The Land of Vikings & Trolls: Cody the Cockatrice Series Book Two

By RA Anderson

Cody is not just a dreamt-up creature. Cody is a Cockatrice. He's a blood cousin of dragons, fathered by a rooster, mothered by a lizard, and hatched by a toad. He can fly over one-hundred miles per hour, twice the speed of a hummingbird, and is invisible to everyone who doesn't believe. He's five thousand times stronger than a human an

• Language: English
• Publisher: My Favorite Books Publishing Company, LLC
• Release date: Mar 7, 2022
• ISBN: 9781950590230

Book preview

BOOKS BY RA ANDERSON

Once Upon the Rhine

(Cody The Cockatrice Series Book One)

The Land of Vikings & Trolls

(Cody the Cockatrice Series Book Two)

The Last Crabtree Girl

Girl Sailing Aboard the Western Star

Puffins Take Flight

(Iceland: The Puffin Explorers Book 1)

Puffins Off the Beaten Path

(Iceland: The Puffin Explorers Book 2)

Puffins Encounter Fire and Ice

(Iceland: The Puffin Explorers Series Book 3)

Iceland: The Puffin Explorers Book of Fun Facts

If Pets Could Talk: A Service Dog

If Pets Could Talk: Farm Animals

If Pets Could Talk: Cats

If Pets Could Talk: Dogs

To Cody, Cassaundra, Brody & Zane

Addy & Brielle

Thanks for being part of the journey

To my husband: Thanks for the adventures…

PREFACE

Brody

You wouldn’t believe it if I told you otherwise, so I will simply say my story is fiction and my little friend Cody is only a dreamt-up creature from a family vacation in Basel, Switzerland. Cody is a cockatrice. Some say he’s a mythological creature, but I know better. Oh, did I mention that Cody is more than a thousand years old?

After our family adventure on a riverboat traveling down the Rhine River, my brothers and I thought we would never see our little friend again, but Cody surprised us and joined us on the flight home to the United States of America. He lived with us on our little Georgia horse farm in a town called Rome.

My brothers and I had our hands full with Cody. You see, he loved cacao beans and the beans processed into cocoa, which to you and me is chocolate! While our family was on a chocolate tour in Basel, we learned all about cacao and how the seeds were brought over to Switzerland and were as precious as gold. The seeds were so valuable, people used them as currency all over the world. Why was this chocolate tour so important? This was where I first saw Cody the Cockatrice! He was sitting up on top of a cathedral before he started following us around Basel. I quickly realized Cody was invisible to everyone except me and my brothers, Bowen and Bryant.

Soon we learned of Cody’s love of chocolate, and after being back in the United States, we noticed he could get himself into some pretty crazy predicaments looking for a chocolate treat. Sometimes it took all three of us to cover for him. If needed, Bowen, Bryant, and I pulled together and took the blame, but thankfully, Mom thought we are just silly and laughed. What would she have really thought if she’d seen a flying candy bar?!

Cody quickly became more than our guardian protector, a CGP, cockatrice-godparent! He was our companion and best of all, he was our friend.

CHAPTER ONE

Cody

The thumping within my ears sounded like a racehorse galloping through my veins. A few of my feathers flew upward as if trying to fly away on their own. My mind fought to understand why I couldn’t successfully sneak past the two warrior goddesses. The felines should have both been in the kitchen, watching the boy’s mom cook dinner, or at least trying to annoy the boys while they worked on their schoolwork by lying on top of their projects like most cats do.

The rich chocolate fragrance taunted me, and I could almost taste Mom’s stash—the good stuff made by Lindt. Mom’s chocolate was left out for her visitor friends. It was for anyone, and I was a visitor. Mom had a love for the good stuff like I did. Typically, she kept it stashed away from the boys, but I knew where to find it, and today she’d left this bowl out for me. A hint of delight tingled and tickled from my toes to my wings and nose. My body fluttered about like a butterfly. I breathed deeply. The heart-shaped end of my tail pulsed with anticipation. The chocolate aroma called to me!

Chocolate is made from a cacao seed, pronounced cah-cow. These seeds from the cacao trees were native to West Africa and Central America, nowhere near Europe where I had lived for more than a thousand years. More than 3,500 years ago, the Mokaya tribes had domesticated the bean. That was where the history of chocolate began. The Maya Indians, around 600 AD, called it the food of the gods. Don’t you agree?

Even though I was invisible to Mom, my two biggest issues were Athena and Maia. Not the real Greek goddesses but the two furry critters—housecats—this family had rescued. They left me alone for the most part but seemed very protective of Mom’s belongings or anything Mom touched.

It sure would be helpful if I were invisible to pets, especially these fluffy felines.

I’d tried to speak to them, but I can only speak to my human guardian children through my thoughts. I hear what they are thinking and when I allow them to hear my thoughts, that’s how we communicate. But these felines tend to reject any peace talks from me, a strange birdlike creature.

I am not a bird-like creature. I am a cockatrice. A mythological creature fathered by a rooster, mothered by a lizard, and hatched by a toad, I am a blood cousin of dragons and my top flying speed can reach more than 100 miles per hour, twice the speed of a hummingbird. I’m 5,000 times stronger than a human and only eight inches tall. These rescued felines should shudder at the sight of me, but they are very brave.

Securing myself out of reach from these two goddesses’ dagger nails and mighty leaps was easy, but when I got close to the chocolate, I had to throw caution to the wind. Sometimes I get distracted by the heavenly smell. My focus becomes blurred, and anything is possible. That’s how close Athena and Maia were, as the feathers on my back fled my little body.

Don’t get me wrong, I am as fierce as a dragon and as magical as a faery. Those two little goddesses would be toast and need all of their nine lives trying to slay me. My hands were tied and my powers were useless though, because Athena and Maia are family. I was there to protect my people, and I guess the little calico goddesses were included in the clan.

I could outwait them. I’d sit and hope they would give in to a catnap, but they were wiser than that. Soon the smell of bacon beckoned the two multicolored calico goddesses back to the kitchen, leaving me alone with the creations of the Swiss chocolate manufacturer and inventor, Rudolph Lindt.

CHAPTER TWO

Brody

C ody! I yelped loudly when he landed on the kitchen table in front of me.

His beak and feet were smeared with chocolate. Even the power of invisibility would not hide smeared chocolate fluttering about the room, and trying to explain that to Mom or Dad would be impossible.

Bowen, my older brother, jumped from his chair and said, Brody, stop reading out loud! Then he quickly added, Mom, I’m done with my summer book project!

Bowen didn’t know what else to say but knew he had to take attention off the fact that I’d almost blown our cover. He was the master of thinking quickly on his feet, and over and over again, I was ever so thankful he possessed that skill.

However, my younger brother Bryant, who was sitting at the other end of the table, snorted. His body wiggled harder and harder until he bounced in his seat. Staring and pointing at Cody, his face reddened like one of the tomatoes Mom was slicing in the kitchen as water slid from both his eyes. Cody’s face was marbled with white and dark chocolate, and his blue eyes sparkled with innocence. Losing control of his laughter, Bryant leapt from his chair and raced to the bathroom. If he didn’t leave, Mom would end up asking him what’s so funny and he was the worst at keeping secrets.

The three of us had made a promise to never say anything about Cody the Cockatrice and to take an equal share of blame for whatever mess he might make—especially when he got into chocolate and lost all control.

Ever since Cody came home with us from Europe, he’d been part of our family. Although he was our protector, we seemed to mostly be keeping him safe from loads of trouble instead of the other way around. His job in Basel had been to protect children, like a fairy-godparent, but he called himself a CGP, a cockatrice-godparent. He was invisible to all who didn’t believe in him and his magic, thus making him invisible to everyone except myself and Bowen and Bryant.

Cody had come to our rescue during our family’s summer vacation, a riverboat cruise down the Rhine River in Switzerland. Cody had saved me from being swept down the Rhine on a float called a Wickelfisch. He’d saved Bowen from eating strawberries he was highly allergic to, and well, for Bryant, he’d brought a defibrillator over that if needed would have been the only thing that could have saved his life at the time. He’d protected me and my brothers, but we’d saved him from a life of eternal invisibility too.

Bryant was four years younger than me, and we both had a heart disease called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), which doesn’t discriminate against any age, gender, or race. We didn’t look or seem any different than anyone else our ages. As the doctors said, HCM patients like us hide in plain sight. We looked like every other kid, but with HCM, we must know our limitations because our hearts beat to a different drum.

Unfortunately, playing competitive sports was out of the question. Bowen played soccer on the YMCA Arsenal travel team, but Bryant and I were no longer allowed. We had to leave, or—as Mom put it—retire from our teams. On the bright side, I excelled at playing the piano and had competed against high school kids. Bryant had just learned he has HCM and was interested in learning robotics and wanted to learn to play several instruments. He was currently signed up for piano, guitar, and drum lessons. Who knew what else he might pick up when we came back from our next adventure! When not traveling with our parents, we’ve safely enjoyed riding our horses with Mom and playing golf with Dad, two HCM approved sports.

Tears were forming in my eyes from laughing at Cody when Mom made eye contact with me as she paused from cooking dinner. She smiled, shook her head, and said, You really get into your books!

I shrugged in response, and Bowen and I watched as Cody wiped his little beak clean on Bryant’s shirttails as soon as Bryant sat back down. Bryant was the messiest of the three of us, but the chocolate never seemed to be noticed.

Where did he get it from? I whispered to Bowen.

He shook his head, made eyes toward the front room, and nodded for me to go check as he prepared to face Mom with his unfinished report.

Bowen, let me see what you have done so far and bring me the requirements list, Mom requested.

Bowen gladly obliged, knowing it would keep her mind on him, diverting any further suspicion from what had really happened. He slowly gathered his unfinished report to show her.

My special power was being stealth-like and disappearing without anyone noticing. Bowen was good at keeping Mom’s attention, making