Chapter 8

By the time Jack could no longer hear the voice of Etuchaand in his head, a whole new world of worry opened before him. Isemaler's keen observation regarding the identity of the child of Elada changed everything. It became coupled with Fishlegs conjecture on what the malevolent creature would need to take the staff and use it. Etuchaand did not possess a physical entity in the Hallan universe, and Jack did. Etuchaand did not possess a power amplifier in Hallan universe, and Isemaler did. In order to get the latter, it needed the former. By the end of the meeting Jack managed to instill a morose hope in the others that Etuchaand might only kill him, take the staff, and then depart for its native universe to wage war on The Man in the Moon. Hiccup got angry and said he did not find that very reassuring. The others chimed in with the same sentiment.

Distance from his latest journey to Earth stopped the voice, but it also meant he drew closer to the next trans-dimensional shift. It meant Etuchaand drew closer to Halla as well. Despite the notion the world might be saved by the forfeiture of Jack's life, no one the group seemed particularly predisposed to accepting it as the solution. A few days later Fishlegs theorized Etuchaand might destroy Halla simply to test the powers at his disposal. It made Jack feel as if he returned to square one while carrying an elephant on his shoulders. He began to spend more and more time contemplating what seemed destined to arrive in the upcoming weeks and less time actually talking to people.

"Worrying only makes for more suffering, Jack," Valka said to him during a rare visit the workshop. She caught him standing and staring blankly at a piece wood that needed planing.

"If I knew it was just me I wouldn't be worried," he quietly replied. "There's no guarantee it won't involve you and the rest of the world."

"True, true, but worrying means you're not using your thinking time to the best effect."

"Do you have to be so wise, Valka?"

"With Gobber gone and your Nick far away, someone needs to fill those shoes," the woman said and her eyes twinkled.

Valka's grubby coveralls smelled of a variety of dragon scents, and it somehow made her presence more comforting. The statement caused a lump to rise in the Earthling's throat and rendered him momentarily speechless. To center his thinking Jack shaved a few more thin layers from the plank and checked the surface. It looked smooth, but his fingers detected irregularities. He took another swipe with the planer and watched the curls of wood come tumbling out.

"How's our friend?" Valka asked when at length he did not respond.

"Barely flight worthy," Jack answered the question as he stared at the wood. "He keeps trying to do his duty, but I know the sound is painful and distracting him. I don't know how much longer he can go on."

"He's a brave one, that's for certain."

"I don't know how he does it to be honest."

"Do you think Hiccup might have a different take on him now?" The senior dragon woman inquired of her son, and it proved telling.

The sound of Fartbritches and Mouldy arguing over the current temperature of the forge drifted into the woodshop. Hiccup got called down to the docks to examine a malfunctioning piece of the collapsible ramp. People feared it might give way underfoot, and it required the attention of the senior smith. Jack suspected Valka used the opportunity.

"I know he's feeling a lot of guilt about what he did regarding the house. I know he begged Noro to remove the restriction," Jack answered.

"Did she?"

"Hard to tell. I think so. Hiccup keeps mumbling about how she said not to entirely forsake Is… Grimtooth, and that he might come in handy one day."

"Do you think she meant this?"

"No. I think this caught her by surprise," Jack speculated. "She probably meant in the greater sense of what Grimtooth does. It's a funny notion, and Hiccup doesn't have much of a sense of humor left. Notice that?"

"There's a lot of reasons for it, Jack," Valka softly reminded him.

"And I know I'm one of them…"

"Maybe once a long time ago, but you've brought a lot of joy into his life. Never doubt that. He loves you, Jack… and I know you love him. Everyone knows."

The Guardian nodded his head. He could not deny the truth of her statements. It still pained him that Hiccup remained absent from the house. Yet he could not deny they needed to discuss the current crisis before all other concerns, and time might be running out.

"Can I tell you something I learned about you over the years?" The woman requested.

He shrugged and nodded at the same time.

"I've learned to never count you out," Valka began in a quiet voice. "You told us how you suffered hundreds of years of isolation and loneliness, but still managed to show children how to enjoy themselves. I remember how you threw all caution to the wind to come and find Hiccup when Berk tore itself apart. Then when I thought your dead body was in a cave on the other side of the island, I found you lying next to my son looking as healthy and mortal as him. When Hiccup told me what he endured on your world and what you did to free him, I began to see where your greatest strength lies and why you're the Spirit of Fun."

When she paused, Jack looked at her through a squint as he tried to piece together her logic.

"You're like Hiccup in this regard, Jack: you are at your very best when you just… wing it. You take what is given to you and you make things happen," she said and smiled. "I watched over the years as you two spun grand ideas out of nothing and made them work. I've heard people say it's not over 'til it's over, and that's where you and Hiccup find your endless supply of life. What did Gobber say about calling you a ghost boy?"

"Died twice and came back each time," Jack recalled the memory and it made his chest ache.

"And that's why I'm not giving up hope!"

Jack set down the plane and faced Valka. He saw no fear or sadness in her face. He did see the lines of care worn into her features over time, yet it enhanced her beauty. A palpable strength seeped from her. Without asking, Jack walked up to her, wrapped his arms around her lean frame, and tightly hugged her. He felt her arms enfold him, and he bathed in her calm assuredness. Like a magic tonic he could feel the restorative power. Jack thought of Jamie Bennett because that man, when a child, believed when everyone else seemed to lose hope in the face of Pitch Black's assault. The Spirit of Fun never realized how much he needed one person on Halla to believe in him at that moment.

"The brace isn't locking, Fishlegs," Hiccup yelled from a lower section of the ramp, "and it looks like more than one is failing. The joints might be bent."

"It is safe to stand on right now?" Fishlegs called down in return.

"For you, no."

People stood and watched them try to solve the puzzle of the collapsible docks that suddenly decided to collapse on their own. Toothless and Meatlug guarded the ends of the ramp where small barricades kept people from using the broken section. Toothless let his head dangle over the edge and watched his rider. Hiccup tried to remember the last time either he or the journeyman smiths did maintenance on the device. Give the hundreds of people, if not thousands, who used the ramps in a given month and the weight it bore as goods and cargo moved on and off the main island, the condition did not seem all that surprising.

"We're going to make new braces and install them," the young mastersmith rejoined.

"You don't have any spares?" The sturdy Viking asked.

"Ah, the waterwheel!"

Even from twenty feet below Hiccup could see Fishlegs cheeks turn red.

"Alright, lower the dock and leave the barricades up. I'll head back to the forge and get to work on replacements and spares," Hiccup told his friend. "Then I'm sending out Farb and Mouldy to check every last brace… and really all parts of the docks."

"Right," Fishlegs shouted.

Half a minute later two dragons and Viking drifted through the sky to join Hiccup. Fishlegs dismounted once they landed. He then spent a minute lavishing affection and praise on the lumpy dragon. Hiccup simply slapped Toothless' neck in a companionable manner. Toothless gently bumped him with a shoulder. A flush faced Fishlegs joined them when he got finished, and Meatlug lay contentedly on dock.

"We should probably have this done by the end of the day," Fishlegs suggested.

"I'm thinking within an hour or two," Hiccup amended. "I'll get Farb and Mouldy on it right away. I can whip up some new braces in no time."

Fishlegs nodded, but then he looked around in a conspiratorial manner and said: "Can I ask you something?"

"No one is around us Fishlegs, so you can ask about Jack or Isemaler."

"Do you think Jack really doesn't have enough… power to fight Aletha?" The rotund Viking inquired.

Unlike most, Fishlegs preferred to call the entity by it's proper name.

"I trust he can evaluate his own abilities," Hiccup stated in a flat voice since he did not like thinking about the upcoming prospects. He picked at his work overalls. The heavy canvas clothing helped reduce getting burned and it did not rapidly start on fire. Unfortunately, it became unbearably hot since it did not breathe or allow a cooling breeze to penetrate.

"And Isemaler?" Fishlegs continued down the same logical path.

"I… I think it's like the difference between when an adult and a child are fishing. They both know how to do it, but one has a lot more experience. If this was happening on Earth, I think Jack might have a shot at stopping Etuchaand, even defeating it. Isemaler might have the energy to do it, but he doesn't have the same level of experience as Jack," the skinnier of the two relayed.

Fishlegs huffed and sounded angry.

"What?" Hiccup prodded him.

"We just can let him get killed… can we?"

"No, we can't!"

People looked at them from a distance at Hiccup's exclamation.

"But how do we stop it? We're not like what they are. We can't control the same forces they can," he angrily continued but at a lower volume. "We're not gods, Fishlegs!"

"But neither are they," his friend countered.

Hiccup threw him a sidelong glance.

"Don't forget: Jack got killed here once. If he can die, than so can this thing coming at us. There has got to be a way!"

"Oh, so Jack's three hundred odd years is going to stand up to the billions of years that thing has been around? Remember the difference in fishing?"

The two feigned making a detailed inspection for a half a minute.

"But it doesn't have a body, and that seems to be important. Why, I don't know, but… it's a factor," Fishlegs said and showed uncharacteristic optimism. "And the dragons are a factor. If what Jack and Isemaler said is right, Noro made the dragons to challenge and pester the gods. If we could combine Isemaler with the dragons, wouldn't it give us an edge?"

"Sure, if you could stop Etuchaand from turning Isemaler's mind into mashed pulp," Hiccup reminded the man of what currently afflicted the Spirit of Winter Joy.

Fishlegs frowned, but Hiccup detected a subtle nuance in the expression. It bore a closer resemblance to his friend's thinking face than it did to that of anger or frustration. The leaner of the two Viking kept his tongue in check and waited.

"How did Aletha know it needed to disable Isemaler. It already said it's going to kill the child of Elada, and that's Jack, but… I don't understand why it focused on Isemaler first," Fishlegs spoke in his manner of thinking aloud.

"The Sickle of Elada," Hiccup replied.

"The Sickle of Elada… the Sickle… it recognized Isemaler controls the staff."

"And your point?"

"Something is off here, Hiccup. I can feel it, but I can't quite put it together. The connections between Jack, Isemaler, the staff, and Aletha… how? How are they connected. Why did it go after Isemaler first? It can't be just the staff…."

"Fishlegs?" Hiccup spoke the name as a prompt.

"We're missing something. I know it," Fishlegs said and his voice dropped to a whisper as he thought.

Hiccup waited. The people on the docks watched them, but it seemed logical to assume the two inventive Vikings discussed the ramp problem. After a minute of silence, Hiccup acted.

"Say what you're thinking, Fishlegs."

"Aletha needs the staff to amplify it's power, but Isemaler controls the staff. It also needs a body so it can get the staff… and something to help it get back to Jack's universe, so it needs Jack's body. It can't kill Isemaler unless it has powers like the spokelsedrake, but that doesn't seem likely since it's coming here from somewhere else," the man did as asked.

"So it uses Jack's body to kill Isemaler…"

"It can't. Jack's in a mortal form," Fishlegs said in a speculative fashion.

"But his Guardian self is locked somewhere deep down inside," Hiccup reminded his friend.

Fishlegs stared at Hiccup, but he looked at a point far, far away. The surf broke against the breaker rocks that formed the shallows of Berk docking bay. Seagulls cried in the air, but as a result of being chased by terrible terrors. Everything around them, even the people, appeared completely normal.

"Okay, but doesn't Jack always say Isemaler is a lot stronger than he is 'cause he's not from Halla?" Fishlegs rhetorically asked.

"And Isemaler has the staff," Hiccup added.

"And if Aletha can debilitate Isemaler, then it can take Jack's body and use it get rid of Isemaler… and take the staff. It needs to strike at Isemaler first."

"For the love of Loki, we already know Etuchaand is attacking Isemaler…"

"How? From where?" Fishlegs asked.

Hiccup blinked as his mind drew a blank.

"We only assumed Aletha was out in space, Hiccup."

"Are you saying it's already here?"

"Maybe it spent the last ten years getting here… hiding here, and figuring out how to take the staff. Maybe it only recently came up with a plan," Fishlegs theorized.

"Sometimes I really hate your brain!" Hiccup growled at him.

Minutes later the two Vikings flew away from the docks at a fast clip. Hiccup felt his sense of panic rising as he thrashed over the new possible wrinkles of Fishlegs' conjecture. It started to make more and more sense as the squat form of the forge and woodshop came into view. The smith part of Hiccup's brain noted a certain lack of smoke coming from the chimney. It seemed fortuitous Meatlug arrived to help reignite the fires. However, the other thoughts kept intruding on the mundane mortal concerns.

"Jack… Mom," Hiccup said in surprise when he and Fishlegs burst through the woodshop entry.

Son, Fishlegs," Valka said in her measured way that she understood a sense of urgency surrounded the two men.

Hiccup turned to Jack and said in a hoarse whisper: "What if Etuchaand is already here? What if it's been attacking Isemaler all along getting ready to strike at you?"

"What do you mean?" Jack inquired.

"Not yet, and hold on," the smith said and wheeled about to face the forge. "Farb! Mouldy! Here! Now!"

A loud clang emerged form one of the forge's recesses, and the two men quickly made an appearance. Hiccup outlined what needed to be done at the docks, and he put the two in charge. He also told them where to find the specifications for new braces and ordered one of them to make those while the other went and prepared the section of broken dock for repairs. Fartbritches and Mouldy looked stunned at the completeness of the instructions and Hiccup's fierce delivery.

"If you mess this up, I swear I'll get Toothless to weld the two of you together. Got it?"

While they both probably knew Hiccup would never use his dragon to harm them, it added weight to the seriousness of his demand. Each man nodded, then argued for fifteen seconds over who would do what, and Fartbritches shot out of the smithy as if propelled by a dragon. Hiccup approved since Mouldy worked better with more intricate items.

"Head to the house," he told the others. "Fishlegs, get Groanhilde. She's already in this waist deep, and she has the same annoying habit you do of asking the best questions at the worst times. Can you get Meatlug to re-ignite the forge before you leave."

"Certainly," Fishlegs agreed, and he started talking to his dragon.

"Mom, if you've got a few minutes to spare, I'd like you to be in on this as well," Hiccup requested. "I think Fishlegs unlocked something we need to discuss and figure out right now!"

"Of course, Hiccup," Valka readily agreed.

Then the Viking turned to the Earthling and said: "Jack, I think the battle already started, but we didn't realize it."

Jack frowned.

Ten minutes later the quintet gathered around the table in the Haddock house. They all knew Isemaler secreted himself under the largest waterfall he could find. For a person who traveled the world throughout the year, no one needed to doubt the spirit did, indeed, find the largest. Hiccup let Fishlegs outline the hypothesis that Etuchaand, who he routinely called Aletha, more than likely came to Halla years before when Jack arrived with the staff. Since then, Hiccup helped explain, the being probably spent a good deal of time studying both Jack and Isemaler. In the end, it seemed reasonable to believe Etuchaand figured it needed to neutralize Isemaler first before it launched an attack against Jack since of all the powerful invisible entities only Isemaler could and would defend Jack. Hiccup summarized by exposing his sense of guilt that he unwittingly helped Etuchaand by banishing Isemaler from the house and, thus, left both Jack and Isemaler totally vulnerable.

"That's all well and good you might've guessed this thing's plan, but how does that help?" Groanhilde asked the pertinent question.

Silence lingered for a few moment until Jack said: "It tells us what we need to defend. We need to protect Isemaler."

"Fine. Now, how do we do that?" Fishlegs' wife continued her barrage.

Four faces glanced at one another. As Hiccup stated, Groanhilde often asked the right question at the worst time. He could not think of a single way they could protect Isemaler. Slowly, eyes began to focus on Jack as the silence persisted. Jack wracked his brain. Etuchaand possessed age and experience on him, as well as millions of years being trapped in the Hallan universe. Given the nature of the creature, it seemed obvious it harbored a tremendous intelligence as well. Jack did not like to say that out loud at all. As he compared himself to the ancient being, he thought of one similarity.

"I think Etuchaand would have the same difficulty using the energies of this dimension as I did. We're not native to it. It's not part of who we are," Jack mused aloud.

"How weak would that make him?" Fishlegs asked before anyone else could open their mouths.

"I got power lent to me from Lord of Winter and Noro the Skydancer. Unless Etuchaand discovered a way to steal energy, I would venture to say it must be somewhat weaker by now."

"Why didn't it die? Before your maker showed up and renewed you, weren't you supposed to… pass away after forty or fifty years of being here?" Valka inquired and raised another excellent point.

"Consider the scale," Jack said while he thought it through. "If… and this assumes the spokelsedrake never got to me, if I managed to live forty years here on Halla without any renewal, that would be something between ten to fifteen percent of my life span. Etuchaand is billions of years old so he would have hundreds of millions of years to live before he started to fade and die. There's the scale."

"How much power does he have then?" Hiccup took a turn asking a question.

Jack shrugged and said: "Hard to say. We know he's got enough to make himself heard in Isemaler's and my mind."

"But you only hear it for a few days when you get back from Earth," Fishlegs said.

"Wouldn't that indicate there's some sort of difference between… whatever Isemaler is and what Jack is?" Valka chipped in.

Jack and Fishlegs both nodded.

"Then that would mean some part of you stays… a Guardian for a little while before you fully revert to being human again," the woman deftly concluded.

"Well, that would make sense, Mom: we've always known what Jack really is continues to exist somewhere inside of him."

"But something is covering it up," Jack said with a wicked grin on his face. "I think the flesh is the answer."

"To what?" Groanhilde grunted.

"To protecting Isemaler…"

"D'uh! Why didn't I think of that? Of course that's the answer," Fishlegs interjected and berated himself. "You transform, Jack, and it takes longer to return to being human than it does to turn into your other form. If that's why you can hear Etuchaand, then all we have to do is surround Isemaler with people!"

Jack smiled at his barrel-shaped friend.

"A literal human shield," Hiccup summarized.

"Exactly," Jack said. Then he studied Hiccup for a second before inquiring: "Do you know if Noro lifted the ward from the house that stops Isemaler from entering?"

"Even if she didn't we still have a way of letting him in. If you and me both agree he can come in, then he can enter," Hiccup reminded the Earthling. "Jack… could that be the real reason why Isemaler liked to come here so often? It blocked Etuchaand's voice?"

"I don't know. He never told me about hearing the voice until it wouldn't go away…"

"When I started chasing him out."

"Don't blame yourself for any of this Hiccup," Jack quickly inserted. "Neither of us knew if that's what was really happening. You know he didn't like appearing weak in front of me."

"Why?" Groanhilde butted in.

"I was the original Isemaler and I set the tone… the methods and precedent. Sometimes he felt inferior to me because he forgot how long it took me to learn how to control the powers. He wanted to be able to perform just as I did right from the start…"

"Like watching a child imitate a father or mother when learning to fish," Fishlegs said in a knowing fashion.

"How astute of you of you, Fishlegs," Hiccup replied in very sarcastic manner.

"Okay, so that was your analogy. Pardon me!"

Groanhilde snorted with a laugh and elbowed her husband.

"But that's not really a solution," Valka quietly said. "We can't surround Isemaler with people all day and all night. We'd have to tell the entire village what's going on to do that. Plus, doesn't Isemaler have a job to do?"

"You're as bad a Groanhilde," her son quipped.

"Hey. I heard that," Groanhilde rounded on Hiccup.

"It's an excellent point, Valka," Jack conceded. "It's a short-term solution at best, but… it might be enough to save him until I go back and confer with the other Guardians. I'll even appeal to Father Moon."

"They haven't come up with anything so far," Fishlegs rumbled and stared into his empty cup.

"First," the Guardian in residence tersely said the word, "we're out of wine and ale. Second, the Guardians have a full-time job protecting the children of an entire planet from numerous threats, Fishlegs. They can't sit around and debate our problems like we're doing!"

"Sorry," the man muttered.

"Accepted, but don't forget I get to take everything we discuss and present it to them. It shaves a lot of time off the process… and maybe, just maybe, it will spark an idea in one of their heads. There's the value in how we spend our time here," Jack stated in friendlier voice, and he glanced at Valka during the last sentence.

She grinned at him.

"Alright, so we're buying time by protecting Isemaler. That's good, but how do we find him?" Groanhilde displayed her ever-practical manner of thinking. "The world isn't small, you know."

Silence descended once again on the group as they put their mind to the newest of a host of problems. Isemaler could be just about anywhere on the planet. He often flew at outrageous speeds without any real need or provocation; hence, a habit Jack fully understood. They did not have the time to search with dragons since it would take them endless weeks to complete the task. One by one the people around the table started to stare at the lone Earthling.

"Why do you always look at me when you can't come up with something?" He complained.

"Because you're good at the last minute ideas," Valka said in a certain knowing fashion.

Jack rolled his eyes.

"Why don't you ask Lord of Winter or the Thunder Queen?" Hiccup suggested.

"They either can't or won't speak to me, and I've never talked to Blikse'fey," Jack countered.

"They don't have to answer you, they just have to convey a message to Isemaler," Fishlegs refined the suggestion.

"What is the Thunder Queen?" Groanhilde quietly inquired.

"Sort of Lord of Winter's summer counterpart. A different part of the world got to name her before we came up with Thor," Valka answered in a whisper.

"Oh… who's Lord of Winter?"

Groanhilde's second question did not receive a reply as Jack began to nod his head. Options did not readily present themselves, and the current proposal stood as good a chance of success as any other. Jack got to his feet while everyone watched him. He placed a hand at the lower edge of his extended rib cage right where his heart rested. It reminded him afresh that Halla differed from Earth.

"Lord of Winter, Queen of Storms," he said aloud while concentrating on the feeling he used to get when speaking with Thursar H'rim. "We think Isemaler is in terrible danger, and we believe we have a means to protect him. We beg you, please, send word to him to return to the home of Jack Frost. We gladly welcome him."

He nudged Hiccup.

"Oh, right," Hiccup said and scrambled to his feet. "I welcome him as well. Our home is open to Isemaler. Please, find him and send him to us."

The room became incredibly silent as the group waited for some sort of response. Seconds ticked by and they heard nothing. Hiccup and Jack sank back into their seats, each straining their ears. A minute passed. Those that with mugs containing the last of the ale in the house poured that night finished it. Not a rumble could be heard.

"Well, it was worth a shot," Hiccup said with dejection in his voice.

"Just because they didn't answer doesn't mean they won't do it," Fishlegs opined with another helping of unexpected optimism.

"True," Jack mused.

"Let's say for the sake of argument these… gods or whatever they are heard us, what do we do if Isemaler comes back?" Groanhilde

The quintet got into a lively discussion of how best to protect Isemaler when he returned and not if. Fishlegs immediately suggested an experimental approach that grew increasingly complex as he thought of a seeming endless list of variables to test. He adjusted the methodology when others brought up what they considered relevant variables. Hiccup reminded the group they could only use the five bodies sitting around the table, and that dampened the mood a bit. Jack recommended simply testing how many people it would take being near or very close to Isemaler to deaden Etuchaand's voice. After more debate on the merits of Jack's simplified version, they ultimately agreed he provided the only workable method.

Since the hour bordered on becoming late, Jack began to usher people out the door. It surprised him that even Valka seemed hesitant to depart. However, he remained adamant and began to physically guide Fishlegs and Groanhilde away from the table. Valka followed in their wake. She gave her son a kiss goodnight and a lengthy hug to Jack. When the three safely walked away from the porch onto the paths leading to their homes, he closed the door. Hiccup stood by dining table looking a bit uncomfortable.

"I… ah, didn't know if I needed to be here in order for Isemaler to make it into the house," Hiccup explained his presence.

"Interesting, and I have no idea," Jack admitted.

The two looked at one another.

"Stay," Jack quietly invited him. "Please."

"I don't want to make you feel awkward."

"Hiccup, what feels awkward is not having you in bed next to me like I have for the last ten years."

Hiccup shifted on his feet.

"Yes, we have a lot to talk about… years worth of issues probably, but… please, stay," the Guardian responded to the motions that betrayed the Viking's confusion. "I'm not pretending this current… crisis is going to fix whatever got broke between us, but… I really miss you. I sleep better when you're here."

"Who's asking me this: Jack the mortal or the Guardian?"

Jack stared at the man trying to read his face. He heard the undertones in the question. He wanted to get angry at first, but stemmed it. The question made perfect sense.

"Before I answer that," Jack replied in a neutral manner, "I want to tell you one thing first. You may not realize it, but Guardians get scared, too, and I mean really scared. Even though we learn to control it, it doesn't make it go away. Jack the mortal and Jack the Guardian get frightened in equal amounts… but for different reasons. Does that make sense?"

Hiccup nodded.

"The one who asked you to stay is the one who loves you, Hiccup Haddock… and does it really matter which one it is?"

"No, probably not," the Viking whispered.

"The one who asked you to stay is the one who's terrified he's going to die and never see you again… never get to say everything he wants to tell you," Jack said and his voice began to quaver. "It's the one who's afraid he'll have to listen to Aita and leave this beautiful world… these beautiful people… you. I live with that fear every day, Hiccup. Every day! Not the mortal, not the Guardian: just me… Jack."

"I live with that same fear," Hiccup croaked out the words as his throat tightened while he listened. "Once a month I sit and watch those shadowy remains of yours… and I worry because I don't know what would happen if you get killed on Earth. Do you die here, too? And I can't do anything about it. Every month I'm left powerless… to even help you while you're over there. I hate it… but I do it 'cause… 'cause it's you."

Jack stared in wide-eyed horror because he never thought about what Hiccup went through during the monthly transition to Earth. He heard and saw the visceral fear in the Viking. It hurt the Guardian to think he put another through that kind of pain on a regular basis. The knowledge added tremendous weight as to why Hiccup viewed the monthly departure as unfair, even if it only lasted one night. For the first time since he rose for the pond transformed into the elemental Jack Frost, he felt a mote of regret that life followed him to Halla.

A new, highly important question formed in Jack's mind, and he would demand an answer from the other Guardians and The Man in the Moon.

"I won't be transforming tonight," Jack weakly stated.

"I know, but I also know you will… and right now everything that scares me about you being a Guardian… there's no escaping it. That's what's killing me, Jack: we can never, ever escape it," Hiccup said. He walked away from the table toward the door while staring at the floor. "I love you so much… and it makes my fear so much worse."

Jack could not find the words to answer. Tears rolled down his cheeks. Hiccup looked at him, and tears rolled from his eyes as well. The Viking turned his head and continued walking to the door. Jack did not know what to say to make the man stop. Moreover, he questioned whether he could rightly do so. Hiccup reached the door, opened it, and stepped out. He closed it without making a sound. Anguish boiled in Jack in response. Many times he heard Hiccup use the word unfair, and at that moment he finally understood the totality of the meaning. It started ripping at something inside of him. Fury mixed with the sorrow. He stared down at his hands. They remained perfectly human.

Out on the path Hiccup walked and wept. He at last managed to clearly state what being in love with a Guardian did to him. For years he refused to acknowledge how much loathed the single night of the month when Jack got pulled back to his home world. The vivid memory of when he first contemplated what would happen if Jack died on Earth haunted him for over five years. He imagined the smokey, translucent form of the Earthling would just disappear. Hiccup knew he would left with no explanation except the fact Jack died. It would be as if the man never existed because he would leave no remains. Thus, one night a month Hiccup lived in a terrible dread he could not banish.

"It wasn't… really your fault… Isemaler," he choked out the words into the night. "You're just a reminder… of what he is… and now I've got… to worry about you."