The Clue of the Missing Socks - Chapter 39

I could have got it done last night, but fell asleep.  But I made time today to work on it.

I hope you enjoy this chapter and please feel free to leave any type of comments below.

Also, I will soon give you guys a preview of my second book.

The Clue of the Missing Socks

Chapter 39

          “Where is the egg?” I asked quickly.

          “It is right here,” Elsa said showing it to me.

          “Oh good,” I said with a sigh of relief as I took the egg and set it on the table.

          “Why would the grounders go?” queried my mother.

          “I don’t know,” started Elsa as she and Asvord went to the other side of the table and sat down.  “As I was telling our friends about your meeting tonight, I went by our house.  I saw that our front door was wide open, so I walked in to investigate.  I look all over the house and nothing felt out of place.  Until I stopped myself before I exited the kitchen.  You know how the Grapple Grounder we took home with us would always stay in the spot we made for him?”

          “Yeah,” I replied, as did a couple others.

          “Well he wasn’t there when I looked back,” finished Elsa.

          “That is weird,” I said, trying to think why they would leave.

          “But you said ‘both’ Grapple Grounders left, what happened to the one.  I thought Repteil had Fire,” mother said.

          “She did,” Asvord told her mother.  “After I had come from Explod’s house, I went to Repteil’s house.  But she met me before I got there.  Repteil told me that she had been playing with Fire out behind her house.  She then went back in her house to get a perch fish for a treat.  But when she came back to Fire, she saw that the other Grapple Ground had come to Fire and persuaded Fire to fly away with him.”

          I then asked why Asvord used the word “persuaded” instead of some other word.

          “I was about ready to get to that,” continued Asvord.  “When Repteil told me what happen, she said that Fire didn’t look like he wanted to go.  He kept looking back at Repteil who was standing at her back door.  However the other grounder grabbed Fire with his paws and flew away with him.”

          “That is interesting,” stated Annett.

          “We must have gotten through to Fire with Repteil, because when I saw the Grapple Grounders with Steinson they both followed all of his commands,” added Asvord.

          “I bet that is where they’re going,” I stated.

          “Where?” Annett wondered.

          “Back to Steinson,” I replied.  “Because for one thing they did obey him every time he gave a command when I first met Steinson face to face on Outcast Island; maybe when we meet Steinson we can use Fire to our advantage.”

          “That is a thought,” said Asvord.

          After that I was done with the both maps.  I folded the one I had from Asvord up and put it in my pocket.  I told Annett that the meeting will be held here at the Great Hall after supper.

          “Speaking of which,” mother said.  “I need to go get started.  I will see you this evening Annett”

          My sisters and I also bid Annett goodbye, until tonight.  We followed our mother out the door and got on our dragons and flew back to our house.

          “Hey mother, you’re getting to be a very good dragon rider,” commented Asvord as we entered our house.

          “Why thank you,” mother said as she went straight into kitchen and started to prepare supper.

          Asvord and Elsa then told me that everyone is supposed to come tonight for the meeting.  My sisters asked me what it was going to be about.  I told them mainly about my strategy on how we are going to beat Steinson, how we might go about finding this cave that is suppose to help in clues in the mysteries of a Night Fury, and with Hiccup there what we might expect from that island.

          Mother came in and said that the fish that she was frying would be done in about fifteen or twenty minutes.

          “In the meantime, Asvord could you turn them we they need to be,” asked mother.  “I need to get some things done with my sewing if I am going to the meeting tonight.”

          “Sure thing,” replied Asvord.

          “Oh and Elsa could you get the fruit and the table set please?” asked mother again.

          “Sure,” said Elsa.

          I decided to go out and feed our dragons for the night.

          When I went out to our barn, Fredrick was waiting for me.  He was standing by our salmon barrel.  Salmon is his favorite fish.  I gave my dragon his serving of salmon, Spiker her Halibut, Meatballs his well meatballs and some rocks that Elsa had collected for him, and mother told me that Fintan loves brown trout.  So I gave him his share for the meal.

          After that was completed I decided to go take a walk.  I did not have any place in particular I wanted to go, I just felt I needed some alone time to clear my thoughts.  Lately I have been doing a lot of things to solve this mystery.  I decided to go over in my mind what had happened so far and the connections that I have seen.

          Suddenly I heard a noise close by.  I had been so deep in thought, I found myself next to the new armory that had been built.  I heard the noise again.  Then out of nowhere a man jumped out from a shadow and knocked me off my feet.

          “What in the world?” I mumbled.  “Watch where you are going buster,” I yelled back.

          I then looked in the armory and was startled to see what I was looking at.  There was a full moon out so I was not mistaken.  It was Fire, one of the Grapple Grounders!  In his mouth was a shield.  But then I heard noise coming from behind me.  I whirled around just in time to duck under the butt end of a hammer handle coming at me.  Fire had jumped back scared and frightened.

          “Hey stop that man,” someone yelled.

          I thought, “What again?!”

          I ran out and saw a viking point towards another viking running away, this viking was the same one that ran into me just a few moments before.

          So I ran after him.  He had a large lead, but as it was getting darker outside the moon was already out and shinning bright.  Even though with the moon out, I still could not make out the face of the viking who was running away.  One other thing, there were not many Berk villagers out and about because they were all eating.

          This chase seemed almost an exact duplicate of the one I did a while back, because we were heading in the general direction of the docks.  However this time would be different, because I have my dragon.  I slowed down a bit going past my house and did Fredrick’s thunderdrum call.  No more than a few seconds had elapsed when he flew over my house and flew next to me. I hopped on; though there was no saddle on him.

          I looked back at whom I was pursuing and I guessed right.  He did turn down the path to go down to the docks.  So I guided Fredrick immediately over my house and down to the harbor, and then slowed Fredrick to a glide.  I had position us behind the corner to the left and back of the path down to the docks.  It was a lot darker down here because the all the rock formations around blocking the light of the moon.

          I perched on top of Fredrick, reading myself to leap at the viking.  It looked like the man thought he had lost me so he picked up the pace down the path.  He had one more turn to make before he got down to the bottom.

          Here was my chance.  As soon as the man turned the corner and started to run down the pier, I urged Fredrick on and then I jumped off Fredrick and tackled the viking.

          We wrestled a little bit, and then the scrum rolled into the light of a torch that was lit on a post nearby.  I was able to pin the man’s arms behind him.  I then heard a voice come from the man I was on, “Don’t hit me, Jarl.”

          “I’ll do wha-,” I started.  “Wait.  How do you know my name?” I said turning over the man.

          The man held up his hands in surrender and whispered, “I wanted to make sure it was you before anyone else caught me.”

          I could not believe my eyes.

          Guess who it was.

          It was Adam Thorvald!