Chapter 7: Counter Attack
Purple lights shined over the night sky of Burgess.
"Got one! Hiccup cheered as he pulled Toothless into a landing.
Merida was the first one out, and therefore the first to see it. The sand had been forced into the ground, still smoldering lightly and still, disconcertingly, in the vaguest shape of a horse.
"And what are you two doing here?" Pitch's voice spoke. Merida scrambled up and spun. As soon as she came face to face with him, he faded again.
"You know, for a neutral party, you hang out with those weirdos a lot." Pitch appeared again at the building opposite them. "This isn't your fight."
"You made it our fight when you hurt our friends!" Hiccup protested.
"Friends?" There was a slight hint of-worry?-in his tone. Before he continue, he noticed that Sandy was standing right next to him and looking rather disappointed. "Now this is who I'm looking for—"
Two whips of golden sand shot out at Pitch, and in seconds he was tossed back on the street.
"Remind me not to get on your bad side." Jack said as he and Rapunzel joined them. Sandy simply gave him a firm nod in response.
Merida, Hiccup and Rapunzel scrambled back onto Toothless, who slowly floated back down to the street. Pitch was still lying on the ground, and he began scrambling to his feet once he saw Sandy again.
"You can't blame me for trying, Sandy! You don't know what it's like not to be believed in! It was stupid of me to mess with your dreams, so I'll tell you what: you can have them back."
Whinnies filled the air. Merida glanced around. Dozens, maybe even hundreds, of Nightmares filled the streets now from all corners.
"Uh…" Hiccup stammered. "How about you two take the ones on the left and we'll take the ones on the right?"
Sandy shrugged nervously.
Elinor studied the trout carefully, her eyebrows furrowing together slightly. Sure, it had been cooked, and Stoick had given his word that it was dead, but she could still see the poor thing wiggling around like it did on the spear. Carefully, she grabbed her fork and took a bite…
It then occurred to her that the last time she had a decent meal was nearly two days ago. She dove in.
Stoick laughed, a very hearty and cheerful laugh that reminded her of Fergus. "Not bad, isae?"
It then occurred to Elinor that, in her eagerness, she had probably forgotten all of her manners. She straightened herself out and used a nearby reed as a napkin, causing Stoick to laugh even more.
The rest of the dinner passed near silently, with Stoick too absorbed in his food and Elinor too absorbed in her thoughts. She would freely admit she knew very little about Berk (though she felt that both her mother and her daughter would be judging her for such admission); it was too far away for political ties, and had no exporting trade. But she did know it was Viking country. And Vikings were already what Merida wanted to be, or already was: Strong. Independent. Warriors.
Low-class, a more bitter part of Elinor's mind brought up. Wild. No respect for traditions. Stoick was already reminding her of a grown up male Merida as it was! If his son was even a fraction like him…
Well, it wouldn't hurt to ask.
"So, what's your son like?"
"Hiccup?" Stoick laughed again, more bitter than before. "Well, he's the literal hiccup o' Berk! Poor kid couldnae throw an axe if his life depended on it! Or, at least that what he was like…Once he got inta proper dragon training, he pulled a complete 180! He was top o' the class in days! He was all ready ta face the Monstrous Nightmare in front of the entire village when…"
The 'when' went unsaid. "Sounds like he didn't want to fight it…" Elinor said quietly.
Stoick turned her way, his face meshed into a scowl. "My son's a Viking. And I'm not sure how you do it in the Highlands, but Vikings fight dragons. That's all there is to it."
Elinor decided to remain silence, lest she provoke a fight with the only person she could really trust in this whole country.
She still thought it, though. Hiccup was like Merida: both of them had no respect for traditions.
"Sandy!" Merida shouted. "Can ye make me a weapon?"
Sand seemed to hesitate for just a fraction of a second before tossing a cloud of Dream Sand her way. She reached out to it gently, and watched as it slowly began to make a shape. In seconds, she was holding a bow that, despite being made of sand, felt exactly like her old bow.
Another cloud went up to Hiccup. When he took hold of, a large shield. Hiccup nearly scowled at it. "Great. Just what I was hoping for…"
He didn't get a chance to complain more, for that's when the Nightmares struck.
An arrow formed in Merida's hand before she got the chance to ask Sandy for one. She fired it, watching as the golden dart collided with black sand. In a few seconds, the sand faded and was replaced with Dream Sand again. Merida smirked as she glanced over her weapon. She liked this bow.
North jumped into consciousness. He glanced around quickly. A child's bedroom…with Bunny and Tooth…
Right. Now he remembered.
He stayed in consciousness just long enough to realize that the others he had come with were missing and the window was open.
Two hooves of sand landed on the shield that was currently raised in front of Hiccup's face. As soon as he realized that he wasn't about to be trampled, he quickly tossed off the horse and raised it in front of him again. "Hey Rapunzel, can I have the frying pan?" Hiccup asked.
Rapunzel wasn't really listening, for she was already using it to knock back Nightmares.
The Nightmare charged at him. Hiccup tried to cover himself again, but he had only managed to cover his face when he noticed what the shield did. The front opened up, and a golden glove shot and struck the Nightmare, sending it backwards.
Hiccup glanced at what remained of the Nightmare. He glanced at the shield Sandy gave him. "Can I keep this?" He asked.
Sleigh bells rung overhead. Hiccup glanced up, just in time to see North's sleigh drive by. Sandy seemed to be taking this as some kind of cue. A cloud of golden sand appeared under Hiccup's feet, and he found himself being tossed into the air.
For just a second, before the forces of gravity could overcome the forces of acceleration, Hiccup hovered in the air. Toothless dove, and Hiccup collided with a saddle.
"Thank you Toothless." Hiccup deadpanned as he scrambled to the reins.
Jack landed on the side of North's sleigh.
"Ya might wanna duck." Bunny advised him. Jack glanced up to see a Nightmare charging at him and decided that yes, maybe Peter Cottontail was right this time.
The Nightmare was destroyed before it could get too close to Jack. When he glanced up to investigate, he saw Bunny, holding up his boomerang with a satisfied smirk on his face.
He glanced up further. A whole cloud of Nightmares was forming, with only small, near token strips of golden sand breaking through it. The sleigh spun, and Jack could make out Pitch standing above it.
He fired an arrow.
Jack jumped off the sleigh and flew forward, but it was too late. The arrow collided with Sandy. There was a small flash of golden light, then there was none.
Things happened in a blur after that. Jack knew he was flying, and knew he was screaming, but all his attention was narrowed onto Pitch. It was only diverted as the dark cloud dissipated, and a wave of Nightmares came his way. He raised his hand in front of him defensively….
A bright blue light shot through the night sky of Burgess.
A searing pain shot through Jack's chest. He glanced down for the damage, but none showed. He glanced back up to the wave of Nightmares. The sand was frozen in front of him, covered in a very thick frost. It cracked, and Jack found himself being tossed back from the blast.
He wasn't unconscious, but it took him a minute to regain himself. When he did, he found himself glancing up into the wide, worried eyes of Rapunzel and Pascal. "Jack…how did you do that?" She asked, a hint of worry in her tone.
Jack blinked. "I…I don't know."
Pitch laughed as he watched the sleigh and dragon disappear into a Snowglobe Portal. "Finally! Someone who knows how to have a little fun!"
Author's Note: What are action scenes? How do you write them?
Since I don't have a lot to say about this chapter let's talk about accents. I know there's a debate amongst authors and readers on whether or not written out accents work, or are just distracting. I like accents, but I can admit that, if the accent isn't written right or overwritten, it can be distracting. My personal take is that the accent is only seen if the character who is narrating does not have that accent. Merida has a thick Scottish accent that other characters can see. However, it's barely there at all when Merida is the one narrating. Same with Stoick. All the same, Scottish accents are the only ones I've really managed to figure out how to write, and that's mostly because of The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett (which is wonderful and fantastic and you should read it and this was totally just a tangent to talk about it).
By the by, if there are some differences between how I do line skips on this chapter compared to the rest of them, I'll look into it later. I just spent 2 hours and 5 documents on this chapter alone.
