-
The snow shot over them, piling a way farther out. But it did work, for the most part.
"Great job, Sk'ai," Hicup congratulated.
"Oh yeah, great job, Ska'i," Snotlout mocked.
"Hey," Tuff started, but his sister beat him to the punch. Literally.
"Ow!"
"Ska'i did a great job, accurately deducting the physics of the snow," Fishlegs added.
Snotlout admitted, "Alright fine, I'm sorry! Ska'i, you-did-a-good-job there, whatever."
"I'm just glad we survived that," she confessed with noticeable relief.
"I've said before we need to stop relying so heavily on our dragons. This just proves it."
A bit of snow did pile up, but it didn't win in smothering the life out of their lungs. Tuff would count that as a win "Well, I count this as a major plus we didn't get completely buried."
"I agree," Hiccup grunted as he tried to heave away as much snow as he could.
"That was kind of fun," Ruff confessed.
"Yeah, we should do that again," her twin agreed.
"You want to do that again?" Astrid asked incredulously.
"Uh, I'm sure recreating that, would be virtually impossible," Fishlegs pointed out.
"What do you mean?" Astrid wanted clarification.
"The snow," Ska'i realized.
Fishlegs nodded at her. "Well, considering we're the ones who keep setting off the triggers on the trapdoors, I doubt if and how this one especially will be able to set back again."
"What exactly are you even saying right now?" Ruff was completely lost.
"The snow's sitting here. It's not resetting, like how we can assume the other ones are."
"So what you're saying is," Hiccup pieced it together. "We're the first to set off this trap?"
"Possibly."
"So the Stone must still be here!" Snotlout exclaimed.
"Hey, let's not assume that," Hiccup warned. "We don't know how long ago this place - and traps - were built. Anyone could have gone through a whole bunch of trouble to reset them."
"So . . . cautiously optimistic, it is," Ruff affirmed.
"I sure hope it's in here, at least," Astrid mumbled her confession.
Only Ska'i seemed to overhear her. "I can't imagine where to start looking if it's not here."
Astrid nodded, but even that was too much of a distraction; she tripped over nothing. But as Ska'i crouched down upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a nearly see-through rock.
"Hey, what's the delay?" Snotlout demanded, who was leading the pack with impatience.
"Fascinating. Astrid tripped over what appears to be a crystal," Fishlegs mulled it over.
"Oooh, shiny," Ruff was mesmerized.
"Uh, I'm sorry," Snotlout snapped. "What's so fascinating about a clear rock?"
"It's shiny," Ruff snarled.
"Okay!" He put his hands up, then mocked her, " 'It's shiny,' " And kept walking.
"Is this normal, Fishlegs?" Hiccup inquired.
"Hmm," he put his fingers to his chin in thought. "Let's confess this isn't a normal cave."
"It isn't?" Ruff asked.
"I mean, this doesn't feel like a normal cave," he tried to explain. "It's like there's a -."
"I feel it," Ska'i interrupted, casting everyone's dubious expressions on their face away. "Like there's a magic in the air."
"Exactly. So I don't doubt there's some type of compound in the air, that causes crystals to form under these freezing conditions."
Any further explanation was cut short by a thud, and Snotlout's grunt.
Silence, then Astrid asked, holding back a laugh, "Did you just run into a wall?"
"No!" He growled. "The wall ran into me."
"Yeah, 'cause that's how that works," Tuff ridiculed.
After everyone's titters faded away, they caught up to where he'd fallen.
"Hey, that looks like the same kind of rock Astrid tripped over," Ruff pointed out.
"You know what, know that I think about it. . . ." Fishlegs trailed off, while they watched his mind at work. He glanced back at the rock protruding out of the snow, then at the wall, Snotlout introduced his nose to. "The snow level, made these rocks shrink," he finally said.
Everyone copied Fishlegs glances, and then Hiccup conceded, "You're right. For all we know, these walls were even taller than before we set off that trap."
Tuff noticed Ska'i was studying where the top of the snow met the wall and watched her brush away some, to reveal chiseled words: of cautio . . . gether . . . ack.
"Uh, guys?" He brought up, and then Ska'i spoke up, "I found another riddle."
Ruff helped clear enough snow to get the whole riddle visible, then Ska'i read it aloud:
A word of caution: stay together as a pack
For if not, there'll be no one to watch your back
Take heed in following these lights
Even the greatest fall from high heights
"Well, at least this one seems pretty straightforward," Hiccup was optimistic.
"Yeah," Tuff agreed. " 'Stay together.' "
"Don't get lost," Fishlegs added.
"Uh, what?" Ruff was confused in an instant.
He answered by simply waving her over. The first riddle had a huge wall in front, and the rest behind it on the sides. This one seemed sunken back, with other pieces of wall, standing guard on either end. And unlike the first riddles walls, these were nature-made, haphazard guards of the same type of crystal, sticking up from the snow.
"Hey, let's keep an eye on each other while we're in there," Hiccup commanded. "No wandering off on ourselves - don't make me make us hold each others' hands."
Snotlout and Tuff were standing next to each other. In unison, they jerked their hands closer to their bodies, with an expression of utter disdain on each of their faces.
Silence washed over them, instantly captivated upon entry. They soon found themselves walking through a labyrinth of crystal stalagmites and stalactites. Every piece seemed to catch any desperate shine, with bits of colored light reflecting off each other. It was the most elaborate rainbow Ska'i had ever seen, even during the heavy seasonal rains in her home jungle.
"It's like the light's coming off them," Ruffnut observed.
"Like it's falling," Tuff added.
"Shedding," Astrid mused.
"They're shedding light," Fishlegs concluded.
"The Shedding Light Caves," Hiccup named, as everyone nodded their approval.
-
