Riders of B E R K

Part 56: New Problems

Fifty-Six: New Problems.

"It's Zakhysnyk," the General snapped and Gobber coloured, even his ears turning scarlet in embarrassment. There was muttering among the riders and I silenced them with a very brief glare. Even Tuffnut and Gustav stilled and stood eyes-front, not a snigger among them. I noted Colonel Throk's face colour with anger and saw him cast a disdainful look at Gobber. I immediately felt a surge of anger: I was really fond of Gobber, even if he was massively indiscreet and grumpy 99% of the time and I hated the idea the new officers were already categorising him as a bumbling fool. I mean, at times he could be, but he was loyal and supportive and basically, he was our fool. And he had really had our back and stood up when he needed to.

The General inspected us coolly and nodded to me, giving a small salute.

"At ease, Lieutenant," she said calmly, her voice almost accentless and I hastened to comply. She turned to us and her gaze swept over Hiccup, who was standing thoughtfully, his emerald eyes bright with curiosity. He didn't look like a soldier, in his form-fitting jet flight suit with his dishevelled auburn hair , lean and lanky shape and completely non-military bearing. He was standing casually, shifting weight more onto his right leg, his prosthesis clicking slightly. "And you must be Hiccup Haddock." Her gaze was very calculating.

"Guilty as charged," he said calmly, a small smile lifting his lips. "Welcome to BERK, Ma'am." She stared at him coldly and nodded.

"And what is this?" she asked, gesturing to the dragons, the nets of eggs and the small dragons emerging from the saddle-bags. Zippy and George were already hovering around my legs, chirping interestedly and I know my face betrayed my embarrassment that they were doing this while the new CO was interrogating us. I saw her face tighten at my expression and guessed I had annoyed her.

"This?" Hiccup asked, half-turning to look at the dragons-big and small-and the nets. "Oh, this would be what BERK is about. Those are dragons, General. The big ones are adults-Toothless the Night Fury, the black one and the blue and gold Deadly Nadder is Lieutenant Hofferson's Stormfly. The little ones are babies. We went to investigate the nest on Zemlya Frantsa-Iosifa that Drago Bludvist and the Grimborns had located and encountered the Grimborns again. I-I may have needed to hand myself over to enable the Lieutenant to escape with the hatched dragons, a selection of eggs and our dragons."

General Zakhysnyk winced at his horrible pronunciation of Zemlya Frantsa-Iosifa and her brows dipped. "And who authorised this mission?" she asked clearly. Hiccup shrugged.

"Me, I guess," he admitted. "I called Gobber to let him know but as leader of the Riders, I felt we needed to see what they were up to-especially since the recent unbroken cloud cover had obscured all satellite surveillance of the area."

"And you just went into an unknown situation with no back-up?" she clarified.

"Only Toothless and Stormfly had the speed and range to do the trip in a day," he explained calmly, though I could tell that the General was looking unconvinced.

"Yet it wasn't," she said coldly. "You were away overnight." He nodded.

"Um...that's true...but to be fair, I did miscalculate how much slower we would have to travel when we were heavily laden with the eggs," he admitted. She strode forward, her poise perfect.

"So...you went out on a poorly-planned and unauthorised mission with no back-up, you ended captured and injured and you arrive back late," she said coldly.

"Thank you for summing that up," he said sarcastically. "Um...we did rescue these eggs, the hatchlings and um...we did sink the Grimborns' sub."

"How?" the General asked. Hiccup glanced over to me and smiled.