A/N: You're going to hate me for the cliffhanger. NO REGRETS.

Dovahkin: Down, boy! LOL. I'm afraid the end of the story isn't going to be that blood and thunder, but I promise it'll be a satisfying ending. And while I appreciate the sentiment, you don't need to worry about other reviewers, I've got a thick skin. (Also, I'm a ma'am, not a sir). I'm glad you're so enthusiastic about the story, though. It always makes me happy if something I write gets people passionate.

Matt: I'm not sure how you missed the part where I explain that time travel took place. It's in the very first chapter. Complaining about the Guardians being in Hiccup's time is like complaining about Marty McFly wearing Calvin Klein in the 1950's in Back to the Future. Time travel's kinda the whole point.

XphiaDP: Don't worry, this chapter explains it a bit. Basically, just because someone says they don't believe in something doesn't mean it really happens in their head right away. Belief can be something that's hard to let go of entirely.

Syrlai: I do understand that there's a glut of shipping in fanfiction and that a lot of it is slash, which is why I tend to write genfics focusing on plot and other types of relationships like friendships and familial relationships, but I'm not sure I like how you worded that, saying slash would "ruin" a story. I do write and read slash in other fandoms, like BBC's Sherlock, even if I don't post the fics here. It isn't "crap" and it isn't something "ruins" stories, it's just another type of relationship. If you're just trying to express being bummed over the fact that it's hard to find stories that have other types of relationships, I understand that, but you might want to check your wording. And if you're slamming slash just because you think it's gross, that's kind of hateful, and you might want to check yourself. I appreciate the compliments and I'm sorry if this comes off worded harshly at all, but the way you worded that made me really uncomfortable and I felt the need to make it clear that I do support "that kind of relationship," whether in fiction form or, much more importantly, RL.

It's the Great Spirit Sleigh, Hiccup Haddock

by Saph

Chapter 3: Yes, Hiccup, There Is a Santa Claus

After a miserable night for the Guardians, Jack sat on a tree branch as the sun rose and the first bit of pale light spilled over the horizon. There was mostly silence for hours, but by midday, the others were fussing over the reindeer and the sleigh - and over the fact that North, Jack, and Bunny had lost their only believer in this time.

"I can already feel it," said Bunny, and it made sense that he was feeling the ill effects of it the worst since the physical changes for him were so pronounced. "One believer's hardly enough to keep us going as is, and moving all those decorations took a lot out of us. We're not going to last long."

A very tired North was sitting on a tree stump from one of the trees they'd cut down to make the pen for the reindeer.

"Only one more day until piece of moon is ready. We might be able to make it."

Jack already felt the energy seeping out of him and it was a frightening thing. Even at his weakest, before he was a Guardian, he'd always felt fine. The price he paid for having no believers has been steep, but being invisible to everyone had never actually hurt him physically. Now, he felt himself fading slowly, only it seemed to him that it was the world that was fading away from him instead.

Yet, despite how frightening it was, that wasn't the thing that was foremost on his mind.

"What story were you talking about, North?" Jack finally asked from where he sat on a tree branch above them. He'd been stewing on it through the whole night. "You said there was a story and we weren't a part of it. What story?"

"Is story I read once. Hiccup is part of it, I think, if he is same Hiccup in story."

"Why does it mean we can't show ourselves and help him? If we can get them to see us and prove he helped with all the decorations - "

"We are not in story. If we showed ourselves, it is the kind of thing that would be in such a story. It could ruin his future," said North. "It could ruin the future, our future, the future of world. Helping with Snoggletog without them knowing was one thing, but anymore than that could be changing the course of a life! It could be changing the course of history!"

Jack suddenly dropped down from the branch and letting out a loud cry, he waved his staff in a wide arc and with a flash of blue, an entire tree was felled by the ice blast it released. Even though Jack felt weaker, the cold anger he felt inside had been fuel enough to cause damage.

"What good are we as Guardians if we can't help one kid?" Jack yelled, waving his arms outward, the arc of his staff almost hitting Bunny as he did it.

The others were looking at him with concern after his sudden outburst, and feeling miserable over Hiccup, and ashamed over losing his temper, Jack turned away from the worried faces of the others and took to the air.

"Jack, you can't -" North started.

"I can't interfere, I know, but I have to at least see if he's okay."

Jack flew off before they could say anything else, into town, hopping from roof to roof cautiously, making sure he wasn't seen, just in case he wasn't entirely invisible yet. It took a little bit of time for their power to fade when the belief was gone. He wasn't sure where Hiccup would be at first; maybe at his house, but there were no windows for him to look in to see.

Then he remembered that Hiccup spent a lot of time in the forge and he hunted for that until he found it. Hiding on the roof of a nearby building, he looked in through the opening of the stall and saw Hiccup working silently on fixing a pot. Immeasurable sadness had a subtle touch on every line of his face, but for the most part his expression held the same blankness that had frightened Jack when they'd been standing on the trail the night before.

After finishing his work, Hiccup sat there on a stool doing nothing for a little while, staring at a wall, and then, seeming to come to a decision, he got up and went over to a little work table in the back. Jack climbed down to a lower part of the roof he was hiding on to have an unobstructed view and saw that there were pictures tacked all over the wall at his worktable, of what looked like drawings of birds and other animals and of clever little mechanical devices. Some looked like weapon plans and Jack thought he recognized one or two of them because of Hiccup describing to them what they were and how they were supposed to work. Even in the short time Jack had known him, he knew that those drawings and plans were undeniably Hiccup in nature, his heart and soul poured onto the paper.

That was why he gasped in shock when he saw Hiccup taking them all down to throw them - and part of himself - away in the forge's hearth. There was a moment that he hesitated, looking at them all as he held them near the fire, the blank expression temporarily cracking and a softer one full of deep sadness taking its place.

Then his face went blank again and he lifted up the papers to throw them into the fire.

Jack had only a moment to take action, raising his staff and muttering to himself, "C'mon,
wind..."

A sudden gust of wind blew through the forge, tearing all the papers from Hiccup's hands just before they fell into the fire. They danced up into the air and Jack flew up and caught them one by one, gathering them all in his arms, before diving down to hide on the roof again.

Disturbed, Hiccup ran over and looked out the window, expecting to see them scattered on the ground. Jack ducked down so that he wouldn't be seen and after Hiccup saw that the papers were nowhere in sight, he simply shrugged half-heartedly and went back to his work. On the roof, Jack sat down and organized the papers into a neat pile, smoothing them out and looking at each of them. There were quite a few of some sort of device that seemed to be designed to throw large bolas that Hiccup had taken quite a bit of care with, and some small, secret drawings of a blonde girl Jack had seen in the crowd around the Snoggletog tree the night before, that he knew had to be Astrid.

The last picture he looked at made him breathe in sharply. Rendered in pencil with the utmost care was a picture of the Guardians. It was actually quite good and Jack realized, looking back, that he'd never seen Hiccup with a pencil and paper when they'd hung out, which meant he'd drawn them all from memory. It was even more heartbreaking to see another sign of talent that was going entirely unappreciated by his village.

Jack rolled up the stack of papers carefully and shoved them awkwardly in the pocket of his hoodie. Right then, he saw Hiccup's father walk up with the large guy with the hook for a hand and peg leg. They stopped in the plaza, not far from the blacksmith's stall but far enough that Hiccup wouldn't notice them there.

"What is it you wanted to show me, Gobber?" asked Stoick.

"Look into the stall, right now," said Gobber. "What do you see?"

"It's Hiccup."

"Right," said Gobber. "It's Hiccup. Sitting quietly. Not running off to traipse across the island in the middle of his work. Not trying to build strange contraptions. Not following me around to hound me with ridiculous questions. It's Hiccup, sitting and doing something quietly."

"Well, that's good then, isn't it? Show good work ethic."

Hiccup was sitting at a worktable now, writing up some kind of list.

"D'you know what he's been working on all day?"

"What?"

"That's a list of the names for his sheep when he lives alone and becomes a misanthrope someday. Apparently," Gobber went on, "he seems to think replacing Mildew as the town hermit is viable career choice."

Now Stoick sighed, clapping his hand to his forehead and swiping it down his face to rub at the bridge of his nose.

"He thinks he's going to be a hermit someday?"

"Oh, aye. He's been planning out his shack and everythin'. Says it needs to be high on a cliff where no one will want to go for the proper ambiance."

"What are you trying to tell me, Gobber?"

"He's not himself."

"That's not necessarily a bad thing, is it?" Stoick hedged. "Maybe if he's not himself, that means he'll start being another self – one that doesn't get under foot, that doesn't destroy our food supplies before the winter freeze, that doesn't go chasing after dragons and nearly get eaten –"

"Stoick, it's like the light is gone from his eyes. He's a clever lad and it's wasted if he's just sitting there tinkering pots. Admittedly, it's much better to keep that cleverness away from pointy objects and things he can build into mini death machines," acknowledged Gobber, tilting his head to the side, "and yes, there are times that our lives would be much easier if we could keep him on a leash, but it's like he's gone too far in the other direction. I've never seen him this miserable."

Stoick sighed. "If I give him free reign, he'll wreck half the island and we'll be picking him out of – of a Monstrous Nightmare's teeth before the end of next year. What he did last night, taking credit for all that and taking advantage of the person doing it wanting to go unknown was just -"

"Desperate," Gobber put in, pointedly.

Stoick stood there, looking at his son, pale and sad where he sat in the stall and for a moment, his face was almost a mirror of that sadness, or at least as much as a man like him could let it be.

"I just…I don't know what to dowith him, Gobber. How can I protect him if he never listens? How can I teach him what's right and wrong if he's willing to lie and - and blow things up to try to gain favor with the village?"

"Try talking to him."

"Oh, of course, that'll work," said Stoick in sardonic tones that were surprisingly similar to some of the ones that Hiccup often used. "That always turns out well."

"All I'm saying is if you let him run wild, yes, he'll probably die horribly in a fiery explosion of his own making," Gobber shrugged, gesturing slightly with his hook for emphasis, "but right now, he seems to think the most he's ever going to accomplish is being the next Mildew. There's got to be some kind of middle ground."

Stoick let out another sigh. "Maybe – maybe I should give him his Snoggletog present after all. I was going to give it to the winner of this year's sled race instead, as punishment, but it might be too much if he's being this hard on himself. And in the end, there was no harm done, since someone replaced everything that was broken. It might cheer him up."

With that, the two started to walk away and Jack was left sitting on the roof, reflecting on the entire situation. It was somehow even sadder now that he knew how at least some of the others felt about him. Clearly, his father didn't understand him and treated him terribly, but it was just as clear that he cared somewhat about his well being. And that Gobber guy seemed to care about him just as much – and maybe even understood him better than his dad did.

The situation was hopelessly tangled and now Jack realized it wasn't something that could have been fixed with a bunch of holiday decorations.

The problem was that he didn't know how to fix it. It seemed like it was this messy, horrible cycle of the village making Hiccup feel like he didn't belong out of casual cruelty, him wrecking things accidentally in the process of trying to prove himself, and the villagers continuing to be cruel in response. Hiccup didn't need to actually prove himself. Something had to be done to definitively show them that the way they regarded him was wrong, but Jack had no idea how to make that come about.

"I am so kicking your butt in the race tomorrow," Jack heard and farther up the street, near the plaza with the tree, he saw the village's teenagers gathered. "Your butt is going to be so sore when I'm done kicking it that you won't be able to sit down for a week."

Frowning, Jack hopped quietly and carefully from building to building to listen in.

"You are not," said the blond male twin to the boy that had spoken, a stocky black-haired kid with a helmet that had curly horns on the sides. "If anyone is kicking butts tomorrow, it's me. I'm going to kick all the butts. Every single butt."

"Can you both stop saying butt already? It's starting to sound weird," said the blond girl that wasn't one of the twins, the one Jack was fairly sure was Astrid. "Besides, there's no way of knowing who's going to win until they win. It's been a different one of us that walked away with the Winner's Ham every single year since we were five."

"Well, we know which one of us isn'tgoing to win," laughed the kid Jack mentally assigned as Loudmouth. "Hiccup loses every year."

Jack only just resisted flinging a snowball right in the kid's face. As much as these brats were cruel and irritating, he was a Guardian and that meant he was supposed to be above vindictiveness where kids were concerned. They were supposed to care about and protect all children.

"I don't know why he keeps showing his loser face when all he ever does is lose. Like a loser," Loudmouth went on. He looked like he was about to say something else, but that was when the snowball hit him right in the face and knocked him right over on his rear. The twins started laughing uproariously as Loudmouth stood up and looked around, hands clenched into fists.

"Hey! Who threw that?!"

Okay, so maybe Jack wasn't as above vindictiveness as he should have been, but he was only human and it was just a snowball. No one made themselves known so Loudmouth settled down, though he looked around the frost-covered plaza with a touch more paranoia than before.

"Anyway, Hiccup isn't going to race this year. I overheard Gobber talking it over with the chief earlier," said Astrid.

"He's probably too embarrassed to show up after that stuff last night," pointed out the girl twin, who Jack mentally named Tweedledum.

Tweedledumber, the brother, added, "Yeah, I mean he totally lied about putting up all this cool stuff. There's no way he could've done it on his own. Did you see the chief's face? It was like the maddest I've ever seen him."

"Actually, he was madder that one time that Hiccup blew up the brewery," pointed out the husky kid wearing what looked like a giant fur sack. "Or that time he accidentally netted Mulch and Bucket instead of a dragon. Or that time – wow, there's been a lot of times he's been really mad, actually."

"I don't know, guys, there's been something I've been wondering," said Astrid, looking at the tree thoughtfully.

"What?" asked Loudmouth.

"Okay, so Hiccup can't have done all of this, right? But someone in the village did it and apparently just wants to stay anonymous. Hiccup made up that stuff about spirits and said he had friends and we all know that's not true -"

Jack's fingers gripped the edge of the roof more tightly.

"- but maybe whoever it was took pity on him and let him help to save face."

"Why do you think that? He's probably just lying."

Astrid reached up and plucked one of the ornaments off the tree, an ornate little metal bauble, made of thin strips of metal twisted up into a complex and beautiful pattern.

"No one knew Hiccup was going to blow up all the Snoggletog decorations, right? So no one would have been able to trade for these ahead of time for Snoggletog. They had to have been made after Hiccup blew everything up. And we only have two people in town that know how to work the forge. Everyone knows Gobber can't do detailed work because of his hook and because his hand is too big; it's always Hiccup that does it. He's been working in the forge constantly this last week, too, and I swear I saw him in there after Gobber had gone home for the night…"

She held up the ornament between her thumb and forefinger. "So if there's no one else in town besides Hiccup that could have made something like this…then who made it?"

"Someone else?" said Snotlout. "You're basing this whole thing on Hiccup doing something right and we all know that's impossible."

"Shyeah," said Tweeldumber, getting up from where he'd been perched on a barrel. "Anyway, we should go work on our sleds. I still have to see if I can attach, like, spikes to the sides."

The teens started to walk off, chattering away to themselves, but Astrid lingered behind, looking at the many metal ornaments on the tree and at the one in her hand. Then she went over to the altar and picked up a little wooden yak. Part of it had been made out of leather that Jack remembered Hiccup stitching by hand and she looked at the tiny stitches as if she realized what small hand had tirelessly worked on them.

There was a moment that her expression went strangely soft and wondering as she looked off in the distance at the forge and she even took a few steps in that direction.

But then one of the teens called out to her and she turned back, putting the little figure away and sticking the ornament back on its hook on the tree.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming," she yelled and then she ran after them.

It was all almosts. Gobber almost understood Hiccup. Hiccup's father was almost able to show he cared. Astrid was almost willing to give him a chance.

But apparently they were all too big and tough to do more than that and too thoughtless to dig any deeper.

As Jack looked out on the village, he wondered how it could have less warmth than a spirit of winter. How could a tribe caught in the middle of the darkest, chilliest time of the year leave one of their own out in the cold?

Jack stopped by the abandoned cabin to seal Hiccup's papers away in a crate there before meeting up with the others again, only to find them all resting in the cabin itself instead of around the sleigh. North looked exhausted and as weary as his age would typically suggest, shoulders slumped where he sat near the fire.

As for Bunny…

"Oooh no," Jack said.

"Not. One. Word," said Bunny where he sat on the floor, looking as cross as a tiny bunny rabbit could look. He hopped a few tiny (adorable) hops closer to the fire to stay warm, settling in at Sandy's feet.

Reverting back to his tiny bunny form was to be expected under the circumstances. Though there was one thing Jack wondered as he shut the door…

"Okay, I have a question," said Jack, briefly looking at the pencil portrait of the Guardians again before he put the papers in the crate. "We're losing power, right? The three of us don't have any believers anymore…so how are we even still here? Losing believers hit you guys hard and fast last time."

"No idea, mate," said Bunny.

"Hiccup still saw me as he walked away, too. Shouldn't I have faded right then and there? Become invisible, at the very least?"

It had been bothering him all night and day, niggling at his brain. They weren't exactly batteries. Yes, it took a little bit of time for them to lose power and fade when they lost believers, but there was a reason Jamie had been so important in the fight against Pitch. Without him, the Guardians would have been no more.

"It's possible he's of two minds about it," suggested Tooth. "Choosing to no longer believe in something isn't always an instantaneous decision for everyone. Sometimes it takes time for them to really let go. And…he has reasons more than most to not want to think we're just imaginary, despite what he said."

Jack hopped up and perched on the back of a chair.

"Then we still have an in."

"What we've got is a no-win situation," said Bunny. "We'll be lucky if we make it 'til morning. We should maybe consider leaving tonight and hoping the magic is ripe enough."

"Aren't you supposed to be the Guardian of Hope?" Jack pointed out.

"When I'm this small, I'm prey," Bunny pointed out. "Which means I also pull double duty as the Guardian of Pragmatism."

"Bunny…may have point," said North, sadly. "About trying to leave tonight. If magic is not enough to take us home, may at least take us to future time where we have more believers and children to possibly convince to believe in you, Jack. Then we can try another go to get to right time, since Manny will still be there."

"We're not leaving Hiccup like this."

"Jack –"

"We're not," Jack insisted. "We have to figure out a way to help him before we go."

"Jack," said Tooth, "this situation is complicated. It might be too complicated for us to help with before we run out of time. Things that involve problems in a family or a community are harder to -"

"I don't care how hard it is. We're helping him."

"You might be taking this a little personally, mate," said Bunny.

"Yeah, so maybe I am!" Jack said, hopping off the chair. "I know what it's like to feel invisible. I know what it's like to be alone, to not have a friend in the world, to feel like you mess things up all the time." He gestured at the others with his staff. "So maybe I am taking this personally, but he's a kid and he's in trouble, so maybe you should be, too."

Sandy pursed his lips up thoughtfully but then jerked his head towards Jack, looked to the others, and nodded in agreement with Jack. Then, true to their nature as Guardians, they all nodded their agreement, too. Life was risk and they were willing to risk it all to help a child in need.

"Aaaah, you're right," said Bunny. "It's just hard to think anything's possible through this lethargy. I feel like my paws are made of lead. But we need a plan and we need one quicksharp or we won't last long enough to do a thing to help."

"There must be some way we can change how village sees Hiccup," said North. "Some way to give him chance to shine, a way that he can have as all his own."

Jack's eyes suddenly widened. "There's a sled race, tomorrow. I overheard the other kids talking about it. Apparently, it's a big deal, they do it every year. Hiccup's never won it before and – and that's a positive way to get attention, right? It's not something they can think someone else did, it's not something that causes harm. He'd just be the fastest, get the ham, and be a winner for a day. Even if it's just a small thing, maybe it'll give him hope that things can get better. That might help him keep afloat until they actually do. If we can help him win…"

A yellow ham suddenly appeared in the sand over Sandy's head with a question mark. He made his 'what the heck is that about?' face.

"I have no idea why the prize is a ham, Sandy," said Jack. "These Vikings are crazy."

"A race is something that would easy for us to help him with," Tooth said, carrying on Jack's line of thinking. "Sandy and I are still at full power, and even you three probably have enough energy left to help in a few small ways."

"And I don't need much oomph to get by anyway," pointed out Jack. "If I can get Hiccup to believe just long enough for me to get him through the race, I can help ice his way to victory. All we have to do is help him cheat and completely sabotage the other kids. It's a perfect plan."

Jack paused.

"Other than the sabotaging the other kids part. That's…probably not a very Guardian thing to do, but we won't hurt them and they're all going to be cheating furiously themselves – I heard one talking about attaching spikes to his sled." All the other Guardians winced. "So it's more like we're just evening the odds a bit. And preventing Hiccup from getting maimed. And he'll believe in us for sure by the end, so that'll keep us afloat to head home. We'll be weak, but still here."

"Sounds like excellent plan!" said North.

"Now," Jack said, his enthusiasm waning just a bit, "I just have to convince Hiccup it is, too."

As evening fell, Hiccup sat on the wooden walkway on the cliffside and looked out to sea. Gobber had let him off the hook from his work early, probably out of pity. Hiccup could tell his behavior was upsetting the blacksmith and part of him was somewhat grateful that Gobber cared, but that tiny bit of warmth didn't really do much to fight the cold blizzard of emotions that was raging inside him, bitter and painful.

There were dark places that his thoughts did not, and would not, go, if only because he still took small joys in his life, even if he took them in solitude, but right now was the closest they'd ever strayed to that kind of darkness. His whole future was laid out before him and it was a miserable one. He'd work, he'd live, he'd be a face that no one took notice of, other than to say, "Remember how much trouble that boy used to be?" Maybe he'd find a wife in some other village somewhere that wanted the status of being married to a chief's son, but when his father inevitably chose someone else to replace him as chief instead of Hiccup, she'd probably transform into a shrill harridan that made him miserable at every turn.

So, probably better to stay single then, Hiccup decided, instead of being unwanted and unloved in his own house. It'd be just him and the sheep. And most likely the rumors that came about when one lived alone with sheep, but he figured he could handle those by just not talking to anyone. That was what being a hermit was all about, after all.

Speaking of sheep, Hiccup decided he probably ought to come up with more sheep names and took out the little book and pencil he carried around with him in the pocket in his vest and got back to work on his list.

"Ubbi. Ubbi's a good name for a sheep," he muttered to himself. "Maybe Grai? That's a good name for a really cranky sheep…"

It was right then that he was hit in the side of the head with a snowball.

Wiping the snow off his face and closing his eyes, he started muttering, "You're not real, you're not real, you're not real…"

Nothing else happened for a minute or so, but then Hiccup felt chunks of ice stuffed down the back of his tunic.

"Not real, not real, not real…"

After that, at least for a few minutes, there were no more icy incidents. Hiccup was starting to think it was over – at least until he went to turn the page of his notebook, only to find that all the pages had been iced together.

"Jack!" He turned to glare and saw him standing there, a vague, skinny shape, half-blurred. Half-real, half-not.

"I thought I wasn't real?" Jack said, and his voice echoed slightly in Hiccup's ears, sounding somewhat indistinct, as if he was trying to talk from underwater or from a great distance.

"I'm just hallucinating you. Crazy people talk to their hallucinations all the time."

"You're not crazy, Hiccup. Part of you knows that. That's why you can still see and hear me. You can't make up your mind." Jack paused. "I think you don't really want to make up your mind."

Hiccup looked out at the ocean again, expression miserable.

"I just want to be left alone," he said.

"No," said Jack, taking a seat beside him, placing his staff next to him and drawing up his knees to his chin. "I think the problem here is that you don't."

Hiccup shut his eyes again and when he opened them, Jack's form was clearer and less indistinct. But blurrier. Definitely blurrier, at the same time, though for a different reason this time.

"Do you know why I want you to know for sure that I'm real?" asked Jack.

"Because you want to draw me into an inner world comprised entirely of my own delusions?"

"No," said Jack, "because if you believe I'm not real, then that means you'll believe everything I said about you isn't real."

Hiccup looked away and after a moment, he said in a thin, cracking voice, "It isn't. Everything you said isn't -"

"Just because a bunch of very stupid people think you're a liar doesn't mean you are one. It doesn't mean some god swooped in and did all the hard work we did and that everything we did together happened in your head. That makes even less sense than five spirits helping you do it. You believe in gods, right? You believe in frost giants. Then why can't we be real?"

"Because Snotlout was right, there's no one that would –"

"You're basing thinking we're figments of your imagination on something said by a guy that probably can't count to five. Using his fingers."

"Actually, he can make it to twelve. He gets hung up on the teens."

"My point is that you're basing all this on the bad feelings you have, that you don't deserve friends, because some idiot that bullies you says so. Maybe he's just wrong. Maybe they're all wrong. Maybe you should be basing how you feel about this and what you really believe in on the fact that you're a good kid and despite that, their idea of the holiday spirit is making you feel bad about yourself. Do those sound the actions of a reasonable group of people? Making someone feel bad around the holidays, even when he tries to fix things?"

"Not really," Hiccup admitted.

"You shouldn't care about what they think of you."

"And yet I still do."

Jack shook his head. "Why?"

"Do you care about what the other Guardians think of you?"

"Yeah, but they're good people and they treat me well."

"You were alone for three hundred years, right? Where were they then? During all that time?"

Jack went silent at that, finally saying, "They apologized for that. They've made a real effort to make up for ignoring me. They didn't realize how alone I was."

"My dad has saved my life probably about fifty times since I was a baby. When I was five, he wrestled a Gronckle that got into the house and since he didn't have his axe on hand, he beat it to death with a frying pan when it was trying to carry me off and eat me. After the fight, he held me for a solid couple'a hours and refused to let go. Even while he was doing cleanup and giving orders around the village, he was carrying me the whole time because he didn't want to leave me alone and because I was so shook up over the whole thing."

Hiccup went on, "The other kids, they put out the fires when the dragons attack. I've seen them dodging fireballs before, still trying to save people's houses – and sometimes their lives. Astrid jumped through some burning wreckage that none of the adults could get through without collapsing a house to save a little girl still stuck inside. She got her out just in time before the roof caved in."

Hiccup shook his head. "I've seen every single person in this village – except for Mildew, of course - do something kind or selfless for me or for each other growing up. They yanked me out of the way of fireballs. They helped take care of me when my mom died and my dad was too out of it to really look after me well. They taught me my letters or taught me a trade or taught me how to sew my own clothes and gave me the nicest wool they had just because I asked nicely. That's why this is so hard."

His eyes were glistening. "Even as much as they hate me, even as much as they almost wish I'd get eaten by a dragon, they'd never actually let it happen, because at heart, they're good people. I can't just write them off as not mattering, because they do matter to me. I don't want to stop caring about what they think of me – I want to change what they think of me."

Jack considered this for a little while, before saying, "Then let us help you do that, Hiccup."

"You already tried." He added dryly, "Provided I didn't just imagine it."

"The race. The sled race tomorrow. We can help you win. It's just…something solid for you. Something that will make you a winner for a day, something no one else can take credit for. If they are good people at heart, like you're saying, they'll probably just be like 'oh, good for Hiccup, he did something well.'"

Hiccup sat in silence for a while, pursing his lips as he considered it.

"And if I lose, I'll just get humiliated. Again. As always."

"And if you never try things and stick to yourself, your life is never going to change the way you want it to. You're not going to get a chance to live, and let me tell you something, after three hundred years of living, after almost not having the chance to live past eighteen, one thing I know is that you'll miss out on so much if you give up and just seclude yourself away. You don't deserve to miss out on life." Jack reached out and took Hiccup's hand in his own. "This is last ditch before we have to go, before it'll hurt us too much to stay here, but let us try to help you one more time. Please."

Hiccup looked at Jack, who was now solid and tangible again where he sat next to him, took in a deep breath, opening his mouth as if to say no, but then shrugged, "I've lost every year since I was five. I guess if I lose one more time, it wouldn't be the end of the world."

Jack smiled at him, squeezing his hand. "Trust me, with our help, there's no chance you're going to lose." He paused. "Provided you're okay with us helping you cheat against the other kids a little."

"Oh no, that's fine," said Hiccup, shaking his head. "We're Vikings. Cheating's actually an officially recognized part of the race. You get extra points for it to use in a tiebreaker if there's a tie. The reason I usually lose is that I'm really bad at it."

"Oookay, well, then you're going to be the kind of horrible, no-good, dishonest cheater that any Viking could be proud of."

On the day of the race, the Guardians were feeling fairly optimistic. While Jack, Bunny, and North were significantly weaker, Hiccup believed in them again, fully and without limits, and it meant that they at least weren't as close to fading out as they had been when Hiccup was wavering back and forth on the issue.

What helped was that the sled race took place on the same terrain every year, which mean that the Guardians were able to prepare for helping Hiccup with the race.

"Okay, Bunny, do you have all your stuff in place?" Jack asked.

"It's all ready to go, mate," said the rabbit. "Not going to be the easiest, tunneling through this ground since it's frozen, but I already have the tunnels I need for a few bits of it set up."

"Tooth and Sandy, you're going to be responsible for waylaying the kids in that one part of the forest. Plenty of foliage for you to hide in."

"Understood!" chirped Tooth, and Sandy gave a little salute.

"And North, do you have the snowglobe ready?"

"Is all ready to go. Should let Hiccup skip that whole section with the rocks they are having to slide between. Only have one I can use, though. Not enough vim and vigor left to make more and we need one for trip to own time – and another to get home from the land of the fairies if we are thrown back into the fight we left."

"That should be enough for Hiccup to win, especially with me keeping him moving fast. Alright, everyone, into position!"

At that, the Guardians broke up to take their respective places along the racecourse.

Gathering at the top of the hill – or mountain, really – were the teens and the older Vikings that were supposed to see them off. From the distance, Jack saw that a large Viking with a thin beard that looked a bit like Snotlout (maybe his dad?) was officiating the start of the race.

Hiccup was just a tiny figure next to his sled, which looked nowhere near as intimidating as the sleds of the others, but Jack saw the sense in that. Some of the other kids really had put things like spikes on their sleds, but they were large and heavy because of it. Hiccup's sled was made of a sturdy light wood of some kind, the metal rails thin and sharp. In a race, bigger was not better, and it was clear right from the start that Hiccup had the faster sled.

The problem really was the cheating. First of all, Snotlout went before "Go!" was even shouted, and the older Viking's only response after giving the signal, was "That's my boy! Did you see that? It's five points for cheating at the start!"

And it didn't stop there. As the kids careened down the mountain, they started cutting in front of each other, trying to shove each other into rocks, trying to knock sticks in the way of each other's sleds as they slid. Hiccup just wasn't aggressive enough in the face of the onslaught, dodging each obstacle that was in his way, but refusing to do anything that might hurt anyone else.

"You might as well give up now, Hiccup!" shouted Snotlout, as the two slid neck and neck with each other. "You never win!"

"Yeah, about that, Snotlout," said Hiccup, showing a bit more of a competitive edge now. "See you at the finish line!"

With that, as they approached two trails through an area that was filled with large boulders they had to steer around, he dragged his boot in the snow to veer off into the right-side track when the others all took the left.

"Where is he going?" Snotlout shouted.

"He's taking the hard way!" shouted Ruffnut. "Idiot!"

North was waiting near the rocks. They decided to get Hiccup past the entire rocky area with the snowglobe but no farther than that. This had to be realistic, in the end, and if he ran the whole course supernaturally fast the village might suspect something.

"There you go, my young friend!" North said as Hiccup flew by and he threw the snowglobe ahead of him.

"Thanks, North!" Hiccup called out and then he disappeared into the light with a loud vorp and was spat out farther down the trail.

The other kids eventually got past the boulders, amidst a rough and tumble mess of shoving and flinging snowballs at each other, and saw Hiccup far ahead.

"Hey!" called out Tuffnut. "How'd he get ahead of us?"

"I don't know!" called Astrid. "There's no way he could have navigated that – aaagh!"

They'd now reached the part of the course where Bunny had done his work, apparently. The tunnels he'd dug under the snow collapsed under the weight of some of the teens and the bumps and ramps he'd created launched the others in the air.

In the end, it resulted in a complete wipeout, with every one of them crashing into the snow. Fortunately, he'd planned ahead for this and made sure the snow was in soft drifts after the tunnels and bumps to catch them when they crashed. None of them were hurt in the least, just completely bewildered as they sat scattered in the snowbanks they'd landed in.

"Hey, which one of you messed up the track ahead of time!" Snotlout yelled at the others, getting back on his sled.

"Wasn't me!" Tuffnut called out.

"Liar!"

"Come over here and call me that again!"

Seeing Bunny hopping into the nearby woods – and then falling over and laughing when he saw that the teens were now squabbling instead of racing - Jack chuckled to himself. Actually, it was much closer to maniacal cackling over how well their plans were working, but he figured that was a bit uncouth for the good guys, so he preferred to think of it as chuckling.

Calling up the wind, he flew off to catch up with Hiccup and help him with the next part of the race.

Whipping down the mountain, he saw the Viking on an open stretch of snow below and zipped down, flying with his back to the ground at the same speed Hiccup's his sled was going, one arm folded behind his head like he was relaxing in the sunshine.

"So, how's it feel to have a giant lead on the others and the knowledge that they all just faceplanted spectacularly in the snow?"

"I don't hate it," Hiccup admitted.

"Okay, the next part is the forest, right?" Jack said, turning around to face ahead.

"Yeah. They'll be taking the other trail where Sandy and Tooth are waiting. Even though it covers less distance, no one in their right mind would take this one. There are parts where the ground drops off into pits and ravines. Too dangerous." Hiccup paused. "So, if you really are a hallucination, now would be the time to tell me so I know I'm not in my right mind."

"You're not crazy," Jack assured him. "Now, hold on to your hat and your Ugg boots, kiddo, this is about to get pretty wild."

"What are Ugg boots? I know someone named Ugg and these aren't his boots."

With that, they shot into the narrow trails of the forest. Hiccup was right about this track being too perilous, but peril was nothing to a kid when they were being protected by a Guardian. Anytime the trail got too rugged or fell off into a steep embankment, Jack just iced over a straight track in front of the sled, leading Hiccup back on the trail. In fact, he made a game of it, zipping him around trees in circles, tossing in the occasional loop-de-loop. The two of them were laughing so loud and having so much fun that Jack didn't even notice how tired he was getting. He didn't notice how using his power so much was quickly wearing him down. He'd never had believers before and even though Hiccup firmly believed in him, that wasn't enough to sustain a Guardian.

It affected his flight first.

"Hey, whoa! Whoa, what –"

He had started to drop suddenly, before catching himself again.

"Jack, what's wrong?"

"I dunno. I – aaugh!" This time the dropping meant he almost hit a low-lying tree branch. Catching himself just in time, he managed to swoop up over it, but it meant he almost let Hiccup slip down a steep incline. Laying down ice just in the nick of time, he dropped again.

"What's happening to you?" Hiccup called out, worried.

"I think I'm running out of juice here," Jack called out. "I told you, we're not from around here. You're our only believer in this area, it means we've been losing power the whole time we've been here. I think I'm losing the ability to fly."

"Then we should stop," Hiccup called out, starting to drag his foot behind the sled to slow down.

"No! Let me at least get you through the woods," Jack said, struggling to stay airborne and ice Hiccup's way down the trail at the same time. "Then you'll have a clear shot to the finish line."

"If we stop, I can walk the rest of the way out of the woods."

"But you'll lose your lead!"

"If you try to keep this up, you'll lose your friendship with the ground."

"My friendship with the ground?" Jack asked, confused, almost hitting another branch.

"Yeah, it'll stop being a friendship because your relationship with it will get waaay more personal."

Jack couldn't help but laugh, but that laugh quickly faded as he dropped again, flailing as he willed himself to stay in the air just a little longer.

"Jack, stop! We have to stop!" Hiccup cried out, worried now, more concerned for Jack than the race.

"No, you're almost out! You're almost -"

Jack dropped like a stone, and his eyes went wide when he realized what was ahead. Part of the trail was just a log over little frozen stream and Hiccup was going too fast to stop before he hit it. He had a choice in that moment with what to do with the last little bit of energy he had left, and he made it, quickly, thoughtlessly.

With a sweep of his staff, Jack spread a trail of ice over the log that carried Hiccup safely over. From there on out, the trail was snowy and straight, leading right out of the last of the forest. As long as Hiccup kept on going, he'd have a clear path to win the race.

That was all Jack had left in him, though, which was why he did indeed have a relationship with the ground that was suddenly full of much more of a commitment than he was comfortable with. He bounced off a thick branch, crashed right through a cluster of bushes, and started sliding down the frozen stream. Then he skidded off to the side of it and down the embankment it traveled along.

"Aaugh!" The entire surface of the steep slope was just loose snow, rocky scree, and dead leaves, and without the ability to fly, there was no stopping his downward slide. Tumbling over and over, he lost his grip on his staff, which went flying off ahead of him and sliding over the edge of…something, Jack noticed with alarm. There was a definite drop off of some kind ahead.

Fortunately, Jack landed on a tangle of branches and saplings that were at the edge of the drop.

Taking a moment to just breathe, Jack lay there panting, afraid to move at first for fear of slipping farther.

"Jack! Are you okay?" called Hiccup's voice far up on the trail and he appeared up above, peering over the edge. Apparently he'd stopped and had ran back up the trail.

"I'm fine! Just a little banged up. Don't stop for me; I just have to climb up. Go and finish!"

"But there's supposed to be more of a ledge there. It looks like it washed away in the last rain. It's not safe for you to be that close to –"

The branches Jack was tangled up in started creaking and then snapped beneath his weight, so that he fell even farther, his fall only stopped by more branches snagging the hood of his sweatshirt, leaving him dangling over the drop, too far out to reach the ledge. Now he could see what Hiccup was talking about. There was a little rockface with a straight fall down and the ground below was flat and solid, covered in snow. He saw his staff resting in it below.

It wasn't that far down, maybe only fifteen or twenty feet, but for someone that wasn't as sturdy as a Guardian, it was the kind of drop that could break a leg or a neck.

Hiccup made his way carefully down the slippery slope, making sure he didn't tumble his way down like Jack did.

"I told you, go on ahead, I'll –" Jack squirmed slightly but started to slip out of his hoodie so he stopped moving and clamped his arms down. "I'll figure a way out of this."

"Yeeah, I'm not the most comfortable with leaving you dangling over a twenty foot drop," Hiccup said, when he finally got up to the edge. Supporting himself against a large tree that leaned out over the expanse, he tried to reach for the dangling Jack. Jack could see why Hiccup was trying to pull him over. If he could get up where Hiccup was there was a gentler slope that led around the rock face to the ground below that they could climb down without getting hurt.

"Even if I fall, I'll be fine," Jack pointed out. "I'm a lot sturdier than normal people."

"I didn't get to finish what I was saying," said Hiccup, reaching out and trying to snag Jack's shirt without putting any weight on the branches he was dangling from, for fear he'd continue to fall. "Down there, that's –"

Despite Hiccup's careful efforts, Jack's weight was just too much for the branches and there was a crack and a snap. Jack saw Hiccup's hand flash out in a last ditch attempt to snag his hoodie, but he missed, and Jack plummeted straight to the ground with a thump, landing painfully on his back.

"Owww, that hurt."

"Jack!"

The ground was just as hard as it had looked, the wet soil frozen solid into a hard, flat surface. The thin dusting of snow on top had done absolutely nothing to soften his fall. Sitting up gingerly, Jack reached around and rubbed his back.

"Jack, are you okay?" Hiccup said, as he made his way down the gentle slope to where Jack was. He stood back near the treeline, looking over at him.

"Don't worry, I'm fine," Jack said, standing up and reaching over to snag his staff off the ground.

"Oh, thank the gods," said Hiccup leaning over, hands on his knees, catching his breath. "You had me worried for a second."

"Like I told you," Jack said, walking back over to Hiccup through his outline in the snow. "I'm really sturdy. You didn't need to stop."

"No, not that. I believed you. It's just this is Dead Man's Hole."

Jack stopped where he stood, which incidentally had been the spot where he'd landed.

"Dead Man's Hole?" he asked. The lizard part of his brain suddenly started screaming out bloody panic, even though the conscious parts of his brain hadn't quite caught enough to understand why it was throwing a fit.

"Yeah, we go swimming here in the summer," Hiccup said. "During, you know, the two whole weeks it's actually warm enough."

That was when Jack's eyes went wide and he looked down at the flat surface he was standing on, cold understanding coming to him like a snowball to the face. For the first time since he'd grown so used to the cold that he didn't even feel it as cold anymore, he felt his blood chill in his veins.

He was standing on ice. He was standing on ice, over water, without the ability to fly or freeze it over properly.

"For a second," Hiccup went on, "I was afraid that the ice was going to -"

There was a sudden, terrifyingly familiar sound that rended the air and under his feet, Jack saw cracks appear in the ice, spreading out in jagged shapes. Water seeped up in lines that soaked the snow. Hiccup stared out at the splintering ice, wide-eyed, his expression of horror a mirror of Jack's own. It looked like Jack was about to get about as uncomfortably intimate with the water as he had with the ground.

"- do that," Hiccup finished, practically wilting where he stood. "Yeah, that's pretty much the opposite of good."