I Don't Want to Talk About It

A/N: SURPRISE

Yes, this is the surprise. Updating all of my eighteen in-progress fics at once. It was pretty crazy, but I did it, and it's here, and good day to you all! I had tons of fun doing this, so I hope you guys have tons of fun reading this!

Well, here is the newest chapter :D and next chapter will be from Jack's POV. Please give me feedback in the reviews!


- Hiccup –

We never used to do watch before entering this forest, but the place makes us all a little uneasy. Jack especially seems tense and on edge, constantly glancing around, his staff clenched tightly in one hand as he flies. We have plenty of time to talk up there in the clouds all day, but he doesn't seem to want to and I'm awkward as a fish out of water and have long since given up trying to make friends. Who needs friends when I've got Toothless?

I actually was going to plead my case and try and take watch again tonight, but by the time night began to fall, I knew that that would not be an option. It was everything I could do to keep my eyes open while the other three searched for a place to sleep, and now that I'm on solid ground again and that Toothless no longer depends on me, I hit the ground and curl up next to my dragon, letting my eyes fall closed at last.

Of course, sleep isn't exactly restful these days, which is why I prefer watch to sleep. Every time I close my eyes, I know the faces that are going to appear in my dreams. And they do. They always do. Every little mistake I made that day is spelled out so clearly in their hateful eyes.

This dream is a new one, not the familiar nightmare.

Toothless struggles against his chains, growling at anybody who dares come near, glaring at them with clear loathing in his green eyes. I want to run to him, to reassure him that things will be okay, but I'm frozen in the moment, realizing that my dad's eyes are locked on me. And I can only imagine what he's going to say, what he's going to do, what he's going to think.

The Great Hall turns into a scene of my worst nightmares as he throws me in, slamming the door shut behind him, sending us into complete darkness. My breath catches in my throat as he raises his hand, and I suddenly realize what he is about to do just seconds before he does it. My ears ring with the force of the blow, and tears of pain spring to my eyes. "Dad…" My voice comes out very quiet. I'm cowering before my own father. I'm flinching. I'm genuinely scared of him.

I've been nervous around him before, trying to avoid getting yelled at, but I've never actually been scared of him.

"You've thrown your lot in with them," he sneers, glaring down at me where I lay on the stone floor. "You're not a Viking."

In the moment, I didn't know what was coming, but my dream self does and I keep trying to crawl backward away from him, hoping to escape before he hits me again, before he utters the words.

"You're not my—

"Hiccup!"

The shout has my eyes flying open and I'm instantly up, reaching for Toothless, aching to feel the dragon's nose beneath my fingers. I'm still half stuck in the nightmare, and desperate to know that my dragon is beside me.

"Hiccup, wake up!" It's Merida, her long, frizzy hair tickling my nose as she leans over me. I wrinkle my nose instinctively, trying to push her away.

"What's wrong? What's up?"

"You were having a nightmare," she explains shortly, taking to her feet and walking to the other side of the fire pit. She lingers over the blaze, warming her hands and sweeping her hair back from her face.

Merida barely pays me any attention, so it's surprising that she's the one who woke me; at least, until I glance around at the others and realize they're fast asleep, too. "You're on watch?" I frown.

She nods without looking up at me. "Jack tried to take it, but I told him no." The use of the spirit's real name is surprising; normally, she just calls him Snowflake or Frost.

"If you're tired, I can take over," I tell her, sitting up. Toothless startles awake when he realizes I'm no longer beside him, but calms instantly when he realizes where I am.

"You look like you could do with some more sleep," she won't meet my eyes as she talks, keeping her blue eyes fixed carefully on the warm blaze. "You should get the rest while you can, Jack will probably be awake in a couple hours and urging us all to get going, you know how he is." There's a note of fondness in her voice that is only partially disguised by annoyance.

"I'm not getting any more sleep," I reply honestly. "Not after that. You look like you could do with some, too."

"Hiccup, I'm not going to sleep," she says, and there's something hard in her tone now. "If you want to stay awake that's fine by me, but shut up about watch."

"O…kay." I drop the argument and lean against my dragon once more, resting my head on his stomach like he's a pillow. My hair appears to be tickling him, because he gives a slight dragon laugh and rolls over so my head rests on his back instead. I reach up and absently scratch him under the chin, staring up at the moon. It's full tonight, which strikes me as odd. It was full last night, too, and the night before that.

I remember this because as we flew around, looking for a place to sleep, Jack kept throwing the glowing white halo it created dark looks, as if the moon had personally done something to him to offend him.

For a moment, I just lay there, staring up at the moon and stars and contemplating Jack's odd behavior, and Merida's sharp tone, and Rapunzel's odd hair that she never lets us ask questions about. It's super strong and super thick and super blonde, but she refuses to tell us anything about it or cut it, even when she complains that it gets in her way.

My thoughts aren't even straying to my nightmare, which is surprising. Whenever I have that dream, I always lay awake for hours thinking about it, but tonight, I'm already beginning to doze again.

I curl up closer to Toothless and I wrap one arm around him, ceasing scratching him, just staying with him. For once, I feel safe and warm and loved, simply because he's there beside me.

And then comes an odd, out-of-place noise amongst the cool night breeze and the hissing and crackling of the flames: an arrow being notched within a bow. I sit up and open my eyes, looking around at Merida. Sure enough, her bow is out and she's aiming it into the trees.

"Are you going to shoot?" I demand blearily.

She puts a stern finger to her lips before her blue eyes slide away from me again, back to whatever she's looking at. Standing up slowly, drawing her bowstring even farther back, she retreats away from the edge of the trees, closer to Jack and Rapunzel.

I take to my feet and Toothless is instantly on alert, his ears low over his head, his chin nearly touching the ground.

"Ah!" Merida goes sprawling, tripping over Rapunzel as she walked backwards. Her arrow flies out of the bow and Rapunzel, unsurprisingly, shoots awake, shoving Merida off her.

"Get off – you're so heavy!" the blonde moans.

"Shut up! Shut up!" Merida is already frantically notching another arrow while also trying to slam a palm over Rapunzel's mouth.

"Ladies, ladies, what's going on?" Jack demands, stirring and pointing his staff at nothing and everything.

"Merida jumped on me." Rapunzel sounds annoyed.

"There's someone in the woods! Guys, be quiet!" Merida begs them.

"You jumped on her? Jeez, no wonder she woke up," Jack teases, but Merida turns her bow on him.

"Be quiet, Snowflake, or I will shoot you."

"Hello, mates."

As one, we all wheel around to face the source of the sudden voice, laced with a rather thick accent.

Toothless' growls grow in volume as the figure steps out of the shadows and I glance around at the others to see if it's just me seeing things. There is apparently a rabbit walking out of the woods at us. But it's a rabbit like I've never seen them before.

This rabbit not only stands on his hind legs, but he is speaking to us. Assuming the voice came from him, of course, and I really hope it didn't. The rabbit is easily six feet tall with muscles that could rival my father's and a couple polished wooden boomerangs in his hand.

Merida turns her bow upon the intruder, Rapunzel jerks her frying pan up from the ground, Toothless readies himself to charge, but Jack…Jack is the most surprising of all. He tenses up, but doesn't turn his staff on the rabbit. "Can I ask what you're doing here, Bunny?"

The rabbit, Bunny apparently, (so original) inspects one of his boomerangs at length as he talks. "You could, but I probably won't answer."

"No," Jack's voice is low and surprisingly bitter. "You never did answer my questions."

"Fellas?" Bunny pointedly ignores this rather passive-aggressive remark.

And then I know for sure that I'm dreaming, because a huge, furry creature with a mustache like Gobber's comes flying out of the woods behind Bunny. Three more just like it follow, and they're all carrying a red sack upon their shoulders. Without hesitating, one of them comes up to Jack, grabs his staff surprisingly gently and, without further ado, stuffs him into one of the red sacks.

Toothless is watching in apparent interest, but when one of the furry creatures grabs me, he starts to get a little protective. I see a blast of bright blue, signifying that he just shot a fireball at the creature, but then I'm stuffed in the sack.

I hear another of the creatures grunt as Merida shoots him with her bow, but then the creature forces me further into the bag. I feel myself being lifted up like I'm weightless and then I feel myself being forced through a very tight doorway. I wince and grab the sides of the bag, pummeling the sack with my fists, but I might as well be sitting quietly for all the good it's doing; not one of the creatures pays me any attention whatsoever.

We're through the doorway then, and I land on a cool but hard surface. I hear three more thumps and guess what must have happened to the others.

Toothless frantically tears apart the sack to get to me, licking and crooning and nuzzling me like crazy.

"I'm okay, I'm okay," I whisper, but my attention is drawn away from my dragon by a loud shout, seemingly of joy.

"There they are!"

Raising my eyes from the green reptilian pupils, I see the strangest collection of people I have ever seen in my life.