A Dragon on Earth
By D. O'Shae
Forward
This story does not stand alone and requires an understanding of events in Winter Comes to Berk. Although this probably goes without saying, neither the film or book forms of How to Train Your Dragon or Rise of the Guardians exist in this alternate universe (AU).
January 2017: Newly edited (because I routinely post the first draft so I can move onto different projects). Cleaned up grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Added a sentence or two here and there to improve context. Fixed two glaring time line errors no one seemed to notice (except me). The story reads better now. Cheers!
Chapter 1
"Jack! Stop!" Hiccup desperately yelled as Toothless dove to avoid the skrill chasing them. "Gods! Isemaler, isn't there something you can do?"
A lean, slightly tattered looking young man roughly the same age as Hiccup flew next to the night fury. His gray pants and sky-blue jerkin with a roughly attached hood looked something like but not quite the same as what Jack wore when in his elemental phase. In the same manner, his whitish-blonde hair also did not quite match the white locks of the original Isemaler. His eyes also tended to be more azure than pale blue. Only the frost patterns along the shoulders and arms of the hooded shirt seemed in any way identical. At the moment, the one currently called Isemaler did not appear to be entirely in control of his flight. He kept pace with the dragon, but looked on with trepidation both at the night fury and the skrill trailing close behind.
"It can't kill you," Hiccup reminded the young semi-transparent man for the umpteenth time. "But can you stop Jack?"
"I… um, how?" Isemaler called back with more than dose of uncertainty in his voice.
Hiccup spent three precious seconds eyeballing Isemaler with a heavy dose of disbelief. Were it not for the fact a very large and very angry skrill sought to end all of their lives, the Viking might be a bit more forgiving. Hiccup could not decide where to fix his anger: at Jack for his desire to find a dragon of his own, at Isemaler for being too new and young in his role to know how to effectively assist, or himself for agreeing to the foolish venture in the first place. However, what angered him the most lay in the fact none of them paid attention to the phase of the moon. The oversight might end up costing them all their lives, except perhaps the Isemalers who could simply turn immaterial and avoid any real danger.
"This is impossible… left, Toothless!" The dragon rider hollered.
Hiccup guided the night fury to zigzag around the already scorched boulders and trees of the small island. Toothless, arguably one of the fastest dragons to be found, now raced against another species just as quick. The skrill did not suffer the additional weight of a rider and another passenger, although Hiccup could not determine if Jack still retained his physical form. In the five months since the Guardian got granted a mortal existence, the monthly transition of Jack still caught Hiccup off guard. His mind recalled the first time he witnessed the metamorphosis.
"Is the widdle Guardian all sweepy headed?" Hiccup teased Jack a month after the elemental young man started to live as a human on the world of Halla.
The dragon lying in his nest let out with short chortle at his rider's childish, sing-song voice that, for once, did not get aimed at the beast.
"It's weird, Hiccup," Jack responded in a faint voice. "I feel really strange."
Hiccup sat up, wrapped a blanket around his naked body, and looked at Jack. It still caught the young Viking man by surprise from time to time when he saw brown hair on Jack instead of white. Although the elemental blue eyes could be arresting, Hiccup started to prefer the sensual orbs colored like ripe acorns ready to fall. No one on Berk possessed eyes of that particular hue. Jack in his mortal form still resembled Jack in his Guardian body, but the bluish-white skin took on natural ruddier tones nobody on the island would find alarming. Even the children, including the ones who accused Jack of looking like his other immortal self, did not seem to think he really could be the famed Isemaler. Thus, Jack assumed his mortal life on Berk as the wayward young man dredged from the ocean by the trawler Fishwife little more than a month before.
"You, ah, look sort of pale," Hiccup stated while examining the young man who captured his heart.
"Guardian here," Jack quietly half-teased the dragon rider who he knew to be devoted to him and, in return, received the same devotion.
"No, this… Jack! What's happening to you?"
Jack barely heard the alarm in the voice of the one next to him on the bed. In fact, he barely heard anything at all. The world suddenly looked hazy and indistinct, as though he viewed it through a thin piece of coarsely woven cloth. Moreover, the lethargy spread throughout his body. Furthermore, he felt himself involuntarily begin to assume his Guardian guise as lassitude sank deep into his being. Jack knew his eyes to be open, but everything began to fade around him. Gradually, a white light began to fill his vision.
"Jack!" Hiccup cried in distress once more, and this time Toothless sat up and growled.
The Viking watched as Jack turned from a mortal to into an elemental Guardian. His magical clothing appeared: a blue hooded sweatshirt with frost designs across the shoulders and down the arms, and the brown leather britches appeared on his lower body. His feet remained naked but the skin turned pale. The hooked staff flew across the room from its normal resting place and landed next to the Guardian. More and more Hiccup suspected the staff to be alive in some manner, and the display only added another piece of evidence. He watched as his companion's hand took hold of the wood that began to gleam a frosty white light. The temperature around the two began to drop. Those changes, however, did not compare to what happened next.
"Jack!" The Viking yelled again.
Jack Frost's body went rigid with eyes wide-open and staring at nothing. The hair turned from brown to white, the eyes to a piercing ice-blue, and the skin assumed a ghostly pallor. The more striking transformation began when the Guardian gradually started to fade. Hiccup reached out to shake the young man's shoulder, and his hand passed right through Jack. The sound of a growling dragon and footsteps on the stairs, newly built so none would face the prospect of falling off a narrow log, thudded into the room. Hiccup did not take his eyes away from the Guardian who now appeared like nothing more than a smoky outline.
"Good heavens," Valka gasped when she reached the top. "Hiccup?"
"I don't know, Mom. He just… changed… and I don't think he wanted to," Hiccup said in a tight, worried voice.
The abrupt absence of a dragon growl caught the Viking's attention. He turned and watched as Toothless began the process of warming his nest, walking in a small circle to curl his body, and then lay down. It seemed at odds with the moment. Streamers of smoke twisted in the air of the room.
Valka, dressed in her warmest wool robe lined with sheep fleece and pulled around her sparse frame, also watched the dragon and said: "Toothless doesn't seem worried."
"Bud, what is it?" Hiccup asked his best winged friend.
Toothless warbled, but did not raise his head. The dragon's vocalization sounded like one of his regular complaints at being kept awake. Son and mother glanced at one another.
"Hiccup, I didn't think Jack slept in his Guardian clothing," Valka stated, yet it also served as a question.
"He doesn't. Normally he sleeps..." and then Hiccup paused while his face turned pink.
Three weeks before Hiccup and Jack decided to dispense with sleeping clothes since they wanted to explore the more intimate side of their relationship. They quickly fell into the habit of sleeping nude since both enjoyed the feel of their flesh touching, especially Jack since three centuries passed when he last felt himself in normal skin. As a result and because winter still reigned over the land, they added a few more layers of blankets to the bed. Thus, Hiccup knew Jack wore nothing before the transformation took place.
"You don't have to explain," his mother graciously and softly said as she patted him on his blanket-clad shoulder. "He looks peaceful enough."
Panic continued to race up and down Jack's spine, but the events of his life and his Viking nature taught him how to control his reactions. Instead he focused on what he could discover and learn. Secondly, his mother's calm reaction lent him support. Jack looked peaceful indeed for all that his eyes stared vacantly at the ceiling and did not blink. Once again the slight rise and fall of the elemental man's chest seemed at odds with his condition. Bit by bit Hiccup decided he could nothing more than wait out whatever appeared to be happening to his companion. He also harbored the knowledge some aspects of the Guardian he could not influence in any manner.
"I'll just sort of watch over him, I guess," he replied and wrapped the blanket tighter around his form. "I don't think there's much I can do anyway."
"Are there spokelsedrakes around?" Inquired the dragon woman and glanced about the room.
"No, they never come here… except that one time," her son told her and could not stop the involuntary shudder that ran through his body. "Besides, I think Toothless would let us know if one of them did show up. He's pretty fond of Jack."
Without a doubt the elemental Guardian and the night fury formed a real bond. Hiccup could never forget, and he suspected the same of Toothless, the time Jack used his power to allow the dragon to fly at a fantastic speed. Dragon, man, and immortal covered over a thousand miles in an hour to return to Berk during the fateful civil war. Since that day, Toothless routinely pestered Jack to sit astride his back, something the dragon did for no other person, and Hiccup guessed the night fury hoped for a repeat of the event. Jack never gave into the urging.
"He just won't leave it alone," Hiccup remarked to the latest addition in Berk two weeks before the full moon while Jack set up a woodworking shop in a small corner of the forge.
"It's okay, but… I don't think that's something we should do very often," the human form of the Guardian rejoined.
"Could ye do that with a person 'sides Hiccup?" Gobber asked as he sat and watched the goings on. Both his apprentices got sent off to fix the hinges on the ground level swinging door of the dragon cavern. "I think I might like to try that trick so I can get a feel for what it's like being a ghostie."
"He's not a ghost, Gobber," Hiccup again told his mentor.
"Died twice. Lived through it both times. Nobody else ever did that," the stout elder Viking said in a curt and suspicious voice. He then scratched his ample belly.
The master smith, who allowed Jack to use part of the forge to establish a workshop, no longer acted like Jack might be an enemy. However, it did not belay his curiosity as to the nature of the Guardian. For his part, Jack made certain never to appear or disappear in front of anyone other than Hiccup, and Valka when possible. Both Fishlegs and Gobber reacted poorly to Jack's abilities when carried out in the open. Furthermore, the quartet of Vikings who knew about the Guardian all agreed the knowledge about Jack should be kept to only them. The agreement did not stop Gobber from asking questions during private moments.
"What was it like, Hiccup, the time he made you all ghostie-like?" Gobber prodded.
"Um… well, I don't really remember," Hiccup honestly answered and unbuckled his flying jacket since it got very warm in the forge rather fast.
"Why?" Jack asked before the smith could while fiddling with a new tool in his hands.
The younger Viking cocked an eyebrow and looked askance at the young man he deeply loved. After a few seconds he said: "You do remember you were making us fly as fast as you could… and trying not to panic or throw up took up most of my attention."
"Right," the brown-haired, thin human rejoined in a sheepish manner. "Seems like it's pretty much all Toothless can think about as well."
"Just ignore him when he bothers you about it."
"I do, but I don't want to make him mad."
"Don't think you ye'll have to worry about that, Jack," Gobber said, using the name everyone called the Guardian since Hiccup could not remember to use the name Jacque. "I think old Toothless figured out ye two are together now. Ye're a pretty handsome couple, ye know that?"
Both Hiccup and Jack blushed at the compliment. Of all the people on Berk, Gobber alone understood what existed between the two young men. The trio never truly discussed their shared attribute, but the Viking and the elemental both allowed themselves to relax in the presence of the stout smith. The rest of the village still needed to adjust to Jack's permanent presence and the fact Hiccup took him in. The woodworking skills, limited though they were since Jack learned them over three hundred years before, meant the new resident – and new human for that matter – could make himself useful and valued to most of the Berkians.
Hiccup slowly shook his head as he remembered and studied his supine and translucent companion. His mother rubbed his shoulder to comfort him as his thoughts returned to the present. The young Viking man remained troubled and unsettled, but he privately admitted he did not feel a sense of threat. He huddled into the blankets.
"He's still here," his mother softly told him.
"Kind of," Hiccup amended. "I've just… never seen him do… this. Ever."
Valka patted his back one last time and turned to leave. The son turned the mother, and his forest-green eyes met her own verdant version. They regarded one another for a moment.
"Did it worry you a lot when Dad used to go out on looking for the dragons' home?"
"What good does worry do, Hiccup?" She countered. "But I did… and accepted it as a fact of this life. Too many times I saw the boats come back missing too many of our people. It never got easier, especially after you were born."
"So what should I do?" Hiccup asked with uncertainty he rarely displayed to others.
"Wait. Hope. Go on living."
The younger Viking pursed his lips and stared at the incorporeal form lying on his bed. He knew he should accept strange events would occur due to the nature of the young man who stole his heart, but it did not make witnessing it any easier. He sighed.
"Guard him, son, like he would guard you," Valka suggested.
"Thanks, Mom," Hiccup replied and sat back onto his heels.
Valka left him to stand watch over Jack. Nothing of the human remained saved he looked like the dim, smoky reflection of one. Privately he thanked the stars Gobber did not see this as it would simply add to the smith's argument about Jack being a ghost. As he thought, Hiccup could not dispute the fact a peculiar set of others on a distant world knew about the Guardian. He wondered how they would react to the transformation. Then he thought of those on his world who, while not human, also understood who lay in the bed. Against his sense of distrust, Hiccup looked up at the ceiling.
"Is he okay?"
Somewhere far off a small peel of thunder rumbled. Hiccup could not determine if Thursar H'rim answered or simply performed his duty. Either way, he did not expect an actual answer from that particular being. Thursar H'rim never spoke to him again after the night Jack's maker granted and returned Jack to life and a mortal existence. Sometimes Hiccup dreamed, sometimes it came as nightmares, about that episode. Seldom did he like to actively think about it. While Noro the Sky Dancer and Elada, The Man in the Moon, intrigued him, Hiccup remained unnerved at having faced the Breathless One, Aita, who ushered all living things out the world when they died. The memory of the one time he heard Death speak continued to haunt his thoughts.
Hiccup kept watch as long as his eyes remained open. Sleep eventually came over him, and he curled up next to the smoky image of his companion. He wanted to make certain he did not accidentally sleep inside of Jack; the notion seemed repugnant to him and a violation of the elemental man. Odd and unusual dreams coursed through him that night, none of which he remembered when a hand gently shook him awake. He opened his eyes only to stare into the smiling, ruddy-complexioned visage of the one who made his heart soar. Light brown eyes met green, and they both sparkled. Light of a new day streamed in from the lower portion of the house.
"I'm back," Jack said and then leaned down to kiss Hiccup.
Despite wanting to give into what the kiss invited, Hiccup broke it off after half a minute and sat up. One of the extra blankets draped the Guardian's body, and the Viking guessed he sat unclothed once again. He gazed at his now human mate.
"What… happened?" Hiccup asked and yawned midway through the question.
"Um, well, I had to go back to Earth and do my time there. Remember?"
"I do now!"
Both of the young man shot sheepish glances at one another.
"I forgot, too," Jack confessed. "So, what went on here while I was gone? It feels like ages."
"Nothing. I watched you for a while and then just slept," Hiccup replied and cast a long glance at the dark-haired young man.
"For a whole month?"
"Jack, it was just one night."
"Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore," Jack mumbled and looked around the room as though it suddenly became foreign to him.
"Who's Toto and where's Kan… ziss?" Hiccup inquired.
"From a movie."
The Viking simply frowned at the immortal now in human guise.
"It's… never mind. It'd take too long to explain," the Guardian murmured. Then he brightened and said: "Wow, a whole month in one night."
"Okay, normally I don't want to know, but what in the name of Wotan are you talking about?"
Jack then explained to Hiccup he arrived back on Earth in Burgess, the town of his birth and the place to which he always returned, under a full moon feeling the full power of The Man in the Moon. He told how he spent the next twenty-eight days working with the other Guardians like he normally did fighting the creatures of darkness that sought to harm or take advantage of children. Jack also told how his compatriots cornered him at every opportunity to explain what happened on Halla. His cheeks turned red when he got the part where he explained Hiccup to his Earthly friends.
"Bunny is enjoying this way too much," Jack sighed but grinned. "Sandy and Toothania seemed pretty happy for me. Nick just reminded me to focus on my job. I forgot he was married once a long time ago."
"That's all a little hard to picture," Hiccup said as he considered what he learned. "A giant rabbit? A man made out of sand? A…. faerie… whatever that is. Nick I can see."
"He's the most human, even more than me."
Hiccup leaned forward, gently kissed Jack, and said: "You seem pretty human to me."
That set ablaze their feelings and need for one another. Hiccup felt compelled to relieve the stress from standing watch over the incorporeal form of his mate, and Jack went at it with gusto because he spent a considerable amount of time away even if did take place in another dimension and out of joint in time with Halla. They never noticed when Toothless let himself out of the room and never heard Valka call them down for breakfast. After a night of worry, Hiccup required reassurance of the most absolute kind. Jack greedily and happily complied. It proved to be a remarkable morning.
"Isemaler," Hiccup yelled to the Hallan elemental young man as they twisted through the air as his mind returned to the present. "What's his condition?"
The Viking navigated the dragon while dodging the periodic lighting blasts from the skrill. Memories of when he and Jack first learned how the Guardian would traverse the two worlds faded into the background of his thinking while current dangers consumed his cognitive processes. Whips of lighting flailed around them as the skrill sought to bring them down.
"His clothes are starting to change," Isemaler yelled back through the screaming wind and the howls of the skrill.
"No, no, no," the dragon rider grunted in fear and frustration. He needed Jack conscious and not preparing to depart this plane of existence as dictated by an agreement with gods. "We need to get away from this skrill. Do something!"
Isemaler continued to fly alongside Toothless who appeared to suffering from the exertion. The Spirit of Winter Joy for Halla reached out a hand, let it become material, and touched the dragon. Muscles worked furiously under the black hide. Hiccup watched and began to worry a litle as to what the magical young man planned. He wondered if Jack suffered the same confusions and hesitations when he first became an elemental being. Isemaler looked up at him.
"Got an idea," the newly immortal being shouted. "Aim for the mountain over there. We'll go through it."
"Isemaler, wait! I don't think…" was all Hiccup managed to say.
Once in his life Hiccup experienced the transition into immaterial form. Jack channeled vast amounts of energy to initiate it. The current Isemaler, however, did not. The Isemaler of Halla never seemed at a loss to call forth his staggering powers since he got created on the planet. A strange sensation clouded Hiccup's mind. He saw Toothless shake his head back and forth, as though experiencing the same disorientation. Something gleamed to his right. Hiccup looked and saw the frost magic sparkle along the edge of Isemaler's pale-skinned hand. Without warning the Viking's mind started to spin, and he felt the dragon falter.
"Toothless?" Hiccup said in a slow, tired voice.
Toothless lazily snorted.
A bright, white light appeared before them. Hiccup winced and closed his eyes. He lay back against Toothless, and he felt Jack's body. As happened one other time, Toothless began to fly at an incredible speed. Hiccup did not fail to notice his winged companion did not increase the rate at which his wings beat. Some force tugged them forward. Neither fear of the skrill nor worry about Isemaler entered into Hiccup's thoughts when a sensation like he got pulled and stretched by his feet took over. The Viking felt elongated beyond reason, and it terrified him. Toothless bugled in distress. The world went silent while the light become so blinding Hiccup feared for his eyesight. He squeezed his lids shut hoping to block out the worst of it. Then everything twisted into a knot around him, and Hiccup yelled in panic. He hollered while Toothless growled in an ugly manner. It seemed to go on forever.
Pain. Hiccup felt pain. He slowly opened his eyes. Pinpricks of light in a dark blanket formed the sky above what he could see through branches. He moved his neck and, while it complained at the motion, the Viking knew it to be whole. He looked to the right, finding trees surrounded him. He looked to the left and saw Toothless' motionless body. Panic. Panic flooded through Hiccup. Despite the intense agony of his right arm, he scrambled unsteadily to his feet and stumbled to where the dragon lay. Hiccup carefully laid his body against the bulk of the creature.
"Gods, he's breathing," Hiccup said with relief.
More panic suddenly assailed him as he took stock of the surroundings. He wildly swung his head back and forth. What he sought clearly went missing. It did not make sense to him.
"Jack!" Hiccup loudly called. "Jack!"
No answer came.
"JACK!"
Ignoring the agony that surged through his arm, Hiccup scrambled around searching for his companion. The young man moved in a continually widening spiral until the trees began to force him off his trajectory. After a minute of frantic surveying, Hiccup went back to the still unconscious form of the dragon. Fear gripped him. To try and dispel it, the Viking focused on what he could remember.
"Jack started to change," he said aloud. "Damn it, how could we forget… again?"
His charge went unanswered.
"What did Isemaler do? How… where are we?"
Anger at the Hallan Isemaler came to life and quickly subsided. Hiccup could not fault Isemaler. Since assuming the mantle of the Spirit of Winter Joy for Halla when it became readily apparent Jack could not be both mortal and a Guardian, the young man found to fill the role valiantly tried to live up to the high expectations. Jack proved a patient and willing teacher. Hiccup, did not possess the same patience even though Noro the Sky Dancer indirectly asked for his assistance. Since his days trying to train other dragon riders, assuming and losing the chiefdom of the tribe, and experiencing the horrors of the Berkian civil war, Hiccup did not tolerate any frivolous or inane actions by others. His relationships with the Ruffnut and Tuffnut got strained as a result. The current circumstances, however, forced him to rely on his native intelligence.
"Jack transformed. Isemaler added… whatever energy that is to it. It did something. Something not right," the Viking mumbled to himself. "We changed: went… not solid. Where's Jack?"
Hiccup glanced around while cradling his arm. Instinct told him he broke it. Worry over Toothless' condition came to the fore when the dragon showed no signs of rousing. His beloved friend breathed and lived, but Hiccup could not determine if the midnight beast suffered any other possibly severe and life-threatening injury. He inspected the dragon as best he could. Lack of blood and misshapen limbs calmed Hiccup a bit. It dawned on him he simply needed to wait.
Overhead the stars dimmed as the sky turned a supple purple. Birds began to chirp. Dawn approached. Hiccup sat on the ground next to the dragon. The vista above him steadily transformed into gray, and a hump of illumination grew on the horizon. The Viking dozed as he leaned against a tree tenderly holding his injured arm. Fortunately, wherever they landed, the air felt warm and he knew they would not freeze to death. He slipped into sleep.
The bugling of the dragon woke Hiccup with a start. Toothless stood on all fours, wings spread wide. His head snapped from side to side as if fending off an enemy. Something hissed in the near distance. The dragon inhaled to let loose a blast of plasma while he focused in that direction.
"Toothless, no!" Hiccup commanded. "You'll set the forest on fire!"
Upon hearing the voice, Toothless craned his head around and stared at Hiccup. The beast visibly eased. Hiccup struggled to his feet and walked over to his friend. Toothless furled his wings, flipping them smartly to his sides. The man reached out and caressed the stout neck with his left hand. The dragon warbled with uncertainty.
"I don't know, bud. Somewhere south, I think," the human answered as though asked a question. "No winter here."
Toothless leaned into the figure standing next to him.
"I don't recognize half of these kinds of trees, so I guess we're pretty far from Berk. What were you fighting?"
Both man and dragon looked around. Whatever caused Toothless to react did not stay. Hiccup worried it might be a new type of dragon and, thus, an unquantifiable threat. The sky turned into a gaudy coral color as the sun slowly rose. He looked at the sunrise and it seemed off to him, but he could figure out why since other pressing matters lay at hand. More of the local fauna came to life. With the increased light, Hiccup began to scan the ground for any sign of Jack. Toothless watched him.
"Toothless, can you see Jack anywhere? He transformed, so… maybe I just can't see him in all this… woods."
The black irises in the yellow-green orbs widened. The dragon extended his neck and began to actively look. Hiccup backed up and leaned against a tree. With the sun rising, the air became warmer. Hiccup felt sweat start to trickle from his armpits under his winter armor. He unbuckled the outer jacket made of stiff leather with his left hand. Fortunately, his favored limb did not get injured. Hot air rushed out from his garment and Hiccup breathed a bit easier. With daylight now fully in effect, he felt a sense of relief. Of course, the young Viking man stood next to a completely alert and functioning dragon.
"Nothing?" He quietly asked his winged friend.
The dragon looked disappointed.
"Not your fault, bud. Not anyone's fault really… except ours. Why do we always forget to count the days?"
Toothless simply stared at him. Hiccup grinned at the beast. Sometimes he felt the creature knew much more than anyone suspected. Anger and guilt over both his and Jack's foolishness coursed through him again. Hiccup roughly shoved it aside. Time for recriminations would come later once he determined where he landed and how best to make it home. However, the first order of business centered on his injured arm.
Five minutes later Hiccup examined the splint he fashioned around his right forearm. The bruised, purpling, and swelling area right in the middle announced the break, although bones did not pierce the skin. That hardly mattered since a broken limb that did not receive proper medical attention and get correctly set could hamper a person for the rest of his or her life. He thought ahead while tending to his limb and fed Toothless an emergency ration: a three-pound cake of compressed, dried fish. The beast loudly masticated it while his rider bound the forearm.
"Okay, Toothless, I think it's time we got in the sky and figure out where we are," he announced.
Before he mounted, Hiccup examined the riding harness, saddle, and straps to make certain the gear did not get damaged during the transition and fall. He stuffed his jacket into the empty emergency rations pouch while continuing to inspect. Nothing appeared to be broken or torn, so the young man awkwardly climbed aboard the dragon. Toothless obliged by lowering himself into a crouch to make it easier. Once aboard, Hiccup systematically clipped the straps to his belt. With one arm out of commission, he did not want to fall from Toothless in case they needed to take fast, defensive action. Once the safety check passed muster, Hiccup ordered the dragon aloft after jamming the padded flight helmet on his head.
"Now north," Hiccup commanded while nudging with a knee.
The dragon flapped its wings and soon the sun resided on the right side of both man and beast. In a fit of caution, Hiccup only allowed Toothless to rise some twenty feet over the top of the trees. He did so in case some unseen problem with the flying gear manifested and he toppled off the back of the dragon. He reasoned he might be able to break his fall with the trees if luck returned after abandoning him and allowing the fall to happen in the first place.
"That's why I don't trust luck," he said aloud as though Toothless heard his inner thoughts. "It's not trustworthy. Like Gobber and my father said: it's always better to make you own. Right? Okay, let's fly!"
Hiccup bent slightly at the waist while Toothless applied power to his wings. The shot forward across the verdant cover, turning the forest below into a gray-green blur. For ten minutes they flew as the woods proved a larger stand than Hiccup originally imagined. Hiccup twisted his head from side to side trying gauge the expanse. It seemed endless. Five more minutes passed, and he started to settle into the routine. Hiccup's nascent ease got disrupted when an odd sound reached his ears. Toothless also reacted and they both looked upward at the source.
"What in the name of Loki?" Hiccup burbled when he spied far overhead a large, oddly configured dragon making a noise he never heard before in his life.
Toothless growled in warning. They darted back under the safety of the canopy. The loud roar intensified.
"Takes a bit out of you, lad, doesn't it?" Bunny teased when Jack finally emerged from his room in Santa's North Pole fortress.
The noise of squabbling elves and working yeti created a comforting din. Jack stretched, one hand instinctively clasping his crook, and reveled in the old familiar sounds, including the one coming from the towering rabbit standing off to one side toying with a boomerang. Without waiting to ask, a Yeti walked by holding a tray with steaming mugs on it. Jack snagged one and gratefully sipped the highly caffeinated hot chocolate found within. He sighed in pleasured. After flying to the North Pole following his arrival on earth, Jack felt somewhat stretched thin and needed a good pick-me-up.
"How's life in dragon-land?" Bunny asked, and the question dripped with sarcasm.
"They'd like you there, you know? You'd make a great snack for some of those dragons. Why, we were just dodging a skrill when…"
Jack froze in his steps. Bunny walked forward a few paced and then turned. The emerald-green eyes of the Pooka focused on him, but mirth slipped from his features. The Spirit of Hope slowly walked back toward the Spirit of Fun.
"Jack?" He quietly questioned.
"We were outrunning a skrill when I started to transform," Jack all but whispered the words. "Hiccup… Isemaler… I… I don't know what happened to them?"
E. Aster Bunnymund regarded Jack for a moment, then laid a large hand-like paw on the smaller Guardian's shoulder, and said: "If what you've told us is true about Hiccup, he's more than bright enough to take care of himself. After all, he's managed to wrangle you, right?"
"Very funny," Jack Frost mumbled, but his friend's words instantly sank into his mind while the power of the giant rabbit took hold on him. "Thanks."
Around them work continued as though they were not present. Yeti focused on the projects at hand while elves scrambled around looking as though they were productive and simultaneously creating havoc. A small boom and a cloud of smoke emerged from a terrace on the other side of the cavernous castle. Both Jack and Bunny glanced around.
"It's a wonder they don't burn this place to the ground," Bunnymund murmured.
"I think they have in the past, although Santa won't admit it," Jack replied.
The two glanced at each other, and then started to snicker. They then continued their walk to the main meeting room of the workshop that actually served as Santa's drafting and experimental chamber. They found the large man inside bent over table and conferring with two yeti. Jack heard the man talking in his native tongue of ancient Russian, and his Guardian power immediately translated it so it sounded like English to Jack. He long since accepted it as a natural part of their abilities. The language of the yeti, however, remained a mystery to him.
"Nick!" Jack called out.
Santa turned, frowned for a moment, and then began to laugh. It rumbled like an avalanche in the small room, but lacked nothing in sincerity. Nicholas Saint North strolled forward to greet the other two.
"You've slept more than normal, eh?" Santa chided him in a good natured manner, the words rolling like thunder.
"Jumping from one world to another is not like walking through a portal. It's take skill and bravery!" The Spirit of Fun rejoined.
"Oh, brother," Bunny muttered.
Santa laughed again while grasping Jack firmly by each shoulder. The two regarded one another for a moment. Smile met smile. Of all the Guardians, Nick became something of a father-figure to Jack in the intervening years despite Jack's three-hundred-plus years of life. The very scale and size of the man became a wonder to behold. Dressed in his coarse wool shirt and red leather pants stained with inks and paints, his beard slightly in disarray from where he absentmindedly scratched his chin while thinking as he drew together his thick eyebrows, Nicholas St. North appeared every inch a legend.
"How is your dragon-rider man?" Nick asked and his smile changed to a grin.
"He puts up with me, so I guess he's doing okay."
"Just okay?"
"Maybe a little better," Jack said and his cheeks turned rosy.
Santa released one hand and the clapped Jack on the shoulder. Hot chocolate sloshed out of his cup from the impact while the youngest of the Guardians stumbled to find his footing. Both Santa and Bunny laughed in unison.
"He says maybe little better," Nicholas guffawed. "Never saw Jack happier, and all he says is okay. I tell you!"
Jack looked down, saw the spilled drink pool, and then vanish. Good hot chocolate never went to waste in the North Pole. However, he wished it still resided in his cup. Only a third of the drink remained. He took a sip while turning to face the two laughing Guardians.
"Anything happen while I was away?" Inquired Jack after deciding not to make an issue of the beverage.
"You are gone one night, what could really happen?" Santa countered.
Once again Jack suffered his sense of temporal dislocation. A little over thirty days passed during the lunar cycle on Halla, while twenty-eight days passed on Earth. However, Jack only ever missed one evening in both places. In this regard, he knew he lived two years for the single one lived by his companion and friends. It normally took a day or two before he adjusted his internal calendar and clock. The days, weeks, and year were slightly longer on Halla, and that often caused him the most disorientation. His brain started to swim while attempting to calculate the subtle differences.
"I think he left half his brain back there," Bunny speculated while observing the younger man.
"Give him peace, Bunnymund. He just got returned," Santa encouraged the other.
"I'll be fine by tomorrow," Jack heartily reported. "So… what were we doing… yesterday?"
The other Guardians got used to the fact that a full earth month passed for Jack over the span of a lone night. Thus, he sometimes needed a refresher on what, to them, they did the day before. Since he no longer assumed Guardian duties on Halla, his dissonance could be extreme at times during his first day on earth. Jack struggled to put one world to the side while hauling the other out of mental storage.
"Still trying to figure out how we're going to capture that miserable Creak," Bunny gruffly reminded him.
"Oh, Creak!" Jack said and shuddered as he remembered.
No one liked Creak, and not even Pitch Black. Creak went by a multiplicity of names, but all of them referred to a sound: Rustle, Scratch, Bump, Rumble, or Knock. Although no one knew for certain, most of the other Guardians believed Creak to be one of the first childhood terrors to come into being and probably far older than any could guess. Toothania speculated the Sandman got created to counter Creak. Sandy did not appear to know the full history of the creature, but indicated he always knew about Creak. The Man in the Moon never offered an opinion. Yet everyone agreed on one fact: Creak proved insidious.
Jack could still recall Santa reading out of the Tome of Peril one of the passages regarding Creak:
"A bump in the night. The knock on the wall. The creak of the door hinge. Nothing is there, but it is felt. It hides behind imagination and uses it. It lives unseen, save for the pale twin dots like dying daylight hovering for a moment and then blinking out of sight. It is the first image of a new nightmare when nothing makes sense. It feeds on the initial whimper, the beginning trace of fear. It gnaws on uncertainty. It feasts on the nameless dread between moon-set and sunrise. The scratch on the bedpost. The voiceless whisper of unknowable words. The footstep in the hall when no one is home. It is the creak of the floorboard as it approaches. It comes and cannot be stopped."
The Guardians tried to stop the entity as much as they could intermittently over the years. Yet Creak proved elusive and could not dominate all of their time. The Sandman brought dreams and deep slumber. Toothania and her minions became watchers in the night. The toys from Santa clutched to the breast in the dark of night acted as token guardians. The familiar sweet scent of grass and flowers brought by Bunny as he passed warded against intrusion. The memories of fun, regardless of the time of year, from Jack's goading formed a battlement against nightmares. The Guardians did all they could, and yet Creak managed to appear and act no matter how strong the wards they placed.
"He…" Bunny stared to say.
"How do you know it's a he?" Toothania said as she swooped in. "Good morning, Jack. Did you sleep well when you got in? Misty saw you flying over Saskatchewan."
"It feels like I slept for a month," Jack reminded the Tooth Fairy.
"Still getting adjusted?"
His white-haired head bobbed once. His iridescent friend nodded in an understanding fashion while her minions, seeming smaller versions of her, flew about. One in particular left the group and hovered over Jack's left shoulder. He smiled at the small Tooth Fairy.
"Hello, Baby Tooth. Seems like ages since I last saw you," he softly said.
Baby Tooth let out with a series of cheeps, and then smiled at him.
"Right back at you," Jack said with genuine affection.
"Okay," said Santa in his deep, booming voice. "Whatever it is, Creak outsmarts us at every turn. What are we doing wrong?"
No spoke up for several seconds. At times some of their foes taxed even the generous imaginations of the collected Guardians. While each specialized in one aspect, their strength came from their ability to cooperate and act as one.
"I've never seen… it. I don't even know what we're fighting," Jack finally admitted. "What does Creak look like?"
Bunny, Santa, and Toothania glanced at one another. The giant rabbit fidgeted where he stood.
"I've, ah, never seen him, either," Bunny confessed.
"Me, neither," Toothania added.
"Or me," Santa joined in.
"What about Sandy?" Jack inquired.
Since one whole day of night passed and morning hung over them, everyone knew the Sandman went to his own well-earned slumber in whatever time dimension he occupied. Per their usual custom, Sandy would seek them out when he rose at sunset and before beginning his nightly rounds of a new twenty-four our cycle. Normally the Guardians did not meet so often, but Jack's double-duty gave them an excuse to meet at least once a month to help him recall where he left off on Earth day before.
The three other Guardians shrugged.
"I think maybe Creak materializes and dematerializes at will, like you and the Sandman can, Jack," Santa offered a possible explanation as to why none ever saw the being.
The Spirit of Wonder raised an interesting point. Only the Spirit of Dreams and the Spirit of Fun could become incorporeal at will. The others, the Spirit of Hope and the Spirit of Memories and Nick, remained solid at all times. They used other forms of magic to transport to where need called them and to bypass physical barriers. The ability to dematerialize also did not appear common in the forces they fought. The rarity and specialness of the ability never occurred to Jack since he always could do it from the day he rose out of the lake at the calling of The Man of the Moon.
"But Creak gives… himself…," Bunny began and shot Toothania a look as he assigned a gender, "away with those eyes. Always that weird orange color. Always for only a few seconds."
"But it is enough to know where… he is," Santa surmised.
"Maybe she can't help it, like way Bunny always smells like spring," Toothania chimed in.
"Wish we had a dragon," Jack mumbled as he took in all the information.
"Why's that, lad?" Bunny queried.
Jack's head snapped up. He suddenly realized he spoke aloud. The three other Guardians silently regarded him. He twiddled the crook in his hands while thinking.
"I've told you before: dragons could see me even when I was immaterial and invisible. I don't know what it is they can see, but they always knew where I was. Even Isemaler has the same problem," he told them.
"Well, I don't see any dragons around, but maybe next time you're in Halla, you can find out how they do it," Bunny said with a bit of irritation in his voice.
Jack grimaced at Bunnymund, but Toothania laid a hand on his shoulder to forestall the impending argument. Although now great friends, the seeming young man and giant rabbit tended to routinely argue over minor issues. It formed part of the basis of their relationship, and stretched back for hundreds of years.
"That's at least a month away and it doesn't answer the problem now," Toothania interjected when Jack appeared ready to ignore the more subtle hint.
"Yeah, but… I need to try something next time I get near Creak: I need to see if I can touch… him when I'm immaterial. I can touch Sandy and even Pitch when we're in phase, so maybe the same rule applies," Jack thought aloud again.
"Now you're thinking," Bunny remarked, and a touch of sarcasm edged his words.
"We all need to think," Nick quickly inserted into the conversation before Jack could respond. "We need to know. We need to discover more about Creak. All my years I've put with whatever it is. He steals toys… or hides them, and that I cannot have!"
"And teeth," Toothania stated, her wings visibly shaking with anger and frustration. "I think Creak knows how tooth magic works."
"I think he knows a lot more about us than we know about him," Bunny darkly commented. "He can turn chocolate to dust."
Jack knew better than to tease Bunny when something of rabbit's realm got threatened.
Given that Easter recently passed and summer approached the northern hemisphere, Jack considered his options while the rest of his team slipped into private thought. Winters were not the same in the southern hemisphere, tending to be warmer with few snowstorms or chances for him to ply his trade. Jack often went to higher elevations, circled the poles, or visited mountain-dwelling people to carry out his mission. Moreover, the youngest of the Guardians spent time learning to separate his identity from that of Nicholas Saint North. Many humans in the northern hemisphere assumed where Santa Claus went, Jack Frost followed. The truth, however, tended to be the opposite. Jack arrived long before St. Nick and stayed long after.
"I'm heading down to Chile and Argentina after Sandy checks in," Jack announced when the silence lingered too long and he could think of nothing to add to the conversation about Creak. "It gets lonely in the mountains for some of those children."
"Si," Toothania agreed.
"Swing by the Warren if want," Bunny offered.
"I might," the Spirit of Fun mumbled.
"When do you plan to return here, Jack?" Nick inquired.
"When you need me or if an emergency comes up. I'm going to try and find out just how far Creak travels. We need to know where he's active the most."
"Good thinking," the giant rabbit stated and, this time, he spoke with sincerity. "If you do find him, see if you can give him a right good boot in the bum, eh?"
Jack grinned wickedly at his friend.
"Don't bite off more than you can chew and swallow," Nick cautioned. "Creak is old and powerful, so he might be dangerous even for a Guardian."
"I'll keep that in mind. I just want to find him first," Jack said while becoming immaterial and floating off the ground. His staff gleamed with native frost power despite being newly fashioned of late.
"Go read the Tome of Peril while you've got the time," Nick encouraged him.
"Ugh," Jack said and let his face droop.
"Not all fun and games being a guarding, Jack," Bunny smugly asserted.
"You're right, so you can read it with me!"
"Can't. I, ah, still got some cleaning up to do in the Warren from Easter. Busy time, you know."
Everyone eyed the rabbit with a knowing look. The Tome of Peril did not belong to the Guardians. Rumor said Nick borrowed it from a friend, a strange man named Ombric Shalazar. If other rumors could be trusted, and the elves liked to gossip with the Tooth Fairy's minions, then Ombric appeared to be wizard from olden times and kept to himself in a magic tree somewhere in Siberia protected by dense layers of both fortification and magic. Some said Ombric created a special community in the tree and named it Santoff Claussen. Nicholas Saint North took exception to the name since it borrowed from one of his nom de plumes by which he signed gifts to children. Other than knowing about the existence of the wizard, none of the Guardians ever admitted to interacting with him. Hence, the Tome of Peril remained a useful if worrisome object in the keep of the North Pole.
"I've read it cover to cover," Toothania said as an excuse to keep from peering at the disturbing pages.
"It is all for you now, Jack. Do not fear it, my friend, since there is knowledge to be found there," Santa wisely counseled, but did not offer to read it with him.
"Well, that's all settled. I'm off. I'll be back when the Sandman wakes," Bunny quickly stated.
The tall rabbit with interesting spiral patterns of darker gray fur in his hide thumped the floor twice with one of his large feet. A swirling portal opened in front of him. Bunnymund nodded once to each of his fellow Guardians and then hopped into the magic hole. It hissed once as the aperture to Warren squeezed itself shut.
"Children are waiting on the other side of the world," Toothania reminded them. "I'll also return for our meeting. Baby Tooth?"
The miniature version of the Tooth Fairy looked from her mistress to Jack and back again.
"Keep a good eye on that one," the flying Spirit of Memories ordered her minion.
"She always does," Jack rejoined.
Baby Tooth happily cheeped. In a turquoise flash and a buzz of wings, Toothania zipped upward toward the oculus that gave her entrance to the North Pole fortress. In a blur she disappeared, trailing mini fairies in her wake like magic dust. Jack watched convinced Toothania could probably out-fly him in a head-to-head race. He guessed his top speed to be around Mach two, but the Tooth Fairy seemed able to fly at least twice as fast as that without even trying. The Spirit of Fun once heard Santa comment his sleigh and reindeer could not keep up with her. Jack turned to ask Nick a question, but the man already walked toward his main planning table and a yeti sidled next to him.
"Looks like it's just you and me, Tooth," Jack quietly said.
Baby Tooth uttered a fast series of squeaks that Jack's magic translated for him.
"I do miss him already," he sighed and a white plume of breath billowed forth. "It's going to be a long month away from him."
With his self-appointed guardian hovering next to his head, Jack floated toward the great library of the North Pole. Granted, most of the books centered on toy-making and woodworking, but many volumes of the secret history of earth also rested on the shelves. Few understood Santa Claus to be a voracious reader. However, given that he could scan a complete worldwide list of the naughty and nice children in a single evening, it made perfect sense. Because the North Pole served as the unofficial headquarters of the Guardians, Nick allowed the others nearly free rein within the castle. The man even provided the only bedroom Jack used on earth since becoming an immortal despite the infrequent occupancy. However, sleep did not concern Jack as he searched out the library and a room within containing a single book.
The Tome of Peril sat alone on a special stand on a dais specially constructed for it by the yeti situated. Made from ironwood trees fused together by the powerful grip of the yeti, it looked ordinary and unremarkable. Ironwood got selected because it could withstand the faint power seeping out from the pages that described the various foes and evils of the world the Guardians faced. Although Jack knew it technically did not live, it acted alive. He approached it slowly while the large candles sitting in wall sconces came magically to flame. Baby Tooth lit on his shoulder when they stood before the book.
"Tome of Peril," Jack said in a ritual manner, "show me the truth about the one called Creak."
The Tome of Peril looked like any other leather clad, bound book, except it perhaps three times as big. A single marking in gold on the spine gave any indication the words between the covers might be something different. The front cover of the book slowly lifted and flopped to one side. Then three pages flipped over as well. As Jack stared at the Tome of Peril, the markings gradually resolved into words he could read.
"Long before humans raised cattle and grew grain, people lived hard lives and the night gave them much to fear," the immortal elemental young man read aloud. Baby Tooth leaned against his neck as he did. "Light from a fire only reached so far, and lying in the open was not safe. In the plains and woods surrounding them, humans heard the sounds that could quickly end their lives. Thus, people forever wake to sounds in the night."
"Cheep," Baby Tooth nervously cheeped.
"No kidding," Jack agreed and then continued. "When humans used caves as shelter and protection, their fears continued to lurk in the darkness. Sounds of threat from the outside could be heard within: a scratch of a claw on the ground, the snap of a twig of an approaching predator, or the skittering of a poisonous creature. These sounds took root in the minds of humans, and from those early days did it give birth to a primal terror."
Baby Tooth quivered. Jack leaned his head slightly to one side to offer comfort. He tightened his grip on his staff.
"The power of belief, the certainty something lay in wait to bring destruction and harm, brought the fears to life. From mother to daughter, from father to son, and from grandparent to grandchild the fears got passed down, and something sprang into being in lightless recesses. In the darkness it grew, feeding on the doubts and worries of the people. It became as real as what the humans imagined."
Jack stopped and stared at the page. Deep within his mind he recognized the story as part of his own. For nearly three centuries he yearned to be noticed by people. The youngest of the immortals never forgot those lonely days, even when vying against the Guardians before he came one. Something inside of him, an undefined want, drove Jack to work for the attention of the mortal word. Cast in the light of his own life, the tale of Creak chilled him a little more. He reached out and flipped over the page.
"Oh, here's the part I never forget," Jack told cheap and then read aloud the short passage Santa used to introduce him to Creak. When he finished, he said to his small companion: "Makes it seem too real, huh?"
"Cheep… cheep!" Baby Tooth responded.
"Yeah, I guess Creak is real after all."
Jack continued to read out loud, yet the words hardly yielded anything new. Much of what he read could be easily guessed: Creak worked mainly at night, tended to avoid sunlight, favored sounds over actual appearances, and modern modes of lighting did not seem to affect him. The rest of what the Spirit of Fun learned centered on how Creak used noises to heighten the terror of people – and not just children – that appeared to be his main form of sustenance. Once more, Jack considered how he, himself, thrived on belief. It gave him the power to become visible and solid. Thoughts percolated in his head.
"I wonder," he said as he closed the book, stroked Baby Tooth's small noggin to calm her shivering, and departed the great library.