Hiccup, Jack, and Merida traveled for miles. It was growing dark. "We should stop for the night, Jack!" Hiccup called out. Jack nodded and pointed toward a faint glow in the distance. "I think there's a kingdom over there!" Merida had fallen asleep on Hiccup's back and was snoring softly by the time they landed. They landed on the coast of an island with a large castle in the center. "I'll get an aireal view" Jack winked at Hiccup and flew off. "Ooh...look," Merida yawned and pointed towards the castle. Glowing lanterns rose up into the sky. Clanging of armor could be heard in the distance. The two of them played no attention. They were caught in the mood.

"HEY!" A soldier marched up to Hiccup and snatched him up by his collar. "State your business here!" Hiccup could have sworn he saw the soldier's eyes glint yellow. Two more soldiers arrived. One grabbed Merida's arm. The other poked at Toothless, who flew off promptly. Hiccup squirmed and attempted to muster up an excuse. "I-er- we- well...run?...stay..." The soldier grinned. "Runaways huh? We'll just send you to the orphanage then!" Merida coughed. "We are not runaways!" She kicked the soldier holding her. He crumpled and lay on the ground moaning in pain. The chief soldier blew his whistle and more guards filled onto the beach.

"Jack where are you!?" Hiccup shouted. Merida was overpowered. "Run!" She yelled. They ran off the beach and into the grassy area. The soldiers clamored after them. Merida stepped in a hole. There was a grueling *snap* and a scream. "Merida!" Hiccup yelled. He hesitated for less than a second before turning and running back for her. The guards got to her first. Hiccup punched and screamed but was taken over by the soldiers.

"Assault of a guard, resistance of arrest, trespassing! The defendant has been convicted of all of these things! What say the jury?"

Merida looked around. She was in a dusty courtroom that looked more like a dungeon. She tried to move her arms but they were chained behind her back. "Hiccup!?" She called out, louder than she wanted. The man talking spun around. "Rude!" He resumed talking to the judge and jury. Merida attempted to stand. Pain rushed up her leg. She looked at her ankle. It was at a crude angle, blood still spouting out of it. It felt like someone had stabbed her ankle with a red hot poker, covered it in salt, dropped it in lemon juice and left her to die. "Um, hey! Lawyer man!" The speaker turned around. "Yeah, you! I was wondering if you have seen my friend!? He's got brown hair and stuff?"

"I'll have you note, your accomplice has had his trial and is in the dungeons."He turned again. "But-!"

"No more buts!" The man didn't turn but he spoke clearly. "Take her to the dungeons!"

A bag was slipped over Merida's head. This took a few tries due to her hair, which had gotten even bigger and more tangled during the fight.

The bag was removed and the world came into focus. Hiccup sat in a corner, head down. He was breathing deeply. Merida was pushed into the cell. She fell promptly for her ankle had now swollen to the size of a baseball. The thud woke Hiccup. "Where am I?!" He tried to push himself further into the corner. "Well, we just got arrested," Merida sat next to Hiccup. "Jack is nowhere to be found, and we're stuck on an unknown island. How's your head?" Hiccup brought his hand up to his forehead. He flinched. He'd come in contact with small, but vigorously bleeding cut. "I'll be fine. How's your ankle?"

"I'll manage."

"No, that looks serious, Merida." he reached out.

"I'm FINE." She snapped and retracted her leg. If she felt any pain she didn't show it. Hiccup touched the cut again to avoid talking to Merida.

"Where the fuck is Jack?" Merida mumbled. She shuffled and seethed in pain. "I don't know. He's probably off freezing people's feet to the ground." Merida smiled. "Its unseasonable for him to be doing that if you ask me." Hiccup grinned.

"How does he do that?"

"What?"

"Make ice," Merida threw a pebble at the cell door. "Is it magic?"

"No idea." Hiccup frowned. He grabbed a pebble. "I bet I can throw it farther than you!" he chucked the pebble. It flew a few feet farther than Merida's. "Challenge accepted!"

The duo threw rocks for nearly half an hour. "Last rock!" Merida pulled her arm back. The rock flew forward and hit the wall of a cell forty feet away. "OOOHHH!" She yelled. She tried to stand up and do a victory lap. Of course, she fell right down on her ass. She was laughing so hard her ankle didn't even hurt. "I think I deserve a prize since I can't stand and gloat," she said mid-giggle. "I think you've lost too much blood and you've gone crazy." Hiccup pushed some hair out of her face. "But I guess you did win, Hmm... How about you get to punch Jack first when he finally gets here? " Merida lay on her back and stared at the ceiling. "Fair deal." Hiccup lay next to her.

"So, what's your story?" Hiccup rolled on his side to look at Merida.

"In one sentence, I turned my mum into a bear once."

"That's it?"

"I just wanted to spare you all the boring details. Your turn. One-sentence back story."

"I trained a dragon."

"Cool."

Hiccup snorted. Merida laughed. He slowly grabbed her hand.

"AM I INTERUPPTING SOMETHING HERE?" Jack's voice frightened Merida which resulted in her punching Hiccup as hard as she could in the stomach. Hiccup gasped for air on his back. Winded and wheezing, he stuttered, "Wh-Whehn... H-here, goht?"

Merida was screaming at the top of her lungs. "WHERE THE FUCK WERE YOU OH MY GOD WHEN I GET OUT OF HERE I SWEAR IM GOING TO KILL YOU YOU SON OF A BITCH...!"

"C-cahnt...kihll...Ahlready... Dead.. No idea... "

Jack picked some lint off of his hoodie.

"...BROKE MY FUCKING ANKLE I HATE YOU I CANT STAND IM SO FURIOUS RIGHT NOW IF I COULD USE MY LEGS I SWEAR I WOULD...!" She was on her knees at the cell door, rattling the bars with all her strength.

Jack took two steps back, calm as ever.

The bar in Merida's left hand bent. She screamed louder. "...AND WHY DID YOU SNEAK UP ON ME WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU YOU ASSHOLE I HATE YOU!" The second bar bent, and snapped off. "HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE!..." The first bar snapped off with a creak. Merida pushed herself through, her good leg supporting her body and she brought her fist down on Jack's temple. Hiccup walked out of the hole Merida left and looked down on Jack. Jack stood, spat some blue blood, and grinned. The bruise on his right temple throbbed. "Damn, Merida, you punch hard!" Merida was panting ferociously. She leaned on to Hiccup for support. "Stupid bitch." She mumbled and spat at the ground.

"Well," Jack rubbed his head. "If you're done with your little 'tantrum' I have someone for you to meet."

Merida snorted.

"Punzie, the coast's clear! You can come out now!"

A girl peered down the hall and smiled. "Merida, Hiccup, this is Rapunzel."

"Pleasure." Hiccup halfheartedly smiled. He elbowed Merida, who was glaring at Jack. "What? Oh, hi."

Rapunzel smiled awkwardly. "So... I was going to open the door but you seem to have done that already..." She geustured to the cell. "Well, first things first, you know my name, I'm the princess of this island and Jack here told me all about you two!"

"Oh he did did he?" Merida rolled up her sleeve and took a failed step towards Jack. Rapunzel gasped. "Your leg!" Merida learned on Hiccup's shoulder. "What of it ?"

"I can fix it... Just promise you won't freak out... I've been doing it for years and people always freak out..." She twisted a curl of her hair around her finger and softly hummed a song to herself. That's when Hiccup noticed her hair. It was shoulder-length brown with blond streaks that were pulsing. He could also see it growing. Not that they had been standing that long but Rapunzel's hair seemed to be getting progressively longer every few seconds. She stopped humming when Merida replied, "Fine."

"Great!" Rapunzel clapped her hands. "Let's go upstairs to the castle. Its not exactly comfy down here."

She led Jack, Hiccup, and Merida out of the dungeons. More than a few guards stepped out to stop them, but Rapunzel waved them away. The other guards gave them a dirty glare or the side-eye.

After following Rapunzel through many twisting corridors, they came to a happily decorated room. The yellow curtains were drawn giving the room a warm, solitary look. "Will this be gory?" Merida asked as Hiccup helped her into the chair near the window.

"Absolutely not." Rapunzel sat in the chair across from her.

"Your perkiness is reassuring enough," Jack grabbed Hiccups shoulder and led him out of the room.

Jack closes the door and sighed. Hiccup punched him in the nose. "Fuck!" Jack yelled. " 'The hell was that for?" Blue blood trickled from his nose. Hiccup wiped his knuckles on his pants. "I just remembered I didn't get to punch you." Jack wiped his nose on his sleeve. "Whatever. Ugh." He put his head in his hands. "I was supposed to tell you something... What was it?" The door swung open. Merida stood there grinning like she had won the lottery. "Hey! Your leg works!" Jack pointed to her ankle. It looked perfectly normal. "And your face looks different!"

"WHAT?!"

"No, BETTER! Not different! I meant better!" he called after her as she ran back into the room and up to the mirror. It was true she looked different, but better. The bags under her eyes had dissapeared, her face looked younger and brighter, and her lips were fuller and a soft shade of pink. She smiled. Her teeth were also straightened. "Wow."

Rapunzel had just cut the bloody chunks out of her hair. It was at the nape of her neck now and growing quickly into a chestnut-golden brown. Gold streaks had already sprouted from her scalp. "It was nothing, really..." She sat in a yellow beanbag on the rug. "Jack's told me all about your adventure so far!"

Jack tapped the wall with his staff. Ice spread throughout the room,making it noticeably colder. Merida was still checking herself out in the mirror and mumbled unintelligibly. Hiccup broke the silence. "Well, since you know what happened to us,-Jack- tell us how you two found each other!"

Jack's eyes brightened. He flew over to the chair on the far wall. Hiccup pulled up a chair. Merida sat in between Hiccup and Rapunzel on the rug.

Jack grinned. "Well if you must know...-"