The Clue of the Missing Socks - Chapter 29

Something came up and I couldn't finish my chapter Saturday, so I had to finish it this morning.  So I am posting it the third day of the new week.  Anywho, enjoy my new chapter.

The Clue of the Missing Socks

Chapter 29

          That feeling I had the other night about the weather turning “bad”, I had it again.

          “Ooo,” Jack said shivering.  “Why’d it get cold all of a sudden?”

          “Yeah,” Faith wondered also.  “A minute ago it was rather warm.”

          I replied answering Jack’s question, ‘A cold front is moving through the area; which is not a good thing because of the drastic drop in temperature.”

          “Does this mean a ‘worse than usual’ storm is coming?” asked Repteil as we continued to flying inward on Outcast Island.

          “Yes, I am afraid it does and…,” I was interrupted by two dragon nets that came out of nowhere.

          “Look out!” Faith exclaimed as she and Shira dodged the one net.  Jack barely had enough time to signal his nadder to fire at the net.

          “Guys!  Land now!” I ordered.

          “We gotta take out those catapults,” stated Repteil who got off her dragon and came over to Hook.

          “Just what I had in mind,” I said as I got off Hook.  “They know there are three dragon riders; but they don’t know that I am here. So…,” I continued as I looked over the crest of the hill we took cover from the nets.  I saw Hat, Ash, Thor, and Sapp were “pinned down” in a ravine to the right.  They couldn’t fly off on their dragons because of the nets.  They were also busy with a group of Berserkers as well.

          “So what?” asked Jack.

          “So,” I replied.  “I need you guys to be a decoy so I can locate the catapults.  The catapults are well hidden,” I said as I looked back over the crest, then I asked Jack for some rope.

          “And, when I give a signal I’ll need you guys to fly off, bringing attention to yourselves so I can slip by without being seen.  Jack,” I said looking at him, “I need you to fly over and help Hat and them.  Repteil and Faith,” I said looking at them, “I need you two to do the same as Jack but go find my sisters and the others and help them out.  I figure,” I concluded as I told all three of them, “if Hat and them are pinned down, so are the others.  Once I take out the catapults, you guys should be able to overwhelm the enemy vikings that are engaging our friends.  You guys ready?”

          “Yes!” they all replied as the mounted their dragons.

          “Now once you leave, fly low to stay out of range of the nets because these catapults only have a high arching shot track, so the lower the better.”

          As Jack, Faith, and Repteil waited for my signal, I noticed storm clouds were now starting to roll in and the sun dipped behind one of the clouds.  I did not like how the storm clouds were looking and the directions they were heading.

          “Go!” I signaled.

          A moment after they flew off I saw the nets launched from the catapults.  The origin of the nets came from the center peak on the island.  When I deduced this, I ran around to the base of the center rock formation that the catapults were on and started to think, “How in a blind yak’s mind am I going to get up there?”  Since I have the surprise element as an advantage, I will need to get up to the catapults without being seen.  I noticed from my vantage point that there was a large rock formation from the crest of the hill I ran from.  This formation had several jagged places from where I could go and not be seen.  It also helped it started to get slightly dark because of the storm clouds.

          I circled back and climbed up the rock formations on the hill.  When I got to a higher level than the catapults I suddenly thought of a way to get over.  Since the vikings were too busy paying attention to Hat and them, I decided I would “glide” over there.  I reached for Jack’s rope he gave me, tied one end to one of my arrows from my quiver, and aimed for a tree that was about thirty yards in front of me with a slight decline of about five yards.  When I would get over to the other side, this would put me behind and slightly below the enemy vikings.  I shot my arrow which hit the tree squarely.  I shot the arrow with more draw back of my bow so the arrow would wedge deeper in the tree.  I tied my end of the rope around a small rock formation next to me.  I used one of my two bolas left on my belt and laid the bola across the rope line.  I jumped off the ledge I was standing on and glided across the other side.

           When I was nearing the other side, there was not enough room to jump off, so I had to hit the tree to slow me down.  Wham!  I hit the tree with a glancing blow and landed next to it.

          “Ooo,” I grimaced as I grabbed my left shoulder.  “I am gonna feel that in the morning.”

          I climbed up and saw that there only a few vikings there, so I drew another arrow and called out, “Reach for the sky!”

          The four enemy vikings that were there whirled around to see me.  Hat and Thor saw me do this, so they got on their dragons and flew up to me.  The band of vikings they were fighting, they had just took care of.

          Hat and Thor maneuvered their dragons over the catapults and let their dragons land on the catapults, crushing both of devices to bits.  Now that the four enemy vikings saw that they were captured, they stuck their hands up in surrender.

          “Hey Jarl,” Hat said.

          “What?” I turned to him.

          “Here’s the egg,” he said tossing it to me.

          I caught it and replied, “I am going to go help the others, you guys stay here, take care of these four, and wait for us.”

          I ran off before Hat or Thor could say something different.

          There was a tunnel through the center peak of the island that I used to get to the other side.  I had been running for about five minutes when an Outcast viking yelled, “Stop!” and ran after me.  We ran for another five minutes when I came to a fork in the road.  So I stopped to catch my breath.

          “Oh I haven’t run this much in a while, have you?” I asked the Outcast.

          “Neither have I,” he said also trying to catch his breath.

          “Why don’t you go on ahead, I’ll catch up to you,” I added hoping he would be fooled.

          “Okay, that is very kind of you,” the Outcast said and started to run off.  He took the left fork, so I took the right fork.

          But when I came to a large arena, someone suddenly said, “Look out Jarl!”

          I immediately jumped out of the way.  Just in time too, because a man had jumped down from over the entry gate with a sword.  The sword scrapped the ground.  When the man stood up, I recognized him right away.  It was Steinson!

          And that voice I heard was my sister, Asvord.

          “Nice of you to join us, Jarl,” Steinson voiced.  “I am sorry it is going to be the last time you ever see your sister.”

          “Why is that?” I asked, frightened.

          “Because if you don’t hand over that egg, I will pull this lever and drop your sister and your dragon down a 100 foot drop.”

          “Don’t do it Jarl,” Asvord called out.

          “You know what I am going to do don’t you Steinson.”

          “Yes I do.  Now hand it over.”

          Instead of handing over the egg, I threw the egg at him hitting Steinson in the head; thus knocking him over leaving him dazed.  I picked up the egg, which didn’t have a scratch on it, and rushed over to my sister.  I untied her and my dragon.  “Here take this I said,” giving her the egg.  “Run and take that passage the one I came in and keep going to your left and you’ll find Hat and Thor.  Stay with them.”

          “But what abou…,” Asvord started.

          “No but’s, go!” I ordered shoving her towards the passage where she then ran through it.

          “Are you alright Fredrick?” I asked.

          He replied with a slight rumble sound.

          “You waited too long Jarl,” Steinson said as I turned around to see him pulling the lever.

          The floor dropped out from beneath me and I found myself hurtling through the sky.

Here is the link to my next chapter:  http://forum.schoolofdragons.com/content/clue-missing-socks-chapter-30