Of the Northmost Winds and Skies

Chapter 31: The gang ventures into another dark tunnel - willingly, this time

"Burgess! Again?" Jamie looked up at the familiar statue of Thaddeus Burgess and then around. Baby Tooth flew near his head, and apart from her, the entire town seemed void of motion. "Jack?"

"Here," Jack replied, and Jamie spotted him standing in the middle of the street. No cars were about, being the middle of the night, but even if there had been any cars there, they would've just passed through Jack anyway. Jamie hurried up to him, on the brink of losing his head with curiosity.

"How do you feel?" Jamie asked, which was a thing he should get out of the way before bombarding him with the questions he actually wanted to ask.

Jack had been looking around quizzically, but he met Jamie's eyes at the question, his frown softening. "Good," he said, and sounded surprised. "But I guess I'm not currently inhabiting my own body, which is a relief, I gotta say."

Jamie couldn't take it anymore. "What happened? When you fell down that hole? Where did you go? Inside the mountain? Was there really a troll or was Hiccup just joking? It doesn't seem like the kind of thing he'd joke about, though."

"Deep breaths," Jack advised with a laugh, ruffling Jamie's hair. "No, Hiccup wasn't joking."

It was almost too much to handle. Jamie was faintly aware that he was gaping. "What did it look like?" he whispered, without knowing why he felt the need to whisper. "Before it turned to stone, I mean."

"Big and ugly," Jack said, "and hairy. He needed a shower, that George."

"George?"

"Things always seem less terrifying once you give it a name."

"That's incredible," Jamie said, feeling slightly dizzy at the thought of meeting a real-life troll. Of course, the thought had occurred to him, the possibility that they might exist since so many other mythological creatures did, but it had seemed too good to be true. He was struck with a sudden envy that he hadn't been there to see it... but when he thought back to the state of Jack and Hiccup, maybe what he actually should be feeling was relief.

Oh yeah. Jack and Hiccup had seemed thoroughly rattled. If Jamie really had seen what he thought he had seen on the beach just now, it must've been an extraordinarily close brush with death.

Jack and Jamie walked side by side up the street in silence for about four seconds.

"Were you kissing just now?"

Jack looked like he almost tripped on air. He sent Jamie a bewildered look. "What?"

Jamie realized that he maybe hadn't seen what he thought he'd seen. "Uh... nothing," he said convincingly.

"Kissing?" Jack repeated and sounded for a moment like a much younger boy, disgusted by the idea.

Baby Tooth exploded into a series of high-pitched, aggressive chirps, zipping around Jack's head. Jamie took a step back, because he'd never seen her react to anything in that way and it was a bit frightening.

"Wow, wow, wow, wait!" Jack yelped, dodging Baby Tooth's attacks. "Baby Tooth, calm down, I wasn't- Knock it off!" And then he started to laugh, sending Jamie an incredulous stare. "What, why- why on earth would we be... No, no." He shook his head, like he'd never heard anything more outlandish.

"Okay. It just looked like you were," Jamie said, trying not to sound nervous. His face felt incredibly warm.

"Uh, well..." Jack looked like his cheeks were getting warm too. He shifted his gaze, but sent Baby Tooth an amused smile. "We weren't kissing. It's just... It's been a long night, is all. We were both a bit shaken up."