Book 7 - The Crimson Storm - Chapter 9: Questions About Answers

The Crimson Storm

Chapter 9

Questions About Answers

         Not knowing how much time has passed, I begin to wake up.  I hear the clanking of metal.  I also have a headache.  My arms are already above my head, so I try to reach for my head, something hinders my hand from going any further than a couple of inches.

         Barely out loud, I whisper, “What?”

         Blinking and giving my head a shake to wake up, I take in my surroundings.

         A girl says, “He’s finally awake.  Took you long enough.”

         Another girl says, whose voice is familiar, “I told you he was going to be the last one to wake up.  He almost always is.”

         The second voice is Annabeth’s.  Fully awake now, though even after getting awake I still feel drowsy, I am completely aware of my surroundings.  There is a rock to the room that is constant, so that denotes to me we are in the hold of a ship.  Just noticing the scent of salt water also makes be believe we are on a ship.  The new girl is to my right, Annabeth is to my left.  There are sockets around our wrists with a chain linking each socket.  Each of our arms are above our heads.  The chain is threaded through a metal loop up and then back down to the next socket.  By pulling down on my end of the socket, it pulls up on the other’s socket.  The socket is bigger than the loop, so it catches and I can only put my arms down to about ninety degrees, perpendicular to my body, but only at a strain to the viking next to me.

         Where we are, it does not look like it is supposed to be jail or anything.  The metal loops look to be for holding tools of some kind because around us are various tools for fighting and farming, which is odd.

         “Not what I was expecting,” I observe.

         “Neither was I,” the girl said.  “You sleep like a rock.  I have been jiggling these chains for now onto like twenty minutes and you are just standing there, snoring your head off.”

         “No, that’s not what-,” I counter.  “I meant the tools lying around us.  There are tools for combat, but there are also tools for farming.  Before I get to the rest of my observations of this room, first, how long has it been since we were on that island?  Second, do I actually snore?”

         Annabeth answers the second, “You don’t really snore, more or less breathe heavy at times, but it is not constant by any stretch.”

         The girl replies to the first, “Well, Captain Obvious, there’s window over there,” she tries to point with her right arm but can only manage a vague point with her right finger to the opposite side of the ship.  “There is the absence of light, so I would have to assume that there is no sun out there right now and that makes it night.”

         “Thanks,” I say appreciatively, but take note of her tone.

         Annabeth changes the subject, “What other observations do you have about the room?”

         I go on to explain, “This is not a battle ship of any kind.  This looks to be a trading ship.  The tools are one thing, but the assorted sacks of flour, seed, and other planting or baking materials sitting on this deck.  What has us fasten to the wall is not meant for keeping prisoners.  If you look below you on the wall, there is another set of similar loops.  Some type of tool or weapon is supposed to go here.”

         Annabeth suggests, “Spears?”

         I look at her and she then points with her head by turning to her left and looking down to the floor.  The spears are small, nearly like an arrow but have no fletching on them, the feathers on an arrow that create the drag and spin of the arrow for precision and accuracy.  So, that is another thing to add to the list of odd things.

         “That would work,” I agree.  “For one thing, they are just pilled on the floor whereas everything else in this room is neatly stacked or sorted in crates or holders on the wall.”

         “Anything else, Cap’n?” Annabeth quips and smiles.

         I look at her and slowly blink my eyes before going on, “Our wrist sockets are in a crate next to your spears along with the chain attached to the sockets.  The only other thing I notice, at the moment, is that there are no sounds of footsteps, no guard with us.  Did this ship get abandon and left us to waste away or was this ship attacked and the attackers didn’t know we were down here?”

         “Huh,” the girl to my right states.  “I take it back.  You’re not a Captain Obvious.  You are very astute with out situation.  So, you’re not a Captain Obvious… More like a Colonel or something.”

         Annabeth adds with a chuckle, “More like a Commander.”

         “Oooh, you are the leader,” the girl nods.  “I gotcha.  You give the orders, others follow.”
         “Yes, but I am not sure it is exactly how you are thinking it is,” I start, then ask a different question.  “What is your name?”

         “Like I said, I just met you,” the girl shook her head.  “I’m not going to tell you my name.”

         “Oh stop, Samantha,” Annabeth declares.

         “Samantha,” I echo.  “Annabeth, how do you know her name?”

         Annabeth is going to answer, but Samantha interjects, “I’ve known her for like… twenty more minutes than you.  We’ve gotten to know each other while you slept.  You are practically still a stranger to me.  I don’t know what your favorite dragon is, your favorite color, not even do you like your hair up, down, or in a specific hairdo.”

         Though Samantha still seems wary of Annabeth and me, her last statement made her crack a slight smile before hiding it.

         I grunt and sigh at the same time, “Even with vikings I just meet, they already try to outwit the pun master.”

         “You’re a pun master, eh?” Samantha repeats.

         “Yes, I am.  You two are knock-out girls that I couldn’t wake up until just a few minutes ago.  Annabeth is so beautiful that I still feel she could knock me out again with her looks,” I respond with a punny compliment.

         “Okay… Okay…,” Samantha puts up her hands as if it is too much to handle.  “A pun that you spin into a compliment as well, you’re not going to get on my good side that fast, but well played.”

         Annabeth adds, “Yeah, and I can also knock you out a different way.”  Annabeth clasps her right hand in to a fist.

         “Ha-ha,” Samantha laughs.  “Now I also see what this relationship is based on.  You make puns, find and dandy.  You cross the line, punch to the side.”

         “Each new viking girl I meet in the archipelago continues to enforce my idea of what I think about them,” I state.

         Both Annabeth and Samantha say at the same time, “What?” with the look of intent to do bodily harm.

         “That you will use violence for defense against puns and or violence towards those you care about,” I answer.

         Annabeth backs down, but gives a smile which tells me, “Nice save.”

         “I can agree to that,” Samantha nods.  “If I understand correctly, Annabeth wouldn’t hesitate to give you a swift right cross to the jaw and knock you out.  Me… You’re only worth… eh, maybe a kick to the stomach.”

         “Only a kick to the stomach?” I repeat and chuckle.

         She shrugs her shoulders, “Yeah.  Either that or just have Stormstar blast you out of my way because you might not be even be worth a punch.”
         “Thanks,” I shake my head.

         “No problem,” she returns.  “You may be punny and all, but I still don’t trust you.  I just met you two.  I try to help you guys out and I get myself caught, so don’t think I’m your friend.  But I will say, you aren’t my enemy either, so there’s that.”

         “Getting focused again,” Annabeth gets us back to our situation at hand.  “What do you think knocked us out and how do we get out of here?”

         I answer, “I have no idea.  Whatever it was, it was red, a dark red.  Maybe a crimson color?  Then I saw a guy with a weird horned mask on and he said, ‘A storm is coming.’  Either he is not very observant to see that we are in a storm as it was or he meant something else.  Fairly certain it was the latter.  That same saying, I heard the one guy who tried to kill me say it.  So, my next question is:  If only one mercenary has said it and there is a second group with the weird masks -because I saw other figures closing in around on the edges of the clearing with those masks on- that are trying to disrupt what the mercenaries are doing and we are happening to get in the way.”

         Annabeth corrects, “But remember that the mercenaries seem to know who we are, so if this secondary group has infiltrated the mercenaries, then they know about us too.”
         Samantha jumps in, “So, if the mercenaries were the ones you two were initially fighting there on that island, I and my dragon Stormstar knocked everyone out-.”

         I interrupt, “Including us.”

         “Yes, sorry about that,” Samantha goes on.  “…Knocked everyone out, then would that not prove that there is a second group of vikings trying to disrupt, as you say, the mercenaries?”

         Still thinking on it, Annabeth asks me, “Can you say without a shade of doubt, that the ones with the masks are different from the mercenaries?”

         I shake my head, “No, I cannot.”

         Samantha concludes, “Because you cannot for certain, would it also make sense that the mercenaries and this supposed second group of vikings is one in the same?”

         “Good point,” I say.  “Because the one mercenary before said the same thing the guy with the mask said.  If the mercenaries knew so much about us before, if these guys are the same guys with the masks, I think this is much more terrifying than having to deal with a cult or something that wear masks and go after individuals or groups disrupting their order.”

         “Gee wiz,” Samantha said.  “When you put it that way, you’re making me scared too.”

         “Sorry,” I apologize.  “I didn’t mean it that way.  But when one solves mysteries for basically a living -That I don’t get paid actual funds, which then is it considered a living or a hobby?- like I do, I will see connections and angles that others may not at first see; those connections including the ones I don’t want to think about.”

         “A gift and a curse?” wonders Samantha.

         “More or less,” I reply but then chuckle in a way that makes me make another bad connection.  “Curse… Are we only scratching the surface of what these masked vikings are doing or even capable of.”

         “Whatever they are,” Annabeth states.  “Let’s just get out of here and on the backs of our dragons and then let’s see if their cult can stand up to the might of a dragon blast.”

         “Here, here!” exclaims Samantha.  “If I had a glass of milk or grape juice or something, I’d drink to that.  But as we stand here, if only we had some keys or something.”

         Suddenly in front of us drop a set of keys through the slats in the roof, which is the next deck and I assume the top deck.

         “Okay,” Samantha looks worried.  “I didn’t mean that literally.”

         Annabeth looks worried too but tries to stay positive, “Eh, clues and leads doing something literal is the ones we run into the most.

         “Who or what did it though?” I ask.  “In any case, now we can get out of here.”

         “How?” Samantha questions.  “How are you going to get them?  They are a good three feet away.”

         “I’ll need both your help, but I have an idea,” I assure.

         I explain what I want them to do.  The keys are closest to me, so I am the best one to get them.  I ask them raise their arms to get the sockets as close to the metal loops as possible.  This gives me a little slack in my own chains.  I therefore pull down while saying, “This might hurt a bit, but bear with me.”  Lowering my body down, I do keep an eye on the girls.  The moment they start to grimace from their wrists being pinched by the metal loop, I stop lowering myself and then stretch out my legs.  Using my left foot for stability, I reach out with my right foot, and I am able to reach the keys.  I take the back of my heel and scoot the keys back towards me so that it will be easier to reach them.  Doing so, I am able to give back the slack the girls gave me; they are able to relax their arms and give their wrists a break.

         “Now what, genius?” Samantha says sounding both genuine and wondering how I am going to do this.

         I stay focused and do not answer her, though I do by what I do with my actions that follow.  Moving the keys closer to me so that I can stand up straight, I then use the front of my right boot to try and get it into ring loop.  My boot is too big and there is nothing to latch onto the boot to make sure I do not fling the keys across the room.

         “Ah!” I shout.

         Annabeth and Samantha look on in curiosity.

         I take my boot off and use my toes to grab the ring loop.

         “Well,” Annabeth tilts her head to the right side.  “That’s one way of doing it.”

         “Thank you for volunteering,” I say.

         “What?” Annabeth is caught off guard.

         “Catch,” I say but pause before tossing the keys.

         “Catch the keys?” Annabeth answers correctly but is sounding unsure if she wants to catch it.

         “If you want to get out of here,” I enlighten.  “Ready.”

         She sighs, “Yes.”

         First attempt, not good enough.  The keys simply hit Annabeth in the side.  Picking them up again with my foot, I try it again.  Closer, but not high enough.  I am trying to get the keys to her right hand.  Third time, bounces off her thumb and the keys bounce down, nearly out of reach without stretching.  I grab the keys again and give them a heave.  The ring loop gets high enough to land on her thumb.  She quickly clamps down.

         “Now,” Annabeth says now excited.  “Which key is it?”

         Taking a quick glance, I tell her my thoughts, “They all look like the same key to me.”

         The keys slide on the ring, so Annabeth lifts the ring up to make the keys slide down on the ring into her fingers.  Grabbing a key, she looks at my left wrist socket, and inserts it.  Turning it…

         Clink!  The socket opens!

         I release my left hand and take the keys from Annabeth to free my right hand.  After doing so, I unlock Annabeth and then Samantha.  Once all free, we rub our wrists to get circulation back in them.  A moment later, I led the girls to the stairs to go above.

         For a split second, I wanted to burst up above but wondered who might be up there that could possible give us the keys.  I halt my eagerness and ease my head to peek in front of us.

         It is indeed the top deck.  I see nothing until… Something breathes on the back of my neck!

         Turning my head around, I flinch.

         Breathing a sigh of relief, “Stormstar, I presume?”

         She snorts and opens her mouth as if to smile.

         Samantha pushes past Annabeth and then me to get up and greet her Deadly Nadder, “Stormstar!!  I knew you would track us.  I wondered what happened to you!  I was worried they got to you too.  But I knew they would have a hard time catching you.”

         Annabeth and I come up to the top deck and look to see where we are.  In the middle of the ocean, that is where we are.  There are a couple of lit torches around the ship, some actually laying on the deck but not strong enough to catch the wood on fire.  So the light from these torches, we can pretty much see the whole ship in addition to the light from the moon.

         Annabeth then wonders, “I hope our dragons are alright.  Without Johann there and having no good way of knowing what happened, they may not have heard the explosion and could still be at the island.”

         “Though not a Tracker Class dragon, either of them,” I comfort Annabeth.  “They still have some ability to track their own rider, especially if they are in trouble.  Maybe they followed Stormstar or are following her scent and will be here shortly.”

         Samantha comments, “My dragon was the one that pushed the keys down to us.  She has been trained to recognize certain objects like keys, weapons, or other useful items.  If I am in trouble or need help, she will find a tool to help me.  Her landing on the ship must have awakened all of us, or at least two of us.  Then hearing us talk, she knew it was me, and then saw the keys.  To her keys lying around are either supposed to be with me or hung up.”

         “Well thank you, Stormstar,” I bow.

         She does not really react to me but mostly to the love and hugs given to her by the rider, Samantha.

         “Random question,” I ask.  “Do you have a last name?”

         “No,” she responds.  “Well, at least I don’t think I do.  Just Samantha is fine with me.”

         The look on her face told me there is more to that story, but this is not the time and place to further question her.  At least until we get out of this mess, will she think of telling us that part.  Yet, I bet she will not tell us until she really gets to know us to the point of now being friends.  Based on what I see thus far, that is a long way off right now.

         “We can get out of here if you guys want,” offered Samantha.

         “If our dragons are looking for us,” declines Annabeth.  “We need to stay in one place for them to come find us.”

         “In the meantime,” Samantha puts her hands on her hips as if she is ready to start working on something.  “What do we do?”

         I submit, “We could figure out what went down on this ship.  This place is a mess.”

         The whole top deck and sides of the ship is littered with battle marks, scorch marks, burn marks, arrow marks, sword marks… Basically, a bunch of marks.  A battle of some kind went down while we were in the hold!  Whatever that red cloud or crimson dust was, it is very potent.  Enough so that a battle could occur and we would not even know.

         Looking over both sides of the ship I see the destruction left behind.  This is a well-built ship with two layers of protection to the hull, meaning this probably was a battleship at some point, but the contents below tell otherwise what this ship is now.

         While inspecting the port side of the ship, Samantha’s “window” turns out to be boulder hole from a catapult shot.  Taking a peek back down stairs, there is a small boulder towards the middle of the ship on the starboard side.

         Samantha chuckles though wary of the fact that it was only about ten feet from landing somewhere close to us, “I wondered why there was only one window.”

         Annabeth calls me over, “Come look at this.”

         Seeing where she is, I walk over to Annabeth next to where one of the fallen torches were; we put them back up where they belonged or put them out if we could not find them.

         Annabeth holds a torch down near the deck and reveals, “The red powder.”

         Annabeth leans the torch too close to the red powder and the powder ignites a small spark.

         The powder and the spark tell me, “Those masked vikings were the ones that attacked this ship.”

         Samantha gets in with the act and asks, “But who were they attacking?  Because if my memory serves me correctly, this ship is the same ship that the guy who got betrayed had.”

         Then Annabeth’s face changed to worry, for obvious reasons.

         But to get her mind off her thoughts, Annabeth reconstructs the possible motives behind the potential parties involved, “After those masked vikings attacked the group.  My…,” Annabeth hesitates because I bet she was going to say “father” but she is now hoping it is not.  “…Gut is telling me that the old viking saw that we were attacking the mercenaries and rescued us onto his ship.  Those masked vikings may had been at the island for something else so did not bother the old man while he took the three of us.  But while the masked vikings were looking for something, the mercenaries probably came to and wanted to go after the old man in their own ship, hence the catapult shot damage to the ship and the boulder.  Then the masked vikings did not find what they were looking for and assumed that either the old man had it or the mercenaries.  So, they came after the old man’s ship.  The mercenaries were already attacking the ship and started tearing apart the ship, but the masked vikings intervened and captured the mercenaries and the old man.”

         “Pretty good ideas,” nods Samantha.  “But how do you explain us getting left behind?”

         I suggest, “Maybe out of defense to protect us, the old viking said there was no one else on board and let himself get taken instead.”

         Samantha shakes her head, “That is giving a lot of people the benefit of the doubt, people you don’t know.  That could very well be what happen, but explain why we were left chained to the wall?”

         I reply, “Someone could have doubled back to make sure that the old viking was telling the truth.  When they saw he was not and saw us down below, to make sure we did not follow, they chained us to the wall with what they had around them.  They were also in no position to bring the supplies with them, or because the masked vikings have ‘better’ things to occupy their time, they probably just left the supplies behind.”

         Samantha still shakes her head, “I’m not buying it.  Something else is going on here.”

         Samantha’s skepticism got me thinking.  Investigating my hunch, I went back down below and walked behind the stairs.  There stands a make shift Captain’s Quarters.  Around the desk are three cots, but their blankets on the floor.

         “Could be where the old guy had us laying down,” I think out loud.

         I walk around to the front of the desk and study the look of the desk.

         “What are you looking for?” Annabeth questions.  “I don’t see anything.”

         Thoughts start to race through my mind, “I think that’s the point.”  I pause to collect my thoughts and then explain, “By all apparent clues, it looks like the old guy was taking care of us.  By all the clues upstairs, it looks like this ship was attacked by the either the mercenaries, masked vikings, or both.  Whoever ended up attacking, wouldn’t you be surprised by someone attacking your ship?”

         Samantha nods and Annabeth seems to know where I am going; I continue, “Let’s suppose that the first shot to tell the old viking who was here was the boulder shot.  Would that not startle you?  If this old guy was sitting here at his desk, reviewing this map, and that bouldering came crashing through, would you not jump up and knock something over?”

         Samantha argues, “The boulder could have come after the fight was already over just to make it look like the mercenaries did it.  Using that red stuff as an opener to incapacitate their victims and make an entrance, the mercenaries could have put up a fight, but the masked vikings quickly overpowered them.  The old guy could have been someplace else.”

         “Now who’s giving someone the benefit of the doubt,” I call Samantha on.

         Samantha puts up her hands to visually say, “Hold on,” before she speaks out, “I’m just trying to help here.”

         Annabeth then questions with a tone of already knowing the answer and not liking it, “What are you saying, Jarl?”

         “Without any bias towards any side here,” I take a breath.  “I believe the old guy was in on this the whole time.”

         Both girls look at me to give a reason, but Annabeth’s shoulders drop because she already knows; I deduce, “Regardless of what attack came first and if the old guy knew he could not get far, he would have had to be on edge, nervous.  That being said, this chair is pushed back as if someone got up, as if he was called by a friend to come upstairs to the deck.  If it were me, I would have jumped at pretty much anything, even if I was expecting it or even watching for something to happen.  For the fact that nothing is knocked over except the blankets on the floor and the fact that we were bound on the far wall, my gut is telling me this old guy set this all up to trap the mercenaries.  We just happened to be in the cross fires, and unexpected thing to take care of.  This is where the old viking made a mistake.  All of what I said, implicates him as an accomplice after the fact.  It would have been better to leave us lying on the cots to support the idea of him defending us saying there was no one else but him on board.  With no dragons to ride to make a quick getaway, they wanted to put as much distance between themselves and this ship.  Though we were still unconscious from the crimson dust, they wanted to slow us down by binding us together with sockets and chains that so happened to be on the ship.  All these supplies down here do not go together.  Weapons, flour, seed corn, sockets… This whole thing was a front.”

         “And I walked right in it,” Samantha sounds disappointed.  “Technically, I flew into this trap but I mean no offense.  Had I not been so eager to help, I could have not been captured myself and then later helped you two on the ship.  I let my guard down.  I could have spotted the masked vikings or even their ship, but I saw that Zippleback Gas and I just had to light it on fire; not to mention the rain would have quickly dissipated it.  I had to react and not think.  That got me in trouble with you guys.”

         “It’s alright,” Annabeth guarantees.  “You met us, at least.  Who knows.  Instead of being here with us, you too could have been captured and things may have not turned out the same way.”

         “That’s thinking positive,” nods Samantha.  “So, where do we go from here?”

         Totally serious, though with some anger I say, “After them.”

         Samantha’s eyes widen, “Are you nuts?  Where do we even go to?”

         Annabeth pipes in and states while pointing to a spot on the map, “There.”

         Seeing where she points, I see an island due west of Dragon Island, northwest of where Storehouse Island is, and west by southwest of Crescent Island.  Pinpointing this island on the map and recollecting Hiccup’s map, this island is not on the map.  From the markings on the map, this island is circled and a line is drawn about an inch from the island to an empty place on the map -over open sea- where I believe this ship to be located.  There are two arrows pointing to the island.

         “This old viking really wants us to come, so let’s oblige him,” I relay.

         Samantha’s eyes widen more, “You mean walk into a clear trap?”

         “Yes,” I confidently say.  “Because the trapper thinks the trap will trap the trapee.  But if the trapee knows it is a trap, then the trap could trap the trapper because the trap is known and the trapee becomes the trapper.  We walk into the trap on our terms, we just might find out what’s going on.”

         Samantha shakes her head and comments, “I didn’t get any of that except for that last sentence.  Let’s just go with that… I’m in.  We still have our weapons at least.”

         “Yeah,” Annabeth declares.  “So, the old guy, the mercenaries, masked vikings… whoever is involved here is looking for a fight.”  Annabeth punches her right hand into her left, “Well, they just got one.”

         Samantha offers, “We can all hop on Stormstar and she can track the red stuff to its point of origin.”

         I hold up my hands this time, “Hold on.  Our dragons are still out there too.  We rode them to the island and hid them in a cave.  Our dragons probably started looking for Annabeth and me when we did not come back after a while.  When the explosion happened, they could have been aroused.  But when they saw that we were in trouble, they tried to help but… Were also captured.”

         Annabeth not wanting to believe that, said instead, “They still could be out there.  They could be just taking a long time to get here.”

         But as the moments turned into minutes, minutes into an hour.  The longer we waited, the more we realized what came apparent.  Two hours later, our dragons had not arrived!  Now we knew what we had to do.

         Ask for Samantha’s help in going after our dragons to rescue them!