Chapter 5: Nightmare Attack

"And you let her go?!" Queen Elinor demanded.

"We didn't 'let her go'!" The Corona Castle Guard exclaimed. When he realized his mistake, he added "Your Highness. She managed to escape, along with three others. We know of one to be Flynn Rider, already a wanted criminal, and—"

On any other day, Elinor might have had the patience for this. This was not one of those days, however. "And you didn't try to stop her?"

The castle guard looked a bit stricken by the comment. "We had some of our best men out there—"

"And a horse, apparently." The chief from Berk pointed out.

The guard seemed to take pride in this. "Yes. Maximus, one of the guard's best steeds."

"And apparently he did better in a fight than ye did!" Fergus joked. "D'ya think we could teach Agnus to do tha'?"

"So they did attempt to fight back." The chief from Berk said, though Elinor could see that he too looked a bit intrigued by the thought of a fighting horse.

"Yes. All four of us were disarmed and-"

"What were they usin'? I know Hiccup couldn'ae lift up an axe if his life depended on it."

A long pause. "…A frying pan."

Fergus shot Elinor a look. The only time he looked as happy as he did right now was the first time he got to tell the story of how he lost his leg.

Elinor couldn't quite share her husband's sentiment, however. Right now, her daughter was lost and probably hurt, the other tribes were at her castle probably wondering what was going on, and…

Elinor stood. All eyes were drawn to her. "If this is the best the Corona Guard can do…then I think I'd best do this myself."

No one attempted to stop her as she walked out. As soon as the doors closed behind her, she let her regal appearance collapse.

...and she wish she'd never did it.

The doors opened again, and just before Elinor could pull herself back together again the chief from Berk came out. "I believe what you just said might be the first sensible thing I've heard since I've come to this country. Stoick." He offered her a hand.

Elinor studied it carefully, and gently placed hers in it. She tried her best to hide her shock as the hand was firmly gripped. "Elinor."


As soon as she stepped through the portal, Merida began to fall. She didn't have too much time to think about it (which was probably for the better because if she saw how far she had to fall, she would have screamed), for in that second Rapunzel's hair wrapped around her hand and she was pulled onto Toothless. Jack remained in the air, veering slightly closer to them. Rapunzel, Hiccup and the Puca were already seated on the dragon's saddle; Hiccup focused on flying them, Rapunzel looking like she was having the time of her life, and the Puca looking like he was about to be sick.

"And yet this is somehow preferable to the sleigh!" He shouted.

Toothless dipped low, causing Merida to fall to the ground. A sharp turn, and she was forced to grip to saddle to make sure she didn't fall out again. A quick glance forward showed her why. Black figures were shooting straight towards them. Merida followed one as it went just past them. It was shaped like a horse, but it didn't look solid.

Jack's hand shot through the horse, grabbing something from the chest cavity. He murmured softly, so soft that Merida could barely hear him, to the thing in his hand. His next statement was much louder, and directed to the Puca. "North already here?"

The Puca seemed to gulp before he answered. "He and Sandy should be!"

"Good! They're stealing the Tooth Fairies!"

"Don't mean to interrupt," Hiccup shouted back. "But it looks like we're gonna have a rough landing!"

"Oh, geeze…" The Puca hung his head outside of the saddle. Rapunzel stuck her hands in the air. Toothless dove.

At first, there wasn't any light in the cave, and the only indication that Toothless could see was as they rocked back and forth to dodge unseen obstacles. Once they exited and dove lower. Merida could make them out. Towers, each with a design she'd never seen before that seemed to be connected to each other, that hung from the ceiling and the floor like stalagmites. More towers appeared as they dove, and this time Merida could see that most of them didn't even seem to be touching the ground. Another pack of the horses were coming, and Merida scrambled to grab the frying pan and knock out one coming her way. It exploded in a cloud of sand.

"Nice hit!" Jack complimented as he grabbed what fell from the sand. His expression suddenly grew serious. "They're stealing teeth, too?"

No answer came, for in that instant Toothless landed on one of the larger towers. The Puca was the first to scramble out, and Merida thought he looked just as relieved as he did worried. "Tooth!" He called upwards. "Yeh alrigh'?"

There was a light cry of pain, and Merida glanced upwards to where the Puca was talking. In terms of figure and face, she was recognizably human, but she had been covered in head to toe with brightly colored feathers. She fluttered back and forth at a speed Merida had never seen any bird nor human do, with wings that she could barely see. Another Fae creature, Merida decided, although she couldn't place what kind.

"They took everything! The teeth…the fairies…everything's gone!" As she spoke, the woman slowly lowered to one of the towers, collapsing onto her knees. She was quickly the Puca joined by two others, one short and tinted a bright yellow, and the other was one that reminded Merida strongly of her father but with white hair.

There was a pause.

"Alright, Jack." Hiccup cleared his throat. "Would you like to explain to me what happened in the last, oh…5 minutes?"

Jack opened his mouth, but a new voice cut him off. "Well, well, well. The Big Four, together at last."

The four strangers instantly rose, ready to attack at any second. Merida glanced up at the apparent source. He didn't look human. Actually, if a shadow could stand upright and grow a face, she was pretty sure that's what it would look like. "Did you like my little show on the globe, North? Got you all together, at least."

The man that looked like her father kicked himself.

"PITCH!" Tooth rose. As soon as she reached him, however, he vanished. She darted around. "YOU HAVE FIVE SECONDS TO TELL ME WHAT YOU DID TO MY FAIRIES!"

"Or what?" The voice spoke again. Merida looked around, shocked as Pitch appeared at the far end of the room. "You'll put a quarter under my pillow?"

"Vhy are you doing this?" The man called North spoke, raising one of his swords in the shadow's direction.

"Maybe I want what you have." Pitch himself disappeared, but his voice still clearly echoed through the space. "Maybe I'm tired of hiding under beds!"

"And maybe that's where you belong!" The puca spoke.

"Oh, go suck an egg, rabbit. Wait, wait…is that…Jack Frost?" Pitch chuckled low. It was only because she was so close to him, but Merida could tell Jack jumped slightly. "When have you been chummy with these four? And since when did you have friends?"

Merida raised the frying pan, ready to attack. Jack gently raised a hand in front of her. "We're not chummy." He said, nearly defensively.

"Oh. A neutral party. Then I'll ignore you for now, but I bet you're used to it."

"PITCH YOU SHADOW-SNEAKING SCUMBAG!" The puca sprinted forward, nearly shoving Merida out of the way. Pitch disappeared again. Tooth was a bit smarter, and she rose up to confront Pitch where he stood next…another one of the horses materialized in front of her and knocked her backwards. She managed to catch herself in mid air.

"Easy, easy…" Pitch cooed as he tamed the horse. Carefully, he ran a hand through the mane, and with a sinister grin, turned to the others again.

"Recognize this, Sandman?" The black sand ran through his fingers. "Took me quite a while to perfect this trick. Turning dreams into Nightmares. Don't be nervous. That only riles them up more."

Seventy feet of golden hair shot at the Nightmare, and with one quick tug, it was demolished. Pitch turned his attention to Rapunzel. "Well, that wasn't very neutral. And who are you again?"

"Rapunzel." She looked like she did when she first had to blackmail them; terrified, certainly, but faking a confidence so she wouldn't lose. Pitch appeared in front of her, and she nearly jumped out of her skin.

He clicked his tongue and shook his head. "Gesundheit."

"Listen," Hiccup spoke. "We don't know what you want, but-"

"What I want," Pitch spoke again, walking closer to Hiccup. Toothless rose, nearly snarling. "Is to be believed in. I want my power back, back before the Man in the Moon replaced all my fear with their wonder and light! Back when people still feared the Boogyman!"

The light sound of falling sand filled the cave. Merida glanced around. Every tower around them was seeping with golden sand, sand that reminded Merida too strongly of the blackened sand the Nightmares were made of. Pitch chuckled. "Oh. It's happening already."

"What is?" Jack asked. There was still a hint of threat in his tone, but it was mostly curious now.

Pitch chuckled again. "All over the world, children are waking up and realizing that the Tooth Fairy never came. I mean, it's such a little thing…but to a child…"

Tooth collapsed to the ground. The others sprung to help her before Merida could. "They…don't believe in me anymore…" She admitted weakly.

"It's great being a Guardian! But if enough kids stop believing in you, all of the things you've sworn to protect simply…disappear. And little by little, so do you. No more Christmas, or Easter, or hopes and dreams. There will just be darkness…and me. It's your turn not to be believed in."

That's when the Puca decided to strike. He tossed some sort of projectile, and while Pitch dodged it the first time, it simply spun around and headed back towards it target. Pitch took this opportunity to leave. He mounted his Nightmare and dove down. The others followed, and Jack looked just about ready to jump himself before Merida caught him on the arm.

"Could ye please explain what's goin' on!?" She cried.

Jack glanced around, a torn look in his eyes. "I will, just later!" He broke her hold and ran off.

Merida huffed. Of all the things that have gone on today, this was the weirdest! She picked up her dress, ready to speed after him—

"MERIDA!" Hiccup called.

Right, they had Toothless.

She sprinted off and mounted the dragon as fast as she could. Toothless took off as sure as they were sure both she and Rapunzel were on board.

It was one thing that they could fly as opposed to those that had to jump. It was another that Toothless was fast. It took only a few seconds for Toothless to get on Pitch's tail, and as soon as he did, it he shot out a brightly colored fireball. Pitch had exactly a second to react, and it took him exactly a second to realize what it was. The fireball managed to knock him into the wall, destroying the Nightmare and causing him to fall. Merida decided to take her chance. She took the frying pan, jumped down, and swung.

CLANG!

For just a moment, time stopped. Everything froze as they tried to figure out what just happened. Even Pitch looked mildly confused.

"Frying pans. Who knew, right?" Hiccup said.

When she turned back, her target was gone.


Author's Note: Corona and Berk don't draw a lot on their adapted region's mythology. Merida's Scotland, on the other hand, does, a lot. Because of that, she sees through that lens. Well, obviously that 6 ft rabbit man is a puca! The human bird lady is a fairy! She's not wrong, either, even if her view of these creatures is much more specific.

Hope you enjoyed the early update. I'm off to go meet Rapunzel!