That is who you are

Chapter 4

Who was this Erik Vemund? Did he live alone on this island? How long had he been living there? Too many questions were wandering in my head, I grasped Astrid's hand.

"We don't want to cause any problems" I said quietly, "all we want to know is who you are and what you're doing here."

"It should be me asking you what you are doing here, on my island!" he growled.

"I got lost and landed here by accident, okay? Astrid was only coming to look for me."

"But how did she find you if you were lost?"

"Hiccup has a unique dragon, Toothless. So when I saw the plasma blasts coming from the forest, I thought it was him and I discovered your island."

"Who is Toothless?"

"Well, it's him." I said as I gently pat my dragon's head that'd popped up next to me at the sound of his name.

At this point, the man had a strange reaction, his eyes opened wide and were fixed on my friend as if he recognised him. He turned towards me and lifted me by the collar, shaking me ferociously.

"So you're the one responsible?! I've been looking for him for years, never finding him, and you took him from me! What have you been doing with him?!" he shouted in my face.

"Let him go right now!" said Astrid, getting in the way.

Erik then started communicating strange sounds to the night furies, who started launching themselves on us and picking us up into the air. We all set off toward the skies, following Erik who was mounted on one of the Night Furies. Toothless and Stormfly didn't seem to be following us, they must still be dealing with the other dragons on the ground.

We arrived in a recluse area, dark and far from everything, at the centre of the island. The dragons who were still holding on to us threw Astrid and me into an ever darker cave. Erik came forward and shut the cavity with an unknown mechanism which set bars to block our way out. He came close and said to us:

"I'll decide what to do with you two later."

And then he left, leaving us prisoners.

xXx

The storm was over: we could now set off to search for Hiccup and Astrid.

I exited the Great Hall with a decided step, Gobber on my heels. He said to me:

"Valka, what do you want to do?"

"We need to find Hiccup and Astrid."

"Okay, I'll go get the others!"

"Oh, and Gobber? Tell them to get the sniffer dragons."

"Got it!"

"Thank you." I said with a smile.

Gobber really was a very good friend I could count on. He'd always been there for Stoik and I, he'd never let us down. When Hiccup was born, he was one of the happiest even though he refused to admit it. I could see that the two were very close. Gobber was like a second father for Hiccup, it was like he'd taken up my role as mother while I was gone. I was extremely happy that it was him and not anybody else.

He came back with Fishlegs, Snotlout, the twins, and Eret.

"We're here!" shouted the twins at the same time.

"So, how are we going to proceed?" asked Eret.

"We can split up into groups" offered Ruffnut, "I'll go with Eret!" she added as she grasped his arm.

"No need" answered Snotlout, "we already know where they are: north, where the storm came from."

"If we want a better chance of finding them we need the sniffer dragons!" added Fishlegs!