REVELATION: THE BIG FOUR

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: KOZMOTIS AND EMILY

(song above dedicated to the Big Four)

(track: "Song of Hal: Strings in C# Minor" by Nicholas Britell)

MERIDA:

I cough as the smoke still is layered thinly over the battlefield, making it hard to see as I run through the site where the Black Death was destroyed, stumbling with my hand on my abdomen where the arrow wound still is. I walk over the crater that formed from the explosion, the stones still white hot as smoke rises from the area. I make sure not to fall as burning my hands would hinder my search.

"Hiccup!" I call out again. But there is no sign of him anywhere.

My anxiety swells up as images of what he could look like right now take over my mind. It makes me almost too afraid to find him but I don't slow my desperate attempt to try.

A distant cry gets my attention and I look over my shoulder at a shieldmaiden who cries on her knees, mourning the death of her husband with his helmet in her hands.

The eerie sounds of the aftermath echo over the island, pairing only with the sound of crashing waves and sizzling steam as magma pours into the water, the puffs of smoke drifting from the shaft of the volcano and raining ash down on us along with light snowflakes...

The beams of sunlight are so clear with the smoke and mistiness of the air, that it creates a hazy scene around me, with a dreamy feeling... but not necessarily a good dream.

I can't even tell if we won. I think we did. But my mind is only on where Hiccup is.

Despite how badly my body aches, I keep pushing it and I shakily stumble around the fog in search of him... until I see a silhouette in the distance. It's Toothless.

I gasp and find the energy to run to him. The closer I get, the clearer his visage becomes, along with that he's inspecting. I see a body strung along in the dirt and ash, nearly half buried under black sand. I trip as I get to about two meters away and catch the ground with my hands, probably injuring them when I do. But I crawl forward. "Hiccup!" I say weakly, pulling myself along until I am beside him. He looks unconscious. And I check him to make sure he has a pulse. It's weak but it's there...

Toothless looks just as concerned as he stands protectively above him, making sure there are no more enemies around to attack.

Hiccup is covered in black ash, dirt, and blood. I can't see any major wounds as of yet but that doesn't matter. He could have head trauma. He could still be dying. And as I panic, I cry out, "Rapunzel!"

(track: "Fellowship" by Thomas Newman)

RAPUNZEL:

Like a dog attuned to the sound of a dinner bell, I hear my name called from the battlefield and it finally snaps me out of the bewilderment I was in when my eyes locked with Pitch's and yet saw only a completely different man...

"Jack!" I say as I have no dragon to fly on anymore. "Merida—down there!"

He gets the urgency as he takes my hand and flies me like he did when we first met. I can't tell you how strange it feels to not have my hair trailing behind me for the first time in my life. It's just... weird.