Well the island Hiccup had in mind certainly fit the description he was looking for. The island itself had no name, there was nothing living on the island that was bigger than a boar. It was not even by prime fishing grounds so dragons tended to only go by it if it was in their migration path. Hiccup had spotted one group of nadders and another of gronckles when he and Toothless where circling the island. The Royal vessel was hastily offloading all of their cargo as well as Elsa into the viking vessel. While the ship designs their mainland kin had adopted had a very large cargo capacity, the ships had a larger draft so they could not beach the ship ashore like traditional viking vessels.
"Come on bud, let's clear the beach" Hiccup said to Toothless and the duo landed and began to shoo away the terrors who were scavenging for clams. As Stoick landed the ship the men from Arendelle who were on board began tossing down supplies and began to pitch the massive tent and set up the supplies. Elsa gently went over the raids and her soft boots sunk into the wet sand. She did not get far before Hiccup called out to her.
"Come on Princess, I saw a clearing in the middle of the island. We can start practicing there.
Elsa was both extremely nervous about this but at the same time she wanted to get this over with so bad she could do nothing but nod and follow. It took them about fifteen minutes of walking before the reached a clearing that suited Hiccup. A small group of terrors began to play with Toothless and the dragons danced and played in their background, somewhat calming Elsa.
"Alright Elsa, let;s see what you can do." Hiccup said as he took a seat on a log.
Elsa was now center stage and had no idea how to start
"What should I do?" She asked
"Anything, snowflakes, snowballs, patches of ice for a start." he tried
"Alright"
Elsa took off her gloves and she tried to focus the energy within her. In her mind she formed an image of a snowman and she shot both hands outwards in an attempt to construct the frozen being.
Nothing happened, zero, zilch, nada.
Elsa's eyes widened and Hiccup's brow furrowed. Speechless Elsa tried again, then again and again and again for about a minute. Nothing. Elsa's arms shook with frustration. She could feel the magic within her, like wispy blue smoke that filled her soul. She tried to grab onto the magic like she did as a child, but now for some reason it eluded her grasp.
Now thoroughly embarrassed in front of Hiccup as his full attention, Elsa began to let her anger at the situation get the better of her. But in all fairness in her defense it was a frustrating situation, not only did her magic show up when she didn't want it, now it flat out refused her will? No, this would simply not due, her magic, her power was hers!
Her eyes screwed shut and she focused her anger with all of her might and she forced the magic through her hands and was rewarded with blue magic leaving her hands like a handful of water being tossed. But it evaporated before it hit the ground and the effort left her breathless.
Panting with fatiuge, the young princess staggered and Hiccup shot up and held her by the elbow and shoulder, keeping her steady and helped her take a seat.
"Are you alright?" the young viking asked in concern
Elsa shook her head in confusion "This has never happened before, it's never been this difficult." she said as she wiped the sweat from her brow.
Hiccup took a look at the sun's position, two palm widths between the sun and the horizon, about two hours of daylight remained.
"Let's head back to the beach, the ships should be done unpacking by now. We can cook some food the practice there later, now that they are out of harm's way."
Elsa shook her head and sighed "Looks like I have not been so much a danger after all, I could have still practiced in Arendelle and no one would have been in any danger."
Hiccup shook his head "Your parents said you could cover your entire royal hall with a thick layer of snow and ice when you were little, and your powers are much stronger than before. It is much safer this way, besides I did not have high expectations"
Elsa furrowed her brow "And why is that?"
Hiccup shrugged his armored shoulders, gesturing to the playful night fury that still followed them.
"When I first tried to make peaceful contact with Toothless I spent an entire afternoon unarmed by a fickle nightfury eating regurgitated fish and teaching him how to draw in the dirt with a stick before he even let me touch him."
Toothless knew his rider was talking about him and gave the two humans a Toothless smile.
"Don't even think about being cheeky, you had to be coaxed into be touched by a unarmed runt viking!"
The prideful dragon blow smoke from his nostrils into hiccups face and went frocliking ahaead of them to the camp.
Elsa laughed, feeling the frustration melt away at their antics. "You really don't see Toothless as a pet do you?"
Hiccup turned with speed that made him dizzy "Toothless a pet?" He shook his head
"Toothless isn't just a steed, we needed to learn how to read each other otherwise the simplest aerial maneuvers become impossible. I am not making this up Princess he is a very willful dragon with a mind of his own. We almost died more times during our first flight together than I really want to admit, and it took us weeks to even get to that point."
As Hiccup turned to head back to the camp for some reason Elsa couldn't stop a smile forming on her face. Despite his heritage as well as his outfit, the young man was really kind and full of energy and didn't feel the need to be boastful despite the fact he may have been able to take advantage of a situation to paint himself in a better light.
When they returned to camp they found everything they needed, Hiccup had a fire going in no time and quickly began digging into the stores of food. He quickly located the preserved meat and quickly went to work on it and she noticed he was very heavy handed with the seasonings he was familiar with, he also started up potatoes and green beans. He seemed to know a thing or two about cooking preserved rations because before he finished cooking he had the young princess salivating at his creation.
He tore a loaf of bread in half and got the edge of their hunger off as they sat and watched the sunset as the food cooked.
"What was it like?" Hiccup asked
"What was what like?" she asked
He waved his arms expressively as he talked "what was it like before the accident, how did it feel to use magic?"
She sat there and thought, "Back then when I could use magic where the happiest days of my life Hiccup. I had everything I ever wanted. The reason I beat the sun awake every morning I only had one goal, to make my sister laugh."
Elsa felt tears well up in her eyes as she remembered she spent the last decade purposefully breaking her sisters heart, if only to keep her safe. But it still hurt so much.
"But then the accident happened, to this day I never wished I had gotten out of bed that night. Ever since that night I have been afraid of my powers. Every time I tried to practice in my home all I could see is my sister in my arms Hiccup!"
A tear slid down her cheek and onto her lip and she tasted salt.
"I don't want to be afraid anymore Hiccup, I want my sister back."
Hiccup looked at the setting sun and thought hard
"When I was a boy, I was scared senseless of dragons, for a time I followed my gut to the point where I was standing at the entrance of a cove that housed a wounded dragon, it was then that I had to decide, do I try to be a viking, or do I try to be myself. Either way required a leap of faith, it required courage Elsa."
Hiccup stood up
"Courage will bring you your sister back Elsa. So let me ask you this, are you willing to let me teach you courage?"
Elsa nodded and wiped her cheek. "Yes please Hiccup."
"Ice me."
"What?" Elsa asked, confused
"I want you to blast ice at me"
"What are you talking about?"
"Toothless!"
The black dragon shot forward to the two
"Toothless when I say so shoot Elsa!"
The black dragon warbled his eyes expressive and full of concern
"Trust me Toothless just do it!
The black dragons expressive eyes became slits and the dragon began to growl as his wings began to expand making him seem larger than he really was. His tail wagged in anticipation to pounce like a predator and a unholy sound came from the creature as its mouth began to glow blue and at that moment Elsa knew this Dragon would fire at her without a second thought.
"Blast me Elsa! You need to do it!"
Her hands began to tingle
"Hiccup I can't!"
His charming face was contorted ugly with his stern expression
"You need to Blast me Elsa or you will die!"
"Don't ask this of me please!"
"Your sister still needs you Elsa! Your parents still need you and your kingdom still needs you!"
She shoot her head. The night furies scream reached a high pitch
"Life is not some fairy tail where you suddenly go from being a wee bonnie lass to a person who is worth a damn without a little effort Elsa! Now put on your big girl britches and blast me!"
Hiccup invaded her personal space
"Toothl…"
"STOP" Elsa shoved her hands against his chest and pushed him away. Her power had been largely disobedient to this point but at that moment it obeyed her will and shot out of her hands as she made contact with Hiccup encasing his upper in a layer of ice.
Hiccup staggered back a step and from his prone position he gave a hand signal to Toothless and the dragon instantly stopped and rushed to his side. Elsa was thoroughly weak at the knees when Hiccup got up without any apparent problem and knocked the ice off of his armor with little difficulty.
He had a smile on his face
"Did you feel it?"
She was struck dumb at his 180 personality change, was the man bipolar?
"Did I feel what?"
"The magic, when you had that moment of courage did it do what you wanted, did you only want to stun me or did you try to kill me?
She shook her head. "I didn't want to hurt you"
The smile on his face looked like that of a happy idiot who's half baked plan came together.
"Courage begins by trusting one's self Elsa. You In that moment you had complete trust in yourself as your fight or flight instincts took place, I have seen grown men curl into a weeping mess when facing a nightfury, you could have rolled over and let it come, but you fought back Elsa, you had real courage for the first time in over a decade and that is what your powers follow."
"How did you know that little stunt would work?" she demanded, now back with her senses in full outrage
He shrugged "No pressure, no diamonds. Realize a warriors stock in trade is courage Elsa.
"You were about to order Toothless to shoot me!"
Toothless knew not to shoot when i put myself within arms length of the target, he knew by then something else was up. He's a smart reptile."
The dragon in question came up and whacked the viking with his wing and curled up around Elsa and gave her mournful pitiful eyes
I'm sorry my Rider is an idiot.
"I heard that!" he said as he got up off the sand. He went up to Elsa and put his hand on her shoulder
"You did well today, now lets eat."
Hiccup went to the camp to get the food ready and Elsa just stood there petting the purring nightfury while trying to figure out whether she liked this viking or if she should be more wary.
(A/N):
Walks into fanfiction like jack sparrow walks into Tortuga
Me: ah fellow reader!
*SLAP*
Looks at eunuch friend
Me: not sure I deserved that
Person who reads my work: Where have you been?
Me: What?
*SLAP*
Me: I may have deserved that