Everybody has a past, from persons to dragons. And sometimes, it can come to haunt you. And when it does, you're gonna need someone to trust, someone that will be there for you no matter what.
At night I couldn't sleep. I just had a nightmare, again. It hadn't happened to me since the last time I was here, until today. In the dream, there was a man I couldn't identify, but I would never forget his golden yellow eyes and his wicked grin. For some reason I was running away, but anywhere I went, he was there. And suddenly, I wasn't the only one running away, it was my sister, my brother, my mother and a man I recognized as my father. The five of us were running away.
Something was following us, and we couldn't escape from it. All of us embraced ourselves in a hug, and the last thing I heard were screams as a black fog surrounded us before I woke up screaming myself. I was sweating, and I was crying too. It didn't felt like a dream, it was more like... As strange as it sounded, it seemed like a memory.
Thora came running to my room and the moment I saw her I felt a great relief. She stayed with me the rest of the night in case I had another nightmare, as I held the white fluffy bunny close to my chest. Fortunately I managed to get some sleep.
The next morning I felt drowsy. I rubbed my eyes trying to stay awake and gave a yawn. While I was going to the Hall to get something to eat, I found the teens and their dragons, Stoick, Gobber and Mulch gathered around, inspecting... A hole in the floor. But there was something unusual on it, the hole was the size of a house! Toothless sniffed the ground curiously, and then started to growl dangerously at it. He sniffed it again, and he roared, standing in two legs.
"It's him! He's back!" He roared.
"Whoa, hey!" Hiccup raised his hands and Toothless stood in his fours again. "Come on bud, it's just a hole."
"It's more than that! It's like an underground village!" Another voice said from the hole. We looked over it and found Bucket standing at the bottom of it.
"Bucket! There you are." Mulch said rolling his eyes. "I've been looking for you all night!"
"Sorry, Mulch. But I think I finally found it: My happy place!"
Just as he said that the ground started to shake. Bucket barely turned around when a cloud of dust covered him and the next thing we saw, he was thrown out of the hole and he had landed on his butt on the ground, as he held his bucket in pain.
"Are you alright, Bucket?" Stoick ran over him and knelt besides him.
"Not so happy anymore."
"What happened?"
"Something pushed me out! Something's down there. Something big!"
I walked lazily to them. Ahti frowned to himself and looked at the ground, scratching the back of his head. Toothless growled at the hole before he jumped right into it, disappearing from view. I was about to ask where he'd go, when Ahti slowly looked back up, eyes wide in realization. "Oh no..."
The ground started to shake again, and I spread my arms apart to stay balanced. Strange sounds came from the ground, as if voices of people whispering.
"What is that sound?" Astrid wondered.
"Eh, whatever it is, it's giving me the willies." Gobber said backing away.
"Everyone, take cover!" Ahti yelled.
Out of the blue, something came out from the ground, sending rocks flying around. I looked up with great effort and found a snake-like creature completely covered in spikes with a big head, small wings, and mouth full of razor sharp teeth looking at... Looking? It's eyeballs where completely white. Was this a blind type of dragon?
Seconds later, all riders ran to our dragons but it took me more time than usual. Being up most of the night didn't make any good.
"Nobody move!" Ahti warned.
"No much of a problem here." I replied, my eyelids closing by themselves.
The dragon turned it's head towards each of us, narrowing it's eyes as if looking for something. And then, I heard a voice.
"Where are you...? Where are you...?"
Suddenly I was wide awake, and I bit my tongue to stiffen a scream. It was the dragon's voice. It had been a while since I heard another voice besides the dragons from the village, hearing this one was kind of unexpected. The way it talked was strange, it snarled and growled most of the time, and it could be barely heard.
"I don't like the way it's eyeballing me." Snotlout said.
"Uh, don't worry, it's not just you..." Fishlegs replied nervously.
Snotlout rolled his eyes. "Thanks, big relief!"
"ARGH!" The dragon roared before diving back into the ground, leaving an awful silence with his departure.
"What. Was. That?" Astrid asked slowly, still recovering from what happened.
"Whatever it was, I want one!" Tuffnut said.
"If I had to take a guess," Fishlegs started, "I'd say that was a—"
"Whispering Death." Ahti finished up for him and Fishlegs looked at him in surprise.
I leaned against my dragon and tried to close my eyes for a moment, but Thora made me the favor to jump up and down to keep me awake. It worked in a way, but I almost fell from my saddle and the stuffed bunny almost fell off its place. Since I got it, I had been carrying it on the bag of my saddle and sleeping with it every night.
"Wow, great name. Much better than Zippleback." Tuffnut continued, bringing me back to reality.
"How did you know it was a Whispering Death? You haven't read the Book of Dragons."
Oak flew to the center, just in front of the hole where the Whispering Death went and Ahti looked at us.
"It doesn't matter. What it matters is what he's here for. He's looking for Toothless."
Hiccup gave a step to the front and raised an eyebrow. "Why would the Whispering Death be looking for Toothless?"
"Because they have a history. I don't know what happened between them, but the Whispering Death came all this way to take revenge on him. We have to—"
He was interrupted when a noise was heard, but it was so weird I blinked the sleepiness off in a matter of seconds. I recognized it almost instantly, it was a neigh. There was a note of silence, before we heard it again, much closer this time.
"Did you hear that?" Hiccup asked.
"Loud and clear." I nodded. "I know just one animal in the whole world that knows how to neigh, but this is just out of place."
"Considering you and me are here," Ahti shrugged, "everything's possible."
The ground shook for the third time this morning, and the same new dragon burst from the floor creating a new hole. He roared and I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck standing up.
"Intruders! Get out of my tunnels!"
Gobber didn't need to know to speak Dragonese to know the dragon was angry. Angry? How about, furious? "Why don' yeh do that thin' where ya touch its nose n'feed it grass?" He looked at his old apprentice.
"Uh, Fishlegs, what do we know about the Whispering Death?" Hiccup asked.
"Boulder Class; Razor sharp teeth, incredibly strong, hunts from underground." Fishlegs recited like a poem.
"Now I really want one!" Tuffnut yelled excited.
"So, how do we deal with this thing?" Snotlout required a little too loud for my liking. Well, you could tell now he was scared, but at this point who in here wasn't?
On the sky appeared Stoick in the back of Thornado, his Thunderdrum. Thornado roared at the Whispering Death powerfully enough to send it flying away, but the intruder wasn't affected at all. In fact, it got even angrier. We covered Stoick from the back and as the dragons circled each other, Toothless emerged from the hole and roared at us.
"Stand back all of you!" He ordered.
Our dragons did as told and Toothless roared back at the Whispering Death. The latter recognized the Night Fury and spiked up, alarming all of us.
"Toothless!" Hiccup shouted.
It lunged for Toothless, who managed to dodge to the side with a barrel roll before tacking the Whispering Death. It flew away, as Toothless fired three plasma blasts at it but missed. He tried to fly, but due to his tail he wasn't able to, something everyone noticed including the dragon.
"Toothless can't fly without me! He's a sitting duck!"
Thornado landed and the chief walked to the blacksmith. "Gobber, man the catapults, and when that thing is clear of Toothless, Fire!"
"Dad, wait!" Hiccup pleaded as he ran towards his dragon. However, as he tried to mount on the saddle, Toothless shoved him to the side. Hiccup was taken aback at this. "What? Toothless, wha-what's wrong?"
Said dragon ran after the Whispering Death, but when he heard the voice of his rider he stopped and turned to him. "Stay away!" He roared, before he ran away.
"What was that all about?" Astrid asked as Hiccup stood up.
"I have no idea." He shook his head. Ahti ran towards both of them.
"Toothless won't let anyone get in this, especially you Hiccup. It's his fight." Ahti explained. "He doesn't want you to get hurt in the process."
"But I could help. Toothless won't get very far if he can't fly, and he can't if I'm not with him." Hiccup protested.
The fight continued. Before anyone could react, the Whispering Death used his tail as a whip and shot spines towards Toothless, one managed to dig itself into his back leg making Toothless roar in pain.
"Gobber!" Stoick and Ahti shouted in unison.
Gobber pulled the lever from the catapult and a boulder was launched at the Whispering Death. It bounced off, and the dragon shrieked before going back underground and it disappeared.
Hiccup ran towards his dragon and noticed the spine on the leg. "Oh no, you're hurt."
Toothless turned to Hiccup and softened when he saw it was only his dear rider. Hiccup pulled the spine out, and in that moment Toothless ran away.
"Toothless, wait!" Hiccup yelled, but it was too late.
"Where's he going?" Astrid asked.
Snotlout smirked. "Probably running away to lick his wounds." He laughed. Half of the riders glared at him.
"It's not funny!" Hiccup snapped. "He could've been killed. He can't fly, remember?"
"And whose fault is that?" Snotlout shot back. I gasped.
Smack!
"Ow!" He turned to me rubbing the back of his head. "What did you do that for?!"
"For being a total prat." I snapped.
"Um, does anyone want to talk about what in the name of Thor just happened?" Fishlegs interfered.
"Uh, dragon fight? Just another day on Berk." Tuffnut said.
"Not any dragon fight," Ahti continued. "It was a fight to the death. And this isn't over yet, until one of them turns out victorious, this will continue. It could last days."
"But Toothless turns out victorious at the end, right?" Hiccup asked.
To our surprise, Ahti nodded. But then he added, "However, we've got to be careful. Now that Anna and I are here things could turn upside-down. They have been changing plenty of times already and we're just going through the first season."
We nodded, and then Fishlegs raised his hand.
"What do you mean by 'going through the first season'?"
All the riders turned towards us with a raised eyebrow. Hiccup, Ahti and I shared eye-widen looks. "Dear Odin..." Ahti muttered.
At night...
It took us one complete hour to explain the riders what did we meant. They have done thousands of questions and bombarded us with every little thing they didn't get. But after that, we all returned to our homes.
When night came, Hiccup applied to Toothless' injure some sort of antidote Gothi gave him. He was doing calm, soft and slow circular movements as he applied the medicine. Toothless on the other hand was super jumpy, he growled at every little sound heard in the house. Ahti and I were making some company, Ahti was leaning against the doorframe and I was sat on the edge of the bed.
"I-I really wish you could just tell me what was going on out there today." Hiccup said. Then his eyebrows rose in realization. "Anna, can you–"
"I'm on it, I'm on it." I said as I rubbed my eyes. Now that night had fallen I was falling asleep way faster. I felt as if my eyelids weigh 100 pounds. I stood up and yawned, before I stroked Toothless on the neck. He growled at me but eased up when he noticed it was just me. "Hey, Tooth."
"Tooth?" He tilted his head.
"It's a nickname." I explained with a smile. "What happened out there? What was all that between you and the Whispering Death?"
He looked away. "It's nothing. Just someone from my past."
I deadpanned. "Well, yeah, we know that. But, what happened between you two? Why is it looking to fight you?"
He growled again. We turned to see Stoick walking upstairs and Hiccup calmed his dragon down.
"How's our wounded warrior?" Stoick asked.
"He's still a little on edge." Hiccup answered, looking with concern at Toothless.
"Don't worry, Toothless. I think we showed that dragon a thing or two about uninvited guests on Berk." He patted Toothless on the snot. "I don't think he'll be coming back any time soon. At least I hope not." He said lastly, as he walked away.
"Yeah, me too. Okay that should do it, bud. You just need to take it easy."
"I'm going to bed now." Toothless warmed up his stone bed and lay down. I huffed.
"What did he say?"
"Nothing that we don't know. He doesn't wanna talk about it. Whatever happened is something very personal, that I understand."
Ahti placed a hand on Hiccup's shoulder. "Don't worry, buddy. We just have to be there for Toothless and everything's gonna be fine." He assured.
Hiccup turned around to face him and gave him a hug. It took both Ahti and I off guard such gesture, but Ahti gave back the hug. What was more stunning was that it wasn't that sort of hugs nowadays between men, when they give two slaps on the back and all good. It was one of those meaning, comforting hugs we all need every once in a while.
They broke the hug and Hiccup thanked the both of us, and we started to leave. But then Hiccup stopped Ahti. I didn't stop anyway, I walked downstairs and just paused for a moment to hear Hiccup saying something. "You know, I remember you once told me you were my fan. What was this movie thing, again?"
"You seriously want to talk about it?" Ahti asked between surprised and exited.
"Sure."
I smiled to myself and I returned home.
"Aaaahhh!" I screamed, throwing the blanket off. I was panting.
"Anna! Are you okay?" A feminin voice asked.
"Thora, i-it was so ho-horrible. He was t-there ag-gain." I sobbed, as a cold shiver ran through my body. She nuzzled me gently and I threw my arms around her neck.
"It was just a dream. Do not fear, I will be here always."
"C-could you... Could you sleep with m-me?" I whispered.
She jumped on the bed and embraced me with her body. Feeling her warm scales against my bare arms made me fall back asleep almost instantly. I snuggled against her and she placed a wing over me as if it was a blanket. I sighed as I held my bunny near my heart and closed my eyes.
In the morning...
At the arena, I could barely keep track of the conversation with the gang. The nightmare was five times worse than last time, and that was saying something. I had woken up three times in a row last night, and I got so scared I had to sleep with a candle on.
For a reason, I felt something was watching me in the night, but every time I looked around there was nothing. It was like a shadow, I knew it was there but I couldn't do anything about it, and it scared me.
"You okay there, Ann?" Ahti asked me.
I blinked and until then I realized my eyes were cloudy. I cleaned them with the back of my hand and looked at him.
"Yes, yes. Everything's great... Any clue on how do we find Toothless?"
"He must be looking for the Whispering Death." Hiccup reasoned. "We find it, we find Toothless."
"What do we do if we find the Whispering Death first?" Fishlegs asked.
"We train him."
"You know he's got 'death' in his name, right?" Tuffnut asked Hiccup as the latter walked to the gronkle guy. But then, Ahti spoked up.
"Actually, Tuff has a point. This is one of the few dragons that can't be trained. Believe me, the further we stay away from it the better."
"If Ahti is able to say something like that, that means it's a serious thing." I said. "Maybe we should think this twice before doing anything."
"Fishlegs, is there anything about a weakness?" Hiccup asked as Fishlegs flipped through the pages of the Book of Dragons.
"Actually, no. It says right here: 'no known weaknesses'."
"The Book's wrong." Ahti said and we turned to him. "It does have a weakness. The sunlight. It's an underground dragon, it barely has contact with the sunlight. That's why it's eyeballs are all white, because it's practically blind."
"Okay, great, can we go now please? We don't know how much time we have." Hiccup urged as he mounted Thora. I mounted too and we flew off.
Half an hour later, as we tracked Toothless, Hiccup spotted something else on the ground.
"There, down below." He pointed with his index finger and we all noticed the ground was full of holes. More precisely, Whispering Death holes. We landed and Hiccup practically flew over, cupping his hands around his mouth, calling Toothless.
"How do we even know the Whispering Death made these holes?" Snotlout asked. I facepalmed.
"So you think it might be the other 2,500 pound, rock eating Dragon we're following?" Astrid said sarcastically, smirking.
Snotlout considered for a moment. "I know what you're— Don't try to confuse me!"
We started looking around and suddenly, Hiccup found a fang. "He must've lost a tooth."
"Is it sharp? If it is I want it! I like sharp!" Tuff exclaimed.
"Yeah, sharp is good!" Ruff continued.
"Think about this: hundreds of those spinning together, ripping through dirt and tree roots. Discarding rock like it's not even there!" Fishlegs said.
"There is something in the ground!" Stormfly shrieked.
"It's like a giant worm!" Barf continued.
"I can feel it coming!" Hookfang growled.
"Uh... Guys? The dragons are having a bad feeling about this..." I said.
Hiccup placed a finger on his lips. "Stop! Listen..."
"Listen for what?!" Tuff yelled.
"I don't hear anything. What are we listening– Mmm mm!" Ruffnut and her brother stared at Ahti, who had placed his hands over their mouths to shut them up.
We stayed quiet, activating each of our senses, all six of them. Yes, six. The five senses and the sixth, the one that tells you when something is wrong. After a few moments, we gave up.
"It should be here." Ahti said frowning, already removed his hands from the twins' mouths. "Of all the episodes, this is one of the very few I remember all too well. Something's off."
Everyone stood in silence again, hoping to hear any sound at all. I looked up at the sky, and I gasped. "What's up there? In the clouds! Look!" I pointed upwards.
Everyone looked up, and we noticed a group of black figures that contrasted with the grey sky like black spots on a Dalmatian's white skin.
"What is that?" Astrid asked.
The figures flew closer, and I could swear I saw them coming towars us. But that was too much. Unless it was a pack of angry Whispering Deaths, it was very weird. Little by little, the figures became animals. They had four paws, they were tall, they had a mane, a snot, and yellow eyes... Wait a minute, yellow eyes? Why did that sound familiar?
"What dragon in the name of Thor is that?" Snotlout asked.
"Those are no dragons. Those are horses!" Ahti said. "But horses don't fly!"
This must be a dream...
I looked at the floor, and I saw my shadow become bigger until it had the form of a man, and it suddenly turned to me. The same wicked grin from my dreams formed in its face, and when I heard the horses neigh, every puzzle piece was set in place.
Or a nightmare...
~Woman! It doesn't matter what it is! You gotta RUN!~
I snapped out of it and I ran to my dragon. I didn't wait for anyone to say anything and I didn't even questioned what was happening, I just gave a soft kick at Thora's side and we took off. All I knew was that I had to get away as fast as possible from that place.
We went to the opposite side from those things —because I refused to call them by what they actually were— and we passed them. But then, they changed direction and started following us! I tried to stay cool and I didn't even tell my dragon to go faster, until I looked back and locked eyes with one of the black horses. Bad idea.
They went even faster, as if I was their prize and they were desperate to get it. I shut my eyes and tightened my grip on the saddle. Thora sensed the tension and she didn't have to be told to speed up.
We flew through the trees and zigzagged, changing the direction every once in a while or doing sharp turns, trying to lose them. But even if we had advantage, they didn't seem to give up.
"Jeez, what do they want?" I asked out loud.
Well... If they wanted me, then they would have to come and try to get it.
We waited for those things to catch up. When they were almost here, Thora turned around and shot three bioelectric blasts to the nearest horses, then she turned again and sped up as fast as her wings let her.
This was not going to last, those things weren't normal, they could go on for hours with this persecution but I knew Thora was tiring out. I didn't want to put her more at risk. I commanded her to stop. She tried to protest but I didn't listen to her, we simply landed. Ten of those things surrounded us. I did no movement, I feared they'd hurt my dragon, and I wouldn't let anyone do it.
They were approaching slow and dangerously. The fear was eating me from the inside, and no matter how hard I tried to show firm, my heart pounded a thousand times per second. I felt I couldn't breathe properly, I needed air and as the seconds passed there was less and less ground between the horses and us. I thought it was the end, until a ball of fire hit a horse. I looked at the sky and I realized all the riders had followed us.
Just in time. I thought.
Thora blasted without warning at another horse, while the riders ordered their dragons to attack the rest of them. Soon, none was left, but all of this tired me out more than usual. I felt a swirl under my feet, then I closed my eyes and I knew no more.
When I opened them again, I knew nothing. I didn't know where I was, or what day it was, or what had happened. I stood up from the ground, which felt hard and very cold. I realized it was made from stone, like bricks.
I looked around, and there was nothing. Everything was black, except for a mirror that glowed in the center. I approached it, and I saw my reflection. I stretched my arms, I gave a turn, everything was fine. Until I noticed something unusual on the mirror. There was someone behind my reflection. I turned around and there was nothing but darkness, however it was still there in the mirror.
It was a person. Not one, several. It were the riders! I smiled when I saw them, I felt happy to know them and I was glad they were my friends. Just when I thought that, they started acting very strange. That is, the reflections of my friends in the mirror. They smiled at me too, but way... Evil, mocking, with mischief. My smiled started to disappear while they started to laugh, lounded and louder. What made it worst, was that they were laughing at me.
I was so confused I couldn't formulate any word or phrase. I just stayed quiet, observing as the color vanished from each of them until they were completely black and white. It was as if they were using black makeup, their hair was completely black and their clothes were from gray to total black.
I diverted my gaze to my own reflection. I felt a lot of emotions in that moment. I frowned, until I was completely mad, furious. Without me noticing, my reflection started to lose color as well. I saw the riders walk away while they laughed so hard, and I couldn't do anything about it. I was sad, scared, alone, friendless... Friendless?
It was like waking up, I blinked and gasped when I noticed my reflection had changed. It was completely different, I saw myself and I didn't at the same time. It wasn't me, that evil smile, that deranged look, the dark hair... It simply wasn't me. Finally, I found my voice.
"No." I said firmly. "This is just a nightmare, this isn't real. My friends would never leave me alone."
I stretched my hand and I placed it on the mirror. I put pressure on it, and the glass started to crack. My other me gasped when she saw what I was trying to do and suddenly one of her hands went through the mirror, and gripped my wrist. When she noticed my surprise, she smiled again and started to laugh. Her nails dug in my skin and I groaned in pain. I fell to my knees and I screamed.
"Aaahhhgggrrr!"
I snapped open my eyes, but it wasn't a good idea. I closed them instantly when I felt the sun in my face. I blinked several times and narrowed my eyes. There was grass under my weight and I saw my friends faces, full of angst. Ahti was knelt and I felt he was lifting my head with his hand.
"What happened?" I asked.
"You passed out. It seemed you were having some sort of nightmare we couldn't wake you up. You okay?"
I nodded my head slowly. He held one of my hands and helped me to get up with extreme caution. I didn't move my eyes from the floor, the nightmare had affected me a lot. I tried to divert my attention at something that could make me forget about it.
"You think you still can go?" He asked me. I looked at him for a moment, gave a nod and my eyes returned to my feet when the ground started to shake. A familiar sound reached our ears.
"The whisper..." Fishlegs said nervously.
"Looks like we beat Toothless." Snoltout said.
"Yeah..." Astrid agreed. "We win..."
"I'm not feeling like a winner!" Fishlegs shouted.
The Whispering Death suddenly bursted from the ground and growled at us, mostly at Fishlegs, being the nearest one.
"Hi, um... I like the teeth..."
The Whispering Death roared and eyed each of our dragons, then burrowed back underground.
"I hate it when he does that! Can you at least tell me why he does it?!" Snotlout yelled, as everyone turned to Fishlegs.
"Maybe to hunt...?" He suggested. "Maybe because it's cooler...?" He got no response. "Maybe to look for water...?" Nothing. "OR MAYBE BECAUSE HE CAN'T STAND THE PRESSURE OF EVERYBODY ALWAYS EXPECTING HIM TO HAVE THE ANSWERS!"
I gritted my teeth. Poor of him, he needed a break. We all needed it.
Seconds later, the dragon came back.
"Somebody hold it still. I wanna pet it!" Tuffnut extended a hand towards it, but Ruffnut held her brother back before he got himself killed. Hiccup walked forwards.
"Do you actually have a plan, or are you just trying to get yourself killed?" Astrid asked as if she read my exact thoughts.
"If I can train it, it'll leave Toothless alone."
"Hiccup, I told you already, this dragon can't be trained!" Ahti pointed out. Hiccup didn't listen. He extended a hand and looked away, as the dragon charged towards him, creating a cloud of dust. When it cleared up, it's head was inches away from his hand, but it retracted back underground.
"Okay..." Hiccup said.
"Hiccup, no." Ahti said. Hiccup jumped inside the hole. He sighed. "Of course I'm going after him." He muttered and shook his head before jumping down too. We looked over it to see the two boys walking further in.
"Oh, man. I am so glad I'm not down there with him right now— whoa!" Fishlegs yelped as Snotlout pushed him down the hole.
"Oops."
We only glared at him.
Fifteen minutes later, the three boys were still down the hole and hadn't showed up since. We started to get impatient.
"They've been down there forever." Astrid bent down and started to call their names. "Hiccup! Ahti! Fishlegs!"
"Yep, right here!" Hiccup responded.
"Did you see the Whispering Death? Was it cool?" "Did you touch it?" The twins asked one after another. "I wanna touch it!"
"Can we talk about this later? We really need to get out of this hole!" Fishlegs said.
We looked up and we saw a trail of earth moving everywhere, coming quickly towards us. "Yeah, you do!" Astrid said.
Ahti suggested Fishlegs went first and he gave no argument against it. The boys lifted him up from down there and the rest of the riders helped Astrid pull Fishlegs out. Next it was Ahti, who practically climbed the hole by his own. Then he realized his mistake.
"Hiccup, hurry!"
Hiccup jumped trying to reach Astrid's hand, but he couldn't reach. When he did, he slipped.
"I can't reach!"
"Hold on!" I ordered.
"Ann, not you too! Don't do it!"
I jumped. But Ahti had grabbed my hand trying to stop me, and he went down with me. He blinked in surprise before we lifted Hiccup up just in time. That meant, it was too late for us.
"Everyone stand back!" Ahti warned, as we braced ourselves for the impact.
"WHOOAAA!" We screamed as an incredible strong force threw us from the whole with a dusty cloud. We flew at least eight meters high and I caught a glimpse of the Whispering Death ready to catch us both with ITS TEETH!
I shut my eyes. I didn't want to see the death that was awaiting me. Out of nowhere I heard a different voice.
"NO!"
Something wrapped it's limbs around me and I shivered at the sudden cold touch, but I didn't let go. I was carried bridal-style away from the danger, until I felt we were descending carefully and we landed. "It's okay, it's okay." A familiar voice talked. "You'll be fine."
Even if my heart still pounded very fast, I wanted to see my savior. I recognized the voice, but I didn't want to be wrong about who I was thinking. I looked up from his brown cloak covered in frost, to his pale face and his caring ice blue eyes. I almost wanted to cry from relief. "Jack..."
He smiled and arranged one of my loose hairs behind my ear. "Hello, snowflake."
I hugged him, happy to see him again. "You came back. Please, don't go away."
The next words made me smile, although he couldn't see me. "I won't."
"Frostbite, are ya crazy?! Ya could've been killed!" Someone with a weird Australian accent scolded Jack, startling me. We broke the hug and Jack rolled his eyes, as he turned around and set me in the ground. I wondered who called him 'Frostbite', and if it was a compliment or an offense. If it was the latter, they would be sorry for calling him that.
I didn't expect to find a giant rabbit with tattoos, golden bracelets, and two boomerangs strapped to his back. Much less to see my best friend on his back, clung to him for dear life. "Ya can let go now, mate." The rabbit said in an annoyed way. Ahti raised his eyebrows, before he mounted off him. The rabbit sighed in relief and cracked his back.
"Sorry. Thank you anyway, for saving our lives, Mister... Uh..."
"Aster E. Bunnymund." The rabbit introduced himself. "Ya can call me Aster."
My eyes went wide when I remembered who he was. I was staring at the very authentic, Easter Bunny. Ahti might know everything about the How to train your dragon universe, but I knew the Rise of the Guardians universe like the palm of my hand.
"Kangaroo!" Jack called. Aster's eyes went wide as he groaned throwing his head back, and turned to the white paled skinned teen. Er, spirit.
"I thought ve've been over this!" Bunny said, waving his paws in exasperation.
Jack crossed his arms and placed a hand on his chin. "I don't recall that conversation." He replied thoughtfully, and I chuckled. Bunnymund sighed, as if they had been over it a thousand times already. I could bet they had, and they still were missing a lot of centuries.
"Well, I would like to stay, but there's still work to do. Pitch's still outta there." I blinked at the mention of Pitch Black. Aster looked at Jack. "I guess you're staying. Take care, mate."
Jack nodded. "You too."
"See ya all folks on Easter!" Bunnymund tapped twice the ground with his paw and a hole appeared, much smaller than a dragon's. He jumped in it and it closed after him, as a flower grew in its place like he was never here.
"Come on, the others must be worried." I said, before Ahti could make any questions.
We returned with the others and Snotlout pleaded to get out of here, but Hiccup refused.
"No. I know I can train this thing. Anybody–"
"Hiccup!" Ahti shouted, startling the viking. "Face it. It. Can't. Be. Trained. We were almost eaten alive! We have to leave while we have the chance!"
"Come on! Everyone, dragons!" Astrid ordered.
We made a run for our dragon friends. The Whispering Death started to chase us, but it was stopped when Toothless tacked it! It was up in a matter of seconds, but when it saw it was clearly outnumbered, it sunk into the ground.
Hiccup saw his opportunity and tried to mount Toothless, but he didn't let him. In fact, he ran off once more. I groaned. This game of hide-and-seek across the island was really annoying me. Once again, we had no idea where they had gone to, but then Ahti miraculously remembered the episode, and he guided us to a cliff. By us, I meant all of us, including the Winter Spirit, but he flew behind all of us in case not everyone could see him.
Toothless caught sight of us and warned us to stay out of it. The dragons took his advise and no matter what we told them, they wouldn't give another step forward. They knew it wasn't their fight.
"Fine, it's on us now!" I said as we dismounted them and ran towards the cliff. Before we could reach Toothless, the Whispering Death dove underground and the cliff broke apart, living a huge gap between us and the Night Fury. "No!"
Now that Toothless had no exit, the Whispering Death opened it's jaw and for the first time, we saw it shot rings of fire towards him. Toothless jumped back to avoid them, but he almost fell from the edge.
"He's gonna knock Toothless into the canyon!" Hiccup cried.
Toothless looked at us with wide eyes. "This is no good!"
By the looks of his face, Hiccup understood what he said. Without warning, he raised a foot in the air and stepped of the ledge, freefalling into the canyon.
"HICCUP!" Astrid, Ahti and I yelled at the same time. Was he crazy?!
As the Whispering Death shot more rings of fire at Toothless, the Night Fury jumped after his rider. Rocks fell to the ground creating a giant dust cloud, so thick we couldn't see anything further from it. We feared the worst. Just when all hope seemed lost, Hiccup emerged on the back of Toothless and they flew towards the sky.
"Finally!" I yelled in relief. "Hurry guys! To our dragons!"
"Hold on." Ahti placed a hand on my shoulder. "Don't worry. Leave this to Toothless and Hiccup, they can do it."
I bit my lip in doubt, but I trusted him. We watched as Toothless shot plasma blasts down the Whispering Death holes, and the light came from them like fireworks.
"This. Is. Amazing!" Ruff said as we walked and mounted our dragons.
"We've got to find you an arch-nemesis." Tuff said to Belch.
Finally, the Whispering Death had no choice but to get out from its hiding place and in that moment Toothless tackled it to the ground. They roared at each other, and Toothless was ready to finish it off, but then decided it was not worth it. He had already won the fight, he didn't need to kill to prove it. He let the Whispering Death go, and to our relief, that was the last time we saw it that day.
"Aw, man! Toothless could have finished him off!" Snotlout pouted.
"Well, I guess all dragon grudges aren't to the death." Hiccup said.
"And I guess I'll have to change that in the book." Fishlegs considered, as the rest of the riders flew away. I stayed to watch Hiccup talk to Toothless.
"Hey, bud. What do you say we go home?"
"I couldn't agree more with you."
Later that day, we covered all of the Whispering Death hole openings with boulders, to prevent any more of these encounters. I thought this was it and I returned to Berk, to finally have some rest. On my way home, Jack and I walked together to clear up what had happened these days. But before we could get into a deep conversation, we bumped into somebodies.
"Who is that?" Snoltout asked, pointing an index finger towards Jack. He and I glanced at each other in surprise.
"Why isn't he wearing shoes?" Tuffnut wondered.
"Yeah, and what's with the stick?" Ruffnut continued.
Jack was too stunned to say something. I elbowed him, and he managed to say something.
"Can all of you see me?" He asked the seven teens in front of him, who gave him questioning looks. Only Ahti realized what he meant by that, and he gasped in surprise.
"Wait... Are you... Jack Frost?"
"Well, people around here know me by the name of Jokul Frösti." He said mostly to himself with an awkward grin and everybody gasped.
"No way..." Tuffnut said slowly.
"Is it really Jokul Frösti?" Fishlegs asked with excitement.
Jack looked like he would pass out in any moment. They realized who he was. "They see me... They... They see me!" He cried with a wide toothed grin, before he laughed and jumped in the air, doing all kind of aerobatics he knew, as snow started to fall.
"Snow Day!" I cried, before I managed to gather enough snow to make a small snowball, and threw it at Ahti.
"Hey!" He cried as it hit him in the side of the head. The riders and Jack were laughing their heads off, until Ahti threw a snowball at Snotlout, and they laughed even more. That's how we spent our afternoon, playing in the snow and having fun. After all, Jack was the Guardian of it, wasn't he?
WARNING: HUGE AUTHOR'S NOTE AHEAD! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!
I know, I know. Two days later but like I promised, second chapter here! I can't believe how far this story had gone, we've just hit +3,100 views! And all thanks to you guys! I really hope you like the chapter!
You know... I feel like I owe you an apology (like since a long time ago, actually). I mean, seriously, since chapter seven I've been giving up excuses to why am I updating so slowly, when I used to update a chapter per week. I've tried to make it up by doing longer chapters, but I couldn't help the guilt inside me. I'm sorry for that guys. Life's been kinda awful for a while and fanfiction it's more like a hobby to me, but it became more like something I had to do and not that I wanted because I made a lot of promises I felt I could keep, and sadly I've been breaking them. I'm truly sorry for that.
I've had amazing reviews from all of you, and I feel sad to see people who used to review in the first chapters doesn't review anymore. I mean, okay, people doesn't have to review in every single chapter, even I don't review every chapter of the stories I follow, but I think I have to do something with the fact there's been less and less reviews since then. Is it my way of writing, is it the way that chapter is at the beginning (you know what I mean), is it that I update slowly, is it you find it boring because the chapters are very long, I don't know. But I love to see people reviewing, because it's a way to say "hey, you story's not so bad, it's worth it to keep it up." However, I feel lost right now, I don't know if I'm doing a good work, remember I'm only human and I make mistakes.
Sorry about that^, but I felt like I needed to get it out and somehow make you know. I didn't mean to make you feel bad about it or to offend anyone, it was just to inform you guys. I feel like after you read this, people will review saying nice things and comforting reviews, but that ain't my intention. You guys are free to say what you want. If you want to review, that's up to you.
Thanks again for the ones who have reviewed even just once, and thank you very much for the ones who dare to follow and favorite this story. I don't know what I did to deserve you. So I'll take the reins of my life, and I will try to update like I stated in my profile. I will try also to give it a shot to my other stories, which I kinda left abandoned...
One more thing! I want to inform you How to live a movie will be taken off from my profile and be rewritten. More like, I'll leave it there and rewrite it, and then I'll take off the old version. And I guess that's it... Thanks for the ones who took the time to read this. Until Next Time...
Scout017, out.