Chapter Text
Despite the warnings they received, the night spent in the ramshackle hut by the shore went by painlessly – even comfortably, as their standards had dropped quite a bit after living under the open sky for so long. Alva provided them with bearskins and woolen blankets, water and firewood to light the hearth. Though the hut was old and dusty and didn’t do much to keep the cold out, Jack fell asleep hard and stayed asleep until morning.
At least he wanted to stay asleep until morning. Before the sun rose, Jack was roused awake by someone lightly shaking his shoulder. Despite the gentleness, it made him frown and attempt to swat the hand away, turning pointedly away on his bearskin. “No,” he grumbled, decisively.
A chuckle he recognized as Hiccup’s sounded softly in the dark room. “We need to get going,” he said in a whisper, “before the village wakes up.”
Jack cracked one eye open, trying to remember where he was. Slowly, he rolled onto his back again and peered up at Hiccup, crouched over him. “Can’t we wait a bit?” he pleaded.
Behind Hiccup, Toothless was nudging Jamie awake, but he was as dead asleep as Jack had been moments before. He’d be covered in dragon drool if he didn’t wake up soon.
“I’m afraid they’ll ask too many questions if they see us heading towards that island,” Hiccup said. Jack had to applaud his persistence; his eyes bore heavy bags and his face was pale with drowsiness. He had a warm but amused smile on his face, so Jack guessed there had to be something weird going on with his bedhead. “If we go now, maybe we can get back here before anyone knows we’re gone.”
Jack pursed his lips, head racing for an argument that would allow him a few more hours of sleep. “Sounds…smart, probably,” he mumbled grudgingly.
By the opposite wall, Jamie awoke with a groggy, “Ew, Toothless!” and thus Jack had to admit defeat. He sighed and pushed himself up, dragging his hands over his face. Hiccup offered him some of the bread and water Alva had left for them the evening before.
“How do you get this off?” Jamie asked in a yawn as he came over to the two of them, trailed by both Toothless and Baby Tooth. Hiccup sent him a pained smile and Jamie just sighed. “Got it,” he said and took a piece of bread.
They ate in silence for a few minutes until Jack caught Hiccup staring vacantly into the air, his brows knit tightly together while he chewed. There was a distinct line going vertically between his eyebrows, one which made him look a lot like his father. It wasn’t a bad thing, but it definitely would give him a headache if he kept it up.
Jack reached out and poked him between the eyebrows. Hiccup jerked back, giving a bewildered look.
"Why’d you do that for?” he demanded.
Jack snickered. “You think too loudly. It’s too early for that.”
Hiccup huffed but didn’t argue. He turned his piece of bread over in his hand, brows quickly going back to their previous furrowed state. “I was just thinking how strange it is that these people are just…stuck here,” he said. “It doesn’t make sense.”
“There’s something eerie about it,” Jack agreed. “We walked from one island to the other. At least they should’ve been able to find that, right?”
Hiccup nodded. “Maybe this place is nearby the edge of the world,” he mused, and didn’t sound entirely unserious. “And that island – the Island of the Wraiths – is some kind of gate into…Niflheim or something.”
Jack studied him for a few seconds. “You sound like you’ve given this a lot of thought,” he said.
“Maybe I have,” Hiccup admitted with an uneasy smile. “Something about this place just creeps me out.”
On that note, they finished their breakfast.
The village was still dark and silent when they tiptoed out of their hut and down to the beach. They climbed onto Toothless and took off towards the island, which was still shrouded in that thick, unnatural fog. Even Jack thought he could feel an aura coming from that faint silhouette, but that was probably just because it looked spooky, even from far away.
They were about halfway across when Toothless suddenly jerked sideways, giving a pained yowl. They plummeted for a moment, Toothless writhing hysterically before he took a U-turn and shot back the way they’d come.
“Toothless! What’s wrong?” Hiccup asked, reaching past Jamie to put a hand on the side of the dragon’s head. Toothless made a grumbling noise that turned into a whine, his whole body twitching as if tiny bolts were going through him.
They landed back on the beach and Hiccup tried his best to calm Toothless down.
“What Alva said about dragons not coming to this island,” Jamie said, wringing his hands. “Maybe whatever just happened has something to do with it.”
Baby Tooth chirped nervously.
“He needs to stay behind,” Jack said, translating for Baby Tooth. “Jamie is right. The magic on the island must be repelling dragons for some reason.”
Toothless whined again, looking up at Hiccup with wide, green eyes. Hiccup stroked his head and nodded.
“It’s okay, bud,” he murmured, before looking back at the others. His face was ashen, this time from fear rather than drowsiness. “Whatever’s strong enough to repel dragons can’t be good. I don’t know if this is a good idea.”
Jack didn’t think it was a good idea either. He walked over to them and trailed a hand over Toothless’ scales, like a silent apology. Hiccup already seemed thoroughly spooked by that island. Alva had warned them not to go there. Toothless was in physical pain just being near it. It was indefinitely more tempting to step away from this particular piece of magic and crawl back under the blankets.
But he kept seeing Jamie’s tearstained face where he sat by his mom’s bedside. Joyce had been separated from her son too long already; they couldn’t afford being picky.
“If you don’t want to go, I won’t force you,” Jack told Hiccup.
Hiccup looked back at him with a slightly desperate gleam in his eyes. Then he sighed. “You’re not going alone,” he said.
“You’re going?”
Jack pointed his staff at the sudden new voice but then lowered it when he saw it was just Alva, spying on them from the beachgrass much like the day before. She was standing in plain sight now, her hair tousled as if she’d just rolled out of bed. She didn’t look accusing, exactly. More like disappointed. Which was, Jack thought, worse.
“Not exactly,” Jack replied vaguely.
“Alva,” Hiccup said in a relieved voice, his hand on his heart. “Were you spying on us?”
“Maybe,” Alva said. She walked down to the beach towards them. “You know, we won’t stop you from leaving. It’s not like you’re prisoners here.” She folded her arms and looked away for a moment. “Would be nice with a farewell, though.”
“We weren’t leaving,” Hiccup said. “We were just going to check out that island.”
Alva raised her brows. “The Island of the Wraiths?” she asked, and Jack, Hiccup and Jamie nodded. “The one I told you about yesterday?” They nodded again. “The one with the, as the name suggests, wraiths, and from which four people never returned and drove one chief to madness?”
“That would be the one,” Hiccup mumbled.
Alva stared at them. “Who are you guys?”
Hiccup met Jack’s eyes, but Jack didn’t know how to answer that question either. “Look,” Hiccup said in a hushed voice and walked up to Alva. “We’re, uh…sort of on a quest. We’re looking for something—”
“A treasure hunt?” Alva inquired, falling into a whisper as well.
“Um…maybe?”
“You don’t know what you’re looking for?”
“It’s a long story,” Hiccup said. “What you said about the island seems…Well, it seems awful, but it’s unfortunately also exactly the kind of stuff we’re looking for.”
Alva squinted confusedly. “What stuff is that?”
Hiccup hesitated and glanced at Jack again. Jack smiled helplessly and shrugged.
“Magic?” Hiccup offered reluctantly.
Alva laughed. Then her face fell. “You’re serious?”
“Surprisingly, yes.” Hiccup tried for a smile. “So, with no further ado, I want to ask you not to tell the whole village about this, and if you have a boat we can borrow?”
Alva stared at Hiccup some more, then at Jack and Jamie, and then back at Hiccup again. She contemplated her answer for a long time. “…Are you already crazy? Did you come from that island? Is that why you were acting so weird?”
“It doesn’t matter if you believe us or not,” Jack said and smiled. “Maybe we are crazy. Can you help us with our crazy quest anyway, though?”
“Please?” Jamie added for good measure.
Alva exhaled shakily. “This morning turned out a lot weirder than I thought it would,” she murmured. “If you are crazy, shouldn’t I take that into account and maybe not let you go to the haunted island?”
Jack shrugged. “That’s our problem, isn’t it?”
“Oh, another thing,” Hiccup said. “Could you watch Toothless while we’re gone? He doesn’t want to go over there.”
Alva’s eyes lit up. Then she frowned. “First of all, yes, but also, if the dragon – ah, Toothless – doesn’t want to go, maybe that’s a sign that you shouldn’t either?”
It was Hiccup’s time to shrug. “Probably.”
Alva shook her head slowly. “Okay,” she said. “If I can’t change your mind. I’ll just wait in the hut meanwhile. You can take one of those boats but try not to die before returning it.” She paused. “And also, don’t die, in general.”
“Don’t worry. We haven’t died at all up until this point,” Hiccup said.
Jamie boarded the dingy rowboat after Hiccup. Jack came last, quickly sitting down when the boat rocked under his weight. He clutched the sides, a tight expression on his face.
“Sure this thing will keep us afloat?” he asked.
“It’s not sinking yet,” Hiccup said, in what was possibly an attempt at sounding optimistic. He must be the type to perceive a boat partly filled with water as half-empty instead of half-full. He caught Jack’s expression and smiled. “It won’t sink. Trust me, us Vikings know our boats.”
Hiccup sat in front of Jack and Jamie, facing them with his back to the Island of the Wraiths’ distant silhouette. He let the oars slide into the water and began rowing them out to sea with slow strokes. Jamie looked back as they drifted away from the docks. He then tried glancing stealthily at Jack, whose eyes were darting around as if searching for holes.
“What do you think we’ll find over there?” Jamie asked, hoping to get Jack’s mind off his aquaphobia. It worked, Jack’s eyes coming up from the wooden boards to meet Jamie’s, but served only to shift his focus from one worry to another.
“Well…” Jack started, his voice light as if he was searching for a way to make the Island of the Wraiths sound like a promising holiday destination. He was quiet for too long. The corners of Hiccup’s mouth quirked upwards in amused exasperation. “Wraiths, possibly,” Jack concluded.
Baby Tooth moved a little closer to Jamie’s neck. Hiccup’s smile stiffened and he glanced over his shoulder at the impending silhouette.
“Do you have any experience with ghosts?” he asked.
Jack hesitated. “Good question,” he said. “I wouldn’t say so, personally.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Hiccup asked with a nervous laugh. “Do you have any bad experiences you feel would be relevant to share?”
“Nah. Ghosts – if the one I’m thinking of really was a ghost – are just people that happen to be invisible. I wouldn’t say he was a ghost, though. It sounds too depressing. Anyway.” Jack waved his hand, as if attempting to blow the thought away. “I think the real question would be if you have any experiences with them. Everything here is tied to your people’s beliefs after all.”
Hiccup’s expression tightened a little more. “From the stories?” he asked, even though they all knew that the answer to that was yes. He hummed. “Some say they’re friendly. Most people don’t. They…rise from the grave to torment the living and, from what I’ve been told – I’ve never seen any draugr myself, thank Thor – they look like rotten corpses. Moving rotten corpses.”
Jamie felt his jaw drop. “Zombies?” he whispered.
“What?” Hiccup said.
“That doesn’t sound like the ghost stories I grew up with,” Jack mumbled, sending the island a look that was a tad more apprehensive than before. They’d come a lot closer to it, closer than Jamie expected it to be when he looked up, as if talking about the wraiths had summoned it. “Do you have Inferno, Hiccup?”
Hiccup brought up the blade and tried lighting it. It sputtered tiredly. Jamie knew how it felt.
“Needs more saliva,” Hiccup mumbled and put the sword away again. “At least it sort of works as a normal blade? A blunt one, but still.”
There was a doubtful pause.
“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Hiccup said. “Things always turn out fine somehow. Thor only knows how.”
Thick fog was coiling along the coarse beach, so thick Jamie thought it must be artificial. Or magical, more likely. The sand quickly turned into forest – a forest so densely shrouded in fog that they couldn’t see five meters into it. Hiccup shifted restlessly from foot to prosthetic and back, watching the trees.
“This is it,” he said. “Whatever I felt coming from the tunnel…it was this island.”
“You felt it all the way from the other island?” Jamie whispered. He took a step closer to Jack and wished Toothless was with them; it was always easier to be brave when he had a big, scary dragon at his side. “What does that say about whatever’s in there?”
Jack patted his back. “Maybe we’ll find out,” he said. “Let’s go.”
They walked with reluctant steps up the beach. Jamie looked over his shoulder as they stepped into the boundary of the forest, as if he needed to take one last look at the outside world in case they’d never see it again. In the distance, Alva’s island was nearly invisible. Above it, dark rainclouds brewed, black against the lingering night sky. They seemed to be coming in their direction.
Jamie looked ahead into the shifting grayness. “This’ll be the last time we walk into a dark forest,” he said.
“Why do you sound so certain?” Jack asked.
“Because I’ve had enough of them.”
Hiccup stumbled over a root and gave a gruff sigh. “I think we can all agree on that,” he muttered.
They started to follow Hiccup but walked only a few steps before Hiccup came to a stop, looking around blankly. He shifted uneasily, his hand hovering near Inferno. “This way, I think,” he said, taking a turn around a large oak with serpentine roots coiling into the earth. Jamie didn’t like how uncertain he sounded, but it wasn’t like they had a better strategy for navigating this place.
Baby Tooth started out flying around, exploring the place, but as they walked deeper into the woods, she flew closer and closer to Jamie until she finally settled down on his shoulder and huddled close to his neck. She was completely quiet, but Jamie could feel her moving, her head turning from side to side in twitching motions.
“Is something wrong, Baby Tooth?” he whispered, because he didn’t want to frighten Jack and Hiccup.
Baby Tooth replied in a quiet voice, and though Jamie couldn’t understand her completely, the unease was enough to make Jamie look around watchfully as well. Though she had reacted to magic before, it had never been like this.
“There is something about this place,” Hiccup murmured. “It feels different from the other times. Stronger, but also…” He trailed off, and Jamie’s heart leapt up in his throat. But then Hiccup just pointed ahead. “Do you guys also see that?”
Jamie held his breath and followed his gaze. He didn’t understand what he was referring to at first, but then he realized he wasn’t looking at an object; something bright was shining dimly through the thick mist, tinting it a pale golden glow.
There was a sound too. So faint, Jamie couldn’t discern it, but if everything else hadn’t felt so eerily quiet, almost frozen in time, it might’ve sounded like voices.
“Walk towards the light,” Jack mumbled. “Sounds like a wise choice.”
They walked towards the light, and the further they went, the thinner the fog became, the brighter the light shined. Jamie found himself squinting by the time it finally cleared, and he held up a hand to cover his eyes from…
“The sun?” he croaked.
The sun truly was shining down on them, through tall treetops which were impossibly green. Not just because it was winter, and these trees were not the type to keep their leaves, but because they were such a vibrant green it was almost unreal.
He looked around and saw that they’d arrived in a clearing. The clearing was covered in wildflowers, of every kind and every color; they did not seem to care at all about the fact that they were in full bloom when and where they shouldn’t be. Jamie didn’t know much about flowers, but he was pretty sure some of these plants could not possibly exist in the same biome.
There was the sound of running water, and Jamie spotted a creek winding through the trees, with stones and pebbles that glittered like gems in the golden light scattered along its path. Sunbeams shone through leaves, lighting up the pollen in the air, reflecting in the stream and bathing the whole clearing in a shifting, silvery lightshow.
It was like they’d arrived in a private pocket of summer. Not just any summer, though; it was the most mesmerizing thing Jamie had ever seen. At the same time, he had a tiny feeling that he’d seen something like it before…he just couldn’t put his finger on it.
Jack was the first to move. He walked into the clearing and looked around, mouth ajar and eyes wide with wonder. “Look at this place,” he said in disbelief. “How is this possible?”
“Magic, I’d reckon,” Hiccup said, and for once he didn’t sound dismayed by it. He looked enthralled too.
Jamie inhaled the smell of flowers. Even the air seemed somehow fresher here, or at least a different kind of fresh than the cold, salty smell of sea enveloping the rest of the Archipelago. It was soft and sweet and gentle, and the sun provided a kind of warmth that Jamie thought he hadn’t experienced at all since getting thrown back in time. Even the creaking of the trees and the trickling from the creek created a sort of tranquil melody. He hadn’t felt this calm in months…or at least since he’d sat by his mom’s bedside and, for a moment, thought that everything was as it should be.
This was as it should be. At least, he desperately hoped this was how it should be. Whenever Jack tried to convince Hiccup not all magic was bad, this was what he meant. Snow days, toy-making elves, golden dreamsand…this place.
The fog was still behind them, thick as ever, and so they walked further into the forest, trailing something that looked like a path between huge, mossy trees with bulging roots. Jack leapt over the creek. Hiccup followed, with less luck; he flailed as he started falling backwards and would’ve taken an unplanned bath if Jack hadn’t caught his arm and yanked him upright.
“Graceful as always,” Jack laughed when Hiccup caught himself on his shoulders.
Hiccup looked like he tried not to smile but lost that battle. His cheeks quickly turned a shade of pink as he regained his balance. “Thank you, I try,” he muttered.
Jack grinned, and Jamie realized just then how…well, not tired he looked. For the first time – and Jamie was a bit sad to realize that it really was the first time – there were no bags under his eyes. His cheeks were flushed, his back straight and shoulders relaxed, and his eyes seemed somehow brighter in color. For the first time, he looked like a normal eighteen-year-old boy.
It was the same with Hiccup; they both looked like new vigor had bloomed in them, just as impossibly as the flowers scattered in the grass.
Hiccup met Jamie’s eyes, and quickly took an awkward step away from Jack. “Um, need help?” he asked with a hint of nervousness.
Jamie blinked when he realized what Hiccup must have thought he’d been thinking. “Nope,” he said. He took a couple of steps back and set into a sprint, leapt over the creek and then landed on all fours. Jack laughed triumphantly and gave him a high five.
“I have to say, this forest is better than the other ones,” Jack confided, walking backwards in front of them. Despite not seeing where he was treading, he somehow dodged every root and stone that was in his path. “I mean, the standards were low, so it wouldn’t be saying much, but…” He gave a sigh as he looked around again. “This is…I’ve never seen a place like this. And I’ve been around a lot.”
“You have?” Hiccup asked. “How come you’ve been around, but you’d never seen a dragon before coming here?”
“Maybe dragons only reside in the Barbaric Archipelago,” Jack said with a shrug, though there was a playful smile on his face. “To be fair, I haven’t visited a lot of summerly places like this. It does somewhat remind me of the Warren, though.”
“Warren? As in rabbit burrows?” Hiccup frowned when Jack nodded. “Is this connected with the whole ‘rabbits being sacred’-thing?”
Jamie almost choked on his own spit. “What?” he laughed.
Jack opened his mouth as if to argue, then grimaced. It was his turn to blush. “Uh, yeah, somewhat,” he mumbled. “I mean, it’s not…They’re not—”
“I am so going to tell Bunny about this,” Jamie announced.
“Don’t you dare,” Jack said, and while he was laughing there was still a certain desperation in his voice. “He’ll never let it go. And when I mean never, I mean forever—” That was when he did stumble over a root, and fell on his butt.
Once Hiccup and Jamie had stopped cackling, Hiccup helped Jack up, because he’d just remained on the ground, glowering halfheartedly at them.
“Thank you, your Highness,” Jack said.
“I’ll push you over again if you keep calling me that,” Hiccup warned, and Jack gave a loud snort.
“You? You’d never do that. You’re too polite,” he said, tapping Hiccup’s nose for good measure.
The gesture plastered a look of bewilderment on Hiccup’s face, before it broke into a laughing grin. “I’ll have you know, Snotlout lost a tooth because of me,” he said, but quickly added: “But he asked for it! I mean, literally asked for it. With his arms out wide. It was a whole…thing.”
“Between us three, someone ought to have done that without waiting for his permission,” Jack muttered. He sent Jamie a look. “I don’t condone violence, by the way. You didn’t hear that from me.”
Jamie had seen Jack been less than pacifistic before, but he nodded sagely.
“Anyway,” Jack said as they started walking again. He smiled elfishly at Hiccup. “Snotlout strikes me as a guy who’s given as many punches as he has received. You, however, your Highness, will surely make a benevolent chief. Actually, your Highness, I seem to remember beating you in a sparring match. If you truly had the heart – nay, the guts to push someone over, your Highness, I’m sure you would have grabbed the chance then, and yet—” Jack jumped out of the way at Hiccup’s inevitable attempt at pushing him over. “Oh dear, your Highness!”
“Stand and fight!” Hiccup shouted dramatically, with a playfulness unlike anything Jamie had ever seen in him before. He chased after Jack when Jack leapt behind one of the trees, and Jamie watched the scene in mild bewilderment. They were just like kids.
“Ordering me around!” Jack yelled in mock indignation. He ran up to a tree and hoisted himself onto a branch with impressive dexterity. “Who do you think you are? A prince? Oh, that’s better, actually.”
Hiccup came to a stop under the branch, his head falling back with exasperation. “You are so annoying,” he said.
Jack grinned, leaning forward. “Part of the charm, my prince,” he said.
Jamie wrinkled his nose. It felt like he was watching something private.
Hiccup opened his mouth to answer, but before he could, his attention was grabbed. Jamie didn’t know by what, but Hiccup’s gaze snapped away from Jack, staring into the trees, suddenly alert.
“What is it?” Jack asked, jumping off the branch.
“I just thought I saw something,” Hiccup said absently, still looking around. “I thought I saw…” He trailed off, his expression going slack.
This time when Jamie followed his gaze, he did see it: movement in the trees, so miniscule he hadn’t noticed it until it was right in front of them – and, he realized, all around them. Along branches, hidden in leaves and flowerbeds, crouching on stones, were dozens of small, winged creatures. Jamie quickly moved over to Jack. Jack put a hand on Jamie’s shoulder, but with a relaxed grip. Jamie looked up to see him wearing an incredulous smile.
“Fairies,” he whispered.
They were beautiful little things, about the size of a grownup’s hand. Unlike Baby Tooth, these fairies were mostly humanoid, aside from their translucent, veined wings – all in different colors from one another – lavender skin and deep black eyes. They peeked curiously out of their hiding places, like they had never seen humans before. Jamie couldn’t help but be reminded of Alva and the others, shocked at the sight of visitors, not to mention a dragon.
There was a long moment in which nobody spoke, and nobody moved. The three of them stood close together, watching the fairies with equal amounts of wariness as the fairies were watching them. Then, slowly, one fairy rose from a branch and floated towards them. Jamie couldn’t see if it was a girl or a boy – he didn’t know if fairies even had genders. The fairy hovered in the air in front of them, looking at them silently.
“Good…Good day,” Jack said.
The fairy fixed its eyes on Jack. It opened its mouth, and out of it came a small, breathy voice, like wind rustling through leaves. Jamie blinked several times and shook his head; he heard a soft hissing in his ears, and then…a thought. But it wasn’t his own.
How did you come to our land?
It wasn’t words exactly. Somehow, Jamie just understood what the fairy was conveying, its message emerging in his mind. Judging by Jack’s and Hiccup’s expressions, the same thing was happening to them.
“We—we came by boat,” Jack replied in a stutter. Then he hastily added: “We mean no harm.”
The fairy made a small, falling sound. It sounded almost like a laugh.
We know, it said. Any creature with ill intentions would not be able to step foot in our forest and remain whole.
Jamie shivered. Remain whole…Was that what happened to Alva’s grandfather? He gasped when the fairy turned its eyes to him again and he suddenly knew with certainty that that had exactly been the case.
We protect our own, the fairy said. Humans will try to steal our treasures, slaughter our kin, pollute our homes. We do not let them. We can sense you did not come here by chance. You want something. Reveal your motives.
“We’re looking for magic,” Jack replied.
The fairy tilted its head to the side inquisitively.
Why?
Jack was beginning to look nervous. His eyes flickered to Hiccup for a moment, but he was too busy looking around at the other fairies, who were all slowly coming closer. “Because it’s the only way Jamie and I can go home,” he replied. “Magic was what got us here. Magic is the only way we’ll ever find our way back.” His mouth was a thin line when he looked at the fairy. “We’re asking for your help. All we need is a bit of your magic, and we’ll leave.”
The fairy blinked slowly. There was a long pause before it nodded.
You speak the truth, it said. Come with us.
The fairy started floating away from them, followed by all the others. They flew past them, sending them long, wary, curious, expectant looks. Jamie met Jack’s eyes. Jack shrugged. They followed.
It was only when they’d walked for a few minutes and they could no longer hear the sound of the creek that Jack put a hand on Jamie’s shoulder. “I just remembered,” he said under his breath, “that the last time I knowingly followed a magical creature into the forest, it was the Snow Queen and—well, we all know how that turned out.”
It was as if a ripple went through the swarm of fairies, a soft hiss sounding through them as they all turned their heads.
The Snow Queen, was the thought that resounded in Jamie’s head, filled with seething contempt, along with a piercing fear.
“No, no, no!” Jack quickly said, waving his hands. “We’re not with her! She—she’s the one who gave me this.” He pointed at the brand on his face. “We hate her just as much as you, um, evidently do.”
The fairy they’d first spoken to – who seemed to be a kind of leader…or maybe, the adventure book-part of Jamie’s brain whispered, a king – peered at them before it nodded. The fairies continued to fly deeper into the forest, while the first fairy slowed down to come closer. It kept staring at Jack.
You have her scent.
Jack blinked. “What—what do you mean?”
Cold, like deepest winter. It is inside you.
There was silence. Jack stared at the fairy, his mouth ajar. Hiccup’s eyes were on Jack, but where Jamie was afraid he’d see suspicion, or worse, fear, there was only concern. He touched Jack’s shoulder and Jack’s expression unfroze.
“Y-yeah, that’s…” he started, then cleared his throat. “That might be. Because of her magic.”
“Is there a way to fix it?” Jamie asked. “To take away the mark?”
The fairy turned to him. For a moment, the corners of its mouth seemed to turn upwards.
We shall see, was what it said in reply, before flying ahead again.
Jamie tried to meet Jack’s eyes, but he looked straight ahead, only shaking his head a little like he was chasing off a thought.
They continued through the forest. Jack’s previous worries seemed less pressing now that they knew the fairies despised the Snow Queen as much as they did, because enemies of hers had to be friends of theirs, right? And once Jamie had gotten over the shock of encountering a whole city worth of fairies, he found himself reclining back into the serenity from before. He watched the fairies fly over flowers and in between trees, somehow making the landscape even more beautiful than it was before.
Fairies, he kept thinking to himself. Actual real-life fairies.
It took a few times of that thought repeating in his head before he remembered he had already met fairies before, and one of them had been very quiet the past quarter or so. He turned his head but couldn’t feel her against his neck. Then he found her hiding in in his vest, only barely peeking out through the fur. What was with her? Jamie imagined it was like meeting distant relatives that you didn’t really know that well and didn’t actually want to talk to. These fairies – though they were breathtaking to look at – seemed a little more stuck up than the tooth fairies.
Hiccup made a noise in the back of his throat. “Do you feel that?” he whispered.
Jamie didn’t feel whatever it was Hiccup referred to, but he could guess where the feeling was coming from when he spotted the entrance to the cave, halfway hidden behind a curtain of vines. It was a slim entrance, forcing them to walk in single file. Jack went first, followed by Jamie and then Hiccup. Jamie felt he’d had enough of dark tunnels, especially ones sloping downwards like this one, but at least he could see light from the other end.
Jack froze when he reached the exit. Jamie peeked out from behind him and felt his jaw drop.
If the forest had been beautiful, this place was ethereal. While Jamie had never really thought about Heaven and things like that, he’d heard his grandma talk about it. She’d talk about Paradise, and Jamie thought that this had to be it. Did that mean they were dead? He hoped not. But also, if they were, this wasn’t the worst place to end up.
It was a valley, surrounded by hills dotted with flowers and mountains that shimmered faintly, as if they were entirely made of precious stones. Tiny waterfalls dropped into quaint little aquamarine ponds, cascading elegantly down the glittering mountains. Huge trees sprouted from the ground, stretching towards the cloudless sky, their luscious leaves dotted with mysterious, colorful light along the branches. Mushrooms grew from mossy rocks, and even in the daylight, Jamie could see they glowed golden.
There were sculptures too. Some were made of stone, and Jamie couldn’t tell what they were trying to portray. He could vaguely make out faces, something akin to a humanoid shape. Symbols were scribbled onto them, but they weren’t Runes. They were something else…something Jamie felt he’d seen before.
Other sculptures were made out of foliage, and those looked like they’d grown right out of the ground, naturally shaping themselves as they were. Trees whose branches made them look like dancing women, complete with moss and leaves giving them clothes. Roots rose from the ground and intertwined into the shape of all kinds of animals.
The fairies were leading them deeper into the valley where, in a nook next to a little gathering of cascades, the roots had intertwined so thickly and neatly, it made a small table. On the table was a wide assortment of fruits and berries. Jamie couldn’t remember ever seeing anything so tempting; his stomach grumbled desperately.
“What is this place?” Hiccup murmured, and Jamie almost flinched at his voice. He’d been so enraptured by the still serenity of the fairy paradise, he’d almost forgotten about Hiccup and Jack’s presence. He’d even almost forgotten about his own presence; it felt like walking through a dream, the kind where he only observed but wasn’t actually there. Hiccup was as starry-eyed as the rest of them as he looked around.
“I don’t know,” Jack whispered back. He met Hiccup’s eyes and grinned. “How about that, huh? I told you not all magic is bad.”
Hiccup didn’t even look a little peeved by Jack’s self-satisfaction. In fact, he only looked endeared by it, his eyes squinting like they sometimes did when Toothless did something particularly amusing or adorable. “I guess I’m starting to believe it,” he said.
Jack’s smile only widened, and he let out a soft laugh. “I knew you’d get there eventually,” he said, bumping into him.
Jamie couldn’t remember seeing either of them this happy in a long, long time.
There was that sound again, the one that almost sounded like a laugh. Jamie turned around to see three fairies fly up to him, circling him. He smiled uncertainly, and felt his chest loosen up with relief when the fairies smiled back. They flurried around him, and there was a burst of green light above him. Something soft landed on his head. He took it off only to quickly put it back so as to not offend the fairies – it was a dandelion flower crown.
He smiled, a bit embarrassed but flattered even so. “Thank you,” he said.
The fairies giggled again. One of them was carrying a huge strawberry, without any difficulty despite its size. It offered the strawberry to Jamie, and Jamie held out his hand, letting the fairy place it in his palm. Then they giggled and flew away. Jamie looked after them, sad to see them leave. He took a bite of the strawberry.
“Jamie?” Jack said, and Jamie turned to see them almost at the table. When he spotted Jamie, he got a fond smile on his face. Jamie ran to catch up with them, stuffing the rest of the strawberry in his mouth.
“The fairies made it for me,” he told him proudly.
“It’s beautiful,” Jack said, and though there was a hint of the usual impishness in his voice, he sounded genuine. Once again, Jamie noticed how lively Jack looked, like all his 300 years had been taken off him. Was it the fairies’ doing, making both him and Hiccup walk with a bounce in their step and a laugh always right behind their awestruck smiles? Did Jamie look the same? He certainly felt the same. He wished it could be like this forever.
You can sit, if you want to.
It was the fairy from before. They’d arrived at the table and Jamie momentarily forgot how to move now that he saw all the food up close. Then he remembered his manners, elbowed Jack to set him into motion as well, and sat down. The table was close to the ground, so they just sat in the soft grass, Jack beside Jamie and then Hiccup on Jack’s other side.
“What’s all this for?” Jack asked. “I mean, we’re—we’re grateful, it’s not that,” he added quickly, because it seemed like mysterious, otherworldly fairies made even Jack nice and polite.
Guests are a rarity here, the fairy explained, its voice fading in and out of Jamie’s consciousness. Guests without ill intentions even rarer. We want to show our gratitude. Please, eat.
Jamie looked at the fruit hungrily. He didn’t want to be the first to help himself, so he waited until Jack started to reach out and then followed his lead. But before he got to grab the wooden bowl brimming with plump strawberries, there came a sharp noise from his vest.
Baby Tooth darted up to Jack’s face, all but shrieking at him with even more ferocity than when she’d thought he and Hiccup had kissed.
“They’ve made this table for us,” Jack protested. “What’s the matter with you?”
Hiccup blinked several times, staring at Baby Tooth as if she were a ghost. “She’s right,” he muttered under his breath. And then, louder, more urgently. “She’s right. We can’t eat this.”
Jamie felt a rush of heat in his cheeks. “Hiccup,” he hissed, channeling the voice his mother used when she was scolding him and Sophie. “That’s rude!”
Jack looked a bit annoyed as well. “Why not?” he asked with an edge to his tone.
“The—the stories,” Hiccup said. “You told me to trust the stories. And the stories say…Well, they say…”
He trailed off as he looked around, noticing the stillness that had settled among the fairies. It reminded Jamie of when cicadas suddenly went silent, sensing an oncoming threat.
“They warn against eating their food,” Hiccup finished in a small voice.
“Their food is harmless!” Jamie protested, standing up on his knees. He waved his hands apologetically at the fairies, who were now all staring at them without saying a word. No, they weren’t staring at them – they were staring at Baby Tooth. He felt this situation needed to be defused, and quickly at that. “I ate a strawberry earlier, and I’m fine.”
Yes, the fairy’s voice echoed. You are fine.
“He’s fine,” Jack said, giving Hiccup a reassuring smile. “See? There’s nothing to worry about, not this time.”
Baby Tooth tweeted again, shaking her head. Jamie could hear whispering among the other fairies, slithering into his mind like water trickling through the cracks of a dam; how long until it burst?
What is she?
They brought her in here.
Outsider.
She will ruin it all.
They have to go!
“No!” Jamie yelped, getting to his feet. He looked between Baby Tooth and the fairy king. “Baby Tooth is just worried. We don’t want to leave!”
“Jamie—” Hiccup started.
“Why are you trying to make them hate us?” Jamie snapped, surprising himself with his own anger. “For once we’ve met good magical creatures in this awful Archipelago, and you’re still trying to make magic into a bad thing. Well – it’s not a bad thing! It’s a wonderful thing! Why can’t you see that?”
Hiccup blinked, clearly taken aback.
Jack’s face was strangely calm, as if he’d seen this outburst coming – or as if he agreed with Jamie. He turned to Hiccup. “He’s right,” he said simply. “They’ve been nothing but kind to us. They didn’t know Baby Tooth was here – they’re just scared, is all.”
Hiccup’s expression turned incredulous. “Jack,” he said. “Have you forgotten everything we’ve gone through? How many times do you have to be tricked before you get it?”
They have to go, the fairies whispered.
“We have to get home, Hiccup,” Jack said, looking a bit hurt by Hiccup’s words. “We need their help.”
“I know you do,” Hiccup said, and took Jack’s hand. “But something is not right here. I can feel it.”
Jack stared back at Hiccup, his face hesitant.
“Stop it,” Jamie said in a weak voice. Then, louder: “Stop it! I want to stay here! And you—Why are you—You’ve been so happy all this time!”
Jack looked up at Jamie again, and this time he looked as surprised as Hiccup had earlier. “Jamie—” he started, but Jamie interrupted before he could attempt to calm him down. He didn’t want to calm down; he wanted them to understand.
“Ever since we got into this forest, you’ve looked so happy, Jack,” he said desperately. “And you too, Hiccup, both of you. This forest is like—It’s healing us from the inside. I haven’t felt this happy and safe in a long time, and I know you feel the same. Why can’t we just be happy here?”
Jack looked at him wordlessly for a few seconds before he fully turned to him and leveled him with an incisive look. “But we have to leave at some point anyway,” he said carefully. “Right?”
It was a strange feeling. Jamie looked back at Jack’s inquiring gaze, and for a moment, could not remember why they had come here in the first place. Then he realized he didn’t care if he remembered or not. He looked around them, at this magical fairy valley, and knew that he would never be as happy anywhere else. This place was a reward for all their hardships – though Jamie was finding it tougher and tougher to remember what those hardships were exactly – and now they could stay here together. It was perfect.
“We…We don’t have to,” Jamie said. “We can stay. Can’t we?” He turned to the fairies.
Another wave of whispering. The king held up its hand, and there was silence.
Only if you truly want to.
Jamie’s heart was beating frantically. He fell back on his knees in front of Jack. “Jack,” he said, grabbing onto his arms. “We can stay here, if we want to. You have to—to want to.”
“Jamie,” Jack said, shaking his head. “What about your family?”
“We can be family,” Jamie said, and smiled at the thought. “Us three, and Baby Tooth. We’re family already.”
A series of emotions passed over Jack’s face. Surprise, joy, confusion…hurt. He slowly shook his head. “No, Jamie. Not like this,” he said softly. He ran a light hand through Jamie’s hair then sighed and got to his feet. He faced the fairies. “Thank you,” he said. “But we only need the magic. Can you help us with that?”
“Jack…” Hiccup warned.
Something like electricity buzzed through the air, making Jamie’s hairs stand on end. Hiccup got to his feet too, taking a step closer to Jack and Jamie.
Impertinence, hissed the fairy king. Accept our gifts, vile humans.
Jamie moved towards the table, desperate to please the fairies, but Jack grabbed his wrist.
“Let go!” Jamie yelled. He couldn’t believe Jack and Hiccup’s behavior. Couldn’t they see the fairies were hurting? Couldn’t they feel what Jamie was feeling?
“Jamie, you’re not thinking straight,” Jack said.
“I’ll be here alone then!” Jamie cried, struggling to get out of Jack’s grip. “I don’t need you! I don’t need any of you!”
The fairies’ whispering became louder.
Separate them.
Let the child go.
We only need the boy.
Jamie barely registered their words, meanwhile Jack’s expression filled with horror.
“It’s a trick,” he said.
Baby Tooth shrieked angrily at the same time as Hiccup yelled, “you don’t say!”
“Jamie, stop that!” Jack ordered, and Jamie momentarily froze at his tone; Jack had never spoken to him like that before. But then he felt anger unlike anything he’d ever felt, and his struggling doubled. The fairies around them had begun to hiss, not just as whispers but almost as a den of snakes, and Jamie was equally as terrified as he was angry. Not terrified of the fairies, but terrified that they might take back their offer.
“Time to go,” Hiccup said, backing away from the table.
The fairy king shouted something in its old tongue. The fairies echoed the shriek and came swarming from every direction.
“Hold this,” Jack said, and handed Hiccup his staff. In a swift motion, like Jamie weighed nothing at all, he picked him up. Jamie shrieked in protest, squirming and kicking and swinging his fists, but Jack’s hold on him was like steel as he and Hiccup sprinted away from the table. Jamie’s flower crown fell to the ground.
From all around the valley, there was a blood-curdling sound, like faraway screams of terror. Jamie never would have thought something as beautiful as these fairies could make such a noise, but it made his mind swim and his body thrash with panic. For a moment, Jack and Hiccup ran freely. Then, as if running into a storm, the swarm of fairies hit them. He heard Jack cry out, in both frustration and pain, and Jamie felt tiny hands grip onto his clothes, attempting to yank him out of Jack’s arms. There were so many of them, there was so much noise, and Jamie had forgotten everything but the desire to make everything go back to the way it had been just a few minutes ago.
“Get off!” Hiccup yelled, and Jamie heard the sound of defiant hissing a hundred times over. The fairies darted away from Hiccup, who had brought out Inferno and was waving it around wildly. It wasn’t aflame, but the fairies coiled away from it anyway. He slashed the sword towards the fairies around Jack and Jamie. They kept running, and Jamie kept resisting.
“You go in first,” Hiccup yelled, and Jamie realized with horror that they’d arrived at the tunnel.
Jack started to follow, totally ignoring Jamie’s screams of protest, but then turned around. “Wait—Where’s Baby Tooth?”
“She’s stayed behind like we should!” Jamie growled. It was the first coherent thing he’d managed to say the past minute.
Jack face turned ashen. “No,” he whispered. He turned to Hiccup. “Take him,” he ordered, and let Jamie down only to shove him into Hiccup’s arms. Jamie used this opportunity to escape, but Hiccup caught him by the upper arms, hauling him back. The staff fell towards the ground, but Jack caught it in the air.
“Jack, don’t—” Hiccup pleaded.
“No time! I trust you, Hiccup,” Jack said, and ran back into the valley.
Hiccup cursed, but held Jamie back when he tried to follow. Again, Jamie was swooped up, and Hiccup ran into the tunnel, pursued by what had to be thousands of fairies. Jamie tried holding onto the tunnel walls as Hiccup ran, tearing the skin on his hands, but he didn’t care.
In a burst of light, they were back in the forest, which seemed somehow underwhelming now that they’d seen the fairy valley. Jamie was struck with grief. He wasn’t sure which language he was speaking in anymore – he wasn’t even sure if he was using words. But he pleaded, if not in words, then in wails and cries and sobs.
The fairies did not stop at the tunnel, and as Hiccup bolted through the forest – pushing through the thicket and stumbling over stones and roots, somehow without ever losing his grip on Jamie – Jamie could hear their hissing, see them zipping along the trees and the branches, their eyes glinting in the shadows. Hiccup noticed it too, and he came to a panting stop. He brought out Inferno.
“Don’t come any closer!” he warned. “I have this!”
The fairies recoiled again, and Jamie thought he heard a single word echoing among them, whispered in fear and disgust.
Iron!
“Iron?” Hiccup repeated. Then he held the sword out higher and grinned triumphantly. “Yes! Iron! You don’t like that, do you, you little glorified insects!”
Jamie shut himself up at that, so taken aback it was like Hiccup had insulted him personally.
The fairies stared at him for a moment, before they all hissed in unison.
Destroy it!
Cut his arm off!
Death for the boy of iron!
Hiccup took a step back, glancing down at his prosthetic. “Um,” he said.
The fairies burst into action, with newfound gusto thanks to Hiccup’s insolence. Hiccup seemed to realize Inferno would help him no longer. He turned on his heel and ran – straight into the swarm of fairies. Hiccup cried out in pain, but he kept running, and Jamie clenched his eyes shut as fairies flew into his face and tugged at him – not just at his clothes and longer, but at his hair and ears, sharp things like claws or teeth stabbing into his skin like they didn’t care if they hurt him in their mission to tear him away from Hiccup.
Hiccup kept running.
“Baby Tooth!”
Jack dodged the fairies the best he could as he bolted through the valley. He swung his staff and flailed with his arms, but for every fairy he managed to hit, three took its place. Pain stung several places, the fairies tearing into his skin and leaving shallow but seething slashes. He didn’t care; he couldn’t care.
“Baby Tooth!” he yelled again.
He could hear her, faintly; her chirping stood out among the fairies’ hissing, but she was far away. Jack followed her voice, taking a turn that led him into a narrow path between the mountains, the ground sharp and slippery. Baby Tooth’s shrieking was closer. Jack sped up, wishing he still had the power of flight. He wished he still had his powers in general, because he had a feeling he wouldn’t come out of this alive otherwise. He just had to save Baby Tooth first.
He stumbled out into an opening between the mountains: a perfectly round chamber of stone, only open to the vibrant sky above. It was sickening to see the contents of that chamber in the beautiful golden light of the valley. At least Jack now knew what had become of Alva’s grandfather’s men.
There was a stone slab in the middle of the chamber, smeared with the dark brown of old blood. Jack tried not to think about what the fairies would do to Jamie if they caught him, and instead focused on the fairies surrounding Baby Tooth over the stone slab, taking turns on attacking her. Jack let out a furious cry, leaping onto the slab. The fairies scattered and he brought Baby Tooth to his chest, protecting her with one hand while the other held desperately onto his staff.
And then it was just the matter of escaping.
The fairies hissed like a thousand snakes. They were everywhere. Jack covered his face, thrashing hopelessly to fend them off, but it was impossible. There were too many of them. He couldn’t escape. Hiccup and Jamie was out there; Jack didn’t even know if they were still alive.
The fairies’ hissing drilled into his mind, scattering his thoughts, threatening to tear him apart into tiny, shapeless particles. Jack shook his head. He needed to shut it out. He had to make them stop.
Jack stamped his staff onto the stone, and cried with all his might:
“Stop it!”
There was a whistling sound. The fairies cried out in unison. They scattered away, escaping into cracks in the mountain and back through the tunnel and up into the sky – where they were whisked away by a sudden cold wind.
And then there was complete stillness.
The chamber was empty aside from Jack and Baby Tooth, and the remains of this island’s previous visitors. Jack’s breath was ragged. He stared at his staff, feeling the wind blow ever so faintly through his hair.
Beneath his palm, Baby Tooth tweeted softly, and Jack quickly moved his hand. She rose up into the air, looking around in wonder, before her eyes settled on Jack’s.
Jack swallowed. “Come on,” he said, deciding not to think too hard about what just happened.
Their trek through the valley was painless this time, because it was completely empty. That didn’t really calm Jack down, however, because it could only mean that Hiccup and Jamie were dealing with the whole lot of them.
Baby Tooth settled on Jack’s shoulder, and Jack could feel her shivering against his neck. She was terrified, but seemed mostly unharmed, to Jack’s relief. He didn’t doubt that things would have gone a lot worse if the fairies hadn’t been chased away.
When they ran out into the forest, Jack could immediately hear the fairies’ hisses, far away. He ignored the aching in his body as he ran. At least he didn’t have to remember the way back; he could follow the sound of the fairies just fine.
“They’re still alive,” he panted, more to reassure himself than Baby Tooth. “They wouldn’t still be making that noise if they weren’t. They’re still—”
A cry somewhere between anger and pain mixed with the hissing, turning Jack’s blood to ice. Hiccup.
The way Jack sprinted through the forest with Baby Tooth’s panicked chirping in his ear reminded him of Jamie’s misadventure in the woods back on Berk, except this forest was brighter and more beautiful and infinitely more terrifying. Jack bolted up the path the fairies had led them, past the tree he’d climbed earlier and leapt over the creek. The hissing was getting closer, and then he could hear the yelps and cries of Hiccup, still fighting.
“Hiccup!” Jack yelled.
The only answer he got was another cry. Jack sped up even more, the forest flying past him in a blur. Bursting through the bushes, he spotted Hiccup just in time to see him drop to the ground, grasping his calf. The fog was coiling lazily mere meters away from them. Jamie was there too. The fairies were swarming him, pulling him back into the forest. Jack ran to him first, yelling wildly. The fairies scurried away, but this time it only seemed to be out of surprise. Jamie’s eyes widened at the sight of him.
“Jack!” he said, but didn’t get to say anything more before Jack grabbed him and pulled him towards Hiccup. Still, Jamie struggled, but Jack had no choice but to ignore him.
“Leave him alone!” Jack bellowed at the fairies.
Hiccup looked up at his voice and held out a hand. Jack lodged his staff under his arm and used his hand to pull Hiccup to his feet. Jamie protested fiercely as they staggered into the fog, along with the furious cries of the fairies. As soon as the fog enveloped them, their voices were muffled, but it wasn’t enough to shut them out completely.
Jamie went completely silent. He stopped struggling, stumbling into Jack and grasping onto his arm to steady himself. His breathing was ragged. “Jack?“ he croaked.
Jack looked down at him. His eyes were wide, confused.
“It’s okay, Jamie. We’re gonna be fine.”
Hiccup chose that time to slump forward, giving a weak moan. Jack caught him before he hit the ground.
“Hiccup,” he said, but got no response. Hiccup’s head lolled, his arms hanging limply at his sides. Jack tried shaking him awake, and when Hiccup remained still, he pressed a hand to his chest, feeling a faint heartbeat.
Behind them, the fairies’ hissing came closer.
“Jack,” Jamie whimpered. “They’re coming.”
Jack gave away his staff for the second time that day. “Hold this,” he said. He shifted his hold on Hiccup and lifted him bridal style. It was slightly concerning how little he weighed, but he didn’t have the time to think much about that before something yanked at his hair. His yelp was drowned in the crescendo of the fairies’ shrieks, their tiny forms materializing out of the fog like ghosts.
“Run, Jamie!” Jack yelled.
It seemed that once one of the fairies had found them in the fog, it alerted the rest of them of their presence, because suddenly they were everywhere again. All Jack could do was run blindly ahead, clenching his eyes shut. In his head, he heard the fairies shrieking promises of death and torture, and he wondered how he had ever found them beautiful.
Then he ran straight into a wall of icy wind and the roaring of a full-blown blizzard. Jack staggered forward, opening his eyes to see the sea raging, giant waves blocking out the distant silhouette of Alva’s island. Snow whipped into his face, the wind making his eyes water. He looked around, afraid that their boat had been dragged out to sea – but then he heard Jamie yell, and he turned to see him standing by it. It had been washed further up the beach.
Jack ran over to him and gently lay Hiccup down into it.
“Is she here?” Jamie yelled over the roar of the wind and sea.
It took a moment before Jack remembered who he was talking about, and was shocked that the Snow Queen hadn’t even crossed his mind. He put a hand to her mark and shook his head – though, he couldn’t be entirely sure, because even if the mark had been hurting, it would’ve been hard to distinguish it from the other aching parts of his body.
The fairies came bursting out of the fog, some of them coiling back as if they were in pain. Jack remembered what they’d said about the Snow Queen, and how their kingdom was a piece of summer in the middle of a cold northern archipelago. Cold had to be their weakness.
“Get into the boat, Jamie,” Jack said, and started pushing the rowing boat towards the water. Jamie did as he said, but his eyes darted between the approaching fairies and the raging sea with equal amounts of apprehension. Jack knew what he was thinking: this was not adequate weather for a rowing trip. But they had no choice. It was either the sea or the wrath of the fairies. Even Jack could see that the water was a more promising option.
He grabbed his staff, if only because he felt safer with it in his hands. Jamie crouched over Hiccup.
“Hiccup!” he gasped. “Stay awake!”
That was at least a tiny bit of good news in the middle of this disaster. Jack gritted his teeth as the boat lurched with the powerful waves. The fairies started to swarm around him, attacking him like pecking birds. Jamie leaned over Hiccup, trying to shield them both.
The water was up to Jack’s hips. It was freezing, and he was almost grateful for the fairies, because they distracted him from the memories. He swatted away the fairies the best he could and climbed into the boat, grabbing the oars, but now that they were on the water, he barely had to do anything before the storm swept them out on its own.
And all at once, the fairies retreated. They hissed after them, furious to see their prey escape, but they did not follow them into the sea. Jack could only look at them for a few more seconds before a wave almost knocked the boat over, and he had to focus on keeping it afloat. He rowed as quickly as he could out to sea. His heart raced as he saw how the water bulged all around them like a leviathan monster. Soon, he realized his rowing was doing nothing; they were at the complete mercy of the elements.
Jamie clutched the seat, sitting in the hull with Hiccup. Hiccup himself looked barely conscious, his eyelids fluttering and his mouth moving, as if he was trying to say something but was too delirious to form any coherent words.
“Jack! Look!” Jamie said, and pointed at Hiccup’s prosthetic – or rather, the point where prosthetic met leg. The skin was scratched up, possibly inflamed, and the prosthetic itself was turning a dark green, as if it was being covered by moss. Jack stared at it and realized that, whatever it was, it was spreading. He crouched, and only had a second to consider before he covered his hand with his cloak and twisted the prosthetic off. He threw it into the ocean.
“What was that?” Jamie asked, his voice almost indiscernible over the storm.
“I don’t know. But it—”
He was interrupted when a wave washed over them, partly filling the boat with water. It felt like his mind flatlined for a moment, but he shook himself into action, grabbing the oars again, like that would do any difference. He tried not to think about how they’d only barely escaped death by fairies, only to drift right back into another equally as deadly situation. Jack knew they hadn’t had any choice, but he cursed himself even so; what could he do to save them? He didn’t know how to manage a boat in a storm! He didn’t even know how to manage himself in any water-related situation.
Another wave crashed into them. The boat rocked so violently, Jack thought it was going to tip over. Seawater washed into the hull, and Jamie had to lift Hiccup’s head to keep it overwater.
They just had to get to Alva’s island. It was their only chance, for the longer they spent out here, the smaller their chances got. But when Jack looked for it, he realized he couldn’t even see Alva’s island through the blizzard. And then he looked for the fairies’ island, and he realized the sea had taken them so far out, he couldn’t see that anymore either. He couldn’t see anything; around them was just a cold, gray, merciless sea, with waves that seemed to grow as tall as mountains.
Suddenly, Jamie grabbed onto Jack’s sleeve. His mouth was open, as if he wanted to shout, but no sound came out. His wide eyes were fixed on something behind Jack, and Jack turned around to see the biggest wave yet, growing and growing and thundering towards them.
The world seemed to slow down. Jack knew that when the wave hit, it wouldn’t just tip them over – it would wreck their boat completely. It would drag them into the cold and dark depths. It would kill them.
Jack turned away from the wave and threw his arms around Jamie and Hiccup as if that would protect them. Or maybe he just did it because he knew there was nothing else he could do, and if they were all going to die here, the least he could do was bring them close one last time. He clenched his eyes shut and hoped against hope that everything would somehow, like Hiccup had said, be fine in the end.
The second it would take the wave to hit them seemed to drag into several. Jack waited, and waited, and then there was silence. Even the wind slowed and stopped. He waited, thinking of the first time he’d died. It had been cold and silent, just like this. But then he heard something else: a sort of deep crinkling noise, followed by a strange but very familiar echo, like steel cables snapping.
Jack slowly raised his head and opened his eyes.
Towering over them was the wave. It stood completely still and was, along with the rest of the sea, completely and utterly frozen.