LEGEND OF THE BIG FOUR: THE RETURN OF PITCH BLACK

CHAPTER 9: The Search Is On

August 1, 1296, 9:26 PM.

Gothel finally made it to Madame Mim's den.

It had taken her a long time, much longer than she had expected. She had undershot the distance to Scotland somewhat—she'd landed about a mile from shore—but she still would've gotten there the day before if it hadn't been for that unnatural snowstorm. She didn't suspect Jack Frost was involved; she just figured it was Mim's magic going a bit wonky.

She stood outside the entrance to the den and reviewed her plan. She had to be calm; she couldn't let her eagerness for ownership of the Resurrection Draught get in the way of her common sense. She had to be tactful.

She straightened up as best she could—her aching back bent her over more and more these days—and knocked on the door.

There was a creaking noise and the door opened. Gothel found herself staring at one big, sharp knife. A tiny old woman with a scratchy voice said, "Who are ye? An' wot do ye want?"

Gothel cleared her throat and replied respectfully, "I am a poor, lonely old woman, and I wish to speak with you, if you would kindly let me." Her voice flowed like oil over ice.

Mim narrowed her eyes. "Ye ain't a Scotsman, yore a Brit, an' Ah don't do talkin' with Brits!"

Gothel bowed her head. "As you wish. Although, the topic of which I wish to speak is quite…interesting, I think."

Mim sighed tiredly; it was obvious she didn't feel like arguing. "Oh, all right. Come in then."

Gothel was led to a small dinner table, where a tea set had been placed. Handing her one of the cups gruffly, Mim asked, "So ye've told me what ye are, but not who ye are. Ye'd best tell me afore mah patience runs oot. Ah've had trouble getting mah water tae boil lately, which means mah dinner's always late. Especially taenight. Ah hope ye didn't just come in here tae beg fer food…"

Gothel shook her head. "No, no. I come only to talk. Excuse me, but why are you having trouble getting your water to boil?"

Mim glanced quickly at the large cauldron over the twigs in the middle of the room. "Oh, um, well, see, it's hard tae rub two sticks taegether when yore hands are as brittle as mine, an' usin' mah other methods—well…" She chuckled. "Ah'm quite an old gel. Ah'm a bit rusty with mah other methods."

Gothel stood and wandered over to the shelves of potions. There were hundreds, maybe even thousands of them. She fingered some of the jars.

The other witch stood quickly. "Now ye watch yerself over there, those are mah po—er, preserves! Yes, mah fruit preserves, and if ye break 'em Ah'll have nothin' fer the winter!"

Gothel laughed mirthlessly. "Winter isn't for five more months. You would have plenty of time to make more. If these were fruit preserves. Which I know they aren't." She looked Mim straight in the eye. "Come now, Madame Mim, won't you tell a fellow witch about some of your potions?"

Mim looked totally shocked. Her eyes were as big as dinner plates and her mouth hung slightly open. She sat down, her hand at her heart. She didn't process the fact that Gothel had said fellow witch. "Ah'm been tryin' to hide mah identity since tha' redhead princess came in here lookin' tae change her fate." She looked up at Gothel. "Nobody's known who Ah am since then. How did ye find oot?"

Gothel laughed uproariously—or she would have if she'd had the lungs to do it. She settled for a low chuckle. "Please, Madame, every witch within a thousand miles knows of you. Probably more, in fact. You are the most powerful of us all," she answered, throwing in a little flattery. "Although, as you said, your methods are a little rusty."

Mim, having got over her shock, bristled at the veiled slur on her magical abilities. She stood. "Now, look here, witch, Ah don't know who ye are, but ye ain't gonnae come intae mah house an' insult me without sufferin' the consequences." She raised her hands, and about a hundred knives, much like the one Gothel had come face to face with, surrounded her. Mim glared. "Get oot o' here afore Ah stick ye with all o' these!"

To her surprise, Gothel only smiled. She raised her own hands as high as possible and turned all the knives to face Mim. Mim growled and rotated them back to Gothel. Gothel twisted them back to Mim. This went on for another minute until Gothel yawned and said lazily, "I can do this all day, Madame. That is, unless you want to hear what I have to say."

Mim flicked her wrist and the knives flew back to their spaces. "Oh, fine. Wot is it?"

Gothel sat back down at the table and gestured for Mim to do the same. The older witch frowned at Gothel's rudeness but complied.

"So, you change the fates of those who ask you, I am correct? That usually involves transforming someone into a bear?"

Mim nodded. "Yes. It's quite useful for shutting up bothersome people, and many times people like what I've done."

Gothel almost laughed aloud. "Do you really think so? Maybe they only say that so you won't be offended and they won't end up as frogs or some such punishment. Do you really believe that people like having themselves or family members turn into wild animals? Especially when you didn't tell them that would happen beforehand?" She sneered. "It seems to me that that is your only method of changing fates. It is quite effective, but entirely in the wrong way. If I were the one changing fates, I would give them a potion or the like—give them exactly what they want."

Mim scowled. "Are ye sayin' tha' ye could do mah job better'n Ah could?"

Gothel shrugged nonchalantly. "Perhaps."

Mim wasn't sure what Gothel was getting at, but she didn't like it. "Ye're treadin' in dangerous waters, Brit. Ah don't like yore tone or yore smooth talkin'. Ye're marchin' in here, sayin' ye can change fates better'n me an' that people will like 'em better too. Well, Ah disagree, but tha' ain't the point. The point is, ye're doin' me a rudeness, so Ah'm gonnae do ye one right back." She leaned forward. "Git out!"

Gothel held up her hands in surrender. "Madame, I did not mean to offend you—"

Mim crossed her arms. "Could've fooled me."

"—but I assure you, there is a way to determine who is better at this fate-changing business."

"An' tha' would be—?"

"A simple contest. We would take in two persons who want their fates changed. You would change the fate of one, and I the other. We ask the two to come back whenever they have the chance after the methods have been tried. Whichever person comes back happier; the witch who changed his fate wins."

"Wot's the catch?"

"Ah, the catch. Also quite simple. If you win, I will be your servant for one entire year. If I win, I gain the Resurrection Draught you have in your possession."

"Tha's all?"

"That is all."

"Ah don't believe yore a real witch. Ye could've been taught some magic as a human. Where's proof that yore a true witch?" Mim demanded suddenly.

Gothel rolled up her sleeve and showed Mim the marking on the inside of her elbow: It was the sign of Hecate, the Greek goddess of magic. It was burned on the skin of every witch and wizard on earth.

Mim finally believed her. She decided to join Gothel's contest. "Ye really are a witch. An' tha' contest sounds like a good idea. Might show ye a bit o' humility." She stuck out her hand. "It's a deal. No cheatin', now, right?"

Gothel smiled. "Of course not. From here on out there will be no cheating." She shook Mim's hand. If only the old woman knew that Gothel had already cheated.

††

Earlier that day. 4:54 PM.

All of Berk was on the lookout for the Chief's son.

Hiccup hadn't been wrong when he had thought his father wasn't the type to dote over his child if he ran away. At that very moment Stoick was imagining various ways to maim Hiccup when he found him. Not that he would ever do such a thing. He'd probably just tie him to a bench, lecture him, have him do some work around the island, maybe even not allow him to ride Toothless for a while. A couple of weeks, most likely. Either way, Hiccup wasn't going to go unpunished. He was almost a man and needed to be held accountable for his actions and take the consequences.

While he ruminated on how best to punish Hiccup, his friends—well, some of them—were focused on finding him. Astrid was very worried. Hiccup had left the night of July 28 and hadn't been seen since. Sometimes her boyfriend would go off to think, but usually he was only gone for a few hours, a full day at most. He had been gone almost four full days. This wasn't a normal Hiccup outing. Even though Astrid didn't know about the proposal, she knew something was very wrong.

Fishlegs was sure Hiccup was gone because of him. He was certain that Hiccup had gotten upset because he had blurted out his secret to the others, and that when Hiccup had run off to stop Snotlout, he had really gone to his house to pack stuff up to leave for a while because he was so embarrassed.

The twins were sure that Hiccup was fine; he always had a plan in case of trouble, didn't he? They kept on punching and hitting each other.

Snotlout was very secretly pleased that Hiccup had gone missing. It wasn't as though he really wanted his cousin to die, but if Hiccup did get himself killed, Snotlout thought, he would be next in line for Chief and Astrid, which was what he deserved, of course. He continued to watch the twins as Astrid and Fishlegs flew over Dragon Island, searching fervently for their friend.

They were so involved in their search that they didn't notice at first that Snotlout, Ruffnut, and Tuffnut hadn't joined them.

"Where do you think he could be? And why did he leave without telling everyone?" asked Astrid.

Fishlegs jumped nervously. He didn't want to lie, but he felt it was his duty to protect Hiccup's secret from Astrid at the very least. "Uhh, who knows why he left? This is Hiccup we're talking about. He's probably got some very good reasons for going out without telling us…"

"Not for this long, Fishlegs," Astrid contradicted grimly. "Never this long. He's either hurt, in trouble, or thinks he can't show his face for some odd reason."

Fishlegs gulped and blanched. Astrid noticed. "Fishlegs? Do you know something the rest of us don't?" she pried curiously.

Fishlegs grinned shiftily. "I always know something the rest of you don't. I'm just antsy because we're getting really far from land and Meatlug gets an upset stomach when she's too far from land. Say, you know there's some lone island out there? About four, maybe five days away on dragonback?" he chattered in order to change the subject. "It's called the Kingdom of Corona. It's about five or six days away from Scotland. I noticed on some maps that they say there's a stretch of lonely woods there—"

It was all Astrid needed to hear. "Why didn't you tell me before? Hiccup might have gone there to have some alone time, and it makes sense that he's been gone so long, if it's four days away, it would take eight days round-trip, wouldn't it!"

"Well, Astrid, maybe he didn't go there, I don't see why he would," Fishlegs tried to deter her. He was afraid that if Hiccup really were hiding there, he had just given away another secret.

Astrid was not to be distracted. "Where are the other guys? We need to go tell the Chief! He can take some ships out and sail there to ask if someone's seen him!"

Fishlegs sighed and let Astrid take the lead.

When Stoick was told of Corona, he looked thoughtful. He didn't say anything for a full five minutes. Suddenly he glanced at Fishlegs. "You are sure of this, Fishlegs?" he inquired. "You know for certain that this island exists?"

Fishlegs had no choice but to tell the truth; he couldn't lie to the Chief. "Yes, sir. I checked several maps drawn by different mapmakers, and the island was on all of them."

Stoick got up from his bench in the Great Hall where he was seated. "Well, then, we'll head straight for Corona and search. We'll take a minimum number of weapons so that the island won't think we're attacking. I know you said that it's four or five days on dragonback, but I would prefer you kids stay near the ships so no one gets lost, and if the dragons get tired, they can rest."

None of the five teenagers objected to this plan; at least they were actually going on the trip.

Stoick called the Hooligans to the village square. "We have a lead on where my son might have hidden himself! The Island of Corona is about eight days away by ship. We need as many able-bodied Vikings as possible to come on this mission. Who is with me?"

Gobber the Belch, Spitelout Jorgenson, and Astrid's father Brune the Burly were among the most eager for a sailing journey (it had been a while since the Vikings had been off the island).

It was settled. The Vikings were going to the island of Corona.

††

At the same time.

The Guardians were extremely worried.

They hadn't seen Jack since he had gone out to melt his summer snow on July 28. It was about four days later. Tooth was especially anxious since she had a small crush on Jack. What if some kind of monster got him? she constantly thought. Or something even worse?

North couldn't understand why Jack had seemingly left his duty and dropped off the face of the earth. He still had snow readings in parts of the ocean between Scotland and that tiny Sun Kingdom. North was sure that Jack had a very good reason for stopping in his work. If only he knew what that was…

Bunny had a very different opinion about Jack's disappearance. He was sure that Jack was sullen about having to clean up his mess and had just decided to go sulk in the middle of the job. Of course, he's a little old for pouting, but it would be something Jack would do, he thought.

As the Guardians talked about the matter in North's office, Bunny put forth his opinion. They began to argue.

"Jack wouldn't do any such thing!" Tooth cried indignantly. "He's 118 years old, not five!"

North also disagreed. "Jack isn't one to mope about having to clean up his own messes," he said. "Something big must have happened while he was out there, and he decided to investigate."

Sandy stood by Tooth and North.

Bunny was slightly abashed. "All right, so maybe I was wrong. Maybe I am just prejudiced against him because of that blizzard stunt he pulled on the Easter of 1068. But still, think about it. He's been away for four days. Does it really take four days to investigate something, even if it is big? Maybe I am wrong about Jack sulking somewhere, but it's possible he met with foul play."

Tooth looked thoughtful. "But what kind of foul play would he meet up with? Pitch Black is gone, and so are his nightmares."

North corrected, "Actually, Toothiana, I've heard rumors about rogue nightmares flitting about France and the like. It is possible Jack met some of them on his way to the ocean between Scotland and Corona. But you would think he would have been able to fight them off…"

Bunny hopped up excitedly. "If there were too many of them, he might not have been able to. But maybe I'm still wrong about that. He could have found someone who believes in him—"

Tooth interrupted. "And decided to hang around for a while!"

North agreed. "Like he often does with Jamie. But he could have found someone like that anywhere there's snow. Where could he be?"

"Probably in the areas where he made it snow recently," Tooth suggested. "And I bet Baby Tooth went with him; she's being missing for about the same length of time."

North considered Tooth's idea. Turning to one of the elves, he said, "Leno, tell me in which country the snow stopped most recently."

"The unexpected snow, sir?"

"Precisely."

Leno left and returned a few minutes later. "That would be Corona, sir."

"That's ironic. The Spirit of Winter stopping for a visit in the Sun Kingdom," Bunny laughed.

North stood up from behind his desk. "We go to Corona to bring him back. He has other Guardian duties to take care of; he can't push them aside for a single child."

Sandy, who hadn't been able to get a picture in, agreed. So did the other two.

The Guardians proceeded back to their homes to prepare for the journey.