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.

"Look up there," Hiccup said, pointing to one of the cages. Jack was in it, without his staff. His gaze was radiating anger towards a place of deep shadow.

"So glad that the Mara led you here correctly. You see, she didn't do it quite  right with Jack, and well, you see the result."

The Mara looked down, ashamed. Gothel stepped out of the area of deep shadow, her eyes no longer a pale blue but looking like molten gold. Her skin was grey, and her dress and cape seemed to be made of shadow. Toothless and Björn started growling. Both Hiccup and Merida put a hand on their respective Spirit Animals. 

"It didn't take you long to find us, not long at all. I wonder how? Maybe that traitor Sanderson?"

"Sandy is not  a traitor," Merida growled.

Gothel laughed, a cold, feral laugh that made Merida want to run as far away from Gothel as she could. Black horses made of sand with golden eyes formed a circle around the two Spirits and the Spirit Animals.

"Do you see the Nightmares?" Gothel asked, walking, her hips swishing. She came to rest where Rapunzel lay. "They smell your fear, you know. I would expect that from Hiccup, he is a weakling after all, but not you, Merida. You lead me to believe that you were fearless. One without fear."

Merida raised her chin, breathing heavily. "Fearlessness does not mean to be without fear. It means to have the right amount of fear to do great things. Fear is good, Gothel. Or did ye not know that?"

Gothel stared at her, her eyes widened to exaggeration. "Oh my. Did you hear that, Flower? Fear is good. Good for me, little Spirit, but not for you."

She sat at the edge of the large stone. "Separate them," Gothel said as she snapped her fingers. The Nightmares surged in, and gabbed Hiccup, Toothless and Björn in their expanded ribcages. The Nightmares rode up the walls to put the three of them in three different cages. 

Merida looked up. She had no support. She would have to talk her way out of this one. If she could. Her talents lay more with shooting things, not talking to them. 

Merida felt some comfort at the knife in her sleeve. She had a backup in the form of a five-inch knife. 

The Nightmares formed around Merida again. Gothel hopped off of the stone, and came to circle outside of the Nightmares.

"You're keeping your fear contained," she said in awe. "Much more and they would have attacked."

Merida counted to ten to lower her breathing, to make it silent.

"Monegunda..." the shadows gasped. Gothel rushed to them.

"What is it, my love?" she whispered. 

"Let me speak..."

"But, you are not --"

"Let me speak to the girl, Monegunda."

Gothel bowed her head. "As you wish."

She stood up and entered the circle of Nightmares, grabbed Merida's arm roughly, and dragged her to where the shadows were. The Nightmares followed her, snorting and stomping the ground. Gothel forced Merida to her knees.

"Merida DunBroch..." the shadows said. "You do not know who you are, do you? Do not worry, Jack Frost was that way when I last spoke to him."

"What do ye want?" Merida spat.

"The same thing as you. I want to be known, I want to know who I was and how I came here."

"And ye don't know?"

"No more than you do."

"Codswallop."

The shadows chuckled. "No, Merida DunBroch. But I do know your fears."

Merida's breath caught in her throat, and the Nightmares came closer. 

"You fear that you will never get your memories. That is true, as your teeth are either dust or fossilized by now.

"You fear that you will never understand your powers. You fear that you will lose the friends that you have just made. You fear that Björn will leave you. You fear that --"

"Stop."

Tears were rolling down her cheeks. 

"When you know a person's fears," the shadows whispered, "then you know the person. I know you, Merida. You are a loyal person, and a good friend. A bit headstrong at times, but that is good, because it lets you lead even when the odds are impossible. You never give up. You, however, are not fearless. You never will be."

Merida fell to the ground, her arms supporting her, and cried. But while she was crying, she was thinking. How to get her friends out of the cages and how to get Rapunzel off of her block. But the thing was, she had no ideas. Nothing came to her. And that was the worst bit. She was alone here on the ground, surrounded by enemies on all sides, and a creepy person in shadows kept confirming her worst fears. 

And so, for the first time in her life, she gave up. She let the Nightmares take her and put her in a cage, and all the while she kept her eyes closed, tears still seeping through.

I've failed. Failed all of my friends, failed myself, what more is there? Gothel and the shadows were right. I am not fearless. I never will be. Björn should have never come to Scotland. I would still be there, no friends, nothing to lose, just me and the land. No memories, oblivious to the world. No betrayals, close escapes, I would be just another Spirit that the Scots could marvel over, like Nessie. Why, why did this come to me?

Why me?

Merida started praying to whatever was out there. She didn't believe in an all-powerful God or many gods. But, alone in her cage suspended far above the ground, she started praying.

Do not fear, little one, a woman's voice said in her head. I chose you for a reason, Merida. I took your memories for the same reason. But I will give this one back to you. It should help you understand why you are a Spirit, and why Björn came to you, and this adventure that you have been having, and many more to come. You will be all right, I have put too much work into you and the others to let anything happen to you. Be brave, like the wind, Spirit of Fire. Be one with the wind. Fearless. Not completely without fear, but with just enough fear to do many great things.

Merida felt warm, like someone was giving her a hug. Then the presence left her alone, but the memory remained. With her exhaustion from the swim from Antartica, then the walk though the southern Argentine forests and through the cave, and her experience with the shadows, she fell right to sleep. 

A/N: Hey, guys. Okay, so the next chapter might be a little confusing, but it's the memory that the person promised Merida. I'm saying this now, because I only do end-of-chapter author's notes, not ones at the beginning. I mean, two A/Ns in a row? Not fun to read.

Okay, who else doesn't like the new Wattpad update? Because I don't have the app, I get REALLY weird stuff, and like the new update has, to move onto the next chapter, I technically don't finish the chapter I'm on. It's annoying, as the only things that I read are in my library, it doesn't register that I finished that part... 

Okay, rant done, if you can call it a rant. Though, if any of you guys do all of your Wattpad stuff on the web site, it would be nice to hear your opinions... Not like I get any reads or anything like that... JUST KIDDING. But feel free to advertise this everywhere you go!!!

Don't forget to vote, comment, and read more of my stuff! (And stuff by other people, only if you must...)

~Allie