Merida stared in awe at the four Spirits standing behind Jack. One man was shaped like a bear, with a black hat, red robes, a white beard, and two machete's. There was a short little man made of sand, a girl with colorful feathers and wings surrounded by little fairies that looked like her, and a seven-foot tall bunny with a boomerang in each hand. 

Dust Lady rolled her eyes. "Overkill, honestly. All five of you are needed just to get rid of me?"

"Get rid of, no," the big man in red said.

"Today is all about retrieval," the bunny said with a weird accent kind of close to Merida's own Scottish.

"Of what?" Dust Lady asked, then it dawned on her. "Oh..."

The bunny tapped his foot on the ground, and Hiccup, Toothless (still a panther) and the bunny fell down a hole.

The hummingbird-lady grabbed Rapunzel and threw something on the ground, then pulled her into it. 

Merida looked down at Björn, then at the big man and Jack, who were the only ones left. And Dust Lady.

The big man smiled, and Merida was suddenly terrified. Those swords of his...

The big man charged through Dust Lady, and grabbed Merida and Björn, and they went through a sparkly thing a lot like the think Rapunzel and the hummingbird woman went through.

"THIS IS NOT OVER!" Dust Lady screamed as they disappeared through the portal.

Merida, Björn, and the big man spun through sparkles and snow until they crashed into a hard floor. Björn roared, and toppled on top of Merida. 

"Ah, get off of me, ye big lump!" Merida grunted, squirming out of the heavy bear's weight. "Yer heavier than ye look." 

Björn scowled at her. "Sorry, it's true!"

"What was that?" Rapunzel said, voice trembling. "I thought that I recognized her, but that's impossible, as..."

"Tooth," Jack said to the hummingbird-fairy-lady, "none of these Spirits have their memories. Can you...?"

The hummingbird lady -- Tooth -- shook her head. "Both the Scottish girl and the Viking became Spirits before I knew about the teeth. I'm afraid that they'll have to find them somehow, and I never got hers." Tooth pointed to Rapunzel. "Gothel made sure of that."

"What's the big deal with the teeth?" Hiccup asked, who was probably the only one thinking.

"When you lose a tooth when you're younger," Tooth explained, "those baby teeth hold all of the important memories of childhood, and when people forget what's important --"

"Or lose their memories all together," Jack interrupted.

"Yes, like Jack has experienced, my fairies and I give them their teeth so that they can remember what's important. Unfortunately, I only started collecting the teeth out five hundred and fifty years ago, and you two," she pointed to Merida and Hiccup, "were already Spirits. And Gothel took Rapunzel's teeth so that I never got them. Believe me, if I could help you, I would. But I can't. I'm sorry."

"So we're going to have to get our memories the hard way," Rapunzel said. 

Merida shrugged. "No big deal. I've lived alone for about eleven hundred years. I'm used to doing things by myself."

"Eleven hundred years?" the big man said. "That's a long time by yourself. What about your bear?"

"Oh, Björn? I only met him... Gosh, only yesterday."

The little sand man brightened, and sand symbols flashed above his head. 

"Yeah," said Tooth, "it is  odd that Gothel was the dust Spirit that's been causing so much trouble."

"Wait just a moment," Rapunzel said. "That dust lady was my mother?  But... how? She doesn't look anything like me!"

The four Guardians shared an uneasy glance.

"Whoa, guys, what's going on here?" asked Jack.

"Why don't you all get comfortable," Tooth said. "You're going to be here for a while."

The short, sandy man blew sand into their faces, and all went black.

* * * 

Merida awoke, head resting on Björn's stomach. She groaned, sitting up. Her head was killing her. She looked over at Björn, who was still sound asleep, and smiled. Even though they had just met, Merida felt like Björn would be her closest friend. 

She ran her fingers through her wild red hair, meeting snags everywhere. Normal. She hadn't seen a brush for eleven hundred years.

She stood up, looking around the room. One wall was made of snow and ice, and another wall was covered in mosaics, and at a closer look she discovered that it was not a window, but colored ice. She smiled. Jack must think that this place is amazing. 

Several alcoves were carved into the icy wall, candles flickering, lighting the room. It was dark, and Merida didn't know how long she had slept. 

Leaving Björn to his nap, Merida opened the door and softly closed it.  She turned around, and stared at everything in awe. Toys were everywhere, and balloons, kites and many, many other indescribable things were flying all around. And at the center, there was a huge globe with little lights flashing on it. Little pointy red things were jingling all over the place, and big bear-like things with longer fur and beards were busy making toys. 

"Amazing, isn't it." Rapunzel came to stand by Merida. "I just woke up about fifteen minutes ago, and I've been exploring."

"Aye," was all that Merida could say.

"Do you see those lights on the globe?"

Merida nodded.

"Tooth told me that each light is a child that believes in things like Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy and a whole other hoard of other Spirits."

"That's amazing."

Rapunzel nodded. "Almost the whole globe is filled. Were you one of those children at some point?"

Merida shrugged. "The letter that I got told me that I did, but until I find my teeth, I guess I'll never really know."

Rapunzel blushed. "Oh, uh, sorry. I forgot that you don't have memories either. Things are easy to forget, here. It feels like I could spend another two hundred years in this spot, right here."

"Aye. I've never seen anything like it. Of course I've spent my whole life in the forests of Scotland."

"Yeah, I heard. I can't believe it. Eleven hundred years with no company. I think that I would die of boredom. At least I had Pascal."

"Not all of it was alone, though. I had a few bears follow me around, but none have stayed as long as Björn has."

A black dragon jumped from balcony to balcony. 

"Toothless is so adorable," Rapunzel gushed. "He's like a big baby lizard."

"Don't let him hear that," Hiccup said, coming to Merida's other side. "You'll stroke his ego, and he doesn't need a bigger one."

The three of them just stayed there, staring at the wonder that was the North Pole. Until Jack came flying around the corner, and bumped into Rapunzel, knocking them all into the ground. All of them gave their best glares to him, and he backed away, hands up. 

"Geez, don't shoot the messenger."

"What?" Rapunzel asked, standing up.

"North and the others want to talk to all four of us. Dunno why, but it must be important..."

Hiccup stood up and helped Merida up. "Where to?" Hiccup asked.

"The Guardian Balcony," said Jack.

They all stared blankly at him. "Ohh. Where you guys first came into."

More blank looks.

Jack sighed. "Come on. I'll show you."

A/N: DUH, DUH, DUH, CLIFFHANGER. Not really, but just wait to see what happens in the next chapter! OOOH, IT'S GOOD. And then the chapter after that, and then stuff.

Okay, I'm excited. A couple of days ago, I finished this. And I started the next book. Sorry, I'm not going to tell you ANYTHING about the next one, because all of it is spoilers. (I feel like River Song here.)

Vote, comment, and happy reading!!!

~Allie