It was an Accident RotG/Httyd fanfic
Chapter 4 - Finding a Lead
"Whoooaaaa..." He cried, as he slid down what had to be the biggest dirt slide he'd ever been in- not that hed been in many dirt ones.
It sent his spirits soaring, reminding him of the unexpected ice chutes he'd slipped into, curtesy of a certain winter spirit- often with a big, black dragon skidding about behind him. He almost could have believed that this was one such slide, and Jack was the one behind it, grinning at Hiccup from his gust of wind as he zipped along wih him. Smiling, happy and well. But it wasn't Jack. He wasn't sliding on cold ice, just hard dirt. Still, the resemblance couldn't help but cheer him up. He was vaguely noting that he wasn't accompanied by his Night Fury, when a patch of daylight opened up.
He shot out of it at an angle, at top speed. He'd hoped to land on his feet, all dignified and impressive- his fake foot had other ideas. It instantly slid on the stone floor, and landed Hiccup in a heap on the floor.
"Ow." He muttered, as he pulled himself up. A strong arm grabbed his own, and helped him haul himself to his feet.
"Sorry about that, mate. But it was the quickest way. Besides, North would've sent the yetis with a sack and a magic portal otherwise." The man speaking checked him over, as Hiccup tried not to stare, because he wasn't exactly a man.
He'd seen Tooth, and heard about the Easter Bunny from Jack, but nothing quite prepared him for the size of the rabbit. Perhaps it was just his ears making him seem extra freakishly big, but... Well, he knew he was big, but he didn't know he was that big. He'd seen dragons the size of mountains, sure, but it was weird, seeing a rabbit this big.
Apparently, the bunny caught him looking.
"Yeah, I'm a giant talking rabbit. Get over it. You're gonna be seeing Santa Claus and the Sandman before today's up." He half muttered the last bit to himself, as he walked off. Hiccup realising, after a good few seconds, he should be following, and hurried to catch up.
He struggled to keep up with the Easter Bunny- not just because of his larger stride, and occasional hops, but because he kept stopping to admire his surroundings.
First thing: it was huge! He'd never seen such a big building- you could probably fit the entire of Berk in here, he thought. This room alone would fit the great hall in no problem.
Second thing: the workers. They passed several of the working... um... well, he wasn't quite sure what they were. Hold on, the rabbit said something about some things coming with a sack and portal? What was it... yetis? If that's what they were, he was glad he took the dirt slide. Although, actually they didn't seem overly ferocious. In fact, the more he watched the just seemed like big, hairy people (why did they suddenly resemble the Vikings of Berk).
Third thing: the machinery. The things these... these yetis were making... the skill and workmanship involved! Having worked as a blacksmith's apprentice Hiccup could appreciate the scale and complexity of the operation here. The whole place was bustling although some of them seemed to be lazing about a bit. Something told him this wasn't half of what this place could produce when in full swing. The inventor in him was going nuts! So many gears, and tools, and moving parts, and metal, and wood, and things he had no idea what they were- but they looked cool.
He was so busy gawping, he didn't even realised they'd stopped, until he bumped into the Easter bunny, who smirked, good-naturedly, as he stumbled some kind of wordless apology (he had such a way with words, when his mind was blown like this). He reached past him, to pull shut some kind of door. What was that for, Hiccup wondered. Suddenly, the ground jolted, and they were moving upwards. Wow, incredible! Hiccup thought, the inventor going beserk all over again, analysing the gears, and pulley systems. He had to make one of these back on Berk- not that they needed it with the dragons, but that didn't matter he wanted one anyway.
Looking out from it, as they rose, he saw many many more fascinating things in the room they were leaving. Whirring, and buzzing machinery, the endless, though somewhat relaxed work. This place was amazing.
"Where am I?" He wondered, aloud.
"North Pole." The rabbit answered.
"The north what?" He responded. What was he going on about?
"Oh, right. World's still flat for you guys. Well, just think of it as Santa's workshop." Wait, what was that about the world being flat? Never mind- he was in Santa's workshop! This was insane, in the best possible way! But it explained why things weren't as manic, as they probably should be, down there. Snoggletog had just passed, there was another year before the next one.
The thing came to a grinding halt, and the Easter Bunny kicked the door open, hopping off to join the other strange people in the room. But Hiccup could wonder at them later, right now he was fixated on the big, round, blue and green sphere in the centre of the room.
Thousands of tiny lights twinkled on its surface. What was it for? It felt like it was something big and important, but he didn't know how it was important. Still, it looked pretty amazing.
"Ah, Hiccup!" The young Viking started, as he heard his name being called by a big guy, with a big beard. The older man saw the look on his face, and smiled. "You like the globe, no?" He said. Hiccup vaguely wondered why he was talking like that, and what a globe was, but nodded in response. Taken in by the golden lights... there were so many... and there was something about them that was just... mesmerising.
North grinned, he wouldn't ever tire of seeing that look on a child's face. Hiccup wasn't so much of a child anymore, but neither was he a grown up yet. Besides, with the extra duties placed on his shoulders, and his friendship with the youngest Guardian they kept an eye on him. Actually, the Guardians made sure to keep an eye on every child until they were firmly standing on their own two feet- or one in Hiccup's case. But, Hiccup was struggling under his workload, and the responsibilities thrust upon him (not that he would never admit it), and this meant that it was still down to them to keep him safe. All of this passed through North's mind, as he watched the young man gazing at the globe. He could watch that look of wonder all day, but sadly he couldn't.
He felt a tugging on his trouser leg, and looked down to see Sandy giving him an important look. A snowflake appeared above his head, alongside a question mark. He was right. They needed to know what had happened to their youngest member. If it was anything like his belly was telling him, it wasn't good.
Still, it would be rude to just barge in with the question, so he began with a bit of simple, small talk.
"You got here okay?" He asked, politely.
"Yeah... I travelled by dirt slide, that was weird." Hiccup answered, finally looking away from the lights. North took this the wrong way.
"Agh, Bunny! I told you he wouldn't like the tunnels. We should have gone with my way!" He told him.
"Mate, your way is terrible." The rabbit contradicted.
"Jack loved it." North reminded him, folding his arms, smugly. Hiccup noted the naughty and nice tattoos on them, as he thought- seriously?! Jack liked getting tossed places, through portals in a sack?! Bunny (as Santa-or North- had called him) put a paw on his head.
"You really need on learn about sarcasm." He muttered. Oh, that explains it.
"Ahem." Both North and Bunny stopped, as Tooth cleared her throat. Sandy put down the elf he'd been about to rattle (Tooth had beaten him to it), and nudged it aside, hoping no one had noticed. "The point is, he's here now. And he's here, because he thinks he knows something about what happened to Jack." He stated, getting straight to the heart of the problem.
All four Guardians turned to the twenty year old, who suddenly seemed a lot older as the reason he was here weighed back down on his shoulders. He looked like he needed a place to sit, so Sandy made a golden armchair for him, which he gratefully took. Tooth flew to his side, and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"Just tell us what happened." She asked, kindly.
Hiccup sighed, as he recounted his tale to them. How the race warm up had turned to him almost getting frozen to death (he could tell they were also wondering what had really happened in that blizzard). By the time he finished, Tooth had her hands cupped round her mouth, as North and Bunny shared a dark, sad look.
"He thought he killed..." Tooth said from behind her hands, unable to finish.
"Yeah, but that's not all... I went back this morning, and that's when I found this." He said, holding out the staff he hadn't even realised he'd brought with him until now. "It was lying in the snow, like it had been there ever since that day." The all looked, somewhat mournfully, at the only thing they had left of their missing friend.
North had a hand resting on his chin, thoughtfully.
"Well... I think we all know what happened, mate." Bunny said, quietly. North nodded.
"The fact that winter hurts people, has always upset him. He feels like its his fault... For something like that to happen... It is no wonder he left his staff behind. It's like if you stabbed a friend with a sword. You'd throw it away, and never want to use it again." Hiccup had never thought of it like that. The way they were talking about the staff, as though it was a weapon... It was just a piece of wood, right? Then again, he'd seen first hand what it could do...
North continued talking.
"If Jack thinks he'd killed a close friend, more than that, a child, that he swore to protect... He'd shut himself away. Lock himself up somewhere where it couldn't happen again. No wonder he has vanished. I doubt we'd have heard from him again, if we'd have carried on waiting. We have to find him."
Only then, did the scale of what had happened to his friend sunk in. Sure hed guessed at what he might have been feeling, dreaded that he might feel upset and guilty, but it was far more extreme than that. He'd self judged himself with murder, sentenced himself, and put himself away for it. Judge, jury, enforcer and prisoner. Hiccup knew it wasn't anyone's fault (or if it was, it was whoever else was in that snowstorm with him) but Jack didnt think that at all. He thought it was all because of him and Hiccup couldn't help but worry.
As sorrow washed over him, he found himself reaching into his pocket. Absentmindedly turning something over and over in his hand. The frozen droplet. He stopped turning it and stared at it, the grief surrounding it stronger now than ever. Tooth noticed it.
"What is that, Hiccup?" She asked.
"I don't know." He replied, honestly, feeling as though it was leeching all the joy out of the world.
"I found it at the same time I found his staff." He explained. He saw a greyish, furry paw reach towards it, and let him take it. Bunny held it up to the light, inspecting it. Then moved it to his nose, and gave it a careful sniff. His eyes widened, slightly, in realisation, and his ears dropped flat against the back of his head.
This was bad. Just from the look on his face, they could tell... This thing was not good.
"Poor kid." He muttered, almost to himself.
"Bunny? What is it?" Tooth asked. The others couldn't bring themselves to voice the question, and even now they were terrified of the answer.
"You really want to know?" He said, unable to look up and meet the eyes of any of them. His head, if possible, dropped even lower, as he whispered, his voice impossibly soft.
"It's a tear."
The world ceased to exist for a moment, to Hiccup. A tear. Jack had cried. The grief he felt from that tear was the same grief that his friend must be feeling... and that was only a small part of it. How was he coping that feeling of such complete and utter despair?
A sudden horrible thought occurred to him. What if he wasn't coping? He wouldn't put it past him to do something drastic. Possibilities he didn't even dare to consider flooded his mind. Was he beating himself up mentally? Was he going beyond mental and making it physical? Was he going further than that? He refused to even think the word, but idea remained.
He found himself clinging to the desperate hope that he was alright.
"We have to find him." He didn't even realise he'd spoken out loud, until the others replied to him.
"But where could he be?" Tooth thought. An exclamation mark appeared above Sandy's head, followed by a snowflake, and what he guessed to be a snow covered valley, with thick forests? It was hard to tell from the sand.
North's eyes widened, but apparently he was the only other one who got it.
"His hidden valley." He realised. The others turned to him, confused. What? "A few decades ago, I showed him how to make a place of his own like the pole, or the warren... And he made that. This kind of, snowy, forest filled valley. He never really spent much time in it, that I know of, but, I think he often went in there as refuge. When things got too much, or he wanted some time to himself." He explained. Sandy nodded, confirming the last part. Being the second biggest field worker (next to Jack himself) he knew the winter spirit's habits better than anyone.
"If there was anywhere he'd go where he would wanted to be alone, then it would be there." Bunny concluded.
"But, how do we go in?" Tooth added in. "You can only really enter places like that if the maker wants you too. Especially if they've got it on lockdown, like Jack surely has."
"I don't know, Tooth. But we have to try" North said, wearily.
Despite all the bad news, Hiccup felt strangely optimistic. They had, effectively, found him. They knew where he was! Sure, it might be a bit difficult to get in, but it was a start! They had a lead. They had something to go off. They would find him.
Hold on, Jack. He thought... were coming for you.
Authors note: hey just posting this quick so I can't say much really almost forgot to post this (whoops hehe) but here it is^^ hope you enjoyed it and feel free to let me know what you think I love hearing from you guys anyway next update is tommorow as always^^ see you then Bye!.
