Merida climbed off of Björn, rubbing her behind. "Ah, can ye walk a little smoother? My behind is killing me! It hasn't hurt since..."

She trailed off. She couldn't remember.

Björn just rolled his eyes, and pointed his nose to the great expanse of the ocean. They had bypassed all roads, and just traveled through the wilderness, just to get to this sandy shore. 

"Are ye sure? Last I checked, bears can't really swim in deep water, and this is an ocean."

Björn gave her a flat look.

"All right, all right, let's look around for something."

He just kept staring at her.

"No looking?"

The bear looked up, and started sniffing. Merida looked up as well, seeing nothing. "What are ye..."

Merida took a step, and slipped. Björn roared, laughing as only a bear could.

"Ah, shut up you... Where did this ice come from? It's supposed to be the middle of summer..."

"So you must be the famous Spirit of Fire. If you don't mind me saying, you might want to stay away from me. Fire and ice... not a pleasant mix." 

Merida knocked an arrow, and turned around to see a boy with snow-white hair, a blue shirt-thing, brown leggings, and a wooden staff with frost designs on it. 

"Who are ye?"

The boy made an elaborate bow. "Jack Frost, at your icy service. How may I serve you, Highness?"

Merida shot an arrow that just missed Jack. He ducked, and Merida smiled. She was still good. 

"Why are ye here?"

The boy raised an eyebrow. "Don't you know? I got that letter. It called me Spirit of Winter, which I guess I am. It said that I would get here and find a Spirit and her Spirit Bear."

He pointed to Merida, then Björn. "Spirit, Spirit Bear. I'm in the right place."

Merida lowered her bow. "What else did your letter say?"

"Um... Let's see if I can remember... It said that once I found Spirit and Spirit Bear, then we would have to find two other Spirits, one with a Spirit Chameleon, another with a Spirit Dragon." He shrugged. "I guess I'm the only Spirit here without a Spirit Animal, wouldn't you say?"

He smiled, but Merida's expression remained stoic. Jack cleared his throat.

"Um... So.... Should we get going? I mean, if I have to carry both you and your bear... I don't even want to think about that. By the way, you didn't tell me your name."

"Merida."

"Merida... What. Last name? Middle name?"

"I don't remember." Merida climbed on Björn's back. "Shouldn't we get going? I mean if we have two Spirits to find, and their Spirit Animals, shouldn't we get started?"

"You don't remember?"

Merida rubbed her forehead. "What have I gotten myself into?"

Jack grinned. "Wind, take me to Normandy!"

Björn roared, and as Jack flew off with a flurry of snow, the bear ran, ran as he had never before. And Merida loved every second of it.

* * * 

"What is this stuff?" said Merida as she poked one of her fries. Her and Jack had landed n a beautiful town, but as they went downtown, Merida marveled at everything. She had rarely been outside of her little forest before, and it was weird. And smelly. And she couldn't understand why everyone passed through her and Björn, making her feel like a shell of something. Jack had told her to get used to it, and then they walked into a building that smelled like grease and people spoke in a weird language. Jack called it McDonalds.

"That, my Scottish friend is something amazing called french fries. You see --"

Merida held up her hand. "I really don't want to know."

Jack shrugged and leaned back, taking her french fries, and popping them in his mouth. "Greasy and absolutely terrible --"

He was cut off by a tall guy walking into McDonalds with his black dog. He had long-ish brown hair, and a brown vest over a green shirt. "There he is," Jack whispered. "Keep calm."

The man and his dog sat down at a table as far away from Jack and Merida as possible. 

"Hey, give me your chicken nuggets, will you?"

Merida slapped Jack's hand away, took one bite, and spit it out. "They call this meat?"

"Yeah, heavily processed meat that they liquidate, dye, and put back together. The famous McDonalds specialty."

"Yeah, ye can have them," Merida said, grimacing. 

Jack wolfed down all of the food that he had bought, as Merida kept an eye on her fellow Spirit. He fed the chicken nuggets to his dog, who gobbled them up.

"I thought you said that this Spirit had a Spirit Dragon."

Jack nodded, mouth full. "Yeah, I don't know what the deal is, this guy having a dog. Oh, well. Here, give me your--"

"No."

Jack slumped down in the greasy chair, grumbling about how Scottish people were rude.

The black dog looked over at Merida, and she froze. There was something feline about the dog, but that was impossible, unless...

"The dog is a shape-shifter. The dog is  the dragon."

"Merida that is genius."

The dog raised its hackles, and started growling.

"And it's growling," Jack said.

He grabbed his staff and wiped chicken nuggets off of his hoodie. The Spirit across the restaurant leaned down to pat the dog's head, then caught eyes with Merida, and froze. Then he calmly stood up and walked out of the restaurant. 

"Let's go!" Merida said. 

Jack put a hand on Merida's arm. "No," he said. "Let's follow him, but at a distance. You take the ground with Björn, and I'll follow him from the air."

Merida jerked her hand away. "Never do that again," she hissed, then went outside to where Björn waited. She climbed up onto his back, and they started off at a walk, scanning for the black dog and brown-haired man. Neither were there. 

She saw a few trees, and nudged Björn in the direction of them. "Can ye climb?" she asked.

Björn rolled his eyes, and ran to the trees, and climbed them in just a few moments. Merida climbed off and stood at the top of the tree, scanning the crowd. "There!" she said, pointing. A boy, with the same vest and shirt on, climbed into a taxi and sped away. "Björn, follow that... thing!"

Björn leapt out of the tree, Merida barely getting onto him before he did so. The bear weaved in and out of the crowds of people, trying to not get passed through again. It didn't work until he got onto the road, and in between the cars. 

The taxi entered a round about, and Björn soared above the cars, and landed just shy of the car. The boy looked behind him, and yelped. Merida smiled. It wasn't every day that people saw a bear running alongside traffic. The cars slowed, and Merida got a glimpse of a line of cars, several lanes wide. What's going on?  she wondered.

The car stopped, and she climbed off of Björn, and to the door. She opened it.

"What do you want," the boy asked, holding the shape-shifter dragon, now a black cat. 

"It's a little hard to explain, as I don't really know anything myself. But what I do know is that ye probably got a letter, and said something about the world ending."

"How do you --"

Merida held up a hand. "I got one myself. So did another Spirit named Jack."

The boy's eyes narrowed. "Jack Frost, eh? Yeah, I know that kid. That's what Toothless saw, he didn't get a good look at you. And he doesn't know you."

The car moved up a little bit, and the driver yelled something at her in French. The boy responded, and the driver fell silent. "He wants you to close the door. Make it quick, Toothless isn't in a welcoming mood today."

Merida held out her hand. "I'm Merida. I'm a Spirit, like ye, and I have a Spirit Bear named Björn."

The boy warily took her hand. "Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III. Are you Scottish?"

Merida smiled. "Aye."

"What kind of powers do you have?"

"I can kind of control fire."

Hiccup nodded. "Toothless and I are shape-shifters. We haven't really met any other Spirits before now, all of the other ones were really annoying and kind of rude. Like Jack Frost. Actually, I think he's been the only one..."

"I didn't even know that stuff like french fries existed until about five minutes ago."

Hiccup unbuckled, and told the driver something in French, and gave him some slips of paper, then climbed out, holding onto his cat. The cat, Toothless, gave her the stink eye. "Toothless, be nice," Hiccup said, then looked up at Merida. "Where to next?"

* * * 

"It's almost as green as Scotland," Merida said in awe. 

"Though a bit warmer than Berk," said Hiccup. He had shifted back to the man, except now he had on a brown vest and a red shirt, and Toothless was a full-out black dragon with a red tail wing. 

"Germany is like that," Jack said, killing the mood.

The three of them including Björn and Toothless walked silently through the lush green forest. Merida had shot a few squirrels, and Björn was currently eating a couple of the roasted ones. 

They walked into a clearing of flowers, and Merida and Hiccup erupted into sneezing fits. 

"Wha.... What's going on?"

"Allergy!" Hiccup gasped.

"Really bad," Merida choked out. 

"Both of you? Moonbeams, just my luck to be stuck with the only two Spirits with allergies."

Merida glared at Jack and slapped him upside the head. "What was that for, Highness?" Jack said, rubbing his head.

Merida couldn't answer because of her sneezing.

"Oh my gosh! Are you guys okay? Sorry, I can't help that I have flowers around me, it's kind of become a force of habit and is that a dragon? Ooh, I've heard of a Spirit Dragon, but never seen it up close. And a Spirit Bear, too! Wow, being a Spirit for a hundred and eighty years, and you finally see something interesting. Oh, sure I've sen interesting things, but never all in one day!" A girl with long, blonde hair walked in front of the three of them, and she would not stop talking. "... memories there, of course. The letter that I got said that I should listen to  the Spirits that come, but it never really specified. Oh, wait till I tell Pascal, he is going to be so happy, and --"

"Blondie," Jack said, and the girl burst into tears. "Oh, gosh, I'm sorry, was it --"

"No, no, no, it's not you. It's just that.. Whenever I hear things like 'Blondie' and 'nuance' and 'gesundheit,' I start crying, and I don't know..."

Merida started laughing, which made an interesting noise with her sneezes. Jack was just standing there, eyes wide, hands in his pockets and staff hooked in his arms, looking extremely awkward. Hiccup noticed him, and also started laughing. Soon, everyone (including the animals) were laughing, except Jack. 

"Yeah, sure," he mumbled, "laugh at the only sane Spirit here, I see how it is."

The girl wiped tears from her eyes. "I needed that," she said. "So, why are all of you here?"

"A letter told Jack here to go and get Merida then get us... Am I right?" said Hiccup.

Merida shrugged. "I don't know. Björn just took me to this beach in Scotland, then..."

The girl nodded as Merida told her about McDonalds ("Gross! I hate McDonalds!" she cried) and about her conversation with Hiccup.

When Merida was done, all the girl said was: "Okay."

"Wait... Ye believe it?"

"Well, yeah, I got a letter but lost it, and Hiccup is here, and it all just seems to fit." She smiled. "My name is Rapunzel, sorry for not telling you guys earlier."

"Punzie, huh?" Jack said.

Rapunzel slapped him upside the head. "No. Never, ever call me 'Punzie' again. Clear?"

"Crystal," said Jack, rubbing his neck. "Stars, I think that I might have a bruise now. Thanks."

"Welcome," Rapunzel said. "So... Where to now?"

Before anyone could respond, a whirlwind of dust appeared around them. "Not again," Merida breathed.

"Again?" Jack choked out.

"I never told ye guys about Dust Lady, did I?"

"Never mentioned it," Hiccup sneezed. 

The dust whirlwind formed into the woman from before.

"I told you Spirit of Fire," she said, "not  to get involved. But, as a free spirit, I guess that I can't tell you what to do." She took a step towards Rapunzel. "Hello, my flower. It's been a long time."

Rapunzel gasped, hand to breast, and stepped away. "What... Who..."

The dust lady sighed. "I am surrounded by idiots. Spirit of Flowers, my sweet, I am your mother, or do you not remember?"

Oh, it was easy, really. My daughter just cut her hair, and I fell out of a window.

"Is this the daughter ye were talking about?" Merida asked. 

"Smart." Dust Lady circled around Merida. "Hmm. Yes. Well, we can't have that, now can we?"

Björn growled at Dust Lady, his hackles raised. Merida put a hand on his pelt, but he didn't calm down. Rapunzel was breathing heavily, and Toothless had changed into a black panther, hissing at Dust Lady. Jack's staff was lowered in her direction.

"Oh, you all don't need to be so serious! I'm not going to hurt you, at least not yet. In fact --" She stopped, and spun around. "What was that?"

Jack smiled. "Meet the Guardians, Dust Lady. We're your worst nightmares."

A/N: Yeah, this one is going to be short, I can feel it. In my belly. (Not joking, I can.) This is dedicated to KTMB17 for KILLING me at the end of one of her fanfics, and, to be honest, for reading the series by William Joyce that ROTG is based off of. Read  The Fall of the Guardians if you want to die.

Vote, comment, and happy reading!

~Allie