Note: All rights for Rise of the Guardians and How To Train Your Dragon go to DreamWorks Animation.
Chapter 13
"Ready the ships! We set sail for the Meathead tribe tonight!" Alvin barked to the remainder of his Outcasts who hadn't been turned into Nightmare Soldiers.
The men cowered in fear but got to work nonetheless, hauling in supplies, weapons & the like onto their boats. Alvin then headed to the Shivering Shores' Great Hall, where most of the people had been locked up in lead cages. Parents clung onto their shaking, sleeping children, afraid of what the Outcast may do.
"Oh, fine. I'll let them out of it." Alvin then snapped his fingers and the black sand circling around each child's head disappeared. Mothers and fathers embraced their children as they began to rouse.
Suddenly they heard Alvin scream as if in pain. They turned their heads to him and gasped. The leader of the Outcasts screamed as black sand began to pour out of his mouth!
"Honestly, how can someone labeled as 'Treacherous' be truly treacherous if he's willing to show mercy to a few kids?" Pitch grumbled as he materialized from the sand and shadows.
Alvin coughed violently for a few seconds before he regained his senses and angrily charged at the Boogeyman. But Pitch just sidestepped him and let him smack into a wall.
"You shall pay for daring to mess with me, Black! I'll rip your guts apart and then eat them!" Alvin roared at him in a fury. Pitch smiled calmly. "Now, now Al no need to get your beard in a twist. Why, just look around! We've taken control of the Shivering Shores and are making considerable progress in going after the other tribes. Each step brings us closer to our goals. Soon, you'll have the Dragon Conqueror and will learn how to train dragons!"
Alvin glared at him. "And that's another thing you'll pay for, lying to me! You said that you know about dragons as well, when the matter of fact, you don't!" he yelled. Pitch smiled darkly. "On the contrary Alvin, I do know about one very special dragon that we can train." He then used a stream of black sand to pull out the dragon fang half from Alvin's pocket.
"We just need the other half of this thing to summon it on Dragon Island. And then fear and darkness…will be taken to a whole new level." Pitch then turned into black sand once again and circled around Alvin.
"But I can't draw attention to myself so…I'll need you as my cover." Pitch's voice echoed in Alvin's ears before he let out another cry of outrage as he was possessed once more, making the people of the Shivering Shores huddle in their cages, quaking with fear.
And that's exactly what Pitch Black wanted.
"Ow!" Sapphire squeaked as she pricked her finger on the needle.
Again.
"If this keeps up, my hand's gonna become a pincushion…" she muttered as she continued to thread shells onto Stormfly's seashell necklace. Jack laughed a bit as he handed her another bandage.
"Thanks for letting me borrow some of your tools by the way. How does North get such fine needles like this?" Sapphire wondered out loud. "He uses them to add fine details to his sculptures. I've gotten those things stuck in my hands loads of times." Jack said, carefully breaking off a small jagged piece of ice from his sculpture which was on his desk next to Hiccup's drawing of Toothless as reference.
Sapphire noticed the dagger next to Jack's work. "Where'd you get that?" The winter spirit spun his chair around to face her. "It was one of North's old hunting weapons. What about that axe?" he looked at the battle axe Sapphire had brought along with her on his bed where she was working on.
The girl smiled as she carefully worked her needle through a shell's opening. "I got it from the Vault of Secrets. It's not enchanted or anything but it was used against the Nightmares during the wars of the Dark Ages. I thought Astrid might like it. You know, after Tridacna accidentally made her lose her old one during the race." She admitted. "Yeah same thing with Blitz when he lost Hiccup's knife so I thought North's old hunting knife would be a worthy replacement." Jack mentioned sheepishly.
Then they got back to work, silently perfecting their creations for Hiccup and Astrid's dragons.
Jack had been working on Toothless' ice pendant all morning. After spending the entire morning carving out the Night Fury's basic shape and now that it was mid noon, all he had to do was add the final details. He had enchanted the chunk of ice from where he was carving the sculpture out yesterday to make sure the finished product wouldn't break or melt and he was rather proud of it.
Sapphire, having finished the main pendant of Stormfly's necklace yesterday, had collected the small seashells from her lagoon. Now all she had to do was string them all together to make the necklace.
The two teens got excited as they began to put the finishing touches.
"Almost there…" Sapphire whispered as she began to thread the last shell in.
"Just one more break and…" Jack mumbled, positioning his miniature hammer and chisel.
Suddenly North and Mother Nature burst in saying, "Hello!"
Startled, Sapphire dropped the necklace while Jack hit and broke off one of the sculpture's wings by accident. Sapphire's seashell necklace fell to the floor and the shells scattered.
The two teenage Guardians stared at their ruined gifts, stunned before looking at their other two fellow Guardians.
"We've been looking for you two. Sapphire weren't you supposed to be managing the tides in Hawaii?" Mother Nature asked. "And Jack, Canada is in need of some fresh snow." North added as they both wondered why the two fairly new Guardians were late in their duties.
Then they noticed the shells and bits of ice on the floor.
"We were just about to leave." Jack piped up, trying to keep from scowling. But on the inside, he was fuming. 'I hung a 'Do Not Disturb' sign earlier. The least they could've done was knock!' he thought angrily while trying to cover up his work.
"Yeah…We were just getting ready." Sapphire added, looking down at the shells spilled on the floor, doing her best not to frown. 'So close! So very, very close and I have to start all over again!' she thought, annoyed before she opened the window and whistled for Marina.
The swan promptly arrived and with Jack, her mistress climbed out of the window and they took off.
But not before North and Mother Nature heard Marina ask them, "So are those gifts for them finished?"
Looking at the ruined presents, Mother Nature and North looked at each other. "Oops…" they both said sheepishly and embarrassed beyond words.
After doing their respective jobs, Jack and Sapphire headed for Berk with Marina, looking forward to a new dragon training adventure.
And today was the perfect time to learn some new fighting techniques because as soon as they arrived, the teens had prepared weapons in the arena.
Good thing they were already competent with the sword and bow and arrow!
Now they decided to move onto more complex weaponry.
For Jack, he was rather interested in swinging a bludgeon around and with Fishlegs' aid, got his hands on one.
"This is way simpler than swordplay. It just involves bashing and clubbing!" Jack remarked as he hit every shield the Ingerman boy threw at him, smashing them to pieces.
Sapphire was now working on swinging a battle axe with Astrid's help. "This weighs more than my dagger in sword form but this is fun!" Sapphire muttered as she hefted the double bladed weapon up and chopped a couple of logs.
While they still had trouble in wielding weapons other than their staffs, the two Guardians impressed their Viking friends with their hand to hand combat experience. Gobber was amazed at how Jack and Sapphire's modern fighting techniques could easily subdue opponents.
"And this, is what we call a 'Judo Hold'" Sapphire demonstrated as she grabbed Snotlout's left arm and twisted it around his back.
"Owww! Please tell me this demonstration's over now." The Viking boy complained.
"Last demonstration! This is called a 'Roundhouse Kick'!" Jack then spun around and delivered a quick kick to his face.
"Now that is a kick!" Tuffnut was impressed.
"Do it again, I wasn't looking!" Ruffnut said eagerly.
Luckily for Snotlout, combat lessons were over and dragon training began.
"Here, these'll help you two." Hiccup handed Jack and Sapphire their staff holders.
"Awesome, now we don't have to worry about losing our staffs when we fly!" the Guardian of Equality said happily as she inserted her orichalcum staff into her holder. "Now I don't have to worry because my staff will stay strapped to my back." Jack chuckled, slinging his staff holder over his shoulder.
Their staffs fit perfectly.
"Alright, let's get down to dragon training. If I recall correctly, we're supposed to practice our dragon calls?" Astrid asked.
"All it takes is a finely tuned sense of hearing and correct manipulation of your voice." Fishlegs advised them.
"Let's get started then!" Angrid clapped her hands.
The lesson was a noisy one, mind you.
It involved the dragons roaring loudly and the teens trying to mimic their cries as loud as they can.
For a slim guy, Jack had powerful lungs since he was able to unleash a loud Himalayan Fury call, which sounded a lot like the howl of a wolf and Sapphire also recreated a pitch perfect Scauldron cry, mimicking the cry and ending hiss perfectly, delighting Tridacna to no end as she growled in praise.
After that lesson, well, everyone got a chance to explore the island on their own.
On this particular day, Jack decided to go around the tall snow-capped mountains of Berk, riding Blitz. As they flew down to the base of Dragon Tooth Mountain, Jack spotted something really cool.
"Whoa…Giant snowball! Wicked!" the Guardian of Fun spotted a giant blue and white snow patterned ball hidden in the brush.
"Jaaacckk Jaaacckk?" Blitz seemed to be curious on what his Rider had found and began to sniff at the giant "snowball".
"Let's try launching it at the plaza with your tail!" Jack suggested excitedly. Blitz cocked his head as if to ask, 'Why?'
"Come on, it'll be fun!" the winter spirit laughed, taking the "snowball" with him as he and his dragon went to the village.
Along their way to the plaza, they bumped into Sapphire, Marina and Tridacna who had just taken a tour of the caves at Thor's Beach.
"Where'd you two go exploring?" the swan asked them. "Eh…Just about every mountain in Berk, air's a lot cooler and fresher up there." Jack casually tossed the "snowball" from one hand to the other.
"Hey, where'd you get that?" Sapphire raised an eyebrow, eyeing the thing skeptically. "Oh I found it near Dragon Tooth Mountain. I had no idea snowballs could get this big. We're gonna launch it at the plaza to see how high it can go." Her boyfriend grinned before he and his dragon headed for the plaza.
"Have fun, you two!" Sapphire called out to them before she and her fellow girls met up with the other Viking teens at Hiccup's house.
There they just exchanged stories of their childhood, little things, small talk, etc.
Until they heard Astrid's Snoggletog story which, of course, included the part where they tried to make an Easter like tradition only to have it backfire on them-literally.
"Wait, dragon eggs explode?!" Marina squawked in shock.
Sapphire suddenly turned pale and spoke up. "I saw Jack headed for the plaza. And I think he was carrying one!"
Well that made them panic.
"Oh no…We better stop Jack before he blows something up!" Angrid alerted them before they all scrambled to the plaza.
Blitz was as excited as his Rider, who now carefully plotted which direction to toss their new plaything.
"Mm-hmmm…Okay…That should be the right angle, right trajectory…" Jack mumbled to himself as he looked up at the sky while paying attention to the roofs of the houses.
"Alright buddy! Let's see if we can break some records!" Jack gleefully rubbed his hands together before he picked up the "snowball" near his dragon.
The Himalayan Fury snorted and readied his tail.
Jack then carefully placed the "snowball" (which was curiously beginning to develop small red cracks) and then shouted, "One…Two…Thre…FIRE AT WILL!"
Blitz then flicked his tail as strongly as he could, and the "snowball" launched into the air!
"It's going…! It's going…! It's…" Jack tilted his head up to watch the object go higher and higher before…
BOOM!
In just a matter of seconds, hot bits of dragon eggshell rained down on the plaza and the baby Gronckle landed in Mildew's cabbage cart, much to the old man's annoyance. Villagers uttered cries of surprise at the mess while Jack and Blitz gaped at what just happened in shock.
"Okay…I did not see that coming." Jack managed to say. Blitz looked at him, his gummy mouth wide open in shock as well.
Then the rest of the gang came.
Ruffnut, Tuffnut and Snotlout were sorely disappointed that they didn't get to see the explosion up close.
Fishlegs meanwhile was getting the hatchling out of Mildew's cabbage while trying to keep the old man from having a fit.
Angrid just whistled and began picking up the bits of eggshell scattered around the plaza.
"Oh thank gods it hatched in the air. Jack, of all the 'fun' things you and your dragon can do on your own time, you chose to blow up the village with a dragon egg?" Astrid face palmed.
Jack's eyebrows went up in surprise. "That was an egg?" he asked.
"Well what did you think it was? A snowball?" Hiccup said, exasperated.
After thinking about it, Jack just averted his gaze and began to whistle no particular tune. Not exactly an easy task since snowflakes began blowing out of his mouth at the exact same time he began whistling.
"Jack, I've known you long enough to know that you're lying." Sapphire folded her arms and gave the Guardian of Fun a knowing look. The winter spirit then covered his mouth, although it didn't successfully quell the flakes.
Well after the plaza was cleaned up, Jack decided to just forget about the whole incident. Unfortunately for him, word had gotten round and he had a feeling he won't hear the end of the thing for a long, long time.
'Oh for the love of Thor…' he thought sulkily when he heard his friends talk about the whole episode again and his ears turned slightly red from embarrassment.
Luckily his lovable Himalayan Fury Blitz was there to make him laugh again with his antics. Then their first session in Berk for the day began to end and he, Sapphire and Marina had to go again.
"We shall never speak of the thing when we get home, alright?" he reminded the two girls who nodded. "In retrospect Jack, that had to be the most hilarious thing I've ever seen." Marina piped up, giggling.
Jack rolled his eyes as he opened up the portal.
"Oh come on. You have to admit, it was pretty funny." Sapphire chided him as they arrived home. "Please shut up." Jack groaned, trying hard to erase that slip up from his memory before he remembered something.
"I need to start working on a new pendant for Toothless later!" he said suddenly.
"And I have to make a new seashell necklace for Stormfly! That's gonna take me all night!" Sapphire realized.
But right now they had lessons to study.
Looks like they were both going to have to spend the whole night working on their gifts.
A wonderful way to spend the night on the first day of a new week, which for them…? Eh…not really all that wonderful.
Phil could keep yelling, roaring and pounding on his door, but Jack willed himself to ignore the Yeti's attempts to get him down for dinner.
"Tell North I'm skipping dinner! I've got tons of homework to do!" he yelled at his locked door before slipping on a pair of headphones over his head.
Technically it wasn't homework, it was an ice sculpture pendent for a friend's dragon. Yet the Guardian of Fun thought of it as an all-important school project and like a star student focused on keeping and increasing his grades up, would not heed distractions.
"Gwadra Bhufral…!" Phil grumbled. Jack just turned the volume up and kept working.
Eventually, the Yeti gave up and stopped badgering the winter spirit, leaving to go tell North that the boy wasn't coming down to eat.
In Sapphire's case, she didn't have to worry about her stepparents hollering at her for supper since Marina informed them in advance. Right now, she had to pick out more shells for the beads and string them again with the main pendant.
The night was a long one for both teenage Guardians.
Luckily, they both had certain projects to work on and they already finished their schoolwork so they could fully focus on them. But the process of creating an ice sculpture pendant or seashell necklace is rather lengthy.
Combined with the long day, Jack and Sapphire couldn't help but feel sleepy. As the night grew deeper, both Guardians were now having a hard time keeping their eyes open.
'Maybe I can take a nap for a bit…' Sapphire felt her eyelids droop.
'I'll just doze for a few minutes…' Jack yawned.
"Look at this your excellencies…" Millennium hooted softly.
Father Time and Mother Nature peered into Sapphire's room. The water spirit was leaning against her coral sofa, eyes closed with an unfinished shell necklace in her lap and a pile of tiny shells used as beads next to her.
"Was that what she was working on at the Pole earlier?" Father Time whispered to Mother Nature. The evergreen lady nodded. "Before I rudely interrupted…" she replied guiltily.
"She must've been trying to finish it tonight." Millennium hooted.
Sighing, Father Time gently carried Sapphire to her bed.
Millennium inspected the necklace. "Quite a unique craftsmanship." He mused admiringly.
Mother Nature furtively glanced at Sapphire who was sound asleep.
'I must make it up to her somehow…' she thought before looking at the necklace.
She smiled as a firefly flew out of her hair. She would finish this for the Guardian of Equality tonight, she decided.
Before they left, Millennium hooted a soft lullaby as Father Time covered Sapphire with her sea silk quilt and Mother Nature kissed her forehead, placing a stuffed dolphin near her.
"Sweet dreams, my dear." She whispered as they left.
It took almost the entire night.
But Phil finally managed to find the key to Jack's room.
North quickly turned it in the lock and opened the door. Phil shivered as cold air rushed out. North meanwhile, was wondering why Jack hadn't gone down for supper.
Obviously Phil's report wasn't fully enough to convince him. Jack had locked himself in his room, something he rarely did.
Then he saw the boy at his work desk, his arms folded across it and his head resting on top of them.
It took North a second to figure out that he was working on something and had fallen asleep. Going near him, North saw the unfinished ice sculpture and a drawing of a black dragon near the sleeping winter spirit.
"Yarghel Bawrdel?" Phil asked the Guardian of Wonder in Yettish.
"So that's what he was working on earlier…" North murmured as he took a good look at it.
He had to admit, although half finished, Jack's work was impressive. The head and wings were beautifully carved, intricately detailed…All it needed now was the lower body and the tail.
Then he noticed a small hole on top of the dragon's head as well as a long strip of ribbon.
"A pendant?" he wondered out loud and glanced at Jack.
"Bring these to my workshop." He quietly commanded Phil, giving him the sculpture, the ribbon and the drawing. The Yeti obediently did what he was told while North put Jack to bed.
The winter Guardian rolled over onto his left side as North covered him with his blanket. He was still asleep. North smiled, placing a hand on the sleeping boy's head.
"Sleep well, Jack." He mumbled before he quietly left.
Apparently Jack didn't know that dragon eggs explode when they hatch XD
And how'd you guys like the sweet family fluff at the end of this chapter?
Read and review please! Reviews make me happy