Meeting at the Crossroads

Chapter 25

Merida hated Hiccup.

Well, not really, but she did hate the feelings she felt for him. What would her parents say if they knew she crushed on someone? King Fergus would probably faint in surprise and Queen Elanor would be shocked, but pleased. After all, she's the one who had pushed Merida to find a suitor all those months ago.

She cried until she ran out of tears. Then she started hiccuping, which she somehow found really funny. Her half-crazy giggles echoed around the tunnel, mixed with a hiccup here and there. Hiccup, she thought. Then groaned as if she had the worst collywobbles. How on Earth was she doing to be able to face him? To face anyone of them? She had been so stupid to think that Hiccup didn't already like a girl. For goodness sake, he lived on a bloomin' island! And then Merida to had let her tough exterior crack at possibly the worst moment. Merida gave a gasp as she scrambled to her feet. She realized with a jolt that none of her friends had caught up to her yet. How long has it been? Ten, fifteen minutes? Merida wasn't sure.

"JACK! RAPUNZEL!" she shouted. Thank heavens her parents had given her a hearty set of lungs. After a moment, she called for them again, but still no reply. Had she ran further from them then she imagined? She paused and then called the name she almost didn't want to speak again, but right now, in this spooky tunnel, she'd give anything for his company.

"HICCUP!"

"Merida!" a voice called right behind her. Merida jumped about three feet in the air. In a split second she had her bow out and an arrow nocked. She turned slowly in a circle in the pitch black darkness. After about thirty seconds of silence Merida spoke. "W-Who's thaur?"

"Its me, of course!" the voice replied happily, sounding farther away than the first time. Merida knew that voice, though she hadn't expected it to sound so...cheerful.

"Hiccup?" she ventured causiosly.

"Yes!" Hiccup replied in the same tone.

Merida relaxed her bow. "Ooh, Hiccup!" she cried. "Ah can explain everythin'! Aam-!"

"Don't worry about it," Hiccup interrupted. "We need to get out of here."

Merida peered into the darkness. "Whaur ur th' others?"

"Don't know. But come on! I found a way out!" Merida followed the sound of Hiccup's footsteps until she came upon a round hole that led to a slide carved from rocks. A rock slide. She snorted in spite of herself. Merida realized she could actually see. There was a gray light was emitting from the hole. Daylight?

"Coming?" Hiccup called. Merida wizzed down the slide. To her astonishment, the slide did not lead out of the tunnels. Instead she found herself in a vast cavern. Completely hallowed out, no rough patches anywhere. In the center, she saw a dark sphere chained to the floor.

"Sae thaur really ur chains?" she laughed. As she took a step closer she saw that the sphere was filled with dark shapes that swirled and fought. Merida would recognize them anywhere. "Shadow creatures," she breathed. "Hiccup, wh-?"

She turned but saw no one at first. Then a tall man appeared in front of her, seemingly from the shadows that stretched across the floor. He wore a long black robe that seemed to fade into his gray skin. His face was pointed, but not ugly. When he leered at her, his teeth were almost as sharp as the tips of his black hair. The most strange things were his eyes. They were a gold-gray color, as if they had once been brighter and had become tarnished over the years.

"Oh, Merida," he said in Hiccup's voice. "Could you really be that naive?" He snapped his fingers and the sphere burst as shadow creatures by the hundreds swarmed out.

Heading striaght for Merida.