The trader and the rider

Chapter 23

I looked at my objective from up above, on Boreas' back. We had to be as stealthy as ever if we wanted to succeed. I looked at the twins next to me and we nodded in silence. We climbed down a rope our dragons held and quickly made our way to one of the buildings close to our objective. They had the high ground, which made this a bit harder, but we weren't going to give up. The twins followed me in silence as I moved towards the hut, trying to keep ourselves hidden. We climbed up carefully and hid in between some bushes. A random terrible terror seemed to have heard us, but he looked our way and didn't pay much attention when he just saw a random bush. Well, that was an improvement from last time.

Crouched, we made our way to the main door of the hut. I tried to peek inside from the sides of the door or something, but it was pretty much impossible. The twins put their ears against the door and tried to listen, maybe they'd get something done.

We were exposing ourselves a lot, but it was the only place where we could see or hear anything at all, and our target was probably too busy to notice us. But, we didn't take into account someone else.

-Are you three done?

I jumped on my place and felt my heart drop as I heard that voice.

-Astrid! Fuck, don't sneak up on us like that!

-What are you even trying to do?

-We wanna know what Hiccup's doing, duh -answered Ruff, still with her ear on the door.

-Yeah, he's been pretty secretive about that project he's working on.

-Well, if he wants to keep it a secret, then I say let him -she knocked on the door, and we all grunted.

-Way to ruin the mission...

-Just a minute! -said Hiccup from inside.

The twins and I got up and I gave Astrid a mean look. We had been trying to figure out Hiccup's secret for some time, and it was a fun game now. At least this mission made us learn that Astrid was an obstacle we had to take into account for future plans.

Hiccup finally opened the door and stood on the door frame awkwardly, trying to block the inside and not letting us look past him.

-Hey! -he gave us an awkward smile.

-Hey. Whatcha up to? -asked Astrid.

-Oh, you know. Not much. Just, uh-

-Working on that secret project? -I asked, still trying to peek inside.

-It's not a secret, Alex.

-Okay. Then tell me what it is.

-It's, uh, well, you know-

-Yeah. Secret. -said Astrid, giving me a bad look for trying to push Hiccup- Don't worry. You can tell us when you're ready. In the meantime, -she handed him a piece of paper- from Mala.

-Oh? What is it? Another party in my honour? -I asked, now trying to read the paper.

-Not for you, but it does seem to be a celebration of some kind. Riders, mount up.

Well, a party was a party. I'd make sure to get my lute for that.

-We are so glad you all were able to attend our Changing of the Guard celebration. -greeted us Maya as we landed- It wouldn't be the same without you.

I looked around, expecting exciting and happy people ready to greet us. But the villagers shared a gloomy expression more than anything. It was hard trying to read their faces with their masks and black outfits covering almost all of their body. Yet it was obvious something was wrong. They all looked... bittersweet.