Yeah, this chapter is whole MeriDough, Hiccup and Toothlice here! I'll try to continue soon!

I wanted it be longer, actually, but I put myself limits to write chapters between 2000 and 2500 words. I hope my next one will fit into at least 1000!

And some people may complain about grammatical or some other errors in my fanfic, to that I say this: as I wrote earlier in description, English isn't my native language (it's Russian, actually) and I'm also still a pupil, so it's normal for a person of my kind to make mistakes sometimes. I'm not saying you're rude, just want you to be a bit more tolerate towards non-English speaking people.

Meanwhile…

At the edge of the Candy Cane Forest, Hiccup and MeriDough have just parked their "Licorice Lightning" and "Sticky Wicket" on the roadside.

"Well, here we are." - Hic said, looking at the seemingly endless mass of striped peppermint trees, ones not really different from others. Toothlice unintentionally licked his lips at the sight of so many caramels.

"Well, what're we waitin' fer? Come on, let's go! Flowers won't magically fall out o' nowhere!" - Mer energetically walked into the forest, followed by the boy and his dragon.

After 15 minutes of wandering around they came upon a surprisingly big clearing full of marzipan flowers, tiny chocolates and several lollipop trees. On their right was an about 30-32 feet tall cake-like cliff with a tea waterfall flowing down it. Hiccup collected enough flowers and a few small candy canes, which, fortunately, fitted into MeriDough's arrow container. The licorice dragon caught some fish-shaped cookies for himself in the tea river.

But at the moment when the Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream racer wanted to head back to his kart, Sticky decided to test her climbing skills by climbing on the top of the Teafalls.

"Sticky, what are you doing? It's time to go back, now!"

But she didn't listen to him, only kept climbing higher and higher, almost fell down a couple of times, but didn't give up. And something about her determination made the boy feel some sort of respect towards Mer. As soon as she climbed up, she looked around. The scenery was simply breathtaking. The Honey-Bun racer couldn't help but laugh loudly in excitement and then shoot an arrow into one of the closest lollipop trees as a victory stroke. It's probably way too obvious she hit the bullseye, but considering the fact that it's a height of 32 feet, it makes this some kind of a feat.

"Hey, Lara Croft!" - someone called her. MeriDough looked down and realized it was Hic. Man, he looked so small from such a height! - "How do you think you're gonna get down, huh?"

One thing I can say certainly: MeriDough BunBroch is no scaredy cat! She just carefully climbed down the same way she got up.

"O-okay, that was… impressive." - the brownhead managed a half smile as the red headed archer wiped her hands with her dress. - "So are we going back now?"

The girl checked her container. Everything was undamaged, so she nodded.

"Phew, finally." - Hiccup let out a sigh of relief and turned around, only to find his reptile sidekick moving deep into the forest. - "Where the heck is he going?"

The two immediately followed Toothlice. But, as it often happens when you chase a fast-moving animal in an unknown place where everything seems to be completely alike, they ended up getting lost, now being Motherboard-knows-where and up to their waists in a taffy swamp.

"Toothlice, you useless licorice!" - Hiccup cried out loud as the sneaky black dragon with ears and claws decorated with red stripes jumped up the candy cane tree and swinged upside down near the base of one of its branches, watching the two racers curiously. What was more insulting is that this animal wholeheartedly believed they were playing with him! That this is all just one weird chasing game!

Then he heard something. Footsteps. They were coming from a fair distance, but dragons have a very keen canine sence of smell and hear, so they can hear faint sounds being a few miles away from their source. Toothlice's ears perked up at once, he carefully slided off the branch to the lower one and stared into the mass of peppermint trees, his eyes and slits narrowed, his whole body seemed to be intense.

"What's wrong, buddy?" - Hic shouted to him, and in the next second Mer hit him in the stomach with her elbow.

"Will yeh be quiet?" - she hissed to him, having the bowstring of her bow pulled, ready to shoot an arrow into any unlucky foe who happened to mess with her and her friends!

Soon the kids heard it too. Someone was coming! Toothlice prepared to bounce at the stranger at any moment. And that moment happened when a tall shadowy figure with long ears and a what seemed to be a boomerang came pretty close to the taffy swamp our two friends were still stuck in.

"Taste!" - the redhaired racer shot her arrow right into the tree the stranger was hiding behind, and that's when the dragon pounced from the branch towards the creature. It was a surprise for him, so he jumped forward and tossed his weapon into the animal. Hiccup's eyes widened in horror. That thing can hurt or even kill his best friend, and he could do nothing about it because of this stupid green puddle of… of… whatever it is! But somehow - miraculously maybe - the boomerang missed Toothlice by a mere inch! The mysterious person watched in shock as the magnificent reptile, whom even his trusty weapon couldn't stop, landed onto the ground with a muffled "thump". In a blink of an eye, the dragon had the poor creature underneath his paw, roaring at him. At first he looked frightened, but then, all of a sudden, a sly smirk crossed his face, because, unbeknown to Toothlice, this person still had a trick up in his sleeve.

And it worked.

As many people know, boomerangs have an amazing ability to return to its tosser after a little bit of time if it doesn't hit its target. Unfortunately, Toothlice wasn't one of those "many people". And it turned against him when the weapon, whose owner somehow seemed to look like a giant rabbit walking on his hind legs, whooshed right next to MeriDough and powerfully slammed the dragon into his face. That was enough for the rabbit to push Toothlice's paw aside and get out from underneath it. While the winged reptile was getting back to his sences, the mysterious person sprinted towards our two kids and pulled them out of the taffy swamp.

"There ya go, kiddos! You okay? No one hurt?" - he asked Hic and Mer with Australian accent noticeable in his voice. They simultaneously shook their heads.

Well, at least they knew this person is friendly and doesn't mean any harm. He actuallywas a big rabbit, two times taller than our heroes, with grayish-blue fur, flower-like imprints on both his forehead and shoulders, and bright green eyes. He wore leather bracers set with orange stones, a single-strap holster with which he probably carries his boomerangs, one of which was still on his back, and leather wrappings on his feet.

This peacefull moment was quickly ruined by Toothlice's roar, and, boy, was he furious!

"Kids, find a safe place to hide, now! I'll take care of that overgrown ankle-biter!" - the rabbit slightly pushed the racers towards the trees, facing the fierce creature. - "You don't want to race a rabbit, mate!"

He ran forward towards his second boomerang, but the dragon's no less quick jump and a strong smash with his long tail knocked him off his feet. Toothlice was on top of the rabbit again. But this time he wanted to finish him off for sure by simply blasting his face with a fair amount of molten sugar. Just one strong inhale and…

"TOOTHLICE, LET GO OF HIM!"

The voice of his best friend Toothlice couldn't mistake with anyone else's. He looked at Hiccup. His whole face was red from anger and frustration. The dragon looked at the boy with innocent eyes, like, "Why are you looking at me like that? He wanted to attack you, I know it!"

"I said: let him go." - the Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream racer repeated, emphasizing on the last three words. With a guilty expression all over his face, Toothlice raised his paw away from the rabbit. Slightly panting, he got up on his feet.

"Did… Did that… ankle-biter follow your… command just now?" - he stared at the boy with the eyes full of disbelief.

"Yeah. Toothlice is my dragon, actually. And he's smart enough to understand human speech, even though he doesn't pay much attention to words unless they were mine, for at times I'm the only one he actually listens to." - the brown head said and came closer to his black friend to scratch him behind his striped ear a little. - "And I'm sorry for what happened earlier. He was just being protective. Oh, by the way, my name is Hiccup, and hers is MeriDough, but we sometimes call her Sticky."

"Ah, I forgive you, kiddo. If I were him, I'd do the same thing. Right, big fella?" - the rabbit friendly patted the dragon on his shoulder. He gave him a "yeah, I guess you're right" kind of look. - "And name's E. Aster Bunnymund, but you kids can call me Bunny."

"E. Aster… Like an… Easter Bunny?" - Sticky asked him. Bunny nodded, smiling. At first the archer stared at him for a few moments in surprise, but then started, like, examining him with a disbelieving expression.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothin', really, but… I always thought an Easter Bunny is somewha'…" - the girl tried to find an appropriate word. - "mmmm… smaller er somethin'?"

The rabbit let out a frustrating sigh. Looks like she wasn't the first one to say this, and it was certainly getting on his nerves.

"Look, I'm not all that "cute and cuddly" people think I am, kiddo! Of course I do have a soft side in me, but I'm no plush toy, I've got a forest to take care of, and it's not all easy-peasy, should you know!.."

"Okay, okay, got it." - Hic raised his arms in a stopping gesture. - "No ordinary rabbit. Understood, thank you."

"Good. So, what brought ya here, kids?"

MeriDough started retelling the whole story from the point when they entered the Random Roster race.

"…but b'cause of a certain someone," - it was obvious who she was referring to, - "we ended up gettin' lost and stuck in tha'… thing. Wha' is it, by th' way?"

"It's a taffy swamp, there are lots of 'em around here." - Bunny answered in a casual way. - "Well, looks like you kiddos need a guide around here, and I can help you out. No one knows this forest better than me, so I'll get you back to the track by the closest shortcut."

The rabbit walked among the numerous striped peppermint trees, our two heroes and their dragon not far behind. Right now they could only rely on his experience and knowledge of the forest.

"Are we there yet?"

They've been walking for only 10 minutes, but for kids it seemed like forever. From all the white and red stripes wherever they looked they felt dizzy.

"We'll be there soon, kiddos. Don't stay behind!" - Bunny tried to encourage them somehow, but it didn't really work.

Then a sparkle appeared in Mer's eyes.

"Hey, yeh kno' wha'? I'm gonna climb up there an' take a bett'r look! Oh, Sugar Honey Iced Tea, how didn' I think o' tha' b'fore?!" - she asked herself as she started jumping from one tree branch to another, higher and higher to the top. - "Shouldn't be harder than climbin' up a cliff."

"Alright, let's see how this works." - the rabbit commented on that. And in just a second his face was crossed with a slight smirk. - "I wouldn't grab that branch if I were you, kiddo."

"Oi, c'mon, wha's so special about-"

"It's a double-stripe."

As soon as he said it, the double-striped branch in her hand dissappeared, and the poor girl fell a couple of levels lower, catching another candy cane for her dear life. Hiccup winced at that sight and Toothlice… chuckled? Well, it's no average dragon to you, what did you expect?

"Double-stripes break!"

Mer only rolled her eyes and continued climbing, now being more careful about which branch she wanted to grab. Quite soon she was on the top of the tree.

"Do you see anything?" - Hic shouted to her.

The redhead looked around. To her surprise, the surroundings were pretty much the same as on the ground, only there was more sky above her and in the horizon was a faint silhouette of a castle.

"Nothin', really. Same as below." - the Honey Bun racer was disappointed. Her idea turned out to be a simple waste of time. But something caught her eye. - "Except fer…"

"Except for what?"

"…umm, Hic, you'd better turn around."

Bunny and Hiccup turned around and saw that Toothlice was missing. Again. Man, what's wrong with this reptile?

"Toothlice, you useless piece of licorice, come here at once! We're not playing with you!" - the racer ran into the direction he thought his dragon went to. And he didn't mistake, for he saw his reptile running somewhere else, so he followed his licorice "pet". Quite soon, after numerous tries to keep up with this overly playful animal and countless attempts to make him go back, they appeared in the unknown part of the forest, where white and red stripes changed into yellow and purple ones.

"Okay, buddy, just don't go anywhere right now, okay?" - Hic tried to approach the dragon, who was still eager to play. That animal sure has a lot of energy in himself! - "We've had enough problems because of you, so be a good dragon and…"

But it was too late. Toothlice jumped from one branch to another and crossed a pit underneath him. The boy let out a groan and decided to cross it with the candy cane, lying between its sides.

'Okay, Hic, you can do it… Just hope it's not gonna be a-'

Unfortunately, it was, and it disappeared right under his feet, and the poor boy fell down and got stuck to his hips in a some sort of a… quicksand? Probably, as he was slowly getting sucked deeper and deeper into it!

"What the…?" - the brown-head looked around and saw a sign saying "Danger! Nesquik-sand!" - "Nesquik-sand?! You've gotta be kidding me!"

HTTYD and ROTG belong to Dreamworks

WIR belongs to Disney

Brave belongs to Disney/Pixar