Long Live

Chapter 9

Hey, guys! Hope you enjoy this chapter and happy reading!

"I was going to wake Anna up, like I usually do every morning, but when I went into her tent, she was gone!" Elsa cried.

"Merida's not in her tent either," Hiccup announced, looking through her tent.

"Don't worry, we'll look for them," Jack said, trying to calm down Elsa. "We'll find them for sure."

The six remaining members searched all throughout the campsite for the two missing girls, but came up emptyhanded.

"Where could she have gone?" Elsa said, looking again in Anna's tent in case she missed any clues as to where her whereabouts were.

"Don't worry, Elsa, she couldn't have gone far," Jack said, stroking her shoulder. He saw the others come back from another part of the forest. "Did you find anything?"

They shook their head. "We've looked as far as we can go and there was no sign of either of them," Hannah said.

Elsa cried into Jack's shoulder. He patted her hand, trying to soothe her as best as he could. He looked up at the others. "We have to search the place again," he said, standing up.

Hiccup furrowed his brows. "Jack, I know you mean well, but I don't think they-"

"I said we have to look for them!" Jack said, banging his hand down. 

They all became silent, unsure of whether to listen to Jack, or to head out and start walking.

"If we're going to look for them," Hiccup said, his voice even. "Where would we look?"

All of a sudden, they heard a rumble come from the mountain they were near. A rumble so big that it shook the ground they were standing on. They looked up at the mountain, unusually large rocks falling down from it.

"Up there," Jack said.

"Now how are we going to climb up this mountain?" Hannah asked, looking up the steep summit.

"Well, I've got some spare arrows Merida gave me the day before she...disappeared," Rapunzel said, getting out some arrows from her bag. "Eugene taught me how to climb up with these things."

"You sure the arrows are going to be able to go through this?" Jack asked, feeling the side of the mountain. "This seems too hard for those arrows to break through."

"Oh I'm sure that they will break-" Rapunzel tried to stab one of the arrows through the rock, but instead the rock broke the arrow in half. "Through."

A deep rumble came from the mountain again. They looked worriedly up the mountain.

"How are we going to do this?" Jack frowned, rubbing his forehead.

"Maybe that will," Hannah said, pointing at a smooth terrain circling up the side of the mountain.

"Huh," Jack said. "Was that there before?"

"I don't know, but we've got to hurry," Elsa said, running up the smooth path already. The others followed suit and ran not far behind her.

When they reached a certain point in the mountain where the rumbling was the strongest, they all stopped and saw a cave.

"This mountain is getting more and more suspicious," Jack muttered. He waved to the others to follow him inside.

"Hiccup, can you bring out your sword with the fire?" Rapunzel whispered. "Because this place is giving me the creeps."

Hiccup nodded and took out his sword, the fire lighting up the way.

"Everyone, be as quiet as possible," Jack said. "And keep your ears on alert. There's some strange things going on in this mountain."

After about ten minutes of walking, they stopped upon two different paths.

"There's definitely something living here," Jack murmured.

"Which path should we go through?" Elsa asked.

 "There," Galaxy said, pointing to the path on the right.

"How are you so sure?" Jack said.

"Just listen to her," Hannah hissed, following Galaxy, who was already ahead.

Jack looked to the other three. "What do you think?" he said.

Hiccup shrugged. "I think we should follow her. She seems to know where to go."

The others nodded and started following her, leaving Jack still at the two paths. Uncertainly, he went to the right path, catching up with the others.

How is she so sure about this path? Jack frowned. It's like that time with the sirens. She seems so....familiar with this. How?

 He looked at Galaxy's back, leading them to who knows where.

What are you hiding, Galaxy? he thought.

Pretty soon, they came upon another set of paths. And another. And another. It was like they were inside a maze. But unhesitatingly, Galaxy led them on.

After one particular set of paths, there was only one way to go now. They could now see a burning, flickering red light. It was bright enough that Hiccup didn't have to light up the way anymore with his sword. From where they were standing, they could see shadows of things moving.

"Come on," Jack said, now taking the lead. He slowly and quietly crept to the path, the others following  right behind him. As they got deeper and deeper in the path, they could hear loud sounds coming from the end of the path.

When it seemed that they had reached the end of the path, they stopped at what looked like a dead end.

"No, this can't be happening," Elsa said, looking at the wall. "This can't be a dead end!"

"Up there," Rapunzel pointed, to where they could climb into a hole big enough for them. The all hoisted each other up and found that they were standing behind what appeared to be a huge pile of pots and pans.

"What the-" Jack said.

"Jack, look!" Elsa pointed. Right in front of them, they saw an unconscious Anna and Merida tied up against the opposite side of the room they were in.

"An-" Elsa almost shouted her sister's name but Jack put a hand over her mouth.

"Shh," Jack whispered. "Something doesn't seem right here."

Suddenly, the rumbling they heard started again, only this time it was much closer and louder. Jack noticed that there were big, gaping holes in the wall and out from those walls, came out gigantic rocks.

"Those are really big rocks," Jack said, trying to look closer.

"Those aren't rocks," Galaxy said.

Jack looked at her. "What are they?"

"Trolls."

AN: Thanks for reading and see you in the next chapter!