On the Edge of Mystery: Chapter 30 - Family Bonds can be Hard

         Dagur continued to laugh for a nearly a minute, then realized I had not responded to him.

         “Um,” Dagur said.  “I just said Annabeth is my sister, yet you don’t reply?”

         Without giving me a chance to answer, Hari stated, “Oh, he probably is still speechless about what he just found out.”

         “Yeah, your probably right,” Dagur said, shrugging it off.  Dagur then grabbed Annabeth by the shoulders and spoke to her, “You two probably have a lot of catching up to do.”

         Hari ordered the vikings restraining me to escort Annabeth and I back to the Loft.  Dagur and Hari walked off in the opposite direction, I am assuming to start their meeting Hari was talking about.  The two vikings had both of my arms, Annabeth was just walking in front of me.  A couple of minutes later we arrived, Annabeth opened the door, the two vikings shoved me in, Annabeth walked in, and the door was shut behind us.  Sounds of the door being latched and locked came to my ears.  I rushed over to the door I first came in.  Trying it, I found this door to be locked too.  I stood back from the door, but did not turn around.  Silence filled the room; only faint noises from the outside were heard.

         I took a breath and said, slowly turning around, “So-…… You’re Dagur’s sister.”

         For a second, I thought she was not going to answer me, but then she did, in a soft voice, “Yeah.”

         When I first rushed into this room, all I concentrated on was getting out with Annabeth.  Now in the room, I noticed a bed, desk, dresser, and mirror; they are not in the best of condition, yet still good enough to use for what they are intended.  The room looks like it was made for Annabeth to stay in.

         I walked over and asked Annabeth if I could sit on the bed.  She nodded her head.  In a leaning and sitting position, I sat on her bed with my feet on the floor.

         “It must have been a shock to find that out,” I stated.  “Finding out Dagur is a part of your family is bad.  I would rather find out I am related to the Thorstons than find out I was related to Dagur.”

         Annabeth did not answer me.  After a minute or two, she still did not answer me.  I reached out my right hand to touch Annabeth’s left hand, which she had on top of her right hand with both hands on her lap.  As I touched Annabeth’s hand, her hand flinched slightly; the kind of flinch when you know something is coming, but you flinch anyway.  I pulled back a little, but then gently laid my right hand on her left hand.  Her hand is on the edge of trembling, but one could not tell just by looking at the hand.  Not saying a word, I softly rubbed her hand with my thumb.  Within a few minutes, the trembling subsided to nothing

         Once I felt it was the right time, I asked Annabeth, “What’s the matter?”

         “I’m the sister of Dagur the Deranged,” Annabeth spoke just above a whisper.

         When I did not answer, Annabeth then repeated, louder, “I am related to Dagur!”

         “Yes, so-,”

         “So,” she interrupted me.  “Aren’t you the least bit angry with me?”

         “Why would I be angry with you?” I question.  “If there is anybody I would be angry at it would be Hari and then Dagur.”

         “I know, but first you find my family isn’t really my family.  Then, you find out I’m not only not from Berk, but a Berserker,” Annabeth said upset.  “Now you find out I am related to Dagur.  How can you not be angry?”

         I asked a different question, “What is the real reason why you think I would be angry with you?”

         Annabeth sighed, let go of my hand, stood up, taking a few steps away from me, “I guess this is what I have been trying to say without saying it… I have been helping Dagur and Hari with their scavenging, among other things.”

         Okay, this is now the thing that has surprised me the most today.  Finding out Annabeth is Dagur’s sister is not a complete shock; it is still shocking to a point, but if someone is a Berserker it is not too much of a stretch to say and find out they are related to Dagur in some way.  But finding there is something more… actually helping?  I can kind of see helping Dagur, but Hari?

         I hesitatingly asked, “What have you been helping them in?”

         She tilted her head slightly to the left to talk to me, but still did not turn around; Annabeth simply stated, “Dragon Trapping with Dagur and Scavenging as well as raiding ships.”

         “You’ve only been-,” I began.

         “Dagur and Hari have been making me work around the clock,” Annabeth replied.

         I walked over to Annabeth, grabbing her shoulders, and turning her around to look her in the eyes, “There has to be another reason.  You… you would not just do any of what they are making you do without reason.”

         When Annabeth did not answer me right away, “So there is another reason?”

         She still did not answer me, “I know you would not do this on purpose.  What is the reason?” I continued to press for an answer, she looked like she could not answer though.  “It could not be Anora, she is fine… as far as I know… Star Scream was with you when you got kidnapped, so I assume he has been your dragon since then…”

         “Wait, what’s happened to Anora?” Annabeth quickly asked.

         Briefly explaining how I and the others got this far, using Anora to track Hari; Annabeth seemed both relieved and worried at the same time.  She was probably thinking Hari and Dagur may capture her, but I told her they would have said something about it; not to mention Anora was still on the other island last time I saw her.

         “Annabeth,” I told her.  “There is something else.  What is it?”

         The look on her face is that of wanting to tell me but something kept her from doing so.  I started getting a feeling she could not tell me.  Because she was originally kidnapped and… Sirena was involved… Maybe Sirena is being held and used against Annabeth.  If Annabeth does not do what they say…

         “I think I understand now, Annabeth,” I declared. 

         “I don’t think you do,” Annabeth countered, shaking her head, and became upset.  “I have done things I wish I had not.  Even if I had no choice because of…  I don’t deserve to be a Berkian.  I’m a Berserker now, enemy of Berk, sister of Dagur the Deranged, leader of the Berserker Armada.  I… I have betrayed Berk, betrayed my… former… family.  I have betrayed you.”

         She closed her eyes as a tear ran down the right side of her cheek.  I felt deeply for her.  Walking over to her I began to hug her.  At first she tried to push me away.  I will not let go.  Within a few seconds she stopped resisting me and hugged me back.  She nearly fell limp.  I do not know if I know the magnitude of how much they have worked her, she feels exhausted.

         “Annabeth,” I said, holding her around the waist with my left arm but using my right hand, making somewhat of a fist, I lifted up Annabeth’s chin.  “Look at me,” she opened her eyes, watery from crying.  “You… have not betrayed me.  So you are not from Berk… So you are not a Berkian but a Berserker… So you are the sister of Dagur the Deranged…  You-,” I said pointing at her heart.  “You are a viking.  Okay, if you have done something you wish you hadn’t, you can always make the choice right now to use it for good: Be our mole in the ground.  You have probably learned a great deal of what Hari and Dagur have been doing.  We could use that now to take them down.”

         “You are a viking.  You are Annabeth Everdeen.  You may think you are not a Berkian, but we know you are whether you like it or not,” I continued, as Annabeth chuckled slightly.  “When you were kidnapped, the first thing I wanted to do when I woke up from my injury was find you.  It took my sisters to restrain me from getting up at first.  I had to rest.  Plus, plan for the attack, so it worked out.  I did not really know what I had until it was taken away from me.  The way I felt is something I hope to never feel like again, Annabeth.”

         “I know if you could have escaped, you probably would have; and the things they made you do by using Sirena against you were wrong but you were thinking of your dragon and not yourself… putting others first,” I now looked into Annabeth’s eyes.  “I did not know for sure how I felt, until you were taken away from me.”  Pausing for a brief moment, I said, “I lo-.”

         Suddenly from outside there came a noise of some crates being knocked over.

         “What was tha-?” I began to question.

         “Oh no!” Annabeth replied as she rushed over to the door I first came in.  “The guard was listening.  Now they know I know.  They didn’t know I knew before because I acted unknowingly knowing that I knew they had Sirena.  If I would forget about Sirena, they would not harm her.  But the more I tried to escape or talked about Sirena, the more they threatened to hurt her.  At… At one point they started to before I finally agreed to help Hari and Dagur.”

         Putting two and two together, I deducted, “And now that they know you actually know now, they will do something to Sirena.  I should have seen this move coming.  My capture just did not seem right for some reason.  But now we are going to escape and stop them.”

         As I turned to look around the room, Annabeth grabbed my left arm with her left hand, reaching across her body to stop me, “Jarl, they want you to escape.  I overhead them last night talking.  They intentionally did things to lead you here to this island.  They want you to escape now, take me with you, rescue the others if they were captured, then capture all of us while we tried to escape on our dragons, and then capture our dragons and give them to Dagur to sell to his superiors.”

         “In other words they are expecting me to breakout,” I spoke.  “So we don’t escape?”

         “We have to stop them from hurting Sirena,” Annabeth reminded.

         “Yes, so we escape?” I changed.

         “But they have that planned out too and are expecting you to get me out of here,” Annabeth reminded again.

         “Okay,” I decided.  “They are expecting me to escape.  But are they expecting me to escape even though I know they expecting me too?  But if we stay here, that will not do any good.  So we will escape.  But does Hari think I will escape by sneaking or by brute force?  Since I am all about stealth, we’ll go by brute force.  On the other hand, that could be exactly what he’s counting on.  But if we go back to going by stealth, Hari would think I would try to counter what he would expect me to do.  But, wouldn’t the most unexpected thing to do right now is the expected?”
         Annabeth was about to say something, but looked like she changed her mind and replied, “You lost me, but I did get we are escaping?”

         “Yes,” I answered.

         “It isn’t like we can burst through the walls and escape,” Annabeth said.

         “Why not?” I returned.

         “What are we going to use, Jarl?” Annabeth questioned.  “Use your head.”

         “I will,” I responded as I ran over to the wall.

         “No don’t!” she quickly answered.

         “Oh,” I assured.  “I didn’t mean literally.”

         I ran my hands across the wall to feel the stones, more importantly in between them to see if they used some type of plaster to seal around the stones.  The builders did.  This whole fortress seems several tens if not hundreds of years old.  Digging my fingers into the plaster at first proved unfruitful.  I did not stop there.

Taking my bow off my belt, I thought, “Man they really wanted me to escape.  Not taking my weapons away from me, is a clear indication.  However, I am still committing escaping, whether or not they are expecting me or not.”

         I used the point of one of my bow ends and dug out around the one stone.  It got to the point where I could see daylight practically all the way around the stone.  After putting my bow back on my belt, we prepared to shove the stone.  All of a sudden, Annabeth and I heard blasts and viking yells outside.  She and I just looked at each other and feared the worse.  We started pushing, shoving, and kicking at the stone to push it out of the way.

         “Wait,” I said stopping and grabbed Annabeth’s arm.

         “What?” she asked.

         “Listen,” I held up my hand.

         For a second I did not hear anything.  Annabeth was about to call me on it when I think we both heard it too:  A distant sound of screeching.  The screeching noise continually got louder and louder.  Then I heard a very familiar sound.

         “Get down!” I exclaimed as I pulled Annabeth back from the wall and shielded her by laying on top of her.

         The familiar sound escalated quickly, after I heard, it to the point Annabeth said, “Is something going to explode?”

         “Yes,” I replied.

         Annabeth sort of jumped when I said that, but…

         CRASH, BAM!

         The side of the wall caved in, while a few stones fell down below the loft.

         As I turned around I just smiled; Annabeth stood up, dusting herself off, and said, “What in the world was that?”

         “Fredrick!” I replied.  “When I heard that blast sound, I knew it was you.”

         “Fredrick?” echoed Annabeth.  “Who is that?”

         Annabeth pointed to the figure riding Fredrick backwards.

         I called out to Throst as I helped Annabeth over the stone rubble, “Throst, I think you are facing the wrong way.”

         “You’re telling me,” answered Throst.  “How do you even steer this thing?”

         “I don’t think you needed to steer Fredrick,” I stated.  “He found me.”

         “Who’s she?” asked Throst, as I turned Throst around and then helped Annabeth get on; Fredrick continued to hover in mid-air.

         “Annabeth, Throst.  Throst, Annabeth,” I stated.  “No time to ‘splain and more time escaping.  So let’s went!”

         Lastly, I pulled myself up on my Dragon and turned him around.  What we all saw was utter chaos.  Hari’s men fighting Dagur’s men!

         “Wha happen?” I asked.

         Throst quickly explained, “Hari tried to double cross Dagur.  Dagur found out.  No one double crosses Dagur the Deranged and gets away with it.”

         Annabeth then questioned as I guided Fredrick into the air, “How did you get here, Throst?”

         “After coming with your friends, I stayed behind with their dragons,” Throst said.  “But once another dragon arrived and seemed to tell the other dragons something was wrong; I was merely a passenger.  The dragons took off, even while I was trying to stop them.  Jarl’s Thunderdrum bulled me over, yet flipped me up on top of him like Fredrick wanted me to come with him.”

         “Who was the other dragon?” Annabeth asked further.

         “That one,” Throst pointed out the other dragon flying to us, but not before taking out a lookout tower with a fire blast.

         “Anora!” exclaimed Annabeth with a cheerful tone I have not heard in a while, especially what Annabeth and I just talked about.