Guardians Rising

20: Off Again

The early morning light peeped through the glass window of Merida's bedroom, giving the room a soft golden hue. She opened her eyes, blinked, and shut them again. 'Why do I have t' get' up? ' she thought. Then memory flooded back into her head: the wisps, the nightmares, Jack, and the visitors at the castle. She shot up in her bed, threw the blankets back, and dressed in a hurry. Once she was presentable (at least, in her opinion), she sauntered out of her room and headed to the guest rooms to wake her friends, though she couldn't imagine that they would be happy to be woken up.

She banged on the girls' bedroom door. "Wake up, y' bunch a' dormice!" Several muted groans came from behind the wooden door, followed by a thump. Merida giggled. After a moment of shuffling sounds and a few more groans, the door swung open to reveal the three blonde girls. They were all dressed as on the previous day. "So," said Merida, "shall we go t' breakfast?"

She led her new friends down to the throne room (where breakfast was being held due to the vast number of guests) and they chose a spot near the door. The room was already half-filled with yawning vikings and castle staff. "So," said Rapunzel, "do we -" but she got no further, for at that moment she saw Hiccup. She waved him over to their table, but, due to the number of vikings along the way, it took him several minutes to reach them. When he did, he grinned and said,

"Well, good morning, ladies. Hope you slept well." Then he sat down and for a while was too preoccupied with the food to talk.

Merida was totally fine with that.

>>>>

"We need to do something!" exclaimed Rapunzel with unusual earnestness. Merida and Hiccup glanced at each other.

"But," said Hiccup, "how can we? We don't even know where he might be. Don't get me wrong," he continued as Rapunzel opened her mouth to protest, "I'd like to find him too, but we can't just run blindly into a trap." Astrid raised one eyebrow at him, and he rolled his eyes. "It wasn't just me, y'know."

Merida wondered at that for a moment, then decided it was probably some old joke between them.

"If there's a way we could follow one of the nightmares to their base," Rapunzel began again, "we could rescue Jack and then take on Pitch." Merida nodded her agreement; she hated waiting around and was longing for some action. Hiccup seemed to consider the idea for a moment, then said, "If this were a normal person we were dealing with, that's probably what I'd do. But it's not," he went on in frustration. "This is something else, and Jack was the only one who actually knew anything about it!"

Hiccup glanced awkwardly at the others as he realized that his voice had been steadily rising. He took a deep breath and said, "Sorry, guys." Merida took up his train of thought.

"So," she said, "we should focus on getting Jack."

"Yes," said Astrid, suddenly breaking in, and the rest of them looked at her. "We have tracking dragons," she continued quickly, "and I'm sure Gobber would be willing to come."

"Or Eret," replied Hiccup. Astrid shot him a surprised look, and Hiccup hastily continued, "after all, he's got Skullcrusher. It would be a lot easier with him than with Grump." Astrid nodded, but said nothing, and after a few moments of further silence, Merida said,

"Well, Captain Haddock, if we're all decided then let's get movin' wi' this plan of yours." Astrid looked surprised at the nickname, and Merida smirked.

Hiccup glanced at the two girls, then shook his head and said, "Yeah, let's get going." As they got up from the table, he added, "Astrid, if you would be so kind as to get Eret over here, we would all be much obliged."

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Hey everyone!!! I finally updated!! So, what did you think? Thanks again for voting, commenting, and basically keeping me going, please keep doing that. :) Hopefully, I'll be updating more frequently from now on. Don't stop being awesome, guys!

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