Rapunzel
I take Merida's hand and pull her outside. "We heard a big ruckus outside after Hiccup went to check on Toothless, and then we saw this." She steps aside, and I see the smoking bushes and burning trees. I can't be sure who did this, but it doesn't look good, especially when we don't know where Hiccup is.
Jack floats over to the smoldering tree closest to us. He grips his hands at his sides. "I swear, if he bailed on us, I'll freeze something vital."
"We should use the spell to find him. He might've been attacked." One of my hands grip my pan, the other twiddles with my hair, a nervous habit that I've never been able to shake.
Jack merely shakes his head. "No way. I'm not wasting this on Hiccup. We have to find Pitch."
I point my frying pan in the direction of the smoking foliage. "If he flew out on us, why would he try to burn down the forest? Something must've attacked him. We need to find him!"
The knuckles of Jack's hand turn white, or whiter, on his staff. I expect it to snap in two, but just before it does, Jack sighs and flops onto a nearby stump. "Your vote, Merida. What are we going to do?"
Merida has been fixated on a faraway thought. She doesn't react immediately, and as we wait, the tension in the air grows insanely thick. I can feel it pressing in around us as time drags on. Merida uncaps the top of the bottle and closes her eyes. I scan the sky; the sun is retreating from view fast. I'm about to wonder whose name she'll say when suddenly her lips are moving, and the name grazes across the mouth of the bottle, and a luminous vapor rises and streaks out into the woods as it steadily grows darker. Merida shoulders her quivers and marches on, swinging her arms at her sides and following the glowing trail. "Let's go find Hiccup then."
Hiccup
"Come on, bud, higher!" Toothless climbs into the sky, shooting like an arrow through the clouds. Those black demons continue to chase us. Of course they can fly. Because it just wouldn't be nearly as interesting if they couldn't. "Alright, Toothless. Time to fight back." I lean into a sharp, left turn. As soon as the beasts come into view, Toothless starts to fire. Most of the horses explode and spit black sand all over me. "Oh, gross!"
But there are too many of the flying horses to fire at, and we're out of time. The mares surround us and seem to pop up out of nowhere as my fear grows to new heights. Suddenly, Toothless dives and leaves my stomach in the air, but it throws off the mares long enough to give us some elbow room. Green grass and rocks race toward us, closer and closer and closer, but I don't pull up until the very last second. After we veer away from sudden death, I chance a look behind us. "Yes!" The horses face plant and rapidly turn into a pile of black sand.
Toothless lands as agile as a cat on the ground. I slump forward in the saddle, letting the adrenaline in my blood cool down. "I must say, that was rather impressive. You show a lot of potential."
A jolt runs up my spine and forces me to a sitting position. "Who's there?" Toothless's hind quarters swing around, and he backs away from the unseen threat. "Who are you?"
A dark figure slides out of the woods, comes towards us, and gestures to the pile of sand behind us. "I see you handled my nightmares with great skill, but why are you here, Hiccup? Why do you care about the Guardians? It's not as if the Man in the Moon chose you for any special reason."
I grip the saddle and try not to panic. "Something attacked my village. The Guardians seem to think you were involved, Pitch." This guy has "creepy" written all over him. No wonder the Guardians don't want him walking around.
Pitch grins, and I gulp when I see that his teeth are pointed like a dragon's. "A good friend of yours wanted to pay you a visit, Hiccup. It would be rude of you to send him off without a proper greeting."
"A 'friend'? What are you talking about?"
Something or someone emerges from the woods behind Pitch. "Don't you recognize him, Hiccup?"
Blood pounds in my ears, and my heart tries to beat its way out of my ribcage. I thought that thing was only a bad dream. How could it be here? How could it be real? "Come on, Toothless!" The dragon takes off quick as lightning, as fast as the beat of my heart.
Pitch just laughs. "Get me that dragon." The thing next to Pitch takes off into the sky, leaving a trail of black sand.
Jack
My nerves are on fire, and every twig that snaps underneath my feet force my heart into my throat. All the birds become nightmares, and every dead tree looks like Pitch. By the time I've frozen eight squirrels and a bush or two, Rapunzel places a hand on my shoulder. "Jack? Maybe I could carry your staff? Just for now?" She reaches for it, but I snatch it away. I remember what happened the last time someone took my staff from me. "Please, you're so high-strung. You're going to hurt somebody."
She stares at me. Those eyes! I squeeze mine shut and try to forget how open she looks, how kind and good, how easily breakable. "I'm fine, Blondie."
She visibly flinches. "Please don't call me that." Her feet stumble on an exposed root, but I grab her before she falls. "Only one person has ever called me that," she brushes my hand from her shoulder, "and that person is gone now. You may call me Rapunzel."
I laugh and roll my eyes. "Alright, alright." My staff spins and flips in my hands as I am all of a sudden able to carry it a bit more loosely. "You're cute, Punzie. Hey, Mer! Any signs of the dwarf and his gecko?"
"None, but the trail keeps going that way. I know these woods, and there can only be one thing in that direction." She groans and throws her head back. "I know where we're going, in other words."
"Where?" Rapunzel keeps weaving her hair into elaborate braids, but her hands have started to shake.
"The ruins of an old kingdom."Merida draws an arrow and nods her head up the path. "Yah can already see the tops of what buildings are left. Mor'du used to live here. Yah were right, Punzie. Hiccup must've been attacked." She snorts. "No other reason anyone would want to go there."
I shake my head and take off into the sky. "Sun's almost up. If we don't find Hiccup soon, it'll be too late. Stay here, and I'll follow the trail."
An arrow whizzes past my head, and I yelp. "Are you crazy?" But I turn and see an onslaught of nightmares heading in my direction. A sly smiles spreads across my lips. "Finally, let's have some fun!"
And now things start to get really interesting... Review please and thank you!
