The Clue of the Missing Socks - Chapter 41

The Clue of the Missing Socks

Chapter 41

          I remembered something and ran out to Adam.

          “I will probably rely on you the most, if we get captured,” I told him.  “Just follow my lead if that were to happen.”

          “Okay.  Oh I just remembered something too,” replied Adam.  “Steinson is planning on going to the island, where I rescued you, earlier than he was expecting.”

          “When will he be there?” I asked.

          “About two days from tonight,” he told me.

          “Thanks for the information,” I said shaking his hand again.  He smiled and then ran off down to the docks again.

          I then walked back into the house.

          Mother then turned to me and questioned, “I did not think it was wise to give him the egg, Jarl.”

          “I didn’t.”

          “Hmm?” she said.

          “Look I know you are a girl too, but I glued your two halves of your egg shell together and gave that to Adam.  Not the real egg,” I replied.

          “Well I am glad you did not give the real egg,” mother said.  “But next time ask me before you give something away that is mine.”

          “Ooh, sorry,” I apologized.

          “This time, this was okay,” mother added.

          “Now that that is all done, we should be getting to the Great Hall because everyone will be waiting,” stated Asvord.  “We are running late now.”

          “How can we be running late when we haven’t even been walking yet?” I needled.

          “Ha ha, very funny.  Go on you little man,” she pushing my shoulders to the door.  “Go through the door.”

          I then banged my head on the door a couple of times.

          “Why are you doing that?” Asvord asked.

          “You told me to go ‘through the door’,” I replied.  “It doesn’t seem to work as well.”

          “You know what I meant,” Asvord relayed raising her fist.

          “Okay, yes I did,” I hurried and opened the door.  “Oh ladies first,” I said letting Elsa go on my right side.

          “Excuse me,” Asvord said while pushing her way through on my left side.  Asvord smiled back at me.  I shook my head.  I kept the door open for my mother.

          We all walked out to our stables.  Fredrick was still all curled up, while the other dragons were stirring.
 

          “Come on Fredrick let’s go,” I said.

          I knew Fredrick was not asleep.  Fredrick heard me and opened his left eye and looked around.

          I chuckled and then said, “It is okay Fredrick.  It is safe now.”

          My dragon then got up and was ready to go.  My sisters, mother, and I saddle our dragons and flew over to the Great Hall.  When we landed it looked like the dragons were having a convention of some sort.  There we several dragons “parked” next to the Great Hall.

          We entered the Great Hall to find all of my friends there waiting for us.  Hiccup was there too.  They were all sitting in the large meeting area in the Great Hall.

          “What took you so long, Jarl?” asked Cullan.

          “Well I discovered some new evidence to when Steinson was going to be at the island,” I replied.

          “How did you discover this ‘new’ evidence?” questioned Cullan.

          “What island?” Pat said at the same time.

          “I should probably start from the beginning,” I stated.

          I got all of my friend’s attention and started to go through what has devolved in this mystery since we got back from Outcast Island.  Of the things I told them were the following:  I tried to identify the mysterious egg with the Help of the Dragon Academy; the egg’s markings did not match anything they had in the Book of Dragons, but we did find a clue to where Steinson may have found it; I had identified the crystals on the egg as being similar to some I saw in the same cave I found my dragon; how my sisters and I searched that cave and found the map to an island near Dragon Island; how we found Annett and brought her back to Berk for care; how Annett helped us pin point the location of the island we are going to; that this island is the same one where Adam rescued me; also the back story of what happened to separate Annett from her two brothers; how Annett is the brother of Adam and Steinson, Annett showed her locket to everyone there; and then lastly I told them mostly about the evidence that has shown that Adam was framed for the kidnapping and the robberies in Berk.

          Most everyone’s reaction was that they did not think that the evidence was valid, considering Hat’s and Meen’s identification of Adam.

          “What are you kidding me?” voiced Cullan.  “You know that Adam cannot be trusted especially that he is Steinson’s brother.  And yet you doubt your friends’ clear identification of Adam being the kidnapper.”

          “I didn’t say I doubted my friends.  All I said was some new evidence has surfaced that actually supports both what Hat and Meen saw and that Adam was framed,” I told him.

          “Well maybe your evidence is wrong, Jarl,” suggested Hattori.  “You might just be trying to find evidence that will defend Adam so that you won’t have to see the man that saved your life punished.”

          “Yes but-,”

          “I know what you are saying all of you,” my mother interrupted.  “But I support what my son is saying.  This new evidence does question Adam’s guilt.  I say this not because Jarl is my son, but that I witnessed and saw the new evidence with my own eyes.  So did Asvord and Elsa.”

          “Oh,” Hat said.

          Cullan then calmed down slightly.

          “Hey even I don’t fully believe this new evidence,” I added.  “I still don’t fully trust the new evidence.  But it does beg the question, ‘Did Adam actually do it, or was it someone else?’.”

          “So what is your plan, Jarl?” asked Ashley.

          “My plan is that before we arrive at this island, we would stop at a nearby island, leave our dragons behind with Annett or my mother, then travel the rest of the way by boat,” I declared.

          “How can we use boats when we are not going to sail there?” inquired Pat.

          “Good question,” I said.  “We will use several small row boats and bring them with us.”

          “We could strap the boats to our Gronckles and use them to transport the boats,” imputed Thoreous.

          “Just what I was thinking,” I replied.

          “But there is a one thing different in my plan than before,” I added.

          “What’s that?” asked Meen.

          “That is we will leave right after we eat the noon meal,” I responded.  “I want to get to this island before Steinson does, so I can be more familiar with the surroundings.”

          Everybody said that would be okay with them.  I also told everybody to get plenty of rest tonight so we can be raring to go tomorrow afternoon.  Also that they should have everything packed in the morning.

          As I was walking out Hiccup pulled me aside and told me that as soon as the Screaming Death is taken care of, Hiccup was going join me at the island and see if I needed any help with anything.

          “Okay, but make sure you deal with that Screaming Death dragon,” I answered.

          “Oh don’t worry I will,” said Hiccup.

          After that, my family and I went home.  We bed down our dragons for the night and then entered our house.  We did not say much because we all felt sleepy.  Before my sisters and I went upstairs, we hugged and said goodnight our mother.

          I woke up as soon as the sun’s rays started peaking through the windows.

          “Really?” I said to myself.  “The one day I need my rest, I wake up early.”

          I tried to go back to sleep but it was no use.  There were still a few hours before the morning meal.  So I quietly walked down stairs and went outside to see my dragon.  It seemed like the sun woke him up too.

          “Want to go out for a ride?” I asked.

          He got up and stood next to me.  I fastened his saddle on him.

          I did not want to wear Fredrick out by flying fast or anything like that, so I t was just a leisurely flight.  We flew all around Berk from the low beaches to the highest points such as Raven Point.  Sine winter was coming the morning was very cool and crisp.  The mornings will start to be like this from now on.

          By the time Fredrick and I got back from our flight, the village was stirring.

          I entered my house to find the girls getting the table set for the meal.  We talked about random things, this and that, one thing then another.

          After we were done eating, my sisters and I started packing for the trip. We packed about the same things: our weapons, some warmer wraps or coats, dragon nip, a few small tools, some rope, and some food for ourselves.

          I packed two extra rounds of arrows with their quivers, and also packed a spare bow.  After that was done, my sisters and I walked around to all of our fellow friends’ houses.  We checked to make sure that they had everything that they needed.  We also checked on Annett to see how she was doing.  Gothi was also there and what I got from her was that either Annett had a clean bill of health or that Phil was a mean, stealth goat.

          Following that we arrived back at our house for the noon meal.  It was exactly noon, for the sun was directly above us.

          The meal was on the light side, but was energy packed: fruits, salad, bread, corn, and some cooked perch.

          We then cleaned up the kitchen and put away the dishes.  We gathered our saddlebags we had packed and went out to our dragons.  Thereafter saddling our dragons, we strapped our saddlebags to our saddles.

          Mother got on Fintan, Asvord on Spiker, Elsa on meatballs, and myself on Fredrick we all than were ready to take off.

          When we met our friends in front of Hiccup’s house, Thoreous informed me that the smallest row boats on Berk could not be carried by a Gronckle.  Bother Metorblast and Meatlug felt uncomfortable fling with the boat strapped to them.  I thanked Thor for finding that out and also Fishlegs for helping out there.

          I talked with Hiccup some before mounting my dragon.  Hiccup and informed me that while practicing battle maneuvers with the Academy riders in preparation for the Screaming Death, Snotlout again disrupted things.

          “He started to gloat how he captured Alvin and started doing, well what Snotlout pretty much has always done: Looking out for number 1, and 1.5,” Hiccup said.  “So I had no choice but to lock up Hookfang and keep Snotlout under suspension.  Snotlout needs to learn how to work with the team.  He doesn’t have to do everything on his own.  We all need to help out.”

          “I hope things will sort themselves out and also I wish you success with the Screaming Death,” I told Hiccup, patting him on the shoulder.

          “Thanks, I wish you success on your trip as well,” he responded.

          After a few minutes of final inspections by all the dragon riders, we set out for Dragon Island.  We would be able to set our bearings better from there to get our goal.  We flew our dragons higher into the sky because we could travel faster in that type of air.  It also did not hurt we had a bit of a tail wind with us.

          None of us said much on our trip.  I did not mind though because we would make better time.  We reached Dragon Island with good time.  It had been about an hour or so of traveling.  We then started our heading in the direction of the island on our map.  This trip however took a little longer.  For one thing there was a slight cross wind and head wind.  But when we finally started to near our goal of the island, I spotted what looked like the island I saw in the map where I wanted to stop and set up a base camp.  We landed on that island and did just that.  It was nearing late afternoon.  This small island had a lot of heavy greenery in the center of it.  I had also seen a cave as we were approaching the island.

          “Get your supplies together.  We will be going over to the island shortly,” I said, dismounting.

          Elsa then squatted down.  “Do you mean short-ly like this?” she asked.

          “No,” I chuckled.  “But you’re getting better at the sibling picking thing.”

          “Well she is learning from the best,” replied Asvord, jumping off Spiker.

          I chuckled again.  “I am going to go fill up my back-up water flask.  I forgot to do that before we left.  I saw a small spring in front of a cave entrance on this island, while we were on approach to the island.  I am going to go find it now."

          Everyone acknowledged.

          “Come on Fredrick,’ I motioned to my dragon.

          I saw the spring following a few minutes of walking.

          As I was kneeling to start filling up the flask, I saw some fresh dragon prints.  They were Skrill prints.  My heart started to beat faster when I saw them.  Fredrick started to growl softly when he saw a shadow fall on over my right shoulder.

          “Wait, don’t use that water!” a voice cried out.

          I whirled around to see a girl standing over the cave entrance.

          “Sorry didn’t mean to startle you, but that is not good drinking water even to taste,” said the girl.

          “What’s wrong with the water?” I asked.

          “There is a bad brown algae growing along the bottom of the spring; this algae blends in so well with the sand bed that it is hard to spot,” she said.

          “Thanks for the warning,” I said appreciatively.

          “You’re welcome.  My name is Cazi, Cazi the conqueror.” Cazi said holding out her hand in greeting.

          “Nice to meet you,” I stated, shaking her hand. “How’d you get that name, if you don’t mind me asking?”

          “No I don’t mind the question,” Cazi replied.  “Follow me.”

          We turned and started to walk around the corner, left of the cave.  My heart skipped a beat or two when I saw what was there.

          “That is the reason I was given the name of Conqueror,” Cazi stated pointing to the thing I was staring at.

          It is a Skrill!