson Storm - Chapter 21: Overload

The Crimson Storm

Chapter 21

Overload

         Garth begins, “When we first met a few years ago during the time of Snoggletog, I simply said I am not from Berk but had lived in Berk for several years.  That is barely scratching the surface.  Your friend, Garth, Garth of Izar, but only one Garth, is from a land to that is outside the Barbaric Archipelago and in another archipelago to the far northwest.  Izar is a collection of seven islands linked by massive bridges dating back hundreds of years and with dragon gear that is more advanced than any other civilization in the area.  The place where I was born is a civilization that spent three hundred years with dragons.”

         Garth pauses as if to have some abrupt reaction from me, I did react with this revelation from Garth, but Garth deserves a chance.

         He continues, “Izar was a civilization that’s far more advanced than the gear the Dragon Hunters have and most of it is dragon based.  Izar citizens had everyday items such as packs that were loaded with Zippleback Gas which could be used to hover and fly around though the range is extremely limited because of the tank capacity to fit on a viking’s back while still being able to get off the ground, vikings also had electricity produced by Shockjaws that were used to instantly start fires for numerous purposes, and my retractable staff can also store electricity to be used in charged attacks.  The reason my staff can do this is because it contains the shed scales of a Skrill and doubles as a rail launcher that shoots metal balls should the need arise.  But it can’t shoot more than eight shots before needing to be recharged… And I am going off topic.”

         I assure, “No, you tell me in your own way with any details you want to cover.”

         “Thanks,” Garth appreciates and then starts walking around as he talks.  “Izar is very far from even Mystery’s Edge and it is in the northwestern corner of the Barbaric Archipelago.  There are several islands in the vicinity but since Izar was the dominant power in the area.  A large Quartz Vault is towards the southwest of Izar and its islands hold information on Izar as well as a copy of all their records.  I call that place the Vault of Glass.”

         “Here is the Geography,” Garth grabs several random pieces from the work tables and makes enough room on the floor to show the scale as he explains.  I move my stool back a little way.  “Izar is made of seven islands with Izar in the center.  Izar.  It is the largest island.  Izar holds the Dragon King sanctuary and gives its name to the entire archipelago.  It was home to one million vikings.  Next is Ishtart.  It is a wild forest land on the north with a remote hunting village.  It is the only settlement that has free roaming dragons in its forests.  There is a cave somewhere on the island that holds a secret record.  That’s a mystery for another day.  Here is Niori.  A mining island to the northeast filled with precious minerals and a catacomb labyrinth of Whispering Death tunnels.  Population was twenty thousand.  Mjolnir is a dormant volcano island to the southeast that blacksmiths use to forge their wares.  Lava flows directly into workshops to heat forges.  Population was one hundred thousand.  Iyer.  An island to the south that houses shipbuilding facilities and docks as well as a large number of fish.  A lot of Tidal Class dragons live in Iyer.  This would probably be your neck of the woods to hang out in.  You would probably be shocked just how many Thundredrums and other Tidal Class dragons are there.  The population of Iyer was three hundred thousand.  Iskyn is an island to the southwest made entirely of Quartz Crystal.  It is home to science and innovation with crystal towers home to schools and libraries that extend upwards ever reaching to the clouds.  Below the island is a bunker that holds the Jotun, The Three Hundred-Year-Old Izarian Battle Beasts -from before the Befriending of Dragons- that were built to fight gods and monsters during Ragnarök.  Some of that may be exaggeration depending on any given Izar you could have asked, but those Battle Beasts were built to strike fear into any who dear go up against one.  Because if it looked and was built like it could do battle with a god, then what better way to continue striking fear into enemies than to spin the tales even further.  The Battle Beasts were virtually indestructible and were capable of fighting Alpha Class dragons in single combat.  This is an island of many secrets, you’d have a field day in there, from archives to the various laboratories and who knows what else.  Even those who live on that island don’t even know what all it holds, there is just so much that it would take a lifetime to find it all.  After all, it took many lifetimes to build it up like that to begin with.  The population of Iskyn was five hundred thousand, mostly all students and scholars.  Finally, we have Aurum an island that specializes in agriculture and provides food to the whole archipelago as well as lumber.  The vikings of Ishtar and Aurum often were at odds with each other because Ishtar hardly used their forest for lumber while Aurum used theirs.  Now, Aurum had many conservation practices in place to preserve and maintain their forests, but some island has to supply wood to the populous of Izar.”

         “There are factions too,” Garth changes the subject.  “Izarian Sentinels were special guards and troops who protected Izar and could be considered elite forces.  Their spears and swords drip of Speed Stinger venom with grenades filled of Flightmare Mist and even bombs of Zippleback gas and Nightmare saliva.  This, by the way, is how I came up with the idea for your Zippleback Smoke Bombs.  These Sentinels ride various dragons but the common ones are Speed Stingers and Changewings.  I bet Ali could even teach them a thing or two because I have notice how she works with those dragons.  Ali could easily a Sentinel Commander, and then when she is older and has the experience in the field, the rank of General would be an easy level with her skill set, work ethic, and abilities.  Each Sentinel had a Zippleback gas jetpack and had spent their entire life training.  A team of selected, above elite status Sentinels guard the Vault of Glass.”

         Garth stops for a moment while he goes over to the wall above the main forge in the back and brings back an old, worn, and slightly rusted helmet.  “This is the helmet a Sentinel would have worn,” Garth says.  “Two horns protruding out and forward with the tips pointed up and decorative embellishments around the helmet sever for looks as well as extra armor.  This helmet does not have them but there would be eyepieces which would be Quartz.  This helmet only has a remnant its chain mail lower face and neck armor still attached to it.  This helmet I had well before they had Gronckle Iron.  And yes, I said Gronckle Iron, though I forget the name we had for it.  I also forgot the recipe for it too, goes to show that one shouldn’t take anything for Granite.”

         I facepalmed, Garth quips, “Thought you might like that.”

         I laugh, “You were so serious and then walked me right into that.”

         “While we are on the topic of different advancements,” Garth sits down back down.  “There is a ton of things I could go into.  One more thing on Gronckle Iron is that our Gronckle Iron is not as pure as the version that Fishlegs discovered.  This Gronckle Iron is the purest form I have ever seen.  Generations of Izarians couldn’t figure that out, so props to Fishlegs and of course Meatlug.  Moving on.  The Battle Beasts.  They are thirty feet tall and a lot of the components are powered by Zippleback Gas.  A series of wires and a harness attach a rider to the main components that allow the Beast to move.  It comes with equally imposing weapons.  We didn’t have much use for them, other than to showoff, really.  After studying dragons for so long, Izarians began to mimic them and build tools as well as weapons to build and protect as dragons naturally do.  There were larger vessels that could be propelled by steam, these were the pride and joy of our naval fleet.  Electricity.  Or, truly, just harnessing the power of the Shockjaws.  While they helped us, we helped and protected them.  The Shockjaws would store their electricity into specialized silos to house the power for any Izarian to use for anything they deemed necessary.  We had Projectors.  Best and simplest way to describe them is to say they were a less sophisticated version of the Dragon Eye.  You could slip lenses into it to view stuff larger… Projecting it onto a wall or something.”

         Garth then starts chuckling as he remembers and announces with an exaggerated epic voice, “The Iskyn Superweapon.”  Garth smiles and shakes his head.  “An electric rail launcher powered by a Skrill.  Fired once by yours truly and Tholme, a good friend of mine.  Needless to say, we broke it.  Although, we both contended that the rail component was made out of the wrong element.  We needed a gold rail if it was ever to fire again.”

         Getting back on topic, Garth went on, “Deathsong Amber, Gronckle Iron, Quartz Composite.  Deathsong Amber with Gronckle Iron micro wires that act as support and encased in a layer of Quartz.  This material cannot be melted, pierced, or burned.  It can’t be woven into chainmail, only armored plating.  It does make for one whale of a projectile for a catapult though.  I talked about Gronckle Iron… Oh, yes… Dragon Root Powder.  Refinement version of the natural dragon plant but in powder form, obviously.  It is refined in the labs of Iskyn to its powered for and is so concentrated that it can set off dragons from miles away.  Everyone kept me as far as they could from that stuff.  You could only imagine what happened if I got some and the normal ‘accidents’ happened to me.  Let’s just say all of Izar had puffed out hair for a month.”

         We both laugh.

         “Other locations include the following:  Firefly Island, an island to the west of Izar that is home to a tribe that rides Monstrous Nightmares.  They are called the Firefly Tribe, which I always questioned because they ride dragons, not some six-legged insect, either that or the need glasses.”

         I interject, “The Fireflies… Excuse me… Lighting Bugs or the Tribe?”

         “The Tribe,” Garth chuckles.  “Vault of Glass located in the far southwest of Izar… Covered that.  Contained some unique eggs and information of certain dragon migrations.  The Pride of Iyer – a carrier ship that can hold one hundred dragons and even more vikings than that number.  Retribution – Another carrier ship that rivals and backs up Pride of Iyer in every category.”

         Garth then stops as takes a deep breath; he still has not told me what is wrong

         “Garth,” I state.  “You keep talking about your home in the past tense, and it sounds like you are making a point to keep talking in the past tense.  Is this what’s wrong?”

         “Yes,” he admits.  “It’s currently crawling with dragon Hunters after a massive attack a year before the events that I come to find out that took place when Hiccup and Toothless took down the Red Death.  My people were forced off the Isles after our Dragon King Alpha, was killed by another Dragon King which is Omega.”

         If I was not thoroughly shocked before, I am shocked now.

         “What that happened,” Garth continues.  “My sister, Kaya, and my friends from the island scattered to distant parts of the world, each with our own missions to complete and planned to meet seven years later when the new Dragon King could return and help us take back our home.”

         Garth stops again to look at me.  I am still listening, but if I could not tell that this means a lot to Garth as he is very serious about the matter, this all seems very difficult to believe.  However, the more he explains, for some reason, the more I do believe.

         Garth goes on, “I originally came to Berk due to the takeover of Izar by the Dragon Hunters and the death of Izar’s Dragon King.  And the Dragon Hunters are, or were, a faction of Izar until they became too radical and demanded too much.  When they split, they formed their own factions, one of which is the Dragon Hunters you and Hiccup know.  After the invasion and take over by the true Dragon Hunters, my old friends and I scattered across the sea in different directions.  My sister, Kaya, took the only offspring our Dragon King laid, which I guess the more correct term for her would be Dragon Queen.  Dragon King is a term we had used universal to signify ‘The dragon that could control them all.’  Kaya took the young Dragon King into hiding in a remote and unknown location that only she knew of and picked.  A good friend, Val, headed back to her tribe to defend it, and another friend, Saga, was flying away on a very important dragon migration.  Sif stayed to spy on the Hunters and start a resistance.  Then Tholme fled with hundreds of dragons aboard a sea borne dragon carrier.  We plan on meeting seven years later after the day we left so that the young Dragon King is grown enough to help take back our homeland.”

         “My mission is to gain allies who would be willing to fight the Dragon Hunters that ruined my home and then meet up with the two dragon carries, which are vessels the size of small islands capable of holding up to one hundred dragons each -The Pride of Iyer and the Retribution- at a certain location,” Garth then sighs. “I was supposed to be careful with my planning so I don’t let anyone on to what I know to avoid compromising the mission.  Any time that anyone has asked about my home, my family, or the time I spent before getting to Berk, I tried to side step or down play but saying, ‘I grew up some place far from Berk, but here I am now, Garth, Garth of Izar.’  I am supposed to raise an army to go to battle against the Dragon Hunters.  I have been recruiting Chiefs and vikings from various tribes to our cause ever since.  When the second faction of Dragon Hunters became a threat down here and prevalent, I was worried to see if someone would find out the truth about my past if too much was looked into the Dragon Hunters.  Thankfully, these Dragon Hunters seemed to devolve into such an empty shell of themselves from what the original Dragon Hunters were, that my worries were not as big as I first had started thinking.  Should there ever had been a deep investigation by either these Dragon Hunters or by anyone else, they would have eventually found out.”

         “I have never revealed this mission to any one else, until now, hoping to gain the trust of those around me before asking them to help,” Garth starts to conclude.  “Since the attack is coordinated, I have to get my timing right.  Seven years.  I’d have to check today’s date with the calendar, because I have been counting down the days ever since then, but it is a little less than two years from now.  There will be a Resistance to meet whoever I bring back with me.  Sif stayed behind to remain and act as a spy, supposedly betraying us and joining the Dragon Hunters.  Her Scuttleclaw is immune to the effects of the Dragon Hunter’s Dragon King, Omega.”

         “The Dragon Hunters are led by Einar Verodfellar who was the one responsible for the Fall of Izar.  These Dragon Hunters do not show mercy to dragons.  It is almost more appropriate to call them Dragon Slayers.  They control the Dragon King.  These vikings are actually competent than the Dragon Hunters you occasional deal with and Hiccup deals on a more regular basis.  The Dragon Hunters occupying my homeland has Gronckle Iron weaponry, but as I have said before, not to the purest form that you guys have here.”

         “The war has devastated my lands.  The overall population is only a fraction of what it used to be.  A good portion died in the fight, but other portions fled to lead new lives in new locations and others stayed behind to live under the occupation.”

         Speechless as to try to comprehend what Garth has said, I will have to let it sink in.

         While it does, I go back to a previous point, “I don’t know what to say yet, but you said that you know the mercenaries and masked vikings we are dealing with as well as Ali’s accident and something in the tomb.  Why do you think some of this could have been prevented?”

         Garth shakes his head and the look on his face is that of saying, this is all one big mess; he stands up and walks around some more, “The mercenaries are a sect of rouge Sentinels that did not like our… Strategic retreat.  Although, some of them were just looking for a way to get out and go rogue.  The Masked Vikings, which actually was the name we gave them too, were and still are an unknown enemy that came from basically nowhere to attack Izar.  They combined forces with the Dragon Hunters and the rest is history.  In the beginning of the war, some of the Dragon Hunters stayed behind to act as moles in our Dragon Hunters and would often use sabotage tactics to scare the people and if possible, take out a target, but their methods were more to scare than to be lethal.”

         I jump in, “And one of their methods were to use a fake chest?”

         “Yes,” Garth confirms.  “However, the one with Ali is something completely new to what I have seen.  The way in which the trap was delivered is the same, but the red powder or sand is new.  This could only mean that The Masked Vikings have become bolder than they ever were before.”

         I question, “Though what makes you think that you could have prevented it taking Ali’s vision?”

         “Because of what I found in the tomb and what Viggo said,” Garth answers.  “I wasn’t certain before we got there, but reading the text on the walls and the casket itself, there was no doubt.  That was the resting place, or was supposed to be, for our old great chief of Izar.  In the middle of a war, Izar was also in the middle of a ‘changing of the guard’ at chief.  When our great chief finally died, the Elite Sentinels saw to it to bury our great leader, warrior, and friend who had served us for sixty plus years.  It was rumored that the island that we went to was supposedly where the Elite Sentinels laid him, but once we got there, on the platform with the casket, I read that the Elite Sentinels had laid him somewhere else.  They left this tomb for the Dragon Hunters to find, and spread the rumors around the circles that this was where our great chief was laid to rest.  They also spread the rumor around that there was some type of treasure buried in the tomb somewhere.  When we got there and had seen that someone else had already been there, I feared that Viggo or some of the other Dragon Hunters set a trap for us to find.  We unfortunately did.  It was often the true Dragon Hunters modus operandi, excuse me, way or method of operating to return the favor to the Sentinels. and set traps for them to make them more vulnerable to attack.  The chest that caused Ali to lose her sight was one of those traps.”

         Garth sits back down and waits for me to say something.

         I do not know what to say.  Finally, I ask, “What does Einar Verodfellar look like?”

         Garth, rather relieved to just be talking about something else, describes the viking, “He is in his late forties, maybe early fifties by now.  Hardly ever makes an appearance, but when he does, bad things are about to happen because most of the time he lets all his vikings do all the dirty work for him while he takes in all the glory in the background.  Six foot, five inches tall.  Not bulky, but not skinny by any stretch.  He probably is around two-twenty or two-forty, broad shoulders, has brown hair, slightly wavy, with a short beard and a mustache.  Expert at stealth and unbeatable in combat, the only way to beat him is by long range or air assault.  Maybe not the most honorable way to fight, but at least you are still alive.  He often wears a cape and even a hood.”

         I declared, “Oh my Aunt Gertrude’s yak!”

         “What?” Garth questions.

         “This Einar guy you just described,” I shake my head at the connection.  “Is the exact same dude that tried to pass off as Oswald the Agreeable and then proceeded to pit the masked vikings and mercenaries against each other.”

         Garth is caught off guard and asked, “Are you sure?”

         “Yeah,” I reply.  “When you think you are about to meet your future father-in-law, you try to take note of everything you can.”

         Garth now looks worried, “This might change some things.”

         “How so?” I wonder out loud.

         He chuckles, “As if you did not have enough to comprehend right now, I just came back with a meeting with Lilah.  Yes, that Lilah, Dawn’s mother and wife of Alvin the Outcast, sorry, Alvin the Treacherous.  As we all know how Lilah told Dawn about what transpired to happen with their family, Lilah had said she is not an Outcast and from an island to the far north.  Make that, far northwest.  Lilah is one of Izar’s top Elite Sentinel Generals.  She was leading the crew to bury our great leader.  And she is the one that is keeping tabs on all of our forces to communicate, organize, and then regroup when the time comes.”

         “Wait a second,” I then declare.  “That would make-.”

         “Thorgunna Vixxen an Elite Sentinel too,” Garth finishes my thought.  “Whether she’s Thorgunna or Grunna, she is still a foe to be feared even now.”

         With my mind on overload now, I tell Garth, “This actually lines up quite well with Vixxen’s backstory too, even what Klarp said.  Change a few things, use different terms, and you got the same backstory.  Same with what I remember from what Lilah told us the day we rescued her.  Change a few things, use some different terms, same backstory.  Lilah, Vixxen, and Klarp all tried their best to use the truth but not use the right details to hide the important part of the truth.  Then you come and lay it all out for me.  As much of this as you have told me, things are going to be much clearer now.”

         “So,” Garth slowly says.  “Do you believe me.”

         Without hesitation, I reply, “Yes.  But this will take me a little while to fully realize.”  Another change of subject, “You said that this might change some plans knowing that Einar Verodefellar is around here.  How so?”

         Garth states, “Well, this is an unexpected development and something that Lilah needs to know.  The Sentinels have been trying to keep the Dragon Hunters, Masked Vikings, and the mercenaries cut off from their return to Izar.  Little did we know we cut off even their leader from returning to Izar.  Knowing Einar, he will not waste this opportunity to do something else.  What I just thought of is what he might do to this archipelago.  He must be stopped.  We must find out his plans.”

         I stand up, “I think we are pretty much well on our way to figure that out because it just so happens I have a mystery I am trying to solve that corresponds to everything that you have said with several connections and overlapping characters.”

         “I need to send Lilah a Terror Mail,” Garth kind of says frantically but then calms down.  “And thanks.”

         I ask back, “For what?”

         “For listening, for not jumping all over me for,” Garth states.  “For believing me.”

         “You have done nothing before this point for me not to believe you, so you did already get one thing accomplished,” I tell him.

         Garth questions, “What is that?”

         I simply say, “Earn my trust.”

         Garth sighs deeply and smiles.

         I take in a deep breath before relating, “I believe you but I still don’t know what to think about all this.  The Mystery Conqueror needs to lie down and let his brain rest.  This is a lot to take in and come up with a plan of action to go from here, not to mention we need to tell the rest of the crew about this.  I’ll talk to you later, Garth, but know this.”

         Garth looks up from already starting to write the message on a piece of paper, I tell him, “You’ve got one more in your fight!”