Twilight was falling over the land, the few clouds in the distance fading from red and orange to grey. Every few feet small vents split the rocky ground, steam rising from the cracks and warming the frigid air. For a moment Spirit stood and closed his eyes, letting the heat wash over his shivering body. For some reason the snow had not touched this place. The ground was rocky, with several boulders lying about, but these were covered with moss, which sometimes forming strange symbols on the boulders. It was a little like Scotland, Spirit thought.
Spirit began walking again, but the pain was to so bad, tears nearly came to his eyes. He took a short gasping breath, then ground his teeth, trying to take small, limping steps. Not only did the cuts send him sharp, stinging reminders, the muscles were beginning to ache.
"Hang in there, boy," Hiccup said softly, stepping beside Spirit and rubbing his hand in small circles on the stallion's shoulder. "We're almost there. Hey, why don't you talk to me? Maybe that'll get your mind off of it. What have you been up to since you left?"
Without even thinking, Spirit pinned his ears and snapped his tail harshly. Don't think about her. Ignore the pain, he thought. Push it away. You will not break down, not now.
I... he could not think of anything to say. Nothing really interesting, I guess. I... I suppose we should ask Anna and Kristoff more about what they're planning to do, find out more about Elsa, y'know.
"Uh... well," Hiccup started to protest. Spirit rolled his eyes and gave the boy a shove with his nose. Just like Esparanza had used to do him when... Spirit clamped down on the thought, refusing to finish it. I will not let my grief consume me.
Hiccup hesitantly fell into step beside Kristoff and Anna, who were talking together quietly. He cleared his throat quietly, then spoke up.
"Uh, um, how long until we get there?" he asked Kristoff.
"Not too far," Kristoff replied, glancing back at Spirit, and Sven, the reindeer almost prancing beside the stallion, who rolled his eyes.
"Well, thanks a lot for taking us to your friends," Hiccup said, than glanced at Anna, "and for the carrots."
Anna laughed. "No problem."
Hiccup heard a whinny behind him and saw Spirit jerk his head to the side, as if to say, Well, go on, ask her about Elsa!
"So, your sister, Elsa, er, Queen Elsa, she has snow powers?"
"Yeah. I can't believe I didn't know about this until yesterday," Anna sighed. "I never knew why she shut me out for all those years... I guess it was becuase she was so scared."
"How... did you find out?" Hiccup asked, suddenly remembering his dream.
Kristoff snorted and hunched over, quickening his pace a touch, and Anna glared at him. "He's a nice guy, okay?" she huffed indignantly.
"Sorry, what?"
Anna took a deep breath. "Okay, last night it was Elsa's corination, y'know? So, I met this really nice guy, Hans, and we got engaged. And then Elsa freaked out becuase, well, I just met him that day and-"
"Wait a second," Hiccup interrupted, holding up a hand.
Putting her hand on her hips, Anna spun around to look shoot him a glare that made him shrink back slightly. "Not you too!" she groaned.
"I-I just wanted to ask: what does Hans look like?"
Anna shrugged, and began walking again. "Auburn hair, great sideburns," she gave a romantic sigh, "dreamy green eyes..."
The same person. The same person had tired to kill him. Hiccup felt a stone drop into his stomach, his heart rate increasing. Anna didn't seemed to notice and continued her story.
"And then I got mad and took her glove; I mean, she's always wearing these gloves, and I thought she had this thing about dirt, or something, and then she just..." Anna trailed off for a second. "It was like she just... exploded."
Hiccup rubbed his forehead with his hand. "This is going to sound kind of stupid, but can you remember the words you said?"
"I... said something about always shutting everything out. I asked what she was so afraid of," Anna told him quietly.
Hiccup stared. This is so weird, he thought. That's what she said in my dream. It actually happened. Then his heart skipped a beat. Then... who was the one talking about the fear?
These are the so-called great healers? They look like bunch of rocks.
Rain stepped up to one of the stones and tapped it with her foot, staring at it quizzically. I don't understand...
Just then, the rocks all began rolling towards them. Spirit scrambled backwards, nearly falling down.
Ack! What's going on!?
One of the rocks uncurled, jumping up and beaming at them. It looked a little like a human, but much smaller and rounder. It's hair was composed of a few thick blades of grass, and it wore clothes made of moss.
"Kristoff, honey!" the rock-person cried, her face lighting up in a smile. "You're back!"
"Hello again, Bulda." Kristoff gave a small smirk at the others, and I-told-you-so expression. "Anna, Hiccup, Spirit, Rain... meet my family."
Hiccup's jaw dropped. "Trolls..." he muttered weakly. "So... they do... exist."
Kristoff's face grew sober again. "Bulda, I came here because-"
"You're getting married!" Bulda exclaimed. "Oh goodness, my little Kristoff has finally got himself a girl!"
At this, the remainder of the rocks uncurled into trolls, all exclaiming excitedly amongst themselves.
"Wait, what?!" Anna squeaked, while Kristoff turned red, raising his hands and almost shouting in protest.
Spirit allowed himself a quiet snicker. Rain heard him and smirked. Hiccup still looked a bit star-struck.
"No, no, no!" Kristoff exclaimed spreading his hands. "It's the horse-"
"Kristoff, dear, you can't get married to a horse," Bulda told him gently.
Spirit's eyes shot wide open, and he momentarily forgot his throbbing knees.
This time it was Rain's turn to snort with laughter. Oh yes, these trolls seem like quite the experts in love.
"What?! No. No one said anything about getting married!" Kristoff let out a long breath, dragging his fingers through his hair and making it stick up at odd angles. "He's injured. Where's Grand Pabbie?"
"Right here, my boy."
The crowd parted to let an elderly troll through. Bits of grass hanging from his chin formed a straggly beard and a cape of moss was fastened around his shoulders.
Grand Pabbie beckoned to Spirit. "Come here, my son," he said gently.
Spirit did as he was told. The other trolls fell back a pace, and Spirit shivered slightly as Pabbie touched his leg, drawing out the heat and the cold and the pain. He did this with the other leg, and Spirit nickered with relief. Thank you. He gave a half-rear, shaking his mane and snorting.
Grand Pabbie smiled at him. "You are welcome." He lowered his voice. "But I sense you have another wound; one that is not of the flesh, but of the heart."
Spirit lowered his eyes, and swallowed hard.
It was Anna who broke the silence. "Kristoff said you might be able to give me some advice on my sister, Elsa? She's the one who kinda, um, let loose a giant snowstorm on Arendelle."
Pabbie let out a sigh. "Your sister harbors a great power within her, and, as you have seen, that power carries with it great danger. When you find the Queen Elsa, tell her that love is her greatest hope for controlling this power. But be careful."
Anna nodded shortly. "I will. And thank you. C'mon, Kristoff, let's go."
Kristoff grumbled quietly to himself about something, but reluctantly followed the princess out of the valley, Sven prancing behind. The trolls waved and shouted their goodbye's before slowly dispersing.
"What a lovely couple," Bulda said, beaming, and Spirit rolled his eyes.
As the two humans and the reindeer disappeared around the bend, Hiccup stepped forward, gulping. "I, ah, was wondering, Grand Pabbie, sir, if you can tell me anything about this... black sand?" He knelt down to scoop some of the sand that had come out of Spirit's cut, but was stopped by a touch on his arm.
"That, my son, is the result of dark magic," the old troll told him. "It would be wise not to touch it."
Hiccup snatched his hand back. "Oh, yeah, of course," he stammered.
"Well, you wish to know of the nightmare sand? They certainly live up their name. The sand horses, nightmares, were shaped for the sole purpose of causing fear." Pabbie swept his hand across the sky and an image of the sand horses appeared, shaped from the Northern Lights.
Rain shifted uneasily beside Hiccup and he stroked her mane, trying to calm his own churning stomach.
"W-who created them?"
"They call him the Nightmare King. His name is Pitch Black."
Spirit snorted softly and turned away for a second. Pitch... Black? the stallion said, seemingly half to himself. What kind of name is that? Pitch black... He suddenly trailed off, the slight grin dropping. Pitch black. Like inside the portal.
Hiccup chewed his lip. Is he responsible for the disappearances? If he's the one who controls the nightmares, the one who created them... who else could it be? But why?
"He must be the one," Hiccup muttered to himself.
"What do you mean, my son?" Grand Pabbie inquired.
Hiccup started a little. "Oh, sorry. You see, people have been disappearing," he started, and proceeded to tell the troll of the strange things that had been happening.
Grand Pabbie furrowrd his brow and stroked his chin thoughtfully. "This is most troubling," he said quietly. "Though I suspect there may be more at work than just Pitch Black here."
"Speaking of Pitch: so, do you know much about him? What does he do? What does he want?"
The troll simply shook his head. "I do not know much of Pitch. What little information I do have is simply rumors brought to me on the wind. I do know that he was raised in a town called Bjørvig, located due north from here. Perhaps the people there could help you."
Hiccup nodded, struggling to stifle a yawn. He could feel his eyelids dragging down, the world blurring before him.
"You seem tired," he heard Grand Pabbie say, a hint of amusement in the old troll's voice. "Stay here for the night. Rest. It is safe here."
"Thank you... for everything," Hiccup said, sinking to his knees, and leaning against a boulder. "Thanks."
Spirit knelt down beside Hiccup, Rain standing close by. It's been a long day, he sighed.
"The longest," Hiccup agreed. "It's so hard to believe only three days ago I was in Berk with Ruff and Fishlegs, Astrid, Tuff, Snotlout... Toothless." He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck.
Spirit nudged him, a teasing glimmer in his eye that Hiccup hadn't seen in over a year. Hey. We'll find that guy, that 'Pitch Black' and we will make him pay.
Hiccup didn't respond. I couldn't even save Toothless, he thought. How am I supposed to save dozens of people and defeat the King of Nightmares himself?
As the slice of moon began to set in the deep blue sky, Elsa paced back and forth, her heels clicking against the ice floor. She twister her fingers together, whispering over and over, "Conceal, don't feel, conceal, don't feel."
It was what her parents said to her those many years ago, that fateful day. She had been eight at the time. Winter. Playing with Anna ouside in the snow when-
Elsa refused to finish the thought, not wanting to stir up the old memory and all the emotions that swirled around it.
It was perhaps because Anna had no memory of that day that she had come back. And Elsa had done the thing she had sworn she would never do again. She hurt her sister.
Anna told her what happened to Arendelle, and Elsa let her emotions get the best of her. She had opened her eyes to see Anna on the floor, knocked over by the wind she had created. Elsa knew she could not be around Anna for another moment, she was just too much a danger.
So she threw Anna out.
Now she was alone, completely alone but for the accusing voices that shouted in her head.
Suddenly she heard shouting. Elsa clattered down the stairs to the main balcony, and looked out the clear ice doors of the castle. What she saw took her breath away.
They were coming for her. Her guards, the men who had sworn to protect her, were coming for her.
A shock of cold swept through her, and without thinking, she turned and ran. As she ran, stumbing back up the steps, nearly tripping over her dress, small cracks began to appear in the walls. Her body began to tremble, wisps of snow curling around her body.
Elsa flung open the doors to the balcony, but had to bite back as scream as she realized she was trapped. She turned and saw two of the Duke's men, both carrying crossbows, barge into the room. Elsa stumbled backwards a few steps, raising her hands.
"Please... please!" she begged, her breath sobbing in her throat.
The cracks around her widened, black sand spilling out of the larger ones. The beams began to split, the floor cracking beneath their feet. For a moment Elsa stared, not able to move, barely able to think. Then came the scream of a horse.
Elsa glanced at the two men. Their faces were drawn and tense as they glanced at the castle collapsing around them. One looked at Elsa, his eyes wide. "What are you doing?" he shouted at her.
"I don't know!" Elsa screamed back at him. "Just run! Run!"
Elsa turned and bolted back onto the balcony. She took a shuddering breath, then let the ice shoot from her palms, creating a second bridge from her castle to the mountainside. She didn't dare look behind her but half ran, half slid down the makeshift bridge back onto solid ground.
And even then she did not look back. She did not speak, she only ran down the mountain. She was barely aware of where she was going, the world seemed to have gone silent. At last her legs cpuld carry her no longer, and she tumbled down into the snow.
Please, she prayed silently as the world faded beneath her fingertips, please let them have gotten out in time.
A/N: Sorry for the loooooong wait. :(
I literally had nothing to do today (stuck home alone all day), so I sat down and finished the chapter! I also worked on my outline and discovered the "mirror moment", literally the most important moment of the book. I have a clearer idea of what's happening in stage 2, but there are some kinks that still need to be worked out.
A few hints got dropped in this chapter, including a SUPER IMPORTANT one, and a subtle refrence to ROTG. Do you see them?