At the very least it's not another short chapter. Unfortunately there's not a lot happening. I wanted to take some time to develope Jack's relationships with some of the others as well as review the minute changes in Jack's feelings. I should add a "slow burn" warning in the summary.

NEWS. I have taken the time to go back and make some changes (and correct a few mistakes). Those of you who don't want to reread; I've fixed Rapunzel's character to give her a bit more life, and I've changed Eugene from a servant to a shape-shifting familiar. It made so much sense that I don't know why I didn't do that right away... That is pretty much all that's really changed.

Oh, I also changed the fact that Hiccup figured out Jack is from Berk in the last chapter. I've been thinking about mapping the area for myself so I don't get my details confused, but this site doesn't support images so you'll have to make do with the map appearing in this chapter.

That is all; Happy reading!

Care

When Jack awoke that morning he was tired. His head was abuzz with the same questions that had plagued him last night.

Why had Hiccup allowed someone who wanted to hurt him to live here with the rest of them? How could Jack help him break the spell and why wouldn't it happen if he knew how it was done?

Why did he care so much?!

Jack buried his face in the pillow. He knew the answer to the last one but he still hated it. He cared because Hiccup and everyone else didn't make him feel lonely. Not everyone was kind and not everybody liked Jack, but there was no one like Snotlout lurking around with threats and taunts. There was no Flynn Rider here playing cruel pranks, and while there were quite a few odd characters in this castle, none of them were creepy and/or scared him like Pitch Black.

Jackson liked the people of this castle and they accepted his presence. Ida and Dagur were cooking for him and making sure he ate. Mulch and Bucket kept him company in the stable when Jack took care of Philippe. Bucket didn't say a lot, and it had taken Jack several days to figure out it was because Bucket took a really long time trying to think up an answer to whatever Jack said to him. Fishlegs and his enthusiastic sharing of knowledge and Tooth Fairy with her happy chatter in the evenings before Jack went to bed both made him happy.

And Hiccup. It was true the dragon was the one Jack hadn't spent the most time with, but he certainly was the heart of everything here. Hiccup was the one who suffered, who tried to break the curse and apparently did his best to nudge Jack in some direction or other in order to achieve that. In other words; he was using Jack. He knew that, but couldn't feel it. He didn't feel manipulated the way he had when Flynn had strung him along and left him trying to save whatever dignity he could from the humiliation of whatever the prank was. Hiccup wasn't mean-spirited, hadn't forced Jack to do anything and still the dragon said Jack was helping.

But he didn't want to touch Jack.

The boy sat up and pulled his hands through his white hair.

"Oh, good morning Jack. You're up early today," Tooth Fairy's chipper voice greeted him.

"Morning Tooth," Jack yawned. Then he just sat there, staring out at the darkness outside.

"How are you feeling?"

He turned to face the dresser. A whole lot had happened the day before. Jack realized that just twenty-four hours earlier he had left this room in high spirits, planning a party for everyone to attend and forget the bloody curse for a while.

"I really wanted to hold that party," Jack said. "Would you have come?"

Tooth Fairly looked uncomfortable and didn't answer.

"I would really have liked it if you did come. Well, I don't think it will happen now, but it wouldn't have felt right if you hadn't shown up."

"Sometimes your kindness has a foot in cruelty, Jack," Tooth Fairy said, startling the teen on the bed.

"What? Why? What did I say?"

The dresser laughed. "No, you misunderstand. It's just that… you make me warm inside. It's scary."

"…how?"

The dresser smiled kindly at him, and Jack truly loathed how he was getting accustomed to the edge of sadness in every one of Tooth's expressions.

"It's good that you don't understand," she said. "If you did you would be a wholly different person and then I wouldn't like you anymore. Just like I don't like Ida and she doesn't like me."

Jack frowned in confusion and surprise, trying to remember if he'd witnessed any hostility between the two.

He did actually. The first morning. Ida had called Tooth "annoying company", but other than that Ida, now that Jack thought about it, might have been ignoring Tooth.

"Why don't you like each other?"

Tooth sighed deeply. "I wish there was an easy answer besides that we're not carved from the same wood."

"But Ida's not… oh." Jack was silent for a minute, mulling Tooth's implication over. "I suppose that is the easiest answer. I think I understand a little bit."

"A little bit is good enough," the dresser smiled. "Now, how should we dress you today?"

Since Jack had gone through most of the clothes stored in Tooth that was his size, the selection had been slim this morning. Tooth had offered a dress that was admittedly simple, pretty and blue, but Jack wasn't sure his pride would survive that, so he'd ignored Tooth's horror at his choice of clothing and left for breakfast. Now he wore reddish wool leggings that Jack had to tie up with a belt, and a knitted moss-green pullover that was too tight.

Tuffnut laughed so hard he almost split in two when Jack arrived in the kitchen.

"Under any other circumstance I would have asked why you haven't bothered doing your laundry," Ida was saying with a straight face that looked suspiciously stiff.

"Can you even move in that thing?" Dagur asked as he poured Jack the usual porridge.

"Barely," Jack muttered and accepted the plate, looking curiously at the red dots in the food.

"Lingonberries," the oven explained.

"Thanks."

"Man, you look like you dressed in the dark!" Tuffnut cackled.

"The fashionista obviously hasn't done the other half of her duties," Ida said soberly and poured Jack his tea, effectively ending Tuffnut's mirth.

The human looked up. "Fashionista? What's that?"

"Someone who knows how to dress and dress others correctly according to a code. Or something like that," Ida offered as an explanation, looking like she didn't think much about the concept.

That's when it hit Jack she was talking about Tooth.

"You really don't like each other."

"Clever boy. Now eat, and the I'll show you to a room where you can do your laundry. Bring the kettle to boil water because I can only show the way, I'm afraid."

The human nodded. "Thank you. I really want to wear that blue sweater again."

No matter the situation, there were always pros and cons. Jack found he couldn't carry all of his dirty clothes in his arms without dropping half of it, so he asked Ida where he could find a basket of some sort.

"Wait right there, Jack," the teapot said firmly and then turned to the rug. "We need a laundry basket in Tooth Fairy's room."

The mat moved, a small wave moving out from both sides of Jack and Ida's cart. A minute later a big wicker basket came running.

"That's so neat," Jack muttered as he stuffed the clothes into the basket and lifted it up. It wiggled for a second, but then settled. It was probably a long time since someone carried it.

"Yes it is, once we realized it," Ida shared with a little sigh, but she was smiling.

The kettle and her was on the cart again. It had never spoken and Jack had never seen eyes on it, so he supposed the cart was just that. It was the perfect transportation for Ida whose cracks said she shouldn't challenge the uneven stone floor.

"The weather has been steady for a while now," Ida said as the cart rolled in front of Jack, heading down the stairs. "We're way into November though, so I shouldn't be surprised. As long as the winds don't change we should expect many more cold days."

"You like the winter?" Jack asked curiously.

"It doesn't make a difference nowadays. I overheard Master Hiccup and Fishlegs once when they shared theories of why the seasons change. Fishlegs mentioned how dead plants and animal waste helps the crops grow, so it makes sense for the world to kill off the old plants during autumn and winter so that they can nurture the new life of spring."

Jack let that thought roll around his head for a minute. Meanwhile they arrived to a small room beyond the enormous one used as a wardrobe that Gobber had shown him once of the first days. In here sat a barrel in the middle, a mangle by one wall, a fireplace in the other and the ceiling lined with ropes dotted with clothespins.

"What did Hiccup say?"

"That a year for us is like a day for Mother Earth, where spring is morning, fall is evening and winter the night." The teapot let out a sudden laugh. "He followed that up by saying Mother Earth is beautiful when she sleeps."

Jack snorted. "That's so poetic."

"Indeed," Ida smiled and turned to the room. "Wake up! We are washing clothes today! Fetch snow and light the fire!"

The barrel jumped up at Ida's voice and Jack had to hurriedly jump aside when it ran for the door. The scorched wood bin by the fireplace awoke too and, seeing itself empty, ran out as well.

The basket in Jack's arms squirmed when the teen hugged it too tightly. "Sorry," he told it and put it down.

"I see you're still not really used to it," the teapot noted. "But I'm glad to see you're not afraid like you were before."

"I don't think I'll ever get used to this," the teen said honestly. "But yes, the fear has faded mostly. You're good to me," Jack said.

"I'm glad to hear you think so."

They were distracted by the barrel and wood bin coming back with snow and wood. The human, the only one with hands started up the fire, earning a thankful salute from one broken handle of the bin.

The barrel of snow moved in close and Jack filled the kettle with snow and hung it over the fire. Then the teen sat beside the barrel, staring at the flames as Ida's words rolled around in his head together with a lot of other things. Without his consent, his thoughts went to Flynn Rider and a hundred unrelated things.

"A penny for your thoughts?" Ida's voice spoke gently.

"Just thinking of-" Jack cut himself off, almost biting his tongue.

"…of home," the teapot finished softly. "You miss your friends and family."

They didn't say anything else for several hours. The kettle whistled three times before all the snow had become water, and then two more times to make that water hot. The kettle was filled again to keep the water warm while Jack added some soap and dumped all his clothes into the barrel. He worked mechanically as he thought. Friends and family. That meant Ida probably hadn't heard about Jack's family situation, what with his separated parents and a sister that was too painful to visit.

He thought about Anna in the bookstore. Jack had really tried to be friends with her, but she had that upper-class snobbishness about her that wouldn't go away, and no matter how much Jack tried he couldn't like her as much as he wanted. It really didn't help that she and her sister had lied to their father and put Jack in a tight spot to be with Flynn.

"I don't have friends."

"Say what?"

The teen looked up to find Ida staring at him. "What?"

"What do you mean, you don't have friends?" the teapot demanded, looking truly wounded.

It took one second for Jack to realize he'd said that out loud, and then another for something else to dawn on him.

The teen stared down at the water where his hands had paused in their scrubbing of a pair of pants.

"In Berk," he said and resumed his work. "I was thinking about how I feel that I have more friends here than in Berk."

Ida didn't speak, but her gaze was expectant and a tad curious. At least that hurt look was gone.

The boy wrung out the pants and pinned them up to dry while the wood bin carefully poked another log into the fire. Jack helpfully put the log more firmly into the flames.

"I have white hair," he said at last.

"Yes?" Ida answered slowly, eyes going to the crown of Jack's head. "It's peculiar. But I'm a teapot. Which one is more strange to you?"

The teen smiled bashfully at her. "Matter of perspective," he agreed, earning a little smirk from the teapot. "It's just that my hair was brown before, then one day I had a couple white strands in there and within a year all the brown was gone." Jack dug around in the barrel for another article of cloth. "This phenomenon started up some mean rumours about me. Old Stoick vouched that there was nothing unnatural about me, that I was as human as all of them, but people like to be cruel, I suppose. Even people who somewhat accepted that I wasn't some form of abnormality treated me like I was just that."

He wrung out the shirt and pinned it up.

"I remember, the day after father left for Burgess and… well, I suppose he came here instead. That day there was… the father of a girl I tried to be friends with came looking for her, his daughter I mean, thinking I was courting her without his permission." He looked up at the teapot with a rueful smile, only to catch a stiff smile and too wide eyes on Ida's face.

"Go on!" she yelled, startling Jack so much he flinched.

Ida shook herself and cleared her throat.

"Please go on," she repeated.

It took Jack a moment to recall what he'd been saying. "Oh, yeah, well. The girl wasn't with me, of course."

The last two words were loaded with a bitterness Jack hadn't realized he still carried around. He glanced at Ida, who was still silent and listening intently. It was just like with Hiccup. The dragon did that too; listened, paid full attention. It made it easier to talk, to relax and to trust. Jack knew all the objects talked to each other and news travelled fast in the castle, but apparently it was only about things that concerned all of them, not gossip about details of Jack's life.

It was a liberating feeling.

"It doesn't matter. After searching my house, finding his daughter really wasn't there, he left. Then Pitch Black showed up and creeped me out and made me angry and I just felt… abandoned."

Silence fell over them again. Jack stole a glance at Ida now and again. She had a contemplative look in her eyes as she stared into the water.

"Is that why you traded yourself for the toymaker?" she asked and looked at him. "Is that why you haven't tried to escape more than that one time?"

Jack wrung out a pair of socks. "Yes," he mumbled, reluctantly, heat rising in his face. "Can't say if it's a good thing or not; to feel more devoted to you and Hiccup than to humans. I really don't like that you've locked the windows though, and I am quite frustrated that I'm still a prisoner. It doesn't quell the feeling that I have more purpose here with you than I ever had before."

"When did you figure out about the windows?" Ida asked curiously and without a sliver of shame.

"I tried to open the window in my room one morning. Tooth explained why I couldn't."

The teapot looked thoughtful. "If you ask Master Dragon, and promise him to stay put, I'm sure he'll open the windows for you."

The boy gave up his search for more clothes in the barrel and figured with equal parts relief and disappointment that he was done and had nothing more to occupy his hands with. He rested his arms against the edge of the barrel with a deep sigh.

"Do you really think I should do that? Wouldn't it send the wrong message?"

"Give him a reason to trust you then," Ida said.

Jack looked at the teapot, a wrinkle appearing between his eyebrows. Ida's voice had had its usual matter-of-fact tone, but for some reason she appeared tense.

The moment was broken by the coat hanger, a truly beautiful piece made from ash wood decorated with daisies that had used Ida's lid as a hat to greet Jack one morning. It came in holding a knife and fork.

"Looks like even Dagur has started to care about you," Ida said. "Don't expect him to be happy that you're late for lunch."

Jack tried, really tried not to let it happen, but the ball of happiness in his chest warmed him until he wanted to cry. He took measured breaths as he followed Ida and the coat hanger back to the kitchen.

"There you are!" Dagur hollered, so outraged the kitchen was almost uncomfortably hot from his fires. "Hiccup caught a hare for you this morning and you can't even be on time to enjoy this wonderful pie while it's warm!"

Jack blinked, opened his mouth but closed it again. "Of course Hiccup's the one fixing the food," he said instead.

"Yes, of course he's doing the hunting; he's the only one here who needs to eat, you know!" the oven shouted as he slammed with the pans and cleaned his hot plates.

The human just nodded as he slowly sat by the table. He had wondered silently where the food came from, but hadn't dared to ask for one reason.

"So why… has Hiccup never joined me for meals?"

Dagur slowed in his cleaning of himself. In front of Jack Tuffnut made a thoughtful face. "Have any of you seen Hiccup eat?" the cup asked the room at large.

"He likes hand-food, things he can chew on while doing something else. Or soups he can just swallow in one gulp," Dagur shared. Then he sighed, like exasperated. "Really, that guy spends more time keeping the food coming than eating any of it."

Jack just nodded and ate his, true to form, lukewarm meal. Dagur had really worked today. The pie was a savoury mix of boiled vegetables, peas, fried leeks, onion and garlic and chewy hare meat covered with mashed potatoes and cheese.

"I'm sorry I wasn't back on time. I bet this would have been wonderful when warm."

"You bet it would have been great! It's my grandmother's aunt's recipe. She made the best pies this side the rift."

Jack looked up. "The rift?"

The oven eyed one of his hot plates critically. "Yeah, the one on the east side. Hiccup's a little worried about it since the wall there has started giving in and falling into the abyss."

The teen frowned. "Why would anyone build a castle by a rift if it's at risk of falling into it?"

The oven looked up, and for once there was no air of annoyance to him. "It wasn't there when the castle was built, but it was a fort back then. A line in the defence against the country on the other side. Then one of the Enchantresses, I'm not sure which one, ended the battle by cracking the earth open like an egg."

Jack's eyes widened at the metaphor. "That's a lot more power than I thought the Enchantress… I mean any Enchantress possessed."

"Cool," Tuffnut gushed, his eyes wide with awe. "I wish I could have seen that."

Jack stared at the cup in disbelief. Then he shook his head and returned his attention to Dagur.

"So the castle was abandoned?"

"By the military, yes. The king didn't have any use for this base when there wasn't a way to cross the abyss back then," the oven shrugged and slid the steel brush over the counter and into the sink. "Twenty years later it was bought by a lord who had the building remodelled from a fortified military outpost to what it is today. Unfortunately Hiccup got too bored looking this up for me so I don't know how many generations the lord's family lived here before the flow of business changed and they moved out."

"Why would you ask… you're an oven. Never mind," Jack apologized quickly and took another bite of his almost finished pie. "Hiccup's not interested in history then, I guess?"

"Not in the slightest," Dagur pouted, clearly unhappy about this fact.

The teen finished his food as he thought. Someone had told him about the rift outside the crack in the wall, but he couldn't remember who. Now he was starting to wonder about the geography of the land.

"Is Hiccup in the library?"

The faucet snorted as Jack placed the plate in the sink. "Probably not. He said something about bad weather this morning, so he might be in the sitting room."

"Thanks. See you all at supper."

Hiccup was not in the sitting room, and Jack did his best to quench the disappointment.

"What are you wearing?!" Fishlegs cried, gaping in horror at Jack's too big pants and too small shirt.

"Oh, laugh it up. This was all Tooth had this morning so I've spent all day doing laundry," Jack muttered, suddenly happy he hadn't found Hiccup.

"Tooth dressed you like that?" Fishlegs continued with his squeaky, disbelieving voice. "I thought she'd rather chop off her left hand than let anyone leave her dressed uncomfortably. Is she sick?"

Oh, so that was it. Jack blushed a little. "Tooth doesn't have a left hand?"

The book blinked, then he seemed to sag. "Right."

Awkward silence filled the room.

"Would you come with me to the library? Dagur tipped me on something interesting."

"Sure, will you carry me?"

With a nod, Jack picked the book up and pressed Fishlegs to his chest. He wasn't heavy by any means, but it felt wrong to carry him under his arm.

"What are we researching today?" Fishlegs asked.

"Geography," Jack answered.

"Oh, phooey."

The teen looked down at the book in surprise. "You don't like that?"

"I have a good sense of direction, but you should ask Hiccup about charts and stuff, that's his niche."

"Charts and stuff?"

Jack turned around and found Bunny on a pedestal by the wall. The painted bunny looked at them both strangely.

"Yes, I was just talking to Dagur about history, and it made me curious about the land," Jack explained again. Then he jumped out of his socks and threw Fishlegs into the air when Hiccup suddenly dropped down beside him. The dragon quickly snatched the startled book out of the air.

"Good riddance Hiccup, you scared me!" Jack gasped with a hand pressed against his heart.

"Sorry," the dragon said, looking mildly startled himself. "You okay there, Fishlegs?"

"I'm okay," the book squeaked, then groaned. "Less okay. I think I saw my life flashing by."

The dragon nodded and sent a short glare at a snickering Bunny before turning to Jack.

"I didn't think you'd mistake my voice for Bunny's."

Heat spread across Jack's face.

"Please do that more often, that was hilarious," the vase said.

"Hysterical," Hiccup grunted sarcastically with a roll of his eyes before focusing on Jack. "I do what to ask what Tooth was thinking this morning, but I'm more curious about what you meant by charts and stuff."

Jack bit down on his embarrassment, convincing himself that nobody was really laughing at him as much as they worried about Tooth, which should be heart-warming. He also wasn't going to say that Tooth had been ashamed of letting Jack walk around like this, but Jack would not wear a dress and that was that.

The dragon nodded and turned. "Let's go then."

"We're a little out of touch around here," Bunny said and followed as well. "Who is king nowadays?"

"King Baldur of Luken," Jack answered.

"Really? I'd thought he'd had kicked the bucket by now. What about prince Baltazar?"

At this the teen just shrugged. "I've no idea. The tax-collectors don't talk about the prince."

"That's where you get your news? Tax-collectors?" Hiccup asked as he opened the door to the library.

"Of course not, but I don't ask travellers about politics."

At this the dragon sighed in disappointment while Bunny nodded in understanding.

"What would you ask about?" Jack questioned the vase while Hiccup searched the shelves with Fishlegs.

"Foods," Bunny answered immediately. "And sweets. You see, I'm a pastry-maker, and it's important for me to keep up with the trends!"

Jack gaped at the vase. "What trends?"

"Food trends of course! Like when I was a lad, sweets were supposed to be made mostly out of sugar, but then people who ate a lot of sweets started experiencing toothache, so less sweet or even non-sweetened pastries became popular. When I started out…"

"Here's a map, but it's fifty years old," Hiccup cut into Bunny's excited tale.

The dragon rolled out the enormous sleet on the table, and Fishlegs and Bunny stepped on the edges to keep it down on one side while Jack helped Hiccup with the other.

"We are here." The dragon pointed at a spot at the end of a road right beside a long, black line that stretched on for several miles from north to south between the borders of the kingdoms.

Jack studied the area. He understood why the old road from Berk had been abandoned. It headed north to circle the mountain before it joined the main road between Burgess in the south and Visithug in the north. The new one went straight south.

"Hey, I found Twiglet!"

Both dragon and human turned to the vase. Bunny had moved a little and was pointing at the map.

"It's my birth town," he explained.

Hiccup moved his claws gently over the map, locating the town long before Jack would have.

"That's quite close to the capitol," Jack remarked. "Did you ever make anything for the royal family?"

"No, my mother was from Hysteria, a couple miles west of Berk."

Hiccup pointed it out to Jack.

"You really are good with maps," the teen pointed out. "I know my dad was born in the land up north, but I couldn't point out where."

"Oh, so that was his accent," Fishlegs mumbled.

Hiccup's fingers had moved over the paper, and were now resting just below the spot that was Berk. Jack couldn't help but steal a glance at the dragon. Ida had made Jack promise to not tell anyone he had lived in Berk, and he wasn't about to now and risk bringing up painful memories or drive home the fact they were all prisoners here.

"Isn't there a sign here at Iduna's Outpost?"

"What?"

Jack stared at the dragon, uncomprehensive, then looked down at where Hiccup was pointing. Then he studied the map again. This side of the country was covered with mountains and hills and little else. The road north from Berk zigzagged through the uneven landscape towards the main road. It's just that the place where Hiccup was pointing was the only place it forked.

Fishlegs and Bunny were also staring with eyes growing wider as they too started to understand.

"There… there is a sign," Jack admitted quietly, "but it was illegible."

"Figures," Hiccup muttered. "It's been there since before the rift."

The teen waited for the dragon to say something else, but out of the four of them, Hiccup was the only one acting unfazed.

"And you have the nerve to accuse Jack of being too smart!" Bunny yelled. "Seriously?!"

Hiccup rolled his eyes. "What do you mean? We all knew the toymaker was going to Burgess. It's not that hard to figure out."

"So you knew from the start?" Jack asked.

"Of course I did. Who told you to keep quiet about it?"

The boy shrugged, feeling like he'd been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. "Ida. I was in the kitchen when I figured out who you all are."

Hiccup just nodded and returned his eyes to the map. The silence stretched and weighted down on Jack's head until he couldn't take it anymore.

"Take me up on the roof!"

Hiccup jerked upright. "Pardon?"

"The rift. That's what I was really curious about because Dagur said it was created by the Enchantress. He said she cracked the earth open 'like an egg'. I can't even imagine it so… and I thought I'd take a look."

"Huh? So you didn't want to find the best route of escape?" Fishlegs spoke.

Jack glared at the book, wounded and reminded that Ida was probably the only one he'd convinced he wasn't going to escape. This also felt like the worst time to ask Hiccup to open the windows for him.

"No, I wasn't," he just said, sullen.

"The main building is the highest point," Hiccup mused slowly, glancing out the window and distractedly rolling up the map. "But you'd probably have a better view from the southern tower where the wall has cracked."

Jack's heart took a leap. Hiccup was actually heeding his request? That meant he would get to ride on Hiccup's back again.

Why did that thought make him so happy?

The dragon put the map back in its place. "Let's go then, Jack."

Ruffnut was suspicious. For several days now North had been a changed man. To everyone else this was a good sign. Thorston's daughter wasn't so sure. She still came by the house every morning and night, but North had started taking care of everything by himself. Now she came by to keep the old man company, to make sure he really wasn't losing it.

The toymaker spent all his time on the animals and house, not making toys. If Ruffnut didn't know better, she would say North was preparing to leave. He hadn't said anything to her though. Not even after she had explained her deal with Jack. North had just grunted.

Today though, Ruffnut wasn't alone in going to visit the old man.

"I heard Overland has gotten out of his slump," Flynn said, and for once he wasn't trying to flirt with her. In fact, he sounded worried.

Ruffnut just hummed.

"You don't sound like you agree. May I ask you to share your thoughts?"

"He hasn't gotten out of the slump," the woman said slowly. "I think he just… changed direction?"

The innkeeper nodded. "I can't believe he's stopped worrying about Jack when it didn't seem to me like he thought the kid's dead."

"You think he's about to go look for him too?"

"That sounds a lot more logical to me. And now that there's two of us, can I expect your help in talking him out of it?"

Ruffnut gave the man a wary look. "Why would you want to stop him?"

"I happened to notice his horse is missing," Flynn shrugged. "Dad will have my head if I offer one of ours when I doubt it'll be returned. I also did my math. The toymaker left the village late morning and Jack disappeared two days later, on horseback."

"I didn't tell you that," Ruffnut stated.

"No, Pitch Black did. You can always ask him about what Jack does."

The woman shivered. She hadn't liked Mildew, Pitch's father, but he had been more of a nuisance than a threat. The gravedigger however made Ruffnut's skin crawl as much as Flynn's mirth about the fact.

"It was Jack who asked you to take care of his home while he was gone too," the man continued, then froze mid-step.

Ruffnut stood rooted in place too. They had reached the bridge, and in front of them the Overland household stood dark and quiet. The windows were barricaded along with the barn that held the animals.

Flynn took off towards the door of the house and Ruffnut ran for the barn. It was firmly locked, but her yanking on the door caused a chorus of startled clucks form inside. She heard Flynn call out and bang the door to the house as she reached up and felt around under the barn roof for a key.

Swearing in frustration Ruffnut kicked the wall and turned away. Flynn was coming around the corner, looking pale.

"He's gone," he said like he couldn't believe it. "In the dead of winter!"