The Clue of the Missing Socks - Chapters 12 and 13

The Clue of the Missing Socks.

Chapter 12

          “A cat?!  What is a cat?” Ruffnut said as bent down to look at Pebbles.

          Adam replied, “Pebbles, which is his name, I guess personality wise is kinda like a Terrible Terror and a Gronckle put together.  But, cats have fur which can be short or long with varying color types and patterns.”

          Tuffnut got down on his knees to look at Pebbles.  He started to grab for Pebbles when Pebbles lashed out at him with his paws.  Pebbles batted Tuffnut’s face several times.

          “Ahh!  Why’d he do that?!” Tuffnut shouted out.

          “It was because you tried to grab for him when you two just met.  You have to let him become friends with you,” Adam said.  “Though, it looks as if Pebbles knew you didn’t mean to do that on purpose because there are no scratch marks on your face.  Cats do have claws.”

          “That is nice to know.  A new kind of animal I can use to beat up my sister,” decided Tuffnut.

          “What?!” exclaimed Ruffnut.  “I was thinking the same for you!”

          “Oh yeah?!!”

          “Yeah!”

          Ruffnut and Tuffnut jumped at each other as they started to fight over who will get to be scratched by Pebbles.  The two of them started rolling on the ground hitting each other.

          “What are the two of them doing?” Adam asked.  “Don’t you think you should…”

          “Don’t worry about them.  They will be fine,” Astrid said. “They do that on a daily bases.  They never seriously hurt themselves.”  As Astrid was talking you could hear Ruff and Tuff arguing who would get to be the first to be dismantled by the fierce cat.  Clanging of helmets could also be heard.  Adam was not really sure what to think of Ruff and Tuff, he would occasionally look over at them.

          “But back to your cat Pebbles,” Astrid continued. “How could a cat that small survive this far north?”

          “This cat breed has a thick coat of fur that keeps them nice and warm, even in some of the coldest of conditions,” said Adam.

          “Interesting,” Astrid said.  “Pebbles makes me want to have a cat of my own.”

          “Pshstt, I wouldn’t want to have one of those small dinky little animals around,” voiced Snotlout.  “Hookfang and I would never have one of those things around.  They would just get in the way of my warriorness abilities.”

          Snotlout kept going on about why he would be caught dead with owning a cat, but thing funny thing was that Hookfang was really enthralled with Pebbles.  Pebbles started to roll on the ground going back and forth from his left side to his right side.  Hookfang looked like he didn’t know want to do.

          “Hookfang!” yelled Snotlout.  “What do you think you are doing?!!”

          Hookfang didn’t pay a bit of attention to him.  He stared to do exactly what Pebbles was doing.

          “Hookfang!” Snotlout said between his teeth.  He ran and pushed Hookfang’s horns pinning them to the ground.  That got his attention, fast.

          “So, anyway, how did the battle go on after I was knocked out?” I asked as we decided to go to my house.

          “We won the battle,” said Hiccup.  “But when you pushed my father out of Dagur’s arrow, I didn’t know where you were.  I would have gone after you but there were some Outcasts on Alvin’s ships that started to fire and I had to run for cover.”

          “We saw that Hiccup was pinned down behind some large stones on the beach so we circled back towards the top to let Jarl’s sisters off before we started to attack Alvin’s ships.  I told the twins to give Hiccup some cover fire so Toothless could get to Hiccup,” Astrid added.

          “Toothless didn’t wait for the cover fire though, he ran after me.”  Toothless, who was walking between me and Hiccup, nodded and snorted to tell that he wouldn’t have waited.  Hiccup continued, “We engaged the ships that had remained.  We were surprised by four other ships that had come around the other side so we had to head for cover.  I picked up my dad and we flew to the top of the cliff.  Alvin got away because he used those ships for cover fire for him to be able to get away.  And even the ‘cover fire’ ships got away too because they kept firing as they sailed off with Alvin’s ship.”

          “Stoick wouldn’t let us go after you because he may have captured you and did not want to risk him hurting you,” Asvord said.  “Also, if Alvin did not return to Dagur’s Armada he would lay siege to Berk.  Stoick did not want to risk that or the fact that Alvin might mistake the rescue as an attempt in trying to follow him.”

          “So we had to wait until the next morning because it was dusk.  We would not be able to spot hardly anything during the night,” said Elsa.

          “As soon as the sun started to rise, all of us and a few of your friends helped us to try and locate you Jarl.  I paired us off with a partner to fly off in varying directions from Berk to search any and every island they found,” said Hiccup.  “We searched for two days without any clues to finding you.  The third day we could send out any search parties because of a severe thunder storm.  But on the fourth day, Astrid and I had flown to Dragon Island.  I highly doubted you were there so we flew off towards the east.  There were some unexplored islands that way.  Astrid searched the first island we came to, while I continued onward.  Toothless and I had been heading in a northwestern direction when Toothless acted like he saw something.  I told him to take me to him.”

          “And that is when you found me and Adam?” I concluded.

          “Yes.  And the rest we know,” said Hiccup.  We had just arrived at my house when Hiccup had finished.

          Hiccup said that he would meet me at the feast tonight because there were some jobs that he and the Academy riders needed to attend too.

          “We do?” Snotlout asked.  Astrid shoved her elbow into his chest.

          Snotlout then said with a hoarse voice, “Oh.  Ooohh yes, that,”

          When I walked into my house I saw all of my closest friends were there to welcome me back.  Ashley, Hattori, Sapphire, Meen, and Navaro were all there.  They all were extremely glad I was safe.  They also wanted me to recount the things that had happened while I was gone.

          I told them about how Adam had saved my live from the Outcasts, Adam told them about himself, I told them what happened during and after the storm that wrecked the mast on Adam’s boat, and also Pebbles.

          “He is a lovely cat Adam,” my mom said.

          “During my travels of the seas, I met a trader that had a couple of cats as mousers on his ships.  One of the cats had kittens.  He was trying to get the kittens a nice home because he had enough cats for his ship and had no time to care for them.  He offered me Pebbles who was the only one left.  In a trade, the man wanted some old silver bracers I was wearing.  I gladly traded them for Pebbles.  Pebbles and I have been together ever since,” said Adam.

          Ashley said, “He is beautiful,” as Adam was holding him so everybody could see him.

          “He looks as if he doesn’t like being called ‘beautiful’, Ashley.” Hattori said.

          “Well,” Adam replied, “Every time someone says that, it seems like Pebbles knows when they say it and acts like, ‘I am not beautiful, I am just… good looking.’”  Everyone laughed

          “It should be about time celebration feast of the man who saved a chief’s life,” Sapphire said as she stood up.  “A person who saves the chief of Berk shouldn’t keep the people waiting.”

          “Come on guys, let’s go,” said Meen.

          “You people go on I want to make sure uh, Pebbles is bed done for the night,” said Adam.  I noticed an odd tone in his voice

          “Okay, see you there Adam,” said Navaro.

Chapter 13

          I was enjoying the meal they had prepared for me.  Grilled yak among other things, along with some yak-milk that was leftover from last Snoggletog.  “Oddly enough that stuff never gets old.  In fact I think yak-milk was old to begin with,” I said out loud.  I looked around to see if Astrid was nearby.  I saw she was not, so I breathed a sigh of relief.

          I did forget to mention that I am an excellent archer.  Well the night and the feast were coming to a close, people started to go home.  After a while it was just me, my sisters, my friends and Hiccup.  The rest of the Academy riders had gone home.  I was still sitting at the table where I had first sat down that evening when my friends came over.

          Hiccup presented me with a gift.  Hiccup said, “Your mother had told me that you are a skilled archer.  So in my appreciation of what you did for my father, I would like to give you this.”

          It was a bow.  He also brought me a holder with several arrows in it.  Hiccup said he made them for me this afternoon.

          “Why thank you Hiccup,” I said.  “This is a wonderful gift, but I was just doing what…”

          Hiccup interrupted, “I know, and I thank you for it.”

          “Why are you still here, Jarl?” asked Navaro.  “Everyone has gone home.”

          “I don’t know.”

          “I know that look,” said Asvord.  “You are either contemplating whether you want drink your yak-milk or you are worried about something.”

          I chuckled, “It is just that I am still a little uneasy about Adam.”

          “How so?” asked Ashley.  “I mean he just saved your life.  Why would you feel uneasy

about him?”

          “I guess I feel that there is something different about him,” said I.

          “Well if you mean something different as in we just met him, he is not from around here, and he has a cat.  I think these would classify him as being something different about the man,” said Meen.

          “Ha.  I guess I mean there is something that I feel he is hiding?”

          “Like what for instance?” said Hattori.

          “Back before we left to come to the feast, he said he had to make sure Pebbles is bed down for the night and said he would come up to the Great Hall later,” I said.

          “Maybe something came up that he couldn’t make it.  And, well we all would bed-down our pets for the night,” stated Sapphire.

          “I mean the way he talked.  It were trying to think up an idea because he all of the sudden didn’t want to go or had something he just remembered he had to do,” I replied.

          “Though it might be that you are just tired and are not thinking straight or you are just jumping to conclusions,” expressed Elsa.  “I think he is the most handsome man I have ever met.”

          “I think your right little sis,” I uttered.

          “That he is the most handsome man you have ever met?” declared Meen.

          “No-wa,” I said.  “You know what I was implying.”

          “No.  What were you implying?” retorted Meen.

          “Oh!  I surrender Meen,” I said.  “Come on, let’s all go home and get to bed.

          We all laughed as we walked out of the Great Hall.  Since Hiccup was with us, we stopped by his house because his was the first house.

          “Goodnight Hiccup,” we all said to Hiccup as he walked up to his house.  Toothless was right behind him.

          Just than a viking ran past us, pushing us out of the way to get Hiccup’s house.   He then open the door, walked in and said, “Stoick!”

          “What’s the matter Spitelout?” asked Stoick.

          “There has been another robbery.”

          “What?” everybody seemed to say whether with their mouth or with their facial expression.

          “Alright, where?” said Stoick.

          “The armory.”

          “Okay, let’s go.”

          We turned around to watch them walk out to the armory, when I saw a pillar of smoke in the air.

          “Guys look!” Navaro exclaimed.  “There is a fire!”

          Stoick looked up and said, “You kids come with us!  You will be needed in a fire brigade!”

Here is the link to my next chapters:  http://forum.schoolofdragons.com/content/clue-missing-socks-chapters-14-15-and-16