Winter Comes to Berk: Chapter Twelve

by D. O'Shae

Three familiar faces sat around the table and watched him approach. They looked at him with a sadness bordering on a pity that galled Hiccup. He looked away while he tried to pass through the dining area and the galley to get to the bathroom. His mother's hand reached out and snagged his free left arm. Hiccup paused, felt her squeeze, and then release him. He continued to his destination.

An hour later he emerged clean and empty in more ways than one, and stared at the table now laden with food. His stomach gurgled and seized at the sight. Despite the needs of his body, Hiccup felt no desire to eat. He began to walk past them.

"It may not seem like it, lad, but ye'll get over this," Gobber said in his normal voice.

"What if I don't know how… or if I don't want to?" He spat without looking at his mentor.

"Living your life for misery and pain over what can't be undone is no way to live, Hiccup," the man rejoined.

Hiccup spun around, furiously enraged, and snapped: "What is there to live for when everything I try to do to make things right never, ever works and all I'm left with is… death?"

Fishlegs visibly recoiled. His mother appeared shocked. Gobber coolly met his burning gaze.

"Then what are ye going to do?"

The young man wrapped only in a drying sheet instantly made up his mind and replied: "I'm leaving Berk. I'm going to find a place where… where I don't have to remember any of this. I'm done with people I love dying no matter how hard I try to save them. I can't do it anymore."

"Ye know what they say about running…"

"I don't give a damn about what anyone says, Gobber! Not you… not the gods… not anyone. All I get are empty promises and death!"

Finally, even Gobber looked shocked at his vehemence. He saw tears trickle down his mother's cheeks, and it incensed him. She who gave up Berk, her husband, and her child did not earn the right to pass that sort of judgment on him. He let his eyes slide away from her in disgust. Fishlegs appeared frightened, and Hiccup wanted to remind the fat Viking he passed on an opportunity to do any good for one who needed him as he lay dying. He turned from the trio and began to head for the stairs to his room. Packing to get away from Berk became his first priority.

When he started to climb the stairs, he heard the low murmur of conversation. Let them talk, Hiccup said to himself. None of them really helped in the long run. They all passed the responsibility to him in the end. Through his pain he saw their weakness, their inability to be effective when it mattered most, and their hollow words. Hiccup vowed to never be part of such weakness again. The two people whose strength he admired both died and he could do nothing to stop it. The young Viking man also saw his own weakness, and it left a bitter taste in his mouth. He put on some light clothing while his dragon watched.

"Tomorrow, Toothless, tomorrow," he said to his dragon while he began to empty the contents of his newly built dresser onto his bed.

A half an hour after he began to pack bags, he heard the front door open, people shuffle out, and then close. Ten minutes after that he heard the support joist holding the stairs creak. He looked over and saw his mother climb up while balancing a plate.

"I brought you some food, Hiccup. It's seems like a long while since you ate anything," she said and set it on the end of his bureau.

Hiccup did not thank her and said nothing.

"I can see you do intend to leave," she continued. "Where will you go?"

He shrugged. Not that many years before, he and his friends managed to make an outpost on their own. Hiccup believed he could make a small homestead for himself and Toothless. He folded some shirts and stuffed them into a sack. From the corner of his eye, he saw Toothless look from him to his mother and back again.

"It's not easy out there, but… if anyone can make, I think you can."

Hiccup continued to pack.

"I miss the sound of his laughter," Valka said and leaned against the wall. "I never heard laughter so clear… so full of spirit… hope."

Hiccup's entire body seized and he remained motionless.

"The children ask about him, when he's going to return. I don't know what to tell them."

"Tell them he's dead," Hiccup stated in a dry, tight voice. "Don't shield them from the truth."

"Maybe," Valka considered. "You know, I'm going to miss you, Hiccup. I'm going to miss what our relationship was turning into."

"Why? I didn't bother you when you left me as a baby, so it shouldn't bother you now. You've got a lot of practice!"

"Hiccup Horrendous…"

"Don't!" Hiccup yelled and spun around. "Just don't! You picked dragons over me and Dad. I get you felt you were doing something noble and important, but you made a choice. You chose that over us. So don't stand here and think you've got the moral high ground to tell me what I'm doing or saying is out of line. You don't get to do that!"

Valka looked as though she wanted to argue, but then she closed her mouth and nodded her head. After a few seconds, Hiccup returned to his packing. The silence in the room went beyond awkward. It took on a malignancy. The young man skipped folding clothes and just started jamming them into his packs.

"I know you loved him…"

"STOP!" He screamed while whirling around again.

Toothless let out with a roar. His mother appeared scared of him. He panted like he just run a long, grueling race.

"I… never got the chance to love him," Hiccup growled at her, his eyes burning with fury. "I never got the chance to tell him. He died without knowing… and don't tell me he knew! Everything that could've been is gone, Mom. Gone! Dead!"

He watched as her neck bobbed while she swallowed.

"You… you walked away from love when you had it. Dad loved you so much… always loved you and forgave you when he found you. All I have is a dead body… a body of someone who shouldn't have been able to die… but our world killed him! Just like it kills everything!"

Tears edged out of her eyes while she said: "Is this all you're going to live for, Hiccup: this anger and bitterness?"

"What else is left for me?" He said in a dull but dangerous tone.

Mother stared at son for ten seconds. Then she cast her eyes away, turned, and headed down the stairs. Hiccup watched her leave with a heart seething a pain he could not describe. Everything around him smelled burned. He glared at the spot his mother just vacated, furious she found the nerve to try and lecture him. Hiccup returned to his packing. Little by little he cleared the contents of his room that survived the vandalism of the war. Four heavy packs lay at the foot of his bed. He thought about going down and washing out his riding gear, but he decided against. With more than one set in his possession, it could wait until he found a place to settle. He already decided where he would go. His first choice his mother and two others knew about, but many existed he never told them about. One in particular seemed just right. Winter would barely visit him there.

Hiccup ate the food his mother left a little while later. He sat at his empty desk studying his maps, avoiding thinking about the pain that always wanted to rear up and consume him, while the sky grew dark outside. Toothless went off at one point to find a meal for himself. Part of Hiccup worried he might be asking too much of dragon after the harrowing ordeal the day before. A single day's rest might not be enough for another extended flight. However, Hiccup plotted a route using some of the waystations he never divulged to the others. He would travel in stealth and in such a manner that no one from Berk would be able to follow. The Viking fully intended to leave everyone behind and, he prayed, some part of the gloom in his spirit. When Toothless returned looking pleased and satiated, the rider spent some time grooming and prepping the dragon.

"It's going to be a long trip, Toothless, but we'll do it in short jumps," he said while oiling the hide with a salve that would soak in and not leave it greasy.

Toothless crooned in delight at the ministrations. Spending time caring for his best friend gave him a brief respite from the sadness filling him. Seeing Toothless happy, he decided, would become his life's goal. He intended to find the place where night furies lived. While he might choose to live alone, that did not mean Toothless needed to be consigned to the same fate. The plan congealed in his head, and Hiccup believed it logical and workable. Darkness covered Berk, and he felt at home in it. Several times throughout the evening he heard his mother moving around down in the lower half of the house, and he let her be as he tended to his dragon. He saw to Toothless' needs until lethargy overcame him.

"Bedtime, bud, and we start early in the morning," he told his dragon while stripping down to his undergarments and hunting around for another blanket that he ultimately dug out from one of his packs.

Hiccup extinguished the lights and crawled into bed. He saw light down in the lower part of the house, but years of ignoring it allowed him to drift into slumber. He longed for the quiet certainty of unconsciousness. Sleep did come, but even in his unconscious state he felt ill at ease. He could sense a darkness, darker than a moonless midnight sky covered over with black clouds, looming in the distance. It seemed to be watching him. It gave off a feeling of cold the Viking suspected the late Guardian would not like. It sucked at the soul. Hiccup became deeply troubled.

The air appeared to shift around his slumbering mind.

"Thou must tell him to pass, mortal," a voice in his dream said. "Balance in this world cannot be restored until he does."

Hiccup knew the comments to be directed at him, but sleep seemed more fitting.

"Dost thou not heed what I tell thee?"

"Leave me alone," Hiccup grumbled.

"Young mortal, thou saw to his needs at the end, and now thou must beseech him to complete the journey," the voice angrily told him.

Hiccup sat up in bed. He recognized the voice. He glanced around and noticed his bedroom walls no longer stood around him. Even Toothless' nest went missing. The panic rising in him warred with the knowledge he dreamed and simply became lucid. His native curiosity, however, betrayed him.

"Figure it out for yourself," he grumbled at the strange night around him. Overhead pinpricks of starlight twinkled.

"'Tis merely a matter of thou giving him command, and thou needs make haste."

"No."

In the distance he saw a figure take shape and walk toward him. It looked like an older human man, but the coloration seemed all wrong. It vacillated from grays and whites to greenish-yellows and blacks. The humanoid form possessed arms and legs, but most other features remained indistinct. All save the face. Hiccup saw the face clearly on a man who easily stood twenty feet tall and stared down at him. The face appeared as a composite of every elder Hiccup ever knew, both male and female. Hair that looked wavy, although closer examination showed it nothing more than varied bumps and lumps with mixed coloration, framed a face that looked anywhere from forty to one hundred years old. Yet the eyes held Hiccups attention the most. They situated themselves a little too far apart beside the aquiline nose. The looked like the bottom of storm clouds: a variant of black that appeared simultaneously hostile and soft.

"Lord of Winter," Hiccup slowly said the name.

"Verily, and thou hast duty to this world to set aright this problem it now faces," the unthinkably large man told him.

"It's not my problem," he replied and lay down on the bed.

"Oh, nay? This hast thy handiwork all about it, Hiccup of the Hooligans. Thou interfered with the natural progress of Jack Frost, and now he refuses to obey injunctions rightly given to him!"

"Jack is dead. Leave me alone. This is just a dream."

"This is no dream!" Thursar H'rim spoke in a voice that shook the foundations of the world.

Hiccup sat upright, but not from fear. Grief and sorrow left no room to be afraid. Moreover, he faced this one being before. Hiccup no longer respected Lord of Winter.

"Your Isemaler passed from your mortal world, but he refuses to pass for this demesne. He resists the call of the Breathless One. It upsets the tides of nature. He must pass, and thou must urge him to do this!" Lord of Winter told him in an authoritarian tone.

"No," Hiccup refused again.

Clouds built in the sky, winds whipped up, and the temperature dropped as if Hiccup fell through the ice into a frozen river. The immortal's anger thrashed all around him, and yet Hiccup found it impotent. It no longer mattered to him who got angry. Furthermore, if Jack truly served as the source of the being's vexation, then it brought him a humorless sense of joy.

"If you're so powerful, then you get him to do it," the Viking said while lying down again, and wrapping the blanket over his shoulders, facing away from the immortal.

"Thou must do as bid lest I bring a chill so cold none of thy family or friends will ever be free of it. They will be as statues of ice!"

"Go ahead. I can't stop you either way. Freeze me while you're at it."

"And thy winged beast?"

That thought chilled Hiccup, but he did not fall for what he perceived as a trick.

"Why would a dragon make any difference to you if you're willing to kill hundreds of people?" Hiccup asked, bitterness overflowing in each word. "Just get it over with."

The winds stopped. The temperature normalized. A slow roll of thunder rumbled overhead.

"Thou hast no conception of the fate that will befall this world," Thursar H'rim said in a more normal tone. "The Breathless One's will focus on your Jack Frost to the exclusion of all others. It is beyond thy imaginings to understand what occurs when death halts. Thou hast no nightmares of its sort."

"Fine," Hiccup whispered.

"Thou art a fool among fools, mortal!"

"Leave him be, Thursar," a woman's voice the size of all the world said.

"Mȧne?" Lord of Winter exclaimed the word in total surprise.

"I've not used that mantle since you brought the first time of ice."

"And you went missing from the sky!"

"No, child, you just did not how to look for me."

"You abandoned us!"

It sounded like an infinite chuckle to Hiccup, but even that could not explain what he heard.

"Thursar, you looked upon me countless time during your winter nights. I kept vigil on the world as ribbons of color," the endless female voice said.

"Northern lights," Hiccup whispered. "Noro, the Sky Dancer!"

"So it is, little Hiccup. I am Noro to you now, my dear winter," she said and he felt her smile.

"That was you?" Thursar grumbled. "All this time when we needed your guidance…"

"You and all the others quickly grew beyond my guidance, Bodach Geamhradh."

Hiccup felt the world shift around him, as though reality itself became altered. Suddenly he knew fear. Noro the Sky Dancer unleashed something even more powerful than Lord of Winter, yet nothing seemed harmed. He hid under his blanket.

"My lady," Thursar H'rim replied in obeisance.

"And it is true Aita becomes fixated on this one defiant creature, but this mortal is not the answer you seek."

"My Lady Noro, this mortal enraptured a tunglskin sveinstaul not of our realm. If we seek to break the insolent will…"

"Are you so old, Thursar, that you've forgotten passion?" Noro the Sky Dancer asked and again a chuckle the size of the ocean rippled through Hiccup. "There is only one who can tame this child."

The Viking became acutely aware the beings around him were gods in their own manner to one such as himself. The air tingled with power the likes of which Hiccup could never know and could never understand. He lay huddled against himself.

"Elada, I need your counsel," Noro spoke, and her words felt like endless time.

"My Lady?" Thursar H'rim said in what sounded like shock.

A bright, silvery light appeared and pierced even the blanket, and the air grew dense with even more energy. Hiccup became doubly nervous. This so exceeded his imagination he did not know what to fear, and even that part of his mind threatened to shut down. He lay quietly hoping to be ignored.

"Beautiful Noro," a light tenor voice said, and it tinkled like bells made of the purest, thinnest metal.

"Dear Elada," Noro the Sky Dance addressed the new entity.

"Sire," Thursar H'rim mumbled, and Hiccup got the impression Lord of Winter bowed.

Hiccup dared not look, and the intense light continued to shine. He feared he would go blind if he saw it. A small sliver of his brain attempted to convince him a dream took shape around him, but Hiccup knew better.

"Dear Elada, I'm afraid one of your children met his end on this world and now refuses to listen to the song. He draws too much of the attention of Aita," Noro explained to the other great being.

"My Jack Frost perished here? How is this possible?" The airy voice of Elada questioned.

"In my folly long ago I created beasts that can feast on my primal children, but only as an annoyance. I meant to keep them aware of what is around them. To one such as your child, so limited in ability and removed from his home, it proved lethal to his form," Noro told Elada. "And now he will not obey Aita."

"Sweet Jack," Elada said and Hiccup felt the warmth of an affection that sought to ease his sorrow. "Doing ever as I expected of him. Can you see why I would grant him this life?"

"He entertains, and his love of the mortal children impresses, Elada. You chose well in that one, but his life expired. He now consumes the thoughts of Aita to the woe of all others. Death cannot pause, and you know this."

"Then we must have words with Aita," Elada replied.

"Perhaps we should," Noro agreed.

Then Elada said: "Aita, we beg your attention and wisdom. Come forward so we may share a time together."

A sound exists that encapsulates silence. It exists in a way that mortal ears cannot perceive or the mortal mind can comprehend. When it arrived, Hiccup could not even hear his own thoughts. It seemed his existence became lost in the eternal completeness of the silence. It became so immense he did not even know how to be afraid of it.

"Aita," Elada, Noro, and Thursar H'rim said in reverent unison.

"We welcome you," Noro added.

"You honor us," Elada stated.

Thursar H'rim said nothing.

The silence took on a palpable form even Hiccup could sense under his blanket. It changed shape, and the Viking got an inkling of an idea so pure he barely understood it.

"Yes, he resists," Elada replied to odd form of communication. "It is his nature, Aita. He did not come here of his own choosing, and now I think he seeks to return home."

Reality took on a varied configuration, and Hiccup grew confused.

"Who could have anticipated that interaction?" Noro inquired. "Will given freedom makes for unintended results."

"And my Jack chose his path unlike any of my other children," Elada commented to the concept that swirled around them.

Hiccup felt his mind changing again as the fabric of nature assumed a new form.

"Can you claim a life such as his when it did not originate in this realm? Does this not violate even your few rules?"

Hiccup could not fathom what Elada meant, yet it seemed a potent argument. Reality transmogrified again, yet he felt a threat in the new shape.

"You cannot blame the mortal. Chance allowed them to meet. That they would feel as they do toward one another is no one's making but their own," Noro replied.

Hiccup felt heart break anew. A god confirmed what he only dared hope just days ago. It fueled the reason why he confronted Lord of Winter. Everything he did he would do again even knowing it still might not save Jack's life.

"And I accept your complaint Jack may not have experienced enough mortal life, but what he gave so willingly… letting him pass would've been the greater tragedy, and I think you agree," Elada countered.

Tears slid out of his eyes as he relived again the pain of Jack's death. He barely noticed when the world warped around him.

"No own knows why they can feel so strongly. In my realm it becomes toxic at times," Elada answered the living abstraction.

"But it is part of their marvel, is it not? Would you have it any other way, Aita?" Noro challenged.

Despite being wrapped in his broken dreams and grief, the Viking sensed the change in everything as a concept unknowable to him emerged. He felt the bed jostle and worried he drew too much attention with his unchecked emotions. Then the edge of his blanket jerked. Something pulled it out of his grip. The bright, silver light seeped in, blinding him for a moment when a shadow blocked it. After his eyes adjusted, Hiccup found himself looking into a pair of ice-blue eyes, a face of bluish-pink skin framed by white hair, and ears that stuck out on each side.

"Hello, Hiccup," Jack said and smiled, and his teeth gleamed as white as new snow.

Hiccup could not breathe. His mind became so chaotic landing on a single thought became impossible. This dream, he started to think, turned into a nightmare. He believed his eyes lied to him and his sanity finally snapped. He opened his mouth, but he found no words to speak.

"I missed you, and I'm sorry if I worried you, and it's why I couldn't leave," Jack told him.

"J-J-Jack?" Hiccup stuttered name.

"I couldn't listen to the Breathless One because I had to talk to you."

Hiccup soundlessly nodded and not because he understood what happened: he simply acknowledged Jack spoke to him. It all seemed an impossibility to him. He knew Jack to be dead. He held his corpse in his arms. He heard the immortals confess to Jack's death.

"What you did… you faced Thursar for me, you and Toothless, when it could've killed both of you. Then what you went through pulling those things out of me. I couldn't leave knowing you did that and what it meant to me without saying something to you. I think it's why I can't hear the Breathless One properly. I keep hearing something else."

"What?" Hiccup managed to say a single word.

"I keep hearing… not hearing, not really, but it's like a sound… sort of. It's louder than what the Breathless One says to me. I think you're the source of it, Hiccup. So, I have to ask you a question so I can understand it," Jack tried to explain, and grinned through the entire mangled explanation.

"Okay," the Viking numbly agreed.

"Do you love me?"

Hiccup nodded.

"Okay. Good, because, ah, I figured out I love you, too, Hiccup. I thought you might want to know that."

As if he sat atop Toothless, Hiccup shot out from under the blanket, tackling the elemental while sliding across the sheets. They rolled off the bed and onto what could only be called the ground. Jack laughed, a pure, clean sound as any Hiccup ever heard. The Viking held the elemental's face in his hands to be certain of the reality of it. Whether he slid into insanity or not, Hiccup want to seize the moment and accept it as real. His green eyes gazed into the blue ones waiting for them to disappear. When they stayed focused on him for three heartbeats, he leaned forward and kissed the forehead. Cool skin, the skin of a winter elemental, met his lips. Tears raced down Hiccup's cheeks and he prayed he would remain that insane forever. Fear and joy battled within his body from head to toe.

"I don't think I'm going anywhere, Hiccup," Jack told him with a chuckle.

"How?" Hiccup whispered and his nerves jangled.

Jack looked to the side, and Hiccup followed his line of sight. He saw the ridiculously tall Lord of Winter. Next to him stood a woman, round of breast and hip, skin as dark as a roasted walnut, dressed in a gauzy film of a dress. The fabric's colors shifted from green to blue to white with touches of red, yellow, and orange. Her eyes blazed an indescribable green. No doubt, the Viking thought, he gazed at Noro the Sky Dancer. Beside her a figure stood that radiated a simple silver-white light. No features save for what looked like arms, legs, and a head could be seen. Since Hiccup guessed Noro and knew Thursar H'rim, he surmised it to be the one called Elada.

Across from the three he saw a fourth figure. The more Hiccup stared at it, the more he became uncertain and more than bit frightened. One second it assumed the form of a small girl, then a middle aged man, and then an elderly man only to shift to a young woman who grew ancient in less time than it took a heart to beat. It changed on and on and on without any seeming end. It never held the same appearance for longer than a second, yet each looked as individual and distinct as if real. Hiccup looked to Jack with questions in his eyes.

"That is Aita, the Breathless One of this demesne," Jack said with considerable awe. "Since I would not go into the void, Aita brought me here. The Man in the Moon gave me a body, and Lord of Winter allowed me to tap into his power again."

"No, child of Elada," Noro the Sky Dancer said. "You take your power directly from Elada. He is your maker and your source."

Jack stood and faced Elada, twirling his crook in his left hand that appeared from nowhere, he bowed and said: "Thank you, Father Moon."

The Man in the Moon, shining with heatless light, tilted his head toward Jack. Hiccup got up as well, hanging onto Jack's arm, and staring at the assembled beings. He figured he went completely batty or he would never live to talk about the unusual meeting. He glanced from figure to figure, although he did not like to look at Aita. Hiccup saw Jack wore his usual leather britches, the strange sky-blue hooded shirt with finely detailed designs made of frost and ice, and completely shoeless. The important part, in the Viking's estimation, came in the sense that Jack gave every impression of being alive and real.

Hiccup suddenly felt as if he moved a thousand miles while standing still and got pulled in every conceivable direction without being touched. He nearly stumbled save that Jack kept stationary. Four faces angled toward Aita.

"It no longer resides in the cave. Noro gave me leave to bring it here, Aita," Elada answered a question. "It is attuned to him."

"It is not natural to this world although it accepts it now, and none can predict what could or would be done with it," Noro stated.

The world turned inside out and back again. The mortal Viking thought he would get sick from the sensation, especially the one inside his head. It spun as if on a child's string toy.

"I will not force him," Elada bluntly said and his light pulsed once. "In my realm he is still considered alive. If your song cannot compel him, then neither shall I. I have no need of a mind slave, Aita: I need a free thinking Guardian, for therein is found his real strength."

The Breathless One, constantly shifting appearance at a dizzying pace, turned and faced Jack. Hiccup noticed with horror the eyes were missing, and what sat in the place of the orbs could only be called nothing. Hiccup felt the gaze pulling at him, so he shut his eyes. Then he felt it.

Come.

Hiccup screamed and dropped to his knees. He wrapped his arms around his head hoping he did so fast enough to keep his skull from splitting open. It felt like something inflated his brain to one hundred times its normal size. It tried to contain a concept so vast the world could barely hold onto it. He felt Jack crouch down next to him and place a protective arm across his shoulders. The elemental young man pointed his staff at Aita as if to ward it off.

"No," Jack flatly refused. "Do that again to him and I will spend eternity refusing you!"

Reality spun and turned in its head, but nothing change position.

"Maybe you don't know what gratitude is, Aita, but I owe this mortal so much. When I had no one else in this realm, he cared for me. I never asked. As I lay dying, he risked his life… that is more important to mortals than to us, and he did it without a pause," Jack said with remarkable calm and steel in his voice. "Hiccup has claims on my life before you."

"Do you understand what you say?" Elada asked, but it did not hold any reproof.

"This is a mighty onus," Noro warned.

"I do. You said you gave me a will to make my own decisions, Father Moon," Jack replied.

"I did, child," the Man in the Moon answered.

"But I didn't choose this," he said while reaching down to take hold of Hiccup's hand. "I didn't choose to feel what I feel for this man. It happened, and I don't know why, but I won't give it up!"

"Thou hast been touched by the Flesh Hungerer," Thursar H'rim said after an incredibly long silence.

"That does not answer his emotions," Noro the Sky Dancer remarked, her colors shimmered and changed.

Hiccup, twining his fingers with Jack's, sensed mountains building and then wearing away in an instant as oceans filled and dried out. It set his eyes out of focus.

"Perhaps he does have too mortal of a heart," Elada stated, but again without judgment. "I do not see this as a flaw, Aita. Perhaps it is what allowed him to define his own sense of purpose."

Reality then folded in on itself as if made of dough and a celestial baker kneaded it. Hiccup felt oddly contorted, but whole.

"Jack Frost, you created a dilemma, and I am curious to know how you see your way out of it," Noro inquired.

Jack stood and dragged Hiccup with him. The Guardian looked from immortal to immortal without any discernible trace of fear, something Hiccup greatly admired. The elemental also appeared perplexed. His eyebrows twitched and drew together. Hiccup heard him sigh and, while unintended, it gave the impression this might be routine for the Spirit of Fun.

"What dilemma?" Jack Frost asked.

"Aita needs to collect a life, and yours in particular since you expired in this realm. This cannot be denied, yet you refuse to heed the call. Aita cannot be owed a debt for eternity. This is the dilemma, my child," Elada explained.

"I would go with the Breathless One if…"

"No!" Hiccup sputtered and squeezed Jack's hand. "I want him to stay, but not for me. His duty is too important to… us mortals. You can't deny the children of my world or his the joy he brings in the winter."

"Verily," Thursar H'rim agreed, although it sounded grudging.

"Mortal, if he passes from this world, then he returns to the one of his creation," Elada said directly to Hiccup.

"That is a complication," Noro added her voice. "The mortal young of this world believe in your Jack Frost, Elada. They call him Isemaler. He is now part of this realm. How else could he perish here? It is part of what allows him to resist Aita. Their belief in him is his power, as it is in your demesne, and it grounds him here."

"The progeny of the mortals have taken to him," Thursar H'rim dryly noted, "oft before they note my work."

"It is the hallmark of a Guardian," Elada replied and the pleased tone in his voice could not be missed.

"But the young here do not face the same perils those in your realm, dear Elada. I could not come to make creatures as you wrought," Noro countered.

"Do not face..." Jack sputtered, but cut himself off.

"Speak, Jack," Elada commanded him after a few moments of silence.

"Before I got attacked by… what where those things?" The youngest of immortals inquired.

"Spokelsedrake," Hiccup and Thursar H'rim uttered in unison.

Hiccup saw Lord of Winter aim a small frown at him, and then he found Jack's hoodie to be much more interesting.

"Those things," Jack agreed and continued. "I went to Tykkstein… to visit the children, but I was too late. The volcano erupted and… wiped out all the people… including the children. Can you even think for a second what they must've felt? That… horror as the world turned against them… ate them alive?"

None of the immortals answered.

"You sit in your lofty places… maybe not Aita," the Spirit of Fun mumbled the last bit and nodded toward the Breathless One who, surprisingly, nodded in return. "You've never looked into the eyes of children who can't understand what's going on, what's happening to them, except that it's frightening and beyond their control. You don't know what it's like to be… mortal and to be that afraid. Mistress Noro..."

Noro the Sky Dancer inclined her head toward him. The black sky with the glowing motes of stars behind her added to the mystical aspect. Hiccup again wondered if he dreamed something fantastic, but could not think of any like it in his past. He accepted the moment as real. Moreover, he marveled at Jack's composure and willingness to stand up to the powerful beings. Jack Frost intrigued the Viking anew.

"To be alive is to always be in peril every moment of that life. It almost defines mortality. My sister…" Jack said and faltered a second. "All I wanted for her at the last moment was to not be afraid so she could do what she needed to do to stay alive… to face that peril for one more day."

A silence lingered.

"Do any of you understand that?" Jack begged.

"Through you, yes, my child," Elada stated and the words tinkled like crystal bells.

"Father, can you see now what Hiccup risked for me? Do you have any idea what it means to me… and why I could not hear Aita?"

Although the face held no discernible features and looking into it made his eyes water, Hiccup glanced up and could swear he saw an invisible smile in the brilliant light. He felt Jack's strong fingers dig into his hand, and he did the same.

"There is much to consider here," Noro murmured, although he soft voice would carry across every ocean on Halla.

Then shining Elada, shimmering Noro, and grim Aita faced one another. Thursar H'rim stood to one side, but appeared to listen. Hiccup wanted to ask Jack a question, but suddenly everything he thought twisted into soggy mud and slipped out of his grip. He blacked out while standing up. When Hiccup awoke after what felt like years, he found he slumped against Jack, who held him up.

"A life is owed to Aita," Elada said, and it sounded to Hiccup like he missed something. "That cannot be denied. Yet the life Aita wants is connected to one of my children who, for better or worse, formed a presence here. In doing so, Aita now tries to claim an immortal life, and that is not permissible unless Jack submits… and I hardly think he is willing at this juncture. Are we agreed on this?"

Aita and Noro nodded. Jack nodded. Thursar H'rim stayed motionless. Hiccup glanced about.

"Are we also agreed that Jack Frost shall live out a mortal life here in this demesne while also carrying out his calling, returning to my demesne on the full moon for one night during his life here to also see to his duty there?"

Once more all nodded save Lord of Winter and Hiccup. Hiccup sorted through the words to find the exact meaning.

"Before you expire here, my dear Jack, Noro will send to you one chosen to become Isemaler in your stead. You will share with this youngling all the secrets of your craft. You shall turn over your crook…"

Suddenly Jack pulled his staff in close to his body.

"One shall await your return home, Jack Frost," Elada gently told him. "But the one you have here is now attuned to this world as you have become attuned to it. It has needs to stay and remain with the new Isemaler. Are we agreed on this?"

Aita and Noro nodded, as did Jack who did so with less certainty.

"When you have satisfied the command, Jack, when you are an aged mortal, your time here will end. You will physically die in this realm. You will then submit to the call of Aita, heed the song, and pass out of this world to return to ours. Are we agreed on this?" Elada once again inquired.

"What about Hiccup? What happens to him?" Jack asked before any could make an answer to the Man in the Moon.

"What happens to the mortal Hiccup is what happens to all mortals: who can tell?" Noro answered with a small smile on her mouth, but it did not seem mocking. "We do not write the future, Jack Frost… save yours in a limited fashion. This Hiccup will live his life according to his dictates, needs, and will. What befalls him shall come from his actions and choices, as it does to every mortal."

"You ask for guarantees about his life, my child, and we can give none. We can only offer a mortal life to you because it is within our power and Aita agrees," Elada continued. "You are not one of them, dear Jack, although your heart remains very much with them. That is your gift and the source of your power. This is what you bring to me and why you must return. We offer this to you so as to spare your heart this time and allow it to grow."

Jack nodded his head.

"Then we are agreed?"

Aita, Noro, Jack, and Elada all nodded. Even Thursar H'rim nodded. Hiccup knew his vote did not count in the matter at hand.

Elada held out his right hand, and Noro grasped it. Elada held out his left hand, and Aita clasped it, although the hand repeatedly changed shape. The trio stepped forward. Hiccup wanted to step backward, but Jack did not move. He faced the advancing immortals.

"My child, all we said is now granted to you," the Man in the Moon told the Spirit of Fun. "Go and live a life unlike the one you have lived these past three hundred years. Remember your mortality, cling to it, and let it guide you. When you return to me in full, you will be so much more than you ever were."

"Thank you, Father Moon," Jack said in a quiet voice. "Thank you, Noro, and watch over me."

The young elemental man then turned to the Breathless One and said: "Thank you, Aita. When the time comes, I swear I will heed you and follow your song without any fight."

Uncharacteristically for the second time, Aita nodded its head. Hiccup felt a strange easing within his chest. The three greater immortals released their handhold with one another.

"Thursar H'rim, we'll be like brothers in the winter," Jack said and chuckled.

"Thou art an impudent upstart, Jack Frost who is Isemaler, and I welcome thee," Lord of Winter said and also tilted his head.

"And for you, Hiccup," Elada said and turned his head toward the Viking. "My thanks to you for guarding over my child, and seeing to his well being. Be released from your grief and know peace in your heart."

Hiccup nodded his head. The Man in the Moon then twisted his seeming face toward Noro, and she smiled. A silvery arm then rose up. A gleaming finger extended from the glowing hand. It touched Hiccup directly in the center of his forehead. A sensation like a cool wind on a summer day washed over him. He closed his eyes, and tension eased from his body. Hiccup felt Jack's hand in his, and he smiled.

"Hiccup!" A woman's voice yelled out his name and he heard something crash to the ground.

Hiccup sat bolt upright in his bed. He turned his head wildly about searching for the distress. He saw his mother staring wide-eyed at him. Then he felt a small commotion on his left, and Jack sat up.

"Please, Lady Valka, I'm trying to sleep," the Guardian said in a sleepy voice. "It was a long night."

Jack then flopped down back onto the bed and covered his brown-haired head with the blanket. Toothless rumbled from his nest. Hiccup grinned at the complaint of his best winged friend.

"Hiccup?" His mother hissed his name as a question.

"Yeah, it's really him, Mom," Hiccup replied and could not keep the joy out of his voice. "And it's a long story. I'll tell you about it at lunch."

Then he, too, lay back down. His left arm reached out for the reassuring presence of Jack. He pulled the thin young man close to him. Jack sighed. Hiccup fell back into the best sleep of his life.

Above the heads of the sleeping duo, the grumbling dragon, and the astonished woman, thunder rippled like glass chimes in a spring breeze.

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