I don't own any of the characters in this story. They all belong to their rightful owners at Dream Works, Walt Disney Studios, and Pixar.
**I do own Katelynn (Birna Katelynn Odden-Haddock) and Chronos G. Reaper, however
Bang, bang, bang, clank! Bang! Bang, bang, clank! Hiss…
The banging of hammers and the hissing of metal cooling filled the school-yard's dead, silent night air. Hiccup and Birna were working overtime to make a new tail for Toothless. Rapunzel and Pascal would help out as much as they could. Rapunzel felt like she wasn't doing very much, even though Hiccup assured her that helping him bring him the right tools and helping him move to work on other things around the large workshop. Birna was in charge of getting the metal cooled and shaping the hot metal correctly since the forge was on another level of the former high school. Also using the technology that Hiccup wasn't familiar with. Toothless was the messenger, trading rods and fixed metals with new and tools as well with their message for more.
Rapunzel handed Hiccup a wrench. Before all of this started, her black-smith lingo was basically not there. Now, she could tell you the difference between a nut and a bolt. Yes, it was really that bad. "Anything you need, Hiccup?"
Hiccup shrugged his shoulders. "You can hand me a stool. I can't stand on just one leg for so long."
Rapunzel nodded and did just that. She was bored. She's been standing and doing nothing for the past five minutes. "Are you close to being done?"
"I think so…once I'm done with this piece and sent it down, we'll be ready to go meet up with Jack and Merida." With a sigh, he added, "I hope they're okay…with all those evils running around."
"I bet they'll be fine!" Rapunzel assured him. She watched him hammer the last piece of metal he received from Birna. She was working on the last one down stairs. "Hey Hiccup?"
"Yeah?" He didn't look away from his work.
"Have you noticed that you and Kat—I mean Birna look alike?"
Hiccup shrugged. "Sort of…why?"
"Just wondering…" Rapunzel jerked when she heard something clatter in the distance.
Hiccup stopped his hammering immediately, hearing the bang too. In a whisper, he asked, "What was that?"
Rapunzel shook her head, not knowing the answer to his question. "I don't know…" she picked up her frying pan off of the counter with a shaky hand. "I-I'll be right back…"
Hiccup stopped her by grabbing her arm. "Are you sure you want to go by yourself?" Concern and fear was in his eyes.
Rapunzel nodded. "Hm-mm. I-I'll be okay…you need to finish Toothless' tail. I'm not doing anything anyways."
Hiccup searched Rapunzel's face. Then he let her arm go and nodded. "Okay." He added in a low voice, "Be careful. It might have just been Birna dropping something but that was too loud for anything she's working on downstairs. It could be anything."
"I know." Rapunzel walked out of the room, her frying pan in a death grip. "I'll be careful. Same to you."
"Toothless'll protect me if something goes wrong," Hiccup assured her with a smile. He scratched under the Night Fury's chin. "Won't you, bud?" Toothless made a small purr-like growl deep in his throat, most likely saying: of course!
Rapunzel returned his smile. "I know he will. C'mon, Pascal!" Pascal scurried across the floor and climbed up her leg to get to the crook of her shoulder. He gave a confidence-filled look and a thumbs up. Rapunzel appreciated her pal chameleon's support but to be honest, she was petrified of all the factors of what they'll find.
The hallways were long and dark. The only light that guided Rapunzel was the frozen moon casting its light through whatever window it could find. The forge was in the basement, about three flights down. She was just on the last floor and she and Pascal didn't discover what the loud clank was yet. Maybe Hiccup was right. Maybe Birna did drop something. But…there was no way they could have heard it all the way upstairs. Unless she dropped something on another floor and returned back to the forge to fix whatever it was. Rapunzel could now see the orange light of the forge coming from under the door at the end of the hallway. Rapunzel opened the door slowly, she poked her head around the thick door, looking around the room. "Birna?" she came into the forge, her frying pan slightly raised.
She spun around when she heard something behind her. "Whoa!" Birna ducked at Rapunzel's swing. When she straightened up she said, "Watch where ya swinging that! Ya scared me!"
"You scared me!" Rapunzel lowered her frying pan. "Did you drop something earlier?"
"I dropped my shield when I was coming back up since I was done. It got a dent in it so I had to come back and fix it. Why?"
Rapunzel made a relieved sigh. "Well, that's good. Hiccup and I heard something clatter—"
"Clatter?" Birna repeated. She shook her head. "It didn't clatter. Já, it made a loud bang but it didn't clatter. And I was a far off for ya to hear me drop it. Are ya sure it wasn't something else?"
"I didn't see anything—"
The power went out, making the forge to die out and leave the two girls in complete darkness. The door whooshed open, making the moon's light flood in. Out of nowhere, a cloaked figure appeared spinning. When the cloak stopped, a flash of grey eyes came from the shadows from the hood. It approached them slowly and grabbed Rapunzel.
"Hey!" Birna leapt forward at the person, she got stopped by a smack across the face…more like slice. Blood trickled down to the floor as she screamed in pain.
Rapunzel looked over her shoulder to see a long gushing line of red going across Birna's face. She growled angrily and thrashed around in her capture's grip. "Let me go!"
"You are not running away from me again…"
Rapunzel's eyes filled with surprise and fear at the cloaked person's voice. It was the only voice she knew for the first eighteen years of her life. "Mother…?" she stopped thrashing. "Why? Why are you making a deal with Pitch, Mother? Why were you with him?!"
"To get my flower back." Gothel answered bluntly. "Come on." She yanked Rapunzel forward.
Rapunzel snapped her arm out of Gothel's hand. "No," her voice was filled with confidence. "You're with a bad people, Mother. One of them made my friend lose his leg and you hurt my other friend. I'm not going anywhere with you again!" she turned away from Gothel and helped Birna up from the floor who was shaking horribly.
Gothel's eyes hardened and narrowed at Rapunzel. "You want to do this the hard way? Fine. We'll do this the hard way…" she lunged at Rapunzel.
Sorry that I haven't updated for a while...I've been SUPER busy. And also...I have been receiving some cruel threats, even death threats, over me not updating this story fast enough. I get to it when I can get to it. As you can see, I have handfuls of stories I need to update as well. I really do try my hardest to get the next chapter up but I hit bumps along the way, causing serious delays. If these threats don't stop, I won't update at all. I know this sounds unfair and mean but if this doesn't stop, I'll no choice but to end and shut down this story. I'm sorry but that's how it's going to be.