The rise of the Brave Tangled Dragons - The sequel

Freezing

(Hiccup's POV)

"I'm sorry." I heard Jack say from a couple of feet behind me, what he was apologizing for was unclear, but the apology wasn't meant for me, but for a certain blonde girl. "I was out of line with what I said back there." the guardian continued and normally, I would feel bad about listening to someone else's conversation, but it gave me something to focus on other than the numbing cold.

"It's fine, Jack. And as I recall, I said some choice words to, we're even. And besides, we weren't completely ourselves there and that world wasn't real." she said and I fought the urge to startle. Rapunzel, choice words. Those two things didn't seem like they would belong in the same sentence.

"Yeah, you're right." Jack conceded.

"So there is some sense in that mind of yours?" Rapunzel said with her voice breathy from the cold, but I could still hear that she was smiling.

"I'll shove you." the boy threatened, also smiling and she let out a weak chuckle.

"Don't, I think I'll actually topple over right now," she said and that was something I could understand. The cold was biting, the feeling in most body parts was fading; a wind could knock us over as it is right now. 

Except for Jack, of course. Because he didn't even feel the cold, that fact made me want to say some choice words. But before I did, I saw something beyond the trees; light. We were getting closer to the city and because of that, we were getting closer to the palace.

That information seemed to put some warmth in us, not a lot, but enough to make us able to walk the last hundred meters.

And this time when we reached the palace we just weren't four strange people looking to investigate, but also allies to the princesses who hopefully were inside, which meant we could take the front door.

It was Merida who did the honors of knocking, the sound loud yet silent, isolated by the snow and she grimaced at how the hard wood felt on her cold fingers.

It took only a moment for us to hear steps hurrying and only a few moments more for the door to be opened and us to be ushered inside with a small blizzard following. The door closed and with the light of the snow gone, they could see who had come for us. It was a woman with dark brown hair up in a regal bun and a crown on top, it was the queen.

"My apologies, I thought everyone had been let in already." She told us, then she got a good look at us and paused.

We were probably an unusual sight; the redhead carrying a bow, the girl with seventy feet of hair and a frying pan, me - the scrawny boy with no weapons in hand, and possibly a flying pale boy, depending on if she could see Jack or not.

We probably didn't look normal, but that wasn't why she stared, for there was something like recognition in her eyes.

"Come along," she said. "The girls are this way." She began walking and I couldn't help but smile. So Anna and Elsa had gotten here, which meant they were safe. The queen led us all through long corridors, up a large staircase, through another corridor, and then finally, she stopped at a door. She knocked but didn't wait for an answer before opening.  She stepped inside and we all followed, being greeted by the warmth of a fire.

Inside, Anna and Elsa were sitting by the fire, holding several frozen items that I assumed were failed attempts at teaching Elsa to control her powers.

Both girls turned at the sound of footsteps and froze in surprise at the sight of us. It was Anna who reacted first, showing off a wide grin and getting up off the floor to meet them halfway.

"You woke up! I thought you were dead but Elsa said you weren't, but it was too cold to wait for you to wake," she explained as she practically shoved them to the fire, too excited to be careful.

"It was the right choice to leave," Rapunzel assured her, sitting down by the fire, me and the others followed suit, both hating and loving the heat. "How long were we out?" 

We had been able to figure out that time moved slower in the dream-world, but it was almost impossible to figure out more since memories in there went further back than when we arrived.

"Eternity!" Anna exclaimed and Elsa rolled her eyes.

"Four days." she amended, though her sister mimed 'eternity' when Elsa couldn't see.

Jack whistled. "That long?"

"That long." the queen said, sitting down gracefully.

"What happened after we went out?" I asked and Anna shuddered.

"It was crazy! You were all covered in sand and we didn't know what it meant. The witch and the boogie man threatened to give us worse endings than you guys if we weren't careful, then they disappeared, with the dragon. DRAGON." she repeated, apparently not over the fact that the creature existed.

I felt my gut twist, Pitch could twist minds, Toothless had been through that kind of thing enough before this, but now he was held by the boogie man and completely at his mercy. Because I couldn't do anything to save him.

"Have they been seen since?" I asked and it was the queen who spoke this time.

"Once. The sorceress, Gothel. She came into the servants' halls for two reasons." she told. "To steal the chameleon." she continued and I frowned.

"What does she want with Pascal?"

"You said there was a second thing?" Rapunzel prodded carefully, doing a pretty good job to seem unaffected at the news of her pet, but he knew it weighed her down.

"I did. The second reason was to tell us all that their plan would go down on this week's end." the queen said and we all frowned as one

"Why would she warn us?" Merida asked.

"Maybe she has turned good," I suggested, only to be shot down by the person I least expected.

"Or it's a trap," Rapunzel said. We all turned to her, but she wasn't meeting any eyes.

"Why would you say that?" I queried and she exhaled slowly as if she was doing something bad by sharing more.

"My mother has a condition, she gets sick and needs me to heal her from now and then. Usually once a day, rarely over three days apart."

"It has been six days, at least," Jack said and she nodded.

"She needs the help, so she'll get us there even if she needs a trap to do so."

"So what do we do?" I asked and it was Jack who answered.

"The only thing we can do, we walk into the trap."

I thINk aN UPDaTe couLd GEt ouT nExt FrIDay, bUt iT COULD be lAtEr. 

It has been over a month since I updated this. A month! What the heck was past me on? That estimation wasn't even remotely close.

It COULD be later; what a dumbass.

Anyways, hi. How are you all doing? Hope you're enjoying the winter.

It's snowing where I am only to show the sun five minutes later (I'm a Swede so this is normal), how is the weather where you are?

I wish I could say I think I'll update next week as well, but that seems highly unrealistic at the moment. Though I can't tell you how long it will take until I do update because obviously I suck at estimating.

This author's note is so chaotic, I'm sorry xD

- A/N.