Fan-Fic Fridays: The Secret Symbol - Chapter 8: The Shockers Just Keep Coming

         Being shocked as we are, we did not even think to help the man up.  As Adam started to stand, we awakened to help him up.  Clearly dazed, Adam started to ask where he was.

         “Why does my head hurt?” Adam questioned as he rubbed his head and grimaced.

         Cazi immediately interrogated him, “Why were you running away from us?  What were you doing under that house?”

         “Ow,” replied Adam.  “One question at a time.”

         After giving him a minute, Adam replied, “Wait, what?  Where did you say, I was?”

         At first thinking a Thorvald is caught up in something again, but the hope I had that he was not is starting to surface; I slightly raised my hand to Cazi who was going to call him on his previous statement, but I said instead, “Adam, what is the last thing you remember?”

         Thinking on it, he responded, “Well, I remember being at the yak races with Dagmar.  Starting to walk home… and…”

         Annabeth echoed, “And what?”

         “And that is the last thing I remember,” stated Adam.

         With a change of tone, Cazi said quietly, “I think we need to find a different place to figure this out.  The news about this is going to spread like wildfire.”

         “I agree.  Let’s go back to the one house,” I said then telling everybody to go back to their business.  On the way, back to the burned house, I said, “None of you might not get this, unless you heard the stories, but I think any news like this will spread as fast as Hiccup having ‘this way with the beasts.’”

         Annabeth and Cazi acknowledged they did hear of this, Annabeth continued, “From what I have heard you have to be careful about saying even the simplest of things around the other vikings of Berk.  In a very short time, a mountain will be made out of a mole hill.”

         Cazi quipped, “Depending on the time they have to stew over the news, they could make a mountain out of an ant hill.”

         We all laughed, even Adam.  He seemed to be recuperated from his wallop he took from the tail of Sparklebolt.  I believe there is more to this development than meets the eye.

         One might ask, “Why take him back to the burned house you came from?”

         “Well I am glad you asked that,” I would reply.  “Because this might trigger some memory on Adam’s part, if not shed some light on the development overall.”

         As soon as we arrived at the house, we entered and showed Adam around as well as explaining to him what happened.  He assured to us that he does not remember doing anything like that.  If he were conscious of it, he would have stopped it before it had even started.

         We walked outside and Adam sat on a bench.

         “You have to believe me, guys,” Adam nearly pleaded.  “I did not set the house on fire, I do not remember running away from you guys, I do not remember any of that.”

         I am a little cautious in saying this, but I still believe it, “Adam, I believe.  I believe we all believe you.”

         “Then how did this happen?” asked Cazi.

         “I have my suspicions,” I answered.  “As I have seen something like this before.”

         “Like what?” Adam wanted to know right away.

         “Hypnotism,” I plainly stated.

         Annabeth echoed, “Hypo-what?”

         “Hypnotism,” I repeated.  “It is where you can make someone do something without the person knowing they are doing it.”

         Cazi held up her right two fingers, “Two words.  Thor Bonecrusher.  Technically that is three words, but unless you hyphenate Bonecrusher, it should be one word.”

         Annabeth nodded her head.

         “How do you know so much about this?” wondered Adam.

         “My dad can do it,” I said.  “And I came up, close, and personal with my mom and had a fight with her.”

         “What?” asked Adam.

         “Long story,” I replied.

         Adam started to go through his pockets, locking for something, then he pulled out of the inside pocket of his yak hide vest some rocks.

         “What are those?” wondered Cazi.

         “I am not sure,” said Adam.  “I am getting very confused.  I am finding stuff in my pockets I have never seen before.  I have burned wood dust on my hands.”

         “Do you mind if I keep these?” I asked.

         “Sure,” Adam responded as he stood up.  “I know you guys believe me, at least for the most part, but for the life of me I cannot remember beyond walking Dagmar back home from the yak ra…  Dagmar!”

         Annabeth, Cazi, and I said together, “What?”

         “I don’t know what happened to Dagmar,” Adam frantically said.  “Maybe something happened to her just as it did to me.”

         Adam started to walk, but still grimaced at the pain he had in his head.

         “I am sorry, Adam,” Cazi apologized.  “I did know I hit you that hard.”

         Adam shook his head, “It isn’t that.  I don’t think I fell down all that hard, really.  I mean I don’t have a knot on the back of my head.  It has to be something else.”

         Annabeth put her hands up in front of Adam too as he tried to walk again, “Well then you are in no position to help us find Dagmar.  As much as I can understand you going after the person you love, something might happen to you on the way that would slow down the search.”

         “You are right,” Adam said.  “But please find her.  She should be somewhere between here and the yak races.”

         “Thanks,” I declared.  “You take care of yourself.”

         Adam started off towards his house while Cazi, Annabeth, and I started off towards the forest.

         Cazi asked me, “You don’t have Fredrick.”

         “As much as I may regret not getting Fredrick,” I replied.  “We should not lose any time.”

         Cazi smiled, “Well, I know who you are doubling with.  Come on Sparklebolt!”

         Doubling with Annabeth on Anora, we all flew in the direction of the forest.  The yak races are usually held near the farm lands, so we started there.  The yak races have been done for a few hours, so there is only the vikings tending to their yaks.

         “Where should we start?” Annabeth asked, with a hint of worry.

         “We kind of are, right now,” I replied, I then called out from the back of Anora.  “Hey Sven?”

         “What?” he returned.

         “Have you seen, Dagmar?” I questioned.

         “Who- oh,” He replied.  “I saw her walking north with someone.”

         “Someone?” I repeated.  “What do you mean?”

         “She was with Adam at the time,” Sven replied.

         The girls and I looked at each other.  The seriousness of the situation started to mount.  We flew out towards the north in hopes of finding Dagmar.  Almost hoping that we would not find her, that she would be back in Berk, we kept going.  After a few minutes, we picked up a trail of something.  It looks like two sets of footprints.

         We are flying along, getting close to the northern cliffside, when suddenly out of the blue, Changewing acid flew in from our left to our right.  Taking evasive action, we landed and turned around to see the biggest shock in a long time.

         “Long time no see, Jarl,” came a voice who I unfortunately recognized.

         “Koll Valgardson,” I declared.

         “I’m sorry, Jarl,” said Dagmar.  “He got the drop on me and Adam.  He did something to-.”

         “Enough talking,” demanded Koll.  “Since I wasn’t able to escape without you finding us…”

         Dagmar interrupted him, “Oh come on, Koll, you know you wanted Jarl, really anybody, to find you.  You used me and Adam as an excuse to keep you back.”

         Koll ignored her, “Okay, this is how it is going to go.  I am going to leave with Dagmar.  You three are going to stay behind.  We all go home happy.”

         Cazi countered, “Except Dagmar doesn’t want to go with you.”

         “Well, that is beside the point,” declared Koll.

         Koll started to mount his Changewing and then flew off with Dagmar.

         Cazi then told me, “We aren’t going to let that guy get away with this?  Are we?”

         “Do we have a choice?” asked Annabeth.

         I did not wait to answer either of their questions.  I just ran… ran towards Koll’s Changewing who is still just hovering over the land going towards the cliff.  The girls did not announce I am going after Koll and in doing so alert him; Dagmar looked back and did the same.

         With hardly any fear, I leapt onto the Changewing, grabbed Dagmar by the shoulders, and with her assisting me, I helped her jump off the dragon.  Koll turned around and saw me.

         “Hi,” I said… then giving him a right cross.

         Now that I have made myself known, the Changewing barrel rolled, completely knocking me off the dragon.  Guess at what moment?  At the same exact moment, the Changewing flew over the side of the cliff.  I fell off the dragon.

         Thankfully, the dragon was flying close enough to the ground that I rolled off, stretched out my right hand, and grabbed the edge of the cliff.  My body flung off the side, but my grip saved me from falling all the way.

         “This mystery just got interesting,” I said.  “Now I wish I had something else to save me from falling off a cliff.”

         All of the girls rushed to my aid, but I had already pulled myself back up.

         “Don’t worry about me,” I replied.  “Go after the guy.”

         With that, Cazi and Annabeth ran to their dragons while they ran forward; and then in stride with their dragons, both Cazi and Annabeth mounted their dragons.

         Watching them fly off, Dagmar said, “Thank you for that.  Are you alright?”

         “You are welcome,” I replied.  “Yeah, just wish I could have stayed on that Changewing to get Koll off.”

         Dagmar pointed out, “Well, at least you got a punch off.”

         “True,” I nodded.

         “You going to go follow them?” Dagmar asked.

         “I wasn’t at first, thinking I would not be able to track them,” I answered.  “But if you could watch where they go, I could run home and get Fredrick and be back.  I would dragon call him, but Fredrick is in our stables.”

         Running back to my house, I could not help but think, “How did Koll escape?  And what is he doing here?  There has to be something I am missing or just have not seen yet.”