Important Note: I do NOT own ROTG or HTTYD
Chapter 15
Just like back when Hiccup was keeping Toothless a secret from his village and dividing his time in Dragon Training and taking care of the Night Fury at the Cove, Jack, Sapphire and Marina were now dividing their time between their world and the world of Berk.
Every two hours as soon as lessons and apprentice training was done, the trio would immediately meet up anywhere far from prying eyes to open a portal to the Viking world. Sometimes Marina wouldn't come due to family visits from her flock but she was okay with missing out on the fun.
It was Sapphire and Jack who couldn't do without visiting their friends and dragons.
The fang was passed back and forth between them every morning and every night. Luckily they always managed to discreetly make the exchange without drawing any attention.
At home, it was same old, same old…
But in Berk, new adventures every time they arrived!
Days flew by and the two Guardians learned all about Viking culture and their way of life, a very handy tool during their World History and Geography classes.
And helping Hiccup with his inventions provided a great way to put their knowledge in Science, Chemistry, Physics, and Mathematics and Advanced Algebra with Trigonometry to good use.
But it was the dragon related activities that got them always pumped up.
With Blitz and Tridacna, they could do things that defied any limits they had.
Jack, for instance, could fly higher and faster than ever before and didn't always have to rely on his staff and the wind to take him places. He'd also learned to push his endurance farther in trekking up and down around the island's hills and exploring the forests. He could also count on Blitz now instead of having to do things entirely on his own.
While Sapphire, could now get on Tridacna and dive down deeper into the ocean to see more underwater life and increase her stamina by racing the Scauldron and sometimes, Thornado in swimming races.
Anytime the four of them needed a break from all of that, the Guardian Glen was always there to let them kick back and relax.
Their friends joined them there too sometimes now that the Cove wasn't the only haven available in Berk.
And their Viking friends…
Well they and their dragons were what, (aside from Blitz and Tridacna) made visits to Berk so enjoyable for Jack and Sapphire.
They learned from them all they knew about dragons and Viking life while they gave them insights on their modern future.
And the adventures and mischief they would all get themselves into!
First thing they did was the dare war, where the seven Viking teens proved themselves to be genius pranksters as well as insane crazies. That lasted for one whole week and Jack considered the dare war to be "the best thing that ever happened since snowboarding was invented".
To his delight, turns out it was Hiccup who invented the sport! He made sure to thank him for that.
As well as suggest that snowboard straps were invented.
The next days were a mixed bag of experiences.
Sapphire taught the Vikings how to surf, they participated in hunts as well as practiced weapon wielding and both old and new combat techniques, Jack tried to help Fishlegs boost his confidence through sliding off ice ramps and ice tracks, the Twins blew up a barn near Bucket and Mulch's place to which Jack said to Hiccup, "It's times like this when Saph and I wonder why we're even friends with those crazy nut jobs."
Then they got into a crazy water war in the Cove, with everyone getting soaked to the skin and the dragons roaring with excitement.
Friendships were strengthened and tested as well.
Jack seemed particularly used to being around Angrid often and had a brotherly camaraderie with Hiccup.
Sapphire was especially close to Astrid and had a degree of sympathy for Fishlegs.
Ruffnut and Tuffnut were nice enough to Jack since the three of them would do some insane stunts together and Sapphire sometimes went for the ride.
Snotlout, when he wasn't being an "arrogant, boastful, prideful and selfish egomaniac idiot!" (as Sapphire called him), turns out he was cool to hang with. As long as he didn't try to flirt with her, Sapphire could fight the urge to blast him with hot or cold water and Jack didn't need to turn him into an ice cube.
Hiccup and Toothless, Astrid and Stormfly, Snotlout and Hookfang, Fishlegs and Meatlug, the Twins and Barf and Belch, Angrid and Magnus…they were an awesome bunch.
The whole village had also welcomed them warmly into their community, especially Stoick and Gobber. Even Mildew found the two Guardians respectable enough, most of the time.
But for Jack and Sapphire, their dragons were the most important to them.
The male Himalayan Fury & female Scauldron kept their word as they were always at their Rider's sides. Sometimes hand signals and spoken commands weren't necessary. If Jack and Sapphire wanted Blitz and Tridacna to do something, they'd just look at them and in whatever needed to be done was done. They made quite a team.
And the Viking world for Jack and Sapphire was the most amazing world of all.
But little did they know that their carefree days of keeping this wonderful paradise a secret…were numbered.
And little did anyone in Berk know that their carefree days…were soon to be numbered as well.
The Guardians began to notice the changes after the painting was unveiled.
While Mother Nature, Father Time, Millennium, North, Sandy, Bunny and Tooth reveled in awe at the beautiful painting Phil made for the Seasonal Gardens, Jack and Sapphire just smiled and gave light comments instead of getting all amazed and excited. Marina seemed somewhat nonchalant as well.
And there was the two Guardians' increased academic improvement. Both were now completely eager to start and finish their lessons, as if they were going to be late for something every two hours.
On top of that, were the physical changes of the two Guardians the others were beginning to notice. Tooth was the first to comment to North that Jack's skin wasn't as pale as before and that he seemed to have put on some muscle. While Sandy couldn't help but notice that Sapphire had also toned up a bit and had grown leaner.
It was during Guardian training last week when all of them saw that the Guardians of Fun and Equality had grown faster, smarter, stronger, more agile and alert.
"The last two left standing here will be excused from training tomorrow!" North boomed.
It was a complicated exercise. Padded dodging dummies had been set up all throughout the Globe Room, spinning in random directions. A panel with two buzzers was placed directly underneath the Globe of Belief. North and the rest of the Guardians were gathered at the door, prepping for the exercise.
"I need to get a day-off! Tomorrow's aerial combat!" Bunny muttered loudly enough for Jack to hear. "How could you not like aerial combat? That's the best kind of combat there is!" the winter spirit taunted him, knowing fully well the Guardian of Hope was severely acrophobic.
"Bunny, you should really try to get over your fear of flying. How are you going to live life to the fullest?" Sapphire asked the rabbit, feeling a bit sympathetic toward the hapless Guardian of Hope. "Painting eggs and hopping around in my tunnels is how I live life to the fullest." Bunny said in defense.
"Oh Bunny…" Tooth sighed.
Sandy motioned for them all to be quiet, just as the elves gave the starting 'Ding!'
While North, Bunny, Tooth and Sandy immediately went, Sapphire and Jack recalled a similar lesson they had in Viking combat training and took a moment to study the layout in front of them. The equipment they were using now closely resembled Gobber and Hiccup's Spinning Whammers so they knew just what to do: Keep a sharp eye on the dummies movements and don't be too reckless.
First it was Bunny who got knocked out of the way, not even making it to five yards, followed by Tooth, then Sandy and next went North who, due to his size, took a lot longer to be walloped out of the game but did get walloped out.
Now the four of them watched in awe as their two youngest recruits went into action.
Jack and Sapphire worked together as a team, ducking, tuck and rolling around the hall, narrowly missing the padded swinging projectiles around them. When they were just a few yards away from the panel, both of them leaped up, grabbed hold of their own swinging dummies and after a few moments to gain enough speed, let go. Momentum carried them through the air and they both landed in front of the panel with a perfectly executed backflip.
Triumphant, Jack used the end of his staff to press his buzzer while Sapphire did the same with hers. And with a loud 'Beeep!' the training exercise was over.
"Looks like Jack and I are getting a day off from aerial combat tomorrow." Sapphire grinned. "Shame. I was hoping to see if the Kangaroo could even make it five feet off the ground." Jack snickered but not loud enough so the others could hear.
They looked at the other Guardians who were staring at them in amazement and not really doing much.
"Ok well we've got things to do so…see you guys later!" Jack said quickly running to a side door. "Places to go, things to do, cheerio!" Sapphire also left hurriedly before the other Guardians could even say anything.
This sort of thing went on for a while.
And the most noticeable change was that Jack and Sapphire hardly had any time for the other Guardians. That would've been explainable if Jamie, Layla and the kids were around but they weren't. That began to make North worry about Jack and Mother Nature and Father Time began to worry as well for Sapphire. Bunny, Tooth and Sandy tried to ease their worrying.
"Probably a teen thing mate. That's how kids are at that stage, always want to have alone time. It'll pass, don't worry." Bunny told North. "I'm sure they're fine. They probably want to have time for each other. Manny knows that they haven't exactly gone on a proper date in a while." Tooth said encouragingly to Mother Nature and Father Time. Even Sandy gave his own opinion.
After a little while, the three worried parental figures stopped worrying and Sapphire and Jack continued to astound them all with their performance in both academics and their Guardian training.
And after three weeks, everything hit the fever pitch.
"So combat training…You sure we won't get seriously hurt?" Sapphire looked up at Mother Nature and Father Time standing alongside the other Guardians.
"It's perfectly safe my dear. Don't worry." Mother Nature reassured her as Father Time tapped his cane.
Six white soldiers wielding swords rose up from the Palace of Beginning's training grounds in front of the two teens.
"Swords? Does that look perfectly safe to you?" Jack asked, looking up at his friends in disbelief.
"I know you two will be fine Jack. Just focus on task at hand." North told him. "Don't worry. I brought a first aid kit just in case!" Tooth piped up. Sandy gave them thumbs-up meaning 'good luck!'
Jack rolled his eyes. "Thanks for the support…" he muttered under his breath.
"We're gonna need it." Sapphire mumbled before Father Time spread out his arms. "Let the training begin!" he declared.
The soldiers immediately charged towards the two teenage Guardians!
"This is going to be interesting." Bunny said amusedly.
Jack tightened the grip on his staff while Sapphire unsheathed her dagger and took a spot near the water.
One soldier charged ahead and raised the sword to attack. Jack quickly blasted it with frost and Sapphire shot a jet stream of water at it. Their attacks hit at the same time and the training soldier was flung backwards into a wall where it smashed into tiny glass shards.
Three more soldiers sprang up from the remains and that's when things got moving.
Jack flew up into the air and whizzed around the pack of soldiers, disorienting them while Sapphire jumped into the water. Her Aqua Camo kicked in and she instantly blended into the water.
It was an ingenious strategy, using Jack and his speed to confuse the training targets to provide a distraction for Sapphire to take them out from below. Completely invisible underwater, Sapphire dragged down three of the eight soldiers Jack was distracting for her and made quick work of them with slashes of her dagger.
Seeing that the remaining five soldiers were still confused, Jack froze them solid with a few ice blasts from his crooked staff. Then with a couple of quick kicks and punches, he smashed them to pieces.
Sapphire came up and they high fived triumphantly.
Suddenly more soldiers appeared!
And one managed to swing its sword at them!
The two teens were caught by surprise. They barely had time to react before the flat end of the sword knocked them back a couple of feet!
"Maybe we should stop the fight?" Millennium hooted worriedly. "No wait! They can still fight, look." Marina cut in as the two Guardians got up.
That's when everything changed.
North saw Jack's staff glowing faintly as ice began to form around the head. While Mother Nature and Father Time saw Sapphire's dagger transform into the long sword that hadn't been used since the battle at Pitch's lair.
Two soldiers charged, but the Guardians of Fun and Equality were ready!
To everyone's amazement, Jack struck first. His staff launched out and it was suddenly sticking out of the first soldier's abdomen, the staff's head covered with hundreds of sharp, pointy icicles!
Sapphire on the other hand, swung her sword and cut the second soldier's head clean off!
The other Guardians were astounded as they rushed forward.
It was a blur of activity as Jack and Sapphire flipped and tumbled all over the place, attacking with ice, water or getting physical. Their whole demeanor seemed to change. Fierce determination clearly written on their faces, they blocked and attacked.
In a short while, only two soldiers remained.
They tried to bring their swords down but Jack and Sapphire did a flip and amazingly balanced on the edge. Then with equal ferocity, they jumped up and raised their weapons. Sapphire's sword cut her target cleanly in half while Jack bludgeoned his target's head with his staff.
The training soldiers shattered.
Mother Nature, Father Time, North, Tooth, Bunny, Sandy and Millennium's jaws were hanging open in shock. Marina calmly smiled. She knew where those two got their idea, of course.
Panting, the two teens looked at each other and smiled. Those Viking combat lessons were really paying off!
Turning around, the two of them smiled at the stunned Guardians who were getting over their shock and managed to awkwardly smile.
Suddenly the smashed pieces of glass joined to create two more soldiers. And they picked up two large glass shards…
Marina's eye's widened. The training soldiers had gone loco!
"Guys look out!" she squawked as the shards were flung.
The other Guardians cried out in surprise but to their amazement, Jack and Sapphire caught them! Their eyes suddenly flashed in sudden anger.
A moment of silence passed before they hurled the shards back, hitting their targets spot in the chest with so much power, impaling them to a wall!
Quickly the other Guardians went over to the two teens, who were examining their hands. Both of them had gotten cut by the glass. Sapphire sighed as she took out her tears vial and poured tiny drops on her bleeding palm as well as Jack's. Their wounds instantly healed, leaving only small amounts of blood which Tooth hurriedly wiped off.
"Oh my Lord! Are you two alright?!" Mother Nature began to fuss over them. "We're okay. Don't worry." Jack said casually. "It's alright, Mother Nature. We're fine." Sapphire smiled before they promptly left the training grounds with Marina.
When they were out of earshot and sight, Bunny first spoke, "You guys saw that, right? It wasn't just me?" he could not believe what he had seen.
The Guardians could only nod.
"That was incredible! Those Viking combat lessons sure come in handy. Sorry about that last part. The soldiers must've been desperate." The giant swan said as they flew over Burgess. "It's okay. They just provided a spectacular finish for the exercise." Jack grinned as they headed for the Pond to open up a portal.
"The looks on their faces…priceless! Wait till the Vikings hear about this!" Sapphire giggled.
If they weren't so absorbed in their conversation or could've looked down, they would've seen their friends get out of their parents' cars back from summer camp.
"Jack!" "Saph!" Jamie and Layla were the first ones to get out once they saw their two Guardian friends in the sky. But they didn't even notice them. They just headed for the woods without even looking in their direction.
And that's when the kids began to wonder what was up.
First their many attempts to call them at camp went unanswered.
Now…this?
'Maybe they're busy…' both kids thought, hoping that the two of them would come back in time to help them with skateboarding and Donnie's bike.
Hopefully they'll come back in the afternoon…but they never did.
While their child friends waited for them back in Burgess, Jack and Sapphire were with Marina in Berk.
Bucket had managed to get himself stranded when he accidentally threw away his oars in the water. It was supposed to be just a simple search-and-rescue task. But to up the ante, Bucket's boat was being attacked by rogue Thunderdrums and Scauldrons!
"I never should've sent him out to fish on his own!" Mulch groaned atop of Thornado. He had been doing barn maintenance and had sent his bucket wearing friend on a solo fishing trip because he was busy.
Now he was watching him run around helplessly in circles around his boat as he covered his ears to muffle out the Thunderdrums' concussive sonic booms as well as run around to avoid the Scauldrons' boiling water.
Hiccup and his friends assumed a V formation.
"Lout, you and the Twins take on the port side! Fishlegs, you, Angrid and Dad take care of the starboard! Astrid, join Sapphire up in the air and try to distract the dragons! Jack, when we manage to make an opening, you and Blitz get Bucket out of there!" Hiccup commanded them.
"GOT IT!" all the other teens shouted and the plan was put into effect!
The port and starboard teams kept the wild dragons at bay while Astrid and Sapphire commanded Stormfly and Tridacna to attack from above as a distraction while Hiccup and Toothless worked together with Jack and Blitz to create a gap in the front mob of rogue dragons attacking the ship.
"Now, Jack!" Hiccup yelled as Toothless fired a plasma blast causing the dragons to scatter.
Quickly, Jack and his Himalayan Fury shot through the confused gap towards Bucket, who was hiding under a barrel so it took them a few precious minutes to find him.
"Come on, Bucket! We're abandoning ship!" Jack lifted up the barrel as a Scauldron began to clamber onto one side of the boat.
Blitz roared and fired an ice blast before his Rider and Bucket got on him. They managed to fly out and join the others as the rogue dragons wrecked and sunk the fishing boat.
Knowing they had to be careful that the rogue dragons wouldn't follow them back to Berk, Stoick commanded Thornado to unleash his powerful roar to scare them off.
Mission accomplished!
"That was awesome!" Tuffnut whooped as they flew back to the island.
"Talk about a rush!" his sister crowed as they butted heads.
"We were on fire today!" Snotlout bounced excitedly on Hookfang.
"Hey if it weren't for Hiccup's supreme tactics, we couldn't have gotten Bucket out!" Astrid smiled at her boyfriend.
"Yeah Hiccup's really good at strategies." Fishlegs agreed with her.
Hiccup just smiled humbly.
"Strategies and tactics are the basis of leadership, you know." Sapphire commented.
"I have a feeling you'll make a great leader when the time comes." Jack grinned.
"Of course he will, my boy. He's the son of a chief after all." Stoick smiled proudly, impressed at his son's superior leadership skills.
"Then I'm sure he'll be a great chief." Angrid grinned.
They landed at the docks a few minutes later. And then Sapphire noticed Marina waiting for them. "How'd it go?" the swan asked. "We lost the ship but Bucket's safe." Hiccup gestured to the fisherman who was now getting a lecture from Mulch.
"It was easy as riding a…what do you call that ride with two wheels again?" Astrid asked the two Guardians. "We call it a bicycle or bike." Jack replied.
Suddenly Sapphire screamed, "OH THOR I FORGOT!"
Her outburst startled everyone.
"Donnie! I promised him and Layla I'd help him ride his new bike!" the Guardian of Equality paled as she recalled her three week old promise.
Then Jack remembered his.
"Oh Gods, I forgot about Jamie's skateboarding lessons!" he exclaimed in horror.
And they noticed the sun setting on the Viking world horizon.
Without even saying good bye, the two Guardians left to go home.
Quickly jumping out of the portal and taking off their gear, (In all their haste, they didn't bother to leave their outfits in Berk) Jack and Sapphire ran as fast as they could to their friends' houses. But they both knew it was too late for them to play with their friends. The moon was already up.
Then Jack saw Jamie hanging around his backyard and Sapphire noticed Donnie and Layla with him.
"Should we…?" Sapphire whispered before Jamie spotted them hiding near a tree across the street.
The boy balled up his fists and marched over to them. He pointed at Jack and said in a deadly tone, "You and I-Need. To. Talk." The Guardian of Fun gulped. "I probably deserve this…" he muttered as he followed the boy to the Pond.
Meanwhile Sapphire saw Layla help wheel Donnie his new bike down the road. The latter had bandages on his knees and his brown head had on a helmet. Layla folded her arms and looked up at her older sister in disgust.
"I'm sorry I broke my promise. But I can explain!" the water spirit pleaded. "Save it. You broke the promise and that's that!" the 13 year old shouted angrily. "Saph, you promised you'll help me ride my bike. You've always kept your promises…Why didn't you keep it this time?" Donnie had tears in his eyes not from the bruises he had sustained from falling off his bike several times as he tried to ride it, but from disappointment.
"Jack and I were busy with something important. And I…I had a lot of things on my mind so I forgot." Sapphire stuttered, hoping to make amends with her siblings. "Important? Pitch isn't here anymore! There's no global threat to children anymore! What was so important that you two had to ignore us?!" Layla yelled, her own eyes beginning to well up with tears.
Sapphire opened her mouth but then remembered the secret and closed it.
She couldn't tell them…
They wouldn't understand…
Instead she just looked at them pleadingly.
"Fine…You don't wanna talk? So be it. Cause we won't be talking to you anytime soon." Her younger sister said flatly before turning heel and headed home. Donnie followed her with his bike. He looked back at his sister but quickly shook his head and went away.
Sapphire just sat on the curb and buried her face in her hands. She didn't cry but her guilt was enormous.
"We tried to contact you and Sapphire hundreds of times ever since we got to camp! Why didn't neither of you answer?!" Jamie shouted.
Jack cringed at his little brother's anger but didn't want to yell back and kept his mouth shut.
"And we saw you two this morning! We said hi but you didn't say hi back!" Jamie said accusingly. "Jamie look, I'm sorry. Sapphire and I were in the middle of something and we didn't really notice…" Jack said quietly.
"Middle of something, yeah right…" the young Bennett said sarcastically. He glared at the winter spirit.
"Well what was it? What was that something so important, you and Saph couldn't stop by and help us? I waited three whole weeks for those skateboarding lessons. You're the best kind of teacher for that. Why did you forget about it? You promised!" hot tears began to form in Jamie's eyes.
Jack looked worried. He hated seeing the kid like this. "Jamie it's…I…It's complicated…You wouldn't understand if I told you."
Jack felt like kicking himself. But what could he do? If Jamie knew about him being a part-time dragon trainer, what then?
The winter spirit looked down at his feet, unable to meet his little brother's eyes.
Jamie stood in front of him in shock. Finally he managed to speak.
And what he had to say made Jack feel worse than he felt now.
"I can't believe you, Jack…I WISH YOU DIDN'T EXIST!" he yelled out that last part and ran away without looking back.
Jack just stood there, feeling horrible for several minutes before finally forcing himself to go home to Santoff Claussen. Sapphire also went back to the Palace of Beginnings with Marina, who knew that nothing went well between her and her siblings and kept quiet.
Father Time, Mother Nature and Millennium began to ask her why she was so late coming home but she merely ignored them and dove into her lagoon. Marina looked at the three, shaking her head. The girl needed to be left alone.
That was the same situation at the Pole. Jack merely slammed the door in North's face before the Guardian of Wonder even got a chance to talk and ignored the knocks on his door.
Both teens just sighed in defeat.
Sapphire went over to her comfort zone, letting the hammock sway like gentle waves. She just wanted this day to be over, wake up the next day and realize it was all just a dream…
Jack flopped down on his bed, covering himself with the thin blue blanket, wishing that this whole fiasco would just blow over…
Both of them wanted nothing else.
The Meathead Island was in total chaos. Nightmare Soldiers and other Nightmares were everywhere. The warriors of this mighty tribe were powerless against the Outcast armada.
Alvin smiled darkly, Pitch's malicious dark gold eyes glinting in their sockets. He was fully under the Boogeyman's control now. And he could do anything with the nightmare sand. He had been watching the island of Berk for weeks now and knew everything about Jack and Sapphire's escapades there.
"Time to start spreading fear on that island…" he chuckled, sending four separate streams of sand out into the night sky.
Two of the streams went straight ahead to Berk while the other two sand streams entered a portal…
Uh-oh…Not good…Will Jack and Sapphire work things out with the kids? And what do Pitch and Alvin have planned for the two of them and their Viking friends?
Next chapter comes up tomorrow!