Fan-Fic Fridays: The Secret Symbol - Chapter 19: A Furious Night

         The unknown factor of this island is bigger than any other feeling I have felt before.  We are literally taking a step in the dark.  We have no idea where to look, however, we have some hints of what to look for.  With every step we took, we took cautiously.  Staying together as a group, we moved forward with our dragons close by.

         One might think the air would be still, being on such an island as this, but the air felt very similar to that of Mystery.  Granted much cooler because we are so far north and it is night time, but not cold.

         Everyone is on edge and ready for anything.  There came a rustling in some bushes nearby.  We all became startled only to find out it was just a rabbit.  Taking a sigh of relief, we looked at each other.

         “I think we are little too tense, right now,” I said.  “Whatever this island can throw at us, we can handle.”

         “Sure, we can,” Cazi confidently stated.

         With a more relax but still alerted feel about us, we continued on.

         In about a mile from the shore stood to be what looked like a village of some sort – or what is left of one.

         Hiccup turned to the group and said, not in a hushed tone yet still a quiet one, “We need to search these buildings, but we also need to stay together.  Pair up and go searching for anything Night Fury related or anything related to the symbols on the Dragon Eye from the Eye itself or from your guys’ lenses.”

         Annabeth paired up with Dawn, Angie and Ali, Garth, and Cazi, and then Hiccup and I.

         As the pairs went in different directions, Hiccup also stated, “If you find anything come out to the middle and we’ll meet you out there.  If you are in any danger, have both of your dragons fire a shot in the air.  The rest of us will come as soon as we can.”

         Hiccup and I, along with Toothless and Fredrick, walked over to a large building to our right.  There is a town square much like ours back on Berk, but obviously from a complete different clan and old civilization.

         Hiccup was about to walk right in when I grabbed his left shoulder.

         “What?” he asked.

         “Mysterious island, mysterious buildings, mysterious unknowns,” I answered.  “Always to be safe than sorry, sometimes.”

         Using the top point of my bow, I pushed the door in.  I expected nothing and got just that.  Peaking in, I also saw nothing.  I looked at Hiccup and just shrugged my shoulders.

         By the light of Toothless’ plasma we began to search the building.  We took nearly ten minutes searching the place and found nothing as well.

         Just before we were both about to leave, I stubbed my toe, “Son of a motherless yak!”  When I say stubbed, I mean stubbed.

         “Are you okay?” Hiccup asked, smiling a bit at my remark.  “The yaks are always with you.”

         “That, and I am clumsy, at times, like one,” I added.

         “What did you stub your toe on?” Hiccup questioned.

         “Search me,” I responded.

         “I’d rather search the floor,” Hiccup grinned.  “I don’t think you would have it on you.”

         “Ah, the young learner has made funny de joke,” I quipped.

         “There is a lot more I could do that might surprise you,” he added.

         We both bent down to look for what I tripped on.  Hiccup waved Toothless to come over for better light.  As Toothless came over his plasma light shown over something that made both me and Hiccup look at each other with the realization of finding what we came for, or at least the start.  I stubbed my toe on the edge of a table leg, it is what is under the table on the floor that got our attention.  It is the head of a Night Fury!

         Brushing away more of the dust and dirt on the floor, we see the rest of the body of the mighty dragon.  The carving of the floor makes the dragon look like it is standing on its hind legs reaching out for something.  There is also what looks to be a depicted aurora around the dragon.

         “This is huge,” Hiccup replied.  “But this can’t be all there is.”

         “I’m sure there is more,” I assured.  “This random carving is here, there must be more.”  Moving the table out of the way and studying the surrounding area, I looked back at the carving, “A little too random, for me.”

         Hiccup wondered, “How do you mean?”

         “You’re the Dragon Conqueror,” I spoke as I stepped back from the carver, leaned back, and looked at the carving.  “I’m the Mystery Conqueror.”

         “Oh please, let me see the great Mystery Conqueror go to work,” Hiccup jokingly crossed his arms but at the same time had complete faith in me, or at least I think he does.  Is he really joking?  With me and someone saying that about me, it is difficult to tell.

         After some minutes of studying, I spotted something on the wall, I declared, “Hello.”

         “What is it?” Hiccup asked, unfolding his arms, and looked on with eager anticipation.

         “Look at the carving,” I said.  “The dragon looks to be grabbing for something.”

         “Yeah, go on,” Hiccup urged.

         “Over dis here yonder wall,” I said walking over to the wall.  “This wall directly in front of the entrance has similar markings, among other things.”

         There are carvings, depressions, and raised impressions scattered across the wall.

         I slowly dragged my fingers across the wall, “What may look like as just artistry and decorative embellishments for the village, to some people… Once the pattern is found… And things are aligned…”

         As I ran my fingers across the wall, I kept a keen eye out for anything out of place, outside the pattern of the rest of the decorative art on the walls, “To find anything out of place.”

         The whole wall itself looked to depict a major battle in an age long ago, dragons and vikings on both sides, both fighting each other.  It is all a little difficult to tell in the dark, but the general idea of the wall was leading up to something… or down on the wall in this case.  Again, using symbols from the lenses my friends and I have found, a map of pictures and lines formed across the battle scene, going down and to the right near waist level.  At the end of the trail is an embellished circle with a small hole in the middle.  The clincher is there is a notch at the bottom of the hole.

         Going back over to the carving on the floor, I looked again at the dragon.  Noticing again the aurora on around the dragon, I notice the material that the dragon’s head is made out of is different than that of the ground floor.  While the ground is stone, the, the head is a rusted metal blending in with the rest of the dirty, worn floor.

         With this difference, I see there is also a lip around the aurora.  Using my fingers, I pull up what at first might be a button, but is actually a key.  No word is spoke as I take this key and try it in the hole I found.  At first, it fits perfectly.  But I see the head on the butt of the key is upside tilted to the right.  It has to be this way for it to fit in the hole.  I cannot turn it to the right, but as I turn it to the right, pressure forward is needed to continue.  Sounds of gears behind the wall are heard as I turn the key.  The closer the image gets to be sitting upright, the closer the butt of the key gets to the wall.  Still in silence, I hold my breath as the butt nears the wall.

         As I turn it the last time for the, we all hear a loud and heavy “click.”  I froze as more gears could be heard turning as some form of pullies moved things behind the wall; I did not even move my arms.  Moments later, the edge of the wall near a wooden beam on the far left, about five yards, splits open about an inch from the beam!  This startled both me and Hiccup as well as the dragons.  The dragons, by the way, are not growling or upset, but are intrigued and curious, as are we, what is behind the wall.

         “Hiccup,” I finally said in my self-inflicted near frozen state.  “Go get the others, I think we found what we are looking for.”

         Hiccup ran out to regroup with others and bring them back here.  Minutes later, they arrived.

         Cazi called out as she ran through the open door with the others, “What’d you find?”

         “A secret door,” I simply said.  “What else?”

         “Pfft,” Cazi rolled her eyes.  “Of course, you did.”

         “Give me a hand in opening this door,” I asked.

         Hiccup and Garth came over.  Between them and me, we were able to move the “sliding” door.  At one point, I think this door was supposed to open on its own, but with wear from use and time, it does not do that anymore.  When doors open on their own with little effort, that will be the day.

         The door opening spanned the entire side of the wall.  Hiccup looked quite amazed.  Me, on the other hand, maybe not so much.  Well, Hiccup looked outwardly amazed and curious.  For me, this is just another day on the job.  Finding secret doors is common place in solving mysteries.  You almost start expecting them at a certain point.  But at that point, they become harder to spot, as was this one.  I am still amazed and curious, just on the inside.

         Dawn walked in past me like she owned the place and reached for a torch in a holder on the wall, “Well this was convenient.  Light it, Fire Song.”
         As her Sand Wraith complied and lit the torch, chasing away the darkness in an instance with the light from the fire, I said to Dawn while concentrating on what is in front of me, “Already named your dragon, have we?”

         “Yes,” Dawn replied.  “Actually, named her the moment I laid eyes on her.”

         “That’s nice,” I answered

         Annabeth questioned uneasily, “I don’t like this.  My gut is telling me something is waiting for us on the other side.”

         “What makes you say that?” I asked, even though I felt the same way.

         “Call it a woman’s intuition,” she declared.  “Just be careful.”

         I replied back, “I thought they outlawed that years ago.”

         I heeded Annabeth’s advice and kept my focus in front of me as we started to enter the secret tunnel.  But I know for a fact, that I looked at Annabeth after I said my remark, I know Annabeth smirked at me.

         Cazi quickly retorted, “It was amended as soon as the lawgiver got home that night.”

         “Ah, no wonder that law never stuck,” I added.

         The entrance is as wide as ten feet and as tall as seven.  The tunnel inside is exactly the same dimensions as the entrance.  In fact, it looks to have been painstakingly carved square to be exactly the same.

         I am keeping my eyes forward and out to detect anything that might be dangerous.  The tunnel stretched from ten, twenty yards until we approached an even darker room than the tunnel.  The darkness from the room informed me that it is much bigger and larger than the tunnel we are currently in.  Reason I think that way is because of the rate at which the darkness of the tunnel, we are in, being “burned off” quick because the walls are so close to the source of the light.  There is a spherical area at which the light from the torch will illuminate.  The path in front of us will steadily be revealed.  But, the further away something is from the light source, the longer it will take for the darkness to be burned away revealing what is present.

         Regardless of how dark the next room happens to be, we came upon the end of the tunnel as the light shown on the walls came to an abrupt end.

         I continued to walk forward as Hiccup stopped me with his right hand on my left shoulder, “Remember, safer than sorry?”

         I looked down, “Yeah, thanks.”

         Dawn, however, continued on further and walked into the room, “Safer than sorry what?”

         The moment immediately following after she said, “What,” her left foot stepped on a stone slab… that sunk into the floor as soon as she stepped on it.

         “Oh snap,” I declared, as my shoulders drooped and I titled my head as this is the thing I was trying to prevent.

         “Why are you looking like that, Jarl?” Dawn question.

         Out of the darkness, a very loud, very deep roar came.

         That set all of our dragons on edge and ready for battle.  The roar subsided as a faint rush of wind could be constantly heard.  Small torches could be seen being automatically lit around the room.  Our eye followed the rows on each side of the room being led around to the other side of the room.

         Each one of us are frozen stiff, not wanting to make a move.  Our dragons seemed confused and puzzled what is going on; even they are unsure what is going on.

         The torches revealed several pillar posts spread across evenly throughout what looked to be a medium sized arena, below a stage with stairs on each of its sides.

         As soon as the last torches on the far side were lit, two bright glowing blue eyes turned to stare us down.

         We could not see what it is at first, but as the figure moved into the dim light, Hiccup’s eyes widen in amazement and called out in fear, the first real fear I have ever seen from him, “Night Fury!  Get down!!”

         Just as Hiccup said that, I saw a spark of blue flame ignite from the mouth of the beast in front of us.  Myself, Dawn, and Hiccup were in the front dashed to the first two beams three feet from the tunnel entrance.  Grabbing and Pulling Dawn back towards me, plastering her back against myself behind a pillar, just in time as a blue fire is shot from the mouth of the Night Fury, narrowly missing both of us!

         Fearing for my friends safety, I looked back to see what would happen.  Thankfully, Toothless is right there and held up his right wing to shield the rest of my friends from the impending fire.

         Dawn frantically asked, “I thought dragons wanted to protect us?!”

         “They do,” I replied, wondering why Dawn wants to talk at a time like this; the beam itself is just wide enough to protect us and Hiccup, on the other side, from the blue fire.

         “Then why did mine or your dragons sense the other Night Fury’s presence?!” she questioned again.

         “I don’t know!” I answered, irritated because I am trying to focus on surviving and protecting her.  “Stop asking questions and just stay still!”

         The blue fire then stopped momentarily as an identical roar sounded, followed by a spew of more blue fire!