Chapter 3: Chilly introductions

Written in a bit of a hurry. Appologies.

Jack raised an eyebrow. "Kids?" he thought. Merida, Rapunzel and Hiccup got to their feet. Hiccup looked around the massive globe room in awe. Merida tried to look unimpressed, but wasn't doing very well. 'Ah, here you all are,' North said jollily, stepping forward. Rapunzel squeaked at the sight of the massive figure of North and dived behind a chair.

Merida laughed (slightly cruelly) at Rapunzel. 'Aw, wee lamb,' she said. Rapunzel looked quite affronted. She stood up. 'Really? Well, tell that to my frying pan,' she said with a cocky smile, twirling the pan through her fingers. CLANG! The frying pan hit her on the head. Hiccup winced. 'You've gotta be kidding me,' Jack said. Everyone turned to look at him. 'Seriously, kids?!' Jack said in disbelief gesturing to the three.

'And what d'ya mean by that ye scunner?' Merida snapped, stepping towards Jack, brandishing an arrow. Jack looked a bit bemused by Merida's aggressive nature. Hiccup and Rapunzel seemed a tiny bit surprised as well. 'Umm,' Hiccup hesitated, 'I was insulted as well, but there wasn't any reason to...' 'SHUT IT, whoever you are!' Merida snapped turning on Hiccup who backed away in alarm.

'Can't you at least get down to introductions before you start verbally battling each other?' Tooth said nervously. 'I'm fine with that,' Rapunzel said, 'I'm Rapunzel Fitzherbert.' Jack laughed. 'Seriously?' he said. 'Yeah, why?' Rapunzel asked confused. 'No reason,' Jack said smiling. 'No, obviously I've said something very amusing,' Rapunzel said with her brow furrowed. She tapped her foot on the ground.

'And what is your name?' North asked Hiccup. 'Hiccup Haddock,' Hiccup said. Jack, Merida, Rapu- well everyone snorted with laughter... except for Sandy who was silent. Hiccup blushed. 'That is so lame,' Merida said chuckling. At this point there was a flash and a dragon appeared next to Hiccup. 'Toothless,' Hiccup said with delight, patting his dragon on the snout. Hiccup looked over at Merida. 'Okay, it's not so lame,' she said.

'Toothless?' Tooth said flying up to the dragon and peering at the gums. She sighed sadly. 'No teeth.' Toothless growled. SHINK! Toothless's razor-sharp teeth shot through the gum-line. There was a brief silence. 'OH MY GOD! RETRACTABLE TEETH!' Tooth screamed in delight and pulled open his jaws to inspect the teeth. Toothless looked confused and surprised... as did everyone else.

'Anyway,' Merida said, 'Ahm Merida, first born of clan Dunbroch.' 'Oh well aren't we all honoured,' Jack said sarcastically. 'As ye should be,' Merida said smiling. 'You remind me a lot of my friend Snotlout,' Hiccup said. 'Snotlout?' Merida said, 'Isn't that a viking name?' 'Yeah, why?' Hiccup asked. 'Are ye a viking?' 'Yes.' WHAM! Merida shook out her fist as Hiccup rubbed his jaw. 'Ye bloody vikings tried te invade Scotland.'

'And I'm Jack since no one cared to ask,' said the boy of the same name. 'I was about to ask,' Hiccup said, raising his hand. 'And I'm North and these three are Bunny, Sandy and Too- Tooth leave the dragon's mouth alone,' North said to the fairy who still had her head stuck down Toothless's throat. 'Yeah, in a minute,' Tooth's voice echoed up from deep down in the dragon's gullet. 'Is she always like that?' Rapunzel asked. 'Fairly consistently,' Jack said simply.

'There's a small amount of decay on this molar,' came Tooth's voice, 'No matter.' She took out a small toothbrush and began to brush. At this point, Toothless gave a cough and a small amount of smoke flew out of his mouth. When Tooth withdrew from the dragon's jaws, her feathers were covered with soot. 'We're never short of laughs in this business,' Bunny said, smiling.

At this point, an alarm started blaring and a light began to flash on the globe... right over the site of Sandy's Sandship. Sandy looked shocked and terrified. 'What is that?' Merida asked pointing at the light. 'The Sandship is under attack,' North said, 'Quickly, we must go.' At this point, a second light began flashing over the Tooth Palace. 'MY PALACE!' Tooth shrieked, 'THE TEETH ARE THREATENED!'

'North, Sandy, Bunny and myself will go straight to the palace. Jack; you, Merida, Rapunzel and Hiccup will go to the Sandship.' Before anyone could protest, the Guardians had sprinted off to the sleigh bay. 'Why... how... what are we supposed to do?' Rapunzel asked. Jack smiled and pulled something out of his pocket. 'I have a shortcut.' He was holding a snowglobe. Jack leapt into the air and flew up to the hole into the ceiling.

'Are you coming or not?' He called down to the others. 'In case ye've forgotten ye twally, the rest of us cannae fly,' Merida said. 'Toothless can fly,' Hiccup said. 'I'm nae gonna ride on tha' thing with ye, ye damned viking,' Merida snapped. 'I didn't know you Scots were so aggressive,' Rapunzel said. 'No, that's just me,' Merida said.

'We have no time to argue; get on the dragon!' Jack snapped.

After a while, Merida was tied up on Toothless's back with Rapunzel's hair who was sitting behind Hiccup. 'Let's go bud,' Hiccup said, locking his metal leg into the stirrup. Toothless roared and took flight at once. 'AAAAAAHHHHHH!' Rapunzel screamed as they burst through the roof. Toothless did a loop-the-loop before following Jack.

'I say SANDSHIP,' Jack said into the snowglobe. He shook it and threw it straight ahead. It exploded and conjured a portal. Toothless roared in panic and turned away, but not even a Night Fury is strong enough to fly against the suction of one of North's snowglobes. Toothless, Hiccup, Rapunzel and Merida were tugged into the Portal.

'How do I get into these situations?' Jack asked himself. Once on the other side of the portal, Toothless tumbled through the air before pulling himself back up. 'WHOA!' Rapunzel and Hiccup said. 'Mmph!' Merida said through Rapunzel's hair. Silhouetted against the setting sun, glimmering with specks of gold, was the mighty Sandship.

'That's amazing,' Rapunzel gasped. 'Hang on, what's that?' Hiccup said pointing. Black streaks were shooting around the bow of the ship. 'NIGHTMARES!' Jack yelled in panic. He pointed his staff and shot a blast of ice which froze three of the nightmares. 'Toothless, plasma blast!' Hiccup yelled. BANG! A blast of purple energy flew forth from Toothless's jaws, blasting more of the fearlings.

Rapunzel quickly unravelled Merida. The fiery red-head grabbed her bow and arrows and fired a single arrow; it shot straight through five of the nightmares, destroying each one. 'Nice shot,' Rapunzel said. 'Dinnae try and get back in ma good books,' Merida said back. Jack lead the Toothless into the Sandship.

Massive patches of black were appearing on the gold of the sandship. 'What's happening?' Hiccup yelled. 'I have a horrid suspicion,' Jack answered from in front. Jack lead them all up to the bridge. Both he and Toothless landed. Merida, Hiccup and Rapunzel jumped off of Toothless's back. The brief moment of calm was short lived.

With a mighty roar, a massive dragon burst through the wall of the Sandship. Hiccup looked shocked. 'The Red Death,' he said, 'Though a bit smaller than I remember.' Toothless looked aggressively at the Red Death. In draconian, Toothless said 'I killed you, Red Death.' 'Yes you did,' came the response. That stumped Toothless a bit.

A second roar echoed through the Bridge. A massive bear with a dead eye and spears and arrows embedded in it's back pounded into the bridge. It growled at Merida who for the first time looked scared. 'Mor'du,' she whispered, 'But you were crushed to death.'

'Indeed,' came a female voice, 'Nice to see you again my step-daughter.' Rapunzel went pale. 'No,' she said 'It can't be.' 'But it is,' and out of the dark stepped Mother Gothel. Rapunzel brandished her frying pan. 'You died, I saw you myself. You fell out of the tower window.'

'I have to say that this is all very exciting,' came a deep voice that reverberated through out the ship. Jack's eyes widened. 'No,' he whispered. 'Not him, anyone but him.' His hands trembled and his staff shook. 'Not...'

Pitch stepped out of the shadows of the ship. 'Pitch.' A tear ran down Jack's face in fear. The cold laughter brought chills to even Jack.