There was an awkward silence after my mother revealed that a Grapple Grounder was involved with my father’s death.
“I don’t know for sure if a Grapple Grounder had any part in your father death, but I know it was there. I saw it,” my mother said. “Your father and I were in two sailing ships coming back to Berk. I was in one and Sigvald in the other. We got separated by fog and then a band of wild dragons attacked us. This was about a decade ago. So we did not know then what we know about dragons now. But enough of that, what are you guys going to do about your friends and the dragon?”
Cullan piped in saying, “I say we should rescue are friends by force,”
“But that would be taking a huge risk because someone might get hurt,” said Hat sitting up.
“You feeling better Hat?” I asked.
“Yes I am. Ooo,” Hat grunted as he sat up. “I am just very sore at the moment.”
“We need to stop talking, and start taking action!” said Cullan impatiently.
“We will,” I assured.
“What my brother is probably thinking is that we need to get a goodnight sleep before we start off for Outcast Island. This would give Hat a chance to feel better so he can come along with us,” said my sister.
“Plus, couldn’t do much at night,” I added.
“Alright,” said Cullan who looked slightly calmed down. “But we better start leaving at daybreak.”
“We will,” I answered. “By the way, why did you come to our house instead of to your own?”
Navaro said, “Yours was the only house with a fire lit, and it was also the closest to the way we came back.”
“Oh,” I said.
“What gets me,” wondered Pat. “is why the Flightmare came back. There is nothing here for it because Hiccup diverted it glowing food into the ocean. Why did it come back?”
“I don’t know,” I replied.
“Another thing, why haven’t we seen Arvidel’s fire?” asked my mother.
“Well it has been cloudy at night for the past several days. If someone had seen it, they probably would have not thought much of it and since the Flightmare has not been a threat to Berk, until now,” I replied.
“What is also strange is on this note telling us to return the dragon or else is that this note was written with the Berserker signature, but it says we have to go to Outcast Island to return it,” Asvord said.
“That is strange,” I answered. “Do you suppose it has anything to d with why Dagur and Alvin were here at Berk the day I was knocked out?”
“It might. Well I think you should all try to get some rest before you head out to Outcast Island,” said my mother.
“You are not going to try and stop us?” asked Cullan.
“No. I think you should go after your friends. Just make sure you know what you are doing before you do it, because then you might make things worse,” replied my mother.
“Advice taken,” said Hattori.
My mother demanded that all of my friends stay here for the night. Then get ready for the long trip ahead of us. My mother was arranging the bedding arrangements so Asvord and I went back upstairs to our beds.
When we got upstairs, I saw Elsa still had not moved. I walked over to her bed, “Elsa. Elsa!”
“Hmm? What??” said Elsa, sleepy eyed.
“You need to wake up and go to sleep,” I said.
“Oh,” she said and went right back to sleep. Asvord shook her head at me.
I hardly got any sleep that night because I was busy devising a plan to rescue our friends, but still let whoever wants to Grapple Grounder to keep it.
In the morning I found that I was the last to get up. Asvord who was coming up stairs to wake me said that the others were about ready to go to their homes and pack for the trip. She added she had already caught Elsa up to speed on what transpired earlier in the day.
I went down stairs and met my friends. I told them my plan for today and what to pack for the trip. We were to meet in the Great Hall before we left.
Asvord asked me after they left, “Do you know if this will work?”
“No I don’t, but I have a backup plan if it doesn’t,” I replied.
My two sisters and I started to pack our things together for our trip. We didn’t pack too much though because I didn’t expect we would be gone long. The items that we mainly packed were ropes, a few extra weapons, some tools, and some food.
“I think that should do,” I said.
There was a knock at the door. I went to go see who it was. It was Hiccup. Hiccup came in and immediately said he was sorry to hear that my friends had been kidnapped. I told him what my friends said happened yesterday. I also told him I was going to take a small scout team comprised of myself, my two sisters, and some of my friends.
“And if I am not back within a week, come for me,”
“A week?” Hiccup asked.
“I just wanted to give extra time because I don’t really know how long I will be, but we shouldn’t be more than three days,” I said.
“Okay,” Hiccup said as my mother walked in the room from the kitchen.
My mother greeted Hiccup and then spoke to me saying, “I was going to wait for a few days before I let Hiccup give you this, but since you will be riding on Fredrick for a longer trip, but you can go get Jarl’s present now Hiccup.”
I didn’t really know what was going, but I had a suspicion. Hiccup walked out of my house and then came back with a big saddle. It was a Thunderdrum saddle.
“Wow!” I exclaimed. “A Thunderdrum saddle? Thanks.”
Hiccup replied, “Your welcome. I wanted to give you a gift for risking you life to save my dad. But I didn’t know what to give. Once you found your Thunderdrum I knew right away what I needed make for you.”
“I wonder if Fredrick will let me put this saddle on him because we basically just met,” I said, thinking.
“I don’t know. Usually dragons won’t let the trainers put a saddle on them because they might be too young, or in your case just met,” said Hiccup. “But your case might be different because you have already flown on Fredrick and you two, as far as I am concerned, have hit it off perfectly and you two already have a strong bond.”
I had gone outside immediately to show Fredrick this saddle. My dragon me and came trotting towards me, he stopped right in front of me and I showed him the saddle. Without hesitation, he turned to show me his back, and I was able to put the saddle on him. He did not even move a muscle while I was putting it on him.
Hiccup was amazed. He had never seen a dragon that willing for the trainer to put a saddle on the dragon without putting up some sort of fight or struggle.
With that being done, I packed my things in the saddle back that came with it. I put the bigger things like tools and weapons behind where I would sit. I strapped them down with some extra rope so they would be secured during flight.
Hiccup was still amazed by what he saw. Fredrick was just standing there as if he had done this before.
My two sisters were still packing. They would always take a long time for them to pack things for a three or four day trip. I told them I would meet them at the Great Hall.
As Hiccup and I were walking to the Great Hall, I filled him in on some more details about the kidnappings and my plan to save my friends.
Hiccup was stunned to hear that a Flightmare was being controlled by a viking. He thought the Flightmare would un-trainable, apparently not.
“Do you know your part of my plan that you need to do, Hiccup?” I asked.
“Yes I do.”
We entered the Great Hall with our dragons and met my friends near the door. I was just about to ask them what they packed when a man entered the Great Hall. I was completely shocked who I saw walking in. It was Adam!
“Hi everybody, what’s new?” said Adam.
Everyone gasped.
“Why of all the nerve!” said Cullan rushing over to Adam. Cullan grabbed and Adam a slammed him up against the wall. “Why in the world would you come back after what you did last night.”
“Hey what is this for!” Adam demanded. “I was just looking for Pebbles last night. He was not here in the house when I went to bed, so I went out looking for him.”
“Cullan! Put him down!” I ordered.
“What?! Are you serious?! Didn’t you hear what Hat said? He saw this here.. person last night,” said Cullan as he put him down.
“Who saw me where, when?” Adam said dusting himself off.
“I don’t want to sound like I am trying to defend him, but it was a dark night and the man may have looked like Adam but it may not have actually been Adam,” I said.
“Come on now Jarl. You don’t actually believe the man, do you?” said Hattori. “I know what I saw.”
“Do you have anybody that can tell us that they saw you last night looking for your cat?” I asked.
“No. The whole village was asleep when I had gone out looking for my cat. Why would that make any difference?” said Adam who was greatly annoyed at being accused.
“It would make a lot of difference. Hattori here can place you at the scene of a kidnapping which makes you an accessory after the fact,” explained Pat.
“But I tell you I was right here in Berk looking for my cat. I left slightly after you and your family went to bed, Jarl. I couldn’t find my cat, so I went out looking for him. It took me all night to find him,” said Adam, trying to make us believe what he was telling us. “But as I was about ready to return to Berk, I found these on the ground next to Pebbles.”
Adam showed us an axe and a couple of pans. My friends and I immediately recognized it. I knew who’s they were right away because she always keeps her axe and pans handy. They were Meen’s!

“Hey those are Meen’s!” I exclaimed.
“Who’s?” Adam asked.
There was a bigger crowd starting to gather near us as Adam was telling us where exactly he found the axe and pans. Just then Stoick and Gobber came over and pushed their way through the crowd.
“Alright. What is all this commotion about?” asked Stoick as he walked up to Hiccup and me.
Cullan spoke first though, “Adam here was kidnapped our friends!”
Adam quickly replied, “Now hold on a minute! I di…,”
Stoick interrupted him by saying, “Calm down. What is going on here son?”
“Well,” Hiccup began. “First Jarl and his friends were about to head off toward Outcast Island to rescue their friends who have been kidnapped by a mysterious man or group of men.”
“The man isn’t mysterious, that man is Adam!” said Cullan, strongly.
The crowd was starting to agree with Cullan when Stoick asked, “Is there any evidence that points to Adam has the kidnapper?”
“I saw Adam when he used a Flightmare dragon to kidnap our friends,” answered Hattori. Everyone that was listening gasped and started to talk amongst themselves.
“You saw a man that ‘looked’ like me,” said Adam who sounded desperate as if he knew everyone was starting to believe what Hat saw. “I am telling you the truth! I was out last night trying to find my cat, Pebbles.”
“But why are you kids heading to Outcast Island?” asked Stoick.
Gobber added, “You might want to start from the beginning so you don’t leave anything out.”
So, I started to tell everyone the events that had taken place last night and into today. As I was talking I noticed a certain feel of the room. The crowd, I felt, wanted to lock up Adam. I noticed Adam was acting like he thought that too.
When I finished Stoick replied, “I can’t let you go to Outcast Island by yourself. I will send my son with you and…,”
“It is okay dad, Jarl has a plan.”
“Also, I need Hiccup and the Academy riders to stay here on Berk in case something where to happen here,” I spoke up. “I am using them as backup in case my friends and I do not return in three to five days.”
Gobber then asked, “Are you going to hand over the Grapple Grounder just like that? This dragon is very dangerous. I have had a few encounters with this dragon I remember when…”
“No. No I am not. That is where a few of my other friends will come in,” I replied.
“Come on people! We are wasting time! We need to go!” urged Cullan.
“I know we need to go,” I said. “Could you show us where you found Meen’s axe and pans, Adam?”
Pat grabbed my arm, “Are we just going to let Adam go? You heard what Hat said he saw. How much more proof do you need?”
I sighed, “Right now, it is just Hat’s word against Adam’s. If we had more witnesses, then we could…,” I didn’t want to think about what might happen if it did come to a trial; so I changed the subject to: “Are you guys already to go? Because I thought we could leave from the spot where Adam found Meen’s axe and pans.”
“Sounds good,” said Nav.
“Oh, I remembered something I needed to do. I will catch up with you,” I said. Adam pointed in the general direction where he found the items. We all walked out of the Grand Hall and I saw that Stoick and Gobber wanted to go with them too. I waved as they got on their dragons. Stoick rode on Toothless with Hiccup, Gobber rode on Hat’s Nightmare, and Adam rode on Nav’s Nadder; which was probably for the best because Cullan and Pat are convinced in my option that Adam is to blame for everything that has happened lately.
As they flew off, I got on Fredrick and flew to Repteil’s home. Reptiel and Faith were going to be a part of my plan. It is a small part, but it might turn out to be the most crucial part.
When I was about halfway there, I saw Jack packing some things in a sack. It looked like he was going to go on a trip somewhere. I thought I would fly over and say, “Hi,” because I haven’t seen him in a while.
I didn’t know how I was going to land because I haven’t taught any kind of signal or command to Fredrick yet. So, I just pointed down to a spot near Jack and said, “Fredrick, land there.” The next thing I knew, Fredrick was landing next to Jack. I thought, “Wow, didn’t think that would work.”
“Hi Jack,” I said and got off my dragon and held out my hand.
“Hi Jarl,” Jack replied as he shook my hand.
“I haven’t seen you for a while, what have you been up to?” I asked.
“I have been undercover here in Berk,” Jack answered.
“Really,” I said. “Why?”
“I wanted to help you on your case, so I started to track all the persons involved with this case,” Jack told me all of what he had been doing. He followed Nora Asmolfr, Vemund Steinson, Adam Thorvald, and a few others who had been victims of the robberies.
“I never thought to follow them, that was good thinking,” I congratulated Jack because since these vikings were involved in my case, it was a good idea of Jack to follow them. He could find out their habits and if they were involved with anything suspicious.
“I didn’t follow Nora as much. She checks out. All she did was keeping her garden harvested. She has a big garden. Each morning, she would take her crop to the marketplace to sell,” Jack continued. “Vemund didn’t really do much. Besides what he did at your place the other night, he hasn’t done much. But,” Jack paused.
“But what? What was Adam up to?” I asked.
“I kept losing Adam. I don’t know if he knew I was following him and tried to lose me on purpose, or if he just did it because. Also, I am sorry to say, since I have been following him especially from when he first arrived I would always sight of Adam before or after a robbery,” Jack said reluctantly.
“What are you saying?” Jack just stared at me. “Are you saying that Adam stole from all of Berk?”
“What I am saying is that no one can seem to account for the whereabouts of Adam during a robbery,” said Jack.

“You can add something with the robbery, kidnapping,” I acknowledged.
“Yeah I know,”
“You do?” I asked very surprised.
“Yeah, when I was following Steinson this morning, I ran into Hat, Pat, Cullan, and Nav on their way to their homes after they left your house. They told me all of what transpired last night,” uttered Jack. “This falls into the pattern of Adam’s disappearances because I lost him about the time before the kidnapped happened. Hat knew because the moon was directly above him at the time of the kidnapping. That is where the moon was when I lost Adam. So the kidnapping must have taken place quickly thereafter. And the reason why Hattori and I knew it was the same time is because about five minutes after I lost Adam, the moon peaked out from the clouds for about ten minutes and then the clouds coved it up again.”
“So why you are packing now?” I asked.
“I packing some supplies so I can come with you guys to rescue our friends from the kidnappers on Outcast Island,” voiced Jack.
“If it is alright with you, I need you somewhere else,” I said as Jack had just finished packing his sack.
“Why? You have a plan?”
“Yes, actually I do.”
I told him his part of the plan. He would be responsible for getting the Grapple Grounder to Outcast Island. Repteil, Faith, and Jack would be the last straw if my main plan doesn’t work. Because if something were to happen, I would have to hand over the Grapple Grounder for my friends; but I have a feeling that if do that, whoever the person is responsible for this will not let my friends go. Basically tricking me into coming to trade the dragon for my friends, but in the end not letting any of us go.
Since Outcast Island is a good three day sail from Berk, it could be more or less depending on the wind, this would give me time to see if I can rescue my friends or not before Repteil, Faith, and Jack would have to leave. Outcast Island is only a few hours ride on a dragon from Berk. I told Jack to leave tomorrow morning. This would give me a couple of days to rescue my friends.
“So I take Repteil, Faith, and Fire on a boat and sail it to Outcast Island. We would shove off tomorrow morning. If we see you before we meet the halfway point, we turn back but by hitching a ride back with you. If we don’t see you, we assume your plan failed and come and give them the Grapple Grounder,” Jack recounted his part of my plan. “Did I leave anything out?”
“Nope, you got it,”
After that I let Jack fly on to Repteil’s house while I would find Faith and tell her the plan.
I remounted Fredrick, and retraced my path. While doing so, I saw Faith by herself back behind her house reading a book. I flew down to meet her. I gave Fredrick my “landing” command.
“Why son of a motherless yak, it worked again.”
I got off Fredrick and walked up to greet Faith. “Oh hi Jarl,” she said quickly closing her book when she saw me.
“Hi Faith,”
“So what’s new Jarl?”
“I guess you haven’t heard,” I replied. She answered, “Heard what?” so I told her the short version of the events that had taken place.
“We need to go rescue them,”
“I agree fully, but I have a plan where I need you somewhere else,”
I told her my plan, “You got it?”
“I think so,” she said. “Thanks for letting me help even though I don’t know your other friends so much.”
“Your welcome,”
As I was walking from back behind Faith’s house, I saw a viking boy with a Hideous Zippleback coming towards me.
“Are you Jarl?” he asked.
“Yes I am,” I replied.
“I overheard the commotion in the Great Hall a little bit ago, and was wondering if you wanted another rider for your rescue trip?”
“Sure, you can come,” I said as I mounted my dragon. “But why would you want to come with us?”
“I fight for the good side,” he said. “The reason I would like to come is because I don’t like to see someone's friends picked on or let someone think he can just come into Berk and do what he pleases. Also, I thought you might need a dragon with a Zippleback’s abilities.”
“Actually I do, but I didn’t want to the twins on this mission,” I told him. “This mission is going to be about stealth. I don’t think stealth is up the twin’s street, so you can come.”
“Thanks,” he said. “Oh by the way, my name is Explodantor.”
“Nice to meet you,” I expressed. “Can we talk in the air where I can put you in my plan?”
“Sure,” Explodantor replied.
As we flew in the direction that Adam had pointed to before, I talked with Explodantor.
“Everybody just calls me Explod, it is more of a nickname, but I like it,” Explod said.
“What I am curious about is how come you don’t need two riders for the two heads of a Hideous Zippleback?” I asked him.
He replied, “Well the thing of it is, my dragon, Hazor and Sparko, are not hideous. So they both work well together and follow my commands.”
“That is why you don’t have to have two riders; you are able to signal both heads and they will respond.”
“Yes,” Explod said. He told me the two commands that use most often: “Hazor, Sparko, EXPLODE!!” this makes his dragon create a huge explosion and “Hazor, GAS!” is Hazor’s signal to spread a mass of gas everywhere in sight!
Since I saw my friends dragons, I ended our conversation for now. I used my “landing” command for Fredrick, and he did it. I have to tell you, it seems like he has done this before. But Explod and I landed our dragons next to the rest of the dragons and we walked up to the group. I saw they were hovering over someone.
“What’s the matter?” I asked. “Did someo… Meen! How’d she get here?!”
Navaro was holding Meen’s head up as she resounded to me, “Meen was able to escape the captors, but not without severe fight.”
Meen then added, “Hi Jarl,” she coughed and I waved and knelt down beside her. “I was able to catch a good glimpse of a man who was with the man in charge. Guess who it is?”
“Who?”
“Adam!” she replied.
“Adam??” I said shocked. “But how…,”
“I told you Jarl,” said Hat. “I know we didn’t have enough evidence to totally say it was him. But now, we have two witnesses. Meen told us a few minutes ago Adam even spoke and she can say it is diffidently Adam.”
“I am okay now,” said Meen. “Though I am very sore at the moment, I want to go with you to rescue our friends and possible get a crack at the man that took my friends. Just so you know Adam acted like the second in command.”
“And since Meen identified Adam as an accessory in the kidnapping, Stoick and Gobber took him back to Berk to lock him up,” said Cullan.
I did not know how to react to these turn of events. I do not disagree with what Meen or Hattori saw, I guess I did not want to believe the man that saved my life would do such a thing as kidnap someone; let only rob someone. Do I try to defend Adam, or do I admit that he did it? I was not ready to go one way or the other. I am now grasping the fact that Adam is involved with the kidnappings in one way or another, but I needed to find more proof that something else is not going on that might be behind Adam’s actions.
“Okay,” urged Cullan. “Since we have no more interruptions, can we please leave now?”
“Yes,” I agreed. “Mount up! Next stop, Outcast Island!”

We all immediately got on our dragon and flew towards Outcast Island. While we were flying I introduced Explod to my friends. My friends just said, “Hi, glad you could come,” and that was it. I did not blame them at all for not saying much because we had a job to do, rescue our friends.
Nothing was said after that. I knew we would need our strength for the day ahead. We had been flying for almost an hour so knew we were close to Outcast waters, I told everyone to land on a small Island nearby.
“Why are we stopping here for?” asked Cullan.
“We are going to need our strength, so I thought we would stop here and eat a small breakfast,” I said.
“Ugh,” shrugged Cullan.
“And,” I continued. “Go over my plan.”
“Okay,” said Cullan.
“When we first reach the marker for Outcast waters, we will circle the island and come up from the rear, most likely. We will have two to three days to rescue our friends until Jack, Faith, and Repteil will arrive with the Grapple Grounder,” I stated.
“But I thought you weren’t going to give the dragon to them?” asked my sister Elsa as she dug into my pack sack for some fruit I brought, some of the other followed suit.
“I did, but we may be captured and would have no way to reach Berk to bring the Grapple Grounder. So I thought it best for Jack, Faith, and Repteil to sail tomorrow, giving us a day’s head start. When those three get here, if we need them, Jack and Hook hand over the Grapple Grounder. While he does this Reteil and Faith with both of their nadders, Pastel and Shira, will be waiting off shore to attack once I give the signal. I hope this will start a huge confusion, in which we can take off and grab the Grapple Grounder as we go.”
“Okay, so you thinking we can rescue them in a day?” asked Asvord.
“Actually, yes I do think we can,” I replied. “At first we are going to scout the island, split up in teams of two except for one will have three. I’ll go with Elsa and you can come with me too Explod,” Explod nodded his head.
“I’ll go with Navaro,” chimed in Asvord.
“Okay good, who wants to go with whom?” I asked
“I’ll go with Cullan to make sure he doesn’t get into trouble,” said Hattori.
“Well you better just keep up,” nudged Cullan.
“I guess that leaves me with Pat,” said Meen.
“So it all settled?” I asked. Everybody said it was. “Now I just want you to scout the island out. We do not, I stress ‘do not’ engage the enemy unless they engage you. Once you find where our friends are located to back to our meeting place which will be where we first land. From there we will group together and wait for dusk and then we rescue them.” I finished.
“Why do we need to wait so long?” wondered Meen. “Couldn’t we just rescue them right away?”
“For one thing we will have strength in numbers and another thing we need plan then how we need to rescue them with making the least amount of noise as possible,” I stated.
“Oh yeah like we are going to go in trying to make all the noise we possibly can,” kidded Asvord.
“To be frank, I did think of that but I want to try and keep the noise down so as not to have someone get caught in the cross hairs,” I replied. “So now that we are done with breakfast we can move on. I plan to work well into the night, so preserve your energy for the rescue because I have a feeling we-ins gonna need every bit of energy we can have,” I said pointing to everyone. “So once we regroup at our meeting place, we need to put on our battle armor because again I have a feeling we-ins gonna need them too.”
Asvord just shook her head at how I was talking. With all that we headed off towards Outcast Island. Once we got there, dark clouds started to roll in which made there be certain places very dark; this told me that there was a front moving in and there would be a weather change in the next 12 to 36 hours. And by the feel of the temperature change, it was a cold front. Something wasn’t right about this, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.
We all started to see Outcast Island on the horizon. When I saw the “Outcast Waters” landmark in the water, I signaled to the other riders to follow me in a single file formation around the island. Once we made two complete circles, I pointed to a place to land on the northwest side that was very secluded and had a great place where we could hide. Everyone followed me down to the area. On our way we had to dodge some rock formations that were near our landing area.
As soon as we all landed and were about ready to split up in our groups, I noticed a thick fog settling in over the sea and over the whole island. This would mean that there would be no one sailing for the rest of the day and into the night. This would also mean there will be less Outcasts up and about; which in a way was a good thing for there would be fewer chances on being spotted.
Right before we split up I said, “Now this being a stealthy rescue mission, try to stay in places where you can’t be spotted.”
“You don’t say,” said Asvord sarcastically. “I thought the whole idea of a being stealthy was to make sure you were spotted.”
“Oh go on,” I said as a lightly gave my sister a shove.
When all the other teams were on their way, Explod asked me, “So what are we going to do?”
“We are going to look for where my friends are being held, but I would like to find out what the head man’s plans are who kidnapped my friends. If I find out anything I’ll let you know,” I said.
“What?? You’ll let us know? What does that suppose to mean?” my little sister asked.
“Not what you think,” I said. “We will all go in together, but I need to find out this guy’s plans. This would involve me going into the heart of their operations. So what I want you two to do, once I enter whatever building I think the headquarters are, I need you two to watch my back as I go in. If anything you think is going to happen let out our secret call sis.”
“Okay,” Elsa said. “You scared me there for a second; I thought you were going in all by yourself.”
“In a way yes, but I will have you two as backup,” I restated as I took out my quiver of arrows putting it on my shoulder and took my bow with a small couple of bolas placing these on my belt.
I noticed a small cave that had a torch that was lit next to the entrance of the cave. “I don’t tink they’ll mind me using this,” I said grabbing the torch. The cave that we entered was only wide enough for a Thunderdrum, so we had to go in single file. Elsa with Meatballs was behind me and Explod with Hazor and Sparko behind her.
We had walk for a considerable distance when we came upon the other side of the cave. I guess this is just used as a short cut to the harbor seeing how there are tall jagged mountains above the cave when we exited.
I saw what looked like the Outcast training ring where Alvin would try to train dragons. Oddly enough there were no dragons in the cages. I told Elsa and Explod to wait for me back under a large over hand near where we came out of the cave. That area was extremely dark so it was perfect for them to hide in.
“I know you want to come to Fredrick, but I need you to stay over with Explod and Elsa,” I told my dragon.
It was the weirdest thing, Fredrick nodded and went over and laid down face where I was going. This back up what I thought about him: He is a very intelligent dragon, he learns very quickly, and knows what needs to be done.
I was on the upper level of near the training ring so I could look in. But I entered alongside of it. When I enter there was a long hallway that leads to another small room. I quietly raced across the hallway because there were other doors to rooms on my left. As soon as I reached the other side I checked the door that was next to me. It was just a closet for what looked like “cleaning tools”. All it was just a pile of dirty rags and several buckets for water. I don’t think outcasts did much “cleaning”. I thought I could use this as a hideout so as not to be spotted.
But before I could think of anything else two men came in the room at room that was to my left cause I went ahead and entered the closet.
“You did what?!” a loud voice boomed.
“I am truly sorry I lost the Grapple Grounder for you, but I have a plan that is in progress to get it back,” a familiar voice said.
“You’d better,” he said as he started to walk out into the hallway in front of my closet. By the sound this man made as he walked on the wood floor, he was a very strong man and very tall. Because the sound he made compared to the man with the familiar voice was very loud on the wood floor, so this clued me in as to the new man’s build was.
“I know you need the Grapple Grounder that I will get back to breed others for your ar…”
“Bah! I should have never let you come here and bargain with some amateurs. Um what are these two guys’ names?” asked the man with the booming voice.
“Their names are Alvin and Dagur, DB,” replied the man with the familiar voice.
“Those two don’t know what they are doing. But the can be used for our purposes, Vemund. You’d better have this Grapple Ground back the next time I return here,” boomed the other man again.
I almost said this out loud, “Did he just say…”
The man with the familiar voice interrupted my thoughts and said, “And when will that be DB?”
“I don’t know, maybe never! You failed me so many times especially that one time in Ireland. But I might be back at the end of five days. Oh by the way, where are those kids you kidnapped and Alvin?” said the man with the booming voice.
“Oh they are located in the training ring in one of the cages and Alvin’s to busy with Dagur the Deranged to worry about his island right now,”
“Okay, see you in five days Vemund Steinson,” said the man with the booming voice.
I almost knocked over some buckets because of what I heard. I had to see it with my own eyes. So I cracked open the door and peeked my head out. Thankfully this side of the hallway wasn’t lit very well, but the other side where a tall, large man with a bunch of dreadlocks was standing next to smaller man. I could see the smaller man’s face much better the guy who I guess goes by “DB.”
I could hardly believe my eyes. It was in fact Vemund Steinson!

Just then my grip slipped on a shelf I was leaning on and I knocked over the same buckets I almost knocked over before.
Crash!
“What was that?” DB question.
“I don’t know,” said traitor Vemund, “Let’s find out.”
I thought to myself, “Oh man! They is gonna find me. What am I going to do?!”
I didn’t know what to do, I tried thinking of an idea but it was too late because it was too late. They were already opening the door! So I hid behind the door.
“Vemund! Vemund Steinson!” a man yelled as I heard him enter the hallway.
“What is it?” he answered as the door was cracked open.
“Dragon riders, on the North side of the island!” the man answered.
After the man said that, all three of them started to walk quickly away from my closet. I breathed a small sigh of relief.
“Probably Jarl and his friends, set the island on full alert,” Vemund ordered. “If anyone sees a viking that is not suppose to be here, take ‘em!”
I saw DB stop in his tracks.
“Oh oh oh, I didn’t mean you DB! I meant.. well.. um.. other…. vikings…… that are…. um.. not you..” Vemund stuttered.
“Bah!” DB answered as he shoved Steinson aside. “If you don’t get that Grapple Grounder in one hand and that egg in the other, you’re going to get you know what where,” DB stormed out of there. I got the feeling he did not like other vikings beside the ones he worked with to see him.
After DB had left, Vemund held his chest and looked scared.
There was a pause.
“Are you okay Vemund?” the other man asked that was still there.
As if Steinson were “in the clouds”, what the man said brought him back to ground level.
“If those riders are Jarl and his friends, do not let them escape,” he ordered as he started to run out of the hallway. “And especially, don’t let them get to his other friends that we are holding! Double the guards; triple the guards if you have to!”
“Yes sir!” the other man saluted.
With that I was left alone in the hallway. “Man I hope those riders aren’t my friends. But if they aren’t, who are they then?” I asked myself.
As I myself started to run out of the hallway and checking to make sure no one saw me as I left the hallway, I decided my plan for rescuing my friends would have to be sped up.
Just before I got to Explod and Elsa, I was thinking, “Why did DB say, ‘…and the egg in the other…’?”
“I was getting worried about you brother,” Elsa said as she hugged me.
“I was too,” I said. “Elsa and Explod, I need the both of you to go round up our other riders. I found where are friends are being held. They’re in Alvin’s training ring in one of the cages.”
I noticed it had gotten dark sooner than I had hoped.
“Wha-?” Elsa started to say, but I interrupted her.
“No time to explain; just go round them up…” I looked up at the sky, storm clouds were rolling in and making the sky get dark quicker. “On second thought we will meet our friends back at our meeting spot. Did you tell Asvord about our secret signal, Elsa?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, you two go on I’ll be right behind you to make sure no one follows you.”
“Roger,” Explod said.
A minute or two after they left, I got on Fredrick and waited for something. Since storm clouds were rolling in, I was waiting for… wait for it….
Lightning just then struck nearby.
…. the lightning strike.
When the thunder started to come I told and signaled Fredrick to fire a blast into the sky. Taught both my sisters to distinguish a Thunderdrum’s blast and actual thunder apart, this blast was our signal; if you had not guessed that already.
By the time I had caught back up to Explod and Elsa, I was too late. The extra guards that were sent out by Steinson had trapped Explod and Elsa. I also then noticed that their dragons were both frozen. I guess whoever had the Flightmare used it to capture my sister and Explod.
“I should have never left them,” I said under my breath.
“Well that should do it, the others by now should have captured them with that Flightmare stuff,” one of the guards said.
I thought, “Flightmare stuff? What is that?”
I stopped and hid in the shadows before the guards saw me. When I did that I just then noticed the guards that were there were both Outcast and Berserker and another kind I had not seen before. The odd guards were all wearing a weird pointy helmet.
Anyway, I thought “What am I going to do? The way they are talking they have captured all of my friends,” a tear started to roll down my check.
“No!” I said again under my breath, wiping away the tear. “Wait, I got an idea. It’s crazy, but it might work.”
I saw that they were in no hurry to get back to the ring, so I got on Fredrick and flew back to the ring.
When I got there, no guards could be seen anywhere, but I could hear them coming. I guess they were all out looking for the dragon riders.
I knew I had to work fast, so I reached into my saddlebag and long rope and tied it to one of my bolas I had on my belt. I went to the edge of the ring. Since I was on top, I would have to lower myself down. I wrapped the bola with the rope around one of the metal beams that was a part of the caging for the ring. I then threw the rope into the ring and used the rope to help climb down the side of the wall.
When I got to the bottom I found myself standing in front of the cage that had my first group of friends that were being held.
“Jarl?!” asked Thor.
“Jarl?” asked Ashley as well. “Is Hattori alright?”
“He is okay,” I said as I slipped through the cage bars and ran to the extra hand socket-handcuffs that were near Ashley. I saw that all of my friends’ hands were in these cuffs and their hands were behind their back. Though that was the only thing that bound them, they were free to roam the cage. I was thinking sarcastically, “That was nice of them to do that. Not.”
Ashley then said, “You said, ‘Okay’. What does that mean? Oh no is he hurt?!”
“He is fine. Don’t have much time to explain, but you’ll need to trust me on this one,” I said as I messed with the extra cuffs.
“Why?” Thor laughed. “You gonna leave us here?”
“Exactly,” I said as I patted twice him on the back.
“What?!” Tory exclaimed.
“Like I said,” I told her as I heard a crowd coming from the upper level of the ring. I ran back to my rope and said, “Trust me!”
I saw that the crowd was coming opposite me, which was good. It being dark helped me climb back up my rope without being seen, or not because there was a guard waiting for me when I got back to the top.
“Oh hi,” I said very startled and also waved to him, because you got to be polite. I mean we are vikings right? “Is this where those wonderful yak-ribs and burly cags are severed, I heard from a friend that they were really, really good.”
Another man that was next to him replied, “Oh do you mean Buffnut?”
“Yeah… yeah I do, I do….” I said clapping my hands.
Awkward silence.
“So…… what… happens next?” I stuttered.
“You join your friends a man,” said behind me.
“What in the name of-” I was cut short because I was caught off guard and also something hit on the back of my head.
Here we go again.

“Ooo, ow,” I said trying to grab my head but I couldn’t because of the hand-socket handcuffs I was wearing. “Where am I?”
“Well after your brilliant plan failed, all of us are now captured,”
After I opened my eyes I was able to get my bearings on where I was. I remembered trying to escape out of the Outcast training ring, but after that I don’t remember anything.
I saw that my sisters were around me. Asvord actually had my head propped on her knee, as best she could because her hands and everybody’s hands were behind their back.
“I am so glad you are all right,” Elsa told me.
“I know, you had me so worried Jarl,” Asvord said. “You were out for four hours.”
“Four hours?! Ooo.” My head still hurt as I sat up.
“Yeah, Asvord was worried she wouldn’t get to pick on you again, I was too,” Elsa replied.
Ashley then said, “As soon as Asvord saw that you were unconscious, she was right by your side every minute; so was Elsa.”
I smiled at both my sisters. They smiled back at me.
“Okay. Now that we have the family reunion done, can we get to more important matters? Like how are we going to get out of here?” asked Cullan.
“Me being out four hours, puts us behind schedule in my plan,” I replied.
“What?” asked Pat surprisingly. “But we are captured and these stupid cuffs have our hands secured behind our back.”
“I know. To be frank, I actually thought of this scenario.” I replied again.
“My bother always thinks of everything,” Asvord said as she lightly hit me in the shoulder. “Except a certain someone’s birthday, and another certain someone forgets to get a present,” Asvord said under breath, but just loud enough so everyone could hear it.
“Is there any guards guarding us?” I asked.
“No, I guess they think we can’t escape,” relayed Hat.
“Well they figured wrong,” I announced.
Nobody replied to what I said, but they all had a very confused face.
“Let’s see if I can do this…” I trailed off as I stood in an open spot.
I jumped a few times up and down building momentum, and then jumped back through over the cuffs.
“Whoa, Jarl didn’t know you could do that,” Asvord expressed.
“I am just full of surprises,” I mentioned. “Where is the key to these cuffs?”
“They are up in the ‘Main Room’ where ever that is,” reported Jack.
“Okay,” I said as a stepped on the chain between the two sockets on my cuffs. I started to pull.
Meen started with “That won’t work Jarl, they are too-“
But I interrupted her when I actually pulled apart the two sockets; so now my hands are free.
“You were saying?” I asked Meen.
She didn’t reply. None of them replied. I told them when I had first located where they were keeping our friends before we got captured, I “messed” with the rest of the socket-cuffs. At each join from the socket to the chain I took one of my arrows to make a cut in the very small join. It worked as you can see.
Before they could say anything else, I slipped through the gaps in the cage door and looked around. I saw that all of our dragons were in the other cages. I also saw that the rope I used earlier was still there and all of our weapons were in the cage adjacent to ours.
I quickly climbed up the rope and went back in to the hallway were I saw DB and Steinson. I quickly, but as quiet as I could, ran across to the other side, I peaked in the room, and saw no one.
The room was still lit. It was a small room that had a ton of papers of dragons I knew and ones I had never seen before in my life. There was this one dragon that had four wings and this other one that had two heads which looked to be like a sea dragon. But there was a picture circled several times, the Grapple Grounder. Why is this dragon so special?
I saw the keys lying on the table. As soon as I grabbed them, I heard footsteps approaching from the other direction, opposite my exit. I knew once someone found the keys missing; they would come directly to the cage in the ring. So I rushed out and back down the rope to the cage.
When I had returned I immediately released all of my friends and told them to get their weapons. They were still wearing their armor. I told them we were going to have “company” soon and we need to be ready for them.
“We are going to have to fight our way off this island,” I announced. “And we aren’t leaving empty handed either.”
As soon as we got our weapons together, I could hear vikings approaching and shouting. Several of the vikings stood in front of the cages to our dragons. I saw Steinson come out and order, “Get them! Don’t let them escape.”
One of the vikings added, “Should we protect the other entrance over there?” the viking pointed to another cage next to us. I looked closer at it and was in fact just a gate, not a cage.
“Thanks for the information,” I yelled back to Steinson. “Come on guys.”
All my friends started to follow me.
“What about our dragons?” asked Nav.
“We’ll have to lead the other vikings out in to the outer reaches of the island and then double back,” I replied. “We can…” I was caught off guard when a loud horn sounded.
“That must be a signal for the rest of the island about us,” said Asvord.
I looked back and saw a posse of vikings coming after us.
I started to run and cried back to my friends, “As soon as you get to the edge of the island, double back and meet me at our dragons.”
Those vikings were faster than I thought because they were actually gaining on me. The terrain was rather rough, so they because they live here they knew it better than I did.
I suddenly tripped over a vine that was lying across my path. I tumbled a few times and came to a rest. By the time I had recovered and was about ready to get up, I saw an Outcast viking start to charge me. I waited for him to jump. While he was in the air, I stuck my leg out and guided him over me. He went flying and struck a tree. “Ooo, that had to hurt,” I thought. I as I walked over him I heard him groaning.
Interesting, after a few minutes of running I was at the island’s edge. I started to run back, and as I was running I saw a viking chasing Meen; they were on a ledge below me. I started to run towards the ledge and jumped off and landed squarely on the vikings shoulders knocking us both to the ground.
Again this viking sprawled out not moving, but groaning. Just then one of those vikings with the pointy helmet came and greeted us with a sword. This viking started to swing his sword around, twirling it, and doing tricks. I motioned to Meen to get behind him. The viking raised his sword to me but…
BANG!
The man flopped to the ground. Meen was standing behind him with one of her pans in her hand.
“Hey viking,” I said. “Don’t bring a sword to a pan fight….”
Just then a large boulder came flying and I grabbed Meen and shoved her to the ground. The boulder just missed our heads by a few feet.
“….unless you bring a catapult,” I added. “Let’s go!”
We arrived at the ring in the next five minutes to find that pretty much all of the vikings were out trailing my friends; just than Hat and Tory came out of the brush and rushed over to me.
“I think my diversion has worked so far,” I told them. “It is going to be light soon. We need to get our dragons out of those cages. Hat and Tory, I’ll create another diversion so you two can get to our dragons.”
“Okay,” they both said.
Since I heard Steinson talk about a certain egg, I knew it was a dragon egg and he was going to use it for not the right purpose. So I rushed back into the ring.
Steinson saw me. He said something but I couldn’t hear what he said, but the way he pointed to the other vikings he did not want me to follow him. Steinson ran back into the other entrance to the ring. A band of vikings came charging at me stood in my way, I said, “Come get me guys.”
I started to run but not so fast as to not leave them in my dust. But I then suddenly realized, “How am I going to get back?”
I was running out of land quick because there was another ledge coming up. I thought quickly and grabbed my last bola on my belt. This bola had a small length of rope attached to it. I built up some momentum and then threw the bola towards a tree near the edge of the ledge. I grabbed my rope pulled until till it was tight, while still running. I jumped up to get a higher grip, and thus swung off the ledge. I swung in straight out and then back. There was a Berserker viking in the way of my landing spot. So I stuck out my legs and knocked him over, I did a somersault dive to recover and was right back on my feet running back towards the Outcast “training” ring.
I arrived just as Hat and Tory were getting the last dragon out which was mine.
“Hurry and get all the dragons out before the vikings come back and lock you in,” I said as I hopped on my dragon.
“Where do you think you’re going?” asked Hat.
“I am going to track down that ‘special’ egg Steinson was talking about.”

I left before Hat could stop me. The entrance was just large enough for Fredrick to fly through. Doing so I thought we would make up some of the time Steinson had on us. Fredrick and I were only flying for a couple of minutes when we came to a large area, almost like an underground arena. There were three other ways I could go from this arena. I didn’t know which one, but I wanted to make an educated guess instead of just picking one. So I told and signaled Fredrick to land in the center.
“Fredrick stay here,” I whispered to him. I saw him sort of sit or lay down. With a Thunderdrum, it is hard to tell if the dragon is sitting, lying down, or standing up.
I first picked the path to my left. Again all three passageways were large enough of a dragon of Fredrick’s size to fly through.
I grabbed a torch on the side of the wall near the entryway. I knew Steinson would have had to come in this arena because there was no other way to get out without taking one of these three passageways.
I bent down and examined the ground on each side. It looked like all three passageways could have a gate lowered into place. If the other two were like this one, I would be able to tell if someone had walked through because where the gate would meet the ground, there were two different types of soil. The side in front of the gateway, where I was kneeling, was a type of solid rock. On the other side was actual dirt. If a person wasn’t careful, they would leave tracks on the other side.
However, I found that the gateway had no such tracks. Same went for the second one. So I went over to the third gateway and brought Fredrick with me.
I asked him, “Do you think this is the way?”
He looked at me, sniffed the air, then looked back at me, but walked back to the center of the arena.
“If Steinson didn’t take any of the three passageways, then the only other way he could…” I trailed off as I looked up.
There was what looked like a trap door, but it was very well hidden in the design of the arena. I got on Fredrick and flew to the top. The top was about 60 feet from ground level. I tried the trap door… it was unlocked. But the thing was, I could only go through it on my own. There was only room enough for a small viking to fit through there. I cracked open the trap door and scanned the room. There was no one in the room.
“Boost me up Fredrick.”
As soon as a got in the room I said, “Get a little higher so I can reach my saddlebag, Fredrick.”
He did so. I reached in my bag and got a few more small bolas, replenished my arrows in my quiver I was wearing, and also grabbed my sword that I had strapped to my saddle.
“Good boy Fredrick,” I could hear him do a soft rumbling sound as if to say, “You’re Welcome.”
“Now go back the way we came and find Asvord,” I reached in my pocket and pulled out a handkerchief that Asvord and embroidered a few days ago. You might be thinking, “Why a handkerchief?” My allergies are murder right before winter and right after spring.
Fredrick smelled the piece of cloth and flew away.
“Smart dragon,” I said.
“Though not as smart as you, boy,” a voice said as I turned around and saw Steinson hold the “special egg” but also another Grapple Grounder! The dragon was standing by Steinson’s side. This dragon looked to be quite older than the one I have, or Repteil, Faith, and Jack have at the moment.
“You think you are so smart coming after me,” Steinson said.
“I don’t have to be ‘so smart’. I’ve been that way since birth I guess. Pre-existing condition I guess,” I replied. “So what happens now?”
“Well,” Steinson began but I interrupted him saying, “Wait let me guess, you were going to say something like,” I changed to my “evil” voice. “ ‘You are going to surrender or your friends are going to die!’ ”
“That was pretty much what I was going to say,” Steinson told me.
“Well since me and my friends have actually escaped your grasp…”
“For the moment,” interrupted me by raising his hand and speaking.
“Uh yeah you keep thinking that,” I continued. “But I have planned a plan to disrupt your plan you planned against Berk by which I have another plan if your plan is planned well enough to get that far and defeat my plan now that I have planned for planning against your plan against us.”
There was a pause in which I slowly reached for my sword. Steinson was still trying to make since of what I just said.
“I got lost on your third or fourth ‘plan’,” Steinson voiced confused.
“I don’t have three plans, I only have one plan right now,” I replied as I slowly walked in front of the exit hallway, in which I could see the first light rays of the sun coming in. “However I have another plan in case my plan I have planned for planning against your plan you planned wasn’t well planned plan I planed and thus will fail against your plan you planned…”
“Enough!” Steinson yelled.
“Okay gees,” I replied. “You don’t have to get your skivvies in a knot about it.”
“Well, you won’t have to worry about anything else. You won’t live to see the light of day,” Steinson expressed.
“I just looked down this hallway and saw ‘the light of day’ so,” as I was talking I had a feeling someone was coming up behind me because why would Steinson say what he said because I was the one with a sword. “I think that planned failed Steinson.”
As soon as I said that I threw my right elbow back in a jabbing motion and sure enough there was someone there. The viking was slightly dazed but still rushed me and jumped on my back. But he was not there for long because when he jumped on my back I too jumped forward throwing the viking into Steinson knocking them both down.
“You fool!” Steinson yelled as he was knocked over losing his balance and dropping the egg. The viking appeared to be “knocked out” which made Steinson not able to get up. The Grapple Grounder too was not able to get up because Steinson was on it. When that happened I grabbed the egg and started to run toward the upper ground
“You won’t get away with this Jarl, I still hold the key,” Steinson added as he tried to get up but could not. “You haven’t won yet!”
“Well let’s just say I won this round,” I yelled back as I ran up to ground level.
I met a viking that raised has axe and charged me. I blocked his attack and used his momentum against him flinging me across my back behind me.
“Hey Jarl,” Thor said as he too was in combat. “Nice of you to join the party.”
“Who me, I am way too awesome for their taste,” I retorted as I flexed my muscles.
Just then a band of Outcast vikings rounded the corner and started coming toward me. One of them said, “Hurry get him, he has the egg!”
“Oh my yak ribs!” I exclaimed and started running in the opposite direction. I saw Hattori and Ashley were just finished with their own small fight so I through Hat the egg.
“Catch Hat!” I ordered.
“Okay,” Hat said as he caught the egg. “Now what do I do with it?”
“Don’t let the enemy git it. That is what they want I need to find out why!” I yelled back as I was trying to get away from the Outcast vikings.
While I was running, they were throwing spears in my direction and also shooting bows from what looked like Berserker crossbows. I kept running for about ten minutes I could see the beach was coming into view.
“What I wouldn’t do to have a Nightmare or even a Deadly Nadder make those vikings run in fear,” I yelled to myself.
“Ask and you shall receive,” announced a voice that sounded like Jack’s. His Nadder fired a shot at the enemy viking which totally caught them off guard. They scattered but Pastel and Shira were waiting for them and fired a few shots along with several spines. This made the band of Outcast vikings run in retreat.
“Man I am glad to see the three of you,” I said as I saw Repteil, Faith, and Jack on their dragons. “How come you got here a day early?”
“We had a tail wind the entire way so got here faster,” said Faith.
“But anywho, I am glad you came when you did,” I said thanking them.
“What’s going on her Jarl?” Jack asked.
I replied, “Well we were able to rescue our friends, but until all of us were captured and I rescued all of use by messing with the socket-handcuffs that the used to bind us.”
“Really?” asked Repteil. “Is everyone okay?”
“Yes.” I replied. “Now we need to go back in and help our friends escape.”
“Okay let’s go!” exclaimed Repteil as she hopped on her dragon.
“If you are going to use your dragons, fly low because they have dragon net catapults, so watch where you fly. Also, some of Dagur’s soldiers are here, so it might be best to stay as low as you can or fight on the ground,” I suggested. “This is going to be risky, but we need to come here and foil Steinson’s plan as much as we can.”
“Who’s here??” Jack asked me as he grabbed my arm.
“Long story short, Steinson is bad and don’t trust whatever you do,” I said.
“Alright,” Jack replied.
“Where is the Grapple Grounder?” I asked.
“He uh kinda got away,” said Faith.
“How’d he do it?” I asked.
“Faith and I were feeding Fire as I saw his wings flap a few times. Fire noticed it and started to hover and then took off,” Repteil said.
“But thing is Fire did all that in a matter of a few seconds,” Faith added.
“That dragon is the fast dragon I have ever seen, except Toothless of course,” said Jack.
“That’s okay. If we can keep possession of the egg, I don't think both dragons will be of much used to Steinson because he has his own Grapple Grounder,” I relayed to them. “Don’t know why he needs two of them. By the way, if you see the strange egg in the enemy’s hands, do everything you can to get it back. This egg is something Steinson wants desperately. So we need to make sure that Steinson doesn’t get the egg because I have a feeling Fire is going back to him. If he has both Grapple Grounders and the egg, he might be close to winning this 'game' he is playing, whatever that might be.”
With that said, I hitched a ride on Jack’s dragon as the four of us headed back into battle.

That feeling I had the other night about the weather turning “bad”, I had it again.
“Ooo,” Jack said shivering. “Why’d it get cold all of a sudden?”
“Yeah,” Faith wondered also. “A minute ago it was rather warm.”
I replied answering Jack’s question, ‘A cold front is moving through the area; which is not a good thing because of the drastic drop in temperature.”
“Does this mean a ‘worse than usual’ storm is coming?” asked Repteil as we continued to flying inward on Outcast Island.
“Yes, I am afraid it does and…,” I was interrupted by two dragon nets that came out of nowhere.
“Look out!” Faith exclaimed as she and Shira dodged the one net. Jack barely had enough time to signal his nadder to fire at the net.
“Guys! Land now!” I ordered.
“We gotta take out those catapults,” stated Repteil who got off her dragon and came over to Hook.
“Just what I had in mind,” I said as I got off Hook. “They know there are three dragon riders; but they don’t know that I am here. So…,” I continued as I looked over the crest of the hill we took cover from the nets. I saw Hat, Ash, Thor, and Sapp were “pinned down” in a ravine to the right. They couldn’t fly off on their dragons because of the nets. They were also busy with a group of Berserkers as well.
“So what?” asked Jack.
“So,” I replied. “I need you guys to be a decoy so I can locate the catapults. The catapults are well hidden,” I said as I looked back over the crest, then I asked Jack for some rope.
“And, when I give a signal I’ll need you guys to fly off, bringing attention to yourselves so I can slip by without being seen. Jack,” I said looking at him, “I need you to fly over and help Hat and them. Repteil and Faith,” I said looking at them, “I need you two to do the same as Jack but go find my sisters and the others and help them out. I figure,” I concluded as I told all three of them, “if Hat and them are pinned down, so are the others. Once I take out the catapults, you guys should be able to overwhelm the enemy vikings that are engaging our friends. You guys ready?”
“Yes!” they all replied as the mounted their dragons.
“Now once you leave, fly low to stay out of range of the nets because these catapults only have a high arching shot track, so the lower the better.”
As Jack, Faith, and Repteil waited for my signal, I noticed storm clouds were now starting to roll in and the sun dipped behind one of the clouds. I did not like how the storm clouds were looking and the directions they were heading.
“Go!” I signaled.
A moment after they flew off I saw the nets launched from the catapults. The origin of the nets came from the center peak on the island. When I deduced this, I ran around to the base of the center rock formation that the catapults were on and started to think, “How in a blind yak’s mind am I going to get up there?” Since I have the surprise element as an advantage, I will need to get up to the catapults without being seen. I noticed from my vantage point that there was a large rock formation from the crest of the hill I ran from. This formation had several jagged places from where I could go and not be seen. It also helped it started to get slightly dark because of the storm clouds.
I circled back and climbed up the rock formations on the hill. When I got to a higher level than the catapults I suddenly thought of a way to get over. Since the vikings were too busy paying attention to Hat and them, I decided I would “glide” over there. I reached for Jack’s rope he gave me, tied one end to one of my arrows from my quiver, and aimed for a tree that was about thirty yards in front of me with a slight decline of about five yards. When I would get over to the other side, this would put me behind and slightly below the enemy vikings. I shot my arrow which hit the tree squarely. I shot the arrow with more draw back of my bow so the arrow would wedge deeper in the tree. I tied my end of the rope around a small rock formation next to me. I used one of my two bolas left on my belt and laid the bola across the rope line. I jumped off the ledge I was standing on and glided across the other side.
When I was nearing the other side, there was not enough room to jump off, so I had to hit the tree to slow me down. Wham! I hit the tree with a glancing blow and landed next to it.
“Ooo,” I grimaced as I grabbed my left shoulder. “I am gonna feel that in the morning.”
I climbed up and saw that there only a few vikings there, so I drew another arrow and called out, “Reach for the sky!”
The four enemy vikings that were there whirled around to see me. Hat and Thor saw me do this, so they got on their dragons and flew up to me. The band of vikings they were fighting, they had just took care of.
Hat and Thor maneuvered their dragons over the catapults and let their dragons land on the catapults, crushing both of devices to bits. Now that the four enemy vikings saw that they were captured, they stuck their hands up in surrender.
“Hey Jarl,” Hat said.
“What?” I turned to him.
“Here’s the egg,” he said tossing it to me.
I caught it and replied, “I am going to go help the others, you guys stay here, take care of these four, and wait for us.”
I ran off before Hat or Thor could say something different.
There was a tunnel through the center peak of the island that I used to get to the other side. I had been running for about five minutes when an Outcast viking yelled, “Stop!” and ran after me. We ran for another five minutes when I came to a fork in the road. So I stopped to catch my breath.
“Oh I haven’t run this much in a while, have you?” I asked the Outcast.
“Neither have I,” he said also trying to catch his breath.
“Why don’t you go on ahead, I’ll catch up to you,” I added hoping he would be fooled.
“Okay, that is very kind of you,” the Outcast said and started to run off. He took the left fork, so I took the right fork.
But when I came to a large arena, someone suddenly said, “Look out Jarl!”
I immediately jumped out of the way. Just in time too, because a man had jumped down from over the entry gate with a sword. The sword scrapped the ground. When the man stood up, I recognized him right away. It was Steinson!
And that voice I heard was my sister, Asvord.
“Nice of you to join us, Jarl,” Steinson voiced. “I am sorry it is going to be the last time you ever see your sister.”
“Why is that?” I asked, frightened.
“Because if you don’t hand over that egg, I will pull this lever and drop your sister and your dragon down a 100 foot drop.”
“Don’t do it Jarl,” Asvord called out.
“You know what I am going to do don’t you Steinson.”
“Yes I do. Now hand it over.”
Instead of handing over the egg, I threw the egg at him hitting Steinson in the head; thus knocking him over leaving him dazed. I picked up the egg, which did not have a scratch on it, and rushed over to my sister. I untied her and my dragon. “Here take this I said,” giving her the egg. “Run and take that passage the one I came in and keep going to your left and you’ll find Hat and Thor. Stay with them.”
“But what abou…,” Asvord started.
“No but’s, go!” I ordered shoving her towards the passage where she then ran through it.
“Are you alright Fredrick?” I asked.
He replied with a slight rumble sound.
“You waited too long Jarl,” Steinson said as I turned around to see him pulling the lever.
The floor dropped out from beneath me and I found myself hurtling through the sky alongside my dragon.

I had to act quickly because the ground was coming up fast.
“Come on,” I said hoarsely as I stretched to reach my saddle. I grabbed it and yelled, “Pull up Fredrick or we’re both goners!”
Fredrick immediately complied, when he did so I face planted on my dragon because even though I had grip on my saddle I was still up in the air. Fredrick dove back up in the air with so much force, I couldn’t move a muscle. As Fredrick slowed and leveled out, I was able to reseat myself on the saddle. I looked back and saw that we were flying so fast that we had actually cleared the opposite side of the island.
“Good thing I have a saddle,” I chuckled. “Let’s go back get that egg back!”
Fredrick is the smartest Thunderdrum I have ever seen because he nodded in agreement with what I said and did a very tight 180 degree turn and started flying back to the peak.
As we were going along, I noticed my other friends in two groups: Cullan, Meen, Nav, Faith, and Repteil in one group; and Explod, Elsa, Tory, and Pat in the other. All of them are in the same situation that Hat, Ash, Thor, and Sapp were.
“Why didn’t I think of this before,” I suddenly thought of an idea. “Come on Fredrick!”
I slightly nudged him with my feet and he followed my lead. We dove down very close to the ground and flew over my friends. The dragon nets fired, but since I was so low my dragon and I flew easily under them.
“Let’s knock out those catapults, FK,” I said using Fredrick’s nickname I gave him.
There were only two catapults on this side as well, but not for long. I pressed my hand on Fredrick’s skin right in front of me. This is my quick signal for Fredrick to fire. Fredrick’s blast destroyed both catapults, thus sending the parts flying along with the Berserkers around the retreating; and then I said, “Great shot Fredrick!”
By the time I got back to my friends on this side of the island, they had knocked out all the Outcast vikings that had them pinned down.
“Why didn’t you do that before with us?” asked Repteil. “You had our nadders.”
“I don’t know,” I replied and shrugged. “Guess I wanted to do it the hard way.”
“Come on guys,” I directed them. “Let’s go back and regroup with the others, because we go to get the egg back, at least.”
When we were flying back, I noticed the breeze had calmed down considerably and the temperature was still cold. I still had the feeling that there is very bad weather coming.
After we regrouped with my other friends back at the entrance of the cave I entered to go after Steinson originally, we had to figure out what we were going to do next.
“We need to get that egg back, pronto!” I ordered.
“Well I don’t think you have to go very far to get it,” said Pat pointing behind me.
“Why?” I said as I turned around.
“Because I have it and I won’t give you the chance to get it back,” said Steinson who had the egg in one hand and basically all of Outcast Island soldiers behind him.
Steinson said, “You might as well give up now Jarl, because I have won. I will leave you now to meet your doom.”
I noticed as Steinson was walking away and the soldiers were closing in on us and also there was no wind, no birds chirping, and I felt an eerie stillness in the air.
“Well you think you have me cornered Steinson?” I said stalling for time because I felt that some bad weather is coming and to see if this would keep the soldiers at bay. I would say there were fifty or more soldiers.
“Yes I do,” he said as he turned around to answer my question. “Why even try to bargain with me, there is no way you are getting of this island alive.”
I still looked around trying to figure out why the air was so still.
“You never know,” I replied. “I might still have a few more tricks up my sleeves because I am wearing a long sleeve shirt so me’s got’s plenty of room for more tricks.”
“What could you possible do in this situation?” Steinson said jokingly.
“Well…” I started to say and looked straight up. I could not believe my eyes. What I saw I thought was not possible this far north. It was a funnel cloud!
“Steinson look at that!” I exclaimed pointing up to the sky.
“Shut the front door. What is…,” before he could finish what he was going to say, Asvord jumped out of nowhere and knocked Steinson over. Asvord caught him so much by surprise that he dropped the egg while he and Asvord were tumbling down a hill that was nearby.
“Asvord!” I yelled.
One of the soldiers saw the egg and ran to grab it. It was a good twenty yards from him and thirty from me. I looked at Fredrick and my dragon immediately blasted some of the soldiers that were there. This opened a lane for me to run towards Steinson and my sister. I saw that Steinson had recovered and was about to do something to my sister.
“Thanks Fredrick!” I said. Fredrick and I are bonding so well we seem to know what the other is thinking. I had just cleared the area where the soldiers were now fighting with all of my friends when Steinson said, “Quick throw me the egg!”
I looked over and the one soldier that had gone after the egg and already picked it up and started to throw it towards Steinson. I picked my speed up to get there in time.
“That’s it. Come to Papa my precious egg,” Steinson said. I heard a slight hint of crazy evilness; kind of how Dagur would talk.
Just before Steinson could catch the egg, I dove directly in front of him and took the egg away.
“Hey! That is my egg!” Steinson reacted.
“Sorry, not anymore,” I retorted. “Come on Asvord,” I said grabbing her arm helping her up.
We ran back to our friends who had just about finished, or I should rather say, Meen had just about finished knocking out all of the soldiers with her pans.
When I had I got back to my friends, I looked behind me and Steinson was not following me.
“How’d you get the egg Jarl?” Thor asked.
“I intercepted a forward pass from a fumble by Steinson when Asvord sacked him,” I replied.
“Okay the nice commentary of the play from scrimmage was fine and all,” Elsa remarked. “But shouldn’t we I don’t know, can we get out of here?!”
Just then a massive, I mean massive wind gust hit us. It nearly knocked over a couple of us and shoved some of our dragons that were standing a few feet. I looked up and the funnel cloud was over the island and heading away from us, but it was going to touchdown with the ocean.
“The ‘calm of the storm’ has passed,” I yelled because the wind gusts were so powerful that I had to raise my voice just to be heard.
“Hey Jarl,” Explod replied also yelling so he can be heard. “If we get on our dragons we might be able to fly above the clouds and escape this wind.”
“Just what I was thinking,” I said. Everybody heard what Explod said so I didn’t have to repeat what he said.
Everybody started to fly upwards towards the clouds when I asked Asvord, “Where is your dragon?”
“I don’t know,” she said as she too had to yell so I could hear her. “We got split up when she could go through the crack in the wall right before I leveled Steinson.”
“Well hop on,” yelled mounting Fredrick.
“But what about Spiker?” She said worrying about her dragon.
“I know Asvord, but we got to get out of here,” I replied. “She is a Deadly Nadder. Nadders have a very good sense of direction.”
As we were about to clear Outcast Island, I spotted Spiker flying towards us.
“There’s your dragon!” I exclaimed.
Spiker saw us. I slowed up so she could catch up. When Spiker did, Asvord jumped off and landed on her dragon.
In a matter of seconds we were above the clouds, but there was a second layer of clouds because we are now in a thunderstorm’s “line of fire”.
We were only a few seconds behind our friends but it didn’t take us long to catch up. The reason being is because the strong winds only affected anything below the clouds. Above them, where we were, there was still wind but not as strong; still strong, but not as bad as below.
“Bah! Something’s biting me!” responded Asvord as she grabbed for what was biting her.
“What is it Asvord?” I asked looking back to see what was wrong.
“Look what I found, or what Spiker found,” Asvord said as I saw Steinson’s Grapple Grounder and Fire were rubbing on Asvord.
Not only do we have the egg, but both Grapple Grounders! This is great. However, I need to explore the connection between the grounders and the mysterious egg.

“Man, Steinson is going to get a huge surprise when he finds out that he doesn’t have the grounders, not to mention this egg,” I said as I put the egg in my saddlebag.
When I had finished, my sister and I had caught up to our friends.
“Can we out fly the storm, Jarl?” asked Navaro.
I slowed Fredrick to a slow enough flight so I could study the clouds in detail.
I studied them for a good five minutes. I noted the cloud types, their color, the direction they were going, the speed at which they were traveling, and also if the clouds were increasing or decreasing in size.
“What do you see?” questioned my younger sister.
“After studying the clouds,” I paused for a moment to look at my father’s compass he gave me when I was very small. I always wear it around my neck. This is one of the only things that I remember about my father.
The compass showed me that we were heading south, back in the direction of Berk.
“Since we are heading south, the clouds us are heading south by southwest. Their speed right now is faster than us, but it is still very slow for a storm to be traveling,” I replayed. “If we pick up a pace faster than the clouds…,”
“…we can reach Berk before the storm hits,” Explod added.
“Right,” I finished.
So we all urged our dragons on to fly at a brisk pace. Both Gronckles, Elsa’s and Thor’s, were more than able to keep up. They actually started to pass some of us.
We started to see the shores of Berk after a half hour. About ten minutes before then, the sun started to peak out of the clouds above us. Plus I felt we got ahead of the cold front because it got slightly warmer, and the clouds below us started to thin, revealing the shores of Berk. We landed in the area in front of Hiccup’s house.
I told everybody to go to their homes and get some much need sleep.
“After a couple of days we’ll reconvene and try to figure out the mystery connections between of the egg, the Grapple Grounders, and the robberies of Berk,” I stated.
“Oh don’t forget about Gobber’s socks,” Pat said jokingly as he and Black Knight flew away.
I asked Repteil to take Fire and Asvord will bring the other grounder home with us, along with the egg.
By the time that me and my sisters had bed down our dragons for their own much needed rest, the cold front from the storm had arrived. It was colder than before.
“Ooo! That’s so cold,” Asvord said as she shivered when the three of us entered our house. I saw our mother putting some logs on an already blazing fire.
“We’re home!” I announced.
Our mother gasped, turned around, and rushed us, grabbing us in a bear hug.
“Oh your home Safe!” she remarked with a relieved tone in her voice. “I was so worried about you my children.”
“No need to be worried,” Asvord replied, intentionally squeezing harder in the bear hug because I was the one in the middle. Elsa also followed suit.
When they let go, I gasped for air and fell to the floor. I was only kidding, which they knew I was.
“You probably haven’t heard,” My mother said as we all sat by the fire. “Adam has escaped.”
“What?” Asvord and Elsa exclaimed in unison.
“That can’t be,” I said astounded. “How’d he do it?”
My mother started to recount the story, “Well it all began last night when I brought Adam the evening meal. Stoick and Gobber came back then to further question him, after they initially did when they first brought back Adam after you left. Adam continued to say that he didn’t have anything to do with the robberies, nor the kidnappings, and neither anything to do with the Flightmare…,”
Just then I saw a flash of Lightning and then a very loud clap of thunder immediately following the flash. CRACK!
“Man that was very close,” said Elsa.
And very loud to boot,” I added.
“Please continue, mother,” Asvord said urging her on.
“After Adam had finished his meal” our mother continued. “I walked back towards the Great Hall. Stoick and Gobber accompanied me because they felt they weren’t getting anywhere with Adam. Not more than five minutes after we were walking, I saw a glare of a bright shining light.”
Elsa chimed in and said, “You turned around and saw the Flightmare.”
“Yes I did. Just seeing a Flightmare flying over Berk should be an amazing site to see in itself. But what it did next I could not believe. That dragon dove over the jail and destroyed the roof with its paws and then grabbed Adam then flew off south.” By the time we rushed back, we found the guards paralyzed by the Flightmare’s spray. In a few moments they revived from the spray, and started to shiver.”
“Did either Stoick or Gobber try to chase Adam and the Flightmare down?” asked Asvord.
“By the time Stoick got his son to fly after the Flightmare, there was not a trace of either the dragon or Adam,” finished our mother.
“To think we trusted Adam. Well of all the nerve…,” Asvord trailed off as she stood up and walked into the kitchen with mother.
“I prepared some yak ribs for you,” my mother added as she stopped in the door way.
“You did wha… How did you know we were coming back today?” I asked.
“I’m your mother.”
I shook my head.
Elsa was noticing that I had a blank expression on. I kept thinking about Adam.
“What’s up JB?” she asked. Elsa calls me “JB” when no one else is around.
“I still feel like Adam is still innocent. Somehow he is being framed, or there is something bigger that I haven’t found or seen yet,” I replied
Elsa scooted over on the bench next to me and put her arm around me.
“I know. When someone you get close too and start to trust him, and then suddenly something happens that makes you question that trust, it is hard to take and understand sometimes.”
I was very impressed with what my little sister just said.
“Thank you for saying what I needed to hear,” I hugged her. “You are growing up… unfortunately,” I needled.
“Ohh,” she said pushing back at me.
We both smiled as we were called in to the kitchen to get some yak ribs. The Grapple Grounder that we brought home with us followed us into the kitchen. The dragon pranced in and lay down in the far right corner of the room and kept its head up making itself look very distinguished.
I went back in the living room next to the fire and grabbed the egg on the bench.
“I’m not letting you out of my sight,” I muttered.
We all sat down around the table to see before us on our plates freshly picked corn-on-the-cob, a small bowl of elderberries, and the yak ribs smothered in the old family’s secret sauce.
I set the mysterious egg on the table next to my glass of yak milk.
Halfway through the meal, mother asked, “How did you come to find that beautiful stone?”
“Actually it is not a stone, but an egg. A dragon egg to be more specific,” I replied.
My mother was a little taken back when I said “egg”; so I started recalling our adventure starting when my friends, sisters, and I landed at Outcast Island.
I am a rather fast eater. The girls were only half way done with their meal.
While I was recalling the events and relaying them to my mother with my sisters adding a few things here and there, I couldn’t help but notice that she would glance at the egg like she thought she had seen it somewhere else.
When the girls had finished their meal, mother said, “Come here children, and bring the egg,”
Mother walked out of the room first, followed by me and my sisters. I looked at my sisters. Whenever my mother used, “Children” we were either in trouble or our mother is very serious about something. This is probably the second one.
We followed our mother into her room and we sat on her bed. She walked over to her hope chest where she kept several mementos of my father.
“I don’t think I have ever showed you this...,” our mother said as she reached into the chest. She took two pieces of what looked like stone and gave it to me and my sisters to look at.
I studied it for a few moments. The pieces looked kind of like two small bowls. The thickness of the bowls is about an inch. I noticed a pattern on the stone halves. Thinking about it, I reached for the egg.
I declared, “Mother, these two stone shell parts and this egg…,” I paused and held the two parts and the egg next to each other.

“They are exactly the same!”

“If these two pieces here and this egg are the same then that would mean…,” Asvord said puzzled.
“My two halves of stone are actually two dragon egg halves,” our mother remarked.
How’d you come to find you egg shells?”asked Elsa.
“Your father gave it o me on the same voyage he died,” mother said as she sat on her bed behind us my sisters and I turned to face her.
“As you well know,” our mother started. “Sigvald and I had gone on several voyages together around the world. The one your father died on, we were returning from the land east by northeast of Berk; several weeks travel from Berk. We had in our cargo a gift, a chest, from that land. It had in it precious metals that were great for weapons, fine cloths that were rather rare at the time, and a small but generous amounts of gold for that time. This egg shell,” she said hold the shell parts. “was found by your father while he was exploring a cave deep in that island’s mountain. Sigvald loved exploring new lands and discovering unique artifacts; this egg shell being one of them. He gave it to me because of the beauty reminded your father of me. As you can see on your egg and on my egg shell parts, they both have a beautiful pattern of dark blues, reds, and blacks on it. Because this was a gift from Sigvald, I never accepted any of the many offers I received for my shell parts. The prince of that land said that had seen a few of the ‘stones’ around, but none quite as magnificent as this one. The prince also warned of renegade vikings that had been scourging that region.”
Our mother paused for a moment for a tear came to her eye, but she fought it back.
“One of our rival traders who had tried several times to trade less quality goods at the same price than ours to every customer we had, kept presenting me with offers, valuable trades, and offers with valuable trades included that were very tempting because they more than tripled the average offer I had gotten that week we stayed at the island.”
“On the return voyage back to Berk, we were attacked by the renegading vikings. Sigvald had feared an attack was imminent because a thick fog had settled over the ocean, even though it was still mid-afternoon. Though it was a rather cold day and there was a thick cloud cover. Our crew put up a great fight, with me included, to the point we had almost won. However, those renegading vikings launched a counter attack but the several of the Grapple Grounder dragons. None of us had ever seen this dragon in battle. We had heard about the speed attacks it would do, but we never actually saw one.”
“We were finally able to rid and drive away the grounders, only leave less than five. By the time we had done this, our enemy had taken pretty much all our cargo that we had traded for as well as the gift chest. Our crew was still fighting on both ships, when Sigvald and I leapt to the enemy ship to fend off them in an effort to get back our cargo. Moreover, to rescue some of our crew that had been captured. I was the last one to get back on our ship, while your father was still locked in combat with the leader on the enemy ship.”
I could see mother fighting back even more tears.
“Sigvald told me to get back to our ship and get it to safety to protect me and the crew, for we had rescued all of our crew members. I was about ready to go back for Sigvald, but couldn’t because both ships were drifting too far apart from each other. My first mate said, ‘We can’t go back after your husband because we have no way of pursuing the enemy ship because we are down wind and we do not have enough oars to move the ship.’ I ran to the edge of our ship to watch the fight that was happening on the other ship between your father and the leader of the renegading vikings. The leader couldn’t handle Sigvald’s swordsmanship skills. I watched in horror because suddenly a viking knocked over one of the smaller masts the fell on Sigvald pinning him under it. He couldn’t even reach his sword to protect himself. A Grapple Grounder jumped at him, but Sigvald punched it out of the way.”
“Just then the enemy ship disappeared into the fog and I couldn’t see what was happening on the other ship. Sigvald yelled out for me to stay safe and protect his kids, and he would return, somehow. I heard him yell out in pain, but I couldn’t save him because I was helpless,” she finished as she couldn’t hold back the tears anymore and put her head in her hands and just started to cry.
Both my sisters and I hugged our mother tight.
“You will always have us mother,’ I said.
We all hugged for several minutes.
After we were done hugging, Asvord said, “So since this is a dragon egg, what kind and type of dragons this.”
“Is it a Grapple Grounder egg?” asked Elsa.
I replied, “I don’t think so. For one thing if it were a grounder egg, wouldn’t Steinson already know how to thatch the egg because he has, or really now had, two Grapple Grounders in his possession? While I was looking around in his headquarters, I saw several pictures and pages written on the just the Grapple Grounder alone.”
Mother added, “That would make sense. So the grounders are the key or part of the key to hatching the egg.”
“That is what I originally thought about the egg when I first heard and saw this egg; but I wasn’t sure,” I stated. “I got distracted and couldn’t clearly think about the egg when we were trying to escape the clutches of Vemund Steinson. And we obviously succeeded in that.”
“The rain sounds as if it has passed on, so why don’t’ we pay Hiccup a visit and ask him about the egg?” suggested Elsa.
“Sounds like a good idea,’ I said standing up and walked out of the room.”We still have about a half day to investigate any clues about the egg.”
I opened the door and very chilly breeze whipped past my face. I glanced at the clouds.
I closed the door and cautioned the others saying, “Even though the rain has passed on the clouds will still produce…,”
I was interrupted by a very loud crack of thunder.
“The clouds will still produce.. that,” I finished, as I was “so rudely interrupted” by the lightning strike. “Grab your winter tunic and stuff because it.. is.. chi-lley.” After I grabbed my winter tunic, Elsa handed me the egg from mother’s room.
We all went and got our winter tunics and warmer skin caots and stepped outside our house.
“Where are you going mother?” inquired Asvord.
“Very early this morning I set a salmon trap near the falls at the beach, by now I should have a good catch,” she said as she put on her coat and clipped the belt that she had sewn on the coat. She had a leather holder for a knife on the left side of the belt. The knife was a bone from an old Bonenapper dragon. She said our father had carved a matching set of blades for himself and our mother. Father still had his on the last time mother saw him.
We hugged our mother before she left. Me and my sisters said, “We love you.”
She replied, “I love you guys with all my heart.”
Our mother then departed and walked off in the direction of the falls.
I walked around to the back of the house followed by my sister to our dragons. Even though it was a short ride, we may get to track down more clues after we talk with Hiccup, possibly Fishlegs, and/or consult The Book of Dragons.
It was only a five minute ride to Hiccup’s house.
We landed by his house, got off our dragons, and motioned them to wait next to the house.
I knocked on the door three times and waited for him to come to the door. He called out he was coming. When he opened the door we exchanged greetings.
“When did you get back?” asked Hiccup.
“About an hour, hour and a half ago,” I replied.
“Well come in,” Hiccup said as he motioned for us to sit down near his work desk. Toothless had been watching the fire, but came over next to Hiccup who turned around his chair at his desk and sat down. My sister and I also grabbed some chairs and sat down too.
“I gather you were successful in you mission? Did you find any additional clues?” asked Hiccup.
“Yeah we were successful and we did find out some interesting clues.” I spoke and began retelling the adventure on Outcast Island.
I told Hiccup about Vemund being a traitor, also how I saw a mysterious man that went by the name of “DB”, how we now have both Grapple Grounders, and also the egg that is valuable to them.
“And here is that dragon egg,” I revealed to him the egg from from my saddlebag I brought in.
“It’s beautiful,” said Hiccup.
Asvord then said, “We wanted to come over and see if you know what kind and type dragon egg this is.”
“I have never seen any dragon egg like this,” said Hiccup as he examined the egg closer on his desk. Toothless came over and sniffed the egg.
“What do you think bud?” asked Hiccup. “What kind of dragon could it be?”
Toothless kind of smiled and made a rumbling noise as if he like the egg.
“Looks as if Toothless likes the egg,” observed Elsa.
Hiccup picked up the egg, turned towards us and said, “I had planed an Academy meeting tonight. Want to come?”
“Sure,” my sisters and I agreed.
“We could ask Fishlegs about this mysterious egg to see if he or The Book of Dragons has any information on it,” said Hiccup as he grabbed is thicker skin tunic that he wore in the winter months.
We all exited Hiccup’s house, we then all mounted our dragons, and flew to the Academy.
“Maybe there we can shed some light on the subject of finding out what type dragon egg this is,” concluded Hiccup as we took off.

We were at the Academy in no time; where we found Ruffnut and Tuffnut banging their heads against a wall, Snotlout still working on his “you get the thunder” queue for Hookfang who was not even paying attention, Astrid was target practicing with her axe, and Fishlegs was looking over some papers. My sisters and I followed Hiccup and Toothless in to the Academy ring.
“Finally, you have come,” said Tuffnut. “I thought you said we were going to meet here when the sun went down?”
“We are. It is about sunset right now,” replied Astrid, who walked over to us in the group.
“How can that be?” asked Ruffnut. “Tuff and I have been waiting here for hours.”
Hiccup asked in return, “When did you get here?”
Tuffnut answered, “We saw the sun set right before it started to rain.”
“What you idiots saw was the sun going behind the clouds from the storm,” stated Snotlout. “I know that. Even a wild boar would know that.”
Astrid then returned, “Says the person who takes a shower outside every other time it rains.”
“Well I’m just conserving water if there is ever a shortage again,” retorted Snotlout. The Twins complained and looked crestfallen. But not for long, for they returned to hitting their heads on the nearby wall.
“It’s beautiful,” marveled Astrid as she grabbed it from Hiccup.
‘You guys know Jarl and his sisters,” Hiccup said addressing the Academy riders.
My sisters and I exchanged greetings with everybody. Snotlout asked me how we got in the possession of the egg, so I relayed the condensed version of the events that transpired on Outcast Island.
Hiccup said as soon as I was done, “This egg is nothing like any egg I have ever seen. Especially because of the colors and patterns on this that make it stand out. Really making it look like a stone crystal from a deep cavern in the mountains. The shape is rather a dead give a away thought that it is an egg.”
“Do you think you can identify this egg, Fishlegs?” asked.
“It looks nothing like any egg I could identify right off the top of my head, I would have to consult The Book of Dragons on this,” stated Fishlegs.
He walked off to go retrieve the book, for the book was in the Academy’s classroom that the ride.
“I know what these crystals are that have formed on this egg,” I declared.
“You do?!” said Elsa and a few others who were also stunned at what I had just said.
“I’ve seen these crystals on stalagmites in caves before; more recently the cave where I found Fredrick. These crystals are from salt water. As the water soaks into the ground from either rain, a nearby stream, or other water source, some of the water might will eventually find a crack in a cave it reaches and will seep through it and travel through the crack until it reaches the ceiling of the cave. Water always seeks out the shortest and quickest route in any direction but always in a downward motion, because of gravity,” I stated. “As the water drips from the ceiling of the cave, there forms a stalagmite under the drip. This is caused from the contents of the drips are left behind when the water drips. In this case it was saltwater. The saltwater would carry particles of the cave’s rock or stone that is imbedded in the walls and ceilings; plus the salt already in the water. After the saltwater starts to form the stalagmites on the floor and the stalactites on the ceiling, the water will evaporate throughout this entire process. The salt cannot evaporate because salt is first a solid not a liquid. The salt particles on whatever is underneath the drip would though start to dry out. This egg was under one or more of those drips. This drying out process creates the sparkle the object below. In this case, that object is an egg.”
“That is very interesting,” said Astrid.
“My brother likes to observe and study a lot of things,” added Asvord.
“So what,” uttered Snotlout. “How could that help with trying to identify the dragon in the egg?”
“It could help tremendously,” expressed Hiccup. “By discovering how and what made the egg sparkle, would help in finding the original location of the egg.”
“Exactly,” I stated. “Now that we know what is on this egg, we can use this clue to find where Steinson found the egg. The saltwater is our clue. We need to find a cave that is next to a body of saltwater.”
When I was finished talking Fishlegs came back with the book and sat done on a crate. We all stood there for ten minutes straight without one word being said. Fishlegs had gone through The Book of Dragons three times before he stood and exclaimed, “I don’t believe it, I don’t believe it!”
“What, what is it?!” asked all of us in excitement.
“There is no record of any dragon in this book having an egg with any markings, patterns, or colors even resembling this egg,” Fishlegs said who was getting out of breath due to excitement. “This would have to mean…”
“That this egg is an undiscovered dragon type,” finished Hiccup.
“Now that the lightning has seemed to have left the area,” I said looking up at the clouds. “Why don’t you guys go out on your patrol, while my sisters and I play a hunch that I just thought of.”
“Sounds good,” replied Hiccup. “By the way, while we’re out on patrol, will look for and maybe search a few caves.”
My sisters and I waved goodbye as the Academy riders flew out of the ring on their dragons. When we mounted our dragons, Elsa said, “So what is this hunch of yours, Jarl?”
“I think I know what it is,” stated Asvord.
“Well okay big sis. Since you seem to know what it is, why don’t you tell her,” I voiced.
“I think the hunch that our brother wants to play is to go back to the spot where he found Fredrick,” inputted Asvord. “Or am I mistaken?”
“No you are correct,” I acknowledged.
We didn’t say much on our flight to the cave where I first saw Fredrick. It took about fifteen minutes to reach the cave. The three of us walked in and immediately went over to the spot where I found Fredrick.
“Okay, now spread out and look for anything on the ground, the walls, or the ceilings,” I ordered.
It was very dark in the cave, in which case we used some torches that I had brought with me. I walked further into the cave, while Asvord and Elsa searched the vicinity of where I left them.
As I was walking for about five minutes, I noticed markings on the wall. I took a closer look and they were carved into the side of the wall. I saw stick figured men with several battle grounds around this one particular dragon. For some reason it looked vaguely familiar. I continued on to see a viking with two what looked to be like Grapple Grounds alongside a throne-like piece.
“Jarl! Jarl, come quick,” demanded an echoing voice which was Asvord’s.
I retracted my steps as fast as I could without stumbling over the few rocks and stones that lay scattered on the ground throughout the pathway. I returned to the spot where I split up with my sisters… “Jarl this way!” voiced Elsa.
I ran to my left where I thought I heard the voice coming from.
“Your other left,” said Elsa as her voice recoiled through the cave.
I ran back in the opposite direction. I had been running for what seems like I long time, but was only three minutes. The pathway this way had several turns in it. As I turned a corner to my right I saw three figures: two that were my sister, but a third whose body had been propped against a rather large rock.
“Elsa and I search the walls around where we split up, but did not find anything. However, when Elsa and I decided to go in this direction, we found this woman laying here,” said Asvord who bent down on one knew to get a better look at the woman.
I gave my torch to Elsa to hold up as a light. When the light hit the woman’s face, I noticed she was young but still quite a bit older than me or my siblings. I sat cross-legged next to her and gently nudged her and put my hand on the back of her head to cushion it, “Ma’am. Are you alright?” I kept saying to her.
The woman began to stir after the third time I nudged her. She came out of her state but only for a few seconds and whispered, “Adam, Mundy,… my brothers… please stop fighting…… your.. only making….. it worse… We.. need… to ge-eha-t… the…..,” she trailed off as she went back to sleep.
I laid the woman’s head back against the rock. But when I looked at my hand from after taking out behind her head, I noticed not a very good sight. There was blood on my hand. I propped the woman up to a sitting position and saw several cuts along her back. Her shirt she had on was torn and ripped in several places. I looked at the back of her head and found that it had been hit with a blunt object. The blood, as far as I could tell, was not dried so this had happened very recently.
“We need to get this woman back to Berk, pronto,” I reacted sharply. Asvord and I quickly carried her out to the dragons. The saddle on my dragon could hold at most three people, so Asvord got on the back on Fredrick with the woman behind me so we could fly back to Berk. Asvord motioned Spiker to follow us. We all bounded in to the sky on our dragons back to Berk. I nudged Fredrick with my feet to fly as low as he could so he could keep his balance and be closer to the ground when we land.
As I urged Fredrick to fly faster, I kept thinking about what I saw in the cave. “I wonder if what I saw about the markings, are talking about what I think they might be. If they are, then…,” I then lost my train of thought because we were nearing Berk, for Fredrick was flying at a high rate of speed.

We flew directly to the Great Hall and Asvord jumped off and helped the woman down, who was semi-conscious. The woman was able to walk into the Hall with some help from Asvord and myself. Elsa ran and got the door. We sat the woman down at the nearest bench.
“Where’s Gothi?” I asked, to no one in particular.
Thank my grandmother’s yak Gothi was in the Great Hall. Gothi motioned for her to be carried to a room nearby. She told us to stay outside while she took care of the woman.
A crowd had gathered around the room entrance where Gothi had taken the woman into. Some of the vikings started asking questions. I told everyone that I knew pretty much nothing about her. I said Asvord and Elsa found her in a cave and we used my Thunderdrum to get the woman back to Berk. The crowd kind off thinned out when it had been ten minutes.
When the crowd started leaving, Asvord took me by the arm and walked over to a corner where we could be alone. Elsa was talking to a few in the crowd about some other things.
“Jarl, do you think that she and…,” Asvord began.
“That Adam and her are siblings?” I interrupted. “I don’t know. She did say ‘Adam’ and then a guy named Mundy, so ‘Adam’ might be Adam Thorvald.”
Asvord and I discussed what each other saw in the cave and more about the woman viking. Asvord said she saw viking pictures carved on the wall of the cave just before she found the woman viking. The pictures were that of daily life for the vikings that had either been on Berk and left or our ancestors. I described to my sister what I saw.
“Do you think that those dragons are actually Grapple Grounders and have some connection with Vemund’s grounders we now have?” asked Asvord.
“I don’t know for sure,” I said. “I think we should know more when we can see the woman.”
Just then Gothi came out and started to scribble on a small book she had in her pocket.
“I can’t understand what she is trying to say. Is Gobber nearby?” I announced.
“I’m right here,” said Gobber who walked over from the fire place in the middle of the room.
Gothi wrote down what she wanted to say and handed it to Gobber.
“I am not sure what she wants to say sometimes, but I’ll give it a shot,” Gobber expressed. There was a short pause. “Gothi is either trying to say that her yak was cooking supper and you can now eat it or,” Gothi interrupted and knocked Gobber on the head with her staff. “Or she says you can see the woman in the morning. She needs rest,” concluded Gobber.
With that, most of the crowd that was still around left and so did me on my sisters. We said goodbye to Gobber and Gothi.
“Oh just one more thing Gobber,” I said as I remembered something. “Has any ‘trolls’ stolen your socks lately?”
Gobber thought for a moment. “Now that I think about it, no I haven’t had any of my socks stolen. Also since my socks disappearing seems to have some connection with the robberies and the fire at the armory, I have heard from Stoick that the robberies and a few fires that were started at some of the locations of the robberies that have been happening on a regular basis there for a while, have now suddenly stopped all together, completely.”
“That is very peculiar,” I said thoughtfully. “Do you know about the time they stopped?”
“Hmm…,” Gobber said tabbing is chin. “It was the day after you guys left for Outcast Island.”
“Okay. Thanks,” I said as I waved goodbye to Gobber.
My sisters and I didn’t say much on the way home. It seemed we were all deep in thought. We decided to walk home since our house was rather close.
When Asvord opened the door, our mother almost ran into her.
“Oh excuse me mother,” said Asvord.
“Why are you carrying all that wood and rope and cloth?” Elsa asked.
Mother said quickly, “No time to explain. I need a ride to the beach where I set my fishing trap.”
“Okay, hope of Fredrick here,” I said as I grabbed some of the items mother was carrying. So did my two sisters.
It took less than 3 minutes to get to the spot where my mother pointed out. It was getting very dark outside, but I could still see what my mother was pointing at. It was a Monstrous Nightmare!
As we landed, the Nightmare started to growl and shy away from us.
Mother jumped off Fredrick while my dragon was slowing down to land. She ran to the Nightmare and grabbed its head.
“Hey, hey, hey. It is all right, calm down Fintan,” my mother said with a soothing voice.
I said to my sisters who had dismounted their dragons and stood next to me, “Did our mother just jump off of a dragon ten feet off the ground, and then run up to a wild Monstrous Nightmare, grabs its head, calming it down with her voice, and call it by a name?”
“I think she did just that,” Asvord said crossing her arms and smiling.
I couldn’t tell what color exactly the Monstrous Nightmare was, but it was a very light color for sure.
“It is alright Fintan, these are friends.”
In just a few short minutes, our mother had the wild dragon calmed down.
“Quick hand me the cloth,” Our mother said. I grabbed it and gave it to her.
Asvord, Elsa, and I watched as our mother quickly washed what looked like a wound on nightmare’s right leg and another wound on its right wing near its body. Our mother than wrapped the cloth around Fintan’s leg and the made a splint for the wing with the rope and wood that we had brought with us. She made short work of everything she did.
We were amazed and stunned about several things. First, that are mother seems to have instantly started a bond with the nightmare. Second, the dragon responds to even just her voice. Third, I have never seen a nightmare of this color before. The nightmare has an all white body even its underbelly skin is white. But there are several highlights of gold color on its body to its wings in the form of strips and the spikes have highlighted gold tips. Fourth, the quick medical aid she has given the nightmare. I knew my mother was capable of several things, but this I did not expect; or at least this suddenly.
“That should be a lot better for you Fintan,” said our mother when she had completed her work.
One of us finally found some words to say after a few minutes had gone by. “How did you find this dragon?” asked Asvord.
“Well,” mother started. “I was checking my fishing trap near the side of the cliff of the waterfall, when suddenly a large object flew over my head and went thud next to me. I add no clue what it was. I have not been that startled in a long time. When I discovered the object to be a dragon, I then wondered why it crash landed. As I crept closer to the dragon I was about ready to see if it was still alive, when the dragon felt vulnerable and pinned me with its claws against the side of the cliff.”
We all gasped. “Are you alright, mother?” we all quickly asked.
“Yes I am fine. Fintan didn’t harm me. I did get soaked though, for he pinned me against the side of the cliff directly beneath the water fall. While I was still pinned, he looked me straight in the eyes; as I did with him. The most surreal moment I have had in my life. I am not sure what he planned on doing. But as the moon peaked out from the clouds, I could see he had a very bad wound on his right leg. I glanced at it and asked if I could help him,” continued mother as she started to pet Fintan’s head. “I don’t know if he understood me or just thought I wasn’t a threat to him, but he released me and I studied his wound and the surrounding areas of his skin. The wound was actually a burn mark.”
“A burn mark?” I said, puzzled.
“Yes,” replied mother. “It was very intriguing to know the burn mark was actually from a lightning strike.”
“What?!” me and my sisters said in unison.
“I actually have seen this type of wound before. It was way back when I was a child,” mother said. “I saw a lightning strike hit a yak. That wound looked very similar Fintan’s. But thankfully for that experience, I had with my yak know how to deal with these kinds of wounds. Fintan’s wound is not that bad, I think that was the reason he crash landed. He found that I could not fly because of the wound. He must have tried a few times to fly, but obviously with no success. With a little bit more care, Fintan should be able to fly very soon.”
“Why did you name him ‘Fintan’?” Elsa inquired.
Mother answered, “Well because the word ‘Fintan’ means ‘white fire’ in the land where your father and I have gone to before many times to trade. The nightmare’s color markings fit the meaning of ‘Fintan’ to a tee.”
“Do you have any dragon nip, Jarl?” asked mother.
“I do in my saddlebag,” I stated.
“Since my dragon won’t be able to fly, I will lead him back to the house with the dragon nip,” uttered mother.
On the way back we talked about what mother planed to do with her new dragon and if she needed any training tips. She said no. She had been observant in how my siblings and I trained our dragons as well as seeing some of the Dragon Academy riders train. But if she did she would ask.
It was getting rather late in the evening, but my mother had a small meal prepared. Corn, carrots, and a small portion of yak meat she had cooked.
After the meal, we all decided to turn in earlier. Our mother was going to come with us to see the newcomer that I and my sisters had found, to see if she can shed some light on her kind of mysterious appearance.

When the first few rays of sunlight were entering the upstairs room, I woke up to find that I was the first one up.
“Hmm,” I thought. “This is new. I am usually one of the last to get up.”
I went down stairs to find that my mother was still in bed herself.
“Okay this feels very awkward,” I said to myself. “I hardly ever get up before mother. If I do wake up before she does, I usually go right back to sleep.”
I walked into the kitchen to see that I was not the first one up. The additional Grapple Grounder was wide awake sitting in his spot where we laid for him when we first got back a day or two ago. I peeked out from the kitchen and looked in the direction of mother’s work desk. The mysterious egg was still on the counter where I put it last night right before I went upstairs to bed.
I searched the kitchen to see what I could fix for breakfast. I rounded up some apples, cut them, and put them in a large bowl. I went outside to our garden to pick a fresh head of cabbage along with some elderberries. As I was coming back in, I saw that Fintan and the other dragons were getting along fine. Seems like they just woke up too because Fredrick let out a huge yawn; wide mouth in-all.
I walked back into the kitchen and went to the wash table. I opened a cabinet above me to get the water we use to wash our hands and vegetables with. I held a large bowl up to the bucket and took the cork out near the bottom. Water came pouring out at a slow, steady pace. Put the cork back in and took off some of the cover leaves around the head washed the cabbage. I chopped up the cabbage into large chunks and added them to the apples. I got some carrots, washed them, diced them and some elderberries, washed them, and added them to my salad. And finally stirred in some of mother’s oil-tomato dressing before setting the table. I set some cups and poured some water in them.
I then heard my sister’s moving around upstairs with an occasional statement or two. I also heard my mother stirring in her bedroom. There is a door adjoining the kitchen and her bedroom.
“Well look who’s up early,” mother said opening the door.
“Yeah, for once I woke up before everyone else and decided to make some breakfast,” I said.
Asvord and Elsa came downstairs and entered the kitchen saying the same thing as mother. And they got the same answer
The girls did not say much during the meal as all three of them fully enjoyed the salad I had prepared for them. They all even complemented me on a very tasty meal.
Once the dishes were cleaned and put away after the meal, we were ready to go to the Great Hall to see the woman that my sisters and I had found the previous day. I picked up the egg right before we left. All four of us went out back to see how our dragons were doing and give them their morning meal. We used the fish that mother had
We decided to walk to the Great Hall and not take our dragons for it was a short walk. Also we planned to be there a while talking with the woman.
During our walk we passed the armory. Construction was moving rapidly along. Gobber had been busy since the fire to the armory, resupply Berk’s weapons and such. Either mostly everybody was still asleep or still in their house as a result of the day just starting.
Immediately following our entrance to the hall we entered the room where Gothi had taken the woman. The scene inside the room was good to see whereas the woman was sitting up in a bed eating some vegetable stew Gothi had cooked recently.
I asked Gothi who was standing near the door if we could talk to her and Gothi motioned we could.
“You must be the people who brought me here,” said the woman who had put the bowl of stew down on a small table near the bed.
“How did you guess?” asked Asvord.
“Well,” the woman started. “Gothi here has been turning away all the people that have tried to see me at least until I had my morning meal.”
I introduced my family starting with Asvord, then Elsa, then my mother, and finally myself.
“Nice to greet all of you,” the woman said with a smile. “My name is Annett Thorvald.”
“Nice to greet you too Annett Thor-,” I began to say.
“Thorvald?” said mother, who was taken aback about what Annett said.
“Yes,” Annett said, slowly. “Does that name mean anything to you?”
“Actually it does,” replied mother.
Annett look puzzled. So I returned, “Are you related to Adam Thorvald?”
“Why yes he is my brother,” she stated.
“Your brother??” said Asvord, who was stunned; as were we all.
“Yes he is,” Annett said slowly again. “Wait, have you seen him?” she asked quickly.
“Why yes, we have,” I responded. I told her a fast and compressed version about the events that have transpired recently. I find myself being able to retell this story faster each time, yet still be precise in the details.
“I was afraid something like this might happen,” Annett said worriedly, as she put her hand to her chin, thinking.
I remarked, “Why would you say that, Annett?”
“Well it all started about seven years ago when me, Adam, and my other brother, Mundy, were a bit older then you kids,” Annett began. “Our homeland had been attacked by a band of renegading vikings. Our clan had done well to repel the enemy; however, the case was being put forth to our leader: we still needed reinforcements to drive away our enemy. Mundy and Adam were tasked with getting word to an allied clan that was nearby. But they were captured in route to the island by the renegading vikings.”
“My two brothers,” Annett continued. “were always at odds in trying to accomplish anything. Adam would think one way while it always seemed like Mundy would think the exact opposite. Adam found out by a little investigating that the renegading vikings were only after one thing: a precious stone. This stone had been in our clan’s possession for nearly hundred years, so the value on this stone is priceless. Not to mention the beauty of the stone could sell for a small fortune by itself to the traders from the north.”
“When Mundy found out that, he insisted that our clan give them the stone let the renegading vikings go on their marry way. Adam, like I said, thought otherwise. Adam told me later that the two of them had an argument about their two separate view points. The noise they made got the attention of their captors, which led to them letting Mundy go. They ‘promised’ him that if he got them the stone, they would release Adam and withdraw all of their forces back to their own land,” Annett paused. “Adam knew that our enemy would not keep their word and warned Mundy. But like always, Mundy had to have it his way whenever he had come to a conclusion.”
“Once they had released Mundy, Adam was able to escape by persuading the viking left to guard him to give him a cup of water. Adam then knocked the guy out with a flying punch as Adam was being handed the cup of water. Adam used the keys to unlock his cell door and escaped by swimming back to shore from the captor’s ship. Adam, by the way, is an excellent swimmer.”
“Yeah I know he is from firsthand experience,” I said and gave a small smile to which only my family understood what I meant.
Annett continued with her story, “Adam went directly to our leaders and told what Mundy planned to do. The leaders were not at all pleased how one of their own would hand over a priceless jewel of our heritage, just like that,” she said snapping her fingers. “Our leaders were going to deal heavily against Mundy, but Adam pleaded that if he brought back his brother under his own will, that the leaders would reconsider the punishment. I wouldn’t say the stone was or is ‘sacred’, but it is pretty close to it. Adam said that when he found his brother with the stone, Mundy’s attitude had completely changed. Adam found out that Mundy was going to get part of the take in selling the stone. Adam didn’t want that, but Mundy kept saying that even if we didn’t give them the stone, we could not beat them because they were surrounding our island at that moment and our only chance was to get a rid of the enemy vikings by giving them the stone. Mundy was able to persuade Adam in to thinking his way.”
“However, when Adam helped Mundy they both found out that the renegade vikings were going to double cross Mundy by taking our island over, Adam was caught between a rock and a hard place. Listen to his brother who was saying that they couldn’t go back now because the evidence towards their acts of ‘treason’ against our clan would be great and they wouldn’t stand a chance of going back; or should he bring in his own brother to stand up for his own acts,” Annett gave another pause. “Adam had to make up his mind fast due to the leaders of our clan had followed Adam. Also, the enemy vikings were coming from another direction to carry out their double cross. Mundy pleaded with Adam who in which case let his brother escape. I guess the stone meant a lot to the renegading vikings that they tried to leave right then to pursue, but Adam and our clan leaders slowed them down.”
“However, when our leaders found out what Adam had done and what they ‘helped Adam in doing’ by slowing down the escape of the renegade vikings, they held trail against Adam. I tried my best to defend my brother; nevertheless, the only fact that prevent the clan leaders to carry out the full punishment of ‘treason’ was the fact that Adam’s acts did rid our island of the renegading vikings and prevented any serious harm to our clan’s people. The resulting punishment would be banishment from any and all land that our clan had.”
I saw a tear start to develop in Annett’s eyes, but she continued. “The clan leaders were generous in the previsions that they gave Adam. They gave Adam one of their best small ships. Plenty of food and seed for farming, things he could trade with other people, and plenty of tools for farming and what not,” a tear started to roll down her cheek. “Before Adam was about ready to shove off, I gave him a kitten from my cat’s litter she had the previous day. I told my brother to take the kitten as a memento to remember me by,” Annett had something about her eyes watering from the soup she had eaten, so she got up and walk into a small wash room that was nearby.
“Now how did you get here on Berk?” asked my mother.
“Oh,” Annett said coming out of the wash room. “It had only been about three days after Adam had left our island that I couldn’t stand it there anymore and had to leave. Our parents had died about five years before, and I was the only one left to take care of my two brothers. I didn’t have much else keeping me there. So I packed up, took my cat Jewels, and started to sail in the direction of my brother Adam. From that moment to this day, I have spent searching for my two brothers in hope that I could one day bring my family back together again and start someplace else anew. But to tell you the events of the yesterday seem a bit clouded still.”
“Probably because you received a rather large blow to the head,” stated Elsa.
“Maybe so,” Annett said feeling the back of her head. “I know my head still hurts because of it.”
“Can you remember anything from yesterday?” questioned my mother.
“The only few things I can remember, is I must have landed on northern side of you island because I was extremely low on supplies and started to walk in shore. I noticed storm clouds rolling in, so I saw a cave nearby and walked in to take shelter,” Annett spoke. “A walked around the cave for a while.. but… That is about all I can remember other than that I must have fallen asleep. For I had a dream that I had found my brothers fighting over an oval shaped object in that very cave I walked in. Though I cannot tell for sure because I remember correctly what actually had gone on yesterday night.”
“That is okay,” mother related. “You should probably get some more rest while we-,”
Mother was hindered by speaking when suddenly Annett said, “Pebbles!!”
We all whirled around to see that Pebbles had walked in through the crack in the door from the main hall. Annett rushed to grab the cat and hug him. This only proved that she was in fact Adam’s sister.
But the only thing is, it seems like each time a question is answered in this huge mystery that several more are asked with now answer in sight.

“Oh how are you Pebbles!” Annett said. “It has been so long, too long.”
Pebbles just laid limp as Annett hugged him and rubbed on him.
“So where does this leave us now?” Annett asked. “I do not think Adam would do anything you have said Jarl, without a very good reason; although Adam seems to be the main connection between the events on Berk and the events that involves this Steinson guy. What do we do now? Of what you have told me, you have no clue to where either of them is.”
“Before yesterday, that would be true,” I stated. “But my sisters and I were exploring the same exact cave we found you in; we found some clues that may lead us to where Steinson is going; not exactly where he is at the moment.”
Annett was about ready to say something, but I stopped her by saying, “My sisters and I will go and explore the cave ourselves. While you,” I pointed at her. “will stay here and get some more rest. We'll come back later in the afternoon to tell you what we might find.”
“Alright,” she replied with a slightly disappointed look. “But see that you do.”
We bid Annett goodbye as we walked back into the main Hall, mother said that she had a few things to attend to and told us to go on and explore the one cave.
On our way back to our house to get our dragons, we ran into Hiccup. Not literally, but we did stop to talk to him a minute.
“What's going on with the Academy today?” asked Asvord
“Well we have planned an ambush drill so we can be ready if we are ever surprised by Dagur,” relayed Hiccup. “Gobber will be over by where we built the catapults, just slightly south of that location. He will have a few of our mobile catapults. I'm on my way now to tell the Academy of the drill.”
“Okay,” I said waving goodbye to Hiccup.
My sisters and I continued on to our house to get our dragons. We arrived at the dragon stables behind our house to find that our new Grapple Grounder was making friends with our dragons. Fintan looked like he was still getting accustomed to his surroundings because he kept his distance from the grounder.
I reached for my saddle which was hanging up on the side wall of the stable. Asvord and Elsa made mention they should get some saddles too. We mounted our dragons and started off for the cave we had visited the previous day.
On our way, we saw Gobber and a few other vikings setting up the catapult ambush; we waved to Gobber as we flew overhead.
About another five minutes and my sisters and I found ourselves at the entrance of the cave.
“Okay which way do you want to go?” I asked the girls. “We can split up and take our dragons with us through the caves.”
“I'll go where you where Jarl the other day,” replied Asvord.
“Alright I will take the right fork when the cave splits into to three different passageways,” stated Elsa.
“Okay, that leaves me the left. Meet back the entrance here after about a half hour?” I asked as I pointed at the ground.
Both Asvord and Elsa nodded in agreement.
“Oh,” I remembered. “If you need help with anything, give our thunderdrum call. If you are in trouble, give two calls.”
They nodded again as we entered the cave
When we had gone our separate ways, I realized that I had taken the fork that we had found Annett in yesterday. I suddenly had a hunch I wanted to exploit.
I retraced my running steps I took yesterday and came to the spot where Annett was laying. Before I departed from my sisters, I brought with me a few torches. By using Spiker's fire, I lit three torches; one for each of us.
I bent down and held my torch to the ground. Around where Annett was lying down were two different pairs of footprints. Was my hunch starting to prove true? I continued to search to see if it did.
I stood in the middle of the cave and looked at my surroundings. Something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. There was a torch in a torch holder on the wall cave. The ash on the torch was not brittle, but stiff. This told me that this torch had been lit recently. Remembering back to the previous day, there was a torch lit on the side of the cave that I totally glossed over. Either Annett had lit the torch, or someone else had too of lit it.
I studied the cave floor. There was a thin layer of dirt, well really sand mixed with dirt, on the hard rock floor. Again something caught my eye.
“Fredrick,” I turned to face my dragon. “Stay here,” I motioned with a my free hand and put it in front of his face. Fredrick laid down, or sat down; I can hardly tell if he is sitting or standing because thunderdrums have such short legs.
The next the thing that had caught my eye was footprints leading away from where Annett was laying. These prints were not a woman's, but a man's. Actually there were two sets of prints. As I followed the prints I made sure to not disturb them and get them confused with my own.
I noticed the footprints started to get further apart. I figured that the two men were running. As I continued to follow the tracks, I started to see light around the corner of a turn up ahead. And by George there was a secondary entrance to a beach. I peeked out the smaller opening compared to the one me and my sisters entered and saw a small boat that by the looks of it was Annett's boat she had described to me.
When I returned to where I had left Fredrick, I noticed another thing that was interesting and hadn't seen before. Just a few feet to my right and a little bit left of Fredrick, there were two large rocks about the size of a barrel moved out from their original positions. The reason I deduced this is the sand and dirt around the bottom of both rocks was not right up against the rocks. After closer examination, I saw that the rocks had been either shoved across the floor or picked up and set down right next to their original positions.
I stood up after I had looked at the rocks and focused my gaze on the wall. There were abnormally long scratch marks on the wall. I did not think much of them until I saw something else on the floor. It seemed like there was a fight of some sort involving sharp weapons because the sand and dirt was all disarrayed. The only footprints that were visible were my own. This did not make since if they were not a struggle of some sort between two people. The reason for this is because I was standing in the middle of what I considered the center of the fight and I was looking at where my sisters and I had found Annett. Why is this important? Because I was in between the set of footprints and where Annett had been and the only prints visible were my own. So I concluded that two men had been in the cave maybe saw Annett somehow trip or fall, hit her head on a rock, walk over to her and see if she was all right, then standing up and fighting.
I heard just then the thunderdrum call. It sounded like Asvord's voice. I only heard one call.
I walked back around and met Asvord in her cave she had taken. I also saw Elsa there with my sister.
“Look what I have found,” said Asvord handing me a piece of paper. “I took this piece of paper and shaded what I found on the cave wall here. I studied this wall and this map leads to an island southwest of Berk. Also these markings on both sides of the cave walls indicate that the dragon that you saw Jarl on a cave wall earlier look to me to be a Grapple Grounder. I studied these caves and see that two Grapple Grounders are key components to what seems to be a puzzle to unlock an entrance on this island southeast of here. This cave that the dragons unlock I can't really figure out what the puzzle unlocks to find.”
I walked over to the place where Asvord pointed out. I held my torch up so I could see the markings on the wall. What I saw was a figure that looked like a dragon. I couldn't believe my eyes. The dragon figure look just like toothless.
“That looks like a Night Fury,” I gasped.
“What really??” both my sisters gasped as well.
“See for yourself,” I said.
“By golly your right,” replied Elsa shaking her head in disbelief.
I added, “Hiccup will need to see this.”
Asvord grabbed my arm, “Why don't I just shade the picture over with my pen here like I did with the map.”
“I guess you could do that. It would save a trip out here,” I decided.
Asvord did that and we exited the cave and started the trip back to Berk. We did though search the cave a little bit more, but found no more markings on any walls that had not been searched yet. I showed my sisters what I had found in my cave; along with the smaller entrance to the beach.
Just before I mounted Fredrick I asked Elsa why she was with her sister. She told me the cave she started to walk down lead her to meet with Asvord some time down the path.
We took the same flight path as we did to get here. On our way back, we flew over the area that Hiccup was going to be with the drill. But we saw a couple of the catapults were burned to the ground. I wondered what happened and hoped that no one was hurt.
My sisters and I landed back in Berk in front of Hiccup's house. Asvord and Elsa said that they would go visit Annett in The Great Hall. I wanted to confer with Hiccup about what he thought I should do with the clues I have uncovered about where Steinson is more than likely going. I waved goodbye to Asvord and Elsa.
I walked up to Hiccup's house. I was about ready to knock on the door when it was suddenly opened. Hiccup's forehead nearly met “head-on” with my hand.
“Oh hi Jarl,” Hiccup said with a low tone in his voice. “Did you find out anything?”
“A couple of things. Are you okay?” I asked him.
“Well, not really.”
“What's wrong?” I asked
“Well...,” he paused for a second. “During the drill, Snotlout disobeyed an order and almost cause serious harm to Astrid.”
“Oh my yaks, is she alright?”
“Yes, but shaken up afterwards,” he paused again. “What did you find in the cave?”
“I think I found some clues to where Vemund will be going, and also take a look at this,” I said showing him the picture that Asvord shaded.
“This.. This.. This looks like a Night Fury dragon, does this mean...”
“That the egg that I have, plus both Grapple Grounders are a part of a clue to finding any Night Furies or what happened to the Night Fury species,” I finished.
“This is a surprising twist,” Hiccup said.

“With this new development you still don’t look very happy, is there something else that is bothering you?” I asked.
“Well there is,” Hiccup started. “I grounded Snotlout for continuing to disobey my orders and suspended him from the Academy. But I don’t know if I am doing the right thing or not. Do I reinstate Snotlout? But if I do I risk losing the respect of the other Academy riders. However, I am the leader of the Academy and the other riders have to follow my rules.”
“Tough one,” I said.
“Yeah, that is what my father said,” replied Hiccup. “So you figure that the markings in the cave you found, both Grapple Grounders, and the two eggs that you and Steinson have are all connected?”
“Yes, the map that I have here is a copy of the map in the cave leading to an island southwest of Berk. If the markings and pictures in the cave are correct, then Steinson will be heading to that island. Because of the way he sounded the last time I saw him, Steinson knows more about the egg than we do,” I answered.
“If this map has anything to do with any connection to Night Furies, I would so want to go with you on this. However, I think it is best if I stay behind and keep an eye on the situation at the Academy,” said Hiccup who seem like he was a bit pre-occupied.
I relayed to Hiccup about the evidence in a scuffle that I saw in the cave. “Thinking back to what Annett said about seeing two people in a ‘dream’ she had after she hit her head, that maybe what she saw wasn’t a ‘dream’ after all. So that would have to make one of those men Adam and the other the brother to Adam and Annett.”
Hiccup nodded in agreement.
Hiccup said he needed to do a few things and bid me, “So long.”
I then walked up the nearby stairs to the Great Hall and entered the room where Annett was staying. I saw Annett sitting on the edge of the bed, listening to Asvord and Elsa of what we found in the cave.
“So do you think you would know something about this map because of your knowledge of the egg,” I asked Annett as I handed her the map.
“I might,” she replied as she took the map. “Of what your sisters described to me, I’ll see if anything looks familiar.”
As Annett was studying the map, I noticed she may have found something to say about it.
“This island that this map is guiding you to is the exact same one that my clan’s elders had talked about the egg we had. Looks like it has Berk as the starting point then you go to a ‘C’ shaped island and then head northwest. The elders always thought this island never existed or was to far way and too dangerous to go sailing to the island. Most everybody thought the second thing, but pretty much everyone had their doubts about the island,” Annett stated. “But this island southwest of here is definitely the island that your egg originated. I recognized the shape of the island. See here.”
She showed me the map and pointed to what looked like an inlet from the island that had only one very small entrance to it from the ocean.
I suddenly remembered something, ”Oh! I knew this map looked somewhat familiar. I have been racking my brain to remember this.”
“What is it, Jarl? Is there another connection?” asked Asvord.
“Yes there is,” as I started. “While I was in Steinson’s headquarters on Outcast Island, I saw a larger map with more detail on the wall. Seeing the map at a closer glance I see the inlet here and the one on the wall at Outcast Island are pictures of the same island. So it is almost a sure bet that Steinson will be going to that island.”
“Jarl, I would much like to go with you to the island,” voiced Annett with a somewhat pleading tone. “If there is a chance of seeing my brother Adam, I want to take the chance.”
“Okay,” I replied. “Your knowledge of the egg might prove useful.”
“Oh by the way,” I said just before leaving the room with my sisters. “Does a black dragon called a ‘Night Fury’ bear any connection with the egg?”
Annett thought for a moment. “A black dragon yes, but I have never heard of a ‘Night Fury’ dragon. It was said that the egg, that you have, holds the key to unlock mysteries of a black dragon.”
“Called the black dragon, ‘Mystery of the Night’ for the dragon only struck at night. Also it was a very dangerous dragon, using its mighty blasts to destroy buildings and anything else that it needed to do; though it felt to me like the dragon was trying to protect something because it only ‘attacked’ one side of our island in the same spot every time.”
“Interesting,” I thought to myself. “Could there really be another Night Fury? She nearly described Toothless, before Hiccup trained him, to a tee.”
“It was strange though,” Annett continued. “While I was traveling in search of my brothers, I stopped at an island to grow some food when I saw a black dragon one Night. This was a little over a year ago. The Dragon had landed on a small island off the shore. It was a clear, moon-lit night. The dragon must have heard something because it looked up after it had lain down. It looked straight in my direction. We both looked at each other. But I blinked and then saw it was gone.”
“That was strange indeed,” said Asvord as she bid Annett, “Goodbye,” as did myself and Elsa.
As I had just stepped out the door, Annett called to me, “Jarl.”
‘Yes?”
“When will we leave?”
“Um… Tomorrow.. late afternoon.. maybe evening,” I told Annett.
I was still mulling over in my head what Annett said about a “black dragon.” The way she described her encounters with the black dragon could it be that this dragon and Toothless are one and the same? Because it seems like enough time between Annett last saw the “black dragon” and when Hiccup first started to train Toothless had elapsed.
My sisters and I took a leisurely flight around Berk, after we exited the Great hall. I kept thinking about the “black dragon.”
Somehow Asvord and Elsa got into a heated discussion about Spiker could beat Meatballs any day of the week. But Elsa kept saying that Meatballs could out maneuver Spiker. I couldn’t argue with that.
However, Asvord said that speed is the biggest factor in a race and maneuverability was not as important.
My sister kept going back and forth debating whose dragon would win in a race; although somehow Fredrick and I entered the conversation. Asvord and Elsa both agreed that their dragons could beat me and Fredrick with Spiker’s speed and Meatball’s maneuverability.
“Hey now,” I inputted. “Even though a Thunderdrum doesn’t ‘excell’ at anything, doesn’t mean mine can’t beat your dragons in a race.”
“Oh you want to put your words to the test?” challenged Asvord.
“Sure,” I accepted. “How about this… Three races. First, Fredrick verses Spiker on speed. Second, Fredrick verses Meatballs on maneuverability. Third and final, all three of us verses each other on both speed and maneuverability. This way you two can settle your dispute whose dragon is better: the Deadly Nadder or the Gronckle in a race. Plus see how your dragons stack up against my Thunderdrum.”
“Sounds good,” agreed Asvord.
“Same here,” Elsa added.
I took us a few minutes to decide on the track layout. But we came to terms on two. First off for me and Asvord, we would start from the “Donut Hole”, fly down to Berk to sea level, then turn left and fly over the Academy, turn left and fly through the forest, and then back through the “Donut Hole.” Three laps were set and Elsa would be judge who finished first.
“Go,” yelled Elsa as Asvord and I were ready for the start.
Asvord got the early lead with the quick dive down to sea level. I was close behind. The first lap, we both got used to the course and Asvord controlled the lead. We dove down again after the “Donut Hole,” but I stayed directly behind Spiker so I would not lose anytime by taking the same line as Asvord.
This was the first real test for all our dragons flying abilities.
Asvord used a more direct line on the course while I set up Fredrick on the turns so we could be quicker out of them, gaining more time.
I noticed as I was gaining on Asvord and passed her on the outside turn back to the “Donut Hole,” but she had the inside line and regained the lead.
I really felt the wind and ocean mist on the final lap, because the speeds we were traveling at were very high.
I noticed I was gaining ground on Asvord by staying behind Spiker in the straight-aways. Not sure exactly why, but I was actually flying faster because of that. This time I nudged Fredrick to bank the turns more and found even more speed. I was able to get right behind Spiker. She instinctively blocked my inside passing try over the Academy. After dodging a few large trees, I initiated the outside pass from the previous lap, but started it sooner. Asvord nudged Spiker to block, but I cut left instead and edged out them for the win by half a nadder tail.
“Yeah! That’s how it is done!” I cheered.
“But you had to fake me out to win,” voiced Asvord when we met back at Elsa. “But good, close race though.”
“Definitely,” I agreed. “You had me on the ropes there for a while until I figured out a way to pass you two.”
“How’d you do it?” Asvord baited me into revealing be secret.
I shook my head, “You are not going to get the answer that easy.”
“I thought you might say that,” she stated as she got off Spiker and gave her some dragon nip from the saddlebag.
“Asvord, you can probably figure out what I did the next time we ra-…”
“Guys look!” interrupted Elsa, pointing back down towards Berk.
“What?!” Asvord and I questioned.
I saw Hookfang flying in from the open sea and landing near the fire stacks in the middle of Berk.
“So it’s Hookfang,” said Asvord getting back on Spiker.
But then I recognized who was on Hookfang, “The rider on Hookfang isn’t Snotlout, look again.”
“Is that… it can’t be! Can it?” questioned Asvord who took that second look.
I answered with, “The only viking I know that has three spikes on each shoulder pad is a viking by the name.. Alvin the Treacherous.”
“And he has Snotlout over his left shoulder,” added Elsa.
“We need to fly down and find out why Alvin would pull such a stupid act… Coming back to Berk,” asked Asvord with a puzzling look on her face.
“Especially since his last visit proved not worthwhile by trying to bargain with Stoick,” I stated. “Let’s go!”

By the time my sisters and I flew down to where Alvin had landed with Hookfang, the crowd had entered the Great Hall with Stoick and Alvin in handcuffs. It took us a total of five minutes to fly down and get up to the Hall. We dismounted our dragons when we landed and ran up to the Great Hall and entered.
“Oops, pardon me,” I said as I ran into someone going into the Hall.
I started but then stared at the person whom I bumped into. It was Alvin.
“No it was my fault,” he said as he was led down the steps.
Asvord would usually say something about why I was staring, but it looked like she was in as much disbelieve as I was.
When I tried to enter the Great Hall again, I nearly ran into someone else, Hiccup.
“Whoa, sorry Hiccup,” I said stepping out of the way.
“No that is okay,” he replied. “Astrid, you and Fishlegs go on to the Academy and get the twins, I’ll meet you there in a few minutes. We’ll need to practice a plan of defense before the Screaming Death gets here. I need to talk to Jarl.”
Astrid nodded as she ran down the steps and jumped on Stormfly.
“What.. wait a second,” I said as I shook my head. “The Screaming Death is coming back? Why so soon?”
“I am not sure, but this isn’t a good devolvement,” Hiccup said worriedly. Hiccup put his hand on my shoulder, “I need to talk to you and your friends tonight sometime about your trip to the one island that may have a clue about the Night Fury dragon. I would very much like to go with you on this, but I don’t think I can with all the developments as of late.”
“Will do,” I answered. “Does a meeting here at the Great hall after supper sound good, Hiccup?”
“Yes it does.”
“With all this happening, it begs the question, ‘What else could possibly go wrong and end up bad?’,” stated Asvord.
“I know, I was just thinking the same thing,” stated Hiccup. “Well, I’ll be at the Academy if I am needed.”
My sisters waved at Hiccup as he flew away on Toothless.
I turned to my sisters and told them to start going around Berk and finding all our friends that have helped us so far in our mystery to meet at the Great Hall tonight after supper for a meeting about the trip we are about to take.
“You got it brother,” said Asvord as she and Elsa walked off to do what I said.
I wanted to go back to Annett’s room and talk to her some more about the map. Before I entered the Hall, I opened the door and peek in to make sure I would not run into anyone else. There was no one coming.
When I got to Annett’s room, I actually found my mother talking to her.
“Oh hey mother,” I greeted.
“Hello my son. I have been talking with Annett about our trip we are about to take.”
“That is why I came in to talk to you about,” I said.
“We heard all the commotion coming from the main hall and went to the doorway and watched. I was totally surprised when I saw Alvin in front of Stoick. Did not expect to see him here,” my mother declared.
“What was it you wanted to talk to me about, Jarl? Your mother and I are done with our conversation.”
“Well I wanted to talk to you about this map again,” I presented the map from the cave again to Annett. “Do you remember any of the landmarks that are marked on here during any of your travels?”
“Let me see it again.”
Annett only needed a few minutes before she concluded, “Yes I do know where this island is. Well actually, where it is in approximate distance from Berk to a few landmarks from near the island. The island is southwest from Berk and about two days’ sail from Berk, because I remember stopping this island here,” she said pointing to a island on the map.
“Could you two come with me, I want to check something,” I said as I directed the two of them to follow me out of Annett’s room.
I walked to the other side of the Hall where the library was. On the main table there was always a large map of the areas and islands around Berk. There have been a few additions now that Hiccup has explored a little, when he found Dragon Island, the old nest, and some of the smaller islands that different types a dragons use as their homes.
When I sat down at the bench, Annett and my mother sat to the left and right of me, I matched the map from the cave to the same directions to the map in front of us.
“I thought I this island on here looked a little familiar. Look here,” I pointed to Dragon Island. “See the shape of Dragon Island? Doesn’t it look very similar to the island that is on the cave map?”
“Yes it does son,” my mother said. “The shape looks just like Dragon Island.”
Annett added, “It looks to me like the island we’re going to travel to tomorrow night is in a more easternly direction from your Dragon Island.”
A thought came to myself, “The island we are going to travel to is very close to the island where I first met Adam. I wonder…”
Before I could finish my thought, mother said, “It looks like by ship, we’ll get there within two days if not sooner because the winds are coming from the northwest now.”
“Which would make sense because it is winter and the cold air should be coming in very soon,” I said.
“That is one thing,” my mother started.
“What?” I queried.
“The start of our winter here has been a mild one for sure,”
Annett expressed, “I wouldn’t know because where I used to live we would have an even number of summer to winter days, usually.”
“But since Berk is farther north, expect long winters, and short summers,” mother added.
“Correct me if I’m wrong mother, but five years ago, the start of winter was kind of like what we are experiencing now. A few days of rather warm weather, followed by a few rain storms, then a couple of cold days then warm weather again,” I remembered.
She did correct me, “Actually it was seven years ago that this weather pattern has happened before. But I’ll tell you this, within a week to two weeks we will be up to our knees in snow.”
“Oh yeah that is right, I forgot. I guess it is the kind of weather you would want to forget,” I said chuckling.
“By the way Annett, that is a beautiful locket-necklace you are wearing,” my mother commented.
“Why thank you. Would you like to see it?” said Annett taking of the necklace
“Yes I would,” my mother replied.
“If you open the locket that is a small drawing I did of me and my two brothers,” said Annett.
The locket was smaller in length of my palm, but it was not very thick; probably no more than width of a kernel of corn the length of two of my fingers are wide.
“It is a beautiful locket,” my mother said admiringly.
I looked at it as well. There was something about the one brother that looked familiar. As my mother brought it near the lamp on the table to get a better look at the picture, I then recognized the man. It was Vemund Steinson!
“Annett,” I said with a calm voice, even though I was startled by this. I did not want to get Annett upset. “I have seen your other brother.”
“You have?” she asked with excitement.
“Yes,” I replied. “Though I am sorry to inform you but he is the one that has been the leader who started this whole thing about the egg.”
“Oh,” she said quieting down.
“You are not shocked by this?” my mother asked.
Annett stated, “Actually not really. After how he was treated and may have been treated if Adam had not let him go that one day on our island, I was kind of expecting it. But I was hoping it wasn’t so.”
I was about ready to say something when the door to the Great Hall flew open and shut. In ran both my sisters.
“Where’s Jarl?” said Asvord in haste.
A viking pointed in my direction.
“Jarl! Jarl,” they both said running to the table I was sitting at.
“Catch your breath girls,” my mother voiced.
“Jarl you won’t believe this,” Elsa said out of breath.
I was afraid to ask, “What?”
Asvord took in a deep breath. “Both Grapple Grounders are gone.”
“What?” I expressed in deep unbelief.