The Big Four

Chapter 11

I wake up on the sand. I glance around. Another island. I nearly shout in frustration.
More pain thunders through my head, and I wince. Make it stop!
I see Rapunzel’s hair streaming through the sand. Well, I assume that it’s her hair. I’ve never seen anyone else with hair that long. But it’s brown. Maybe she magically dyed it?
I see her lying in the sand further off, with Jack leaning over her. The aches subside for a moment, and my ears pop. I’d swear I could hear him crying, but Jack never cries.
The entirety of the situation knocks through me with the next wave of pain.
No...

---

It takes me a few hours to convince myself to stand. Hiccup is back from the woods; I can see him helping Merida to drink some water just a little ways away on the beach.
I force my fists to unclench. They’d arrived just moments after Rapunzel had… had died.
I try to convince myself that it wasn’t their fault, but I can’t quite. If they’d just been there a few moments earlier, maybe she wouldn’t have done what she did. Maybe she’d have lived.
I force myself to walk over to them. “Let’s move,” I say coldly.

---

I try and fail to ignore the pain seeping through me. It’s all I can do not to moan and scream at every shock. I’ve never experienced anything like this.
Jack is much colder towards us. I’m not sure, but I have a few guesses. He might blame us for not being there in time to save Rapunzel. Maybe he was jealous of Hiccup for still having…
Whoa. Slow down. Where did that thought even come from? We are not a couple.
Maybe Jack thinks so. That’s all I can think of to excuse my last thought.

---

It’s all I can do not to punch something. Merida is shuddering almost every waking moment -- which is often, since she hasn’t fallen asleep for about two days.
Wind?
Ever since that time on the boat, I’d found that I could talk to Wind. Telepathically. Yeah, I know. Weird.
Yeah?
Why can’t you just take us to the Haunted Island? Why are we walking across a slippery, frozen ocean?
I would, but… I’m not that strong.
Don’t you blow all over the world?
Yes, but blowing is very different from carrying human beings.
That makes sense.
But I can help you.
How?
No answer. I take a deep breath.

---

I try to close my eyes and sleep - I’m so tired it’s torture - but I’m still painfully awake. I sigh and open my eyes.
Standing in front of us is a tall, pale boy that reminds me of Jack but is still pretty different. If they were normal boys, I’d peg them as cousins.
The boy has hair so white that it makes Jack’s look cobalt. He glistens, as if any moment he might simply turn to air and float away. In his left hand, he holds an ivory staff that has a wisp of cloud twisting around it.
“Who are you?” I ask weakly. I’m actually sort of proud of myself; I managed three whole words!
Another part of me finds it extremely pathetic that I’m congratulating myself on that.
He smiles at me with a hint of pity. I sigh with a flicker of annoyance.
“I’m Wind. Kayden Wind, actually, but everyone calls me Wind.”
Everyone’s speechless for a moment. Jack breaks the silence. “You’re a Spirit?”
Wind - I mean Kayden - laughs. “Of course. What else would I be?”
Jack stammers for a second, then mutters, “I guess that makes sense.”
Kayden smirks. “Of course it does.” He makes a heroic bow. “I’d like to be the fourth member of your party, if you don’t mind.”
“Great, another boy,” I mutter. Apparently spirits have sharp hearing. Kayden laughs, and Jack smirks. Hiccup just smiles. I can’t help but smile, too.
Then comes a current of pain so physical that I fall from Hiccup’s arms and knock myself unconscious on the ice.

---

“Merida?” I lean down on the ice. Her eyes are closed, her breaths are shallow and fast. “Merida, please wake up.”
She groans and curls up into the fetal position, but doesn’t say anything. Her face is creased with pain.
The feeling of helplessness that washes over me is unbearable.
“We have to help her. What’s wrong?”
Kayden leans over her. “I’m not a Healer, but I know enough. She encountered her Haunted in physical form, am I right?”
I manage a weak nod.
“We can’t help her. Her healing is dependant on her conquering her deepest fears. If she’s scared to admit something -- even to herself -- and she keeps it tucked away, that could be doing this. Or maybe she’s scared of losing someone and can’t get over it.”
I nod again.

---

I groan again. I heard everything that Kayden had said.
What am I afraid of?
I have a feeling that it’s something I’m refusing to admit to myself, because I can’t seem to drench up a thing. I mean, other than things like being trapped in a deep, dark space. But I’m not sure that that’s exactly what he meant.
I shudder and take a deep breath. What am I not admitting to myself?

---

“We still have to get to the Haunted Island.”
Hiccup glares at me. “With Merida in this condition?”
“Do you want the Haunteds to find the lockets? They’ll all come after us, Merida included.”
Hiccup hesitates. “Fine,” he mutters as he picks Merida up.
“Want a lift?” Kayden jumps off of the ground and hovers on the ice.
“Sure.”
And, just like that, we’re speeding towards our ultimate goal.

---

The Haunted Island is NOT what I expected it to be.
You’d think that it would be dark and silent and foggy. That there’d be eyes watching you and mysterious beings howling ominously.
Instead, it looked like paradise. The overwhelming scent of flowers wafted off. The sand was a pristine white. Vivid greens, pinks, blues, purples, yellows, oranges, and reds painted the forest like a watercolor. The only ominous thing about it was the silence, which might have even been labeled as peaceful.
Kayden and Jack are talking animatedly, and Merida is clutching her head. She’s bit her lip so hard that it’s bleeding.
“This isn’t Haunted Island,” Jack says.
Kayden sighs. “Sorry. My sense of direction is going totally wacko. I can’t tell where the stupid island is. It’s like it’s being shielded from me.”
Jack huffs in frustration. “There’s got to be a way!”
Kayden clears his throat nervously. “Ummm…”
“We’ve been out here for almost a week and we still haven’t even gotten to the stupid island!”
Kayden stares at the sand.
Jack sighs and leans against his staff, closing his eyes. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have exploded, but I just…”
“Miss Rapunzel,” I guess.
He shoots me a murderous look.
Kayden sighs. “Well, I’ll try to figure out exactly what’s going on. We’ll spend the night here.”
Jack reluctantly agrees. He heads off into the woods for supplies. Kayden flies off to try to correct his sense of direction.

---

Pain. That’s the one word that I can seem to remember.
It thuds through every fiber of my being. I can’t sleep at all. I haven’t eaten in days; anything that I try to consume ends up coming right out my mouth. My throat is raw and sore from lack of water, and my whole body is trembling. My head is so nauseatingly dizzy that I can barely think.
I try to sit up, but I can’t even tell what’s up and what’s down, so nothing happens. I can barely see. I don’t even know exactly what happens. I think that I faintly feel a ping of pain on the back of my head, but it’s so miniscule compared to what’s inside that I can’t be sure it was really even there.
I need to figure out what I’m not admitting. I have to admit it. I have to stop this.
I feel something nagging at the back of my mind, like something I should be realizing but don’t. Like a package of thoughts waiting to be opened. But when I finally do catch it and open it, the thoughts inside have vanished, like I’m trying to keep secrets from myself.
I grasp at the phantom satchel again. Somehow I know that the answer is inside this time, but I hesitate. Do I really want to know?
Another wave of pain nearly crushes me. Where did that thought even come from?
I rip open the bag.