My apologies over the lateness of this chapter (it was actually due for upload last month) but due to certain . . . issues, I had to delay it. I will say this, I hate writing Scottish accents. It has to be the most evil accent I've ever tried to write, but I'm nothing if not determined. I will get it right or I'll . . . do something really dramatic, not sure what that will be right now but . . . yeah.
Apprenticeship is going well so far. I'm mostly settled into it by now. Updates will still be monthly at best though.
Anyway, here's the fifth chapter of my RotBTD fic, so enjoy, tell me what you liked, tell me what you didn't like, and please if you spot any errors let me know so i can try and edit them out. It has been proofread two or three times but things can still be missed.
Eb x
Darkness. No light, only shadow.
She was kept in an orb, translucent, constructed of shadows intertwined with a black sand net, like some wild bird being kept as a pet. She hated being trapped. That alone was enough to depress her, a little. Yet the defiance in her eyes, while dimming slowly with each grain of sand that passed through the hourglass, didn't die.
She had no idea how long she had been there; time seemed to have no meaning here.
'Locked up again.'
It was dark, and that was bad enough; even her glow didn't light up the darkness the way it usually would. It was also cold, bitterly so, and that was worse. She was cut off from her element and from nature. It brought an old saying to her mind; water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink. Or use. It hurt, not being able to use her powers like this. The ache was so bad it was almost physical.
"Like a bird in a cage."
The softly spoken words echoed her morose thoughts, mocking her. Green eyes rose, the fire within them fierce, to take in the dark man standing in front of her prison.
"Do you know why wild things cannot be kept?" Pitch asked her rhetorically, walking a circle around her now. "Captivity kills them. Slowly. They cannot take it, the sudden loss of freedom. Unable to fly. Unable," he paused, meeting her verdant eyes, "to reach out, to anyone."
Uncertainty flickered within them. Doubt, and even a little fear.
"It eats away at them, slowly. And finally, when their light no longer shines, they lose the will to live."
The fear flickered again, but was quickly swallowed up by fierce determination. "I've been in this situation before." she declared, her voice as firm as her eyes. "I won then, and I'll win now." her chin tilted defiantly. "I am not afraid of you."
"Really now?" he smiled, and it was a sly, cool smile. "But you don't remember everything about that, do you?" when she blinked, eyes widening, the fear in her eyes grew and he seized on it. "Some of it is hazy, isn't it. And some of it is blank, wiped clean, almost. Wouldn't you say?" he placed a long finger against his chin. "Why would you say that is?"
Silence. She said nothing for several moments, considering. It was something she tried not to think about. "I'm sure the Sun had-"
"Ah, the Lady of the Sun." he jumped on that; it confirmed his suspicions about her. "Well, I'm sure she had her reasons, yes? Rather like her counterpart, wouldn't you say. The Man in the Moon I mean." he paused in his pacing to shoot a sly glance at the spirit in the sphere. Her green eyes were watching his every move, wary. Good; he liked an attentive audience. "They do so like to . . . 'pick and choose' don't they. Remembering this, forgetting that."
"What are you-"
"He did this before you know." Pitch continued conversationally. "With another spirit. I watched the events myself. Participated even. The boy remembered nothing of his life at all. He even thought," he allowed a chuckle here, "that he had always been what he is." he turned back to the girl. "Can you imagine? Being brought into the world, only being told your name, and then being abandoned like that? Oh, but I'm sure the Man in the Moon had his reasons."
The uncertainty was back in her eyes, he was glad to see. Pitch was warring between gloating over this and really driving it home, or leaving her to more subtle persuasions and her own thoughts.
"Why are you doing this?" she asked at last, emotion lacing her tone heavily. Anger and doubt warred in those green eyes. He could see the nobility in her, oh yes. It was as clear as those eyes of hers. Eyes that were honest. Too honest. Usually that was something he despised but, in this case it could work. If done right.
"I simply wish to help." he spread his arms and placed a pleasant smile on his face. "I helped the boy regain his memories. I could help you patch yours up." her eyes wavered, and he jumped on the chance. "Think about it, you would be whole, complete. Your powers fully realised. Nobody would ever control you again."
She had appeared to lose interest at the thought of power; he'd suspected she would. A noble spirit like hers wouldn't be tempted by it. It was his last comment, as he had intended, that drew her attention again.
"Just think about it." He offered her a bow, appearing sincere. "I have other things I must attend to right now, but I will be back, for your answer."
He vanished.
Rapunzel sagged against the sphere's wall, hugging her knees to her chest. The soft satin of her dress rippled in the dim light of her own glow. A small chameleon, previously hidden and disguised within her hair, tottered into sight and patted her cheek.
"How did he know Pascal?" she asked quietly, a tremor in her voice. "I've never told anybody that."
Pascal looked up at her with big eyes. He had always been with her. She had found him in life, and even in death and undeath he followed her. She was his light, his friend, and he would never leave her.
Rapunzel had known ever since she had been reborn that her memories were incomplete. She had awakened at dawn, with both the Moon and the Sun in the sky above, and they had both whispered to her. Her name, that she had a destiny, and then the dawn had passed, the Moon had faded, and the Sun had gone silent. Sometimes she fancied she could hear them, but she knew that neither had uttered a word to her since that morning when she had awoken among the flowers at the base of the tower that had played such a large part in her life.
She had rarely felt the need to venture out of the forest, had been content within. Certainly she had never ventured further than the lake shore or the village on the other edge. Her own small valley became her home, the forest spirits her friends.
"Maybe he could help me. It can't be that bad, right?" She sniffed. He shook his head urgently, crawling along her arm and putting his two front feet on either side of her face as well as he could, shaking his head again as he silently implored her to understand and not to give in. "I need to get out of here." She decided eventually, and Pascal sighed in relief. "But I can't do it alone."
The little lizard nodded and curled up as she watched him. Pascal had tried multiple times to find a way out of this sphere, as had she. It kept her completely cut off, and neither of them had found a way. With nothing else to do but hope that help was coming – she had after all left instructions with some of the dryads – she curled up to try and doze and conserve the energy she had left.
Hidden from sight, trapped within a prison of her own, Gaia pressed herself against the wall separating herself from the outside world as though the action would allow her to pass through it. She could only watch as the girl before her began to slowly unravel. She would only last so long without the Sun. The sight alone was tearing the goddess apart inside, just as Pitch had no doubt planned.
'Please,' she thought desperately, 'please North, hurry. She needs you all.'
o.O.o
"I am not goin' in the sleigh."
Jack sighed and shared a look with Hiccup. Bunnymund and North were at it again, this time a bit more aggressively than usual.
"But everybody loves sleigh!"
"Not me."
"Do you even know where you are going?"
Bunny crossed his arms, smiling smugly at the Russian. "Yep. You forget, I'm the one who gave you directions."
"Still don't see why we can't get her like Jack."
The overgrown rabbit made a snort of disgust at about the same time that the winter spirit did. "'Cause she'd shoot ya."
"Is not so bad!"
"Yeah, 'cause everyone loves nothing more than being stuffed into sacks, kidnapped, and tossed through magic portals." Jack finally added his two penneth to the mix. Hiccup cast him a startled look and Jack shrugged disinterestedly. "How did you feel?"
"Touché." the autumn spirit rubbed the back of his head.
"No Toothless?" Jack looked around them; the Night Fury was conspicuously absent.
"No, not this time. I told him to stay in the workshop with the yeti, guard the book and our base." Their conversation was cut short by Bunny.
"Trust me mate," Bunny grimaced painfully at Guardian of Wonder, "you'll be glad ya didn't. Dunbroch is hard enough to handle at the best of times and she won't take kindly to us bein' there."
"Dunbroch?" Hiccup perked up a bit at the mention. "Is that her name?"
"Of a sort. I can't remember her first name." he admitted sheepishly.
"I still don't get it." North exclaimed wearily, scrubbing a hand over his beard. "How do you know both spirits?"
"'M the Easter Bunny mate, I get everywhere."
"So not going there." Jack clamped his hands over his ears while Hiccup and Toothiana stifled chuckles. Sandy was wearing a big grin and formed a vague image of the Boogeyman in the air.
"What I meant," the rabbit threw a vicious glare at the winter spirit and the Sand Man, "Is that I've met 'em both before. Separately. Zel likes kids, and there's a small town near her forest that she visits sometimes. Dunbroch follows the descendants of her family from when she was alive. Sometimes I help her."
"Do you have an update?" Hiccup asked suddenly, coming abruptly to attention.
Hesitating only briefly, Bunnymund replied "A bit of a one, yeah."
"Then we have an excuse to go visit her." Hiccup stood and dusted off his trousers. "Shall we?"
As the others moved to the sleigh, Bunnymund began to edge slowly away. Just as he was beginning to think he'd made it Phil picked him up from behind.
"OI! What d'ya think you're doin' ya great brute!" The startled rabbit was dumped on the sleigh and North leapt in after him, laughing all the while.
"Pa'zhalsta!" And with a smart snap of the reins they were off. The portal was formed before the poor bunny could get his wits together.
"This is so awesome!" Hiccup yelled over the whistle of the wind. A flash of blue and they were gone.
They emerged into afternoon sunshine. After the blizzard of the northern workshop the sudden light and warmth took some getting used to. Toothiana giggled, her smile as wide as ever. "How far are we Bunny?"
Trembling greatly from fright, Bunny barely heard her.
"Aw come on Kanga!" Jack goaded him; the nickname received instant attention. "You don't mean to tell me you're still afraid of-"
Turbulence rocked the sleigh heavily and Jack and Hiccup both tumbled over the side.
"Oh no!" Bunny jerked wildly, trying to move to the edge of the sleigh and as far from it as possible at the same time.
"Watch it!" snapped their driver when the rabbit's movements jerked the sleigh dangerously.
"B-but North! Jack and . . . they-" he looked to the bit they'd vanished over and slowly edged towards it. Shaking violently, he glanced over . . . only to see Jack safely on the rail below and helping Hiccup secure his own perch.
"You fall for that one every time don't you big guy." Jack grinned at the irritated rabbit. Even Hiccup was smirking.
"Why you-"
"Not so bad is it?" Hiccup cut him off.
Ignoring the pair of insufferable fools dangling over thin air, Bunny shot a nervous glance at the landscape. Lush green forests, fields, meadows, rivers and streams. Then a cliff with a waterfall.
"Slow down!" he yelled at North, suddenly pouncing and grabbing the reigns and pulling.
"No!" the Russian yelped, wide-eyed. "Don't do that! We will-"
For a precious few seconds the sleigh hovered in mid air. Then it dropped.
Hiccup held on blindly to the railing, trying to decide whether to scream or whoop in delight. Jack had been blown away by the sudden upwind, but the spirit had already shown that he could fly so he wasn't too concerned. A cold breeze brushed past him and the sleigh jerked to a sudden stop.
"While that was certainly the most fun we've had in ages, let's not do it again, right?" Jack was grinning from the driver's seat as Bunny and North flopped back down into the main section of the sleigh.
"Ugh . . . whatever ya say mate." Bunnymund agreed between gasping breaths; poor thing looked a bit green if Jack was honest.
"Blin! Moodozvon rabbit!" struggling to right himself, North cast a withering glare at the Easter Bunny. "Why you grab reigns?!"
"Because we're" Bunny pressed a paw to his mouth until the horrible tossing and turning feeling in his stomach subsided. "Oh boy . . ." he drew in several gulps of air and finally his tummy seemed to settle. "We're there boys and girls."
North gave a surly shrug and muttered under his breath as he retook the reigns.
Hiccup strained to hear the words the Russian was muttering and made out something beginning with P. Pre . . . pri . . . pridu . . . rok? Pridurok. He grinned; the last few centuries were really paying off. But he had to admit calling the rabbit a nitwit was mild compared to some of what he'd heard; he was fairly sure, for example, that a good deal of what North uttered in his mother tongue was not in fact suitable for all ages.
Chuckling to himself, Hiccup took the opportunity to glance at their surroundings. They were hovering over what looked like the sea or else a large lake – didn't they call them something else in Scotland? Lochs, was it? - and in front of them was a sheer cliff with several large protruding rocks jutting from the water into the sky. The whole picture was completed by the thundering, sparkling waterfall of pure crystal water as it raced to join the blue depths below.
"It's beautiful!" Toothiana flittered out of the sleigh and hovered beside them, her delicate hands clasped by her chest as she admired the spectacle. "I don't think I've ever seen anything like it!"
"And you ain't seen nothin' yet." Bunny grinned, almost back to his normal self and colour. "Go around the corner, follow the cliffs. Slowly!" he yelped, startled, when North began to flick the reigns. Still muttering darkly, the Russian complied.
Bright sunlight. That was the first thing that any of them noticed when they came out from the shadow of the cliffs. Bright sunlight and endless skies. It was late summer here, Hiccup noted that the leaves would be turning soon. There was a light breeze and the sun was warm. In the distance a pale shape stood against the cornflower blue, its form a little fuzzy in the afternoon light.
"That's where we're headed mates." Bunny declared, pointing a paw at the steadily growing structure. A ruined castle.
It was only when they were nearer that they realised something wasn't right.
"Why is that place so dark?"
Bunny squinted, "It shouldn't be."
Toothiana suddenly gasped. "That's not darkness Jack." her shock gave way to fierce determination. "That's sand."
They said nothing for several long minutes, only watched. The darkness swirled around the ruins fluidly, ebbing and flowing like a tide. Occasionally a bright flare would beat it back, but the darkness would swell and surge once more.
Bunnymund stood tensely in the sleigh, ears cocked. He appeared to be listening. What was even stranger was that his pose was mirrored a little by the two boys.
Nicholas St North ran a hand over his beard. "I hoped it wouldn't come to this." he gave a deep sigh. "We will need to be careful. But this is advantage we must take. Pitch is distracted."
"It ain't like him to do too much too soon." Bunny agreed. "He must have gotten cocky when he caught Zel. Thought he could handle the other Sheila too." the rabbit chuckled and looked askance at them. "Personally, he must have got the drop on Zel. He'd be out cold otherwise."
Perhaps wisely, nobody chose to comment on that.
A sudden breeze in the otherwise still air brought shouts to them and Hiccup made to jump over the side. His movement snapped Jack out of his trance quickly enough for him to grab the Viking before the brunet could plunge overboard.
"Hold your dragons pal. You won't help her by becoming a pancake."
"But he's . . . Koor she's . . ."
Toothiana looked startled at the name, but Jack didn't seem as surprised as he should have been.
North took charge. "We will split up. Toothiana, you and Bunny go with Hiccup. Take care of this." he waved a hand in the general direction of the fight. "Jack, you will be with me and Sandy. If Pitch is here, he is not in South Pole. If he is in South Pole, he is not here." Jack nodded and clapped Hiccup's shoulder once. Bunny tapped the floor of the sleigh to create a rabbit hole and pulled the startled brunet down with him, earning a yelp, followed by Toothiana.
"What are we doing?" Jack asked, torn between helping Hiccup and the elusive Koor and going to the South where he knew deep down Pitch had kept Vah.
Sandy shook his head, a series of printed words appearing over his head as he did so; Autumn saving Summer and Winter saving Spring, I did not see this coming.
"None of us did, old comrade." North muttered, grabbing the reigns once more and giving them a sharp snap. He reached into a breast pocket and pulled out a snow globe, tossing it to Jack. The winter spirit fumbled to catch it and looked up, startled. "You know where to go." was all North said, "You lead, we follow." there was an expectant smile on his face. Sandy was watching curiously, but he too smiled at Jack Frost.
By now Jack had learned not to question some of the crazy things that North did, particularly if he was backed up by the Sand Man. Instead of protesting as he would have done once, he cupped the globe in his hands and closed his eyes.
Two rhythmic calls thrummed at the back of his mind, vying for his attention. Koor . . . Vah . . . Koor . . . Vah . . .He only wanted one. His mind was already working to separate the bonds. Koor . . . Gravuun. That decided that; Hiccup was on his way to Koor. Jack didn't need to worry about her.
He pointedly ignored the thought that Hiccup was without Toothless; the brunet was a Viking, he'd be fine.
Vah . . . Laas . . . Lovaas . . .Vahlaaslovaas . . . Vahlaaslovaas . . . Vahlaaslovaas . . .
The name was a steady rhythm that pulsed in time with his heartbeat, quickly gaining tempo with his attention, and he wondered how he had never known it was there before. But there were more important things to worry about right now, such as how he was going to get the crazy girl out of whatever mischief she had found herself in this time.
Now was not the time for thinking about why he thought of things like names and traits.
Bringing the globe to his lips he blew on the glass, frosting it. Immediately it glowed a soft icy blue.
"Vah Laas Lovaas." He whispered, pitching the globe as far as he could throw it. A gust of wind caught the delicate object and swept it up in a spiral, the glow growing brighter all the time, and then the globe exploded in all directions.
The portal looked slightly different than it normally did, but North didn't seem perturbed. Instead he looked proud and pleased. "To the South Pole!"
"He's enjoying this way too much." Jack muttered to Sandy. The little man grinned, but any response was lost in the swirling vortex of blue and white.