Chapter XLVIII: Journey to the Crystal Caves

Over the coarse of what remained for the winter, the Furious Flurries learned about centaurs in Care of Magical Creatures, although the centaur Professor Aster brought in was the one that gave the lecture. Mostly that lecture consisted on how to aid a centaur with a broken leg, and how to raise an orphan if they ever found one. Most students were quite fascinated with the lesson, but Hiccup really only cared about dragons.

During a Transfiguration class, the Gryffindors were supposed to transfigure a hedgehog into a pincushion, but instead of a pincushion, Jessica managed to get it to swell into a pillow that kept on growing until the thing blew apart at the seams! Yeah, it burst at the seams, blew the stuffing all over her desk, and she thought that she ended up killing the hedgehog! She was pretty upset after that class. However, Professor Maleficent ended up stopping her in the halls the next day to show her that she mended her pillow and restored it back to a living hedgehog.

"You can't completely kill something when it's inanimate, but you do need to apply less power to your magic." Maleficent told her.

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One night in early March, Merida was trying to focus on her homework, but her mind wandered… it wander so far from reality that she went from her History of Magic paper to fantasizing about finding Mor'du and fighting him. However, with the help of a tiny tendril of black sand circling her head, she slipped into a vision:

Mor'du, in his human form, and Gothel were in a cave filled with beautiful glowing crystals. They talked, but as their conversation was carried out, they were breaking crystals off the walls and stuffing them in bags.

Soon there came the arrival of a fairy. She looked like a petite young woman wearing a simple blue dress to go with her blue wings.

"You're not welcome here." She told them gently; but without a word, Mor'du assumed his bear form, and turned against the fairy by striking her head and tearing off her wings! Soon after that, the two villains fled the cave. The entrance opened up to a small meadow with flowers in full bloom and ran into a forest.

Merida woke up from her vision soon after that and made a note of it so she could tell her friends.

"Something wrong, Merida?" Iago asked groggily, the parrot was resting on his perch when he noticed Merida's sudden change in behavior.

"I had a vision!" She replied.

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At breakfast that morning, the Furious Flurries, Ivan, Scythe, Emily, Jessica, Jenny, and Kay, Merida told them about her vision in every detail.

"So, this demon bear is going to steal from and kill the Blue Fairy?" Scythe asked.

"At around Spring Break from the looks of it." Merida replied.

"It sounds more like these people are trying to lure you to them." Jenny stated.

"Yeah, you've had dealings with them before, haven't you?" Jessica asked.

"I've lived with one of them… but it's not like that we'd run to them without a plan." Rapunzel told them.

"Ever since Kay told us about the Blue Fairy's origin, I've looked for the possible location of her crystal cave, and our best bet is the German and Austrian border in the Alps." Scythe replied.

"That's a good general area, but to find the precise location with only this much information, you're going to want to trace the power emanating from the cave to its source." Kay told them.

"What, are you saying that you want to come along?" Jack asked.

"Of course, my family dreams of finding these caves. I'd be the envy of my house if I were to bring back one of the crystals from that cave." Kay replied.

"It could be dangerous." Hiccup stated.

"If he's going, then I'm coming too!" Scythe declared.

"Hey, strength in numbers!" Jessica added.

With that, all the friends said that they wanted to come along… Except for Emily, who asked: "Just how do you plan on getting there?"

"You know what, I believe I have a good idea." Hiccup replied.

"What would that be?" Emily asked.

"In case I forgot to tell you, I've met my long-lost mother this year, and she rides dragons. We can ride dragons to the caves." Hiccup told them. His friends were in awe, the thought of riding dragons as well as hearing Hiccup had found his mother was amazing!

"Where can we meet her?" Ivan asked.

"She made herself a shelter in the forest. I can introduce her to you later tonight." Hiccup replied.

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At her camp, Valka watched as the sun was setting as she was finishing her dinner of fish from the Black Lake, and bread and cheese Hiccup had brought for her a couple days ago. With the wake of winter still in effect, foraging in the forest was rather difficult, and so the Furious Flurries often brought food for her. In the meantime Valka would repay them with more stories, such as the time she first met Stoick, to her adventures with Cloudjumper.

Now that Valka was almost finished with her dinner, she looked up and found the Furious Flurries and their other friends approaching her. She recognized Jenny as she sometimes helped to look after Jenny during the full moons since they've met. She proved to be a delightful young woman, and as a wolf, Valka was quite fascinated with her but kept enough distance to be sure she wouldn't get bitten, even though Jenny did figure out how to preserve some of her humanity during her changes. Also, there was the fact that during the full moons they could do some serious hunting. Valka followed Jenny as she tracked the forest for prey, deer and birds were great game, but on occasion Valka had to use the dragons to drive away an odd herd of centaurs.

Now who were the others?

As the young teens approached the dragons assumed defensive stances at the sight of the new faces. Valka stepped outside her shelter and signaled the dragons to be at ease.

"Evenin' Valka!" Merida called out.

She looked between the eleven faces and mustered a smile and asked them in her soft voice: "To what do I owe this visit?"

"Mother, these are my other friends: Ivan, Kay, Emily, Jessica, and Scythe."

"Scythe'? Is he a Viking too?" Valka asked.

"No ma'am, it's a nickname. I suppose that you could call me by my real name, Sebastian."

"I'll call you what you prefer. Now, I take it that there's something else that you lot came here for, so what can I do for you?"

"Well, Mom, Merida had a vision… but how could I explain it in a way that doesn't sound crazy? Apparently there's this cave that's the source of all magic in the world, and…"

"Oh, the Blue Fairy's Crystal Cave? I came across that fable while I was studying History of Magic. So, it actually exists?"

"There is evidence that suggests that it's in the Alps along the borderline of Austria and Germany." Scythe replied.

"At any rate, Merida had a vision of a couple of villains hurting the fairy and stealing the crystals… Even if there were no villains to speak of, we were planning on tracking the caves down during the Spring break." Hiccup explained.

"I'm not one for stopping an adventure, I take it that you want to bring the dragons with you, and it is a wise choice to travel with a companion that can protect you. However, I will come with you. Villains, or no villains, those caves are said to hold secrets as well as powers."

"Now what would you like to find out?" Kay asked.

"I just want to know if the legends are true." Valka replied.

"So do we." Kay told her.

The students stuck around long enough to tell Valka a little bit about themselves, and then the newer friends met the dragons. The Furious Flurries introduced them to Cloudjumper, Solaria, Valhalla, Toothless, Braveheart, and Dagger. Solaria took a shine to Emily, Jessica fell for Toothless, Ivan looked to Valhalla, Dagger took to Scythe, Jenny caught Braveheart's eye, and Kay seemed to charm Cloudjumper.

From that point onto the spring break, the friends would pay a visit to Valka and the dragons from time to time to bring them treats to maintain a friendship with the dragons.

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As the break was approaching, Merida would tell her friends about reoccurrences of her visions taking place in the crystal caves, all of them just as bad as the first, so when the first day of the break had arrived, the whole gang was quick to get going. They packed provisions to last them a few days, and ran into the forest to meet up with Valka.

Sure, they exchanged pleasantries when they met up with her, but everyone just wanted to get going. They all hopped on their dragons and took flight to the southeast.

"This dragon flies a lot smoother than what I'm used to." Kay stated as he was riding Cloudjumper.

"Oh, and what do you ride?" Valka asked him.

"Not a dragon, I can say that much!"

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There wasn't much else to say about the trip, apart from the fact that they made a stop in the Netherlands for the dragons to rest their wings for a while, and so the group could take a bathroom break and eat something.

Then they took off again, heading for Germany's southern border. Cloudjumper took the lead when the Alps came into view, and Kay began reading the magic in the air. With Kay doing his reading, the group went really quiet, and the dragons got a vibe that told them to slow down.

Quiet… Still… No sound to be heard outside of the breeze and the beating of wings, and the sun was about to set.

"I got something!" Kay called out, perking up the gang. He directed Cloudjumper to where he was picking up the source of the magic. It wasn't that hard for Kay to follow, as this magic held no favoritism in a particular element, like a person would, and its signature was steady, which was very unlike a potion. However, it still held a lot of power, it was just neutral. This made finding the cave's area a simple task, somewhat to Kay's surprise. Then again, if Scythe hadn't deduced where the general location of the cave would be, finding its precise location would've been a lot harder.

As the sun had set, and a half-moon was rising, Kay eventually called out that they could land again. Sure enough, the dragons landed in front of a cave entrance. They walked inside with the dragons following after them, except for Valhalla and Dagger , and after turning a corner, they found the legendary glowing crystals!

"I read in the stories that if a witch or wizard touches a crystal, they'll show you your most powerful element in magic." Scythe stated.

"Indeed, but you still have to pursue and develop that element of magic. Jack and Elsa, being elementals, it would be safe to say that their command over ice and snow makes them more powerful. Also, the crystals are said to show bizarre images, but they'll be easy for the person touching them to figure out." Kay replied.

Jack and Elsa still put their hands on a crystal, and they did indeed show them humanoid figures using their elemental powers, but Jack's snow was blowing in the wind, and Elsa's ice was used to create other figures.

Ivan, to his surprise showed him an eye glowing with an almost heavenly light, and to further an angelic aspect, an image of feathered wings appeared in the pupil. His great power was somehow in his eye… Strange, he originally thought that it would be in his potions.

Rapunzel's crystals showed very little to surprise her. She saw a phoenix healing the wounded. However, Jessica's crystal showed a potion bottle, a human, a dragon, and a human again, and then repeated the pattern. She could make sense of it, but wasn't too sure how she was going to pursue it.

Hiccup was also left with very little surprise when the crystal showed a human transforming into a dragon; and so Merida, after hearing what her friends saw, decided to not even bother. She knew that she would then have to pursue Divination if she wanted to become as powerful as she possibly could.

Emily was actually surprised to see flames when she put her hand on a crystal; it made her recall when she caused one of Jack's potions to blow up in his face and ending up turning his hair white, but actual power over fire? That wasn't what she was expecting.

Jenny's crystal was somewhat surprising to her as it showed her a brain… Though she knew that it was referring to powers of the mind, and then it showed two people fighting. She was taken aback a bit.

Lastly there were Scythe and Kay. Scythe's crystal showed a person summoning sharp protrusions from the ground and reaping them like crops. Kay's showed two figures, one moving and another lying still on the ground. The one that moved knelt down to hold the still one in its arms… the still one never moved, and Kay turned away from the crystal with his hands trembling.

"Is there something wrong?" Elsa asked him.

"I just wasn't expecting what my crystal showed me." Kay replied. He then reached into a satchel and pulled out a hammer and chisel to break off a crystal the size of his fist. It took him a little while to hack it off the rock, but he eventually broke it off and stuffed it in his satchel.

By this time, it was nightfall, but the glow of the crystals allowed the group to explore the cave further.

"There's no sign o' the fairy." Merida stated.

"There's actually not much reason for the Blue Fairy to be here. The story I told Scythe, Ivan, and Hiccup is ancient. Since the Black Fairy's origin, she and Blue had thrown a lot of their dust into the world, and it turned out that magic can be passed down through generations, or can happen by chance now. So, the fairy doesn't have to grind the crystals as much as she used to." Kay replied.

"Merida, weren't there supposed to be others here?" Jack asked.

"Aye, keep yer eyes peeled, an' yer wands out." Merida replied.

They wandered ever deeper into the cave, when something came to Jenny:

"Guys, we're no longer the only group here. I can smell two more people, one has an odor of dirt and a pine forest, the other holds more of a scent of spices and hazelnuts, and I also smell something more like a creature, a dragon perhaps?"

The group stared at her.

"What? Oh, thanks to my werewolf curse, my hearing and smell are heightened during the night."

Eventually, the group came across a cavern, opening up to show a pair of dragons, a Nadder and a dragon that Valka called a Rumblehorn. Luckily for the moment, they were asleep, but inside the cavern, there was a tapping sound. It was similar to the sound Kay made when he broke off his crystal.

Toothless took the lead by stepping inside first and sniffing the air, and held defensive poses towards the other dragons. The remainder of the group stepped inside with their wands drawn as they found two people harvesting crystals. There was no doubt that they were Mor'du and Gothel.

Merida threw the first jinx and caught their attention, Mor'du called for their dragons, and they returned fire. Braveheart got between the villains and the group, taking the dragons' fire herself. As Braveheart and Toothless lunged for their opponents, Gothel and Mor'du saddled up on their dragons and the beasts started for their escape, with Mor'du snatching up Jenny along the way.

"YOU FILTHY SCUM! WE'LL GET HER BACK!" Jessica shouted. She beat Hiccup to Toothless' saddle and led the pursuit… but the group left so quickly, by climbing onto the other dragons' backs, that they left Hiccup behind! He followed his friends out of the cave on foot, but by the time he got outside, he had lost his group, but he could hear the shouts and shrieks of the people and dragons. However, another threat had arrived. On the ground, Hiccup found a herd of black horses with coats looking like they were made of black sand… His vial around his neck was filled with the same black sand… they were equine golems of the entity that once attacked his home. The horses locked eyes with Hiccup and charged!

"Lumos Maxima!" Hiccup incanted, creating a blinding light that sent the horses reeling, but some still advanced, provoking Hiccup to cast an 'Incendio' at the horses, setting them alight, and causing them to fall, to the point he drove them to disperse.

Jack landed in time to see the last two to flee the scene, he dismounted from Dagger's back and met Hiccup's eyes.

"Is everyone alright?" Hiccup asked him.

Jack shook his head, and as the others were landing, he replied: "Your mother leapt onto the back of the Rumblehorn, the dragon that took Jenny and Mor'du was riding, but Mor'du knocked her out by striking her head, while Gothel prevented the rest of us from getting too close with her Nadder's spine shots and fire. We tried to chase them down, but we lost them in the clouds. I'm sorry Hiccup, but they're gone with Valka and Jenny."

For the first time in a long time, Hiccup shed a couple tears. It was only months ago that he met up with his mother, but by the time he thought that he had really gotten to know her, she was gone again. So, Jack put an arm over Hiccup's shoulders and told him: "Hey, we'll find them eventually. Also, Toothless and Jessica took a good shot at Gothel, and she dropped a pouch of crystals she had harvested. At least the villains won't be able to abuse their power."

"I AM GOING TO KILL THAT BRUTE FOR KIDNAPPING JENNY!" Jessica shouted several meters away from Jack and Hiccup.

"Oi, I got first dibs!" Merida called out.

"It's not their power that I'm worried about, Jack, it's what they plan to do to my mother and Jenny." Hiccup stated.

"They're gone now, so, I think that it would be best if we find a place to spend the rest of the break, I'm sure that Merida will have a vision that would give us a clue as to where they've gone eventually." Jack said, trying to keep things in a lighter note. Hiccup threw another 'Incendio', this time at a tree, and made it explode, but he had to blow off his steam somehow.

The group soon gathered to figure out where they were going to go next to spend the rest of the break; as Hogwarts didn't take in early returns for some reason. As they discussed, Hiccup saw Jessica holding the pouch of crystals she'd stolen from Gothel.

In the end, they flew to Corona, and after selling a couple crystals, they had raised enough money for food and drink, but the group was welcomed into the palace for lodging. However, with each passing day, they were hoping that Merida would get a vision as to where Valka and Jenny were taken.

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In the meantime, Valka and Jenny were thrown into an empty room of the gloomy hideout outside of Pontefract, and were locked inside; there, they were only to be fed pears and gruel for the day. Jenny, with her hatred for pears, couldn't bear even the sight of them, and so Valka had them to herself, leaving the gruel for her.

"Bah, this stuff tastes like parchment!" Jenny hissed.

"Eat it anyway, you'll need your strength." Valka told her.

"I don't see how parchment will make me strong! I'm a wolf not a rat!"

The door soon opened and Mor'du stepped in to throw them some old blankets, and then he stepped aside, allowing Pitch Black to walk in supporting himself on a walking stick.

"What do you want with us?" Jenny growled.

"Oh, I just couldn't bear the thought of such a pretty little werewolf, like yourself, staying at that school any longer. All those students who know what you are, knowing that you're a cursed creature, it breaks my heart." Pitch Black replied.

"What are you talking about? I have friends!"

"Oh, and what friends they were. How do you know that they can truly accept you? They're obviously not rescuing you right now, and the only one of them who could show you any real compassion is afraid of you too. Oh sure, the boy will walk you out to the forest on those full moon lit nights, but once you started to transform, he would always retreat to the treetops, even though he could face you in his dragon form."

"Stop it! That's my son you're talking about!" Valka snapped.

"Your son… Oh yes of course, there is a family resemblance. I see the hopes you have in him in aiding the Vikings to make peace with those troublesome dragons. How can he show them what the dragons really are like when he is so afraid to show his father that there is a dragon within him? His father really loves him dearly, but you son is too afraid to show him the truth about himself for fear that he will never be accepted. You see, while you were living your blissful life of adventure, your son has been living a life where he has been tormented by your nephew. All those days where he could of used his mother's love, and you were away, playing the mothering role to dragons."

"Stop! My son has forgiven me! He knows why I didn't return and understands it, just like I understand his fear!"

"How can you be so sure? It's not like you raised him to be honest and fair. Oh, what would your husband think? He believes you to be dead, and yet here you are, alive and well, and you left him to raise your son alone. What would he do if he found out that you're alive?" Pitch Black questioned.

Valka's thoughts of these questions only heightened her fear, making Pitch stronger.

"How do you know all of this?" Jenny asked.

"My dear, sweet wolf, I make it my business to know everyone's greatest fears. Now, farewell and enjoy the pears." Pitch Black replied before he turned and left the room.

Jenny bowed her head and shivered within a blanket Mor'du threw in.

"We'll be alright, Jenny, we'll get through this." Valka told her.

"I have hope that help will come." She replied.

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Oh no! How are the Furious Flurries and their friends going to save Jenny and Valka? If you got any ideas on what you want to see during the rescue, let me know.

Also, Happy Easter to those who celebrate it.

Please review.