Torn [Hiccup x Reader x Jack]

Chapter 13

Coughs tore out of your chest, ripping their way out of your throat and echoing around the cavern. Light filtered in through the opening in the rock, displaying the air thick with dust. A thin layer of morning dew was settled over your clothes, the fire down to slowly smoldering embers. You held your breath to try and hold the coughing in, wary of making too much noise in unfamiliar surroundings. Patting yourself down, making sure your limbs were all intact, you glanced around, panicky, relaxing once you laid eyes on (d/n), still sleeping peacefully. You tensed up again when you heard murmurs and clanking of metal near the mouth of the cave, and felt around for the handle of your knife, drawing it slowly. Coughs still threatened to escape your chest, but you held them in determinedly, heart thumping erratically.

Creeping softly towards the voices, you poked your head out of the opening and quickly withdrew it. The rising sun lit up the face of the mountain, illuminating everything and ruining your attempt at stealth. Snow sparkled on the mountaintop, heaps of it piled up along the path and around your cave. The sun nearly blinded you, shining beautifully across the forested island. It also revealed the men, covered in dragonskins and draped in weaponry, lifting a massive bear trap and climbing up the mountainside towards your not-so-hidden hiding place.

Dragon trappers.

You squeaked and raced back inside, stomping out the dying coals of your fire and scattering the ashes, shaking (d/n) awake. "Come on, girl, come on, we have to go, now," you muttered, shoving her in the belly in an attempt to wake her faster. (d/n) took her own sweet time, uncurling slowly and swatting at you with her spines. She yawned and closed her eyes, curling up again and letting out a small snort at your antics. You let out a squeal of panic, glancing out the opening again. The men were closer now, moving slowly, but with purpose. "(D/n)! What! Are! You! DOING?"

"Calm down, everything's gonna be fine, snowflake."

Whirling around, you almost choked on another cough and fell over. Leaning up against the wall was a mass of swirling snow, shaped in the form of Jack Frost. Looking closer, you could barely make out a fleeting glimpse of his face: a flash of his cheek before it lost its definition, the slope of a nose, the strings on a hoodie. When you squinted, the figure seemed to still, forming a more solid picture of the boy who used to mean everything to you. It looked up, meeting your eyes, and you gasped. His eyes just... weren't there, instead replaced by two softly glowing stones.

"I'm not actually here," the Not-Jack whispered. Its mouth didn't actually move where you expected it to, but the voice was definitely Jack's. It echoed around the cave, quiet but purposeful, seeming to come from nowhere and everywhere at once.

The figure flickered and collapsed a little bit, part of Not-Jack's face sliding down his shoulder and half of his leg melting to the ground before whatever was keeping him together gathered its bearings and pulled its pieces back in. He giggled a little, a hollow, tinny sound. "Yeah, I still haven't gotten the hang of this yet," He whispered, voice fading in and out. "A work in progress, I guess."

Not-Jack fell to the floor in a pile of snow, the two stones glinting from the top. You took a deep breath and gathered yourself, pinching your arm to prove this was real. Your voice was shaky when you spoke. "You're just a projection, aren't you?" A few flakes from the pile drifted toward you, dancing around your feet in a mini-blizzard. "Mhm," Jack's voice hummed from right by your ear. You jumped, the motion stirring (d/n), who grumbled and scooched a little further into the cave. "It's a little thing I've been working on for a while now," he said, the figure reforming right next to you. "I ask the wind to relay my voice to wherever I need. It appears in different ways to different people, though." It was even more disconcerting up close, the definition of Jack's face drifting in and out, never giving you a full view, so close to him being there but so far away, too. Not-Jack rubbed the back of his neck thoughtfully. "I guess to you I appeared, well, as me, or as best of a me the wind could manage. Not that you'd remember much, though."

Your face flushed a little at the memory of your dream, or flashback, or whatever that was. Soft touches, tender smiles, feather-light kisses, the twisted echo of your voice, "Do you wanna slide down one more time?"

You weren't ready to tell him that you remembered, not when he wasn't really there. Not until you knew the full truth, all of it: how you died, how you came back, if your flames were connected to any of all this. No, that could wait until at least some of your questions were answered, or at least until Jack was looking at you with his real eyes, not the disconcerting glowing stones.

"Nevermind any of that," you said, swallowing another cough. Your eyes darted to the mouth of the cave. "How in the world is 'everything gonna be fine'?" Not-Jack laughed a little, the wind curling around your neck in an awful imitation of his breath. "Don't worry, I've got a little distraction planned." He smiled and once again you were reminded of the past, echoes of his mischievous laugh dancing around in your head.

A clap of what sounded like thunder startled you, rumbling and shaking the cave around you. You gasped, rushing to (d/n)'s side and curling up beside her, covering your head with your arms just in case. Not-Jack simply stood in the ashes of your fire, a shadow of what would've been a smile on his still shifting face.

When the shaking had stopped, you tripped your way to the opening of the cave and yelped a little when the blinding sunlight reflected off newly fallen snow. The men were gone, bits of the bear trap poking out from an avalanche of snow. Whoa. I feel bad for the trees below us, you thought.

"Pretty neat, huh?"

You had no words. Not-Jack, or Jack, somewhere, had just triggered a massive avalanche just to take out a small group of dragon trappers.

You turned to him, expressionless.

"You must be a riot at parties."

He snorted. "Damn straight."

You stood up, walked over, and punched him right between his glittering not-eyes.

The unearthly figure disintegrated, leaving the gems on a pile of quickly melting snow.

You left an hour later, a sword stolen from the avalanche wreckage, no destination in mind. (D/n) was smug as a cat who'd caught a bird midflight.

The stones were light in your pocket.

Yoooo im not dead my dudes

happy new year

short chapter i guess but that was a killer cliffhanger last chapter so i figured i should resolve at least a little bit

obviously i am deviating from canon s'cool it'll get cooler hehehe if you get my pun

lots of love <3 <3 <3 Moony