Chapter 9

[Jack]

Never in a million years had Jack thought he'd be sitting in a French style villa on a Tuesday at dawn sipping tea with the Toothfairy, but this is where his life had taken him. He stared at the woman across from him. She had lighter skin but was covered in an array of colored feathers, mostly turquoise with some purple and yellow around her head. She'd scared the living daylights out of him on the roof. Once she'd introduced herself, she seemed unable to stop obsessing over his teeth. He'd been in the process of carrying out his hastily planned escape route to be rid of this woman when she mentioned the voices he was hearing. That had stopped him dead in his tracks, so now he sat there listening intently to this woman who had apparently also been brought about by the moon. "So to make things simple, teeth aren't just teeth, they hold our dearest memories of childhood in them. So whenever someone needs a reminder of who they are, the love they've had, or just some joy in their life, we deliver them these memories. Everyone has them, even guardians. The thing is… a few days ago yours started to… speak."

"And…. Thats not normal?"

She shook her head, "its never happened to me before ever, even in the most dire of circumstances. Those voices you heard, I heard them too. Usually when someone is in need of a memory, that specific tooth glows and the fairy in charge can go and deliver it."

"Isn't that fairy you?"

"There are almost 8 billion people in the world, a girl's gotta have a little help." As if on cue a little tiny tooth fairy flew up at him. He stared at it in surprise before cupping his hands and letting it land in its palm. " Awww it's so cute, its like a little baby tooth fairy".

"Don't compliment her too much now, they're suckers for attention." And he saw the little fairy's cheeks flush.

"Anyway," Tooth continued, " a few days ago I began to hear a voice calling your name that I had never heard in my life. Your fairy came to me with your entire capsule of baby teeth, it was like nothing I'd ever seen before, the entire capsule was glowing and it seemed as if bits of your memories were trying to escape to you."

"So… what does that mean?"

"Well, I don't know really. Thats why I went out to find you. I was hoping you could tell me. This has never happened to me before even in the worst of circumstances. Has anything happened to you recently that could have caused this? Anything out of the ordinary?"

"You mean other than the fact that the moon brought me back to life and that I have Ice Powers? You know just the ordinary." Jack replied.

"Hmmm… I don't really know what to make of this. If nothing different has happened to you then I don't know why its gotten so worked up like this all of a sudden."

"Well Teeth aren't really my domain, so do you know any way we can get the voices to stop?" Jack asked.

"Even though we don't know why, clearly it is trying to tell you something, so I suppose our best solution to stop the voiced is just for you to listen to them."

She pulled out a glowing golden capsule and held it out to him. Tentatively he grasped it from her. It was beautifully embroidered with little pixies, and on the front a turquoise diamond with what looked like a painting of himself in the center.

He looked up at Tooth who just nodded at him encouragingly… how was he supposed to tell her he had no idea how to open it? But suddenly the voices were back and louder this time. The painting of his face began to fade a bit and as he went to touch the design, the turquoise diamond it rested on flipped inward and he was blinded by a flash of light. When he opened his eyes he was no longer on the little French patio. The ground was strewn with dead leaves, and he was surrounded by trees. It looked like some kind of forest. " JAAAAACCCCKKKKK" There it was again! The same voice that had haunted him these past few weeks. He turned towards the sound to find a little girl in a dark green dress. She couldn't have been more than five years old. "JAAAAAACCCCKKKKK" she said wandering around walking around. Suddenly a figure leapt out of the bushes grabbing her, the girl screamed and Jack started to go help her… but she was giggling? She noticed a figure in a dark cloak saying "Gotcha!" And tickling her as she squealed, scooping her up in its arms. As the figure turned around Jack's jaw dropped. It was him. He had olive skin and dark brown hair but it was without a doubt him.

"JAAAAAACCKKKK. It's hide an seek, I'M supposed to find YOU."

"Well its getting pretty dark," Jack saw himself say putting the little girl down, "Mom would kill me if we came home late again because we were playing… Bet I can race you home!" and he saw himself running backwards teasing the little girl as she tried to sprint past him and then the vision began changing. He saw himself putting on shows for all the kids in the town, and playing with the same little girl again around a fire place, joking around in class rooms, and starting snowball fights that grew to include the entire neighborhood.

Suddenly the tone of the memories changed, they were on ice and the little girl, older now probably around 7 or 8 was standing on a cracked patch of ice. He looked around and noticed that this place looked familiar. It was the same place he had woken up, been called upon by the Man in the Moon. She looked at him fear in her eyes, looking for protection. "Jack… I'm scared" she plead to him. He saw himself on land at that same pond saying, " Don't worry! I gotcha. No reason to be scared, this is…. It's just like a game! Yeah you know how you can't step on the cracks on the road, its just like that!" He watched himself grab a hooked branch, the exact same one he realized he still carried with him today, the one he'd found when he'd woken up. " Easy now, don't wanna lose the game. I bet I can beat you! I always win anyways."

"Jack!"
He heard himself chuckle, "Come on one step" and his own figure stepped on to the cracking ice towards her, as the ice cracked he put on a show, exaggerating a bit as the old him tried to move himself to where the ice was a little thicker. Luckily she laughed. As the figures stepped closer together he notice the ice cracking further and subconsciously tried to add another layer of ice to save them, forgetting it was a memory. He watch as his figure pulled the little girl to shore just in time but then his body slipping crashed down, his head banging on the ice and then falling in the water himself. Time then flew forward and it was night. He stood on the edge of that same lake where his old self had saved that little girl. Jack watched his own body rise up from the lake, the staff floating up out of the water with him. The moon seemed to glow brighter and there was a moment where he himself suspended in the air, possessed that same glow of light, a halo around his body, before gasping awake and gently being place back on to the ice. This he remembered. The first day he'd been awoken, with his flight and ice ability. He watched himself fly around and experiment, but the focus of this memory didn't seem to be on him. In the distance he noticed a silhouette. The silhouette of the little girl hiding behind a tree. He watched as his newly resurrected self launched in to the sky and the girl ran to the edge of the banks of the lake and shouted his name, but it seemed lost to the wind as he flew away.

"Jack!…. Jack!" He was being shaken awake and found himself back on that little French patio looking in to a pair of concerned eyes. "Oh thank god!" He looked around to see the entire patio had iced over, probably from when he had tried to subconsciously save himself and the little girl. The sun still seemed to be in the same position as it had been when he had opened the little capsule. " Did you see that? I…I…I had a sister! I saved her! All this time, I had a family, and everything!"

Tooth looked at him a little surprised.

"What?" Jack asked her.

"You mean, before now, you didn't remember anything about your past?". Jack simply shook his head. "I've felt so lost this entire time. I could use my powers to get by, but I didn't even really know anything about who I was. I gave myself the name Jack because… he remembered the little girl shouting it in the wind. He had faintly heard it but hadn't really thought anything of it as he had been too hyped up on… well… being able to fly. When he finally had to create a persona for himself that had been the only name he could think of. " It all makes so much sense now!" The Tooth fairy was still looking at him concerned.

"Did that not happen to you?" She shook her head.

"I've never heard of any guardian not having any of their memories once they've woken up". Jack thought back to all the memories he'd just witnessed. " Well, when I fell in to the ice and… well died… I saw that I hit my head, looked pretty hard too. Maybe that had something to do with it?"

"But if you don't remember anything about who you were, whose your anchor?"

"My what?"

"Your anchor…. You don't know who your anchor is do you?"

[Rapunzel]

Rapunzel waited by empty seats at the workstations surrounded by watercolors and markers, and all different shades of glitter. Eugene appeared out of the crowd beside her, two folder paper lanterns in hand. "Madame" he said presenting hers to her before taking a seat next to her on the bench. She smoothed out the light cream colored material in front of her and stared at it, an incredible joy filling up inside of her. She had dreamt of this for so long. She noticed in her periphery as other people began to decorate theirs, but all she could do was stare, that joy slowly turning in to sorrow.

"Blondie" Eugene said snapping a finger in front of her face. She flinched as she literally got snapped out of her own thoughts.

"What's wrong?" He asked looking at her a little concerned.

She looked in to his deep brown eyes, they had little flecks of gold in them and even a small little ring of hazel now that she looked close. She turned her head back to the lantern in front of her, trying to hide the flush in her face.

" Do you know the tradition behind these lanterns?" She said softly. Eugene remained silent, which she took as a no. "Centuries ago its said that a most beautiful queen used to live at the palace, who was beloved by the King. However the queen fell ill while she was pregnant with her child. There was this magical golden flower, a gift from the sun, that was rumored could help the queen. After weeks of searching the guard finally found the flower and the queen was saved, giving birth to a beautiful little girl. But that flower came from the garden of a witch, and in anger that the precious gift from the sun had been stolen from her, the witch stole the child. The king and queen searched and searched but could not find the girl. So the queen wrote her prayer to find her daughter on a lantern, and sent it up in to the sky, hoping that the gods would help her once more and bring her daughter back. The queen did this every year on her daughters birthday, and one day several years later the princess was able to escape the witch, and she followed the lanterns light all the way back to her mother. Ever since then, it is said that any wish you write on the lanterns will come true."

" Interesting, so if I write down my need to magically gain impeccable art skills for the rest of the year, what do you think my chances are?" Eugene asked her, and she laughed softly at that. She loved that he always tried to make her feel better without ever obviously pointed out that fact.

"So… what are you writing Blondie?"

"Well that's the thing… I don't know. When I was a little girl, I lived in this city for a bit. Gothel never let me go to the art festival saying it was too dangerous and a waste of time and money. So every year I'd go up on the roof and watch as people sent their wishes in to the sky. All I ever wanted was to just go down to the festival and have a chance to learn from the artists and then at the end of a long day filled with color and music and fun make a lantern myself and send my wish up to the sky. Now I'm here and… I just feel lost. This is everything I'd been looking forward to since I was like 7 years old. What do I do now that I've done it?".

She saw Eugene think for a second and look back at his own lantern.

"Well, I guess you find a new dream then."

"A new dream?"

"Yeah. You're sixteen years old and your biggest vision in life was to light a lantern and go to a festival. Come on! There's so much more you haven't done yet. There must be something you've really wanted to do."

She looked back at him, and slowly shrugged unable to think of anything.

"Here Blondie," Eugene threw his arm around her pulling her towards him waving his other arm in front of them as if creating a scene,"close you're eyes. Now think back to everything else you've ever done other than the festival. Think of everything other people have done, or things you've read about, or even places you've seen pictures of. Now focus on what feels like the center of yourself, what do you want to accomplish, what do you want to do. Or it doesn't even have to be something lame like a goal. Just if you could ask for anything in the world right now, this very second what would it be?". She opened her eyes and looked into the big pair of brown eyes that looked down at her, and realized, her answer was right in front of her. Or well next to her, with its arm around her anyways. If she could ask for anything, she would ask to stay there forever.

Eugene cleared his throat, " You know could be something like a cool lizard or something."

She quickly broke eye contact and stared directly at the lantern, fidgeting with her hair, as she felt his arm quickly come off of her shoulders.

" A lizard?"

"Yup… that is what I said… just now."

" Maybe a chameleon, those are kinda cute… so what are you wishing for?"

"You know me, just wishing for as much gold as is humanly possible to have in this world."

She rolled her eyes and shook her head at that. They both began to decorate their lanterns from there, hoping the Gods could understand symbolism (they were gods after all) as one painted his the same gold as someones glowing hair, and the other painted stripes the same brown as the most beautiful pair of eyes she'd ever looked in to.

[Hiccup]

Hiccup sat at his work bench trying to focus on his next project, he'd gotten most of his other orders finished as he'd been helping Merida since he couldn't really do anything without her being around, but he'd spent all of his usual creative time figuring out how to upgrade her bow that he didn't have anything lined up anymore. He sat brainstorming, his leg hadn't given him trouble lately, He'd finished working out all the kink's for Toothless's saddle and wings, so he sat in front of an empty notepad tapping his pencil.

What could I have possibly done? Why is she so mad at me? Why did she think I wanted to take credit for anything she did, she built the damn bow herself so its not like I could anyway.

Hiccup shook his head trying to clear his thoughts. There was no point trying to think about it anyway, she had made her position clear and it wasn't the first time someone didn't want to be his friend. He just needed to lose himself in his work and go back to life as normal from just a few months ago. Just then he heard a knock on his door.

He looked up to see Astrid standing there leaning against the doorframe.

"Whatchya workin on there?"

"Nothing really," Hiccup replied, "How can I help you?".

"Good, looks like you're free then. I'm looking to get myself a new axe and hear your the man for the job. So what d'ya say, willing to take on a new apprentice? Don't forget you still owe me for that trophy you cost me in Middle School."

Hiccup chuckled, " That was literally years ago."

"Hey, I was on a streak, you are the reason for the gap in years in my line of trophies." She casually walked over to the table. " I'm looking for some compensation, this will do."

She had a similar fierceness to Merida, she casually slumped her shoulders as she leaned on the table, as if she'd spent her life trying to fit in as one of the guys.

"I don't really take apprentices, but if you bring me your old axe I can draw something for you to look over by the end of the week." Hiccup replied.

"I heard you did for Merida". He stiffened a little at that, before shaking it off and laughing,

"Precisely why I don't intend to do it again haha." He watched as Astrid studied him trying to figure him out, she seemed to eventually figure out that she likely couldn't convince him, and settled for just the axe.

"Fine you I won't make it, you can do that part yourself. I'm not really that interested anyway, just figured I should follow suit with Merida since she's the best."

Hiccup was about to reply but then she continued, " BUT if you're not going to teach me, I still want to be as involved as I can. I'LL do my OWN research and see what I can find. I'll draw up my own sketch and you tell me if you can make it."

"I really don't think" Hiccup tried to say.

"Do you fight and train with an axe every single day?"

"Well…no."

"Then how could you possibly know what I would want and what would work for me. I'll handle it myself and be back here on Friday." With that she spun on her heel and left him.

Why did this always happen to him?