“Where is the egg?” I asked quickly.
“It is right here,” Elsa said showing it to me.
“Oh good,” I said with a sigh of relief as I took the egg and set it on the table.
“Why would the grounders go?” queried my mother.
“I don’t know,” started Elsa as she and Asvord went to the other side of the table and sat down. “As I was telling our friends about your meeting tonight, I went by our house. I saw that our front door was wide open, so I walked in to investigate. I look all over the house and nothing felt out of place. Until I stopped myself before I exited the kitchen. You know how the Grapple Grounder we took home with us would always stay in the spot we made for him?”
“Yeah,” I replied, as did a couple others.
“Well he wasn’t there when I looked back,” finished Elsa.
“That is weird,” I said, trying to think why they would leave.
“But you said ‘both’ Grapple Grounders left, what happened to the one. I thought Repteil had Fire,” mother said.
“She did,” Asvord told her mother. “After I had come from Explod’s house, I went to Repteil’s house. But she met me before I got there. Repteil told me that she had been playing with Fire out behind her house. She then went back in her house to get a perch fish for a treat. But when she came back to Fire, she saw that the other Grapple Ground had come to Fire and persuaded Fire to fly away with him.”
I then asked why Asvord used the word “persuaded” instead of some other word.
“I was about ready to get to that,” continued Asvord. “When Repteil told me what happen, she said that Fire didn’t look like he wanted to go. He kept looking back at Repteil who was standing at her back door. However the other grounder grabbed Fire with his paws and flew away with him.”
“That is interesting,” stated Annett.
“We must have gotten through to Fire with Repteil, because when I saw the Grapple Grounders with Steinson they both followed all of his commands,” added Asvord.
“I bet that is where they’re going,” I stated.
“Where?” Annett wondered.
“Back to Steinson,” I replied. “Because for one thing they did obey him every time he gave a command when I first met Steinson face to face on Outcast Island; maybe when we meet Steinson we can use Fire to our advantage.”
“That is a thought,” said Asvord.
After that I was done with the both maps. I folded the one I had from Asvord up and put it in my pocket. I told Annett that the meeting will be held here at the Great Hall after supper.
“Speaking of which,” mother said. “I need to go get started. I will see you this evening Annett”
My sisters and I also bid Annett goodbye, until tonight. We followed our mother out the door and got on our dragons and flew back to our house.
“Hey mother, you’re getting to be a very good dragon rider,” commented Asvord as we entered our house.
“Why thank you,” mother said as she went straight into kitchen and started to prepare supper.
Asvord and Elsa then told me that everyone is supposed to come tonight for the meeting. My sisters asked me what it was going to be about. I told them mainly about my strategy on how we are going to beat Steinson, how we might go about finding this cave that is suppose to help in clues in the mysteries of a Night Fury, and with Hiccup there what we might expect from that island.
Mother came in and said that the fish that she was frying would be done in about fifteen or twenty minutes.
“In the meantime, Asvord could you turn them we they need to be,” asked mother. “I need to get some things done with my sewing if I am going to the meeting tonight.”
“Sure thing,” replied Asvord.
“Oh and Elsa could you get the fruit and the table set please?” asked mother again.
“Sure,” said Elsa.
I decided to go out and feed our dragons for the night.
When I went out to our barn, Fredrick was waiting for me. He was standing by our salmon barrel. Salmon is his favorite fish. I gave my dragon his serving of salmon, Spiker her Halibut, Meatballs his well meatballs and some rocks that Elsa had collected for him, and mother told me that Fintan loves brown trout. So I gave him his share for the meal.
After that was completed I decided to go take a walk. I did not have any place in particular I wanted to go, I just felt I needed some alone time to clear my thoughts. Lately I have been doing a lot of things to solve this mystery. I decided to go over in my mind what had happened so far and the connections that I have seen.
Suddenly I heard a noise close by. I had been so deep in thought, I found myself next to the new armory that had been built. I heard the noise again. Then out of nowhere a man jumped out from a shadow and knocked me off my feet.
“What in the world?” I mumbled. “Watch where you are going buster,” I yelled back.
I then looked in the armory and was startled to see what I was looking at. There was a full moon out so I was not mistaken. It was Fire, one of the Grapple Grounders! In his mouth was a shield. But then I heard noise coming from behind me. I whirled around just in time to duck under the butt end of a hammer handle coming at me. Fire had jumped back scared and frightened.
“Hey stop that man,” someone yelled.
I thought, “What again?!”
I ran out and saw a viking point towards another viking running away, this viking was the same one that ran into me just a few moments before.
So I ran after him. He had a large lead, but as it was getting darker outside the moon was already out and shinning bright. Even though with the moon out, I still could not make out the face of the viking who was running away. One other thing, there were not many Berk villagers out and about because they were all eating.
This chase seemed almost an exact duplicate of the one I did a while back, because we were heading in the general direction of the docks. However this time would be different, because I have my dragon. I slowed down a bit going past my house and did Fredrick’s Thunderdrum call. No more than a few seconds had elapsed when he flew over my house and flew next to me. I hopped on; though there was no saddle on him.
I looked back at whom I was pursuing and I guessed right. He did turn down the path to go down to the docks. So I guided Fredrick immediately over my house and down to the harbor, and then slowed Fredrick to a glide. I had position us behind the corner to the left and back of the path down to the docks. It was a lot darker down here because the all the rock formations around blocking the light of the moon.
I perched on top of Fredrick, reading myself to leap at the viking. It looked like the man thought he had lost me so he picked up the pace down the path. He had one more turn to make before he got down to the bottom.
Here was my chance. As soon as the man turned the corner and started to run down the pier, I urged Fredrick on and then I jumped off Fredrick and tackled the viking.
We wrestled a little bit, and then the scrum rolled into the light of a torch that was lit on a post nearby. I was able to pin the man’s arms behind him. I then heard a voice come from the man I was on, “Don’t hit me, Jarl.”
“I’ll do wha-,” I started. “Wait. How do you know my name?” I said turning over the man.
The man held up his hands in surrender and whispered, “I wanted to make sure it was you before anyone else caught me.”
I could not believe my eyes.
Guess who it was. It was Adam Thorvald!

“Did you seriously come back?” I asked Adam. I wanted to punch him in the face for what he has done, but something told me not to.
“Yes and I can explain,” whispered still Adam. “I want to come clean, but we can’t talk here. For I think you are really the only one on Berk that will listen to me.”
“Well there is one other,” I whispered back, thinking about Annett.
“Who?”
“I’ll tell you later,” I spoke softly as I stood up and helped Adam to his feet. “Since you came back, are you going to help us to the full extent and help stop your brother?”
“Yes,” he said as he held out his hand for a shake on it.
I shook his hand. “Okay, meet me at the back of my house in one half hour from now.”
“Alright,” Adam said as he ran off into the shadows.
I watched Adam as he ran off and then turned around to see Fredrick standing right behind me.
“Oh my cheeks slapped twice, you scared me Fredrick,” I said jumping back.
Fredrick just snorted then turned so I could mount him. I got on and quickly flew back to my house. As Fredrick was just a few feet off the ground near the dragon stables behind my house, I jumped and race to the front door. I looked back to see Fredrick run over and immediately curl up and close his eyes as if nothing had happened. I thought that was nice of him in case someone had steeped out the back door and saw us landing.
Before I entered the front door, I took a deep breath to catch my breath. I nearly ran into my sister, Asvord.
“You finally decided to show up at your own house for supper. Amazing,” she said as she nearly lost her balance. I steadied her as I grabbed her.
“And also nearly knocking a person over in the process,” she added.
“A person?” I started to tease. “All I see is my sister.”
“What?” she denounced as she raised her fist.
I “cowered” in “fear” and said sarcastically, “Oh a beautiful person who unfortunately is my sister.”
“Okay that’s better,” Asvord paused for a moment while lowering her fist. “I think.”
Before she could change her mind, I walked into the kitchen.
“There you are,” mother said as she scooped out some yak stew on to my plate. “One minute you’re there, the next you you’re not.”
“Sorry, I went outside to check on Fredrick and decided to go out for a quick ride,” I told my mother while sitting down at the table.
Not much more was said during the meal. After everyone was finished, the clock in my head was telling me the half hour I gave Adam was very close to being up.
After mother had cleaned the table off, she asked me if I could go saddle our dragons for the trip to the Great Hall. I don’t know why but I hesitated until my sisters and mother had gone to their rooms before I started for the back door in the kitchen.
When I was alone in the room, I walked over and opened the back door.
“Jarl I ne-”
I slammed the door before Adam could finish.
Mother walked into the room and said, “I thought you went out.”
“Yeah, ‘bout that,” I stuttered.
Asvord walked over and opened the door. Adam was still standing there.
“Please I need to speak with Jarl,” pleaded Adam.
Everyone there, except me, gasped in complete surprise.
“Please, before you turn me in or something, I need you to hear me out on this,” Adam said still standing outside the door way.
There was a long moment of silence; mother looked at me, then Adam, then Asvord and Elsa. Asvord had the look on her face of, “I want to punch him in the face.” Elsa had the same look as Asvord.
“Come in Adam,” mother decided.
Adam thanked mother, walked into the kitchen, and closed the door behind him.
Asvord could not believe her mother’s decision. “Are you kidding me mother? But why?? After what he’s do-“
“For the man who saved my son’s life,” mother said calmly showing her hand to Asvord. “I at least owe him the opportunity to speak his peace.”
“Thank you,” said Adam again. He seemed to have run here, and fell, or maybe he was in a fight. “I’ll try to keep this short, because I need to go.”
Asvord shifted her weight in her stance. It looked like she wanted to retort something back at Adam, but thought better of it.
“I have been working with Steinson on several things, but as of lately I started to second guess my decision to do so,” started Adam. “I thought we would always do what we had been doing for the past couple of years. Trap and fish for animals, trade the hides or fish for other items with various clans throughout the region. We would also try to trade or sell the items we had traded with one clan to the next. We did make a small profit and gained some valuable items.”
Adam went on to say that things were going well until he and Steinson ran into Adam’s cousin G.R.; short for Gudrod Radormerson. GR at first just tagged along, but Adam said he changed when he saw he could cut in and get his own share of the profit he and Steinson were making.
Adam said that it did not take long for GR to corrupt Steinson. Steinson started to steal random items from clans and sell them to other clans. Adam said he tried his best to make it up to the people that Steinson wronged, but he was fighting a losing battle. GR had a secret way in stealing the items from the clans’ people. Adam was not allowed to know, but Steinson was, probably because Adam was not trusted by GR.
Adam continued with his story saying that a man with dreadlocks arrived on the scene; which made things really start to head south. The new viking clearly took advantage of Steinson to get want he wanted, and worked with GR to start a small collection of dragons. One of which was the Flightmare.
Adam later over head a conversation between the new viking and GR. Adam concluded from what he heard that GR and the new viking had been working together from the start and wanted to exploit Steinson for their own desires in their schemes.
Adam started to notice the grounders were being used personally by Steinson a lot and the Flightmare was GR’s dragon.
Steinson finally realized what Adam was doing returning or paying the vikings that thought they got a bad bargain in their trades and wanted to be compensated for their loses. Steinson and then GR started to treat Adam like a prisoner. When this started, that was enough for Adam. He said he started to look for ways to escape. He found his window of opportunity when saw the Outcast ship I was dumped from into the water.
Adam continued to say that he knew that this could be the chance he was waiting for. But when Adam saw Steinson the one day in my house, he knew he had to play like he did not know Steinson if Adam were to escape his clutches. Adam still stuck to his side of the story that Steinson rushed him and Adam just defended himself.
Adam said that he had overhead a different conversation between Steinson and GR, while at Berk. One late night Adam followed Steinson who met on with GR on the far side of Berk. Adam heard that me and my friends were “butting-in” and being “nosey” too much and they must be stopped. GR proposed a kidnapping of some of my friends to get me off their backs. Steinson did not agree with the kidnapping.
Adam though never thought they would go through with the kidnapping not until he came back the one day from looking for his cat. Then Adam said that he tried to defend himself that day without giving a way that he had actually worked with Steinson before. Adam knew if he had said that he did, people would not believe him.
Steinson had been trying several times to blame Adam for things disappearing around Berk, but hit he knew he couldn’t lose when Adam’s cousin GR looked so much like Adam. So Steinson used this against Adam hoping that someone would think the man that led the kidnapping was Adam, which in fact it wasn’t. It was sealed when Meen had identified him as the kidnapper.
Adam did not expect the next night when GR’s Flightmare broke into the jail and picked up him and flew him back to GR’s main base. GR made it plain that I was a prisoner and I had to come back to Berk to get the Grapple Grounders and the egg. GR made it clear what would happen if Adam came back empty handed. Steinson came with Adam to make sure he did not try to escape GR’s clutches all together.
“But I was thrown for a surprise loop when I literally ran into my sister Annett in a cave here on Berk, a few days ago while chasing one of the Grapple Grounders. Steinson was following me and confronted me about my task. I stood up to him finally and said, ‘I was not going back with him to GR.’ We got into a fight. Annie tried to break us apart, but to no avail. During the fight, we were on the ground and Steinson pushed me back into my sister, knocking her over. She lost her balance and then hit her head on a rock on the ground. Steinson and I both rushed to her side. She was still breathing.”
“Steinson and I both heard voices from another part of the cave. I recognized them as Jarl and you guys. Steinson said quickly, ‘They’ll take care of Annie.’ I started to run away with Steinson, but then said, ‘I am tired of running.’ Steinson said he was not going to leave without me. I refused, we got into another fight, and something then hit my head, knocking myself out. I woke up with Steinson standing over me and relayed that if we did not get those grounders and the egg, harm would come to Annie by the hands of GR. For Steinson said that he had the resources to do it even though Annie was on Berk. Gudrod is not a man to call a bluff on.”
“Neither one of us wanted any harm to come to Annie, so Steinson and I worked together tonight to get what GR wanted, but when I heard from passing vikings that Annett was safe in the Great Hall, I then ran into you Jarl,” Adam said pointing at me. Adam completed his story by saying that he felt that Steinson had a slight change of heart when he saw his sister and that she could change Steinson’s heart.
There was a slight pause and then mother spoke. She asked what Asvord and Elsa thought of what Adam had just said. Both my sisters said Adam should not be trusted. Then mother asked me.
“What do you think, son?”
“I think we should trust me,” I decided. “I think that Adam is a nice guy, but was just got involved too much with the wrong crowd. Now he needs good friends to help him out.”
“I would much appreciate it,” Adam said. “Shake?”
Adam had his hand out to me. I shook it.
“Then it is a deal. So whatever you want me to do to catch Steinson and GR so that they will get what’s comin’ to them, I will do it,” Adam said firmly.
“Okay, you still need to have the grounders, correct?” I inquired.
“No, Steinson actually has both of them now. I was sent to pick up the egg. And how he told me how you were so protective of the egg once you got it, I knew your house would be the best place to look. I was on the way when I ran into you,” stated Adam.
“Okay I’ll go get the egg,” I replied. Asvord and Elsa followed me. But I did not go into the room that had the egg, I entered mother’s room.
“I don’t know why you would trust Adam now, I would agree why you would before all this happened after what he did for you. But why still now?” asked Asvord, who was very perplexed.
“Just because of the fact that he saved my life,” I voiced. “Because any man, who would do that for another person, deserves some trust.”
“Why would you say ‘some trust’?” wondered Elsa as I sat on mother’s bed and answered her question, “Because even though he did save my life, he has done things to show that he cannot be trusted fully.”
“Ahh-kay, I see what you are doing,” Asvord pronounced. “You’re going to give what Adam wants, but at the same time not giving him what he wants.”
“Exactly,” I added while opening mother’s hope chest.
“But Jarl,” Elsa questioned again. “The egg is in the other room. Why are we in here?”
Asvord said she was thinking the same thing.
“I am going to do what you just said Asvord,” I said patting her on the shoulder. “I am going to give what Adam wants, while at the same time not giving him what he wants.”
“I don’t get it,” said Elsa.
I then picked up mothers two halves of her egg shells and then held them in front of me for my sisters to see. They still did not get it.
“Come on, you can figure it out,” I urged them on. “I know her girls, but that shouldn’t hold you down.
I smiled while they both made a face at me. Asvord shook her head, but then it hit her like a ton of Terrible Terrors.
“Ohh! I see now,” Asvord declared.
“Shh, be quiet,” I said covering her mouth.
“Oh sorry,” Asvord declared, but in a softer tone this time. “You are going to give him the egg shell, while at the same time not giving him what was inside the other egg.”
“Ahh see I told you, you could get it,” I said. I took some Night Fury glue and glued the two halves together. I will tell you later what Night Fury glue is.
We all then walked back into the kitchen and I handed Adam the “egg”.
“Thanks Jarl,” uttered Adam. “I won’t let you down.”
With that said he walked out the back door.

I remembered something and ran out to Adam.
“I will probably rely on you the most, if we get captured,” I told him. “Just follow my lead if that were to happen.”
“Okay. Oh I just remembered something too,” replied Adam. “Steinson is planning on going to the island, where I rescued you, earlier than he was expecting.”
“When will he be there?” I asked.
“About two days from tonight,” he told me.
“Thanks for the information,” I said shaking his hand again. He smiled and then ran off down to the docks again.
I then walked back into the house.
Mother then turned to me and questioned, “I did not think it was wise to give him the egg, Jarl.”
“I didn’t.”
“Hmm?” she said.
“Look I know you are a girl too, but I glued your two halves of your egg shell together and gave that to Adam. Not the real egg,” I replied.
“Well I am glad you did not give the real egg,” mother said. “But next time ask me before you give something away that is mine.”
“Ooh, sorry,” I apologized.
“This time, this was okay,” mother added.
“Now that that is all done, we should be getting to the Great Hall because everyone will be waiting,” stated Asvord. “We are running late now.”
“How can we be running late when we haven’t even been walking yet?” I needled.
“Ha ha, very funny. Go on you little man,” she pushing my shoulders to the door. “Go through the door.”
I then banged my head on the door a couple of times.
“Why are you doing that?” Asvord asked.
“You told me to go ‘through the door’,” I replied. “It doesn’t seem to work as well.”
“You know what I meant,” Asvord relayed raising her fist.
“Okay, yes I did,” I hurried and opened the door. “Oh ladies first,” I said letting Elsa go on my right side.
“Excuse me,” Asvord said while pushing her way through on my left side. Asvord smiled back at me. I shook my head. I kept the door open for my mother.
We all walked out to our stables. Fredrick was still all curled up, while the other dragons were stirring.
“Come on Fredrick let’s go,” I said.
I knew Fredrick was not asleep. Fredrick heard me and opened his left eye and looked around.
I chuckled and then said, “It is okay Fredrick. It is safe now.”
My dragon then got up and was ready to go. My sisters, mother, and I saddle our dragons and flew over to the Great Hall. When we landed it looked like the dragons were having a convention of some sort. There we several dragons “parked” next to the Great Hall.
We entered the Great Hall to find all of my friends there waiting for us. Hiccup was there too. They were all sitting in the large meeting area in the Great Hall.
“What took you so long, Jarl?” asked Cullan.
“Well I discovered some new evidence to when Steinson was going to be at the island,” I replied.
“How did you discover this ‘new’ evidence?” questioned Cullan.
“What island?” Pat said at the same time.
“I should probably start from the beginning,” I stated.
I got all of my friend’s attention and started to go through what has devolved in this mystery since we got back from Outcast Island. Of the things I told them were the following: I tried to identify the mysterious egg with the Help of the Dragon Academy; the egg’s markings did not match anything they had in the Book of Dragons, but we did find a clue to where Steinson may have found it; I had identified the crystals on the egg as being similar to some I saw in the same cave I found my dragon; how my sisters and I searched that cave and found the map to an island near Dragon Island; how we found Annett and brought her back to Berk for care; how Annett helped us pin point the location of the island we are going to; that this island is the same one where Adam rescued me; also the back story of what happened to separate Annett from her two brothers; how Annett is the brother of Adam and Steinson, Annett showed her locket to everyone there; and then lastly I told them mostly about the evidence that has shown that Adam was framed for the kidnapping and the robberies in Berk.
Most everyone’s reaction was that they did not think that the evidence was valid, considering Hat’s and Meen’s identification of Adam.
“What are you kidding me?” voiced Cullan. “You know that Adam cannot be trusted especially that he is Steinson’s brother. And yet you doubt your friends’ clear identification of Adam being the kidnapper.”
“I didn’t say I doubted my friends. All I said was some new evidence has surfaced that actually supports both what Hat and Meen saw and that Adam was framed,” I told him.
“Well maybe your evidence is wrong, Jarl,” suggested Hattori. “You might just be trying to find evidence that will defend Adam so that you won’t have to see the man that saved your life punished.”
“Yes but-,”
“I know what you are saying all of you,” my mother interrupted. “But I support what my son is saying. This new evidence does question Adam’s guilt. I say this not because Jarl is my son, but that I witnessed and saw the new evidence with my own eyes. So did Asvord and Elsa.”
“Oh,” Hat said.
Cullan then calmed down slightly.
“Hey even I don’t fully believe this new evidence,” I added. “I still don’t fully trust the new evidence. But it does beg the question, ‘Did Adam actually do it, or was it someone else?’.”
“So what is your plan, Jarl?” asked Ashley.
“My plan is that before we arrive at this island, we would stop at a nearby island, leave our dragons behind with Annett or my mother, then travel the rest of the way by boat,” I declared.
“How can we use boats when we are not going to sail there?” inquired Pat.
“Good question,” I said. “We will use several small row boats and bring them with us.”
“We could strap the boats to our Gronckles and use them to transport the boats,” imputed Thoreous.
“Just what I was thinking,” I replied.
“But there is a one thing different in my plan than before,” I added.
“What’s that?” asked Meen.
“That is we will leave right after we eat the noon meal,” I responded. “I want to get to this island before Steinson does, so I can be more familiar with the surroundings.”
Everybody said that would be okay with them. I also told everybody to get plenty of rest tonight so we can be raring to go tomorrow afternoon. Also that they should have everything packed in the morning.
As I was walking out Hiccup pulled me aside and told me that as soon as the Screaming Death is taken care of, Hiccup was going join me at the island and see if I needed any help with anything.
“Okay, but make sure you deal with that Screaming Death dragon,” I answered.
“Oh don’t worry I will,” said Hiccup.
After that, my family and I went home. We bed down our dragons for the night and then entered our house. We did not say much because we all felt sleepy. Before my sisters and I went upstairs, we hugged and said goodnight our mother.
I woke up as soon as the sun’s rays started peaking through the windows.
“Really?” I said to myself. “The one day I need my rest, I wake up early.”
I tried to go back to sleep but it was no use. There were still a few hours before the morning meal. So I quietly walked down stairs and went outside to see my dragon. It seemed like the sun woke him up too.
“Want to go out for a ride?” I asked.
He got up and stood next to me. I fastened his saddle on him.
I did not want to wear Fredrick out by flying fast or anything like that, so I t was just a leisurely flight. We flew all around Berk from the low beaches to the highest points such as Raven Point. Sine winter was coming the morning was very cool and crisp. The mornings will start to be like this from now on.
By the time Fredrick and I got back from our flight, the village was stirring.
I entered my house to find the girls getting the table set for the meal. We talked about random things, this and that, one thing then another.
After we were done eating, my sisters and I started packing for the trip. We packed about the same things: our weapons, some warmer wraps or coats, dragon nip, a few small tools, some rope, and some food for ourselves.
I packed two extra rounds of arrows with their quivers, and also packed a spare bow. After that was done, my sisters and I walked around to all of our fellow friends’ houses. We checked to make sure that they had everything that they needed. We also checked on Annett to see how she was doing. Gothi was also there and what I got from her was that either Annett had a clean bill of health or that Phil was a mean, stealth goat.
Following that we arrived back at our house for the noon meal. It was exactly noon, for the sun was directly above us.
The meal was on the light side, but was energy packed: fruits, salad, bread, corn, and some cooked perch.
We then cleaned up the kitchen and put away the dishes. We gathered our saddlebags we had packed and went out to our dragons. Thereafter saddling our dragons, we strapped our saddlebags to our saddles.
Mother got on Fintan, Asvord on Spiker, Elsa on meatballs, and myself on Fredrick we all than were ready to take off.
When we met our friends in front of Hiccup’s house, Thoreous informed me that the smallest row boats on Berk could not be carried by a Gronckle. Bother Metorblast and Meatlug felt uncomfortable fling with the boat strapped to them. I thanked Thor for finding that out and also Fishlegs for helping out there.
I talked with Hiccup some before mounting my dragon. Hiccup and informed me that while practicing battle maneuvers with the Academy riders in preparation for the Screaming Death, Snotlout again disrupted things.
“He started to gloat how he captured Alvin and started doing, well what Snotlout pretty much has always done: Looking out for number 1, and 1.5,” Hiccup said. “So I had no choice but to lock up Hookfang and keep Snotlout under suspension. Snotlout needs to learn how to work with the team. He doesn’t have to do everything on his own. We all need to help out.”
“I hope things will sort themselves out and also I wish you success with the Screaming Death,” I told Hiccup, patting him on the shoulder.
“Thanks, I wish you success on your trip as well,” he responded.
After a few minutes of final inspections by all the dragon riders, we set out for Dragon Island. We would be able to set our bearings better from there to get our goal. We flew our dragons higher into the sky because we could travel faster in that type of air. It also did not hurt we had a bit of a tail wind with us.
None of us said much on our trip. I did not mind though because we would make better time. We reached Dragon Island with good time. It had been about an hour or so of traveling. We then started our heading in the direction of the island on our map. This trip however took a little longer. For one thing there was a slight cross wind and head wind. But when we finally started to near our goal of the island, I spotted what looked like the island I saw in the map where I wanted to stop and set up a base camp. We landed on that island and did just that. It was nearing late afternoon. This small island had a lot of heavy greenery in the center of it. I had also seen a cave as we were approaching the island.
“Get your supplies together. We will be going over to the island shortly,” I said, dismounting.
Elsa then squatted down. “Do you mean short-ly like this?” she asked.
“No,” I chuckled. “But you’re getting better at the sibling picking thing.”
“Well she is learning from the best,” replied Asvord, jumping off Spiker.
I chuckled again. “I am going to go fill up my back-up water flask. I forgot to do that before we left. I saw a small spring in front of a cave entrance on this island, while we were on approach to the island. I am going to go find it now."
Everyone acknowledged.
“Come on Fredrick,’ I motioned to my dragon.
I saw the spring following a few minutes of walking.
As I was kneeling to start filling up the flask, I saw some fresh dragon prints. They were Skrill prints. My heart started to beat faster when I saw them. Fredrick started to growl softly when he saw a shadow fall on over my right shoulder.
“Wait, don’t use that water!” a voice cried out.
I whirled around to see a girl standing over the cave entrance.
“Sorry didn’t mean to startle you, but that is not good drinking water even to taste,” said the girl.
“What’s wrong with the water?” I asked.
“There is a bad brown algae growing along the bottom of the spring; this algae blends in so well with the sand bed that it is hard to spot,” she said.
“Thanks for the warning,” I said appreciatively.
“You’re welcome. My name is Cazi, Cazi the conqueror.” Cazi said holding out her hand in greeting.
“Nice to meet you,” I stated, shaking her hand. “How’d you get that name, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“No I don’t mind the question,” Cazi replied. “Follow me.”
We turned and started to walk around the corner, left of the cave. My heart skipped a beat or two when I saw what was there.
“That is the reason I was given the name of Conqueror,” Cazi stated pointing to the thing I was staring at.
It is a Skrill!

“When I heard from Trader Johann that the Berkians were training dragons, I knew as soon as I heard it what dragon I wanted to train,” Cazi said as she called Sparklebolt over.
At first Fredrick growled, but as soon as Cazi started petting Sparklebolt, Fredrick perked up and pocked his head. My dragon looked very confused. He kept looking at the Skrill and back at me as if saying, “How can this be?”
I was inclined to agree with Fredrick.
“Wow that is amazing,” I marveled. “I didn’t think it was possible, or at least not this soon after Berk just learned of Skrills actually still living around these parts.”
“Why would you say that?” questioned Cazi.
“Because we hardly ever saw Skrills around the Isle of Berk,” I stated. “Some even thought Skrills did not even exist anymore.”
“Hmm, interesting responded Cazi.
“We came here to visit your island,” I said. “Want to come greet my friends?”
“Yeah, lead the way,” Cazi said. “Oh by the way what is your name?”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” I apologized. “Forgive me for not introducing myself and my dragon. My name is Jarl Mollerson. This here is Fredrick. Fredrick, Cazi. Cazi, Fredrick. Fredrick, Sparklebolt. Sparklebolt, Fredrick.”
Fredrick immediately followed with a quick nod of the head to Sparklebolt as I finished speaking. Sparklebolt acknowledged with the same head nod to Fredrick.
Both Cazi and I chuckled at what are dragons just did.
“I’ve never seen my dragon do that before,” stated Cazi.
“I have seen Fredrick do that head nod on occasion, but not very often. Though my dragon also seems to only do the head nod only to those he has seen he can respect,” I said as we walked back towards where my friends were setting up the base camp. “It looks as if Fredrick instantly had respect for your dragon, Sparklebolt.”
“Hmm, interesting,” added Cazi.
“Oh I should warn you, my friends will not at first act slightly hostile or protective towards your Skrill because they will think, as did I, that Sparklebolt is a hostile Skrill. Because the only Skrills we have come across have been hostile; however that was only one dragon,” I cautioned.
“Oh okay,” replied Cazi. “I actually get that reaction a lot from newcomers.”
We were nearing the camp, so I thought it best that Cazi should stay behind with her dragon while I brace my friends and family for the Skrill.
I walked around the corner of a large rock and greeted my friends. When I started to tell them who I met, Cazi and then her Skrill, Sparklebolt, some of my friends and even my sisters did not think someone could actually train a Skrill, let alone ride it.
“Well you have been warned,” I said raising my arms in defense because I had heard enough. “Come and greet my friends, Cazi and Sparklebolt,” I yelled back to Cazi.
Cazi was leading Sparklebolt and walked around the corner. Immediately all of my friends’ dragons raised their wings and whaled out in alarm. Fredrick then fired a “soft” sonic blast in the air. That quieted all the dragons down, as well as their riders.
While Cazi told everyone what she and just told me, my friends and family marveled at how Cazi was able to train the Skrill.
“Nice to meet all of you, you can all me Caz,” replied my new friend.
“So can we use our dragons to fly over to the main island?” asked Pat.
“Caz, does your village have their own dragons to ride?” I inquired.
“Not really, because my Skrill was one of the few dragons to actually land on my island; so no I guess I am the only dragon rider on my island,” Caz answered. “There hasn’t been much interest in training dragons in my village. Probably because we are a smaller clan and don’t really need the help of dragons with anything, though I beg to differ. The elders and leaders of my clan are a little frightened to try and make use of dragons, even though it has been many, many months since the last dragon ‘attack’. Some of the younger vikings do agree with me about dragons actually finding things to help us with, but they don’t know how to capture dragons; let alone train them. One reason is because we hardly ever stray far from our island for our clan’s leadership likes keeping to ourselves; and dragons now a day’s never come around our island anymore.”
“What do you think we should do Jarl?”” asked Ashley.
I was trying to think of what to do when Explod suggested, “Why don’t we use some of Cazi’s village boats to get to the island, instead of our dragons. For if we use our dragons, we will draw more attention to ourselves maybe unwanted attention that would hinder what we came here to accomplish. Because Jarl this would allow us to keep a lower profile.”
“And I could say that you guys are traders or something from Isle of Berk and stopped here for supplies and maybe a little trading,” added Cazi.
“Sounds like a plan,” I replied.
“I’ll go back now and get a boat for you guys,” Cazi said as she mounted Sparklebolt.
Everyone waved as Cazi flew away on her Skrill.
“Only take what you need guys,” I said after Caz left.
While I was putting my quiver and my bow criss-crossing them over my shoulders, mother told me she brought with her several things she could trade with the villagers.
Not more than twenty minutes later did Cazi return with the boat. She said she hadn’t used a boat in a while and forgot how long it took just to travel a small distance in a boat.
“Who’s going to stay with our dragons?” asked Repteil.
“I’ll stay,” my mother volunteered. “I still have to set up some of the camp. I’ll send the items you can trade, with Asvord and Elsa. They as well know a thing or two about trading.”
My sister and all of my friends then piled into the boat. I, Hattori, Pat, Jack, Thor, and Cullan helped with the rowing. Since there was more weight in the boat it took close to a half hour to arrive back at the docks for the island. As we were pulling up to the pier, Ashley asked me, “What are we looking for, exactly?”
“Frankly, I don’t know either,” I told her, and then addressed everyone else in the boat. “The eggs, Grapple Grounders, a black dragon which could possibly be a Night Fury, and this island all have something in common. We need to find that connection before Steinson and his band arrives. I don’t know when that will be so take a few of our friends and scatter throughout the village and keep an eye out for anything that would relate to the mystery. And also try and learn some things from the villagers for they might know something that could help us.”
Everyone acknowledged. Cazi introduced us to a few of the leaders of her clan that came to greet us. There were three middle aged men with one older gentleman. All seemed very prestigious men as they only spoke to learn of our intentions on their island; as good leaders would do with newcomers. The leaders asked us how long we would be staying around their island. I replied, “Just a few days; probably no more than three.” Then they asked us what we came here to do. Cazi then said, “They came here for some supplies, so they could continue on their way.” Asvord added that we thought we could also do some small trading while we were here because we brought some items with us to do so. The leaders also asked us why so a young group of kids are traveling alone. I responded that we had Annett with us at the moment, and my mother was back at a nearby island finishing our camp.
But then the leaders than asked us, “Why did you not row into are docks with your boat of your own?” I had to think fast, and then replied, “Well would not be as mean as to row ‘into’ your docks. That would have caused damage to our boat and also damage to your docks. Then none of us would be happy right now.”
Thankfully they did not ask any more questions as they were chuckling too much to do so. I guess my humor got the best of them. I was afraid they would continue to ask how we got here and I would have to divulge how we used our dragons to fly to their island.
Pat, Repteil, Tory, and Thoreous walked off in one direction. Faith, Cullan, Sapp, my two sisters, and Jack took the opposite direction. And then Ashley, Hattori, Annett, Explod, and I took the main road through the village. Cazi accompanied us also.
We greeted some of the villagers as they passed by. Cazi mention that her clan is very friendly. But those who are leading the clan can be very suspicious of pretty much every newcomer to their island.
“They have even tried a few vikings that had some power among our leadership. Those vikings dealt in illegal trades and also embezzled money from the clan’s treasury,” Cazi said as we neared their main hall.
But before we walked in, myself as well as Explod wanted a quick drink.
“But you have your own flask of water,” stated Annett.
I looked at Explod, he looked at me. We both winked at each other; for we both knew what the other was thinking.
“I don’t get it,” replied Annett.
“Just come on, Annett,” said Explod. “You’ll find out soon enough what we’re doin’.”
Hat and Ash also knew what Explod and I were doing. Cazi said the larger house next to “The Gathering Place”, as they called their main hall, is where the village eats if they have a party or if two vikings go after taking a break from their work and have a mug of cooled yak milk.
“Basically it is where the village likes to hangout, cool off, rest, and/or talk about the interesting topics of the day,” explained Cazi as she opened the door to the house. “My best friend runs ‘The Watering Hole’ as it was named.”
From the outside, the construction looks like they built three viking house very close together and joined them all to make one large building. The Watering hole on the inside was spacious and roomy. You could smell brown trout cooking on a large oven in the center of the room.
Cazi lead the group over to the right to a long table with benches on either side. When we were sitting down, Cazi waved to a man that then waved back. This young man came over and greeted us all.
“So what can I get all of you to drink to start off with?” asked the man.
“How are you doing, Bergr?” Cazi asked.
“Graeat, thanks,” Bergr replied. “May I fully introduce myself, my name is Bergr Kryson.”
We all greeted Bergr.
“To what do I owe the pleasure of meeting you fine vikings?” inquired Bergr. “Wait let me guess,” he said before I had a chance to. “You are here for information.”
“How did you know that?” asked Explod.
“The news about your arrival, traveled fast. Hardly anything that happens on this island I don’t end up hearing,” Bergr replied. “With your new friends Cazi, business has been booming; people coming in and talking amongst themselves about you guys.. and gals.”
“I see. What have they been saying about us?” Hat questioned.
“Oh different things,” Berger went on to say. “Mainly how you guys are the third group of strangers that have visited our island within the past couple of months. Also they think you’re not the same as the others, because of your youth.”
“Third group?” I said surprisingly. “There were ones that came here before us?”
“Yeah, like I said, ‘all within the past couple of months.’ No actually the last month itself,” answered Bergr. “So what are you here for? If it is information you’re looking for, you’ve come to the right place.”
“Well,-“ I began.
“I like taking guesses at things like this. Let me take a stab at it,” Bergr said as he thought about it for a moment and then said, “You want to know about the old legend about two snake-like dragons, two eggs, and a mysterious black dragon. Am I right?”
My friends’ eyes widened, but probably not as much as mine did.
“I think you hit the nail on the head, BK,” added Cazi.
“How do you know about all these things?” quizzed Ashley.
“Oh ‘The Old Legend’? I’ve known about that since I was born here,” responded Bergr.
“’The’ mystery is almost as old as the floor you are standing on right now,” imputed Cazi before Bergr could get started completely. “How our village actually got started is a group of traders, as the story goes, came from the east to look for a treasure buried on this island or one near this one. The traders had brought their families with them. As the rumor then spread about the buried treasure, other families then came.”
“But as time grew on, and people could not find the treasure, less and less people started to come to our island. As more and more people could not find the treasure, the less vikings would keep coming,” Bergr returned and continued the story. “It wasn’t until a young boy from I think actually from your island Berk, that we got very close to solving the legend. This young boy was very fond of riddles as he wrote down his notes of the mystery in a book. ”
Since Bergr took a wild stab at why we were here, I wanted to take a wild stab at who the young boy was. “Does this young boy’s name happen to be Hamish II?”
“Why yes, that is his name,” declared Bergr.
Me and my friends then gasped and sat there in disbelief. Hamish II has a connection with this mystery?
“Just to be sure,” I struggled to speak. “Was.. Hamish II.. short and skinny for his age at the time?”
“That description of him sounds exactly correct,” answered Bergr. “From the time I was little, I always wanted to solve, ‘The Tale of Two Taverns’ as I like to call it. I’ll show you the books he left my grandfather at my house. Come back here in an hour when I’m done working.”

“What’s the matter?” Bergr asked because me as well as every one of my friends seemed frozen from what he said.
I finally found my voice and then stated, “Hamish II was the son of a chief of Berk. Just recently did a very good friend of ours just solve an old, old mystery from some of Hamish’s riddles.”
“That’s very interesting. I’ll show you the notes of Hamish on this mystery when I get of work,” concluded Bergr.
My friends and I bed Bergr so long for now, while we walked out of The Watering Hole. Explod then mentioned, “See. That visit proved productive.”
“Though there is still one thing we still didn’t do,” I declared.
Ashley then replied, “Get a drink of water?”
“Yeah,” I chuckled as I took a sig from my flask.
To kill time, I told Cazi to take us on a tour of The Gathering Place. This hall was very much like Berk’s own Great Hall. There are places to sit and talk business or pleasure, places to hold village meetings, a small platform or stage for speeches or trails as Cazi had mentioned before, and there looked to be something of a small medical section in the back.
Standing outside the doors after the tour, I looked at the shadows of the villagers and of the surrounding buildings. I noticed we had only used up barely ten minutes.
“I’m a little hungry. Why don’t we go back to The Hole and get a bite to eat?” I suggested.
Everybody agreed. We re-entered The Watering hole and sat in the same seats as before. Bergr was a little surprised to see us so soon. Hat said we did not have much else to do, so we decided to get something to eat.
All my friends and I got a small House special: two perches cooked the way you like it, between two slices of bread, and two pieces of cabbage. The sandwich was very good.
The end of the hour was nearing, so Bergr came over and said he was ready to take us to his home.
However the doors to the building flew open and three men walked in. It was Steinson, Adam, and I am assuming GR!
“They’re not supposed to be here this early,” I thought to myself, and then whispered out loud, “Slowly get under the table to hide.”
All of my friends complied. Cazi and Bergr didn’t have to because our enemy does not know we know Cazi and Bergr.
Bergr acted like he would normally do at an empty table; collecting the dishes. As he bent down closer to the table he relayed in a soft voice, “I’ll stall them and see what they want. Cazi can take you to my house, she knows where it is. The notebooks are upstairs on the top shelf of my bookcase.”
Bergr collected all the plates and took them to the kitchen. The kitchen was a small room in the back right corner. Bergr then walked over and joined what looked like the owner of The Watering Hole. I saw Bergr intentionally sit Steinson, Adam, and GR away from us facing the far wall from us. This would give us the cover we needed to exit the building. Cazi led us through the kitchen to a back door and outside.
When we were outside The Watering Hole, we all noticed that GR’s men were patrolling the main pathways.
Cazi interjected, “Follow me I know a back way to BK’s house.”
We followed Cazi through the back alleyways and in five minutes we were at BK’s house. Well we were actually across the main pathway from it.
“Wait,” I grabbed Cazi’s arm.
“What,” she questioned.
“We can’t all go out. Look down the street there,” I said.
“Oh, there are three of GR’s men down there,” Cazi saw and spoke. “They might spot us if we all go over.”
“Yeah, so that is why I am going over by myself. Try to stall those men if they try to enter Bergr’s house, Cazi,” I told my friends before they could stop me from going over.
I rushed over and tried the front door handle. It was locked somehow. To keep from being spotted I ran quickly to get behind the house. I looked around for a way in. The back door was locked to, but I saw a window above the doorway. The window was open, but how to get up there? I saw some crates nearby; I stacked them on top of each other and then stood on them. I jumped straight up and grabbed the window seal, but not without almost losing my grip after grabbing it. I pulled myself up and through the window.
As I looked around the room, I realized I was in Bergr’s bedroom. I scanned the room and found the bookcase on the other side of the room. I walked over and stood on a stool to reach the top shelf. I saw the notebooks Bergr had been talking about. They looked like they were purposefully placed under a small cloth as to conceal them from anybody just looking in the room. On the notebooks it said "Two Taverns". There were three notebooks in all. I grabbed the three books and went back to the window I had climbed in. Unfortunately I saw that I could not get back down because the crates I had stacked had fallen off each other. I think this happened when I jumped up to the window.
That being the case, I walked down and slipped out a side window in one of the bottom rooms. I closed the shutters behind me so that everything would look like it was before. To be sure this was true, I went around back and put the crates back where I found them.
When I walked back towards the front of the house, I glanced around the corner to see if anyone was there. I saw that those men I had previously seen must have gone another direction for they were not there anymore. I rushed back to my friends and show them the notebooks.
“Where should we go from here to meet Bergr?” asked Hattori.
“Good question,” said Annett.
“Shouldn’t we go back to The Hole and just wait for Bergr to come out?” suggested Explod.
“You won’t have to,” said a voice coming from behind us.
All of us whirled around to see Bergr standing there.
“Sorry didn’t mean to startle you guys,” Bergr replied.
“That’s okay,” I replied. “We just didn’t expect you to be there. We thought we’d have to go after you.”
“Who me? Nah, I can take care of myself; even if those guys came back,” voiced Bergr.
“Now that we have the notebooks, we should regroup with the rest of our friends and head back to our base camp,” stated Ashley.
“I agree. Though easier said than done,” I replied. “Without our dragons and GR’s men snooping around, this will definitely make things interesting.”
“Then let’s get a move on,” said Explod.
Cazi took point because she knew her way around the island better than anyone according to Bergr, Bergr brought up the rear. My friends and I filled the middle. So that we would stay close together, we went in rows of two. I told Cazi that we were going to have to make a break for the boat we rowed on and after we find our friends. I remembered that the group that my two sisters were in would be the closest group because they had taken the general direction that we took to go to Bergr’s house.
To keep concealed, we headed through the back alleyways down to the beach. When we came to the end of the alleyway, we halted to see if there were any of GR’s men hanging around. There were several actually. We stood in silence for a few moments. I then heard a strange sound that I seemed to have recognized.
“Did you hear that?” I asked.
“Hear what?” Annett questioned.
The strange sound had repeated itself. It was my sisters’ warning call if they were in danger or needed help!
“That call is from one of my sisters! It is a variation of a Thunderdrum call that we arranged among ourselves to call if we ever needed help,” I voiced.
“It sounds as if it is coming from our left down near the beach by the docks,” stated Bergr.
“Well let’s go after them,” Annett said.
“We can’t go just yet; GR’s guards are patrolling the streets. We won’t know what to expect if we turn a corner and suddenly find a guard standing there,” Explod expressed.
“Well then, what do you propose we do?” questioned Annett.
“Wait here I have an idea,” Cazi announced.
Cazi ran off through a side alley. Bergr said she might get caught, but I replied that she would be more likely than not because she lives here and has a right to move around as she pleases. Cazi came back with a bundle of clothes.
“Here put these on quickly,” Cazi stated.
“What are these?” Explod asked while putting on a large tunic.
“There close silly,” Cazi replied.
“Well I know that, but what are these suppose to do,” Explod repeated.
“Well since you are afraid of being spotted by GR’s men, the main thing that gives you away is your Berkian clothes,” Cazi said. “So all you need to do is..”
“Put on some of your native island clothes and we’ll blend in. Smart,” concluded Hattori.
When we had put on the clothes that Cazi had brought us, we walked right out into the streets and acted naturally. The guards, though they look more like soldiers, hardly even noticed us. Bergr pointed to where he thought the sound had come from. We then walked down to the beach. He pin-pointed the location better there and said we could either continue walking on the beach or go up the pathway to our left and come over top of where he thought our friends we at. I quickly decided to take the pathway so we could have the drop on whoever might have been holding our friends.
We all rushed up the pathway and then walked swiftly over to the place where Bergr and previously said. As we neared the edge of the embankment, we crawled up to it so we could plan our next move. As we peeked our heads over the edge, we saw that we were on a considerable high cliff. We saw our friends down there all kneeling down. They all looked like their hands were tied behind their backs.
I then voiced a return Thunderdrum call to my sisters. This call was to acknowledge the warning call and say that help is on the way.
“How are we going to get down there?” asked Ashley in a soft tone as not to give away our position. “I’d say that was a fifty feet drop off from where we are at, to the base of the beach.”
I scanned the area around us and down by the beach around my friends. Down near them it looked like there was a boardwalk coming from the docks and there was two men standing guard over my friends. Up near us there was a small shack with several trees around us. I entered the shack and saw some tools laying in there. I then had a plan and told my friends to go back down the pathway and then wait near a large rock formation near the edge of the cliff. I pointed to where I wanted them to wait.
As they were on their way down, I grabbed an arrow out of my quiver and attached a long rope I found in the shack. I tied the other end of the rope around a tree next to me. I grabbed a long leather strip, which was also found in the shack. I aimed my arrow for one of the lampposts. I drew my bow back and then fired. The arrow hit exactly where I wanted it to. I grabbed the leather strip, swung it over my rope, and jumped off the cliff.
As I jumped I saw that the two guards heard my arrow hit the lamppost and whirled around to see what was going on. By the time they saw me I was already on the beach. There was just enough slack in the rope that when it tightened and jerked, I let go of the leather strip and hit the beach rolling.
The two guards started to rush me, so I started to run away from my spot there on the beach. Hopefully my friends that were behind me took the clue to come in and untie every one of my friends.
As I was running I saw that I was much faster than they were, but I only went fast enough as to let the guards think that they could catch me. But then I saw that the cliff that was around on my left suddenly cut of my path of escape because the cliff went around and out to the water nearby. There was no more beach to run on, but I still got as close as I could to edge of the cliff and the edge of the water tide. There were also several large rocks and stones scattered about too.
“What ya gonna do now kid?” asked one of the guards.
“You’re trapped,” said the other one.
“Who says? You two? Pftt, try and take me,” I taunted.
The two guards rushed me, but as they neared me I ran and jumped off a good sized rock that was in front of me. I dove right over the two of them and did a tumble to regain my footing and started running back towards my friends.
“Why you little..,” one of them said while I took them by complete surprise.
I ran away, but again allowing them to keep the same distance from me. When I turned the corner my friends were waiting, so I stopped. However when the two guards turned the corner, Thoreous and Cullan were waiting for them. Thor and Cullan quickly had them pinned and Tory and Asvord used the ropes the guards used on them to tie up the guards themselves.
“Well hey,” said my sister Asvord. “Nice of you to ‘drop’ by.”
“Haha, very funny,” I replied. “We need to quickly get to the boat and get back to our base camp. Are you guys all right?”
Everyone said that they were and we ran off to the docks. Cazi had nearly completed prepping the boat for takeoff when Elsa suddenly realized, “Wait, where is Meen?”
“What,” I said. “I thought she was with you guys.”
“I haven’t seen Meen since I got off the boat when we first arrived,” replied my little sister.
Everybody else there had the same answer as Elsa.
“We have to go look for her before we shove off,” Elsa reacted.
“Go looking for whom?” asked a calm, slightly high toned voice.
All of my friends, my two sister, and I turned around to see Steinson, Adam, and GR standing on the docks.
“Well whomever this person is, is of no importance now, because you will all be coming with me,” GR spoke mockingly.
“I think you know the answer I’m about to give,” I retorted back at GR.
“Yes I do, unfortunately,” replied GR with a sigh. “Vemund!” GR said with a gruff tone now. “Take these kids to the main hall on this island we have a litt-,”
GR was cut off by Steinson yelling out. Someone had just pushed Steinson into Adam in which they both went off the pier.
“What is this?!” demanded GR.
Before GR could turn around, there was a loud bang. GR then slumped over.
“Meen!!” me and all of my friends answered in great surprise.
“This person ‘whom’ you speak just wanted you to greet a very good friend of mine,” Meen stated trying to imitate GR’s voice. “Mah pan says, ‘Hello.’.” she said in her own voice.

“Are you alright Meen?” I asked running over to her.
“Yes, I’m fine,” she said. “But this guy.. eh.. not so much.”
“He’s just out cold,” Hattori said checking GR. “Good thing he was wearing a helmet or he might have a massive head ache when he wakes up.”
“Well I didn’t swing as hard as I could have, so that probably helped,” added Meen. “Though his head is gonna be ringing when he wakes up.”
“Could we get a move on now, because I don’t want to stick around and wait for the answer to those ‘bells’,” replied Asvord untying the boat.
We all chuckled and jumped into the boat and shoved off; people then volunteered to do the rowing. I looked back as we started drifting out to sea with the tide, I saw Adam climbing up back onto the pier. He did a slight nod as if telling he’s still on our side. I acknowledged with another slight head nod. With that Adam went over and checked his “boss” GR.
Cullan, Pat, Jack, Hattori, Thoreous, and Explod were at the sides of the boat rowing. To insure we could make a quicker get away, Cazi got out two extra oars. Ashley and Asvord took the oars and sat opposite each other in front of Hattori and Cullan. I told Asvord and Ashley I could do the rowing instead, but they both said they would be fine. Bergr offered to row as well, but they said they could handle it. And that they did. It seemed at times they rowed faster than the other boys. I helped steer at the rudder.
We made very good time. And after ten minutes of rowing, it looked like there was no attempt to follow us. Within the next five minutes, we arrived at the island where we had set up our base camp.
“I forgot how much rowing put a strain on your arms and back,” stated Pat as he jumped out of the boat and stretched to loosen up.
We saw the rest of the dragons soon after that rush over and great their riders that had been gone.
“You can sometimes get spoiled riding a dragon. But I think it is a good spoil,” she said as she hugged Seabreez who rushed up to meet her.
“I’ve missed you so,” voiced Elsa as she hugged her Meatballs.
“We’ve only been gone three hours at best,” I said, while giving Fredrick several good rubs and scratches around his neck. “But still I agree.”
“Man I’ve never seen this many different types of dragons all in the same place at the same time,” Bergr spoke. “and trained ones at that. The only trained dragon I’ve seen has been Sparklebolt.”
My sisters and I walked over and hugged our mother. I then introduced her to our newly made friend in Bergr Kryson.
“Pleased to make your acquaintance,” said mother as she shook Bergr’s hand.
“Same here,” replied Bergr.
My friends that were not with us when we met Bergr, I introduced them to him. They all exchanged greetings.
“So do you think GR and his gang will follow us now?” asked sapphire.
“I’m not entirely sure,” I wondered.
“So then we ought to study my books and get on our way. Shouldn’t we?” stated Bergr.
Nearby was a large, flat boulder that we used as our table. Everyone gathered around the boulder to see. I gave Bergr the three notebooks. Bergr then told us that Book 1 was a journal of Hamish II and Bergr’s grandfather, Herigar Kyrson, daily findings and clues they found and or solved. Book 2 was a collection of extra notes that Hamish II and Herigar had written down. Book 3 was a map that led you from Cazi and Bergr’s island to another island further south.
Bergr then read what he told us was Hamish’s last entry into Book 2. Bergr started to read Hamish’s last entry notes, “Entry 112: It is less than a month before Snoggletog; so I must solve this mystery, or get close enough to the end so that another can solve it before the winter sets in. This island that these ‘two taverns’ are on, I have been to it thrice. The island is uninhabited by vikings, but there are signs of dragons either living on the island or just visiting the island as like a ‘rest stop’ of some sort.”
The notes continued on to say, “On my second visit to ‘Two Tavern Island’, during the day I witnessed a marvelous sight: a beautiful black dragon fly over head and into the left entrance to the first tavern. This black dragon flew a lot similar to a dragon that has been terrorizing Berk for some time now. When the black dragon exited, it was ambushed by a white Monstrous Nightmare with small gold highlights all over its body. The black dragon acted as if it had encountered the Nightmare before, but the black dragon seemed ready for him this time. The black dragon dodged the Nightmare’s best attacks but then quickly scared of the dragon just by firing what looked like blue lava or some type of plasma blasts on both sides of the Nightmare. The Nightmare then seemed frightened. It screamed at the black dragon and then flew off. The black dragon then seemed to nod as it watched the Nightmare fly off, and then it nodded again when it looked back at the Tavern it had been in. After that it flew away.”
“When I felt it was safe, I entered the tavern that the black dragon had exited. After a little exploring, I found some dragon eggs. The colors of the eggs were as follows: dark blue, red, and black. The eggs were beautiful. After some more exploring I found that there were markings on the walls of the tavern. I examined these markings and found that vikings had once lived on this island, but only for a short time. Continuing to explore the tunnels, I came across a wall in my path. Here is a sketch of that wall.”
Beneath these notes in the book was a drawing of the wall.
“This wall was probably the entrance to something very important, though I couldn’t stay long enough to examine it further; other than the fact there was a specific pedestal on either side of the wall. On those pedestals were indentations. I speculated that some type of object had to be placed there to enter the other side.”
“As I said I visited this island thrice. The last time I came to this island I did little more. All the other caves in the tavern kept coming back to the entrance to the second tavern. Herie and I could never figure out what these pedestals needed. We tried to get through the wall every way we knew how, but to no avail. After this all other clues about this mystery led back to the island. Because of this, Herie and I decided to leave it alone for we had better things to be doing. He and I both leave these notes so that others might be able to pick up where we left off.”
“Whoa that is some interesting facts there,” voiced Jack surprisingly.
“Well now we know where to go, so let’s go,” I said.
We broke camp and packed up everything. That took only five minutes.
“Before we leave, I made a little something to give us some energy,” said mother.
“Thanks mom,” Asvord said.
“Yes, thank you Mrs. Mollerson,” replied pretty much everyone or a version of that.
What we snacked on were protein bars that she had made back at Berk. They were dried oatmeal cooked with raisins, elderberry grapes, and a few more ingredients that kept the bar together.
We were shortly on our way to the island. By now it was the middle of the afternoon when we were flying to the island. I looked at the map in Book 3 and I took point, everyone else followed. The trip lasted a half hour, even when riding our dragons.
“This trip must have taken a very long time back in Hamish II’s day, because they would have had to take a boat,” said Pat as we arrived at the “Two Tavern Island”. “The try to get to Cazi’s and Bergr’s island would have taken half the day, and the trip down here to this island would have taken less time, but still would be a long trip.”
“No wonder Hamish II only took three trips to this island,” stated Asvord. “He and Herigar would have been tired just from the sailing alone.”
“Yeah my grandfather often spoke of the long trips,” replied Bergr. “But they passed the time by playing a game called ‘checkers’. Hamish was quite good at it took.”
“Interesting,” I said.
We circled the island twice to scout the island and saw that it was a very small island. It seemed just big enough to fit the two taverns. However as we neared and got closer down to the island, we all noticed there was a great big mountain in the middle of it. This island could have been a volcano once, because the top of the mountain came to an unusual small flat peek; that was concave making an indentation in the top. Bergr directed us over to the northwest side of the island.
“While growing up with school and then working at The Hole after that, I couldn’t find much time to come over here,” explained Bergr. “I’ve only been here a couple of times, probably not more than two; and those two times were a very long time ago. So given that amount of time, things have probably changed on the island.”
“You’re probably right,” I agreed. “The wear and tear on the island by the weather alone would change the landscape of it. Not to mention any of the dragons that would have come here.” After I said this we had landed and gotten off of our dragons. The entrances to the taverns were very close to the beach. From the beach to the entrances, there were no trees. It was all open. Though there was a large forest around the rest of the island. The forest also stretched over part of the mountain.
We did not see any dragon while we circled the island, so we came to the conclusion that we would not see any dragons down on the island. When we landed at the entrance to the first tavern, we noticed that the second tavern’s entrance is blocked. It was blocked by a cave-in apparently.
“Well that takes care of entering from that side,” mother said.
After entering the first tavern’s entrance, caves were huge. The first big room in the tavern was large enough to fit all of our dragons with plenty of extra space left over.
I turned the page in Book 3 and saw that Hamish II had drawn a detailed map of all of the tunnels that he and Herigar had explored. Though the tavern was huge, there was very little light entering the tavern. I saw on the side of the wall that there were torches in holders. Asvord had already gone over to get one before I had looked up.
“Spiker could you light it up for me?” she asked and then queued her dragon by saying a command she had previously taught Spiker, “Spiker, short blast.” Spiker then complied and fired a small, short blast to light the torch.
Asvord then walked over to me and held it so I could see the book better.
“Thanks Vordy,” I responded.
“You are welcome, Jarl,” she replied.
I then studied the map of the tavern. I noticed that Hamish had later noted that the second entrance from the second tavern had been caved in. Hamish noted that Herigar had told him this one time after coming to the island and then relayed it to Hamish when he visited Berk once.
Everyone else was looking at it the map as well.
“Look here,” said Ashley pointing to a spot on the map. “This must be the entrance to the tunnel we are looking for.”
“I think you’re right, because none of these other tunnels go anywhere. These must have been the tunnels Hamish was talking that only led back to this open area we are in now.”
“So that would mean that..,” Meen started to say as she looked up to see which tunnel entrance it would be from the open area we were in. “..that one.” She pointed to the one that was directly southeast of the entrance to the tavern.
“Well let’s go,” Bergr stated.
As we started to walk, Hattori then questioned, “If you have been to the island Bergr, how come you did not tell us where this tunnel was?”
“To be frank, I actually forgot,” Bergr replied.
“Oh,” said Hattori. “You did say that you hadn’t been here in a very long time, so that would explain it.”
The tunnel that we were in was large enough to hold three dragons next to each other, but was tall enough to fit three more dragons on top of them.
“For a small island, this sure can hold a lot of room under this mountain,” stated Elsa.
“Well for one thing little sister,” I started. “Since this is a large mountain, there can be rises and falls in the tunnels because of the room that the mountain covers. Also, the tunnels can also go below sea level often because the peeks that we see of low lying mountains in the sea are just a fraction of the actual size of the mountain. This being said, the mountain could go all the way down to the ocean floor. And we don’t know how far down that could be.”
We were near a sharp turn and decline in the tunnel path.
“Watch your step here,” said Bergr. “The first one is-,”
“Ahhh!” I let out as I took that first step. My footing must have slipped and I slid down the tunnel.
“Jarl!” Asvord screamed as she reached out to grab my hand.
She was only able to slap my hand, as I then slid down the sharp decline.

The tunnel that I was sliding down took me a down a considerable amount of distance, for I was sliding for at least a minute at a very fast pace.
“Jarl! Jarl!!” mother screamed again. “Fredrick-.”
I then heard a larger echo of air coming from behind. My dragon must be coming after me.
Thump!
“Jarl, speak to me!!” I heard my older sister say as I hit a wall. I was carrying so much momentum I could not stop myself.
“Oww. I hourt mah head,” I said with a little kid voice.
“Are you okay Jarl?!” mother demanded.
“Oh no!” I then said.
Crash!!
“Okay now that one hurt,” I said calmly as Fredrick ran into me after he slid down and knocked me into the wall again. Fredrick then licked me to see that I was safe.
“Are you okay, you idiot?” Asvord the said, I could tell that the tone in her voice was now relaxed. I noticed that since I was further away from the rest of the group, every time someone spoke there was a slight echo.
“Yes I am my idiot sister,” I retorted. “Don’t any of you try to come down here, there is not enough space.”
“Well what do you see?” mother asked.
“Not much, send the torch down,” I said.
I then heard a small rushing noise of the torch going down the tunnel. I then grabbed it as it came down and rested near my feet. I grabbed it and started to examine the shute I slid down. I slid my finger across the surface of it. I then rubbed my fingers together. There was a slippery substance along the whole floor of the shute.
“I’m coming down there,” mother then stated.
“No you’re not,” I ordered. “There is not enough room. Plus I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“Well you didn’t,” replied Asvord with a slightly irritated tone.
“Asvord, mother. Really, I’m fine. I was just blessed enough that I didn’t get hurt.. as much as I did.”
“What?!” mother demanded.
“Just a slight bump on the head,” I said then I spoke in a voice trying to imitate my sister. “Only that on the way down and when I smacked the wall twice, it messed up my hair. Oh the humanity. Aw, and I also broke a nail.”
I could hear everyone laughing.
“Haha, very funny,” I heard my sister say. I could just see her now. She would be shaking her head.
“Stop shaking your head at me,” I returned.
“How’d you know?” she questioned.
“Look I’ve been stuck with you my whole life, I should know you better than anybody,” I retorted.
“What? I’ve been stuck with you too ya know,” Asvord replied. “I’ve had to dea-.”
“Okay, okay, okay. As much as I’d love to hear this entertainment, I think we should get back to business,” said Bergr, chuckling.
“Yeah, you’re right,” I said, slightly disappointed because I was getting at Asvord good.
“What do you see down there?” asked Faith.
“Pretty much what Hamish has written down in his book here,” I stated.
I then tried to turn the page. My fingers were sticking together, so I rubbed some dirt on them. If I had some water, I’d rinse my fingers off. This is the best way to get anything sticky off your fingers or hands. It even takes of pine sap.
I tried again to turn the page, but this time the page seemed thicker than all the rest of the pages, I saw that two pages were sticking together. I was able to peel them apart. Hamish had some notes on this page saying, “Watch out for the decline to the wall-door, it is slippery.”
“Thanks Hamish, you couldn’t say that in your entry could you,” I said to myself. I then said out loud, “I see those pedestals Hamish was talking about.”
“What do the indentations look like on them?” inquired Bergr.
“Why slap my yak they look like the eggs the Steinson now has,” I said shocked.
“So that is why Steinson really wants those eggs,” stated Repteil.
“What are we going to do about it?” stated Cazi.
“I have an idea,” I declared.
“What are you going to do?” asked Tory.
“I am going to put some rocks with weights equal to that of the eggs,” I said.
“You don’t know how much the eggs way,” Asvord said. “It might be a trap if you try to do something that is not correct.”
“I know, but I can’t come back up the shute because Fredrick wouldn’t have enough room to spread his wings out to flap, let alone the fact trying to fly,” I replied. “And there isn’t enough room to fly down to me either. So my best bet is to open the door here and find a way back to you guys.”
“Well okay,” Asvord replied hesitantly. “Be careful.”
“I will,” I said.
I looked on the wall and there was a holder for a torch. I then set the torch in the holder. I look around for some medium sized rocks. I found some and lifted them to feel their weight. The two rocks I found were about the same weight of the egg, if I remembered correctly.
“Here goes nothing,” I stated as I started to set the two rocks in the indentations on the pedestals at the same time.
A big loud crunching sound followed by a rush of wind came through the door when it opened.
“Wow,” I declared grabbing the torch and walking in.
“What is it?” questioned Cazi.
“This is amazing,” I continued. “The rock on the side of the walls in this giant room reflects the light from the torch. So there really isn’t a need for several light sources such as torches.”
“Ah you rhymed, now find a way to get us in there,” demanded Asvord.
I saw another holder for a torch and put mine in it. I read some more of Hamish’s notes on the next page, while Fredrick walked in and started searching for something. I read on the next page that there was indeed another way to get to the room that I was in. I heard Fredrick purr. I looked up and saw him standing by a large wall.
“Hey guys,” I said talking back up the shute. “Go back to the main tavern when we first came in. I think I found that way in.”
“Okay,” they all acknowledged.
I jogged over to where Fredrick was and examined the wall next to him. There was another pedestal with the same indentation of the other pedestals.
“You’d think Hamish was the one that set this all up with all the pedestals,” I said under my breath.
I looked around again for a rock that was the same size and weight as the one before. I found it and put it on the pedestal. It seems like these pedestals, when adding the correct weight on them, starts a mechanized system that will open doors.
This time for this door, there was an even louder crunching sounds followed by another rush of wind, but stronger this time. The door was massive as when it opened completely, the entryway stretched have the wall of the first tavern room.
“Jarl,” Asvord said rushing over to me and hugging me. “Don’t you ever do that again.”
“Aren’t you afraid you’ll embarrass yourself by hugging me?” I asked.
“No,” she said as she let go of me. “I’m already embarrassed enough as it is just by you doing what you do,” she ended with a wink.
“Okay now that we have had the family reunion, can we now get back to the mystery?” said Tory.
“Okay,” I replied.
I turned the next page in Book 2 and there was nothing more except one note by Herigar about Hamish.
“Strange. Listen to this,” I spoke then read the note in the book. “On Hamie’s third and final trip, we had a near death situation. Hamish nearly lost his life trying to solve the mystery. Not to mention Hamish’s father followed us when we entered had gone back to the southwest side of the island. We entered the tavern and were ambushed by renegading outlaw vikings. They don’t deserve to be called vikings. Hamish was in the tavern at the time those outlaws arrived. A boy of his nature, even though being smart, could not escape them. The outlaws must have heard about the treasure and came to collect. When they saw others trying to ‘take it’, they wanted nothing of it. If they couldn’t have the treasure, no one should. So they caused a cave-in and then ran away like the cowards they are. Hamish’s father was observing from a distance, but once he saw the renegading outlaws he came to the rescue. But it was nearly too late. The outlaws had escaped, being a man of my age, I couldn’t not get the boulders out of the way. But Hamish I was a great warrior and made quick work of rescuing his son. The cave-in must have opened up another tunnel that let in water from the ocean. The tunnel was quickly filling up with water. We barely escaped with our lives. I told Hamish, when we walked back to the docks, solving this mystery was not worth the risk. Hamish’s father agreed with me. Whatever may be at the end of this mystery, is not worth the risk of losing your life”
“With that, I didn’t really see Hamish after that; only on Snoggletog, once a year to visit. I’ve tried to discourage any attempts to by Hamish or anybody for that matter, trying to continue on where we had left off. Whoever is reading this note now, get out while you still can. This is one mystery that must stay a mystery.”
“Man, no wonder most people stopped coming to our island,” Cazi stated. “because most of them came to look for the treasure.”
“Something is telling me that our mystery and the ‘Tale of Two Taverns’ is connected in more ways than we think,” I declared.
“So are we going to stop looking?” inquired Cazi.
“Nope,” I said.
“You read for yourself what Herigar said. Right?” Repteil told me.
“Yes, but if there is something more to the mystery and treasure that we still don’t know about, I don’t want Steinson let alone GR to get his hands on it,” I voiced. “Especially if GR goes back and takes whatever it is that makes the treasure special back to that one guy DB.”
“Are you thinking that this ‘special thing’ is a dragon?” inputted Navaro.
“That is the main thing I am worried about,” I said. “And with the notes we read earlier about the ‘black dragon’ looking something like the dragon that had been terrorizing Berk for so many years…,”
“Are you saying that this treasure isn’t measured in gold or jewels, but a dragon? But not just any dragon, a Night Fury?” asked Sapphire.
“It is a possibility,” I professed.
“So where do we go from here,” requested Faith.
“That is one thing that has me stumped at the moment,” I uttered search this large room for anything that might be of some help. Take some torches to light your way. I saw several along the walls in here.”
Everyone dispersed and started to search. This room that we were in was massive. It could probably hold two, if not three Great halls in it. There were several columns scattered about formed by the dripping of water from stalactites to stalagmites. There were also several of stalactites and stalagmites scattered about as well.
I sat on one of those stalagmites that had a rounded top to them. I studied what Herigar had written down on the last page in Book 2. Something just did not seem right to me. The way Herigar wrote the note it is if there is another place that we need to go.
“What’s the matter?” asked Cazi as she came back to me after about five minutes of search the nearby walls and floor.
“I don’t know, really,” I replied. “It is just the way in which Herigar wrote this final note in Book 2. He seems to me like he switched from helping Hamish II to not helping him too fast. It just doesn’t feel right.”
“How do you mean?” she questioned.
“Well look here,” I pointed out to her in Book 2 where I read. “This part where he talks about: ‘…followed us when we entered had gone back to the southwest side of the island…’ When we circled this island twice, I did not see any way you could enter a tavern or even a cave from the southwest side. Also something don’t add up like: ‘…We entered the tavern and were ambushed by…’ the outlaws. But he then said in a sentence following: ‘…Hamish was in the tavern at the time those outlaws arrived…’ Now the way that speaks to me is that Herigar first said that they both went in together and then the outlaws struck, and then somehow Herigar got outside the tavern when the outlaws arrived.”
“Well maybe Herigar was a forgetful man, because he was quite old when he met Hamish,” said Cazi. “So has Bergr told me.”
“The main thing that gets me is how can Herigar and Hamish be on this island, but still be able to walk to a dock? Because of: ‘…when we walked back to the docks…’,” I spoke. “One other thing, if Hamish’s father took down the rocks from the cave-in to rescue his son, how come we saw the entrance to the second tavern here be completely block by a cave-in?”
“I don’t know,” stated Cazi. “Unless…,”
“Unless what?” I said.
“Unless this isn’t the island that the treasure is housed on,” Cazi declared.
“What are you saying?”
“I am saying that the treasure is back on my home island,” Cazi told me. “That is how they could have walked back to the docks because they were on my island.”
“You know, I think you’re right,” I declared.
Everyone at that moment had returned.
“Where do we go from here?” asked mother.
“I thin-,” something dropped on my head. “What the,” I looked up and saw I was just under a stalactite. Then I noticed something.
“Come here Meatballs,” I spoke. “Could you have your dragon fly me up there Elsa?”
“Sure, I guess,” my little sister replied, “Don’t know what you see up there.”
I sat behind my little sister on Meatballs. We fly up to the top of the ceiling in the Tavern room.
“Well lookie here,” I said. There was a false ceiling.
More or less it was just big hole enough for Meatballs to hover through. There were a ton of crystals in here. The room was very bright.
“What do you see up there?” asked Tory.
“The place where those eggs must have originated from. The two eggs that Steinson has plus the empty one that we gave Adam,” I said.
The small room was kind of like an attic; low-lying ceiling with very little room. I looked all around the room, and I saw something that alarmed me. I saw a broken egg shell and liquid coming from it.
“Hey guys,” I relayed. “One of the last eggs, I’m assuming, has recently been hatched.”

“What?!” I heard most of them say.
“You can go down now, Elsa,” I spoke to my sister.
“What are you saying? Whatever type dragon was in that egg is now loose?” quizzed Navaro.
“That is what I’m afraid of,” I said.
I then told the group what Cazi and I had thought of about what Herigar had noted at the end of Book 2. I left out the part where I thought Herigar was to “anxious” to stop any from coming near the mystery, because of Bergr. I didn’t want him to think that I could have thought of that. For one thing, I just met Bergr today and I don’t know how he would react.
Everyone realized as I did that this maybe be exactly correct that the treasure is actually on the home island of Cazi and Bergr. We all exited the tavern. We extinguished all the torches we had previously lit and then exited the tavern. But before we left the island, I wanted to examine the spot of the cave-in in the second tavern entrance. I was curious about something. I quickly examined the surrounding areas and then said we can be on our way.
“Hey guys,” I said before we took off. “The sun will be setting in about three hours. We need to get back to their island as soon as possible.”
“So what are standing around here for?” stated Tory, but didn’t expect a reply from anyone.
We mounted our dragons and flew on our way back to Cazi and Bergr’s home. It took half the time it took to fly back as it did to fly to Two Tavern Island.
I motioned to the others that we would circle the island fairly high in the sky and then land where we had our previous camp. While we circled the island, I noticed that there were hardly any people out and about. Usually at this time of day, everyone would be going home and be getting ready for the evening meal or going to the marketplace to get the food for the meal.
After that we landed at the site of our previous camp to regroup.
“Do you happen to have a map of your island, Cazi, by any change?” I asked.
“I do,” Bergr said. “Here you go.”
I took the map and examined it.
“See look here,” I said pointing to the southwest part of the map. “This is where I think the treasure is located. Because in Herigar’s notes he said that they entered the tavern from the southwest side. But he didn’t say from what island.”
“I think we’ve hit on something,” Cazi stated. “because that is an old abandoned silver mine.”
“Why was it abandoned?” asked Pat.
“Because they said it was so called ‘haunted’,” replied Cazi.
“Then that is where the treasure is, I’m sure of it,” I expressed.
“Uh didn’t you hear what Cazi said, Jarl?” questioned Cullan. “She said that is haunted.”
“So?” I uttered.
“Doesn’t that scare you?” Faith also questioned.
“No,” I said. “I don’t believe in that stuff; ghosts in all that stuff. Because for one thing most vikings thought that Toothless a Night Fury, a Flightmare, and several of the Mystery Class dragons ghostly in nature; which in fact they turned out to be just plain old dragons.”
“Okay, here’s my plan,” I then stated.
“You’re always a man with a plan,” my mother told me.
I smiled.
“Okay we are going to do this a little bit how we did the rescue mission on Outcast Island. Just with a few changes. Now that we have everyone as a group, we can more easily divide into teams,” I started.
Everyone was listening intently.
“We have twenty people including myself and the adults here. That means we can split up into to four even groups of five.”
“Hattori, Ashley, Annett, Repteil, and Sapphire are one group. Myself, Tory, Bergr, Cazi, and Explod are another. Asvord, Elsa, my mother, Faith and Navaro make still another. Then Cullan, Pat, Jack, Thoreous, and Meen make the last group of five.”
“So what do you want us to do?” asked Faith.
“First we’ll have names for each team. Meen, your team will be ‘Diversion’. And,-“
“Why does she get to be team leader, Jarl?” asked Pat.
“Because I said so. Moving on. Your team Meen will move in first and start a Diversion. Draw out GR’s men and lead the fight away from the village to the northeast part of the island. Do what you can to get GR’s men to follow you. Mother, your team will be The Pin. Once Meen’s team leads GR’s men out of the village, Pin down GR’s men by cutting them off from getting back to the village and getting help. Try your best to keep GR’s men from coming back to the village. When you have them pinned, Asvord, Fire a short blast into the air to cue The Hammer to come in.”
“Hatt, your team, Hammer, will engage the rest of GR’s men, and keep them occupied while my team, Socks, goes after the cave. I don’t expect GR to send all of his men out, just the majority of them. This will even the odds in our favor. With GR’s forces divided, we will be able to get to the entrance of the real tavern this whole mystery has been about. My team will go into the cave and recover whatever is in there that GR wants so badly,” I concluded. “Everybody with me?”
“Yes!” everyone cheered.
“Move out!” I then voiced.
My plan started going into action. We all mounted our dragons and flew to a safe distance above the island. Diversion then flew in a started their part of the plan. It was getting darker outside, but there were no clouds in the sky now so there would be some more time of sunlight to be shown.
I motioned The Pin to go ahead and move in as I saw just as I expected most of GR’s men chasing Diversion.
“Okay this is where we split up,” I voiced motioning The Hammer to move in.
I gave The Hammer enough time to move in, about five minutes. They quickly had the rest of GR’s men’s attention.
“One last thing,” I said. “Cazi stay up here, wait here three minutes and then as quiet as you can come fly down to the entrance of the cave.”
“Why should I do that? What would that be accomplishing?” pondered Cazi.
“You’ll know it when you see what happens down there,” I replied.
“You ready guys?” I asked my team.
“We’re ready as we’ll ever be,” Bergr said as he was sitting behind me on Fredrick.
We then flew down in nearly a straight dive.
“Ahhh!” Bergr screamed as we dove down.
“Not quite used to dragon flying are you, Bergr,” I said loudly so he could hear me.
“No!” He replied. “At least not for the sharp dives.”
We were at the site of the southwest cave entrance in minutes. We could hear all the commotion of the battles taking place.
“Do you think we’ll have to battle anyone?” asked Explod as we landed on the beach.
“I can answer that question for you,” said a high toned voice coming from the forest nearby. “Yes you will.”
“I kind of figured you would show up before we could get into the cave,” I said with slight disgust.
“Oh so you finally figured it out that this cave was the actual cave now,” stated GR with a weird calm tone. “And you had to go all out of your way just for nothing to that useless island.. uh what is it called again?”
“Two Tavern?” Bergr suggested.
“Ah yes, good ‘ol Two Tavern. It is beautiful this time of year,” stated GR.
“Oh kay, and this is conversation is going where exactly?” I wondered.
“Oh I’m sorry. I got a little side tracked. I was about to say that you will have to come with me, again,” said GR mockingly.
“You know what happened the last time you said that,” I replied.
“You escaped, but there is no escaping this time,” GR retorted.
“Well I don’t plan to escape, I plan to stop you and your men,” I stated.
“You must be joking,” GR chuckled. “I haven’t heard a good joke in a long time. Really? You and a bunch of kids flying silly dragons cannot stop me.”
Just then a huge crackling noise sounded.
“Oh there you went and did it,” Cazi yelled as she flew in on Sparklebolt. “Never call a skrill ‘silly’.”
“What?!” GR called out.
Several of GR’s men were stunned by Sparklebolt’s electric shock blast.
“That is it, no more Mister Nice Guy,” GR uttered.
“Oh so before all this you were playing the Nice Guy?” I replied.
GR reach for his sword and rushed me. I couldn’t fight him with my bow. So I reach for my sword in my holder on my saddle on Fredrick and swung my sword just in time to block his charge.
We had a several minutes of exchanges in a sword dual.
“Very impressive you handle yourself quite well as a swordsman,” GR stated.
“Well not my weapon of choice, but it doesn’t hurt to know how to use one,” I replied.
“Yes but unfortunately I have a deadline to reach,” GR said and then out of now where a red streak knocked my sword out of my hand.
It was the older of the two Grapple Grounders.
“Now what are you going to do?” asked GR.
“Do what you least expect,” I said as I bent down and then through sand in his eyes.
While GR stood dazed, I ran over to Fredrick and told him to go help the others. He didn’t want to go, but then I grabbed his face and looked into his eyes. Fredrick must have sensed that I wanted him to trust me as he fly off and went to go help the rest of the Socks team.
Several of GR’s men then rushed me and grabbed me from both sides.
“Ha we got you now,” said a third man coming over.
He threw a right cross, but I ducked. The punch landed square on the guy that was holding my right arm. He was out cold. I swung my right leg and kicked the guy holding my right arm. He then stumbled over backwards, tripping over Cazi’s left leg who was right there in a fight of her own. My guy tripped over Cazi’s leg, stumbled, and knocked out the guys fight Cazi.
“Why you little…,” started the guy who tried to punch me and drew his swoard
Just then Fredrick fired at the guy who drew his sword on me. The guy went flying and landed ten feet in front of me, losing his sword in the process. He got up dazed, but I ran, jumped and pushed of a stone that was nearby and landed a flying punch on the guys face. He was out cold. I shook out my hand as that punch kind of hurt.
I turned back to see GR running in to the cave that I need to get in. Three more of GR’s men rushed me.
“Come on man,” I stated and sighed. “These guys keep coming.”
The first guy rushed me dove down and took out his legs from beneth him. The second guy saw me do that, so stopped and through a left uppercut. I defended the punch by leaning back. The punch nearly clipped my nose. But then I shoved his elbow in the air which carried his momentum of the punch and he ended up punching himself in the face. This knocked him back, running into the third guy coming from behind which found himself knocked out by the second guy who punched himself.
“Man you guys are easy to defeat,” I joked taking of his helmet. I recognized him as an Outcast soldier. “Well no wonder. GR got some the Outcasts to join his side. GR’s own men I know our more skilled, but they must be occupied with The Hammer, The Pin, and Diversion.
I ran as quickly as I could over the sand to the entrance of the cave. I saw that my friends had things well in hand. Before I entered I drew my bow with an arrow and then entered the cave.
“GR, I know you’re in here,” I said. The cave was poorly lit due to only a couple of torches being lit. “Look you are going to lose, your forces are outmatched. Your Outcast allies are no match for the skills of my friends and family. And your men are no match for the teamwork of all the riders and their dragons. So give up.”
“You of all people should know the answer to that,” came an echoing voice from the further in the cave.
“I do, but still,” I replied.
“What have you to gain by claiming the treasure in this cave?” I asked.
“Treasure. Ha, you really don’t know what you’re up against do you,” GR spoke as his voice sounded closer as I continued to walk into the cave.
“Okay then the treasure must be a dragon then,” I stated.
“Very good,” GR said as I saw a shadow come out from the corner. “You have better sense then I gave you credit for.”
“Thanks, I think,” I said.
“But this isn’t just any dragon,” GR said coming into the light. “This is an alpha species. Meet the titan of Grapple Grounders.”
I gasped as a much larger blue and yellow Grapple Ground came into view.
“This is what this mystery Two Taverns has been all about,” GR spoke as the titan Grapple Ground crept closer to me. I lowered my bow as a hope to show the new dragon I’m not a threat.
“Yes, you won’t be needing that,” GR said. “Besides I don’t care about my men, the Outcasts, or your friends and family. All I care about is pleasing my master, the great and only dragon master of all.”
“But before I end your life, I think you have a right to know,” GR expressed.
“You’re just full of surprises,” I said under my breath.
“I know what happened to your father on that ship,” GR alleged.
“What?!” I said shocked.
“I do indeed,” GR announced. “I was trying to get that egg your mother and father had, but they turned down all of my offers. So I then hired some of the renegading vikings to sabotage your parents ship on the way home to get that egg. My attempts failed, as your mother escaped. The first mate of the renegading vikings reported back to me what happened, and that your father was thrown overboard.”
“No,” I expressed. “You’re lying.”
“Am I?” GR voiced. “I knew that egg your father gave your mother for their anniversary was empty. But it I needed it to study to find out where the rest of the eggs were. That was the only sighting of that egg I had seen for years and years. Until just recently when I hooked up with Steinson and his brother, did I think could continue on my quest. I found that Steinson had the two eggs. This solved my problem. However, I needed to continue to keep those brothers in the dark, but Adam found out. So I ‘spilled the beans’ to Steinson. He found no problem with what I was doing. Though I didn’t tell him why and how I got to this point. Steinson just saw the money that could be made from this deal. Adam didn’t agree, and well you probably know the rest from there.”
“But I still can’t figure out how you got onto my trail?” GR questioned.
“Trolls,” I said calmly nodding my head.
“Trolls? You are just full of jokes today,” GR said.
“It’s true,” I said holding my bow in my right hand and turned slightly away from GR to shield what I was doing in my left hand. “Though, your big mistake was using a Grapple Grounder in your thefts during the business that Steinson was in. The Grounder is polydactyl dragon.”
“Poly did what with her dragon?”
“No stupid, polydactyl. This means your dragon had an extra claw on at least one foot. In your case, the Grounder had an extra claw on each foot.”
“Interesting, never noticed that before,” GR considered. “But I know you better than that, you are stalling for something.”
“Who me?” I replied. “I’m just trying to figure you out. You put out all this effort just for a dragon?”
“Yes, my master has big plans for dragons of this species. My master doesn’t take kindly to delays. That is why I’ve been all of this for ‘just a dragon’. This is what you get when you delay.” GR then lowered the top of his shirt to reveal what looked like a slightly rectangled shape which was burned onto his skin. “If I delay one more time, he won’t act to kindly to me.”
“Well I can put your fears to rest, because you won’t be going anywhere,” I expressed.
“Now how come?”
“Because while I had both your red Grapple Grounders, I know one thing: They absolutely love Dragon Nip and they can’t get enough of it,” I mentioned as I took out a huge bundle of Dragon Nip from my right pocket. Both the older red Grapple Grounder that was there and the titan blue and yellow Grapple Grounder all rushed over at me like baby dragons wanting attention. I gave Aqua Blue some Dragon nip and Grouchy his Dragon Nip.
“What do you think of that Aqua Blue?” I spoke with a puppy voice. Whenever you meet a new dragon and you start to make strides to be his friend, sometimes the dragon will respond better if you give it a name. That I learned from Hiccup. Aqua Blue just wagged his tail and thumbed his back leg. “You’re just a big old nice guy aren’t you? Yes you are,” I said playfully. I started scratching all over the big blue dragon’s neck. He, or she I can’t quite tell really, fell in love with me instantly.
“How did you do that?” asked GR in amazement.
“I guess you haven’t heard the news: You can now train a dragon to be your best friend for life,” I said as I gave the Grounders the rest of my Dragon Nip.
“Well I don’t care I need that dragon to-,” GR started, but was cut down by a pan to the head, again.
“Meen?” I tested the new comer.
“Nope just me Adam,” said the man.
“Adam? Why do you have a pan?” I quizzed.
“When I saw what your friend Meen’s pan does to people, especially GR here, I just had to have one. Good thing he wears a helmet, huh. I’ve been waiting to do that for a long time,” replied Adam.
“I guess I didn’t need you after all,” I added.
“Oh, though you don’t know it, I did persuade GR to not follow you as I said, hoping actually, that whatever you found would lead you back here,” whistled Adam. “Boy was I glad I was right on that.” Adam then picked up GR and dragged him outside with us. I picked up my bow and arrow on the way out.
When we came outside, I found that all of my friends now were over here finishing off the last of the enemy vikings.
“Well did you miss a whale of a fight,” relayed Cazi. “This one guy had me dead to rights but I grabbed his right arm, used leveraged, and flung him over and knocked out another viking. I was also in a pretty epic dual with another guy with a sword that I had picked up. We kept going back and forth until Meen ‘dropped in’ and her little friends said, ‘Hello,’ again. But enough about my epic-ness, how’d you make out?”
“Well see for yourself,” I said pointing to Aqua Blue. “I give you Aqua Blue, the titan wing Grapple Grounder.”
“Aw he’s cute,” Elsa ran over to play with the new Grounder.
“So that is what this whole mystery was about, a dragon?” Steinson said as he was tied up nearby. “What kind of treasure is that?”
“I think one of the best kinds,” I expressed. “The chance at having a friendship with a pet or anything for that matter. That is one of the best treasures a man or woman could ever have: Friendship. Making new friends along the way in your life,” I said looking at Explod, Reptiel, Faith, Cazi, Bergr, and Annett. “Because friendship is one of the purest treasures a person can experience. There is no limit to how good it can be.”
With that being said and the mystery of the “Missing Socks” was now over, I thanked all of my friends for the support and the helpfulness of each one during the first mystery I had solved.
“So I guess that this is, Goodbye then?” asked Bergr.
“No it ain’t,” I said. “How about you guys come over to Berk to have a celebration of our new friends?”
“Sure we’d be glad to,” said Cazi and Bergr.
Before we left for Berk, the leaders of Cazi’s clan came up to me and the rest of my friends and thanked us for helping them out; and maybe sometime in the future they could return the favor. They also said that they’ll take care of all GR’s men.
“Maybe there is something to this ‘dragon training’ thing after all,” the chief of the clan said.
We then mounted our dragons and flew home.
We then arrived back on Berk just in time for sunset. And it was a beauty. Stoick greeted us with a warm welcome and indeed threw a celebration in the Great Hall.

After a few hours of eating and singing and dancing, mostly bad except for my friends they did fine it was the guys like Gobber who made it hard to look at, I stepped back and thought of what I had accomplished. And it all started out by just helping out my friend. Even though the “treasure” does not have any money value, what it does have is something that is priceless: The making of Friendship with both dragons and vikings that will last a lifetime.

“What ya writing down there Jarl?” asked a voice coming from behind me. “Oh, hi mother. I was just writing down the few days of The Clue of the Missing Socks.”
“Your first mystery, and what a mystery it was,” said my mother who sat down on my bed.
“In the months since, I’ve had numerous ‘mysteries’ if you can call them that,” I started.
My mother noticed I wasn’t looking that well.
“What’s wrong son?” she asked.
“It is just for some reason I feel I missed something,” I told her.
“Jarl, you’ve solved the mystery. You are now being a great help to you village and the surrounding clans. You showed Cazi’s clan that Dragon Training is helpful. You showed everyone that if a friend is in need, just don’t think that he is blaming something like ‘trolls’ as Gobber did. Help that friend out and get to the bottom of things; and don’t stop until you do. You also showed that if someone goes astray, it is never too late to bring them back to you; as when you helped Annett get her family back together. You showed that if you put your mind to something you can do it, like writing down your adventures so that others could read them.”
“I know,” I said. “But now that it is Snoggletog, I keep thinking about what GR said about father. Something bugs me about that.”
“Look, you are fine. Your father will always be with us,” my mother said and then hugged me. “You are just lonely for the friendship of your father.”
There was then a knock on the door.
“Come on let’s go see who it is,” mother said as we got up.
We walked down stairs and I opened the door.
“Happy Snoggletog Jarl!” A great big crowd said.
“What in the world?” I expressed walking outside.
“We heard that you need some cheering up, Jarl, so we invited all of your friends over for a Snoggletog party. Even Cazi and Bergr, Annett, and Steinson were able to come,” said Asvord.
“I am so glad that you kept with it and got me to come to my senses, how could I ever repay you,” Vemund told me.
“I think you just did, having a friendship is the best thing that a guy could have,” stated Hiccup. The other Academy riders had come too. “Being given a second to have that friendship with your friends and your family.”
We all went in and had a Snoggletog party. We all had a great time, though no one touched the yaknog.
Then while we were sitting around the fire reminiscing on our adventures we had a few months ago, Gobber then entered the house.
“What is it Gobber?” my mother asked.
“I tell ya what’s the matter, those trolls are at it again,” he voiced.
“Gobber how many times do we have to tell you this,” said Tuffnut. “Trolls didn’t steal your socks, me and my sis didn’t for a time, the Grounders that Gudrod Rador-mer-call-it had took them.”
“It ain’t my socks this time,” Gobber replied. “It is my shirts. You gotta help me find the cul-prints Jarl, you did it once before you can do it again.”
“Oh no, here we go again,” I said laughing.