Author's Notes: So, for those of you wondering about how Blackstone came into being, I'm telling you right now, it'll be a giant hint for what Benydeyh really is. But you have to have played a certain game before to understand what it is. Otherwise, it'll make absolutely no sense when Frostwave and Adeline are talking about the island's history. And come on, people. This is the third time I've mentioned the reward for naming the original name of Benydeyh. And maybe I'll throw in some delicious READER COOKIES. They're this magical dessert that takes on the form and taste of your favorite type of cookie.
P.S. Thank you, MMM, for commenting for the most recent chapters. You are probably one of my favorite people as I type this. Now all you have to do is favorite the story and you'll be the BEST PERSON EVER!
P.P.S. Adeline and Hiccup didn't get any food yesterday. Think how hungry they must be. Heh heh heh.
P.P.P.S. I've also decided to make this a three-part storyline, with this one beginning with Part 1: Ice, continuing with Part 2: Fire, and ending with Part 3: Clash, corresponding to the three stories. I'm thinking of calling the next story Burnt Ice, and then... I don't know. Frozen Flames will cover from Legend of the Boneknapper, through Gift of the Night Fury and Riders, to the end of Defenders, Burning Ice will cover from Race to the Edge to the end of the second movie, and the third story, which I shall do my best to write sometime in... oh, I'd say 2018, which hopefully the rest of Race to the Edge, the next season, and the third movie will have come out by then. Just something to look forward to. Okay, I'll stop adding postscripts.
Disclaimer: E tuh'd ufh RDDOT un edc lrylydanc. Uhmo so UL'c.
(I don't own HTTYD or its characters. Only my OC's.)
Day 2
Adeline's POV
I woke up to a prickling feeling on the back of my neck. Warily, I peeped through slits to see Hiccup staring at me vacantly. Well, that explained the feeling of being watched. I shuffled around self-consciously and pushed myself up.
"What is it? Is there something on my face? Please don't tell me I was drooling," I said, aghast at the mere thought. Hiccup blinked and his eyes focused on me.
"Huh? Oh, it's nothing. I was just thinking about what you said yesterday. Why did you decide to be both a healer and a blacksmith? Wouldn't that give you more work?" he asked thoughtfully. I turned away to stare at the pool of torchlight from above.
"It's because I'm an Ytubdaa, Hiccup. An Adoptee. I wasn't born on Blackstone. I chose two jobs because I felt the need to prove myself, to show that I wasn't some poor little girl who needed special treatment because of which family I was taken into. I had to be the best fighter, the best hunter, the best healer, the best pirate! Because if I was the best, maybe they'd accept me..." I trailed off, thinking about how lonely my childhood had been. Bitterly, I considered the fact that I had tried so hard for people that didn't care about me, like a puppy seeking affection from a heartless master. And maybe that's what I was, at first. Until I met Frostwave.
I smiled ruefully.
"I know, it probably sounds crazy. But I just wanted to be treated like everyone else, instead of 'that Ytubdaa girl.'" Hiccup shook his head.
"No, no, I get it. I was the same way when I was younger. Actually, I was the same way until I met Toothless." I tried not to smile.
"Oh? How did that happen?" Hiccup rubbed the back of his head nervously.
"It's kind of a long story. It started a few weeks ago, during a dragon raid. You see, all my life I had wanted to be the first to kill a Night Fury, because that would have proven I wasn't just a mistake. When I shot him down, well, I'm not ashamed to say I was proud of myself. I was the first Viking to take down a Night Fury, in a village that adored dragon killing. But when I found him in the woods, I just... couldn't. I couldn't kill him. No, I wouldn't kill him. Because when I looked at him, I saw myself. I saw someone who was just as scared and alone as I was. I cut him free, and instead of killing me, he let me go." I smiled at the thought of that.
"Well, at least you survived. Not many can claim that. So, was that before or after he lost his tail fin?" Hiccup blushed.
"...After. Anyways, I started trying to learn more about him, and what I learned helped me in dragon training. Keep in mind that this was training on how to kill dragons, not ride them. But because of things I learned from Toothless, I became top of the class. Soon, I had managed to create a saddle and new fin for him, and we would fly together after lessons. But when I was chosen to kill the Monstrous Nightmare, I wanted to leave with him and never come back. I was persuaded not to, and that led to us eventually fighting this gigantic dragon called the Red Death. I won't bore you with the details, but my father accepted that dragons weren't all bad, we fought the Red Death with the help of the dragons kept in the arena, and I lost my leg in the explosion from killing it." The grin on my face disappeared.
"Wait, what? There was an explosion? Hiccup, why didn't you tell me this sooner? I love explosions! Even if they are caused by giant dragons and make someone lose their leg," I added, looking at the piece of metal at the end of his foot. He nodded.
"I like to think of it as Toothless getting me back for making him lose his tail. Besides, it helped bring dragons and Vikings together, so it's a small price to pay. I could have lost my life." I nodded and put a hand on his shoulder.
"And then I would never have met you. So I'd say it's a pretty nice deal," I said, looking at the metal and wood at the end of his leg. He smiled, then waved his hand around to show the cell.
"So, how about you? What changed? I mean, I'm pretty sure the best fighter doesn't just get thrown in jail for no reason," he said, gesturing at me. I smirked at the memory.
"Oh, I just happened to run into Frostwave. Well, I say ran into, but it's more like she crashed into me. You see, I was about twelve, and I had just gotten my tattoo marking me as an adult, because on Blackstone, when you turn twelve you're old enough to do a lot of the same work as the older people. Anyways, I was actually gathering dragon nip flowers in a large patch just beyond the pnyspma-puihtaneac when she caught scent of the plant and decided it was a good idea to roll around in it."
"It was a good idea," Frostwave interjected. "I met you, didn't I?" I patted her side.
"So there I was, twelve years old, with a bandage on my face to keep the tattoo safe, and all of a sudden a giant silver-white shape just drops from the sky and nearly crushes me. Needless to say, I was scared out of my wits, but I couldn't do anything because of her pinning me down. After a good roll in the nip, she finally noticed me and got off." I chuckled at the memory.
"And then she froze me in place." Hiccup's mouth dropped.
"What?"
"I know, right? She was the one who was crushing the life out of me, and when she got off she froze me. I almost wet myself. Then Frostwave started sniffing me all over. When she was done investigating me, she growled a funny way. That was when I realized I could understand her." Hiccup nodded.
"And? What did she say?" I paused for dramatic effect.
"...You smell nice. Then she flew away, leaving me to break free and lie about why I was late for dinner. I didn't get any dinner that night, by the way," I said pointedly at Frostwave. She growled out a soft chuckle that was mirrored by my and Hiccup's stomachs rumbling.
"You didn't get any last night, either. Don't blame me. You know they don't serve food to prisoners on the first day, and that includes their cellmates," she crooned.
"I know that. But dinner that night was my favorite. I had been looking forward to it all day." My tongue slipped out and licked my lips in subconscious yearning for that lost meal. It had been smoked salmon with sorrel sauce, and the tenderness of the meat combined with the sourness of the sauce had always been delicious to me. I was aware that Hiccup was shaking, and at first I thought there had been some side effect to being poisoned that I didn't know about. Then I realized he was laughing silently.
"'You smell nice...'" he snickered. Frostwave blew a cloud of frost at him indignantly.
"Well, she did. And it wasn't just the dragon nip! I liked her scent. It was the smell of a friend," she protested. Her cries of objection were cut short by the arrival of our breakfast in the hands of a surly guard with a tattoo of a purple six-pointed star. That made him a member of the House of Snows, though seeing that he had to give us food, he probably wasn't high up on the list for promotion to the elite guard of the Captain. The sheet of metal at the bottom of the door slid up, he shoved the food through rudely, and glared at us before walking away.
"What's his problem?" Hiccup asked, walked over and bringing the food back to the three of us. I shrugged, then eyed the food hungrily. It wasn't much, just some stale half-loaves of bread, two not-quite-clean mugs of water, and two bowls of murky soup, but it was something. For the dragons, there were some dried fish and two bowls of water.
"Most guards don't like having prison duty. They'd rather be on the ships of the vmaad than feeding prisoners they despise. Usually, it's just people who take stuff from the Jyimd without permission, or prisoners before initiation. But we're special cases. See, the Blackstone pirates both hate and fear dragons, so encountering two dragon riders, one of which was actually one of them, is like meeting your worst enemy," I explained, biting into a loaf. He grunted to show he was listening and picked up his own bread. We ate in silence, except for when Hiccup asked me what the soup was. I tasted it and told him it was cabbage soup, fresh from the kitchens. He didn't look completely convinced, but I didn't blame him. The cooks of Blackstone are not what you'd call... makers of fine cuisine. Which was kind of funny, because there were a lot of yummy things to find near Blackstone. In fact, if it wasn't inhabited by pirates, this place would be a great spot to vacation in the winter. There were these awesome springs that came out of the ground already hot, lots of greenery, and so much wildlife I nearly had to beat them off with a stick to protect the herbs I gathered personally, which was kind of odd if you considered the fact that we were much farther north than most people dared to live. But who was I to judge the gods' handiwork?
"Cabbage soup," he said, dipping his bread into the liquid and eating the soaked loaf, "Who knew?" I smiled at the comment on the quality.
"Believe me, Hiccup, this is scraps compared to what the people up there are eating." He nodded, and soon the "scraps" were finished off. Frostwave licked tiny bits of fish out from between her teeth quite carefully, the narrow black tongue slipping into the cracks and crevices between each dentition to get the leftovers. Hiccup watched this with interest.
"So, what kind of dragon is Frostwave? I've never seen one before," he asked, gesturing to her curiously. I smirked proudly.
"She's a Silver Horror, one of the most feared dragons on Blackstone." His look of confusion didn't help my cause.
"You've never heard of a Silver Horror?" I sighed in minor disappointment.
"Uh, sadly, no. Granted, I didn't know that Blackstone pirates kept their prisoners alive and reasonably well fed, so I'm interested in learning about them," he conceded. I grinned.
"Well, if there's anything I love doing, it's talking about my dragon," I replied happily.
3rd Person POV: Hiccup
Addie got comfortable against Frostwave's extremely warm side and began informing him on Silver Horrors.
"Frostwave is a Silver Horror, as you know, but there's something else. As far as she knows, she's the last of her kind. Apparently, because of the Blackstone pirates moving in a few centuries ago, her species lost their breeding island and started to decline. That's probably why you've never heard of them. Being a Silver Horror makes her a bit different from other dragons. You've probably been wondering why she's so hot on the outside, but can breathe ice, right? It's this funny thing about her physiology. See, her body needs to vent all its heat onto the outside, or else Frostwave gets too hot to make her ice. Makes it nice for when I'm high up in the freezing air, and I just need something to keep my... Anyways, she's got this stuff in her blood that both keeps her cool and prevents her from freezing to death. I like to call it antifreeze." Hiccup took this in eagerly.
"But how come you can understand her? I've never heard of anyone who can do that," he stated. She shrugged.
"I wish I knew. She says it has something to do with a 'bond' or something that formed between us when we first met, but I don't have any clue what she means by that. What I do know is that I trust her with my life. She's the first thing, human or dragon, who accepted me for who I was on Blackstone. She didn't expect me to be a failure, or a mistake, or just another mouth to feed. Frostwave thought I was someone worth knowing, for once in my life. Now, enough of that. Isn't it time for your next dose?" she said, raising an eyebrow. He smiled nervously.
"Yeah, about that... do you really need to hold me down when you apply it? I kind of like having control over my arms." She shrugged again.
"Okay, but if you want me to mess up while dosing you, it's your death." He was silent.
"Fine, but can I keep the feeling in my arms?" Addie chuckled.
"Sure. Just give me a moment."
Adeline's POV
"Well, it's not like I'm going anywhere," he replied cheekily. I swatted his head lightly and went over to Frostwave. She revealed the medicine kit and allowed me to take the antidote and some bandages from it, then crooned laughingly, "He's sassy. I like him." I swatted her, too, right across the nose.
"Don't you start," I warned gently. Green gel and wrappings in hand, I returned to Hiccup's side. Frostwave joined us and retracted her claws before putting her feet on his shoulders.
"Now, are we going to do this the easy way, or will you actually help me this time?" I asked sarcastically. He chuckled dryly in response.
"Oh, very funny. Just warn me when you're about to rub it in. That stuff stings." I had no pity. Sure, it was a little painful, but what was a small amount of pain compared to a big amount of screaming, agonized death? Hiccup lifted the left side of his tunic and revealed the old bandages. They had a greenish tinge to them from the remnants of antidote that hadn't been fully worked in, but that was okay. I unwrapped them carefully, making sure Hiccup wasn't going through too much pain. Hey, I try to be nice to my patients. It makes taking care of them easier. Once they were completely removed, I sniffed the still-open wound. It wasn't bleeding anymore and it smelled healthy, but the skin hadn't covered it yet. Just one of the many wonderful side effects of this poison.
With that cheerful thought in mind, I started to work another dollop of the antidote in. He winced, but I could tell it wasn't as bad as before. Even one dose of the antidote to Gale's Poison helped against that lethal concoction, although it didn't fight it completely. After nearly all of the antidote was worked in, I wrapped new bandages around his waist and let Hiccup get used to them.
I won't bore you with the details, because after that we didn't do anything of interest. We merely swapped tales of our dragons' antics (I told Hiccup about the time I first flew on Frostwave, and he told me about the first time he rode Toothless), ate supper, and went to sleep. Frostwave wrapped herself up into a large ring and I curled up inside. Before we fell asleep, she poked my head with her nose.
"What?" I grumbled sleepily.
"Do you have that plan yet?" she asked curiously. I turned red as Toothless's tail fin and gave her a guilty smile. She sighed and blew another cloud of ice into my hair, making me brush it out automatically.
"You know you have to think of one soon. Initiation for him is happening in five days, and I'm pretty sure you don't want that for him. Do you? Do you want him to go through that?" I shook my head against her coiled body.
"...Tomorrow. I'll think of something tomorrow. Give me that, please." Frostwave huffed cool air into my face, but let it go. For now. She placed her head on my belly and let out a relaxed sigh before falling asleep. I softly stroked the horn arcing up her head and flaring out into two parts. There were fine ridges along it, and they gave it a very silky feel that made me calm down enough to sleep.
"Good night, everyone," I whispered quietly into the night. The torches were dimmed above us, and soon the pool of warm light faded away into blissful, secretive darkness. Soon, I succumbed to that darkness and fell asleep.
Author's Notes: Your translations, mesdames, mesdamoiselles, et monsieurs.
Pnyspma-puihtaneac – bramble-boundaries; where the pirates have set the borders for their people to go on the island. It's basically a long wall of thorny bushes with a few holes in it.
Vmaad – fleet
Jyimd – Vault; where they keep the valuables they take, or confiscated items if necessary
Yeah, I know, this was REALLY long, but aren't you glad you read it? Supplied some backstory for Adeline and Frostwave. And I've decided to move the chapter on the pirates to the next one. Poor Simon. That was originally going to be his chapter, but I've decided to move it to Chapter 6.
Wild Cat 214, out!