The Mysterious Frozen Fire - Chapter 10: Startling Thoughts

Why does it seem when I think I'll have more time couple days to write, I will be busier than I think I would be.  (Reason being if you were wondering why the delay in posting this chapter)

But I hope you enjoy the chapter.  I've been working censored this story and trying to make it better than my last one.  This chapter is about the same length as Chapter 9.  Things are getting very interesting.

Enjoy!

The Mysterious Frozen Fire

Chapter 10

Startling Thoughts

          My mother did not say much after that, as she was obviously worried about her daughter.  I was too about my sister; I just did not show as much as she did.

          A few minutes after I finished retelling the account of the previous hour, the rest of my friends along with Elsa came back.  Hiccup and the rest of the Academy riders were escorting the mysterious woman back to the jail, inside The Great Hall.

          My friends and Elsa then rushed over and asked how Asvord was.

          “Gothi has only been with her for about ten or fifteen minutes,” I replied, still holding my left side with my right arm.  “Gobber said he would come tell me as soon as he heard something.”

          Mother had just taken notice of how I was standing.  “Jarl are you alright?”

          “I’m fine,” I said grimacing slightly as I was still in pain from hitting those rocks.

          “No you are not,” mother said, slightly sharp.  “Come here and let me take a look at that.”

          I walked over to my mother.  She lifted up the side of my shirt to find I had in fact injured myself; but not bad.

          “Jarl!” she said quite a bit more sharply.  “How did this happen?  Was it when you hit those rocks?”

          “I think it was,” I replied.

          Being the mother she was, she started examining me, “I am going to put my hand on your side.  Does this hurt when I put my hand here?”

          I grimaced a little bit when she did.  Mother kind of jerked her hand back when I grunted from the pain.

          “I think you are going to have a huge bruise there in the coming days,” mother stated as she pulled down my shirt.  “You are going to have to take it easy for a few days, at least.”

          I then smiled, “Why isn’t it more than just a few days, why not a week?”

          “It should be a week,” mother looked at me.  “But if I know you, you won’t rest for more than a few days before you get out moving.”

          I than chuckled a little, “I’ll take it easy for a couple of days before I get out.”

          Mother looked at me again with a smirk-y smile.

          I then quickly said, “And when I do get out after that, I won’t try to do anything more than I should.”

          “That’s better,” my mother replied.

          I turned around to see that my friends were still standing there.  They all had meager smiles on to the fact that my mother was making sure I was alright and I was trying to tell her, “I was fine.”  I just ignored them and asked my friends, “So what did your groups find when we split up?”

          Jack and Astrid spoke for their respective groups.

          Jack recounted what they found, “A few minutes after we split up, we encountered one of those ‘traps’ you were talking about.  The tunnel we were had increasingly got larger in size and we came to a pool of water.”

          Astrid then spoke up, “What?  Really?  Our group also came to a pool of water in the tunnel once it kept getting larger in size once we started going down it.”

          “This must not be by accident but actually a planned feature by whoever built the war room because my group came across the same type of water pool,” I announced.

          I then described the water pool my group came too.  And everybody in the other two groups said that is what there looked like as well.  Though they said there were a few different features in the tunnel.  Everybody else wanted to know how I solved my group’s puzzle; so I told them what I did.  They all thought that was a creative way to get across.  Now I wanted to know, as did my group, how the other two groups got across their “trap” or rather puzzle.

          Jack started by saying there was a beam like rock and went the width of the tunnel, not the length.  Astrid interjected and said in their tunnel there were two columns of rock on each side of the center platform.

          I added, “Just thinking, if someone thought they could get far enough to get to the pools, each pool would present itself with different challenges.  By the time the enemy would figure out each puzzle, the tunnel guards would be on top of them; if Berk’s leaders back then posted guards in the tunnels.”

          Jack and Astrid in turn both explained how their groups solved their respective puzzles.

          Jack continued with his story by saying the crossbeam rock had two ropes on them.  The ropes were far enough in over the pool that they could not reach it by stretching out their arms to get them.  It was not until Snotlout and the twins got into a fight.  Ruffnut had baited Snotlout so that he would fall back and trip over Tuffnut.  There was a mechanical grinding of gears the moment after he fell on the ground.  Jack said that startled Snotlout, as did most of them who in turn jumped back because the crossbeam started to move.  The mechanical noise stopped after he did Snotlout stepped back.  Jack said that led them to suggest that there was something where Snotlout fell down that would trigger the crossbeam to move.  They investigated and found there to be a button, well concealed and blended into the rest of the ground.

          Jack said Explod walked over and stood on the button and the crossbeam rotated around and stopped at the point someone could stand near the edge of the pool in the middle of the tunnel, reach out, and grab the rope.  Snotlout grabbed the rope.  Explod then left off the button and the crossbeam went back in the direction it came.  Snotlout was surprised a bit when Explod did that because he was not expecting it.  When the crossbeam stopped, Snotlout had relayed he could easily get across to the other side.  It was suggested to him to look for a similar button.  He did so and after a few minutes found the button.  The second button was directly across from the other button.  Snotlout stood on the button so the crossbeam would move back around to the others.  One by one everyone was able to safely cross the pool of water by someone standing on the button while the other held on to the rope.

          Jack finished, “We followed the rest of the tunnel which took a left then a right bend and it led outside.  There looked to be intentional moss, grass, and weeds growing over the exit-entrance to conceal it.  No sooner did we get outside did we see Astrid’s group come out from their tunnel about twenty five yards to our right.  The moment after that we saw Hiccup and his company flying by chasing a white blur of some kind.”

          Astrid then started telling her group’s experiences with their puzzle.  Astrid said theirs was more physical in nature to solve.  She said on the inside of each column’s side was a horizontal pole.  They tried figuring out ways to get across when Faith took notice that there were two, smaller, additional columns above them; however, they only came down about a yard from the ceiling.  Once everyone took a look at the new columns, Pat noticed two holes on the same inside side of each column.

          Astrid narrated, “That’s when we all came to the conclusion that something nearby would have to fit into the new holes.  Navaro saw before two poles from two of the torches back inside the smaller tunnel.  They looked odd to her and speculated those might fit in these holes.  Sapphire and Fishlegs went back into the tunnel to get them.  Myself and Tory grabbed the poles asked for a boost from Cullan and Pat.  When they boosted us up, the same way Hattori did with Jarl, Tory and I put the poles in the holes.  They somehow seemed to lock into place.  Tory and I grabbed the poles and hung down from the poles.  After we told the boys to let us go, weight and gravity took over and triggered a mechanism that lowered the columns our poles were in; to the point where all of us could easily hop up and grab the poles.  After a few swings, Tory and I were able to let go, swing forward, and grab the two poles that were in front of us.”

          Tory then finished, “The moment after we grabbed the second pole, this action triggered yet another mechanism.  A rock path came up from underneath the water to ‘float’ on top of the water.  This allowed us to let go of the poles and stand on the ground.  A center path to the platform also came up so the others could walk on.  Once we go to the edge of the two paths, all we had to do is a short jump across to the other side.  We followed the rest of the tunnel and met up with Jack and them at the entrance from outside.”

          The ones that were not with my group then asked what we encountered for a “trap” puzzle; also, what we did when we found my sister, Asvord, and our engagement of the woman and her dragon.  I relayed what had transpired.

          After that we all decided to go sit down.  Mother said she would go cook some hot broth for us to drink and warm up.

          When we sat down, Cazi questioned, “So what do you think about this woman, Jarl?  And how high or low does the locket-necklace play role in this mystery?”

          “I’m not sure exactly how much importance the locket-necklace will play into this, but I have a feeling it is a key role.  As for the woman, I don’t want to think about her too much because I’ll get myself angry.  Secondly, what I’d like to know is what her dragon looks like.  To me, it looked like its coloring blended into the snow so well, I’m wondering if it is one of the arctic region dragons,” I answered.  “What do you think Hiccup, because he probably had a better look at it then I did?”

          “Actually we didn’t,” Hiccup replied.  “The dragon we were chasing was very intelligent.  So much even Toothless lost track of it.  I will say this though; it is very nimble as it took several sharp, difficult turns in trying to lose us.  It finally did once it must have landed or something, or possible doubled back on us.  The blasted snow and wind from the blizzard did absolutely no help.  Visibility kept getting worse, so we had to turn back.”

          Fishlegs suddenly interjected, “That is what I wanted to say!  I’ve been trying to remember this since yesterday night.”

          “What?” questioned a couple of us.

          Fishlegs spoke, “I saw a Snoggletog Wraith for a couple of seconds yesterday.”

          We were all shocked by what he said.

          Hiccup was the first to say anything, “You did?  Why didn’t you say anything about this, this morning, or before?”

          Fishlegs answered back, “I saw the dragon late last night before I went to sleep.  I remember I also dreamt about the Snoggletog Wraith, so when I woke up this morning I thought my sighting was just a dream.  But now thinking about it all day, I know I actually did see the Snoggletog Wraith.”

          “That is amazing,” said Annabeth.  “I’ve never heard of such a dragon.”

          Fishlegs then spoke like he does when the subject is about dragon stats and history, “Well according to legend, if a viking sees a Snoggletog Wraith on Snoggletog Eve, then you are in for a guaranteed snowy, festive day.”

          Elsa remarked, “I think we ‘snowy, festive day’ are modest words to describe what kind of weather we are having for this fine Snoggletog Day.”

          Our mother had just come over with two large trays with bowls of hot broth to help warm us up.  There was enough bowls for everyone.  As we were all halfway done with our broth, Stoick came over and said that he and Gobber had interrogated the mysterious woman.

          “The only thing Gobber and I could get out of the woman was that she wanted to see you, Jarl, alone.  And that she didn’t what this to happen this way,” Stoick reported.

          I nearly choked on the broth I was currently drinking, “What?!” I expressed.  “Why should I go see her?  Look what she did to my sister.”

          “Jarl,” Hiccup said, “You might be able to find out why she did it and or why she is here in Berk.”

          I reluctantly agreed and followed Stoick to the inside jail house in the Hall.  When we arrived at the door, Stoick opened it and let me in.  Stoick closed the door behind me.

          It was spooky-quiet in there.  I saw in one of the cells off to the right a bit, the woman.  As I stood there, she stood up and walked over to the cell door.  The woman was good looking.  She had a small figure with wavy, medium length red hair.

          She was the first to say something, “You are probably wondering why I did that to you sister, Asvord.”

          I looked at her strangely, “Wait, how did you know her name and that she is my sister?”

          “That doesn’t matter for the moment,” she spoke.  “I did not want people to find me out in early stages of my agenda, so this moves things up in my schedule.  Your sister saw me go down through the tunnels.  As she, as would I in her position, thought this was rather strange.  So she followed me.  When I heard her back behind her, I turned to engage her.  I knew I could not escape until I was able to knock her out.  You probably won’t believe me when I say I was only trying to knock her out.”

          I spoke sharply, “Yeah I don’t believe you.”

          She stated, “We started to fight.  But then I countered her moves and pinned her against me.  But as I drew my sword with my left hand, she broke free of my grip, and then that is how she got injured.  It was an unfortunate accident.  She fell to the ground and grabbed her right side.  She must have looked under the table in the war room and found a sword because she bolted up and defended herself.  I didn’t want to fight her, so I did enough to keep her at bay.  I then ran off through one of the other three tunnels.”

          As the woman was talking, I crept a little closer to her; but still kept my distance.

          “When I came to a pool of water, I carefully stepped on the correct stones to make it across the pool.  However, I didn’t make it across dry.  Your sister, being the smart one she is, picked up a crate in the tunnel and threw it at me.  I lost my balance and fell into the pool.  I swam to the other side and got out and ran off toward the exit of the pool.  I found that your sister is very athletic as I looked back and saw her quickly run across, stepping on rocks that would fall into the pool, but safely make it across without getting wet.  I then ran about twenty yards down corridor to a spot on the cave wall right before the bend.  I pressed a spot on the wall and the secret door opened,” the woman continued.  “Your sister could not get there in time before it closed.”

          “By now I thought I was in the clear and bought enough time I could make it to my dragon, Hailstone, who was in a small cove nearby.  To my surprise I saw your sister on a Deadly Nadder.  I started to pick up my speed to reach the cove.  I was nearly to the cove when you and your friends showed up.  You should know the rest of the story,” she finished.

          “But why would you want to see me, besides the fact you wanted to say ‘sorry’ for ‘accidentally’ injuring my sister?” I questioned, a little irritated.

          The woman replied, “This is another thing you’d probably not believe me even if I told you.”

          I hesitated, “What?”

          She answered and said, “Your father is still alive.”

          “What?!!” I exclaimed and took a few steps forward.

          That was my mistake.  She somehow had got the jail door open, jumped out, grabbed me by the neck, and pinned my arm behind me against her.  She drew a hidden dagger and held it against my side with her left hand.  She held her right hand over my mouth.

          “Now I do not want to hurt you, but I will if I have too,” she spoke softly.  “I am going to leave now.”

          She started taking me back against the wall across from the jail door.

          “I am sure we’ll be seeing each other very soon,” she stated and pushed me forward down to the floor.

          The moment I looked back, she was instantly out through a window and escaped.

          I quickly ran and jumped up to look out the window.  I saw her and another woman run off.  The visibility was the worse it had been yet, but I could still make them out getting on similar dragons and fly off.

          I felt foolish I fell for her trick about my father.  On the other hand, how did she know so much about my family?