Thoughts of Guilt: Chapter 32: Improvise on the Move

Thoughts of Guilt

Chapter 32

Improvise on the Move

          We were completely surrounded.  The only way we could escape is up; which we took.  From here on out it seemed like chaos.  My friends and I were glad just to be able to not get shot, let alone fight back.  Trevor was definitely expecting us and how.  I am starting to second guess myself now: “Was this the best play?  Should we have come back sooner?”

          After several minutes of “Not getting shot”, Hyrith had Sun Rose Fire into the sky to get me and my friends’ attention.  We saw him motion us to follow him.  So we did, all the while covering each other’s back as we flew because Hyrith got Ohmarr’s and Trevor’s men attention as well.

          Hyrith led us out of the main village to the large cove with the lake in the center of The Golden Isles.  We flew over the place where I saw Asvord fall, which reminded me what am I going to do about it.

          Hyrith led us down to the northeast corner of the cove that is not covered by the lake.  There are many rock formations or “towers” scattered throughout the cove; these tall natural rock structures gave us the cover we needed to regroup and get back to executing our plan.

          Once we had taken cover, hiccup did a quick roll call to see if everybody had made it to cover.  When everyone sounded off, Hiccup then relayed orders while we were still under fire by catapults and arrows and then bola and net launchers if we were seen, “Okay, obviously things are not going according to plan, but still have to push forward.  Jarl and Hyirth, take a team to stop Trevor’s plans.  Garth and Explod, take team to see if you can find Ohmarr’s parents in the village hall and rescue them.  The rest of you lay down cover fire for both teams!”

          Hiccup gave us a couple of moments to pick our teams.  In addition to Hyrith and myself, I chose Cazi and Annabeth to come with us.  Cazi told Electic to stay with Hiccup to help in the fight.  Annabeth did the same with Star Scream but told him to stay with Astrid to help as well.  Cazi is riding Sparklebolt while Annabeth is riding Anora.  I think that Annabeth is not going to let Anora out of her sight again.  Garth and Explod chose Thoreous and Cullan for their team.

          The teams had been picked just seconds after Hiccup had spoke, Hiccup then ordered the rest, “alright!  Cover Fire!  Give ‘em all you got!”

          The Academy Riders along with my other friends left first to lay down the cover fire for the two teams.  Once they left, the two teams left as well.  The other team flew off back in the direction of the village at the same time Hyrith, Cazi, Annabeth, and I flew off in the opposite direction with Hyrith leading out team.  Hyrith knows where the seal is, about the “Legend of the Shadow Dragon”, and led us in an east by slightly south direction; further into the main land mass of The Golden Isles.

          At first, Hyrith took us through some smaller auxiliary tunnels that were right behind us in the cove.  These tunnels led back up to the top surface of the ground; however, not for at least a mile, did it take us to get back on top to ground level.

          As soon as we had exited the tunnel, we saw back to the west of The Golden Isles the main battle still going on.  But on this side of The Isles it is extremely quiet.  Sure, we can still hear the main battle, although even those sounds are faint.  This hush in the air created a very spooky and ominous feel around us.  There is no wind, no birds chirping, and not even any insects calling out such as crickets or cicadas.

          After landing a few yards east of the auxiliary tunnel and briefly observing our surroundings, Cazi broke the silence by speaking softly, “I have a bad feeling about this.”

          Cazi, Hyrith, and I got off our dragons to walk quieter along the way; although, Annabeth did not as she stayed on Anora.

          We swiftly moved down the path, hugging the forest line; all the while looking out for any sentries, guards, or any other soldier that may have followed us.  For what seemed like several minutes but probably only a few moments, we traversed the countryside.  The only one that knows where they are going is Hyrith.  The rest of us are just following him.  The land around us started to get a little hilly, but with the pathway cutting through the hills.

          As we are starting to near the other side of The Isles, Hyrith motioned for us to halt.

          Hyrith declared, in a normal voice, “We’re here.”

          We looked around and did not see anything.

          “Here where?” asked Cazi.  “I don’t see anything that looks like an entrance.”

          “That’s because you are looking for the right things,” Hyrith said.  “Sun Rose, could you give me a little light?”

          The area where we are at is the cross-section of another hill; Hyrith walked over to the left side of the hill and started feeling across the jagged surface of the rock.

          I then stated, “Let me guess…”

          Hyrith then stopped about halfway up and towards the middle of the hill.

          “…Secret door?” I asked.

          Hyrith looked back and smiled as he grabbed a piece of the rock, pulled it out, turned it one-hundred and eighty degrees, and then pushed it back into place.

          “Yep,” Hyrith replied.

          We heard a noise like a rush of wind being muffled. Hyrith had stepped back to the right as a large section of the rock suddenly pushed itself out from the rest of the side of the hill.  Hyrith walked in.

          “Hey!  What are you doing?” questioned Hyrith as Cazi and I tried to follow him in there.

          Cazi answered, “Uh… Following you into the secret cave.”

          “Secret cave?” Hyrith said like it was a joke.  “This is just a secret door, not a cave.”  Hyrith walked in a few steps and then came out with something.  “The ‘secret’ cave is further up the trail.  This was just to get the ‘key from under the mat’, if you know what I mean.”

          Hyrith revealed to us a simple golden key.

          “Hmm, why is it ‘golden’?” I asked rhetorically.

          “Ha ha, very funny,” Hyrith said.  “Come on.”

          Hyrith then ran further down the path; we followed him, Annabeth was still on her dragon.  A minute later, we came to a clearing.  There are cobblestones laid out in a large circle, probably forty feet in diameter.  Hyrith started to look around for something in the cobblestones, but did so without stepping on to the stones.

          I bent down to inspect the stones.  I noticed some unusual “scratches” on them; almost like rune print.  I then said, “These cobblestones seem to be laid in some sort of pattern.  Is that something significant?  Also, is this the same viking rune print that The Golden Isles uses, that you are still a little unsure of interpreting?”

          Hyrith replied with, “Yeah,” but that was it.  I did not know what question the “Yeah” was for.  Either Hyrith did not hear me fully; or if he did, he just answered it all at once as he is concentrating too much.

          Annabeth then stated, “Should the ‘lock’ that the key goes to be in the center or something?  If we are in the vicinity of the entrance to the cave we are looking for.”

          I started to place my foot out in front of me to step onto the cobblestones, but Hyrith impeded my path by outstretching his left arm in front of me.

          “Wait,” Hyrith said.

          Cazi then questioned by using a tone that suggested she was starting to get irritated and impatient, “Why?  Sorry to break it to you, but we are kind of ‘on the clock’ to find… What are we supposed to find anyway?”

          “Shh, I’m trying to read here,” Hyrith replied with some impatience of his own.

          “What?!” Cazi shot back.  “Are we stopping for a bed time story, now?  Oh… Oh could we stop for snacks too?”

          As Cazi and Hyrith had started to say some remarks back towards each other, I heard some faint noises behind us.  I looked back to see in the forest about a mile or two from our position, a whole squadron of soldiers with torches… running towards us.

          “Uh guys?” I asked as I stood up.

          “What?!” both Cazi and Hyrith said together.

          “I’m inclined to agree with Cazi on this one,” I said as I pointed to the flickering torch lights behind us.  “They must have finally realized there was somebody missing.”

          Annabeth then pointed out, “Not only that, I don’t hardly hear any noises from the battle.  Do you think…?”

          Annabeth did not even finish because she as well as the rest of us did not want to think of what had happened to them.

          “Hopefully they are alright and the fight just carried them out of visual and earshot range.  Maybe the escaped,” I replied, trying to stay positive.  “But if they did escape, we still have a job to do.  So Hyrith I would do that quickly if I were you.”

          “Well,” he spoke.  “I think I got it now.  Stand back and give me some room to start.  But where I step, I need you guys to step as well, that includes you Annabeth.  Don’t shift your weight until I tell you too.”

          The three of us, with our dragons, stepped back to give Hyrith some space.  Annabeth slowly slid off her Razorwhip as she still is unwilling to let Anora out of her sight, yet she has not said anything about it.  I know Annabeth is thinking that, but I think she is also thinking that she knows she needs to do what has to be done even if it is leaving Anora again.  Hyrith cocked his head back and forth to stretch it and also shook his arms out.

          “Okay,” breathed Hyrith, as he stepped forward with his right foot and put it on one of the cobblestones.  When he shifted his weight to that foot, the cobblestone depressed about an inch into the ground.

          Hyrith said as he sighed with some relief on his face, “The Legend of the Shadow Dragon…”  Hyrith then outstretched his left foot for another cobblestone and said what seemed to be verses to the legend with each time he would step on a stone, “Lies with a treasure of power…”  Hyrith then looked back at me and said, “Okay.  When I lift up with my right foot, you put your right foot where mine was.  You have just a few seconds to get your foot in place.”

          “What would happen if I don’t?” I asked.

          “You don’t want to know,” Hyrith replied.  “Oh and whatever you do.  Do.  Not.  Step.  On.  Any.  Other.  Stone.  But the ones I step on.”

          Hyrith then started lifting up with his right foot as I slid mine underneath his.  Hyrith slowly moved his foot forward, as to not lose his balance, and reached in front of him with his right foot and said, “Guarded by a force of nature,” Hyrith said to me again, “Okay, same as before.”

          As Hyrith let up with his left foot, I stepped in directly under his foot with my left foot.  Hyrith then really stretched out with his left foot to a stone a couple of feet in front of his right foot, “Overcome this force to become worthy… Alright now Cazi, when I step for the next stone, you step with your right foot where Jarl was with his right foot and you Jarl do same with me.”

          Hyrith reverse pivoted on his left foot to reach for the next stone.  As Hyrith lifted up on his stone to reach for the next, I took my right foot to put it where he had his and Cazi put her right foot where I had mine.

           “Choose between the treasure and dragon…,” Hyrith again lifted up on his left foot then I put my left foot where he had his and Cazi followed with her left foot to the next spot.

          But as Cazi stepped down on the cobblestone, she started to lose her balance.

          “Oh Thornado!” Cazi said as she started to swing her arms.

          I reached out to grab her left arm to help her steady herself.  She did, but she said, “My foot is slipping, hurry up!”

          Hyrith said, “Or the Legend’s wrath will be released,” as he stepped on the last stone which was in front of him, as myself and Cazi shifted our weight to move our feet as Cazi then lost her balance while she and I both fell down.

          When all six cobblestones were depressed, the center cobblestone lifted up and now is a pedestal.

          “Did we get it?” Cazi asked as she blew a tuft of hair out of her face

          I offered my hand to help her up; she grabbed as we both pull ourselves up.

          Hyrith showed us the pedestal and inserted the key into a hole on the top of the pedestal.  He turned the key to the left until we heard a click and then turned the key to the right until we heard another click.  Just then the ground beneath us jerked down about a foot and slowly started to lower.

          Annabeth then jumped on the lowering platform as our dragons looked on from above, “Uh, what is happening?”

          “I don’t know,” replied Hyrith.  “This is the farthest I have gotten in several years.  Not until I came back to Berk to review some of Stoick’s old history books did I crack the rune print’s code to fully being able to read those cobblestones and step on the correct ones.  I had put all of my notes that I had discovered in my notebook, but I knew that this was a critical part of The Legend that I memorized my clues and then memorized the things I found out back on Berk to come here to solve the puzzle.”

          “What about our dragons?” Annabeth questioned as she stared up at
Anora who kept pacing back and forth at the top of the vertical tunnel.  “We can’t leave them up there.  The soldiers will be here very soon.”

          “I know,” Hyrith assured.  “Once this platform stops, they can lower themselves down.  The tunnel is wide enough, they’ll be fine.”

          After the platform had lowered nearly twenty or thirty feet, we whistled up for our dragons to come down.  But then we noticed that the only cave in front of us was only wide enough for Sun Rose and barely Anora.  Fredrick would have to stay behind on the platform as his wingspan is just too wide.  Sparklebolt, however, was able to just squeeze through by laying her wings completely by flat against her body with a foot to spare on each side.

          Before the other three could say something about staying behind with my dragon, “Fredrick?” he looked at me.  “Stand guard,” I pointed to the ground and then put a flat hand in front of his face.  This was the motion to stand guard.  By the way, Sparklebolt had been charged up since the start of the battle, so she could still fire, if need be, underground.

          Hyrith led our way through the hallway.  As we went, Hyrith had Sun Rose light each torch until six were lit and we entered a large dome shaped room.  The walls were completely smooth and had designs of every type of dragon we knew, even some we did not even recognize.  Sun Rose fired to an overhanging fire pit to light up the room.  We walked to the center of the dome and looked beneath us.

          “This is the seal,” declared Hyrith.

          All at once we heard behind us as Fredrick try to let out a warning cry, but was cut short.

          I yelled, “Fredrick!”

          As well looked back behind us, the torches were put out instantly by… ice.

          My eyes suddenly widened as I relayed to the others, “That crystal formation looks just like the ‘Frozen Fires’ of before!”

          A man then entered the dome with a dragon behind him.  The man is Trevor and the dragon is the orange Whispering death!  He had with him a glove on his left hand with the Speed Stinger sword in his right.

          “Thank you very much for getting past that puzzle,” Trevor relayed as walked in with an eerie swagger.  “For a very long time have I been trying to crack that code.  And here some boy does it in a few short years.  Nice job.”

          Cazi then ordered Sparklebolt, “Shock him!”

          Sparklebolt shot at him, but Trevor swiftly dodged the shot.

          Trevor then picked himself up just as Annabeth ordered Anora to blast him.  The Whispering Death blocked the shot by a shot of its own.  There was an explosion in the room that knocked everybody back.

          Trevor picked himself back up, dusted him off, and then pointed the sword at us, “Alright, enough games.  Fear me, or die!”

          Nothing happened.

          Trevor kept pointing the sword at us while Hyrith, Cazi, Annabeth, and I looked at each other.

          “So…,” I started.  “Are we supposed to ‘fear’ your pointing?” I then sarcastically said, “Ooo, scary.  Let me surrender now.”

          “Why isn’t it working?” questioned Trevor as he looked at his weapon.

          I then pulled out of my pocket, the pommel part that I assume goes to his sword and tossed it in my hand as I said, “Looking for this?”

          “How-?” Trevor then stated.

          I then interrupted, “Oh, a little ‘cat’ told me.”

          “I thought it was bird?” questioned Trevor.

          “Never mind,” I shook my head.  “Why are we having this conversation again?”

          “I don’t know, Jarl” Trevor replied.

          I gasped, “How do you know my name?”

          Trevor chuckled, “Jarl, Jarl, Jarl.  Are you this naive?  I think you have lost some sense?  I think that one fire back a ways fried some of your brain.  It’s only one letter different.”

          “What are you talking about?” I said, trying to understand what he was saying.

          Trevor then chuckled again, “Man, I really fooled you this time.”

          I still did not understand, “Are you saying we have met before?”

          Trevor then declared, “Yes.  After all, I owe all of my success to you, Jarl.  You did save my life.”

          It took me a moment and then I said, “No.  No, it couldn’t be.”

          “Yes, it could be, Jarl,” Trevor said.  “Look at me!”

          I looked into his eyes and gasped with a shocking reply, “Truvor Onundrson!”

          I took a second and then said to my friends with a tone of sheer determination, “You make this seal stay sealed.  I’ll take on Truvor.”

          I then drew my sword and rushed my old nemesis.  He rushed me as a duel began.