Chapter 4: New friends and old foes

'So who are you all?' Pitch asked three of the four. 'I know who you are Jack Frost, but who are your friends?' 'Jack Frost?' Gothel said before laughing cruelly. 'And there was I thinking he was only a legend.' Rapunzel, Hiccup and Merida turned to Jack. 'Jack Frost?' they said amazed. Merida sniggered. Jack scowled. Hiccup's jaw dropped. Jack Frost was worshiped as a god back on Berk as the spirit of winter.

'The girl with the hair that looks like it could be used to go hiking is Rapunzel,' Gothel continued. Rapunzel blushed. 'I can introduce myself, Gothel,' she snapped, brandishing her frying pan. Gothel laughed cruelly again. Pitch raised his hand to quieten her and she did so. She leant back on a pillar of sand.

'What of the girl who looks like her hair needs a lawnmower to cut it?' 'OI!' Merida shouted, 'Mah name's Merida Dunbroch.' Mor'du snarled. 'Shut yer muzzle,' Merida snapped at the ursine. Mor'du roared angrily and stepped forward. 'Stop,' Pitch said, raising his hand. Mor'du sat down and continued to glare at the princess.

'And the boy with the false leg?' Pitch asked. 'I'm Hiccup,' the boy of the same name said, 'Son of Stoick the Vast.' 'YOU'RE WHAT!?' Merida screamed. She pulled a dagger out of her pocket and charged at Hiccup who ran behind Toothless who in turn growled at Merida. 'I thought they were the bad guys,' Jack said pointing at the Evil Four. 'If this keeps going, we won't have to lift a finger to stop them,' Pitch chuckled.

Toothless growled again. The Red Death growled back. 'Calm down bud,' Hiccup said, patting his dragon. 'It is nice to see you all at last,' Pitch said suavely, 'But I am tired of this. We have much more important business to attend to. Nightmares: Attack!' Pitch demanded. The black patches on the walls ruptured and nightmares burst out.

With a quick swing, Rapunzel struck one of the nightmares on the head with her frying pan. It collapsed. Merida aimed her bow and arrow and fired. Arrows soared through the sandship. One hit a nightmare charging at Hiccup. 'Thanks,' Hiccup called over to her. 'Ah was aimin' at you,' Merida said, but she was smiling. Jack was firing ice blasts and Toothless was blasting plasma bolts. Hiccup pulled out one of his axes he had made himself as these were lighter than traditional Viking axes.

Jack froze several nightmares to the ground. Hiccup swung his axe, knocking down the nightmares. Merida jumped up and fired three arrows at once. Each hit it's target. Rapunzel threw her hair up to a loop in the ceiling and swung herself across the bridge, whacking every nightmare she passed. Toothless lashed his tail around, knocking down nightmares behind him and blasting plasma bolts from his jaws.

Pitch watched, mildly impressed at the fighting skills of the teenagers. Gothel looked slighty worried. 'If they can fight this well, shouldn't we get out of here?' Pitch took a moment to answer. 'It goes against my desires, but we should retreat...' he paused, 'But not before I launch a small attack of my own.'

Pitch leapt down into battle. He conjured his weapon. 'Your time is finished!' A quick spin on his scythe sent all of the big four spinning across the bridge. Their weapons were dropped as the four hit the ground. 'Stop this madness Pitch,' Jack shouted angrily. He reached for his staff, but Pitch stamped down on Jack's fingers. Jack yelled in pain and grabbed his hand. Toothless launched himself at the Boogeyman, but Pitch launched a blast of nightmare sand just as Toothless fired a plasma bolt. The plasma bolt hit the nightmare sand just as it entered the dragon's jaws. The explosion blasted Toothless back and in he rubbed his snout, whining in pain.

Merida snatched up her bow and fired an arrow at Pitch. Pitch turned and instantly caught the arrow between his forefinger and thumb. With one swift action, he snapped it in two. Merida snarled. Hiccup reached for his axe, but Gothel put her foot on the blade. 'I'd keep still if I were you,' she said with a silky voice. Hiccup reluctantly complied.

Pitch grabbed Jack's throat and pulled his face close. 'Soon, very soon, the Guardians will fall,' he whispered, 'And I will make sure that you are the first to die. Until next time Frost,' Pitch vanished in a cloud of black and reappeared on the Red Death's back. Mor'du and Gothel climbed on it's back as well and the dragon took flight. The Red Death burst out of the Sandship, turned to face the ship, opened it's jaws and fired a vast jet of flame at the crippled vessel. The sandship exploded into two massive pieces and began to fall to the ground. Pitch laughed as the Red Death flew into the night.

As the sandship plummeted towards the ground, Jack grabbed his staff and pulled himself up. Hiccup and Rapunzel clambered to their feet as well. Hiccup offered his hand to Merida. Merida reached out to take it, realised who it was and smacked the hand away. Toothless whinned and pulled himself up. Rapunzel was the first to pull herself onto the dragon's back.

There was a crash. A pillar collapsed onto Hiccup's leg, crushing it. He screamed in pain. 'Merida, help him,' Rapunzel shouted. 'No way,' Merida snapped. 'MERIDA!' Jack and Rapunzel shouted at her. Merida sighed. 'Bleedin' hearts of the world UNITE!' she screamed angrily. She stepped forward, kicked over the pillar and pulled Hiccup to his feet. He stared at her stunned. She slapped him. 'Don't yeh dare think ahm gonna save yer skin again,' she said, poking him in the belly. Hiccup nodded.

The two jumped onto the Toothless's back. 'Youch!' Hiccup yelled. His leg (the one that had been half-replaced) had been completely crushed. Rapunzel winced at the sight of it. Merida tried to look indifferent, but it was just possible to see a flash of concern in her eyes. Toothless roared and took flight, Jack leading the way through the collapsing sandship.

After a minute... WHOOSH! Toothless and Jack burst through the hull of the sandship into the open sky beyond. Four pairs of eyes turned to watch in sadness and shock as the mighty sandship disappeared through the cloud-bank and out of sight. 'I don't believe it,' Jack whispered. A tear formed in the corner of his eye before he blinked it away. Jack turned forward and yelled.

Nightmares charged at them out of the sky. Toothless banked left hard. A nightmare snapped it's jaws onto Toothless's real tail and he roared in pain and anger before breaking free. Toothless did a spiraling twirl in mid-air in an attempt to shake off the fearlings. Jack blasted the nightmares with a blizzard of ice shards, but it didn't seem to make a difference.

Merida fired her arrows as fast as she possibly could, but for every nightmare she took down, ten more seemed to take their place. She reached for another arrow... and found she was completely out of them. She gulped. She pulled out her bow instead and was forced to use it instead to swipe at any passing nightmare, but she was no more successful than Jack's blizzard. Nor was Hiccup's axe. Toothless opened his jaws to blast another horde of fearlings... and found he was out of ammunition as well.

'What are these things?' Rapunzel shouted through the raging roars of the nightmares. 'These are nightmares,' Jack shouted, 'Creatures of darkness and fear.' At this, a thought came to Rapunzel. 'Darkness?' 'Yes.' 'I've got a plan,' Rapunzel cried as the nightmares began to circle them. 'What?' Hiccup asked turning to face her. The nightmares were forming a ball around them. 'Flower gleam and glow, let your power shine...'

At this point, the nightmares enclosed them all in the tight, black-sand globe. There was silence for a moment... and then a bright, golden light burst through the ball. The nightmares screamed and flew away as fast as they could. Jack, Merida and Hiccup lowered their hands from their eyes and stared at Rapunzel who continued to sing as her long hair shone bright gold.

'Heal what has been hurt,

change the fates design,

save what has been lost,

bring back what once was mine,

what once was mine.'

As she sung, the rays of light from her hair sliced straight through the nightmares and fearlings. Pitch's demons disappeared into the sky. Rapunzel stopped singing. Her hair finished glowing. She passed out onto Hiccup's back. 'Ach, wake up ye scunner,' Merida said, slapping Rapunzel's face. It didn't make any difference.

'Toothless, bring us down!' Hiccup yelled. The Night Fury roared in response and dived through the atmosphere towards the ground. They broke through the cloud-bank and found that they were heading for the Chilean Andes. In the distance, the remnants of the sandship could be seen on the horizon. Jack looked away from the sad remnants of Sandy's dreamship as the dragon landed on the parched plains of the high Andes.

Toothless blasted the ground and created a small fire for everyone to warm themselves around. When the dragon hit the ground, the still unconscious Rapunzel fell off. Merida stepped down from the dragon in silence. She was shocked that she had lost all of her arrows. She had never felt so defenceless. Hiccup was in tears of pain as he stepped down from Toothless. His leg was as good as dead. Jack just sat on the ground. 'When she comes round, I think we should have a word with Rapunzel.'

It watched them from high above. It had not seen power like this for many millennia... not since before the Golden ages. A drop of sunlight had somehow entered the girl's body.

But that wasn't what interested it the most.

That golden light that accompanied the healing... could that really be an exorcism wavelength?

If so... they had a minor problem.