Book 9 - The Mist in the Darkness - Chapter 2: Dreading the Darkness

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The Mist in the Darkness

Chapter 2

Dreading the Darkness

Vixxen's Point of View

         While I thought things would settle down after stopping Einar from conquering the Isles of Izar, now that I am helping Jarl…  There is never a dull moment.

         Jarl tries for a bola throw, but the viking sees it coming and skips as the bola comes in.  The viking turns down a side alley but it is a dead end with a wall extending out from both buildings across the alley.

         Jarl declares, “Where are you going to run now?”

         Instead of slowing down, the man presses on…  And proceeds to vault up the wall and flip over the other side.

         “What the-!” I exclaim.

         Without missing a stride, Jarl continues and fires his grappling hook to the wall, launching himself over the wall.  Now wishing I had taken Jarl up on getting a grappling hook of my own, I wall run on the building to the right, jump back over to the wall, and side hurdle the top edge, falling back to the ground, rolling to recover.

         Looking in front, I see Jarl had managed to tackle the man.  Yet the man is getting up faster than Jarl.  He starts running off to the left.  Reacting fast, I scale the building to my left.  Sprinting across the slightly curved roofs, I run parallel to the thief.

         I had thought he might try to go off into the forest or try for the harbor, but he is going the opposite way.  Playing a hunch, I run ahead of him and stop at a certain alley, several buildings down the line.  Lying low, I watch for the corner of the building.  Seeing I am right, the thief turns the corner.  I drop down on top the thief.

         Still trying to escape, we struggle back and forth.  He tries to throw a punch.  I block, though he still manages to pull out a knife to strike me down.  Reaching for his wrist, I push back.

         Suddenly, Jarl turns the corner and calls out, “Hold it right there!”

         For a moment, the thief’s pressure lessens.  Taking advantage, I abruptly let up on my push back, and guide the knife to the right of my head.  He is caught off guard as the knife buries itself into the dirt.  I roll to the side and we both stand up.

         “Don’t move,” Jarl tells the thief.  “And don’t turn around.

         The thief stops and looks like he noticed something poke him in the back for he puts up his hands.  I come over and subdue him, taking the rope Jarl had to tie the thief’s hands behind his back.

         I turn the man around and Jarl quips, “Had you turned around, you would have gotten a back full of…  Bananas.”
         “What?!” he contends then is perturbed he fell for one of the oldest tricks in the book.

         “I borrowed it from the market we just passed,” Jarl commented.  “Had a feeling you might fall for it, so it was worth a try.”

         Suggesting to Jarl, I say, “I think we should return to the scene of the crime.  Because I think this thief was trying to do that.”

         The thief decided to say, “I’m not saying nothing.”

         “One, you just said something, so you went back on that,” Jarl states.  “Two, actions speak louder than words.  Come on.”

         My hunch was correct.  The alley we are on is heading back directly in front of the house where the guy who yelled he was robbed came from the house’s direction.  Entering the house, we find a very different scene than we were expecting.

         The house is a mess yes, but what is very strange is the very gruff looking viking we had seen before…  Is now sitting in a chair as if he had seen a ghost.  Staring into nothing with dilated eyes.

         “Mister,” Jarl checks on him, gently shaking him.

         No response.  He is fixated on something, but nothing we can tell right now.  When we entered, I also observed the thief’s reaction.  Seems like he was not expecting the mess nor the shape the gruff viking is in.

         For the next several minutes, Jarl went throughout the house and around it to investigate while I watched the thief.

         When Jarl was done, he came back and started to question the thief, “Would you like to tell us what you were trying to steal?”

         “You can’t pin anything on me.”

         “Why would I try to pin anything on you?” Jarl stated.  “We know you were trying to steal something, but if I had to guess, you weren’t expecting this when we returned.  For why else would you try to defend yourself against something we didn’t accuse you of?”

         Informing Jarl, I tell him, “I noticed his resistance to me taking his arm stopped the moment we entered the house.  Glancing at his face while you checked on the homeowner, his expression changed to fear and worry.”

         “Not only that,” Jarl adds.  “These two are working together.  If you look at all points of entrance in the house, nowhere is there forced entry.  However, without questioning his friend, there is no way of knowing if there is anything missing.  On the other hand, I don’t believe this is the homeowner’s house to begin with.”

         I question Jarl, “What makes you say that?  Whoever lives here is not the same size clothes as the old man.  Take the boots next to the front door.  Thinner along the ankle and leg part and the width of the foot is skinnier than what one might consider an average width.  Look at the old gruff man’s boots.  Wide and short.  Even take our new friend here, his boots don’t even match.  Though, why would you steal from your own house?  That wouldn’t make much sense if they were trying to set up a scheme.  There is stealing from yourself to avoid suspicion, but why would the other guy tell us to stop his friend?  Maybe there was something else of value here.”

         I catch on, “Putting all the clues together, the old man was trying to distract us while he searched for something in the house.  This guy we have here was trying to lose us in the streets but didn’t count on me being one step ahead.”

         Jarl interjects, “Just like always.”

         I chuckle, “Yes.  I used to be pretty good at playing hunches and going with my instincts to stay ahead of you guys.  Guess I recovered from losing my way, getting out of that practice of observing what’s around me, not just thinking I could handle it myself.”

         Jarl puts his hand up, “Now, let’s not start that again.  You know what I think on the matter.”

         “Yes, I do.  Guess sometimes we are our own worst critic.”

         The other guy who is tied up, inputs, “Seems like you two have something else to discuss, I’ll just head out.”

         Still having a grip on him, I assure, “Don’t worry.  We will make sure you and Ondott Wengo have a long chat about what happened here.”

         Jarl returns to the old man and tries to ask him about what happened.  He still does not respond.  Gently shaking him a few times and lightly slapping his head, Jarl presses for an answer.

         “Mister.  What happened to you?  Were you attacked?”

         The man manages a whisper, still staring into nothing, “A-  Attacked?”

         “Yes,” Jarl is encouraged at this sign.  “Do you know what attacked you?”

         “A…  A…  Attacked.  It attacked.”

         Jarl echoed, “It?  What was it?”

         His facial expression changed…  Drastically.  His eyes no longer dilated, but his facial expression is now as if he is seeing that ghost right now.  The horror is real and looks like he is wanting to scream but no sound comes out.

         Jarl then ran into the kitchen and came back with a pitcher of water.  He doused the old man’s face with the water.  The old man grabs for his face and leans forward.  Thankfully, it looks like the old man is now aware of what is happening.  Jarl helps him get his bearings and get him up to speed on what is happening.

         “Guess we cannot fool you anymore,” the old man spoke up.  “We were trying to steal something, but we didn’t know what it was.  There was a rumor spreading that some newcomer to the island had in his possession a priceless artifact which could bring in big buyers if sold on the black market.  My associate and I managed to figure out that this was the house.”

         Seeing his accomplice admit to the crime, he came clean, “He’s right.  But when we saw you two coming, I decided to come up with the distraction.  Guess it didn’t work so well.”

         Jarl adds, “It may have not worked well for you, but it did for someone or some… thing else.  What was the last thing you remember?” Jarl asks the old man.

         He looks down and thinks back, “The only thing I remember before seeing you just now is bending down to look at something.  Then nothing.”

         The accomplice asks, “We’re you hit over the head?”

         “No, I feel fine,” the old man states.  “Just feel as though something is missing.  But I may be a bit disoriented after whatever happened.  The state this house is in may be the reason.  It wasn’t like this.  We were trying to leave everything the way it was and leave very little trace we were even here.  Since you two looked like newcomers, we knew we could play it off as if I lived here.  All we wanted was the artifact…  But it looks like someone beat us to it.”

         While they talked, I looked around where the old man pointed to where he was during his last memory of where he was.  Under the living room table, I take note of a small substance dried on the floor.  Unable to tell what it might be, I chip off a sample from the floor and put it into a container to study later.

         Jarl adds, “Probably whatever was responsible for the mess and knocking you out.  You were in some type of subconscious state where you were staring at nothing, your eyes were dilated, and you had finally mumbled, ‘Attacked.  It attacked.’  Then it looked like your subconscious saw whatever it was, and your heart started racing.  Knowing it wasn’t good for a man of your age to have a racing heart, I went and got some cold water out of the well just out the back door, returned, and splashed it on you to wake you up.”

         The old man took a deep breath, “Glad I don’t remember what it is.  I guess I owe you more than what we were trying to do.  We thought we could make some quick dough.”

         “If you want some quick dough, the market opens in the morning.  Looks like they have a good selection of bananas too.  Those are hard to come by, seeing how they are imports from further south,” Jarl tells him.  “Looks like you two are harmless enough, but still, you need to be turned into the authority on this island.  Mr. Wengo needs to hear about this.  Do whatever he says.  If you come clean to him, I’m sure he can take care of the situation.”

         Vixxen guarantees, “While Ondott can be…  Unruly to those trying to cut into his bottom line or cause trouble, he is reasonable.  If you want to make some gold on the side, I’m sure he can find something for you to do.”

         We then return to Ondott and tell him all about what transpired.  By the looks of the tavern, nearly all the vikings had knocked themselves out and the tavern keep was piling the bodies in a corner while he swept up the mess.  Ondott backed me up when I told our two “friends” he would have something for them to do with some extra gold and silver on the side.  Before leaving, the old man introduced himself as Jomar and his friend Glam.

         Finally, being able to return to our dragons without anything else happening.  We mounted and started on our way.

         “Well,” Jarl said after I set our direction back towards the northeast.  “That was sure eventful.  Now, I am intrigued as to what could have caused him to slip into a subconscious level yet have no recollection of what had happened.”

         I suggest, “Could it be hypnosis?”

         “I doubt it,” Jarl counters.  “His eyes would not have been dilatated.  While he had the same symptoms of being hypnotized, I think Jomar was more in shock than anything.  He may have actually seen what attacked him, but the shock of what it was made his mind forget those few moments.  The mind is a mysterious part of the body.  He may remember them later.”

         I add, “If you ask me, it looks like Dreadfall has come early this year.  He looked like he saw a ghost.”

         “While they are often called that, something someone sees at night or when they least expect it, they will blame it on something supernatural.  Whatever it is, it is using fear and horror to hide what it actually is,” Jarl gives his opinion.  “When there is a perfectly good reason behind what it is.”

         “I figured you might say that,” she shakes her head.  “But we once thought of Dragon Mages as a myth.”

         Jarl challenges, “But we found out the truth of that a Dragon Mage was a real thing, just not what anyone really thought it would be.”

         “Well, if we ever meet a ghost, I’ll let you ask the questions then.”

         Jarl laughs then realizes, “Shouldn’t we be heading more to towards the north and west?  The intel says the base is that way.”

         “I know,” I smile.  “But you haven’t been home in several weeks.  You’ve been at this hard trying to get rid of some of the Dragon Hunter cells in the area.  When some of the intel given was only given after we helped those who gave the intel with something, doing all this was more than you were expecting.  You decided to do the most good while we were in the area before we headed back.  I told the crew I would take point on the recon and send you home.  The rally point I gave them is northeast of here.  You can break off now and go home.”

         Jarl sighs, “It has been a while since I have been home.”

         “Jarl, we’ll take care of things,” I pretty much order him to go on.  “I know you know we know how to take care of things.  A good leader knows when to delegate.  I think you should share some of the burden.  You’re not alone in this.”

         He takes a deep breath before saying, “Don’t get into any trouble.”

         “See you later, Jarl.  Tell Annabeth we hope she is doing well.”

         Once Jarl had left, I could not help but think of what he has had to deal with over the last few months.  Sure, he is labeled a legend and was welcomed back to Berk as a hero, but trouble seems to have it out for him after that.

         News travels fast when someone defeats someone else, especially if that someone else was one Einar Verodfellar.  There are ones on both sides of The Dragon War who have something against the result of how the war ended.  Jarl has had to deal with all the choices he made and the consequences which follow, both for the good and the bad.  Some choices he says he wish he could change, others he still stands by.

         When those who are less to be desired for their choice of profession hear about the one viking they all knew about even in the Barbaric Archipelago is now defeated, they up their efforts to take advantage of the situation.  Then there are those who think themselves as better than Einar and get ideas of trying to defeat the person who defeated Einar.  But worst of all, there are those who do not believe someone of Jarl’s skill could defeat Einar.  Still, thinking themselves better, they seek Jarl out to challenge him.  Jarl is fairly well known in many circles around the archipelago, mainly because I started most of them back when, but I heard about his skill and reputation for solving mysteries from someone else.  So, whether Jarl intended to or not, his actions began spreading even then as someone to worry about or try to take out.

         The one thing that deterred others from trying to do anything to him for years is the fact he only focused on solving mysteries.  When Dragon Hunters became more prevalent under Viggo and his brother, others took notice too.  Yet, they were glad Jarl and his crew went after them instead of their own businesses.  They thought, if he would just keep out of their way, they would leave him alone.  But to take out someone they looked at as the gold standard of villainy, everyone takes notice.

         For the last three months, if we ever go to a place not in Berk’s territories or their allies, it is only a matter of time before someone finds out about him.

         Jarl did a great thing in helping his friend defend his home.  But even with the greatest of intentions and the noblest of results, trouble still finds a way.  For as much light as Jarl sheds wherever he goes, darkness does everything it can to overwhelm the light.

         I only hope Jarl can weather the darkness following him and it does not start eating at him, causing him to regret his choices.