Beyond the Sunset | HTTYD (Discontinued)

Chapter Five

A light rain began as I stepped onto the damp sand of the Isle of Berk. The crew was used to rain, but after a few days of seeing nothing but ocean, they were pretty sick of the perpetual dampness.

"Should we just hunker down in the lower decks and wait for the rain to stop?" one of the crewmen asked. 

"Yes, but don't get too comfortable," I said. "I'm going to take a group out and see if we can't find more permanent shelter."

"Who do you need?"

"Whoever you don't need."

"Give me five minutes."

I waited for what felt like and probably was longer than five, eager to be off. I paced for some of the time, inspected the ground for some, and stared at the deserted island all the while. 

"So?" someone asked from behind me. "What are we doing here?"

I sighed in frustration and tiredness as I turned around. Somehow, I had gotten stuck with not only Todd and Mav, but Blythe, Cody, and, worst of all, Deav. He was still ignoring me with a vengeance. 

"We're going to scout for lodging," I said, then mumbled under my breath, "luckily it's raining, so you can't burn any of the history here."

"What?" Mav asked. 

"Luckily you're don't need training, so you can figure out some of the mysteries here," I said quickly. 

"Awesome."

I led them through the overgrown paths of the old village. It was hundreds of years old, but the architecture seemed to have held up well. Few buildings were broken down, although most were missing a window here or a door there. 

"Are we going to live in one of these?" Blythe asked scornfully. "I'd rather sleep in the mud."

"No," I said simply, not offering any other information.

None of them asked anything else; the walk was eerily silent, save for Todd humming off-key.

It wasn't long before we stood in front of a huge set of double doors set in a small mountain. Just as I had hoped, they were still intact. 

"How do we get these open?" Cody asked, voicing everyone's thoughts. 

Without a word, I climbed up one of the doors and opened a bottle of oil I had made specially for this. It took me a few minutes, but the doors' hinges were working again before long. 

The doors swung open, groaning in protest from lack of use over the years. I lit a torch to light the room. 

"Woah," Deav said. 

"'Woah' is right," Blythe agreed. 

It didn't take long after that to gather the crews and find enough wood to fuel the huge fire pit in the center of the Great Hall. Before long, we were warm and dry as the storm raged on outside. 

I fell asleep on a map of the archipelago carve in stone. The Berkians had fled to another island (this I knew). What I didn't know was that the island wasn't as far west of Berk as I had previously thought. 

I woke up to the crew cheering and welcoming a hunting party back to the Great Hall. Deav was sitting on the table about a meter away from me. 

"How long was I out?" I asked as I popped the joints in my neck. 

"Eleven hours," he said. 

We were silent for a moment, then Deav sighed. 

"I'm sorry for being a jerk these last few days," he said quietly so only I could hear. 

"Understandable," I said. "Most people are jerks anyway, so I'm used to it."

He laughed. "So what's your plan?"

"Most of the crew is going to work on rebuilding Berk," I said. "I'm planning on taking a small crew of my own west."

"What's west?"

"New Berk," I said, showing him the map. "The island the Berkians fled to after a particularly nasty war."

"We found Berk, so why do we need to find another island?" he argued. 

"I have... ulterior motives for coming on this little trip," I said cautiously. "New Berk is a key component."

"Care to elaborate?"

"Not really."

"Well, I'm not giving you a choice."

"I can't tell anyone except the crew, and even then, not until after we leave."

He stood up. "When do we leave, then?"

"So you're in?" I confirmed. 

"I'm certainly not letting you go without me."

"I was planning on leaving as soon as the rain stops."

"We should get started."

The next few hours were filled with packing, planning, and fixing the sails on the ship we would be using. Deav worked to convince the people he had chosen for the voyage while I copied my own map, renewed my stores of weaponry, and built a few... things to assist with my plan.

All too soon, the rain stopped. The bags were mostly packed, the ship was ready, and I held my map, ready to leave. 

"Sorry we're late," Deav said, the chosen crew behind him. 

"It's fine," I said without looking up. "Are you ready?"

"Ready for what, anyway?" I practically heard Blythe scowl.

I scowled at Deav. "These are the people you chose for this?"

"Hey!" Todd said indignantly.

"I couldn't find anyone else without more information," Deav explained, sounding just as annoyed with his choice as I was. 

"Well, I'll take what I can get," I said with a sigh. "Get the sails ready."

We were off without too many complications.  The ship didn't sink, no one drowned, and only Mav caught fire. Altogether, it was a pretty uneventful launch. 

"What is that?" Deav asked as I knotted a huge rope while steadying the wheel, the sun rising behind us. 

"A backup plan," I said simply. 

"How many people are you planning to trap with that thing?"

"None."

"And?"

"And get the others," I said. "I'm only going to explain this one time."

Once the crew had been found and, in Cody's case, fished out of the water surrounding the ship, I explained what we were going to do.

"We are currently headed to New Berk, but you already knew that," I started. 

"I didn't," Todd said.

"Now you do. Anyway, we aren't just going to New Berk for the sake of exploration, although that is a definite plus. We're going to use it as an outpost."

"An outpost for what?" Cody asked. 

"An outpost before we go to the Hidden World."