Cold & Dark ⇢ The Big Five Fanfiction

XI

"I still can't believe they kidnapped Elsa," Rapunzel mumbles softly, hanging her head as she walked and watching the ground beneath her feet. "I hope she's okay."
"Don't worry, Punzie. We'll find her," Hiccup comforts with a gentle smile.
"Where are we even going? I hope it's to try and find her," Merida mutters.
The Guardians exchange glances, before North speaks up. "We're going to Pitch's old base, to search for clues. But, well..."
"It might be a little scary in there," Tooth adds, glancing between them.
"At least, if he left magic behind to guard the place," Bunny raises an eyebrow.
"Scary? Pfft," Merida shrugs.
Rapunzel sighs a little, fiddling with her fingers, her mind lingering on poor Elsa. "You don't think they're gonna hurt her, do you?"
Nobody answers.
After a little longer of walking, North announces, "We're here."
In the centre of the trees, there was a clearing, and in the centre of that, an old, wooden bed frame, sat on top of a dark hole.
"This is his old base?" Hiccup frowns a little looking at it. "Not very guarded."
"We've already said, it used to be guarded by fear. Nobody wanted to come near the place," Bunny said irritatedly.
"Whose going first?" Tooth mumbles softly.
Everyone looks around at one another, before Sandy sighs silently and steps forward, walking up to it and floating down, out of sight. Then a golden sand arrow appears, beckoning them down.
"Reminder that we can't all fly?" Merida sighs.
"It's not that deep," North shrugs.
Merida sighs again, louder this time, but walks up to the edge, sitting down against it before flinging herself down into the darkness.
Bunny silently hops down next, and he too vanishes, as if swallowed by the shadows.
A few people later and it's just Rapunzel and North left standing there.
"Would you like to go next, my dear?" He asks politely, to which she shakes her head. "Alright then."
He moves towards it, stepping down, only to get stuck half way by his... stomach.
"Oh my. This is ochen' nelovko.. very embarrassing," North smiles sheepishly, his jolly-red cheeks filling with a blush.
"Don't worry about it. Should I, um, give you a push?" Rapunzel smiles back softly.
"If you wouldn't mind. I'm terribly sorry about this," North laughs out.
She can't help but giggle in return, moving closer to him and placing her hands on his shoulders, pressing down on them. He doesn't budge.
"Try wiggling around a bit," she suggests, pushing harder.
He nodded, doing his best to twist his body in the small space, before eventually it gives way and he drops down.
Rapunzel watches him go, hesitating before sitting in the hole, hanging her legs down and looking. Her heart races a little faster, and her brain clouds with thoughts.
What if this is a trap? What if I see my worst nightmare down there... What if this is what Pitch wants us to do?!
Realising she was thinking too hard, she reluctantly pushes herself off the side, letting a scream out as she fell.
She kept falling, and falling... before eventually landing on something large and squishy. Looking down, she realised her landing pillow had been North, who was laughing so hard tears were forming in his eyes.
"Oh, my god, I'm so sorry," She stammers, quickly rolling off of him and stumbling to her feet.
"No worries," He laughs, standing and looking around.
The place is almost like a cave, with walls of rock, most of it quite sharp. Strange shadows lurk about the floors, cast from the minimal light. In the centre there was a rusted dark globe shape, and surrounding it a few stone bridges, but other than that, the place seemed pretty empty.
"I guess we just start looking," Hiccup comments, glancing around.
"Looking for what, exactly?" Merida questions, her eyes sweeping left to right.
"Something that tells us where Jack and Elsa is," Rapunzel suggests.
"Yeah, but what even is that? A letter from Pitch like 'yo we're at this place come find us'."
"No, I don't think he'd do that," North furrows his eyebrows.
"Thousands of years old and still doesn't understand sarcasm," Merida facepalms. "I'm gonna go this way." She decides and walks away, following a slightly tilted bridge.
Bunny tuts and hops after her, as if he was trying to seem like he didn't care about the girl's safety and was actually just looking that way too - and failing miserably.
Hiccup and Tooth go another way, and Sandy silently volunteers to fly up to the higher levels and check.
Rapunzel looks to North and smiles a little shyly, walking over to the globe beside him and looking across it thoughtfully. "What is this for?"
"We use globes to track how many children still believe. He used it to track how many children there were left until we'd be weak enough for him to attack us," North explains.
She nods a little, circling around it in thought, hoping for a convenient marker or something that had been left on there, like in the books that always told them exactly where the bad guys were. But alas, to no avail, and she was once again reminded that life wasn't all a fairy tale, despite consisting of magic hair and a group of immortals that gave gifts and chocolate and dreams and money. Oh, and snow days.
"What do you think my powers are?" Rapunzel asks after a while, blushing slightly at the question. She'd always loved her hair - but now there was a possibility of more magic. It's only natural that she would be curious.
Instead of being disapproving, North smiles. "Well, we've already discovered your healing.." He pauses before continuing. "What do you think of when you think of spring?"
"Animals, and new life, and Easter," She answers, her green eyes flicking up to him.
"Well, maybe it's to do with those. Animals, and plants. That wouldn't surprise me. But I can never be too sure, but I think I know someone who might.."
A yell comes from the left, and they turn towards it in surprise, quickly hurrying over the bridge Merida and Bunny went across.
Merida is staring at a wall full of flames, with a rather scorched and angry looking Bunny to the side.
"I didn't mean to, I swear," Merida said, looking back at them, frowning in concern.
North nods a little. "We definitely need her help." He mutters to himself.
"Whose?" Rapunzel tilts her head looking at him, trying to think about any myths she'd heard about.
"Mother Nature."

YO PEOPLE!
So yesterday was terrible for me , but let's nOt talk about that because positive vIbEs only here!
So one of y'all have messaged me (which was v nice I'm glad you're taking such interest in meh book) asking about how I choose which season went with which.. Season.
So here it goes.
Feel free to entirely skip past this if ya want.

Choosing Winter was pretty easy - Literal snow and ice powers queen over there. Elsa. But also, in the beginning of the story you might have noticed she was a bit cold, cut off from the rest of the world. This sorta represents the season, but it's kind of ironic because Winter is really when you get together with family and get warm together and huddle by the fires and stuff - which is what I've been having Elsa do. She's warming up to the others, slowly but surely learning to trust and open up to them.
Then Spring. Like North asked earlier in this chapter; what do you think of when you hear about Spring? Flowers blooming, the weather getting warmer, lil' animals being born. Now think of Rapunzel. Kind, caring, 'slightly' excitable, outgoing. She was even blessed with healing powers for god's sake! I imagine her caring side correlates to her tending and caring for new plants, and new life. The weather getting warmer - she's quite a warm character. And then there's lil animals. What are younger animals usually like? Curious, playful, excitable maybe. Like her.
Summer and Autumn with Merida and Hiccup were a bit harder to choose between. When it comes to Autumn, the weather is a bit more unpredictable, and the leaves turn brighter colours - reds, and oranges, and yellows. I imagine this is maybe like Merida, because she's a bit more feisty, bit more unpredictable. And also, the colours just matches her hair - yes I know, that's a bit of a stretch, but they are the physical embodiment of their seasons, after all. (It's the same with the other two: Rapunzel has (/had) long, golden hair and Elsa has white (/platinum) hair). Then with Hiccup, he's a bit more of a warmer character, more selfless, more of a leader, really. So, summer. (Unlike the others, his hair doesn't really go with it , unless you think of it like being sunburnt ?)
So there.
QOTD: If you were choosing the four's seasons, would you have done anything differently ? (Just curious , idm if you would)