On the Edge of Mystery: Chapter 19: Sibylline Secrets

On the Edge of Mystery

Chapter 19

Sibylline Secrets

          We all decided that we might as well go on home.  Most of us had gotten some sleep and our dragons had rested some before the fiasco with Greenie and the Snaptrapper.

          The trip back to Berk took a few hours.  Our dragons did well staying awake, though some of their riders did not… me included. For situations like this, having a dragon whose width is about as tall as you are comes in handy to sleep.  Although “sleep” is not really what I got, I rested more than actually slept.

          Arriving home, we all said, “Goodnight” to the others and went to our respective homes.  My sisters and I bed down our dragons in their stables and walked over to the house.  There is still a lit fire in there, so our parents must still be up.  And sure enough when we walked in, mother rushed over to greet and hug us.

          “I was so worried about you guys,” mother said.  “But I knew you can handle your own out there, yet a mother can’t help but worry some.”

          “We’re all fine,” Asvord replied.

          “Yeah,” I added.  “We are all pretty beat now and…” my mother’s eyes widened when I said “beat”.  Rewording I said, “I mean we are very tired right now and we will tell all of what happened in the morning.”

          Father responded with, “Sounds like a good idea,” and mother, “Looks like you need it too.”

          Giving us hugs and kiss right again, my sisters and I slugged up the stairs, weary from a long, busy, and tiring day and night.  We did not even bother changing our clothes into something more comfortable; we are that tired.  All we really did is take our helmets off and plop into bed.

          This time we all literally plopped and all uttered, “Ow.”

          Soon after that I fell asleep.

          The next day when I woke up, my sisters are not in their beds.  Going down stairs I find they are not there either.  Entering the kitchen, I find no one is there.

          “Strange,” I thought.

          No one is in Dagmar’s room either, but when I went into my parents room… no one was there either.

          “Now this is odd,” I said.

          Since no one is in the house except me, I went outside to look.  As soon as I exited the house I saw my mother sitting on a chair, knitting.

          Mother said, “I think you broke the Mollerson family record.”

          Shutting the door behind me I looked at her and asked, “What did I break?”

          “The Mollerson family record of sleeping into the next day,” she replied.  “Even though you got home late last night, you still broke it.”

          “I did not know we kept track of that sort of thing,” I responded as I stretched out my arms and legs.

          Mother added, “Not really, but it is like an unwritten rule to keep track of just for kicks.  Granted you got home late last night, but other Mollersons have done that from coming home after hunting or fishing or long sailing trips.  The longest time into the next day a Mollerson has slept was just past lunch.”

          Though I just woke up, I calculated, “So if I broke the record that would mean that it is past lunchtime?”

          Mother got up from her chair and answered, “Oh we’re way past that.”

          “Really,” I stated.

          “Yes,” she said as she walked back into the house.

          I followed her in as we she had gone to her workspace to put away her knitting.

          “So…. What time is it now?” I asked.

          Mother turned and said, “Drum roll please…..  Over three hours past lunch.”

          “You’re kidding me!” I exclaimed.

          “Nope,” she returned.  “Three hours past lunch or three hours ‘til supper… depending on how you want to look at it; a mug half full, half empty kind of deal.”

          I retorted, “I would just drink the mug of water while the other two were arguing, ‘I’d say the mug is totally empty.’.”

          Mother chuckled and then asked, “Let me guess, you are not even hungry for something?”

          “How’d you know?” I wondered.

          “Every Mollerson boy or man that sleeps in and wakes up, is nine times out of ten to be not hungry; but when supper time comes, six times out of ten they are very hungry and need a rather large supper,” mother answered.

          “Looking forward to it,” I laughed.  “Where are Asvord and Elsa?”

          “Unlike Mollerson men,” mother said.  “Mollerson women tend to only be able to sleep in until just after lunch.  But on occasion there is the one that can do just like the men in our family.  Seems to skip a generation and be the firstborn girl, as your father isn’t like that but Asvord is.  However, if you were all very tired and went to sleep at the normal time, Elsa could out sleep you both; but only if you got to sleep at the normal time.”

          “Thanks for the family history lesson,” I smiled.

          “You’re welcome,” she said.  “Come here I won’t to show you something.”

          I followed her into the kitchen but she continued to the back door.

          I asked, “Where is it?”

          “Oh, it isn’t in the house,” mother replied.  “It is in the woods.  Come on.”

          Walking out the backdoor I saw that Fintan and Fredrick were all saddled and ready to go.

          Mother added right before we took off, “We all had bets when you would wake up… I won.  Your father and sisters forfeited when it was well past their times.  I knew you were going to wake up soon, right before you actually did, so I went out to saddle our dragons.  All I had to do was then wait for you.”

          We mounted our dragons and I followed mother and Fintan.  We flew towards our family farm, but went to the north of it, and then landed deep in the woods actually close to where The Cove is.

          “So what’s up?” I asked as we dismounted and walked into the forest some.  “Why’d we come all the way out here?”

          “I wanted to be sure we were alone with no one around,” she said.  “I know.”

          I then questioned slowly, “About… what?”

          “Annabeth,” she said simply.

          My eyes widened, as she continued, “How long were you going to take to tell me about her?”

          “I don’t really know,” I said.  “I mean I just found out last night.”

          Mother responded quickly, “You just found out?  Aren’t you a little shocked or surprised?”

          Thinking for a second, “No, not really.  It has been leading that way for about three years now.  It just finally came to be the right moment.”

          “Right moment?” mother started getting a little on the touchy side.  “You just don’t wait for the right moment to tell something like that.”

          I tilted my head back slightly and looked at my mother, “Well I thought it was the right time…”  Pausing for a second I added, “Wait are we talking about the same thing?  What exactly do you know?”

          Mother took a deep breath to calm herself as she replied, “I know that Annabeth is Berserker.”

          I sighed, “Oh okay, it is only that.”

          “Only that?” mother looked curiously.  “What did you think I knew about Annabeth?”

          “Oh, uh,” I said realizing that she was not thinking what I thought she was thinking.

          “Come on now, son,” mother told me.  “Spill your yaknog.”

          “Heh, okay,” I stifled a chuckle at her last remark.  Taking a deep breath I revealed by saying fast and closing my eyes tight, “Annabeth and I kissed last night.”

          Nothing happened.  Opening my left eye first and then the right I saw my mother was just standing there.

          I stated, “Okay, was not expecting, no response.”

          Mother smiled, “Oh sorry.  Just a lot to take in all at once; although, I had my inclinations about you and Annabeth for a while, so that doesn’t surprise me, I guess just the thought of a child of yours telling you of their first kiss, is still a big revelation.”

          “How’d you kn-, oh wait never mind,” I started and stopped.

          She looked at me as if I should know better, “I’m a woman.”

          “And that’s… good?” I said.

          Mother gently slapped me on my left shoulder with her right hand, “You… Anyway… I was talking about Annabeth being a Berserker.”

          Getting serious, I asked, “What did you think when you found out?”

          “I will admit,” she began.  “It was quite a shock to me.  I know she wasn’t born on Berk because she kind of ‘washed up on shore’ or at least you found her on the shores of Berk, but I never imagined she would be Berserkian.”

          Mother began to pace or walk around while she talked, “To answer you next question you are thinking… How’d I find out?  Well when I was talking to Mrs. Olson this morning, Annabeth accidentally bumped into me on her way out the door.  Of course saying, ‘I’m sorry, excuse me.’ I finally asked her about her horn she has on her belt.  I had always wondered about it so I finally wanted to ask the question and also if I could look at it.  Annabeth handed it to me when she said she doesn’t remember much about it.  Just that when she was very little her father gave it to her and her sister.  That’s all she says she remembered.  Seeing she began to remember her family and me remembering what happen, I questioned her no further and told her to have a good day.”

          “As I handed the horn back to her, I finally recognized the insignia symbol on the horn,” mother continued.  “Knowing my Berkian history, I recognized the symbol as the chief’s seal of Berk… Stoick’s chief seal.  I remember long ago a few years before Elsa was born, you and Asvord were just young kids… Anyway… Oswald the Agreeable had a new born baby daughter.  Stoick gave Oswald that horn for his new child when she was still very young.  When a chief’s offspring is born, many gifts from the whole archipelago are sent and brought to celebrate the birth.  So Stoick gave Oswald a horn nearly identical to the one Annabeth has.  As far as I know Stoick only gave Osvald the Agreeable one horn for his one daughter.  Also, Osvald never mentioned having a second daughter-.”

          I interrupted, “Wait, are you saying that Annabeth is the second daughter of Osvald the Agreeable?”

          “Things look that way,” mother added.  “One of the reason I say the horn Annabeth has is nearly identical to the horn Stoick gave to is because the ivory that Annabeth’s horn is made out of is slightly different from the one Stoick gave to Osvald, but there is no mistaking the seal is in fact Stoick’s chief seal.  Even though I recognized the symbol, I let Annabeth go because I didn’t want to question her further as I’m sure she did not want it to get out that she is probably a Berserkian.”  Mother paused as she looked at me, then said, “You look like there is something else.”

          “There is no probably about it,” I stated.  “She -is- a Berserkian.”

          Mother inquired to be sure, “Are you positive?”

          “Very positive,” I assured.

          I recalled and told when Annabeth told me she is a Berserker.  I told my mother about everything from Annabeth’s locket having that one symbol on it to the one girl -Heather- giving her the letter telling the story about a locket having the exact same symbol as Annabeth’s.

          “Hearing what you just said about Osvald’s one daughter and her horn and the story of Annabeth, but stories fit together,” I finished.

          Mother replied, “We know the story of Stoick giving Osvald the one horn is true and if the back story for Annabeth is true, then that would mean that not only is Annabeth a Berserker but also a long, lost daughter of Osvald the Agreeable.”

          “The girl who told Annabeth is a reliable source,” I guaranteed.  “Both stories fit nicely together, but there are still some discrepancies in the evidence to say that Annabeth is a daughter of Osvald… the letter possibly, the horn being a different ivory…”

          Mother looked at me doubtful as we were probably both thinking the same thing.

          Changing the subject, I said, “So what do you think of me and Annabeth?”

          Mother cracked a smile, “I will say I’m still a little surprised, but maybe that it took this long.  Granted when I found out she is a Berserkian, I was very hesitant to even let you be around her… but your father reminded me that if I had not found out about her being a Berserker, I would have allow Annabeth to be herself around you anyway.  When he put it like that, I had to agree.  Yes I was surprised and a little worried she is a Berserkian, but your father also reminded me that Annabeth has been a Berserker this whole time, so Annabeth does not act like any Berserker we’ve ever seen.  So knowing she is one should not change my view about her.”

          Noticing something mother said, “Dad knows too?”

          “I never keep secrets from him, and he doesn’t with me,” she answered.  “Ever since we were reunited, we promised each other from then on we would never keep secrets from each other.”

          “What if it was meant to protect you and keep you safe?” I wondered.

          Mother nodded her head, “There is that and we agreed that would be a rare instance where keeping something a secret would be okay.”

          “What about surprise birthday parties and such?” I grinned.

          She just shook her head now, “Okay.  There are a few cases where keeping a secret is fine.  But you should know to keep secrets from even your own mother is ‘bad for business’.”

          “I would have told you about her being a Berserker, really I would have,” I said.  “But I promised her I wouldn’t tell.  Even if I did not tell her that specifically, I promised myself I wouldn’t tell.  Annabeth is afraid of what other people might think of her being an ‘enemy’ of Berk.  So I wanted to spare her that.”

          “That is very commendable of you, Jarl,” mother responded.  “But you probably already know it will only be a matter of time before all of Berk knows.”

          I agreed, “But this is one of the rare places where keeping it a secret will delay that inevitable time when everybody will know.  The fewer the people know, the further away that time will be.  I know it isn’t very good, but I don’t want even Asvord or Elsa to know.”

          “As much as I don’t like keep things like this secret,” she told me.  “I do agree that sparing her that type of grief is for the best.  If there is a way to avoid it, then we should take that road.”

          I asked as I mounted Fredrick, who was napping, “Was that all you brought me out here for?”

          Mother said, “No, there are a couple more things.” Mother mounted Fintan so the “couple more things” should not take too long to say.  “With you now becoming a sleuth of sleuths on Berk as your father says… I think it is just something that is catchy and can spread… the rest of us can’t help but pick up on a few things you do.”

          More intrigued I wanted more details, “What did you get?”

          “Since you are on another mystery,” she answered.  “I kept in mind what I have heard about the mystery to see if I could pick up any ‘hot’ tips for you.  Because you talked with Annett a few times and Annett possibly being a Dragon Hunter… yes I found out about that too and noticed the same symbol on the one book you did… that blue amulet you found, well the half of it that is, she told me of a legend she had heard of a famous blue amulet that if… this is the legend part… ‘Traded for a seeing eye, Mystery would be fall you and treasures would depart for you.’  Though queue the warnings… ‘If the wait for the edge is too much, something, something beseech the...’ and she stopped.  Annett says she can’t really remember much, mainly because the old geezer tell the legend start saying crazy things that made it like he was making the whole thing up.  But Annett, being curious, came across a blue amulet which she thought to be the same famous blue amulet.”

          “She did not get to keep it long as she was robbed in the night and the thief took a lot of her trading goods to boot.  But she found half of the blue amulet washing up on shore one day as she was fishing for a meal of hers.  So she kept it ever since and added it to her collection of Geodes, Crystals, and Gems,” mother finished up.

          “Thank you mother,” I replied.  “If you find anything else, let me know.”

          With that she flew back to Berk.  Before taking off, I remembered and reached into my tunic pocket.  I grabbed the disc I had recovered in the sunken ship and tossed it in my hand a few times before putting it back and following after my mother.

          A thought kept going through my mind, “Seeing eye… seeing eye… Seeing eye.”