Chapter 4: JACK

Jack didn't like where this was going, not one bit. Sure, Merida was annoying and stuck-up and stubborn most of the time. She had cursed him a couple times, not in a pleasant way, that is. The red headed Scot had been rude, un-welcoming strange, and rebellious towards him. But she was a friend who had, in the long run, accepted him and appreciated his unnerving existence. And considering Merida was a tad sceptical, that was down-right impressive taking all into consideration.

So he didn't like it – hell, he hated it – when those campers attacked her like that, like she was that misfit duckling in that story mortals tell their kids. Jack clenched his jaw and stayed still. He had sworn on the river Styx to always protect his friends, since he had so few of them. But Merida would never forgive him if he saved her now, she had to take care of this herself, for the sake of her pride.

Jack could sense Hiccup grow more and more uncomfortable with every comment someone threw at either him or Merida. He couldn't blame the kid – having to stand up against bullies his whole life and still there were people here who–

Jack's track of thoughts froze by the sound of heavy steps stomping across the pavilion and away from the camper, into the night. He waited for Hiccup to stand up and go after her, but the Viking didn't move, probably to convince the bullies that his relationship with Merida was just friendship – Jack swore he'd never witnessed a friendship as strong as theirs.

They kept throwing crap at her until she was out of earshot. Man, Jack was delighted he wasn't an Ares kid; that would've given him some sh-… he trailed off. He didn't want to open that box, not even to himself. The pavilion fell quiet as Chiron entered from the Big House. By the look on his face, he hadn't heard the harassing or he didn't care. But Chiron always cared. About everything. And everyone – even Jack. The unclaimed had a soft spot for the centaur.

No one said anything. Most stared uneasy at Chiron, and just now Jack noticed how Rapunzel was still staring at the direction her new had stormed off. From this angle Jack couldn't see her face, but from how she slowly stood up with her eyes glued on Merida's back as it disappeared into the night, she was very concerned. He put his hand on his cabin mate's shoulder. Her emerald eyes looked back at him and he quietly shook his head. Merida would cool off later. Then Jack noticed how ripped and dirty her dress was.

"Whoa, Rapunzel – what've happened to you? Played fetch with monsters or…?"

Rider tapped his first at the table with a smug grin plastered on his face. "That, Jack, is a very heroic tale with me starring as the main character!"

Jack arched a brow at him and smiled cheekily. "Ya know, Rider, sometimes you're a real sexist. I believe Punzie here is strong enough–"

Rapunzel waved her hands in an averting gesture. "No, no! He really did save me, Jack."

"That's right," Astrid put in and Sandie nodded. "They told us the whole story."

"Well, that's not really–" This time he cut himself off. "Wait." He narrowed his eyes at Flynn. "You guys didn't stay together the whole time? Damn it, Flynn! You promised everything would be fine!"

"Because I thought it was a lame mission, alright! I didn't plan on getting them trapped, ya know." Jack knew he didn't mean for it to sound like it was nothing, because Flynn know Jack knows how they both would die for their friends.

Hiccup choked on his juice. "W-What, trapped?!" Jack chuckled to himself. Hiccup had to do way better to hide his 'secret' crush on Astrid.

"Yeah, by roman Cyclops. The bad kind."

Flynn cleared his throat. "Astrid, if I may?"

"Go ahead," she said, folding her arms on the table. "I'm better with weapons than storytelling anyway."

Then Flynn began to tell a quite impressive tale about how he (it seemed like the story was more about him than Rapunzel at the end) got the rest of his team trapped and saved Rapunzel from one stupid Cyclop, with a sword (had to be a lie, Rider don't ever practice). Rapunzel had brought them back to lair where she'd been held captive and they found Astrid and Sandie there.

"So…" Jack said when Flynn finished with dramatic hand gestures. "Fry pan, huh?"

"Well, yes," the blonde mumbled and shrugged. Didn't she have shoulder length hair just now? "It didn't stop the monsters though, didn't even knock them unconscious." She sighed. Jack studied her for a moment. Everyone who comes to camp is usually traumatized after being chased by monsters. This girl had even been held captive for gods know how long and she looked perfectly fine with it. But somehow he knew she must have been a mess when Flynn found her faced up with that one-eyed bastard alone in the forest.

"What you need, Blondie," Astrid said, pointing at the new camper. "is a Celestial Bronze weapon. 'Would've taken you to the storage myself if I didn't have full schedule tomorrow."

"Yeah, same." Flynn implied. "But someone got to keep those sneaky idiots under a sort of control during camp activities, plus I got a damn counsellor meeting afterwards."

"I can take you, I got no classes tomorrow." Because the unclaimed kids don't have any. The camp never saw to give them a schedule since most got claimed the same day they get here. And then there's Jack. He usually just joins other cabins in their activities as he pleased, but it didn't feel right, especially not in those cabins where he had no friends.

"And I can make you one if you don't find any you like," Hiccup offered. He glanced at the forest. His eye brows furrowed and his eyes turned hard. "She probably fell down a well." He stood up from the table.

"Hey Viking, sit down and eat," Jack ordered him with a stern look. "You might as well grow some muscle too, along with Punzie here. I'll look for her, alright? I'm done eating anyway." He stood up as Hiccup sat down again, grumbling darkly at the comment of his body mass and how he didn't understand how Jack's ice cream never melted. With a quick thank you from Rapunzel, he left the table and headed out to the grass ground. It was wet and slippery and so full of dew he could probably have made small skating rinks at places if no one was around. When the light from the dinner pavilion was behind him, Jack began to think. He hadn't known Merida all that long, but he knew if she had first gone into the forest, she could stay here for days if she was angry or hurt enough. It was the only place she could think without worrying if anyone would find her. He had to admit he wasn't even close to the read head when it came to mapping that place. Merida had an amazing sense of direction.

Twigs cracked under his bare feet as he entered misty green surroundings. Just like a normal forest it was filled with life even at this hour. He could have thought, judging from Merida's temper, that she would've kicked and wrestled her way through all these bushes, but there was no signs of her as much as setting a foot in here.

Jack wished it was winter. He could easily track her down in the snow without going through a deadly trap of scratchy branches. Merida was brave, though. He remember her declare that she would "overpower" the forest as soon as someone told her it was off limits due to the dangers that lured in there. It started out as a challenge, but she kept coming back here for comfort she had told him. Well, with other words, but it's the same thing.

I haven't known her for a long time, he thought and ducked under a branch. Even though Jack came to camp only a few weeks after her, they had only been friends a couple months after an incident with Capture the Flag earlier this summer. They weren't as close as she and Hiccup, but they enjoyed each other's company enough to be called friends – even those times they were arguing so loud the whole camp could quote the fight the next day.

Both of them were year-round campers so he figured he only had her around when everyone else went off to school in a few weeks. Even Hiccup who lived a far off, locked up island like Berk will go back there to keep trying not to disappoint his mortal father. Jack didn't see the logic in that. He didn't really have anyone to go back to, but Merida had a family waiting for her back in Scotland, so he never really got around why she stayed here. How did he get such good friend again? He smiled viciously at the thought. The first 'friend' he made here two years ago was Flynn Rider, seeing he felt bad for the unclaimed. Jack chuckled at the memory of how he had shown the counselor that he could take care of himself. The guy didn't dare to approach him before two weeks afterwards and that's the story of how Jack learned he couldn't show off his powers. Flynn is the only one who knows about them, not even Chiron knows. Jack got to know Sandie half a year later, during Christmas Break when some kids bullied him for being mute. He didn't even want to think about how Astrid had almost chopped his head off, accidentally of course… or not. He's still not sure.

Faint sounds of metal slamming into wood finally reached his ears. That's Merida for sure. He picked up speed. He didn't really know what to do to make her feel better – she was obviously still furious – she rarely let people comfort her, not that he was good at comforting. Last thing he heard was that he had a heart of ice and Merida's frost jokes just keeps getting lamer.

As he came closer he heard Merida's voice giving in at the end of her battle cries. And as he moved a branch out of his sight, he saw why. Her jeans and orange Camp Half-Blood shirt was ripped and torn, twigs was tangled into her massive hair, she had bruises and some blood on her arms, and her tears mixed with the small wounds on her face. All in all, she looked murderous as she sliced her mortal sword into a tree trunk. She was standing on top of a rocky shelf with so many trees each having about 50-60 marks that she couldn't possibly have done all this tonight. The ground was misty and the air chill and when the wind ruffled through the forest, promising a cool breeze to calm her down a notch.

Jack stepped out of his hiding and immediately broke a stick under his foot. Merida arched down slightly and shot him a glare. When she saw it was him, her right hand twitched like she wanted to throw her sword at him, aiming for the carefree smirk on his face.

He held his hands up. "Hey Mer. Don't kill me, it'll be lots of paperwork."

She rolled her eyes and groaned, still furious. "What do you want, Frost? And how did you even find me? Get lost." She swung her sword again.

"Nah, can't do that, sorry." He took a seat on a stone so he could watch her. She ignored him. "I'm here to bring you back on a request from a friend."

"Hiccup didn't come?" Merida asked causally, cutting off a smaller branch.

"Nope."

"Good. He could get lost too." Jack could smell her sweat from where he sat and when he called her out on it, she didn't even bother look at him. Okay, so maybe joking with her wouldn't help the situation. He tried a new strategy.

"…I can see why you like it here in this clearing, the scenery looks a lot like Scotland."

Merida hesitated a second, her eyes darting from place to place, before chopping off a piece of wood. "I don't miss that place."

"I believe you do," he stated as a matter of fact. "Though you never told me why you stay here instead of going–"

"Because it's not YOUR FUCKING BUISNESS, JACK!" Her voice cracked at the last syllable. She turned to him, sword in hand and eyes like blue lightning striking you from afar. "It's not yours," the tip of her sword pointing at him. "Theirs," back at the dining pavilion. "Chiron's, or Hiccup's business. It's only for me and my family to care about."

Jack tried to shrug. "But we care about you, though." She groaned again and made a nice cut into the bark. "And, not going to push it here, but most of us knows what it's like to be picked on." Nailed it.

Or not.

The red head turned to him sharply, looking even angrier now than before if possible. "WHAT did you say?" She stormed down the rocky shelf, leaving her sword, but she didn't need it to look dangerous. As she approached he felt all instincts screaming for him to run. "Listen, Jack Frost, you don't have the slightest clue about what I'm going through, so don't feel the need to make me feel better when you don't know anything."

That triggered him. "I think you've just forgotten about our first year here, DunBroch, where close to no one wanted to even look at me, so don't come here and say I don't know because I sure as hell do!"

"NO, YOU DON'T AND YOU NEVER WILL," Merida exploded and Jack could swear on the river Styx he saw a bloody red colour wash over her eyes. "YOU WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO KNOW AND BE HAPPY ABOUT THAT BECAUSE I CAN SWEAR TO ALL THE GODS IT'S NOT PLEASANT! DON'T COME HERE AND CLAIM YOU KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE WHEN YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO ME!"

He was about to fire something back when he realized that he actually didn't know. It could be something completely different to her and he wouldn't know because he wasn't her. He'd never experienced things she had, and he shouldn't step on it like everyone has an equal sadness when it might be that hers is much greater and takes a lot more time to think about and takes up so much more room in her head than his sadness does.

Merida turned around so he wouldn't see her face. But he heard the silenced sobs and saw her curls twitch and shake with them. This was the kind of situation he wasn't good at – absolutely not his area. Should he pat her on the shoulder and say something like it's going to be okay, or would that just make her mad again?

Eventually, she sat down on the ground, her back against the cool mountain and face resting in her hands. "This whole thing… it just sucks." Her voice shook. A breeze rushed through the leaves.

Jack sat down beside her and sighed. "Yeah, very messed up." He listened to Merida whisper small curses that couldn't possibly have anything to do with Apollo. But after a while, Jack got an idea. "I'm adopted," he smirked.

She looked at him, confused. "What?" the inside of her palm wiped her face clean.

"Mhm. Found me as a kid and took me under his wing – best thing that's ever happened to me."

She almost smiled and laughed a little. "I got identical triplet brothers."

"I've never managed to light a fire."
"This is my only pair of pants."
"Willow the horse hates me."
"I'm jealous of the tree nymphs."
"I can't stand shoes."
"I do miss Scotland."
"I wish you would trust us more."

She shrugged it off. "And maybe I will." Merida smiled at him. "But not now." She turned her head in the direction of the pavilion. She absentmindedly whispered, "Do you think I can still steal one of those glasses? I could use a smoothie right now."

"And some real food, Fire. Cinnamon rolls doesn't count."

She stuck her tongue out. "Like you're the one to talk, jackass." They got up and went in another direction from where he'd come from. Yeah, Merida knew this place better than he did. And it seems like he had stumbled in circles on his way here. Merida was nice enough to warn him before they approached holes in the ground or wells. Well, most of the times at least.

"Man, Jack, you gotta taste this smoothie. It's like it's made out of the gods glory and tears." She took another sip as they closed in to the campfire. She was close to purring over her rasp- and blueberry smoothie. He didn't know why, but she always instantly got happier after getting a glass of it.

He rolled his eyes at her. They walked down past a few benches, looking for Hiccup and Rapunzel and the others. "You should at least try to hide it. We shouldn't steal magical dishes."

"Borrow. And you're just jealous, Frost." She smiled smugly as she gulped down the rest, some of it sticking to her face.

"Of the smoothie?" he asked cheeky. "Nah, I'd rather never be inside–"

Merida kicked him down a few steps as he kept laughing at his own joke.

"Hey MERIDA! JACK!" Hiccup called from above them. Jack barely managed to turn his head from his twisted position at the end of the staircase. They sat on top of a few boxes at the top of the staircase. It was only him and Rapunzel. "Come join us!"

"Yeah, will do!" Jack called. "Hey Mer, help me out here. Merida. Don't walk away. Please, DunBroch, c'me on – IT WAS A JOKE! Merida!"

Pffew, that took a while to get around. Sorry, I've been caught up with work and other projects to continue, but now I'm back! I really love this story, and now that Jack has finally arrived, we can get this thing started! ^^ Just a reminder: I don't plan on including any RotBTG ships, even though it might seem like I'm building up to something, but their behavior is just them and it writes itself, so who am I to stop the way of the pen? I just really love their friendship and how their personalities fit with each other and that's what I want to write about :)

"Will Toothless and the rest of the guardians also show up soon?"
- I really, really, really love Toothless' character and I want him here, so somehow I will make sure he shows up. As for the guardians, Bunny will appear and maybe Tooth (Tia). I don't plan on involving North, unfortunately.

Stay magnificent!

Johannich