One Equal Temper of Heroic Hearts

Prepared

The sun was nearly gone by the time the little crew saw a shape in the woods around them besides that of tree trunks or birds or bushes- the old, but clear shape of a cabin.

It was rotten in spots, and parts of the walls were missing, but a chipped old fireplace stood intact in the back of two rooms. Merida and Eugene got to work bringing the hearth back to life, while Mahina started casually befriending all the spiders in the place and asking them to hang out outside the house for the night.

Jack was offloading his pack on the creaking floorboards when he noticed Rapunzel staring at her glowing sword, frowning.

"It got brighter," she said. She turned slowly, figuring out which way the sword wanted her to go. It pointed her to an old bookshelf, sporting a handful of ratty books that were falling apart and dusty, broken dishes.

Mahina gasped, delighted. "No way." She went over and began shoving the bookcase, with difficulty, and Eugene and Jack both moved to help.

Behind the shelf was a door to a room that was eerily-well maintained- a room that wasn't visible on the outside of the house.

Mahina gave a happy wiggle and summoned an orb of slowly shifting, silvery-white starlight above one hand. "Secret tunnellll, secret tunnellll," she sang quietly, setting the orb to floating just above Jack's right shoulder before walking into the dim room.

Meanwhile, Rapunzel's sword brightened, then stopped glowing.

"Why'd it stop?" Rapunzel wondered aloud, studying the sword.

"It must have sensed the magic hiding this room," Jack said. "So, it finds magic. Interesting."

"Oh, metal, a corpse!" Mahina commented.

"WhAT-" Jack quickly followed her in, alarmed.

There was, indeed, an old, dry skeleton, withered to brittleness and not far from crumbling to dust. It sported very finely worked studded leather armor, stained black with a great deal of care. Still clenched in its left hand was a steel bow of similarly pristine condition.

"Magical equipment," Mahina said. "Look, the armor and bow aren't even dusty."

"Dibs on the armor," Eugene said. Everyone looked at him.

"What? It's nice armor and I, for one, would like more defense if other villages decide to riot about you two," Eugene said.

"Not a bad idea. Merida, you want a magic weapon?" Mahina offered.

"... No thanks," Merida said, eyeing it. "The last one nearly scorched my hand off. Who knows how this one is cursed?"

"I can check," Mahina said, frowning a bit. "If I can remember the spell." She chewed on her lip, closing her eyes with a frown. "Um. To fos tou fengarioú mou dínei diávgeia, as apokalyftheí i alithiní fýsi."

The bow lit up white, and Mahina grinned. "Oh, COOL. It's a Grayhand bow!"

"What's that?" Rapunzel asked curiously as Hiccup, who had the misfortune of being quite short, tried to see over his companions' shoulders.

"There's a story I heard from m- from much older spirits," Mahina said. "Have you heard of the Wild Hunt?"

Merida and Hiccup both went still and pale.

"Well, there are real spirits it was based on," Mahina said, as if that weren't going to fuel the kids' nightmares for a week, "but other spirits call them the Grayhands, partially because of the ghosty vibe and partially because of how dang incredible their steelwork is. Now and again they drop a weapon or gift one to a mortal. This is one of them. They're supposed to be powerful siphons for any innate magical auras and, more importantly, they're also supposed to be unbreakable."