Chapter 36

It had started snowing again, but the sun strained its light thru the thick clouds to give enough light to see. Merida took her quiver with normal arrows and fastened it to a belt around her hip, before she put her bow over her shoulder. Hiro walked around on deck trying to get the boots he had gotten from Rapunzel; they were dramatically too big for him, but with ropes binding them to his legs, made them not fall off with each step, so now he walked around getting sued to the feeling. Tip sat on the railing dangling her legs.

"I can't possibly take this." Eret said there he stood in front of Nicholas with one of the man's coats in his hands. "I've already taken your shirt..."

"Ach, child." Nicholas said and wafted with his big hand before he smiled and placed it on Eret's shoulder. Eret opened his mouth to argue, but Nicholas shut hip of before he even got the chance to start "You need it more than I at moment." Eret blinked, that was true… but he, they had done so much for him already; he didn't want to be a burden.

"Eret, hurry up! Let's go!" Tip called, he looked towards her to see that they already were ready to leave Merida stood with a hand on her hip with an bored expression on her face, Hiro was walking on the spot at the railing hands in his pockets both of the children seemed to be the ones most eager about getting allowed to go. Eret looked back to Nicholas who smiled at him.

"Keep an eye of them for me, will you?" Eret nodded before he took on the coat and walked over to Merida, Tip and Hiro.

"Took yer sweet time." Merida said but she smiled despite the monotony in her voice.

"Sorry…" Eret said, not sure how Merida or Tip and Hiro felt about having him coming with them.

They started to walk, following the track that had been done earlier, that now, was almost snowed in. Eret walked first, then Tip and Hiro and last Merida. Eret stopped at the entrance to the passage, looking to the left, further down the hill in that direction he saw the snow turn red, he looked away and turned around to see how close the others were, and first now notice they were quite far behind. He waited hugging Nicholas coat around him when a cold wind blew around him, and hit snow in his face.

"Man, you walk fast..." Hiro gasped when they got up to him. Tip stood with her hands on her knees gasping for air. Merida looked unfazed, but was breathing hard.

"Sorry..."

"Are we going in there..?" Tip asked pointing at the passage. Eret nodded.

"Let's go then." Merida said and walked inside the others followed.

"Woah!" Tip gasped when she saw the big cave.

"Is that the fountain?" Hiro asked pointing further inside the cave.

"Yeah…" Eret said walking closer to it, the chalices still stood there.

"What are ye gonna do?" Merida asked giving him a watchful eye.

"Make the legend and myth about the fountain stay that way." He stepped hard on one of the chalice a crack was heard as the pink ice shattered and the silver bended, the symbol in the bottom of the cup broke in two. Merida stared at him, Tip and Hiro on the other hand had started to explore. Eret crashed another chalice and kicked the third into the wall. "There." Eret clapped his hands together.

"Who could have done these?" Hiro asked as he stroked his fingers over one of the stone carvings.

"Those who lived here long ago maybe." Tip said from the other side of the cave. "Found the moss!" Tip called, Merida began to move towards her, Eret and Hiro followed. Tip pointed to the pillar.

"Rapunzel wasn't wrong." Merida said moving her hand over the moss. It was moisturized but not frozen. Hiro moved further inside and passed a piece of the caves wall, a blue light illuminating him

"Hey! Look." He called out. Tip walked up to him and gasped.

In front of them a big tunnel made from ice spread, the ice was clear but had a blue light and the light from above illuminated everything into a bluish hue.

"Wonder where it goes…" Tip said and walked closer to the ice. Hiro moved closer to the tunnel.

"Come on, let's see where this tunnel leaAAAAAGHHHH!" the ice shattered under him and is words turned to a scream when gravity did her job he fell and hit more ice that was tipping down and soon found himself sliding faster and faster in dark blue; round, up and down, left and forth, he soon lost grip of what was up and down completely.

"HIRO!" he heard Tip scream out, but it grew fainter the further away he got from them. Tip ran towards the hole in the ice.

"No!" Eret called out, as the ice under her feet shattered and she was swallowed by the ice as well will a surprised shriek. Merida had her eyes wide open and were about to run towards the big hole in the ice, but strong hands grabbed a hold of her arms, holding her back.

"Let go of me ya bloody bastard!" she shouted kicking and punching in an attempt to get free, she was sure some of her kicks and blows hit their mark.

"If the ice didn't hold for them, do you think it will hold for you!?" Eret said, not letting go. Merida growled still struggling before she exhaled harshly and stopped. He was right, Eret let go of her after a while, she shot him a death glare and he held up his hands in surrender. "I do apologize for restraining you, but it was all I could do to keep you from doing something stupid." She grunted at him and looked towards the ice

"Where do you think they will end up?" Merida asked slowly taking some cautious steps closer to the ice, looking down the hole in the ice floor.

"I don't know…" Eret said "But we might as well search for ano-" he went silent, Merida blinked turning her head around.

"Eret?" she asked, but went silent when she saw how sharp points of spears pointing towards them, held by people with big masks over their heads, covering their chests as well. Eret had his hands raised, casting a look back to Merida, she took some steps closer to them, to not risk falling down the ice, raising her hands to her head as she moved and stopped next to Eret. The people behind the mask spoke, but in a language that neither Eret nor Merida knew. "So… guess we found the inhabitants…" she hissed at him "what do we do now?" Eret studied the masked people.

"We'll see what they want, but we have to get Hiro and Tip back." He said slowly. One of the persons gave away an angry sound and shoved the spear, closer to Eret's face. He took a step back frowning. "If only I understood what they said…" another harsh sound and Merida took a step closer to Eret when the tip of one of the spears got to close for her liking, two of the mask clad people got behind them, and Merida and Eret were forced forward with a jab of the end of the spear between their shoulder blades. They were led away from the ice tunnel, but not towards the entrance of the cave, rather, towards another tunnel, that was made from stone, carved out by hand, it was pitch black inside it, which made it hard to see in it, but also to find it if you stood in the cave.

Rapunzel sighed there she sat at the table in the galley, sewing Eret's shirt together. Tadashi sat with a book in his lap, but he had once been reading it, now he sat and stared out the round window with a distant look, mind not in the room any longer. Aster sat with his arms crossed over his chest and eyes closed, laying on the sofa with his feet on the armrest. Eugene sat next to his head, making a coin swirl over the wood of the table. Nicholas was drying the dishes and put them back where they belonged, Toothless lied on a pelt at the stove, the fire that burned inside, made the galley the warmest room on the boat, and the stove was the hotspot. Rapunzel fastened the seam, one of the tears fixed, but she sighed and looked out the window.

"Wonder how it is going for them." She asked the room, not really expecting a reply.

"They'll be fine." Aster said not opening his eyes "Who knows how big tha' cave is?"

"They have been gone for a long time, it must mean they found something." Eugene said making the coin spin again.

"What's Hiccup doing?" Aster asked, Rapunzel hummed and started on another tear.

"Last time I checked he was with Jack." She said.

"He's been at his side ever since they got back on board." Eugene said frowning slightly when the coil didn't want to spin properly.

"Can you blame him?" Nicholas asked turning around, Toothless gave away a snuffling sound and an approving grunt. Rapunzel smiled.

Hiccup sighed leaning back in the chair, he was carving on the wooden ring again, halfway done. He cast a look towards Jack when the teen gave away silent whines, body slowly moving under the blankets. Hiccup reached out and stroked his fingers thru jack's white locks; that were falling down over his eyes, Hiccup frowned slightly when he felt how hot Jack's forehead was. Jack grew silent after a while, his breathing calming and his movements stopping and he was asleep once again. Hiccup retrieved his hand after a while and continued to carve. The lantern spread a warm glow in the small room. Time flew by and he looked up when he heard the door open. Rapunzel walked inside, with two plates in her hand, she smiled at him.

"Hey…" she said and closed the door she walked across the room looking at Jack. "Any news?"

"He got a fever… he seems to be having nightmares now and then, can't really blame him... but Pitch's gone so that man can't torment him anymore." Hiccup looked up at her and put the ring and knife away gathering the chip from his carving in a small pile, before he accepted the plate, Rapunzel stood leaning against the wall.

"So he hasn't woken up jet?"

"Not enough to open his eyes, no." they ate in silence. Jack's breathing was enough for them to know he was still alive. Rapunzel checked up on Jack again when she had finished, he had a fever, Hiccup hadn't been wrong there.

She left with the plates, to return later with a bowl of warm water, she put it on the table and walked over to the wall that was between the doctor's office and Aster's workshop, taking some of her medical herbs in her hands squinting before she took a nip from some of the dried plants and crushed the leaves in her hand before she let it fall into a small strainer, she then walked over to a chest and took up a small bag and put some of the powder that was inside it into the strainer, before she placed her hand over it and shook it a bit, before she put it into the water. A dark brown colour spread out from it as she moved it around in the water.

"What are you doing?" Hiccup asked looking at her.

"Medicine, it will fight the fever, can't give him one of the orbs, don't want him to choke." Hiccup nodded "And he needs to drink something." She took up the strainer and emptied it in a small basket. She took up the bowl and moved over to Jack, giving him it, she held his head up, and he drank after a while, just as slow as be hand before. Rapunzel took away the bowl and sighed, letting back don on the pillow again. "There… keep watch over him okay." She turned to Hiccup who smiled.

"Of course." He started to carve on the ring again. "I'll be right here, if you need me." He said and looked up and smiled before he let his eyes fall back to the knife and wood.

Hiro wasn't screaming anymore, the slide must have been created from water he thought, because it was so smooth, it was in the darkest blue colour he'd ever seen, a bright light suddenly started to grow bigger in front of him, and he screamed when he suddenly were flying in the air, he wafted with his arms and legs before he hit a big pile of leaves on the ground with a loud groan. He squirmed around a bit before he opened his eyes and sat up, getting to his knees in the pile.

"Where in the world am I?" trees stood tall and were covered in greenery, bushes and green grass covered the lower section of the forest he just landed in, but further ahead, behind the forest he saw big stone buildings and something that made him gasp, a bright blue light with big stone heads spinning round it slowly.