So, I've had this in the works for a while. I finally decided to make myself edit it to a readable level and post it. Hopefully y'all enjoy it! Make sure to leave a comment and tell me what you think! :) Also, I made Jack Frost thirteen in this story and Hiccup fifteen. No real reason, just decided to do it that way.
After the whole fiasco with Pitch Black is over and they're all back at the North Pole, Jack finally has time to sort through his memories. They're not all back, not really. He remembers his death. He remembers pushing a little girl named Frig out of the way. He remembers the ice cracking beneath him. And of course, he remembers Frig watching in horror as he falls through.
Everything else from his life is a vague blur, whereas his death is crystal clear. He remembers his father, a large man with a bushy red beard and calloused hands. He doesn't remember his mother, though he's sure he had one at some point. Everyone does or did. He remembers a boy who looks like him.
He doesn't remember anything else other than his name and the little girl's name. He does, however, remember other children making fun of him. He remembers his father travelling a lot. He remembers a man missing an arm and a leg watching him and the boy who looks like him. Most of all though, he remembers dragons.
Berk had been crawling with dragons back when he was alive. They attacked and the people fought back. Monstrous Nightmares and Zipplebacks and Night Furies. But Jack knows that nowadays people don't consider dragons anything more than a myth. So what happened to them? Had his father found the nest and destroyed it?
The problem with everything is that since he remembers a little bit now, he can't stop thinking about it. What happened to his family? The dragons? But no matter how hard he looks he can't even find a mention of Berk. It's almost like his whole childhood didn't exist. And as far as he knows, it hadn't. He'd woken up in Burgess after becoming Jack Frost. Maybe his memories are messed up. Whatever the case, Jack refuses to be kept in the dark any longer.
Father Time lives in an abandoned castle in the middle of Ireland. It's hard to find and even hard to get his attention. Father Time only listens to people if they have something worth saying or if he's feeling particularly kind for some reason.
Jack himself has never met Father Time. He knows the stories, sure, and he also knows it's a longshot, but he has to have hope. When the wind finally sets Jack down in front of the dilapidated castle, Jack is surprised. He's been expecting something a little more… ornate. But if this is what Father Time likes, who is he to judge?
The castle is strangely quiet. There's no noise and no movement. Not even a rat anywhere. It's unsettling, to say the least. As Jack walks through the silent corridors, he swears he can hear music and dancing just down the hall and through a big door. Every time he reaches the noise it stops and moves further into the castle. Whatever is causing it has to be magic. He's not sure what kind, but magic for sure.
In no time at all, Jack reaches a large throne room. On top of the throne is an old man with a long grey beard. He immediately falls to his knees.
"I know you don't know me, Father Time, but will you help me?"
The old man stands up slowly and gestures for Jack to do the same. As soon as Jack is standing up, Father Time comes towards him and places a hand on his shoulder.
"I understand what it is you wish to know," Father Time says gently. "I will grant you one day. It will be sometime after your death when you arrive. No one will see you."
"You don't know how long after my death it'll have been whenever you drop me?" Jack asks curiously.
Father Time removes his hand from Jack's shoulder and laughs, eyes crinkling at the corners. "My boy, I hold power over all time. That is thousands of years. I'm not perfect."
"I guess that makes sense," Jack agrees.
"That it does," Father Time agrees, mouth twitching. "You will have until the sun sets."
Jack nods in understanding. A day is more than he dared to hope.
With that, a bright light surrounds him. It's magic, he can feel it. His whole body starts to tingle, from his toes all the way to his nose. Then his vision blacks out.
When Jack opens his eyes he's laying in the snow. There a few snowflakes on his nose and more falling from the sky. The houses surrounding him are covered with a thin layer of fluffy white snow. Jack stands up carefully. Is he in the right spot?
It's a little dark out. The sun is just starting to rise in the east. If he's in the right spot, it makes sense that no one is out yet. He starts to walk around, slowly at first, but eventually speeding up, running through the streets. This is Berk. He doesn't remember it super well, but somehow he still knows. And some areas look the same as in his admittedly foggy memories.
On one side of the street is a forge. He remembers it. It's Gobber's forge. He spent a large part of his childhood there with his brother, Hiccup. He remembers his brother's name! He remembers everything!
Jack can't help but wonder how much time has passed since he died. Father Time did warn him that going back isn't perfect. It can't be too many years after Jack died though, otherwise, Gobber's forge would certainly look different.
In no time at all, people start to wander out their doors and go about their days. He recognizes a few faces, and all the ones he recognizes look barely if any older. He watches them in wonder. This is just so surreal. After all these years, he finally knows where he comes from, who he is.
"Hiccup, hurry up!" Astrid Hofferson shouts. Astrid Hofferson? Jack remembers him. Even at thirteen when he'd died her and the other 'cool kids' hadn't had the time of day for him and Hiccup. Now they were friends? What had caused that change?
Jack follows the sound of her voice. When he catches sight of her he nearly has a heart attack. She's sitting on top of a dragon. On a saddle. The dragon was letting her. As he watched, he saw her lean next to the dragon's ear and whisper: "I know, Stormfly. Hiccup can be pretty slow."
Despite the callus words, Astrid sounds fond, and a little sad. Still, Jack can't help but gasp at the sight of a Viking riding a dragon.
The dragon jerks towards him and stares. He stares back.
"Um, hi?" he says.
The dragon snorts, smoke flying out of it's nose and into Jack's face. So, dragons can see spirits. That's good to know.
"Stormfly?" Astrid asks. "What's wrong? There's nothing there, girl."
Stormfly (who Jack now knows is a girl) snorts again and turns back towards the house they were watching earlier. Jack recognizes it as his own now.
Suddenly the door bursts open and out comes a boy on top of a black dragon. Jack knows who the teen is. His brother, his twin brother. Older now. Probably two years or so. Jack had been thirteen when he died, so Hiccup is probably around fifteen now. At least Father Time got it pretty close.
"Are you ready?" Astrid asks Hiccup gently.
Hiccup gulps and pats the black dragon's neck. "Yeah, I'm ready. Thanks for coming with me. My dad, he likes to go on his own. I think it's hard for him, especially since he was gone when it happened."
Astrid's face softens. Jack finds it a little strange, how close they seem. They'd never been friends when they were younger. Again, he can't help but wonder how that happened.
"It's no problem, Hiccup." The dragons start walking away from Berk towards the woods. Jack flopped them. "And for what it's worth, I'm sorry I didn't go last year."
Hiccup shrugs. "We weren't exactly friends last year, were we? It's fine, Astrid."
They reach the treeline and both dragons fly up into the air. Jack calls on the wind quickly and follows close behind them. They aren't talking anymore, and instead seem to be focusing deeply, grim looks set on their faces. In a moment, they both begin to descend. They touch down in a clearing with a frozen pond in the middle.
Jack touches down next to them and watches curiously. Both of them have already gotten off their dragons (and how weird is that? They have their own dragons) and walked to the edge of the frozen pond. Jack walks closer until he's standing just behind them. Out of the corner of his eyes, he can see both dragons watching him warily.
Astrid and Hiccup are staring at the frozen pond. Belatedly, Jack realizes that Hiccup is taller than him. He supposes it makes sense. After all, Hiccup is now physically two years older than him
It takes a moment, but then, too Jack's surprise, Hiccup begins to talk quietly.
"You know, I was there. We were just walking in the woods. It wasn't that weird. We normally did that together when our dad was gone. Then we heard a scream. Jakob was always faster than I was, and you know how much of a prankster he was. I arrived just in time to see him convince Frig to play a game. He grabbed a stick and pulled Frig away from the cracking ice at the end of their 'game', but he ended up on top of it. There wasn't any time to do anything. All I could do was watch as he fell in."
Jakob, that's his name. Jack is a nickname that Hiccup had for him. Their secret twin thing. He remembers now. This is where he died.
Astrid takes a deep breath and pulls Hiccup to her for a hug. Suddenly, Jack feels like he's intruding on a very private moment.
"I wish I'd been nicer as a kid. Maybe you two wouldn't have been in the woods that day."
Hiccup shrugs again. "Frig would have died then. I like to think that he knew what he was doing. That he knew what would happen and did it anyway. But when dad got back and expected to see both of us…" Hiccup hugs Astrid back. "It was hard."
"I'm so sorry, Hiccup," Jack whispers. Hiccup can't hear him, but still, it makes him feel better. Unfortunately, the dragon that Hiccup seems to own hears Jack say his brother's name. Also, unfortunately, the dragon doesn't like that. The black dragon runs forward and pushes Hiccup and Astrid away from Jack, growling at him.
"Toothless!" Hiccup exclaims. "What's gotten into you, boy?"
The dragon (who is most definitely not toothless) ignores Hiccup and continues to growl at Jack, eventually swatting at him with a front leg.
Jack grunts as it makes contact with his ribs and pushes him into a snowdrift, leaving a very noticeable Jack sized imprint. One Hiccup and Astrid don't fail to see. Their eyes widen. All the while, Astrid's dragon watches on in vague interest but does nothing.
Not for the first time in his long not-life, Jack is thankful he's pretty much indestructible.
"Dude," he complains to Toothless. "I'm not out to kill anyone or anything. Don't hit me."
Toothless merely takes a menacing step forward.
"Whoa, bud," Hiccup finally say, moving in front of the growling dragon. "Stop it. There's obviously something there, I believe you now, but let me figure out what it is before you do anything else."
Jack sighs. Hiccup's not going to stop trying to figure it out until he dies or Jack reveals himself. Jack knows that. Advantages of having grown up with him. He walks on the snow, leaving footprints of his bare feet. Astrid and Hiccup gape again.
Jack goes to a plain tree trunk and carefully spells out something. After a moment he takes a step back and admires his handiwork.
I thought we killed dragons. How'd you convince dad to let you get one?
Of course, he also has to write this in Old Norse, but the advantage to being a magical spirit is speaking every language. He really likes that perk. Also, it's his first language, so it's not too hard to remember.
"Jakob?" Hiccup chokes out, staring right at Jack.
"You can see me?" he asks. "Already? That was fast."
Slowly, Hiccup and Astrid both nod.
"What…" Hiccup begins, only to stop.
"Yes?"
"What's going on?" Astrid asks. "Are you a ghost? Did Loki bring you back? One of the gods?"
"No, to all of those." Jack paused. "I'm a spirit, I suppose. I bring winter around you know, snow and fun."
Hiccup and Astrid look at him blankly.
"It's a really long story," he says. "And I'm still wondering about the dragons. I thought we were all gung-ho about their, well," Jack pauses and looks carefully at Toothless and Stormfly before whispering: "Extinction."
Hiccup shakes his head and seemingly shakes away his daze too.
"It's a long story," he says, parroting Jack.
"Yeah, long stories seem to be a theme among us," Jack agrees.
"Okay, I'm sorry to interrupt, but I am so confused and nothing is making sense!" Astrid exclaims. "How are you here? How are you a spirit? And why haven't you come before?"
Jack winces. "I'm kinda from the future. Like three-hundred years. I got permission to come back for a day and see you. When I first came back, I didn't remember anything other than my name, Jack Frost. I just remembered."
Everyone is silent. It isn't really awkward though. Just… sad.
"So, you're staying for a day?" Hiccup asks.
"Only a day," Jack confirms sadly. "And I wasn't really expecting to be seen. Just, don't go spreading it around. I think that would be against the rules."
"Deal," Hiccup agrees quickly.
Jack walks towards his brother and looks up at him. "You know, I can't believe how tall you are."
Hiccup laughs softly. "Yeah. I guess I had to eventually hit a growth spurt. And you have white hair."
Jack reaches up and gives it a tug. "I think it has something to do with how I died."
And just like that, the mood becomes sombre.
"It didn't hurt," Jack assures Hiccup. "It was just like falling asleep. Promise."
"It's just… you died. Dad was gone and he didn't even find out until a month later when he finally got back." Hiccup's eyes are dark. "It was horrible."
Jack places a hand on Hiccup's shoulder but removes it when Hiccup flinches. He always forgets how cold he is to regular humans.
Astrid is hanging back, letting them talk, but near enough to still be support for Hiccup. Jack appreciates that.
"So, how about dragons? What's the story behind them?" Jack asks.
Hiccup laughs softly. "So it all began when I decided to kill a dragon…"
And with that, Jack stays the whole day. When the sun sets he feels himself start to go. He figures it might be a little traumatizing if Hiccup and Astrid just see him disappear.
"Listen, I've gotta go," he explains. "And if you ever miss me, just remember that frost is from me. Also, if you ever see me, keep in mind that I won't remember you for three-hundred years and you'll have to act like you can't see me. Otherwise, it would ruin everything."
He floats up into the air and disappears once he's out of their view.
When his eyes open he's back in Father Time's lair. The old man is standing there waiting for him.
"Thank you, Father Time," Jack says honestly. "That meant a lot."
It's the truth. Now to find out whatever happened to the dragons.