TAW Tales: How to Train Your Shifters (#1)

~ Chapter 19 ~

The next day, we stood to the side of the platform as Stoick tried to calm his tribe, who were shouting at the top of their lungs (as Vikings do) and trying to scramble over eachother (also as Vikings do).

"Quiet down!" Stoick shouted, and the constant yelling ceased to mutant mutterings.

"How'd they know we were short in weapons?" one Viking yelled from the back.

"How'd they know the Dragon Riders were out?" shouted another.

"Will they attack again?" a female voice demanded loudly, setting off fresh murmurings.

"Quiet!" Stoick barked again and they were silent.

I elbowed Winter, who was whispering to Moon about Hicctrid or something.

"Sh!" I hissed.

"Hey!" she complained.

"We're not sure how they knew any of this," Stoick continued. "But it won't happen again. We're Vikings, for Thor's sake! We-"

I lost the rest of the sentence as Night seized my arm, smirking, and whispered, "Thor!" in my ear. I jerked my arm away as Winter whispered to her, "Well, duh, that's their god of Thunder!"

"Sh!" I pleaded again as Stoick went on.

"There has also been no sign of my son Hiccup since this morning," he said, his anger so fierce I swear I could feel it from where I stood. "Has anyone seen him at all? Did he say anything to anyone before he left?"

Silence.

"When you want them to keep their mouths shut, they chatter like a pack of Thunderdrums," Gobber said to Stoick in a low voice, "And when you want them so say something, they're as quiet as Changwings!"

"Yeah, that's pretty much how we are." I glanced over my shoulder to look at Everest, who was whispering in Night's ear.

"Except that we don't shut it when you want us to talk," Night hissed back. "We just talk louder, and completely off-topic."

Zero stood on her foot. "Shut up."

Night opened her mouth to reply furiously, but then decided against it and shut her mouth, forced to be satisfied with giving Zero a death-glare instead.

"Hiccup is our main Dragon-Trainer," Gobber went on. "So you all know what trouble we'll be in without him. We need to find him as soon as possible."

As the Vikings started murmuring again, I felt like a cold fog was clouding my brain. Everything around me tuned out into a dull fuzz.

I stumbled and felt for something to grasp onto as I leaned sideways. I didn't feel myself hit the ground. Instead, it was like I was falling into a pond; my body was plunged into iciness, and all I could see was a white fog.

Then I felt my feet hit the ground and the fog cleared. I blinked.

I was in a forest. And not just any forest, either.

I glanced around the rainforest and spied a small figure sitting on a rock through the trees. Shaking, I slowly approached, keeping in the shadows of the canopy.

Then the figure looked up and turned to face me. I froze. So did he.

It was Hiccup.