turn away, it's just there's nothing left here to say
turn around, I know we're lost but soon we'll be found
- sia
Rapunzel is the first to be located.
She's painting with Pascal on her shoulder going about with her day when she hears the bangs of kettles a floor below. Panic bubbles like acid in her stomach. She was alone in the tower. Did somebody know about this and was about to strike?
She spins around from her painting, securing Pascal on her shoulder and tip-toes downstairs.
She grabs a random frying pan that fell on the floor, gripping it tightly. A large figure is in the shadows, and she realizes, if it knows she's there, than there's no point in even hiding. She steps out of the shadows, catching glimpse of what appears to be a huge man with a white beard and a red coat.
She holds the frying pan threateningly. "How did you find me?"
The man looks at her, hands raised in surrender.
"We need your help."
Hiccup doesn't do much on Saturdays. He rides Toothless up in the clouds just like any other day, sketches a bit. Reads. Nothing particularly special.
And the last thing he expects is to have a gigantic stranger (not nearly as big as Stoick The Vast, mind you) arrive in his bedroom, grinning ear to ear.
"There he is!" the stranger bellowed in a thick accent.
Hiccup raised his eyebrows, "Uh-" he stuttered. "Wha-"
"Eh, no time for that, but rumour has it that you are the boy with the dragon, yes? Where is your pet?"
Hiccup stood up from his desk, brows furrowed suspiciously. Was this guy looking for parts? Was there some sort of black market going on that he had no idea about? And what in the name of Odin was up with that accent?
"No deal. He's not for sale." Hiccup replied firmly, crossing his arms and bolting up from his desk chair.
The stranger raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Vat are you talking about?" He looked at his watch. "Alright, time to go."
"Go whe-" But he can't finish his sentence, because the next thing he knows is he's being grabbed by the scruff of his neck.
The pounding hoofbeats beneath Merida are not fast enough to assuage her annoyance, and she urges Angus faster still. He blows out hard, his black mane flying up into her face as she bends low over his neck, no saddle or bridle restricting his movements.
Run, she wills him, the images of her mother's fiery eyes drilling into her flashing through her mind and making her whole body shake in rage. Angus slips slightly, and she just saves herself in time from pitching over his shoulder by grabbing his mane. She urges him into a gallop again, and he groans in response as she pressures him faster and faster.
She looks past her shoulder only once, to check that she isn't being followed by her father's guards.
A mighty bang in the distance shakes the very roots of the trees around her, and Angus jumps nimbly around a falling branch. They plunge wildly through the woodland until they reach the stone pillars that are cast in a circle and Angus baulks, rearing up, refusing to go a pace closer to the stones. She slips quickly from his back, hitching up her green skirts and sprinting out into the circle.
Her quick eyes spot the source of the loud noise. A huge man with a white beard appears from the shadows, cheeks flushed and grinning.
She grabs her bow on instinct. "Come any closer, and I swear I'll shoot."
He throws a snowglobe in the air and catches it again. "Princess Merida, an honour it is."
"Yeh, yeh. Cut to the chase." She rolls her eyes.
"The woods are not safe, come with me and-"
"Oh, no way am I going with ye! I know these woods like the back of meh hand and I know that they're filled with creeps like yo-"
He interrupted her with a voice that made even a hothead like Merida stop talking. "Guess I'll have to take you by force then."
And then she's being sucked through something and snow is in her eyes and everything is fuzzy and then, darkness.
Author's Note: The explanation of how the Guardians of Creativity, Change and Courage were found. I hope North wasn't too creepy.
Please review! I really wanna hear what you guys have to say!
