Captain Fury: Pirate of Berk

18: Get Fury

Get Fury

Astrid took the opportunity of Eret's absence to take her axe to the forge in Berkisport for sharpening. Her husband didn't know she still had her mother's ancestral axe which she practiced with every day. She never used the range, instead going to the nearby forest to train and maintain her skills for the day when she would need to use the weapon against Eret. She was aware the man had been hiring new men for the establishment and had surrounded himself with staff loyal to him, not to House Hofferson. She was starting to feel uncomfortably like an outsider and prisoner in her own home.

The forge was traditional, maintained by the blacksmith, a crazy House Haddock adherent named Gobber the Belch. He had been friends with Governor Stoick since the two were boys but Gobber had served loyally in Berk's forces against pirates and raiders and had given his left hand and right leg in the service of the island. But despite being down two limbs, Gobber was acknowledged as the finest blacksmith in the Archipelago and the only person who Astrid would trust with her axe. Well...once, she would have gone to Hiccup in preference, since her friend had been Gobber's apprentice since he was about seven and it had presented the easiest way to visit him and get to know the young Haddock heir. It had in fact been the way the two had forged their friendship...the friendship that had cost the boy his life.

She blinked. Gobber had been Hiccup's mentor and the boy had idolised him. Yet she had heard the man had loudly and brutally rejected the starving boy when he had sought refuge and help in the forge. The reports she had heard-which made her cringe-told that he had literally thrown the boy from the forge, had struck him as he had pleaded for help and viciously spurned him. Gobber had chosen his friend over his apprentice, rejecting the boy as a traitor and a fool. And he had turned his back on Hiccup when he had needed him most.

The older man looked up, his blue eyes twinkling as he registered the identity of the customer. "Lady Astrid," he greeted her cheerily, waving at her with his prosthetic left hand-a hammer. She forced a smile onto her face: she was feeling more and more guilty with time at Hiccup's fate, her feelings stirred by that damned pirate. And though she blamed Gobber for his treatment of the boy who loved him like a surrogate son, she had no grounds to feel superior because she had rejected him just as cruelly. "How's married life treatin' yer?" She gave a wan smile.

"Better now my husband is out hunting the pirate," she admitted.

"Not ter yer likin' then," he surmised, taking her axe and eyeing the edge. "What've ye been chopping. Rocks?"

"Practicing for Eret," she quipped. "I maintain my practice because one day I may need it. But at least he's at sea..."

"They're all back, actually," Gobber told her mildly as he took the axe and began to sharpen the edge. "And this time, they're going with the Navy. I gather Stoick has decided the pirate is enough of a problem to justify using our Navy to hunt him down." Astrid scowled.

"Son of a half-troll," she muttered. "That bastard is cheating..."

"What was that, lassie?" the blacksmith asked her, checking the edge. She shook her head.

"So my husband will be at sea again?" she checked. Gobber nodded, satisfied with the results and giving the blade a swift polish.

"Until the pirate is caught," he confirmed and she smiled and paid the fee. "See yer soon, lass." She nodded absently and headed for the Hofferson townhouse. She would need to remain in the town while Eret was at sea-away from the treacherous spying eyes of his retainers and close enough to hear any news of the pirate. Her grip on the axe tightened: her fate was bound to the pirate and if he was lost, so was she...

oOo

It had been almost two weeks and no sign of the remaining two Jorgensen ships. Fury and the crew had raided a couple of trader vessels to keep the crew from getting bored but the Captain was getting very frustrated that Magne was hiding rather than facing up to his problems. But, of course, Fury knew he had time on his side. Magne had commitments, debts and creditors, all of which would grow more impatient and pressing with time. And every day the ships remained in port, the pressure on Magne grew more and more intense. He would have to flinch first...and all Fury had to do was wait...