Soul of Furies (Book Three)

Chapter 18: Snotlout

They find the story enthralling, although it doesn't necessarily remove all their skepticism. I personally like hearing their own story, of how they stole one of Berk's ships and sailed out in the hopes of finding a new place to live. They ended up crashing against these rock cliffs after a nasty storm. Unable to rebuild the ship, they set up a home where they were.

Everyone else sleeps in their makeshift cave when they decide to get some shut eye. I vouch for sleeping outside, where I fall asleep staring up at the cloudy sky and sending a silent prayer to the gods that I'll still have time to succeed.

Outside again, I pair everyone off on certain dragons. Tuffnut rides with me on Nightstar while Fishlegs and Astrid ride on Skybreeze and Windstorm carries Ruffnut and Snotlout. My friends have lost their fear of the Monstrous Nightmares, letting them and chatting softly with them and each other.

"I missed Monstrous Nightmares..." Snotlout murmurs as he pets Windstorm's head.

"It's nice to be missed," the blue and green dragon says in response.

I smile at that, urging everyone to hurry and take off. My time is running out faster than I like. As we fly, a thought pricks in my mind. I pull back, settling in a spot between the Nightmares.

"Where's Eret?" I ask.

My friends exchange glances, some questioning and some annoyed.

"He's back at Berk, or at least he was, last time I saw him," Astrid utters, a steely look dominating her face. "You won't like it, Thora."

I remember back to when we first came across each other, how she told me about Ilia's execution. When she spoke of Eret...I purse my lips, wondering just what happened to my old friend. Astrid turns her face from me, her expression sinking with a sort of hurt.

"We have to find him, don't we? He could really help, especially if he knows that we're all friends again," Ruffnut says, a hope evident in her voice.

"We can try," Fishlegs sighs.

"Right..." Tuffnut mumbles, tightening his grip on me as Nightstar bounces a little from wind turbulence.

I don't say a word as I speed Nightstar up, forcing the others to pick up the speed. We reach the sullen village soon enough, but with the cloud cover I can't tell what time it is. I run over the timeline in my head. It was night when I found Astrid, and we had a night spent in the cave out by the sea. The first day we spent finding Fishlegs, then we slept in his hideout. The second day was spent finding the twins and Snotlout. Astrid told me three or four days until Thor's day. I have to finish this by sunset if I want to extend my sentence.

If I fail...I shut my eyes and try to force away my softer feelings. I'll never see Hiccup or my sweet children again, dragons and not.

We stealth into the village, dropping down behind the decimated remains of the forge. Snotlout slips inside, scouting around before returning to us and gesturing hurriedly for us to come in. We all manage to squeeze inside, although it's a surprisingly good fit since there's no equipment filling the space anymore.

"Remember, guards should be patrolling here," Astrid whispers to me. I thank her silently.

I tell the dragons to stay quiet, although the humans in the room obey the command as well. I crawl to one of the windows and slowly lift my head enough to peek over the ledge. I can just see the house that once belonged to Hiccup and Valka, a torch lighting up the front steps. A sick feeling twists my gut.