Chapter 36

Rapunzel Fitzherbert

Rapunzel looked down, then squealed in delight when she saw that the world they had come to was Corona. She looked back, then had to smile at how miserable Jack looked.

"You ok there?" She asked him.

He leveled a stare at her. "I'm a winter spirit." He explained in clipped sentences, "It is the middle of spring in a rather warm and sunny kingdom. Do you really think I'm all right?"

Rapunzel couldn't stop a grin from breaking through. "How do you think I felt at the Pole, then, huh?"

Jack glared at her. "If you're cold, it's pretty easy to warm up. If you're too warm, however, there's not much you can do about it."

Rapunzel shrugged. "Jump in a lake?"

Jack let the silence stretch, then slowly raised an eyebrow. "Been there, done that." He muttered, before moving to the opposite side of Bunny where he was shielded from the sun.

Rapunzel rolled her eyes as Bunny tried to move and Jack got a death grip on his wrist, keeping his sun protection in place.

"Oh, knock it out, you two." Hiccup told Jack and Bunny.

The two glared at Hiccup, now perfectly content to stay as they were now that there was a common enemy.

Before the situation got out of hand, Rapunzel jumped up and leaned out over the sleigh, pointing. "Hey! Look! There's my castle!"

"Another castle." Jack muttered. "Lovely."

"It's ok." Hiccup stage whispered. "I don't have one either. Just a really big Great Hall."

Jack fixed a baleful stare on all of them. "Though, you know, I've heard that old, large buildings like that often have problems with drafts."

Merida fixed a cold glare on him. "Yu wouldn't dare."

Jack grinned. "Wouldn't I?"

"Not now that we all have proof that it's likely to be yu and also have the means to make yu regret it." She replied with a cheerful tone.

Jack sighed and stuck his tongue out. "Bring it on, carrot-top."

"C-carrot?!" Merida shrieked. "Wot kinda-"

She then stopped and looked around as everyone else started cracking up. "And I thought yu were my friends." She muttered bitterly.

Of course, that just made them laugh harder. Merida threw her hands up and looked at the castle more closely. "Whoa." She muttered.

Rapunzel smiled. "Yeah, my castle was built less with functionality in mind and more of being pretty and impressive."

"Yeah, well, it's also pretty impressive." Jack quipped as he looked at it. "Hey, does it ever snow here?"

Rapunzel rolled her eyes. "Well, yeah, but only a little bit in the middle of winter."

Jack grinned. "Good enough. I wanna see what it looks like covered in snow."

Rapunzel sighed and shook her head. "Honestly?"

"I agree with Jack." North broke in. "Snow makes everything beautiful."

"Well, maybe not everything." Jack snickered, poking Bunny.

"Seriously, mate?" Bunny groaned, brushing the frost from his fur.

Hiccup blinked innocently at the other occupants of the sleigh. "Serious? What's that?"

That sent the young Guardians into fits of laughter.

"Yes, ok, here we are!" North announced unnecessarily as he brought the sleigh to a jolting halt.

Rapunzel pushed a groggy Sandy off her, where he had tumbled due to the jerkiness of the landing, and scrambled down to the ground, waving at the castle guards.

The castle immediately erupted into activity as the king and queen came hurrying out, enveloping Rapunzel in a huge hug.

Rapunzel's mother felt Rapunzel's new hairdo, but Rapunzel, with a promise to fill them in later, dragged them to meet the rest of the Guardians.

That being said, she had to have North drag a protesting Jack from out from underneath the sleigh to say hi.

They quickly went inside the castle before Jack could hide again.

Seeming to perk up a little bit in the cooler atmosphere, Jack grinned. "Not bad, Punzie."

He then blinked in surprise as a guard jumped to the side before a collision could happen.

"Sorry, sir!" The guard hurriedly apologized.

Jack broke into a huge smile. "It's no problem." He told the guard. When the guard went back to his business, he turned the smile to Rapunzel. "They can see me!"

Rapunzel rolled her eyes. "Well, yeah."

Jack sighed. "Need I remind you about the circumstances of such a declaration?"

Rapunzel waved a hand vaguely in the air. "Yeah, whatever."

She continued on before Jack could make an indignant response, entering onto a balcony behind the palace.

"Oh, no. No, no." Jack said with a nervous laugh tainting his words. "I'm not going outside again."

Merida rolled her eyes. "Sad."

Jack glared at her. "Shaddup." He muttered, staying back in the shade.

Hiccup sighed. "She'll be freezing in Berk, so can we just make it a moot point and suffer through it?"

Jack sighed grumpily and slowly made his way out onto the balcony, pulling his hood up over his head to shade his face. "Emphasis on suffer." He muttered darkly.

North cast him a dirty look, and Jack seemed to decide not to honk him off and fell mostly silent.

North nodded, and took the book. "You have no objections to Rapunzel becoming Guardian, correct?" He asked the king.

Rapunzel looked over at them. "I'd still be living here, I'd just have other duties besides running a kingdom." She sighed. "Plus the whole being immortal, being invisible to those who don't believe in me, and having super awesome powers."

She had to smile at the skeptical looks on her parents faces, and quickly knelt down and painted a kitten. She then grinned as she picked a mewling fluffball up when she stood again. "See?" She said, holding the kitten out proudly.

"Oh, yeah, a marvelous and terrifying beast." Merida muttered.

"An elephant would have destroyed the balcony." Rapunzel informed her flatly.

Jack laughed. "You're getting good at comebacks!"

Jack and Merida looked at each other. "So are yu takin' credit for that or do I get to?" Merida inquired innocently.

Jack shrugged. "Since she probably learned it from us bickering I say we split the bragging rights 50-50."

Merida nodded. "Deal."

Rapunzel rolled her eyes, putting the kitten down. It curled up into a ball before sinking back into the ground.

Everyone present stared. "Well, that's a...thing." Hiccup muttered intelligently.

Rapunzel blinked. "Yeah..." She then shrugged. "Whatever."

"Wotever?" Merida almost yelled. "Yu coulda done that with the elephants, but wotever?"

Rapunzel giggled nervously. "I hadn't figured that out just yet?"

"Besides, I doubt you've figured out everything about your power." Tooth reminded Merida. "Give her a break."

The king and queen had been studying all this with blank faces.

Rapunzel gave them her best puppy eyes. "See? Lotsa benefits, not many drawbacks."

"Besides the whole 'people not seeing you' deal." Jack muttered, earning him an elbow in the gut from Bunny.

"Be quiet, ya gumby, tha's not helpin' the decision process." He hissed.

"Yeah, ok." Jack hissed back irritably, rubbing his stomach.

"Anyways!" North interrupted. "Let's begin!"

The king and queen looked at each other, then nodded at Rapunzel. She beamed and went to stand before North as he opened his book.

North intoned solemnly, "Will you, Rapunzel Fitzherbert, vow to watch over the children of the world? To guard them with your life, their hopes, their wishes, and their dreams. For they are that we have, all that we are, and all that we will ever be."

Rapunzel nodded, blinking back happy tears. "I will."

North grinned. "Then, congratulations, for you are now, and FOREVERMORE! a Guardian."

Rapunzel grinned when Merida nudged her with her elbow. "Told yu that yu would be next." Merida teased her happily.

"Woohoo." Jack waved his staff in the air. "Can we get going before I melt?"

All the spirits accustomed to warmer weather rolled their eyes, but Hiccup and North agreed quickly.

Everyone made their way back to the sleigh, with Jack immediately positioning himself with Bunny as a sun protection once again.

"Again?" Bunny groaned.

Jack looked up at him mutinously. "Unless you want me bugging North while he's driving the sleigh, you're the largest protection possible."

Merida and Hiccup snickered until Bunny gave them both a death stare. "Don't think ya can get away with this." Bunny finally warned Jack.

Jack grinned as North prepared to throw the snow globe. "Are you kidding? You're about to be begging for mercy. You ever been to Berk?"

"Oh, struth..." Bunny cursed a couple more times in Australian as they approached the portal.

"Careful, Bunny." Hiccup warned with satisfaction. "There are children present."

"Why, ya drongo, I oughtta...!" Whatever Bunny ought to do was lost as they spun through the portal.

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Woohoo. Almost done. So, I'm planning one, maybe two more chapters for this. Stick with me!