A New World, Complicated

Chapter 36: The Eel Effect (Hiccup)

"When am I not safe?" He shot me a knowing glance. "Don't answer that." I took off and caught up with the rest of the group, keeping one wary eye on Reign. Eel pox was already an incredibly contagious disease, but Reign's body didn't exactly have the strength to fight it off. Physically, she was probably one of the strongest people on Berk. But clearly, that didn't translate into one's ability to fight off sickness, because when she got sick, it lasted for weeks, even with medicine. So not only was I trying to make sure we got the medicine to Berk in a timely manner, but I had to keep a close eye on Reign to make sure she wasn't exhibiting symptoms.

Once we landed, I took the list from Gothi and began to read off the ingredients, assigning everyone a small group of items so that this would get done faster.

"Okay, gang. We've got a lot of ground to cover. Let's get to work."

Everyone headed off in their assigned directions to pick up the ingredients we needed. It didn't take long to track down the items, and once they were all brought back, I double checked with the list to make sure we really had everything we needed.

"...Buckthorn Root, lightly roasted. A dozen rock blossoms. One handful of Goatweed. One wild Daga plant... I think that's everything, right?" I turned to Gothi for approval, but she shook her head before writing something in the sand. Tuff and Fishlegs leaned over the symbols in an attempt to translate.

"She says the last item isn't on Healer's Island," Fishlegs informed us. "The key ingredient for curing eel pox is... a Bloodbane Eel. Where do we find one of those?" Gothi used her walking stick to point out toward the ocean, at some point clearly beyond the horizon.

"Well, great. Because we're not gonna be able to search the whole ocean this afternoon. We need at least a long weekend for that, you know? Maybe even into Monday night." Gothi smacked Tuffnut in the back with her stick, pinning him to the ground.

"She says 'don't interrupt'. We have to head north to..." He gasped, a horrified look crossing his face. "Eel Island."

"Our dragons would never go near Eel Island," Astrid pointed out. "They're terrified of eels."

"Not Shriek," Reign interjected. "I mean, she certainly doesn't like them, but she's not afraid of them. I might be able to get in there without much of a problem." I shook my head. No way was I going to let Reign go in there on her own. I believed she could handle it, but if something went wrong, she'd need back up.

"Toothless and I will come with you." Toothless grumbled in protest. "I know, bud. Eels aren't your favorite. But you don't want Shriek to go alone, do you? Not to mention, you're the fastest dragon." He shook his head and snorted, but allowed me to climb up. "We'll find this eel and be back to Berk in no time. No problem." Reign shook her head at me.

"You can't just say that and expect it to be true," she sighed before the two of us took off. I pulled out a map and stared down at it, trying to get a general idea of where we should find Eel Island. We needed to get back quickly, before the eel pox got more severe. "Why'd you want to come out here, anyways?" Just as I opened my mouth, she stuck up a finger. "And don't give me that crap about Toothless being the fastest dragon. We both know that was just to get him to come." I shook my head at her. Somehow, she always got the truth out of me.

"I wanted to make sure you had back up, just in case something went wrong." She looked offended for a moment, but it quickly melted away into a smile. "Even if you hadn't let us come, I'd feel better knowing you were out here instead of back on Berk where you could be sick."