The Mysterious Frozen Fire - Chapter 5: Storm Warning

Sorry for the delay in posting this chapter.  Some things came up yesterday that I forgot I had to go and do; which chewed up a good portion of time for me to work on my chapter.

I hope you are enjoying this story.  Please comment and tell me why you like it.

Enjoy!

The Mysterious Frozen Fire

Chapter 5

Storm Warning

          The kidnapper then looked back at me and saw I was hot on his trail.  He then adjusted himself on his saddle and urged his dragon on.

          “You won’t get away from me that easily,” I shouted.  The clouds were starting to break up some and the sun was shining through, prefect weather for a chase.

          The kidnapper turned out to be a rather skilled rider as he led me on a very difficult chase.  He went in a downward dive to sea level and tried to lose me by making several sharp turns around some nearby rock formations.  I skillfully navigated my way through them.  I even cut the guy’s lead in half by slowing up, seeing where he went in the rocks, and then took shortcuts to try and cut him off.

          By now he and I were flying over the open sea about a hundred feet or so in the air.  I was not gaining any on him, but he was not pulling away from me.  A conclusion came to mind that a Whispering Death and Thunderdrum dragons must have nearly the exact same top speed.

          I could tell he really wanted to shake me and Fredrick because as we were nearing Gronckle Island, he changed course, gained some altitude, and headed straight for the island.  When we got there, he cut a corner of the island quick.  But since I was still about twenty yards behind him, I instead nudged Fredrick twice with my left foot to roll halfway that direction; as we flew over the edge of the corner upside down, I nudged him again with my left foot to tell my dragon to complete the roll.  This move not only made a shortcut to the shortcut the guy made, but it also made the guy’s lead be cut in half and even yet made my dragon pick up so much momentum.  And when my dragon picks up momentum, the speed he gets from that he can keep going.

          I was nearly on top of the Whispering Death because of the previous move I made, when we entered a clearing.  On a plateau were two Skrills.

          “Two Skrills?!” I gasped.

          I looked ahead to see the Whispering Death rider put on a helmet.  The Whispering Death suddenly shot up and then dove down.  Fredrick saw that the dragon was going to dive directly over us because we had caught up to him that my dragon reacted faster than I could to get out of the way.

          We barely got out of the way to see the Whisper borrow his way down in the plateau near the edge.  This made the ground shake and start to crumble.  I noticed that when the Whisper started its hole, that there was a young viking girl right next to it.  I saw that she was trying to regain her balance, but could not do so.

          In mid-flight, I jumped off Fredrick from a ten foot drop.  Good thing there was snow on the ground as it helped soften the landing; also doing a somersault roll at the end helped too.  But to not break my bow, which I still had around my shoulder, I took it off and kept it in my left hand.  I was about ten yards from the now Whispering Death tunnel.  The girl was trying to regain balance, however lost her footing due to the ground crumbling from beneath.  I ran as fast as I could, paying no heed to the two Skrills around me.  The girl started falling back into the hole, but I planted my foot on the last bit of solid ground around the hole and dove across, grabbing the girl as I flew across the top of the hole.  She was not expecting me to be there but quickly regained her center of gravity, as did I, from after we both were sprawled out from my dive.

          The ground continued to shake and crack open below our feet.  I finally got a good look at the girl and… it was Cazi Olson.  I did not have time to say “Hi,” for we were both in immediate danger of the collapsing ground.  Neither did we have time to mount our dragons for every time they landed, a huge chuck of the ground would fall.  The ground was breaking up too fast.  We started running from the disruption in the ground, but it kept following us.  The direction we took was back towards the center of the plateau.  The ground continued to crack and break apart from beneath our feet.  Footing was very sketchy too as I did not know which part would break away next.

          Seemingly the whole plateau was going to implode so we needed to escape to the next highest plateau from our position; which was twenty yards from the center of the this plateau, the direction we had been running.  The ground continued to break up, but increasingly sped up.  Certain times you thought you had sure footing, when the next moment it started falling away from you.  I had to basically run up several portions of the ground because the ground was falling away so quickly.  I did not want to look back for I had the feeling that the ground was not there.

          Cazi was to my right and first to jump, climb, and get onto the next plateau.  Right after Cazi had jumped up, the ground near directly below where she was broke away.  I was only about three yards out and five yards up from safety.  I had to think fast but thought of an idea.  I then quickly grabbed for an arrow out from my quiver I still had on, grabbed in my winter tunic for one of a few small bolas I always kept on my belt, and put the arrow through one of the knots in the bola.  I then aimed my arrow for a crack in the higher plateau’s wall and fired the arrow with as much strength as I could; so the arrow would be lodged in as far as I could make it go from my standing point.  I accomplished all this in a matter of seconds.

          The ground was cracking all around me.  I felt like it was going to go any second now.  The moment after I jumped, the ground fell away.  I stuck out my feet so when I swung on the rope, I would not hit the wall.  I did not want to spend time looking at the wreckage below me, for I was still not in the clear yet.  The pounding noise of the collapsing ground had finally ceased.  Cazi knelt down when I began to walk up the side of the now cliff wall to the top of the plateau.  I was almost within arms reach of Cazi, when my arrow broke in two.  Cazi reached down just in time to grab my arm.

          “Whoa, there!” Cazi shouted.  “I got you.”

          Just then I saw Fredrick fly over and come beneath me.

          “Fredrick is below me, so you can let go now,” I relayed to Cazi.

          She let go and I was now safely on my dragon.  I guided Fredrick to fly up and land on the higher plateau where the two Skrills had now landed.  I dismounted and walked over to Cazi.

          “Afternoon, friend,” I causally said.

          Cazi had given a good, short laugh in response.

          I then asked, “Are you alright?”

          “Yes,” she replied.  “Thanks to you I am.  I thought was almost going to fall in the tunnel.  Electric here was about ready to fly over and catch me when you dove and grabbed me from falling in.  And after we ran for our lives after we could not reach to mount our dragons, I then saved you after you saved me.”

          “Which I am very grateful for,” I said as we gave a hug after saving each other for certain injury if not our lives.

          Cazi then stated after the hug, “I think that is the first time that has ever happened.”

          “What a rather large plateau completely imploding on itself, just because one little Whispering Death decided to go digging?” I said summarizing what just occurred.

          Cazi added, “That and two people saving each other’s lives possible all within a very short time of each other.  Usually when someone saves someone’s life, they are indebted to them to do the same for them some time down the line.  We repaid each other quite quickly, don’t ya think?”

          “Yeah I totally agree,” I answered.

          After a few minutes of staring at the wreckage of rock from the former plateau, I asked Cazi about the second Skrill.

          “Wait you have never noticed Electric before?” she questioned quite surprised.

          “No, was I suppose to?” I replied.

          “I’ve ridden him several times while on Berk,” Cazi stated.

          “Really?” I spoke.  “Well now I feel dumb.”

          “I know Sparkle and Elec are Skrills and you haven’t seen too many of this type of dragon before, but you have never noticed the differences?” asked Cazi.

          “Nope.  Now that I realize you actually have two Skrills, I do see the similarities and the not so similar similarities.  Now I can really see why they call you Cazi the Conqueror,” I said.

          Cazi then asked me why I was chasing that burnt orange Skrill, and I recounted the events that “fell” into place before I came to Gronckle island.

          “Very funny with the pun,” Cazi stated.

          “Ah, thank you.  Thank you,” I took two quick bows.

          When I mention that the Whisper had a rider, Cazi answered, “What?!”

          I chuckled, “Now you know how I and the rest of my friends learned that you rode a Skrill; apparently two of them.”  I was just thinking, if I did not see the difference between Sparklebolt and Electric, that means that the rest of my friends did not either; which means I get to poke at my sisters a little.  But if I know my sisters, they would just turn it over back on me that I did not see the difference either.  So I might not poke after all.

          Cazi laughed, “Yeah I see what you mean now.  I did not quite understand why you didn’t think Skrills could be ridden; but know that I now find out that Whispering Deaths can be ridden, I can see why you thought the same for Skrills.”

          I then retold a quick version of Ashley, Hattori, and I first catching a glimpse of the guy riding the orange Whispering Death.

          “By the way, what brings you way out here to Gronckle Island?” I inquired.

          “Oh yeah,” she suddenly remembered.  “These.”  She reached into her pocket and revealed to me several small gemstones.  “You can find these beautiful gemstones in certain places on Gronckle Island if you look for them long enough.  I thought I’d give them to Annabeth as a necklace as a Snoggletog present.”

          “That would be a great idea,” I replied giving back Cazi the gemstones.

          “But that is not all I did,” Cazi said smiling.  “Me and Annabeth had a run in with a few fishing boats from the Berserker Armada and also a couple of rouge Scauldrons in the process.”

          “Wow,” I expressed.

          “It turns out that the Berserkers had caught something a little oversized, if you get my drift,” Cazi said winking.

          “Yeah I could kind of visualize Berserkers catching a Scauldron,” I said smiling.

          “Nothing two skilled girl viking warriors and two mighty dragons of a Skrill and Stormcutter could not handle,” Cazi said showing off here muscles.  “For you information if you were wondering, Annabeth went back to Berk after our run in with the dragons and Berserkers.

          I then added, “You are pretty strong, Cazi…. For a girl that is.”

          Cazi gave me a big smirk.

          “I’m kidding, you are quite strong,” I said saving myself from being slapped in the shoulder.  It may have been a punch, but Cazi did not have enough time to wind up when I said that.  A few times have I seen her carry two crates of various items that are of a heavy metal.  Not easy I might add.  Even though I can do the same, it is still quite a task none the same.

          “I think we should get back to Berk and check back with Hiccup,” I decided walking back to Fredrick.  “Are you done here on Gronckle Island?”

          “Yeah,” she replied walking over to Sparklebolt.

          Electric was going to follow us home.

          When Cazi and I had gained some altitude, we started back for Berk.  As we were flying, I felt a wind change in the air.  Something did not feel right at all.  The wind had been a steady breeze from the west, but it had turned sharply coming from due east.  The wind kept getting faster and faster.  It quickly became a gust.  I looked back behind me and saw something that was not good.

          “Cazi look behind you,” I stated.

          When she looked back she said stringing out her words, “Oh no.  Not good.”

          We both saw a sight that was not good.  There was a snowstorm on the horizon.  By the looks of it, this storm was going to be blizzard strength at least.  I made Fredrick glide and then I turned around and sat backwards on my seat.  I studied the clouds quickly.  The storm front was on the horizon which would make it approximately a hundred miles or more from our position.  I took note of the storm front’s clouds growing vertically in size.  This was extremely not good.  This means that there could possibly be hailstones forming in those clouds.  At the rate the clouds were vertically growing and the gusty winds, told me that the storm was coming; and coming fast.

          “We got to get back the Berk as quickly as we can,” I shouted turning around and urging Fredrick to pick up speed.  “We need as much time to prepare for this storm as we can, because it is going to be a whale of a storm.”