Here we go, chapter 7!

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7.

Merida was the only one left at Council. The ceremony had been completed with the formation of Jack's throne, so the rulers had taken their leave. Jack himself had left with Hiccup and Rapunzel to return to Corinthia. It was quite late in the afternoon now- so much had happened in just one day. Tomorrow, Jack and North would travel to Burgess to make the official announcement of his Guardianship. The other three Guardians would also have to make their own announcements in their respective Kingdoms, something Merida was truly not excited to do. She hated public speaking. She hated formalities and ceremonies and endless council meetings and this routine after that routine. She hated being told what to do and where to do it, where to go, who to see, what to say. She hated how people expected certain things from her.

But she had bigger problems to worry about. And not just Pitch.

She'd purposely stayed behind at Council, telling her friends to go on without her. She needed some time to herself to think certain things through. And she feared the only place she could really do it was at Council.

First of all, the vision she'd seen earlier that morning of the blue eyes... now confirmed to be Jack's... it wasn't the first time she'd seen it. She'd had the vision before, jumbled amongst other visions, never really seeming important. Now... Merida wasn't so sure.

But what did it mean? What could blue eyes possibly tell her about the future? Why did it keep coming up?

The second problem she wanted to think about was slightly more problematic... ok, a lot more problematic.

Something was wrong with Compass. She couldn't figure out what, but the last few times she'd visited, the wisps had seemed... different. She couldn't put her finger on what was different exactly, but she knew something was off. And then, even worse, when she'd closed her eyes to find her 'string' into the future... nothing had happened.

All she saw was black. Nothing entered her head. Absolutely nothing.

She'd tried several times a day for a week or so, trying different spots of Compass, different meditation techniques- anything. But no matter what she tried, she always had the same result. A blank screen, as if a light had been shut off, curtains drawn, or a door shut.

So Merida panicked. Out of fear of what her fellow Guardians would say, she'd opted to keep the issue of Compass to herself. Besides, they had Pitch's uprising to worry about- they couldn't waste time on her problems. Merida knew that only she could fix her powers.

After yesterday's failed attempts, she'd been completely desperate today. She'd retreated to West Point. But she hadn't done so without prior thought. She had a very good reason for choosing to venture into the dark menacing forest. For months now, Merida had been seeing visions of a stone circle. Up until now, she'd always assumed the circle was Compass. When her visions became blocked, she wondered if her visions of the circle had been a warning. A warning from the wisps that something bad might happen to Compass... or...

...or what if it was a message? What if there was another stone circle, like Compass, but somewhere else on Warren? She'd pondered the thought the entire day before during the High Council meeting instead of paying attention to their dull arguments about war.

If another stone circle existed in Warren, she'd thought to herself, surely Ah'd know? Surely someone would've discovered it in the Four Kingdoms centuries ag-

And then it had hit her. Warren had been around for centuries. If another huge circle of extremely tall stones existed within the kingdoms, it would have been discovered by now. It would be very difficult to hide, after all. So the only place left was outside of the kingdoms.

West Point, or the Forest of Eternal Night, had never been claimed by any of the kingdoms. It was too dark, too overgrown, too frightening. Very few places within offered sunlight through the trees. Animals in it were scarce, and those who did reside in its depths and mist were hostile and fierce. The forest had no value to any kingdom, so it had always been left alone.

But Merida had hoped it would have some value to her. She'd run and run and run, getting nowhere, finding no traces of a stone circle or anything that even slightly resembled Compass. All the trip had accomplished was frustrate her even more. She'd collapsed, desperately reaching out to see if perhaps just being in the forest would help her power- maybe the circle was near by... assuming the was a second circle.

But no luck. She could see in the future, but her thoughts were a mess, all tangled together, making no sense at all, just flashes of odd pictures. And then those eyes again...

Which of course just had to be ruined by that stupid bear. And then Hiccup had managed to find her...

Hiccup. Something was different about him too. Merida found herself more and more anxious and nervous around him lately, and even worse she didn't know why. They used to get along just fine, but now they argued and teased mercilessly. They never had a normal, simple conversation anymore. Why?

Merida hung her head in her hands as she sat upon her throne, alone. So many questions. No answers. So many problems. No solutions. Nothing was how it used to be.

Pitch, Compass, the wisps, West Point, Jack's eyes... and Hiccup.

Merida sighed and ran a hand through her tangled curls.

"Stahp moping." She chided to herself in a whisper. "Just dew what yew stayed tah dew, and be done with it."

She gripped the armrests of her throne in nervous preparation, her heart beating fast. If this didn't work...

She closed her eyes and forced herself to relax. She breathed in, then out. In, Out. She couldn't see it, but she knew it was happening. The blue stones on her throne had begun to glow. Merida found her string. She was joyfully whisked away into the future.

Merida found herself in a rather large quarry, its yellowish-brown stone walls towering into a bright blue sky. Her first thought was thrill- it had worked! The throne had worked. She stood on one of the rock shelves, looking curiously down over the edge at the rock floor far below. If she squinted, she could just make out a cave entrance... Beside her was a large dam, where water from the Corona River pooled. Merida took a few steps toward the dam, reasoning that as long as she was here she might as well see what there was to learn from the vision. She looked around, but nothing appeared out of the ordinary or in any way significant. Suddenly the sky darkened until it became jet-black, and then the dam exploded, sending water in every direction. As Merida watched, the water slowly turned to ice-

The scene changed. Gone was the ice and water, instead Merida found herself completely surrounded by a wall of fire, with nowhere to go, nowhere to run. She held back a scream, reminding herself that none of this was real- a difficult feat when the heat was unbearable and the air was filled with smoke and ash. She looked up, and saw a lone figure falling towards her and a large black shape quickly following. Merida held her arms up to shield her face-

The heat vanished. Merida dropped her arms and gazed at her new surroundings. She recognized the large comfortable room she stood in to be one of the main rooms of the Burgess palace, which she visited a few times a year. What she did not recognize was the gigantic globe that took precedence in the center of the room, spinning very slowly, with little golden lights glittering upon it. As she watched, streams and ribbons of black sand appeared from nowhere and began to cover the globe, inch by inch, until all that could be seen was a dark glittering ball. Another explosion, and the sand disruptively flew off the blue sphere through the air. Merida started to raise her arms to shield herself from a sand-attack, but then everything suddenly stopped moving. The globe, the sand, everything. Frozen. She straightened, looking around curiously.

"He's tipped the balance," a voice spoke from right beside her. She jumped to see Jack, with his electrifying blue eyes and snowy white hair, standing very close to her. Had he been there the whole time? "Everything's about to change," he warned her, an expression of dread on his face. Merida recovered from her shock as best she could, forcing herself to speak.

"Why do Ah keep seein your eyes?" she asked Jack, who of course wasn't really Jack, but an image in her head. "And what about Compass? What's wrong with it?" she asked, just desperate to know.

Jack turned and walked away without a second glance at her, a strange curved stick swung over his shoulders, his head down.

"No- doan go!" Merida cried, trying to run after him, but she found it impossible to move away from the spot she stood, as if she too were frozen with the globe and sand. "Ah need answers!" she cried one last time, before everything exploded in her face.

Everything.

Like fireworks behind her closed eyelids, everything erupted into strange colors and lights. Merida was whisked away from her visions of the future, landing one more in the present.

Merida's eyes snapped open, and she found herself shaking on the hard, cold stone floor of Council.

She scrambled to her feet, shivering... but not from the cold. She gazed around her- no one was around. She was still alone. She hastily sped to the top of the dais and sat in her throne, closing her eyes once more and desperately trying to push her way back into her visions.

But like at Compass, the scenes had gone black.

"No- No!" Merida cried out in panic, her blue eyes flying open. Both hands ran through her hair, pulling at it slightly where they got caught in the knots.

"No no no no..."

...

"-and night after night she would wake us up! It was ages before we all figured out that the dreams she was having were visions of the future."

Merida could hear Rapunzel talking before she even walked into the common room at Corinthia. She shut out the memories of her visions at Council and confidently strode into the room.

"Wha's this now?" she asked as she walked in, hanging her cloak on a peg on a wall before joining the trio at the couches.

"Well..." Rapunzel answered as the redhead made her way over, biting her lip and looking at Jack, whose shock-white hair Merida was still trying to get used to. The boy in question sat on the couch running his hand through his hair every five seconds- whether because he for, some reason, had to keep checking if it was still there or because he was feeling very agitated, Merida couldn't tell. When he didn't say anything, Rapunzel continued. "He um... well, we don't know what his powers are," she explained awkwardly.

Merida stared at the blonde girl, surprised. "Ya mean the ice and snow wasn't enough of a give away?"

"No, that's just it!" Rapunzel amended. "We have a feeling that they're something to do with ice and snow... but he..."

"I can't make anything... you know," Jack cut in, raising his fists and then spreading his fingers wide, as if performing a magic trick, "abracadabra, magic snow, or whatever."

Merida had to hold back a laugh from his ridiculous expression and hand motion.

"Stop wavin yer hands about," she said as he continued to do just that. He was goofing off, but she could tell that behind his playful façade he was actually very nervous and frustrated. She could see it in his eyes- the eyes she'd already come to know so well...

"I told him it was nothing to worry about," Rapunzel continued, winding and unwinding her hair around her finger, clearly worried herself. "I mean, it took each of us a couple of days to figure out how to use our powers as well, and even longer to understand the full extent of them."

Merida looked to Hiccup. He raised his eyebrows a fraction of a centimeter.

"Except, we don't have a couple of days," Hiccup said in her mind what she was thinking herself. The rulers would expect Jack to be ready to fight Pitch, who might attack Warren again any day now. They didn't have the luxury of sitting around playing hit-or-miss until Jack knew what he was doing. They had to start preparing themselves now, as a unit, as a team, for war.

"So, I was just telling Jack how we all figured our own powers out... I thought maybe it might help..."

Jack shrugged, leaning back on the pillows. "Figuring out my powers isn't the problem, I think. It's like, I know what I need to do, I just can't make myself actually... do it."

Hiccup stood and put his hand on Jack's shoulder. "You'll get it. But it's been a long day for all of us." He ran a hand through his windblown brown locks. "A really long day. Let's just rest, and see what tomorrow brings."

"Hiccup's right Jack," Merida agreed. Her head was pounding from confusion, exhaustion, and frustration. All she wanted to do was to curl up in her bed and sleep.

"I... am?" Hiccup asked, looking at her slightly surprised. Toothless rolled his eyes from his place at the boy's side.

Merida's cheeks reddened slightly. "Well, yew know... long day... tired... and uh, Guardian of Knowledge, duh..." she stumbled, standing up and turning away, desperately confused.

"Yeah, um...ok," Hiccup responded, suddenly just as flustered as the redhead. He turned away, mumbling something about "...never says I'm right..." and the four awkwardly said their goodnights. Rapunzel with a small smile led Jack from the room to show him to his new quarters, leaving Merida and Hiccup to uneasily go their separate ways.

...

Early the next morning, Rapunzel and Jack were roaming the wintery streets of a Burgess town. The town was covered in a light dusting of snow, making everything shine a silvery white in the morning light. It was so early that the town hadn't quite come to life yet, other than the odd lit-up shop here and there. Rapunzel always enjoyed Burgess- it was so different from her southern home of Corona, where everything was warm and sunny. Burgess's mountain landscape was cold and wet, but enjoyable in its own way. She pulled her long purple fur-lined coat closer around her body, pulling the hood over her head for warmth. She peered over at the white-haired boy who walked beside her, so casually and at ease, as if he owned the place, which she supposed wasn't that far off from the truth. She marveled at the light fabric of his new sweatshirt and the fact that he now refused to wear shoes, wondering for the millionth time how he wasn't the slightest bit cold.

"So... do you have any siblings?" He asked her, striking up conversation as they walked. Rapunzel had agreed, by North's request, to accompany him and Jack to Burgess to make the announcement of Jack's Guardianship, to provide support and a familiar face for the people to sort of legitimize the whole thing. With the fear and uncertainty running through the land thanks to Pitch, the Guardians needed all of Warren to know without a doubt that Jack had replaced Pitch. They'd arrived at the Burgess palace a few hours early, so that Jack could visit his mother and sister. Although Rapunzel knew Jack was nervous and uncomfortable with the whole Guardian-thing, she now saw another side to him: a happier, more confident, excited side that came out whenever he thought about his little sister, Emma.

Rapunzel nodded her head. "I have an older brother," she told him "the Corona Prince, Eugene." She smiled to herself. "He hates his name. He goes by Flynn around most people. Moon knows why- I don't see anything wrong with it."

Jack laughed. "Eugene... it's certainly..." he searched for a word, "eccentric maybe? Old fashioned? I'd go by Flynn too if it were me."

Rapunzel smiled and rolled his eyes. "Well, I don't understand it." She bumped his shoulder. "I suspect that you're a lot alike," she added.

"In what way?" Jack grinned, curious.

"Well, for one thing, I sense that you have a habit of sarcastic, witty commentary. And a proud ego."

Jack laughed. "I can't wait to meet this Prince of Corona."

"But there's also differences," Rapunzel continued.

"Well, obviously," Jack told her. "It'd be impossible for anyone to be as perfect as me."

"Oh, I see the conceit is the same!" Rapunzel exclaimed jokingly.

"Naturally," Jack winked, very much enjoying talking with the golden-haired girl. She'd braided up her extremely long hair into complicated interwoven braids, shortening its overall length tremendously. He couldn't imagine how long it must have taken, or the weight she literally had to carry over her shoulder.

Even so, just spending time with her in his small hometown, with no one else around, he felt normal again, like nothing had changed. He was a normal kid walking home from school to Emma who would be waiting for him at the door, and perhaps the girl beside him was the girl he'd brought 'round for dinner...

Jack stopped his thoughts. It was daybreak, not dinnertime. Rapunzel was not his girlfriend. And he was certainly not normal.

"What about Hiccup and Merida?" Jack asked, eager to change his thoughts.

"Well, Merida has three younger triplet brothers who are nothing but trouble. They never leave a room without pulling at least one prank." Rapunzel explained.

"Ah, perfect! I was wondering where I might find some minions to assist me in all my schemes!" Jack told her with a smirk. She rolled her eyes.

"Don't provoke them. Eleanor is desperate to turn them into proper gentlemen. With Merida, who should have been DunBroch's heir, in the throne of a Guardian, they are the kingdom's future if they expect to keep the ruling line in their family."

Jack nodded in understanding. He wasn't a fan of having responsibility, but he undoubtedly understood its importance.

"Hiccup is an only child," Rapunzel continued. "He grew up sort of a loner for awhile, being the chief's son, and all."

The exact life I didn't want, Jack thought.

"Then he met Toothless by accident, gained his trust, and trained the dragons in Berk. Some of the other kids of Berk's noble families he grew up around began to respect and warm up to him. A year later, he was chosen as a Guardian." Rapunzel grinned, apparently lost in memories. "They're all still good friends. We have fun when we're with them... they're a little... different... but good company all the same." She nodded in Jack's direction as the two turned a corner onto a new street. "We'll have to introduce you."

Jack thought for a moment. "If Hiccup's an only child, who will take over as chief from his father? Was there no one else in the pool of names for his Guardianship?"

Rapunzel shrugged. "Hiccup has an uncle, he goes by Gobber."

"Berk people have the strangest names."

She nodded. "Hiccup was the better choice for the Guardianship, by far. It was a relief when he was chosen. But as far as succession goes, his father is healthy and should rule for a while. If Hiccup ever decided to marry, his children would carry on the chiefdom, without the interference of the Guardians."

"So the same is true for Merida's family then, right?" Jack asked, raising his eyebrows. "Then I can have some fun with her brothers-"

"Jack, don't you be making plans to corrupt those boys any further!" Rapunzel teased. "And no, the boys are next in line, even if she were to marry." she confirmed.

They walked a little further in silence.

"Do Guardians typically marry?" he asked, genuinely curious. "The job seems... time consuming," he admitted, feeling bad about saying it.

Rapunzel sighed. "The war makes it seem so. But in times of peace... its rather easy, to be honest. We're symbols Jack, more than anything else. 'Pillars of peace' and all that. As for marrying..." she thought for a moment. "I suppose it's no different from other people. Although, Guardians, in the past, do tend to marry within the noble families of their home kingdom. Hiccup had a girlfriend for awhile, from the Hofferson family- they're quite rich and powerful- and they were so happy until-" but Rapunzel clamped her mouth shut, as if just realizing what she was saying.

"Until?" Jack prompted.

"Nothing," Rapunzel said quickly, not meeting his eyes. "It's not for me to- just forget I mentioned it."

Jack let it go, despite his growing curiosity. Besides, they'd just rounded the corner to...

...the lake. Nestled in a half-grotto of trees, with a rock wall on one end. Where he'd almost died.

Rapunzel gave the lake a hard look, almost as if she was angry at it for some reason. Then her expression softened, and she just looked tired.

Jack glanced at her, then shoved his hands into his sweatshirt pocket. He stepped onto the glassy ice and began to take ginger steps towards the center.

"Jack wait-"

"It's ok, I got this," he assured her. And sure enough, as he walked, he saw little fern-like swirls of frost swirl beneath his bare feet and spread in all directions across the ice. He grinned and looked over his shoulder at Rapunzel, who was staring at the ice in awe.

Jack spread his hands wide and focused on... something. He tried to make the frost come from his hands the way it spread from his toes.

Nothing happened.

How am I supposed to figure out how to use my powers? He thought to himself.

Just keep walking, A voice seemed to say in his head. And so he walked, making his way, still cautious- he really wasn't in the mood for another episode of almost-drowning. But he suddenly felt... different, was all he could think of.

Something caught his eye. A patch of the ice was slightly lumpy, as if it had cracked and then re-frozen together.

Where I fell. He thought to himself, reaching down and feeling the ice curiously with his fingers. It felt slippery and wet with perhaps the slightest chill, but not uncomfortably cold like it had once long ago.

He liked it.

Then he noticed what still lay untouched by the patch of bumpy ice. A large fallen tree branch, thick and curved like a hook on one end. If he were to pick it up, Jack knew it would be about as tall as he was, perhaps a little taller.

'Jack, I'm scared!'

'It's gonna be ok.'

Jack suddenly knew what he had to do. He stepped over the uneven patch of ice and slowly reached down to grasp the wooden stick. The moment his fingers touched it, frost sprouted from his fingers to wrap around the stick in elegant designs. It held the faintest blue glow. Surprised, he almost dropped it. Instead, it only slipped from his fingers, the end of it clattering against the icy lake. He held a hand up to shield his face as a burst of ice, snow, and faint blue light shot out from the end of it, and more fern frost designs began to spread across the lake's surface.

Jack grinned. "No way," he muttered to himself, holding the stick up close to his face. Experimentally, he raced (or rather, slipped and slided) over to where two trees grew out from the ice. He tapped the one to his left with the tip of the stick's curve, and immediately frost sprang from the wood to cover the tree trunk. He touched the frost with his fingers as it spread, admiring the magic. He turned to his right and prodded the other tree, to the same effect. He laughed. This was it! He began running around the ice, sliding in all directions, trailing the curved stick behind him and whooping with joy as ice and frost danced around him. The faster he went, the less he slid, and more natural the whole thing became. He tumbled to a stop beside Rapunzel, who was laughing with him.

"I see you found a staff, Mr. King of Winter," she exclaimed, staring at his new toy with excitement.

Jack panted where he stood, a goofy but proud grin still plastered to his face, and tested the weight of the stick in his hands. "Yeah... I suppose it will do, what do you think?"

"I think it's wonderful," she smiled happily.

"Wait 'till I show my sister!" Jack said, enthused, pure uncontained child-like joy shining through his crystal blue eyes.

"C'mon," Rapunzel said, hooking her arm around his and having to drag the boy away from the icy lake, where several layers of fresh ice and snow now gleamed. "Let's find her. We don't have much time."

So I know that's a lot for one chapter. Any thoughts so far? Are you guys recognizing movie references and scenes? There's only been a couple so far, but there are much more to come...

Also, what do you guys think about Hiccup and the "Hofferson girl"?

Until next time...