"But I can't keep running away from this. Bunny, he is drifting away."


The first week after Hiccup returned from the dead, Jack had been stuck to her side like glue. He'd taken her to the old island of Berk and allowed her to grieve the loss of her people and her culture. They'd stayed there for days. At night they would stare at the sky, voicing all the unspoken words of the last two hundred and fifty years.

"I'm scared," she'd confessed quietly. "This was all I've ever known. Now it's gone, and everything has changed. What am I supposed to do?"

"You don't have to do anything," Jack pulled her closer to himself. He'd warmed up in the last few hundred years. Or maybe she'd grown colder. Hiccup no longer shivered when she made physical contact with him. Something which should have been a comfort instead saddened her. "Just stay with me. You'll get through it, and I'll be here with you every step of the way."

Hiccup was silent for a moment. "What do you think I'll have the hardest part accepting?" she asked. "What's changed that you haven't shown me yet, something you think will shock me."

"Well," Jack hummed as he thought. "Cars. I don't think you'll like them very much. They're basically...well, it's hard to explain, but they get you from place to place, but they trap you like a cocoon."

"That sounds horrible," Hiccup agreed. "Why not just ride a dragon?"

"Oh," Jack stared at her, his eyebrows tensed and jaw clenched. His normally laughing eyes wept for her. "Hiccup. They're not..."

"What?" Hiccup asked. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Hiccup, the dragons all died out. They were all hunted to extinction. Toothless is the last one."

Hiccup hadn't cried that night. Her mind swirled in a confusing mess. No more dragons, no more Berk, no more Vikings. What was left for her?

"I'm here," Jack asserted again, hearing her Unspoken Words. He'd gotten really got at that. Hiccup smiled tearfully at him. He pulled her tighter to him, arms wrapping around her like he could protect her from the world. "I'll always be here for you, Hiccup. Don't ever doubt that."

xXx

The second week after Hiccup had been brought back to life, she'd convinced Jack to take her to Burgess. He was always talking about it and the kids there. He really loved them, and they loved him, too. They were the ones who had believed in him so much that they'd saved the world from how Jack described it. He was so excited to introduce them that Hiccup hadn't told him they wouldn't be able to see her. No one had heard of the Viking and her toothless dragon, the Guardians of Friendship. No one would be able to see them.

Still, she'd smiled excitedly at the thought of finally seeing a car and houses and streets. Everything Jack told her about the modern world seemed like a strange dream. She'd let Jack pull her along the street while Toothless went off to explore the strange village. There was no exposed fire, no wood buildings, and the air felt thick and heavy in Hiccup's throat. As much as she wanted to poke around the area to satiate her curiosity, she more wanted to leave and curl up somewhere familiar and safe. It was too much change, too fast.

"Hic, come on," Jack urged happily. He tried to introduce her to a skinny young boy. "This is Jamie. He's the first one that believed in me here. He was the first human after you to see me." In front of Jack, the boy looked at Jack with a trusting but confused expression on his face. He tried to glance around Jack to see who he was talking to but obviously found nothing.

"Jack," Hiccup tried to break it to him gently. "He can't see me."

"Not yet, but he will," Jack said confidently. "Jamie, this is my girlfriend, Hiccup. She's a new spring spirit and the Guardian of Friendship."

"Hi!" the kid greeted excitedly. "I can't believe there's a new Guardian. What are your powers! What do you look like? Have you saved anyone yet?" He continued to barrage her with questions, and Hiccup was delighted. She'd never met another child as inquisitive as she'd been. She tugged on Jack's sleeve.

"Answer him!" she demanded. "Tell him I haven't been around very long, so I don't know my powers. I haven't saved anyone as a spirit, but I helped protect my village when I was alive. You know what I look like, tell him!"

Jack laughed in delight and got into a conversation with Jamie. Hiccup stayed by Jack's side, interjecting now and then. The conversation quickly veered away from anything Hiccup knew about. Game consoles? Days off? School?

She stayed silent, trying to understand from their conversation, but it was impossible. It was like a totally foreign language to her. It was almost funny. As a spirit, human languages didn't constrict her; no matter who it was in the world, she could understand them. But she wouldn't be able to say anything if they only spoke of things out of her time, out of her element.

She'd spent the better part of that afternoon with Toothless exploring the village of Burgess and the surrounding area. Jack had played with Jamie and some other kids, explaining that they had to have the most fun possible on the year's last snow. Hiccup hadn't understood, but she didn't want to bother Jack with questions when he looked so eager to play with the children. Hiccup eventually left for the North Pole before Jack.

xXx

The third week after Hiccup came back to life, Jack hadn't been able to spend much time with her. That was the first week he'd started to distance himself. She didn't think he did so intentionally. He was just busy. Unlike her, he was an established and reliable winter spirit. He was also a known and experienced Guardian. He had duties to complete and children to protect. Hiccup would have helped if she could, but she was such a new spirit that she didn't even know what powers she had.

He had still tried to make time for her at that point, though. He'd taken her out and gotten Jamie to buy them ice cream. As they walked along an abandoned forest trail, Jack held an ice cream cone in one hand and Hiccup's hand in the other.

"I didn't know we needed to eat," Hiccup told him, licking her ice cream again. "I feel like I haven't had anything in ages! This is so good," Jack had gotten her a simple vanilla flavor, but there was nothing simple about it in Hiccup's eyes. She'd never had anything like it. It was cold and delicious, just like Jack. Her cheeks heated, but she mentally chastised herself. Why should she be embarrassed? They'd been together so long; she was allowed to think about her boyfriend like that.

"I love ice cream," Jack nodded enthusiastically. "Next time, try the mint chocolate chip. It's my favorite."

"No need for next time," she said, leaning up. Her lips met his, and she felt cold electricity run through her. She pulled away quickly, licking her lips. The cool, sweet flavor certainly added to the experience. "Yum." She smirked up at Jack mischievously.

"Uh-uh," Jack roped his arm around her waist and pulled Hiccup in close. "You're not getting away that easy. You're staying here, and we're making out in this forest until our ice cream melts."

Jack always joked that Hiccup was their relationship's brains, but he had some great ideas sometimes.

xXx

The fourth week after Hiccup was brought back from the dead, Jack only had time to spare for her between trips to North's workshop or Toothiana's kingdom.

"Hey, Jack," Hiccup pulled him close for a kiss, but Jack's lips landed on her nose. It almost felt like he bit her. She blinked. "Uh, what was that?"

"I nipped your nose," Jack said, grinning. "It's a thing everyone says I do. Here, before I go, I got you something." He handed her a couple of books. "I think they'll help you get used to the times now."

"Oh, thanks, should I-"

"Sorry, Hic, I've got to go." He kissed her forehead and was gone like the wind. Hiccup stood alone in North's workshop, staring at the spot he'd once been. Toothless came up to her and nuzzled her side. He warbled at her, wanting her to tell him what was bothering her. She sighed.

"Well, I can't be too upset, can I?" She held the books in one hand and reached down with the other to scratch at Toothless's scales like she knew he liked. "I used to avoid him before we got together. This is like...payback, right? This is normal?"

Toothless huffed but didn't growl like Hiccup expected him to. She looked down, surprised.

"What's with the shift in attitude towards Jack?" she asked teasingly. "What, you've finally figured out he's not so bad?"

Toothless moodily grumbled away, and Hiccup laughed. She grabbed her books and spent the day in a corner, reading the materials Jack had brought for her. He was right. They did give her an insight as to what happened. Also, they were horribly boring. He'd brought her Viking history books and one on the broad overview of America. They'd been incredibly dense reads, and by the end of them, Hiccup's head was swimming with names and areas she didn't know.

She'd taken the week to read up on geography and familiarize herself with the world she now lived in.

"Jack, did you know there's a place in the middle of the ocean?" she said excitedly. "It's an entire island, but it's also a continent, and they used it as a jail, and there were people already there, but-"

"I'm glad you liked the books, Hiccup," Jack interrupted, giving her a quick kiss. "Sorry, I've got to run. I have an appointment with Tooth. I'll see you later!"

Later wasn't for the next three days.

xXx

The fifth week after Hiccup's resurrection had a notable lack of Jack. Without Jack, she'd stayed at North's workshop. She helped Phil and the other yetis make toys and watched the elves if North was too impatient to do so himself. She tinkered around with some old machines and generally had a pleasant time. Toothless also had a great time. Hiccup had made his self-reliant tail again, and he'd spent hours flying around the North Pole, taking batches of elves on joy-rides with him. Hiccup always loved hearing their unfiltered laughs of happiness. She herself didn't laugh that way. Jack, her one tether to sanity, was leaving her, and she had no idea why.

xXx

The sixth week after Hiccup and Toothless had been brought back to life was the worst. Not only was Jack gone, but he also took Toothless with him. It wasn't that she was jealous or that she didn't want them to spend time together. On the contrary, she loved that they were finally getting along. She only wished that they invited her, too. With no Jack and no Toothless, her days were forced into monotony.

She would wake up and start working. She'd help Phil make toys or North take inventory and estimate which toys would be the most in-demand around Christmas time. She would go around the factory to make sure everyone was working, and nothing was malfunctioning. she would continue her rounds and her work until it was night time and she slept out of habit. As a spirit, there was no need for sleep. Hiccup did it just to make the days go by faster.

When Toothless had deigned to return, it was like a flash of color back in her life. They'd go out and fly all day long. The cold wouldn't bother them anymore, even in the North Pole. It almost made Hiccup feel numb. She missed being alive. She missed the sensations of the stinging wind or the numbing cold. She felt the wind through her hair, but there was a distance which hadn't previously been here. There was a hesitation between the wind and herself. She was now a spring spirit and not a human. She couldn't experience things the same way as a human. It was lonely.

Sometimes, when she missed the bite of the harsh winter too much, she would go the exact opposite route and head to a rainforest or somewhere equally wet, humid, and hot. Nothing. It would be as comfortable as a balmy spring day.

The few times she crossed paths with Jack was like a solace. There was no other word for it. He was like her savior from a world of monotonous nothing. Without him there to make her feel, she felt like she was going insane inside her own body, which is why it hurt even more when both he and Toothless left her.


"I feel like I'm being forgotten," Hiccup admitted quietly, chin on her knees. "I'm in a dark spiral of something unknown, and nothing seems to be the same as before. It's scary, and now Jack's leaving me, too. I'm scared. Everything's changing."

"Spring is all about change," Bunny said, staring out over the city. "Change is the cataclysm for healing, but it can only do so if you have faith and trust. So, here's a question." Bunny faced her, not a hint of amusement on his face. "You've said all these things you love about Jack, but do you trust him?"

There was no hesitation; the answer was clear and had never changed. "Yes."

"Well, then. It's time for you to go and talk to him, don't you think?"


I've been gone for a few years, lol. I was just re-reading my old works here and realized this was unfinished. I'll try to finish it in the next couple of days. Wow, I was cringing so hard at my earlier writing-thanks to anyone who's stuck around and waited for this :)