How To Train Your Dragon- From One World To Another

Chapter Soundtrack(s):

Disclaimer:

The Film 'How To Train Your Dragon', is Copyrighted by DreamWorks Animation and Distributed by Paramount Pictures. Directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois and released on March 26, 2010

The DreamWorks 'Dragons' were directed by Dean Deblois and Chris Sanders and released in 2013- 2018. I only claim Copyright to my characters and some of the elements of the story that are of my own creation.

Author Warning, Notes:

This symbol (*) means that there's something written about this particular paragraph in the Ending Author's Notes.

Viewpoint Signs:

***MS*** (movie scene)

***EMS*** (end of movie scene)

***WPov.*** (watcher's point of view)

...

Chapter 29

Hrolf waited until Ronja had finished her latest explanation of the wooden toys to him before running off to the chest, again.

When he returned, he dropped most of the toys onto Ronja's lap but held onto one that had Ronja's heart seize momentarily in her chest.

...

'' THE TRAITOR!''

I was slightly startled by the disbelieved shouts that erupted from the mouths of Spitelout, uncle Stoick, Hiccup and my father.

Their loud voices had the entire theatre go silent for a long moment and prevented the outcry of other voices; enabling the movie to continue without interruptions.

...

'' You know what that game piece stands for, don't you?'' Valda whispered in Ronja's ear as she leaned in closer to the teenager.

'' 'The Traitor'! The traitor who always dies in the end,'' Ronja muttered, feeling rather shaky and taken aback at the sight of the Game-piece held so innocently in the boy's hands.

In the past, 'the Traitor' had been just that, a stone Game-piece, but now the indication of what it stood for seemed like a death-threat to her.

Ronja shivered at the feel of the adult's breath against her skin.

Valda pulled away from her vicinity and looked at her for a moment in silence before leaning closer to her ear, again.

'' Indeed, and you'll do well to remember what this game-piece stands for, and what will happen to you if you even dare to tarnish the goodwill I have given you,'' Valda hissed in her ear.

Ronja gave an involuntary shudder.

'' Tarnish your good-will? Playing with my life is good-will? You'll take me in as a slave if I don't manage to build a life for myself in Laketown,'' Ronja thought inwardly, shuddering in anger and upset that threatened to bubble out to the surface.

Ronja took in several deep, grounding breaths.

'' Though I am grateful you did stand up to your brother and saved me from the fate of being sent adrift,'' she thought, just as Valda continued with an almost purring voice that had the hairs at the back of her head stand up.

'' Now be a good girl for Hrolf. I'll be going elsewhere on the ship to take care of matters,'' Valda said, patting Ronja's shoulder (Ronja stifled a cringe) and walked purposefully to another part of the ship deck.

...

'' Well, gotta say that was rather creepy,'' Snotlout exclaimed, giving a slight shiver of his own.

The other teens nodded with rather uneasy expressions, and their moods were echoed by the adults in my line of vision.

I sighed at seeing them so troubled over what they were seeing.

'' Creepy, sure but it was a good reminder to me that I wasn't exactly amongst friends or allies even though at that time Valda had been treating me fairly well,'' I muttered, squeezing my father's hand when I felt him tighten the hand around my waist.

'' Well it sure made goosebumps appear on my skin when she spoke like that to you. Makes me wonder just how many more 'hair raising experiences you'll have by the time you even reach Berk,'' my dad sighed out and hugged me to him. 

Before grunting as Anca shoved her way into the hug, too.

'' Too many to count, father,'' I answered with a rueful chuckle as I petted my dragon's snout, again.

But that slight chuckle wasn't echoed by any of the other teens, even Ruffnut and Tuffnut).

All six of them looked unsettled as they stared at the still immobile screen, and the only thing I could think of was that it wasn't typical of the Twins not to enjoy chaos.

And when the movie theatre screen finally came back to life, the scene was of the ship sailing in thick mist, but with faint outlines behind the veil of water vapour.

It looked like...

...

'' LAND HO!

Ronja ,who had been entertaining Hrolf with more made-up stories about the 'Viking- chief', 'the Traitor' and the 'Accomplice' (he had been surprisingly keen on listening to them, and had really been paying attention the past two weeks; remembering more and more about the skills of the 'Game-pieces' each day), perked up at the bellow echoing from high-up in the 'crow's- nest' where the look-out had been keeping his eyes open to spot the searched land.

Ronja watched with renewed attention and interest as the activity amongst the ship crew immediately increased from what it had been just moments ago.

The ship was no doubt being eased in the direction of the jutting land peeking out from behind the surrounding thick mist.

Ronja stood up, holding Hrolf in her arms (he had been sitting quietly on her lap) and moved to the door of the playpen.

She deftly opened the hatch on the outside of the bars and pushed the door open.

Moving passed the hurrying crewmen who weren't paying any attention to her for once, Ronja walked near enough to the port-side of the ship to see the approaching land without it being risking Hrolf to struggle free from her arms and fall over the gunwale into the cold, turbulent waters below.

Not that she wouldn't have risked her own life by jumping in there after Hrolf if he had indeed managed to wriggle himself overboard.

'' LAND! ME SEE LAND!'' Hrolf exclaimed as Ronja lifted him up onto her shoulders and then gripped the boy's shins firmly with both hands.

'' Yes, its land,'' Ronja chirped out as enthusiastically as she could, though deep inside she felt weak and shaky from the nerves fighting to bubble up to the surface.

This was it! It was the start of the test Valda had set up for her. 

The test of survival. 

Either she was to rise above the tough times or she failed and became subjected to a life of slavery.

...

As the hours of the day ticked by, the land became more and more into view...

Ronja could make out more of the land outlines and scenery as the ship floated closer and closer to the destination.

Earlier that morning Valda had come to take her son from her presence and carry him below deck (which was done much easier this time as little Hrolf had fallen asleep).

She had returned some time ago, carrying the belongings Ronja had with her on the tiny dinghy, onto which Odin had transported her from Earth.

Valda had also taken the time to educate her on what had been planned for her today.

Ronja would be left ashore some distance away from the port of Laketown and she would have to make her own way to the town on foot, or in any other way she could possibly manage.

''Another test, huh?!'' Ronja had sighed inwardly, as Valda had given her a sharp nod of what could have been a final acknowledgement (or even an encouraging acknowledgement for all Ronja knew) before walking briskly away from her vicinity.

Ronja had been left alone to rummage through her red 'leather backpack' (the material had mysteriously turned into leather during her transition to a new world), to make sure that all her belongings had been returned by the Captain's sister who had taken them into custody for the time it took to reach this approaching land.

Two weeks of Sea voyage, to be exact.

And it turned out that most of her belongings had been returned to her custody. Yes, most of her belongings, as she had discovered after a while of pondering. 

For some reason, the key she had found in the forest of Finland was missing from the belongings she had piled on the deck of the ship.

''Had Valda or Ryker taken it into their custody and are keeping it to themselves?'' Ronja had thought with a furrowed brow and a frown on her lips.'' Why would they have wanted that key? Do they know something more about the key that I myself cannot even fathom?''

...

'' Hey Stoick, isn't that key awfully similar to the one your father handed to Sigrun when she became the official 'Keeper of Keys' for the House of Haddock?'' Gobber asked with a thoughtful frown to his face.

'' It... does, '' Uncle Stoick mumbled with a deeper frown crossing his features even as my face ran completely pale all of a sudden.

'' No, this can't be! Why... why would Odin take it from the chest of my mother's belongings? Did I really carry something that could have proven my relation to you, uncle, without even knowing about it?! And now its gone forever!'' I stuttered, beginning to panic somewhat.

'' It's NOT the same key, Ronja, even though it does look very similar to the one that belonged to your mother. Back in the days when you were away from me, I had the habit of opening the chest and looking through your mother's belongings one by one. I kept reminding myself that you could be out there somewhere. Alive, possibly even with your mother's kin. The key was always there, in a wooden box with your mother's jewellery.''

I sagged against his chest, uttering a long, deep sigh of relief from the news and closed my eyes for a moment.

'' But then... who's key was it, if not aunt Sigrun's? Did the key belong to that tall woman with the young child? If it was, what was Odin's motives for taking it from her in the first place?'' Hiccup asked with a thoughtful frown to his lips.

'' It couldn't have been her key, Hiccup. If it had been, the Captain of the ship would likely have interrogated Ronja and very likely prosecuted her for stealing something that belonged to the sister of a Chief, '' Astrid pointed out wisely.

'' Then who could it have belonged to, then? And why did the Captain's sister take the key from Ronja? '' Snotlout and Fishlegs exclaimed at the same time.

'' I DON'T know! Maybe they knew something that Ronja, and us, don't know about its properties!'' Astrid snapped out, looking somewhat annoyed at the pair of them.

'' Whoa, whoa, temper, sister,'' Ruffnut exclaimed, chuckling (his brother echoing her amusement)

I hid a grin as Astrid turned her glower on the Twins.

...

But for whatever the reason was for them to want the key for themselves wasn't really of her immediate concern.

...

'' Should have been, but at the time I didn't realize its importance. And I wonder, what exactly the key my mother had in her keeping, was for,'' I sighed out to Hiccup, who nodded his head thoughtfully.

...

And therefore she hadn't remained bothered about it having gone missing, for too long. She had her 'puukko' knife and everything else important returned to her.

...

As the ship halted in a sheltered, yet very deep cove (that the ship crew likely knew would support the hull of the ship without the wood becoming damaged), Ronja could make out a path between a narrow beach strip that lead towards a steep, difficult looking climb to the flat land above on the cliff.

It didn't look all that becoming to Ronja who's heart was racing in her chest as the wooden plank was put into position for her to descend across to the sandy beach below.

And yet she had steely determination to not let her nervousness shine outwardly.

Ronja didn't turn to look back until she had reached the beginning of the climb. 

But when she did turn on her heels to look upon the huge ship (that had housed her for the past two weeks and had eventually brought her to this piece of land). She was surprised to see Valda standing near the gunwale of the ship.

And she wasn't alone.

Valda was flanked by her brother who wore that familiar perpetual scowl of his.

The brother's sharp, dark brown eyes looked straight back at the twelve-year-old with a contemplative expression.

After a while of standing around at the foot of the steep climb, Ronja, at last, turned around and began the long, arduous climb to the very top of the jutting cliffs.

...

Several long, arduous minutes later...

'' Ow, ow, ow! My calves,'' Ronja moaned out, almost collapsing on the ground upon finally reaching level ground once more.

She slowly turned around to view the scenery far, far below and defied dizziness by stepping closer to the edge of the cliff to see the Viking ship moving away from the cove towards the open sea.

'' It looks so tiny from where I stand. But what now? What do I do from here?'' Ronja spoke out loud to no one in particular except for herself, before answering her own question with heavy sarcasm.

'' Follow the path of course, until I find myself staring at a sign that leads towards Laketown!'' 

She spun around on her heels to begin walking briskly along the man- made path.

Her boots crunched loudly against the tiny pebbles along the dirt road, the small backpack, and mushroom basket she had tied to the straps, waved in tandem with her brisk pace.

Ronja kicked a rather large pebble out of her way and watched it soar somewhere into the underbrush surrounding the road. She then let her frustration flow by kicking harshly at another pebble that skittered away from the road to disappear very much like the first one.

Yes, she was very much in a foul mood, again. And it wasn't even that late in the morning.

...

Hours later...

'' Laketown! And Bree? What in Thor's name?''

Ronja blinked at the signs she had managed to find some moments ago.

She was relieved to have found the road-junction, but she was tired and took the moment to catch her breath and to just stare at the signs and take in the sight of the old wood and the runes across their surfaces to form the words ' Laketown' and 'Bree'.

There was also an arrow painted at the bottom to show the directions of the towns to travellers.

The paint was already chipping off from old age and the wood itself was starting to look very worn. But the pole seemed to still be strong enough that it wouldn't fall over from a light gust of wind.

'' Why are the names of these towns the same as in the 'Hobbit' and 'Lord of the Rings'? That's awfully odd to me,'' Ronja sighed wearily and leaned against the pole as exhaustion ran through her.

She had walked nonstop for what seemed like hours until she finally found herself looking at the signs pointing towards civilization. But instead of comfort, it brought a fresh wave of worry and fear to her heart.

'' What will I do once I reach civilisation?'' Ronja thought helplessly and looked up when she felt something cold fall from the sky and splatter against the tip of her nose.

She grimaced at the sight of the beginnings of rain. It was mid-afternoon and the sky had become thickened with clouds, and the air carried a feeling of ill-willed heaviness.

Then it began to rain with a light drizzle.

'' Is it not enough that my legs and lower back ache from the climb and long way walk to this place? Did it have to start raining, to top it all up?'' Ronja exclaimed, uttering a long drawn out groan over the new discomfort.

As if to answer her questions, the drizzle seemed to momentarily thicken and splatter her head and torso in cold, wet droplets.

Cursing the weather, Ronja pulled her hood back and over her head, before zipping up and buttoning up her black leather jacket to keep in some warmth to her core. She was shivering from the cold.

She could clearly sense that the weather was much colder in this land than back at sea in the area she had been transported to by Odin.

Then something sounded through the opposite path that had Ronja freeze to listen intently.

'' Do I hear a horse approaching?'' Ronja mumbled as she strained her hearing.

And soon enough, she heard more than just the drizzling of rain splattering against the underbrush, the ground and herself.

The distinctive pounding of approaching hooves! Galloping horse's hooves heading in her direction from the path to her left.

Ronja ducked out of sight into the underbrush near the side of the road. She didn't want to get spotted standing in the middle of the road just yet.

She swallowed, throat tightening with nerves as she crouched in the damp vegetation waiting for what would appear.

Then the animal Ronja believed she had heard galloped into view.

A large stallion that was of a dark grey colour, darker than the somewhat damp, misty air surrounding Ronja from all sides.

To be continued...

End of Chapter 30

...

Author's Note(s):

P.S Constructive criticism is always welcomed by the Author