AN: Life's too short is another fantastic song and I'm really sad it was cut. A fan did a storyboard type animation and I based the chapter off of it. I wouldn't call it "required" before reading the chapter, but you at least need to hear the song. Here's a link to the fan animation if you'd like to watch: watch?v=POwXz4VUmuc
Inside the castle was dead silence. The main floor was like a giant ice rink, with doors leading to the towers. Two stair cases rose from the floor and met at a middle floor, but beyond that Hiccup couldn't see anything. He cleared his throat nervously.
"Hello?" he called, his voice echoing through the walls. "Jack? It's me. Hiccup," he added as an afterthought. "Or Henry. Whatever works."
"Hiccup?" Jack called. He appeared on the landing a moment later, smiling and looking much more comfortable than he had the other day.
"Hey," Hiccup said cheerfully. "Did…did you make this?"
"Yeah," Jack said, looking around in satisfaction. "Do you like it?"
"It's…" He laughed, running his hands through his hair as he looked around. "This is incredible."
"I didn't know I had it in me," Jack admitted.
"It reminds me of mom. Like the old days."
"Yeah," Jack said, sighing.
"Hey, I feel a song coming on!" Hiccup teased.
"Oh, boy," Jack said.
He tried to look like he wasn't in the mood, but he couldn't stop grinning. Maybe this could work out, he thought as Hiccup began to sing.
"I came all this way today to give us a fresh start
But now that you're like wow it's all like warm in my heart!"
Jack couldn't help himself. He slid down the banister and joined in.
"I'm so glad you like it bro 'cause this is the real me
You have no idea how great it feels to be free!"
"We've been falling out for way too long, so let's forget who's right…"
"And forget who's wrong…"
"OKAY!" they high-fived.
"Why don't you stay? There's room for family in my court," Jack continued, gesturing to one of the towers.
"Cause life's too short," they sang together.
"To always feel shut out and unloved by the brother I long to know."
"LIFE'S TOO SHORT…"
"To never let you celebrate me, the true king of the ice and snow…"
Jack made a snow mountain and Hiccup whooped with delight, jumping from mountain to mountain just as they had done as kids.
"I never understood, but now I do," they sang in harmony.
Life's too short to miss out on a brother like you."
"So you'll come back, then?" Hiccup asked as he slid down the last mountain.
"Back?" Jack laughed.
"To thaw the fjord," he explained. "It's frozen over, no one can get in or out?"
"Oh…" Jack bit his lip. Whoops.
"Soooo…" Hiccup said, looking at him expectantly.
"I don't believe you!" Jack scoffed.
"What?! I just assumed that you would have to…"
"Then I'll shove on the gloves, that's how your story ends!" Jack exploded.
"It does! Sorta. It's just like it was, except for we'll be best friends."
"So that's in your plan to force me back in a cage!"
"Whoa, whoa! Don't get upset let's get back on the same page!"
"Gee, thanks for coming up to see the place," Jack said, melting the mountains.
"And showing off your mastery of tact and grace, okay!" He grabbed Hiccup's arm and dragged him to the door.
Run down the hill and spill my secrets, make a full report!
Bye-bye!"
"Wait!" Hiccup cried as he was shoved out to the courtyard and the door was slammed behind him. Not again, he thought miserably.
"Cause life's too short!" he heard Jack's final retort, mocking him.
"Hiccup!" Rapunzel cried, running through the snow to help him. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine." He looked up at the closed door, suddenly feeling a burst of outrage. "There it is! The door you'd love to slam in my face!
You did well there for a spell, but now you're back in the same place."
He pushed open the doors savagely, leaving the two girls alone.
"Um, should we follow him?" Rapunzel asked.
"No. Ah have three brothers. Yew want to stay out of this, trust me."
Rapunzel looked at Hiccup chasing Jack up the slippery stairs. "I'm going in."
Merida sighed but didn't stop her. Rapunzel managed well on the icy floor and helped Hiccup up the stairs, joining him in song.
"Kick us out if you want, but we're the only ones who are
Not one hundred percent convinced the prophecy's you!"
They reached the second floor, the one that led to the balcony. Rapunzel noticed the intricately inlaid snowflake and the delicate chandelier, but decided that the time for complimenting Jack, who had turned on them angrily, had long since passed.
"You can think whatever you want 'cause I don't care
Hiccup's a fool who married a stranger!
"That is so unfair!" Hiccup yelled, cheeks blazing.
"I swear I'm through with taking your un-shaking brotherly support!" the brothers sang.
"Boys, calm down!" Rapunzel said, trying to be the voice of diplomatic reason.
"HAH! Life's too short!" Angry, they turned back to back with arms crossed, clearly trying to make the other one feel sorry.
"To let you treat the people down there just as coldly as you always treated me," Hiccup sang.
"La la lalala laaaa," Jack covered his ears and tried to ignore the pain he could hear in Hiccup's voice.
"LIFE'S TOO SHORT!"
"To listen to a reckless fool who only ever sees the things he wants to see!"
"You don't know me," Hiccup retorted.
"You have no idea!"
"What I've been through!" they swirled round to face each other. Rapunzel face-palmed and tried not to watch.
Because of you
Life's too short to waste another minute
Life's too short to even have you in it
Life's too short!"
They ended up inches apart, and Jack's fists were clenched.
"I've been so wrong about you," Hiccup snapped.
"You?! You've been so wrong about everything."
"You know what? Maybe you are the prophecy!"
"Hiccup!" Rapunzel cried, shocked.
Jack closed his eyes and bent over suddenly, like he was sick to the stomach. "I am NOT the prophecy!"
Rapunzel seemed to watch in slow motion as a ring of ice left Jack's body. It was if a rock had hit him, overflowing the magic in all directions. Hiccup crumpled to the ground and a second later Rapunzel felt like someone had walked over her grave. She shivered and heard the ice shatter as it hit the walls. Her whole body felt chilled, but as she took in a deep breath it warmed to it's normal temperature. Jack looked up, startled, and screamed when he saw Hiccup. In a split second he saw Hiccup falling unconscious into the fjord and his mother dying.
"No," he choked. "Not again. Please, not again!"
"Hiccup!" Rapunzel yelled, running forward to help him. She yanked free her braid and tossed her hair over his body and began to sing frantically. "Flower gleam and glow…"
"You knew," Jack said thickly. "You knew you couldn't protect him! That won't work! It didn't save mother and it won't save him!"
Hiccup's eyes shot open and he looked up in shock. "It what?"
"You didn't even tell him," Jack cried, voice breaking.
"Well, you didn't talk to him for years!" Rapunzel shot back, breaking off her singing for a moment.
"What did you say about mother?" Hiccup gasped.
Jack turned away, hugging himself so tightly it hurt. "Get him out of here," he demanded.
"No," Hiccup said, struggling to his feet. "I'm not leaving without you, or the truth!"
"Just go!" Jack yelled, thrusting his hands down.
A snow cloud swirled around, and when it cleared revealed a six and a half foot muscular rabbit. Jack blinked in surprise, not sure what to do.
"Get out," it said sternly to Rapunzel and Hiccup in a weird accent.
When nobody moved, he picked them up by the back of their coats and quickly leapt away. It carried them joltingly through the castle and courtyard, throwing them down over the stairs and into the soft show below. He turned to face Merida and Toothless, but they already got the message.
"We're going, we're a going!" she insisted, riding Toothless through the gate.
Hiccup was trying to stand but was in too much pain. Rapunzel looked at Merida worriedly.
"Jack hit him with the ice," she explained. "I don't know what to do, I can't heal him!"
"Can you heal Toothless' tail?" Merida asked urgently, supporting Hiccup as he collapsed again. "I have friends who can help but we need to move fast."
"I've never tried animals before, much less dragons, but I'll try."
Moments later, the three of them had squeezed onto Toothless' back, and Merida was flying them through the mountains.
"So, who are these friends in the mountains of yours?" Hiccup asked, teeth chattering.
"Don't laugh, but they're trolls." She started to gradually land Toothless. "Prepare yourself, they're quite a handful."