PROLOGUE:

It was only August, but he had already received one hundred and thirty-six letters from children around the world.

Despite the defeat of the Nightmare King nearly two years ago, North Claus never fully allowed himself to relax. It was just too good to be true. More children were believing, the yetis were producing higher quality toys, and only three elves had gotten electrocuted today; the lowest number of all time.

It was suspicious in a James Bond "It's quiet, too quiet" kind of way.

"What's got your tinsel in a twist dear?" The second he heard her voice, the tension evaporated from his shoulders. Mrs. Abbigale Claus had a magic about her. She could calm him down just by existing, and he loved her more for it. "Worried about keeping up with all these new believers?"

"I'm more worried for them." he replied, standing to greet his wife. "What if he's coming back? What if he's stronger?"

"Oh my love, I know. But you must trust your Guardians. You've kicked his tail feathers before, and you will do it again. Though I still think you should just feed him some of your casserole." she chuckled.

"Hey, my cooking is wonderful."

"Even the elves would not touch it, and they eat bobbles for fun."

He sighed, pulling her into his arms, stifling her laughter and for a moment, he truly relaxed.

Then came the short knock at his door.

"Yes?" North called.

The door opened just a crack and a brightly colored tornado popped her head in, almost knocking over a snowglobe from the shelf with the long feathers sticking out from her head.

"North," Tooth said "You should see this."

In the main workshop, the normal hubbub of toy making had died into near silence. Jack Frost was standing atop of the gigantic globe where each and every believer was represented by a tiny, golden light.

He was bent over the county known as Iceland.

At first, North thought it was just because of the boys shadow that the country seemed unusually dark, but when he moved away, it remained completely black. That could only mean one thing, and it really twisted North's tinsel.

No believers.

Jack met the large Russian man's eyes and a horrible understanding passed between them. Everything he had feared was coming true.

A golden question mark popped up above Sandy, the-one-and-only Sandman's head, then it seemed to hit him, and the punctuation was replaced by a knowing look and a silhouette of the Nightmare King himself; Pitch Valenius Black.

Tooth gasped in shock.

"You sure, mate?" Bunny asked to no-one in particular.

Before anyone could answer, a silvery moonbeam shot through the skylight, at well, the speed of light, illuminating the circle of gems embedded in the floor.

A shadow passed through the spotlight, forming the image of a thin and unusually tall man cackling. Abigale took North's hand, but even she couldn't fend off the feeling like cement hardening settled in his stomach.

Tooth flitted around like a fruit fly on drugs. "He's back! Already? How'd he get out? What if he's stronger? What if he has help? What if-"

A loud whirring sound burst from the floor, drowning out Toothiana's ranting.

A hole opened in the floor and a six-foot crystal emerged, rock-star style.

"Already?" North asked in complete awe.

"What's going on?" Jack asked.

"Manny's picked a new guardian, ya gumbie." Bunny snapped. "So, shush it."

"My apologize your royal kangaroo-ness" Jack retorted with a mocking bow so deep, his permanently windswept hair brushed the floor..

"Ooh, bring it on, ya bloody show pony!"

"Now is not the time!" North bellowed.

Just then, the crystal burst with light, flooding the entire room. A three dimensional hologram appeared of a lanky boy with disheveled brown hair, most covered by a Viking helmet that appeared to be four sizes too big.

"Hiccup Haddock the III" Manny's ancient voice rang out.

Then the image switched to a girl. At first Jack thought her head was on fire until he realized it was her hair. She stood proudly, and tightly gripped a wooden bow. He could swear she was staring him down.

"Merida DunBroch." Manny boomed.

The image changed once more and Jack felt his heart skip a few beats.

There in front of him was a girl with long, seriously long, blonde hair and the most gorgeous emerald eyes he had ever seen. Jack felt his cheeks get uncomfortably warm and quickly looked away when he noticed Bunny smirking at him.

"Rapunzel Corona" Even her name was pretty.

The image flickered again to show a boy with brilliant white hair, holding a wooden shepherd's crook.

"Jackson Frost" Jack could feel every pair of eyes trained directly on him. Manny's voice rang out again "Find them."

Then the light promptly shut off quite unceremoniously and the crystal disappeared back down it's hole.

It was decided that North and Toothiana would fetch Hiccup; Bunnymund would have a talk 'warrior-to-warrior' with Merida (whatever that meant), while Jack and Sandy would go and get Rapunzel. Jack kept his cool, but his stomach couldn't decide if it liked the butterflies or if it wanted to puke them up.

"Explain what you can." North instructed as he handed each group two teleportation snow globes. "I will do more of the explaining when we have them all together."

And with that, he and Tooth disappeared to a land called Berk, while Bunny set off for Scotland. Jack smashed his globe, sending several elves scampering away as a swirling portal opened up in the foyer. An express pass to the kingdom of Corona

Hello! I'm aware the fandom is a little (or a lot) dead, but it always made me happy so I'm back. It's been three years since I last updated this story and my writing has improved dramatically. So, in preparation for HHTYD 3, I'm going to re-write this story chapter by chapter until the end.

(Yes, I gave North a wife. No, she is not canon. Sue me.)

It's good to be back.