Chapter 6: The plot begins to deepen

This is just a little drabble to pass the time, but it is still in my personal canon.

The Witch smiled as she watched the big four fly out of her door which slammed shut behind them. Once the door had closed however, her smile fell. She bit her lip. Something was amiss. Something big.

The Witch walked over to a chest, lifted a key put of her pocket and unlocked it. Inside it was a crystal, a mirror and a gong. She lifted them out and slung them over her shoulder. 'Get the weather staff,' she said to the crow. The Witch stepped out of the door and looked up to the heavens. A cloud was covering the moon.

She set the crystal onto a plinth, placed the mirror onto a nail in a tree and placed the gong beside the crystal. The crow dropped the staff and the Witch caught it before it hit the ground. She looked up to the sky, raised the staff and fired a bolt of light into the cloud. The cloud would normally burst apart and vanish, but this one was rippling almost like it was in pain. The Witch fired a second, more powerful bolt upwards and the cloud shimmered again. Tiny holes were appearing. One final blast and the cloud vanished.

The full moon glowed high above. The Witch raised the staff and whacked the gong as hard as she could. It made a sound like it had been hit under water. The noise reverberated around the forest and died away. Then, a bright, silvery-blue light shot down from the moon. It hit the crystal, refracted out and hit the mirror. Instead of reflecting off however, the light hovered around the silver surface and created a face.

The Man-in-the-Moon appeared in the mirror. Normally he would be smiling, calm and looking slightly sleepy, but now he looked stern, serious and wide-awake, even worried. Seeing the MiM looking worried was worrying in itself. 'You're looking peeky, your Imperial Majesty,' The Witch said. 'Hmm,' MiM said, 'I havn't been sleeping well lately Mistress.'

'I'm going to skip the introductions and get down to business,' the Witch said, folding her arms, 'Why have you sent a Guardian, a princess and viking here to Scotland?' 'There is a reason,' MiM said, 'I'll tell you, but you must trust my reasoning.' The Witch nodded. 'Have you heard of the legend of the Darkness?'

Pitch looked at his globe of the Earth, covered with hundreds upon hundreds of glittering golden lights. The globe was hollow and was actually made of metal continents and islands all linked together and held up. He snarled and thumped the globe with his fist. The globe shuddered and the lights flickered. In the centre of the globe, Pitch could see the Big Four walking through a forest.

'Annoying aren't they.' Pitch turned. Gothel was standing right behind him. 'You don't know the half of it Gothel,' Pitch sighed turning back to the globe. Mor'du and Red Death lay underneath the various bridges that stretched across his domain. They were both fast asleep. Pitch sat down, his back to the globe. Gothel sat down next to him.

Gothel was quiet and so was Pitch. He conjured a small sand model of Jack Frost. 'So why do you hate Jack Frost?' Gothel asked. 'He was the ONE,' he snapped, crushing Jack in his clenched fist 'Who brought about my fall from power. I was one inch from overthrowing the world when with one snowball, managed to pull it all back.' He unclenched his fist.

Gothel leaned in to have a look when Pitch closed his palm. 'So why do you hate Rapunzel Gothel?' Gothel grimaced at the name. 'She was once my ticket to youth and beauty,' Gothel said twirling her hair around her finger. 'You still are,' Pitch thought. 'She ran off with some bandit called Eugene,' Gothel finished angrily. 'Eugene?' Pitch asked. 'Yes, Eugene Fitzherbert,' Gothel finished. 'If you want, I could find him and plague him with nightmares until his dying day,' Pitch said smiling cruelly. Gothel smiled at him. 'Oh, I would love that Pitch.' 'My pleasure Gothel,' Pitch said silkily.

Jack, Hiccup and Rapunzel followed Merida through the woods. Jack was perfectly fine with the dark forest as he'd lived out of doors for 300 years before he became a guardian. Hiccup was okay, maybe a little nervous and a tiny bit jumpy, but he was a viking and had lived on a dangerous island that used to be attacked by dragons. Rapunzel on the other hand had lived in a remote tower for the majority of her life and had spent the rest of it in a castle. The only night she had spent in a forest at night, she'd had a nice fire to keep her warm.

She was shaking slighty, eyeing every shadow with misgiving. An owl flew overhead and hooted. Merida, Jack and Hiccup stared up the tree to which Rapunzel had run. She was clinging to a branch, shaking so hard that leaves were falling out of the tree. 'Rapunzel calm down and come down,' Jack called up to her. She shook her head wildly, her eyes tightly shut.

Merida sighed, grabbed Rapunzel's trailing hair and pulled. Rapunzel was tugged out of the tree and hit the ground. Just after that, the branch she had been holding onto snapped, fell and whacked her in the solar plexus. Merida, Jack and Hiccup winced. They leant over Rapunzel. 'Are you alright?' Hiccup asked, tentatively. 'Yeah, fine,' came a croak. They pulled her to her feet. 'Come on,' Merida said, 'Not too far now.'

Hiccup's belly made a loud grumbling. Everyone stared at it. 'Sorry,' he said. At this point, Jack and Rapunzel's stomachs made similar rumbling noises. 'I'm guessing you're all hungry?' There were noises of awkward agreement. 'Dinnae worry, me dad always puts on a feast every night.' Toothless made a sound of delight.

IT watched them from high above. The Witch was being extremely annoying. Her soul was creating a powerful energy that was resisting IT, but it didn't go far. IT flowed across the ground, not taking... well... IT didn't really have eyes. It had been millenia since IT had eyes. Nevertheless, IT could still see them. It was time to act. The Night Fury would be a tricky problem.

IT had not waited for over five billion years to be defeated by a giant reptile however. IT had planned for an occasion just like this. IT would have laughed and smiled if IT had a mouth. A shadow flowed from IT and opened a doorway. Out of it stepped Mor'du and the Red Death. instinctively, they knew what to do. They marched toward the castle of Dunbroch.

Darkness was coming. Silence was falling. Fear was rising. Madness was brewing.

Evil was arriving.