Fury of the Sun

15. Fear Fighter

Chapter 15

Fear Fighter

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Soundtrack: None
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Thade's crew wrestled me into a cramped cage in the lower deck of their ship. The vessel was larger than their previous one so they kept me below decks, in a dank, separated room that no one entered except to give me petty rations of food and water.

Loneliness was my worst enemy in the quiet room, with only the lapping of the waves and the clanking of metal chains to keep me company. I hoped that Hiccup would be better prepared, and would come find me as soon as possible. Maybe he'd even get here before the boat reached Orvask's island. In the dark of the night, however, I had to fight off despair, and nightmares plagued what little sleep I had.

It was the same scenes as my strange vision not long ago. A body, bent over on the ground, a terrible ice storm taking over my body, an army going to it's death, and the same silver shimmers with that feeling of malicious intent, which reminded me of Jack's hair.

Suddenly, everything started making sense. A strange feeling of understanding overcame me.

It was Jack's hair. His unnatural, silver hair. It had to be. It was a warning, and Jack's betrayal was the first part. The pictures that haunted me were a prediction, and those things were coming next. I wouldn't know which was coming until it was upon me, it seemed. But at least I knew now what it meant, even if I didn't know why I had seen these things. Perhaps it was a perk of being a Former; a sort of side-effect of having a mind of one species an body of another. I'd have to ask Cloudjumper if he'd had anything similar happen to him.

The creak of a door interrupted my somewhat turbulent thoughts. A thickly armoured man came in, holding a small, decayed looking piece of meat. I gobbled it down without complaint (struggling a little because of the headpiece still around my face) because though I might die from eating spoilt food, I'd definitely die from not eating it. As he turned to leave, the man said something quietly, and I had to strain my ears to catch it.

"A few hours, and we'll be there. A few hours," he muttered, and closed the door. I felt my heart sink. I hadn't been able to keep track of the days down here, but that meant at least a week had passed, and there was still no sign of help. It seemed I'd be getting out of this one on my own.

A little while later, Thade himself came down to visit me. His blue eyes watched me through the sockets of the skull helm. "You see, ___, what trust does to people? You see now that we only needed you to have a fraction of belief in our agent to drag you back to Orvask's waiting arms? Oh yes, Jack's been there for a while, feeding us information. We installed him after our past agent was killed in the fighting. Orvask was very upset; he cut off one of my fingers for allowing it to happen," Thade chatted, and he held up the affected hand for me to inspect.

I shuddered. What if the others were spies for Orvask too? Astrid, Ruffnut, Tuffnut, Snotlout, Fishlegs... I'd never be able to trust any of them. Not Gobber, or Valka, or anyone else. What if Hiccup was a part of it too? He didn't appear care; maybe he was plotting this all along. Jack's betrayal had gone far deeper than one person. He had severed the trust I placed in every single Viking I knew. Caused doubt and disbelief where there had never been any.

"Jack was easy to get on the job. He begged us to go out and do something for Orvask, to prove himself. I'm sure Orvask will enjoy enlightening you about his relationship with Jack, just to help it sink in," Thade snickered cruelly. He seated himself on a rotting barrel.

"Orvask used up the last of his blood reserves a few weeks ago, but he thinks he's done it. Created the perfect way to give a man the ability to transform at will. If you ask me, he's wasting his time. But the pay's good, so I stay," Thade admitted with a shrug.