Sorry I haven't updated in a while (again)
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As suddenly as they had come, the attacking nightmares had vanished into the shadows, leaving Merida and Hiccup breathless.
"Hiccup, are you ok, Rapunzel, Jack you two ok?" Merida's eyes flickered to the Viking, who was checking over his dragon for any injuries, before they darted around looking for any signs of the winter and spring.
"Hiccup if ya not to busy wit your dragon, then can ye tell me where the others are?"
Hiccup dragged his eyes away from the dozens of cuts that littered Toothless's side, to scan the area for any signs of a white-haired boy or a girl with short brown hair.
"No, I can't see them, I will have a fly around on Toothless and see if we can see them, while you stay here and see if they return."
Hiccup climbed atop of his dragon and shot Merida a reassuring smile before taking off into the dark.
"Great, stay here and wait for them… thanks Hiccup what a glamorous job I get." Merida settled down for a long wait, she had no idea as to where the two missing spirits could be but she had a feeling that her and Hiccup wouldn't be seeing them for a while.
Hiccup searched the surrounding sky, hoping that he would find the two spirits but as the hours passed and he could find no sign he began to worry. Jack and Rapunzel had last been seen in a fight, it was only logical to assume that they had been taken by the enemy during the fight, whilst he and Merida had been distracted.
Eventually Hiccup had to admit defeat and turned Toothless back to where Merida would be waiting.
After several hours of waiting in vain for the others to arrive, Merida finally saw the dark shape of Toothless appearing in the horizon.
"Did you find them?" Merida didn't even wait for Toothless to land and Hiccup to dismount before she began to throw questions at the Viking.
"No, by now they will be well out of the country that is if they haven't been taken by whatever attacked us."
Merida stared at Hiccup as what he had said hit her full impact.
"What where we attacked by?"
Merida waited until Hiccup had sorted through her thick accent to the question before repeating herself.
"Do you know?"
The two spirits thought back. Whatever had attacked them was strong, black and there was lots of-whatever it was.
"I'm not sure but we need to find Jack and Rapunzel, Manny wanted us all together for a reason and we can't fulfil our purpose if we are all split up."
"If we don't even know what took them then how are we going to find them?"
Hiccup stayed silent for a moment as he puzzled it out.
"We ask Manny."
Merida looked at the moon shining large and bright in the night sky.
"Hiccup ya know as well as me that Manny rarely, if ever, replies to us, what makes you think that he will now?"
"Because he has to." Hiccup answered simply before lifting his head to stare expectantly at the moon.
Sighing heavily, Merida joined him.
The two spirits stared hard at their far-off creator, willing him to respond.
Just this once they were in luck. The moon beamed brighter, filling their world with light and making the darkness vanish almost completely. Then a deep voice echoed in their minds.
"My children, your brother and sister have been taken by Pitch and by the witch Gothel." Only one of these names were known to the spirits, who both froze at the mention of the Nightmare King.
"They are both in grave danger as the two that have them are eager for revenge and are not restrained by morals or a conscious, so hurry my children, I am unable to guide you directly where they are, however I can help you slightly, Pitch will have taken them to his lair, the location of which changes frequently, to find it turn away from the sun when it rises in the morning and the areas that is the darkest on the horizon is where his lair is most likely to be, travel only at night and avoid any nightmare or fearlings, good luck."
The light provided by the moon faded and the darkness of the night returned.
"Well at least he answered us." Hiccup was the first to speak and the he tried to see the positive side.
"So we have no idea where ta go, no idea how long we have but at least he spoke ta us." Merida spat, her blue eyes gleaming.
"We can figure it out on the way, right now the sunrise is over three hours away so we might as well get some rest and then start to plan everything."
Merida nodded her agreement and the two spent the next three hours planning how they were going to defeat Pitch and the witch, Gothel.
Finally the first golden streaks of sunlight were visible stretching across the ground.
Hiccup watched the sun rise before spinning around and fixing his eyes on the darkest point of the horizon.
"Meri there, look!"
"Meri! Really." The Scottish girl glared at the Viking boy before following his finger to the dark point.
"Come along Hic we need to get going, hurry before it goes!"
Merida pushed off and threw herself into the air, free falling for a second before the wind caught her and lifted her high into the air.
"Let's go Toothless!" Boy and dragon leapt into the air and soon joined the Scottish girl in the air.
Rapunzel held Jack close to her, gently rocking him back and forth as she started to sing.
As Rapunzel started to sing Gothel crept closer with a wicked grin on her face and a glass tube held in her wrinkled old hands.
"That's right my flower continue singing and give me back my beauty."
The song ended and Jack remained the same until the tear that had been balanced on the tip of Rapunzel's nose fell and landed on Jack's upturned face.
Two things happened after that.
Gothel gave a shriek and held the tube under Rapunzel's eyes and collected the tears as they fell while her former daughter cried over the winter spirit.
The second thing that happened was the tear sinking into Jack's skin and a beautiful golden light erupting from his skin, forming the shape of a sun. All the wounds on Jack slowly disappeared, the terrible burns on his hands slowly faded away.
"Thank you my petal, these will be enough, for now at least." Gothel drew the now full tube back to her and almost greedily drank a few drops of the golden liquid. The effect was instantaneous. The wrinkled disappeared and smooth, flawless skin took their place, the eyes lost their baggy, tired look and instead became young and bag-free.
"Oh my, I'm beautiful again! Pitch, dear look!" Gothel held her hands out and the Nightmare King took her hands in his and marvelled over the now-perfect skin.
"Well I could certainly think of a few uses of your tears, girly." Pitch leered down at Rapunzel who squirmed awkwardly and pulled Jack closer to her, protectively.
"Oh I had forgotten about him, as a reward for your… cooperation I shall leave him be… for now."
"My dear I must leave now, the children are waiting for their nightmares and I must deliver them."
Gothel nodded once, her eyes not leaving the tube still clutched in her hands.
Rapunzel glared at the slim, dark figure front of her as he turned away and vanished into the shadows.
"Ignore him my flower, he tends to be overly dramatic, but forget about him let's talk about you, how has your life been for the past… hmm how long has it been since I saw you last?"
"Two hundred years, give or take a few decades." Rapunzel spat at the witch she used to love.
"Now, now, flower that's no way to speak to your mother!" Gothel scolded her adopted daughter.
"You are not my mother!" For one if the first times in her long life Rapunzel shouted.
"My mother died, two hundred years back, she was a beloved Queen and had ruled her kingdom well with my father, the King, by her side." Rapunzel's green eyes shone with unsure tears as she finished her speech.
"You did love me once, a long time ago." For a second Rapunzel could have sworn that she saw tears sparkling in Gothel's eyes but then the witch looked up at her and the anger burning in her eyes convinced Rapunzel that she must have been mistaken.
"Punzel, you ok?" Rapunzel looked down at the sleepy spirit in her arms.
"Jack! You're ok!"
"Of course I am, you didn't think I would let a wrinkly old witch kill me did you?!"
Jack grinned at Gothel's angry snarl.
"I may be old but age has granted me wisdom winter spirit, a wisdom that you prehaps could do with having yourself, if I was you I wouldn't insult someone who could kill you with a snap of their fingers and wouldn't feel a shred of remorse."
"Maybe you are wiser but boy do you age badly. I am over three hundred years old yet I dont look a day over twenty, you on the other hand… not so much."
Gothel went to grab at Jack but at the last second pulled away and instead pulled out a large mirror from her cloak and began to carefully examine every inch of her face, pulling and pinching the skin as she searched for any sign of ageing.
"I can see some very obvious wrinkles, and your eyes especially starting to look old."
Gothel's face paled and she grabbed at the tube that held Rapunzel's tears and pulled out the stopper and dropped a few more tears onto a face.
"Hmm that's not really much better you still look old."
Rapunzel looked at Jack who was lying on her lap with a huge grin that he was trying and failing to hide.
Gothel shrieked and poured more tears onto her face, this time though she didn't stop, she continued to pour the tears onto her face which was soon shielded by golden light, completely hiding her face from Rapunzel and Jack.
The two spirits shared slightly apprehensive looks as Gothel began to shriek.
"Ahhh, Rapunzel help me, please!"
Rapunzel looked between the glowing shape of her adopted mother and Jack who was shaking his head slowly.
Gothel continued to scream but now the golden light was beginning to fade from her face.
Rapunzel and Jack both stared in shock at Gothel after all the golden light had faded from her face.
Yea I completely failed with writting Merida's accent :/
Hope you enjoyed and please review :D