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

~Chapter 34~

"That's their island?" Night asked in disbelief as we hovered in the air.

"Yep. Really nice-looking, isn't it?" Astrid replied, her hands on her hips.

According to the map, the craggly pile of rocks below us was Outcast Island; an island that supported some of the most dangerous vikings to ever set foot on this world.

It was nothing much really from where I could see it - just a bunch of sharp, jagged-looking rocks and slabs of stone that curved into a 'c' shape. At the far end of the 'c' was a tall mountain-ish thing, that looked like two waves of rock had sort of cashed together to form a shard of spikes sticking up into the air.

"I can kinda see why the Vikings there might want to come to Berk," I said, regarding the island with disgust. "I bet nothing grows there. And who would want to live in a place like that?"

"Hey, they choose to live there," Astrid snapped at me. "They're some of the most murderous, back-stabbing bunches of dragon scales you'll ever know. Don't go feeling sorry for them, when some of them killed their families."

"Wait, some of them killed their families?" Night repeated in disbelief, eyes wide.

Astrid shrugged. "I dunno."

"Then why did you...? Oh, nevermind." Night rolled her eyes.

"So, where do these guys live?" Zero asked, scanning the coastline (if you could call it a coastline).

"Uh, on the island, smart one," Night said helpfully.

Zero death-stared her.

"You're really annoying, aren't you?" Astrid asked blankly, distracted for once.

"Me? Annoying? Whatever do you mean?" Night battered her eyelashes innocently.

"Hey, look, what's that?" I said quickly, pointing below.

The sun had started to go down, and a spark of light had caught my eye. It had come from the middle of the coastline in the island's curve, and when I looked at it through the corner of my eye I noticed it was flickering, like a flame.

"A fire?" Zero suggested.

"They must've decided to cook dinner - whatever that is around here," Night said, peering downwards.

"Either that, or a dragon just set fire to one of their bottoms," Winter added brightly.

"Alright, so there's a fire," I said with a glance at Winter. "That means they're there, right?"

"Yeah, that's where their base it," Astrid replied, flicking a strand of hair out of her face. "So I take it your geniuses don't have a plan?"

"We have a plan!" Night replied indignantly. "We're not that stupid."

"Without even knowing the layout of the island?" Astrid pressed.

"Oh, we know the layout," I replied, pulling out the map and unfolding it. "We just needed to figure out where everything was in real-life."

Astrid's eyes widened. "Where'd you get that?"

"Er..."

"Oh, Luna just nabbed it for is," Winter said cheerfully. "I mean, no one else was using it."

"You guys are as arrogant as Snotlout," Astrid muttered.

"Okay, so me and Zero go in because our dragons can do stealth," Night said. "And then we come out and get the rest of you when we know it's safe, right?"

"Right," I assured her. "Go on! We'll wait on the far side."

Night and Zero dove down, Chameleon shifting his scales so that he was invisable and Greytooth breathed out a thin layer of smoke as they reached the island, clouding him and Night from view.

"So how are you guys going to sabotage this?" Astrid asked.

I shrugged. "We'll see what's down there."

I got stared at. Pretty badly.

"Are you telling me," Astrid began through clenched teeth, "That we've come all the way out here just hoping that these guys happen to keep explosives or something on their ships?"

I grinned. "Yep."