Please don't hate me... but at least at this pace (and with the aid of a few reviews) I'll have this finished before the end of the year! Please have faith in love!

The true face of the curse

Eugene awoke with a start to a lot of magical activity and noises on the other side of the castle wall. He swiftly took note of two things; it was morning, and his body hadn't fully recovered from the repellent.

"Definitely rosemary."

But 'not fully recovered' didn't mean he was completely downed anymore, and he'd rested. He had access to his senses and all muscles seemed to respond when he would carefully shifted his weight, wiggle his toes, blink, open and close his mouth and tried to stretch out his wings.

Perfect.

Except for the fact he apparently couldn't fly.

"Well, damn. Now what?"

The familiar scanned the wall before him. He had plenty of choices in terms of animals that could climb this old, crumbling wall without trouble, but Eugene didn't dare try them all out in case his magic ran out again. He had to choose carefully.

Hiccup carefully let out a breath, still staring at the open door and gate, too rattled to fully comprehend there had been another human in the castle.

"What the hell just happened?" Bunny demanded from the top of the stairs.

"We had a visitor," Gobber explained. "He came looking for Jack."

"Did you see how he fled? I've met chickens with more guts," Astrid said with astonishment.

The dragon shook his head as his wits slowly returned after the fright and surprise. "Is anyone broken?"

"No, nothing happened. He couldn't even see us."

"But it certainly is cold out today," Ida said and Hiccup heard how she shivered. In his mind he heard the teapot crack and fall to pieces.

"I'll close the door, and the gate."

Pulling the heavy oak door closed behind him, Hiccup immediately felt calmer, even in the chilly morning air. His friends were safe inside. He could stay out here and ward off anyone that tried to harm them. He could spend the day out here putting the yard back together, helping the bushes and trees to untangle their branches.

He could wait for Jack…

No!

Hiccup shook out his entire body, feeling it from his bones to his skin, hearing his scales rattle and fall off him. Then he stood frozen for a few seconds, frightened by the sound, experiencing flashbacks of too many friends shattering into glass shards and toothpicks and wondering if that was happening to him too. But he was made of flesh, not porcelain or wood.

The dragon folded his wings, carefully as if they hurt, even though he couldn't feel any pain.

There was almost no snow left, but the temperatures still dropped below freezing during the nights, so Hiccup treaded carefully over the icy, paved path to the gate, wrinkling his snout as a foul smell started to fill his nose.

"What in the world?"

Hiccup stopped, a hand coming up as if to protect his sense of smell as he looked around. It smelled slightly similar to a carcass, but involved a lot more fermented spices.

On the side of the path lay a lump of something Hiccup couldn't decide what it had once been. Either way it seemed to be the source of the stench, and he did the first thing that came to mind; lit it on fire. The result was that he had to jump back when the smell intensified. A second later Hiccup heard faint, distant noises that sounded like a string of curses.

But there were nobody outside that could talk…

The bushes tried to clear the way when Hiccup moved, but they were quite entangled with each other.

"Be calm. I'll help you soon."

Caressing the branches as he passed them, the guardians, the ones who had once killed Heather, Hiccup felt them lean against him in a show of devotion that made his skin crawl.

The cursing grew louder.

Hiccup froze on the spot. "I thought you ran out."

The man on the ground, dishevelled, dirty and appearing to have a hard time moving, looked up. But rather than fear, Hiccup saw only frustration in his expression.

"Why would you do this to me?!" he cried out, startling Hiccup. "I've been looking for you all over this side of the country and you almost decimate me! I want to hate you! Really bad! Who taught you to make repellents anyway?! Where'd you get the rosemary from? What's it mixed with? I can barely move! Damn, you did this to night as well!"

The dragon stood petrified, unsure how to handle this unfamiliar situation. Most of what the stranger said went right over his head, with only a few words trying to hold on before they too fell out when even more words came at him.

Was this really the same person that had fled a minute ago? Hiccup wasn't sure. He'd been caught by surprise at the appearance of another human in the castle, but he also thought he'd seen this man before. By process of elimination, this was someone related to Jack he'd asked the mirror to show him.

The man on the ground writhed and spit out questions and demands to the point Hiccup thought even the plants were starting to lean away at the onslaught. The dragon just waited for the talking to die down, but it appeared this man hadn't had anyone to talk to in at least a year.

"You have reasons to hate Mother Gothel but did you have to set up a repellent! I can't stress enough how much I hate it! Only rosemary has ever done this to me. But it should be extinct. What? You found an even more powerful spice? It is a spice, isn't it? Is it not? I can't believe it! Rapunzel need to know this. I can't get back to her like this! Hey, she can't even come here with that thing active. What do you have to say to that, huh?!"

The stranger finally silenced long enough to actually pay proper attention to Hiccup, giving the dragon time to get a word in.

"Are you not the same person who ran out of here this morning?"

"This morning? I've spent the entire morning scaling this godforsaken wall! Just what is that repellent made of!?"

The dragon tilted his head. The stranger had repeated the word "repellent" several times now, and the only thing Hiccup could come up with was that stinking heap of something he'd found by the gate and lit on fire. It must have been something either Jack or his father had dropped upon arrival, because it hadn't been there before the snow.

"It wasn't made or placed by me, whatever it was." Hiccup eyed the wall. "You may have said it in your rant just now, but I failed to pick it up. Why did you want to come here so badly you climbed the wall?"

On the ground, Eugene glared up at the cursed one. He'd searched so hard for this person, this place, and after downing him twice, the familiar was unsure if he was relieved or peeved that the cursed one was polite. Still, he was clearly wary, standing at a safe distance along with…

Eugene's eyes widened and he sobered quickly, realizing he was in a really tight spot right now.

"I see you're not the only one affected by the spell. I'd love to see your friends during springtime."

Hiccup narrowed his eyes, warning bells going off in his head. "Nobody ever noticed them before."

"Well, that's a tragedy," the stranger said, and his sudden nervousness wasn't lost on Hiccup.

"Who are you?"

The man made a face of effort, apparently forcing his body to move. The dragon studied him carefully. He looked like a perfectly normal human being, nothing was out of place or discoloured. He was dressed simply in brown, green and light grey, sturdy boots and a belt. Normally people carried their weapons or pouches holding money or other things that was good to have when travelling. This man carried nothing in his belt.

Finally sitting somewhat upright, resting his elbows on his knees, the man looked up and tried to smile.

"My name is Eugene, familiar of the Enchantress."

Hiccup's immediate response was to arch his back and hiss, claws coming out and wings spreading. Around him the plants readied themselves for attack.

"Not Gothel!" the stranger, Eugene, cried and backed up. "Not Mother Gothel! She's dead! The new one! I work for Rapunzel, the new Enchantress!"

"What does it matter which one you work for?!" the dragon spat. "The Enchantresses only guard their own interests without compassion for their subjects. Those witches don't interact and they don't touch the works of another of their kind."

"That's not true!" Eugene tried, back pressed against the wall and hands waving weakly in protest. "Enchantresses are supposed to protect the country and the people by keeping magic users and creatures under wraps."

"Am I not the perfect example of that being a lie!"

"Why do you think I searched the country from Burgess to here to find you! This spell isn't right! You suffer! I see it! You're afraid and I want to help. I can help! Rapunzel can break the spell and free you!"

Hiccup didn't believe him. A cornered coward would say anything to save his own hide. He saw for his inner eye Alvin, Exellinor, the outcasts and…

Jack.

The dragon slowly and reluctantly deflated. Jack had been so distraught and blamed himself for something Hiccup didn't understand. And the rose was wilting without any sign of Hiccup or anyone else becoming human again. The worst this stranger could do was kill them all now rather than letting them all fade away, and it frightened Hiccup how little he cared about it at this point.

Eugene watched the change, how the anger flowed away, exposing the pain and grief and utter exhaustion it had been shielding.

"How long have you been here?" the familiar asked.

Green eyes stared back at him, tired, resigned and dark with hopelessness.

"Ten years and fifty-three days."

"That is truly a long time. I'm amazed you haven't fully lost your mind yet," Eugene acknowledged. "Mother Gothel died six years, tree months and eight days ago. Rapunzel, the new Enchantress, is unrelated to Mother Gothel by blood and doesn't wield magic the same way. She has sensed a disturbance in the flow of magic for a while now and sent me out to search for any active spells Mother Gothel had left behind. I found you, and I want this spell wiped out."

"Are you going to kill us?"

The familiar stared, true horror coursing through him. "Us?" he repeated, stressing the word. "Who are us?"

"Us," the dragon answered, throwing his head in the direction of the castle.

Eugene remembered what he'd overheard in Berk; that the dragons and a bunch of people had disappeared. It only took one look for the familiar to know what had become of the dragons. The man in Berk infected by Mother Gothel's magic had said something about someone getting eaten by a dragon. Apparently that was a distorted version of the truth.

"I… I see. I can see you're the Cursed One, are the humans that came here with you petrified too?"

The dragon only narrowed his eyes. The vegetation around him seemed to be on stand-by for now, since nothing moved.

"Well, like I said earlier, I'm here to lift this… curse, I suppose you'd call it. You wouldn't be willing to share the story with this helpful, incapacitated and unarmed familiar?"

"I certainly am not. After one Enchantress dooming our existence and another making sure I can't go ask for help elsewhere, I have not reason to trust a helpless familiar either.

Eugene shook violently. "Another Enchantress? Who?"

"The one across the chasm."

The first thought passing through the familiar's head was that such an act must have cost the dragon his life, the second was a reality check, because the dragon was clearly alive and standing right before him.

But of course a human wouldn't have known the boundaries between the magical guardians, so one little slip by a youngster must have been overlooked with only a slap across the fingers.

"Rapunzel will help you," Eugene repeated. "She's the Enchantress over this realm, and it is her duty to make sure magic is handled correctly. What has happened here is Mother Gothel abusing her influence. Quite severely, I might add. So I ask again… actually…" the familiar struggled a little with his limbs, but was pleasantly surprised to find he had more control and strength in them than he'd had minutes prior. He kneeled before the dragon. "I plead that you accept Rapunzel's help. If you have truly been here for ten years, I will accept your mistrust. Certainly you understand that at the very least our aid will not make it worse."

Hiccup slowly lifted his gaze, staring emptily through the wall in the direction of Berk. Jack was gone. The man who had been here this morning, who for whatever reason wore the same face as the familiar, had come looking for Jack and run out after seeing Hiccup. For the first time, someone had left the castle alive and without any promises to keep silent.

After today, Berk wouldn't stay silent either.

"Your aid is as late as the demise of the Enchantress who did this to us. It makes no difference anymore. Come."

Eugene had expected to have to beg more. The fact that the dragon gave in so easily, his air of utter hopelessness, going as far as to offer to carry Eugene on his back, the situation had to be way more dire than Rapunzel had thought.

Philippe was a much welcome aid in their journey back to Berk. After finding Jack the night before, North had made camp and had tried to get Jack to eat the dry food he'd brought. Unfortunately the dragon must have damaged him, because the teen had just stared emptily at the food.

They had broken camp at first light, and since there was barely any snow left, both Overlands sat on the horseback, leaving the skis behind. Philippe clearly felt the extra weight, his ears pulled back in displeasure, but he moved steadily forward.

Jack was silent the whole time, leaning against North. The elder was unsettled, relieved to his core to have his son back, furious at the dragon for what it had put Jack through, and equally eager to put as much distance between them and the beast as going back to slay it.

At noon, as they were walking beside Philippe to allow the horse some rest, North reached a decision.

"We'll talk to Stoick once we're home and you've rested. He can organize the hunters and…"

"If you do that I'll hate you for the rest of my life!"

North turned to his son, bewildered at the outburst. Jack's blue eyes glared at him in painful, angry grief.

"His name is Hiccup! He didn't hurt you! You're the one who killed someone in that castle!"

The toymaker gaped in utter astonishment. "Me?! Why would you believe-?"

"They are objects!" Jack sobbed, repeating the furious, painful truth Bunny had once thrown in his face. "You held a talking candlestick in your hand! You talked to… you saw them! It was an accident, I know that, but… someone broke and died. There is no saving them after they break, even if Hiccup tries to put them back together. You're the one who hurt them."

Jack wiped angrily at his tears. It hurt so much that Hiccup had been right; that North really thought Jack had been held prison by a devil. And just like he'd never been able to find the time to ask the dragon to open the windows, Jack wondered how he could ever tell North how much he wanted to be with Hiccup.

"You're saying that after being locked up in a tower for all this time?"

"Of course I wasn't," Jack sniffed and gestured to Philippe. "Do we look like we haven't been taken care of?"

North stared, then looked again, properly. Jack's face was stained with tears and he looked tired, but other than that… his clothes were whole, patched in more places than North remembered them perhaps, but perfectly clean. He must have gotten regular baths too. Philippe looked well-fed, and North would have thought that was for the purpose of getting eaten if it wasn't for the sheen of his coat and hair. His hoofs looked trimmed too.

It was a little too much for North. A part of him thought the dragon must have tried to turn Jack against him. It had to be a monster! Why else had North spent the past months in agony?

"Dad." Jack's eyes were pleading, his face sad. "Please don't tell Stoick. Or anyone. Hiccup can't leave that place, and he doesn't deserve to be hunted down."

North had said it the night before, that they would move from Berk as soon as spring arrived, but he'd thought he'd get the reassurance of seeing the devil dead before then. Now he would take Jack to the other side of the country and further if he needed. Whatever the monster had done to Jack, North was certain that time and distance would make his son talk through his experiences and return to his senses.

"All right, I won't tell them about the dragon. We won't even stay in Berk long enough for them to question us. I'm packing up the house as soon as we return."

Jack swallowed and resisted the urge to immediately argue. He had already fought with Hiccup before leaving and been forced to realize that North viewed Hiccup and Ida and Fishlegs and everyone else in the castle as enemies, because North's version of what had happened was narrowed down to only his own point of view. Jack knew how overwhelming the viewpoint of the others had been to him. Astrid's sleep talking retelling of what had happened was still a bleeding wound in Jack's heart.

But how could he tell all that to his father?

"Let's go home and rest first, and then talk about it?" Jack suggested.

North nodded in agreement and they continued their journey back to Berk. It didn't lessen his resolve, though. He would be packing up the house as soon as they were back.

The dragon had opted to climb the outer wall of the castle rather than go inside. Eugene wondered why, but didn't question it. He was also wondering why the effects of the repellent was wearing off so fast now, when he thought he was actually closer to its location, when a full night's sleep had barely helped.

All around them, crawling up and down and across the walls with them were dragons, frozen in time, their souls unmoving as they were made of rock through and through. The dragon Eugene was riding moved around the living statues with great care and with an ease that said he'd done this many times.

He certainly was giving the phrase "climbing the walls" a whole new meaning, Eugene thought. But when they reached their destination, all attempts at humour Eugene had planned to keep this meeting closer to the side of light-heated were instantly forgotten.

The room was filled with bodies.

The familiar looked around from the balcony, nausea filling him at the sight of lines of heaps of wood and glass and porcelain that to his eyes were limbs and bones. He wondered if the dragon could see it too.

"The Enchantress said we had until this rose wilted to break the curse."

Eugene tore his eyes from the bodies to see a timer, but what he saw and what the dragon said didn't match.

"Is that what Mother Gothel said? Please tell me the exact words she used!"

The Cursed One frowned, a question passing through his features before concentrating on the memory.

"The exact line was; you will return yourself and everyone to their original state when you can trust, and when you hold the love and trust of a stranger. Keep an eye on this rose, it is all of your lives until the last petal falls. Shall you fail, you will watch your comrades fade away until only you remain. This is all on you."

Eugene covered his mouth with a hand, staring at the dragon and shaking his head in denial. He'd been the familiar of Mother Gothel for centuries, but he'd never been able to comprehend the depth of her cruelty. His guesses as to what this spell could be were kind in comparison.

The rose was wilting. Mother Gothel had done this to humans knowing how they would interpret her words.

"Your original state," Eugene repeated through his hand and stared at the dragon, his heart breaking for him. "Mother Gothel was the Enchantress. To them, every being's original state is dust."

And Eugene truly wished that was the end of it. The dragon's eyes widening in comprehension made it all worse.

"The rose is wilting because you're meeting the requirements. But if you never did…" his eyes glided over to the rest of the room.

Hiccup stood frozen. Everything inside his body had turned to ice while the world tilted.

Dust.

Ten years.

Toothless and Easter and Heather and everyone…

Jack.

"I'll go get Rapunzel!" the familiar said, but Hiccup could barely hear him through the rush of his blood leaving his head. "She can fix this! She can help! Give me until the end of the year! She'll need to research Mother Gothel's spellbooks to find a way to reverse it. It might seem like a long time, but to be safe…"

"You don't have that long."

Hiccup heard his own voice echo through his bones.

"P-pardon?"

The man before Hiccup looked startled.

"The village of Berk. There's been a child of theirs living here for a while but he left last night. This morning someone came looking for him and fled. Berk will send their hunters for me."

Why? Why, why, why?! Eugene tore at his hair. He couldn't let this happen. He couldn't let Mother Gothel win!

"I'll fly!" the familiar promised and shifted into the shape of a falcon. "I'll fly like the wind! I'll be back! Be right back!"

And so Hiccup found himself alone with the realization that he'd been played. That he'd spent the past ten years trying to turn them all to dust.

Turning his head just slightly Hiccup saw Toothless there, a piece of rock. Forever a piece of rock.

He felt his sanity snap.