Run and Hide

Chapter 5: Something Familiar

Astrid

There I sat, in the clubhouse I had my arms crossed on the table with my head buried low with my fingers tapping against the wood in time with my thoughts. My eyes were fixated on the fire that burned in front of me its heat radiating against my skin while the moon shone through the entrance. The noise mostly came from the motion of the champing of the twins as they dug deep into their food while everyone else was silent, so I was surrounded by the noise of the crackle in the fire followed by the champing of the twins and their food. But there my mind was; taking in the surroundings but focusing on the figure I saw in the compound. The more I would think about it the more I was able to grasp more to what I was able to see. The figure was tall and lanky as they seemed low in weight and muscle that part was obvious through the flames, but then the picture became clear and the figure was a young male, seeming around my age or a year older at least. I stared deeper into the image I had in my mind to search deeper into the meaning of what I saw.

It was boy. The figure I saw was a boy who wore emerald green eyes as they flashed out against the flames. The hand that was held against his shoulder almost as if they were- "Okay Astrid you clearly have something on your mind, what's wrong?" I was snapped away from my thoughts of this mysterious boy to focus on the multiple pair of eyes which examined me. "Nothing, I'm fine," I kept my head buried in the space between my arms and focused my mind back on the fire in front of me "You haven't touched your food and you've been staring into that fire pit for a good half hour at least," Heather complained, I lifted my gaze to see everyone agreeing with her "We found blood stains and a caged looking window in the tower we found and we figured it may have been where they..." but Snotlout trailed off also feeling the loss of his cousin. I looked up at everyone clearly after that as all their heads lowered in shame and embarrassment for asking. I didn't even retaliate at Snotlout for bringing it up because it was best that they knew and besides that wasn't my top priority at the moment, the mysterious boy was.

"That isn't really the thing on my mind at the moment Snotlout but it was a good guess," Heather lifted her gaze to turn back on me as she raised one of her eyebrows "Then what is on your mind?" I sighed lifting my head up from my arms and instead ran them through my hair pulling my braid onto my shoulder "Did any of you see who Viggo and Ryker had with them as they were making an escape?" They all exchanged a look or two with each other before fixating back onto me as they all shook their heads with a no in unison. "There was this boy there with them, Ryker seemed to have his hand on his shoulder like he was guiding the boy onwards with order and not at will, but the boy seemed to not care, as if he had somewhat given up, there felt like there was some familiarity within him but I just couldn't remember where." Heather placed her hand upon my shoulder as she pierced her emerald eyes into the azure in front of her "Astrid are sure you weren't imagining what you saw, I mean the flames were quite heavy and can really play tricks with your mind," I sighed pulling the plate in front of me and lifting the spoon "You know what maybe your right, and with what me and Snotlout found it could all just be nothing," Heather nodded and everyone got back to their own meal even though inside me something told me it was no illusion what I had seen.

We all departed ways once the meal was done and the tiredness began to creep in. I headed to my hut with no second thought along with no more communication between the others. As soon as my feet trudged through the door I collapsed my bed, my body flat down face forward my arms wrapped around my pillow and I felt myself fall back into the daze of picturing the boy and who he was. But eventually sleep took over my body and the boy I tried to imagine was gone as if he was ripped from my brain with no record to what happened to him next. It was a shame but that's when I knew I had to face the facts, the boy I saw was part of my own imagination, I saw something I wanted to see because I felt like there was more out of what we always achieve, I just need to take a break, relax and just get back to normal. But then again, what was normal in this Viking world. The moon soon dropped into the ocean to let the sun make its entrance and the Edge was full of peace and quiet...until. "GOOD MORNING DRAGON'S EDGE," Immediately I shot out of bed pulling the two daggers out from underneath my pillow and raising them high ready to attack. "IT'S ME TUFF AND..." Oh great not this again.

I pushed myself out from the bed to walk outside and see everyone – except from the twins – looking completely drained followed by annoyance "Trust you two mutton heads to learn and use the thunder ear backwards," Snotlout cried up at them both flying his arms wide up in the air "Or are we using it rightwards TO INFORM THE MASSES!" So that went on for the rest of the morning while the rest of us buried ourselves under our beds waiting for the noise to stop. It was the same thing every morning, use the thunder drum to inform the Edge about any up to date news. I stood up adjusted my skirt, fixed my braid before heading to the stables to feed Stormfly. I pulled open the doors to the stables and as soon as she saw me her eyes glistened with excitement; I laughed at my girl as I opened the door, I stood back immediately as she danced her way out and circled me full of excitement. "Nice to see you too girl. You hungry?" I questioned scratching underneath her head hearing her purr against me as a sign of yes. I headed over towards the fish basket and pulled out piles for her to eat; I chucked each one at her in turn as she ate one by one.

"Hey Astrid, can we talk?" I looked around to see Snotlout standing there leaning against one of the posts with Hookfang at his side. I was confused and unsure, why would he want to talk to me? "Um sure, what is it Snotlout?" He came closer to me as Hookfang went to join Stormfly to play "About yesterday, and what you said you saw when we were at Viggo's compound, was it true, like I mean did you actually see someone with Viggo and Ryker," I wandered over to one of the pens and sat myself down against it shrugging my shoulders and sliding down the pen "Honestly Snotlout, I'm not sure anymore, it looked so real but then it's like Heather said the flames can play weird tricks on the mind," He looked at me with his posture unsettled and his eyes looked weary as if he were hiding something. "Why'd you ask Snotlout?" he shook his head relieving the expression on his face to seem like it was never there "Just wondered that's all Astrid geez can we not have a civil conversation anymore," and the old Snotlout just returned.

"Come on, we need to get to the clubhouse, I heard Fishlegs wants to have another meeting on where Viggo and Ryker have hidden next," I told Snotlout, he groaned in frustration but followed my lead all the same, I gave Stormfly one last scratch underneath her head before settling in the saddle and flying over to the clubhouse. "Okay Fishlegs, we're all here so please explain to me why you want to search for them again in such a quick time space?" I complained storming in through the clubhouse. You could see that I wasn't the only one complaining, the twins were fighting over in one of the corners of the room, and Heather was partly falling asleep on the table while Fishlegs had his hands panned out on the table covering map after map. "I don't want to find it, okay well I want to find it but there's something off about what's happening?" I exchanged a look with Snotlout but he just raised his hands up in surrender; I looked back at Fishlegs, wandered over and asked "Off? In what way exactly?" He pointed to different maps and to the different areas we had been to find them "What's off about that? They are just islands Fishlegs, secluded islands to stay in the shadows there's nothing wrong with that or off about that for that matter."

"Unless they aren't secluded islands," everyone's heads perked up in unison and looked at Tuffnut "You are the worst possible thinker ever, of course they are secluded islands because Viggo doesn't want to be seen you mutton head," Ruff slapped her brother on the head, but I found myself more intrigued to what Tuff was on about "Um Tuff what do you mean not secluded islands," Tuff ignored the slap from his sister and came and stood next to me and Fishlegs followed by the others who were also interested to what Tuff was on about "So you see you need to out think the thinker, because the thinker believes that we know he likes to stay on secluded islands which is true that the thinker does like to stay on secluded islands but what if he uses that to his advantage and create a pattern to stay on one secluded island but then move inwards to a non secluded island but to then move back out into a secluded island," Everyone raised an eyebrow at Tuff confused as anything beyond words. "Urgh come on, do I have to explain everything." Tuff pushed away all the different maps containing the islands we rampaged but to one which contained all of them together.

He grabbed thecharcoal from Fishlegs hand and circled all the islands we destroyed to themost recent one. I watched Tuff movement with the charcoal as he started fromthe edge to the archipelago to move more away from it but to them move backtowards it but then move more away from it and the pattern just kept going andgoing until it reached the most recent one. "How did you do that?" Snotloutlooked gaped at the intelligence Tuff just produced "Like I said, you need toout think the thinker."