Icy rain tore through the canopies as Merida, Hiccup, Rapunzel, and Jack Frost made their way through Arcadia. The broad-leaved oak and maple fought what the tightly packed pine and spruce of the upper canopy could not shield. Yet if a single drop of water fell upon the party per hour, the multiday journey and the biting pre-winter cold left them perpetually damp. Merida's strong, boiled wool dress and thick curls warmed her from the chill, as did Hiccup's yak vest and wool tunic. But Rapunzel's silken nightgown clung to her frame and sucked away her heat until she could barely stand. With teeth chattering, feet bare, and long hair draped around her shoulders for protection, she stumbled forward with faltering breath. Hiccup wrung his hands as he walked by her side, holding out his arms when she swayed. As Merida glanced back at them, she snorted and wrapped her fiery locks around her throat like a shawl. Then she glanced about, treading her fingers over the remaining arrows in her quiver.
A pale owl hooted somewhere amongst the pine. Some finch responded. Merida's stomach growled as she listened. Her eyes scanned the canopies for any hint of movement. But there was nothing. Eleanor the Fearful huffed as she trundled ahead of her. When Merida lagged behind, she heard a crumple of detritus. Hiccup yelped. Merida turned and looked down. Rapunzel lay sprawled face down against the forest floor. Hiccup scrambled to her side to help her up, but she fell limp in his arms.
"Hurry, Hiccup, or we'll never get there!" Merida called. Hiccup returned a fiery glance and indicated the unconscious Rapunzel with a jerk of the neck. Merida scowled and continued walking.
"She can't go any further!" shouted Hiccup. Merida tore forward. When Hiccup called louder, she roared and turned, stomping back to the fallen pair as she called Toothless and Eleanor to her side. When she reached Hiccup and asked what was wrong, he responded that Rapunzel had fainted.
"I am aware of that," Merida snapped. Toothless padded to Rapunzel's side and attempted nudging her awake. The princess opened her eyes groggily and patted the dragon's head. Her normal rosy cheeks had turned crimson with burst blood vessels. Her lips shone purple. Her once pink fingers and toes were now clammy and white. As Merida glanced her over, she felt a chill like a ghost pass her side. Jack Frost clicked his tongue at her ear.
"She looks on the verge of hypothermia," he chirped. With that he turned and floated forward once more, rising to judge where exactly the party was. When he returned to the forest floor he announced that they would reach Arcadia in eight hours if they did not take another break.
"Eight hours?" Hiccup barked. Setting Rapunzel on Toothless' left rib, he stood and sauntered until he was a mere inch before Jack Frost's face. He prodded a finger at the spirit's chest. Jack opened his mouth in shock and rubbed the jabbed space on his torso. Hiccup leaned in.
"We have been traveling for days," he hissed. "We have had to put up with your stories and jokes and limited information and we are sick of it! We do not even know where we are going!"
"Well that's not my fault!" Jack snapped in return. "And it sure isn't my fault that your pretty princess guide caught a big cold before she could tell you where to go next!"
Merida could not help but snort. When she regained control and Hiccup stopped glaring at her, he returned his glance to Jack and said that unlike him, the rest of them were human.
"Merida and I are used to harsh conditions, but Rapunzel has been stuck in a tower her whole life wearing nothing but a silk slip! How do you expect her to stand the cold?"
"She should have packed some winter woollies before she escaped!" Jack returned with a sarcastic wink. Hiccup remained stock still for a moment. Then with all his might he shoved Jack to the ground. Before the spirit's backside could hit the forest floor, he whizzed around and kicked Hiccup in the backs of the knees so that the boy fell face first. When both boys scrambled to standing or floating and went at one another again Merida drew two arrows from her quiver, strung them in her bow, and announced that she would shoot the first person to throw a punch.
"And I suggest you give it up first, Hiccup, because you are the easiest target," she added with a hiss. Scowling, Hiccup let Jack go and stomped to Rapunzel's side, shouting that he refused to move forward without her safe and sound. Jack and Merida groaned at the same time, but it was Jack who floated forward and rung his fingers through his hair.
"Do you guys not realize the time crunch we are on?" he barked.
"Time crunch?" Hiccup responded. "I thought we were visiting a prince, not racing against a clock!"
"How are we going to warn the Arcadian prince that Drago's army is coming if his head is stuck on a spike at his front gate when we get there?" shrieked the winter spirit in response. When he was met with blank stares, he turned and shouted, "well? Isn't that what we are doing?"
"I thought that Drago's army was Arcadian," Merida intoned. Jack's eyes widened. For a moment he stuttered incoherently. He looked as though he would bust his face on a nearby tree. Then, with a loud groan he called, "guys, this is the classic bait-and-switch! Bad guy says he is part of a mysterious, otherworldly country trying to destroy everything, then it turns out bad guy has already destroyed said otherworldly country himself!"
"Rapunzel said Drago's army wasn't tied to the Archadian prince," Hiccup announced with furrowed brows. He clutched Rapunzel close. "She never said anything about his army attacking Archadia." Frost ignored him and turned to Merida.
"Let me help you," he said. "If you waste time, you will regret it."
Though she did not trust Frost, Merida admitted she agreed. As she, Elinor, and Jack turned for Arcadia, Hiccup jumped up and laughed.
"You two honestly think you can take over an entire army without Toothless and I?" he asked. "I am the only one who knows how to ride him. How are you three going to entertain the king if you don't have Rapunzel?"
"We won't need to speak with the king," Merida returned, "if we take his armored guard." She glanced towards Toothless with her best pleading smile. As she looked upon the dragon her brows furrowed.
He was grimacing again. This time the muscles of his cheeks wrenched back so far that the hinges connecting his skull to his jaw pulsed through the sensitive skin of his gums. Saliva dripped from between his teeth in pools against the forest floor as his eyes sunk at the sides. The party shivered as rattling cages replaced Toothless's page turn purr. Again the face became a mask, smooth and shiny with sweat as Toothless stared from within in terror. Hiccup tried driving his hands into the skin behind the rabbit like ears. Toothless's peridot irises sunk again to nasty slits. The lids drew back. Toothless roared and shook his wings. Then, exhausted, he slumped to the ground, consumed still by a fit of trembling. As Hiccup ran his fingers over the dragon's back Merida dashed to his side in fright. They exchanged glances. When they looked away Merida grimaced.
"His condition worsens," she murmured.
"He hasn't been this bad since I first met him," Hiccup responded, rubbing Toothless's shoulder gently as tears pulsed from the dragon's eyes. "And even then, it was different." Merida watched both of them. Then she turned to Rapunzel, who huddled against the heavy leafed ground shivering.
"You build a fire, I hunt," she muttered to Hiccup. As she turned, Toothless sucked in a deep breath and sneezed so hard that black dynamite blew from his snout and exploded an oak sapling across the clearing on contact. As the tree fizzled and burned into an open flame, Hiccup grinned and said his job was done. Merida scowled and moved for the deeper forest as Hiccup huddled Rapunzel close to his chest. As Merida glanced back at them she noticed Hiccup nuzzle Rapunzel against Toothless's warm underbelly as he took her feet and hands close to his stomach. As Hiccup massaged her frozen extremities he spoke softly to her. It made Merida curl her nose. When Jack followed her she scowled.
"I would rather be alone, Frost," she growled.
"I don't remember asking what you'd rather be," responded Jack, twirling through the air at her side. He was sour. As Merida examined him she laughed. Then a shadow crossed her mind. She asked him to tell her why the north wind had remained his friend. He glanced towards her in confusion.
"After you stole the spirit world's staff," Merida elaborated. "Why did the north wind pity you?"
Jack's expression sank. Then he shrugged and murmured that the north wind always took pity on the lonesome.
"It isn't easy being immortal," he sighed, digging his staff into the moss around his floating feet. "When you don't have anyone to talk to you go crazy."
Merida pursed her lips and nodded. Then she asked if Jack had any siblings. Again Jack shrugged.
"I had a sister once," he murmured as they walked. When Merida asked for her name, Jack responded that he called her Flee, because she would run whenever he scared her. Never jump, never hide, just run until she became so tired she would collapse and reprimand Jack in gusts for whatever scheme he had pulled. As Frost spoke of her he chuckled. He asked Merida if she ever gave her brothers nicknames. Merida shrugged.
"Their nicknames depended on the situation," she explained. "Doaty dobbers and howlin' roasters proved favorites."
Jack laughed and asked what she would call him. She replied that doaty dobber would suit him just fine. He giggled that he would call her "red terror" if the insult were not already taken. As Merida glanced towards him in confusion, he collapsed in a fit of laughter and whizzed around one of the pine boughs nearby.
"Who calls me Red Terror?" Merida snapped. When Frost winked at her she scowled and spit on the ground where he had hovered. Then she drove again towards the deeper forest. After hacking through brush and detritus for what felt like hours, she asked if Jack ate. When he furrowed his brows, she inquired if he ever hungered. Jack tapped his chin as he thought about it.
"Well…" he sighed, continuing after pause, "the more dead you get the more slowly time passes. It's not that I don't get hungry, I just forget to eat."
"You forget to feed yourself?" Merida snapped. Jack shrugged.
"You know when you get hungry at lunch time, but you don't have time to eat so you wait till later and by then you aren't hungry anymore?" Jack asked.
"I suppose," Merida intoned.
"Well," Jack continued, "That's me. A spiritual, biological anomaly. I'll probably wait till we visit the prince to catch some grub."
"Humph," Merida muttered. She peeked towards his shepherd's crook in curiosity. When Jack saw her staring he tapped it into the ground and hunkered on top of it. Merida narrowed her eyes. Then she continued walking. She felt Jack's cool breath as he floated by her side.
"Why were you looking at it again?" he asked. Merida shrugged, responding that it just reminded her not to trust him. Jack groaned and slumped through the air on his back.
"What does it take to get you on my side?" he sighed. Merida laughed in spite of herself. Then her brows furrowed. Her head snapped toward the canopy. Not a bird in sight. She turned and shut her eyes. Running water. Merida opened her eyes and stalked towards the sound. Jack hovered behind.
When she blustered past pine and towards the edge of the riverside she glanced around her. She could feel the salt of the sea on her lips. Freezing rain fell unencumbered. Not a bird flew above. When she looked up she noticed she stood at the base of a steep mountain. A waterfall tumbled from its cliff and sloped down to Merida's feet. She glanced in the direction it flowed and bit her lip. Then she hunkered down, wrapped her woolen skirt around her hips, curled her hair around her mouth and throat, and slipped off her shoes. When she dipped her big toe into the coursing water she cursed and whipped it out as fast as she could. As she massaged her toe Jack hovered forward and stuck his own foot in the water. He let out a loud "humph," before returning to her side.
"Chilly," he chirped. Merida scowled. She wrenched her boot back on and looked for a stone pathway across the river. When she found one, she crouched, turned her undergarments to a loincloth, and hopped forward with bare thighs burning from cold. She slipped an arrow from her quiver and strung it in her bow, peering through the waves for fish. When Jack cried out she glanced ahead. Elinor was padding around the water as well, snapping up whatever passed her feet. There was not much. Merida scowled deeper.
"She's going to steal whatever comes our way!" she growled.
"Don't bears hibernate?" asked Jack. Merida glanced towards him in bafflement.
"You know," Jack continued. "Sleep during the winter."
"That's preposterous!" barked Merida. All the same, she glanced towards the slow moving Elinor with pursed lips.
"You have a bunch of bears on your family seal and you don't know anything about them?" Jack snorted. Merida tilted her head, murmuring that bears had not been seen in Scotland for hundreds of years. To her, they had been a myth until Mor'Du's attacks. She knew nothing about them that she had not seen with her own eyes. As she thought about it, she frowned and snapped towards Jack, asking how he knew about bears. Jack threw his head back and laughed.
"I have seen more bears than you have seen sunsets," he snapped.
"That is impossible!" Merida fired back. Still, she glanced towards Elinor, adding, "is that why she has been moving slower?"
Jack shrugged. "You may have to give her up soon. She'll need to build a den. She'd be a complete nuisance if we tried keeping her along."
An inexplicable sensation twisted Merida's throat and chest closed. Elinor snapped little steelheads and salmon through the waves as she glanced towards her. With a sigh, Merida returned her bow to her back. When she cleared the riverside she muttered that Elinor could take the fish. She would continue to search the skies. Jack asked if she needed help. She snorted. In return he reached out his hands. Merida hesitated. Then she inched towards him. When she was a foot away, he told her to hop on his back.
"What?" Merida snapped.
"Hop on my back!" Jack returned. "I'll fly you up so you can have a better look."
Merida prepared to refuse. But her stomach responded with an audible growl. She thought of Rapunzel and Toothless. Then, with a scowl she acquiesced and climbed over Jack's hips, throwing her arms around his neck. When he was sure she was secure, he hunkered down and shot through the air, passing pine and cloud until Merida saw the entire forest beneath her feet. As the pair rose, the cold thickened.
"I don't see a thing," Jack called. Merida agreed through chattering teeth. There was nothing. Not even gulls. As she glanced north she noticed storm clouds descending over the sea. Blistering cold bit at her cheeks. There would be snow.
"Is the north wind telling you the same thing it's telling me?" asked Jack. Merida nodded. "We must leave soon."
"I bet the witch would have food," chanced Frost. Merida glanced down at him with a frown.
"You intend to leave everyone behind?" she snapped. Jack shrugged.
"You and I are the only sane people for miles," he gushed. "Why not visit the witch right now? Toothy can fly Cough and Puny to Archadia."
"I need Toothless to take Drago's army."
"You need that sick old science experiment?" Jack snapped. "His deadweight slows you down because of some fantasy girl as he gets sicker and sicker. I bet my staff he'll croak within hours. Midflight."
"Silence yourself, Jack," Merida growled. Jack shook his head.
"Believe it or not, I am looking out for you!" he pleaded. "All I see is a hot headed idiot in the midst of a bunch of liars!"
"Do you include yourself in that bunch?" snarled Merida, digging her legs into his sides as she gripped his neck close. Between struggling he managed to respond, "it takes a liar to know a liar! And what I see are three big, fat liars!"
"The most vile being you!" thundered Merida.
"Alright, I am a liar! Big whoop! At least I know when people are using me!"
"Let me down!" Merida howled. When Jack would not cooperate, she slipped an arrow from her quiver and dug it into the hollow of his neck. "Keep flying and I will spear this through your throat!" she hissed. Jack blubbered that if she did, she would fall. Merida commanded for him to let her down. With a scowl, he whizzed to the forest floor and slipped her from his back. With a yelp Merida clattered to the ground. As she wobbled to standing, she strung the same arrow through her bow and pointed it to Jack's chest. When the spirit began to laugh, she glanced for the arrowhead's hilt. But it was nowhere in sight. All that was left of the arrow was its bottom half. The front must have cracked as she fell to the forest floor.
"You demon!" she howled as she searched the metal out. "I lost ten arrows in Corona! I shan't waste any on you!"
"Your fault," Jack returned. "You shouldn't have threatened to kill me mid flight."
Merida roared and strung another arrow in her bow. This time Jack did not move.
"Are you going to tell me to leave again?" he snapped. His cheeks grew purple with what little heat he possessed. "Going to stumble around on death's door until some other cluck takes advantage of you?"
Merida picked up a rock and threw it at his head. Jack dodged easily. Merida roared and slung another. Jack caught it in his arm and pinged it back at her, barely missing her bow.
"You scum!" Merida shrieked.
"Why won't you listen to me?" Jack cried. "I've got things to do too! I don't need to be here!"
"Then go!" Merida shot back. Her face was boiling hot. "There is no point to you being around!"
"You have no idea what I am capable of!" Jack hissed. He wrung his hands through his hair. Then he bounded into the sky.
"I'm going to find food," he snapped. "And if we're not on the road within four hours, I'll cause a snowstorm that will keep your friends here for good!"
With that the snow spirit shot through the air as fast as he could. As he whizzed upward solely through the energy of his bound, he snapped his mouth shut and stared straight into the pelting wind. As he ascended the heat burning his cheeks disappeared. Rain turned to soft falling snow. Clouds pressed beneath him. He lowered until his feet met with softly packed ice crystals. He glanced around him with his shepherd's crook tight in his grip and wiped his eyes. As he stood the clouds beneath his feet darkened and rumbled with lightning that seared through his veins. When he glanced upwards he noticed the clouds directly ahead form what looked like a dark face. Thunder turned to a rumbling roar while lightning concentrated into two black flame eyes. As Jack blinked ahead in shock, Gothel's face loomed before him in anger.
"Where is the princess?" howled its voice. Jack cowered as it spoke. When it finished, he held his hands up in surrender, blubbering that he was working on it.
"The time is nigh, Jack," the voice continued. "The life of your sister hangs in the balance. I feel her ties to the spirit world fading with each passing day."
"I know, I know!" Jack croaked in return. "This is a tough job! You don't know Merida like I do!"
"Where are you taking her, Jack?" the voice groaned. "You are far from my tower. I risk everything speaking to you in this form."
"I know!" Jack hissed. "She got tangled up with this boy and his dragon."
"The dragons of ancient are gone," the voice groaned. "Only one survives. It lies in the clutches of Drago Bludvist."
"There's another!" Jack gasped. "He calls it a Night Fury! The boy's name is Hiccup. He and Rapunzel are leading her to the prince of Archadia."
"Night Fury?" the voice gasped. "A Night Fury?" Laughter shook the lightning in its eyes and shot bolts from the face's cheeks as Jack cowered in terror. Suddenly it began to disappear. As Jack watched it go in shock, the clouds beneath him lost their grip. As he fell he screeched. The terror clinging to his bones made him forget his powers. But before he slipped through the pine canopy and crashed into one of its boughs, the breath of the north wind swept him up and dropped him by the riverside. As Jack righted himself, he searched for the party's campgrounds. A telltale bushel of smoke rose through the air ahead. Jack walked towards it amidst a frightful shiver. The rain fell harder. When he reached the camp sight, he noticed Rapunzel and Hiccup picking berries across the clearing. Toothless's wing shielded their backs from the rain. Color had returned to Rapunzel's cheeks. Her eyes shone as she looked upon Hiccup. Jack snorted and turned for the campground. When he trundled towards it, he shivered again.
The chill came not from the air surrounding, but from within his chest. It trilled up and down his spine like long, sharp fingers. As his cold teeth chattered, he glanced about. The shadows surrounding the camp flickered and turned like fire. As Jack blinked his vision extended down the longest shadow. It seemed to grow as he looked upon it, until its sharp tip curved up the wall of the rock face Toothless frequented to settle upon a wart in the stone's side. When Jack peered closer at the wart, it moved. He gasped and shuffled towards it. When he peered closer, he noticed the outline of what looked like a tiny reptile surrounding it. With pursed lips he slipped the creature from the wall and held it up by the tail. Beneath his grip hung a mottled chameleon. The same creature Jack had made contact with in Gothel's tower when he spied on her four flowers.
"What are you doing here?" the spirit whispered. In return, the chameleon whistled and bit his hand. Ahead, Rapunzel's head snapped up. Jack slipped into invisibility as she glanced about. While she clutched Hiccup's arm and scanned the clearing, Jack slipped the chameleon under his arm and drifted from the campsite bounds. When he held the chameleon up again, the creature snapped at him and called for Rapunzel again.
"Do you recognize me?" asked the spirit. The chameleon swept its tiny arms through the air towards him. As Jack examined it he pursed his lips. Then with all his might he pitched the reptile through the air. As he did, the north wind howled around him in anger, sweeping him off his feet until his shepherd's crook flung from his arms. As he swept across the ground ahead of him, Jack yelped and trundled after it. When he got it in his arms again, he commanded the north wind to stop. In response, icy rain and wind thundered and cut his face.
"How would you feel if you caught someone spying on you?" Jack howled. As he turned back to the campsite, the wind was replaced by a strange still. The sun disappeared in the sky. When Jack looked up, the canopy shrouded him again in shadow. Another chill coursed through him. He pursed his lips.
"Something's going on," he whispered, shaking his head. "There's something about this that I don't understand, and I don't like it."
Around him the shadows flickered like flames. Though something responded in the shrouds of his memory, he was too terrified to call upon it. All he could think about was Gothel, the Night Fury, and Merida.
I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! It is almost entirely unedited because I was too tired (lol.) But I figured I would at least put something out. I know it has been a long time since I've written. For some reason, whenever stories inch close to their climax, I have trouble writing them. I am dedicated to finishing this story in some way, shape, or form. Speed is my main enemy at the moment. Thank you for reading!