Chapter 36

Hiccup huddled in a make-shift shelter that she and the triplets had made while Maraud had sulked on a rock. Honestly, Hiccup wasn't sure how he allowed himself to drown in self pity. He hadn't been turned into a bear. He hadn't been forced to walk around on three legs. He hadn't seen the furious, blood-thirsty look on his best friend's face; and he hadn't had that look directed at him.

But Hiccup had. And she was devastated. The one person who had always had her back was now Hel-bent on tracking and killing her. And the only person stopping that from happening was the person who had turned her into a bear!

Maraud's words from earlier echoed through Hiccup's brain just as clearly as the rain outside.

"I didn't want her to change you into a bear!" he had argued. Then his tone became hesitant and quieter. "I just… wanted to change the way you think about going after Mordue. Believe me, Hiccup, I only wanted to ensure your safety," Maraud had run his hands through his hair. His voice grew louder again. "If you went after it, you would've died! I wanted you kept safe! Away from harm!"

Again and again the words went through Hiccup's mind, as repetitive as the raindrops dripping off the tree branches. Helen, Hilda, and Hilary had fallen asleep almost an hour ago. Hiccup had absent-mindedly been watching Maraud hunch into himself as the rain chilled him to the core. He was shivering.

Slowly rising, Hiccup made her way over to him. She moved to wake him up, but he had fallen into a fitful sleep. Even in his sleep he was making things hard for her. Hiccup grumbled, but it just sounded like a muted growl in her bear-like state.

She gently moved Maraud's body onto her own and brought him into the little shelter. She lumbered over to the entrance, keeping the three small girls and Maraud safe from the cold and the rain. She pulled them all closer to her body heat to warm them up. She waited until Maraud was no longer shivering before she allowed herself to sleep. It had been such a trying day. The darkness of unconsciousness was a welcome constant as compared to the changing challenges of the day.

Maraud woke up the next morning surprisingly warm and dry, and surprisingly not sore. His eyes flickered open and his brows furrowed. Since when were there roofs in the middle of the forest?

A bear-like sound came from Maraud's right and his head snapped in that direction. His sisters were already awake and eating. Hiccup was sitting right next to them. Her left stump was left out in the open, and Maraud cringed when he saw it. The fur around the appendage was mottled and the exposed skin was a bright pink and raw-looking.

Maraud swallowed and looked away.

Hiccup called out to him, a deep bear bellow. Maraud turned to look at her, fearing her wrath. Instead, she was offering him food. He cautiously took it, wondering how exactly they had gotten all the fish they did.

"How did you get all this fish?" Maraud couldn't help but to ask. His sisters were young, and Hiccup… was a bit handicapped.

Hiccup huffed as she stood up, and Maraud's sisters followed. Hiccup stood still in the middle of the river not too far from their little campsite. One of his sisters stood by her left hind leg, pressing up against it every once in a while to give Hiccup a sense of balance. One of Maraud's other sisters was still on the shore, close to the water. And the last of the triplets was by Hiccup's head, close to the little cub on shore.

Maraud watched as Hiccup leaned against the little cub by her leg before pouncing forward, scooping a fish out of the water, attempting to catch it in her mouth before she lost balance and fell forward in the water. Luckily, Maraud's other little sister was where her mouth had been, and she caught the fish before struggling to take it to shore. Once there, Maraud's other sister helped her keep the fish pinned to the ground as Hiccup stood up and went back into her original position with the help of Maraud's third little sister.

They worked together so efficiently they were like a well oiled machine. No doubt Hiccup's brilliant mind had come up with that ingenious system. Maraud shook his head as he ate the cooked fish in front of him. He couldn't believe that he had wanted to change such a beautiful mind. Well, he had changed it, in a sense. It was now a bear's brain.

The witch's ominous warning was still spinning through Maraud's head.

Fate be Changed

You can Heal It

Unite the Lovers

Torn by Secrets

What did it mean? Normally, Maraud would've asked Hiccup. But she was a bit… well, she was a bear. She couldn't speak. Still, couldn't hurt to ask. Especially since there was a nasty 'three days' time limit he seemed to recall the witch giving him. If Hiccup didn't get fixed by tomorrow, she was going to stay a bear forever. It would probably be best if he kept that little bit of information to himself, though.

"Hiccup," Maraud called out nervously. She slowly lumbered over before falling to the ground in front of him, finding a comfortable sitting position. Maraud winced at the shaking of the ground. "Did you hear what the witch said yesterday?"

Hiccup tilted her head to the side, so Maraud recited the prophecy, or whatever it was called.

"Fate be changed/ You can Heal It/ Unite the Lovers/ Torn by Secrets."

Hiccup rumbled deep in her throat for a second. Maraud watched as his sisters played in the little clearing in front of them as Hiccup thought. Finally, she pushed her nose against Maraud's knee for his attention.

She pointed to something on the ground that she had scratched into the dirt, and Maraud nearly face-palmed. Of course! It was so simple! Unite the Lovers.

If Hiccup and Toothless didn't love each other, then Maraud didn't know what love was. The only problem was Toothless thought that the bear Hiccup turned into had killed Hiccup. How were they supposed to get Toothless to accept Hiccup and love her without him…killing her?

"Alright," Maraud breathed out, running his hands through his hair. "Small issue. He sort of hates you right now. Any plans on getting him to see that you're… you?"

Hiccup looked down sadly and let loose a sound so sad that Maraud felt his own heart break for the woman in front of him.

"Don't worry," Maraud said, leaning forward to look into Hiccup's eyes. "We'll get through this. Together. I promise, Love."

Before Maraud could blush due to the second slip of his tongue in two days, Hiccup started changing. Not drastically. Just enough. Her muscles loosened, and her attention was suddenly only on the food behind her. But the worst part was her eyes. They turned into a deep brown, and looked as soulless as a common pig's. Unintelligent. Uncomprehending. Dangerous.

Hiccup, for a few moments, became a real bear. Maraud blinked. He stepped towards her cautiously.

"Hiccup?" he questioned, keeping his arms to himself. Hiccup was still in there. He had two more days. She couldn't be gone today! "Hiccup!" he yelled at her. The bear turned to him, and he saw the empty look in its eyes. Maraud stepped back in fear. The bear lifted its upper lip, growling at him. The silence coming from the left meant that the triplets had turned to see what was wrong with Hiccup. "Snap out of it, Love!" Maraud shouted, trying everything to bring his Hiccup back.

It took a while. The bear walks around for a while, leading the Dunbrough siblings through quite a bit of forest, but eventually Hiccup's eyes soon turned back to normal.

Hiccup shook her head when she had completely regained control over herself. She moaned out a question to one of Maraud's sisters. Hilary, if Maraud had to guess. Hilary started answering, but Helen cut in and Hiccup listened. She looked at Maraud after they were done and growled out what sounded like an apology, along with a sincere look in her eyes.

"Let's just start—" Maraud was cut off when he saw blue orbs once again calling to him in the forest. Maraud wanted to glare at them and then turn away. The last time he had listened to the stupid little things he had gotten Hiccup and his sisters turned into bears. He wanted nothing else to do with them. But, they were magic. And their magic called to the magic in Hiccup. Maraud and his sisters followed.

The five walked for what seemed like hours, until they finally reached the foot of a steel hill. It was so tall that it could have been mistaken as a mountain. It was there that the triplets' bravery ran out.

Maraud and Hiccup placed the three vulnerable little bears into one of the bare trees that surrounded the foggy mountain. Once the triplets were comfortable, the two intended young people looked to each other, silently asking for and giving courage to the other. Then they steeled their nerves and followed the wisps, each breath marked them getting just that much closer to their fate. Each step took them just that much closer to danger. Hiccup had felt this way before, many times. As she tensed, so did Maraud.

The triplets watched, anxious, as their two protectors disappeared in a sea of fog.

So, the writing quality is pretty crap, and for that I apologize. I realize that this chapter is a little boring, but I just wanted it to be here. The next chapter takes a little bit of a time skip, so don't be too confused when you start reading it.

Speaking of the next chapter: Mordue shows up, a little bit of a movie scene, and the five break into Dunbrough. Also, Toothless, Fergus, and the villagers make appearances.

Oh my gosh, guys! So many reviews, I feel so loved! And so many favorites it's amazing! I didn't even know 249 people read these types of stories! And 297 people are following this story, and it's absolutely amazing! For this chapter, I'm sort of hoping for seven reviews, just to give me a little bit of confidence to finish this story. Today is the last day of my vacation, so there's probably going to be a wait until I finish the story, even though THERE'S ONLY FOUR CHAPTERS LEFT! AHH!

Again, this story wouldn't have gotten this far without all the support y'all give, thanks :)