The Lost Boy II - For the love of a dragon

07 - The chase

It has been days and days, two weeks in total, and the dragon riders were still flying to the south. It took them five days to learn who had taken Joke, and find an explanation to his kidnapping, yet they still didn't know where Grunthilde the Unsightly and her henchmen had brought their white-haired friend.

They had searched the area restlessly, spliting in smaller groups to get informations faster. Every day, Reekfrid and Astrid were getting more worried, and Hiccup was getting more edgy. Of course, all of them were worried for Joke, but these three were the more affected.

Reekfrid was blaming himself for not protecting his son when he was supposed to. Stoick, as a father, tried to lift his mood as he could. Astrid was blaming herself too, but she was hiding it behind her anger and her murderous tendencies. The Grunthilde would better not cross her path, or she could say goodbye to her head. Ruffnut was the one to cheer up the Hofferson girl, but since they had a completely different relationship with her brother, she didn't help much.

And finallt, there was Hiccup. 'Blaming himself' was really far from the truth, he was rotten by guilt, he couldn't help but repeat himself he should have stayed with Joke. But what was really killing him was the unbearable fear of what Joke was going through. He could be hurt, injured, or worst : he could be dead. Hiccup couldn't picture what Joke was enduring, what those men were doing to him, physically and mentally. He knew Joke would be scared, feeling alone, and missing his family, as much as Hiccup was missing him.

Stoick had tried several times to talk to him, Astrid has promised they would do anything to find Joke – and he knew she would – yet only Toothless was able to give him some comfort, enough to allow him at least one hour of good sleep per night.

He was tired, he was worried, he was edgy, he was getting irritable and agressive, and he noticed it. He noticed he couldn't control himself. He even had yelled at Fishlegs. Of course, he had apologized right after, and admitted he was really worried for Joke. It was getting too long, they were searching for too long already. They had to find him quickly.

It took them an entire week before finally finding the ship that had taken Joke. It was berthed in a harbor, where they seemed going to spend the night. The riders left their dragons in the forest, hiden from the inhabitants, with Reekfrid, Fishlegs and the twins to watch over them, while the others when downtown to investigate. They split in two groups, Snotlout with Astrid and Hiccup with his father.

The young viking had troubles calming his anguished heart, he was constantly frowning and clenching his fists, a death glare on everything he was looking at, even people that had nothing to do in this business. Stoick patted his shoulder, trying to soothe him, when his son had scared off a little girl and her mother without meaning to.

They kept on walking on the streets, bathed with a chilly wind getting colder by the night. They ended up in a tavern. Stoick wanted his son to get some rest, and it was the best place to listen the rumors : if Grunthilde's crew was spending the night on the island, there was a good chance they were drinking.

Stoick was proven right as they stepped inside the wooden building. There was a loud commotion, several sailors were among the villagers, some of them seemed pretty drunk.

Stoick stopped his son when he heard the name they were searching for. The name of the captain Grunthilde. Both Haddocks nodded to each other, then settled a a table near the group they had spotted. They turned their back on them so they could eavedrop them discreetly. The three men were drunk, one of them was laughing hysterically.

When the waitress left with the Haddocks' order, they were finally able to spy on the sailors. They listened to them but didn't heard anything useful. Well, until Hiccup heard something. He started and turned his head to listen to another table. The words that had caught his attention were 'white-haired'.