The Eternal Valkyrie

Chapter 23

Chapter 23

"Hiccup is there a place to bathe?" Astrid asked after dinner. "I could really use one." She mumbled realizing she hadn't had one in four days.

"There is a small creek nearby." Hiccup told her as they got up. "I'll show you." They passed several village guards on their way to the river.

"Hiccup why are the guards only stationed at night?" She asked as she had noticed no guards when they had walked through the village before dinner. Surely they would be vigilant around the clock with these disappearances.

"It seems that the young men only disappear during the night. No one knows why but none have gone missing when the sun is up." Hiccup explained. "Several of the older villagers did see one of the boys walk into the woods before. They tried calling out to him but he didn't answer. There are rumors going around that it might be evil spirits so to them the dragons being here is considered a good omen."

They soon arrived at the creek. The water was shallow and Hiccup told Astrid that he would stand guard, with his back turned of course, while she took a bath. She undressed and sighed happily as she slipped into the cool water. Astrid looked back towards Hiccup who was leaning against a tree. Above them was a cloudless sky. She observed the thousands of stars and wondered what life would have been like if she had met Hiccup during Viking times.

The water soothed her skin and she was almost done bathing when the bushes near her rustled. Astrid screamed when someone suddenly dashed out of the bushes and slipped on the wet rocks, landing face first into the water. Hiccup turned around at the scream and quickly grabbed Astrid's clothes as she tried to cover herself while checking on the knocked out person. "Astrid" Hiccup said getting her attention. He held out her clothes before checking on the young man whom Astrid had turned over so that he wouldn't drown. His head was bleeding and it looked like a nasty bump was forming. The young man was littered with cuts and dirt, most likely from the forest. Once Astrid had dressed herself she helped Hiccup carry the man towards the village. Her armguards gave her added strength which made the journey easier.

The young man woke up before they reached the village however and he panicked when he saw Hiccup and Astrid. They put him down and he scooted against the nearest boulder while begging for them not to hurt him. Hiccup wasn't that fluent in chinese but he could understand some of the sentences the young man was saying.

"We're not going to hurt you." Hiccup said as they tried to calm the man down. It took a while but once the young man was calm they guided him back to the village. Hiccup and Astrid learned that the young man's name was Jun and he was quite nervous. Always looking around him as if something bad might pop up out of nowhere. When they got closer to the village they could hear some sort of commotion going on.

There in the village square they found a strange sight. "What are they doing here?" Astrid asked while Hiccup wondered how they even tracked them down. There on the ground lay a squirming Dagur who was being sat on by Fishlegs while Stoick held onto Heather as she was shouting insults while trying to get out of his grip. The most surprising of all was Eret who was being pinned and used as a nest by a snarling Stormfly. Not so far away Hiccup spotted a smug looking Toothless who had changed into his normal size.

"Okay what is going on here?" Hiccup asked as he looked at the situation.

"Sjr lovked ne in tge nopes." Snotlout said as he held one hand in front of his face while another pointed accusingly at Heather.

"What?" Hiccup questioned.

"She kicked me in the nose!" Snotlout repeated as he took his hand from his face to reveal a bloody nose.

"I think Hiccup means from the beginning Snotlout." Tuffnut said as he stroked his chicken.

"Stop being sensible Tuff!" Snotlout commented. "That just scares the crap out of me."

"Me too" Ruffnut agreed as she eyed her brother suspiciously.

Valka began helping Snotlout with his nose when Hiccup looked at Fishlegs and his father for an explanation. "We came in later. You might want to ask the dragons."

"Toothless?" Hiccup asked as he turned his gaze to the still smug dragon. The commotion had already gathered some of the villagers who were watching the scene in curiosity.

Toothless let out a huff as he trotted over to Hiccup and gave him a lick before explaining. "Well these three were hiding out in the rice patty fields." Toothless explained.

"We ran into them as we were frolicking along the road." Stormfly added.

"We weren't frolicking!!" Toothless immediately defended. Stormfly was giving Toothless a heated gaze as she proceeded to squish Eret further.

"Someone get this dragon off of me!" They heard Eret gasp out but they ignored him for now.

"No need to be shy my handsome hunk!" Stormfly exclaimed causing all the riders to snigger. Hiccup would have bet that if Toothless didn't have black scales they would have been able to see him blush.

"I was trying to get away from a crazy she-dragon!" Toothless exclaimed. "That's when we found these three trying to sneak into the village.

"Oh honey bun. Why don't you just admit it?" Stormfly tisked. "We accidentally found them when you tripped and fell into one of the fields."

Toothless let out a whine and covered his head with his paws and tail.

"Lad who is that with ya?" Gobber suddenly asked. Due to all the commotion they had forgotten about Jun. Hiccup looked in the direction that Gobber was pointing and saw that Jun had backed up against one of the huts when Toothless had approached. The guy was watching the entire scene, and especially Toothless, with trepidation.

Hiccup called Fishlegs over since his chinese was much better. The twins took over sitting on Dagur who was grumbling while they tried to calm the man down.

"Honey is he one of the missing boys?" Valka asked her son after they had managed to reassure him that he wouldn't be eaten by the dragons. They were still trying to get more information out of him.

"We don't know mom." Hiccup told her. "What we do know is that he's not from this village. No one here has seen him before." Hiccup also looked to the village elders who were discussing between themselves what this could mean. Several mothers were also asking if this meant that their sons were alive.

Jun began mumbling something again and again and Fishlegs translated it for the group. The chubby man however was perplexed by the sentence itself "He's saying don't let her catch me."

"Who?" Several people asked simultaneously. Fishlegs didn't know but he bent down and asked Jun "What happened to you?"

The young man looked at the group with wide eyes. "She'll come for you all." He whispered. "She'll come for you like she came for me and my brother." Fishlegs translated the chinese for those who couldn't understand it. Even Dagur, heather and Eret had stopped struggling and were paying attention.

A chill ran down Snotlout's spine at that sentence but Jun went on. "We saw her standing at the forest edge, she was beautiful. We shouldn't have followed but some thing compelled us to." He stated fearfully. "Her will was absolute. Once we got close enough to her my brother and I blacked out. When we woke up we were in a room full of men."

"You don't think......." Ruffnut trailed off.

"The kidnapped men from the villages." Hiccup mumbled as the others came to the same conclusion.

"Jun do you know where you were taken?" Hiccup now asked.

"I don't know but I do remember the from where I escaped." The young man told him. "But you must not go. She'll catch you!"

"Okay I have to ask now." Dagur grumbled. "Who is this she?"

Jun was breathing deeply. His eyes looked haunted and then he whispered "The living dead."

AN: Sorry for the short chapter guys. I've got the flu so I don't feel up to much writing. :/