The Big Four

Chapter 4

“H-Hiccup?”
I can’t believe I’m alive. Hiccup is carrying me. My head feels woozy, like it was squeezed through a wine-press and mushed into juice.
“Yeah. Are you OK?”
His concern is etched onto his face.
“Yeah. I can walk.”                     
He slowly sets me down. However, as soon as I take a step, my head spins and I fall backwards.
“No, you can’t.” You lifts me back into his arms. I can’t reply for a minute; my head is spinning and swerving faster than the MacIntosh clan dancers.
“I’m… OK…”
The concern on his face deepens, and I wish I hadn’t spoken.
I take a deep breath and close my eyes. The light feeling in my head turns to an ache, and back again.
“What happened?” he asks.
“I don’t… It said… I…” I groan.
“It’s OK. Rapunzel can help.”
I don’t reply. I just try to keep breathing.

---

She’s awake. She can speak.
That’s good news, right?
Not that I care, of course.
“Rapunzel!” I shout. She looks up and walks over. I set Merida gently on the sand. She moans, but otherwise lay still.
Rapunzel sings and sings again, but Merida doesn’t move.
“Why can’t you help her?”
Her face is pale. “I don’t… I don’t know…” She looks like she’s on the verge of panic.
“It was a Haunted.”
I look up at Jack, who had just spoken. “What?”
“She heard a Haunted. Her Haunted.”
“So? How do we help her?”
“Let her rest. She has to heal on her own; magic can’t reverse the curse.”
Merida just moans again. I feel like screaming.

---

Everything is blurry, like I’m seeing through fog. Hiccup is leaning over me, and I’m lying on the sand. I can’t see Rapunzel or Jack anywhere.
“What… what happened?” I manage to sputter.
“Rapunzel can’t help. According to Jack, you met your Haunted. He doesn’t know how to heal you…” He seems to choke on his own words. My head must be really messed up, because it looks almost like he’s about to cry.
“He said.. He…” Now I’m the one on the verge of tears.
“Ssshh. It’s OK. I’m here now.”
Why does that comfort me so well? Just his presence is soothing. My head must’ve been hit hard by that ghost.
I drift back into unconsciousness.

---

I want to punch something.
Jack and Rapunzel have gone to search for more supplies. Merida drifts in and out of unconsciousness. Every single time she closes her eyes, there’s a chance that they’ll never open again.
It’s enough to drive a man insane.
I see something floating on the distant waters. At first, I think that it’s a sea dragon. Then I see the flag.
“Vikings.”
I stand. Jack and Rapunzel aren’t back yet. We have to leave the beach. But if I don’t wait for them, we might not find each other again.
But Merida.
She’s still unconscious on the sand. The Vikings aren’t far away now. They may or may not actually be able to see us. With the speed of a ship like that, they’ll reach land in minutes.
I don’t think. I scoop her up and run into the thick woods.

---

When I wake up, I’m again in Hiccup’s arms, running through the forest.
“Where… What…” My voice cracks. I hate this weakness.
“Vikings. They found the island.”
Oh.
“Your clan? Or…”
“Mine.”
The ones that took me captive. That killed my brothers.
With a gasp, I realize: That might still have my parents captive.
He doesn’t slow. I don’t know where we’re going, and he probably doesn’t either.
We’re just running.
“Where are Jack and Rapunzel?”
“I don’t know.”
I swallow. We lost them.

---

I keep running. Most full-grown men would probably have tired by now, but growing up a Viking put extra strength in my bones.
The desperation to keep her safe probably had a lot to do with it too.
A cave is up ahead. Hopefully we can hide out there until the Vikings leave.
I go as far back as I dare and lay sleeping Merida on the ground.

---

We shove through the last few brambles and emerge onto the beach.
Everything takes a moment to process. The three ships floating offshore, the smaller boats docked on the sandbank. The hundreds of Vikings.
Rapunzel screams as a tall, burly Viking grabs her arm. I don’t have time to process what’s happening before my hands are tied behind my back. My staff is nowhere to be seen.
Rapunzel is only a few feet away. Some Viking is messing with her hair, marveling at its length. I growl.
“What do we have here?”
A tall, muscled Viking with the insignia of Chieftain steps forward. He glances at me, quickly determining that I’m nothing of worth. He waves his hand, and I find myself being dragged towards a boat.
“Jack!” Rapunzel shouts after me.
“It’s OK! I’ll find you!”
The men shove me into the boat and shove off, laughing.

---

I take a deep breath. I could sing, but I can’t make myself. I could wipe out every Viking on this beach, but I just can’t.
Not again.
“Who’s this?” He taps the bottom of my chin. I try to back away, but I run straight into the chest of another Viking.
The tall one laughs.
“What’s your name?”
I don’t answer, and his face hardens.
“What’s your name?” he growls.
I hesitate. “Rapunzel.”
“And where are you from, Rapunzel?”
“I…” I want to say ‘I don’t know,’ but I doubt that he’ll like that very much. Unfortunately, I honestly don’t know.
“Answer me.”
“I don’t know.”
“How do you not know?”
I really, really don’t want to explain my past to a Viking, but I’m scared not to.
“I was locked in a tower in the middle of a forest somewhere.”
“Why?”
OK, that I refuse to answer. He can chop me up into little bits. I’ll take this secret to my grave.
He seems to see the determination of a secret flash in my eyes.
“There are other ways to get you to talk,” he announces. His gaze turns to my captor. “Bring her aboard the ship. I expect to see her and her companion in the mess hall in ten minutes.”
He starts shouting orders concerning dragon-hunting and traps to the rest of his men, but I can’t hear him.
I know what he’s planning.
I can’t let him hurt Jack.