The Fearless Winds

Chapter Ten

Even though Merida's two little balls of flame never went out, they all still did a face-wall.

"Well, she did say that we would get it," Jack said, rubbing his nose. "Still came as a shock, though."

"Yeah, you bet," Hiccup said, his forehead forming a bruise. 

"At least it doesn't feel like I'm going to get a black eye," said Merida. "Those truly suck."

"All that's left is to turn left," Jack said. 

"Was that a pun?" Hiccup asked.

Jack laughed. "Ha! Sadly, no."

"Turn left where?" Merida asked. "Without the puns, please?"

There was no way that the small little group could turn left. The supposed left turn was just a blank wall. 

"Well," Hiccup said, "we still did the face-plant even when we had light. Let's just try it  and see how it goes."

"It's suicide," Jack said,. "Let's try it."

Taking the lead, Jack walked slowly to the left wall. Hesitantly, he held out his hand, and it went through the wall. Giving a backward glance, he walked through the wall. Merida and Hiccup looked at each other, then went through the wall.

It felt like walking through molasses. The fire that Merida had provided was lit out with a sizzling pop. Neither Merida or Hiccup could open their mouths to talk, they could barely even breathe. 

Without the fires, the the walk through was black. Finally, they reached the end, and they fell to the ground, gasping for breath. 

"That was terrifying," Merida said.

"That was wet. It looks like Toothless gave me a bath or something. Oh, hey, Bud."

Toothless and Björn came out of the wall, apparently fine. This time, Toothless was a tall, black shaggy dog. He shook, and thick, gel stuff came flying off of his coat.

Merida stood and got s good look around the room. It was dark, with one window in the roof shining somewhere far away. Cages hung from the ceiling, and several impossible sets of stairs were around the room. Hiccup stood up.

"Where's Jack?" he asked. "Didn't he come here before we did?"

"Aye, where is he?"

"Hello!" a girl's voice said. "Wow, it's cool to see you guys up close. No, I'm not above you, look down, not there, I'm right here!"

Merida and Hiccup looked down to see a bright green goblin girl with brown pigtails in a really ugly green shirt that read, 'You're Looking at a Legend,' and denim shorts. She had no shoes.

"Taaa-daa!" she cried. "The Mara, in the flesh!"

"Wow," Hiccup said, not out of awe. "It's very nice to meet you."

"Come on," she cried, "your friends are this way!"

"Is it just me," whispered Merida, "or is this a botched rescue attempt?"

"Botched," Hiccup whispered back. "Botched for sure."

"Are we still going to go through with it?"

Hiccup smiled at her. "Well, duh. Taking this much effort to do something, just to run away when it's almost done?"

Merida nodded, and bent down, which was hard while they were walking. She grabbed her knife, and hid it, sheathed into her sleeve. Neither she nor Hiccup said anything about it. 

The Mara led the small group to where the window shone on a stone rock, and on it was chained a woman with dark blonde hair. 

"Is that..." Merida didn't want to finish.