Fan-Fic Fridays: "On the Edge of Mystery" Chapter 8: An Eye and a Symbol

On the Edge of Mystery

Chapter 8

An Eye and a Symbol

          “I didn’t want to go all the way to Gothi’s,” Adam spoke as my whole family ran out the door; Dagmar had been awakened by Adam’s knock, and so she came too.  “I feared it would take too long going there and coming back.  So as I had found my sister and checked her over as best I could, I saw that you guys must have gotten back because I saw your fireplace was lit.  So I came over as soon as I saw the light.”

          Adam was about ready to take the normal path around to their house.  But since time is of the essence, I led them a different way.  We had run down the rest of the way past the row of houses my family’s house is and came to the part where Adam wanted to take.  My family’s house is on one of the middle, shall we say, “house floors” of Berk.  The Thorvald’s house is on the lowest “floor”, not including the docks.

          We came to edge and I explained while showing them at the same time, “Jump onto of the house….. Slide off the roof….. and round the bend.”

          Everybody else followed suit.  Once on this lower level, we went to the right, under the one walkway bridge, ran across the waterfall bridge, rounded the corner, and entered the Thorvald’s house.

          “She’s in her room,” Adam pointed upstairs.  “Vemund is with her.”

          Father and mother told me and my sisters to wait down here.  Father and mother have said they have studied medicine off and on throughout their lives and especially on their travels abroad; because out on the sea one might have to do several different jobs such as Healer, Sheriff, and Protector.  Mother has studied it more under Gothi, so she knows a little bit more than father, but they are both pretty good.

          My sisters, Dagmar, and I are tired because we were getting ready to sleep, even more so after running, but we were in no mood to sleep now.

          After sitting on some chairs and staring at random things while waiting; staring at things mainly to keep awake, even though I did not feel like going to sleep. The others finally came downstairs with the news.

          Asvord was the first to say, “How is she?”

          “She will be fine,” mother responded.  “All she needs is rest.”

          “I can rest after I tell you guys what happened,” came Annett from behind; Vemund is helping her down the stairs and to chair to sit down.  Annett needed a minute before starting.

          Asvord questioned, “By what you saw, what happened to Annett?”

          Father answered, “She does have bumps and bruises and cuts, but I can say this: She was not attacked.  How was she when she first came to the house, besides the obvious?”

          Adam came from behind as he was the last to come downstairs, “Vemund was already at the house, I was just about ready to come in the door when I saw Annett coming in from the side.  She slumped against the side of the house as I rushed to help her into the house.  I told Vemund to take care of her while I went and got you.  Seeing your family return from your quest, I knew I could come to you right away and request your help.  Like I said before, it would have taken too long to get Gothi as Annett needed immediate assistance.  I ran to get you and we came back.”

          Knowing that Annett was alright, I started to get up and walk over to what I had been staring at the whole time: Annett’s blue amulet.  Pebbles must have been laying nearby, as he also got up when I got up and walked over with me.  I studied what she had on her desk.  Jewels jumped on the desk and sat, wanting me to pet her.

          Pebbles is Adam’s cat Annett gave him before he left their home island, because of what happened with Vemund.  Pebbles is what I believe to be a Calico color, by what my mom says on the color markings for cats.  Pebbles has orange eyes and the markings of black of the other two Calico colors, browns and tans and of course white, look like “pebbles” laying on him, hence why Adam called him that.  Jewels is Annett’s cat, which is much older than Pebbles.  Jewels is all gray with rich, deep, blue eyes; also why Annett named her Jewels.  Pebbles came from Jewels’ litter.  Even though young in age, Pebbles is bigger than Jewels.  Pebbles must have had big paws as a kitten; mother says this is a sign for animals like these that they are going to be big when full grown adults.

          Since it was so late at night, my mind could not process much at the same time.  So between thinking and studying Annett’s desk, I only got bits and parts of what Annett said when she explained what had happened to her.

          While Annett talked and I petted Jewels, noticed something peculiar.  Jewels rubbed on some of Annett’s books, on her desk, which were leaned up against the corner of the wall.  No, that is not what I thought was peculiar, it is the symbol on one of the book’s binding.  It was a blue book and the symbol on the binding reminded me of something.  Something I had recently seen, but my tired brain just could not remember.  So I logged it away while I looked in the book.  Reading a few excerpts out of the book, I realized the book is a diary.  A diary of the Thorvald’s time on their home island before that whole thing happened with Vemund turning to the dark side and Adam being banished from the Thorvalds’ main island.  The rest of that story is already known.

          I was going to ask her about the diary later, but first I wanted to ask her about the blue amulet.  Stepping back from the desk, I still studied the amulet.  The natural beauty of the gem is mesmerizing to look at.  Each time you tilt it, the light sparkles and shines off of it.

          Annett finished her story.  So piecing together what I heard, this is what happened in-a-nutshell:  Annett goes fishing.  Annett is done fishing.  Annett hears what sounds like a cry for help.  Investigating the noise, it leads her inside a cave.  Searching for a few minutes, suddenly thunder can be heard.  Cave-in imminent, Annett tries to escape, but trips, falls, hits her head, and she is out cold.  She awoke to find it night outside as she could tell she was close to the cave’s entrance.  Thankfully, some of the support beams of the cave had stopped the cave-in from coming down completely on her legs.  Annett was able to pry herself from under the beam, which had landed on her, and escaped.  Once out from under the beam, the rest of the cave-in caved in.  Annett worked her way back to Berk before Adam found her at their house.

          There was a short pause, after Annett was done, someone was probably about to say, “Goodnight,” or something, but I asked, “What’s this?”

          Annett stood up, though with help from her brother Adam, walked over to the stairs, I met her over there, and she said, “Oh that.  The blue amulet holds quite an adventure under, the sparkles that it shines.  But it is getting quite late for any of us to be up, so I’ll tell you tomorrow.”

          I chuckled, “Now you got me thinking about what the adventure might be.”

          “That’s why I said it,” Annett smiled.

          Though I chuckled at her remark, it went away rather quickly at how Annett was walking.  She must have really injured herself or she is very sore.

          My family and I all said, “Goodnight,” to the Thorvalds and wished Annett to be feeling better and heal soon.

          As we started back to our house, I declared, “I’m so tired right now, I could probably run home, get in bed, and still fall asleep.”

          Asvord, Elsa, and I were in front of father, mother, and Dagmar.  I glanced over at Asvord and Elsa on my left, they glanced back at me.  We stared… and then bolted off towards the house.  We told our parents and Dagmar, “Goodnight,” before we took off.

          If this was earlier in the night or in the day, I would have gotten a little more creative in how I got back to our house.  I am too tired and sleepy to boot.  Asvord won the footrace back to the house, Elsa got second, and me third.  I probably would have said some witty remark, but the only thing on my mind is: SLEEP.

          Going up stairs, taking off my tunic, I fell into bed.  I probably went right to sleep the moment my head hit the pillow… which is probably because the hit knocked me unconscious; though being as sleepy as I was, probably helped matters.

          The last thing I remember is Asvord saying, “I would do tha-.”

          She was probably thinking of the previous times I did the same thing.

          The next morning started like most any other morning.  Got up, got my normal attire for the day: Yellow-gold sleeveless shirt with belt, brown-gold pants, my normal brown bracers though still with a Tidal Class symbol on them, and my brown boots.  I ate breakfast with the rest of the family.  Father went to go check on the farm and feed the animals, mother and Dagmar cleaned up the house some before starting on some sewing, Asvord and Elsa came with me when I went off to work at Gobber’s shop.  We took our dragons with us, though Spiker and Meatballs would roam around some and play with each other or Meatballs would find a rock or stone good for munching.  Fredrick… well he just napped the entire time.  I wanted to do the same, but he does this even when he is well rested!

          Though the one thing that is on all our minds:  Are the Academy riders okay?

          The only thing I could do, so time would pass, was work.  Work on the catapults, repair the one I had broke, and also a few others that were more mechanical problems.

          My work was off to the eastside next to the shop in which Gobber is working.  Asvord and Elsa just sat on some crates outside the shop and watched me work.  Being the sisters that they are, tried to give me some advice on how to fix some of the catapults, “Who is the one that has the job and was put in charge of fixing these catapults?”  Though one case, Asvord told me not to do something, I did not heed her warning as “I knew what I was doing”, yet the hammer brushed the edge of the nail and hit left thumb.

          “I told you not to hold the nail like that,” Asvord stated.  “You weren’t doing that before?”

          “I’ve asked around Berk why men have the most accidents, and I couldn’t find an answer,” I said.  “Now I know why.”

          I smirked at my sister… she just stuck her tongue out at me.

          I then stated as I stood up to take a breath, though still trying to shake the pain out of my thumb, “It is now nearly lunch and the Aca-.”

          Elsa then hopped down and pointed up in the sky, “Look!  Here they come now.”

          Asvord remarked to me and knocked on the back of my head, “Lunch is several hours off.  The clock in your noggin’ is just off because you haven’t had a lot of sleep.”

          I turned and saw them coming, yet Hiccup was not with them.

          They landed in front of Gobber’s shop and dismounted.

          “I’m glad you kids are all right,” Gobber said coming out of his shop; my sisters and I came from this side of the shop to meet them.

          “Me too,” I replied.  “I gathered up a posse the moment I spoke to Trader Johann that there were Giant Eels at The Ship Graveyard.  Obviously we did not make it there in time to warn you about the eels because the Trader forgot another important detail again.”

          “Tell me about,” Snotlout interjected.

          I continued, “We made it to a ship graveyard, but I really don’t think it was ‘The’ Ship Graveyard.”

          Elsa asked the burning question to Astrid, “So what happened?”

          Before she started, Snotlout chimed in, “Why does everybody ask Astrid about everything when Hiccup isn’t around?  Why don’t they come to me?  Shouldn’t they know of the brave warrior that I am?”

          Snotlout struck a pose, but Astrid brought his head “out of the clouds” by replying, “Because if they asked you, they would get the exaggerated truth.”

          “Yeah,” added Ruffnut.  “If everybody asked you what we were up to, then nobody would ever get the truth.”

          Snotlout just crossed his arms and mutter some things under his breath.

          “And if everybody asked you two,” Astrid pointed at the Twins.  “They wouldn’t even get the exaggerated truth.  You guys don’t even remember what you did five minutes ago let alone what happened last night.  At least Fishlegs would at least give you the facts, though sometimes too many.”

          “What?!” Tuffnut said as if in shock.  “Huh, I know when I’ve been insulted!  I know when I’ve-,” Ruffnut gave him a shove.  “When ‘we’ have been insulted… wait.  What were we talking about?”

          Astrid rolled her eyes and recalled the events that happened.  Astrid said they were searching the ships when they reached The Graveyard for the thing Trader Johann had hidden and the thing Dagur is after.  Hiccup and Toothless searched on The Reaper.  Astrid mentioned that the graveyard my family and friends went to last night is probably a few hours closer to Berk as the actual trip to The Ship Graveyard took them a few hours short of daybreak.  Astrid said they searched the ships for anything, but only had jewels and gold and treasure… which Dagur ended up with.

          “The Giant Eels scared off our dragons,” Astrid continued.  “So we were left stranded on the one ship while Hiccup went on Toothless to search The Reaper.  Unfortunately while Hiccup had been gone for nearly an hour, Dagur had snuck in unnoticed, and got the drop on the rest of us.  Without our dragons, we were defenseless and were overwhelmed and captured.  Then Dagur took us over to The Reaper to wait for Hiccup.  No one told him where to look, Dagur just figured it out.  When Hiccup came up out of The Reaper, Dagur greeted him and took the treasure Trader Johann must have been talking about.  Dagur had all of us locked inside a green-metal cage, that by all dragon standards with Toothless being the best, the cage is dragon-shot-proof.”

          My sister gasped, and Astrid finished the story, “Dagur retreated with the treasure in hand.  Hiccup stopped to try and get us out of the cage, but we told him to go get that thing.  Again, Dagur, one step ahead of us, fired a catapult rock at Hiccup; but, Dagur was aiming for The Reaper.  The impact of the rock cause the ship to start sinking and tilting up.  The Giant Eels didn’t help matters either; they started pulling the ship down.  Dagur made Hiccup choose, and of course Hiccup came back for us.  This is when we found out that no matter how many times Toothless fired at the cage, the blasts from Toothless didn’t even leave a scratch.  We called out to our dragons, and they finally came back.  The eels started to attack, but our dragons rescued us.  Once we were safe, Hiccup went after Dagur, while we came back here.  Hiccup, for all intensive purposes, should be right behind us.”

          While Astrid talked to Gobber about what the cages looked like and Fishlegs what they could be made out of, I could not help think about the similarities between their situation and what happened to my party last night.

          I thought to myself, “If the graveyard we visited last night was not ‘The’ Ship Graveyard, which encountering no eels is also an indicator to support that, then why in the whole archepelogo would the Berserkers send a small portion of the fleet to converge and find this treasure?  What so important in this ship graveyard?  Why send a fleet there to find a treasure Dagur knew to be somewhere else?”

          As I was finishing my thoughts, Hiccup did arrive back on Berk… with the treasure in hand.  It looks like a cylindrical device; something I for sure have never seen.

          Not more than a minute after Hiccup got back, did Annabeth fly over to meet us.  Hiccup had already gone into the shop to show Gobber the device.

          Annebeth dismounted, but looked worried, “What’s wrong?” I inquired.

          “It’s Sirena,” Annabeth said.  “She has disappeared.”

          “What?!” Elsa remarked.

          I questioned, “When did this happen?”

          “Well,” Annabeth answered.  “She actually disappeared a few weeks ago.  But she often did so because she is so free spirited, plus I took your advice because she is a free dragon, although I have been raising her and feeding her.  Sirena often went away for a few days or a few weeks, but she would always come back to the certain places I kept for her, off Berk, that I fed her.”

          “Why tell us now?” asked Asvord.  “Maybe she is just on an extended trip.”

          Annabeth nodded, “That is what I thought first for these last few weeks.  But when I checked back today at one of her certain spots, I knew right then something is wrong.  I had checked yesterday too, so when I checked today as well, I saw new tracks, dragon footprints that were not there before and have never been there before.  So I worry that another dragon is involved and Sirena is possibly in danger.”

          I then stated, “Well then we will go and see.  Hiccup will probably want Gobber to help with opening the new mysterious device and I’m about done with my work here anyway, so I’ll tell him I’m stopping for the day and we can go.”

          When I walked back into the shop, Gobber was trying to “open” the device.  I told Hiccup, I was glad to see, but needed to talk to him when I got back.  He said thanks and would do so.  While walking back to the other side of the shop, I over head Hiccup call the device the “Dragon Eye.”

          “Hmm, catchy name,” I thought.  “The name that you would remember, even if you forgot it.”

          That did not make any sense, but made me remember something I did forget.

          “Wait,” I thought again, while my sisters and I followed Annabeth to the southwest.  “That symbol on the side of Annett’s diary… it is the exact same symbol one those ships in that ship graveyard we went to!  Are the Thorvalds connected to those people… or… or even the Dragon Eye?”