A Storm from the East (A Viggo Lovestory)

Chapter 9

Shortly after the conversation had ended, two Hunters arrived and took Eos away, so she could talk to Krogan. When the Hunters brought her back hours later, she looked a bit disheveled. One of her braids had become a bit undone and she had a bruise forming on her right check. The Hunters pushed her and she stumbled forward into the cell. Viggo silently offered her a seat beside him.

Eos sat down and started rebraiding her hair. There was no window of any sort down in the dungeon but form the amount of time they had spent there, she guessed it was shortly before midnight.

"Are you alright?", Viggo asked. Eos jumped a little. "My apologies. I didn't mean to scare you.", he continued.

"No, it's okay.", she said. "I was just caught up in my thoughts. I'm alright, don't worry."

"Krogan said he wanted a lense form you. I never knew you had one.", Viggo said curiosly.

"That's because I don't. See, our tribe has a lot of silly traditions. One of them being, that the first born of the chief, of course, is the next in line, with the second born being the future general. That's why it's so important that the second born child get's a dragon fairly early on. Anyway, our tribe has two dragon eye lenses in it's possesion. When the next chief and general start out, they receive the lenses from the former ones. However, these must then be hidden somewhere on the island, where only they can find it. So even if I wanted to, I couldn't give Krogan a lense. My uncle still has it."

"Then why don't you tell Krogan just that? He'd leave you alone."

"Correct, he would leave me alone. And then he would attack our island."

Viggo mentally cursed himself for not thinking of that. What was wrong with him? He usually noticed every detail.

"Of course.. but, if he knows your family has a lense why doesn't he just attack it anyway?", he asked further.

"Beacuse he doesn't know for sure if the lenses belong with the five lenses that lead to the King of Dragons. And he needs to be sure that one of them does before he attacks a giant island that has an army of dragon riders who have been training with their dragons all of their life. No, he needs to know for sure before he risks that. And when he does, I'm sure he'll use me to get it.", Eos said, a shiver running down her spine.

"Not to worry, that will not happen.",Viggo said, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"How so?", Eos inquiered, making no attempt to stop him from touching her, like she usually would.

"While you where gone, some Hunters who are still loyal to me came by. Their next patrol around the dungeon will be in about an hour. Everyone should be asleep at that time, so it should be easy for us to slip away once they open our cell.", Viggo explained his plan.

"And our dragons?", Eos asked.

"They will show us where they are and let them go free with us."

"Not bad, Grimborn. Not bad at all.", Eos said smiling.

"Thank you. In the meantime try to rest. It will be a long flight back to the edge.", Viggo said, sounding almost kind.

Eos nodded and put her hand on his, that was still resting on her shoulder. A silent thank you. Then she got up and curled up in a corner of the cell, a bit further away from Viggo. The man looked at her, while she was slowly falling asleep. When he was about to lay down himself, he heard a soft voice speak.

"Do you think the other Riders are looking for us?", Eos asked.

"I'm certain that they are.", Viggo replied calmly. "Krogan just brought us to one of his bases at the very end of the Archipelago. It's a bit hard to find if you don't know it exists. But I'm sure Hiccup wouldn't let you fall into the hands of Johann and Krogan. You don't deserve such a fate."

"Neither do you.", Eos said before she fell asleep.

Viggo could only smile at her. The kindness in her heart truly was unique.