Jack stared down at the sandy letters, his breath puffing out heavily in clouds of white. The rest of the Vikings rushed forward, unaware of the danger Jack had just faced or what it had meant.
"Jack! Are you alright?" Hiccup asked. The twins cheered and patted him on the back and Fishlegs quivered on shaking legs. Astrid looked at Jack as if he were something foreign she couldn't understand; much like the look she gave the sprawled black sand.
"What's this?" She asked, crouching down. She went to touch it but Jack said, "I wouldn't. Just to be safe." She glanced up in confusion before the rest of the Vikings followed suit, inspecting the sand.
"It almost looks like ... words," Hiccup mumbled.
"All I see is sand," Tuffnut muttered.
"No, like ... another language," Hiccup sighed, staring at the letters before glancing up to Jack. "Jack, are you okay?"
The Vikings all turned to stare at Jack. He was as pale as his hair and his wide eyes made him look younger than he was. He seemed to be shaking and he feverishly dusted some of the black sand from his hand. "Y-yeah, fine," He stuttered, before glancing at the sprawl of sand.
Snotlout sided beside Jack and glanced at him. "What was that thing? I've trained Nightmares ... and that wasn't ... It wasn't right." He shook his head, causing his hair to sway under his helmet. "It was ... getting devoured."
Jack pursed his lips. He wanted to tell everyone what it really was - a warning from Pitch - but how would he explain that? They wouldn't believe him. Did the Norse even have a Boogeyman?
Fishlegs, who was lying on the ground level with the sand began, "It looks like ... ash, maybe?"
"It's not ash, it's sand," Jack said.
They all turned and looked at him. Astrid raised an eyebrow. "How do you know?"
Jack shrugged and walked forward, noticing thin shards of glass. He picked some up and threw it up before letting it fall back in his hand. "Sand and heat make glass," Jack shrugged.
Hiccup took a shard from Jack's hand and Jack warned him quickly, "Careful. It's sharp." Hiccup nodded and held the shard to the sky, watching it glint off Sól's rays of gold. He furrowed his eyebrows and squinted, looking through the tinted glass; he could almost see ... shapes in the glass. Dark trendils of twisted coils of sand melted in time and sharp as a dagger, Hiccup didn't know what the shapes were but they were defiantly cryptid. He didn't like them at all.
By now, all of the Vikings had a shard of glass in their hand. Jack stood off to the side, watching them all peer into the glass; he wanted to rip his hair out, bite his nails to nubs, run around in circles and scream. The entire scene before them screamed danger; did Vikings not understand that?
Tuffnut and Ruffnut were arguing over who would have the last shard; they continued to bicker and rip the shard from one another's hands before it turned into a full-fledged fight full of biting and spitting and snarling. Fishlegs was staring at the foreign object with the uptmost awe on his face and Jack winced when he reailized glass wasn't exactly wellknown to Vikings as they stuck more to lumber, fishing and battling dragons (or training them, as of now). Snotlout stared at his glass shard in slight aggravation. Astrid and Hiccup were mumbling to each other about their own shards, trying to peice the puzzle together.
Astrid glanced at Jack who danced anxiously on his feet. "You know," She began, "I think it'd a bit odd that he knows what this is," She gave a jerk with her chin to the glittering glass shard in her hand. Hiccup shrugged and glanced up to notice Jack's expression of fleeting panic as he glanced at the twins and at Snotlout who was about to bite into the shard.
Hiccup glanced around quickly, spotting Toothless who sniffed the sand. The sand seemed to rile up near the dragon and Jack followed Hiccup's gaze before running toward the dragon who huffed air at the sand, causing it to lash back into place of letters before ... This couldn't be happening.
The sand surged together in a wave, about to crash over Toothless but Jack shoved himself and the dragon away and started shouting for the rest of the Vikings to get out of the arena.
And then the screaming began.
...
The screaming was similar to bansee shrieks and the cracking of glass; the screech of nails clawing down a chalkboard and a deathly chorus of howls. Jack clamped his hands over his ears, shouting over the noise to the Vikings. Alas, they couldn't hear him nor could he even think what he would say if his voice was audible. Toothless flinched beside Jack as the sand flared and spiraled into a black pointed spire, shrieking with shadows forced into the unusual shape. They stuck out clawed hands that grasped air, fanged mouths that gnashed menacingly, throats that choked on cries and shrieks and roars.
All grew quiet as the spire was inspected by roaming eyes. Jack's breathing grew heavy and quick and the wind quickly flushed near him, ruffling his hair, trying to reassure him. Jack's eyes rose from the bottom of the spire to the top, inspecting the sharp spike jutting into the air. Jack could almost hear Pitch's British drawl, "You should do it now before it gets any worse, you know."
Jack hadn't known that he'd stepped closer to the spire; he couldn't feel the wind pushing him back or hear Toothless's warning croaks or Hiccup's yelling over the rest of the Vikings. All Jack could hear was Pitch's voice.
"From here on out, it'll only become worse for you, Jack. You might make friends, lovers, maybe even be accepted into a makeshift family but think for a moment; in a few years, will any of this be worth it? Will you be able to live with the fact that all of these people you'll meet may forget you and all of your contact? Are you ready for that, Jack? The hurt, the heartbreak, the disbelief?"
Hiccup had actually pushed out Astrid's grip on him and raced after Jack, who was walking dangerously close to the spire, which had begun to lash out in anticipation. Whips of coiled shadows flared from the spire and Jack was only a step away from them connecting with his body. Hiccup caught up with him and shouted in his ear. "JACK!"
"When they're all gone, Jack, you'll only have me."
Jack's mind flickered and suddenly Jack was aware of a red handprint blazing in his cheek and Hiccup screaming his name in his ear. For a moment, Jack wondered how much time had passed and how amazing his name sounded on Hiccup's tongue, that was, until he was met with the stinging pain of not another slap ... but a strike of Nightmaresand.
Jack was thrown backwards, his back skidding over the dirt. He cried out and Hiccup rushed forward. "Oh gods ... Jack?" Hiccup began, glancing fearfully to the Vikings who rushed forward.
"Someone get The Elder!" Astrid screamed shrilly, dropping to her knees beside Hiccup, who was cradling Jack's head in his hands. The twins tripped over each other before running out of the arena; Fishlegs and Snot huddled close, both slack-jawed with frightened shock.
Jack's eyelids grew heavy and as the four Vikings struggled to lift Jack onto Toothless's raised reluctant back and hurry him to The Elder's hut, he blacked out, which seemed to make the gash on his cheek pulse with spiderwebbed shadow.
"Your move, pawn."
...
Old Man Winter huffed, huddling close to his bin of frozen flames and the crowd of his frozen homeless friends. He wouldn't consider them friends; they were really only bin-hoggers which Hibernus had to partly blame on himself, as the air was always nippier when he was near.
Hibernus sighed and glanced through the snow-speckled sky to the illuminated clockface along the greying horizon. He sighed and turned back to the bin of frozen tongues of orange and red when a shadow loomed over his dirty shoulder.
"Hibernus," Pitch drawled slowly, "I had a feeling I'd find you here."
Hibernus stiffened and whispered, "Humbug."
"Oh, don't pull your Norse on me, Fornjót," Pitch chuckled. "I'm very fluent actually. I did have quite a riot during that Age ... "
Hibernus turned to face Pitch, who smirked at Hibernus's scruffy appearance. "Well, I see retirement hasn't exactly been kind to you," Pitch chuckled.
Hibernus rolled his eyes and turned back to the fire. "What do you want, Pitchiner?"
Pitch narrowed his eyes at the old name. "That's General Pitchiner, to you, Winter," He smiled cruely and clapped a hand on Hibernus' shoulder. "And, boy, do I have a job for you ..."
"If it's like the last job," Hibernus growled, "It's a no from me."
Pitch grinned. "You sound like Simon Cowell; same accent, same cold heart!"
Hibernus turned to stare Pitch in the face. "I'm here because of you."
"No," Pitch said, shaking his head, "We're here because of him."
Pitch and Winter looked up at the Moon, their eyes locking on the bright sphere in the sky, which seemed to frown down at the two men.
Winter sighed. "I'm going to regret this ... The plan?"
Pitch smirked. "Oh, leave that to me. All you have to do is play innocent and do I have the perfect hostage to help you," Pitch smirked and snapped his fingers, causing a pair of Fearlings to slink from the shadows and throw the shadow of a young boy to its knees, shadow shackles and cuffs clinking against asphalt.
Hibernus stared down at the shadow and felt himself smirk. "Oh, boy."
This is probably the shortest chapter I've written for this but I wanted to give you guys a chapter...
Alright, Peter Pan's a Guardian, kids! He's the Guardian of Youth and Innocence (and I really don't like Hibernus' creepy vibes ew man)
I went to orientation yesterday and I'm terrified of high school already I seriously had a nervous breakdown I started crying I hate school and people
I'm sorry about the delay in updating, replies, thank you's but I'm trying to keep up and answer everyone I can! With school on Monday, I don't know how jacked up (heh) my schedule will be so I apologize in advance!
33 REVIEWS, 23 FOLLOWS AND 15 FAVOURITES AND THIS IS ONLY CHAPTER SIX I CAN'T THANK ANY OF YOU ENOUGH!
I also started a new book because I finished Lord of the Flies for school (which I'm probably the only person who enjoyed it, espcially when I found out that Jalph was a ship) but I started The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell and it's amazing!
I'm going to be that weird girl who reads fairytales in high school because I hate reality you guys help
I hope you guys liked it!