The Clue of the Missing Socks - Chapters 21 and 22

I thought I would start the week off with two chapters of my fan-fic.  I am revealing a couple of major plot lines in chapter 22.  I hope you enjoy it and please comment what you think of my story so far.

The Clue of the Missing Socks

Chapter 21

          I stood there in amazement as to what I was seeing.  I never expected Steinson to be the viking laying there.  I thought for a moment that Adam struck him because Steinson’s head was slightly bleeding and also since Adam had the sword still in his hand.

          “Hiccup, get some water,” I ordered.

          Hiccup got it while I got a clean cloth to wipe the blood away.  When Hiccup came back with some water, I poured it on Steinson’s face.

          Steinson came to and said, “Where am I?”

          “You are in Jarl Moller’s house,” said Hiccup.

          “Ooo.  My head hurts,” Steinson said as he grabbed his forehead.

          I asked him, “Do you remember anything before you blacked out?”

          Before he could say anything, the rest of my family returned.  My mother saw Steinson and immediately started to tend to him.  She told him to sit in on a chair.  She took the cloth and the water and started to wipe away the blood.

          “I was about to tell your boy and Hiccup that I came here for a package I was suppose to pick up,” Steinson said.

          “Oh yes,” my mother remembered.  “Asvord could you go get it for me?”

          “Sure,” my sister replied.

          Steinson continued, “The last thing I remember knocking to see if you were home.  Next thing I know something hit me and I must have been knocked unconscious.”

          Hiccup and I looked at each other.  We were probably thinking the same thing, Adam’s story and Steinson’s story do not match.  Still, Steinson was knocked out.  You do not remember things as well if you get hit hard enough.

          Asvord came back with the package.

          “Thank you, dear,” my mother said.

          “Your welcome,” Asvord replied.

          “Here are your socks Vemund,” my mother said as she handed the package to Steinson.

          “Thank you,” he replied.

          I was surprised to hear he had lost some socks too.  “How come you need socks?  Did something steal them?”

          “Yeah,” Steinson answered.  “The trolls Gobber is talking about probably stole them.”  Steinson then got up, bid us a good night, and said goodbye.  He walked back towards his house.

          I stood there thinking about what just transpired when my mother interrupted with, “You should be getting off to bed, young man.  Do you know how late it is?”

          “That is good idea,” I said as started to walk towards the stairs.  I looked back and by sisters just standing back.  “Come on you two girls, you are up just as late as I am.”

          “As you wish your royal nastiness,” Asvord said as she bowed.

          “Your wish is.. well.. not as you wish,” Elsa said trying to pick on me too.

          Asvord and I both looked at her.  “Good try, you will learn the art of sibling picking,” I said patting her on the shoulder.

          I then said good night to Adam and my mother.  “Wait, I haven’t gotten a hug yet,” my mother stated.

          “Oh!” my sisters and I said.  We ran and hugged our mother at the same time.

          “Oh my goodness,” she said.  “Goodnight my children.”

          “Goodnight mother,” my sisters and I replied.

          As we walked up to bed, Asvord and I got into a poking fight.

          “Ooo, stop that tickles,” I said trying to make her stop.

          “Oh it does, does it?” Asvord replied as she cracked her knuckles.

          “Why’d I open my big mouth,” I exclaimed as she “attacked” me.

          That went on for about five minutes until Asvord decided to stop because she didn’t want Adam to think we were uncivilized, I mean because we are vikings.

          “Vikings cannot be uncivilized,” Asvord said rhetorically.

          It had been about a half hour and I still could not go to sleep.  Elsa passed out as soon as she put her head on her pillow.  Her bed was in the corner, followed by Asvord’s in the middle, and then my bed in the opposite corner of Elsa’s.

          Asvord had turned over to my side and she saw that I was still awake.

          “Jarl,” she whispered, “What are you thinking about?”  Asvord is the worst whisperer because it most times sounds… like a startled yak… but anyway, she could always tell what I was thinking.

          “You are thinking about Steinson and Adam,” she continued.

          “How’d you know what I was thinking,” I whispered back.

          “Well I am a woman aren’t I?” she replied.

          “That is debatable,” I teased.  “I was just thinking about what Adam and Steinson said happened when they met each other tonight.  Adam said he tried to defend himself when Steinson rushed him, but Steinson said someone hit him as he was entering our house.”

          “Still you have to remember that Steinson can’t remember exactly what happened, so something else could have transpired after his last recollection,” said Asvord.

          There is no worry about waking up the others, Elsa is a sound sleeper, and my mother’s bedrooms is on the other side of the house along with the guest room where Adam is sleeping.  A Thunderdrum could not even wake up Elsa; though if you were able to catch a Whispering Death, you might be able to start getting her up.

          There was a long pause before Asvord said something, “I just thought of something.”

          “What?” I said.

          “Trolls only steal your lefts socks, right?” she asked me.

          “Yes.”

          “I saw mother making the socks.  They were not left, but actually rights.”

          “That is interesting,” I said trying to ponder why Steinson would say it was a troll.

          We continued to talk about other things such as what we were going to do tomorrow and what else we could train our dragons to do.  I started to yawn as well as Asvord, so we decided to go to sleep.

Chapter 22

          BANG, BANG, BANG!  BANG, BANG, BANG!  I suddenly woke up in the middle of the night to hear loud knocking on our front door.  I jumped out of bed only to stub my toe on my helmet.  And man that hurts just as much as hearing my Uncle Bob attempt to sing.  I calling out in pain then woke Asvord up.  I hopped up and down holding my foot I stubbed. 

          “What is wrong and who is out the door,” Asvord said.  There was still banging on our door.

          “I don’t know yet but we should find out,” I said as I was still in pain.

          “Okay.  Let’s go find out who it is,” Asvord said as she too jumped out of bed.  When I stubbed my toe on my helmet, the helmet got pushed in front of Asvord’s bed.  Guess what happened next.  She stumbled over my helmet, falling forward, knocking both of us to the floor.  This sent us rolling back towards our bookshelf, which in turn decided to throw some books down on us.  Guess what Elsa did.  She didn’t even move a muscle.

          By the time Asvord and I came down stairs, my mother had already let in who was at the door.  I was surprised to see who it was.  It was Cullan , Pat, Hattori, and Navaro.  Cullan was holding up Hat because it appeared at first glance that he was injured badly.  They all looked like they had been in a fight.

          “What happened?  Are you guys alright?” I asked as I hurried to them.  My mother rushed to the kitchen to get bandages and some water.

          “They’re kidnapped!  All.. of….. them,” Hat struggled to say.

          “They overpowered us by catching us by surprise,” Navaro said as she slumped into a chair.  All four of them looked extremely worn out.  My mother had then come back with the bandages.

          “They.. got… Ashley…..  Must go.. rescue them,” Hat said as he tried to get back up.

          “No,” my mother ordered.  “You must stay here while I fix you up to rescue them.

          “They came at us from all sides, our dragons were of no use there were knocked out.  Also,” said Cullan as he was rambling on trying to figure out what happened.

          “Calm down,” I said.  “Now start at the beginning.”  Asvord then came in with some yak milk for all of our friends.

          “The Flightmare is back.”

          “What??” my family said in shock.

          “Yes, and the vikings who rushed seemed to have train it somewhat,” said Pat.

          “Seriously?  A trained Flightmare??” Asvord said in bewilderment.

          “It seem as if it was train, because when the strange vikings rushed us we had to start fighting them,” recounted Cullan.

          “I saw a man point at the Flightmare and then our dragons.  It fired at them instantly freezing them stiff.  Our dragons had no time to react, because the Flightmare and those vikings came out nowhere,” Navaro added.

          “We all picked up our weapons to defend ourselves, but they were no match for us; there was too many of them,” continued Cullan.

          “Who is kidnapped?” asked Asvord hastly.

          “Everybody else that was with us,” replied Cullan.  “We must go now and rescue them no matter what it takes,” Cullan said as he grabbed his sword and headed to the door.

          “Wait Cullan,” I said blocking his path.

          “Get out of my way; I have to go save them!”

          “My feelings exactly, we just need to know what we are up against,” I said still holding Cullan back.  “Hey you are bleeding.”

          “Oh it is just a scratch,” Cullan said as he reluctantly went back to his chair.

          “For one thing Cullan, we wouldn’t be able to pick up their trail until sunrise at least,” that seem to slightly calm him down.  “Cullan, you are really bleeding.  We need to stop it.”

          “I am fine,” he said.

          “Asvord we need some more bandages, could you get them please,”

          “Sure,” she replied.

          “There are no more in the kitchen.  You will have to get them out of the medicine trove in Adam’s room,” my mother said as she continued to clean Hattori’s wounds.  They were nothing to serious, just looked to me mainly like he had several scratches along with a many bruises.

          “Is there anything else?” I asked.

          Hattori was starting to come around when Asvord came back.

          “Jarl,” Hat started slowly.  “I am afraid I saw Adam with those vikings.  I saw him take Ashley and Tory.  I must go after them,” Hat tried to get up again, but my mother stopped him.

          “Guys!” exclaimed Asvord.  “Adam is missing and I saw a Berserker symbol in this note saying, ‘We have your friends.  Come to Outcast Island with your Grapple Grounder, or you will never see your friends again.”

          My mother gasped and then fainted.

          “Mother!” I yelled.

          I rushed over to the bench where she was at and revived her.

          “It can’t be, it just can’t be!” she sounded off.

          “What is wrong mother?” Asvord asked.

          “Are you sure the note said a Grapple Grounder?”

          “Yes mother,” my sister said.

          “What is so special about a Grapple Grounder?  I never heard of it,” replied Pat.

          “Asvord, Jarl,… A Grapple Grounder was one of the dragons that attacked your father and his crew of his ship the day your father died.”

Here is the link to my next chapter:  http://forum.schoolofdragons.com/content/clue-missing-socks-chapter-23